v1.010 Beta: Fixing the World Map War

If I don't discover any new serious bugs during this playthrough of Raid on Pirate's Point, I will probably be pushing the unblocking branch to main and upgrading the beta to stable candidate. Here are the recent changes.

• Fixed WorldMapWar capture territory crash
• Cone attacks have lower range (usually) but no range penalty
• Lowered cost of ballistic weapons, increased cost of ammo
• It's harder to dodge melee attacks at range=1; other defenses unaffected
• Map view updated after charging, performing other actions
• NPCs now select a theme based on their personality + background
• Added Grizzly, Devil, Lightning themes
• Character.get_tags can now list high stats

v1.009beta: More Bug Fixes

Another day, more bugs fixed in the beta.

• Fixed final battle of Dead Zone Drifter
• Fixed Kerberos complex computer
• Increased lancemate reaction loss after losing a battle, losing their mecha

v1.008beta: The Inevitable Day One Bugfix

Quick release to fix running away from combat via the stairs. Also changes the Vitality skill to work similarly to how it worked in GH1/GH2.

• Retreating combat via stairs will not freeze game
• Increased Vitality bonus to HP
• Vitality skill increases module HP for beings

v1.007 Beta: Literally Tons of Weapons

I am somewhat confident that most of the major bugs in the v1.0 branch have been found and fixed. So the next logical step is to release v1.007 as a public beta... so the rest of you can find all the bugs that have so far eluded me.

Because I am going to be releasing this beta on Steam and itch, let me review the changes and reasons for the v1.0 branch. The main thing is that v1.0 switches the game from multiple old-style blocking game loops to a singular modern-style unblocking game loop. GearHead Caramel now runs more smoothly, especially on slower computers. Expanding and maintaining the game should be easier.. Plus, when the time comes, I should be able to switch from PyGame to either PySDL2 or Pyglet with minimal fuss.

But that's not all. Combat has been overhauled. Movement and action points have been decoupled from each other. You can move before or in between your actions. Underneath the hood, NPCs and PCs now use the same action system. Animations have been added to make certain skills and status effects more clear. And that's important, since a whole lot of new attack attributes and status effects have been added.

Version 1.007 beta updates the champion system from previous versions to add mecha themes similar to those in GearHead 2. As of this moment, the first ten GH2 themes have been ported to GHC- Soldier, Sophisticated, Pirate, Ninja, Mad Science, Dragon, Industrial, Beauty, Dark, and Pyromaniac. Themed weapons and mecha will now work correctly in shops.

Here's the complete list of v1.007 changes. Share and enjoy.

• Added phase, armorpiercing, InkAttack, OverloadBubble, Blast3, RustAttack attack attributes
• Normalized all music
• Rewrote champions unit
• NPC stats are influenced by their job
• Fixed learning new skills through DirectSkillXP bug
• WidgetMenu corner buttons moved slightly to the right
• Fixed missing reward in OddJobsBiotechnology plot
• Fixed combat reload crash
• Relationship met_before property now set correctly
• Portrait will appear behind info box in skill trainer
• Monster unit minimum monster price increased
• Fixed Spot Weakness crash
• get_odds defense method renamed to get_defense_odds
• Missiles more likely to hit and penetrate
• Added anim for Spot Weakness, phase attacks, many attacks

v1.006 Alpha: Getting Closer

The number of bug reports, and bugs that I've discovered myself, have slowed down. I think the GHC v1 branch is ready to be upgraded from a public alpha to a public beta.

• ItemStatsBlock will now deal correctly with linewrap
• Added styles for MenuWidget; new default style
• Haywire status working again
• Combat won't start before START trigger checked
• Synth monsters now have treasure recoverable with Biotechnology skill
• TeamRetreatAlert is working now
• Mission on_win, on_loss methods will not be called more than once each
• Color editor uses correct channels for mecha

v1.005 Alpha: More Bugfixes, Working Mecha Roles

A couple of bug fixes plus a big improvement: the random mecha unit generator now uses mecha roles properly. The leader will have a command mech, most NPCs will get a trooper mech, and support mechs are chosen based on the pilot's specialist skills.

Try it out and let me know what you think.

• NPC mecha selected based on the NPC's skills
• Random mecha units now properly use roles
• Fixed NPCs using repair skill on empty tile bug
• Started reorganizing enemy AI unit to better pair with combat actions system
• Fixed color editor channel selector

v1.004 Alpha:

The alpha train keeps on rolling.

• Fixed and simplified campaign entry scene handling
• Fixed crash when dropdown menu used twice
• Delisted RabbleRouser local problem plot because it needs editing

v1.003 Alpha: Shopping, Backpack, and Cyberdoc fixes

Another day, another set of fixes. When aiming an attack, the "to hit" percentage given is calculated from the firing point rather than the position your character is at right now. The shop menus play nicer with the mouse. Various crashes and lockups have been fixed.

As usual, try it out and let me know if you find any problems.

• Lowered default volume to 70%
• Invoker displayed to-hit score now calculated from firing pos, not current pos
• Persistent menus won't lose mouse focus when an item clicked
• Shopping checkout/cancel/continue menu will continue shopping on Esc
• Shopping checkout/cancel/continue menu no longer locks the game (oops)
• Can exit backpack's TIWS menu using the Esc key
• Added more type annotations
• Fixed cyberdoc install crash
• Fixed reload ammo crash

v1.002 Alpha: Backpack and Bombing Both Bugfixed; Brains Better

Another quick bugfix release. Thanks for all the issue reports; keep them coming!

• Fixed aibrain crash
• Widget cannot be deployed twice
• Converted backpack to use MenuWidgets, fixed crashes
• Fixed DZD Kettel Intro crash

v1.001 Alpha: Releases Will Continue Until Stability Improves

Another day, another release.

The biggest change in this version is that triggers, GHC's internal messaging system, have been switched from direct execution to queued execution. This should improve performance and prevent various race condition errors from happening. It's also how triggers were handled in GH1 and GH2; I can't remember why I didn't handle them the same way originally in GHC. This change fixes race condition bugs in multiple plots that weren't obvious before because the race used to come out in their favor. It might cause new problems to appear if there are plots which counted on the triggers being directly executed. But, if that happens 1) it's still a race condition so better to find out about it and fix it now, and 2) there's a new method for directly executing a trigger in case any part of the program needs that.

Here's the complete list of changes:

• Traildrawer does not show AP markers anymore
• Map overlays cleared when combat turn ends + when moving
• AdventureSeed end_adventure method modified to not finalize until after display
• Added trigger_queue
• Fixed Mecha Engineering crash
• Fixed Cyberdoc crash