New Beta and Demo Builds: Bigger Fonts and Resolution news - NEO Scavenger

I've just uploaded new beta (0.961b) and demo (0.961d) builds, which include the option to play in larger resolutions and font sizes. The builds also address some crafting issues, as well as other bugs identified recently.

New title screen with graphics options!

Beta and Demo Updates

Updates included in both 0.961b and 0.961d:

• Added new options to title screen for 800x450, 1360x768, 1600x900, and 2400x1350.
• Added graphics option to filter (antialias) game.
• Added graphics option to stretch game to fit window.
• Added graphics option to switch to fullscreen mode.
• Added new, larger font for use in 1360x768 mode.
• Added Greenlight link to title screen.
• Added new help section to title screen.
• Added code to save graphics and mute preferences when changed.
• Added code to drop game resolution if screen size crops important graphics options UI.
• Added code to ask for user confirmation when switching graphics options.
• Added sleeping pills to scavenge and junk store inventories.
• Added recipes for disassembling strapped or scoped 308.
• Added right-click context menu entry for take/drop item.
• Added minimap hex colors for some hex types (water sources, DMC).
• Changed inventory mouse controls to use click, double click, right click, and shift, intead of buttons/hotkeys.
• Changed crafting to be a separate screen. Now uses item copies so as not to disturb buffs/debuffs while crafting (e.g. going blind when crafting with fire)
• Changed quick recipes to scroll using buttons that are closer to each other, instead of top and bottom of list.
• Changed crafting UI such that quick recipes and available ingredients use same area, and are each their own tabs.
• Changed cursor to hourglass while crafting screen is loading (for cases with lots of items present)
• Changed conditions screen to show backpack and left/right hand slots, for easy item access.
• Changed main menu to support "F1" hotkey, since "Esc" causes fullscreen to exit.
• Changed bluebottlegames.com to have an embedded 800x450 window, instead of 800x600.
• Changed title screen artwork.
• Changed loading screen alignment to fit on all resolutions.
• Changed clothes degrade and crafting recipes to each produce 5 rags and 5 strings, rather than just random number of rags.
• Changed torch recipes to accept both clean and dirty rags.
• Changed ground and avail ingredients cap boxes to 29 cells high to fit 1360x768 mode.
• Changed all recipe hints to lowercase, for alphabetical sorting.
• Changed all recipes which use charged items to list the charges explicitly as an ingredient, so charges would remain inside their container after used in crafting.
• Changed skill selection screen layout, and added more empty slot space.
• Changed container sizes for encounter input/response, and available skills/traits.
• Fixed a bug that caused items to multiply when degrading in a pocket underneath another clothing item. (E.g. endless rags from pocket under squirrel tunic)
• Fixed a bug that caused double-counting of containers when calculating item value.
• Fixed a null pointer bug when accessing camp just before a scavenge battle.
• Fixed a bug that caused null pointer when opening crafting screen just before battle starts.
• Fixed container sorting button missing on some pages.
• Fixed item dragging offset when unsocketing an item with image that changed height.
• Fixed issue with log window text scrolling inconsistently.
• Fixed battle UI text fields not lining up when some long-named items are displayed.
• Fixed a bug in TransferAllItems which ignored stacks when container wasn't slotted.
• Fixed item rotation bug introduced in build 0.960.
• Fixed bug that deleted camp items when right-clicking and choosing "craft."

As you can see, quite a lot has changed. The majority of the work involved opening up new screen sizes for users with bigger monitors. The game now fits a widescreen format, and will letterbox any additional space instead of stretching. This helps to maintain the pixel aspect ratio, and produce less jagged fonts and images.

However, in addition to the larger screen sizes and fonts, there are also some graphics options for filtering, fullscreen, and stretching, in case you want to further customize each mode.

The game will try to remember your settings from session to session, using cookies.

New crafting UI. Now with less blindness when using fire!

Another big change is the crafting UI. The crafting controls are now on their own page, with everything in your inventory already emptied out and sorted by size. It has multiple pages in case they don't all fit, and you can switch tabs to view your list of known recipes.

What's more, everything on this page is a copy of the original, so no more blindness when using a campfire to craft at night! Items created on this page are automatically added to the ground on the items screen. If the ground cannot fit the item, it will alternately try to fit it into the camp slot.

New conditions screen, with easy backpack access!

I also found a way to combine some elements of the items screen with the conditions screen, as many players requested. Hopefully, this makes it easier to apply bandages from the handheld and backpack slots!

Beta Updates

The following updates apply to the beta only:

• Fixed a bug that prevented savegames from storing current encounter page.
• Fixed bug preventing night vision augmentation from being used in scavenging.
• Fixed pricing issues in diner.
• Fixed bug that prevented leaving the augmentation clinic.
• Added scrolling to DMC map, with overlay instruction info.
• Changed main menu to only allow quit when in skill selection, due to crash bug when saving.

Most of these were fixes to the new DMC encounters introduced in the last build. However, the fix to save games should be a big improvement, since it should make saving during an encounter safe now.

Note About Linux

Just a heads-up to Linux users: fullscreen mode doesn't seem to work with keyboard input. This appears to be a limitation of the Flash player's current version on Linux (11.2). Keyboard support was added to Windows/Mac players in 11.3 and higher, so this won't be fixable until a new version of the player is available for Linux.

In the meantime, you can still maximize the window to get nearly fullscreen, and the keyboard will still work. I apologize for the fluke, as I didn't notice it until testing the Linux build this afternoon.

As always, let me know what you think of the changes, or if you come across any issues. I usually don't work on weekends, but I'll keep an eye out tomorrow in case I've totally pooched the build and you need a major fix done.

Hope you enjoy the update!