2022-01-23
A new minor release is available with the following additions and bug fixes:
- added check for custom elements being “next to” player or element
- added graphics animation mode “tiled” for tiled graphics on elements
- added graphics animation mode “random_static” (unchanged for each tile)
- added additional empty space elements that can be graphically decorated
- added counting mouse clicks on mouse click CEs when using step counter
- added showing mouse cursor for levels with mouse click custom elements
- fixed bug with playing sound and music loops on the music info screen
This release has some new features worth mentioning for creators of both
levels and custom graphics. The new custom element condition “next to” is
different to the already existing CE conditions in that it not only allows
to react to events, but also to static game engine conditions, namely to
game elements being next to other game elements (or the player). Before,
it was only possible to check for game states that resulted from moving or
changing elements, which was sufficient for many cases, but not all.
Another important enhancement are the new “empty space elements”, which
behave exactly like the normal, single empty space element, but can be
customized with custom graphics or animations, offering new possibilities
to create level graphics design without the usual black background.
This can be combined with two new graphics animation modes: “tiled” to use
larger bitmaps to decorate patterns of the same element in a level, and
“random_static” which works like the already existing “random” graphics,
but does not change on the same level position during the game.
Some example custom artworks and levels that illustrate the new features
will be published together with the announcement post for this new version
in the forum.
The new version is available on the download page!
2022-01-17
This is the first in a series of planned re-releases of level sets for
Rocks’n’Diamonds, to make those level sets easier to install and play,
and to add features and other stuff that may have been missing in the
original releases by their authors.
We will start with the level sets of Andreas Buschbeck, which were
released on his web site for the first time in 2003. Andreas Buschbeck has
created five classic style level sets with custom artwork and sound. As a
hobby musician and trance DJ, he also added excerpts of his music to his
level sets, which fit well to his level sets and which are grouped into
three custom music sets (which can, as with all custom artwork sets in
Rocks’n’Diamonds, also be used with other level sets).
However, not only is his web site down for many years now (and the broken
link to it on the “Levels & Artwork”
page has been replaced with a link to the
last snapshot of his web site on archive.org),
but also his level sets with custom graphics, sounds and music were scattered
over many different packages, which made it a bit complicated to install and
play them in Rocks’n’Diamonds.
For a more convenient user experience, all level sets, graphics, sounds and
music sets have been put together into one single package, which can easily
be installed and played. As an extra bonus to the already released four
level sets, an additional, previously unreleased fifth level set
(“AB Levelset 0”, which is more of a prequel level set to the other four sets)
with 80 levels and different graphics, created in 2002, has been added to this
collection, which also contains solution tapes for all included levels.
You can download Andreas Buschbeck’s level sets
here
or from the “Levels & Artwork” section!
2022-01-08
Please download and use this patch release as soon as possible, as it fixes
a major problem with generating unique player IDs for the high score server.
The resulting problems with assigning scores and player names on the high
score server caused by this bug have already been fixed on the server itself,
but to be able to rename your player in R’n’D and still have all your scores
associated with your changed player name, you have to upgrade to this new
R’n’D version which fixes the problem also on the client side.
Now available from the download page!
2021-12-02
This patch release fixes problems with receiving (slightly) larger responses
from the high score server, causing high score lists with many entries to be
cut off after a few dozen entries. For example, you should see all 100 score
entries for the tutorial level set “Niko Böhm’s Tutorial” (which is the
default level set shown when Rocks’n’Diamonds is started for the first time),
while you will only see less than half of that in most cases with previous
versions. This new release fixes this problem, and shows all score entries.
Now available from the download page!
2021-11-11
This is a patch release which improves robustness of tape uploads to the
new high score server, which is especially useful if you have a huge
amount of tapes and experience problems when uploading them, which resulted
in trying to upload every tape again (even those that were already uploaded
successfully). This version keeps track of already uploaded tapes and only
uploads the remaining tapes after an interruption.
In addition, any tapes that are not uploaded later after solving a level
(for example, if you are playing offline in a plane, or if you have
temporarily disabled use of the high score server) are marked for upload now,
and you are asked to upload these missing tapes later. In such cases, you
can also upload missing tapes from the setup menu whenever you like.
By the way: Since the release of version 4.3.0.0 and the high score server
last week, there are already over 60’000 score entries for over 700 level
sets available on the server now!
Get the new version from the download page!
