Voyagers of Nera News

[p]Hello Voyagers! It’s Stephanie / Stephiroth, here with an update on our Tend, Build, Thrive patch. The patch is right around the corner, so we’ll walk through each of the major features coming in the patch and explain what they’re all about!

First though, let’s talk a little bit about the goals of the Tend, Build, Thrive patch.

[/p][p]In Voyagers, we wanted it to feel like players were building bustling Spirit Sanctuaries that would feel alive, meaningful and provide a safe haven for players and Spirits. Some of these elements were already working well: Players love their Spirits, and many players love building the base itself. However, we felt that there were ways we could better deliver this fantasy, amping up the things that players love and adding in new features based off of feedback.

We wanted to make Spirits more present in the base, make base building more rewarding, and expand what types of activities and management that can be done within the base.

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• [p]Farming
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• [p]Weather
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• [p]Sanctuary Points and Sanctuary Benefits
  [/p]
• [p]Rest
  [/p]
• [p]Spirit Anchor updates
  [/p]
• [p]Functional Spirit Amenities and More Spirits in the Base
  [/p]
• [p]Fuel
  [/p]

[h2]Farming[/h2][p]Farming has been one of our top requested features from players on our Feature Upvote Board, and we're so excited to finally add it to the game! Voyagers has a heavy focus on exploration and base building, and Farming does a great job of adding more interaction with the resources you’re discovering in the world, while also creating new ways to build, customize and manage the base. We hope you’ll enjoy creating a beautiful Sanctuary while reaping the hard-fought rewards of a day’s adventure.

[/p][h3]How does Farming work[/h3][p]While exploring and gathering in the world, any plant collected will have a chance to drop a seed. Bring this seed home, plant it, water and tend to it, and over time it’ll grow into a harvestable plant. Plants do not die when unwatered, but will stop growing until you water them again. Sometimes you’ll be lucky enough to receive a golden seed, which will grow a special version of the plant with a better yield!

[/p][h3]Watering and Water Mechanics
[/h3][p]Every farmer needs a trusty Watering Can. The base watering can is a simple vessel with lower durability and water capacity, and it certainly gets the job done. Players can unlock and craft new types of watering cans with improved water capacity, higher durability, and even higher spray radius to water more plants at once. These are fresh-water plants, so you can’t just fill your watering can from the ocean. Fresh water sources, found near the base of waterfalls, have been added to each biome. Go up to any fresh water source and fill the watering can; then you’ll be ready to water your plants! As you progress in the game, you’ll unlock new buildables that will help with water production: [/p]

• [p]Desalinator: When placed on salt water, it will gradually filter fresh water for Farming, as well as produce salt as a by-product for cooking.
  [/p]
• [p]Spirit Well: Powered by magical spirits, this buildable can be placed within any Sanctuary, and produces endless fresh water!
  [/p]

[h3]What types of things can I farm?
[/h3][p]You’ll be able to farm nearly any type of plant you can think of – vegetables, fruits and even biome-specific trees!

[/p][h2]Weather[/h2][p]Weather was also one of our most highly requested features. We’ve always wanted the world of Nera to feel alive and different - weather and environmental effects have a huge impact on this. One day it could be smooth sailing and exploring under clear skies, the next day you might be exploring through the fog, not quite sure where exactly you left those Construct Cores..

[/p][h3]What types of weather will there be?[/h3][p]
Fully clear day[/p]

• [p]Blue skies, sometimes some cloud cover; this is the typical weather that you experience in Nera today[/p]

[p]
Overcast[/p]

• [p]Full cloud cover, bright[/p]

[p]
Foggy[/p]

• [p]Sometimes this could be heavy or light; reduced visibility[/p]

[p]
Rainy[/p]

• [p]This can be heavy or light; perfect ambiance for a mana tea while watching the rain water your farming plots![/p]

[p]
Thunderstorm[/p]

• [p]This is a heavy storm; careful though, lightning can strike at any time![/p]

[p]
The world will cycle between those states, tracking which weathers you’ve had and trying to make sure you have a good balance and that you aren’t stuck in a perpetual rainstorm!

There will also be a server toggle to disable weather in the Server Settings; so if you want only clear skies, you’ll be able to have that - but you will miss out on any special gameplay mechanics from weather.

[/p][h2]Sanctuary Score, Sanctuary Buffs and Rest[/h2][p][/p][h3]Sanctuary Points[/h3][p]All cosmetic items now have a Sanctuary Point value – we call these Comfort Buildables. As you build more Comfort Buildables and Spirit Amenities, your Sanctuary points increase; and when they hit certain point thresholds, you will unlock special buffs for your base known as Sanctuary Benefits.

[/p][h3]Sanctuary Benefits and Rest Buffs
[/h3][p]As you increase your Sanctuary Points, you’ll unlock more buffs. Along the Sanctuary Points track there are both Sanctuary benefits, and improved Rest buffs. Sanctuary Buffs are global effects within the Sanctuary Radius, such as removing Stamina costs while in the Sanctuary radius. Rest buffs are effects gained after resting in a bed or sleeping over night; you’ll be fully healed, and gain buffs like increased stamina regeneration and food effect duration.

We hope between the Sanctuary benefits and the Rest Mechanics, this will make it feel more motivating to build out a base and have base building directly tie into the exploration gameplay.

[/p][h2]Spirit Anchor Updates
[/h2][p]While working on the Sanctuary mechanics, we wanted to also make improvements to how the Spirit Anchor works. We have gotten a lot of player feedback about the power mechanic feeling confusing, as well as the amount of Spirit Anchors feeling restrictive. We have simplified the power requirement mechanics by linking them directly to the Empowerment Level. Now when you level up the Spirit Anchor, you will immediately be able to use a station that requires that power level. Additionally, we’ve increased the amount of Spirit Anchors you can build - now you’ll get +2 to your Spirit Anchor limit when leveling it, which will allow you to build more bases across Nera! [/p][h2]
Functional Spirit Amenities and More Spirits in the Base[/h2][p]Previously, Spirit Amenities were purely cosmetic, decorative stations that were built to attract Spirits to the base – they looked special but didn’t really follow through in any significant way. We wanted to give more impact to the amenities - after all, if the Spirits think they’re so great, you should too!

Now each Spirit Amenity has a gameplay purpose, such as:

Spirit Tree[/p]

• [p]Increases growth rate of farm plots placed near it[/p]

[p]
Spirit Hot Spring[/p]

• [p]Interact with this to receive a potent healing buff[/p]

[p]
We believe this will offer more interesting choices as you’re building out your base, as well as make the Spirit Amenities feel more unique and magical.



Spirits will be showing up more in the base! Now Spirits can show up at almost any of the comfort buildables and stations to hang out. They’ll spawn in and out, and hopefully show up in some surprising and delightful places. You’ll also notice that it's not just Guide Spirits (the lil blue guys) showing up, but now Spirit Companions (Tideray, Cindertail, etc) can show up in some places as well!


This is just one small step towards integrating Spirits more into the base, and we hope to add even more Spirit features to the base and game overall!

[/p][h2]Fuel[/h2][p]
Fuel is back on the menu! Some of our OG players may remember our previous fuel mechanic. We have decided to bring this back to add another layer of progression and improvement into the crafting and refinement process. You’ll start out with mundane types of fuel, such as wood and charcoal - and as you progress, you’ll be able to craft more potent magical fuel types. Some stations, like the Campfire or the Kiln, will require fuel to operate; they should also light up when they are refining items, and their fire will go out when they are not refining. We hope this will add a bit more interest to base management and more satisfaction as you progress and become more efficient at refining. [/p][p]This was just a preview of the big features; there will be full patch notes coming soon! The Tend, Build, Thrive patch is coming out on March 30th, and we will have Twitch Drops active with a new reward available: an Infused Watering Can skin!

Is there a feature you’re most excited for? Let us know in the comments or join our Discord and talk directly with us in our ask-the-devs channel!

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[p][/p][p]Ahoy Voyagers![/p][p]
We’re excited to spring forward into a sale during the Steam Spring Sale event from March 19 - March 26.[/p][p]
During this time, Voyagers of Nera will be on a 34% discount. The Founder’s Pack will also be on sale for 20% off.[/p][p]
Now is a great time to buy, because our major update Tend, Build, Thrive is right around the corner!
[/p][p]Check out our recent Dev Blogs to read up on all of the updates.[/p][p]
Happy voyaging~![/p]

[p]Ahoy Voyagers! Stephanie / Stephiroth here with a deep dive into our Sanctuary mechanic updates coming in the Tend, Build, Thrive patch. We have been working on big changes to the Sanctuary mechanics to make them easier to understand, reward players more for investing into their bases, and better capture the feeling of a lively safe haven for Spirits. Keep reading below to learn more about the changes!

[/p][h2]How Sanctuaries Currently Work[/h2][p][/p][p]Many of you may be familiar already but just in case any emerging Echoes are reading this - currently, players build Spirit Anchors, which are the heart of the base and allow players to power magical stations, attract spirits, and gain protection over a growing radius. Spirit Anchors have a max power level they can potentially output, achieved by empowering the Spirit Anchor. Then, players must build Spirit Amenities, which are decorative buildings that Spirits can spawn at, to actually provide power. However, through playtesting, gathering feedback and iterating, we realized this version of this system had a few major flaws: [/p]

• [p] Players find the difference between Sanctuary Power Level and Spirit Amenity Score very confusing[/p]
• [p] Spirit Amenities being required to achieve Sanctuary Power restricts creative freedom in building[/p]
• [p] Base Power as the only reason to build was not satisfying enough as a mechanic[/p]
• [p] Players really love Spirits, but bases feel empty and Spirits only spawning at Amenities feels limiting
  [/p]

[p]
So, what did we do?
[/p][h2]Updated Sanctuary Mechanics[/h2][p]We have made major changes to how Sanctuaries work. We have re-worked the power mechanic to be more intuitive, added new features to tie into base building to make investing in and building up bases more rewarding, as well as changed how Spirit Amenities work to provide more choices and benefits within base building.
[/p][h3]Spirit Anchor Level = Power Level
[/h3][p]We have simplified the power requirement mechanics by linking them directly to the Empowerment Level. Now when you level up the Spirit Anchor, you will immediately be able to use a station that requires that power level. We have also re-worked the benefits given by the Spirit Anchor; now they are more focused on improving the Anchor’s attributes (power level, radius, placement amount) rather than adding bonuses. We’ve shifted these bonuses instead to Amenities and the Sanctuary itself, which we’ll detail more below! [/p][h3]
Sanctuary Benefits and Rest Mechanics
[/h3][p]If you were someone who primarily built for cosmetic reasons, the system worked great. However, a lot of people wanted more reasons to build and wanted it to have some tie-in with the rest of the gameplay. When approaching this change, we also wanted to make building any type of item in your base valuable to do - not just stations and Spirit Amenities.

Sanctuary Points
All cosmetic items now have a Sanctuary Point value – we call these Comfort Buildables. As you build more Comfort Buildables and Spirit Amenities, your Sanctuary points increase; and when they hit certain point thresholds, you will unlock special buffs for your base known as Sanctuary Benefits. Some of the benefits are things that make your base more convenient, like removing stamina costs while in the Sanctuary radius. But there are a special class of buffs that will help you on your adventures: Rest Buffs.

Rest Mechanics
Before, players could only sleep at night and the only thing this did was help pass the night faster. Now, players can rest any time - and after resting for enough time, if their base is comfortable enough they will gain a buff called Rejuvenation. As you increase your Sanctuary points and make your base more comfortable, the Rejuvenation buff will become more powerful and unlock more benefits.

For example:
Rejuvenation I - Once fully rested, receive the following buffs:[/p]

• [p]Fully restore Health and Mana[/p]
• [p]+25% Stamina Regeneration for 20 mins[/p]

[p]Rejuvenation III - Once fully rested, receive the following buffs:[/p]

• [p]Fully restore Health and Mana[/p]
• [p]+30% Stamina Regeneration for 30 mins[/p]
• [p]Stay nourished from food 10% longer
  [/p]

[p]We hope between the Sanctuary benefits and the Rest Mechanics, this will make it feel more motivating to build out a base and have base building directly tie into the exploration gameplay. [/p][h3]
Spirit Amenities
[/h3][p]Previously, Spirit Amenities were purely cosmetic, decorative stations that were built to attract Spirits to the base – they looked special but didn’t really follow through in any significant way. We wanted to give more impact to the amenities - after all, if the Spirits think they’re so great, you should too!

Now each Spirit Amenity has a gameplay purpose, such as:
Spirit Tree[/p]

• [p]Increases growth rate of farm plots placed near it[/p]

[p]Spirit Hot Spring[/p]

• [p]Interact with this to receive a potent healing buff
  [/p]

[p]We believe this will offer more interesting choices as you’re building out your base, as well as make the Spirit Amenities feel more unique and magical. [/p][h3]
More Spirits in the Base
[/h3][p]We’ve always wanted players to feel like they are building a living, thriving Sanctuary for the Spirits, but it has fallen a bit short of that. Players really love that Spirits show up in the base (it’s actually one of the highest rated features in our surveys), so we decided to lean into that!

Now Spirits can show up at almost any of the comfort buildables and stations to hang out. They’ll spawn in and out, and hopefully show up in some surprising and delightful places. You’ll also notice that it's not just Guide Spirits (the lil blue guys) showing up, but now Spirit Companions (Tideray, Cindertail, etc) can show up in some places as well!

This is just one small step towards integrating Spirits more into the base, and we hope to add even more Spirit features to the base and game overall!

[/p][h2]When does this come out?[/h2][p]This will be in our Tend, Build, Thrive patch on March 30th!

Since we’re close to our launch, this is our final sneak peek blog for this patch! In our next Dev Stream we’ll be sharing an overview of everything coming in the patch, so make sure to tune in!

Have ideas for Sanctuary Benefits? Or where Spirits can spawn? Things you want the Rejuvenation buff to do? Let us know in the comments or catch us in Discord and talk directly with us in our ask-the-devs channel!


Until next time,
TH Stephiroth

[/p]

[p]Hello Voyagers! Stephanie / Stephiroth here. While we’re still working hard on the Tend, Build, Thrive patch coming in March, we wanted to share a bit of behind-the-scenes of two of the exciting features that will be debuting: Farming and Weather!

As a reminder, any content mentioned is subject to change as development progresses - so there may be differences between what we preview here versus the final patch release.

[/p][p]You bet there is! Check out our updated 1.0 Roadmap to see more details. But we have a big patch titled Tend, Build, Thrive coming in March, which is focused on adding more depth to managing the base, more purpose and motivation to build out a base, and making the base feel more like a living Spirit Sanctuary.

As part of that, we have a lot of exciting features in development and we can’t wait to share more. Stay tuned for our Dev Streams to see the latest developments, but for now, let’s get to Farming and Weather!

[/p][h2]Farming 🌱[/h2][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Why add Farming? [/h3][p]Farming was one of our top requested features from players on our Feature Upvote Board, and we thought this would be a great addition to the game. Voyagers has a heavy focus on exploration and base building, and Farming does a great job of adding more interaction with the resources you’re discovering in the world, and creating new ways to build, customize and manage the base. We hope you’ll enjoy creating a beautiful Sanctuary while reaping the hard-fought rewards of exploration well-done.

[/p][h3]How does Farming work? [/h3][p]Tend to your base in an all new way with Farming!

While exploring and gathering in the world, any plant collected will have a chance to drop a seed. Bring this seed home, plant it, water and tend to it, and over time it’ll grow into a harvestable plant. Plants do not die when unwatered, but will stop growing unless they have been watered.

[/p][h3]Watering and Water Mechanics [/h3][p]There is a new item, a Watering Can. The base watering can is a simple vessel with lower durability and water capacity, and it certainly gets the job done. But as you progress through the game, you’ll be able to upgrade the watering can to get more water capacity, higher durability, and even higher spray radius to water more plants at once.

These are fresh-water plants, so you can’t just fill your watering can from the ocean. Fresh Water sources, by way of waterfalls, have been added to each biome. Go up to any fresh water source and fill the watering can; then you’ll be ready to water your plants!

As you progress in the game, you’ll unlock new buildables that will help with water production:

[/p]

• [p] Desalinator: When placed on salt water, it will gradually filter the water to be usable for Farming, as well as produce salt as a by-product for cooking
  [/p]
• [p] Wellspring: Powered by magical spirits, this buildable can be placed within any Sanctuary, and will produce infinite Fresh Water.
  [/p]

[p]
[/p][h3]What types of things can I farm? [/h3][p]You’ll be able to farm nearly any type of plant you can think of, including plant fiber, vegetables, fruits and even biome-specific trees!

[/p][h3]Farming Efficiency [/h3][p]Over time, as you build up your Sanctuary and continue to level up, you’ll be able to place special buildables near your Farming plots that will help your plants grow faster as long as they are within a Sanctuary.

[/p][h3]Does Weather affect Farming? [/h3][p]Of course it does! Let’s talk about weather.

[/p][p][/p][p] [/p][h2]Why add Weather? [/h2][p]Not only is Weather a highly requested feature, but we’ve always wanted the world of Nera to feel alive - things aren’t static, things are changing. While we have a beautiful, sunny environment and eye-catching sunsets, we wanted to add more depth to how the world is experienced and what can happen within Nera. One day you could be smooth sailing and exploring under clear skies, the next day it’s mired in fog and you’re struggling to make it back to shore. These types of experiences make adventuring in Nera feel different from day-to-day, session-to-session and offer new gameplay opportunities and choices (“should I go out now, or should I wait for the storm to end?”, “oh no, our boat is being struck by lightning! hurry, repair!”)

[/p][h2]How does Weather work? [/h2][p]We’re still developing what types of weather states there will be, but we’ll have at least the following weather states:

[/p]

• [p] Fully clear day
  [/p]
• [p] Light fog / Humid day
  [/p]
• [p] Foggy
  [/p]
• [p] Lightly Raining
  [/p]
• [p] Heavy Rain
  [/p]

[p]
The world will cycle between those states, tracking which weathers you’ve had and trying to make sure you have a good balance and that you aren’t stuck in a perpetual rainstorm!

There will also be a server toggle to disable weather in the Server Settings; so if you want only clear skies, you’ll be able to have that - but you will miss out on any special gameplay mechanics from weather.

[/p][h2]What types of gameplay will Weather have? [/h2][p]We are still exploring all of the possibilities for weather, but to begin with:
[/p]

• [p] Rain will water the Farming plots in the base
  [/p]
• [p] Fog will occlude visibility
  [/p]

[p]
We are excited about the possibilities having Weather opens up, like storms where you need to dodge lightning strikes, windy days speeding up the boat, meteor showers that spawn special events - let us know what you would be excited to see!

To learn more about weather, check out the VOD from our most recent dev stream!

[/p][p]We’ll be sharing more sneak peeks at the features coming in the Tend, Build, Thrive patch, so make sure to look out for future Dev Streams and Dev Blogs to hear all of the latest updates; or catch us in Discord, and ask us directly in our ask-the-devs channel![/p]

We are hotfixing some performance optimizations that we hope will improve baseline performance for most players.


The new version is 0.16.8.42669


Through diagnosing with players, we have identified Shadows cast by Decorative Lights as one of the largest contributors to poor performance. As such, we have a set of changes that we hope will provide better performance with similar fidelity, as well as more granular quality settings.

We have changed the default lighting settings in the game, and added two new graphics setting options: Decorative Light Shadows and Decorative Light Shadow Quality.

• Decorative Light Shadows will default to Off. This will only affect lights placed by players via the building system, and will not impact any other lighting sources in the game (example: sunlight).
  
• When 'Decorative Light Shadows' is off, player-placed lights will provide light but not cast shadows.
  
• If 'Decorative Light Shadows' is off, the Decorative Light Quality cannot be modified
  
• If 'Decorative Light Shadows' is on, the Decorative Light Quality can be modified
  
• There are now low, medium and high settings for Decorative Light Quality (previously, this was only controlled via the setting for overall Shadow quality)
  

While there will be some noticeable visual differences (lights may appear overall brighter, there will be less 'dark' spots / less contrast between lit and unlit spots in the base), we believe this still provides a bright, cozy base while dramatically improving the performance.

However, if you have a strong computer and can handle it, you are able to toggle Decorative Light Shadows back on to maintain the way the lighting looked before this change. And now additionally, if you want shadows but feel performance is suffering while in the base due to lighting, you can tweak the Decorative Light Shadow Quality setting and hopefully improve your performance.

If you have any feedback about these changes, let us know!


Make sure to restart your servers to grab the latest update, otherwise players on the new version will be unable to connect.

- TH Stephiroth