Spyro: A Hero's Tail: V2.0 (Release Candidate)

v2.0 (Release Candidate): I've Opened the Whole World Up

This is the third and final major chunk of the Spyro AHT 2.0 update, labelled as "release candidate" because I have no plans to add more into what will become 2.0. Depending on if issues arise, I would like to release the official 2.0 within the next week or so, but we'll see based on playtesting. I'm excited to finally have time to play what I've spent the past month working on :fa_basil_heehee:

Note that the game mod has been updated to version 10 and, going forward, will be included alongside the .apworld, instead of being hosted separately by Ebbe. This should cut back on confusion about which version to use.

Hotfix 2 8/8 5:15pm (new .apworld and game mod files below!!!)

Further playtesting revealed a few more mistyped logic rules. I determined this made it justified to do a complete review of every location in search of any other lingering issues. I took the opportunity to do something I was going to put off for a 2.1 update but it made sense to multitask doing alongside this review:

• All locations in the world have been renamed/reformatted to allow for a custom sorting function to be added for Universal Tracker to use.
• The location review led to fixing a few Locked Chests which were missing their chest logic rule. I also added Double Jump as a requirement to progress through a small portion of Sunken Ruins (getting onto the electric platform after the fish statues) that should only affect a few checks and gem rules.
• Also, Ebbe was able to fix a loading zone that in the vanilla game was badly misaligned which could lead to finicky issues with open world mode. Ebbe OP. New game mod version is below.

## Hotfix 1 8/8 3:45am (new .apworld and game mod files below!!!)
Initial playtesting revealed, unsurprisingly, a few logic errors which are now fixed. It also includes 2 game mod changes which enabled 2 things as quality of life improvements:

• 1. The in-game map icons that get rendered will now render for all maps you have access to, not just the one that you're currently in.
• 2. New YAML option shop_pad_proximity_activation which is a quality of life adjustment for non-full open world mode seeds. Details in the YAML.

Changelog (this is a lot again lol. changelog.txt contains some unredacted details)

• ⚠️ The first note is one that lingers from 2.0 Beta Releases 1 & 2: the project internally has been renamed from spyro-aht to spyro_aht. It is recommended you go into your custom_worlds folder in your AP installation and manually delete any old spyro-aht files, to minimize chance of issues from this ⚠️

• Major Feature Addition: Open World Mode

  • This feature allows you to set the remote shop pads to become unlocked not by reaching them physically, but by receiving AP items which unlock them in various fashions, such as individual, progressive per level, full levels, and full realms. This required a MASSIVE re-design of all logical regions of the randomizer.

• Project Wiki: Added a brand-new and written from scratch series of wiki pages to my GitHub repo for the randomizer, found here.

• Realm Access Adjustments (to cooperate with open world mode better)

  • Enabling full open world will forcibly start you with all 4 realm access cards to ensure smooth traveling. If using non-full open world mode, realm access cards will be created for your starting realms, but the remaining realms will have their access determined based on shop unlocks and teleporting to them.

• New option: pause_menu_patch

  • This gives you the choice between the existing "press and hold Y to teleport to the hub" and a new option "press Y to open shop" which lets you access the shop from anywhere in the game. These each have logic implications on open world mode, which is why this new patch was created and housed in this option.

• Gem Logic Fix & Expansion

  • Fixed the issue from Beta Release 2 relating to gem logic not lining up in trackers post-generation by redesigning the whole process.
  • Added non_blink_enemies as a 3rd way to divvy up the gem collection process for things in the game.

• New client command /add_item which is meant to be used for debugging or setting up a blank new save file to be at a similar or same point as a previous save file (such as if it gets corrupted or otherwise lost).

• Various other things:

  • The game mod and client now supports custom DeathLink messages based on how you die! Go and spam your friends with deaths to try to find them all linkusEvil
  • Updated double_gems to be usable regardless of what you set gem_logic to.
  • Added an open-source-license to the project. In short: "do whatever you want with my code but don't sell it"
  • Added 2 new generic filler items.
  • Fixed boss_lair_forcing from only doing its thing if boss lair costs were non-default.
  • Numerous other behind-the-scene things that have significantly sped up my development workflow and debugging capabilities.