We are happy to announce FreedroidRPG 0.12 - release candidate 1. FreedroidRPG 0.12 represents 3 months of work and over 400 changes since the last intermediate release of 0.11.1.

We hope to get as much feedback and bug reports as possible so we can make sure 0.12 final is as good as possible.

There are many improvements and bug fixes since last release, the main being:

• Content
• A Tutorial is now implemented
• Completely new starting level that makes much better sense with the storyline
• Big changes on old starting level layout
• Totally remade entrance to Disruptor Shield Control Base as well as adding connecting sections inside the base
• New music tracks
• Engine
• Cleaned up even more bugs in robot AI and path finding
• Fixed some bugs in hit stun and chance to hit (hit% now actually corresponds to chance to hit stats)
• Added Lua coding language to dialogues, greatly increasing the possibilities of rich and alternating content.
• Level editor
• Drag select area
• Cut, copy, delete and paste area
• Drag and drop movement (both area and single objects)

Note: Save games from 0.11.x are not compatible.

We are happy to let you know that FreedroidRPG will be present at FOSDEM in Brussels in February (FOSDEM). A lightning talk (15 minutes) is planned on Sunday, February 8th, at 14h. Come and meet us!

Update on March 3rd 2009: the video of the talk is available here.

FreedroidRPG 0.11.1 is out. It is an intermediate release that fixes several bugs from 0.11, and introduces interesting new features in the engine. The maps have not changed significantly for gameplay.

Here are the most important modifications :

• improved internationalization support
• added two projectile weapons (AK47 and barrett sniper rifle), with complete graphics, courtesy of Whisnu aries
• added ancient sword graphics courtesy of Laszlo Gy. Perger
• support for a keychart with reassignable keys (press F1 while in game)
• remove lots of useless (unused) files
• handling more than 7 savegames now (load and delete game menus provide scrolling functionnality)
• more updates on collision detection
• fix the secret quest bug that marked the game as finished incorrectly
• added new screen resolutions and fixed light radius for non 4:3 ratios
• added a level validator to run some checks when doing mapping work
• each hero now has a "backup" savegame that represents the last-but-one savegame. "load backup" in the game menu loads it.
• level editor interface has changed for the better - now accessing the level editor from the game is only possible through a cheat key combination, and does not allow saving. Accessing the level editor from the main menu provides the "test level" feature that enables the user to test his level without screwing up the world's state.
• emergency shutdown is now triggered when you are at near lethal overheating
• some mostly cosmetical map changes:
• Kevins place exterior remade.
• Area NW of town is moved N of Kevins place (has entrance to shield controll bunker).
• Entire east edge of "world" is now towards a water front.

Note that savegames from 0.11 are not compatible with this version of FreedroidRPG. Sorry about this.

Download FreedroidRPG 0.11.1 now!

We just got word from Javi on IRC that despite our three candidate releases and our committment to remove as many bugs as possible, a major mistake slipped through into 0.11 final. The secret level quest will terminate the wrong quest number, and actually tell the player that the game is finished. A new source tarball will probably be generated soon with only the fix for this problem. If you already have 0.11 installed, however, it will be easier for you to simply grab SADD.dialog and overwrite the existing SADD.dialog file in dialogs/.

We are sorry for the inconvenience. Your help finding bugs is greatly appreciated, and this is proof that more testers would be beneficial to us :)

We have released FreedroidRPG 0.11. This first version in the 0.11 series brings a lot of improvements in all areas.

We have more content (items, levels, music tracks) than ever, a faster and more reliable game engine, improved gameplay balance, and a more intuitive level editor.

Download FreedroidRPG 0.11 now!

Here are the most important points that have changed since 0.10.3:

• Game Content
• added a secret research center level
• modified the endgame scenario and started integrating the Hell Fortress
• changed town to make it seem more alive and easier to navigate
• modified start level to improve richness of content
• added and rebalanced weapons. There now are a few melee weapons, projectile pistols and rifles, and futuristic energy weapons.
• changed and rebalanced programs, added a new default skill to help tux from overheating. Made a "programmer" character a possible and interesting alternative.
• added new music tracks
• Engine
• the savegame system now uses plain text instead of binary dumps. This allows compatibility of savegames between platforms and makes them hand-editable, and usable for bug reporting.
• a texture atlas is used for floor tiles, yielding a 20%+ performance improvement when using OpenGl
• many bugs in robot AI have been fixed
• collision detection and pathfinding both use a better algorithms, in an attempt to reduce bots getting stuck against walls
• full translation support for game data based on gettext has been added
• Level Editor
• undo/redo
• nicer buttons
• changed the mouse interface to match The Sims editor more closely (move with right button pressed, place tile with left click)
• ability to place line of walls by dragging the mouse
• ability to fill a given rectangle with floor tiles by dragging
• "quickbar" for favorite tiles

This is the latest candidate release in the 0.11 series. It fixes the endgame for real (game can be finished in 0.11rc3, finally), and integrates a new patch that makes it possible to attack bots even when they are in corners. (A bug used to make that difficult to do in some cases).

We are happy to announce the availability of release candidate 2 of FreedroidRPG 0.11.

Numerous bugs have been fixed, including major issues tied to gameplay. The most important point of this release is the work of Samuel Degrande: bots do not go into walls and vanish any longer. We took care of many build issues on various platforms, and corrected a few of the graphical problems that appear on big endian architectures. The game now ends properly and slightly less abruptly, though contributions in this area are still warmly welcomed.

Your 0.11rc1 savegame is compatible with 0.11rc2, so do not hesitate to upgrade and continue your game on rc2!

Download

We have all been kept busy with bug reports as well as real life constraints, which is going to delay rc2 a little bit.

As a side note, we now have a ugly but valid RSS feed for those news published on the website: FreedroidRPG RSS feed