COX 2 Ver. 0.78.94 release

Download the patch if you're upgrading, or the whole game if you're new to it!   If upgrading, just download the zip file, place it in your main Caverns of Xaskazien 2 folder, unzip it, and answer yes to any "do you wish to overwrite" previous files questions.

Be aware, due to game changes, existing save games from 0.76.89 will no longer function after the 0.78.94 patch is applied.  Also, due to game changes, your preferences file will be overwritten when patching, so if you've changed anything, you'll have to change things back there, manually.

Besides general bug fixes, the main thrust of this update continues fleshing out the religion system, differentiates elemental damage types, and tweaks the UI to make things more convenient.  Here's the specifics, and, as always, thanks for playing!

Major Improvements:

- New Item Type: Prayer (functioning similarly to Scrolls, but more rare and with miracles associated instead of spells, failure rates based on relationship with associated deity, requiring no Skills to identify, and the use of which counts as praying at a Shrine to the associated god for purposes of Faith and Divine Relationships. All currently existing Miracles can now be found in Prayer form).

- Introduced new system for dealing with Fire damage, allowing players and monsters to catch on fire, with percentage chance and duration both influenced by the amount of fire damage they’ve taken.  Also allowed entering water or pools to instantly douse it.

- Introduced new system for dealing with Cold damage, allowing players and monsters to freeze as a result of cold damage, with percentage chance and duration both influenced by the amount of cold damage they’ve taken.  Also allowed being exposed to fire damage to remove Freezing.

- Introduced new system for dealing with Electrical damage, allowing players and monsters to become Electrified, with percentage chance and duration both influenced by the amount of electrical damage they’ve taken. (Also changed “Electrified” weapons to “Electrifying” to avoid confusion).

- Introduced new system for dealing with Acid damage, allowing players a chance to have extra items melt with percentage chance and number of items both influenced by the amount of acid damage they’ve taken, and allowing monsters a chance to have either their ATT or DEF rating lower with percentage chance and amount both influenced by the amount of acid damage they’ve taken.

- Tied Intelligence to the accumulation of bonus Skill Points at Level Up to make the  attribute more useful to all character types, and make the game slightly easier.

- Added new option in options menu: Monsters Interrupt Autowalk. It can be set to 3 options: When Encountered (autowalk is interrupted when you encounter a monster, which is as the game has functioned till now), When Nearby (autowalk is interrupted when a monster is within 2 squares), or When Sighted (autowalk is interrupted as soon as a monster is spotted).

- New Map Tiles: Ark, Marble Pedestal.

- New Booby Trap: Hex.

- New Mundane Items: Sacramental Wine, Alluman Holy Symbol, Baloraasinian Holy Symbol, Dorallan Holy Symbol, Feighmorian Holy Symbol, Fivriaskan Holy Symbol, Hornan Holy Symbol, Lastavian Holy Symbol, Malevian Holy Symbol, Pantosian Holy Symbol, Talltiowardan Holy Symbol, Vestonian Holy Symbol, Viean Holy Symbol

- New Events: Celestial Aurora, Will of the Gods.

Minor Improvements:

- Reworked monster selection method, when designing levels, such that monsters should be a little more themed and a little less hodgepodgey on the whole (while still allowing for variation, including a 25% chance to utilize the old selection method).

- Changed Tree Man deficiency from “Can’t learn Expert General Skills” to “Takes double damage from Heat sources”, to make them more unique and interesting to play.

- Changed Centaur deficiency from “Can’t learn Expert Rogue Skills” to “Can’t return to earlier Dungeon Levels”, to make them more unique and interesting to play.

- Changed Barbarian deficiency from “Can’t learn Advanced Spell Use” to “Begins game with Untrained Spell Use and Untrained Thaumaturgy”, making them unique among all character classes in that they are the only characters who begin the game unable to cast spells, but still leaving the door open for them to become full blown wizards if the opportunity presents itself.

- Made it so that if a monster is weaker than the norm for the dungeon level you’re on,  the odds of it being a spellcaster go up slightly, and the odds of it being a special monster go up even more, with those odds increasing the greater the discrepancy between power and dungeon level.

- Added Situation Panel text output when Explorer Unique Ability (or similar circumstance) kicks in, so long as your Text Prompts aren’t set to Expert.

- Added Situation Panel text output when Vegra’s Health Stick, Mastermind, Kloog’s Reminder, Hurlbat of Destiny, Linvar’s Farm Tool, Rearranging Boomerang or any Weapon of Backtracking/Climbing/Ascent have their effect, so long as your Text Prompts aren’t set to Expert.

- Made monsters and NPCs now visible and queryable on mini-map.

- Added Prayers to the possible items found in Desks or on Cluttered Shelves.

- Added slight clarifications to queries of Trap Kits where the outcome is based on either Monster Speed or Intelligence, to ensure it’s clear that slower or dumber monsters are more likely to be harmed by the trap.

- Made Shackled monsters occasionally make the sound of rattling chains.

-Tweaked the hearing range of monsters slightly, such that when very close (4 or less squares away) they’re more likely to hear you than when distant. This should make monsters of Animal intelligence a little more aggressive if you get close, while still ensuring they won’t bother you if you keep your distance.

- Massively overhauled the Spell Point system, such that A) rather than gaining a massive new Spell Point surge every 10 dungeon levels, characters get a small increase with every dungeon level, and B) Thaumaturgy generally provides less of an increase. The net results of all of this are that A) the way Thaumaturgy works is now easier to communicate to the player, B) characters will see a slow but steady increase in their spell points rather than a sudden, very intermittent massive leap, C) in the early levels characters will generally have more spell points, but a little less in the later levels, to help cut down in the rampancy there and D)Thaumaturgy won’t be something approaching game breaking.

- Added clarification to query of Banquet Table that eating here will anger Dorallas.

- Gave Flaming Darts a 5% chance to start a fire in your square, to keep it uniform with Fireball and Flame Strike. Reduced its casting cost from 20 to 15 to compensate.

- Disallowed casting of Flaming Darts, Fireball, Flame Strike or Immolate in any Temple, Stairs or Water square, to avoid exploit where players could dodge the possibility of starting a fire with the spell/miracle.

- Made Extinguish spell and Summer Rain miracle also extinguish any Lit Candles, Lit Candelabras, Lit Torches or Lit Lanterns you’re carrying.

- Game will now interrupt autowalk if a Mine Cart is adjacent to you. This should make it safe to autowalk across Mine Tracks now, with no fear of getting hit.

- Changed the way Freezing works (now you have a 50% chance of being unable to leave your square, instead of being immobilized) to differentiate more from paralysis, and keep cold damage from being too vicious.

- Changed Frost Breath, Frost Blast and Freeze spells to better utilize the new Cold damage system.

- Gave monsters who deal Fire, Cold, Electrical or Acid damage 10% higher experience values, to account for their greater threat level now.

- Made Magic Draining Beam Trap have only a 50% chance of draining the magic power of each item in your inventory, instead of 100%, to make it less vicious.

- Changed Dragon’s breath weapon from a 50% chance of happening for 1 to 6 Fire damage, to a 20% chance of happening for 3 to 18 Fire damage, to give the breath more kick, and increase its likelihood of setting you on fire.

- Changed Dracolich’s breath weapon from a 50% chance of happening for 1 to 3 Electricial damage, to a 20% chance of happening for 3 to 9 Electrical damage, to give the breath more kick, and increase its likelihood of Electrifying you.

- Changed Human and Adventurer Unique Ability from 20% chance for bonus Skill Point on Level Up to 0.2 bonus Skill Points on Level Up, to take out some of the luck factor, and tie them into the new Intelligence mechanic.

- Allowed warming yourself at a Fireplace to remove Frozen status from you.

- Pits now require various Dexterity checks to climb out of (though you won’t continue taking damage while you remain inside). This goes for monsters, too.

- Added mention of the effects of Strength and Dexterity on which Weapons/Armour you can use when querying those attributes in game or during creation.

- Raised cost of Sparks spell from 20 spell points to 25, to keep it in line with power to cost ratio of other Low Power direct damage spells.

- Added notation to query of Bee Hive telling you how much damage you’ll actually take if you’re stung.

- In queries of multiple terrains that previously lacked them, added red text calculation of damage you might receive, taking into account elemental resistances.

- Added clarifications in query of various Acid Pits that the damage you initially take from falling in is Acid based.

- Made Golems immune to all Charm spells, not just the “Charm Monster” spell.

- Added “red text” details of how much treasure you will find to queries of Dragon Hoards.

- Added clarification in query of Dracon that its 10% chance to destroy a random Object each turn is Acid based.

- Clarified query of Secret Compartments so it no longer seemed to imply you could only try opening them once.

- Clarified query of Giant Fly to state that it won’t replace Giant Maggot corpses with Giant Maggots.

- Clarified query of Cauldron with titles for each of the broths, to add atmosphere and to clarify that the damaging outcome is Acid based.

- Clarified query of Liquor Barrel with alcohol titles, for atmosphere.

- Added notation of your god’s attitude in the Religion Tab, to save you the trouble of looking it up in the Stats Tab.

- When querying Trap Kits, the Chance to Set is now written in red, to make it stand out.

- Renamed Lightly Sleeping/Sleeping/Deeply Sleeping Dragon tiles to Lightly Slumbering/Slumbering/Deeply Slumbering Dragon tiles, to differentiate the terrain feature from an actual Sleeping Dragon monster.

Bug Fixes:

- Fixed error making 30 of the monsters less common than they should have been.

- Fixed error that could rarely cause monster attitudes to wrongly spiral to Sworn Enemy after a single kill.

- Fixed errors where Weapons of Climbing and Weapons of Ascent weren’t having their proper effect if equipped as your second weapon while dual wielding.

- Fixed error causing Baboon Cave to be structured in layout, rather than cavernous.

- Fixed error where Detected Secret Compartments weren’t showing up on the mini-map.

- Fixed several errors that could output nonsense if you ate mildly poisonous food at a Banquet, but somehow resisted the poison.

- Fixed error that would only occur on the final in-game day of the year, mislabeling the next upcoming Holiday.

- Fixed error outputting confusing text with query of Fire Shield spell, and mislabeling it as a Sorcery instead of a Pyromancy.

- Fixed text overwrite in query of Psychotic Dead.

- Fixed errors causing Corpulent Ogres, Snake Man Scouts, Giant Driver Ants and Psychotic Dead to have the wrong Speed.

- Fixed errors where monsters that would drain your Max Health when they hurt you were not also doing their normal damage.

- Fixed error outputting wrong graphic with text output from Summer Wind.

- Fixed error allowing you to cast Enchant Armament on Legendary Weapons and Armour.

- Fixed errors causing Legendary Weapons and Armour to be mislabeled in the text prompt of a Wandering Smith confirming what you want repaired.

- Fixed errors preventing Wandering Clerics from removing Confusion or Blindness from player.

- Fixed error messing up the game’s executable icon.

- Fixed error allowing Dark Jesters to spring traps while in combat vs. other monsters, even if asleep.

- Fixed bizarre new error that would often crash the game if you tried to pick up an item.  (Bizarre because this should have been crashing the game all along, as far as I can tell).

- Fixed error allowing Mosaics to be generated in inaccessible corners of Mosaic Rooms during map setup.

- Fixed error allowing you to drop items while you’re asleep.

- Fixed error checking your relationship with Tsen Tsun Vie, rather than Feighmorias, when querying a Feighmorian Shrine.

- Fixed errors both with the querying of Cooked Goose and the eating of it.

- Fixed error outputting wrong amount of Experience you’ll gain from eating Cooked Boar when you query it.

- Fixed error where casting Blinding Flash on a monster who wasn’t already Blind would instead give you Regeneration.

- Fixed error causing a monster who was already Blinded for more than 60 turns to have that Blindness lowered to 60 turns if they trigger a Friendly Blinding Light Trap.

- Fixed typo in query of Corrupt Astrolabe.

- Fixed typo in intro text to Cursed Cemetery.

- Fixed error preventing Iron Walls from blocking Line of Sight.

- Fixed typo in query of Shackle miracle.

- Fixed text overwrite in query of Baloraasin in Religion or Stats Tab.

- Fixed error where, when querying a Ballista, you were told your odds of hitting were 3 times higher than they actually were.

- Fixed error during character creation not listing Inscribe Ward spell in Scholar’s starting gear.

- Fixed error listing “destroyed” vehicles if you point your mouse cursor at the square immediately northwest of the top left most square of the dungeon.

- Fixed errors allowing you 1 bonus strength damage if your Strength is less than 10 (it should be 0).

- Fixed outdated info in query of Barred Doors, stating that trying to bash them open and failing causes 1 to 2 damage (when it now causes only 1).

- Fixed bugs during queries of certain Rusted and Stone door variants calling them Heavy doors.

- Fixed multiple instances of red text calculations in queries of terrains that didn’t accurately take into account elemental resistances.

- Fixed typo in query of Alluman Shrine.

- Fixed errors with certain Events misidentifying which types of spells they put into effect.

- Fixed error in query of Secret Detection skill not noting that it can detect Cave Ins and Secret Compartments, too.

- Fixed errors allowing Orcs generated by a Dark Weasel Tribe Event or Trolls generated by a Black Wyvern Clan Event to be generated as unique monsters.

- Fixed error not attaching “Flaming” prefix to flaming monsters until after the player has taken a single action on a new level.

- Fixed error where Palantir of Hard Reality was usually affecting the wrong monster.

- Fixed error not scrolling the names of certain spells above your character icon when casting those spells.

- Fixed error scrolling word “Paralyzed” above a monster’s head when you cast Hold Monster at it, even if the monster resisted the spell.

- Fixed error in query of Control Diabolic Spell Book referencing it as a Control Undead Spell Book.

- Fixed error where Troll Totems were having the unwanted side effect of increasing the number of items Smugglers were wanting to buy and the number of lessons Task Masters would provide.

- Fixed error not checking to see if monsters in Garbage Heaps become Nauseous.

- Fixed error allowing monsters to cast spells at the player when Nauseous.