New Fixes, Features, and Pet Fun in Today’s Update

We’ve got a fresh batch of improvements and fixes for you today, focused on performance, usability, and a little extra charm in the world.

First up, quality-of-life tweaks: the Skills window tooltips are now neatly formatted in a single column, ending exactly where the text does—thanks to feedback from Astirian. Players on Linux with the Companion app can now launch the game again after a crash, with the startup crash loop finally resolved. And for those who love detail, the Teleport to Zone list now shows the destination map name right under your own fog, making navigation clearer (thanks, MrChadwyck!).

Performance is getting a boost too. The long-standing 45-second freeze at the central garden lot in Resolute has been eliminated—now the game calculates walkable areas once instead of every visit (thanks, KnightRider!). Towns at night now run smoother: the moon no longer casts shadows (saving ~4ms per frame), and smaller lamps stop casting shadows earlier than big fires (~2ms improvement), making nighttime travel more fluid.

We’ve also made room in player-owned towns—devotionals no longer occupy NPC building slots, freeing up space for essential buildings like the bank and Oracle.

On the creative side, add-on creators now have more flexibility: packages can include up to 16 JSON files, which can be loaded directly into Lua with ShroudLoadData. This means item lists and data tables can live outside code, making modding easier (requested by Goriah Kuulas). Plus, add-on sounds now support MP3, AIFF, and tracker music, and play correctly on Macs.

And for fans of furry friends, five new companion pets are available in the Crown Store: a capybara, a raccoon, a baby raccoon, and two red pandas—each with unique dances, naps, and tricks like rolling over, playing dead, begging, doing zoomies, swimming after you, and napping in a new spot every time.

Enjoy the smoother gameplay, brighter nights, and even more adorable companions!

Summarized from Chris "Atos" Spears' work log at Catnip Games.