Version 202 is here: improvements across the board!

We just updated the game to version 202.

This update packs a few dozen improvements in mechanics and UI, and adds new content:

The speed of all token animations during encounters has increased. When a target receives, for example, 3 Acid tokens, we used to play Acid, Acid, Acid – now we play Acid just once, and add 3 tokens at the same time (unless there is absorption, deflection, conversion or similar other mechanics at play). This seems like a small change, but we believe this resolved most of the concerns related to "spellcasting takes too long" matters.
In travel mode, indication of move points of the player party moved to the top of the party.
In travel mode, you now move the player party 1 hex at a time. The overall limit (5 move points per day, by default) hasn't changed, we just found that limiting the move to "1 hex per click" solves a number of issues that were previously challenging (e.g. what happens if party passes a passive object like destroyed giggler haunt on the way to an active object like a party of watchmen).

The immediate path is now shown with bold line, the path that remains possible within the current day is shown with dotted line and every hex that remains reachable within the current day has an anchor point displayed. If you feel like we should make this indication more pronounced, let us know in the comments!
The mechanics of Retreat is updated: now, player party can retreat from any encounter at any time.

We didn't think that having certain opponents disallow retreat was too much fun (perhaps the prohibition to retreat will re-appear with some of the big boss encounters).
The consequences of Retreat changed: now characters no longer take a hit on their mood, but rather get Fatigue tokens.

The default setting is 2 Fatigue tokens per retreating character for each opponent that remains in the encounter. We'll build a more detailed window "this is what's going to happen if you retreat" by the time of the next update.
We added the option to change the cost of retreat to the initial Difficulty Settings at the start of the campaign. "Harder" means getting 2 Fatigue tokens per opponent, "Easier" allows to get only 1 such token.

Speaking of Difficulty Settings, we made things a bit clearer by labelling two current columns as "HARDER" and "EASIER", to clarify how each change affects the game.
Four personal traits got updated: some mages now are happy to retreat (Mood +2), some are unhappy (Mood -5), some get double the Fatigue penalty and some get half the Fatigue penalty.
The quest window got a bit of a facelift:
When the quest can be completed, we now show the button that allows to immediately complete it, without opening the quest window first:
Player party's sustenance level has moved from personal inventory to Cooking Pot, where it fits better. And this is also the only place where you can consume cooked food, so that you can complete the whole cycle without leaving the same window: check the sustenance, cook a meal, and consume it.
Use confirmations are in the game, finally! Whenever you are about co consume cooked food, a curative substance, a stat-improving substance, to sample a resource for changing visual appearance – or to use an encounter substance in encounter – we now show a window with the expected effects:

The notifications for cooked food and alchemic and food resources show everything that they should. There are a few known bugs, however: you can consume (without effect) encounter substances outside of encounter; and the notification for stat-improving substances (a) shows the wrong tag and (b) does not show the main effect (the effect applies properly, though, it's just a UI miss). We'll address these with a hotfix during the coming week.
You can now appoint default Cook and default Alchemist via character profiles, and also check who is currently appointed – this helps to make better informed choices.
We added new music to Chapter 1! For the western part of the map, where player party runs away from the Inquisition, Anna created the theme of "Chase"; and once you enter the Wild Lands, the music changes to the theme created specifically for that region.
We now indicate future spawning! When you'll see this red visual effect, this means there's a party about to spawn here:
We changed the discovery process: now when you discover a new creature or location, we move the camera to focus on this object as well as drop a small card in the top left corner of the screen (clicking on the card opens the relevant page in Discovery Book).
We changed the flow of new campaign: now when you press "New campaign", you get the character mulligan followed by Chapter 1, and only then you arrive to the campaign map. That's us getting ready to add the Spire functionality (earlier, with the campaign map available immediately, we had to disallow accessing the Spire before you would complete the first chapter).
On the campaign map, we now show the dwellers that control the specific regions.

Each of these icons is clickable and displays the lore behind the creatures (known issue: Protectors of the Forgotten City are not clickable, we'll address this with the hotfix early in the week).
Spellbook updates: we removed all combo spells from the initial spellbooks, these were a bit too much for new players; combo spells will return via an upgrade that you can do at the Spire. We also updated a number of spells, including second levels of Fire and Frost, and changed a few formulas.
Finally, changes in tokens: some of the tokens are now assigned to the Astral group (Fear, Fatigue, Confusion, Blindness) and some to the Corporeal group (Damage, Infection, Poison, Flash, Acid, Frost, Fire). Protection now absorbs only the corporeal tokens, while Dispel now absorbs the astral tokens.

Additionally, a few changes in the specific token mechanics: Frost used to issue 1 Damage whenever it was "3 or more", now it issues 1 Damage for every 3 tokens of Frost. 3 Flash used to convert into 1 Blindness, now 3 Flash issue 1 Blindness and remain on the target. And 1 Blindness applied to owner with Flash now removes 1 Flash.

That's it for today – and we're aiming to release a small hotfix early next week.

The next update will focus on Chapter 2 and further improvements in UI

Team Charlie Oscar
Vilnius, Lithuania