Sulphur Memories: Alchemist 0.4.2 UX update is out!

This update is fully compatible with saves from 0.4.1 version.

If you bound anything to the "Tab" key, you will receive a warning about keybindings conflict, as this key is used for a new command.

Changelog:

UX:

• A new setting "UI scale" is available under Options > System > Video.

  • This setting affects all UI elements and fonts' sizes, but not in-game graphics.

  • "Normal" scale is how the UI used to look, and is intended for screens up to 1920x1080.

  • "Larger" scale is intended for screens of 2560x1440 and larger.

  • The setting is applied on restart.

• Research interface should look better on large screens now (research nodes should be spread out more evenly across the screen, instead of only taking a small portion of it).

• Second hotbar is now available.

  • Switch between two hotbars by pressing "Tab" or clicking the button to the left of the hotbar.

  • Saves from the old version will have the second hotbar empty.

• The game can now warn you about danger.

  • The warnings are issued when you either take too much damage over one turn, or your health gets too low.

  • When the warning is issued, the screen flashes red, a heartbeat sound plays, and your inputs are frozen for a short time to prevent accidental repeated presses.

  • The values are set via "Danger warning: damage threshold" and "Danger warning: remaining vitality threshold" settings, under Options > Gameplay > UX. By default, both values are set so that warnings are never issued.

  • The red flash can be toggled on/off with the setting Options > Gameplay > UX > Red flash on danger warning.

  • The input freeze duration can be adjusted with Options > Gameplay > UX > Red flash on danger warning. The default is 0 (no freeze).

  • The volume of the heartbeat sound can be adjusted with Options > System > Audio > Heartbeat volume.

• New items:

  • Squids can be caught in sea waters.

  • Snails can be caught in forest ponds.

  • Honeyed peaches can occasionally be found as loot and in merchants' inventory.

Balance:

• Buffed verdant sandals: the restorative effect can now restore vitality up to 15, instead of 10.

  • I would like to try and get it to the point where the sandals aren't completely ignored by players.

• Buffed lingering fireball potions: the fireball explodes after 5 turns instead of 4.

  • The main point of the potion is to be able to make a large explosion at once, and this change should make it easier to achieve.

• Buffed potions of steam: crafting now costs 0.5 something boreal and 0.5 something volatile, instead of 1 each.

  • Though the use case differs slightly, these potions compete with rime potions as a way to deal with efreets, and at their old cost they were barely worth it.

• Nerfed the average rewards for the standing stone area.

  • Considering how short and relatively safe the area was once you figure out the puzzle, the old rewards were excessive.

• Made one of the four puzzles for the standing stone area significantly less confusing.

  • You know which one if you played the game. While it didn't seem like that much of a leap in logic for me, almost everyone I asked got completely stumped by it.

• Changed bear traps from 10 damage to 5 damage + 5 turns of bleeding.

  • This should give the players a chance to recover from a mistake they made. It also adds another use for coagulants.

• Added torches to the loot encountered on the surface of the burnt village.

  • Since you can't leave the caverns easily once you go down there, it should make it less likely for a new player to run out of torches.

• Reduced crimson ivy's chance to heal from attacking from 50% to 30%.

• Burning makes you immune to crimson ivy grabs.

  • The crimson ivy variant of the farm seems to be by far the most lethal farm variant. This change, along with the one above, should make it a little closer to the other variants. It also makes so that eating red peppers is no longer a joke option.

• It's no longer possible to move or destroy the sack underneath the village well.

  • This could lead to softlocks.

• It's no longer possible to burn the tavern using the phoenix potion.

  • That had no real effect on gameplay, but looked really stupid.

Fixes:

• Fixed caves generation sometimes producing impassable terrain (which could lead to softlocks in the case of the village caverns).

• Fixed loot in magician's house (sealed whispers were missing from the pool in the cellar chest).

• Fixed wells sometimes not spawning in the burnt village.

• Fixed water-bound creatures (leeches etc) being able to go onto land in very specific circumstances.

• Fixed music not resuming (in some areas) after the frozen time potion duration is over.

• Search function is no longer able to find hidden stairs before they are revealed.

• Fixed minor errors with some sprites.

• Fixed minor issues with text spacing in the journal.

• Fixed some minor grammar errors across the game.

• Fixed the wrong game title displayed in the "Options" menu (just "Alchemist" instead of "Sulphur Memories: Alchemist").

• Fixed shadows and bats' sprites appearing distorted while in water tiles, even though they are supposed to be floating above surface.

Thank you for your attention. The next update will be content-centric, potentially continuing the main quest.