Caves of Qud (now at Early Access Feature Friday #131) $

[getter77]

Feature Friday #41

We added a fungus-based biome.
The biome appears in 3 grades: Fungus Patch, Fungus Grove, and Fungus Forest.
Spotted shagspooks, dandy caps, and brooding puffs appear in varying amounts.
Valuable liquid weeps, which Qud's botanists have identified as lichen, lend their hues to the surrounding mushrooms.
There are two new creature templates for creatures generated in fungus-based biomes: "friend to fungus" and "fungus-ridden".

We spiced up the unaffiliated cave population some more.
"Look! The bear is distracted by all that honey."
"What's this patch of blue fron..?" *poof*
"Jordi, there's a forge here!"
"Is that a pool of... vomit?"
"Kitty."

Reduced the density of all biomes across the world map.
Added chronology entries for fetching an old man knickknacks and stumbling upon flattened remains.
Tweaked the appearance of item weights in the list picker.
Optimized the storage of some map data.
Made the cave populator smarter about cave geography.
Added support for dynamically generated population tables.
Fixed an uncommon map build hang.
Fixed an issue that was causing several effect-on-melee powers, including Qudzu, to not work properly.
Fixed an issue where beguiled followers wouldn't attack their current active target if the player wasn't actively hostile to that creature. They would just sit around doing nothing instead.

[getter77]

Feature Friday #42

    Glowcrust infections no longer spew spore clouds. That's exclusive to fickle gill.
    Rumors abound of adventurers discovering Mechanimist statue-shrines deep in the caves of Qud. Did the sculptress Petramaia base her Six Day Stilt creations on earlier works?
    Added new tiles for these items.
        medical locker
        nanopneumatic jackhammer
        leather and studded leather armor
        various plate mails
        cloth overalls
        leather apron
        various energy cells
        laser pistol
        overloaded laser pistol
        plastic tree
    Added a few variations to corpse splats.
    Added the 'seed: n' wish, which sets the world seed to 'n'.
    Quest-based chronology entries actually appear in the chronology now.
    When NPCs overdose on shade oil, they no longer recursively spawn infinite shadow selves.
    Copies of perennial, named NPCs no longer appear in unaffiliated caves. ("Are those three copies of Oboroqoru, Ape God?")
    Fixed an issue that occasionally caused map building to fail, particularly in and around Bethesda Susa.
    Fixed some issues that occasionally caused maps to rebuild.
    Fixed some map builders that weren't properly tied to the world seed.
    Fixed cave layouts being too similar along the Z axis.
    Removed some redundant data storage in save files.
    Fixed a rare corner case that caused maps to build forever.
    Mod support: added 'AdjacentTo:' and 'AdjacentToStartsWith:' population placement hints.

[getter77]

Feature Friday #43

We nerfed Shank. Now, your short blade attacks are modified by half your agility modifier rather the full amount.
Weapon penetration displays now take Shank into account.
We added a few features to the prototype overlay UI, which you can enable in the Options menu (User Interface > Allow overlay user interface elements)
There's a gorgeous, new main menu courtesy of Cyril van der Haegen. An army of torches mounts Tel Qorna crosswise the patina of Qud's aurorae.
The help pages were converted to the new UI.
Added new tiles for these creatures.
chromeling
plated chromeling
electrofuge
worker ant
fire ant
fire ant queen
scrap-clad hermit
leering stalker
Added a new tile for plastifer sneakers.
Added some humanoid corpse varieties to certain encounters.
Added occasional trash piles to the unaffiliated caves encounters. Sometimes there's an extra big pile with some overlooked artifacts. Of course, big piles tend to attract arconauts. You're not the only adventurer in Qud, you know.
Slime puddles were slipping on other slime puddles, causing huge nested slips during the generation of slimy biomes. We fixed that. Qud is a serious place and the image of slime puddles clumsily slipping on each other doesn't belong here.
Fixed an issue causing 'replay most recent character' to fail.
We now allow .png textures from mods to override .bmp core files.
Fixed some issues around the equipment of cloned creatures incorrectly referencing the equipment of the original creature. For example, when your Temporal Fugue clones attempt to reload their weapons, you won't get the reload prompt any longer.
Added Cyril van der Haegen and Laura Bucklew to the art credits.

[getter77]

Feature Friday #44

We added some modding features.
Added a Modding Utilities menu to the overlay UI. It's accessible from the bottom right of the main menu. (To enable the overlay, from Options > User Interface, click 'Allow overlay user interface elements').
Ported the map editor to the new UI and linked it from the Modding Utilities menu. We also removed the F11 shortcut.
Added a modding documentation wiki and linked it from the Modding Utilities menu. Here it is: https://freehold.atlassian.net/wiki/display/CQP/Caves+of+Qud+-+Technical+Guidebook
Added support for true color tiles in mods.
Added tiles for these items.
chain mail
ulnar stimulators
all varieties of metal gauntlets
all varieties of cloth and leather gloves
leather boots
chain boots
all other varieties of metal boots
grassy yurtmat
electric snail shell
forked-horned helm
Added a salty pseudopod to salty sludges. It probably doesn't dehydrate you to death (*nods assuredly*).
Added a honeyed pseudopod to honeyed sludges and a tarry pseudopod to tarry sludges. Tar and honey are sticky, so you figure it out.
When soup sludges spit liquid, the color of the animation now matches the types of liquids spit.
When an NPC tries to eat or drink while full, you no longer get the popup dialog asking you to confirm the decision.
The overlay message log no longer blocks tile clicks, making the overlay 7648% more usable.
Added a draggable corner tab to resize the overlay message log.
Fixed an error that occurred when you used Temporal Fugue with a fungal infection.
Fixed an issue where the main menu displayed while you loaded a game.
Fixed an issue where large message log contents that were causing crashes.

[getter77]

Feature Friday #45

We added Steam Workshop support.
The workshop is now live for everyone.
Added a Steam Workshop uploader, accessible from the Modding Utilities menu.
Added a tutorial mod to the workshop called Blue Ctesiphus. This mod completely alters the Caves of Qud experience by changing Ctesiphus's color from magenta to blue.
Added an Installed Mod Configuration menu, accessible from the main menu when the overlay UI is enabled.
Added workshop documentation to the modding wiki (https://freehold.atlassian.net/wiki/display/CQP/Caves+of+Qud+-+Technical+Guidebook).

Added tiles for these items.
square cap
chainmail coif
all other varities of metal helmets
headlamp
recycling suit
Fist of the Ape God
throwing axe
eigencannon
copper, silver, and gold key

Along the banks of the fungal jungle's primordial soup rivers, gelologists continue to observe the strange congealing of soup sludges.
Lava sludges congeal out of soup and lava mixtures again, and now they're appropriately flaming when they congeal. They no longer instantly turn into shale.
Added slimy, oily, and unctuous sludges. Their pseudopods are slippery, so hold on to your weapons.
Added bloody sludges. They are kind, noble beasts who just want to drain your life essence.
Acid sludges congeal out of soup and acid mixtures again. It hurts when they touch you, because of acid.

[getter77]

Feature Friday #46

We added more modding support.
Added scripting (.cs) support for the following things.
parts
skills
mutations
effects
part builders
zone builders
encounter builders
inventory builders
conversation scripts
quest scripts
Mods that use scripting require manual approval on the Installed Mod Configuration screen. To navigate to that screen, you need to enable the overlay UI.
.rpm maps can now be fully or partially modded by including a map of the same name in the root of a mod folder. A load="Merge" tag combines cell elements instead of overwriting them. You don't need to define all the cells when modding an existing map.
Added two new tutorial mods, "Two Ctesiphus" and "Hued Ctesiphus".
Added a bunch of new modding documentation: https://freehold.atlassian.net/wiki/display/CQP
Added a separate overlay UI option to enable overlay buttons: From the Options menu, choose Overlay UI > 'Show overlay button bar.'
Drinking enough wine or cider gets you drunk again.
Our top sludge researchers have published their new findings.
When a sludge catalyzes a liquid, it now gains some levels, HP, and quickness.
Added lush and spiced sludges. Some arconaut in a hookah tent is telling everyone to let them hit you and you'll get a buzz.
Added sludgy sludges. Sludgy sludges attack with sludgy pseudopods and rust your stuff with sludge.
Added gooey sludges. They're probably poisonous.
Added putrid sludges. Don't fight them on a full stomach.
Added oozing sludges. These guys don't have any sort of negative effect so you should go introduce yourself.
Added luminous sludges. They're also friendly.
Added homogenized sludges. Findings redacted.
Added neutronic sludges. Then all the researchers died.

[getter77]

Feature Friday #47

Added a daily challenge.
We made some more modding enhancements.
Genotypes, castes, and callings are now data driven and can be modded. Check out genotypes.xml and subtypes.xml.
The Steam Workshop Uploader is now scrollable for small views.
You no longer have to restart the game for newly approved mods to take effect.
Changed some misleading language when you're evening up a trade with water.
Cleaned up some of the Skill descriptions.
Eater's flesh now has a special interaction with Mass Mind.
Removed some extraneous debug commands.
Added tiles for these items.
night-vision goggles
spectacles
folding chair
vinewood sap mask and gas mask
telescoping monocle
Added a new book: a scroll bound by a strand of kelp
"I come from the west. My parents sold me into slavery as a babe, though the practice had been formally abolished in Perth years earlier. As a boy I cut my teeth on the reefs of the Shore of Songs, and lulled the Pale Sea to sleep with many a hymn, that she might return our sailors from the Black Stair unscathed. How the melodies whisked inside my skull even then. I was given no name at birth, but the sailors called me Catu."

[getter77]

Feature Friday #48

We added a framework for game sounds.
Added a few basic sounds.
Added an AmbientSoundGenerator part. [modding]
Added support for OpenSound and CloseSound tags on the Door part. [modding]
Added support for ReloadSound tag on the MagazineAmmoLoader part. [modding]
When you get a hunger or thrist warning on the world map, you're now asked if you want to stop travelling. If you choose to continue, you won't be spammed with more hunger and thrist popups.
The following properties are now available as Genotype and Subtype data: BodyObject, BaseHPGain, BaseMPGain, BaseSPGain, Tile, DetailColor, StartingLocation, MutationPoints and Reputation. [modding]
Items with clips and cells are now automatically unloaded when they're disassembled.
Added support for a mutation MaxLevel attribute in mutations.xml. The defaults is 10. [modding]
Added an option to cap keystroke buffering at two commands. It defaults to 'no'. From the Options menu, User Interface > 'Limit the input buffer to two commands'.
Fixed: Fungal infections no longer infect body slots equipped with natural equipment (for example, Carapace).
Fixed: Jewel-encrusted items no longer lose their jeweled display after you save and load. No more fake jewels. (although...)
Fixed: Stats now properly reset when you back up to the genotype selection screen during character creation.
Fixed: You can no longer have multiple 'lost' effects at one time.
Fixed: Priest of All Moons stat bonus are correct again.
Fixed: Liquid-spitting creatures like sludges no longer cause exceptions when they spit.
Fixed an exception that sometimes occured while curing fungal infections.
Reduced sandstone's HP pool.
Fixed: The rusted archway should always generate with stairs down now.
Added a level-up animation for the player.
Mechanimist scholars have resumed their work preparing the library at the Six Day Stilt cathedral for use.
Added a Corpus Generator to the Modding Utilities menu.
As some anonymous Qud author says, "Spittle flies from its bleating mouth into a ploughshare and dissolved his kingdom." [quoted from one of the countless hoary tomes unearthed by the Mechanimists]

[getter77]

Feature Friday #49

Made the zone builder more robust. You can now break out of infinite zone build loops as well as report the error to us.
Added some new descriptions to the world map.
The water tiles have been replaced with tiles and descriptions for the River Svy, the River Opal, Opal's duskwaters, the River Yonth, and a mountain stream.
Added a description to salt dunes.
Added a description to the fungal jungle.
Replaced some extraneous graphics quality options in the launcher with two simple options: Standard and No Vsync.
[modding] Mutations.xml now supports a Type paramater on mutations that overrides the default mutation types (physical or mental).
Fixed: Getting dragged through a sticky substance no longer consumes the creature's energy.
Fixed: Baetyls no longer try (and sometimes succeed in trying) to move around.
Fixed: Some faction-to-faction relationship changes weren't persisting into loaded games.
Fixed several items that use multiple slots not properly requiring them.
Fixed: The option picker dialog no longer hides the selection caret. It also scrolls properly now.
Fixed: During character creation, mutation selections no longer stick around around when you back up to the genotype selection screen.
Fixed: Your character's tile graphic no longer lags behind when you move while zoomed.
Fixed a typo in quadruped and fish bodies.
Fixed a typo in the description of Greybeard.
Fixed some issues with the map editor.

[getter77]

Feature Friday #50

We did a lot of backend work to add a framework for graphical effects.
Torchposts and braziers now produce smoke and flame particles.
Six Day Stilt cathedral braziers now burn an appropriately cyan light.
Expect more particle effects in future patches.
Added signs outside the hookah tents in the Stiltgrounds.
[modding] Yau can add a new tag, NoDataDisk, to objects with the TinkerItem part. This tag prevents data disks with that item's blueprint from spawning.
Updated descriptions for the following items.
basic toolkit
pickaxe
hoversled
Added a tile for fused security door.
Changed the background color on security door tiles to make them more readable.
Slog of the Cloaca's corpse is no longer included as a component for fungal infection cures.
Optimized the memory usage of ASCII graphical effects.
Mechanimst scholar monks continue their tireless efforts to construct a library at the Six Day Stilt. Some of the recent texts they've unearthed include:
Instructions for the Rarest of Circumstances
Skin; Accounts Vary Accordingly
Mustachioed Man Wears a Costume, Vol. VII
One sage has even gone so far as to claim that the number of texts in Qud may approach infinity...

[getter77]

Feature Friday #51

Hey, all. The patches this week and next week are a bit light on content since we'll be attending the International Roguelike Development Conference in New York! Both of us (Brian and Jason) are speaking, and the talks will be streamed, so check it out if you're interested: https://www.twitch.tv/roguelike_con
Added a particle effect to campfires.
In support of the pursuit of knowledge, we added some book-related things.
Added procedurally-generated books. Who knows what wisdom is stowed in their pages?
New piece of furniture: bookshelf.
Replaced the table with a bookshelf in Nuntu's hut at Kyakukya.
Added a couple procedurally-generated books to Nuntu's bookshelf.
Fixed an issue with some true kin subtypes not having the proper resistances.
Fixed a formatting issue with Mehmet's dialog.
Fixed an issue with dual wield powers not applying correctly.
Changed the default MP gain for creatures with no subtype to 1 instead of 0.
[modding] We made some updates and fixes to the map editor.
Added a display for the currently selected blueprint.
Added a view for the selected cell.
You can directly edit the blueprints in the selected cell.
You can now delete blueprints from the selected cell.
Right-clicking now removes the topmost object in a cell.

[getter77]

Feature Friday #52

New piece of furniture: candelabra
You may now find the remnants of study alcoves in the caves of Qud. Who knows what fates befell their lettered occupants? Anyway, their valuable books are yours now.
You now get a warning popup when you try to sunder your own mind.
Inanimate objects can no longer spit slime.
You can no longer pick up fused security doors.
When you click on an object in a tile, you're no longer asked to clarify the direction.
Fixed some missing tooltips.
Removed some invalid objects from dynamic population generation.
Fixed the UI not dismissing some screens when you right-clicked.
Fixed an issue with the main menu logo size on very small screens.
Fixed an issue that occasionally prevented clicking on the left side of the screen.
Fixed some exceptions when creating game objects.
Fixed a rare exception when creating force bubbles.
Fixed an AI issue that occasionaly froze the game when descending into Bethesda Susa.
Fixed a rare issue caused by stairs appearing in graveyards.

[getter77]

Feature Friday #53

We did some work on the character generation screens for the new UI. You can enable the protoype UI by checking Overlay UI > "Enable overlay user interface elements" in the Options menu.
Added a character type selection screen.
Added a genotype selection screen.
Added a subtype selection screen.
Added a stat selection screen.
Fixed the brief flicker that occurred when you enabled or disabled the overlay UI.
Fixed Unstable Genome's display name.
Fixed a typo in the Select Arcology & Caste screen title.
Added a new liquid: wax.
Candles now drip wax.
Reduced the rates that soup sludges spawn.
Tweaked and added descriptions for some creatures and natural weapons.
brooding goldpuff and brooding azurepuff
slumberling
seed spit
spark tick
segmented mirthworm
scorpiock
We did some more prep work for the new Mechanimist library. Taking a page from librarians of the past, Mechanimist scholars are busy dusting off marble busts and casting globes from dawnglider eggs. Expect to see them soon.
[redacted main quest information coming out of the fungal jungle] Just listen to everything Pax Klanq says. He'll have a new request for you in a week or two.

[getter77]

Feature Friday #54

Added tile variants for various farmer NPCs.
Changed Mehmet's tile.
Changed Putus Templar warden name to knight templar.
Added a new tile for knight templars.
Added a new tile for knight templar faction leaders, warmongers amongst the true.
Tweaked the title modifiers on procedurally-generated book. Every book doesn't have a volume or edition number now.
Added more procedurally-generated books to Nuntu's bookshelf.
Procedurally-generated books are now worth various amounts.
Added a new overland tile for the Six Day Stilt.
Updated the tile for Shekhinah's hologram.
Added new overland tiles for the fungal jungle.
Changed Pax Klanq's skill profile. He's a master tinker now.
Changed Pax Klanq's attributes and HP.
Gave Pax Klanq a description.
Added wax blocks and wax nodules. They melt into molten wax.
Molten wax puddles cool into wax blocks or wax nodules, depending on the liquid volume of the puddle.
Molten wax now warms you if you step into it, drink it, or pour it on yourself.
Changed the descriptions of soup sludges.
Removed the fail chance from desalination pellets.
[modding] Added a new part, CommerceRangeValue, that lets you define a range for the commerical value of an item. Example: <part Name="CommerceRangeValue" Range="100-200"></part>

[getter77]

Feature Friday #55

Added the mutation selection screen to the new UI. Since it's such an important and complicated menu, we expect to iterate on it a bunch.
Added some new encounters to the flower fields. Yonderbrush, forest fires, and bears, oh my!
Molten wax can now catalyze soup sludges.
Added waxen pseudopods.
Fixed soup sludges inheriting from the wrong sludge supertype.
Renamed security turret to the more appropriate "musket turret".
Changed musket turret's tile to a proper turret tile.
Added a new book tile.
Added new tiles for scrolls, some furled and some unfurled.
Gave each handwritten book a proper book or scroll tile.
Gave procedurally-generated books a random book or scroll tile and a random detail color.
Updated the descriptions for yuckwheat and yuckwheat stem.
Updated the description and eat message for canned mystery meat.
You can no longer chat with creatures across dimensions.
Braces ({}), which are used to mark metadata, no longer appear in help topics.
Made a small update to the game credits.
[modding] Added a new part, RandomDetailColor, that assigns a random detail color to an object's tile.
[debug] Added some wish tools for debugging quests and conversations.