Nov 1

Kings Origin - Nervelink

Hello everyone!

The 0.86.0 update is now available. This version expands the ecosystem of Kings Origin like never before, reinforcing the fantasy of creating, evolving, and shaping your dungeon from the ground up.

Note: 📢 indicates changes inspired by community feedback!

Both the new units and the new rooms open up a huge range of strategies, and together with improvements to the lineage system, skills, and storage, the game becomes much deeper… and much crazier (in the good way).

In the coming days, I will fix issues and make small improvements based on your feedback.

In the meantime, I’ll be reading your comments and suggestions both on the Kings Origin Steam community forums and in the official Discord server (everyone is welcome to join!).

That’s all for now. I hope you enjoy the new update!
— The Development Team

📋 Patch Notes –

🔹 New Features

+70 new relics (basic and event). - #305
+40 new units (basic and evolutions). - #304
New revamped, semi-linear and rebalanced lineage system. - ds#60
New "Camp" journey added (the previous one has been renamed "Throne"). - #298
The new “Camp” journey allows you to perform the Agoge and hire/dismiss adventurers. - #301
+15 new starting units and +20 new starting abilities. - #300
The skill system now differentiates between active and passive skills; they also have ranks and evolutions. - #297
Beta support for Traditional Chinese, Korean, Russian, Italian, German, and French. - #296
Maps and difficulties now include icons with information defining their style and challenge. - #293
Unit marker added for creating other units in the recruitment selection. - #292
Hovering over units in the dungeon now displays health, mana, and their next ability. - #291
New larger pop-up text system. - ds#46 – 📢 Thanks @artmato
Button added to change dungeon speed to x2 / x3. - #289
New animated Discord server icon. - ds#57 – 📢 Thanks @kao_ri_san

🔹 Fixes

A unit would disappear when replaced by another in a room. - ds#65 – 📢 Thanks @systemid0x00
Room-swapping option now works correctly. - #303
Status effects are now properly cleared at the end of each battle. - #302
Forced expansions no longer delete rooms. - ds#63
The game could freeze when unlocking certain lineage units. - ds#62
Expansions are now enforced even without entering the dungeon. - ds#59 – 📢 Thanks @richar4800
Units now follow the path correctly. - ds#59 – 📢 Thanks @richar4800
Leaderboard now displays the global position correctly. - ds#56 – 📢 Thanks @panfuricus
Unit selection in the selector now correctly highlights the chosen unit. - ds#58
Dungeon/Path button now responds on the first click. - ds#40 – 📢 Thanks @systemid0x00
Units attacking in groups would move forward and not return. Fixed. - ds#51 – 📢 Thanks @pincho3202
An enemy was dealing absurd damage to the Lord. - ds#53 – 📢 Thanks @pincho3202
Infinite battles at D+20 / D+21 (Critical). - ds#48
Lineage text would grow infinitely in its panel. - ds#47 – 📢 Thanks @artmato
Dungeon would break when expanding with expansion relics. - ds#50 – 📢 Thanks @kao_ri_san
After a boss, an infinite wave would no longer start. - #290

🔹 Improvements

Reliquary improved, now stackable and more organized. - ds#66
Storage improved, now stackable and more organized. - ds#65
Room displays attribute boosts provided by the room or abilities. - #295
Progressive start for new players rebalanced. - ds#46 – 📢 Thanks @artmato
Infinite waves are now triggered manually via button. - ds#46 – 📢 Thanks @artmato
Unit cost calculation rebalanced based on difficulty. - ds#46 – 📢 Thanks @artmato
Auto-balancing of units and their main abilities. - #294

🔹 Removals

Removed the old lineage system. - #299

Roadmap

Nov 1

The Grand Design Sphere III: Realm

Archmage Rises - LordYabo

Quick Dev Update

I’m working on location resource sources. I got it so a location can have multiple resource sources. When the player moves into the hex a new UI pops up asking how to interact with it. This new contextual UI is part of the new way of interacting with map locations - a replacement for the old context switch “hex view” screen. This is when I needed to spend time thinking through the UI.

I use a tool called Balsamiq to do quick mockups to figure out placement and size of things relative to each other. I’m sharing this Work in Progress (WIP) because it is where I left off before needing to deal with the kids and Halloween. Some of it I like but some of it isn’t right.

Which reminds me of this great indie game dev video from Jake Birkett “11 years without a hit”.

Jake is a Britt, and there is a moment where he confesses his shock at what a big deal Halloween is in American (and Canada). I have to agree, he has a point!

Quick Studio Update

I mentioned a few months ago our team made a demo for a new physical card game called Challengers of the Realm. I’m happy to report the COTR kickstarter is now live! There is a link there to the free demo. Check it out. I’m real proud of what the team put together in a short period of time to make the kickstarter possible. The game COTR is more complex than Hearthstone but less so than Magic the Gathering.

While I get the resources UI working, let’s continue with the third part of the Core Loop refinement

What is Archmage Rises? Managing the three spheres of life: Self, Magecraft, and Realm.
You could think of it as Self, Work, and Society.

Realm

Realm is being part of a fantasy world. Belonging to it and how you matter in it. This is made up of Possessions, Relationship, and Legacy.

But before I for further I need to explain a new kind of Action:

Commission (or Contract or Odd Job)

What is a new young mage to do to make money? One of the reasons the resources change in the Hex Events build is such a problem is I changed the way many players made money in the earliest part of the game.

While I am fixing that, the real solution is to provide an action a newbie mage can do to make money and experience. That is where Commission work comes in. Instead of hunting down lumber in a forest to sell, players can do odd jobs trading time for gold and maybe pick up some experience along the way.

You already see a small version of this in the game with cleaning dishes or the stables in the inn.

Many Commissions are magic related. Meaning expanding your known spells (through the spell progression system) is important.

Cost: Time (few days, week, month)
Requires: Nothing, or a Skill, or a specific spell
Result
- Gold - based on time – a 5 day tutoring gig will pay less than a 12 day one.
  - Friendship and Legacy status factor in for better rewards
- XP if magic involved
- Likely Fatigue
- Likely Wellbeing especially from doing boring work like dishes or cleaning stables
- Possible Renown

Examples:

Ice - chill cellars, create ice for skating, Frostbite kill pests on crops or fungi
Fire - Heating baths/ignite forge/house, light street lights or mines,Detect heat for rats in basement
Arcane - Mage hand, seal door, minor illusion on painting or statue
Earth - Bind wood, haste grow crops, dig out a mine shaft, patch stone fill cracks in cobblestone street or reinforce walls, earthsense for metal, stone, minerals
Storm - create water for street sweeping, storm clouds for irrigating crops, clear cess pit/graveyard foul air with wind, help herbalist locate herbs/flowers
Tutor in astronomy, natural philosophy, Arcanics (the ability for non-casters to use scrolls and other magic items)

Possessions

This is both the player inventory, and things they own in the world like buildings or resource sources. A mage tower is a special kind of possession.

Sinks

Reagents are spent for experiments and spell discovery/upgrades
Resources are spent for building, quests, gifts, enchanting, sale
Books are spent for study XP and improving libraries

Rules

Equipment is used for combat and is never ‘spent’
Quest items are found and ‘spent’ by turning them in rather than keeping them.

Actions

Possessions can be Bought (--Gold), Found (--Time), or Fought for (--Health)
Quests and Events can reward with Possessions

Gather Resource

Cost: Time, Fatigue
Requires: Tool, Resource Source
Results
- N resources in a good, better, best scenario
Note
- Can enchant tools for greater yields (more and faster)
- Cast spells at higher power to get more

Build Resource Gatherer

A very expensive resource collector.

Cost: Gold, Spells, Time
Requires: Tool
Results
- Resources collected automatically for you to pickup

Relationships

Relationship is gained through conversation, gifts, and fulfilling requests
Relationships constantly decay at a set rate of X per week – this won’t be punishing, just realistic that it takes some effort to keep up relationships. For instance, I have a friend where if we don’t talk once a month, it will bottom out to zero and I become “Somebody I used to know”

Relationships are valuable because NPCs are an access point to gameplay features, Items, and Information in the simulation

Relationship can be spent on Favors
There will be three flavors of relationship: Friends, Family, and Romance. I don’t have anything more to say on Romance until I get to building it.

Friends

Primary player activity: Leveling up their profession
Cost: They generate Help Requests which are mostly professional

Family

Primary player activity: Keeping up their needs for food, shelter, etc.
Cost: They generate Help Requests which are mostly personal related.

Actions

Favors

Cost: Relationship (Each ask has a differing cost)
Requires: Relationship >= Casual Friend
- Exception Innkeepers start at Acquaintance and will tell you of Commissions and Quests at that level
- Favor available depends on profession and wealth level - a noble can lend a powerful weapon, or 1,000g, a beggar cannot

Favor Examples:

Tell me one of your interests
Commissions and Quests
Information: Resource location, about a Rival
Influence Person: Increase my relationship with someone else (at 25% exchange)
Influence Town: reduce suspicion, increase unrest
Join me: adventuring, magical experiment
Labor: Work my mine! Collect resources for me
Vote: sway council or election
Training: improve skill, unlock conversation topic
Resource: loan money, tool, book, weapon
Romance: deepen personal bond or intimacy

Help Requests

A Commission with no pay, just relationship reward, with a time limit. If incomplete, relationship suffers.
Relationships above Casual Friend make requests for help. Could be simple dumb things like ‘get me a loaf of bread’. Somewhat gamey, but it does capture the constant nagging of friends, kids, spouse “do this for me” like picking up something at the store, helping them with their computer problem, casting a minor spell to heat the bath.
I don’t know what your life is like, but I end up doing tech support for my mother, in-laws, wife, and three kids. That’s seven people’s digital devices I need to keep running smoothly! And yes I’m venting all my frustration into Archmage Rises, this is where art imitates life. :-)

Conversation

This is a significant change to the current conversation/relationship building system. It will now be Topic interest based (Character creation choices matter!) and the player can ‘win’ by playing it smart. It avoids mindlessly spamming “Ask about Day” and “Flatter”.

Every NPC talk is a single, meaningful gamble: you speak from your own interests, they react from theirs. Over time you learn who you click with, who you don’t, and what subjects bring people alive — just like real life.

Topic driven - the mini game is figuring out what the other is interested in. A topic connection leads to great bonding, a miss is a big miss. Topics are categorized. A noble never wants to talk about dirty farming techniques, and a peasant doesn’t care to talk heritage of nobles. But everyone can dialogue about monsters or philosophy!
- Category: Everyone (4)
  Arcanics, Magic, Monsters, Philosophy
- Category: Peasantry (9)
  Charms & Cures, Domestic Arts, Family, Farming, Folk Lore, Food, Livelihood, Local Affairs, Nature
- Category: Nobles (14)
  Architecture, Art, Astronomy, Commerce, Diplomacy, Estatekeeping, Fashion, Heritage, Hospitality, Horse Breeding, Law, Politics, Society, Tournaments, Warfare
You start with 3 topics you like, and 1 you hate
NPCs start with 1 Love, 2 like, 1 dislike, 1 hate
- As you reach each friend level you automatically discover one of their preferences
You converse with an NPC and choose a topic you know and like. The result is the relationship adjustment:
- Love = Big Increase, Like = moderate increase, Neutral = nothing, Dislike = small decrease, Loathe = Big decrease
You only get one conversation attempt per npc, then they go into cooldown. The cooldown is based on your last conversation whether they loved (short) or hated it (long)
Hitting a Loathe is a relationship bomb, they are offended, relationship hit
Nobles
- Any topic that is not one of their Loves or Likes automatically counts as a Dislike. It’s really hard to build relationship with nobility.
Talking about the same topic as last time gives 50% reduction (one dimensional relationship)
If none of your interests match an NPC’s Love or Likes, you’ll never connect conversationally.
You learn a new interest by reading 3 books on the topic. There are other means like result of an Event
People change interests over a long time: that keeps them feeling real. They add one, they remove one

Conversation Action

Cost: Time
Requires: Conversation Topic
Results: Relationship

Social Activity

Context dependent for the building or location you are in, but this is how you play a game of chess, drink a pint, play music with someone

Cost: Time
Requires: Building features
Results: Relationship

Gift

Cost: Possession, Gold
Requires: Giftable
Results: Relationship

Legacy

Legacy measures the total mark you leave on the world — reputation, power, prestige, and permanent recognition. It combines four pillars. Generally the number goes up, but as a designer I have to ensure there are interesting trade offs that occur: Do I sacrifice some power for renown? Do I sacrifice Prestige for a possession? I haven’t finished thinking through all the ways to utilize these values.

1. Renown (Reputation)

Definition: Renown is your fame and reputation. It is what precedes you before anyone meets you. It is tracked by town, so it is possible to be a hero in one town and unknown in another. However, it is also at the region level so being high in a town in the region, the other towns have heard of you
Source: Deeds, relationships, public heroics or infamy.
Effect: Changes how towns, nobles, and factions respond to you. Renown is how you break the nobility barrier and get recognized.
Permanence: Decays slowly over time

2. Power (Might)

Definition: The influence earned through magical strength, victories, and mastery.
Source: Spells discovered, rivals defeated, powerful artifacts.
Effect: Raises respect or fear from peers and enemies.
Permanence: Stays

3. Prestige (Refined Wealth)

Definition: The elegant expression of success — how tastefully you live and what beauty you create.
Source: Mage tower design, art, books, relics, rare wine, and cultural patronage.
Effect: Turns wealth into admiration; impresses elites and scholars.
Permanence: Stays

4. Titles (Recognition)

Definition: Formal honors that record your rising status — the world’s acknowledgment of your accomplishments.
Source: Achieving milestones, earning noble ranks, completing exceptional deeds.
Effect: Permanently increases Legacy; some titles grant ongoing mechanical or social benefits.
Permanence: Stays

Funeral

Every life is a story. The funeral scene is the final chapter of a life.

When you die, your funeral is based on your Legacy score.
Who attends is based on relationships
What they say about you is based on relationship
Fun story from The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England: In 14th century England the number of people who attended a noble’s funeral showed how impactful or important they were. So, naturally, some nobles started prepaying peasants to attend their funeral. How they ensured these people actually showed up, I don’t know!

There you have it, how all the pieces of the game fit together into a, hopefully, sensible enjoyable whole! Did I get it all right? Probably not. But this is enough of a foundation and perspective to build it right as I go!