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The Cave Columns bug is an ongoing issue.  I tried to solve it in the last update and may have made it worse.  You're allowed to enter them if you have the Spelunking perk or if you are under the effects of a Wallpass spell/effect.  If the latter and the wallpass runs out while you're in a Cave Columns, you'll die on the next turn.  It seems easy to fix in my head, but the code there is really tangled.  I'll have to spend a lot of time revisiting to figure out how to fix it.  I'll let you know if I think I've achieved success.

I like the idea of the merchants stopping if you move adjacent to them...  I'll have to communicate it to the player in the manual because it could get a merchant killed if you're banking on the fact it may move out of a monster's way last second, but I think it's a good idea.  I'll try to implement that.  Also going to implement the auto-center on your character idea.  Not sure I have time for any of the above today.  We'll have to see!  

Fixed the problem where the Magic Draining Beam Trap could remove an enchantment from an armour piece and that enchantment wouldn't disappear if it provided a benefit to a Primary Attribute.

Alright, solved the mystery of the amulet.  Previous to the last update, Rings/Amulets of Elemental Protection (etc.) and Rings/Amulets of Lycanthrope Protection (etc.) were 2 distinct enchantments (suffix 23 and 24 respectively).  With the introduction of more sub-types of monsters in the last update (Spiders, Demons, etc.) and the creation of 6 new enchantments that protect you from those specific monster types, I didn't want the player constantly finding suffixed jewellery that was specific to these sub-types - so I consolidated all of them to suffix 23.  Now if it finds suffix 23, it generates a new random number from 1 to 7.  On a 1 it leaves it as suffix 23 (Elemental protection), but on a 2 through 7 it rewires the suffix to be 300 to 305.  The problem was the variables hasprefix and hassuffix that it was temporarily storing the prefix/suffix in while it generates it was of type char which can't store a number as high as 300.  Now hasprefix and hassuffix are of type int, allowing them to properly store the numbers.  Bug fixed.

The Cave In Shake Effect was saving in the saved game, not the preference file.  Meaning if you quit the game and on your return started a new game it would no longer remember (though it would if you loaded an old game).  This has been fixed!  Thank you!

Thank you so much for the reports!  Looking into the bugs immediately!

Did you notice any unusual terrain nearby?  That early it would have had to have spawned from what would probably be a Dead Side Gate on, like, turn 1.  If it was there literally from the getgo, like on your first turn, unless there was an Event that brought it in (Undead Uprising, maybe?) I can't think of any way it would be there.

The lycanthropy bug should now be fixed (on my end).  It was actually caused by a minor improvement I forgot to mention elsewhere - if you turn into a werebeast now, instead of showing your graphic as a dead version of your race and class, it should replace it with a live version of the appropriate werebeast.  (It was looking for those graphics in the wrong folder).

The bug did NOT, as I had initially thought, have anything to do with the new Were-dragon, but while investigating that code, I discovered a bug there too!  The were-dragon couldn't ACTUALLY cause Lycanthropy.  This too has been fixed on my end.  I'll try to get a bug fix update with these (and maybe a few other improvements) before another 3 months goes by!  (Maybe this week, time permitting).

I'm so glad you're enjoying it!

The Lycanthropy thing sounds like a bug.  I've never seen it happen, but I'll investigate.  The most recent update did add 1 new Lycanthrope - the Were-Dragon.  I'm betting the bug has something to do with that, but I'll have to check.

The level 26 enemy on Level 8 CAN happen, but it would be rare.  Events could cause monsters to appear out of depth, but certain rare map tiles can too.  For instance a Sewer Grate can spawn Goblinoids of any level at any level, and a Toothy Cave can do the same for Giant-types.  These types of squares have a low chance each turn of spawning a new monster of the appropriate type, and when they do, a small chance of then sealing forever.  If they don't seal forever on their own, you can try to seal them if you can find the square.  But probably not a bug, just a situation that can arise.

The Nightmare and Giant Worm would be native to Ilastra.  Not all Legendary Lands have such scary inhabitants, but some do.  The entry text does give a warning:  "While the dungeon's inhabitants are, for the most part, of low strength, the wizard who lives there has summoned a few particularly nasty pets."  Most Legendary Lands have great rewards balanced by pretty steep risks, but since they are pre-designed, you can at least learn which ones you deem worth it after you've visited them.

The Blunderbuss issue sounds like a bug too.  I'm looking at the code right now, and it SHOULD have said, "DEX required: X   INT required: X"  (Where the INT requirement BTW would be 70% of the DEX requirement).  Based on the code, not sure how it output Max Health required...  Obviously a bug I'm overlooking somewhere...  I'll have to keep an eye open.

You're not the first person to mention the desire to have the map stay centered after an auto-move.  It wouldn't be hard to implement, (I think), so I'll look into it for the next update.

I'm not sure the Skill Point reposition would work.  Even if there's open space, other stuff goes there sometimes, under the right circumstance.  But I'll check and see if I'm wrong.

It would be really hard within the current system to rework the inventory.  There's a lot going on under the hood...  (for instance, and offhand, if your equipped Weapon is Inventory item 96, it means you don't have a Weapon equipped - no inventory can ever expand beyond 95 slots)...  I'll keep it in mind, but it won't be a priority right now.

I very much appreciate your desire to contribute more to the project!  I'll look into a donation button.  Not sure how that works.  The truth is, after 29 years of working on the game, it's only in recent months that I opened up the possibility of people donating even when they download.  

Thank you for the bug reports!  I'll dig into the lycanthropy one literally this instant!

Right here is fine.  Not sure if there is a character limit, but if you need more you can always leave more replies.

Nice!  Just gave it a watch and left some comments on the video!

Nice!  Thanks for posting these :)

Hey, thanks for posting that!  I really enjoyed watching it :)  I'll answer a few of the questions you posed and share some observations in the comments on the video itself!

No combat log.  I could add Tab to just toggle back to the last tab you were on.  I'll make a note and try to get to it.  The Back button issue you describe sounds like a bug.  I'll have to look into it.  You can right click any square to center the screen on the square you clicked, which is how you can scroll with mouse.  If you hold the button down it will continue to scroll, with the speed essentially controlled by how far from the center of the screen you've got the mouse pointed.

Thanks so much for the words of encouragement!  It's a passion project, so always gratifying to know it's reaching an audience that enjoys it.  As for the "computer doesn't like it" that's undeniably my fault - I'm not a coder by trade, so everything I know about coding is learned by trial and error in my spare time, so nothing is optimized the way a professional might do.  I do have some plans to address some of this in the nearish future (probably not the next update, but the one after that).  I'm curious to know what the Event was that lead your favourite RL death!

:)

Wait, I MIGHT have just fixed it.  Truth is, I've been dicking around with the code, and I just changed something that might have been the cause, but I'm not entirely sure I didn't add that something previously while dicking around with the code.  So...  MAYBE fixed?

I've been searching for the slide from grease into stalagmites bug.  I cannot find any loophole that would allow sliding from grease to put you into stalagmites in the first place...  I'll keep looking, but I'll be up front and say I'm not sure how to fix this one right now.

I suspect there's nothing missing because it's been downloaded dozens of time and no one's said anything - must be some weird error in the general transfer to you.  If you send me your email at stopthesaturnians@gmail.com I can WeTransfer you copy I'm playing - hasn't been updated much, I don't think.  Just let me know here if you've done so, because I never check that email and might forget otherwise!

Ah - BOTH of those are bugs!  I thought I'd fixed the sliding into Stalagmite deal a while back, but evidently not...  I'll have to look into them.  Thanks for the bug report and glad you're enjoying the game!

Alright, officially:

- Another Face in the Crowd will now check once before increasing racial hatred for the killing of a single monster rather than once per monster-type of that monster. This will prevent the incongruity of receiving a message that Another Face in the Crowd kicked in, for instance, when you kill a Were-rat (which is both a Person and an Animal) and then receiving a notification about hatred for one of those aspects rising.

- With the Blink spell, Anywhere But Here perk, Weapons of Dismissal/Eviction/Banishment, Pantos’ Dismissal Miracle, Allumas' Unpredictable Outcome Miracle, the Blink Trap, the Stay Sod Event, monsters on a Friendly Blink Trap or you accidentally setting your own Friendly Blink Trap off, it is no longer possible for the subject of the random teleportation to be teleported back to the exact same square it started from.

I'm leaving the Berserker, though.  Both it and the Pooka (which has the same ability) are meant to be impossible to predict, and I like the slot machine effect of their ATT and DEF flickering.

Actually, I probably will change the Another Face in the Crowd situation.  It's not technically a bug, but I can see how it would be received that way.  Hopefully fixed for the next update

The Berserker situation is intentional.  You can't predict what their Attack or Defense will be as they're randomized moment to moment. 

The Blink spell I'm aware, too...  might consider changing it, but I'll have to think about it...  it's pretty overpowered for its cost as is, and a 1 in 3600 chance that it returns you to your starting point at least compensates a little for that. 

The Another Face in the Crowd thing is news to me.  I'm checking out the code based on this report and I can't see any way that could happen.  I'll keep an eye open, but it literally leaves the increaseracialhatred() function via a return command before increasing hatred when it kicks in, so I'm not sure how it could happen.  OH... unless the monster had multiple monster types.  A were-rat, as an example, is a Person/Animal, so it could pass the Another Face in the Crowd check for the Person half, but not the Animal half or vice-versa (in which case it would still benefit you, of course).  Thanks for bringing it to my attention.  I'm not sure if I want to change it or not, but am very, very swamped as I head toward a release in the next week or two and am trying to wrap up all loose ends as is...

AND congrats on the victory as the Human Paladin :)

As an aside I also encountered an error in the casting of Demonic Assistants yesterday (and the same would apply to the Demonic Congress spell).  If you cast it and it fails, taking your spell points, it still leaves the little Demonic Assistants icon up...  literally forever, unless you're able to cast it again.  Doesn't hurt anything, but it's irritating.  It's been fixed now!

Fixed it so only wall variants move now, while everything else stays put.  You can still get trapped if you aren't careful/lucky, but should be substantially less deadly now.

Ooooh, I see.  Everything that's NOT Empty Space becomes wandering...  Shit.  I could make minetracks not wander, and water not wander, but how extensive would the list be of things I'd have to make not wander?  Maybe I should change the event to only allow walls to wander, and only into empty space.  That seems safest.

Demonic Assistants I caught the other day.  But thanks for bringing it to my attention!  Copied and pasted from the code to provide you the full text:  "Casting this spell gives an instant 10% chance that your Spell Points drop to zero.  If that doesn't happen, you'll have a 50% chance to regain 1 Spell Point each turn for the next 60 turns.  Casting it angers Good gods."

Reality Breakdown - shoot.  And interesting.  I get why the scenario would be problematic, but if the walls can't wander onto Mine Tracks, then how did they block the Mine Tracks in the first place?  As far as I recall they should only be allowed to wander into Empty Space, so shouldn't have gotten onto those tracks or water in the first place.  Thanks for bringing this to my attention, I'll look into it immediately!

Congratulations!  (Out of curiosity, what race/class/religion combo won it for you?)

Xaskazien could have been missing health from passing through dangerous terrain, falling in a pit, etc.

Immediate combats on descending should be quite rare, but aren't a bug.  It would be easy to put in a catch to ensure it doesn't happen, but I don't really see a reason to do that...  I like the possibility, at least.

Enchanted Arrows do exist!  (As do Armour Piercing Arrows).  They're not toggleable - if they're in your inventory and you're using a bow, they automatically take effect.

Best of luck with your next go around!  I'm about to dive into another playtest, myself

Hmmm...  Do you happen to know if it said, "You jolt awake!" or "You've been startled awake!"?  Having trouble tracking this down...

Please do!  The Max Trainable Skill Level with the ring was recently addressed when someone else reported it.  The Combat Output one I'll have to look at it, darn it!

Next update is currently targeted for the first half of October.  It's going to be HUGE.

Thank you for the comments and thanks for the bug report!  That boat query bug I've already addressed behind the scenes recently.  We're still about 2 months out from the next release, but it's already going to be ungodly huge in size, including a lot of major QOL improvements.

You're not the first person to mention the desire to use items from the ground...  I'll have to think about it.  It's doable within the framework of the existing code, but it might be tricky to implement...  I'll have to give it thought.  Re-centering on the character after a mouse move, on the other hand, shouldn't be hard at all...  after I've finished today's workload, I'll look into it.

There are 2 magical trunks that can appear in the game:  Melgrim's Teleporting Trunk and Yorick's Dimension Hopping Trunk.  Melgrim's has a 10% chance of appearing on any level, though Yorick's only has a 1% (and can be purposefully conjured via a Vestonian miracle, too).  With Melgrim's, anything you drop in the trunk will still be in it if the trunk shows up again later in your game - so it's a way to set aside things you don't have space to carry but which MIGHT come in handy if you're lucky later.  With Yorick's, anything you drop in the trunk will still be there when the trunk appears, even in separate games.  So if you find something awesome that's not of use to your current character, you can drop it in there in the hopes that some future character will find and benefit from it.  (Yorick's also includes whatever items I've dropped in it before uploading here, so if you want a pure game that only contains your own stuff, you can reset it via the high score screen by clicking "Reset"). 

If you're using an older version of the game, there was a glitch where you could open the Recharge screen from a Recharge Station and then walk away, leaving it open, and that could cause all kinds of problems.  Fixed that in the last version (or perhaps the one before) though.

Huh.  That's a weird glitch!  Thanks for letting me know.  I'll take a look at Recharge Stations and see if I can find anything...  Not sure what would have caused this though!

Thank you so much for sharing this!  I'll check it out as soon as I'm done work today!

Yikers!  Bad luck!

Yeah, you do have to actually start a game first.

Yes.  Fire the game up in full screen, go into the Options menu, and left click the Windowed/Full Screen toggle.  When you leave the Options it will save your preference so next time it will launch in Windowed.

It does!  I'll make all the files available again then.  Thank you so much!

I've had one of my games up on itch.io for years and finally decided to add the donation option. That's worked fine, but on the site I host both the core game as a fresh download, and all kinds of patches that you can use to upgrade from earlier versions of the game, if you don't want to download the whole thing anew. Previously, if you wanted the game, you clicked the download button beside it, and if you wanted a patch, you clicked the download button beside that.  Since adding the donation option, I now only have 1 central download button, and if clicked, this button offers to download you all the files on the site. This would mean downloading gigabytes of useless, redundant data if you just wanted to download the game for the first time. As a stopgap, I've hidden all the patch files - if you want to patch your game to the latest you are now out of luck. I still want each file to be separately downloadable for free, but prompt you for the donation if you're interested. How can I make that happen, so I can make the patches visible again?

This has been fixed in today's update.  Thank you so much for pointing this out.  Can't believe I missed it

Oooooh.  Yeah, you updated, skipping steps.  Absolutely that'll cause mess ups.  Just download the full version.  If updating, you have to update step by step.