[ANN] TSC 2.1.0-beta1 released
by Marvin Gülker
Dear List,
as the project lead of The Secret Chronicles of Dr. M. (TSC), I am
pleased to announce that the first beta release of the new TSC version
2.1.0 is now available. The release has been tagged on the Git
repository as v2.1.0-beta1 and has been uploaded to our web server.
The source code can be found at the following URLs:
Source code: https://ftp.secretchronicles.org/releases/TSC-2.1.0.beta1.tar.gz
PGP signature: https://ftp.secretchronicles.org/releases/TSC-2.1.0.beta1.tar.gz.sig
MD5 checksum: 6cad7277f34864ac09cd36f95a03885
SHA256 checksum: eb142df2c65f270d517771e72a9d60d167022c98d40fc0eea61894ca2b3e2a9b
The TGZ file has a total size of 237 MiB. Please consider this before
downloading.
Precompiled versions will be made available soon via the website.
Why did this take so long?
TSC is a project entirely driven by volunteers in their free time. We
all know that free time is scarce. TSC has a massive code base written
in C++ over a course of now more than 10 years, as it builds upon the
original codebase of Secret Maryo Chronicles (SMC). The inherited
code's quality is rather poor and it is difficult to work with this
inherited code.
What has changed?
Our last stable release was version 2.0.0 in 2015. Since then, lots of
improvements have been made to the game. A detailed listing can be
found in the file CHANGELOG in the source tarball, and even that
listing does not include all the improvements. These are the
highlights:
* Several new background music tracks
* Switched some SMC graphics for original TSC ones
* New enemies: Larry and Doom Larry, which fuse and ultimately explode
if hit
* Improvements to level scripting
* Editor UI overhauled
* Levels load much faster compared to 2.0.0
* Secret Area markers are available in the editor
* New in-game scripting console on pressing [F7]
* Several bugfixes
* Upgrade CEGUI dependency from 0.7.9 to 0.8.7
* Support for and requirement of a C++11-capable C++ compiler
The CEGUI upgrade deserves a separate mention. CEGUI 0.8.x broke their
API and as more and more people do not have access to the outdated
CEGUI 0.7.9, it was necessary to conduct this upgrade. This upgrade
however bound so many of TSC's team resources that the 2.1.0 release
ultimately ended up with fewer new features than it was originally
intended. Now that the upgrade has been done it should be much easier
to compile TSC on modern Linux distributions than it was the case with
the old 2.0.0 stable release.
A feature that will sadly not make it into 2.1.0 is a story. We have
adopted a final story draft for the future of the game, though. It
can be found here: <https://github.com/Secretchronicles/documents/raw/master/gd/documents/pdf...>
When can we expect the final release?
The current plan is to release the final 2.1.0 version early in 2020.
What happens in the Beta phase?
The beta phase is intended to polish the rough edges of TSC. No new
features are introduced into the game anymore, but any bugs found will
be fixed. Additionally, the following changes can happen:
* Addition of new static assets, namely of music and static images
* Addition of translations
* Addition of new levels
* Fine-tuning of the build system (this is not a user-visible aspect)
We reserve the right to make other changes as required if an urgent
need arises.
Can I help TSC as a user now?
Yes, you can! Please set yourself into possession of a copy of TSC and
play the game. Report any bugs found either here on the mailing list,
on the forum, or directly on our bug tracker at
<https://github.com/Secretchronicles/TSC/issues> (requires a GitHub
account).
Please make levels and submit them for inclusion into TSC 2.1.0 here
on the forum. As of now, the levelsets of TSC 2.1.0 and 2.0.0 are
nearly identical. The TSC team depends on the submission of levels by
users as the work on the C++ code does not leave much time for the
creation of new levels. The TSC team especially welcomes work on
levels that implement parts of the aforementioned story draft.
-quintus
On behalf of the TSC team.
3 months, 1 week
TSC 2.1.0 release plan
by Marvin Gülker
Hi everyone,
after another -- this time short -- delay, I want to bring everyone up
to date with regard to the upcoming 2.1.0 release.
I've worked hard in the last weeks on TSC and fixed lots of bugs and
even implemented some new features. I've resolved all unassigned tickets
marked for version 2.1.0 on the bugtracker as well as those assigned
specifically to me. What remains are two tickets, one assigned to
datahead and one assigned to refi. These are the last two tickets
holding back a release. You can see the list of open tickets for 2.1.0
here: https://github.com/Secretchronicles/TSC/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+mil...
One of these tickets (#604) is more an administrative task that I don't
expect to generate new problems. The other one (#80) is the
long-standing Rokko activation rectangle problem. I really hope datahead
finds time to fix it.
With such a small amount of tickets left, it's time to talk about
releasing. If nothing substantially changes, I'm going to release
2.1.0-beta1 next weekend. With that release, we'll enter the beta phase,
which means that no new features may be added into 2.1.0. Any new
features will have to wait until the subsequent release. The beta phase
is for finding bugs and eliminating them. Any bugs found during the beta
phase should be fixed before the release candidate, which I expect to
come out around the year switch, because the Christmas free time is most
likely going to allow finishing touches. Early next year, I hope that we
can release 2.1.0.
-quintus
--
Blog: https://mg.guelker.eu
3 months, 3 weeks