Hi all! It's come to my attention that the game the game was having issues with gamepad controls after the last update. I took a look at the code and I believe I've fixed it (but as always, please let me know in the forums if there's something more I didn't catch!)
Let's start with the bug fixes in this update:
- fixed: on certain buttons, selecting them with the gamepad could double-invoke their methods, leading to errors (up to and including the game freezing).
- fixed: when playing with gamepad, at the very start of battle, the selector was spawning in the very top-left of the map instead of over someone in the player's army.
- fixed: actions bar button tooltips were displaying strangely in gamepad mode.
- fixed: the virtual cursor was not visible when choosing between yes or no in any in-battle warning pop-up windows.
- fixed: if an army in a battle was completely neutral by way of being allied to every other army, the game would treat them as having vanquished all enemies and immediately end the battle with them as the victor.
- AI fix: the retreat AI algorithm was not accounting for area preference or patrol tags, causing characters with no usable skills to retreat without regard for the areas they were supposed to be moving towards.
- fixed: mousing over a unit and then immediately mousing over the deployment window thereafter without ever mousing off the unit could cause the unit's mouseover tooltip to become "stuck" onscreen for a time.
- fixed: it was possible for cavaliers to charge across a path with an elevation difference of 2 or greater, just so long as they effectively charged off of the cliff rather than up it.
- fixed: in some circumstances, the game could save (and reload) past instances of generic templated units in a way that would reintroduce tags placed onto those unit types in past battles.
- fixed: changes to the code made it so generalized character death barks could again get queued in addition to specific death-triggered dialogue for the same character.
- fixed: bridges below the level of the terrain could cause the game to use the bridge's elevation instead of the ground's for purposes of calculating which spaces are moveable for a non-flying unit.
- fixed: under some circumstances where the AI had a character move and use a non-turn-ending skill, the AI could queue up further actions for the character where they moved and used a skill, but then fail to execute the "actually moving" part, resulting in the character attacking outside their normal range.
- fixed: proc gen battle map names were not being saved in the "battle start" save files used when restarting a battle, resulting in the map's internal file name displaying instead.
It's not just bug fixes; we also have some nice quality of life buffs (and AI improvements too)!
- a longtime request is now working in-engine: you can now create a mid-battle save on the first turn of a fight, right after deployment!
- the game now displays gameplay tips on the loading screen when transitioning scenes.
- when playing with the gamepad, switching to the actions bar with 'X' now defaults to selecting the first available skill.
- AI improvement: the AI now does a much better job of appropriately balancing the value of reaching a preferred area versus the value of moving toward a character it would like to attack (but cannot yet reach).
- AI improvement: the AI now imposes a scoring penalty for any move that would take a character who is already inside their preferred area outside of that area.
- AI improvement: reduced the minimum calculated value of usage before enemies will use items, avoiding situations where enemies won't use bandages even though it's optimal to do so.
- AI improvement: AI-controlled units now value Defending status proportionally more as they become more injured, and more based on their ability to counterattack.
And finally, we have a lot of new tools and bug fixes for campaign creators:
- added the missing army palettes from the original Telepath Tactics (Orange and Pink) into the engine.
- the LevelUpArmy script action now works in cut scenes.
- the game can now process custom strings used as part of a scene's display name.
- new condition: Drop Items On Death. Lets you set a particular army to not drop items when a character in that army dies. Parameters: army number, drops items (boolean value--true by default).
- new script action: StripItemsFromUnit. Removes all items from the named character's inventory and places them in a roster's reserve supplies.
- new script action: AddNickname. Gives a character a new nickname to be used by a second character in dialogue. (To make it a nickname everyone uses, leave the Second Character Name parameter blank.) Parameters: Character Name, New Nickname, Second Character Name.
- new script action: HideDialogueBox. Allows you to manually hide the dialogue box during dialogue.
- new script action: ShowDialogueBox. Causes a hidden dialogue box to reappear.
- new script action: HideActionsMenu. Allows you to manually hide the actions bar during battle.
- new script action: ShowActionsMenu. Causes a hidden actions bar to reappear.
- new script action: AddTriggerCharPortrait. Adds the portrait of whatever character triggered the dialogue, without regard to whether their name is used as speaker for the current branch. Has the same parameters as AddSpeakerPortrait.
- new dialogue trigger type: OnSkillUsed. Triggers dialogue when a given skill is used. To satisfy the trigger, the skill usage must be effective in some way (i.e. not just attacking an ally or healing an enemy). Parameters: skill name, user army, and user name.
- new tag: RemoveAll. This tells the game to remove all existing tags from the unit.
- three new special string stats are supported for SetStringByStat: First Name, Last Name, and Nickname. (These are read-only, so don't try using them as a parameter with SetStat.)
- added last name as a supported attribute value for the SetStringByNPC script action.
- TargetPreference tags now support the use of custom string variables for their target name parameter.
- updated in-game documentation for the IfBioDetail-type script actions and the -BIO:X- special character with the default bio detail types.
- fixed: in-game documentation for the AddNPC script action was missing the tenth parameter, Blood Relative.
- fixed: in-game documentation for the SetStringByNPC script action was missing blood relative among the supported attribute values listed.
- fixed: getting a unit's load ID via the SetStringByStat script action would return an empty string for proc gen characters. (It now returns the unit's name, which can stand in for its load ID in virtually every use case.)
- fixed: the Delete Row and Delete Column algorithms in the Map Editor were faulty, with their use potentially causing the game to lose track of where units should be until the map was reloaded.
- fixed: in the Map Editor, adding a new column to the very rightmost edge of a map would secretly cause the game to add a second column, invisibly offsetting mouseover coordinates and making the selector appear in the wrong spot when mousing over units.