COX 2 Ver. 0.89.30 release

The newest Caverns update includes a LOT of new content and bug fixes, but also a major rebalancing of the game.  My personal goal - when I will consider the game "balanced" - is when I, the developer, win approximately 1% of the games I play.  For a long time, I was winning far less than that - about 0.25%.  I added in the Religion system, and then the Perk system, and then the game swung the other way - I was winning about 5% of the time.  Additionally, I've been hearing from players that there seems to be a balance issue - the game is most punishing at the very start or towards the end, but the middle is a cake-walk.  With all this in mind I bent about rebalancing things, so that the game should (hopefully...  in theory...) be consistently challenging all the way through...  and also it should be harder as a whole than it's been recently.

There have been other rebalances as well to encourage the worship of less popular gods, and to encourage exploration of things that used to be only obstacles.

This will not represent the end of the balancing, I'm sure, but for now, this seems like it's working for me.  As time goes on, and new content finds its way into the game, I'll revisit as necessary.  For now, enjoy the new and improved (and harder and better balanced) Caverns of Xaskazien 2!  Full changelist below :)

Rebalancing:

- Lowered max Faith gain for Lastavian characters who kill a monster before that monster has damaged them or any friendly character from 5 to 4, for balance purposes.

- Instead of only growing offended if you kill via Fire, Poison or Acid, Lastaviark will now be offended if you kill by any means other than combat or Summoned or Charmed monsters, to make him a little less of a Faith farm.

- Raised Faith gain for Dorallan characters eating Fruits/Vegetables/Nuts from 5 Faith to 15 Faith, to make Dorallas easier to worship. Also clarified in the query of Dorallas in the Religion tab that she also rewards the eating of Mushrooms.

- Raised Faith gain for Dorallan characters killing monsters directly with spells from 5 Faith to 10 Faith, to make Dorallas easier to worship.

- Raised Faith gain for Fivriaskan characters mining mineable walls from 5 Faith to 8 Faith, to make Fivriaskus easier to worship.

- Raised Talltiowardan Faith gain for having Summoned or Charmed monsters kill for you from 5 to 8, to make Talltioward easier to worship.

- Raised Malevian Faith gain for killing with Fire, Acid or Poison from 5 to 10, to make her easier to worship.

- Bloodlust Event now increases EXP gains by 15% instead of 10%, and Dishonour Event now lowers EXP gains by 15% instead of 10%, both to make them more impactful.

- Made all Web squares 50% more difficult to exit for both you and monsters, because they were still too darned easy to escape.

- Made Cooking Fires slightly more common (4 in 9 instead of 1 in 3).

- Repair Spell and Reform Miracle now repair Weapons or Armour by 5% to 25% instead of a flat 25%, as it was just too powerful.

- Raised Xaskazien’s Health from 400 to 600, his Attack from 225 to 275, his Defense from 130 to 150, his damage from 1 - 16 to 9 - 30, and his Intelligence from Standard to Genius, all to make him more fearsome.

- Made Xaskazien immune to smoke inhalation, since his level is often choked with Lava, and that’s a cheap death. (Also, there was a bug where you wouldn’t get credited with the kill if he died that way... problem solved).

- Made Fire Elementals Immune to Smoke Inhalation to stop them from inadvertently killing themselves.

- All monsters now do 15% more max damage.

- All monsters have had their Attack ratings increased by 15%.

- All monsters have had their Defense ratings increased by 15%.

- Lowest Monster health range when generating a new monster has been changed from 50% of the max health for monsters of that type to 75%, to decrease wild variation in health ranges, especially of high level monsters. Should also make the game a little more challenging.

- Monsters now have a Minimum Damage rating (so instead of something doing 1 to 40 damage, for instance, it may now do 6 to 40), to make them more dangerous, especially in the late game.

- Animal type monsters now have 15% higher innate Minimum Damage ratings than other monsters.

- Wyrms have had their Max Damage ratings increased by an additional +1 to +3 (depending on monster level).

- Undead have all gained an additional +11% to +40% Physical Resistance, depending on monster level.

- Giant-types have all had their Health/Max Health increased by a further 15%.

- Persons have all had their their Min Damage ratings and Max Damage ratings increased by an additional +1 to + 2 (depending on monster level).

- Goblinoids have all had their Attack ratings raised by an additional 15%.

- Diabolics have all gained an additional +11% to +40% Magic Resistance, depending on monster level.

- Insectoids have all had their Defense ratings raised by an additional 15%.

- Aberrations have all (on an individual monster by individual monster basis), gained random bonuses of 50% to 1 to 3 (depending on monster level) of any of the following resistances (same resistance can be chosen twice, netting up to a 100% increase, instead): Toxin, Cold, Fire, Electricity, Acid.

- All Blade Traps, Spear Traps, Acid Splash Traps, Explosive Traps, Dart/Poison Dart Traps, Boulder Traps, Lowering Ceiling Traps, Spiked Lowering Ceiling Traps, Astral Traps, Spike Bottomed Slide Traps, Arrow Traps (of any kind), Ceiling Block Traps, Falling Stones Traps, Electrical Traps, Kobold Arrow Traps and Kobold Spear Traps have had both their minimum and maximum damage output increased by 50%.

- All Friendly Variants of those traps have also had their damage adjusted accordingly, both to keep uniform and to make Trap Kits more useful.

- Advanced Thaumaturgy now increases Spell Points by 25% instead of 50%, and Expert Thaumaturgy now increases Spell Points by 50% instead of 100%, both to make spellcasters less overpowered. If you want high Spell Points, now, you’re going to have to concentrate more on Intelligence at the expense of other Attributes.

Major Improvements:

- New Map Tiles:  Submerged Memorial, Sunken Ruin, Underwater Tower, Underwater Treasure, Steam, Steam Vent, Bubbling Creekbed, Submerged Cave Entrance, Prismatic Water, Darkest Depths, Hot Spring.

- New Tile Variant: Illusionary (extremely rarely, some tiles will reveal themselves as illusionary when you step on them).

- New Booby Trap: Steam Burst Trap.

- New Spells: Silence, Gust of Wind.

- New Mundane Items: Smoke Trap Kit, Steam Burst Trap Kit.

- New Ring/Amulet: of Accord/of Cooperation/of Friendship, of Dirty Fighting/of Eye Gouging/of Enucleation.

- New Magic Items: Oil of Fiery Burning, Sceptre of Resurrection, Horn of Deafening.

- New Events: Anti-Duelling Ordnance, Anti-Poaching Regulations, Goblin Sympathizers, Not My Uncle!, Dragon Worship, Biological Pest Control, Warlock Conclave, Size Doesn’t Matter, Tweaked Dweomer, Grief, Sacred Rites, Dwarven Cave Tribe, Drought, Steam Burst Eruptions.

- New Monster Variant: Steam Imp.

- New Room Themes: Steam Cavern, Ancient Tomb, Training Room, Flooded Ruins, Moat, Factory, Archaeological Dig Site, Class Room, Coffer Chamber, Box Room, Cremation Chamber, Hall of Mirrors.

- It is now possible for many items, gold, gems, silver, as well as Booby Traps and Paper Traps to be spawned initially inside of Chasms, to give a player extra incentive to explore them.

Minor Improvements:

- Description of Potions of Poison Immunity now makes clear that they will not remove existing Poison.

- Auto-walk will no longer stop you from entering Crumbling Floor, if your chance of breaking through is 0%.

- Updated queries of Dorallas’ Light miracle and Boon of Vestonis miracle to be clear that the ESP effects of those spells will not detect Automatons.

- Adjusted description of Shields and Helmets of Awakening/Revival/Resurrection to replace the word “armour” with either “shield” or “helmet”, respectively.

- Changed all outdated instances in queries where it said things like “X% chance to resist Y” to instead read “+X% Y Resistance.” This was done both to standardize the language and because, as an example, gaining an item that grants “Disease Resistance” not only gives you a chance to resist various diseases, but also a chance to shed diseases once you have them.

- Uncooked meat of any kind will now be listed in gray instead of black if you’re not standing on a Cooking Fire, to keep the colour scheme consistent with other items. If you have the Eat it Raw perk, it will instead be listed in blue, for the same reason.

- Rabbit Snares, Fishing Lines, Deer Traps, Goat Traps, and Pheasant Traps will now be listed in gray instead of black if you’re not near appropriate terrain to use them, for the same reasons as above.

- Added annotation to query of Stairs and Spiral Stairs that descending improves your relationship with all gods, and how much Faith you might gain by doing so. Also changed all text associated with the Descend spell to note it provides you “up to 20 Faith”, instead of just “20 Faith”.

- Reformatted the text output of queries of all Shrines and Altars to be uniform, to make their method of function clearer, and to match other queries.

- Modified “red text” calculation of likelihood of success praying at Shrines to take into account Perks, Incense of Meditation and appropriate Holy Symbols.

- Modified “red text” calculation of likelihood of success praying at Altars to take into account Incense of Meditation and Agnosticism.

- Modified “red text” calculation of success rate when using any Prayer to take into account appropriate Holy Symbols.

- Added “red text” calculation of Gems you can gain from successfully praying at a Grogorian Shrine to its query.

- Made Gourds and Rotten Banquets do Poison damage instead of Physical damage.

- Game now saves where you’ve scrolled your Perk list to.

- Removed pre-calculations of odds from Situational Text output of interacting with Shrines and Altars, because it didn’t take into account Perks or certain Items, and if all info is pre-calculated, it may be confusing if you then think your Perk or Item is going to adjust those odds or results further.

- Changed Situation Panel text output of Repair Spell and Reform Miracle from “Left click an Item to repair it” to “Left click a Weapon or Armour to repair it” to keep the limitations clear.

- Updated Portable Well to function like a regular Well, granting 1 to 10 Attribute Points when successfully used instead of randomly granting 1 to 10 points to one of your Primary Attributes.

- Greasy status will no longer cause you to slide if you’re flying.

- Decomissioned Thrones now have their own graphic, to keep them visually distinct from other Thrones.

- Standardized language in query of all appropriate Items and Perks by noting you can use it “X times per map” instead of “X times per level”, to avoid players thinking the level referenced was Character Level, or that the item couldn’t be reused if you changed to a new map at the same Dungeon Level.

- While Test of Reflexes Event is active, the game will now scroll resulting Experience gains above your character icon. It will also sound the “Good Noise” whenever it triggers, and if your Text Prompts are less than Expert will also provide text output.

- Items that used to give you a chance to “resist Disease” now instead provide “Disease Resistance”, meaning they can also help you shed Diseases after you have them.

 - Added notation to all gas type squares that they are Gas, and in some cases Inhalant, to clarify the use of certain items and spells, as the list of Gas squares grows.

- Made it so being Greasy can’t slide you out of a Chasm.

- Wandering monsters or NPCs will no longer wander into Caltrops.

- Updated info in query of Greedy/Covetous/Desirous Jewellery to indicate that its effect also extends to Silver or Gems.

- Tinder Boxes, Flasks of Burning Oil, Caltrops and Empty Buckets will now also be listed in blue/gray when in terrain appropriate/inappropriate for use. 

Bug Fixes:

- Fixed error still noting Mimics as Objects (additionally to being a revealed Mimic) if you queried them after death.

- Fixed pluralization error in Call Insects perk (“The monster will be engulfed in poison insects for 1 turns!”)

- Fixed error I accidentally implemented in the last update, causing monsters not to attack you if you’re asleep.

- Fixed error in query of Shallow Pits claiming they cause damage equal to the Dung. Level X 1.5 (when they, in fact, cause damage equal to the Dung. Level).

- Fixed error in query of Figs providing wrong value for the maximum Faith gain you can receive by eating one.

- Fixed typo in entry text to Hulk Lair (misspelled “credence”).

- Fixed outdated info in query of Memory skill during character creation.

- Fixed error giving Bourgat’s Servant 77 Health instead of 171.

- Fixed typo in one of the results of falling into a Snake Pit (“critcally poisoned”).

- Fixed minor typo in Smoke Gets In Your Eyes event, calling Smoky Fissures “Smoke Fissures”.

- Fixed missing question mark in text output of query to enter Vengeance.

- Fixed errors not allowing scrolling arrows to appear in Perk List when you have more Perks than can be displayed in a single Side Bar.

- Fixed errors not allowing you to scroll Perk List, or properly highlight the arrows.

- Fixed slight misinformation in query of Fiberian Shrine.

- Fixed text overwrite in possible late-game merchant greeting.

- Fixed error not properly displaying title of Quadruple Crossbow Trap Kits in Inventory and Dropped Items lists.

- Fixed error not always outputting in Situation Panel why you can’t learn a certain Skill, no matter how low your Text Prompt settings.

- Fixed error playing Stoned Sound when triggering a Basilisk Snare, even if you cheat death.

- Fixed error not displaying Basilisk Snare graphic when you spring one but then cheat death as a result of some form of Halo.

- Fixed errors telling player all levels of Excellent Vision perk granted 33% chance to resist Blindness (instead of 33%/66%/100%, which it actually does).

- Fixed error not displaying any image for a War Hammer.

- Fixed bug that could mess up the displayed names of certain Greater Demons (e.g. “DemonicGreatly Demonic Magician”).

- Fixed error messing up text output when a monster cats Divine Wrath at you.

- Fixed errors giving Xaskazien incorrect resistances (he should now have 2 randomly chosen high resistances).

- Fixed errors giving Xaskazien 0 Spell Points (he should now have 600).

- Fixed errors that could sometimes scramble the data of which spell books you had in your Inventory if you clicked the Reorganize button.

- Fixed certain colour coding issues with some items listed among retrievable items when you accept the prompt to pick up items in your square.

- Fixed typos in text output and queries of Sense of Purpose Perk (“an 22% chance” and “an 33% chance”).

- Fixed errors giving The Entity, Lembanar’s Servant, Bourgat’s Servant, Grogorian’s Servant and Ghostly Archmage +10 Attack and +10 Defense, instead of +20 Attack and +20 Defense.

- Corrected all misspellings of “Middling Demon” (had it as “Midling Demon”).

- Fixed error where the game wasn’t recognizing Leucrottas as Aberrations.

- Fixed error that would crash the game if you tried to create a Female Halfing character of any Mage subclass.

- Fixed error causing Portable Well to be unusable.

- Fixed errors not allowing Armour/Shields/Helmets of Perception/of the Unseen/of the Third Eye or the Underdark Pathfinder to automatically cause Secret Doors to glow. 

- Fixed outdated text output accompanying Poor Man’s Fate Trap claiming it does damage equal to the amount of Treasure you’re carrying (when in fact it does damage equal to 25% of the value of the Treasure you’re carrying).

- Fixed error mislabeling Ring/Amulet of Animal Warding as a Ring/Amulet of Perfect Blending, and messing up the name of any actual Ring/Amulet of Perfect Blending.

- Fixed error occasionally causing monsters to resist Charm type spells even when they shouldn’t be able to.

- Fixed errors allowing Greasy status to cause you to slide out of Webs (without damaging them) or any form of Pit.

- Fixed errors allowing you to interact with NPCs while Asleep.

- Fixed error leaving the “Type:” space blank when querying an Inquisitor’s Crozier (and possibly some other Mid Power Magic Items).

- Fixed error reporting “You miss” rather than “You’re choosing not to fight!” if you’re in combat and have your Combat State set to “Don’t Fight”.

- Fixed error outputting incorrect graphic when you read a Cursed Hellgate Scroll.

- Fixed typo in query of Talltiowardan religion during Character Creation. (“an using good prayers”).

- Reworded Jewellery enchantments that still read “X% chance to resist Poison” to be “+X% Poison Resistance” since these items also help you shed poison once you have it.

- Fixed error falsely reporting a 100% chance to open a Secret Compartment if you had a functioning Glove of Passage in your Inventory (which help with Secret Doors, but not Compartments).

- Fixed errors allowing you or monsters to still achieve Distance Strike if you’re sleeping, or if Electrified.

- Fixed error not causing monsters to check for smoke inhalation while standing on a Smoky Fissure.

- Fixed error where Pyrophilia spell graphic wasn’t properly fading when the spell was cast.

- Fixed errors not implementing effect of Albin’s Pajamas if you fall asleep as a result of drinking Grog or drinking from a Grog Barrel.

- Fixed outdated info in Situation Panel text output when prompted to drink from a Grog Barrel.

- Fixed error not checking for fall if you slide into a Chasm as a result of being Greasy.

- Fixed typo in Lightning Strike Event.

- Fixed error allowing too few Clay Urns in Crypts.

- Fixed error preventing Desks from being Trapped.

- Fixed typo in text output of Bean Nighe Event (“blood stained stained garments”).

- Fixed spacing error in placement of “attitude icon” next to “Avg. Attitude” in the Religion tab if your character is Agnostic.

- Fixed several errors that would occasionally output incomplete messages in the Situation Panel if one of your Attributes would have been drained but something prevented it.

- Fixed spacing error in query of Fire With Fire Perk.

- Fixed error sometimes outputting the question “Sit on Throne?” a second time if you sit on a Cursed Throne, but avoid the effects somehow.

- Fixed errors not taking into account Hoof Strike Perk or Claws Perk when, while querying a monster, telling you how much damage you’ll do if you strike it bare handed.

- Fixed error that could, rarely, attribute “enchantments” to the absence of a player’s breastplate, helmet, shield, weapon, 2^nd weapon, ring, 2^nd ring or amulet.

- Fixed typo when Baloraasin’s Rage wears off (saying “Baloraasins Rage”, no apostrophe).

- Fixed error with Confused Loyalties Event where it would change your religion, but not your available miracles.