Mind Over Magic News

It’s been an amazing year working on Mind Over Magic with you all. So many people sent us thoughtful feedback and detailed bug reports, and we loved seeing Discord, Steam, and Reddit debate the nuances of the game. All of that was critical to understanding how players felt about the game and helped shape where it is going, leading us to now… the end of the Early Access roadmap!

Our updates early this year were about improving or extending parts of the game that were holding back the experience. It was such a great feeling to see more and more players engage as we launched each update.

While we have ongoing improvements to make throughout the game, the Ultimates Update was the start of expanding on the game's foundations. Enter the Nexus brings new places to explore and sets the stage for one more major update on the current roadmap. We did deviate a little from the prior roadmap on Nexus, however.

You may have noticed that Fog Aegis Lines don’t exist in the update and disappeared in this roadmap revision. This was a feature intended to be part of a set of features that depended on the Nexus gameplay going a certain direction. As we started implementing, we determined that wasn’t working gameplay-wise, so we took things in a different direction.

We’ve added some more specifics about what will be in Endgame to the roadmap. These are less about changes in the intent and more that we have better information to explain things now that we’re closer. We did, however, bump this update from January to February. We set an aggressive roadmap for Early Access and it's been an extra challenge for the team to stay on track while also delivering all the extras we got excited about. With each update, our deadlines have gotten a bit tighter, so we are giving ourselves a moment to breathe and time to polish things up for Endgame.

We hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday season… and that you get some time to play some Mind Over Magic!

-- Sparkypants

[h3]Fixes and Improvements - 1/3/25[h3]

• Mages who refill Mana during an Emergency-level errand will fully refill their Mana before returning to their errand
  
• Fix some rare exceptions
  

[h3]Fixes and Improvements - 12/23/24[h3]

• Fix Dark Ultimate sounds for some Mages
  
• Fix for gaining Potion Slots on Human Sidequests
  
• Fix Staff Lounge in Book of Rooms text overflowing in some languages
  
• Nexus visual improvements
  
• Potion Up a Sleeve, Potion Up Another Sleeve, Pain Resistant, Pain Tolerant, and Pain Immune statuses all fixed to be kept on a Mage when they are Hired.
  

[h2]Enter the Nexus Fixes - 12/20/24[/h2]

• Fix a crash related to using the infinite Nexus hall and repairing saves broken in this way.
  
• Fix for a Cultist body not being customizable.
  
• Shortened Volatile Sentry death animation.
  
• Fixes and improvements for visuals in the Nexus combat space.
  

[h3]Battle new enemies in the Nexus.[/h3]

[h3]Reroll Trials, Mages' Relic Affinities, and Relic Powers at the Altar of Fate.
[/h3]

[h3]Reality is tenuous in the Nexus. Your Mages must reconstitute the crumbling bits.
[/h3]

[h3]Nexus Gateways connect key points in the Underschool.
[/h3]

[h3]We've made many other fixes, balance, and QoL changes in this update. Cheers to everyone who entered the Nexus to test it in Beta/Prerelease.[/h3]

[h2]Up Next[/h2]
[h3]Endgame[/h3]

• You can expect a new introduction to the game and improved help to learn the game.
  
• The Nexus will grow even further to reveal who or what created the curse afflicting the school.
  
• Tons of bug fixes and QoL.
  

[h3]You may notice some deviations from the roadmap in this release. We'll post a roadmap update along with dev notes discussing our choices in the next few days. Have fun in the Nexus![/h3]

[h3]Full build notes below. Happy Holidays![/h3]



[h2]The Nexus[/h2]

• New Underschool rooms to explore in the Nexus zone.
  
• Infinite Hallways give endless rooms to battle for Mages of all Levels.
  
• The Altar of Fate allows customization of Relic Slots, Relic Legacies, and Uncompleted Trials.
  
• Nexus Gateways allow traveling directly to key points in the Underschool.
  
• Three new enemies to battle.
  
• The Nexus will grow even more in the Endgame update.
  

[h2]New Quests / Jade Dragon[/h2]

• Complete quests in the Human and Vivified lands at the Jade Dragon. Mages can gain extra potion slots and immunity to pain!
  
• Blooming, Hatching, and raising a Jade Dragon takes a little less grinding now.
  
• Blooming does not require planting any plants nearby, but now requires Apprentices.
  
• The baby and juvenile stages require 3 days instead of 4 to grow.
  
• The Affection Need now fills in 2.5 hours of work instead of 6.
  

[h2]Seasonal[/h2]

• It's Holiday Season!
  

[h2]Quality of Life[/h2]

• Plots and Planters now have a Harvest (or Chop) Limit that can be set. When you have more than the limit of a Reagent, Mages will not Harvest that plot or planter.
  
• Plots and Planters no longer display a Harvest icon when growing or waiting for Harvest. Instead they show a Disabled icon when harvest has been disabled by pressing Cancel Harvest. This was both a visual and performance improvement.
  
• Mages should now much less frequently get stuck behind furnishings when Assembling.
  

[h2]Gameplay and Balance[/h2]

• Dragon Wok recipes that require Crabbage, Meat, Jumping Nuts, or Rock Candy output two meals per cook instead of one.
  
• Fine Kitchens now allow a Gruel Pot so that you do not need a lower tier kitchen as well.
  
• Standard Difficulty will no longer get multiple Invasion, Breathstealer, or Bramblespawn events on the same day.
  
• Slightly nerfed enemies in higher level parties that appear from Corrupted Mana Lanterns because they were a bit harder than intended.
  
• Made the deepest Corrupted Mana Lanterns wait a little longer before appearing.
  
• Attuning is now about 75% faster than before.
  
• Staff can now use the Statue Carvery and Easel.
  

[h2]Fixes and Improvements[/h2]

• Adding text to Mage Needs regarding whether they pause/change during sleep.
  
• Statues and paintings of founder ghost should look like the ghost looked at time of painting/sculpting, not like the original dead mage looked like.
  
• Don't allow Shapeshifting setup when having a Break.
  
• Turn off Idle changes being logged in the Logbook to avoid some spam.
  
• AIs not controlled by the player (ie, croa) will ignore Never player priorities on entities/errands.
  
• Changed "Enemy Level" text for battle start UI to say "Recommended Mage Level" to more accurately describe what that means.
  
• Added a multiple effect icon for Job Type Priority buttons to handle the case where several effects are active and not just a Love or Hate.
  
• Red feed alerts now all share the same sound to make it more clear when an important event is occurring.
  
• Audio mix improvements across all sounds.
  
• Founder ghost now properly changes faction when using the Magic Mirror.
  
• Mages will now properly do Low Priority Tasks before filling Mana. If they are below 50% Mana and Idle, they will still fill Mana. Thanks, @Ugly.
  
• Updated visuals for Crystal Prophecy and Crystal Portent.
  
• Perf improvements related to shadows that help large schools.
  
• Remove debug recipes that could appear on the Meals UI.
  
• Fix the Quest UI sometimes overflowing.
  
• Fix for Messy Meddlers missing their status icon in Advanced Combat.
  
• Fix for hover text link explosion on Periodical Kiosk.
  
• Fix for Wolfkin using some incorrect animations (Hunt, for example.)
  
• Fix for Mana Lantern sometimes looking like it's empty, but still allowing a charge.
  
• Fix for issue where sometimes Shrinks could not be stored after cancelling an Un-Shrink.
  
• Fix Disable World Camera Shake not being saved between sessions.
  
• Added linked text to Attuned, Painter, and Sculptor Trials to make it more clear where to accomplish them.
  

[h2]Magic Mirror Fixes - 12/2/24[/h2]

• Fix games where objects in storage got set to NeverUse priority, which was locking up certain Haul tasks.
  
• Attempt to fix hardware/driver specific bug where the fog on the left half of the world is inverted.
  
• Fix AI lockup when starting a low-pri task will cause a high-pri task to be momentarily available, which then becomes unavailable when the low-pri task is cancelled.
  
• Solemn Brazier can now change colors.
  
• Fix for missing cultist outfit variants.
  
• Fix for memory leak when repeatedly loading games.
  

[h3]Build a Magic Mirror and change the look of your Mages however you'd like. Clothing, hair, colors, it's all within the power of the mirror![/h3]

[h3]Once your staff are dressed to impress, they’ll head to the Staff Lounge to sip, relax, and recharge. They'll boost Recreation and gain Conviction while they unwind in style!
[/h3]

[h3]We got excited about customizing Mages, so now you can also customize the color of lights in your school. Just select a Torch, Brazier, or Candelabra and select the color you'd like.
[/h3]

[h3]Make sure and check out the new screenshot mode that we used to get these shots! Look for it on the bottom center time panel.[/h3]

[h3]As usual, there's also a ton of other fixes, balance, and QoL in this update. We're so very thankful for everyone who helped us test the Magic Mirror.[/h3]

[h2]Up Next[/h2]

• The Nexus - The Underschool will expand!
  
• Endgame - ??????
  

[h3]Full build notes below![/h3]



[h2]Customization & New Visuals[/h2]

• Customize the look of your Mages and Founder at the Magic Mirror.
  
• Change the color of Torches, Braziers, and Candelabras with a click instead of building separate types.
  
• New color options for Torches, Braziers, and Candelabras.
  
• New Window types that are 3-wide to help out all you symmetry-lovers.
  
• New Mage Visuals!
  

[h2]The Staff Lounge[/h2]

• The Staff Lounge is a new Room Type where Staff can sit and Recreate with a Libation.
  
• Staff gain Conviction and Recreation from using the Staff Lounge.
  
• Libations are crafted at the Libation Fountain using Spices.
  
• Spices can be refined at the Midden Jelly, Lavalina Sty, Crone Bug, and Weaver Bird using Seeds.
  
• Spices can also be crafted at the Gruel Pot using reagents other than Seeds.
  

[h2]Paintings and Statues[/h2]

• The Easel and Statue Carvery are now available earlier and their room types have fewer requirements.
  
• If Paintings and Statues are crafted in their room types, you can select a the Mage you want to paint or carve.
  
• The Luxury value of the art work now depends on the Skill of the creator.
  
• New artworks now give Luxury types instead of Basic Luxury and higher Luxury value.
  
• The type of Luxury depends on the Wand Skill and Apprentice Skill of the subject.
  

[h2]Alchemistry Lab and Decoction Apparatus[/h2]

• Alchemy finally gets its very own room.
  
• The Alchemistry Lab requires a Decoction Apparatus.
  
• The Decoction Apparatus is used for advanced potions, including the Sal Oblivium reagent for Scouting and other top tier potions that have moved from the Alchemist's station.
  
• Look for new potions in future updates.
  

[h2]Divinatorium[/h2]

• This new room that requires a Crystal Ball for Augury makes that job type much faster.
  

[h2]Screenshot Mode[/h2]

• Look for the button on the bottom center time control (or shift-c) and take your perfect shots!
  

[h2]Conviction/Doubts Changes[/h2]

• Doubts have been reworked in theme and in how they are applied.
  
• They are now called Weight of Malice in preparation for more lore coming in the Nexus and Endgame Updates.
  
• Base Conviction is now 25 instead of 60.
  
• Weight of Malice statuses start off at +40 Conviction at the beginning of the game. Their Conviction boost decreases with MAGE score in smaller, linear chunks, as opposed to the larger jumps that Doubts had.
  
• Understaffed Conviction penalties have been removed.
  

[h2]QoL Improvements[/h2]

• Broom Rack access now separated into departures vs arrivals.
  
• Broom Racks can be built using Copy with Settings.
  
• Storage chests now allow access rules for deposits and withdrawals.
  
• Separate out shrinks for paintings and sculptures in the build palette so you can hover and see the specific luxury.
  

[h2]New Initiate/Apprentice Trials[/h2]

• Obliterator: X kills in a single battle
  
• Defender: Fight X Battles Above Ground
  
• Ritual Participant: Attend N Rituals
  
• Nurturer: X Tends
  
• Warder: X Wards
  
• Pain Avoider: No In Pain for X days
  
• Insightful: Do double damage to an enemy via a Terrain effect or Weakness
  
• Attuned: Attune N Relics
  
• Hunter: Hunt X Captured Creatures (Apprentice Only)
  
• Sculptor: Make X Statues (Apprentice Only)
  
• Painter: Make X Paintings (Apprentice Only)
  

[h2]Re-balanced Student/Apprentice Trials[/h2]
[h3]Reduced the number of repetitions for:[/h3]

• Neatnik
  
• Charger
  
• Pyromania
  
• Commons Designer
  
• Commons Sleeper
  

[h3]Changed to time-based instead of repetition based:[/h3]

• Creature Comforter
  
• Dancing Queen
  

[h3]No longer granted:[/h3]

• Enemy Soloist
  
• Rested Fighter
  
• Full Fighter
  

[h2]Fixes & Improvements[/h2]

• Add a scroll when required for right click orders.
  
• When assigning relics for display, if there is another of that type, display a warning.
  
• Shrinks for paintings / sculptures displays the subject and lux of the art inside when selected.
  
• Don't show 'not repairing' icon when damage hasn't reach auto-repair threshold.
  
• Recreation description now includes the target's display name if appropriate.
  
• For the Founder school Relics display, separate out the duplicate inactives that are equal or lower level to the same display effect.
  
• Fix for Upwell not being target-able in combat setup for some boss fights.
  
• Adjust ritual/combat setup camera for lower ratio resolutions to keep things on screen.
  
• Don't show decimals for trial progress on small combat icons.
  
• Fix painting/sculpture durability.
  
• Back compat: Set all old statues to full durability.
  
• Fix a rare issue with pathing for queued construction that could result in no path being found.
  
• Fix giving food to knocked out Mage when there's only one meal available.
  
• Lower relative Task Type Priority of Mana refilling so Mages will use more of their Mana when working low priority tasks.
  
• Students hired as staff will start with All Staff group priorities if using advanced mode, but staff are set to ignore group priorities.
  
• Changed 'Any' on Easel/Statue Carvery UI to be more clear: 'Any Mage' and 'Any Luxury Type'
  
• Replaced 'On Underschool Run' with 'Heading to Battle' to cover above ground battle prep
  
• Update Fog tendril visuals when a Gloom event starts or stops.
  
• Improved Painting visuals.
  
• Fix monsters not starting battle at proper hp in some cases.
  
• Don't teleport hallway runners when hallway/door is built or destroyed. Hallway runner must be disassembled if wall will replace hallway/door.
  
• Fixes for shrink visual effects being left on.
  
• Fix Harvest alert positions when plants are teleported due to construction changes.
  
• Remove player priority from objects that are only battle starters. Priority has no purpose for these objects.
  
• Show resist before weakness in statuses UI for combat.
  
• Corrosion no longer damages mages with the Stoneskin effect
  
• Prevent status-based damage when DamageImmune effect is present in battle related contexts.
  
• Fix battle start button sometimes not being clickable without a reload.
  
• Fix Bramblespawn issue where Bramblespawn spore is sometimes not able to take root in targeted room.