Version 5 "Books and Scrolls" - Detailed Release Notes

You can also consult a shorter summary.

Skill trees

• Implemented magical skills in 3 disciplines: Perception, Inception, and Spellcraft.
• 14 skills each have from 1 to 4 levels:
  • Sight
  • Hearing
  • Awareness
  • Survival
  • Expanse
  • Corporeal
  • Elementalism
  • Kinetics
  • Alteration
  • Imprinting
  • Arithmancy
  • Invocation
  • Expression
  • Focus
• The player's starting skills are: Focus I, Elementalism I, Kinetics I, and Alteration I.
• Each level gives access to certain spell fragments. Some levels also unlock additional abilities, such as enchanting, sub-script invocation, variables, and more.
• Each level has its own list of requirements, i.e. other skills that must be mastered first (at a certain level).
• Reorganized fragment categories.
  • They now match the corresponding skills. Overall number of categories increased by 5, but they contain fewer fragments on average.
  • Only the fragments of the skill levels the player possesses are now shown in the spell editor.
  • Only the categories with at least one fragment are shown (except "Own spells").
  • Some less useful fragments were hidden: various "wait_*" fragments, "selection set active", and "filter by entity".
  • The "simple filter" fragment is now split into 5 different fragments.
  • The "get attribute" fragment is now visible. This fragment allows to access information on one's levels of hunger, poison, sleepiness, etc.
  • Renamed all "integer" fragments to "number" (except "random integer").
• The inventory menu now has a new tab, "Skills".
  • It lists disciplines and skills within each discipline, along with the examined entity's (or player's) current level for each skill and the maximum possible level.
  • All disciplines and skills have descriptions.
  • This tab has its own shortcut: "L".

Books

• Added a new object type: books.
• Books can contain one or several skills of a certain level. Currently, the books only contain one skill each.
• Books for all existing skill levels now appear randomly in the forest.
• Books can be examined via the "Health" tab. All requirements are listed explicitly, as well as the player's current levels in each required skill.
• If all the skill requirements are met, the player can read the book.
• When a book is read, the player acquires the corresponding skill level. For the moment, this is the only way to acquire a skill or to improve the skill level.
• The glimpse line (the info line in the center of the screen) shows information about the books, such as the described skill level and whether it is already mastered by the player or not.
• Added a new matter: paper.

Scrolls

• Added a new object type: scrolls.
• Scrolls can contain one or several spells, including spells referencing one another. Currently, the scrolls only contain one spell each.
• Scrolls for 2 new spells now appear randomly in the forest: "fireball" and "empty sphere".
• Scrolls can be examined via the "Health" tab. The player can read the spells, but can not modify them. In this mode, spell fragment categories are never shown.
• If the player has all required skills, then the spell(s) of the scroll can be learned by heart.
  • The list of the required skill levels is established automatically based on the fragments used in the spells and other spell characteristics.
  • The required skills are shown in the "Health" tab, as well as the player's current levels.
  • If a spell (or a spell it uses) is already known, learning is disabled.
  • Upon learning, a copy of the spell(s) will be created in the player's memory. Then, the player will be able to use and to modify them.
• It is now possible to learn spells of the enchanted items, too!

Gemstones and energy storage

• Added two new object types: rubies and sapphires.
• Added a new matter: crystal.
• Added new fragments: "examine storage", "store", and "extract".
  • The required skills are: Elementalism I, II, and II, respectively.
  • The first fragment allows to detect a gem's current energy content and its storage capacity.
  • The other fragments allow to store the magical energy in the gemstones and to extract it later.
• Energy storing into gems:
  • can work on several entities at once,
  • is much faster than drawing the ambient energy (the "draw" fragment), and
  • it stops automatically when the target's maximum capacity is reached (without an error).
• Energy extraction from gems:
  • can also work on several entities at once,
  • is much faster than drawing the ambient energy (the "draw" fragment), and
  • it stops automatically when the source's energy level reaches zero (triggering an error).
• The gems accumulate the ambient magical energy automatically over time.
  • Sapphires accumulate much slower than rubies, but their maximum capacity is much higher.
  • It is planned to make sapphires lose their energy whenever they are physically moved.
  • All gems are spawned at full capacity in order to simulate the long accumulation time.
• The glimpse line shows both current and maximum energy levels of the gems.
• The corresponding information also appears in the "Examine" menu (the "Health" tab).

Player's drawn energy

• Removed different elements of the drawn energy. Now, a single type of energy can be drawn and stored. The elements are still used for other spell fragments.
• The "draw" fragment does not require setting the current aspect anymore.
• This allows to easily show the current value of the energy drawn by the player: added a third energy bar to the HUD.
• The drawn energy is now capped at 300. The HUD bar is scaled accordingly.
• Added a mechanism that forces the player to lose drawn energy over time.
  • For the moment, it is lost without any effect on the world.
  • There is a grace period of about 8 seconds during which no energy is lost. This is done so that the energy loss does not interfere with the spells counting on the precise amount of energy to execute.
  • The grace period starts when the drawing itself begins, and it does not restart unless the amount of drawn energy goes back to zero.
  • In a way, it is similar to holding one's breath.

Other changes

• Renamed mental energy into spirit everywhere (the magical equivalent of stamina).
• The spells may stop now when the player is too exhausted.
• UI: added disabled controls, including the new disabled button background.

Future versions

Interested in the future versions? Remember to visit the Roadmap section.

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