Realmz
Version History 
Realmz
Version History
What's new in 7.1.2
• Fixed a problem with loading saved games that are really large (War in Sword Lands In Particular) loosing info.
• Windows Version 7.1.2 fixes banking as well as a number of other game save problems. It also includes support for the two newest sceanrios.
What's new in 7.1.1
• Fixed a few scripting errors.
What's new in 7.1
• Added support for the latest two scenarios "Half Truth" and "War in the Sword Lands"
• Fixed a few scripting errors.
What's new in 7.0.9
• Fixed a problem with Save Vs. values of characters. Some would get overwritten and thus be out of legal bounds.
What's new in 7.0.8
• Updated the order form and screen to reflect the new price cut on Divinity.
• Fixed a problem with creating characters after you created a minstril.
• Fixed a scripting problem with branching on check versus quests flags.
What's new in 7.0.7
• It was possible for the list of allies to get messed up and it would delete all your allies when in fact it should have only deleted one.
What's new in 7.0.6
• If Captain Ramius falls in battle in a special battle in Mirthril Vault it would stop working correctly.
What's new in 7.0.3
• The ATI Video card used in many of the newer Macs does not handle CopyBits with Transparency very well. As such, I changed the way spell targeting was handled to account for this. I also changed the icon dragging routine in the Shop/Trade screens to account for this.
What's new in 7.0
• The vast majority of the changes are under the hood and have to deal with making the code base compatible with Windows 95/98/NT4.
• Updated the land graphics for the plains and underground tile sets.
What's new in 6.2
• Made some interface changes to the Divinity DEMO to make it easier to look up information on the scripting codes. Check it out!
• The preference "Show Next Round Notification" has been changed to "Show Additional Notifications"
Some machines have been reported as locking up when the small notification window appears after each round of combat, during item identification or when casting spells that affect all enemies. If this applies to you, you can avoid this problem by turning this preference OFF.
• Many internal additions to allow for more variety of game play by scenarios currently in development as well as 3rd party scenarios.
What's new in 6.1.2
• Fixed a problem with not getting the a map in the map menu if it is the 20th on the list.
What's new in 6.1.1
• Some machines would encounter a lot of type 1 crashes and that should now be fixed.
• At times characters would become corrupt and show many strange problems. That is also now fixed.
What's new in 6.0.3
• Holding "Option" when launching Realmz will now skip the screen fade again.
• Scrolling Text outside of the map viewer will no longer lock up the game.
• Fumbled weapons lost during battles that only award victory points will no longer be lost to the void.
• Increased the maximum spell level of the new Minstrel Caste.
• Corrected a dialog problem with scenario registration.
What's new in 6.0
• Released "Trouble in the Sword Lands" scenario. This scenario is easily the largest scenario ever released by Fantasoft and is sure to keep you up way past nappy time.
• You can now play third party scenarios created with Divinity directly in Realmz 6.0 or higher. To find out more about where to get third party scenarios or how to may your own point your web browser to www.fantasoft.com and enter the Games section and head for the Realmz section.
• Added two new menu options in the "Adventure" menu to allow you to install or remove third party scenario titles. See the chapter "Making Your Own Scenarios" for more info on this subject.
• Added a new Caste: Minstrel. For more info about the Minstrel Caste see the chapter "Character Castes"
• You can now rename your characters in the "View Character Info" screen. Just click on the characters name in the upper right hand corner and type your new name.
• Helpless characters and monsters will now be marked with a blue background during battle.
• Characters and monsters that are off screen during combat will be denoted with a hash mark near the edge of the screen in their general direction. This is an easy way for you to tell where everybody is relative to the current character.
There is also a new preference for turning this option on or off if you don't like it.
• In addition, music in formats other than MOD or MAD are now supported. You can now play music in S3M, MTM, MED, XM, IT as well. However, it may not work 100% with these new formats so you will have to trust in luck for any particular song to work or not.
Music will now pick up where it left off when switching between areas.
What's new in 5.1.6
• Mostly minor changes on code that works behind the scenes.
What's new in 5.1
• Changed the way the Music Menu works. Each music selection can now be in one of three states. You may have to reselect your music you want to play as a result of this change the first time you run a saved game.
• Added a column to the "Spell Casting Ability" table to show which caste can or can't use scroll cases and the type of scroll case they can use.
• Data files for two new land types. Swamp and Desert. These files are used in a limited fashion in the newest version of some scenarios. They are also used by "Divine Right LE"
• Corrected a number of minor bugs.
What's new in 5.0.5
• Changed the caste "Berzerker" a bit. They can now no longer use leather or chain armor. They can however now use small and medium sized shields and are resistant to fire.
• Fixed a number of problems with aging as well as added support for magic items that can cause you to age or get younger. If you download the latest versions of the scenarios you can find a few Aging and Youth potions sprinkled about as well.
• Elves and Vampires will now get 100% of the victory points they deserve. A bug caused them to suffer from the "Over Age Penalty" thus reducing the victory points awarded them by 33%.
• Fixed a bug that would cause some castes to not get the correct amount of stamina during levelup.
• Other Minor Bug fixes and tweaks. (As always)
What's new in 5.0.4
• Fixed a problem that would cause the game to crash a lot with type 1, 2, 3, 10 and 12 errors.
•A number of other bug fixes dealing with spell casting and items.
• Improved the item information screen.
What's new in 5.0.1
• Some kills in combat did not add to your prestige. That is fixed.
• Reveal Friends now works properly again.
• Fixed a problem with the "Identify" buttons in the treasure collection screen.
• Re-registration should now work properly on all computers.
• Places some limitations onto the number of spells that can be cast per round by various castes. See below table for current values.
What's new in 5.0
• New Pricing Structure for Game and Scenarios.
• Special Note: Characters and saved games from versions prior to 5.0 are not compatible. You will not be able to use any of your old characters and saved games with version 5.0 or higher. Major changes have taken place in both game play and in the way things are done under the hood. These changes make it impossible to make old characters / saved games to work or be updated to the new format. Onward and upward.
• As far as game play is concerned, the largest change you will notice right away is the addition of a lot of new castes. See the chapter "Creating Characters" for more info on the specific castes.
• All newly created characters will start with basic equipment.
• All races and castes have a starting and maximum number of attacks per round. For more info on this see tables "8.0 Attacks Per Round By Caste" and "8.1 Attacks Per Round By Race" in the Appendix of tables.
• Castes capable of casting spells that have multiple attacks per round will be able to use either melee or spell casting abilities for all attacks.
• Swapping positions with another character during combat now requires 5 movement points.
• Characters are now affected by age. As they age they may gain or loose attributes. To see how age affects any specific race click the "View Aging" button during the selection of a characters race during character creation -OR- in the character statistics screen.
Each race has a maximum age they can attain. When your characters reach that age they will NOT die. (I did not want the bevy of complaints that would cause.)
Once they reach the highest age group they will no longer be affected by age as they grow older. The purpose of this is to reflect the changes your character would experience over time but I did not want to actually kill off characters when they got too old. If you like to play realistically then just end the characters career.
In addition, some monsters can now cause you to age on a successful hit. As an example, if you are hit in combat by a ghost, your character will age slightly. Just how much they will age depends on how large an attack the creature has and toughness of the creature.
Besides aging due to natural causes and as a result of encounters with supernatural creatures you can also age due to spell effects.
The Adrenaline spell will cause a character to age. The higher the power level of the spell the more he will age.
Most aging due to magical effects is uniform across races. As an example, a Goblin which can live for about 45 years will age only 75% as much due to magical affects as a Hobgoblin which can live to be 60.
• Victory Point Penalty For Overage Characters. Characters that are beyond their maximum age for their race will be penalized one third of victory points awarded. i.e. They will only get 66% of victory points they would normally get if they were below their maximum age.
• Race and Caste restrictions on items are now back in. Some items can only be used by specific races and castes. I had to remove some of those limitations a while back in order to keep things working but they are now back in.
• You can now view your characters base aging, caste and race adjustments from the "Character Record" screen. These stats are what was applied when they were initially created.
• Replaced the Enchanter spell "Discover Invisible Objects" with "Destroy or Turn Undead" This spell will allow the enchanter an attempt to turn undead as if they were a priest. No victory points are awarded for turning or destroying undead in this way.
• Note: Warlocks gain the ability to turn undead at higher levels. Pixies and Vampires each gain a very small chance to turn low level undead regardless of their caste. The odds of them turning undead of any real power is almost nil. This ability will not get stronger as they gain in levels unless they happen to be a Priest, Crusader, Cardinal or Warlock.
What's new in 4.3.5
• Most of the changes are minor bug fixes. No major interface or feature changes.
What's new in 4.3
• Added new races. All races now have a Maximum value they can attain on any particular attribute. With the addition of 10 new races many of the tables in the Appendix of Tables grew too large to be practical. I removed those tables. However, all that information plus other stats are displayed right on screen when you select your race during character creation.
• All new character portraits and battle icons. If you want info on the old portraits or icons check our web site under the area "Realmz Portraits.
• Your character will now change facing depending on which way they moved last in battle.
• Redesigned the character race and battle icon selection screens during character creation due to all the new races and portraits.
• New Table 8.1 in "Appendix of Tables" that shows the initial and maximum attacks per round by race.
• Race limitations of items has been removed. This is one bad side effect of the addition of new races. In order to keep the items data compatible, I had to remove any limitations of items vs. race. As an example, in the past, two handed swords could not be wielded by very short races. Limitations of that nature no longer exist.
• Now Rogues, Sorcerers, Priests and Enchanters gain extra attacks as they go up levels just like Monks, Fighters, Archers and Crusaders. The amount that Sorcerers, Priests and Enchanters go up is very slight. See Table 8.0 in the chapter "Appendix of Tables" for more info.
• The maximum number of attacks per round is now 6. However, the maximum attacks per round is now limited by race and caste. Most races have a maximum number of attacks per round of 4 but some can go as high as 5 or 6. In addition, some races start out with up to 2 attacks per round. See Table 8.0 and 8.1 in the chapter "Appendix of Tables" for more info.
• Archers now gain a bonus to damage with missile weapons that increases with skill level. The bonus is a random amount from 1 to Skill Level/2. Example: A 10th Level Archer will do normal bow damage plus 1 to 5 points of damage. A 16th Level Archer will do normal damage plus 1 to 8 points of damage etc.
• Made some small changes to clean up some OS 8 compatibility issues.
• When you target spells, all participants in the battle will show which side they are on while you target the spell.
• Expanded the bonus given for brawn and agility. Before it only covered characters with these stats as high as 21. It now covers them all the way to 25 which is the max. Also made a few corrections to some stats shown in the manual. Some bonuses given to some races were different than what was stated in the manual.
• Changed a few of the preferences. Got rid of 'Smooth Battles' and added 'Spell Casting on Allies in Camp' This should help make it more stable on most machines.
- Smooth Battles. This option was always flaky at best so I pulled the plug on it.
- Spell Casting on Allies in Camp. Casting spells that affect the entire party and all allies seems to cause the game to crash on some people. Why? Good question. It should not and I can't get it to happen to me so I can't really track it down.
If you want certain spells to affect your allies while in camp, select "Cast Spell on Allies in Camp" from the preferences. If you find the game crashes on you when you cast spells with this option on, then shut it off.
• With the addition of some of the changes above I had to modify the character file format. When you load a character that's of the old format, Realmz will convert them to the new format. i.e. It will do its best at changing some of the old statistics into the new ones. Of course there is always a chance for something to be off a bit but it should not be too bad.
What's new in 4.2.2
• Updated the order form in Chapter 3 to show the new Griloch's Revenge scenario as well as the new Fantasoft CD-ROM.
The CD has all the current versions of all our games, Realmz, Exile I, Exile II, Monkey Shines as well as all the tip files for Realmz and anything else we could scrape together such as the Realmz book of Items, Book of Beasts and Book of Characters.
• Added small icons to the right of your characters names to show any bad effects they may be suffering from. See the chapter titled "Conditions" for more information about this new feature.
What's new in 4.2.1
• Added new graphics for the buildings. I like them a lot better than the old ones. Note: If you play any old saved games they graphics for some spots may be screwed up. The game will still play fine, but some buildings may not look correct. If you begin a new adventure then everything should look fine.
• Special characters that can cast spells will no longer forget that they have spells and will continue to cast spells as long as they have the spell points to do so.
• Added a new preference, "Faster Spell Resolution". With this option ON, spells that affect large numbers of creatures will resolve a lot faster. It will probably not give you enough time to see how much damage each individual creature takes, but in battle with 50+ creatures, it will take a lot less time if you cast an "Affect all enemies" type of spell. In addition, you can toggle this preference on/off via the keyboard using Command-H.
• Enemies will now be a little more selective about WHO they attack when they can't see their original target. i.e. If your Priest is being chased by a pack of ghouls and he moves around a corner and is no longer in site of the ghouls, they will turn around and attack somebody they CAN see.
• New characters with a very low strength will no longer get a huge attack bonus.
• The game will no longer crash if a trap kills your character while attempting to pick a lock.
• Command-K will now refresh the entire screen. This is the same as selecting this option from the Preferences menu but it lacked a keyboard equivalent until now.
• Bunch of other minor bug fixes.
• Added a new LEVEL UP button in the Realmz Character Editor. This lets you boost a character one level each time you click the button.
What's new in 4.2
•A pile of small things only noticed by the most hard-core players.
• Fixed the DETECT button problem in the treasure screen.
• Retreating characters will no longer move through large creatures.
• Made adjustments so characters over level 127 will be treated correctly.
What's new in 4.1.2
• No more negative victory points awarded for extremely large battles.
• Fixed the problem with scroll cases and parchment and other supply items getting deleted if you begin a new adventure immediately after starting up Realmz.
• Characters will now swap positions when they are in AUTO mode in an effort to get to their target. Before you could only SWAP POSITIONS when in manual mode. This really helps the AUTO/ANIMATED characters stay in the battle.
• If your character goes above level 127 or gets an Armor Rating above 127 it will now be displayed correctly. They were always treated correctly as far as the numbers are concerned in battle, but it will now be displayed correctly as well.
What's new in 4.1.1
• Fixed a major bug that would cause characters and monsters to hill an opponent in battle a lot less often than they should have.
What's new in 4.1
• Fixed a lot of little things that went wrong during the update to 4.0. Of course there may still be some so if you see anything that still looks wrong, please let me know so I can get it fixed. Don't assume somebody else has told me.
• Changed the spell selection costs a bit. The upper level spells now require less spell selection points than before.
• You can now swap positions during combat with any other character/friend who you are adjacent to. If you attempt to move into an adjacent character or friend who is one square in size, you will be asked if you want to attack that character/friend or if you want to swap positions with them. If you do not want to do either, you can hit the Esc (Escape) key to back out. This makes it easier for those in back to push to the front where all the grunt work is. If your friend is a two square creature or larger, you can't swap positions with them.
• Eliminated the preference "Never attack friends" This option is now obsolete with the change above. If you are asked if you want to "Attack your friend" or "Swap Positions" you can hit the Esc (Escape) key to back out altogether.
• Any allies with the party can now be affected by spells while in camp under certain conditions. If you cast an area spell, they will be affected. If you cast a spell that affects all friends, they will be affected. If you cast a spell that increases the number of targets as the power level goes up, they will ALL be affected if you cast it at a power level 1 greater than the number of party members you have. i.e. If you have 6 members in your party and you cast a power level 6 Invisible skin, only the 6 party members will be affected. If you cast it at power level 7, ALL of the allies will also be affected no matter how many you have.
• Changed the way spells that have a duration work. Now, instead of a creature/characters taking damage for each step they take inside the area of effect of such spells, they only take damage from those spells one time per turn. They still take damage from the spell at the time it's cast and at the end of each round. i.e. Each spell can cause damage up to 3 times the round it is cast and 2 times per round for each round thereafter.
If multiple spells overlap, you will take damage for each spell separately, but only once for each spell as you move through the area and once again for each at the end of each round.
This should make the game a lot tougher as well as make special friends a lot less likely to kill themselves.
• Physical attacks are now considered both sharp AND blunt attacks for the purpose of determining if you can hit a specific creature. Example: A giant slug requires a sharp weapon in order to be hurt. You can now hurt them with either sharp weapons OR any physical attack.
• Changed the way creatures will behave when they attempt to attack a creature that requires a blunt/sharp/special/magical weapon. If the creature requires a blunt/sharp weapon to be hit and they have the wrong type, they will disarm themselves after the first attack and continue attacking using physical attacks. i.e. They will not sit there and attempt to kill something they will never be able to hit.
• Changed the way AUTO characters will behave when they attempt to attack a creature that requires a blunt/sharp/special/magical weapon. If the creature requires a type of weapon or special weapon the character does not have in hand, they will loose AUTO status after the first attack. That way you get control back before they try and pummel something 5 times in a row for no reason.
What's new in 4.0.1
• Added the ability to for the USER to redefine character races/caste names as well as rename all spell names. i.e. If you don't like any of the new names in version 4.0, you can now just type in the names you do like. You can do this by selecting EDIT RACE/CASTE NAMES or EDIT SPELL NAMES from the preference menu.
In order to do this you MUST place the file "Custom Names" in your Realmz Data Files folder. The "Custom Names" file should be included as part of the 4.0 to 4.0.1 updater. If you don't have a copy, you can get one at our web site. http://www.fantasoft.com
• Fixed a few errors with generating new characters. A few bad statistics were weeded out.
• Do to the renaming/moving of the spells in version 4.0 a few encounters did not work right in version 4.0 of some of the scenarios. I have fixed those I know about in version 4.0.1 of the scenarios.
• Version 4.0 of the White Dragon Scenario had a big flaw in the Armor Ratings of monsters. Those have been fixed in version 4.0.1 of the scenario and you may want to get version 4.0.1 of White Dragon if you plan on playing that scenario.
• Added the Registration/Order Form for Monkey Shines (Our newest game) to this manual.
• Aborted spells now only return 2/3 of the spell points originally used to cast the spell. You know why don't you, Claus?
What's new in 4.0
• The term CLASS is now referred to as CASTE.
- The old Mage Class is now Sorcerer Caste
- The old Ranger Class is now Archer Caste
- The old Paladin Class is now Crusader Caste
- The old Cleric Class is now Priest Caste
- The old Thief Class is now Rogue Caste
NOTE: If you don't like these names, you can change them back by selecting "Edit Race/Caste Names" from the preferences menu.
• With the addition of some of the changes below I had to modify the character file format. When you load a character that's of the old format, Realmz will convert them to the new format. i.e. It will do its best at changing some of the old statistics into the new ones. Of course there is always a chance for something to be off a bit but it should not be too bad.
• Had to make some major changes to one specific type of item, namely scrolls (NOT Scroll Cases). If you have not noticed already you will shortly. When you load a saved game it eliminates any scrolls your characters had. If you find any new scrolls in the future they should be OK. For reasons too complicated to go into here I could not make a fix for scrolls so your old scrolls must go to the great eternal void. (That's on top of a pile of socks that disappear in your dryer.)
• Some abilities have been eliminated. Stuff like HIDE IN SHADOWS and MOVE SILENTLY etc. have been trashed. (Never used them anyway) Also, those abilities that do remain are now common to ALL castes. However, even though all castes can now Pick a Lock etc., the Rogue is still the only caste that stands a chance of performing some of these tasks with any real zeal.
• Added a preference that will show detailed item info below the name of the item in the items/shop/trade screens. For more info on this see the chapter named "Preferences • General Info" This is pretty nice.
• Big time change in the way characters select spells. Instead of having them get to pick from X number of spells as they gain levels, you can now choose any spells you want until you run out of spell selection points. For more info on this change see the chapter named "Spells • Scrolls" Its all explained in more detail there.
• Changed the names/workings of some spells. You may want to breeze over the chapter "Spell List" to see if there is anything there that interests you.
NOTE: If you don't like these names, you can change them back by selecting "Edit Race/Caste Names" from the Preferences menu.
• Added two new statistics. Attack Bonus and Defense Bonus. These are really just composite values that give you a general idea of how easy/hard it is for your character to hit/be hit in melee combat. Higher is better. They take into account your characters attributes, magical abilities, items worn, conditions etc. etc.
• Changed the way armor works. The statistic that shows how hard it is to hit a character/monster is now called "Armor Rating" Armor Rating or AR for short is a value that ranges from 0 to 100. 0 (Zero) being the worst while 100 being the best. It is possible to fall below 0 or go above 100 in extreme cases, but for the most part it will be a value from 0 to 100.
Due to the change in AR, most items that provided armor protection have been modified. i.e. A suit of plate armor now provides +27 to your AR vs. what it did for your old Armor Category (AC). As a general rule, items now add 3 times the value to your AR as they subtracted to your old AC. (Confused?)
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