Dustgrave: A Sandbox RPG News

The first patch for Dustgrave has been released! Thanks to the many feedbacks and bug reports, we managed to track and fix several issues. We also changed the balancing a little to make the experience smoother!

We are also tracking the source of crashes some of you are experiencing, and we will do what we can to provide a solution as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience and support!

Patch Changelog:

• Critical: fixed a critical issue which prevented to load some savegames or enter some settlements due to a bug on containers.
  
• All bombs and potions are now stackable.
  
• Fixed a few missing strings.
  
• Fixed an issue with quests not properly ending while on the world map.
  
• Fixed an issue related to neutral parties fighting on the map.
  
• Increased the wealth of traders, so they will buy more stuff from you. In existing games, it will take a few days for them to refresh their stock and get the increased amount of money.
  
• Fixed the dialogue to join the Blue Dahlans factions.
  
• Members of the Straw Hats will now have a proper family name, instead of just their name.
  
• Bows and crossbows now yield materials when dismantled.
  
• Fixed an issue with a few quests not progressing properly due to the NPC party not disappearing on the world map.
  
• Fixed the three infested towns now having proper loot, but a new game may be required for it to appear, we are still investigating so that we can properly let existing savegames update changes to containers.
  
• Allies in combat will now avoid targeting your characters, unless they can land a really juicy AoE attack on several enemies. That's too tempting to ignore.
  
• Fixed a bug with too many characters assigned to the same inn room preventing the level to load properly.
  
• Fixed a female armor model spawning ghostly flying heads around the level.
  
• Fixed an issues with ranged actions and heavy armors.
  
• Fixed a level-up talent that was missing.
  
• Fixed a memory leak with temporary texture not being purged from memory.
  

It finally happened, Dustgrave has been released and we begin our Early Access Journey!

This is an important step in a long journey started four years ago, but it's only the beginning of a new development phase, which will see our development team follow the community's feedback to deliver content and improvements based on your suggestions!

Thank you for being part of this journey and have fun with Dustgrave!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2393370/Dustgrave_A_Sandbox_RPG/

As Dustgrave’s Early Access release approaches, we wanted to share with you more details about what you’ll find in the current version of the game and what our plans for the future are!
Our ambitious goal with Dustgrave is to create a deep and vast RPG Sandbox experience, focusing on player’s freedom and the impact of choices on the game’s world. We focused on creating the core gameplay features and the codebase we needed to handle thousands of entities, so that now we can efficiently add content to the game, following your feedback and ensuring all plausible narrative paths are open to players.

Here’s what you can expect to find in the imminent release:

• More than 15 settlements, that will dynamically change to reflect their wealth, who rules over them, or which major events are affecting them.
  
• 6 Classes and 14 Skill Trees to experiment with. More than a hundred equipment pieces to create your perfect build.
  
• 4 political Factions, 3 criminal Factions, and 2 minor Factions. You’ll be able to join all political and criminal factions, gaining access to unique quests and gear, but also drastically affecting how NPCs in the world will see you.
  
• 50 Different dynamic quests, with content that adapts to the current context to offer a varied and consistent experience.
  
• 160 different event Records that track what happens in the world, affecting relationships with characters and factions, with special attention to your choices and their consequences.
  
• A stealth system allowing you to steal, lockpick, pickpocket, and start fights with an advantage.
  

According to the QA sessions we did, Dustgrave already offers 15-30 hours of playtime for a single playthrough, depending on how many towns are visited and with how many factions you want to develop solid relationships.
What are Dustgrave’s future steps? We already collected a lot of feedback with the Prologue and the QA sessions we did, and after the EA release we will closely follow discussions on Steam and Discord to determine our priorities. Optimization and bugfixes will always be on the top of the list, but right after those we will collect your opinions and ideas to focus the development on what the community wants to see in Dustgrave.

During the Early Access, we’ll drastically increase the game’s content, with particular care devoted to the following aspects:

• Making the World Map feel more alive and engaging, adding local and worldwide events and allowing minor quests to be done dynamically with encounters on the map.
  
• Adding a ton of dynamic quests, especially when it comes to unique content for factions and late-game content, the latter of which is completely absent for now. Following the feedback we received, we also want to add more minor and major quests that can be done in the same location, to avoid constant traveling in and out of levels.
  
• Expanding the current Classes and Skills selection, integrating new features in the combat and improving what’s already available.
  
• Giving more content to companions, allowing you to develop relationships with them and doing quests to help them with their personal stuff.
  

Thank you for your support and please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and opinions. We mean it when we say we plan on including player suggestion!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2393370/Dustgrave_A_Sandbox_RPG/

We're getting closer to Dustgrave's Early Access release, meaning we've been spending our time polishing and improving every game's aspect! Following the feedback we received after releasing Dustgrave's Prologue, we worked on many Quality of Life improvements and updated the game's build with all those new improvements.

Here's an extensive changelog of what has changed!

[h2]Major Changes[/h2]

• The Major Quest involving the defense of a settlement from a raid has now a specular counterpart. You can now join raids on settlement, use a disguise to try and play both sides, and sabotage one side by pretending to help them.
  
• Added several crafting recipes to create potions, bombs, and trinkets.
  
• Added many new items with new Actions, to increase the variety of loot and open up new possibilities in combat. Spellcasters items, in particular, have now a much wider variety of Actions.
  
• Quests can now be tracked both on the Map and in Levels.
  

[h2]Fixes and Improvements[/h2]

• Killing enemies now gives Experience.
  
• The bug reporting tool in the game now works properly.
  
• Fixed an issue with a dungeon being bugged, may not be fully save-compatible.
  
• Added some small tutorial panels for the world map.
  
• The world's minimap now has a list of active quests, allowing players to click on them to track and see where they should go.
  
• Fixed missing strings for undead.
  
• Fixed a few skills with the wrong tooltips.
  
• Fixed rounding on numbers in tooltips.
  
• Fixed "Quick Thinker" skill not having a correct tooltip
  
• Added option for Borderless Window
  
• Fixed an issue with the disguise deactivating while swapping character in the character screens.
  
• Dead people will no longer have VFXs on them.
  
• The Bug Reporting screen now closes after sending the report
  
• Fixed several issues with the AI being stupid on the map
  
• Fixed the item tooltip not showing old info when hovering other items
  
• Added a timeout time to quests, so if you take too long people may die and you may fail and make everyone sad.
  
• Looting all items now closes the UI.
  
• Fixed a few blocking errors related to combat, in particular with status effects like bleeding.
  
• Classes Icons have been remade.
  
• Fixed some UIs to be fully compatible with ultrawide resolutions.
  
• Added more shortcuts to open panels, navigate the UI or perform actions. Many of them are now visible by hovering buttons and other UI pieces.
  
• Chinese localization: fixed several strings that were not localizing in Chinese properly. Added missing strings to localization.
  
• Fixed floating texts in combat to be clearer and less cluttered.
  
• Added additional info in the Attributes screen to clarify how various modifiers work.
  
• The game now creates 5 different autosaves, to prevent playthroughs from getting corrupted by bugs, and to allow players to go back further in time if needed.
  
• Traumas and Wounds now disappear over time as intended.
  
• Reduced the amount of items looted but also reduced the chance of them being damaged.
  
• Fixed an issue with allies seeing their morale go to zero.
  
• The same key used to open panels will now close them.
  
• Now you can easily know how many days you have before a quest fails, instead of relying on pure intuition.
  
• Added several new contextual tutorials.
  
• Fixed some parsing and gender mismatch in dialogues.
  
• Added more dialogues for secondary events to increase variety.
  
• The Action's tooltip in combat will now also be displayed when hovering the mouse over available actions, instead of requiring a click to select them.
  
• Added dynamic loot on the map, an efficient way to gather materials for Crafting.
  
• Added a small tooltip to indicate how many Actions Points a movement will cost.
  
• Improved the clarity and responsiveness of floating texts in combat.
  
• You can now deselect Actions in combat by pressing Esc.
  
• The in-game menu can now be accessed on the Map too, allowing to reload or quit. Saving on the map is not possible yet.
  
• Empty containers now have a grey highlight.
  
• Improved Enemies AI in combat, they will no longer move across space and time, and they will get stuck less often.
  
• You can now rest in Inns and Taverns, allowing for Wounds to heal faster.
  
• Fixed more than 300 strings containing grammar or syntax issues.
  
• Fixed Scenarios progress meters to highlight the correct milestone, and also display Faction icons when relevant.
  

Have fun!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2393370/Dustgrave_A_Sandbox_RPG/

It's done, Dustgrave's Prologue has been released! You can go to its page and try it right now, and continue your journey in the final game once it's available.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3226250/Dustgrave_Prologue/

Compared to the demo we released a few months ago, the Prologue brings a massively improved experience with extensive changes made to all game mechanics. Here's a changelog listing the most important changes!

[h2]Major Changes[/h2]

• Revamped and rebalanced everything related to combat. Many new items and enemies have been added, to offer a more consistent experience and add much-needed variety to enemies.
  
• Companions can now be recruited while traveling across the world, and it is no longer possible to start with 4 characters. Companions have unique personalities, but for now, they have limited content as a few dialogues and barks.
  
• Added a Crafting System, allowing for the creation of consumables and enhancement of equipment. Equipped items now have a Tier level that determines the scaling of their stats. Dismantling items will yield materials, including unique Tier-related ones that can be used to upgrade weapons and armors by visiting traders.
  
• When wearing faction-specific armors or clothes, you can now disguise yourself as a member of that faction, opening new ways of solving quests or overcoming challenges. All existing content has been updated to accommodate this new feature.
  
• Completely revamped the UI to be better-looking and easier to read, with several panels that have been rebuilt or improved to show additional info.
  
• Added several dynamic sub-quests to most major quests.
  
• Added a new dynamic major quest, with different flavors depending on where it triggers and who is involved.
  
• NPCs will now react to murders, meaning you can no longer kill people without alerting potential witnesses. It’s still a little buggy, just like real-world justice, but we keep working on it.
  
• Added Bombs as consumables, so that you can have fun throwing stuff at enemies.
  

[h2]Fixes and Improvements
[/h2]

• Greatly improved performances all across the board, in particular, while travelling on the map and when rendering stealth cone of views. There are some issues and stutters left, which will soon be addressed.
  
• Fixed some navigation-related issues in certain settlements with bridges or other similar structures.
  
• Completely reworked the Minimap on the World Map. It’s now much bigger, it can be panned with the mouse, and shows more details on regions, locations, and related quests.
  
• NPCs are smarter when it comes to detecting crimes.
  
• Skills cooldowns will now reset between fights.
  
• Improved the UI on the map to show more details of locations when hovering on the.
  
• Saving is now possible in quest locations.
  
• When saving the game, the position of playing characters is now saved properly, and no longer resets to the level’s entry point.
  
• Greatly improved the existing combat log to show more info and be easier to read.
  
• Fixed an issue with some quests related to finding stolen items or intel that couldn’t be completed.
  
• Your character will now say something when trying to open locked doors or containers.
  
• Locations on the world map will now dynamically change their looks to reflect their current status.
  
• Reworked the Journal to display more information and to group related quests together.
  
• Fixed several issues with dead people still being highlighted and showing UI pieces in combat, now they’ll be left alone until the end of the battle and won’t bother you anymore.
  
• In many quests, after trying diplomatic solutions it is now possible to go back and try different approaches instead of being locked into the choice after just one step.
  
• Prisoners found while exploring or doing quests that are not directly related to a quest now have many more interactions.
  
• Imprisoned people won’t free themselves and stand still like idiots after you talk to them. They will now be committed to their role of kidnapped or jailed people.
  
• NPCs overlays will glitch less often.
  
• Fixed a critical issue with Stealth remaining active during combat.
  
• Fixed several issues with loot dropping from enemies and the condition of such items.
  
• Mercenaries camped in a settlement will no longer pretend to be part of the local authorities.
  
• You will now be able to repair items, since we repaired the UI allowing you to do that!
  
• Expanded and improved all dialogues related to finishing a quest and getting a reward, increasing contextual accuracy and giving the player some choices to make.
  
• Wandering parties of traders or minor factions will appear in different settlements and move after some time.
  
• Tutorials can be turned off in the options.
  
• Characters will now react differently to Records depending on their ethics.
  
• Changed how critical hits work with status effects, now they simply increase the duration by 1. This also applies to Grazes, which only decrease duration by 1.
  
• Fixed a frankly ridiculous amount of game-breaking bugs, which says a lot about our competence as developers, but who am I kidding? Maybe three people will read this, so we will keep telling everyone, including ourselves, that we’re good at this.
  
• Added a lot of combat and ambient sounds to make the world more lively. Well, more lively than pretty much nothing was easy to achieve.
  
• Added a new panel to show relationships between factions.
  
• Fixed cooldowns on certain actions not working as intended.
  
• Dead people will no longer engage in solo conversations.