itch.io

3-10-2026:
(build date 3-6-2026 posted 3-10-2026)

"Regards from the Era: Vast World" (3D Frontend):
- Implemented changes to get the 3d frontend into a better working state (many bugfixes / reduced memory usage / etc).

"Regards from the Era" (Base Game):
- Changes mostly related to the link to the VastWorld frontend.
- Small adjustments made to provide better rewards for completing some content in base game.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- Please ensure base game is up to date if attempting to use VastWorld with it (old versions are likely incompatible).

KNOWN ISSUES:
- Documentation of the settings menu is missing an entry related to a minigame in the base game.
- VastWorld needs more responsive exit mechanisms.
- VastWorld needs better documentation and testing.
- Rare VastWorld frontend crash during pre-release testing was initiated via pressing random keyboard keys while also moving in 1st person view with the mouse - could not reproduce this yet.

10-28-2025 (Follow-up hotfix):

Critical Bugfix: Corrected an issue related to enemy placement in the maze-like Labyrinth Platinum Challenge which adversely affected the entire challenge. This issue was not present on development platforms and went undetected longer than it should have.

10-27-2025 / 10-28-2025 (Main Update):

Launcher: Significant adjustments have been made to the pre-game launcher menu. The Visually Impaired modes that were previously triggered via separate .bat or .sh files have been better integrated into the universal launcher (the .bat and .sh files may continue to remain available in the main directory for the time being as well). To make room for these quicklaunch options, other modes which relied on the web interface for screen reader interaction have been removed from the quicklaunch menu. This change was intended to make the most commonly utilized modes of play more readily available, and hopefully the quality of the browser interface will be improved in the future to the point where it will find a new place. All modes within the launcher should now also default to enabling gamepad and jukebox support. Visually Impaired modes of play will default to the alternative keyboard layout that uses the numpad for movement (for technical reasons of screen reader compatibility), while other modes should default to the arrow keys for game movement. The dual access mode which had the narrative in the web browser and the visual mode of play in the terminal has been replaced with the inverted version which has the narrative mode in the terminal and the visual mode in the browser. Dual Access modes and Web Interface modes are still possible to launch via the command line for those who wish to use them.

Accessibility: A new option has been added to Hidden/Tapis settings menu to allow for toggling of "dramatic pauses" added to paragraphs being spoken via TTS. This pause was always active in prior versions and was originally intended to slow the pacing at which paragraphs are read, adding a bit of a poetic pause in story segments. However, these pauses only worked as intended when punctuation announcements are disabled in screenreaders. The original intent is now somewhat complicated by the additions of the Sidestory system, so this pause will be enabled by default only in the main game, and turned off when dealing with Sidestory mode (since it cannot currently be toggled in that mode).

Difficulty: The town gate fee system has been altered to now support chance based occurrences (in addition to the usual enabled/disabled settings). Overall this system should be less punishing to players than before.

Difficulty: The enemy hp formula’s curve has been reworked. Enemies in the starting segment of the game should now have more relatively consistent and lower hp values compared to later segments. Overall enemy hp for standard encounters has been reduced by approximately 15% across the board as well.

Difficulty: Silver challenges had become more difficult than expected after previous updates to other parts of the game. Changes were made so players can now bring more items into these fights, which should reduce the difficulty back in line with what was originally intended, and mirror the way some gold challenges can already be tackled.

Difficulty: Players who overutilize auto-combat or auto-combat-like move choices will now be greeted with enemies using their special abilities more frequently. The system is currently tuned such that as long as 25%+ of move choices are different than auto-play tactics, the penalty is avoided entirely. Visiting a town should reset the action analysis tally and most challenge fights should be entirely unaffected by these changes.

Minigames: A new fishing system has been added with a sequence of three mini games associated to it. Players can engage in this new system by standing idle next to a body of water on the world map, then moving after a certain time period has elapsed. This system is usable only on the "Main World" and cannot be used while seafaring at this time. Rewards include three new items usable in combat, which can be traded in bulk to a certain outpost for coin or alternative ways to progress through the game. The fishing system is somewhat adjustable in difficulty via a setting.

Minigames: An additional fourth minigame has been added to a hidden location. This minigame can be used to accumulate fuel for an item usable only in Platinum Challenges. This new item can potentially allow players to bypass certain difficult tasks in Platinum Challenges entirely. Like the fishing system, this new minigame is somewhat adjustable in difficulty via a setting.

Achievements: New achievements related to fishing have been added.

Gameplay: Two new character classes have been added for later parts of the game.

Gameplay: A new foraging quest system has been added. these quests are each time limited and randomly generated throughout the day. This new system shares the same rewards as another part of the game but should allow players access to more character classes sooner.

Gameplay: Markers can no longer be placed in certain locations - this mostly affects regions around dungeons but may also affect other landmarks on some maps. This was originally intended to resolve a bug but failed to be a complete fix (the bug was resolved via other means). The restrictions on marker placement is being preserved since it may prevent future bugs related to landmark interactions, and can prevent players from accidentally hiding important locales from view.

Text: Some reformatting and adjustments were made to story segments encountered during map travel.

Text: Some changes were made to item descriptions and the lore surrounding them.

Text: Corrected some instances of incorrect spelling.

Optimizations: Certain less commonly used modes of play should now be significantly more responsive to player inputs.

Documentation: Additional modding guides have been added. Phase 1 of these guides was updated with a small bugfix.

Bonus: An early build of the "VastWorld" Addon-UserInterface/Frontend should now be available as a separate download.

=== Bugfixes ===

Critical Bugfix (Performance): An issue where game performance would degrade after longer play sessions has been addressed. This should have been isolated to modes of play with colors involved.

Bugfix (Gameplay): Resolved an issue where the combat system would behave in unexpected ways immediately after initial game load combined with the utilization of instant travel as a means to reach some distant content faster than expected.

Bugfix (Gameplay): Some issues related to party recovery between battles in portions of the game where enemies chase the player have been resolved.

Bugfix (Accessibility): The aerial overview system was not triggerable under all the conditions it should have been. This primarily affected terminal based modes of the game, where it should now function under most circumstances

Bugfix (Accessibility): The mini combat log should now be present in TRX mode after player actions in battle. It was already functional in other narrative modes.

Bugfix (Navigation): Corrected an issue with the map marker system not properly restoring markers to their exact previous list arrangement when loaded from a save file.

Bugfix (Controls): The numpad "enter" key should now function as intended in the graphical terminal output modes.

BugFix (Display): When entering Envoy Camp in System Terminal modes of play there was occasionally an uncaught exception warning printed to the terminal. This was related to gamepads and only seemed to happen once per play session at most. Hopefully this should now be resolved.

Bugfix (Menus): The Local Bulletin town submenu was improperly showing in platinum challenges.

Bugfix (Menus): The Instant Travel town submenu was showing invalid destinations in the LostFront platinum challenge.

Bugfix (TheaterMode): An issue where Theater Mode did not properly handle null inputs during startup should now be resolved.

Bugfix (TheaterMode): Some keybindings unrelated to Theater Mode are now disabled when Theater Mode is active.

=== Additional Notes ===

- the minigames added in this update are intended to provide players with alternative ways to tackle certain difficult challenges, but may make the game significantly easier should they be heavily relied on... as with most things of this nature in the game, an option to disable these systems has been added for those who want to retain the original level of difficulty.

- work was done on mechanisms for players to replace certain strings of game text with others - this system is mostly functional but needs additional checks before being documented.

=== KNOWN ISSUES ===

- The scene transition in System Terminal mode when entering Envoy Camp can be somewhat jumpy compared to other loading transitions.

- The foraging system is dependent in part on the fishing minigame being enabled by players, with no alternative way to collect fish for the foraging quests - this is somewhat intentional, although the foraging quests which cannot be completed may be hidden from players in the future.

- The analog axis of certain specific gamepads which are supposed to be supported “out of the box” may be incorrectly inverted on Linux.

4-10-2025 /  4-11-2025:

Accessibility: A new "Macro" system has been introduced. While this system is an accessibility feature, it could also be identified as a poweruser feature. It is intended to speed up combat for users who have patterns of abilities they commonly stick to, offering an alternative to reduce the number of keystrokes compared to what is normally required by the menu system. This feature requires the editing of text files to setup for use in-game. Further instructions should be provided in the game's documentation. Due to the complexity of the menus that would be required to do so, there are no plans to make this feature configurable from within the game itself.

Accessibility: The narrative mini-log should now report when an action has failed.

Accessibility: Certain key-bindings that change the combat screen in relatively subtle ways now announce when changes were made. This includes feedback for enemy/ally lock-on switching, timestamp toggling, UI layout toggling, and combat-log filter toggling.

Accessibility: A new option has been added which, if enabled, allows automatic saving of the game when it is gracefully shutdown in areas outside the town menu. This feature requires both the "Spiral Settings Menu" and the addition of the "Logout" option in the menu system, both of which should already be present if initializing the game from pre-configured accessibility launchers. The new option is disabled by default.

Lore: The rudimentary story system for the maps has been implemented. Time was necessary to work through how this would be integrated in a way that still allows player customization for their own maps. This system is entirely based on map navigation, and does not include or necessitate fight sequences. Events are set to trigger based on what sort of terrain/landmarks the player is currently on/near, with some amount of branching paths and chance occurrences possible. Some very short story sequences related to the home-world map have been added, as well as a "shared" group of events which focus on random chance minigames and random flavor text to increase the liveliness of all maps. Future and more complex story sequences may require the player to travel multiple worlds, and the extent to which this system will be expanded has not yet been decided.

Audio: A new sound effect has been added to accompany popups that may occur via the map-based-story events.

Combat: A setting has been added which can turn the standard battle system into a time-limited system. This system introduces a countdown that the player must act within during combat phases - otherwise they perform a simple idle action instead. This is intended to pair with the new macro features in order to completely change the feel of combat for those who wish for more reactive forms of play. The countdown is signified by both a sound playing in the background and a visual numeric countdown in the four corners of the graphical terminal mode. For players who have difficulty hearing the countdown sounds, please note that the visual countdown is NOT available in the system-terminal modes of play. Players can set custom times by replacing the .wav files with their own custom duration files (the filenames must remain the same) even if the changes are not reflected in the settings menu itself. Due to the way this was implemented, the button click sounds in psuedo-coop mode are disabled when countdowns are in progress. The expanded soundscape's menu "bump" sound denoting that an action is unable to be made in a menu is also disabled in combat for the same reason.

Customization: Walking sim mode has been expanded with augmentations for a new "Sidestory" mode. This system reads from the GAME_DATA/MODS/SIDESTORY folder instead of the normal map folder (so it does not interfere much with the main game); settings are adjusted to allow development of mini-scenarios that do not entail battles. A walkthrough example of how such scenarios can be created should be available.

Controls: A new gamepad configuration wizard has been added. This wizard is not intended to fully replace manual gamepad configuration - it is only intended to get the game up and running with the minimum necessary controller buttons with the least amount of fuss possible. Windows users may find this new configuration wizard unnecessary or counterproductive relative to default configurations, so please check if controls work properly before utilizing it.

Save-System: Save files will now be accompanied by a ".fallback" version. This should prevent the majority of the rare instances where save files may become corrupted. These file corruptions were only really encountered in testing on hardware with very slow disk write speeds and the game being forcibly closed at specific times. Please note and keep in mind that these changes may make manually editing save files more prone to automatically reverting to a previously working state during editing phases. This change should not adversely affect existing save files.

Documentation: updated to include more information about configuring controllers.

Documentation: updated to include more information about macros.

Documentation: a brief comment was added to the "READ THIS FIRST" file for users of NVDA screen reader.

Documentation: the game settings reference html file has been updated with a new setting option related to saving the game on graceful exit.

Documentation: the game settings reference html file has been updated with a new setting option related to timed battles.

Documentation: the game settings reference html file has been updated with a new setting options related to the map story events.

Gameplay: A new consumable item has been added as a freebie in some of the fights scattered around the main world map. This item is granted at battle entry, unlike most items which are granted at battle end.

Gameplay: A new misfit encounter has been added.

Interface: The automatic enemy lock-on system has been improved for situations of interpersonal combat (this change does not affect gameplay directly – it only affects the visual representation of information on the screen).

System: The “paper airplane” system is now disabled by default in favor of a more simple internal music queue. The paper airplane system was intended to provide players with a way to better access the current state of the game by intercepting messages in transit as they were temporarily saved to the hard disk before being processed. The old system can still be enabled via a script edit, but it was presenting some issues with music de-synchronization and of course the fact that it increases the amount of disk writes.

Interface: The default font has been changed for the graphical tileset mode when a new game is created.

Bugfix: The stationary object tab-targeting system during map exploration had odd tendencies when cycling in non-tileset versions of the game. This was a non-critical bug and there were ways to work around it.

Bugfix: The Onium system was incorrectly assessing level differences.

Bugfix: Random encounters should be fully functional again (this was a side-effect of map optimizations).

Bugfix: Weaken Overpowered Foes Endowment no longer triggers affinity weaknesses to accomplish its level down effect.

Bugfix: Restorative abilities may not have been properly registered to world memory system (only affected certain character classes)

Bugfix: An issue with the combat menu not properly updating when using items has been corrected (this was a side-effect of the hyperize additions).

Bugfix: Sight point visual cursor should now be fully functional in walking sim mode.

Optimization: An additional small boost to map segment speed has been implemented for tileset version of game.

Other: Some hardware changes were made to development platforms. Some time was spent on research & development in general.

Known Issue: It has become more difficult to fully replicate some of the issues that the html portal had when dealing with screen readers... The plan was to restructure the html interface in a way that better interacts with screen readers, but the major browser vendors may be undergoing changes which could affect how this is best implemented in the future.

Known Issue: Starting the game for the first time in Sidestory mode may produce a sluggish menu at first, this seems related to the project bundling method used and should only affect the first run of the application... it is just more pronounced in Sidestory mode.

Known Issue: Some extra punctuation (specifically extra periods) are being inserted into the text-to-speech output in some instances. This was intentional for certain segments of the game, but may cause issues for players using screenreaders set to report all punctuation. An option to disable this feature should be added in the future, and it should also then be disabled by default in segments of the game where it was not intended.

Under Consideration: Misfit encounter rates may be adjusted to be more frequent at lower difficulties in the future.

11-27-2024   (build date 11-25-2024):

Accessibility: some critical bugfixes have been implemented for the interaction between gamepads and various accessibility features, these are listed later on this page.

Accessibility: SAPI voices can now be selected in-game via the “spiral settings menu” under the “conditional” options.

Accessibility: in narrative mode a new combat “mini-log” has been added to the intermediary screens in combat. This is intended to provide players with a general sense (and less detailed summary) of what occurred during the interim of a phase without the need to cycle to the full combat log each time. A future setting may be added to allow for players to expand this mini-log into a full size log report (even though this will be a bit redundant as the full log should be possible to trigger via a single keypress already)

Controls: the TTS_Repeat_Paragraph key on gamepad layouts has been changed to instead control TTS_Toggle_EML_Mode. Repeating a paragraph can still be done via traversing up/down one paragraph and then returning, but will now require two button presses instead of just one in the default layout. This change was done since the ability to toggle EML mode is universally more important than saving a single button press for repeat.

Gameplay: the item selection menu in combat has been split into two separate menus for faster item access. Items such as armor kits and other less common items have been relocated to a new sub-menu called “Apparatii”. Eclectic items remain unchanged and still have their own special menu.

Gameplay: new high level enemy encounters have been scattered across the main world map. These battles are identifiable by icons similar to what the player is represented by. The battles will likely be too difficult for new players to successfully complete at game onset, but are intended instead for later challenge.

Gameplay: a new item and dynamic difficulty system has been added. Players are now provided with an item called “Onium” which has a level attached to it. Using this item in battle can restore 1hp to an ally, but its main purpose is that it can automatically lower the initial HP of enemies when entering a battle. The amount of HP reduced is equal to a percentage of 3x the level of the item, and the item is capped at a max of +25 (thus allowing for a maximum reduction of -75% enemy hp). Enemies can never be reduced below an HP threshold of 15hp via this system. There are 2 separate ways to maintain/increase the potency of this item; failure to do either will result in the item losing levels after a battle. The first method of upkeep is to fight enemies with relative levels that exceed the item’s current potency level. The second method of upkeep is to land finishing blows on enemies. If an enemy is relatively weak compared to the level of the item, then finishing blows are the only way to maintain the current state of the item. As a further note: The HP reduction effect will not trigger under certain circumstances, and the item potency is reset to 0 temporarily when entering platinum challenges.

System: substantial modifications have been made to the map segments of the codebase. These changes should have no noticeable effect on the content of the game, but may greatly enhance game performance for both Windows and Linux systems. Stricter coding assertions were necessary to make these changes, and as such, testing took longer than expected. There is a chance a bug or two may have slipped through this process, but most critical ones seemed to have been resolved.

System: new command line arguments have been added related to how the game behaves internally.

Bugfix: IDLE setting preferences should now properly be maintained when using the more recent hotkeys which verbally announce setting changes.

Bugfix: the vertical inversion of some full screen text blocks has been corrected.

Bugfix: loading dialog screens have been re-enabled. These were accidentally left disabled after implementing bug fixes to the text theater mode in the past.

Bugfix: resolved issue where using gamepad buttons assigned to adjusting TTS speech rate or volume would cause game instability on some systems.

Bugfix: resolved issue where initiating the aerial scan feature outside narrative mode would cause game instability.

Bugfix: improved issues involving gamepad TTS controls for narrative paragraph navigation.

Bugfix: certain abilities may have not been listed in the alternative combat menu layout, they should all be listed now.

Bugfix: combat dialogues were sometimes too wide horizontally to fully display in 80s magnified mode, most of these should now be fixed. (more corrections like this may be made if further issues are found)

Bugfix: certain objects on the main map will now be visible immediately after map loading from disk (they were incorrectly appearing only after the player took their first step on the map).

Bugfix: in terminal output modes the flashing text cursor was being occasionally positioned improperly in the middle of the screen.

10-20-2024:

Gameplay: added the ability to tab target between most entities/locales identified as “Points of Interest” – this is accomplished through the use of two new key bindings.

Accessibility: the expanded soundscape system has been adjusted to include sounds for the new target locks – this change may have also corrected some existing issues with the system.

Accessibility: a new setting for restricting paragraph re-order systems has been added – three levels are provided for this setting: “Allow All”, “Invert Only” (the new default), and “Block All”.

Accessibility: the restriction preventing paragraph order inversion in combat sequences has been lifted.

Accessibility: shortline menu settings in narrative modes will now have an influence on how much text is displayed during the intermediary scenes of combat.

Accessibility: A new SAPI override system has been introduced. This is not yet detailed in the game’s documentation as it may undergo further changes related to how it is enabled etc. This system is intended to replace the SAPI TTS system if, and only if, the player places an appropriate TTS controller into the GAME_DATA/MODS/ folder. When an appropriate .dll controller for dynamic linking is found at game boot, the SAPI mode will be replaced with a more direct connection to the player’s screen reader of choice. This new system behaves as close to the SAPI system as was feasible when not checking for whether or not the screen reader is in the process of speaking. Currently this system supports only the drop-in of NVDA’s nvdaControllerClient.dll (a file which would need to be provided by the user themselves).

Controls: the following controls have been changed or added:

- NEW (map only) POI target decrement = [i] or [7] keys

- NEW (map only) POI target increment = [p] or [9] keys

- (combat) Hero target decrement = [c] or [i] or [7] keys

- (combat) Hero target increment = [r] or [p] or [9] keys

- (now available even in combat) paragraph decrement = [NUMPAD-DIVIDE] key

- (now available even in combat) paragraph increment = [NUMPAD-MULTIPLY] key

- (combat) gamepad “rtr” config North Face-button = paragraph decrement

- (combat) gamepad “rtr” config South Face-button = paragraph increment

note: enemy target toggling in combat with gamepad “rtr” config is still possible via the modifier key.

Documentation: a license file has been added for the newly supported dll drop-in.

Bugfix: fixed instances of “:.” and “;.” in certain narrative modes - these should now report only ".".

Bugfix: the backspace key (usually bound to the repeat paragraph task) should now properly function when in graphical display modes.

Bugfix: fixed an error in the build.freeze script that was generating files irrelevant to the project's functionality.

Known Issue: there is a very minor bug in the tab targeting system that sometimes makes it ignore targets when they are at the very northern or southern edge of the map peripheries.

Known Issue: there may still be omissions in the documentation related to the accessibility and control changes introduced in this update.

Known Issue: there is a possibility that the [5] key is not behaving consistently or as expected in all circumstances.

Known Issue: some text blocks are in reverse ordering when using narrative mode - this occurs in places that does not affect gameplay.

Known Issue: some documentation was provided in the wrong file format.

10-16-2024:

Accessibility/Bugfix: The clipboard output modes should no longer be sending text with quotes around it.

Accessibility/Bugfix: The TRX_VI launchers will no longer trigger 80s mode. The 80s mode flag was introducing issues related to control schemes (specifically it overwrote the function of the number-pad keys). Users of TRX_VI mode should now expect the terminal window to be a bit larger when run, but this should not affect gameplay.

Accessibility: the VI launchers should now default to the ALT control scheme. This means that what was previously controlled by the arrow keys will now be controlled by the number pad's cardinal directions; they are switched in this ALT layout. Key combos such as ASDW have been unaffected. This change was not the preferred course of action but should help alleviate several recurring issues with screen readers in the least haphazard way possible.

Accessibility: SAPI versions of the game should now default to to the first available OneCore voice when available. As before, the ingame system to change the voice has not been added – but it is still possible to do so through the editing of a variable in a file.

Accessibility: The behavior of the default “Shortline menus” option has been adjusted. Players should still consider the Nil option once they become accustom to the menu system layout.

Accessibility: The “Hyper-ize Acknowledge Key” and “Ea-Mi-La” modes have been set to be enabled by default at new save file creation. Please note that this change makes the menu system behave a little less consistently relative to the rest of the game.

Accessibility: Legacy output mode has been improved when dealing with narrative outputs. The TRX launcher will now use legacy mode.

Accessibility: 12 new hotkeys have been added to more directly access each paragraph on the narrative page. Due to the nature of this change, the default control scheme will now distinguish more strictly as to whether shift is being held or not for game controls. Documentation has been updated to reflect this inclusion and a new setting option is planned to allow the user to disable certain paragraph re-ordering mechanisms should they wish to rely solely on the jump-to-paragraph play-style.

Accessibility: Launchers for narrative mode will now include the new “--preferlesslore” option as a default. With this configured, new save files will produce less lore in combat. This can still be changed later via the in-game settings menu after creating a character.

Accessibility: The damage speaker is no longer initialized to an active status in the VI launchers. This is due to the fact it is now a bit redundant with the addition of the “--preferlesslore” option and also in response to a report that the speaker was initializing to a speed higher than expected on some systems. This system can still be re-enabled manually.

Accessibility: The command line argument “-cur” and its long-form version “--cursor” have undergone changes. This change may allow players to “hover” over text more reliably in the STD VI launcher. This option is still not recommended for general use and is intended for rarer use cases.

Accessibility: some more phrases have been set to be stripped when preparing narrative strings.

Documentation: header text and tables of contents have been added to more of the included documents.

Documentation: the troubleshooting guides related to the NVDA screen reader have been merged.

Documentation: The troubleshooting guide for the STD_VI launcher now includes instruction on how to change the font size of the cmd.exe terminal.

Documentation: A new section has been added to the accessibility guide related to special game-specific TTS controls. These specific controls are not required for all modes of play, but they needed more explanation for the cases where applicable.

Documentation: The troubleshooting guide for the issue of screen readers repeating text has been updated with new information and corrections.

Gameplay: A new EP system ability has been added. This new ability should allow the player to alter their character’s role significantly (albeit temporarily) mid-combat. This should also allow players to access certain features earlier in the game.

Gameplay: The “Wright” class has been added. This is a combat crafting class that is only accessible via the EP system mid-combat; the class specializes in dealing with a particular item normally only obtainable via a platinum challenge. Due to the mechanisms of this class, it is unavailable in the practice challenges and is unlisted in the town menu.

Gameplay: The eclectic node system has undergone a partial overhaul to allow players to restock in bulk after traveling lengthy distances from the Envoy merchant camp then returning.

Gameplay: Flaire abilities now have additional benefits when used to land the final strike on an enemy.

Gameplay: A new standard item has been added and should always be present in the player’s inventory (even if unusable at the time), the Envoy merchant camp workshop has had additional functionality added in relation to this item.

Bugfix: A text formatting issue present when the player loses a battle in some modes of play has been patched. The root cause of this still needs to be located, so it is being corrected on a case-by-case basis at the moment.

Bugfix: The “Drop Weapon (Ranged)” ability should now properly drop a ranged weapon and not a melee one...

KNOWN ISSUES:

Linux + Orca users: it may necessary to press [ORCA_KEY + I] to initiate speech after using the arrow keys when playing.

Documentation: a readme file has a few instances where header level 3 should be header level 1

10-9-2024:

Accessibility: The hidden menu has been relabeled to the “Tapis” menu in some places. Further adjustments may soon be made to adjust the positioning of this in the Spiral-Settings-Menu listing.

Gameplay: A new starter+upgraded class pair has been added. These new classes rely on the buff trace system to reach their full potential and follow the standard trend of ability count instead of the limited trend.

Gameplay: The new EP system has been introduced. This system is currently restricted only to improving the durability of eclectic items, but may be applied elsewhere eventually. The new system is controlled via two new abilities added to the player’s “novice” class. At present these abilities vanish when shifting to an alternative Radix class, this ability restriction is intentional.

GameText: Some text has been changed to increase player immersion.

System: Timestamps are now disabled by default.

10-5-2024:

Bugfix: A critical bugfix has been applied to the buff impression system. This issue was introduced during the last week and was fixed immediately after being identified.

Gameplay: More classes have been set as select-able when creating a new player save file. For these changes to take effect it is recommended to remove old instances of the files in the PERMASAVES data folder. A handful of these starter classes have undergone adjustments to better fit the game lore.

Gameplay: Added more opportunities to utilize the buff impression system via existing abilities.

System: The save file update system is being tested and improved, apologies if any save files are negatively affected during this time.

System: Procedural worldgen system (initiated optionally from the game launcher menu) will now also place a merchant camp on each constructed map.

System: The small map called “demoworld” has been removed. This map may be re-introduced at a later time for it’s intended purpose as a map for “Finite Mode”.

10-3-2024:

Accessibility: A new toggle key has been added to adjust the ordering of paragraphs in narrative mode. This will only function when in the map segments of the game, and should make it easier to switch between prioritizing information of nearby points of interest vs prioritizing more distant landmarks. This new toggle key has been assigned to the ‘X’ key and can be used in conjunction with the flip narrative key (the ‘Z’ key) in order to produce four distinct paragraph orderings.

Accessibility: The narrative frame reprint/analysis hotkey has been reassigned to the ‘V’ key.

Gameplay: Platfall item status may now be reviewed in the envoy camp.

10-2-2024:

SaveFiles: Changes that affect save files were implemented in this version update. Measures were taken to allow old save files to be carried over to this version, but please be aware that saves from this version will likely not function in older versions.

Gameplay: The buff impression system is now in effect. This should allow players to buff their party more completely and in less time. Details of this system has been added to the player’s intro guide.

Gameplay: The pillar content system has been introduced. Players can receive rewards for visiting pillars scattered near towns on the map. These pillars have the visual appearance of instant-travel points and appear as such on the POI listing. Closer examination via the sight point of their ephemeral nature can be used to distinguish them from the normal tiles. This system can be completed several times with a limit dependent on current world depth, with the reward for the first completion being different than subsequent ones.

Gameplay: A new eclectic item which should make certain platinum challenges easier has been introduced.

Gameplay: The rally system has undergone changes that should make it more frequently usable by players. This was previously more geared toward late-game play, but is now available sooner with the addition of the pillar system. The rally command will only appear on the late turn phase of the first turn of combat.

GameText: Some combat log text has been updated to reduce redundancy or sound more distinct to screen readers.

GameText: Some phrasing has been changed to improve visual modes of the game. This should most dramatically affect 80s mode.

Bugfix: Critical bugfix for the jukebox system has been implemented. Issues were occurring when engaging in a particular shadow world battle, it is uncertain when this bug was introduced.

Bugfix: Critical bugfix related to the use of navmesh systems on umbral worlds has been implemented. This issue would only appear if players specifically enabled this system via the launcher menu. These procedurally generated worlds are an optional system not recommended for new players or those with low spec hardware.

Bugfix: Players should now be relocated to a settlement after defeat in the shadow worlds even if KO penalties are set to “none”, the system was technically functioning as intended but it resulted in some confusing effects by not relocating the player.

Bugfix: Removed a few stay print statements that were producing unintended output into the terminal

KnownIssue: Platfall eclectic item may not be visible in inventory outside Platinum Challenges.

KnownIssue: Umbral worlds do not have an envoy site posted during file generation. This was intentional in the past, but additional functionality has been added to the envoy site since the procedural world system was introduced – enough so that an envoy camp is now warranted.

KnownIssue: The smaller map included only for finite mode is under rare circumstances being selected as a full-fledged map.

9-30-2024:

Gameplay: An option has been added to replace some lore-style text in combat with more direct numerical reports.

Gameplay: Ea-Mi-La Combat Mode will now include the results of player actions.

Gameplay: A new option to “Hyper-ize” Ea-Mi-La Combat Mode has been added. When enabled, this will revert Ea-Mi-La Combat Mode back to the way it was prior to this version, where it will omit even the results of player actions.

Gameplay: A new option to “Hyper-ize” the Acknowledge Key in combat has been added. When enabled this will allow the skipping of confirmation dialogues in the combat menu when the acknowledge key is pressed at certain locations within the menu.

Gameplay: The following keys now each have a bound function: [!, @, #, $, %, ^, &]. These correlate to the number line 1-7 with the shift key held down on a US keyboard layout, and can now be used to adjust the setting of Auto-Combat Duration at most points of the game.

Gameplay: Accru-Weapons will now also affect allies at one half potency. A new message has also been added to the armor phase to denote when these effects become active.

Gameplay: Rewards from the “Unlit Path” challenge will now increase at greater world depths.

Gameplay: “Guard Brigade” ability has received a buff. It should now provide 1.5x the defense it did previously (rounded up in player’s favor when applicable).

Gameplay: “Beacon of Victory” Apex ability has been renamed to “Anaglyph of Victory”. This was necessary to correct an issue with UI colors.

Accessibility: The HAX_VI launcher has been renamed to TRX_VI. This launcher still functions the same way via a daisy-chain of other accessibility features, and may still present strangely formatted visual output in some cases (even if it works fine with a screen reader).

Documentation: A new tips file has been added which goes over recommended ways to speed up the flow of combat.

Documentation: Reference documentation for controls and game settings have been updated.

Documentation: Improved clarity of some documents related to accessibility.

Meta: A new folder called ADDITIONAL_TOOLS has been added. Some files have been moved into this directory instead of being distributed in the root of the game install path.

Bugfix: (Accessibility related) A critical bug related to forced instant travel mechanics has been fixed. This issue may have been introduced in the last game version when this form of travel was added to the Shadow World. Players relying on the backtracking system should update the game to avoid potential issues related to this bug in previous versions.

Bugfix: Target Lock-On sound effect will no longer play in the combat screen when using expanded soundscape.

HelpText: Apex ability “Call to Arms” help text has been corrected.

HelpText: Several small formatting errors (ie: missing or misplaced whitespace) have been fixed.

HelpText: Some help text was rephrased slightly for clarity.

9-27-2024:

Patch: The 9-26-2024 version has been re-uploaded with the addition of a new file to more easily undo changes that may have been required to get the game functioning with certain screen readers.

9-26-2024:

Accessibility: The looping TTS feature has been set to the default state of disabled.

System: Standard Settings Menu layout has been adjusted to free up space on the screen. There should be no noticeable changes to the Spiral Settings Menu.

Documentation: Some new content has been added to the walk-through documentation.

Documentation: Some PDF files have been merged with a table of contents inserted (the spoiler documents were intentionally left unmerged).

Documentation: A new category of documentation has been added called “HTML References”.

Gameplay: Added additional rewards to both Pilgrimage and Venture escort missions (these new rewards were already obtainable elsewhere in the game).

Gameplay: Amidcoil may now appear in Shadow Worlds as well.

Gameplay: The term “Silhouette” has been added to the player configuration screen in town.

Gameplay: Ea-Mi-La (Early-Middle-Late) Combat Mode now has a hotkey – the question mark ‘?’ key. Note: the forward slash ‘/’ key is already assigned to another role, so use of the shift key will be necessary for this new hotkey. Pressing this hotkey should be accompanied by a verbal announcement and in cases where Visual Roar is active, it should also generate a popup window.

Meta: A hotkey has been added to announce the current frame count when in recording mode. This is assigned to the ‘Y’ key and is intended to aid streamers if they ever wish to distribute the play-through records of their live stream. It should allow players to jump to specific segments of the record easier, so long as the streamer triggers the hotkey at key moments during play. Pressing this hotkey should be accompanied by a verbal announcement and in cases where Visual Roar is active, it should also generate a popup window.

Bugfix: Dawning Apex ability’s help text should now properly reflect the cost of the ability.

Bugfix: Input Delay in the settings menu was getting stuck on 0 when cycling between options

Bugfix: Nova Compass events should no longer occur while sailing.

Bugfix: The help text of one Eclectic Item has been corrected.

Bugfix: Pilgrim escort missions initiated from dungeons should now provide proper rewards in all circumstances.

Bugfix: The reward screen of escort missions should now fit within the screen size of 80s mode in all circumstances.

Known Issue (Linux only): The verbal announcement of the frame count and Ea-Mi-La hotkeys does not seem to function when Speech Dispatcher is already in use. The keys are still functional and the Visual Roar component is still working.

Failed Additions: A preliminary attempt to reduce the occurrences of the NVDA screen reader speaking text twice when using the arrow keys has failed.

9-22-2024:

Accessibility: Default menu verbosity in narrative mode should now be reduced to the SHORT setting. FULL and NIL are still options available.

System: Ea-Mi-La mode has been added to the hidden settings menu. When this mode is active the game will enter auto-combat mode for all except Early, Middle, Late, and Post-turn phases.

System: Combat Menu Recordkeeping system has been added to hidden settings menu. When this mode is active the menu will recall and highlight automatically which ability was last used during a specific combat phase.

Bugfix: HAX_VI narrative mode has undergone bugfixes that should remedy a situation where the output to terminal was one frame behind the state of the game.

NEW BUGS:

Pre-existing issues that persist after this update:
- The Apex ability of the "Dawning" class still miss-reports the SP cost. The proper cost should read 6 like all other Apex skills, but this particular ability also restores 3SP, making the effective cost significantly less after use (but it still requires 6 to initiate)

New issues introduced in this update:
- Player Name entry when using HAX_VI mode is now much more awkward visually. The player will be typing over existing text during this screen. There is not much which can be done to resolve this without major coding changes.
- HAX_VI mode with NVDA screenreader often results in situations where the word "blank" is spoken aloud when encountering random whitespace. While distracting, the proper information should still be getting read aloud so fixing this may have a somewhat low priority.

9-19-2024:

Documentation: default controls have been updated in README files and game launcher.

Accessibility: grassland footstep sounds in expanded soundscape are now louder.
Accessibility: Flaire usage hints should now be better suited for Text-to-Speech mechanisms.

Gameplay: Envoy now hints to location of first dungeon.
Gameplay: Envoy now lists towns connected through foot travel.
Gameplay: Envoy now provides an additional hint to holders of the "Enigma" item.
Gameplay: several game terms have been shortened to improve user interface appearance.

Bugfix: certain character classes were being incorrectly wiped in Shadow World transit.
Bugfix: a critical bugfix has been applied to the wandering world boss - the game should no longer crash after exiting this battle.
Bugfix: the Contract Arms system has had bugfixes applied to better detect when a player is wielding such a weapon.
Bugfix: one of the primary bosses was incorrectly being represented by its placeholder - the proper boss  should now appear.
Bugfix: the rematch conditions for one of the primary bosses have been altered - this should prevent players from getting stuck in certain segments of the map under rare conditions.

9-9-2024:

Accessibility: a new "Damage Speaker" system has been implemented and can be toggled with the ['] key (the single or double quote key). This system will speak aloud how much damage was dealt or healed for each action. The system can only function when SAPI or SpeechDispatcher is not already being used by the game. Volume and SpeechRate of the Damage Speaker system are adjusted via the same mechanisms the normal TTS uses.

Interface: most "Flaire" abilities have had hint text added to the menus where they are selected. These hints can provide information regarding a common use of each ability without needing to read through the entire description.

Bugfix: the settings menu listing of TTS controls has been corrected with recent changed.
Bugfix: the build process has been corrected in situations dealing with .txt files.

9-4-2024:

- Gameplay: a new world map has been added.
- Gameplay: "Unlit Path" battle system now uses party configuration to determine rewards instead of map name.

- Accessibility: Aerial Scan system initiated with "E" key will now report the two most abundant regions in some cases.
- Accessibility: Aerial Scan system now has a fallback message when the view is uninteresting.
- Accessibility: Aerial Scan system should now function in nearly all narrative and TTS modes.

- Bugfix: additional issues related to enemy wandering should now be resolved.

8-30-2024:

Documentation: new gameplay documentation added.

Gameplay: randomly placed dungeons called "Gulches" should now appear on the normal world map; these act as entry points for a new challenge fight type. Completion of this challenge can unlock new travel opportunities and the ability to purchase specific items at Envoy Camp.

Gameplay: new items unrelated to the Gulch system have also been added for purchase at Envoy Camp

Accessibility: A new feature has been added via pressing the "E" key. This is limited to modes of play where the narrative is being reported to the terminal window (so it will not be usable in some web based narrative modes including the recording mode). When activated, this feature will analyze an aerial view of the entire visible map as it is presently seen. Tile type frequency is then reported along with mention of where each type is most abundantly clustered. Intended to be used to get a better understanding of the peripheral areas of the map, where the radial scan does not cover.

Bugfix: Linux versions should now have executable permissions set automatically during build process.
Bugfix: wastelands in narrative version should no longer be misrepresented as water tiles.
Bugfix: enemies should no longer stop wandering near start area under certain circumstances.
Bugfix: relics should now only drop after new achievements in battle, not after every battle.
Bugfix: the max value in the relic tally counter should now properly reflect the maximum possible relics to obtain.
Bugfix: eclectic items will now automatically sort in the inventory.

8-21-2024:
- Bugfix: recording mode should no longer allow the screen to be resized when recording.
- Bugfix: recording mode should now restore inverted narratives to their original orientation before saving to record file.
- Bugfix: HTML markup should now be better preserved in recordings.
- Documentation: recommended gamepad controls are now listed in the readme file.
- Documentation: added troubleshooting information for STD VI launcher mode - there are specific issues with screen readers.
- Documentation: added some gameplay systems documentation (mostly non-spoilers).

8-19-2024:
- Addition: users of the narrative mode can now more closely examine a narrative screen and force a reprint of it via the "X" key.
- Adjustment: the background music toggle key has been changed from "X" to "Q".
- Bugfix: Zealot mode will now report to the log file when it has halted the game due to a non-ascii character being sent to be printed.

Update 8-15-2024:
the following changes have been made

1) Both the desktop version and the web version of the Revlike Engine (R-Engine) now include four small tabletop-style mini-games. This is more in line with the original intent of the project as a whole, its capability not being restricted only to the function as a Replay Theater.

2) A separate application labeled “RevLink” has been uploaded for the first time; this is currently only available for Windows. If RevLink is run in the foreground while the desktop version of the R-Engine is run in the background, it can serve as a terminal based portal for controlling the Flutter application.

3) Adjustments have been made to the store page.

General info for the games now included:
- all included games are single player only.
- to run the games, use the Flutter application R-Engine without loading a replay into the docu-bin.
- unlike the replay system, players have direct control of menus and game state.
- please take into consideration the engine specific TTS controls, they are now also listed in an instruction document. How important these controls are for play will depend on which interface is being utilized to access the games (Flutter app itself versus RevLink terminal versus the HTML browser files)

Blurb about Game #1:
- flip tiles based on dice rolls, the fewer tiles left standing each round the better.
- a token pool makes this into a small campaign.

Blurb about Game #2:
- challenge a card dealer but with a set of dice on your side instead.
- an asymmetric game where the rules differ slightly for each side of the table.

Blurb about Game #3:
- use a mixed bag of dice to reach a specific target sum.
- no two dice are equal in shape for this challenge.

Blurb about Game #4:
- press forward using the move set of a classic game.
- find loot along the way to stuff a coffer full.

Listed here are known persistent bugs.

=== TEIR 1 BUGS ===
these are bugs that are game-breaking if encountered and may affect many modes of play

- No known bugs.

=== TEIR 2 BUGS ===
these are bugs that are game-breaking if encountered but should only occur in rare edge cases

- RevLink cannot be used at the same time as the HTML portal when trying to control the Flutter app.
- Pressing Enter Key when utilizing the localhost HTML portal may desynchronize the link to the Flutter app.

=== TEIR 3 BUGS ===
these are bugs that are not game-breaking but may affect a substantial portion of the game

- The button click sound effects are not consistently played.
- The Escape Key is used in both the game controls and the hosting website for competing roles.

=== TEIR 4 BUGS ===
these are bugs that are not game-breaking and may only affect a limited portion of the game

- The localhost HTML portal when used with a screen reader may require a manual refresh and adjustment of focus mode.

=== TEIR 5 BUGS ===
these are common bugs that are introduced and resolved as they are found

- Bugs in this category are in constant flux and not reported unless they become more persistent.

=== 'FEATURE' TEIR BUGS ===
these are bugs which will not be fixed - consider them unintentional features

- This section will be updated once each is verified to still be relevant.

8-17-2024:
- Linux version: sound system bug fixes.
- Adjustment: small lore changes that under normal circumstances would break save compatibility.
- System: a trial run of a save salvaging system for scenarios of breaking changes.

8-16-2024:
- Accessibility: critical bugfix for web based narrative mode - the aria-live region should now be functional.
- Linux version: new Linux version should have the shell scripts flagged as executable by default. This was done manually this time but adjustments are on the todo list to automate the process next time.
- Accessibility: small changes made to the exchange dialogs of Envoy's camp - they should read more understandably via screen readers now.

8-11-2024:
- Accessibility: narrative mode will now use long-form versions of player stat pool names in combat situations.
- Adjustment: text within the after-combat rewards screen has been altered to help distinguish which rewards are usable, and which are simply stockpiled for game progression purposes.

8-5-2024:
- Bugfix: player inventories should now display items the player possesses but can not use at the time.
- New: Linux build .sh scripts created to provide a similar mechanism for launching the game as the Windows version .bat files.
- New: Envoy camp has a new option for "Tuning an Instrument". This option cannot yet be unlocked via normal gameplay and is planned for use in a future content system.
- Adjustment: Medico Apex ability has been adjusted. The MP penalty for the action has been reduced. This is to reinforce previous changes with the goal of allowing Medico to take a more offensive role in combat when necessary.

Listed here are known persistent bugs.

=== TEIR 1 BUGS ===
these are bugs that are game-breaking if encountered and may affect many modes of play

- Setting the game to use the Unstable Sound system makes all modes of play potentially unstable. Use this at your own risk.

- Windows11 + NVDA screen reader has issues in cmd.exe. Refer to provided troubleshooting documents for solutions.

- Standard VI preset launcher mode has issues on smaller monitors with larger fonts in cmd.exe. Refer to provided troubleshooting documents for solutions.

=== TEIR 2 BUGS ===
these are bugs that are game-breaking if encountered but should only occur in rare edge cases

- No known bugs.

=== TEIR 3 BUGS ===
these are bugs that are not game-breaking but may affect a substantial portion of the game

- The text replacement mod system does not yet provide full coverage and may not be suitable for use in translations to some languages.

- Invulnerable enemies may not display combo effect landing message in post-turn phases.

- On some systems very short sounds may not play properly.

=== TEIR 4 BUGS ===
these are bugs that are not game-breaking and may only affect a limited portion of the game

- Windows Terminal Mode sight point cursor is sometimes off by 1 tile when the terminal size is manually adjusted.

- Various unsupported Linux terminals may unreliably reposition the cursor. This could be more pronounced in 80s mode.

- There may be minor inconsistencies in how blank lines are represented in narrative recordings - this may slightly alter replay playback appearance.

=== TEIR 5 BUGS ===
these are common bugs that are introduced and resolved as they are found

- Bugs in this category are in constant flux and not reported unless they become more persistent.

=== 'OOPS' TEIR BUGS ===
these are bugs which will not be fixed - consider them unintentional features

- FEATURE: coloring of player name on screen may also affect other text (avoidable using a unique name)

- FEATURE: swapping between normal/always_night/always_day on main map with jukebox active results in some weirdness where the nighttime music may play during day or the opposite

- FEATURE: entering and exiting certain menus quickly can result in jukebox playing incorrect background music for the scene

- FEATURE: Wayfare's armor grants a rooted status that only lasts for a short time (from armor phase -> early action phase) - this is intentional and meant to block only forced-movement type traits of enemies

- FEATURE: WorldMemory based classes gain access to abilities that may otherwise be restricted by Ward state or other limiting factors

- ODDITY: there are a small number of enemies on map that do not seem to wander properly, this is a bug but has a certain appeal to be left alone

- FEATURE: Pulse attacks can have an affinity, but this affinity only matters for drape effects - leaving this as is "the pulse may have characteristics of an affinity, but not necessarily ALL the characteristics of an affinity"

- ANNOYANCE: venture and pilgrim NPCs can request to visit impossible to reach destinations - "sometimes people just request the impossible"

- ANNOYANCE: some enemies may force player back into combat after escaping with a smokescreen – this may or not be intended based on where it is encountered – further verification needed

- FEATURE: the Python version being used for Windows development is quite dated – an old version of Python is being used in hopes of maintaining (untested) windows 7 support, if it turns out that windows 7 support is already broken then the python version may be brought more up to date as it may improve performance

- ANNOYANCE: defeating Rival and the ShadowArmy with few relics is a very difficult task – these may require absurd luck, absurd amounts of grinding, or some very rare eclectic items... hence the title they grant being "Absurdist" - sometimes its best to just accept that there are things best left alone unless an opportunity presents itself?

- FEATURE: starter and evolved-starter professions do not suffer Shadow World entry/exit penalty of wiping whole stockpile of available charges... considering how hard these are to unlock losing the single charge of what is currently equipped on shadow world exit is sufficient

- FEATURE: challenge fights initiated from dungeons may not adjust mob levels based on world depth the player has reached... these challenges are intended to not fluctuate much in difficulty

- ANNOYANCE: only on Windows color terminal mode, LostFront platinum challenge with shroud of war fully removed does not allow rainfall to be present – this is a technical limitation of the windows terminal (rain makes the terminal exceed max allowed number of characters on screen due to many colors cycling) - the alternative buggy screen is worse than losing the rain

- ANNOYANCE: if a Linux player force closes the game via ctrl + c at certain times then the echo of key-presses in the terminal will remain disabled (closing and re-opening in a new terminal or typing "stty echo" -> enter_key without visual feedback can fix this)

- FEATURE: innate affinity drape effects granted to pets only affect second monster special attack phase (when pulses occur)... this is intentional, the drape effects should only last during this phase

- ODDITY: it may be possible for players to prevent a pulse attack by quickly taking an enemy down 10 more hp or so after the pulse is listed as "planned" by the mob... this is not intentional but allows for more flexibility in play so it will likely be left if it is indeed the case (but be aware this may accidentally or intentionally be changed in the future)

- FEATURE: at the time of this writing, the mob location fixer will fix mobs on an individual basis while the relic location fixer will relocate all relics when even one is found corrupt... this is somewhat intentional since it allows the player an easier means to re-distribute relics toward the lower danger regions of map if they are having issues (via corrupting 1 entry intentionally)

- FEATURE: swapping into cursed contract arms in early phase -> commit to a basic attack with it -> swap out of it in late phase = can avoid the curse penalty - this is being left as intentional since it devotes so much of a turn just to doing it properly