GearHead Caramel
v0.962: Quick Bugfix
v0.961: Closer Every Day
v0.960: You Would Not Believe The Work
Finally, a new release of GearHead Caramel! You would not believe how much work went into this release. I mean literally, you won't believe it, because most of the changes should be mostly invisible. If you follow me on social media you'll have heard me talking about the brand new quest system. Well, there's a brand new quest system, and it seems to work well... but it's not being used by any of the adventure modules yet because I need to write more content for it. Also, some longstanding bugs have been fixed, including a rare crash upon starting a campaign. Hopefully you won't notice this change because hopefully you never had the game crash on you when starting a scenario, and now you never will. But it was a lot of work! And this bug goes all the way back to GearHead 1!
The next step for GearHead Caramel will be finishing up Raid on Pirate's Point. I needed the new quest system for this, and I also needed to fix the map generation bug because one of the maps in that scenario crashed the game at a much higher rate than normal. After that, I want to add a few more short-ish scenarios. The new quest generator should make that easier since I won't be reinventing the wheel with each one.
Here's the complete list of changes. As usual, try it out and let me know what you think.
- Fixed bug in DeadZone Drifter stub
- Certain weapons and mecha have been rebalanced; existing instances will be unaffected
- Weapon thrill power now _actually_ based on rank, ha ha ha
- Plots can contain extensions
- Added lore browser to memo system
- Refactored quest system to be entirely QuestLore based
- Okapi puzzle memo now uses same font (medium) as other memos
- Fixed world map encounters bug
- Burst fire weapons have increased thrill power
- Intercept weapons have their thrill power lowered
- Fixed do_partial_restore in MultiMission
- Closing doors via right click will now work
- Mouseover info will list items in tile
- Destroyed items appear red in inventory display
- All hidden models get revealed at the end of combat
- Window close button should now properly close the game
- Scenes and rooms will expand if larger area is needed for contents
- Weapon is_operational bug fixed
- Items on floor should always appear behind characters and mecha
- Lost forager will not be selected for random plots while lost
- Gradient map prep can now place rooms in requested bands
v0.956: A Minor but Important Update
Another minor release this week to correct some bugs that were discovered last week. Also: two new eyecatch cards by the amazing cartoonist Radou, and some sound + portrait improvements from Anton Risberg. Here's the complete list of changes:
- Added two new eyecatch cards by Radou
- Fixed AutoJoiner/AutoLeaver crash at world creation
- Plots may now modify cutscenes
- Added checkout sound fx to shop
- Some portrait bits tweaked by Anton Risberg
- Fixed crash if no boss monster generated for The Night Stalker plot
- Fixed numbers typo in DZD Wujung entry cutscene
- Fixed bug where campaign would remain in memory after quitting because of pbge.my_state.view
v0.954: Dangerous Dungeons and Display
I've just uploaded GearHead Caramel v0.954. This version makes dungeons slightly more dangerous- personal scale damage has been increased, and certain monsters are more likely to hit your characters. Some new equipment has been added to shops to help you deal with these new threats.
Another change is the addition of a config option to indicate your party members on the map. No more will you enter a building and wondering who's on your team and who isn't. If you don't like it, you can turn off the indicators from the config menu.
Plus, there are a bunch of smaller changes. Multiple bugs have been fixed. Carrying capacity is now shown in the backpack display (for characters- you can load your mecha with gear until it can't even move). There are some new portrait bits. Here's the complete list of changes:
- Carrying capacity now shown for characters in backpack display
- Athletics skill now increases carrying capacity
- Right and left keys can be used to scroll through lancemates in inventory interface
- Increased damage of personal scale attacks
- Rebalanced some monsters to make them more dangerous
- Added config option to indicate lance members on map
- Fixed music volume bug
- Added some new portrait bits
- Fixed crash if PC name has space or special character in it
As usual, try it out and let me know what you think. Thanks to everyone who reported bugs and/or requested features.
GearHead Caramel v0.952: Hackers Delight
I've just uploaded a new update for GearHead Caramel. The biggest change this time around is the help system- while using the combat/skills interface, pressing F1 will now bring up a helpful panel explaining what the invocation you're looking at actually does. The same text appears in the mouseover tooltip so whether you use keyboard or mouse you will get more information than before.
The Wildcraft "Take Cover" ability has been changed to "Stalk Prey". While in effect, your character gets a bonus to their cover modifier and enemy units you target get a penalty to theirs.
The Computers skill now has Hacking abilities. These abilities can be used whether or not the mecha you're in has an EW system. Your Computers skill must be at least rank 3 before these skills will appear.
I've fixed a lot of bugs. Thank you to everyone who reported problems.
Here's the complete list of changes:
- Added hacking invocations for Computers skill
- Fixed gender customization from character creator
- Added skill icon for "Listen to my Song"
- Changed the Scouting, Wildcraft abilities somewhat
- Added a help key for invocations interface, which defaults to F1
- Speaking to mecha should no longer cause a crash
- Objects in temporary scenes will never be chosen by seek_element
- Locked objects will never be chosen by seek_element
- All NPCs used in combat should now be locked
GearHead Caramel v0.951: The unexpected/inevitable bugfix release
It was more of less inevitable that the first release after eight months of brain fog would have some bugs in it. Oops. Anyhow, two of those bugs have been located and squashed. If you tried to load a save game and got an error about "call_win_loss_funs_after_card", that should now be fixed. Also, if the fog of war turned completely blue and opaque on your computer? Also fixed.
Thank you for your patience. If you find any more bugs, be sure to let me know.
Praise Atan! GearHead Caramel is Back!
I'm back! After many months of illness, I have returned with a new release of GearHead Caramel. Bear Bastard's Mecha Camp, Winter Mocha, and DeadZone Drifter have all been updated with new content and opportunities. Raid on Pirate's Point... is pretty much the same. But, I have added new systems that are going to be used in that scenario in the hopefully near future!
Lots of bugs have been fixed. In fact, as far as I know, every bug that has been reported to me has been repaired. Game balance has been adjusted and certain abilities from previous GearHead games have been added. The Scylla mecha from GH1 has been added. Enemy models now get indicated by a different info box style and targeting cursor. The accursed combat clock troll bug has been fixed.
Here's the complete list of changes:
- Added the Scylla mecha from GH1
- TagBasedPartyReply will not display a major character's mnpcid
- Added ending scenes to DeadZone Drifter
- Can now use waypoints from the combat popup menu
- Added Onawa's quest to DeadZone Drifter
- Fixed duplicate grammar bug
- Updated Bear Bastard's Mecha Camp, Winter Mocha scenarios
- Added check_party_activation method to combat
- NPCs will give useful rumors first, then random chat
- Added pre-fx to conversation offers
- Single firing weapons can now cause critical hits, as in previous GearHead games
- Renown is now displayed for characters in the FieldHQ
- Added Quest procedural narrative generator
- Text formatter will now capitalize after "!" and "?"
- Team contents now stored as a ContainerList
- The get_scene method should return the correct scene even if called during adventure construction
- Okapi puzzle clue menus are now sorted
- There is a config option to turn off display of skill+stat in conversations
- Skill and tag based dialogue options will now show what skill+stat they're based on
[ - [ You can dock the tile info panel in the upper left corner via the config menu
- Combat clock troll bug fixed. Real ones will know.
- Enemy units get a different info panel border
- Mission objectives can now be reviewed from the memo browser
- The end-of-mission gate menu options have clearer wording
- Savegame validation should be much faster
- The map cursor changes to indicate enemy units + appropriate targets for abilities
- Label widgets can take a list of alternate smaller fonts to make text fit in specified area
- Added copy method to BuildAMissionSeed
- Challenges now deactivate on win by default
- Fixed error in list_nouns when two nouns provided
[ - [ Fixed text formatting error in WOTHCBM_HomeDespot plot
- Finished adding all of the mecha forms from previous games
- Renamed campaign property "day" to "time"
Try it out and let me know what you think.
Half a Century of Joe: Our Gamedev is Still Broken
It's been a while since I've let you all know how I'm doing. After getting Covid and opportunistic bacterial pneumonia, I caught influenza at the end of December. This is when my troubles started. After that I had a bad case of asthma exacerbation, Covid brain fog, one case of acute sinusitis, a second case of sinusitis with simultaneous laryngitis, and finally, days after my 50th birthday, swimmer's ear. I repeat, swimmer's ear. I haven't even gone swimming in months.
Because of the brain fog I was unable to work on GearHead for January, February, and most of March. It's some scary stuff, let me tell you. Especially when it tag-teams with my other conditions. And being 50, I have a lot of other conditions.
As of this month, I've spent over half my life in South Korea. It's a nice place. You should come for a vacation sometime.
Recently, the fog has started to clear and I've gotten back to work on GearHead Caramel. You can expect a new release soon... as long as I don't catch any more weird diseases. I don't really know what tennis elbow is but if my doctor told me I had it I would just nod my head and sigh.
The good news is, I think I look pretty good for a fifty year old gamedev. Plus, my hamster Peanut looks pretty good for a year and a half old hamster. Stay tuned for new GearHead stuff soon.
v0.946: Your GameDev is Experiencing Technical Difficulties
This update has been delayed by the fact that I've been seriously ill for the past month- first severe Covid 19, then an opportunistic lung infection, followed by my lungs just being stupid jerks because they are stupid jerks. If you want to hear all the gory details (and trust me, it gets gory) you can join the GearHead Discord.
The big new feature this time around is procedural cutscenes. Basically, this means that the cutscenes will be tailored specifically for your character's history and lancemate relations. Right now there's only one- the intro you get when entering Wujung for the first time in DeadZone Drifter. In the future, I intend to replace more of the old-style hardcoded cutscenes with procedural ones.
This release also improves pistols in personal scale combat. All pistols now have the Linked Fire attribute, so if you have two of the same pistol equipped you can fire with both of them at once. Plus, as usual there are a number of bug fixes. Thank you to everyone who has submitted bug reports and feature requests.
Here's the complete list of changes:
- Fixed incorrect use of AutoOfferInvoker; added EffectCallPlusNPC
- Added procedural cutscene generator
- get_tags include_all now returns merit badge names and relationship info
- Fixed bug where lancemates removed to a safe place don't get removed
- Fixed a bug in the gear loader where everything is True, even False things are True
- Added Stream music mode
- Fixed bug when lancemate with pet quits party
- Fixed bug when reading black market sign with a pet in your party