[log] SoundRTS 1.1 alpha 7 released

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

The main changes since 1.1 alpha 6 are:

doc:

• the manual has been entirely updated
• some parts have been automatically generated from rules.txt

interface:

• added screen reader support for Windows (using ScreenReaderAPI)
• added TTS support for Linux (uses Speech Dispatcher)

campaign:

• removed or simplified hard maps
• added very small maps demonstrating some units

AI:

• the passive AI is more peaceful (similar to SoundRTS 1.0): it won't retaliate if one of its explorers is attacked

gameplay:

• added necromancer, necropolis, deadly fog, raise dead, zombie, skeleton
• added priest, temple, resurrection, exorcism, holy vision
• now only the priest can heal (removed from mage and townhall)
• teleportation stops if no space is left
• teleportation has been limited to 10 units
• moved conversion to the priest
• added summon dragons and meteors to the mage
• healing: the gain of hit points is now continuous instead of increasing by steps of 1 hit point every 7.5 seconds; it should work globally the same except for the first hit point which was gained instantly on the first healing of a unit
• restored archer upgrade values to SoundRTS 1.0 values: weapon damage + 1.5 (instead of 15), armor + .5 (instead of 2)
• when creating a building, now the construction site is set up as soon as the peasant enters the square (and not when the peasant reaches the meadow); this should avoid some cases where the peasant cannot reach the meadow

optimization:

• the peasants AI might be less slow in large maps when gathering resources (faster shortest path implementation)

server:

• now a game on a public server will require at least two human players
• added a cleanup routine to the server (remove clients without socket and remove all games when no client)
• in whatismyip.txt, replaced whatismyip.org (often down) with an automation-friendly URL provided by whatismyip.com

bugs fixed:

• the completion of a repair is not notified anymore
• when an order is given to a group and at least one unit knows what to do, there won't be any "order impossible" alert
• when at least one unit has enough mana, no "not enough mana" alert will be emitted
• after some time, the public server would allow less and less simultaneous games
• minor fixes in maps JS11 and JS13 (Jason Symes)

keyboard bindings:

• now SHIFT ALT A and SHIFT ALT G queue the previous order (while ALT A and ALT G just repeated it at once)
• the keyboard bindings are defined in a hopefully more efficient way which will facilitate the creation of new units and races: the unit types mentioned in bindings.txt are generic: worker, building, soldier1, soldier2, ..., soldier7; these names are mentioned in style.txt for the units as a parameter called "keyboard"; this parameter can be inherited, so for example there is no need to define it for darkarcher since archer already mentions: "keyboard soldier2"
• the modifiers SHIFT (queue_order) and CONTROL (imperative_order) work for the mouse left click too (when confirming a target)

game modding:

• cleaned up rules.txt: removed unused parameters about multilevel tech upgrades ("levels", "cost_increment", "time_cost_increment", "requirements1", "requirements2")
• added "food_cost 1" in rules.txt for some units
• added effects: "summon_nearby" and "summon_anywhere"
• added unit property: "decay"
• about abilities (teleportation, conversion, ...), rules.txt mentions if the enemy have an alert too (like in teleportation) with the variable universal_notification set to 1 (default value is 0), in style.txt the alert sound is specified in the ability instead of in the unit

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 or the ai.txt file, you need to send it to your friends if you want to play with them, or they won't find your server.