Category Archives: Update

Doomdark could choose from many roads after gaining the Plains

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So phase one of the new release is almost complete. Version 2.0.2 (36) of The Lords of Midnight is now available for iPhone, OSX, and Windows. You can download OSX from the App Store or you can get it from here along with the Windows version.

On iOS there is one known issue and that is a random crash caused by the move from OpenGL to Metal – a requirement enforced by Apple. You never lose any data and a restart of the game will take you right back in to where you were. If you are experiencing this problem then it is possible that turning off transitions in the options may solve or delay the problem.

Unfortunately it seems that the Cocos2dx has an issue here and the SDK has not been updated in two years, which makes me think it is nearly as good as dead – which leaves me in another tricky situation.

The suggestion is that I can move to a more updated Fork of Cocos2dx called ADXE. In theory it should be a small migration, but I’m just not up to it right now. Maybe I will give it a quick go one weekend when the mood takes me.

So I have made the decision to move on for now to phase two which is to get Doomdark’s Revenge release. Hopefully this shouldn’t take too long as it was already running in the new engine, I just need to check over a few things. I have pushed test version for iOS and OSX and will follow with Windows and Android real soon.

Sign up for testing

This does leave me vulnerable as the crash bug is probably frequent enough that I might start to get complaints and review ratings will start to decrease. However until I see how bad the crash is in the wild across multiple devices and os versions, it’s hard for me to gauge. I just hope that those of you have been following my progress and are therefore reading this will just take the crash on the chin for a while.

As later phases of my plan involve a complete re-write of the engine to c# and the potential move to unity (which is already under way), then I feel compelled to get Doomdark’s Revenge released and then focus on the rewrite. Because with the new engine will come many many new and shiny features…

He rode on towards the Tower of the Moon a little more gladly

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Thanks to the generosity of Scott Gibbens, who took time out from his 170 mile journey home at the end of a busy day at work, to swing by my place and lend me his iPad2 for testing… the new build is now working on all the devices it can. The only restrictions I have had to make is iOS7. This removes iPhone 1-3, and iPad1, and iPod Touch 1-4. Unfortunately, there is just nothing I can do for these old devices anymore. For the record, the current version in the app store will continue to be available and work on those devices that have already downloaded it, it’s just no future versions (should there be any) will be available.
This new build has gone out to the external testers, and as long as I get the ok, it will head to the store next week. All being well, I will do the same for Doomdark’s Revenge. I intend to release both LoM and DDR for Android, Windows, and OSX as well to unify the releases. However, Blackberry, and Windows Phone will not be getting this release.
 
For the record, this is what is available in this release…
 
1. Added discovery map
2. Added ‘tooltip’ info on map
3. Added cleanup button for lords on select screen
4. Change to undo system ready for difficulty modes
5. Added ability to UNDO from the gameover screen!
6. Handle new screen resolutions
7. Built for latest IOS SDK
8. Support 64 bit devices
9. Cosmetic changes on scrolling views – dithered
10. Update of engine to align with Doomdark’s Revenge
11. Misc minor engine fixes ported from Doomdark’s Revenge

Update for Doomdark’s Revenge released

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ddr_icon_iosI have just pushed a new version of Doomdark’s Revenge out for ALL platforms. This brings all platforms in line with each other. The previous update was only released for Android and iOS. I apologiss for the delay in getting the last two versions out, but my heart and mind has just not been in it for the last couple of months.

Hopefully this will fix the remaining issues with the gameplay, and will also be the last of the 1.3 changes. The intention is that any update to follow will include some new features.

The Windows and Mac version should be showing up on your main menu now. Android/Amazon version should be ready now, or very soon. Mac App Store and iOS version will take a week in Apple Clearance, and Blackberry version usually takes a couple of days.

The changes are..

v1.3.6
1. Fix recruitment check. Loyalty of character being approached now correctly gives +1 and when the lord is treacherous the chance of recruitment is halved – This fix should mean that treacherous lords are no harder to recruit for AI lords, which should stop lords swapping allegiance so much. They should therefore be able to focus on the task at hand.

v1.3.5
1. Morkin’s AI attribute is reset once recruited. Stops him moving and allows him to move in tunnels. Previously Morkin’s AI attribute remained set after Tarithel recruited him. This mean that he didn’t work in tunnels very well, and had a habit of wandering off at night.
2. Tarithel can no longer be recruited away. Tarithel was incorrectly being recruited by AI lords.
3. Spell of Carudrium now works correctly. Previously this was bringing ALL characters to the location of the caster, and not just the the lords loyal to the Moonprince.

If the AI characters are still not behaving like the original, I am going to have to spend a lot more time analysing why. I can’t see any reason why the logic should not play out the same as the original ( other than the difference in random numbers ). This will involved a lot of debugging. But hopefully this version should just nudge everything in the right direction.