Hi everyone!

Sorry for the long delay since my last update.  I've been spending a lot of time on a new game and the changes I made to Tactical Battle also took a good amount of time to complete.

I have released version 1.00 of Tactical Battle.

You can download it at http://BlindAudioGames.com

The major improvement in this version is that users can now create their own levels.

First off you can now set which units and terrain appear on the map as well as making maps of different sizes.
But it doesn't stop there, you can also edit the existing units to change how much hp, mp and ap they have or even what skills they have as well as creating new units from scratch.
For instance you could create a paladin character that has the warriors armor ability and the healers healing touch ability but has less health than a warrior.
And if you're really into it you can even change the existing skills and create new ones.
For instance you could create a new powerful spell that can be cast on friendly units and heals them as well as giving them the flaming weapon and speed effects.

You could even make a sci fi or modern war themed set of maps.

I think this customization could be a lot of fun.

In a later version of the game I will be including a way to upload your levels so that others can play them, vote on them, and rate their difficulty.

The details of level editing are outlined in the user guide.

Here are a few keys that exist in the latest version of the game as well.
* F12 = Mute or unmute music.  This can be helpful if you want to leave the game open while you do something else on your computer and need the music muted.
* left bracket ([) = Speech rate down.
* right bracket (]) = Speech rate up.

And this key has been updated:
* I = Announce unit information for the unit on the current tile, gives information about the current menu item if there is any.

If you hit any bugs be sure to report them.  I do my best to keep the game bug free.

Some people seem to be getting an error regarding Noesis.Javascript.dll.  If you'll contact me I'd like to work through that bug but need someone who can reproduce it to help me test it.

I hope everyone enjoys this new version of the game.  If you have any problems with level editing please read the level editing section of the user guide first and then feel free to ask questions in this forum thread or email me at [email protected]

@slj, I like the idea of trophies.  Do you have some specific ones you could suggest?

Amazing list of updates Ian!    Keep up the great work!

Trying this out now; this game sounds like it's got a lot of potential.. Nice work!

hey, been loving this game. i've made a lot of knew units and spells as well as some armor and terain types which are awesome. if you want to check out my greatest work lol heres the map folder in the zip to try it out. the castle defense is where your in a castel with stone walls that are impassable and towers like hills that give a better range and some bridges instead of fords and theres everything from a dragon to palladans to a wizard. check this out and let me know what you think and i hope the work continues!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18725707/Map%20Packs.zip

Will the user created maps be added in future versions of the game? So, it will be easier to find them. Downloading each map seperately from different sites can be hart, especially if there are a lot of user created maps. And can new sounds be added for new units and stuff?

hey again. updated my map as well as some skills and put sounds for all the knew units in the sounds folder. check the updated version of my map and sounds here
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18725707/Data.zip
thanks so far this game has been awesome and i hope you guys like the sounds. if you ever want to add any of the units in to the actual game let me know and you can use the sounds as well.

Hmm, the game doesn't work on my desktop. It starts and I select unlock game. Then I began to type in my E-Mail-adress and suddenly the game closes. What could that be?

I think it ever closes at the same time. If I type fast, i can press enter and the game says something with EMail confirmed or something but then it closes. I tryed it on an Vista system 64-bit. I have the framework installed and directx couldn't be installed, cause I have a newer Version installed already. I made the confirming thing with the e-Mailadress on your site before I installed the game itself, could this make a difference? As another option, could the zip I downloaded be damaged, or a part of it? So, I would try redownloading it.

@hadi.gsf, Thanks so much for all the positive feedback.  I'm really glad you like the game and level editing.  I think the game will get a lot better as more and more players contribute levels.  I have thought a little about adding some visuals for the game.  I think I will do this in the future but can't say how soon it will be.  I'm looking forward to seeing what levels you create.

@Niklas,

Confirming through the website should not have ben a problem.  I would expect that if the zip were corrupted it would not have extracted properly, but I suppose redownloading is always worth a shot.

I run Windows 7 32 bit myself.  Perhaps it has something to do with 32 bit vs. 64 bit but I believe the most recent version was tested on 64 bit as well.

Try this older version which does not include certain 32 bit C++ libraries:
http://blindaudiogames.com/downloads/Ta … _v1.01.zip

And also try this version which is very old but used .NET Framework version 4 instead of 3.5:
http://blindaudiogames.com/downloads/Ta … _v0.01.zip

If either of these work then that will give me a better idea of why the problem is occurring and maybe I can fix it.

Also, if you could go to this folder on your machine and tell me what version number folders exist there for you:
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework

On my machine I have:
v1.0.3705
v1.1.4322
v2.0.50727
v3.0
v3.5
v4.0.30319

It almost sounds like another program is closing the game.  Do you have anti virus software running on your computer?

Do you have access to a second computer that you could try the game on?

Does the music begin playing before it crashes or does it never start?

When it crashes does windows bring up a dialog telling you it crashed or does it just close silently?

What voice does the game use by default?  Is it Microsoft Anna or a different voice?

Sorry for the hassle.  I can't think of why this would close a few seconds after starting on your computer.

I'd really like to get this fixed for you.

@Niklas, Very strange.  No need to try the version that is even older.

I'm glad one of the versions is working for you now.

Please try this version which fixes a noesis.javascript error:
http://blindaudiogames.com/downloads/Ta … _v1.02.zip

If that causes the same crashing behavior then I can guess what the problem is.

I may need to start releasing different versions of the game for 32 bit or 64 bit windows.

Thanks for your help in debugging this.

@Austen, Great job, the sounds really add a lot to the levels.  In this latest update of the game sounds that you add should go directly in the Sounds folder of your map pack.  You should also rename your map pack folder to something besides Core Maps.  This way when people unzip it it will not overwrite the original maps.

@niklas, Give this latest version a try.  I've changed some things that may fix the problem.  Also, when the bug showed up again I assume it did so on the latest link I sent you which was version 1.02.  Is that correct?

@everyone

I have just released Tactical Battle version 1.04 which includes:
1 Some better error messages for people editing levels.
2 A fix for an error that would happen if someone created a shortcut that did not set the working directory to the same folder as the Tactical Battle executable.
3 Better handling of corrupted voices.  When switching voices corrupted voices will be skipped automatically rather than crashing the game.
4 Sound files should now be placed in the Sounds folder inside your map pack folder.  This makes it so you again only need to zip up your map pack folder and not the entire data folder.  This will reduce the download size of your map as it won't include music or sounds already included in the initial download of the game.
5 Updated the C key to announce the current tile information without playing the unit sound.  Sometimes it was difficult to hear the tile information while the sound was playing.  The sound will still play when you move your cursor to that tile.
6 - Passive skills now display in the unit menu so you can press the I key on them to get a description of what they do.
7 Terrain now supports the sound flag.  A terrain's sound will only be played if there is not a unit on that tile.
8 Added a number of sounds contributed by Kai.
9 Noesis.javascript dlls now get copied properly based on whether your operating system is 32 bit or 64 bit.
10 The map file parser is now on version 2 which addes 2 lines, one for specifying victory conditions and one for specifying defeat conditions.

There is a victory condition called escape which is used to specify that victory occurs if certain units reach a certain terrain type.
There is a defeat condition called death which is used to specify that if certain units die then defeat occurs.

I have added a new map called "Escorting the princess" which makes use of these new victory and defeat conditions.  Anyone creating levels can look at it for an example of the new map format.

Adding the concept of victory and defeazt conditions brings me a little closer to implementing trophies which would require similar conditions.

I hope you all enjoy this latest version of the game.

The website as always is:
http://BlindAudioGames.com