This is a list of release notes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version: 3.20 (patch 2) - added: new winter photos for coniferous forest, spruce mire and grove terrain types - balanced & overhauled: TRAPPING related animal spawning What hasn't changed is that your TRAPPING skill determines the success of constructing and setting traps. Badly set or badly made traps may scare off animals, fail to keep animals properly trapped or appear not attractive enough for animals to enter them. These are the common trapping rules. In short, higher the TRAPPING skill the more easily animals enter your traps and more reliably they stay trapped. What has changed is the spawning mechanism. Previously there was a system which caused succesfully set traps to spawn animals at the area. This happened in very unbalanced fashion and resulted in far too many animals to be spawned far too close to the traps - and in far too great number. This unbalanced spawning mechanism is now removed and attractiveness of traps is replaced with a new and more delicate system. As straightforward spawning of animals is removed, the harsh simplicity of trapping goes as follows: If there are animals at the area they may enter your traps depending on how succesfully these traps are set or constructed. If there aren't animals at the area your traps will remain empty. However, if there weren't animals at the area today the situation may not be the same after a couple of days. Traditional method of relying on the same traps at chosen trapping grounds for a longer period of time and checking them out on a regular basis is still valid and suitable trapping method. Moreover, there's a new delicate mechanism which furthermore improves propability of catching animals with traps: * Even if animals at the area wouldn't be actually hungry, properly baited and succesfully set traps may attract them beyond regular feeding needs. * Succesfully set traps may trigger additional animal population checks for appropriate animals This is different from straightforward animal spawning and works more like an increased propability of new animal populations to be created at the area. This mechanism follows the rules of general animal population creation, so commonness and relative number of animals and their natural habitats are carefully taken into account. Therefore, if the trapped area is not suitable for a certain animals or if animal populations are on a good natural level, no trap can cause extra population propability. To succeed in trapping now it takes more patience, careful consideration and knowledge of animals natural habitats. Setting traps at areas where you have actually noticed marks of wildlife is often most effective. Nevertheless, knowing that bears can occupy spruce mires and setting bear traps at spruce mires even in random fashion may still prove succesfull. You can expect less catches with traps now, but it will be far more rewarding when it happens. - speed optimized: map drawing when passing time with NPCs in sight Map drawing is optimized so that redraw occurs only if NPC locations do actually change. This way NPCs who are in sight but standing still do not cause extra lag to passing time. Passing time with standing still companions and pets in sight is now just as fast as with no-one in sight. If there's NPC movement in sight more frequent map redraws naturally slows things down, but most often passing time is a lot faster now. - improved: map drawing and scaling Map rendering is now texture-based and looks sharp and crisp on higher resolutions - even with fully zoomed out map view. - "loading map..." box has its' color changed and is relocated a bit lower on the screen - added: new effects for zooming between world and terrain map Rectangular zoom in/out "effect" is removed. Map view is shaded with a slight color tint when zooming in/out. Terrain pictures are faded in and zoomed onto screen. After the world or terrain map is loaded alpha blending transition is used in switching the map view. - added: new map fade effects when falling asleep or losing consciousness These aren't nothing too fancy, just fading and blending the map view to a single color, but the effects are renderer blends in SDL 2 fashion and look way smoother than previously. Moreover, there are different fade colors for different situations. Falling asleep fades into midnight blue color, losing consciousness fades into bloodred color. Waking up and recovering consciousness also features a smooth fade back to the map view. - added: option to go prone intentionally Hotkey [u] now toggles between standing and laying down, and option to lay down is also available in "movement and rest actions" menu. This allows your character to go prone intentionally. Being prone has use in avoiding getting hit by enemy arrows. Prone target is smaller target and therefore more challenging to hit from a distance with missile weapons. But you should NOT count on never getting struck by an arrow when prone. - added: vision restrictions when prone Character's line of sight is calculated differently when prone. Even the slight slopes do restrict the sight of prone characters. - improved: archery from behind an obstacle Arrows won't ever hit the adjacent obstacle when shooting from behind it. - added: new key commands to eat and pass a turn * lower case [e] now works, and is the official key command to eat Upper case [E] works as well for convenience of those who have gotten used to it. * keypad 5 works as an alternative key to pass a turn This is equal to pressing [.] key to pass a turn. - improved: HERBLORE inventory filtering Using HERBLORE to examine plants in your inventory now automatically filters for plants and foods. - added: key commands to wield picked up items automatically - [CTRL]+[,] and [CTRL]+[;] Press [CTRL] together with pick up commands [,] or [;] to automatically wield picked up items. Notice that when picking up multiple items this way the first selected items on the list will be wielded. - changed: warmth is excluded from calculations in the display of average armour protection - changed: [ESC] equals to "Yes" in [Yes]/[No] prompts to abort tasks For example, when you are prompted to abort a task because of hearing sounds or noticing creatures pressing [ESC] equals to "Yes, I want to abort this task." - changed: wording in aiming zone penalty descriptions "challenging" -> "tricky" Aiming zone penalties are now described as "tricky" or "difficult". "TrickY" being easier than "Difficult". - fixed: numlock hassle - it's now always off in the game NumLock is now forced permanently off and numeric keypad produces only movement signals - not numbers. This prevents the numlock hassle arising from SDL 2 bug, and also helps newcomers to get playing without having to care about NumLock state. - fixed: projectiles being told to hit slopes when shooting/throwing at creatures in the water This was a mostly a wrong message issue, but water shot/throw aiming angle also needed few adjustments. - fixed: foreign traders not staying in group Their "herding" behaviour was broken. Now foreigners wander around more close to each others. - fixed: spoiled food was just as nutritious as normal edible food Spoiled food is now only half as nutritious as normal edible food. - fixed: zero population settlements aka ghost villages Old randomization fault which caused the smallest settlements occasionally appear completely empty of people. - fixed: wrong message when trying to swim from a watercraft while rowing prone The game said 'You can't swim while lying down.' and now properly says 'You can't swim while rowing.' - fixed: Warfare game-course task getting completed also by killing other than Njerpez NPCs - fixed: butchering carcass twice Double fat and extra cuts were occasionally obtained from already butchered carcasses. - fixed: sleeping birds occasionally getting flying status; "sleeping flying bird" - fixed: nonaquatic birds exploring water areas; flying too far away from the shore - fixed: sleeping character could select a defense maneuver upon being hit --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------