SFML 2.0 - Release Candidate

The Simple Fast Media Library (SFML) version 2.0 is now at the Release Candidate stage and is available as a download from the SFML website. I've been waiting for this for some time. Hopefully the final 2.0 release won't be far away. It provides you with all the necessary library functions you need to code your games and there are a variety of bindings for different languages. There is a very active forum and lots of active SFML users now so help isn't far away if you need it.

I'll switch over Alternate Reality X and Stone of the Citadel soon to take advantage of this new release.

Alternate Reality X - Further tweaks

I've just about completed the saving and loading of characters within ARX. The only things to add to the save game format for current features are the tavern / inn jobs available and tavern food / drink available. Both of these change on a daily basis and should really be captured as part of the save game.

In addition I've made a few minor tweaks as suggested by folks over at the AtariAge forums. You should now always get the option of buying a cheaper weapon in the City (providing you have enough coppers). I've also changed the frequency of when the City Smithies restock - I'd set it to be on the hour but it was daily in the original game so I've fixed that.

Alternate Reality X - Saving and Loading characters

I've now added basic support to ARX for saving and loading characters. You can save a character whilst exploring the City streets or the Dungeon corridors. Saved games can be reloaded from the main menu. You can't save during an encounter or whilst inside a special location such as a guild. There are 10 save game "slots" to use and these can be used for multiple saves of the same character into different slots. New saves can overwrite old ones. These are just straight save games so there are no penalties when you die other than lost progress. I now need to add in some additional save game information to make this feature complete for the current version features.

Alternate Reality X - Save game coding underway

I've made a start on coding the save game feature and so far it's working as expected. Might be a few weeks before I am able to release a version for people to try it out though.

Alternate Reality X - Display timing issues

I recently posted on the 8 bit Atari Age forums and some of the regulars there who've responded to my AR X posts over the last couple of years reminded me of an often mentioned issue which I've still to fix. This is the high speed which the City and Dungeon gate counters spin around. I'm not currently timing the speed with which different computers should display things on the screen which means some people find this very frustrating as it's way too fast.

Along with the save game facility I'll aim to fix this problem in the next release. I know what SFML commands I need to look at to help with this and once I've worked it out this will hopefully help me to be able to tackle others features such as encounter animation and on screen timed song lyrics.