version 0.58 should be out during the week

As you can see in the screenshot, destructible terrain is now included, as the ability to target a specific tile instead of a NPC. This version should have been released yesterday, but I am encountering some minor problems when modifying the user interface code to incorporate the ability to attack a specific tile without adding another keyboard shortcut. Rushing the issue would only lead to a buggy release, so a little patience is needed here.

Feature-wise, hit chance calculations have been sightly modified. When a shot is missed, instead of doing nothing, it will hit a nearby tile with all the consequences such an action could have, like killing a friendly target (or even yourself when using an area of effect weapon). Weapons and tiles have a piercing/material strength setting used to determine if a specific weapon can destroy a wall or not. Also the DeanApocalypse theme become the default one and the other is removed from the release as maintaining both will double the time wasted on creating tiles. And, as mentioned in the first paragraph, the combat related user interface will be altered. Pressing the attack key will select the last/nearest target, using the keypad or the mouse will allow to select another target, and pressing the attack key again will validate the shot. In a similar fashion that ToME4 currently does. The middle mouse button will be used to directly attack any tile or target without a confirmation click.

The way citizen and police officers react to fights will also be improved in this release. Policemen and gang members won't ignore the fact that you are gunning down friendlies right under there nose as much as they do now.

GRA Dev Update

The development has resumed, so do the (more or less) regular development posts on this website. I am going to detail in this post the incoming changes and additions regarding in the next versions of GRA, which can mainly be summed up with "destructible terrain", "user interface update" and "combat". 

This is going to be a fairly long post, so before delving into it and probably loosing 99% of the reader-base, I would love to have some comments regarding the current user interface, hotkeys and so on. Basically how the GUI should behave according to you. My current goal is to have something very similar to ToME 4 (great rogue-like, try it, seriously). I am not interested in "bind this action to this key instead of this one" posts as those will be configurable in a near future anyway.  Most menus (shopping, inventory) will stay mouse driven, but original ideas to add and/or errors to avoid are more than welcome.

Grand Rogue Auto 0.3.8 Released !

Behold, Grand Rogue Auto 0.3.8 !

Why not 0.4, you may ask? Because I have to work on the faction and combat stuff some more before being able to switch to the mission system. This said, this new release introduces major changes regarding the controls and the combat system. As usual, this article gives detailed information regarding the update and what I am going to work on next.

Dev Update : Bugs, Gangs and Items

Yes, I am a bit late, it was a busy month. And, while I am here, a warm welcome to the Dwarf Fortress fans coming from a link on their board (and no, I am not the one who put the link).

Anyway,

First things first, the good news. I will release a v0.2.1 soon, probably Sunday. It will add the much needed elements to make the game playable in Police State mode: Health Packs, food and energy drinks that will be available for you to buy in hospitals, restaurants, and the new general stores. It also fixes a few small bugs and annoyances found in previous release. I may be able to put a few gang members in the city, but it's not sure yet given the amount of issues generated by NPC vs NPC fights. We'll see soon enough.

And for more detailed info, it's below.
(there's also a couple of interesting comments in previous posts).

GRA Video : Shooting Cops and Dying

Sorry for the poor quality, it was made in a hurry.
 

Dev Update : Police, combat and stuff

So, as you can see in this screenshot, the police forces and a basic combat system have been implemented. Members of the police faction are now patrolling the streets and will chase the player if he does something illegal (like here, assaulting one of them with an automatic rifle). You can also notice in the game log that the combat and the general logging have improved.When selecting or changing your target, a quick description of the NPC is displayed. 

The following part of this article explains the changelog into more details.

Battle System and Dev Update

Hi there,

Damn, it's 2011 already, it was a busy new year eve, and i'm still kinda sick. But hey that's part of the fun. Also (and completely unrelated) congratulations to Roguedjack! His Rogue Survivor has been recognized by IndieGames as the 4th best freeware RPG of this year. Good job. Back to business, this article will explain in details the combat system that will be used in GRA in addition to the usual weekly development update. Enjoy!

Note: From my stats, a hell lot of you come from the X-Universe community, which is good. I want to tell you something: What I'm doing now is basically building an engine. This GRA project is a first step. Other projects based on the same engine will follow depending on the success of this one. Yes, it means a X kind of game focusing on content instead of pretty 3D may follow, so i'd suggest you to put this in your RSS reader, just in case. Cheers, SK.