{ "title": "What's new in Magestorm", "intro": "The latest changes to Magestorm in your browser, newest first.", "days": [ { "date": "2026-10-19", "items": [ { "headline": "Join puts you with your friend.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Pressing " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Join" }, { "t": "text", "s": " on a player's card now picks " }, { "t": "b", "s": "With" }, { "t": "text", "s": " them by default (" }, { "t": "b", "s": "Enter" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in Classic); " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Fair" }, { "t": "text", "s": " and " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Against" }, { "t": "text", "s": " are still there, and Fair is the default when their team is closed." } ] }, { "headline": "The week turns at Sunday 8 pm Eastern, all year.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Weekly quests, the Weekly Honours and their Discord post now all change over at the same moment every Sunday at 8 pm Eastern Time, winter and summer alike - in winter the week used to end an hour earlier, at 7 pm. This week ends as planned." } ] }, { "headline": "Join a friend from their name.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "In the tavern, click a player's name to see which arena they are in and " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Join" }, { "t": "text", "s": " it: " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Fair" }, { "t": "text", "s": " puts you on the team with the fewest players, or pick " }, { "t": "b", "s": "With" }, { "t": "text", "s": " or " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Against" }, { "t": "text", "s": " them, whatever the team sizes - the card shows how many players each team has. In Classic, click the name in the player column, then " }, { "t": "b", "s": "J" }, { "t": "text", "s": "." } ] }, { "headline": "Two-team maps show two teams again.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Right after an update, Roarc Cata 2T, its CTF and level versions (and the other two-team maps) listed Chaos, Order and Balance on the arena list until someone entered; they now always show just their two teams, and Order can no longer be picked there." } ] }, { "headline": "Battle stays out of the Chat tab.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Your own heal and raise lines (\"You heal Bob for 20\") now go to the " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Combat" }, { "t": "text", "s": " tab and " }, { "t": "b", "s": "All" }, { "t": "text", "s": " only, so the " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Chat" }, { "t": "text", "s": " tab is just what players say. A heal that lands still shows its note under the crosshair." } ] }, { "headline": "GPU rendering for everyone.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Magestorm now draws with your graphics card (WebGL2) when it has one: smoother frames, and a true perspective when you look up or down. It switches on the next time you enter an arena or reload the page. Computers without a hardware GPU stay on the classic renderer automatically, and " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Renderer" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in Config lets you pick GPU or CPU yourself." } ] }, { "headline": "Bots keep up with you.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "When stronger players join an arena whose bots came in at a lower level, the bots now rise to the players' level - at once before the match gets going, or each time a bot next dies - so a full Battlegrounds is no longer stuck with level 1 bots. Bots set with " }, { "t": "code", "s": "/botlevel" }, { "t": "text", "s": " keep their level." } ] }, { "headline": "Clerics' name rings fixed.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Names over the arena no longer all look outlined when your computer is set to a light theme, so a Cleric's white ring again means one thing: a teammate below two thirds of their health. The ring now shows on your own team only, never on enemies." } ] }, { "headline": "See your hits land.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The crosshair flashes an X when your spell hits (orange and larger for a killing blow, a small cyan one when your heal reaches a teammate), and \"You slew Bob\" or \"Slain by Bob\" shows above it - in the Modern, Classic and Hybrid interfaces. Turn them off with " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Hit marker" }, { "t": "text", "s": " and " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Kill banners" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in Config or Classic's F1 settings; " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Hit sound" }, { "t": "text", "s": " adds a quiet tick." } ] }, { "headline": "Colour-blind team colours.", "body": [ { "t": "b", "s": "Team colours: Allies & enemies" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in Config (or Classic's F1 settings) shows your team in blue and every other team in orange - names, team chat, the map, the scoreboard, the shrine and pool bars and the arena list - colours that stay apart for red-green and blue-yellow colour blindness. Team names stay where they were." } ] }, { "headline": "Team letters and a friendly crosshair.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Each name over the arena now has its team's letter (C, O or B) beside it, and the crosshair turns into a ring when it is over a teammate. " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Team marks" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in the settings turns both off." } ] }, { "headline": "Ally health bars.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Clerics now see a thin health bar under each teammate's name, so you can tell who needs healing; " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Ally health bars" }, { "t": "text", "s": " can show them for every class, or hide them." } ] } ] }, { "date": "2026-10-18", "items": [ { "headline": "Quests count your quick wins.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A match won (or finished) in under five minutes - a fast shrine kill on Roarc Cata 2T - now counts for your daily and weekly quests if you were in most of it, raising a fallen bot teammate counts for a raise quest, and a Roarc Cata 2T win counts for \"Win a match in Two teams\"." } ] }, { "headline": "Bolts track runners better.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A bolt's gentle pull now aims where a running enemy is going, not where it is, so a shot you lead is no longer pulled back behind them, and a bolt you aim straight at someone stays on them." } ] }, { "headline": "Heal Other heals your teammate.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A heal or buff aimed a little off a teammate now goes to the teammate nearest your crosshair instead of to you." } ] }, { "headline": "Call Dead brings the ghost in front of you.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The called ghost now appears a step in front of you, and with nobody aimed at it calls the nearest ghost you can call." } ] }, { "headline": "No more sticking to wall ends.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "You now slide round the end of a thin wall instead of catching on it - the doorway of the green shrine's room in the Cathedrals among others." } ] }, { "headline": "No more runaway keys.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "If the browser takes your keys or mouse (its menu, Alt+Tab, leaving fullscreen) nothing stays held, so your mage no longer keeps backing up; a " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Click to resume" }, { "t": "text", "s": " prompt locks the mouse again in one click - and takes you back to fullscreen if you left it - and sending a chat line with Enter puts you straight back in the game." } ] } ] }, { "date": "2026-10-17", "items": [ { "headline": "Bolts track a little again.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A bolt now bends gently toward the enemy nearest your aim, so a near miss curves in - you still aim and lead, but it no longer has to be perfect. It never turns round, goes through walls or seeks a teammate." } ] }, { "headline": "Team chat in your team's colour.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Team chat (/t) now shows in your team's colour - red for Chaos, blue for Order, green for Balance - so it stands out from everyone's chat, in both interfaces and on phones." } ] }, { "headline": "Your readied spell's name on screen.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "In the Classic interface the readied spell's name now shows at the bottom right of the 3D view, in yellow under the kill and heal messages, as in the original; it changes as you pick another spell." } ] } ] }, { "date": "2026-10-16", "items": [ { "headline": "Join the Magestorm Hub on Discord.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A small pill on the sign-in screen and in the tavern links the community's server and its game schedule on " }, { "t": "a", "s": "griv.io", "href": "https://griv.io/magestorm" }, { "t": "text", "s": " (games daily at 8 PM Eastern); close it with its x and it stays hidden. Both links are also in the tavern's Help menu." } ] }, { "headline": "Roarc Cata 2T for every level.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Three more two-team Catacombs arenas sit beside the open one, each for a level range: " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Lv 1-5" }, { "t": "text", "s": ", " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Lv 6-12" }, { "t": "text", "s": " and " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Lv 13+" }, { "t": "text", "s": ", with bots at those levels. A character outside the range cannot enter; the open Roarc Cata 2T is still for everyone." } ] }, { "headline": "The wrap-up is sorted by score.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "When you leave an arena, the list of everyone who played is now highest score first, with each name still in its team colour." } ] }, { "headline": "Bots wade through walls.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Bots are now slowed by Water Wall, Wall of Cold, Raging Waters, Airwall, Mana Wall and Void Wall just as you are, instead of walking through them at full speed, and they go round a slowing wall when the way round is short." } ] }, { "headline": "A fairer victory bonus.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Kills and raises of mages far below your level now count less toward the victory bonus, the full bonus needs about five minutes in the match, and it adds a quarter of your match experience for a whole match (it was more). Raising the same mage over and over pays nothing for a minute, and a match with nobody to play against pays no victory bonus." } ] }, { "headline": "Pool edges fixed.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Walking out of a pool, you now step up onto the rim when you actually reach it, not from well short of it, and a jump near the edge comes back down in the water. Walking in, you drop into the pool sooner instead of hanging over the water." } ] }, { "headline": "Hold to keep casting.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Hold the cast button (left click, F, the gamepad's cast button or CAST on touch) to keep casting your readied projectile, bolt, targeted spell or heal each time it is ready - never faster than clicking. Buffs, walls, runes and dispells still cast once per press; turn it off with " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Hold to keep casting" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in Config, the Controls panel or Classic's F1 settings." } ] }, { "headline": "A Community Manager badge.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Our community manager now shows an orange " }, { "t": "b", "s": "CM" }, { "t": "text", "s": " badge by their name in the tavern, the chat, the player lists and over their head, so you can tell who to ask about events, bots and the community." } ] }, { "headline": "Sign Expulse launches you again.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Step off your own Sign Expulse and walk back onto it to launch yourself, as before; teammates and enemies can still set it off too. Harmful runes still never catch you or your team." } ] } ] }, { "date": "2026-10-13", "items": [ { "headline": "Leap II no longer ends when you fall.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Dropping off a ledge or down a few steps keeps your Leap ready; only a jump uses it up." } ] }, { "headline": "Your own runes no longer catch you in free-for-all.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Walking over a rune you placed does nothing to you in any mode; other players' runes still go off under you." } ] }, { "headline": "Fullscreen keeps Ctrl+Tab in the game.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "On Chrome and Edge, playing in fullscreen keeps Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+1 to 9 from switching browser tabs." } ] }, { "headline": "Rules tune-up.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A conquest now ends " }, { "t": "b", "s": "30 seconds" }, { "t": "text", "s": " after a team conquers all shrines (it was 29), and in capture the flag each capture knocks " }, { "t": "b", "s": "25" }, { "t": "text", "s": " off the enemy shrine, so " }, { "t": "b", "s": "4 captures" }, { "t": "text", "s": " bring a full one down. Your stamina now lasts " }, { "t": "b", "s": "35 seconds" }, { "t": "text", "s": " of running (it was 30)." } ] }, { "headline": "Running jumps keep their speed.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Jumping while running no longer drops you to walking speed: you carry your run through the air (nothing in the air makes you faster). You now count as running just above walking speed." } ] }, { "headline": "Experience always counts.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The \"Too Few in Match\" rule is gone: you earn experience, the victory bonus and your record however few are in the arena. Experience follows a slightly different curve: every hit pays a little more, and a kill a little less at higher levels." } ] }, { "headline": "Shrines and pools vary a little.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Each class still brings shrines down and biases pools at its own pace, now with a little variation from one try to the next." } ] } ] }, { "date": "2026-10-12", "items": [ { "headline": "Less experience from far weaker foes.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Hits and kills on a mage more than four levels below you now give less experience, down to a tenth at thirteen levels below, while healing, raises and shrines are unchanged. A quiet notice tells you when it applies, and the results show how much was reduced." } ] }, { "headline": "Shrinebreaker, from the same team.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A slim line in the tavern points to Shrinebreaker, a reimagined three-order battle, at " }, { "t": "a", "s": "shrinebreaker.com", "href": "https://shrinebreaker.com" }, { "t": "text", "s": ". Its " }, { "t": "b", "s": "x" }, { "t": "text", "s": " folds it to a small chip that stays folded in your browser; click the chip to open it again." } ] } ] }, { "date": "2026-10-06", "items": [ { "headline": "Smoother on phones.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Leaving a match on a phone no longer freezes on the way back to the tavern, and phones and tablets use less memory in the arena, so the game is less likely to stall or be closed by the browser - especially with the experimental art on." } ] } ] }, { "date": "2026-10-05", "items": [ { "headline": "Steep look: a true 3D view, up to 65 degrees.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "With " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Steep look" }, { "t": "text", "s": " ticked, looking up or down past 30 degrees now shows the arena as a real camera tilting up would: walls stay straight and lean towards the sky or the ground, instead of bending round the middle of the screen. Steep look now goes up to 65 degrees (it used to be 80)." } ] }, { "headline": "Crawl into low tunnels.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Hold crouch to crawl into a low passage from either end when it is a little below the floor you are on, such as the water tunnels under the walls in Barracks of Folenn. Bots crawl through them too instead of getting stuck at the mouth." } ] }, { "headline": "Hybrid interface: Classic menus, Modern battles.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A third choice for " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Interface" }, { "t": "text", "s": " (login screen, Config menu, Classic settings, or F10): the classic screens for the login, the study and the tavern, and the full-window modern view in the arena, so you get the whole screen for battle. Match results show on the classic results page." } ] }, { "headline": "Bigger HUD.", "body": [ { "t": "b", "s": "Config -> HUD size" }, { "t": "text", "s": " makes the arena's spell bar, bars, shrine list, match status, chat, map and menus 1.25x, 1.5x, 2x or 3x bigger, as far as your window has room, so everything is easier to read." } ] }, { "headline": "The key help remembers.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Close the key help with " }, { "t": "b", "s": "H" }, { "t": "text", "s": " once and it stays closed in every arena and after you sign in again (press " }, { "t": "b", "s": "H" }, { "t": "text", "s": " to bring it back). It now sits to the left of the Shrines box instead of over it." } ] }, { "headline": "Signed out when away.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "If you leave the game sitting on the character screen or in the tavern for 10 minutes without touching it, you are signed out, with a warning a minute before - move the mouse or press a key to stay. Inside an arena nothing changes; after a sign-out, " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Sign back in" }, { "t": "text", "s": " signs you in again." } ] }, { "headline": "A countdown before every match.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "When a match is about to start, everyone (bots too) is held at the start while the arena loads, then a big " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Match starting in" }, { "t": "text", "s": " counts down from 10 to " }, { "t": "b", "s": "NOW" }, { "t": "text", "s": ", so nobody gets a head start. The last three seconds of a match's time are counted down too." } ] }, { "headline": "Rank badges by every name.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Your season rank badge (\"R3\") now shows before your name in the tavern's Online list and its chat, in the arena's player list and on the Tab scoreboard, as well as in chat - in both interfaces. A tavern line keeps its badge even after the player has left." } ] }, { "headline": "A Dev badge for the developer.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The developer's characters show an orange " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Dev" }, { "t": "text", "s": " badge in place of a rank badge and title, with the name in orange, so you can tell when the person building the game is around." } ] }, { "headline": "Easier-to-read Classic chat.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "In the Classic tavern and arena chat, lines no longer touch each other (in every font style), and the orange Dev badge now sits neatly behind its word with a space on each side. The chat shows a few fewer lines at once as a result." } ] }, { "headline": "Tidier Classic player lists.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "In the Classic tavern's player list, the arena's roster and the scoreboard, names with a rank badge or the orange Dev badge no longer crowd each other: the rows have room to breathe, the heading stays clear of the border, and long names end in \"...\" before the class." } ] }, { "headline": "Tuck the info box away.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The box at the top left of the arena (map, position, time left, frame rate) has a small " }, { "t": "b", "s": "<" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in its corner: click it to dock the box as a slim tab at the left edge of the screen, and click " }, { "t": "b", "s": ">" }, { "t": "text", "s": " to bring it back. The game remembers your choice; the Config menu's " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Info box" }, { "t": "text", "s": " row does the same." } ] }, { "headline": "The Sound menu is now Config.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The settings button at the top is now called " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Config" }, { "t": "text", "s": ", as it holds far more than sound: view, controls, chat, the player list and help. While the game is muted, a small crossed-out speaker shows beside it." } ] }, { "headline": "The silver Classic interface, finished (experimental).", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "With " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Experimental Classic art" }, { "t": "text", "s": " on, the last gold tabs and buttons are silver now, and Feedback, Quests, Feats, Hall, Skin, Look, Loadouts, Close and the other plain-text buttons are proper silver tabs and buttons that light up under the pointer. Cramp and Snow get their own icon, and the CTF orb carrier's icon is sharp too." } ] }, { "headline": "A sharper, silver Classic interface (experimental).", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A new graphics option, " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Experimental Classic art" }, { "t": "text", "s": " (Config menu; Classic: F1), redraws the whole Classic interface at four times the detail in silver and pewter, with a new \"Magestorm - The Revival\" logo, sharper effect icons and maps. Everything stays where it was; turn it off for the original look." } ] } ] }, { "date": "2026-10-04", "items": [ { "headline": "Classic looks sharper at any window size.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "In the Classic interface, windows that are not an exact multiple of 640x480 (1366x768, 1600x900, a laptop at 125% or 150%) now show every pixel of the art at the same size, without the uneven stripes or blur, and the text stays crisp." } ] }, { "headline": "Every arena is sharper now (experimental).", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "With " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Experimental arena textures" }, { "t": "text", "s": " on, all 13 arenas have their sharper walls, floors and skies, and the torches, lanterns, braziers and trees are redrawn too - the flames still glow at night." } ] }, { "headline": "Sharper arenas (experimental).", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A new graphics option, " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Experimental arena textures" }, { "t": "text", "s": " (Config menu; Classic: F1), draws the arenas at four times the detail: walls, floors, doors, torches and the sky. The maps are being upgraded one by one, starting with Cathedral Revival; a map that is not done yet looks as it always has." } ] }, { "headline": "No more \"Disconnected: flooding\" after a hiccup.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "If your connection stalls for a moment, the game no longer throws you out when it catches up: your position is simply corrected, and if a disconnect does happen the game reconnects you to your arena by itself. Ghosts flying forward and sideways at once are no longer pulled back either." } ] } ] }, { "date": "2026-10-03", "items": [ { "headline": "Change your gamepad buttons and the cast click.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "In " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Config -> Controls" }, { "t": "text", "s": " you can now give every gamepad action the button you like, and move casting off the left mouse button to any other mouse button or a key. Menus still move with the d-pad, A and B as before." } ] }, { "headline": "Steep look is now your choice.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Looking up and down past the original's 30 degrees is now off unless you want it: tick " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Steep look (experimental)" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in the Config menu (Classic: F1) to look as far as the arena allows (80 degrees in most), with the view bending gently past 30." } ] }, { "headline": "No casting from a pool that isn't yours yet.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "As in the original, standing in a neutral, partly biased or enemy pool you can't cast until you step out or your team biases it fully - except Arcanists, who can cast in any pool." } ] }, { "headline": "No casting in Valhalla or on a shrine.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "As in the original, nobody can cast while standing in Valhalla or on a shrine's own spot; standing beside a shrine still works it, and you can cast from there." } ] }, { "headline": "Look up and down further.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "You can now look and aim up to 80 degrees up and down instead of the original's 30: aim at a flyer almost straight overhead, or at someone at the foot of a wall from the top of it. Past 30 degrees the view bends gently, like a wide-angle lens, so the players you aim at keep their shape and your spells hit what your crosshair is on." } ] } ] }, { "date": "2026-10-02", "items": [ { "headline": "Bots come back for their shrine.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "When an enemy starts bringing a team's shrine down, a few of its bots (Clerics first, as they restore fastest) now head home, fight the raider from the shrine and stand by it until it is full again, then go back to what they were doing - instead of nobody coming until it was low and then the whole team." } ] }, { "headline": "Signs in pools and doorways.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "You can now place signs (runes) while standing in a pool, into a pool from its edge, in and through an open doorway and on a lift, as in the original. When a sign cannot go somewhere you are told why: a closed door, a wall or ground too high in the way." } ] }, { "headline": "Raised bots get healed first.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Bot Clerics now heal a teammate they have just raised back to full, and a raised bot waits by a Cleric (or heads for a pool) instead of running straight back into the fight at 10% health." } ] }, { "headline": "The Chronicle.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Each character now keeps its last 50 matches - result, place, kills, damage, healing, experience and the Feats and quests earned - and each one's final scoreboard: open " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Chronicle" }, { "t": "text", "s": " on a character in the study or under My characters on the Leaderboard (Classic: " }, { "t": "b", "s": "C" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in the study). Beat your best kills, healing, score and more and the results say \"New personal best!\"." } ] }, { "headline": "Weekly Honours.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Every Monday seven Honours - Lifebringer, Shrinebreaker, Poolwarden, Monster Hunter, Iron Mage, Rising Star and Duelist - go to the week's best players, who wear a small laurel by their name all week. See the winners and each season's top ten in the new " }, { "t": "a", "s": "Hall of Honours", "href": "https://magestorm.fathomthat.org/hall" }, { "t": "text", "s": " (Classic: " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Hall (H)" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in the tavern)." } ] }, { "headline": "Tips when they help.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The four first-match tips make way for short tips that show in the arena at the moment they help - when you fall, run out of spell points, stand in a pool or have stat points to spend - each only once for your account, in any browser. Turn them off or start over with " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Tips" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in the Config menu (Classic: F1, page 2)." } ] }, { "headline": "Each class takes pools and shrines at its own pace.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "As in the original, Magicians take pools fastest and Clerics shrines, and Arcanists cannot take pools at all; the pool and shrine meters now tell you how long it takes you (\"~10 s for you\")." } ] }, { "headline": "Classic menus turn pages.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Classic's F1 settings are now on two pages, and long lists - the arena's roster, the results and the tavern's player column - turn pages with PageUp / PageDown or a click instead of crowding together." } ] }, { "headline": "Quicker casts.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Your spells and moves reach the server sooner: a cast no longer waits a few milliseconds behind the move before it." } ] }, { "headline": "Warning rings always show.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Meteor Shower's warning circles and the scarecrow's ring now show from the first moment, even while their artwork is still loading." } ] }, { "headline": "Less memory.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The game page uses about 40 MB less memory once you have seen the arena's looks and spell skins." } ] }, { "headline": "F10 in Classic.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Pressing F10 twice quickly no longer leaves a Classic screen on top of Modern." } ] }, { "headline": "Feedback and bug reports.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A new " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Feedback / Report a bug" }, { "t": "text", "s": " button in the tavern (Classic: " }, { "t": "b", "s": "B" }, { "t": "text", "s": ") sends us a suggestion or a bug report in a few words. We read every one." } ] }, { "headline": "A tidier tavern.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The Modern tavern's top bar now groups its buttons into three small menus: " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Progress" }, { "t": "text", "s": " (Quests, Feats, Leaderboard, your Chronicle and the Hall), " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Help" }, { "t": "text", "s": " (How to play, Arena types, What's new) and your character's menu (Change character, theme, Log out). " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Feedback / Report a bug" }, { "t": "text", "s": " stays in sight, and every key works as before." } ] }, { "headline": "The Chaos Finale.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Now and then the Chaos Arena ends a match with a finale: two events at once, such as " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Blood Moon" }, { "t": "text", "s": " (Vampiric Magic and a Bounty under a short night), " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Hallow's Eve" }, { "t": "text", "s": " or " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Arcane Storm" }, { "t": "text", "s": ". It comes about one match in three, and its darkness lasts only a minute or two." } ] }, { "headline": "Low gravity stays low after Haste.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "When Low gravity follows Haste in the Chaos Arena, it now lasts its whole run instead of turning back to normal gravity after a couple of seconds." } ] }, { "headline": "Halloween monsters.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A new arena event: \"The dead stir...\" and ghouls, banshees, pumpkin witches and scarecrows rise and attack everyone in sight, so watch for the scarecrow's glowing ring and step away. Bringing one down earns bonus experience and the new Monster Hunter Feats." } ] }, { "headline": "Halloween monsters, tidied up.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The monsters and the Chaos Goblin no longer show up in the player list or its count, the combat log says what hit you in their own words (\"Banshee's wail hits you for 13\"), monsters fade out in their purple mist, and a scarecrow's ring or a meteor's warning circle no longer shows through a wall." } ] }, { "headline": "Wild Hotbar.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A new arena event in the Chaos Arena: everyone's spell bar becomes a random hand of spells from every class, up to their own level, and you get a fresh hand each time you fall. Your own readied spells come back when it ends." } ] }, { "headline": "Reconnecting mid-match.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "After a dropped connection or a page reload you now come back to the arena as it is: your event spells, the lighting, flight and paused spells, walls and runes, the match results and the experience event are restored correctly, even if they changed while you were away." } ] } ] }, { "date": "2026-10-01", "items": [ { "headline": "Exploding corpses hurt everyone.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A corpse's blast now hurts every mage in reach, the killer and the killer's own team included, so stay clear of the fallen. Only enemies it kills count as the killer's kills, and the kill feed says who was blown up." } ] }, { "headline": "Cast on the run during Haste.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "While the Haste arena event is on, running no longer stops you casting; a run still tires you as usual." } ] }, { "headline": "See other arenas' events from the tavern.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The arena list now shows the event running in each arena, such as \"Event: Low gravity – 2:10 left\", or one about to start." } ] }, { "headline": "New sounds for the arena events.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Meteors roar as they are called down and crash where they land, and the Chaos Goblin vanishes with a poof when it dies or leaves." } ] }, { "headline": "Goblin Slayer.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "New Feats for bringing down Chaos Goblins - Goblin Slayer, Goblin Hunter and Bane of Goblins - and helping to kill one counts as well as landing the last spell." } ] }, { "headline": "Commands stay private.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Commands you type (starting with /) are no longer shown to other players: only you see your command (dimmed) and its answer, and a mistyped one says \"Unknown command\" to you alone." } ] }, { "headline": "Message a player from the tavern.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Type " }, { "t": "b", "s": "@Name" }, { "t": "text", "s": " and your message in the tavern chat to reach that player wherever they are - in an arena, the tavern or the study - as a purple line and a small banner (one message a minute); turn the banner off with " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Tavern DM banners" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in the Config menu (Classic: " }, { "t": "b", "s": "DM banners" }, { "t": "text", "s": " under F1)." } ] }, { "headline": "Haste is faster, and you can cast in it.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The Haste arena event now doubles everyone's speed, and walking under it no longer counts as running, so you can cast while you walk." } ] }, { "headline": "The Chaos Goblin shows on the minimap.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "While it is loose, everyone can see the Chaos Goblin on the minimap as a green diamond, so you can hunt it down." } ] }, { "headline": "The Chaos Arena and its arena events.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A new rotating arena, listed under the Skirmish: Conquest at 20v20v20, and from half time a new " }, { "t": "b", "s": "arena event" }, { "t": "text", "s": " every 5 minutes - low gravity, exploding corpses, Wild Magic, Haste, Glass Cannon, a Meteor Shower that punishes standing still, and the " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Chaos Goblin" }, { "t": "text", "s": ", a fast, tough monster that sprays spells all round it and steals pools, worth bonus experience to whoever brings it down. Night and Halloween lighting come and go too, and each event is announced on screen with a countdown." } ] }, { "headline": "Resize and move the chat box.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Drag the small grip on the chat's top right corner to make it bigger or smaller, or drag its tab strip to move it anywhere on the screen. It is remembered in your browser, and " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Reset chat position" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in the Config menu (F1) puts it back." } ] }, { "headline": "Sharper, easier-to-read text in Classic.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Classic now uses a clearer " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Readable" }, { "t": "text", "s": " face by default, and its settings (the study's crystal ball, or F1 in an arena) have a " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Font" }, { "t": "text", "s": " row to switch to " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Smooth" }, { "t": "text", "s": " (the old letters with smooth edges) or back to the " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Original" }, { "t": "text", "s": " pixel letters, with every screen keeping its layout." } ] }, { "headline": "Scheduled experience events.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Experience events can now be planned ahead: the tavern pins the next one at the top, in your own time (\"Next: 3x experience event - Sat 8:00 PM (your time) for 1 h\"), and each starts and ends on its own. While one covers your arena, an " }, { "t": "b", "s": "XP ×3" }, { "t": "text", "s": " buff sits with your spell effects, showing how long it has left - hover or tap it for the details." } ] }, { "headline": "The Flaming Skull spell skin at season rank 8.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Your darts, arrows, balls and bolts fly as a grinning skull wreathed in green flame and shatter into green fire and bone shards. Pick it under " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Spell skin" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in the study (Classic: " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Skin (K)" }, { "t": "text", "s": ") once you reach the rank." } ] }, { "headline": "Two more spell skins: the Ectoplasm Ball at rank 4 and the Bleeding Heart at rank 6.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Your darts, arrows, balls and bolts fly as a ghostly ball of ectoplasm or a dripping heart and burst in a splash of ectoplasm or blood, and the sparks and chunks some spells throw off become droplets too. Pick them under " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Spell skin" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in the study (Classic: " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Skin (K)" }, { "t": "text", "s": ") once you reach the rank." } ] } ] }, { "date": "2026-09-30", "items": [ { "headline": "Night arenas and a Halloween blackout.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Arenas can now fall into night - a dark sky, with torches, lanterns, pools and shrines still glowing - or a Halloween blackout, when the lights go dark with an eerie orange glow here and there; glowing eyes stay bright in the dark. If it is too dark for you, turn on " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Reduce darkness effects" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in the Config menu (Classic: F1)." } ] }, { "headline": "Spell skins: the Pumpkin Ball at season rank 2.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Reach rank 2 this season and pick " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Spell skin" }, { "t": "text", "s": " on a character in the study (Classic: " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Skin (K)" }, { "t": "text", "s": "), and every dart, arrow, ball and bolt you cast flies as a glowing jack-o'-lantern for everyone, while see-through spells keep their element's colour. To hide other players' skins, turn off " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Show other players' spell skins" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in the Config menu (Classic: F1)." } ] }, { "headline": "No more seeing through walls up close.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Standing pressed against a wall or into a corner no longer lets you see the hall behind it through parts of the wall; the wall is drawn right in front of you, as in the original." } ] }, { "headline": "Bot Clerics raise you after calling you.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A bot Cleric that calls your ghost to it now raises you within about 12 seconds even if it is fighting, and bot Clerics sometimes raise during a fight - they still prefer a quiet moment, and never raise you into a wall, rune or aura that would hurt you." } ] }, { "headline": "Six Halloween looks to earn this season, and change your look in the study.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Rank 3 unlocks the " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Jack-o'-lantern" }, { "t": "text", "s": " and " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Halloween May" }, { "t": "text", "s": ", rank 5 the " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Evil Jack-o'-lantern" }, { "t": "text", "s": " and " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Evil Halloween May" }, { "t": "text", "s": " with glowing red eyes, and rank 7 the " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Undead Wizard" }, { "t": "text", "s": " and " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Undead May" }, { "t": "text", "s": " with glowing green eye sockets, for all your characters. Open " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Appearance" }, { "t": "text", "s": " on a character (Classic: " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Look (A)" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in the Character Manager) to pick a look - it shows the next time you enter an arena." } ] }, { "headline": "Smoother movement: no more sticking on corners and stairs, and jumps like the original.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Sliding along walls, rounding corners and walking stairs no longer slows you to a crawl, a jump keeps its speed through the air as it did in the original, walking off a ledge keeps your control, and Expulse launches you once instead of turning every later jump into a super jump." } ] }, { "headline": "Call Dead works sooner.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A Cleric's Call Dead now reaches a teammate who has been a ghost for 5 seconds instead of 20, and the player list's Dead only marks them \"call\" from then." } ] }, { "headline": "Experimental art, closer to the original.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The experimental spell effects look more like the originals (Fire Ball, Fire Storm and Maelstrom are yellow again, Boulder and Tornado are dark), and every experimental character sprite walks and flies more like the original, with OP crawling at his proper size." } ] }, { "headline": "Experience events.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "During an experience event every bit of experience you earn is multiplied - up to 5x - in every arena or one chosen arena; the tavern, the arena list and your arena show \"Experience event: 3x\" while it lasts, and the chat says when it starts and ends." } ] }, { "headline": "Free for all plays as the original.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Everyone still in at the end is credited with a win, and everyone starts in Valhalla (on most maps) - walk out through its teleporter to join the fight." } ] }, { "headline": "Quests for the new game types, and a fourth daily.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "New dailies and weeklies for the Skirmish, free for all, deathmatch and two teams - including placing in the top 3 of a free for all - and four daily quests instead of three." } ] }, { "headline": "Arenas open much faster, with a loading bar.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Entering an arena no longer takes several seconds on most connections - the map now downloads all at once and smaller, and the arena you pick in the tavern starts loading while you look at it - and a progress bar shows what is happening (loading the map, opening the arena, joining). With the experimental art turned on, it now downloads in the background before you enter." } ] }, { "headline": "Bots crawl, and fewer of them are Clerics.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Bots now crouch through crawl spaces and low openings like you can, and only about one bot in ten is a Cleric - two on a team of twenty." } ] }, { "headline": "The Skirmish: a random map and game type every round.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A new arena under the Battlegrounds plays Conquest, Capture the flag, Two teams, Free for all or Deathmatch on a random map each round, and its card shows the next round ahead - 20v20v20 teams, or 30 mages for a free for all." } ] }, { "headline": "Free for all, Deathmatch and Two teams are back.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "In a free for all everyone is your enemy and there is no raising; in a deathmatch nobody rises, and the last team standing wins; two teams is Conquest with one side sitting out." } ] }, { "headline": "What each game type means.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Hover over, tap or long-press any game type's tag for a one-line explanation, or open the new " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Arena types" }, { "t": "text", "s": " page from the top bar, Config -> Help, or F1 in Classic." } ] }, { "headline": "Crawl and squeeze where the original let you.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Your character was a little too wide: crawl spaces, tile staircases and gaps between pillars in Cathedral Revival, Roarc, Thunder Keep, Town of Sirama, Barracks of Folenn, Splat Lake and more can now be entered as in the original, and under a low ceiling you crouch by yourself." } ] }, { "headline": "Bots spread out and take pools.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Far fewer bots stand around their shrine waiting for an enemy - at most a few stay home to guard it and the pools near it - and the rest go out to take pools, raid shrines and hunt, so pools change hands from the first seconds of a match." } ] }, { "headline": "New looks for every player model.", "body": [ { "t": "b", "s": "Config -> Experimental OP sprites" }, { "t": "text", "s": " is now " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Experimental character sprites" }, { "t": "text", "s": " (Classic: F1 -> Exp. character sprites) and also redraws Dian, Frey, Mel, Gran, Just, May and Ming - walking, crawling, flying, falling and as ghosts - work in progress, off by default, and if you had it on it stays on." } ] }, { "headline": "Try new spell effects.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Turn on " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Config -> Experimental spell effects" }, { "t": "text", "s": " (Classic: F1 -> Experimental spell FX) to see redrawn projectiles, impacts, glows and walls for every spell, including GM spells - now with Earth Assault, Symbol of Healing, Haste and the God's spells and walls - work in progress, off by default, and switching it back shows the original effects." } ] }, { "headline": "Fixed: other players sometimes kept walking on the spot.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "When someone stops sending updates (a lost connection, a frozen game), their body now goes back to standing instead of walking in place." } ] } ] }, { "date": "2026-09-29", "items": [ { "headline": "Daily quests and a season pass.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Every day you get three quick goals - get 10 kills, win a match, 5 kills as a Cleric - and a bigger one each week; finishing them earns points that climb the season's ranks, and each rank unlocks a title shown under your name, with your rank beside your name in the chat. Open " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Quests" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in the tavern or on your character (or press " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Q" }, { "t": "text", "s": ")." } ] }, { "headline": "Walk out of pools, and down stairs under low ceilings.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "You no longer have to jump out of the deeper pools (Thunder Keep, Temple of Ramhotep, Halls of the Loaru and others) - just walk up onto the rim - and the vaulted stairs in Thunder Keep no longer make you crouch to go down." } ] }, { "headline": "The ley works as in the original.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Arcanists refill spell points fastest after standing in any pool - full for 20 seconds after you leave, then fading to half speed - and the fourth vial (a new " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Ley" }, { "t": "text", "s": " bar in Modern) shows how fast your spell points refill for every class." } ] }, { "headline": "Drop out and come back without losing your match.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "If you disconnect, sign in from another window, or leave to research spells mid-match, your kills, deaths and experience for that match are kept for 3 minutes - come back to the same arena on the same team and carry on where you left off." } ] }, { "headline": "Chat times.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Every chat and log line in the arena now shows the time it was sent, in your own clock (hover for the date); turn it off in the chat's ⚙, or on in Classic with " }, { "t": "b", "s": "F1 -> Chat times" }, { "t": "text", "s": "." } ] }, { "headline": "Bot Clerics no longer raise you into a fight.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "They wait until you and they haven't been hit for 5 seconds and no enemy is watching your body, and someone who dies again right after a raise waits longer for the next one." } ] }, { "headline": "See who is dead.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Press " }, { "t": "b", "s": "P" }, { "t": "text", "s": " until the player list shows " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Dead only" }, { "t": "text", "s": ": every ghost, your team first, with how long it has been dead - teammates past 20 seconds, whom Call Dead can reach, are highlighted." } ] }, { "headline": "A scoreboard you can read in the Battlegrounds.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The Tab scoreboard now lists players only (turn bots back on in " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Config -> Show bots on the scoreboard" }, { "t": "text", "s": ") and scrolls with the mouse wheel, the arrow and Page keys, a finger or the gamepad's right stick." } ] }, { "headline": "Know when your heals land.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A heal now always tells you what it did - whom you healed, for how much and the experience it earned, or that they (or you) were already at full health - in the All, Chat and Combat tabs, with a short note under the crosshair when Heal Other lands. The spellbook marks Healing I-VII as self only and Heal Other as a spell for the teammate you aim at." } ] }, { "headline": "Clerics can see who needs healing.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Playing a Cleric, the name of anyone below two thirds of their health - a teammate or an enemy, and every ghost - is ringed in white, as in the original; nobody else sees it." } ] }, { "headline": "Player Clerics get the raises.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Cleric bots now wait 5-8 seconds before raising a fallen teammate (and leave them to you if you're close), and dead bots wait about 10 seconds before heading to Valhalla, so you have time to raise them or use Call Dead." } ] }, { "headline": "Fixed: spell loadouts sometimes stayed on \"Loading your loadouts...\" in the study.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Opening your spellbook straight on Readied spells could leave the Loadouts panel greyed out; it now loads every time." } ] }, { "headline": "Fixed: brief black flashes with Auto render scale.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "On devices like the Steam Deck and older laptops the view no longer blinks black when Auto changes its size, and Auto no longer keeps bouncing between two sizes - it now holds one and says so in the chat (" }, { "t": "b", "s": "Config -> Render scale" }, { "t": "text", "s": " to change it)." } ] }, { "headline": "Keep Feat pop-ups up longer.", "body": [ { "t": "b", "s": "Config -> Feat pop-ups" }, { "t": "text", "s": " (Classic: F1 -> Feat prints) makes the Feat and level-up pop-ups shorter, longer or much longer, remembered in your browser." } ] } ] }, { "date": "2026-09-28", "items": [ { "headline": "Feats: achievements to earn.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Kills, wins, the Battlegrounds, levels and each class's levels (and a few surprises) now earn Feats, announced in the chat with a small pop-up and a chime - see yours with the " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Feats" }, { "t": "text", "s": " button in the tavern or on your character (Classic: " }, { "t": "b", "s": "F" }, { "t": "text", "s": ")." } ] }, { "headline": "Your own walls hurt your side, as in the original.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Wall of Cold, Raging Waters, Mana Wall, Void Wall and Death Cage hurt anyone moving through them, you and your teammates too, so go round your team's walls; bots now do, and don't cast them on top of teammates. The kill feed now says when a teammate's wall killed someone, and it never counts as a kill." } ] }, { "headline": "Turn death screams down.", "body": [ { "t": "b", "s": "Config -> Death screams" }, { "t": "text", "s": " (Classic: F1) can play all of them, only yours and those close by, or none. In busy arenas like the Battlegrounds at most four now sound at once, nearest first." } ] }, { "headline": "Battlegrounds: a win moves on to the next map.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "When a match is won before the map's time is up, you see the results for a minute and then the next map starts with its full hour - no more new matches with only a few minutes left." } ] }, { "headline": "Reset your research, free for now.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A new Reset research button in the study's spellbook puts every spell list back to level 1 and gives back all your picks, so you can try other spells. Readied spells you no longer know leave the bar, and your loadouts are kept." } ] }, { "headline": "Chat tabs and filters.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The chat now has All, Chat and Combat tabs (plus two of your own), and the ⚙ lets you hide kills, pool bias and other busy lines or fold repeats into one line - " }, { "t": "b", "s": "`" }, { "t": "text", "s": " switches tab, and Classic has the same filter in F1. In big arenas the player list shrinks to a team summary (" }, { "t": "b", "s": "P" }, { "t": "text", "s": " cycles it), and F1 opens the settings." } ] }, { "headline": "The Battlegrounds.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A new arena at the top of the list, marked with its size (30v30v30, or 30v30 on a two-team map), plays one map after another, an hour each, with teams of up to 30 filled out with bots while you play. When a map ends you see the results for a minute and then go straight on to the next map together." } ] }, { "headline": "No more closing the tab by accident.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "In an arena the browser now asks before Ctrl+W, closing or reloading takes you out of the match, and fullscreen on Chrome or Edge keeps Ctrl+W in the game. Crouch is now C only (Ctrl no longer crouches unless you bind it in Controls), and " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Config -> Confirm before closing the tab while playing" }, { "t": "text", "s": " turns the question off." } ] }, { "headline": "God testing arenas.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "While a God is testing in an arena, the arena list and the match panel say so, its bots match the God's level, and nothing counts for anyone there. Players below level 11 can still join but are protected - they can't be hurt, and earn no experience - and the arena list warns them first." } ] }, { "headline": "Fixed: spells fell off the spell bar when you levelled up.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Your readied spells now stay on the bar through a level-up, with no need to ready them again with K." } ] }, { "headline": "Fixed: low-level players could not be hurt.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "In an arena of much higher levels, hits did nothing to a low-level mage and could even heal them; damage now always lands." } ] }, { "headline": "Sharp Edges shatters the right way.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Where its blade hits, it now bursts apart as in the original instead of breaking up sideways, whichever way you look at it." } ] }, { "headline": "Not every puddle is a mana pool.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Some small pools on a few maps (such as Cathedral Revival) are only decoration and could never be biased. Standing in one now says " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Not a mana pool" }, { "t": "text", "s": " instead of showing a bar that never fills, and the pool counts on the shrine panel include only real pools." } ] } ] }, { "date": "2026-09-27", "items": [ { "headline": "Server announcements are kept for a day.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "If you were away, you see each one once in the tavern chat when you come in, even after a server restart." } ] }, { "headline": "See each match's time left before you join.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The arena list now shows whether each arena's match is on, waiting for players or over, the time left and each side's players and shrines, kept up to date while you look." } ] }, { "headline": "Carry a light.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Press " }, { "t": "b", "s": "T" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in the arena to carry a light that brightens the way ahead in dark halls, as in the original; the Light spell now makes it shine bright and far for a minute, even if you have not lit it." } ] }, { "headline": "See your spells' effects.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Each effect on you now shows its original icon beside its name and time left (Classic: along the top of the view), heals included, and other players see the original look over you - a Prayer's or Resist's shield, a heal's sparkle." } ] }, { "headline": "Flying spells tell you how to fly.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Casting Levitate or Fly now says which keys lift you, lower you and push you off, and a long effect tells you when it wears off." } ] }, { "headline": "See the match's time left and state.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A small panel at the top of the arena shows whether the match is on, waiting for players or over, the time left and each side's shrines (or captures, or kills), and a banner marks the start, the last minute and the end; turn it off in the Config menu." } ] }, { "headline": "Spell loadouts.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Save up to four named sets of readied spells per character and load one to ready it all at once, or press " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Clear all" }, { "t": "text", "s": " to empty every slot and build a new set - in the spellbook, the character sheet (" }, { "t": "b", "s": "K" }, { "t": "text", "s": ") and Classic's Character Manager." } ] }, { "headline": "Server announcements reach you everywhere.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Announcements from the server now show on the character screen too, as a card you can dismiss, and stay in the tavern chat for a while so you can read them later." } ] }, { "headline": "God characters are tagged, and never counted.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Some players may be given one God character to try every spell; its name shows " }, { "t": "b", "s": "[GOD]" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in rosters, the scoreboard and the kill feed, and its matches and fights don't count on the leaderboard - not for it, and not for the players it meets." } ] } ] }, { "date": "2026-09-26", "items": [ { "headline": "Bleeding now also tires you, as in the original.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Each second a bleed ticks it takes a few points of your fatigue bar as well as your health, so a bleeding runner slows sooner." } ] }, { "headline": "Lightning looks like lightning.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Lightning bolts and Chaos Beam now draw as one long bolt to where they strike, instead of a pile of short sideways bolts, and players seen from behind now show their backs." } ] }, { "headline": "Earth Assault's fist stays up.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The stone fist now rises and stands for its full second and a half under the player you hit, once per cast - before, a direct hit showed it for just an instant." } ] }, { "headline": "Dark Surge hits.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Its surge now rushes back from in front of you, past you, as in the original, instead of fizzling in front of you and hurting nobody." } ] }, { "headline": "See Cleric raises in the log.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "When a Cleric raises a fallen player everyone reads it, and killing that player again says \"killed ... again\" - each death is told once." } ] }, { "headline": "See when you are hit, and when shrines fall.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The screen's edges flash red when another player hurts you, and a small banner under the Config button says when a shrine falls or is restored, or an orb is captured; turn either off in the Config menu." } ] }, { "headline": "Earth Assault raises a fist of stone.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Where the spell comes down, a stone fist now bursts out of the ground and stands for a moment, instead of floating half sunk in the floor." } ] }, { "headline": "Void spells drain as they should.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Utter Void, the Void Balls, Bolts and Spikes and the Unpower signs now drain as many spell points as in the original game, ten times more than before, and the log tells both sides how many." } ] }, { "headline": "Tornado looks like a tornado.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Its three dust devils now swirl as one thick column instead of drawing as a single sprite; each of the three still hits." } ] }, { "headline": "Chunks and sparks burst where they land.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Ice from Ice Blizzard and White Death, Fire Ball's chunks, Stone Bolt's rocks and other falling pieces now shatter on the floor instead of lying half sunk in it or sliding away." } ] }, { "headline": "A minimap.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Press " }, { "t": "b", "s": "N" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in the arena for a map in the bottom right corner, centred on you, with your teammates, shrines and pools; " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Shift+N" }, { "t": "text", "s": " changes its size, and the Config menu can turn it on and make it turn with you." } ] }, { "headline": "Play without bots.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Untick " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Fill arenas with bots" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in the tavern (Classic: \"Fill with bots\" on a match's page) and an arena you enter with nobody in it has no bots this match - for small games with friends. In the arena anyone can type " }, { "t": "code", "s": "/bots off" }, { "t": "text", "s": " or " }, { "t": "code", "s": "/bots on" }, { "t": "text", "s": "; if everyone is on one team, nobody earns experience." } ] }, { "headline": "Shrines stand on their pedestals.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Shrine pillars no longer sit half hidden low in their niches: like everything else they now stand on the raised ground under them, as in the original. Torches that were stuck inside walls are gone." } ] }, { "headline": "How to play.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A new guide for new players - the goal, the four classes, spells and studying, shrines, pools and Valhalla, match types and every control - from the How to play button on the title screen, the study and tavern bars and the Config menu (also as a page at " }, { "t": "a", "s": "magestorm.fathomthat.org/how-to-play", "href": "https://magestorm.fathomthat.org/how-to-play" }, { "t": "text", "s": "); your first matches show a few short tips." } ] }, { "headline": "The tavern on the character screen.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Right after you sign in, see who is online and where, and read the tavern chat of the last day as it happens; pick a character and press Play to join in. The buttons at the top now wrap instead of running off a narrow window." } ] }, { "headline": "Change your keys, or play with a gamepad.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Config menu, Controls: rebind moving, jumping, crouching, using, casting, the spell keys, chat and the scoreboard (kept in your browser, Reset to defaults), or plug in a gamepad - sticks move and look, the triggers cast, the bumpers pick spells." } ] }, { "headline": "Wins and losses on your characters.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Each character card in the study now shows its record - wins, losses and win rate - as does the Classic study and your Leaderboard card." } ] }, { "headline": "Touch look follows your sensitivity.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "On phones and tablets, dragging to look now uses the Mouse sensitivity setting in the Config menu." } ] }, { "headline": "Play on phones and tablets.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Touch controls in the arena: a stick under your left thumb to move, drag on the right to look, and buttons to cast, jump, crouch, use doors and lifts, chat and see the scoreboard; tap a spell in the bar to ready it. They switch on by themselves on a touch screen (Config menu: Touch controls)." } ] }, { "headline": "Reconnect after a dropped connection.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "If your connection drops, the game now reconnects by itself and puts you back in the arena where you were, with your character, team and match, as long as you are back within 30 seconds; a Reconnect button lets you try at once." } ] }, { "headline": "Reload for the new version.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "When a new version goes live, a small banner offers a reload; in an arena it waits until you leave." } ] }, { "headline": "Mouse sensitivity, invert Y and fullscreen.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The Config menu (and the Classic settings) now has a mouse sensitivity slider and an Invert mouse Y switch, and a Fullscreen button fills the screen." } ] }, { "headline": "Ignore and report in chat.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Type " }, { "t": "code", "s": "/ignore name" }, { "t": "text", "s": " to hide someone's chat on your browser (" }, { "t": "code", "s": "/unignore name" }, { "t": "text", "s": " to undo, " }, { "t": "code", "s": "/ignore" }, { "t": "text", "s": " to list), or " }, { "t": "code", "s": "/report" }, { "t": "text", "s": " with a reason to send the recent chat to the game's moderators." } ] }, { "headline": "Chat slow-down.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Sending lines very fast now asks you to slow down instead of flooding everyone." } ] }, { "headline": "Smoother frame rate in Stronghold and Splat Park.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Looking out over the open ground around their buildings now takes about a fifth less work per frame, with the picture exactly as before." } ] }, { "headline": "Bots queue for lifts, chase you between levels and don't jam doorways.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Bots now wait their turn at lifts instead of piling on and sending each other back down, find a way up to you (or a spot where they can see you) when you stand on a ledge, and take turns in doorways and narrow gaps instead of walking into each other." } ] }, { "headline": "Very slow walking fixed.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "When a strong Hinder in deep water slowed you to a crawl, you could not move at all; now you creep along as you should. Bots also wait better for lifts that only come back down on their own." } ] }, { "headline": "Mass Healing has a sound.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Everyone it heals now makes the healing sound, as in the original game, and Combustion makes its burning sound on each player it hits." } ] }, { "headline": "The Op appearance is reserved for game masters.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "New characters choose from the other seven looks; characters that already look like Op keep it." } ] } ] }, { "date": "2026-09-25", "items": [ { "headline": "New custom arena: Splat Park (Low Gravity).", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Splat Park with low gravity: jump three times as high, hang in the air over the hedges and see across the maze, and watch boulders sail. Find it at the end of the arena list, tagged Custom." } ] }, { "headline": "Bolts pierce.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A bolt now passes through every enemy on its line within its range, so a player who walks in front of your shot and a flyer behind them can both be hit; walls still stop it, and bolts follow your aim up into the air." } ] }, { "headline": "Every spell shows its effect.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Lightning Strike now strikes from the sky with sparks, Ice Blizzard and White Death drop ice that shatters around the target, and Ice Storm, Rainstorm, Dark Surge, Chaos Strike and others finally show what they do; explosions, bolts and heals gain their original chunks, sparks and glows, and you see your own heals and buffs land." } ] }, { "headline": "No aim assist: lead your targets.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Every spell goes exactly where you aim. Bolts fly along your crosshair and hit whoever is on the line when they arrive, so aim ahead of a runner; heals and curses take the player right under your crosshair." } ] }, { "headline": "Bolts can always be cast.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Aim at a teammate, a wall or nothing and the bolt still flies; no more \"No target in range\"." } ] }, { "headline": "Explosions stay in front of walls.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A spell bursting against a wall is drawn in front of it instead of half inside it." } ] }, { "headline": "Ghosts look as in the original.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A fallen player's ghost is now the original's pale, see-through floating figure, and a player who falls plays their own death animation; players under Fly or Levitate float and crouching players crouch." } ] }, { "headline": "New spells wait for the study.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Levelling up in the arena still gives you the new level's health, spell points and stat points at once, but the spells it unlocks can be readied once you leave the arena: \"New spells await you in the study.\"" } ] }, { "headline": "Six character slots.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Each account keeps six character slots, room for every class and a spare or two (the original had three)." } ] }, { "headline": "Signed in elsewhere.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Signing in to your account in another window or on another device now tells the first window so, instead of just disconnecting it." } ] }, { "headline": "An arena wrap-up when you leave.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Leaving an arena now shows how your stay went, like the mission summary in Aliens Online: your experience, score, kills, deaths, raises, damage dealt and taken, healing, shrines, pools and orbs, and a table of everyone who played while you were there, bots and those who already left marked. At the end of a match the results have a " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Your stay" }, { "t": "text", "s": " button with the same summary." } ] }, { "headline": "Bots use walls, runes, Dispell and Call Dead.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Skilled bots wall off an attacker before healing, put a cold or mana wall across your path when you charge them, lay runes at doorways near their shrine, and dispell a wall you hide behind; Clerics call a fallen teammate's ghost to them and raise it. Novice bots do none of this." } ] }, { "headline": "Cleric bots raise their teammates.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Bot Clerics now walk over to a fallen teammate's ghost to raise it, you first, and call ghosts from afar with Call Dead; bot ghosts near a Cleric wait a few seconds for it before rising in Valhalla." } ] }, { "headline": "Bots are ready as soon as the server starts; fewer bots stuck in place.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "After a server restart the bots no longer stand at their start for the first half minute, and they now find their way out of sunken pools, doorways, start rooms and teleporter pads where they used to stand stuck or hop in place." } ] }, { "headline": "Bolts need no target.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Cast a bolt with nothing in your crosshair and it flies along your aim: it hits the first enemy it meets within range, wears down a wall in the way, or simply ends." } ] }, { "headline": "Runes hit only the one who sets them off.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A rune no longer blasts everyone standing around it, as in the original game." } ] }, { "headline": "The level cap is now 43.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Characters can rise past level 30 up to 43, each level needing a little more experience than the last, and spells at list positions 31-43 can now be learnt: Earth Assault, Mana Armor, Mana Ball IV, Void Spike III, Haste, Prayer VI and VII, Grace III to V, Bonded Remedy, Mass Healing and Symbol of Healing." } ] }, { "headline": "See your mage before you make it.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Choosing an appearance for a new character now shows the figure as others will see it in the arena, walking in place, and hovering it turns it round. Your characters' cards show their figures too." } ] }, { "headline": "Numbers in names.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Character names may now include digits, like " }, { "t": "code", "s": "zrikz9" }, { "t": "text", "s": "; they still start with a letter." } ] }, { "headline": "Leaping and Levitate as in the original.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Leaping makes your next jump two or three times as high and is used up by it. Levitate lets you hover, rising with " }, { "t": "code", "s": "Space" }, { "t": "text", "s": " and sinking with " }, { "t": "code", "s": "C" }, { "t": "text", "s": ", but not walk: press " }, { "t": "code", "s": "W" }, { "t": "text", "s": " to push off, which ends it." } ] }, { "headline": "Three new CTF arenas.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Roarc Cata 2T (CTF), Thunder Keep (CTF) and Town of Sirama (CTF) are capture-the-flag versions of those maps, listed right after the originals, which are back to the normal Conquest game. Every arena now shows its mode in the arena list and in its title." } ] }, { "headline": "F10 switches Modern / Classic.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Press " }, { "t": "code", "s": "F10" }, { "t": "text", "s": " anywhere, even in the middle of a match, to flip between the Modern and the original Classic screens." } ] }, { "headline": "Dead players are easy to spot.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The Modern roster, the scoreboard and the target line now mark fallen players, you included, as \"(dead)\" and dim their row." } ] }, { "headline": "Rise in Valhalla.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "As in the original, a ghost presses " }, { "t": "code", "s": "E" }, { "t": "text", "s": " anywhere to call on its shrine and rises in Valhalla, a sheltered room where nobody can be hurt; walk into its teleporter to return to the arena at a random place. Bots do the same, so a fallen team can no longer pop straight back up beside its shrine." } ] }, { "headline": "Shrines bias when you stand near them.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Stand close to a shrine (about 5 feet from it, with a clear view) to wear an enemy shrine down or restore your own, faster with teammates. A meter shows the shrine and its power, and " }, { "t": "code", "s": "B" }, { "t": "text", "s": " near a shrine tells you how it stands." } ] }, { "headline": "Capture the flag.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "In arenas where it is on, take the enemy orb from near their shrine and bring it to yours while your own orb is home: each capture takes a fifth of their shrine. A carrier who dies drops the orb, the shrine panel shows who carries which orb, and a dropped orb goes home after 30 seconds." } ] }, { "headline": "Walls, runes, Dispell and Call Dead.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Stone and earth walls block the way, cold and water walls can be waded through slowly, and every wall stops spells. Runes wait on the ground for an enemy to walk into them, Dispell wears down or removes the wall you face, and Call Dead brings a fallen teammate's ghost to you." } ] }, { "headline": "Every stat now matters.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Quickness, discipline, memory and reasoning, which did nothing in the original game, now have small effects of their own, and strength, constitution and reasoning unlock bonuses at set values. Hover a stat in the study, the Character Manager or your character sheet (" }, { "t": "code", "s": "K" }, { "t": "text", "s": ") to see what it does for you and what the next milestone brings." } ] }, { "headline": "Quickness.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "You wait a little less between casts (491 ms at the starting 80 instead of the original 500, 455 ms at 200) and take less damage from blasts (7.5% less at 200)." } ] }, { "headline": "Discipline.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Slows, hesitation and other harmful effects an enemy puts on you wear off sooner (a 6-second slow lasts 5.5 seconds at 200), and running tires you more slowly (33 seconds of running at 200 instead of 30)." } ] }, { "headline": "Memory.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Memory 120 gives you a 13th readied spell and 160 a 14th, on the keys " }, { "t": "code", "s": "[" }, { "t": "text", "s": " and " }, { "t": "code", "s": "]" }, { "t": "text", "s": "." } ] }, { "headline": "Reasoning.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "At 115 your Mental Barrier makes Mentalists' spells do 10% less damage to you and their effects on you wear off sooner; at 125 a Mentalist's Penetrate Mind ignores half of an enemy's barrier." } ] }, { "headline": "Strength and constitution milestones.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Strength 120 gives your bolts a 10% chance to stagger their target and 126 makes them hit 5% harder; constitution 105 and 115 cut bleeding damage by 10% and 20%, and 120 adds 5% to your maximum health." } ] }, { "headline": "See-through gates.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Teleporter gates, windows and energy walls are now translucent and tinted as in the original, so you can see players on the other side." } ] }, { "headline": "Players look as they chose.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Other players are drawn with the appearance picked when their character was made, not one look per class, and bots now wear a random appearance too." } ] }, { "headline": "Shrines show their bias.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "A shrine animates faster and glows brighter the more it is biased, so a full shrine stands out from across the room." } ] }, { "headline": "Open ground around the maps.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Areas the map makers never built, like the land around Stronghold's courtyards, are now open ground under the sky as in the original, instead of blank walls." } ] }, { "headline": "Spend your stat points.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Every level after the first now gives 5 stat points: spend them in the study on the new " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Stats" }, { "t": "text", "s": " tab (or beside the stats in the Classic Character Manager). Hover or click a stat to see what it does with your own numbers: constitution adds health, agility speed, strength jumps, and your class's stat adds spell points." } ] }, { "headline": "Pools bias at the original pace.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Standing in a pool now moves it every 5 seconds, as in the original game, and takes about 20 seconds on your own (10 with a teammate)." } ] }, { "headline": "Experience as in the original.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Bigger spells no longer get an extra experience bonus on top of their damage: hits, kills, heals and raises pay the original amounts again." } ] }, { "headline": "Pools bias on their own.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Stand in an Earthblood pool to bias it toward your team, faster with teammates; an enemy pool turns neutral first. A meter shows the pool's owner and progress, and only your own team's pools speed up your spell points." } ] }, { "headline": "Shrine panel.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The top right of the screen now shows every team's shrine and its state, and how many pools each side holds." } ] }, { "headline": "Leaderboard.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Open " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Leaderboard" }, { "t": "text", "s": " from the character screen or the tavern (or " }, { "t": "b", "s": "High Scores" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in the Classic study) to see the top 50 by level, kills, K/D, wins or win rate, for every class or one. " }, { "t": "b", "s": "My characters" }, { "t": "text", "s": " shows your own lifetime stats, and kills and K/D count real players only, with bots on their own board." } ] }, { "headline": "Full arenas.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Enter an arena on your own and every team fills up to 8 players with bots: 7 on your side and 8 on each enemy team. Real players still take a bot's place when they join." } ] }, { "headline": "Bots of every skill.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Each bot is a Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Veteran or Master, and new players mostly meet the easier ones. Hold " }, { "t": "code", "s": "Tab" }, { "t": "text", "s": " to see each bot's skill, or use " }, { "t": "code", "s": "/botdiff random" }, { "t": "text", "s": " to mix them again after setting one skill with " }, { "t": "code", "s": "/botdiff" }, { "t": "text", "s": "." } ] }, { "headline": "Bots get going at once, and apart.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Bots now set off within about a second instead of standing in a corner, and they spread out over their start and around shrines instead of standing inside each other. Names over a crowd no longer pile up into an unreadable jumble: the nearest name stays put and the ones behind move up a line or are hidden." } ] }, { "headline": "Classic interface.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Switch " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Interface" }, { "t": "text", "s": " to Classic for the original 640x480 screens, drawn from the game's own art and fonts: the login, the study, the Character Manager, the tavern and the full arena frame with vials, roster, map and spells. Modern stays the default, and you can switch back at any time, even in the middle of a match." } ] }, { "headline": "No more stray \"HERE KROSS WAS\" texture.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The orange camouflage placeholder is gone from Cathedral Revival, Barracks of Folenn, Stronghold and Cathedral of Light: those walls and ceilings now show the stone around them." } ] }, { "headline": "Matches now end.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Fill your team's shrine and bring down every other one to start a 29-second countdown to victory, and the winners get a bonus. If the arena's time limit runs out first, the match is a draw." } ] }, { "headline": "Results and the next match.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "When a match ends you see the results, then a new match starts in the same arena with fresh shrines and pools. You keep your experience, and you can stay or head back to the tavern." } ] }, { "headline": "Scoreboard.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Hold " }, { "t": "code", "s": "Tab" }, { "t": "text", "s": " in an arena to see every player's kills, deaths and raises, plus the time left." } ] }, { "headline": "Smoother frame rate.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The 3D view is drawn on several CPU cores and scaled to your window, and the new " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Render scale" }, { "t": "text", "s": " setting (Auto by default) holds about 55 fps. Busy areas like the Cathedral Revival courtyard draw several times faster." } ] }, { "headline": "Casting feels instant.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Your spell leaves your hands the moment you cast instead of waiting for the server. When a cast is refused, you get one short message and the crosshair shows why, instead of chat spam." } ] }, { "headline": "No more getting stuck in narrow halls.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "You no longer catch on steps in one-cell corridors like those in Cathedral Revival." } ] }, { "headline": "World fixes.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "No more splashing footsteps on dry walkways, and roof tops and attics show their proper ceiling instead of open sky." } ] }, { "headline": "Ghost bots come back.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Bots that die in the large arenas now find their way back to their shrine and rise again instead of wandering as ghosts forever." } ] }, { "headline": "What's new.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "This list of changes is now in the game (look for " }, { "t": "b", "s": "What's new" }, { "t": "text", "s": " on the login screen and in the menus) and at " }, { "t": "a", "s": "magestorm.fathomthat.org/whats-new", "href": "https://magestorm.fathomthat.org/whats-new" }, { "t": "text", "s": "." } ] }, { "headline": "Sign Expulse looks as in the original.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "The no-team Expulse rune now shows white instead of red; team runes keep their team's colour." } ] } ] }, { "date": "2026-09-24", "items": [ { "headline": "Bots fill the arenas.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Enter an arena on your own and AI players join both sides (3 against 3 by default, at your level, marked " }, { "t": "code", "s": "[bot]" }, { "t": "text", "s": ") and play by the same rules as you. Change them with " }, { "t": "code", "s": "/bots" }, { "t": "text", "s": ", " }, { "t": "code", "s": "/botlevel" }, { "t": "text", "s": " and " }, { "t": "code", "s": "/botdiff" }, { "t": "text", "s": "." } ] }, { "headline": "Hits land where you aimed.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Spells now hit the target's whole body, walls only block the centre of a projectile, and the server makes up for your connection's lag, so shots past a door frame no longer vanish into the wall." } ] }, { "headline": "Kill feed.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Everyone in the arena sees who killed whom and with which spell, and names in chat and the log are shown in team colours." } ] }, { "headline": "Three factions.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Fight for Chaos, Order or Balance. Neutral is only the colour of a shrine or pool nobody holds." } ] }, { "headline": "Shrines and pools.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Use them from nearby while facing them, just as in the original, and each shrine is drawn in its team's colour." } ] }, { "headline": "Spells and combat.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Health, spell points and fatigue, aimed projectiles, area spells, bolts, heals, friendly fire, death, ghosts and rising at your shrine, all decided fairly on the server." } ] }, { "headline": "Original movement.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Walking, running, strafing, crouching, jumping and falling off ledges use the original game's numbers." } ] }, { "headline": "Doors, lifts, levers and teleporters.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "They all work, block spells and sight when closed, and look right to players who join later. Press " }, { "t": "code", "s": "E" }, { "t": "text", "s": " to use them and " }, { "t": "code", "s": "B" }, { "t": "text", "s": " to bias a shrine or pool." } ] }, { "headline": "Combat HUD.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Health, spell points and fatigue bars, a level bar, twelve readied spell slots on the number keys, a hit marker, the name of whoever is under your crosshair and a character sheet on " }, { "t": "code", "s": "K" }, { "t": "text", "s": "." } ] }, { "headline": "Levels and spell lists.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Earn experience, level up and pick a new spell list each level, then study your spells and ready the ones you want in the study." } ] }, { "headline": "Sound and music.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Spell, hit, door and lift sounds play by the original rules, and the menu, tavern and arena music is back. Volume sliders are in the " }, { "t": "b", "s": "Config" }, { "t": "text", "s": " menu, and " }, { "t": "code", "s": "M" }, { "t": "text", "s": " mutes." } ] }, { "headline": "Water.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Deep water slows you down and splashes, and swimmers are cut off at the surface as in the original." } ] }, { "headline": "Ghosts.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Ghosts now look like faint see-through figures and move faster, so you can get back to your shrine quickly." } ] }, { "headline": "Tavern and lobby.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "See who is online and where, who is in each arena (bots included), and catch up on the last day of tavern chat when you walk in." } ] }, { "headline": "Look up and down.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Looking up and down now matches the original game's view and limits; press " }, { "t": "code", "s": "V" }, { "t": "text", "s": " for the alternative view." } ] }, { "headline": "Doors from both sides.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Some doors used to vanish when seen from one side; they are now always there." } ] }, { "headline": "Sign in with Discord.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Your Discord account is your Magestorm account, with no password to remember." } ] }, { "headline": "Play in your browser.", "body": [ { "t": "text", "s": "Create up to six characters in four classes, chat in the tavern and play all 13 original arenas with other players." } ] } ] } ] }