dMZX Forums: Game Over state overrides custom message row position -> Archived MegaZeux Bugs -> Tracker

When Game Over is triggered, the message row is reset to [Centered, 24], even if BIMESG is off and you try to move it back to where you had it every cycle during game over. The MESG EDGE is not turned back on.

Easily fixable by removing these lines from game.c:

1256      src_board->b_mesg_row = 24;
1257      src_board->b_mesg_col = -1;

This technically breaks backwards compatibility, but it's not too bad, I guess.

Well, there's always the possibility of adding a check for backwards compatibility. I'm also unsure of that being the best solution -- if this is ideal or expected behavior in general, there could be a counter, the reset could be made just once instead of every cycle, who knows.

Updating status to: Awaiting Feedback
Updating severity to: 1 - Low

Opinions?

Updating status to: Proposed Fix
Updating version to: 2.83

Updating Introduced In Version to: <2.80

Still not sure what I want to do about this. :x

Honestly, the Janson versions didn't apply game over overrides consistently, so intentions are somewhat unclear. While I'm assuming that locking the message row settings (and column settings; they're alluded to in the listed code but it's not been explicitly mentioned that they're locked too) and sending the "Game over" message every cycle is to help create a uniform game over state, the same strict control isn't applied to PC Speaker sound effects and the constant game over refrain. Much more minor, the message edge doesn't force states either (as you already mentioned). So, the issue we're basically left with is how much control we want to give game authors.

Possible solutions:

1) Allow * messages and row/column placements to override the strict settings of the "Game over" message. This could have unintended effects in older games, so tying this functionality to modern world versions only would be highly recommended.
2) Implement a "Strict Game Over" world flag (implicitly on by default) that enforces the classical conditions.
3) Leave as-is. Making a custom game over state to replace a natural one is extra work, but it isn't too hard if you want to reap the benefits of message bar manipulation.

Updating status to: Fixed
Issue fixed in: 2.84


Fixed in GIT 2b34eb6b85. Setting BIMESG to 0 will now turn this off along with the message itself.

Moving to: Archived MegaZeux Bugs