Apollyon: River of Life News

Welcome back once again, practitioners! This update has a number of issues specifically requested by members of the community, and some brand new ones! Also, bugfixes. Always bugfixes.

Here, you can see the new way to select the tokens... just hover and click on the names!

• New players will be sent immediately to the tutorial!
  
• Tutorial has a new musical intro, as well as animation
  
• Select tokens by hovering and clicking the names
  
• Removed a limitation in my own coding base for Apollyon... letting the story now have quotations, like it should! Formerly it was just single quotes or two single quotes.
  
• All popups now include images! Selecting Effects shows their image in a larger size!
  
• RIGHT CLICKING any Invocation or Self card will also show it larger, and will provide some small information about its use! Many cards are missing text, the next update will send me going back to every Invokable spirit and Self card and adding this text.
  
  
  
  
• Moved tokens will now pulsate from darker to lighter than they were before. Being bright but unmoving caused them to be missed, and the player should be able to easily see what tokens they've moved!
  
• Removed the flickering in the chatbox when the game has gone on a very long time
  
• No longer does the game kill players in between moving tokens and the Invocation Set beginning. This can significantly change the use of player abilities. It aides the pacing of the game and removes and chance at a player invoking a card that only they could interact with, then dying.
  
• The Effect sliders are reworked and no longer have extraneous visual errors
  
• Server will authorize and reject invokes in addition to the client, rather than just relying on the client's condition testing
  
• Ryo'shyr will now aide you spy upon the Lords of Jeria
  
• Aedan can now no longer heal mercenaries he doesn't have
  
• Braxen now is not allowed to take over the Guardian Faith
  
• Dying and winning at the same time no longer causes ui errors
  
• Dead players cannot invoke story cards while Sutier is banished and spiritual
  
• Removed a bug that made untyped physical and mental tests receive the augments from the tokens twice, making Torfield and Medicopia absurdly powerful.
  
• You now cannot buy a charm you already possess at the Arcane Carnival
  
• Wandering spirit is more stable and less expensive
  
• Changing the intention selection will properly "un-ready" players that have readied up.
  

Coming up next, the removal of the last placeholder art, additions to the Talon Intention, a change to the Cistern battle, updated Past Sacrifice, and more lore!

Here we are with a few updates and new features!

• Fixed accidental bug in 1.3.0 that made the black fading screens fade away too soon
  
• All effects will now show their image in a larger size, as well as their description
  
• Call Out spirit card fully added
  
• Descriptions on missing Self cards
  
• Deia-rei hyperlink fixed
  
• Spirit Card back button now throbs when the open card is resolved. MANY new players get confused about how to close the spirit card.
  
• Cooldown on some chatbox messages
  
• Added tutorial pushes so you are more likely to unlock the character that is aligned with your tutorial answers
  
• Game Setup animations fixed, could select options accidentally.
  
• Disconnect/Reconnect (DCRC) massively reworked, now functions much, much quicker. Players can be disconnected or lose internet access at any time and return to the ritual. If the host's PC turns off or something, however, the ritual still treats it as if you died. This likely won't be changed. Apollyon has never crashed.
  
• Player disconnection unselects tokens
  
• Taara's Kharmic abilities go to the chat, instead of popup functions.
  
• Reconnecting players cant move tokens.
  
• Steam profile pictures are now squares.
  
• New Menu links
  
• The Compass on the ritual menu will now highlight the current token position while not hovered
  
• Opening Z once you see the Wandering Spirit no longer avoids it
  
• Standard tale cards fully open their theme, and step an opposing theme closed twice. not fully.
  
• Fixed replication for effects that occur when a spirit is closed, as well as those that change the music pitch.
  
• Changed how many variables replicate to allow faster joining. Random variables will now work over very bad pings.
  
• New Dark Bargains objectives
  

Welcome, occult wanderers, to the River of Life.

Apollyon has been tempered in the great furnaces of game development, and is nearing a state that I can call "Full Release". The game has been feature-complete for more than a year now, possibly two, yet despite the dozens of hours of playtime... It is missing some of the stories that I desire to feature inside the game.

And so we remain in Early Access... but not for much longer. All things considered, two years of Early Access was not at all in my plans, but life gets in the way, and this is a game made by a solo developer.

Lose not your hope, Practitioner! Apollyon is coming to Full Release next month, with the last character stories, UX fixes, evasive bugs, and the very last Intention yet unseen!

But I'm getting ahead of myself... what comes today, in Apollyon 1.3?



With over 75 new spirit cards since 1.2, a similar number of new pieces of art, and a whole new Intention now unlockable, there is a lot of content! Experienced practitioners will notice the changes to the spirit cards and UI... the old ugly font has been replaced with one suited far better for our dark occult fantasy. This exists throughout the entire game.



The Veiled Practitioner has had a rework, and unlocking your first character is now quicker than ever! The Veiled Practitioner (your starter "character") will go through a quest of understanding the table by calling out to the worlds beyond and encountering many new spirit cards. Dark Bargains is now centered around this, though the main objective remains the same; to make occult deals!

New in 1.3 are some features synchronizing the code of the game with the narrative. Certain spirits will warp and distort the music, raising or lowering its speed and pitch. Astral projecting will increase the music's reverb. Many spirit cards will have associated ambient effects, such as ocean waves, windchimes, or thunder.

As always, there may be bugs that I haven't found, as there are nearly infinite situations and save states. However, Apollyon is becoming more and more tried and tested each day.

Coming up next in a couple weeks... 1.4:

• Character Stories - Live as each of the playable characters, and change the character's fate!
  
• Final Art for the last few placeholders
  
• Increased reactivity to player choice
  
• Filled out Past Sacrifice
  
• New category of "elite" spirits that come when you are sufficiently advanced
  

And in the 2.0 release, the final Intention!

Fixed issue with protean card giving the same buff/debuff.
Token hints on the lore page are now color-coordinated.
Test descriptions in the chat box are now color-coordinated.
Illuminator helps find body.
More quest directors to help the player understand when somethings been completed.
Much more logic to help the player unlock their second playable character.
Icon for intention completed!
Physical visibility when in the Twilight - the world was too dark!

6 new spirit cards involving lucid dreaming in the Torfield!

Dinlirys Intention is entirely reworked! 6,000 words and 20 pieces of art were added to it, with 14 spirit cards.

UI updates at public request.

Scattered bugfixes.