This week we are joined by a different bearded glasses wearing friend of mine on the West coast, Michael Herrera, where I give a small health update (I can see again!), announce who is on the Small Council, and then dive into the new design of the economy.

This week Thomas raises the question about a real or unreal supply/demand economy, provides a health update, and talks about the plan if he becomes unable to finish the game.

This week I continue to struggle with the economy of the simulator. But I also share a recent personal struggle.

This week Thomas tackled one of the big outstanding issues: the realistic supply-demand economy doesn't work.  Nothing to show yet.  Nic shares an update, and we ask you what you think of having a world editor.

I finally finished that torturous menu rewrite mid Wed.  I then returned to knocking off tasks and improving the gameplay of Build 11, starting with Equipment.

With nothing really to show, we address a key fan question, the elephant in the room so to speak, of where is the magic in Archmage Rises?!
 

In this update we show how a variety of interactions can grow a relationship.  And new ones become available as you increase or decrease the stages of the relationship.  Repetition doesn't work in relationships, so I had to retool the NPC brain to be able to efficiently store and quickly retrieve everything that happens to them (with timestamps) so they can react correctly to someone spamming the same choices.

In this update I show another way this game allows realistic interactions with NPCs: Jokes and Insults.  And then how you can take those jokes and use your performance skill to put on a comedy routine at the local inn.
 

This week I rewrote and funified a core system that has been broken for a long time: NPC conversation.  In this video I show the new version of the system.  It's not perfect yet, but I now think I'm on the right track with the accumulation, leveling, and discovery of Interests.

We continue to the hard work of making the game release ready.  Archmage is ambitious and our goal is to make something as deep and interesting as Dwarf Fortress or Crusader Kings II, yet accessible to everyone.  In this update we show the beginnings of character creation and customization, life aspirations, and the detailed NPC relationships view, and announce something weird that is happening with Nic.