I have been talking about this feature for literally a year, and today is finally the day to put it in the game.
MoteMancer has many unique rules and behavior and systems, and just a lot to learn in general, so naturally one of the things the game needs is a little bit of a guide to help you along the way. I specifically tried to set up the world where both the player's character and the player behind the keyboard are learning about the world at the same time, and sometimes that works out well and sometimes less so. But this is precisely why the flavor of this feature matters to me.
Even in the very first moments of the tutorial you read a passage about how the order of the world is arranged, but as a player you have no context for that moment. It definitely does at least a little bit of world building that I can hopefully lay brick by brick as the journey unfolds, but the odds of you remembering that arrangement an hour later is not something I can count on.
Thus, having an in-game journal for all the things you learned so you can reference them later is a great through-line, plus it allows me to give the player a touch more insight through visuals than text alone can accomplish. So happy to finally be here!
To Book or Not to Book
Originally I had planned for the journal to actually look like a book, and I might still find a way to do that, but for now I'm using the Foundations window as a prototype look because it's very clean and I can rapidly fill out as many entries as makes sense.
I had also planned for the entries to be more like a pen and ink thing that would slowly fill in, more like Leonardo da Vinci blueprint style. I think that's an awesome aesthetic but there's a super cool trick that MoteMancer gets to use because of how the game was built instead - the journal can be its own Plane!
Rather than just relying on sketches, I can literally invoke an Alchemist's Journal Plane (in truth I'm actually re-using the library, don't tell anyone) but that means I can literally spawn structures with game logic and show grippers working in sequence, and place them all down on timers and... if you can't tell I'm very excited :)
Lessons to Teach
One thing I've always wanted to include in the early game is a mental map of Salt and Aether. As many have pointed out, it's very similar to Copper and Iron, but there's a significant twist - It's more like Copper + Coal and Iron + Coal. You can choose how to use Motes of Life - do they become Elemental Life, or do they become 'Coal' for Elemental Water or Earth? That choice is fundamental to the game, but really hard to explain.
So one of the techniques I am hoping the Journal allows is showing that relationship very quickly into the journey. In fact where the first book passage talks about the relationships between the Energetic and Persistent Motes, this new diagram can be framed as insight from the player after reading it. The diagram is still a lot to take in, which is exactly why it belongs somewhere you can return to after the world gives it context, plus it helps with world building.
Afterwards, any unique system in MoteMancer whether it's Mana Roots or Lava Generators, I can show simple examples in real time to consult so I can give the player just enough of a foothold to start their creative engine flowing. I can take what used to be tutorial popups and move them into a durable reference.
And the best part about all of this - as feedback reveals more entries that deserve a persistent visual reference, adding new pages is very clean and easy.
Personalization
But even better than that, I can give the Journal a very personal touch and have the player write their own notes down directly. I am already planning on making a recipe pinning system, and if the player wants to write down their own notes to supplement the information the game provides, so much the better.
Having quick access to thoughts and their own musings is perfectly on brand for MoteMancer, there is so much to learn.
Pinning and Personal Notes are separate but linked features, I will likely add them individually in the next week or so just to make sure they play nicely with each other.
Experimental is Live!
In the last week while working on FX, I realized that I had a pile of tuning and features building up in the back of my mind, so I took the weekend to implement most of them, and will probably spend the rest of the day finishing those off.
Changes include early elemental cost reductions to get players into the elemental game faster, and a variety of research tuning to help smooth the early game even more. Experimental is also where I imagine the bulk of my changes will land as we build up to the next significant patch, so if you want to check out all the new things, swap over your Steam settings and your old saves will update automatically, but bringing an experimental save back to retail may have edge case issues, so be aware.
And of course, the Alchemist's Journal feature will be added in the next push to the experimental branch.
As always I'll be hanging out in Discord while I work on MoteMancer, so if you have a suggestion or want to chat, come hang out! Otherwise F1 reports are still the best way to give feedback and get your ideas in front of me.
So much to do! Back to the Lab!
~CyanAvatar 🌿