Sulphur Memories: Alchemist 0.3.1 is out

The new version is out! You can see the changes in this video, or, if you prefer the text format, read the changelog below.

Now available on Steam in addition to itch.io!

The saves from versions 0.2 are incompatible with the new version due to massive changes to the game world and the main story.

Changelog:

Distribution:

• The game's officially renamed to Sulphur Memories: Alchemist.
• Steam version (for Windows) is now available!
• The game is now available on Itch for OS X and Debian Linux as an .app and .deb respectively.
• OS X app is not officially approved and will cause a warning on startup, since the number of hoops to jump, for me to make an official Apple release, is too great. Aside from that, it should function properly.
• .love package is still provided for non-Debian Linux, as well as a backup in case the above doesn't work for some reason.

New content:

• The main quest to make the Elixir of Youth.
  • A multi-stage quest that includes a lot of dialogue, a few potions to make, and exploration of a completely new dungeon.
  • Rewards include access to tier 3 areas and an upgrade to Ricardo's shop.
• The hub area was updated and expanded.
  • A moat surrounds the town wall now.
  • A massive sewer area is accessible to the west of the tavern entrance. It's a dangerous late-mid-game area that connects to a few smaller areas, one of which is directly relevant to the main quest, and can contain quite a few nice rewards.
  • New enemy type: sewer slugs, coming in a few varieties. Quickly multiplying and slime-spewing, dangerous if you aren't well-prepared.
• A variety of guests can be seen visiting the tavern now.
  • The exact selection will be changing every few hours.
  • Most guests have something relevant to say. One guest in particular is tied to the main quest.
• New feature: cartography.
  • Map fragments can be found when exploring, and assembled into full maps.
  • Reading a map reveals one of the new tier 3 area.
  • Available after completing the main quest.
• Ricardo's shop can be upgraded after completing the main quest.
  • Afterwards, he will have a few random items in stock in addition to his usual merchandise, including 1–2 books, every day.
• Four new tier 3 areas (available through cartography). All of them are highly dangerous and are balanced around you having access to most of the recipes available, but provide rich rewards both in resources and in knowledge.
  • Fey lake: an island in the middle of the lake, inhabited by fairies. A more dangerous version of the witch woods, with a dialogue boss at the end.
  • Burnt spire: a blazing tower in the middle of a forest transformed into a fiery hellscape where everything is trying to kill you.
    • New enemy: efreet. Similar to phantasms, it's immaterial and passive, only attacking whoever approaches it. Unlike phantasms, efreets are also fast and cause burn on attack, instead of freezing, but can be destroyed with a blast of cold.
      
  • Pirate's grave: a crypt in the middle of the swamp, housing the treasure, a lot of traps, and a few hungry ghouls, with a small but deadly puzzle at the end.
    • New enemy: ghoul. A beefy monster whose attacks inflict rot.
  • Abandoned mine: old mine where someone decided to store a treasure. Large underground area full of old mining equipment, leftover ore veins and underground creatures.
    • New enemy: centipede. Quick, sturdy, hard-hitting, and applies paralytic poison with every bite, but completely blind and only able to detect you via your footsteps.
• 16 new entries in the lore book.
• New weather: snow and blizzard.
  • While it's snowing, everyone is immune to burning and slowed by 20%. Potion of inner fire negates this effect.
  • Blizzard additionally reduces vision range by 2.
  • Snow only happens during winter, early spring and late autumn. Blizzards only happen during winter.
• New potions:
  • Shadowbane potion: can be thrown to destroy shadows and shadow clouds, or drank to become temporarily immune to shadows' attacks. Unlocked from a recipe found in tier 2 areas.
  • Kingsblood simulacrum: makes magical constructs (like living armours) ignore you while it lasts, and allows activating certain switches. Unlocked from a recipe found in tier 2 areas.
  • Potion of floating: allows you to traverse over pits and water without restrictions, while also muffling your footsteps. Unlocked from a recipe found in tier 2 areas.
  • Potion of blood transfiguration: transmutes a part of the victim's blood into gold, causing damage and slowdown. Slowdown stacks, and damage increases with every application. Unlocked via "metal transmutation" research (new).
  • Potion of recollection: reveals a large part of the surrounding map without giving you direct vision. Unlocked via "oneirology" research (new).
  • Potion of restlessness. Increases your speed by 15% for a long time. Incompatible with the calming infusion. Unlocked via "venom arts" research (new).
  • Potion of discord. Causes the targets hit by the splash to attack the nearest creature indiscriminately. Unlocked via "mindrot" research (new).
  • Potion of the phoenix. While the potion lasts, if you take lethal damage, your health will be restored to full and a fireball will explode around you. Unlocked via "lifegiving flame" research (new).
  • Potion of unruly flame. The most powerful combat potion in the game that deals heavy damage in a large area to all targets, and applies random negative effects to those it hit. Unlocked via "flames of chaos" research (new).

• New tools:
  • Whispering candle: while this candle burns, it produces a whisper every few turns, giving some information relevant to the area you're in. Unlocked from a recipe found in tier 2 areas.
  • Dream catcher: if you have this item, you will be getting a random dream for every hour of sleep. Dreams can be converted into valuable alchemical components, and the total amount is limited by the number of areas that you have visited. Unlocked via "oneirology" research (new).
  • Wanderer's crystal: a quality-of-life item to teleport you from your base to the stables immediately. Unlocked via "breaching the veil" research.
  • Ophidian gloves: when worn, they cause noxious potions to produce clouds of paralytic poison instead of normal poison, and your melee attacks to apply paralytic poison to the target. While they are in your inventory, antidotes and antitoxin serums have stronger effects. Unlocked via "venom arts" research (new).
• Alchemical gold: long-requested recipe to turn metals into gold. For the most part, a meme recipe. Unlocked via "metal transmutation" research (new).
• A plethora of new raw materials.

Presentation:

• Glitter effect added to water, dependent on the ambient lighting.
• Particle effects on hits and when harvesting.
• Item selection glow in the inventory now pulses slowly.
• New music for the travel screen.
• New music for the swamp areas.
• More sounds overall.

Quality of life:

• Potions can now be unequipped.
• Brightness, contrast, saturation settings are added to the "Video" tab of the "System" settings.
• Fog density can now be reduced much further.
• When trying to use an item from the hotbar that you ran out of, a warning will be printed in the log and a sound will play.
• In the tutorial, when activating the grate you're supposed to destroy, you will see the explanation of throwing potions, repeated.
• In the tutorial, it's no longer possible to softlock yourself by wasting all your torches.
• Some of the craftable items (boots and gloves) are no longer scrappable, as the player was way more likely to do it accidentally than intentionally.
• Fireball explosions list the damage dealt to creatures in the game log.
• A lot of item descriptions have been improved to make the effects more clear.

Balance:

• To the surprise of no one, Liquid Chaos has even more possible effects now. Most of the new effects are strong lategame potions, but I will not make any guesses considering the change in expected results.
• Black fire potion buffed: from 3-4 damage for 5 turns (total 15-20 damage) to 4-5 damage for 6 turns (total 24-30 damage).
• Potion of clairvoyance negates the effects of bad weather on your vision.
• Potion of frozen time duration changed from 10 to 5 turns.
• Torch crafting cost reduced from 1 to 0.5 something volatile.
• Rime potion crafting cost increased from 1 to 1.5 something boreal, from 0.2 to 0.3 something ephemeral. This has to do with its incredible usefulness in one of the late areas.
• A few minor changes to amounts gained by refinement.
• Rates of spawn for books readjusted slightly.
• The priest sells 12 books (up from 10).
• The southern merchant sells 4 books (up from 3).

Performance:

• Finally fixed the performance of large amounts of fire. Massive forest fires should no longer cause lag.
• Improved the lighting shader's performance somewhat.

Bug fixes:

• A couple of highly specific crashes have been fixed.
• A couple of rare generation errors have been fixed.
• A few books previously unaffected by fire now burn properly.
• A lot of minor grammar fixes.