Tidalis:1.005 Official Release

Notes From The Producer: August 18th, 2010

Beta Updates Cumulatively Included In This Official Release:

• August 5th, 2010: 1.004 Beta (AI-Related Bugfixes)
• August 4th, 2010: 1.003 Beta (VS Race, Boarded Up Blocks, Experimental Sound Subsystem)
• July 27, 2010: 1.002 Beta (Bugfixes)
• July 26, 2010: 1.001 Beta (Guided Tour Improvements, Fullscreen Resolution Additions)

This official release includes a lot of new stuff for players to enjoy, a lot of it suggested by fans. It adds the new VS - Race multiplayer ruleset for use against the AI or against other players, as well as a new Boarded Up block type. It has a lot more flexibility in what fullscreen resolutions players can use, even if their graphics card/OS doesn't report a resolution that they want to use as being supported. There is also a revamped sound subsystem that lets the game load faster, play multiple copies of the same sound effect at once (which sounds much better), and which avoids some issues on OSX.

Also included are 12 new Brainteaser levels created by players, a new visual block style created by a player, and updated stream graphics that look a bit fancier. Music tracks also now fade in when starting, which is a noticeable aural improvement. Aside from the above, this release has a number of bugfixes and other, more minor player-suggested tweaks.

All in all, an exciting first bit of free DLC, both with Arcen-created content and community-created content. Enjoy!

--Christopher M. Park

IMPORTANT - Direct Download Links

Unfortunately, after the 1.001 version was released it was discovered that the 1.000 version of the game has a broken download mechanism for its installer. We ran into this one other time, all the way back at 0.401, so fortunately we have a simple mechanism for dealing with that. If you simply download and run the manual patch program below for your operating system (Windows or Mac), then you'll be all set and future automatic updates should work just fine.

• Windows 1.005 Patch
• Mac OSX 1.001 Patch

We apologize for the inconvenience of this -- the 1.000 version fixed a problem with the Mac version of the updater, and unintentionally introduced this larger problem to both the Windows and Mac versions of the game.

New & Updated Levels

• A new folder has been added to the Brainteasers section of the game, with a "Community-Created Brainteasers" folder. The goal here is for us to over time package a good selection of the community-created brainteasers into the main game itself; not all players know to look for custom puzzles on our forums, and since the puzzle files are tiny it is easy for us to package them right into the game for everyone to enjoy.
  • This first version includes 12 player-created puzzles: 3 by Ixiohm, 2 by jkefka, 2 by PLivesey, 2 by RCIX, 1 by The 9th Sage, 2 by triggerman602. Special thanks to all of them for taking the time to submit such great puzzles!

New & Updated Art/Music/Sound

• Music tracks now fade in when they are first loaded, to provide less jarring transitions between fast-paced and relaxing tracks and vice-versa.
  • Thanks to RCIX for suggesting.

• A new player-created block skin has been added to the game: eRe4s3rs Glow Blocks. Special thanks to Hans-Martin Portmann for creating these!

• The stream graphics have been improved with extra glow effects that makes them look more modern.
  • Thanks to Hans-Martin Portmann for suggesting.

Misc

• Post-level screen now no longer reports an achievement that had already been achieved globally (but may have just been achieved for that particular adventure).
  • Thanks to kout for pointing out that the previous behavior was confusing.

• The loss objectives panel now includes a note about the move limit for levels with a move limit. This is already shown on the screen in the form of the "moves remaining" counter, but now it's more obvious and consistent with other loss conditions.

Bugfixes

• Fixed bug where Cutscene Index and Adventure Stats buttons would show through onto the main menu after playing an adventure level.
  • Thanks to Balthier for reporting.

• Enter And Escape now function as confirm or cancel (respectively) when a confirm dialog is being shown. Previously Enter would open the chat box instead, which was problematic on several counts.
  • Thanks to SmileyFace for pointing out the problem.

• Fixed bug where AI thought it could do a direction-redirect through an inverter or energizer.
  • Thanks to Ogtacular for reporting.

Internal Programming Notes

Tidalis