NoX Core test build, 2026-10-28, build 4 (commit 6a7a550)

  Unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Electronic Arts or Westwood
  Studios. Nox is a trademark of Electronic Arts Inc. Needs your own copy of the game; no game
  files are included. Licence: GNU GPL v3 or later (LICENSE); see NOTICE.txt and
  THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.txt. Source code: https://github.com/mordentral/NoXCore

SETUP
  Unzip anywhere and run noxcore.exe: the game's own main menu (Multiplayer, pick or create a
  character, Options). No install needed; the Visual C++ runtime DLLs are included.

  noxcore.exe isn't signed yet, so Windows may warn about an unknown publisher. On the blue
  "Windows protected your PC" screen choose More info, then Run anyway. To avoid the
  "Open File - Security Warning" on every start, right-click the downloaded zip before
  unzipping it, choose Properties, tick Unblock and press OK.

  NoX Core finds your Nox install by itself, as OpenNox does: GOG (Galaxy or the offline
  installer), Origin, Nox Reloaded and the original CD install, through the registry and their
  usual folders. To use another copy, set the NOX_DATA environment variable to its folder (the
  one with GAME.EXE, video.bag, thing.bin), or start noxcore.exe with --game-dir FOLDER.

  It looks in its own folder first, so you can also unzip it straight into your Nox folder.

  Each run writes noxcore-log.txt next to noxcore.exe; it says which Nox folder was used and why. If
  nothing happens, look there first, or start DebugRun.bat, which shows the log in a window as it
  runs; send noxcore-log.txt with any report.

  The HD images are a separate download on the website: unzip it next to noxcore.exe
  (README-HD-images.txt, in that download, says more). Options' "Use HD Images" turns them on.
  They're only updated when the art changes, so keep them when you get a new build (this build
  uses the HD images of 2026-10-26, build 2). The HD
  images of 2026-10-13 and later need this build or a newer one (older builds show the original
  art with them).

  Also in this download:
    noxcontent.exe  the NoX Content Editor, for advanced users: the game's images and HD images, and
                    its data, texts and sounds edited into content packs (CONTENT_EDITOR.txt says
                    how; it never writes into your game folder)
    mods\          game-mode mods (Game Modes and Host Custom list them); one comes with this build,
                    deep_delve: Deep Delve, an action-RPG mode for NoX Core players, still a work in
                    progress. (If you unzip over an older build, delete mods\arena_ref and
                    mods\ctf_ref: those two example mods are gone.)
    DebugRun.bat    starts NoX Core with a window showing its log as it runs

  Files NoX Core writes in your Nox folder:
    nox.cfg      when you close Options: the game's own settings and key bindings, in the
                 game's format (the original game reads it too)
    noxcore.cfg  NoX Core's own switches (frame rate, bloom, lighting, smooth effects,
                 smoothing, brightness, the kill feed, mouse acceleration and speed, display, vsync,
                 and a game you host's update rate and map vote)
    Save\*.plr   characters you create; "<name> (Co-op).plr", your character from a friend's
                 co-op campaign (the one you joined with is left as it was)
    Save\Coop\   the co-op campaigns you host: their saves, laid out as the solo game's, with
                 the party's characters beside them
    maps\<map>\user.rul, <name>.rul   a game you host's rules (Server Settings' Go and Advanced)
    maps\DEL_LOB, maps\DEL_1   a Delving Mode game you host: its generated lobby and level,
                 deleted again when the game ends
    maps\UTD_LOB, maps\UTD_1   an Undead Tide game you host: the same
    maps\<name>\<name>.map   maps you save from the Map Editor (it never saves over the game's own maps;
                 its own settings and layout are kept in %APPDATA%\noxcpp\noxsdl\editor)
    maps\DD*     a Deep Delve game you host: its generated areas, deleted again when the game ends

  And next to noxcore.exe:
    moddata\     what mods keep between games, such as Deep Delve's characters, stash and progress
                 in the games you host


NEW IN THE FOURTH BUILD OF 2026-10-28

  Options: Screen Resolution is now a drop-down, with a new ultra widescreen choice, 1376 X 576
    (21:9), for 3440 x 1440 and 2560 x 1080 screens. It shows about as much of the world as
    1024 X 768: more to the sides, less above and below. The widescreen choices say their shape:
    1024 X 576 (16:9) and 1376 X 576 (21:9).
  Deep Delve: party play. A party strip at the top, monsters scale with the party, the party
    votes to change area, anyone can use an open portal, each player has their own vendor stock,
    and Alt shows loot names. Changing area asks everyone, including players in town. The party
    strip hides when you're alone. The Character window has an option to always show loot names,
    and a portal stays open for the party after its owner leaves, until the map changes.

NEW IN THE THIRD BUILD OF 2026-10-28

  Solo campaign: after dying and loading the autosave, your spells are no longer greyed out and
    you can pick up, use and talk again.
  Solo campaign: a solo game now plays only on this computer, on a free port, so a server or
    another game already using port 18590 can no longer take your join (which showed as "join
    refused" and dropped you back to the menu). A game you host moves up a port if 18590 is
    taken, as the original does, and says so in the console.
  Fixed a crash when loading a game after playing one.
  Campaign NPCs no longer get the friendly dot over their heads (the solo campaign shows none, as
    in the original).
  Talking to things, picking things up and using them follow the original's targeting exactly:
    the thing's own extent, the same distances, a Use hand for a mimic still pretending to be a
    chest, and no pick-up hand while you're dragging an item.
  Mods: lines, tooltips, drag, mouse-up and wheel, windows without a frame, click-through and
    HUD windows, and labels over things in the world.
  Deep Delve now runs on its own spell book: the passive tree gives your spells, abilities and
    creatures. Earth's first spell is Meteor; Magic Missile and Pixie Swarm unlock at level 1,
    with a bigger first node; spells cast at the level the tree gives them.

NEW IN THE SECOND BUILD OF 2026-10-28

  Conjurers can charm creatures again in arena and CTF games: every network game starts with the
    full creature guide, as in the original.
  Mods can now control which spells, abilities and creatures players have. In such a game NoX
    Core players see only what they've been given in their book, bars and summoning list, and
    summon those creatures without needing Summon Creature.
  Deep Delve: conjurers get a fourth branch in the passive tree, Beasts, which gives summons from
    the bat up to the stone golem; a warrior's new ability goes straight onto the bar.
  A creature added to your field guide without a fanfare now shows in your book, as on the
    original client.


NEW IN THE BUILD OF 2026-10-28

  Deep Delve (work in progress), an action-RPG mode for NoX Core players, written as a mod: Game
    Modes and Host Custom list it. A town with a stash, a vendor and a passive skill tree that
    gives your spells and abilities; act 1, seven generated areas with waypoints, a town portal
    and a boss; monsters in tiers and loot by rarity; a character kept between games.
  Mods can show windows with pictures and sounds from their assets folder, answer keys and both
    mouse buttons, and bring weather: rain, snow, storms and wind (Options, "Weather Effects":
    On, Reduced or Off).
  A mod can be for NoX Core only; players on the original game who try to join are told why.
  Mod projects in the Map Editor (the Mod menu): make a mod, write its scripts with checks as you
    type, test it with Play Mod (it reloads when you save), preview its windows and export it as
    a zip. The "Game Mode Mods" videos on the website show how.
  More for mod scripts: saving data between games, items with chosen modifiers, events for kills,
    damage, pickups and equipping, generated maps with teleport pentagrams and lights, timers, and
    granting spells, abilities and creatures.
  Content packs can add new object types based on existing ones; a new weapon or armour piece
    works and looks like the one it's based on. Joining a game whose packs add types needs the
    same packs, and you're told which.
  The game list marks games that need a newer NoX Core ("Update needed") and explains instead of
    a failed join. Joining games on the original game is as quick as before.
  Trap glyphs fade with distance as in the original.
  Safer games: a map script that loops forever is stopped instead of freezing the server; a server
    can no longer make your game read or write files outside its maps folder; damaged or hostile
    files and network data are refused instead of crashing the game.
  A game you host takes about a third less time per frame.
  Delve: barrels hold the gems they were meant to (a wrong name kept them empty).
  The example mods arena_ref and ctf_ref are gone: Deep Delve takes their place.


NEW IN THE BUILD OF 2026-10-27

  Mana obelisks: in games NoX Core hosts, an obelisk's picture no longer gets stuck at the wrong
    charge. After a far player's Drain Mana ray touched it, it could keep its old look for good
    while its mana and sound still worked.
  The rolling boulders turn as they roll, as in the original (they showed one fixed picture).
  Monster generators show their damaged looks as they're hurt, and the animation over them, as in
    the original.
  With no red potions, the health potion slot (X) takes meat, else a red apple, as in the
    original, shown with its own picture. Each potion slot's number is its first stack's, as the
    original shows.
  Co-op Campaign, and quests with more than one player: a player in a conversation, a shop or a
    story scene no longer vanishes for the others, players on the original game included. (The
    original game stops sending a player while they're held still, which no one saw alone.)


NEW IN THE SECOND BUILD OF 2026-10-26

  Game Modes and Host Custom:
    - The main menu's Game Modes is now the same list as Host Custom (the game list's look), for
      games on this computer only.
    - Both lists show the built-in modes first, marked "built in": the Delve, Undead Tide, the
      Co-op Campaign (Host Custom only), Quest and the Map Editor; then any mods you install.
    - Host Custom > Map Editor is back: it hosts a shared map-building session (players on the
      original game can join and play, but not edit). The editor's File > Host a Session stays.

  NoX Content Editor: Play buttons for sounds, on the Audio, Dialog and Sound events lists, beside
    spells', abilities' and walls' sound fields, and for the game's own sound next to a pack's.
    The mod page no longer shows a "conflicting ID" warning.


NEW IN THE BUILD OF 2026-10-26

  Faster:
    - Hosting is much lighter: a host's work per frame is 35 to 53% less (big maps, the Delve,
      Undead Tide), and drawing the world is about a third faster.

  Host Custom and mods:
    - Host Custom lists the game modes the way the game list shows games: Quest, the Delve, Undead
      Tide, the Co-op Campaign and any mods you install. Pick one to see its settings.
    - The Map Editor's shared sessions are now hosted from the editor itself: File > Host a Session.
    - Mods: the mods folder beside noxcore.exe holds game modes written as scripts. Mods are only
      ever installed by hand; nothing is downloaded. Two come with this build, Arena (reference)
      and Capture the Flag (reference): they play like the original modes and show how a mode is
      written.
    - Delve and Undead Tide records are kept only by the games the NoX Core servers host (the
      leaderboard on the website); games you host keep none, and tide_records.txt is no longer
      written.

  Delve and Undead Tide:
    - Delve: heat, Renewal and regenerating elites act once per beat, as designed. Before, they
      could act many times a beat, depending on the host's speed.
    - A Delve level that can't be built no longer ends the game: it carries on with the last map.
    - Two players with the same name in the Tide's lobby are no longer taken for one.

  Co-op Campaign:
    - A difficulty on Host Custom's Co-op row: Easy, Normal (as before), Hard and Nightmare.
    - Experience for kills goes to the whole party.
    - A character brought from multiplayer starts with an empty spellbook; a campaign character
      keeps its own. A player who joins part-way through gets the party's lowest level and every
      spell the party knows (spell bars are filled by hand).
    - The story's rewards go to everyone: spells, abilities, gold, gear and potions. Keys, War01A's
      letter and the Oblivion staves stay single.
    - You see your friends' health bars, as in the original game's Quest.
    - When the host talks during a story scene, everyone sees and hears the conversation; only the
      host's answers count.
    - Fixed: after talking to Horvath in Wiz03A, the party could be left on a black screen.
    - A friend joining with a character of another class is told why before being let go.

  Single player:
    - The spellbook and spell bar show only the spells you know (they listed every spell outside
      Quest).

  Smaller:
    - The smooth Force Field stays centred on you as you run and turn.
    - A very long server message is cut at 254 characters instead of garbling what follows it.

  NoX Content Editor (noxcontent.exe, replacing the NoX Image Editor):
    - For advanced users. Besides the images and HD images, it edits the game's tuning numbers,
      monsters, sound sets, weapons, armour and enchantments, object types, texts, sounds and
      dialog, characters, rules and the map cycle.
    - Changes are saved as content packs in mods\<pack>\content\, which noxcore.exe loads when it
      starts. It never writes into your game folder.
    - Each change says who sees it: gameplay numbers reach everyone in games you host; looks
      (images, sounds, texts) only players with the same pack. Changes that would break the game for
      players without the pack are refused. CONTENT_EDITOR.txt says more.

NOT DONE YET
  Save Character in the in-game menu, its Vote on servers running the original game (the kick
  vote), the world map for picking a chat map when hosting, latency compensation's hold (its
  switch is there), some sounds in games you host, the quest's lives display and game-over
  screen, the chat's Find / Page, Options and user menu, and the rest of the HD art (the
  players and monsters, among others).
