Swords 'n Magic and Stuff News

Hey everyone,

Witch's Eve is over, but it's still fall in Tirawyn and new things are in the works.

This week we’re launching a couple of new features that are really glimpses of things to come rather than full-fledged features. We want to use these as a test to springboard off of, and to make sure we're on the right track for upcoming major updates.

Many of the planned features for Swords 'n Magic, (including housing and main quest lines,) involve world persistence. This means that when you build a house to store your things, or place down a tent to make camp for the night, you can count on those items being there when you return to the game. To ensure that this world persistence is solid and won't leave you with lost items and lost time, we wanted to start with a few smaller features to sort of dip our toes into the concept.

In this update, you'll find a few new items you can purchase at a shop in Ramshackle Reef, as well as a new contraption Clyde has made available for you. These are the first of many similar items in our new placeables system that we're releasing over the coming months. This will eventually lead into the much larger systems of crafting, farming, cooking and of course, housing.

These systems may feel like prototypes for now, and well, that’s because they are. We like the idea of releasing things in bite-sized pieces to make sure that you (the most important part of the development process) enjoy the new features, and that they function properly before we spend months working on the full systems and content.

Aside from the new placeables system, we've also fixed a few bugs here and there and begun work on revamping the worldmap interface. We’ve been wanting to properly overhaul the map since day one – we want players to be able to plan out where to go and what to do without too much hand holding. The new map is a start, and we have more plans in the works, but for now you can at least zoom in, pan, and navigate the world and its landmarks. We’d love to hear your feedback here as always.

Soon, we'll be adding player markers so you can find your location as well as your friends' locations. We’re also working on a waypoint system that lets you set in-game markers to help navigate without needing to open your map every few moments.

Now! Onto the patch notes:


Minor Update - Beta 1.1.7

New:

• Removed Witch’s Eve Festivities
  
• Added new persistent placeables features
  
• Added 3 new placeable items
  
• New shop and merchant NPC in Ramshackle
  
• New tool
  
• New map art
  
• Removed Map button from Journal
  

Improved:

• World Map has seen major improvements (Press M - Keybinds coming soon)
  
• Tutorial quests were cleaned up
  
• Tutorial quests can now be bypassed
  
• Adjusted nighttime ambience volumes
  

Fixed:

• Fixed a handful of dialog typos
  
• Fixed an issue with shop items not showing up in multiplayer
  

Hey everyone!

We had a few hiccups getting the update out today, but it's up now, and already patched.

Most notably the update brings a new multiplayer lobby system to make joining and hosting games with friends (or even strangers) much easier and a new Animal Companion feature that introduces two new companion mobs that you can earn and summon to fight by your side throughout the game.

The animal companion system will be getting more love and updates over the next few months, so be on the lookout for some features like a companion inventory, armor and a companion level system that mirrors how weapon skills level up. We're really excited to keep working on this system and bringing a whole new taming skill to the game that lets you tame new beasts once the mainland opens up and new creatures can be discovered.

As always, here are the patch notes for the update!

Major Update - Beta 1.1.1

New:

• Animal Companion feature!
  
• 2 animal companions
  
• Giant crab claw item
  
• New Hunter NPC
  
• New multiplayer lobby system
  
• Password protection for hosted games
  
• Public hosted games
  
• AI resistances and weaknesses system
  

Improved:

• Time of day now persists through sessions
  
• Made Sen’s tutorial quest more clear
  
• Better AI interactions. Now wild animals and monsters can fight each other!
  
• New Tough Boar mobs
  
• New Big Ol’ Crab textures
  

Fixed:

• Fixed all masks to be considered “masks” and no longer hats.
  
• Fixed all mask icons to show masks instead of hats.
  
• Fixed a bug with the tutorial stone door quest
  
• Fixed an issue with Bernard’s backpack sometimes missing
  
• Fixed a few issues with day/night cycle quests for Witch’s Eve
  

Hey everyone.

We have some development progress updates to share, including some changes to the previously planned roadmap for the next few major updates. We also have something exciting to announce in terms of game content!

So, we’ll start with the roadmap changes. You’re probably aware that the next planned update was the “Home Sweet Home Update” which will include player housing and furniture. We’ve made the call to push this major update back by a month, which puts the release date at Nov 17th. The housing system is quite complex, and while we’ve been working on it this month, we’ve come to realize that it will need some extra care and attention to finish it and make sure it’s tested to the standard we’re happy with before pushing the update live.

Now, this isn’t to say there won’t still be a major update next week! During early access, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes in terms of systems and development more broadly, even during the major update milestones. So, because we’re giving player housing a little more time, the rest of the team has been able to give a greater focus to one of the systems that was previously being worked on behind the scenes.


That means this month, we’re excited to announce:



Animal companions are combat-ready AI that will travel with you and help you fight. Once you’ve acquired a tame critter, you can summon it with a whistle and battle alongside it. Over time, it’ll grow and become stronger. Eventually you’ll be able to equip it with armor to make it a truly formidable opponent. You’ll be able to collect a variety of animal companions across Tirawyn, and even trade them with your friends. We hope you’re excited for all this and more to arrive on Oct 20th.

Now that we’ve announced animal companions, the astute Kickstarter backers among you may be wondering about your backer exclusive fox pet. We’ll ask for your patience here - this month’s major update has a focus on companions, which are combat animals that will travel with you and help you fight. The Kickstarter fox is a pet: a cosmetic-only critter that doesn’t fight. Vanity pets will be coming in a future update.

In summary: the housing update will be pushed back to Nov 17th, which will in turn move the crafting update to Dec 15th. Animal companions are coming in the next major update, on Oct 20th.

Happy Witch's Eve!

For this update we launched a big seasonal update with all sorts of spooky things to do in Azura.

I won't spoil them all here, but some things to keep in mind are as follows:

• Many of the NPC's in town have both seasonal dialog and standard dialog. Currently at night some of them switch to their seasonal dialog and you cannot continue their standard quests. Waiting til day will switch them back to the standard dialog and you can proceed with questlines.
  
  Certain monsters now only spawn at night. If you can't find a certain monster, try searching around later.
  
  We've recently revamped our versioning system, which led to us resetting back to version 1.0.6. This will no doubt lead to a bit of confusion for this update, but we're on track now. From now on we'll update versions for every minor and major update.
  

On to the patch notes!

Minor Update - Beta 1.0.6

New:

• Seasonal Event: Witch’s Eve!
  
• 2 new mobs
  
• Time-based spawning system
  
• 15+ new items
  

Improved:

• Added Drop and Dismount keys to keybind options
  
• Various tooltip items corrected for consistency
  
• Updated ambient sound system to work with day/night cycle
  
• Gave NPC’s time-based dialog
  

Fixed:

• When using ‘Q’ to drop an item, the item will actually disappear from your inventory
  
• Masterwork items now display the correct names in the upgrade bench
  
• Fixed a bug where you weren’t able to purchase items after trying with a full inventory
  
• Fixed an issue with opening a secret tutorial door locking up the quest
  
• Fixed various quest and typo issues and inconsistencies
  

Happy Witch's Eve!

For this update we launched a big seasonal update with all sorts of spooky things to do in Azura.

I won't spoil them all here, but some things to keep in mind are as follows:

• Many of the NPC's in town have both seasonal dialog and standard dialog. Currently at night some of them switch to their seasonal dialog and you cannot continue their standard quests. Waiting til day will switch them back to the standard dialog and you can proceed with questlines.
  
  Certain monsters now only spawn at night. If you can't find a certain monster, try searching around later.
  
  We've recently revamped our versioning system, which led to us resetting back to version 1.0.6. This will no doubt lead to a bit of confusion for this update, but we're on track now. From now on we'll update versions for every minor and major update.
  

On to the patch notes!

Minor Update - Beta 1.0.6

New:

• Seasonal Event: Witch’s Eve!
  
• 2 new mobs
  
• Time-based spawning system
  
• 15+ new items
  

Improved:

• Added Drop and Dismount keys to keybind options
  
• Various tooltip items corrected for consistency
  
• Updated ambient sound system to work with day/night cycle
  
• Gave NPC’s time-based dialog
  

Fixed:

• When using ‘Q’ to drop an item, the item will actually disappear from your inventory
  
• Masterwork items now display the correct names in the upgrade bench
  
• Fixed a bug where you weren’t able to purchase items after trying with a full inventory
  
• Fixed an issue with opening a secret tutorial door locking up the quest
  
• Fixed various quest and typo issues and inconsistencies