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.