DD#158 The Spell Fusion and the F.F.F Dan news - [Neolithic]To the End

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another week's developer's diary.
This is not the most productive week as I mentioned earlier because I got infected by some unknown bacterial that the doctors haven't figured out yet. So, the update is slowed down even now.

But, we still have one big feature and something else for this week.

The biggest new feature of this week is the spell fusion. Even though this is not Magicka, you can now create your own spell from some basic elemental spells by fusion them together. More details can be found in an in-game document and the game's wiki page. I'll just copy-paste here:

The process of spell fusion is to merge multiple elemental spells and create something new. The first spell selected is the main spell, it determines some major attributions of the spell you are about to create, including the affected area, icons, and the main element. The other spells you selected are the secondary spells. They will add their elemental attributions, animations, and damage or healing effects on the main spell.
However, things are not just that easy. To fuse spells, one needs to have some elemental proficiency to begin with. More complex spells require higher elemental proficiency. The spell you created may also require a lot of MP to cost. You may find ways such as improving your elemental proficiency or finding a helper to migrate those drawbacks of the Spell Fusion.
Some fusion spells may have unexpected results.

Currently, the function exists mostly in the Mages Guide, you can use their Alters of Books to fuse spells. The Alters of Books are also purchasable furniture. Thus, you can also buy one and use it elsewhere. In addition to that, you can also find someone to help you bypass the elemental proficiency limitation required to fuse a spell for a fee. That's one of the main income of the Mages Guild.

Some related changes are also been made. For example: we got two more earth spells you can learn from the mages in the Guild.

Adobe means, well, just adobe. Thus, it's an earth spell. But, in this supernatural world, popular culture matters. Thus, its power is scaled by a user's 3D modeling skills.
Another thing is, that you can now find it's much easier to level up your elemental proficiency early on so that this system is not too far away from the reach of your use.
Of course, it will continue to improve in future updates.

Now, let's go to the "something else" parts of the diary.
The first one is the coming of the F.F.F. Dan. What can be something great to add to the game if there needs to be something that can enhance spells and be ready for the upcoming Valentine's Day? We already have merchants selling love gifts from the past years. So, how about we do something opposite? So, here comes the new F.F.F. Extremism tenet:

You can find their fliers from enemies' loot or trash bins to unlock this tenet.

It was originally a real-life organization to punish unfaithful lovers. However, with popular culture development in East Asia. They are now more and more pictured as a parody organization that looks similar to the infamous K.K.K. But, they do not burn people of specific races. They just want to burn people who are in love equally. So, by adding this tenet to your customized belief, you may gain a boost for your fire spells. However, this is also the first tenet that defines actions that will damage your devotion, you are softly discouraged from taking certain actions.
Previously, I planned to let them have more presents in the game. However, as the reasons I mentioned above. I am currently unable to add all the planned content this week.

Some other small updates are:
You can now turn corpses into fertilizers in smelters.
And the Creepy Dolls get a functionality description to let people know better of their usages.

That's for this week. I am still battling the infection. Hopefully, that's not the start of a new pandemic. :P

This week's full update logs:
20240127
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[Crafting]You can now make "Make Fertilizer from Corpses" at smelters. (An idea from Die2nite.)
[Character]Added a new tag: Flying. It has been applied to existing characters.
[Spell]New Spell: Adobe Spike. (An earth spell. It causes additional damage based on the caster's 3D modeling skills. Unused spell name for this spell: PHOTOSHOP CRASHES!)
[Spell]New Spell: Tremor. (An earth spell. Cause Damage and Slow. May Stun enemies that cannot fly.)
[This is a Bar]Eric Ocelot now teaches the "Adobe Spike."
[Cave of Dreamers]The Mages Guild Trainer now teaches the "Adobe Spike."
[Cave of Dreamers]The Mages Guild Trainer now teaches the "Tremor."
[Safehouse]Kalina now teaches the "Tremor."
[Item]Yaers's Approval now grants the spell "Tremor" instead of "Stoneskin" to be in line with the other three rings that all grant offense spells.
[Prefix]The following prefixes are no longer weapon-only: Anti-human/Exorciser's/Requiem's/Hunter's. They can now appear on other random equipment.
[Prefix]New Prefix: Anti-Air (Increase effects against flying targets. It's a generic prefix that may appear on most weapons or equipment.)
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[Liu's Sewer]Fixed a bug that the valve switch replaces a line of tiles that it is not supposed to replace. (Thanks to 渺兔's bug report )


20240128
English
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[Cave of Dreamers]Added a furniture vendor.
[Furniture]New Furniture: Altar of Book (The furniture vendor in the Cave of Dreamers sells this furniture.)
[Spell Fusion]You can now fuse two spells to create your own spell! (Currently have many limitations, but it will be more accessible in future updates. The document will also come later.)
[Altar of Book]You can now use it to fuse spells.
[Cave of Dreamers]Added several Altars of Books.
[Skill Window]When selecting a skill to solve a situation, no skills will be greyed out.
[Cave of Dreamers]Added some alchemy devices.


20240129
English
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[Faith]New Tenet: F.F.F Extremism
[Item]New Item: F.F.F Dan's Flyer (It unlocks the tenet: F.F.F Extremism)
[Trash Bins]You can now sometimes find F.F.F Dan's Flyers in trash bins globally. It has a higher chance of appearing when your local time is near Valentine's Day.
[Qinuyi]Added some trash bins.
[Cave of Dreamers]Added a trash bin in the Mages Guild.
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[Faith]Tenets can now define actions that will lose devotion.
[Faith]Customized Tooltips can now define their display colors.


20240130
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[Loot]Added F.F.F Dan's Flyer to the item drop list on the following enemies: Businessmen, Bandits, The Infected Males in the Quarantined Neighborhood, The Possessed, and Crazed Survivors.
[Spell Fusion]You can now select any teammate in your group to do the spell fusion.
[Spell Fusion]Lowered the Elemental Proficiency requirement from 30 to 20 for single-target spells.
[Elemental Proficiency]Characters now gain more experience when their elemental proficiency level is low. Thus, they can gain early levels faster.
[Weapon Proficiency]Added a similar exp modifier on Weapon Proficiencies.
[Item]Any item that provides Weapon Proficiency experience now displays the experience a character gained after all modifiers.
[Maze underneath the House near the Paddy Field] Spellbooks of Adobe Spike and Spellbooks of Tremor may now appear in the chests on the 3rd floor.
[English Localization]The game now uses the default font of Windows as the default English font.
[Item]New Item: Blade Master's Handbook (It can be exchanged in the Dragon's Treasure.)
[Item]New Item: FPS Gaming Handbook (It can be exchanged at any GPA agent.)
[Dragon's Treasure]Increased the cost of the Kung-Fu Master's Handbook. (5 -> 8 because of the additional EXP it now can provide to characters with low fist proficiency)
[Dragon's Treasure]Reduced the cost of the Elixir of Tao (8000->500)


20240131
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[Tileset]New Tileset: Dark Palace (To be used when making the Throne of the Dark Elf King. For now, you can use it in your pocket dimension.)
[Cave of Dreamers]Added a Spell Fusion Master. He provides a service to remove elemental proficiency limitations when fusion spells if you can pay him some money.


20240201
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[Spell Fusion]New Document: About Spell Fusion.
[Spell Fusion]You can now check with this new document on Altars of Books or the Spell Fusion Masters.


20240203
English
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[Creepy Doll]Added functionality descriptions for this item.
[Wiki]Added some information about the Spell Fusion feature.