v1.3 (2024-06-02)

• fixed: bug when side quest recruitable NPCs (i.e. not hired NPCs, like Lisandro's quest) were replaced in their initial map position, after completing their quest, allowing the side quest to be replayed. Only hired NPCs should do that, when they're dismissed from the party.
• fixed: bug in sound system where sound volume wasn't getting respected some times. The sound volume code was decoupled in more appropriate places to fix that.
• fixed: bug where an elemental symbol was shown from non-elemental damages taken (a case being equipping the 'souldrain' ring that monastery devil is leaving behind). In addition, no elemental symbol was shown on damages caused by a condition (flamed, poisoned).
• fixed: bug with randomisation, shown on previous version (2024-03-20) which caused the creation of the same items and gold pieces in chests and probably in other areas as well. Fixed once and for all.
• fixed: bug in monster system where some non-legit monster entries could be created, potentially causing a number of issues while the game was on. This may also have fixed the known "invinsible monsters" issue and being stuck on 0,0 position (north-west) on open maps i.e. dry plains.
• fixed: bug where the 'Explore' skill was kept increasing on already explored squares. Now, its only increasing on non-explored squares. In addition, the skill is increased only 50% of the time, keeping it in control as its a passive skill.
• fixed: bug where armors using a dynamic ability score to compute i.e. Leather armor (4 + TechniqueMod) or Mage hat (0 + IntelligenceMod) were converted to a protection of < 0, undermining the total protection (by all items) because an ability score was too low. Now, the total protection of the item simply converts to 0 instead of getting negative, simply not providing a protection.
• fixed: bug where characters having the poisoned / flamed conditions would cause an issue on 'full rest', as the game could hang trying to cause both damage (by condition) and also increase their HP (by resting). Now both conditions are considered 'restless' i.e. no hp/sp are gained while having these conditions, so no race condition will ever encountered. In addition, a character with a cursed item that negates hitpoints, won't be able to rest as well.
• fixed: bug where shield/armor skills were trained if the character had a condition that caused an elemental damage (i.e. poisoned/flamed). Now, the type of damage is considered. In addition, no skill training for shield/armor is done if the damage comes from other sources such as cursed items.
• fixed: bug where making the party 'wait here' (through 'Rest' options) would update the last date rested, effectively never triggering 'Exhaustion' condition by excessively passing the time through 'wait here'.
• fixed: bug where party couldn't rest / wait in an area, warning about nearby monsters, although none were showing.
• fixed: bug where the 'necromancer' on dry plains wont show up after midnight. The bug only shows up after you save/load the game, because monster visibility-by-time isn't saved properly and thus, not passed properly also on loading the game. In addition, since saving format was updated slightly, you need to restart with fresh saves since these details are associated with level initialisation (once).
• fixed: bug where the party would be stuck on upper-left square of an open man (i.e. dry plains). This is/was a symptom of another bug, causing sometimes the creation of non-legit monsters at upper-left square of such maps, yet invincible and unmovable, however causing trouble to a party reaching that square.
• fixed: bug where the voice set of new created characters (not prebuilt ones) was not generated correctly, which became apparent when the character died in combat and no sound was heard, in addition of producing some errors in log file. However, to properly fix that, new characters need to be created so voicer set will be computed normally and pass to save.dat file.
• fixed: bug where sometimes an empty hand (non equipped with some item) would show number of charges i.e. like a wand or features like being cursed.
• fixed: bug where the dungeon features (barrels, vazes, banners etc.) weren't shown at all when some criteria were met.
• fixed: bug where walls with updated statuses (shown/hidden) weren't shown correctly after save/load (texcode was not correctly saved), although the walls kept their status mechanically (they were acting as obstacles/not).
• fixed: bug where the exhausted condition was applied way earlier to party's characters, after excessive time without resting (this time is set to 24 hours, see 2.5 Traveling on rulebook) and under certain situations. Bug was found to be in time functionality so the main logic of it was rewritten, fixing a couple of bugs more.
• fixed: bug where some monsters, mostly bosses (ones that have their hp / damage output modified, like the devil in monastery) had their hp / damage amped way more than predefined, under certain situations. In that case, multipliers were working on current values, not the base ones (the correct ones to start with).
• fixed: bug where the hitpoints restored per turn on resting were sometimes zero (0), making resting a way slower process than usual. Restoring computations were fixed for both hp / sp and also balanced against maximum ability levels (see 2.7 Resting on rulebook)
• fixed: bug where a triggered event would still move the monsters in obstacle / minimap level (incorrectly) but would not in rendering / game window level (correctly). This led to all kinds of symptoms i.e. invinsible monsters being obstacles and sometimes attacking the party. Now, triggered events correctly reset / disable monster movement (monsters are not moving when a party lands on a triggered event)
• fixed: bug where the casting of spells that require a target (i.e. Cure) through chargable items (i.e. Wand) were consuming a use / charge before the actual cast (i.e. selecting a target); furthermore, the player could just cancel the spell but with the charge still used. Now, the item is charged a use after the actual spell cast.
• fixed: bug where would be possible for a character to train in more than 8 skills per skill group (i.e. Misc), which would result on overflowing the character's skill window. In fact, there's a hard-limit of 8 skills per group per character (see 7.7 Capped number of skills). In addition, skill trainers wont train you a specific skill of a group where you have already this many of skills.
• fixed: bug where the game was crashing, infrequently, and for apparently no reason. A well hidden bug that couldn't be replicated easily, related to internal XML engine used by game's engine (pugixml), which tried to use objects that were alive no more.
• added: minor fixes to hard mud -> grass transitions which shown some glitches / non-constistent transition previously.
• added: now logo/intro sequence flags are updated into save.dat, after they've been watched and not when the player saves his game. However, the player will get a 'skip this..' opportunity from the first time these sequences are been watched, so they can be skipped.
• added: based on above sound volume issues fix, some misc sounds/music are now respecting the sound volume settings (save.dat), for example logo, title, intro sounds etc.
• added: fixed a minor, hard to see graphical glitch on character block.
• added: additional 64 characters in prebuilt mode in characters creation, reaching 128 total.
• added: characters with a stat/condition affection i.e. "Flamed" condition, wont get damaged all at the same turn. Randomiser is run again for every affected character and 50% of the time will damage him/her. More in rulebook, chapter 10. Conditions.
• added: alt+tab support for Windows, for fullscreen, windowed and letterbox modes. Alt+tab support will be followed on Linux sometime later.
• added: a skill trainer teaching the 'Awareness' skill, on 'Initiate' expertise, in the south-east area of Amphill. Added as an additional opportunity to get a skill that is able to reveal hidden content early on.
• added: spell casting training is now more balanced vs melee training, providing +2 XP skill training on spell casting (instead of +1 XP), due to finite nature of spells. This will help training magic skills more efficiently.
• added: spell slot allocation was improved to allow more spells in early intelligence levels, while getting more balanced in the later intelligence levels. In short, a starting party will be able to cast more spells with the same intelligence points, further fixing some magic skill imbalance issues.
• added: show item details, on character screens and game window, when an item is hold on mouse. In addition, item details are shown on shops as well, when an item is highlighted (selected). Finally, each spell details can be shown when the 'view' icon (an eye), on an opened 'spell window', is clicked.
• added: the ability modifiers are now shown on character 'Stats' page, next to each ability's name, which will help finding out how high/low the particular ability scores are, especially with the addition of item description blocks.
• added: some items such as Leather armor provide a protection based on character's ability score i.e. 4 + TechMod. However, this will quickly cause an imbalance as the character keeps adding more Technique, for example at Technique 100 (+40), this will provide a 4 + 40 = 44 (!) protection for such a simple item. To balance things out on such items, a maximum capped bonus of +15 added (see 13.6 Capped effect by ability bonus).
• added: now spells that use the magic skill expertise for magic output (i.e. Firebolt), will be slighly 'capped' so as to not rival the strongest spells on highest expertise, while being lower expertise spells and having a lot more spell slots this way. Check the new magic outputs per spell on spell list and also read '14.4 Capped effect by expertise' on rulebook.
• added: stone floor tiles, along with the already hard mud and snow mud floor tiles. These tiles will be used on now large / multifloor cities to increase the immersion on such cities.
• added: hourglass info on UI now shows the current time, in hh:mm format, rather the current year, which should be found through 'Rest' anyway. Useful on harsh environments where the time runs way faster.
• added: fixed some graphical glitches on intro sequence and improved it overall.
• added: graphical improvement on the character's inventory page.
• added: graphical improvement on the map, both full and minimap.
• added: graphical improvement on the 'skull & bones' dungeon item.
• added: various graphical improvements and additions on features: shackles, barrels, potions, vases
• added: balancing on shop items and their frequency. Specifcally, added 2 additional pages on 'weapon shops', balancing on their larger number of item types. In addition, dropped a page on most item types such as shields, boots, helmets, rings etc. due to their small number of different types. That led to creation of a lot more magical items, defeating the rarity concept, or a lot of duplicated base items.
• added: slighly increased color contrast on character pages (darkening the character's marbled texture a bit).
• added: a graphical hint / clue (a painting) on a puzzle found on 'Cult of Wizards, Hideout', that some players missed even reaching (moving to a particular square was needed to trigger the event). Missing this event leads to a non-completed map (i.e. not 100%), given the puzzle reveals a small area. This caused some confusion, since players were wondering what they've missed.
• added: extra dialogue and an opportunity for skill learning on 'Retrieve the Bow' quest (thanks @strangecat0)
• added: extra quest on 'cult of wizards, hideout', to return the bones to monastery for proper burial (thanks @strangecat0)