Elderlore

Source: The Oblong

Sometimes, you just can't win. Other times, the floor inexplicably melts and you're left wondering... just what is going on in this code?

This wasn't intentional, but it might look quite good over lava or acid or something. Don't slip!

Source: Transcendence

Thanks to lots of reports from playtesters I've made a bunch of important bug fixes. For a complete list of changes please consult the Version History page.

Download 0.99a here.

Source: Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup

Stone Soup 0.4.2 is out, fixing a number of bugs in time for the tournament.

Source: The Oblong

Testing out the sub-texture stuff with normal maps and shadows. Right hand images apply textures on a per-hex basis, whereas the others just have random perlin smeariness.

Interpolation between hexes is still enborkinated, so the hex edges display some very rough geometry and there're no smooth variations. Also, the ugliness of the shadows is getting to me...

Source: Transcendence

Transcendence 0.99 is finally here! With major changes to the Eridani system and the Korolov Shipping Corporation, you will notice the difference right away. And if you make it past St. Katharine's Star and into Sung space you may get a chance to learn more about the Huari Empire and perhaps even visit their secret refuge.

Eridani and the Korolov Shipping Corporation

The changes in version 0.99 start in Eridani itself. The Centauri warlords may not threaten the central stations of the metropolis, but the lesser stations are not so lucky. Help them to contain the threat of the warlords and they may help you in return. But watch out for Arco Vaughn! The warlord commander will not surrender without a fight.

Beyond Eridani you can look forward to enhanced Korolov missions. Escort six different kinds of freighters, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Be careful not to take on a mission that you cannot handle—escorting valuable cargo may pay more, but it also attracts more attention from the Charon pirates. And if you think killing Corsairs is all you have to worry about, wait until you run into a Charon frigate—only the best will survive that encounter.

Exploding Stations and Hardened Missiles

Version 0.99 also has many game balance changes, including support for exploding stations (thanks, digdug!). With this change, sitting on top of a station to destroy it may be harmful to your health. Instead, keep your distance and see if you can eliminate some enemy ships when the station finally blows.

Another enhancement adds hit points to missiles. Don't you hate it when your expensive XM900 missile gets destroyed by a stray laser shot? Now these missiles are a little harder to kill.

The Huari Empire and the Sung Slavers

A hundred and fifty years ago the Huari Empire ruled the area known as the Ungoverned Territories. But the Sung Slavers, wielding their formidable technology, invaded Huari space and nearly exterminated their culture. Now the Huari brood inside of their massive fortresses, suspicious of everyone who approaches. But through it all, the Huari remain hopeful that one day they will reconquer their worlds. Their priests foretell a time when a stranger will appear and help the Huari to defeat the Sung and rebuild their proud culture.

And Much More

As always, there are a few small surprises in this version that you'll have to discover for yourself. And as always, there are lots of improvements to the modding system. It's been a long time coming, but 0.99 is ready for download and ready to play!

Download Version 0.99
Read the List of New Modding Features
Read the Complete List of Changes

Source: The Oblong

Design is hard. Design is even harder when instead of focusing on it, you waste time playing a big heap of gaming goodness, but that aside...

For the moment, I'm not (overly) displeased with the technical aspects of my code. I really want to get on and implement some gameplay stuff, get the combat working, stick some kind of character advancement in there. Y'know, nudge it towards being a game. This will probably root out the next crop of show-stopping issues with the code, but it'll be progress.

This is where I'm stuck. Because I haven't thought about the core gameplay mechanics anywhere near enough: they're ill-defined and derivative.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to go usurping tried-and-tested design decisions for the sake of it, nor do I hold any illusions that the game I want to make is in any way original or revolutionary.

I just want to make sure I've thought about these decisions and made an attempt to cobble together a design that supports the kind of game I want to make.

I'm not exactly a fan of BDUF, and a lot of the motivation behind writing this game is exploration of both the programming language and game space, so I'm leaving plenty of wiggle room. Besides, I'm lazy, and speccing out every little thing is hard.

Nonetheless, I want to have a long hard stare at some absolutely key areas that I haven't addressed fully yet:

• Character advancement: experience, levels, skills, and other madness
• Resource pools: health, fatigue, spellcasting resources etc.
• Magic: a huge topic to be split into more digestible chunks
• Defense: I've got some ideas about how combat will work from the offensive point of view, but not the other side

So, expect further brain-dump posts about these soon. I'll try to sprinkle some screenshots in between the incredibly boring stuff though.

Hmm, looking at the above list makes me wonder what I do know about this game I'm writing. I'll get back to you on that.

Source: The Way of the Fallen

Yep, definatly not..

I have discovered few major problems with my code. Those are kinda of problems which requires some changes in the deepest core of the game.. That's why I'm considering of rewriting the whole engine.. That would postpone the release a bit but in the long run, I think, it would help me in future patches not to mention stability of the game itself.

I was planing to introduce the "real" multiplaying in the future but if I start working on new ( improved?) engine, I might aswell implement multiplaying there. I think the rewriting wouldn't be so time consuming since I got good part of engine code well coded and working, so on those parts it's just copy&paste.

Source: Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup

This upcoming August a highly exciting event will take place: the first tournament involving Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup will be hosted on CAO and CDO. [...]

Source: Lukos Software Development

Finally! MageGuild 0.7 is released. After this, it's bug-fixes and balance-tweaks left and right, and then we'll be into full-on public release...And on to a new project, for a while.

Source: The Way of the Fallen

Pampam,

I turned the face of the project towards multiplayer.. For now and on the first release only multiplayer aspects are going to be.. auction house ( where you can sell crafted items or dropped items to other players), ingame chat.. otherways of interaction are not yet supported since it requires alot of work both client and server side.

I also made new starting menu (mainly becouse of multiplaying needs it). Player has to create a new account in order for him to start playing. No worries its real fast and simple thing to do.. all player needs to do is type in character name(has to be unique among players) and password (no restrictions... yet) After that player has set up his account and is ready to customize the character. Players who have already registered can just type in name and password and continue playing.