For i:=0 to Amoeba.Count-1 do
BEGIN
r:=random(128);
IF r<4 then AmoebaGrowing;
END;
r will be a value between 0 and 3. So I can also use r to determine the direction of growing.
But I wonder why the default value of the amoeba slow growth time is 999. I thougt that the cave time was always a byte value. That means that the maximum cave time can be 255 sec, and a amoeba time bigger than 255 would not have any effect.
subotai wrote:But I wonder why the default value of the amoeba slow growth time is 999. I thougt that the cave time was always a byte value. That means that the maximum cave time can be 255 sec, and a amoeba time bigger than 255 would not have any effect.
In later engines, it was a 3-digit value, so it could be 999 at max.
I just asked, because in my cave maps I always stored the "required diamonds" and "cave time" in one byte (0..255). At the moment, I keep it like this, so the maximum amoeba time can be 255 sec and not 999 sec.
Yep, Intermission1 in BD1 amoeba starts to grow really fast.
I'm playing BD3 on ZX emulator, and magicwall/amoeba bug doesn't work (amoeba doesn't turn into jewels when magic wall is activated).
Two more questions about amoeba growing: Does the growing always start before the inbox hatching in all engines? And in which engines the slow growing timer starts after hatching (all engines but bd1)?
subotai wrote:Two more questions about amoeba growing: Does the growing always start before the inbox hatching in all engines?
Yes.
And in which engines the slow growing timer starts after hatching (all engines but bd1)?
Timer starts immediately in BD1, BD2 and PLCK. It starts at hatching for 1stB and CrLi. Also keep in mind, that in BD1, the timer also starts while the amoeba is dormant, while in all other engines, the timer does not start before the amoeba is released.
If the amoebatime is set to 0, it will never enter fast growing mode in BD1, BD2 & PLCK games. In CrLi games, the fast growing starts immediately at hatching (when the amoeba timer starts). I don't know, how it is in 1stB-Games, but I can imagine that it is the same as in CrLi games.
subotai wrote:I don't know, how it is in 1stB-Games, but I can imagine that it is the same as in CrLi games.
Should be, as I didn't touch the timer. The same thing with magic wall time.
Also 1stB and CrLi is synchronous with the cave timer while BD1, BD2 and PLCK are independent. Thus even a 0 second timer can last for a fraction of a second, ie. until the cave timer ticks to the next second. Prof. Knibble probably did this change due to the bug in original BD where the timer is still ticking while in pause mode which can be exploited in some caves (accelerating the amoeba, stopping the magic wall).