03/23/1999 22:44 I've made some changes and fixes to DDASSIST to make Internet gaming easier. Unfortunately, I still can't get the SMTP send to work, so there's no help on the EMAIL front. The new version is available at http://arc.cnchost.com/dice/ddabeta.zip Here's a list of the enhancements. * The program only prompts you to save if the game has changed since the last save. * When the game is saved, the position of the log form is also saved to the registry. * The bug relating to end-of-turn spells expiring has been fixed. * The Roll Calculator no longer looks like a calculator. Instead, it is set up as a virtual tabletop that allows you to organize your dice in columns by result type. The form is an MDI child instead of a modeless dialog, and when you close the form, you have the option of transmitting the results to the scratch pad. The help text at http://arc.cnchost.com/dice/gamesim.html has been updated accordingly. * When you mark or un-mark a cell in the army grid, the status bar displays the total health of dice marked. * The next-phase logic has been fixed so that If a minor terrain is in play for the acting army, it is allowed an action even if it is alone at a terrain on a melee face. * When you move dice between terrains, DDASSIST will try to guess the reason for the move and place it on the reason form as the default. * You can use the space bar to mark or un-mark a die grid cell. * A default game-- Solitaire.DGM-- is now included with the product. This is a two-player, 36-point game; the first player has an all-fireshadow army. You can supply your own armies for the second player, and see how they do in actual combat. There's no AI, so you have to play both sides; however, the homogeneous nature of the all-fireshadow army limits the decisions you have to make for the other player, and the fireshadows are so powerful that even within those limits the army is tough to beat. * You can dispel a spell in the spell list by right-clicking on it. 03/29/1999 12:46 DDASSIST version 3.0.2 is now available for download from http://arc.cnchost.com/dice/ddabeta.zip This version allows you to EMAIL a game directly from within DDASSIST, which should make EMAIL game play easier than ever. I'm still working on real-time chat play. I want to be able to send messages directly between users during a game rather than relying on FTP. That proves to be a little thornier than it looks on the surface, since I have to create the concept of Host and Guest users. In any case, I'm aware of the need and I'm working on it. Here's a summary of the 3.0.2 fixes. * Fixed the tab order in the Virtual Tabletop new-column dialog. * When you print a trade, the trader's address is automatically copied to the clipboard. * Fixed the benign GPF that occurred while loading the Game Form. * Fixed the surplus inventory display in the inventory form, which somehow went missing in the last version. * You can now EMAIL a game directly from the Game Simulator. 04/12/1999 15:16 DDASSIST version 3.0.3 is now available for download at the usual place http://arc.cnchost.com/dice/ddabeta.zip The big news this time is Gnomes. You can now play with Gnomes over the Internet! Gnomes are supported as a Virtual Race. This is a new race category for races used in play that are not available from the manufacturer. Virtual races have a separate branch in the inventory tree and do not appear on inventory alert reports, so it’s easy to keep them separate from your regular physical dice collection. If you’re unfamiliar with Gnomes, they are a humorous Dragon Dice race invented by Dave Papay. You can find out about them at http://home1.gte.net/papay//dd/Gnomes/Rules.html Dave has Champion rules in place for Gnomes, but I don’t have Champions programmed into DDASSIST, so you have to play with the standard Gnome units if you use DDASSIST. Note also that the Gnomes have a very strange way of doing magic, so if you use them in an army design, you should take the result statistics with a grain of salt. In addition to Gnomes, I’ve made the following minor changes and fixes. * When you clear a trade, the date is set to the current date and the status is automatically set to Proposed. * The number of waiting trades that can be fulfilled for a particular die is now displayed in the inventory status bar when the die is selected. * The “Trade In” and “Trade Out” menu entries on the Inventory form pop-up menu have been fixed. 04/29/1999 20:48 DDASSIST version 3.0.4 is now available for download at http://arc.cnchost.com/dice/ddabeta.zip This version contains the following fixes to the Game Simulator. * The Simulator no longer GPFs when you try to use the Analyze Roll function and no army is selected. * You can check the "Autosend" option on the Turns menu and the game will be uploaded automatically after each roll or turn change. This will only happen if the game has already been uploaded or downloaded some time in its past. * A new virtual die-- the Bunny-Folk-- has been added, The Bunny-Folk is a vicious killer monster with the following faces: ID, Decapitate, Decapitate, Rend, Fly, Fly, Cute Look, Move, and Move. "Cute Look", when rolled while saving against a melee attack, allows you to choose one attacking die that rolled an ID face and nullify the results. (Special thanks to Known Bunny Advocate Kirsten Bishop for the idea behind this SAI.) This Sunday, May 2, at 5:00pm Eastern Daylight Time, Phil Hazlett, Tim Rafuse, Andrew Hart and I will be gathering in the BeSeen Dragon Dice Chat Room at http://venus.beseen.com/chat/rooms/h/439243 for the Bunny Wars, a no-holds-barred Dragon Dice event to decide whether poor, innocent bears can defend themselves against vicious, killer monster rabbits. Everyone is invited to this once-in-a-lifetime Dragon Dice grudge match! If you bring DDASSIST 3.0.4, you can even watch the game as it happens. Hope to see you there! 05/02/1999 02:49 DDASSIST version 3.0.5 is now available for download at http://arc.cnchost.com/dice/ddabeta.zip This version contains some emergency fixes to the Game Simulator. * You can now remove dice from the game during Setup. Drag the offending dice to the Burial Vault and use the Erase Burial Vault option on the Setup menu. * Dragons in armies being placed in terrains other than the summoning pool will be ignored. All sorts of terrible GPFs and stuff would happen if you accidentally put dragons in your horde. Hopefully, that will no longer be possible. * System spells are now created when you start the game, rather than when you set the terrain die. This fixes duplicate spells that were created when the terrain die was set more than once during setup. (Note: system spells describe racial bonuses like intangibility and dragonkin armor.) * You can increase or decrease the grid row height on the main simulator form using the Widen and Shrink options on the Edit menu. This should help people who have Large Font configurations. NOTE: Don't do anything with the Forest Elves. This is a work in progress that got caught in midstream by the frenzied preparations for the Bunny Wars. 05/08/99 01:40 DDASSIST version 3.0.6 is now available for download at http://arc.cnchost.com/dice/ddabeta.zip It contains the following fixes, most of which relate to the Game Simulator. * If you somehow start a march without selecting a march terrain, moving to the action phase no longer GPFs. * A die-moved message is sent to the log when you summon a dragon. Previously, the message was only sent if you were moving the dragon between terrains. * The spell-deleted message in the log now includes the name of the spell. * The new-round message in the log is now marked with asterisks. This is so they will be easier to spot in a long log. In addition, the major events are marked with “>” so that a digest of the game can be produced by extracting the lines marked with “>” in the log. * You can now use CTRL-F3 to download a game update from the DDASSIST FTP server. * The auto-send and auto-save options are no longer lost whenever a game is read from disk. * The “Clear Log” function now prompts you for a file name, and will append the log to the file before clearing it. * Transmitting roll results from the Virtual Tabletop to the scratch pad also transmits them to the game log. * The log form saves its position to the registry more often so that it doesn’t move itself during a refresh. * The Auto-Send, Auto-Save, Widen Grid Rows, and Shrink Grid Rows menu items have been moved to the new Options menu. * A game can be put in the control of a specified player. If that happens, other players will not be allowed to modify the game. To use this option, the EMAIL names must be filled in for all players: the game determines who you are by matching your EMAIL name (from the User Information form) to the player EMAIL names. If you are using the control feature, control will be transferred automatically at the start of each player’s turn. * The auto-send feature has been enhanced. If you have auto-send on and you are not in control of the game, an updated copy of the game file will be downloaded from the server every 20 seconds. * You can now download a game from an army window. * The reason form now works properly if you use the default. Previously, if you accepted the default reason, it would show up in the log as a null string. * Some duplicate log messages have been removed. Coming soon: the secret of the Forest Elves! 05/13/99 05:35 DDASSIST version 3.0.7 is now available for download at http://arc.cnchost.com/dice/ddabeta.zip This version contains the following enhancements. * When you put a virtual die into an army, the inventory-exceeded check is not made even if you have your inventory loaded. * You may now specify an HTML frame file for HTML trade list exports. DDASSIST will copy the frame file verbatim to your output file, followed by the normal HTML trade list. You can also set up the frame file so that the trade list goes into the middle. If DDASSIST finds a line that begins with "