The beta for our latest feature arc, the Moon Stair, is here. Big picture, this arc includes the last late-game region, a new quest in the main questline, significant updates to the new UI, all new sound effects, and many, many gameplay changes. Everything is quite functional, but -- per usual -- it is subject to change and will get additional polish over the next several weeks.

 If you'd like to help us test it, install from one of the recently posted zips ending in -beta (v204.31). Note: previous saves won't be compatible with this beta. Check out this thread if you want to post your feedback, or get access to a debug wish to fast-forward to the new quest.

Here are the patch notes, with the usual caveat that some small changes may be missing.

Live and drink!


NEW QUEST IN THE MAIN QUESTLINE

• There is now a new quest after returning from the Tomb of the Eaters. Talk to Barathrum in his study to learn more.
  
• Added a new system for the creation of [redacted] in support of this quest.
  

NEW LATE-GAME REGION

• Added the last late-game region: the Moon Stair
  
• Added new creatures: zero jell, unimax, dawning ape, n-dimensional starshell, dreamcrungle, monad, and dream wren.
  
• Added a new village-like location -- Chavvah, the Tree of Life -- with several new NPCs.
  
• Added a new side quest at Chavvah.
  
• Added psychic biomes, limited to the Moon Stair.
  

UI

• Added a new Pixel Perfect mode, which forces zoom to snap to a perfect multiple of the pixel art. You can toggle it in the General options menu.
  
• Added a new Docked mode that locks the combat log, nearby items list, and minimap. You can toggle it in the General options menu.
  
• Added new UI for target pickers.
  
• Added new UI for examining things with the Look function.
  
• Added a new target reticle for some contexts.
  
• The information bar when using the look/target pickers is now at the top of the screen.
  
• The ability bar is now fully functional.
  
• Added a new UI for the Options screen.
  
• Added a new UI for the High Scores screen.
  
• Added a new UI for the Help screen.
  
• Added tooltips and highlights to attributes with bonuses during character creation.
  
• You can now look at who you're talking to from the conversation UI.
  
• Added binds for page up and page down.
  
• Removed option to show tooltips when looking. It's now always works this way when the modern UI is enabled.
  
• Tooltips shown by mouseclick now hide when keyboard or joystick buttons are pressed (please report any tooltips that do not behave this way).
  
• Added a tooltip to the window layout lock button
  
• Look now is now bound to left stick button by default in the modern input manager.
  
• After firing a ranged weapon, your target for future shots is now more reliably what you shot at instead of what you hit.
  
• Added two options for filtering the nearby items list to only takeable items and only items in the current tile (Options > Overlay UI > enable Show overlay nearby objects list). When both are enabled, the behavior approximates the legacy UI "only show contents of the current cell" option.
  
• Refactored the imposter system for visual effects. This fixes many bugs where visual effect artifacts remained on the screen improperly.
  
• Removed code and unused bits of Overlay UI that have been replaced with the Modern UI.
  

SOUNDS & MUSIC

• We're in the process of adding all new sound effects to the game. Several hundred have already been added. More to come.
  
• Added ambient environmental sounds. For now: to Joppa, the salt marsh, and subterranean caves. More to come.
  
• Added a new toggle and volume slider for ambient sounds to the General options menu.
  
• Added a new music track in the Moon Stair.
  

NEW THINGS

• Added new cybernetic implants: grounding shunts and social coprocessor.
  
• Added new items: palladium weave tabard, dazzle cheek, psychodyne helmet, black mote, and stasis casque.
  
• Added a new liquid: warm static.
  

GAMEPLAY CHANGES

• We made some balance tweaks to the attributes of merchants.
  • Stiltground merchants are now higher level and have more Willpower.
    
  • Legendary merchants are now leveled appropriately for the difficulty tier their workshops are found in.
    
  • More kinds of merchants now have hired guards.
    
  • Adjusted the number of hired guards for several kinds of merchants.
    
  
  
• We changed how the item mod 'gigantic' works and classified some creatures as 'colossal'.
  • The following creatures are classified as colossal: salt kraken, star kraken, great saltback, great magma crab, Rodanis Y, chrome pyramid, and [redacted].
    
  • Colossal creatures can no longer wear non-gigantic gear.
    
  • Non-colossal creatures can no longer wear gigantic gear, with the exception of gigantic weapons, which can be wielded in twice the number of hands they normally take to wield.
    
  • Most types of items can now be gigantic.
    
  • Gigantic weapons deal additional damage and may have other effects, depending on the weapon class.
    
  • Gigantic vessels now store twice as much liquid.
    
  • Gigantic grenades have double the radius.
    
  • Gigantic gems and precious nuggets have 5x the trade value.
    
  • Gigantic energy cells have twice the energy capacity.
    
  • Swarm racks are now gigantic and no longer occupy back or arm slots.
    
  
  
• The Quantum Jitters defect is now worth 4 points.
  
• Svardym are no longer considered a sultanate faction.
  
• There is now a teleport gate in the rusted archway.
  
• You can no longer trade with creatures who are engaged in melee combat.
  
• Having an adjacent inanimate object as a target no longer counts as being engaged in melee combat.
  
• Robots with the Wings module can no longer fly while EMP'd.
  
• Set the region tier of the Six Day Stilt to 2.
  
• Krakens who have a party leader no longer wander in the characteristic kraken style.
  
• Item-based bonuses to throwing range are now functional on geomagnetic discs.
  
• Cheap credit wedges are now excluded from dynamic encounters.
  

MISCELLANEOUS

• Autoget can now unload weapons and empty liquid containers.
  
• Campfires and torch sconces are now avoided to a much lesser degree by pathfinding.
  
• Sometimes pilgrims you encounter are now lost. You can give them directions.
  
• Teleport gates are now points of interest.
  
• All creatures with proper names who are not player companions are now considered points of interest.
  
• Artifact functionality that displays status indications in item descriptions, such as (nonfunctional) or (unpowered), no longer does so in context of tinkering item descriptions.
  

BUGFIXES

• Fixed a bug that prevented legendary creatures from awarding extra XP in some contexts.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused legendary creatures to have too little XP for their level.
  
• Relic missile weapons with the vibro effect now get any penetration bonuses they may have applied on top of the vibro effect.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused armor categorized as Clothing to auto-equip as held in hand rather than worn.
  
• Fixed a bug in pathfinding that caused occasional mishaps, in particular inexplicable penchants for walking through fractus.
  
• Fixed a grammar error in some messages resulting from you decapitating your companion.
  
• Legendary villagers no longer sometimes erroneously have two names.
  

DEBUG & MODDING

• When using the debug option 'Show quickstart option during character generation, pressing the keybind now only works on the first screen.
  
• Autoget is now handled with the AutoexploreObjectEvent. Set E.Want = true and E.FromAdjacent = "Autoget". Users of the AutoexploreObjectEvent should now check the AutogetOnlyMode flag. You should only return "Autoget" (or equivalent) actions when this flag is true.
  
• Moved MenuOption class from XRL.CharacterBuilds.UI to the XRL.UI.Framework namespace.
  
• Removed old character code entries (Code="ab") from Mutations.xml, Subtypes.xml, and Genotypes.xml. Also removed the properties XRL.MutationEntry.MutationCode, XRL.SubtypeEntry.Code, and XRL.GenotypeEntry.Code.
  
• The ModManager UI has an additional tag for loaded mods which have Harmony Patches.
  
• Fixed overriding color palette in Display.txt
  
• Added some helper methods to make color string templates easier: Markup.Color(color, text) and StringBuilder.AddColored(color, text)
  
• ObjectBlueprints.xml now logs errors when setting a <part> parameter that does not exist, or if the value can not be parsed.