The first development stage of Archaelund Early Access has just been completed with the release of update 0.8. Here is the summary of the changes in today's update:

• Added a new cave dungeon in the western coast of the Peninsula, with a new associated quest(talk to Icanos the Loreseeker after completing Three Wanderers quest).
  
• XP cap raised to 9,900 (maximum level remains at 4).

• Skill Charisma now reduces buying prices in most vendors by 2% per rank(certain factions are not affected).

• Talent Hardiness is once more working as per description.
  
• Scrolls and other limited usage items will now only be spent (and cause an AP spending in combat) after a valid target has been selected. You can safely cancel a target without spending the item.
  
• Prone enemies were sometimes not counting as flanked. Fixed.
  
• Party members that ended a fight prone, will no longer show the incorrect prone animation on the next fight.

However, if you haven't played since release in January, it's more important to see the changes as a whole. You can read through the whole changelog[www.exiledkingdoms.com], but here's a summary of the most relevant changes:

• Two new dungeons in the Peninsula are now accessible.
  
• Four new quests were added (from 17 to 21).
  
• One extra companion available (from 2 to 3).
  
• Skills have been implemented: Survival, Disarm Traps, Charisma, Alchemy, Crafting. Only the Maps & Charts skill remains, since it requires a larger available map to be relevant. Meditation skill was reworked.
  
• Three new spells added, and many others revised or adjusted.
  
• More diversified loot, and 20 new items added.
  
• Many "Quality of Life" improvements made to the UI: selling stacks, browsing talent list, browsing discipline spells, and more.
  
• Essential UI/Controls features added, such as key mapping, axis inversion, ultra-wide support, framerate limit, etc.
  
• Almost a hundred bugs were squished!

The Peninsula has been a great start, but it's time to move forward! You can read our development roadmap here.

Version 0.9 will be in development for the remaining of the year (maybe a little longer) but it will also come in smaller incremental updates, not in a single big one.

The priority now, with all the game elements in place, is to expand both the game world, and character development. More areas, and more character levels and careers. More details will come in time, until then I hope you enjoy the game so far.

With the latest implemented features, we're just one update away from 0.8. It's been an intense 4 months of development, and looking back it's amazing how much has been achieved[www.exiledkingdoms.com].

Here is the changelog for today's update:


-Camp Encounters added. Your party may be attacked by monsters while they rest in dangerous locations! The risk level is displayed in the camping UI, and increases after repeated camping in the same area, especially when foraging instead of using supplies. Survival skill reduces this risk.
-While in exploration mode, poison effects will be suffered every 30s instead of every 3s. The Vitality check to reduce poison power is now harder (had a bonus previously, which has been removed). This makes antidotes and poison-healing spells more relevant. These changes have no effect during combat.



-Skill Disarm Traps implemented. Beware, new traps added, and now chests can be trapped!
-Since a new skill was implemented, after loading an old save you can now reset your skill points(only once per character).
-You can now browse a discipline's spells from your Character Window (hover over the discipline and press F1). This should help you decide which disciplines to train. Limited to current Rank+1.
-The game will now autosave after camping (if there was no encounter), and also at the game start.



-Solved an issue in Rasagor's conversation that allowed to retry certain dialogue check.
-Solved an UI align issue with spell descriptions.
-Enemy 'Protections' were sometimes showing incorrectly on Mythology window. Fixed.
-Fixed an UI issue that would often position incorrectly the 'tooltip' when hovering over an UI or map element.
-Fountain of Discipline was showing an incorrect name on the map.
-Fountain of Protection bonus was not being applied correctly to your characters. Fixed.
-Some spells were showing a duration info with decimals. Solved.
-Status effect duration during camp rest showed several glitches, fixed now.
-Fixed many typos and other text issues in dialogues and journal entries.

Hi everyone! with some relevant mechanics changes in this update, I felt like writing a small post explaining them rather than just the usual log.

Gameplay & Balance

-Alchemy and Crafting skills implemented. You can now combine new items from ingredients while resting at camp. More "recipes" will be added in future versions. For some of the new ingredients required in recipes, check Myrelle the trader in Port Galeb.
-New skill mechanics. (See below)
-New Resistances system. (See below)
-Enemy attacks with special effects can now be resisted. For instance, spider poison has a chance to be resisted by Vitality, while ghost paralysis can be resisted by Spirit. check the enemy attack info for details (if your Mythology skill is high enough).
-Default difficulty when starting a new game is now "New School".
-Meditation skill revamped. Now it gives a chance to recover some of the spent willpower after battle.
-Spell "Regrowth" (Animism rank II) is now implemented.
-Spell "Outrage" (Mentalism rank I) is now implemented.
-Spell "Minor Miracle" (Piety rank II) is now implemented.
-"Psalm of Renewal" now heals 2d6+SP instead of 1d6+SP.
-Experience rewards gained from quests or skill checks are no longer dependant on the party size (combat XP is still divided among party members).
-Accuracy per-level progression adjusted. Basic careers will now grant +1 to +3 weapon accuracy per level and, rarely, +4 (previously the range was 1-5). This will bring little change in the first few levels.
-Base accuracy formula adjusted slightly. The result shouldn't differ much from previous formulas, but it prevents some very high values at level 1.


Bugfixes

-First aid items now provide different healing bonuses as stated in their description.
-Fixed performance drop in Nessera Caves.
-Spending APs for Attack Focus will now work correctly with Charge and other special attacks.
-Solved several spawn issues in the Peninsula.
-Spell durations in combat now also take into account the initiative value at the time of being cast. For instance, a spell lasting only one round cast by your caster at initiative 5 will last until next round's initiative 5 turn. Previously the spell ended at the beginning of the round, making short duration spells lasting less than expected.


We continue relentlessly advancing through the planned roadmap, but at the same time we decided it was essential to make some changes to skills and resistances, after observing issues in the first couple months of the game being out.


Regarding elemental damage, the resistance percentage system was not working well for a non-inflationist game. Giving a +5% or +10% resistance was irrelevant, because its effect on, let's say, 5 points of fire damage are negligible. On the other hand, spells and items granting "noticeable" bonuses such as +25% or +30% were quickly stacking together close to 100%, which was not good. From this version onwards, such damage is dealt with with Protection, which works similarly to armor but is limited per turn. For instance, Fire Protection 4 means your character ignores 4 points of fire damage per turn.

You can have 'negative protection', called vulnerability. That means each damage source received is doubled, up to the value of the vulnerability. For instance, Fire Vulnerability 3 means receiving 5 points of fire damage gets increased to 8.

Percentage resistances remain in the game as a chance to completely ignore and reduce spells or other similar effects. Now a character has three resistances: Vitality, Spirit and Mind. Unlike before, these resistances now allow you to prevent some enemy attack effects, which were pretty much automatic until now.


Skills had some issues. Low level characters were already reaching 120% percentages and more, and I was being forced into adding difficulties of -100% soon. By now you already know I don't like inflation much, but in addition the system was too prone to savescumming, rather than truly making each assigned skill rank count towards what your party can or can't achieve. A rank or two more could just mean needing an extra reload or not. I love rolling dice, but the system was not behaving as intended.

In the new system, your assigned ranks get compared to difficulty. There's also a bonus calculated from your traits, talents, items, etc.


With the new system, matching the difficulty pretty much grants a decent success chance. An extra rank will make the success almos automatic with a decent bonus. However, one rank below difficulty makes the check hard, and two ranks below difficulty will in most cases be an auto-failure. Exceptional bonuses might still alter this balance thanks to future unique items or talents.

This system still leaves room for luck if rank is within one point of difficulty, but makes your skill rank the deciding factor about that checks you can reliably pass.

Ranks will still be limited to 10, but there will be Expert Ranks (11+), available in the mid and late game through Advanced Careers, quests, etc.


Finally you can put some of those herbs to use, and make a few potions! Also Crafting skill will grant the ability to combine a few useful items. Still, the system is barebones and more recipes will be added on each update. It's possible that some future Crafting recipes will require special talents or ranks on other skills to be doable, but for now, all available game recipes are accessible with just Alchemy 4 and Crafting 3.


Over 80 bugs were fixed since EA release. Please don't hesitate to report any issues in the forums, I look personally into each and every reported problem.

Lots of features planned for 0.8 were already released in the last couple of months: a few extra quests, a new companion, extra storage and stash was added, and many UI limitations were fixed (selling stacks, equip/use items from party inventory, and others).

But many other unplanned things were added to the game: support for ultrawide screens, input bindings, and more. I also made a big revision on how armor was working, making it more effective and less random.


Some players were complaining about the combat misses and blaming a defective random-number-generator. Anyone that has played with real dice knows randomness is brutal, streaky and unpredictable, and that you never have "normal luck" in a gaming session. To avoid disappointing players, highly succesful modern games fudge the dice. I can't call a game difficulty "Old School" and do that, in good conscience. But I understand not everyone playing the lower difficulties wants to face Lady Fortune's capricious whims, and for them, a "karma" option was added in Settings/Gameplay. It only works on New School and Explorer difficulties. An option to permanentely lower the game difficulty was also added (in party options window). Karma shouldn't have a big impact on your dice average results, but tries to avoid "streaks" of consecutive bad attack rolls.


A few features are still missing before reaching the 0.8 milestone next month: two mini-dungeons in the Peninsula, camping encounters, and creating an UI to view spells and talents. As planned, this will be out by April. From then onwards, the focus will be on expanding the game. Archaelund needs new areas, more quests, and raising the level cap to make interesting character builds. With all the game systems working to my satisfaction, that will be my priority for the rest of the year.

Version 0.9 is scheduled for December (rough estimate, remember!) and will make the game much bigger than it is now. More details on what to expect will be posted after 0.8 is out.

This small update includes minor fixes and adjustments related to the new features and quests released in the past update, but also a couple new options and tutorial improvements.


-You can now lower the game's difficulty (permanently) from the Party Options menu.
-Hovering over a saved game will now list its difficulty (only for new saves).
-New tutorial window when a companion is first recruited
-New tutorial warning if the player fails to find the available weapons before the first fight.
-Slightly adapted and simplified the item equip tutorial, since items can now be equipped from party inventory.


-Added a few minor fixes for the quest 'Justice from Above'.
-Fixed a displayed text error during character creation.
-Character encumbrance is now correctly updated after wounds are healed.
-Solved an issue in which certain quest corpses or containers could only be interacted with once.
-Torch or spell light is now correctly updated after camping.
-Character window position when the stash is open will still be correct if active character is switched.
-Fixed a few glitches in the Peninsula minimap (red dots).
-Combat camera would sometimes become dislodged after an enemy is killed with a reaction attack. In this update the camera will automatically correct its position if an incorrect one is detected.

-Quest The Academy is now completable. The initial dialogue has been altered, so the quest has been reset. To initiate it, walk the road just out of Port Galeb and meet Issam.
-Quest Justice from Above is now completable. The initial dialogue has been altered, so the quest has been reset. To initiate it, talk to the innkeeper in Port Galeb.



-Items can now be equipped directly from the Party Inventory, not just from the backpack.
-Backpack items can now be assigned to combat hotkeys.
-Party inventory slots doubled (from 32 to 64).
-Added an option to accelerate enemy animation speed during combat (in Settings>Gameplay).
-Character Window now displays information about the character's race when hovered.



-Party encumbrance: when Party Inventory exceeds the combined carry capacity of the party, exploration movement will be slowed down or even halted. Party encumbrance only has effect on exploration movement, and grants no character penalties.
-The weight from some items has been revised.



-You can no longer talk to dead companions.
-The combat panel(and hotbuttons) was sometimes not correctly refreshed when AP were spent or gained. Fixed.
-Dragging to equip items during combat now costs the required AP.
-Fixed several terrain and geometry issues in the Peninsula.
-Fixed an issue related to the paralysis effects of Blizzard Shards spell.
-The first character acting in battle was ignoring status effects during the first round. Fixed.
-Fixed a glitch that could display an erroneous character level and not allow the player to level up.
-In some cases, taking quest items from a container would not advance the journal as intended. Solved.
-Systems in turkish language were still showing some visual glitches, like when displaying items with a skill bonus. Fixed.
-Minor UI fixes.

• Party Stash chest added to the inn in Port Galeb, where you can safely store items. There will be a similar chest available at towns added in the future, with the same shared storage.
• Shops and Party Stash windows have been placed in a more practical way.
• Encumbrance partially implemented. Carrying too much weight can reduce your adventurers' Dexterity. Party inventory encumbrance still not implemented.
• The level of Armor Training required by armor pieces is renamed from "Penalty" to "Bulk".


• Armor mitigation has been revised and is now more relevant and less "random" when high armor characters receive hard blows or critical hits. More details have been published in the forums.
• Penalty to Dodge is now reduced by high Armor Training: If a character's Armor Training goes above an armor's Bulk stat, the dodge penalty will be lowered by 5% per extra point up to a maximum of 20%. This means, for instance, that light armor (normally -20% to Dodge) can eventually be worn with no dodge penalties when the character has 4 points of Training above the armor's Bulk.
• Static burst WP cost increased from 3 to 4.
• Adjusted the accuracy bonus of some weapons.
• Mechaedron base damage reduced, and increased cold damage by the same amount.


• New NPC/companion added near Icanos house in Port Galeb (but might not be there in your first visits to town).
• New choice given to end Tools of the Trade quest if you found the tools and prefer not to denounce Palderan.
• Longbows added to merchants and as uncommon drop from bandits.
• The camp location in Nessera no longer has camping props visible shile not camping.
• Characters no longer start the game naked.
• Improved the overall drops of bandits, and added a separate loot table for bandits beyond the outpost.


• Spells with a 2x2 tiles effect were in some instances displaced and not being cast exactly where the UI-target indicated. Fixed.
• Solved an issue that would not allow talking to your companions, saying you need more room even when in open spaces.
• Settings from the Gameplay tab were not properly being saved. Solved.
• Systems in Turkish language were encountering a multitude of issues caused by incorrect file decoding. Fixed.
• The "Goodfellows" had the wrong type of NPC sounds, fixed.


• New setting added in Video>Quality section to enable video hardware acceleration (only recommended in low-spec systems if you have trouble to see the intro video).
• New setting added in Video>Display section to limit framerate, good to lower the GPU workload.

• Using potions in combat now costs 4 AP instead of 2.
• Nivaria's Word had recently increased its cost to 8WP. After further analysis, it's set to 7WP now.


• You can now sell stacks of items, not just one by one.
• New setting in Gameplay section, to keep open the character window after using an item.


• "Goodfellows" will no longer respawn.
• Certain grate in the inner Galeb Crypt will no longer be open by default.
• Fixed an issue that made the switches in the upper Devil's Horn hard to target.
• Added a camping spot in Nessera Caves, and another at the bandit's canyon in the Peninsula(only usable after one of the resolutions of Wielder of the Red Axe quest is reached).
• Solved a number of minor geometry issues in the Peninsula.


• Combat movement between tiles at different heights could sometimes cost more AP/MP than displayed, which could lead to AI/pathing locks and bugs. Solved.
• Total AP/MP movement cost of long paths was sometimes erroneous due to a rounding error. This could lead to "running frozen in place" bugs. Solved.
• Solved an issue with stone guardian when it fell prone. This creature still needs animations adjusted, but it shouldn't affect gameplay anymore.
• Unseal scrolls can now be used correctly from the open lock ui.
• Arrow projectiles were not correctly rotated. Fixed.
• Corrected the description of Nivaria's Word spell. It actually heals 6+3d6 HP, not 4d6.
• Minor UI fixes.

I've received many messages asking about a possible release of the game's OST. After talking to Laura, the composer & producer, we decided to publish it on youtube for everyone to enjoy.

If you're interested in Laura's work, check her youtube channel and website[www.lauraballestrino.com]. Soundtrack composition is just one of her many interests, so you might be surprised!