Archaelund News

The may 1st update provided a lot of new content, but also new spells, talents and even mechanics or special status effects. This update provides further polishing, dealing with a lot of minor issues and raising the XP cap, which was never intended to be reached without 'grinding'.

[h3]Adjustments[/h3]

• Raised XP cap to 29,600, to better allow progressing through the new content.
  
• Size of party inventory increased from 64 to 96.
  
• Ethereal type enemies such as ghosts are now immune to 'Root' effects.
  
• Potions of Deep Breath now last 10 rounds instead of 5, its purchase cost has been increased accordingly and the alchemy recipe will now produce one potion, not two.
  
• NPC spellcasters have more willpower now.
  

[h3]Fixes on new content[/h3]

• Potion of Serenity now correctly reduces insanity, not poison.
  
• Ebran will now grant several potions as reward for the 'Expedition to Hell' quest, as intended. This will be applied retroactively if you already completed it.
  
• Solves a dialogue error with Legionaire Gerthe at the inn that could freeze the game.
  
• Fixed a loop in the conversation with Lysael.
  
• If you meet Centurion Goran on the square, you can now talk to him.
  
• The option to conclude the 'Vow to the Fallen' quest at the stone altar will only appear if the quest has been properly initiated by talking to Dondra, and not if you simply looted the amulet without receiving the quest.
  
• Certain door in the Legacy of War quest could be opened too soon, breaking the quest. Fixed.
  
• Added the appropiate collision to certain wall in the Imperial Manor's library.
  
• Fixed Unglar's dialogue to reflect correctly previous events in Urendale.
  
• Solved a potential lock in the dialogue with Molvante.
  
• Several wilderness camps in the Harlin Plains now are less "sensitive" to nearby enemies, the threshold distance was too high.
  
• Solved combat graphical glitches that could appearin the Hall of Justice.
  
• Solved a specific bug in Turkish language related to Greyward Potions.
  

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• While typing in the new 'search' button, key mappings will be ignored, so you can now search properly without other windows popping.
  
• Amulet of Purification works properly now.
  
• Solves a few 'exploits' related with game-reloading and pausing.
  
• Dying by poisoning or disease was sometimes not correctly setting the dead status on characters, causing multiple issues.
  
• During combat, closed doors will properly block the grid.
  
• Requirements for learning Talents or entering a Career will now only take into account a character's 'natural' value, not including temporary modifiers or item bonuses to traits or proficiencies. Similarly, only temporary INT bonus will affect your maximum spells known.
  
• Enemies that use any kind of teleportation will now remove any 'Root' status, as intended.
  
• Improved the party spawn code to avoid party members to spawn in glitched positions.
  
• Scrollbars on your party inventory and other places in the UI can now be scrolled faster with the mouse wheel.
  
• The mouse tooltip will no longer linger around after hovering the journal or party options button.
  
• Combat hotbuttons now correctly allow to assign items, since their position has been fixed.
  
• The willpower cost of the spell 'Summon Void Spider' has been set to the intended value (19).
  
• Added further checks to avoid dead enemies to stay in "running" animation.
  
• The game can no longer be saved while the party is falling.
  

There will be at least two more 0.8.x updates before we move into the 0.9.x development arc. They'll arrive relatively quickly since the two large outdoor areas (Urendale and Harlin Plains) are already out. I'll be posting about it soon.

After long months of work, update 0.8.3 is available on Steam. This update triples the content compared to the original EA release; playable time is currently 50+ hours.

Again, I must send a big thank you to our Beta Testers, which have navigated all kind of weird bugs through the last week, until the last of them were fixed.

[h3]New Content & Character Advancement[/h3]

• Added a new outdoor region to the south of Urendale, with several dungeons to explore.
  
• 12 new quests added, raising the total to 46. Chapter two of the main quest can be advanced significantly (but not yet concluded).
  
• Level cap raised to 6! the new XP cap is 24,000.
  
• New Open Talents: Second Skin, Gifted Pupil, Adept Student, Arcane Scholar. There's a total of 46 Open Talents in the game now!
  
• Six new new spells added for the disciplines Conjuration, Gateway, Auspice (available at a vendor in the new area), and also for Order and Malediction (at the Urendale vendors). More spells coming soon.
  

[h3]Performance[/h3]

• Massive performance optimizations. Framerate should increase by around 25-40%.
  
• Added a new option to set more exact framerate limits in Settings. Limit framerate can be used to reduce noise/heat in laptops and other systems.
  
• Added an option to set a separate limit of 60fps in the game's main menu, enabled by default.
  
• Removed quality setting for Sky & Clouds.
  

[h3]Balance[/h3]

• Characters gain 2 extra Skill Points at level 1 of any Career, be it at character creation or when a new Career is entered. The points are gained retroactively.
  
• You can now redistribute your companions' skill points once.
  
• The armor rating and critical defense provided by several pieces of chain and plate armor have been slightly reduced.
  
• Geldryn now drop specific items.
  
• A single Potion of Deep Breath now affects your whole party when consumed. The alchemy ingredients for producing it have been updated.
  
• Summoned creatures will now despawn if their summoner is killed or incapacitated. Certain enemies can now summon creatures!
  
• Mycora melee damage and avoidance(deflection) increased.
  
• The fire vulnerability of certain monsters has been slightly toned down (Druant, Yaksa, Troll).
  

[h3]Gameplay Improvements[/h3]

• Added an option to order your party inventory and stash by item type. More order options will be added in the future.
  
• Quests can now be filtered/searched by text.
  
• Hotbuttons can now be correctly used during combat with keys 0-9.
  
• You can now press 'Y' to delay your combat turn(can be remapped to any key).
  
• Enemies aggro range is now variable, depending on their AWA trait.
  

[h3]Bugfixes[/h3]

• Attacks with 'Armor Piercing' were not correctly applying it. Solved.
  
• Enemies with shields were in most cases not applying its avoidance bonuses. Beware, they may be harder to hit now, flanking them may be essential.
  
• Unseal spells will now properly trigger traps in chests.
  
• Charming an enemy with talents such as "Pack Leader" or "Petty Lord" will now remove the bonus he granted to its followers.
  
• Fixed the 'Pink People' Bug in Port Galeb.
  
• Solved an issue that could make most of the game UI texts to go blank, related to the pop up of tutorial windows.
  
• 'Minimal' quality settings should no longer cause strange displacement artifacts with combat grid.
  
• Potion of Deep Breath didn't work correctly when a character drank it while already drowning. Fixed.
  
• Potions capable of recovering willpower will now work correctly.
  
• Fixed a visual glitch that allowed to briefly see enemies in other rooms when a battle started.
  
• Essence of Darkness will now restore willpower as expected.
  
• The game will no longer autosave during dialogues that teleport you, such as with conduits or mages, to prevent issues.
  
• Screen resolution will no longer reset itself to the highest supported by the system each time the game starts.
  
• Fixed a visual glitch that could cause dead enemies to remain 'running in place'.
  
• Flammata Leaves description now correctly states it grants +1 Spellpower, not +2.
  
• The 'Dodge' description on character window was not showing a correct calculation; fixed.
  
• Fixed many minor map issues in Urendale and Galeb Peninsula.
  
• Fixed dozens of small text issues with dialogues, such as typos or minor inconsistencies.
  

Following my policy of being transparent about the game pricing, I wish to announce a base price increase since May 3rd, going from $19.99 to $24.99 (may vary with different currencies/regions)

Of course this doesn't affect people already owning the game.

From now on, you might find Archaelund participating in Steam sales, but never with a discount that puts the price below the EA launch price ($19.99).



The milestones leading to 0.9 are mostly done with the two large outdoor areas released (one in november, one now), but we're not there yet. The finish line is the conclusion of the chapter 2 of the Main Quest, but also new functionalities such as dual wielding, crossbows, poisons, maybe new careers and character creation options.

The good news is these new additions will come in smaller, more frequent updates! Expect news soon.

I'm excited to announce the next major update is already available for Beta Testers, and very soon will be released for everyone.

You can now travel south of Urendale, where you can explore a new town and complete 12 new quests. In addition the level cap has been raised to 6, and massive performance optimizations were added.

The complete changelog can be found here, in the steam forum Beta discussion. In the same post you can see instructions on how to join the Beta, everyone owning the game can join and start playing right away if they wish.

Please report any issues by replying to that same thread, if possible. In the same post you can find useful info about where to find log files.

Please keep a copy of your saves prior to the Beta, in case something goes wrong. I've been very careful and tested everything myself, but the update is huge and has tons of dialogue, some of it with complex scripted logic attached, and I am bound to make mistakes here and there.

Other than the new content, I'd like to comment on the optimized code, which should increase framerate by over 30% with zero sacrifices on visuals. This makes the game accessible for older systems, with is something I feel it's important. In the future I'll focus on improving loading times, which I know are longer than they should.

Thanks everyone for the patience, I can't wait to see what you think of the new content.

Hello everyone!

EDIT March 25th, as posted in a reply: I decided to add two extra quests, the new area really needed them. The new content is already playable but there's plenty of small details still to work on, such as itemization to adjust, a few new abilities and spells needing new code, etc.
Unless something happens, I should have the beta released in less than two weeks.

In my last news post back in december I estimated update 0.8.3 would be released in late February at the earliest, and things are going as expected. All the new scenery is 95% ready (and that has been a huge amount of work). Coding required for this update is nearly done as well, including the QoL improvements, new level cap and other stuff.

What remains to be done, then? writing dialogues, journal entries, planning and rigging encounters, and also implementing a few new effects and powers is, roughly, halfway done. Then doing internal testing of it all, and doing a full revision and adjustment of the new stuff. If nothing weird happens, a Beta will be out by late february or early march. If there's a delay, it shouldn't be significant.


Here is a provisional list of what will be included in 0.8.3.

-New outdoor region, plus several dungeons.
-Level cap raised to 6, new Rank III spells added.
-Balance adjustment: Characters gain 2 Skill Points at level 1 of any Career, be it at character creation or when a new Career is entered. The points are gained retroactively.
-You can now redistribute your companions' skill points once.
-A single Potion of Deep Breath now affects your whole party when consumed. The alchemy ingredients for producing it have been updated.
-Added an option to order your party inventory and stash by item type.
-Quests can now be filtered/searched by text.
-Hotbuttons can now be correctly used during combat with keys 0-9.
-You can now press 'Y' to delay your combat turn(can be remapped to any key).
-Added a new option to set more exact framerate limits in Settings.

This only includes the main items on the list, because a dozen bugfixes have been included, as well as many minor balance adjustments.

It's important to remember that I take my time when writing, and I often rewrite dialogues or entire quests from scratch. That's why there's a little uncertainty in how long it'll take.

Can't wait to release all the cool new stuff. See you in the forums!

--
David

Hello everyone! I’d like to wish you all a joyful holiday season and an incredible New Year.

It’s been a while since the last update, 0.8.2, in November, and I haven’t been very active in the community since then. The reason? I’ve been working nonstop on the next big update! Once more, it's a big one that can't be released in small installments. While I’d hoped to deliver it as a Christmas surprise or in celebration of the Early Access anniversary this January, it’s definitely going to take longer; at least until late February.

Here are my main development goals for 2025:

Release Update 0.8.3: This will introduce a new map area, an increased level cap, and many QoL improvements (like inventory sorting, quest search filtering, and more). Similar to the previous map expansion, some areas and dungeons will remain inaccessible for now.

Reaching Version 0.9: Targeting a spring release, this update will bring the conclusion of the second main quest chapter, open some inaccessible dungeons, and gameplay improvements like dual wielding and new careers.

Second Half of 2025: updates will expand the playable area further, increase the level cap, and add a new main quest chapter. Alongside this, I’ll work on making the world more dynamic and alive, polishing graphics and animations, and introducing other improvements to elevate the game.

EDIT: Sometime after spring I'll also begin adding localization to several languages.

That’s the plan! Of course, these goals are subject to change, but you already know that. I deeply appreciate your patience and support; it means the world to me.

Here’s to another fantastic year of adventuring together!

--
David