Item tiers, a forge, and gems
This build adds item upgrading, in two forms — one for equipment and one for gems — plus the tooltip work needed to actually read what an item is.
Upgrading equipment
An item definition now holds ten tiers. Each tier carries its own stats, bonuses, rarity, gold value, description, and quote, so a tier 6 sword can differ from tier 0 in every value rather than by a single multiplier.
To raise an item’s tier, you merge two copies of it. The lower copy is destroyed and its value is added to the surviving copy’s upgrade progress. When that progress passes the tier’s threshold the tier goes up, and a large enough contribution can raise several tiers at once. Leftover progress is kept rather than discarded.
Merging requires an itemforge NPC — the first is a smith on the opening dungeon level — and costs gold based on the higher of the two tiers. Loot tables, shop stock, class starting equipment, and quest rewards can each specify which tier they grant.
Gems
Gems upgrade on their own. If you are carrying three identical gems at the same tier, right-clicking one destroys all three and gives you a single gem of the next tier. It needs no NPC, costs no gold, and does not use your turn. It cannot be undone.
There are seven gem types — Ruby, Emerald, Topaz, Amethyst, Rose Quartz, Diamond, and Sapphire — each with six tiers. Instead of a numeric suffix, every tier has its own name and its own sprite: Sleeping, Stirring, Awakened, Resonant, Exalted, and Ascendant.
Item tooltips
The old tooltip was a plain list of text lines. It now shows a rarity-coloured name banner, a large icon, the core stats, an upgrade progress bar, bonuses in two columns, on-use effects written out, and the description and quote above a category and gold-value footer. All item tooltips use one fixed width so two items line up when compared.
Three behaviour fixes came with it: tooltips now draw above every panel and modal instead of being covered by them, they anchor to the cursor and flip to the other side when near a screen edge, and items for sale in a shop now carry the same full detail as items in your bag.
Also in this build
- Pawnshop consignment. Items you sell to a pawnshop are listed for other players on a shared Merchant tab at a marked-up price, one listing per item type. Soulbound items and items worth no gold are not listed. Your personal buyback tab is unchanged.
- Lingering spell zones fixed. A zone left on the ground only ever dealt flat damage, so a control spell damaged targets instead of controlling them. Zones now re-apply the spell’s full effect list each tick, with a separate resistance roll per creature per tick. Rooting now works at all — the check that stops a rooted creature moving was never being called. The wizard gains Web, a lingering root zone. Zone durations are now rolled from a range and scale with the caster.
- Debuff feedback. Debuffs on your character now show as named icons with a tick countdown. The log states what afflicted you and reports each tick of damage by name, and a failed enemy attack now names what stopped it — your shield spell, your shield, or a parry.
- Debuff rules corrected. Debuffs run their full stated duration instead of being shortened, resisting is now all-or-nothing, and debuffs from different casters stack as separate auras that expire independently.
- Monster level scaling. A monster’s per-level stat growth now compounds per level instead of applying once, so higher-level versions of a creature are considerably stronger.
- Stairs can lead into instanced encounters, entered with the usual up or down command, with the matching stair inside leading back out.
- Fast-travel portals now appear on the minimap as their own marker.
- Variable-radius spells can have their radius set per hotbar slot by right-clicking the slot, instead of only through a typed command.
- Pawnshop and trainer windows restyled to match the locker and fast-travel windows.
- Fixed a dropped spell warm caused by a timing gap between the client unlocking your turn and the server accepting actions.