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Release 0.60 of Alternate Reality X is coming along very nicely with a particularly productive late night / early hours to bed development session last night. So far I’ve completed the following for release 0.60:

• Implemented City and Dungeon encounters as a single set using same encounter object format
• Combined encounter images into single set using Dungeon images for majority
• Added all Dungeon fixed encounter specials (32 in total)
• Added all weapons for encounter specials above
• Added one of the Dungeon quests
• Fixed Bug #002: Delay of a couple of seconds when entering some shops / modules due to music loading 
• Fixed Bug #003: Mini map edges weren’t refreshing properly
• Fixed Bug #013: Lyric strip appearedover shop / module image at 800 x 600 resolution
• Fixed Bug #014: Daggers were only type of weapon dropped after winning an encounter
• Fixed Bug #001: Goblins and Trolls didn’t recognise that you’re carrying rival ring half

There are a few more things I’d like to add before release but I would expect to have this available for download by the end of the week.

I’ve now merged all the City and Dungeon encounters into a single set as previously they were treated as two separate sets of encounter types meaning that a thief in the City did not behave the same as one from the Dungeon. This led to some confusion for players and made some of the code more complicated than it needed to be. I think I’ve been holding back to some degree but I think I’ve realised that if I’m really going to make Alternate Reality X a true, single game or environment then I need to make some aspects of the game more consistent across the different scenarios. This includes content such as encounters, weapons, items and the game mechanics. I have decided to keep the individual graphics for each scenario just now but even that may change over time.

I’ve also added all the fixed encounters for all levels of the Dungeon. There are around 32 in total. Now I’m modifying all the encounters covered by these fixed encounters so they have the correct weapons (e.g. Ebon Blade for an Undead Knight). I then need to add some more of those treasures that they are protecting!

I should have another release out in the next few days.

Keep on supporting the project in whatever way you can as this keeps my spirits up and let’s me know there is still interest in the project.

Thanks,
Acrin1 

Managed to spend several hours working on ARX focused on levelling up and investigating correct experience point awards for combat. I’ve noticed that many people playing ARX have managed to get up to level 5 very easily and part of the reason for this is that in many cases the experience awards have been way too high.

I’ve removed the level cap that was in place at level 5 so you should now be able to develop your ARX character up to a very high level. I’ve also added the missing stat bonuses which you should receive when gaining a level so your seven primary stats may now improve for each level of experience you gain.

Investigating the experience gained from encounters in the Dungeon I believe I now understand that the Dungeon awards it’s experience on 2 levels:

• Firstly you receive half the experience for any hits you land on an opponent e.g. if you hit for 6 points of damage you would instantly gain 3 points of experience.
• Secondly on winning an encounter you appear to get an experience bonus which is based on the opponent’s initial hit points multiplied by a factor – in many cases this is two but in the case of say a Ghost this could be as high as eight.

I’ve added these into ARX for all encounters as it’s my intention now to have only one method of calculating of experience in the game rather than differentiating between City and Dungeon. I will however spend some time playing the City to see what level of experience awards it provides.