A new engine!

[CraigStern]

-characters now sometimes offer commentary when building structures or healing one another.

-attack accuracy is now displayed in targeting reticles.

-single space parabola animation added to the game for 1-space Leap usage.

[CraigStern]

-laid the groundwork for army-specific info and alliances.

-characters now have stat proficiencies sprinkled in with their skill progressions.

-skills progressions now continue beyond promotion, with characters continuing to learn new stuff until they reach level 10 post-promotion.

[Zetor]

Oooh, shiny. Is this going to be a "Director's Cut" update to TT, or are you going to do a new release (possibly with some more stuff)?

Also, are you considering multiplayer using Unity's networking functionality? It'd probably be a pretty big headache, but may get more people interested compared to hotseat...

[CraigStern]

-got the item interaction UI designed and partially working in the character screen.

-equipping and unequipping items in the character screen now works.

Oooh, shiny. Is this going to be a "Director's Cut" update to TT, or are you going to do a new release (possibly with some more stuff)?

Why just one? ;)

Also, are you considering multiplayer using Unity's networking functionality? It'd probably be a pretty big headache, but may get more people interested compared to hotseat...

If my experiences with Telepath Tactics taught me anything, it's that there are way more people interested in the breadth and depth of single player content available in my games than there are people concerned about multiplayer--and I can make a whole lot of good single player content with the time and resources that multiplayer would require. So the choice is pretty easy: I'm focusing on single player for the foreseeable future.

[CraigStern]

-using consumable items in the character screen now works.

-dropping items from the character screen now works.

-the new item interaction UI now has tooltips for the Use/Equip/Unequip, Give, Drop, and Cancel buttons.

[CraigStern]

-characters can now give items in their inventory to adjacent characters.

[CraigStern]

- Create skills are now limited to targeting appropriate terrain based upon whether they create bridges or not.

- bridges now work properly (though I'll need to create specialized 3D assets for them--along with walls, doors, and fences--at a later date).

-the game now saves and loads custom integer and custom string variables.

-the SetVal, SetValByVal, SetString, and SetStringByString actions are now working.

- the -VAL:- and -STR:- special characters are now working.

[CraigStern]

-the SetStat, SetValByStat, and SetStrByStat actions are now working. (Note that I'm not adding the -STAT:- special character to the new engine; you'll wanna use SetValByStat and -VAL:- instead, or SetStrByStat and -STR:-.)

Supported integer stats in SetStat are now:

Army (0 for the player, 1 for the default enemy army)
Coords (y and x, delimited by a colon)
Level
PromotionLevels (levels "lost" from a prior promotion--used in experience scaling and such)
Experience
Aptitude (subtracted directly from the experience needed to level; 100 - Aptitude = Exp Needed)
Stat Gain (number of stats that improve on level-up; it's 2 by default)
Morale
Damage
Drain
Steps Taken
Counters Used
Reflexes Used
Pushable (1 means it's pushable; 0 means it isn't)
Health
Energy
Strength
Psy
Speed
Max Steps
Dodge
Accuracy
Counter Limit
Perception
Reflexes
Pierce Res.
Slash Res.
Crush Res.
Mental Res.
Heat Res.
Cold Res.
Shadow Res.
Light Res.
Poison Res.
Appetite

Supported integer stats in SetValByStat are the same, except for Coords--instead, you get Y Coord and X Coord separately. (You can also get Elev.)

Supported string stats in SetStat are now:

Name (first and last delimited with a colon)
Class
Race
Sex
Sexual Preference
Move Type
Facing (Up, Down, Left, or Right)
Default Expression (the type of facial expression used by default for a character with a generated portrait)

Supported string stats in SetStrByStat are the same, but you can also get Default Move Type (ignores temporary changes to the character's move type, such as Swimming or changes wrought by the Heavy or Levitating status effects).

[CraigStern]

-the SetStatByVal and SetStatByStr actions are now working. (I won't be adding SetStatByStat back in, as it introduces potential for people to try to set int stats by string stats, and vice versa.)

-SetString now permits you to use commas within the second parameter without screwing everything up! (Just...don't use -STR:- with a string containing commas in the second parameter within the parameter of another action. It'll end badly.)

-screen-edge panning is now working in the game.

[bugfartboy]

I'm curious: are numerical values in the new engine limited to integers, or are floating-point values supported?

[CraigStern]

-IfStringGoTo, IfValGoTo, and IfStatGoTo are now working.

-IfStringRun, IfValRun, and IfStatRun are now working. As with Run, you can now run multiple scripts in a row using a single call to one of these actions; just delimit the names of the individual scripts you wish to run with the vertical bar character (|). These functions no longer automatically interrupt all following actions when successful--instead, there is now a separate action for that called...

-ClearQueue. When called, ClearQueue immediately clears all actions that have been queued up from the current dialogue branch/script. Use this as the last action in a script to prevent all other actions that were queued up to occur after.

For example, say Branch 0 has the following actions:

Code Select Expand

<Action>Run/A Script</Action>
<Action>SetStr/ExampleStr,This is what it'll be without ClearQueue</Action>

And A Script has:

Code Select Expand

<Action>SetStr/ExampleStr,This is the string as set in A Script</Action>
<Action>ClearQueue</Action>

On branch 0 of the dialogue, both Run and SetStr are queued; when Run is executed, however, A Script runs its own SetStr and then clears the original SetStr from the queue using ClearQueue. The result: ExampleStr is set to This is the string as set in A Script, and is not changed to This is what it'll be without ClearQueue.

I'm curious: are numerical values in the new engine limited to integers, or are floating-point values supported?

Floating point values are used for a few things--certain things related to skills and procedurally generated items, for instance. As far as character stats, though, everything is in integers. (Integers take less memory and require less processing power to use than floating-point numbers, and they don't accumulate floating-point errors, so I prefer to use them whenever I have the chance.)

[CraigStern]

-the PlaySound action is now working.

-the SpawnUnit action is now working. (This is the same as the old SpawnChar action, but with an optional 8th parameter: inventory, consisting of items delimited by colons.)

-the GenerateUnit action is now working. This is like SpawnUnit, but instead of loading a premade unit from XML, it procedurally generates a new, unique character of a specified class at a specified level. Parameters: (1) army number; (2) character class; (3) character level; (4) character name (use RANDOM here to have the game generate one for you); (5) Y coordinate; (6) X coordinate; (7) facing direction; (8) triggers; (9) tags; (10) inventory (note that the character may be generated with certain items or equipment in addition to whatever you specify here).

Don't try to use this for destructible objects or custom character classes, btw: this currently only works for characters belonging to one of the game's 24 default character classes.

[CraigStern]

-the OnTalk trigger now works in the game; the Talk button has now been added to the UI, and intiates OnTalk dialogue when the triggering characters are adjacent to one another.

-consumable items can now possess a mastery requirement, thereby limiting which characters can use them.

[CraigStern]

-added a gender parameter to the GenerateUnit action in case you want to specify a gender; if you leave it blank, the game will simply pick one for you.

-consumable items can now run scripts when used. (Instead of having script names sandwiched between the <Item> tags, you'll now want to stick them in a runsScripts attribute.)

[CraigStern]

-the LevelUp tag now works in the game.

-the tags system now supports cumulative effects (e.g. a character with a ModSkillCost/ModSkillRange/etc. tag who equips a weapon that adds a new instance of that same tag will have those effects stack).