Cross of Auria News

This was a very fast update since it was already being worked on when I had to push out 5.0.1, but it's finished now. The An'ura Rift in the Colosseum is now a level 20 event and the Warden has gear appropriate for the level challenge in addition to the gear he already had. Good luck!

Also included are the full patch notes from 5.0.2 and 5.0.1, since they've been rolling out quick due to the need to patch bugs

5.0.3 [Build #99, Release Date: August 23, 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!
- Battles in Rift An'ura inside the Colosseum should not have missing enemies or result in an auto-win.

New:
- The base version of Rift An'ura in the Colosseum has been scaled to level 20, up from 8. The other two Rifts were closed when 5.0.1 went live. The Enemy and Troop data for the other variants has been removed. To correspond with the new difficulty, items from a new set have been included in the Warden's shop.

Fixes:
- Fixed the tooltip for the Sterling set, which gave a 15% weakness to ice in addition to the resistance to poison.

5.0.2 [Build #98, Release Date: August 22, 2021] Fixes:
- Fixed an issue in the Orc War campaign where if you did not defeat the purple Orc in Market Town, escape from Auria would be impossible after exiting the waterway.

5.0.1 [Build #97, Release Date: August 21, 2021] Fixes:
- Fixed an issue where the girls would be unable to move after Miles & Riley depart at the beginning of the Orc War.
- Fixed a hiccup in the variable coding for the Battlefront area. Players who continued to the first battlefront zone will have missed the gold purchase option for the first wave of mercenaries.

Changes:
- The higher level versions of the An'ura Rift in the colosseum have been closed and the Warden no longer sells Rift Keys. If you have a save file from within these rifts, return to the beginning or end areas to teleport out. Data for enemies, transfers, and other progress related information in these rifts has been erased.

Battlefront:
- Removed the 500 gold chest from the intro area. This was left in from testing by mistake.
- Hiring Mercs now costs regular Gold instead of Silver Pieces and Gold Pieces.
- Merc set gear no longer costs Silver Pieces or Gold Pieces, and instead costs 50x the previous requirement in gold.

Deployed an emergency fix for an issue where the party would become stuck outside of Auria at the beginning of the Orc War. This was due to a screen tint autorun event that had conditions to run forever - the event is now set to erase on all conditions and should not longer cause this lockup.

A number of other changes are being worked on at the time of deploying this build but are not included in the patch notes, mostly having to do with the Battlefront and Colosseum areas. This detail will be provided in a future update.

5.0.1 [Build #97, Release Date: August 21, 2021] Fixes:
- Fixed an issue where the girls would be unable to move after Miles & Riley depart at the beginning of the Orc War.

I wrote a ton of text the other day in my last post, so let's keep this one short and sweet with some highlights and then the patch notes.
• If you have a save file from before 4.2 dropped on August 6th, there will be bugs. If you started a new save file after August 6th, there should not be bugs. I will not be able to patch issues relating to Ewynn with save files from before August 6th. As much as I hated forcing this on all of you, a new save file was unavoidable because of my poor use of self-switches. I've learned a lot - it won't happen again.
• The Orc War will trigger once you go to the world map from Auria if you've completed the third Veil scene. If it does not, reach out to me on Discord immediately (https://discord.gg/bMS9ktw)

Good luck. :D

5.0 [Build #96, Release Date: August 15, 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!
- ??? There are a lot of crazy things that can happen here, just tell me all of it!
- It should not be possible to enter Auria after leaving.
- It should not be possible to enter Lvell during Day 4 (Orc War beginning day).
- All dungeons should feed back out to the Orc War World Map, which has different music than the regular world map of the previous days.
- Music should change when entering all available locations from the world map, and again when returning to the world map.
- No battle should result in an auto-win because the enemies were not there (report specifically where this was if it happens! It won't break the game, I've just been cleaning out unused Troops and Enemies.)
- No battle should not have a battleback (aka: you should not see Ruby & co. in the world where the encounter happened under the battle screen).
- Most importantly, the Orc War event should trigger immediately upon leaving Auria if you've already completed the third Veil scene.

New:
- The first steps of the Orc War are available! This is triggered by leaving Auria after the 3rd Veil scene. (Warning: the Orc War questline is not yet completed, and it will not be possible to re-visit certain locations until a future update. See the "Other" section below for details.)
- Elemental resistance states added to the game data. These last by default for 3 turns and are not removed at the end of combat. Additional applications will increase the turn count. Each state adds 30% defense to its element. These states exist for: Physical, Fire, Water, Electric, Ice, Earth, Wind, Poison, Dragon, Psychic, Holy, Dark, Soul, Ghost, Arcane.
- Details for item and equipment disassembly has been added to most items. However, there is currently no disassembler available. Expect the first permanent-use disassembler to arrive in 5.1.

Fixes:
- States "Mag Eva + 20%" and "Phys Eva + 20%" now last for 3-5 turns, instead of indefinitely.
- Set the amount of intended gem slots for all weapons and armor. Some gear will still drop with a random amount of slots.
- Quest Log details for Search for the Strongest have been replaced with minimalist info. The original details were lost and therefore will not be rewritten. Please keep in mind that the Quest Log is purely visual and has no entanglement with actual in-game functionality or rewards.

Changes:
- Enemy skill "Sharpen" now increases luck by 20% in addition to its other effects.
- Waterbolt and Vaporstrike now have a 10% chance to apply Soak and each higher tier skill adds 10% to that chance.
- The An'ura Expert moves to Annie's House in Lvell during the Orc War.

Other (Day 4 / Orc War Info): This information is specific to the 'Orc War Overworld Map' and does not apply for players who have not completed Auria's chapter of the Orc War.
- Raphael's Tower may be accessed from this World Map and the teleporter in this area may still be used to connect back to the Veil.
- It is not possible to use the Veil teleporter to enter Lvell during Day 4.
- It is not yet possible to enter zones other than The Black Forest, Scarlet Cavern, Den An'ura, Hell's Gate, Frost Forest and Agartha.
- Amaya's quest may still be completed during this day.
- Search for the Strongest may have progress during this day, as all necessary zones are available from the world map.
- Completing the Agartha questline on Day 4 will not grant progress toward the corresponding Rabbit's Foot Quest Log data, but it is possible to complete all the quest steps and unlock The Hall of Challengers, The Colosseum, and the Colosseum to Veil teleporter located in the basement.
- The Orc War questline itself currently does not have Quest Log integration.

Notes:
- If your save file is from earlier than August 6th, you will need a new save file to continue through the game bug-free. Certain interactions, like Ewynn in Market Town, cannot have individual fixes deployed for them due to their entanglement in multiple questlines. New save files should not experience these issues, and moving forward new save files will not be required.

Buckle up, it's a big one.

Over the last few weeks, I've had an incredible amount of development time which has allowed me to do away with the test branch for fixing all of the things that were broken up to the current end of the main story in CoA. There are a few other things being worked on that I want to take this time to talk about, but first let me just let you know that there will probably not be a new patch this weekend.

The three major things I've been working on are:
• The Orc War - Continuation of the main story, beginning immediately following the third Veil scene.
• Battlefront - a mini-game where Ruby commands troops on an exploration through various parts of the four kingdom's area.
• Battle Series I (DLC) - Level 25 maze dungeon featuring Zodiac themed bosses and loot.

I've mentioned the Orc War many times over the past probably a year and a half now, and I am sorry at how long it's taken me to be able to make progress on it. However, I am happy to say that development for it is well under way. In fact, there won't be a new update to the game until at least the first part of the questline is completely finished. This part takes Ruby & friends through the Nexus Waterway, an abandoned sewer system beneath Auria. I'm very close to finished with this part, but I need to iron out a few things before I publish it. Specifically, I need to connect the Day 4 (Orc War Day) map to the various locations around the world. Some events will only take place during the Orc War and will be missed once players progress past the core events.
Because the beginning of the Orc War is linear, there is no quest log details for it. Additionally, I have decided that keeping up on the quest log takes entirely too much development time, so moving forward there will be less dialogue related detail and more to-the-point 'what to do' and 'where you left off' information. Originally, I did want there to be a ton of extra readable dialogue, but at the end of the day I want to continue the overall project and getting bogged down in dialogue has already cost us a lot of time. This may be something I invest in once I consider CoA to be "complete" (as opposed to 'this is where the story stops for now' which is how I previously looked at it when I originally launched the game.)
In short: The first steps of the Orc War are set to happen following the 3rd Veil scene and are already intertwined with event coding, therefore there will not be an update to the game until it is finished and ready to go, which I estimate to take no longer than two weeks from today.

The Battlefront was an idea I had for a new game altogether, but decided to add to CoA as a test run. Ruby hires mercenaries who fight through contested areas, collecting resources and building support structures to secure Lvell's position throughout the northern forest region. On the world map, this first Battlefront zone is the entire snow and dead forest extending from the tower north of Lvell beside Scarlet Cavern.
Key mechanics for Battlefront:
• Only Ruby may participate. Other party members are removed unless otherwise specified (such as DLC character packs if that's something we ever do)
• Once KO'd, mercs will drop all their gear and return to level 1 to be hired again. The initial hiring process costs Gold, but all future hirings will cost resources of the area (Silver Piece, Gold Piece, Wood, Food, etc).
• The current test group of mercs are capped at level 20 and only have a handful of skills. This will be expanded on as further tests roll out.
• Similar to how the original Black Forest functioned, there is one zone per world map tile for the entire forest and structures included with some deviation for combined zones.
• Loot obtained from the Battlefront area will be optimal for further Battlefront usage, but also conform to the standard weapons and armor sets of the main story characters.
• Since there is very little story contained within, new zones can be deployed as part of any regular patch and will not impede other patches or updates.
• If you have any comments or recommendations about the event, feel free to let me know!

Battle Series I is an idea that came from me wanting to continue to fund this endeavor. Updates take a ton of time (I have 2884 hours in the engine as of writing this) and now over 20,000 people own a license to the game. As always, every DLC helps the project continue. So, about the details... I came up with 5 boss battles, whose details will remain a mystery until release, based on the Zodiac theme. Each boss has their own zone. Each zone has its own addition of unique battles and includes some from the previous zones. Each boss has a chance to drop gear from the Zodiac Weapons & Armor Set. The basic Zodiac set is a purchasable 260-point Defense and Magic Defense focused set, which you can get using the Astral Coins that drop from all enemies in the area and from Zodiac Coins which have a chance to drop off the bosses. Additionally, the bosses have a chance to drop enhanced versions of this set with their name attached, which are 325 point uncommon set and 350 point rare set. For the first time, this new set also includes weapons!
These bosses will find their way into the Pit with slight variations. In their pit alternative, they will not drop astral or zodiac coins.
Short: The is a battle-focused DLC with minimal story involvement. Possible rewards are weapons and armor.

Some other things to go over regarding the next update:
- There will be an increase in CoA's overall file size, the specifics of which I'm not yet sure. New background music was added for the new zones and I found dozens of new SV enemies to use in the future. Given some time, I will likely remove the unused assets until they're ready to appear in game. For the time being, their data will be present in the file size.
- The next download will be big, even relative to the above statement. Many character files had to be slightly updated which will cause the file to be re-downloaded. Additionally, all the details for Battle Series I is included in the current package even though it is not yet available.

Coming Soon, but later than everything above:
- The Pit will see a rework to save data space and development time. Custom non-boss battles designed for the Pit will be replaced with their regular-game alternatives and drop the same loot. Pit Coins and other Hall of Challengers specific loot will instead drop after the battle as a text prompt rather than directly off the defeated enemy.
- The next tier of the An'ura Rift for the Colosseum will not come as originally planned. Instead, the current rift will be brought to level 25 and all data for lower level enemies will be adjusted. Ultimately, these changes will keep these 'endgame activities' in line with the highest level Ruby & co should be provided the player does mostly everything along the main story path.
- Multi-map zones will be mostly replaced moving forward with full scale maps where it is possible to do so. For instance, Scarlet Cavern and Den An'ura use mostly the same tileset throughout and could all be on one map rather than be spread across dozens.


That's plenty of information for one post, wouldn't you say? Stay tuned for patch notes in the coming weeks for the official release of 5.0 and the first steps of the Orc War!

I had another dozen hours free today and spent it fixing all of the things. Because of that, the alpha branch of 5.0 is officially disabled. Today, we celebrate (finally) the release of 4.2.0, which to the players that did not participate in my little testing ground introduces:
- New playable character Eurus.
- New Veil zone which links Colosseum, Hall of Challengers, DLC redemptions, Eurus's Quest, the Trophy Room, and more things to come.

I had originally planned to give a small gift to only the people who took part in it and another for only the people who had originally purchased CoA, but given the time it would've taken to do that, I think the best gift to all of you is to just keep working on the game for everyone and get progress out there.

4.2.0 [Build #95, Release Date: August 06, 2021] Warning: The 5.0 Alpha branch has been discontinued. The re-connection of the beginning of the game to the end of the current main story has been made. From this point forward, all updates will be posted directly to the main branch that everyone has access to by default. If you did not participate in the 5.0 Alpha branch of the game, you will need to make a new save file to progress. Otherwise, the change in skill effects, states, learned-by-level-ups, switches, and other back end processes will cause the game to not function as intended. New save files should not experience these issues.

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!
- Hell's Gate units should not use Gust and should not try to use a skill with no data.
- If the screen ever flashes when Ruby uses her psychic power. My goal is to remove the flash feature permanently - please let me know if I missed any.
- If during dialogue conversation, Ruby triggers a game crash. This is due to a removed picture file - please screenshot exactly where this was so I can patch it right away.

New:
- A small goodie box has been added to the Veil with crafting materials for the Research Shack in Auria.

Fixes:
- Hardy's Headgear now correctly adds a 2% resist to Poison, Burn, and Bleed.
- Ewynn no longer uses Self Switches and should be more stable.

Changes:
- The Flame Titan event and dialogue has been moderately changed.
- Increased Jack's HP for the training battle to 999,999.
- Phoenix Ash introduction questline can be completed on Day 1 or Day 2.
- Removed the first copy of Disabling Slice and Silencing Slive
- Party members who did not participate in the battle also receive a share of the EXP gained through battle and quests.
- Removed the enemy version of Gust.
- Hell's Gate units now use either Airblade or Airslash instead of Gust at the end of each turn.
- Since the ele-nulls can be applied out of battle, they will no longer be removed at the end of each battle.
- Screen flashes have been removed.

Known Issues:
- Killing a Drahkin with Arcane Missile will appear to cause the game to stop, but this is because the dialogue of having collected the egg appears. It did not freeze.