Version 1.8 Alpha Released

Knights of Crystalis - Alpha 1.8: Stability & Polish

Alpha 1.8 is a consolidation release. It preserves the expanded visuals, battle environments and illustrated interface of Alpha 1.3-1.7 while repairing layout regressions, validating older gameplay systems, expanding localization and rebuilding audio.

Responsive interface

• Replaced the small-screen horizontal navigation strip with a wrapped grid.
• Mobile navigation now uses four columns on larger phones, three on standard phones and two on extremely narrow displays.
• Resource counters wrap into compact rows instead of forcing page-width overflow.
• Top-bar controls remain visible and usable without enlarging the document width.
• Stabilized Home, World, Jobs, Gear, Forge, Maps, Battle, Aquarium and other multi-panel workspaces.
• Reworked mobile party cards and feature modules to reduce unnecessary height while preserving readable stats.
• Added final width guards for tabs, filters, selects, search fields, equipment grids, images, SVG artwork and modal actions.
• Desktop navigation now uses predictable grid columns at wide and laptop breakpoints.
• Removed duplicated giant headings from Home feature artwork by using clean cropped assets.

Feature-parity and regression repair

• Validated all 23 main areas after the visual rebuild.
• Confirmed all nine equipment slots for every active party card.
• Confirmed Campaign drops derive from encounter/region level rather than account level.
• Confirmed Socket Catalysts and Gem insertion.
• Confirmed Smithy reroll and Quality improvement flows.
• Confirmed Auction House listings and purchases.
• Confirmed Aquarium offers, supplies and upgrade transactions.
• Confirmed Clock Guard detection and save serialization.
• Preserved Card Holder capacity, inventory capacity, party equipment profiles and prior progression data.

Localization

• Expanded the German dictionary across navigation, resources, settings, Tutorial, Story, Gear, Forge, battle controls, collection systems and common system feedback.
• Improved terminology consistency for equipment, progression and social simulation.
• Language switching remains immediate and is saved with the profile.
• Fantasy proper names, fixed item identities and simulated global chat names remain language-neutral or English where appropriate.

Adaptive audio

• Replaced the previous basic loop with layered Web Audio music.
• Added distinct Home, exploration, settlement, Arena and battle modes.
• Added bass, chord, lead, kick, snare and hi-hat layers through dedicated buses and a compressor.
• Added sound effects for navigation, buttons, rewards, warnings, attacks, critical hits, healing and buffs.
• Added a separate Sound Effects Volume setting alongside Music Volume.
• Corrected the music slider so it adjusts the music bus rather than muting the complete audio mix.
• Audio still begins only after a user gesture, as required by modern browser policies.

Save and compatibility

• Save schema increased to 18.
• The historical save key remains unchanged.
• Prior equipment profiles are normalized to all nine slots.
• Existing migration, backup recovery, import/export and Clock Guard systems remain active.
• No intentional progression reset is performed by this release.

Documentation

• Rebuilt the current Player Guide as a clean A4 PDF.
• Rebuilt the complete Alpha 0.1-1.8 Changelog PDF.
• Updated README, itch.io description and technical test report.