Hello, readers! Bringing with it some wonderfully warm weather, spring has certainly sprung around here. April Fools came and went, which meant some interesting jokes being had and pranks being played. Some rain has confined me indoors, which means it's time to check up on what you all have been up to. Many developers are creeping out of their wintertime hidey-holes and starting up some new projects, while others seek to continue maintaining their crown jewels. Whatever their situation, what have BYOND's developers prepared for us this time? Let's find out!
BYOND
Managing to juke the Friday release curse, BYOND Developer Lummox JR pushed out 514.1550, which brought with it a myriad of fixes. One of those changes was an addition to strings, in that they now store length information. This experimental change seemed to pass the rigorous standards of SS13, so there wasn't a need for any major follow-up fixes! The web reference's dark mode transition is now very smooth and loads faster, and it had an "Understanding the renderer" entry added to it. Another brush with null-conditional operators came to bite Lummox JR again, and he went into great depth about how this operator works over on Patreon. When April Fools came around, Lummox JR didn't disappoint, alluding to the possibility of open-sourcing some parts of BYOND and porting Dream Seeker to Linux! Aha... Good one, Lummy. Don't be too downtrodden though! In a comment, Lummox mentioned he was interested in opening some limited API access at least! Forging onward, the comedy genius waged war with a gliding issue, which got some spotlight on Patreon, and plans for expanded profiling of SendMaps() were made and should be able to make it in before 514 completes its beta. Looking great overall!
BYOND Games
Starting out this edition strong, I want to highlight the monumental success of Hazordhu's release over on Steam! Huge congratulations to F0lak and his squad! Following a huge launch party, F0lak set his eyes on the horizon, looking to beautify and pollinate Haz's environment. F0lak also fixed a bunch of bugs and made updates to combat, making it a bit easier to block attacks and strike enemies! Developmental eyes are on bosses, dungeons, and animal effigies that can be sacrificed to various altars throughout the world. F0lak's making big moves, so if you want to purchase Hazordhu, you can do so via the hub or on Steam. BYOND Members can play for free, though!
Inutaishos' Azusa RP Online received a massive update, Revival, that brings with it a total player wipe and a huge list of changes! The lore has now adjusted to simply be focused on Olympian gods descending to mortal forms to battle and interact with other mortals in Azusa. To highlight a few of the changes: Immortals now glow a faint white, Gods can now banish followers of themselves or their allied Gods, and Zeus is now playable! A bunch of game optimizations were made that should ensure stability, and Azusa's years now pass more slowly. Angels can now change the color of their wings, but were made mortal and now have a lifespan. Many more changes were made that I couldn't possibly iterate on here, so go explore the world of Azusa out yourself!
Things have been heating up over on Sigrogana Legend 2 with the introduction of Salamandra, a new type of homunculus! While dangerous to create, this massive lizard has powerful pyrokinetic abilities, capable of igniting nearby surfaces and stripping magical protections from its foes! Also added were Chimera and Amalgama, homunculi that were artificially created through various and dangerous means, each hosting their own powerful features. In other news, a new area was created, called Albedo headquarters, that players can explore, and join the organization that owns it! Devourer of Souls and his dev team have been keeping busy, so bring a friend or two and come play!
Wargames endeavors to beat you! Er, in the game, I mean. Acebloke decided to work a bit on Wargames' AI, making it a lot more logical in its moves against you, and apparently Acebloke himself, as the AI managed to whoop him in a full-scale battle! While the beginnings of a purely single-player experience are in sight, Acebloke says there is still some work to be done. Stay tuned for future changes, and to see if you can beat the amped-up AI!
Crazah's been nixing small issues and introducing purchasable housing in trace/ALTER! You can buy a hideout, a 3-story building, a restaurant, and your own personal headquarters in Cascade City, the last of which comes with prison cells! Players will now spawn with their own apartment, which they can upgrade and furnish to their heart's content. Aesthetics weren't the only thing on the developmental menu, though - skill trees for various magical abilities were added, with a host of new spells to learn and upgrade as your character earns experience fighting ALTERs! While still in early access, trace/ALTER allows you to channel the elements and take down the invading monstrosities of Cascade Valley! Go and join trace/ALTER's Discord server for future updates!
BYOND Resources
- F0lak took the time to explain how he implemented Steam Authentication in a snippets post!
- Ter13 talked about Time, and what the best practices for tracking things over time were. Have a look and see if you can reduce your project's impact on the scheduler!
- Eric Matyas hopes to keep your resources varied as he continues to upload free sound FX and images! Eric adds to these lists periodically, so keep an eye on those threads!
