Hey, everyone!

A new build of Mage's Initiation has been rolled out. It addresses the majority of bugs and issues that have been reported since launch. This build won't break your existing save-games and will allow you to continue playing from where you left off. However, to get the optimal experience, starting a new game is recommended.

The main feature addition to this patch is the inclusion of a "no combat" mode, which allows you to disable random combat encounters (in the forest and wastelands) completely. Only boss battles will be mandatory, but they, too will be much easier. This feature is intended to allow people to play through the game more like a pure adventure game if they don't want to deal heavily with the combat or RPG elements.

To use "no combat" mode, simply drag the Combat Difficulty slider all the way to the left. You'll see a textual indication saying that combat is disabled in the lower text window.

Some experimental code has also been added, which attempts to unhook the player, should they get stuck on scenery objects (i.e. bushes, rocks, trees, logs etc.) and unable to run during combat. A full list of further additions and bug-fixes is listed below.

The new v.1.1 build is now available on Windows, Linux, and MacOs. Your game should automatically update to the newest version on GOG Galaxy.

Thanks!

Patch Notes v1.1

***WARNING SPOILERS BELOW***

-Updated to AGS Engine v.3.4.3 (Potentially fixes Steam/GOG plugin crashes on start-up and removes artifact lines from sprite edges in OpenGL mode).
-Fixed a bug that was causing the Round of Ale to be sold for 19 gold coins instead of 14.
-Fixed textual misinformation on the title screen when hovering over the "Verb Coin" button. The text description has been updated to be more accurate.
-Fixed a bug when playing with the Verb Coin interface where sometimes the tooltip text descriptions would disappear permanently.
-Fixed a rectangular graphical glitch near the river's drain at evening/night, when the screen is tinted darker shades of blue.
-Fixed a bug where manually entering the combination code for the Hallowed Hall could stop working.
-Fixed a bug that caused the Sapphire Brooch (Marin's Tear) item to be collected from Strof's cupboard, even if you no longer had it in your possession when your items were stolen by the Redcaps.
-Fixed a bug that caused the game to freeze (and the death GUI not to appear) if you reached 0 health during combat and had the Twin Sapphire gem equipped in your Conductor, which regenerates Health Points back up to 25%.
-Fixed a freeze that occurred in Sir Hamfed's manor when attempting to access the inventory GUI while using the Verb Coin and viewing the cabinet close-up.
-Fixed a fatal crash when talking to Fend in the showdown when playing with the voices disabled.
-Fixed an issue with the Verb Coin and Compact interfaces where the master key could not be clicked on the back door while inside the Redcaps' Cooking Hut.
Fixed an issue with the Verb Coin and Compact interfaces where the Exsolve spell could not be clicked on the back door while inside the Redcaps' Cooking Hut.
-Fixed an issue with the Verb Coin and Compact interfaces where the tingleberry powder could not be clicked on the guard's smoking pipe
-Fixed a bug where venom damage would continue to be inflicted while combat was paused.
-Fixed a bug where drinking the lake water from the pitcher did not revert its description to "Empty Water Pitcher".
-Fixed a bug during the Air Mage side-quest where casting the Gust spell at the pile of sand without having the required 3 Mana points, would make the sand pile instantly disappear and cause the 1XP associated with this action to not be awarded.
-Fixed a bug that prevented the "Thanks, But No Thanks" achievement from being awarded if you rejected the offer straight away (I.e. didn't stand inside the Summoning Circle).
-Fixed a points discrepancy when combining the block of wood with the metal pole. (1XP was not being awarded if the pole already had the wheel or wheel and feathers attached.)
-Fixed a bug in the combat tutorial with Varner, where casting Stone Shield would be immediately followed by automatically casting Swallow (after which, the game would soft-lock and freeze).
-Fixed a bug where Shareen could talk in the Fountain Hall at night, even though she wasn't present.
-Fixed a bug when entering the crossroads screen from the right with the arrow keys, which made D'arc not appear in the new screen and caused the game to soft-lock.
-Fixed an XP scoring discrepancy when burning the Applebliss fruit and then using a regular fruit (orange, lemon) to knock it down. XP was being awarded that shouldn't have been.
-Fixed a bug where it was possible to switch the Ruffian's mug just after he had taken it from the window sill, resulting in an unwinnable game state.
-Fixed a bug that made it possible to assign stat points during the cutscene where D'arc helps Falc up the mountain, resulting in a soft-lock game freeze.
-Fixed (attempted) a bug where killing enemies at the exact moment they regain some Health Points (e.g. the Water Wraith healing other Wraiths in the cave battle) would put them into a semi-alive/dead state and make them unable to be killed.
-Fixed a bug when showing the bandage to Pyraze, which resulted in him saying the same line twice.
-Fixed a bug that was causing the mouse cursor to remain invisible after combat ended if you were playing with the keyboard controls only.
-Fixed a bug that sometimes resulted in enemies instantly dying and then reviving again as soon as combat started.
-Fixed a bug in Varner's tutorial, where D'arc's sparring opponent could turn into a redcap goblin when casting Lightning Chain on him instead of Confuse. Also fixed a subsequent soft-lock freeze that occurred if you continued to (correctly) cast Lightning Chain after that.
-Fixed an oversight where it was possible to mouse-over the Big Bad and prematurely reveal their identity while outside the Mansion gates.
-Fixed a potential freeze when casting the Float spell to ascend/descend to/from the window ledge in the Mansion's Rear Courtyard screen.
-Fixed a glitch in the final battle where casting the Hail spell could sometimes make it appear downstairs, rather than where the targeting cursor is on the upper balcony.
-Fixed (attempted) a potential start-up crash when reading the options.dat file (Error message was saying that files were being read in the wrong order).
-Fixed (attempted) a potential crash when dying in combat (Error message said a blocking function was called from within a non-blocking-event such as repeatedly_execute_always).
-Changed the Wastelands Map hot-key to CTRL+W (from CTRL+M) to prevent the map GUI from appearing after saving or restoring the game using the Enter key, or press Enter during combat (Ascii key conflict).
-Changed it so you cannot leave Brashem's camp when asked to search for proof, until after you have discovered said proof. This prevents a freeze later in the game.
-Added an option to the Combat Difficulty slider that allows disabling combat encounters (except for boss battles), by moving the slider all the way to the left. Merchants will give away crucial items/services for free in this mode if the player doesn't have enough gold. so that money doesn't need to be sought. But any XP normally associated with paying for those items/services won't be awarded.
-Added a tip when starting a new game that the Escape key can be used to skip walking/running.
-Added the missing 1 XP Point when taking the feather from the Observation Hall (Air Mage).
-Added food item interactions (dead fish, Casipoisse flesh, and meat) for the insects/bugs in the Redcap camp backyard.
-Added some missing backer names to the Book of Backers in the Reading Hall.
-Added some missing credits to the PDF Manual and adjusted the Verb Coin instructions.
-Added a pop-up message informing the player about the loot hotkey and using it to pick up out-of-sight loot items.
-Removed the echo effect from one of D'arc's speech lines where it should not have been applied.
-Balance: Mages Water is now free to drink directly from the Fountain Hall.
-Balance: Reduced cost of a Flask of Mage's Water to 10 gold coins.
-Balance: Reduced cost of Mana Potion to 5 gold coins.
-Balance: Reduced cost of Health Potion to 4 gold coins.
-Balance: Reduced the requirement to use Scrolls of Identify from 4 Base Intelligence to 3.
-Balance: Added more Intelligence stat logic to Demon's Deal. Now, when D'arc has mid or high-range Intelligence, it becomes increasingly easier to win against Fend.
-Various spelling and grammar fixes.

Are the achievements bugged since this patch by any chance? I didn't get any for some time now, not even the story ones.

The achievements that worked in v.1.0 should still work in v.1.1, as none of that code was changed between versions.

However, not all of the achievements work in the GOG Galaxy build (it's actually a miracle we were able to get any to work at all, as I don't think any previous AGS were able to figure them out). This is due to the Galaxy back-end not supporting a method to link a stat count to a specific achievement like Steamworks does (e.g. The "Who's Counting" achievement not unlocking after you kill 50 monsters).

This means that any achievements that keeps count of something in order to unlock said achievement won't work.

Strange, all achievement were unlocked at least by some people if you can believe the statistics and personally I unlocked some counting achievements like "Who is counting", "Dedictated" and "Love Those 'Shrooms". I also remember that the first six achievements or so unlocked together after I had been already playing the game for some time.

It's not super important, I just wanted to report the issue that is most likely caused by GOG itself. Thanks for your answer.

Interesting! Maybe it's just that it requires no special code then. Who knows?

Thanks for mentioning it. I'll keep it in mind.

Not sure if it's it intended or likely a bug, but I get constant echo from speech in the game (playing on Linux).

The echo is used for D'arc's "thoughts" to himself. When he speaks to other NPCs, there's no echo effect. (We needed a way to differentiate between the two).

I see. It's somewhat irritating though (echoes each time you are trying to use see icon on things so naturally D'arc describes things to himself), so would be nice if you could make it optional in some future update. I don't mind figuring it out from the context. Never had a problem like that in other games that just use regular speech for both cases.

Thanks!

The AGS engine has no option to add real-time echo effects to audio, so that would mean every voice "thought" file in the game would need to be doubled-up on, re-encoded, and re-scripted for something rather minor and aesthetic.

Interestingly, we've used this "thought" echo effect for all our games in the past, too, but for some reason, people are only mentioning it with this one. That said, most people do say they get used to it after playing for a while.