Age of Reforging:The Freelands News

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!

Dear Reforgers:

Greetings! Since the last development log was released, we have received a lot of encouragement and suggestions from players. Here, we would like to once again thank all the players for support for the studio and for patience! This time, the content preview will bring two large wild scenes that will be added to the official 1.0 version of the game: Velasis Island and Cridhe Highlands! You are welcome to leave a message below to ask any questions, give feedback, or share your thoughts. We are very grateful for community's support and understanding!

P.S: To prevent excessive spoilers and ensure the gaming experience of all players in the 1.0 version, the following content is only a rough preview of the scene.



[h3]Velasis Island:[/h3]

Velasis Island! Players will experience an island-type game environment, with enemies that also have the characteristics of islands/tropical rainforests. The richness of the island to explore is also quite amazing. There are not only small caves, but also intricate routes like a maze. At the same time, players may also uncover hidden ancient ruins! Find the treasures left behind by ancestors!


Overlook perspective:



[h3]Cridhe Highlands[/h3]

Cridhe Highlands is a mysterious Highlands surrounded by impassable mountains. Although the scenery is beautiful, it is shrouded in an air of foreboding and evil. The indigenous people here don't seem to welcome you very much. Can you uncover the secrets of this place? (To prevent too many spoilers, this place will remain mysterious.)



The forest seems to be hiding something strange:




Of course, there are many other scenes that I won't go into here, and to prevent revealing too much information, in the next page of the developer's log, we will bring some major changes to the game's core mechanics! Our core goal is to develop Age of Reforging more towards the direction of freedom and the sandbox(like Kenshi, Wartales, Stone Sherds), allowing players to adventure in their ways in the vast Freelands! In order to achieve the ultimate sandbox experience, the next few logs will introduce/focus on a brand new attribute growth system and NPC hero system! Stay tuned.

Dear players,

Greetings! We are the development team behind Age of Reforging and Blackthorns Arena. First and foremost, we sincerely thank you for your continued support of our games! We appreciate your support feedback.

After a few months of quiet development, the development of Age of Reforing is finally nearing its completion. The official version of the game will be launching at the end of next month! During this time, we’ve accumulated a large amount of updates and, through extensive polishing and testing, have worked hard to bring a fresh and smooth gameplay experience for the official release.

From now until the official release, We will provide you with a developer's log and content preview once every weekend. Each preview will reveal unprecedented new content! We also welcome players to leave comments, questions, or feedback below the community. We truly appreciate your support and understanding.



We’ve made significant adjustments to the overall UI style. The original red tone has been replaced with a blue tone that better fits the RPG and sandbox game atmosphere, aligning with the magical and fantastical art style. Additionally, we’ve replaced some UI elements that didn’t match the overall style, enhancing the visual consistency and user experience.

[h3]Overall UI in the World Map Travel: [/h3]



[h3]Overall UI during Combat: [/h3]

We’ve updated the character avatar frame UI, and the health bars during combat have also been adjusted to better fit the new theme. The character avatar now has a new capture method, which hasn’t been shown in this preview but will be revealed in a future one!



[h3]UI during City/Town Rest: [/h3]

Now, each different city will show a photo of the city, and we’ve also added a resting wheel!



[h3]Quest Panel and Loot UI: [/h3]



In the next developer’s log, we will present a preview of a brand-new region and lots of new content! Stay tuned!