Preparing the OD 0.5.0 release announcement

[Akien]

Hi there,

We are almost done with OD 0.5.0, we will probably want to release it during the week-end or next week.
We need to come up with a nice release announcement, showcasing the new features and how great the game looks like.

We'll want a nice text, good screenshots and ideally videos too, so get start and post your ideas/screenshots, etc.

There was an annoying visual bug with marked tiles in the last development snapshot, so we'll probably want to do another snapshot soon that can be used to make screenshots and videos.

[Bertram]

Heya,

I wonder whether you want to port the website to github before, though. So that it can be done on github and grammar can be corrected before merge?

Proposal, anyway, feel free to correct/add, ...

We've done it! 0.5.0!

Yes, my minions, you heard well. The lands will once again tremble before our evil influence spread by our tool of pure mad joy. :3

OpenDungeons 0.5.0 is now released.

0.5.0 does also mean we're more or less in the middle of the road in the 1.0 roadmap, but all the core features of the game are already rock-solid!

Everyone in the team has been involved in making, tweaking, reviewing, remaking stuff until satisfaction (or utter faintness). And I think they deserve
not being whipped for once. (Maybe tomorrow...)

Here are the most impressive achievements done in this milestone:

- Better graphics support:
<Here, walls, and creatures with and without normals could be shown. + a few new models with normals, like the gobelin and the spearman.>
This enormous work and the fire it has stoked in our evil hearts has been ignited by Oln, who has been whipped worked willingly
until bringing us full normal support to any game models, permitting to reach a new level of dark beauty.

- Fog of War
One of the most missing pieces of 0.4.9 is now a reality, you won't be able to cheat by luring into your opponent's lair.
You won't be able anymore to sneak into his dungeon while he is chasing somebody else, ... No, this is now history.

You will have to discover the bowels of the unknown territory spread before your dark will and risk their dangers to get wealth.
Blame hwoarangmy for this cool feature.

<I wonder what we could show here...>

- Skull Flags
Behind those two words are a lot blood. As you can now tell a creature's team or health by hovering the cursor upon it, or by pressing ALT.
The skull flags will also tell the creatures level. Melee fights will never be a problem again...

<A cool melee fight screenie?>

- Save support !!
You're lucky, my minions. As hwoarangmy used his darkest spells of will to chop down this feature into the box.
You can now save the game at any time and load later thanks to his efforts.

<Let's show the save menu?>

- Spells!
Yes, Magic has finally arrived and mana is no more an useless old woman gossip from ancient legends, it's your tool for EVIL.
You will have to summon worker minions with a magic spell as those lazy critters won't appear out of the temple by themselves anymore.
You will also be able to forward your fighters into battle using the well known 'Call to War' spell...

- Research and skill tree
What were you thinking?!? That the Gods of dark Dungeons matters would provide all the technology without a counter word?
No, it's not gonna happen anymore. You will now have to make your creatures work in your library to discover new rooms/spells and traps.
And that's only the beginning as currently the order is predefined but later, you will be able to define your own research strategy. ;>

<research tree screenie?>

- The Keeper Hand, smoothly moving, as a true cursor and with new animations!
Yes, we like that one and hwoarangmy did it!! It is almost perfect and hopefully one day it will be!

<Keeper hand screenie!!>

Other noteworthy features:
Improved map editor - Because you're worth it.
Different viewpoints - Using the 'V' key.
Tileset configurable + biomes support. - So we can add some other kind of dirt to dig.
Creatures can drop stuff on death. - Not used much, but presents are always appreciated.
Dead creatures need no gold, steal the unspent savings of fallen creatures for fun and profit
Packaging fixes + resource analysis scripts to avoid packaging useless stuff. - So downloads are less lengthy.

Go grab it firmly in the downloads and... Enjoy!!

[Danimal]

Nice its good , just a few fixes:

The lands will once again crawl-> tremble before our evil influence...


- Spells!
Yes, Magic has finally arrived and mana is no more an useless old woman gossip from ancient legends, its your tool for EVIL

->You will have to summon worker minions with a magic spell


Other noteworthy features:
Dead creatures need no gold, steal the unspent savings of fallen creatures for fun and profit

[Bertram]

Added.

[hwoarangmy]

The text seems good ^^

[Vandar]

[joke mode=on]We're ready to eat the world. But only 0.5 this time ... still on our way to 1.0! Happy dungeoneering [/joke]

[eugeneloza]

Have you ever been afraid... no? THEN MAKE EVERYBODY AFRAID OF YOU!!!
Welcome to OD 0.5.0
(Just ping me if you need to voice over the trailer )