Sands v0.1.38

🎮 New Game Modes

Permadeath & Roleplay Modes - Choose your destiny in the deep desert! At game start, select between:

• Permadeath Mode: Classic roguelike experience - death is final, every decision matters
• Roleplay Mode: Story-focused mode - respawn at your Sietch with penalties but keep progressing through the narrative

💰 Guild Bribe System

Spacing Guild Taxation - A major new economic system that adds strategic depth to your ecological transformation efforts!

• The Fremen now pay regular bribes to the Spacing Guild to hide their terraforming activities from orbital detection
• Tax calculated every 5 day/night cycles based on your ecology progress (Sprouting, Seeded, and Prepped tiles)
• Early Payment Discount: Pay before the deadline for a 15% discount
• Late Payment Consequences: Miss payments and face accumulating interest plus potential raids!
  • 70% chance of ecology site raids (losing precious terraformed land)
  • 30% chance of Sietch raids (losing water and spice reserves)
• Grace period for new players to establish their economy before the first payment

Meet the Guild Liaison NPC at your Sietch to manage payments and track your standing with the Spacing Guild.

🗺️ Expedition Map Selector

Choose Your Destination - No more random expedition assignments!

• Visual map interface shows all explored Deep Desert locations
• See ecology status overlays for each tile
• Can’t send expeditions to Seeded/Sprouting areas (ecology has driven out the spice)
• Select your target and assess risk before committing valuable resources
• Improved expedition UI with better risk assessment and rewards display

🎲 Rich Random Encounter System

11 New Dynamic Encounters bring the desert to life with meaningful choices and consequences:

Cultural Encounters

• Spice Coffee Ceremony - Join a gathering of Fremen sharing kaveh and wisdom in the Sietch
• Teaching the Young - Pass on desert survival knowledge to eager Fremen children
• Water Debt Challenge - Face a public accusation of unpaid water debt - pay up or duel to the death with crysknife

Dangerous Encounters

• Harkonnen Execution - Interrupt a Fremen prisoner’s execution - rescue them, exploit the chaos, or walk away
• Harkonnen Patrol - Encounter enemy forces in contested territory
• Smuggler Ambush - Face opportunistic criminals in the open desert
• Water Thieves - Protect your precious water supply from desperate raiders

Natural Events

• Spice Blow - Witness and harvest from a massive spice eruption
• Desert Mouse Discovery - Find the hardy muad’dib surviving in impossible conditions
• Fremen Scout Patrol - Meet friendly scouts with news and trade opportunities
• Smuggler Harvester Emergency - Help (or exploit) a smuggler operation in distress

Each encounter features:

• Atmospheric descriptions and dialogue
• Multiple choice outcomes affecting reputation, resources, and story
• Context-sensitive triggers based on location, quest progress, and player status
• Appropriate weight distribution (Common, Uncommon, Rare)

🌍 Fremen Language Integration

Chakobsa Immersion - Authentic Dune terminology woven throughout the game!

• Fremen now use terms like “kaveh” (spice coffee), “araq” (water/sweat), “ichwan” (brothers), and “bled” (desert)
• Traditional sayings and proverbs in encounters and dialogue
• Quest descriptions enhanced with Fremen cultural phrases
• NPCs speak with authentic words reflecting their desert heritage

Over 25 quests updated with improved Fremen terminology including:

• “Acquire Moisture Kit”, “Call the Maker”, “Fedaykin Initiation”
• “Rally Fremen”, “Whispers of Shai-Hulud”, “Desert Uprising”
• And many more throughout the campaign

✨ Visual Effects Enhancements

Combat Visual Overhaul - Make your abilities feel powerful!

• New Mastery Vortex Effect: Swirling sand particles when activating Crysknife Mastery
• Laser Beam Effects: Piercing energy weapons with proper visual feedback
• Explosion Animations: Dynamic explosions for Spice Charges and combat abilities
• Improved particle system with better performance
• Enhanced visual feedback for player abilities and combat actions

🎬 Dynamic Scenes System

Execution Interrupted Scene - A fully scripted dramatic encounter!

• Witness a Harkonnen execution in progress at their base
• Scripted NPCs with dynamic behavior and authentic dialogue
• Multiple phases: discovery, choice, combat, and aftermath
• Your decisions affect Fremen reputation and faction standing
• Cinematically positioned characters and tension-building atmosphere

🎯 Quality of Life Improvements

• Auto-Discovery: Placed ability entities (Survival Tents, Wind Traps, Spice Charges) now auto-discover nearby fog of war
• Enhanced Popup System: Unified popup manager with better multi-choice support and cleaner UI
• Better Entity Interaction: Fixed collision detection and interaction zones for placed items

🐛 Bug Fixes & Polish

• Fixed text and code duplication across encounter systems
• Resolved quest progression issues in Ecology and Naib quest chains
• Improved save/load system reliability
• Balanced player bonuses and ability costs
• Cleaned up deprecated quest files
• Refactored effects system for better maintainability

This is a major content update that significantly expands the living world of Arrakis. The combination of new game modes, economic pressure from the Guild, rich cultural encounters, and improved combat visuals creates a more immersive and challenging Dune experience.

Bi-la kaifa!