GearHead2 v0.603

[Joseph Hewitt]

I've just uploaded GH2 v0.603 to SourceForge. This release fixes a lot of the problems with the v0.600 series, but unfortunately doesn't fix all the deadends which have been reported. Here's the list of changes, followed by some commentary:

- All guaranteed quests of v0.541 have been reactivated
The quests currently in the game are the free mecha, all the mecha and personal arenas, the Cayley Rock/Wynter's Mine dungeon, Fuchal Spinner/CometBurger quest, Athera Spinner/Garden Concert, and the Theles Spinner/Ladder quest. Previously non-guaranteed quests which have been added as guaranteed ones are Tohru Spinner/McCabe's construction project, Xianzai Spinner/Smugglers/Vesuvian Freighter (new!), and Gaos Spinner/Galena Hodges charity orphanage (plus new extras).

- Food can grant SkillXP (ghswag.pp)
Survival just got a whole lot better.

- NPCs will now take medicine as appropriate (aibrain.pp)
Give your lancemates some quick fix pills and poison antidote, and their life expectancy in dungeons goes way up.

- Can now use clue skills on items in inventory (backpack.pp)
- Athletics, Concentration gain experience more quickly (ability.pp)
- Added fortune counter for factions (gears.pp)
- Cyberware description no longer includes trauma (description.pp)
- ConnectScene won't add subzone for encounters (mpbuilder.pp)
- Quest metascene PlotID marking done in InitShard (mpbuilder.pp)
- Quest item elements may use plot variables (grabgear.pp)
- Dynamic encounters marked with PlotID of source (arenascript.pp)
- Local persona won't be used if NPC goes to another city (narration.pp)
- Removed unused GB parameter from FindRootScene (narration.pp)
- Can locate plot master based on PlotID of scene (grabgear.pp)
- Changed the way special food effects work (ghswag.pp)
- TeamHasSkill should work properly while in mecha (locale.pp)
- Lancemates should now use repair skills (aibrain.pp)
- Vitality experience award adjusted again (action.pp)

I've done a fair bit of playtesting, so if you've been putting off trying v0.6x until most of the bugs are worked out you might want to give this one a try. Now that I've had a bit more experience with it here are my thoughts on the new version:

- Lancemate rapid leveling is good. My lancemates don't get higher skills than my PC, but they're high enough to remain useful. One problem is what to do with manual lancemate training: experience you spend on skills early in the game is wasted by rapid leveling later on.
- The Largo kicks massive amounts of arse. Battroid/Zoanoid transformation is a useful ability to have.
- On a similar note, the Ink Rifle is an incredibly good surprisingly cheap weapon.
- Overload doesn't seem to be working right. I'll have to check that.
- The new rumor system is nice. I don't miss the previous system at all.
- The mood system is working really well. Early in the game when my character lost his mecha, I spent some time traveling from spinner to spinner fighting fungus infestations until I had enough money to buy a new mecha.
- The clock/tactics switch command is very useful. Most of the time I just leave my lancemates on automatic, but for certain battles (such as if I want to capture a particularly good enemy mecha) I can switch modes and control everyone directly.

Of course, your opinions may vary. Let me know what you think of it.

[The_Soviet_Onion]

- Cyberware description no longer includes trauma

Hang on, why are you doing this? Surely the player needs that information?

[Joseph Hewitt]

Nope. Trauma no longer exists as a mechanic; instead, the amount of cyberware you can have installed is determined by the number of positive bonuses conferred. I'm going to have to indicate this somewhere but trauma per se is out.

I found some pretty serious bugs while playing in Ulsan this weekend.
- Overload is definitely broken.
- You can apparently take an unlimited number of lancemates. I haven't checked the source yet, but I wouldn't be surprised to find something stupid like the Entourage talent limiting you to two lancemates while those without it can take as many as they want.
- Lancemates won't stop "covering" a surrendered NPC, meaning that if an NPC surrenders in a dungeon the lancemates will just hover around him rather than following you.
- If a NewNPC is generated for a metascene, after the conclusion of the relevant plot the NPC gets dumped out to the city map. This is the source of those orphaned pilots who sometimes show up.
- Lancemates don't reveal map tiles, so if you switch to tactics mode on a mostly-unrevealed map your lancemates may be walking in the dark.

[Burzmali]

I've been a bit busy lately with my little one lately, but I've started up a new game in 0.603.  I'll write up a more complete log (story?) later but here are a few observations.

Burzmali_1 - 5/5/09 - story, minor
The group "crashed" a party at a location they just left.

Burzmali_2 - 5/5/09 - typo
"I take it from the sound of your voice that you're not likely to be much of a compeditor."  Should be "competitor".  Though the sentence might be better phrased:  "With that soft spot for safety of others, you're not likely to be much competition anyway."

[Joseph Hewitt]

Quoting: Burzmali

I've been a bit busy lately with my little one lately

I understand. Did the postcard show up yet? I finally found the set I had been looking for.

Quoting: Burzmali

The group "crashed" a party at a location they just left.

Could I get a better description of what happened here?

[Burzmali]

Quoting: Joseph Hewitt

I understand. Did the postcard show up yet? I finally found the set I had been looking for.

Yes, it arrived about 3 days ago.  Thank you!

 

Quoting: Joseph Hewitt

--The group "crashed" a party at a location they just left.

Could I get a better description of what happened here?

First episode, I was told to meet up with my friend at the Third National Plaza.  At the Plaza, my friend insisted on joining me for the journey.  As we were leaving, he asked me about my motivations in order to get in the right mindset to crash a party at the Third National Plaza.

[EarthquakeDamage]

It seems that the NOMOUSE config option still doesn't work.  At least in the SDL version I'm still stuck with the mouse.  I haven't tried the ASCII version and, to be honest, I don't intend to since I much prefer isometric graphics when possible (cut my teeth on Ultima 6, not Rogue).

In addition, my combat monkey-in-training seems to get most of his kills in Winter's Mine by parrying.  That's probably because space worms and such bite to attack.  Since the maw's on their head and their head takes damage when I parry with my little beam knife, it eventually kills them.  It's pretty silly, though.

Also, I managed to throw my Buru Buru's axe a few times.  Looking at the code, it looks like the problem lies in the ThrowingRange function.  Heavy Actuators increase rng, even if it's currently zero (i.e. the weapon shouldn't be thrown -- it's not ammo, not a grenade, and doesn't have the THROWN type).  Adding "and (rng > 0)" to the if statement there should fix it.

I wanted to get some mecha delivered from another spinner.  In the deliver menu I can apparently move some factions.  In particular:
Citizens (Gaos Spinner)
Guards (Gaos Spinner)

Installed cyberware no longer appears in the Review Cyberware menu.  This appears to be because you no longer use the Type string (the code seems to look for things with the CYBER Type when making the list).

Cyberware still seems to have no effect on your skill cap (Knowledge) or vision radius (Perception;  in particular, it doesn't let you reveal more of the map the way "natural" Perception does).

At the bottom (I assume -- haven't yet explored the level, but it is L7a which is pretty deep) of Cayley Caves:
As you enter this level, you have the distinct feeling of being watched.
ERROR: Unknown ASL command ENDSUBPLOT
CONTEXT: -14 if= P2403 1 TeamNeutral 3
ERROR: Unknown ASL command -14
CONTEXT: if= P2403 1 TeamNeutral 3
All of a sudden, your brain hurts.

Side note:  Dear Christ is that thing scary!

[EarthquakeDamage]

The fire penguins and fire worms are back, as are the polyp things.  I don't remember seeing harrow bears since GH1 either.  Need to dominate me a penguin horde with my next character...

Between the tough new fungi and the new quest, Cayley Rock is friggin' awesome!

The Ascension Complex elevator still appears in the wrong spot.
ERROR: Elevator 0/-1 ##2##............1..#---#

This is at least the second run-through (first in this version) that I got a message more than once for killing the Theles gardener.  The first time it fired 3-4 times in a row.  This time I got the message (and XP) only twice.  I don't know about the first time, but I certainly wasn't using a multi-hit weapon this time.

The new rumor system (esp. the Recall Rumor feature!) is much better, as is the new friendship mechanic.  I didn't even touch Charm or Conversation and still could find jobs and such reliably.

Plot deadend in Core Story: #A +Pla +C-- +Tgt +Fmi +Hra +Bpd +G-- C:ADVEN !Hi E:++ E:AEGSF E:FRIEND E:CRAFT E:M.see E:A.env E:ENEMY F:++ F:AEGSF F:MILIT F:ENEMY P:++ P:MAQUI P:POLIT R:++ R:HOELL R:CORPO R:LANCE R:M.rev R:A.equ T:++ T:SILKN T:MILIT T:M.--- T:A.--- S:perm S:++ S:MAQUI L:perm L:++ L:MAQSP L:MAQUI L:GROUND I:++ I:TL_Hi I:NOFAC A:++ A:NOFAC A:FAITH A:M.rev A:A.equ H:--

Also, the new skill/talent system is damned nice.  Streamlined but still sufficiently complex.  My talent slots were full too soon to see if you moved Leadership to a talent or removed it altogether, though it would've been overkill with this character anyway (badass combat monkey = win;  add one lancemate, two mercenaries, and one story partner for "stop killstealing you bastards" action).

Also, I love the new stat improvement system.  Omniskilled characters are no longer necessary.  Stat progression is also more consistent throughout the game.  No more early power boosts followed by stagnation.

On entering Rocket Base One:
"Look at this, some fresh meat for the hovel.  Abandon all hope while you still have any left!"

[Trorbes]

Being defeated by a L5 patrol leads to a conversation with a random person (or maybe semi-random; a few times it's been with a politician).  No defeat dialog, just a normal conversation with someone not involved with the battle.

Pilots in disabled, dismembered, and near-destroyed mecha can be incredibly stuborn eject a la the Black Knight and refuse to eject from either damage or taunts.  Very amusing, but incredibly annoying when you want to salvage a mech or take in a live bounty.  I know enemies will (or used to) eject if they get too damaged, but especially brave ones seem to have too low a threshold.  Perhaps mechs with no ability to attack should automatically eject, or maybe give the player an ability to physically force a pilot out of their mecha.

[Joseph Hewitt]

I've fixed several of these bugs already, and I'll try to fix the rest of them before making a release.

Quoting: EarthquakeDamage

I wanted to get some mecha delivered from another spinner. In the deliver menu I can apparently move some factions. In particular:

Could you zip that save file and send it to me? I've never encountered this problem, so I wonder what's going on.

Quoting: EarthquakeDamage

Side note: Dear Christ is that thing scary!

Yes, it is. Everything that happens in the Cayley Caves will make sense eventually, BTW- I'm not just having a David Lynch moment or anything.

[EarthquakeDamage]

Fun fact:  I can reproduce the bug.

I even tested it with an unmodified game (fresh install).  It doesn't matter if it's ASCII or SDL, compiled myself or your binary release.  I just start a new character (in this case Basic mode, named "TEST"), head to the local spaceport, and check the delivery list.  Sure enough, those two factions are there.  Still Gaos Spinner too.

I'll go ahead and send the latest test (from the fresh install) in case it helps.

[EarthquakeDamage]

After removing the pirates from Xianzai Spinner, Matthias rewarded me with both a typo and a bug.

"On behaf of Xianzai Spinner..."

and

ERROR: Unknown ASL command 500
CONTEXT: RandomMecha .33_mecha 50 GiveItem 10 Goto .33_GoWinQuest

[Snakebit STI]

Typo:
When I played one of the arcade games I received the message "You complete the mecha facory but fall off the snake on the glacier"

Also, I'm not sure if this is a bug or not, but I have salvaged entire mecha after receiving messages like "Right arm is destroyed, hand is destroyed, Buru Buru destroyed, So-and-so ejected." Despite the message, there will still be a mostly intact Buru Buru sitting on the battlefield, and after the battle I'll have my very own Buru Buru to sell.

And, when looking at a guard dog, the picture is very clearly a human male wearing a jacket. Placeholder? One of the sprites used to represent the dog in 3d should suffice for a placeholder.

[Frumple]

I'm not entirely sure what's going on, but it seems I'm unable to pay to repair my mecha in the arena campaign mode.

Everything else seems to be working, but when I select that bottom "repair <mechname>", my cursor goes back to assign pilot and nothing else happens.

This's ASCII windows version.

[Snakebit STI]

SDL version too.