Cross of Auria News

On April 1st, 2022, the 6.0.1 build of the game will become the default branch of the game. For a short while, 5.1.9 will remain in case we discover any game-breaking bugs and to recover save files in timelost zones. What this means for you:
- All zones marked as Timelost before March 1st will be permanently deleted from the game files. This includes Campsite, Scarlet Cavern (all maps), Frost Forest (all maps), and Frost Forest (single large map). In total, 37 maps will be removed with this update. If your save file is currently in any of these timelost zones, you will need to revert to 5.1.9 then move to the world map or the veil to save, then reselect the default build. Detailed instructions will be included with the 6.0.1 release notes, but can also be found in one of the 6.0 prerelease details threads.
- It will no longer be possible to enter the multi-map version of Den An'ura.
- Bugs may appear from the addition of the new plugins.
- Proto An'ura event will end.

On May 1st, 2022, the 5.1.9 build will no longer be accessible and save files located in Timelost Campsite, Scarlet Cavern, Frost Forest, or Den An'ura will become unrecoverable.

6.0.1 for those who did not opt into the prerelease build of the game will be comprised of the three updates included with 6.0.0.X plus any additions made in the next week or so. For the full scoop on what has changed, please go back and view the 6.0.0.X patch notes:
6.0.0.1 Notes - https://steamcommunity.com/games/764180/announcements/detail/4971416741015839462
6.0.0.2 & 6.0.0.3 Notes - https://steamcommunity.com/games/764180/announcements/detail/3113682430670419791

Change highlights (6.0.0.0 - 6.0.0.3)
- Multi-elemental weapons and skills are now possible.
- Elemental absorption is now possible.
- Tiered elemental skills now have the same damage per hit, but cost less per level and hit multiple times per tier.
- Psychic physical attacks do magic damage, psychic magic attacks do physical damage.
- Modification to armor types.
- Added distinction between one and two-handed swords and axes.
- Changes to data on the Save screen.
- Changes to the Equip screen.
- Flame Titan now solid Fire type, no longer weak to Ice.

Final Note - Any changes made to the prerelease build between now and April 1st will do so without version changes or patch notes. All updates will be included in the single patch note release on April 1st.

Highlights:
- Proto An'ura event ended, map moved to permanent location in the world and filled out with appropriately leveled enemies.

Note:
- After I get through testing a new save file going through all the changes listed below, I should be good to start working on BSX, Sha'ri, or Terra Anatis. Currently unsure of which I'll get to first.
- Try to break it. These updates focus on the integration of the new Den An'ura zone, so it should not be possible to enter the old multi-map version which are now marked as Timelost.

6.0.0.2 [Build #133, Release Date: March 20, 2022] Bugs to look for: Report them as a comment to the most recent patch notes.
- Game crashes at any time for any reason - report when and where it happened, what skill caused it, or what transition from map to map - any additional detail

Event:
- The Proto An'ura event has ended.

Updates & Changes:
- Miles & Riley no longer get a free level up upon entering Den An'ura.
- Changed dialogue for Ice/Poison decision in Den An'ura.
- The Flame Titan in Hell's Gate now has typical fire-type defenses and is no longer weak to ice.
- Fury Strikes now does significantly more damage and has a 3 turn cooldown.
- Fury Strikes now requires Swords to use.
- Blitz now requires Daggers or One-Handed Swords to use.
- Uppercut now requires Axes to use.
- Lore-setting text before Ruby appears in the Veil has been moved to the computer in the first Veil room. Transition is now direct from the intro to the Veil.
- Removed the equip requirements for Healing Wind.
- Eurus now has a branching dialogue for if Jack is in the party when he joins the team.
- Minor changes to the displayed Save details. Removed "power" which did not fit in the text box from Electric and Psychic. They are now colored based on their in-game colors. Removed "consecutive wins" which was left over from The Pit. Added Challenge Lv, which will be used later. Instead of "Hunts", the text now says "Lodge Quests" to be specific about what is being tracked.

Known Issues:
- In the new Den An'ura, if Ruby has already defeated Azrael, the chest will be there with the reward again.
- The gate requiring the Pristine Arrowhead will be locked in the new Den An'ura if it was unlocked without obtaining Ares afterward. It will not be possible to obtain Ares under this condition - revert back to previous version.


6.0.0.3 [Build #134, Release Date: March 20, 2022] Bugs to look for: Report them as a comment to the most recent patch notes.
- Game crashes at any time for any reason - report when and where it happened, what skill caused it, or what transition from map to map - any additional detail

Updates & Changes:
- Eurus now leaves before the boss in Scarlet Cavern and can be found again shortly after in Den An'ura.
- Ruby can no longer walk south of the intended area in Den An'ura after Riley's comment.
- An'ura Slasher now has a slashing animation instead of a hit.
- The unfinished Den An'ura now has random encounters and more field encounters, and is now finished.
-- There are now two types of field encounters in Den An'ura designated as group 1 and group 2. Group 1 can be any of the following: Archer (x2) / Warrior (x2) / Warrior (x2) + Archer / Seraph + Warrior / Brute + Seraph / Knight. Group 2 can be any of the following: Brute (x2) / Mantis / Slasher / Brute + Seraph / Warrior + Seraph + Toxic Bubble (x2) / Warrior + Archer + Seraph + Toxic Gazer. Random encounters also occur at varying rates depending on location within the Den.
- Rarely, Vine Snappers may appear in the Encampment area as a random battle in addition to their fixed field battle positions.

A preliminary set of Cross of Auria themed art NFTs have been listed on OpenSea for anyone who might be interested or is into that kind of thing. Included are one for each character (Ruby, Alex, Miles, Riley, Amaya, Eurus, Ares) and several for the Duckbeard species (a spin-off of which was released with Yuelslain's Village). Each of the 7 characters and 14 of the Duckbeards are single mint with no duplicates. The 15th Duckbeard, "Duckbeard, the Army", has a count of 1000.

Please note that the purchasing or ownership of these NFTs does not grant special in-game rights or items. It serves exclusively to connect to services that may allow you display it as a profile picture and to show your love and support of the game!

These collections can be found here:
Cross of Auria: https://opensea.io/collection/cross-of-auria
Duckbeard, the Gentleman: https://opensea.io/collection/duckbeard



In other news...
6.0.0.2 is in the works which will see the end of the Proto An'ura event and the removal of the current Den An'ura which will be replaced with the expanded and touched up Proto An'ura zone. Also, the first official retcon surrounding the Flame Titan's weaknesses will come with it returning to having fire elemental defenses and no additional weaknesses to ice. This will be reflected in both the battle and the dialogue at the fork in Den An'ura. Fury Strikes is also getting a touch-up, having its damage brought in line with Triple-Strike which is an increase of nearly double, but having a 3-turn cooldown. In addition, Fury Strikes now requires Swords to use, Blitz requires Daggers or One-Handed Swords, and Uppercut requires Axes. Added at some time before this was the distinction between "Swords" and "One-Handed" versus "Two-Handed" swords - same for Axes. Weapons have yet to be updated to reflect their new status and all swords are currently set to One-Handed while all Axes are set to Two-Handed, even if they allow for Dual Wielding.

6.0.0.2 is not yet ready for release to the prerelease branch of the game and will probably be held back until at least next week. As always, if you happen to discover any bugs or crashes while playing on the prerelease build of the game, please let me know either on facebook, discord, or as a reply to one of the patch notes (or posts like this one!)

This update to the open alpha build changes the effect of every single elemental skill and magic ability (#600-797 in the back). For some tier 1 skills, this may come as a nerf, but for all tier 2 and 3 skills it should be a definitive buff. This will change how you should prepare for certain battles throughout the world. Please note that tier 4 area of effect skills (eruption, waterfall, icefall, etc) have not been changed with this update, nor have the electric skills since they are Ruby-specific.

Practically speaking, this update will greatly increase the damage output of Eurus's Singlehand Stance usage and make it easier to apply SharpGusts I-III for both Eurus and Amaya. However, the ability to generate TP has been disconnected from magic entirely, so you'll have to plan ahead a little bit more than before!

I am aware that some Earth type enemies can currently be petrified. This will (probably) be changed in one of the next few updates where it makes sense to do so. Until then, petrified earth enemies will take extreme damage from Earth-Killer attacks.

Reminder: to opt into the 6.0 development build, simply right click CoA in your steam library, click properties, click Betas, and select 6.0 from the drop down. To opt out, select None instead.

So far, it looks like save files won't need to be restarted.

6.0.0.1 Alpha [Build #2, Release Date: March 15, 2022] Bugs to look for: Report them as a comment to the most recent patch notes.
- Tier 2 skills not hitting two times.
- Tier 3 skills not hitting three times.
- Elementals not absorbing their element.

New:
- Elementals will now absorb their element instead of taking reduced damage from it. Multi-type elementals absorb all matching type damage.
- An'ura units now absorb Poison. Some waterway enemies absorb Water.

Updates & Changes:
- Tiered elemental abilities no longer benefit from the Normal Attack state, which previously was 10% across the board.
- Tier I abilities now have a 30% added effect chance.
- Tier I Level 1 skills now cost 15 MP / 30 TP
- Tier I Level 2 skills now cost 10 MP / 20 TP
- Tier I Level 3 skills now cost 5 MP / 10 TP
- Tier II skills now have a 45% added effect chance.
- Tier II skills now deal the same damage as tier I skills, but hit an additional time.
- Tier II Level 1 skills now cost 30 MP / 50 TP
- Tier II Level 2 skills now cost 20 MP / 35 TP
- Tier II Level 3 skills now cost 10 MP / 20 TP
- Tier III skills now have a 60% added effect chance.
- Tier III skills now deal the same damage as tier I skills, but hit two additional times.
- Tier III Level 1 skills now cost 50 MP / 70 TP
- Tier III Level 2 skills now cost 35 MP / 50 TP
- Tier III Level 3 skills now cost 20 MP / 30 TP
- Tiered elemental magic abilities no longer generate TP.
- Tier I Level 1 magicks now cost 30 MP
- Tier I Level 2 magicks now cost 20 MP
- Tier I Level 3 magicks now cost 10 MP
- Tier II Level 1 magicks now cost 60 MP
- Tier II Level 2 magicks now cost 50 MP
- Tier II Level 3 magicks now cost 40 MP
- Tier III Level 1 magicks now cost 100 MP
- Tier III Level 2 magicks now cost 80 MP
- Tier III Level 3 magicks now cost 60 MP
- Stonestrike and Stone ability lines may now cause Petrification. Petrification prevents actions for 2-3 turns, reduces evasion by 100%, and multiplies damage done by Stone-Killer by 300%.
- Rates for SharpGusts I changed to match new Tier I, II, & III changes. Rates for Air Current, SharpGusts II, and SharpGusts III remain as they were before this update.
- Mindstrike skill family now causes damage based on user's magic attack and defender's defense. Mind Assault magic family now causes damage based on user's attack and defender's magic defense.
- Soulstrike and Soulfire ability family now benefits equally from the attacker's attack and magic attack. Soulstrike family is still mitigated by defense, while Soulfire familiy is still mitigated by magic defense.
- Soulbroken now amplifies Soul damage by 150%, up from 130%.
- Tier II Poison magic named "Sludgebolt." Tier III Poison magic named "Mucus Shot."
- Tier II Ghost magic named "Terrorize."







Elemental Skill Tier Example
Emberstrike - Tier I, Level 1 - Cost 15MP/30TP, 30% Burn Chance
Emberstrike II - Tier I, Level 2
Emberstrike III - Tier I, Level 3
Flamestrike - Tier II, Level 1 - Cost 30MP/50TP, 45% Burn Chance per hit, Hits Single Target 2x
Flamestrike II - Tier II, Level 2
Flamestrike III - Tier II, Level 3
Lavastrike - Tier III, Level 1
Lavastrike II - Tier III, Level 2
Lavastrike III - Tier III, Level 3 - Cost 20MP/30TP, 60% Burn Chance per hit, Hits Single Target 3x
Eruption - Tier IV, Level 1 (Unchanged this update)

Tier II & III magic abilities should also do damage multiple times per action.

A monologue, if you will:

It's been a philosophy of mine for a while to do my very best to not force save file resets, however sometimes it's impossible to avoid. On August 6th, 2021, version 4.2.0 was released and with it was the most recent forced restart for players. New save files were required also on 09/09/20, 08/06/20, and 02/06/2019. Because of my lack of knowledge with developing using the RMMV engine, as well as database management as a whole, I could not foresee what would cause a forced restart to become required. Due to this thought process, I hadn't released the idea of seasons and limited time events for end-game players even though I had detail for them lied out. At this point, I've basically abandoned the idea of the 'season pass model' for the DLC model instead.

In my quest to not intentionally force restarts, I've also had to inhibit some of the intended game design. One thing I detected to guarantee the need for new save files is the addition of new plugins. While I do already have a mass of plugins in use for CoA, I still feel as though I'm missing out on desired core functionality for the game.

So, let's not mince words and get right to it -

Effective immediately, I will be working on the 6.0 version of the game which will require new save files for all current players. The leading cause of this is the addition of new plugins which will change some core functionality of the game's flow. Here's what you need to know:

- Until 6.0 is complete and ready for public distribution, the current version of the game will remain as the default branch. However, for anyone wanting to opt in to see construction as it happens, a branch titled "prerelease" is now available in the Betas tab of the Cross of Auria Properties on Steam. As a quick refresher, to opt in (and back out), use the following steps:
1. Right click Cross of Auria in your Steam library. Select Properties.
2. Navigate to the "Betas" tab.
3. Select "prerelease - Game Ver 6.0 Alpha-Beta" from the drop down menu to opt into the development build, or "None" to opt out.
4. Confirm the game version on the Info tab on the title screen of the game.
Please note that until you see an update post here on the Steam forums, no 6.0 beta version is currently available. There is a great deal of work that needs to be done before that happens.
***Swapping between the prerelease build and the default build with the same save file will cause game crashes. However, it's perfectly acceptable to have save files from each.

- At the end of 6.0 development, I'll be looking into deploying a "complete edition" for iOS and Android users, as well as reinstating the OS builds. I'm still not 100% sure what caused the deployments to break for MAC, but hopefully they've been fixed since then.
- I'll also try to fix whatever underlying issue is preventing the Greenworks plugin from connecting to Steam Achievements. For those of you who were here at the beginning, you may remember that CoA originally had achievements until the plugin stopped functioning. Additionally, I'd like to see the Turn Order Display make a comeback, which shows in battle actions in the order they will occur based on AGI and other speed changes. The end result of both of these is effectively out of my hands, but I'll do everything I can to do it if it can be done.

A complete game version 6.0 looks like this... mechanically Items with a * in front indicate an update that would have forced a save file restart on their own.
- Story extends to the end with a clear "point of no return".
- Terra Anatis (city west of Auria), Castalia (city south of Auria), and Sha'ri (town south of Lvell) are complete and explorable at all points of the game's story.
- Focus is transformed from party to single player experience (Ruby doesn't appear with party followers except in cases where they're interactable as NPCs)
- Multi-map area design is completely removed (Den An'ura versions 1 & 2, and anywhere else currently using this concept)
- Progress through the main story is untangled from The Rabbit's Foot. Ruby could progress through the story without ever getting involved in RF affairs.
- The Quest Log is completely removed and all lingering code referencing it is omitted.
*- Back end item and skill list follows a logical progression and is overall organized.
*- Back end enemy and troop lists follow logical progression and are organized.
*- New plugins from the Yanfly library added to the mix, changing the core design of certain skills and gear.
- Scarlet Fire Colosseum event is added to the game's optional challenges.
- Class ascension DLC is prepared and ready to ship.
- Yuelslain's Village is completed.
- Yuelslain's Monarch DLC is prepared and ready to ship.

A complete game version 6.0 feels like to play... relative to 5.X
- Game can be played start to finish with all quests being completable and final save before the ending sequence.
- There are discoverable things to do in the world which reward treasure of some kind.
- The world feels alive yet confused.
- Ruby feels pushed to move the story forward rather than pushed to do side-quests.


Questions from me to you:
- Do you prefer to see an enemy's level alongside their name?
- Were you interested in the limited Veil events?
- What did you want to see more of? What did you want to see less of?
- Is there anything else you want to say? Now's the time!

Final Thoughts
This is a fairly significant undertaking that may take several months to complete. Not every update shipped to the prerelease build will have its own post here - so check the Info tab each time you open the game to see if it's changed since last time you logged on.
If you're reading this and found yourself asking "why", the shorted TLDR of all of this is - for new players. I've seen a lot of people start playing the game and stop less than an hour in. I'd like to increase the amount of people who play the game from start all the way through to everything that's available by at least 20%.




Edit: Follow Up
- After installing 5+ new plugins, re-enabling some old stuff, changing some internal things, and seeing the game not explode, I'm confident that I'll have a prerelease build out for testing by this weekend. Not to get anyone's hopes up, but I usually would have run into a crash by now and haven't.
In the event that I can install the new plugins without forcing new save files, I'll omit the back-end rearrangement and we'll just keep pushing forward with some major changes instead but with our own save files