GearHead2 v0.531, Fully Completable

GearHead2, the only roguelike game in which you can be a lawyer and a
pirate at the same time, has just passed a big milestone. The RPG
campaign is now completable, meaning that you can play through a full
13 episode campaign of randomly generated giant robot action. If
you've avoided trying this game so far because it didn't have an
ending then this is a great time to start.

In celebration of this momentous event, I'm holding a competition.
Anyone who finishes the game before January 31st and sends me their
victory file will receive a postcard from Korea. Save files from
previous versions should be compatible with this release; see the
GearHead blog (www.gearheadrpg.com) for some caveats and instructions
on how to restart a stalled story.

Here's the complete list of changes:
- It's harder to score critical hits against skilled pilots
(effects.pp)
- It's harder to dodge close combat melee attacks (effects.pp)
- BLIND condition goes away at end of encounter (arenaplay.pp)
- Reorganized the core story components a bit
- NPCs gain direct experience faster than the PC (action.pp)
- In major battles, grunt NPCs may get custom mecha (wmonster.pp)
- NPCs will tend to take the most expensive mecha available
(wmonster.pp)
- Ejected NPCs will never appear on the map (action.pp)
- Personal enemies get NEMESIS in search description (interact.pp)
- NPCs now get equipped at deployment (arenaplay.pp)
- Added Bargol, Phoenix, Corraich, Kraken, all Savin variants from GH1
- Casual skill use uses team skill (action.pp)
- Core story conclusion marked by #C tag (playwright.pp)
- Added SetMood ASL command (arenascript.pp)
- Added Thankful attitude (playwright.pp)
- PC's faction stored in adventure at startup (navigate.pp)
- SNIPER only affects ballistic and beamgun weapons (effects.pp)
- Changed the way ARMORPIERCING works (effects.pp)
- Added UNCHARTABLE scene tag (randmaps.pp)
- Quest related treasure should be better than before (navigate.pp)
- NPC Mecha max value increased from Opt x3 to Opt x4 (wmonster.pp)
- Added Ninja, Lightning, Devil themes
- All deadends reported so far should be resolved
- Status effects only affect models which are on the map (arenacfe.pp)
- Subweapons of inventory items won't have ammo explosions (action.pp)
- Hidden units won't be revealed by damaging effects (effects.pp)
- Destroyed mecha should not be able to charge (arenacfe.pp)
- Should not lose HP from hunger or morale (ghchars.pp)
- Fixed crash when world map travel impossible (pcaction.pp)
- Close combat attacks apply full Spot Weakness rank to damage
(effects.pp)
- XNPCDesc now includes NoFac tag (interact.pp)
- Added NeverMet attitude (playwright.pp)



GH2 is available in both console and graphical versions. In addition
to the precompiled binaries for Windows, you can compile the game on
Linux, FreeBSD, and MacOS X. As usual all files may be downloaded from
SourceForge:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/gearhead2

GearHead Blog:
http://www.gearheadrpg.com/

Try it out, and let me know what you think.

- Joseph Hewitt
--
Comics> http://www.ataraxiatheatre.com/
GearHead> http://www.gearheadrpg.com/
GHForum> http://www.gearheadrpg.com/forum/