This are the release notes for H-World 0.1.6

(Please also read the former release notes!)


This release is the first one after the transition to 128x128 pixel
sized tiles. Since all images have been reordered, there might be some
misconfigurations, i.e. wrong images being displayed or nothing is
displayed. I tried to test the game thoroughly but some mistakes
may have escaped.

Some images have just been upscaled and are not completely reworked to
make use of the higher resolution yet. I'll try to upgrade all images.
But the time span since the last release is already quite long, so I 
think a new release is neccesary now, even if a few images do not
show full quality yet.

The reason for the transition to larger tile sizes is the still 
growing average screen resolution. Before, H-World used 64x64 pixel
sized tiles with a window size of 800x600. Development is slow often
and most likely 800x600 is long outdated once the game/the engine
nears completion. Maybe 1600x1200 seems to be a bit overshot at the
moment, but I think within a few years screen resolutions like this
will be fairly common.

The gameplay of the example game "The Jungle" does not strongly depend
on the visible area. I think it can still be played with a window size
of 800x600. I made all my tests in this resolution, so I'm fairly sure.

There have been many bugfixes an minor improvements. Also there have
been some additions made, that are not used in the example game "The
Jungle" yet.

Some teleporters to ther levels have been removed by symbolic images
of those levels (castle -> a small castle, home -> a small hut, stairs 
down -> dungeon entrance)


- Window size can be given by the -screensize WxH command line option
  (see readme.txt for details)

- Improved handling of user-defined images. Now includes recolorable
  images and image overlays (http://h-world.simugraph.com/manual/gfx.html)

- Created a simple dialog system to talk to NPC

- There are now temporary effects (i.e. being poisoned)
  (this is fully scripted, see scripts/effects.lua for details)

- Stats panel (left side panel) is now user-configureable
  (see data/player.tab)

- A simple dialog system (just approach a potion traderess to
  trigger it).

- UI to interface with items that contain things but cannot
  be picked up (i.e. treasure pits - no examples for this
  are included in "The Jungle" yet, this was made for the experimental
  space exploration game.)

- Simple realtime/animation support is now included. ("The Jungle" does
  not make use of that feature. It was designed as turn based game, but
  the H-World engine now supports realtime games, too)

- New, larger fonts. I hope they improve readability.

- Limbs can now have overlay offsets, i.e. to show a weapon being held
  with left or right hand.


Known restrictions:

- Home level is just empty.
- Throwing has no visual effect.
- Sometimes the teleporters/level entrances are distributed very
  badly.
- Sometimes the level display just turn dark after changing to a new
  level. In such a case, press a movement key, to force a refresh of
  the display.


For more info, please read the readme.txt file and the old release notes.


**
Chronological list of changes since the last release:


09-May-03: FIX: fixed a few "spelling mistakes" in english language 
                generator module
           NEW: included dialog system in example game "The Jungle"

08-May-03: NEW: upgraded a few more images to 128x128, adapted config 
                files
           FIX: usage panel doesn't loose selected attack/usage so
                frequently anymore
           FIX: fixed a bug in looking/targetting in direction 7
           FIX: fixed overlay offset for skeleton warriors that are
                holding weapons (weapon was a few pixels off before)

07-May-03: FIX: fixed a few config file entries to match new 128x128 
                image set
           FIX: fixed a bad bug that sometimes caused crashes after
                laoding a saved game (players former actor was not
                properly unscheduled and caused a dangling pointer
                in the scheduler code)
           NEW: external (file based) levels can now be lit or unlit
 
05-May-03: NEW: -screensize option added
           CHANGE: readme.txt updatet

04-May-03: NEW: upgraded a few more images to 128x128, adapted config 
                files
           FIX: adapted savegame format to new overlay offsets

03-May-03: NEW: overlay offsets (i.e. to show if a weapon is held in
                left or right hand)

25-Apr-03: FIX: traced H-World for memory leaks and accesses of/to
                unitialized memory
           - world_view_t had uninitialized member 'dirty'
           - property_t was calling delete instead of free() for
             string values (that had been allocated with strdup()) 
           - structure_t was calling delete instead of delete []
           - fixed a memory leak in factory for "rooms" level type

24-Apr-03: NEW: upgraded a few more images to 128x128, adapted config 
                files

23-Apr-03: FIX: fixed a few problems with new stats-panel

22-Apr-03: NEW: made stats-panel user configureable (different games
                based upon the H-World engine can now have different
                stats-panels)
           NEW: upgraded a few more images to 128x128
           NEW: lua script for effects that hapen per player turn
                (duration based and/or ongoing effects)

12-Apr-03: NEW: upgraded a few more images to 128x128
 
07-Apr-03: NEW: upgraded a few more images to 128x128

30-Mar-03: FIX: fixed a bug in exit creation for file based levels
           FIX: fixed a bug in level factory that sometimes placed
                the player in walls.

17-Mar-03: NEW: UI to interface with items that contain things but cannot
                be picked up (large chests, treasure pits ...)

10-Mar-03: FIX: moved trader construction into thing factory
           NEW: NPC dialogs can now trigger trading action

09-Mar-03: FIX: fixed a bug in the dialog system 
           NEW: radius (reach) property for dialog/NPCs

07-Mar-03: NEW: improved forest generation algorithm

06-Mar-03: NEW: exits for external levels

02-Mar-03: NEW: width/height properties for level description files

28-Feb-03: NEW: continued work on simple NPC dialog system

27-Feb-03: NEW: started to work on simple NPC dialog system

24-Feb-03: CHANGE: various adaptions for new font sizes
           CHANGE: more work on 128x128 images and config files

...        NEW: new proportional fonts of sizes 6x11 and 7x13

02-Feb-03: CHANGE: more work on 128x128 images and config files

25-Jan-03: CHANGE: changed rendering engine to use 128x128 tiles

...        CHANGE: started to rework all images in double size

13-Jan-02: NEW: antidote potion
           NEW: neutralize poison potion

12-Jan-02: NEW: more work on user-defined overlay images
           NEW: new example for user-defined items: leather boots
                demonstrates how to use/create overlay images for
                player character image
           NEW: effects with duration: poison
           FIX: empty bottle has correct image again

11-Jan-02: FIX: avoided multiple loading of the same user defined image
                if it is used for many items and/or many instances of the
                item are created
           NEW: overlay images for player character can now be configured
                for each item within the item configuration (had been
                hardcoded so far)
           CHANGE: frametime (for realtime/animation support) can now be set
                per level

08-Jan-02: NEW: enabled recoloring feature for user defined images

05-Jan-02: FIX: fixed a bug that turned all ground squares of file
                based levels to black


written by Hansjörg Malthaner, May. 2003
Email: hansjoerg.malthaner@gmx.de