Hi everyone, there were an absolute ton of changes in v1.25, and I wanted to add a post to talk about each portion of the changelog that might need more explaining:

(note - v1.26 fixed an issue with summon signs introduced in v1.25)

Fixed a bug that caused bottom-left and bottom-right aligned display's wex icon and session timer overlap

This was just an alignment issue, and should be fixed now. No one mentioned it but it was pointed out to me in testing and it was a bit annoying. The alignment of each overlay position should now be more consistent

Fixed a bug that caused a crash dump to be generated on exit

When the mod exits and unloads, I forgot to stop one portion of the mod before unloading it. This is now fixed

Fixed a bug in a ChrEquipReceiver patch which made some broken weapons not appear broken

This only was made apparent in a specific scenario:
- Player B invades player A
- Player A swaps their weapon
- Player A breaks their weapon
- Player B does not get the visual confirmation of the weapon being broken, and still sees it as normal.

This was purely cosmetic, and has no adverse effects on gameplay.

Fixed a crash that would occur if the mod creates it's overlay before Steam does

This is because the Steam overlay attempts to use the same function as the mod does to create it's overlay. If Steam used it first then all was well, but if the mod did first then control flow guard protection would cause a crash when Steam tried to.

Fixed a bug that caused duplication of OG DS2 saves

A typo in the save backup feature meant that ALL files in the save folder that ended in ".sl2" would be copied, regardless of whether they were actually a save or not. Seeing as DS2 OG saves are kept in the same folder, it would also back up these too.

Fixed a bug with wex dust which would cause it to ocassionally skip isolated MP areas
Wex dust has been optimised

Wex dust was a little rough around the edges, so would occasionally find an invasion successfully, but then try to invade the next area at the same time. The invasion went through as normal, but when wex started again it would skip over the additional request it sent before.

Fixed multiple crashes/freezes on mod start-up
Swapped the way the mod loads it's overlay, so it is more specific to DS2 and less prone to freezing

Some users had issues with the overlay that would cause the game to hang for a good few minutes on start up. I've changed the way the overlay is loaded, and now it directly interacts with DS2 rather than the generic overlay loader it used before.

Fixed a vanilla game bug that caused equipment models not to update when a repaired version of the same broken weapon was equipped (e.g. swapping from a broken Zweihander to repaired one)

This was purely visual, and very circumstantial. I just wanted to fix it because it was a little annoying and for completeness sake.

Added the ability to turn off blood messages, bloodstains, and wandering ghosts

Some users complained that, when in a message or bloodstain heavy area, trying to swap weapon stances (Y on controller) would instead use "Swap action" on the interactable object and not let them change their weapon stance. I've added the option to remove these features which will disable them in all areas.

Improved the setup code that runs when the mod starts up, and the way that save backups and the overlay are kept running

Some parts of the mod that weren't very active (e.g. the save backup feature that runs only occasionally) were poorly optimised. Now they use a less CPU time and are only running when they are needed.

The mod will now be able to tell whether a giant seed is playing in the host world, and will display an image in the banner to alert you of this (this can be disabled or swapped)

Now, similar to DS3, a giant seed icon will appear in the overlay when a giant seed has been used by the host. You can change this image by replacing the image in the "Blue Acolyte/Resources" folder similar to the other images if you don't like the default one.

Added autokick for players flagged as [Malicious] only

Autokick means that, when a player becomes flagged with [Malicious], the mod will kick that player (or leave the session if the flagged player is the host) without any user input. Some people requested this feature, it is disabled by default

Added network statistics, which gives basic ping information about all connected players

This has a very niche purpose of being able to visualise ping spikes, average ping, and min/max ping with each player connected using the overlay. Some users wanted this, so I added it.

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Thanks for reading. I hope this helps with any questions. If there is anything else that you're unsure of then feel free to post a comment or send me a message and I'll try to get back to you.

Take care