Cultist Simulator News

ILEX is not a wild goat. That's 'ibex'. Ilex is holly: a glossy, pretty plant that takes no nonsense from anyone, with glossy, pretty berries that occasionally murder people. And it means Christmas. I'm very fond of holly. I'm also very fond of JUNIPER, because it's what makes gin taste like gin.

Holly was sacred to thunder gods, and juniper to fertility goddesses. So the Thunderskin is the official sponsor of the ILEX patch, which we released today, and the Red Grail is the official sponsor of JUNIPER, which is now on the beta branch. Let's talk about what you can find in each one. Chelnoque wrote the patch notes, and [my comments are in italic brackets]

[h3]ILEX: MAIN BRANCH[/h3]

• Improved performance and display of card timers
  
• Aspects were counted twice for cards in the Verb output.
  
• Upgrading lore sometimes destroyed innocent bystander cards. [So sometimes you might lose a Health when you were trying to upgrade Heart lore. Thanks to Xardis for bringing this one up.]
• Incorrect chance of getting an Exultation when preaching with Passion is fixed. [Apparently this had been there since 2019. Now I think about it, I vaguely remember the bug report, and I vaguely remember fixing it, long ago. Maybe I forgot to commit ]
• Formula: Elixir Zeboim cannot be consumed in a rite. [Elixir Zeboim, as any ghoul kno, is something you consume that helps you get value out of consuming dead bodies. It's not real. Don't eat dead people. Anyway it was getting used up if you put it in the consumption slot of a rite.]
• MODDING: In-game debug panel now allows to manually xtrigger present cards. [When I saw Chelnoque had added this, I grunted appreciatively. If you use the dev console, you might grunt appreciatively too. If it means nothing, think of it as pleasant background noise, like the Shipping Forecast, or a bumblebee in a holly tree.]

[h3]JUNIPER: BETA BRANCH[/h3]

• An inability to interact with certain UI elements that occurred in windowed mode at widescreen resolutions is fixed. [This one was actually a Unity bug, and it's fixed by 'updating to the latest version of Unity']
• In addition, due to a hiccup in update releases, several DLC-related fixes were declared, but weren't properly present. [And this is just a fancy way of saying 'we didn't run the right scripts'. There's an extra step to updating DLC on Steam that's easy to forget, and we forgot it :)]
• When devouring a reckoner, Ligeians no longer consume the content of the Reckoner verb slot. [e.g. if you had just fended off the Reckoner with your Edge lore, the Ligeian would eat the Edge lore too. Ligeians don't play fair, but this was _particularly_ unfair. ]
• The game will no longer suggest you relax or negotiate when you're trying to start an operation in Exile.
  
• Buying a profane weapon with another profane weapon does not result in mutual annihilation. [This was an unbelievably obscure and complicated bug that only cropped up in a rare exploit where someone tried to buy a loaded gun with an unloaded gun. I would never have noticed it]
  
• MODDING: Mods now can self-define their tags through \"tags\" property in synopsis.json. Consult with MODDING_README.txt in StreamingAssets folder for the details. [This is also of most interest to modders... but it's important to everyone who uses mods too.]
  
  

[You'll notice there aren't many tags populated here. That's because I didn't realise there's no way for modders to update their own tags via the Steam front end! Anyway, from JUNIPER onwards, they'll be able to set the tags themselves.]

Crikey, we're up to 130+ mods now. You're an inventive crowd.

Dream furiously, all

AK

PS ILEX is sponsored by the Thunderskin, JUNIPER by the Grail, but this post is sponsored by cats. This is the SIXTH BUG REPORT of cats corrupting saves that I've received this year.

(guest-starring Chelnoque again)

- Yet another round of card-handlery tweaks:
- Cards put more effort into finding a landing zone as close to the hover position as possible.
- Card ghosts sometimes ended up in a wrong position (and generally made no sense).
- Cards save their preferred tabletop location between sessions.
- Cards should no longer completely overlap each other - or, at least, should do this significantly less often.
- Cards correctly replace each other in slots.
- Dropzones are now more proficient (and elegant) in their craft.
- Verbs occupy a more modest space on the grid.
- Verbs go straight to the dropzone when spawned.
- Different kinds of camera movement should feel smoother, and are less interruptive towards each other.
- Dragged cards follow the camera movement.
- When a card is moving into a verb slot, it no longer slows down if said verb's windows opens or closes.
- Initial board setup respects the grid.
- Interactions with the Mansus are slightly oiled up.
And also:
- Shattered Risen could sometimes lack Follower aspect.
- Buying a profane weapon with another profane weapon does not result in mutual annihilation.
- Rare freeze on \"Collect All\" is fixed.
- MODDING: Deck effects now support aspect references, as in \"deckeffects\": { \"deckeffects\": \"lantern\" }.",

- New modding feature: configurable local achievements
- Verb windows display cards, aspects and deck draws more cleanly and more clearly.
- Influences are properly removed on a skill upgrade.
- Fixed dropzones sometimes blocking interactions with their contents.
- Cards more reliably seek the nearest verb on a double-click (and on a right-click).
- Purging cards in a completed verb now correctly updates the previewed amount.
- Aspect display in a verb window now updates properly on mutations.
- Various optimizations to make the game more stable in longer sessions.
- Korean text fixes.
- HOTFIX: EXILE borkage
- HOTFIX: it's again possible to create a seventh-level lore fragment through combination
- HOTFIX: a lamentable surplus space in the log was baking Chel's noodle
- HOTFIX: more optimisations when lots of cards are created at once
- HOTFIX: scrollbar adjustments
- HOTFIX: issue with card expulsion to new situations
- HOTFIX'S HOTFIX: an expulsion issue that was introduced in the previous hotfix is fixed
- HOTFIX'S HOTFIX'S HOTFIX: explulsions are truly really fixed this time
- MODDING: mod long description is no longer overwritten on mod re-upload
- MODDING: expulsion filters now can have negative requirements\

If you're wondering what an eryngo is, it's one of these. Handsome things. They have umbels, and they're cousins to the carrot.

I've seen a handful of reports about crashes that I'm trying to track down, but the game is thank Christ generally stable again, and FRAGRANTOLIVE, om beta, is more stable still.

You might have noticed that one of our long-time modders, Mr Chelnoque, now has [developer] flair on the forums. We'd tried him out on some contract work to add modding features, and we liked his work enough that he's working with us part-time: adding modding and other features, hunting bugs, and doing the QA work that I am so notoriously not great at. We're bloody pleased to have him.

In particular, the COLLECTION feature in FRAGRANTOLIVE was Chel's proposal. It tracks Achievements in the game UI, but it *also* allows modders to add achievements of their own (Not on Steam, because I don't think Cultist would benefit from the inevitable cascade of penis-related achievements, but modder achievements will nestle nicely in the UI alongside the official ones.

FRAGRANTOLIVE also has some more stability features and UI tweaks, and it's stable enough that you can hop over to the beta branch if you're feeling even slightly adventurous. It'll make its way to the main branch around about 9th August unless something goes awry, and you should see GALANTHUS on beta around about then.



BTW, if you're still on the classic_ui branch, then honestly I would suggest you join the rest of us in the future. Card snapping just works now, the newer version's save code is more robust, and you're missing out on a trickle of new QoL and modding things. But I know that everyone has their preference (vodka not gin in martinis??) and I've committed to leaving the classic_ui branch up permanently. This condemns me to a trickle of emails in about 2025 when Windows n+1 finally stops supporting Unity 2019, but I can live with that if you can.

I leave you with something charming from Lottie. If you're wondering what Hush House looks like, or what Ambrose Westcott did in his spare hours, this will enlighten you slightly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVVJ-TjhrrM

Dream furiously

AK

Dahlias. The Aztecs ate them. Mexico selected it as the national flower. And PG Wodehouse named Bertie Wooster's favourite aunt after them. Here she is in full cry:

"To look at you, [Bertie], one would think you were just an ordinary sort of amiable idiot - certifiable, perhaps, but quite harmless. Yet, in reality, you are worse a scourge than the Black Death. I tell you, Bertie, when I contemplate you I seem to come up against all the underlying sorrow and horror of life with such a thud that I feel as if I had walked into a lamp post. I thought as much. Well, it needed but this. I don't see how things could possibly be worse than they are, but no doubt you will succeed in making them so. Your genius and insight will find the way. Carry on, Bertie. Yes, carry on. I am past caring now. I shall even find a faint interest in seeing into what darker and profounder abysses of hell you can plunge this home. Go to it, lad... I remember years ago, when you were in your cradle, being left alone with you one day and you nearly swallowed your rubber comforter and started turning purple. And I, ass that I was, took it out and saved your life. Let me tell you, young Bertie, it will go very hard with you if you ever swallow a rubber comforter again when only I am by to aid.”



Next time you're playing as the Bright Young Thing and worrying about juggling Dread, remember that at least you don't have a Wooster aunt to worry about. I should probably have put one in.

Dahlia is a stability patch, though for the first time in years, it does include a tiny extra bit of content. (I need to sort out localisations in four languages for that bit of content, which is why I don't often add content any more.)

===
- Hardened against some crashes from less well behaved mods
- Hardened against corrupted config.ini files
- If your save is corrupted and there are valid backups, you won't need to rename manually
- Prisoners can now be freed, murdered, or enlightened.
- Aspect sprites now appear again in Apostle runs and Dancer
- Tidied up options panel
===

You may have noticed the patches have slowed down lately. Those of you who follow the Weather Factory blog will have seen some recent drama. Lottie and I reckon 40% of our time in the last couple of months has been taken up with that drama, and I HOPE it's now resolved. This frees me up, but I also have BOOK OF HOURS to make. So we are going to bring in a little more part-time testing and dev resource (from a name some of you will know). This means more stability, fewer hotfixes. (I HOPE).

Bonus content.

[h2]The Book of Issues[/h2]

https://github.com/weatherfactory/cultistsimulator-visible/issues

If you're not technically inclined or don't know what a GitHub is, please keep just mailing us at [email protected]. (Or post on the forums, and I'll probably swing by after a week and say 'yes it's fixed' or 'idk send me your logs'.)

[h2]The Books of the New Forge[/h2]

Secondly, here's our modding guide, now expanded with a huge community guide, manual and tutorial, thanks to our stalward modders. The community guide is 100% unofficial and I haven't checked it's all accurate, but it looks really good.

https://weatherfactory.biz/modding



[h2]The Locksmith's Dream, Volume ?[/h2]

Thirdly, The Locksmith's Dream, our live event spin-off, is now live. The beta's long sold out but we still have space in a couple of events later this year.

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31397842/2e18b0b45a7b63737de0a5df7586520389ee294a.png

[h2]The Book of Hours[/h2]

And finally, I mentioned BOOK OF HOURS. Lottie and I have been digging deep into the library's long, long history. I'm tying it into mundane and secret histories; Lottie is putting together the look of the library, in its half-dozen different phases. The place is well over a thousand years old, and has grown like a coral reef.





Those of you who've read my book, 'Against Worldbuilding...', might unkindly remark that this looks a lot like worldbuilding. My response is firstly, in a John Oliver sort of voice, no, no it's not, it's setting design. But more seriously it would be that there's nothing wrong with historical timelines for invented worlds. The problem is inventing a world by starting with a timeline, when what you want is a place at the edge of the world and a dozen centuries of sanctuary, madness, healing, and death. And books.