Version 1.30.2 Released

Version 1.30.2 is now ready.

This update is different from a normal content patch. Instead of adding another chapter, system, or progression layer, Save Continuity establishes a technical foundation for the future of Knights of Crystalis:

Older supported save files are now treated as a permanent compatibility contract.

As the game continues to grow, future chapters and larger systems should attach to existing profiles rather than forcing players to restart or leaving older progress behind.

A Dedicated Save Migration System

Knights of Crystalis now uses Save Schema 39.

Game version and save format are deliberately tracked separately. Updating from one game version to another does not automatically require a new save schema unless the persisted structure actually changes.

For 1.30.2, the first explicit migration is:

Schema 38 → Schema 39

Schema 38 is particularly important because the available release history identifies it as the save format used throughout the relevant previous releases, including the 1.30.1 generation.

Older save formats continue through the existing legacy normalization system before entering the new migration pipeline.

Future Migrations Are Ordered

The new migration architecture is designed around explicit forward steps.

Future persistence changes are expected to follow a chain such as:

38 → 39 → 40 → 41 → ...

Older migrations are not supposed to be deleted or replaced.

If a future release requires Schema 40, it must add a valid 39 → 40 migration. If that migration is missing, the compatibility self-test fails.

This turns backward compatibility from a development intention into something the release pipeline can actually enforce.

Existing Progress Comes First

New systems are now expected to attach additively to existing saves.

If an older profile does not contain data for a system introduced later, the missing state receives safe current defaults while established progress remains intact.

Migration is specifically designed to preserve things such as:

• Character progression
• Gold and Crystals
• Inventory and equipment
• Completed quests
• Unlocks
• Statistics
• Campaign decisions
• Chapter progression
• Existing legacy state

Unknown legacy root fields are also preserved unless a migration explicitly replaces them.

The goal is not merely to make old JSON technically loadable. The goal is to preserve the meaning of the player's progression.

Persisted Content IDs Are Now Part of the Save Contract

This is especially important for future content development.

Quest IDs, items, locations, bosses, achievements, decisions, routes, and other persisted identifiers can no longer simply be deleted or reused for unrelated content.

If future development renames, merges, or removes persisted content, the corresponding migration must:

• remap the old ID,
• preserve it as legacy completion,
• or explicitly compensate the player.

Reusing an old persisted ID for unrelated content is prohibited by the new compatibility policy.

This should make large future chapter expansions much safer for long-running profiles.

Pre-Migration Recovery Protection

Migration now happens before the updated save replaces the primary profile.

When the browser instance owns the active writer lease, an older primary save receives a pre-migration recovery snapshot before the migrated version is committed.

Primary save data and metadata remain transactional as well. If verification fails during the write process, the operation rolls back instead of leaving the profile partially updated.

Backup metadata also records the schema provenance of the save data it represents.

Newer Saves Cannot Be Silently Downgraded

Another important safety rule was added for the opposite scenario.

If an older build encounters a save created by a newer unsupported schema, it must reject that save instead of attempting to downgrade it.

This prevents an outdated game build from loading newer progression, misunderstanding it, and then overwriting it with an older structure.

Save Compatibility Is Now a Release Gate

Save migration is no longer treated as an optional manual check.

The compatibility regression suite has been integrated into the normal release self-test.