Dahlias. The Aztecs ate them. Mexico selected it as the national flower. And PG Wodehouse named Bertie Wooster's favourite aunt after them. Here she is in full cry: [i]"To look at you, [Bertie], one would think you were just an ordinary sort of amiable idiot - certifiable, perhaps, but quite harmless. Yet, in reality, you are worse a scourge than the Black Death. I tell you, Bertie, when I contemplate you I seem to come up against all the underlying sorrow and horror of life with such a thud that I feel as if I had walked into a lamp post. I thought as much. Well, it needed but this. I don't see how things could possibly be worse than they are, but no doubt you will succeed in making them so. Your genius and insight will find the way. Carry on, Bertie. Yes, carry on. I am past caring now. I shall even find a faint interest in seeing into what darker and profounder abysses of hell you can plunge this home. Go to it, lad... I remember years ago, when you were in your cradle, being left alone with you one day and you nearly swallowed your rubber comforter and started turning purple. And I, ass that I was, took it out and saved your life. Let me tell you, young Bertie, it will go very hard with you if you ever swallow a rubber comforter again when only I am by to aid.”[/i] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//31397842/5b6b2ef2e2f4e5aa5b393a17e5712ff1ddb3c34a.png[/img] Next time you're playing as the Bright Young Thing and worrying about juggling Dread, remember that at least you don't have a Wooster aunt to worry about. I should probably have put one in. Dahlia is a stability patch, though for the first time in years, it does include a [i]tiny [/i]extra bit of content. (I need to sort out localisations in four languages for that bit of content, which is why I don't often add content any more.) === [b]- Hardened against some crashes from less well behaved mods - Hardened against corrupted config.ini files - If your save is corrupted and there are valid backups, you won't need to rename manually - Prisoners can now be freed, murdered, or enlightened. - Aspect sprites now appear again in Apostle runs and Dancer - Tidied up options panel[/b] === You may have noticed the patches have slowed down lately. Those of you who follow the Weather Factory blog will have seen some recent drama. Lottie and I reckon 40% of our time in the last couple of months has been taken up with that drama, and I HOPE it's now resolved. This frees me up, but I also have BOOK OF HOURS to make. So we are going to bring in a little more part-time testing and dev resource (from a name some of you will know). This means more stability, fewer hotfixes. (I HOPE). Bonus content. [h2]The Book of Issues[/h2] https://github.com/weatherfactory/cultistsimulator-visible/issues If you're not technically inclined or don't know what a GitHub is, please keep just mailing us at support@weatherfactory.biz. (Or post on the forums, and I'll probably swing by after a week and say 'yes it's fixed' or 'idk send me your logs'.) [h2]The Books of the New Forge[/h2] Secondly, here's our modding guide, [b]now expanded with a huge community guide, manual and tutorial, thanks to our stalward modders.[/b] The community guide is 100% unofficial and I haven't checked it's all accurate, but it looks really good. [url=https://weatherfactory.biz/modding] https://weatherfactory.biz/modding[/url] [url=https://weatherfactory.biz/modding] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//31397842/41f1c3bf8ee22a42ad7c2c8abef0285ad206bda1.png[/img] [/url] [h2]The Locksmith's Dream, Volume ?[/h2] Thirdly, [url=https://locksmithsdream.com/]The Locksmith's Dream[/url], our live event spin-off, is now live. The beta's long sold out but we still have space in a couple of events later this year. https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//31397842/2e18b0b45a7b63737de0a5df7586520389ee294a.png[/img] [h2]The Book of Hours[/h2] And finally, I mentioned [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1028310/BOOK_OF_HOURS/]BOOK OF HOURS[/url]. Lottie and I have been digging deep into the library's long, long history. I'm tying it into mundane and secret histories; Lottie is putting together the look of the library, in its half-dozen different phases. The place is well over a thousand years old, and has grown like a coral reef. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//31397842/293331ac673cfabc1ef64f2638d6cbca46eca459.png[/img] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//31397842/7b08cff290670ee9be375cea6c47eb4c481549d7.png[/img] Those of you who've read [url=https://secrethistories.net/provocations]my book, 'Against Worldbuilding...'[/url], might unkindly remark that this looks a lot like worldbuilding. My response is firstly, in a John Oliver sort of voice, no, no it's not, it's [i]setting design[/i]. But more seriously it would be that there's nothing wrong with historical timelines for invented worlds. The problem is inventing a world by [i]starting [/i] with a timeline, when what you want is a place at the edge of the world and a dozen centuries of sanctuary, madness, healing, and death. And books.