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| Dragonewts on iPhone 5 |
Thanks to composer Stan LePard, the music now plays in stereo, and gets a bump to CD quality.
One feature from the original game is now in the iOS version: when raiding a distant clan, you may need to negotiate with a clan that’s en route.
And there are new treasures and more variety in the year-end news report.
The one thing there’s less of: bugs. We’ve gotten rid of a number of bugs and typos. (Thanks especially to the vigilant Zack Kline for reporting typos.)
Here’s the detailed release notes:
• 19 new interactive scenes
• Upgraded music to CD-quality stereo (thanks to Stan LePard)
• Support iPhone 5 screen size
• Take clan proximity into account when raiding
• Track notable deaths in saga
• New treasures
• More annual scuttlebutt
• Tint tribal areas on the map
• Various improvements to advice
• Show relevant changes to advisor images during a scene
• Battle situations don’t leave blank lines in the saga
• Fixed a bug that allowed indefinite raiding during Sea season
• More accurate determination of exploring certain areas
• Fixed typos and bugs
• Fixed a memory leak in VoiceOver play
• Added anonymous tracking so we can understand how people play
• Now requires iOS 5.1
App Store ratings reset with new versions, so please consider giving this version a rating or review.
So that’s 2.2, but we have plans to add even more scenes in a future update.
So that’s 2.2, but we have plans to add even more scenes in a future update.
Thanks for your commitment to this game!
ReplyDeleteJust got that scene and art! Thank-you for the update :)
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried the new version yet, but what exactly does CD quality music mean? That it sounds like real instruments instead of the crappy MIDI? Or what?
ReplyDeleteThe original game had to compress the music. I believe it was 22 KHz and mono. I didn’t realize that Stan could dig up the original version, which he had mixed in stereo and was digitized at 44 KHz.
DeleteSo the music files are now 4 times as large, but sound much better (especially if you play with headphones).
It sounds really nice. There is still a crackle in the bass of the "bad" and "unknown" tracks, but now that I think about it, I bet that's the limitations of the phone speaker rather than a compression artifact (as I had always assumed).
DeleteMusic quality was the only real complaint I ever had with KoDP and as far as I'm concerned the game is now flawless - though I've still not played it on iPad.
Am I wrong in hearing some changes to the music during the opening questionnaire?
I don’t think there were any changes to the overture, we just swapped in better quality sound files.
DeleteThe Dragonewt art is superb. I wish I didn't refrain from buying stuff on my iPad and iPhone.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this update!
ReplyDeleteI've got a question regarding the anonymous tracking. I will soon spend a long time in an area where my data reception will be very bad. Is there a possibility to have an "offline" option with tracking turned off?
Tracking is pretty minimal, it’s just a way of finding out how many people are playing on iPad vs iPhone, for example. We use Flurry, and it handles being offline. There is no need for an option because you can always just play (being online is never a requirement to play, though it may not be possible to earn achievements if you aren’t — I forget the Game Center specifics).
DeleteOr was your concern that we would be sending a ton of data and blowing through your data plan? Again, we are tracking very little.
Dangit, I may have to get an iPad now. If and when my Xoom dies...
ReplyDeleteDoes the story still go through the same "bottleneck" of events at the end? *SPOILERS* I mean the building of the city, the tests for the wedding with the Horsespawn leader? It would be cool if there were a completely different endgame scenario as well. Or a couple of them.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever considered adding or changing some Heroquests? The first time I played KoDP these were extremely exciting, but after having completed the game a couple of times I know what to choose, so the success of the Heroquest has become a result of its timing (have I allocated enough magic to Heroquests? Has it been a substantial period of time since the last heroquest?) rather than my choices. It would be awesome to get that feeling back.
Maybe some food for thought for your next update.
It’s true that this would add replayability for experienced players, but such changes sound like a much greater level of effort.
DeletePlease don't ever require iOS 6. My iPad 1 thanks you.
ReplyDeleteUnless Apple’s tools force it somehow, it’s hard to imagine any scenario where that would make sense. Even if iPad 1 is less than 3% of our audience (see http://kingofdragonpass.blogspot.com/2013/06/player-data.html).
DeleteThanks for the update. Are we going to see the new content in existing games, or do we have to start a new game?
ReplyDeleteWe took pains to avoid breaking saved games, so that you can indeed get new content in an ongoing game. (With 544 scenes before, it may take a while before a new one shows up, though a few are related to player action.)
DeleteAwesome! I just discovered this game a week or so ago and am really enjoying it a lot. I'm also recommending it to a lot of friends. Thanks for continuing to work on updates!
ReplyDeleteWould you make those additions available for the PC version as well? I have bought it from GoG and enjoyed it very much and would like to see additions to it!
ReplyDeleteNo, it’s not possible to add content to the original release (see http://kingofdragonpass.blogspot.com/2013/06/architecture-redux.html and http://kingofdragonpass.blogspot.com/2011/01/back-patching.html).
Delete