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DD#113 The Stone Philosophers

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another developer's diary that is totally not about the Philosopher's Stone, instead, it's about the Stone Philosophers.

With the opening of the Floor of Philosophy in the Grand Library, you now have a chance to talk to those Statues of Philosophers, along with some corrupted books on this floor.

By talking, I mean they will use quite a lot of speech-based combat skills to attack you, causing emotional damage.

One of those skills is the newly added "Kenga Speech" which can cause damage based on the user's speech skill levels and stun targets. The name of this skill originated from the Chinese/Japanese word "懸河" to describe someone with extraordinary debating skills to support their points with endless arguments and an enormous vocabulary of words like the flow of rivers. Coincidently, it's also an Indian name for girls with the meaning the river. It may also be considered related to the horned deity "Ikenga" worshipped by people living in Southeastern Nigeria, a deity that encourages people to pursue greatness. If we keep digging, we can find it's also the name of a Fintech company located in modern-day South Africa. Isn't that fascinating that people all around the world with different cultures and language backgrounds are using this word? Whether this is evidence of the human collective unconscious or the remaining memory before the destruction of the Tower of Babel is another topic to study later.

With new enemies, it also comes with new rewards. To start with, you can turn those Statues of Philosophers into your pets and use their speech skills and speech-based combat skills to benefit you in your journey in this supernatural world. Should you decide to destroy them and the corrupted books come with them, the loot is also good. You can find stones, curse stones, skill books, spell books, crafting recipes, religious books, and scrolls from them.

Talking about scrolls, we just got some new scrolls this week as well.

Well, the parody is quite obvious.
The Scroll of Objection! with a red figure pointing a finger forward is a scroll that can give a character the "objection!" effect that can reflect all incoming emotional damages from skills for one turn.

In both of the Chinese versions, the effect is using the Japanese words from where the easter egg coming from.
The Scroll of Paradox, with a platypus that has not yet become a fossil on it, can cause confusion among enemies.

Meanwhile, some progress has been made in the main story. The Path to the Black Pyramid is now accessible. A document left by one of the missing professors, illustrating their unfortunate journey can also be found in the otherworldly version of the Desert of the Trapped. But, as always, I am not going to spoil too much about the story here.

Now, let's talk about another a bit more serious topic. Have you ever questioned the meaning of your common daily life? What's all that about when you go to work/school every day and repeat? What's all that about when I update this game every day and write a developer's diary every week? Most of us, are common people that may be forgotten in history one day. Most of what we did for decades may never be known to most other people just like this almost 19-year-old game. Such is absurd of life. Maybe nothing will ever change after all that you and I have done. But, will you just give up? Here is my answer:

You can find the "Le Mythe de Sisyphe" of Camus on the Floor of Philosophy.


Today's changelog:
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[Effect]New effect: Objection! (Reflect 100% incoming emotional damage from skills)
[Item]New item: Scroll of Objection!
[Item]Scroll of Item Illusion can now be recycled into paper.
[Loot]Statue of Philosopher may now drop Scroll of Objection!
[The Path to the Black Pyramid]Added some stairs and decorations. More parts of this area are accessible.
[The Path to the Black Pyramid]Added shade enemies on the 2nd floor of the path. They will not leave this area.
############System#################
Added a function to get all accessible tiles from a certain point of the map.
Added a module to cache calculated map area data.
############Debug##################
Fixed a bug that acid element-related special attribution may not display in item description windows.
Fixed a bug that Scroll of Paradox can only be used once per battle.

Update, Version 20230316


English
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[Egypt]New location: The Path to the Black Pyramid.
[Butterfly]Added butterfly support to The Path to the Black Pyramid.
[Lost in the Sand]Story continues. (Variable from 820 to 825)
[Lost in the Sand]Added a chest that contains a new document "Professor Singh's Note #3" and some supplies in the other world version of the Desert of the Trapped.
[Battle]If a skill's damage is absorbed by "Spirit of Guardian" or reflected by "Spirit of Mirror," its state effect will not apply to its target.
[Effect]Spirit of Guardian will no longer automatically get removed after battles.
[Effect]Spirit of Mirror and Spirit of Guardian will no longer get removed by one single physical attack, they will now trigger one after another.
[Effect]Adjusted the effect display priority, the mirror is now always above the guardian.
############System#################
Added code support to make elemental-based reflection effects.
############Debug##################
[Pet]Fixed a bug that gives mummy water elemental bonus.
简体中文
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【埃及】新区域:前往黑暗金字塔之路
【蝴蝶】前往黑暗金字塔之路上可以使用蝴蝶。
【迷失于沙粒中】故事剧情继续。(变量820 -> 825)
【迷失于沙粒中】在异世界版本的被困者的沙漠中加入了一个箱子,其中有一份新文档【辛格博士的笔记#3】以及一些补给品。
【战斗】如果一个技能的伤害被守护精灵吸收,或者被镜之精灵反弹,则其可能造成的状态变化不会发生。
【状态】守护精灵现在不会在战斗结束后自动消失。
【状态】一次物理攻击不会同时消除目标身上的守护精灵和镜之精灵,会先后触发。
【状态】更改了状态现实优先级,如果同时存在守护精灵和镜之精灵,会优先显示镜之精灵。
############System#################
加入了基于元素属性的反弹效果的代码支持。
############Debug##################
【宠物】修复了一个造成木乃伊释放水属性技能会有加成的Bug。

Update, Version 20230315


English
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[Item]New Item: Eye Drop. (Remove blind. They are sold in hospitals or even grocery stores.)
[Item]New Item: Scroll of Paradox (Cause confusion on enemy groups. It does have a platypus on its icon. :P)
[Loot]Added an item drop list for Statue of Philosopher. It contains stone, Curse Stone, Scroll of Paradox, and some skill books.
[Skill]Kenga Speech's stun chance now scale with its user's speech skill levels.
[Skill]Changed "Too Young Too Simple"'s silence effect trigger mechanics, only targets that can receive emotional damage can be silenced. The silence chance is scaled with the user's speech skill levels.
[Skill]Increased the base power of "Too Young Too Simple." (63 -> 80)
############Debug##################
Fixed a bug that some items have "Apply: Normal" in their item description windows.
简体中文
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【物品】新物品:眼药水。(移除致盲效果。在一般的医院和杂货店均有出售。)
【物品】新物品:P社卷轴(不对,应该是悖论卷轴,会对敌方队伍造成混乱。图标上确实有一只鸭嘴兽。:P)
【掉落】为哲学家的雕像加入了物品掉落列表。(包括了,石头,诅咒石,悖论卷轴,一些技能书)
【技能】悬河之辩造成的晕眩效果的成功率现在受到这个技能的使用者的说服力技能等级影响。
【技能】改变了图样图森破的沉默机制,只对会受到感情伤害的目标才可能造成沉默。沉默概率现在受到使用者的说服力技能等级影响。
【技能】增加了图样图森破的基础技能威力。(63 -> 80)
############Debug##################
修复了部分物品的详细说明窗口中会出现施加【普通】状态的文字的Bug。

Update, Version 20230314


English
############Content#################
[Skill]New Skill: Kenga Speech (Cause EMOTIONAL DAMAGE and stun based on the user's speech skills. Only characters that can take EMOTIONAL DAMAGE may be stunned.)
[Enemy] Statue of Philosopher can now use Kenga Speech. (Bring some pets immune to emotional damage, such as skeletons and zombies, is a quite legit strategy.)
[Pet]You can now turn the Statues of Philosopher to your pets. (They start with high speech skills and some speech-based combat skills, including Kenga Speech. They also have immunity to various negative effects. Because, well, they are statues.)
[Egypt]The Path to the Black Pyramid is now under construction.
############Debug##################
[Skill]Fixed a bug that "Too Young Too Simple" sometimes does not scale with the user's speech skills.
[Pet]Fixed a bug that allows copying life skill levels between pets.
[Pet]Fixed a bug that allows copying Elemental Proficiency levels between pets.
[Pet]Fixed a bug that allows copying Weapon Proficiency levels between pets.
简体中文
############Content#################
【技能】新技能:悬河之辩(基于使用者的说服力造成情感伤害和晕眩效果。只有会受到情感伤害的角色才可能陷入晕眩。)
【敌人】哲学家的雕像现在会使用悬河之辩。(带上一些对情感伤害免疫的宠物,比如骷髅和僵尸,是和他们作战的一种不错策略。)
【宠物】你现在可以将哲学家的雕像变成宠物。(它们初始自带较高的说服力等级,拥有一些包括悬河之辩在内的基于说服力的战斗技能。它们同样对于很多负面状态有免疫能力。因为,它们毕竟是雕像。)
【埃及】通往黑暗金字塔的道路正在施工。
############Debug##################
【技能】修复了技能【图样图森破】有时没有根据使用者的说服力等级提高其杀伤力的Bug。
【宠物】修复了一个可以让宠物之间的生活技能互相复制的Bug。
【宠物】修复了一个可以让宠物之间的元素熟练度互相复制的Bug。
【宠物】修复了一个可以让宠物之间的武器熟练度互相复制的Bug。

Update, Version 20230313


English
############Content##############
[Enemy]New Enemy: Statue of Philosopher (They appear on the Floor of Philosophy in the Grand Library.)
[Enemy]Increased the skill power of Corrupted Book's Foul Speech
简体中文
############Content##############
【敌人】大图书馆的哲学层出现新的敌人种类:哲学家的雕像
【敌人】增加了被魔化的书籍使用污言秽语时的技能强度。