DC Release 0.810

[CocoaSpud]

I uploaded this release last night but was too tired to announce it. There's a whole bunch of bug fixes, the Examine event was added to special items/keys, and I added screen capture to the engine and editor. Some of the bugs that get reported could really use a screen capture that shows the problem to me. The engine will put the screen cap image into the design folder as DCScreenCapture.bmp.

While working on the combat magic, I got started on the spell animations and noticed that the item hit animation wasn't working right. I didn't quite have enough time to fix it for this release but it will be working in the next one.

I think I will be casting my first spell in combat this week. A simple one that targets self only. Target selection is another bunch of code that still needs to be taken care of. A simple spell will let me test the basics of combat spell casting such as character attribute adjustments, sounds, animations, etc.

Richard

>>>> UAF Version 0.8.1.0 <<<<

**** New Features ****

Editor:
Engine:
Both:
- Added support for 'Examine' event to
special items and keys.

- Added screen capture option. Use F1
for the engine and Help->Screen Capture
for the editor.

**** Bug Fixes ****

Editor:
- only backup design files during save if they
have previously been successfully saved,
otherwise the existing design files may be
invalid and backing them up could overwrite
a working backup.

- item editor wasn't enabling the in-route sprite
animation properly for ammo types

Engine:
- experience gained in combat is now actually
distributed to party members after combat
is over (it was before, but was later removed
by mistake)

- if background midi playing, then enter combat
that also has background midi, the first few
seconds of combat operate very slowly until
midi starts playing

- an unterminated font color tag would cause
menu text to use the wrong color after a text
event that didn't require the user to press
enter to continue.

- color tags that spanned multiple text boxes
were not working properly

- the mouse cursor was blanking out some of
the formatted event text if it was
hovering over the text box area when
the event started

- items were using custom examine label
from npc carrying the item (cut-n-paste error)

- detect magic and identify spell menus were
displayed in GiveTreasure event even if
current character didn't have them
memorized

- combat could hang if party member was first
to move on a round after monster was last
to move (introduced with 0.790 changes)

[Lord Killjoy]

I was glancing through the Monster Manual looking for a easy monster to try and do an icon for, so I came across a crypt thing. Nice and easy robe with a white skull and hands. Then I was looking at the abilities and saw its special attack. It teleports an enemy up to 100 yards in any direction. Kinda like the oppisite of Dimension Door. When the combat and spells are done am I going to be able to use an attack like that using the spell scripts or using gdpl? Just wondering.

I wouldn't worry about any of the special attacks yet cocoaspud. I was just wondering what your thoughts where on the subject. They aren't really needed to make a working module. That could be ver 1.1 or so on. That's just one of the problems with doing a D&D rules based game anythings possible. I love seeing the updates. Keep up the great work.


Lord Killjoy

[CocoaSpud]

My current plan is to use spells as special abilities, special attacks, and for 'Use'-ing an item. I hope to make the spell system flexible enough to handle such things. The special ability stuff that is in there now is completely ignored. I really want to avoid hard-coding a special ability, but if I can't figure out a way to do it with spells I guess I will have no choice.