Caverns of Xaskazien II Ver. 1.30.03 released!

[Virtua Sinner]

You can get it (or the latest patch) here:  https://virtua-sinner.itch.io/caverns-of-xaskazien-ii

For this update I focused on stepping outside my comfort zone.  WAY outside my comfort zone.  What you'll find herein is stuff I've been fantasizing about adding for years, but lacked the courage to tackle, because I thought it would be too hard, as well as things some players have been long requesting, that again, I avoided heretofore because I thought they would be too hard.  This update is HUGE.

I did my best to playtest through all the new stuff, but it's so drastic, it's possible I've overlooked something, so the usual request stands - if you encounter a bug, please let me know!

If you're a long time player, you're especially going to want to fire up the README or the Manual or both before diving back in - they've been substantially updated to reflect the major changes, and if you're unaware of what's new, you may be baffled as to why your usual keyboard commands aren't working.  I promise - the reason is a good thing! 

As with many updates, be aware - previous saved games will not work once you've patched, and you're going to have to reset your Preferences in game via the Options menu, as all of that's been overhauled.

This one was 3 months of full-time labour, and I'm really, really happy with how it all turned out.  I hope you are too!

Okay...  Here's what you're getting with this update:


Major New Content Updates

1 Re-instated Playable Class: Woodsman (Re-named to Axeman). With this, all original classes have finally been re-instated (after 4 years and 3 months!)

3 New Playable Races: Half-Ogre, Mousling, Fairy.

28 New Perks: Timber!, Smash it Down, Clear a Path, Shatter Defense, Chip Away, Cleave, Headsman, Maximum Violence, Big Strides, Strong Like Ogre, Smashing is Fun, Crush Skull, Befriend Giant, Hurl Boulder, Scurry, Attack the Undercarriage, Lightweight, Scrounge, Quiet as a Mouse, Just a Sip, Fay Assistance, Nullify Enchantments, Glide, Appear as Other, Flutter, Anti-Magic Aura, Gleam.

New Game Concept: Exotic Weapons. Exotic Weapons are weapons from far off continents or the most obscure regions of mainland Malanthus. Some function a little differently from how we’re used to weapons working, and all are slightly better than their standard counterpart, though each has dual Attribute requirements to equip, with the second attribute being at 70% the requirement of the first. About 15% of found weapons (or weapons for sale from Merchants) should now be Exotic.

100 New Weapons (Exotic): Katar, Dual Pronged Dagger, Serpentine Dagger, Khanjar, Flyssa, Spatha, Backsword, Nimcha, Xiphos, Kaskara, Estoc, Shamshir, Sica, Kilij, Saw-Toothed Flatchett, Hook Sword, Great Sword, Macuahuitl, Mameluke, Zweihander, Knuckledusters, Clava, Garrotte, Slungshot, Gata, Heavy Knobbed Club, Waddy, Whip, Cat o’ Nine Tails, Volkoboy, Spiked Chain, Kanabo, Knout, Sjambok, Shark Tooth Club, Two Headed Flail, Meteor Hammer, Greenstone Club, Chui, Hand-Cranked Power Flail, Rex Tooth Dart, Plumbata, Bird Headed Throwing Knife, Hand Cannon, Bola, Throwing Club, Valari, Atlatl, Blowgun, Flintlock Pistol, Amentum, Mambele, Duelling Pistol, Tlacochtli, Recurve Bow, Yew Bow, Flintlock Rifle, Double Crossbow, Repeating Crossbow, Blunderbuss, Shepherd’s Axe, Peasant Axe, Carpenter’s Axe, Archer’s Axe, Hunter’s Axe, Tomahawk, Squarehead Axe, Epsilon, Felling Axe, Forest Axe, Hafted Axe, War Scythe, Tabar, Mace-Ax, Khopesh, Kusarigama, Fan Axe, Ono, Sagaris, Pole Axe, Candeliere, Rhomphia, Sovnya, Svardstav, Hasta, Rex Tooth Lance, Paddle Staff, Awl Pike, Stingray Spear, Spontoon, Atgeir, Light Horse Lance, Dory, Corseque, Medium Horse Lance, Reclining Moon Blade, Brandistock, Long Club Staff-Spear, Heavy Horse Lance, Wolf Teeth Club.

3 New Armour TYPES: Footwear, Legwear, Gloves.

20 New Footwear: Turnshoes, Moss Padded Boots, Hide Boots, Furred Boots, Short Soft Leather Boots, Tall Soft Leather Boots, Short Hard Leather Boots, Tall Hard Leather Boots, Studded Leather Boots, Brigandine Boots, Ringmail Boots, Scalemail Boots, Chainmail Boots, Lamellar Boots, Sabatons, Light Plated Boots, Iron Boots, Steel Boots, Mithril Boots, Dragonscale Boots.

20 New Legwear: Canvas Trousers, Woolen Trousers, Hide Leggings, Fur Leggings, Quilted Trousers, Padded Trousers, Leather Greaves, Boiled Leather Greaves, Studded Leather Greaves, Brigandine Greaves, Ringmail Leggings, Scalemail Greaves, Chainmail Leggings, Lamellar Greaves, Splintmail Greaves, Bandedmail Greaves, Iron Greaves, Steel Greaves, Mithril Greaves, Dragonscale Greaves.

20 New Gloves: Canvas Gloves, Woolen Gloves, Hide Gloves, Furred Gloves, Quilted Gloves, Padded Gloves, Leather Gloves, Boiled Leather Gloves, Studded Leather Gauntlets, Brigandine Gauntlets, Ringmail Gauntlets, Scalemail Gauntlets, Chainmail Gauntlets, Lamellar Gauntlets, Splintmail Gauntlets, Banded Gauntlets, Iron Gauntlets, Steel Gauntlets, Mithril Gauntlets, Dragonscale Gauntlets.

20 New Legendary Footwear: Sewer Plumbers, Olitaciford’s Deep Diving Boots, Sureshot’s Tournament Winning Boots, Footwear of the Mild One, Scientist Boots of Gelma Drin, Celestial Boots of Tarranee, Pelan Frontline Boots, Boots of the Asterian Graverobber, Mountain Scalers of Arthenus, High Judge’s Boots, Brevalian Street Fighting Boots, Grey Derrick’s Jungle Explorers, Wooden Boots of the Ellisythian High Council, Everlasting Boots of Long Life, Brian Forrest’s Boots, Gruveld’s Boots of Fearless Advancement, Boots of Endless Steps and Strife, Secrets of the Dellemore Circus, Deathless Stride, Darelian’s Hopes.

20 New Legendary Legwear: Grave Menagerie, Hellstriders, Treasure Loot Trousers, Spirit Bear, Tundra Walkers, Pirahnee’s Prat Fall Pants, Last Chance Greaves, Smallfoot Pride, Heroic Greaves of Sir Danmar McFadden, Greaves of the Lonely Tower, Looters of Stygia, Lasrian’s Protectors, Steading Shin Guards, Greenheart Greaves, Jorenson’s Stalwart Greaves, Two Point Defense, Wild Forest Greaves, Lockpin’s Unrealized Dream, Way In and Way Out, Gimset’s Demise.

20 New Legendary Gloves: Guiding Gloves, Gloves of the Vorduvian Regent, Hubris, Gloves of the Blighted Realm, Miraculous Gloves of Saint Eledryn, Gloves Forged in Secret, Gloves Lost in Gruzz, Gloves of the Trollish Merchant, Gloves of Salnash, Gloves of the Dwarven Temple, Vanity’s Grin, Gloves of Theson Plea, Mist Fingers’ Gauntlets, Gauntlets of the Usurping Apprentice, Gloves of the Crystethian Tomb Looter, Throat Burners, Jonathan Engles’ Gauntlets, Strongflight, Gloves of Guldarvi, Jinvar’s Chemistry Gloves of Outright Theft.

5 New Improvised Gloves: Handwraps, Fingerless Gloves, Linen Gloves, Felt Gloves, Workman’s Gloves.

5 New Improvised Legwear: Tattered Loincloth, Linen Hosiery, Ragged Breeches, Patchwork Trousers, Tartan Kilt.

5 New Improvised Footwear: Footwraps, Sandals, Alpargatas, Poulaines, Wooden Clogs.

11 New Map Tiles: Treacherous Mine Shaft, Zone of Hatred, Snow, Dark Spiral, Cold Augmenter, Lightning Augmenter, Acid Augmenter, Poison Augmenter, Magic Augmenter, Physical Augmenter, Mystery Door.

16 New Spells: Gain Knowledge, Air Form, Flame Sword, Sea Summons, Grave Harvest, Dig, Raise Temperature (Cantrip), Ogre Strength, Boulder Toss (monsters can cast too), Malediction, Portents of Death, Disenchant Surroundings, Palmistry (Cantrip), Aura Shroud, Foresight, Instant Bridge.

2 New Potions: Potion of Gaseous Form, Minor Restorative Potion. (The former Restorative Potion has been divided into two kinds: Minor Restorative Potions and Major Restorative Potions, with the likelihood of finding Major Restorative vs. Minor Restorative increasing the deeper you progress. Major Restorative Potions function exactly as former Restorative Potions, removing all your Diseases when consumed, but they can be bought and sold at twice the cost of former Restorative Potions and require Advanced Alchemy to identify. Minor Restorative Potions carry the same cost as former Restorative Potions and can still be identified with Basic Alchemy, but when consumed will only remove one randomly chosen Disease, instead of all Diseases.)

2 New Events: Xaskazien’s Hatred, Snowfall.

6 New Area Themes: Luminous Basin, Flooded Ruins, Room of Flames, Chamber of Hate, Altar Room, Snowy Cave.

2 New Booby Traps: Net Trap, Hidden Scorpion.

7 New Diseases: Warp Worms, Cellar Sight, Blood Warts, Black Gut, Dameron’s Doubt, Jungle Palsy, Sleeping Sickness.

12 New Armour Enchantments: Professional/Veteran’s/Elite, Mage’s/Wizard’s/Archmage’s, of the Caves/of the Underground/of the Depths, of Divine Influence/of Divine Intervention/of the Gods’ Will.

12 New Weapon Enchantments: Professional/Veteran’s/Elite, Mage’s/Wizard’s/Archmage’s, of the Caves/of the Underground/of the Depths, of Divine Influence/of Divine Intervention/of the Gods’ Will.

3 New Jewellery Enchantments: Heathen’s/Apostate’s/Heretic’s.

Substantially updated both the game manual and the readme file.

 

Major UI Improvements

- The game is now COMPLETELY playable via keyboard or mouse or whatever combination thereof you please.

- New Option in Option Menu: Rebind Keys. Players can now rebind keys to whatever they want. Access this capability via the Options menu.

- There’s a new key command added (defaulting to x) which puts you in Keyboard Look mode, allowing you to query anything on the viewscreen by moving the mouse cursor square by square with the movement keys. Moving your cursor off the bottom or left edge of the screen in this mode will allow you to query Good or Bad status icons.

- Holding Ctrl move Left or Ctrl move Down will leap you immediately to the outermost Bad or Good status icon, respectively (if one exists), as a matter of convenience.

- There are new key commands to deal with sidebars. (By default, Page Up and Page Down will cycle through the various components of any sidebar, pressing Enter or Keypad Enter will activate/equip anything highlighted there and pressing ‘d’ will drop a highlighted item). This same method can be used to navigate the Character side bar.

- All sidebars (except the Character and Map side bars) now come with red capitalized letters next to each listed entry. Pressing Shift and the appropriate letter (or turning on caps lock first) will immediately jump you to that listed entry.

- With the Inventory screen open, pressing Ctrl-r will have the same effect as left clicking the Reorganize button.

- Right clicking the icon for any temporary negative status effect (or moving your cursor to it and pressing your "drop" button ('d' by default)) will now instantly pass as many turns as necessary until the effect is dissipated. This auto-wait will be interrupted if you take any damage or if a monster comes within the range you’ve specified in your Monsters Interrupt Autowalk settings. Querying the icon for any temporary negative effect will now relay this information to you.

- There’s a new key command: Wait for Next Bad Status to End. It defaults to Backspace, but like all commands can be changed via the new Rebind Keys option. Pressing this button will auto-wait for the next bad status to end, aborting if you come under threat or come to harm.

- New Option in Option Menu: Visibly Trace Walk Path (defaults to yes).

- If Visibly Trace Walk Path is set to yes, querying any square in the viewscreen or the mini-map will display the path your character would take to get there when auto-walking, if possible. If no path is displayed, then it means there is no safe route to reach that square.

- New Convenience keyboard commands:

          Ctrl-t to auto-walk to the Temple (if located).

          Ctrl-s to auto-walk to the Stairs (if located).

          Ctrl-g to auto-walk to the nearest known Gold/Gems/Silver/Platinum.

- New way of representing diseases: Diseases will no longer directly list in the sidebar with the Character Tab open. Instead, if you have any disease, a new button and the word “Diseased” will appear where it formerly listed Fragilitas. The button and word can be queried, and if clicked will open a new Disease tab, listing all diseases you have in alphabetical order. This was done to open up the possibility of adding new diseases. (You can also open this tab via its hotkey which defaults to ‘v’).

- All Sidebar lists which extend beyond a single sidebar’s worth of data can now be scrolled through using the Mouse Wheel. (They can also still be scrolled in the old manner by clicking the appearing arrows, for those who prefer. They can also be scrolled via keyboard simply by moving your highlight off the top or bottom of a given list).

- Icons for buffs and debuffs will now pulse to twice their size every 2 seconds or so, in sequence. This was done to ensure that new players to the game know they’re there, and so even seasoned players don’t forget if they’re currently affected by something, especially when first loading a saved game.

 

Major Graphical Improvements

- Cavernous walls will now appear visibly rougher and less blocky than structured walls.

- All Events now have 2 new graphics associated with them: a 256x256 image that accompanies the Event’s announcement, and a 32x32 smaller version that shows up when you query the Event (or when the Event implements effects necessitating text in the Bottom Bar).

[continued ->]

[Virtua Sinner]

Minor Improvements

- Air Summons spell changed from Summoning to Aeromancy for thematic and balance reasons.

- When inside a wall or Blind you’ll no longer be able to see your own square. This is to prevent the angle of light striking your square from tipping you off as to the location of nearby fires/lava/etc.

- Added 3 new female “gone insane” sound effects, to play if your character is female and moving randomly due to Insanity, instead of always using the old male sfx.

- Increased the saturation on the Elevator tile, A) to make it stand out a little better in the darkness, and B) to help differentiate it from the similar new Treacherous Mineshaft tile.

- Avalanches now deposit Snow instead of Ice, and will visually do so before the text explaining what’s happened kicks in, to avoid the weirdness of finishing with explanations and then seeing the Snow pop up everywhere.

- Snow has been added to the types of squares that melt before a level starts if they’re placed adjacent to Lava.

- The Evaporation spell will also now affect Snow, as well as Water Pits, Icy Bottomed Pits and Frigid Water Pits (and all associated Pit Traps).

- Female Tribesmen will henceforth be known in game as Tribeswomen, female Swordsmen will be known as Swordswomen, female Militamen will be known as Militiawomen and female Spearmen will be known as Spear Maidens.

- Clarified in query of Love Potion that it only works on monsters, not all characters.

- Clarified in gain and query of Disarming Beauty perk that the perk will not work on monsters with changeable or randomized Defense.

- Mimics and Giant Antlions join Undead and Golems in the list of monsters that can’t start a level already asleep (because the animated zzz would give away their nature and you shouldn’t be able to get the drop on something you don’t even know is a threat).

- Eating cooked Beef will no longer confusingly inform you that you’ve “gained X points of damage” but rather that you’ve “healed X points of Health”.

- Failed Prayers that are saved by Piety will no longer tell you they fizzled away before then telling you they mysteriously rewrite themselves, but will rather jump straight to the latter.

- If your Religion is changed by Confused Loyalties, your Selective Combat options will automatically re-initialize to reflect your new Religion. This will not alter your Selective Combat preference on fighting Golems (since that’s not religion based), nor will it affect your current Combat State, but it will turn all monsters your new god/goddess prefers you don’t fight to Don’t Fight.

- Locked containers should now show up on the mini-map with an “L” and Jammed containers should now show up there with a “J”.

- The previous +2 STR per level Unique Ability of Half-Orcs has instead been given to the new Half-Ogres. Instead, Half-Orcs gain a Unique Ability that rewards them with 40 X the Dungeon Level in Experience each time they successfully perform a Feat of Strength.

- Armour Smithing, Research and Weapon Smithing skills have all been buffed. Each now provides a 25%/50%/75% chance to create a new Armour/Spell/Weapon whenever you enter a new map. This was done to ensure the skills were valuable enough to spend Skill Points on.

- The Poison Immunity effect has been buffed. As before, you cannot become Poisoned while you have Poison Immunity, but now you also won’t take damage from being Poisoned while Poison Immune. This was done to make both the Potion of Poison Immunity and Feighmorias’ Purity miracle a little more versatile in their application.

- For symmetry, changed Armour/Shields/Helmets of Greed/of Avarice/of Covetousness to no longer affect the value of found Gems.

- Added 7 new Did You Know tips.

- All Did You Know tips that reference key presses will now adjust to reflect your keybindings, as well any messages in game.

- Rings/Amulets of the Rat/of the Magpie/of Gnomish Design will now provide double the bonus to found Gems that they did before, to make sure they’re worthwhile.

- New Option in the Options Menu: Cave-In Shake Effect. You can toggle this on or off, and it will save to preferences. It defaults to “on”, but when “off” you’ll no longer get the screen shake during Cave-Ins or Earthquakes, and you won’t have to wait for the sound effect to subside before continuing.

- Changed the small Monster Attractant Icon to match its larger form.

- Cascading Sludge, Mudslide, Pyroclastic Flow and Flash Flood events will now play appropriate sound effects at their outset instead of just being silent.

- Hitting someone with Electric Touch will now co-mingle the electric sound effect with the sound of a punch, because you are still doing physical damage from the punch, too.

- Weapons of the Kin/of the Clan/of the Forefathers have had their effect buffed from +5%/+10%/+15% Exp per combat kill to +7%/+15%/+22% Exp per combat kill, to keep the strength of the effect in line with other enchantments.

- Resampled the “level up” sound effect to get rid of some of the background hiss.

- Mage Helm, Mage Shield and Mage Armour status icons will no longer stack and query as one, but each will have its separate icon to be queried individually.

- Failing to charm a monster via Perk will now play the resist sound instead of being silent.

- New images for certain status icons, with new big images to match.

- Woolen Scarf retains its Cold Resistance properties but has had its secondary property of “+2 Defense” changed to “immune to the effects of Snow.” This was done to make it a nice analogue to Heat Resistant Boots and to make room for other Mundane Items that provide Defense.

- You can no longer detect secret or hidden things while Blind. The sole exception to this currently is via the Detect Secret Doors spell which will work even if you’re blind.

- The auto-walk feature (left click a square to move there) will now be even safer, as it will examine the surrounding terrain for sources of gas that COULD spread gas into a square you might need to cross, and not let you walk that way if that’s the case.

- The scrolling text reason given for not being able to auto-walk to your chosen destination will now differentiate between “No Path” (there’s no physical way to reach the destination) and “No Safe Path” (there’s no way to reach it without potential harm).

- Changed Mad-Dancing Satyr’s caused Confusion duration from 1 to 3 turns to 2 to 4 turns, because the 1st turn ends the turn you get confused, basically having no effect.

- Wisps will no longer teleport around while sleeping.

- Polish miracle now affects the new armour types (Footwear, Legwear, Gloves), as well. Its Faith cost has been raised from 50 to 65 to reflect this.

- Test of Reflexes will no longer award you experience for triggering a trap if the trap kills you.

- The text output from a Falling Caltrops trap will now also clarify that your square has been turned to Scattered Caltrops.

- Querying the Stealth button will now explicitly tell you the maximum ranges at which monsters can currently see or hear you.

- Like a Mouse Perk has had its title changed to Whisper and Shadow, so as not to confuse it with the new Quiet as a Mouse Perk.

- Default keybindings have been altered to be more mnemonically intuitive.

- Renamed Giant Caterpillar Lair to “Cracking Cocoon” instead of just “Cocoon” because the Giant Moth Lair is already called “Cocoon”.

- When receiving the prompt to see if you want to enter a given Lair, you’ll now not only get the Lair title but also a brief, bracketed statement outlining the specific monster type within, and which of the 9 over-arching classes of monster the inhabitants fall under. This was done especially for newer players, so they can better assess what bonuses or penalties they may have in facing that monster-class.

- If you re-center the screen on your character via the keyboard shortcut or clicking the Center button, the mouse will warp to re-center on your character. (Previously it only did so if the mouse was centered on the character already, which was impossible if you were scrolling the screen via the right mouse button).

- The turns spent on the current map can now be seen and queried from the Character Tab as well as from the Events Tab, for convenience.

- While you can still use the “dice” to randomize any given aspect of your character during creation the explicit “random” option has been removed when cycling through Race/Class/Sex or Religion. It was a holdover and less efficient way of randomizing things than simply using the dice, and it complicated matters with the new keyboard controls.

- The Character Creation screen will now highlight whatever you’re pointing at.

- The Highscore Screen will now highlight when you’re pointing at Back or Reset.

- The text output of failing to assemble a Golem at a Golem Assembly Table will now be accompanied by the image of an explosion instead of the image of the current square.

- All weapon calculations rounding off fractional damage done should now be more accurate than before.

- Drinking a Potion of Clairvoyance will now output “Potion of Clairvoyance!” instead of just “Clairvoyance!”.

- Updated query of Grave Matters event to make it clear that the type of Undead chosen will be level appropriate.

- Another Face in the Crowd will now check once before increasing racial hatred for the killing of a single monster rather than once per monster-type of that monster. This will prevent the incongruity of receiving a message that Another Face in the Crowd kicked in, for instance, when you kill a Were-rat (which is both a Person and an Animal) and then receving a notification about hatred for just one of those aspects rising.

- With the Blink spell, Anywhere But Here perk, Weapons of Dismissal/Eviction/Banishment, Pantos’ Dismissal Miracle, Allumas’ Unpredictable Outcome Miracle, the Blink Trap, the Stay Sod Event, monsters on a Friendly Blink Trap or you accidentally setting your own Friendly Blink Trap off, it is no longer possible for the subject of the random teleportation to be teleported back to the exact same square it started from.

- Updated most text outputs in the game to get rid of phrases referencing “left clicking” things and steering more to the term “activating” things, to encompass both “left clicking” and the use of the Use and Use (alternate) keys.

- Put in safe guard to ensure you don’t skip too fast past the info about a newly granted Perk (making it delay a half second longer before accepting a key press).

- Updated query of Scarlet Egg of Madness to make it clear that it’s possible for monsters to resist the Magic.

- Put in measures to ensure you don’t skip too fast past the information on what got rusted when you trigger a Rust Trap.

- Monsters will now be more likely to shed poison, the higher their Toxin Resistance (formerly they had a flat 5% chance each time they could shed). They now have an extra 1% chance for every 8 points of Toxin Resistance.

[continued->]

[Virtua Sinner]

Bug Fixes

- Fixed bug not always scrolling the word “Flying” if you flew over something as a result of Fay Induction.

- Fixed bug not letting Spearman’s Receive Charge perk work at all.

- Fixed bug not taking into account enemy Electrical Resistance when calculating how much damage Electric Touch would do for purposes of displaying combat odds and potential damage.

- Fixed bug preventing Evaporation spell from graphically displaying the orange flicker effect it’s supposed to have.

- Fixed bug not freeing new cauldron background noise from memory on app shutdown (which probably would have had no effect - supposed to be automatic - but better safe than sorry).

- Fixed outdated info in query of Mine Entrances and Exits to reference the fact that Platinum Mines are now possible (and have been for some time).

- Fixed bug causing Duellist’s starting Broken Bottle weapon to be considered 2-handed.

- Fixed bug that prevented extra potions in Kalu Beast Lairs from ever being unusual potion types.

- Fixed bug that could crash the game when generating Kalu Beast Lairs.

- Fixed bug that would display the wrong object title when querying a known Shatter Mind Scroll.

- Fixed text overwrites in query of Starting Gear for Dorallan and Vestonian Clerics.

- Fixed typos in query of Wand of Pit Creation.

- Fixed bug that wouldn’t wake sleeping monsters if you Tail Whipped them.

- Fixed error that could occasionally let Web Traps alter the map in unintended ways.

- Fixed error messing up bonus damage from the Knife Affinity perk for knives wielded in the second hand.

- Fixed inconsistent (and too bright for such a low power spell) lighting flicker from casting Stone Fling.

- Fixed oversight not taking into account Student’s/Teacher’s/Headmaster’s Rings/Amulets when textually outputting your Maximum Trainable Level in any of the skill categories.

- Fixed oversight preventing Water Walking from saving you from drowning damage in any Water Pit/Water Pit Trap/Frigid Water Pit/Frigid Water Pit Trap/Icy Bottomed Pit/Icy Bottomed Pit Trap.

- Fixed error causing Booby Traps sprung as a result of a failed Prayer at an Alluman Shrine or as a result of Allumas showing up in anger to be of any level, randomly chosen, instead of level appropriate as they should be.

- Fixed oversights causing Book Cabinets, Armament Lockers, and Apothecary Cabinets to be twice as likely to start out Locked as other fixtures.

- Fixed oversights disallowing Book Cabinets, Armament Lockers and Apothecary Cabinets from being generated open and pre-looted the way other containers can be.

- Fixed error incorrectly labelling Create Pit a Pyromantic spell instead of a Geomantic spell when you query it in the Low Power Spells tab.

- Fixed bug claiming Greedy/Covetous/Desirous Rings/Amulets would affect the value of found Gems when they, in fact, only work on Gold, Silver and Platinum.

- Fixed bug when checking to see if any boobytraps exist on the current level where it wasn’t taking into account boobytraps in Mud/Chasms/etc. This could have had an effect, for instance, when the Raelian Spy Network event kicked in, falsely telling you there were no boobytraps on the level.

- Fixed error letting you choose to descend Spiral Stairs even if you’re alseep.

- Fixed error that wouldn’t reward you with Experience if a monster died by reaching exactly 0 Health as a result of Steam that you created.

- Fixed error still displaying dropped items on the floor even when you’re Blind or inside a wall.

- Fixed errors still listing dropped items or corpses in a square when you point your cursor at that square, even when you’re Blind or inside a wall.

- Fixed errors still showing brighter squares around light sources even when you’re Blind or inside a wall.

- Fixed error that would only pulse the Swarmed icon on and off if a player’s Greasy status was down to 5 turns or less.

- Fixed error preventing Dragon Wisdom event from always yielding at least 1 Wyrm spellcaster.

- Fixed error not reflecting Axe of Gruzz’s damage bonus when the Weapon was queried (though it was having its bonus damage effect in combat).

- Fixed errors with multiple Perks that allow you to charm monsters of a certain type, where the outputted graphic when you failed was the wrong graphic.

- Fixed graphical mishap with one frame of the Lightning Bug animation.

- Fixed error when querying Felmont Outlaw that could print its innate odds of Distance Strike (50%) and then one line down print its ACTUAL odds of Distance Strike after any modifications. (Should only print the latter).

- Fixed typo in query of Snake Man (“69% chance it Poison you on hit”). Um... “Poisons”.

- Fixed error not playing bow sound when you shoot a Makeshift Bow.

- Fixed bugs that wouldn’t output the textual information when you damaged an enemy with any kind of Spiked Shield or Spiked Helmet.

- Fixed errors that made Unbreakable/Indestructible Breastplates and Helmets MORE likely to wear down than if they lacked the enchantment.

- Fixed error occasionally telling you “You can no longer use your helmet” when what it should have said was “You can no longer use your shield”.

- Fixed typo when explaining to you why you can no longer wear your helmet after an Armourmastery effect wears off.

- Fixed error with Breastplates/Shields/Helmets of Constitution which would not remove the bonus Health they provided if the armour piece was removed, essentially giving a player a means of increasing their Health infinitely.

- Fixed recently introduced error causing sleeping enemies to not automatically awaken if you hit them.

- Fixed error causing Bristling/Spiked/Thickly Spiked armour pieces to do damage of an undefined type instead of the Physical damage they should have done.

- Fixed text overwrite in query of Mad-Dancing Satyr.

- Fixed bug causing Mad-Dancing Satyr’s special ability only to kick in when it hit you, not just when it was in your square.

- Fixed pluralization error in text output of Mad-Dancing Satyr’s confusion effect.

- Fixed error allowing you to cast the Ambuscade miracle in an occupied square.

- Fixed error allowing you to plant an Assassin’s Trap in an occupied square.

- Fixed errors in the queries of the Demonic Assistants and Demonic Congress spells, causing them to output incomplete, jumbled text.

- Fixed error still treating Detect Treasure Scrolls as Low Power Scrolls when listing them in your Inventory or in a square where they’ve been dropped, though Detect Treasure was changed to a Mid Power spell in the previous update.

- Fixed bugs messing up the way acid damage and its consequences are applied when monsters are fighting other monsters.

- Fixed bugs with Elm Wood/Oak Wood/Redwood Breastplates/Shields/Helmets that negated the fact that no Armour Use skill was required to equip them.

- Fixed multiple bugs still allowing Rust Traps to destroy some Weapons or Armour whose enchantment explicitly says they can’t be destroyed.

- Fixed bugs with Breastplates/Shields/Helmets of Death Cheating that could improperly output your chance of avoiding a given insta-death effect when querying something (though the actual chance was correct).

- Fixed bugs when querying armour pieces with multiple different enchantments that can raise your Defense only under select circumstances which weren’t displaying that second potential defense to the right of the “/”.

- Fixed bug not recognizing Rot Gut as being of sub-type Drink, with minor consequences (such as the wrong mini-icon displayed when showing the item in an Inventory or Retrieval list).

- Fixed text overwrite in query of Poison Gas Cloud.

- Fixed text overwrite in query of Poison Gas Vent.

- Fixed error where eating Gingerbread could remove Hallucinating status but would not remove the hallucinated monsters from the level, meaning you’d go on seeing them until you left the map.

- Fixed slight text overwrite in the query of any Viean Prayer.

- Fixed error that could allow Iron Walls to display as if they had something else on them (Secret Compartment/Ancient Runes/etc.) when viewed in the mini-map, even though Iron Walls can’t have such things on them. (Eventually they probably should, but for now, the bug is fixed).

- Fixed error still causing Beanstalks to appear as “up arrows” on the mini-map, even if the Beanstalk is broken and unusable (now it will appear as empty floor).

- Fixed error preventing monster cast Cause Disease spells from being able to give you Lycanthropy.

- Fixed minor error preventing Smoky Fissures from creating smoke where they should be able to if there was already smoke between the Fissure and the target square.

- Fixed errors (I think) preventing Glyph of Spell Erasure from erasing Poison Cloud, Fire Storm, Foul Stench, Grease, Mire, Raging Waters, Create Pit or Teleport spells.

- Fixed error scrolling the word “Resist” when you splash a monster with a Flask of Acid, even if the monster didn’t resist the acid, but instead just had a Defense of 0 and therefore couldn’t have its Defense lowered further.

- Fixed tiny, super rare error when generating Brownie first names that could create an oddly abbreviated name.

- Fixed both bugs and problems with the Reality Breakdown event that could trap a player so completely that surrender is all-but inevitable, or which could push certain types of walls into your square. The new version of the event will only affect wall type squares (and things like alcoves/doors/etc. that are versions of wall type squares), which should make the situation less deadly.

- Fixed error continuing to play Cauldron noise after qutting to main menu, if the noise was audible before you did so.

- Fixed error only applying the Protective Coating perk to lower incoming Acid damage, not to mitigate the direct effects of something being melted by Acid.

- Fixed error not taking into consideration Protective Coating perk when reporting to you how likely an Object was to melt.

- Fixed errors in both Demonic Assistants and Demonic Congress spells, where the text presented if the spell resulted in you losing spell points was changed from “The demons turn on you!” to gibberish.

- Fixed errors in both Demonic Assistants and Demonic Congress spells where, if the demons turned on you, the icon for the spell effect would still appear and would remain until you managed to cast the spell again, since the duration would be locked at zero turns.

- Fixed bug where querying the Transmute to Gold sidebar title would give you faulty or zero information.

- Fixed typo as well as outdated info in the loading screen tip about Mining skill.

- Fixed error with spells that required choosing a target square where, if you tried to move your character via keyboard while the potential target squares were lit, it would abort the spell and leave behind the the highlighted squares permanently.

- Fixed bug that would display gibberish for just a moment when you first fell in a Lava Filled Pit Trap.

- Fixed bug causing Ambuscades to appear as an absent graphic on the Map screen. (Now they’ll appear as Friendly Traps).

- Fixed bug still outputting “Goblinoid Hatred Rises” even if Another Face In the Crowd prevented that from happening when smashing Kobold Eggs.

- Fixed erroneous info when granting the Sleep Anywhere II or Sleep Anywhere III perks.

- Fixed erroneous info when granting the Assassin Trap III perk.

- Fixed bug not outputting any text when you queried Uncooked Goose, if you had the Eat it Raw perk to any level.

- Updated outdated and erroneous information in query of Candle of Invocation.

- Fixed slightly erroneous data when querying Potion of Poison Immunity which claimed its effects last for 60 turns, when they in fact last for 61 turns.

- Fixed slightly erroneous data when when querying Potion of E.S.P. which claimed its effects last for 120 turns, when they in fact last for 121 turns.

- Fixed bug causing undetected Secret Compartments to provide a blank query when you point your cursor at them, rather than providing the output for a standard wall.

- Fixed bug making it too easy to skip over announcement of actual Lightning Strike event.

- Fixed multiple errors where successfully leaping over open pits of any kind, or known pittraps of any kind, or Holes could sometimes, depending on the direction you did it from and the circumstances under which it was done, cause you to bounce back to your starting square.

- Fixed multiple errors where successfully leaping across Known Pit Traps of any kind could sometimes leave you hovering over the Pit Trap instead of landing on the other side.

- Fixed bug causing Droughts not to evaporate Plumbed Pools.

[sorio]

Totally amazed.  Processing...

[Virtua Sinner]

AND, yet another patch/build of the game... COX 2 Ver. 1.30.18 is now live, here: https://virtua-sinner.itch.io/caverns-of-xaskazien-ii

This is just a small update to fix a few oversights in the last huge launch. Most of the bugs here were minor but it galled me that they snuck past playtesting, so rather than wait another 3 months for the next major update, let's all revel in the slightly more stable gameplay, defined thusly:

Minor Improvements

- While in Keyboard Look mode, the cursor will no longer transform into a little circle if you position it over your character - this is to ensure there’s always a visible reminder onscreen that you’re in Keyboard Look mode.

- Reality Breakdown has been toned down yet again, because it remained too deadly. The new version only only allows Walls to move 10% of the time, and standard Walls will become Fractured Walls after doing so.

- Querying a Garbage Heap or Explored Garbage Heap will now inform you that any Nausea you suffer will last for 60 turns, instead of leaving it to you to guess the duration.

Bug Fixes

- Fixed newly introduced text overwrite bug that could occur if you queried Info Panel 2 too close to the Situation Panel.

- Fixed newly introduced bug that created text overwrite problems in Character Creation if you queried anything while naming your character.

- Fixed bug that could sometimes during Character Creation, if you used your keyboard to move the highlight down below the word “Back”, move to the words “Starting Gear” instead of to the words “Character Creation” like it should.

- Fixed bug when querying any form of Cooked Goose, outputting the amount of Faith you’ll gain from eating it in black text instead of red text.

- Fixed bug not interrupting your Autowait if you are damaged by a Glyph of Death.

- Fixed bug where clicking Reset in the keybinding menu would set certain keybindings incorrectly (setting them to test bindings I had used earlier and forgot to remove).

- Fixed bug where using the standard movement keys to move the reticule in Keyboard Look mode wouldn’t work if you were playing in a Window, as opposed to Full Screen.

- Fixed spacing error in query of Wall Pass Spell Book.

- Fixed errors with Rings of Anger/Rage/Bloodlust that based their effects on the power of the Amulet you were wearing (if any) instead of on the power of the Ring itself.

- Fixed newly introduced error where attributed quotes in Event text outputs were being preceded with a bunch of little box graphics.

- Fixed small typo in query of Tomato.

- Fixed bugs during Character Creation, letting you, with the mouse only, uselessly highlight the spaces reserved for Skills, Abilities or Deficiencies that your character doesn't have.