Compatibility-breaking changes between 1.16 and 1.17/1.18

[Pentarctagon]

This lists removed WML functionality and helpful hints for avoiding pitfalls.

A similar thread for changes before 1.16 can be found here.

Compatibility breaking (requires updates to work)

• [heal_unit] no longer sets the heal_amount variable, instead supporting the variable attribute. This variable will be an array with each element containing the id of the unit healed and the amount that unit was healed for.
• The [kill] tag now explicitly no longer accepts [filter].
• Getting a unit's jamming_cost now actually returns that value instead of the unit's vision.
• [resistance] abilities that don't specify a max_value now defaults their max value to 100 instead of 0.
• Custom status icons no longer have transparent padding cropped off by the engine. It either needs to be cropped off the image itself, or the ~CROP_TRANSPARENT() IPF can be added.
• Unit sprites:
  • Elvish Fighter moved to units/elves-wood/fighter/fighter.png.
  • Naga Fighter moved to units/nagas/fighter/fighter.png.
  • Naga Warrior moved to units/nagas/fighter/warrior.png.
  • Naga Myrmidon moved to units/nagas/fighter/myrmidon.
  • Naga Guardian moved to units/nagas/guardian/guardian.png.
  • Naga Sentinel moved to units/nagas/guardian/sentinel.png.
  • Naga Warden moved to units/nagas/guardian/warden.png.
  • Naga Dirkfang moved to units/nagas/mixed/dirkfang.png.
  • Naga Ophidian moved to units/nagas/mixed/ophidian.png.
  • Naga Ringcaster moved to units/nagas/mixed/ringcaster.png.
  • Naga Sicarius moved to units/nagas/mixed/sicarius.png.
  • Naga Zephyr moved to units/nagas/mixed/zephyr.png.
  • units/human-loyalists/spearman-attack-ranged.png changed to units/human-loyalists/spearman-attack-ranged1.png, units/human-loyalists/spearman-attack-ranged2.png, units/human-loyalists/spearman-attack-ranged3.png.
  • units/human-loyalists/spearman-attack-ne.png changed to units/human-loyalists/spearman-attack-ne1.png, units/human-loyalists/spearman-attack-ne2.png, units/human-loyalists/spearman-attack-ne3.png.
  • units/human-loyalists/swordsman-defend.png changed to units/human-loyalists/swordsman-defend1.png, units/human-loyalists/swordsman-defend2.png.
  • units/human-loyalists/general-leading.png changed to units/human-loyalists/general-leading1.png, units/human-loyalists/general-leading2.png, units/human-loyalists/general-leading3.png.
  • units/human-loyalists/swordsman-attack-* changed to units/human-loyalists/swordsman-attack-se-*.
  • The units/human-loyalists/spearman-attack-s-* images are removed.
  • The units/human-loyalists/spearman-attack-se 4-14 images are removed.
  • The units/human-loyalists/swordsman-idle-* images are removed.
  • Ghost, Nightgaunt, Shadow, Spectre, and Wraith sprites moved from units/undead/ to units/undead-spirit/
• Almost all .jpg story images have been converted to .webp, and their filenames changed to match. However, the engine won't automatically look for the renamed images (it does for .png, but not .jpg).

Deprecations (will continue to work for now)

• Change terrain codes "Irs, Ias, Icr, Ior, and Icn" to "Isr, Isa, Isc, Iwo, and Iwc", respectively.
• Lua function wesnoth.fire_event --> wesnoth.game_events.fire.
• Lua function wesnoth.fire_event_by_id --> wesnoth.game_events.fire_by_id.
• Lua function wesnoth.remove_event_handler --> wesnoth.game_events.remove.
• Terrain macros: a lot - search for "#deprecated 2 1.19.0" in 19fcc1424fd75386e524b9115a42e2804b98dc8c.
• Lua function helper.set_wml_action_metatable --> wml.fire.tag.
• Lua script helper.lua. Everything in this module has been moved into the core modules.
• Unit "Giant Stoat" --> "Frost Stoat".
• FormulaAI (FAI).
• Lua function wesnoth.print --> wesnoth.interface.add_overlay_text.
• map_file when passed a .cfg file --> use include_file instead.
• All special notes macros.
• Lua function ai_helper.split --> stringx.split.

[Atreides]

Undead ghosty sprites also have moved into spirit subdirectories.

[Elvish_Hunter]

As of 28cea58, wmllint is capable of both updating the sprite paths and warning about [filter] in [kill] tags.

[Pentarctagon]

Added the note about custom status icons.

[white_haired_uncle]

I just spent several minutes searching for this thread (couldn't think of a good search query). Might be nice to add a link to at least the dev branch release announcements like viewtopic.php?t=57624

Seems a little odd being under WML Workshop since there's so much lua included. Not enough to move it since so many are probably used to finding it here, but odd nonetheless.

End rant.

[Pentarctagon]

Mostly it's just how it's always been - these threads predate there being a Lua Labs forum at all. But also it's because more people use WML Workshop than Lua Labs.

[white_haired_uncle]

What about units/human-loyalists/spearman-attack-ranged.png?

Looks like units/human-loyalists/spearman-attack-ranged2.png is the best fit, but perhaps the idea is to use all three (I don't know anything about animation, I just got an error).

See also units/human-loyalists/spearman-attack-s-*

[Pentarctagon]

It means that the defend animation was expanded from 1 frame to 3 frames, and it looks like the original defend image isn't present anymore.

[white_haired_uncle]

Thanks. I was mostly just concerned if it should be on your list.

And I notice wmllint doesn't catch it, but I've used that like three times so I'm not sure what to expect.

[Pentarctagon]

I've added it - a lot of the sprite file changes weren't documented anywhere or added to wmllint unfortunately.

[white_haired_uncle]

units/human-loyalists/spearman-attack-ne -> ne1, ne1, ne3
units/human-loyalists/spearman-attack-se[4-14] removed
units/human-loyalists/swordsman-attack-[1-2] > se[1-8]
units/human-loyalists/swordsman-defend -> defend-1, defend-2
units/human-loyalists/swordsman-idle-[1-12] removed
units/human-loyalists/general-leading.png -> leading[1-3]

Note that what I list here is just based on filenames. I don't do animations so someone would need to confirm.

[Pentarctagon]

Alright, added those as well. units/human-loyalists/swordsman-attack-[1-2] > se[1-8] isn't really a compatibility issue though, since the 1 and 2 images still exist?

[white_haired_uncle]

No, the 1 and 2 (and 3, my bad) are removed. Everything is now attacks-se:

/opt/wesnoth-1.17-git/share/wesnoth/data/core/images/units/human-loyalists/swordsman-attack-se-1.png
/opt/wesnoth-1.17-git/share/wesnoth/data/core/images/units/human-loyalists/swordsman-attack-se-2.png
/opt/wesnoth-1.17-git/share/wesnoth/data/core/images/units/human-loyalists/swordsman-attack-se-3.png
/opt/wesnoth-1.17-git/share/wesnoth/data/core/images/units/human-loyalists/swordsman-attack-se-4.png
/opt/wesnoth-1.17-git/share/wesnoth/data/core/images/units/human-loyalists/swordsman-attack-se-5.png
/opt/wesnoth-1.17-git/share/wesnoth/data/core/images/units/human-loyalists/swordsman-attack-se-6.png
/opt/wesnoth-1.17-git/share/wesnoth/data/core/images/units/human-loyalists/swordsman-attack-se-7.png
/opt/wesnoth-1.17-git/share/wesnoth/data/core/images/units/human-loyalists/swordsman-attack-se-8.png
/usr/share/games/wesnoth/1.16/data/core/images/units/human-loyalists/swordsman-attack-1.png
/usr/share/games/wesnoth/1.16/data/core/images/units/human-loyalists/swordsman-attack-2.png
/usr/share/games/wesnoth/1.16/data/core/images/units/human-loyalists/swordsman-attack-3.png

[Pentarctagon]

Alright, added as well.

[octalot]

Almost all .jpg story images have been converted to .webp, and their filenames changed to match. However, the engine won't automatically look for the renamed images (it does for .png, but not .jpg).