Chronicles of Vaeltaja: In Search of the Great Wanderer

[Witchgrove Games]

Good news! I decided to check what's going on with the 'choose last command' not working and I can confirm that it will return with the next update. This time the player will be able to turn it on/off in the options menu.

I'll see if there's some other stuff I could do to make some sort of update for this month. There's at least one weird bug, which gives the player a small exploit, but I have no idea what's causing it. The bug ignores the mace skill's value and allows to wear any type of mace, no matter how low the skill is. This can give a small advantage, but since the mace skill improves the attack bonus, it must be improved nevertheless. It's a very peculiar bug, because everything seems to be in order and it should work the same as the other weapon skills. But for some reason it doesn't. I'll keep looking, but I've already ran out of ideas.

[Tweed]

Darno's house is still locked even after you talk to him. You have to go through the catacombs again to finish his quest.

[Witchgrove Games]

Darno's house is still locked even after you talk to him. You have to go through the catacombs again to finish his quest.

Thanks, I will check this out and fix it for the next update.

[Tweed]

Status-afflicting attacks really shouldn't cause status effects if the attack misses.

[Witchgrove Games]

Status-afflicting attacks really shouldn't cause status effects if the attack misses.

Yeah, this is one of those bugs that I'm not entirely sure what causes it, but I'll take a better look at it today.

Edit: Do you mean that status effects are caused if the attack misses completely or when the attack causes 0 damage? Status effects shouldn't happen at all if the attack misses completely. Of course it also shouldn't happen either if the damage is 0, but I think that's the case when the bug occurs.

[Tweed]

Status-afflicting attacks really shouldn't cause status effects if the attack misses.

Yeah, this is one of those bugs that I'm not entirely sure what causes it, but I'll take a better look at it today.

Edit: Do you mean that status effects are caused if the attack misses completely or when the attack causes 0 damage? Status effects shouldn't happen at all if the attack misses completely. Of course it also shouldn't happen either if the damage is 0, but I think that's the case when the bug occurs.

They happen in both cases.

[Witchgrove Games]

Status-afflicting attacks really shouldn't cause status effects if the attack misses.

Yeah, this is one of those bugs that I'm not entirely sure what causes it, but I'll take a better look at it today.

Edit: Do you mean that status effects are caused if the attack misses completely or when the attack causes 0 damage? Status effects shouldn't happen at all if the attack misses completely. Of course it also shouldn't happen either if the damage is 0, but I think that's the case when the bug occurs.

They happen in both cases.

This will be fixed with the next update too. I also found out that some enemy poison attacks had issues with the damage formula and therefore the damage was always 0. That will be fixed too. I will also improve the enemy ai, so that they don't try to cause certain states if party member already is affected by that state (poison, silence etc.). I'll see if I can also improve the party's ai the same way when using auto battle.

[Kalarion]

Just shy of 10 hours of play. This game is janky as **** and I'm having a blast. We need to get this over to the JAG stat once it comes out of EA.

Likes:
- Rusty said cozy-maxxed, perfect description
- Good class variety.
- Secrets EVERYWHERE, rudimentary implementation of use of items to interact with the world (digging up holes, filling bottles with spring water etc).
- Effectively zero hand-holding or gating. Go anywhere, get raped when you're not careful. Example:

(the Ghost actually scared me away from the graveyard so badly that I missed the fact I could go during the day to avoid them)

- Very charming NPC interaction. The biggest highlight so far for me has to be The Knights Who Never Talk About the Same Thing Twice. The guy who initiates that sequence hit the perfect balance of being annoying in-world without actually crossing the line to being annoying for me as the player.

Dislikes:
- +1 skill to get a +1 ATK upgrade in your weapon line, +2 skill to get a +1 DEF upgrade in one of your armor lines, +1 +1 +1 +1 +1, boooooooooooooooooooring. WHERE IS MY FLAMING HELLFIRE AVENGER +5
- lots of minor graphical miscommunications. The minimap will show a tile that doesn't show in the world, things like that.
- very low hotkey support (talked about by @Witchgrove Games already but it's still a complaint).
- bugs that cross the jank threshold into being annoying. For instance, it took me awhile to realize that I could "harvest" butterflies on the world map because sometimes when you interact with them, nothing happens. You have to interact multiple times to make it work. Sometimes, first time's the charm. Reeee.
- Skill glut. I don't mind a wide variety of skills, but they're broken down in a way that's very different from the norm, and sometimes actively counterintuitive. For instance, classes with 2-handed weapons can actually put special armor items in their offhand slot (bracers etc). But those items fall under the Shield skill line?! It also makes equipping your characters painful. Armor skills are broken down a little weirdly as well. The Magic Item line for trinkets/amulets is one example.
- Dearth of skill points. @Tweed covered this and it's been talked about by Witchgrove as well, but again, still a complaint.

Hilariously Endearing Jank:
- player icon on the automap randomly coming off the grid, sometimes putting me into a completely different square from the one I'm on.
- walking off the edge of the map while following a secret.
- map tile mismatches with the automap. This has occasionally allowed me to find a secret I might otherwise have missed (yes I complained about this, it's still cute)!

Did I mention I'm having a blast?

[Tweed]

Don't use the conjurers, by the way. They're useless. Take any other class, any other function.

[Witchgrove Games]

Just shy of 10 hours of play. This game is janky as **** and I'm having a blast. We need to get this over to the JAG stat once it comes out of EA.

Likes:
- Rusty said cozy-maxxed, perfect description
- Good class variety.
- Secrets EVERYWHERE, rudimentary implementation of use of items to interact with the world (digging up holes, filling bottles with spring water etc).
- Effectively zero hand-holding or gating. Go anywhere, get raped when you're not careful. Example:

(the Ghost actually scared me away from the graveyard so badly that I missed the fact I could go during the day to avoid them)

- Very charming NPC interaction. The biggest highlight so far for me has to be The Knights Who Never Talk About the Same Thing Twice. The guy who initiates that sequence hit the perfect balance of being annoying in-world without actually crossing the line to being annoying for me as the player.

Dislikes:
- +1 skill to get a +1 ATK upgrade in your weapon line, +2 skill to get a +1 DEF upgrade in one of your armor lines, +1 +1 +1 +1 +1, boooooooooooooooooooring. WHERE IS MY FLAMING HELLFIRE AVENGER +5
- lots of minor graphical miscommunications. The minimap will show a tile that doesn't show in the world, things like that.
- very low hotkey support (talked about by @Witchgrove Games already but it's still a complaint).
- bugs that cross the jank threshold into being annoying. For instance, it took me awhile to realize that I could "harvest" butterflies on the world map because sometimes when you interact with them, nothing happens. You have to interact multiple times to make it work. Sometimes, first time's the charm. Reeee.
- Skill glut. I don't mind a wide variety of skills, but they're broken down in a way that's very different from the norm, and sometimes actively counterintuitive. For instance, classes with 2-handed weapons can actually put special armor items in their offhand slot (bracers etc). But those items fall under the Shield skill line?! It also makes equipping your characters painful. Armor skills are broken down a little weirdly as well. The Magic Item line for trinkets/amulets is one example.
- Dearth of skill points. @Tweed covered this and it's been talked about by Witchgrove as well, but again, still a complaint.

Hilariously Endearing Jank:
- player icon on the automap randomly coming off the grid, sometimes putting me into a completely different square from the one I'm on.
- walking off the edge of the map while following a secret.
- map tile mismatches with the automap. This has occasionally allowed me to find a secret I might otherwise have missed (yes I complained about this, it's still cute)!

Did I mention I'm having a blast?

Thanks for the detailed feedback! I'm glad to hear you're having a blast!

About the dislikes:

- Equipment: I wanted to keep the numbers low, that's why the bonuses are low in the beginning. You will start to find better gear later, but I haven't added all of them yet to the game and future updates will bring some variety to them. There are already some weapons with elemental attacks that can be found, but more will definitely come.
- That overworld minimap plugin that I use is a bit weird and for some reason it seems to cause more bugs for some players than the others. One of the big problems is that it's also one of those obfuscated plugins (there are approximately 15 obfuscated plugins overall), so it complicates things on my end. Other big issue is that the plugin's 'fog of war' feature is useless because it doesn't take into account that the engine can be used to make 3d games, and for that reason the developers haven't added a proper way to adjust it manually. If I didn't hide the secrets from the map completely, it would reveal them when you are 20 tiles away from them (I mean the bigger area map which opens with 'tab'). Anyway, I will go through all the areas today and see if I get those mismatches, which I've already fixed at least twice in the past. I've regretted a few times that I ended up using this plugin, but it's a bit too late to stop using it.
- There will be some hotkeys coming and the combat will at least get that 'remember last command' feature, which should help with the combat.
- The butterfly catching is not a bug: The better the Agility, the easier to catch them. There is also a dice roll involved when doing stat or skill based interaction in the game world (catching butterflies, lock picking, searching tree stumps etc.) so that also affects. Perhaps I should lower the difficulty of catching them?
- Skill points: This comes with the numbers being low, but perhaps I should either add one more when when leveling up or lower the skill tome's price in the Nine Sister Shop.

I will release an update before the end of this month and I'll try to get at least some of those map issues fixed for it once again.

[rusty_shackleford]

Just shy of 10 hours of play. This game is janky as **** and I'm having a blast. We need to get this over to the JAG stat once it comes out of EA.

Likes:
- Rusty said cozy-maxxed, perfect description
- Good class variety.
- Secrets EVERYWHERE, rudimentary implementation of use of items to interact with the world (digging up holes, filling bottles with spring water etc).
- Effectively zero hand-holding or gating. Go anywhere, get raped when you're not careful. Example:

(the Ghost actually scared me away from the graveyard so badly that I missed the fact I could go during the day to avoid them)

- Very charming NPC interaction. The biggest highlight so far for me has to be The Knights Who Never Talk About the Same Thing Twice. The guy who initiates that sequence hit the perfect balance of being annoying in-world without actually crossing the line to being annoying for me as the player.

Dislikes:
- +1 skill to get a +1 ATK upgrade in your weapon line, +2 skill to get a +1 DEF upgrade in one of your armor lines, +1 +1 +1 +1 +1, boooooooooooooooooooring. WHERE IS MY FLAMING HELLFIRE AVENGER +5
- lots of minor graphical miscommunications. The minimap will show a tile that doesn't show in the world, things like that.
- very low hotkey support (talked about by @Witchgrove Games already but it's still a complaint).
- bugs that cross the jank threshold into being annoying. For instance, it took me awhile to realize that I could "harvest" butterflies on the world map because sometimes when you interact with them, nothing happens. You have to interact multiple times to make it work. Sometimes, first time's the charm. Reeee.
- Skill glut. I don't mind a wide variety of skills, but they're broken down in a way that's very different from the norm, and sometimes actively counterintuitive. For instance, classes with 2-handed weapons can actually put special armor items in their offhand slot (bracers etc). But those items fall under the Shield skill line?! It also makes equipping your characters painful. Armor skills are broken down a little weirdly as well. The Magic Item line for trinkets/amulets is one example.
- Dearth of skill points. @Tweed covered this and it's been talked about by Witchgrove as well, but again, still a complaint.

Hilariously Endearing Jank:
- player icon on the automap randomly coming off the grid, sometimes putting me into a completely different square from the one I'm on.
- walking off the edge of the map while following a secret.
- map tile mismatches with the automap. This has occasionally allowed me to find a secret I might otherwise have missed (yes I complained about this, it's still cute)!

Did I mention I'm having a blast?

Thanks for the detailed feedback! I'm glad to hear you're having a blast!

About the dislikes:

- Equipment: I wanted to keep the numbers low, that's why the bonuses are low in the beginning. You will start to find better gear later, but I haven't added all of them yet to the game and future updates will bring some variety to them. There are already some weapons with elemental attacks that can be found, but more will definitely come.
- That overworld minimap plugin that I use is a bit weird and for some reason it seems to cause more bugs for some players than the others. One of the big problems is that it's also one of those obfuscated plugins (there are approximately 15 obfuscated plugins overall), so it complicates things on my end. Other big issue is that the plugin's 'fog of war' feature is useless because it doesn't take into account that the engine can be used to make 3d games, and for that reason the developers haven't added a proper way to adjust it manually. If I didn't hide the secrets from the map completely, it would reveal them when you are 20 tiles away from them (I mean the bigger area map which opens with 'tab'). Anyway, I will go through all the areas today and see if I get those mismatches, which I've already fixed at least twice in the past. I've regretted a few times that I ended up using this plugin, but it's a bit too late to stop using it.
- There will be some hotkeys coming and the combat will at least get that 'remember last command' feature, which should help with the combat.
- The butterfly catching is not a bug: The better the Agility, the easier to catch them. There is also a dice roll involved when doing stat or skill based interaction in the game world (catching butterflies, lock picking, searching tree stumps etc.) so that also affects. Perhaps I should lower the difficulty of catching them?
- Skill points: This comes with the numbers being low, but perhaps I should either add one more when when leveling up or lower the skill tome's price in the Nine Sister Shop.

I will release an update before the end of this month and I'll try to get at least some of those map issues fixed for it once again.

I'm curious, are you a programmer or just winging it?

[Witchgrove Games]

Just shy of 10 hours of play. This game is janky as **** and I'm having a blast. We need to get this over to the JAG stat once it comes out of EA.

Likes:
- Rusty said cozy-maxxed, perfect description
- Good class variety.
- Secrets EVERYWHERE, rudimentary implementation of use of items to interact with the world (digging up holes, filling bottles with spring water etc).
- Effectively zero hand-holding or gating. Go anywhere, get raped when you're not careful. Example:

(the Ghost actually scared me away from the graveyard so badly that I missed the fact I could go during the day to avoid them)

- Very charming NPC interaction. The biggest highlight so far for me has to be The Knights Who Never Talk About the Same Thing Twice. The guy who initiates that sequence hit the perfect balance of being annoying in-world without actually crossing the line to being annoying for me as the player.

Dislikes:
- +1 skill to get a +1 ATK upgrade in your weapon line, +2 skill to get a +1 DEF upgrade in one of your armor lines, +1 +1 +1 +1 +1, boooooooooooooooooooring. WHERE IS MY FLAMING HELLFIRE AVENGER +5
- lots of minor graphical miscommunications. The minimap will show a tile that doesn't show in the world, things like that.
- very low hotkey support (talked about by @Witchgrove Games already but it's still a complaint).
- bugs that cross the jank threshold into being annoying. For instance, it took me awhile to realize that I could "harvest" butterflies on the world map because sometimes when you interact with them, nothing happens. You have to interact multiple times to make it work. Sometimes, first time's the charm. Reeee.
- Skill glut. I don't mind a wide variety of skills, but they're broken down in a way that's very different from the norm, and sometimes actively counterintuitive. For instance, classes with 2-handed weapons can actually put special armor items in their offhand slot (bracers etc). But those items fall under the Shield skill line?! It also makes equipping your characters painful. Armor skills are broken down a little weirdly as well. The Magic Item line for trinkets/amulets is one example.
- Dearth of skill points. @Tweed covered this and it's been talked about by Witchgrove as well, but again, still a complaint.

Hilariously Endearing Jank:
- player icon on the automap randomly coming off the grid, sometimes putting me into a completely different square from the one I'm on.
- walking off the edge of the map while following a secret.
- map tile mismatches with the automap. This has occasionally allowed me to find a secret I might otherwise have missed (yes I complained about this, it's still cute)!

Did I mention I'm having a blast?

Thanks for the detailed feedback! I'm glad to hear you're having a blast!

About the dislikes:

- Equipment: I wanted to keep the numbers low, that's why the bonuses are low in the beginning. You will start to find better gear later, but I haven't added all of them yet to the game and future updates will bring some variety to them. There are already some weapons with elemental attacks that can be found, but more will definitely come.
- That overworld minimap plugin that I use is a bit weird and for some reason it seems to cause more bugs for some players than the others. One of the big problems is that it's also one of those obfuscated plugins (there are approximately 15 obfuscated plugins overall), so it complicates things on my end. Other big issue is that the plugin's 'fog of war' feature is useless because it doesn't take into account that the engine can be used to make 3d games, and for that reason the developers haven't added a proper way to adjust it manually. If I didn't hide the secrets from the map completely, it would reveal them when you are 20 tiles away from them (I mean the bigger area map which opens with 'tab'). Anyway, I will go through all the areas today and see if I get those mismatches, which I've already fixed at least twice in the past. I've regretted a few times that I ended up using this plugin, but it's a bit too late to stop using it.
- There will be some hotkeys coming and the combat will at least get that 'remember last command' feature, which should help with the combat.
- The butterfly catching is not a bug: The better the Agility, the easier to catch them. There is also a dice roll involved when doing stat or skill based interaction in the game world (catching butterflies, lock picking, searching tree stumps etc.) so that also affects. Perhaps I should lower the difficulty of catching them?
- Skill points: This comes with the numbers being low, but perhaps I should either add one more when when leveling up or lower the skill tome's price in the Nine Sister Shop.

I will release an update before the end of this month and I'll try to get at least some of those map issues fixed for it once again.

I'm curious, are you a programmer or just winging it?

Not a real programmer, just a stubborn guy with big ideas.
Some years ago I studied game designing couple of years and there were programming courses (which I took), but they were mostly for c#. I think there was only one course of javascript, which the engine uses. I can usually fix most issues in the plugins (as long as the code is not obfuscated), but my skills are not yet good enough to create bigger plugins, unless I use AI. I've made a couple of small plugins (without using AI) in the past, but nothing complicated. I think there were a couple of years between my studies and starting this project, and in that time I didn't do any programming and that of course lead to forgetting stuff. But 50% of programming is finding solutions and googling, and I'm quite good at that at least. There has been some improvement on my javascript understanding, but programming is definitely not my strongest suit.

My strength lies in creativity and understanding of games.

[Rand]

- The butterfly catching is not a bug: The better the Agility, the easier to catch them. There is also a dice roll involved when doing stat or skill based interaction in the game world (catching butterflies, lock picking, searching tree stumps etc.) so that also affects. Perhaps I should lower the difficulty of catching them?

I missed this entirely since nothing happened when I clicked on them.
The best solution is to communicate a failure to perform the task the player.
As it stands, there's no feedback, making a player potentially think they're actually non-interactable.

[Witchgrove Games]

- The butterfly catching is not a bug: The better the Agility, the easier to catch them. There is also a dice roll involved when doing stat or skill based interaction in the game world (catching butterflies, lock picking, searching tree stumps etc.) so that also affects. Perhaps I should lower the difficulty of catching them?

I missed this entirely since nothing happened whan I clicked on them.
The best solution is to communicate a failure to perform the task the player.
As it stands, there's no feedback, making a player potentially think they're actually non-interactable.

Yeah, I probably should add some sort of message, if the catching fails.

[Rand]

- The butterfly catching is not a bug: The better the Agility, the easier to catch them. There is also a dice roll involved when doing stat or skill based interaction in the game world (catching butterflies, lock picking, searching tree stumps etc.) so that also affects. Perhaps I should lower the difficulty of catching them?

I missed this entirely since nothing happened whan I clicked on them.
The best solution is to communicate a failure to perform the task the player.
As it stands, there's no feedback, making a player potentially think they're actually non-interactable.

Yeah, I probably should add some sort of message, if the catching fails.

In this case, I'm not certain what failure accomplishes play-wise.
If there is no limit to attempts, than the player will simply continue until success, making the only real test the player's patience.
I don't see a downside to success being automatic.

[Witchgrove Games]

- The butterfly catching is not a bug: The better the Agility, the easier to catch them. There is also a dice roll involved when doing stat or skill based interaction in the game world (catching butterflies, lock picking, searching tree stumps etc.) so that also affects. Perhaps I should lower the difficulty of catching them?

I missed this entirely since nothing happened whan I clicked on them.
The best solution is to communicate a failure to perform the task the player.
As it stands, there's no feedback, making a player potentially think they're actually non-interactable.

Yeah, I probably should add some sort of message, if the catching fails.

In this case, I'm not certain what failure accomplishes play-wise.
If there is no limit to attempts, than the player will simply continue until success, making the only real test the player's patience.
I don't see a downside to success being automatic.

I have thought about this few times since I added the mechanic. Originally I chose this method (where the failure is an option) because it was in line with the other mechanics (lock picking etc.). Perhaps this is some autistic way of thinking, but I also thought that in real life it's not actually very easy to catch a flying butterfly without damaging its wings and therefore I wanted to tie the catching to agility. Of course another solution would be to add a butterfly net that could be bought from item shop.

[Rand]

I missed this entirely since nothing happened whan I clicked on them.
The best solution is to communicate a failure to perform the task the player.
As it stands, there's no feedback, making a player potentially think they're actually non-interactable.

Yeah, I probably should add some sort of message, if the catching fails.

In this case, I'm not certain what failure accomplishes play-wise.
If there is no limit to attempts, than the player will simply continue until success, making the only real test the player's patience.
I don't see a downside to success being automatic.

I have thought about this few times since I added the mechanic. Originally I chose this method (where the failure is an option) because it was in line with the other mechanics (lock picking etc.). Perhaps this is some autistic way of thinking, but I also thought that in real life it's not actually very easy to catch a flying butterfly without damaging its wings and therefore I wanted to tie the catching to agility. Of course another solution would be to add a butterfly net that could be bought from item shop.

Perhaps our theory of games differ, but I have always been on the side of meaningful "choice and consequence".
Like if you only get one chance to catch the butterfly, or fail and it gets away or is ruined, perhaps respawning for another attempt the next day.
As it stands, it does not provide the player much choice or consequence at all.
They are tested as to their patience on the time taken to complete a certain task with an uncertain time component, or their willingness to spend the real time necessary to do so knowing it may be annoying to get the eventual success.

It's the same with lockpicking checks or speech checks.
Consider Fallout New Vegas or ATOM RPG: except in combat or when failure has irresolvable consequences, you either have enough of a skill and succeed or do not and fail.
In the case of lockpicking, the only consequences of failure I can see is:
• taking so much time that wandering monsters are a possibility
• breaking or degrading tools
• jamming the lock, necessitating breaking down or bypassing the door using magic or an alternate route

These approaches avoid what we call "savescumming" which is using the mechanics available to maximize a random result so as to pass a check.
Except the butterfly test doesn't even have the negative incentive of having to waste time reloading or the feeling of "cheating".

[Tweed]

There really shouldn't be consequences for most skill checks aside from simple failure because all it does is make the player reload the game.

[Oyster Sauce]

There really shouldn't be consequences for most skill checks aside from simple failure because all it does is make the player reload the game.

Cheater

[rusty_shackleford]

There really shouldn't be consequences for most skill checks aside from simple failure because all it does is make the player reload the game.

Good point, don't allow reloading the game.

[Witchgrove Games]

I'll have to think about this.
Complete failure, such as breaking a lock pick, is something I've also thought about and even tested. It's something that tempts me, but I haven't decided if I will add it. Of course that would mean that I'd have to make some other changes too, such as lowering the price of lock picks so it would be cheaper to buy them more at once. Personally, I like when choices have consequences, but I was a bit of a fool when I decided to make this game deeper than I originally planned. I mean, I knew it would take a massive amount of work, and that's ok in itself, but I didn't think it through enough back then to avoid some extra work that I've had gone through. Therefore the development has been sort of balancing between what I want to add and what is sensible to add given that I'm the only one working on the game. If I had better resources and at least some sort of budget, I would definitely make the game even deeper experience. One reason why I haven't added the chance to break lock pick is that there's quite a few locks (and some locked chests) in the game and I would have to add that mechanic to each lock separately, so it's quite a task.

All this said, I really do like the idea of adding a better failure mechanic; for example a chance to to ruin the butterfly wings when catching (they already have a respawn mechanic after certain time) and breaking the lock pick and so on. But I will have to think about if that would mean some other changes too, like adding more butterflies etc. here and there.

It's a good thing that this has now been brought up, because sometimes I also wonder have I gone too far with the 'figure stuff out on your own' approach.

EDIT: Of course those complete failures would happen on rare occasions, not with every fail.

EDIT2: And of course I would also prefer if savescumming could be avoided, so this is a bit like between a rock and a hard place.

[rusty_shackleford]

Perhaps this is some autistic way of thinking, but I also thought that in real life it's not actually very easy to catch a flying butterfly without damaging its wings and therefore I wanted to tie the catching to agility. Of course another solution would be to add a butterfly net that could be bought from item shop.

My two cents:
Trve simulationism demands causality. From what I can piece together, the current mechanic is a slot machine.
A causal reaction to the player's interaction in this scenario would be things like it flying away (opportunity cost), butterfly is crushed(resource cost), perhaps even the character hurting himself(risk). or even the player realizing he needs tools(a net) and therefore must go acquire some(time cost.) This transforms it from a slot machine to a strategic decision.

[Witchgrove Games]

Perhaps this is some autistic way of thinking, but I also thought that in real life it's not actually very easy to catch a flying butterfly without damaging its wings and therefore I wanted to tie the catching to agility. Of course another solution would be to add a butterfly net that could be bought from item shop.

My two cents:
Trve simulationism demands causality. From what I can piece together, the current mechanic is a slot machine.
A causal reaction to the player's interaction in this scenario would be things like it flying away (opportunity cost), butterfly is crushed(resource cost), perhaps even the character hurting himself(risk). or even the player realizing he needs tools(a net) and therefore must go acquire some(time cost.) This transforms it from a slot machine to a strategic decision.

I agree and that would be ideal. I really have to think about this through before making any decision. Adding these failure mechanics to butterflies is not that big task, but adding them to all the other things is a bit different story. For example, like I said before, I would have to add the system to each lock individually, but I would have to also add it to all conditions of each lock; for the main character when there's no Shadow in the party and also for main character when Shadow is in the party, and of course for Shadow also. Same thing with floor traps and Hunter (for example complete failure would double the damage of the floor trap or cause bleeding or cripple, or something like that) and so on. Then there are ore mining and treasure digging; complete failure could break the tool. Then there would be the chance to add another layer of depth and make the tools wear out with use, but I think that would be a step too far with this game; If tools wear out, why don't weapons and other equipment too...

One can always dream, but in the end I have to think about how much work all this would add. This has already been an enormous project and there is still enough work left to do as it is.

But this month's update will bring at least something considering the butterflies (and dragonflies): If Luck is high enough, the player has a chance to get more wings.

[Witchgrove Games]

I will release an update this month with some performance improvements, strafe/turn toggle, camera reset button and some QoL improvements.

I released a screenshot on X to give a hint of one important thing that's coming:

Screenshot on X

[Witchgrove Games]

I released some news about the upcoming 'Great North' content update on Steam. My first release target is by the end of this year, but there's a chance that the update will slip to January 2026; it all depends on how much I'm capable to work on the update. These past few weeks I've work long hours on the new content, and while the progress has been better than I ever hoped for, I'm starting to feel the need to take a couple of days off. The Great North will be the biggest content update during the whole Early Access period with three new overworld areas (separated in smaller areas), three main story dungeons and 12 new enemy types, including couple of bosses.

The game is currently 40% off on Steam Winter Sale.

More details about the update and some screenshots can be found behind the link below:

News on Steam

[Witchgrove Games]

An update is coming in a few days:

- Dynamic Weather system: Uses particles to create weather effects, such as rain and snow, so the weather has actual depth instead of being 2d layer on screen. Also handles the daytime changes from now on.
- 1440p resolution support (no more stretched scaling).
- Enhanced Magic Map: Markers, legend window and the ability to write notes.
- An option to change battle animation speed or turn them off completely.
- Turn/Strafe swap.
- Camera reset button.
- Phantom Commander (Boss enemy for the Temple of the Prophets).
- Optimization.
- Some smaller enhancements and adjustments.
- Bug fixes.

Update announcement on Steam

Indiedb article with some screenshots

[Acrux]

The weather effect is pretty cool.

[Witchgrove Games]

The update has been released.

Patch notes on Steam​​​

[Witchgrove Games]

I decided to split the Great North update in two, because I made Autumn Valley bigger part of the main story and I want to get some time to improve the Winter Wilds' areas and dungeons. But fear not, the first part of the update will bring plenty of content:

- Overworld areas: Candle Spruce Pass North & South, Autumn Valley North & South and Leaf Pond village
- Main story dungeon: The Castle of Three Gems
- Three optional dungeons
- New enemies: Cave Prowlers, Corrupted Warlock and Wizard Apprentices, Corrupted Warlocks and Wizards, Grosshrooms and more...
- New boss enemy
- New tool: sledgehammer to break and collapse things
- New equipment (weapons, armor, trinkets)
- New powerful skills and spells
- Enhanced wall, floor and ceiling textures for catacombs and Traveler's Hall, enhance floor and ceiling textures for Halls of Onkalo
- Small enhancements to Twin Falls and Great Forest's textures
- New status menu (with keyboard shortcut) that will provide important information
- New keyboard shortcuts for the Item, Equip, Character, Skills, Party Formation and Options menus, also 2nd shortcut to overworld area map for those who like to play using numpad
- Better controller support: 'Pass time' can be activated with controller, tools 1-8 from the toolbar/quickbar can be used with controller's right stick
- Fast dialog skipping
- Audio will mute when the game is not focused
- Bug fixes and more!

Catacomb screenshots on X

[Witchgrove Games]

The Great North Part 1 update AND Demo Version 2.0 has been both released today!
To celebrate these releases the game is currently 40% off on Steam Spring Sale.

Release notes on Steam