Mar 1, 2023

Crypt of the NecroDancer - BYG Maddie

Crypt of the NecroDancer v3.6.0 is now available!

Can you believe it's March already? Wild.

New features

Added new sound effects for the Phantom, Jockey, Granite Golem, Wisp and an uncommon enemy...
Added a Ping Tool to quickly highlight important locations and objects in-game in multiplayer
- On keyboard, ping markers can be placed on nearby objects by pressing Right Shift (player 1) or F (player 2)
- On controller, if Steam Input is enabled, ping markers can be placed on nearby objects by clicking the Left Stick
- If these keys were already bound to other actions, the 'Ping Nearby' action is left unassigned by default
  - All ping bindings can be customized in the 'Reassign Controls' menu
- Ping markers can also be placed manually, by clicking on a tile or object with the left mouse button
- Pinging a distant object shows an arrow near the screen border for all players, pointing in the direction of the ping
  - Pinging a chest, crate or shrine while wearing a Monocle reveals the contents for everyone
- Repeatedly using the Ping Tool in multiplayer places it on cooldown for a few seconds
- Muting a player via the 'Multiplayer' > 'Player List' menu also hides and silences their pings
Added an option to hide ping markers placed by other players in online sessions
Added an option to hide ping markers placed by spectators
Added an advanced volume slider for the Ping Tool
Added an option to reduce the intensity of flashing visual effects (Explosions, Fireballs)
Added an option to change the speed of beat bars in the HUD
Added a 'Menu' button to the level editor's top toolbar
- This button can be hidden using an option in the level editor's settings menu

Changes

Changed Heavy Glass Armor to swap between armor stacks instead of merging them together and wasting surplus durability
Changed unprovoked Leprechauns to be immune to Wall Spikes
Changed Travel Runes to no longer disappear when covered by hot coals, ice or ooze in Synchrony
Changed Travel Runes under Cracked Walls to be movable in the level editor
Changed menus to more visibly indicate when their entries can be scrolled up or down
Changed custom mode notification to appear in the lobby when custom music is enabled
Changed most non-challenge achievements to be obtainable while custom music is enabled
Changed the level editor's toolbar to adapt its spacing for low screen resolutions

Modding features

Added support for generating multiple travel runes and secret shops per level
Added function objectRenderer.getContentVisual() to render custom monocle-like projections on top of container objects
Added function rectangle.resizeAroundCenter() to change a rectangle's size while maintaining its centerpoint
Added function render.getTileAt() to transform screenspace coordinates into tile coordinates
Added function utils.removeIfArg() to filter a list according to a predicate, receiving both the entry and a custom data parameter
Added function placementUtils.getRoomsOfType()
Added optional allowOnScreen and noDraw parameters to targetPointerHUD.draw()
Added components CharacterSkins_excludeFromSelector and CharacterSkins_excludeFromTemplate to hide characters from the skin selection menu
Added field threshold to component aiCatlike
Added enumeration entry proceduralLevel.RoomType.VAULT, indicating vaults and potion rooms
Changed "Publish mod" menu to clear the changelog after a mod was uploaded successfully
Changed Ring of Regeneration to pass itself as healer in event.objectHeal
Changed itemGeneration.choice() to accept modded component names in chanceType
Changed segment.setBounds() to resize the level to fit the segment's bounding box
Changed entities without voiceRangedAttack to fall back to voiceMeleeAttack

Bugfixes

Gameplay bugfixes

Fixed healing items or spells not granting invincibility while sliding on ice
Fixed Travel Runes sometimes failing to appear when playing Nocturna
Fixed Dove's bombs failing to teleport provoked Shopkeepers
Fixed groups of Green Slimes and Mushroom Lights causing some level layouts to be impassable for Monk/Coda
Fixed Shrine of Binding causing coin multiplier loss when bumped repeatedly by Dove/Monk/Coda
Fixed Thief being outprioritized by Barrels and Electric Orbs
Fixed Thief not prioritizing its target's previous position when diagonally adjacent
Fixed Thief sometimes stealing items from its diagonally adjacent target if it cannot move orthogonally
Fixed Warlocks duplicating their dropped gold when killed while standing on a coin pile
Fixed Dice Trap spawning enemies on top of other traps
Fixed Infernal Torch incorrectly casting Fireballs from non-dug wall torches while Miner's Cap is equipped
Fixed items that would have appeared in a shop failing to spawn elsewhere after the Shopkeeper was killed
- This does not apply to the Daily Challenge

Chaunter bugfixes

Fixed Chaunter's Lantern emitting light when entering a floor while possessing an enemy
Fixed Chaunter's Lantern forcing single-tempo during possession when given to other characters
Fixed Shrine of Rhythm not fully taking effect on Chaunter
Fixed possessed enemies spawned from a Sarcophagus not receiving credit for their kills
Fixed coin multiplier being lost when a possessed Skeleton is decapitated by self-damage
Fixed Clones taking on Cadence's appearance when entering a level while possessing an enemy as Chaunter
Fixed possessed Wisps' sprite not disappearing after going down a staircase
Fixed possessed Leprechauns being unable to pick up items
Fixed possessed Pawnbrokers being immune to self-damage

Level editor bugfixes

Fixed secret shops not generating correctly in the level editor
Fixed Minotaurs roaring when placed in the level editor
Fixed Thief playing its appearance sound when generated in the level editor
Fixed "Selection panel columns" level editor option not working correctly
Fixed Melody's final boss creating lava tiles when placed in the editor
Fixed the Gong killing all bosses when destroyed in a custom level, instead of only the boss that struck the Gong
Fixed Nightmare shadows obscuring enemies and items in the level editor
Fixed cursor movement overriding player movement in the in-game editor overlay
- This behavior can be configured by an advanced option in the editor settings

Modding bugfixes

Fixed stack overflow errors resulting in an empty error message instead of a stack trace
Fixed autoCastCheckLineOfSight not working for vertical directions
Fixed inconsistent results between LineOfSight.check() and player field of view checks
Fixed tileRenderer.getFloorVisual() not correctly using a default value for the beat parameter
Fixed spellcastCone targeting a line of tiles on diagonals, instead of a rotated triangle
Fixed error when an attachment entity's parent does not have the position component
Fixed enumeration values marked as invisible still appearing in settings dropdowns
Fixed multi-client mode not disabling Discord integration
Fixed multi-client mode showing changelog/character unlock menus
Fixed custom items inheriting from Bombs registering duplicate entity types
Fixed inconsistent spacing in controls menu when mods define both per-player hotkeys and custom gameplay actions

Input bugfixes

Fixed missed beats when holding down a directional button late in the beat if multi-key combos are enabled
Fixed inputs being treated as missed beats more often at the start of a floor
Fixed rare instances of multiple inputs in a row being treated as missed beats after unpausing
Fixed rapid key presses sometimes allowing movement during the boss intro screen
Fixed possessed diagonally-moving enemies not enabling 8-directional D-Pad movement on Steam Input
Fixed "ignore background mouse input" not applying to gameplay controls
Fixed custom per-player hotkeys triggering the 'missed' HUD flyaway and sound effect
Fixed controls menu responding to mouse input while the rebind prompt is open

Engine bugfixes

Fixed performance issues in levels containing an absurd amount of torches, such as the lobby
Fixed DLCs not loading on the first game launch after being purchased
Fixed Daily Challenge not being playable offline in DRM-free build
Fixed error when a Shock Monkey takes environmental damage

Audio bugfixes

Fixed Onyx weapons playing an incorrect attack voice line when hitting multiple enemies at once
Fixed enemies not playing their hit sounds when squished

Visual bugfixes

Fixed Coral Riff's splash particles not always being visible
Fixed confusing death message when Monk dies due to Ring of Gold in multiplayer
Fixed the Leprechaun's visual effects rendering behind walls
Fixed visual seams in the left-facing animation for the Fireball Spell
Fixed coins being hidden by walls after being teleported by a Warlock

Mar 1, 2023

Finding Games, Faith & Feature Reveal

King Of The Castle - Tributary Games

Not long now - King of the Castle is out TOMORROW! Have you wishlisted yet?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1839880/King_Of_The_Castle/

Later in today’s update, we’re going to talk about the different religions of your Kingdom. But first of all, I’m aware that we’re getting a bunch of new eyeballs on this page this week, so I wanted to go through exactly how this game is played.

In King of the Castle, one player is the Monarch and multiple other players form their council of Nobles.

Monarchs host Party Games for 3-24 Nobles who join on browsers for free, or use Twitch Mode, where an unlimited number of followers play as Nobles directly in chat.

Finding Games

King of the Castle is a multiplayer game, first and foremost. It can be played by 4 to 4000 people (though realistically, there's no upper limit!).

If you want to play a game - with your D&D group, board game club, friend circle or local chapter of monks - it literally couldn’t be easier.

Only one person - the Monarch - needs to actually own the game. Everyone else can join FOR FREE via browser (so make sure there’s Wi-Fi in the monastery) at http://kotc.app and needs to be able to see the Monarch’s screen.

We’ve found that Discord is perfect for this, but any video call software should work! We have our very own Discord where you can use the looking-for-game channel and type @looking for game ping to find others to play with. Come join us here:

Alternatively, you can jump on Twitch and find someone streaming the game. If you own the game, you can join with your unique customised character, who will be more likely to star in ongoing storylines!

Now we’ve gone over the basics, let’s dive deeper into the lore of the Kingdom. Have you heard the good word… The word about the Ninth?

Matters of Faith

This time, we’re talking about the different religions of Celest Ath!

i. The Ninth God

The majority religion within the Kingdom is semi-monotheistic and worships the Ninth God. Their doctrine teaches that once upon a time, there were eight gods, who created a flawed world full of sinful people. Then the Ninth God willed Himself into existence and banished or destroyed the other eight, punishing them for the faults in their creation.

Now the Ninth God is striving to fix the mistakes of His predecessors, and it is only through worship that we can persuade Him not to destroy us all and start again. Those who worship Him and live a good life will be taken to the Thereafter - the world He will make after ours is destroyed, which will finally be perfect. Non-believers face oblivion, while especially evil souls will be condemned to join the other gods in one of the Seven Hells.

It is orthodoxy that the Hells are ruled by the Seventh God, who the Ninth merely banished rather than destroyed, and are populated by demons and devils who serve as the Seventh’s servants. These servile demons are believed to be fragments of the Fifth God, sprouting from cinders after the Fifth was burned.

Though the Monarch does not lead the Church of the Ninth, they are considered to have a divine right to rule, deriving their earthly power from the Ninth God Himself.

The Church of the Ninth is led by an Archbishop, who resides in the Capital City, within St. Bertrand’s Cathedral. Functionally the Archbishop’s role is similar to that of a Pope - he is considered to be a vessel for the will of the Ninth, and is hugely powerful in his own way.

The Church of the Ninth also maintains an active Inquisition, which actively roots out heresy and ‘devil-worship.’ It is led by a High Inquisitor, who is subordinate within the Church only to the Archbishop himself. The Inquisitors love to burn people alive for witchcraft or heresy, and they are (reputably) impossible to bribe. As a result, even Nobles live in fear of attracting the Inquisitors’ attention - especially the Counts of the East, who have one or two things to hide.

ii. The Old Gods of the North

The North is considered a ‘pagan’ country - they don’t deny the existence of the Ninth, only His suitability for worship. Instead, they worship a pantheon of dozens of squabbling ‘old gods’. A priest of the Northern religion is known as a ‘godspeaker’.

The Church is engaged in a perpetual campaign to introduce Ninthism to the North, sending legions of missionaries to the furthest reaches and highest mountains. Most of them end up hanging from a tree or inside a winter wolf’s stomach, but they have been having some gradual success, and more and more Northerners have begun converting thanks to the Church’s efforts. This is a great worry to the Chiefs, who have kept Ninthism at bay for centuries and sacrificed a lot to secure special protections for their faith in the laws of the Kingdom.

The foremost deity among Northerners is Morgana, the Witch of Three, the Mother of Mountains, the Ageless Crone. She appears in the form of an old woman, a young maiden, or a mother with baby, or sometimes all at once. She also often appears in the form of an owl, a raven, or a goose.

There are dozens of other gods, most notably:

Valtor, the Lord of Battle, the Twice-Killed, the Flayer of Stars.
Knelquiss, the Trickster King, the Dancer-in-the-Flame, the Oathbreaker.
Odheld, the Drunken Vessel, the Honey-blooded Prince, the Hornblower.
Chalith, the Harvester, the Flesh-Feaster, the Lady of Red Banquets.
Grahala, the Forged Maiden, the Iron Exile, the Smithqueen.
Skurinorn, the Locked Casket, the Poison Augur, the Guardian of Runes.

iii. The Deposed Gods

The Deposed Gods are the Eight Gods who were defeated by the Ninth in a terrible war after He willed Himself into existence to save the world from its creators. This moment was known as the Ninth’s Triumph.

Worshippers of the Ninth refer to the period of the Eight Gods’ hegemony as the Cursed Age. The game’s calendar starts at 948 - the Kingdom is counting from year 0, where the Cursed Age ended and the Ninth God was finally victorious.

The official teachings of the Ninth Church is that the Eight were each defeated in different ways:

The First vanished upon the Ninth’s arrival, and was never seen again;
The Second was exiled after most of his power was stolen by the Ninth, and now wanders the world as a sad and powerless creature;
The Third was drowned in the darkest depths of the ocean, where her ghost still lingers;
The Fourth was eaten by the Ninth and the Sixth in a grand banquet;
The Fifth was burned to ash, which scattered across the world, causing demons to spring from the land which flocked to serve the Seventh;
The Sixth who had thought herself allied with the Ninth in his war, helped him devour the Fourth - but the Ninth fed her a poisoned seed, causing flowers to blossom within her and kill her;
The Seventh was banished to the Hells, along with all his demonic followers, where he still plots the Ninth’s downfall to this day;
The Eighth was torn into eight pieces and buried deep beneath the earth.

Common folk remember the fates of the Eight with an old schoolyard rhyme -

“Eight dark Gods, lords of hellfire,
Three would live and five expire;
The First, the coward, fled and vanished,
The Seventh, the rebel, beaten and banished;
The Second wanders, now depowered;
The Third was drowned, the Fourth devoured;
The Fifth burned while the Sixth bloomed;
And the Eighth, asunder, lies entombed.”

iv. Ashmedean Religion

The Ashmedeans worship Kaldovaga, the Machine God, the Negligent One, the Worldsmith, who built the world from spare parts lying around his workshop, then put it on a high shelf and forgot about it.

They believe that the world is slowly falling apart, and Kaldovaga will only repair it if humanity worships him in a great enough quantity to attract His attention once again. In Ashmedean society, all priests double as blacksmiths and engineers, and the building of bridges or forging of swords is as much a holy ritual as it is a craft.

The Ashmedean Empire makes frequent use of golems, constructs built of clay or iron which can tirelessly perform simple tasks, manual labour, or combat. Golems are built in church-factories by priests of Kaldovaga.

Voting UI Update

Now that you're feeling suitably spiritually nourished, it's time to talk about one last feature we're introducing in v1.0: The new Voting Screen!

We've had some great feedback about readability in this screen. The text was simply too small, especially when watching someone else's screen!

This new update aims to solve this; Firstly, the Vote Setup screen now spaces out votes properly and widens them, increasing text size, and our Laws have been redesigned to better show off all the options at your disposal.

Votes themselves have a new lighter, higher contrast background, and also display any active Laws set by the Monarch, This will help unsuspecting victims of Laws like Reverse Voting or the new Call For Unity not get caught out.

We hope you're excited for this and the other features we've been previewing in our previous blog posts. Read this one for the most exciting new additions we've added in the past month or two!

Tomorrow we're finally out, and with it will come a Launch Day blog post to remember - Packed to the gills with new features, bugfixes and Events.

If you're interested in hopping on a game to check out KOTC, why not watch some of our launch day streams? See our schedule over the next few days below:

See you tomorrow for your coronation...

Mar 1, 2023

Public Test Branch (0.6.002a)

The Iron Oath - sennin

Hello mercenaries,

The Friends and Foes update is now available on the public test branch!

To opt in: Go to your Steam Library, right click The Iron Oath and select Properties. From there, go to the Betas tab and select "Public test branch" from the drop down menu.

For now, we recommend starting a fresh campaign, as existing saves will not work properly just yet (though they will be supported when we move the update to the main branch).

As mentioned in our last post, the update will need a few weeks on the test branch in order to make sure it's fully ready and balanced. It's fairly stable at the moment, but we are still working through bugs and fixing some mechanics that aren't working as intended. We'll be listing the full patch notes when we drop it on the main branch, but for now here is the gist of what has been changed:

Attributes Overhaul: Attributes have been reworked, and a new 'Mending' attribute has been added that increases the potency of Heals and Damage Shields (Power no longer affects them).
Levelling Overhaul: On level up, the Attribute Points you gain can be spent towards ranking up attributes of your choosing. Overall, the increases are much more significant than before, though a few stats have diminishing returns for balance reasons.
Level Cap: The level caps have been adjusted. From levels 1-20 you will gain both Attribute and Ability Points on level up. Level 20 is the new softcap, and from 21-40 you will only gain Attribute Points (3 per level).
Class Abilities: We've adjusted the base function of a few abilities to give players more incentive to use them.
Full Ability Trees: We've made adjustments to almost every ability tree, and the 3rd and 4th tier of ability upgrades are now implemented. They can be upgraded at level 5 and level 10 respectively.
Increased Party Size: The maximum number of characters in a party has been increased from 4 to 5.
New and Modified Conditions: We've added some new combat conditions and have tweaked a few existing ones.
Reworked Enemies: We've reworked a lot of enemies, changing their stats and their abilities (some minor changes, some major). Overall, enemies are now more specialized in what they do.
New Enemies: We've added 30 new enemy variants into the game for more variation from fight to fight.
Enemy Composition Rework: We've changed the way enemies are selected for a fight. The new method makes the difficulty level much more consistent (and it's easier for us to balance!).
Enemy Traits: Elites and Bosses now spawn with Traits (from a pool of 50) that add an extra strategic consideration when fighting them, ranging from statistical increases to unique combat mechanics. You can view their traits by mousing over their portrait or by mousing over their sprite and pressing Tab.
Combat Deployment: The deployment zones available for both sides are now more varied (it's no longer always left vs right!).
Line of Sight and Ranged Unit Mechanics: We've made some adjustments to Line of Sight, making ranged units less effective in certain situations when shooting through other units to hit their target. Ranged units will no longer be able to attack other targets when they have an adjacent enemy without incurring an Attack of Opportunity. Additionally, if they try to attack an adjacent target they will only do 50% damage (these mechanics aren't fully functional just yet).
New UI Screens: The Manage Roster and Storage screens have been completely redesigned. Other screens now have their own dedicated windows (and will also be receiving a redesign to match the style of the new roster screen).
Codex: We've added a Codex screen that contains information on all enemies, enemy traits, and combat conditions. To view the codex entry for an enemy, simply right click their portrait.
Combat Frequency: Because of the rebalanced enemies and character attributes, fights now take a bit longer on average. To compensate for this, we've lowered the number of fights in dungeons to 2,3 and 4 for Short, Medium and Long dungeons respectively.

Known issues:

If there are too many enemies, waiting near the start of the round makes the character lose their turn for that round.
Taunted units aren't attacking.
Many of the tutorial videos need to be updated.
Overworld Encounter difficulty still needs to be adjusted (currently far too easy).
Some ability upgrades aren't working properly (we're aware of most issues and are working through them, but still feel free to let us know if something isn't working right!).
Many character traits are in the process of being changed, so their effects may not match the description that is shown.
A few enemy traits aren't functioning correctly or matching their description (but we're aware of all the issues). You might also see some trait names that do not have a description (these are ones that we ended up not implementing and we need to remove them from the pool).
There are a few enemy abilities and passive abilities that aren't working as described (we think we have all the issues documented, but it's possible we overlooked some so feel free to let us know if you come across any).
A few UI screens may look a little off, as they still need to be updated to match the new style.
Because we reduced the number of fights in dungeons, there will be some longer stretches of empty tiles. We'll be addressing this in our next major update which is focused on improving dungeon exploration mechanics.
So far we've only done comprehensive testing on the Battle-Hardened difficulty. If you do try Adventurer or Warlord, please let us know how it feels in comparison to before (but fair warning it may not be totally balanced just yet!).
The build isn't available on Mac just yet. If anyone wants to test on Mac just let us know and we'll put together a build for it.

If you do encounter any bugs, please report them in game if possible, otherwise you can report them in our Discord or here on Steam. We're especially looking to hear your thoughts on combat balance, combat deployment, and character progression as well.

We've left some debug commands enabled, so if you encounter an issue where combat softlocks you can hit F10 which should fix the problem most of the time. Additionally, if you wanted to test some higher level characters/dungeons, you can open up the console(~) in game and use the following commands:

setMinCharacterLevel 1
giveRenown 1000
giveCoin 5000

You can change the numbers to whatever you want. For character level, anything between 1-40 is valid.

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Big thanks in advance for helping us playtest all these changes, we hope you enjoy them!

-Curious Panda Games