v0.5.2

What's New

• Co-op, set up as in the original — the Internet and Network screens, the Host Game box and the staging area are drawn from the original's own screens and art. The Network list shows each game's players and ping, and a game can have a password.
• Game Settings and Map Settings — the host sets the player limit, difficulty, time limit, Drop on Death, team play, player vs. player, new characters only, pausing, joining in progress, the party's start location and the password. Every change is announced to the players.
• Your own co-op character — choose a saved character, create a new one, or import a hero from a single-player save. It is saved on your computer as you play and comes back in the next game you host or join.
• Dwarf and skeleton heroes — Create New Character offers the original's four multiplayer characters.
• Teams — the original's 16 team signs, team chat with Shift+Enter, and each player's name over their head, colored by team.
• Join a game in progress — when the host allows it, a late or returning player joins beside the host. Players stay within reach of the host's view.
• Death in co-op — Resume, Respawn as Ghost or Exit Game, as in the original. A ghost lives again after a minute or at a Resurrection Shrine.
• The host leaving ends the game, as in the original: every player's character is saved and a notice returns them to the main menu.
• Other players' gear — other players hold their weapons and shields, and chat shows their names.
• Fan translations — language and patch archives load over the game's own, as the original does (#34).
• Frame rate — a new install caps the frame rate at 60 when vsync is off, instead of drawing frames nobody sees (#31).
• Windows and Linux — these are the first Windows and Linux builds since v0.5.0, so they also carry everything in the v0.5.1 notes: the easing camera, faster frames, gear that equips itself and the rest.

What's Fixed

• Joining internet games — joins get through, a game hosted after you opened the list now shows up (the list searched only once), and an IP address typed on the Internet screen dials it directly. A joiner whose host doesn't answer keeps asking.
• Co-op lag — a party with a boy and a girl hero no longer rebuilds both looks every frame, which slowed the game and kept taking more memory.
• Co-op bandwidth — the host sends far less: about 0.2 Mbit/s for eight players, so a home connection can host.
• Monsters in co-op — every player fights the same monsters, monsters attack every player, kills reach everyone and broken props break for everyone (#33).
• A covered window no longer freezes the host's world for everyone.
• Hero orders — attacking stops the walk, a move or stop order ends an attack, walk-ups follow the target, clicks pick only monsters you can see and the crate under the cursor, and loot comes only from the hero's own floor (#32).
• Saving during the opening — a save made while the farmer holds the hoe no longer loses the hero's weapon.
• Dropped potions and spell books — a part-drunk potion dropped or handed to another player arrives as it was, and a spell book keeps its spells (dropping a book in single player lost them too).
• Logging out of Windows — logging out or shutting down with the game open now saves your co-op character, the host's world and your options, as closing the window does.

Everyone in a co-op game needs v0.5.2: it cannot play with earlier builds.

Known issues

• Co-op on a Mac hasn't been played on a real Mac yet; please report how it goes.
• Hired companions can join you in co-op (the original allowed none in multiplayer), but they aren't kept with your co-op character.
• The whole party starts at the host's start location. In player vs. player, area and chain spells don't hurt other players.
• An internet game can't be joined by IP address, and after a crash rejoining can take about 45 seconds.
• A co-op game can't be hosted from a saved game.
• With a host upload under about 400 kbit/s and many monsters, the other players see the world about 0.6 s late.
• Video recording is Windows only.