Catacomb Kids News

An update!

No new content or anything particularly fancy, but this is one I've been working on for a while; Finally upgrading to the newest version of Game Maker Studio instead of using the pre-2.3x version that is - at this point - over two years out of date.

It was one of those situations where upgrading to the more recent tools fully broke the game, but continuing to use the older engine was gradually accumulating its own slew of problems, to the point where at last it became imperative to make the jump regardless of the cost in time and effort. So for the past few months that's what I've been doing! I wish I had more content for you but alas, it's mostly just the invisible kind of progress; rewriting old bits of code that have obsolesced or depreciated into non-functionality.

In any case, the upgrade has gone relatively smoothly and has also given me access to a huge number of new engine features that I'm eager to use, which should help hasten along the rest of the game just that much faster.

I did also manage to fix a bunch of crashes and bugs -- including one elusive crash in particular that had been hounding the game for years! And now that the engine update is mostly out of the way (I'm sure there are still some issues here and there that need addressing, but hopefully nothing too major) I'll be refocusing my efforts fully back onto finishing and releasing the Deep Dark.

[h3]Changes[/h3]

• Updated to Game Maker Studio version 2.3x
  
• Lava no longer generates in the Grumbul Tank fight
  
• Grumbul Tank arrows no longer destroy or interact with the wooden platforms when first fired
  
• Striking the Grumbul Tank's turret with aimed stab no longer causes knockback from striking the tank's armor
  
• Made hitting the Grumbul Tank's weak points slightly more forgiving
  

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Crash: Crash if limb is lost during taunt animation
  
• Crash: Crash upon trying to rebind game controls
  
• Crash: Crash upon stowing hated daggers
  
• Crash: Crash upon throwing a potion of smiting
  
• Crash: Various other crashes
  
• Bug: Typo in "diseased" status effect message text
  
• Bug: Certain Encyclopedia entries don't work properly
  
• Bug: Grumbul Tank's arrows behave strangely when passing thru the wooden platforms
  
• Misc: Owlmen can kick again
  

Happy Thanksgiving! Have an update.

[h3]New[/h3]

• You can now toggle on and off the different tiers of weapon skills via the "traits" menu
  
• Added ability to ban spells in VS mode
  

[h3]Changes[/h3]

• Claw arm now replaces third combo attack with grab move, like other prosthetic arms
  
• Increased VS mode win condition from "first to 3 kills" to "first to 5 kills"
  
• Removed fishanha ability to crit
  
• Made the timing of humanoids' three-hit attack pattern much more forgiving
  
• Altered the ability of Powered Arms: They now shoot lasers and slightly auto-target nearby enemies
  
• In Co-op, the "telepathic" status effect now only highlights enemies on the affected character's split-screen
  
• Slight minor alterations and improvements to the UI here and there
  
• Increased cooldown time between Ogo attacks
  
• Eeols now take extra damage from Push and Break cast by swallowed creatures
  
• Normal Bear has a new, better death animation
  
• Dead players appear as ghosts now on the level generation screen in Co-op
  
• You can now blast through the fragile ice passages in the AC with Breakthrough
  

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Crash: Various menu-related crashes in Co-op
  
• Crash: Crash upon loading a game throwing a "boon_list" error message
  
• Crash: Various other crashes
  
• Bug: Casting Shadow Cloak to dismiss it will still siphon dark charges from the environment
  
• Bug: Can siphon dark charges from frozen corpses indefinitely
  
• Bug: Eeols can detect humanoid targets through walls
  
• Bug: Fixed several issues with prosthetic limbs
  
• Bug: Claw arms don't animate properly
  
• Bug: Sometimes reloading a game after dying results in a stage of solid blocks
  
• Bug: Bear doesn't awaken in co-op as long as the screen is split
  
• Bug: HP for ghost players in co-op sometimes displays as a non-zero value
  
• Bug: Ghost players can still be controlled and partially seen during level generation
  
• Misc: Improved performance of reaper's lingering slices
  

More fixes, tweaks, and balance changes!
A long-requested feature is for orbs of leveling in co-op to impact more than just the kid that uses them, so I've added a little submenu to the side of the main level-up screen in co-op that grants the other player a half-level.

Also, this update should (finally!) bring the Windows, Mac, and Linux versions all up to the same version!

[h3]New[/h3]

• In Co-op, when any player levels up the other player gets a half-level

[h3]Changes[/h3]

• Wanderer's "Vision" ability and lantern items both move the view in co-op split-screen now
  
• Slowed the rate at which food rots
  
• Made frozen corpses look more frozen
  
• Reduced knockback on Chain Lightning
  
• Electrified objects hold their charge for longer
  
• Changed Ogo's attack pattern to be more accurate; they now launch themselves at angles
  
• Goos Oogs and Ogos will try to avoid entering lit furnace tiles
  
• Increased the rate at which the catacoin value of the "innocent", "relatively innocent", and "pacifist" reputations scale by floor
  
• Made the kill summary split into separate columns if it gets too long
  
• Boulders can now break doors open if they're traveling fast enough
  
• Flame wave can now relight standing torches
  
• Slow now takes up a 1x2 space in the spell grid

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Crash: When opening the chest containing Boost Boots in the Tutorial
  
• Crash: When casting Air Dash Multi-Casts
  
• Crash: Whenever a message appears after cloned slimes have been slain
  
• Crash: When trying to throw a boulder with trajectory
  
• Crash: When drawing humanoid enemies who picked up a bow but did not spawn with one
  
• Bug: In Co-op, when both players opt to unequip items from the pause menu, only one player actually unequips upon unpausing
  
• Bug: Corpses don't change color when cold burst is cast on them to reflect that they are frozen
  
• Bug: Can't toggle the "Death Review" and "Splitscreen" options without backing out of the menu and returning
  
• Bug: After eating a humanoid corpse, the skeleton left behind retains the corpse's cooked state
  
• Bug: Weird collision issues with trying to navigate around boulders partially intruding on narrow spaces
  
• Bug: When relighting standing torches with the Fire and Ice booksmack, the relit torch illuminates the entire floor
  
• Bug: After selecting a weapon to hate for Living Weapon, if you have a weapon of that type equipped you can continue to wield it, causing issues
  
• Bug: When equipping a tome as a weapon, the book that appears in the event alert box doesn't match the equipped book's coloring
  
• Bug: Using unarmed Uppersmash on boulders just straight up kills you
  
• Bug: Using unarmed Downward Thrust doesn't create a hitbox until much too late in the animation
  
• Bug: Headless enemies can escape the floor
  
• Bug: Left a debug key in for disabling the UI
  

Goodness gracious, when will I stop breaking my game? Here's some more molten hot fixes:

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Crash: When firing arrows
  
• Crash: When loading a game as a wanderer with tracked objects
  
• Bug: The STR stat in the Custom Kid Kid Customizer© still displays as two separate values
  

Some quick hotfixes for the latest build!

[h3]Changes[/h3]

• The chain of the Grumbul Tank's Chained Cannonball now breaks if the tank takes damage while the ball has been extended for more than 10 seconds
  
• Tweaked collision with boulders to hopefully be less finnicky and weird - I might have made it worse
  
• Added an option to "Options > Graphics" to switch between 50 and 60 fps

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Crash: The Grumbul Tank crashes the game
  
• Crash: When examining explosive arrows in a Tinkerer shop
  
• Bug: The stowed-item selection in the Custom Kids Kid Customizer© menu can't be seen