Menu
▾
▴
realmsofmagic-news — News and announcements regarding the application
You can subscribe to this list here.
| 2003 |
Jan
|
Feb
|
Mar
|
Apr
|
May
|
Jun
|
Jul
|
Aug
(11) |
Sep
(6) |
Oct
(2) |
Nov
(2) |
Dec
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 |
Jan
(3) |
Feb
(3) |
Mar
|
Apr
|
May
|
Jun
|
Jul
|
Aug
|
Sep
|
Oct
|
Nov
|
Dec
|
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2004-02-24 23:41:07
|
We now have the forums up and running at http://realmsofmagic.sourceforge.net. A place to meet and exchange thoughts on Magic Realm the boardgame as well as the Realms of Magic project. Go there and say hi. :) Tomas. _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2004-02-24 00:11:27
|
Anyway, I'm trudging on all by my lonesome for the moment. One of my team members has disappeared without a trace and another has told me he needs to take care of family and work, which leaves me doing this by myself for the moment. I'm not complaining, mind you. I enjoy doing this project and don't mind the work, but I wanted you to know how things are with the project. Anyway, the good news is that Robin Warren has been kind enough to contribute his Magic Realm Font to the project, letting us use it for the images on the chits. Thanks Robin, this really helps and save me the hours needed to scan and process all those graphics. Test cases for orders are done, and I'm now fiddling with the look and presentation of the move orders. Yours, Tomas. _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2004-02-03 23:30:46
|
Hi all, I'm back! We got a beautiful, perfect, little boy, named Luke (Lukas in Swedish). Things have finally settled down at home, and I can now resume work on 0.6.0. Still shooting for the first playable release. Cheers, Tomas. _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2004-01-18 12:41:16
|
Since we really did not have any home page before, anything at all would have to be considered an improvement. Now, when you click on the "home page" link, http://realmsofmagic.sourceforge.net/, you will be taken to a friendly place where you will find things you would be interested in as a user of the application, news, latest screenshots and whatnot. _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2004-01-12 00:26:02
|
The release didn't get done this weekend, but it's coming along. Right now the setup is complete, the dwellings and the ghosts (actually only one ghost for the moment) are all there. The player can now connect to other players, select a scenario, pick a character and enter the game. What remains is: 1) Character chits on the map in the setup. 2) Order entry at Birdsong. Player may select clearings to move to, as well as the search or hide orders. 3) Daylight, order execution. Each connected player performs his orders. Players may block each other. This will require a day or so before it's finished, and I will carry on tomorrow. (And as I said before, the baby can come anytime, so ... ). But I just wanted to let you all know where we stand. I will keep you all posted. Cheers, Tomas. _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2004-01-05 02:14:06
|
Hi all! I explained today to my wife how working on this project is like working on an ice berg, in that 90% of what is done is invisible to the user. The last few releases have really been of the bottom of the ice berg variety. Lots of things happening, provided you enjoy reading source code, but not that exciting for the user and gamer. The upcoming release, 0.6.0, will contain some substantial improvements to the user, as well as major changes in the source code. For once, it will be the first playable version of RoMApp. You will be able to connect to other players, pick characters and play the first scenario. And the GUI has received a face lift as well, making it somewhat more easy to look at. There is also a working editor, where you tell RoMApp where chits, and counters are placed on the tiles. A lot has changed under the hood as well, and for those mainly interested in working C# code, and managed DirectX, there is probably some nice things to be found. The GUIcontrol class structure is redone and simplified, and we have working DirectPlay code too. So 0.6.0 will be released soon, hopefully next weekend. And I expect my third child any day now. The date is set for 20th of January, but you never know. But, provided the baby sticks to the schedule, I plan to host a game of RoMApp, with as many players as possible, soon after 0.6.0 is released. This will be the first public alpha test of the application, and I hope we will be able to play the game as well as uncover things to improve or fix. More on that in a later news item. Cheers, Tomas Bjorklund Project Lead and developer Team Realms of Magic _________________________________________________________________ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2003-11-26 01:41:07
|
Finally we get to present the next release of Realms of Magic to you. We certainly did not manage to squeeze in all we wanted, but I think getting the release out at all is more important. This way we get to show you what we're doing, and keep you all updated on our current status. Things that did make it: - Chat now works both in the game lobby as well as in game. - Setup is implemented, and you get to see the warning counters. Well, sort of. You get to see the backs of the warning counters to be precise. You will find that they are nicely placed on the tiles. This is something you can do yourself with the new RoMEdit utility. - The RoMEdit utility allows you to view all tiles in the game as well as change some data associated with each tile. At the moment you can play around with the positions of the warning counters. This will be the tool you use, in the future, for whatever customization you want to make to the game. Things that you will get to see next release are the Dwellings and you will also be able to move around. At least that is what we hope to accomplish. We thank you all for your patience, while we struggle on to get this application finished. On another note, two members of our team have wives that are expecting children, which does tend to reduce the available time for this, but we will do our best to keep the work moving forward regardless. See you all in the forums, Tomas Bjorklund Project Admin + Developer Team Realms of Magic. _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2003-11-21 01:07:57
|
The team is working on the next release, due in a couple of days. It will contain, among other things: - Chris has implemented a working chat, both in the game view and in the lobby. - I've spent most of my time with the first version of RomEdit. This first release will let set the position of the warning counter on each tile. This tool will grow with each release, with Scenario editor, script editor, etc, making this an easy game to customize. Craig has started work on another new component: The RoMServer. This is will allow server based hosting of RoM games, as an alternative to the current peer-peer model, and let different clients connect and play. It will be compatible with RoMApp, as well as allowing other clients like HTML or what have you. Cheers, Tomas, Project Manager + Developer Team Realms of Magic. _________________________________________________________________ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2003-10-20 00:05:12
|
A new week, a new release. Release 0.4.0 includes the chat function as promised, together with some new functionality in the game lobby. Connected players must now indicate that they are ready to play before the host can start the game. And the scenarios are now in files, installed in a separate folder in the application folder. In the future., all the stuff that makes a scenario unique, scripts, options, etc, will go into those files. Like the scenarios and the tiles, The entire gamae will be fully customizable, allowing fans to add and revise the game in new and exciting ways. There may not be much in those files right now, but future releases will add and expand their content. Next release 0.5.0 will be the first release where stuff appears on the game board, like chits and dwellings, and we might even let you move around a bit. Well, more about that later on, as we talk things through in the team to see how much we think we will be able to fit into that release. And one last thing ... We see the need for someone who knows their way around graphics design, photoshop and things like that. As you can see for yourself the looks of the game is certainly nothing to write home about. The current members of the team are programmers and not graphics people, and we have kept the GUI deliberately ugly so that we're not tempted to waste our time trying to make things nice too look at. Time wasted anyway once someone who really know GUI look and feel steps in. So if you love the game Magic Realm, and don't mind spending whatever free time you have on the GUI of this application, for absolutely no pay and precious little glory, let us know. See you all in the forums, Tomas Bjorklund Project Admin & Developer Team Realms of Magic _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2003-10-12 23:28:57
|
We, the team, are very sorry that we had to shift the release of 0.4.0 forward one week. This had to be done, due to a bug in the new Microsoft Summer update to Directx 9.0b. The summer update contained a time bomb, designed to stop the use of older Directx releases, which prevented our application from launching at all. Microsoft fixed this bug, but we lost a couple of days and decided to move the release date forward one week. 0.4.0 will have a working chat as promised, and we are working hard to get all kinds of new functionality in. The new release date is set to the 19th this month. On another note, if you haven't done so already, remember that you can subscribe to the news mailing list, in order to get the project news mailed to you. Cheers, Tomas. Project Admin & Developer. Team Realms of Magic _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2003-09-28 22:30:39
|
Hi all, Release 0.3.0 is finally out. This is mainly a stability release. This means that a lot of work has gone into stuff you're never likely to see as a player. But even though we've worked mostly on infrastructure in this release, you will find some small improvements to the functionality. The lobby contains some live parts now. The player list and scenario selection. The team is now hard at work getting the next release ready, 0.4.0. This will feature a working chat, among other things. According to our road map it will be ready in two weeks, so wish us luck. See you in the forums. Tomas. Project Admin & Developer Team Realms of Magic. _________________________________________________________________ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2003-09-22 16:14:54
|
As you may have noticed, we have gained a new developer, Craig, and at the same time lost one, Robin. Robin stated very early on that he would have very little time for this project, what with new family members, other commitments, and all, but he agreed to help out as much as possible during the summer, especially when I was on vacation. Robin leaves the project, at least for the moment, to concentrate on other things. He will still be hanging around though, although not as a developer. Thank you Robin for the time you spent with us. And when one leaves, another steps in to take his place. Craig, a welcome adititon to our team, is a long time developer and fan of the game Magic Realm. He has already started work on our tasks, and I'm sure his participation will speed our progress noticeably. So, we welcome one developer, while saying good bye for now to another. This is all as it should be, and one of the great things about this project. We are all volunteers here, doing this for no pay and little glory, but even though developers may come and go, the project forges ahead. Which bring me to another thing. We will not accept new developers into the team at the moment. Getting everybody up to speed, while at the same time getting the next release ready, takes a lot of effort, and I feel things need to settle a bit. I think we can easily accomodate one or two more developers into the team, and as soon as possible we will open the doors again for new candidates. The next release is on it's way, and will most likely be a stability release. There is a lot going on under the hood, and if the foundation is unstable the whole building may crumble. It turns out that the game functionality itself is fairly trivial, compared to the graphics and mutliplayer code, and we want to make sure that this application can handle future demands in a robust fashion. Cheers, Tomas Bjorklund Project Admin & Developer _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2003-09-19 20:09:58
|
Two weeks ago Tomas mentioned in a news post that he had press-ganged a project manager for this magnificent project. Well, here I am and I think its about time I introduce myself. Congratulations on the Ranking on SourceForge by the way - great work! My name is Svante Lindholm. Im 38 years old, have a 6-year-old daughter and I have worked as a game designer, level designer and project manager for a computer games developer in Stockholm for about 3 years. And what is my role in this project? Well, as this is a project run on voluntary basis it is hard to apply your standard project managing techniques so will not even try that. As I see it, my job will be to help Tomas with the administration of the project, to help prioritise tasks, keep track of progress and have opinions on the design. So I join your merry band of and together we will make a great and fun computer game. Finally: Im not a programmer guys. Ill keep that in mind if you do ;) _________________________________________________________________ Hitta rätt på nätet med MSN Sök http://search.msn.se/ |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2003-09-07 17:25:29
|
The new release contains a few notable changes on the outside, and substantial rework on the inside. The most obvious change is that the game lobby is added. This is where players gather before a game. To be noted is that the lobby, at the moment, is a mock-up of the real this. This is done in order to give everyone, especially the developers, an idea how the final thing should look. As work progresses it will become more "alive". The game view has had some GUI place holders added too, as you will see, and in the coming weeks you should expect them to become more useful. All the bugs so far discovered have been fixed in this release. So now the map zooms in and out as you would expect it to. The new developers are hard at work getting their development environments in order, and getting up to speed on Directx and other esoterica. I expect the speed of the project to pick up as they become more involved in the coding of the application. See you in the forums, Tomas. _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2003-09-03 09:36:09
|
Erm ... There is a an error in my introduction of Dan Farrow IV. The alternate counters were made by another Dan, Dan Evans, and not by "our" Dan. Our Dan is indeed a long time fan and member of the MR community, so at least I got that part right. Tomas. _________________________________________________________________ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2003-09-01 00:53:10
|
Me and Robin, you already know about, but I would like to welcome some new members to the project, in no particular order ... Daniel W Farrow IV, a long time member of the MR community and the father of a well known alternate set of counters, among other things. He has offered to help out with both development an graphics work. Fredrik Englund, although new to MR, is an old time gamer, experienced in all kinds of graphics design, and has offered to work on the graphics and form of the game. Last but not least, Svante Lindholm, an old friend I press ganged into helping out as Project manager for our team. He's an old grognard like me, and works with game design, and as production lead, for a living. With his help with the administration of this project, I will have more time to work on programming and design. The work on the game lobby progresses nicely and you will get to see it in all it's glory in release 0.1.4, coming soon. We have also taken a modest first step towards getting our web site in order. See you all in the forums, Tom _________________________________________________________________ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2003-08-26 21:13:07
|
Robin has taken his place in the RoM hall of fame as the first person, besides me, to see and play with the 3d game board! Adding the files from the 0.1.3 fix, and starting from the folder, instead of the file menu, did the trick. This is good news indeed, and hopefully more will go to the forums and let us know if they managed to make the program run or not. At the moment I'm working on all the things we need in order to get a mock up of the Lobby up and running. I need the text box for this, so that's what I'm working on now. The goal is to have the mock up set up so you can proceed though all the user stories there. That can be done using text boxes to simulate the control groups and buttons to progress from "player ready" all the way to game start. I.e. all the choices will be made for you. By doing it this way, we will get a good feel for how the lobby will work, and it will also provide a framework for others to contribute functionality in. As we get listboxes, drop down lists and entry fields in place the lobby will become more "alive". Some more project documentation is uploaded to CVS, intended for those who want to help out with this game. More will follow. I did all my design notes on graph paper, but I will upload them as I transfer them to Word or some design tool. I'm still the only one coding here, but I guess this is mostly because all of those wanting to help out are busy getting the development environment in order. Anyway, the project is plodding forward, and the next release will hopfully include the Game Lobby. Cheers, Tomas. _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2003-08-23 10:02:17
|
The missing files are now available as a separate download: "rom-0.1.3-fix.zip". I decided to release this way so you don't have do download the entire install again, just to get two small files. Placing these in the application folder fixes the problem with running the app. _________________________________________________________________ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2003-08-23 00:14:47
|
First problem solved and 0.1.3 now runs on other machines than mine. Details can be found in the "Bugs & Problem reports" forum. Tomas. _________________________________________________________________ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2003-08-20 11:41:59
|
Release 0.1.3 is now up and available. This will hopefully help find the reason why some of you can't start the application. Upon any unexpected exceotion, it should produce a file, "error.txt", located in the application folder. This file will contain error information useful in tracking down the problem you have encountered. This is not the best of all post crash error tracking systems, unless the exception occurs within the program, it will fail to produce error output. But should the program crash, and not produce this file, this is useful info too. So, from now on, when reporting a program failure, please include the information from the file, as well as information on you machine configuration. There is certainly a lot of releasing going on these days, isn't it. Well, the reason is that getting this to work at all on your machines is top priority for me right now. This is where I concentrate my efforts. As I learn more about the your problems I want to get the next, improved release out as soon as possible. Once things stabilize, I expect the release rate to be much slower, more in the neighbourhood of every second week or so. I thank you all for your working with me through these early sometimes frustrating times. Tomas, Project Admin. _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2003-08-19 23:09:35
|
This release starts in windowed mode, instead of full screen as 0.1.1 did. Since windowed mode uses the existing graphics device, used by the desktop, it frequently works even when full screen doesn't. If you encountered problems with 0.1.1, try this. Next release 0.1.3 will feature better post mortem debugging, like dumps and better reporting. Things needed in order to better understand what goes wrong. _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2003-08-19 10:25:12
|
A couple of people have downloaded and installed the the 0.1.1 binaries. The ones that have failed, have so far failed utterly to get anything besides an exception. This leads me to the conclusion that first priority must be to get better error reporting into the application. Tasks for this will be up as soon as possible. Hopefully once this is done, we will have more useful information to work with when the application crashes or misbehaves in some other way. Apart from that a new release is in the works: 0.1.2. This release will start in windowed mode instead of full screen mode, as 0.1.1 does. The reason for this change is that windowed mode uses the graphics device used by the desktop, and is more forgiving than full screen mode. It will still be possible to switch modes once the application has started, but this way we will get more information on what mode is causing the problems. Finally please go to the bugs forum rather than mail me when the fprogram fails. This allows the project to track, and remedy, your problems in a better manner. Cheers, Tomas. _________________________________________________________________ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2003-08-17 22:08:45
|
Source code is all there, there are plenty of tasks, and the first file release is in place. So I hereby declare the project offically started. Welcome all fans and friends of the game Magic realm. _________________________________________________________________ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2003-08-17 03:05:26
|
Almost all source code is now loaded into CVS. There is a delay, 24 hours or so, before it can be viewed with the web browser. For those with some CVS client installed it's possible you can get the files at once. The only file not in CVS at the moment is gamemanager.cs, and that is because I want to put some more comments into it and clean it up a bit before uploading it. Tomas. _________________________________________________________________ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail |
|
From: <rea...@li...> - 2003-08-14 21:52:28
|
I'm still on vacation, but in preparation for when I get home I have added tasks to the project. The source code will be up on saturday when I get home from my holiday, together with even more tasks, but these should give you an idea of what needs to be done. Cheers, Tomas. _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus |
