Improvements

1. Fixed a lot of the lag issues in combat. It was a combination of factors: memory leak, logging, errors. It's much improved. We're still working on it.
   
2. Generally, the feedback is new combat is unfairly too hard. We have improved the Conclave graduation ring you begin the game with from protection 50->70. We also removed rings from sale in shops, that wasn't supposed to be there. One of the troubles of a data driven game is sometimes data gets read in and used in places we don't intend. There WILL be ways to get additional rings and improve upon the one you start with, but it's super valuable and core to the game so you aren't supposed to be able to go to a shop and just buy a second one for 200g.
   
3. Skeletons are back in the game! And their resurrection ability is super annoying! Skeletons will appear in existing worlds and saves.
   
   
   
4. Skeletons are a mid tier enemy created ages ago and left roaming the earth. If you are a young new mage straight outta school, and find yourself up against a skeleton: RUN! We made it so they don't appear around your starter town. Better distribution of monster lairs is coming in the Exploration #3 update.
   
5. We improved Character Creation to provide better rewards so you start with 3 spells instead of 1. Things are always obvious in hindsight. This should feel better now. This also affects some of spell progression.
   
6. Tuned down some weapon damage. Decreasing base damage per AP and the Quality-based damage multiplier. They weren't supposed to be much better than spells.
   
7. Character creation summary screen now shows spells learned rather than XP gained.
   
8. Protection now appears on the Character Sheet. We thought it was sufficient seeing in on the equipment, but clearly that was dumb.
   
9. Eating Foodstuff causing nausea. The first mistake we made is player's shouldn't start with foodstuff in inventory. Second is Foodstuff is a catch-all label for raw ingredients used in cooking. Like raw flour, a turnip, and bunches of Rosemary. If you ate a cup of raw flour and 6 sprigs of raw rosemary, you likely would have a tummy ache. Our bad for not properly explaining this resource designed for trading isn't intended for eating (you can in a pinch). So it still makes you nauseous but the tooltip explanation says why.
   

Fixes

1. There were numerous issues leading to save file corruptions. We think we got them all.
   
2. We had a bad bug with quest quantities showing weird code. This was a problem with the highlight code, so we quickly hotfixed it by taking out the highlighting. It is now corrected and highlighting is back in.
   
3. Fixed an exploit where you could unequip your ring in combat, then re-equip it, and you'd be back to full protection. It's not THAT magical!
   
4. Fixed: players can't equip weapons they don't actually own. Sad, I know.
   
5. Swapping weapons no longer soft lock the game.
   
6. Magic progression screen no longer appears blank (thanks MIM_MC1, Fonz, and JAMESTHEANGRY07)
   
7. Sturdy and engraved pickaxes were wrecking game. Now they don't.
   
8. Healer no longer double charges. Healing is a far less lucrative field now.
   
9. Pyromaniac reported duplicated options in the Tumbleweed encounter. Fixed.
   
10. Combat soft-lock reported by Odynn after casting a spell
    
11. Lighting issue with dice in combat
    
12. Inventory issue in House Repair quest.
    
13. Missing combat backgrounds
    
14. Fixed an issue where sometimes players couldn't move on the map after combat
    
15. Fixed several other last minute bugs
    

Known issues:

1. We have multiple reports of "giant monster issue" where the monster sprite goes crazy large. We've invested significant time into investigating it and as of now we can't reproduce it. We finally think we may have found out what might be causing the issue, so it might be fixed, but might not...
   

NEW Combat Fixes

• We’ve read every bug reported, these are current priorities:
  
  
  
  
  • Clicking lag and other performance issues
    
  • Giant monster sprites taking up the whole battlefield
    
  • Weapons breaking combat
    
  • Equipment re-equipping bug/exploit
    
  
  
• Based on the feedback combat is too hard, we’re revisiting the tuning
  
  
• We’re revisiting Character Creation to get you more starting spells. This will address some of the “Combat too hard” issue.
  
  
• I made a bad call that led to errors in the quest quantities. Separate from the combat branch we made some fixes to the dialogue highlighting code. Then we merged it in last minute and it created problems. We got a hotfix out on Sat evening.
  
  
• We’re finishing off the Skeletons race to get them back into the game
  

Major Highlights:

• All new combat with FIVE unique, full featured, spell schools, totaling 52 new spells!
  
• All new weapons, equipment, and protection system. Even magically charge your weapons!
  
• All new spell progression and learning system. Get learning bonuses and affinities.
  
• All monsters completely revamped, with all new abilities and AI
  
• New monster race: Crocodons
  

Things to know:

• Previous worlds and save files are not compatible. We tried really hard but couldn't do it. Sorry! Read more on how to switch to the Legacy branch to maintain your progress and update when you choose to here.
  
• Combat is intentionally challenging. Don't expect you can take on some monsters with the one spell you learn in school! Go to a chapter house and do some research. More info in this post.
  
• Skeletons are temporarily disabled until next week. It's complicated. :winter2019happyyul:
  
• We're still working on Combat. Testing, tuning, playing, reading your feedback. We feel this is a good first step.
  

• Introducing Storm Magic
  
• Introducing - Earth Magic
  
• Introducing - Fire Magic
  
• Introducing - Ice Magic
  

What We Did

What You Can Do About It

Is This Going To Happen Again?

Q: Are you promising I will never lose progress during Early Access?
A: No! I'm too experienced to make that naïve promise. I'm sure at some point, maybe more than once, it just won't be possible. What I am promising is much more effort and robust tech put into testing and preserving player progress. Dropping it from forced restarts 50x before 1.0 to maybe 5x.

This is the Week of NEW Combat!

• We targeted 30+ spells, we’re shipping 50+ spells! The new system and tooling allows better spell creation and iteration. That’s about 10 spells per school! The most the game has ever had.
  
  
• Weapons and Armor are a total overhaul and actually work! Shocking I know! Weapons and armor are now viable and equal to spells in the game as a choice in combat.
  
  <*> Skeletons won’t be in this release, but will be in next week’s patch
  
  
  
  • We promised a new race of Crocodons so we made sure those were working first. But we discovered a serious problem with skeleton’s resurrection ability. Presented with delaying the whole launch or launching without the skeletons, I had to make the tough choice of delaying the skeletons a week.
    
  • Quests that involve skeletons are being temporarily turned off.
    
    
    
    • If you already have a skeleton based quest, you won’t be able to complete it until the patch.
      
  
  
• Crocodons will appear in existing saves/worlds in place of skeletons.
  
  
  
  • It was an easy way to get them in.
    
  
  
• As of Monday Morning on the 15th, our existing save file migration is not working. 😭 We’ve just put a new programmer on it to try and resolve it. Worst case scenario is players will have to start a new game, something we’ve put a lot of effort already into preventing.
  
  
• In light of the significant changes, a player posted there probably will be a lot of new bugs. A fair expectation. We’ve done two full QA passes on the whole game. We’re performing a third pass today. It is inevitable some things will slip through. We’re committed to following player reactions and hotfixing and patching as necessary. Appreciate your patience and belief in us!
  

Combat is Combat

The Rest of the Game

1. Update #3: Exploration
   
2. Enchanting
   
3. Dynamic Quests
   
4. Better NPC conversation
   
5. New UI
   
6. Better Map generation
   

Price Raise Coming Soon

What is a Storm Mage like in the new Archmage Rises Combat?

• Lightning Bolt: Blast your enemies with a sudden discharge of power.
  
• Stormstrike: Lash your enemies with an unstable chain of thunderbolts.
  
• Cloudburst: Drench your opponents with a sudden downpour.
  
• Monsoon: Call down a deluge to flood the battlefield and soak your foes to the bone.
  
• Gale: Summon a roaring wind to batter your foes to and fro upon the battlefield.
  
• Shock: Attempt to stun your sodden foes with a bolt from heaven.
  
• Storm Shield: Weave yourself a crackling mantle of lightning to repel your attackers.
  

• Tremor: Jolt your foes with a sharp shudder of the ground beneath their feet.
  
• Stone Spike: Call up a spire of stone to break your foes and send them reeling in pain.
  
• Acid Blast: Scorch the field of battle with a cataract of caustic acid.
  
• Acid Wash: Shower your foes with the searing exhalations of the heavens.
  
• Seismic Shift: Fling your foes toward the field’s center with a swift upheaval of the earth.
  
• Exposure: Erode your foes' footing and expose them to the perils of storm and earth.
  
• Earth’s Grasp: Shatter your enemy’s concentration and drag them one step closer.