Knights of the Chalice II - Version 1.13

Update #46: KotC 2 Version 1.13 Adds Difficulty Options, Encounters, Dialogue Options!

Hello everyone! Version 1.13 of KotC 2 Augury of Chaos is now available for download here for both Windows and macOS. The main changes are the new village content and new difficulty settings.

My attention was diverted too many times in April, so I couldn't do as much as I would have liked. Still, I was able to complete work on the difficulty overhaul. I also added a bunch of encounters in the village map. As a result, now the adventure begins on the road leading to the village.

Thank you Juhani for the awesome ideas for new dialogue options and skill-use options that can be used to reduce difficulty! I've implemented most of the things that you suggested. Also thank you Fred for the awesome village-encounter ideas! I've implemented at least some of them.
List Of Improvements & Bug Fixes In KotC 2 Version 1.13

• Added the four main difficulty settings from Easy to Very Hard, as well as a bunch of additional difficulty options: start the concentration bonus at +4, progressive death threshold, recover a percentage of Hit Points after each encounter, and expanded character-class skills.
• Added some encounters in the village and some NPCs. After dealing with the tax collector, I suggest you deal with the giant bees, then rest two times, then talk to the bailiff to start the main events. P.S. I know there's an issue when Zerria revives a dead or unconscious character. I will fix that soon.
• Fixed a bug with end-of-fight scripts and death scripts in version 1.12. My apologies for that issue.
• Fixed a crash in the editor when double-clicking on item slots, and other editor bugs.
• Monks with a Wisdom-enhancement item will benefit from a higher Dodge bonus to Armour Class.
• Added the script command 'Event Wait' when you simply want to display the main view for a while.
• Expanded the script command 'Set non-combat behaviour' to allow for characters leaving a map or playing a unique animation.
• Used a chessboard transparency pattern on the village's overlay layer so that we can always see the characters behind trees and buildings.
• When you defeat the enemies quickly and enemy reinforcements were supposed to arrive in later rounds, these reinforcements will now arrive immediately as the default behaviour (previously, the default behaviour was to end the battle). You can use the new creature-AI setting "Don't join fight if group defeated" if you'd rather have the reinforcements not arrive when the player managed to defeat all the enemies early.
• Fixed a bug with the character-creation interface not recording the sprite of new characters.
• Created new tokens for enemy kobolds using PVG sprite artwork, see Graphics/Tokens/Kobold-Enemy-Brown-1.png and the green and red versions. Also added Graphics/Tokens/Red-Dragon-Ancient-4.png, Graphics/Tokens/Gold-Dragon-Ancient-4.png and Graphics/Tokens/Efreeti-Blue-2.png.
• Added a bunch of new monster sprites: Hydra, Giant Frog in several colours, Evil Eye in several sizes and colours, Giant Snake in several sizes and colours, Giant Beetle in two sizes, Giant Scorpion in several sizes and colours, four new Elementals, as well as the Gargoyle, Mimic, Naga and Harpy.
• Added a couple of new pre-generated characters (please rename your own file Saves/ CharacterRoster.cml before installing the new version, if you'd like to see the new characters).
  Fixed a bug with scrolling the view beyond the top edge.
• In the creature editor, 'effects' page, added a button to make it easier to add reduced-difficulty negative levels to creatures.
• Added some extra effects to the dialogue options in the first fight against Pizarra (in Chapter 1). See the options [Streetwise], [Archery], [Divine Champion], [Psionics], and [Arcana]. They all do some interesting things.
• Added a bunch of dialogue options to help in the battle against King Tribulus of the Green Goblins. For example, you can have your Half-Giant clear the rubble before the fight. You'll get even more help if you talk to the Elder of the Grey Goblins before the battle.
• Added a dialogue option to stun the Hydra when it gets summoned by the Lizardman King.
• Added a couple of Bard skill options that can be used when Pizarra summons the Ice Devil.
• Added new options in the fight against the Soul Sucker Mastermind. Notably, a Bard can use the keyboard instrument in the room while the fight is taking place. You'll have to move your Bard close to the keyboard and then click on the keyboard to use it. The effects are quite interesting! That's the first time I allow clicking on an activable object during combat, by the way.
• Added a Giant Spider Prince who can help in the fight against the Giant Spider Queen, if you use the right dialogue options. If you keep him alive, he will trade with you afterwards. He has two artifact weapons and a couple of expensive robes in his inventory that you can buy.
• The Genie will now help you in the Castle Gate battle, if you select the right dialogue options. But if you've sold the Genie's Lamp, then he won't appear.
• A Gold Dragon will offer to help you in the Castle Courtyard battle right after the Gate battle.
• Added more dialogue options in the fight against Aeromancers in the High Sewers.
• Fixed bugs with the Wizard feats Fire Magic, Cold Magic, Acid Magic and Electricity Magic.
• Fixed a bug with the 'Execute Script' scripted command.
• When targeting a spell, the game will now use a green text colour to highlight any allies that will be affected by the spell. Very useful when there are both hostile and friendly creatures in the battlefield.
• Fixed a sprite display bug when curing an unconscious character.
• In the editor, when mousing over a creature that has scripts, the tooltip will indicate what scripts the creature has. This is very useful when you don't remember which creature in a group has the End Of Fight or Scene script, for example. You no longer have to open the properties of every creature to look for it. The tooltip will also indicate whether the creature is a group leader.
• Increased the volume of the soundtracks Cave of Whispers.ogg and Well of Souls.ogg.

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Hastar said:

I will have to give Knights II a try again very soon. Very pleased with the updates and doing something about the difficulty.

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CryptRat said:

I really loved KOTC2, it went directly into my favourite games. The insane difficulty is certainly controversial and could be one reason not to buy the game (when it's even available) as long Augury of Chaos is almost the only available campaign and you don't like hard difficulty, although I have no clue about the successive added difficulty settings, if anything I like to play games on default difficulty so I liked that the game is hard on default settings.

I did not mind it and even think it's cool, because the systems are so good that it's the game I want to be hard, rather than another one where I'd have really limited options. For the rest the dialogs include tons of race and class restricted options and the puzzles are surprisingly fleshed-out, I expected nothing on those two aspects after KOTC1 and then was pleasantly surprised. The main plot is simple and the story pieces are overall OK, because for example there are a couple of key items you're going to be able to use a couple of different times, that certainly gives coherency to the thing and some characters you interact with like a coven of witch are cool with also more than one reason to interact with them. The game has the best set of encounters I've ever faced, the bad part of that is that the dungeon really feels like a big mess where every possible kind of enemies coexist with barely any context for that, but from a pure gameplay standpoint the set of encounters puts every single other game I've played to shame, to the point that the last chapter with only half of truly unique encounters, which would feel very good in another game, feels rushed in this one.

The amount of character customization is astonishing and the game lets you play as a party which can grow very big and against very big parties of enemies. An assault onto a fortress feels like a assault onto a fortress. SSI's games had that, and it's a bit lacking in some more recent games.


Don't hesitate to play the just released user made Hearkenwold campaign instead if you're looking for a not as hard one. I played a quite recent version (so with most things, but not everything) of the campaign in the original engine it was first made into, which can't begin to compare with the one of KOTC2, and it was already very good, with a campaign arguably better than the ones from the old SSI games, better because much more unique content overall and encounters especially, and the writing is similar in tone and quality than those ones. I think it's something like 25 hour long at this point and is really a full game, that's a bit shorter than Pool of Radiance but it's only due to less generic encounters and more unique content.

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Capt. Huggy Face said:

Wouldn't it be nice if this game were on the Steam Workshop to encourage its huge modding potential?

"My attention was diverted too many times in April, so I couldn't do as much as I would have liked."

Subliminal message for Pierre:

*Steam release*
*Prioritize*
*Workshop support*

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