First Weekly Update: UI Fixes, Added NPCs, and Much More!

NEW FEATURES

A lot of the features (and bug fixes) are from suggestions players made in discussion posts on the community tab. Please feel free to join us there if you have an idea for the game! Best case its an easy add, worst case I don't want to add it because it seems like way to much work (lol). Either way player suggestions really help show me what yall value and serve as a good indicator on the areas of the game I should be spending most of my time on.

This is a pretty big update that I honestly have spent most of my time awake the last few days on. I think it brings the game to a much better state thats more fun to play and has a world that feels just a little more lived in.

I really hope you all enjoy it!

-Lansdolli

World & Exploration

Warning Signs — Weathered signposts now appear on roads near zone level boundaries warning players before they cross into more dangerous territory. Signs can be re-read by pressing Space while standing on them.

M Key — Quick Zone Map — Press M while exploring to instantly pull up the Zone Map without having to go through menus. Press Enter to close.

Procedurally Generated Towns — The world now generates proc towns in zones. Each has a general store and a tavern. They're pretty hard to find but Procedurally Generated Dungeon Quests will help.

Procedurally Generated Dungeon Quests — The barkeep in each proc town offers a quest to clear nearby proc dungeons in exchange for gold, then rewards the player with coordinates to the next undiscovered proc town.

Great Explorer Title — Discover every proc town in the game and the barkeep will award you the Great Explorer title (+5 vision radius), the Tome of Teleport, and the Book of Generation.

Traveling NPCS - New traveling NPCs have been added that have their own routes they take going from city to city. They have a variety of choices if you choose to engage with them, including (but not always): quests, lore, help, and skill advancement.

Towns & Shops

Specialized Shops — Towns now have specific shop types rather than one general store carrying everything. Larger towns may have a Weaponsmith, Armoursmith, Alchemist's Shop, Blacksmith, or Arcane Repository in addition to the general store. Different towns have different shop selections.

Shop Inventory Rules — General stores carry T1 gear and basic potions only. T2 weapons and armour are exclusive to specialist smiths. Greater and Superior potions are now sold at at Alchemist shops.

Taverns — Towns with taverns now have a named barkeep unique to that location plus a set of 2–3 rotating patrons drawn from the zone pool.

Buy a Room — Spend 50g at any tavern to fully restore HP and MP.

Patron Dialogue — Each patron has several unique lines. Lines are shown once per visit session, returning patrons won't repeat themselves until you leave and come back.

Followers & Adventurers

Contract Extensions — When a hired adventurer's contract reaches 15 turns remaining, they will automatically offer to extend for another 500 turns at the original hire price.

Talk to Followers — Standing on a follower and pressing Space now shows a Talk option. From there you can view their contract status, extend early, or dismiss them.

Team-Up Encounters — Adventurers encountered in the wild now offer to fight alongside you rather than turning hostile. After the fight they may offer the player a chance to hire them.

Zone Boss Group Combat — Followers now participate in zone boss fights alongside the player.

Quests

NPC Fetch Quests — Hand-In System — Items for NPC fetch quests are now handed directly to the NPC through a dialogue option rather than tracking pickups automatically. This means existing items in your inventory count toward the quest.

Dragon's Reckoning — The active quest log now lists all 15 zone bosses by name with Alive/Dead status. If you are in the same zone as a living boss, their live grid coordinates are shown.

Abilities

80 New Cross-Class Abilities — 10 physical and 10 magical abilities added at each of Tiers 4, 5, 6, and 7. These provide coverage for specialist class chains that previously had very limited options at higher tiers.

Ability Categories — Abilities are now grouped by damage type in the Prepare Abilities screen. A new Empowerment category covers buffs, defense abilities, and debuffs. All damage-dealing abilities now display their damage type and interact correctly with the resistance and weakness system.

Ability Rework - Abilities in general are just in the first part of a complex rework. My goal is to use abilities to reinforce class identity and help add more depth to combat (and a better sense of progression for the player). Next I really want to start fleshing out some of the abilities Bosses have while fine tuning the system that chooses what abilities players can pick from a little more.

Maps & UI

Zone Map Numbered Locations — Discovered locations on the Zone Map now show a number next to their symbol. The list below the map uses matching numbers for easy reference.

Map Submenu — Zone Map and World Map have been consolidated under a single Map option in the main menu.

Settings in Main Menu — The Settings menu is now accessible from the in-game Space menu in addition to the main title screen.

Settings Saved Per File — Text speed, player colour, and difficulty are now saved with each save file and restored when that file is loaded.

UI Cleanup - Cleaned up a ton of the UI in the menus and in interaction with the open world. Game should appear cleaner and more intuitive.

Removed Rest Menu Option In Towns - The rest menu option healed the player for gold but felt out of place. Now its replacement (rent a room) is found in the tavern and heals the player to full health and mana for just 50g. This is a benefit of towns that will better translate to the late game.

Warnings Added - Warnings have been added into the game to help warn the player before overriding a save.

Required Answer Integration - Skills and Abilities now require and answer when prompted to learn them making it impossible to miss them.

Dialogue Rewrite - Initially I had a lot of placeholder dialogue in the game. I've spent a decent amount of time going through and rewriting a large portion of the dialogue, menus, books, and other player facing messages to give it more of a personal/real touch. I hope that comes off well and my writings not too awful for yall (fingers crossed). This Dialogue Rewrite is an ongoing project but if you find something that feels off please let me know and I'll be sure to move it to the top of my queue!

BALANCE CHANGES

Zone Bosses — Zone bosses now fight at 10 levels above their zone's maximum enemy level, capped at 70. Stitches (Heartlands) is level 20. The Undying (Cursed Wastes) is level 50. All Tier 6–7 bosses are level 70. Zone Bosses are nasty and travel on roads. The Town Crier can help you know their general location, but be careful!

Zone Boss Loot — Proc dungeon floor bosses now correctly use loot appropriate to their zone tier rather than always dropping Mithril-tier gear.

Adventurer Contracts — All hired adventurer contracts are now 500 turns and allow for renewal before the contract ends.

Ability Neighbor Rule — Abilities shared across more than 5 classes no longer count toward the neighbor discovery system, keeping class ability pools more focused. This should help with class identity.

Renames

All Armor chest pieces renamed to Chestpiece (Leather Chestpiece, Mithril Chestpiece, etc.). Existing saves are automatically updated.

Malachar the Deathless — Malachar the Undying has been renamed to Malachar the Deathless. The Undying is now exclusively the name of the Cursed Wastes zone boss. The arena equivalent has been renamed The Cursed Sovereign.

BUG FIXES

Fixed ally kills not awarding XP, gold, or loot

Fixed players not being able to sell an item they had multiple of because they had it equipped

Fixed a ghost enemy attack sometimes firing after allies killed the last enemy

Fixed dismissed followers respawning as duplicate ALLY entities on the map

Fixed NPC fetch quests auto-completing on acceptance if the player already held the required items

Fixed adventurer encounters displaying __adv_enemy__ in the combat UI instead of the adventurer's actual name

Fixed zone boss fights not including the player's followers

Fixed proc dungeon floor bosses not spawning

Fixed Smoke Bomb Potion requiring an extra turn after use before the player escaped combat

Fixed a crash on load caused by the save compatibility shim running before the player object was constructed

Fixed duplicate press Enter prompts appearing after learning a new ability

Fixed Iron Fist and other unarmed classes being offered magic abilities like Mana Shield incorrectly

Fixed all damage-dealing abilities that were incorrectly sorted into the Utility category

Fixed multiple damage related bugs widespread across many abilities

Fixed instant interaction with the Merchant Caravan so players won't get pulled into a dialogue without deciding to

Fixed extra Enter dialogues from opening after completing certain tasks like learning a new skill or ability