Over the past few weeks, a major new system has been taking shape inside Tharendell: spellcasting.
The core spell system is now functional end-to-end, including spell selection, target selection, combat execution, and round resolution integration within the battle engine. While there is still polish and expansion ahead, this marks a major milestone in the project’s evolution from a traditional combat prototype into a much deeper RPG system.
One of the largest improvements during this phase was the combat UI experience. Spellcasters now have contextual targeting controls directly within combat, allowing players to select spells and valid targets during battle rounds instead of relying on hardcoded or placeholder logic. This required significant updates to both the frontend combat flow and the backend execution pipeline.
A large amount of backend refactoring was also completed during this cycle:
- streamlined combat execution paths
- reduced unnecessary state hydration
- improved battle action processing
- cleaned up narration/combat synchronization
- optimized round execution flow
- improved maintainability of the combat services
As the combat engine becomes more advanced, the UI itself is also evolving. One important realization during this work was that the battlefield experience has now outgrown the original “single-page combat launcher” design. In this latest release I separated out:
- Battle preparation and party setup
- The actual combat battlefield experience
This will allow the battlefield itself to become the primary focus of the encounter experience, giving combat, narration, and tactical decisions significantly more room to breathe.
One of the most exciting parts of the current system is seeing live battlefield updates occur in real time as rounds execute. Combatant status cards dynamically update as damage is dealt, enemies fall, and spell effects resolve. That feedback loop is starting to create the kind of tactical RPG feel I’ve been aiming for since the beginning of the project.
There is still a long road ahead, but Tharendell is steadily moving from “working systems” into “immersive gameplay systems,” and that has been an incredibly rewarding transition to build.
~Babble Baz