Archmage Rises News

2.5 weeks from launch and we're starting to build up momentum! We obviously had some serious issues to deal with the first week, and we are still working through bug reports, but in today's patch you will experience some of the content development momentum that is going on in the background!

1. Spell power slider has made it's return. This is unlockable via a new "master class" quest available at the Starter Town Conclave. When you unlock this new magical control knowledge, you'll be able to adjust the power of your spells before casting: Weaker, Normal, Powerful
   
2. 3 new quests (including the previously mentioned spell slider quest)
   
3. Magic school power leveling is now on a curve of 100, 200, 300, etc. It no longer is just 100xp per point. This makes the game harder and it was always supposed to be this way*
   
4. 3 new spells: Air Pocket, Earthquake, and Wall of Stone - NOTE: You have to generate a new world and game to get them, does not just appear in your saves!
   
5. Added descriptive prefixes to help differentiate enemies (thanks to player Durbitwaz for the assistance!)
   
6. Several new NPC portraits
   
7. Rebalancing of character creation - 6 sessions instead of 9
   
8. Added back the ability to Explore a hex to find a lair even if you failed the tracks roll. Look for the [?] in the top panel right column, if you see it, you know to explore! (player request)
   
9. New VSync option under Graphics Settings (player request)
   
10. Updated FPS cap slider option (player request)
    

• Stink Cloud debuff no longer persists after combat, was causing lots o' issues
  
• Light & Arcane Insight now scale according to spell school power
  
• Fixed fill direction on enemy armor bar
  
• Item descriptions now display properly in combat
  
• Fixed Dispel Gem, and now you can also use it on yourself outside of combat
  
• Fixed buff/debuff icons for Stink Cloud, Ice Shield, and Flame Shield
  
• More save file optimizations
  

*Fun Fact - the programmer found a note in the source code for the School XP system from 2022 saying "TODO: Don't leave this at just 100Xp per point."ːsteamfacepalmː

Design veteran Mark Webster has joined the Defiance team to help improve Archmage Rises game design.

Mark comes by way of Sony's Santa Monica Studio where he worked on Game of the Year titles God of War (2018) and God of War Ragnarok (2022). Before that, he also assisted Activision Blizzard with their Skylanders, Guitar Hero, and Marvel Ultimate Alliance franchises.

Mark has been following Archmage Rises since he and Thomas met at a game conference in 2019. Mark is excited to dive in to coaching us on game design. He already started digging into Combat today!

We're grateful for the chance timing and opportunity which made this possible for our little indie title. We're serious about making this game great!

We have an update to enjoy this weekend, including new content!


- Added two new quests: a healer quest and a much involved "towel" quest!
- You can now attack foes out of your weapon's normal attack range by spending extra AP
- Dungeons now contain locked doors, blocked doors, and trapped doors. Levers now unlock doors (if they exist in the same room as a locked door). This solves the "hey every lever does nothing, just trapped" problem - it was because the door wasn't locked, not because we are mean sadistic devs ːhappystar2022ː


- FIXED: Flatter does not correctly use Persuasion Skill
- FIXED: Paying fine does not reduce wanted level
- FIXED: City Guards no longer return immortal
- FIXED: Casting a Shield no longer stacks the FX overlay
- FIXED: Stink Cloud VFX is no longer lingering around after combat
- FIXED: Wellbeing now caps at 100
- FIXED: 2 Mayors being created in some cases, causing some quests to not be completable. Issue may persist in pre-existing saves, but will no longer be an issue in new games.
- FIXED: Light spell description shows the current number of hours that it lasts now.
- FIXED: sometimes haggling increased the value of a deal instead of reducing
- FIXED: Minor performance improvements

The latest build is now here!

While this list might seem small, it's mighty in nature as some of these bugs were very intricate to solve (and we're fixing bugs while working on the much anticipated Update #1: Townsfolk).

- FIXED: Saving/Loading bugs that were causing massive save files which causes the game to crash when saving or loading some save files
- FIXED: Dead enemies not being removed from combat, preventing combat from ending.
- NEW: Quick character creation options. Now you can bypass school and launch into the game with a pre-gen character.
- NEW: A new dynamic NPC portrait has been added into the game

Thanks for all the support this week in our launch week. We wanted to give you the best possible weekend experience with the game, so here are some more fixes and updates to enjoy!

1. New title screen, with link to "How to Play" video
   
2. Fixed a whole slew of null errors and infinite damage loop errors reported in combat
   
3. Added better damage numbers
   
4. Combat generation was too random with big swings both easy and hard. Bumped up minimum enemy count and reduced maximum
   
5. Doubled the combat generation templatesshould see a wider variety of enemy combinations and battle layouts
   
6. Being ambushed now provides 4 ap and running takes 4 so that you can try running immediately.
   
7. Reduced Goblin Vexer damage
   
8. Wolf/Worg pounce range reduced by 1
   

1. Cleaned up a lot of spell descriptions to be more accurate or give better information.
   
2. Acid damage increased and swapped to physical to interact with armorsome special interactions with armor will come in a later patch. Acid pools will deal damage over time and we have a known bug that sometimes makes enemies invulnerable if they died to the acid.
   
3. Frostbite Ara cost increased
   
4. Fireball's cost more evenly distributed and damage increased
   
5. Most other spells received damage and power scaling adjustments to try and make all current options viable in their correct situation.