Such a brief summer this starved Sun brought each day

Posted on February 2, 2024 by Rorthron

So more solstice releases missed….

I realise that the last official release was actually Spring Equinox 2023 – nearly a year ago!

It’s not that I’ve not been busy. There has been plenty of development, some sideline things, but ultimately I’ve not been visiting the land of Midnight quite as much as I would have liked. I can insert all the usual excuses here, but ultimately it just comes back to enthusiasm and time management.

So I’ve just pushed the button on the next release. It’s heading to testers now and will be available to all soon. if you just can’t wait you can sign up for testing of iOS LOM and DDR or register for Open Testing for Android LOM or DDR (click link from your device). OSX and Windows versions are available from the download pages – LOM and DDR

The observant among you will notice that there are actually two releases. This is because if had a release ready to go last year, but just never pushed the button on it. That is, except for Android. I had to push a mandatory Android release for targeting SDK 33 – so I pushed it out around October and didn’t even mention it. So there is a good chance that if you’re an Android user you already have 2.0.7

This is really a DDR heavy release, and I must also add a shout out to Andrew Smart for keeping on my toes with all his questions while he has been beavering on with his implementation of Doomdark’s Revenge. There are a few issues the the below list that came out of those questions. Particularly the bug fixes…

v2.0.8 (47)

ADDED: Game Difficulty – Number of followers should affect outcome of fights
UPDATED: Lords should not be displaced when a member of a group
UPDATED: Groups should not disbanded when the leader dies in a battle
ADDED: Game Difficulty – Number of Soldiers affects the outcome of a fight
ADDED: DDR – Game Option – Upgrade to Shareth Army AI
FIXED: DDR – Character without an army doesn’t trigger an AI lord deciding to stay at a location
FIXED: DDR – ‘prepares to do battle’ message is shown incorrectly
FIXED: DDR – Imgorarg’s loyalty is incorrect – should be Dwarf
FIXED: DDR – Dawn energy boosts are flipped for AI / Non AI characters
FIXED: DDR – Dawn energy boosts for resting are fixed and not based on hours remaining
FIXED: DDR – Recruitment does not take in to account the power of the 5 main special objects
FIXED: DDR – Incorrect object name / types

v2.0.7 (46)

ADDED: Game Difficulty – time affects seeking
ADDED: Game Difficulty – time affects hiding
ADDED: Game Difficulty – time affects recruiting
FIXED: DDR – Think page incorrectly shows Person and Army info outside of tunnels
ADDED: DDR – Game Option – Don’t swap after successful approach
ADDED: LOM – Game Option – Auto Seek enhancement
ADDED: LOM – Game Option – Auto Approach enhancement
UPDATED: Android target sdk 33

So let’s talk about what all the above features mean…

Firstly a note on Difficulty. When it is set to NORMAL which is the default, then the game plays as original. Changes only apply to EASY, MEDIUM, and HARD.

Game Difficulty – Number of followers should affect outcome of fights

If a lord goes in to a fight, the chances of death or losing a horse will be removed by fighting as a group. The current rules for LoM of a friendly army being at the location still apply. So really this only applies when all the lords do not have an army. In DDR the lords’s armies could still lose numbers, but the lord will not engage the nasty. The number of followers that has an affect is based on difficulty.

Lords should not be displaced when a member of a group

When a lord loses a battle and does not die and are part of a group, then the lord should not be displaced so that they can stay in the group. They should however not take part in any more of the battle. In hard mode, then they could still be displaced. What this essentially means is that in hard mode you may have to remove the lord from the group yourself, which is a conscious decision as you might not be aware that they are no longer with the group.

Groups should not disbanded when the leader dies in a battle

Aligned Lom and DDR so that groups are not disbanded due to death. This allows the UI to reflect that a lord has died so that the player can see it.

Game Difficulty – Number of Soldiers affects the outcome of a fight

If a lord goes in to a fight, the chances of death or losing a horse will be removed by fighting with soldiers. In DDR the lords’s armies could still lose numbers, but the lord will not engage the nasty. The number of soldiers that has an affect is based on difficulty.

DDR – Game Option – Upgrade to Shareth Army AI

Two changes for this feature. Firstly, AI Lords have the habit of leaving a fight. This option makes them act like LoM and stay until their death or other lords leave. They may also choose to leave if the total number of soldiers is not currently within their favour. Secondly, AI lords have the habit of not attacking enemies that are close by, unlike LoM. This feature makes them act more like LoM.

These decisions are linked to game difficulty and lord traits.

DDR – Lord without an army doesn’t trigger an AI lord deciding to stay at a location

This is a bug fix. AI Lords make a decision to leave a location at the start of their turn. If there is an enemy at the location it’s pretty much a toss of a coin. But lords with no armies don’t get included in the enemy count, and therefore an AI lord will not consider lone lords when they are making the decision on whether to stay at a location.

‘prepares to do battle’ message is shown incorrectly

The addition of the words, “prepares to do battle” was inconsistently shown. It was possible for a lord to still be in battle in the morning and the message would not be correct.

DDR – Imgorarg’s loyalty is incorrect – should be Dwarf

Imgorarg had the incorrect race attached to him.

DDR – Dawn energy boosts are flipped for AI / Non AI characters

The dawn energy boosts that are applied ahead of the nights battles we incorrectly flipped. So AI lords were getting half that of player lords.

DDR – Dawn energy boosts for resting are fixed and not based on hours remaining

Resting characters energy is hard coded to a fixed amount and should have been calculated based on the number of hours remaining when they started to rest.

DDR – Recruitment does not take in to account the power of the 5 main special objects

The Crown of Varenand, Crown of Carudrium, Spell of Thigrorn, Runes of Finorn, and Crown of Imiriel should all have a positive affect on recruitment. But they didn’t.

DDR – Incorrect object name / types

The Spear of Thorthak was incorrectly marked as a sword. And the Bow of Tororthane was incorrectly marked as a hammer.

Game Difficulty – time affects seeking

Seeking is no longer available at night when difficulty is hard. In medium and hard, seeking will actually take an amount of time.

Game Difficulty – time affects hiding

Hiding is no longer available at night for medium and hard. Hiding and Unhide now take 1hr on medium or the rest of the day on hard.

Game Difficulty – time affects recruiting

Recruitment time for both lords has a group of new rules depending on game difficulty. In easy the recruiter loses no time and the recruited is reset to dawn. In medium the recruiter loses one hour and the recruited time is set to the same. In hard they are both set to night.

DDR – Think page incorrectly shows Person and Army info outside of tunnels

When a lord is in a tunnel, information about the outside of tunnels was visible on the think page. This has been corrected.

DDR – Game Option – Don’t swap after successful approach

Added an option to stop the auto switch to the newly recruited lord after an approach. Player can choose to DO NOTHING or stick. After the approach a new icon is displayed next to the Look icon to indicate either the recruited or the recruiter lord depending on the swap option.

LOM – Game Option – Auto Seek enhancement

Added option to auto seek when entering a location. Doomdark’s Revenge already does this.

LOM – Game Option – Auto Approach enhancement

Added an option to auto approach when entering a location in LoM. This was not added as a feature for DDR because approaching is done from outside the location and is also linked to battle.

Not sure when the next release will be. I had one scheduled in for Spring Equinox which I guess this one is kind of becoming. Therefore the next release would be Summer Solstice (June 21st) but I’m not promising anything as I potentially have to perform another SDK switch!

If there were vague fears for the future itching in the depths of men’s minds…

Posted on March 24, 2023 by Rorthron

The following is the list of outstanding items that are currently on my feature list. The intention is to add all of these over the next few releases. They all have a varying level of difficulty to implement and some will be quick wins. I’m not going to commit to an order or when as much will depend on me being on a roll or not, but I will place a marker against the ones I original intended for the Summer Solstice release. If you would like to discuss the items in any more detail, please feel free to following the links to my GitHub page for each item.

panel_select, panel_think – Add Next/Previous buttons for Desktop – Summer Solstice

panel_select and panel_think need an additional Next/Previous buttons for moving through the pages. The mobile pager is not always obvious.

Option – Don’t swap after successful approach – Summer Solstice

Give the option to stop the auto switch to the newly recruited lord after an approach. Maybe this could be Enable / Disable / Ask with default being Enabled.

Option – Auto Seek – Summer Solstice

Add option to auto seek when entering a location. Doomdark’s Revenge already does this as seek is not a player action. Maybe it could be?

Option – Auto Approach – Summer Solstice

Add an option to auto approach when entering a location in LoM or when trying to move in to a location DDR.

Game Difficulty – LOM/DDR – battle algorithms

Adjust battle algorithms to give Doomguard more success. This would be a difficulty option.

Game Difficulty – LOM – Armies

Add more armies tracking Luxor, Morkin in LoM. This would be a difficulty option.

Game Difficulty – LOM – IceFear / Moonring

The ice fear is calculated based on Morkin’s distance from the Ice Crown and the distance from the warm glow of luxor. The ice fear is then fed in to other calculations.

increase the falling rate of Invigorated/tired, bold/afraid, + effect on + distance to Moon ring. This would be a difficulty option.

LOM: Campaign for Novel

Create a campaign that would mirror changes made for the Novel.

Lord of Silence
Tarithel the Fey
Utarg changing sides
Tunnel to the Tower of Doom

LOM: Gameplay Rule – Varied start positions

Allow various different start positions for the lords. Needs some thought to whom this should affect.

LOM: Gameplay Rule – Replenish Cup of Dreams

LoM – Locations that have a Cup of Dreams have the ability to respawn after x amount of time. This could be altered by the difficulty mode. Other ‘things’ could also be respawned. This would not be dissimilar to how DDR works.

DDR: Gameplay Rule – Armies continue to fight after attacking.

Currently in Doomdark’s Revenge AI Lords have the habit of leaving a fight. This option would make them act like LoM and stay until death or other lords leave. Another potential option would be for them to leave if they consider they are losing… Could also be linked to difficulty.

DDR: Gameplay Rule – Armies attack when near an enemy

Currently AI lords have the habit of not attacking enemies that are close by, unlike LoM. This feature would make them act more like LoM. Could also be linked to difficulty.

DDR: Gameplay Rule – Adjust lord death rules – Summer Solstice

In Doomdark’s Revenge the death rules for Lords should be tweaked to be more like LoM, meaning that can’t die until their army is wiped out. And not if attacking a critter with an army.

panel_map: Add Pinch and Zoom

Add Pinch and Zoom to map for Mobile
Add Shift and Mouse move for Desktop

Add guide and novella to embedded browser

Rather than open in a external browser, open the novella and guide in a embedded browser.

Tomorrow, at dawn, you must don the Moon Ring

Posted on March 20, 2023 by Rorthron

The Spring Equinox release has now been submitted to Apple and Google and should be available over the next few days, if not already. Windows and the OSX non store versions can be downloaded from The Lords of Midnight and Doomdark’s Revenge update pages.

Here is the list of changes, this version is mainly Doomdark’s Revenge updates. The next release will likely switch focus.

v2.0.6 (45)

FIXED: DDR – Strongholds don’t change Occupier if the race is the same
FIXED: DDR – Night processing hangs because of circular lieges
FIXED: DDR – Obigrorn the Giant starts with Riders
FIXED: Options menu is sometimes off the screen on narrow screens.
ADDED: 100% scale to panel_map_detailed
FIXED: Give, Take, Approach, and Use text not working on action buttons
FIXED: Check place should show when entering a location with an artefact
FIXED: Replacing missing Keyboard Style option on desktop devices
ADDED: Game Difficulty – Normal / Easy / Medium / Hard
ADDED: Gameplay Rule – Intended original terrain travel times

I have also update the online guides to better reflect the changes over the last year or so.

Item 1, 2, and 4 are straight bug fixes and I think speak for themselves. 3 will only be resolved in new games.

100% scale to panel_map_detailed

Simple icon to click on screen to reset map scaling to 100%

Give, Take, Approach, and Use text not working on action buttons

The action buttons didn’t show the target of the action correctly.

Check place should show when entering a location with an artefact

The check place always showed and artefact that was in a given location, it just wasn’t easy to find them without constantly going to ‘choose’ or ‘check place’ on every move. The original would auto show ‘check place’ if an artefact was at the location – this has now been implemented correctly.

Replacing missing Keyboard Style option on desktop devices

For some reason this keyboard option with Classic, or New disappeared when I moved to v2. Best to check the online guide to see the difference in keys, or just press a key and see the hints.

Game Difficulty – Normal / Easy / Medium / Hard

This is the first stages of the new difficulty modes. Normal is as the game was originally released. Depending on the game difficulty, there is a defined number of saves. Also if Repeatable Save is set, then an action after a save game, in the same sequence, will follow the save outcome. More features will be added to the difficulty mode over time. Difficulty mode stays the same for the entire story and is not affected by changing the options during a game.

Difficulty	Undos	Repeatable Save
NORMAL	1	NO
EASY	10	NO
MEDIUM	5	YES
HARD	0	YES

Table for Difficulty modes

Gameplay Rule – Intended original terrain travel times – Movement Modifiers

The original spectrum version of Doomdark’s Revenge had a bug that mean movement was not taking in to account a races favoured terrain. This option allows you to play the game with either the Original, Intended, or even C64 versions. A more detailed examination of the values can be found here…