This is a living change-log, for Legacy of Emperors (The Golden Cenotaph). I am recording as much as I can, and can remember, or extract/reconstruct from records. At present, this includes r40, through r51; but I may also amend it with older details, and of course, add newer details. I may break this into several 'double-posts', to allow it to fit, but I will be tracking changes in detail here, rather than with each single update.

Release 51

New Features

Titlescreen v4 added, correcting flesh-tones.

Added palette swatches for flesh-tone colours.

Added new dungeon tiles; all of these are 8-bit, and designed to use CSet 0 ('LoZ Leve 1') DMAP settings, to avoid sprite colour shifting.

Recoloured dungeon tiles for grey/violet scheme.

Began work on blue colour scheme for dungeon tiles.

Re-designed entrance to violet tomb, changed trap arrangements, and added beginning of level (essentially, Level 1).

Changed 'Flippers' to 'Circlet of Water' (part of the plot), and placed in Violet Tomb (also part of the plot.

Added 'Seal Room' in Violet Tomb.: Summoners, Necromancers, and Fire Spirits (all 8-bit GFX).

Placed Lesser necromancers, and Fire Spirits in Violet Tomb.

Added Lesser Chinese Vampire enemy, and placed this enemy type in Violet Tomb.

Enabled new music, in Violet Tomb.

Other graphical, sprite, and palette changes/additions.

All spells now do randomised damage (or randomised HP/MP recovery), that scales with level.

Gameplay Changes

New level areas.

Added ';Big Chests'.

Added semi-free-form rooms.

Engine Components

Started merging common components into arrays.

Improved NWS.

Bugfixes

Fixed firearm sounds bug.

Fixed bug where 'Blue Fire' would morph into an '8' (this was caused by the 'Tracking' movement quality).

New Bugs

NWS Swords do not properly detect collision with shields, or enemies with an 'invincible' state.

Projectile item deadstates can be buggy: Collision does not always register, without piercing enabled.

Partially Implemented

NWS: Some items are incomplete, or have bugs.

The skill check system are about 45% complete: Arrays about 80% complete, and some functions are ready, but the functions to tie it into tango are incomplete.

Some work on 'Events; arrays started. One 'events' array is now complete.

Unimplemented

NWS Swords: These still have many problems.

Unchanged

Planned / Future

System to generate FFC-based weapons, that do LW damage, tracing the path of swords, and sword beams, to correct faults i present NWS sword system.

Releases 47 to 50

r47-NWS (v0,61, to v0,62) to r49-NWS to r50-NWS (v0,63 to v0,64)

Added more MIDIs, and other SFX.

Added Title Screen.

Updated Title Screen twice in r50.

Began implemented new weapon system.

Added scripted arrows (working).

Added random damage functions to most weapons & spells.

Added scripted swords; partially working, but not without flaws.

NWS Details

New Weapon System items do the following:

Use rolled (random) damage, set via one global variable.

Use custom definitions to define piercing (one global boolean).

Use global functions and one (local) array to set Script# specific NPCDs.

NWS Bugs

Swords can bypass shields, and enemy invincibility states (such as damaging the core of a Patra, without killing its orbits, or killing a Peahat in flight.)

r47 (v0,61)

Added new shoppes.

Tweaked item properties.

Added new NPCs.

Added DMAP for shoppes.

Added more dialogue.

Updated scripts.


One of the major changes here, is Bugfixes. The following reported bugs have been corrected:

v0,59r43 Bugfixes

    Fixed Nightfall bug, that caused the player to gain 65,000+ HP/MP when using with low HP.
    Fixed tie palette errors.
    Fixed slash sprites for all swords.
    Added additional script components; updated/fixed scripts/script errors.

v0,58r40 Bugfixes

    Staff of Jh'karr (based on Cane of Byrna) no longer causes an MP leak.
    Staff of Jh'karr now can't be enabled if you have ZERO MP. (It will however, still continue to work, on a screen, if you are out of MP, as I don't have a clever way to fix this at present.)
    Fixed tile error (warp, instead of tree) on MAP 1, Screen 11.
    Whirlpool tiles on the Hvylaxta overworld now go to a (water-based) warp/shortcut area.
    Added item descriptions for arrow ypes. (These still need action scripts, on custom classes.)
    Fixed glitch that allowed the payer to acquire the Trowel without the Leap! spell.
    Corrected triggers for collecting Nightfall: The Sonic Wand no loner breaks the barrier.
    Fixed a mis-align.
    Placed item pickup locations for Virilinium Sword, EctoGoggles, Proton Pack, Firearms, and Gold Ring.
    Updated graphics for some items.
    The Virilinium Sword now appears on the subscreen as intended, and has correct colours in all three level CSets.
    Nightfall now drains HP & MP Based on Level.
    Fixed missing string backgrounds; fixed string alignment; added new strings.
    Removed Letter & Amulet items fro the game (they are not used in TGC).

Other Game Changes

    Removed 'Wealth Medal' items.
    All shoppes are fully-scripted, with more NPCs.
    Custom Wallet space, pocket space, and coin & currency sizes code is in game, but not yet used.

Unchanged

    EctoGoggles work, but there are as ye no enemies that work with them.
    Bracelets do not yet affect stats.
    Setting 'passive' items, such as rings, ladders, and flippers is not yet implemented.
    The player still has infinite bombs, for testing reasons.
    Arrows are not fully scripted.
    LW_SWORD game is not yet scripted to use roll functions.
    The JRPG menus are not yet in the game.
    The game still has one Ammo type (of four planned) for firearms.
    Swim item remains flippers; Violet Tomb level unchanged and incomplete.
    Many enemies are still vulnerable to the wand. I may need to filly script this item.
    The Proton Pack is still absurdly overpowered, and is not yet set to be :LW_SCRIPT1.
    Enemies meant to be vulnerable to the Proton Pack are not yet set with this weakness.
    Sword techniques are not yet set by level, and the normal 'scroll items' still exist.
    Rod of Calmen has no function.
    The following Sernaran Items remain unscripted:
    Sernaran of Chaos
    Sernaran of Law
    Sernaran of Elements
    Sernaran of Darkness
    Sernaran of Life
    Sernaran of Power
    Sernarani Coronet
    Some dungeon walls aren't solid.
    Staff of Jh'karr still works if you run out of MP on a screen while using it.
    Spot behind lamp in passageways is still fully walkable.
    Some dungeon wall tiles are not solid (does not break rooms).
    The XP Tier is still a tad off. The first seven levels are too easy to accumulate.
    Enemy balance isn't right.

Non-implemented Features

    The wallets system, money system, and pockets system are in place, but not yet in use. For those not aware, rather than a single wallet, this game will use multiple wallets, of varying size, plus pockets on clothing to store money, and other small items. This system will be in place in the next release, unless I break something.
    Sword of Light still uses fixed MP cost. Add rollDie() MP cost to next release.
    Violet Tomb is unchanged: this will be a full level (L1)
    DigiVolve system not yet in place.
    Ship shield system not installed.
    Tango not installed.
    Different coins have not only different values, but also different sizes:
    The three sizes are:
    Coin (Small), uses 1 unit of space.
    Coin (Large), uses 4 units of space.
    Crystal, uses 5-units of space.
    Crysheet, uses 2 units of space.

This means that rather than wallets holding a certain 'value'; of money, they hold a maximum amount of contents, based on size.

    Coins of higher value may be the same size, or smaller, than coins of lower value based on composition: This is directly based on the Dsari and Marks system in my RPGs, and other stories. As a base example:
    A small silver Dsari uses 1-unit of space, and is worth 1-Dsari.
    A large silver Dsari uses 4-units of space, and is worth 5-Dsari.
    A small gold Dsari uses 1-unit of space, and is worth 100 Dsari
    A large Gold Dsari uses 1-unit of space, and is worth 500 Dsari.
    Crystal Dsari Discs always use 1-unit of space, but can have much larger valus.
    Mystic Crystals use 5-units of space, and have varying values.
    Crysheet pages always use 2-units of space, and have varying values.

This means that rather than a cap based on value (such as 999 rupees), you can carry as much in value, as you have space to carry. I plan to include banks that will exchange money (lowering space used), and exchanging yo with Crystal Dsari Discs, and a 'Transactor' device, which will be a passive item. A system is in place to warn you when you are out of space.

Again, while the code is done, I have yet to implement it in this release. I am saving that for the JRPG menus, to track wallets, and pockets.

This is straight from the books, and I may adjust it as needed for balancing a video game.

It does however, reconfigure quite a few scripts, including the XP system, global functions, and fixes many bugs, including script errors, SFX errors, screen/warp errors, and a host of other minor, to moderate problems. .

This .qst file (GoldenCenotaph40A.qst) is the version to try if you want to see how the game is balanced, for actual play, at present. This release has basic starting equipment, but you should note the following:

    Many game items are in an item dump, in the Catacombs, which is an area designed to be a gauntlet; as the levels, areas, and methods of acquiring them do not yet exist.

If you wish to try out all of the items in the game, please download v0.57 (r40) instead. This is actually..a game.
Note that this still does not include some core components, that I intend to finish before shifting back to world design, and story.

This release maintains the changed Dalek movement, updating The Daleks from v6 to v7.

Next on the feature list are:

    JRPG Menus
    Wallet System
    Spell System
    Skill Checks
    More Statistic-based Abilities & Functions
    More Custom Enemies
    Custom Mid-bosses

The Daleks, by the by, are still jittery as the updated file that MM gave me to try for their movement, uses a function that isn't present in any script that I have, and isn't in stdExtra.zh.

If you encounter an area that seems to difficult, you probably lack equipment.

