Mind Over Magic News

Improvements to error detection in the simulation have...detected some errors. This hotfix is to address some of those as well as some other reported issues. Thanks for the reports!

• Renamed the hotkey label in settings from Uproot to the more proper Destroy to match the action button name.
  
• Probable fix for not being able to complete a save due to file write restrictions. Possibly related to some antivirus software.
  
• Fix potential crash after a corpse has faded out in battle.
  
• Fix to thunder sounds continuing after the event has ended.
  
• Multiple fixes to internal errors which could result in corrupted games and that were caught by the improved crash reporting system.
  

We've added support for drag-select, improvements to the functionality of multi-select, and new Vivified skins. Many thanks to those who helped us beta test this update!

[h2]New Art![/h2]

• New Quilted Staff body, head, and hair.
  
• The Conservatory now has unique wallpaper and options to choose from.
  

[h2]Drag Select & Multi-Select Enhancements[/h2]

• Drag select now possible on the ground, floors, and walls.
  
• New UI when multiple objects selected allows refining the selection.
  
• When multiple objects selected, the Action buttons are simplified.
  
• Clicking on a category or type in the multi-select UI will single out that selection. With ctrl-key held, it will remove that category or type from the selection.
  
• Settings Copy / Paste now allows pasting to many objects at once.
  
• Settings Copy / Paste moved to Action Buttons.
  
• Settings Copy / Paste now copies crafting orders.
  

[h2]Hotkey Changes[/h2]

• Added search to the hotkey settings.
  
• Several hotkey defaults have changed to avoid potential conflicts and to work better when selecting objects of different types.
  
• Added option for disabling the Universal Cancel via the ctrl key in Settings.
  
• Each gather type (chop, harvest, mine, hunt) now has its own shortcut by default instead of sharing 'G' in order to better support multi-select.
  
• Added an option for a second shortcut on each command. This allows you to have a universal 'G' for Gather and a second shortcut for each gather type.
  
• A popup will prompt you to adopt these changes or stick with your current hotkeys.
  

[h2]Gameplay Changes[/h2]

• Grounded Room Keyword changed to "Must touch Foundation or be Underground". This makes it easier to have Grounded rooms with interesting layouts.
  
• Removed the requirement on Total Skill from Graduate with Honors, Summon Student, Hire Staff, and Retire Emeritus rituals. These were either meaningless or annoying... or both!
  
• Invasion battles during Cold Snap, Heat Wave, and Fungal Bloom events are no longer way harder than they should be.
  
• Refining Beasts are now allowed in all classrooms.
  
• Removed option to Destroy Small Carcasses. This is makes them more consistent with other ingredients and avoids spamming the right-click options when you have a bunch of Small Carcasses stacks in storage.
  

[h2]Additional Quality of Life[/h2]

• Hovering entries in the Resources UI highlight the objects in the world and vice versa.
  
• CTRL and SHIFT keys allow +/-10 and +/-100 on the crafting menus.
  
• Dragging to set schedules now works without dragging the entire schedule instead. Reordering schedules requires dragging on the drag handle dots.
  

[h2]Art and Sound[/h2]

• Refining Beasts play new animations and FX for petting and eating.
  
• Added new FX for Earth Refinery hatch ritual.
  
• Fixed Bound Mage visuals for some Mage bodies.
  
• Updated Student Summoner audio.
  
• Overhauled ambient sound system and sounds that removes hitches and improves handling of rooms.
  

[h2]Accessibility[/h2]

• Added a checkbox for controlling UI scaling restrictions so those restrictions can be removed. Doing this allows UI to overlap in some situations. More accessibility options are in process.
  
• Update to Medallion icon art to be more clear and friendlier to color-blind players.
  
• When crafting orders are paused, the background now changes to show that the order is inactive.
  

[h2]Performance and Stability[/h2]

• Made improvements to construction completion and destruction performance.
  
• Added new protections to avoid saving a corrupted game save file.
  
• Detection of critical simulation errors now stops the game and prompts for feedback submission to avoid breaking saves.
  

[h2]Improvements and Fixes[/h2]

• Fix to Shrinks not being accounted for in 'Do Until X' calculations.
  
• Fix camera sometimes panning to an otherwise off-screen location.
  
• Fix to tab cycling through the same type not working properly.
  
• Fix bug where items with different priorities could not be added to the same stack in storage.
  
• Enchantophone description now properly says it's for up to 4 Mages at once.
  
• Fix the "Slept in Simple Bedroom" status to correctly say "Slept in Austere Bedroom"
  
• Fix typo in Dancing On My Own Bronze Trial description.
  
• Fix for Midden Jelly getting stuck in petting animation.
  
• Fix an issue where Shrinks were being miscounted.
  
• Fix for wrong floor wallpaper assignments.
  
• Fix Mages appearing too dark on game start if you re-rolled them.
  
• Moved Midden Jelly from Garden category to Crafting category, now that it doesn't need to be placed outside.
  
• Fix an issue that could cause Mana Lanterns to not be used.
  

[h2]Translation Fixes[/h2]

• Fix the drop down ui for Set All on the Task Type Priority UI and make the tooltip so it can be translated.
  
• Fix ability to translate 'Chance to' for drops.
  
• Fix the wand display for translation in ritual availables.
  
• Fix text in difficulty customization so it can be translated.
  
• Fix text in Task Type Priority UI for priority level on hover so it can be translated.
  
• Fix for missing percent sign in some region settings that use the Arabic percent sign.
  
• Fix translation workshop tools having wrong logic for setting the root folder.
  
• Translator comments are now preserved when updating po files from yaml.
  

Here are our next couple releases.

[h2]Next: Per-Type Storage Limits & Quilted Helpers for Tending and Harvesting[/h2]
Some highly requested features for making your school run well. These both add new ways to make sure all your crops and resources get to the right place at the right time.

[h2]Next Next: Major Gameplay Changes[/h2]
Our goal is to reduce grindy aspects of the game in favor of more compelling ways to make progress and to bring much more challenge to those who want it.

These changes in feel and pacing will set the stage for big new features in the mid and late game in future updates.

[h2]Thank You For Playing![/h2]
The Mind Over Magic Early Access debut has been amazing thanks to all of you who have jumped in, played a ton, submitted reviews, and sent us your feedback.

We already have a large list of what we hope to achieve over the coming months. The exact ordering and timing of releases depends on what we learn during development and from feedback. Going forward we’ll update the roadmap frequently.

[h2]Where Things Stand[/h2]
We knew that setting a colony-sim in a magic school would be interesting to gamers looking for very different ways to play. This made Mind Over Magic both a huge opportunity and a big challenge. You’ve made it clear how you’re feeling about where things are and we appreciate it!

Broadly speaking:

• If you bought the game looking to build your own magic school and fill it with delightful students and staff in our grim world, you’re probably having fun with it and are likely creating large and creatively designed schools.
  
• If you arrived looking for the sort of challenge where mistakes and missed opportunities mean starting over and there’s always room to improve, you’re likely feeling that you’ve solved the game and that we’re missing some key elements.
  
• There’s too much grind, not enough going on in the Underschool, and combat is lacking depth and integration with the rest of the game.
  
• Players who’ve gotten deeper into the game are craving ways to customize Mages, move them around the school faster, feel the game evolve and present new challenges, and higher framerate plz!
  

[h2]OMG. Just Roadmap Us.[/h2]
In terms of overall cadence, our plan is to release impactful visual, performance, and QoL improvements interleaved with major feature updates that impact gameplay. We expect to release a significant update every 3-5 weeks. Releases will always be posted to our “prerelease” Steam Beta first, usually for a week or more. If you’d like to actively help us shape these updates, we’d love to have you join our Discord community and check out the pre-release updates.

[h2]What’s Coming Next?[/h2]
[h3]QoL + Art Update[/h3]
In the next week, we’ll release a QoL and art update featuring:

• New Vivified skin
  
• Wallpapers for the Conservatory
  
• Drag-select on the ground, floors, and walls along with improved multi-select
  
• Performance updates
  
• You can check it out on pre-release now.
  

[h3]Major Gameplay Update[/h3]
We’re prototyping changes to Relentless mode that will likely become our next Major Release. Some of our goals for a Relentless update:

• Raise the baseline challenge of the game in multiple ways, from repelling the Fog to maintaining Conviction to how much you need to prepare for events coming your way.
  
• Have the game demand your full attention and encourage an ever deeper understanding of the mechanics. We expect to see some schools in shambles!
  
• Improve the grind by adjusting or removing simplistic gates and working toward always having multiple possible goals to be working toward throughout the game.
  
• Lay the groundwork for how the game will continue to evolve as you play further and further.
  
• Enhance Relaxed mode with many of the game flow changes without necessarily making it less relaxed.
  

[h3]QoL + Art Update[/h3]
An art-focused release with:

• More Mage skins
  
• More wallpapers
  
• New dances
  

[h3]Dragons[/h3]
Shhhh…

[h2]Wait! Is That All?![/h2]
Absolutely not. If you’re not seeing that thing that you believe is critical (yup, yup, fast travel), it’s likely that:

• We also want it, but have a vision that requires us to get some other pieces in place first.
  
• We think some related things we’re doing will improve that problem you’re having.
  
• We just had to make a call on how to prioritize and keep moving forward, but we’ll get there!
  

Thanks for reading all this, playing Mind Over Magic, and being so supportive by sharing all of your feelings about the game.

Build notes...

[h2]Performance[/h2]

• Performance improvements when construction blocks are constructed or deconstructed. More in progress.
  

[h2]Trapdoor Vine[/h2]

• Unstable Anemone and Trapdoor Vines spawn throughout all of the Forest instead of only in some parts.
  
• Top-tier Cleanse Fog costs now come into play further from the school, so it is easier to locate the reagents needed to perform that ritual.
  
• Trapdoor Vines no longer sprout more Trapdoor Vines in rain.
  
• New visuals for the Trapdoor Vine's Binding spell. Added animations and new FX for mages bound by the Trapdoor Vine.
  
• Fixes for visual positioning of Trapdoor Vines, both in planters and wild.
  

[h2]Battle Reward Balance[/h2]

• Poltergeists drop Hallowlily Bloom when defeated.
  
• Battles from 2 Skull or greater Battles when Exploring the Underschool grant 2x more Arcane Scrolls.
  
• The Burrower Larva is now a 2-Skull battle and grants 2x more Arcane Scrolls.
  
• Battles from Invasion events, Lava Biome Battle crystals (Incendiary Crystal and Infernal Crystal), and Fog Cleanse Battle crystals (Malice Crystal, Animus Crystal, and Rancor Crystal) grant 1/2x as many Arcane Scrolls, to put them in line with Exploring the Underschool rewards.
  
• Fog Push Mining Crystals (Foggy Crystal, Misty Crystal, and Gloomy Crystal) now more often drop Smokepearl, with significantly reduced chances of dropping meals and potions.
  
• Misty and Gloomy Crystals will no longer drop highest level potions.
  
• Misty and Gloomy Crystals now only spawn after reaching a high enough MAGE score.
  

[h2]Quality of Life[/h2]

• Trial Completed feed hover and Medallion hover text show more information.
  
• Updated Trial and Medallion icons and added new borders to indicate level.
  
• Show an alert in the feed when a save completes.
  
• Show Time Since Hire for Staff when selected.
  
• Crop Plot descriptions now explain the differences between crops.
  
• Room Type requirements that require a specific number of furniture items will now use the word "Exactly" for clarity.
  
• Removed Quilted from schedules and consumable rules.
  
• Standardized group sorting for schedules dropdown, consumables dropdown, access buttons, and assignment buttons.
  

[h2] Art and Sound[/h2]

• Painting sounds added! Squish! Slurp!
  
• New Animations and FX for the Oraculum ritual and Air Refinery Hatch Ritual.
  
• Planters powered by Nature Magic are now visually distinct.
  

[h2]Improvements and Fixes[/h2]

• Removed 'cannot be demolished' from Foundation description, now that they can be demolished.
  
• Raven Cultists now get Saw a Corpse & Catharsis statuses.
  
• Monsters killed by the Growth spell's Thorns effect will properly count towards Trial requirements.
  
• Changed 'The Shattered' and 'The Vivified' to just 'Shattered' and 'Vivified' across the board for consistency.
  
• Improved feedback when a refining beast needs meals or affection.
  
• Updated Feeding and Affection need text to remove reference to Schedule and to clarify that Feeding can cause refining speed to go down to 0%.
  
• Fixes to some strings that could not be translated.
  
• Fixed loss of hotkey control when using Research Search text field.
  
• Wizards with Insomnia no longer restore Sleep need when restoring HP in a medical bed.
  

Community members have developed translations of the game into new languages, so we added support for Steam Workshop Language Packs to help distribute the translations.

To get started, we put together a guide to using and/or developing Language Packs for Mind Over Magic.

LANGAGE PACK GUIDE

Thanks again for playing and all the feedback!