"Spirit of the forest, I presume"

[Sami]

Now that sort of a phrase may actually slip from your lips in the next version of the game as the Spirit of the Forest gets added to our small cast of otherworldly creatures.
Reworked spells and many kind of spirit world additions has a major part in the galore of upcoming features, and manifestation and actual appearance of spirit of the forest is now featured and off my to-do list. Implementing a related quest (or two) is still required, but step by step the planned spirit world additions do gets wrapped up.

As a necessary spin-off feature we also had to expand possible sacrifices to include not only foodstuff, but also valuables. See, offering silver has been traditionally very much linked to pleasing the certain spirits. And as the spells in the game now are actual collected old spells we had to add silver sacrifices if we wanted to add proper spells for "summoning" the spirit of the forest. (You may want to see post about the used "spellbooks" at old forums).

You know, with this version it feels like our to-do things are proceeding really slow compared to the amount of work and energy put in. Seems like we're dealing with complex entities rather than simple isolated features. But there's the spirit of the forest now. He brought in so much more code and features than first assumed, but it all just had to be done.

Let's not spoil too much about what the spirit of the forest can actually do for you, but we know he's an important spirit, watching over the forest and the animals. According to the folklore the spirit of the forest may sometimes tell you where the game is, if he's pleased with you. That, at least, is an actual feature now. And as a tidbit of our desired in-game perfection I gotta mention that these spirits often concentrate on only culturally important animals. Thus, the spirit of the forest can prioritize his observations differently for members of northern tribes than those of the western tribes.
But now look at this fellow of one of the eastern tribes...
He must have something right to hear this from..well...from the spirit of the forest, I presume.

[codyo]

I wanna fight him.
It's my forest now.

[nekot]

Great news!
I cannot wait to meet him!

[PoisonPen]

I'd really like to be able to turn supernatural elements on and off in the options.  As much as encountering pirus, paasselkas, leshyies, rusalkas, polevois, and the rest would be fun, I'd like to be able to have a more grounded, historical experience too.  If I'm shooting lightning bolts at a level-25 domovoi, I might as well be playing ADOM.

[Erkka]

  I'd like to be able to have a more grounded, historical experience too.  If I'm shooting lightning bolts at a level-25 domovoi, I might as well be playing ADOM. 

Well, at the very moment there (again) is an another thread where a player is actively trying to encounter a being which is supposed to be more or less 'supernatural' - and has difficulties doing so, for it isn't easy to find the right conditions to encounter such a being.

I think that speaks of Sami's design philosophy - personally I wouldn't worry about the game turning into 'thow lignting bolts at magical creatures'-kind of high-fantasy. The 'supernatural' elements of UnReal World are, and will remain, elusive and hard to catch, and after all, we can't be exactly sure if they are mere hallucinations, a series of random luck, or possibly a prankster hermit playing tricks on the player character.

Also, the way I see it, this actually is the historical experience. The pagan folks believed in these rituals having an effect, and they believed those supernatural entities to exists, and there were reports of people occasionally spotting those creatures. So we don't simulate the 1000AD world the way 2000AD scientist believe it to be, but we simulate the 1000AD world the way 1000AD folks probably themselves experienced it to be. No lightning bolts, though, they aren't a part of Finnish folklore =)

[LoLotov]

Are these new functions going to take the ritual skill into account? Just want to know for my future characters, cause I always try to get along with the spirits, but at the current time am able to do so without any skill at ritual.

[Sami]

Are these new functions going to take the ritual skill into account? Just want to know for my future characters, cause I always try to get along with the spirits, but at the current time am able to do so without any skill at ritual.

No, they won't. Ritual skill hasn't basically ever been properly functional, and for the next version it is likely to be removed since we can't find a good use for it anyway.
Like currently also in the next version the relationship with the spirits is kept up with character actions.

[Roheline]

Is there any plan in the future to also include sacrificing weapons or even live animals? I had a character some time back that miraculously survived an accidental wandering into a Njerpez village (this was back when they were all very aggressive and impossible to evade) and had a ton of loot as a result after all the Njerpez were dead. I had her go and buy a bull and "sacrifice" it along with the most expensive weapon of the loot into a bog at night. It just seemed the right thing to do to thank the spirits for her survival and loot.

However, I'm not sure if the sacrifice of weapons or live animals is in keeping with ancient Finnish culture/folklore.

Do general sacrifices "mean anything" to the spirits/character karma when done outside of a quest?

[PALU]

Is there any plan in the future to also include sacrificing weapons or even live animals? I had a character some time back that miraculously survived an accidental wandering into a Njerpez village (this was back when they were all very aggressive and impossible to evade) and had a ton of loot as a result after all the Njerpez were dead. I had her go and buy a bull and "sacrifice" it along with the most expensive weapon of the loot into a bog at night. It just seemed the right thing to do to thank the spirits for her survival and loot.

However, I'm not sure if the sacrifice of weapons or live animals is in keeping with ancient Finnish culture/folklore.

Do general sacrifices "mean anything" to the spirits/character karma when done outside of a quest?

As far as I've understood from the development reports as well as beta experience, general sacrifices take the role of the previous general fisher/hunter sacrifices at least.