0.62c - development version

Changes from 0.62b: [forum.vcmi.eu/t/0-62b-development-version/84/1) ]

  • dead stacks won’t be displayed in battle queue
  • fixed bug with pathfinder
  • possibly fixed bug with the mage guild when no spells available
  • events won’t be shown and won’t block movement
  • casualties among hero army and neutral creatures are saved
  • it’s possible to build lighthouse
  • increased thread-safety (may prevent some crashes)
  • defeated hero is removed
  • minor fixes

Known bugs:

  1. On Windows Vista MS Redist. pack must be installed ( microsoft.com/downloads/deta … laylang=en )
  2. Shipyard is available even if there is no water near town
  3. Wrong horde building info in town hall screen
    vcmi_062c.7z (1.42 MB)

First the BUG:

#1 - The game ALWAYS crashes if we click on the Hero icon on the hero icon on the Adventure Map after the first level up:

FUNCTIONALITY ISSUES & REQUESTS:

1 - Adv.Map: FORTS are not anymore accessible. We used to be able to go through until 0.62, but not anymore since 0.62b. I believe this should be among the first to be fixed, as it’s blocking us from exploring quite a big number of maps.

2 - Adv.Map: The SUBTERRANEAN GATES are not accessible. This is another thing preventing us from exploring maps.

3 - Adv.Map to Hero screen: The artifacts we pick up on the map do not go to the appropriate slot (if free), but go in the backpack.

4 - Hero screen: we don’t see artifact info when in backpack, only when it’s moved to a dedicated slot.

5 - Hero screen: The info displayed for empty artifact slots is “View Info”. In the original game it reads “Empty”

6 - Hero screen: SHIFT key not implemented to split creatures

7 - Hero screen: Drag & Drop functionality not yet implemented for artifacts

8 - Battle screen: Not all battle cursors are implemented (melee attack arrows), and those implemented are not always accurate (e.g.: occasionally I get the “Move” cursor for a range attack)

9 - Battle screen: The functionality which should allow us to choose from which hex we perform the melee attack is not yet implemented (it always attacks from the upper left hex, if available)

10 - Battle screen: The bottom panel cursors are also not implemented. There we get whatever cursor was active when the mouse moved from the battle interface to the bottom panel:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y104/Zamolxis/VCMI/080920-BattlecursorinbottompanelFly.jpg or http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y104/Zamolxis/VCMI/080920-BattlecursorinbottompanelNA.jpg

[size=75](more to come)[/size]

11 - TAVERN FUNCTIONALITY: I think it’s a good time to implement the Recruit functionality at the Tavern. Now that the battles are becoming interactive and we might loose the hero, could be useful to be able to recruit other heroes in order to explore the map further (it’s starting to be frustrating always having to start maps, but never managing to explore even half of them for one or another reason). Can be implemented both in the Town and the Adventure Map.

12 - The Adventure Options http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y104/Zamolxis/VCMI/080920-AdventureOptionsbutton.jpg could be implemented as well. And we would need that particularly for the Scenario Information function. That can be very useful for our reporting, as we can retrieve a lot of useful information if we have to write a report while playing: map name, size, victory/defeat conditions, enemy’s alignment/start hero/bonus, map difficulty etc. All these might have relevance at some point - depending on what we are testing - and of course none of us will write such details down before starting every map.

13 - The System Options functionality could also be very useful in accessing the main menu for new scenario load, without exiting the application (though I’m not sure that’s desired on your side at this stage, as it may result in very long console logs)

14 - Adventure map: The hero path still shows like we can access some objects “from behind”, but at least the actual movement has been fixed (but now we have sometimes discrepancies between the hero path, and the actual movement of the hero afterwards):

15 - Adventure map: Castle is not showing in the minimap (it should appear in colored pixels corresponding to owner’s alignment):

[size=84]and few more battle functionalities to be implemented:[/size]

16 - Area Attacks are not yet implemented. I noticed it for Magogs, but prolly it’s valid also for Lich (shooter), Dragon (fire breath) and Hydra/Cerberi (multiple heads attack)

17 - Shots limitation is not yet implemented for shooters (e.g.: max 12 shots for Archer)

18 - Range penalty is also not yet implemented

19 - Battle earned experience is not yet added to Hero’s experience

20 - Creatures on the battlefield disappear from the background when the Victory window appears:

MAGIC related issues (Guilds, Spells, Book):

21 - Magic Guilds have all scrolls closed, even if upgraded (strange thing is that I had the feeling I saw them open earlier - but maybe I’m confusing with 0.62b - as I’ve loaded quite some maps already and still no open scroll).

22 - Magic heroes start w/o SPELL BOOK (I can make a list with all hero types which should have one, if this is not yet documented)

23 - Heroes get all spells once they buy the book (though maybe that’s meant to be at this stage, to be able to test them all)

24 - “Titan’s Thunder” was added only in SoD if I’m not mistaken. Maybe not at this stage, but I guess later it should not be available on RoE-AB maps.

25 - Opening SPELL BOOK on Adventure Map gives us the 1st page of Battle spells, while it should return the Adventure spells page.

Anyway… for the rest the Spell Book looks really great (except maybe for the fact that the browse animation is not yet implemented - but that’s another thing for later most probably).


Most important spells

As discussed a few days ago at the Tavern, I made a list with the spells which - IMO - should be the first to be implemented. Basically, of the most used / most popular spells, I selected those which are particularly used in the early stages of the game (as in 90% of our testing we don’t manage to get as far as the 2nd month, when more powerful spells would be used).

Here it is:

  • Magic Arrow
  • Haste
  • Bless
  • Bloodlust
  • Curse
  • Dispel
  • Shield
  • Slow
  • Stone Skin
  • Lightning Bolt
  • Ice Bolt
  • Precision
  • Blind
  • Fire Wall
  • Weakness
  • Death Ripple

Of the L1/L2 spells, I believe the above are used 95% of the time. Let me know if this is enough for the time being. Or else I can make tomorrow a more detailed importance hierarchy of all spells, regardless of level or game stage.

New BUG:

#2 - Game crashes whenever hero hero tries to get to Level 5. I’ve tried it on 3 different maps, with 3 different heroes/alignments, and it happened everytime, so it seems to be general. Easiest to reproduce it is to take for example map “The Battle of Daeyan’s Ford”, which has enough treasure chests for level up within less than 2 days walk from the castle.

This is surely a new bug (didn’t have it before 0.62).

I can confirm the L5 crash bug, and the clicking on first hero in the hero list crash bug.

Best regards,
Steven.

Functionalities 2, 8, 9, 10, 15 and maybe samething else are done in our newest version.

14 - actually it’s missign arrow image… I’ll add it soon.

Thank you for all suggestions, it really helps us improving VCMI. Currently we are focusing on better battle handling - battles in next version will be much more playable. I’ve also improved handlign of graphics in battle - they will look nicer in next version ;].

[edit]
I probably know what causes these bugs with leveling up - I’ll try to fix it soon.
[/edit]

Thanks. Is it possible to also implement the functionality I mentioned as #1 above - access through Adventure Map Forts? This used to work until 0.62, and now it’s a bit annoying, as it’s blocking us from exploring a good number of maps.

That’d be great. It kinda demotivates me to test if I can’t level up. :stuck_out_tongue:

Don’t let this sound like I’m trying to rush you or anything :stuck_out_tongue: - but any idea when will the next version be (even if it’s just a dev version)? As said above, I can’t wait to get rid of these 2 level-up bugs, to be able to properly test the functionalities implemented so far.

Cheers! :wink:

I’ve missed it on my list, Tow has already done it ;].

I’ve fixed it yesterday :).

We’ll try to release new version in a few days.

Yes, I’ve fixed/added #1 - #4. Besides Subterranean Gates I’ve added also support for monoliths (they’re working similarly).
I hope to release new development version on Tuesday.

Thank you very much for help :slight_smile:

This is something that can be added sooner or later - it’s not urgent. On the scenario’s Advanced Options screen, you can also select the starting hero for sides not controlled by you. In regular H3 you can select (if map allows it) the town-type of other AI, though not the town-type of other human players (unless playing hotseat), however you are not allowed to select or change the starting hero of players not controlled by a human player on the local computer.

This one does not need to be fixed right away, I’m just keeping you informed. :slight_smile: The next version looks like it will have a lot more functionality and I’m looking forward to it. Thanks for all your hard work!

Best regards,
Steven.