Blog

Version 0.131 Java    March 2 2020
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• Added Tool Tip hints to Large View Port. Shows up by the mouse once over an icon.
• Special effect still caused an error.
• use potion text alignment not correct in large view port.
• Player Disease, curse or poison active effects would also not reload from save game.

 

Version 0.13 was forced to have a huge update.  The save game could possible crash loading when you have a Special Effect running at the time of save.  The game would not load these games only.  It would not know how to handle and create class files to run again.

So you save games from 0.12 or earlier will not work in this version.   If you have a save game that you would really like to move forward.  Create a post and upload a zip copy of the save game and I can manually alter it to work with 0.13.

 

Version 0.13 Java    Feb. 29, 2020
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• Wandering trader gui didn’t show up correctly for large view port.
• Wandering trader still trader after being attacked. Now will not trader after being attacked.
• Wandering trader know tries to flee after being attacked.
• Sugar Beet Quest – Gift for completing the quest caused the item to show on the ground when it didn’t.
• Sugar Beet Quest – After completing quest, the NPC still talked about finding the trader for sugar beets.
• Quests had bug that prevents some of them from being marked as completed.
• Transact menu while in encounter didn’t display correctly for Large View Ports.
• Added a Window Icon for the game.
• Changed the mouse Icon for the game.
• Added a second mouse Icon when viewing the map in full screen. Changed to writing pen with a feather
  so the player knows you can write on the map.
• Quit menu didn’t center labels correctly.
• Added more Help screens – NPC quests, NPC House, Challenge Mode
• Changed help screen to load from file, easier way to add in more help screens instead
  of having to change code everytime.
• Wearing armor would cause the game to crash. Pointer not pointing to correct position.
• moved decor items into expansion modules.
• decor items for now is for enhanced gameplay and 16bit graphics only.

 

 

Version 0.123 Java    Feb. 26, 2020
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REDOWNLOAD 0.123   It was a build issue.   Need to look into putting some kind of check system to make sure the build was done correctly.

 

Version 0.123 Java    Feb. 26, 2020
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Chapel bug fix, repenting would cause you to get stuck.
Chapel bug fix. Repenting didn’t remove correct inventory from player.
Chapel bug fix. Chapel didn’t accept player if carrying a corpse.
Before the save game, physically remove items in limbo.

 

Sorry, the version should have been 0.122  not 0.121,  if you download 0.121,  just get rid of it.  The armour will be messed up and could cause a crash.

 

Version 0.122 Java   Feb. 24, 2020
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• Fixed loading save game from 0.11 into 0.121
• When armor takes damage in attack, it would through an exception.
•  

 

Version 0.12 Java   Feb. 23, 2020
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• Added Teleport sequence.
• Weapon would never break. about to break message would always appear preventing weapon from breaking.
• Missing floor texture that would cause a graphics error when drawing floors.
• NPC script in large view port showing up on the far right of the screen.
• AI NPC exception error when the script ends.
• Sign Meshes are added to the game. This is the start of decor being able to be placed in the world.
  The major support will be in the Dungeon, instead of all the empty rooms.
  Still need to implement collision detection on decor objects.
• bug fixes for new atlas texturing.

 

Version 0.11 Java   Feb. 17, 2020
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• No encounters.
• Better support for Large View Port. MAJOR update.
• There is a complete layout for the window system. On the right shows your character (Guess what game that was stolen from).
• As status of different things like poison, disease and such that are not shown by icon instead of words.
• There is an icon for left hand and right hand. it shows what your are wielding.
• Start of a help menu. If you press “ESC” it shows the quit menu, it is now a help menu. It has multiple pages for help.
• More Achievements, related to Chapels. Praying achievements. Listen to Sermons. Support for challenge mode.
• NPC homes, supports challenge mode.
• Southern gate crash
• corpse not dropping to the floor after fight.
• Body part in large view port will flash when it is attacked.
• Weapon will flash when it takes damage.
• When a bank account fails, next time you go into the bank, they will tell you one of your accounts failed.
• Improves window clipping during rendering.
• Many bug fixes in mouse clicking and rendering Labels.
• Added new GUIs windows when inside Large View Port.
• Added new background texture for the main menu. It will randomly pick between 3 different backgrounds.
• New Text Area input fields with scrolling. Going to be a new option in the Help Menu.
• Running daily bank interest and failures bug fix.

 

Version 0.10 Java
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• Automap not drawing correctly. Walls would be off center.
• Bug in wandering trader items drawing on screen.
• New wall textures.
• Beet Sugar quest – window is displaying on top of another window and making it hard to read. 2 windows draw at same time.
• Wandering Trader – window is displaying on top of another window and making it hard to read. 2 windows draw at same time.
• Sometime resuming a game menu would crash.
• Resuming game when save game not located – would cause exception
• Resume game window closes once you select a player. It use to stay open.
• Fighting can cause an error when dropping an item. New world item management had wrong pointer.
• Game Settings Menu – Memory Leak, leave it there long enough, and you will run out of memory.
• Added support for rendering “The City” textures as an option.
• Added examine item when you are picking up the item.
• Fixed weapon damage to your weapon. Parrying, being blocked has a 50% change of damage, while attacking
  has a small chance for damage. Armor has a small change for damage on each hit.
• Bank data is now loaded from external file. Static data removed from code. engine calls active
  expansion module to get player bank data and shop bank info data.

 

Version 0.09 – is a huge code changes to the World Item Management system.  I did some testing and it appears to be working correctly.  I only found two bugs in the new system in my testing.

Also,  There is a TEST in this BETA Version.  I would like to know if people like the new feature or not.  It is enhanced game play only.   There are textures for the floor of the city.   I’m thinking about making it an option even in enhanced game play.  Let me know what you think.   Standard play doesn’t have the new textures.

There are floor and wall textures that changed in the enhanced game play.

 

Version 0.09 Java Jan 20, 2020
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• Add Royal walk way textures.
• Added floor textures to enhanced gameplay.
• NPC would prevent you from passing through. would interact every time you hit the move button.
• bug fix in the gui related to mouse clicks.
• NPC character not on floor properly.
• commoner could crash after killing it.
• Automap bug fixes, they check wall types instead of looking at textures to determine what the wall is.
• Rewrite of World Items management. Fix many holes in the logic and bugs fixes for save/load game
• Smithy/Shops would end allowing to buy items for 0 coppers. Bug in mood adjustment for purchasing items.
• Dying in a shop or any other module would allow you to continue inside that shop without dying.
• AutoMap bug rendering fixes.

 

Version 0.08 Java Jan 17, 2020

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• Torch would stay lit sometimes after it should have gone out.
• Torch didn’t end up in inventory when you lit it.
• Can drop/pickup torch from ground now.
• Was not able to attack with a Dead Torch
• Added instruction for Music play. Pops up help if you select to
  play a song before selecting anything.
• prevent music player from crashing when hitting play without selecting
  a song first.
• While sleeping, added space to wake early.
• Encounter could still attack when on the ground.
• Added money exchange to bank. Exchange your copper and silver into gold. Save carrying weight.

1/13/2020

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Version 0.07 Java Jan 13, 2020

• 8-bit treasure can cause a crash when gathering treasure from encounter.
• For Beta testing. The cheat code didn’t active after sequence data.

 

11/13/2020

  Sorry everyone,  the build didn’t include “The City” module in the game causing it to not boot.   The new file is corrected.  Just redownload the v0.06 and it should be working.

Sorry forgot to link the v0.06 on the update.

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Version 0.06 Java Jan 12, 2020

• Bank Gems/Jewels appraisal would not work correctly.
• Appraisal of gem is not automatically sold anymore. So you can go
  to another bank and get their appraisal.
• Appraisal are saved until that gem/jewel is sold. So you can’t
  go back to the bank and get a different appraisal.
• Appraisal of Gems/Jewels now cost to get appraised, cost is based on the 16bit version of “The City”
• Working a job in the INN could and you being kicked out and not getting paid.
• Save Game would create a save directory outside of saves directory for each slot.
• Temperature inside a place should have a constant temperature.
• For Beta testing. I added cheat codes to help out testing. Since save games can
  be lost and restarting is a HELL in this game. To get to cheat codes, do the
  same thing that you would do in “The City” 8bit Atari. I assume you know this,
  its every where.
• Some textures were not showing up correctly when I started using cached data. The
  blend mapping textures where not being processed correctly.

 

 

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Version 0.05 Java Jan 11, 2020

 

ALERT:
  Your saved games will not work in this version.  The file format changed due to the bugs in the loading/saving of game files.  I had to change
  some stuff to get it working.    The bug fixes related to Save/Load games will not fix the issue with game started in 8bit and trying to reload it
  with 16bit graphics.  That will still break and throw an exception.

 

• Greeting guy 2nd screen is a repeat of the first screen basically.
• Adjust screen, if screen height is smaller than the game requires. It reduces the screen
  size to fit in the game and then just shrinks everything to fit in the new resolution.
• The spinning PLUS sign in the stat window. This SHOWS time and the movement of time.
  This spinning plus will speed up when time is running faster, like working/sleeping.
• Memory adjustment, better memory releasing of unused objects and misc adjustments.
• Memory management – improve the memory adjust to help lower memory requirement.
• Memory caching addition. The game caches many of the same texture game items to save
  memory when rending.
• Lyrics font drawing issue.
• Fix Large View port. It was broken.
  Now the large View port will display correct. THIS IS VERY EARLY feature.
  Large View Port:
  Change the text in the bottom console showing torches/water/food and etc…..
  Some of these things now show an Icon on the left part of the window.
  Food/Water Flask/Torches – Shows the icon related to this item and the number of them.
  Thirst/Hunger/Temperature – this icon will fill in as you get more hungry or thirsty. The icons
  get filled up based on the verbiage the original game had.
• When offering item to encounter, the previous menu was displaying at same time.
• Stealing bug fixes.
• You can’t use a torch as a weapon.
• Crashes when fighting encounters, when the encounter tried to cast a spell, it would cause a crash.
• Whip damage was very small, increase the amount of damage a whip does.
• Added City Chapel to enhanced gameplay.
  Smithy/Shops bargain system will react to players mood. The better the mood the character is in, the better the bargain
  will be for you. You regain mood points by many things in the game winning fights, sleeping, going to the chapel.
• Game Loading/Saving bugs. Several bugs in saving and/or loading game that would cause certain area to not work or break.
• Clean up of some unused Shader variables.

 

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Version 0.04 Java Jan 3, 2020

Change Log:

 

• • Save games will break in this version.  Due to new encryption classes being used.  Sorry for loss of your save game.
  • Change resolution should say to reboot to activate new settings.
  • Change Sleeping text to be flashing.
  • Changed the Linux script file to be more universal for people. Thanks, Hackswell for the script.
  • Misspelling in NPC text.
  • Fixed some cleanup on gate Sequence.
  • Switched over to new 64 encode/decode for security, since remove on newer java versions.
  • Changed network packets to use less memory.
  • Bank/Tavern added some missing cleanup of variables.
  • Encounter not working when in “M” map screen. Now the map screen will close and encounter will start.
    Map screen doesn’t pause the game.
  • Save Game break. Loading a save game would cause the save game to lose data. If you didn’t save again, say you died,
    It would cause a crash on the next attempt to load.
  • Offer menu was transparent to allow you to see menu below it.
  • Bank job offer would cause a crash.
    not leaving the module and applying for a new job after finishing the first job would cause a crash. Only reset some variables, not all of them.
  • Stats not showing up – Made some adjustment to the ortho viewport to adjust when the height is smaller than required resolution.
    Not a real solution but a temp one. Need to adjust screen to be smaller with same ratio to fit in the screen.
  • Blood splatter would cause an access violation on memory.
  • Leaving NPC would cause you to act like you fled, which would move you to a new square
  • Fixed issue with the Beet Sugar Quest.
  • Fixed issue with NPC interacting without preventing you to move. Now they will only interact after so minutes from last interaction. (Escaped Trolls Quest)

   

 

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Version 0.03

Change Log:

Some opengl graphics had a reserved variable that I was using.  Change name of variable.
Improved the build to make it easier.

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Well, that didn’t last long.

Here is Version 0.02

 

Change Log:

Some file name where in capital letters in source code but actual file was lower case. Causes Linux to break, not windows.
Some files failed the checksum and source code throw an exception when those files are suppose to be skipped on the checksum

 

Thanks for testing….

Kevin

 

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Here is Beta Version 0.01

There is a linux and a windows version. Just unzip the zip files and from a command line. Go into the folder and type ar-remake.bat (windows) or ar-remake.sh. This will launch the “The Remake”, the beta version only include “The City”. If you experience bugs, please report them in this forum. When you first launch the game, it will ask you for your BETA CODE. type it in with the dashes ‘-‘. If you type it in wrong and launch the game, the game will turn on you. It will allow you to play but will not like you.

 

Enjoy and have fun.

I don’t write much on the blog anymore. I post all my changes and updates to the game on my youtube channel. Check it out Land Beyond. I’m still writing code and bug fixes every week, as much time I can find in my life to make changes. I’m managing around 8hrs a week of work for “The Remake”.

I’m really close to having “The City” code complete, and I’m running through for quick bug fixes before I get a BETA release ready.

But if you want weekly updates, please check out my youtube videos. They are not very good videos and lack voice, but it gives you information on the progress of the game.

For the last month and half, I’ve been very busy working on The Land Beyond rpg Engine and Alternate Reality the remake.    I’ve taken the time to remove all the deprecated opengl calls.  I first started with the drawing of text.   To draw all the text on the screen it would be hundreds and thousands of opengl calls.

I’ve changed the font system to use VBO, VAO calls.   Now you send it a string that needs to be displayed on the screen, it creates a mesh out of the string so that there are only 2 – 4 calls per screen now.   Inside my Menu system and GUI system,  you can give it control characters inside the screen to do line feeds and carriage returns.  This way the mesh now to increase the y by the height of the font.  You can always tell it to center the string and even if the string is 10 lines, it figures out the largest string and centers the rest of the lines based on the largest size.  You can change the colors,  making text flashing and also make text delayed from showing.

There is a version in “The Dungeon” the Chapel,  there are options where the text shows up slowing and over time.  Until all the text shows up, then the game will not allow user input.   This feature is not part of the remake,  you can check if the current tab is completed and then you can based on that value to handle input or not from the user.

It is working out very nicely and the number of opengl calls went from hundreds or thousand to 3 – 5 calls.

This new feature broke the entire game and took a better part of a month to get the game back to a good compile feature.  The Dungeon is still completely broken, but since “The City” and “The Dungeon” are expansion modules, they are stand alone and are not require to the rest of the game.

Next step, I got instance rendering in the game working using shaders and removing all the old deprecated calls.   The Snow and Rain particles in the 16 bit mode could effect performance.  I got the instance rendering working and now 30,000+ particles has no effect on the game while before 8,000 was the limit on my computer before it starting affecting the game play.

I’m now ready to get back to debugging.  Now it feels like a huge step back in the debugging process.   During all this,  the changes to convert the game into an RPG Engine and turning openGL support to support modern openGL.  Many things are broken now.   I been going through the entire code and fixing bugs, in areas of the code that were working.  At the end of the day this is a huge step for the better.

 

 

So for the last several week I have been working hard on getting bug fixes in the system. I’ve just been going through each section of the code making sure their bug free like the shops, Tavern, Smithy and Etc. Going through the guilds making sure they’re working fine. It has been a daunting exercise and making sure every piece of the code is hit at least once. 

Starting to feel pretty good about it being ready for a beta testing.   I’ve gone through all of the loading and save routines for the player to make sure it’s functioning properly. But one of the biggest things I came across was pausing of the game, that is such a huge issue, the way the original code was written it was hard to do with all the new enhancements. So I have ended up completely rewriting the Remake engine, now it has three processes during the game Loop. The first one is input then process and finally render. Luckily when I created the gui system for the Map Editor.  I managed to create that in a very generic window system and it was designed to seperate input from rendering. This window system is handled by a window manager to control all windows it can recognize a window is in focused or not in focused, transparency of windows.  Window moving, and multiple windows at one time… 

This system allows Windows to be drawn but not handle input this works out great with the splitting of the new engine. There is a render call and a input call so this works great with the new window management system it can see which window has focus in calls its input only for that one windowin focus and then for the  rest of the windows that are visible only get called for render.

So the game engine has five windows, there’s a compass window, there’s a mini-map window, stats window, a 3D window, and the biggest part of the game is the console window. The console window management actually has a stack allowing for multiple console Windows to be open only the top window that’s in Focus actually gets the input called and drawn. This allows me to make the game not blocking on any part of the code. Previous c++ version, every input was a blocking call. this made development very difficult because in between each blocking call you had to do all kinds of checks and calls to functions, to keep the game going properly.  There were hundreds of these while loops that preventing the game from updating and each while loop had to be handled to cause the game to update. Otherwise it would be stuck in a tight Loop, that basically paused the game. Now if you going to the drop menu (drop a weapon) and you start doing the drop of an item, this code does not block the ability for encounter to happen.  The Encounter can still  happen, also curses, dieseases and such nor update during any menus. So what would happen is that you’re just stuck in this Loop the game does nothing until you get out of this Loop and then it will check for an encounter. Now the game Loop is constantly being processed all the time no matter where you’re at in the game so if you’re in the middle of dropping items, the game can still comes up with an encounter and then counter menu system will pop up and you would go through the encounter. Once the encounters done that menu closes and then the next menu in the stack becomes active, you would continue where you left off. This has caused me to touch almost every part of the software to fix it to handle the new coding-style. Everything needs to be able to have at least 2 call, one for render and one for input. The original code was never designed this way, it was designed with just one call that handled input processing and rendering. So the game Loop would do all this in one call and then just sleep, the new game Loop does a call for input, does a call for processing and keeps calling the processing input until the end of the frame update and then renders. So I had to convert every console screen into a menu system that will handle one call for input one call for render.  Not all menus actually get calls like the compass menu, mini map menu which never need a call for input. All of the consule menus need both calls and render. This make all the menus  a asynchronous call, this made a challenge for programming.

This makes it a little challenging to write menus. You don’t just call for an get input, and that call is not return until the user does ithe input. Now that call will returns instantly and just popups a window for the user to enter whatever it needs to enter. So the menu systems needed to be converted to a state system so it knows what state it’s at, and then wait for that input to be completed before you continue on. So for the last couple weeks I have been converting all input screens into menu systems, turning them into State systems. It has been a lot of work but I think it is well worth it because now the game runs all the time there is no blocking routine but stop the game from updating. This new system will make for faster development in the future, with all those blocking calls gone every time I make a change I do not have to go into hundreds and hundreds of Loops to make sure they have the new update processing the game. Now there is only one process for the entire game. For an example, the thing that got the biggest improvement is the weather system. Now if you go into a shop the system will keep processing the weather but not render it, in the past it was all one section, process updates and process render. So now in the process mode it can process weather but not have to render it. This allows the weather to keep changing and updating even when you’re in a shop for long periods of time versus it just paused and then wait for you to get out of shop. the sound effects of the weather are still processed and you can hear him depending on the Storm level so you can hear the rain inside of shop or thundering outside. It will not be as loud inside of a shop and render the sound much softer because you are in a building.

Right now I’m going to the encounter system make sure the encounter system works with the new code-style.   What was hard, was the  code was a tight loop,  to turn that into a state system to know where you’re at in the encounter so the system still processes the encounter,  was quite challenging.  In the scheme of things it is so much nicer. It does make the encounter system a little more difficult, in the past if you drop an item, used an item, casted a spell, the game would be paused until you finished your selection. Now the game runs in real time, so if you’re dropping an item and take too long, your opponent will do their attack so you need to watch out and be prepared for fights. Digging through your inventory to find a potion might get you attacked because you took too long, giving your opponent time to attack you. The only call that is blocking an encounter system is when you make an offer to an opponent. The opponent will wait for you offer determine what their action will be. I have not spent any time figuring out how much more difficult this will cause a fight routines. Especially when you are casting spells using Scrolls and Potions having to dig through inventory which can slow you down and give your opponent time to attack. Alternate reality the city, was a very hard game to get anywhere on the fight routines, I hope  that the fell of  the dungeon was much easier fight routines, but harder because they just threw more at you. Instead of fighting one creature you would fight 8 creatures. and on top of that you would have creatures that would regenerate, use potions to heal themselves, or call more creatures in to fight with them. Sometimes in the dungeon it would take a very long time to get through a battle scene, the encounters just kept calling more and more people. As soon as you got down to one or two, they would end up calling for more . You would end up fighting for 20-30 minutes just in one encounter.  You would only  fight one creature in the city at a time, but the ability for that creature to call for more creatures are part of the city not just the dungeon.

 

I have also took the time to test out 3D models inside the game. Thinking about this being the alternative Graphics enhancement. You will have a 8bit style graphics, the 16-bit style graphics and then enhanced graphics. For the enhanced graphics I am thinking about 3D models. I have a test case proving concept that the 3D models work with alternate reality, my biggest concern about using 3D models is making sure that the look and feel of the game are not altered in any form. I think one of the biggest parts of alternate Reality is it look and feel. The last the last thing that I want to do is take away in the field and turn it into seems like another came in today’s era. The enhanced Graphics will not be pleased with the beta version. I have the walls, doors, Palace pillars all done in 3D models. The game looks pretty neat in 3D models, keeping the overall feel of the original style of the game.

 

[video:youtube:3Qh_o2kk3mo]

This is a quick update to the Alternate Reality Editor.  I ended up creating this as it was need to be able to debug quickly.   Sometime the special effect of an item was not working and digging through data files to figure out what it should be doing was to much work.  So right now you can Edit and look at the entire map system.  It has tons of data that you can see about each cell or each zone.

You can alter Encounter Weapons, and Dungeon Items and Spells. 

I just wanted to do a quick update on what I’ve been doing for the week. So I was going through the code, to update Zone information inside the dungeon. Part of the update was to make sure that the temperature of each zone in the dungeon matched the remake. There’s a website on the internet that shows the dungeon maps of all the different levels, with detailed information about description for each spot. If that spot is a fixed encounter fixed treasure, and etc.  It also has information about zones.  I was using this information to determine zones data to look up in the assembly code for detail. after wasting about 2 days on this I determined that part of the code on the guy’s website is just completely wrong, I could not make sense of anything he was saying. So I started digging through the assembly code and figure it out that that is not zones. That is Zone definitions it’s an array of five bites and that 5th byte tells it which zone you are in.  So it’s just a list of different sections to determine that section belongs to a certain zone.  I have had to do this many times with what people published on the internet about alternate reality then digging through the code to find out it’s it’s a little off.  

In the meantime, instead of having to look at data files for maps to determine spots.  I have created a map editor, this map editor will load a module and display it on the screen.  The visual part of the map is based on the mini-map that the the ARX had inside of its code. It has been expanded since then to become a map editor. you can hit a key and it will display all the zones highlight each Zone in different colors. you can click on a spot it tells you information about that spot like description XY location if it’s a special spot what kind of special spot if it’s a fixed weapon then it tells you what weapon it is.

I’m working on the editor to be an actual editor, right now you only can view everything about the map. I have to put in the gooey to be able to create input fields and stuff like that. My plan is to use this map editor to be able to create expansions. The plan for the map editor is to be able to create an entire module not just the math but weapons spells and etc….

There is one thing I can think is left out in the remske, but is only related to the dungeon. That is if a spot has a special effect or dangerous effect,  there is nothing in the code to handle this.  I have not found this section in the disassembly code to determine what those effects do, I am still looking for this code to determine what they do.  I still need to locate this code and added to the remake.

 

 

I have been very busy the last two weeks, working on alternate reality the remake. It has been mostly about debugging getting the code ready for testing.  I have created a logging system that can be turned on so during testing anybody can turn on the logging system and all the logs will be saved. To a file that can be passed on, that will be easier for me to debug the issue that’s going on.  To turn on logging to a file is just a command paramter when starting.

As I was goning through eliminating bugs, I’ve come up with two things that I was not happy about.  One of the features I was not happy with was screen resolution, in the original version was “if statements” all over the code for different types of screen resolution to be able to know when to display this and that.  When I converted that to Java I made some enhancement, I created variables for screen resolutions for different drawings, those are all set at the start of the game, this allowed me to remove all those “if statements” throughout the code.  But still had all those variable and having to adjust them for each resolution.  I was never happy with that solution.  I rewrote a lot of the rendering of all the features of software, this time I let opengl do all the scaling so it does not matter what your screen resolution you use.  To opengl it’s the same resolution every single time, so there’s nothing in the code anymore for all the different sizes this will help out much better.  So the canvas for opengl is always the same thing no matter what the resolution.  This allows opengl to scale the pixel to a full screen to the small resolution of the canvas.

The second thing I found that was not going to make it easier to expand on, was the city and the dungeon was all hard-coded throughout the entire software. So I stripped out the city in the dungeon code from the game altogether. I turned each one of those into a module but the game will load at the start you tell which modules are available and it will be able to use those, that way when it’s ready you just plug it in the module. this will allow easy future expansions without having to redownload everything it can just do it in you know modules you download and install.  Each module, chain control many aspects of the game like fix treasure, fixed and counters, weather, Random Encounters, and of course the map.  

With this new module system alternate reality the remake, is turning into just a RPG game engine. there are a couple big things that would require changes for this to be 100% true. A module would have to be able to alter by adding or deleting items, spells, encounters. This is not a priority for me, I will keep looking into this but not focus on it.

Right now my focus is going through each encounter one by one to verify their fighting and functionality is working correctly. The next step after that is going through each item and verify they function properly and then finally spells. Once I have a generally debugged these items the city will be ready for testing. There there is a couple minor things left for coating but it’s about 98% code complete without the new features.

 

I’ve been working on gettings all the lyrics sync’d up to the music and in The City the song ‘Thoreandan’.  This songs has multiple verses and it plays them at random.  I’ve implemented this features into the Lyrics system.   After each verse it can select at random another verse to start playing.  Each verse defines a verse number.  Then at the end of a verse there is a command to tell it to pick a random number with starting and ending values.  This is all defined in the Lyrics text file definition.   This is working out pretty good.  I’m having to create an entire “Advance Music Play” to get Alternate Reality to work correctly.   Between the Lyrics to music and the intro, it is a complete system to be able to show text, fade in, fade out text, or Fade in/out Textures, or Animations.  Its doing well and pretty happy with this new system and how it is working.

 

 

I went through the Chapel code and found that it was only started.  So went through the dissambely code and completed it and the Sancutary code with it.  The Chapel is now code complete,  with the two gifts you get if you are granted to go into the Sancutary space.   Getting better and better at understand and reading 8-bit 6502 assembly.   I’ve not looked at assembly code in almost 30 years.  It is nice the ARX project is more than just remaking a game.  I’ve never written a game before, my area has been always business software and/or operation software.  I never knew Opengl code and 6502 assembly.   It has been a learning curve on both area of the game. 

Also, went through the retreat code and fixed several areas where it didn’t match the Dungeon code.   Like you can’t get a room when carrying a corpse, Friendship was not matching the friendship code in the Dungeon. Also, changed the fatigue and hp grain to match the Dungeon instead of just random values.  I think I got the entire MOOD system that the DUNGEON used working in the game.  Many areas check the mood and effects the outcome based on your mood.   Only thing I’ve not located is how your clothing changes your mood.  I think it should, if wearing you are wearing rags,  your mood changes vs wearing some kind of dragon skin.

 

• Fixed – Added missing aspects of the Retreat in the Dungeon.  Mood was not being used.  Friendship was not being saved, for later greetings.
  If friendship falls to low you get a different greeting and that was missing.
  Converted Retreat to the new Module system so time  changes while sleeping and visiting.
  Fatigue gained by sleep is reflected by your mood.  The more mood the better the sleep and more rest you get.
  HP gained by sleep is reflected by your mood.  The more mood the better the sleep is.  All this reflects the dungeon code now.
  Updated the Friendship system to match the dungeon.  Frienship changes based on what type of room you select for sleeping. ARX was just adding 1 or subtracting one depending on the room.  Things change based on old friendship and room.  Sometimes you can have more than a plus 1 on adjustments.
  if carrying corpse, “THE RETREAT” “Thou art welcome here, but thy deceased friend is not! Please have it wait outside!”
• Added – Chapel is now code complete along with The Chapel Sancutary.