Catacomb Kids News

Here, have an update; 0.2.12! (Technically, 0.2.12b now, after a haphazard bug-fixing morning)

This should address a lot of common bugs and crashes.

I've also changed the way the STR and DEF stats work for calculating melee damage, finally collapsing STR down to a single value like the rest of the stats instead of being a weird range of "x to y".

"Why did you do that?" you may ask.

"Because it always bugged me, having this one odd-stat-out that is represented in a way completely unlike any of the others," I reply.

Now that all the stats are boiled down to a single value, it's a lot more consistent. Additionally, the algorithm for calculating damage is much simpler than it used to be and should be easier to tweak if I need to in the future.

Attacks now deal between 65-100% of the attacker's STR stat, and DEF reduces that amount by (roughly) 10% per point of DEF (capping at a 95% reduction at 10 DEF, with some exceptions for crits and other similar defense-bypassing blows). There are a few extra steps in there to ensure that attackers don't deal too many 0s in a row, but that's basically the gist of it! It's much simpler than the convoluted and opaque 10-step process that damage calculation was before.

I hope I didn't change the way things feel too much, but let me know how the new formula feels!

There have also been a few balance changes to shut down some extremely cheesy builds - like High-LUC + Multicast resulting in essentially infinite spells, or using pilfer and secondhand to constantly trade the same weapon to enemies and get extremely good equipment. If you didn't know about those exploits; sorry, but you missed your chance! I'm sure there are new ones to find that I'll have to fix soon enough, though.

In future news, the Deep Dark update (aka 0.3.0) is coming along very nicely! I'd say it's looking on-track for release later this year - hopefully sometime in autumn? One of the last things left to do is a big audio pass on all the new content; making sure it sounds sufficiently wet and scary, and that all the enemies are properly aurally horrifying. Don't forget that I do weekly dev-streams where you can catch me working on the game, if you ever want to stop by and see what's new (though beware if you don't want to be spoiled!). You can also catch me on the Catacomb Kids Discord, where I'm very active.

We had some unexpected trouble building for Mac and Linux, so 0.2.12 is up on Windows only for now. The other platforms should be available next weekend.

[h3]Changes[/h3]

• Rewrote how melee attack damage is calculated
  
• Consolidated STR into a single numerical value
  
• Partially-filled bottles of lava now solidify into normal rocks when submerged in water
  
• Amulets now identify faster under certain circumstances depending on the amulet's type
  Ex. Amulets of shadow identify faster when worn beyond the range of a lightsource, amulets of health only increment their identification each time they tick a heal, etc.
  
• Resourceful now causes meal effects to last for an additional floor
  
• Added more trackable objects for wanderer's vision ability; Campfires, switches, standing torches, etc.
  
• Torches will try to spawn next to the entrance door on Anticropolis floors when there's space
  
• LUC's effect is now capped at 10 for the purposes of ending status effects early and getting no-cost multi-casts
  
• Wellwished's spell gain no longer applies on Get Luckys caused by Multi-Cast
  
• INT now has a stronger effect on dipped weapon duration
  
• The Poison and Might status effects now cancel out one another's recieved damage multipliers
  
• Shield bash status effects proc chance now scales with INT and LUC
  
• Made Whirlwind+Magic Blast multicast more useful
  
• Downward Thrust sword skill now stuns based on distance from the user; creatures further away are stunned for a shorter duration
  
• The duration of Slow also scales in a similar way; foes further from the center of the spell shake off the status sooner
  

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Crash: When Eeol corpses cook
  
• Crash: Upon gaining peppered fishanha meal
  
• Crash: Upon loading a game with corn kernel/popcorn in the meal queue
  
• Crash: ". [...] at gml_Script_unit_hit"
  
• Crash: Missing string "_LANG_OBJ_BLOOD_CRYSTAL_UNSTABLE" When blood crystals recieve damage
  
• Crash: When setting Player 1 Gamepad to disabled
  
• Crash: When descending floor or pausing after getting a leg severed without retrieving footwear
  
• Crash: When interacting with invisible torches (which are another bug that I've fixed)
  
• Bug: Flame-Warrior grumbuls that spawn with the device also spawn with an invisible torch (see above)
  
• Bug: Can kick open locked doors even without a key
  
• Bug: Getting chomped by eeols causes hp to increase instead of decrease
  
• Bug: It is possible for player energy maximum to drop below 2, in various situations
  
• Bug: Kills with soul-weapons that bring blocked energy beyond energy maximum bug out the energy bar
  
• Bug: Killing owl-men in their owl-form with reaper weapons or acid can cause the owl's humanoid form to reappear
  
• Bug: Blowing gasses with tinker-bot's gust propeller causes the gas to multiply and behave strangely
  
• Bug: Bottled skulls create 'skeleton soup', and bones cannot become soup - instead of them both creating broth
  
• Bug: The cracked ice barriers in the anticropolis sometimes leave behind invisible collision boxes after being destroyed
  
• Bug: Fire in the anticropolis transition stage sometimes melts the exit door even when it's in a completely different part of the stage
  
• Bug: Savory gorhounds only fill one meal queue slot
  
• Bug: Text of cracked mana batteries is different when held vs not held
  
• Bug: Tinker-bot retains status effect immunity from insulated chassis even after switching to another chassis type
  
• Bug: Tinkerer/Engineer's "Repair" option at the ghost doesn't have a description
  
• Bug: Trance spells, tracked creatures, and amulet effects - break, blink, -of light, etc - draw their character overlay in the wrong place
  
• Bug: Equipment improvement messages display with the wrong text style
  
• Bug: Sometimes loading games can cause the player's armor to have weird visual glitches
  
• Bug: Tunnel generation for the hidden shortcut room is frequently broken
  
• Bug: Attaching and/or regenerating legs can lead to a variety strange, buggy behavior
  
• Bug: Rarely, furnace tiles can spread out from the slime-switch room and take over the level
  
• Bug: Level gen issues with certain premade rooms
  
• Bug: Secondhand can be applied to the same weapon multiple times by planting it on enemies via pilfer
  
• Bug: Acrobatic auto-dodges ~all~ airborne attacks instead of only the first recieved
  
• Bug: Hack and Slash doesn't continue chaining unless you also have Weapon Master
  
• Bug: Hammers ignore defense and floor damage caps
  
• Bug: Changing Sound Effect volume mid-game doesn't affect the volume of humanoids' voices
  
• Bug: Pressing "Esc" to access the options/quit menu in two-player mode causes several issues
  
• Bug: Fixed several issues around the volume and panning of sounds in split-screen co-op
  
• Bug: In versus mode, players' limbs almost always fall off when they die
  
• Bug: Siphoning cold charges from frost bolt icicles does not destroy them
  
• Bug: Loading games into stages with escaped enemies sometimes causes the enemies to appear as giant portraits of the player character
  

A couple super quick fixes for the build from earlier today!

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Crash: When returning to the spell learning menu from the [esc] quit menu
  
• Bug: Unlocking doors will sometimes destroy all other unheld keys on the floor
  
• Bug: Sparks from amped weapons are absolutely ridiculous
  
• Bug: Humanoid shadows cast by torches draw wrong
  
• Bug: Accidentally left a couple debug buttons active >_>
  

Happy (just-about) New Year!

Here's hoping 2022 sees the world in a better place than 2021. Fingers crossed!

But at the very least, to round out this year (aka. "2020: Part 2"), have a Catacomb Kids update.
(Just on Windows for now: Mac + Linux following in a few days.)

[h2]0.2.11[/h2]
It's not the Deep Dark yet, but it is a bunch of bugfixes!

The Deep Dark update should be out probably sometime early next spring. It's very nearly done in terms of content, but still needs a big audio pass and some finessing of certain edge cases in the level generation. Once the Deep Dark is released, I'll get started working on the fourth - and final - area: The Mad Hell!

But that's all still in the future! In the meantime, here's the patch notes for this update. Most significantly, I've added a shortcut system, whereby activating a certain machine that occasionally appears in the Anticropolis will thereafter on every subsequent run spawn a shortcut between the Upper Dungeon and Anticropolis. It won't be a free trip though; the shortcut entrance is hidden, and guarded by tough enemies.

[h3]New[/h3]

• Added unlockable shortcut between Upper Dungeon and Anticropolis, which can be opened via a machine in the AC

[h3]Changes[/h3]

• Arrows no longer collide with other carryable items, like corpses, potions, mushrooms, etc.
  
• Broken spikes no longer collide with boulders, letting them fit in li'l pits snugly now
  
• "Weakness" incurred by amulet of shadows no longer procs "Lucky!"
  
• Torches are now ignited by lava instead of extinguished
  
• Finally fixed the Anticropolis transition stage to re-introduce the frozen door and side-tunnels!
  
• Doubled the duration of blue slime on feet when thrown at foes
  
• Flames from "Fire And Ice" Tome can light campfires and torches now
  
• Locked doors can be opened by throwing keys at them
  
• Items have their prices locked upon being bought or sold
  
• LUC has a smaller impact on the prices of sold items, and a larger impact on the prices of bought items
  
• Improved the timing of the death replay, so that it always captures the moment of death
  
• Normal Bear body takes less damage when her limbs are severed

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Crash: When trying to read nonexistent string for nonexistent spell _LANG_SPELL_GROWTH'
  
• Crash: When trying to read the encyclopedia entry for Burrah Bois
  
• Crash: After tabbing away from the game while in the tutorial
  
• Crash: In co-op perma-split-view mode when the players coming near together after spending time apart
  
• Bug: Shopkeepers sell [No Armor]
  
• Bug: Getting crushed by a crush trap in the tutorial can cause an undo loop
  
• Bug: Aiming Wizard Throw up or down with spellwright causes the hand to travel too far
  
• Bug: Sideways- and upwards- facing laser traps still attract items from below when charging up
  
• Bug: Crabs can hang on to ethereal creatures and wraiths which have not yet appeared
  
• Bug: Spikes overlapping flame pipe traps are triggered to move when the trap is activated
  
• Bug: Broken Crush Traps don't destroy spikes
  
• Bug: Performing the "Execute" dagger skill drops you super fast, and behaves erratically when next to walls
  
• Bug: Named flame-warrior grumbuls use the head sprite of normal grumbuls
  
• Bug: The player cannot remove spikes that embed in them
  
• Bug: Sometimes hitting armored enemies causes a loop of continuous hits
  
• Bug: Some enemies that don't bleed still cause thrown items that kill them to become bloody
  
• Bug: Cannot dip or mix bottles of slime despite the "use" action saying you can
  
• Bug: Bottled corpses can still rot
  
• Bug: Casting cure makes you immune to headaches forever
  
• Bug: Spellbooks can burn when going through intra-level doors that are on opposite sides of lava
  
• Bug: Pressing "esc" again while the save game prompt is over the quit game menu causes issues
  
• Bug: Grumbuls can still flee the level while carrying keys
  
• Bug: Can stampede the bear while it's still sleeping without alerting it or waking it up
  
• Bug: Limbs draw incorrectly on character portraits in the level-up screen
  
• Bug: Mirror puzzles in the Anticropolis sometimes generate without switches to turn on the laser
  
• Bug: Campfires in the Anticropolis still warm the player even when extinguished
  
• Bug: Controls can switch between player 1 and player 2's saved input setups during the level generation screen
  
• Bug: Several bugs with the death screen in co-op, including being unable to continue in Generous mode
  
• Visual: Some elements of the ui were out of resolution with the rest of the game
  
• Misc: Fixed some memory leaks

(Unfortunately, this update will break any saved games you have, sorry!)

Some new bug-fixes, as well as pushing some older fixes live for Mac and Linux.

Fixes

• Crash: Identifying potions completely by holding onto them with high INT causes a crash
  
• Crash: When striking Grave Monoliths with melee weapons, as they try to lose limbs they do not have
  
• Crash: Relating to items caught in whirlwind while already being held
  
• Crash: Relating to Spiked Barricades in the Anticropolis
  
• Crash: When going through doors with undead followers
  
• Crash: Relating to the Grumbul Tank's legs and some status effect shenanigans
  
• Crash: "voice_init" ... I think I finally fixed this one? Gosh I really hope so.
  
• Crash: When striking a humanoid with a wrench that doesn't have certain equipment
  
• Bug: Ogo spawn with daggers called "small weapon"
  
• Bug: Can't repair a Tinkerbot with a wind-up turtle
  
• Bug: Grenade-built tinkerbots spawn their explosion in the wrong place
  
• Bug: Grenade-built tinkerbots don't retain their self-destruct upon descending to the next floor
  
• Bug: Pouncing on enemies and attacking them with a dagger hits inconsistently
  
• Bug: Tinkerbot only takes damage from being "zapped" while not in water
  
• Bug: The "Execute" Dagger Skill frequently destroys the dagger used
  
• Minor: You can now initiate a dash while standing on water with gossamer shoes
  
• Minor: You couldn't heavy-lift other players in co-op
  

Changes

• Erasing game data now asks for confirmation, and allows you to be more selective with what you want to delete
  
• Trap doors can be broken open with Break, to make them more consistent with normal doors
  
• The game now prompts you to save when you quit from the esc menu in Generous mode, and warns you about losing your progress in Permadeath and Continues modes
  
• Made some improvement to the behaviors of vampiric thralls
  
• Made dropkick much more accurate against small creatures and rolling foes

Fixes

• Crash: Tutorial crashes
  
• Crash: Game sometimes crashes when killing things with soul-weapons
  
• Crash: Several crashes related to vampiric thralls
  
• Goof: Some blocks have extra debug numbers all over them (that I forgot to turn off)
  
• Bug: Externally-loaded encyclopedia entries aren't rendering line breaks properly
  
• Bug: Trap floors sometimes generate without a proper entrance and spawn the player in walls or ceilings
  
• Bug: Sometimes the name of enchanted equipment ends with an extra "and"
  
• Bug: Sometimes when jumping up onto a ledge the player clings to the ground strangely
  
• Bug: Enemy footwear wasn't generating as the right type
  
• Bug: Pressing [delete] prompts the "are you sure you want to delete this file?" dialog even when no selected file exists
  
• Bug: Defeated Bosses display the wrong icon on the timeline for the Tank and Bear
  
• Bug: Shop door passwords aren't always consistent between level seeds/saving and loading
  
• Bug: Grumbuls in the Tank Fight will sometimes contantly generate "?"s above their heads
  
• Bug: Issues with controllers and keyboards stealing each others' input in co-op
  
• Bug: Campfires in Grumbul Forts draw behind the walls of the forts
  
• Bug: Weapons sometimes spawn as default templates 'small weapon', 'cutting weapon' etc.
  
• Bug: Equipment with telepathic enchantments is missing the "of empathy/telepathy/sensing" part of the name
  
• Bug: Shop passwords are sometimes too obscured by background elements to be of any use
  
• Bug: Doing a Daily Run after a normal run won't reset the internal floor/run time, making the timeline weird
  
• Bug: Quitting in Generous mode on Floor 1 creates a save summary with the wrong class name and hp
  
• Bug: Catacoins earned in the Daily Run aren't added to ones Catacoin total
  
• Bug: Overwriting another save when saving a recovered game in Co-op doesn't work
  
• Bug: Shopkeeper doesn't target player upon being lit on fire
  
• Bug: The wrong level music plays after loading games, sometimes
  
• Bug: View focus on breaking ice barriers is weird and impacts performance poorly
  
• Bug: Armor of reflection doesn't properly deflect plague flies
  
• Typo: The loading screen subtitle for the twins has an errant "#" in it
  
• Typo: Armors "of the Ghost" were misnamed "of Dreams"