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Hey Hero Mages fans!

The latest game from D20Studios, Summoners Fate, is the spiritual successor to Hero Mages. Help us in bringing this game to live by supporting our Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1181148431/summoners-fate-fast-and-fun-tactical-rpg-ccg-adven?ref=ax73kh

The project ends on November 17th at 10AM MT, so please support us today!

[Sprint Exploit:]

Dear Hero Mages Community,

First, I'd like to take a moment to sincerely thank the players of our community for your continued interest and enjoyment of Hero Mages. Your passion and excitement are sacred to me as a personal measure of success for the time and effort I have invested in the creation of this game.

Now then, I'm long overdue for an update - so let's have it:

1) Sprint Exploit: I hear loud and clear the concerns regarding the sprint movement exploit in async gameplay. I will commit to a fix. The effort will not be easy; this will require a client and server update across all platforms to resolve. First party client updates (particularly Apple and Amazon) will require some enhancements to code base and a review process. I'll suggest a 6-8 week timeframe to resolve the issue and get updated across platforms.

2) Hero Mages Elite: I'd like to introduce a new community membership group called "Hero Mages Elite". My intent here is to recognize players of the community who have gone above and beyond to invest in this game and community, whether it be ridiculous hours of game play, forum suggestions, on boarding new users, or otherwise serving as a real champion for Hero Mages.

What does Hero Mages Elite membership entail?

* Membership recognizes outstanding contributions to our game and community with leadership opportunities and special private access to development activities
* Membership provides access to "Elite Member - Only" private forum access
* Membership is by nomination or request and approved by me or designated HM moderator

Why now?

With more of my time devoted to raising my two children and providing for my family, my available time to invest in Hero Mages has become limited. I believe strongly in this game, this community, and our future. By tapping the minds of those most invested in the game and community, new ideas and new leaders have the highest potential to emerge and make a difference.

How do I apply?

Email me direct at ross@d20studios.com subject line "Hero Mages Elite" and answer these three questions in the body 1) What is your Hero Mages community/player name? 2) What has been your favorite Hero Mages experience? 3) Why do you want to become an elite member?

Logging this bug for my own benefit-

Today, I was going through my async games, taking turns, and Cragralanche joined my game room. The odd thing that happened was he saw a match vs. me and JohnZinho (the first game I loaded on my async list) even though I was actually in a 6 player match taking a different turn at the time. It seemed as I jumped from game to game, he would still see the original match, not the current match I was on.

I'm wondering - has anyone else encountered this?

Seems like it might be a problem with the room carrying the initial game ID - or perhaps the original host user storing the first loaded game as the game history to send to new players joining.

Dear Hero Mages Community,

To help with loading times of forums, leaderboards, and game lists, I've migrated Hero Mages to a new server dubbed "Nimbus" - a core i7-4930K CPU @ 3.40GHZ with 16GB RAM and SSD harddrive.

Truth be told, the real culprit is the rather complex MySQL script I have running to tally up every detail regarding stats (this is why longtime players like WorldChamp take FOREVER to load). Until I have a chance to resolve this with a smarter, caching algorithm or something, however, the new server should result in a noticeably faster experience.

My thanks to all those still playing and enjoying the game!

~Ross

Hi everyone!

I know it's been awhile since my last post- just wanted to say I'm still around. There's been some awesome progress on the board game artwork- looking forward to sharing soon!!

Also experimenting with some ideas for a campaign/dungeon crawl mechanic that might be fun...

I also play actively via async mode- send me a game invite if you'd like to try and gain the "Victory vs. Game Creator" achievement.

~Ross

Attention Hero Mages players!

For a limited time, I am offering the Hero Mages app Gold Edition FREE in iTunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hero-mages/id516465368?ls=1&mt=8

This is in thanks in to promotion with 3 Magic Shots:

"Hero Mages is FREE for a limited time | Brought to you by 3 Magic
Shots. Download 3 Magic Shots to get more awesome apps like Hero Mages
for FREE"

The promotion starts NOW and ends March 10th.

Tell your friends and ENJOY!!!

~Ross

Hi everyone!

I'm still responding to forum and email support, but if it's been a few days and I haven't resolved your request yet, it's because this little angel is keeping her daddy quite busy!



Please welcome our newest Hero Mages fan!

Hi everyone!

So, I've been working on these bugs - and thank you all for the very comprehensive list and diligence in reporting your issues and stuck games.

It's looking like the stuck games are mostly being caused by desyncs in the card decks, tho I'm not sure yet why this is happening. Hopefully will know more as I continue investigating.

The good news that I wanted to share is that I was able to isolate the cause of another annoying bug where you would not see the replay animations of actions you missed while playing an async game. In one of the last updates, I introduced delay command that spaced the time between replayed animations so they wouldn't blend together. It turns out that this was causing the last turn command index to grow beyond the range of commands actually logged. I have a resolution for this, but unfortunately, it's a client-side fix, meaning I'll need to apply it to an update. Due to the long review processes for app stores, I will hold off patching until I determine whether or not the game-stuck issue is also a client side bug or a server bug.

I'll also be taking a closer look at why victories/defeats are being flagged improperly for some games.

Keep your observations coming my way!

~Ross

Hey everyone!

Just a quick shout to let everyone know that I'm still around and supporting Hero Mages. I apologize I haven't been as active in the lobby or forums these past couple months. Here's what's been going on with me so you're not left wondering in the dark with what's happening:

1) I started a new job in September and moved across the country to a new state. I lived here about a month on my own before my wife and son were able to join me.

2) My son just turned 13 months and demands a great deal of attention. He's not quite a gamer yet, but I suspect any day now you'll see him in the lobbies ready for a challenge

3) My wife is now 7 months pregnant. In case you're curious, we're having a little girl

While I haven't been as active as usual these past few months, I would like to point out that on top of settling into a new home, caring for our little boy, being a good husband to my wife, preparing for our daugther, and kickin' serious butt at my job, I:

1) Successfully launched a promotion on Amazon that resulted in over 40K downloads of the Hero Mages app (bringing tons of new players)

2) Fixed several key bugs with the async game mode

3) Fixed the game within 2 weeks after iOS 6 made Hero Mages unplayable

4) Responded to and resolved every failed item purchase error

5) Responded within 24 hours to game server outages

I'm aware there are still issues resulting in frozen games, incorrect ranking reports, and more. Rest-assured, these will be fixed as quickly as I am able. In the meantime, I appreciate your patience and understanding. I'm grateful to see our community grow and for each and every player that has made Hero Mages a success. Seriously, you guys rock!



~Ross

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for the bug reports. I was able to resolve a couple issues this evening. For those still experiencing issues, please be descriptive in the problem and provide the game record ID of the affected game so I can quickly resolve the problem.

I know we've been experiencing some issues due to the remote DB server and traffic on the shared hosting. Doing my best to rememdy the problem!

~Ross

The release of v1.8.0 is imminent. The update will likely take place within the next few days. Some of the major new features include asynchronous multiplayer, in-app purchasing, and friends list.

Here's a complete list of the new features, improvements, and fixes:
https://www.heromages.com/news/versionInfo.html

Everybody get excited!!!

This topic has been moved to Battle Blog .

https://heromages.com/forums/index.php?topic=519.0

FYI, I've updated the server side code in preparation for the v1.8.0 update. It's coming real soon. Let me know if you guys experience any bugs running in the current version. The code should be backward compatible.

[The Paladin]

Dear Hero Mages Community,

It's been quite awhile since I've proposed a game balance change. Getting all of the characters and abilities balanced to everyone's liking is a process that took years of experimentation to hone, and I'm glad that the system has proved itself for so long.

That being said, I am considering changes to two characters with the very soon-to-release update. These characters are the Paladin and Fighter Mage as the subject suggests.

The Paladin

First, let's talk about the Paladin. I have observed countless games (particularly test runs using the computer AI) where the end game reaches a stalemate between two opposing Paladins. The ability to self-heal has needlessly extended the duration of these endgames as much as 80 additional turns of dice slugging. We all love throwing dice, but I think most of us would agree that this is a bit excessive and dulls the experience of game play.

So, what I propose is:

#1. Eliminate the Paladin's ability to heal herself. This will eliminate drawn out battles. At the same time, we don't want to handicap the Paladin as a character choice, so this brings us to...

#2. Increase the Paladin's Bless ability such that it cures all negative ailments. Far too often I have seen player's use Bless thinking it will cure Roar, Hex, and other nasty effects, so this change seems like a no-brainer to increasing her desirability as a party member.

#3. Grant her the ability to use Combat Healing roll 2 attack dice against enemy creatures. This was suggested as a way to "add flavor" to the archetype Paladin, and I think it adds further benefit to her without being excessively powerful.

All in all, I think these changes solve the end game problem and make the Paladin more true to her nature as a self-less "do gooder". What do you think?

The Fighter Mage

The Fighter Mage's stun immunity gives him an incredible advantage, particularly in free for all "circle of slaughter" type matches. Many players have suggested that this advantage is overwhelming when compared to the starting abilities of other mages and I am inclined to agree.

How can we adjust the Fighter Mage's power without taking away his allure? Here's a few possibilities:

#1. Change the order of Relentless and Augment Superior (or Flash). This would leave him vulnerable in that key first round of circle of slaughter and also increase the usefulness of his Augment buff as early enchantments could take advantage of the +1 boost. However, players may argue that a first turn Fighter Mage could easily get the necessary valor and then have a super-advantage.

#2. Weaken the ability of Relentless by:
      A. Stun immunity is not guaranteed, but determined by dice roll (5 or higher)
    OR
      B. Change stun immunity to "Fighter Mage may move and attack while stunned."   Stun would still prevent him from casting spells.

If we weaken his stun immunity, what can we change to maintain his allure?

Thoughts?

Please voice your opinions on these possibilities. It's important I incorporate the balance change before the update for the game replay ability to be compatible with future versions.

I'm pleased to announce that our community now exceeds over 10,000 registered players! In case you're curious, gamehero83 is our 10,000th registered player.

Congratulations everyone and thanks for making this game awesome!

In response to Kenjun's post about the map balance, I've made some adjustments to Crystal Palace and Infernus. Crystal Palace, I simply switched player 3 and 4's starting locations, so when playing map as a duel, each player starts on opposite sides of the structure. I wanted Infernus to work better for duels, so I added some walls in the middle to block first turn line of sight, repositioned start positions, and swapped location of player 3 and 4 so in a duel, you start on opposite diagonals. These changes are live on the servers now and will be seen in single player once v1.8.0 is posted later this month. Enjoy!

Hero Mages gets its far share of press, but this particular review from Electronic Playground really stood out to me for it's very impressive style. Be sure to check it out:

https://www.elecplay.com/all/spotlight/hero-mages-ios-video-review/

Adobe Developer Connection has featured my postmortem article for Hero Mages on their homepage! This is a great read for anyone interested in what the development cycle of a game looks like mentally, physically, and emotionally. Here's a direct link to the article: https://www.adobe.com/devnet/games/postmortems/articles/hero-mages.html

The next major update of Hero Mages will be v1.8.0. Among the included features is the much anticipated asynchronous multiplayer! This will allow you to play against anyone in the world at your leisure regardless of time constraints and whether or not you can sit down at the same time for a session.

Follow my developer blog to learn more about how I'm creating this feature: https://www.indieflashblog.com/

Ok, so this one is HUGE!

Hero Mages is going to be published as a physical, tabletop board game by Game Salute! Official announcement: https://www.gamesalute.com/?p=27537

I am over-joyed to see my creation come full circle- from its humble origins as a board game designed to entertain friends, to a web-based online game, to a mobile app, and now- to become a published board game as it was originally intended! 

Thanks to everyone who has contributed and made Hero Mages great! You are one AWESOME community of players and I'm so excited to share this news and deliver you ever expanding entertainment.