Catacomb Kids News

0.1.3b

UNFORTUNATELY this patch is only out on Windows for the time being. We've been having mad issues building for Mac and Linux but fingers crossed they'll be coming before too long. Alas, we're not entirely sure what the fix is yet so I can't provide an ETA.

In the meantime, Windows folk, have a bunch of bug fixes!


CHANGES
	Reduced Tinker-Bot max hp increase from class-up from +5 to +3 each
	Classing to Engineer lets tinker-bot carry heavy items
	Reduced Tinker-Bot stat increase when going from Mechanic to Engineer
	Added option to tinker-bot to only pick up unusable objects
	Added input prompts to tinkerbot's manual mode
	Added input prompts to character select menu
	Engineer's Tinkerbot changes sprite to reflect improvement
	Tinkerbot repairs damage from poor repairs by descending floors
	Headaches now last for 2 floors instead of 1
	Tinker-bot is better at avoiding shifting platforms in the AC
FIXES
	Undo isn't removed from the spell bar when maximum charges reach 0
	Missing leg causes air dash to behave strangely
	Orb blinks when intersecting walls even when carried by Tinkerbot
	Barrels sometimes burn them forever
	Can be moved while going through doors
	Moving Platforms in the AC can overlap the entrance/exit doors
	Bot hits self with thrown arrows
	Bot weapons don't disintegrate when broken
	Can give bots heavy objects through the idle menu
	Likes/Good With [Weapon] doesn't specify weapon type when loading a template kid
	Spellbooks stolen by rats become invisible
	Reaper weapons fly away after unpausing from tinker mode switch
	Spikes in reaper room float when walls disappear
	Wind-up turtle can be poisoned
	Thrown weapons not reflected by armor of reflection
	Potions deal damage incorrectly
	Can't change Tinkerbot mode in coop while the screen is split
	Bear trap keeps you caught after Undo
	If you ride a boulder into a wall, the boulder may push you slightly into it
	Weakness and a few other status effects aren't reciprocated by reciprocity
	Lava bridges sprite turns to wooden bridge sprite when crushed by crush traps
	NB sometimes spawns in walls and other strange places
	Tinkerbot mode cannot be changed when class ability is assigned to SPELL
	Custom Kids can't start with amulets
	"gml_Object_par_player_Step_0" crashes
	Locked rooms often generate without treasure
	Wooden barricades can block off areas

New Class - Tinkerer Update!

So, it's been yet another while and a half, and here we are again. I come bearing gifts.

Watch this:

https://youtu.be/S0DF43O-3mU

If you don't feel like watching that then read this stuff (it's mostly the same words):

The Tinkerer!

First things first, this update adds a new player class to the game; The Tinkerer. Tinkerers are crafty item-users, planners, and mechanics, and as such they are associated with Intelligence. Their class ability isn't really an ability so much as a companion: All tinkerers have a flying robot buddy that can carry items and fight alongside them.

The Tinker-Bot has four different modes that the player can switch between at will:

In Defensive mode, the tinker-bot will only attack enemies that you're already in combat with, but won't fly off and start fights on its own.
In Offensive mode, it'll attack any nearby creature regardless of whether they're aware of you or not.
In Manual mode, you control the robot directly, letting you move, attack, and pick up items with it, but you lose control of your Kid while doing so.
In Idle mode, the tinker-bot enters an inactive standby state: You can use this mode to tell the bot to wait somewhere out of the way while you go do something dangerous. You can also interact with the tinkerbot in this mode to manage its held item or modify its behaviour.

Of course, nothing lives forever, and the tinker-bot will be destroyed if it takes too much damage. When this happens it breaks into three pieces that are scattered around the level, and in order to restore it you'll need to reassemble the parts and then take a moment to power it up again. When you repair your bot this way, you'll become mentally exhausted for a couple floors, during which time if it breaks again, repairing it might result in some...lower quality results - or else come at a high cost.

In addition to their tinker-bot companions, Tinkerers also have a chance to start with items unique to their class, called "Contraptions." There are only two kinds of contraptions so far - Grenades and Wind-up Turtles - but more are planned for future updates.

Those are the essentials of the new Tinkerer class, but there's much more to them that you'll have to discover for yourself. I'm excited to finally have the fourth class implemented and I think they'll find their place alongside the bully, wanderer, and poet as a valued addition to the game.

Catacoins

The next major addition to this update is the introduction of Catacoins. These coins are a kind of currency that you gain over the course of multiple runs by getting far and gaining reputations. Different reputations are worth different amounts of Catacoins based on how difficult they are to get, but even if you don't get any reputations at all, you'll still slowly gain Catacoins over the course of your runs to spend.

As for what you do with these coins, there's only one thing to spend them on so far, but I think it's pretty neat: You can spend coins to customize the otherwise randomly-rolled Kids, tweaking certain starting traits and equipment to create a kid that suits the way you play, but keep in mind that the more specific you are, the pricier the kid becomes. I've also removed the ability to continually re-roll new random kids at no cost: backing out to the menu and going forward again a million times won't get you what you want!

You can choose to spend just a few coins for a simple quality of life improvement, or save them up to roll an expensive all-star suited to your tastes -- but play well, to make sure they survive and make the investment worthwhile.

Shops

I've also made some changes to shopkeepers: They're no longer generic sellers-of-all things, but are instead divided into four different shop types: blacksmiths, magic dealers, potion brewers, and clothiers. In addition to each shop type offering different kinds of items, shopkeepers themselves now offers a service unique to their profession.

Blacksmiths can improve your weapon's stats and repair damaged equipment.
Magic dealers will sell you a single spell that doesn't require learning points to acquire.
Potion brewers will identify any potion type, for a price.
Clothiers offer enchantments for your armor and shoes.

What's Next?

So, now that this new class is out and the groundwork has been laid for meta progression in the form of Catacoins, my next major goals are the implementation of the third environment, the Deep Dark and the addition of Tier 3 boons, and transitioning development to Game Maker Studio 2. But like, in the reverse order from what I just said. Of course this all will be aalongside the continued fleshing-out of existing systems - adding more meals and meal effects, more things to purchase with catacoins, more spell overloads and trances, etc.

I'm Still Not Dead

Lastly, as I've mentioned before but will continue to mention for as long as it remains true: If you ever think I'm dead or have dropped off the face of the earth (like I know sometimes happens) Check out my Twitch.tv on Mondays or Fridays - unless I'm out of town I'll always be dev-streaming from 3-6PM PST. We've also got a relatively active discord channel that y'all're all welcome to party in. But like, not a rowdy party. A really chill low-key one because honestly we're all tired but it's only Monday and we still have to be up tomorrow morning, and it's not even like we don't see each other often anyway, so there's no need to get all wound up when we all know we're just going to be back here again in a couple weeks.

So anyway, sorry this build took such a long time getting out - there were a lot of irritating and common bugs in the last version, and going so long without at least addressing them was pretty unacceptable of me. My bad. I'll try to do better forever. After all, what can we do but strive evermore for betterment - of ourselves, of the world around us - or else be crushed by the sameness and the worseness of all prior existence; softly smothered by the enticing and outstretched arms of the grand beast named Contentment with Mediocrity.

So you strive, stumbling at times, sure, but resisting that beastly embrace. And so shall I strive too - until I am Better. Until I am Best. And even further, until the infinite endeavors which lie beyond.

. . .

Seeing as how this is a pretty big update and this has already been a lot of words, I'll post the patch notes separately.

0.1.3!

New
	New Class! The TINKERER!
		New Items - Grenades
		Robot Follower
	Catacoins!
	Custom Kids!
	Battle music!
	AC Forts!

Changes
	Oog now have energy for the void amulet to drain 
	Changed some reputation requirements
	Large mushrooms are now heavier and bounce away creatures when not upright or when struck
	Mushrooms are know knocked away by attacks
	Improved Magic 101's charged tome attack
	Improved Magical Combat's charged tome attack
	As a Spellwright, projectiles from tome attacks will auto-aim
	Undo is now removed from your skill grid when its max charges reach 0
	Arrow types can be swapped by holding "Stow", even when having held/stown items
	Made Anticropolis background details better and more unique
	Added splash visual effect for entering water
	Added bubble effect to lava surface
	Changed explosion visual effect
	Changed flame wave visual effect
	Made icy slopes much more slippery
	Added a V-Sync option in Graphics options for Windows users
	    Setting V-Sync to "ALT" should help WIN 10 users 
	    with their black fullscreen issue but may introduce other issues
	    !!-This is only a temporary fix. A true solution is coming soon-!!
	Added option to disable contextual prompts in Graphics options
	Some changes to lighting in the Anticropolis
	Orb of Leveling light now cycles through colors
	Classing up as a wanderer more dramatically increases farsight distance
	Improved camera point of interest functionality
	Doubled charged duration of Soul weapons and added a damage penalty for losing charge
	Changed behavior of shadow strikers for Soul weapons
	Stronger enemies generate more shadow strikers when killed with soul weapons
	Changed the behavior of lanterns to make them more useful
	Lanterns now remove invisibility from lit enemies
	Wearing sandals, going barefoot, or being naked in the AC increase heat loss
	Sandals have less durability...
	    Sandals/bare feet kick faster and increase freerun wall-run speed
	Boots have higher durability...
	    Boots kick slower, and decrease freerun wall-run speed
	Heavy weapons and equipment increase freerun startup time
	Boots reduce damage from ground spikes 1 at the cost of durability
	Helms and Coifs reduce damage from ceiling spikes by 1 at the cost of durability
	Slightly reduced input window for heavy lifting creatures
	Added learned percentage of weapon skill to "Likes [Weapon]" description
	Increased shop security
	Shops now come in different types
	Shopkeepers offer different services based on their store type
	Added living space to shops
	Added background details to shops
	Merchants will buy your items for closer to their actual value with higher LUC
	Mixed potions now identify if their components are identified after being made
	Weapons clashing gains the attention of nearby creatures
	Disarming enemies while you have [Pilfer] now [steals their weapon]
	Using Grapple on enemies now [disarms them] if you have [Disarm]
	Made gamepad input for mighty stomp harder to do accidentally
	Refined Air Dash behaviour
	Improved input responsiveness for quickly throwing things 
	    after taking Trajectory or Deft Throw
	Changed appearance of Trajectory throws
	Trajectory now briefly slows time when initiated
	Deft throw now has a slight auto-aim
	Weapons thrown with trajectory only bounce once
	Realized Amulet of the Void now only activates upon stealing energy/magic
	Reduced Amulet of the Void's range
	Increased INT requirement for enemy amulet use
	Can now ride boulders
	Can now initiate trajectory bow shots downward
	Crush trap chain reeling sound is now emitted from the crushing head
	Corpses are no longer valued by name length
	Humanoid corpses' worth now take into account their equipped items
	Added ruin structures to Anticropolis

Fixes
	Fixed pools of water spawning incorrectly
	Fixed amulets de-identifying when INT drops
	Energy with Void Amulet drains one from max
	Input icon for class ability doesn't display when using controller
	Arrows behave a bit better in tight corridors
	Crash when drinking Potion of Cleansing Flame
	Icicles are fine in lava
	Flame pipes add excessive "Charred"s to corpses
	Teleport traps can spawn on the ghost and other "up-to-interact" features
	Boulder traps don't trigger over too-short distances
	Flame Wave, Infernus, and burning enemies don't properly produce light
	Fixed a bug with disabling out-of-view instances
	Interactable object title text is drawn in the wrong color
	Burrah-boi meal doesn't work at all
	Strange transparency artifacts with alphas while in fullscreen
	Solidified Lava in reaper room is rendered incorrectly
	Still climb up and down ladders while tracking/aiming lantern
	Can heavy lift creatures while already holding an item
	Heavy lifted creatures can be picked up by humanoids 
	    other than the one who initiated the heavy lift
	Ghost sometimes provides too many, too few, or incorrect trait options
	All the music was in mono BECAUSE I'M AN IDIOT
	Crash when ogo slime on feet explodes in a gas trap
	Crash when losing one's weapon-arm mid-attack while using a bow
	Potions are overly resource-intensive
	Firing a bow homes in on switches even when they're behind you
	Missing particle effect upon level up
	Breathing Masks don't work
	NB becomes unresponsive after being blocked or shield parried
	Using raise dead on a player in co-op doesn't restore their charge stars
	Dead things gain value as they degrade

Near Future TO-DO
	The Deep Dark
	Tier 3 Boons
	More Minibosses

0.1.2b

Just some quick bugfixes, as well as getting Mac and Linux caught up!

Changes
	Disarm now disarms upon critical hit
	
Fixes
	Some particles are drawing incorrectly
	Fixed 2-tile water flickering bug
	Tracking off-hand items as Wanderer doesn't properly show items equipped by enemies

0.1.2

Ahh! Sorry! This build is kinda way overdue! I know the last build was pretty buggy and crashy, and this should hopefully fix a lot of that. It's only available on Windows for the time being, with Mac and Linux following sometime this weekend, hopefully.

There isn't too much new stuff to play around with yet, but I'm making very good progress on the upcoming Tinkerer class, as well as implementing a currency to be spent between runs.

New
	New Reaper Spell!
	New Amulet!

Changes
	Can now aim Chain Lightning's trance downward
	Reaper spells are now considered "Dark" for charge types
	Fully realized Amulets now have a (Realized) tag
	Push and Push trance now affect crush traps and falling icicles
	Amulet of [Void] no longer drains energy
	Absorbing magic with the Amulet of [Void] now restores energy to the bearer
	Amulet of [Void] no longer disables the Orb of Leveling
	Amulet of [Hunger] now has a fully realized version
	Enemy amulet abilities now tied to enemy INT
	Enemy amulet effects are now invisible unless you already know said amulet
	Can skip logo intro on main menu
	Blink trance now protects from projectiles and being crushed by the Grumbul Tank
	
Fixes
	Pouncing with Chain Lightning's trance expends all minibolts at once
	Crash when trying to display context button prompts for nonexistent objects
	Tomed spellbooks sometimes the visual of being used when using another object
	Spellwright shopkeepers crash when casting an aimable spell
	Looting menu shows stats for last selected item when selecting Amulets
	Sometimes the same amulet type will appear and identify as two separate ones
	Sometimes two different amulet types will have the same appearance
	Plague poisons allies
	Plagued flame bodies are excessively explosive
	INT requirement for identifying amulets was wrong
	Another crash related to Reaper arena blocks spawning in
	Get stuck in ceiling while standing on grumbul tank with extra tough while it jumps
	The bottom row of tiles in a level is often cut off or misgenerated
	Running Water Anticropolis transition freezes during generation
	Thermal indicator shows during level generation

Near Future TO-DO
	Next Class
	Metacoin Currency
	Flesh out Encyclopedia