Day 1 Demo Patch: Combat tells you why, spell stack response timer removed

What the demo is

This demo is the opening encounter of Spirefall — one tavern and its full Gauntlet. And this is the first patch!

The demo comprises 3 of the 6 factions developed for the game, and the full game continues past this first tavern. If you beat the Tavern Keep, you'll gain some clues as to where the story of Spirefall is headed.

Combat feedback

• When damage is reduced or prevented, the reason now shows at the point of impact: ABSORBED (shields, including partial absorbs), TOUGHNESS -N, WARDED -N. Fully negated hits show the label instead of nothing.
• When a Preemptive attacker kills its blockers and takes no return damage, a PREEMPTIVE label appears on the attacker. The event log lists the blockers that died before dealing damage.

Combat forecast

• The damage forecast now sits in the phase bar next to SKIP COMBAT, color-coded by threat: incoming, outgoing, shield-absorbed, fully blocked — and a pulsing warning when the hit would be lethal.
• It reads as an HP change ("−5, shield absorbs 4, 20 → 19 HP") instead of a bare damage number.
• Dual Strike attackers preview both hits. If the first strike kills the blocker, the carried hit shows as a red arrow to the fortress with its damage.
• The forecast shows for every pending combat during the block phase. If everything is blocked, it says "All attacks blocked, no fortress damage."
• Assigning a block puts an outcome badge on each involved card: DIES, or the projected DEF after combat. Works at all resolutions.

Stack responses

• Removed the 5-second auto-resolve countdown during stack responses. The stack resolves when you pass priority.

Menus

• Play history, event log, settings, and concede are now grouped in one tray on the phase bar, at every screen size. Buttons show a text label on hover. The drawers open directly above the tray.

Card text

• Flavor text now renders as italic text below the rules. It was previously displayed as a passive ability, which made it look like a game effect.
• New setting for hover tooltips: flash text only, flash plus full rules, or classic rules text.

Tutorial

• Added three coach steps: reading a card (cost, ATK, DEF), why attacks target fortresses instead of units, and the one-land-one-holding deploy limit. All three are voiced.
• The coach is the only voice during the tutorial. Announcer and character voice lines are disabled until it ends.
• The economy steps now highlight the resource orbs instead of the holdings slot.

Also in this build

• Full gamepad support: menu, settings, and gauntlet navigation with a visible focus ring.
• Archmage Technocrats voice and sound package.
• Fixed the tutorial rewards: fresh runs now start with 17 cards (Battle Mage Adept and Hold Up! were missing).
• Fixed the finale cutscene on ultrawide displays.
• Fixed a freeze that stuck the phase bar in MAIN after deploying a commander with animated art.
• The combat forecast hides during the clash animation instead of flashing outdated numbers.
• Plasma Construct now shows a warning on the card before its end-of-turn detonation.

Other

• Added optional crash reporting. Reports contain the error message and stack trace only.
• Hard crashes that leave no log are now detected and reported on the next launch.

Coming in the next update: anonymous statistics and crash reports for improving the game will be opt-in instead of opt-out.

***EDIT:

Update to the Day 1 Patch:

The demo prompts on first install if the player wants to automatically send gameplay telemetry and crash reports. Opting in can also happen on the All Settings menu. For those that do choose to send anonymous data, it does help us address gameplay/client stability issues within moments of getting the reports and it is much appreciated, but privacy is also important.

Privacy

• A one-time prompt at first launch asks before any anonymous statistics or crash reports are sent. Nothing is sent before you answer.
• Saying no — or ignoring the prompt — sends nothing.
• Opting out at any time deletes queued unsent data and the random install ID. The setting lives in Settings -> Privacy.
• The privacy policy is updated to match (in-game: Settings -> Privacy policy).