Snapshot 1 (S160124)


Today I've released the first snapshot of RBA to show off the progress I have made on the way to v2.0.0 .
You can find the snapshot here.
This release mainly contains technical improvements.
But first things first.

Goodbye Android


I've decided to drop the Android support and focus my work on the PC instead.
This has different reasons. The main reason is that I am not lucky with PGS4A(Pygame Subset for Android). It causes new problems with the rendering with every change I make on the game engine.
I have to change code that works fine on PC to work on mobile devices as well. This slows down the development process in a unnecessary way.
Maybe I will add Android support later if I find a better solution to convert python code for mobile devices. But for now sorry to all Android users.

Cleaning the Code


With this release I have finished the first point of my todo list. I've cleaned up the code base.
The main aspect that has changed with this is the process of loading image files. Monsters and tiles have been merged into big tilemap files. The class definition has wandered from main.py into a separate module(./LIB/gra_files.py) as well.
I was able to replace over 1000 lines of code with less then 200 without loosing any functionality.
But the main benefit for further development will be that it becomes much easier to add new monsters ore tiles to the game.
tilemapmonster

Field of Vision and optional mouse support


The most eye catching changes in this version is a improvement of the field of vision and a option to hide the mouse pad. To say it with easy words you can’t see trough walls and the mouse pad has to be turned on inside the game options menu.
Field of vision 1
Field of vision 2
Activating mouse support.

What's next?


The next step is a improvement of the battle system. This will bring up the following changes:
- a improved level system for monsters and the player
- ranged (magical) combat for monsters and the player
- a visual feedback for hits
- a better AI for monsters that will allow them more interesting behaviours like casting spells or use healing potions
Maybe not all changes that are listed here will already come with the next release.