YAR: Forgotten Throne News

[p]Hello everyone!
A bundle featuring my game and Oleg Kazakov’s Gedonia 2 is now available with a 33% discount![/p][p]I’m sure many of you already know the excellent RPG Gedonia and its sequel, but if you don’t — I highly recommend checking them out.[/p]

[h3]Balance Changes[/h3][p]These balance adjustments are aimed at making the game more comfortable and fair.[/p]

1. [p]No more sudden one-shot deaths.
   If the damage dealt to the main character is extremely high, it can no longer exceed 30% of the character’s maximum health.
   In simple terms, instead of killing the hero in one hit, enemies now need 3–4 hits to do so.[/p]
2. [p]Bosses have also received protection against excessive damage, so that overpowered characters can no longer defeat them in just a few hits.[/p]
3. [p]Difficulty multipliers have been adjusted.
   The easiest difficulty is now slightly easier, and the overall difference between difficulty levels is more noticeable.[/p]
4. [p]Battle Fury has been slightly reworked.
   Many players did not understand this mechanic and assumed it was bugged because sometimes they dealt damage and sometimes they didn’t.
   Now damage is always dealt even when Fury is not active, while Fury itself works purely as a bonus, providing additional damage instead of reducing it almost to zero.
   Hopefully, this change will prevent players who misunderstood the mechanic (which is explained in two separate places) from mistaking that misunderstanding for bugs.[/p]

[hr][/hr][h3]Graphics[/h3][p]The previous patch completely changed the rendering system and introduced several visual issues, so the following adjustments were made:[/p]

1. [p]Night lighting has been improved — nights are no longer overly bright as they were after the last patch.[/p]
2. [p]Overexposure on water during both day and night has been removed.[/p]
3. [p]Weather and weather effects have been improved.
   Materials no longer appear overly shiny, and rain droplets look significantly better.[/p]
4. [p]The shield no longer becomes unnaturally dark at certain camera angles.[/p]
5. [p]The transition between water and shoreline is now smoother and less abrupt.[/p]

[p]Hello everyone!
Happy belated holidays to you all, and I wish everyone all the best![/p][p]I’ve released an important patch that fixes many critical issues, improves optimization, and enhances overall quality of life. The patch itself was made fairly quickly, but it was delayed for two reasons: health issues and some unexpected engine-related difficulties when switching to a new rendering method. There was a problem that I couldn’t resolve for quite some time, but everything is fine now.[/p][p]My health took a hit — severe autonomic dysfunction caused by stress and overwork led to many issues throughout my body. As soon as I recovered enough, I immediately got back to work. I’m still dealing with various difficulties, but at least I can function and work again.[/p][p]Below is a list of changes included in this patch.[/p][hr][/hr][h3]Fixes:[/h3]

• [p]Fixed an issue where control bindings (keyboard) could not be changed. All on-screen hints now correctly display the keys assigned in the settings.[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue where gamepad button names were displayed instead of keyboard keys.[/p]
• [p]When using a keyboard, the “Controller Type” option is now hidden in the settings. Previously, it confused players — this setting was never actually used for keyboards, but people thought their input was being switched to a controller.[/p]
• [p]Fishing works again.[/p]
• [p]Fixed an infinite reward exploit for the bear pelt quest from Velemir.[/p]
• [p]Fixed infinite experience gain when loading the game.[/p]
• [p]Demolishing your own buildings now works correctly: take the construction hammer, hold RMB, aim at the structure, and click again to destroy it. Anyone whose buildings were blocking NPC paths can now remove them.[/p]
• [p]Dead archer bodies no longer block movement.[/p]
• [p]The “Heavy Hand” skill at level 3 now matches its description requirements.[/p]
• [p]Mana potion crafting now requires wormwood and produces 3 potions from 1 unit of wormwood.[/p]
• [p]The house spirit quest reward is now given only once, as intended.[/p]
• [p]Fixed excessive rewards for Basurman weapons and lizard hides from Beloyar.[/p]
• [p]Tsvetana now gives the tablecloth only once, as intended.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug where turning in Striga bones to Tikhomir caused all money to disappear.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug where crates dropped items after being destroyed even if the items had already been taken manually.[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue where crafting a protection scroll gave a ring instead of the scroll.[/p]
• [p]Fixed an error in the required mushroom count in Tikhomir’s quest.[/p]
• [p]Purchasing the Precision Inscription from Dagal’dar now gives the correct scroll.[/p]

[hr][/hr][h3]Quality of Life:[/h3]

• [p]When crafting, you can now see which items you currently have enough resources for. Items that cannot be crafted will be shown faded with the text “Not enough resources.”[/p]
• [p]You can now see exactly which resources are missing for crafting: available resources are highlighted, missing ones are shown in gray.[/p]
• [p]The Exit and Menu buttons on the death screen have been moved lower to prevent accidentally clicking them instead of Load.[/p]
• [p]Empty chests and crates are now marked.[/p]
• [p]Added one additional autosave slot and one additional quicksave slot.[/p]
• [p]Corpses of unlooted monsters no longer disappear.[/p]
• [p]Crafted food now stacks up to 50 items, including cooked meat.[/p]
• [p]Abilities on cooldown are now shown in gray to indicate they are not yet ready for use.[/p]
• [p]Fixed issues where text, inventory, and UI elements were cut off or didn’t fit on the screen.[/p]

[hr][/hr][h3]Optimization:[/h3]

• [p]Significant FPS increase (Steam Deck now runs at 60 FPS on Ultra settings).[/p]
• [p]Reduced video memory and RAM usage.[/p]
• [p]Reduced GPU load.[/p]
• [p]There is a good chance that players who previously had blurry textures will now see them displayed correctly.[/p]

[hr][/hr][h3]Balance Changes:[/h3]

• [p]Damage of the second ability has been reduced.[/p]
• [p]Life-steal enchantment has been weakened; previously it restored too much health on hit.[/p]
• [p]Enemy difficulty is now non-linear. Previously, once you reached a certain power level, you could no longer encounter worthy opponents and the game became too easy. Now, different locations contain different creatures with more refined progression. Some caves will remain too difficult for quite a long time. Forest monsters and enemies around Yar remain unchanged, but enemies in many caves, the Dark Forest, and parts of the islands have become significantly stronger.[/p]

[p]Since I’m working alone and the game has grown very large, it’s difficult to thoroughly test balance changes without stretching development out for years. So I’ll be relying on your feedback regarding difficulty.[/p][p]Of course, this isn’t everything that’s planned — but these are some of the most critical and important changes. From here on, it’s mostly smaller adjustments.[/p][p]Now the focus shifts to the major update covering the second half of the game. As you remember, it’s already complete, but it needs polishing. I expect to release it within 1–3 months. That update will include the full game content. After that, I’ll add achievements, final bug fixes, and then we’ll move toward full release.[/p]

[p]Greetings!
A patch wasn’t actually planned anytime soon, but there are several critical bugs preventing people from playing. So, the following issues have been fixed:[/p]

• [p]Sudden FPS drops over time.[/p]
• [p]Gleb getting stuck in a room.[/p]
• [p]Gleb can no longer die.[/p]
• [p]The lever in the winter cave now opens the passage.[/p]
• [p]The “No free slots” message no longer appears.[/p]
• [p]You can now return to the hornet island if the task is not completed.[/p]

[p]These are currently the most critical and easily fixable issues. I had some free time, so I patched them first — the rest will be fixed later.
I recommend saving your progress in multiple slots, and when reporting problems, please attach two files: your save file and your Gamesettings file, both located in
[c]C:\\Users\\\\AppData\\Local\\YAR\\Saved\\[/c].[/p][p]Without your saves, fixing many bugs is very difficult or even impossible, as some situations are very unique and non-standard.[/p]

[p]Greetings to everyone! The moment has finally come, after 16 months. Yes, you won’t believe it, but I spent 15 of those months working on this update, and now you can see it for yourself and understand why it took so long. The update is truly large; prepare 25–30 hours to complete it fully. And that will only be half of the game. You won’t have to wait another 16 months for the second half — it’s already finished, but I want to introduce new content carefully and gradually. [/p][p]Important to read![/p]

1. [p]You should treat this update as a testing phase of the game. There may be quite a few bugs since the game is large, and even with cheats, it takes me several days to go through everything, check every dungeon, every quest, every item, and so on. Any change often causes new issues.[/p]
2. [p]It is highly recommended to start a new game, since many new mechanics have been added. In old saves, they will not work correctly because they simply don’t exist in those files. That’s the reality of Early Access. However, in future updates, you most likely won’t need to start over. Most likely, you won’t see your old saves because the game’s name has changed. The old saves are located at:
   [c]C:\\Users\\user\\AppData\\Local\\ElderLegacy\\Saved\\SaveGames[/c][/p][p]If you want them to appear in the new version, you need to move all files to:
   [c]C:\\Users\\user\\AppData\\Local\\YAR\\Saved\\SaveGames[/c][/p]
3. [p]Those who have already played — read the tutorial for the new combat system carefully, as it has changed significantly. Also, make sure to read the “Combat System” note in the journal under the “Information” section, or better yet, read all of them. In short, instead of stamina, there is now a battle resource, and your entire damage output depends on it. The lower it is, the weaker your damage becomes. Fast attacks restore it, other attacks consume it. Keep your battle resource above 50% at all times.[/p]
4. [p]Save in multiple slots to avoid losing progress in case you encounter a critical bug. I’ll need your save with the bug and the one before it so I can debug and understand the issue.[/p]
5. [p]Work on optimization is still in progress. Since the world has become much larger, FPS in cities may be lower than it was in Early Access, but this will be resolved later, no worries.[/p]
6. [p]Carefully study the journal and notice boards. Explore the locations — many quests are not easy to find. The game does not lead you by the hand, but if you buy a map from Greka in Torzhok, some difficult objectives will be marked on it.[/p]
7. [p]Many Early Access issues have been fixed, but some were postponed until the end of development since the priority was new content. For example, grammatical errors in some places will be fixed near the end, once I’m sure the text won’t change anymore.[/p]
8. [p]Inventory categories currently don’t display all items correctly. If an item doesn’t appear in a category, that doesn’t mean you don’t have it — check the general sorting tab.[/p]
9. [p]The Mage faction (Volkhvy) will be added in future updates, so for now, play as the Warrior of Arms.[/p]
10. [p]Many minor bugs can be fixed simply by saving and loading the game.[/p]
11. [p]Play in fullscreen mode if the graphics appear blurry or unclear.[/p]

[p]New content:[/p][p]Listing absolutely everything would take forever, so I’ll describe only the main and most important parts.[/p]

1. [p]New quests, locations, items, over 30 dungeons, many new enemies and bosses — basically, everything you saw in Early Access, but several times larger and better (15–30 hours of new content, depending on difficulty and exploration level).[/p]
2. [p]A new feature — Jewelry Crafting (a small anvil found in forges). It allows you to create amulets, gemstones, and other items.[/p]
3. [p]A socket system has been added to the game, allowing you to insert passive skill stones into your equipment. To create a socket, you’ll need a special item called the “Star Stone.”[/p]
4. [p]Rune Stones — those same passive skills for sockets — permanently increase your stats and can be crafted at the jewelry anvil.[/p]
5. [p]Now you can enchant your equipment with scrolls. The success rate is written on the scroll itself. If the attempt fails, the item does not break, but all enchantments are removed. Enchanting increases all stats on an item, including bonuses from Rune Stones.[/p]
6. [p]New enhanced abilities have been added. After unlocking them through the skill menu, they become available when holding the sprint key. These are usually ultimate elemental abilities that require mana. To learn such abilities, you’ll need special stones found in dungeons around the world. Don’t ignore lockpicks, lock-breaking scrolls, or dexterity upgrades, as these stones are locked in chests.[/p]
7. [p]Several new types of scrolls have been added: Telekinesis, Summoning, Creature Control, and Lockpicking.[/p]
8. [p]New potions have been added, and obtaining permanent elixirs has become more difficult.[/p]
9. [p]Skill Enchantment System — in dungeons, you’ll find elemental enchantment stones that allow you to enhance one of your four abilities with an element. Only one element can be applied per ability. You can see the skill order in the second skill tab, and enchantments in the last one. These enchantments do not apply to special new abilities that already have built-in elements.[/p]
10. [p]The combat style of each weapon type now differs greatly. You don’t have to stick to one type — different weapons can be more effective against different enemies. For example, heavy attacks work well against large and armored enemies but miss agile ones. One-handed + shield provides constant protection but disables dodging — only shield blocking is available. One-handed without a shield allows dodging and has slightly stronger abilities. Two-handed weapons are “high risk — high reward”: slow, requiring precision and tactics, but rewarding. Future updates will add dual weapons, spears, hammers, magical staffs, and rings.[/p]
11. [p]There are many new items, too many to list — you’ll see them all in the game.[/p]
12. [p]Gamepad support! It hasn’t been thoroughly tested, but I tried to implement all the main functions.[/p]
13. [p]Weapon transmogrification — you can apply the appearance of any weapon you own to others of the same type. The mechanic works but is still in development; currently, it doesn’t save after reloading the game.[/p]

[p]Next steps:[/p][p]Finally, I’ll take a little rest and start releasing small patches with fixes based on your feedback through Telegram ([/p][p]https://t.me/honorgamesofficial[/p][p]), Discord (linked on the game page), and Steam discussions.[/p][p]I’ll also continue polishing content that didn’t make it into this update. As I said before, the entire game is already finished. The goal is to release the full storyline as soon as possible so the game can be completed from start to finish. After that, I’ll work on achievements, Steam Deck optimization, grammar polishing, translations, and other small tasks.[/p][p]Once all that’s done, I’ll look at the wishlist trends. If the wishlist starts to drop, I’ll move toward release; if it grows, I plan to add several interesting mechanics that were in the initial plans.[/p][p]P.S.[/p][p]Finally, the weight is off my shoulders. It was not easy reading angry comments and accusations of deceit while developing the game, knowing I couldn’t release it sooner and that those accusations were false. The unfairness of being unable to prove the truth weighed heavily on me, and I had to sacrifice a lot to release it now, as soon as possible.[/p][p]But what a relief it is to finally release this update. I know there are people who exist only to hate, and nothing will change for them. I’d be surprised if even one admitted they were wrong — more likely, they’ll keep spewing venom, since that’s easier than admitting fault.[/p][p]To everyone else — thank you so much for your patience, understanding, and trust. All of this has long become a matter of honor for me, as I don’t really believe in any major financial success. The game is focused on one Steam region. I could have released it earlier, and you would have liked it, and it would have been more profitable for me, but I decided to make it even better than it could have been — simply out of principle, because there won’t be another like it. I’m not sure I’ll ever again want to give so much of myself to a project, as it takes too much in return.[/p][p]The hardest part is behind us. Now we play, test, polish, communicate, write, suggest — and keep developing the game together![/p][p]I wish you a great time with the new update![/p]