Crossing The Sands News

Changes in this Version of Crossing The Sands:

• Added tooltips to the spellcasting screen that give a quick summary of what a spell does so you don't have to refer to the manual as often. They'll appear when a spell button is hovered over with the mouse or has keyboard focus.
  
• Made an adjustment to the camera field of view and added a field of view slider to the escape key settings menu. It can be adjusted from 75 to 105 degrees, with 90 as the default, and is a computer-specific setting.
  
• Added more things to the City of Assassins (buildings, furniture, etc).
  
• Changed the ring of swiftness quest reward to be usable by all (was previously Monk-only).
  
• Updated the end-of-combat gold drop message to be accurate (it was still showing the amount of gold per character rather than for the full party).
  
• Improved the rendering code. Large zones with many buildings, like the Grand City, will perform better on older hardware now.
  
• Added messages to the demo version to make it clear when an exit to another zone is only available in the full version.
  

Fixes an issue that caused unique item loot drops to repeat.

This patch solves a couple issues caused by the big update and adds rendering of shadows.

• Fixed a problem that could cause a new game not to start when selected from the main menu.
  
• Fixed textures for some mushroom models in the game.
  
• Fixed an issue that could prevent being able to sell items in a shop.
  
• Added shadows to the game. You'll see objects like trees, rocks, and buildings casting shadows now.
  

Changes in this release:

• Item stats and effects will now show up in tooltips on the character sheet when you hover over or click on an item.
  
• Added item info to the shop window so you know what you'll be purchasing.
  
• Random encounter dragons in the higher-level areas will now only spawn in groups of 1. In twos or threes they were just too much.
  
• The healer can now also cure paralysis and disease.
  
• There is now a "Controls" item on the escape key menu, and game controller and keyboard controls can be remapped.
  
• View distance is no longer infinite. You can see at most 25 squares ahead.
  
• Luck now has some influence on your chance to set off a chest trap when disarming, and high luck may result in a bit more gold and a higher chance of finding an item.
  
• Added more spell sound effects, and all player spells have sound effects now.
  
• Some translation improvements.
  
• Made some build optimizations that reduced the install size of the game a bit.
  

This update features a major user interface redesign that adds character portraits and item icons to the game.

The following changes are included in this update:

• The character status bar showing hitpoints, mana, armor, and status of the party members has been redesigned to show character portraits and use health and mana bars. On first load, characters will be given random portraits. These can be changed using arrows at the bottom left and right of the character portrait on the character sheet. You'll need to save the game for portrait changes to be kept. There are a little over 100 character portrait options, and they can also be selected during character creation.
  
• The character sheet has been redesigned to show icons for everything, including items and equipment. To perform an action with an inventory item or piece of worn equipment, you'll need to click on it (or select it with the keyboard or game controller) to bring up the command buttons. All items on the character sheet have mouse hover text in case you're not sure what something is.
  
• Gold is no longer kept per-character. Rather, there is a party-wide gold total and anyone can spend it. There is no longer any need to pool or split gold when interacting with shops.
  
• Added a belt slot for characters. One place you can buy a belt is at the leather armor shop in the Grand City.
  
• Item icons will also be shown in shops.
  
• Headache will now show up as a character status. Previously I didn't think it was important enough to show, but you deserve to know.
  
• Some improvements to controller and keyboard navigation.
  
• Some updates to the manual to reflect recent changes to the game.
  
• Some translation improvements.