Version 1.04 Released

I meant to get this out last weekend, but there were some things I was working on that prevented that. In any event, here it is. The big thing in this release is a bug fix to Magic Sight, that was causing severe problems for the Witch King. It only happens when he tries to loot items in a clearing (like after cremating all the Rogues in the Inn), but since that's actually a fairly likely scenario, I thought I'd better get it fixed.

As promised, there are a couple new custom character abilities added to the character builder, straight from the advantages request page: Light Armor, and Extra Inventory. The first came from an original request to be able to construct custom armor for a character. This seemed a bit like overkill, since there really aren't that many options for armor. Instead, I went with an alternate suggestion, that there be an option for Light Armor. Now, in the character builder, you'll find that you can equip your custom character with one of the Light alternates:


The first pictured above, is the buckler (Light Shield), then the leather cuirass (Light Breastplate), and finally the leather cap (Light Helmet). If you don't like my crude drawings (can you tell I'm NOT an artist?), I'd be happy to replace them with something better. I'd ask however, that you don't just steal something off of google images: custom drawings only please!

These new armor tokens behave exactly like armor: they reduce sharpness, are damaged when hit with equal harm (Light), and destroyed when hit with more harm (Medium or greater). If the armor is hit with Medium or greater harm, the character takes a wound.

In my playtesting, I've found that this armor vanishes pretty quickly during any combat, but it can be a lifesaver. When the armor is destroyed, it goes to the same location as it's Medium counterpart: cap and buckler go to the House, and the cuirass goes to the Guard.

The other new custom character feature, is what I call "Extra Inventory". This allows you to select from many treasures (though not all) as a starting piece of inventory for a particular character. There's also a feature there to allow you to rename the treasure, to make it unique. Alternatively, you can select a horse, from any that are in the game (either for characters, or even natives!). Note that in either case, you are making a copy of that treasure or horse, so they are not lost from gameplay.

Oh, I added a new high quality version of the "Export HTML", so those of you that don't mind the bigger map size (4 MB instead of 1 MB!), can get a cleaner image.

Here's what's new:

Version 1.04 - Changes since 1.03
NEW FEATURES:

• New Character Builder features:
  
  • Can use Light armor now (Cap, Cuirass, and Buckler)
    
  • New "Starting Inventory" advantage allows you to choose a horse or treasure (most treasures except TWT, books, artifacts) as a starting item of inventory.
    
  • Better handling of "unknown character version" problems
    
  • Armor chits now appear on the "View Gear" graphic
  
  
• Can export a high quality version of the map in the html generator.
  
• Added some more detail to the log for a player turn, including:
  
  • The clearing that the character started in, and the clearing they ended their turn in.
    
  • Which chits (if any) were turned face up at the end of their turn.

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Fortified characters can no longer RUN from combat (I felt this was a necessary fix, to lessen the impact of this new custom character ability from 1.03). They can still run once the fortification is destroyed.
  
• [1521] - Fixed a problem that crashes RealmSpeak when an rschar file with a mismatched icon file is found.
  
• [1522] - Fixed a bug in MagicSight, related to looting the clearing.
  
• [1525] - Fixed bug in the character builder that would allow you to create a malformed rschar file by changing the name of the character right before saving.
  
• [1377] - With optional horse riding rules in place, you can target native horseback riders with Fiery Blast now.
  
• [1524] - Fixed a bug with sudden death, that wasn't allowing the game to end properly when curses are healed at midnight.

This release is compatible with any 1.00+ version save game.

Version 1.03 Released

Another maintenance release, with a couple of goodies. I fixed a problem with the curse dialog, which those of you that do a lot of "Read Runes" will appreciate. The behavior of dialogs and threads is interesting, to say the least, and quite fragile. I repaired a game lock related to table effects (Curse, Wish, PoP, etc) in 1.00 that sort of left it all a bit weird. I think this is the last of the weirdness fixed, and it all should be a bit more stable now.

I decided to attack a couple of the Character Advantage Requests listed on the Magic Realm Wiki. I plan to add one or two of these for every new release - we'll see how long THAT lasts! ;-) Anyway, one of the cool new advantages (by request) was to give a character special new actions. I implemented three: HEAL, REPAIR, and FORTIFY. Okay, that last one is my own invention, and it will likely get some raspberries from the most hard core Realmers, but there you are. The point is that these are likely to be major advantages (especially REPAIR), so its up to you designers to disadvantage them in some other way!

A character with a "special action" (as I call them) will have a new button appear at the end of all the buttons on the character window. For example, here is HEAL:



Otherwise, they work like any other action. HEAL and REPAIR are pretty obvious (see below), but FORTIFY is described like this:

Can FORTIFY during the day to gain armor-like protection in all directions (Suit of Armor) equal to their vulnerability. The FORTIFY action requires a successful roll on the HIDE table (though not affected by HIDE advantages!). This fortification can be damaged and destroyed as if it were armor. Regardless of its condition at the end of the battle, the fortification is lost at MIDNIGHT.

Maybe that's TOO powerful, I just don't know yet. I thought about limiting it to M armor, but I'm sure those of you that care will let me know! ;-)

Okay, here's what's new:

Version 1.03 - Changes since 1.02
NEW FEATURES:

• New Character Builder features:
  
  • Can specify multiple companions of the same type at once (1-20). Why so many? Why not!! I made a Nature Druid that had a flock of birds, used to lure monsters. They don't last very long in combat, but they can give the Druid a chance to fight.
    
  • [1515] - Lizardman added to companions
    
  • Can specify an extra chit be added
    
  • Can use special day actions:
    
    • HEAL - Can HEAL one asterisk of fatigue or wound on any other character
      
    • REPAIR - Can REPAIR one armor item in carried inventory
      
    • FORTIFY - Can FORTIFY during the day to gain armor-like protection in all directions (Suit of Armor) equal to their vulnerability

BUGS/ISSUES:

• [1514] - Repaired a GUI modality problem with Reading Runes and Curses during the day (broken in 1.00) - probably affected other tables as well. The change was made to resolve 1227
  
• Fixed a problem with custom character icons in the character list.
  
• [1517] - Fixed a problem with suiciding a character on the map edge
  
• [1126] - Reflecting Grease will now properly reduce wounds on armor hits only.

This release is compatible with any 1.00+ version save game.

Version 1.02 Released

Sorry about releasing an update less than 12 hours after the last. I just finished playing an online game with some friends, and we ran into a couple of painful bugs affecting a couple of BLACK magic spells. The first had to do with the Absorb Essence spell being cast under the optional Enhanced Magic rules - the game would crash, and leave the autosave in such a state, as to be unable to continue!! We had to completely restart the game from the beginning. Ouch. Fortunately, turning off enhanced magic was the immediate remedy, but I still wanted it fixed.

The second had to do with Power of the Pit crashing every time the "Rust" result was rolled. Of course, this comes up on a roll of SIX, which is pretty common, so it happens a LOT. Turns out it was just something stupid I did in the code for 1.01, so it was pretty easy to fix. Since Power of the Pit is somewhat unavoidable in a game of Magic Realm, I figured this better be fixed quickly.

To reiterate, here's what's new:

Version 1.02 - Changes since 1.01
BUGS/ISSUES:

• [1508] - Absorb Essence and Enhanced Magic play nicely together now
  
• [1509] - Power of the Pit "Rust" result no longer crashes the game

This release is compatible with any 1.00+ version save game.

Version 1.01 Released

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Update #1 - Thanks to John S. Myth (an alias I'm sure), there are now Linux scripts included in the 1.01 release download. If you've already downloaded, and you don't see them, then you probably got it before I added them. Download again, and you'll be fine. :)
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As promised, I'm doing a quick turnaround on the last release, to resolve the worst bugs. I'm actually fairly pleased at how few new bugs were discovered, especially considering how many things changed in 1.00!

The only real "new" feature in this release, is the addition of updated Mac applescripts to support the new classpath I required in 1.00, thanks to Jorge Arroyo! If someone wants to do the same thing on the Linux front (or any other operating system you guys are running this on), I will be able to provide them in future releases, and make RealmSpeak more easily accessible to those less "geek" than others.

Mostly just bug fixes, so here's what's new:

Version 1.01 - Changes since 1.00
NEW FEATURES:

• New Apple scripts for RealmSpeak, RealmBattle, and the character builder! (Thanks Jorge!)
  
• New Linux scripts for RealmSpeak, RealmBattle, and the character builder! (Thanks John!)

BUGS/ISSUES:

• [1490] - Fixed the crash related to using the "No Dwelling Start" option
  
• [1505] - Fixed an issue with firing up the Flying Carpet
  
• [1501] - Fixed a problem with hirelings helping you carry your inactive equipment
  
• [1499] - The correct number of treasures added to the pile are shown now, when the Mouldy Skeleton is revealed.
  
• [1492] - Set Cross-platform Look-and-Feel ON by default for new installations. People can switch this OFF if they want, and get the native platform UI. Of course, RealmSpeak will still remember what you prefer, so you don't have to set it every time you launch.
  
• [1388] - Cannot peer INTO a tile affected by FOG anymore.
  
• [1195] - Fixed some strangeness involved with hirelings ending their term of hire while a character is flying.
  
• [1496] - Fixed a problem with Power of the Pit result ending up BEHIND the combat frame.
  
• [1495] - "Foes" information will show on campaign chit view again

This release is compatible with any 1.00+ version save game.