Reintroducing energy/mana

I'm finally starting to wilt to the repeated requests to reintroduce mana/magic points (MP was a stat in old versions of Dweller). I did a first stab at adding a generic energy stat currently only used by the wizard. The energy is reduced when casting spells and different spells have different cost. Some energy is regained after each turn and I'll have to reintroduce mana potions. Now that I think of it I actually believe this will be a good change that will add a lot of challenge to the way you play the wizard class.

Dweller 1.17.12 - finally some new features!

This release is actually showing some promise since it does have a bunch of new features and not only bug fixes. In this version you'll find one new spell book and slightly buffed monsters deeper into the dungeon. You will also find that axes have a slashing attack that not only hit's your target, but also adjacent targets. The damage of axes have been reduced slightly and all of them have a small speed penalty to compensate for the addition of the area of effect attack. I also plan to add similar attacks to halberds and staves.

#210 Hide XP bar text when using a small screen (320x480 or less)
#211 Fix incorrect rendering of spell and melee graphics on J2ME devices
#212 Minimap button and quickslots are incorrectly hidden on touch enabled J2ME devices
#195 Knockback effect doesn't wake sleeping monsters
#213 Remove the Missile, Wand and Book on-screen buttons. Use quickslots instead!
#162 Improve the way you cancel spellcasting
#214 Added a new spellbook
#215 Axes should have a slashing attack that hit's multiple targets
#216 Buff a few monster types

Dweller 1.17.11 - J2ME users rejoice!

Yet another bug fix release. This time around the most significant fix was for J2ME users on touch enabled devices. On touch enabled devices interactive UI elements are scaled to be more touch friendly and this unfortunately screwed up rendering of some UI elements on J2ME. This has now been fixed and I really do hope that nothing else comes up and that I can finally have some time to add new content.

#206 The cursor will clearly show what item that is used
#207 Improved the way you interact with NPCs when using tap-to-move
#208 Add option to disable pathfinding when d-pad is visible
#209 Fix corrupt UI on touch enabled J2ME devices

Dweller 1.17.10

Unfortunately yet another bugfix release. In my recent change to the message box I did manage to screw it up a bit so the most recent messages weren't visible. Sorry about that!

Dweller 1.17.9

Here's another Dweller release. The most important change is the fix for the broken UI on J2ME devices when playing with the large tiles. If any J2ME players still have problems with corrupt UI elements please let me know. There's also a bunch of other fixes that I hope will take the Dweller 1.17 branch into a stable state so that I have time to add more content to the game. Full change log:


#200 Fix problem with friendly items (healing scrolls etc) being used on hostile targets
#198 Blinking player position on minimap need to be in a color that makes it clearly visible all the time
#196 Disarming a trap or opening a chest sets the player as target
#201 Fix recent issue with some unique items being given random names
#202 Fix "null <more>" message when "Show <more> prompts" was enabled
#194 Review spell resistance and how it is triggered
#197 Broken UI on some J2ME devices

Dweller 1.17.8 - the poison fix

My tweak of the probability to get poisoned uncovered a bug with curing of poison. In Dweller there are two kinds of poison, the one inflicted through physical combat (arrows, bites, weapons etc) and the one inflicted through magical means (wands, cultists etc). The curing and antidote only worked on the former which caused a permanent poisoning on players unfortunate enough to be poisoned by a cultist or similar. I also managed to do some additional minror changes:


#191 Fixed issue with poison that wasn't curable
#124 Make sure that weapon enchants trigger properly and don't rely on the wielder's stats
#192 Added stun and slowing effect to missile weapons
#119 Add more names for beasts

Is the performance in 1.17.x versions good or bad?

I've done quite a bit of work to increase the performance of the game for the 1.17.x versions of Dweller. A lot of the sluggishness of previous versions was caused by a rather naive "let's redraw everything every frame" mentality. The old way worked well on desktops and powerful smartphones, but for the majority of devices it was not a very good strategy. According to my tests the intelligent rendering of the user interface components and the map has increased the performance of the game a lot, but I'm curious if this is true for the majority of Dweller's players. So, what do you say. Is 1.17.x versions faster/less sluggish than the old 1.16.x versions?

Dweller 1.17.7

It's time for yet another Dweller release. This time I've fixed the damn scrolls for good. I have also done some additional pathfinding adjustments, made poison a bit more lethal and tweaked melee combat damage.


#187 First message of the on-screen message log wasn't shown properly
#188 Adjusted pathfinding to accept path if a monster is blocking a known but not seen cell on the map
#189 Fixed another problem with not being able to use scrolls on inventory
#177 The targeting icons cover quickslots when switching to targeting mode
#173 Backfiring sleep spell puts the player to sleep forever
#138 Tweak item prices
#190 Tweak poison and melee damage

Dweller 1.17.6

Yet another release with bugfixes. Some pathfinding and rendering issues solved.


#184 Non discovered traps sometimes render using the wrong graphics
#185 Non discovered traps still gave an option to disarm in targeting mode
#175 Incorrect quest description for the Crown of the Goblin King quest
#172 Make sure that non-discovered traps and other features aren't shown on the minimap
#186 Fix problem with pathfinding in 1.17.5

Dweller 1.17.5

After the recent changes to the targeting/look mode a couple of players have sent me bug reports where they have encountered a null pointer when switching to targeting mode. It turns out that this was caused by switching to targeting when no suitable target was in sight. This has now been solved along with a few path finding issues and other minor bugs. A big thank you to everyone who sent in bug reports!


#178 Potion of Change showed duplicate messages
#179 Inventory weight was calculated incorrectly
#180 Trying to buy an item that is too heavy for you to carry will now properly display this if you try to buy it
#181 Trapdoor graphics did not change after it was triggered by the player
#171 Pathfinding must avoid visible traps
#182 Pathfinding did not avoid braziers and monsters/NPCs
#183 Switching to targeting mode caused a null pointer of no target was nearby

Dweller 1.17.4

Yet another bug fix release. This time I did however also add a few new rooms to the dungeon.

#166 Wands and scrolls were limited to a maximum range of 1
#168 Scrolls used on inventory (enchant, recharge) gave an out of range message
#167 Targeting reticle still being drawn after disarming a trap/closing/opening a door
#169 Add more room designs to the dungeon
#170 Fix problems with target cycling, target reticle and messages

Dweller - more fixes

Mainly fixes for the J2ME version of Dweller, but also a fix to the equipment cycling while in targeting mode (primarily an issue on non-touch enabled devices)


#144 Hitpoint text in character portrait doesn't fit in small screens
#164 Fix broken equipment cycling while targeting
#165 J2ME: Background of map wasn't cleared properly

Dweller 1.17.2 - bugfix release

It was to be expected with such radical changes to map rendering ... Bugs. Many bugs. All of them solved now. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Dweller 1.17.0

A new version of Dweller has been released. The new version contains a lot of bug fixes for recently introduced bugs with the improved rendering and from the new Use commands. Some of the changes for this release breaks save game compatibility. You will not be able to continue a saved game if you upgrade. Full change log:

#150 J2ME UI issues after 1.16.10 release
#142 Android: OutOfMemory when creating bitmap cache
#154 It's not possible to move cursor outside of visible area when looking/targeting
#153 Don't show "Move?" on cursor if pathfinding is disabled
#152 Change setting "disable tap-to-move" to "disable pathfinding"
#117 Add flag to mark certain items as unsellable
#68 Add option to sell all but one if equipped
#111 Item icons in the inventory list don't get clipped properly
#99 Revealed hidden doors do not give a "standing on" message
#127 Show in item description if the item can be used or not by the player
#123 Switching one helmet for another didn't trigger remove effects
#129 Make sure that items can't get two or more of the same effect
#125 Enchanting items gives message about no xp gain
#116 Potion of Wizardy, Might etc do not show result of use
#101 Use GetJar for J2ME distribution
#82 Internal: Save timeWhenPlayerMayAct
#155 Nerf spellcasting/wizard class
#148 Pushable stone blocks and doors and other blocking terrain
#159 Game freeze when "Using all"
#160 Too man heals from "Use until full health"

Dweller J2ME distribution

I'm currently trying different ways to distribute the J2ME version of Dweller. Recent versions are available via Handster and GetJar, but GetJar seems to be buggy and not allow downloads. It says that the game isn't compatible with the selected phone, regardless of what phone you try. I have set the most permissive download settings, but it doesn't seem to help and I don't get a reply from the GetJar staff either. Handster downloads work well though so please us them.

Some players have asked if I could use the Nokia OVI store to distribute Dweller. I looked into this tonight and it seems like it might be possible to use OVI as well. The biggest problem is that there's a big certification process which means that it takes a while (two weeks or so, at least for new submissions)  before a submitted app becomes available in the store. Nokia also requires the app to be certified by Verisign or similar company, but that costs quite a bit of money (€150 a year). Luckily Nokia offers to certify and sign apps for free. I'll keep you posted on any progress with the OVI store.