Aged Code Studio

0.94.43 (21.04.2023)
- add:Further speed optimizations.
- add:Expanded screen edge detection at sea. This has resulted in less frequent map changes on some routes, such as Paris-Dakar, which takes one less map load, and the city is higher on the loaded map than previously.

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- add:Added network connection support when the Load/Save screen is open and the player opens the options menu to connect or disconnect from the server.
- fix:In some cases, switching from another category to vessels in the shipyard, the background image behind the submarine was not displayed.

27.04.2023
- add:Vox Populi — "Who's online?" This is not a direct game feature but rather the game server status of the aquabyss.com site. Some of you were asking for information about who is online. Here it goes but this is experimental at the moment. We'll see if everyone likes the idea and the form of how it is presented. However, only the players who already got on the list can be highlighted.
Looking forward to your feedback, captains

0.94.44—0.94.61 (12.06.2023)
- add:After six years in use, the acclaimed AC Dialogue System has been upgraded from version 1.0 to 2.0. Although visually nothing has changed, internally it is a huge leap. It is much faster, especially at sea resulting in better performance on slower CPUs. Benchmark shows that traveling at sea in the story mode is ~2.4 times faster on a 030 25 MHz! (or ~140%)). The file structure has changed and now each language has its own drawer with corresponding files. Dialogs are loaded and removed from memory dynamically and are easier to handle. The new system has much better support for the story mode (sorry it took so long, but some elements of the game and code need to be properly addressed before we could move forward with this [admittedly] very important aspect. But the wait should be rewarded with a very useful feature, absent from the game so far, giving the player a good insight into the progress of the storyline). Another cool feature of the new dialogue system is that modders will be allowed to add their own dialogue events in the future! Yes, a side quest/story can be created and added to the game.
- add:Installer has been updated to version 1.22.
- add:New in-game update method. Now the main exe is updated first, followed by the rest of the files.
- add:TASKS window has been divided into two sections: TASKS for all tasks taken from NPCs and STORY which informs the player about the storyline progress:

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- add:New class submarine has been made available to the players: Barracuda. Also corresponding hull and motor upgrades.
- add:Vox Populi — Level 0 players can take one more contract, namely two and an optional third if they buy a wholesaler's licence.
- add:Vox Populi — Side quest that helps significantly improve lost reputation in Hamburg during the semi-illegal deal with the harbormaster Krispin. The side quest is impossible to miss so there is no need to describe how to get it.
- add:One new portrait (bit-by-bit will be coming more).
- add:Lots of internal code improvements and optimizations.

0.94.62 (13.06.2023)
- fix:Vox Populi — Restored hyphens in player question lines instead of question numbers (these did not correspond to the keys and were reported as confusing).
- fix:German umlauts in dialogues corrected.

0.94.63—0.94.65 (15.06.2023)
- fix:Due to an oversight, the value of the player's ship was incorrectly calculated when exchanging it for a new unit, i.e. the mileage (age) of the vessel from the date of purchase was not taken into account. Thus, the player received the full amount for his unit, which was obviously not correct. As a reminder, the longer a submarine is in a player's possession, the lower its value. It decreases by approximately 0.5% after each month. However, the minimum value does not fall below 34% (the same applies to the motor).
- fix:The player's wealth now takes into account the value of the vessel based on its age.
- add:Enabled X-class motor.
- add:Added date of motor purchase.
- add:Fixes and improvements to the new dialogue system.
- add:Downloading progress of the update of the main executable (shown in bytes).
- add:Code optimization.

0.94.66—0.94.68 (17.06.2023)
- fix:This version mainly removes the story mode dialog appearing at the police station in sandbox mode.
- fix:Correct identification of the game mode in the save in the main menu (due to the entered date of purchase of the motor, which shifted the data in the save).
- add:Harpoon launchers got new property: Kinetic Energy (expressed in joules). It's a feature that will be used for pirate and krakens encounters.

0.94.69 (18.06.2023)
- fix:Delivery task. Instead of reading the present city of residence of the NPC, the code read it from the city of origin.
- fix:When attempting to dock in a city where there is no harbormaster on duty, an incorrect portrait was displayed instead of the "noise" icon.

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- fix:Ohter fixes.

0.94.70—0.94.78 (27.06.2023)
- add:Reworked and improved shipyard user interface for upcoming new features:

• Addition of new data in the player's ship description and on the shipyard side and removal of unnecessary data. A little comparison (left side of the previous UI and the right side of the new one):

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• Expanded category list from 4 to 5.
• Vessel category moved to the first list.
• The repair section does not open a dialogue window with Oleg & Wei (Repair Station) as before. Instead, the player's vessel is displayed in the window and the price to pay for the repair is displayed at the bottom, just like in any other category. Clicking on it will perform the repair immediately.
• New category: Harpoons. The shipyard is awaiting supplies so please be patient, captains
• A pictogram depicting passengers have been added to the lower panel. As you might guess, this field will represent the number of passenger modules installed. This element will be added to the game at a later date.

- add:New method of repairing submarines (this will be developed further, especially the graphics).
- fix:Due to a small error (only one sign was moved), the beginning of the story was blocked in the city square.
- fix:Vox Populi — The level requirement for acquiring the Barracuda class has been lowered from 18 to 16.
- add:Custom upgrades for Barracuda.
- add:The device description fields in the cargo tab (bottom screen, first tab) have been widened.

0.94.79 (28.06.2023)
- add:Improved presentation of submarine data at the shipyard:

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- fix:Fixed clicking on the list in the shipyard.
- fix:When talking to a shipyard employee and ordering a custom upgrade, the elapsed time for the job caused the guest list in the bar to refresh, resulting in graphical errors.
- add:Vox Populi — Custom motor upgrade added for the Barracuda class.
- add:Additional German translation.

0.94.80—0.94.96 (22.07.2023)
- add:New feature: Harpoons purchase. The initial list offers five types:

• Light
• Classic
• Hull Piercing [HP]
• High Explosive [HE]
• Hull Piercing High Explosive [HPHE]

Their properties are:

• Weight
• Penetration
• Damage

Each harpoon's speed depends on the harpoon launcher's class, i.e., its power expressed in joules. A formula for kinetic energy calculates the resulting velocity and affects the probability of hitting the target (amongst other things). The player can install more than one launcher (as long as device slot space allows). More details on the combat mechanics will be provided later. For new keyboard shortcuts read this topic.

- add:Animated panel change in the shipyard (info panels HULL, MOTOR, and MODULES slide up and are being replaced by the harpoon launcher(s) panel and vice versa).
- add:Shadow font in the shipyard.
- fix:While in the bar with the guest window open, pressing a function key to change location would cause the game to terminate.
- fix:Key F5 event was missing a delivery check.
- fix:After Sargeant Marcel's assassination in the bar, the dialogue in the docks ended with the game termination.
- fix:Fixed the last phase of the in-game update (sometimes it would wait for the server response instead of continuing to the main menu).
- fix:Lots of internal code improvements.