Update time!
This version adds a couple of tweaks, some bigger, some smaller. But first the cool but useless: I finally found out how to change the embark and trader messages. What better way to start out a Mushroom Kingdom game than with a letter from your civ's ruler, after all?
Shy Guys have been given a significant nerf: you can still produce free stuff from subspace portals, but anything you make for free will gradually decay over the course of about a year (amount of time varies based on the type of object). Constructed walls and the like will remain, but any furniture or items produced will fade away after a few months of use, potentially causing hilarity to ensue. The precise type of hilarity depends on what object decays and what it's doing at the time...so watch what you make your supports out of, and take care when you're building cage traps to hold dangerous animals in! This leads to some interesting gameplay effects if you tend to rely on subspace furniture, since your fortress will tend to 'migrate' if you don't reconstruct it as it was before.
Bob-Ombs are more fun to play as now, as they have two types of explosions: the kind that kills them and everything around them, and the kind that just sends everyone flying. They have no hard body parts, so they are more resistant to being thrown into things than most of their enemies, although this does make them somewhat easier to kill by punching... CPU-controlled bob-ombs will always just use the fatal explosion though.
Smithy has been adjusted slightly so that animal-type creatures can defeat him without their fat melting from the heat, although this does make him somewhat susceptible to magma, but then again who isn't? And the Shadow Queen should now be beatable - or more precisely, exorcisable. That is, dealing enough trauma will cause the possessed creature to revert back to its original self. Shadow Queen's possession is based on COMBATHARDNESS, that is, a creature needs to have never faced combat in order to be possessed, and the possession ends when they reach full COMBATHARDNESS. I haven't tested it in fortress mode, so no telling what effect emotional trauma may have... Mind, she's still a dragon-sized lightning-shooting poisonous necromancer with no weak points, so 'beatable' is strictly a relative term in this case.
Speaking of COMBATHARDNESS, some secrets have been given 'level-up' properties, so fighting more after learning them will unlock new attacks or strengthen old ones. Firebrand, for instance, will let you shoot a single fireball at a time at low levels, but will allow you to use rapid fireballs and even dragonfire at the highest levels. More of these to come in the future.
Finally, prankster comets may appear. They are rare regional effects that can potentially occur anywhere (about 1 in 20 embarks will have one) that have unpredictable effects on creature's behavior or abilities, like periodically speeding up all non-sentient creatures or making everything die more easily. There's no message to let you know when they show up, but if your game starts doing weird things, a prankster comet may be the cause. They usually make the game more challenging but can potentially be turned to your advantage.
There are more ways of getting Power Stars now. Star Bunnies, for example, are weak creatures that aren't hard to kill, but are really fast and agile enough to dodge arrows, so you'll have to use trickier tactics if you want their stars. And if you aren't getting enough megabeasts, why not make your own? Surprise Cake now has a use besides being an elaborate and costly means of suicide, as it can be farmed for Power Stars and operates by 'summoning' instead of permanently transforming the eater. Of course, you'd better be well prepared before you make one...
Podoboos are more !!fun!! now. They splatter magma on their enemies and basically behave the way a living blob of magma should act. Don't fight them hand-to-hand unless you want to burn... They are tamable (make sure to use magma-proof cages!), but a pet podoboo is almost as dangerous as a wild one if not handled with extreme care.
More creatures too!
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Topic: Rise of the Mushroom Kingdom: No new update...yet (Read 270651 times)