Spire of Sorcery (Limited Early Access) News

This week's update is already available and introduces a few cool features: spell combinations, morale boost and character potential, as well as the first sketches of the new user interface.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Release notes are available on the game's forum, as well as below –––>

[h3]CONCEPT[/h3]

This week we focused on features that improve different parts of player experience: introducing combo spells, getting every character inspired when the party casts 3 spells in the first 3 rounds of the encounter, introducing character potential and bringing in the first few sketches of the new interface (we start with the travel mode).


[h3]ATTENTION: SAVED GAMES[/h3]

Because we changed the way that we generate characters (see "character potential" below), saves from earlier builds are no longer compatible with version 178.


[h3]SPELL COMBINATIONS[/h3]

A few weeks ago we had a vision of seeing one mage build up a fire spell, and another build up a frost spell, which then got combined into what looked like a first of water – and dealt damage. Since then, we've been waiting for the chance to add spell combinations into the game, and finally they are here!

You can see them in their own separate section it the Spellbook:



Each combo spell requires 2 primary spells. Complete one, cast it on the other, and it gets transformed.





Some of the combo spells offer new effects (such as removing damage or adding reflection tokens) while others are just a way to overcome the limitations of low memory (for example, "Water fist" needs two primary spells, each with just 2 elements, and issues a Damage token – which normally needs a spell that requires 3 elements).


[h3]"INSPIRED!" / MORALE BOOST[/h3]

The mechanic of "Inspired!" (which removes Fatigue from the character) has been designed a few months ago, and originally came from the mechanics of relationships and charisma. While we still haven't shipped these two mechanics, the inspiration came handy for another situation: now when player party casts 3 spells in the first 3 rounds of an encounter, every party member gets "Inspired!" and loses 2 Fatigue.



The feature is called "Morale boost" and is meant to allow you to use some extra concentration early on, knowing that you will be rewarded for your efforts if you succeed.



At some point in the future, we think that individual characters can have their own little "perks" that, when satisfied, could lead to additional inspiration – someone is motivated when they use fire, someone is motivated when they kill opponents, and someone is motivated when, say, the party gets to use a bunch of alchemic substances during one battle. We'll see!


[h3]CHARACTER POTENTIAL[/h3]

We used to generate characters as "roll a base value for each stat plus add a few traits that modify a particular stat". Character stats were also not limited by any cap, and could have been boosted until forever.

Version 178 introduces the new system:

• each character is generated with their current stat values as a dice roll +/–2 of the base value
  
  
• each character also has their "potential", i.e. how much the character can increase the specific stat
  the potential varies between 0 and +3 for each stat
  
  
• the descriptions ("Weakling", "Amnesic", etc.) are now linked to the actual values (e.g. everyone with Memory 2 is described as "Amnesic")
  
  
• the descriptions will come handy in the situations where you can choose one of several characters to join your party – you won't see full stats there, but you will see the top stat and the top potential stat there
  

NB: this part of UI currently lacks tooltips, we hope to roll them in with tomorrow's hotfix.


[h3]UPDATED INTERFACE[/h3]

While we still work on the concept of the new user interface, we already wanted to start introducing it into the game – because some things take a bit of time to playtest them. In this version, you will notice:

• Characters from player party are now shown on top of the screen. We're going to see if the size of the portraits is good enough, or should be adjusted. Each character now also has 3 icons underneath (Diseases, Injuries and Lasting effects; later, Curses will join the range) – they are not yet functional in 178, but with future updates will display the details of each active effect as a tooltip.
  
  
• Icons for Concoction, Inventory and Travel Spellbook received their own device that unites them, in the left corner. The icons will change, but the placement is final.
  
  
• Quest interface (top right corner) got an update, we'll keep developing its functionality (how to show several quests and the ones that are already available to be completed). In this build, we just wanted to map out the size and the placement of the device.
  

The actual images we used are just work in progress, of course. Below you can see a sketch of the updated Character Sheet, as a pointer to where we're moving with the update.



[h3]GETTING READY FOR TRAVEL MAGIC[/h3]

Spellbook now has an updated detailed tooltip (hover over the icon, then hit SHIFT): we're getting ready to introduce travel magic, which means that there will be actually two different Spellbooks once that happens: one for encounters, and one for use when traveling. The icons will change to reflect this. The Spellbook icon on the travel mode is now already disabled, with the tooltip explaining how it will work.


[h3]SOUND EFFECTS[/h3]

Please welcome the new SFX:

• there's now an effect now when element is dealt in character's hand
  
• there's now an effect now when character gets a new disease
  
• Wetlands biome now has an awesome ambient soundscape
  
• Ruins biome now has an ambient soundscape that is no less awesome!
  

[h3]SMALLER CHANGES[/h3]

Applying 3 or more Damage in one round in Ruins now creates environmental effect "Cloud of smoke" that lasts 1 round. The description of this effect comes to the game tomorrow, with the hotfix.

In version 177 we started to show on the left side of the encounter screen only the creatures that are waiting for their turn in the encounter queue, rather than everyone in the opposing party. Now this list has an icon, and a tooltip describing it.



The tooltips for Inventory got updated to reflect the fact that you can only use a limited range of items during the encounter.



The counter for multi-turn opponent actions got a facelift, and a tooltip.



When one opponent attacks during the encounter, other creatures in the party are slightly faded to focus the attention on the attacker (but this needs adjustment as for now the change is not big enough to be obviously noticeable).

[h3]WHAT'S NEXT?[/h3]

Next week we're going to continue improving the flow of the encounter (there are still many moments when it's easy to lose the track of what's happening and it's crucial that we address this!), we'll also start with the mockup of "game log" (we really need a place where we can see every action that happened in the game) as well as continue updating the interface. And it's time to bring in travel magic – though whether we can ship something already in the coming week, is hard to tell yet, since it's a pretty big mechanic that may need more time to implement. Somewhere in the list is also "Character Mulligan" – a way to choose characters at the start of the chapter.

Stay safe, stay healthy – and cast some spells!

This week's update is already available (we released on Thursday) and delivers a number of minor issues, including 3 new token mechanics, changes in loot and changes in map.

ゲームの日本語版はまだ完全に翻訳されていません。 ご不便をおかけして申し訳ございません。

游戏的简体中文版本尚未完全翻译。 很抱歉给您带来不便。

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Release notes are available on the game's forum, as well as below –––>

[h3]CONCEPT[/h3]

For this week, we split our dev team into three smaller groups (with some overlap). One helped prepare the upcoming Season Update on Gremlins, Inc.; another dived into the visual concepts on Spire of Sorcery that take a few weeks to complete (we're updating the whole user interface, and this needs a complex approach where everything is aligned; what you see right now in the game is functional but not beautiful); and the rest of us picked up on the Spire of Sorcery's tasks that were overdue from the earlier builds.

As a result, we've made good progress with preparing the UI updates that you will see shipped later, in versions 178-180. What we ship in this week's build is mostly smaller issues that harmonise different parts of the game.




[h3]CHANGED – EQUIPMENT[/h3]

Two changes:

1. Earlier, equipment produced results (issued tokens) at the start of the player's turn in the encounter. This didn't work that well when player party got attacked – you would get damage first, in the opponent's turn, and only then your defensive equipment would kick in. We fixed that, and equipment now issues tokens at the start of the encounter, rather than player's turn.
   
   
2. Equipped items now have a chance to be destroyed. When a character has an item equipped on them during the encounter, each Damage token accumulated by the character at the end of the encounter increases the chance that this item will be destroyed.
   

[h3]CHANGED – DISEASES: DIARRHOEA[/h3]

As a general rule, Injuries cannot be issued during the encounter while diseases can be issued whenever character's Immune system gets overwhelmed by Infection tokens. Because of this, Injuries can affect pretty much anything, but diseases cannot affect character stats used in the encounter (because otherwise we'll need to recalculate on the fly, which is confusing). One group of diseases – diarrhoea – used to affect stats in its severe form. We changed that, and it now affects only the Digestive system of the character, which is not used during encounters.




[h3]FIXED – DISEASE PROGRESSION[/h3]

Diseases progress from mild to moderate and to severe. Earlier, we had a bug where when a mild disease would be added to the character who already had the same disease in its severe state, the disease would reset to its mild form. This is no longer the case.


[h3]CHANGED – STACKED PARALYSIS[/h3]

Originally, we had the idea that after each encounter where characters experienced Paralysis, a dice roll would determine if they receive an extra injury as a result. We now harmonise this by changing the rule as follows: (a) the dice roll happens every time a character experiences Paralysis; this of this as having a chance to get complications every time you're sick with flu – so that a character can get the extra problems right in the middle of the encounter (b) the result is not an injury, but a disease from the group "Shivers" (it rolls the dice for getting a Paralysis token at the start of every turn, the more advanced the disease – the higher the chance).




[h3]CHANGED – PROLOGUE, MAP SIZE[/h3]

In version 176, we transitioned to the direction map 100x25 for this chapter. After playing for a while, and observing others play and discuss their experience in the community, we decided to change the map to 75x25.


[h3]CHANGED – TOXICITY LEVELS HARMONISED[/h3]

We reviewed the toxicity levels of every alchemic substance, and made some changes that make the items easier to grasp intuitively. For example, "bombs" such as "Oorl's pleasure" and "Fetid hisser" all have toxicity of 6; "medicine" such as "Bloodboiler" and "Dead man's tears" all have toxicity of 3; and special items that originate from toxic environments/look toxic, such as "Can of worms" and "Giggler skull", have toxicity of 5. Toxicity remains a factor in considering what to concoct – it just got a bit easier to navigate.




[h3]CHANGED – FROST TOKENS, EFFECTS[/h3]

Since a few weeks ago, 3 or more Frost issue 1 Paralysis. We wanted to up the ante for cases where characters or creatures receive even more Frost – for example, when they are stuck under the Hail for a long time. Now, 6 Frost issue 1 Damage (in addition to "Frost causes Paralysis" effect).




[h3]CHANGED – ACID TOKENS, EFFECTS[/h3]

Acid was one of the few tokens in the game that didn't have its own threat from accumulating too much of it. Several versions ago, it used to convert into Damage (3 Acid -> 1 Damage), but that went away once we added Fire+Acid and Damage+Acid combinations. So in situations where your characters are immune to Fire and face a party of Spitters... you could accumulate any number of Acid without any consequences. This changes with the current build:

1. Now, 9 Acid -> 3 Poison. And Poison is not a joke, as it self-propagates with time.
   
   
2. Now, after the encounter, each token of Acid on the character increases the chance of getting an injury from the group "Burns".
   

[h3]NEW INJURY – "BURNS"[/h3]

A new group of injuries is now in the game, "Burns". Progression:

• Mild burn: 50% chance to get 1 Damage for each token of Fire received
  
• Moderate burn: get 1 Damage for each token of Fire received
  
• Severe burn: get 2 Damage for each token of Fire received
  

[h3]NEW – OPPONENTS ARE DRAFTED RANDOMLY IN 3+ PARTIES[/h3]

If opposing party had creatures ABCDE, we used to draft ABC first, and then DE. Now we draft randomly, so you can get ADB or ECA or any other combination at the start of the encounter.


[h3]NEW – WHEN RETREATING, LOOT IS LEFT WITH THE OPPOSING PARTY[/h3]

Earlier, when player party retreated, the loot accumulated in the encounter was lost. Now it remains with the opposing party. We still don't display such loot when you look up the party in the travel mode, though – this will come with one of the later updates.


[h3]NEW – CREATURES ARE SPAWNED TO NEARBY HEXES WHEN TARGET HEX IS OCCUPIED[/h3]

Every creature party has a limit of how many creatures it may have, at most (e.g. 6). When a spawning point (such as Barrow) already has a creature party sitting on top of it, and this party is at the limit, we used not to spawn any more creatures since there wasn't anywhere to spawn them to. Now, spawning goes ahead – just to a nearby hex.


[h3]NEW – CHANCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS IN EVENTS[/h3]

Earlier, we designed events with certain probabilities in mind – such as, "Dead body has a 50% chance to have EE Smell of death" – and these probabilities rolled the dice when the event was launched. So you could re-enter the same event and get different environmental effects there. We finally transition to a system where the roll happens when the map is generated, and if a specific corpse generated with EE Smell of death, then it will always be like this, whenever you enter this particular event.

Accordingly, these events changed:

• Dead body now has a 50% chance for EE Smell of death (was: 100%)
  
• Barrow now has a 50% chance for EE Protective barrier (was: 100%)
  
• Chest now has 50% chance of EE Protective barrier and on top of it, 50% chance of EE Enchanted protection.
  
• Giggler haunt now has 30% chance for EE Poisonous environment, 20% for EE Smell of death and 50% for EE Contagious environment
  

[h3]NEW, FIXED & GENERAL UPDATE – CHARACTER SELECTION PRIOR TO ENCOUNTER[/h3]

When you select characters who will engage in the specific encounter, we have 2 small quality of life improvements:

• double click on the character now sends that character to the first available slot
  
• double click on the slot with a character assigned, now removes that character
  
• tooltips for all environment effects shown in this screen now display properly
  

But in general, we plan to remove this screen in one of the next updates, because while prototyping the new user interface, we found a way of solving every action that this screen does, through other screens. And when we can get rid of an unnecessary part of the UI, we are always happy.




[h3]SFX[/h3]

A few more SFX arrived to the game:

• Gain injury
  
• Gain stress
  
• "Victory" for when player party wins an encounter
  

[h3]WHAT'S NEXT?[/h3]

Next week we still remain divided into the same three groups, however with more focus towards Spire of Sorcery, and we hope to ship at least one new feature that we prepared during the current week (personally, I hope this will be spell combos).

This week's update is already available (since the last night!) and changes the map as well as introduces more than 3 characters in the party, and a pre-encounter character selection screen. Additionally, small improvements across the UI, new sound effects and new illustrations, and the overall adjustment of creature behaviour, spawning and attack values.

ゲームの日本語版はまだ完全に翻訳されていません。 ご不便をおかけして申し訳ございません。

游戏的简体中文版本尚未完全翻译。 很抱歉给您带来不便。

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Release notes are available here, as well as below –––>

[h3]OVERVIEW[/h3]

We managed to ship this week's update on Thursday, not on Friday, which we see as a positive sign. Now that we have a functional core of the game, the focus of the development has shifted towards preparing the game for the general Early Access release and here we need less stress and more planning. Keeping our eyes on the ball is more important than the force with which we kick it.



[h3]UPDATED MAP[/h3]

From a 50x50 map of Prologue in version 175, we now moved to 100x25. You start in the west and your destination is in the east.



This is also reflected in the new quest description.

The magic node that must be activated in order to recall the party to the Spire is now seeded in the northeastern corner:



The change reflects our desire to make Prologue more straightforward.

Certainly there will be chapters where the map will be circular, and where exploration happens in the free-form style. But for Prologue, we felt that a 360-degree freedom at start is a bit too much, and largely unnecessary.


[h3]YOU NOW START WITH 5 CHARACTERS, AND YOU CAN GET MORE CHARACTERS ALONG THE WAY[/h3]

In the earlier versions, you always started with the 3 characters – and losing 1 of them meant a restart of the chapter.

We addressed this by two means: first of all, you now start with 5 characters.



Additionally, you can get (or at least try to get) more characters from Anomalies.

Changed: instead of healing everyone, Anomalies now issue 1 additional party member.




[h3]CHARACTER SELECTION PRIOR TO ENCOUNTER[/h3]

As we finally got to play with more than 3 characters in player party, the time has come for a related feature: selection of characters prior to the encounter.

• You can start with 1, 2 or 3 characters (if you want to test yourself or limit exposure)
  
• Character stats are shown as a tooltip when hovering over any portrait
  

[h3]PLAYER/OPPONENT INITIATIVE[/h3]

During encounter, a round consists of Environment's turn, Opponent's turn and Player's turn. In previous versions, we always seeded as Environment – Opponent – Player. Now this depends on who attacked whom: when player initiates, their turn always precedes the opponent, and the other way around. What this means is that by attacking another party, you can now get the advantage of wiping some of the opponents right in the first round, before they have a chance to cause any harm to you.




[h3]REFLECTION TOKEN CHANGED[/h3]

In the earlier version, Reflection was meant to reflect one action rather than one token issued. This lead to some unexpected outcomes.

• Changed: Reflection token now reflects one token (not action) issued to its owner, 1:1.
  
• Changed: Reflection token now no longer reflects Protection tokens.
  

• Changed: Motherstone amulet now issues 3 Reflection tokens to its owner at the start of the encounter.
  

[h3]BALANCING CHANGES[/h3]

• The chances of Damage received during the encounter to cause an Injury or destroy equipped item have increased. We'll see if a further increase is merited (currently: 7% and 2%).
  
• Shadows (all types) got stronger attacks across the board, and lost small-chance attacks.
  
• Gigglers (all types) got stronger attacks, and lost small-chance attacks.
  
• Spitters now have increased vision range: up to 7, which means that their groups will see you before you see them. They, however, remain slow, and thus you have a plenty of chances to escape from them.
  
• Shadows now have increased chance of being spawned in larger groups.
  
• Spitters now have increased chance of being spawned in larger groups.
  
• Gigglers now have increased chance of being spawned in mixed groups.
  
• It is no longer possible to destroy Corpse with Cold tokens.
  
• Barrow got a bit easier to unlock, but releases more Shadows.
  
• Abandoned palace is now easier to restore.
  

[h3]NEW ILLUSTRATIONS[/h3]

• "Bloodplaster" now has its own illustration
  
• "Twilight serum" now has its own illustration
  
• "Fetid hisser" now has its own illustration
  

[h3]CHARACTERS CAN NOW BE EXPELLED FROM THE PARTY[/h3]

You don't really need it for now, but this will come handy once we implement the hunting/cooking/hunger mechanics.




[h3]EXPLORED EVENTS DISAPPEAR / CHANGE ON THE MAP[/h3]

It's been bothering everyone for a while, and now it's done:

• Corpses, when destroyed, disappear from the map
  
• Chests, when opened, disappear from the map
  
• Barrows, when unlocked, are shown in a different (opened) state on the map
  
• Giggler haunt, when destroyed, is shown in a different (destroyed) state on the map
  

[h3]SOUND EFFECTS[/h3]

• We are now able to play ambient sounds during encounters.
  
• Forest now has its own ambient sound.
  
• Environmental effect 'Burning ground' now has its own ambient sound.
  
• Environmental effect 'Cloud of smoke' now has its own ambient sound.
  
• Environmental effect 'Hail' now has its own ambient sound.
  
• When player gets a new item into their inventory, the game now plays appropriate sound.
  
• Opening an Encyclopaedia now plays a sound.
  
• When player initiates an encounter, it begins with a specific sound.
  
• When opponents initiate an encounter, it begins with a specific sound.
  
• When opposing creature progresses in preparing a multi-round action (0/2 -> 1/2), there is now a specific sound.
  

Every week we add more sound effects.

Sounds are a very important part of the player experience for us!


[h3]WHAT'S NEXT?[/h3]

Update 177 will focus on cleaning up things (we have a number of minor bugs that we haven't chased yet). We're now working on the visual concept of user interface (it's getting a facelift, which takes time to conceptualise and then execute) and on creating an easier start of the Prologue (a number of small, helpful quests to explain the basics) – some of these things will ship in 177, and some in 178 and 179.

See you in a week!

This week's update is the 5th update that we deployed in the last month, and we're very happy to be able to move at such a speed. Our overall plan is to finish Prologue and Chapter One, then release a public demo and transition into the general Early Access some time in late spring.

ゲームの日本語版はまだ完全に翻訳されていません。 ご不便をおかけして申し訳ございません。

游戏的简体中文版本尚未完全翻译。 很抱歉给您带来不便。

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


Release notes are available here, as well as below –––>

[h3]SPELLBOOK HAS SECTIONS NOW![/h3]

Requested and delivered: Spellbook now has sections, which make it easier to navigate. The sections are not separate pages but just the spots in the book, to allow you to scroll up and down as you wish, in order to compare several spells from different groups at once (coming in future updates: filtering Spellbook by specific elements).



[h3]MOVING ELEMENTS BETWEEN FORMULAS DOESN'T COST ACTION POINTS[/h3]

In previous versions, moving element from one spell formula to another was considered an action. This now does not count towards character's actions (see example below).



[h3]SUPPLIES FROM THE SPIRE[/h3]

When you start the chapter, a chest with supplies from the Spire is now dropped within a few hexes from your party. It contains a randomised set of useful items that will help the party survive the first few encounters. The chest has no environment effects to protect it, and requires only 1 Dispel token to access it. In the future, the design of this chest with supplies will change (you can already read the lore in the discovery card, it mentions the looks and the back story). We think there could be more of such supplies dropped once in a while during the chapter, with one of the upcoming updates.



[h3]RESOURCES IN THE PARTY'S INVENTORY AT START[/h3]

When you start the chapter, your party will now have some resources in its inventory already (9-12 items randomised between Cheerblossom, Bloodfroth and Stormium). These are meant to allow new players to experiment with concocting, and for experienced players to use them for basic restorative potions.



[h3]WHEN PARTY RETREATS, IT RESTORES FULL MOVE POINTS[/h3]

When you retreat, every party member gets 5 more days of stress and you give up any loot that has been accumulated in the encounter so far. But now you also restore full move points, and can get as far away as possible from the unwanted opponent! This change is meant to give retreating parties some head start from the pursuit.

[h3]CREATURE PARTIES GOT "ALERT" AND ASSOCIATED BEHAVIOUR CHANGE[/h3]

Previously, if you ran into a creature party, it would entice you and immediately try to pursue you. So coming head to head with aggressive parties in the fog of war wasn't pleasant. Now things work differently:

• when creatures spot player party, they become "alert"
  in the alert state, they spend the day investigating the surroundings – they will move 1 hex towards intruder
  
• if the intruder is spotted, creatures transition to "pursuit" and will attack in the next day
  
• if the intruder is not spotted, creatures will go back to their idle behaviour
  

This small change makes a lot of difference for exploration of the world.

The illustration below shows the creature reacting to player party, getting alert, investigating by moving one hex towards the intruder and only then becoming aggressive.



[h3]'SUMMON OFFSPRING" IS NO LONGER AN ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECT[/h3]

"Summon children" used to generate creatures when their spawning point was attacked. We now transitioned this effect to post-encounter: if you destroy spawning point, it will issue an alert for every creature of the type spawned there, within 15 hexes. The parties that receive such call, will travel to its source to investigate – already in alert state, ready to attack player.


[h3]DESIGN CHANGES[/h3]

There's a bunch of things that we adjusted here and there, we don't think it makes sense to run here a long list, but here's the major changes:

• Spitters got updated move range and vision range, and can now (slowly but surely) crawl out of ruins;
  
• Loot has been re-balanced between pretty much every event in the game, to make distribution more consistent – and thus make decisions about where to go and what to do more predictable;
  
• Spitters, Shadows, Gigglers had their spawning probabilities updated, so you're bound to meet new mixes;
  
• Spitters, Shadows, Gigglers had their attack probabilities updated, you will see more consistency between type of creature/ attack
  
• "Smell of death" dealt 1 Fear to every target, now it deals 1 Fear to random target
  
• Flash 2 and Flash 3 spells in the Spellbooks had their targets and effects updated
  

[h3]CREATURE PARTY NOW HAVE NUMERIC COUNTERS[/h3]

Earlier, we used a dot-based system to indicate how many creatures are in the party. Now we (finally!) transitioned to showing the actual number right on the map, instead of all these dots (see below: it's 3 Shadows, not *** Shadows).



[h3]ABANDONED PALACE GETS PROPER VISUALS[/h3]

The sketch of Abandoned palace from version 174 is now replaced with the proper visual (next stop for our concept artist: new alchemic items, then creatures). As a reminder, you can 1) burn 2) destroy 3) restore the palace. In terms of inspiration, we were looking at the recent archaeological finds that deal with how much color was used in the ancient times; in short: a lot of rich colours were used!



[h3]RELATIVE SIZES OF CREATURES IN ENCOUNTERS GOT REBALANCED[/h3]

We didn't have the time to re-balance them for version 174, but this is done now in version 175.


[h3]NEW DISCOVERY CARDS[/h3]

Hex effects, environmental effects now have their own discovery cards. Overall, we'll keep expanding the information available via Discovery with every update.



[h3]UPDATED POTION VISUALS[/h3]

The visuals of Dark pleasure, Dead man's tears and Throatburner have been updated (see below: ingredients and outcome).



[h3]QUEST NOTIFICATIONS[/h3]

Quest UI is still far from being perfect, we'll get to this in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, we made progress with how new quests are introduced. Before: a quest window would fully open right in your face. Now: there's a "New quest" notification window which can be clicked away with "Ok" or used to open the quest with "Access the quest" button.



[h3]QUEST ORIGINATOR IS NOW SHOWN IN THE QUEST WINDOW[/h3]

We had a bit of a disconnect where the portrait of the entity issuing a quest for you wasn't really in the quest window. We addressed this by integrating the portrait into the actual window.



[h3]SOUND EFFECTS[/h3]

• New SFX for when player's turn starts in the travel mode
  
• New SFX for when player's turn ends in the travel mode
  
• New SFX for gaining Blindness token
  
• New SFX for gaining Flash token
  
• New SFX for losing Flash token
  
• New SFX for when Flash tokens activate and convert into a Blindness token
  
• New SFX for gaining Fatigue token
  
• New SFX for when Infection tokens activate and issue a new disease
  
• Several SFX received their new versions.
  

[h3]FIXES[/h3]

A number of tooltips was edited to better reflect the actual mechanics.
A bug where multiple copies of the same potion could be concocted is fixed.
Auto-completion of necromancer's quest has been fixed.
Lots of other small issues were created and fixed in the course of this week =).


[h3]NEXT UPDATE[/h3]

The next update is set for January 21, Thursday.

But if things turn out as they did this week and the last week, then it will be January 22, Friday.

God knows we try to wrap all the new content and features by Wednesday night, and have an early testing run on Thursday, ерут everyone just keeps bringing new things to be integrated – and so we slip towards Friday. If this continues to happen, we'll just have to live with weekly updates happening on Fridays =).

We came across a bug with the undying characters over the weekend, and fixed it in the morning (as well as bundled in a bunch of smaller issues), here's what changed:

• necromancer's quest now has different outcome
  
• creature sizes shown on the travel map are adjusted for visual balance
  
• environmental effect Falling debris was triggered by Damage received through conversion of 3 Fires, this is no longer the case and, as intended, this effect is only triggered by an externally dealt Damage
  
• new sound effect: lose Fatigue
  
• new sound effect: gain Infection
  
• new sound effect: Confusion activated (updated)
  
• new sound effect: consume Bloodboiler (updated)
  
• new discover card: creature group "Gigglers" (with their own lore)
  
• new discover card: creature group "Shadows" (with their own lore)
  
• new discover card: creature group "Spitters" (with their own lore)
  
• equipped Giggler Skull used to deal 1 Fear to Magic node at the start of the encounter, this is no longer the case
  
• sometimes mountain ridges did not generate on the border of the world map, now this is fixed
  sometimes when 3 characters died, the last character got resurrected on the map, immediately, without loot. this is now fixed ("dead means dead!")
  
• encounter with Abandoned palace now has a 15% chance to get environmental effect Grey flame at the beginning
  
• earlier, every 3 Frost tokens converted into 1 Paralysis; we changed this to 3+ Frost converting into 1 Paralysis (no matter how many more Frost you had); I think this was listed in the release notes of 174, but somehow it's here also, maybe it was not working as intended?)
  

With this, we say goodbye for now, and we will see you on Thursday with version 175 (we are already hard at work on it, with 50+ issues planned, including the new creature state and behaviour).