JADE 0.1.4 released!

[getter77]

http://www.ancientdomainsofmystery.com/2011/08/jade-014-released.html#more

Here we go with the latest JADE release. JADE 0.1.4 is a bug fix release that fixes many issues from previous versions. Additionally the game itself should sport a very decent performance boost as I managed to optimize a couple of internal routines.

JADE 0.1.5 (or maybe even 0.2.0) - the next release - will be a big feature release (barring any pressing issues in JADE 0.1.4) and probably will take a little longer as I really want it to be heavy on new features, items, monsters and story elements.

Here's the list of things changed in JADE 0.1.4:


* Adjusted the credits.
* Added more internal debugging options.
* Adjusted the walk commands to wait for 100 steps instead of 101 (my index
  was of by one).
* Adjusted the description for gold so that it never displays its item status
  (which in any case is constantly uncursed).
* Shortened the exception message in the error dialog to a more reasonable
  length.
* Added a new dungeon entrance message.
* Added the altar color to the visual description.
* Increased the base speed of shopkeepers (RFE 163).
* Increased the minimum PV adjustment for mithril, adamantium and eternium
  so that helmets, boots, etc. show tangible effects.
* Added a safety measure in order to reduce the number of instance PC kills
  due to critical hits by monsters.
* Added cursor up / down as new key bindings to be able to scroll through
  text dialogs (in addition to '*' and _') as well as (Ctrl/Alt/Meta) cursor
  up / down (in addition to '+' and '-') (RFE 395).
* Fixed a problem with constantly changing shop prices.
* Fixed a problem with features (like altars) hiding items and item stacks.
* Fixed a typo in a startup screen message.
* Fixed yet another problem with monsters following you (issue 187).
* Fixed a display bug in the item list (issue 200).
* Fixed the incorrect height of medium and high mountain ranges (issue 211).
* Fixed the ugly disabled "restore game" button (issue 230).
* Fixed the Javascript-less JADE download (issue 254 in the website project
  management tool).
* Fixed the problem of the generating shop inventory items on the shop door
  (issue 163).
* Fixed more problems with frozen and undying monsters (regression 282, 378,
  403).
  The problem also could create hangs (issue 318).
* Fixed the problem of passages being counted as doors (regression 289).
* Fixed problems with inappropriate item fit sizes (issue 345).
* Fixed a problem with dropped unpaid items disappearing in shops (issue 346).
* Fixed various crashes related to more key commands being accepted while a
  command still was under execution (issue 348).
* Fixed the "attack nearest enemy" command to only attack enemies that one
  can see (issue 350).
* Fixed a crash exception when dropping items on altars (issue 351). Improved the
  robustness of the overall message code to reduce the effect of this type of
  error.
* Fixed a problem in calculating the required number of slots to wield an item
  (issue 352).
* Fixed the problem of superfluous altar messages (issue 353).
* Fixed a problem that caused 'w>' and 'w<' to magically find previously unknown
  shortcuts to the stairways (issue 354).
* Fixed the annoying problem of being attacked with "interesting" weapons which
  then don't show up after the attacker has been defeated (issue 357).
* Fixed a major inefficiency in JADE (issue 358). JADE now should be _much_
  faster.
* Fixed the rather non-random path finding algorithm employed by 'w#', 'w>'
  and 'w<' (issue 359).
* Fixed the less than intelligent way in which monsters try to get to you
  (especially if surrounded by many other beings, JADE A* now differentiates
  various pathfinding modes) (issue 360).
* Fixed a problem with duplicate messages in the Drakalor Chain (issue 361).
* Fixed the problem of being able to drop items on the shop door (issue 362).
* Fixed a problem with rare save file crashes (issue 363).
* Fixed the ogre lord crash (issue 364).
* Fixed the problem of not being able to save skill points - now an arbitrary
  number can be saved although you still can only spend them when advancing a
  level (issues 218, 368).
* Fixed a problem in internal list handling which caused items to switch into
  the "destroyed" state without being physically destroyed in the game
  (issue 372).
* Fixed a problem with freshly sold items being even more completely identified
  in shops than standard stock items (issue 375).
* Fixed a problem with missing connections between dungeon rooms (issue 377).
  As a result maps now (IMHO) also look nicer.
* Fixed a crash bug when trying to equip gold (issue 380).
* Fixed a shop message typo (issue 394).
* (Hopefully) fixed various keyboard command issues by completely rewriting the
  keyboard hadling code for JADE (issue 396).
* You no longer can move when being overloaded with stuff (issue 402).
* Fixed a problem with monsters not really following you into maze levels
  (issue 404).

With some of the donations thus far, Biskup got himself a Java tool that he thinks will help him to release faster/better---think it went by the name of JRebel.  Pretty meaty fix/performance release, I suspect if this next one does in fact wind up being a big feature release that it'll bring in many folk sitting on the sidelines thus far---perhaps having been playing many a game of ADOM to get warmed up all the while.

I wonder if he'll time the release for ARRP 2011?   

[Vanguard]

What state is this game in?  Is it complete enough to be played seriously?

[getter77]

Early, but reasonably brisk, Alpha.  The aim is to ferret out most of the basic of basic potential issues and headaches...then pour in content to them...then introduce additional overarching ones like Magic, and repeat that cycle on into the sun.  Essentially, avoiding the ADOM mess whereby things got so far gone on so many fronts and technical cruft that Biskup can't intuitively DO anything compared to the likes of this.  The whole Java 7/8 thing will also probably be a factor.

So yeah, much is still in flux, but people are having some fun with it aside from trying to hurry up and break everything they can so that it can be fixed and not impeded the goodies to come.

I hope he gets enough donations to get that new machine he's hankering for to speed things up even moreso, so say nothing of any potential stability woes...

[deepshock]

I look more and more forward every day to seeing Thomas Biskup do everything he plans to with JADE. It's looking good.