Fame 0.9.13 released!

The development slowly approaches the point where it makes sense to think more about the story as a whole. So far completing the game wasn't much more than a simple message box. This release introduces a special ending - you can become a Champion of deity you've chosen. What is more, the split of the storyline is already happening - currently "evil" characters will experience a slightly different ending. Eventually, in future versions, the gameplay should be totally different based on the choice you make... But that's future.

It's time to improve procedural generation. So far, wilderness locations were mostly boring and the only quite fresh piece of code in this area unfortunately applied to a specific type of terrain (burned ground). I have revisited other terrain generation procedures and you can watch the results - they're quite impressive. More will come when new terrain types will be implemented.

There are few new locations. They together make a stub of a very important piece of the story: the mines. Partially abandoned, full of mysterious corridors, you'll quickly find out that they are actually much bigger than they appear... In the current version there are only few levels, more will be added gradually with every new release.

Do you have the impression, while playing 0.9.12, that monsters are too tough and items are too cheap and useless? That's certainly not cool, but this version should be much better balanced. If that's not enough for you, just write me an e-mail and we'll see what else needs to be done :-).

Last, but not least: shops. So far you could visit just two shops that offered truly random items. All the rest would have the same old set of items every time. With that approach I needed to manually update all trade profiles of NPCs with new items every time I added new items into the game. Now I can just say "this NPC buys and sells food" or "this NPC trades in potions worth from 50 to 100 gold pieces". This generic way of creating trade profiles is supplemented by a manual method of adding specific types of items, so that you can still have guaranteed items in stock.

Quick summary:

• improved completing game and more possibilities of endings
• new content
• improved terrain generation
• improved shops
• balanced items and monsters
• important bugfixes

Full change log (some tiny bugfixes may be omitted, though):

• new locations, NPCs and quests
• added alternative ending for "evil" characters
• added special endings
• improved random terrain generation
• balanced item generation and monster experience level
• shopkeepers now offer mostly randomly generated sets of items
• new trap type - falling rocks
• aiming with a keyboard is available also in the tile mode
• ASCII version of the chat window
• quitting the game after completing it creates a Hall of Fame entry
• character statistics (and Hall of Fame) now contain information about completing the game
• attacking a neutral creature does not immediately prevent monsters from attacks on the hero
• using a cursed key on a door results in learning about the curse
• optional bigger font in the Chat window
• hero's rest can now be interrupted by stealing items
• hero can now prevent equipment items (weapons only) from being stolen
• thrown weapons and ammo can no longer have tin, bronze or copper as a base material
• Ybagid will still offer his quest directly after successful completion of the executioner's job
• Tokfor will still teach the hero swimming after leading him to the Temple
• Elumor will not offer the alchemy set for sale after giving it as a quest reward
• Elumor will not give the alchemy quest to an illiterate character
• added a possibility for illiterate characters to complete the main quest
• bow or crossbow used as a melee weapon does not train any skill and does much less damage
• healing potions are much more effective
• bloodstains do not appear on the surface of water or lava
• not attempting to automatically pick up items that are too heavy for the hero
• "level up" messages additionally show up in the log
• simplified log messages displayed when reading a scroll
• "quick messages" in the Chat window now include item's name
• weapon skill names unified with item category names
• added messages for dipping items into blessed potions of water
• added "welcome" messages for nearly all special locations
• added missing appearances of frozen hero for certain hero pictures
• the "rest until recovered" resting mode does not display an empty progress bar
• [editor] added possibility to enlarge location without losing its contents
• [editor] added undo/redo for drag&dropping portals
• [editor] hero has a fixed position after loading a location (or creating a new one, resizing etc.)
• [editor] the object toolbar no longer breaks after pressing F11
• [editor] attempting to load a broken file no longer crashes the editor
• [editor] walking onto a trigger no longer crashes the editor
• [bugfix] the game no longer crashes when a fleeing monster who was fighting with some other monster follows the hero into another location
• [bugfix] the game no longer crashes during rare neutral wilderness encounters
• [bugfix] Raylnen's script no longer fail after leading the character to the village
• [bugfix] monster are no longer able to pass through closed door in the flooded dungeon
• [bugfix] Chaos Beast's lair no longer generates an error message
• [bugfix] the Holy Bolt spell no longer causes an explosion
• [bugfix] huge gems can no longer transform into random items
• [bugfix] the message displayed after completing the game is no longer "STR_COMPLETED1"
• [bugfix] if the hero attacks and kills a neutral creature in the same turn, there is no message about the creature becoming hostile
• [bugfix] trolls no longer generate in lava lakes
• [bugfix] random settlements no longer generate in the editor
• [bugfix] helms and armor wielded as weapons no longer look like they were worn by the hero
• [bugfix] fixed help messages in the Character Creation window

Saved games from versions 0.9.9 to 0.9.12 are still compatible with 0.9.13.

Enjoy!