ArtClient v3.2.3 alpha

With the release of Artemis SBS v1.7, a lot of things changed both for users, and under the hood. For a while, I was pretty much convinced that things had changed too much for me to figure out. But, I persevered, wrote a few utility classes, and finally figured out the big changes---and even discovered some new things, too.

With some help from players on the Artemis forums, I've resolved a bunch of issues and now have a pretty good build. This is still alpha, because I think there's at least one or two unresolved crashes, but it also includes a crash reporting utility (which the security-paranoid can opt out of, though that means I may not be able to fix any crashes you experience) and a bunch of new features.

You can download v3.2.3 alpha here. It is no longer compatible with Artemis SBS 1.661, but IS compatible with 1.7 and 1.701 (the version on iOS).

Changes:

• NEW: Captain's map controls are properly separated from Science controls
• NEW: "Relative" helm display! Enable under Settings
• NEW: Engineering's Warp/Jump systems labeled appropriately by chosen drive type
• NEW: Improved science scanning handling, follows the official client much more precisely!
• NEW: Added (opt-out-able) crash reporting, so hopefully I can see exactly what's causing any remaining crashes
• NEW: Allow connecting to version 1.701 servers (untested!)
• FIX: Radar touch controls now continue to work properly after leaving and returning to the app
• FIX: USFP references changed to TSN to match 1.7 client
• FIX: Various bugs
• Improved helm's tap-to-steer logic. 

ArtClient v2.7 beta

Just in time for any New Year's Eve Artemis parties, I'm releasing version 2.7 beta of my unofficial Android client for Artemis SBS.

You can download it here(See update below) and check out the changes below.

Changes:

• NEW: Helm (finally) will use the correct drive (warp/jump) when joining in-progress games!
• NEW: Station shields shown when selected by science/captain
• FIX: Red alert/Shields status are shown/updated correctly when joining an in-progress game
• FIX: Captain's map selector behaves and looks more like the official one
• FIX: Bearing indicator should never go negative anymore
• Turning smoothing should be better now, as we use the server-indicated turn rate if possible
• Engineering sliders follow updates from the server during a game, now. May not be important, but the official client does this
• Minor tweaks to improve Radar rendering, ship selection, etc.

UPDATE: In response to the request for access to this again, I'm adding the improved, 2.7.2 beta that was posted on the Artemis forums. You can download it here and see the added tweaks below:

• 2.7.1: 30000% sliders bug fixed 
• 2.7.2: Add version check so it doesn't try to play with incompatible servers (causing, you know, crashes)

ArtClient v2.6 beta

Just released version 2.6 beta of my unofficial Android client for Artemis SBS. Since I forgot to post about 2.5 beta, I'll include its changes in the list here, too.

You can download version 2.6 beta here.

Changes:

• NEW: Helm and Weapons can see distance and bearing to nearby ships
• NEW: Heading indicator for Helm, about the steering slider
• NEW: Preference for tilt steering sensitivity, and to choose an alternative axis (for people whose devices report the wrong one, I guess)
• NEW: Neutral and enemy ships should get some smoothing to their turning.
• NEW: Receive and play back incoming audio messages (incoming_message scripting command)
• FIX: More ships on radar (I was treating the INVIS_TO_* flags as always active, but science was showing some INVIS_TO_SCIENCE ships if the "state" bitmask was empty, so I guess they all need to be "active" or something)
• FIX: Further reduce (remove?) "pop" when loading and unloading tubes
• FIX: Changing beam frequencies works properly (IE: Doesn't unload torpedo tubes... oops!)
• FIX: Handle missing .snt files more gracefully (for Mods support)
• FIX: Remove "tilt" menu item from weapons
• Further improved neutral ship parsing

ArtClient v2.4 beta

Recently released version 2.4 beta of my unofficial Android client for Artemis SBS. It adds some fun new features, and fixes a bunch of little issues!

You can download it here, or check out the changelog:

• NEW: Tilt-to-steer feature for Helm, if your device has an accelerometer and magnetic field sensor
• NEW: Tap-to-steer feature, just like the official client!
• NEW: Captain's map! Basically Science without scanning, but had a lot of requests
• FIXED: Inability to select the station you just were after changing ships
• FIXED: Font colors in jump dialog were wrong
• Padding/sizes in Jump Dialog tweaked to hopefully fit smaller screens better
• Improved parsing of neutral and enemy ship packets

Artemis SBS on Android (Unofficial)

Don't know if you've heard of Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator, but it's pretty much the best game ever. If you like spaceships or cooperative games at all, you will be as hooked as I am!

A while ago, I decided that it would be pretty excellent to play this game on a tablet, and having a Nexus 7 and being an Android developer, I set out to do something about it. There's now an official iOS version available, but at the time I started, that hadn't even been announced.

And, I'm an Android guy.

So, I sat down with Wireshark and observed the packets that the official PC client sent and figured out the structure, then began the laborious process of building a packet parser in Java and continued figuring out the packets.

A couple months later, I now have an almost fully-functioning Android client, and wanted to share it here. To be clear, this is a completely unofficial and unsupported version, whose functionality is entirely based on me guessing at the packet structures. They seem to be mostly close enough, but I haven't had any input from the creator of Artemis about the correct structure, so weird things may happen!

You can track the progress of the app from its thread on the Artemis forums, or just check out the latest version here: ArtClient Version 2.3 beta

Follow the break for some screenshots.

WeGoIgo 2.2 -- with Lite version!

Just a quick post to say that I've released version 2.2 of my Go app just now. Along with a handful of features and changes, this version fixes a slew of bugs and stability issues. Thanks to everyone for reporting the bugs! I'm very happy with this new release—so happy that I've finally gotten around to releasing the Lite version. As before, the Lite version has all the same great features of the paid version, but shows somes ads in a (I hope) non-intrusive manner, and is a lower priority for releases (as is apparent by the several weeks between 2.0 going live on the normal version and this release).

Follow the break for the official changelog.

UPDATE: There were two issues with this update that have since been resolved. The first was with the Lite version. Apparently I accidentally imported the "internal" version of the ObjectAnimator class from ActionBarSherlock instead of the nineoldandroids version, which caused an immediate FC in any game mode for devices with an older version of Android. Sorry!

The other was an issue where files would appear to hang while loading. It was missed by me because I forgot that I had the "don't keep activities" developer setting enabled, which hid the problem. Sorry again!

WeGoIgo 2.0 Released!

The new home screen

It is with great pleasure that I finally announce the release of WeGoIgo 2.0! There are still a few things that I plan to add, but I decided that if I kept stalling to add new features, it would never get out the door. I've spent the last couple of weeks testing it, tweaking it, and making last minute changes in an effort to make this release the best Go app on the market.

To anyone who has upgraded to the new version, please feel free to send me feedback-- especially if something doesn't work, or breaks! I did my best to test everything, but the app has many parts-- a lot of which are new or drastically updated in this release-- so it is very possible that I've missed something.

If version 2.0 is news to you, check out my announcement blog post for more details on what has changed. Please be aware that I have increased the price to $2.49. This is still cheaper than almost every other Go app on the market, and I feel the many, many hours I've put into the app deserve the extra change. If you don't agree, then feel free to wait until I update the lite version with the new features :)

That's it for now. I hope you enjoy the new version as much as I do!