News
March 17th, 2005:
 Lost
Admiral Returns opening screens
are now more streamlined, with cleaner
options for choosing your next step, controlling game
tips, and other options. More menu streamlining
options coming soon!
Also featured in the latest version
are a number of new Save the
Admiral tricks, such as
buying extra turns for special missions using State
or Bribe points. You can also
choose the map location for
special plays that you choose to use occur,
such as reinforcements, spying, or saboteurs.
These two tricks give you whole new ways to ensure
victory when faced with stiff odds.
February 19th, 2005:
 New "Bismarck
Hunts" special mission added to LAR with four
major variations. Casts you in the role of the
famous surface naval raiders of WWII, or as the
desperate pursuers looking to destroy said menace.
The major variations make for a new fresh challenge
every time you play LAR.
Variety of other small fixes and
improvements to LAR interface. More to come!
Read the latest new review of Lost
Admiral Returns at the
Cosmos Gaming website.
December 31st, 2004:
Happy New Year
everyone! We
here at Fogstone Games wish you and yours the best of
new years.
Extensive new movement menu options
added via a full screen map mode
view and a popup menu
giving access to all commands in the game when
you right click on an empty part of the map. Also
features new streamlined options
for controlling ships by letting you anchor (or
un-anchor) ships by right clicking twice on them,
"stopping" ships by left clicking twice on them, and
warnings when you try to move a ship into a hex that is
out of reach this turn.
Check out the
new great in-depth review of Lost
Admiral Returns at
Tea Leaves. My thanks to Peterb for this
detailed examination of the game and his feedback on the
game's interface that have been incorporated into this
latest version of LAR.
Enjoy the latest improvements to LAR
as we start 2005!
December 6th, 2004:
New options and
controls added for Flagship creation. Now
you can select the specific abilities each Flagship has.
What combinations work best for you? To do this,
the Flagship modules you earn now reflect specific
abilities rather than generic groupings of types.
New "Extra"
Battles added in the STA Campaign. These
battles are aside from the specific State battles, and
give you the chance to earn juicy bonus rewards.
Reward point
tracking system modified to be tracked separately
for "normal" battles vs all battles fought during a
"Save the Admiral" Campaign. This allows the STA
Campaign to have it's own high and low tides of
resources to use in tougher battles. Also, there
are limits to how many flagship modules, special plays,
State or Bribe points you have on hand. Any new
rewards earned beyond these limits
are automatically converted to Perk points.
November 12, 2004:
 New "Recon" mission added to LAR.
Use stealth and ambush to unlock the puzzle of enemy
activities in the area.
New map scrolling options added to
movement, combat, and unit selection menus in LAR.
New selector box added during movement to make current
ship easier to identify. LAR added to even more
download sites.
October 31, 2004:
 New "Fishing
Rights" mission added to LAR.
Puts you in charge of straightening out a rather large
escalation of armed forces in this tense conflict.
LAR posted to about 20 new download
sites over the last two weeks, including receiving a
good four "cow" rating from
www.tucows.com.
Lots of changes to the
tutorials, menu layouts, player's
manual, game tips, music, and other interface aspects
to make the game as fun to play as possible.
October 19, 2004:
 New mission added to Lost Admiral
Returns called "Death by Duel".
Includes lots of tactical quandaries depending on the
exact variation you are playing.
LAR is participating in the
Independent Games Festival at
www.igf.com and has be
posted on
www.downloads.com to help start spreading the word
about the new game.
Lots of changes to the
tutorials, menu layouts, player's
manual, game tips, music, and other interface aspects
to make the game as fun to play as possible.
September 23rd, 2004:
Lost Admiral Returns has been included
on it's first major exposure via a demo disk for a
computer magazine coming out in late October. My
thanks to the magazine (more on that in a week or so)
and all LAR fans for helping get LAR to this point!
Lots of adjustments to the LAR menu
options and layouts for this first release. A
variety of new backdrop images, control button images,
and background MIDI music were added, along with many
small bugs or code loopholes being fixed. The
first game menu now has many new advanced control
options all accessed via a popup list tied to a simple
"info" button.
The process of posting (and viewing)
Internet High Scores has been improved, and streamlined
to make sure all aspects of different Internet
connections and firewall setups are addressed.
New pricing offered to cater to all
new and old fans of Lost Admiral Returns, the original
Lost Admiral, Conquered Kingdoms, and Grandest Fleet.
You can now get the DELUXE version of Lost Admiral
Returns with all core features, and all flagship,
special missions, and the Save the Admiral Campaign for
$29.95. Or you can buy the BASIC version of Lost
Admiral Returns for the low entry price of $19.95, and
upgrade later for $13.25 more to get all the advanced
flagships, special missions, and Save the Admiral
Campaign.
August 31st, 2004:
Variety of improvements to the Save
the Admiral Campaign, the integrated "Update LAR over
the Internet" process, and all parts of the game.
Several long term bugs tracked down and removed.
More polish for first launch.
Major new interface elements include
new "View Styles" to unit selection menu that let you
customize how you buy your ships. Now you can
toggle between creating your new battle fleet all in
your home city via the "Simple Classic View", or seeing
that fleet given orders to attack nearby cities via the
"Advanced View", or select from "Blended View" or
"Modified Classic" views to fit your own purchasing
style.
July 26th, 2004:
"Save
the Admiral" Campaign activated for everyone to try
out. Includes lots of new challenges to
overcome as you help the Admiral regain lost glory and
return to winning the home country's long war...
Plenty of other adjustments to make
the game interface more helpful, and to balance how
Flagship materials are earned.
Polish and improvement of all parts of
the game in preparation for the first general release of
LAR starts now!
May 25th, 2004:
"Sea Trials"
version of Lost Admiral Returns posted!
Customizable flagships
added, along with lots of useful game tips for using
parts of the game like flagships and for new players
getting started in the game.
Visit the "Reasons To Buy" page for more info
on what is new in LAR as it approaches full launch.
Lots of other small changes in
preparation for full launch, including AI tweaks,
adjustments to points earned for battles towards your
customized flagships, and bonus points for posting
scores online.
Early Bird
Discount ends June 24th, 2004, so buy LAR
before then to save $10
off the normal price!
March 19, 2004:
Three new
sample "Save the Admiral" missions can now be
played in LAR. They create 8+ unique challenges to
overcome mixed in with the traditional fight for Victory
Points in Lost Admiral. Use these special missions
on the 9 classic maps, or any of many random maps.
Earn points towards your
future customizable Flagships and
Command ships (which are being implemented next!)
February 16th, 2004:
Transition
version posted, leading to eventual unveiling of
the big Surprise. Includes various big fixes.
The latest new material is not activated for everyone to
use, but can be activated by some players for
pre-testing.
January 25th, 2004:
Random Maps
activated in Preview Playtest Version of LAR!
Never tire of LAR battles with the
infinite replayability and variety of making your
own random maps and start setups to fight on. Use
4 different settings (192 combinations!) to control how
the map layout is made, and then use another 4 settings
(512 combos) to create even more different starting
setups for that map. Ocean's worth of
possibilities...
Implementation now started on
special flagships, command ships,
and a big SURPRISE coming
later.
January 13th, 2004:
Preview Playtest Version of LAR now
features four great tutorials
to teach you how to play the game. Also work your
way upward in Officer ranks
by earning your best victory possible on a variety of
maps. Includes all 9 of the
classic maps from the
original Lost Admiral. Post your scores online to
participate in various Internet
High Score Charts.
Implementation now started on random
maps, with special flagships and command ships to
follow.
Click here to download the preview
version!
December 20th, 2003:
First preview Playtest
Version of LAR posted (!!!) for all visitors
to try out as Outer Circle Testers.
Click here to download the preview
version!
Features Tutorial #1 for learning how to play the new
game and interface. Use your Updater program
frequently to get the latest new stuff and tutorials as
they are added over the upcoming weeks and months.
November 29, 2003:
Big version posted for Inner Circle
Testers with Computer
Opponent AI and Internet High Scores System
for testing.
Work now proceeding on Tutorials and
misc clean up before posting of trial preview version of
(unfinished) LAR.
November 12, 2003:
Help support
the creation of Lost Admiral Returns by pre-ordering
your copy today! Click
here to order.
Inner Circle testing of LAR
continues. Latest version includes AI opponent
and new Internet High Score System.
Website updated with new sections,
buttons, etc. A few pages have yet to be updated
for the new menu, so use the home page as a starting
point to see all the new stuff.
Preview
Version available in early December 2003 for
(unfinished) Lost Admiral Returns! This is the
version that all visitors to this website will be able
to download and try out...
Latest version has (to
be released any day now) AI computer opponent
with the classical difficulty levels of 1 through 11 to
provide a challenge to players of all skill levels.
Also included in this new release is a new Internet High
Score Menu, which lets you see your most recent game
scores alongside other players over the Internet, and
gives you a chance to reach the top of a variety of
score charts depending on what map you like to play on,
what maps other players are competing on, etc. etc.
Features being implemented now
for the Preview Version (early December 2003)
are tutorials for learning the game, changes to the
movement screens, polishing of the unit selection
screens, along with new graphics for the officer menu,
ranking system, and officer awards system.
Click here to
sign up to help test Lost Admiral Returns
as an "Inner Circle" or "Outer Circle".
Please fill out our survey
to give us feedback about the original Lost Admiral
and the new Lost Admiral Returns.
Older News:
Inner Circle testing started
around 8/01/2003 and has focused on Internet
compatibility, stability of LAR program on various
windows systems, and trial by fire of various LAR
components such as the Internet Updater, etc.
Recently hired Dave Cousins and Jason Plata in October 2003 to help update and
finish various graphics, LAR website updates, edit
various maps, combat scripts, and other parts of the LAR
game. Many of the new graphical buttons and
informational pictures on this (11-12-2003) website
update are as a result of this new help.
LAR testing has demonstrated complex
issues with the Multiplayer stuff, some of which most
likely must be corrected by players on their own
computers/routers for some DSL and Cable Modem setups.
I.E. Dial up connections, and some DSL/Cable Modem
setups have no problems with the Multiplayer stuff, but
your router setup can cause problems if not set up
correctly. Future updates to the Multiplayer part
of LAR will add more ways to bypass router problems,
along with other new material. These router / NAP
problems are common to many DirectPlay games when
dealing with certain DSL / Cable Modem setups.
For more information, please contact
Fogstone Games or Thurston Searfoss:
thurston@fogstone.com
Fogstone Games
355 Libby Road
Pownal, Maine 04069
Phone/Fax 207-688-4677
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