Cyclopean News

[h3]Complex Lighting[/h3][p]The new lighting engine has been included as an optional feature in the options menu. I like it, and it adds a certain atmosphere, but ultimately I decided it does not look as good as the original version in most settings. The lights being tile based instead of a gradual fog make it look a bit weird to me. But if you like that, you can use it.
[/p][h3]Updated Options Menu[/h3][p]I've been putting this off for a while, but the time has come. I added all the main configuration changes right into the game's options menu. This includes keybinds for Quicksave and Quickload, the new Complex Lighting system, hiding Scan Lines and more, all things players have requested over the months of early access, and since the game's full release. Have a look at the comparison between the old menu and the new one...
[/p][p]Old Options Menu:

New Options Menu:
[/p][p]Everything is a bit more jam packed in there now, and one could make an argument that the old one is better ... or that I could have just made a bigger menu, or spread the options over several screens ... but I didn't. It's all here on one, super concentrated little menu. Enjoy![/p][h3]
Testing[/h3][p]I will be testing this out a bit more, before I decide to upload it to the default branch. Unfortunately it will still require starting a new game. So I will put in a little message about how players can access the older version of the game when they try to load an old save. The game itself has not really changed, no new "content" has been added, but I had to modify a few of the dungeons to accommodate the the old saved files will break the game if loaded into the new version. [/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[h2]Brand New Lighting![/h2][p]Based on player feedback, I have decided to overhaul the whole lighting system. The previous version just used fog to show darkness. But this meant that any distant lights would not be visible until you got pretty close to them. It was not realistic at all in this sense. [/p][p] While the game never really set out to have realistic rendering, I felt being able to see far away lights in dungeons could add some interesting atmosphere to the game. So there have been a few, cool differences that have been introduced as a result, as well as what I would call disadvantages. [/p][p][/p][p]The first improvement is obviously, that you can see lit areas from far away. Another side effect of this is that in one level (shown above), you can see that there is an open sky, which was hidden by the fog previously.[/p][h3]Disadvantages[/h3][p]A disadvantage is that the lighting is based on each tile's position, so you can see a rather sharp distinction from one tile to the next. Another thing I see as a disadvantage is that the levels do not get completely dark as they did before. Here is a scene demonstrating this, where the player has no torch, nor any night vision, as they approach the entrance to the Crag.



I also don't quite like how the background color gets so much darker than it used to. I did not mind this in the optional, high contrast mode, but I feel like the main game should maintain the distinct monochrome style that I have in mind. I am still working on tweaking this a bit. It was easy to do with the fog effect, but it is a bit trickier to color the actual tiles in the exact shade I want. When I give them too much color they no longer appear dark, and you can see the whole dungeon, which is not what I want at all. [/p][p]Another disadvantage is that I had to adjust the dungeons to allow for all this to work, so old saved games will not work properly with the new system. So I am releasing this under the "testing" branch until I am sure it will work well, and people are ready for this next phase. [/p][h3]What Say You?[/h3][p]So if you like this idea, or hate it, let me know in the comments. [/p][p]To try it, go to "Cyclopean > Properties > Betas" and select "testing" from the drop down menu. Make sure you don't save over your current game if you want to play it again. [/p][p]I have also fixed a few outstanding bugs in this version. Once I am 100% sure I like this, and I get it to look just right, I will make it the default. For any players who want to continue their current game, I will, as always, make the current version available as a legacy beta branch. [/p]

[h3]Roguelike Mode (Slight Update)[/h3][p]Roguelike mode will no longer delete your file if the game shuts down due to a power outage or crash. You should be able to resume the game even if these things happen.[/p][h3]
Menu Shortcuts[/h3][p]Q (turn left) and E (turn right) will now allow players to automatically flip through the "Prior" and "Next" buttons in the inventory and other menus. [/p][p][/p][h3]Quickload Update[/h3][p]You should now be able to quickload your most recent save immediately after dying. No need to navigate through the main menu...[/p][p][/p][h3]ESC Update[/h3][p]The "ESC" key will now just turn off the map and user manual, instead of taking you all the way to the start menu. [/p][p][/p][h3]Nodens Issue[/h3][p]There was a problem with Nodens that was causing some dungeons to get messed up. This has been resolved, but it may not be what you want or expect![/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[h3]Roguelike Mode[/h3][p]The last update was not asking whether players wanted to use roguelike mode after they selected "restore default settings" from the options menu. Now it should be working as intended.

The Demo version of the game does not provide access to roguelike mode, so it will exhibit the aforementioned behavior. But in the case of the demo it is not a bug. Thanks![/p][p][/p]

[h3]File Types[/h3][p]I have changed pretty much every texture in the game to "DDS" format, as this is the recommended format for the game engine I am using. Somehow I end up using PNG as it is requires a couple less steps to export. But I wanted to tidy things up, so I ended up doing it this week. It should not make any difference to the gameplay. I've tested all the dungeons and have not found any missing texture errors, but let me know if you encounter any. [/p][p][/p][h3]Version 1.0.2[/h3][p]The game was not loading saved games from version 1.0.2, but it should be doing that correctly now. If you have an older save file than version 0.9.93, you can use the"Cyclopean > Properties > Betas" and select one of the older versions to complete your playthrough, or just start a new game.

Demo[/p][p]I am updating the demo today too. I want to make sure it is using the most up to date version, so people do not encounter some of the older bugs when trying it.[/p]