After careful deliberation (and a lot of arguing and axes being flung across the office), we're ready to announce the winners of our Home Fit for a King construction event!

We received a lot of amazing submissions - we'll be featuring every qualifying entry later on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

First, a few honorable mentions. We had a 3-way tie for 3rd place, but we could only choose one in the end. Honorable mentions will each receive a DnL key for their efforts!

OMGIE defies physics and floats his castle in the center of a tranquil lake:



PhsychoBear's stronghold is defended on all sides, including two fearsome Cyclopes guarding the entrance.



In 3rd place, with the prize of a $10 Amazon gift card, we have Wolf Angelus, who gave us not just a single house, but an entire viking village! A single screenshot wouldn't do this submission justice, so Wolf provided an entire slideshow, which you can check out by clicking here.



In 2nd place, taking home a $25 Amazon gift card we have Daddio66's castle! Any royal family would be happy to call this castle home, especially when it has 3 massive fire dragons defending it from invaders!




Finally, in 1st place, taking the grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card, we have FollyVentures! What set this castle apart from the others was the variety in materials used in its construction. The soaring towers, fortified walls, and royal standards fluttering in the wind make this a home truly fit for a king.




Thanks to everyone who participated! Prizes for all winners will be distributed shortly. Be sure to check out our Facebook and Twitter pages later for the full gallery of all qualifying entries.

After careful deliberation (and a lot of arguing and axes being flung across the office), we're ready to announce the winners of our Home Fit for a King construction event!

We received a lot of amazing submissions - we'll be featuring every qualifying entry later on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

First, a few honorable mentions. We had a 3-way tie for 3rd place, but we could only choose one in the end. Honorable mentions will each receive a DnL key for their efforts!

OMGIE defies physics and floats his castle in the center of a tranquil lake:



PhsychoBear's stronghold is defended on all sides, including two fearsome Cyclopes guarding the entrance.



In 3rd place, with the prize of a $10 Amazon gift card, we have Wolf Angelus, who gave us not just a single house, but an entire viking village! A single screenshot wouldn't do this submission justice, so Wolf provided an entire slideshow, which you can check out by clicking here.



In 2nd place, taking home a $25 Amazon gift card we have Daddio66's castle! Any royal family would be happy to call this castle home, especially when it has 3 massive fire dragons defending it from invaders!




Finally, in 1st place, taking the grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card, we have FollyVentures! What set this castle apart from the others was the variety in materials used in its construction. The soaring towers, fortified walls, and royal standards fluttering in the wind make this a home truly fit for a king.




Thanks to everyone who participated! Prizes for all winners will be distributed shortly. Be sure to check out our Facebook and Twitter pages later for the full gallery of all qualifying entries.

Greetings, denizens of the Dark and Light world! Our latest patch fixes a few issues that players have been giving us a lot of feedback about. Maintenance will begin at 4:00 A.M. PDT so please log out before it begins.

• Optimization: We've removed the function that allows you to drag a dizzy character's body the way you can drag a dead body.
  
• Fix: Many players reported their game getting stuck when loaded at 99%. We've fixed this bug, and we appreciate all the players who reached out to bring this to our attention!
  
• Fix: We've fixed the recurring problem of disappearing NPCs that don't respawn once killed.
  
• Fix: Many players have reported that their spell towers with wouldn't work with certain spell combinations after each previous update. We've fixed the bug causing that issue.
  
• Fix: We've addressed the bug that allows players to use advanced spells without a decrease in mana that would occur when players would switch staff heads.
  
• Fix: Display error at the respawn point.

Thanks again for all the great feedback you've been giving us. We're working hard to make Archos as awesome as possible, and we can't do it without your help!

Greetings, denizens of the Dark and Light world! Our latest patch fixes a few issues that players have been giving us a lot of feedback about. Maintenance will begin at 4:00 A.M. PDT so please log out before it begins.

• Optimization: We've removed the function that allows you to drag a dizzy character's body the way you can drag a dead body.
  
• Fix: Many players reported their game getting stuck when loaded at 99%. We've fixed this bug, and we appreciate all the players who reached out to bring this to our attention!
  
• Fix: We've fixed the recurring problem of disappearing NPCs that don't respawn once killed.
  
• Fix: Many players have reported that their spell towers with wouldn't work with certain spell combinations after each previous update. We've fixed the bug causing that issue.
  
• Fix: We've addressed the bug that allows players to use advanced spells without a decrease in mana that would occur when players would switch staff heads.
  
• Fix: Display error at the respawn point.

Thanks again for all the great feedback you've been giving us. We're working hard to make Archos as awesome as possible, and we can't do it without your help!

Greetings, residents of Archos! Our next patch update is going to address a spread of bugs related to, among other things, NPCs and staffs/spell casting. Maintenance will start on 8.10 at 1:00 A.M. PDT, so be sure to log out ahead of time to preserve your data.

• We've made rabbits and sheep easier to hunt--though why would you want to kill such sweet fuzzy creatures?
  
• Fix the bug that causes players to lose their inventory items when rebooting the server.
  
• Allow human NPCs to respawn after being killed so that you can do your trading and get your gold!
  
• Fix the bug that permitted random players to sit in your chair or lie in your bed.
  
• You will now be able to drag the bodies of players who are dizzy and immobile, similarly to how you can drag dead bodies.

• Previously players could cast a spell even if their mana was insufficient, which decreased their staff's core durability. We've fixed this issue.
  
• When you switch your staff from being on your back to in your hand and also use the shortcut to switch the staff head, a bug prevents the right staff head from being placed. We've fixed this bug.
  
• The Wall of Fire will now give players damage if its cast at them or where they're standing--you're not fireproof anymore!

• Fix bugs in the scroll wheel players use as a shortcut to switch between items.

• Optimized creature's movement AI.
  
• Reduce the number of fish to prevent the number of creatures getting stuck in the terrain.
  
• Improve and optimize game performance and playability.
  
• We've temporarily the option to rent a house in the city, but if you've already got a rental, don't worry--yours won't be affected. We're adjusting the system to make it easier to use, as well as add special guards to protect your stuff, so you can be confident that your rental will be safe.
  
• We've optimized tree cutting so that you can cut down trees quicker and more smoothly.

We've got a big update planned for later this month, and there are still some known issues that we're working on. We appreciate all your feedback, and our Support Team is always available to help you out.

Greetings, residents of Archos! Our next patch update is going to address a spread of bugs related to, among other things, NPCs and staffs/spell casting. Maintenance will start on 8.10 at 1:00 A.M. PDT, so be sure to log out ahead of time to preserve your data.

• We've made rabbits and sheep easier to hunt--though why would you want to kill such sweet fuzzy creatures?
  
• Fix the bug that causes players to lose their inventory items when rebooting the server.
  
• Allow human NPCs to respawn after being killed so that you can do your trading and get your gold!
  
• Fix the bug that permitted random players to sit in your chair or lie in your bed.
  
• You will now be able to drag the bodies of players who are dizzy and immobile, similarly to how you can drag dead bodies.

• Previously players could cast a spell even if their mana was insufficient, which decreased their staff's core durability. We've fixed this issue.
  
• When you switch your staff from being on your back to in your hand and also use the shortcut to switch the staff head, a bug prevents the right staff head from being placed. We've fixed this bug.
  
• The Wall of Fire will now give players damage if its cast at them or where they're standing--you're not fireproof anymore!

• Fix bugs in the scroll wheel players use as a shortcut to switch between items.

• Optimized creature's movement AI.
  
• Reduce the number of fish to prevent the number of creatures getting stuck in the terrain.
  
• Improve and optimize game performance and playability.
  
• We've temporarily the option to rent a house in the city, but if you've already got a rental, don't worry--yours won't be affected. We're adjusting the system to make it easier to use, as well as add special guards to protect your stuff, so you can be confident that your rental will be safe.
  
• We've optimized tree cutting so that you can cut down trees quicker and more smoothly.

We've got a big update planned for later this month, and there are still some known issues that we're working on. We appreciate all your feedback, and our Support Team is always available to help you out.

Greetings Adventurers! Our next major patch is about to go live - we’ll be shutting down official servers at 01:00 PDT, so be sure to get to safety and log out before then to reduce the risk of accidental data loss.

Important notice about this patch: We’ve identified a number of problem areas around The Sacred Path where players and creatures were getting stuck. We’ve done some work on the terrain in these areas, and it should make for a much better experience while traveling and building a home on The Sacred Path. Unfortunately, a side effect of these changes is that structures and items on the affected terrain may be damaged or destroyed when the patch goes live. For future patches, we’ll be implementing a system where we can cordon off areas targeted for terrain fixes. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Infernus Dragon Fire Breath Exploit - Temporary Fix: A tamed Infernus Dragon’s Fire Breath attack wasn’t properly interacting with House Seals and structures, allowing players to damage items and players through walls under a House Seal. This has turned out to be a fairly complex issue, so we’ve temporarily disabled the Infernus Dragon’s Fire Breath attack while we’re working on a permanent fix.


Animation and Sound:

Weapons / Magic:
• Wooden Bow - Improved animations.
  
• Ghost Scythe - Added new sound effects to light and heavy attacks.
  
• Horses - Added hit and footstep sound effects.
  
  Characters:
  
• Evades (crouch + movement direction) - Added a forward evade and improved animations for all evades.
  
• Adjusted various female character animations.
  
• Adjusted movement animations during character creation.

Balance:

General:
• Slightly increased the time for rare resource nodes to respawn after being depleted.
  
  NPCs:
  
• City Guards - Increased base stats.
  
• NPC health recovery speed increased.
  
  Creatures:
  
• Divine Creatures - Added spell damage resistance.
  
• Boss Creatures - Increased health pool.
  
• Infernus Dragon - Added spell damage resistance and fire damage immunity. Temporarily removed Flame Breath attack. Reduced respawn rate.
  
• Frost Dragon - Added spell damage resistance and ice damage immunity. Reduced respawn rate.
  
• Wyvern - Added spell damage resistance.
  
• Elementals - Added elemental damage immunity based on the Elemental’s type (i.e. Fire Elementals are now immune to fire damage).
  
• Ice Elemental - Added new water attack.
  
• Water Elemental - Increased respawn rate.
  
• Dark Fallen - Added dark damage immunity.
  
• Ice Wolf - Added ice damage resistance.
  
• Hellcat - Added fire damage resistance.
  
• Bahamut - Added fire damage resistance.
  
• Centaurs - Adjusted animations.
  
• Wolf - Reduced the amount of Raw Meat obtained from harvesting a Wolf corpse.
  
  Characters:
  
• Friendly fire constitution damage reduced.
  
• City Lords - Adjusted the amount of gold required to enforce punishments.
  
  Equipment / Magic:
  
• All Projectile Magic (Fireball, Frostbolt, Lightning, etc.) - Increased projectile max flight distance.
  
• Wall of Lightning - No longer damages structures.
  
• Small Spell Tower - Increased targeting range by 50%.
  
• Iron Hammer - Heavy attack hit detection improved.
  
• Iron Pick - Added a power attack (right-click).
  
• Spear - Can now aim vertically, even if it looks a bit awkward for now.
  
• All Armor Types - Adjusted physical and magic defense, and added spell resistance to be more in line with the armor tier, type, and weight.

New Content:

General:
• Using certain items will now increase related Knowledge node experience.
  
  UI:
  
• Added Health and Mana bars when targeting creatures, NPCs, and other players.
  
• Adjusted tooltips in the Knowledge interface.
  
• Added icons above objects that can be interacted with.
  
• Ice Chunk - Changed the item icon.
  
• Server Selection UI - Now allows for longer server names.
  
• Keybinds - Cleaned up the menu and removed unused actions.

General:

• Resetting Potion - Using it will no longer reset your unlocked Schematics.
  
• Wall of Lightning - Schema crafting requirements, damage tick frequency, and spell duration have all had their values corrected.
  
• Spider Web - Players can now move immediately after casting.
  
• Firestorm - Fixed damage against metal structures.
  
• Fertilizer - Fixed a bug where fertilizer would disappear from a crop plot after a short period of time.
  
• War Flag - Fixed a bug where, occasionally, after making a war declaration, the House that received the declaration would not be able to damage the declaring House’s structures.
  
• Framework Triangle Foundation - Corrected HP values.
  
• Stone and Iron Pickaxe and Axe - Improved hit detection, making it easier to gather from smaller resource nodes without needing to crouch.
  
• War Declaration - Fixed incorrect War Declaration time, now persists through server restarts. Fixed an issue where one House was unable to attack another even after receiving a War Declaration.
  
• Focusing Potion - Fixed a bug where it was uncraftable if learned after level 10.
  
• Bedrolls - Can now be picked up after placing and will retain durability usage.
  
• Parachute - Fixed a bug where players were still taking full fall damage even when using a Parachute.
  
• Dragon Transports - Temporarily removed Estel and Ironfast’s Dragon Transports while the system is redesigned.
  
• Wall Torch - Fixed a bug where Wall Torches would defy all logic and expand to dozens of times their original size when demolished.

NPCs:

• Guards - Fixed a bug where Guards would occasionally spawn with only 1 HP. Can now actually look up and target / attack flying creatures.
  
• NPC Vendors - Now respawn in their set location within their city after a set period of time after being killed.

The Sacred Path:

• Adjusted terrain in a number of locations around The Sacred Path where characters and creatures were getting stuck. This patch is focused mainly on the area around Ironfast.
  
• Fixed issues with floating foliage in a number of locations around The Sacred Path.

Creatures:

• Fixed a bug where a character dismounting from certain creatures would allow them to clip through walls.
  
• Longhorn, Hellcat, and Infernus Dragon - Fixed a bug where these creatures would move backwards when using their normal attack while riding them. Power attacks still have this issue, and will be fixed in a future patch.
  
• Frost Dragon - Fixed a bug where Frost Dragons could be ridden without a saddle.
  
• Light Elemental - Fixed a bug where Light Elementals could be equipped with a saddle.

Graphical:

• Made adjustments to the Female Guard Armor and Male Traveler Suit models.

Note: we're aware that there are still some issues with the Quest system, and we appreciate your feedback thus far. We're working on those bugs and we'll have a fix out as soon as possible.

Greetings Adventurers! Our next major patch is about to go live - we’ll be shutting down official servers at 01:00 PDT, so be sure to get to safety and log out before then to reduce the risk of accidental data loss.

Important notice about this patch: We’ve identified a number of problem areas around The Sacred Path where players and creatures were getting stuck. We’ve done some work on the terrain in these areas, and it should make for a much better experience while traveling and building a home on The Sacred Path. Unfortunately, a side effect of these changes is that structures and items on the affected terrain may be damaged or destroyed when the patch goes live. For future patches, we’ll be implementing a system where we can cordon off areas targeted for terrain fixes. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Infernus Dragon Fire Breath Exploit - Temporary Fix: A tamed Infernus Dragon’s Fire Breath attack wasn’t properly interacting with House Seals and structures, allowing players to damage items and players through walls under a House Seal. This has turned out to be a fairly complex issue, so we’ve temporarily disabled the Infernus Dragon’s Fire Breath attack while we’re working on a permanent fix.


Animation and Sound:

Weapons / Magic:
• Wooden Bow - Improved animations.
  
• Ghost Scythe - Added new sound effects to light and heavy attacks.
  
• Horses - Added hit and footstep sound effects.
  
  Characters:
  
• Evades (crouch + movement direction) - Added a forward evade and improved animations for all evades.
  
• Adjusted various female character animations.
  
• Adjusted movement animations during character creation.

Balance:

General:
• Slightly increased the time for rare resource nodes to respawn after being depleted.
  
  NPCs:
  
• City Guards - Increased base stats.
  
• NPC health recovery speed increased.
  
  Creatures:
  
• Divine Creatures - Added spell damage resistance.
  
• Boss Creatures - Increased health pool.
  
• Infernus Dragon - Added spell damage resistance and fire damage immunity. Temporarily removed Flame Breath attack. Reduced respawn rate.
  
• Frost Dragon - Added spell damage resistance and ice damage immunity. Reduced respawn rate.
  
• Wyvern - Added spell damage resistance.
  
• Elementals - Added elemental damage immunity based on the Elemental’s type (i.e. Fire Elementals are now immune to fire damage).
  
• Ice Elemental - Added new water attack.
  
• Water Elemental - Increased respawn rate.
  
• Dark Fallen - Added dark damage immunity.
  
• Ice Wolf - Added ice damage resistance.
  
• Hellcat - Added fire damage resistance.
  
• Bahamut - Added fire damage resistance.
  
• Centaurs - Adjusted animations.
  
• Wolf - Reduced the amount of Raw Meat obtained from harvesting a Wolf corpse.
  
  Characters:
  
• Friendly fire constitution damage reduced.
  
• City Lords - Adjusted the amount of gold required to enforce punishments.
  
  Equipment / Magic:
  
• All Projectile Magic (Fireball, Frostbolt, Lightning, etc.) - Increased projectile max flight distance.
  
• Wall of Lightning - No longer damages structures.
  
• Small Spell Tower - Increased targeting range by 50%.
  
• Iron Hammer - Heavy attack hit detection improved.
  
• Iron Pick - Added a power attack (right-click).
  
• Spear - Can now aim vertically, even if it looks a bit awkward for now.
  
• All Armor Types - Adjusted physical and magic defense, and added spell resistance to be more in line with the armor tier, type, and weight.

New Content:

General:
• Using certain items will now increase related Knowledge node experience.
  
  UI:
  
• Added Health and Mana bars when targeting creatures, NPCs, and other players.
  
• Adjusted tooltips in the Knowledge interface.
  
• Added icons above objects that can be interacted with.
  
• Ice Chunk - Changed the item icon.
  
• Server Selection UI - Now allows for longer server names.
  
• Keybinds - Cleaned up the menu and removed unused actions.

General:

• Resetting Potion - Using it will no longer reset your unlocked Schematics.
  
• Wall of Lightning - Schema crafting requirements, damage tick frequency, and spell duration have all had their values corrected.
  
• Spider Web - Players can now move immediately after casting.
  
• Firestorm - Fixed damage against metal structures.
  
• Fertilizer - Fixed a bug where fertilizer would disappear from a crop plot after a short period of time.
  
• War Flag - Fixed a bug where, occasionally, after making a war declaration, the House that received the declaration would not be able to damage the declaring House’s structures.
  
• Framework Triangle Foundation - Corrected HP values.
  
• Stone and Iron Pickaxe and Axe - Improved hit detection, making it easier to gather from smaller resource nodes without needing to crouch.
  
• War Declaration - Fixed incorrect War Declaration time, now persists through server restarts. Fixed an issue where one House was unable to attack another even after receiving a War Declaration.
  
• Focusing Potion - Fixed a bug where it was uncraftable if learned after level 10.
  
• Bedrolls - Can now be picked up after placing and will retain durability usage.
  
• Parachute - Fixed a bug where players were still taking full fall damage even when using a Parachute.
  
• Dragon Transports - Temporarily removed Estel and Ironfast’s Dragon Transports while the system is redesigned.
  
• Wall Torch - Fixed a bug where Wall Torches would defy all logic and expand to dozens of times their original size when demolished.

NPCs:

• Guards - Fixed a bug where Guards would occasionally spawn with only 1 HP. Can now actually look up and target / attack flying creatures.
  
• NPC Vendors - Now respawn in their set location within their city after a set period of time after being killed.

The Sacred Path:

• Adjusted terrain in a number of locations around The Sacred Path where characters and creatures were getting stuck. This patch is focused mainly on the area around Ironfast.
  
• Fixed issues with floating foliage in a number of locations around The Sacred Path.

Creatures:

• Fixed a bug where a character dismounting from certain creatures would allow them to clip through walls.
  
• Longhorn, Hellcat, and Infernus Dragon - Fixed a bug where these creatures would move backwards when using their normal attack while riding them. Power attacks still have this issue, and will be fixed in a future patch.
  
• Frost Dragon - Fixed a bug where Frost Dragons could be ridden without a saddle.
  
• Light Elemental - Fixed a bug where Light Elementals could be equipped with a saddle.

Graphical:

• Made adjustments to the Female Guard Armor and Male Traveler Suit models.

Note: we're aware that there are still some issues with the Quest system, and we appreciate your feedback thus far. We're working on those bugs and we'll have a fix out as soon as possible.

Welcome to the second issue of The Archos Herald - your source for all of the latest news on Archos. This past week, we’ve focused a lot on network optimization, making sure that what you see in-game is what’s actually happening server-side. We’ve received a lot of feedback about how inaccurate melee combat feels, much of which is related to server latency. These changes, as well as some other melee combat changes we’re planning for the future, should go a long way towards improving the way Dark and Light’s combat feels.

Our next major patch is undergoing hardcore testing right now, and is scheduled to launch soon (preliminary patch notes available here). This patch will be adding health and mana bar displays to targeted creatures, NPCs, and players, adding magic and elemental resistances to Dragons, Elementals, and other creatures, and making a huge host of bug fixes and balance changes. Be sure to head to our Steam Discussions page or /r/DarkandLight to let us know how you feel about the upcoming changes!


We’ve received a number of reports from players who have been the victims of exploit abuse on official servers. These exploits are being resolved in our next patch, but that’s only part of the issue. Even in Early Access, we’re going to be taking a zero-tolerance policy towards players who have been found to be exploiting bugs for personal gain. Our investigation and action may take some time, but you can help by sending evidence to DarkandLight_CS@SnailGamesUSA.com. Thanks for your patience and support on this issue.


A veritable cascade of incredible videos, streams, screenshots, and more have been coming out of the Dark and Light community since launch - here are a few of our favorites from this past week!

ALLe fears no danger of Archos, taking down a Vrock will a well-placed lightning shot.



Loti van Storm shows us what true beauty looks like - the elegant and mysterious Pegasus!



/u/xMorgengrau5 has been loading up the official Dark and Light Reddit page with beautiful screen shots of Archos. For more incredible shots, check out their profile.







CohhCarnage says hi to a friend!

The community has been doing their research, and some particularly intuitive adventurers are really starting to figure out the secrets of Archos’s wilderness. Here are some helpful guides on taming from Redditors /u/yuukitotrap and /u/Yazkin_Yamakala.

/u/yuukitotrap’s Tameable Creature List

/u/Yazkin_Yamakala’s Tame Tier List


We’re still accepting submissions for our Home Fit for a King event up until Thursday, 8/10 at 11:59PM PST! For details on the event, visit the full event thread.



Of course, it wouldn’t be an event without prizes, and we’ve got a few up for grabs for the best architects of the bunch:

• 1st Place - $50 Amazon gift card
  
• 2nd Place - $25 Amazon gift card
  
• 3rd Place - $10 Amazon gift card

Good luck to all of our architects / wizards / wizard architects - we’re looking forward to seeing your finished creations!


If you're not quite yet to start constructing a massive campus full of legendary creatures, or a castle that dwarves even the palaces of Talos, you can start a little smaller - there's a first time building a house for everyone!

Snail Games's Kaid is taking a look at the basics of Dark and Light in our new video series. We just published the second episode, Building Blocks, earlier this week. Check it out here to get a start on building your very own house!


That does it for our second issue of The Archos Herald! To stay up-to-date on everything Dark and Light, be sure to like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and join the discussion on our Steam Discussions page or our official Reddit page, /r/DarkandLight.