Cross of Auria News

This patch is 99% back-end information. For players, notable changes are:
- Shoreline now open during Orc War with 4 repeatable field troops. (Returning to the World Map triggers the respawn of these types of enemies)
- The first Tool Kit can be found inside Shoreline/Port Reception. This tool kit is not consumed on use and is required to break weapons and armor down into reusable parts. Weapons and armor obtained before their back-end information was updated to allow for disassembly can not be broken down. You can tell if an item can be broken down by going to your inventory (NOT the equip screen!) and selecting a piece of gear. "Upgrade" means you can add gems, "Disassemble" means it can be broken apart using a Tool Kit.
- Synthesis stations are now available, though are relatively unusable. It is possible to collect enough Oros Weapon and Armor parts from the four troops in Shoreline, but more troops will be coming with the next part of the Orc War story. The Oros-Bane set is a significant upgrade over anything the party could be wearing at this time. The purchase menu of the synthesis shop is visible even without the required materials - go check it out!

5.0.7 [Build #103, Release Date: October 18, 2021] Note:
- This patch is being released due to the changes in items which can now be disassembled. Weapons & Armor obtained before this patch will retain their previous properties. However, newly acquired gear will conform to their new database information. In short, a Basic Blade obtained before can't be disassembled, but one obtained now can.

Development Changes
- The way enemy stats are determined has been changed. The short explanation is - the old model used a fixed stat value based on a dice roll for each stat of the 10 enemy class designs and the new model uses a new dice roll every time a new enemy is added to the game. The result that players will see is that enemies of the same class and same level will have different stats moving forward to give enemies a more dynamic feel in their own level range.
- In addition to the new way ATK/DEF/MAG/MDF/LUK/AGI are handled, HP receives a boost on every 20th level up to level 100. The maximum HP the game is prepared to handle for an enemy is 999,999. Enemies whose HP exceedes that will begin battles with shields to make up the difference. There is a fair chance that we never get that far in development where we have to break the HP limit - and not all enemies who use shields have max HP. However, just like the other stats, HP per new enemy is rolled on a case by case basis using a new variable formula instead of a fixed point, so enemies of the same class at the same level but of a different species will have different HP, whereas previously they did not.
-- If the new system causes too many problems instead of making battles feel more dynamic, it will be removed. The time to remove the system will be significantly faster than the time it took to create as information from the previous system has been retained. All class data is contained in a Google Sheet outside of the game, and enemy stats are not rerolled in the engine or during gameplay. The change is as simple as referencing an already made Sheet and changing 7 numbers in the engine.
-- All enemies currently programmed into the game will retain their current stats.
-- New enemies level 20 and over will use the new dynamic system for a probationary period which will become permanent if I feel the system works and makes sense relative to the team's projected stats for each given level bracket.

New:
- Forging stations have been added to Lvell/Phoenix Ash, Auria/Research Shack, and Shoreline/Port Reception. This system will be used to create gear from enemy drops. For now, all forging stations will allow access to the same Synthesis menu.
- Oros-Bane (225-point) & Duskfall (242-point) are now available for Synthesis! Required items come from level 20+ Oros and Dusk orcs.
- Though the next step of the questline is not yet ready, Shoreline and Port Reception are now open during the Orc War event.

Changes:
- "Unremarkable" now means that a piece of gear has no extra hidden parameters, such as target rate, regeneration, damage types or resistances, etc. Specifically, it means that an item has exactly 0 extra properties besides it stat boosts. However, items which do not say "Unremarkable" but also do not specify what their perks are does not imply that they do not have perks, but rather the text space for filling in what the perks are is too small or that the perks are hidden.
-- Example: Flamewind Cloak increases Hit Rate and Evasion Rate by 1% each, adds 20% Fire and Wind resistances, and reduces Ice and Poison resistances by 5%. Some of this information can be found on the Elements page of the Status menu on any given character, but the Hit Rate and Evasion would be considered hidden as it is not visible in any of the menus.
-- Only new gear obtained will be affected by this change. Already owned gear will show the previous tooltips.
- Shatter no longer adds chance to land bleeds - this debuff was removed in a previous patch. Instead, shatter now does 3x atk dmg (up from 2x) and is considered Stone-Killer type instead of Earth type. (-killer type attacks are considered non-elemental to all types other than their intended targets. Intended targets take 200% damage instead). The tooltip for this skill has been fixed, but may only be visible to new save files or players newly acquiring the skill.
- The following items can now be disassembled: Flamewind Set, Tattered Set, Tattered Gray Set, Bone Band, Snow Band, Oros Band, Coal Band, Sticky Gloves, Rusty Set, Torn Set, Mech Shield, Snow Shield.
- Weapons and Armor will no longer disassemble into Frames or Patterns. These items can instead be purchased at a new vendor inside Lvell/Cafe Lvellan and the vendor on the right in Auria/Market Town.

The first floor of the Gauntlet is ready to go! Rather than talk about it, I'll just let you go in and see for yourself. The Gauntlet is in the same building where the Pit used to be in the Ruins of Agartha.

Defeating the boss at the end of the first floor will yield a special prize. Choose wisely!

Battlefront development is also ongoing.

5.0.6 [Build #102, Release Date: September 17, 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!
- Ruby should change costume upon entering or exiting the Battlefront area.
- Gauntlet battles should return to level 1 after failing or manually exiting and returning to the area unless the boss has been defeated.

New:
- A new event has taken the place of the Pit in the Hall of Challengers! Currently, the Gauntlet goes up to level 10. As more enemy troops are added to the world, more levels of the Gauntlet will become available.
-- Once the boss has been defeated, the floor can not be repeated.
-- It is not possible to Game Over within the Gauntlet event.
-- Menu access is restricted once the event begins.
-- The Record Book now tracks consecutive wins of the Gauntlet instead of the defunct Pit. This will become more of an achievement later as the number of battles to clear each tier increase.
-- In addition to falling in combat and escaping from battle, simply talking to the event host will allow Ruby to exit the Gauntlet. Once exited, the current floor is reset and the Record Book tally is stopped. Re-entering the Gauntlet starts the consecutive counter back to 0.
-- The entire Hall of Challengers is Save Restricted pending further construction.
-- Pit Coins begin to drop starting after the third tier. Additional coin drops are added on the sixth and again on the ninth tier.
-- Enemy clouds roll for which Troop to battle from a group of up to 3 potential options. Enemy clouds do not share exact data with one another regarding these options. These Troops are pulled directly from other zones in the world in accordance with the tier level (example: tier 7 will have primarily level 7 enemies).

Battlefront:
- Warrior Ruby may no longer enter the Battlefront. Instead, when Ruby goes through the building, she becomes Expedition Leader Ruby.
-- Expedition Leader Ruby starts at level 1 and has access via level up to some of Warrior Ruby's usual skills.
-- Skills learned exclusively by Expedition Leader Ruby inside Battlefront zones are not shared with her Warrior class. Conversely, skills learned exclusively by Warrior Ruby outside the Battlefront are not shared with the Expedition Leader class.
-- Items which allow for skills to be learned may be used by any party member at any time, even outside the Battlefront areas.
- It is now possible to game over within the Battlefront zones.
- Battlefront zones now have a set of random encounters in addition to the visible field enemies.
- It is not possible to escape from battles with the on-the-map enemies. However, random encounters can be escaped.
- KO'd characters will only escape at the end of turn in battle or when Ruby returns to the exit. They will not escape if the battle is won before the end of the turn in which they were KO'd.
- Battlefront chests have some chance to be empty when looted. However, as randomized chests, they will continue to re-roll every time Ruby leaves the area and comes back for another chance to be looted.
- Blk. Mage, Rogue, & Barbarian skill trees updated.
- First Wht. Mage is now available in the 4th zone.

Changes:
- Changed tooltip for Swift Kick, Avoidance, Backstab, Charge, and Sharpen.
- Swift Kick now adds 10 to attack speed, up from 5.
Notes:
- Battlefront classes will only move to the updated skill tree after being intialized (KO'd and then re-purchased).

I intended to release the new event with this update, but I discovered something broken which prompted an immediate fix. Here's what we have so far:

5.0.5 [Build #101, Release Date: September 07, 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!
- Due to the back end enemy and troop position change, some battles may result in an auto-win due to there being no enemies. Please report this issue ASAP!

New:
- The Halloween Event from 2020 has been reopened in the Colosseum! The rift and corresponding vendor will appear after Ruby's third story-related trip to the Veil.

Fixes:
- Halloween Event vendor and item no longer spawn before Ruby's third Veil visit.
- Fixed an issue where Alex would prevent Ruby from challenging the Oros Orcs in the Ruins of Alpha/Upper Level.
- Enemy Skill: Cheer now correctly targets all allies instead of a single enemy.
- Repaired the Regeneration I event in Hell's Gate to account for new outfits and properly allow Alex to learn the skill. Additionally, the Overcharged Dissector no longer knows Cauterize.

Changes:
- The Pit has been permanently closed and all associated data has been removed. This change in direction for the event is to reduce the amount of data for lesser quality enemies and troops. The event which will take its place will use troops which already exist throughout the world.
- Layout of Hall of Challengers has been changed to represent the new event.
- Changed the back end positioning and arrangement of enemies and troops for Den An'ura and Scarlet Cavern. Additionally, changed the zones in which specific enemies appear.
- Reactivated random encounters in Agartha.
- Fieldspawn orcs are now level 9.
- Changed the Alpha Orc event to require level 10 instead of 20.
- Added locked doors to the unfinished houses in Alpha/Entry.

Known Issues:
- If the party completed the Regeneration I quest, Alex will know an empty skill. When this skill data is eventually filled in, Alex will know it automatically. A checkpoint to remove this skill will be placed somewhere along the main story. This issue will not happen for players who have not yet completed the quest.

Notes:
- Regeneration I is a discoverable event in Hell's Gate after the third trip to the Veil.
- A path to the Oros platoon in Alpha/Entry opens once the Orc War starts. The ability to explore Alpha/Entry is contingent on progressing the Rabbit's Foot questline on the previous day.
- As long as Amaya is in the party, the quest in the Black Forest can be completed.

Starting tonight, I will begin development on a new event in Agartha. This gauntlet battle series will replace the current one inside the Hall of Challengers, currently known as "The Pit." So far, the Pit has done well as a place where players could just mess around without a higher goal, but the back end requirements of sustaining it are quite extensive. At first, I set aside over 600 Enemy and Troop slots to fill the remaining pit battles, but looking at it now, I'd rather have something similar that used what already exists and therefore would be easier to maintain. So here's a preview of the idea along with what it means for players!

• New event in Hall of Challengers to replace the Pit. The event is currently unnamed, but will be referred to as "Gauntlet" for the rest of this post.
- Gauntlet will use Enemy and Troop data from the world for non-bosses. This includes experience earned, gold obtained, and loot dropped.
-- For reference, The Pit used a handful of custom enemies with significantly reduced drops, similar to the Colosseum rift, in addition to regular world enemy data.

- Gauntlet will follow a 10 level per tier structure. For instance, to unlock the level 11-20 bracket, you must complete the level 1-10 bracket first.
-- Completing a bracket will reward a special prize the first time it is completed.

- To complete a tier of Gauntlet, the player must defeat three Regular Troops for each designated level and one Boss Troop as each graduation match. For instance, to open the level 11-20 bracket, Ruby must complete 31 battles - 3 for each level 1-10 plus one Boss.

- The enemies fought in Gauntlet are randomized from the collection of enemies which appear throughout the world at that level. You can tell what level an enemy is based on it's name, which usually looks something like this "An'ura Warrior (Lv. 1)".
-- Due to the randomization, it is possible to have a different experience each time Ruby challenges any given bracket.

- Pit Coins will not drop in Gauntlet for the time being. Therefore, after the next update goes live, the Challenger's Battleguard set will be temporarily unavailable.

- Gauntlet related currency will not drop directly from enemies, but rather roll for being rewarded after that battle is completed. This way, these same enemies will not drop the Gauntlet currency when they are fought elsewhere in the world.
-- Gauntlet currency will either drop relative to the amount of enemies faced or the level where they were faced, or some combination of the two. Details are not yet ironed out.

- Rare worldspawn enemies will also be similarly rare within Gauntlet.
-- Example: Rare wolf only spawns if dice roll 1-6 lands on 1, and then second dice roll 1-6 also lands on 1. This would also be true for its corresponding level in Gauntlet.

- An 'endless' version of Gauntlet is not currently planned, but may be built after the highest levels have been completed.

- Ruby's Party will not get a game over while in Gauntlet. Instead, party will be revived and given +50 HP after falling.

- All obtained characters are permitted to participate in Gauntlet.

- While development of Gauntlet is ongoing, the guard will not allow access to the teleporter and the Hall of Challengers will become Save Restricted. If I don't have to rush a patch for anything else in between starting and finishing this new event, players will not notice these changes as they will be lifted on release.

- Gauntlet is set to release with game version 5.0.5 barring any emergency fixes in between start and finish.
- Estimated time to build new event: ~3 days.



Looking beyond Gauntlet:
- Battle Series I is still in development and will serve as Cross of Auria's first battle and loot focused DLC. BSI will be released when completed.
- Battle Series X has entered planning stages and will serve as Cross of Auria's first free battle and loot focused DLC. BSX will be released when completed, and will be released prior for Battle Series I.
- The Halloween Event from 2020 will undergo a series of minor fixes and then return to the game as a permanent event. However, the event will not be repeatable.
- The Colosseum will see it's second dungeon event in the next few months. Both the new one and the current An'ura one are developed in a way where their levels can be easily scaled to the new cap as the main story progresses.
- Battlefront will see its next handful of zones over the next few weeks.
- Shoreline will open as the next Orc War related location soon.

Small update today. If you missed the battle with Scorpio's Pupil, now's the time to return to the waterway and take him on!

5.0.4 [Build #100, Release Date: August 24, 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!
- Ruby should not become trapped in any of the Waterway connecting passages at any point during the Orc War campaign.

New:
- Raphael's Tower now connects to the Nexus Waterway after the events of the waterway are complete. Waterway exits into Auria become blocked at this time.
- Random encounters have been added to the Nexus Waterway.
- A pack of wolves has begun prowling the four kingdoms area at night. They may also cross into the Black Forest once the guardian has left.