After the Storm 0.9.10
Version 0.9.10 is out.
Due to circumstances, it has been quite a while, and honestly I lost track of what this release was supposed to have besides a thing that requires another thing from another campaign that has not been completed or released yet. So let’s talk about what AtS 0.9.10 actually has.
Firstly, the minimum Wesnoth version requirement now is 1.11.11.
That’s right. Previous versions (including 1.10.x) are no longer supported. Ever since I moved to 1.11.x following the release of AtS 0.9.0, maintaining support for previous versions (including buggy development releases) required a series of unwieldy kludges that made the code uglier and harder to maintain and were, for the most part, untested beyond the classic “does it compile?” test. With all those bits gone, it will be easier to improve and optimize some aspects of the campaign, as well as work on the thing that requires the other thing I alluded to above.
For now, the first one such aspect I have worked on is converting several units to the 1.11.x animation WML syntax. Although some other people seem to prefer the new syntax over everything, I have chosen a more pragmatic approach for this campaign, so the set of units that I’ve converted in this release is rather limited. Hopefully more will follow soon, but I’m certain that there are a few for which the change hurts code readability. Plus, since most of my units are headbutters, the code size gains are marginal in the average case.
Finally, somebody reported to me of an issue with the player’s recall list and gold being discarded during certain key scenario transitions. It turns out this resulted from a change in Wesnoth 1.11.13 purportedly intended as a bug fix for MP campaigns. I was aware of the change and its implications at the time 1.11.13 was released, but I wrongly assumed AtS would not be impacted because I failed to take a tiny detail into account. Exactly three months later, I realized the sheer gravity of my mistake — but fortunately, it seems nobody else played AtS on 1.11.13+ in the meantime. (Thanks to RainerT for the report. This would have gone unnoticed for who knows how many more years months otherwise.)
As you can see, there is not a lot to talk about in this release other than the version requirement change. Since it’ll be a while before Wesnoth 1.12.0 is released, and AtS remains largely the same as it was the last time I posted in this topic, I believe stable version purists won’t be missing out on anything for now — at least not until the thing is done.
Also due to circumstances, this release is largely untested, so I would not be surprised if I accidentally broke a thing or two since 0.9.9.
The complete changelog for this version follows:
Version 0.9.10:---------------* General:* Raised minimum game version requirement to 1.11.11. All existingcompatibility code for previous versions has been removed.* Graphics:* New or updated unit graphics: Sprite, Fire Faerie, Forest Spirit, Dryad,Demon Shapeshifter.* Scenarios:* Added an option to certain scenarios to ensure Wesnoth does not discardthe player's gold and recall list under certain circumstances due to abehavior change in version 1.11.13 and later. Affected scenarios:* E1S9.3 - The Triad, part 3* E1S11 - Return to Wesmere, part 2* E2S0 - Transience* E2S11 - A Final Confrontation* E3S0 - Opening (Within)* E3S6 - Divergence* E3S8B - Destiny, part 1* E3S11 - After the Storm* Units:* Balancing changes:* Changed Leech's alignment from 'lawful' to 'neutral'.* Decreased Leech's HP from 62 to 42.* Decreased Leech's melee damage from 11-2 to 9-2.* Decreased Leech's unit level from 3 to 1.* Converted to the simplified 1.12 animation syntax:* Dusk Faerie, Night Nymph, Nightshade Fire* Sylvan Warden* Sprite, Fire Faerie, Dryad, Forest Spirit* Elvish Wayfarer* Faerie Avatar* Demoness Hellbent Tide* Verlissh Control Spire* User interface:* Cutscene themes now use the 1.11.10 [theme] id attribute on 1.11.10 andlater.