Age of Reforging:The Freelands News

[h3]Dear reforgers:
We are very sorry that due to the current state of Alpha test, it is not yet in a state that can be played by most players, so it has been temporarily cancelled. If players who want to help us test and provide feedback are willing to do so, they can leave a comment in the comment area below. We will come to you, for those of you who helps us in to Alpha Test, we will put your name in the Credits. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. Thanks for your understanding
[/h3]

Dear players:
Thanks for watching our trailer! This time we will bring you two additional content added to the 1.0 official version. Some players have previously asked how the kidnapping in NPC interaction is implemented and what its benefits are, so this time we will talk about it! And while we're at it, we might as well talk about the current ecological environment of the free night! Please see the following:

P.S : We encourage players join our Discord Group : https://discord.com/invite/gjrU73cgKP

[h3]Beware the night! The night experience in the Freelands is very different now:[/h3]
In the EA version, nighttime is simply a little less light, but it does not affect the difficulty or other aspects of the game itself. But now it's different! In the 1.0 official version, night means the movement of some Night Stalker that hide in the corners during the day, as well as the nefarious Necromancers and Black Wizards! We believe that this will change the player's nighttime gaming experience, making the nights in Freelands even more oppressive. The strength of the Nightcrawlers will even render the caravan guards helpless. At the same time, the heathens (dark mages, dark knights, necromancers, etc.) have even more frightened the ordinary villagers. Good luck, Reforger, and try to survive in this even more cruel world!

Nightcrawlers are attacking!:


Dark mages encounter:
Dark Knights:


New interaction: Carry
Yes, Carry is a new interaction mode we have added. Players can interact with objects or people in this way. If the target is stunned/knocked out by the player, the player can directly carry it and the person will not escape. However, if the player forces it when it is awake, it may be scared or even run away!



Facing a humanoid enemy knocked down , the player can either pick it up and take it away (capture the prisoner), or execute it cruelly! Executing will drop the equipment of the NPC.



If the player successfully picks up the target and takes it away from the current map, the target enters the player's cage and becomes the player's prisoner. You can choose to sell it and become a slave trader (the price will vary depending on the player's bargaining attributes), or if you find that he is a person of talent, train him, etc.


In the 1.0 official version, we have made the mercenaries hired by the tavern more closely reflect the term “hire,” which means that players need to pay a regular weekly salary, otherwise they will leave the squad. However, if the player kidnaps and takes away the prisoner, there is no need to pay a salary. This also means that we encourage players to obtain teammates in a variety of ways! We hope that players will like this new system. In the next issue, we will announce more official version content, so stay tuned!

Dear Reforgers:

Happy April! Thank you for your support and patience while we work on Age of Reforging! This time we will introduce two core mechanics that will be introduced in the 1.0 official version, which have been highly requested by the community: the "random equipment Prefixes" and the “item durability” system. They are very suitable for today's sandbox games, and we believe they will each give the game a richer experience! Players are welcome to leave a message below the post to ask any questions, give feedback, or share your suggestions. We really appreciate your support and understanding.




[h2]Durability:[/h2]

All equipment and most of the food will be given durability! Just like those familiar games with durability, once the durability of the equipment is zero, the equipment cannot be used until it is repaired. Currently, the durability of equipment can be restored at shops in major towns and cities, and subsequent players can also craft repair items. If the durability (spoilage level) of some foods hit zero , player will not be able to use them. The addition of this durability design is also hoped to give players a more realistic sandbox survival experience.

The food storage and durability in this game have been carefully studied
You can see on the chart we actually count the actual Days and Hours a certain food would be decayed and covert them into durabilty in this game.

The durability of food is its degree of spoilage, which increases over time


Apple vinegar can be stored for a very long time, i.e., it does not have a durability limit

[h2]
Random equipment Prefixes[/h2]

EA's game versions all have equipment that provide fixed prefixes which would not be changed. Since we have nearly 1,000 different pieces of equipment, with the support of such a large number of models, we have decided to implement the random prefixes system that has been particularly popular in the community feedback.
The current equipment system is just like the 2.5D top-view ARPG games you are familiar with (such as Diablo, Grim Dawn, Path of Exile, etc.). In addition to distinguishing between rarity, quality has also been added. Among them, quality level (T1-T5) determines the inherent basic attributes of the equipment, while rarity (rare, epic, legendary) determines the number of random entries given by the equipment.

The rare (blue) T1 Northean Upper has four random Prefixes:


The Uncommon (green) T1 Soldier Breastplate only has two random Prefixes


Two sets of equipment of the same T1 quality are basically the same in terms of basic resistance, but due to the difference in rarity, they have different numbers of prefixes!


This issue will end here, but there will be more content revealed next week, so stay tuned!

Dear Reforgers:
Happy April! After a long wait , Age of Reforging: The Freelands has finally been set: the update from EA version to version 1.0 will be released on April 28 PST! At the moment, the game's brand new tralier video has also been simultaneously uploaded to the Steam store, and you can watch it on our various social media too. Since there is a lot of content in the update and there is still a lot of content that has not yet been announced, interested players can check out the developer's log. In addition, this week's developer's log is also expected to be updated on Saturday!

Store Page portal:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1161830?snr=5000_5100__

IGN Game Trailer channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-pdFCAIfxs

[h3]Version 1.0 will also have the following localization support:[/h3]
English (Proofreading by Pablo)
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Japanese (translated by Android-san)
Korean (Translated by ChatGPT DeepL Pro)
Italian (Translated by ChatGPT DeepL Pro)
Spanish (Translated by ChatGPT DeepL Pro)
French (Translated by ChatGPT DeepL Pro)
German (Translated by ChatGPT DeepL Pro)
Russian (Translated by ChatGPT DeepL Pro)

LQA done by MuffinXXL and Roland

Maybe 1 or 2 aditional localization would be added depending on the siuatation, however, most of the European Languages and Korean are transalted by the combination of DeepL Pro and ChatGPT. If any local speaker is interested in helping us manage the localization, we are very grateful and happy to receive your favor! Your name will also be written in the Credits!!!

Cheers!!!!

Dear players:

Hello everyone! Once again, thank you all for your support and patience with Age of reforging! Without further ado, this log will introduce two core mechanics that will be introduced in the 1.0 official version, which will significantly change the current gaming experience. They are Free Attribute Growth and NPC Heroes! Players are welcome to leave a message below the post to ask any questions, give feedback, or share your suggestions. We sincerely appreciate everyone's support and understanding.




[h2]1) Free attribute growth:[/h2]

In the EA version of AOR, characters would upgrade first, and then get five attribute points for each level up. The player assigns the five attribute points to any attribute (strength, agility, intelligence, etc.). We received a lot of feedback from the community, asking us to focus more on the sandbox experience (similar to Kenshi, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Rimworld). We have made this a core change this time. Now the player's attribute growth is only related to the growth conditions corresponding to it! The following will give a detailed explanation of the growth of the strength and intelligence , as well as persuasion as the player's skill growth:

[h3]How strength grows[/h3]
✔Every time you swing a weapon
✔Every time you block an enemy's attack
✔ when running with overweight
✔ when running with medium weight
✔ when carrying heavy loads

[h3]Intelligence[/h3]
✔ every time you use MP
✔ every time you release a skill
✔ every time you deal a critical strike
✔ every time you finish reading a book/Skill Book

[h3]Persuasion[/h3]
✔ introducing with NPC
✔ successfully praising someone in unrestricted interaction
✔ successfully requesting to join a party
✔ successfully inviting someone to join a party



In addition, the player's utility skills (pathfind, insight, mechanics, stealth, thievery, blacksmithing, alchemy, and cooking) are also reset independently, making them more useful. The way to increase utility skills is also practice makes perfect! Let's take insight as an example for detailed explanation:

[h3]How insight grows[/h3]
✔Scenario maps (including dungeons/bandit camp) to discover traps and hidden mechanisms
✔Lead the group to discover hidden resources on the world map
✔Insight an NPC
P.S: All visible resources (such as mines, herbs, etc.) on the world map are now hidden, and if you failed in insighting them, you can't get them!

[h3]Insight's corresponding growth effects:[/h3]
✔Increases the probability of discovering collectible resources on the world map.
✔The probability of discovering traps and hidden objects.
✔The success rate of inspecting NPCs.

In other words, now players level up because of their attributes growth unlike the EA version! We believe that this is how the Age of Reforging sandbox should really look and that this will also stylize and differentiate the different styles of combat. We also believe that this growth system can provide players a more free and immersive sandbox game experience in the 1.0 official version. Of course, along with the core changes that come with the free growth of attributes, many other mechanisms have also been changed accordingly (for example, the learning of skills now uses the experience points given by combat or missions/quests). We will not list them here one by one, and if there is a chance in the future, they will appear in the development log!
[h2]
NPC Heroes:[/h2]

This mechanic will also completely change your experience in the Freelands, and when it comes to the NPC hero system, we must introduce another feature that we have already built but is still under development: NPC interaction! Namely, players can praise, insult, trade with, give gifts to, or even invite into the team or kidnap NPCs. Any NPC seen in the game can be interacted with. You can use the “insight” utility skill in future versions to inspect NPCs, view their attributes, traits, etc., to decide whether to recruit them!
[b ]Prototype of the NPC unrestricted interaction system:[/b



Back to the topic, NPC heroes, that is, in the game there will be many more powerful NPCs that will grow on their own, either form adventurer squads, become bandit leaders, or rest in various taverns. In short, just like the player, they will also be adventuring in the Freelands! Players can interact with them, compete with them, kidnap them, trade with them, befriend them, and the entire Freelands will come to life!
[b
Yulian has become the leader of the bandits! And he leads the bandits to attack the villagers along the way:



We can't wait for you to experience the new content! In the next development log, we will bring you more content to enrich the game! This may include the biggest random equipment affixes requested by the community so far (random equipment affixes in ARPG-type games like Diablo, Path of Exile, etc.)! Stay tuned!