Development Info Gearhead sneaks up to .853

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Gearhead

Another week, another <A href="http://www.geocities.com/pyrrho12/programming/gearhead/">Gearhead</a> version iteration it seems. This time up, it's <A href="http://gearhead.roguelikedevelopment.org/gh-0853-sdlwin.zip">version 0.853</a> and has both the <a href="http://gearhead.roguelikedevelopment.org/gh-0853-sdlimage.zip">big graphics file</a> and the <A href="http://gearhead.roguelikedevelopment.org/gh-0853-sdlmini.zip">mini one</a>. Here's what's new:
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<ul><li> Added one new joinable faction: the Thieves Guild
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They've only got one mission and no promotion rewards yet, but give me time.
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<li>Reworked Ipshil dungeon and moved Forager somewhere else
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<li>Can now change player sprite (pcaction.pp)
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<li>Tidied up design directory, thanks to Malte Helmert(Design/*.txt)
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<li>Increased Mecha Fighting concussion damage(action.pp)
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<li>Fixed weapon token bug when selecting robot parts(backpack.pp)
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<li>Failed roll to revive results in perminant death(backpack.pp)
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<li>Added CyberPsycho, Extropian talents (ghchars.pp)
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<li>Rate of cybernetic disfunction adjusted(arenacfe.pp)
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<li>Added another failsafe to deployment routine(locale.pp)
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This should prevent items from being deployed in walls.
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<li>Increased XP award for picking pockets (pcaction.pp)
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<li>Added Fudge item value adjustment (gearutil.pp)
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<li>Added END trigger (arenaplay.pp)
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<li>Blast, Hyper ammunition now more expensive(ghweapon.pp)
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<li>Added Complex attack attribute (ghweapon.pp)
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<li>Fixed a bug in the target switch key (gflooker.pp)</ul>
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You have to admire the frequency of updates and the amount of stuff contained within them. Reworked dungeon, new faction even though it's not totally playable yet, new talents, and so forth in addition to bug fixes.
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[Fez]

Looks good, not many projects get this kind of love and attention.

On a side note, will updating to a newer version invalidate your current games?

 

[Ap_Jolly]

Fanboy.

 

[Sarkile]

I love the game but I can't bring myself to play it because I know that in another couple of days there will be a new and improved version of it.

 

[Elwro]

I love it. One of the mirrors is down, another one has a year-old version of the game and the last one displays a "Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /gh-0853-sdlwin.zip on this server" message. So how the hell should I download this funky new version, eh?

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Yeah, the Gearhead yahoo group has several people talking about the 403 Forbidden thing on it. There was a post on that group just shortly after I posted this news about it, so I figured it'd be fixed right away since Mr. Hewitt probably knows there's a problem but it's probably a problem with Rogue-like Development's new server. Sad thing is, Hewitt's already posted an announcement in rec.games.roguelike.announce about Gearhead's new version as well.

*sigh*

 

[Section8]

Did anyone else get funky screen refresh ugliness in the big graphical update version? I've been wanting to give Gearhead a decent go, but I find myself constantly locking horns with pure ascii roguelikes, especially when NPCs are involved.

"Go talk to Barry, he's across town in the red building"

"Er, would he be the '%', the '$' or the '!'? And when you say red, do you mean the one made of '#'s, '*'s or ':'s?"

 

[Fez]

Then play it with the graphics pack installed, then you get some simple isometrics instead. Not bad looking, and they went to all that bother to add a new hot dog stand graphic a while back, so you know it has got to be good.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

The download links now work, so YAY! I've been playing this version for a couple of hours this morning, and it's pretty stable. It's kind of funny you can pick your sprite now and color both your portrait and sprite.

One thing, though. Any tips on how to make robots? I have a level 6 Robotics skill and I've been trying to make robots out of sheet metal, a mobile phone, and any kind of puny gun I can find. Any pointers?

 

[Fez]

Only use one gun , the robots get glitchy when you try to build more than one in, and make it a decent one. Though you can give them one to hold afterwards if they have the appropriate limbs. I usually throw in some old armour and some glue or duct tape (or an equivalent). You can get some really wacky robots. You can fail a lot with that skill too, so you may want to save beforehand incase you lose something good or it sets you back a lot.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I finally made one this morning after reading the help guide on the Gearhead yahoo group. Then Bone-Cracker ate it.

 

[Sarkile]

I was trying to get into it again but the game keeps freezing up during character creation.

 

[pyrrho12]

I was trying to get into it again but the game keeps freezing up during character creation.

Are you using the SDL version or the ASCII version? Was there an error message? Did it freeze up completely when making a character (definitely abnormal), or are you referring to the delay that some people experience when starting an RPG campaign (annoying, but I'm working on it)?

 

[Sarkile]

It's the SDL version and there wasn't an error message. I noticed the delay too, and that wasn't bad but what was happening to me it would completely stop responding. Eventually I was able to get through character creation and I haven't had a problem since then.