v0.4.44-christmas-indev.21

🎅 v0.4.44 🎅

Christmas Edition

Merry Christmas, Wanderers!

• This update features some new indev features, such as auto window resizing, text animations and a bunch of terminal renderers.
• This Christmas edition animates the menu title and updates the Y enemies' texture to Santa Claus.

v0.4.40-alpha.4

⚖️ v0.4.40 ⚖️

System & Balance

Summary

This update focuses on improving the user experience by balancing the game and enhancing the game's technical features.

Player Experience Update

• Decreased player base HP to 25.
• Decreased player base ATK to 15.
• New skill: Storage; allows you to buy more items.
• First time win on each battle has double rewards, and triple exp.

Enemy Mechanics Update

• All enemies have 1% chance to miss a strike.
• Enemy Y (or Yara) has 20% chance of effecting you with fire for 1 to 2 turns.
• Enemy N (or Nimbo) has 75% chance to support a random enemy by advancing forward (decreasing action value, basically attacks quicker than usual) by 100%, no natural attack, the other 25% chance will only naturally attack the player.
• Enemy F (or French) has 75% chance to cause the bleed effect.
• Enemy S (or Snek) will poison you.
• Enemy D (or Darp) will sacrifice 15~20% of its own health points to heal another enemy. If no enemy needs healing, then it will simply strike the player.

Effects Update

• New Bleeding effect; damages the player every turn, and can only be stopped by using the Heal item.

Items & Weapons Update

• Dustblade has 5 base damage.
• Healing item heals in range of 36~44%.
• Bomb item is less randomized.

Levels Update

• Lvl1:
  • Enemies: Y↑1, Y↑1
  • Drops:
    • 1~2 Stained Dust
    • 0~1 Branch
• Lvl2:
  • Summary: Reveals a new enemy striker type J (or Jumpo), first level requiring strategy making. The player also learns how to upgrade skills.
  • Enemies: J↑1, Y↑1
  • Drops:
    • 1~1 Dust Balde (Once)
    • 1~2 Double Marble
• Lvl3:
  • Summary: Reveals a new enemy supporter type N (or Nimbo) that Advances Forward enemies, & first level UP for Yara (or Y). The player learns how to use the item Heal, and equips their first weapon before battle.
  • Enemies: Y↑1, J↑1, Y↑2
  • Drops:
    • 1~1 Bomb (Once)
    • 1~2 Black Wood
    • 0~2 Stained Dust
• Lvl4:
  • Summary: Reveals a new enemy striker type F (or French) that deals heavy damage and causes the Bleed effect. The player learns how to use the item Bomb and properly negate bleeding damage using the Heal item.
  • Enemies: Y↑1, F↑1, Y↑2
  • Drops:
    • 1~2 Francium
    • 0~2 Stained Dust
• Lvl5:
  • Summary: Reveals a new enemy striker type S (or Snek) that effects the player with poison. The player is free to make any kind of strategy.
  • Enemies: N↑1, J↑1, S↑1, N↑1
  • Drops:
    • 2~3 Light Resin
    • 1~1 Prism Dust
• Lvl6:
  • Summary: Reveals new enemy supporter type D (or Darp). The player has to survive constant damage, as it is very difficult to kill the striker enemies due to support enemies healing them.
  • Enemies: D↑1, Y↑3, D↑1

Interface Updates

• Redesigned and rewrote the SKILLS user interface.
• Added support for Discord Rich Presence & a toggle in settings.

Soundtracks Update

• Enhanced and extended the menu sound track.
• Enhanced the default battle sound track.

Community Content Updates

• You can now create your own levels using the Level Editor.

Resolved Issues (6)

• Effects on the player wouldn't end.
• The last effect's turn wouldn't function.
• SFX Volume didn't function.
• Pressing CTRL + W wouldn't direct you to the right part of the readme.
• Incorrect damage log of effects.
• Fixed visual bug on Quests UI for the quests 8 and 9.

Added Precautions

• Broken skill saves can be detected and properly fixed,
• Inaccessible scripts are now detected.
• Detect if audio folder exists, otherwise safely deny all audio features.

Performance Optimizations

• Optimized enemy rendering by fixing the issue where all enemies were being re-rendered every time an individual enemy's HP bar was rendered.

Technical Updates

• Rewrote the whole Audio Manager, and replaced all Audio Player scripts with a single script.
• The game now loads through a launcher, and properly exits through it.
• All additional taskbar tasks are now invisible
• The shortcut will now launch the launching process minimized.
• When launching the game twice, it will now automatically focus on the already launched window.
• CTRL + Q now serves as an emergency exit. In case audio bugs out; this will run certain commands that will kill all wscript tasks.
• All shop items now depend on the Storage skill. Equation: item.X.storage multiplied by player.skill.storage, where item.X.storage represents the starting amount of held items of the same type.

Code Maintenance

• Update center.cmd thanks to @Grub4K.
• Every time save is called, the data now must be loaded manually.
• General cleanup and removal of useless lines of code.

v0.4.05-indev.20

🛠️ v0.4.05 🛠️

Micro Patch Update

note
If you are unable to launch due to missing license, download the license from the project or download and update a previous version.

Summary

This update introduces the new daily log-in rewards system, and resolves a few issues.

Major Changes

• You can now claim daily rewards.

Minor Changes

• Enemy N deals less damage but has more HP.

Resolved Issues (4)

• Fixed issue where items you bought wouldn't stack properly.
• Enemies had the incorrect range of attack damage.
• When slowing down an enemy, the logger would show a # before the enemy's name.
• If the game is already running and you try to launch it again, it will now detect it instantly and exit.

Development Notes

• Updated the Audio Manager to v0963

v0.4.00-alpha.3

⚔ v0.4.00 ⚔

The Combat Update

Summary

This update focuses on improving the battle experience and overall performance.
For developers, it provides an easier use of the terminal and additional features.

Major Changes

• You can now fight an unlimited number of enemies. (but it's limited to 8 on purpose, you can't fit more enemies in battle)
• Player and Enemies have Action Values (AV), that indicate who has the next turn and in which order.
• Weapon bonus effects now function.
• You can now debuff enemies or yourself, and enemies can debuff you, with effects such as poison, fire etc..
• A new inventory system has been added to battles.
• Dropped items in battles now have dynamic quantities and randomized amounts for each item. The "loot once" feature now applies to individual items.
• You can now create multiple saves using the profiles manager.
• Added an action logger in the battle.

Minor Changes

• New weapon; Branch.
• SFX volume can now be adjusted.
• Decreased the requirements for leveling up, the level rewards, and the skill upgrades.
• Reduced rewards and requirements for the quest "For God's Sake".
• Updated the Battle UI. (Improvements will keep happening til it feels right)
• Removed the "Shortcuts" option, typing is no longer available in any interfaces except the shop.
• On the craft interface, it now displays "upgraded" when recrafting an item.
• Battle display load feels much faster.
• Enemy levels in level descriptions on the map are now represented by the level up symbol, and difficulty details have been removed.
• Updated some level names.
• When disabling audio, sound effects are now also disabled. To disable only the music, set the music volume to 0.
• Removed Chapter Difficulty and Level Difficulty detail on the map UI.
• Updated the appearance of enemies F, S, and 9. They now face towards the player.
• Updated the win popup UI.
• Improved the ASCII art of the main character in the menu.
• Updated the lost the battle UI, and when you lose, different amounts of money will be dropped depending on the level.
• Quests UI now loads smoothly.
• You can now restart the battle by pressing CTRL + R.
• Lowered some crafting requirements, by just a little.

Resolved Issues (26)

• Fixed crash when reaching maximum level.
• Level & Quest changes are now detected upon entering the map interface, too.
• Pressing backspace while in battle would open up the help page and the default key bind wouldn't work.
• Auto updating works again.
• Changing the volume to a number starting with 0 (e.g., 04, 05, 06, etc.) will now remove the leading 0 instead of changing to the entire number.
• Using the bomb item when having none of it would crash not just the game but the entire process.
• Pressing CTRL + R would kill the logger.
• SFX now turns off when the option "Music & SFX" is turned off.
• The laser animation works again, the new keybind is Z.
• In options, typing "intro" before entering wouldn't color it.
• Chapter information now centers properly.
• In the settings, the colored text colored a part of the ASCII layout.
• If you had a value of money less than 4~9, losing the battle would make you have a negative amount of money.
• Launching in zip files is now detectable.
• Corrected text colors and text decorations.
• Fixed enemy selection randomizing before entering battle, where it wouldn't check for more than 3 enemies, or other times it wouldn't even bother randomizing.
• Fixed various SFX issues.
• The Audio Manager now detects only CMD windows, not any window.
• Fixed issue where when restarting, the audio manager would start again even though it would already be running.
• A lot more other micro bug fixes.
• Fixed issue where it would show "x" in your battle inventory once you didn't have any more of the item you just used, other times it would register another item in your inventory as equipped instead of removing the equipped slot.
• The updater now checks only for higher versions.
• Fixed weird render glitch (underline and color glitches) in the Craft UI
• Pressing I in the menu to go to your inventory with no owned items would still let you enter.
• Fixed Audio Manager issue where on specific system languages it wouldn't start, or not work correctly.
• Launching the game on Windows Terminal will re-launch it on Command Prompt automatically.

Development Notes

• The Terminal is now locked by default. To unlock it, type IAMADEVELOPER all in caps in settings.
• Terminal is now linux themed.
• You can now enter the terminal from the battle interface and map interface as well.
• Added command bobfetch. (use the switch /? for more)
• Expanded the functionality of the "script" command (use the switch /? for more).
• Shortened the code for the money decimals display.
• Generally, improved and rewrote many parts of the battle's code.
• Choice now supports more key detections, and /t (timeout) switch.
• Increased the usage of the %SAVE% script and added more functionality to it.
• Skill shop and the map now load much faster.
• Removed empty options from the settings UI.
• Properly escaped the menu title (title.cmd & title_r.cmd), and it now loads instantly.
• PLAYERDATA.cmd and SKILLS.cmd will reset if certain variables are empty.
• Check whether the EQUIP list has correct amount of items.
• Added string character counter script, charcnt.cmd.
• Added a fixed style for the cursor.
• Inside the level setup files, you no longer need to specify how many enemies should be registered.

Development started on Sunday, January 22, 2023.
This release was finished in a total of 13 full days of coding.

HTSoft Studios no longer owns this project. It's now solely owned by 136MasterNR.

Second Alpha - v0.305

✨ v0.305 ✨

The Items & Weapons Update

New Features

• You can now own Items, Weapons and Materials.
• You can now get items from battles, plus updated won the Battle popup.
• New User Interfaces; Character, Items and Weapons.
• You can now craft items using materials, plus updated the Craft UI.
• You can now view all your stats and items in the Character & Equipment interface, access it by pressing E on the menu.
• You can now manage your items, you can now equip or unequip items.
• When you equip a weapon, your damage will now be increased by how much strength power the weapon gives you.
• New setting; you can now toggle the "Show Intro" setting to automatically skip the HTS intro on startup.

Improved Features

• The pre selected enemy feature will now only function once after entering the battle.
• Bomb will now deal about 300% more damage to the targeted enemy, and 100% (normal) damage to all the other enemies.
• If any setting is not found, you will now be prompted to reset your settings to fix them.
• Minor changes on some user interfaces.
• Updated some of the level titles.
• Added more credits.
• Buying items from the shop will now save the item in your player's inventory.
• You can now type Q to exit from the shop section.
• On the menu, you can now press V to view the Credits.
• In the map, you can now press Enter, Space, Tab, Comma or Semicolon to play the selected level.
• Pressing CTRL + W on most UIs will now open up the read me and automatically scroll to the information about the UI which you are currently navigated to.
• You can now press Z to move to the crafting UI, X to move to the items shop UI and C to move to the skills UI.
• Check out Shortcut Keys for more information about the new controls.

Resolved Issues

• When all enemies are dead except one, the total damage when using a bomb summed the damage of the dead enemies too.
• The (MAX) level text on the menu would appear once you reached level 50 and not level 60.
• Fixed UI glitches, such as when switching from the shop tab "craft" to any other tab, and more minor ones.
• The input cursor is no longer visible when loading a UI, instead of moving around the whole screen.
• Fixed error message where the label :EOF could not be found.
• On the map, fixed unexpected jump to next chapter by pressing the numbers 8 or 9 (these two keys are no longer functionable).
• Fixed bug on the startup, where even if there was already a shortcut(lnk) in the current directory, it still kept trying to make one.
• Fixed in-battle enemy rendering issues. Specifically, when you launch the boss battle and then go to any other level, the middle enemy would get cut in half. This also caused some other small rendering issues.

Development Notes

• Rewrote the Text Center script, it's now a bit faster and it (kind of) supports colors.
• Replaced the UI scripts xp, money and map with the new center script.
• In the startup, moved the shortcut code near the system so it runs earlier.
• The menu now loads variables instead of scripts, the scripts run before displaying the menu, so it now loads in an instant.
• Pressing CTRL + Q to exit will now task kill the audio tasks when audio is on.
• Fixed useless audio task kills when audio wasn't even enabled.
• Updated the "commands" command in the terminal. It now lets you know trusted existing scripts, and gives you info about them.
• New terminal command: scroll.
• Updated the manual update command which just gives debug info. Also, you can now use CTRL + V to launch it.
• There is now a loading bar, which basically tells a developer which scripts are being loaded in time. You can easily find out if your script is taking too long to load by looking at the loading progress, and generally tells the user that something is loading and the game is not stuck.
• No longer using one script per item you can buy in the shop section, now using a single script for every item you can buy, and it's much shorter.
• No longer storing items in the main player data saves file, instead now they are stored in the new inv folder.
• Generally, shortened & enhanced some parts of the code.

NOTE: This is not the Combat update, bonus effects gained from weapons do not function.

inDev - v0.273

New Features

• Enemies have now levels. As their level is increased, their stats get stronger.
• You will now have to select the enemy you want to attack before performing an action. The pre-selected enemy will be the one with the lowest HP, so you don't have to always manually select the right one.
• You can now view the exact stats of an enemy, such as the HP, the attack ratio, and its level, upon the selection of an enemy.
• New quest, "The Champ", where you have to win 120 battles for massive rewards.

Improved Features

• Player progression is now more balanced.
• All user interfaces will now load much faster than before.
• The HTS intro is now smoothed out, it loads frames faster with barely any frame tearing and it now has its own delay.
• Changed the map hotkeys, again.
• You cannot run the product with no existing license or accepted license.
• You can now press Q + Enter to exit from the settings.
• Changed the config of map levels, all enemies are now registered automatically.
• Updated the map details; now displays information for all chapter 1 levels.
• Added developer error popups if an error occurs while loading a map level.
• Minor changes in the startup log.

Resolved Bugs

• The items shop didn't function at all.
• When landing a critical hit, the critical hit sound effect didn't play.

inDev - v0268

New Features

• Preparing the crafting system. Read further on the README.MD
• New game mode in progress.

Improved Features

• Max player level is now 60.
• Decreased player level up XP requirement by 30%.
• No longer using choice.exe to simulate instant key commands, instead a custom version of it is used, which is much faster, less annoying and not badly-made. (FINALLY NO MORE ANNOYING *BEEP* SOUNDS!)
• Updated the map UI and slightly the menu & battle UI, affects only shortcut-key mode.
• Increased critical strike damage, +30% atk of base player damage.
• On the map interface, the shortcut keys were changed.

Resolved Bugs

• Fixed the Total Lose popup & achievement reward.
• Fixed missing files counter on file identify.

First Alpha - v0250

New Features

• When input detects a command, it will highlight your text. This change takes effect only on the UIs: Items, Skills & Settings.
• Added the map sketch on chapter 2.
• Added level, chapter & map details at the top of the map section.

Improved Features

• Going forward or backwards on the map section is now much faster and smoother.
• You can now enter "Items" or "Skills" in the menu to move to your desired shop UI.
• In the skills, there are now more input detections.

Resolved Bugs

• Fixed max player level label text on the menu, used to appear once you reached level 25 and not level 50.
• Fixed infinite XP label text on the menu.
• Fixed the file verifier, used to output wrong information in general.
• Fixed the Audio Manager, had a ton of bugs which are hopefully fixed now.

inDev - v0245

Released on 2022-04-10

Changelog:

This update adds technical features and improves the gameplay.

• Added chapter 2 with 7 demo levels.
• In the map, you can now move forward 7 levels by pressing V or 7 backwards by pressing C. You can also type in "chapter {number}" to navigate between chapters, but it will always select the last level of every chapter.
• When you start the game and enter the map, it will automatically move you to your next battle.
• Created new DEMO movie animation which you can run through the CMD. Enter "cmd" at the menu and then enter "anime"
• Added new bossfight, level 7.
• Added new bossfight soundtrack, featured by pedi me arxes.
• Added a title to every level, and the next map now works properly.
• It now detects whether your device meets the requirements for the game to play audio.
• Max player level is now set to 50 and levelling up is much quicker.
• Added an animation when you win the battle, which just crosses the enemies frame by frame.
• Added a file identity verifier which activates when your game crashes. You can activate it manually by typing "verify files" at the menu.
• Added an auto refresher in battle. Works only when enabled shortcut keys. This is a temporal change.

inDev - v0235

Released on 2022-03-03

Changelog:

This is an update which fixes more technical issues, and makes the gameplay more fair.

• The audio manager now behaves properly on all system languages, no more crashes. (VER. 009000)
• The battle has greater rewards and more fair difficulty.
• When you start the game and enter the map, it will automatically move you to your next battle.
• You can now upgrade your Crit Rate skill.
• You can now upgrade your Max HP skill.