Messages

Physical rewards haven't been shipped yet, as they're still being manufactured.

Your digital game keys were sent to the original email address you pledged with via Kickstarter. It appears you have since changed your email address, so I've updated to use your new email address and you should be able to access them on Humble Bundle. I've sent you specific details in reply to the message you sent via Kickstarter.

Hey guys, nothing's in the pipeline at the moment. We're still working on manufacturing all of the reward items for backers of the Mage's Initiation Kickstarter project. So, for the time being, that has been taking priority over everything else.

As for a King's Quest IV remake, we'd love to do it and we spent many years in negotiations with Activision trying to make it happen, but they just kept railroading the idea, sadly. At this point, I think they just want to sit on the Sierra IPs, as they don't see much value in them after their 2015 attempt failed to gain much traction. If we did remake it, though, it'd have to be commercial and officially licensed. It's a huge undertaking remaking a Sierra game, and isn't something we'd have the time or resources to do for free anymore.

Thanks for sending in the save and for reporting this glitch. Wow, that's quite the major oversight! I'm surprised the bug made it through beta testing and hasn't been reported by anyone else in over two years.

I've implemented a fix, which will be rolled out in the next patch. Normally, I'd simply get past the glitch, re-save the game, and send the save-game file back to you. But in this case, I'm actually using a newer development version of the AGS engine, and my save-games will not be backwards compatible with the older version of the game you're running. However, I've found a reliable way to bypass the issue. When targeting your Retrieve spell on Strof, make sure to position the mouse pointer at the very top of the red cap on his head. The bug causes the game to think you're targeting the crowd of goblins behind Strof, and it prioritizes them (they intercept the click). By targeting the mouse cursor well above the heads of the crowd and clicking only on Strof, that seems to work.

Let me know if that does the trick for you?

Could you email the savegame to support@himalayastudios.com and I'll take a look at it. (Instructions on how to do so are in the game's readme.txt file.)

Also, which Interface are you playing the game with?

Yeah, sorry about that. There was a line of code that was accidentally left in v.1.0 of the game (from the beta build) which had it set to expire at the end of February. This auto-patches when the game updates on Steam and GOG, but for the Humble Bundle DRM-Free version (which is the version I assume you're playing?) You'll need to download and install v.1.1 manually.

Just uninstall v.1.0 of the game (your savegames and settings files won't be affected), then log into your Humble Bundle account, go to your library, and download the relevant v1.1 of the game. Then just install it and run it, and you should be able to resume where you left off. And, you're correct, v.1.1 won't expire, as the line of code was removed.

... made it easier to play through - ha, come on, the game is Exceptionally Easy to play through in its original format

None of the puzzles were changed. We only made combat mode optional so that players who prefer to play through more like a traditional adventure game now have that option. Otherwise, if you don't disable combat, v.1.1 still plays exactly the same as v.1.0 did.

As a backer - I had been notified my name would be in the "book", but I am not listed ( one of my friends who was also a backer, his name is in the book )

Only backers at the $20 tier and above had their names added to the Book. We sent out a survey to backers as well as reminders in various Kickstarter updates for backers to submit names for the book before the game's release. Either way, if you want it included and you backed the project at $20 or above, please send us a message through the Kickstarter messaging system mentioning what you'd like your name to be in the book, and I'll get it added.

During the game play I encountered numerous glytches and crashes, which I may get around to reporting ...
... I as yet have not looked at the forum reports regarding crashes and errors Bug Reports ...

V.1.1 comes with a readme.txt file that contains a list of all bugs that were fixed since v.1.0. So that would be a good place to check if the things you noticed have already been addressed or not.

Glad to hear you managed to sort it out. And yes, v1.1 is also available from the Humble site. Just log in there and the game links should be updated to the latest v1.1 build of the game.

Yeah, that's likely an oversight. You're not meant to be able to reveal Brashem's camp with the potion or talk to him after discovering the redcap goblin's camp.

You're meant to initiate this in Task 2. I'll make sure that the Transparent Trickery potion gets removed from the player's inventory when the player discovers the redcap camp for the next patch. Thanks for the heads up!

It was the crab that beheaded the previous initiates, as is seen when D'arc loses his battle with it.

Amun-Cul easily allows D'arc to win this fight, as she is very powerful - certainly far more magically experienced that a novice. But she wants him to believe he got the upper hand because smuggling the artifact out of the palace is the only way that she can be freed from her imprisonment.

Why a dagger? Because putting herself at D'arc's mercy will build his trust when seeing her in vulnerable state. The chance of being killed is a calculated risk that she takes. Relying on D'arc's training to kick in and for him to do the moral thing. But either way, through death or otherwise, she still gets a chance to escape her imprisonment.

I tested this in v1.1 with your savegame (turned the voice volume down prior to loading the autosave file) and it didn't crash for me.

I suspect it was something to do with your old savegame crossing over to the new one. It should no longer happen for people who begin a new game in v1.1 and play up to this point with the speech slider turned all the way down.

It should work, but you may also need to install/reinstall some of the Visual C Redistributable dependencies.  If you look in the stick FAQ thread, then you can see how to do that.

[Q) Where are the save-game files and configuration files located for Mage's Initiation?]

Listed below are some common issues that you may encounter while playing Mage's Initiation. If you follow the suggested solutions, in most cases you should be able to resolve the problem.

Please consult the guide below before posting any issues on our technical forum, as a solution may already be available for the problem that you're experiencing.

Q) Where are the save-game files and configuration files located for Mage's Initiation?

A) The default save-game directories are:

Windows: c:/Users/USERNAME/Saved Games/Mage's Initiation (Where USERNAME is the name of your Windows account)
Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Mage's Initiation/
Linux: ~/.local/share/ags/Mage's Initiation/

Q) When I run the game, I get an error message saying that my display resolution is not supported.

A) This could happen for a number of reasons. If your video card is an older model (or if you are running the game on a netbook or laptop), your system may not support a particular graphics driver. In this case, you will need to run the settings program and change it to use one of the other options. For example, if OpenGL doesn't work, try the DirectDraw driver instead and vice versa. You may also need to change the "Fullscreen scale", "Windowed Scale", and/or "Scaling method" settings if your system doesn't support specific resolutions. Most users who experience these types of issues are able to get it working after experimenting with different combinations. If all else fails, you can try clicking the "Start in windowed mode" checkbox to run the game in a window if nothing else helps.

Q) I can't see the cutscene movies. I just get a black screen or a static video frame.

A) If you run an older system or a netbook or low-end laptop, your system may be too slow to play high-resolution Ogg Theora movies. Running the game with the OpenGL driver may help.

Q) The game doesn't stretch to fill my entire screen.

A) This may happen if your desktop display resolution is set very high. You can run the settings program and change the "Fullscreen/Windowed scale" setting to "Stretch, preserving aspect ratio." This should allow your system to pick the closest maximum game screen size that is compatible with your current desktop resolution. You can also try the "Fill whole screen" and "Max round multiplier" settings

Q) The game automatically changes to letterboxed mode and displays black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. How can I run the game stretched to fill the entire screen?

A) The game has been optimized to fit 16:10 wide-screen monitors. On older 4:3 monitors, the game will intentionally put black bars at the top and bottom of the screen to keep the wide-screen effect.

Q) When I run the game in full-screen mode, the game screen appears in a 640x400-sized rectangular window in the very center of the monitor. The outer edges are completely black.

A) On rare occasions some video cards will draw the game window like this. You can usually overcome the issue by running the winsetup.exe program and changing "Fullscreen/Windowed scale" setting to "Stretch, preserving aspect ratio." This should allow your system to pick the closest maximum game screen size that is compatible with your current desktop resolution. You can also try the "Fill whole screen" and "Max round multiplier" settings. You may need to experiment with a combination of settings (including the "Scaling method" field) to find something that works.

Q) When I load the game, the screen constantly flickers on and off every few seconds. I have tried using all different resolutions and checking the checkbox option for CRT monitors and then un-checking it but nothing seems to work.

A) There are a number of suggestions to help resolve this issue:

  1. Close all other applications before you run the game.
  2. Select the "Stretch, preserving aspect ratio" option in the setup program.
  3. Try running the game in windowed mode.
  4. If all of the above fails, try downloading the latest drivers for your video card,
     downloading the latest DirectX, and lowering your video card's refresh rate.


Q) I receive the following error message when I try to load the game:

"WARNING: Please run the setup program and ensure that valid 'Digital Sound' and 'MIDI Music' options are selected. These options must be enabled for the game to run. Individual music settings may be adjusted, enabled, or disabled from within the game."

A) The audio.vox and speech.vox files must be present in the game directory for the game to work. If you have deleted these, the game will refuse to run. Ensure that these two files exist in your game directory and then run the winsetup.exe program, making certain that the "Use speech pack if available" box is checked.

Q) The game crashes on start-up with an audio error message pertaining to room300.asc.

A) This crash occasionally happens when the system doesn't have any sound drivers installed. Ensure that your sound card is using the latest drivers and try launching the game again.


Q) I'm having trouble with the digital sound feature (i.e. sound effects), as the game says it failed to initialize.

A) You need to select an option other than "No Digital Sound". The audio.vox file must be available for the game to run. Individual sound settings can be adjusted from within the game.


Q) I selected "Disable music" as my "Music" setting in the winsetup.exe program and now the game will not run.

A) You need to select an option other than "Disable music". The audio.vox file must be available for the game to run. Individual music settings can be adjusted from within the game.


Q) I can hear a lot of static in the sound effects or digital music.

A) Some sound cards appear to have trouble with the "Default WaveOut Device" setting for digital sound effects. If you hear static, try running the winsetup.exe program and changing the "Digital Sound" setting to "Default DirectSound Device" instead. Note that sometimes the reverse situation may be the case.


Q) When I run the game, my screen is misaligned.

A) Your monitor's settings may not have been previously calibrated to the game's video mode. The first time you run a game in a resolution that your monitor hasn't encountered before, you may need to adjust the monitor's horizontal and vertical settings to accommodate that specific resolution. Making this adjustment should not affect your Windows desktop resolution settings, and the monitor should remember these adjustments subsequent times you run this game in the same resolution.

Q) The game has frozen or locked up and I can't quit back to the desktop.

A) If, for some reason, the game freezes irrevocably, you can press ALT+X at any time to close the program and return to your desktop.


Q) D'arc seems to have gotten stuck and cannot walk or run anywhere.

A) There are two possible solutions to this problem:
 
  1. Try pressing the Z + U keys together to unfreeze the game if it gets stuck.
  2. Press CTRL + P to bring up the debug parser. Type .unstuck (including the dot) and press Enter.


Q) I'm playing on Linux and the game won't start up. I just get a black screen.

A) This is a known issue that affects Linux systems with a dual-monitor setup.

To bypass this problem, dual-monitor Linux users can run the game in Windowed mode.

If you would prefer to play in full-screen mode, you can try temporarily setting your desktop to "Single Display" mode in the Screen Display properties of Settings while you play the game.

Q) I changed my save-game folder to a custom one and all my game settings have reset to the default values. I have also lost all of my earned achievements when I press F2 and view the Achievements menu.

A) To resolve this issue, you will need to copy all the .dat and .cfg files from your old save-game folder over to the new one. When you next launch the game, your settings and achievements should be successfully restored.


Q) On Linux, my mouse cursor movement is jerky and/or slow.

A) If you're experiencing jerky or slow mouse cursor movement and you're using a high DPI mouse, this can be corrected by adding a line to ~/.local/share/ags/Mage's Initiation/acsetup.cfg using a text editor. (Make sure you're editing the acsetup.cfg file in the save-games folder and not the game's root folder).

In the [mouse] section, add the line: control=never

This should eliminate the mouse lag. It causes AGS to use the system input directly to control the mouse position instead of passing it through a library.

If that doesn't fix it, you'll either have to use a non-high-DPI mouse (or reduce the mouse's polling rate to around 125 and disable acceleration).

One other thing might be worth trying would be to change the speed=1 value in the [mouse] section from 1 to 2.

If experiencing this issue on Windows, you might also try running winsetup.exe and altering the mouse speed settings there.

Q) I'm playing on MacOS and the F-Keys (E.g. F1, F2, F5, etc.) don't work.

A) On MacOS you need to press the function (Fn) key while simultaneously pressing the F-key in question.


Q) How do I enter full-screen mode on MacOS?

A) You can enter full-screen mode using the View menu: View -> Enter Full Screen


Q) There's no setup program for the game in Linux. How can I change the game's configuration options?

A) The acsetup.cfg (configuration) file can be found in the following folder on Linux. It can be edited with a text editor:

   ~/.local/share/ags/Mage's Initiation/acsetup.cfg


Q) There's no setup program for the game in MacOS. How can I change the game's configuration options?

A) The acsetup.cfg (configuration) file can be found in the following folder on MacOS. It can be edited with a text editor:

   ~/Library/Application Support/Mage's Initiation/acsetup.cfg

Q) I'm running Windows and I keep getting a crash with the following error message when launching the game:

  Loading game failed with error: Script link failed: Runtime error: unresolved import
  'AGS2Client::SetAchievementAchieved^1'.
  The game files may be incomplete, corrupt or from an unsupported version of AGS.

  How do I fix it?

A) The Steam and GOG versions of the game have a .dll dependency that's tied to in-game achievements. Sometimes, this causes the above crash to appear on some systems. There are a few solutions you can try to resolve the issue:

Download Microsoft Visual Studio C++ Redistributable packages for 32bit intel architecture (Microsoft puts x86 in the file name for those). You will need two versions: one for 2010 and one more for 2012. You can pick whatever language suits you.

2010: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5555
2012: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30679

Both of these files have the same file name (vcredist_x86.exe) so don't let that confuse you.

Open the Windows Control Panel, go to the Programs and Features, and Uninstall both versions (if you already have them installed). Again make sure to remove only the 32bit versions (with x86 in the name). This may stop some software from launching so please make sure to download the two files listed above FIRST. After removing them, install both packages you downloaded.

The game will launch now.

After installing these Redistributable packages, you may want to run Windows update. In Advanced Settings make sure to enable updates for "other Microsoft products" - this will allow Windows to update any outdated versions of the runtime and fix any security issues discovered since these versions were released. This should be the definitive solution to this start-up crash on Steam and GOG. However, if, for some reason, it doesn't work, you may also try the suggestions below.

-You may need to download or update Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015 - this is a small one-time download, see details here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48145  Install it and then try launching the game again.

-If the game is complaining about other .dll files (msvcr110.dll and msvcp110.dll) missing, go to your C:/Windows/System32 directory. You should see two .dll files called msvcr110.dll and msvcp110.dll Try copying and pasting both of them both into your Mage's Initiation game folder and then launching it.

-Sometimes certain anti-virus software can cause the issue. Try temporarily disabling your anti-virus software before launching the game. If it works then, you may need to add the game and winsetup .exe files to your whitelist.

If none of the above works, please post a report on our technical forum or e-mail support@himalayastudios.com and we will assist you further.

Q) I was able to play the game earlier, but now I'm getting a start-up crash, which says "Error: File read back in wrong order". What can I do?

A) Go to the save-game folder, depending on your OS:

Windows: c:/Users/USERNAME/Saved Games/Mage's Initiation (Where USERNAME is the name of your Windows account)
Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Mage's Initiation/
Linux: ~/.local/share/ags/Mage's Initiation/

Look for the file called options.dat and delete it from the save-games folder, then try launching the game again. If you're still experiencing the crash, open the game's root folder and locate the options.dat file there. Copy and paste it into your save-games folder. Be sure to overwrite any existing file with the same filename so that it bears the exact filename: options.dat

Try launching the game again and now it should work. However, please note that this will reset all your custom settings back to their default state. You will likely want to go to the in-game Options menu and change your interface style and other settings back to how you prefer them.

Q) I'm getting a start-up crash when launching the game, which says "in SaveLoad.asc, line xxx Error: File. ReadStringBack: file was not written by WriteString". How can I resolve this?

A) Go to the save-game folder, depending on your OS:

Windows: c:/Users/USERNAME/Saved Games/Mage's Initiation (Where USERNAME is the name of your Windows account)
Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Mage's Initiation/
Linux: ~/.local/share/ags/Mage's Initiation/

Look for the file called tme.dat and delete it from the save-games folder, then try launching the game again. If you're still experiencing the crash, open the game's root folder and locate the tme.dat file there. Copy and paste it into your save-games folder. Be sure to overwrite any existing file with the same filename so that it bears the exact filename: tme.dat

Try launching the game again and now it should work. However, please note that the most recent in-game timestamp of your autosave file will be inaccurate. This will automatically resolve itself the next time the game autosaves.

Q) How can I change the save-game folder on MacOs or Linux?

A) In Windows, you can do this directly from the winsetupexe program. But on MacOs and Linux, you'll need to take a few precautions and follow these steps:

1) First, manually create the new savegame folder you want and name it something appropriate, like "MagesSaves".

2)  Go to your current (default) savegame folder and open acsetup.cfg in a text editor. At the bottom of the [misc] section, add the following line containing the absolute path to your new savegame folder. For example, in Windows it would look like this:

user_data_dir=C:\MagesSaves

Tip: On MacOs, you can easily copy long pathnames by selecting the desired file or folder (in this case the Save Game folder that you created), and using Cmd+Opt+C to copy the full pathname. Paste this (using Cmd+V) into the the game's acsetup.cfg file as indicated above.

Note: For MacOS Steam installations, the Mage's Initiation acsetup.cfg file is typically found here: ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/Mages Initiation/Mage's Initiation.app/Contents/Resources/acsetup.cfg

Save the acsetup.cfg file and close it.

3) While still in the current (default) savegame folder, copy and paste all files ending in .dat into your new savegames folder (don't move or cut them - just copy and paste). This is important if you want to retain your achievements and in-game settings.

4) Now when you run the game, it should start up and look in the new savegames folder you created (which should be empty, so your in-game savegames list will also appear empty).

5) Repeat the above process for every new savegames folder you wish to create.

6) If you ever want to switch back to an older savegame folder, you'll need to open acsetup.cfg in your original (default) savegames folder and edit the user_data_dir= line to point to the folder where your desired savegames are stored. Then save the acsetup.cfg file and close it. This needs to be done prior to running the game.

(Note: at this point you should copy & paste (overwrite) all .dat files from your most recent savegames folder into the savegames folder you're switching over to, if you want to retain your most up-to date achievements.)

To go back to using the default savegames folder, simply delete the user_data_dir= line from acsetup.cfg all together and save it.

It's a bit fiddly, but there's currently no GUI set-up program for non-Windows AGS games.

[#1 – Cheapest viagra in the world . FDA Approved Pharmacy, EXTRA ...]

I've seen it before, too. These aren't just links being posted on the forum, but the entire page seems to be replaced with text for discount Viagra and other pills.

Sometimes it happens in one browser and not another, and sometimes gives different results on different computers (almost like it's random). In fact, if you search Google for "himalaya studios forums", then the 3rd link down is for the Himalaya forums, but it says "#1 – Cheapest viagra in the world . FDA Approved Pharmacy, EXTRA ..." in the search results.

So it seems that something is definitely up at the server level.

https://www.google.com.au/search?source=hp&ei=oAl9XLzBL5awrQH5oqPIBA&q=himalaya+studios+forums&btnK=Google+Search&oq=himalaya+studios+forums&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0i22i30.3312.8036..8328...1.0..1.378.5653.0j13j10j2......0....1..gws-wiz.....0..0i131j0j0i10.5ZH1Kcl_U98

Nope. They only start appearing from Task 2 onward.

Unfortunately, we can't add any new achievements at this stage, as it requires a lot of reshuffling code and could break other things in the process.

In v1.1, it should not be more likely to get stuck than in v1.0.

To clarify this, the fix in v1.1 doesn't actually prevent you from getting stuck at all. It's still possible. But now, every 2 seconds, some code is executed that attempts to bump D'arc back onto the nearest walkable area if he's stuck outside of it. So, in theory, if you get stuck, you should only remain stuck for 2 seconds or so.

[Patch Notes v1.1]

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 (eg. 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.

[Version 1.1]

A new build of Mage's Initiation has been rolled out.

Version 1.1 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 Steam, GOG, and the Humble Store for Windows, Linux, and MacOs. Steam and GOG Galaxy clients should download and update the game automatically. However, people who purchased the game via Humble will need to uninstall v1.0 and then install v1.1 (Save-game files and other settings will not be lost when uninstalling).

Buy it Here.

We haven't put the patch on GOG or Humble just yet. It's only on Steam at the moment while we test it out and make sure that it's all stable. The reason behind this is because it takes quite a while to handle all the ports (Windows, Mac, Linux) for all the different platforms (Steam, GOG Humble), so we want to make sure that everything is stable and working properly before we roll everything out publically.

That said, we're aiming to push the new patch out to all platforms by the end of this week. So stay tuned!

This crash only happens when playing with voices disabled (i.e. the Speech slider is set all the way to the left). There are a couple of solutions:

1) Turn the speed slider up a small amount in order to get past the scene. (You can disable voices again afterwards, if you want).

2) If playing on Steam, you can update to the v1.0b patch on the "Beta" branch (instructions on how to do so are on the Community hub discussion forum here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/270610/discussions/0/1777136225045720120/

This patch will be rolled out onto the main Steam branch, as well as to GOG, and Humble once it has been verified as stable. But that might take another week or so.

The patch that fixes this bug is up now on Steam now, but it hasn't been pushed wide yet, pending further player testing. Once it's stable, it'll be released as v1.1.

If you're running on Windows and on Steam, you can opt-in and try the build now. See here for more details:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/270610/discussions/0/1777136225045720120/

Yeah, sorry about this. It's a known issue. But the good news is that we've just released a patch on Steam that fixes this bug along with many oothers (Windows only at this point).

If the patch it proves to be stable after some testing by players, we'll be officially release it as v.1.1 soon. If you own the game on Steam and are running Windows, you can also opt-in to the patch now, if you like. More info here:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/270610/discussions/0/1777136225045720120/

Thanks for the save. Fixed!

There's one obscure action that a lot of people miss out on when trying to get a perfect XP run:

[spoiler]Giving the feathercomb back to Condur after you're finished with the Griffon stuff.[/spoiler]

I like that people are already asking for a sequel. That's a good sign!

Someone asked this question on the GOG forums the other day, so rather than double post it, I'll just link it so you can read some of my initial thoughts on sequels there:

https://www.gog.com/forum/mages_initiation_reign_of_the_elements/mages_initiation_2

Check your PM's, I just sent you a message.

If the solutions above don't work, I'm not sure it can be "fixed". We didn't write the AGS Galaxy plug-in, so it's difficult to pinpoint why this crash occurs on some systems and not others. Frustrating, nonetheless. If a solution is found, we'll definitely roll it out, ASAP.

But in the meantime, the best thing we can do is advise people to play the DRM-Free build that's not linked to Steam or GOG's api's.

Are you saying there's a bug where Shareen talks in the Fountain Hall when she's not there?

If so, any chance you can hit me up with a savegame that demonstrates it? And what did she say?

It's not that hard, as there are only a handful of clickable things in that screen, and all of the important ones are surrounding the hut.

Hey, Adventure4Life! For a game to bring a Youtuber out of hibernation after a 7-year-long hiatus is amazing enough, but for that game to be Mage's Initiation makes it all the more flattering. Thanks for your review and for the exposure. A well-rounded critique, which I found myself agreeing with much of the time. You should keep these going on a regular basis. They're entertaining!

For the severed circle achievement to be considered complete, you need to [spoiler]confront Varner in the Training Hall at the start of Task 3, before going to the Redcap goblin camp.[/spoiler]

Yeah, someone else reported this, too. I've already implemented a fix for the next patch. You'll be required to find the proof in his camp before being allowed to leave the screen in order to prevent these soft-lock freezes later on.

No worries, it's still troubling that the glitch exist. I'll try to get to the bottom of it. Sorry for the inconvenience!

I wish we could find a definitive fix for this bug, as it's really annoying not to be able to give advice that "just works".

What I'd recommend you do is download the DRM-Free build from the link in Humble and play that instead. It doesn't contain any dependencies on Steam/GOG Galaxy plugins and won't result in this crash.  Just be aware that if you do that, your savegames between the DRM-Free version and the Steam/GOG version won't be compatible with each other. The DRM-Free version also has all the same achievements in game (Viewable by pressing F2).

You need to complete the Fire Mage side-quest to get the Well Read achievement.

To get the "Saving an Ally in Need" achievement, you need to sacrifice Varner.

Are you able to test it on another computer or laptop, so we can determine whether its something to do with that specific PC?

BTW, did you buy the game directly from GOG or were you a Kickstarter/Paypal backer?

Yup!