Terraria (1.2 is out!)

[T-Rok]

How long has Terraria been in development?

Development started for Terraria in January, 2011 and we will continue to support it for a long time to come!

5 months only? Their engine must be a blast!
That just proves how straight forward XNA works, never seen anything that comes even close when talking about professional indie game development.

Actually my friend has looked at the Terraria source code so that he could create a map editor/map creator in C++ that will work with it and he says the engine they designed is highly flawed. He went through it for an hour just pointing out how the code could be optimized or improved upon.

[Meiun]

How long has Terraria been in development?

Development started for Terraria in January, 2011 and we will continue to support it for a long time to come!

5 months only? Their engine must be a blast!
That just proves how straight forward XNA works, never seen anything that comes even close when talking about professional indie game development.

Actually my friend has looked at the Terraria source code so that he could create a map editor/map creator in C++ that will work with it and he says the engine they designed is highly flawed. He went through it for an hour just pointing out how the code could be optimized or improved upon.

Pshh, your friend doesn't have any business digging through their source anyways (in my opinion), so all he should really care about is the end result of what he payed for ::) Which in my opinion is still a very sweet game, particularly seeing that it was made in such a short period of time. It's all about priorities with big projects like this, and the end product came out pretty badass. There are typically always more things that can be done to improve or optimize things on a technical level with a big project, but I doubt one of their priorities was pleasing people digging through their source. But, I've never seen any of their code, so I can't really talk much here.

How long has Terraria been in development?

Development started for Terraria in January, 2011 and we will continue to support it for a long time to come!

5 months only? Their engine must be a blast!
That just proves how straight forward XNA works, never seen anything that comes even close when talking about professional indie game development.

Magicka is made with XNA as well, and that game is certainly fairly professional for an Indie game. As with pretty much any framework, development environment/kit, language, or whatever else, it's all about how you use it. XNA in particular is only really a tool/resource, and a relatively minimalistic one at that (in many ways at least). But like you said with whole straight forward thing, that can often be a good thing when the person using it knows what they are doing. The only reason you don't see more of this is because most people who do use things such as this tend not to know what they are doing. Game Maker had the same sort of stigma attached to it in many ways. Just because many people who use it are noobs, doesn't mean all it can do is noobish things ;)


Anyways, I'm going to start feeling like a bit of an ass if I continue slapping down my opinions onto all you guys (especially since this isn't even my game). I rarely care that much, but I'm just sensitive/empathetic towards Indie groups getting judged too quickly when there are just as many "professional" game companies that suck just as bad (as well as being sensitive towards the concept of peoples work getting messed with) :P So, enough said!

[Scotty]

How long has Terraria been in development?

Development started for Terraria in January, 2011 and we will continue to support it for a long time to come!

5 months only? Their engine must be a blast!
That just proves how straight forward XNA works, never seen anything that comes even close when talking about professional indie game development.

Actually my friend has looked at the Terraria source code so that he could create a map editor/map creator in C++ that will work with it and he says the engine they designed is highly flawed. He went through it for an hour just pointing out how the code could be optimized or improved upon.

Doesn't seem to be that large of an issue considering they've been at the top of Steam's best selling list since it was released.  One man could (and always will) dog another's work, especially if it isn't their own and they have no developmental ties to the application, be it out of jealousy that they didn't come up with the game first, or because they want to sound like they're more qualified, when in reality, they're just arrogant.

EDIT: Just to clarify, I'm not really opposed to someone cracking open the source code to another application, rather opposed to what some of the things they'd do with it.  Map editors are harmless, but as soon as they degrade another's experience with the game, yeah, I'll have something to say against that.  Or doing it just so they can sound cool and try and impose upon others that they know more than the person who made it.  Some of the best educational experiences are taught off other's works, and it's always refreshing to see another's perspective on how to accomplish a certain task.  Then again I am biased towards open source, so naturally I'm going to think that I suppose.

[T-Rok]

@Meiun/Scotty: Don't get me wrong, the game is amazing. And I agree that prioritizing is a key part of programming. I was merely pointing out the engine has flaws that we will get to see solved and removed and the game will have a huge performance boost in the online play. As for my friend, he is in love with the game and admires the creators and the code in it. He actually emailed them a little revision of one piece of code explaining what he did, why he did it, just so he could help them get farther and update faster. :P As for his business, you are right in that he has none. However, he is one of the white hackers and to him, in his mind, it is his business. To solve and figure out how things work, to help people. You must view things from another's perspective. He would never ever release it, and he has also informed them that they need to obfuscate and encrypt the game.

[havok]

@Meiun/Scotty: Don't get me wrong, the game is amazing. And I agree that prioritizing is a key part of programming. I was merely pointing out the engine has flaws that we will get to see solved and removed and the game will have a huge performance boost in the online play. As for my friend, he is in love with the game and admires the creators and the code in it. He actually emailed them a little revision of one piece of code explaining what he did, why he did it, just so he could help them get farther and update faster. :P As for his business, you are right in that he has none. However, he is one of the white hackers and to him, in his mind, it is his business. To solve and figure out how things work, to help people. You must view things from another's perspective. He would never ever release it, and he has also informed them that they need to obfuscate and encrypt the game.

i see where you are coming from kinda but for one the client (game) is not his to hack I'm sure its in the rules somewhere.
2ND.
i don't think emailing them what they most likely all ready know, seeing as they maid it. there will be updates this is just the first copy they will fix a lot of flaws.

any how what I'm getting at here is he should hack the files with out the owners permission. Even if it is to help.
How would you fill if someone hacked your work after you put all that time into it and told you to do this do that. None the less hacked your files (which can be shared)

don't take me wrong on this just my thoughts. Just like you have your own.

[T-Rok]

@Havok: I have actually had that done to me. I appreciated the work they put into it, as I was able to learn from them how they accessed my source, fix my errors and also gain a new friend whom I still talk to daily. As for them already knowing, sure they may already know, but he saved them 2 hours of work that they can now use for something else.

[Chaos]

Way I see it, someone has just as much right to look at the source code as they do to open up their computer.  What matters is what they intend to do with the knowledge, and learning how it works and seeing methods in which it could be improved seems like a damn good reason to me.  If someone did that to something I coded, I'd be damn thankful (assuming they were correct and not full of shit).

@Havok:  If they already knew it could be improved, then it shouldn't have released it in that state to begin with.  Especially considering that their development time was already so short.

Anyway, the real reason for my post, new update is out:

Controls
Right clicking and holding on a crafting recipe will craft multiple of the same item to a max of the stack and/or until you run out of materials.

Items
NEW ITEM : Sticky Bombs, Requires 5 Gel and a Bomb.
Sand Duping bug fixed.
Placing a bed far from the spawn no longer causes a player who has set their spawn there to crash on join.
Mining stone and other hard ores make a 'tink' noise now.
Hellstone and Obsidian now require at least a Demonite pick to gather.
Sand no longer spawns within a certain distance of the spawn location, This should remove the chance of spawning in a desert with no wood to use.
Hellstone now correctly takes as long to dig as meteor does.
The clay pot item now has the correct size.

Performance
Frame-skip is now correctly ON by default for new players.
Increased Client Side Multiplayer stability. Should resolve many crash causes.
Corrected a bug where players would intermittently not take falling damage.
The world file is now saved to a temporary file that is copied over to the actual save file. This prevents world corruption when saving is interrupted.
Fixed a bug that disabled some error handling. Overall game stability should be improved.

GUI
The version number of the game now shows on the title screen.
Typing numbers in chat no longer changes your selected item in your hotbar.

Server
Servers now listen to all IP addresses on the hosting PC, regardless of how many network connections are active.
Typing "localhost" instead of your own local IP address will connect to your own same-PC server.
The games default port is no longer ELEET (31337) it is now 7777.
Client will now resolve a hostname into its IP address, for example, if randomsite.org ran a server, you could type randomsite.org as the IP address and be able to connect.

[havok]

@Havok: I have actually had that done to me. I appreciated the work they put into it, as I was able to learn from them how they accessed my source, fix my errors and also gain a new friend whom I still talk to daily. As for them already knowing, sure they may already know, but he saved them 2 hours of work that they can now use for something else.

point blank its wrong to hack there game if it has flaws that's there problem. Which means its theres to fix not someonce that hacks there files lol

but I'm going with meiun on this I'm going to close my mouth before i start something i should lol

i added my 2 cents in and that's all I'm going to say

[Scotty]

Hurray, one new item... Enjoy one week's worth of productivity folks!

[havok]

Way I see it, someone has just as much right to look at the source code as they do to open up their computer.  What matters is what they intend to do with the knowledge, and learning how it works and seeing methods in which it could be improved seems like a damn good reason to me.  If someone did that to something I coded, I'd be damn thankful (assuming they were correct and not full of shit).

@Havok:  If they already knew it could be improved, then it shouldn't have released it in that state to begin with.  Especially considering that their development time was already so short.

Anyway, the real reason for my post, new update is out:

Controls
Right clicking and holding on a crafting recipe will craft multiple of the same item to a max of the stack and/or until you run out of materials.

Items
NEW ITEM : Sticky Bombs, Requires 5 Gel and a Bomb.
Sand Duping bug fixed.
Placing a bed far from the spawn no longer causes a player who has set their spawn there to crash on join.
Mining stone and other hard ores make a 'tink' noise now.
Hellstone and Obsidian now require at least a Demonite pick to gather.
Sand no longer spawns within a certain distance of the spawn location, This should remove the chance of spawning in a desert with no wood to use.
Hellstone now correctly takes as long to dig as meteor does.
The clay pot item now has the correct size.

Performance
Frame-skip is now correctly ON by default for new players.
Increased Client Side Multiplayer stability. Should resolve many crash causes.
Corrected a bug where players would intermittently not take falling damage.
The world file is now saved to a temporary file that is copied over to the actual save file. This prevents world corruption when saving is interrupted.
Fixed a bug that disabled some error handling. Overall game stability should be improved.

GUI
The version number of the game now shows on the title screen.
Typing numbers in chat no longer changes your selected item in your hotbar.

Server
Servers now listen to all IP addresses on the hosting PC, regardless of how many network connections are active.
Typing "localhost" instead of your own local IP address will connect to your own same-PC server.
The games default port is no longer ELEET (31337) it is now 7777.
Client will now resolve a hostname into its IP address, for example, if randomsite.org ran a server, you could type randomsite.org as the IP address and be able to connect.

like i said i see where you are going wit this but they put the work into it i don't think you should be able to do it. even if its to help. you should get permission

any how go this is similar to the geohot's and Sony case. if you don't know what I'm talking about look it up

and before you reply its different i see that but its on the same base we are talking about even tho he did it for the wrong reason
Sony is sewing him for tampering and hacking there software.

[T-Rok]

And Sony is wrong and flawed in their actions. The only reason they won the lawsuit is because Geohot is a lone man against a huge corporation. Nice to see my friends bug fix was implemented based on these release notes though. :]

[havok]

And Sony is wrong and flawed in their actions. The only reason they won the lawsuit is because Geohot is a lone man against a huge corporation. Nice to see my friends bug fix was implemented based on these release notes though. :]

I'm not going to fight over this it's pointless. Those are my thoughts and you have yours.

PS Geohot's lost because he was lieing and hiding things from the court DO a little searching around :p

All though it didnt help that it was a big corp sewing him.

but his hacking might have lead to the Playstation network being down. They lost a nice little bit of money on that. If you  still think hacking is okay.


and he wasn't alone he had all the other hacker's around the world helping him sending him money.

Im not saying hacking is wrong and a bad thing im just saying doing it with out permission from the source code's owner is wrong to me.
Unless its a legal reason.

[Chaos]

like i said i see where you are going wit this but they put the work into it i don't think you should be able to do it. even if its to help. you should get permission

any how go this is similar to the geohot's and Sony case. if you don't know what I'm talking about look it up

and before you reply its different i see that but its on the same base we are talking about even tho he did it for the wrong reason
Sony is sewing him for tampering and hacking there software.

And I believe Sony was wrong in every regard.  It was Geohot's hardware, he paid for it, he owns it, it is entirely within his rights to do whatever the bloody hell he wants with it.

P.S. Geohot 'lost' because he settled.  Do a little searching around.

[havok]

like i said i see where you are going wit this but they put the work into it i don't think you should be able to do it. even if its to help. you should get permission

any how go this is similar to the geohot's and Sony case. if you don't know what I'm talking about look it up

and before you reply its different i see that but its on the same base we are talking about even tho he did it for the wrong reason
Sony is sewing him for tampering and hacking there software.

And I believe Sony was wrong in every regard. IT was Geohot's hardware, he paid for it, he owns it, it is entirely within his rights to do whatever the bloody hell he wants with it.

P.S. Geohot 'lost' because he settled.  Do a little searching around.

i would if i was him to after lying to the court about the 3 PS3s. they wiping them clean to cover up what he did.
As for owing it he owned the PS3 not the software You agree to that when you turn the PS3 on.
There for its wrong

Okay I'm going to shut up now lol

[Chaos]

There for its wrong...

...of Sony to try and dictate what people do with something they paid money to own.