COX 2 Ver. 0.99.61 release

Ho Ho Ho!  Happy Holidays!  This isn't as large an update as the last one, but it's still got some awesome new stuff along with the usual minor improvements and bug fixes that you definitely want before your next dive!

Because of a few changes behind the scenes, be aware - previous save games will not work with the new update.  Finish any current games before updating!

I've also uploaded 7 new videos of gameplay.  These don't go into the same level of detail explanations as some previous videos, but instead dive straight into the game, and are a great way to learn about the game if you don't want every tiny thing explained.  You'll also get to see a few bug fixes get implemented as we go, as the playthrough was an almost-final playtest before this upload.  You can see the videos here:    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTnwft743i3-5DJ5npg-CJN6BXR35Gk6w

Here's what's new:

Major Improvements

- Restored Class: War Lord.

- New Perks: Burly, Gong Show, Words Can’t Hurt Me, Refuse to Die, Gather Minions, The Legend Grows, Personal Retinue.

- New Spell: Charm Person.

- New Mundane Item: Rope Snare Trap Kit.

- New Monsters: Sludge Rat, Lizard Man Mutant, Sewerman, Pisco Demon, Acid Blob, Slime Demon.

- New Event: Prison Sentence.

Minor Improvements

- Added a confirmation when you elect to Quit and Save, that you really wish to do so (thanks, AlanwithTea for the suggestion).

- Updated game manual with a new cover page and Table of Contents, as well as fleshing out the Options section of the manual to mention newer options available.

- Standardized text output of various perks/magical effects that can charm a monster on first encounter.

- Plague event can now be a plague of Insanity (potentially driving you and all monsters insane).

- Monsters contracting Redstain Fugue will now immediately have their Spell Points halved.

- Monsters can be properly driven Insane, with the same effects on them as afflict you when you’re Insane (a 1 in 6 chance of randomly moving on their turn). Monsters that should have previously inflicted Insanity on other monsters but were instead inflicting Confusion will now inflict Insanity. All instances where a monster could catch a random disease (being hit by a Giant Cockroach, stepping on a Friendly Disease Trap, being hit with a Cause Disease spell, etc.) can now potentially inflict Insanity.

- Rope Snare trap will now also play the “Clumsiness” sound effect if you are rendered Dizzy by it.

- Made it clear in both queries and text outputs of various weapons/armour/items that can “immobilize” opponents that the immobilization is permanent.

- When you detect a secret adjacently (Secret Door, Concealed Door, Potential Cave-in, Secret Compartment), the text output will now also inform you of the direction of the secret, just to help you locate it a second faster (especially for Secret Compartments, the graphic for which can occasionally be hard to spot on certain wall textures).

- Restored Violence skill to the way it used to work, increasing the range of the bonus strength damage you can do but no longer increasing the likelihood. It was just too powerful the new way, and it disincentivized raising the Strength attribute.

- Charmed and Summoned monsters can no longer set off Friendly Traps, both because they shouldn’t (as allies) and because Charmed or Summoned Fir Darrigs were laying traps that they would then immediately spring on themselves.

- Monsters in Mud/Lava/Acid who are native to that type of terrain will no longer make the noise for being in the terrain because it could get annoying if it just replays constantly.

- Fixed incongruity of Spell Merchant having two different sounding voices (one when he’s coaxing you to buy and the other when he makes a sale), by re-recording the voice. Also gave Spell Merchant 5 different options for things to say when trying to get you to buy, instead of 1, which brings him in line now with most other merchants.

- Sped the framerate slightly.

- When a divine relationship improves or is diminished, this information will now scroll above your character in white. There is a new option in the Options Tab to allow you to set the parameters for how much or how little of this information you’d like to receive.

- Auto-walk will now be interrupted (with the reason given) the moment a Bloody Warning comes into view (to prevent you from triggering a trap that you were warned about mid-move).

- Modified image of Unknown Potion to make its “question mark” stand out better against the red background.

- Changed the way monsters interact with Scattered Caltrops to make them more likely to step on them, to make Caltrops more worthwhile. Each turn, when deciding whether to enter a Scattered Caltrops square, monsters now check to see if they “spot” them, with the chance based on their intelligence (Amoebic monsters have a 0% chance, Genius have an 80% chance). So Caltrops are now most effective against dumber monsters, but even Genius monsters will eventually grow impatient enough to cross them.

- Clarified in query of Beached Derelict that when you find Gold and Gems, each will be worth between 1 and 10 X the Dungeon Level in gold, rather than that amount being the sum total value of both.

- Rotgut now inflicts Poison damage instead of nebulous damage of an undefined nature.

- Updated Confounding Robe query to note that any Confusion it causes is permanent.

- Updated query of any armour of the Archer/of the Marksman/of the Sniper as well as Alyn’s Way to point out that the increase to Distance Strike only applies if your Distance Strike is already above 0%. Also modified these enchantments so that if you use another spell or miracle to give yourself Distance Strike, the enchantment will now kick in (it wouldn’t before).

- Unequipping a Weapon or Jewellery no longer takes your turn, though unequipping anything else does. This was to account for problems that arise when you have Dual Wielding Skill trained, requiring you to unequip a weapon or shield every time before you can equip a weapon, whereas you can unequip a weapon and equip a new one all with a single click otherwise. The same technically holds true for Rings if you have both equipped, and while it doesn’t for Amulets, since you can only wear one, I thought it might be confusing if one rule applied to Rings but not Amulets.

- Clarified that the Pit Trap detection part of Caution! Goblin Territory! II and III works on any kind of Pit Trap not just Pit Traps where the full title is, generically, “Pit Trap”.

- Changed one line of text in the query of all water confined monsters from “Can only enter Water squares.” to “Water Confined. Immune to Water.” to keep the terminology in line with the new Mud Confined, Lava Confined and Acid Confined monsters, and to make it clear that they’ll neither drift nor drown in Water.

- Changed all previous references to “Water Home” monsters to “Water Confined” monsters, to keep the terminology clear.

- Enemy Warlocks and Talltiowardan Witches now use 70 Spell Points each time they cast Summon Fiend (instead of it being free, as it used to be). Warlocks start with an additional 350 SP and Talltiowardan Witches an additional 280 SP for these purposes (though these spell points can be used to cast other spells, too, if the monster is also a traditional spell caster).

- Clarified in query of Wall Pass spell and a few other places that the effect also lets you walk through Stalagmites and Cave Columns.

- Trying to do something you can’t (equip something you can’t use, activate a device you can’t, set a trap where you can’t, etc.) should no longer take your turn.

Bug Fixes

- Fixed error not properly fading Control Undead spell graphic when the spell is cast.

- Fixed error when summoning a Warlord monster, calling it a “War Lord”.

- Fixed errors halving the likelihood of most monsters from causing disease to another monster in combat.

- Fixed error making it impossible for Giant Cockroaches to cause Redstain Fugue to other monsters.

- Fixed errors taking into account a monster’s Toxin Resistance when checking to see if a Charmed/Summoned Succubus or Satyr confused them.

- Fixed error introduced in last upload sometimes outputting “Earthquake!” when you trigger a standard Cavein.

- Fixed error messing up the text output after reading a Cursed Scroll of Spell Draining, if you managed to resist the effects.

- Fixed multiple errors with the use of Trap Kits where, if you accidentally set off the trap you were trying to set and it generated some form of harmful terrain, you would often be subjected to the effects of that dangerous terrain twice instead of once.

- Fixed error sometimes confusing the words that get scrolled when you use a Scroll of Gust of Wind.

- Fixed text overwrites in queries of some Straw Covered Pit Traps.

- Fixed errors giving monsters a chance to use their Toxin Resistance to try to resist Nausea induced by a Ghast or Hideous Imp, and errors not considering whether they’re immune to Stench (in which case they should also be immune to Nausea).

- Fixed error giving Bugganes who are in combat with a Charmed or Summoned monster a 50% chance to damage that monster’s attributes instead of a 30% chance.

- Fixed error referencing an evil mage as being named “Kalvar” in the description of the Caves of Dread, and “Kalmar” in reality. (Now he’s officially and always named Kalvar).

- Fixed error making it impossible to auto-walk directly after being teleported.

- Fixed error causing monsters who kill themselves while trying to break through a locked door or barricaded door to finish with their body atop the locked door, instead of bouncing back to where they came from.

- Fixed error not always calculating value of Trap Kits properly.

- Fixed errors not providing any information when you query a Friendly Smoke Trap or a Friendly Steam Burst Trap.

- Fixed errors not putting up a graphic with the text explaining to you the results of accidentally triggering a Smoke Trap Kit or Steam Burst Trap Kit you were trying to set.

- Fixed errors causing Golemfoe/Golembane/Anti-Golem weapons to do Physical damage instead of Magic.

- Fixed serious error causing the Biceps of Steel perk to do nothing, and the Tunnel Spotter perk, in addition to its usual function, to grant the Biceps of Steel ability.

- Fixed typo in text output explanation of how Quadruple Dart Traps work (claiming “Quadruple Dart do” instead of “Quadruple Dart Traps do”).

- Fixed bug causing monsters that can lock doors (like Cryptkeepers, for instance) to immediately try to break down the door they just locked (while still standing atop it).

- Fixed errors making it very unlikely that a mine track will ever produce anything other than Slow Mine Carts. (They should now get faster, the deeper you progress).

- Fixed errors reporting the wrong likelihood of your leaping aboard a Mine Cart if that Mine Cart was moving at medium or fast speeds.

- Fixed errors still allowing you to see the Charm or Summn labels on water confined monsters even if they’re more than 1 square away.

- Fixed error not allowing you to, after death, query certain monsters that normally wouldn’t be revealed until you’d encountered them once (like Giant Antlions, for instance).

- Fixed error allowing the character name to overwrite the edge of the screen in the Character Tab if the name is too long, though such long names are only rarely possible when randomly generating a name.

- Fixed error allowing excessively long randomly generated name to overwrite other data in game by extending the maximum size of randomly generated name from 25 characters to 30. While typing in a name, players will still be limited to 25 characters, and I don’t think it’s possible for the game to generate a longer name than 30 characters.

- Fixed error giving Tar Demons 5 less Attack value than they should have.

- Fixed error allowing the random name generator to create strange thematic names for Lizard Men, where the last name isn’t capitalized and is appended directly to the first name with no intervening space.

- Fixed error applying the effects of standing in Smoke twice immediately after you trigger a Smoke Trap (instead of once).

- Fixed error applying the effects of standing in Stench twice immediately after you trigger a Stench Trap (instead of once).

- Fixed typo in query of Vestonian Shrine.

- Fixed incorrect graphic output when a Bubbling Creekbed granted you Water Walking.

- Fixed error that didn’t change your own square appropriately to Crumbling Floor or a Hole when you trigger a Crumbling Floor Trap.

- Fixed outdated info in query of History Skill during character creation, not mentioning that the skill also applies to Mirrors.

- Fixed text overwrite in query of title of General Skills tab.

- Fixed pluralization error in query of Corrupted Shrine that could tell you the Shrine will drain “1 Faith points”.

- Fixed bug leaving the map dark until the first turn after you enter a Legendary Land via its designated entrance.

- Fixed typo in text output of Kobold Ambush event text.

- Fixed error with Kobold Ambush event that would place any excess Kobolds in the northwest corner of the map, embedded in the Wall.

- Fixed (I think) error where summoned Doppelgangers were coming into play with 50% more Health than they should have.

- Fixed errors with Shuffling of Clawed Feet III, Animal Tracking III, Signs of an Infestation III, Sense Demonic Presence III and Big Foot Prints III causing these perks not to allow you to sense the appropriate monsters.

- Fixed a bunch of bugs that could allow monsters to go on being affected by various gas squares and a few other squares, even after they’re dead.

- Fixed error causing Rakshasas to come into play with -119% Magic Resistance instead of 100%. Similar errors may have applied to other monsters, especially Diabolics, but if so, they’ve been fixed now.

- Fixed text overwrite in query of Detect Secret Doors icon.

- Fixed outdated info in query of Detect Secret Doors icon.

- Fixed error causing your Faith to improve from a negative score to zero if you take items from atop a Marble Pedestal and get hit with the curse. (Your Faith in such a case shouldn’t change).

That's it!  Hope you enjoy!

Jeff