just for fun, compression ratios:

| packtype |         fname          | filesize |  pksize  | ratio |
|----------|------------------------|----------|----------|-------|
| 1        | worldmap/worldmap.dat  |   722495 |    43459 |    6% |
| 1        | screenshot.raw         |   305296 |    60761 |   19% |
| 0        | info.txt               |      152 |      152 |  100% |
| 1        | game.dat               |   457024 |    56703 |   12% |
| 1        | dungeons/level_4_0.dat |  1361811 |    91157 |    6% |
| 1        | dungeons/level_4_1.dat |  2779963 |   188622 |    6% |
| 1        | dungeons/level_4_2.dat |  1326764 |    98693 |    7% |
| 1        | dungeons/level_2_0.dat |  5089335 |   266273 |    5% |
| 1        | dungeons/level_1_0.dat |  2313521 |   156394 |    6% |
| 1        | dungeons/level_1_1.dat |  4463024 |   230913 |    5% |
| 1        | dungeons/level_1_2.dat |  2429108 |   164699 |    6% |
| 1        | dungeons/level_1_3.dat |  1722983 |    59984 |    3% |

compression is fast, and it is definitely worth the efforts.
total uncompressed size: 22,971,476 bytes.
total compressed size (with SQLite overhead): 1,445,888 bytes.

i think we're close to the new build. "release early, release often."

changed ectoplasm to liquid. let's see what will break.

also, sometimes Kenny is spawned as skeleton puppy. just for fun.

stopped using SDL_TEXTINPUT events for keyboard handling. trying to sort out KEYDOWN and TEXTINPUT is a mess, and the source of various bugs.

this may cause some problems with non-standard keyboard layouts, but… eh. just stop using them. this is the best solution i know.

in exchange we can bind any key with any modifier to any command. and if the player don't like default binding, F1 shows config file location, so the player will know that it is editable.

and the compression is back! our saves are of sane sizes again (usually about 10 times smaller than uncompressed saves). SQLite archive saves now has all the features of vwad saves, and more, so i see no reason to keep vwad saving even as an option (it is still possible to turn it off with compile-time define, though). of course, this is breaking change, but save format is changed too, so you've lost your saves and bones anyway. sorry.

i finally implemented saving to SQLite database. no, nothing fancy, the db is used as a simple file archive with the good old binary blobs. but! but there is a huge difference: SQLite supports transactions. this is important, because most broken saves are due to crashes on generating new maps.

on going to the new map, the game is removing the player character, then saves the map (and only the map) w/o player, then generates a new map, then puts PC on it, then autosaves. if the game crashes on new map generation, the save is broken — because there is no PC anywhere. the easiest way to fix this is transactions: open the save BEFORE leaving the area, start the transaction, remove PC, save the map, generate new map, put pc, and peform autosave. the transaction is closed only when autosave is perfomed. this way if the game crashes, SQLite will automatically rollback everything, and our save will not be broken.

currently no compression is implemented, so saves are huge again. i will prolly implement compression later, it's not that hard. i just wanted to make SQLite code work first.

implemented minimap markers. they are very-very simple for now (just "x" with small text which is shown when the cursor is over the mark), but hey! it is better than no map markers at all!

but i also found that global rain was hard-coded. i partially un-hardcoded it:

GlobalRainLiquid = SNOW;
GlobalRainSpeed = -64, 128;
GlobalRainVolume = -1; // random; >0: volume

still, only 3 types of rain is allowed (WATER, SNOW, BLOOD), no randomization, no random rain speed variations. this need to be implemented too.

btw. is there any reason to not fully open city maps from the beginning? i mean, we definitely know how New Attnam looks, and there is no much reason to explore Attnam or Aslona too — they're not that different each time. i think that adding "FullyExplored" flag would be useful. it prolly won't show NPCs, but i see no reason to hide items. some special items might be marked as "hidden" with yet another flag, and we prolly can introduce per-room flag to hide room interiors too.

also, maybe add very rare "cartography scroll", which will reveal full level map on reading?

…which we already have implemented at least partially, with "AutoReveal" property. oops.

so why not? it is now possible to use modifiers with chars, and configure movement keys.