Knights of the Chalice 2 Development Update

The folks at RPG Codex have stumbled upon a new development update for the upcoming Knights of the Chalice 2. The contents of this and other updates are restricted to existing buyers of Heroic Fantasy Games products, but the Codex post provides a helpful mirror that we can all consume.

The update itself is pretty wide in its scope, as it touches on the game's editor functionality, implementation of spells and combat maneuvers, dealing with characters who fall down, and spell interactions. All this, plus a number of descriptive screenshots. Here's a short excerpt:

Combat Maneuvres

All the combat maneuvres, such as Trip, Disarm and Sunder, have been implemented (except Distract, which I may leave aside completely), as described in the page about feats. With the right feats, they can be performed as a free action when taking an attack of opportunity. Enemies can do that too, of course. So, for example, you can use Trip as an AOO, just like the original rules of D&D 3.5 allow.

You choose the action to take during AOOs in the character's Spec screen (Specifications). From that screen, you can also access a new screen which I have created for the wizard/sorcerer transformation (see screenshot). It's a simple screen showing whether you meet the requirements or not.

Additions to the Editor

In the spell editor, I've implemented a previewer allowing to preview the graphical effects of the spell you are editing. Basically the previewer launches an empty module and executes a script that casts the spell currently being edited, and then it returns to the spell editor. See the first picture below, that's the previewer.

In the module editor and the game, I have implemented shortcut keys to toggle between the editor and the game easily. If you use the key during the game, it makes a quick save and then opens the editor at the position that you were at in the game. If you use the key in the editor, it loads the quick save and launches the game from the saved position.