Equinox: Homecoming News

[p]We may be in Early Access, but that doesn’t mean we can’t live it up a bit! [/p][p][/p][p]Scattered across Alderwood and the Ride Islands are 6 packs of beer that the inhabitants have left lying around. Find them, take screenshots with your friends, and then re-group at the Lakeside Tavern to have a laugh and a pint together.[/p][p]
Join our Discord server to share your journey and pub crawl pictures with the rest of the Equinox: Homecoming community![/p]

[p][/p][p]Our newest patch ticks off one of our promised roadmap features: our Emote System. It also includes a whole slew of bug fixes and improvements: in total, we’ve fixed over 100 issues for this patch! 
[/p][p]Our team will be taking some much needed vacation over the next few weeks, so things may feel a little slower until mid-August. We’ll still have some folks around available to answer questions, handle our official Support queue, and of course continue developing the game.
[/p][p]So what’s next? We’ve been working hard on new content like our upcoming chapter, another riding island as well as animation polish, optimization, and new quests.
[/p][p][/p][p]Emote System: Our first batch of emotes are now live! These can be accessed by pressing “R”.[/p]

• [p]You can finally Pet your horse! [/p]
• [p]Find a jokester on the island? Laugh at their antics![/p]
• [p]Clap to show you’re impressed.[/p]
• [p]Want to celebrate? Share a High Five with others.[/p]
• [p]Show that hospitable Alderwood spirit by Waving to new and old friends.[/p]
• [p]Feeling down in the dumps over a lost race? Let others know with the Sad emote.[/p]

[p]While on horseback you can wave and pet your horse. Other emotes are available while dismounted. Now that the Emote System is working, we’re looking forward to adding more in upcoming updates.[/p][p]
[/p][p][/p][p]Texting and Riding: On horseback you can now steer while you have your phone open. You can do this by holding the right mouse button.[/p][p][/p][p]New items like hats, helmets, bridles, saddles, and blankets have been added to shops across the island![/p]

• [p]Cowboy Hats are located at the Blacksmith.[/p]
• [p]Beanies are located in Hook’s End.[/p]
• [p]English Helmets are available in Downtown Alderwood.[/p]
• [p]Ball Caps can be purchased at the Farmer’s Market in Downtown Alderwood.[/p]
• [p]Modern Saddles can be purchased from the Farmer’s Market in Downtown Alderwood.[/p]
• [p]New bridles can be purchased from various locations.[/p]
• [p]Western blanket pads are located at the Blacksmith.[/p]

[p]Please note that hats and helmets are cosmetic only i.e. they do not have stats.
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• [p]Collecting items from horseback in all slower gaits (aside from sprinting!) is now easier to do.[/p]
• [p]The UI and widget for Horse Needs has been improved.[/p]
• [p]Farrier and Vendor menus have had their usability and UI improved.[/p]
• [p]Audio settings now include a numeric description of the volume sliders.[/p]
• [p]Quest dialogue, especially for Chapter 2, has been improved and polished.[/p]
• [p]New set dressing has been added to various houses and special surroundings around Alderwood Island.[/p]
• [p]Various environmental art improvements have been made to eliminate broken textures, floating assets, or model issues.[/p]
• [p]Horse animations continue to be improved, specifically for jumping and the neck.[/p]
• [p]New options in the graphics menu! Several anti-aliasing modes (TAA, TSR, DLSS, DLAA) and ability to fine tune TSR and DLSS.[/p]

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• [p]Phone usability has been improved now that multiple bugs have been fixed.[/p]
• [p]Players in town will no longer hear SFX from other players’ horses.[/p]
• [p]Quest details display in the correct ratio now when viewed while the map is open.[/p]
• [p]Players will not be stuck during the Poacher’s Alert.[/p]
• [p]Artifacts for Alfred can now be found. [/p]
• [p]Clubs no longer can have identical names; all clubs must have unique names.[/p]
• [p]The (spoiler warning: Ch. 1) \corrupted animals in Kyle’s hut\ now remain on the ground when completing the quest.[/p]
• [p]High Coast Trail, the newest riding island, now has a freshly baked nav mesh. Enjoy the collision![/p]

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• [p]During Poachers Alert's "Go to Kyle" step, the map marker is not appearing. We believe this can be worked around by travelling to the location shown in these screenshots.[/p]
• [p]A small number of players have had their horse's coat pattern changed due to a database error. Unfortunately we're unable to resolve this issue without causing more severe issues to occur. If you want your old markings back, please reset your character. You can read more details here.[/p]

[p][/p][p]This hotfix is being deployed to fix several issues related to crashes and quests being blocked from completion.[/p][p][/p]

• [p]Weeklies Unlocking: Fixed an issue that caused returning users to not receive new Weeklies upon unlocking them.[/p]
• [p]Declined Quests Can Be Accepted Later: Amulet Hunt can now be accepted even after initially declining the quest.[/p]
• [p]Emily's Flower Quests: Emily should be appearing now for her associated flower quests.[/p]
• [p]Crash: Fixed an infinite loop crash that affected some users in the middle of the Amulet Hunt quest.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Anyone else excited to pet their horse? 👀[/p][p]The rest of the team is hard at work on our upcoming Summer patches. We'll be releasing new content and our upcoming emote system soon! Read about our entire roadmap here. ✨[/p][p][/p]

[p] Our fifth patch is the biggest yet: chock full of content like new quests, chapter 2, races, and a new ride island. All in all, the team completed over 150 fixes and tickets in preparation for this patch. A lot of these were implementation tasks for the wealth of new content, so these patch notes are going to focus on the highlights.  [/p][p]Note that for this chapter release, all player quest progression will be wiped. You will keep things like inventory, faction levels, etc. Future chapter releases will not require a quest progression reset![/p][p]  [/p][p]As always, we’re looking forward to hearing your feedback - especially on our new story content! Preparations are already well underway for our next patch. Without further ado, here’s our change log! [/p][p]Riding Island - High Coast Trail: Take an adventure to the high coastal mountains! Navigate a series of switchbacks and relax after your descent next to a secluded spot on the charming coast.[/p]

• [p]Please note the island currently doesn’t have nav mesh or proper collision. This will be fixed in the next immediate patch![/p]

[p][/p][p]Chapter 2: Continue your investigation with the newest chapter! Sarah sends you an invite you can’t refuse as you both retrace Jenny’s final steps…
[/p][p]New Quest Content: The team has been hard at work implementing new content for our players to experience. In total, this update brings you: [/p]

• [p]15 main quests [/p]
• [p]13 side quests [/p]
• [p]25 new weeklies have been added to the pool.[/p]

[p]New Races: Two new races have been added.[/p]

• [p]Alderwood Lap: Race through the town through picturesque seaside trails and across the tracks.[/p]
• [p]Fisherman’s Folly: Take a ride through the winding beach trails full of challenging jumps and loop back around into the village.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Daily Gifting for NPCs: People on the island are looking for specific items that you may run across in your adventure. Why not try giving them a gift? You’ll be able to increase faction reputation by completing their daily gift requests!
[/p][p]Farrier Upgrade System: You can now visit the Farrier and pay to upgrade the stats on your equipment! Note that you cannot upgrade all items at the Farrier, only certain items are eligible. [/p][p][/p][p][/p]

• [p]Shader Loading Bar: The main menu now has a loading bar to display shader progress. Note that entering the game before it's finished results in graphical and performance issues.[/p]

• [p]Tool Tips: Map locations have tool tips.[/p]
• [p]Experience Notifications: Player riders and horses now receive experience notifications.[/p]
• [p]Username Phone Search: Players can search for friends by username via your phone.[/p]
• [p]New Entries: Compendium and Journal entries have been added for the new content.[/p]
• [p]Improved Quest Save System: It has been reworked to be more flexible and stable.
  [/p]

[p]Animation & Graphic Polish:[/p]

• [p]Rider’s reins in hands are better blended with the horse now.[/p]
• [p]Transition issues while reverse riding in a circle has been made smoother. The horse will no longer snap its head repeatedly.[/p]
• [p]Lights and Dynamic Sky have been adjusted allowing for improved performance.[/p]

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• [p]Crash and Stability Fixes: We have continued to improve stability and fixed a variety of crash related issues. [/p]
• [p]Flower Basket Can Be Completed: Players can now ‘Speak with Emily’ to complete the ‘Flower Basket’ quest.[/p]
  • [p]This fix required reworking the “Flower Basket” quest; it is now five “different” quests named Aqua Beauty, Crimson Beauty, Sunshine Beauty, Moonlight Beauty, and Soothing Beauty.[/p]
• [p]Player Barn Icon Stays: The player barn icon no longer disappears from your map.[/p]
• [p]Fixed Tree Texture: A specific tree type has had its broken texture fixed.[/p]
• [p]Removed Overexposure Issues: Bright lights no longer appear when talking to NPCs or riding around in the world. Please note lower settings may not render lighting changes as well as higher settings.[/p]
• [p]Improved Nav Mesh & Collision: We have combed through the island thanks to your reports and have improved collision issues by removing invisible walls, places players get stuck, or strange nav mesh.[/p]

[p][/p]

• [p]No Nav Mesh on New Ride Island: High Coast Trail - the new ride island - currently has no nav mesh. This means you can fall off cliffs you normally wouldn’t be able to! [/p]
• [p]Incorrect Compendium Levels: When joining the game after the progression reset, it will appear as though your faction levels have been reset in your Compendium. This is not the case: your Compendium will display correctly once you’ve progressed through the main quest. [/p]
• [p]Weekly Goals List 6000+ Days: Rarely, Weekly Goals display the incorrect time and do not assign quests.[/p]
• [p]Placeholder Horses: A few locations have placeholder horse assets: this means they do not have manes, tails, and upon closer inspection have hammers on their head.[/p]
• [p]Unable to Dismount: Rarely, players are unable to dismount using “E.”[/p]
• [p]Missing Mini-Map Search Radius: Several new quests in Chapter 2 require searching. In rare cases the circular search radius on your mini-map will not appear; this can make it more difficult than intended to finish these quests.[/p]
• [p]Ride to X Location Not Updating: Quests with objectives to “Ride to the Fishing Village” will not update correctly if you’re already in the area. You must leave and re-enter the area before it tracks correctly.[/p]
• [p]Incorrect Version Number: The main menu displays "1.0" as the version number. This is incorrect but shouldn't affect any gameplay.[/p][p][/p][h3]A note on cutscenes[/h3][p]We’d like to address cinematic cut scenes. Upcoming story drops will include new quest and game content, but we will not have new cinematics. We have planned our story content around cinematics, but at this stage of development new chapter cutscenes will be represented by placeholders.[/p]

[p]Since the release of Equinox: Homecoming, we’ve been gathering player feedback and deploying regular patches. As we approach one month since launch, the dust is beginning to settle… and we’re happy to reveal what’s coming for the rest of the year with our first roadmap![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Our roadmap focuses on two types of planned updates: patches and content updates. [/p]

• [p]Patches are smaller updates full of improvements like bug fixes, quality of life implementations, and more. Whenever possible we try to include new content in these updates in the form of new races or ride islands. These types of patches will be similar in size and scope to our latest update Patch #4.[/p]
• [p]Content Updates focus on adding significant new game content like additional story chapters, weekly quests, races, ride island locations, and new or unique features. [/p]

[p]All of our updates include bug fixes, polish, and improvements like optimization and animation refinements. The entire team is always working on improving the game’s experience. This is a crucial and evergreen part of the game’s development![/p][h3]
A note on cutscenes and progression[/h3][p]We’d like to address cinematic cut scenes. Upcoming story drops will include new quest and game content, but we will not have new cinematics. We have planned our story content around cinematics, but at this stage of development please understand new chapter cutscenes will be represented by placeholders.
[/p][p]Whenever we drop new chapters, we plan to reset character quest progression. This means when you log back in you’ll start the game’s story anew. This is to help us ensure the experience is working as intended and to get feedback on the entire current play experience.[/p][h3]
Patch #4 - New Race & Bug Fixes[/h3][p][/p][p]Last week we released our fourth patch. It included a whole slew of improvements, bug fixes, as well as a new race. We have several smaller patches planned for late summer and they’ll be similar to this patch in terms of content and breadth![/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][h3]First Content Update[/h3][p][/p][p]Our first content update is planned to come out early in the summer! We’ve been working hard on the next installation of the main storyline as well as a bunch of new content in the form of weeklies, races, and even a new ride island to getaway to. 
[/p][p]This first content update will also include two new systems: an upgrade system at the Ferrier to improve your gear and new daily gift quests that help increase faction reputation.
[/p][p][/p][h3]Summer Patches[/h3][p][/p][p]We also have a couple of patches planned throughout the summer! These updates will focus on bug fixes and other improvements, but they’ll also include some new content. Take a peak at our work in progress emote system in action below… 👀[/p][p][/p][h3]Second Content Update[/h3][p]Our next Content Update is scheduled to launch in Autumn. This will include the release of our Ch. 3’s quest content, a new Ride Island and Weekly Quests, plus the introduction of User Generated Races![/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]See you at IGN Live and Women-Led Games this weekend![/h3][p]This weekend we have a trailer debuting at IGN Live full of new game footage. You can catch it on the IGN Live stream June 8th. 🎉 There's so many different ways to watch, so learn how to catch the stream here. We're delighted to see our indie horse game up there in the big leagues! 🤩 We couldn't have done it without y'all~[/p][p][/p][p]We are also in the Women-Led Games: Summer Game Fest showcase from June 6-13! The livestream is begins June 7th over on YouTube. We'll be debuting a developer interview during the showcase. 👀[/p][p][/p]