Archmage Rises - the play-how-you-want mage simulator - now available on Early Access

[Infinitron]

Short update this week on minor progress towards Build 11. We discuss indie games like RimWorld that provide more compelling gameplay than many AAA experiences.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/294...

And if you ever want to listen to something awesome as you drive, The History of Rome podcast is incredible.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

 

[Infinitron]

As we continue to work on build 11, we take a moment to introduce you to a longtime team member, the main artist of Archmage Rises, Rogier van de Beek. We ask your questions (and some of our own) about his background, how he became a game artist, and his work on the game.

 

[thesheeep]

Double aquarium.
Can anyone explain to me what is the point? I mean, I get pets in general - if you can interact with them.
But what's the point in having a screensaver that you need to feed?

 

[HoboForEternity]

so i asked a long series of questions on steam and they answered

Originally posted by HoboForEternity:
Hi, i have been following you guys for several months, but it wasnt untill last 2 weeks i begin watching most of your updates videos.

A: Glad to know someone's watching them! Hey Nic, we should keep making them!


Originally posted by HoboForEternity:
1. Concerning questing, i know there are the 5 type of quests thomas included in the game. I am asking concerning the choices you can make in these quests. For example you have to fetch a magic hat from a crazy wizard lair. Can you have multiple ways of doing it? Like either you sneak it, or blasting the tower with fireball tovget your awesome hat?

A:
When I said there are 5 quest types i meant, after a lot of study and analysis, all rpgs only have 5 quest types. Wow probably has 1,000 quests but they are all different variations of the 5 types. I don't want to imply Archmage is limited, in fact it is understanding the essence of the 5 quest types that I think will allow us to make truly enjoyable quests.

As for multiple ways to complete a quest, yes. Since the quests are dynamically generated by the AI GM all it cares about is checking to see if the end condition is met. If you are to retrieve a hat and you have the hat, then it's a success. So invisibility and sound muffle to walk in and take it, or fireballs to kill everyone and take it are both perfectly acceptable.


Originally posted by HoboForEternity:
2. Still pertaining to the first question, is there an investigation mechanic in the game? Like a guy approached you and ask "help! My daughter is kidnapped! But i dont know where she is! She is last seen on this place" so the quest involve you asking around where she could be and who kidnap her instead of just your ordinary go to x find y quest with "let me mark your location on your map". Does the simulation allow this? Because i generally dislike those kind go to x do y place with no context or options.

A: Yes I agree with you. This isn't Diablo where yer there just to kill stuff and quests are excuses to kill stuff (not that i don't enjoy that from time to time). Yes we have been working on allowing the player to do some detective work. So if a person is missing (and the quest giver has no clue where they are, cuz they went missing!) you have to track down where they went by following footsteps or putting 2+2 together. So if the hex they were travelling in has a high goblin population, and goblins are known for taking prisoners, there is a high probability the person was kidnapped by goblins. Now you need to find the goblin lair. This involves survival checks to track goblin movement and narrow down where they are coming from (or hire a tracker). Once you are in the lair you can fight/sneak your way in and see if the missing person is there or not. If they are, you free them - but now they are your prisoner. Do you keep them as a slave to work your fields, or do you sell them to a slave trader, or do you return them to their family? That's all your choice, as with any quest item you find. You have total freedom on how you do it because the world is simulated correctly to handle whatever you do (for the most part).

The quest system is the hardest part of the game to build, it may take us several iterations to get it right, but getting it right is the most important job after getting the world to simulate correctly.

Originally posted by HoboForEternity:
3. How much story can the simulation generate? I have been curious since the passion and NPC update. The meat of a story is conflict, and conflict can comes from conflicting motivations. Can an NPC motivations conflict with yours?

A:Yes. The NPCs have thier own passoins/motivations and they follow them. If you are opposed to their motives & goals then that is the conflict. This could be political like becoming head of the Conclave, or romantic like wooing the same girl.

There are NPC adventurers in the game. They do the quests that you aren't and they do compete with you for quest completion. I haven't yet built the NPC Adventurer interaction for the player. Like the ability to join them. I hadn't thought of that as an option.

Originally posted by HoboForEternity:
If the simulation allow for that kind of thing, then yes, you have the best role playing game ever made.

A:We're working hard at it!

Originally posted by HoboForEternity:
I also want to talk about death, which i didnt find you talking much about that, since the game is based on your character's lifetime, so it decide when your game end.

1. What are cause of death? Outside of combat ofc. Can you get sick, not treated then die? Can you get assassinated while sleeping? Can you die of childbirth? Aging seems pretty obvious

A: The #1 cause of death is fishing.

OK i'm kidding. The #1 cause of death is old age. Death comes to us all, NPC and player alike. When you, or anyone is born, your time of death is set. You will only live so long so every moment matters. There are in game hints as you get older and closer to your death. Like in a board game with 5 rounds it is very clear when you are on the last round and have to make your final decisions.

Other ways to die include:

• Illness (disease/plague)
• Bleeding to death
• Imprisonment until you die of natural causes
• Execution by authorities
• Renouncing magic (there isn't anything to do in a mage simulator if you won't be a mage)

In a permadeath game we are being very careful the player never dies without choosing to do so. So if you get poisoned, well you chose not to carry and antidote and chose not to go to a healer and so died. Same thing with encountering a giant when you first start out: you should RUN. If you choose to stay and fight and get smushed, well that's on you.

Things like dying in childbirth, while highly realistic, interesting, never done before, falls into that "unfair" camp like "hey you rolled bad and died and lost all your progress". Cool and interesting from a design perspective if it happens to others, but no fun to have it happen to you.

Nic is very against "bad roll = death". I'm a touch more lenient towards it. So maybe i'll sneak in a 1 in 1,000 chance of dying in childbirth.


Originally posted by HoboForEternity:
2. Can you find a way to cheat death? You already said if you have a loyal protege, they can revive you if you died in battle, so the question is can you trick time? Find the lost fountain of youth? Become an undead lich? A vampire? Find a way to transfer your soul into a younger body?

A: Undead lichdom, vampirism is a DLC as outlined here:
http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2016/10/3/design-qa-will-there-be-vampires-and-werewolves


Originally posted by HoboForEternity:
Sorry for heavy questions. I havent played the pre alpha, so sorry if these are actually included in the game already.

A:No prob! Most of this isn't covered in the pre-alpha. We were more concerned about getting something working to show people HOW it will play (it doesn't play like Skyrim or Final Fantasy at all).
The current build we are working on (11) has much more of the world simulation aspects working, but there is still much to go.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/506480/discussions/0/1473095331492325684/

 

[Azazel]

This game has had me hard as an iron bar for like a year now, it's become a medical concern.

 

[Infinitron]

We introduce a never before seen team member, Andrew the Writer. We dig into his previous experience like how he turned an English degree into a career, passion for writing, story, and language, and what intrigues him about working on a simulated world RPG. To date most of Andrew’s work has been in world building and setting up the history of the world, something that will give context to the rest of the game but of which not much has been revealed. That is coming after Build 11. We also risk a DMC takedown by the T.S. Eliot estate! While the longest update video to date, it is also the classiest and most sophisticated, so enjoy these book recommendations of modern Japanese and Russian authors!

 

[Infinitron]

Rogier and Thomas interview another one of our team members with your questions: Nic Biondi! Questions range from the wacky to the philosophical, you never know what he is going to say!

 

[Infinitron]

The team continues to work on Build 11 so this week we ask Thomas your questions: about his background, where Archmage came from, and influences.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2017/9/30/update-42-meet-the-team-musician-james

This is our final in depth interview of the Archmage Rises team members. James Marantette answers your questions and provides a sneak peek of 3 tracks he's currently working on for the game.

If you'd like to know more about how the title track Choices was created, Gamasutra featured our article Composing an Indie RPG Title Track describing the iterative process.

And forget about James Bond, listen to the Imperial March while cooking!

 

[ArchAngel]

I stopped following their updates after they started introducing the team instead of the game

 

[thesheeep]

Well, some people do care about that, so they have to do it.

 

[The Wall]

Now that's what I call tasty thumbnail for video!

 

[The Wall]

Here's a handy written list of those 25 new features in build 11 for those who can't be bothered to watch the video:

Over the last 6ish months we've been adding a lot of new features to the game. We told you about them weekly: the new UI, land and worker management, item equipment, apprentices, and much more.

Then we stopped adding new features and started bringing all this stuff together into something playable. Except it turns out there were a lot of gaps in between the big features. I'll call it "glue". We needed glue to make the features stick together comprehensibly.

So while we were supposed to be testing, balancing, polishing, and adding content to what we already had, we just kept right on adding adding new "glue" features. And most of these we haven't talked about.

So this week we reveal the list of 25 new features we've added in Aug/Sep:

1. Fishing
2. Cooking
3. Alcohol
4. Inn events
5. Non lethal combat (bar fights)
6. Grinder
7. Mage tower Kitchen with 3 levels up upgrade
8. Hex activities - foraging, hunting
9. Make Camp - to sleep, cook rudimentary food
10. Three kinds of inventory: travel, tower, personal
11. Rewrote and expanded the buff system.
    1. It was originally just used in combat, but with food made with fishing adding a scholarship buff for weeks we needed to retool it for the larger game experience. It's real good now!
12. Revised Stat system.
    1. We used to have spell schools, skills, and secondary skills. Only some of those things could be buffed: equipment could effect spell schools but buffs could not. We harmonized this into a single Stat system. Whether it is a skill, spell school, or game stat like movement speed or blood alcohol level, it can be modified by equipment, spells, and buffs. Get your drinking cap and ready your boots of escaping!
13. Resources used to craft items from recipes. Special items like Garlic or Scorpion Meat allow you to make special items, if you have the skill and equipment necessary.
14. Resource icons on hex - if you find a place with a special resource it will now be permanently marked on the map
15. Inventory by hex - requires a long explanation. Quick version is a spot only has so many "fish" or "nuts" or "gold". You can also drop items to the ground inventory and it'll be there.
16. Items deteriorate over time - food not designed for travel goes bad in inventory, stuff left on the ground wastes away - Thanks RimWorld!
17. News screen - governor of town changed? Girlfriend contracted the plague? Town attacked by goblins? We realized it was hard to access this information in a simple concise way. So now we have a pop-up of news of important things going on in the world.
18. Recipe system - first designed for food (you require 2 foodstuff and an egg to make a Frita), it creates the groundwork for any in game crafting.
19. Sharper text - we've been steadily replacing Unity's text system with Textmesh Pro providing crisper text throughout
20. Hunger system and auto eating
21. Ability to visit all homes in a town
22. NPC's have favorite foods
23. NPC's have skills along with their personality, this is necessary later
24. New weapon type system. So bows can only hit the back two rows, pole arms attack a column, axes swing several squares wide. There are reasons to be decked out in multiple weapons and switch them up based on the tactical situation
25. Dual wielding - because everyone wants dual wielding.

 

[mondblut]

Should be renamed to That Which Rises?

 

[Haba]

Thomas Henshell's Bankruptcy Crises

 

[Infinitron]

Through the power of Pair Programming we've completed the first step of integrating in the new world simulator. In this short(er) video we show how NPC settlers marry, move in together, and start making babies. And how you can go visit the happy newborn family.

 

[Cyberarmy]

and hopefully sacrife their newborn for the greater good?
Our good

 

[Tom Baker's Arse]

and hopefully sacrife their newborn for the greater good?
Our good

Yes, thats right - "sacrife" their newborn for the greater good.

 

[Delterius]

and hopefully sacrife their newborn for the greater good?
Our good

Yes, thats right - "sacrife" their newborn for the greater good.

I'm looking forward to it too XD

 

[Tom Baker's Arse]

If this game ever gets finished

 

[ArchAngel]

If this game ever gets finished

We will sacrifice a few newborns to make sure it is finished.

 

[Iznaliu]

and hopefully sacrife their newborn for the greater good?
Our good

https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Sacrificial_Bloodlines

 

[SmartCheetah]

Looks like they answered my youtube question. Nice to see devs who are actually talking with community.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/506480/discussions/0/1484358860954668373/

 

[vonAchdorf]

Looks like they answered my youtube question. Nice to see devs who are actually talking with community.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/506480/discussions/0/1484358860954668373/

It will be interesting to see if they can realize this detailed world simulation or if chain reactions / butterfly effects makes it impossible to control the world state in a later stage of the game (like early UO concepts).

 

[Infinitron]

For this special Halloween episode we show ways you can use the grinder: for good or eeeeeee-vil.