Knights of the Chalice 2 Update – New World Map & Temple Maps

With Heroic Fantasy Games busy working on The Dark Arena module for Knights of the Chalice 2, the game’s latest Kickstarter update highlights a couple of new features we can thank the new module for. These include a massive new world map and a new, more convenient way of drawing very large adventure maps.

Beyond that, we get introduced to a couple of new combat scripts now available in the game’s editor, some recent patch notes, and more. Here’s an excerpt to get you started:

Alternative Display System for Very Large Maps

Separately, in the last few days, I worked on an alternative system for drawing very large adventure maps. Instead of having a single png or jpg image for the backdrop, we have a folder containing many images of size 512 x 512 pixels. ImageMagick can be used to divide a large image into such squares.

Then the game loads and displays only those 512 x 512 squares that are contained within the player’s main view at any time. As you move around, the game loads the required images in real time. That way, when starting a game, we don’t have to load a huge file, which is slow. Also, we don’t risk running out of memory due to the size of the image.

With the new system, for example, we could have a really huge cave system based on a single map. Such a map could be mostly black; the rest being long cave passages and a number of big cave rooms.

Two New Script Types For Combat

As well as fixing bugs, version 1.58 limits animated weather effects such as rain and snow to the map’s boundaries. It also introduces two new script types: Wounded Script and Turn Script.

The Wounded Script is triggered in combat when a creature is wounded or damaged. You can set a creature’s Wounded Script in the Intelligence tab of the Creature Properties screen, within the Creature Editor. Examples of use of the Wounded Script:

1) The Wizard Zarx is essentially invulnerable until the player has done a specific thing such as destroy a mirror or a jar. After each hit, he recovers lost Hit Points and a Vrock is summoned (up to five).

2) The Necromancer Eldark has linked his body with that of a bunch of slaves using a sinister ritual. Each non-fatal hit on the Necromancer kills one of the slaves and heals the Necromancer (as with a casting of the spell Heal).

3) Garock the Barbarian will taunt the player the first time he receives a hit, shouting ‘That’s the best you can do?’ or ‘Oooh, a mosquito bite!’.

Next, the Turn Script is triggered in combat at the start of the turn of a creature. You can set a creature’s Turn Script in the Intelligence tab of the Creature Properties screen, within the Creature Editor. Example of use of the Turn Script:

At the start of her turn, the Cleric Llagotha will call upon Chaotic Evil deity Hexdra for assistance if her Hit Points have dropped below 55% of the maximum, or if half of her allies have been defeated. She won’t be able to do it if she’s sleeping, fascinated, stunned, dazed, affected by the spell Hideous Laughter, etc.

With the Turn Script, you don’t need to check for these conditions within the script itself, as the Turn Script for a character will only be executed when that character can act normally. You do need to track whether the script was executed before if you don’t want the script to be executed multiple times.