v0.913 released

In the grand tradition of rapidly releasing in order to fix a couple of serious bugs, I've dropped v0.913 on SourceForge. Thanks to the tireless Rob Ayres for reporting them.
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v0.913 (22 December 2013)
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Other
 - Increased spell casting stats for Parched Vultures
 - Flagged Goblin throwing knife attacks as ranged instead of melee
#81 NPX in combat
#86 NPX when foe carries non-equipable item
#89 Editor: warning on close window
#90 NPX trading with Stenelaus
#95 Many bombs have infinite charges
#99 NPX climbing stairs in CoC 

Family commitments over the festive season are probably going to bring development to a standstill for the next few weeks, but I'll see what I can do. Top of the list right now is implementing the long awaited combo box, in preparation for a combat UI revamp, which in turn is in preparation for a richer set of combat options.

Compliments of the season to all, see you on the other side :)

v0.912 released

As usual, you can head over to SourceForge to get it.

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v0.912 (1 December 2013)
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Features
 - Refactored Foe and PlayerCharacter to share common data model
 - Added a proper Inventory class, for use by PCs and foes alike
 - Added suggested names per race+gender to character creation
 - Added alignment, font and text colour properties to text areas
 - Redesigned the character creation wizard
 - Refactored starting kits into a first class data item
 - Detailed names and flavour text for class starting kits
 - Improved searching by name on spell display widget
 - Swapped available spellbooks of Sorcerer and Magician
 - Swapped available spellbooks of Priest and Adept
 - Swapped available spellbooks of Witch and Cultist
 - Added font size config property
 - Increased default screen resolution to 1024x768

Other
#53 Display class changing requirements in UI
#54 Monster counting bug
#57 Cannot edit some modifiers on level up
#58 Chivalry never practised
#59 Combat modifiers not practised
#60 Kepnasha encountered in COC
#61 List things affecting a modifier
#64 Spellbooks to indicate which magic school they belong to
#65 Many spellbooks have "to equip" requirements
#68 Examine balance of combat modifier practise
#70 Steal modifier does not practise
#71 Critical hit modifiers do not practise
#72 Powercast not practising
#73 Golden apples and Magic Nectar crash the game
#74 Theft spell hangs the game
#75 NPC speech detection is case sensitive
#76 Spell level limits to not work
#77 Cure poison spell crashes the game
#78 Sporadic crash opening waterfront villa chest
#80 Chamois Skirt has "reserved15 +1" modifier

1024x768

I've upped the default screen res to 1024x768. 800x600 isn't as feasible as it used to be when I started dev on the game, and even 1024x768 is pretty small by modern standards. No art assets have been redone, but that may come in time. The screens do look a lot mor spacious, especially the text-heavy ones during character creation.

Here's some screenshots.

In the Gatehouse at 800x600

In the arena at 1024x768

Class selection at 800x600

Class selection at 1024x768

Next task is to package up and release 0.912, drawing a line under the last six months of tinkering. Time is limited, and I'd like to do a bit more regression testing this time, so I guess it'll be out in a week or two.

Development Update

I've been working away at the bug and small enhancement backlog. Highlights include displaying class changing requirements during the level up wizard and ensuring that every modifier increases practice at most once every round. Starting kit data is almost all complete too, pending some balance though.

Another few fixes and I will roll up a release for distribution. It seems like a six month release cycle is where we're at right now.

Comment discovered in the source

@ mclachlan.maze.stat.magic.SpellBook#getSpellsThatCanBeLearned

// let's see if I can fight the cheap red wine and get this right

Clearly I didn't, as evidenced by bug #76.

An update and development and other things

Not much to report. I have been working on the GOAP AI, which hasn't really gone anywhere. It's proving hard to represent the world state meaningfully in a set of booleans.

I've also been fixing some of the bug backlog, some good fixes going in there.

Other free time has been spent on Swords & Sorcery: Underworld and Occult Chronicles. Both great, I highly recommend them. Alas the little boy isn't going to sleep on my lap in front of computer games any more. My future gaming time may suffer as I'm forced to react to his new found mobility...

Development update: Character Creation

The redesign of the character creation wizard is done. Here are some screen shots:

1: Race and gender. Would be nice to have a character race picture somewhere here, but that can wait I guess.

2: Character class (and spell books if applicable). Looks like there will be a problem fitting in more classes, I may need to make a plan.

3: Starting kit. Includes flavour text, modifiers and the actual list of starting items. This replaces the Modifier assignment step.

4: Spell selection. This only appears for character classes that start with spells. Random doesn't work yet.

5: Finally, personal details. Name, portrait and personality are assigned here. It also displays a summary of the character's starting modifiers, the sum of race, class, gender, and starting kit.

As part of this work starting kits have been normalised out into their own database table, rather than being an atribute attached to character class (and race in the case of Faeries and Dryads). I have a lot of work outstanding writing flavour text for all the various starting kits. That will happen over time.

I'm feeling like I should get back to the foe AI, but we'll see how it goes.

Development Update: No sooner said than done

I've been tackling the redesign of the Create Character wizard. When the muse takes you...

The work is not yet complete, but the new design is a lot more consistent and fun to use than the old. It now goes Race & Gender -> Class -> Kit -> Spells -> Name/Portrait/Personality.

Race/Gender and Class both benefit greatly from redesigned screens. Kit gets a whole screen and will become a "first-class" choice. Moving the personals section to the end adds some focus to those details.

Kit choice! Kits will include their own descriptions, names (they're currently named after the primary weapon), and a set of modifiers that replaces modifier assignment. This will make for a great chance to add some flavour, and hide new players from the complexities of weapon attack modes and spell book favoured modifiers. A redesigned screen will give me the chance to display all the starting items of each the kit for inspection by the player.

Work outstanding is the redesign of the kits screen, and a lot of data entry content creation around kit names and descriptions. I'll post some screen shots when it's done, I think this blog needs more picture.

Development Update: Suggested Names

I've taken a short detour to implement a feature long in mind: character name suggestions during the character creation process.

Names are suggested based on the combination of race and gender, and are randomly selected from a list configured in the editor. The 'random' generation on the screen will also pick a random name now.

I've been thinking that the character creation wizard needs some changes, it's a bit scattered and crowded right now. I'd also like to eliminate the modifier editing in favour of preset modifiers on starting kit...

Development update

Foe inventories are now populated on spawning from their loot tables, and prior to combat each foe has a chance to fill any open slots with appropriate equipment that it may be carrying.

This has an some indirect impacts on loot drops. First, each foe now generates loot prior to combat rather than all loot drops being generated at the end. This open up some interesting options for theft/breakage/other impacts in foe items that I had planned many years ago but never come close to implementing. Second, foes that rely on equipment (hirebrands, leonal knights, etc) will now drop stacks of loot. I may need to work in some kind of destruction of items before dropping them, and will probably need to implement the long-dreamed of party-inventory.

Opening one door always reveals more doors to explore beyond, but these ones are for further in the future.

Hooking up actual foe behaviour to equipment and the GOAP AI will be a lot of work still, so I may have a go at cleaning up the open bugs and cut a release before tackling it. We'll see.