The Wax Seal (v0.44)

Version 0.44.1 BETA — and everything since 0.41.0.

Ten shifts have been filed since the last post: twenty-four new things and a hundred and forty-one fixes. Most of that is the game finally looking like one place instead of a drawn approximation of one. Every scene stands on a painted backdrop now — the morgue, the intake and tally screens, the weekend, the Masters' Tree, both week-four yards and all eight beats of the crossing. The game still paints its own moon, its people and its whole interface over the top, every frame.

The rest is about honesty. A card used to print one number and then deal a different one once Deathblow, Vulnerable, Unpaid Debt or THE COLD ROOM got involved, and you were left doing the arithmetic in your head mid-fight. It does not do that any more. Hover a card and the body's health bar shows you the exact bite it would take, with a skull on the bar when the blow would kill.

New

• EVERY SCENE IS PAINTED — the morgue, the intake and tally screens, the weekend, the Masters' Tree, both week-four yards and all eight beats of the crossing. The title screen has its own painting too, the morgue from outside, under our moon.
• THE WAX SEAL — every pack opens with its own animation. The wax cracks and shatters, then the flap lifts. Each intake pack, Embalming, soul and weekend parcel wears its own.
• CARDS TELL THE TRUTH — with Deathblow, Vulnerable, Unpaid Debt, a guarded body or THE COLD ROOM in play, the number printed on the card is the number that lands.
• THE GHOST BAR — hover a card and the target's health bar shows the bite it would take, with a skull on the bar when the blow would kill.
• THE FIGHT BAND — a graph above the combat log draws the whole fight as you play. Four styles, or OFF. Click any moment and the log jumps to it, or walk the moments with LB and RB.
• THE OVERLEAF — the Ledger has a second page pair, ten new gold boons and ten new ash debts. LB, RB or TAB turn the page.
• THE DEEP CELLAR — a new Ledger boon on that overleaf. The Veil holds ten more Essence before it starts holding back.
• THE CROOKED SCALE — a contract-only debt. Every night each card's cost shifts one up, one down or stays, the same for everyone.
• THE DESK — the main menu's WEEKLY SHIFT and LEDGER are iron plates above the doors, a sealed shift wears a wax seal, and every door is oxblood leather.
• THE CHAIN TAB — the combat log records every time your score streak breaks, and what broke it. Open anyone's shift from the scoreboard and a COMBOS tab lists every combo they landed.
• THE NIGHTS — a filed shift keeps its chain, its nights and its duration, and the viewer draws a bar per night.
• OVEREXERT climbs all the way now — 5 / 6 / 8 / 9 damage per Essence, and its final rank always CRITS. The last two ranks used to pay the same 6.

The honest wall

• THE STANDING LOAN is withdrawn from the book. There is no longer a path to an uncapped Essence pool.
• THE VEIL'S LOAN — in exchange, Essence over the ceiling is no longer lost. The Veil holds it and pours it back at the top of your next turn, and says so.
• THE HUNGRY DARK grows by the week — enemies regenerate 4 HP a turn in week one, then 8, 12 and 16.
• THE COLD HANDS caps Block at 20 from every source, not just cards.
• THE BACKLOG files one Grave Curse a night, not two.

Fixed

• The deck counted some owned cards twice — a single copy could read as two.
• Overkill carries further. What runs off the second body banks for the third, and onward, and THE DRAIN's banked overkill now kills a body it empties.
• The combat log records why every number changed — unused Block, surcharges, doubled hits, splash, boss Block, and every notice that used to fade.
• Refusing to HOLD a card now says why, every time, instead of doing nothing.
• THE UNATTENDED hides the enemy's intent everywhere, including hover tips and charge warnings.
• A mob that reaches its turn with no intent stands idle for a turn instead of breaking the table.
• Forfeiting a weekly contract from the death page or dawn screen no longer settles the run twice.
• Reporting a bug mid-fight no longer lets presses reach the fight behind it, and its cancel button works.
• A boss tribute no longer asks you to honour more cards than it shows.
• A bought Ledger boon can be switched OFF and back ON before a run.
• Elder Moss no longer spends one of Lyra's free Veil casts, and PALLBEARER carries the buried card up once a night even on a possessed night.
• Animations ran at the wrong speed in places. Every one of them reads the same clock now.
• A boss nameplate hangs over the body instead of over its box — the Demon Slime's was floating in the sky above him.
• Every card wears the dark plate behind its star rank again, and it sits clear of the card's name at every size.
• The tutorial book no longer seals its rules. Every mechanic reads from the first night, and only the Masters' Tree, the Ledger and Aldric's memories stay sealed until you reach them.

Every number above was measured through the game's own doors, not guessed at. If something here is wrong in your hands, the BUG button on any screen reaches me.