Jun 18, 2024

Mind Over Magic - Sparky-Jason

Overview

This Major Update enhances Mage progression, introducing Apprenticeships, Mage Level, Relics, Quirks, and Wand upgrading.

These are fundamental changes aimed at providing new ways to grow your Mages without being forced to graduate or retire your favorites. Mages are now much more customizable: you can use an Apprenticeship to dual-class them, or have them Attune to the powerful Relics left by departing Mages.

Existing saves are compatible and we've done our best to adapt them to the new mechanics. We also kept a backup of your last save, so you can go back to it. Finally, we will keep the old version of the game available on Steam beta, PreMageProgression, if you'd like to continue your existing save there before moving on to the newest version.

The ideas behind these changes have been developed over time and Early Access feedback has been an important part of their evolution. We do not expect upcoming updates to modify the core of the game to this extent, but strongly believe these changes set us on a great path forward.

We are also excited to share a more detailed roadmap for the rest of the year, including combat improvements and end game goals. More on that in the next day or two.

Many, many thanks to the Closed Beta and Pre-Release players for all their feedback. Absolutely invaluable.

On to the changes!

Mage Levels and XP

Mages gain XP by casting spells, performing Rituals, and winning battles.
XP helps mages Level Up and fills Learning Needs.
"When Mages level up, they get a boost to their stats: HP, Mana, Power, and Speed."
The rate of boost is determined by a Grade for each stat. Different Factions have different base Grades.
Mages can boost their Level Cap by upgrading their wand.
Promoting Mages to new Roles adds a Multiplier to their Level Cap.

Mage Roles

Initiate

All summoned Students arrive as Initiates, using a Tier I wand.
Tier 2 and Tier 3 wands are no longer used to Summon.
Initiates can Graduate, be Hired as Staff, Expelled, or can become Apprentices.
Initiates cannot use Advanced Teaching Stations.

Apprentice

Once an Initiate has attained full Skill and Level, they can specialize in the Magic Skill of an Advanced Teaching Station.
Apprentices can dual-class by choosing an Apprenticeship Magic Skill other than their Wand Magic Skill. In this case, the Mage has access to both sets of combat spells, based on Skill level.
Becoming an Apprentice boosts Level Cap and Max Skill caps. Which Max Skill caps are boosted depending on the combination of an Apprentice's Wand Skill and their Apprenticeship Skill.
Apprentices are the only Mages who can Paint or Carve.
Apprentices can only learn at Advanced Teaching Stations.
Apprentices may Graduate, be Hired, or be Expelled.

Staff

Staff can no longer do Carving or Painting Tasks.
Schools with significantly more Students than Staff can become Understaffed, resulting in a global Conviction penalty called Staffing.
The more Staff your school has, the greater the Discordance, resulting in a global Conviction penalty.

Hiring and Summoning Costs

They both now have a much slower cost ramp that never becomes prohibitive. Instead Discordance and Understaffed effects push against your ability to have unlimited Mages.

Wands and Skills

Mages now upgrade their Wands by one Tier at a time using Wand Transfigurators, which are found in the Underschool.
You still gain new wands by crafting them.
All non-Ghost Mages may upgrade their Wands up to Tier III, including Staff.
Upgrading Wands boosts Max Level Cap and Max Skill Caps.

Trials

Trials now grant large amounts of XP as their reward.
The more Trials a Mage has completed, the higher level of Relic they leave behind after Graduation or Retirement.
Medallions have been removed. The powers that Medallions used to grant have been moved onto Relics.

Relics

Relics are gifted by departing Mages at Graduate and Retire rituals, as well as being dropped as loot.
Relics have a variety of powers, similar to what Medallions used to grant. In order to use these powers, Mages may Attune to Relics.
Attune is a new Task Type performed at an Attunement Bench, a new furniture item.
Relics have Affinities and Mages have Relic Slots that accept only a specific Affinity. If a Mage has a Relic Slot that matches the Affinity of a Relic and the Mage has a high enough Level, the Mage may Attune to the Relic.
After Attuning, the Mage will have the Relic bound to them in the chosen Relic Slot, gaining its power. The power will last permanently unless a new Relic is attuned to that Relic Slot.
Relics may also be pulverized at a Pulverizer, creating Gnosis Shards. Gnosis Shards are an ingredient required for some rituals.

Gnosis Shards

Gnosis Shards are required for the Hire, Summon Gifted Initiate, and Apprentice rituals.
Adept Scrolls and Savant Scrolls are replaced with Gnosis Shards.
The Scrivener's Desk is removed, as is the Scrivening Task.

Quirks

Mages develop Quirks over time as they discover tasks they Love or Hate. Positive Quirks will raise Conviction while negative Quirks will lower it.
Most Mages will gain a positive Quirk as their first Quirk.
Raven Cultists no longer have Doom and Gloom and, instead, will gain a negative Quirk as their first Quirk.
Mages that upgrade to a Tier II wand will gain one positive and one negative Quirk.
Mages may also develop social Quirks related to other Mages.

Croa Changes

The first Croa to spawn from a nest will spawn much faster.
Croa Nests display their spawn timers.
The time between subsequent Croa spawns has been lowered.

Other Balance Changes

Death's Door expires much faster at higher difficulty levels.
Guaranteed Mana Crystals drop from all battle crystals.
Graduate Rituals only allow for one Graduate at a time.
Respawning dungeon rooms give different loot from every battle.
Combat Skull ratings are replaced with a Level which roughly equates to expected average Mage Level.
Runaways now always have T1 Wands and are Gifted.
Increased number of Bookshelves required in Advanced classrooms to distinguish them a little more.
Bookshelves are available one step earlier on the tech tree.
Hallowlilies removed from the game entirely.
Removed the Graduate With Honors ritual.
The Advanced Classroom can now be created with a Learning Station OR a skill-specific teaching station.

Fixes and Improvements

Added Level Cap Reached and Level Range Group conditionals.
Change Revive logic to take Mage at Death's Door to the bed closest to the downed Mage, not the Mage recovering the KOed Mage.
The head and body visuals for Mages are more consistent as they progress from Initiate to Apprentice to Staff.
Added more types of Fog Crystal art.
Pathing should be more accurate, particularly since the addition of Broom Racks.
Hallway Runner description now mentions speed boost.
Fixed an issue where changing Translations would not immediately change the search in research to match.
Additional information shown on Trials mouse hover.
Added Luxury to research search keywords.
"'Days required' trials are now evaluated as you do them rather than once per day."
Sleep-based trials are now tracked during sleep instead of just at the end.
Now showing Mage stats during combat setup.
Fix name on Founder grave not changing with a Founder rename.
Mages walking between rooms no longer get the In Outdoors status incorrectly.
Changed save hotkey to generate a quicksave that is overwritten into a single slot.
No longer reporting items as 'not reachable' when they're being put into storage or moved by some other worker.
Eating/Sleeping/Recreating added to group rules.
At Death's Door status enabled for group rules, so players can make the needed Groups for Medical Bed prioritization.
Add Conviction change on tooltip for Meals.
Fix to Mage potentially getting stuck while creating a Painting.
Task priority hud window shows little love/hate/fast icons.
Fix for not being able to click on research nodes atop the Lightning image.
Fix for zero Mana cost spells when Mana is sufficiently low in combat.
Added 2 interact points Medical Bed to reduce the chance of unreachable Revive rituals.
Performance improvements that could benefit large schools.
Fix Mages wrongly speeding up on placemarker hallway runners or broken hallway runners.
Fixes for some Assemble VFX.
Fixed the name for the setting for pausing when a Mage is At Death's Door and made the setting actually work.
Add option to disable world camera shake (fog, lightning, etc).
Fix wand selection greyed out state on Ritual Window and Wand Picker not always reflecting available wands.
For Skills at max level 0, show a 0 instead of a dash.
Remove Unlock Underschool from the Book of Rituals.
Handle overflow text on main Mage selection with scroll when needed.
More accurate hit detection for Mage portraits to avoid conflicts when stacked on the main UI.