Caves of Qud News

200.22

Note: this update will break save compatibility. If you'd like to continue a save from a previous patch, you can switch back to that patch's branch. From Steam, right-click Caves of Qud > Properties > Betas > choose a branch. Last week's branch is 200.21.

Tomb-related notes

• Added a new gas: miasmatic ash.
  
• Grave moss now burns off into miasmatic ash.
  
• We made changes and added some polish to the crematory.
  • Added industrial fans.
    
  • Funerary urns now have names and inscriptions.
    
  • Machine presses with only one piston now slam their target away instead of crushing it.
    
  • The support pillars in the catacombs now come up through the crematory.
    
  • Tweaked the layout of the conveyor belts and flame vents to be slightly more ordered.
    
  • Added new wall tiles and changed the colors of some existing tiles.
    
  • Replaced the existing machine room with a new one.
    
  • Fixed a bug with the ASCII rendering of machine press.
    

General notes

• Fixed a bunch of text coloring bugs introduced last patch. There'll likely be some more, though.
  
• We made some tweaks to liquid and liquid pool behavior.
  
  • We renormalized the volumes of all the puddles, pools, and rivers in the game. Swim-depth pools (over 2000 drams) are now much more rare.
    
  • Added a new status effect: wading. You now wade through pools of size 200-2000 drams. Wading gives -20 movespeed and interferes with some forms of movement, including sprinting.
    
  • Entering a swim-depth pool from land now displays a warning message and requires you to confirm movement.
    
  • Swim-depth pools now interrupt autowalk unless you are already swimming, flying, or out of phase with the pool.
    
  • Some common liquid covering descriptions are now less verbose.
    
  • Salt now only stains items when encountered in its pure form.
    
  • Made the container preference for liquid collection more consistent. The order is: containers designated for autocollection of the liquid, then devices that use the liquid, then containers that already contain pure liquid of that type, then empty containers.
    
  • You can now collect liquids into slotted liquid-fueled energy cells.
    
  • Collecting a liquid now reports on which containers the liquid was collected into.
    
• Small spheres of negative weight now add to your weight when they're broken or otherwise inoperative.
  
• Psionic weapons with slotted cells now leave the cells behind when they evanesce.
  
• Psionic weapons can no longer be modded with tinkering.
  
• The [redacted] in Joppa now shows up in the alt display.
  
• Wraith-knights now despawn if their phylacteries are destroyed for any reason.
  
• Temporary items are now worthless, can no longer be cooked with, and can no longer have their bits harvested.
  
• Temporal fugue clones now leave behind any items they had acquired after being conjured.
  
• Eater's nectar injectors belonging to temporal fugue clones now affect only temporal fugue clones.
  
• We made some tweaks to the looting menu in the classic UI.
  
  • The weights of takeable items are now displayed alongside the items themselves.
    
  • The menu now has an adaptive width to avoid cutting off item names.
    
  • Page up and page down now work more reliably.
    
• Encountering the following objects now interrupts autowalk: deep shafts, identified mines, aloes, spacetime rifts, and spacetime vortices.
  
• Artifacts with proper names are no longer treated as having proper names while unidentified.
  
• On the classic trade screen, we switched 'interact with the selected item' from the Tab key to the Space key. Tab now selects and deselects all items on the active column of the trade screen, as an analog to its take-all function in looting menus.
  
• Ice frogs no longer sit in immobile confusion until approached.
  
• Miner bots no longer generate mines based on modded grenades.
  
• NPCs are now less interested in using random items from their inventories as improvised weapons.
  
• Animating an object with Spray-a-Brain no longer causes every object of that type to be recategorized as a Creature.
  
• Items generated as quest items no longer cause every item of that type to be recategorized as a Quest Item.
  
• Answering no to using an unpowered advanced toolkit while autoexploring now interrupts the autoexplore, preventing message loops.
  
• Fixed some issues with Page Up and Page Down failing to scroll correctly on the classic inventory screen with very large inventories.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the 'most recently played character' to net initialize properly.
  
• [debug] Added a new wish, "reveal settlements", that reveals all dynamically generated settlements on the world map.
  
• [modding] Fixed a bug that caused modded versions of Options.xml to fail to be initialized.
  
• [modding] Implemented Myopia as an AdjustVisibilityRadiusEvent, allowing equipment and parts to adjust the visibility radius.
  
• [modding] Restructured the loading of ObjectBlueprints.xml, solving many inheritance problems, most notably with Load="Merge" from mods.
  
• [modding] Deprecated the GameManager.Instance.ViewData interface.
  
• [modding] UI Views are now defined with the [XRL.UI.UIView] attribute on a class.
  
• [modding] Increased the warning level output for the mod compiler, allowing modders to see previously hidden compiler warnings.
  
• [modding] Updated the Modding Utilities link to the modding wiki: https://cavesofqud.gamepedia.com/Modding:Overview.
  
• [modding] The Blueprint Browser now shows all properties on blueprints, in XML.
  
• [modding] You can now select and copy in the Blueprint Browser.
  
• [modding] Exposed a method to add a Wish handler. See https://cavesofqud.gamepedia.com/Modding:Wishes.
  
• [modding] We made some enhancements to the map editor.
  
  • The map editor now loads with an empty map rather than looking like you're editing the main menu.
    
  • Added x-y coordinates for the mouse position and selected cell.
    
  • Holding Ctrl while hovering over an item in the blueprints list now displays a portion of the blueprint XML.
    
  • Added a checkbox on the blueprint filter to only show blueprints in use on the map.
    
  • Made the sidebar opaque.
    
  • Alt-clicking on a tile now properly set the brush even when you have no brush selected.
    

200.21

Tomb-related notes We added some polish to the [redacted] sequence that starts in Resheph's burial chamber.

• Added some sound and visual effects.
  
• Smoothed out some issues with engraving tomb murals.
  
• Added ASCII versions of the tomb murals and other objects in the burial chamber.
  
• Refreshed Herododicus's dialog.
  
• Added descriptions for Herododicus, imperial sarcophagus, imperial reliquary, gilded marble from the sultanate of Resheph, mural median, and mural endcaps.
  
• [very redacted]
  

General notes We made some changes to liquid and liquid pool behavior.

• Objects now become coated in liquid more easily, and they also lose their liquid coatings more easily.
  
• Liquid coating now bestows additional weight onto items.
  
• Some liquids now weigh more than others.
  
• Creatures moving through big pools of liquid now track the liquid around.
  
• Footwear now protects you from being affected by small pools of liquid.
  
• Swimming is now a status effect that penalizes movespeed and prevents creatures from taking move-related actions that require footing.
  
• Pools smaller than the swimming threshold (1,000 drams) now use a different tile set.
  
• Small puddles now evaporate over time.
  
• Aquatic creatures now receive a -25 penalty to movespeed instead of the full -50. (The Swimming skill's +25 bonus offsets this penalty.)
  
• Pathfinding now puts more weight toward pathing around large pools of liquids, even less deadly ones.
  

More autoexplore activities now respect the autoexplore options for ignoring easy and distant enemies.
Electromagnetic sensors and the following mutations now interrupt autoexplore and automove when you identify a hostile creature: Heightened Hearing, Heightened Smell, and Sense Psychic.
Autowalking on the worldmap now avoids the Rainbow Wood.
Autoexplore now passes through tiles that contain animated walls if those walls are in your party.
We changed the way acid damage is calculated. Exposure to either dilute acid or small acid pools now deals less damage.
Metal items now take quarter damage from acid.
Salty water now generates half as much steam when vaporized. Brackish water generates 90% as much.
Lacquered items now note in their descriptions that they repel liquids (this is behavior they always had).
Steam now only damages organic objects.
You can now retrieve items from owned containers that you put in them without triggering hostility.
The take-all command now skips the weight limit warning if you're already over your weight limit.
Lay Mine and Set Bomb now allow you to press escape from the explosive selection menu to abort the command.
Stairs, pits, and similar objects that represent open space can no longer be sucked into space-time vortices.
When you're selecting an item to equip from the equipment menu, items listed within a given category are now sorted in descending order by a rough utility evaluation. This sort method was there previously, but code was since introduced that disrupted it.
Colored text now displays more reliably across multiple lines in the text UI sidebar.
Added a black outline to the overlay XP and HP readout numbers.
Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented the penalties from the Engulfed status effect from being removed when the effect wore off.
[modding] We added a markup layer to our text coloring system. Example: {{red|this text will be red}}. This lets us treat color specification as a stack, so that text's color can be reset to the previously specified color at the end of a block. (Previously, we would try to emulate this behavior by resetting color to default grey [&y], but grey wasn't always the last specified color.) The markup layer also supports shaders that apply color patterns to text blocks. Color names and shaders are defined in a new moddable file, Colors.xml.
[modding] Added a "beguile" wish that forces the target into your party.
[modding] Med names may now be extended by applying the [MedNamesExtension] attribute and implementing the IMedNamesExtension { int Priority(); void OnInitializeMedNames( List medNames ); } interface.

[modding] Fixed a bug that caused the JoppaWorldBuilderExtension and WorldBuilderExtension attributes to be ignored.

200.20: We've posted an update on the beta branch.

A note on updates: our cadence has slowed a bit while our small team deals with some impactful life events. We'll be ramping back up soon. Live and drink, friends.

• Added a new cybernetic implant: medassist module.
  
• Added a new item: syphon baton.
  
• The co-processor mod now provides compute power that select equipment can consume.
  
• Added new descriptions for the following creatures, items, and objects: graverobber, exit teleporter, ornately carved marble, rotating machine arm, locking machine arm, strip fly, urn porter, urn, sarcophagus, machine press, reliquary, sultan reliquary, ornate chair, ornate bench, ornate table, plant in ornate pot, grave goods, Eater hologram, crypt sitter, and ghost perch.
  
• Added a new tile for the sign to village Ezra.
  
• Added flipped tiles for Eater holograms.
  
• Added some new tomb propaganda.
  
• Fungal infections and motorized treads are now immune to damage.
  
• More NPC tinkers can now repair, recharge, and identify artifacts.
  
• Piston presses now respect phase.
  
• Lunge now respects phase and flight.
  
• Juke now interacts better with effects that restrict your mobility.
  
• Removed the old tattoo gun.
  
• Cybernetics credit wedges are now stackable.
  
• Wraith-knights can no longer be duplicated or cloned.
  
• Robotic and otherwise inorganic creatures are no longer made thirsty by thirst thistle attacks.
  
• Disassemble now requests confirmation before disassembling quest items and items you have equipped.
  
• Disassemble now provides a "disassemble all" inventory action that disassembles a stack of items at once.
  
• Disassemble now has an action cost.
  
• Temporal fugue clones and various other forms of cloning no longer count toward the death and destruction toll of A Call to Arms.
  
• Sturdy spectacles and mirrorshades no longer incorrectly report that they have broken in melee.
  
• Having thirst inflicted on you by an attack no longer triggers tongue bleeding from glotrot.
  
• The Amphibious trait no longer reduces thirst that's inflicted by attacks, and amphibious characters get the same log messages as do non-amphibious characters when an attack inflicts thirst.
  
• A message now periodically appears in the message log when your companions are dehydrated. If they are visible when they become dehydrated, you get a popup.
  
• Fixed some issues with companions re-joining the player after traveling on the worldmap.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused an item type's repair cost to permanently depend on whether the first item of that type you repaired was rusted.
  
• Fixed some bugs that caused modifiers to secondary statistics like AV, DV, and movespeed to be double-applied when they came from mutations and cybernetic implants selected during character creation.
  
• [modding] The ability of NPCs to repair, recharge, and identify artifacts in the trade screen is no longer controlled by the CanRepair, CanRecharge, and CanIdentify properties. Instead, it's determined by the relevant tinkering skills. (Repair enables the repair action, Tinker I enables recharge, and Gadget Inspector enables identify, with Tinker II, Tinker III, Intelligence modifier, and any relevant equipment contributing to identification performance.)
  

We've released the OST for Caves of Qud!

Included are 14 original tracks by Craig Hamilton, totaling an hour of music, with more to come.

Live and drink.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1247760/Caves_of_Qud_Soundtrack/

200.17

We've posted an update to the Tomb of the Eaters beta on the beta branch.

[h3]Tomb-related notes[/h3]
We made some structural changes to the layout of the Tomb.

• We shifted the whole dungeon up several Z levels. The crematory is now one level above the surface.
  
• Removed the Lake of the Damned.
  

We included some more signposts toward finding the Mark of Death and entering the Tomb through the Death Gate.

• Implemented a partial redesign of the Arcades to the Twin Gates that includes a path and sign pointing to Ezra.
  
• Immediately upon finding the Mark of Death, you now learn the Mark of Death secret, and the 'Recover the Mark of Death' quest step now completes.
  
• Immediately upon inscribing the Mark of Death, the 'Inscribe the Mark" quest step now completes.
  

It should now be clearer that a certain post-Brightsheol body alteration is intentional.
Once you return from Brightsheol, you cannot go back via the same method. (Added two new cybernetic implants: fire suppression system and anchor spikes.
Added a new item: advanced toolkit.
Crypt ferrets are now better at hiding.
Made Vivira, the sentient turret, magenta in order to stand out more.
Added descriptions for the following objects: fulcrete, ebon fulcrete, wide bottle, crypt door, compacted bone, and grave moss.
Added some more tomb propaganda.
Renamed recarcassing nook to recoming nook.


[h3]General notes[/h3]
We made some changes to auto-equip.

• Auto-equip now gives you feedback on items that were unequipped as a result of your action.
  
• Eliminated most repetitive auto-equip messaging.
  
• Auto-equip now tries to unequip multiple items in order to equip an item that uses multiple equipment slots.
  
• Confirmation is now requested before automatically unequipping an item that will be destroyed by being unequipped.
  

We tweaked the temperature-related behavior of liquids.

• You may find differences in how pouring liquids on you affects temperature.
  
• Standing in a pool of lava is no longer safe once you've dealt with the initial temperature shock.
  
• Your equipment and inventory now experience more temperature effects than before, particularly if you expose yourself to large amounts of lava.
  

Fungal infections are now immune to heat, cold, electricity, and acid.
Projectiles coming from a distance and passing near the player now produce a message in the message log.
More combat sound effects are now properly controlled by the General > Combat Sounds option.
Any NPC with whom you can perform the water ritual can now give you directions.
The following actions performed while autoexploring now also operate on adjacent tiles: autoget, harvesting, butchering, trash rifling, opening a chest, and interacting with a bookshelf.
Puffer fungi can now be hit by normal ranged weapons.
Lava and acid now spawn less often in containers that are unsafe to house them.
Companions now attempt to generally follow you even if they can't pathfind all the way to you (for example, because you have Force Bubble active).
Mirrorshades now give a very small chance to reflect light-based attacks.
Objects embedded in walls can no longer be taken or interacted with via the interact nearby command (unless you are also in the same tile as the wall).
Items embedded in walls are now partially visible with penetrating radar.
The overlay inventory screen now better handles having two heads or two faces.
Multiple applications of Hobble now renew the duration of the effect rather than stacking the movespeed penalty.
Carbide hand bones no longer modify hands added by Helping Hands, and they only affect the set of hands where the implant was implanted (in the event a True Kin has somehow acquired multiple sets of hands).
Trader repair and recharge actions now more effectively handle plurality and stacking.
Tattooing a companion no longer tattoos you instead of them.
Smart use no longer pets Sheba Hagadias by default if Sheba is pettable.
You can no longer open and close doors while frozen solid.
Magazine-loaded ranged weapons now account for the weight and value of the ammo loaded in them.
Solar and radio-powered cells now receive their charge more reliably on the world map and should cause less lag.
Take-all no longer counts untakeable items when checking whether you're going over your weight limit.
Added a new tile for the basic toolkit.
Fixed some item duping exploits with evil twins and prism clones.
Temporal fugue clones no longer lose their items before they expire.
Fixed an issue with legendary breathers' and miners' names not showing up properly.
Fixed a bug that made Berate 10x as likely to take effect if you had an Ego modifier of exactly zero.
Fixed some bugs with explosions, other types of forced movement, and the generation of maps with ruined buildings.
Fixed a bug that made DV and MA penalties from confusion become permanent if the game was saved and loaded.
Fixed an issue with portable walls.
Fixed an issue with nano-neuro animators.
Fixed a typo in village monument descriptions.
[modding] In character generation, whether a genotype is considered a mutant is now controlled explicitly by the new attribute IsMutant="true" in the genotype entry rather than by whether its name contains the substring "True". Mods affecting genotypes may need to add this attribute.