Caves of Qud News

211.33 - 'beta' branch

• Greatly improved pathfinding performance.
  
• Greatly improved performance when auto-moving to the edge of a zone.
  
• Improved pathfinding logic of creatures, causing them to take more sensible paths around obstacles.
  
• Tri-hologram bracelets no longer reset your targeting position for each hologram.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused unreal objects to be affected by temperature radiation.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused you to sometimes be unable to open your equipment after glitching yourself with warm static.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused you to sometimes lose your inventory after glitching yourself with warm static.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused you to bump into obstacles on the destination when moving to zone edges.
  

[p]Here is your Caves of Qud year Wrapped, brought to you by a several snapjaws in a ironweave cloak.[/p][p]First, happy birthday to Qud! We launched 1.0 a year ago, and we've had a nice, long recovery from 15+ years of updates. But we still managed to make a lot of progress towards our long-term goals.[/p][p]In 2025, Caves of Qud wrapped:[/p]

• [p]Patches: 13[/p]
• [p]Bugfixes: 232[/p]
• [p]Hugo Awards Won: 1[/p]
• [p]Console versions announced: 1[/p]
• [p]Languages localized: 0.25[/p]
• [p]Girshlings licked: ???[/p]
• [p]Mods currently in the Steam Workshop: 1112[/p]
• [p]T-shirt designs for sale: 5[/p]

[p]
[/p][p]Yep! In fact, we’ve been patching the Beta branch regularly with some deep performance optimizations, so if you’re curious to try a buttery-smooth experience, wander into the Beta branch and let us know if you encounter anything off.[/p][p]Meanwhile, our Switch port is coming along (release date still pending), the expansion pack is in the works, we're tinkering on our localization experiment in Turkish, and there’s more excellent merch coming in the new year.[/p][p] [/p][p]We’re spinning a LOT of plates, and we appreciate your continued patience while all of these efforts come to fruition.[/p][p][/p][h2]Mod of the Year: Hearthpyre [/h2][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]We wanted to take a moment to highlight Hearthpyre, a base-building mod, and one of the best Caves of Qud mods period. It's made by Armithaig, who has since joined the Freehold team and is responsible for the tech implementation of a vast array of features, including: golem and mech interiors, much of what's atop the \[redacted], complex dynamic quests Reclamation, If Then Else, and Landing Pads, most of our recent modding enhancements, and many of the late-game visual effects.[/p][p]Armithaig got their gamedev start in the early 2000s modding games like Morrowind, Freelancer, and Dungeon Siege. With Hearthpyre they wanted to let folks live in the little nooks and homes that exist across Qud. Go check it out if you haven't already.[/p][p][/p][h2]Get an extra discount on: 1000xRESIST[/h2][p]We love this game! 1000xRESIST is one of the best-written games of the past several years, and if you own Qud, you can get it right now for an extra 10% off. That's on top of the game itself being on sale right now. If you like novel science fiction settings with powerful resonant themes (like Qud), then we highly recommend 1000xRESIST. Grab it below![/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][h2]That’s a Wrap![/h2][p]However you celebrate this time of year, warm or cold, we wish you plenty of beverages to imbibe and loved ones to hold in your many arms. [/p][p][/p][p]Live and drink,[/p][p]Everyone at Freehold & Kitfox[/p]

[p]Hey everyone,[/p][p]It's Alexandra here from Kitfox with an assortment of game news while the team remains in the midst expansion, porting, and localization efforts. They've truly grown at least one extra arm to be able to do all that! [/p][p][/p][h3]Nominate Qud for the Steam Awards 2025[/h3][p]The Steam Award nominations are now open! This year, Caves of Qud is eligible for MOST of the award categories, so make sure you vote for as many as you feel is appropriate. Maybe Story-Rich Game, Soundtrack, or Steam Deck? Sit Back and Relax for the sicko voters???? You can nominate for all the awards here: https://store.steampowered.com/steamawards/nominations/2025

[/p][h3]Mod Jam results[/h3][p]The latest Qud mod jam just concluded with a new batch of creative mods inspired by the theme "reanimated Monster Mash". You can download the mod pack and check out the monstrous entries yourself. We hosted a showcase stream with librarianmage, Sol, Alexandra, and Jason, where we celebrated all the entries. Watch to the end to see a final showdown with all the mods! You can watch the VOD on the Kitfox Youtube: [/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][h3]Switch port announcement[/h3][p]Hey folks, Jason and Brian here. Unfortunately we have to delay the switch release of Caves of Qud until January. The port took a little longer to meet our bar of excellence than we were hoping for. And given Caves of Qud's long development timeline, what matters most to us is releasing the best possible version of the game, even if it means delaying a month. The good news is we're confident about the January timeframe. So, we will see you on Switch soon.[/p][p][/p][p]That's all, friends. We'll have another general Qud update next month. Until then, live and drink.[/p][p]-Kitfox and Freehold Games[/p]

[p]We posted an update with some significant performance improvements to the Beta branch. If you'd like to help us test, check it out! A lot of the UI and rendering code was refactored, so please be on the look out for issues in those areas.[/p][p]Also, Caves of Qud is the Steam Daily Deal today! Get it for 20% off, and tell someone you know![/p][p]A few patch notes below. Live and drink, friends.[/p][p][/p]

• [p]Greatly improved UI performance.[/p]
• [p]Greatly improved map rendering performance.[/p]
• [p]Greatly improved line-of-sight calculation performance.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a missing bind for deleting game saves.[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue in high-latency environments that caused a bunch of waits to be issued after releasing the movement stick on gamepad.\

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Hey all,

We put up a new beta to test some forward-looking technical improvements to the codebase. Ideally, you should not notice any difference in play experience, but it would be helpful for some of you to test and confirm this! So if you're interested in helping, switch to beta and try it out.