Hello and welcome to FreeDroidRPG's progress report for July and August! Development of the game is continuing vigorously, and the improvements are well-felt in all areas. Here are just a few examples:

• The two arenas in town have been merged into a grand redesigned arena, thanks to Xenux. A complete revamp of the way the arena works is in progress.
• A bug was fixed that cause some programs not to add heat to the player. Thanks to Xenux and Bob.
• fluzz fixed a possible build error caused by differences between the bundled Lua library used by the game and a system-wide install of an older version.
• Clicks on the skill window while the inventory is open no longer results in items under it being picked up, thanks to Bob.
• Xenux implemented item drop classes that can be defined per level, and that will be used by chests and barrels. This will allow more advanced or difficult levels to contain better equipment to aid the player.
• Multiple dialog improvements, fixes and code simplifications were made, by Matthias Krüger.
• Matthias Krüger and Xenux hunted down and slew several elusive bugs hiding in the deeper crevices of the codebase.

All in all, 38 changes were committed in July and August.

It is well worth mentioning the various works in progress undertaken by various members of the team. fluzz and GiBy are working on re-implementing support for and reviving the translation of the game to various languages; Infrared is working on making the current endgame smoother and more rewarding, as well as extending it according to the new background story proposal; and Justin Johnson is working on sound effect, possibly the area most in need of reworking in the game, which includes putting together a comprehensive sound design reference document and improving the underlying engine code.

We have also been contacted by the LibreTees project, a startup aimed at creating promotional wear and material for libre/free open-source projects; we will be working with them to bring the designs of FreeDroidRPG to a T-shirt near (and then on) you!

Finally, we want to thank every contributor, and to ask anyone with an idea for an improvement to contact us, take a look at the bug tracker, or delve into the code and resurface with an awesome patch. Who knows, you may even find your name in this list in the near future!

-The FreeDroidRPG Team

Hello, this is FreeDroidRPG's progress report for May and June! The most notable event that happened throughout this time period is that long-time project manager Arthur Huillet has officially left the position after nearly 8 years of leading the team and the game to the successful state they are in today. We thank Arthur for all those years of guidance and vast improvements, both to the game and to those who worked on it, and wish him all the best in all his future endeavors. It is unanimous among the team that the project simply will not be the same without him (the average developer age, for one); we can almost imagine the game itself protesting, trying to keep the memory of Arthur inside of it...

But, well, other things also happened! Here's a short list of the highlights:

• Xenux has worked to improve the game engine through converting various modules into Lua in order to make them more accessible to content creators. This includes events that are triggered when obstacles are interacted with by the player, reworking the item specifications and refactoring skills.
• Another variation of animated water has been added, as well as sand floor edges that will replace the current static water-and-dirt tiles, utilizing floor layers. Thanks to Infrared.
• An exploit was fixed that allowed finishing the dilithium quest without collecting sufficient crystals, by Matthias Krüger.
• Obstacles are now selected by their name rather than by a number assigned to them by the game, making it easier to add and manage obstacles for contributors and making the code a little more sane. By Xenux.
• The player now receives a proper explanation about the Red Guard escort in the town. Thanks to Xenux and Matthias Krüger.
• Eino Keskitalo detected and fixed a documentation error where the package libjpeg-dev wasn't included in the dependencies for Ubuntu.
• Many small improvements to various areas of the game world as well as dialogs and scripting, by Matthias Krüger and Xenux.

In total, 78 changes were committed in May and June.

Once again we wish to thank everyone who contributed, and ask anyone who wants to improve the game with anything from an idea through a patch to a typo fix to contact us, visit the bug tracker, or try your hand at fixing things in a patch. You may even find your name in this list some day!

-The FreeDroidRPG Team

Hello, and welcome to FreeDroidRPG's progress report for the months of March and April! We've had two stormy months, marked by a vicious attack by a devious hacker that added big, red frightening text to our home page, an attack which we've held off successfully thanks to the team's ingenuity and resourcefulness, and by a smooth transition to SourceForge's new git repository setup. The game itself wasn't left to gather dust on a shelf, either, and this is a list of some of the major changes:

• Mike Fleischmann changed the way the repair skill works: the chance of fully improving an item steadily increases with the skill level, and if the level is at its maximum, the player has a small chance of either damaging the item or improving it. Additionally, the repair manual (which upgrades the player's repair skill) has been released for sale by the game's NPCs.
• Until now, the only obstacles which could have been "opened" and have item contents were chests. This was changed and the first obstacles to show this are bookshelves, which can contain great (digitized) tomes of ancient lore... Just don't make too much of a mess when searching them. Thanks to Infrared, fluzz and Matthias Krüger.
• Are you a fan of diversity? Do you already know all the chord's to the town's music track by heart? Would you like to control the way your environment sounds? Well, Matthias Krüger's new experimental radio may be just the feature for you. Visit the nearest terminal and adjust your jam today!
• Miles McCammon added a description of the game's shops and their interface to the tutorial.
• In the level editor, a new action clears the redo queue, as is the norm in most applications. By Xenux.
• Many optimizations and cleanups in the game's code that ensure a smoother and more stable playing experience, by various members of the team.

All in all, 84 changes were committed during March and April.

As usual, we want to thank everyone who contributed to the game, and ask of anyone who has an idea, suggestion, query, bug report, patch, free time and will to help out to contact us, take a look at our bug & feature request tracker, or show us how you think things should be done with a patch. Who knows, you may even find you name on this list in the future!

-The FreeDroidRPG Team

Hello, this is FreedroidRPG's first progress report for the year 2013! The team is continuing work on the expansion of the game, and is looking for feedback about the game's playability from users. These are some of the changes that opened the year:

• fluzz implemented animated floor tiles; the first use for these is moving water, which can be found in the town for now.
• Various new versions of the droid nest have been implemented by Matthias Krüger. A variety of things can happen around these primed droid service stations...
• The autogun turret droid now uses its own model, set into the ground, by Infrared.
• Jann Horn optimized parts of the game engine, increasing its overall performance and speed.
• Matthias Krüger worked to improve the functionality of the various tests that ensure the integrity of the various aspects of the game.
• Many new lua functions have been implemented that allow greater flexibility and more complex scripting of events through dialogs and event triggers, for example in finishing quests through map labels and creating traps. Tread carefully! Thanks to Matthias Krüger, Arthur Huillet and Xenux.
• Many levels were tweaked to make the game world more immersive and expansive, as well as better utilize new features, thanks to Matthias Krüger.

As always, we wish to thank every contributor and encourage anyone with an idea, question, or a bug report or fix, to contact us, visit our bug & feature request tracker, or submit a patch to fix your favorite issue in the game. Who knows, you might find your name in this list in the future!

-The FreeDroidRPG Team

Hello to everyone following the FreedroidRPG project! 2013 just rolled in, and the team would like to wish you all a happy new year, free from the influence of nasty robots that want to kill everything. We wave goodbye to 2012, remembering it as a good year full of positive development. Here's just a short outline of the major changes that marked the closing of 2012:

• Matthias Krüger implemented the possibility to "sacrifice" a hacked bot and add its health to that of the player, if the player can win the hacking game again.
• Chandra, the town sage, is a little old, but Raymond Jennings helped restore some of his wisdom; he now detects properly whether or not the player is escorted by the Red Guard, and chooses his words accordingly.
• After the player teleports into town, it is now possible to reverse the teleportation cost-free by simply stepping into the town's refurbished teleporter room. The teleportation cloud turns blue when this service is available. Thanks to Xenux.
• Many levels were tweaked and improved iteratively by Matthias Krüger.
• Nick "Nario" Hagman has created a new music track for the game, and it can be heard in the Shelter level where Will Gapes can be found.
• Samuel Pitoiset improved and streamlined the code used for player input and rendering fonts and lighting.
• Xenux and Matthias Krüger worked to improve the numerous dialogs in the game both over and under the hood; from typos through grammatical or continuity errors and on to underlying Lua code.
• Miles McCammon added a tongue-in-cheek title screen that accompanies losing the game.
• Karol has set up shop inside the bowels of the Hell Fortress; Karol specializes in items related to crafting and building bots. Thanks to Matthias Krüger.
• Jeniffer, a new character, has been added, as well as an item associated with her. By Matthias Krüger.
• If a non-player character that is key for completion of the game is under threat of dying, and thus making the game unwinnable, the player is now notified through an event. Thanks to Miles McCammon.
• The game icon (the Paraicon) has been refreshed and now reflects the new model used by the player character. Thanks to Matthias Krüger.
• The dialog interface has been widgetized, which means it can be displayed faster and more aesthetically on larger screen resolutions, through much work by fluzz.
• A new Lua function has been added to the dialogs that allows timed events to occur after a number of seconds, and is used in Michelangelo's dialog. By Xenux.
• Michael Mendelson found and fixed a memory leak, and consequentially made the art of debugging a little easier.

That closed 2012, and now this is the team's New Year's Resolution for 2013:

• Make the most super mega awesome free open-source game the world has ever seen
• Try really hard not to cause a robot apocalypse in the process

And so, as always, we want to thank every contributor for their work, and alongside wishes of a year filled with peace and joy and friendship and fun playing FreedroidRPG, we ask everyone who wants to improve the game, whether you have a patch, a suggestion or just an idea, to talk to us about it, to make an official ticket or to do it yourself with a patch. We are currently in need of someone proficient in C to work with fluzz on the engine code, as well as to review and give the OK to the patches submitted on ReviewBoard. Who knows, you may find your name here on this list in the future!

-The FreeDroidRPG Team