Monday, October 4, 2010

[log] SoundRTS 1.1 alpha 3 released

Available at:
http://jlpo.free.fr/soundrts

The main changes since 1.1 alpha 2 are:

SAPI 5 experimental support (activation and settings only during a game, but the configuration can be saved):

- SAPI on/off: during a game, Control Alt F12 (off by default)
- press Control F12 to select the next voice, press Control Shift F12 to select the previous voice
- SAPI change speed: Alt (Shift) F12
- press Control Alt Shift F12 to save SAPI configuration
- SAPI volume (same keys as voice volume)
- the buildvoices script has been replaced by a build_tts.exe file; no additional install is needed, and it converts to ogg automatically
- sounds.txt has been renamed to tts.txt

Gameplay:

- press Alt + PageUp/PageDown to select the previous/next unknown square
- press Shift + PageUp/PageDown to select the Previous/Next Square containing resources
- some trained units will not be announced after number 10 (like the announce for gold or wood)
- optimizations: this version is faster than 1.1 alpha 2, and probably almost as fast as 1.0
- new sound for conversion, different from the one used for teleportation
- scout towers, guard towers and cannon towers can see the adjacent squares
- aerial units (dragon, flying machine, offensive flying machine) can see the adjacent squares
- bug fixed: a catapult with an imperative attack order on a specific target would go to the target instead of attacking it
- on entering the multiplayer menu, the player will be asked to choose a login if the current login is the default one
- building a farm, barracks, a lumber mill or a blacksmith now requires having a town hall
- now Alt A does the same than Alt G: redo the previous command, immediately if no validation is required

Map making, modding:

- some map errors will be detected earlier (especially in maps involving triggers)
- added a map_error message when square names are expected and the item can't be a square name
- try to use SAPI if map error
- in rules.txt, "sight_range 1" means that the unit or building can see the adjacent squares
- in rules.txt, inheritance works (lines starting with "is_a")
- in rules.txt, requirements take inheritance into account (for example, a castle is also a townhall because castle "is_a keep" and keep "is_a townhall"; so if a townhall is required to build barracks, having a castle is OK too)
- added default single player game speed to SoundRTS.ini

Linux:

- in Linux, the log file is now stored in a "tmp" directory under the "$HOME/.SoundRTS unstable" directory
- in Linux, the "SoundRTS.cfg" configuration file is now "SoundRTS.ini" (like the other platforms)

Graphics (still not usable for visual play):

- graphics: now a line will be displayed when a unit hits another unit and the wounded unit will be temporarily highlighted
- graphics: hit points are displayed for damaged units
- graphics: draw a rectangle over units to select them for commands
- graphics: now the mouse cursor changes shape depending on the pointed object and depending on the game waiting for a target for the current command
- graphics: buildings are now displayed as squares (the rest are circles)
- graphics: inside your units: a dark green spot if not controlled, a light green spot if controlled
- graphics: inside enemy units: a red spot

SoundRTS 1.1 and SoundRTS 1.0 should coexist in the same machine without any problem. The settings are also stored in different folders (respectively "SoundRTS unstable" and "SoundRTS 1.0").

About multiplayer games, this version is only compatible with itself. If you modify the rules.txt file, you need to send it to your friends if you want to play with them or they won't find your server.

6 comments:

Storm Dragon said...

Can us Linux users have a Python2.6 version? 2.5 isn't in the repository, and I am not sure it's even possible to install it along side the 2.6 with Pygame support. Looking forward to help testing.
Thanks

SoundMUD said...

Which Linux distribution are you using? If you use a Debian-based distribution, try the following steps:

1. Add the following line to /etc/apt/sources.list:
deb http://jlpo.free.fr/deb ./

2. Update the repository information:
sudo apt-get update

3. Install the package:
sudo apt-get install soundrts1.0
or
sudo apt-get install soundrts1.1
(you can install both)

4. Start the game from the command line:
soundrts1.0
or
soundrts1.1

Storm Dragon said...

Hi,
Awesome! that's really cool there is a SoundRTS repository! I got the following error when installing Using Ubuntu 10.04:
$ sudo apt-get install soundrts1.1
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
soundrts1.1: Depends: python2.5 but it is not installable
E: Broken packages

SoundMUD said...

Thanks for the feedback. I'll try to include the python2.5-minimal files in the soundrts1.1 package.

SoundMUD said...

It won't be so easy.
It seems that Linux binaries are not compatible enough to allow packaging Python and pygame with SoundRTS.
Moreover, if compiling Python is rather simple, compiling pygame is more complicated.

SoundMUD said...

Because of this problem, the experimental repository won't be updated to 1.1 alpha 4. A more urgent feature is provided though: python files from 2.4 to 2.7 are now included in the multi-platform version of SoundRTS.