NEMESIA update

Welcome to the first charming flower pic of 2023. As regulars will know, we're currently naming all our updates after flowers, occult or otherwise. This is the Danish Flag cultivar of nemesia strumosa:

(What would you call that colour? Dark fuchsia? Bloody burgundy? Clarified vermilion? Peaceful Grail?)

Now! here's is the reason I've marked this as a Major Update. It's only relevant if you use mods:

- To work, DLL mods now require the GHIRBI, THE GATEKEEPER core mod installed and enabled. The mod can be found in Steam Workshop, or on Cultist Simulator GOG discussions page.
- To avoid confusion, DLL mods can't be enabled at all without GHIRBI, THE GATEKEEPER. Disabling GHIRBI automatically disables all enabled DLL mods.

I talked about this here, but the short version: we're putting some an extra confirmation layer to protect against the _remote but theoretically possible_ risk of malicious mods. If you use any significant mods, you may need to install and enable GHIRBI.

On to the other fixes. As usual, Chelnoque's notes, my exegesis:

- Ally recruitment action in Exile didn't display its end description properly.

Exile continues to be the wild borderlands of Cultist Simulator

- Wounded cultists turned into Risen lacked Follower aspect.

I think poor Neville should be allowed to rest in dubious peace, bt since everyone's _going_ to drag him from the grave...

- Display of verb window is slightly more resilient against lower frame rates.

We all want to be more resilient against lower frame rates.

- Removed secret stray tech text from <sprite name=forge> ascension rite.

So secret that even I don't know what it was. This means either Chel is embarrassed or he is preserving me from embarrassment.

- THE INVISIBLE SERAPEUM is renamed THE SIXTH HISTORY.

Because of the Sixth History Community license! Last year we opened our IP for wider use (with some caveats and limits, natch). It would be possible now to turn a mod into a complete game in its own right and sell it, if that 's your bag.

- Various enhancements in the mod panel display.

"AK's logging code had a silly performance bug that actually started to matter in edge cases."

- Debug console now opens on ctrl + ~ (instead of just ~). People are now safe from opening it on accident and ruining their playthrough in all kinds of ways.

This was always super on-theme - you accidentally find a key combination that allows you to PIERCE THE VEIL OF THE MUNDANE - but it was one of the few remaining frequent causes of support tickets. Anyway the VEIL OF THE MUNDANE is now a bit more robust.

Incidentally Subnautica introduced the same feature on the same day that we put NEMESIA on the beta branch. Coincidence or conjunction? The Hours know.

- Debug console now can be opened in the main menu, allowing to see the log without starting the game.
- Other various small console improvements.
- Clear console button now works.
- achievements.json file had an incorrect path on Linux.
- MODDING: Levers (cards that are transferred between playthroughs) can now be defined and modified by JSONs.
- MODDING: 'description_long' in mod synopsis can now be left empty in order to preserve current Workshop mod's description. The game no longer crashes if this property isn't set.

Lottie wants me to say 'wishlist Book of Hours', though if you like Cultist Simulator enough to read all the way down you've probably already wishlisted the sequel. It's an open question whether we'll get a short demo in Next Fest - I lean no, cos there are distractions - but there will be a closed beta in the next coupla months. So let's end as we began with flowers:

(Book of Hours: the Physic Garden at Hush House)

- AK