There are some cool events happening on the Caravel Forum, and I'll center the news around them. It's time for the Seventh Annual People's Choice Awards, there's a new Riddle of the Bar for the upcoming DROD game, contest results for the "
Next Big Project"
Crowd-Sourcing contest, and we have a new game patch out with many improvements. Read on!
The "Next Big Project" Crowd-Sourcing Contest
In January, Jacob held a forum contest where he revealed the names of some of the levels appearing in the upcoming game along with some vague details, and forumites got to submit creative description texts for what appears at the start of the levels. There were some next flavor texts submitted that will actually appear in the game when it is released. If you missed it and want to read some vague teasers about the next game, go to this forum contest thread:
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=31457
The winners were forum members Tahnan, Trickster and Chaco with some wonderfully creative flavor texts. Congratulations!
Riddle of the Bar VI
There's a new "
Riddle of the Bar"
on the Caravel Forum, engineered by schik. You see that infamous progress bar at the top of the main Forum page, showing how close we are to releasing our next game? Well, it hides all kids of stuff, and even gives out goodies from time to time to lucky forum members. If you've never heard of this before, you can start out by clicking on it. Hey, I just found my first Really Big Sword, and so can you! And you can read other forumites' exploits with solving the new Riddle of the Bar on this forum thread:
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=29658
The Seventh Annual People's Choice Awards
It is time to submit nominations for the best user holds and user-created content published during 2010. Please go look over the list of creations here:
You have the next four days to submit nominations for what you think are the best in each category. The first people submitting nominations received a free Spoostlefish. The fish are all gone now, but anyone who sends in nominations will receive a free Sword toward solving the
Riddle of the Bar.
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=31425
3-2-1 Patch!
Caravel has officially released the 3.2.1.89 patch ("
Sprightly Skipper"
) for
DROD: The City Beneath. The patch contains a huge list of fixes and enhancements to the game engine, many submitted by totally awesome forum developers TFMurphy and schep. The list of various improvements to fix outstanding issues is so huge, I left it for last in this newsletter. You can get the patch by going to the Caravel Forum Downloads page and looking for "
DROD: The City Beneath v3.2.1.89 Patch (Windows)"
in the "
Free Downloads"
section. Mac and Linux versions should be forthcoming. Here's the Downloads page directly:
http://forum.caravelgames.com/downloads.php
And here's the list of changes:
+: a new feature
*: a bug fix
!: a change to game logic
+ Added new INI option: Customizing:AlwaysFullBlit. Set value to 1 when display updating is slow on certain graphics drivers.
+ Now clicking a stalwart will highlight its attack target (thanks, TFMurphy!)
+ Now clicking a snake will show its length in tiles (thanks, TFMurphy!)
* Fixed a crash in the room editor.
* Fixed a bridge building crash.
* Many mirror-based interaction fixes (thanks, schep!):
- Closing doors breaks fuses even when a mirror hides the fuse.
- When an explosion hits a tile with mirror and fuse, the mirror is destroyed and the fuse lights.
- Tokens which can toggle state get toggled even when under a mirror.
- If a mirror hiding a scroll falls into a pit or water, the scroll also falls.
- The script command 'Activate Item At' can activate tokens hidden by mirrors.
- If a character appears on a "
T-Layer"
object on a trapdoor and drops the trapdoor by moving, the object falls if building a pit or water would cause it to fall. [Affected objects: mirrors, potions, orbs, tarstuff, briars, bombs, and stations. Scrolls already worked correctly. Tokens, obstacles, and lightposts never fall.]
- Scripts can place build markers for potions, fuses, and bombs on tiles with mirrors.
- Builders will build fuses underneath mirrors rather than replacing the mirrors.
- When a briar destroys a mirror, any scroll, fuse, or token which was underneath is also destroyed.
- When a Builder destroys a mirror by building a potion or bomb, any scroll or fuse which was underneath is also destroyed.
* Mimics and human NPCs: now can properly push a mirror and activate a token covered by the mirror at the same time.
* Clones: now their flying attribute is properly synched with the player's when the player's role changes.
* Now a flying clone doesn't trigger a pressure plate on placement.
* Tarstuff switcher tokens: now won't stop tarstuff from growing when activated by an NPC when tarstuff should grow.
* Fixed bomb explosions going against neighboring force arrows (thanks, TFMurphy!)
* Fixed game level not exiting when starting the level on an exit.
* Fixed unlimited undo not working during room editor playtesting past restoring to a checkpoint.
* Player progress import: Now imported player progress totals are merged correctly with the current player's room progress tally. (thanks, Schep!)
* Player end hold import: Now when importing "
End Hold"
saved game info (i.e. from the TCB demo, where you end the hold at the end of the demo), if there is no way to actually end the hold from that room (e.g. in the full TCB hold version), then the game won't keep that bit of information any more.
* Fixed an NPC script cut-and-paste Goto command bug.
* Fixed minor room editing issues.
* Fixed a memory leak when unpacking saved movement commands (e.g. when replaying a room demo).
* Fixed potential crash when exiting the game when we couldn't load resources.
* Fixed "
Hold Mastered!"
and "
Secret Room"
messages being drawn on top of each other (thanks, Schep!)
* Minor UI improvement: game now doesn't buffer up movement commands when holding down a key while transitioning to a new room.
! Now demos where the player doesn't start on a current valid room entrance are marked invalid.
! Made news marquee font size larger.
! Cosmetic issue: Now awake, red evil eyes don't revert to blue when falling into a pit.
! Cosmetic issue: Now explosions appear on affected orbs. (thanks, Schep!)
* Aumtlich beams and swords: Now when multiple swords are on the tile that blocks an aumtlich's gaze, all swords will be considered, and not only the one of the monster that moves last (thanks, TFMurphy!)
* When using a player role that kills with its body (like a goblin) it's now possible to simultaneously move a platform and kill a monster (thanks, TFMurphy!)
* (Windows) Installer now doesn't require user admin privileges to run.
------
Happy DRODing, everyone!
Mike
____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.
[Last edited by Schik at 02-09-2011 03:59 PM : Fixed Riddle of the Bar link]
