New launcher, extra features for Saved Games

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As some of you probably already noticed I’ve released an update for both the Launcher, SP and Beta mappack. According to the collected statistics (available here) many people are using the Save Game feature. While it’s a great feature unfortunately it causes problems. First, a game bug messes up the Spells panel when you load a game for the first time. Second, the launcher can’t detect which level you’re playing on, it only sees the last level you’ve started normally, that may cause problems. The new launcher has a solution for this. From now on it comes with a Panel Fix feature that fixes the Spells panel when you load a saved game. Second, on levels with Ghost Army you’ll now see a message (only in games saved after the patch) telling you a hotkey that can reactivate it. This feature can be used to force any Guest Spell to the panel in case the launcher or you accidentally set it to a wrong spell. The hotkeys are (can only be used if you load a saved game for the first time after the panel fix or when enabled in the Options menu of the Launcher):

  • Ctrl+Shift+F9: Activate Ghost Army
  • Ctrl+Shift+F10: Activate Bloodlust
  • Ctrl+Shift+F11: Activate Teleport
  • Ctrl+Shift+F12: Activate Armageddon

Later this feature might be used to allow multiple Guest Spells on a single level.

This patch also do a small change on Two on Four. When you lose all your boats you no longer simply get a new one, instead Chumara will do vehicle patrols around your main and the empty island and you have to take the boats from them. Grass Worlds changes can be found on the Survey screen.

Note: Since the update mechanism of the launcher changed in version 1.5, older launchers will no longer receive SP and MP mappack updates (however they still receive Beta mappack updates). You’ll be unable to play Grass Worlds once the Beta is closed. It’s therefore recommended that you update your launcher as soon as possible in order to continue to receive mappack updates. If you’re using version 1.3 or older you have to start the update progress twice to receive the latest version.

New Block, new features!

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In every block, we try to invent/develop new possible game mechanics via creative use of Populous’ game mechanics and the advantages of the usage of our launcher. After me and Dezsike had a brainstorm this day, we decided to make the support of having multiple guest spells at the same time. Because we cannot add a new slot to the spell panel, Dezsike created some hot keys to allow switch between the four available guest spells. (In single player games, we count the Illusion [previously known as ghost army] as the fourth guest spell). You simply press one of those hot keys and the spells will be swapped. Every map which allowed to gather more than one guest spell at the same time, will tell the required hot key combinations. The first appearance of this function will be during the Beta of the Dirt Worlds. Some of the maps are now in development by Impboy but me and Dezsike will start the work in the beginning of June. Be patient! I guarantee that you will enjoy this part of the DW more, than the previously two block together.

Server Upgrades

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The website will be down for a few hours at various times within the next 48 hours. The server is getting an upgrade from CentOS 5 to CentOS 6, this will bring in performance boosts across the board and should result in a much more streamlined Populous experience.

Apologies for any inconvenience!

Launcher update – Major background changes

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While the changes I’ve made in the launcher is invisible to the end user it’s an important update to make the launcher work on picky PCs. First of all it fixes a bug, the update data is no longer moved to the Recycle Bin on Windows 7. Second, the most important change is that it now uses a dll instead of an exe file to apply the memory hacks – hopefully it will now work on all PCs without problems. This change required me to change the auto update system. Because of this, the previous launcher (1.3 upd. 1) and all older versions will use the old update system to update to version 1.3 upd. 2. This is an intermediate version that still using the exe for memory hacks but it has the new auto update system implemented. Using that it should immediately warn you (if enabled) about another update that will update to version 1.4, this version uses the dll to apply the memory hacks. The Force ghost army feature is temporarily disabled as it’s not compatible with the dll at the moment – if for any reason the automatic check still not working for you let us know.

An update is also released for Classic Worlds, changes:

  • Level 1 – The Exploration Begins: Minor changes in the Dakini script – unnoticeable to user
  • Level 2 – Power of Faith: Preachers teleporting directly to your base removed
  • Level 2 – Power of Faith: Added a stone head that gives two shots of Swarm – appears when the connection is restored
  • Level 4 – Lightning Eel: Minor changes in the Chumara script – unnoticeable to user
  • Level 4 – Lightning Eel: The Dakini Shaman no longer takes part in the first attack
  • Level 8 – Legend of Kikikini: Dakini patrol points near the vault changed to prevent Matak constantly swarm them.
  • Level 8 – Legend of Kikikini: Chumara no longer sends all people to a point inside their base
  • Level 8 – Legend of Kikikini: Fixed a navigation bug for Matak that forced them through a cliff instead of a better walkable path
  • Level 8 – Legend of Kikikini: The boat attack is now in an infinite loop – if it fails for any reason (for example the Shaman is dead or busy, not enough boats or Chumara guards kills the Shaman) they’ll try again and again until the erosion is successful.
  • Update: Level 4 – Lightning Eel: Fixed a possible hang, reduced the Dakini forces and Firewarriors disabled (upon user requests).

A patch is being prepared for Grass Worlds that adds a beginning FlyBy on all levels and addresses gameplay issues on Forging Alliances, The Traitor and Taitaki’s Introduction, it should be released before the end of the week. It’s suggested that you turn on Auto check for updates in the launcher to be notified immediately. Update: The patch is released, full change log can be viewed on the Survey screen.

The Grass Worlds Beta is about to be closed soon. Don’t worry, as soon as it closes it will be available in the final mappack so you can continue to play after a short download. Please note that games saved in the beta will still work after downloading the final version, however it’ll use the beta scripts as it’s saved into the save game file. This may cause problems with the language file so it’s possible that wrong texts will appear in those saved games.

Beta patch released

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I’m happy to announce that the beta patch announced earlier is now released. Unfortunately some of the promised updates couldn’t be included but finally you can play Evil Land with a fully functional AI. Please note however that it’s not well tested and balanced yet so it most likely will be very difficult comparing to the block difficulty (medium levels).

I’ve found a critical bug in the auto-update mechanism of the launcher! The launcher patch has fixed it. Even though people opted into the Public Beta will see that the Beta Patch is installed actually it won’t get installed because of this bug. Once the launcher update is installed you must click the Update button again to get the Beta Patch.

I’ve recently noticed that the latest version of Avast Antivirus prevents the updates from being installed because it launches the update application (upd.exe) in sandbox mode. To ensure that the updates can be installed and the game can be successfully launched please exclude your Populous folder from being sandboxed.

Major Patch is coming this week!

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I’m glad to announce that the new Grass Worlds beta patch is almost ready. Most of the major bugs will be solved and there will be some minor changes.
- Evil Land will have an AI and an unique gameplay mechanism!
- Taitaki’s introduction will be changed a little, Chumara will actually summon Taitaki.
- The tree gathering problem in Allies Torn Apart possibly got fixed. (After the patch, please send us more feedbacks related to this problem)
- The traitor will get its final (unique) terrain style!
- New patrol points will be added on most levels instead of auto defense (auto defense will still be active on most levels!)
- The Sabotage will now continue properly when Matak dies, Chumara will give up after a while if Dakini can’t kill them.
- Dual color tree technology will be applied on the Block 1 levels where suitable (apart from Land of the Wilds and Legend of Kikikini where it’s originally introduced and tested earlier)
- Update (by Dezsike): The launcher will have a new feature to force Ghost Army when the automatic detection fails. WARNING! Don’t use it when there’s a question mark in the Guest Spell slot! It either means that the automatic Ghost Army patch worked or there’s a different guest spell available on this level. In the second case you won’t be able to use the guest spell if you force Ghost Army.

I have an other announcement! Our old site is now closed because the migration of the content is now finished and most of the contents is out of date. All links to the old site is now redirected to the new site! If you have a link to an old content please update it. The news archive may be available in the future.

Hotfix for Level 7: Land of the Wilds

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First, let me apologize for the long delay. Life (School, Job, ect.) is taking the time from Hobbies like Devil Worlds. Fortunately next week will be a break in Shcool so I hopefully can finish the AI of Evil Land.

We’ve got an e-mail recently with a bug occurred in Land of the Wilds, when Chumara supposed to rebuild they wanted to access the main island caused all the braves slowly died. It’s caused by a wrong co-ordinate in the script. It’s now corrected in version 1.5 upd. 2 and I’ve also removed the Shaman’s tower because they always wants to build it whatever I do and when I disable the main drum tower they wants to go to the location of the prison.

While the launcher no longer collects feedbacks from Classic Worlds (because it’s implemented for the Beta test since the most bugs and balance problems will occur during the tests) you’re still welcome to contact us if you found something.

Grass Worlds feedbacks

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It’s good to see we are getting feedbacks from the beta short after we opened. We’ll try to respond all of them to make sure we dealing with the issues.

Bugs: If the shaman is in a tower (near or beyond the stonehead), she won\’t heal from time to time after she got attacked by fire warriors.

I regret to hear that you found a bug. Unfortunately, It’s a bug in the Populous game mechanism which we can’t solve by hacks yet. It might be appear in the base game (Populous The Beginning, Populous The Beginning Undiscovered worlds) too.

Using the earthquake and the landbridge spell, this level (Teamwork Forever) isn\’t really hard, you can simply win it by camping + swamp [...]

The Block 2: Grass Worlds contains levels with medium difficulty. The basic difficulty level will increase in every block from block 1 to block 5. If you think the normal mode is too easy for you, you can try the strong mode option (or the hard mode which will be added in the future). There might be problems with the difficulty balances so the maps might be less easier or more stronger in the future. Don’t forget: all kind of feedback is useful!

Game froze when I sent 140 men againts the enemy shaman

It’s might be another bug of the basic game. Please send us more feedback when the game freeze. If this issue doesn’t appear on the other maps, we may can solve it.

[...]after the summoning of the angel of death, the allies still behave as partners?[...] (The Traitor)

Alliances can’t be broke during a single player level, as you can do in multiplayer games, because you have to set the alliances in the HDR file. It’s a limit of basic Populous what we can’t solve. There might be some change in the scripts in the future for the better simulation of the broken alliance. On the next level they will be enemies.

if you clear Green quickly you have to wait forever before you get the landbridge. (Sabotage)

There will be a solution in the next patch. The Matak may become more stronger and an event listener will help to solve this problem the Dakini will finish off Chumara properly, executing a stronger periodic attack while disabling the attacks from Chumara that caused the Dakini attacks to fail as it forced them to defend the base (edited by Dezsike).

Upcoming features
-2 new terrain style will be added during the beta
-Some fix on the implemented terrains

Patch update

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The description for patch 1.04 in the downloads section has been updated at the request of IncaWarrior. Please note the change and familiarise yourself with the possible issues of playing Populous with people on different patch versions.

Grass Worlds Beta is officially OPEN!

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Please apologise for the delay. We’we worked hard in the past few hours to bring you Block 2: Grass Worlds. The patch for Classic Worlds is also released that addresses few bugs and do technical corrections.

Known issues with Grass Worlds:

  • Level 14: Allies Torn Apart is missing – Please apologise for that, I don’t have permission from the project leader to release it. It will be added later is now released and fully functional.
  • Level 16: Evil Land has no AI yet. I’ve not included it as it’s still very buggy to date but I’ve included a sneak preview in the Beta pack so you can see how it will look like.
  • Level 10: Forging Alliances: The AI don’t know the current time left so it can’t increase it when Chumara gets hurt, they’ll have a weaker army if you let Matak in.
  • Level 11: Teamwork Forever: Chumara simply builds where they find space. I can’t really control where the AI should build so to reserve space build a “wall” from huts.

Good Luck and Have Fun playing Devil Worlds. Remember, your feedback is very important so please take the survey after playing – it’s entirely anonymous, only your input and the version numbers are sent. Thank you. Your feedbacks are also welcome via comments on the website.

Update 1: If the survey screen don’t appear or you encounter a launcher crash during the launch progress please opt out of the beta, restart the launcher and opt in again.

Update 2: If you have an old launcher that doesn’t support the beta test click the Update button to update your launcher. Once updated you can opt in to the beta test and click the Update button again to download Grass Worlds.

Update 3: If you don’t have Ghost Army on a level where it’s supposed to be please ensure that the memedit.exe can be started by the launcher (if it can’t be started you’ll see the level IDs instead of the numbers on the list). Some antivirus programs may prevent this, in this case add your Populous folder to the excludes. If you have Reduce Memory Hacks enabled in the launcher disable it or wait 5 minutes. It should be look like this when you cast the swarm anytime anywhere on Forging Alliances: