Release v0.4.0 · codingncaffeine/SiegeFX

What's New

The final boss encounter plays out in full — both forms, the authored throne-room entrance, and the authored ending dialog. Victory and defeat each get their proper presentation, including the defeat screen's authored survival tip and the chapter title cards between acts.
Quest ledger corrections across the campaign spine: multi-quest conversations grant everything they should, kill-gates resolve against the right bosses, and side-quest credit lands on the actual quest givers.

Wolves, zombies, and their kin now charge at full sprint; wolves and trogs stalk you in creeping increments before committing; seck and rock beasts sweep everyone in reach with one swing.
Monsters form authored war parties: ranked formations that advance together, archers that hold the line, all-out charges when they can't answer your fire — and the krug shaman resurrects fallen packmates until you put the shaman down.
Town defenders fight their own battles now — dwarves repel raids with or without your help.
Attackers cap out and spread across your party instead of dog-piling one character; skittish creatures flee arrows that whiz past; idle camps live their lives — sentries chat in pairs and smash the odd barrel.

Selection-driven orders, saved party groups, and the right-mouse-hold formation modal: cycle patterns, rotate the formation's facing, adjust spacing with the wheel.
Characters at zero health fall unconscious and can be healed back up; death waits for real trauma. Companions with a healing spell keep the party topped up on their own.
Potions pour by the sip, consolidate by dragging, and the drink buttons serve every selected character. The first-selected character works doors, levers, and chests.

A full day/night cycle on the authored sun colors — street lamps and windows come on at dusk, crickets and ambient life follow the clock.
Swaying trees, floating logs, and goblin machinery play their authored animations; elevator chains crawl; triggered rockfalls drop real tumbling debris; wading kicks up splashes; the camera shakes when the world does.
Impacts, doors, chests, and levers sound like what they're made of, every species dies with its own voice, and scripted scene choreography (crowd wrangling, camera moves, screen fades) runs as authored.

The buff, control, and delivery schools are in: enchantments with real durations, charm and pacify, chain lightning that visibly hops target to target, spell turrets, area bursts, and summon lifetimes.
Spell level requirements are enforced (shown in red until met), spell pickups follow the manual — no auto-placing — and spell books are real items: carry several loadouts and swap them with a right-click.
A rebuilt spell VFX pipeline: every effect loads its exact authored texture and glows composite correctly — fire, sconces, and torches all read warmer.

Every Options control now drives the game — screen-edge camera tracking, camera sensitivity and axis locks, ambient and voice volume buses that duck live sounds as you drag, blood color, and a fully rebindable hotkey editor with primary/secondary slots.
The megamap wears its parchment frame; the journal shows recorded dialogue; spells carry full stat cards; lore books open readable pages; hirelings show their stat sheet before you pay; vendors restock; pack animals are for sale.
Hold the Equipment Panel's View button and drag to spin your equipped character. Drag the status bar to the top of the screen if that's your style. Ctrl+click quick-drops items; equipment drops anywhere on the panel find their slot.

The world state round-trips: triggers, spawners mid-wave, elevators, opened doors, live buffs, the world clock, and party vitals all restore exactly, including regions that stream in after you load.

The Force Cast key was being silently swallowed by the character panel — casting from the keyboard works.
A pathfinding fallback could drag the whole simulation into slow motion in crowded regions — fixed, with ambient wanderers on a cheaper path.
Getting buried alive under a boss's endless summons — summons expire on their authored timers and bodies push apart instead of stacking.
Launch spells no longer draw a phantom magic bolt on top of their real projectile.
Quick Load answers its authored key; the scroll wheel respects zoom rebinds.
Ambient loops (rain, waterfalls, crickets) obey the Ambient slider live instead of ignoring it.

Ships alongside, on the same engine — every world, AI, and spell improvement above applies to Play testing your own maps.
Deleting an actor now deletes its patrol route with it.
Conversations that grant multiple quests emit all of them correctly.