Chronicles of Vaeltaja: In Search of the Great Wanderer News

Good day, Traveler!

Before giving the details of this new update, I want to say a few words about the next two months. April and May are going to be a very busy time for me, so the development of Chronicles of Vaeltaja will be slower than usual. There are two main reasons for this: 1. I'm moving to a new area in the beginning of May, so it will probably take a couple of weeks to deal with the move and settle down before getting back to development. 2. I have to supervise a smaller project, starting next week.

I will keep working on Chronicles of Vaeltaja too, but not as much as I'd want to. The good news is that in the beginning of June, if not sooner, things should be back to normal. I'm currently working on Autumn Valley's textures and soon I will start to do some redesigning on it's map layout. After that there will still be a lot of work left to do, such as the enemies, npcs and other content. When working on this game, my main focus will be on this next major content update, but there might be some smaller updates before that, especially if bugs are reported.

I will give more details along the way on how things are progressing, but now let's get to the update!

Today's update finally enhances the textures and tree sprites of Lake Road and Islands of the Prophets overworld areas, which means that the remaining outdoor areas are finally improved visually. The update also brings icons to the overworld maps, so from now on shops, doors, npcs, enemies, road signs, area exits and many other things have their own icons to help with the navigation. But I don't want to spoil the fun of exploration, so some of the icons only appear on the map once the player has interacted with certain objects, such as treasure chests, tree stumps and digging spots.

There are no quest markers in the map, these icons are added only to help with the navigation and to prevent unnecessary visits in already found hidden areas, not to show where to go next.

I've also added more road signs to give directions. Because of this I had to make very small changes to the Great Forest South and Lake Road, but they don't affect the gameplay or dramatically change the map layout. I've also remade the overworld area maps and added a frame and a background to give them more clarity.

[h2]PATCH NOTES[/h2]

• Enhanced textures and tree sprites for Lake Road and Islands of the Prophets
  
• Overworld map icon for shops, inns, taverns, temples, npcs, enemies, road signs, doors, treasure chests, digging spots, mining spots, travel crystals, dead bodies, area exits, dungeon and cave entrances
  
• Remade maps with frames and backgrounds
  
• Less Leechers appear in the Marsh of the Condemned after the Well of the Ancients is cleared
  
• Leecher warrior mob appears in the eastern part of the Marsh of the condemned after the Well of the Ancients is cleared.
  

So that's it for today, I hope you enjoy these changes.

Thank You for the support!

Jani/Witchgrove Games

Good day, Traveller!

Here it finally is: 'Islands of the Prophets Part 2'. Developing and releasing this update has been more challenging than I expected, but I finally succeeded and I'm revealed that it is finally over. The problems started when I realized that the main dungeon 'Temple of the Prophets' wasn't that fun to play. I wanted it to be more straightforward than the previous main dungeon 'Wizard's Tower', which was very puzzle heavy. The 'Temple' felt boring and it didn't offer enough challenge. I was afraid I would have to redesign it completely and the whole process started to drag. Fortunately one day I realized that the layout of the dungeon was actually good, but I had used it in the wrong way. In the end it only took a couple of small edits to the layout and after that things started to progress naturally.

There are some things I wanted to include in this update, but decided to add them in the future updates. They were mostly some small graphical changes and minor side content, so overall it's not a big loss. But rest assured, those things are coming in the future.

Anyway, I don't want to waste your time anymore with my rambling and I feel I need to take a small break from the game, so let's get to the patch notes.

[h2]PATCH NOTES[/h2]

[h3]ADDED:[/h3]

• Main dungeon Temple of the Prophets
  
• Last underground area of the Islands of the Prophets
  
• Islands of the Prophets house interiors
  
• Grabbling Hook
  
• New enemy Phantom Knight
  
• Some new weapons and armour
  

[h3]GRAPHICAL ENHANCEMENTS[/h3]

• Improved Great Forest Textures
  
• New treetops and tree sprites to Great Forest and Pramea
  
• New leaf ceilings to Twin Falls, Great Forest and Pramea
  
• Better scaling to dungeon iron doors
  

[h3]CHANGES[/h3]

• Enemy flee mechanic added to nikaru, bandits, leechers, cubbos and outlaws
  
• Bats will try to flee when the main character reaches level 3
  
• Many core plugins upgraded to the latest version
  
• Adjusted enemy mob positions so that they wouldn't appear partially outside of the screen bounds in battle screen
  
• Disabled F5 so it won't reset the game when pressed
  

[h3]FIXES[/h3]

• Bat mob in the northwest part of the Cemetery area no longer display old battle background
  
• Bookshelf in the Wizard's Tower's 3rd floor is no longer sideways
  

[h3]KNOWN ISSUES[/h3]

• Great Forest and Pramea still display old treetops in the battle backgrounds
  
• There still may be some small bugs caused by the engine and plugin upgrades that I didn't encounter while testing
  
• Phantom Knights may still need some balancing
  

That's it for now. I will take a small break from the game and after that I will focus on the next overworld area Autumn Valley, but there still might be some smaller updates with enhancements and side content before the next major content update.

Have fun and see you in Twin Falls!

Thank You!

Jani/Witchgrove Games

Good day Traveler!

Witchgrove Games is happy to announce that the next content update 'Islands of the Prophets Part 2' will
finally be released later this month. It has taken some time to redesign the next main dungeon 'Temple of the Prophets', but soon it will be ready for the brave adventurers to explore. The update will also bring the last underground area and house interiors to 'Islands of the Prophets', a new enemy type, a new tool, graphical enhancements to the 'Great Forest', some quality of life features, game engine plugin upgrades and couple of bug fixes.

[h3]Dungeons, House Interiors, A New Enemy And A New Tool[/h3]

Finally the player will be able to enter the houses in the main island and search the last underground area to find a way into the main dungeon 'Temple of the Prophets'. Compared to previous main dungeons the 'Temple' is more straightforward, but it has its own challenges to overcome. The player has to face the protectors of the 'Temple' the 'Phantom Knights' - spirit beings that should not be taken lightly. The player will also acquire a new tool, Grappling Hook, that will help the player to climb holes in the floor and ceiling while exploring the 'Temple'.

[h3]Graphical Enhancements And Quality Of Life Features[/h3]

The update will also enhance forest textures, treetops and tree sprites for the 'Great Forest' and at least treetops to Pramean trees. The update will finally disable 'F5' key so it won't reset the game when pressed, like it usually does with games made with RPG Maker. Other 'Quality of Life' feature will be expanded 'enemy flee' feature. So far only bats have tried to flee when the main character reaches a certain level, but after the update also nikarus, bandits, leechers, cubbos and outlaws will try to flee when the main character grows to be strong enough. This will only apply to the enemies in the overworld areas.

[h3]Plugin Upgrades, Other Changes And Bug Fixes[/h3]

The last update upgraded the game engine to the latest version and this update will upgrade many of the core plugins to take advantage of the RPG Maker's latest version. Some enemy mobs will be adjusted so that they wouldn't partially appear outside of the battle screen. There will also be some other smaller adjustments, for example the iron door sprites in the dungeons will be scaled better.

[h3]Steam Spring Sale[/h3]

Chronicles of Vaeltaja will participate in the Steam Spring Sale starting today with 35% discount, so it will be a good time to grab yourself a copy if you haven't already.

Release date of the update will be announced closer to the release.

Thank you and see you in Twin Falls!

Jani/Witchgrove Games

Welcome Traveler,

I am happy to release yet another update for Chronicles of Vaeltaja. This update brings new battle backgrounds for all overworld areas and dungeons to increase the immersion, and lots of bug fixes.

[h2]PATCH NOTES[/h2]

[h3]New Stuff:[/h3]

• New battle backgrounds for overworld areas and dungeons
  
• Guardian character class description in codex
  

[h3]Changes and Bug Fixes:[/h3]

• Updated RPG Maker MZ to the latest version (1.9.0)
  
• Hunters can now wear all the bracers that were originally meant for Shadow
  
• Day/night cycle's time progression pauses when interacting with NPCs and other events, such as doors, to prevent the game from crashing when talking to NPCs or exiting house during a daytime change (from dawn to day, day to dusk etc.)
  
• Superior Steel Long Sword description now shows proper skill level
  
• Minimap now shows the right Cemetery map
  
• Adjusted the lighting of the Well of the Ancient dungeon
  
• Adjusted the Well of Ancients 3rd floor's music volume to be on the same level with rest of the dungeon
  
• Added directional check to the Wizard's Tower's mirrors and stairs to prevent them activating from the other side of the wall
  
• Adjusted glow effect on Fisherman's fireplace
  
• Torches and lanterns can no longer be activated through quick bar if they have been sold
  
• Adjusted the size of the two back doors in the Pramean Temple
  
• Adjusted the size of the Skeleton Warrior that is located in the middle section of the Well of the Ancient dungeon
  
• Adjusted the higher background trees in Twin Falls areas to give more variety for the treetops in the scenery
  
• Added checks to the Wizard's dialog to take more conditions into account regarding the Amulet of Dispel
  
• Hermit now shouts instead of Fisherman when trying to enter Hermit's bedroom
  
• Hidden chest near the end of the 1st floor of Well of the Ancient now reveals the tile in the automap
  
• Talking to Leecher Queen now reveals the tile in the automap
  
• Camera now properly zooms out after hiring the male Warrior
  
• Bandit Cave's chest and lock now display right names in the character selection when picking the locks
  
• Shadow can now pick the lock of the chest in Bob's house
  

And that's it for this update.

If you haven't bought the game already, now is a good chance, as the game is currently 30%.

Thank you and see you in Twin Falls!

Jani/Witchgrove Games

Good day, Traveler!

Chronicles of Vaeltaja’s first update for this year is finally here. Even though this is mostly an engine update, it's still a major milestone that brings some interesting changes and enhancements, not to mention several bug fixes.

The most visible change is the enhanced forest textures of Twin Falls areas with new treetops and better tree trunks. But it doesn’t end there: Tree and bush sprites are also renewed. There’s been some colour adjustment done to the Twin Falls’ grass textures and all the cloud sprites, so the ground looks more vibrant and clouds appear brighter. And finally the first main dungeon ‘Well of the Ancients’ looks and feels more menacing with new enhanced wall, floor and ceiling textures.

The biggest change in terms of gameplay, is the improved ‘stealing from the shop’ mechanic. So far it’s been easy to exploit the stealing mechanic, because it was missing some features that has been planned for a long time. From now on there’s a slight chance to fail completely when stealing, no matter how high the skill is. Also, if you get caught, it will be a little bit harder to steal from the same shop again. Get caught twice and it will be even harder. Getting caught three times bans from the store until a fine is paid. Paying the fine also lowers the difficulty of stealing back to normal.

There’s also some differences between shops: It is a little bit easier to steal from an item shop than from magic or weapon stores. Also, the better the inventory, the harder it is to steal – for this reason stealing from Pramean shops is slightly harder than stealing from the Castle Town’s shops.

Development wise the biggest change is the upgrade to the latest version of the MZ3D plugin. Because of some conflicts between certain plugins, it has been impossible to update the plugin until now. I’ve tried it in the past many times, but always ended up with game breaking bugs I wasn’t able to fix. The reason for this sudden success is that the plugin causing the biggest conflict became obsolete and I was able to remove it completely.

It took some time to fix the remaining bugs brought by the plugin upgrade and this has caused some delay to the next content update. I apologize for that, but it was necessary. There were two bigger issues that the plugin developer was kind enough to fix for me, which I’m very grateful for. Turned out that in the end they were quite easily fixed, I was just looking the solution from several wrong places. Nevertheless, there are lots of new features and improvements in the plugin, which should help the development and eventually improve the game even more. I won’t mention these bugs separately in the patch notes because they have never appeared in the Early Access version of the game.

The most exciting thing about this plugin upgrade is that the developer of MZ3D is rewriting the plugin to greatly improve it’s performance, so it just might possible to move on to that version once it’s released in the future. The rewritten version will have a cpu multithreading and, if I understood correctly, it should be lighter on the cpu overall.

Talking about cpus... I know the cpu requirements in the Store page are a bit high, but I’ve just wanted to be on the safe side. The game will probably run on weaker cpus with less cores, as long as it’s not a mobile processor. MZ3D is very heavy on the mobile cpus and therefore laptops are not recommended, unless they have at least a decent gpu, such as GTX 970 or GTX 1060.

Also, many of the VisuStella plugins this game relies heavily on have been updated too. Some of those upgrades optimize their performance, while others add some new features to help the development.

There has been one particular bug that has been bothering me for a long time: Skybox briefly flashing and filling the entire screen when day turns to dusk. It’s a very quick flash, but noticeable nevertheless. It’s a very weird bug – I know what causes it, but I have never understood how or why, and therefore it has been impossible to fix. I have now managed to find one way to fix it. Unfortunately it makes the transition from day to dusk a little less smoother than other daytime transitions, but I think this is much better than the short flash that filled the entire screen with the skybox for a few frames. Who knows, perhaps someday I’ll figure it out and find a better solution, but until then this will have to do.

Finally, there where two bugs in the Wizard’s Tower’s 6th floor that caused some situations where the
'mirror puzzle' couldn’t be solved. If you have encountered these bugs, it would be best to load a save game from before entering the 6th floor, if possible. I wasn’t able to recreate those bugs with my save games, so I don’t know if the fix works with save games that have these bugs. But I can confirm that the puzzle now works as intended with new games and save games from before entering the 6th floor for the first time. Other bug fixes can be found in the patch notes below.

Last, but not least: In celebration of this update the game is 30% off until February 25th.

[h2]PATCH NOTES:[/h2]

[h3]Visual Changes[/h3]

• Enhanced forest and leaf ceiling textures for Twin Falls areas and wall textures for the Hedge Maze
• Enhanced wall, floor and ceiling textures and door sprites for Well of the Ancients
• New tree and bush sprites to Twin Falls
• Colour adjustments for Twin Falls’ grass textures, all the road sign and the cloud sprites
• New smaller mouse cursor
• Added piles of bones in Well of the Ancients
• Added holes on the ceiling and floor for ladders in Well of the Ancients
• Adjusted player’s torch and lantern lights to be brighter
• Darker skyboxes for dusk and night

[h3]Game Mechanics[/h3]

• Improved stealing from the shops

[h3]Engine Changes[/h3]

• MZ3D plugin upgraded from version 0.8.2.2 to version 0.9.2.8
• Several VisuStella plugins upgraded

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Mud Dwellers now drop Clay, which can be sold in the House of Adventurers
• Changed the description of the premium Healing Kit, because there wasn’t any mention of it to be able to heal the ‘Cripple’ status effect
• Corrected some spelling errors in npc dialog
• Fixed couple of npc walking animation issues
• Fixed skybox flashing when day turns to dusk
• Fixed a bug that caused Nelana in Pramea to give the player multiple Tomes after the town is saved
• Food supplies side-quest can now be completed also after Pramea is saved
• Fixed a bug that prevented a certain lock in the hidden dungeon of the Southern Great Forest to be picked
• Fixed a bug that prevented the Evertree side-quest to update properly when talking to the Evertree in the ‘Islands of the Prophets’
• Changes to The Cat and the Knight quest: From now on the cat and the knight appear in the alley in the Castle Town at night as originally intented and this should prevent the situation where the quest couldn’t be completed properly
• Fixed the bugs that prevented the Wizard’s Tower’s 6th floor main puzzle to be properly solved in certain situations
• Fixed a bug that in some cases showed a wrong name in dialog boxes when stealing with Shadow
• Fixed several issues caused by plugin upgrades

[h3]Known Issues[/h3]

• Some places, such as Twin Falls areas, Well of the Ancients and Lake Road still have old battle scene backgrounds, but I will make new ones in the future

That’s about it for now, I guess. I hope you enjoy these changes, improvements and fixes, while I start to shift my focus back to the next content update.

Thanks for the support and see you in Twin Falls!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Jani/Witchgrove Games