Forums: Announcements

Ok, well, it’s really just the beginning of summer (and I suppose that depends on whether or not you live in the Northern Hemisphere). But anyway – it’s an update!

Here’s what to expect:

• the new battle interface – yeah – real new
• a new city in the Tiasanian Flatlands, and a new area beyond it
• a new mission
• A boatload of new actions (we’re up to 174 player-usable actions now!)
• Item descriptions – kind of a small, but nice feature – now you can hover over many items and get an actual description (instead of just a vague item name and image)
• Re-formulated action boosting (should balance across all levels better – so those skill boosting actions that seemed to lose their potency as you got higher in levels will now hold up better)
• item tables when selling stuff to a vendor are now sortable
• ability to upgrade a storage unit (and all your items will automatically transfer over from the old to the new)
• a new map (yeah, you know when you click on the “view map” link on the travel screen? that awful map I made years ago has been updated!)

The new battle interface will allow you to click on a target and then choose an action or choose an action first and then click on a target. The benefit of this feature is now you can choose actions that are area-based and click on a part of the map where there is no character, but there might be characters all around. You can also hover over an action in the list and get a glimpse of what the range of the action is and how far it can reach.

There are other features of the new interface as well. For example, you can actually see the NPCs move and attack now. The screen doesn’t completely refresh at the end of every turn like it used to, so the battles play a bit smoother.

Since this is a ton of new code, be aware that there might still be a few bugs here or there. Please let me know if you have any trouble by posting in the Tech Support/Bug Reports forum. Also, one last thing I need to mention – Internet Explorer 6 is no longer supported. It will not be able to handle the features of the battle interface. I’m sorry, there’s just no way around it. The good news is, there are lots of new browsers to choose from. Check out the list of supported browsers on the wiki.

Thanks everyone for your patience – I know it seems to take forever to get an update out sometimes. As you can see by the new battle interface, a lot of work went into this update. Thanks go to Kranodor, penguinmancerBob, Pro\/idence, his dudeness yotta, and Bron for contributing and testing.

edit: one last thing – I had to reset any battles that were currently in progress. I apologize for this if it’s inconvenienced anyone. Once in a while, the changes made in an update will cause previously-generated battles to no longer work properly. It’s pretty rare that I’ve had to do this, so again, I apologize.

I just have to say, amazing work on the battle interface.

Thanks Olaf :)

Just need to point out one other last minute fix – there was a little goofiness with the new skill boosting effect formula (especially with stacking effects), and now it’s fixed. Instead of seeing “Skill boosted to something” you’ll see “Skill boosted by something”. And the numbers will be accurate :)

Yeah, I agree with Olaf 100%. The new battle interface is very good. The new calculations make strengthen/weaken/etc. work a lot better. And everything else is great (the "seeing the range of the skill before use, etc.). Great work.

Also – I just made an update today so that accessory effects that are supposed to take effect at the start of battle are working now.

Awesome.

Is the AP amount supposed to only raise to 85 on the first turn? Or 100? Just making sure. Cause mine went to 85.

Ok, on the first turn of my character (with Amulet of Action), I had 85 AP. I used no AP, and the next turn I still had 85 AP. I didn’t regenerate any. Is this how it’s supposed to be?

Is the AP amount supposed to only raise to 85 on the first turn? Or 100? Just making sure. Cause mine went to 85.

That would depend on the amulet, now wouldn’t it? :P At the risk of “spoiling”, I can tell you that none of the amulets boost you to 100 AP on the first round.

Ok, on the first turn of my character (with Amulet of Action), I had 85 AP. I used no AP, and the next turn I still had 85 AP. I didn’t regenerate any. Is this how it’s supposed to be?

Seems to be working for me. Can you check it again, and please make sure to save the full battle log so I can verify? Maybe you had some other effect on that character that ate up AP on their second round?

Yeah I thought of that, but I don’t think I did.

Ok, I checked it. I must have had some kind of AP eating attack on me. Cause it’s working now. Sorry about the confusion =D

Great work on the new interface! :D

Can we have the option of not opening a popup?
And more importantly… where are the skill improvement messages after each action? Those are a good low order reward, and part of what makes this game “addicting”.

Good points. The skill improvements only show up in the logs (in the full logs, they even show up at the appropriate locations) but having them optional (possibly on by default) for the in-battle log would be nice.

I think with the new layout, the skill messages aren’t so obtrusive and so I just put them back in to the battle log. You’re right – they are a great feedback mechanism that keeps players coming back for more.

Also, I’ve added the option to open the battle in the same window rather than a popup. However, at this time, the dimensions of the layout are set, so it’s not going to stretch anything out to meet the size of your window, it’s just going to be centered in the middle. I’ll work on getting it to stretch out more so you can take advantage of a larger window size and see the whole battle map or something like that.

Thanks for the feedback Worthstream!

I did like having the minimap to keep track of off-screen characters . . . any chance to have that back, at least as an option? Please?

Edit: Any way we can look at a character’s equipment (without waiting for turns) with the new interface? I liked being able to see what weapons everyone was using – helped me plan when to buff and when to attack/debuff.

Yeah, I liked it too. It would be great if we could have it up as an option.

A great job.. a masterpiece. A lot of improvement since I visited last year.

Thanks to Ranger..