Archmage Rises News

A quick hotfix to fix our bug reporter. Now that we've updated our save game system, our bug reporter was no longer compatible to give us all of the data we need to properly diagnose bug reports. This patch fixes that issue.

If you have submitted bugs regarding an issue with navigating dungeons from the previous build 0.0.13 and are able to re-send a bug report, that would be most valuable to us in case there may be some additional missing information we need to properly diagnose the bug. Thanks in advance!

Hey! It's Thursday, which means another patch day!

As we mentioned before, this patch is a bit on the lighter side as we're shifting our resources to focus more on our upcoming Update #1: Townsfolk, but there are still a few major changes in this that will set the stage for future builds. The biggest being, this is the week we break saves (but in a good way... see notes below).

[h2]NEW:[/h2]

• New dynamic quests are now available
  

[h2]IMPROVED:[/h2]

• New saving system: the biggest change this build is how we are handling save files. Save files are now much smaller (up to 90% smaller or more) and load faster! This unfortunately means all of your old worlds and saves are no longer compatible, so you're going to have to start over... But, it'll save you a ton of space on your hard drive!
  
• Dungeon Generation: We've improved how dungeons are generated and saved, and now they are properly procedurally generated. This means greater stability in the dungeons themselves, plus allowed us to reduce the save file sizes as now dungeons (which took up most of the space) are no longer stored in save files.
  
• Improved key & lever placement inside dungeons
  
• Added icons to hexes where pack animals are left behind (in the case of boarding a rowboat for example)
  

[h2]FIXED:[/h2]

• Resource icons on hexes are now removed when there is no longer any renewable resources left
  
• Magic ship now properly uses hex map targeting just like rowboat
  
• Fixed magic ship and row boat duplication issue
  
• Fixed bug with not being able to cast Force Push spell
  
• Fixed Running away not ending caravan encounter
  
• Fixed bug with NPC ages changing
  
• Fixed a bug with weaponsmith starter quest
  

Another Thursday, another weekly build. And this time we got it out on the right day! We've got some stuff that many of you have been asking for, so let's jump into what's new this build!

[h2]NEW:[/h2]

• New character creation endings: Now depending on what choices you make when going through school, you'll get one of 12 possible endings (won't always be expelled anymore, hurray!)
  
• Custom Player Portraits: There's a special folder that you can now add your own images to and then set them as your character portrait by right clicking on your character's portrait on the relationship screen (tutorial will be post to YouTube soon!)
  
• Display Ara costs in tooltips: Now when you hover over spells, you can see the the Ara costs as well as the AP costs in the tooltips (player request)
  
• Display AP costs for weapons in stores: Now you can see a weapons default AP cost in the item's description when in stores (player request)
  
• Display actual weapon attack AP cost in combat: When using a melee weapon the AP cost can change depending on if you are using it in it's natural range or outside of it's range, but we weren't displaying the new AP costs. Now when you attack with a melee weapon, the AP cost now updates in the castbox window when you hover over targets to show the actual AP cost (player request)
  

[h2]IMPROVED:[/h2]

• Relationships were swaying trade pricing too much. We've fixed that...
  
• Fixed cramped text on conversations with NPCs when on the highest text scaling setting
  
• Better balanced male name generation. Now you shouldn't see towns full of Walters :)
  

[h2]FIXED:[/h2]

• Fixed: Bug causing weapon melee AP cost not to reset after using it outside of it's default range
  
• Fixed: Gems causing inventories to break. (We've totally removed them from resource generation)
  
• Fixed: Added temporary check to remove Gems from inventories should Gems exist to prevent further inventory breaks until there's a more permanent solution to Gems
  
• Fixed: Getting hit by multiple combat encounters simultaneously
  
• Fixed: Log window showing styling code for certain messages
  
• Fixed: Frozen enemies storing up their AP and unleashing it all at once when they unfreeze. Now their AP gets reset to their max AP every turn
  
• Fixed: Fireseed quest infinite loop bug
  
• Fixed: Bug causing town tooltips showing through world gen / character creation screens
  
• Fixed: Enemies can no longer dodge status effects (like burning)
  
• Fixed: Some Conclave Chapterhouses and Healers weren't open 24/7 like they should be
  
• Fixed: Trade Counters duplicating themselves on the character sheet
  
• Fixed: Fixes to Weapon Skill requirements and replaced skill check with a stat check
  
• Fixed: Bug causing some hexes on the world map to appear black when they shouldn't
  
• Fixed: Removed power sliders from weapon attacks (since they don't do anything right now)
  
• Fixed: Some item descriptions showing +- to attributes
  
• Fixed: Some apostrophes not formatting correctly
  
• Fixed: Formating on populations in town view. Now they don't show an extra '0' if there are no population increases/decreases
  
• Fixed: Various typos and grammatical errors
  

A short week for us, but we are excited to bring these updates for this weekend!

1. Added option to turn off auto-eat, for those who want to role-play more specifically. (Player request)
   
2. Added hunger warning 2 days before auto-eating. If you eat, then it won't auto-eat. If you ignore it then auto-eat will happen as usual (Player request)
   
3. Improved resource generation distribution.
   
4. Removed getting kicked out of buildings when they close. Instead, the person tells you to leave. Soon they will start getting mad at you until you leave, though this isn't implemented now. Inns, conclave chapter house, and healers are open 24hrs a day
   
5. Added player Lastname to character creation with randomization options. (Player request)
   
6. Made overcasting (slider 3rd position) add more umph (about 20%) to the result (Player request)
   
7. Tweaked spells: Arcane Shield, Magic Missile, Daggerfall, Dispel, Fireball, Light, Lightning Bolt, Push, Air Pocket, Wall of Stone, Ice Lance
   

1. Dungeon: Light is no longer required to travel to previously visited rooms, removing soft lock when running out of light. This is the south door not clickable problem.
   
2. Dungeon: Trapped levers resetting upon reentering a room. This was really thorny to solve.
   
3. Dungeon: Fixed some really silly code that was generating a zillion levers. Oops!
   
4. Combat: Power slider now works correctly. It was intermittently working before
   
5. Combat: Can no longer cast shield spells on the ground
   
6. Combat: Stopped player from casting during enemy turn. It just wasn't fair!
   
7. Combat: Air pocket now removes stink cloud debuff as well as preventing it. Thanks for pointing out that mistake.
   
8. Combat: Fixed weapon descriptions with text scaling
   
9. Character creation: options now apply skill gains correctly
   
10. Updated UI of confirmation popups
    
11. Map: Graphics now match the map data, this makes finding resources actually possible
    
12. Map: Resources regenerating on loaded save games leading to tons of duplications. Fixing this requires it to generate one more time, wiping out whatever was there previously. This means previously found resources may no longer be there. Sorry.
    
13. Town: Resolved infinite vendor stealing exploit through save/load
    
14. Town: Sneaking into town no longer shows a gate toll
    

Edit for Hotfix 0.0.11a:
- There were reported issues of not being able to start a world. We believe it was the result of a missing quest id in one of the files. This only affected a subset of players.
- fixed 'can't go south without light' issue again for existing save files. Thanks lightningstrike2010 for bringing this up!

This was a big week, several long running tasks came to completion freeing people up for next week. We also introduced a more formal git branching strategy which had the adverse effect of tripping is up a bit yesterday, so we needed an extra day to get everything right. I'm proud of what we've accomplished this week. This build was real hard to get out.

1. We now support up to 130% Text Scaling. It was a significant amount of work to pull this off, ~2 people for 3 weeks combing over the entire UI and tooltip system. We did this to allow people to play on many kinds of screens: 13" laptops, TV's, Steam Deck, etc. all at what is comfortable for you. We also did it to lay a foundation for future UI work. Note: There is a known issue it is slow to respond as you move the slider, and occasionally some text will pop out of a container. We will optimize in a future patch.
   
2. Now support more (all?) 16:9 Screen Resolutions. 1440p and 4k screen users rejoice! Actual 4k support will come later. 21:9 probably never. (I say this as the lead dev working on a 21:9 screen I love so much I could kiss it. It's like my fourth child.)
   
3. Using a dungeon door key will now remove it from your inventory. They were always magical, but now go
4. poof* so as not to clog up yer inventory. (The vendors were sick of buying your useless keys and raised a complaint!)
   
5. Added 9 more character creation equipment bundles, for a total of 12.
   
6. Added 2 more quests
   

1. Removed an unnecessary click in spell casting, making combat play faster. You pick the spell, then can click the spot you want to cast it. No longer do you have to confirm "cast" above.
   
2. Rewrote locked doors, levers, and keys. This was real broke, but now it should be good: keys and levers will appear on the correct side of the locked door (the side where you can reach it! ːsurprised_yetiː)
   
3. Optimized game loading, starting the game is at least 10x faster. Sadly, this does not improve save game loading. Baby steps...
   
4. Changed Magic School XP Level up cost from +100xp per level to +25xp per level cost, so 100, 125, 150, 175, etc. instead of 100, 200, 300... (player feedback)
   
5. Camps no longer are consumable. They cost more now, but they never go away. Later we will introduce wear & tear or something, but we solved the immediate issue of needing stacks of 8 of them. (player feedback)
   
6. Harvesting resources is down from 15->5 stamina. This is a bandaid based on player steam forum feedback (sleep simulator! ːhappy_yetiː). Stamina will slowly be taken out of the game entirely, but the beneficial need to sleep will not. (player feedback)
   
7. Resource generation is much higher and now uniform in the code. HOWEVER, there is a deeper problem of the map showing a forest where there is no forest. Correcting the graphics to match the map is a longer solve and we didn't have time to do it this week. So this is a small improvement with a major improvement coming. (player feedback)
   
8. Made the Ara and AP refresh a little juicier
   

Combat: Ground placement of corpses and things like acid pools and such is fixed. It was trying to place it in the right spot, saw there was something there (the monster) and then trying to find an open place to put it.
Fixed showing wrong spell title/icon/radius in cast box. Oops. ːsteamfacepalmː

1. Gambling: Somewhere around the player reaching 10,000g the game would crash. The issue was bankrupting the innkeeper! He would try to take his turn, but couldn't afford it, but had to take his turn, couldn't afford it. Infinite loop goodness.
   
2. Gambling: Fixed natural 20's going firey. Nothing special happens during gambling so it shouldn't show the effect.
   
3. Fixed inn sleep fire VFX. It was miss-firing (Ha! I'm a dad). It now scales correctly to whatever screen you are on and no longer looks like it is burning the furniture.
   
4. Fixed text bleeding outside of popup boxes on world generation and spell school level up
   
5. Fixed fellow student names must be unique in character creation. We had a player report going to school with Barbara, Barbara, and Barbara. It certainly made it an interesting challenge to keep them all straight, but we decided it was for the best to just ensure they are unique.
   

There are plenty of general problems in the game, but here are some specific ones we're working on:

• There is a quest, Gather Stone for Inquisitor, which has some ??? showing in it.
  
• Sometimes a new world has a bunch of the spells way up the tier. It's real weird, we can reproduce it, but not often. If you get this, just generate another world and it'll be fine.
  

Finally, thanks for all the great design ideas on the forums. It helps us to be able to read a multitude of opinions on a matter, picking the best elements. Yay Early Access! Thanks for adventuring with us.

Last note: Monday is a holiday in Canada, something about a queen. So we'll be back at it on Tuesday!