Back to the good old progress report. It took longer to post anything since most of the work was bug-fixing. But there is some work done (mostly on Northbridge).

New features on Northbridge:

Two features are in the works:

• Save Archives. This essentially packs the saves into one archive file. This is mostly useful in some cases (for example, a small USB drive). For now, you can export the game saves in an archive and import them (which Unpacks the archive and import the files), but I may expand it. One of the ways to do so is to integrate it with the Backup system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWjioxbwKj0

• A built-in PDF reader. Switching to PDF for the readme file brought in improvements on the design of the said document (such as making nicer arrays). However, some of the features available on the file format are ignored by some PDF reading programs. One of the more useful ones is bookmarks. As I was writing the readme file on Word, it automatically added headings using the built-in styles tool. These can be used to build the bookmark list. One issue about it is that some reading software can’t read them (Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome’s built-in PDF Reader is one of those). To fix this, I made a reader program with the help of a library, which supports bookmarks as well. This makes it easier to find the info you need, should you need to and it doesn’t require you to download one. Here’s a preview:

I’ll need to sort out what’s needed for that library to work since it comes bundled with a suite of Controls for Windows Forms. Speaking of libraries, more common code moved over to the library (including the UI for the Export Tool). In addition, some of the translations were also moved over there.
Some changes in the game:
I started working on two items (alongside on the second part of the story). Both are for teleportation.
The first one is Skirn of Escape. This item is used in the dungeons only. This simply gets you out of the dungeon quickly, if you aren’t fighting. It can’t be used during story specific dungeons, however (though there might be some exceptions). The second will be used for teleporting between cities you recently visited. Part of its code is ready, but I haven’t nailed all its details yet.

One last thing (which was done and added in the latest update) is a change in the dungeon encounters. It’s a simple change, really. If you decide to escape (and you do escape), there is a brief period where the enemy is immovable and won’t engage the battle. This gives you enough time to escape if need be.

That is all for now. See you in the next post.