Version 0.35 Released

Lots of cool new stuff in this release that really improve the quality of play, IMHO. I played several full games without so much as a hitch, and I was doing all kinds of stuff. My best game involved the Captain working with the Witch-King, because I got to see what having the Belt of Strength and the Truesteel sword was like. Very nice killing machine!! At least it was fun for awhile: the Witch-King flew into a cave with a bunch of goblins and got killed, and the Captain got cursed with Ill-Health and Wither at a VERY inopportune time. Oh well!

The biggest new feature, I believe, is the addition of the Broomstick spell. This gives the Witch and Witch-King (Magician?) a nice new strategy possibility, and pretty much rounds out all the really useful spells. The remaining spells (see previous post), with the exception of Enchant Artifact, are pretty much worthless in a solo game, or non-competitive play. I'll get to them someday I suppose.

The big bug fix in this one, is that curses no longer crash the game. I introduced this problem in the last release, and its caused a few headaches. Oh, and wait until you see the new chit panel! A lot of people (myself included) hated the way chits were being displayed in the fatigue/wound/rest dialogs. I've cleaned this up a lot, and made it a lot easier to work with.

Okay, here's what's new:

NEW FEATURES:

• New Spells working:
  
  • Talk to Wise Bird
    
  • World Fades
    
  • Broomstick - works for flying self only (cannot affect other characters yet, though you can still cast it on them)
  
  
• Added target information to spell cards
  
• Added Character name to combat sheets
  
• Revamped the character chit display to group like chits together - makes it a bit easier to see what you want. This affects:
  
  • Initial chit enchantment when choosing a new magic user (MUCH easier on the eyes)
    
  • Fatigue/Rest/Wound displays
    
  • Combat builder display allows easy clicking to change the state (no more buttons to do this)
    
  • Character chit display now has a "detail" button to bring up the new grouped display

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Curse will not crash the game anymore.
  
• Witch's Brew (and similar spells) can target all chits, not just active ones.
  
• Fixed character combat order - now identical to day combat order as it should be.
  
• Combat frame shows character order: First character is in first row, second character in second row, and so on.
  
• Targeting a single opponent with Stones Fly (which does 4 attacks) will no longer cause you to become unhidden automatically when Ambush is in play.
  
• Fixed another "Watchful Natives" bug, that was not moving an ambusher's target to a new combat sheet.
  
• MAGIC chits dedicated to spells are no longer ignored when determining if you can learn a new spell.
  
• Casting logic now correctly matches spells with casting options (i.e., using spell from book when you use the book)
  
• When a guide does an ALERT phase, the followers are no longer REQUIRED to complete it (though they can use it if desired)
  
• Fixed an infinite loop that occurs when the Witch's familiar is following her when she discovers or loots a treasure Site.
  
• Game no longer hangs when a hired leader hires another native
  
• Fixed a problem where simultaneous attacks hitting a treasure card were spilling through to other armor.
  
• Must now land after running with a fly action. You can fly again, if you have the magic.
  
• Fixed the logic of Site Cards: They are added to the bottom of the treasure pile so they can be found by other characters. They remain visible on the board, however.
  
• Fixed the run-away logic for flyers: only flying opponents can stop you from running if you are flying away
  
• Timeless Jewel now properly handles newly activated items and horses

New Spells

Its been a long time since I've implemented any new spells, and a recent discussion of RealmSpeak reminded me of that fact. I decided to take a look at the missing spells, and see which ones made sense to do right now. The full list of spells still missing from RealmSpeak is:

• Talk to Wise Bird
  
• World Fades
  
• Broomstick
  
• Peace
  
• Ask Demon
  
• Lost
  
• Illusion
  
• Fog
  
• Enchant Artifact
  
• Violent Storm
  
• Hurricane Winds
  
• Bad Luck

I spent a little time this morning, and actually knocked two spells off that list: Talk to Wise Bird, and World Fades. Speaking of which, I never realized what a cool spell World Fades is. I'm thinking a magic user with a bow or crossbow could do some serious damage with ambush rules! Heck any weapon would work, as long as you started the combat off hidden! The only real drawback, is you have to supply BLACK magic, but other than that...

Anyway, of the remaining spells, I'd say Broomstick and Peace are the most "in need", especially since a majority of RealmSpeak players enjoy playing solitaire (ie., why on earth would you cast Lost on one of your own characters!!) I'm going to dig into Broomstick, and see if I can get something in place for the next release, but I'm not going to promise anything.

Version 0.34 Released

I always try to add a new feature or two each time I do a release, so that it isn't a pure "bug fix", but this time is an exception. There were a few things that just needed fixing, and I didn't really want to muck it up with a bunch of new stuff.

One cool thing that actually works now, is riding Flying Steeds. Yes, you can finally use the Control Bats spell to get around the board, or if you prefer, Transform a buddy into the Eagle, and jump on his back (provided you aren't too heavy!!) That could almost count as a new feature, I suppose...

With this release, I think I got the last of the bugs that caused a player to remain hidden regardless of their attack, and took care of some other irritating things that affected game play. I hope that makes it worth the download for you!

Anyway, here's what's new:

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Magic users casting area affect spells (ie., Fiery Blast) will properly become unhidden when targeting multiple targets again
  
• Players using "Watchful Natives" will no longer have trouble with monsters not moving to their own sheet on attacking from hidden.
  
• Can no longer press END when hidden with unhidden hirelings vs battling natives
  
• Getting a curse during SEARCH will properly charge you an action, when you have the Timeless Jewel
  
• New "Cancel Spell" button, in case you want to cancel the casting of a spell in combat
  
• Serious wound rolls are logged
  
• Flying Carpet works again
  
• Flying critters can follow now
  
• You can ride flying critters following you now (ie., Flying Steeds). Swordsman on an Eagle? Seems odd...
  
• Transforming no longer loses mission chits
  
• Killing transformed unhired native leaders (that's a mouthful!) properly drops groups inventory now.
  
• Fixed a synching issue with Power of the Pit and Curse
  
• Fixed a problem where Hired Leaders were becoming unhidden prematurely
  
• Fixed an issue where trying to enter a mountain clearing on your last phase with a pony was failing
  
• Hired Leaders and Controlled Monsters will no longer have the summon chits flip face down in their tile anymore
  
• Can flip Giant's clubs and Dragon heads if you control them (or absorb them)

Version 0.33 Released

As I promised, here's a new release of RealmSpeak. I've had the opportunity to play several games with this version, and it seems to be working pretty good. At least there wont be any more problems with staying hidden, or Dragon Essence! :-)

Here's what's new:

NEW FEATURES:

• A new Window menu item allows you to view the game options that are in play. This is especially helpful if you've joined an online game, and you want to know which optional/advanced rules are being used.
  
• Character chooser now has two new "random" buttons for selecting a fighter or a magic user. Regardless of whether you agree with me or not, this is how I characterized them:
  
  • Fighters: Woods Girl, White Knight, Berserker, Dwarf, Black Knight, Amazon, Swordsman, Captain
    
  • Magic Users: Witch, Witch-King, Druid, Elf, Sorceror, Magician, Wizard, Pilgrim

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Fixed a bug introduced in 0.32 that breaks the game when you aquire the Dragon Essence
  
• Fixed a bug introduced in 0.31 that was not properly "unhiding" characters when they attacked in combat
  
• The buttons that "fatigue color chit" now read "play color chit" for clarity
  
• Permanent spells are energized appropriately when a game is loaded.
  
• Rare problem with extending a game is fixed.
  
• Fixed some more Timeless Jewel issues:
  
  • Cancelling an action (ie., SEARCH, ALERT, MOVE) will no longer "cost" you an action phase.
    
  • Deactivating the Timeless Jewel now presents you with an "Are you sure?" dialog, so you can change your mind.
  
  
• Fixed the spell order on Sites and Books so that higher numbered spell types come before lower ones
  
• Characters with timeless jewel active can still FOLLOW other characters, provided they record a FOLLOW during BIRDSONG
  
• Fixed a nasty bug with Food/Ale, and Escort Party, that was causing the game to crash. There was also a rare bug that I discovered in the same code that would cause other gold chits to crash the game on occasion.
  
• Set the maximum allowable characters to "8", because there are too many problems with memory past that point. Yes, I know that's a kludgy way to solve the problem, but until I can find the source, I'm stuck with this solution for now.
  
• Using a color chit during combat is sufficient to keep the combat going (was being ignored)
  
• Fixed Victory Point calculations for Fame and Gold when cursed with Disgust or Ashes.
  
• Abandoned hidden hired natives become unhidden next turn as they should.
  
• Belongings can now only be rearranged at the beginning of a phase, unless the item has just been aquired (new items appear with a yellow border)
  
• Fixed a bug that was crashing the game when someone followed a leader that did both ALERT and REST during their turn
  
• Fixed a situation where it was possible to end up with an active Pony carrying an object that was too heavy
  
• Trading can now only occur at the beginning of a phase, or with someone who is playing their turn (3e-7.2.1)
  
• Fixed the sort order of items in a clearing, so that Monsters no longer appear underneath treasures.
  
• Natives can no longer ride dead horses during the day.
  
• Dwarven REST bonus, and Poultice of Health no longer cost actual REST phases
  
• Following the Dwarf, or someone who has just used the Poultice of Health, no longer gives you the double-asterisk bonus.

Elf & Dwarf

I just finished a solo game with the Elf and Dwarf, using the "Productive Dwarf" rules. It's been awhile since I've just sat down and played a game (without chasing bugs, that is), and it was both short and sweet.

The Elf and Dwarf found the Pool in the caves right away, and after dispatching the Octopus, looted like crazy until there was only one item left. Scoring both the Elven Slippers for the Elf and the 7-League boots for the Dwarf was definitely a good way to start the game. Moving out of the caves into the woods brought some bad luck for the Elf, however. A pack of wolves. Since both the Dwarf and the Elf were hidden, it seemed appropriate for the Elf to let fly an arrow or two. Unfortunately, he was discovered on his first try.

I made a rather stupid mistake here, and chose NOT to lure the wolves with the hidden Dwarf, and the Elf met a rather quick end. The Dwarf did decide to jump out at the last minute (probably just as stupid), and managed, single-handedly, to kill all 6 wolves. Whew!

The Dwarf, having lost his primary mode of transportation (following the Elf) was stuck wandering slowly across the map. An uneventful number of tiles left nothing to be desired. He finally arrived at the Guard where he was able to sell off some loot, and ended the game with a score of .... -26.

Not my best game, but it was good to play the game, just to play it!

Getting close to a new release

I'm hoping to get a new release out this weekend. A couple of annoying bugs in version 0.32 keep popping up in the bug tracker, and I'm getting tired of looking at them:

- Appearance of Dragon Essence freezes the game (fixed in 0.33)
- Fighting melee while hidden doesn't cause you to become unhidden

Both of these were introduced in the last two releases, and have been bothering quite a few RealmSpeakers, I'm sure!!

Lots and lots of other little fixes, should make version 0.33 a pretty stable release. I'm hoping to get a network game going on in the next couple of weeks (maybe even this weekend), so maybe I'll have news to report on that front.

I want to extend a special thanks to vincegamer who has been hammering on RealmSpeak the last couple of weeks, and has shed the light on quite a few problems. I also want to thank icewall, for his effort in solving a game crash issue while following. Thanks you guys!!

Version 0.32 Released

It's definitely been a slow hot summer. I actually experienced my first day above 120 degrees last month, and I can tell you, it was unpleasant! Living in southern California has its perks though. A recent visit from my brother and his family found us visiting a number of the tourist traps around here: Sea World, Six Flags, Wild Animal Park, the beach, to name a few. We even got to go see the Ringling Bros & Barnum Baily Circus here yesterday!!

Okay, so maybe you don't really care what I've been up to, but I bring it up only to excuse myself somewhat from the lack of RealmSpeak updates. Even this update is a bit light in content, but should still be worth a the download, I think. I fixed a few game killing bugs, and added a way to repay a boon (thanks Steve for your great idea!)

Here's what you will find:

NEW FEATURES:

• You can repay a boon now:
  
  • Receiving a boon puts a "Boon" token in your active inventory, showing the native/visitor, and the base price of the item given
    
  • The Boon token cannot be dropped or traded
    
  • To repay a boon, return to the native group, and do a BUY trade. The boon will appear in their inventory, and you can buy it there. Of course, you only have one chance to succeed, so don't attempt it unless you got the cash!

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Fixed a bug in the "Watchful Natives" code that caused the game to crash when fighting monsters (sigh).
  
• Melt-into-Mist and Pentangle now properly "nullify" spells/curses, and not cancel them!
  
• Fixed a bug where using a horse to move into a mountain clearing was not properly handling phases, and causing a minor crash
  
• Fixed a bug where activating Timeless Jewel immediately on discovery was causing a game freeze
  
• Fixed a gnarly bug in the combat interface, that occurs when you select an unassigned target while hidden, just prior to a spellcaster casting a spell (yes, very specific)
  
• Dragonfang necklace works on ALL dragons now, not just land dragons. This includes the firedrake and venerable wyrm from Pruitt's alternative monster set.
  
• Fixed a crash related to the dragonfang necklace
  
• Changed a piece of code that may have been causing problems on Solaris 10 (the jury is out on this one)
  
• Can now click on the map during Prophecy or Timeless Jewel to move (just like during BIRDSONG)
  
• Pressing the MOVE button during Prophecy or Timeless Jewel, will now properly gray out other actions
  
• Can only burn color chits during the encounter step and daylight
  
• Charging characters works now:
  
  • Charger can not do any encounter actions
    
  • Chargee is subject to the penalties of having the MOVE chit on his/her sheet
    
  • Still to do: make sure that charging character does not switch targets during the same round (2e: 34.4/1b)
  
  
• Fixed an issue where Druid going first would cancel the chit summoning for the entire evening!

New Project at the Bug Tracker

Sorry the updates haven't been rolling out with their usual quickness, but its summer after all! I've been pretty busy, only getting a few minutes at a time to work on RealmSpeak. Still, I'm getting stuff done, and should have a new release out fairly soon.

For those of you that are regulars at the bug tracker, I wanted to let you know that I just added a new "project" to manage my other java app, Wizards. This means that you might start seeing Wizards bugs mixed in with the RealmSpeak bugs. If you prefer not to see them, simply change your preferences by clicking on "My Account", and then "Preferences" to set your default project to RealmSpeak.

See you soon!

RealmSpeak over at HiWired

I just got an e-mail from one of the author's at the HiWired Blog. He discovered RealmSpeak recently when he and a number of friends hooked up for some game playing time. Anyway, he did a short write-up on RealmSpeak that's worth taking a look at. I imagine the game will get a bit more exposure in the coming days! :-)

Thanks Peter!

The Natives... are watchful?

I'm getting a lot of reports that the "Watchful Natives" option is breaking the combat interface. I've identified and fixed the bug that causes this, but I'm probably not going to do a patch release because there is a reasonable workaround: don't turn this option on.

If you are playing combat, and discover that the NEXT button doesn't advance, or something else seems to be unresponsive, you've likely encountered this bug.

Sorry about that folks!

Version 0.31 Released

Wow, it's been a long time since the last release. You might expect a big release for that length of time, but keep in mind I did take nearly a month off from coding. Still, looking at the feature list, it does seem to be a lot.

Before I get into the features, I would like to take a moment to thank all of you that have been posting bug reports, and helping me determine which need the most attention, and which are misunderstandings of the rules. Without you guys, I'm afraid the RealmSpeak project might have died many months ago. Thank you thank you thank you!!!

Okay, onto the changes. Since you can simply read the features down below, I'm not going to reiterate them too completely here, but I do want to point one thing out in particular: the behavior of combat is changed slightly, and that may annoy some of you. Up until this release, there were some actions you could perform that would automatically press the next button for you, an advance to the next stage. Some examples: selecting a melee target, running away, alerting a weapon, etc. There were other actions which did NOT do this, and this makes for a confusing interface.

To absolve this issue, I decided to make ALL actions require pressing the NEXT button. Though this means you will have to press NEXT when you used to not, it also means that you have a few moments to change your mind, or fix a "mis-click" by pressing the RESET button. I've come to like the change, and I think you will too. If not, you have my e-mail!! :-)

Okay, here's what you can expect in this release:

NEW FEATURES:

• When trading with natives, you can now trade items as part of the cost
  
• 3rd-edition optional rules added:
  
  • Knight's Adjustment (ALLY becomes FRIENDLY)
    
  • Watchful Natives (mostly - natives assigned randomly to hirelings when character is hidden, for now)
  
  
• Couple of new features in the combat simulator:
  
  • You can adjust the HIDE status of hirelings separate from character
    
  • You can choose whether or not hireling horses are included

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Flowers of Rest owned by unhired native groups will cause people to sleep now (once they've been "seen")
  
• Resolved issues with Timeless Jewel: RealmSpeak would get confused about your location if you tried moving through an undiscovered path.
  
• Fixed a problem with placing a horse during combat on the non-galloping side (trotting)
  
• Fixed an issue with the way rest phases were being counted during daylight
  
• Unfixed/Refixed the problem with the REST dialog - Now you can press the Done button if you still have REST phases, but it warns you that this is the case. (otherwise, WITHER causes an unresolvable situation that causes the game to stop)
  
• Flying from combat will position you between two tiles - Flying MUST be your first action on the following day
  
• Activated horses and boots are properly handled when a new item is aquired that is too heavy for either to carry
  
• Artifacts and Books can now only be used once per evening
  
• Wish Strength can be used to open the VAULT
  
• Cloven Hoof in native inventory, having not been seen, no longer adds one to your die rolls
  
• Fixed an issue where hired leaders and controlled monsters couldn't open the VAULT, even though their strength was sufficient
  
• Fixed an inconsistency in the behavior of the buttons in the "Encounter" phase of combat. Now ALL encounter actions require pressing NEXT, which means you also have a chance to press reset if you make an error. This might take some getting used to...
  
• Dragonfang necklace works again
  
• Vial of Healing is implemented (I thought it was before, but I clearly never wrote code for it)
  
• Getting transported by the Toadstool Circle no longer includes your hirelings (they are left behind)
  
• Familiar, Phantasm, Hired Leaders, and Controlled Monsters no longer count towards the "Character Limit" you set at the beginning of the game.
  
• Combat simulator works for setting up natives against natives without a character
  
• Trading the Regent of Jewels in your first TRADE phase no longer causes you to lose the TRADE phase bonus that that treasure gives you'
  
• Calculation of clearing distance is correct for missions that have multiple possible paths to the same destination now
  
• END combat for multiple online players should work properly now
  
• WITHER Curse properly fatigues alerted and color chits, in addition to normal active chits

ps - no current plans for an online game, so I can't really say with confidence that the online portion of RealmSpeak is working again. If you decide to play an online game with a friend or two, I'd love to hear from you regarding how it goes! When I do get a chance to play online, you know I'll post it here!

Watchful Natives

I had a request to add some 3rd edition rules into the game, and I decided to get that together for the next release. The two you can expect to see are "Knight's Adjustment" and "Watchful Natives". Should make the Inn masacres less prevalent, and balance the game a bit.

I think I fixed the bug that killed my last online game, so I may have to schedule another one very soon. I probably wont do a release until right before that game (sometime in the next couple of weeks?)

Lots and lots of other things. As always, you can watch my progress at the bug tracker. Simply log in, and click the Change Log link at the top of the page to see what's been fixed in the newest version. If you don't already have an account there, feel free to get one: it's not required that you report issues to have a login, and I'll never use your e-mails for anything else (ie., I wont sell you off to any spammers!) Plus, if you ever do decide to chime in on a bug, you'll be set to go!

Goin' Solo

I'm back into the meat of coding for RealmSpeak, for those of you that haven't noticed the issues getting resolved over at the bug tracker. I made a decision to focus on the "solo" game for now, and get some things resolved that affect the solitaire player.

Honestly, I think the issues affecting the network play are fairly minor, but I'm still a bit frustrated about my last game to even explore what might have gone wrong. Except for that, version 0.30 is a pretty solid release (at least in my hands).

Lots of new stuff planned in v0.31. I've been attempting to tackle the oldest issues first, because some of you have been waiting for a long time for things. One in particular, is the ability to trade items along with gold to purchase things from natives. I finished the interface tonight, and am working on integrating it into the game. It looks pretty nice, if I do say so myself!

Well, I gotta go read stories to my kids before they go to bed, so I'll wrap this up for now. Look for a new release in a couple weeks!

Takin' a Short Break

After my last game of RealmSpeak flopping like it did, I decided to take a break from coding for a bit. I haven't touched the code in over a week, and probably wont for at least a week more. I've been trying to keep up with the bug tracker, but only to acknowledge new entries.

When I get rolling again, I'll let you all know!

Still No Dice

I just finished an hour's worth of trying to play RealmSpeak online with no luck. The interface froze up after one day, and we had to quit. Trying it again with an older version (0.28) it died after one day.

(sigh) I'm thinking its time to rethink how I'm doing the networking in RealmSpeak. The solo game is just fine (mostly), and it really only breaks down when you are playing online (recently). I really don't like the instability I'm seeing, so I gotta come up with a better solution.

Sorry guys!

Cheating in RealmSpeak

Cheating? You can cheat in RealmSpeak?

Well, yes you can. I created code long ago that allowed me to cause things to happen in the game, without having to wait for them to happen at random. I thought that there are enough of you now playtesting the game all the time, that it might be worth letting you know how to do this, so you can recreate situations at will.

With the release of version 0.30, you'll find a new batch file called: cheat.bat. Use this, instead of the run.bat you normally use, and you will run the game in "CHEAT" mode. To cheat in game, click on the character token in your character frame, and a nondescript dialog will appear. Type "help" in this dialog, and you will see all the good stuff you can do.

What about online games? Anyone using the CHEAT mode will gain the permanent title "Cheater!". I wouldn't recommend doing this if you want to play with the same people again! ;-)

One other note: the cheat mode was meant for me, and as such, is not exactly "user-friendly". To gain a particular item, you have to type it's name EXACTLY as it is printed on the card, and it IS case-sensitive. For example: to aquire the timeless jewel, you'd have to type:

Timeless Jewel

Any other way you type it, nothing will happen.

Okay, that's all I have to say about that. If you have questions, let me know!

Version 0.30 Released

Well, this should alleviate the issues of v0.29. If you want to wait a day or two, I'll let you know how tonight's game goes. I'm playing with 3 other players (I think), so if it works, I'll be happy! I'll post the experience here, either tomorrow or Sunday. If you want to give it a go yourself, it's only a 2 MB download!

Assuming all is well with v0.30, I think this will be a cool release. Combined with the features I attempted to add in v0.29, this will be the first release that permits battle "observation", which is a big plus. That means if you aren't involved directly in a combat, you can STILL watch the goings-on, something that wasn't possible in earlier releases. This also means you can have "game observers" that don't actually play a character (assuming people have an interest in that).

One neat new feature in v0.30, is the ability to click on clearings without the requirement of first pressing the MOVE button on the character frame. This will save a lot of back-and-forth motions with the mouse, especially when you are travelling a long ways across the map with a horse or pony! Make sure the top character frame is the one you want to move, and then simply click clearings to move. Of course, if you prefer to see your options, you can still press the MOVE button each time. That's up to you!

Oh, before I forget, I made a change to the time delay that's built into the client/server relationship. If you've ever played online, you've probably noticed a bit of a delay getting things to happen. Hopefully this works well: another reason to wait and see how tonight's game goes!

Okay, here's what's new:

NEW FEATURES:

• You can rehire your hirelings now (extends their term of hire by 14 days)
  
• If you click on a clearing during the recording phase, RealmSpeak will now automatically record a MOVE action for the active character (no need to continuously hit the MOVE button)

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Reduced the delay in the server wait time per request. This should make the online game a bit more spunky. (Though I'm concerned it will have an adverse effect on slower computers... I'm sure you'll tell me if you have problems!)
  
• I think I fixed the recent combat frame problems for good. I did a bit more hard-core testing, including all of these situations:
  
  • Normal combat for a single local player
    
  • Normal combat for a single online player
    
  • Normal combat for two local characters
    
  • Normal combat for two different online combats
    
  • Running from combat without hirelings
    
  • Running from combat with hirelings
    
  • Running from combat with another online character staying behind
    
  • Ending combat while in a clearing with another character's hireling(s)
  
  
• Realm Log window now scrolls to the bottom by default
  
• Fixed a bug that caused Native HQ's horse to get put into the native's hold when becoming unhired
  
• RealmSpeak no longer tries to make the Witch's familiar place a visitor/mission chit
  
• Discovering the Flowers of Sleep now affects players that have already taken their turn too
  
• Losing your turn do to the Flowers of Sleep will no longer summon monsters (as per Richard Hamblen's Q&A on Nand's site)
  
• Moved the "Setup Card" button out of the character frame, and into the character list window (makes more sense there)
  
• The REST dialog no longer allows you to skip your rests by pressing the Done button.
  
• The detail button in the combat frame now opens the game log window (or moves it to the front) since it now has the same information anyway
  
• When you do an SP phase and get the options, its much clearer which buttons will affect the tile, and which will affect the chit (the tile icon is included on the button)
  
• Fixed a bug where clearing restrictions (ie., Mountain clearing) were being ignored for spells on artifacts and books

Not Quite Right

Well, there are still some issues with how I changed the behavior of the combat frame, and I think I'm going to stop with the "bugfix" releases for now. I need to give it some real testing, and that isn't likely to happen until the weekend (my weeknights have been insane recently!) If you want to play RealmSpeak, I recommend v0.28, as it is the last version before I changed the combat screens. I'll get the code tested, and do a real release in the next week or so. Thanks for being patient with me!

Version 0.29.2 Bugfix Release

Still some major things wrong with 0.29, so I'm doing another bugfix. Sorry about that!

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Fixed a problem with targeting monsters on another character's sheet while you have monsters on your own sheet (broke this back in version 0.24!)
  
• Fixed the run problem a different way (the way I fixed it in 0.29.1 didn't account for hirelings! oops...)
  
• Fixed the situation where one hidden character is being battled by natives, and another unhidden character is not, and you couldn't press the End button. (does that make any sense?) In any case, it's fixed.
  
• Fatigue/Wounds center on combat frame now, NOT game frame

Version 0.29.1 Bugfix Release

This always happens when I'm anxious to get new features out: I hurry through the testing stage, and miss something crucial. Since I never "ran away" in any of my tests, I completely missed the problem. The problem was minor but annoying enough to require a fix. I also found a problem with something I fixed in the pacify spells (Persuade, to be specific) that needed immediate attention. I apologize if you already downloaded 0.29, but you are really going to want this release where these problems are now fixed.

Oh, one more thing I forgot to mention in my last release: v0.29 requires a new resource pack, so be sure to grab that before playing. If you don't, RealmSpeak will complain. :-)

Here's what's new here:

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Fixed a problem with the combat window not closing after a character runs
  
• Fixed another issue with the pacify spells

Run Away might be broken in v0.29

Not sure, but I had the combat window freak out on me while running away. May have to do a quick bug fix...

Version 0.29 Released

Not much to say, except here's what's new:

NEW FEATURES:

• No longer need to "approve" trades between characters belonging to the same player
  
• Improvements to the combat interface:
  
  • Pressing END now polls by PLAYER, not by CHARACTER. This means that if you are playing a SOLO game, you need only press the END button one time per clearing. No more endless clicks on the stupid END button when playing multiple characters in a solo game!!
    
  • All players can observe all battles now (no more twiddling your thumbs wondering what is going on)
    
  • Combat Window stays "open" until combat has ended for all players (no more flashing window - there is still some blink in the interface itself though)
    
  • "End Simulation" button when playing a combat simulation so you can quit right away.
  
  
• RealmBattle allows you to choose awakened spells on books now too
  
• New Help menu item: Key to Remodeled Counters
  
• Playing the game with combat turned OFF now displays the words "COMBAT OFF" instead of the "Daily Combat" checkbox.

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Fixed a bug when absorbing one of Pruitt's monsters
  
• "Hide character chits" option includes phantasms and familiars now
  
• Using a color chit to transform during combat now immediately updates the frame image
  
• Pacification spells are properly cancelled now if hirelings are already assigned to attack the pacification target (3rd edition rule 8.4.2.h.1)
  
• Can only assign hirelings during Birdsong
  
• Fixed a bug that sometimes hides the "Game Over" screen before you have a chance to look at it.
  
• Blocked characters can no longer trade

Version 0.28 Released

Hooray! This is a big release, in my opinion, because it is the first one since I added long duration spells to RealmSpeak that actually works as I meant it to. If you don't know what I'm talking about, see the previous post below. For the rest of you, here's what's new:

NEW FEATURES:

• RealmBattle (the battle simulator) now uses the chit style you have selected in RealmSpeak
  
• RealmBattle now supports making duplicates (if you so desire) of denizens for testing double-board battles. Simply make sure the "Make Duplicates" checkbox is checked before adding denizens or hirelings.
  
• RealmBattle now allows you to choose an awakened spell for an artifact (not books yet)

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Fixed a bug with phases gained from permanent spells
  
• Fixed a general bug in the action panel behavior when the Timeless Jewel is activated
  
• Fixed (at long last) the bug which caused duration spells to sometimes get stuck in one state or another
  
• Fixed a problem where characters are able to move Gloves cards from other characters
  
• When an invalid action is encountered during your turn, you must resolve the issue, or press Play Next to make it a BLANK phase.
  
• Multiple non-simultaneous hits on a mounted native will spill through to the rider, making it possible now to kill a mounted native in one round.
  
• If a character is not in the same clearing with his hirelings (they are following another character), the 1st hireling is highlighted on the character's turn in combat instead. (used to default to the first row which is confusing)
  
• Monsters under the influence of Melt-into-Mist no longer block character activities
  
• Misty monsters are ignored when determining whether the END button should be disabled or not (ie., you can end combat in a clearing that contains only a monster transformed into Mist)
  
• Another fix to Pruitt's monsters (sigh) to get them to return to the setup card properly
  
• Terror result in Power of the Pit, no longer kills L and M characters outright
  
• Power of the Pit no longer affects transformed character chits
  
• Transformed characters that are killed, will now properly untransform, and drop inventory in the clearing
  
• Witch's familiar no longer loses its turn when the Witch is following another character.
  
• Any character with ability to use one die with missile weapons (ie., Elf), no longer get an advantage with missile attacks (ie., Fiery Blast)

Big Bad Permanent Spell Bug Fixed!

As some of you may have encountered, there has been a problem with Permanent spells in RealmSpeak. On occasion (seemingly at random), a Permanent spell will get stuck in one state or another. The most common appearance of the bug, is the inability to energize an inert spell. Worse yet, is having a Permanent spell (ie., Transform) get stuck in the ON state!!

At long last, I found the source of the problem in the code. Want to see the bug? It's easy to reproduce in version 0.27 or earlier: play the Sorceror and choose these spells: Transform, Fiery Blast, and Phantasm. Make sure you have at least three purple color chits, and move yourself to a safe Valley clearing. Save the game, and then try one of the following scenarios:

Scenario 1:
Day 1 - Cast Transform on yourself.
Day 2 - Cast Phantasm
Day 3 - Do nothing (ie., waste the Phantasm)
Day 4 - Fatigue a color chit: no spells to energize!!

Scenario 2:
Day 1 - Cast Transform on yourself.
Day 2 - Cast Phantasm
Day 3 - Fatigue a color chit during the day: energize your transform spell
Day 4 - You are stuck in a transformed state!!

You see, in both scenarios, the Phantasm spell expires at the end of the 3rd day. When it expires, the permanent spell list is wiped out (this is the bug), and RealmSpeak "forgets" which permanent spells were alive. If you are transformed when this happens, you never come out of it, because RealmSpeak doesn't know to make it inert. If it was inert, RealmSpeak doesn't list it when you fatigue a color chit.

The bug was so glaring in the code, I'm surprised it took me this long to see it. Fixing it was trivial, and should permanently (pun intended) resolve the situation. This fix will be in version 0.28, coming soon.

Version 0.27 Released

Lots of bug fixes here, including some that have been on my TODO list for many months. Also, I fixed a prowling problem with Pruitt's monsters, so if you tried the expansion, and were confused about their behavior, it will work now.

Here's what's new:

NEW FEATURES:

• Right-clicking on map brings up a pop-up menu to allow you to specify which chits are shown, and which are not

BUGS/ISSUES:

• RandomAssignment phase doesn't cause luring to fail in proceeding rounds of combat
  
• Dwarf (without the house rule) no longer does sun actions
  
• Mists (Melt into Mist) can only Move, Hide, or Follow, as per the rules
  
• Pruitt's Monsters prowl correctly (I had forgotten to specify the correct prowling monster die for these new monsters!)
  
• Combat detail now correctly identifies when a horse is hit and/or killed
  
• Fixed a bug that caused strange behavior when getting opportunity or trouble rolls on the meeting tables
  
• Spells that don't target Character or Denizen, no longer cause the spellcaster to become unhidden (ie., REMEDY, DISSOLVE SPELL)
  
• Hired Native Leaders no longer meet the requirement for summoning a visitor chit
  
• Transformed characters use color images (when that option is active)
  
• Items in inventory stay activated/inactivated when transformed (though frozen and unavailable)
  
• You can FLY to the same tile now without getting the error "Target tile too far away."
  
• Fixed a problem that was causing a slowdown when a player is between clearings
  
• Fixed a problem when several characters are running from a clearing at once
  
• Multiple simultaneous attacks no longer pass through armor and horses
  
• Added some text to describe the damage or destruction of armor
  
• Fixed problem where Encounter Stage was getting skipped when dissolving an Absorb Essence spell
  
• Fixed issues surrounding Transmorphed characters and fatigued chits
  
  • Cannot rest chits while transformed
    
  • Are not affected by Flowers of Rest while transformed
  
  
• Activate Potions are no longer dropped when you are killed (they go to the specified visitor)
  
• Treasure cards (Bejeweled Dwarf Vest, Golden Crown, Golden Arm Band) will now properly increase a character's gold amount when destroyed during combat.
  
• PEACE result from WISH table no longer ends combat immediately: you get the normal two rounds of combat to do actions

Version 0.26 Released

This release is a bit heavy on features, and light on bug fixes. I apologize to those of you waiting for bug fixes, but I got a bit sidetracked in this release doing things that will add some new flavor to the game. First off, I've got a first run of the visitor/mission chits going. It's not fully tested, but it should work. Characters can place the chits in boxes on the setup card, and they appear as they should. You can pick them up, provided you pay the fee, and the rewards should work. That's the part I haven't fully tested, but it should work. :-)

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
  
  
• 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

Remodeled Chits and New Monsters

A number of you have asked for an option in RealmSpeak to use the new remodeled counters that Dan Evans made available (from John Frenzel's original design). Currently, the chits are quite boring:



They work, and you can tell what they are, but they don't offer much else. I decided to get onto Dan Evans' website, and see what it would take to make the chits work better. Swiping the graphics directly from the files provided (Dan, I hope you are cool with that!), I first did a run keeping the chits the same, but with the colorings that Dan did:



These look pretty nice, and are a definite improvement over the ones I was using! I then wrote the code required to make the chits render all the same values, which is the real reason for attacking this task. The result is good:



RealmSpeak will now have an option in the options menu that will let you choose between Classic, Color, and Remodeled chits.

Another task I tackled this time, is working a monster expansion into the game. That's right, an expansion, and the first of its kind in RealmSpeak. This expansion is the Alternate Monster Set by Glenn Pruitt, originally available here. Glenn provides a bunch of new monsters, and a completely new monster setup arrangement! Take a peek at this snip from the monster setup card:



Haven't played with the new monsters in a real game yet, but everything else about them works: they summon, reset, and behave the way Glenn designed them. Thanks Glenn!

Probably wont be a release for another week or so. I really need to tackle some nasty bugs before putting it out. Until next time.

Visitor/Mission chits

I had someone e-mail me the other day, and ask when I was planning on getting the Visitor/Mission chits into RealmSpeak. I've long put it off, because it was going to take some effort to get implemented, and the chance of getting one of these is so darn small anyway.

Well, the question sparked an interest, and with the Treasure Setup card view in place, I thought I'd toy with getting this part working. The good news is, the chits were fairly easy to add to my components list, and get into the view. They can be placed by characters (or randomly, your choice), and they can be summoned to the board (and flip on a die roll of six on the 7th day) as they should.

I still need to give the chits their behavior (they are just decorative right now), and build a way for characters to pick these up. That shouldn't be too hard, but I'm not sure. At the very least, I'll finish the Visitors so we can at least trade with them.

Back on Track

My friends and I played another game last night using the latest version (v0.25.1), and things ran a LOT more smoothly. We actually didn't have any trouble with the game until one point where trying to do a trade between two characters was causing a freeze up on one of the players machines. I saved the game, so hopefully I'll be able to duplicate the problem on my own machine, and get an error log to see what is happening. I suspect it has something to do with two players pressing the trade button at the same time, but I'm not sure.

In any event, the game was great. Though we are still mid-game (we quit at midnight) a LOT has happened, and these three characters (Captain, White Knight, Wizard) have gotten quite powerful. All three have horses, the White Knight has the Sacred Grail, the Wizard has the Dragon Essence, and the Captain has the Deft Gloves (among other things). We've looted the Lair and the Cairns, and wiped out the Inn. We are currently sitting in a safe woods tile pondering whether to explore the Altar (in the caves!) or the Shrine. That's for another day!

The Treasure Setup card view is sweet. It's so cool to check the status of the monsters now and again, and feel comfortable that a particular monster or native group wont be back for awhile. Feels a lot more like the board game.

Anyway, I'm happy with that release, so if you've been waiting, I say check it out. Now back to the code... :-)

Patch Version 0.25.1 Released

It was inevitable, I suppose, with having a game go so badly, that there would be a couple more issues to fix. Since I'm likely not going to be doing another release for a week or so, I thought it was worth getting this minor release done.

Not much new, but possibly worth it to avoid a hung combat:

• Had to fix another game killing bug that I introduced in v0.24 (sigh)
  
• Persuade now only kicks the caster's opponents off, not ALL of them (though they are ALL still persuaded)

Version 0.25 Released

So, version 0.24 was a bit of a bust, because of a stupid error on my part that led to a strange cycling combat behavior (see "Broken" post below). I fixed this, plus a couple of things that quickly popped up on the bug tracker, and I think its good this time. I pulled up the game that killed us so hard on Friday, and it ran like a charm.

Here's what's new:

NEW FEATURES:

• New house rule: Characters joining after host starts the game MUST start at the INN (this is now optional instead of mandatory!)

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Fixed cycling combat bug (this is what killed our game!)
  
• Battling natives list in summary window (Combat) is readable now when there is more than one line of information
  
• Can no longer use the mouse pointer to reveal clearing contents BEFORE the host starts the game
  
• Heads/Clubs should now be light-side-up at the beginning of a new combat, regardless of previous battles.

Broken

Last night's game didn't go very well. There's something broken in 0.24 that's preventing combat from completing normally. Sometimes combat goes round and round again with nothing occuring, and everyone keeps having to press the END button. Several times, the game crashed so completely that we had to start over.

I'm not sure if it only occurs in a multiplayer game or if the problem is more general. I played a couple of solo games before doing the release, and all seemed to be well, so I'm guessing it has something to do with being online.

I'm very frustrated, but that's how it goes sometimes. I'm convinced the code problem is minor, and should be fairly easy to change. I might get something up in the next couple of days to fix it.

If you haven't yet downloaded v0.24, you might want to wait. If you already downloaded it, go ahead and give it a try (I think the solo game is working). The good news is that the error logging portion is working right, so send me your error logs if you have them. If you'd rather not mess with it, go back to version 0.23 until I can get a more stable release together.

Sorry about that folks!

RealmSpeak on UnderDogs

On a whim, I did a search for RealmSpeak at the Home of the Underdogs, and would you believe, its listed there?

http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=5241

That made my day.

Sneaky Me

Found another small bug, and decided to swap out the file before anybody downloaded the release. Near as I can tell from my web site statistics, no-one has downloaded it yet, so I think I'm good. If you somehow managed to download this release before 3:40pm PST, you're going to want to download it again now, especially if you like playing magic users... ;-)

Version 0.24 Released

Lots of neat new features and bug fixes in this release, definitely worth the download. One item in particular will make reporting bugs a bit easier: Error logging. When the game crashes for one reason or another, there will now be an error log generated in the same folder as the game is run from. If you e-mail this log to me, along with a short explanation about what was happening at the time, I should be able to locate the bug quickly, and get it fixed. I'm hoping this will lessen the "my game crashed" reports that I've had a tough time resolving.

Also new this time, is a view of the treasure setup card. This should make figuring out what the dangers are for a particular tile, without having to use external references.

I'll be playing this version online tonight, so I'll let you know how that goes.

Enough Jibba-Jabba, here's what's new:

NEW FEATURES:

• Error Logging - If RealmSpeak "freezes" or "crashes", look for a file in your RealmSpeak directory called "RealmSpeakErrorxxxx.log. Send this to me, along with an explanation of what you were doing when it crashed (if you remember), and this should make fixing these types of bugs trivial.
  
• Treasure Setup Card view (see "Setup Card" button on Character Frame)
  
• Map is not revealed until host presses "Start Game" button - characters joining after the game is started MUST start at the Inn.
  
• No longer need to hold the CTRL key down to make multiple selections in the trade window.
  
• Moved trade/share button out of tabbed panes for easier access. Sharing discoveries is included in the trade window now, so you can GET discoveries, as well as GIVE them.
  
• Better Victory Point handling:
  
  • Host determines VPs that are required per player per month
    
  • New characters don't specify VPs on the initial setup window
    
  • Characters must specify VPs by clicking a new button on the Character frame (highlighted in yellow)
    
  • Each new month requires each character to specify more VPs
    
  • Characters joining mid-month have reduced requirements, as specified by the rules

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Natives can target RED-side up monsters on other sheets now.
  
• Fixed problem where killing a transformed monster wasn't rewarding the player properly
  
• Fixed a major bug that sometimes caused a player's action record to become truncated during online play
  
• Changed the text description on Dragonfang Necklace to read "Control one dragon in PURPLE", so it is clear that it needs PURPLE magic
  
• Fixed Dragonfang Necklace, so it can actually work now.
  
• Peering a warning chit (Smoke W, Stink W) is no longer sufficient to cause the campfires to appear.
  
• When making change for a 2-asterisk chit during the fatigue step, you MUST make change with the same type now
  
• Flying Carpet no longer appears in INERT list when you haven't yet found it
  
• Incomplete record warning no longer appears when you have extra actions after following
  
• Fixed a bug where light-side-up archers would sometimes freeze combat
  
• Fixed bug that was preventing proper use of Battle Bracelets on another combat sheet
  
• Fixed bug that was causing combat to hang after a "I Wish I Were Elsewhere" result
  
• Fixed problem with Timeless Jewel and Prophecy where running away left you with no options
  
• Casting POISON no longer reveals unseen weapons
  
• Fixed a bug where TERROR result in Power of the Pit table when cast by a Demon against a hireling was causing a game freeze
  
• Fixed problem where "Daily Combat" checkbox wasn't working for hired leaders.
  
• Fixed GUI update problem when trading inventory (inventory would vanish until the next update)
  
• Discoveries are traded in the same interface as inventory, meaning you can GET as well as GIVE now
  
• Moved Trade/Share buttons out of panels, and into the main frame for easier access.
  
• Trade/Share recognizes if a player is playing a turn or not, and filters the list of characters accordingly
  
• Fixed bug where "Transform" cast on a native attacker would crash the game
  
• Fixed a combat bug, where deployment order was being ignored
  
• Fixed a *RARE* situation where you could end up between clearings with an item too heavy to carry, and no color to energize a transform spell. Now it lets you move regardless of weight if you are stuck between clearings.
  
• Fixed a bug where INERT permanent spells were deenergizing every night, which sometimes crashes combat

Fixing lots of "crash" bugs

I've been focusing on getting the bugs that cause the game to "crash" this week, because this really detracts from the fun side of RealmSpeak. Nothing more frustrating than to have your turn be trashed because of a crash!

I'm planning to do an official release Friday AM, so look for it!

Should be a release this week

If you've followed this blog at all, you'll notice a pattern: when I'm about to play an online game, there is usually a frenzy of changes preceeding the event. The same is true now. I'm planning on playing a game Friday, and there were a couple of things that made our game frustrating last time:

• Sometimes, one of the players records would get truncated, thus messing up their turn. Often, this was a fatal result, as characters would end up in clearings with monsters without their planned HIDE or ALERT ever occurring
• Permanent spells sometimes fail to get registered, and either stay ON permanently, or stay OFF permanently. Since this bug is rare, I've never truly been able to replicate it.
• Normally, I play with the Treasure Setup Card next to me, but our last game found me at a computer away from my usual Magic Realm supplies. How annoying is it not to be able to glance at the setup card to determine what dangers reside in a particular tile?
• Being attacked by a RED-side up tremendous monster is tough enough, without being able to deploy your hirelings to give you a hand!
  

In a release I'm planning this week, I've addressed all four of these issues (I think...) The first issue I was able to duplicate (hurray!) and thus fixing it was a cinch. While fixing the code, it dawned on me how the same bug might be affecting the Permanent spells, quite possibly killing two birds with one stone here! Since I could never reliably duplicate the problem, only time will tell (I'm about 80% confident its gone for good!).

I got tired of fixing bugs (I've got a BUNCH of them over on the bug tracker), so I wanted to do something fun. I decided to get the Treasure Setup Card viewer in place, and it turned out rather nice! I can hardly wait to try this out in a live game!

Finally, the native deploying to RED-side-up monsters was a tricky situation to fix, but I believe it is working now. I'm crossing my fingers that I didn't break some other aspect of combat!

I'm playing a game Friday (2/17) night, so I'll probably do a release this week. You might want to wait on downloading it, until you hear from me next weekend. If our game goes off without a hitch, you know I'll be trumpeting its praises!

Slow Work

I apologize if you have been keeping tabs on RealmSpeak recently, and have discovered not much has changed. I haven't spent much time with the code in the last few weeks, partly for being sick, and partly for being too danged busy. I also recently rediscovered a favorite old Microprose game of mine (Master of Magic) that I have been playing in my free time.

I have made some small progress: I added an error-reporting feature to RealmSpeak so that those of you reporting "crashes" or "freezes" should have something to send to me that will be more helpful to me for finding a bug.

I also fixed an issue with natives being unable to deploy to RED-side-up tremendous monsters, so that will be nice.

Other than that, nothing new to report. I'm hoping that life will settle down in the near future (or I tire of my Microprose game again), so I can get back to work on RealmSpeak. Lots to do!

Thanks for your patience.

Version 0.23 Released

I mainly wanted to get this version out to fix problems I created with monster gold bounty and ambush rules in the last couple of versions. There's also a few new spells, though admittedly, we're starting to get down to the "boring" spells. (I know I need to do Broomstick and Hurricane Winds, but those are going to be hard, and I want to fix some things before I do).

Here's what's new:

NEW FEATURES:

• New Spells:
  
  • Blazing Light
    
  • Poison
    
  • Peace with Nature
    
  • Protection from Magic
    
  • Pentangle V

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Bug introduced in 0.22 that wrongly rewarded each monster kill with a gold bounty is fixed
  
• Fixed broken AMBUSH rule (broke it when I added the Alchemist's Mixture treasure)
  
• Alchemist's Mixture treasure now correctly inactivates your active weapon (if any) when activated
  
• Native Horses appear in Native Leader inventory again, and they can use them (but not trade/drop/inactivate)
  
• Fixed problem with casting Absorb Essence while hidden
  
• PERSUADE properly makes native groups FRIENDLY for the following day
  
• Possible to end combat with persuaded monsters/natives in the clearing now
  
• Possible to reenergize an INERT spell between clearings, or in the air.

Last nights game

I played most of a game last night with a friend of mine, and we ran into some new problems:

• The trade interface is crashing RealmSpeak (not sure if this is a general problem, or only related to the "hosted" game)
  
• Killing monsters results in a gold bounty! (this one was actually kind of fun)
  
• When new characters join in a hosted game, actions recorded by other characters are sometimes lost, or truncated

Damned frustrating, but with all the new stuff added recently, I'm not completely surprised. I know where the gold bug comes from: when I added Persuade and Deal with Goblins, I gave all the monsters a "wage" to be hired by. Unfortunately, my code currently uses the wage to determine bounty, and thinks you earn it when you kill a monster! This can be fixed easily enough, but I'm not going to be able to do another release until next weekend. If you can ignore the gold bounty, version 0.22 is a pretty nice build. Being able to hire a Giant or two is pretty cool.

Later!

Version 0.22 Released

Yeah, definitely too soon after the last release, but I had a couple of bugs to fix, and decided to add some spells while I was at it. At least you don't need a new resource pack this time! Here's what's new:

NEW FEATURES:

• New Spells
  
  • Persuade
    
  • Deal with Goblins
  
  
• New wording in combat details:
  
  • Smarter wording when attackers do not place an attack (or cannot attack, like light-side spear goblins)
    
  • Includes all missle/fumble die rolls, and the corresponding result
    
  • Spell casting and targeting information
    
  • Extra wording for Power of the Pit, Curse, and Transform

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Fixed weirdness when transforming your opponent (Demon as frog could still cast PoP, and turn RED-side up!)
  
• Made marker chits on opponents a little bit smaller, so the opponent can be seen better (particularly frogs, squirrels and birds!)
  
• Sunday Color Magic is now applied towards energizing permanent spells (watch out for Day 28, Sorceror!)
  
• Switched the default of the checkbox in the spell selector to hide unfinished spells from OFF to ON (every spell type has spells now, so there is no real reason to pick spells from unfinished ones anyway!)
  
• Fixed problem with the "Incomplete Record Warning" (ALWAYS reported incomplete with new BirdSong design)
  
• Removed "Committed" chit indicator from chit panel (Committed chits are always shown on the spell itself)
  
• Added a checkbox to the window that warns the player that an item is inactive and cannot be activated (like a Pony in the Caves) to stop warning you
  
• Fixed the wording in the combat details
  
• Transform or Mist doesn't inactivate inventory (just hides it temporarily)
  
• Fixed Power of the Pit kill behavior when cast by character
  
  • killed participants are removed from battle, but still displayed on combat sheet (set aside)
    
  • Proper fame/notoriety/gold bounty is applied

New version coming today

I finished up some work this weekend to fix a couple of bugs, and add a couple new spells (Persuade, Deal with Goblins), but ran out of time before I could get it online. I need to get it online before tonight, because I have a game planned with some friends, so if you haven't downloaded version 0.21 yet, you might want to wait. Actually, the resource pack wont change this time, so if you get that now, you'll only need to grab 0.22 when I put it up.

Transmorphed Inventory

I mentioned in my release notes, that transmorphed inventory wasn't working yet. I was wrong. In fact, I did write the code to handle transmorphed inventory and gold, and just forgot about it!

Version 0.21 Released

Well, it took me much longer to wrap up this version than expected, but that's not surprising with the holidays going on! I did some major reworking to the action recording stuff, and needed to hammer it hard to guarantee it was working. After all, without the ability to record actions, Magic Realm is a bit broken!

I got to a few new spells and treasures (Timeless Jewel works!!), so there's a lot of new things to try. (Sidenote: the only treasure left to do, is the Eye of the Moon!!!)

I spent a TON of time getting the other two transform spells (Transform, Melt into Mist) going. They still aren't totally finished (still don't transform your inventory and gold), but you can do just about everything else. Transform into an animal, and you can Walk the Woods. Transform into a flying critter, and you can fly. Transform into a Mist, and you can move along any path/passage, and evade combat with ease. It's all there!

Okay, enough horn tooting. Check it out (this is a big one!):

NEW FEATURES:

• Remodeled BirdSong
  
  • Can record any action, whether valid or not (though they are marked in RED as a warning)
    
  • Can select any clearing on the board when doing a move (overkill I admit, but will alleviate the issue where you want to anticipate a tile flipping)
    
  • Can no longer rearrange items, or do any trading (though there is a house rule to cancel this new behavior)
    
  • Items used to gain phases during Birdsong will be reactivated during Daylight when necessary and possible
    
  • Known available actions are shown while you are recording your turn
  
  
• Holding the SHIFT-key down while moving the mouse on the map, will show the "flipside" of the tile the pointer is on (my favorite new feature!)
  
• Holding the SHIFT-key down while moving the mouse on the combat sheet, allows you to view "flipside" of all counters in play (not quite as seamless as the map is, but it works)
  
• Two new warnings (see option menu) to help the player "remember" to assign hirelings during birdsong, and not record a HIRE-MOVE combination
  
• Separated the Druid Optional advantage into two separate options: one for curse immunity, the other for Site summoning. (I did this because I like the curse immunity, but not the lack of Site summoning!)
  
• Added a picture of the die roll, along with the spell of interest, in the ReadRunes dialog, so you know what you rolled
  
• Double-clicking on any character in the character list will bring up a picture of the character card
  
• New checkbox in the Spell Selector (when you first choose a character) to hide unfinished spells
  
• New tile graphics from Dan Evans higher-resolution scans
  
• New spells working:
  
  • Prophecy
    
  • Premonition
    
  • Transform (can walk woods too!)
    
  • Melt-into-Mist
    
    • NOTE: I am aware that the inventory doesn't "transform" like it is supposed to here! I'll get it next time around. For now, enjoy that freedom! :-)
  
  
• New treasures working (only 1 left to go after this: Eye of the Moon)
  
  • Alchemists Mixture
    
  • Dragonfang Necklace
    
  • Timeless Jewel (see Prophecy)
  
  
• Other treasures working in full capacity
  
  • Flying Carpet can now be used in combat to run away, or maneuver
    
  • Crystal Ball can do "Remote Spell" phases
    
  • Amulet can cancel a spell
  
  
• New Options:
  
  • Replaced my Dwarf House Rule with Daniel Farrow's version from the Wiki
    
  • Added the revised "Hamblen Kludge Adjustment" for use with the revised missile table

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Added a house rule option to allow rearranging belongings during birdsong (since this is now illegal with the "standard" rules)
  
• Fixed a long standing memory leak that occurs when you restart a game
  
• Added some manual calls to Java GC (shouldn't be necessary, but does seem to help)
  
• Fixed Pony movement - used to ignore extra MOVE phases when counting the double movement
  
• Fixed horse/pony handling when travelling through caves.
  
• "Discover Chits" results includes a peek at the chits in the tile (if necessary).
  
• Only true characters can be cursed (not hired leaders or controlled monsters)
  
• Only true characters can Read Runes
  
• Flying Carpet is more realistic now: functions like a permanent spell has been cast on it (ie., walking through PURPLE magic will energize the carpet for combat)
  
• Wish for HEALTH no longer rests the chit used to cast it
  
• Fixed gold price for Regent of Jewels: was 8 gold! Now its 67 gold.
  
• Running from combat with a 2* chit, and leaving hirelings behind, no longer costs 1 fatigue every round!
  
• Landing in a cave after flying will no longer allow you to use recorded sunlight phases
  
• Looting Toadstool Circle: get teleported to CAVE, will lose recorded sunlight phases
  
• Fixed a bug where a Power of the Pit die result 1 (Kill Everything in the Clearing) wouldn't kill any characters!
  
• Color sources in a native group's stock, hold do not provide color magic until they have been seen (ie., trading).
  
• If you have the Magic Wand active, all attack spell missile rolls will set the red die to "1" automatically (why would you want anything else?)
  
• Fixed the behavior of Power-of-the-Pit so it works against hirelings, as well as characters.
  
• If you absorb a Demon or Imp, you will be able to cast Power of the Pit or Curse, respectively
  
• Fixed neverending PEACE (Wish result)
  
• Fixed problem with controlling multiple identically-named monsters (most noticeable with Control Bats)
  
• Fixed table selection problem when the list included DEAD characters
  
• Hirelings following a Hired Leader or Controlled Monster no longer vanish when their guide is killed
  
• Fixed the behavior of three potions: Oil of Poison, Ointment of Bite, Penetrating Grease. These potions now properly stay with the weapon they are used on. One other potion (Gripping Dust) already worked this way.

PS - Be sure to download the new resource pack!

Finishing up the Year

The holidays have been a bit busy, so I apologize for the slowness in getting a new release out. I do have a bunch of stuff together, including new tile graphics (replaced my low rez ones with some higher quality images from Dan Evans' website).

The biggest change to note, is a different handling of the action recording stage, which will enable players to anticipate changes that may occur during the day (flipping tiles, encountering color sources, etc.) There's also a cool display of the actions that are available, which makes planning your day a bit more intuitive. The hardest thing for me to get used to, is that you cannot reorganize your things during Birdsong. If you forget to activate your boots during your previous days turn, then you are out of luck gaining that extra move! Because this is hard for me, I've made a house rule which allows you to ignore that bit, and allow reorganization during birdsong. Don't worry, the interface is much more flexible now, and updates dynamically when you move stuff around! For example, you have your Pony activated, and use it to record a move halfway across the board (8 moves). Then you inactivate the Pony. In an instant, the last four moves will turn red, indicating that they are invalid "at present". If you leave them be, and take your turn, the interface will automatically activate your Pony, and continue. If you lost your Pony, then the actions become invalid, and do not happen.

I should have this release together very soon, hopefully before the turn of the new year. I want to do a bit more playtesting to make sure the new stuff I've added works as advertised. In any case, you'll see it here when its ready!

Merry Christmas in the Realm

The Woodsgirl decided to get a few friends together in the woods, to share in some merrymaking. The Woodsfolk and the Elf were quick to accept her invitation, as did the Black Knight (who wasn't really invited, but managed to bully the party location from one of the Guard). The Swordsman brought a very special brew of wine that his own father (so he claims!) made from the finest grapes, found only in the farthest corner of the Realm (an uninteresting tile known as the Wine Valley). Even the Dwarf felt drawn to the celebration, though he was none too pleased to see the Elf (at least as far as his whiskers betrayed him!) The Magician entertained the group by making a few rabbits appear from inside a black bag he had shown previously to be empty, and later turned into colorful bits of paper.

There was at least one uninvited guest watching from a distance, angry to be forgotten. A squirrel, to the untrained eyes, but really the Sorcerer in a magical guise. Though tempted to unleash the fury of a fiery blast apon the group, his transform spell would persist until Midnight, and would keep him silent for the time being. The late arrival of the White Knight with a friend from the Order changes the Sorcerer's mind, and he scampers off to find some nuts (which he is craving most intently!)

Others in the Realm will not arrive at the party. The Witch-King, with a smile most unpleasant, is crafting a plan to foil the merrymaking, and cause harm to many. Some may say it is because his shoes are too tight, or that his head is not screwed on quite right. Because he stares intently at the Woods where the party even now has gotten loud enough to waken a sleeping Troll (the White Knight is clearly enjoying the Wine!), he does not see the tentacles emerging from the Pool...

...and the Captain, who moves quickly through the Realm, has stumbled on the door to the Vault. As he was unable to move with stealth for fear of being late to the party, a Tremendous Troll (known to the locals as Grom the Hungry) has bumbled onto the scene. As the Elf had earlier encountered this very Troll, and removed all of his teeth (seems the Elf has an interest in Dentistry), Grom is rendered fairly ineffective and is easily put aside. The Captain laughs as he carelessly walks past Grom as if he were a large tree stump. Unfortunately, the Captain failed to see Morg, Grom's troll mate, and he is torn asunder. Fresh meat for the twins!

Merry Christmas from the Realm!!

Transform Works!

A recent discussion on the Magic Realm mailing list spurned me into getting the Transform and Melt-into-Mist spells going. Since Absorb Essence is already coded, I was hoping these similar spells wouldn't be too far away. Though there were a couple of complications (you can transform things that are not characters!), I think I've got it together.

I just finished a successful test combat, where I pitted the Witch King agains a Giant. I laughed as cast my transform spell on the poor beast, and it was turned into an.... Eagle. Wait, an Eagle is pretty damned tough. Noooooooo!!!!! The Witch King met his end.

I tried it again, and the Giant turned into a Dragon! Nooooooo!!!!!

Third time's a charm: this time, I decided to Transform the Witch King.... into.... a frog. Nooooooo!!!!

Okay, the Transform spell is cool, and brutal, all at the same time. Now to get "Walking the Woods" working correctly, and I can start thinking about puttin a release together. (I may do Melt-into-Mist too at this time...)

Thanks for being patient!

Slow Progress?

There aren't very many changes to report, so you may wonder what the heck is going on. I've been spending a lot of time redesigning the action interface to allow for recording "anticipatory" type actions. For example, suppose you are the Magician, and you've absorbed a Flying Dragon. During BirdSong, you are planning on walking through a clearing with the Toadstool Circle, so that you can energize the spell, and fly to a neighboring tile. Right now, there is no way to do that.

I'm working on a system now where the action buttons will turn "red" instead of becoming disabled buttons. This will enable you to record actions that are currently invalid, but may change during the turn. It's slow going, because I built a lot of code around preventing you from recording actions when you cannot. I'm making progress, but it may be awhile before the next release.

On an entirely different note, Glenn Pruitt has agreed to let me use his "Alternate Monsters" in RealmSpeak. If you haven't seem them, go to Bryan's Magic Realm page:

http://www.thewinternet.com/magicrealm/

and check out the downloads section (Thanks for putting that online, Bryan!). He's got monster chits and an alternative monster setup sheet to help you get started, if you want to use them with your own boardgame. Thanks Glenn!

Well, I've got a lot of coding to do, and a weekend that is quickly slipping away from me. Back to it!

Version 0.20.1 Released

A quick update to fix (primarily) a problem with attack spells. Seems my change to the logic for fame/notoriety of transmorphed monster heads/clubs broke the attack spell logic. Casting any attack spell with v0.20 will leave you with a frozen game. This version will fix that.

NEW FEATURES:

• New Menu Item in the Help menu: Spur Game. If the game seems to freeze, try selecting this item to "spur the game" back into action

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Fixed problem where attack spells were freezing game (a side effect of fixing the fame/notoriety bug of monster heads!).
  
• Fixed issue where natives would "lose" the ability to lure denizens during combat.

Version 0.20 Released

I'm hoping to play some Magic Realm this weekend, and wanted to get the optional character abilities in place. These are done, along with the last of the character special abilities (Swordsman can "Choose his turn" now).

Also new in this release, is the ability to play RealmSpeak as a local application, instead of a host server. This should enable those of you that have had difficulties with your firewalls to play solitaire games without trouble.

Anyway, here's the official list of changes:

NEW FEATURES:

• Swordsman's special ability to choose when he takes his turn is implemented. Note the new "Postpone Turn" button in the turn panel.
  
• Character Optional Abilities (all optional, of course!):
  
  • Wizard ignores SPX; uses a MAGIC III2* instead of one MOVE M5 chit
    
  • Captain rolls one die for all HIRE rolls
    
  • Woodsgirl uses one die for all HIDE, SEARCH, and MEETING rolls in any Woods Clearing (not just tiles)
    
  • Magician's alerted MAGIC chits don't fatigue at Midnight (become active again)
    
  • Druid doesn't summon monsters from Site chits. Also, immune to curses.
    
  • Elf must choose between Light Elf, or Great Elf. Affects which chits can be played during the game.
  
  
• Advanced Ambush rules (4.2)
  
• Can now run RealmSpeak locally, without connecting to the network. Let's you avoid dealing with your firewall.

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Added a delay to the server's initial connection: hoping this will kill the bug Dan F has been seeing when doing a network game.
  
• Can no longer "Hang Out" between clearings. You MUST move to a clearing on your turn.
  
• Fixed issue where killing a monster with a transformed monster head/club was not scoring any fame or notoriety.
  
• Native group inventory hold radiates magic

Version 0.19 Released

Yes, another release in under a week. Why? Two reasons: a) I didn't want to do a v0.18.1 bug patch (but really needed to), and b) I wanted to release some new spells that were very close to being finished. As such, I feel there is enough new stuff here to warrant a new release number.

In any case, who cares about the numbers!! Here's what's new:

NEW FEATURES:

• New Spells:
  
  • Control Bats
    
  • Guide Spider/Octopus
  
  
• Action Panel is default to "shown" when switching frames during recording actions phase

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Fixed alerted MAGIC chit bug (weren't getting speed zero during combat)
  
• Fixed behavior of Familiar/Phantasm on the board: they no longer cause chits to flip
  
• Transmorphed monsters don't fatigue when looting the CAIRNS
  
• Added a button in the Combat Window for using color chits to energize inert spells (too many people confused about how to do this, so I made it really obvious... I hope!)
  
• Fixed the behavior of turn ordering when the Familiar or Phantasm was in play
  
• Fixed the "sense" of the spell target chooser - added a "Select All" button
  
• Removed the extra image of the incantation chit on the combat sheet for attack spells
  
• Fixed bug where battle would stop after respawining a dead character
  
• Fixed bug where absorbing a Red-Side up monster would crash the game
  
• Fixed bug where combat was not being reset after death

Two Little Bugs

I'm glad there are people who have already tried RealmSpeak! Unfortunately, two bugs have come to light.

The first one is a rule-interpretation bug: The familiar (and phantasm) shouldn't turn chits face up. I didn't know this, but a discussion over at the BGG Forum makes this problem clear.

The second one is a bit more annoying: alerted spell chits don't get the benefit of zero-speed! I likely broke this behavior when I added support for the spell Elvin Grace.

I'm not going to fling out a version 0.18.1 this time. I want to get some other bits in place, and maybe a few more spells, and do a v0.19 release. I'll make these two bugs top priority, but I want to make the download worth your trouble!

Update: I've fixed both of these bugs. I should be able to do a v0.19 release this weekend, provided all goes well with the new spells I'm working on. (Anybody want to try and Persuade me?)

Version 0.18 Released

This is it! I'm calling it the Spellcaster's delight for several reasons:

• Lots of new spells
  
• Fixed all casting bugs from v0.17
  
• Two words: Absorb Essence

I've really given this one a workover, and playtested it more than any previous release. I really wanted this one to be fully playable, unlike v0.17. I'm pretty confident everything is working this time, so give it your best shot!

Oh, important note: You're going to need to download a new resource pack (available in the usual place). Without this, RealmSpeak WILL complain (a new feature), and prevent the game from launching. Why a new resource pack? I added some images to support the Witch's Familiar, the Sorceror's Phantasm, and the future Transform and Melt-into-Mist spells. I'm not doing a patch this time, so you'll need to download the entire 4.5 Megs. If you are running on a modem, and really don't want to do the download, drop me an e-mail, and I'll see what I can do to get you the changed files in a smaller package.

Here's what's new:

NEW FEATURES:

• RealmSpeak now checks for the images folder - if not found, it reports the problem, and exits.
  
• When moving, you can opt to leave behind followers that haven't yet found hidden enemies
  
• Support for Day/Combat/Permanent spells
  
• New Spells:
  
  • Witch's Brew
    
  • Fairie Lights
    
  • Elemental Spirit
    
  • Unleash Power
    
  • Elvin Grace
    
  • Blend into Background
    
  • See Hidden Signs
    
  • Sense Danger
    
  • Absorb Essence
    
  • Dissolve Spell
    
  • Phantasm
    
  • Cancel portion of Remedy works
    
  • Exorcise now kills all spells in the clearing
  
  
• The Witch's familiar is implemented
  
• Replaced the "Give" button with a "Trade" button, for doing 2-way character trading (inventory and gold)

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Fixed problem where doing a PEER ADJACENT CLEARING would use the destination clearing as a reference, rather than your current clearing
  
• Better information in table for "Discover Chits" result on MAGIC SIGHT table
  
• Fixed a new problem from v0.17 where spell casting options were not getting refreshed. (Hopefully the last bug fix from the so-called "optimization")
  
• Fixed a bug where the Witch King was able to MOVE with L inventory
  
• Fixed a problem with the GUI where the Deploy/Charge step was shown every time, regardless of need
  
• Fixed a bug which would crash RealmSpeak when a character was respawned after being stripped of all his/her inventory, and no new inventory was available
  
• Adjusted the length of the Woodfolk HQ Bow from 14 to 16, as per Richard Hamblen's comment on Nand's magic realm site
  
• Fixed a problem where prowling monsters moving to a clearing where a character ended his/her turn were not being blocked.
  
• Fixed a bug where underlings following a hired leader vanish after becoming unhired
  
• Can no longer "peek" at native items during TRADE, and press cancel

Special Note - I gave Absorb Essence a LOT of my time, so its virtually perfect in every way. That said, there are going to be a few rules-issues I'm sure. For one thing, if you record a turn as a character, and stumble through some magic and transform, it will still let you play out your turn as the character. I realize this is wrong, but rather than work on the problem, I decided to let it slide this time. The spell is solid (its not going to crash your game!), and will do what you expect 95% of the time. Try it out and see what you think. I'll get the minor issues worked out in a future release.

Have fun!

Spellcasters Delight

The last release (v0.17) was rather buggy, and severely hampered the spellcaster side of things. So buggy, in fact, that I think most of you have stuck with v0.16, for which I don't blame you. That's what I get for rushing a release!

I'm trying to make that up with v0.18: Lots of new spells (11 at last count), and plenty of playtesting. I played a game tonight with the Witch that went fairly well. The Witch let her familiar explore the tiles ahead of her, while she strolled leisurely through some early treasure site finds. She absorbed a Giant (probably not the best monster to absorb...), and kicked some serious butt. At one point, she faced down both Tremendous Land Dragons, and beat them! I was fairly amazed (and probably really lucky).

I've played the Amazon, Witch-King, Elf, Witch, and Druid with very few bugs to report. I'm very close to wrapping up the last few bugs with Absorb Essence (man that's a fun spell!). I should have v0.18 out in the next couple of days, assuming my evenings aren't totally consumed this week! At the very least, there will be a Sat PM or Sun PM release.

Thanks for all your support, and I hope you will enjoy v0.18!

Absorb Essence

I've got this spell mostly done. You can absorb any monster, move/fly around the board as that monster, fight (clubs and heads included), and let it go inert. Still don't have a way to charge a permanent spell by fatiguing color chits yet, but that wont be very hard to complete.

I had hoped on getting v0.18 out this weekend, but seeing as it is late on Sunday, I doubt this is going to happen. I'm really playtesting this version hard, because I don't want there to be any game-killing bugs this time around. Stay tuned!

Ugly Spell Bug

This bug is soooo ugly, it needs mention here!

When I optimized the combat portion of RealmSpeak, I opted to "reuse" the combat frame, rather than spawn a new one each time. Because of this, I need to reset some of the parameters each time it is reused. Unfortunately, I forgot to reset one of the parameters, and its causing some rather unpleasant game play.

When you cast a spell for the first time, you'll get a realistic set of spell options: spells to cast, chits to use, etc. Unfortunately, these same set of spell options come up each after that, for every magic user in the game! Yes, you keep seeing the same spell, and same chits each time. (sigh)

This problem has been fixed in v0.18, and is quite possibly the last major bug from my optimization work. I do apologize to those of you who have been encountering this problem, but this is the very nature of a program that is a "work in progress". I try very hard to get working versions out, but the last several releases have been a bit buggy. Hopefully v0.18 will be more stable, and enjoyable to play.

As a follow-up to my previous post, I did finish "Absorb Essence". I'm still juggling what to work on next, but my short list looks like this:

• Enchant Artifact
  
• Absorb Essence
  
• Broomstick
  
• Control Bats

No promises yet though!

Minions

That's what I decided to call the critters that are controlled exclusively by a particular character. This includes the Witch's familiar, and the Day spell Phantasm. Both of these are finished, and will be included in v0.18. I even made some new icons for these two things, so this means a new resource pack will become available to go with it.

Side Note: I've never really used the familiar or phantasm in any live games. They were always such a pain to deal with, that I often neglected or forgot to use them, and they were wasted. In RealmSpeak, its a cinch to record actions for both, so I can see how these abilities are useful! I even played the Sorceror with multiple Phantasm spells. This is a cool way for the Sorceror to scout out territory!

I'm finishing up the spell "Unleash Power", and thinking about turning my attention towards "Absorb Essence", and "Broomstick". Yes, v0.18 is going to be a Witch's delight!

Long Duration Spells Working

I finally got some time this evening to work up some longer duration spells: Day, Combat, and (drum roll please) Permanent spells. That is to say, the logic is in place. I've worked up a few spells, with many more to follow very soon. Here is what I got so far:

• Witch's Brew
  
• Fairie Lights
  
• Elemental Spirit
  
• See Hidden Signs
  
• Sense Danger
  
• Blend into Background

Sense Danger is the only Permanent spell so far, but it works correctly: it goes into effect during the evening, it goes inert at midnight, and reenergizes as soon as it is in the presence of Purple magic. I don't have the logic in for energizing an inert spell with a magic chit yet, but probably will before version 0.18 is released.

How many total spells yet to do? I counted 30 (damn this game has a lot of spells!), so I've still got my work cut out for me! Version 0.18 will definitely pack a punch!

Version 0.17.1 Released

Okay, let's try this again! I played a v0.17 game last night with a friend of mine, and everything went well until we hit our first combat. Though I had never seen any in-game combat problems before, the !@#$ hit the fan when there were multiple players. Suddenly, we were deluged with 1-4 combat windows at once, and stages were getting skipped left and right. It got to a point, where combat stopped, and hung altogether. Bad news!

Looking into the code this morning, I had realized I made a dumb mistake. I had forgotten to take out a line of code I put in for some firewall testing, and it caused everything I had worked so hard to get right, to fall apart. I removed the line of code, made a couple of tweaks (I noticed during our game, that it was no longer describing the combat stages in the player list window), and tried it again with our save game from last night. Looks good this time, and nothing freaky going on.

I sincerely apologize to those of you that downloaded v0.17 and have to redownload v0.17.1. I took the link down as soon as I saw the problem, but I know it was too late for some of you. At least its not that big of a file to download (assuming you are on cable/DSL).

Just a few things, but they are worth mentioning:

• Fixed display of character status during combat (was only showing "In Combat"!!)
  
• Fixed multiple combat frame spawning (this is THE reason for breaking the link online!)
  
• Added a new menu item to restore games from the autosave file

Jumping the Gun

I may have jumped the gun with the v0.17 release. I tried playing an online game last night, and we ran into a game killing bug (happens during combat). Before too many people did the download, I decided to break the link. If you've tried to download, you have probably noticed the broken link by now. If you managed to get it before I did that, I recommend tossing it, and rolling back to version 0.16.1.

I'm really sorry about that! I did the release so my friend could get it, and we could play. I'm going to see if I can fix it today (not a lot of time today though....) and get it back online.

Version 0.17 Released

I put a lot of effort into this release to get all the little bugs surrounding natives and hired leaders resolved. I also did some optimization work, to resolve some issues with speed (see this entry).

Finally, I added a bunch of options to the Option Menu, and made these options persist from game to game. Yes, that means you won't have to tweak these anymore! Once you get them where you like, they should stay until you change them. This includes the location of your last load/save file (some of you, I know, will rejoice!)

I'm playing a game online tonight, so hopefully I'll hit any game killing bugs before you do. I've got my fingers crossed that v0.17 isn't a repeat of v0.16, where I seemed to break everything!!

Okay, here's what you are getting this time around:

NEW FEATURES:

• Warning if you press send before recording all your phases (option can be turned off)
  
• Menu options to set default "Daily Combat" setting for each new character
  
• Menu options to turn warnings off (heavy inventory, incomplete phases)
  
• Menu options and frame size are "remembered" from game to game
  
• Last Save folder for RealmSpeak is "remembered" from game to game
  
• Button in character chooser to select a random character

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Several speed optimizations
  
• Fixed bug where combat would sometimes "hang" when there were a lot of participants
  
• Character curses are now reset after death
  
• Magic chit effort is calculated correctly again (alerted AND non-alerted)
  
• Character token on frame doesn't appear "green" anymore when loading a game where the character is hidden
  
• Can unalert a weapon in combat (why? Example: Pilgrim with alerted mace speed 3, might want to use FIGHT M2 chit!)
  
• Reading Runes on Book with all spells awakened, allows a choice of spell to learn
  
• Stumble rolls now include the number of attackers
  
• Change Tactics roll not done on boxes containing ONLY Tremendous monsters or native horses
  
• Clarified INSULT and CHALLENGE result windows to identify the natives and character affected
  
• Fixed problem where a monster with a weapon was being counted as TWO attackers, and thwarting automatic assignments
  
• Fixed issue where monster and weapon/head were getting repositioned into the same box
  
• Fixed issue where unhired natives could be placed in the same box with their horse
  
• Hirelings following a hired leader are used in combat
  
• If you run from combat with hirelings, the hirelings will finish the battle.
  
• "Show Card" button is disabled on hired leader frames
  
• Cancel illegal MOVEs without blocking character turn
  
• Can FOLLOW a hired leader now
  
• Hired Leaders can no longer drop their horses in the clearing!!
  
• Shows interactive character when combat windows are displayed (guarantees correct character is shown when asked to buy drinks for natives)
  
• Suicide and Transfer buttons are not enabled on on Hired Leaders
  
• Tweaked the positioning stage a bit:
  
  • You position your own hirelings on any sheet
    
  • You position denizens only on your own sheets
    
  • For monster sheets, the monster's target gets to move denizens
    
  • You NEVER position hirelings that aren't your own

RealmSpeak Optimization

I spent some time this weekend working to optimize RealmSpeak. The reason for this, is that some people had reported having problems with 5 or more characters. As a test, I set up a game with all 16 characters, and RealmSpeak slowed to a crawl. The first combat to appear, caused the whole game to crash. Bummer!

Since the whole point of RealmSpeak is to allow any number of players to join, I really needed to get this fixed. After playing around with some code profilers, I was finally able to locate some of the problem code. I'm happy to say, that RealmSpeak is flying at about 3-times the speed it used to, and this is good for everyone, even if you are only playing a couple characters!

During this stage of coding, I also located and removed a bug that would sometimes cause RealmSpeak to hang during combat. A number of you have reported this behavior, and though the autosave allows you to quit and restart where you left off, it wasn't a desirable thing to do. I can hardly wait to get v0.17 out (this weekend, for sure), and see how this works for everyone.

Oh, I retried the 16 character game... and it worked normally! Yes, it was a pain clicking endlessly through all the stages, but they are fast now, and combat doesn't hang. Wheee!!

Now maybe I can start knocking those bugs off the bug tracker!