Hi all,
It's been a long time since the last public release of Tactical Battle.
In that time there have been a lot of new dev releases and some great new map creations.
I'm happy to announce the release of version 2.0.
This new version includes:
* An in game map pack downloader so you can easily get any new maps that are released as stable.
* A battle log that lets you review the enemy's turn at your own pace.
* Support for the NVDA screen reader and braille by pressing alt + O in game.
* New scripts from Craig Brett, including transportation, transformation, toggle team, move units away or closer, critical hit chance, etc.
* New scripts from KeyWasFull and Abigail Prescott.
* An auto update feature that notifies you of available updates and will even download and install them for you.
* The ability to change hot keys using the Keys.config file.
* Script flags that let scripters add features that can be used much the same as normal flags.
* Tons of bug fixes and performance improvements.
I want to give a *huge* thanks to Craig Brett who has not only added some great features via scripting, but has also helped to maintain the core game code base, eradicating bugs and adding new features.
His efforts helped make 2.0 happen.
I also want to thank the map creators for their creativity and hard work.
Thanks Allan Thompson, KeyIsFull, Victorious, Austen Perry, and Craig Brett.
I hope everyone enjoys this new version.
Here's the more precise changelog:
1. Added the player_team= map flag to specify which team is controlled by the player.
2. Fixed a bug where AI would sometimes attack units that were already dead and removed from the map.
3. Added after_effect_applied, after_effect_removed, and after_effect_fizzled events to effects for scripters.
4. Added the after_death event to units for scripters.
5. Added shared.CreateUnit, map.AddUnit, and map.RemoveUnit methods for scripters.
6. Added a sanity check that announces when a unit does not have a valid team number.
7. Added sanity checks that announce when there are no teams or the player's team does not exist rather than crashing.
8. Updated range and dice parsing to be case insensitive.
9. Improved error reporting when parsing ranges or dice.
10. Added contextual help that is accessed by pressing F1 and shift + F1.
11. Added color= flags to team and unit files.
12. Fixed a bug with the terrain_limit= flag.
13. Fixed a bug when using a take skill with a range of more than 0.
14. Added a verbose flag for the game.config file so map creators can hear dice rolls and more in depth information.
15. Added a unique ID to units for scripters as direct object reference comparison does not work in javascript with objects passed to you by the engine.
16. Separated the Map Creation Guide from the main user guide so it is not so overwhelming for new players.
17. Added visuals for menus.
18. Added visuals for items.
19. Made it so all skills show up in the unit menu for enemies. This way you can press F4 on them to hear the descriptions of enemy skills.
20. Fixed a bug where loading a game after starting the program fresh would cause start turn changes to occur.
21. Made it so that an item is equippable if any of it's equip type names match the unit's equip type names.
22. Made it so unit names used in escape victory conditions or death defeat conditions can match any unit regardless of team.
23. Fixed a bug where units with spaces in their names were not recognized in escape or death conditions.
24. Added the ability to download and install map packs in game.
25. Fixed a few bugs to make downloading map packs in game more solid.
26. Fixed a bug where items that did not have an equip type requirement could not be equipped.
27. Fixed a bug that caused the game to crash when using specific skills on empty tiles. These skills targetted a tile but caused effects on units.
28. Added the ability to configure many of the game's keys using Keys.config.
29. Added the no_drop_items_on_death flag for units.
30. Hidden points will no longer have start or end of turn changes announced.
31. Added the unit after_create event for scripters.
32. Changed how dictionaries are accessed from javascript to support adding or removing keys from them.
33. Updated dictionaries in javascript so scripters no longer need to prepare strings for indexing before using them as keys. The engine now handles that itself.
34. Added the shared.GetStorage() method for scripters.
35. Made it so the game gets a different map downloads file based on whether it is a dev or stable version.
36. Fixed a bad memory leak introduced in earlier dev versions.
37. Added Allan Thompson's beginner's guide to map creation to the documentation.
38. Significantly improved the performance of checking for updated map packs by having the server check instead of the client and by caching the result.
39. Added a go to map selection menu in the battle menu.
40. Improved the way sounds were loaded and disposed which greatly improved memory usage.
41. Added an option in preferences to turn off the graphics.
42. Significantly improved TB map rendering performance on large maps.
43. Significantly improved AI performance on large maps.
44. Added the ability to get the lists for units, structures, and effects from a tile object in script.
45. Added the AllUnits property on the shared.Map object for scripters.
46. Added an in game updater that automatically checks for updates to the game and gives the player an option to update.
47. Fixed a bug where a map pack that was missing Map Pack Settings.txt and Author.txt would crash the game.
48. Added the new parser format for most files. That is parser version 10.
49. Added Event Subscriptions.txt for subscribing to global events.
50. Added the Script Flag Definitions.txt file for scripters.
51. Added the load_scripts flag to the Map Pack Settings.txt file.
52. Added an inherits flag for units, so you can have a base unit that other units inherit flags and script flags from.
53. Added a feature to convert older map pack files to version 10.
54. A number of bug fixes that didn't get properly recorded in the changelog.
55. Significantly reduced the size of saved games and TB memory consumption in general which also improves the speed of saving and loading.
56. (CB) Fixed a bug where specifying cost mods for specific skills didn't work e.g move_actions_cost_mod=2. This should all be fine now.
57. (CB) The AI will no longer use self targeting skills to effect units on the same tile. Self should mean self.
58. (CB) Fixed a bug where skills that caused effects and damage would kill the unit, then apply the effect, then kill it again. This could cause trouble with death transformations and other after_death events.
59. (CB) There is now an only_useable_on flag that works as the opposite to not_useable_on. It will only let you or the AI target given units with that skill or item. In cases where both are used, the game will give you a spoken warning and then use the only_useable_on in preference.
60. Fixed the bug where maps playing synchronous sounds in their intro_text flag would not actually play the sound.
61. Added a battle log that lets you review the enemy's turn at your own pace.
62. Fixed a bug where loading a game would run the javascript code while the global object was in play, thus overwriting some saved data.
63. Fixed a bug where the current tile would be announced along with sound before the battle log appeared.
~ Ian Reed
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