Dev Log

[CraigStern]

Improvements for 1.0.17:

-- added documentation for 2D particle presets to the Guide.

-- fixed: the RemoveSpawn action could produce a null error when used in battle. (This fix pushed as a hotfix for version 1.0.16b.)

[CraigStern]

-- the game now displays a "Saving game..." notification when auto-saving during transitions between scenes.

-- fixed: in-game shops were still showing salaries and food in the info bar.

-- fixed: unit move speed level 2, specifically, had ceased to be applied to AI-controlled characters.

-- fixed: the animation type for point lights was not being saved properly by the map editor.

-- fixed: the page buttons in the shop stock item sub-window had lost their reference to the functions that actually flipped the pages.

-- fixed: you couldn't add stock to a shop without first creating the shop.

-- increased the chance of Feint causing Distracted from 75% to 100% and changed its after-attack behavior from Unlimited to Use Once, turning it from an annoying RNG gamble you had to "roll" over and over into a one-and-done tool.

[CraigStern]

Improvements for 1.0.18:

-- the game AI now takes control of characters that it afflicts with Enthralled status.

-- added a field to the character creator allowing players to assign an on-death attack to characters (e.g. Explode, Big Shield, etc.)

-- added error-checking to counterattacks, masteries, and proficiencies within the skill progression field of the character creator.

-- fixed: the page buttons for picking test rosters within the cut scene and map editors had lost their reference to the functions that actually flipped the pages.

[CraigStern]

-- the game no longer considers spaces with impassably large elevation differences as valid alternative spawn points for non-flying reinforcements when their original spawn point is blocked. (Among other things, Fera won't spawn on top of the fortress walls any longer.)

-- fixed: in some circumstances, the shop interface would fail to load the player's reserve supplies, which could result in the reserve supplies simply being wiped.

-- fixed: the cut scene editor was throwing a null error when previewing shops due to the shop script trying to reference gamepad navigation logic that doesn't exist within the campaign editor.

-- fixed: using ShakeScreen in cut scenes would cause the game to throw a null error.

-- fixed: when using Swim, the game would place skill target tiles onto any adjacent bridge or land tile even if the elevation difference was too great.

-- made the "redded out" coloration within the character screen consistent with the coloration used everywhere else in-engine.

-- optimization: removed an unnecessarily duplicative step in deserializing the reserve supplies when loading game data for a cut scene.

-- fixed: portraits had lost reference to their 2D particle spawners, causing the PortraitParticles action not to work.

[CraigStern]

-- fixed: the RemoveSpawn action could produce a null error when reapplied in a mid-battle save. (This fix pushed as a hotfix for version 1.0.18a.)

-- fixed: the cut scene editor was throwing different null errors when previewing shops due to a separate fix in version 1.0.18. (This fix pushed as a hotfix for version 1.0.18a.)

-- optimized string concatenation operations by using StringBuilder; optimized checks for empty strings throughout the code by replacing string != "" with string.Length > 0.

[CraigStern]

Improvements for 1.0.19:

-- the settings screen now offers an option to turn off post-processing effects for those who may be experiencing slowdown while playing the game.

[CraigStern]

-- expanded the graphics settings to also encompass anti-aliasing and texture resolution.

There are five supported levels of graphical fidelity reflecting gradations of quality: High, Medium, Med-Low, Low, and Potato. (On High, post-processing is on, anti-aliasing is set to sub-pixel morphological, and textures are full-resolution; on Potato, post-processing effects are disabled, anti-aliasing is turned off completely, and textures are displayed at 1/4 their normal resolution.)

-- cleaned up the golden "gleam" texture used on the title screen logo animation.

-- fixed: the shop interface could bug out if asked to load reserve supplies for a roster without any reserve supplies saved.

-- fixed: it was possible for the game to throw a null error when generating hobbies for the proc gen characters who join you after the caravan battle.

-- fixed: game AI would treat enemy counterattacks as dangerous when weighing moves with skills that prevent enemies from counterattacking.

-- fixed: it was possible for a character's on-death skill to become null, leading to a null error when the AI tried to evaluate it.

-- updated gamepad support for cut scene menus to account for multiple pages of buttons.

-- updated gamepad support for new settings on the settings screen.

-- fixed: hitting the cancel button on a gamepad during dialogue or when interacting with the new turn box would lock up the game.

[CraigStern]

Improvements for 1.0.20:

-- new Bowman skill added to the engine: Aim. Boosts user strength by 25% for the turn it's used.

-- created the Aim skill graphic, added it to usable assets.

-- fixed: game music would stop upon surrendering or being defeated in battle.

-- fixed: changes to the game's reinforcement spawn code in version 1.0.18 resulted in item sacks dropped into water no longer spawning on the nearest land or bridge tile if the elevation difference was greater than one--and with no valid space on which to spawn the sack, the game was throwing a null error. Both parts of this are now fixed.

-- the item editor now has a Copy Item function to match the skill editor's Copy Skill.

-- fixed: spawning a shop in the cut scene editor without specifying available materials would result in a null error due to the game searching for item materials and not finding them. (The game now just assumes that all materials are available within the cut scene editor.)

-- fixed: using EndConvImmediately in a cut scene with only one narration frame could result in a range error when viewing the scene within the cut scene editor.

-- fixed: the "Number to Spawn" field in the shop stock subwindow in the cut scene editor wasn't accepting ranges.

-- fixed: values passed to number pickers were not immediately being constrained to the allowed range upon passing.

-- fixed: altering available money using SetAura in a test script would not be reflected in the shop interface until changing categories or opening reserve supplies.

-- fixed: in some circumstances, forcing the end of dialogue after spawning the shop would result in the shop interface remaining onscreen instead of being dismissed alongside the dialogue interface.

-- fixed: editing an existing shop and validating its stock could result in the game inappropriately duplicating the shop.

-- created a "generated claw" graphic, which was missing from the game.

[CraigStern]

Improvements for 1.0.21:

-- vastly improved the AI algorithm for planning long-range moves (i.e. those that would not result in a skill usage this turn, but which bring the character closer to a desired target).

-- the game no longer loads all saved game data for every slot in one go when opening the save or load menus; instead, it now loads just the data for the current page and loads more when the page is changed. This addresses the long load times players faced when going to save or load the game with dozens of save slots filled.

-- reduced the difficulty of Out of Food Battle by de-linking the aggro group for enemies in the bottom-right of the map from enemies elsewhere on the right side of the map, then reduced it further for Soldier difficulty (and massively so for Observer and Recruit) by reducing the number of enemies present and increasing the number of apples yielded by fruit trees.

-- added support for impassable, black "Blank" terrain tiles to the map editor.

-- fixed: the AI profile for Crypt Diving was not set properly.

[CraigStern]

-- swapped in the grass and dirt textures from the original game and found--to my delight--that they actually work really well on the new 3D terrain! I decided to run with it and swapped in old (and in some cases, modified new) terrain textures that better fit the pixel-art aesthetic of the character sprites and vegetation. I think the battles look much nicer this way.

-- tweaked post-processing settings to boost the vividness of color and bloom effects in battle while toning down the intensity of bloom effects on lava tiles for greater readability.

-- the game's trap warning will now trigger if the destination space you click on (not just the path leading up to it) is covered by an ally's trap.

-- did a bit of optimization in the AI code.

-- fixed: the DamageUnit and DamageUnitAtCoords script actions would not trigger on-death attacks if a unit died from them. (Since these are how traps deal damage, this meant that traps were not triggering on-death attacks either.)

-- when mousing over sheer cliff faces and clicking, the game's select-the-tile-below behavior now works with move tiles, attack tiles, and so on.

-- fixed: the behavior to select the space below a sheer cliff face was only working in battle; when clicking a sheer cliff face in the map editor, the game would throw a null error.

-- fixed: materials for certain cliff faces had somehow gotten specular highlights turned on somehow.

-- improved the 64 x 64 and smaller executable icons for the game.

[CraigStern]

Improvements for 1.0.22:

-- worked on a New, Secret Campaign Mode. ;)

-- fixed the positioning and visibility of blob shadows under characters and destructible objects.

-- added a sort button for scenes in the campaign editor! This allows you to toggle between the default alphabetical sorting and a new "scene order" sort in which the game does its best to guess the intended order of scenes in the campaign based upon the "next scene" attribute contained in each scene. (Needless to say, this will work a whole lot better if you specify the next scene for each map and cut scene than if you don't.)

-- fixed a scripting error in Five Guardians.

-- new special character added: PICKFROMLIST{}. Allows you to specify a custom list variable by name; the game will automatically pick an entry from that list at random and display it.

-- fixed an off-by-1 error in the custom cut scene menu code that would cause page selectors to show up when there was a single full page of buttons.

-- fixed: the game was not saving proc gen characters added to the player's roster during battle.

-- changed the values for Defensive AI to make it care more about danger relative to the rewards of attack opportunities.

-- the AI now considers the presence of cover guarding its back when weighing different locations it can attack from. (The more defensive the AI, the more it will care about this.)

-- fixed: the game was not parsing tags using operations properly within the context of the GenerateUnit and GenerateUnique script actions.

[CraigStern]

-- the map editor now supports placing multiple characters on the same space, offering a way to easily switch between them in the unit properties window.

-- buffed the base Psy of all proc gen psy users in the main campaign to bring their utility closer to that of premade characters.

[CraigStern]

Improvements for 1.0.23:

-- Telepath Tactics Liberated now supports Remote Play Together! Play Multiplayer, the PVP of Emma Strider, and other multiplayer campaigns with Steam friends over the internet using Steam's built-in Remote Play Together functionality.

-- skills which depend upon a weapon but do no damage (such as Feint) no longer degrade the weapon when used.

-- fixed an issue that was causing the skills learned at each level to be learned in reverse order.

-- fixed a range error in the code caused by using a knockback skill on a unit subject to a Hold.

-- fixed a null error when player-controlled characters tried to move out of a Hold space created by a character of another army.

-- altered graphics for the Wildflower and WildflowerAlt objects to make them look better with the new, deeper drop shadows.

-- fixed: chests and other destructible objects shoved or pulled into water/lava would disappear below the waterline, then reappear inside the ground if pulled back out.

-- fixed: chests and other destructible objects shoved or pulled into water/lava were not spraying water or lava particles, as the game was detecting those objects already present on the space and incorrect assuming that they were landing on top of themselves.

-- fixed: the game was double-playing the "thud" sound upon units swimming onto land/being pulled out of water.

-- fixed: in some instances, it was possible for character portraits in the reserve supplies screen to remain shaded based on their desire for an item even after the item was no longer moused over.

[CraigStern]

-- the Stunned status effect now drops a unit's Drowning Resistance by 100, doubling drowning damage for most characters.

-- tamped down the strength of the back cover modifier in the AI somewhat.

-- the back cover modifier is no longer applied for moves where the user can continue moving after using their skill.

-- incorporated back cover considerations into the AI's retreat routine.

-- updated the auto-loot wording on the victory screen to help distinguish it from sacks grabbed manually.

-- new script action: SaveChar. This tells the game to mark a particular character for saving even if that character is not recruited to the player's army. This allows you to have the game remember the condition of allied or enemy units between maps, and lets you create persistent proc gen characters who don't join the player's roster.

-- fixed: the materials and quality parameters for generated equipment in the GenerateUnit and GenerateUnique script actions weren't being passed through to the character generator, resulting in all generated equipment for proc gen units being of uniformly terrible quality.

-- created a new item: Protector's Manual. What does it do? It's a mystery! ;)

[CraigStern]

-- you can now browse and edit an unlimited number of actions per branch in the dialogue editor's Edit Branch window (as opposed to being limited to only 6).

-- fixed: using the mouse wheel to zoom in or out in the dialogue editor while within the map editor would also zoom the camera within the map editor.