Arcen Games

General Category => Tidalis => : x4000 April 26, 2010, 11:32:36 PM

: Version 0.407 / 0.408
: x4000 April 26, 2010, 11:32:36 PM
This version is now out.  It's the hugest we've done so far in terms of both content and in file size (even more so than 0.405).  Lots of goodies here!

There was a larger gap between releases of 0.405 and 0.407 than normally we would want, but the multi-well functionality was a huge undertaking and broke a lot of parts of the game temporarily while we were developing it, so we wanted to make sure and get all that cleaned up and well tested before we made even a beta release of something so central as that.  Version 0.408 and other upcoming releases should be much quicker to arrive, as even the networking and VS modes won't touch as many parts of the game as the base multi-well functionality did.

Stay tuned! :)

Updates in 0.408:

- There was a bug in 0.407 preventing new players from doing much aside from updating the game (this is a beta, but we try not to let stuff like that slip through).  The update is a quick one, though, if you already have the game, and we're in the process of updating the installers to 0.408 to prevent anyone new from having that issue.
: Re: Version 0.406 (Upcoming)
: Fiskbit April 27, 2010, 06:08:05 AM
-Rebalanced adventure level 26.
: Re: Version 0.406 (Upcoming)
: x4000 April 27, 2010, 02:56:50 PM
-A new, more GPU-efficient method is now used for drawing and animating the weather.  This new method also lets us be a little more flexible with weather speeds and directional offsets, and fixes a few fairly subtle bugs that were previously present with the snow in particular.  In general, this now adds tiled uv animation to the capabilities of the Tidalis engine, which will be handy in general.

-The occasional blowing wind of the levels with weather is now more realistically calculated, making it look more natural.
: Re: Version 0.406 (Upcoming)
: x4000 April 27, 2010, 03:07:58 PM
-When there is a a chain of at least 3 blocks active on the board, or when blocks are in the process of dying on the board, new blocks will not drop down from the top of the well unless the fast forward button is held.  This was previously the case already, except that blocks would still queue up while the chains were in progress, and then would all fall at once at the end -- now the block-falling process is fully paused during that time, and doesn't do any queuing up.
: Re: Version 0.406 (Upcoming)
: x4000 April 27, 2010, 08:38:33 PM
- A new Night Marsh Variance theme has been added.
: Re: Version 0.406 (Upcoming)
: x4000 April 27, 2010, 09:25:05 PM
- Tooltips now autosize and ensure that they are always drawn on the screen properly.

- Fixed a bug with the tooltip text not always showing properly.
: Re: Version 0.406 (Upcoming)
: Fiskbit April 29, 2010, 07:27:03 AM
-Level 26 is now level 37.

-Levels 26, 31, 32, 47, and 93 have been added. Of these, only this new level 26 is currently available from the adventure map. The others can currently only be accessed through the level editor.
: Re: Version 0.406 (Upcoming)
: x4000 April 29, 2010, 12:45:21 PM
-Adjusted the timing of the keyboard movement to be far less jittery.

-New night forest theme.
: Re: Version 0.406 (Upcoming)
: x4000 April 29, 2010, 03:48:58 PM
-The way that background animation of theme layers, etc, is handle is now much different, and no longer accidentally goes faster when the mouse is moved or keydowns occur.

-Sprites in the theme editor now support uv animation on themselves.  This is now in use on the cavern waterfalls, which now flow.
: Re: Version 0.406 (Upcoming)
: x4000 April 30, 2010, 10:47:15 AM
-It is now possible to flip sprites on the X or Y axis in the theme editor, as well as setting a rotation for sprites.
: Re: Version 0.406 (Upcoming)
: x4000 April 30, 2010, 02:52:07 PM
-New special block: Apple. Can only be cleared by being eaten by an eater block. Otherwise indestructible even to other specials.

-Some special blocks are now immune to destruction from regular special blocks (becoming charred, or whatever else).  Those are currently just apples and turnips.
: Re: Version 0.407 (Upcoming)
: x4000 April 30, 2010, 04:04:55 PM
-New Snowy Lowlands theme.

-New light snow weather type.
: Re: Version 0.407 (Upcoming)
: x4000 April 30, 2010, 08:41:25 PM
- Fixed some graphical issues that were causing the numbers on blocks to show up slightly off-center.

- Basic multi-well co-op is now supported, although a lot more still needs to be done to get this as robust as we want it in the end.

- Wells automatically scale down in size now if they are on a screen that is too small to show them at full size.  This is particularly notable for the smallest screen resolutions and dual-well multiplayer.  The graphics degrade a bit when shrunk, and it causes a bit of a performance hit as well, but it at least makes it possible to play all of the modes even on the tiniest screens (though your eyes would probably thank you for keeping to larger screens if you're playing multi-well co-op with large individual wells -- simply no way around that one).
: Re: Version 0.407 (Upcoming)
: Fiskbit May 01, 2010, 10:58:45 AM
-Levels 32-36 have been added
-Level 37 has received further rebalancing. Now, the win condition is easier and the lose condition is harder.
: Re: Version 0.407 (Upcoming)
: keith.lamothe May 01, 2010, 10:59:24 AM
-added AllowedClearMethod to TotalBlocksCleared objective, involved tracking the clear method on the block (just an enum), since it's not possible to infer at any central block-removal time

-halved time-to-evaporate for ice and fire blocks at all difficulty levels

-no longer gives score bonus for clearing special block in line-clear mode

-no longer flashes fire or ice blocks because-its-about-to-evaporate in puzzle mode; since they don't evaporate at all in that mode

-changed editor level properties time-limit setting from slider to textbox (custom and quick game are still sliders)

-level editor objectives window now auto-positions the objective-specific controls to make more efficient use of vertical space
: Re: Version 0.407 (Upcoming)
: Fiskbit May 01, 2010, 11:45:29 AM
-Level 30 has been added

-The adventure mode map now goes through level 37
: Re: Version 0.407 (Upcoming)
: Fiskbit May 03, 2010, 10:29:13 AM
-Levels 38-40 have been added and are available in adventure
: Re: Version 0.407 (Upcoming)
: Fiskbit May 03, 2010, 10:43:10 AM
-Changes to turnip special block tutorial. This one tutorial now covers apples, turnips, and eaters, which are all very related.
: Re: Version 0.407 (Upcoming)
: x4000 May 03, 2010, 12:01:05 PM
- Keyboard keys are now more responsive to initial key presses, and the delay between cursor movements when the keyboard keys are held down is now configurable through the settings interface.
: Re: Version 0.407 (Upcoming)
: x4000 May 03, 2010, 05:04:52 PM
-The world map has been updated to have a border and scrolling clouds.  It also now has flashing markers for the current/incomplete levels, to make them substantially more obvious.

-There are now two different buttons for FF -- one for regular FF and one for Ultra FF.  These buttons are now smaller and shown directly to the top right of the well.  In the case of multi-well play, these buttons are shown for each well and the mouse/keyboard are only allowed to control the FF/UFF buttons associated with their respective wells.

-The background for items in the item palette is now much more attractive and fits with the other nearby buttons.
: Re: Version 0.407 (Upcoming)
: x4000 May 03, 2010, 10:19:27 PM
- The game now has an initial progress bar when first loading the game, and then also now has more graceful transitions between scenes once the game has been loaded.
: Re: Version 0.407 (Upcoming)
: x4000 May 03, 2010, 11:39:24 PM
-The intro cutscene for the adventure mode, complete with art and music, now plays when a new adventure is started.
: Re: Version 0.407 (Upcoming)
: Fiskbit May 04, 2010, 06:53:02 AM
-Fix to the Level 10 text

-Levels 12, 13, and 15 have been slightly rebalanced
: Re: Version 0.407 (Upcoming)
: Fiskbit May 04, 2010, 07:08:00 AM
-Slight rebalance for Level 8
: Re: Version 0.407 (Upcoming)
: Fiskbit May 04, 2010, 08:12:41 AM
-Levels 41-43 have been added and are available in adventure mode
: Re: Version 0.407 (Upcoming)
: triggerman602 May 04, 2010, 02:26:44 PM
is this version still upcoming? ???
: Re: Version 0.407 (Upcoming)
: x4000 May 04, 2010, 02:31:01 PM
is this version still upcoming? ???

Oops, thanks, fixed the title. :)

The full news posts, etc, are forthcoming, I did a full refresh of the installers for this, so that takes forever to upload.  But the updater has been active for a few hours now.
: Re: Version 0.407 / 0.408
: x4000 May 05, 2010, 08:55:54 AM
Updates in 0.408:

- There was a bug in 0.407 preventing new players from doing much aside from updating the game (this is a beta, but we try not to let stuff like that slip through).  The update is a quick one, though, if you already have the game, and we're in the process of updating the installers to 0.408 to prevent anyone new from having that issue.
: Re: Version 0.407 / 0.408
: x4000 May 13, 2010, 01:28:31 PM
New version now out: http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,5377.0.html (http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,5377.0.html)