COX 2 Ver. 1.15.23 released!

Alright, guys. Despite a several hundred mile move and first-time home ownership, alongside a host of other major life changes, I managed to put together what I think is a very cool 3 month update for Caverns of Xaskazien II. Before I get into all the new stuff, though, I want to throw a shout out to some players from the Caverns of Xaskazien Discord channel, who not only provided a lot of useful bug reports, but also some incredible ideas for ways to improve the game. Yard, Monkooky, Gokudera ElPsyCongroo and yaynitz, thank you for the feedback, much of which has been incorporated here! (And if I missed anyone, I apologize! There were a lot of messages to scroll back through!)

Here’s what’s new:

Major Improvements:

- New game concept: Scrolls can now sometimes be reusable - the higher your Runic Lore skill, the greater the chance that a Scroll survives usage. This was done to make Scrolls more useful and Runic Lore more worthwhile to spend Skill Points on.

- New game concept: Prayers can now sometimes be reusable - the higher your Piety skill, the greater the chance that a Prayer survives usage. This was done to make Prayers more useful and Piety more worthwhile to spend Skill Points on.

- Re-instated Class: Spearman.

- New Perks: Spear Fishing, Hold at Bay, Javelineer, Pin Enemy, Spear Maintenance, Probe the Ground, Receive Charge.

- New Map Tiles: Manacled Prisoner, Silver Web, Corpse Filled Pit, Corpse Filled Pit Trap, Pit with Animal Carcass, Pit Trap with Animal Carcass, Frigid Water Filled Pit, Frigid Water Filled Pit Trap, Icy Bottomed Pit, Icy Bottomed Pit Trap, Dwarven Temple.

- New Spells: Cremation (Cantrip), Solidify Spirit, Feeblemind, Pyrotechnics (Monsters can cast, too).

- New Event: Refreshing Rain.

- New Monster Variant: Mad-Dancing Satyr.

- Redid High Score screen to better fit imagery and themes of the current game.

- Redid graphic for Brute to make it fit better with the current aesthetic.

Minor Improvements:

- Changed effect of Brevalia Day to instead grant you Regeneration for 10 turns. This was done both because its effect felt underwhelming for a holiday, and because I wanted to use its old effect for the new Refreshing Rain event.

- Rarely, large open bodies of Water, Lava or Acid may now have Stalagmites rising from within them. This will never block passage, but should add some interesting aesthetics and occasional tactical choices.

- Cause Disease spell will now automatically cause a random Disease rather than having only an 85% chance, to make the spell more worthwhile. This applies to the monster cast version, as well.

- On the Map screen, Known Pit Traps of all types will now be visually distinct from Open Pits of all types.

- In the standard view, Stone Golem Assembly Tables and Steel Ant Assembly Tables will now be visually distinct from Homunculus Assembly Tables.

- Unpowered Golem Assembly Tables of any type will now have a separate graphic from their powered variant, in addition to having the lighting effect change they always had.

- Non-flying NPCs and monsters of at least Standard Intelligence are now 83.33% less likely to wander onto Mine Tracks, to help keep them safer from errant Mine Carts.

- Potion of Fire Breath has been changed in the way it works. It used to give a 75% chance to cause 75 to 150 Heat damage to the monster in your square but a 25% chance of killing you outright. It now causes Heat damage equal to between 25% and 50% of your Max Health, with a 90% chance of causing that damage to the monster in your square and a 10% chance of causing it to you instead. This should make the potion a lot more survivable if you drink it unwittingly, and still keep it a useful tool against enemies.

- Updated manual to make it clear that monsters, regardless of intelligence, cannot see Friendly Traps and will not take specific efforts to avoid them.

- Included a new Loading Screen tip to the same effect, as well as several other new Loading Screen tips.

- Also updated manual to include the info on the new rules surrounding Scrolls and Prayers.

- Soldiers no longer start with a Tomato and Bandage but instead with a Wooden Buckler, to better compliment their starting skill of Blocking.

- Using Holy Water against an Undead or Diabolic monster is now considered a Good act.

- Using Unholy Water against a Person or Animal is now considered an Evil act.

- Updated queries of Desperation spell, Desperation Spellbook, Staff of Desperation and Desperation Scroll to make clear that the spell will have no effect on Xaskazien.

- Expanded the Damning Prophecy event text slightly to make clearer the psychological damage the prophecy wreaks.

- Successfully charming a monster with the Recruit Goblinoid perk, Animal Friends perk, Demonic Control perk, Gather Minions perk, Friend of Nature perk or with a Diadem of Rulership will now scroll the word “Charm” above your character.

- Unsuccessfully charming a monster with the Recruit Goblinoid perk, Animal Friends perk, Demonic Control perk, Gather Minions perk, Friend of Nature perk or with a Diadem of Rulership will now scroll the words “Charm” and “Fail” above your character, and with Text Prompts set to Basic, will also inform you textually in the Bottom Bar.

- Sleeping monsters can no longer break free from shackles.

- Changed query of Magic Sensitive/Magic Seeking/Magic Finding jewellery from “+X% chance found armaments are Magic” to “+X% chance found Weapons and Armour are Magic” to keep the effect clearer.

- Expanded description of Mirrors to elaborate on what Doppelgangers are, so you can make an informed decision if you don’t know.

- Open Bottomless Pits will now play the Lair sound effect, keyed to distance, to help players realize they’re upcoming and not blindly stumble into them.

- All Undead are no longer just “Immune to Smoke Inhalation” but “Immune to Inhalant Gases” meaning they won’t be harmed by such squares, and should freely enter such squares without hesitation.

- Made all Glyphs two-toned to stand out a little better and just to look more attractive.

- Rafts, Row Boats, Dragon Boats, Mine Carts and Gnomish Bores should now be visible on the mini-map, provided you have line of sight to them, with faded graphics representing if they’re broken.

- Cult Temple will now be visually distinct from the normal Temple on the mini-map since the Temple is such an important square.

- Listed Miracles in the Religion Tab will now be grayed out if their Faith cost is greater than your available Faith.

- Listed Spells in any of the Spell Tabs will now be grayed out if either their Spell Point cost or Intelligence requirement are greater than what you have.

- Tripled the chance that players shed disease on entering a new map. This means Disease Resistance skill, in addition to its 25/50/75% chance to not catch a disease in the first place, now provides a 15/30/45% chance to shed each disease on entering a new map. Dwarves now have an innate 30% chance to shed diseases on reaching a new map (instead of 10%) and all enchantments/Magic Items that increase odds of shedding disease have also had their odds increased. This was done to make Disease Resistance a more useful and desirable skill.

- When querying a Weapon, its Strength or Dexterity requirements will be written in red if you don’t currently meet them.

- When querying any kind of Armour, its Strength requirement will be written in red if you don’t currently meet it.

- When querying any known Spell, its Intelligence requirement will be written in red if you don’t currently meet it.

- Cleaned up clumsily worded text accompanying prompt to enter Hot Halls.

- Frost Breath had its Spell Point Cost and Intelligence Requirement lowered from 20 to 15, to keep it in line with value of other spells.

- Sparks had its Spell Point Cost and Intelligence Requirement lowered from 25 to 20, to keep it in line with value of other spells.

- Absorb Life Energy had its Spell Point Cost and Intelligence Requirement lowered from 35 to 30, to keep it in line with value of other spells.

- Demonic Assistants and Demonic Congress spells both now have a 10% chance of immediately dropping your Spell Points to zero instead of having their normal effect, to help curb their overwhelming power as spells.

- Scholars now start with an Absorb Life Energy Scroll instead of a Candelabra, since the Candelabra isn’t super useful on Dung. Level 1, and they need a little extra survivability early on.

- Duellists now additionally start with a Broken Bottle equipped as a second weapon, to allow them to take advantage of their Dual Wielding capability right out of the gate.

- Envy can now only be used once per NPC, to curb its abusiveness.

- Monsters that are Flaming because of a Flame Augmenter, monsters that are Burning or monsters that are Frozen will now always be visible to Infravision, even if they normally don’t give off a heat signature.

- The chance of Knockout Blow perk taking effect has been dropped from 15%/30%/45% to 10%/20%/30% because it was overpowered.

- Sleeping Monsters who are affected in any noticeable way (taking damage from any source, gaining any status effect, being relocated by teleportation) will now immediately awaken.

- Neither the player nor monsters will slide from Grease or while on Ice if they’re sleeping, because as funny as that was, it didn’t make sense for a stationary being to be shooting in random directions and because it frankly complicated matters behind the scenes.

- While asleep, the player and monsters now have no chance to dodge pendulums.

- If the player is asleep and is affected in any noticeable way (taking damage from any source, gaining any negative status effect, being visted by a deity, etc.) they will now immediately awaken.

- Detect Treasure has been changed to a Mid Power spell costing 45 Spell Points, to help curb its overwhelming power.

- Players will not be able to see beyond their current square or hear any sound effects while inside any kind of Wall now (via a Wall Pass effect). This was done both for flavour and because the Wall Pass effect is pretty darned powerful for a very low cost. You also cannot look at your mini-map while inside a wall.

- When generating procedural maps, all Frigid or Frozen squares adjacent to Lava will be converted to normal temperature variants, solely to avoid the cognitive dissonance of something next to lava remaining cold.

- Updated text in query of Mine Carts to take into account the speed of the Mine Cart when describing your chance of entering. (So instead of saying “If you move onto a square containing a Mine Cart...” it might now say, “If you move onto a square containing a Slow Mine Cart...”)

- When a liquor barrel runs dry it will now make the sound of the barrel being removed and placed on the ground.

- Cauldrons now have a unique background noise that can be heard if in earshot.

- Standardized text output of entering Hot Coals to read “Hot Coals!” as the top line.

- Capitalized “Stalagmites” in the death phrase, “Impaled by stalagmites.”

- If you die by materializing inside Cave Columns it will no longer give you the death phrase, “Impaled by Stalagmites” but instead, “Perforated by Cave Columns.” Also it will no longer output in the bottom bar that you’ve been impaled on Stalagmites, but Cave Columns instead.

- All NPCs are now considered Persons, which means spells like Animate Dead, and miracles like Create Ghoul or Create Vampire will work on their corpses.

- Added red letter calculation of your odds of becoming paralyzed to queries of Netted Pits and Known Netted Pit Traps.

- If any Weapon/Armour/Magic Ring/Magic Amulet/Magic Item is beyond a player’s ability to use because of a lack of the appropriate level of skill (or ongoing mastery spell effect) its Type will be listed in red when queried.

- The Vestonian miracle called Prayer has been nerfed to only work on deactivated Good Shrines, instead of ANY Shrine, both for thematic purposes, and because it could get really abusive if you had a lot of Faith and found the right shrine (like a Fivriaskan Shrine, for instance).

- Dracones are now sub-classified as Spirits, since they’re semi-transparent, intangible, undead beings (and they always should have been so classed). (This means they can also now be summoned via the Call Spirit spell).

- Shield of Caleese will no longer play the healing sound if it should heal you but you don’t need healing.

Bug Fixes

- Fixed serious error causing you to lose no Faith points when casting Act of Destruction.

- Fixed serious error causing Defile miracle to cost no Faith Points.

- Fixed bug in former Brevalia Day event which now applies to the new Refreshing Rain event, preventing the event from removing Greasy status or Insect Swarm status.

- Fixed bug that could occur when a Satyr was attacked by another monster, sometimes causing the Satyr to confuse itself instead of its opponent.

- Fixed error using wrong graphic in the casting of Dismiss Spirit spell if the monster resisted the spell. (Also fixed error that might have affected sound effect playback for the spell there too).

- Fixed errors in the player casting Cause Disease against a monster or a monster casting Cause Disease against another monster that would not let the spell cause Insanity in the target if the target already had Restain Fugue.

- Fixed error when a monster cast Cause Disease at you that would have no effect if the randomly chosen disease was Insanity.

- Fixed bug not allowing monsters to cast Hose Down at other monsters.

- Fixed ancient code that guaranteed Rakshasas would resist all spells even if their Magic Resistance was somehow reduced. Also removed this old code where they were resisting things they should no longer be allowed to resist under current rules (like certain potion effects).

- Fixed error allowing Stunning Blow miracle to reduce the duration a monster is Stunned if you caused a Paralysis effect with it and the monster you stunned was already Paralyzed for a greater duration.

- Fixed bug that caused half of all Lightning Fields to function as though inoperable, even though they still appeared to be powered on. (Also re-included the Lightning Field sound effect in this update, because while it was present in the last master download, it wasn’t in the patch, which means if you patched you couldn’t hear lightning fields).

- Fixed error where the Speed stat wasn’t being displayed in green when querying monsters who had had their Speed artificially increased beyond normal by a special monster.

- Fixed bug labelling both a certain mid-power and high-power weapon enchantment “of Willpower.” The high power enchantment retains that label, but the mid-power enchantment will now be labelled as “of Self-Control.”

- Fixed text overwrite in query of Goblin Warrens Lair title.

- Fixed typo in intro text to Gap Tooth Keep.

- Fixed bug introduced in last update that made it impossible for monsters that should be able to walk through walls to do so.

- Fixed bug that, when learning any non-Warrior skill from a trainer, would simply output in the bottom bar “Skill Increased!” instead of, for instance, “Cartography Skill Increased!”

- Fixed bug causing player to take damage when entering a Scattered Caltrops square while flying.

- Fixed error outputting the wrong amount of Falling damage you stand to take when you query a Hole.

- Fixed oversight allowing Demonic Control perk to charm Xaskazien.

- Fixed bugs allowing, under very rare circumstances, weapons or armour to remain equipped after their Condition reaches zero. Now the game checks at the start of every one of your turns, and if any of your equipped weapons or armour have zero Condition, they’re instantly unequipped.

- Fixed text overwrite in queries of unusual Fire Elementals.

- Fixed superfluous checks to see if you have a viable saved game that used to kick in as soon as you decided to either create a new character or start a new game.

- Fixed typo in entry text of Goon Lair.

- Fixed typo in query of Grease spell.

- Fixed bug preventing Lockpin’s Golden Sword from instantly killing any Golem it hits, unless that sword was your 2^nd weapon equipped while dual wielding.

- Fixed bugs preventing Lockpin’s Golden Sword from auto-hitting Golems.

- Fixed bug slightly messing up sound effect when you successfully use a Ferry Dock.

- Fixed text overwrite bug when querying regular Bandits while a Bandit Chieftain is also on the level.

- Fixed bug making boats frequently spawn atop other boats, destroying the lesser boat.

- Fixed bug displaying red swirl beneath unique Succubi, even if the Succubi has yet to be identified as a non-Damsel.

- Fixed bug labelling a Gem of True Seeing as a Mid Power Magic Item when queried (which it used to be) instead of a High Power Magic Item (which it is now).

- Fixed bug labelling a Gem of Locking as a Mid Power Magic Item when queried, instead of a Low Power Magic Item which it’s always been.

- Fixed bugs allowing your queries of squares containing a Gnomish Bore, Raft, Row Boat, Dragon Boat or Mine Cart to show details of the vehicle in question, even if you couldn’t see the vehicle, tipping your hand as to its location.

- Fixed bug where successfully casting Demonic Congress claimed in the bottom bar that you would now have a 50% chance to get 1 Spell Point per turn instead of 6 as it should be.

- Fixed multiple bugs where it was unlikely but theoretically possible that a new monster could come into play already having had False Pride cast upon it.

- Fixed bug that could claim in the high score list that you’d been killed by “a Xaskazien” (instead of just “Xaskazien”).

- Fixed bugs that were incorrectly calculating your chance to dodge Pendulum Blades and incorrectly calculating the damage those Blades did when they hit.

- Fixed bug causing Guardian Ancestors perk to always only provide one use per map, regardless of how high a level the perk is.

- Fixed bugs that made Shattering Blow and Shield Bash perks much less likely to take effect than they should be.

- Fixed bug making Shattering Blow perk less likely to take effect the greater a monster’s Acid Resistance (when that should have no effect on it).

- Fixed bug causing query of Silence spell to reveal gibberish.

- Fixed text overwrite in query of Total Reconstruction Spell Book.

- Fixed text overwrite in query of Farkle’s Redwood Armour.

- Fixed errors printing wrong bracketed benefit gained from Blessed/Exalted/Divine Armour when queried.

- Fixed errors printing wrong bracketed benefit gained from Bugfoe/Bugbane/Bug Repellant Armour when queried.

- Fixed error causing Succubi to appear as Damsels once more (and to scream for help) if you reveal them to be Succubi, then walk away and encounter them again.

- Fixed bug causing Knockout Blow perk to have no effect.

- Fixed error that would occur when spells become erased because you now have too many in your Spell Book, labelling the cause of erasure a Booby Trap instead of Too Many Spells.

- Fixed error miscalculating the amount of damage the player does to sleeping enemies.

- Fixed error allowing you to throw a Disintegration Sphere at an NPC.

- Fixed rare error where, if you cast a spell at a monster in your square and there are more than one monster in your square, it would have checked for spell resistance for each, and applied the first successful resistance it got, when the spell actually only targets the first monster in your square.

- Fixed error miscalculating the amount of Faith the player is told they would gain when querying an Onyx Altar (though the Onyx Altar itself functioned properly).

- Fixed rare error that could award the player Experience if he applied Frozen status to a monster but did not apply Burning status, and the monster thereafter died from Burning.

- Fixed bug that could allow Dwarven Cave Tribe event to happen over and over again.

- Fixed bug that could allow Prison Sentence event to happen over and over again.

- Hopefully fixed errors that could really rarely allow you to become Frozen or Burning or Electrified for a negative number of turns, with problematic consequences.

- Fixed omission of fact when querying a Wand of Extinguishing that it will remove Burning status from you and all adjacent monsters.

- Fixed error rarely allowing Xaskazien to die by standing in a Flame and then not giving the victory to the player.

- Fixed error sometimes reporting to characters that they had successfully lock picked a door by using a lockpick which they didn’t actually possess.

- Fixed error preventing Poison Gas Cloud spell targeting highlight from disappearing if you abort the spell cast.

- Fixed error causing Lastaviark’s Blessing miracle to kick you out of the Blessing side screen if you try to bless a Weapon that already has a suffix enchantment.

- Fixed errors with Lastaviark’s Blessing, Identify, Hone Weapon and Bless Armour miracles that would still cost you the Faith points, even if you aborted the miracle.

- Fixed oversight allowing Chests revealed by Detect Treasure (and Nose For Gold) to come into play with any level of Booby Trap attached (instead of a Dungeon Level appropriate trap, as it should have been).

- Fixed bug not letting Revitalize miracle take effect if the only debuffs you were currently afflicted with were either Greasy or Swarmed.

- Fixed bug not providing the option for Wandering Clerics to remove your afflictions if the only debuffs you were currently afflicted with were either Greasy or Swarmed.

- Fixed error causing Mimic to once again appear as an Object as soon as you fight a second round of combat against it.

- Fixed error causing Giant Ant Lion to appear as if under the earth again as soon as you fight a second round of combat against it.

- Fixed pluralization errors in text output of a successful cast of Summon Insects or Insect Plague (“The monster will be engulfed in poison insects for 1 turns!”)

- Fixed error scrolling the amount of spell points you lost in green lettering instead of purple when you read a Cursed Scroll of Spell Drain.

- Fixed error preventing you from winning if Xaskazien is killed when you try to set an Explosive Trap and accidentally trigger it.

- Fixed errors that occurred when you tried to set and accidentally triggered on yourself a Poison Gas Trap Kit, Explosive Trap Kit, Flame Trap Kit, Sleeping Gas Trap Kit, Paralyzing Gas Trap Kit, Stench Cloud Trap Kit, Web Trap Kit, Falling Caltrops Trap Kit, Acidic Vapour Trap Kit, Smoke Trap Kit or Steam Burst Trap Kit, treating the resulting hazard squares as though the Player had intentionally created them (and resulting in the player being awarded the experience if a monster died as a result). You gaining Experience is the intended result if a monster triggers the trap, but not if you accidentally trigger it on yourself.

- REALLY fixed bug this time that I thought I fixed in the last update, leaving the Temple of Temptation Legendary Land without a Temple.

- Fixed bug still using old graphic for Weapon Merchant Corpse.

- Fixed text overwrite in query of Thieves Guild Master.

- Fixed pluralization error when Genra drains Spell Points (“The Genra drains 1 Spell Points!”)

- Fixed same errors with weapons of Absorption/Empowerment/Spell Drain, Sceptre of Mist Fingers and Greenleaf Sickle.

- Fixed further errors causing Webs of any type not to break when monsters leave them.

- Fixed bugs not taking into account Gauntlets of Swimming when printing odds of drifting or drowning while querying squares.

- Fixed errors causing unidentified Scrolls of Meteor Strike, Cleave Soul, Brain Burn and Shatter Mind to not be used up when you cast them without a viable target, provided your Runic Lore skill was at least Basic.

- Fixed erroneous info in query of the Vestonian miracle called Prayer, claiming it worked on Altars, too, when it actually only worked on Shrines.

- Fixed errors with Blink spell, Teleport spell, Blink Trap, Stray Sod event, Spatial Distortion event, and teleportation via Imp that could, if triggering while you’re in a Chasm of any kind, make you fall back in when you should have been teleported out.

- Fixed text overwrite in query of Message From the Ethers Spell Book.

- Fixed bug with Mad God’s Whim miracle that could transform monsters into dead versions of other monsters.

- Fixed bug with Mad God’s Whim miracle that wasn’t outputting the text it was supposed to, to tell you what you’d transformed the monster into.

- Fixed bug making it only possible to place Iron Walls in BSP Room style dungeons. Now they can be placed in any style dungeon except original and cellular automata (so they won’t be placed in natural cave environs).

- Fixed bug that could freeze the game during maze generation while it was trying to place Iron Walls.