This page is a “fake-but-useful” dev-facing changelog you can drop into your project as a living history.
It summarizes the recent feature work we’ve been doing: War Council, battle reports, UI fixes, and world expansion.
Project
Magefall (browser strategy / turn-based land conquest)
Theme
Dark medieval arc-mage vibe • land is the scoreboard
Current focus
Combat readability, war logging, world expansion, and stability-first iteration
Homepage Message Box Restored
2026-02-22 • Map-aligned warfare + frontline land capture
Wizard Summons Overhaul: Switching wizards no longer removes bound creatures (only cancels in-progress rituals). Each wizard now has three summon choices (low / mid / elite) with different costs and roles.
Frontline land capture: winning attacks now seize border parcels that touch your territory (no more random parcel theft). If you click an enemy border tile on the Map and attack, that exact tile is seized first (when possible).
Attack cost: standard attacks now cost 3 turns (was 10). UI updated.
Map modal HUD: Map view now shows key stats (turns/gold/mana/valor/power/land) so info isn’t hidden while scouting.
Bugfix: fixed an undefined variable in api/war_attack.php (kept consistent with adjacency rules).
Feb 19, 2026HomepageAdmin
Fixed the admin-edited Homepage • Beta Blue Box saving blank values (settings variables were not being read from the form), which caused the box to never render.
Homepage now treats an empty beta_note_enabled value as “unset” and falls back to showing the box by default (until explicitly disabled).
Restored a distinct transparent blue style for the homepage beta note (so it doesn’t blend in with other cards).
Added an optional SQL migration to expand game_settings.setting_value to TEXT so longer messages won’t be truncated.
Guild Leadership Controls
Feb 14, 2026Guilds
Guild leaders can now Kick members directly from the Guild roster.
Kicked members are banned from rejoining that guild (the guild won’t appear in their join list).
Kicks are announced in guild chat for transparency.
Dashboard Help Tooltips + How To Play Rebuild
Feb 23, 2026Magefall • UX + Onboarding
Highlights
Clickable “?” help icons added to major Dashboard cards (Turn Pool, Resources, Actions, Buildings, Wizards, Summons, Barracks, Research, War, Leaderboard). Each provides a short, goal-oriented tip explaining why that panel matters.
How To Play rebuilt from the ground up: a clear basics → mid-game → late-game progression, plus a 10‑minute starter plan and common mistakes section.
Files touched
dashboard.php (help tooltips UI + behavior)
how_to_play.php (full rewrite)
Leaderboard Accuracy + Momentum
Feb 12, 2026Magefall • Home Page + Retention
Highlights
Homepage high scores fixed: land is now counted from land_parcels (source of truth) and power uses the same computed model as the in-game dashboard.
API leaderboard fixed: /api/leaderboard.php matches the same land/power logic so your dashboard table and home page never disagree.
Land sync: player land_owned is auto-synchronized from parcels on state refresh, preventing drift bugs.
Momentum: first login of the day grants a small (capped) bundle of turns/gold/mana as a clean daily reward on first login.
How To Play updated: new Momentum section and clarified that Land is the primary scoreboard.
Mobile-Friendly UI + Admin Balance Controls
Feb 10, 2026Magefall • UX + Balance
Highlights
Mobile responsive: navigation and panels now reflow cleanly on phones; tables scroll instead of breaking layout.
Spell cooldowns: spells support an optional CD (turns) that only applies after casting. Fire Siege now has CD 10.
Scalable land stolen: land stolen on victory is controlled by war_land_steal_max in the Admin panel.
Economy knobs: tax income and key building costs/effects are now admin-tunable.
Combat Tuning + Realm Vibe + Battle Fatigue
Feb 10, 2026Magefall • Combat
Highlights
Combat knobs: max rounds, morale break, defense weighting, rank penalty and randomness are all adjustable in Admin.
Realm Vibe card: dashboard now shows a quick realm snapshot (activity, tension, land claim rate).
Battle fatigue (UPDATED): now supports a burst window via war_fatigue_attack_threshold (default 3 attacks) and a rest duration via war_fatigue_turns (default 3 turns). Set threshold 0 to apply fatigue after every attack.
Attacker-only bonus land: victory bonus land from the unclaimed pool is now awarded only when the attacker wins (defenders no longer gain free land for a successful defense).
War Rewards & Report Quality (Bonus Land + Captured Buildings)
Feb 09, 2026Magefall • Live Patch
Highlights
Victory Bonus Land: increased to +10 when unclaimed realm land exists (does not come from the defender).
Captured Buildings: when land is stolen, any buildings on those parcels are now reported as spoils.
Report Header Clarity: battle report summary now calls out bonus land earned (separately from stolen land).
Clickable Usernames: attacker/defender names in war reports link to the War page with target pre-filled (retaliation-friendly).
Obelisks now grant Arcane Capacity (a second capacity meter, similar to Supplies).
Added a Summoned Creatures panel on the Dashboard.
Your Active Wizard determines which creature you can summon:
Green → Treant • Blue → Siren • Black → Reaper • White → Angel • Red → Dragon
Summoning is done via a ritual: it costs a large amount of Mana and takes several turns to complete.
The ritual progresses as you spend turns on any actions.
Summons are real stacks in combat (auto-included when attacking and defending).
Wizard switching now costs 5 turns and breaks all current summoning bindings (ritual + summons).
Players can hoard multiple summons, but they are constrained by Arcane Capacity.
If you lose Obelisks, your Arcane Capacity can drop below your bound creatures.
Excess summons collapse automatically (the most expensive bindings fail first).