Version 0.48 Released

The first thing you'll notice about this release, is the large number of bug fixes. I wanted to knock the bug tracker issues down to a manageable level, focusing on some of the oldest bugs. Some of you may remember posting these issues more than (gasp) a year ago! I apologize for taking so long to get to them, but that's just how things go when you are a single programmer.

I redid the character list window interface a little bit. You'll notice the change immediately with the presence of a lot of new little buttons. Don't worry, the log button is still in the same place (I took some heat for moving that one last time). Mostly this affects the host, but if you only play solitaire anyway, this is you. I'm not going to explain them in great detail here, because I think you'll figure them out quickly enough. If my icons leave you baffled, hold your mouse cursor over the button for a couple of seconds, and and explanation should appear.



During my last online game, one player suggested that there be a popup calendar, so that he could plan for a certain type of color. This is especially true with Seasons in play, because the 7th day color changes every month. The calendar button on the character list window (3rd button in from the left, in the image above) replaces the season icon that used to adorn the individual character windows. I think you'll like the change.



Lots of other nice goodies to talk about here, but I gotta get my act together for a game starting at 9:00 pm tonight. Just take a look at what's new:

NEW FEATURES:

• [133] - Riding Horses Optional rule implemented
  
• [134],[135] - Horses in combat, Optional rules implemented
  
• [136] - Penetrating Armor Optional rules implemented
  
• [844] - New Calendar window (thanks Dave S for the great idea!)
  
  • Shows the current day from the perspective of an entire month
    
  • Shows all the 7th day colors
    
  • Season (if any) and weather (if any) are shown, and a detail button allows access to more information about the displayed month.
    
  • Some notes on specific days to identify when:
    
    • Weather changes
      
    • Denizens reset
    
    
  • If playing with seasons, you can step through the months to see what is coming
    
  • Since this button is on the character list window, you can check the season (when using random seasons) before picking a character
  
  
• Iconized the buttons on the character list control for easier layout
  
• Many Modal Dialogs converted to Frames (will reduce the likelihood of a game freeze due to a locked window state)
  
  • Treasure Setup Card View
    
  • Character Card View
    
  • [852] - Transform and Weather dialogs
    
  • Any of the "VIEW TABLES"
    
  • View Remodeled Counters
    
  • Memory window
    
  • About window
    
  • View Hall of Fame
  
  
• Experimental feature in combat frame to "Lock" the Next button
  
  • Allows you to lock any of your own characters out of combat
    
  • This feature can only be activated if the "End" button is enabled (ie., there are no angry denizens in your clearing)
    
  • Spellcasters don't have to wait for other players to press next
    
  • Pressing END only confirms with the non-locked characters
    
  • Currently, there is no way to undo the lock for a given combat, so don't activate it unless you really want out
    
  • Use this as a convenience, not as a way out of trouble! If there are hostile characters in the clearing, locking your next button is the surest way to die.
    
  • Cannot lock ALL characters. The last character must either play the combat through, or press END.
  
  
• [633] - New House rule must be turned on for results of looting and reading runes to appear in the log (which is visible to all players)
  
  • If it is turned off (default), the log simply shows "Found Treasure" or "Learned a Spell".
    
  • Enchanted cards, sites, the Mouldy Skeleton and Remains of Thief are always revealed, as per the rules.
  
  
• [633] - Double-clicking on a character in the list will now bring up a display that allows you to spy on:
  
  • Character Card
    
  • Fame/Notoriety
    
  • Current state of chits
    
  • Activated Inventory
    
  • Current relationships

BUGS/ISSUES:

• [836] - Fixed an issue with double prowling (from Solitaire rules)
  
• [835] - Don't show the "Decline Opportunity" dialog when simply rolling for native block/battle in the Evening.
  
• [765] - Fixed a harmless warning message, when a flying character follows another character.
  
• [756] - Fixed a rare bug that happens with Watchful Natives, and the Wish I Was Elsewhere result
  
• [840] - Fixed another Absorb Essence problem, that was allowing controlled denizens from continuing to battle an absorbed monster
  
• Combat log is now cleared between battle simulations
  
• [838] - Fixed another harmless bug, that happens when you exit the map, and press the Reveal All button.
  
• Fixed a problem with Premonition spell lasting beyond its expiration
  
• Shuffled some spell activation to the host, where they are less likely to crash the game.
  
• [842] - Fixed a problem with weather fatigue and the Witch's familiar
  
• Better reporting of fumble logic and meeting rolls in the log
  
• Bunch of Wish You Were Elsewhere result fixes:
  
  • [755] - can no longer select a horse in the clearing
    
  • [851] - no longer carries all following hirelings with you
    
  • [849] - no longer includes yourself in the possible choices
    
  • [850] - hirelings which teleport to dwellings on the board, will not become unhired
  
  
• [805] - Swordsman (or Premonition spell) will no longer allow you to take a turn between the Witch and her familiar.
  
• [771] - Killing the last Giant Bat in the same round you take control of it no longer ties up your spell (and chit) for the following day.
  
• [290] - Hirelings and Red-Side Monster combat issues fixed
  
  • [847] - Deploying a native to a RED-side T Monster on another native sheet, causes the T Monster to move to its own sheet
    
  • [848] - Natives attacking a RED-side T Monster, that aren't its target, will disengage properly now.
    
  • [557] - Natives deploying to a RED-side T Monster on another native sheet that also has randomly assigned monsters will work correctly now.
    
  • Hirelings locked in combat with a RED-side T Monster can no longer deploy to another monster
  
  
• [846] - Monsters moving to a clearing will properly block ALL the unhidden characters, not just the first one.
  
• [845] - Native relationships are handled properly now for multiple boards
  
  • Soldiers B are a completely different group than Soldiers A for purposes of affecting relationships
    
  • Missions from Board B affect only natives from Board B, and so on.
  
  
• [644] - Characters that restart will get a fresh slate with the natives.
  
• [416] - When you fly to a tile, and record a non-fly action, the character token is moved to the clearing immediately so you can decide what to do.
  
• [462] - If you transform after recording phases gained by activated treasure items, those items will no longer be automatically activated, and the phases will be cancelled.
  
• [689] - Activated items that become inactivated due to a transmorphing spell, will return to active state when the spell goes inert.
  
• Character option panel shows the full name of the character, including board identifier (B,C,D)
  
• Natives with Board Identifier properly show # now. (Was showing RB for all, instead of RHQ, R1, R2, R3, etc)
  
• Non-hostile attack spell placement is no longer invisible to the other players

Luring versus Deployment

Magic Realm is a game that is both very complicated to learn, and very rich in detail. The strategies we use to get the best score vary from character to character, and often from game to game. You never know where you'll find the next treasure site, or if it will be in a cave or a mountain. You can't be sure that you'll ever encounter the tremendous flying dragon, or find the motherlode of goodies in the Hoard. If you are lucky enough to find one of the magic swords, you can change your course in the game from being a lowly peasant, to being the king of the realm, but then only if you know how to wield it in combat.

That's what it all comes down to: combat in the realm. If you don't know how to handle yourself when besieged by monsters, you will die before you even make it through the week. If you are smart and/or lucky enough to have hirelings, you may be able to survive even longer, especially if you know how to use them. In a recent discussion on the Magic Realm mail group (see http://wolff.to/mr/ for joining information), the strategy behind luring and deploying was dissected, and I thought it would be worth bringing forth here.

The luring stage comes before the deploy stage, and the end result is similar: your hireling is battling a monster on a separate combat sheet. What really differentiates these two actions, is what happens during battle resolution. A hireling that lures a denizen, gets to choose its side and position and will not be affected by random placement or changing tactics. This can be very important if your hireling has a definite power attack on one side. The most dramatic example of this is an archer, who has no attack on one side, and a speed 1 attack on the other. If you lure with an archer, you are guaranteed to at least undercut the lured opponent, and score a hit. If you deploy an archer, you lose that control, and the archer even has a chance to "change tactics" (ie., flip) and become virtually worthless for one round of combat.

Why then would you ever deploy? Where luring only allows a hireling to bring one denizen onto his sheet, deploying enables you to pile your hirelings onto a denizen's sheet, and better your chances of getting the kill. It's true that you cannot guarantee where they will end up during battle resolution, or even which side they will be on, but the numbers are in your favor. Remember that when you deploy, the LAST attacker on the denizen sheet, is the TARGET of that denizen.

If you are playing by yourself, this enables you great control over how the hirelings will lay out on the sheet, and lets you choose which hapless hireling will be the target. However, playing with multiple people can definitely mess things up a bit. You might lure with your archer, assuring a kill, but then lose the advantage when another player deploys his hireling assassin to your target. What happens in this case? The target moves to its own sheet, with the assassin as the first attacker. The luring archer is now added as the second attacker, and the target of the denizen. Not only is your archer a target of the original lured denizen, but his position and tactics are randomized, limiting its effectiveness! (Thanks Vincent for pointing this out!)

If you are confused about the comings and goings of luring and deployment, this example (provided by Vincent on the discussion group) does a good job of bringing it all together:

• A lures monster
  
  • Monster moves to A's sheet, A is the defender.
  
  
• B is deployed against monster
  
  • Monster moves to its own sheet with B as the target
    
  • A is now alone, so A moves to Monster's sheet
    
  • Monster switches to targeting A since A was the last to enter his sheet.
  
  
• C is deployed against monster
  
  • Monster targets C since C was the last to enter his sheet.

In summary, lure when you want to have control over your hireling, deploy when you want multiple attackers against a single denizen. When playing with others, watch out for luring/deployment combinations that might change your battle plans.

Update - I just got this note from Steve M:

But there is another obvious reason to deploy rather than lure. You can only lure unhired denizens. If you want to attack a character or another hired denizen with your hired Rogue, you've got to deploy!

Friday's Game

I promised I would get a report online, to let you know how version 0.47 worked for us, but then I got sidetracked with a lot of other things this weekend.

We started at about 9:00pm, and selected a double-board, with player build option turned on. We also had random starting season, and weather active. With three of us placing 40 tiles, it took somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 minutes to setup the board, but it was worth it. We ended up with a board that concentrated treasure tiles in the middle, and woods/valleys around the border. I did end up with a bunch of errors going into the log, but they were harmless, as they didn't affect the process at all.

I saved the game immediately (in case something crashed), and then we began choosing characters. I always press "Random Character", because it keeps me from playing the same thing every game. I got the White Knight, and I realized that I hadn't played this character in a very long time. I selected Make Whole as my spell, and started at the Inn, knowing that's where I'd find my friends. George started with the Black Knight, and my friend Dave picked up the Magician. The season started with Halloween.

The first turn found the two Knights hiking into the Mountains to scope out the treasure possibilities (of which there were none), leaving the Magician behind to chat with the Rogues. He was able to hire two short-swordsman, and catch up with the Knights in the woods beyond the Mountains.

As a group again, they had a choice: explore the Caves to the north, or continue west into the Borderland tile. Both choices required entering caves, so it was agreed that checking out the Caves first was the best option, since it really connected to nothing else, and would be good to get out of the way. Both Knights followed the Magician, so they could take advantage of his bonus Alert phase, and moved into the Caves. Nothing, and another wasted turn.

After a short bout of cursing, the party turned around, and using the same follow strategy, moved into the Borderland. At last, the group found a treasure site: the Altar. The Magician, knowing that he had the Absorb Essence spell, and a day filled with color magic coming up (Halloween is EVERY color on the 7th day), rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

The first treasure discovered, was a site: Toadstool Circle. A permanent source of BLACK magic, and an evil temptation for all players. After fending off a couple of heavy Trolls, and some pretty fruitless looting, the Demon finally makes his appearance. As I mention, in an earlier post, the Absorb Essence spell was broken, so we were forced to dispatch the Demon with brawn and steel.

As the Altar was not proving very valuable, the White Knight decided to roll the dice on searching the Toadstool Circle. First roll, he is teleported to any cave. Rather than making a smart choice, and choosing a cave in the same tile, he decided to explore the adjacent Borderland B tile. Having neither alerted a weapon, nor hidden, the two Heavy Trolls that appeared were more than a little concerning for the White Knight. The Magician, knowing precisely what happened, searched the Toadstool Circle, and actually got the same result right away. He popped over to the same Cave clearing with the White Knight, and assisted him in the combat. Both Heavy Trolls were dispatched fairly quickly, and the Knight having suffered no damage, and just a little fatigue, was pretty happy.

The Black Knight, having been left behind (and unable to locate the Toadstool Circle) decided to reunite with the party on foot, in the Ruins tile just South of the two Borderland tiles. As all three members convened in the same clearing (hidden), the Lost City made an appearance, and brought with it, the Lair, Hoard, and the Vault. Thanks to a monster die roll of four, it also brought two Tremendous Trolls, which immediately moved to our clearing. Damn!

The mismatched trio decided it was best to escape the situation, and plan a course of action. All three moved into a nearby woods clearing...

... and that's where we stopped. It was getting late, and at least two of us had early days on Saturday. Not to mention the fact that the computer I was playing on is in our bedroom, and my Wife was trying to sleep. I knew I should have used the laptop!!

Anyway, I think we only had a couple of technical problems. The Combat Frame messed up on one of the players, and we had to restart. The second time it happened, the affected player had been looking at the Treasure Setup card, and simply had to "find" that window (ALT-TAB), close it, and then all was well. I'm convinced that at least 70% of the so-called game freezes are due to this kind of problem. I'm hoping to get rid of most of the modal dialogs in RealmSpeak, so this should happen less and less.

I'm very pleased that the manual board builder worked without a hitch. If you haven't been using it because of the past problems, I think you can safely try it now.

Well, that's all I got. We'll pick up our game next week, and I'll let you know how it goes.

Version 0.47.1 Bugfix Released

I'm probably going to regret doing this one so quickly, but I really wanted to get this done, and enjoy the rest of my Father's Day.

Here's what's new:

BUGS/ISSUES:

• [834] - Absorb Essence bug introduced in 0.47 fixed.
  
• [830],[832] - Witch can enter the board with her familiar now (Solitaire Rules)
  
• Fixed a bug in the Suggest Action AI, that would throw an error if you don't have a weapon, or are transmorphed.

Absorb Essence Broken in 0.47

I played a game on Friday with a double-board, and all went pretty well, except for a one thing: Absorb Essence is broken.

The White Knight, Black Knight, and Magician were looting the Altar. To the Magician's pleasant surprise, the Toadstool Circle appeared, bathing the party in the sickly glow of BLACK magic. Why would the Magician care? Because he chose Absorb Essence as one of his spells, of course! After dispatching a couple of Heavy Trolls, the Demon appeared. The Magician grinned an evil grin, and the two Knights stepped back to let him do his work... but things didn't go as planned.

The Magician lured the Demon onto his own sheet, knowing that the Demon's speed of 4 was equally matched to his sole MAGIC V4** chit. He cast his spell, targeted the demon, and in a flash of lightning, and maniacal laughter.... the Demon became unassigned.

That's it? No transformation? No Magician/Demon to protect the Knights? Augh!! It it weren't for the Magician's loyal Rogue servants, the Demon might have taken us all down - it did manage to hit the Magician with a FORGET result, but the White Knight was able to counter with "Make Whole". One of the Rogue's managed to line up with the RED-side demon, and take it down before it killed the other Rogue. Freaking amazing!

So, it's true. This spell is broken, and I suspect Transform is too. As this spell is pretty important to a lot of people, I want to recommend that you all wait for a bug fix, coming later today, or maybe tomorrow. There's a couple of other bugs I can fix related to the new Solitaire rules, so that will make it worth it. If you've already downloaded v0.47, just stay away from the transmorphing spells, and you should be good.

Version 0.47 Released

Already, you ask? Yes, though there isn't a ton of new stuff here... well, there is a lot... I wanted to get this online for my game tonight. I'm hoping that we'll be able to play a double-board game, built by the players, with seasons and weather. You might want to wait until I can post a report on how the game goes before downloading the latest release.

Double board game. I've never really played with a double-board, even though this feature has been in RealmSpeak as "experimental" for quite a few releases. Part of the reason, is because it had so many issues. I think the last release (v0.46) resolved about 80% of the problems, and this release will do away with another 15% or so. There are still some minor nits (see the bug tracker for more info), but mostly its working pretty danged well. Once the logic was in place for 2 boards, taking it out to 3 or 4 boards was as simple as adding a slider to the setup panel. That said, I imagine you are going to run out of memory pretty quickly with a quad-board, but you can give it a try if you like.

Yes, I mentioned that we would be building our own board tonight. If you've ever tried this feature in RealmSpeak, you know that it has had problems: chits appearing off-board, game freeze when building online, failure to save the board. I worked on this part pretty hard, because I really think this feature is essential to Magic Realm. Looking back at a review I wrote at BoardGameGeek.com some time back, I suggest that building the board is "quite fun", so it makes sense to get this piece working right, at long last. At least one recent e-mailer will be happy to see this.

Oh, I made a neat change to the way the Magic Wand works. Normally, when you have this treasure item active, and you roll on a spell table (Curse, Wish, PoP, etc), a dialog with 6 faces of the RED die pops up, and asks you to choose one. Unless you have all the tables memorized, this task is pretty daunting, and can often have you choose the result that will get you killed. Now, when this dialog pops up, it will include an image of the table, so you can use it to decide what you will do. I can't tell you how nice this is.

Finally, I added a bunch of code to the "Suggest Action" button, added into the combat frame in the last release. Though its still not complete, and will not always give you the BEST advice, I think it does a pretty good job of guiding you in the right direction. If you have a new player joining you in a game, teach them to press this button often.

Okay, I gotta game coming up in 40 minutes, so I'd better tell you what's new:

NEW FEATURES:

• Player Board Builder is fully working (see bugs below) - I know I've said this before, but it really is working now. Give it a try!
  
• Changed "Double Board" feature into an expandable "Multi Board", allowing up to 4 boards to be in play at once (OMG!!)
  
  • I haven't playtested anything beyond a double board except to see the map, but it should work
    
  • The only real issues are memory and speed
    
    • I might need to bump the memory allocation in the batch file for boards larger than 2 (even 2 is pushing the limit!)
      
    • You will notice that the game startup is slower, but overall, things should run normally
    
    
  • Notice the different chit renderings for Board B, C, and D.
    
  • Quad boards might make for good multi-month games (someday, character development games)
    
  • I did get an OutOfMemory error trying out the 3 board game, so maybe its not quite ready for prime time... If I can figure out a better way to handle the board memory...
  
  
• [442] - Solitaire Play Options (see new "Expanding the Realm" tab)
  
  • Two rows of monsters prowling (instead of one)
    
  • Dwellings not revealed at the beginning: discovered like campfires
    
  • Start the game by entering from a map edge
  
  
• [351] - You can move off board to exit the game now
  
• More work on the "Suggest Action" button in combat, now has suggestions for:
  
  • Luring
    
  • Deploy/Charge
    
  • Attack Spells
    
  • Alerting Weapons (existed previously)
    
  • Assigning Targets
    
  • Playing Maneuvers

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Removed some harmless debug code that ends up in the error log for every game.
  
• Fixed all the issues with the manual board builder:
  
  • [706],[823] - Clearing locations are no longer messed up after board completion
    
  • [700] - When a game is saved right after building a map, and then reloaded, the start game is properly shown, instead of the build map button
    
  • Fixed the issues with building a map in an online game
  
  
• [414] - FLY activity requires that untransmorphed horses are left behind (see 2nd ed 47.2/3). This works now.
  
• [743] - You can activate PHASE chits (ie., Protection from Magic) in combat now
  
• [826] - Chapels from other boards will properly cure curses at midnight now
  
• [813] - Transmorphing with a color chit negates any spell casting you may done during the same actions phase.
  
• Play Color Chit triggers the reset button now
  
• [504] - You can be blocked after a BLANK phase now
  
• [760] - You can activate items before bonus phases when using Timeless Jewel now.
  
• [419] - New "Land Now" button in the turn interface will enable flying Timeless Jewel users to land before they perform further actions.
  
• Added the "Die Roll" to the popup season/weather dialog, so you can tell better what happened to change the weather, or interpret the weather chit.
  
• When using the Magic Wand to affect a spell table, the actual table is shown to aid you in choosing what you want to happen (ie., Power of the Pit)
  
• [828] - Summoning logic with double boards is fixed. Monsters/Natives will summon properly now.

Why Ask Demon?

I got this in my e-mail today:

How does "Ask Demon" work in Realmspeak? Seems to me that this would be pretty hard to replicate in an online game. Surely you could just replicate the effect by asking your opponent via TeamSpeak the question? And how does it work single-player?

Good questions!! Basically, it works like any spell. You cast it during the actions phase, and during the assign targets phase, you specify a Demon, a player (by name), and a question. There is no logic preventing you from asking whatever you want, but it does remind you that you must ask a yes/no question about the past or present, or a question that requires a number response.

Once the spell is energized, the targeted player gets a dialog that looks like this:



Really, they have three options, and three options only. Once the target player responds, the casting player will get a simple dialog with the answer (ie., Dave responded YES). Simple.

Why not just throw up a dialog that says "Hey, you cast Ask Demon, so go ahead and ask your question to the person you want to ask..." Well, for a couple of reasons. First, if you use voice to ask the question, then there is no easy way to make it private. Everyone will hear the question, and everyone will hear the answer. I think that kind of defeats the purpose of the spell, as it is supposed to be a SECRET communication. Now I know that TeamSpeak has the capability of sending private text, or alternatively, you could use MSN or IM or whatever, but then you have to hope that everyone has the right software, and/or knows how to do it. I'd rather just let RealmSpeak handle the busy work, and let the players play.

Regarding single-player: when it comes up with player names during the assign target phase, it filters out your own name. If you are playing alone, the interface will recognize this, and report that there are no valid targets. After all, why would you risk a confrontation with a demon to ask yourself a question? :)

Honestly, I've never used this spell before either, so I don't really understand its utility. I suppose if you were playing a referee'd championship game, and needed to know something important (ie., do you have the Flying Carpet?), it could mean the difference between winning and losing. That's hypothetical, of course, but you get my drift.

If no-one actually uses this spell, why work on it at all? I wasn't going to, but then, why leave just one spell unfinished? I want to someday make the claim that RealmSpeak is "finished", and without tackling every last spell, this is something I wouldn't be able to do.

Version 0.46 Released

This is a pretty nice build. I figured it was time to get a boatload of features into a release, especially since the last couple of releases have had a fairly small amount of "obvious" changes.

First, I thought I'd tackle all the "mean" spells: the spells you would only use if you were playing competitively, and wanted to mess up another character. Basically, this is Fog, Illusion, Bad Luck, Lost, and Violent Storm. Rather than taking a long time to do, I got through them fairly quickly, and realized I only had three spells left to do. I was thinking how cool it would be to have them all done, and decided to go for it.

Anyway, with that out of the way, I started hitting the bug list pretty hard. It has grown past 100 issues, and I really hate that. Also, some older issues needed some attention, so I just kept going until I reached a point where I was comfortable (just barely under 100).

I added a new button to the combat interface, that I'm planning a lot of work on in the near future: "Suggest Action". The idea is that you can press this button at any point during combat, and a little bit of AI determines what your best course of action might be. My thinking here is not that it would be so smart, that you could hone your strategy, but rather be a tool for new players to get a feel of the game without having to understand it all at once. I've played a few online games where new players get completely lost, and it would nice to just tell them to press the "Suggest Action" button. Right now, I think the only place where it actually does anything, is during the Actions phase, and then only if you have an unalerted weapon (can you guess what the advice is?)

Okay, I could blather on forever here, but YOU just want to know what's new:

NEW FEATURES:

• All spells are finished! New in this release:
  
  • Fog
    
  • Illusion
    
  • Bad Luck
    
  • Lost
    
  • Violent Storm
    
  • Hurricane Winds
    
  • Peace
    
  • Ask Demon
  
  
• Spells affecting individual tiles (like Fog and Lost) are shown on the tile itself, and in the mouseover. There is an option in the "right-click" menu to turn these indicators off, if desired.
  
• New "Suggest Action" feature in combat (VERY alpha right now)
  
• [742] - Added a check for character attack placement, so that you wont forget to do this, and get yourself killed!
  
• [479] - A new house rule to allow you to decline an OPPORTUNITY roll on MEETING/COMMERCE, and instead take the result of rolling a 2 on the same table.
  
• Ability to save a combat while doing combat in the battle simulator. This allows you to setup a situation, play a round to get things into position, and then save that point in time.
  
• Added log button back to main character panel - I should have never removed it

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Fixed a problem with Enchant Artifact not removing the added spell when INERT
  
• You are properly able to use multiple magic types (like from Enchant Artifact) on an artifact now
  
• [794] - Fixed an issue with Transform causing the appearance of a game freeze.
  
• [294],[795] - Fixed a problem where a magic user killing an opponent with a spell, and then getting killed himself, would cause combat to freeze.
  
• [494],[733] - Fixed a problem where Transform was taking natives out of combat
  
• [494],[698] - Fixed a problem where deploying a native to an unassigned denizen, and then pressing cancel, was causing the denizen to vanish
  
• Fixed a gnarly bug that killed my last online game - involves using a transmorphing spell from an artifact while carrying another artifact with an active permanent spell on it
  
• [711] - Heads/Clubs will show light-side up when a monster is killed and regenerates
  
• [539] - Hirelings following HQ will properly be counted when buying drinks
  
• [714] - Character that fatigues when running will properly extend combat for those left behind
  
• [817] - Fixed a harmless exception that is sometimes generated when you quit a game
  
• [757] - Fixed the PEACE wish result from affecting the entire tile: now it properly affects only a single clearing
  
• [516] - Day actions no longer lost when saving/reloading.
  
• [816] - Reveal All button goes away after extending game.
  
• [815] - Don't assign VPs to hired leaders when extending game.
  
• [770] - Double board discoveries will no longer cross boards
  
• [693] - Double board treasures/spells/chits are appropriately mixed across both boards.

Fixing a TeamSpeak echo problem

TeamSpeak is a great tool for playing games online. The only problem, is that sometimes, somebody joins the group, and causes an echo. The problem IS solvable, but it isn't always obvious how to do it. Here's a short article from the TeamSpeak FAQ on at least one way to fix the problem:

http://www.goteamspeak.com/index.php?page=faq

Q: My mates tell me I produce echos. How to fix?

A: There basicly are two ways echos can occur:

a)   Sound from your speakers/headphones being recorded by your microphone.
b)   Your sound driver recording all sound that you hear for you.

Now, 'which one do I have' you might be asking yourself... You can find out quite easily: Just turn your speakers/headsets off (volume = 0%), and ask your mates if you are still echoing. If you are not, you got (a); if you are still echoing you have (b).

Fixing (a):

This type of echo is nearly impossible to fix completely, but you can minimize it greatly if you follow a few general points:

* Switch your speakers off when TeamSpeak is on, use a headset to hear.
* Use headphones that shield well, meaning they prevent as much sound as possible from being audible to the outside.
* Try and keep your microphone as far away as possible from the headset (or more general, the sound-source).
* Lower the volume of the sound-source.

Fixing (b):

These echos are produced by your sound-drivers, they should be configurable by your driver too (its not a bug, its a feature). From windows users we have often heard you can select from which devices to record in the mixer (a mixer is the place where you can slide all these volume controls). Make sure the microphone is the only entry that is being recorded from. How exactly this is called, and where exactly you can find it depends on your driver/OS combination, you just have to search around. Good luck.

Hope this helps!

Stable Release

I feel like its worth mentioning that version 0.45 is sweeeeeet. :)

I played a game last night from 9pm until 1:30am, and with the exception of one person having to quit and restart due to a gray screen, the game played flawlessly. One big success is the fact that the trade interface worked without freezing up even once! As those of you that have played this game online know, this has been a pervasive problem for a long time.

The speed of the interface online is hugely improved. I promise that you will notice a difference, especially during combat. Because it is so much faster, the combat screen doesn't blink anymore. When you press NEXT, the screen is repainted instantly. I can't tell you how nice that is.

I got to try out the Enchant Artifact spell in a real game, and it was pretty nice. After dying once with the Black Knight (stupid axe goblins!), I decided to play the Sorceror. I selected Enchant Artifact, Fiery Blast, and Lightning as my starting spells. One of the first things that I did, was team up with the Great Elf at the house, and with two alerted IV chits, killed all the soldiers. Looting the house afterwards revealed the Book of Lore, which the Great Elf shared with the Sorceror. I used Enchant Artifact to add the Fiery Blast spell to the book, and suddenly had myself a powerful speed 0 weapon. Nice!

Anyway, the game is still in progress as a save game, which hopefully we'll pick up again next week. The Great Elf found a nice source of income (Food Ale), a M bow, and the Woodfolk in his employ. The White Knight had a pretty nice stint in the Mountain tile, killing 2 or 3 Giants, and a handful of spiders. We found the Vault, Cairns, and just before quitting, the Lair. There's going to be some sweet looting next week.

I should mention that I did lose the Sorceror to some bats right before we quit, but we decided to restore from a save game instead, to recover that stupid mistake (I was getting tired). I know, that's cheating, but hey, we're having fun!

I recommend trying v0.45 for your next online game!

Version 0.45 Released

This is the second release in a row that is seemingly small in changes, but really there is a lot of work under the hood. This time around, I thought I'd at least give you all a new spell to play with: Enchant Artifact. I doubt its perfect (my first run of a spell usually isn't), but I think it will perform fairly close to what you would expect. Yes, you can actually add a spell and chit to an artifact of your choosing. Yes, you can use the new chit added to the artifact to cast spells ON that artifact.

Another fairly important bit in this release, is a discovery I made to how I was handling the communication between server and client, during an online game. I realized that I was forcing these two to interact with each other in 50 ms chunks, and by so doing, causing an unnecessary slowdown, especially as it concerns messages transferring to the log window. The 50 ms "sleep" time HAS to be in there, so that the CPU can do other tasks, but it doesn't have to be in play until there is nothing left in the queue. After making this discovery, and making the change to process the entire message queue before sleeping, makes a HUGE difference.

For example, a combat I was testing with the Sorceror, Fiery Blast, and 12 goblins was taking 6 seconds to process before the results screen became visible!! That's like 6 seconds too long, in my opinion. After the fix, the combat results come up virtually instantaneously. Granted, that's running a internet connection within my intranet, but I'm guessing you'll still see some serious performance improvements when playing on the internet.

I'm going to be playing a game tonight with some friends, so I'll let you know how that goes. Here's what's new:

NEW FEATURES:

• NEW SPELL: Enchant Artifact works now! (caveat: you can still only use the artifact once per combat - I will fix this part eventually)

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Fixed a problem with "Whistle for Monsters" that was freezing the combat interface after the first round.
  
• Reworked the spell targeting logic (behind the scenes) to make it a bit more robust
  
• Fixed a problem with "Talk to Wise Bird", that resulted from changes made to the trade interface in v0.44
  
• Fixed a speed problem when playing online
  
  • This will virtually eliminate those long delays during combat when multiple things are happening at once
    
  • Everything will be as fast as your connection, instead of being tied to a speed defined in the code (at long last!!)

Smack Down

I wanted to see how things were working, since some changes I made to the spell targeting logic, so I played through a game with the Black Knight and the Witch-King. One lesson I learned rather quickly, is that this game can start off easy, and then take you down hard.

The map was harsh, and gave me two options: Go one direction, and explore the Borderland, Deep Woods and Mountain, or go the other, and see all the other tiles. Since it seemed logical to get the first three tiles out of the way, I chose the former. Unfortunately, nothing panned out. All three tiles were completely devoid of any treasure.

With several days wasted, I moved back to the Inn, and tried the alternate choice. The Cliff had nothing either, and I was beginning to think the game was against me, though the monster rolls had been fairly kind: I was able to tangle with, and kill 2 M Spiders.

At this point, it dawned on me that I had taken the Broomstick spell with the Witch-King, and that I could be covering more ground, faster. I sent the Witch-King across the board to the Ledges tile, where he found... nothing!!! In the meantime the Black Knight continued on foot into the Cavern, and found the Statue, and infamous lair of the Imp! As luck would have it, the Imp was there, and the Black Knight was unhidden. One round of combat left the poor Black Knight cursed with Wither. Somehow or another, the Black Knight managed to land an alerted mace on the Imp, and put it down, but the damage was done.

The next turn, the Witch-King travelled on foot to the neighboring Ruins tile, and lo there was much glittering and gold. Of course, there was also a boatload of monsters, which in some ways was comforting to the Witch-King. Seeing the Lair, Shrine, and the Pool, made the Witch-King think that he might not have wasted a spell slot on Absorb Essence after all! Quickly moving to the shrine, the Witch-King begin searching the site, hoping quietly for the appearance of the Winged Demon. Turn after fruitless searching turn, the Shrine remained quiet, though the neighboring clearings were quickly filling up with hungry monster. On the very turn that the Witch-King failed his hide, he was ambushed by a Giant Bat. As the Witch-King had failed to find any useful treasure, and lacked any form of movement options (stupid me for not preparing a Fly chit!!), was killed in the first round. Damn, I knew I should have absorbed the thing!!

The Black Knight, seeing his partner's demise, wandered through the Caves, and hustled to the Lair. Having failed his hide (again!?!?), the Tremendous Dragon that appeared (stupid monster die of 1) made quick work of the Withered Black Knight. All that remained was the glitter of gold:

Some Spell Woes

I rather suspected this would happen: a new problem resulting from the change I made to the trade interface. That's why I chose not to send out an e-mail for the last release, and why I chose not to close the Mantis issues.

Currently, there are some strange problems with casting spells that do feedback, like "Talk to Wise Bird", and "Control Bats". I'll have to back out the changes I made to the Trade interface to fix the problem, but I think I'm getting closer to getting that working reliably.

Anyway, thanks to "BD" for letting me know about this new problem. I'll get another version online this weekend.

Update: Ok, it turns out that "BD" was using an older version (0.41), so he is seeing a problem that was fixed in 0.42. I only tested "Talk to Wise Bird", and there is a problem with that spell, so I assumed it was a broader problem. Near as I can tell, the bug ONLY affects "Talk to Wise Bird", so its not as serious as I originally thought. For the time being, I've disabled the download of v0.44 until I can verify that this is the only spell affected.

Version 0.44 Released

Okay, this is more of a patch, than a full-on release, but I didn't feel like making a 0.43.1 release. I did make a fairly dramatic change to the underpinnings of the trade interface. I'm feeling like it should eliminate the problems you all have had with this accursed thing, but there's no way to know for sure, except to give it a ride. If you still have issues, please let me know. If it works better for you, I'd like to hear that too.

Oh, and this release will fix the annoying problem with the treasure sites that was introduced into RealmSpeak recently (see earlier post), so you looters can get back to looting!! :-)

Okay, not much here, but here's what's new:

BUGS/ISSUES:

• [785] - Can loot the treasure sites again.
  
• [730],[741] - The trade/share interface is fixed. No longer will doing a trade lead to the game freezing up.

Unlootable Treasure Sites

Gaah!! An unfortunate bug crept into the last release, that is making the game difficult to play. None of the treasures sites are lootable:

• Crypt of the Knight
  
• Enchanted Meadow
  
• Toadstool Circle

You can discover them, but they don't make themselves available to be looted afterwards. This bug appeared because of a fix I applied to the "Wish for a Vision" result.

Anyway, I've fixed it in the current (but unreleased) version, so hopefully I can get something online this weekend.

Sorry about that!

New Board Game Link

Just a note that I added a new link to the side bar under "Other Board Games". The link takes you to a pretty crude webpage highlighting my latest Java boardgame conversion: TimeTripper.

Version 0.43 Released

Attn! Resource Pack is updated, so you'll need to download the new version!

Not a lot to say about this one, except that a bunch of problems were fixed. Probably the biggest new feature, is one that allows you to force the end of a game, and then view everything on and off the board.

I was playing this version this morning, and had a pretty awesome game, which is still in progress (currently saved). I'm playing with the Captain and the Sorceror, and we started the game in Midsummer, on a warm day. That's 2 basic, and 3 sunlight phases for 7 days! Right off the bat, we found the Lair, and in the lair were a few useful items:

• Dragonfang Necklace
  
• Handy Gloves (M3)
  
• Timeless Jewel

In addition to that, the sorceror found a bunch of magic artifacts, so you can imagine his glee. Next, we found the Hoard, and a few more items:

• Dragon Essence
  
• Flying Carpet
  
• Alchemist's Mixture

A few monsters have messed with us, but for the most part, the Realm is letting us play. I decided to save the game before the inevitable disaster happens.

Anyway, you don't care about my game: You want to know what's new!

NEW FEATURES:

• [749] - Fixed how game end works, and how/where you extend the game.
  
  • New button "End Game" allows to force the current game to end.
    
  • New button "Reveal All" allows you reveal all chits/cards at the natural end of a game.
    
  • "Extend Game 1 Month" button moved out of character panel, and onto main character list.
  
  
• [629],[725] - Changed how VPs are allocated. Instead of getting them piecemeal, you must allocate all of them at the beginning of the game.
  
  • Considers the number of months to play, and seasons, if applicable
    
  • Extending the game 1 month at a time will still ask for more VPs.
  
  
• [735] - "Items and Horses" table from page 17 of the 3rd-edition rules is now available in the view menu

BUGS/ISSUES:

• [748],[746] - Fixed an error that happens when you find yourself in a clearing with no paths leading out (like after enchanting a tile)
  
• [769] - Charging will cause you to become unhidden now.
  
• [715] - "Encounter" phase in combat now properly reads "Actions"
  
• [767] - Fixed the price of the Lucky Charm from 2 to 14
  
• [744],[758] - Fixed a state exception
  
• [751] - Wish for Vision no longer empties the site
  
• [764] - Curses on non-characters will properly show as having no effect.
  
• [754] - Fixed another run bug, that was saying the path vanishes when you run repeatedly from the same clearing.
  
• [772] - If you can walk woods, you can run into the woods, instead of being forced to move down a path.
  
• [776] - Fixed a problem with Persuade and Watchful Natives
  
• [712],[777] - Fixed a strange problem with Persuade, that prevented you from activating newly aquired items, not on your turn.
  
• [599] - Can no longer lure a RED-side up monster off of another sheet.
  
• [660] - Choosing a spell target now includes a small icon indicating the combat sheet they are on (if any)
  
• [723] - Added a new batch file (runHere.bat) that allows you to keep all of RealmSpeak's preferences and Hall of Fame in the same directory.
  
• Fixed a bug in the battle editor that would always report "Battle Ended" when the only combatants were characters.
  
• [640] - Reset button works after selecting a target now.
  
• [775] - Cleaned up the logic for native positioning and randomization a bit.

Tweaked Blog Format

Blogger has added some nice new page editing features that I wanted to take advantage of, and ended up making a few changes to the overall page. Mostly, it looks the same, but some things you may or may not have noticed:

• New "Blog Archive" for old posts allows you to jump to any post in this blog's history.


• Linkbacks in title for each post


• Smaller Font (I didn't actually change the font size: it came with the template update that I did...)

Hope you like it!

Light Elf and some Bats

I just played a very interesting game of Magic Realm, using the latest version (0.42) of RealmSpeak (see release info below). I started off with the Amazon and Light Elf. Yes, the Light Elf: you know, the one in the optional rules that has only L fight and move chits? Well, anyway, for some odd reason, I ended up splitting these two up right off the bat, trying to explore as much of the map as possible, and I realized pretty quickly that I was in over my head.

The Amazon found the Lair, but was killed by a pair of heavy bats before she had a chance to loot more than some sharpening grease!

The Elf, on the other hand, was quite a bit more lucky. After wandering through the tunnel under the High Pass, and through the Caverns, the Elf found himself in the Ruins tile with the Lost City (how appropriate!) There lay the Vault, the Hoard, and the Shrine, and quite a lot of dragons.

The Elf nearly got caught, but was able to hide quickly enough to allow him to sneak past a pair of Heavy Flying Dragons. With a trio of heavy bats camping out on the other side of a hidden path, the Elf hoped to catch a ride, and get the heck out of the tile before the Winged Demon appeared. He found the path easily enough, but when he arrived at the clearing with the bats, he was quickly joined by a cluster of dragons: Two heavy flying dragons, one tremendous flying dragon, one heavy land dragon, and one tremendous land dragon. Oh, and don't forget the three heavy bats.

Fortunately, the Elf had hidden successfully, and so had one round to cast the Control Bats spell before having to worry about himself. Using the three controlled bats to lure the faster dragons, the Elf made a quick retreat back down the hidden path. The three bats, now under the Elf's control, went to work.

Now I can tell you, that I figured the bats would be toast after a few rounds, but I was amazed at what happened next. One by one, each of the dragons fell, until all that was left was a single Heavy Bat. If anyone asks you what the meanest monster in the game of Magic Realm is, I hope you ALWAYS say "bats bats bats BATS!!!!" Damn those things are brutal!

The Elf returned to the clearing in time to see the Winged Demon and a pair of Heavy Serpents appear a couple of clearings away, and decided it was high time he left. Controling the remaining Bat, the elf quickly flew away to the tile where the Amazon's corpse still lay fresh.

The Elf quickly discovered the Lair, and looted it clean. Other than having to dispatch the Tremendous Land Dragon that appeared fairly quickly (love that alerted light bow!), and an unlucky Giant looking for food, the realm left the Elf alone. I did get a curse from the Remains of Thief, but having found the amulet a turn or two earlier made quick work of the curse (DISGUST). It's a good thing too, because of the VPs I had put into Fame!

I ended the game alive with a score of 5, having put VPs in GT(1), Fame(2), Not(1), and Gold(1). Probably not the smartest game I've ever played, but it was still a blast.

Version 0.42 Released

Well, its been a long time coming, but I finally got myself back into the game, and worked out some new features, and squashed some bugs. My favorite new feature (requested by a RealmSpeak user) is the interactive Treasure Setup Card.


Each and every monster box, dwelling, and treasure that can contain other treasures or spells is represented. By clicking on a box, you get a quick snapshot of what it contains.

Don't worry, it wont give away the specific treasures/spells, but it will let you know how many treasures are there, and even what types of spells are available. This holds true for visitors too! The point is, click on everything, and you quickly learn where it is you want to go.

Oh, and when the game ends, you can go back to the setup card to see where everything was. Dying to know if that last treasure you just wasted 12 turns searching for in the Lair was worth it? Now you can check it out!

Another nice new feature requested by a RealmSpeak user, is the keyboard shortcuts provided for every character action. Check out the new Action menu for a complete list of keyboard commands.

Okay, so its been over two months already since the last release, and you are just aching to play the game without a "Wish" bug, or having the game tell you a road has vanished. What are you waiting for? Here's what's new:

NEW FEATURES:

• [461] - Action menu supports using keyboard shortcuts to enter your characters turn.
  
• [21] - At long last, the wish table result "I Wish You Were Elsewhere" is finished. There is a caveat: the casting player gets to choose where the target character goes (the rules say it is up to the character being teleported), but that can be worked out manually for now (ie., please send me to the crags, clearing 6, thank you).
  
• [649] - Treasure Setup Card changes:
  
  • Allows "peeking" at the stacks to see:
    
    • Monsters
      
    • Weapons/Armor (ie., helmet, breastplate, shield, ponies, etc.)
      
    • Number of Treasures
      
    • Number and types of Spells
      
    • Treasures-Within-Treasures
      
    • Spells on treasures
    
    
  • When game ends, the peeks allow you to view the cards "face up", so you can see what you didn't get!

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Fixed a general issue that caused RealmSpeak to repeatedly forget join information (when logging in)
  
• [704] - Native Leader carrying a horse no longer crashes the game.
  
• [726] - Can't abandon or CACHE a BOON token
  
• [726] - Can abandon inactive potions.
  
• [716] - Problem with HIRE/BOON allowing gold to go negative is fixed.
  
• [727] - Can't offer a BOON counter in the trade payment dialog.
  
• [724] - Fixed a problem that prevented an INSTANT spell from being cast more than once.
  
• [500] - Fixed the behavior for a spellcaster that is "buffing up" in an empty clearing.
  
• [708] - Wish for Vision no longer shows you the backs of cards.
  
• [721] - VI, VII, and VIII chits can be alerted in the battle builder.
  
• [707] - Fixed a bug that would sometimes report a path had vanished when trying to run, when it fact it was still there!
  
• [728] - RealmSpeak will now inform you when one or more of your followers are encumbered, and give you a chance to resolve the problem BEFORE moving, and leaving them behind.
  
• [730] - Trade/Share mods
  
  • Only works now if you are the active player. Though this goes against the rules, somewhat, I'm hoping it will lessen the likelihood of a game crash in the short term. In the long term, I'm hoping I can figure out a better way to handle the trade frame.
    
  • Available in the combat frame for "End of Combat" trading.
  
  
• [717] - "Wish I Was Elsewhere" will not crash the game anymore.
  
• [652] - Text on turn action rows wraps around, so you can see all of it without going to the log. Also, the latest processed action is always scrolled into view.
  
• [737] - Text on enchanted chits is easier to read.

Back to RealmSpeak

Sorry folks for the long break, but I needed it. I'm starting to tackle RealmSpeak issues again, so hopefully there will be a new release in the next week or so. I'll let you know!

Version 0.41 Released

I seem to have caught a cold virus (dare I say, a bug?), and as such am not too much in the coding mood this weekend. Still, I was able to finish up a few more issues, and get them into this release.

The main reason I want to get this release out, is because of a fix to a problem with the player board builder that prevented the game from playing. As one e-mailer put it "Ehh - who needs to play the game after building the map?". He he he.

Also, this release sports a fix in the "Graphics Glitch" bug, so those of you that have run into it, will likely breathe a sigh of relief.

Not a lot here, but here's what's new:

NEW FEATURES:

• [690] - There is a button on the Hall of Fame to clear the data if you wish.

BUGS/ISSUES:

• [372] - At looooong last the so-called "graphics glitch" is fixed. The map counters will no longer "vanish" unexpectedly during the game.
  
• [686] - Discovering a path on board A does not automatically give you the path on board B anymore (double-board)
  
• [647] - Native summoning is distinguishing boards now (double-board)
  
• [695] - You can actually play the game now, after constructing a player board.
  
• [675] - Elusive Cloak works with non-character chits now
  
• [435] - Flowers of Rest work now, even if you don't record any actions. They also work in the situation where someone carrying the Flowers of Rest moves through, but does not stop in a clearing with a fatigued character. This will now appropriately put that character to sleep, whether or not they've had a turn.
  
• [676] - Controlled monster head/club kills count towards character total
  
• [671] - Alerted chits will appear in the fatigue/wound dialogs now
  
• [680] - If you MOVE, enchant a tile, and then try to run from combat, the road must not vanish or become "undiscovered", or you will now be unable to run. (see 3rd ed 7.10.4.d.1)

Manual Map Broken

It seems like every time I release a cool new feature, it requires a bug fix or two before its fully functional.

If you go through the trouble of building a player map with the map builder, you cannot play the game, for some reason. There's a nasty bug in there that hijacks the code before it can do the necessary preprocessing, and you end up with an unplayable game. The bug has been filed, and I'm hoping to get it fixed for the weekend.

On a good note, I finally reproduced/found/fixed the famous "graphics glitch" bug that's plagued me for half a year. That alone will be worth getting released.

If you choose automatic map building, it should still run just fine.

Update 1

This bug is fixed in version 0.41 (not yet released). I'll try to put a new release up this weekend.

Version 0.40 Released

Happy New Year!!

I had a sweet vacation! My brother-in-law visited, and I got some serious boardgaming off my chest. We played Runebound (two different campaigns), Arkham Horror, and Lord of the Rings. Oddly, we didn't play Magic Realm at all, but that's only because it is so danged easy to play online anymore, that it wasn't worth the trouble to set it up. That, and the fact we wanted to try out some new games. Very fun!!

Anyway, once he left, and some of the Christmas festivities had past, I found myself with some free time to work on RealmSpeak. Of note, there is now the ability to play with a player-generated board. It's got a few flaws (it restarts when you run out of places to play a tile), but for the most part, I think it works pretty well.

Also of note in this release, is that I've upgraded my ant build to use Java 1.5, instead of Java 1.4. You will see a warning when you start RealmSpeak if you are using an older version of Java, but otherwise will be able to continue. Please take the time to upgrade your Java installation, as it will make your RealmSpeak experience better (trust me!) If you want Java 1.5, follow this link:

   Java 5

and click the fourth "Download" button down on the page (JRE 5.0 Update 10). If you feel the need to be on the forefront of technology, there's the latest release Java 6:

   Java 6

Again, click on the fourth "Download" button down on the page (JRE 6), and you should be good to go. I haven't tried JRE 6 yet myself, so I can't vouch for its stability.

Okay, here's what's new in this release:

NEW FEATURES:

• This version of RealmSpeak is compiled under Java 1.5, and may encounter problems with Java 1.4. I recommend upgrading your Java installation to play it. Sorry for the inconvenience, but it was a necessary move.
  
• You can include Giants/Ogres/Goblins as hirelings in the combat builder now
  
• Fixed a performance bug in the board builder: boards are built nearly instantaneously now. This really helps in the case of double-boards.
  
• Players can build the board now!
  
  • New option in game setup window allows you to choose between auto-build, and player-build.
    
  • Host waits until ALL players have logged in, and then presses the "Build Map" button. Tiles are distributed, and players start placing tiles, starting with the player who has Borderland. (Borderland A in a double-board game)
    
  • When playing solitaire, this option provides single tiles that you can place one at a time, starting with Borderland.
    
  • When the very rare situation arises where a player can no longer place a tile, it should start the process over, though I've been having trouble with this part. I will clean this up at a later date.
  
  
• [389] - New feature on inventory, and unassigned denizen panels: clicking on a green eye icon allows you to view the other side of counters contained within.
  
• [506] - Natives with living horses have a horse icon on them now, so you can distinguish them from natives with dead horses during the luring step in combat.
  
• [654] - New house rule allows you to play where monster weapon hits (head/club) aren't sufficient to cause T Monsters to turn RED side up

BUGS/ISSUES:

• [650] - Fixed an error that happened during summoning on double boards.
  
• [646] - Native terms of hire are by days, not turns now (ie., when playing shortened weeks in seasons)
  
• [661] - HIRE phases when dealing with pacified monsters, will be hired as a "group", not individually
  
• [662] - Hired Ogres and Goblins that own their combat sheet can be flipped like hired natives now
  
• [658] - Cache no longer "hides" clearing-affecting treasures (ie., Flowers of Rest, Dragon Essence, etc)
  
• [651] - Demon wont jump on Pilgrim sheet when he has a hireling anymore.
  
• [664] - Fixed a double-board bug that caused the game to freeze when you ran away in a "B" tile.
  
• [665] - Fixed a problem where using the Timeless Jewel, and trying to move down an undiscovered path, caused the game to hang.
  
• Cleaned up a problem with the client/server code that could cause some rare data loss during transfers. This may have been the source of random hangs for some time, but I'm not sure. Time will tell!
  
• [687] - Fixed a typo in the length of T Dragon heads to 9 (not 8!)
  
• [663] - Ambush works with non-attack spells that target individuals now.
  
• [670],[673] - Non-characters are no longer considered for the Hall of Fame. Game date is included in the display.
  
• [678] - Spells are no longer "doubled" in the spell chooser when playing a double-board game
  
• [666] - Fixed the multiplying phantasms crash bug
  
• [653] - T chits created by Unleash Power spell will suffice for opening the Vault.
  
• [682] - Fixed a problem where Hired Leaders were not using their own horses to carry inventory.
  
• [677] - Dragonfang Necklace and other control spells are cancelled if hirelings are attacking the target.
  
• [525] - Fixed an issue that left luring hirelings unassigned if they lured a Giant or T Dragon, instead of moving to the new sheet.
  
• [674] - Transmorphed monsters in color magic will no longer crash the game when they are summoned back to the setup card
  
• [655] - Casters that are killed by non-simultaneous attacks, will have their attack spells cancelled.
  
• [535] - Mission chits are completed automatically when you enter the target dwelling now, instead of waiting until midnight.
  
• [487] - When you move by clicking on the map, you will get the "unassigned hirelings" warning now (if appropriate).

Blogger Beta

It seems that Google has updated blogger, and is strongly encouraging us to "make the switch". Well, I just did, and I can definitely see some improvements!

The one that is most obvious to you, is that I can now add labels to my posts. What are labels, you ask? They are essentially keywords that tie posts together in a way other than by date. For example, I just went through and added "RealmSpeak Release" as a label to all the posts that reference a new release. At the end of such a post, you'll see a hyperlink with the words "RealmSpeak Release". Click on that link, and you will get a list of all the release posts, clear back to version 0.1!! Pretty cool.

It's Christmas in Magic Realm

The bad news: no new release until 2007. I had hoped to wrap up the current version I'm working on before Christmas, but the fact is that time is running out. I've got relatives coming this week, and still a bunch of shopping to do. I seriously doubt I'll have much coding time between now and then.

The good news? Besides the usual bug fixes, the big new feature I've been putting together is player board building. At LOONNNG last, you'll be able to assemble the board as the rules describe, and have some control over the overall game. If you play solitaire, you will place tiles randomly, one at a time, starting with the Borderland tile. If you are playing online, tiles will be shuffled and distributed to all the players, and then each player takes a turn placing a tile. Of course, the auto-build feature will still be there if you want it (I still prefer it for solitaire games).

This feature is mostly finished, but I'm still working out a few kinks. For example, I thought it would be nice if tiles that have no possible placement (like High Pass on the first turn) were highlighted somehow. This has turned into a bit more of a nightmare than I would have imagined. For some reason, I can't get the tiles to update for other players when they should. !!!!!

I also need to handle the situation where the board reaches a state where no tiles can be placed. It's rare, but it does happen! The rules say that in this situation, you are supposed to move back to the previous player, and have them remove the last placed tile, and replace it in a way that will allow the next player to place their tile. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle this, just yet.

Anyway, I hope the holiday season is treating you all well. Merry Christmas!

Brutal Game

Wow, that was insane. We played an online game last night (till about 1am), and it was a blast! We ran into a couple of annoying bugs (game crashes if you have combat after a day-trade between characters), but mostly could recover by reloading the auto save. Once we learned what NOT to do, things went pretty well.

Oh, and I learned some new lessons:
1) Don't fire a second Fiery Blast ambush attack on a T Troll, when you are lucky enough to survive the first round as the Sorceror.
2) Don't forget to assign your hirelings after hiring them.
3) The Witch as an absorbed Winged Demon is no match for the T Octopus (damn that thing is fast!)
4) The Dwarf on a Warhorse, and the White Knight with the Bane Sword and the Gloves of Strength is a sight to behold! These two were able to nail 2 out of 3 bats in the first round, even though they both flipped to the dark side! Unbelievable.

Oh, check out how the game started:



That's the Inn on the far right, at the edge of the map. The only way to go, is through the caves of the High Pass (guarded by the Lair, and goblins), and into the valley guarded by the ever-regenerating ghosts! Talk about getting a slow start! Starting a new character was a pain too - takes damn near a week to get through there without getting killed!

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the result. Still got some kinks to work out, but I'm already looking forward to my next game.

Taking 0.39 Out for a Spin

Unless my brother-in-law gets called in to work, I'm hoping to try v0.39 in an online game tonight. The big thing I'm looking forward to, is being able to press the END button without losing my ability to do encounter actions (see earlier post). Oh, that and the kill tally.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Version 0.39 Released

Not much to say, except that I think I've ironed out most of the Seasons/Weather bugs in this release. Thanks to everyone who pointed them out, and for those that made suggestions on how to implement seasons. I think you'll like the new changes.

Oh, for no real reason, except for the fact that I'm somewhat insane (it comes with being the father of three girls), I decided to add a checkbox for playing a "double-board" in this release. It's experimental, but I think it's basically there. I played around with it a bit, and it seemed to be working in all aspects I tried. Still, its not FULLY tested, so don't be surprised if something weird pops up while you are trying it out. If you don't like that, don't use it.

Okay, here's what's new.

NEW FEATURES:

• Rearranged the host game setup dialog a bit, to make your choices a bit more clear:
  
  • Got rid of meaningless fields (game title, game setup)
    
  • Separated "host" options from "game" options
    
  • Moved the weather option out of the Optional tab (too many people not seeing it there), and onto the main tab.
  
  
• Weather info dialog improvements
  
  • Includes 7th day color magic
    
  • Shows ALL weather possibilities, with the current weather highlighted
  
  
• [346] - Support for Double Board (experimental)
  
  • New choice in setup dialog
    
  • Experimental means that I haven't tried everything yet, so you may encounter some "weirdness".
    
  • Double-board means more memory, slower startup, and slower initial network connections (if playing online). You've been warned!
    
  • It is worth looking at - pretty danged cool.
    
  • Treasures are limited to their own setup cards, and chits to their own tiles, which is wrong I know. It makes it playable, though not as variable as the rules allow. I'll tackle this at a later date.

BUGS/ISSUES:

• [627] - Choosing a Random Season no longer causes the season to change randomly each time you reload the game.
  
• [459] - If you are starting RealmSpeak from the command line, you can include the savegame filepath after "run" to have it loaded automatically. If you don't understand this, you probably don't need to use it.
  
• [512],[625] - Persuade/HIRE works with Giants and Ogres again
  
• [611] - Characters put to sleep by the Flowers of Rest, will no longer summon monsters
  
• [549] - Flowers of Rest will put you to sleep BEFORE you can finish your trade now.
  
• [630] - Month length based on days, not turns now.
  
• [637] - Kills on character log are working again
  
• [638] - Commerce table considered in special abilities and treasures that affect meeting rolls.
  
• [639] - Commerce table Block/Battle result now causes characters to become unhidden, just like the Meeting table
  
• Fixed responsiveness of mouse clicks on combat sheets - no more clicking 3 or 4 times to get it to place your danged weapon
  
• [635] - Roof Collapses appears correctly on combat sheets, so you know it's been placed.
  
• [642] - Chapel emits WHITE magic again.
  
• [641] - Fatigue dialog allows fatiguing MAGIC chits for weather fatigue
  
• [581] - When characters leave hirelings behind in a clearing with natives, the character no longer has an opportunity to buy drinks.
  
• [577] - Flying characters will be blocked immediately after landing in a clearing with a monster. No more free HIDE phase!
  
• Changed how the dotted (flying) lines are drawn when plotting a FLY move. Rather than end at the "offroad" location, they go to the center of the tile. Flying chits are still drawn in the offroad location, so that they aren't confused with those that are in clearings.
  
• [584] - Natives with ponies moving out of caves don't gain pony moves during the turn.
  
• [636] - Blazing Light works when you move out of the clearing now.
  
• [643] - Ghosts regenerate each week again.

Version 0.38a Released

You will need a new resource pack for this release. Yes, I know I just released a resource pack for version 0.37, but there were just too many new images to include in the application itself. I'll try to leave the resource pack alone for awhile after this!

Wheee!! I'm a happy camper. I played a successful online game last night (see previous post), and fixed the few issues that harassed us during the game. I finished Seasons/Weather (mostly), and added a "Hall of Fame". The bug tracker is down below 80 bugs, and the game has been running like a champ. Still a lot to do, but its getting closer and closer to being complete!

[PS - THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO SENT IN PICTURES TO USE IN THE SEASONS INTERFACE - I HOPE YOU LIKE MY FINAL SELECTIONS!]

Oh, why v0.38a you ask? That's because the version I used last night was technically v0.38. Since I fixed a couple more bugs, I decided to bump the version slightly to 0.38a.

Here's what's new this time around:

NEW FEATURES:

• Created a new menu called View, and moved some things around to make more sense. The tables menu is now a submenu under View.
  
• BUG 499 - Added a "Hall of Fame"
  
  • No longer specify number of VPs in the setup dialog (since this would affect scoring range)
    
  • Not considered for Hall of Fame if VPs are disabled
    
  • View Hall of Fame from View menu
  
  
• Added support for Seasons and Weather
  
  • New dropdown list on first tab of game options dialog to choose a season, choose no season, or choose a random season
    
  • New optional rule (optional tab) for weather support
    
  • Sheltered phases work (see the rules)
    
  • Eye of the Moon allows you to see/change the weather
    
  • Click on season icon to view information about the current season and weather
    
  • Mountain move cost dependant on the season (new move icons show what the cost is for each character)
    
  • All six "special" weather conditions are handled
    
    • Fatigue chits based on location
      
    • HIDE/PEER tables disabled depending on season
    
    
  • Mission special conditions (delivery locations and rewards) are NOT YET HANDLED

BUGS/ISSUES:

• BUG 608 - Items with conditional fame are priced correctly now under COMMERCE rules
  
• BUG 488,609 - Using a Horse and "other" bonus MOVE in a cave is more logical now (horse is used as soon as possible)
  
• BUG 597 - Fixed game hang when a transformed monster winds up in an enchanted tile, and stuck in magic form.
  
• BUG 519,613 - Fixed a problem where a character receiving and activating the Timeless Jewel on someone else's turn, couldn't ignore their recorded actions.
  
• BUG 600 - Transformed monsters should prowl as normal now.
  
• BUG 614 - When I fixed Bug 305 (below), I inadvertantly introduced a problem when running without any monsters in the clearing. This is fixed.
  
• Fixed a problem with the action record interface: actions are now red when they are invalid, and black when they are not. Nothing else is changed, just the color, which was confusing.
  
• BUG 615 - Created a problem in the wound interface when I added color chits. This is fixed.
  
• BUG 218 - Color chits are now considered to be "in play" for purposes of determining death.
  
• BUG 617 - GodRob discovered that the enchanted side of the Crag had one too many hidden paths! Good catch!!
  
• BUG 510 - Flowers of Rest will no longer affect characters before being discovered.
  
• BUG 520 - Inconsistency in Cloven Hoof behaviour is fixed.
  
• BUG 544 - Cloven Hoof no longer affects denizen rolls anymore.
  
• BUG 533 - Kill tally no longer shows multiple hits for split kills
  
• BUG 548 - Effects of the poison spell and Oil of Poison will stack. In other words, you can add 2 sharpness stars to your active weapon.
  
• BUG 573 - Can no longer use Pony to infinitely traverse mountains.
  
• BUG 424 - REST stacking with the Berserker works correctly now
  
• BUG 490 - Unhidden hired leaders in a clearing with a monster can no longer press the END button to exit combat.
  
• BUG 475 - Burning a color chit is sufficient to continue combat.
  
• BUG 512 - Can hire Ogres with Persuade spell now.
  
• BUG 518 - Correct number of soldiers on Pillage campaign.
  
• BUG 542 - Vial of Healing will now activate wounded, non-asterisk chits.
  
• BUG 620 - Pressing END during a multiplayer game no longer permanently disables the encounter phase buttons.
  
• BUG 621 - Fixed a small problem with CACHEs.
  
• BUG 575 - Can no longer use MAGIC SIGHT to learn spells off inactive inventory
  
• BUG 623 - Attack Spells will trigger Grudges now.
  
• BUG 394 - Hitting friendly natives with Roof Collapses no longer causes them to turn on you (you target the clearing, not the natives)
  
• BUG 540 - Weapon altering potions will work with the Alchemists's Mixture now.
  
• BUG 622 - Timeless Jewel owners can do multiple REST phases at once now. Pressing REST will pop up a dialog asking "How Many". Hope this isn't more of a pain than before!

Great online game last night

Sweet. It's been a long time since I played RealmSpeak online (since April, v.0.30). That game went badly because RealmSpeak froze up too much, and we had to can it. Since then, I've been more than a little nervous to even try it again.

Well, last night I decided to give it a shot. Using the latest build (v0.38 - not yet publicly available), me and two buddies fired up a game. We chose randomly (sort of), and ended up with the Woods Girl (me), Magician, and the White Knight. Without going into great detail, the Woods Girl started off quite well, successfully offing numerous monsters with her alerted bow, but not in time to prevent the death of the White Knight to three bats. Respawning as the Black Knight, the trio continued to wander through numerous treasure locations: Cairns (found the lost keys!), the Vault (good thing too!), and the Hoard. The Woods Girl got cursed at one point, and then attempted to get healed at the Order. Making the mistake of doing a TRADE, the Woods Girl got blocked, and then pounced on by the Patrol. Dead. (that sucked!!)

Anyway, the game overall was a blast, and most everything worked as it should. There were a couple of minor problems:

1. Pressing the END button disabled all of the buttons in the Encounter panel for the rest of the game, or until saving and restarting.
   
2. Kills were not showing up in the usual place.
   
3. At one point, I was unable to move into a normal clearing with the timeless jewel, even though I had one phase left to use!

All in all, that was pretty good, and we were able to play as long as we wanted, with relatively few restarts. I'm excited to know that I can play this game online again, and know exactly what needs fixing. I should be able to get a good release up later today (if all goes well).

Version 0.37 Released

NOTE: You'll need to download a new version (0.37) of the "Resource Pack" for this release!

I spent a lot of time working on aesthetics for this release. All of the spells now have text information and tables straight from the 3rd edition rules, available with nothing more than a mouse-click. It's also easier to see who and how cast what spells, and what spells are currently bewitching you.

I also reworked the RealmSpeak Battle Builder. It's a lot more user friendly, and lets you edit saved battles, for the first time! Much easier to experiment now, and much less frustrating to run (in my opinion).

Here's what's new:

NEW FEATURES:

• BUG 593,594 - Spell information enhancements
  
  • New green bar on spell card identifies spells that are "Alive"
    
  • Table on character spell page displays all spell currently affecting (bewitching) the character
    
  • Right-clicking spells in inventory, or in "Bewitching Spells" table brings up a useful information panel that describes:
    
    • Owner
      
    • Caster
      
    • Incantation Chit/Item
      
    • Target(s)
      
    • Complete text from 3rd edition rules
      
    • Associated spell table, if applicable
    
    
  • Right-clicking spells in Spell Selector allows you to read the rules for that spell, and see any related table that might be used
  
  
• Most die roll tables are now available in the "Tables" menu
  
• RealmSpeak Battle Builder got a face lift
  
  • Entry dialog is a bit more user-friendly
    
  • Three choices: New Battle, Edit Battle, and Play Battle
    
  • Yes, you can edit battles you have saved (finally!!!), including game options!
    
  • The builder is a Frame instead of a dialog now. That means it will appear in your Taskbar, and not get "lost" in the sea of windows.
    
  • You can delete a character from battle
    
  • Treasures are sorted in alphabetical order, to make them easier to find (finally!!!)
  
  
• BUG 231 - New button to allow the HOST to change game options during the game. (Like, if Watchful Natives breaks again, and you got a good game going, you can turn it off)

BUGS/ISSUES:

• BUG 606 - Flying causes you to become unhidden now
  
• BUG 601 - Sharpness dampening is shown in log now
  
• BUG 553 - Toadstool Circle is exhibiting its effects again (BLACK magic and extra SPELL phases)
  
• BUG 305 - If you are playing with STUMBLE rules, and are unsuccessful running with a 2 asterisk chit, you are no longer penalized for fatigue twice!
  
• BUG 126 - When running away from combat with a horse, the correct side (trot/gallop) of the horse is shown.
  
• BUG 111 - Followers now get left behind if the guide uses a Pony MOVE, unless they themselves have a Pony active.
  
• BUG 373,596 - Native Horses are now made inactive when in a CAVE
  
• BUG 370 - New optional rule to play with "Seasonal Color Magic", which has been the default of RealmSpeak forever. Now you can turn this off, and use the "BLACK/WHITE" colors for the 7th day.

Version 0.36 Released

Thought I'd get a release out while I had a version that is working pretty good in my hands, and before I break into some bigger issues. I think Watchful Natives actually works in this release, so hopefully those of you that have been having trouble will find that the bugs are finally gone. I set up numerous combat situations, and coded until ALL of them worked as expected. Thanks to everyone who reported bugs on this rule, as you really gave me the direction I needed to get this done.

As mentioned in the previous post, there are some new optional rules in place (Commerce and Grudges), as well as the advanced CACHE rule. This gets RealmSpeak more into my own "comfort zone", as I have always played Face-to-Face games with these rules in place.

Okay, here's what's new:

NEW FEATURES:

• Advanced Rule CACHING is done
  
  • New option in game setup dialog under ADVANCED RULES tab
    
  • CACHE action is available
  
  
• Optional Commerce rules are now in place
  
  • Native groups modify the price of treasure base on FAME, NOTORIETY, or BOTH (depends on group)
    
  • Treasures with special FAME get that value added to the base price when dealing with a particular native group
    
  • Selling items uses the Commerce table
  
  
• Optional Grudges/Gratitude
  
  • Buying/Selling treasures with special FAME affect friendliness
    
  • Killing FRIENDLY and ALLY natives affect friendliness by 2 and 4 levels, respectively.
  
  
• Changed the spell selector a bit: removed the blue arrow buttons - selecting spells is now as easy as clicking the spell you want. I thought having to select spells and press buttons was a bit tedious.
  
• Power of the Pit dialog now shows who all was killed (if any), so it is clear what happened.

BUG FIXES:

• BUG 410 - Running as a transformed monster no longer adds the same monster to the "Used Chits" box, and available for attacks by yourself!!
  
• BUG 579 - Added some code to guarantee that NO situation leads to a target not moving to their own sheet. This should resolve "Watchful Natives" once and for all.
  
• BUG 588 - Fixed an issue with natives fighting natives under the Watchful Natives option
  
• BUG 582 - Fixed a problem where characters were unable to share TWT locations (ie., Toadstool Circle)
  
• BUG 589 - Treasures in battle builder are face up again
  
• BUG 587 - Characters transformed into MIST, and has hirelings, are no longer available for attack by monsters/natives.
  
• BUG 556,567 - Power of the Pit TERROR result was not killing hirelings following hired leaders. It is now.
  
• BUG 566 - Magic Sight no longer protects you from getting cursed by the Remains of Theif or Mouldy Skeleton
  
• BUG 411 - Read Runes allows a choice from awakened or Top Spell, as per 3rd ed rule 7.5.6.b.
  
• BUG 580 - Fixed spelling of Sorceror (from Sorcerer - technically correct, but doesn't match the game)
  
• BUG 578 - Fixed some fatal errors caused by fly chits expiring after use.

I'm experimenting with adding the bug links in here. It was kind of a pain, so don't expect to see these every time!!

Some Long Awaited Optional Rules

Someone wrote to me, and said that if they had Caching and Grudges, they'd be content. I thought, "Sure! Why not!"

In a crazed fit of coding last night, I assembled a fairly nice Caching interface (if I do say so myself), along with all the bells and whistles. Any character/leader/monster can cache items, and access caches later. Caches can be found/shared/looted by other characters. When you create a cache, you can specify the order of the items, and even store gold. I played around with it, and its pretty nice to have, especially when you find a huge treasure that you can't carry! Now you can stash it, and come back later when you have big boots, or a hired native. Neat!

The other piece was strangely easy, but that was by design. I had always intended to get the Commerce rules in place, because I prefer to use them over the standard rules. Now the treasures have differing values based on the group you are selling them to, which makes relationships all that more important. Got the Sacred Grail? Better hope the Order is your friend so you can score some big money!

Along with this, is Grudges and Gratitudes. I felt uncomfortable grouping this with the Commerce stuff, even though they are that way in the 2nd edition manual, so you'll find this as a standalone option. Essentially, buying/selling treasure with special FAME attributes to the appropriate denizen can score not only big money, but relationship improvements as well. Imagine the joy the Order will have when you deliver the Sacred Grail! This could make the Sorceror a bit less at ends with these Knights, and give him a strange edge in the game.

Of course, the down side of this rule, is that you gotta be careful who you kill. Elf decides to murder a Woodfolk, he's going to find that they are an enemy very quickly!

Okay, okay. I promised to get on Absorb Essence and Transform, and I still intend to, but I gotta have fun too, you know!

Later!