Hello everyone! Our Plague update is now up. As mentioned before, previous saves will no longer be compatible. Please see below for details of what's new:
The Biolab
The Biolab is a new structure that allows the player to customize the effects of Plague. The player gains Plague Points by spreading the Plague, triggering some of its symptoms or killing off Plague-bearers. Plague Points can then be used to improve the Plague, retroactively affecting those that are already afflicted.
The player can still use the Plague affliction without the Biolab but it will have randomized effects. The player may also use the Biolab without the Plague affliction but will be limited to spreading it by spawning Plagued Rats. These Plagued Rats are produced by the Biolab once every 2 days until the player has 3 available charges. Plagued Rats are pests that tend to visit Villages to consume available food there and they may typically transfer their Plague to the food they eat.
The Biolab replaces Defiler as one of the Lich's default Demonic Structures but is also available for other Archetypes as an optional choice. Defiler, on the other hand has now replaced Prison as one of the Puppetmaster's default Demonic Structures.
The Biolab has five upgrade categories:
Transmission - Unlock or improve the various ways of transmitting the Plague.
Lifespan - Increase how long the Plague naturally stays on a character or an object. The Plague has varying lifespans on objects and characters of different races.
Fatality - Choose from various ways that the Plague can kill off its victims.
Symptoms - Unlock various symptoms that the Plague can trigger on its victims.
On Death - Choose one powerful effect that will trigger when a Plagued victim dies.
Note: These upgrade costs and rates are "introductory". We'll take input from the players to tweak these over the next weeks.Hospice
Villagers will now sometimes build a Hospice. When a Village thinks that a Plague is running loose, they may quarantine and take care of plagued Villagers if they have a Hospice. Otherwise, they may end up slaying or exiling assumed plague bearers - depending on the current leader's Traits. Some Villages may even end up doing nothing at all about it.
Plagued victims recover faster when they are quarantined inside a Hospice. They are also less likely to transmit it. The Healing Expert trait has been removed and the ability to take care of Plagued victims are now transferred to the Hospice and the Druid class.
Class Change
Villagers may now sometimes change their character class if deemed necessary. For now, the only class change that may occur is a change to a Shaman (when the Village feels like they need one due to a Werewolf Hunt or Vampire Hunt) or to a Druid (when the Village feels like they need one due to an active Plague event). Villagers can change to Shaman or Druid class from the Hospice.
Ratmen
You may now discover some pesky rats in some scenarios and custom worlds. They belong to a unique Ratmen faction separate from Wild Monsters and Undead. They usually start off at war with most other factions except for the Undead. Ratmen are rather unique as they are as complex as Villagers but behave somewhat like wild monsters while part of the Ratmen faction.
You use Seize Villager on them, and Afflictions and Trigger Flaw can also be used on them once they get recruited by a Villager Faction but you don't need to wipe them out.
Also, Ratmen are Plague Reservoirs - they permanently carry the Plague but are not affected by its Symptoms and Fatalities. You'll find out some other interesting behavior that Ratmen do as you encounter them in your playthroughs!
Tweaks
- Villagers are now less likely to kill off intruders that have already been rendered Unconscious. This makes it more likely for Major Factions to have Prisoners that they can eventually recruit.
- Removed Zombie Virus as it is now included as an On Death upgrade for the Plague.
- New Trait: Ruthless. As leaders, they are more likely to harshly punish criminals. They are also more likely to decree that plague-bearers should be slain.
- Plague affliction have randomized upgrades if the player does not have the Biolab in their loadout.
- Vagrants are now more likely to relocate to other regions.
- Cultists may now sometimes transfer to a Demon Cult faction if its leader is alone or if there are available empty houses.
- Abductions will now use non-lethal combat instead of the Knockout Action - even if the target is sleeping. But if the target already cannot move when hit by a non-lethal attack, they will always get knocked unconscious.
- Druids can now take care and feed any quarantined Villagers inside the Hospice. They will do this once per day.
- Active parties can now set up camp even during day time if one of them have important Needs Recovery.
- Wild Monsters will sometimes feed on corpses of livestock animals. The new Plagued Rat is also considered a livestock animal and can therefor transmit (Consumption) the Plague to monsters when they get eaten.
- Cultist in an Active Party doing a Counterattack Quest will instead flee and then get expelled from the party once they reach their target destination. The other members will feel betrayed by the turncoat.
- Cultists in an Active Party are temporarily unavailble for Snatching.
- Villagers will no longer report crimes to leaders that are in an Active Party.
- Villagers living outside Villages are now slightly more likely to relocate if its Faction has other Villages.
- Factions with Reveres Werewolves ideology are now friendly with normal Wolves.
- Only one Defiler structure can be built at a time.
- Small Spiders will not transform to Giant Spiders while currently being targeted by an action.
- Puking slightly reduces Fullness while Seizures slightly reduces Entertainment.
- Leaders are automatically dethroned when they are presumed dead rather than when they are presumed missing.
- Villagers will no longer haul resources found inside Caves or other special structures that belong to another Major Faction (including Ratman faction).
- Witness and its corresponding emotional reaction logs have been combined into one.
- Undead characters should no longer attack the Necromancer when it transforms into a bat or a werewolf. Note - they will still attack it if it transforms into a wolf.
- Characters lose their Restrained and Prisoner status when they die.
- Necromancers can no longer turn into Cult Leaders.
- In Villager Info UI, Current Region line has now been replaced with Village line which displays the character's settlement residence.
- Added a No Shake option in the Settings Menu.
- Added a Randomize Monster Names option in the Settings Menu.
Bug Fixes
- FIXED: Trolls and Kobolds sometimes get stuck performing certain actions.
- FIXED: Villagers often drop Share Rumor or Spread Information to do other tasks.
- FIXED: Resting Parties sometimes stop moving if their camp is inside a cave.
- FIXED: Werewolf Cult Leaders founds a Lycan Clan faction instead of a Demon Cult.
- FIXED: Ensnared characters sometimes glitches when snatched.
- FIXED: Some characters follow the cursor if their target has been seized by the player.
- FIXED: Tutorial flow breaks when The Eye is already built before The Afflictions tutorial has been completed,
- FIXED: Demon Worshipers still sometimes report Demonic Corruption and post Counterattack Quests against the player.
- FIXED: Popup related to Demonic Structure attack repeatedly shows up sometimes.
- FIXED: Fleeing characters while having a butchering job will cause the villager to get stuck.
- FIXED: Snatched prisoners are inconsistently set as personal prisoner of the snatcher instead of the prisoner of the Demon Faction.
- FIXED: Berserked characters may indefinitely attack lakes.
- FIXED: Berserked characters may indefinitely attack the Excalibur.
- FIXED: Fixed missing text replacement on Take Shelter log.
- FIXED: Lycanthrope tooltip description does not fit when the afflicted has mastered it.
- FIXED: After a long playthrough, sometimes logs stop getting added.
- FIXED: Various Null Reference issues.
