Catacomb Kids News

An update! Still pluggin' away on the Deep Dark, but in the meantime here are some bugfixes.

Also, I've finally begun implementing some of the modular nature of the Tinkerbots! This is something that's been intended from when I first added the tinkerer class; you can now find different motors, chassis, and propeller parts for your bot in mechanist shops and from a new "grumbul workshop" premade room in the upper dungeon. Your bot will equip them automatically upon picking them up.

New

• New Tinkerbot parts, to be found in tinkerer shops or in the new "Grumbul Workshop" premade room
  
• New Grumbul type, found in the grumbul workshop: Grumbul Mechanic
  
• Several new encyclopedia entries
  
• New "Explosive Arrow" that can be purchased from tinkerer shops
  

Changes

• Slightly re-reduced impact of Luck on bought items
  
• Tinkerbot now no longer instantly dies from crush-traps, if there's a place to the side - instead it becomes 'busted', as though imperfectly repaired
  
• Gave Orb-Bearers improved abilities
  
• Made Plague flies dodge-able
  
• Changed the size of some spells on the spell grid: Break is now 2x1, Raise Dead is 1x3, etc.
  
• Allied non-humanoid creatures (spirits, tinkerbots, thralls, etc), are immune to the effects of amulets of force
  
• Normal Bears can spawn as early as floor 8 now, but only spawn once per game loop
  

Fixes

• Crash: In Frolix Dens: data structure with index does not exist. "gen_map_make_reachable_path"
  
• Crash: When leaving levels while a tinker-bot has died off-screen outside of the game's 'active' area
  
• Crash: When a spring is struck by a melee attack as the attacker dies
  
• Bug: Owl-man arms and legs fall off upon death
  
• Bug: Whirlwind audio is borked
  
• Bug: Legs in character portraits draw with the wrong colors
  
• Bug: Can die by touching moving blocks in the Anticropolis while in Dark Phase
  
• Bug: Spring legs don't work
  
• Bug: Arrows that leave trails have incorrect collision boxes
  
• Bug: Shop types don't cycle properly
  
• Bug: Shopkeepers don't get mad if your tinkerbot grabs their wares
  
• Bug: Tinkerbot interaction points remain behind when their owner dies while the bot is in idle mode
  
• Bug: Wind-up Turtles and other carryable enemies can be struck even while held
  
• Bug: Softlock when traversing distant intra-level passages while a tinker-bot is in idle mode
  
• Bug: Pressing up in front of a door while aiming a trajectory throw will go through the door instead of aiming up
  
• Bug: Furnace passages don't heat soups
  

Just some bugfixes for now! Still hard at work on the Deep Dark.

Changes

• Luck has a higher impact on values of sold items, and items sell for slightly more generally
  
• Rewrote the code handling severed and unnatural limbs to make it more consistent and less buggy
  
• A new hidden tinkerbot function
  

Fixes

• Crash: Breaking crush trap chains while standing on top of them
  
• Crash: Data structure with index does not exist. "gen_map_make_reachable_path"
  
• Crash: When trying to fix tinkerbots as a non-tinkerer
  
• Bug: Gas grenades still draw the old style of gas
  
• Bug: Gas grenades look huge until they finish expelling their gas
  
• Bug: Used/burning magical maps and spellbooks sometimes destroy other objects in the player's inventory
  
• Bug: Realized Amulet of Hunger doesn't grant immunity to negative statuses from balls of slime/goo/mucus or mushrooms
  
• Bug: Enchanters don't properly enchant headgear when using their second option
  
• Bug: Crush traps can get stuck in solidifying lava
  
• Bug: "Back" buttons don't work in the main menu
  
• Bug: Break doesn't cast instantly with incantation
  
• Bug: Whirlwind sound doesn't obey volume controls
  
• Bug: The name of a mushroom becomes ridiculous when spiced
  
• Bug: Spices do nothing when added to mushrooms outside of soup
  
• Bug: "Look" doesn't work properly in co-op
  
• Bug: Sometimes hidden ceiling spikes show through - and deal damage damage - on the tile above
  
• Bug: Unfinished "text resolution" setting is sometimes enabled, causing text to look weird
  
• Bug: Characters riding on top of boulders on top of elevators will be pushed through the ceiling
  
• Bug: Extra Tough and Amulet of Life-Saving don't negate being crushed by the moving blocks in the anticropolis
  
• Bug: Peppered fish meal grants byat meal effect
  
• Bug: Orbs of Leveling sometimes don't spawn
  
• Typo: "sough save!" instead of "tough save!"
  

Hey! You!

Oof, I was hoping to have this update out a while ago - it being mostly bugfixes and all - but fixing bugs is, as it turns out, sometimes difficult.

In particular there is one crash that I know I still haven't fixed yet but which I can't seem to reproduce and it's rare and severe and absolutely infuriating. after addressing some of the more common crashes I got so carried away trying to fix that one that time flew by and before I know it an apocalypse has happened and I still haven't pushed out the original fixes! Whoops!!

Well, I hope some of the new features help to make up for the tardiness of this one at least. I think the changes to the tinker-bot are particularly neat, personally.

Changes

• Lanterns' "use" range no longer decreases as the lantern loses fuel
  
• Changed color of mushroom cloud gas
  
• Added additional visualization to better indicate drowning/breathing gas
  
• Gave Tinker-bot "Extra Tough" and "Shake it Off" to make them less squishy
  
• Reworked Soups so they can now hold more than one ingredient
  
• Tinker shopkeepers get mad if you mess with their robots now
  
• Throw full mana batteries at tinkerbots for various effects based on the battery's charge types
  
• Added a couple new portrait hairstyles
  
• Moved thermometer in UI
  
• Changes to Vampirism Plague multi-cast

Fixes

• Crash: Blocking attacks with a cracked shield
  
• Crash: Flipping switches sometimes crashes, especially after a player has died in co-op
  
• Crash: fx_text does not have 'hp' as a variable
  
• Crash: Maps and spellbooks burning away while held by rats
  
• Crash: Selling a burning book to a shopkeeper
  
• Bug: Sometimes switches become unflippable after flipping them a couple times.
  
• Bug: Amulets identify incorrectly in co-op
  
• Bug: Standing at the intersection of elevators and jump-thru platforms causes you to fall through both of them
  
• Bug: Music doesn't update sometimes when moving between floor - I swear to heck I fixed it this time for real
  
• Bug: Tinkerbot sometimes picks up blacklisted items by accident
  
• Bug: Bow-wielding tinker-bots still try to pick up arrows even when they're full
  
• Bug: Can still talk to shopkeepers even when they're hostile
  
• Bug: Some enemies never stop flashing red after being hit with chain lightning
  
• Bug: Tinkerbot still sometimes attacks enemies even when commanded not to

Here's another bugfix patch -- a small but important one, that includes the fixes from 0.2.3a being brought up to speed for Mac and Linux, as well as the following:

Changes

• Extendo-arms automatically become your main weapon hand when they're acquired
  
• Slightly changed animation of daggers' second attack
  
• View now scrolls to focus on breaking ice barriers

Fixes

• Crash: Tinkerer shopkeeper crashes
  
• Bug: Can get softlocked by holding down when bouncing off of springs
  
• Bug: Weapon offsets were wrong - expecially noticeable for extend-o arms
  
• Bug: Two player input is broken in versus mode
  
• Bug: Moving blocks in the AC can kill you if they move into you while you're in a fairy barrel
  
• Bug: Wrong controller vibrates

Quick fix is up for Windows - Mac and Linux soon to follow in the next few days, but it might have to wait til after Christmas, sorry!

Changes

• Tinkerbot no longer auto-returns to you when left in idle mode outside of the view
  
• Springs now retain the direction they were facing when picked up and dropped, unless thrown downward
  
• Springs thrown downward now always have a vertical orientation
  
• There's now a slight pause when bouncing off of springs, letting you grab them more easily

Fixes

• Crash: Crash when quitting out of the tutorial
  
• Crash: Nonexistent surface in "food_meal"
  
• Crash: undefined object in "AI_path_follow"
  
• Crash: Crash in "draw_hud_messages"
  
• Bug: Walls in the tutorial are invisible
  
• Bug: Ice passages don't freeze humanoids that get caught in them when they regrow
  
• Bug: Flipping switches with the 'use' button doesn't trigger cutscenes
  
• Bug: Spring item highlight was working incorrectly
  
• Bug: Gas traps not drawing the bottom tile
  
• Bug: Mirror mazes sometimes not spawning properly
  
• Bug: Tinkerbot class skill doesn't work properly in split-screen co-op
  
• Bug: Being "saved" from crushing by vertical shifting blocks in the AC turns them into broken crush traps