Encounters

I've now merged all the City and Dungeon encounters into a single set as previously they were treated as two separate sets of encounter types meaning that a thief in the City did not behave the same as one from the Dungeon. This led to some confusion for players and made some of the code more complicated than it needed to be. I think I've been holding back to some degree but I think I've realised that if I'm really going to make Alternate Reality X a true, single game or environment then I need to make some aspects of the game more consistent across the different scenarios. This includes content such as encounters, weapons, items and the game mechanics. I have decided to keep the individual graphics for each scenario just now but even that may change over time.

I've also added all the fixed encounters for all levels of the Dungeon. There are around 32 in total. Now I'm modifying all the encounters covered by these fixed encounters so they have the correct weapons (e.g. Ebon Blade for an Undead Knight). I then need to add some more of those treasures that they are protecting!

I should have another release out in the next few days.

Keep on supporting the project in whatever way you can as this keeps my spirits up and let's me know there is still interest in the project.

Thanks,
Acrin1 

Alternate Reality X: Release 0.59

Release 0.59 is now available from the downloads page at www.crpgdev.com. This release fixes and adds a number of features around experience awards, levelling up and level up bonuses for the seven primary stats. There's more work to be done to make experience points accurate across the whole of ARX and the City.

Changes included in this release are:

• Removed levelling up cap (previously level 5)
• Added stat bonuses when levelling up
• Added Strength, Intelligence and Charisma bonuses for repeated successful actions
• Dungeon encounters now award correct experience points when you defeat them
• Dungeon encounters now award correct experience points for 50% of hits during combat
• Removed "spinner" special from Dungeon level 1 map (location 40,15) as it left player trapped
• Added Knight to Dungeon encounters & related alignment adjustments
• Added Pauper introduction message
• Added text for quests to Oracle module

If you like what I'm doing with ARX then please consider dropping me a note, spreading the word online or making a small Paypal donation towards my time. 

All the best,

Acrin1

Alternate Reality X: Added levelling up

Managed to spend several hours working on ARX focused on levelling up and investigating correct experience point awards for combat. I've noticed that many people playing ARX have managed to get up to level 5 very easily and part of the reason for this is that in many cases the experience awards have been way too high.

I've removed the level cap that was in place at level 5 so you should now be able to develop your ARX character up to a very high level. I've also added the missing stat bonuses which you should receive when gaining a level so your seven primary stats may now improve for each level of experience you gain.

Investigating the experience gained from encounters in the Dungeon I believe I now understand that the Dungeon awards it's experience on 2 levels:

• Firstly you receive half the experience for any hits you land on an opponent e.g. if you hit for 6 points of damage you would instantly gain 3 points of experience.
• Secondly on winning an encounter you appear to get an experience bonus which is based on the opponent's initial hit points multiplied by a factor - in many cases this is two but in the case of say a Ghost this could be as high as eight.

I've added these into ARX for all encounters as it's my intention now to have only one method of calculating of experience in the game rather than differentiating between City and Dungeon. I will however spend some time playing the City to see what level of experience awards it provides.

Alternate Reality: Attention to Detail

I've been working away on adding the Dungeon Oracle to ARX so that we can sign up for all those Dungeon quests but while I was sifting through a capture of the binary for this part of the game I noticed something that interested me as someone with a long time interest in game design. Whilst many games of the era (and most recent games too!) are happy to have a single response or set of outcomes from the gameplay The Dungeon designers always added two, three or more varied responses to each of the modules. It's a simple thing to do but so few designers or programmers bother to do it. I think this shows attention to detail that is so often overlooked or not considered. They didn't take the easy route or quickest options to finish things but added extras to the game which is probably why we still play these two games.

Did you know that if you upset the Oracle repeatedly he will tell you not to come back for a month? I never knew that and if you return before the month is up then be prepared for trouble.

One of the other things I've been looking at is the design of the City shops. Where most games would provide you with a stock selection of clothing, in the City we have four values for each possible item - value, material, colour and type - giving us literally hundreds of possible clothing items some of which we will never see within a game. We have a similar feature in the shape of the Weapons Enchantress who can modify numerous attributes of your weapons (based on your choice) allowing us to potentially create some very interesting custom weapons of our own if we have sufficient patience (and precious stones).

For me this means I need to alter my object code for ARX as it currently doesn't allow for the flexibility and custom nature of items such as procedurally generated clothing from the City (the D & P apparel items are static) or the custom weapons of the Dungeon. I overlooked the complexity of attention to detail in The City and The Dungeon when I first set up the object code and took a simpler route like most games do. Once I've done this and I want to do it soon then I'll be able to add City shops, the Dwarven Smithy and the Weapon Enchantress to ARX.

Despite playing this game on and off for over 25 years I never realised those features and details were in there. This is one of the key things I love about Alternate Reality - I'm still discovering things about it 25 years after it was created - how many other games - past or present could we say that about.

Alternate Reality X: Release 0.58

Release 0.58 is now available from the downloads page at: www.crpgdev.com. Please note that you may need to download the Microsoft Visual Studio C++ 2010 x86 Redistributable Runtime from Microsoft's site. Release 0.58 includes the following additions and bug fixes:

• Switched development to new version of SFML 2 media library
• Switched development to Visual Studio C++ Express 2010
• Added Barred door interaction in Dungeon - Locked, Bolted and Enchanted
• Added some Dungeon unique treasures - Razor Ice, Sword of the Adept, Map Stone & Amethyst Rod
• Expanded weapon format to include bonus to hit, parry, 2 handed, alignment, minimum stat requirements
• City Enclosed areas added by Dalimar
• City deathtraps fixed by Dalimar
• Fixed some Dungeon zone colour schemes
• Started work on Dungeon Oracle module
• Bug fix: Fixed so more than 44 rectangular map zones can be defined
• Bug fix: Fixed crashes relating to songs with longer sequences of lyrics
• Bug fix: Fixed images for staircases,
• Bug fix: Goblin Lord & Troll Tyrant now carry a Sceptre of Evil (not a dagger)
• Bug fix: Lyrics strip image overlapped with shop image for 800x600 resolution

Hope you find something of interest in this release. Thanks for your continued support for this project.

All the best,
Acrin1