Temple+ June update news

Howdy folks!

Two months have passed since we released Temple+ 1.0, and with over 1000 downloads and your terrific feedback on features and bugs, Temple+ is going places! We're happy to say we managed to pack in quite a few additions and fixes during that time, and so thought it'd be a great time to keep you posted. We'll also let you in on what's planned for the next few months ;)

New feature highlights

The ongoing stream of updates has brought us up to version 1.0.12, which includes among other things:

* New high level class features for Bards, Druids and Monks
* New Tactical Combat options for Trip attacks
* New monster abilities
* New crafting options and improved UI
* Added support for the Keep on the Borderlands mod
* And of course, Bugfixes! :)

We'd very much appreciate some testing on KotB with Temple+. If you encounter any issues, be sure to report them to templeplushelp@gmail.com or on the forums.

For more details on changes check out the bottom of the post.

What's next?

We're currently in the process of upgrading the engine to DirectX11, which will ensure that Temple is future proof, easier to debug, and also enable some snazzy new rendering features for future UI improvements. This isn't far from completion actually :)

We're also doing a lot of under-the-hood work to allow for creating new classes. Our goal is to add 9 core Prestige Classes, and do it in such a way that is moddable / extendable by others entirely through the Python scripting system. As a rough estimate, the first few PrC's should start rolling in about two months from now, and we are aiming to eventually include:

• Arcane Archer
• Arcane Trickster
• Archmage
• Assassin
• Blackguard
• Duelist
• Dwarven Defender
• Eldritch Knight
• Mystic Theurge

Again as a rough estimate, it should take a few more months to finish those up.

Other than that, the thirst for new content in the ToEE engine has been growing. After all, you can only go dungeon delving in the Temple for so many times, right? It'd be a shame not to put this engine to better use! This natural conclusion is at the root of the simultaneous aspirations both us and the Circle of 8 group have to do Total Conversion of the Infinity Engine games, so they can finally be played in proper turn based combat! :)

This is a longer term goal for us, since we're currently preoccupied with Temple+ proper, but if things go smoothly we may start on the necessary toolset by the end of the year... cross your fingers!

A note about the Setup file

It seems our installer managed to confuse some of you - it installs so quickly and quietly that people sometimes mistake it for a launcher, and constantly use it to run the game!

So to dispel the confusion: don't do that! ;)

After running the installer (the file you've downloaded from here - TemplePlusSetup1012.exe), run it one time only - after that you should get Start menu shortcuts under a Temple+ folder which you should use to run the game and/or configure settings. Otherwise, it will overwrite the automated updates with the old install! We've added a heads up in the new installer so it's harder to miss ;)

Thanks to the community again for all the feedback and bug reports!

Cheers,

Cattle & Pug

Detailed changelist

1. High Level Class Features:
   
   • Druids:
     
     • Extended Wild Shape to include Dire Bear (at level 12) and Elementals (Large Elementals at level 16, Huge Elementals at 20)
   • Monk feats: Diamond Soul, Quivering Palm, Empty Body, Perfect Self
   • Bards: Added Inspire Heroics
2. New Tactical Combat Options:
   • Trip Attack of Opportunity - will make your character do Trip attacks on AoOs instead of normal attacks. Requires Improved Trip.
   • Ability to do Trip Attacks as part of Full Attacks.
3. Monster Abilities
   • Added "Tripping Bite" to wolves. Makes wolves competitive animal companions now :)
   • Applied Rend to pre-existing Trolls
4. UI improvements for Crafting interfaces
   
   • Improved automatic item naming:
     Will automatically remove the "Masterwork" from the name, update the bonus, and prepend the other effects (so e.g. instead of "Masterwork Ranseur +1 +2 Holy" you'll automatically get "Holy Ranseur +2" in the item name box)
   • Added tooltips for enchantment requirements
   • Enhancement bonus has its own +/- buttons for ease of use
   • Widened crafting UI to accommodate longer names / size 12 font
5. Expanded Craft Magic Arms & Armor crafting options
   • +4 and +5 enhancement bonuses now possible
   • New weapon enchantments available: Merciful, Seeking, Speed, Thundering, Wounding
   • New Armor/Shield enchantments available: Spell Resistance 15/17/19
6. New House Rules configuration UI
   • The Configurator now features a "House Rules" button / window to configure various optional features.
   • Allow XP overflow option, so it can accumulate beyond the next level's XP.
   • Slower Levelling option - substantially slows down XP gain after level 3 so you lag 1-2 levels behind a normal game. Makes the game harder at the mid-late game stage.
7. Added support for KotB mod
8. Fixes
   • Fixed hotkeying of inventory items (it is now tolerant of the exact inventory slot)
   • Fixed Grease causing slippage to characters with Freedom of Movement
   • Fixed damage handling for Enlarged characters: Corrected damage dice for enlarged weapons, and corrected handling of off-hand / shield / buckler usage.
   • Fixed Power Attack and bonus for enlarged characters
   • Druid Wild Shape:
     • Corrected number of Natural Attacks, Model Scale and Reach.
     • Fixed use of Charge Attack while Wild Shaped
     • Fixed movement rate bug due to encumbrance
   • Fixed enchanted ammo items giving plus to damage for non-ranged weapons
   • Fixed Haste stacking
   • Fixed lingering poison effect when there is no secondary damage, such as Dragon Bile
   • Scrolls now provoke AoOs, and are also subject to Cast Defensively to prevent it
   • Cast Defensively DC corrected to account for spell level
   • Fixed skill_tumble / skill_use_magic_device python enum mixup
   • Fixed Bard's Inspire Greatness
   • Fixed Blink defensive miss chance to 50%
   • Fixed Co8 overzealous friendly-fire scripting
9. Technical
   • Added Pybind11 plugin to allow exposing C++ classes & functions to Python.
   • New python module "tpdp" for extending ToEE Modifiers (Conditions) via Python.
     See pymod_example.py inside tpgamefiles.dat.