Cross of Auria News

Development on the newest content is still in full swing! It is my goal to release complete pieces as soon as they are finished, so expect more of these updates in the 5.1 series until Yuelslain's Village and Yuel's Castle are complete!

I like to picture Yuel's Castle as the first real raid-style location in the game - so I have been treating it exactly like that. What could have been a simple location with a final boss of the area has transformed into a multi-boss loot-filled challenge location and I have enjoyed creating it so far, more so than I've enjoyed a lot of development for a long time. I do still worry that it is too tough relative to the strength playable characters can currently attain, so let me know if you're finding the challenge to be insurmountable.

5.1.1 Highlights:
- Two quests from the remaining villagers who did not offer quests, beginning once the masked villagers move on the castle.
- Yuel's Castle is open with full access to the Library and Prison areas. Banquet Hall and beyond remain closed for now.


5.1.1 [Build #113, Release Date: December 27, 2021] Issues to look for: Report them as a comment to the most recent patch notes.
- Inability to progress to Yuel's Castle, but before the Banquet Hall.
- Inability to defeat enemies in Yuelslain's Village or other DLC areas.
- Library boss does not appear after all local enemies have been defeated.

Yuelslain's Village:
- Randomized chests (gold) have been added to the expanse area.
- The Library Wing and Prison Block of Yuel's Castle are now available. The blocker object to the banquet hall will be removed in the next update.

New:
- Introducing Regeneration II - heals 1/10th all allies HP and has a 25% chance to remove Burn, Poison, Bleed, TP Degeneration, MP Degeneration, Fear, Mind Control, Disable, Silence, and Soulbroken! Additionally, this skill has a 5% chance to apply Omni-Resistance I, which removes and resists all of those states simultaneously until the end of the next turn. A guide for this skill will drop from a boss inside Yuel's Castle, but only one of these will be available for now. Use it wisely!

Fixes:
- Removed the weapon requirement from Miles's bombs. Amaya should be able to use thermite grenade properly now.
- Wind tomes now correctly apply Wind-type damage.
- Curse of Sloth, Envy, and Pride have been changed to Soul type.

Updates & Changes:
- States applied by element tomes have had their icons updated.
- Data for all elemental enchantment tomes has been filled out.

Other:
- Removed all code for the functionality of creating elemental flasks using the mixing stations.

5.1.1.1 & 5.1.1.2 Adjustments:
- Blocked access to the Battlefront and removed some package data for the area.
- Adjusted the Hall of Challengers - details to come in 5.1.2.
- Removed the Save restriction from Yuelslain's Village.
- Fixed a texture hiccup in one of the YV houses.
- Removed Shadowstep and Lightningwalk from Ruby's level up tree that were left over from Memoria development.
- Added skills to the Overmind.
- These updates do not change the in-game displayed version, but have already been deployed.

The first part of Yuelslain's Village is now available. Truth be told, I had intended not to make it much longer than it is now, but then it dawned on me that Yuel should have a castle so rather than rush it out, I've blocked off the area. Like most of you, I will be celebrating the holidays with my family, so while bug reports may pile up, I won't be able to get to any of them until the day after Christmas at the very earliest. I've never made something that functions the way this DLC does with so many pieces that aren't included in the base game package, so I'm expecting some hiccups but have yet to find any on my own.

I think my biggest question is - "Is the challenge too difficult?". So, if you happen to make it up to the castle where the save restriction is, let me know that you were able to make it there! If you're getting absolutely demolished, let's talk about it. This is the first major area to be released which uses the 2nd generation enemy stat roll system.

Since I will be busy tomorrow and Christmas day, I will mark the DLC as able to be downloaded immediately after posting this message. Have a happy holidays, everyone!

5.1.0 [Build #112, Release Date: December 23, 2021] Bugs to look for: Report them as a comment to the most recent patch notes.
- Unable to make quest progress in Yuelslain's Village. Include details about which quest and what you have done right before encountering the issue.
- Anything that doesn't work correctly - such as the Quest Log, transfers from one map to another in YS, missing enemy data, any crashes, etc.

New:
- Yuelslain's Village is now available! Visit the store page for more information: (Yuelslain's Village Store Page).
-- Yuelslain's Village is still in development. A zone in the top right of the map is currently blocked pending finalization. A warning will pop up when you get to close saying that the save feature has been restricted. By simply turning around to the tile just before that one, Save will be re-enabled.
- A new beginner's guide is available @ https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2689252544. This guide covers basic controls, main menu details, specifics to understand character stats and parameters, a text version of the elemental resistances chart, and the basic Google Sheets graphic I used to create and reference those elemental resistances.

Updates & Changes:
- The tier 2 poison physical attacks are now named "Toxinstrike".
- System iconset has been updated for Warp, Barrier, Wind-Weak, and other statuses.
- Air Current now resets its turns on re-application instead of adding turns and has a fixed duration of 5.

Known Issues:
- When using a guide book item, it appears that you can use it on multiple characters. However, the effect only functions for as many books as you have. Using a guide book you only have one of on all 6 characters will only grant the skill to the first character it was used on. As far as I can tell, this display hiccup is not something that can be fixed when using learn skill consumable items. The single-use nature of guide books functions as intended.

Notes:
- Warp, Warpstrike I-V, & Warpspark all apply the Warp states at the same rate per hit - Warp I: 66%, Warp II: 50%, Warp III: 33%, Warp IV: 10%, Warp V: 3%. This information is not included in the tooltip. Instead, it reads "May cause massive barrier degeneration over time."
- Each of the Warp states may be applied simultaneously.
- Multiple Wind-Weak I-III applications will increase the remaining duration. Applying a higher tier of Wind-Weak will give the target immunity to the lower tiers and set the duration relative to if the debuff had just been applied.

Before we begin, I have an announcement to make. The Cross of Auria YouTube channel has been deleted. This is not a commentary about the future of the game, but rather a necessity due to the change of copyright legality surrounding the music files used to create the original trailers between 2018-2020. From here on out, any Cross of Auria update videos will be posted directly to my personal YouTube channel @ http://www.youtube.com/Hardytier to its own playlist. An announcement will go up here whenever one of those videos has been posted, so there is no need to subscribe if you're not interested in the other things I do in my non-development time.

As of right now, we're on track to meet the Dec 24th deadline I gave myself for the Yuelslain's Village unless something happens to pull me away. If I am unable to complete the main questline by then, I will push back the release to January 15th. Yuelslain's Monarch is going to get pushed back even if I am able to meet the YV deadline. Rather than add a simple boss for $2, we're changing functionality of one of the YV zones or adding a new one altogether - I haven't decided yet.

Some of this isn't going to make any sense until the village is open, but the patch notes for release day were getting long - so let's chop it up a little bit and deploy what we can right now.

We haven't hit that point yet, but enemies whose HP is greater than the maximum RMMV can handle will have the remaining HP applied as Barrier Points. Also, some enemies simply have a fraction of their HP as Barrier instead. Some enemies in Yuelslain's Village use this concept, so tools to combat this must also enter the fray. For now, only a handful of abilities were added with the new concept: Warp. None of the characters learn these by level-up, so a Guidebook or skill-enabling piece of gear will be needed.

Yuelslain's Village will introduce the greatest challenge in CoA to date, so it should also introduce the greatest pool of rewards. At the time of writing this, there are 14 weapons and 44 armor pieces coded into the game just for the new zone. Of the armor, there are two full sets of gear (Yuel's Set & Festive Set), and one accessory only set (Resistance Set). Gear ranges from uncommon @ 400 points to legendary @ 600 points, marking the highest available set by points in the game. Some time after the release, I'll do another video explaining the gear to points situation, as it has evolved from my last explanation.

With the most recent series of updates, we saw the ability to change outfits for Ruby, Miles, and Riley. With Yuelslain's Village, we will see the first permanent Class change with the introduction of the Frostslayer class, which can be equipped by either Amaya or Eurus. As of right now, once their class has been changed, Wind Warrior and Wind Reaver can not be recovered. Additionally, all wind skills will be unlearned - even those learned by sources other than level up - this isn't a big deal right now, but it's worth noting for later when Guidebooks become more widely available. The highlight of the Frostslayer class is the Ice-Killer Normal Attack, which does greatly increased damage to Ice-type enemies.

Finally, challenges in the Colosseum Basement can be repeated without having to complete the An'ura Rift upstairs.

5.0.16 [Build #111, Release Date: December 19, 2021] New:
- New key term: Warp - used to describe removal of barrier points. A skill that would "remove 200 barrier points if possible" simply shows "Warp (200)" in the tooltip instead. Warp is typically associated with Arcane and has no effect on targets who do not have an active barrier. The warp effect is in addition to regularly calculated damage.
- New key term: Actions - used to describe the chance to act multiple times in a single turn. Formerly called "Act Twice" or "Act Again". A weapon that adds a chance to act another time in a single turn will now say "Actions (+x%)". If a single weapon has this in the tooltip multiple times, it indicates multiple stacking possibilities to act another time as opposed to a combined singular chance to act twice.

Yuelslain's Village (Extra Info):
- Reputation is gained with the village by completing events in the quest chain and may also be lost by giving unfavorable replies. Rep can also be gained by completing repeatable quests which unlock once the NPC's corresponding main quest step has finished.
- The village smiths will create gear for Ruby once her reputation with the town is high enough. They will even expand their shops to accept Risen and Yuelslayer coins as the village reputation gets higher.
- Festive Coins, Risen Coins, and Yuelslayer Coins are the currency for crafted gear in this town.
- Yule Spirits & Festive Coins always drop from Yuel's Lv. 50 minions.
- Risen Coins sometimes drop from Lv. 50 Risen enemies.
- Yule Spirits do not drop from the Risen and only occasionally drop from enemies below Lv. 50.
- Yuelslayer Coins occasionally drop from Lv. 50 enemies throughout all Yuelslain zones and may be disassembled from some of the region's gear.
- Soul of the Frost Slayer can be purchased from the Item Shop if the village reputation is high enough.

Frostslayer Class:
- Soul of the Frost Slayer pemanently changes Amaya's or Eurus's class to "Frostslayer". All wind skills learned by level-up are unlearned in the process. Amaya or Eurus will retain their level.
- Frostslayer's normal attacks are imbued with Ice-Killer which does greatly increased damage to any Ice enemy above level 10.
- Frostslayer learns by level up all of the shared basic ice-type skills, which includes: Frostrike, Icestrike, Avalanche, Frostbolt, Ice Spike, Ice Barrage, Icefall, Freeze, and Shatter. Additionally, Frostslayer learns the new magic abilities Blizzard (ice) and Hailstorm (ice-killer).
- Changing from Wind Warrior to Frostslayer will remove the following passive effects: End of turn TP Regeneration, Increased TP Charge Rate, Increased EXP gain, Immunity to Wind-Weak & Air Current, Resistance to TP Degeneration, and On-Hit Air Current.
- Changing from Wind Reaver to Frostslayer will remove the following passive effects: Immunity to Wind-Weak & Air Current, On-Hit Air Current.
- Frostslayer has the following passive effects: End of turn MP Regeneration, Reduced MP Cost, Immunity to Freeze, Deep Freeze, & Slow, Increased Defense from equipment, On-Hit Bleed, and resistance to ice damage.
- Frostslayer for Amaya has the same stat spread from Lv. 1-100 as Wind Warrior, and for Eurus has the same stat spread as Wind Reaver.
- Frostslayer retains Triple-Strike, Swing, Disabling Slice, Silencing Slice, and Thermite Grenade at the same levels as Wind Warrior for Amaya.
- Frostslayer retains Singlehand Stance, Doublehand Stance, Arcane Shock, Swing, and Arcane Shock II for Eurus.
- Frostslayer allows Eurus to equip Straps and Amaya to equip Scabbards. Currently, no Accessory can be equipped to either Wind Warrior or Wind Reaver.
- Singlehand Stance & Doublehand Stance will select from ice instead of wind skills.

New Skills:
- Warpstrike I - V (Arcane, physical), hits a single target X times where X is the level of the skill. Warp 200 per hit. CD: X.
- Warp (Arcane, magic), hits a target once at regular magic power. Warp 200. Additionally may apply the new Warp states @ Warp I (66%), Warp II (50%), Warp III (33%), Warp IV (10%), Warp V (3%).
- Warpblade (Arcane, physical), hits a target once at regular power. This damage bypasses barriers. Warp 200.
- Barrier Shell (non-elemental, magic) applies a 5000 point barrier to self for 1 turn.
- Warpspark - (Electric, magic) hits a target once at regular magic power, plus 1/4th Electric power. Warp 200. May apply Warp III (33%). Unlike other electric skills, this skill benefits from but does not contribute to Electric Power.

New States (Buffs & Debuffs):
Name: Effect per turn. (# of turns)
- Warp I: Removes 10 barrier points. (5)
- Warp II: Removes 100 barrier points. (5)
- Warp III: Removes 500 barrier points. (5)
- Warp IV: Removes 1000 barrier points. (5)
- Warp V: Removes 2500 barrier points. (5).
- Barrier I: Gains 10 barrier points. (5)
- Barrier II: Gains 100 barrier points. (5)
- Barrier III: Gains 250 barrier points. (5)
- Barrier IV: Gains 500 barrier points . (5)
- Barrier V: Gains 1000 barrier points. (5)

Fixes:
- Gazer Trio now resets all world vents and does not give a game over on defeat.

Updates & Changes:
- Bosses in the Colosseum Basement may be challenged repeatedly and no longer have their respawns tied to completing the An'ura Rift upstairs. Winning any boss fight in this area still resets all world vents.
- Blazerblade reflects the new terminology for players acquiring it new.
- "Chance on Hit" is being converted to "On-Hit".
- "Added Effect" and other preface tooltip texts are being removed.
- Avalance I, II, & III now have a TP cost that matches their MP cost.
- Doublehand Stance has additional effects at level 1 and again starting at level 20.

Schedule - 5.1.X
- Yuelslain's Village is on track to be released on December 24th. If a delay is needed, it will release on January 15th instead. This release will begin the 5.1.X branch of the game.
- Yuelslain's Monarch has not been started due to the time it has taken to create Yuelslain's Village, and is hereby officially pushed back to at least January 15th.
- A preliminary design for an expanded Scarlet Cavern has been created. After some tweaking and integration, the original multi-map system of Scarlet Cavern will be Timelost until they are finally removed from the game. This expanded map was created to serve as the second Colosseum event.
- Orc War main story questline is on hold pending the release of Yuelslain's Village and Yuelslain's Monarch, and following that a revamp of the Quest Log system which is currently unsustainable.
- Quest Log revamp will see dialogue and other non-directional text removed, an overall simplified design, and inclusion of quests which are currently excluded.
- At the beginning of 5.2.0, all zones marked as Timelost will be removed from the game to reclaim Map space. RMMV has a maximum number of "Maps" that can be used before it won't let me make any more, and while I did enjoy the multi-map system of dungeons like Den An'ura, it's an unsustainable system moving forward as the game continues to increase in depth.

To prepare for the upcoming Yuelslain DLC, I had to start a new save file on the retail branch of the game and then take that file all the way forward through everything currently in game to get to where the DLC would not just be available, but be doable. As of pushing this update, I'm 6 hours in and just reached the Nexus Waterway and have completed all RF and PA sidequests. Along the way, I stopped to fix, update, or otherwise adjust everything that needed attention. There's still a few hours of this playthrough left to go, but unless anything major is broken, those fixes and updates will be held until Dec 24th.

Notable updates with this patch:
- New challenge in Colosseum basement.
- Gauntlet temporarily disabled.
- Many... many fixes.
- Some area redesigns.
- Some dialogue fixes for conditions where characters may not be present.

5.0.14 [Build #109, Release Date: December 12, 2021] Bugs to look for: Report them as a comment to the most recent patch notes or post them directly on the CoA channels using the invite link above!
- If you are able to defeat the Scarlet Cavern boss before it applies its barrier, please reach out and let me know how it's done so it can be fixed! Players who exploit this will permanently miss out on the electric melee abilities for the rest of the game.

Timelost Zones:
- Several locations within the game could not be updated without replacing them altogether to prevent player save issues. If when you load your save file, the map name at the top says "Timelost Zone", simply exit the zone and re-enter to be brought to the new version of the area.
- All four of the original Auria entrance locations have been merged into a single zone, resulting in four timelost locations. They will still transfer between one another. Return to the world map then re-enter Auria to be brought to the new location.

Temporarily Disabled:
- Due to a bug within the Hall of Challengers, the Gauntlet event is disabled.

New (General):
- Mystery Shop now offers a Silver chest in exchange for 3 Mystery Coins. This chest contains tier 2 restorative items, 1k-5k gold, and up to 1 Moderate Tool Kit per box.

New (Colosseum):
- A new blue rift has appeared in the Colosseum basement! Challenge the Gazer Trio for the chance to acquire Jelly accessories for Ruby, Miles, Riley, & Alex! These accessories grant +1 to all stats, +10 to HP and MP, & enable the skill "Slap".
-- Each of the Trio has a 2% chance to drop each individual gear piece.
-- Jelly Earrings also enable the wearer to use Skills even if they ordinarily could not.

Fixes:
- The rain stops when entering the Armory for the first time in Lvell before the dialogue instead of after.
- Adjusted Rose's forest battle zone dialogue to fit in the text window.
- Removed Mao from his house when he should not be there.
- Fixed a dialogue hiccup from when Rose and Jack leave together.
- Fixed a dialogue mistake when talking to Rose at the Phoenix Ash.
- Fixed a condition where the Scarlet cavern boss could be defeated using the Liquefier before Ruby learns Sparkstrike.
- Fixed An'ura Slasher's display level. It's stats were always level 4, but the display for level 12 remained from its original creation.
- Fixed the randomized chest in Den An'ura/Battleground which was giving Oros Weapon Parts and copies of the Expedition Outfit. Basic fruit (apple, orange, grapes, etc) were removed in a previous update.
- Fixed dialogue for the guards who deny entry to Auria after that part of the story has ended.
- Fixed the passability of tables in the Rabbit's Foot.
- Fixed the pickup condition for the recipe book in Rabbit's Foot.
- Removed the free Oros and Dusk items from Caravan Dan's inventory.
- Fixed Depleted An'urs Smogger tooltip.
- Fixed an issue where Ruby may become trapped if she doesn't have any of the Acid-Coated Ring components and kills the Hive Mind second.
- Fixed Dialogue issue for Rabbit's Foot Supply II turn in.
- Frost Fortress battles now trigger on contact.
- Fixed some unintentional portal color changes in the Lighthouse.
- Fixed an issue where Meoh was in Shoreline for the Orc War before she should be.
- Fixed an issue where Ewynn may ignore the Build the Library questline.
- Removed Miles & Riley's dialogue from Amaya's introduction.

Updates & Changes:
- Redesigned the area between Scarlet Cavern and Den An'ura.
- Increased the average step count per encounter in Den An'ura to 45 in all zones. The Expanse area of Frostbrood Lair remains at 55 and Encampment remains at 65. This change will be most noticeable beginning with Den An'ura / North and areas beyond
- Adjusted some inside areas in Auria to be more in line with the current design of the game and reflect what I've learned since these locations were originally made. Most notable change is the Grand Library.
- Redesigned the Auria/Entrance zone.
- Unified the Rabbit's Foot lodge design and removed dialogue which indicated there was a change.
- Disabled max level restriction.
- Adjusted Rose's reaction to Ruby returning to Lvell.
- Adjusted the Lighthouse internal design.

Known Issues:
- If the first enemy with Rose is defeated too quickly, she won't have the chance to introduce herself.
- The skill "Kinetics" may throw an error if used before a target is acquired. This will be fixed in the next update.



Edit: At 7:05 PM EST, the following was also added to the live build:

5.0.15 [Build #110, Release Date: December 12, 2021] Fixes:
- Fixed the units involved in the Nexus Waterway scripted Orc battle.
- Fixed an issue where Eurus or Amaya would appear twice at the campsite if the other character had not been obtained yet.
- Prevented a condition where Ruby could walk backward through Scarlet Cavern during the second Campsite scene.
- Fixed an issue where Kinetics would throw an error after the Miles costume change.
- Fixed an issue where Earthquake would throw an error after the Riley costume change.

Updates & Changes:
- Auria zones during the Orc War now conform to their new pre-OW design introduced in 5.0.14.
- Removed the mixing station from Orc War Auria / Research Shack.

I've begun my new playthrough to look for bugs and ensure the upcoming DLC is functioning correctly. More small patches like this may be applied in the next couple of days.

Blizzard & Hailstorm were accidentally left on Ruby's level-up-tree from their launch test. Anyone who made a new save file in the last few days will have those skills for her at level 1. As of right now, no character on the team is supposed to learn them via level up.

5.0.13 [Build #108, Release Date: December 05, 2021] Fixes:
- Removed Blizzard and Hailstorm from Ruby's level up tree.

Updates & Changes:
- Removed the Debug Unit from Lvell.