Open questions for Ray

• 1. Do Tamsin and Rook fight alongside the player in Act 1? The Story Bible says travelling with them is worth exploring; the main tab still lists it as open. Recommendation: in Act 1 they travel and talk but don't cast in battle. One-on-one battles stay readable while the player is still learning two spells, and companions can join battles from Act 2 once there's a design for it.
• 2. Composites before the Act 2 threading lesson? The prototype lets any two learned spells chain, so Repel into Coil works against the Wyrm before anyone has taught threading. Recommendation: lock chains behind thread.taught, the flag Act 2's threading lesson sets, so the Wyrm is fought with Repel, then Coil, and threading arrives as the story's reveal. Keep chains open in development builds (VEL-63).
• 3. Is the Proving Ring live PvP in Act 1? Recommendation: no. Act 1 holds the story bout with Tamsin and an optional NPC Ring Card. Player bouts open when the server, matchmaking and the anti-bot checks (main tab, sections 6 and 10) exist.
• 4. Add a guard rule for the Wyrm's plates? Repel to stagger and Coil to hurt needs Coil to be weaker until the Wyrm is staggered. Recommendation: no guard field. The Wyrm uses the bestiary's plated shield (40 points, opened by a stagger) and its three phases, plus a Battle HUD cue for open and closed plates, reusable for every plated enemy later (VEL-63).
• 5. Who are Aske's two letters addressed to? Still open in the Story Bible. Recommendation: follow Act 2, which every tab now uses as the working assumption. The Twinhold letter goes to Ondine Ash, so Tamsin goes quiet when she reads the name; the Lanternfall letter goes to Iver Kest, so Rook laughs. Each guide then has a personal reason to bring the protagonist to their city, and Aske's past touches both (VEL-63).
• 6. Can the player go home during Act 1? Recommendation: yes. Exits stay open; Aske is back at the ferry from Act 1 and teaches Brace (matching the Spell Set), and the villagers get Act 1 lines. Home stays a place, not a cutscene.
• 7. Is Halfway on the Sallow? The concepts show a walled town at a river crossing with a stone bridge. Recommendation: yes, at the bridge where the Sallow Road crosses the river. The Wyrm stopping the barges then hurts Halfway's market, which gives both sides in town a stake in the fight.
• 8. One currency or three? The currency concept shows Evane silver, Facet tokens and Halfway copper. Recommendation: one currency, copper, as the items tab has it. Evane silver (evane_silver) and Facet glass tokens (facet_token) are valuables the token-changer buys for 50 copper each (VEL-63).
• 9. Gate exits and scene changes by stage? Act 1 wants Halfway's two gates shut until stage 7, and the overworld's river high at stage 5. VEL-53 leaves exit gating out. Recommendation: give exits the same when as triggers (the guard says "Road's shut till the river's settled"), and add a when on named scene objects for variants like high water. Both are small generic features. Placed Road_ triggers stand in for random encounters until those are designed.
• 10. Did ringing the Glass wake the Wyrm? Recommendation: yes, lightly: Tamsin says things in the Glass hear when it rings, and the protagonist has to live with a little of the blame. It gives the boss a reason to rise once Aske has gone, and keeps the "both sides caused it" theme small and personal. It stays a hint, never a confirmed cause: nobody in Act 1 knows for sure (VEL-63).
• 11. Should the overworld be one growing scene or split per act? Recommendation: one Overworld scene for the Sallow valley (Sallowbank to Halfway), and a new overworld scene per region from Act 2 (the Long Road, the Shardfield), so scene ownership stays one ticket at a time.

From Walkthrough: Prologue and Act 1 › Open questions for Ray