Nightingale News

As the Realms Rebuilt update quickly approaches, we’ve had questions from various community members regarding how the legacy version of the game will work.

To clear it up for everyone, here is everything you need to know:

[h2]What is Legacy Mode?[/h2]
Legacy Mode is a way to access and play the pre-Realms Rebuilt version of Nightingale, also known as version 0.3.2, and will be available starting September 12, 2024.

If you want to continue playing your current (pre-Realms Rebuilt) character after the update, you can in Legacy Mode!

As this is meant to be an archived version of the game, it will not get further development such as new features or bug fixes, and only single-player Offline Mode will be available - but you will be able to transfer your Online characters using the instructions below.

[h2]How do I access Legacy Mode?[/h2]
Starting September 12, 2024 after the Realms Rebuilt update is live you can access Legacy Mode by doing the following:

On Steam:

• Locate Nightingale in your Steam library
  
• Right-click on Nightingale
  
• Click “Properties”
  
• Click on the “Beta” tab
  
• Beside “Beta Participation” select “nightingale-0.3.2” in the dropdown menu
  
• Allow the game to update
  
• Start the game
  
• Select Offline Mode
  

On Steam Deck:

• Locate Nightingale in your Steam library
  
• Press the Pause button (a button with three stacked horizontal lines on the top right beside “Y”) to open the options menu
  
• Select “Properties”
  
• Select “Beta” tab
  
• Beside “Beta Participation” select “nightingale-0.3.2” in the dropdown menu
  
• Allow the game to update
  
• Start the game
  
• Select Offline Mode
  

[h2]How will I access my pre-Realms Rebuilt (current version 0.3.2) Online characters in Legacy Mode?[/h2]
As only Offline Mode is available in Legacy Mode, you will need to download your character’s save file from our servers so you can access it in Legacy Mode.

To download your Online character save:

• Go to https://auth.playnightingale.com/auth/linking/ and sign into your account
  
• After signing in, you should see all of your current Online characters
  
• If you delete your character, they will not appear for download.
  
• Click on them to download a zip file to an easy to access folder, these files will contain the data for each Realmwalker
  

To access your characters in Legacy Mode:

• Locate the zip file you downloaded above
  
• Right-click and and extract the files to the following folder…
  
• On PC: %localappdata%\nwx\Saved
  
• On Steam Deck: Home/.local/share/steam/steamapps/compatdata/1928980/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/appdata/local/NWX/saved/Offline/Profiles
  
• Launch Nightingale [legacymode], choose Offline Mode, and select your newly imported character
  

[h2]How will I access my current 0.3.2 version Offline characters in Legacy Mode?[/h2]
As long as you don’t delete your characters before the Realms Rebuilt update, you should be able to launch the Legacy Mode and automatically access your previous Offline characters.

While we have tested this internally with developer builds, this is the first time we’ll be trying this with the live game product, so we recommend backing up your saves to another location as an extra precaution.

[h2]What happens if I don’t backup my Offline character or download my Online character before September 12th?[/h2]
As long as you don’t delete your characters from the game before the update, both Online and Offline character saves will still be available for you to access via Legacy Mode directly (Offline characters) or be available to download from our website (under “Archived”).

[h2]Should I delete my pre-Realms Rebuilt characters before the update if I don’t want them any more?[/h2]
Whether or not you delete your characters is up to you as all your character slots will start empty for the Realms Rebuilt version when it launches regardless. But if you decide to delete the characters, we won’t be able to restore them so make sure you’re okay with it!

[h2]I’m having issues downloading my Online character, what should I do?[/h2]
Please head on over to our customer support platform and send us a ticket with your Steam ID so we can investigate further.

[h2]Where else can I access this information?[/h2]
Instructions on how to access the Legacy Mode and how to backup your Offline characters are also on our customer support portal for ease of access.

—

Whether you want to walk down memory lane with your Estate or just compare the game versions, we’re excited to have the Legacy Mode be available to our community as almost a time capsule of Nightingale’s development as we continue to look towards the future and where it goes from here.

Also, if you'd like to sneak an early peek at the Realms Rebuilt update, we'll be showing off the first hour or so and answering questions in a livestream on YouTube this Wednesday at 11am MT. Mark your calendars and join us then:

Nightingale: Realms Rebuilt is our biggest update yet and the latest Dev Update jumps right into what you can expect - from a new handcrafted campaign to build limit increases, UI improvements, and loads of new pets (and some even wear hats)! Every area of the game has been touched by this update, so join us as we summarize as much as we can without making this video feature-length!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

For more information on the Realms Rebuilt update then check out our reveal blogs -
Part One: https://playnightingale.com/news/nigh...

Part Two: https://playnightingale.com/news/nigh...

As the Realms Rebuilt update approaches and Realmwalkers ready themselves for their first visit to the Crossways, we thought it would be a good time to jump into some details about how the build system will change in Nightingale. Tackling the tricky questions on the mind of every Faewild builder, Technical Director Jacques Lebrun digs into the numbers and shares insight into the past, present, and future of building in Nightingale.



[h3]Q: How did you envision the design of Nightingale’s building system? [/h3]
JL: When we set out to create a building system for Nightingale, we wanted to give players the right tools and an exciting, versatile canvas to express their creativity. While we didn’t set out to make a game that revolved exclusively around building with zero limits, we also appreciate that any technical constraint can quickly get in the way of that creative freedom and fun that players want to have when crafting their home in Nightingale.

[h3]Q: How does the building system work in Nightingale right now?[/h3]
JL: Nightingale supports two distinct types of structures:

1. Composite structures which snap together with under-the-hood adjacent pieces that are managed as a single entity (these include pieces like foundations, walls, and roofs).

2. Standalone structures are managed as independent entities but can provide more functionality, such as the ability to store items, provide traits to other crafting stations, handle crafting, etc. These types of structures require more overhead to manage, and include objects like storage containers, crafting benches, and augmentations.

In the initial version of Nightingale, we needed to place limits on how many structures could exist in the realm in order to ensure networking between clients and servers remained stable, and the client frame rate remained playable on a minimum spec rig.



[h3]Q: Can you talk about how community feedback informed changes you wanted to make in the Realms Rebuilt update?[/h3]
JL: In the initial release of Nightingale, players found managing three different building limits to be challenging, and sometimes difficult to understand - the three limits themselves were 100 composite structures, 300 pieces for each of those composite structures, and 350 standalone structures. It’s also not clear from the player’s perspective which structures fall into which category, so too much trial and error was required to figure everything out.

In addition to this, players were also frustrated that the building limits for the player were shared with structures that were pre-placed in a realm, which added additional limitations outside of the player's control. This included environmental architecture like statues, ruins, and points-of-interest.

With feedback on the above, we had a pretty clear path forward on what we needed to address to make the experience more accessible, flexible and enjoyable for players.

[h3]Q: Can you go into detail about how the building system changes in Realms Rebuilt?[/h3]
JL: In Realms Rebuilt, we focused our optimization efforts around improving the piece limits of composite structures. For example, an estate building that was previously limited to only have 300 roof/wall/floor pieces can now support up to 1500. This was achieved primarily through low-level optimization of how the structure data is represented.

Additionally, we implemented a new method of spreading networking updates for large structures across multiple server updates, which we hope can allow us to further increase the per structure piece limit in the future.



In order to give players maximum flexibility in terms of how many structures they can build, we changed how we track the structure limits. Instead of tracking composite structures and standalone structures separately, we now count them together but apply a variable weight depending on the performance overhead of a particular structure. This aggregated limit is calculated via Realm Building Points, which goes up to 30,000 (UPDATE: we previously communicated 20,000 but in the days since the blog was written, subsequent optimization work has upped the overall limit). You’ll find some structures like walls and roofs contribute very little to Realm Building Points, but other types like containers and crafting benches will cost more. We also keep track of player-built structures separately from the structures that are pre-placed in the Realm - so structures already in the Realm will no longer count towards the overall build limits.

[h3]Q: What tips would you give players who love building when creating their estate following the Realms Rebuilt update?[/h3]
JL: Okay, here’s a few tips:

1: If you consider yourself an avid builder, we suggest turning on the “Advanced Building Information” option in the Gameplay Settings screen. This will show you how you’re progressing towards the building limit for the Realm, the piece limit for composite structures, and the weighted cost for each individual piece. You’ll know what’s “cheap” and what’s “expensive”.

2: One approach to getting the most out of the building system is to prioritize building out the foundations, walls, roofs, which are very low cost.

3: Be conscious when building crafting benches, containers, decorations, portals, etc. that emit traits.

4: Standalone decorations like chairs and tables still have some moderate cost, but sit somewhere in the middle (no pun intended).

[h3]Q: What can players look forward to with the building system in the future?[/h3]
JL: While we prioritized building large composite structures for Realms Rebuilt, in the future we want to spend some time optimizing the decorations, containers, and workbenches you’ll want to fill your estate with. We look forward to being able to have an assortment of low-cost decorations to give players the freedom to furnish their estates to their hearts’ desire.





Thanks to Jacques for accommodating our questions. If there’s anything else you want to know about building in Realms Rebuilt, or you have any other questions on your mind, then why not join our Developer Livestream on September 11th at 11am MST/6pm BST. We’ll be previewing the Realms Rebuilt update and answering community questions. Join our Discord here to participate.

Until next time, fare thee well, traveler.‍

The world of Nightingale has been reborn, Realmwalkers.

Set forth on a new campaign, where adventure and rewards await beyond the ancient Crossways on September 12, 2024.

Watch the trailer here:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

For more details on the upcoming update, check out our blog posts:
Part 1 Part 2