April 2016 update now ready!

Welcome to the April 2016 build! A massive 83 bug fixes, updates and improvements were made to Lode Runner Online: The Mad Monks' Revenge rewrite in the last month alone!

This month sees a whole whack of new features and improvements, along with lodes of fixes to further match this game to the Original.

This monthly post covers the highlighs from the last month of work. If you like to read the weekly update posts featured in this build, you can find them here: weeks #13, #14, #15, #16 and #17

What are you waiting for? Head on over to the downloads page page and get a copy!

Special thanks for this build go to Leandro, Howie, Jeffrey, Jared, Jayde, Paige and Alexis. 90% of all bug fixes were found by testers which is terrific - thanks to all of you who took the time to give me feedback or just say hello.

If you find anything at all that is wrong with the game so far or have any ideas or suggestions, please get in touch with me. Your feedback is very important to making this project as good as it can possibly be.

Continue reading for a summary of all the fixes, improvements and new features in the April update.

Editor

• 2 new features, 2 bug fixed, 4 improvements
• when testing a two-player puzzle, each runner will start with 5 lives;
• want more? Simply toggle PlayTestLives in your config file
• puzzles shuffled via the Puzzle Viewer will have their undoes move with them
• toolbox will snap to the nearest position within the editor if toolbox position was out-of-bounds (manual config edit or toggling full-screen)

Are you a whiz on the keyboard? Good news! You can now use the original 1983 style keys to rapidly aid in painting.

• 0 = delete a tile
• 1 = paint blastable
• 2 = paint solid
• 3 = paint ladder
• 4 = paint monkey bar
• 5 = paint fall-through/trapdoor
• 6 = paint exit ladder
• 7 = paint gold coin
• 8 = paint Mad Monk
• 9 = paint Jake Peril
• arrow keys can be used to move the mouse cursor

When creating large puzzles, it can get annoying having to move the toolbox out of the way constantly. When in full-screen mode, you can now move the toolbox anywhere you like. As per windowed mode, the position will be remembered for the next time you launch the editor.

See more of what you edit by moving the toolbox in full-screen

Game

• 4 new features, 26 bugs fixed, 22 improvements
• phase bricks that can appear or disappear when collecting gold added;
• this feature is straight from the Xbox Lode Runner
• you can read all about exit phase here
• fixed bug that caused monks to teleport around the puzzle
• improvements to throwing goop and walking in goop
• fixes to keyboard shortcuts killing runners
• improved keyboard shortcuts for cheat keys
• fixed bug that prevents runners from unlocking doors
• collecting all gold with YOG+CTRL+F5 will empty monk pockets
• fixed runners not being allowed to get more than 99 lives
• points accumulated in a puzzle are no longer cleared if a runner dies
• darkness mode no longer shows for a runner if he is out of lives
• improved accuracy when runners are landing on monks
• several fixes for tools to improve accuracy against the Original
• fixed pick-axe debris piles becoming permanent
• added "Flying Lode Runner" quirk to Quirks Mode
• improved monks when they transition to/from running in goop
• numerous fixes when playing secret puzzles;
• you can now save and restore correctly
• fixed resetting issues
• fixed YOG cheats not working correctly
• numerous fixes to improve monk AI in relation to runners

The scoreboard has been added to the game. Finally see who is the best 'Lode Runner' out of your family and friends!
You can read all about it the scoreboard post.

Welcome to the hall-of-fame!

General

• 4 new features, 7 bugs fixed, 12 improvements
• video player optimized
• numerous fixes and enhancements to UI control elements
• support to turn off tooltips with the EnableBalloonHelp property in your config file
• save game format altered to allow you to move a save between different machines
• puzzles shipped with the game are no longer restricted to 16 characters (only applies to puzzles the are included with the download - any puzzles you make have no limits)
• fixed bug that caused the game to crash when deleting, renaming or copying files under OS X
• the gamepad can now control the mouse cursor via the left thumbstick
• gamepad triggers can be used for mouse left/right buttons (including single and double clicking)
• further support to load/play puzzles created with Lode Runner Hacker's Editor
• new error logging using plain-text and works on all supported platforms (Windows, OS X and Linux)
• configuration file is now preserved when updating builds (patches or monthly downloads)

You can now use the TAB key to switch focus between controls just like you can do on Windows. You can read about the TAB control here.

If your graphics card drivers don't support a great deal of 4:3 resolutions you may end up with the game not being as large as you'd like it to be. The config file now has support to manually override the default full-screen behaviour and use the older method by altering the ForcePillarBoxes property.

If you've got a keyboard or machine that is difficult to access CTRL+function keys (Chromebook), then toggling the RemoveFKey property in your config file will allow you to use the matching numeric key instead of the function key. For example, CTRL + F5 to collect all gold (when cheating) can now be used by CTRL + 5.