Morhval: Ravenglaire news & patch notes

This week was mostly focused on polishing the public demo of Morhval: Ravenglaire.

Not every update was flashy, but many of them were important. I spent most of the week working on the two main villages available in the demo: Hearthmere, the starting village, and Sanctwall, one of the first major political locations the player can get involved with.

I think these two villages already offer a fair amount of content for a demo. Just a small note: the larger conflicts of the full game, such as the supremacist movement and the wider problems between provinces, will not be the focus here yet. Hearthmere and Sanctwall are still very isolated from the rest of the province, and I want the demo to reflect that.

A big part of the work was making these places feel less like quest hubs and more like communities under pressure.

Hearthmere is supposed to feel personal. It is a small place where people know each other, where food matters, where a death or disappearance changes the mood of the whole village.

Sanctwall, on the other hand, is colder and more political. It is a place where hunger, disease, fear, and ambition are starting to push people against each other.

I also did a large text pass. I received some feedback that parts of the writing felt too generic, and honestly, I think that was fair.

In some places, I was trying too hard to “sound like a writer” instead of just letting the game speak in its own voice. So I rewrote several NPC conversations to make them feel more grounded, more direct, and closer to the tone I actually want for the game.

There was also a lot of bug fixing.

I fixed softlocks, empty scenes, broken automatic links, parser errors, missing navigation options, and several edge cases caused by quest variables. Some of these bugs were small, but in a choice-heavy RPG, small bugs can easily break the player’s path through the story.

I also continued cleaning up the lore around the plague and the political conflict.

The plague is now more clearly tied to Ashenford, another province in Morhval. Ashenford will not be playable in the final game(at least not for now?), but its collapse still affects the places the player can visit. Sanctwall’s internal conflict has also been adjusted to better reflect the main themes of the game: fear, scarcity, prejudice, survival, and the danger of desperate people looking for someone easy to blame.

The current goal is simple: when players enter the public demo, I want them to feel that this province was already wounded before they arrived, and that their choices can make things better, worse, or simply more complicated.

Thanks for following the development of Morhval: Ravenglaire! The public demo is currently planned for release in about two weeks!

Hello everyone!

I'd like to start something new for Morhval: Ravenglaire: a weekly development log where I can share what I'm working on, what has changed recently, and some of the design decisions behind those changes.

This week, I want to talk about one of the biggest gameplay updates I've worked on recently: the introduction of character classes and a complete overhaul of the Stats screen.

Why I Decided to Add Classes

One of the goals I have for Morhval: Ravenglaire is to create a roleplaying experience where your character feels like a person with strengths, weaknesses, and a background rather than just a collection of numbers.

To support that, I introduced starting classes.

At the moment, the game includes five predefined classes:

Warrior: focused on melee combat, armor, and brute force.

Rogue: focused on stealth, knives, persuasion, and social instinct.

Ranger: focused on bows, light armor, exploration, and survival.

Alchemist: focused on potions, healing, fire, and preparation.

Occultist: focused on necromancy, summons, forbidden magic, and cold spells.

Each class has 3 Strong skills and 3 Weak skills, while the remaining skills stay Neutral. This gives every character a clearer identity from the beginning, with real strengths and weaknesses that affect progression.

For example, a Warrior is strong with long weapons, heavy armor, and blunt weapons, but weak in stealth, alchemy, and necromancy. An Occultist, on the other hand, begins with strengths in necromancy, conjuration, and frostcraft, but struggles with heavy armor, bows, and persuasion.

However, players are not forced to pick a predefined class.

There is also a Custom Class option, where you can choose exactly 3 Strong skills and 3 Weak skills yourself. Everything else remains Neutral.

So if you want to create a persuasive necromancer, a stealthy alchemist, a bow-using scholar, or something stranger, the system allows that.

Classes are not meant to lock players into a specific playstyle forever. Morhval is still designed around freedom and character development. Instead, classes serve as a starting identity, helping define your strengths and weaknesses during the early game while still allowing you to evolve in unexpected directions later.

A skilled warrior can eventually learn magic.

A scholar can become a dangerous fighter.

A hunter can focus on diplomacy.

The class system exists to create a stronger starting point for roleplaying and progression, not to restrict player choice.

Rebalancing Attributes and Skills

Adding classes also gave me an opportunity to revisit the entire progression system.

One issue I noticed during testing was that certain attributes and skills were progressing in ways that weren't always intuitive.

I wanted attributes to feel meaningful while also making sure players could clearly understand what their choices were doing.

The new system places greater emphasis on character identity and specialization while still rewarding experimentation.

Characters now begin with more clearly defined strengths and weaknesses.

A physically powerful character will immediately feel different from an intellectual scholar.

The goal is to make early decisions feel more impactful without removing long-term freedom.

Completely Reworking the Stats Screen

The second major part of this update was the Stats screen.

As Morhval grew larger, the old interface started showing its age.

More skills were added.

More derived values appeared.

More information needed to be displayed.

Eventually, the screen became harder to read than I wanted.

One of my priorities has always been making sure that players understand why a particular roll succeeded or failed, and how their character's abilities influence the world around them.

To support that goal, I redesigned large portions of the character sheet.

Old Stats Screen

New Stats Screen

The new layout focuses on clarity, readability, and transparency.

Information is grouped more logically, important values are easier to find, and combat-related information is displayed in a way that should be easier to understand at a glance. I still wonder if this is too much information, though. Feedback and opinions are always welcome!

Attribute Bonuses Now Display Correctly

Another important improvement involved how weapon bonuses are displayed.

Previously, some values shown on the character sheet did not always fully communicate how attributes were influencing combat performance.

For example, a character with very high Strength could be receiving substantial combat benefits without those benefits being properly reflected in certain areas of the interface.

The underlying calculations were often working correctly, but the presentation wasn't always showing players the complete picture.

The new Stats screen now does a much better job of communicating those relationships.

If your attributes are improving your effectiveness with a weapon, those bonuses should now be represented much more clearly.

One of my design philosophies is that players should understand what their choices are doing.

When you invest points into Strength, Agility, Intelligence, or any other attribute, the game should clearly communicate the impact of that decision.

Making Character Growth Easier to Understand

Morhval contains a large number of skills, attributes, checks, and progression systems.

Because of that complexity, it becomes especially important for the interface to explain itself.

Many of the recent changes were not about adding new mechanics.

They were about making existing mechanics easier to understand.

A good RPG doesn't just have depth.

A good RPG helps players understand that depth.

That philosophy guided many of the changes made during this update.

What's Next?

There are still many systems being improved.

I'm currently continuing work on combat encounters, exploration areas, progression balance, quest content, world reactivity, and various quality-of-life improvements throughout the game.

The goal right now is to keep polishing the experience and preparing the game for its first public demo, which I plan to release in the next few weeks.

As always, development is ongoing, and many features will continue evolving as testing reveals new opportunities for improvement.

Thank you to everyone who has been following the project, wishlisting the game, providing feedback, and helping me improve Morhval: Ravenglaire!

See you next week for Dev Log #2!