#04 – CHAR STATES

ːsummer_magicː OTHER ISSUES OF THIS BLOG
ːQuestionsː CONSOLIDATED Q&A THREAD



Today we're going to talk about a number of things, including sleep deprivation, stress and euphoria, viruses and curses, locking disciples in their rooms (or jail cells), and the way that laws and discipline work in the Spire.



Let's start with the sleep: among other things that you define for your mage, is his (or her) sleep schedule. The more you sleep, the less time is left to use on moving forward in your research and exploration. But the less you sleep, the higher the toll on your character's current state.

"Current states" is a group of values that affects every human character in the game. A schedule that cuts short your mage's dozing hours will lead to the temporary effect "lack of sleep", which in turn will start to affect your character's mood.

Generally, it is advisable to provide your mage with enough sleep – whenever possible. However, in some cases it might prove very challenging: for example, when there are sick and dying in the Spire's hospital, who may expire if your mage takes some time off; or when there's an army knocking on your doors, and you need your mage's superior powers to repel it.






The concept of ːnotebookːMOOD is central to managing your characters. Mood reflects the current state of a person, and can fluctuate from depression (low end) to euphoria (high point).

What defines a person's mood? Do something that your character likes, and the mood improves. Do something that your character hates, and the mood plummets.

Mood changes based on two things:

• events that happen to the character
  
• actions that the character undertakes
  

But what does a character like or hate? This depends on their ːnotebookːTRAITS, which we covered in one of the previous blogs.

Here's an example of a Spire event that you will decide on:

ːfire_fire_fireː A disciple is caught stealing a book from the Spire's library, and is brought to you for your judgment. Your actions:

1. Forgive this disciple.
2. Explain to this disciple why this is wrong.
3. Publicly criticise this disciple in front of all other disciples.
4. Order a punishment of 20 leashes.
5. Place this disciple in the Spire's jail for a week.
6. Expel this disciple from the Spire.

If one of your mage's traits is "Cruel", and your mage's willpower is low, the list of choices will look like this:

1. Forgive this disciple.
2. Explain to this disciple why this is wrong.
3. Publicly criticise this disciple in front of all other disciples.
4. Order a punishment of 20 leashes.
5. Place this disciple in the Spire's jail for a week.
6. Expel this disciple from the Spire.

The first two options are unavailable because forgiveness goes against the grain of your character, and his willpower is low enough not to allow to force him to take actions that he clearly does not agree with.

The fourth option is underlined because this is actually what will please your character the most. Follow this suggestion, and his mood will improve. Follow the opposite, and the character's spirits will go down.

Important! In the example above, your decision will affect not only your mage's mood, but also the mood of your other disciples. Cruel characters will rejoice at the "right" decision, while characters that despise violence will get depressed.






Whenever you have a decision to take, like in the event above, you will have an option to "codify" it, making your current choice into a law.

Generally speaking, laws are good for keeping disciples organised and in check. Laws prevent abuse by informing potential abusers of the consequences.

However, this only happens when you actually follow your laws. If you declare, for example, that the punishment for theft is 20 leashes, but then in another case go for arrest instead (because 20 leashes may kill that character outright), you will be sending a message to your disciples – a message that the laws are not really meant to be followed, which will harm your Spire's ːnotebookːDISCIPLINE.




The two extremes of running your Spire are what we call "Rule of Fear" and "Rule of Love". If you follow the latter path, then you don't really care about your Spire's current discipline since the motivation of your disciples is that of deep affection and loyalty to your mage personally. So no matter what the law says, they will follow what's best for your mage.

If you follow the "fear" strategy, though, a strong discipline is a must to keep your little "army" under control. The level of discipline shows how strictly your disciples follow your orders – inside and outside of the Spire. Having a strong discipline has its own drawbacks, though: your disciples will stop acting on their own, stop inventing and trying new things, and may miss some excellent chances of improving their lots when out on a quest.





When we spoke about sleep and mood a bit earlier, we mentioned that lack of sleep may lead to stress and then to depression, which will have serious effects on several levels. One of the consequences will be a decrease in ːnotebookːCURRENT HEALTH.

What is current health? There's your basic character stat, called HEALTH, which ranges from 1 to 20, and will not change once a character (mage or disciple) is generated. Think of it as character's constitution, and his or her immune system. This is what the character is born with.

On top of this, there's the current state of your character. For example, he can be wounded and very weak. Or she can be sick with a cough. Or, following some romantic interlude and a walk in the forest, the character may in fact rank a bonus in this department, being so healthy as to improve on the expected default result.

The common causes of weak current health are:

• sickness
  
• curse
  
• poisoning
  
• combat wound
  
• stress
  

Let's review some of these in more detail.





A disciple went out to the nearby village on a regular trading quest, caught a cold while there, and came back coughing. Within a few hours, several other disciples are falling sick around the Spire. What's your response?

Generally, a good strategy is the early detection. Anyone coming back to the Spire may be a source of danger to the others, so it makes sense to be cautious – especially when people return from afar.

If you have a hospital already built in the Spire, you'll place the sick character there, and assign a Spire quest HEAL SICK to someone with good medical skills.

if you do not have a hospital yet, you can still try to prevent the spread of the virus by isolating the sick person in their room; or even losing them up in the Spire's jail.

Dealing with viruses is easier than dealing with curses, though.




Several disciples traveled through an ancient forest. In the middle of the wilderness, there was an overgrown ruin of a house, next to the miraculously clean and welcoming drinking well.

Everyone in the party was careful enough not to touch it, except for one person who went and drank his full. Since that day, this disciple started to behave in a strange way. When he returned back to the Spire, you could see that his stats are affected: IQ is substantially lower than expected, and memory is real bad.

If you have a hospital, a good strategy would be to isolate this disciple there, and assign someone skilled to a Spire quest called OBSERVATION.

Through such observation, you will learn that the character got cursed after he drank from the forest well. That house, and that well, were created by an old mage, who placed a spell on them: anyone who drank from the well or stayed at the house, became obsessed with becoming that mage's slave. Since the mage is long-dead, the curse results simply in manic behaviour.

Following the completion of the OBSERVATION quest, a HEAL SICK quest becomes available, and you're finally able to restore that character's health to its default state.

By the way, any Spire quest can be assigned to your disciples or be handled by your own mage. So if your mage is great at healing, then most likely you will be spending some time in the hospital, dealing with the restoration of your returning parties to their best states.






This is a topic that our game designer does not like to elaborate much on, but which is definitely confirmed as one of the game mechanics in Spire of Sorcery.

Disciples may have relationships with each other. Doing something together with a person you like (like going on a quest, or studying) boosts your mood. Being stuck with someone you dislike, does the opposite – to the level where two enemies sent on a quest together may end up trying to kill each other father than following your original orders.

Sometimes, friendship and love is good: two friends in a fight will defend each other with a higher commitment. Sometimes this is not so good: if one of these friends will be mortally wounded, the other may not leave her but stay there, and get killed just as well.





As we write these weekly dev blogs, we typically share their topics a few days in advance on the game's official Discord server. If there are any specific questions there, we try to answer them with the next blog. This week's Q&A is below:

ːQuestionsː Are all disciples human, or there could be also non-human disciples?

All disciples are human. Since non-humans were created by mages, the mages did not see any good reasons to also share with them their magic skills. The only exceptions are the "super-creatures" like the Many-handed, who possess certain magic skills, but strictly as something they were created with, and not something that they can learn or develop.

ːQuestionsː Do disciples sent on a quest have their own inventories?

Yes. You can equip your disciples with things like protect them, and facilitate their travel. You will also deal with expendable supplies like food and drink (in some cases)

ːQuestionsː Can characters be wounded to the degree that they cannot recover (e.g. become handicapped)?

Since potentially, your mage's power is unlimited (provided that you reach your potential), putting back a limb or an eye is a possible feat. However, the harsher the wound, the higher skill and knowledge will be required to put it right.

ːQuestionsː Are there any mind-altering substances like narcotics or hallucination-inducing food in the game?

Yes, there are all sorts of things in the game, a lot of which can be dangerous when used by unskilled persons or consumed without the proper recipe. Especially so on the edge of the Distorted Lands.

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With this, we wrap today's blog – and we look forward to welcoming you on our forums or on the game's official Discord server! See you next week, when we will talk more about events in the game.

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