A big new feature in this release is the new color chits. Yes, that means you have to download a new resource pack, but the advantage should be obvious. Look in the options pulldown menu to make changes to the chit style. You can change these "in-game" so feel free to play around with it. I actually prefer the appearance of the color chits over the remodeled ones, but will switch to the remodeled chits to get information. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this bit.
Another biggie in this release, is my first run of an in-game log. This log is broadcast live to all the players, so should alleviate some of the "disconnected" feeling when playing with people online. Its got a ways to go (you can't save this log, and it's lost between games) but its a start. Look for the new button on the window that lists all the characters: it's the button with the three blue dots. Click this button anytime, and the log frame will appear. This frame can be left open, or closed again. Since it is a real frame, it appears separately on the task bar (Windows users), so you can quickly switch between it and the game. If you don't like the way I've implemented it, I'm definitely open for suggestion!!
Oh, I almost forgot! This release ALSO has the new monsters that a Magic Realm fan (Glenn Pruitt) put together. When you start a new game, look at the "Game Version" option. You have the choice of "Original Game" and "Pruitt's Monsters". When you use Glenn's monsters, you also commit to a new treasure setup card layout, so forget all your old habits! Wolves may pounce on you in the woods, and Bats (oh no, not bats!) might swarm you when you least expect! Of course, you may encounter a flock of crows, or a grumpy old Behemoth. If you want to know more about these monsters before commiting to a game, take a look at the previous post in this blog for a link.
I should mention something else: Glenn offered a number of possibilities for dealing with the Treasure Locations. Rather than make ALL the possibilities available, I decided instead to pick one, and use it. The one I liked the best, was letting the location of the Treasure Site determine which of the two available T monsters will come out. For example, the Pool in the caves will summon the T Octopus, but the same Pool in the Mountains will lure a Swamp Haunt!
Here's the official "What's New":
NEW FEATURES:
- Visitor/Mission/Campaign chits
- Placement by characters, or randomized
- Proper Summoning/Prowling behavior
- Visitors: trading (buying spells!) - no buying drinks
- Mission chits: properly display destination and reward
- Campaign chits: properly display partners/foes and who is left
- Placement by characters, or randomized
- Support for color chits OR remodeled (Evans/Frenzel) style chits
- Option to use Glen Pruitt's alternate monsters
- Live game log - this should alleviate some of the disconnected feeling when playing an online game.
BUGS/ISSUES:
- Transforming a mounted native into a frog (or whatever) includes the horse.
- Garrison natives regenerate properly now
- Terror results on PoP table no longer kills Heavies (L and M only)
- Can no longer read runes off of the Flying Carpet and DragonFang Necklace
7 comments:
Cool, thanks!
I have a dumb question -- is there a way to see the other side of monsters/natives when you're fighting them, or when they are on the map?
Ouch, I said "should work" like three times in a row in regards to the visitor stuff. Guess I'm not being very confident! I wanted to get this release out because there has been some interest in using the new counter types. I figured the visitors come out so rarely anyway, I doubted there would be much issue.
Still, I DID test the visitors: you can buy/sell stuff with them (spells too!). The missions (Food/Ale, Escort Party) correctly tally the number of clearings for the reward, and the campaigns modify your relationships as they should.
The only part I'm not 100% sure about, is the ending: when you satisfy the requirement or run out of time. I coded it, but didn't run any real tests.
Josh, when you are fighting the monsters, you can hold the SHIFT key down when you mouse over them, and see the other side. The SHIFT key also works on the map to view the other side of tiles, but not the monsters, unfortunately.
Thanks, I figured there was some easy way to do it.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Robin,
Any chance on getting the expansion tiles and homebrew characters done, or will you be going back to finishing up the spells?
kofdgdp-Trollish for "Cough it up, you puny L fighter"
Actually the remaining spells are pretty low on my priority list. I rarely (if ever) use them in a game, so they are just VP fodder to me. If people shout loud enough about a particular spell, I may tackle it.
Regarding new tiles and characters: I'd love to get these in place. I'd also like to support multiple realms (2 or 3 boards). Right now, however, I need to resolve some lingering bugs (my work list has grown to 65 or so in the bug tracker). The next release (next weekend?) will be focused on bug fixes, but after that, who knows?
The big thing with adding the new tiles is simply a lot of boring busy work (normalizing the image size, plotting all clearing coordinates), but I will do it someday! Perhaps sooner rather than later.
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