Friday, August 8, 2014

[log] SoundRTS 1.2 alpha 9 released

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

The main changes since 1.2 alpha 8 are:

General:
- games are automatically recorded and can be replayed
- added observer mode after defeat
- added shortcuts for orders (press Alt + A and the shortcut)
- smarter target selection with Tab: It now selects in the following order: resources, then damaged buildings, then free space, then exits (if in the current square). If the current order is to build something, it selects free space first.
- added a console key (backquote, the key below escape) to enter commands like "add_units" or "victory"
- Ctrl+F2 now works in menu mode too (toggle display)
- completely removed recorded speech
- experimental: high ground (squares with a sight bonus and a range bonus), and a map (jl5) which uses high ground
- towers don't prevent defeat anymore
- in map selection menus, the previously chosen map will be selected by default
- added races menu to single player training
- now allies share their upgrades
- audio buffer is 1024 on any platform

Windows:
- restored an installer for Windows
- Windows: the new default text output is the screen reader (through ScreenReaderAPI) instead of SAPI 5
- Windows installer: added shortcuts to some mods including CrazyMod 8.2

Contributions:
- included the Crazy Mod 8.2 (check their web site at http://pragmapragma.free.fr/soundrts-crazymod/ )
- Broadcast to all the players in a game when someone selects a race, so the game admin finds it easier to know when everyone is ready. (thanks to Christopher Toth)
- Add the name of the player to the title of non-npc units (thanks to Christopher Toth)
- Added a simple in-game chat feature modeled off the lobby chat. This can be invoked with f7 from within the game. I also added f7 in the menu for consistency. (thanks to Christopher Toth)
- Improved range of symbols which you can say (thanks to Christopher Toth)
- Allow activating menu items with the enter key on the numpad (thanks to Christopher Toth)
- updated Russian translation (thanks to Kvark)
- Brazilian Portuguese translation: added the new text and fixed some translation errors (thanks to Thiago Seus)
- fixed Czech encoding problem (thanks to Marco Oros)

Bug fixes:
- bug fixed: cut_scene didn't work ("nicely done!" in chapter 1, for example)
- bug fixed: a unit in defensive mode didn't take allies into account before deciding to flee or not
- bug fixed: in a single player training game, choosing a race caused an error
- bug fixed: in cheat mode, map navigation in previously unknown places would never cause collisions
- bug fixed: on the Mac, the game couldn't start: Getting the system language while running from the terminal caused an error: “ValueError: unknown locale: UTF-8". Note: if the error happens, the game will use English by default and advise the user to edit cfg/languages.txt.
- bug fixed: asking a building to use an ability on an unreachable target would cause an error
- bug fixed: trying to convert a target in the fog of war would cause an error if the range of the ability is "anywhere"
- bug fixed: when hosting several SoundRTS servers on the same machine (using several ports with the -p command-line option), each registering server would unregister the other servers with the same IP address even if the port number is different
- bug fixed: navigating from a known square without any exit wouldn't cause a collision noise

Modding:
- modding: added a "provides_survival" variable
- modding: it is now possible to use the word "faction" instead of "race"
- modding: added is_teleportable variable
- modding: made sure that a building can leave a meadow and turn into a unit, and that a unit can turn into a building if a meadow is available (added "flyingtownhall" as an example mod)
- map making: in "intro", "cut_scene" or "sequence", a number in a sequence can now also represent a text message defined in tts.txt
- added parameters/recommended_maps to style.txt
- added a command-line option to override the mods defined in SoundRTS.ini For example: soundrts.py --mods=soundpack,orc