Hi everyone! I hope you're well. Version 1.60 of Knights of the Chalice 2 has landed. It's a small update.

Please don't hesitate to email me at enquiries@heroicfantasygames.com if you find any bugs and annoyances, so that I can fix the game quickly. A saved game may be very helpful, too. Thank you!!

Recently, I purchased the epic music collection Humble Bundle from composer Joel Steudler. It's still available at https://www.humblebundle.com/software/epic-royaltyfree-music-collection-software . I'm planning to use some of that music in the upcoming adventure modules.

Also, I've had a chance to make use of and participate in the Stable Horde project. It's a network of volunteers who combine their computing power to generate AI images. There's a web user interface at https://aqualxx.github.io/stable-ui . I was able to create some nice images as well as create a Stable Horde worker.

The interesting thing is that I could produce some images of size 1,920 x 1,920 pixels, which is really big for current AI image generation. It does cost a lot of Kudos to do so. Kudos is the virtual currency you earn by running a Stable Horde worker on your computer, or by rating a bunch of AI-generated images through the web user interface.

Smaller images (e.g. 704 x 704 pixels) can be made for free.

Kudos can be transferred to other users from here: https://stablehorde.net/transfer or through the Discord channel: https://discord.gg/3DxrhksKzn . If you'd like to contribute some Kudos for me to use in dungeon map creation, feel free to send them to my user ID: StableDragon#18923 . Thank you!!

KotC 2 version 1.60 includes the alternative system for displaying huge adventure maps. That new system was presented in the latest Kickstarter Update: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1848628223/knights-of-the-chalice-2-revolutionise-old-school-crpgs/posts/3770416


Here is how the new system works. Say you have a JPG or PNG background image of size 13,000 x 10,000 pixels. First, you need to create a small-size preview version of that image. The preview image could be of size 2,000 x 1,538. It should be named like this: MapName_13000_10000_Preview.jpg. That means you have to append the width and height of the original map and the word 'Preview'. Place the preview image in the MapBackdrops folder of your module.

Next, within that same folder create a new folder called MapName_13000_10000. Inside that folder place the 512 x 512 images that constitute the original image. These images should be named like this: Base_y_x.jpg, x and y being the coordinates of each chunk inside the original image, starting from zero. You can also have an overlay image. Simply place in the same folder the 512 x 512 images that constitute the overlay image. These images should be named like this: Overlay_y_x.png.

Finally, in the Map Data screen of the Module Editor, you can set the preview image as the map's background. The game will then see that it's an image made up of a number of tiles.

To create the tiles, you can use Image Magick: https://imagemagick.org/index.php . I've used the following Image Magick commands.

For the base image: magick convert base.png -crop 512x512 -set filename:tile "%[fx:page.y/512]_%[fx:page.x/512]" +repage +adjoin -quality 90 "Base_%[filename:tile].jpg"
For the overlay image: magick convert overlay.png -crop 512x512 -set filename:tile "%[fx:page.y/512]_%[fx:page.x/512]" +repage +adjoin "Overlay_%[filename:tile].png"

Thank You So Much, Fearless Warriors and Wise Mages of the Realm! Rejoice! :-)

List of changes in Knights of the Chalice 2 Version 1.60

• In the macOS version only, fixed a source of crashes when selecting psionic powers. My sincere apologies for that bug!
  
• Fixed several display problems in the Local Map screen.
  
• Fixed a problem with special effects like Rain and Snow getting reset after talking with NPCs (at the end of a script's execution, actually).
  
• Fixed an issue with double clicking during character creation. When double-clicking on a spell icon to select it, the double click for the last spell could result in the unwanted opening of the help entry for spells.
  
• Added a note in the help entries for Weapon Group Proficiency Reach Weapons and Natural Reach to clarify that the benefit of Reach does not apply to Touch Attacks. The Flux domain power and the specialisation feats of attuned Wizards and Sorcerers can transform certain touch spells into close-range spells. It may be a problem if you could get a better range for touch-range spells just by wielding a reach weapon. It would also be a problem for the AI.
  
• In the Module Editor, pressing the Left Alt key will now hide the backdrop image so that it's easier to see if there are any special tiles, or overlay graphics, at any particular place on the map.
  
• In the Module Editor, fixed an issue with the display of long file paths in selection boxes.
  
• In the Module Editor, fixed an issue with memory management when closing a map.
  
• Added some code to clear previous images when loading a map image fails due to low memory.
  
• Implemented the alternative system for displaying huge adventure maps.