Hey all,
The story of Caves of Qud's development is a long one. Twelve years ago we began work on the project. Four years ago we put it on Steam in Early Access. Since then, we've taken an already substantial game and added art, UI, music, sound effects, deeper systems, and a richer world. For a while we've been saying that we'll be bumping up the price sometime before our 1.0 release. Now, as we arc nearer to that goal, the time has come.

In TEN DAYS, on April 18th, we're raising the price of Caves of Qud to $14.99 on all platforms. To everyone who's supported the game thus far, thank you! And if you have friends who are interested in the game, now -- before the 18th -- is the perfect time to give them a nudge.

Live and drink, friends.

• The Barathrumites are remodeling. Stay tuned.
  
• Tumbling pods are now considered hostile at distances greater than 1.
  
• Warden Indrix and Mamon Souldrinker can now use grandfather horns, while goat herders can no longer use them.
  
• Effects and items that cause astral burdening and tethering, especially norm cores, now have less of a performance impact on the game.
  
• If you inject an NPC with a love tonic, then beguile, proselytize, or recruit them to your party, their loyalty no longer suddenly ends when the love tonic wears off.
  
• The Ruin of House Isner's critical bonus now works as described. Preivously non-seventh-shot criticals were only getting half their penetration bonus.
  
• Bey Lah is no longer referred to as "some Bey Lah" when you pass it on the world map.
  
• Loading an energy cell into a socket now correctly uses a turn when the socket did not previously contain an energy cell.
  
• Weaponless turrets no longer appear inside historic sites and lairs.
  
• Stun rods and prayer rods no longer need to penetrate armor in order to apply their stun effect.
  
• Fixed a bug that occasionally caused the Ruin of House Isner's ego bonus to become permanent.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused too much XP to be awarded upon completion of Spread Klanq.
  
• Fixed some bugs that prevented grandfather horns from working properly and prevented goatfolk from equipping them.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused some stun effects to be trivial to save against.

2.0.171.0

• Added a new grenade mod, phase-conjugate, that causes grenades to shift phase right before they explode.
  
• Added new dialog for scribes, vintners, shoemakers, and Issachari tribesfolk.
  
• Increased feral lah HP and gave them a flabby leaf natural weapon.
  
• Increased tumbling pod explosion damage.
  
• We fixed some bugs with the Spread Klanq quest.
  
  • Fixed a bug that caused the Puff Spores ability to fail to work after a save/load cycle.
    
  • Fixed a bug that prevented many of the dynamic objectives of Spread Klanq to fail to complete.
    
  • The Puff Spores ability is now removed upon completing the quest.
• Ice frog corpses are now butcherable for frog meat.
  
• Puffer fungi raised as domesticated crops by villages no longer puff at those villagers.
  
• The amanranthine prism can no longer be damaged by beating on it, nor can it be unequipped by spraying it with acid.
  
• Tinkers now properly repair your items when you select repair from the tab submenu of the trade screen.
  
• Canned mystery meat now occasionally shows up in the world outside of arconaut starting gear.
  
• NPCs that are susceptible to acid now attempt to get out of acid pools.
  
• The messaging around placing objects in containers is now more sensible.
  
• The 'collect' liquid interaction command now acknowledges container ownership.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented those with photosynthetic skin from cooking with their starch and lignin.
  
• Fixed some bugs that occasionally caused the DV penalty from paralysis to stick around after the effect wore off or that caused an additional phantom DV penalty.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused items to improperly remain stacked when an energy cell was inserted into one of them.
  
• Fixed a formatting issue on the Quests UI when displaying completed quest steps.
  
• Fixed an autoexplore loop bug with water pickup.
  
• [modding] Added a "stage6" wish, which jumps to the Pax Klanq quest sequence.

Hi all,
We're at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) all week, so we won't be posting a patch this Friday. Our weekly patch schedule will resume the following Friday (3/30).

Until then, live and drink.

2.0.170.0

• Added new dialog for snapjaws, cannibals, arconauts, apple farmers, pig farmers, apothecaries, beekeepers, bookbinders, kippers, and some other merchants.
  
• Hypertractors and phase cannons are once again affected by astral tethering and burdening.
  
• The following abilities, items and effects now respect phase: stunning force, blast cannon, disintegration, resonance grenades, electromagnetic pulses, thermal and freeze grenades, gas effects, gas seeping, gas mixing, stasis fields, and various kinds of explosions. Flashbang grenades affect creatures through phase but at a lesser severity than in-phase creatures.
  
• Phased-out explosions, disintegration effects, and electromagnetic pulses are now visually distinguishable from their in-phase counterparts.
  
• Thrown weapon autoequip now works while phased.
  
• Liquids now have a 'collect' interaction command that uses whatever appropriate liquid container space you have available to store as much of the liquid as possible.
  
• Items that consume or produce liquids are no longer treated as storage containers in the context of trader payouts, freshwater autopickup, or the 'collect' command if the liquid being collected is different than the one they consume or produce. For example, trading no longer fills up your flamethrowers and lead-acid cells with water.
  
• Autopickup fresh water no longer picks up containers of fresh water that weigh more than 1 lb.
  
• You can no longer make camp or cook in situations where your mobility is severely restricted (ex: while inside of a regeneration tank or engulfed by a gelatinous creature).
  
• Immobile creatures now qualify as hostile for the purposes of stopping certain actions if you're adjacent to them.
  
• Norm cores now produce less lag.
  
• The existence of astrally tethered or burdened objects in a zone no longer prevents random-destination teleporting across the entire zone.
  
• Re-added the splash sound effect for when creatures walk or swim through large pools of liquid.
  
• Re-added the splash visual effect for when invisible creatures walk or swim through large pools of liquid.
  
• Reduced the incidence of things spawning on top of each other (in particular: young ivory and lurking beth).
  
• Fixed a bug that caused poison's healing debuff to not apply to some healing effects.
  
• Fixed a bug that made non-dromad village merchants not have wares to sell.
  
• Fixed a bug that made village immigrants always animals rather than a wide variety of creatures.
  
• Merchants who carry multiple kinds of wares will now restock all of them instead of just one kind depending on the technical order of the types' addition (in the case of dynamic village merchants meaning they would restock the least desirable type among their wares).

2.0.169.0

• Added new tiles for yuckwheat and yuckwheat stem.
  
• The fate of Bey Lah now more closely matches the outcomes described upon completing the quest Kith and Kin.
  
• Nests no longer attack you with fists.
  
• Creatures and most furniture are no longer converted into item stacks.
  
• Sphinx salt injectors no longer use two injectors every time you apply them.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented true kin NPCs from successfully using precognition to avoid death.
  
• NPC use of precognition (via both mutation and sphinx salt) is now more consistent with PC use and interacts more smoothly with Domination.
  
• Fixed a bug that reduced thrown weapon accuracy when thrown along diagonal trajectories.
  
• Fixed a bug that occurred when dominating creatures with Heightened Hearing.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused companions to forget about you if you left their zone in a dominated body.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused liquids poured into empty containers to have phantom impurities.
  
• Fixed a rare inventory exception.
  
• Becoming nooks and the Sacred Well now have menu actions appropriate to their uses.
  

2.0.168.0

• Tinkering messages are now cleared about which bits you need and which you have, and the list of bits you have is now presented in a consistent order.
  
• The game version is now displayed in relevant UI messages such as when a game fails to load.
  
• You can now order allies to stay put or follow you (via the Look UI). Staying put only stops them from following you around; they still move to defend you, themselves, or other allies.
  
• You can now order companions to move to a location (via the Look UI). They prioritize this command over combat.
  
• You can now give orders (via the Look UI) to your companions' companions.
  
• You must now be adjacent to companions to give them items via the Look UI.
  
• NPCs are now more willing to engage adjacent targets when they can't find a way to move toward their preferred target. They will attempt to hack their way back toward the preferred target if possible.
  
• You can now exchange water containers with your companions.
  
• Leather whips now latch onto opponents when they hit.
  
• Madpoles now use a different mechanism for latching onto their opponents.
  
• Thirsty NPCs now sip water if they have it.
  
• Autodrink now treats equipped water containers the same as containers in your inventory.
  
• Autodrink now shows you the source of the water you are drinking and its remaining volume.
  
• Autodrinking with glotrot can once again contaminate water containers.
  
• Tinkering messages are now clearer about which bits you need and which you already have, and the list of bits you have is now presented in a consistent order.
  
• Slugsnouts are now willing to attack at point-blank range.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused legendary companions to sometimes not attack after you commanded them to.
  
• Fixed an issue that occasionally prevented valid saved games from loading.
  
• Fixed some typos in the Templar squire description.
  
• Scrap no longer rusts an entire stack at a time.
  
• In most cases, like items with status effects like bloody or rusted now stack with each other.
  
• Being frozen or stuck in a web no longer interferes with your equipment becoming unequipped due to effects like rusting or the contraction of a fungal infection.
  
• [modding] GamestateSingletons used in mods are now properly called.
  

2.0.167.0

• We refreshed the Putus Templar.
  
  • Tweaked the stats and gear of Knights Templar. Among other changes, this included lowering their level and HP but giving them fullerite armor and weapons.
    
  • New creature: Gunner-Knight Templar
    
  • New creature: Banner-Knight Templar
    
  • New creature: Knight Commander of the Holy Temple
    
  • New creature: Wraith-Knight Templar of the Binary Honorum
    
  • New creature: Templar squire
    
  • New creature: phylactery squire
    
  • New creature: infiltrator
    
  • New item: banner of the Holy Rhombus
    
  • New item: Templar phylactery
    
  • New status effect: war trance
    
  • Added a templar scout to Grit Gate.
    
  • Tweaked the logic for party selection in Templar faction encounters.
• You can no longer throw things while burrowed.
  
• You once again reap the rewards and suffer the consequences of kills made by your Burgeoned plants.
  
• Multiple lurking beth can no longer populate the same tile.
  
• Spinnerets now properly grant resistance to forced movement.
  
• The Spinnerets description now includes the fact that the bearer can walk on webs.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused Slam not to work on walls and doors.
  
• There should be fewer game-breaking problems when you dominate a creature and a spacetime vortex consumes your dormant body.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused only baetyls to climb through spacetime vortices and rifts instead of all kinds of creatures.

2.0.166.0

• We refreshed the banana grove.
  
  • Changed the stats, behaviors, and descriptions of the following creatures and plants: cyclopean gibbon, red death dacca, gelatinous palms (now called irritable palms), and fruit flies (now called adiyys).
    
  • Added new tiles for banana trees and bananas.
    
  • Added a new plant to the banana grove: dicalyptus tree.
    
  • Added a new disease: ???
    
  • Added instructions for the new disease's cure to the Corpus Choliys.
    
  • Added a new cooking ingredient: sun-dried bananas.
    
  • Bananas can now be preserved into sun-dried bananas.
    
  • There are now occasionally villages in the banana grove.
• Many liquid containers can now be sealed and unsealed.
  
• You now get the appropriate reputation bonuses and penalties when your companions kill a reputation-awarding creature.
  
• Except for in the starting village, you can no longer perform the water ritual with the wardens of dynamic villages.
  
• Pathfinding and autoexplore now avoid aloes.
  
• Dynamic item retrieval quests now properly complete if the item is in your inventory when you receive the quest.
  
• Wardens are less likely to be hostile to the villagers they protect, and vice versa.
  
• Plants summoned by Burgeoning are now friendly to the caster's party leader (and their leader, all the way up the chain). This means your companions can use Burgeoning without causing havoc in the party.
  
• The descriptions of reputation-awarding creatures now more accurately reports the correct factions those creatures are loved by.
  
• Dominating creatures with Heightened Hearing or Sense Psychic no longer continues to give you hypersensory information after the domination ends or the mutation is removed.
  
• Baetyls now take only the number of objects they requested, not the entire stack.
  
• When you empty a container to fill it with another liquid, the emptied liquid now appears in your tile rather than disappearing.
  
• Carrying a ceremonial vibrokhopesh in a container no longer prevents you from moving to the world map.
  
• Fidget cells no longer slow the game down as drastically when you're moving on the world map.
  
• Unreal objects are no longer auto picked up.
  
• Fixed a bug with engulfing creatures.
  
• Prone creatures will now have to stand up before they attack or otherwise act, not after.
  
• Companions will no longer join you in new zones while asleep, stunned, or immobilized.
  
• Fixed a bug that made paralysis not work.
  
• Paralysis now sets DV to 0 if over 0, like stun.
  
• [modding] The GivesRep part now acknowledges the properties or tags NoHateFactions and NoFriendFactions, where you can specify comma-separated lists of factions that the NPC is never disliked by or admired by, respectively. If a relationship to a faction specified in NoHateFactions is generated, it defaults to a friendly relationship. Likewise, if a friendly relationship to a faction specified in NoFriendFactions is generated, it defaults to a dislike relationship. If a faction is specified in both lists, the final relationship is dislike.
  
• [modding] The LiquidVolume part now has the fields Sealed (a boolean which, if true, makes the liquid inaccessible), ManualSeal (a boolean that enables seal and unseal inventory actions on the item), and LiquidVisibleWHenSealed (a boolean which, when true, means the liquid can be seen while the volume is sealed; if false it cannot).

2.0.165.0

• Most static quests now award reputation when completed.
  
• The maps "behind" the Spindle are no longer empty.
  
• Slam now costs a turn and goes on cooldown when used on inanimate objects.
  
• Quests with level-based rewards, like More Than a Willing Spirit, now indicate that their rewards are level-based in the quest accept dialog and on the quest screen.
  
• The asphodelytes now get along a *little* better with the other inhabitants of Omonporch.
  
• Red death dacca are now trees.
  
• Changed the tile for banana tree.
  
• Added new worldmap tiles for the banana grove.
  
• The attack indicators of lithofex and decarbonizer are now visible even if you can't see the creatures, and they now indicate the full path of the attack.
  
• Astral tethering now inhibits the cloning effects of gelatinous prisms and antiprisms. Cloning can still occur but it's less likely.
  
• Ontological anchors now have their effectiveness reduced in proportion to their wearer's psychic glimmer (even if it's below 20).
  
• Gave the Putus Templar long blade expertise.
  
• Tweaked the Putus Templar tiles.
  
• Player melee hits now display their penetration numbers again.
  
• Clonelings no longer clone your original body while you're dominating another creature.
  
• During liquid pouring, containers are no longer emptied until you confirm the number of drams you want to pour into them.
  
• Fixed some issues with item stacks and auto-disassemble where scrap occasionally stuck around even after it was disassembled for bits.
  
• Fixed a rare bug that occurred when the phased effect ended.
  
• Fixed a crash caused by interdictor effect rendering.
  
• Fixed a bug that occasionally broke the recoiler UI on use.
  [Modding] Added support for a new zone template tag, <single>, that places the contents of the tag in a single random region on the map.
  [Modding] Added a new part, Uplift, that uplifts the parent creature object to a named unique.
  [Modding] Added a new part, Followers, that generates followers for the parent creature object. It has one field: Table (a population table that specifies the followers to generate).
  [Modding] Added a new quest field, BonusAtLevel, where you can specify if the quest has bonus rewards if completed by certain levels. If you do, those quests indicate that their rewards are level-based on the appropriate screens.
  
  Below are some additional patch notes from last week that were left out.
  
  
• Preserving an exotic food now only takes you back one menu step if you have other exotic foods to preserve.
  
• Added a UI option to change the take all binding to F1.
  
• Added F2 as an additional store items bind.
  
• Fixed some lockups caused by attempting to gain another mutation when you already have all the available mutation.
  
• Added a UI option that lets you map shift + direction to pagination keys (defaults to no, currently doesn't work for numpad direction input).
  
• [Modding] Having a player body without a Stomach no longer causes the game to crash.
  
• [Modding] Added new fields to the XML quest specification, Factions and Reputation, that allow quests to grant reputation rewards (ex: Factions="Joppa,Farmers" Reputation="100").