Knights of the Chalice 2 Update - Version 1.12 Available

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Written by ValH on April 3rd, 2021

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Heroic Fantasy Games’ Pierre Begue has put together a new update for the backer-only version of Knights of the Chalice II that expands the game’s editor functionality and introduces a good number of quality of life features, along with some framework for the game’s future updates. Here’s what you can expect:

New Option To Set An Overlay Image

I've added to the Module Editor the option to set an overlay image, that is to say an image that's displayed on top of almost everything else. This can be useful for when the party is walking behind something like a tree or a building. Using this feature, I've reworked the village map.

The overlay can also be used to have fog effects / cobweb effects / underwater effects / light effects (e.g. yellow, green, pink or blue light) displayed on top of both the characters and the environment using semi-transparent pixels in the overlay layer. Please see the entrance of the new map called Mysterious Cave for an example of this. The overlay setting can be found by clicking 'Edit Map Data' in the editor.

By the way, after watching the second tutorial video from PVG, the one about a foggy mountain bridge, I'm thinking to allow more background layers, including animated layers such as fog clouds slowly drifting in one direction, or a top layer for rain falling down.

Special Effects When Moving Through Water

I've added a bunch of graphical improvements when characters move through water/swimming squares and underwater environments. Please note: if these special effects slow your computer down too much, you can turn them off by switching off 'environmental particles' in the game options.

The new effects for water are the following: the lower part of the sprite of swimming characters will be displayed with transparency, water ripples will be displayed when moving or standing in water squares, and a white splash will be displayed when entering or leaving a body of water.

Additions To The Village Map And New Music

I've added a bunch of new isometric maps that can be accessed from the village map: Bailiff Tower, Mysterious Cave, Inn Ground Level, Inn Second Level. I'll fill them with cool NPCs, quests and monsters pretty soon. I made the maps using the resources from PVG. I hope you will like them!

I've only put a couple of monsters for your low-level party to fight, as an appetizer. See if you can use a particular spell on them to take advantage of the environment! ;-)

I've also added a bunch of roaming deer in the village map. It's nice just to watch them. Also added the tokens for the male and female deer. For those who're using the editor, please note that I've changed the names Buck and Doe into Deer-Male and Deer-Female, so please delete the folders Buck and Doe within the folder Graphics/Sprites/Complete.

Moreover, I've added four new soundtracks based on PVG resources. I've called them Cave of Whispers, Well of Souls, Corridor of Shadows, and Eternal Torment. Two of them are used in the Mysterious Cave.

Other New Features In KotC 2 Version 1.12

• When you start a new game, all your characters will receive either a clothing item, or leather armour. They won't start out naked anymore. Mantis characters will be able to wear clothing items.
• Reworked the icons in the inventory screen, changed the icons for energy resistances. Please let me know if you like the new Inventory Screen in the Forums or here in the Kickstarter update page.
• In the Inventory Screen, added the 'Share Potions' icon. Drag a stack of potions onto it to distribute the potions to all party members automatically.
• Added a drop-down selection box in the Creature Properties screen of the editor in order to allow selecting the number of squares occupied by the creature (1 x 1, 2 x 2, etc). Previously, the number of squares was obtained from the size of the token image.
• Added large-size effect animations for the conditions Paralysed, Forcecage and Hideous Laughter.
• Using the Left or Right arrow keys in the character sheet will find the next party member who has a similar tab. For example, if you have two Clerics and you're viewing the Divine Spells tab of the first Cleric, pushing the Right arrow key will display the Divine Spells tab of your other Cleric. It will skip characters who do not have a Divine Spells tab.
• Added a new 'Set Facing' script command. Aside from the eight directions, this command can be used to make NPCs face the party leader when starting dialogue.
• Assigned a sprite to all of the pre-generated characters. If you'd like to see them (and you're using the Windows version), before installing, please change the name of your file 'CharacterRoster.cml' in the folder 'Saves'. Otherwise, the Windows installer will see that you already have the file and it will not overwrite it.
• Added a check-box in the Party Creation screen in order to hide pre-generated characters.
• Added a check-box in the Party Creation screen in order to hide characters that do not meet the module's requirements.
• Added new colour choices for the Plate Armour sprite with a red cape. Now we also have sprites for the Plate with a Blue / Golden / Purple / Green cape! Also changed the armour sprite names displayed in the editor to facilitate the selection of armour sprites for NPCs.
• In the editor's 'Module Data' screen, added a check-box allowing you to specify that levelling-up never costs any gold in your module.
• In the editor's 'Module Data' screen, added new boxes allowing you to disallow certain races or classes for the player characters in your module. For example, you can make a module without Mantis characters.
• In the Module Editor, when you're using the Edit & Select NPC mode, and you have selected at least one creature, you can use Left Alt + numpad arrow keys to set the direction faced by the selected creatures. This wasn't important when creatures were represented using tokens only. Now it's needed because sprites can be facing any of the eight directions.
• In the Script Editor, in number fields, you can now use 'roll(x)' to get a random die roll value. For example, you could set a creature to wait for a number of frames equal to 100+roll(150). Or you could set the creature to move to a random destination. Previously, you would have had to set the random roll into a variable. I've used this in the village map to set some non-combat paths for the deer. I've also explained it in the help entry about the Module Editor.
• Added new help entries about Party Creation, Difficulty, and the 5-5-5 User-Module Offer.
• Added the 'Difficulty' selection box in the party-creation screen. But the box doesn't do anything yet.
• The list of party members in the top-right corner of the main view will now display the names of all of the party members (up to 15; beyond 15, the game will display a scroll bar).
• I recently purchased almost all of the older asset packs of PVG, including Monsters Legacy 1. The packs contain some of the missing sprites of KotC 2: the Hydra, Giant Scorpion, Giant Snake, Giant Beetle, Gargoyle, Evil Eye, Harpy/Vrock, Naga/Marilith, more Elementals, more Golems, something I can use for the Crocodile, and something I can use for the Giant Frog (the 'Beast of Burden'). I will add those sprites and others to the game soon. Thank you H K for pointing me towards the packs!

List Of Bug Fixes In KotC 2 Version 1.12

• Fixed a bug during dialogue in full-screen mode. Thank you for the bug report Dorateen! By the way, your module Hearkenwold looks great!
• Fixed an AI bug that appeared in version 1.11 when the AI used the Slide action.
• Fixed bugs when an AOO would cause a balancing character to fall down and slide into a pit.
• Fixed bugs when fighting near the edge of the map (e.g. when fighting the Ancient White Dragon on the bottom edge of the map of Gleegold Keep).
• Fixed a bug/crash to desktop when casting a spell like Fireball that kills the caster.
• Fixed issues with falling damage when Gust of Wind sends you to a square of lower altitude.
• Fixed a number of issues and broken links in the help entries, thanks to reports in the Forums.
• Fixed an issue with alt-tabbing in full-screen mode when dialogue is taking place.
• Fixed issues with the walking animation when continuously pressing the arrow keys or mouse button out of combat, and the walking animations of creatures in a group.
• Fixed a bunch of graphical issues during combat when displaying creatures using sprites.
• Enemies will now face their target or target square when using their Breath Weapon or spells.
• Enemies who have a spell failure chance due to armour or shield will still try to cast somatic spells.
• Using the 'Search' box in the help system will no longer require you to mouse over the Search box when you push 'enter' to launch the search.
• Fixed a problem with NPC pathfinding out of combat, when there are NPCs who follow a scripted path.
• Fixed a bug with bags of holding and other containers. Previously, placing a consumable item inside a bag would provide infinite uses. Thank you Angry Lux for the bug report and congratulations for your Ironman Run! The Ironman Run can be watched on Youtube.
• Fixed an error in the display of the expected percentage of success of the Grease spell.
• Fixed a problem with the AI casting Spread spells (like Web) centred on obstacle squares, resulting in no affected area at all.

Kickstarter Labels In The Forums

I've assigned all of the Kickstarter Knight and Kickstarter Hero labels in the Forums. But I could only give them to you when your email address in the forums was the same as your email address on Kickstarter. So, if I've missed you, please drop me an email at enquiries[at]heroicfantasygames.com and I will give you your Forum badge. :-)

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