v0.916 released!

18 months later, finally another release. Both lots and not much to say about this drop. Lots has changed. Still very much a work in progress. Grab the download at SourceForge.

Without further ado, the release notes.

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v0.916 (18 December 2016)
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Features
 - Gnome female art and portraits
 - Changed NPC attitude system to use states instead of a score
 - Added attitudes for all actor encounters (NPC and foe)
 - All encounters now on new UI design and standard event processing model
 - Support for both windowed and full-screen mode, can be set in maze.cfg
 - Dwarves are drinking fit
 - Spell data model updated to includes HP, AP and MP costs that are Values
 - Added spell results: AttackWithWeaponSpellResult, CreateItemSpellResult
 - Implemented Backstab and Snipe as Spells: results in a weapon attack, costs AP
 - NPC Inventory Templates can now include Loot Entries
 - Added character race images and spell book descriptions to the character creation wizard
 - Added Iajutsu special ability
 - Added foe information popup on click of the sprite during actor encounters and combat
 - Added foe types as configurable objects, can provide modifiers and abilities to foes
 - Favoured Enemy modifiers for various foe types
 - Added descriptions for player spell books
 - Immunity to Criticals is now a modifier, not a Foe Template property
 - Added level ability progression preview to the character class selection screen
 - Class abilities: Parry & 1H Wield for Sword, Axe, Mace, Polearm & Staff; Threaten; Code of Honour; Code of Dishonour; Hide; Bribe, Dodge; Backstab; Snipe; Riposte
 - Acolyte class abilities: Whispers of Evil, Life Leech, Dark Majesty, Hellfire, Power of Darkness, Apotheosis
 - Amazon class abilities: Amazon Stamina, Amazon Strength, Amazon Speed, Deadly Aim, Furious Purpose, Amazon Courage, Amazon Willpower, Hail of Arrows, Amazon Fury
 - Berserker class abilities: Berserk Powers, Berserk At Will
 - Blackguard class abilities: Dying Blow, Finisher, Bloodthirsty, Notoriety, Terrifying Reputation
 - Burglar class abilities: Pickpocket, Nondescript, Dirty Attack, Danger Sense, Sap, Quick Wits, Disable, Trap Sense
 - Courtesan class abilities: Slip Away, Hidden Blade, Underhand Throw, Hidden Dart, Deadly Dart, Surprise Parry, Surprise Riposte

Other
 - Performance improvements for movement mode
 - Refactored event text display to centralise into a single UI widget
 - Refactored combat to execute on the game thread

November update

It's been a slow month. I've just started on the Courtesan class abilities, but before that a couple of long-overdue tweaks:

• AttackWithWeaponSpellResult requirements (e.g. requires ranged weapon) now impact the option display in combat instead of just fizzling the action.
• Clipping of PC options combo to screen Y bounds
• Event messages now clear the display, with an all-new "view log" button to display the whole message log for browsing. Makes combat easier to follow.
• Adding descriptions to player spell books, also now displayed during character creation
• Added race pictures to character creation wizard (still missing some art assets here)
• Support for running windowed instead of full-screen

 I've also renamed the spell books to their corresponding colours:

• Sorcery to "Red Magic"
• Witchcraft to "Purple Magic"
• Elementalism to "Blue Magic"
• Enchantment to "Gold Magic"
• Druidism to "Green Magic"

Of course Black and White magic needed no changes.
I think this naming avoids bringing a bunch of baggage with each type of spell book, reduces confusion about colours of mana they need, and is generally more user friendly.

20%

Five classes down, twenty to go. Give or take a few straggler level abilities.

Highlights for October include

• Blackguard abilities: Finisher, Bloodthirsty, Notoriety, Terrifying Reputation
• Burglar abilities: Pickpocket, Nondescript, Dirty Attack, Danger Sense, Sap, Quick Wits, Disable, Trap Sense
• Shared abilities: Threaten, Code of Honour, Code of Dishonour, Hide, Bribe, Dodge, Backstab, Snipe, Riposte

Small pieces of measurable progress have been fun, but a bit same-y. The nature of the repetition won't change - every class has it's unique thingums that will need to be implemented.

So I'm taking a quick divert from this class-ability stuff. Time for some creative writing, a few UI tweaks, some bugfixes, etc.

Class Ability Progression Progressing

Progress proceeds in alphabetical order

• Amazon class abilities: Amazon Courage, Amazon Willpower, Hail of Arrows, Amazon Fury
• Berserker class abilities: Berserk Powers, Berserk At Will
• Blackguard class abilities: Dying Blow
• Shared abilities: Deadly Strike is now an activated ability

Not much else to report.

July/August update

Working through the class abilities. Starting at the top with A, here's the elevator pitch:

• Special abilities: Sword Parry, Axe Parry, Mace Parry, Polearm Parry, Staff Parry. Only Polearm parry currently used, by the Amazon
• Acolyte special abilities: Whispers of Evil, Life Leech, Dark Majesty, Hellfire, Power of Darkness, Apotheosis
• Amazon special abilities: Amazon Stamina, Amazon Strength, Amazon Speed, Deadly Aim, Furious Purpose,

When I'm further along I'll try and post occasional class spotlights, going into further detail on what each ability does.

I'm still pencilling in a release towards the end of the year. It will have some well fleshed-out classes and some not started on yet, but it'll be good to exercise the release process and get a version out there.

The April May June update

Progress has been slow. I blame Hearthstone.

Not much code has been written, but a lot of spreadsheet work has been done coming up with special abilities for the different classes. There are a few gaps still, but I've moved on to implementing. Code needs to get written to enable some of the cool stuff, so that is in progress too.

In brief:
Character classes to be dropped: Magician, Cultist, Scout, Kamunushi, Knave (in favour of Burglar)
Character classes to be renamed: Kitsune -> Courtesan

Hard choices to be made

Progress-wise: favoured enemy modifiers are done, and some minor UI polishing of the character creation process.

The big feature rollout is kinda running out of steam - it's time to firm up the character classes and finalise that design. I think I'll be dropping a couple of character classes, at least initially.

Scout: since the heroic/retainer split this class has always been an uneasy shadow of the Ranger. I thought about changing it to Archer, but Ranger shades that a bit too.

Magician, Cultist, Kamunushi: these two-magic classes have never had a strong identity (except maybe the Cultist), and there are a few missing from a full roster of combinations. Maybe a future addition.

After that, I think I'll rename the Kitsune class to Courtesan. The design still needs a female-only stealth-focused Purple magic class. But as interesting as the "kitsune as a class" idea was it's just a little too confusing. Courtesan ticks those boxes and opens up some interesting options for non-combat class abilities.

March Progress Update

Foe types are done. A foe can have multiple types, which can confer modifiers, natural weapons and special abilities. This is the springboard for a bunch of "favoured enemy" type character class abilities, provisionally up next.

The foe information pop up is also done. You can right click on a foe sprite in an encounter and be rewarded with something like this (subject to mythology modifier and foe identification difficulty):

January update

January has seen a little progress. I've fixed a bunch of combat related bugs, and implemented the Iajutsu special ability. 

Iajutsu
The art of rapidly drawing and attacking with a sword.

Cost
Costs 1 Action Point per activation

Mechanics
Requires the character to be wielding a primary weapon that is a sword and has the KENDO weapon focus
When attacked, as a pre-combat action the character makes a single attack with one or more strikes against a random foe within reach

Value
A non-zero IAJUTSU modifier enables this ability
The value of the modifier indicates how many strikes are made (typically 1, 2, 3 or 4).

With this the mechanics are there for other re-combat actions. I'm thinking: ninjas getting a shuriken attack, warlocks getting some kind of wild magic. Maybe others.

The big ticket item on the horizon is the Great Magic Refactor, but I'm kinda working through a few small things to build up momentum first.

Happy 2016

As is already apparent, there won't be a December release. Holiday season with two small kids is just too busy.

Feature development will carry on at the usual pace, and I'll aim for a June release. That semi-officially makes the release cadence every 12 months...