The Necromancer's Tale News

Patches 1.172 - 1,176

[p]It's great to be adding new features now, rather than just fixing bugs. Thanks to everyone for the nice comments - it's amazing to hear how many of you are enjoying the game! Thanks also for the bug reports - these are really important so we appreciate you taking the time to send them.[/p][p][/p][p]This is a summary of the last 5 patches, since we last did an announcement.[/p][p][/p][p]Patch notes, 1.172[/p]

[p]Load a game without exiting to main menu[/p]
[p]F8 now saves into a dedicated quicksave slot rather than over-writing the current ‘main’ save file[/p]
[p]You can now save over another save slot rather than having to save as new slot then delete old slot[/p]
[p]Added a label to draw attention to player-notes feature in journal[/p]
[p]You can now milk goats even if your character doesn’t specifically need goats milk right now[/p]
[p]Labelled the keyboard remapping controls more clearly[/p]
[p]Fixed the issue with the hole into the fever ward being gone in subsequent playthroughs
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[p]Patch notes, 1.173[/p]

[p]Fixed a bug that had dead Robyn taking part in the hide-and-seek game[/p]
[p]Added a door so that the guard at the east (slums) gate can let you through when the gate is locked (from chapter 3)[/p]
[p]Fixed bug that was causing various objects to be absent from the world on subsequent playthroughs (note: if you are currently playing a game with this problem already saved in its file, this won’t fix it- the bug was when a new game was started after exiting to menu from a previous game). If anyone is in a playthru and needs their save file fixing, please contact me in our Discord.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Patch Notes, 1.174[/p]

[p]Added a wilderness map[/p]
[p]Separated Load from Save in the escape menu[/p]
[p]Fixed Ramón in the “Breached!” docker plot
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[p]Patch Notes, 1.175[/p]

[p]Fixed a potential softlock in the grand ball[/p]
[p]Fixed a problem that was stopping minions from following you out of the small north-east cave after chapter 14[/p]
[p]Added new narrative content for Barbara and Janez- an opportunity to find out more about Zelig, if you’re willing to kiss and tell a little.
[/p]

[p]Patch Notes, 1.176[/p]

[p]Added a better sequence around chapter 13's big events[/p]
[p]Made another small improvement to how Sofia tracks you down in chapter 8 for the thing in the North Gate tavern[/p]
[p]Fixed a bug that was making dead bodies sometimes disappear from where you had stashed them, when you re-loaded a save file [/p]
[p]You can now reload from the current save slot as well as other slots, while in-game[/p]
[p]Added space for more save slots in the load/save window[/p]
[p]Added F9 to quickload from the (F8) quicksave slot [/p]
[p]Put in a safeguard to stop you taking an item multiple times by spam-clicking it[/p]
[p]Put in a safeguard to make sure all combat mugshots are cleared out after a combat[/p]
[p]Fixed an occasional bug with the Rejuvenate and Repair rituals which would leave the player unable to move[/p]
[p]Fixed an error with Ilona’s audio[/p]

More Week 1 Patches

[p]Here's a round-up of the tweaks and fixes from the 2nd half of the week since we launched. Was it just a week ago? Oh my.[/p][p][/p]

[p]Fixed two glitches with protection rituals (Grave Myst, Dominion of Phobos) at the cemetery - they weren’t stopping the Animate ritual paraphernalia from being discovered when you forward time, nor were they protecting any minions you had left standing around the cemetery.[/p]
[p]Improved the explanation and logic around the two core combats of chapter 13, to better justify plot progression.[/p]
[p]Added trust ratings in your character sheet.[/p]
[p]Fixed a few little bugs including one where the spacebar (to end turn in combat) would stop you reloading.[/p]
[p]Improved flow and wording around Clarence Pew prior to chapter 6[/p]
[p]Fixed a bug in the final chapter that was blocking you from completing the final ritual in some cases[/p]
[p]Improved the wording of grave myst to make it more benign – rather than an unreasonably-early detour into serious black magic, it should now seem more reasonable[/p]
[p]Fixed the wording in a few places in some sidequests, generally to improve their clarity and avoid confusion[/p]
[p]And of course a few small bug fixes.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Thanks again everyone for your awesome messages and bug reports. It's amazing to hear players' opinions and analysis of the gothic story trajectory, and to see how people really get what we were trying to achieve with it.[/p][p]I haven't managed to deal with all the bugs yet but have been ranking them by priority as they arrive. [/p][p][/p][p][/p]

Post-Launch Patches (-1.166)

[p]Firstly, thank you so much to all the players! We've been overwhelmed by the response to the game, and have been trying to stay as active as possible in the forums here and on our Discord - mostly offering hints and taking note of bugs etc.

Despite us doing a full 6-months of playtesting before launch, it was inevitable that new issues would appear once 350+ simultaneous players were playing. Thank you for your patience and good nature as we worked through these!

A few notes on what the patches have been about, over the last 4 days:
- fixed a few softlock situations related to skillchecks or unusual play styles (the mid-game in particular is quite complex with quite a few plots which can overlap and run in different sequences- so some new issues that we hadn't seen before became apparent)
- we also added a facility so that you can attach your save-game file to a report which you send in-game, which can sometimes be really useful in diagnosing issues as it lets us see precisely what state all of your quest variables are in, etc.
- some issues fixed in dialogues and cutscenes
- some additional thoughts/comments from the player character or NPCs in places where some players find things unclear
- some additional conversation from NPC in various places
- some combat balancing

Finally, thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed the game. This is so important to us and we appreciate it!

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The Necromancer's Tale is the most I've enjoyed creating an RPG character in a while, and no I don't mean the walking corpses

I've only dipped my distal index fingerbone in The Necromancer's Tale, a just-released historical fantasy tactics RPG from Psychic Software, but I can at least report back that the character creator is a gentle joy, to the point that I was disappointed to reach the end of it. True to the promise/threat of "400,000 words of hand-written narrative and lore", it's a hearty choose-your-own-adventure prologue that follows the protagonist's infancy and early adulthood. Each choice you make skews the stats on the left. Might sound unremarkable of concept. Here's why it's stuck with me.

Since Disco Elysium's release in 2019, nothing else has quite matched it. To be sure, there's been some fantastic RPGs since then. Baldur's Gate 3 is a tactical and story-telling marvel. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an incredible throwback to the golden age of Final Fantasy. Metaphor ReFantazio is a dense JRPG with a vivid fantasy world. But the exact blend of storytelling and world-building Disco Elysium provided still stands apart. However, a few games are looking to live up to its now storied legacy. One such game is The Necromancer's Tale, a story-driven, gothic RPG with a complex magic system.

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