Be True, Be You, Be Blue!Cerulean Blue Software Home Neldafell Manual
Change Log
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Be True, Be You, Be Blue!Cerulean Blue Software Home Neldafell Manual
Important: player.cbs files, found in the saves folder, contain all of your player's saved data. The settings.cbs file, found in the data folder, contains all data relevant to your options, i.e, preferred music volumes, tts voices, speaking rates, etc. Sometimes a new change will make these files obsolete. If the game crashes upon loading, chances are it is loading an incompatible .cbs file. It will be noted in each release if one or both of these files becomes outdated. If this becomes the case, delete the outdated player.cbs file from the saves folder, or the settings.cbs file from the data folder, then try loading the game again.
A living world, and new foes and gear. Important: saved games (player.cbs files) from earlier versions are not compatible with this version and will not load correctly. Please open the saves folder, delete your old player.cbs file, and start a new game. Your settings.cbs file, in the data folder, is unaffected and will load exactly as it always has.
Major: Neldafell is now seen in first person, in three dimensions. You stand in the world and look along the way you are facing: UP walks forward, DOWN walks backward, and LEFT and RIGHT turn you 45 degrees, so you can face and walk in eight directions. Hold SHIFT with LEFT or RIGHT to sidestep, tap SHIFT with DOWN to turn right around, and hold SHIFT with UP to run. Towns, buildings, castles, caves, forests and the open land are drawn as places you can look around, with a sky that changes through the day and night, and you can stop on the overworld and simply look at the sky. Everything is still fully playable without sight.
Major: Sounds now come from where they are. With headphones you can hear which way a person, a chest, a door or the sea lies, how far off it is, and walls between you and the sound muffle it.
Major: People, companions and monsters are seen as figures. Fights take place in a 3D arena, and your companions walk behind you in the world.
Major: The game now has its own narrator voice, a Piper voice, in place of the old Windows voice. Press F7 while exploring, or F9 in a menu, to switch the narrator between the Piper voice and your own screen reader. The text to speech option in the options menu (F2) lets you pick the narrator's voice, how fast it speaks and how loud. If the Piper voice can't speak, your screen reader takes over. Your volume setting and the choice of voice or screen reader carry over from earlier versions.
Major: People now mutter to themselves. Instead of making a popping sound, townsfolk, guards and shopkeepers now say a few words under their breath from where they stand, quietly and a little muffled, so you can tell who is near and which way they are. They stay quiet while anything is being said to you.
Major: People now greet you. Walk up to someone, or bump into them, and they say hello in their own voice, coming from where they stand, with words that fit their job: a shopkeeper asks what you need, an innkeeper offers a room, a guard tells you to carry on.
Major: If you stand still for five seconds, the game now tells you what is around you, the same as pressing X. The count starts over when you move or turn, and after a menu or conversation closes; it happens once each time you stop. It can be turned off in the options menu (F2), under "Look around when idle".
Major: A new "3D audio" option in the options menu (F2) lets you choose headphones, speakers or plain stereo, and set the audio delay to low, normal or relaxed, with a restore defaults choice. Headphones is the default. Changes take effect the next time you start the game.
Major: Day and night now change what lives in the world. From 6 in the evening until 6 in the morning, some places and overworld zones have their own monsters and their own chance of a fight. For example, the Southlands can have jellies by day and bats by night. Anywhere with no night settings behaves the same around the clock.
Major: Combat music can now differ from place to place. A map or an overworld zone can have its own list of battle tracks, and one is picked at random every time a fight starts. Places without a list use the usual battle tracks.
Major: Guardians. Some foes now stand in your way and block a path until you beat them. Walking into one starts the fight, special music plays, and you cannot run from it unless the fight allows it. Once beaten, a guardian stays gone for good, and some fights have a scene before and after.
Major: Some monsters no longer fall to ordinary attacks alone. Listen to what the game tells you in battle.
Major: Gear can now carry special effects. Some equipment you find may have powers beyond its attack and defense.
Major: Walls and map edges now sound consistent. The nearest wall always decides the distance tone and the scenery sound, sounds behind you are no longer silent when walking north, side-blocked cues follow the way you are facing and no longer fire a tile early at the edge of a map, and the obstacle tone follows whichever of wall or edge is closer.
Major: Your companions now walk behind you, in the order they joined your party, on the map screen. They follow the path you just took, so they never block your way, and they appear on the mainland as well as in towns.
Major: Some townsfolk now have a favor to ask. Agree to help and the task goes into your Quest Journal, which keeps track of your progress. A few want a lost item fetched, and others want a number of a certain monster defeated; defeated monsters only count once you have taken the task. Return to them for a reward. Be careful with the items they ask for: if you sell one, you may not be able to finish the task.
Major: Some of the folk in towns now wander about near where they usually stand, and you can hear their footsteps as they move. Guards, shopkeepers and other people with a job stay put, and wandering townsfolk never leave town. They take their time, and they hold still while you are close, so you can walk up and talk.
Major: Neldafell Castle Town has been rebuilt, larger and laid out in a mirror. Stone streets lead from each of the four gates, shops and homes can be entered, and the four guard towers at the corners have two floors each, with guards on patrol. The throne room stairs and the tavern door have moved to match.
Major: The tavern in Castle Town is now a bigger place, with patrons who each have a story to tell. Its door follows the clock, so it is shut in the morning and open from the evening.
Major: Sounds from people, chests and exits now follow you as you walk past them, getting louder, quieter and shifting side to side while they play, instead of keeping whatever volume they started at.
Minor: New monsters now roam parts of the world, and a new healing potion has appeared.
Fixed: Releasing one arrow key while another is still held now keeps you moving in the direction still held, instead of stopping.
Fixed: Bumping into a wall no longer pings the beacon or re-announces nearby objects, and you can try again sooner.
Fixed: Closing a menu in the middle of a fight always restarted the first battle track, even if another was playing. The same song now resumes.
Fixed: The quest journal could crash on a saved game whose quest or journal entry no longer exists. It now skips it, or says the entry is unavailable.
Fixed: Some map borders were silent.
Fixed: The game could run out of sound channels in a busy fight and then stop with an error. It had been dropping to eight channels after the start menu instead of the full set.
Fixed: A closed log file could crash the game the next time anything tried to write to it.
Fixed: A suit of enchanted armor now protects better than full plate, as its price suggests.
Fixed: A mistake in the experience table made one of the levels give a wrong hit point bonus.
Changed: Several foes have been rebalanced, and some names are now spelled consistently everywhere.
Changed: Chests, exits and the map beacon now pan smoothly with their position instead of switching hard left or right, and the beacon gets quieter the farther away it is.
Changed: The sea and other border sounds no longer pile on top of each other. Each direction plays one sound at a time, and its volume and panning follow you as you turn and move.
Changed: Walking into something says its name aloud again, without making the game wait. What you are facing after a step is also spoken in the background, so walking through a crowded room no longer slows you down.
Changed: The list of nearby things (the X key) is now grouped, with people first, then chests, signs and other things, and exits last. Each group is sorted from nearest to farthest.
Changed: After a fight, the healing spells and potions your companions use now make their sounds.
Changed: Opening hours on doors now follow the clock exactly. A door that opens in the evening is shut at 7:40 in the morning.
Changed: The screen draws much faster, especially with companions walking behind you. Moving between maps is smoother, because the new place is prepared while the door or stairs sound plays.
Changed: Your companions no longer speak up the moment a menu or conversation ends. Their wait for the next remark starts over.
Documentation: This change log updated for the above.
Shopping, and a fairer overworld. Existing settings.cbs and player.cbs files are unaffected and will load exactly as they always have.
Major: Item shops now let you buy more than one of an item at a time. After choosing what you want, the shopkeeper tells you how many you can afford and asks how many you'd like, then confirms the total before any gold changes hands. It works for everything an item shop sells, potions and keys included.
Changed: Every zone of the overworld now stands on its own. Its monsters, encounter rate, footsteps and music apply only while you are inside it, and none of it follows you into the next zone. Before, entering the Southlands put its jellies on the whole mainland, including the Neldaract Desert, and the desert's music carried on into the zones beyond it. Random encounters now happen only in zones that have monsters of their own, which for now means the Southlands. Coming back to the mainland through an exit also restores the right music for the zone you arrive in.
Fixed: Casting Return on the overworld crashed the game instead of taking you to the castle gate.
Fixed: Using a treasure, such as the Earth Emerald, from the Treasures menu or a quick-item slot could fail.
Documentation: This change log updated for the above.
Scaling and stability, mostly aimed at sighted and larger-screen play. Existing settings.cbs and player.cbs files are unaffected and will load exactly as they always have.
Major: Menu text, dialogue text, and the party status screen's portrait now scale up with the window instead of staying a fixed size -- text and portraits read at a consistent size whether at the minimum window, a larger resize, or fullscreen, rather than getting relatively smaller the bigger the window gets. The map view itself is deliberately unaffected by this -- how far you can see stays tied to how far a blind player can hear, on purpose.
Fixed: During combat, dialogue (an attack landing, a spell being cast, a status effect ticking) used to completely cover the enemy and ally rows -- portraits, HP, everything -- since it was drawn on top of whatever was already on screen without checking what that was. It now renders in the gap already left between the two rows instead, so combat's visual display stays visible through its own narration.
Fixed: A status menu shown with a portrait (checking your own status or a companion's) could have its first few options overlapping the portrait itself, depending on how long the screen's title text happened to be.
Fixed: Choosing a windowed screen size larger than your actual monitor could support was able to crash the game with nothing useful recorded in Errors.log, since that kind of failure happens below the level the game's own error handling can catch. The "Screen resolution" menu, and dragging the window's edge by hand, now both stay within what your actual screen can support.
Documentation: This change log updated for the above.
Small but meaningful fairness and movement fixes. Existing settings.cbs and player.cbs files are unaffected and will load exactly as they always have.
Fixed: Pressing a new direction while already moving used to turn you and start walking that way in the same instant. Turning now costs a brief beat, the same pause a single step already takes, before movement begins -- holding the direction you're already facing is completely unaffected.
Fixed: A rare bug in the map-browsing view where checking a spot right after a blocked move could, in specific circumstances, corrupt the coordinate the game was about to revert to.
Major: NPCs no longer appear -- visually or audibly -- while browsing the map. Map mode is meant to show the shape of a place, not who's currently standing where in it; chests and exits are unaffected.
Major: Sighted players could previously see chests, obstacles, and NPCs from further away than a blind player could hear them. Every object's visual and audio detection range is now unified, so neither sense has an advantage over the other.
Documentation: This change log updated for the above.
Sighted-player support, round one -- portraits during dialogue, a resizable window, and fullscreen. Existing settings.cbs and player.cbs files are unaffected and will load exactly as they always have; a settings file from before this version simply starts with the new options at their defaults.
Major: Companions now show their portrait alongside their dialogue whenever they speak -- the same one already shown on their status screen -- instead of just a name tag. World NPCs get a portrait too, generated by their role (shopkeeper, innkeeper, priest, and so on) for now, with a few important named characters (the Queen, for instance) reserved for real dedicated art later.
Major: The game window can now be resized by dragging its edge, with your current window size as a permanent minimum -- it can grow, never shrink smaller than that.
Major: Fullscreen is here. Press F11 to toggle it directly, or open the options menu (F2) and choose "Screen resolution" for a specific window size, from the minimum up through a few larger presets and fullscreen itself.
Major: "Navigational assist tones" and "Spoken output for walls" have been combined into a single "Navigation audio cues" option, which now also covers the map beacon's distance/direction pings -- previously not tied to any setting at all. Turning it off silences all three at once for a sighted player who doesn't need them; NPC and companion dialogue, cutscenes, and ambient chatter are untouched by this setting either way.
Fixed: Turning off self-voicing (F7) was also silently disabling real companion/NPC voices, even though that's a separate, dedicated setting that was never touched. The two no longer interfere with each other.
Fixed: The game's guess at an NPC's gender and age (used to pick their voice) could quietly fail to match names like "Teenage Girl" or "Lady" due to a case-sensitivity slip, occasionally handing them the wrong voice.
Documentation: This change log and the manual's keyboard command list and Your Party section updated for the above.
A bug-fix pass on 0.5.0, based on feedback from a sighted playtester. Existing settings.cbs and player.cbs files are unaffected and will load exactly as they always have.
Major: Fixed a serious bug where dying in battle and then loading a save (or starting a new game) from the game-over screen could corrupt your party roster afterward -- a companion who'd died could come back at 0 HP even in a save from before that battle ever happened, and could then be revived at an inn or dismissed and re-recruited, none of which should ever be possible for a permanently fallen companion. The "what do you want to do" prompt after dying can also no longer be dismissed without actually making a choice.
Fixed: Yes/no confirmation prompts weren't showing the actual question on screen, only speaking it -- a sighted player saw just "Yes"/"No" with no idea what was being asked. The question now displays visually too.
Fixed: Long dialogue text could get silently cut off at the bottom of the dialogue box for a sighted reader, even though the spoken narration always said the whole thing regardless. The text now shrinks to fit instead of losing its ending.
Fixed: A cutscene could start with a stale image still on screen -- a leftover menu prompt, for instance -- if its very first moment wasn't something that happened to redraw the screen itself. The screen now clears properly the instant a cutscene begins.
Minor: Removed a developer-only key that was mistakenly documented in the manual.
Thank you Layne Keatts for the bug reports that led to these fixes.
Documentation: This change log and the manual's keyboard command list updated to match the above.
A big one for your party. Existing settings.cbs and player.cbs files are unaffected and will load exactly as they always have.
Major: Your active party has grown from two companions to three, alongside the existing single special-character slot -- a full party is now you plus four others.
Major: Two brand new companion classes. The archer joins fighter, mage, healer, and thief as available from the very start -- a ranged fighter with a faint, secondary echo of elemental magic. The monster caller and the necromancer are rarer finds -- a monster caller can call on local wildlife to fight at your side, at real and lasting risk of the creature turning on you instead; a necromancer raises the dead to fight for you just as reliably as any spell, with no such risk.
Major: Fighter, thief, and archer -- the classes that don't cast spells -- now have their own growing set of signature moves as they level up, usable at no cost to mana. See the manual's Your Party section for what each class can do.
Major: Healer's spellbook has been reworked. The old free "prayer" fallback is gone, replaced by a real, learnable group-healing spell with a stronger version learned later on; the bigger single-target heal now also takes more experience to learn than it used to. Healers also learn to cure poison, strike with holy power (especially effective against the undead), and pray for a foe's recall -- banishing a single enemy from the battle outright, though nothing is gained for a banished foe since they were never actually defeated.
Major: Thieves can now attempt to pick a locked chest or door instead of spending an enchanted key, when one's traveling with you. It isn't risk-free -- fail the attempt and the noise may draw unwanted company.
Major: The Recruiter can now retire a party member instead of only ever dismissing them for good -- a retired companion keeps their level, gear, and gold exactly as they were, and can be called back into the party at any time.
Fixed: Shops were letting your companions shop from the game's entire equipment catalog regardless of what that particular shop actually sold. Companions now only ever buy what's really on the shelf in front of them, same as you.
Fixed: The party's automatic post-battle healing was including the player as someone who could be healed by, not just healed -- meaning you could occasionally find yourself automatically handing out potions. Companions still tend to you like anyone else in the party; you're just never the one acting on your own behalf without being asked.
Fixed: Closing the game window (the X button, Alt+F4) from most screens used to leave the window looking frozen instead of actually closing. It now always runs the game's proper farewell sequence, no matter which screen you're on.
Fixed: The game could occasionally fail to launch at all if its settings file was corrupted or from an older version, with absolutely no explanation given. It now falls back to sensible defaults instead.
Fixed: An unexpected error anywhere in the game used to close it instantly and completely silently. It now announces that something's gone wrong out loud before closing, with the details saved to Errors.log for a bug report.
Minor: Removed leftover status-screen text implying a fallen companion could still be revived. Permadeath has been final for some time now; the status screen finally says so accurately.
Minor: Reduced some unnecessary background overhead in the audio engine.
Minor: A companion's title now grows more prestigious as they level up (a Healer addressed as "Brother" or "Sister" early on, "Father" or "Mother" later, for instance), instead of being picked at random once and never changing.
Minor: A thief's chance to backstab for extra damage now also triggers with a blade or a knife, not just a weapon literally named "dagger."
Minor: An archer's elemental attacks now trigger the same weaknesses a mage's matching spells do -- a fire-attuned archer gets the same bonus damage against something weak to fire that a fire mage already did.
Major: Monster callers learn two more tricks as they grow: Calm, which makes chance encounters somewhat less frequent while they're traveling with you, and Charm, a chance to flip an enemy you're already fighting to your side for the rest of that battle -- easier against a foe that's already worn down. Neither Charm nor a Healer's Banish can be used against the last enemy left standing in a fight.
Major: Every companion now has their own fixed personality and a personal backstory, decided the moment they join your party. From a companion's status screen, choose "Talk to them" to actually ask who they are, what spells or abilities they know, how they feel about wherever you currently are, and how they're holding up -- answered in their own voice, and it changes as their circumstances do.
Minor: K now does the same thing A already does -- opens your party status screen starting on your first companion -- for anyone who finds that easier to remember.
Documentation: This change log and the manual's Your Party section updated for the new classes and party mechanics.
The big one -- Neldafell finally has a real screen to look at, not just colored shapes as a courtesy for sighted friends watching along. Existing settings.cbs and player.cbs files are unaffected and will load exactly as they always have.
Major: The game finally has a proper visual layer. A classic top-down map, a real combat screen, full-screen menus, a title screen, and win/lose transitions -- all built to run alongside the existing audio-first design, never ahead of it.
Major: Fixed the root cause of the window randomly going (Not Responding): text-to-speech synthesis was blocking the game's main thread, and the window's message pump along with it. Speech now synthesizes on a background thread while the game keeps running underneath it, for every voice path in the game -- self-voicing, Piper, and NPC dialogue alike.
Major: The game window itself is no longer torn down and recreated for every line of dialogue, a holdover from early development that was quietly the other half of the freezing problem. Everything now draws into one persistent window.
Major: Dialogue, narration, and NPC speech now appear in a proper bottom-anchored text box, sized to fit what's being said, with a name tag for whoever's talking. Text input (naming your character, etc.) uses the same box.
Major: Every menu in the game -- main menu, pause, options, shops, inventory, battle commands, party status, even the scrollable "review spoken text" history -- now has a real on-screen presence: a full-screen list with a highlighted selection, scroll indicators for long lists, and your character's portrait shown on the status screen.
Major: Combat has a real screen now. Monster portraits across the top, your party across the bottom with HP/MP and a highlight on whoever's acting, both rows resizing as combatants fall. A "FIGHT!" transition kicks off every battle, and a "VICTORY!" moment closes out every win.
Major: A proper title screen and game over sequence. The intro now shows a studio card and a title card timed to the intro music, ending on a pulsing "press any key to start." Dying now clouds the screen to blood red, drops "GAME OVER" into place, and flips it to black-on-red before the game continues.
Major: All of the above uses placeholder art generated entirely in code, no external assets needed, built so real hand-made art can be dropped in later under the same filenames with zero code changes.
Minor: Fixed a bug where a rebuilt assets.7z (or a sprites/portraits archive) stored under a nested folder would fail to load entirely, instead of just the new files inside it.
Minor: Fonts are now loaded once per size and reused everywhere, instead of being reloaded from disk on every single redraw.
Minor: Removed the "Graphical text rendering" and "Minimal map graphics" options entirely. Both are simply part of the game now, not something to toggle off.
Documentation: This change log.
Big one. Existing player.cbs and settings.cbs files should still load, but this release adds a large amount of new persistent data (your party roster, held gear, options) that simply won't exist yet on old saves -- everything is written to load with sensible defaults either way, but if anything looks off on an old save, let me know.
Major: You can now recruit a party! Up to 2 regular companions (fighter, mage, healer, or thief) plus one special character slot, found through a new Recruiter NPC. Each ally levels up, earns and spends their own gold, equips their own class-restricted gear, and fights alongside you with their own AI-driven behavior in battle.
Major: Mages now belong to one of three elemental schools -- fire, ice, or lightning -- rolled once at recruitment and fixed for life. Their whole spell list, from a weak early spark up through a devastating party-wide finisher, is themed to that element, and their damage now actually scales as they level instead of staying flat forever.
Major: Healers can cast heal and healmore on the whole party, not just themselves, and will fall back on a free group prayer when there's no one badly hurt enough to justify spending mana. Fighters have a chance to block an incoming hit and counter-attack. Thieves get a chance to backstab for double damage when wielding a dagger, and passively find bonus gold and hidden treasure after a fight without needing to search manually.
Major: Combat has been substantially overhauled: a new hit-chance formula that scales properly against fast enemies, real damage ranges instead of always rolling the maximum, monster elemental/status resistances and weaknesses, weighted and smarter monster AI (monsters now heal whichever ally needs it most, not just themselves), multi-enemy group battles with a shared initiative order, and a Defend option in the battle menu.
Major: Permadeath is real for every party member, -- and a recruit's leftover gear passes into your own inventory to hand down to whoever replaces them. Death also splits a fallen ally's own gold among the survivors.
Major: Your whole party now has a voice. Every ally is assigned a distinct piper voice at recruitment, and will occasionally speak up on their own while exploring -- commenting on where you are, mentioning if they're hurt or poisoned, or just making conversation -- at a frequency you can now turn off entirely in the options menu. They'll also react in character to being given gear, being cured of a curse, waking up at the inn, and call out their own spells by name mid-battle.
Major: Shop visits and inn stays now open with a short cutscene of your party handling their own business first -- buying gear, restocking potions, settling in for the night -- before handing control back to you.
Minor: A new minimal graphical map mode, intended for sighted friends or low-vision players watching along, with no new information beyond what's already spoken.
Minor: Numerous save/restore bugs fixed, including a crash on loading old saves and a missing weapon field on new characters.
Minor: Every reference to deities in NPC dialogue now says "the divine" rather than any real-world-adjacent phrasing.
Documentation: This change log.
Major: fixed a bug which would crash all sounds near a map border.
Minor: You can now opt out of using piper voices in the options menu.
Minor: Fixed a bug where music volume did not respect user choice.
Minor: Added flavor text to all physical attacks
Minor: Added flavor text to monster names.
Minor: Monsters now have descriptions and can be looked at in battle.
Minor: Cutscenes now use the appropriate piper voice for character dialogue.
Minor: Fixed studdering in the music volume option.
Minor: Various changes to music tracks.
Major: NPC voices now use piper-tts.
Minor: Fixed a few bugs which caused music or tts to studder.
Minor: Expanded monster beastuary.
Minor: Changed title, menu and credits music to tracks written and produced by yours truly!
Documentation: Credits updated.
Very important!!! player.cbs files are now deprecated as the game now supports saving and resuming different save files. You can fine the new save files in the saves folder in the game's root directory. They will show up asMajor: The game now supports saving and resuming from multiple save files instead of just the single file. Your personalized settings are also saved with your save file and loaded along with your quest, however, the game will load the last settings used at startup, or the default settings if the settings.cbs file is not available in the data directory. Thank you Kin and Raquel for asking for this!.cbs.
Notice!!! 'player.cbs' files prior to this version are not compatible.
Minor: fixed a traceback with the new tts trying to speak nothing! Thanks Kin!
Minor: When downloading the latest version, the game will also open the latest version of the game's change log, so you can see the awesomeness and why you really should update.
Minor: hurt and hurtmore spells have been renamed to bolt and blast respectively.
Minor: You are no longer told if you have been here before, or you have not been here before, when viewing a map, if the coordinates you are viewing are inaccessible to the player. I.e, mountains, walls, etc.
Minor: In exploration, the q key is now the j key, to go along with the player's journal.
Minor: Removed some timing issues from the old self-voicing system. I am sure I still have a feew more to track down! Thanks Kin for pointing out the ones in battle.
Minor: Added a spell book section to the player's journal. Thanks Raquel!
Minor: The numeric keys on the numpad will now act just like the numeric keys on the number row and activate a treasure, if you have one in that slot.
Minor: Help and change log options will now link directly to the online documentation, if a net connection is detected, otherwise, local files will be shown.
Documentation: Help manual updated.
Major: Movement code has been overhauled, again. It is more responsive and less laggy.
Major: Self-voicing has been overhauled. It is now possible to silence it mid-utterance (needs slight tweaking! Please help me point out where this is needed!!) But, overall benefit is, it now acts like a behind the scenes process and will not lag exploration. Thanks Jimmy, you inspired me to go back to square 1 and rethink this whole ordeal!
Minor: reordered sound dictionaries for footsteps, they somehow gotten out of order, making walking sound wonky.
Minor: Removed spoken output from music volume controls, making setting the volume level smoother.
Minor: The wolf no longer howls at midnight.
Notice!!! 'settings.cbs' files prior to this version are not compatible.
Major: Sounds and music are now stored in a .7z file instead of a .zip. This allows for faster loading of the game.
Major: Improved loading times a bit more, but seriously, I think this is as good as it's gonna get. My average loading time is now 52 seconds. Previous versions saw loading times of 70 seconds or more.
Major: Added an option to disable graphical text rendering. Useful for low-vision users.
Minor: Fixed a bug which crashed the game when changing equipment with no associated sound. Thanks Kin!
Minor: Viewing the map should be less laggy. Thanks Raquel and Kin!
Minor: the muskwood should no longer be bordered by the sea! thanks Raquel and Kin!
Minor: Normalized volume levels for most music tracks. Thanks Kin
Minor: Level up sfx and special item sound volumes have been reduced. Thanks Kin
Minor: fixed a bug with music volumes not setting correctly when a new background music starts. Thanks Kin!
Minor: Fixed a few issues which would cause the game to hog CPU resources. I have noticed my computer's fans are not running as loud or as often. Please report any issues.
Minor: Volume controls now increment and decrement at a rate of 2% instead of 5%, to allow finer control of music. thanks Kin!
Documentation: Credits and help now reflect the actual versions of python and pygame used in this game's development. 3.7.4, and 1.9.6 respectively.
Major: Fixed a traceback when opening chests. Thanks Kin!
Minor: Update checker now tells users of the version they are running compared to the latest version available.
Minor: Added an about section under help.
Notice!!! 'settings.cbs' files prior to this version are not compatible.
Major: Options menu and overall menu code has been overhauled.
Major: Added some code to tell the game to free up cpu resources to avoid (not responding) situations. I note slight imnprovement on game loading time, but it's still longer than I would like. For now, this is the best I can do and still be in compliance with sound licensing.
Major: Added a new setting which will allow the player to decide whether the game checks for updates or not.
Major: In exploration, the numeric keys along the number row can be used to quickly use a treasure in your inventory.
Minor: It is now possible to adjust tts and music volume and toggle tts voices in menus. See help file for commands.
Minor: bug fixes to menu code and text entry mode.
Minor: Learn game sounds and view the change log options are now found under help.
Minor: various misc sfx adjustments.
Documentation: Help file updated.
Notice!!! 'player.cbs' files prior to this version are not compatible.
Minor: bug fixes to tts and music volume controls.
Minor: Update checker now offers to download the latest version using your web browser.
Thanks Draken615!
Minor: Setting the tts volume now uses a slider menu similar to setting music volume, instead of entering the value in a text field.
Minor: added options to adjust tts volume on the fly while exploring.
Minor: Removed /data/version.txt since the version checker no longer needs it.
Documentation: Help file updated.
Major: Added a version checker to help ensure everyone has the latest version!
Notice!!! 'player.cbs' files prior to this version are not compatible.
Major: the files in the data directory named 'dsave' and 'psave' have been renamed to settings.cbs and player.cbs respectively.
Major: Monsters now have a chance of attacking first!
Major: F8 while exploring will let you save your game. beta testing versions only! This will not be used in the released version, but i thought it handy for testing purposes.
Major: Landscape obstacles such as mountains no longer block you from viewing a map.
Major: Added terrain features such as poisonous swamps, puddles, etc.
Minor: Sleeping at the inn resets time to 6 o'clock in the morning.
Minor: Fixed a bug with the outside and return spells eating exits.
Minor: Player names are now properly capitalized.
Minor: F7, while exploring will now toggle through available tts voices, and or enable and disable self-voicing on the fly.
Minor: Volume levels and ranges have been adjusted slightly for several overworld items and others sound producing objects you might hear while exploring the world. Thank you Mario!
Minor: When exploring, R wil speak your current location. Thanks Draken615!
Minor: Added an items shop in clearwater. Thanks Mario!
Minor: Speaking with quest saving npc's will now offer the choice of viewing your deeds in the Royal Book of Honor!
Documentation: help manual updated.
minor: Song Brother Lyric no longer blocks the catacomb entrance. Thanks Mario!
Minor: Added options to view the change log (this document) from start menu, pause menu and while exploring.
Thanks Everyone!
Minor: Added a talking percentage meter to the loading screen. Thanks Mario and Draken615!
Minor: Fixed a bug with music volume levels not setting properly if you adjusted it on the main menu and then selected continue your game.
Minor: Entering the castle town from the overworld now puts you at the appropriate gate, depending on the direction you were facing when you entered the town. Thanks Mario!
Minor: Fixed the castle wall on the overworld. Thanks mario!
Minor: Made some adjustment to random encounter code. Thanks Draken615 and Mario!
Documentation: Manual updated.