The men at Dantom estimated about 3 months, but programmers are notorious for not keeping release dates. It's part of the Programmer's Code.

Wow, that pun works on two levels.

I'd like to see free-sized tiles/mob icons, the option to use an isometric tile engine might be nice, support for more filetypes (it would be very nice to be able to use a transparent animated gif for mob icons, and not have him be a "box man"), some interface improvements (most notably the ability to seperate the different parts of the dreamseeker and float, minimized, maximize, and close them independantly).

On a side not, spuz; its not part of the programmer's code. It's just the fact that while your coding, all the excess strain on your brain makes time seem to flow differently, usually really really fast and painfully, or haven't you noticed? :P

EzrahChan wrote:

I'd like to see free-sized tiles/mob icons

I wouldn't hold your breath. You can simulate that at the moment, anyway. =)

the option to use an isometric tile engine might be nice

This would be pretty good, but I doubt it'll be put in for 4.0.

support for more filetypes (it would be very nice to be able to use a transparent animated gif for mob icons, and not have him be a "box man")

DMI supports animation and transparency. You can import PNG, which is like GIF but better and without animation, while keeping transparency intact.

some interface improvements (most notably the ability to seperate the different parts of the dreamseeker and float, minimized, maximize, and close them independantly).

By reading between the lines (and by sometimes reading the lines themselves), this is probably coming.

I'd like Dream Maker to have a proper MDI (Multiple Document Interface; Word, Photoshop, and Paint Shop Pro all have MDIs). Then instead of having to go File -> Close to close a file, you could just click the X. And Ctrl-Tab could switch between the different open files. Ahhh, bliss. =)

Why? Just maximize the child window, and it'd function almost exactly like the interface does now. Assuming the file list and object tree was kept (which I would hope), there'd be what - a couple more buttons here and there, and a few more keyboard shortcuts? What have you got to lose?

A EXAMPLE game and um some uhh....CHICKEN I WANT MORE CHIKEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And also stuff like um a compactor!! YEAH A COMPACTOR LIKE WINZIP and umm MP3 SUPPORT!!!!!!!!!

Resource compression over a network would be very nice.

MP3s might be huge in general usage, but they are small compared to the same content using WAVs. (I recently doubled or tripled the size of Wrangle and Warp with just sound files.) I'd like Ogg Vorbis support to compress sounds and avoid MP3 license issues. I don't expect it soon, but it would be nice at some point.

For my dream feature, I'd like to be able to toggle graphical and physical (Move,Bump,range,etc) map wrapping (scrolling). It's possible to teleport movables to opposite sides of the map. It's probably also possible to come up with a somewhat slow replacements for the physical procs. However, I would like to be able to see the left edge on the right when looking past the right edge and vice versa. The same goes for the top, bottom, and corners. Naturally, I don't expect this for BYOND 4.0.

Spuzzum wrote:

Or, as a possible extension, allowing specification of different Z levels for the different edges of each Z level to border upon. By default, every Z level edge would border on null, meaning that the edges of the map would be the black nullspace as per usual. A wrapping map could be made by making all of a Z level's borders point to itself, where other transfigurations could be made by making a Z level border with a different Z level.

Of course, a notation for that would be a real pain.

That sort of defeats the perpose of having them on the z-axis. But then again, very few people use them as what they really are, a heighth dimension.

I would suggest that it have support for adding in maps that aren't tacked on as extra z-coordinates. That might make things a bit confusing depending on how it was done, but with enough thought it could very well be feasible.

i only want 1 thing on byond.............


*Separate Pager Screens

make it so there are pop ups of it so its easier to talk to others/more then 1 person

i think this would be a great addition!


plus i would like to see a type of money system put in that doesnt work with real money.......the BYONDDimes are disappearing fast and i think there should be a different money system put i nthat not real money,possibly u can get them by helping out and contributing in a major way to BYOND or get them as a rare reward i ngames or something........i dunno waht do u all think?

Metroid wrote:

The major things I would like to see are:
1) Fullscreen.

I agree there.

2) Automated Dream Daemon reset (for if the server crashes).

No comment. I find it my own duty to reset something if I am hosting and it needs a reset.

3) The Blue Book In DM(someone else said this already but I would like it too).

I think a link to the Blue Book which is now on the net would work just fine, and would be super-simple to add into the help.

4) An easier to read/understand DM Referance.

All I can say here is that they make it as simple as they can.

5) A client IP Ban, Ban, Boot, and Mute system for Hosts. (this could be determined by Host server's IP and a users IP) So that newbs dont ask about it anymore.

I replied mainly for this, and numbers 7 and 11.

Not everyone would want their world to have these features. It is the job of the game-designer to do these things. Having a lib that is easily included and gives these abilities though, that is another story. A lib for the mundane things like this that most everyone uses should be fairly simple to put together, I think even you could create a lib with commands like say, worldsay and who.

6) A possible 3-D design system for games.

3D like the modern console systems are sporting, no. But if you mean 3D similar to games like Wizardry (for the old NES and Apple), Swords and Serpents and D&D:Warriors of the Eturnal Sun, then yes that would be feasible. I am actually working on a 3D engine to simulate that very effect for one of my projects. (Not just 4-directional, but 26 [8 horizontal, 8 diagonal towards the vertical and the up and down]. Those old 4-directionals weren't 3D, merely 1st person perspective, which is what most people think of when they say 3D even if it's not totally accurate.)

7) A built in Battle System for newbs.

Refer to number 5. Even then though, everyone's battle systems need to be different. You will be hard-pressed creating one so generic that it works for everyone. Instead, you would have to provide base battle functions like damaging and healing, then let the creator call them how/when he/she chooses in their own battle code.

8) More referances in DM.
9) A system to play BYOND off of the web, so you don't have to install it (this would be nice if someone was on a computer without Byond and cannot install Byond either).

This would be very nice, but a large step which would not be seen for quite a while if at all.

10) A bettwe way to attract new people to Byond, I barely found Byond in the first place.
11) A build in Worldsay and Say system automatically made when you first make a new world so newbies can stop posting stupid posts about such things, or paging makers when they are busy doing something. (This goes with my other build in command calls)

This goes with number 5.

12) Anything else I may think of....Lol

Again, I mainly wanted to respond for the built-in code part.

Metroid wrote:

1) Fullscreen.

Interface improvements are coming in BYOND 4.0. Hopefully this will include fullscreen.

2) Automated Dream Daemon reset (for if the server crashes).

I believe it's possible to do something like this in Linux. You run a program or script that checks periodically to see if DD is still running fine, and if it isn't then it starts DD up again (and/or reboots the computer; that's not usually necessary on Linux, though). Or something similar.

3) The Blue Book In DM(someone else said this already but I would like it too).

Yeah, why not? =) No real urgent need for it, but it shouldn't be too difficult for Dantom to include.

4) An easier to read/understand DM Referance.

In what way?

5) A client IP Ban, Ban, Boot, and Mute system for Hosts. (this could be determined by Host server's IP and a users IP) So that newbs dont ask about it anymore.

*cough* =)

Features like this are inherently game-specific. A banning system is fairly generic, agreed, but that's what libraries are for. Dantom shouldn't have to hold us by the hand.

6) A possible 3-D design system for games.

Won't happen. If you want this, go somewhere else; BYOND just isn't made to support 3D. Most people don't seem to realise how much more complicated 3D is until they've had a go at programming a true 3D game themselves. (Go on, try it! Complete with models, textures, particle effects, a full physics engine, AND AI pathing. You'd need most of this for a decent 3D game, but it's damn hard to work with compared to simple 2D sprites.)

7) A built in Battle System for newbs.

Every battle system is completely different. Wouldn't work at all. Even a battle system library is hard to do well.

8) More referances in DM.

Like what?

9) A system to play BYOND off of the web, so you don't have to install it (this would be nice if someone was on a computer without Byond and cannot install Byond either).

Heh, that'd be nice but I really don't see it happening. I would like BYOND to be included and installed by default with Windows and most distributions of Linux, though. It'd be like the Java virtual machine, but even more widely used. That would rule. =)

10) A bettwe way to attract new people to Byond, I barely found Byond in the first place.

Should be coming as soon as BYOND 4.0 and all the Paypal stuff is in place.

11) A build in Worldsay and Say system automatically made when you first make a new world so newbies can stop posting stupid posts about such things, or paging makers when they are busy doing something. (This goes with my other build in command calls)

You wouldn't want those for some games. For example, there's no point having separate Worldsay and Say verbs in a board game. And if someone wants to make a proper RPing game, they may not want Worldsay at all. Besides, a say verb is the first thing most newbies learn! Most of the tutorials start with them.