Dev Log Roundup: Linux Fixes, Siege Progress, and a New Creature
Happy Tuesday, Avatars! Here's what Chris and the team were up to in the August 19th dev log.
Linux Quality of Life
Linux players got some love today. Clean quits were being recorded as crashes, and the game could linger in the background after closing the window. Both issues are now fixed, with the Linux client properly terminating its own process and the launcher falling back to the game's shutdown record when needed.
Creature Possession and Summoning Fixes
Game masters can now possess any creature in a scene and hand control back safely. A review pass closed fifteen more holes, including a speech verb that had never been wired up.
Two pet-related bugs were squashed: tamed pets were vanishing fifteen seconds after summoning (a recent equipment fix was confusing a routine pack reload with the collar coming off), and summoned creatures like earth elementals would keep fighting after you died and persist through resurrection. Both are now behaving properly.
Crown Exchange Built (But Dark)
A full Crown Exchange system was built end-to-end: a vendor selling 100-crown bundles for gold through falling-price auctions, with gold destroyed on purchase. Prices start high, drop toward a floor above the player market, and climb again when sales are brisk. It includes safety checks, automatic refunds via mail if a crash under-pays, a kill switch in the config, and a developer dashboard. It ships dark until the team picks the numbers.
Siege Updates
The siege posts from the 17th onward were published as redacted teases, but now the veil is lifted: the town siege rework will have sieges move into the town itself and persist until the Cabalist holding it is killed. You'll also be able to track the Cabalist on your compass and town map from the moment you enter the gate.
Other Fixes and Additions
Loading screens now give up after three minutes and return you to the overworld instead of stranding you.
Catchphrases stopped selling after ten in a row (a payment bag issue); fixed, and stuck characters now auto-unstick.
Catchphrases can now carry an approved-phrase list, so pre-approved phrases slip right through the safety check.
A new creature: the Scrying Eye, a tier 5 floating enemy that fights from the air and drops a Scrying Lens.
Texture memory budget raised on 8 GB+ graphics cards—8 GB cards were rendering at quarter resolution 89% of the time.
That's all for today. See you in New Britannia!
Summarized from Chris "Atos" Spears' work log at Catnip Games.