Creation/Dev/Releases/Client/2

Release date

January 2001 for Windows

2

no 2/3/4 player mode anymore; we want to
 concentrate on the online mode; this will
 also help in reducing the ressources needed 
 by the game and in removing some bugs;
 with the 2/3/4 player we also removed the
 support for save games (F2/F3), and you can't
 select your character in the starting window,
 servers will provide character selection
 levels

new tutorial levels

in the controls window you can change the keys
 and buttons, just click on it (right mouse
 button deletes it)  

bush rupees and pot hearts are server-side

you can do 'warpto <accountname>' (if you are
 a GP)

on the minimap / playerlist you see red bubbles for
 admin messages, green bubbles for guild messages and
 blue bubbles for mass messages

in the editor you can do flood filling by pasting
 a tile / an object onto the level and pressing the
 right mouse button (shift+right mouse button: only
 fill full objects); if you haven't selected something
 then the right mouse button with fill the area with
 the background tile

there are new deep water tiles where you can't swim

new script commands:
 These commands are good for making a day/night thing
 and showing lights (see the included light2.png which
 can be used as corona (setcoloreffect)) They doesn't
 cause lag, but you can only see it when you have a
 3D card (like Riva TNT). 
 * seteffect red,green,blue,alpha; (default 0,0,0,0)
   This if for day/night, by increasing alpha to 0.5
   or so you can make the game darker; changing the
   values for red/green/blue will cause some nice effects
   too
 * setcoloreffect red,green,blue,alpha; (default 1,1,1,1)
   If you change one of these values to something <1 then
   the npc image will be drawn using alpha blending;
   By changing red/green/blue you can change the color of
   the image (so you can use light2.png for red lights,
   green lights etc. without needing another image);
   By changing alpha you can decrease the brightness of the
   npc image
 * setzoomeffect zoomfactor; (default 1)
   Zooms the npc in or out. The npc will stay centered at
   the same position and have the same blocking radius,
   so this is only for effects
 * drawaslight;
   draws the npc above the daynight effects area
   (between drawoverplayers and the stats)
 * changeimgcolors index,red,green,blue,alpha; (default 1,1,1,1)
   changes the alpha transparency / color for the image
   (see setcoloreffect for more);
 * changeimgzoom index,zoomfactor; (default 1)
   changes the zoom factor for the image;
   color and zoom effect are not transferred to other players
   so changeimgcolors and changeimgzoom only work locally

new Graal animation system using *.gani files
 * With setani and setcharani (script commands) you can change
   the animation of the player or the npc, instead of only
   using the default animations that are changed by accessing
   the variable 'sprite'; that variable still exists but will
   be mapped to def.gani which contains all of the old
   animation steps (0..40); its also possible to still read
   'sprite', the game will then try to convert the current
   animation to the old sprite number system, e.g. when the player
   has the animation walk.gani then reading the 'sprite'
   variable will result in values between 1 and 8 depending
   on the current animation step; new animations will always
   be mapped to 0, but you can get the current animation by
   using the #m message code (if (strequals(#m,walk)) ...)
 * There is an editor for gani files named 'GraalShop.exe',
   you can set the file association in the windows explorer
   to make it easier to open gani files; but you can also
   edit gani files with text editor
 * Syntax:
   setani <aniname>,param1,param2,...;
    setcharani <aniname>,param1,param2,...;
   Example: setani walk,; sets the walking animation
   defined in walk.gani. A gani contains informations
   about sprites and where to put them in which frame.
   The gani format:
   1. Starts with some control commands:

   * SPRITE            0    SPRITES   0   0  24  12 shadow
       =>   sprite_index image_file   x   y   w   h description
       this defines a sprite
     * sprite index: is import for the animation part of
       gani file which will be described later;
       each sprite must have an unique sprite index
     * image file: can be
       * BODY HEAD HORSE SHIELD SPRITES PICS
         (those images will taken from the current player),
       * PARAM1, PARAM2, ... (are set with setani/setcharani),
       * myimage.png (direct filename)
     * x,y,width,height: describe which part of the image
       should be drawn
     * description: only for the gani editor
   * DEFAULTPARAMxxx newsword.png - tells the gani editor
     which image should be used for PARAMxxx (it can also
     be a number when you want to use the parameter to
     give a sprite number to animations)
   * COLOREFFECT     20     1     1     0  0.99
     =>    sprite_index   red green  blue alpha
     sets the alpha transparency / colors for the sprite
   * ZOOMEFFECT      20     5
     =>    sprite_index  zoom
     sets the zoom factor for the sprite
   * LOOP - loops the animation
   * CONTINUOUS - doesn't restart the animation when you
     call setani/setcharani again
   * SINGLEDIRECTION - all four directions use the same
     animation steps

   2. It follows the animation in
   ANI
   ...
   ANIEND
     The animation normally contains 4 x animation_step_count lines
     of sprite defintions. Each line contains of a list of 
     sprite positions:
   sprite_index dx dy, sprite_index dx dy, ...
     * sprite index: the defined sprite with the specified sprite
       index should be drawn (can also be PARAM1, PARAM2 etc.)
     * dx: horizontal difference to the player-x coordinate
     * dy: vertical difference to the player-y coordinate
   After each frame (which means 4 lines in normal animations
   and 1 line in a SINGLEDIRECTION animation) you can add following
   commands:
   WAIT <waittime> - repeats the last frame <waittime> times
   PLAYSOUND <soundfile> dx dy - plays a wav file from position
     (playerx+dx,playery+dy) (that defines the posititon where it
     sounds loudest); this actually works like the npc command 'play'
     so you can theoretically play midis or avis but that is not
     recommended

 * See the existing gani files for examples, e.g. idle.gani for
   a very simple animation (it only contains one step)
 * The gani format has a lot of advantages:
   * it means less network traffic (because you can replace tons of
     showimg with one call to setani/setcharani)
   * you can do a lot more than with showimg
   * it's easier to make complex animations with it
   * in the online mode the player animations look less
     laggy because the animation continues even if the
     connection is slow
   * you can hear what other people do like they were playing
     on your computer because sound effects are included in
     the gani file
   * you can change the default player animations like dead.gani

files are now automatically downloaded again from the server when
 they have been updated on the server

wavs are downloaded from the server too

when weapon names start with - then you can't see them
 in the weapons list (might be good for system npcs)

new npc script variables playerhurtdx and playerhurtdy when the
 player is hurt (otherwise they are 0)

new npc script commands 'setgender' and 'setchargender'
 (paramters: male / female)

new npc script command setmusicvolume left,right;
 both values can be between 0 and 1

signs are dynamic now, you can use message codes like #n in
 the signs, unknown characters are drawn using a windows font;
 there is a new message code #K(action) which tell you the
 key names for the keys (0-up, 1-left, 2-down etc.)  

head,sword,shield and body images are saved in the right
 folder (levels/heads, levels/swords etc.) instead of
 levels/webgifs

before you can drop items with S+A it checks if there is no
 wall in front of you

the npc script command 'stopsound filename;' works now

there is no error message anymore when you
 open a file by double-clicking on a .graal file
 in the windows explorer (file association)

the script command 'continue' works correctly
 in while-loops now

jumping into links shouldn't stuck you

invisible npcs are non-blocking

DirectSound and DirectDraw are dynamically loaded,
 when there is a problem with DirectDraw then
 the game gives you an error message and closes
 correctly

fixed a bug that happened when you do
 if (playerenters) setlevel <currentlevel>;

playerlist section 'Staff' instead of 'GPs',
 there you can also see LATs and FAQs now

2.01

levels are preloaded when you walk on the map

when looking on the map then a special animation
 is set so that other players can see that you are
 reading the map

showimg should work better, artefacts should be removed

when you pause the game then things are still animated,
 bombs explode

when you change the chat text of the player with
 the script command setplayerprop #c,text; then it
 doesn't disappear immediatelly, it will be shown
 for 3 seconds

in scripts you can do if (playerdies) ... to do
 stuff when the player dies (timeouts doesn't work
 when you are dead)

when the player is hurt then you can detect that in
 scripts by doing if (playerhurt) ...
 you can read the variable playerhurtpower to get
 the amount of power that the player lost

a bug with testnpc is removed 

new script commands:
 * hitobjects power,x,y; hurts players/npcs/computer
   opponents that are on the specified position;
   this works exactly like the sword so this should
   be used for weapons, instead of the hitplayer command
   which gives the attacker to much advance;
   we will probably need to wait with using it till all
   people have v2.01, and v2.00 is disabled
 * openurl2 url,width,height; opens an url in a window
   but in a different way: it uses the same thing that is
   used for the server MOTD and PM history, so it should
   open faster, and you can set the size of the window;
   remove the leading http:// from the url

2.02

Version v2.02 brings new things for customizing the player (e.g. hats), making signs with images, and doing string parsing in npc scripts. Of course there are also bug fixes.

Restrictions for free servers: Because we want players to upgrade the accounts, we have put some limits on free servers. This includes light effects (seteffect, setcoloreffect etc.) and complex ganis. 'complex' means ganis (animations) that are not default animations and do more than just display an image. Things like skip.gani are allowed, fishing.gani not. Using the hat thing is not allowed.

support for hats and similar things:
 When opening the gani editor (Graal Shop) you
 will see new edit fields for 'Def. attr1', 'Def. attr2'
 etc. These work similar to the PARAM1, PARAM2 etc. thing,
 but they behave different in Graal: while the values for
 PARAMx is taken from the parameters that you use in your
 setani and setcharani script calls (setani shoot,wbow1.gif;
 is setting PARAM1 to wbow1.gif), the ATTR1, ATTR2 etc. is
 read from the players account. You can change it with
 setplayerprop #P1,...; /setcharprop #P1,...;
 You can currently use 5 gani attributes. Since it is saved
 in the players account, it doesn't need to be sent to the
 other players each time the animation is set which is causing
 lag when used in a movement animations

 Here an example for setting the hat of the player:
 setplayerprop #P1,hat0.png;

the guilds listed in the staff section of the
 playerlist can now be changed by serverowners

the HTML window now has a panel with navigation buttons
 for back/forward/stop/refresh/home
 you see that window when the server message of the day is
 displayed or when a script calls the openurl or openurl2
 functions

when the options window is open then the game is not
 freezed anymore (was used to cheat/block players)

NPC scripting

you can display images in signs using the
 message code #i: a sign with the text

 Touch this to enter: #i(door.gif)

 will display the door.gif at the end of the
 line. It doesn't check if the image is larger
 than one line, so you might need to add spaces
 in the following lines so that the image doesn't
 overlap the text. You can also only display
 a part of the image:

 The nicest head ever - #i(head19.gif,0,64,32,32)

 This displays the part of head19.gif starting
 at position (0,64) with a widht and height of 32
 (ninji face looking at you)

string parsing functions
 There is a bunch of new functions and message codes
 to support string parsing:
 * strlen(str) - length of the string
 * startswith(part,str) - tests if 'str' is starting with 'part'
 * indexof(part,str) - gives the position of 'part' in 'str'
   (-1: doesn't appear in 'str', 0: str starts with it)
 * #e(startindex,length,str) - extracts a substring out of str;
   when length is -1 then it takes everything after startindex
   till the end of str
 * #T(str) - removes the spaces at the beginning and at the end
 * tokenize str; - divides the specified string into tokens,
   e.g. tokenize I am happy!; will produce 3 tokens (I, am, happy!);
   text inside " " is taken as one token,
   so tokenize hello "Mr. Bear"; will produce 2 tokens (hello,Mr. Bear)
 * tokenscount - gives you the count of tokens produced with tokenize
 * #t(index) - gives you a token
 * tokenize2 delimiter,str; - while tokenize always uses
   spaces and commas, you can add more delimiters here,
   e.g. tokenize2 o, Yoshi is cool; will give you (Y,shi,is,c,l)

when doing setstring flagname,; then the deletion
 of the string variable is sent to the server

setting/unsetting/changing a flag that starts with 'local.'
 is not sent to the server

when using setplayerprop #5 to set a horse or
 when having a horse from last login to the server,
 then the bushes count is set correctly

you can now set string variables that contain commas,
 when you do setstring myflag,1,2,3; then you will
 add a flag 'myflag=1,2,3' instead of getting a syntax
 error

commands that we forgot to mention:
 * disabledefmovement: turns off the normal player movement
   and behaviour; this is good for making new player races
   or things like skis;
   if you only want to temporary disable it then use
   the freezeplayer command
 * enabledefmovement: enables it again

the script debugger (F6) gives you a list of the script
 functions of the selected npc; you see it under the
 drop down list for npcs; when selecting a function then
 the script panel will scroll down to it
 this is good for easier navigation through a script

keydown(index) is always false when the player is paused

new flags issparringzone and nopkzone

Graal Shop (Gani editor)

correct detection for if the gani has been modified

correct behaviour of the 'loop' and 'continuous' flags:
 the animation is stopped when at the end and not looped,
 and a continuous animation is started when not running
 and clicking on 'Play'

edit fields for the new gani player attributes
 ('Def. attr1', 'Def. attr2' etc.) 

General bug fixes

objects are drawn in correct y-order when near level borders

the map viewing animations are set correctly (only
 when you stand still or sit)

when you play on a server with npcserver and you switch to
 another server then you will be able to see npcs

the texts 'Map' and 'Others:' that you see when viewing the
 map can be changed in the languages/languageXXX.txt now too

when pressing R to view the sparring ratings of players then
 the rating is not displayed over npcs

2.021

the speed cheat protection shouldn't close the program
 when there was no cheating

when opening the history of someone you will not
 see the web navigation bar

better hacking protection

the server knows the language of the client,
 that way there can be translation of signs and what npcs
 say (on servers with npcserver)

2.03

New script command: triggeraction targetx,targety,action,params;
 This is one of the commands that give you like 50% more scripting
 power than before. It is like a combination of hitobjects and
 callnpc, but better. With 'triggeraction' you invoke an event
 to the object on positon (targetx,targety). If the object is
 an npc, then the npc script is called with the flag
 'action<action>' set, when the object is a player then the
 weapon scripts of the that player are called with the
 'action<action>' flag set.
 'params' can be one or more parameters, divided by commas;
 the called script can read the paramters by accessing the
 message code #p(paramindex).
 Because this is hard to explain with words, here some
 little examples:

 * trigger player weapons
   You can easily do a weapon which freezes the other
   player:

   if (playertouchsme) toweapons Freezing-Weapon;
   if (weaponfired) {
     triggeraction playerx+1.5+vecx(playerdir)*2,
       playery+2+vecy(playerdir)*2,freeze,;
   }
   if (actionfreeze) {
     freezeplayer 3;
     setplayerprop #c,FREEZED;
   }

   Both players must have this weapon for making it
   working. Then use it on the other player, and he will
   be freezed, because a 'freeze' action is sent to him
   and his weapon script, called with flag 'actionfreeze',
   will freeze him. You can also move the if (actionfreeze) ...
   into an system npc so the weapon can be used on all
   players.
   Other nice things you could do with triggering actions
   on players: a stealing weapon which lets the other player
   loose gralats (if (actionsteal) lay2 greenrupee,... );
   complex attacking weapons that use your own hitpoint
   system instead of the default hearts thing

 * trigger npcs

   Until now npcs can only react to 'playertouchsme' and
   'washit', other things are very hard to do (e.g. the
   mining on Graal2001 was made by checking periodically
   what animation the player has and before which stone the
   player stands). You could do callnpc, but this works only
   client-side and you needed to pass parameters with
   flags.
   Using 'triggeraction' you can make those things much easier.
   The mining axe could have the script
   if (weaponfired) {
     setani jaxe,hammergold0.png;
     triggeraction playerx+1.5+vecx(playerdir)*2,
       playery+2+vecy(playerdir)*2,mining,#v(axepower);
   }
   If you now use the weapon on a stone, the stone npc could
   check this so:
   if (actionmining) {
     axepower = strtofloat(#p(0));
     this.power -= axepower;
     if (this.power<=0) {
       setstring uncraftedgold,#v(strtofloat(#s(uncraftedgold))+1);
       hide;
     }
   }
   With this thing you can also easily do switches which are
   activated with the hammer, or torch lamps which are turned on
   by using a torch on it.

 * actionpushed, actionpulled
   The game automatically triggers the actions 'pushed' and
   'pulled' on an npc, #p(0) is the direction of where to move;
   so you can do different things when the player tries to
   push/pull the npc, e.g. slower pulling, or opening
   a door. 

New script command: move dx,dy,time,options;
 dx - delta x
 dy - delta y
 time - time in seconds
 options - cachingmode (0,1 or 2) + blockcheck (4 or 0) +
   informmewhendone (8 or 0) + applydirection (16 or 0)
 This moves the npc without needing you to update the
 position of the npc 'manually' by changing x and y.
 To move an npc 10 tiles to the right, then 10 tiles to
 the left and again, just do following:
 if (created) {
   while (true) {
     move 10,0,4,0;
     sleep 4;
     move -10,0,4,0;
     sleep 4;
   }
 }
 This moves the npc 10 tiles to the right, then waits 4
 seconds, then moves it 10 tiles to the left, then waits
 4 seconds, and repeats this endlessly.
 The good thing is that this also works with server-side
 npcs and makes them look like they are moved on client-side.
 There are also nice options to makes things very simple:
 * cachingmode:
   * 0: previous movements will be finished immediatelly
   * 1: movements will be cached, the previous movements
        will only be finished when the cache is too large
        (distance to go >5);
        this caching can be used on server-side npcs to
        make the movement look like non-laggy even when
        there are little delays sometimes
   * 2: the movement will just be appended to the movement
        list; you can add up to 100 movements
 * blockcheck: add 4 to the options when you want the
   npc to stop when there is a wall blocking the npc
 * informmewhendone: if you add 8 to the options then the
   script will be called with a 'movementfinished' flag
   when the the npc has stopped walking; catch this event
   with
   if (movementfinished) {...}
   if you want to do something when the npc has stopped
   (e.g. walking in a different direction)
 * applydirection: add 16 to the options if you want the
   game to automatically set the direction of the npc
   depending on the movement direction (can be good
   when using movement caching)

on remotecontrol and npccontrol you can use new
 chat functions, commands start with /, you can get
 a list of available functions with /help

when you play on a game server with npcserver
 and an npc leaves the current level, then it is
 displayed in the new level instead of being hidden

script functions vecx(dir) and vecy(dir) which
 are a replacement for the 'dirgo' variables used
 in many scripts;
 e.g. for direction 2 (down) the  functions vecx and
 vecy give you 0 and 1;
 normal npc movements can so simply made by
 x += vecx(dir);
 y += vecy(dir);

script functions onmapx(levelname) and onmapy(levelname)
 to get the position of a level on the currently set
 map

the game uses in-game code to compress/decompress again
 instead of using zlib.dll because it has been abused

if you press the shift key while clicking on Start
 or Turorial in the starting window, then the game
 will start in fullscreen mode

new script flags 'playerreading' to check if the
 player is reading a sign, and 'lighteffectsenabled'
 for checking if the player can see the light
 effects and day/night

fixed bugs when using numbers for #P1

fixed bug with reading animated interlaced gifs

2.04

This version contains major improvements in the game engine.

Sound

PARAM1 enabled for the PLAYSOUND command in gani files, also
 message codes can be used with the script command play;

 You can make an animation that plays differnet sounds/tones,
 so this makes it possible to create instruments

Animations

replacegani aniname,newani;
 Lets the player use a different animation for
 walking, swimming etc. You can do things like
 replacegani walk,mywalk; if you want the player
 use mywalk.gani as walking animation (instead of
 writing your own walking script); This takes only
 effect till the player logs off, so you must put it
 in a system npc or so; its not lagging;
 The default animations are:
   idle,walk,walkslow,kick,sword,ridesword,
   spin,push,grab,pull,lift,carrystill,
   hiddenstill,carry,hidden,shoot,ridestill,
   ridefire,rideeat,ride,sit,sleep,hurt,
   ridehurt,dead,maps1,maps2,maps3,swim,
   lava,carried
 To reset the default animation just do
 replacegani walk,walk; etc.

 Using replacegani you can do things like
 holding a torch while running (*olympic games*).
 It's only allowed/enabled for upgraded servers.

Tiles

addtiledef tilesimage,levelstart,type;
 uses the file 'tilesimage' in replacement of
 'pics1.png' in all levels that start with 'levelstart';
 type: 0-old graal, 1-new order(description later)

addtiledef2 tilesimage,levelstart,x,y;
 this is similar to addtiledef, but only replaces
 a part of the tiles image; its like putting an
 image on top of the tiles image (normally pics1.png),
 this is good for replacing the default chair or lamp
 or so; this supports animated images, but keep in mind
 that all tile replacements must be hold in memory
 and be animated, so better only use it in the levels
 you need it;
 These two commands are very powerful and are only
 enabled for upgraded servers.

removetiledefs levelstart;
 removes tile definitions for levels that start with
 'levelstart'

support for object sets, saved in the tileobjects folder and selectable
 in the editor

NPC layers

setshape type,pixelwidth,pixelheight
 Sets the shape for an npc. It already existed on
 the npcserver, but is usefull for client-side stuff to.
 type is the the shape type, the only one supported
 is 1 (=rectangle); it makes the npc behave like
 a fixed rectangle, no matter how big the image is or
 if its already loaded; to set it back to default
 do setshape 0,0,0;

setshape2 width,height,{tiletypes,...}
 Lets the npc behave like a level, which means you can set
 what size it has (in tiles) and how the tiles behave;
 e.g. do setshape2 2,2,{3,3,3,3}; to make an npc that behaves
 like a chair. Following tile types are supported:
 0 nonblocking
 2 hurting underground
 3 chair
 4 bed upper side
 5 bed lower side
 6 swamp
 7 lava swamp
 8 near water
 9 near lava
 11 water
 12 lava
 20 throw-through (fences)
 21 jumping stone
 22 blocking tile

attachplayertoobj objecttype,id;
 Attaches the player to an object, currently only npcs are
 supported (objecttype=0); the id must be the id of the npc
 you want to attach the player at
 when the player is attached, you can do if (playerattached) to
 check if he is attached; new player attributes playerattachid
 and playerattachtype; new variables levelorgx,levelorgy for
 getting the origin of the level/npc where the player is in

 This command is good for all kinds of layers or moving
 objects, together with the setshape2 command you can do
 levels-in-levels things. It can be used for bridges,
 ships, baloons, platforms in quests. Don't forget to detach the
 player when he should go back to the normal level. The
 position of the player is not saved when he is on such
 an npc.
 This command is only allowed/enabled for upgraded servers

detachplayer
 Puts the player back into the normal level

Showimg/show text

showimg colors,layer, and zoom is sent to other players (even
 when the layer is 4, then only values between 0 and 440 allowed)

showing text with showimg
 you can do showimg 1,@Hello!,x,y; do show text; setting
 font and style is possible by doing showimg index,@font@style@text,x,y;
 (style: characters from 'bicus', b-bold, i-italic, c-centered,u-underline,
 s-strikeout); for change the view of the text use the commands
 changeimgzoom,changeimgcolors

showimg works now server-side, layer 4 works too

weaponscount variable, #w(index) gives you the weapon names,
 #W(index) the weapon images; you can assign values to selectedweapon
 to change the selected weapon of the players; use
 enable/disableselectweapons if you want to disable the weapon
 select screen (Q)

Other features/bug fixes

check for correct tiles when lifting/eating/slaying bushes

faster search for files (lookup in the filename list)

bombs and arrows go to near levels

chat text is always displayed at least 3 seconds

message codes possible in #K() (for inserting special characters
 into text)

the script command stopsound doesn't crash the game when sound
 is turned off

2.05

This time there are mainly bug fixes.

removed the problem with memory error
 2.2 (an error window that sometimes popups)

the graal window now shows the name of the
 server in the title bar

there is a new button in the script editor
 window that lets you format a text, it makes
 the script looking similar to the debugger
 screen, but is also formatting comments lines;
 it's not perfect but can help a little bit
 for understanding scripts written by other
 people 

setshape2 supports array variables for the tilestype
 array instead of only static arrays

when npcs do showimg (especially on the npcserver) then
 showimgs will not be deleted when you leave the level,
 so you still see it when reentering the level where
 the npcs stands

playing of sounds (playlooped) is stopped when switching a
 server

bombs don't destroy half bushes

new file format (exists since beginning of 2000 but was
 only available for newworld team):
 The new level format is text based. If you want to edit it
 outside of Graal, use a text editor which doesn't wrap lines.
 You automatically produce a file in the new format when you
 save to a file with ending .nw
 Those files are bigger than .graal files, but because it is
 text-based it is easier to edit parts of it (e.g. ncp script)
 without opening the game, or to write tools that
 do changes to the levels, like adding npcs to levels. The
 graal servers support that file format too, the data sent to
 the player is the same size like when using .graal files, so it
 will not make the game laggier

 Format:
 It begins with the signature GLEVNW01.
 It can contain following data types:

 * board lines:

   BOARD x y width layerindex <tilesdata>

   This is one line of the background layer. 'tilesdata' has a length if w*2
   characters; each tile is a 12bit-index into the tile list (pics1.png) and is
   encoded in two base64 characters (upper 6 bit first)
   base64: String = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/'
   so AA is tile 0, AB is tile 1, AC is tile 2, // is tile 4095 (=0xFFF)

 * level links:

   LINK <destination-level> x y width height newx newy

   The link attributes are the same like in the link options window in Graal.
   destination-level, newx and newy must not contain spaces.

 * signs:

   SIGN x y
   text
   ...
   SIGNEND

   Signs may be empty, but SIGNEND must always be there.

 * npcs:

   NPC imagefilename x y
   script
   ...
   NPCEND

   If the npc doesn't have a filename (invisible npc), then write '-' for imagefilename. 
   x and y may be floating point values. The npc script may be empty, but NPCEND
   must always be there 

 * baddies:

   BADDY x y type
   attackverse
   hurtverse
   winverse
   BADDYEND

   'type' is the baddy name (graysoldier ... dragon ) or index (0...9). You don't need
   to write all 3 verses, it's also possible to only write attackverse+hurtverse or only
   attackverse, but BADDYEND must always be there.

 * chests:

   CHEST x y item signindex

   item is the item name (greenrupee ... spinattack) or item index (0...24)

2.052

the script variable playerscount is fixed
 (was not working for npc weapons)

when you create a new level then the current
 background tile is used for the background (instead
 of a black tile)

when switching to other servers then the correct
 server name is displaying in the window title

openurl2 works more than one time

hidden npcs can use the command showimg

when the map is changed (script command setmap) then
 the new map is immediatelly applied

the little yellow hint window that shows the names
 of players on the minimap is hidden when you switch
 to other applications