Grüezi an alle!

It's been quite a while since I've publically updated anything to do with Nausea. In all honesty many life changes have made it very hard to work on the game at the same time, but I've been making a hefty amount of behind-the-scenes changes and fixes to the game! The most recent and likely most important change was to the combat and stats!

I have updated all of the stats for both playable characters and enemies alike in order to have a much nicer difficulty scaling as the player progresses, as well as making armour and weapons progress a little less linearly. I have also incorporated an in-depth enemy classification system, in which each enemy has two main types, which are then broken into 3 and 5 subtypes respectively, and every single subtype affects their resistances and weaknesses; their Physical type affects their resistance to status effects, while Spectre type affects their elemental resistances. Due to these changes I had to change the way weapons, armour and attacks function, adding a little more variety and player choice in the end. I have also included more ways the player can alter their party's stats with a little more control; this is mostly items or "vendors" who will increase or decrease certain stats for a party member as well as occasionally altering elemental resistances.

I have also substantially changed the introduction! It appears mostly the same, with a few minor additions, but I included some behind-the-scenes stuff that also determines either the player's or a party member's starting stats, or sometimes even ways to get unique consumables or equippable items! There were also a number of thematic changes to the introduction and tutorial areas, as I've been extensively writing the lore and history of the world Nausea occurs in, and fleshed out many of the characters and clarified their motivations. I have found the game lacking a certain amount of mystique that off had (the game which inspired much of Nausea). This mystique really added to the game's charm and is the main reason I still reccomend it to people with an afternoon of free time some 14 years after its release (wow, it's been that long already). Nausea has a lot of weird stuff, of course, but it just didn't feel too interesting to me for the longest time. I am actively fixing this :)

Anyway, I have also changed how status effects work, mostly Bleeding (it's kind of like Poison, but not really). Bleeding used to just be the exact same as a typical Poisoned effect in most games, simply under a different name; it has been renamed to Poison, and Bleeding has been made its own unique stat (or rather, three unique stats). There are now Bleeding I, II and III, sometimes also referred to in-game as Light Bleeding, Heavy Bleeding and Fatal Bleeding. While these stats do drain your health just like being Poisoned does, they also have other differing effects.

- Light Bleeding (Bleeding I) is the most common, as most attacks have a chance to cause it (and some guaranteed). It is the easiest to manage and resist, and has the lowest time to remove itself/highest chance to recover. Unlike Poison, Bleeding I lowers you accuracy by 5% until it's cured. On top of that, equipping most armours excluding a select few light armours makes you basically immune to Bleeding I. Just make sure to get rid of it as soon as possible, however, because while it'll go away after 5 turns, it is very likely to be inflicted again! Using a Bandage (or Field Dressing, if you're wealthy) will easily cure Bleeding I.

- Heavy Bleeding (Bleeding II) is relatively common, but is limited mainly to critical hits and heavier-hitting attacks (i.e. Traumata special attacks). It does more damage over a longer period of time, and actually halves your attack stat and lowers your accuracy by 20% until it's gone! It also makes you unable to use certain attacks with an attack rate of 3 or higher (e.g. Giulia's Vigor attack). Some medium and almost all heavy armours make you immune to Bleeding II, but absolutely no light armours will stop Heavy Bleeding. Bleeding II is manageable but should be dealt with rather quickly, as it will be overriden by Bleeding III if ignored long enough! Using Field Dressing will help with Bleeding II.

- Fatal Bleeding (Bleeding III) is far more rare to encounter (usually bosses but some harder enemies as well), and is much harder to resist, with only a small few items being able to help; some heavier armours may bring it down to just Heavy Bleeding. It halves both your attack and speed, meaning you hit softer and slower. It also makes you unable to use Traumata with Attack or Sanity ratings of 3 or 8 respectively. On top of all that, there is a 0% chance of natural recovery before 20 turns passes, and it lowers your overall Trauma every turn by 5% (-1 point for good measure). Bleeding III is called fatal for a reason, and ignoring it will quickly lead to the afflicted party member's demise. Bleeding III can only be cured by a Rare Buer Herb or with Katherine's Catnap skill.

Basically, I have been doing a lot of numbers crunching over the last fews months trying to balance everything out and give every item a more clear and defined use instead of simply having the player choose the weapons or armours with the biggest numbers. Game development is kind of hard.