Chronicles of Vaeltaja: In Search of the Great Wanderer News

[p]Yet Another Surprise, Traveler![/p][p]I found a bug that prevented completing the 'Farming Supplies' side-quest, so I decided to fix it immediately. And that's it for today, I promise![/p][p]I hope you'll enjoy the game![/p][p][/p][p]Best Regards,[/p][p]Jani/Witchgrove Games[/p]

[p]Welcome to the Steam Autumn Sale, Traveler![/p][p]The Kingdom Unlocked Update V.0.8 has barely arrived, but here's a small update to fix the damage formula for staff spells.[/p][p][/p][p]Best regards,[/p][p]Jani/Witchgrove Games[/p][p][/p]

[p]Surprise Traveler![/p][p][/p][p]What once was supposed to be just a small optimization update, became something much, much more... Dear Adventurers, let me introduce you to the Kingdom Unlocked Update, which brings Chronicles of Vaeltaja: In Search of the Great Wanderer to version 0.8! This may not be the Winter Wilds update yet, but I can guarantee that it is something considerably better than just a new VSync and some other performance improvements I originally planned for the September's update. This update not only improve performance, but also brings lots of different improvements, new content, new equipment and bug fixes, not to mention the interiors for every house in Twin Falls, The Great Forest and Pramea. The kingdom is truly unlocked, but beware that sometimes you have to earn your way into someone's home. [/p][p][/p][p]Before we get to the patch notes, I want to highlight some of the main features in this update and I start with the main character class: Guide. When getting higher levels the main character starts to feel weak compared to other classes and the main reason for this is the 'jack of all trades' nature of the class. Guide has more skills than others and needs most of the stats, especially if you want to find all the secrets, so it felt unfair that all the Stat and Skill tomes had to be used to the main character. Therefore I after this update the main character will get one extra stat point and two extra skill points. This change helps the Guide class to keep up with others and allow more freedom to use tomes to other characters. [/p][p][/p][p]House of the Adventurers finally opens in the town of Pramea and it brings something new: Quest Administrators arrive and they have some smaller Tasks for you to take on (nothing too fancy, mostly monster part hunting). Tasks are not restricted to Quest Administrators, so you have a chance to come across them in other places too. Tasks are not recorded to the Quest Journal, same goes for Mysteries. Find your way into the Twin Houses in Pramea or the Forest Manor in the Great Forest's Hidden Village, and you'll find out soon enough what are Mysteries! Just prepare to do a little bit of dungeon crawling and you may even find a new type of puzzles... Tasks and Mysteries will be added more in the future.[/p][p][/p][p]Woodcrafter arrives to Twin Falls Forest North and he will craft bows, crossbows or staves, if someone brings him the materials. He opens his workshop same time as the Blacksmith. Talking about equipment; There are new staves that grant different spell casting skills to their wielder, which means that caster classes can temporarily cast spells that don't belong to their character classes. Staff skills will be used like any other skill, but it consumes approximately 40% less energy than casting the same spell as a class skill.[/p][p][/p][p]Some side-quest have gone through some optimization and they now take more conditions in account. I encountered couple of occasions with some old saves that caused issues with some of the optimized side-quests, but I was able to fix the ones I found. The Quest Journal entries may have some issues with the right entries, if you have already started or completed the listed quests. But that doesn't prevent them from being completed. There shouldn't be any problems if you haven't activated those quests yet. While I do my best to support the old saves, a new game always works the best after each update. That said, old saves have always worked for me after each update, and the only compatibility issues have been with the Quest Journal entries and some bugged side-quests that I have fixed. The main questline hasn't gone through any changes, so it will work as good as always with the old saves too, so does the side-quests not mentioned in the patch notes. I am sorry for the possible inconveniences and hope that there won't be any.[/p][p][/p][p]There are so many new things, improvements and fixes that would take too much space to write down, but I have to mention that the update finally brings variety to battle music. Twin Falls areas still use the same battle music, but the Great Forest, Pramea, Marsh of the Condemned and Lake Road now have their own battle songs. Dungeons on the other hand share a mutual battle theme. Fog covered Pramea will also sound much more spooky now and has its own battle music.[/p][p][/p][p]Finally, a few words about the performance improvements: After I managed to implement the new VSync, which is more effective and even allows to choose from 30fps or 60fps, I started to do some experimenting. Soon I realized that the way the MZ3D plugin (which allows 3d games to be created with RPG Maker MZ) handles the lighting, causes a lot of stress on the CPU when using 2d sprite shape for individual trees. That lead me to change all the trees and decoration plants to use cross shape, which is much lighter on the CPU. Unfortunately they don't reflect the player's torch or lantern light as nicely as the 2d sprite shape, but boost in performance is so big that I decided to prefer the performance. I will look into the lighting system, and if I can improve it, I will do it in the future. The Great Forest and the saved town of Pramea are still the most demanding areas, but the new Vsync should smooth things out to some extend and prevent the bigger dips in frame rate that may have happened in the past. Rest of the new stuff, improvements and fixes can be found in the patch notes below.[/p][p][/p][h2]PATCH NOTES[/h2][p][/p][h3]New Stuff:[/h3]

• [p]House interiors to every house in Twin Falls (including River Side Farming Community), the Great Forest (including the Hidden Village) and Pramea[/p]
• [p]Pramean House of Adventurers[/p]
• [p]Quest Administrators to both House of Adventurers[/p]
• [p]Tasks[/p]
• [p]Pramean Twin House Mystery (includes a small dungeon)[/p]
• [p]Pramean Jungle House Mystery[/p]
• [p]Hidden Village's Ghost Manor Mystery (includes a small dungeon and new type of puzzles)[/p]
• [p]Woodcrafter[/p]
• [p]3 new craftable bows, crossbows and staves[/p]
• [p]Staff Skills and new staves[/p]
• [p]Staff of Flames, Staff of Spark and Staff of Gust added in the Magic Shop's inventory in Castle Town[/p]
• [p]Staff of Freeze, Staff of Fireball and Staff of Tornado added in the Magic Shop's inventory in Pramea[/p]
• [p]Staff of Quake and Staff of Blizzard added in the Grand Wizard's and Traveling Merchant's inventory at the Lake Road[/p]
• [p]New Rings: Adventurer's Silver Ring and Adventurer's Gold Ring[/p]
• [p]New Guide Skill added in the Weapon Merchant's inventory in Pramea[/p]
• [p]Guide will now get 2 stat points and 5 skill points on level up to balance the character development[/p]
• [p]Talking Nikaru added to somewhere (finally some more use for Nature Speech and more will come in the future)[/p]
• [p]Aftermaths to some side-quests (these don't continue the quests, but shows what happens to some NPCs after certain quests)[/p]
• [p]Travel Crystal (a new tool that helps to get around, just be sure to visit the Grand Wizard after the Temple of Prophets has been solved)[/p]
• [p]Goo of a Rotten Fish added (be careful with this, because most NPCs don't like its smell, but it can be useful and someone might even love it, and remember that the Fisherman in the Lake Road can hold it for you when you need to get rid of it)[/p]
• [p]Loot added into every house in Pramea (just remember that stealing lowers Reputation/Honour, but some NPCs may allow you to take their belongings if you help or talk to them first)[/p]
• [p]Two digging spots added to the Hedge Maze[/p]
• [p]Some new decoration to Pramean Administration[/p]
• [p]Finished decoration to Nelana's House in Pramea[/p]
• [p]All the Anuna now have a proper dialog in the Hidden Village[/p]
• [p]Rich Farmer outside the Castle Town has some new dialog when he trusts you enough (just keep doing some good deeds and eventually he will change his attitude)[/p]
• [p]New dialog to the Great Forest's Farmer, once you solve his quest and visit his house (you may even meet his wife)[/p]
• [p]New dialog to Zeena, once you visit her house after helping her by returning her daughter's doll (she may be hiding something)[/p]
• [p]Piece of Evertree added as a rare drop to Possessed Trees[/p]
• [p]Names added to some NPCs (there may still be a few that lack names)[/p]
• [p]Ending added to the side-quest 'A Quiet Place'[/p]
• [p]Dialog added to the silent Evertree in the Witch Grove[/p]
• [p]Battle backgrounds to Forest Manor in Hidden Village and House in the Pramean Jungle[/p]
• [p]New battle background music to The Great Forest, Pramea (also when covered by the fog), Lake Road and dungeons[/p]
• [p]New background music to fog covered Pramean area and Halls of Onkalo[/p]
• [p]Partially new UI sounds[/p]
• [p]New music will play when resting in Inns[/p]
• [p]Icons for Potion of Courage and Potion of Unleash[/p]
• [p]New better Vsync with options: 30fps, 60fps and Off[/p]
• [p]New better Frame Counter, which shows actual frames, not theoretical like the old counter did (RPG Maker can't push the frame rate past 60fps)[/p]
• [p]Hole sprites added on ceiling in catacombs and in the 'Islands Underground'[/p]
• [p]CRT Effects (includes only Scan Lines) with the options: On and Off[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Optimized, Improved and Fixed Side-Quests[/h3]

• [p]Husband in Distress Quest[/p]
• [p]Broken Sword Quest[/p]
• [p]Farming Supplies Quest[/p]
• [p]Pramean Silk Quest[/p]
• [p]Fisherman's Quest (though you cannot complete the second quest just yet)[/p]
• [p]Family Heirloom Quest[/p]
• [p]A Cat and A Knight Quest[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Other Changes and Improvements[/h3]

• [p]Individual trees and plant now use 'cross' shape instead of '2d sprite' to improve performance[/p]
• [p]Some enemy mobs in Smuggler's Cave, Hedge Maze and Ser Hammerstone's Grave respawn to make sure that certain monster parts can be obtained, if necessary[/p]
• [p]Some changes and/or additions to enemy mobs in Twin Falls Cemetery Area, Southern Forest and Beach, The Great Forest North[/p]
• [p]Castle Town's House of Adventurers opens at 7am[/p]
• [p]A small change to the layout of the town of Pramea (the wall around the Pramean Administrator is now a little bit longer and the fountain beside it a little bit smaller)[/p]
• [p]Magic Map disabled in the Witch Grove (like it originally should be, because it is such a mysterious place)[/p]
• [p]Optimized most of the torches and lanterns (including the player's tools)[/p]
• [p]Optimized the lighting in the Temple of Pramea[/p]
• [p]Optimized every digging spot in Twin Falls areas, the Great Forest, Lake Road and Islands of the Prophets[/p]
• [p]Optimized magical barrier in the Great Forest[/p]
• [p]Optimized the entrance to the Halls of Onkalo[/p]
• [p]Increased the damage of some Warlock and Saint spells[/p]
• [p]Many NPCs optimized[/p]
• [p]Title Screen lever height adjusted[/p]
• [p]Small editing to the Witchgrove Games Splash Screen[/p]
• [p]Stunner skill description improved[/p]
• [p]Some small overall optimization[/p]
• [p]Slightly adjusted a cloud position in the Pramean Jungle[/p]
• [p]Removed Spring Water spots from the dungeons, because they were using the old mechanic (there weren't many anyway)[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Fixes:[/h3]

• [p]Magic Map can now map 'Islands Underground' Southwest and Northwest entirely[/p]
• [p]Minimap now works properly in Twin Falls Forest South[/p]
• [p]Some weapons can now properly cause states, such as Bleeding and Cripple[/p]
• [p]One of the levers in the 2nd floor of the Temple of the Prophets is now in it's right place[/p]
• [p]Bedroom doors now work properly in Twin Falls and Pramea[/p]
• [p]No more graphical errors when interacting with some of the Travel Stones[/p]
• [p]No more texture overlapping in Pramean Jungle near a fake wall[/p]
• [p]No more texture overlapping in Hedge Maze near a fake wall[/p]
• [p]Dusk Cloak description corrected[/p]
• [p]Stereoscopic 3d effect no longer break when moving mouse cursor while vsync is on (when using Nvidia 3D Vision)[/p]

[p][/p][p]That's about it and I'm almost exhausted just writing the whole thing! There is a chance that I have forgotten to mention some minor improvement or fixes and my notes mostly looked like some weird hieroglyphs, so who knows... But now it's time for me to get some rest and let you enjoy these many new things and changes![/p][p][/p][p]See You in Twin Falls, Traveler![/p][p][/p][p]Best Regards,[/p][p]Jani/Witchgrove Games[/p]

[p]Good day, Traveler![/p][p]
Before I get into the details of the Summer Skies update, I want say a few words about the Autumn Valley update. Originally I was planning to release the Autumn Valley during this summer, but giving it some thought, I’ve decided to delay its release. The reason behind this decision is that the Autumn Valley is like the Great Forest; instead of progressing the main story, it is an area that connects Twin Falls to the next story area, the Winter Wilds. While the Autumn Valley has its own secrets, I didn’t feel like it would offer enough for those who are waiting to take the next steps to follow the main quest. Therefore the Autumn Valley has become a part of a bigger content update, The Great North update.[/p][p][/p][p]The Great North update will bring three different overworld areas: Spruce Pass, Autumn Valley and Winter Wilds. It will continue the main story and add some side content. I would have loved to show some screenshots of the winter wilds, but unfortunately I wasn't able to finish the necessary assets in time. I have been drawing so much assets lately, that my wrist has been aching and I've had to give it some rest from time to time. This has slowed the drawing process, but it has given me time to work on some other aspects of the game. I will make a proper announcement of the update in the future. The good news is that once The Great North update is released, there will be only one overworld area left waiting to be finished. Yes, the full release is getting closer![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Now, let's focus on the update at hand. Summer Skies update brings some new clouds, the sun and the moon. Every overworld area has now reworked sky with more clouds, and this time they are further away in the sky. I've finally added sprites for the sun and the moon, but unfortunately they are just static sprites with some glow. I did some experiments with moving sprites and that started to be a bit too much performance wise, so I gave up on that idea. Nevertheless there is some change happening with them: In the morning the sun is in the eastern sky, in the daytime it is in the southern sky and finally in the evening it is on western sky. The Moon appears in the northern sky at night. It may not be the fanciest solution, but at least they are there now.[/p][p][/p][p]The town of Pramea has gone through some redesigning to improve the performance. There is now a proper town wall around it and the four stone blocks on the town square are now gone. Also the ground textures are new. These changes give some character to Pramea, and makes the area run a little bit smoother. I will try to find some other ways to improve the performance on the town, but at the moment I'm all out of ideas.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]The last visible changes are the new title screen and the loading screen. The title screen uses now assets from the 'Well of the Ancients', the first main dungeon, instead of the optional dungeon, 'The Old Tower'. RPG Maker's default loading spinner is replaced with animated 'now loading...' text that is more in line with game's presentation.[/p][p][/p][p]Rest of the changes, enhancements and fixes are found in the Patch Notes below.[/p][p][/p][h2]Patch Notes[/h2][p][/p][h3]New:[/h3]

• [p]Lots of clouds[/p]
• [p]Sun and Moon sprites[/p]
• [p]Pramean town wall[/p]
• [p]Ground textures in the town of Pramea[/p]
• [p]Title screen[/p]
• [p]Loading screen[/p]
• [p]Enhanced overworld sprites for nikaru and possessed nikaru[/p]
• [p]Redesigned skies in every overworld area[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Changes:[/h3]

• [p]Castle can be seen from the Riverside North[/p]
• [p]Mountains can be seen from the Twin Falls Forest South[/p]
• [p]Changes in the town of Pramea's layout[/p]
• [p]Camping and passing time until morning passes the time until shops are open[/p]
• [p]Removed two water puddles and two divri mobs to improve performance in the Islands of the Prophets[/p]
• [p]Corrected lots of grammar and spelling errors in some of the npc dialog and item descriptions[/p]
• [p]Enemy flee mechanic added to impish spawn, divri and lake rat[/p]
• [p]Some minor adjustment to river water animation[/p]
• [p]Added variety to the background trees in the Great Forest and Pramean area[/p]
• [p]Removed some unnecessary stuff, such as test maps[/p]
• [p]Optimized the enemy mob events in every overworld area[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Fixes:[/h3]

• [p]Travel crystal bug that messed the day/night cycle when teleporting to Pramea from the Wizard's Tower or the Islands of the Prophets[/p]
• [p]Missing step sounds on two squares near the Evertree in the Islands of the Prophets[/p]

[p][/p][p]I think I fixed one or two other bugs, but I forgot to write them down and I can't remember what they were. Otherwise, this is it for now.[/p][p][/p][p]Thank you and see you in Twin Falls![/p][p][/p][p]Jani/Witchgrove Games[/p]

[p]Good day, Traveler![/p][p][/p][p]Good news! The Traveling Merchant Sakari has returned to Twin Falls. Even though he never really left, he will appear in a new place somewhere in the Lake Road after the Wizard's Tower is completed. He has a renewed inventory with lots of new weapons and some other stuff, but he is also going to make you an expensive offer regarding the Curiosity Shop. Sakari isn't the only one with a new inventory, also some of the other shops now have increased selection.[/p][p][/p][p]This update adds at least one new weapon to each category, but most of them get two. New cloaks have been added to certain merchants and there are two new healing items to remove Fear and Sealed states.[/p][p][/p][p]Those who play with controllers, can now check the key bindings in the Quest Journal's 'Turorials' section.[/p][p][/p][p]Let's get to the patch notes![/p][p][/p][h2]Patch Notes[/h2][p][/p][h3]Added:[/h3][p][/p]

• [p]Sakari the Traveling Merchant appears somewhere in the Lake Road after the Wizard's Tower has been completed[/p]
• [p]Abandoned House on the Lake Road has been opened[/p]
• [p]New weapons to each category[/p]
• [p]New cloaks[/p]
• [p]New Necklaces[/p]
• [p]Potion of Courage (removes Fear)[/p]
• [p]Potion of Unleash (removes Sealed)[/p]
• [p]New items and equipment in Castle Town's Weapon Shop, Pramean General Store (weapon vendor), Curiosity Shop and Hidden Village's Shop[/p]
• [p]Bones and Bone Dust to Well of the Ancient's bone piles[/p]
• [p]Controller key bindings to 'Tutorials'[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Changes:[/h3][p][/p]

• [p]Description in spell scrolls[/p]
• [p]Blade of Banishment is now more powerful[/p]
• [p]Enemy balancing[/p]
• [p]Some changes to the Grand Wizard's dialog[/p]
• [p]Re-designed how the blacksmith works, though the changes are mostly technical[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Fixes:[/h3][p][/p]

• [p]Dark Sentinels in the Wizard's Tower's 5th floor no longer activate endless combat loop when solving the floor plate puzzle[/p]
• [p]Travel Crystals no longer activate black skybox when using them to fast travel[/p]
• [p]Travel Crystals no longer cause issues with camping[/p]
• [p]Game no longer crashes when entering a certain hidden dungeon in Twin Falls (this bug was caused by the update v.0.7.9[/p]
• [p]The lever in the Temple of the Prophet's Tower is no longer invisible when the Eye of an Oracle is activated[/p]
• [p]Helmet of the Prophets' description now shows the right skill level[/p]
• [p]Warrior's Light Cloak's description now shows the right skill level[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Known Issues:[/h3][p][/p]

• [p]Some of the equipment descriptions are still missing right details and they will be fixed with the future updates[/p]

[p][/p][p]That's it for now![/p][p][/p][p]I hope you have enjoyed the Steam Summer Sale![/p][p][/p][p]Thank You![/p][p][/p][p]Jani/Witchgrove Games[/p]