Rotten Doomdark magic

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The Spring equinox release didn’t quite go as smoothly as hoped. It was a big release because the Axmol upgrade but a few issues meant I’ve had to push a hot fix. Actually being truthful, I’ve pushed a few… the latest 2.0.11 (56) is rolling through now. The Windows update will be a little later – just because of build delays.

Build (56)

  1. FIXED: LOM – Crash when seeking and finding an object that can be picked up

Build (55)

  1. FIXED: LOM – Crash at startup after previously chaning scenaro to LOM_NOVEL
  2. FIXED: DDR – Friendly Lord ‘prepares For battle’ at friendly fortress after being recruited

Build (54)

  1. FIXED: LOM – Crash when after Moonring wearer dies
  2. FIXED: Incorrect hours remaining shown after finding guidance
  3. FIXED: Problem with shaders on older devices – Black rectangles around characters

Build (53)

  1. FIXED: ANDROID: Start new game crash – stop proguard stripping axmol utils.

Here’s what happened.

  1. Android build messed up only for the Play Store build. So had to immediately push a new version. This is to do with how the build process removes unused code etc. It had tagged some parts of the engine as not required which would cause a crash on creating a new game. So I pushed a new build just for Android.
  2. Shader problems on some iPads (potentially other devices). A divide by zero issue that has been in the shader code – forever – caused the outlines of terrain to be funky, but more importantly the characters were sat in a black box. Not sure what in the process caused this to show up now, but thankfully the Axmol guys helped located the issue. It’s one of those – doh! moments. That said, it’s been fine for 12 years!! Also thanks to Gareth Jones for helping test the fix.
  3. There was a crash in LoM when Luxor died. When the Doomguard who follow Luxor try to to locate someone else to follow, the game crashed. This was because in implementation of the Novel scenario, I had inadvertently turned off the Moonring feature!! This and the shaders warranted a quick release.
  4. I had a small guidance bug brought to my attention which I had fixed, so I though I might as well push it with the hot fix.
  5. New crash at startup – in fixing the Moonring issue I introduced a different crash. This is what happens when you try to rush releases and don’t cover your fixes with proper unit tests!
  6. Has also fixed a small prepares battle reporting issue.
  7. Crash problem caused when seeking and finding an object that you can pick up – Sword, Moon Ring, Ice Crown. This was caused by the guidance bug fix – see previous comment about tests.

Hopefully this is now all settling…

In the meantime – I also started the process of getting the GoG releases updated. The stores should be up to date with the new release later this month. I’m holding off for a little while longer due to these hiccups…

The first cautious movements began

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So, this happened tonight… With the move to Axmol I have the opportunity to target more platforms, the particular two that I am interested in are, Apple TV and Web. So I thought I’d play around with Apple TV First.

And it only bloody works…

There are issues with navigation, ie: I don’t support controllers and stop I managed to fumble may way around with the Apple TV Remote touch area – not ideal. The video shows my struggling and then I hit an area that I could get out of with the remote. Apologies for the length as the dedication screen is shown in full.

So I need to add in proper support. But this is very promising…

The captains of Doomdark were tallying supplies

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As per my last post, the latest versions are ready for release. They are currently in the hands of testers and should be good to go for the Equinox. Windows and the OSX non store versions can be downloaded now from The Lords of Midnight and Doomdark’s Revenge update pages.

Anyone interested in testing can sign up here…

Additional features not mentioned previously.

  • In The Lords of Midnight : Novel Preview, you can dismount from your horse. It’s exactly what it appears to be. There are no airs and graces. You get off the horse and it runs away… I will leave it to you to find out why you might need the feature.
  • There are also two little discovery map fixes. The discovery map will no longer update for the land above you when you are in a tunnel. And you will not see critters who are in a tunnel, unless you have visited that tunnel location.