Lost Eidolons News

[h3]A Note from ODS[/h3]

“Thanks for testing out Lost Eidolons, Tactician. This is the first beta build of several to come. It’s still an early look at the game, so we’re missing a few coats of polish in a few areas like animation and voice acting. You might run into bugs, softlocks, unbalanced mechanics, and the occasional frustrating camp activity. Please let us know on Discord, Feature Upvote, or the Steam forums! As the tests go on, more and more content and finesse will be applied. Please look forward to it!”

- The ODS Team

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[h3]Improvements from June's Alpha Test Feedback[/h3]

“Back in June of this year, players had a chance to try out the alpha version of Lost Eidolons during Steam Next Fest. Thanks to those contributions, our team was able to make several changes that we might not have made otherwise had it not been for that feedback. We plan to continue this method of development with these upcoming beta test phases.”

[h3]Applied demo-based combat feedback[/h3]

• The experience acquisition window automatically disappears after a certain period of time
• Added variety of battle events to various scenarios (dialogue events, battle rewards, etc)
• Added terrain and environmental effect information when hovering over with cursor
• Added double-speed function for battle animations
• Applied Rapport system with allied units
• Added detailed skill names/effects
• Added Normal/Hard difficulty modes, selected at the start of the playthrough
• Added grid display option in combat
• Added more distinguished critical/guard effects when attacking
• Added a toggle that allows you to view all enemy movement and attack ranges at once
• Added more details to unit info in combat (status effects, etc.)

[h3]Applied user feedback from the demo build in the camp portions of the game[/h3]

• Players can now select any camp character on the map screen to fast travel to them without a load screen. Sprinting has been removed and replaced by this feature.
• Improved speed of the training minigame in camp (sped up attack tempo, twice as fast!)
• Improved meal/chat features in camp activities. This feature is in ongoing development.

[h2]New Content[/h2]

The Mercenaries "A chance encounter with a hooded woman."

Contains 5 cutscenes and teaches the player how to navigate the combat UI and map, as well as the basics of the turn-based combat system.

Trouble Calls "Framed and apprehended."

Contains 4 cutscenes and teaches the player about ranged combat, guards and critical hits, zone of control, utilizing items, undoing actions, and display risk range.

Breakout "Escaping into the night."

Contains 10 cutscenes and teaches the player about spells, weapons and weaknesses, swapping weapons mid-combat, turn limits, and item drops. Additionally introduces the camp outgame system, instructing players the basics of interacting with allies, rapport, character settings, and quests.

Break of Dawn "Dispatching hellish beasts."

Contains 1 cutscene and teaches the player about battle preparation, fighting monsters, and bond effects. Camp section introduces merchants and the Unity Ceremony.

The Proving Grounds "Mounting an all-offensive siege."

Contains 7 cutscenes and teaches the player about context actions, combat skills, tile effects, treasure chests, and special enemy mechanics.

Murder of Crows "A beast like none other."

Contains 5 cutscenes and teaches the player about poison effects and charged attacks. Camp section introduces new features and NPCs, as well as a tutorial on visitors/recruiting new units.

Thorned Rose "Ambush behind enemy lines."

Contains 4 cutscenes. Camp section teaches player about sparring at the training grounds.

Slumbering Bear "Breaking down walls."

Contains 5 cutscenes. Camp section teaches player about equestrian mounts for units.

[h2]New Features and Systems[/h2]

Since the Steam Next demo, we’ve added or improved various mechanics:

• Numerous camp/battle tutorial windows
• Cutscenes for Chapters 1-8
• Battles against monsters and the weak-point system
• Battles against boss enemies
• Better battle rewards (treasure chests, enemy loot drops, etc.)
• Battle ally system
• Options:
  • Added V-sync on/off function
  • Added music volume, sound effect volume control function in addition the the master volume

[h2]Content Changelog[/h2]

[h3]General Features[/h3]

• Camp/Battle Tutorials

[h3]Combat[/h3]

• Addition of monster-class enemies
• Addition of lootable treasure chests during combat scenarios
• Addition of ally team members during certain combat sccenarios (guests)

[h3]System[/h3]

• Save and Load functions
• Manual saving is possible upon entering the camp segment
• Autosave will trigger at the starting point of all battles, camp sections, and cutscenes
• Saving during battle will be implemented later

[h3]Quests[/h3]

• Addition of required Quests/Side Quests, according to the flow of each story section. Each episode now has main objectives as well as optional side objectives

[h3]Camp[/h3]

• Addition of Advancement Ceremony, where you can promote units to more powerful classes
• Implementation of ally recruitment/invitation, where you can add new members to your combat roster

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• Bug fixes will be noted starting from the second patch note. Consider this one our starting point!

[h2]Known Issues[/h2]

Common:

• We are preparing for multilingual support.
• In languages other than Korean/English, there are still some untranslated text.
• There are areas in the UI that have not been size-optimized for all languages.

Cutscenes:

• Please note that all cutscenes are still in development and will receive additional polishing before launch.
• The character’s expressions/eyes/lipsync may look off. We are currently working on improving these.
• There are moments where the character animation may appear stiff or awkward. We are currently working on improving these.
• Interruptions in character animation may occasionally occur.
• There is no sound or voiceover yet applied.

Camp:

• When using the fast travel function through the camp map menu, there is sometimes a bug that causes Eden to run in place instead of moving in front of the selected character.
• There are still moments where the character animation appears awkward. We are constantly working on improving/correcting this.

Battle

• There are moments in battle where battle animations clip through terrain.
• There are some moments in which the monster animation appears awkward. We are constantly working on improving/correcting it.
• Additional unchecked errors may appear as well.

[h2]In Development[/h2]

• The game does not support controllers in this phase, but our team is planning to make that functionality available in the near future.

[h2]Localization[/h2]
New language options - Please note that the following languages have yet not gone through the full Localization Quality Assurance cycle:

• Brazilian Portuguese
• Castilian Spanish
• English
• French
• German
• Korean
• Russian

[h3]Known issues:[/h3]

• A few lines of text may have slipped through the cracks in our localization pipeline. (If you encounter a line that displays in Korean or shows something like “no value”, that’s why.)
• Some typos throughout various languages
• Some terminology inconsistencies throughout various languages
• Some text/UI elements are cut off or otherwise not displaying correctly
• French Specific: Keys for cursor movement mapped for QWERTY keyboard and not AZERTY keyboard. Will be updated in future updates (FR : Problème remonté : les touches de déplacement du curseur sont configurées pour un clavier QWERTY et non pour un clavier AZERTY. Ce problème sera corrigé dans les prochaines mises à jour.)
• Known issues will be addressed in future releases

Greetings, Tactician!

Today at 2:00 PM PDT, ODS Pat will be livestreaming parts of the closed beta build on the official Ocean Drive Studio channel! You can tune in and check out some developer commentary and gameplay from the first few episodes live, as well as ask questions!

Join us on our Twitch at: https://www.twitch.tv/oceandrivestudio

Stream Start Times:

• US West: 2:00 PM PDT
  
• US East: 5:00 PM EDT
  
• London: 10:00 PM BST
  
• Korea: 6:00 AM KST, September 30th

Note that cutscenes will be skipped to prevent any notable spoilers! Some camp contents will be shown as well.

Hope to see you all there!

Greetings everyone!

With the date of the first playtest phase coming soon, we’ve finalized our recruitment of the new cadets for the Benerio Grand Company, our beta testing focus group.

We received well over 300 applications from strategists eager to our existing pool of testers from the Kickstarter campaign, which had already numbered over 1000. Testers will help us improve the game by providing vital feedback on early builds of Lost Eidolons, which will result in bettering the overall game experience for those who will get to experience it later on.

If you submitted a form to join the Benerio Grand Company, please check your e-mail (including your spam inbox)! If you did not receive an e-mail from us, fret not! We will continuously be adding new cadets to the Benerio Grand Company throughout each testing phase between now and Early Access. We will regularly announce rounds of new recruits whenever we do. You do not need to submit a new form if you weren’t accepted for this round! This also means that if you’re just learning about our testing program for the first time, you can still apply to join it!

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If you indicated in the form that you were a Kickstarter backer, we did not send you an e-mail, because you were already in the program without applying. Those who submitted surveys during the alpha playtest back in June will also be sent beta invitations. Those who are Kickstarter backers should make sure to join the Ocean Drive Studio Discord and contact ODS Pat for role verification.

If you were accepted but did not join our Discord yet, also please make sure to do so to receive your roles and access to tester channels. You can also request assistance in the #troubleshooting channel.



The ODS team is looking forward to making Lost Eidolons the best game that we can by working closely with our community. Stay tuned for news on the first upcoming playtest!

Greetings, Tacticians!

The first beta playtest will be commencing in just a couple of days!

In order to consolidate feedback and issues in an organized fashion, our community and team will be using Feature Upvote!

Feature Upvote centralizes everything into one board where community members can submit feedback, suggestions, and bug reports in a single place, surfacing the most urgent and agreeable ideas to the top.

You could think of it like Reddit’s upvote system, but for feedback!

On top of that, you’ll be able to see which feedbacks the ODS team resolves and acts upon, so you could constantly be informed of what we’re accomplishing thanks to everyone’s contributions.

If it's too much of a hassle, fret not! We will be actively monitoring the Steam discussion forums as well for feedback, as well as our Discord.

• Visit our board, located here: https://losteidolons.featureupvote.com/
• Click on an existing suggestion.
  
  • If you agree with it (if a feedback or suggestion) or encountered the same problem (if a bug), make sure to upvote it!
    
  • Additionally you can leave a comment weighing in on the feedback.
    
• Click on Add Your Suggestion. Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be a suggestion explicitly.
  
  • Give your feedback a title. Descriptive, but brief!
    
  • For the larger text box, be as descriptive and thorough as you want about what you’re writing about!
    
  • Optionally, you can add an image. Strongly recommended!
    
• When adding a new feedback or comment, make sure your name and e-mail match the display name you use on Discord and e-mail that you used when registering for the Benerio Grand Company or when you backed the game on Kickstarter/BackerKit! Only we can see the e-mail on our end.
  
• On our end, we’ll apply tags to your feedback to help categorize it, and our development team will review it internally. When we’ve come to a decision on it, we’ll update the Status on it and comment if it needs further elaboration.
  
• In an earlier memo, we wrote that contributing members of the Benerio Grand Company will receive additional perks for their contributions towards improving Lost Eidolons. Active participation on the Feature Upvote boards counts towards that!
  

We hope that by using this, we can streamline player feedback and vastly accelerate the community-to-development process.

Tactician!

The time has come to raise your banner. The Lost Eidolons 1st Closed Beta test begins in just six days from now, on September 30th at 6:00 AM PDT. The beta will run until October 6th, 2:00 PM PDT.

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[h2]What to Expect[/h2]


The 1st Closed Beta offers episodes 1-8 in their entirety. There will still be polish and balancing to be applied, but it should give a relatively thorough experience, and an idea of what to expect from the full game.

In future playtests, which you will also have access to, more episodes will be added. Expected content for this playtest includes:

• Basic combat/camp tutorial.
  
• 7 additional combat scenarios.
  
• Fully rendered cutscenes (no voiceover yet).
  
• 6 camp sections with sidequests and camp activities.
  
• Unit recruitment.
  
• Class advancements and more in-depth character customization.

[h2]Helping Shape the Game[/h2]


While playing through the beta build of Lost Eidolons, or after you’ve finished it, we’d love to hear what you think about the game! The main objective of Benerio Grand Company is to gather feedback and opinions from early playtesters, in order to help make the game the best it can be (before everyone else gets to try it later on, in Early Access).

You can provide your feedback, suggestions, and bug reports via an upcoming Feature Upvote board we’ll be announcing next week, as well as on Discord!

[h2]Streaming & Video Content of the Beta[/h2]


All of the beta periods of Lost Eidolons are under NDA. You can discuss the game with others freely (including those not in Benerio Grand Company), but sharing images and video is prohibited. This is solely because we want to keep the story elements of the game protected for those who want to experience the game in its entirety without spoilers.

However, if you are a content creator (e.g. on Twitch or YouTube), please reach out to CM Pat on Discord! We can authorize the creation of content for specific segments of the beta build(s) that have very little bearing on the storytelling aspect of Lost Eidolons.

[h2]Gaining Access to the Beta[/h2]

Members of Benerio Grand Company (including all Kickstarter backers) should check their email for a code to download the beta. Your code will arrive on the 30th for installation, within the hour before the planned 6:00 AM PDT start time.

[h2]The Community Mission[/h2]


Game development historically is a task that’s performed behind closed doors. This is one place where we really want to stand out as a new game studio. While we have our vision for Lost Eidolons, we want to respect the opinions and ideas of our community and passionate testers. We’re depending on Benerio Grand Company to find everything that you think we’re doing right or wrong and point it out.

If we disagree, we’ll tell you why, and we can talk through each point of the game with you guys. We hope that everyone who will be playtesting will have at least one thought that sticks out to them about the game, whether positive or negative, that they can actively share with us, the developers.



Are you interested in participating in the beta test? You can still register to join the testing program by clicking the form link below:

• Form URL: https://forms.gle/CV1JNH9biTNDbspZ7
  
• Discord URL: https://discord.com/invite/nvzRKzh5Mn

We have not sent out emails to selected testers yet! As a reminder, all Kickstarter backers during the campaign will be receiving an email to participate. We will be publishing a separate announcement in the coming days, once we’ve selected our candidates, along with instructions on how to proceed.

[h2]How to Install the Beta[/h2]

Take the code to Steam, where you can redeem it as a product.

1. Launch the Steam client software and log into your Steam account.
   
2. Click the “Games” menu option at the top of the Steam client.
   
3. Choose “Activate a Product on Steam…”
   
4. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the process.

[h3]Closed Beta FAQ[/h3]

Q: How can I get into the Closed Beta? – Please fill out this form if you’re interested in joining the Closed Beta group!

Q: When will the Closed Beta begin? – The Closed Beta begins on September 30th at 6:00 AM and runs until October 6th at 2:00 PM PDT!

Q: How many beta test phases will there be? How long does the test last for? – We will have a total of 3 beta test phases between now and Early Access. Closed Beta 2 and 3 dates will be revealed in future announcements.

Q: I have the Lost Eidolons Alpha installed back from Steam Next Fest last June. Should I keep it? – You may uninstall it. The beta client is separately maintained and the alpha client will no longer be updated.

Q: What are the requirements to be selected as a Closed Beta tester? – We’re looking for highly passionate fans of tactical turn-based RPGs, who want to really help us by providing solid feedback about the game! We want to see your enthusiasm in the application!

Q: How will you be inviting people who signed up for the beta test? – If your application is accepted, you should expect an email from ‘Ocean Drive Studio’ ([email protected]) with additional instructions on how to proceed!

Q: How will I access the Closed Beta build if accepted? – Once you have been accepted to the Benerio Grand Company testing group, you’ll receive a Steam Key which can be redeemed through your Steam Library. After you redeem the key, you should see ‘Lost Eidolons Closed Beta’ in your Steam Library. Download and launch to start playing the game!

Q: What perks do I get as a beta tester? – You will be granted access to all phases of Closed Beta tests. An additional invite to try out the game will be given to you to give to a friend or family member. On Discord, we’ll assign you a unique Discord role that provides access to a tester’s channel. Lastly, your alias will be added to a special section of the credits dedicated to the brave men and women of Benerio Grand Company.

Q: What kind of content will the first beta test have? – Content will be gradually added throughout the three beta tests and will include an early look at the game’s first two major arcs.

• Basic combat/camp tutorial.
  
• 7 additional combat scenarios.
  
• Fully rendered cutscenes (no voiceover yet).
  
• 6 camp sections with sidequests and camp activities.
  
• Unit recruitment.
  
• Class advancements and more in-depth character customization.

Q: Where can I submit my feedback as a beta tester? – We will have feedback channels available for testers on our Discord server and will be leveraging an additional way to aggregate feedback that will be revealed soon!

Q: What platforms are the beta available on? – The beta will only be available on Windows PC.

Q: Is there multiplayer? – There are no multiplayer functions planned at this time.

Q: What languages are supported during the Closed Beta? – Full text support for English, Korean, Russian, German, French, European Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese. Text seen during the beta tests may not be final. Voice acting will not be available during the first beta.

Q: Can I collect footage or images from the Closed Beta to share with others or to make content with? – Closed Beta game builds are under NDA. You are free to talk about the game but please do not share images or videos. Content creators can reach out to ODS Pat on Discord and we’ll review requests case-by-case to record or stream specific segments of the beta build!

Q: Will my campaign progress carry over between beta phases and later to Early Access? – We will be wiping progress before Lost Eidolons’ Early Access in early 2022.

Q: What are the minimum system specs?

• Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4460 or AMD equivalent
  
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
  
• Graphics: GeForce GTX 960 or AMD equivalent, 4 GB VRAM
  
• DirectX: Version 11
  
• Storage: 40 GB available space