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

[Iznaliu]

Looks like they answered my youtube question. Nice to see devs who are actually talking with community.

I would prefer they use this time to actually work on the game.

 

[Tom Baker's Arse]

Looks like they answered my youtube question. Nice to see devs who are actually talking with community.

I would prefer they use this time to actually work on the game.

They don't do that anymore, they just make video updates.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Any update on release date?

 

[PrettyDeadman]

What is this game even about? I wanted to see some gamepaly, but i've only been able to find videos of some people talking on screens.

 

[Haba]

What is this game even about?

"And when we are running this, we're running it one week at a time... but it is actually running every hour of every day
...because we are idiots - and we think it is very important to simulate everything"

 

[Iznaliu]

What is this game even about? I wanted to see some gamepaly, but i've only been able to find videos of some people talking on screens.

Come back in a few centuries or so.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2017/10/30/update-46-business-update-economy-in-build-11

UPDATE #46: BUSINESS UPDATE & ECONOMY IN BUILD 11

This week Thomas gives a quick update on the financing of the project. Then we dive into some of the major tech changes we've made to the economy as we make the world more and more realistic. Near the end of the video we show how NPC traders move around the road system buying and selling goods, and some new tech we made to be able to see any NPC on the map.

Our roadmap to getting Build 11 done required

#3 Getting People Eating

#4 Trading between Settlements based on Needs/Demand

Both of those are now working, and now we will be tackling

#5 Founding of New Settlements

#6 Monsters

 

[Tom Baker's Arse]

officially 2/3 from being feature complete ... there might be hope for this project yet

 

[Iznaliu]

officially 2/3 from being feature complete ... there might be hope for this project yet

I feel like this kind of thing is likely to suffer from feature bloat.

 

[The Wall]

This week we discuss the author's journey and listening to the creation, then we show how the simulated people are really alive, moving around on the map, going about their business.



It's ALIVE! Almost. Any update now. They're getting there. Already 10 times more alive than Skyrim's world. So, in other words, they still have work to do...

 

[kris]

I really look forward to this one. Only real worry is when I read the average game is 3-4 hours. It has so many features that seems to take into effect over time (like villages and monster dens).

 

[ArchAngel]

I really look forward to this one. Only real worry is when I read the average game is 3-4 hours. It has so many features that seems to take into effect over time (like villages and monster dens).

What do you mean 3-4 hours?! Just making your mage tower will take over 4 hours..

 

[kris]

I really look forward to this one. Only real worry is when I read the average game is 3-4 hours. It has so many features that seems to take into effect over time (like villages and monster dens).

What do you mean 3-4 hours?! Just making your mage tower will take over 4 hours..

From steam page, under "key features"

"Designed to play fast, each "life" takes ~2-4 hours to play through"

 

[ArchAngel]

I really look forward to this one. Only real worry is when I read the average game is 3-4 hours. It has so many features that seems to take into effect over time (like villages and monster dens).

What do you mean 3-4 hours?! Just making your mage tower will take over 4 hours..

From steam page, under "key features"

"Designed to play fast, each "life" takes ~2-4 hours to play through"

I doubt that is how it will still play.

 

[thesheeep]

Would be interesting if a normal life would take a certain amount of time, but as a wizard you have certain... possibilities.

 

[Iznaliu]

"Designed to play fast, each "life" takes ~2-4 hours to play through"

There is still ope; play estimates can sometimes be complete BS.

 

[kris]

I really look forward to this one. Only real worry is when I read the average game is 3-4 hours. It has so many features that seems to take into effect over time (like villages and monster dens).

What do you mean 3-4 hours?! Just making your mage tower will take over 4 hours..

From steam page, under "key features"

"Designed to play fast, each "life" takes ~2-4 hours to play through"

I doubt that is how it will still play.

i do hope that is old information that they put up when first announcing the game.

 

[ArchAngel]

Or we can ask them.

 

[ArchAngel]

I really look forward to this one. Only real worry is when I read the average game is 3-4 hours. It has so many features that seems to take into effect over time (like villages and monster dens).

What do you mean 3-4 hours?! Just making your mage tower will take over 4 hours..

From steam page, under "key features"

"Designed to play fast, each "life" takes ~2-4 hours to play through"

I doubt that is how it will still play.

i do hope that is old information that they put up when first announcing the game.

Here is the answer to this question from the developer himself:

In the 18 months since i wrote the steam page, yes some things have changed. I'll address this in our next update video for all to see. Like a board game box that says "plays in 45 minutes" yet when I crack it open and it takes twice that, the question is: why the lousy estimate? The answer is the first time playing something there is a lot of reading and thinking and trying to understand which will slow down the progress. But once you know what you are doing, I still think a player can play a life in 4ish hours. The reason for this is our commitment to "decisions only" gameplay, no filler. If I want to go to a dungeon I don't want to wander around looking for it (that's filler), i want to be at the mouth of the dungeon and start exploring (that's what we do, though there may be some exploration die rolls involved). As you point out, the time estimate given doesn't hold if you do everything you can do in the game all the time. Chatting with NPCs to find out their recent life history, making lots of friends, crafting a beautiful mage tower, all these things take real player time and little in game world time. And they can be completely ignored. Exploring dungeons takes a bunch of player time but little in game time (like a day?) and also can be ignored. So it does come down to how you play for how long it takes to play a life. We are still guided by our initial inspiration of FTL where a game can be played in an evening. I have updated the Steam page with a longer estimate as I do not want to mislead anyone.

 

[Iznaliu]

I feel that while excessive filler can be bad, some filler is necessary to give decisions importance, as decisions presented one after another can take on an aura of meaninglessness.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I feel that while excessive filler can be bad, some filler is necessary to give decisions importance, as decisions presented one after another can take on an aura of meaninglessness.

Decisions are made meaningless by not following through on their consequences, not by number.
What the hell is filler anyway? Just because it's "filler" doesn't mean it can be shit either.

 

[Iznaliu]

What the hell is filler anyway? Just because it's "filler" doesn't mean it can be shit either

It depends on the designer; some people seem to think combat is filler; others seem to think that everything else is.

 

[anvi]

The only good filler is custard. Maybe jam.

 

[Infinitron]

In this update we have nothing to show, so we answer a question about play time, talk about AI decisions based on desires, and Nic's never ending battle against simulator performance.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2017/11/18/update-49-4th-and-inches

This week we get one step closer to being feature complete on Build 11's simulator: towns now spawn settlements and NPCs move to the new frontiers seeking fame and fortune. Well, a job at least.

Some recent decisions to make the game world more "real" and "alive" included moving NPC turns from once a week to once an hour. That's 168x more potential for the AI to make a decision to do something interesting! Of course, this results in 100 citizens having a combined total of 800,000 turns over a year which unveiled a number of performance issues.

Nic hunkered down and got a year of generating from 18 minutes to about 8 seconds. This lowers a century of world generation from 30 hours to 13 minutes. That is still a tad long, we're shooting for 5ish minutes to generate a new world, but progress has been significant.

We have only 1 task left to integrate into the game from the prototype: monsters. We think this will take a week to do, but as usual, we don't know for sure.

This update's title comes from a Gridiron Football term where the offense needs to move the ball 10 yards within 4 downs. If they make it, it resets and they get 4 more downs to make 10 more yards. So basically it means "so close you can almost taste it". Or, the name of an excellent Accolade Sports game from the 80's.