Cross of Auria News

A beta build has been deployed for players stuck on step 2 of the Hephaes book Grand Library quest.

To opt into a beta, right click Cross of Auria from the games list
Click Properties
Click the Betas tab
Enter, without the quotations: "coatest001glib"
Press "Opt in"
Let the update download.

From here, continue past this part of the quest, then save.

At this point, it's recommended to go back to the Betas tab and using the drop down menu select None from the beta builds list. This will put you on the retail branch of the game.

A significant number of planned but unreleased changes are included with this beta, and are therefore untested and unfinalized. Details below.

This will be launched to the Retail version of the game once the changes are tested and finalized. This beta exists as a temporary workaround for the potential Grand Library progress bug.


0.6.402 [Build #149, Release Date: September 13, 2023] Bug Reports:
- The fastest way to report a bug is on Discord @ https://discord.gg/Ur4GdaKxPD.
New:
- Added a new armor type - Talisman - to control equipment per character. This item combines their ability to equip certain weapon and armor types from their Actor and default Class page and makes them permanent to the character. This armor, once equipped, can not be removed. It will be auto equipped to every character once they join the party or enter a new map with the Updates event. This code will stop trying to run once all seven base characters have their Talismans equipped. Equip controls have been removed from Actors and character-specific Classes.
--- Ex: Ruby can always equip a Sword and Medium Armor regardless of what class she changes to. Eurus can always equip a Scythe, etc.
Fixes:
- Adjusted some non-comforming quest reward text to align with the general format.
- Fixed a veil crystal that could be collected infinitely in the first map.
- Potentially fixed an issue where the Hephaes book quest in the Grand Library could not be continued on the third step, resulting in a crash.
Updates & Changes:
- Quest Log add-on has been disabled and removed from the menu.. Many of the quest log prompts have been removed. Remaining prompts will be removed as found.
- Alternate outfit Miles & Riley change and compensation is now conducted through the Updates event instead of in the Veil, and will happen anywhere the Update event is present.
- Removed battle tower Armor from the game data.
- Disabled ProfileStatusPage plugin and removed Profile Text data from Actors.
- Paladin class renamed Stormchaser.
- Arcanist class renamed Arcane Mage.
- Wind Reaver class renamed Reaver.
- Wind Warrior class renamed Zephyrite.
DLC: Yuelslain's Village:
- The Amaya and Eurus specific versions of the D-Frostslayer class are no longer available.
- The NPCs in the area now tell Ruby what to do instead of relying on the Quest Log.
- Scattered save points throughout the area.
Frostslayer Class:
- No longer adds an equippable weapon or armor type.
- Allows the use of Skills and Magic.
- Increases evasion by 3%, critical chance by 7%, and MP Regeneration by 5%. Has a default accuracy of 97%.
- Learns new abilities at level 2, 4, 7, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, 27, 40, 42, 50, 62.
- Adds "Ice-Killer" element to normal attacks which does 200% damage against select ice-type enemies and regular damage to other enemies.
Notes & Known Issues:
- This was deployed as an emergency response to a bug report. Other issues may arise.
- DLC area updates may not be pushed alongside, in spite of this patch's notes.

Keeping with reducing the scope of the project to pursue a story completion, the Quest Log is on deck for removal with the next update. This patch sets the stage for that by removing healing crystals, adding save points, and adding quest-step bubbles for the Grand Library questline. This build will remain public until all promotional material can reflect the removal of the Quest Log which hopefully will coincide with the next patch launch.

Details...
A general rule of thumb of game development is that for every one manhour of development time, the player experiences one minute of play time. The time was even more skewed for the Quest Log, which added no functional value to the game besides UI aesthetics. As much as I want to keep some of the background lore going, I can think of better ways to deliver it. The quest log issue is effectively this: for every single quest step, there needs to be code telling the quest to start/end, description to change, reward to become visible/invisible or claimed, and bullet point objectives to be revealed and change. On top of that, the writing of the descriptions themselves takes a great deal of time. To sum up: the quest log has become too unwieldy to continue to develop. Instead, 0.6.402 will see the complete removal of the Quest Log, all quest log pop up data, and all associated invisible lines of code. Quest rewards will remain, as they are not directly entangled with the quest log itself.

To allow for zone reconstruction on the fly, global saving has been disabled outside of the world maps. Save Points have been scattered across the map which will temporarily allow access to the Save function as well as fully healing the party. Unlike healing crystals, save crystals can be used an infinite number of times. However, save crystals do not appear in challenge dungeons, such as veil-adjacent and colosseum creations.

In the original list posted last week, #1, #2, & #6 are complete. Moving onto the Quest Log next.

0.6.401 [Build #148, Release Date: June 17, 2023] Bug Reports:
- The fastest way to report a bug is on Discord @ https://discord.gg/Ur4GdaKxPD.
New:
- Introduced Save Points throughout the world. These locations enable saving where saving is otherwise restricted and heal the party - restoring HP/MP and removing all status effects.
Updates & Changes:
- Healing Crystals have been removed entirely.
- Saving outside of the Save Point has been disabled in most locations.
- The Grand Library quest now shows (!) bubbles for each next step.
- Disabled the anti-cheat from the world map. Help requests for edited save files will not be addressed.
Notes & Known Issues:
- Global saving is still available on the World Map and on various Veil-adjacent maps.
- This is the last public build that will feature a functional Quest Log.

Hey all - long time no talk. Let's talk about why that is. For those of you who don't know, I am a development team of 1 and now have a 3 year old and a soon-to-be 9 year old. The last year or so has been extremely challenging with the younger one, leaving me virtually no time to work on projects that don't generate revenue, like Cross of Auria. However, I don't like leaving the project floating out there unfinished... because it is, absolutely and unquestioningly, unfinished. I've penciled in some time to change that, and there's going to be a relatively large overhaul happening to ease the process.

Rather than fill this up with an essay, let me bullet point exactly what's going to happen in roughly the order it's going to happen.

1) Common Event will be added to every zone/map in the game so that no matter where you log in, you can be served an immediate non-game-breaking update that may affect Characters, Skills, Items, Armor, Weapons, Enemies, Classes, etc.
2) Introduction of Save Points throughout the world and disabling of the global save feature to allow for maps to be edited without worry that players loading in will crash or get stuck.
3) Reduce level of overworld and castle encounters in YSV.
4) Finalize YSV in the new lower-level state.
5) Add Achievement checks to point 1 for players who passed the point of an achievement proc before it was functionally added to the game files.
6) Add overhead bubbles for the Grand Library sidequest.
7) Remove the Quest Log and all associated code from the game.
8) Adjust the Classes Core functionality and review associated skills.
9) Stat, skill, weapon, item, and armor squish everything across the board to reign in based on new narrowed scope of the project. -- This will be the most drastic change.
10) Disable unused plugins which are apparent in the menus.
11) Double check BSX functionality.
12) Double check BS1 functionality.
13) Extend story to natural planned end point for Cross of Auria - The Awakening (part 1 of the series).
Whether or not part 2 ever gets made remains to be seen, but it will be handled differently than this one was.
14) Review Colosseum, Pit, and other end/postgame activities.
15) Remove unused maps from the game files that are no longer under construction (Battlefront, Battle Tower, etc)
--- End of current plan.

To sum up what's happening - I originally made the planned scope of the game very wide in the hopes that I would have the time to put into it. This was before my younger daughter. As time went on, it became abundantly clear that I wouldn't be able to get to the things I wanted to do so long as this was more of a pet project than a career path. Basically, a lot of systems are in place that were preparing for a 500 hour gameplay loop, but I need to bring it down to 20-30. The first two updates coming will allow me to ship game-changing updates much more quickly than in the past, provided I have the time to do it.

My goal is to have this project marked as "Complete" by the end of the year. Whether DLC gets tacked on AFTER that, not like we've been doing, is another discussion to be had later. But I want the base game done and I want it done ASAP.

For those of you that don't know, I run a Discord of ~10,000 people who all came together for Pokemon purposes, but I've started to open the floor for convos surrounding this project. If you want to ask me anything, you can reach me on Discord @ https://discord.gg/Ur4GdaKxPD. I am, of course, "Hardytier". If you don't know what the "premier" ball is, it's the white one. Don't mess up in the welcome channel.

See you soon
//hardytier

0.6.400 [Build #147, Release Date: June 13, 2023]
- Every zone is now equipped with an autorun event which will check for updates and changes which need to be applied to characters, enemies, items, weapons, armor, etc. This will function in place of forced save restarts.
- The finished product of the main story will be marked as version 1.0. All versions leading up to that point will now be led with a 0. The most recent patch before today was 6.3.0.1. Keeping the following 4 numbers, the new version is 0.6.400, where the 6 marks significant changes, 4 broad changes, and 00 narrow changes and hotfixes. The leading 0 will mark full game versions as dictated by the finished product and/or expansions.
- This update will be released in the next 24 hours but does not change the gameplay experience. It updates every map file, so the download is larger than usual.

Five new achievements are now obtainable!
- Two for collecting all the Veil Crystals.
- One for each of the active Colosseum events.
- One for the current wing of the Zodiac Overwatch.

With the release of 'The First Night' and 'The Second Night', that should conclude achievements that will be added that can not be obtained on a current save file. The other three, while not debug-able, can be obtained by completing their respective event an additional time. Additionally, with the release of these five, that concludes achievements that will be added after their respective event is added to the game. Moving forward, achievements and activities in which to earn them will be added together.

On a personal note, I'm very happy to see that the system is holding strong.

In other news, I'm about to work on the enemy generator #3. The current iteration uses chaotically distributed and fully randomized stats spanning 10 "classes" which were used to create every enemy currently in the game. The next one will use more streamlined pre-rolled stats per level, similar to the 1st iteration, but will have some stats either adding to or pulling from a pre-determined pool of extra points. Basically, enemies of the same 'class' will feel similar to fight minus some surprise variable stat swaps, limited to 4 classes instead of 10 - making life just a tiny bit easier for me.

6.3.0.1 [Build #146, Release Date: August 09, 2022] Bug Reports:
- The fastest way to report a bug is @ https://www.facebook.com/CrossOfAuria.

New:
- Achievement integration continues!

Updates & Changes:
- Slightly adjusted Capricorn's troop data.

Notes & Known Issues:
- Achievements added during this update cannot be obtained via debug.

In just a few minutes from posting this message, the store page for Battle Series X will allow for players to download and install this pack and immediately begin playing. The first wing will be available immediately with additional wings releasing over time. The goal of this segmented release is to identify and knock out bugs and properly scale the local battles. Here's some key information:
• Upon leaving the Zodiac Overwatch, progress is lost. Specifically, open doors will return to their closed state and previously defeated bosses will respawn. Aka: every boss included in this pack is infinitely farmable.
• Upon crossing the glittering tile, Ruby will receive an item that teleports the party back to the entrance of the Zodiac Overwatch. Use this as your escape rope when you're in too deep! This item is also lost upon exiting the area but can be obtained again upon re-entry.
• Saving inside the Zodiac Overwatch or Zodiac Cache and then changing which DLCs are installed will cause game crashes. If you decide you're finished with the DLCs, the best thing to do is save in the Veil and then uninstall them.
• Accompanying the Battle Series X release is the premium Battle Series X: The Zodiac Cache DLC. See the store page for details. (In short: 1 chest piece of each armor type, plus some local currency to get started.) BSX:TZC does not require BSX to function, however you will be unable to redeem the coins without BSX installed.
• Battle Series X will receive updates over time, whether it be fine tuning in the form of buffs or nerfs, the release of new wings, or adjustment of any of the other included data. However, Battle Series X: The Zodiac Cache will only receive bug-fix related updates.

6.3.0 [Build #145, Release Date: August 04, 2022] New:
- Battle Series X, a free combat-oriented DLC, is now available! This DLC will release in fragments - one wing at a time for a total of five wings when complete.
- Battle Series X: The Zodiac Cache, a premium goodie pack DLC, is also available!



Note: I will be available for contact and bug fixes starting at 7PM eastern US time tonight (just under two hours from now). In the meantime, I have an unavoidable errand to run - so here's to hoping nothing breaks while I'm out!


Store Pages:

Battle Series X:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1749290/Cross_of_Auria__Battle_Series_X/

Battle Series X: The Zodiac Cache
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2110310/Cross_of_Auria__Battle_Series_X_The_Zodiac_Cache/