Tactics: Age of Affliction cover
Tactics: Age of Affliction screenshot
Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Simulator, Strategy, Adventure, Indie

Tactics: Age of Affliction

Update! UI Tweaks for improving your life! Changelog for Apr 2nd 2019 v13

This is an update that's focused on smoothing some edges across the game. Not polish so much as making sure things are as readable as they can be. Lots of reports of the text being tough to read in general, which makes sense, so I'm hoping that that can be addressed in an upcoming change


Highlights: UI Tweaks for most screens
  • Tweaks:
    • Remove Capital button from ItineraryOverview
    • Change wording in the ItineraryOverview to present tense. ie 'Patrol at location' instead of 'Patrolling at location'
    • Add 'week XYZ' prefix to the Excursion Itinerary
    • Remove 'Finally, return to base' since it was made redundant
    • All Itinerary Entries lines are sized the same, rather than only certain interactive steps being highlighted
    • Reword 'move 10' Resources to 'pack 10' and 'store 10' on the Packmule modal for bringing Resources on the excursion
    • Change 'Abort?' and 'Continue?' to 'Resting' and 'Continuing' to clarify their current state
    • Add space between Packmule and Marketplace to clarify that you're moving equipment to and from the Armory
    • Add floating label when you create a new sell listing at the Marketplace
    • Added image of the leader of the ensemble to the AllEnsemblesOverview to better distinguish which Ensemble is which
    • Tooltips fade in, instead of instantly become visible
    • Fix inconsistent casing for certain buttons

  • Fixes:
    • Fix crash that could occur when viewing multiple battles within a single session
    • Fix mouse dragging anywhere on the AllEnsembleOverview and ItineraryOverview always moving the map. Mousewheel still scrolls anywhere though.

  • What's Up Next:
    • adding saving/loading
    • more unique encounters

Update! Huge World Map, Constructing Outposts, Quests and more! v12



New update this week, and it's a huge one! Make sure to jump into the Discord and get to know what other people think, and join the free beta to help grow the game!

This update is focused on clarifying more of the many systems in the game. Magnolia is not nearly finished but already there's so much to do that it's all too easy to get overwhelmed right out of the gate, so adding the Quests log helps orient you towards what you're supposed to be doing next.

Next up, it seems like I'll be working on saving and loading, so you don't lose all your current progress when you shut the game down which will be a lot of fun. Might even have music and some art too! Here's a preview of some of the character portraits we're going to have



Be sure to join the Discord for all the latest news on Magnolia, and to let me know what you think!

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Changelog for Mar 28th 2019 v12



Highlights: World Map, Outposts, Quests and more!

  • World Map and Outposts:
    • Over a dozen Locations in the world now.
    • Construct an Outpost on three Locations and you'll expand your Domain
    • Outposts cost Resources that your Ensembles must be carrying in their packmule. Careful not to die on the way!
    • Move resources from the Storage into the packmule while your Ensembles are in the city via ItineraryOverview
    • We're planning for more enemy variety as you explore new locations too!

  • Features:
    • New Itinerary Entry type, Construct Outpost
    • New World Map that reveals as you conquer and construct Outposts
      • Drag mouse or scroll mousewheel to move map

    • Many new Locations to discover
      • All Locations have proper non-final names instead of 'The Forest'

    • New Quest system to help guide you to your next goal
    • New Resource screen to move resources to and from your Ensemble's packmule
    • New tooltips to explain some of the subleties of the game
      • Tooltips for AllEnsembleOverview, ItineraryOverview, InBattle, PreBattle and CityOverview screens

    • New Tactic Action, Do Nothing, to allow your units to skip a turn
    • Ensemble images on World Map are clickable to jump directly to their overview

  • Fixes:
    • Fix needing to travel if you spend two consective entries at the same Location
    • Fix crash if you embark on an Excursion without any entries planned
    • Fix hovering over invisble widgets
    • Can no longer embark if you have no entries planned for that Ensemble's Excursion

  • Tweaks:
    • New description of the Capital city, Jorvik
    • Clearer explanation of why you can't equip a unit in the PreBattle screen
    • Fade in the overlay when opening a modal
    • Better logging for crashes
    • Use 'Packmule' instead of 'PackMule'
    • Changelog cuts off after 5000 character instead of showing all 15000+ characters. Can always view full changelog in Magnolia root directory

Beta update! New Building: The Marketplace

This week's update adds a new mechanic to your capital: you're now able to sell your weapons and armor for coins! If you want to try it out, hop on the discord and I'll send you a free beta key and let me know what you think! The game is early but feedback makes all kinds of difference!

The next update is planned to have more locations and tackle the idea of capturing locations and building outposts, and maybe even adding a boss to the game, so that you can grow your forces to be able to tackle the boss. We'll see how it goes. If you give it a shot, please let me know!



Changelog for Mar 12th 2019 v11




  • Marketplace:
    • Place up to five Weapons or Armors into the marketplace. Each week,
      there's a chance one of them will be sold for coins.
    • You have control over the price variance, whether its default, priced
      low for a higher chance to sell, or a high price with a lower chance to
      sell. No guarantee any items will be sold each week, max of one item sold
      per week for now.
    • If you sell a sword, all weapons will be less likely to be sold the next
      week, likewise for armors
    • Each week an item is not sold, the higher the chance it will be sold the
      next week
    • Eventually, we'll have upgrades to increase the amount of items sold,
      and manage the marketplace's demands, but this is a start
    • Can right click on the marketplace listings to inspect the items' stats

  • Tweaks:
    • In order to clarify how packmules work, you can no longer open the
      weapon or armor windows if the ensemble's packmules are empty
    • The 'empty packmule' warning now persists even after you open a list of
      weapons/armors on the PreBattle screen

  • Fixes:
    • fixes a few crashes relating to watching battle replays
    • fixes a crash relating to ending an excursion without any units left

Reworked Excursions and time travelling battle replays

Hey, this is a huge changelog! If you want to try it out, hop on the discord and I'll send you a free beta key and let me know what you think! The game is early but feedback makes all kinds of difference! A lot of what has changed is thanks to valuable feedback!

Changelog For Mar 5th 2019 v10

Highlights: Reworked Excursions, Battle Replays


  • Reworked Excursions:
    • Turns are now split into three phases: World Phase, Decision Phase, Results Phase
    • World Phase is where all the world events happen (time advances,
      visitors enter the pub).
    • Decision Phase is where you choose to embark on, or abort the excursion.
      Then, if your Ensembles encounter something that turn, they get to choose
      an action (whether its engage the encounter, or try to hide, etc)
    • Results Phase is where you get to see what happened after the decisions
      you made were resolved. Maybe you get a battle replay, or you gathered
      resources
    • Can now opt to stay in the Capital, instead of always going out on an
      excursion
    • Can now see where an Ensemble is on the AEO world map
    • Patrolling now works so that you seek out enemies and can choose to
      engage
    • Gathering now works that you gather resources and may get ambushed. If
      you are ambushed you cannot avoid the battle
    • The UI on AllEnsemblesOverview has been reworked to only show you the
      buttons you need when you've got a decision to make, or a result to view.
    • No longer have the OnEvent screen, instead modals are used on the AEO
      screen
    • On the ItineraryOverview, you can now see exactly all the steps on the
      Itinerary
    • Can see what step you're on as well.

  • Battle Replays:
    • Since battles are all resolved between phases, you can now rewind and
      replay battles while you're watching them.
    • This means you can rewind to the start, or hit the arrow keys to skip
      around turn by turn, and really get a sense of went wrong that turn
    • It's a little wonky for now, so let me know if something breaks
    • Added 'return to start' of battle replay speed control

  • Fixes:
    • ESC should now always return you to the AllEnsemblesOverview (instead of
      quitting)
    • Fix typo in PreBattle 'no equipment' warning message
    • Fixes misc crashes when watching a battle and when an Ensemble returns
      to base

  • Tweaks:
    • Text uses shadows instead of outlines, making things a little easier on
      the eyes. (UI is still very much placeholder though!)
    • All decisions and results should be logged in the world log
    • Game phases now float a message helping identify what's going on
    • Advance turn button updates content as game time advances
    • Tidied up button positions in turn controls InBattle
    • Use better randomized names for units that join the Pub
    • Tweaked text on 'clear output' button for InBattle screen

Changelog for Feb 5th 2019 v9: Minion permadeath, better minions recruiting, World Log

This week, I wanted to get Magnolia closer to the vision I had of the game, where every unit you have is precious, and what better way to represent that with permadeath.



Now when a minion dies in battle, it has a 50% chance of being revived by an ally, or being lost forever. To offset the constant unit loss, you are able to recruit vagrant units that come join your pub every few weeks.

Next week, I'm reworking how the Itinerary planning works and its user interface!

If you want to try the game out as it's being developed, join the discord and I'll send you a beta Steam key for free. It'll help me out, I'm always looking for more feedback!


  • Minion permadeath:
    • Minions (everyone but the one unit the ensemble is named after) can now permanently die.
    • If they go to 0HP in battle, on their next battle turn, they make a 50/50 roll. If they pass, they survive the battle with 1HP. If not, they are dead forever



  • Better Pub minions:
    • Now have names (no longer all called Acme)
    • May be a strong/common/weak unit, and have a random assignment of stats based on that unit type
    • May cost anywhere from 15 to 65 resources, randomized based on their unit type

  • Scaled encounters:
    • To better support permadeath, alert level now, on top of affecting who you'll encounter, now determines how many enemy units you'll be fighting
    • At alert level 0, you will likely see only two enemies at once, but at alert level 3 or higher, you're fighting enemy ensembles as large as five.

  • World Log:
    • Added weekly log in the AllEnsembleOverview.
    • Anytime anything notable happens, you'll have record of it. If you'd like for something else to be logged there, let me know.
    • Currently tracked is: when a unit dies, when travelling/preparing/arriving, when a unit joins the pub, when dropping resources off at home, for advancing time
    • On booting the game, the world log contains a quick primer on how to play.

  • Removed suffixes from unit names: no longer says 'Mage/Ranger' after a units name
  • Added backpanel to the leftside of the PreBattle scene (used to be raw black)
  • Only show first 12 characters of a unit's name in battle
  • Sharpen unit names in battle
  • Widen changelog modal
  • Add fadeout to preload message
  • Added floating label for clicking 'advance time'
  • Fix crash when monsters would try to rout from their party

Changelog for Jan 30th 2019 v8

Follow the blog or join the discord to get a key and help me shape the game.

For all current and future testers, here's the most recent changelog for v8, as of Jan 30th 2019!

tl;dr is now you can recruit units from The Pub, and use The Barracks to add them to your Ensembles. Still rough around the edges (like you can add people to the Ensemble, even if they're at The Forest), but it's a good first step



  • The Pub and Barracks are now available with the Capital
  • The Pub lets you recruit wandering minions for a resource cost
    • Lists their stats and equipped weapons and armor (if any)
    • Every 4 turns, a new one joins the pub
    • Costs resources to hire. Cost for now always 50 Grain, and they're always called Acme
    • Shortterm plan is to make their stats, inventory and cost randomized.
    • Longterm plan is to bind some rare minion types to world events, and newly added seasons

  • The Barracks shows you all the recruited minions not in an ensemble
    • There's an add-to-ensemble button that allows you to add the minion into
      an ensemble, given that the ensemble doesn't have the max 5 units into it
    • No current way to remove minions from an ensemble, but that is in the
      pipeline, along with minion permadeath

  • Added a preload message informing people that there's no saving/loading yet
  • Replaced Weeks Passed display with the current date, ie Year 12, Early Summer; Year 3 End of Winter
    • In the future, that will have an impact on the types of monsters you fight, and the sorts of events you will encounter

  • Reworked AllEnsembleOverview status line into a widget with two buttons, one for viewing an Ensemble, and another for taking action on the event
  • Can now hit ESC to close most modals/popups
  • Fix ESC shutting Magnolia down after viewing a battle and returning to the ItineraryOverview
  • Fix rare crash when a battle was resolving and a unit managed to survive without any available limbs
  • Fix being able to view an event while you were travelling
  • Playback speed now defaults to 1x instead of 4x
  • Remove Storage panel from AllEnsembleOverview, since it's available in Storage now
  • Tweak text outlines across the board to improve readability (InBattle, ItineraryOverview, AllEnsembleOverview etc)
  • Tweak "Advance Time" button size

All the changes in the alpha so far!

Follow the blog or join the discord to get a key and help me shape the game.

For all my testers, here's the most recent changelog!


Changelog for Jan 23rd 2019 v7


  • AllEnsembleOverview is now a map instead of the town
  • Added 'The Capital' button to go view the city, where the Storage, Armory etc are now
  • Added playback controls for battles, can now play at up to 4x speeds
  • Added Battle Row labels to the PreBattle scene to clarify what is where
  • 'Take Action' button now jumps to PostBattle directly, if battle was already completed
  • Placeholder hover texts ('hover over a keyword') panels are now hidden unless there's something to hover over
  • Fixed log displaying incorrect info when being critically hit
  • Tweaked status lines for ensemble statuses in AllEnsembleOverview
  • Tweaked how Magnolia logs damage taken to clarify impact of being critically hit
  • Added more logging on startup to help diagnose some startup issues in a virtual machine

Changelog for Jan 22nd 2019


  • New equipment system (tl;dr equipment is now a limited resource, and must be taken with you on your excursions)
    • Magnolia now tracks the amount of equipment you have, instead of allowing one weapon to be carried by everyone in the party
    • Equipment must be stored within the packmule before being equipped on a unit

  • Locations now become aware of you and your units the more time you spend in one location. The more time you spend in a location, the more advanced the enemies you'll fight
    • Every week a location has an ensemble there, the alert level goes up by one
    • After two weeks of no ensembles, the alert level goes down by one
    • Be sure to plan excursions so that you don't raise the alert level too soon, or else you'll be overwhelmed

  • Added Armory to AllEnsembleOverview to track all the Weapons, Armors, and Items stored at your base
    • can filter by Weapon/Armor/Item or unfiltered
    • doesn't list the weapons equipped on your units

  • Added the 'Packmule' button to the ItineraryOverview, that lets you move
    equipment to and from an ensemble and the Armory
    • equipment must be first added to the packmule in order to be equipped on
      the units within that ensemble
    • equipment looted from a combat encounter gets added to the ensemble's
      packmule and must be offloaded when the excursion is finished

  • Added alert level display on...
    • the ItineraryOverview map, above the location names, if the alert level is non-zoer
    • the Inspect Location panels that pop up when you right click on a
      location in your ensembles queue, or the map itself

  • Can now unequip weapons and armor from the PreBattle screen
  • Renamed 'Hunt' to 'Patrol' to better reflect what your ensemble is doing there
  • Tweaked text on the AllEnsemblesOverview screen
  • Tweaked position of the Forest button, to make room for the dropdown

Changelog for Jan 15th 2019


  • Swapped out ItineraryOverview with handrawn map
  • Victories have a 50% chance of dropping weapons and armors
    • add clickable panel to PostBattle showing you if you found an item or not
    • adds looted weapons to the PreBattle screen, allowing you to equip them
    • note: no rarity yet, everything equipped has the same chance to drop (even claws)

  • New Tactics
    • can now script tactics against enemies in a certain row (Front/Mid/Rear)
    • can now script tactics against enemies' most/least current or max HP. Very useful to ganging up on a single target

  • Replaced most green text in the Tactics submenu with softer colors
  • Added ensemble name to the ItineraryOverview
  • Changed 'Add Location' buttons text to 'The Location'.
  • Added 'View Location' button in the location submenu to inspect the locations

Changelog for Jan 11th 2019


  • Added travelling time: it takes one week to move somewhere, then then next
    week you arrive. If you schedule two steps at the same location, you avoid the
    travel. Plan wisely
  • Added healing per week: 3HP and 25% fatigue reduction
  • Added listing items (Totems so far) in the Storage screen, alongside the
    resources (grain, stone, wood) you saw
  • Remove 'todo' label from the Construct button
  • Updated ensemble status lines to represent the new states
  • Can no longer add to itinerary while on an excursion; you must be in base. (Previously, you could only not clear the itinerary)

Changelog for Jan 9th 2019


  • Added Hunt or Gathering action to the itinerary planning, which determines the encounter rate vs gathering rate
  • Added 'weeks passed' display in the AEO (AllEnsemblesOverview) screen
  • Added inspecting locations, to view location description and a description of the activity you're planning to do there
  • Removed the third ensemble from the AEO screen
  • Changed itinerary from five The Forest visit, to three visits to all locations
  • Can no longer add to excursion while it's active
  • Changed "Embark!" to "Take Action!", since it no longer makes sense

Changelog for Jan 8th 2019


  • Added healthbars to PreBattle screen, to better show general status at a glance
  • Added changelog popup on first enter. Will not be shown again until next update, or changelog button clicked
  • Added quit/changelog/toggle fullscreen/discord buttons along the bottom of AllEnsembleOverview
  • Fixed viewing the next event immediately after failing the entire excursion
  • Fixed Breastplate not being show in Armor list
  • Fixed crash on trying to embark when there's no event to load
  • Fixed crash on changing shortbow weapon

Changelog for Jan 7th 2019


  • Wood, Grain, and Stones available from the locations from The Forest, The Plains, and The Mountains, respectively (13-17, instead of 15 Grain)
  • Arcane stat isn't literally twice as high as it should be (means you should be dealing roughly 2-4 less magic damage)
  • In battle, battle log output for casting spells has been highlighted, and no longer shows 'generic battle log message [project]123[/project]' under it, and shows a more detailed hover text message
  • minor text tweaks
  • clarified resource gathering in combat vs non-combat events
  • fix 'ghosts' in prebattle scene