I wish for X

Someone pointed out to me that casually mentioning that WISH isn't fully implemented is a bit of a cheat on my part. Want to know what works and what doesn't?

These WISH results work:

1 - I wish I were elsewhere
3 - I wish for a vision
5 - I wish for health

These WISH results are not yet implemented

2 - I wish you were elsewhere (seems like it should be as easy as 1, but its actually quite a bit more complicated!)
4 - I wish for peace
6 - I wish for STRENGTH

Hey, odd works, even doesn't! That means that if you select Small Blessing as your spell, only half of the possible results are even going to be useful to you in v0.13. I'll make an effort to finish at least 4 and 6 for the next release. I'm not sure about 2, but hopefully...

The other two tables, Curse and Power of the Pit, are fully implemented. If you've ever been hit by the Demon or the Imp, you'll know what I mean. They aren't ready as castable spells, just yet, but should be in the near future.

The Realm is a Cruel Mistress

Played a game last night online with a friend of mine, and it went something like this:

The White Knight and Sorceror meet at the Inn, and decide to pair up to do some adventuring. After being blocked by the Rogues, the Sorceror buys them drinks to make the night's stay an uneventful one. The next morning the Sorceror and White Knight hurry out into the Realm, moving into the adjacent Borderlands.

Stumbling immediately onto the Altar, the Sorceror and White Knight locate the entrance, and start looting. The first day yields the Crypt of the Knight, and not much else. After dealing with the Demon, and a couple of heavy serpents, the White Knight excitedly explores the Crypt. Hurrah! It's the Sacred Grail (a source of WHITE magic for the Knight), and the Tremendous armor! The Realm is being suspiciously nice today.

After gathering a few more trinkets (and an ASHES curse for the Knight), the pair decide to move on towards the Chapel to get some healing (Make Whole doesn't remove curses). The Sorceror moves quickly through the woods to a safe location in a neighboring valley, but the Knight hangs back a bit to explore a sound in the woods. Before he realizes what is happening, he finds himself surrounded by wolves. Though he fights heroicly, and kills two wolves, they ultimately knock him down and finish him off. Damn!

Meanwhile, something was stirring at the Chapel, as a new character entered the Realm. With the Order as his ally, the Pilgrim decides it would be worth hiring one of them as an escort before heading out into the Realm. Though the Order offers O3 as a BOON, the Pilgrim chooses not to hurt his alliance, and pays the wage. But something is amiss! In the dark of the evening, the Pilgrim realizes the Patrol has arrived, and with no money to buy drinks, is quickly drawn into a battle against his will. The hired Knight is clumsy, and is worthless in combat. The rest of the Order watches in amusement as the Pilgrim is quickly cut down by the Patrol, and left for dead on the steps of the Chapel!

Back in the Valley, the Sorceror realizes his gallant friend would not be emerging from the darkened woods. He decides to wander a bit, and get a peek at the Cliff and High Pass along the way. Neither place offers any adventure, and so he turns back and heads to the dreaded woods. Knowing something ugly awaits him, the Sorceror spends part of the day preparing his magic, and moves into the woods under the cover of stealth. Quietly entering the clearing with the wolves, the Sorceror sees the Black Knight and a rogue hireling coming in from the opposite side. Though he wonders briefly if this is the source of his friends demise, a quick glance at the wolves tearing apart the remains of a human is all he needs to know. The Black Knight, still unaware of the hidden eyes, lures the wolves into battle. Fwwooossh!!! The Sorceror lets loose a Fiery Blast, and leaves four hapless piles of Wolven ash.

Still a bit wary of each other, the Sorceror and Black Knight join forces, and do a bit of searching for the White Knight's belongings. Only able to locate the Blasted Jewel (where is that grail!!), the two leave to travel towards the beckoning Crags. Enchanting a woods tile along the way, to ensure safe passage to the Mountain after exploring the Crags, the only pause the two make before entering the first clearing of the Crags. The Pool, Cairns, and Altar Shrine are there, along with the Tremendous Octopus. The Sorceror quietly enchants the Crags, to generate a source of permanent PURPLE magic, but the two are quickly besieged by two Heavy Flying Dragons, and a Heavy Land Dragon. Fortunately, both characters were hidden, so there is still a chance to spend a day preparing for the battle.

The Black Knight succeeds in hiding the next day, and alerts the mace with no effort. The Sorceror is not so lucky, and is quickly spotted by the dragons, and now the Octopus joins the fray! With no alerted spells, the Sorceror is going to have to work hard to get his dinner tonight!

With the hireling luring the Octopus, the first round works out quite nicely, as the Heavy Land Dragon (Sorceror), and one Heavy Flying Dragon (Black Knight), go down. The ensuing rounds do not go so well, as each attack misses, and the remaining Heavy Flying Dragon whittles the Black Knight down with fatigue and wounds. The Octopus ultimately gets ahold of the hireling, and crushes him like a bug. As the Sorceror is out of spells, he decides to lure the Octopus in the hopes that he can distract it long enough for the Knight to kill the dragon, and come to help. The Knight does manage to kill the remaining dragon, but it is too late for the Sorceror, who is being tossed aside like so much meat. The Octopus turns on the Black Knight, who is determined to make this end well. Already slowed by fatigue and wounds from the previous melee with the dragons, the Knight is no match for the speed of the Octopus, and he is quickly snatched up, and slammed to the ground like a tin can.

As it was 11:00pm (in the real world), and day 22 (in the Realm), we decided to hang it up for the night. Though we were severely crushed, we still had a great time, and got a good 3 hours of game time without any game-ending bugs.

A couple things we DID notice:

• At one point, after the Black Knight lured opponents, the Sorceror never got the opportunity to lure off the Black Knight's sheet. I need to fix that.
  
• Native combat is tricky! The interface worked for the most part, but there is definitely room for improvement.

One thing that I tested, worked out great: Before the game went too far, I saved it. After the game was over, we tested restarting from the save file, and it worked like a champ! Too bad I didn't save it AFTER the White Knight got the grail and BEFORE he got chewed up by the Wolves!! Ah well!

The combat detail page worked out very nice - it helped point out exactly what happened during each round of combat, which was definitely a plus when doing the native interactions. If you haven't seen this feature yet, download version 0.13, and check it out!

Okay, that's all for now!

Version 0.13 Released

This is a relatively small release, but I think its worth it anyway. Fixed a couple of annoying bugs, and added some new features I think you'll like. I'm playing with this version tonight with some friends online, so I'll let you know how that goes!

Here's what's new:

NEW FEATURES:

• New Spells Working:
  
  • Exorcism
    
  • Small Blessing (Works mostly, though the WISH table isn't complete...)
  
  
• Reset button on combat panel to allow "takebacks" during combat.
  
• Detail button on combat panel displays a text description of combat resolution.

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Maneuver hotspots are disabled if there are no attackers
  
• Luring from character sheets is supported. Click on the LURE hotspot without selecting an unassigned denizen to see this option.
  
• Changed buttons around a bit on SpellSelector (was a bit confusing)
  
• Can no longer close SpellSelector by clicking the "Close Window" box (was causing some problems)
  
• Reinstated code to allow selling of activated items (except activated potions, of course). All sold items are deactivated (and unalerted) on sale.
  
• Fixed the wording in the TRADE dialog to better describe what is happening (especially in the case of a BOON)
  
• Fixed a bug where your gold could go negative when turning down a BOON.
  
• Fixed a bug where having the ASHES curse prevented you from accepting a BOON.

Tracking Bugs

I've always managed bugs the same way: people send me e-mails and I add the bug to a growing ToDo list. As I finish the work, I delete the bug from my ToDo list, and add it to my Changes list.

This works pretty good, except when I forget to move a bug from my INBOX, to my ToDo list, and it gets forgotten. It's nearly impossible to go back through all my e-mails to locate an old bug report, and so I usually dont.

For some time now, I've thought I should use a web-based bug tracking system that would enable people to report bugs in a logical way, and view existing bugs already in progress. I'm experimenting with such a system called Mantis, and so far its looking pretty good for what I want. If you want to see the RealmSpeak bug tracker, go to:

http://mantis.dewkid.com/current/

This link is also in my sidebar. You will be able to set up an account, by following the directions there, and immediately begin viewing my bug list. I haven't transferred too many bugs from my list yet, so don't be too surprised at the small number of bugs there (I've only got 2 in there at the time of this post).

This isn't to say I wont accept bug reports via e-mail, because I know sometimes people are intimidated by web systems, but I would hope that people consider the bug tracker as an alternative, at the very least.

There should be a release (v0.13) very soon, as I've added some cool features I want out there. I also fixed the "Native's can't Lure off a character" issue, and added a few new spells (Exorcise, Small Blessing).

Version 0.12 Released

This is a fairly big release, with lots of new features and fixed bugs. I really want to give a special thanks to Vincent L, who provided me with very long, and very detailed bug reports. Without this help, I'm not sure I'd have gotten half of these things done.

That said, there were a few bugs I didn't address, simply because I could never recreate them on my machine. The most major of these are:

• Spell targeting problems, where sometimes targets are targeted more than once
  
• Natives sometimes use horses in caves during combat
  
• Starting a turn between two clearings where one is a cave, sometimes acts as though you started in a cave.

If you encounter any of these, can you please save the game at your next possible opportunity, and send it to me? I really don't like leaving these bugs unaddressed, but until I can see them myself, there's nothing I can do!

With that "disclaimer" out of the way, here's what's new in this version (warning - very long list):

New Features:

• Option on character sheet to have combat windows open every Evening - default ON
  
• Better error reporting when an image file cannot be found (causes the game to exit, rather than play on)
  
• New spell selector interface: allows choosing the same spell more than once
  
• New Character Frame header layout
  
• New Spell Working: Make Whole
  
• New BattleBuilder GUI
  
  • Full interface for standalone Battle tester
    
  • Non-linear creation of battle situations
    
  • More control over inventory (ie., damaged armor)
    
  • Easy to make changes before playing the battle

Fixed Bugs/Issues:

• Counter typos reported by beta-testers:
  
  • Vulnerability fixed on Soldier HQ - Heavy not Medium
    
  • Added the words "HIDE 1 die" to Shoes of Stealth treasure card (though it always worked that way)
    
  • The Silver Breastplate has been fixed: Heavy vulnerability, not Medium
    
  • Octopus is now circled 4 instead of circled 2 on RED side
  
  
• Proofread all counters: found 3 more errors which are now fixed: }
  
  • T Spider front move time is now 3 instead of 4
    
  • Patrol 1 values switched (was backward: light on dark, and dark on light)
    
  • Morning Star unalerted speed is now 6 (was blank)
  
  
• No longer have unlimited actions after moving with a Pony
  
• Fixed problem when loading a save game where characters have hirelings
  
• Characters become unhidden at the start of their turn (instead of midnight)
  
• Horses cannot be activated unless they are strong enough to carry your character AND your inventory
  
• Inactive horses are included when determining what you can carry (rule 3.6/4)
  
• Cannot switch out horses after recording a MOVE action for the day (I know this isn't completely accurate, but will work for now)
  
• Die modifiers work on spells
  
• When no target is selected, and active weapon is not played, it's alerted state no longer changes
  
• Trying to LOOT the CAIRNS with no active asterisk chits no longer freezes the game
  
• Fixed MagicSight "Perceive Spell" issues (can't learn spells outside your ability; can only learn spell once)
  
• Save and End game options ONLY available during BIRDSONG now
  
• Boots cannot be activated unless they are strong enough to carry your character AND your inventory
  
• Followers with SQUEAK curse do not hide when guide hides
  
• Revamped Run logic to use a new system: squashes all "run" problems reported to date
  
• Can no longer loot the clearing directly instead of Magic Sight, when that ability is enabled
  
• Natives become unhidden when luring or deploying
  
• Natives can no longer deploy to hidden enemies that haven't been found yet
  
• Natives that become unhired (end of term) become unhidden
  
• Can only sell INACTIVE inventory now
  
• Disabled character development levels for now - not fully implemented
  
• When running, hirelings are disengaged from targets (I know that natives don't run, but I'm not fixing it this time around)
  
• Fixed problem with multiple free actions (Amazon with 3 extra MOVE phases due to 7L Boots, and a Horse - she was getting 4!)
  
• Die bonus is no longer lost on Trade table when opportunity or trouble occurs
  
• Gray magic spells no longer work with ANY color
  
• Buying drinks includes all members of the native group in the clearing, including those already hired
  
• Awakening all the spells on a book/artifact no longer prevents further Read Runes rolls
  
• Oil of Poison no longer affects daggers (may add this back as a house rule, if people want it)
  
• Multiple rests for a guide translate to multiple rests for the followers
  
• Dwarf drinking the Poultice of Health gets 3 asterisks per REST phase
  
• Destroyed armor is repaired before being used on a new character
  
• Demon MOVE times no longer affect Pilgrim's ability to ALERT, run, or cast spells
  
• Only "carryable" items are counted towards victory points

Make Whole

Woo-Hoo! I finally broke down and got another spell done. I had to add a bunch of code (surprisingly) to support the behavior of an instant spell, but I got it done. That's one: Make Whole.

With that done, there's not much reason to put off any of the Instant spells, which means most of the I's.

More Maintenance Today

I managed to find several hours today to work on RealmSpeak, and thus have fixed many little problems that accumulated in my inbox while I was on vacation. Version 0.12 is going to be one of the largest maintenance releases since some of the very early versions.

I'm really hoping to find some time for some new spells (it's been too long since I've adding anything substantially "new"). If I do any, it will be the WHITE magic spells, so that the Pilgrim can see his full potential.

Image Files

(I meant to post this yesterday)

There have been some issues surrounding the new image files I introduced in v0.10. If these image files are not put into the correct directory (/images/combat), the game behaves strangely, especially when playing hired natives in combat. Part of the problem is that RealmSpeak doesn't report this error, and continues happily as if nothing is wrong. When native combat ensues, there is no indication of the missing denizen melee sheet in combat, instead showing no change when clicking the natives.

If you are having problems, I recommend downloading the entire resource pack again, and reinstalling the image folder. This will guarantee that you have things where they belong. Version 0.12 of RealmSpeak will indicate when an image file is missing or misplaced, and will not run until the problem is resolved. This should alleviate any future difficulties with the program, and should settle any confusion.

I really need to either use Java WebStart (a Java install & run application by Sun) or come up with a way to do updates that requires a little less file-manipulation. Some day...

Pony Bug Fixed

Vincent pointed out a bug that has a tendancy to be exploited: If you own a Pony and record a single move, you will suddenly have an infinite amount of actions at your disposal! Makes looting the Lair in one turn a piece of cake! Needless to say, this bug is squashed, and will be fixed in v0.12.

There's another bug that relates to horses that I'm not sure I will get to this time. If you have a Pony/Horse and a Warhorse, you can use the Horse or Pony to gain a movement advantage, and then use the Warhorse to transport heavy items. This is clearly wrong and should be fixed, but the rareity of it precludes from jumping on it right away. I don't know about you all, but the times I've ever even owned a horse I can count on one hand! How do you do it Vincent!! ;-)

Proofreading the Counters

A number of people have reported some typos in RealmSpeak, which can affect the game greatly. Here are the one's I've fixed in v0.12:

• Soldier HQ - Vulnerability is Heavy, not Medium
  
• Octopus - RED attack speed is 4, not 2
  
• Silver Breastplate - Heavy, not Medium
  
• Shoes of Stealth - Missing text HIDE 1 die

With these errors, I decided it was time to proofread all the counter data, something I haven't done since the data was entered years ago (yes, years ago!). I found a few other errors which are fixed in 0.12:

• T Spider - Light side move time is 3, not 4
  
• Patrol 1 - front/back sides were backwards
  
• Morning Star - Unalerted speed is 6, not blank

I'm pretty sure that's all of them. I will provide a counter data sheet with all future release, generated directly off the XML data file RealmSpeak uses. This will allow players to check the stats, if they think something might be wrong during the game.

I just finished enabling the combat screen for every turn of the game. Several of you have been requesting this, so that you may do Encounters without enemies (running, spellcasting, etc). Of course, if you (like me) don't want combat to pop up every turn, there will be a checkbox to disable this feature on your main character window.

Speaking of which, I decided to rearrange the top of the character window a bit. That whole part of the window just seemed a bit chaotic to me, and needed some structuring. I think you'll like the result.

Okay, that's enough chatter for now. I've a got a couple more hours to work on the code, and time's a wastin!

Back to the Realm

Just got back from my 2 week "vacation" to Oregon with my family. I see many of you have been sending me bug reports (none of which I have even looked at yet), so I'm guessing I've got my work cut out for me for version 0.12.

Don't expect too much in the next couple of days, but maybe this weekend I'll get back into some coding!

For the record, 19 hours of driving in two days with three kids (7, 5, and 2) is about 15 hours too long! Home sweet home.

Version 0.11 Released

There's a lot more in this release than I originally thought I'd have time to do. A couple of late nights was all I needed. Here's what's new:

• Fixed the bug that occurs when you try to run from a combat after being blocked during a move (HOORAY!!)
  
• Fixed the bug that causes the game to crash if a character dies while owning hirelings
  
• Fixed the bug where you are between two mountain clearings, each with a monster, and you cannot move because you are endlessly blocked!
  
• If you are blocked during your turn, the point at which it happens is denoted with the word "BLOCKED"
  
• Fixed "End Current Game" option. No more black-edge maps, or dead frames.
  
• Fixed issues with T Monster vs. mounted native (Rule 34.7/7)
  
• RED-side-up T Monster flips back when its target is dead
  
• Can choose a horse (or two) in the Combat Tester
  
• Native Archers roll 1 die instead of 2
  
• Hits that don't fatigue, wound, kill, or damage armor don't count when determining if combat ends
  
• Spellcasting is not considered "inactivity" for a round of combat (ie., combat can continue as long as spells are being cast)
  
• Swordsman only rolls 1 die when doing TRADE (not HIRE!)
  
• Can't cheat anymore by mousing over clearings, and finding out where state chits were hiding
  
• Fixed the bug where a spellcaster couldn't unselect other characters when casting an area effect attack spell
  
• Must place spell attack before being allowed to continue
  
• Doesn't offer buy drinks for FRIENDLY or ALLY when looking for block/battle at days end
  
• Magic Sight works with clearing pile now
  
• Can only save games during recording stage (Birdsong) - Save games should work more reliably now
  
• Finished Power of the Pit results
  
• T Monster flips to RED when their part/weapon hits
  
• Natives no longer ride horses in CAVES
  
• When running, targets are now disengaged
  
• Missile table WOUND result no longer wounds the archer doing the roll!
  
• Bug where Combat round sometimes doesn't get reset between battles is fixed

Unless there is a game killing bug in there, this is going to be the last release for awhile (several weeks). I've got a bunch of stuff going on, and I'm not going to be near my computer. You can continue to send bug reports, but don't fret if I don't answer my e-mail. I'll get to it again when things settle down, and pick up where I left off.

Thanks to everyone who sent me bug reports this week! The credit really goes to you for helping me find out what's wrong with RealmSpeak. I'm not sure I would have ever been able to fix that annoying "Run Away" bug if it wasn't for the playtesters. Some new playtesters (see the About box) found some particularly nasty bugs that I was able to get fixed in this release. Hooray!!

Thank you!!!!

Dieing with Hirelings

I became aware of a new bug today. A couple people on the Magic Realm discussion list said that RealmSpeak "crashed" on them, after a character died. After some experimentation over lunch, it seems that if you die while owning hirelings, the combat window closes, and the screen goes gray. The game crashes.

As this is a fairly serious bug (crashes are very VERY discouraging), I'll be putting together a release fairly soon. Hopefully, I can squeeze a couple other things in to make it worth the trouble to download.

Thanks to Steve and Vincent for bringing this one to my attention!

Run Away Bug Found!

Thanks to the detailed comments of one playtester (Peter), I was finally able to recreate this bug! Here's how it happens:

You record a move across several clearings. Because you plan to be hidden, the monster in your path isn't too much of a worry. Unfortunately, you fail your hide roll, and are blocked before you reach your ultimate destination! Since you are caught unprepared, you decide to run away at the first opportunity. You succeed, but realize that instead of being placed between the clearings, you are still sitting in the clearing with the monster!!

On your next turn, you move, and discover that your only option, is to return to the same clearing! This isn't good!! You've encountered.... THE BUG!!

First reported on the MagicRealm Wiki by Eric Topp, this bug has been plagueing me for some time (since v0.4!!). It seemed to pop up rarely, but it is almost always a game killer. It has been hell for me to find it, because it never popped up when I was looking for it, and thus was never able to really get AT it.

Now (finally) I can recreate the bug at will, by simply recording a move "through" a monster without hiding, getting blocked, and trying to run. A fix will be in place by version 0.11.

Thanks to everyone that sent me information and screenshots on this one!!

Version 0.10 Released

For the first time, Native Combat! Here's what's new:

• Clear out Serious Wound Rolls each round
  
• Fixed "Decrease Levels" logic in Harm (decreases final harm, not just strength)
  
• Missile weapons don't benefit from excess FIGHT strength
  
• Added ability to alert MAGIC chits in combat simulator
  
• T Serpent is armored now
  
• Fixed Ghosts Notoriety Earnings (was 1, is now 2)
  
• Highlight all rows with pending actions
  
• Character attacks/maneuvers are secret if a character is attacking him/her
  
• Hireling maneuvers on their own sheet (defender) are secret if a character is attacking them
  
• Characters can mark which other characters are their enemy (Relationships tab) so friends aren't presented with the combat window on every turn.
  
• Battling natives works (complete with drink buying)
  
• Sucker punch - Monster gets its own combat sheet
  
• Native combat, and most aspects of it, are implemented - NO NATIVE LEADER SUPPORT YET!
  
• Monster/Native Regeneration - has always been there, but the code was never called!
  
• Fixed Ghosts respawning - they are always prowling, and thus always respawn on the 7th day
  
• HIRE action works
  
• Show current month/day in character frame header
  
• Fixed problem with taking a BOON from an Ally (used to bump down to Neutral!!)
  
• Spell Selection page no longer shows "You may select more than ONE" if you can't.
  
• Can place an attack without selecting a target (characters only) to alert a weapon (Rule 22.4/2a)

What's next? I think I'm going to take a step back, and work on some annoying things that have been broken for awhile (run bug, save/load features, combat simulator, etc.). Expect version 0.11 to be a bit of a maintenance release, with not a whole lot of new features. I imagine that will be okay, since this version should give you to plenty to play with for a while!

Have fun!

Done with Testing

I'm done with my testing for v0.10, so now all I need to do is get the files together for the release. I should be able to put it up tomorrow (Monday) night or Tuesday. I'd do it now, except I'm tired, and I have a family to attend to! :-)

As soon as the release is up, I'll post it here, and send a message to the RealmSpeak mailing list.

Slow but Sure

I had forgotten how much there was to do with natives on the non-combat side of things! I think in the interest in getting a version out sooner rather than later, I'm going to forgo writing the code for handling Native Leaders for now. In other words, you'll hire natives, and they'll follow you until their hire term is up, then they'll drop into the clearing. They'll give you T strength when you need it (and if they have it!), and they'll fight in your interest when you get into combat, but outside of that, they are just... well.... inventory!

I changed the mystery "followers" panel that has always occupied the RealmSpeak character frames with a "hirelings" panel that shows who is working for you, where they are, and how long their hire term is. Of course, hirelings will always be with the hiring character for now, but when I finish writing code to support sending your leaders off in different directions, and transferring hirelings to other players, this part at least will be ready.

I am getting very close to releasing v0.10. I'm currently dealing with a couple of bugs related to spell targeting amongst natives and other characters, as well as a problem with native friendliness change after a BOON is taken (still isn't working!!), but other than that, its ready. Once I fix the bugs I've found, I need to play through a couple of solo games to make sure nothing else is broken, and then I'll post the release (maybe this weekend??)

HIRE Phase Working

Not much point having native combat in place, if you can't hire them in the first place! I got that piece finished, and I'm beginning to work on how spoils happen. In other words, when you slaughter the natives at the Inn (a strategy I'm not terribly fond of), their supplies are open for looting.

Oh, and I discovered rather inadvertently that monster respawning wasn't working. The piece of code that does this has been tested and in place since version 0.1, but simply never been called by the RealmSpeak main frame! I doubt many of you noticed this, unless you ever killed the ghosts, and noticed they never came back... This is fixed now, and you'll see it in version 0.10, which will come out sometime this month, I promise! Thanks to Steve M for pointing out the problems with the Ghosts!

Still Progressing on Native Combat

I've got Native combat mostly finished. Native horses behave properly, deployment works (even against other characters!), and monsters can own their own combat sheet. Still need to support Character-Character combat (almost there), and then I have to turn to the game itself: Hiring phases, Battling Natives, Native Leader turns, etc.

Can't promise a release time yet (got a busy holiday weekend), so the best I can offer is to keep an eye here, or better yet, sign up for the mailing list (see link on left sidebar).

Happy Fourth of July!

Native Combat

I've got an early version of Native combat in place. I actually did a battle with the Elf + Woodfolk versus all six bats, and it worked fairly well. A few friends sure make that battle a bit more reasonable! Still, I've got a lot to do. Deployment is turning out to be a tricky endeavour, and handling repositioning/tactics rolls is a nightmare when there are so many combatants and possibilities! Still, I'm confident it will come together fairly soon, and certainly by the next release.

What else to expect in version 0.10? Despite my earlier comments on this blog, I'm not going to do any more spells for this release: native combat is occupying all of my limited time, and when that's done, I'm releasing it before starting on anything new. There were a few bugs in harm calculations, which will be fixed, and I corrected an error in my data file that rendered the T Serpent as an unarmored monster! (If you've ever killed this beast when you thought you shouldn't have, then you know what I mean!)

Oh, with the implementation of Native combat, the "Sucker Punch" will probably fall into place too. If you aren't familiar with it, its when you hide during random assignment, and then attack an unassigned denizen during target assignment. Gives you one round where the denizen can't fight back, and can be critical to surviving some battles, especially against Natives.

When to expect the next release? I don't imagine it will be ready for a couple of weeks. With summer here, the weekends are turning into busy days, and I'm not getting nearly the same amount of time on the computer at home as before. Of course, news will always be posted here, and on the mailing list.

Thanks for all your support!