LEGO Battles PC 0.4.15

Version 0.4.15 of the LEGO Battles PC port: 3D custom units are no longer black, units no longer borrow other units' sprites in three-army matches, plus new options for custom units and the computer players.

The settings menu opens with F1 or Esc. Settings > General > Install update updates the game in place.

Fixes

• Re-skinned 3D custom units were all black (0.4.14). A model's texture has a separate set of colours for each team, plus the white hit flash. 0.4.14 wrote your texture over the first set only and blanked the rest. Every set is now filled. Your colours appear for every team, and the texture's three team blues still turn into each player's team colour.
  • Use at most 16 colours, and keep the exported texture's team blues where the team colour should show. The texture must be model/texture.png; a .tga is not read.
• A unit drawn with another unit's sprites (for example a Wolf showing Santa's frames, then buildings'), in matches with three armies. The game has room for a fixed number of unit sprite sets. A creature in the Mounted slot, or the same unit in two armies, could use them all up. The overflowing unit was then drawn from the first army's hero. When a match needs more than there is room for, armies now share the sprites they have in common.
• Hearing other armies' upgrades far away. The game plays the "upgrade complete" chime for every army's upgrades, wherever they are. A third computer player made it much more frequent. New option Hear Only Your Own Upgrades (Settings > Music, on).
• Enemy ships, siege and special units showing through the fog. The game draws one whenever any part of its model is near ground you can see. New option Hide Enemy Specials in Fog (Settings > Display, on): one is drawn only when the ground it stands on is in sight, as for every other unit.

New

• Custom palettes on the top-screen minimap. With Level Palettes set to FactionWars or a palette of your own, the minimap now uses matching colours.
• Custom units:
  • Trained at (Stats tab, transports and specials): Automatic, Special Factory or Shipyard. It applies to your build menu and to the computer's.
  • Damage readout (Stats tab): damage per second, and how many hits and seconds it takes to beat a few stock units. It is an estimate; the tooltip says what it leaves out.
  • Unlocked with: a custom unit can share a stock unit's unlock. For example, it can be picked only once the Queen is unlocked on your save. The computer's armies are not limited.
• The AI Builds Transports Only When Needed (Enhancements > Gameplay, off by default). The computer no longer builds transports nobody asked for, which on land maps just sat idle and took the place of siege units. It still builds one when its troops need to cross water.
• Session logs now say what kind of match each one was: Free Play, online or story, and whether it was spectated. This helps with bug reports.

Still open

• Custom unit sprites can only use the game's unit colours (12 fixed colours plus the team colour). Giving a custom unit colours of its own needs changes to how the game draws units; this is being looked into.
• EMP on a hotwired vehicle froze a match (reports from 0.4.8): not reproduced.

Please update together

• Online, everyone in a lobby should use 0.4.15.

Files

• LegoBattles-PC-0.4.15.zip: the game.
• LegoBattles-PC-0.4.15-runner-source.zip: the corresponding source of the runner (GPL-3.0-or-later). The port's own source is this repository at this tag.

LEGO Battles PC 0.4.14

Version 0.4.14 of the LEGO Battles PC port: smoother big battles, xdelta patches for maps and custom units, smarter computer players, and fixes.

The settings menu opens with F1 or Esc. Settings > General > Install update updates the game in place.

Faster

• Big late-game battles run smoother. Late in a large Free Play match (three armies, a large window), the game ran at 40 to 50 fps on a typical PC. Emulating the DS now costs about 20% less: about 11.7 ms per frame instead of 14.6 at a 980x680 view. In the same test, frames that took more than 20 ms dropped to about a quarter as many.
  • Nothing about the game changes: it plays out exactly as before, frame for frame.
  • An online match between two players stays in sync and runs at 60 fps on both.
• Note: in very large late battles the DS game itself runs out of processor time and slows down, as it would on a DS. That is a separate effect from the frame rate, and it is not changed in this version.

New

• xdelta patches for maps and custom units (Maps > Patches).
  • Export xdelta patch: turns the original LEGO Battles ROM into one with your maps and custom units. Use "For this port" to share with other players of this port. Use "For a DS or another emulator" to put chosen maps into Free Play slots; custom units need this port and can't go into that kind.
  • Import xdelta patch: applies a patch to your ROM and installs the maps and custom units it contains, for example a map pack. A patch made for a different version of the ROM (USA instead of Europe) can be applied to that ROM instead.
  • Patches work with xdelta3, xdeltaUI and DeltaPatcher. Patches made with secondary compression can't be read; make them with xdelta3 -S none.
• Computer player options (Free Play, off by default):
  • The AI Finishes Tower Upgrades: the computer no longer restarts a tower upgrade that is already running. Before, long upgrades such as Tower III (especially with FunLite) never finished.
  • The AI Keeps Its Bridges: the computer no longer tears down its bridges.
  • The AI Bridges When It Is Stuck: the computer builds a bridge at the nearest bridge site when it can't reach its target, on more maps than before.
• Upload dates in the Community levels and Custom units browsers.
• Level editor:
  • Bridge sites can be placed without bridge posts or bank tiles: untick "Posts and bank tiles", or untick "posts" on a single site.
  • A start's units standing on water, mountains or trees is now a warning instead of an error, for puzzle maps and custom balance. A start's buildings there are still an error.
• Showcase channel: approved community levels and custom units are now also posted to the showcase channel on Discord.

Fixes

• Computer players trained land transports at the shipyard. A custom land transport such as the Transport Tank is now trained at the special factory, as the player's is.
• Re-skinned 3D custom units kept the stock look. A custom special or transport's model/texture.png was ignored for every stock model. It now applies.
• No hero could be picked after unsubscribing from a custom unit that was in the saved army. Slots holding a custom unit that is no longer loaded go back to the King army's unit.
• Custom heroes' names now appear for computer opponents with a Custom army at the end of a match.
• Bridge sites from other map editors (such as LiruJ's map tool) are no longer refused. A crossing the game accepts is now a warning in the editor, not an error.
• Long messages in the level editor's Checks now wrap instead of being cut off.

Still open

• Enemy specials visible in explored fog (Free Play, Enhanced): being investigated.
• Hearing a third computer player's actions far off-screen: the cause is narrowed down (some game sounds for that player have no position check) and is being worked on.
• A creature's sprites cycling through other units' sprites: we've asked for the armies used, to reproduce it.
• EMP on a hotwired vehicle froze a match (reports from 0.4.8): not reproduced.

Please update together

• Online, everyone in a lobby should use 0.4.14.

Files

• LegoBattles-PC-0.4.14.zip: the game.
• LegoBattles-PC-0.4.14-runner-source.zip: the corresponding source of the runner (GPL-3.0-or-later). The port's own source is this repository at this tag.

LEGO Battles PC 0.4.13

Version 0.4.13 of the LEGO Battles PC port: a crash with mountain-crossing custom units, and team colours on the creature portraits.

The settings menu opens with F1 or Esc. Settings > General > Install update updates the game in place.

Fixes

• Crash in long matches with a mountain-crossing custom unit loaded. Since 0.4.11, when any loaded custom unit had "Can walk over mountains", every unit's route search treated land beyond cliffs as reachable. The game then searched whole maps for routes nobody could walk, ran out of memory for its searches, and crashed, typically a few minutes into a match with several armies. Now only the tagged units ignore cliffs, per order. Every other unit plans routes as in the original game. Tested with three computer armies on Avast for eight minutes with the AI shipyards setting on, as in the report: no crash. The tagged unit still crosses mountains.

New

• Team colours on the creature portraits. The Monkey, Wolf, Shark and Robot portraits on the Top Screen and in the online team picture now show their team colour, as the creatures themselves do: the Monkey's brown fur, the Robot's orange body and neck, and the grey of the Wolf and Shark.

Please update together

• Online, everyone in a lobby needs 0.4.13 when a custom unit with "Can walk over mountains" is loaded. Older versions plan routes differently and the match would drift apart.

Still open

• EMP on a hotwired vehicle froze a match (reports from one match on 0.4.8). It could not be reproduced. The game logs where a bad memory read comes from, so if it happens again, please post the session log from the logs folder.
• Editing spells (damage, timing, duration, mana cost, range and area) is planned for a later version.

Files

• LegoBattles-PC-0.4.13.zip: the game.
• LegoBattles-PC-0.4.13-runner-source.zip: the corresponding source of the runner (GPL-3.0-or-later). The port's own source is this repository at this tag.

LEGO Battles PC 0.4.12

Version 0.4.12 of the LEGO Battles PC port: the computer builds shipyards on any map.

The settings menu opens with F1 or Esc. Settings > General > Install update updates the game in place.

New

• The AI Builds Shipyards On Any Map (Enhancements, off by default; Free Play only). The computer builds a shipyard only at a map's own AI build sites. Seven Free Play maps with water have none, so armies whose special units are boats (Pirate and Imperial ships such as the Clipper, the Battleship or Brickbeard's Bounty) never fielded them there. With the setting on, such a map gets build sites beside its water. Tested on a lake map: with it on, the computer built a shipyard and then Battleships; with it off, none in six minutes. Maps that already have build sites are unchanged.

Still open

• EMP on a hotwired vehicle froze a match (reports from one match on 0.4.8). It could not be reproduced, including with the stolen unit selected and its menus open when the EMP hit. The game now logs where a bad memory read comes from, so if it happens again, please post the session log from the logs folder.

Files

• LegoBattles-PC-0.4.12.zip: the game.
• LegoBattles-PC-0.4.12-runner-source.zip: the corresponding source of the runner (GPL-3.0-or-later). The port's own source is this repository at this tag.

LEGO Battles PC 0.4.11

Version 0.4.11 of the LEGO Battles PC port: invisible units, walls in Enhanced, a crash on Save, mountains for custom units, and level editor additions.

The settings menu opens with F1 or Esc. Settings > General > Install update updates the game in place.

Fixes

• Invisible, unkillable units. A custom unit (or a Balance edit) with Building collision turned off stood in none of the game's occupancy layers, so it could not be seen, clicked or attacked. It could still move and shoot, and only select-all picked it. Such a unit now keeps the ground layer and behaves normally. Tested with an affected custom unit from a report.
• Walls and bridges popping in and out in Enhanced. Since 0.4.8, walls and built bridges were drawn only inside the DS's own 256 columns. In the wider Enhanced view they appeared and vanished as the camera moved, worst when zoomed out. They now draw across the whole view. DS Vanilla was never affected.
• Crash when saving Options in a battle. Pause > Options > Save crashed the game on the next frame, whether or not the volume was changed. The game reloaded the menu fonts mid-battle. In a battle that reload is now left for the next time a profile loads. Your volume and language are still saved.
• No clicks after switching Enhanced to DS Vanilla mid-battle. Every tap went to the last Enhanced click. Switching display mode during a battle now works in both directions.
• Mountains tag on custom units. Units with "Can walk over mountains" stopped at the cliff edge. They now cross. Units without the tag are still stopped by cliffs.

New

• More than 10 mine spots per map (Balance, beside EMP Disables Transports; on by default; online, the host's setting applies). Maps can have up to 32 mine, quarry or well cap spots. The game's limit was 10, and spots past the tenth did nothing. Stock maps have 10 or fewer and play the same either way.
• Mouse buttons for battle shortcuts (Settings > Controls > Shortcut keys). Every shortcut can also be bound to middle click, right click, Mouse 4 or Mouse 5. For example, you can swap which back/forward button opens the blue menu. The defaults are unchanged.
• Level editor:
  • Bridge sites now get the bridge posts you see on stock maps.
  • Gravel is a new terrain brush: the darker patches on stone that every world's tileset has.
  • The decorative tile picker has a zoom slider, scrolls sideways, can be made taller, and shows a large preview of the tile under the cursor.
  • The checks note maps with more than 10 mine spots.

Please update together

• Online, everyone in a lobby needs 0.4.11. The new mine-spot rule and the Always options from 0.4.10 are read differently by older versions.

Still open

• EMP on a hotwired vehicle froze a match (reports from one match on 0.4.9). It could not be reproduced. 0.4.10 fixed one cause of matches drifting apart (Prevent Phantom Ties). If it happens again, please post the session log from the logs folder.
• The computer player building shipyards on maps that don't need transports is analysed and planned for a later version.

Files

• LegoBattles-PC-0.4.11.zip: the game.
• LegoBattles-PC-0.4.11-runner-source.zip: the corresponding source of the runner (GPL-3.0-or-later). The port's own source is this repository at this tag.

LEGO Battles PC 0.4.10

Version 0.4.10 of the LEGO Battles PC port: phantom ties, and "always affected" spell options.

The settings menu opens with F1 or Esc. Settings > General > Install update updates the game in place.

Online

• New: Prevent Phantom Ties (Network > Multiplayer, on by default; the host's choice applies to its lobby). A phantom tie is when the two games of a match drift apart. One cause is now measured: ESP and EMP stun length (Super Magic) and spell range (the range cheat) follow each machine's own cheats. Two players with different cheats therefore see different fights. With the setting on, everyone plays with the host's cheats; this is what the port already did, now as a setting. Off plays each machine's own cheats, as on a DS. Tested with two games: off, a different unit died on each screen; on, every freeze matched to the frame.
• Please update together: custom units with the new "Always" options (below) read as "Immune" in 0.4.9.

Custom units and balance

• New: Always hotwireable, EMP-able and ESP-able. The Hotwire, EMP and ESP options (Unit Lab Stats tab, and Balance > Traits for stock units) are now Normal / Immune / Always. Always lets the spell take the unit whatever kind it is: hotwire a foot soldier, EMP a cavalry unit, ESP a ship.
• Changed: "EMP Disables Transports" now works through the same code path. It plays the same as before.

Still open

• EMP on a hotwired vehicle froze a match (three reports from one match). We staged it online, with a stolen special and a stolen transport and the same host settings, and could not reproduce it. If it happens to you, please post the session log from the logs folder.

Files

• LegoBattles-PC-0.4.10.zip: the game.
• LegoBattles-PC-0.4.10-runner-source.zip: the corresponding source of the runner (GPL-3.0-or-later). The port's own source is this repository at this tag.

LEGO Battles PC 0.4.9

Version 0.4.9 of the LEGO Battles PC port: a big batch from the bug and suggestion channels.

The settings menu opens with F1 or Esc. Settings > General > Install update updates the game in place.

Custom units

• Fixed: custom unit names showed blank in game. Mod map names had the same problem.
• Fixed: mounted units' walk and attack play with their real 4 + 4 frames in the viewer and the export. Re-export a mount you made earlier: its frames moved.
• Fixed: custom unit sounds were far louder than the game's. They are now levelled, and Custom Unit Sound Volume (Settings > Music) adjusts them.
• New: preview in every team colour, Teal included (Look tab).
• New: Credits. A line in the Stats tab names who helped make the unit. It is shown under Community units and sent when you share.
• New: Convert... turns an .NCBR (with an .NCLR palette) into a PNG, and a PNG into an .NCBR.
• New per-unit options, in the Stats tab and in Balance > Traits for stock units:
  • Mountains: the unit can walk over mountains.
  • Can't be Hotwired, EMP-proof and ESP-proof.
  • Construction style: whether a builder's buildings go up as human, skeleton or alien construction.

Level editor

• Fixed: Pirate and Imperial levels were labelled the wrong way round, and the Earth faction was called Space Police.
• New: Patrol points. Pick a campaign patrol path, drag its points, add a point with a click and remove one with Shift-click.
• New: red bricks, minikits and mission collectables show as their own icons instead of gold bricks.
• New: Decorative tiles. Paint the world's own decorative tiles (flowers, mountain peaks, the Mars patterns), with an eyedropper.
• New: removing a mine spot also removes its stone pad.
• Changed: starts separated only by water are a note, not an error. Players reach each other by transport.

Computer players

• Fixed: with "AI Rebuilds Its Hero Every Time" on, a hero the computer could not build blocked its build list, and it never made another builder.
• New: The AI Builds Bridges On Any Map (Enhancements > Gameplay, off by default). The computer builds the map's bridges even when it doesn't need them to reach you.

Controls and windows

• Fixed: holding Tab now fast-forwards an offline battle, not only the menus. The speed is 2x to 8x, set under "Hold Tab to fast-forward battles" (Settings > Controls). It is off online and while recording or replaying.
• Fixed: a quick click could swallow the building check mark. A click's release now always reaches the game before the next press.
• Fixed: the number-key shortcuts (buildings and spells) now work in DS Vanilla display too.
• New: Top Screen in its own window (Tools > Windows). The top screen gets its own window, which you can move anywhere, with the same clicks. Closing it puts the panel back.

Online

• New: Discord invites. With Rich Presence on, a lobby with free seats can be joined from Discord: "Join" and "Ask to Join". It is on by default as "Discord invites to my lobby" (Settings > General).
• Not yet fixed: EMP on a hotwired vehicle froze a match. We could not reproduce it yet. This version logs exactly where such a freeze happens. If it happens to you, please post the session log from the logs folder.

Files

• LegoBattles-PC-0.4.9.zip: the game.
• LegoBattles-PC-0.4.9-runner-source.zip: the corresponding source of the runner (GPL-3.0-or-later). The port's own source is this repository at this tag.

LEGO Battles PC 0.4.8

Version 0.4.8 of the LEGO Battles PC port: big custom maps fixed, online matches at the host's pace, and team colours in the match picture.

The settings menu opens with F1 or Esc. Settings > General > Install update updates the game in place.

New

• Online, everyone plays at the host's game pacing. "Steady game pacing (30 Hz)" (Display) is the host's choice for the whole lobby and match.
  • Online, a match only moves as fast as its slowest player, so it used to take everyone turning the setting off to play at melonDS's faster pace.
  • While you are in someone's lobby, the setting shows which pace applies.
  • Both paces were tested holding steady in an online match.
• Team-Colour Portraits in the Match Picture (Online, under Share Match Telemetry; on). The match summary posted to the server's Discord shows each player's units in that player's team colour, by the same rules as Team-Colour Unit Portraits.

Fixed

• Custom maps taller than 96 tiles.
  • The game keeps one row table for where units stand, and it only had room for 96 rows, the size of the largest stock map. On a bigger map the lower rows read garbage, so units got stuck on things that were not there.
  • The table now holds 128 rows, the level editor's largest.
  • Maps larger than 128 are left out, with a note in the mods report.

Files

• LegoBattles-PC-0.4.8.zip: the game.
• LegoBattles-PC-0.4.8-runner-source.zip: the corresponding source of the runner (GPL-3.0-or-later). The port's own source is this repository at this tag.

LEGO Battles PC 0.4.7

Version 0.4.7 of the LEGO Battles PC port: up to 128 custom units, a fix for the freeze after Reset, and transports unload from the top screen.

The settings menu opens with F1 or Esc. Settings > General > Install update updates the game in place.

New

• Up to 128 custom units (was 9). The 9 came from the game's own unit table. The port has used its own, larger table for a while, so the limit only stood in the way. Online, a host's whole set reaches the joiners however many there are.
• Custom units: Stats tab.
  • Projectile and spell_1..5 are lists with names instead of numbers. Each projectile also lists the stock units that fire it.
  • In-game name ("display_name" in unit.json): what the game shows in battle and on the unit's cards. It need not be unique, so several units can all be "Builder" like the stock builders. "Name" is still what the menus list the unit by.

Fixed

• The game froze after Reset with custom units on. This covers the menu's Reset, "Load new units now" and "Load new maps now". The custom units put the previous boot's unit table back into the fresh game.
• Transports now unload from the top screen. Clicking an occupant icon on a selected transport unloads one unit of that kind. The first three icons were taken for a building's queue, so the click went through to the battlefield and selected a unit there.

Good to know

• Build speed compared with melonDS. "Steady game pacing (30 Hz)" (Display, on by default) runs the game in even steps, about 19% slower than melonDS, which is probably nearer a real DS. Turn it off to play at melonDS's pace.

Files

• LegoBattles-PC-0.4.7.zip: the game.
• LegoBattles-PC-0.4.7-runner-source.zip: the corresponding source of the runner (GPL-3.0-or-later). The port's own source is this repository at this tag.

LEGO Battles PC 0.4.6

Version 0.4.6 of the LEGO Battles PC port: easier custom units, a menu search, and computers that fight each other.

The settings menu opens with F1 or Esc. Settings > General > Install update updates the game in place.

New

• Search the menu (Ctrl+F, the box at the top right). Type part of a setting's name or description; pick a result to open its page with the setting outlined.
• Custom units, reworked (Balance > Custom units):
  • All units are in a list on the left: your custom units at the top, every stock unit and building by role below, with a search box.
  • The unit you pick is on the right with three tabs: Look (the animated preview), Stats (change a custom unit's name, starting model or sprites, and every value; Save writes unit.json) and Files (which of its files the game will use, and what the last build did with each).
  • Siege units and transports now show as a turning 3D model in the team colour.
  • Units made the community's way work as they are: sheets beside unit.json, compressed NCBR files, and sheets named for the unit you drew (hh_krazi_w0 for hh_conq_w0).
  • Frames left as exported no longer paint the starting unit back over your new sheets.
  • "asset" in unit.json picks another stock model or sprite set to start from (a transport on the Claw Tank's model).
  • A how-to guide: the ten steps in the page, and HOW-TO.txt in every unit folder.
  • Community units has its own page.
• Computers Attack Each Other's Bases (Team Builder, under Computer Player 3; off by default). With a second computer opponent that is not allied, each computer goes for the nearest base, not only yours.
• Level Editor: Mirror (H) and Flip (V) for a paste before you place it, or for a selection where it is.
• Proper Creature Portraits (Team Builder; on). The Wolf and the Shark show their heads on the top screen instead of a lantern and a sack.
• New settings for port changes that had none, all on as before: Team-Colour Unit Portraits, Custom and Randomizer Opponents, Mouse Wheel Zooms, Use Mod and Editor Maps, Lobby Shows the Current Map, Show the Lobby's Server.

Fixed

• Team-coloured portraits went back to red and blue while a button was held, while paused, or under the victory banner.
• In DS Vanilla, the game's own drag-selection box was hidden with nothing drawn in its place.
• Large buildings no longer spill out of the custom units preview.
• Clicking a transport's empty occupant slot on the top screen is no longer offered; the tooltip says a click unloads that unit.

Files

• LegoBattles-PC-0.4.6.zip: the game.
• LegoBattles-PC-0.4.6-runner-source.zip: the corresponding source of the runner (GPL-3.0-or-later). The port's own source is this repository at this tag.