Call for Rubicon beta testers

[colcolpicle]

OMG this is amazing! This is everything that I've ever wanted rubicon to be! I have nothing to say except that I am amazed.

[jf]

I've become so fond of 1h27 that I'm catching myself hitting the S key in the original version when posting in the forum and double-checking links to the levels.

[jnz]

Thanks colcolpicle and jf.  Here's another new version with just a minor tweak:
New in 1i27:

• Allow toggling between barrels and crates when using the 0-9, A-F, and ? keys

[Twee]

I'm back (although with limited time to work on puzzles), and loving this utility. I've not spent much time using it yet, and have no bugs to report. I do have a feature request though: Would it be possible to make a way to save puzzles locally? I'd love to be able to work on puzzles on my laptop in places without an internet connection. 

[jnz]

I'm back (although with limited time to work on puzzles), and loving this utility. I've not spent much time using it yet, and have no bugs to report. I do have a feature request though: Would it be possible to make a way to save puzzles locally? I'd love to be able to work on puzzles on my laptop in places without an internet connection. 

Well, I can't save to files from a Java applet but I can save to cookies.  So I've made a new version that does that but there is a catch.  If you download the .jar file and play it locally then you can't save to browser cookies since those only exist if you are running in a browser.  If you play it in a browser then you can save to cookies but, due to same-origin checks, you can't save to the server.  So you only get one or the other for the time being.  See updated links in the post at the top of this thread.  Hopefully we can get Kevan to install this as the official version someday and then this problem will go away.

Changes (1j27):

• Add the ability to save levels to browser cookies (Shift-click the Save button)
• Fix some crashes when performing a load that is disallowed by the same-origin policy

[colcolpicle]

Could you make it so that it's impossible to place any pieces while a key is pressed? I keep accidentally holding enter and trying to select large areas.

By the way, I'm not complaining, this applet must be pretty polished if the only improvement that I can think of is this small.

[jnz]

Could you make it so that it's impossible to place any pieces while a key is pressed? I keep accidentally holding enter and trying to select large areas.

By the way, I'm not complaining, this applet must be pretty polished if the only improvement that I can think of is this small.

New in 1k27:

• Don't allow placing pieces when any key is being pressed

I'm happy for any suggestions you've got.

[Twee]

Well, I can't save to files from a Java applet but I can save to cookies.  So I've made a new version that does that but there is a catch.  If you download the .jar file and play it locally then you can't save to browser cookies since those only exist if you are running in a browser.  If you play it in a browser then you can save to cookies but, due to same-origin checks, you can't save to the server. 

Thanks for implementing this. I'm not particularly computer-savy, however; and have not managed to figure out how to use it to work offline yet. Here's the two obstacles: I don't know how to run the version that saves to cookies in a browser other than by following the link you posted to it at your stardrifter site. Additionally, the cookies that it sets are set to expire at the end of the session, so they don't work to save levels unless i never close my browser. It seems that I need to learn how to manipulate data in cookies and also how to run a java program in a browser while offline. I've resolved to do so, but haven't had time yet, and won't til after new year's, it looks like. All the same, I'm happy that you adressed my feature request, even if it doesn't quite resolve the issue of being able to play while not on the internet. 

As to placing pieces with a key pressed; the other day I had made a selection box and forgot to right-click it to unselect it after i had moved the selection. I then pressed F in order to select an F barrel and filled the selection with E's by mistake! I don't neccesarily think this issue needs to be fixed, but submit it for your amusement. It does occur to me that an "undo last action" hotkey would be rather nice for this sort of situation though.

[jnz]

Thanks for implementing this. I'm not particularly computer-savy, however; and have not managed to figure out how to use it to work offline yet. Here's the two obstacles: I don't know how to run the version that saves to cookies in a browser other than by following the link you posted to it at your stardrifter site. Additionally, the cookies that it sets are set to expire at the end of the session, so they don't work to save levels unless i never close my browser. It seems that I need to learn how to manipulate data in cookies and also how to run a java program in a browser while offline. I've resolved to do so, but haven't had time yet, and won't til after new year's, it looks like. All the same, I'm happy that you adressed my feature request, even if it doesn't quite resolve the issue of being able to play while not on the internet. 

Well the easiest thing to do is just to open the version of Rubicon on my site in a browser window before you disconnect.  Then don't close it until you're done with the levels you've saved in it.  You can hibernate your computer if you need to power down without losing your work.

If you want to be able to start up a new session while you're offline then I think you'll need to run a web server on your computer.  (I don't think browsers allow cookies for pages that are loaded from a file:// URL.)  There are plenty of small simple ones out there.  I've used TinyWeb myself.  Download the .zip file and unzip it somewhere.  Then download all the rubicon files from my site and save them in one folder called "rubicon" on your hard drive.  The files are:
http://www.stardrifter.org/rubisearch/rubicon/core.jar
http://www.stardrifter.org/rubisearch/rubicon/index.html
http://www.stardrifter.org/rubisearch/rubicon/loading.gif
http://www.stardrifter.org/rubisearch/rubicon/rubicon.jar
(try right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As..." or "Save Target As...")
Then drag-and-drop the "rubicon" folder onto the "tiny.exe" file from TinyWeb.  Finally, go to "http://localhost/" in your browser. 

I can change the cookies to stick around longer than one session but that brings other problems.  They are rather large and would get sent back to the server on every request.  And I haven't built in any way to delete levels you don't want anymore so unless they automatically get deleted when you close your browser they're going to build up over time.

As to placing pieces with a key pressed; the other day I had made a selection box and forgot to right-click it to unselect it after i had moved the selection. I then pressed F in order to select an F barrel and filled the selection with E's by mistake! I don't neccesarily think this issue needs to be fixed, but submit it for your amusement. It does occur to me that an "undo last action" hotkey would be rather nice for this sort of situation though.

Yes, there's a collision there.  I can't do much about it now though as 'F' for Fill has been around for a long time now and I don't want to go taking that feature away.  Undo would be possible to implement, if a bit of a pain.  I don't think I'd use it much myself.  What does everybody else think?  If there's a strong desire for this I can look into it.

[Twee]

I wouldn't say I have a strong desire for the undo feature. Most of the times in the past when undo would have been nice were due to misplacement of a selection box, or to the "accidental draw bug." Your version doesn't bog down while moving around a selection like the original did, so you've already addressed that issue. 

[colcolpicle]

I downloaded the most recent version and seem to have found a glitch. if you load the level heronel, which needs immibis's modified version of rubicon to play (which I can't seem to find), then press play, it doesn't play. if you press play again, it starts, but once you stop it, it reverts back to the level you had loaded before it. (or nothing if nothing was loaded). Does it have something to do with how this was saved, or what?

[jnz]

Yes, this does have something to do with how it was saved.  It uses characters beyond normal set that is recognized by Rubicon.  The normal version of the applet is pretty good at ignoring this.  I changed the level loading a bit and that was causing things to act strangely.  I've put in a proper check for invalid characters so this should no longer be a problem.  That level doesn't look like it is going to be very fun to play without version that created it though.

New in 1m27:

• Upgrade to Processing 1.1
• Fix odd behavior when loading a level with invalid characters in the level data

[colcolpicle]

I was fiddling around with switching between the sandbox and game modes and noticed another glitch. If you load something like luvupoc, switch to sandbox, start the machine, switch back to game mode, then stop the machine, the spots that weren't occupied become removable. It seems to make some levels vulnerable to cheating!

[jnz]

I was fiddling around with switching between the sandbox and game modes and noticed another glitch. If you load something like luvupoc, switch to sandbox, start the machine, switch back to game mode, then stop the machine, the spots that weren't occupied become removable. It seems to make some levels vulnerable to cheating!

That's a problem in the original applet.  The workaround is "don't do that"
I don't think this presents a cheating problem.  Once you click on Sandbox, all bets are off even if you're trying not to cheat.

[immibis]

I downloaded the most recent version and seem to have found a glitch. if you load the level heronel, which needs immibis's modified version of rubicon to play (which I can't seem to find), then press play, it doesn't play. if you press play again, it starts, but once you stop it, it reverts back to the level you had loaded before it. (or nothing if nothing was loaded). Does it have something to do with how this was saved, or what?

I don't have a copy of that version any more, and it expired from Mediafire. So you'll need to find someone who has it, if there was actually anyone other than me who had a copy.
It used combinations of characters from some tiles; a backquote ` and two characters. This was done because the normal level format was running out of characters.

In case anyone wants to use that format for any reason, the new parts were:

• `YE is a yes-sign (opposite of an anti-sign, lets you use normally sandbox-only parts)
• `GR, `GL, `GU, `GD are guns (they teleport crates from the space opposite the direction they look for targets, to the space after the nearest target in their direction, which is right, left, up, or down respectively. if that space is blocked, they ignore the crate)
• `TR, `TL, `TU, `TD are targets (`TR receives crates from `GL, `TU receives crates from `TD, etc)
• `CG is a crate-gate. Barrels go left, crates go right.
• `BU, `BD, `BL, `BR (I think) are bugs, which turn (not sure in which direction) when they hit an obstacle, they can push crates in their direction (including up and down; they can rescue crates from furnaces i believe when moving down)
• Ultradozers, which reversed when they hit something and ignored turn signs. Not sure of the code.
• `RU, `RD, `RL, `RR (I think) are red bugs, which move like bugs and are also furnaces, destroying nearby crates and barrels (but not other bugs (I think))
• Backwards gates, adders, and subtractors; not sure of the codes
• Boulders? I'm not sure whether I included them, but they would have behaved like crates or barrels, but unaffected by regular or backwards copiers, adders, subtractors, gates, crate-gates, etc
• Super copiers, which copy anything movable including dozers, boulders, bugs, etc
• Movable furnaces? Not sure whether I included these
• Super furnaces, which destroy anything movable

And possibly other things...