Cross of Auria News

I want to take a few moments here to outline some of the upcoming changes in 5.0 which will affect all save files and manage some expectations about the game world and updates moving forward.

Getting Ready for 5.0
First and foremost, there will be an announcement about a week or so before 5.0 goes live. At that point, all active players should make a new save on the world map or in the Auria Entrance next to the Delivery Boy. Due to the overhaul incoming, it will be in your best interests to accept the Delivery Boy's offer of starting a NG+ save. This will revert all characters back to level 1 and automatically remove (NOT sell) all held items. Weapons and armor which are not obtained through questlines will be excluded from this inventory clear-out (ex: the Bolt Cutter will be lost if it has been acquired, but the Sterling Sword will be kept). All quests and questlog data will be reset to 0 and all switches set to OFF. The only things which will not be affected by this change are chests which use the self switch function, as these switches can not be undone by global changes. However, many of these chests will be altered or removed, which may permit reopening. This will be a one time event - subsequent NG+ saves will not allow for these boxes to be opened again.
Please note that the Delivery Boy will be setup to permit exactly one NG+ function per save file and will only function with items currently programmed into the game (as of today). Returning to him in this Orc War NG+ state will not yield another option to do it again. This functionality may return at a later date.

The reason this NG+ setup is being added is to allow for some major front and back end changes. Most notably are the following:
• Certain maps will become Timelost and a new similar map will take its place. (For instance: Lvell may no longer use the segmented map style, but rather be one whole city map without transitions from zone to zone besides buildings).
• Some map timelines will be condensed, others may be expanded. As of right now, there are three world maps in the game - the one from the beginning which only houses the visible areas, the one from after the final inn scene where the map is greatly expanded but travel is only permitted on the Four Kingdoms area, and one final one which has blockades during the Orc War questline. It is likely the first one of these disappears. The same concept can be applied to Den An'ura, Frost Forest, Black Forest, and other zones.
-- The reason for this can be summed up as: I have learned a great deal since using the engine for the first time in 2017. Some of my earlier work needs to be completely redone.
• The Items back-end section is finally being streamlined. I've used Deprecated Item placeholders in the past, but all of them will be wiped out come 5.0. Additionally, items will be moved to more intuitive locations in the inventory. This will cause the item you own to change as well. At some point between now and 5.0, it is advisable to sell off your entire Item inventory. Keeping items you should not may lead to save file issues which will require a new save file altogether.
- A great deal of empty space will be left between item types this time. Because of this, this will be the final item restructure CoA undergoes in its lifetime. Items that overflow the current available inventory as of 5.0 will then be placed at the bottom of the back end list (and therefore appear at the bottom of the Items menu) even if logic would suggest they appear near the top or elsewhere.

What to Expect Between Now and the Release of 5.0
- Nothing. There will be no new patches or DLC until 5.0 is released. Please continue to report any bugs discovered either here on Steam or in my Discord in the #coa_bugreports channel. Fixes to all reported bugs will come alongside 5.0.

What to Expect From Game Version 5.0
- The NG+ function will be available one time in Auria at the Delivery Boy.
- Save files from before 5.0 which do not utilize the NG+ function will not perform as they did before 5.0's release. Debugs will not be issued to fix the corresponding issues. The debug is to use the NG+ function.
- The Delivery Boy will not contain any of the debug code he currently has because all players are expected to be operating from a New Game perspective.
- The Orc War storyline will be available.
- An'ura Recon event will be finished. This is the one that begins with Azrael's non-lethal battle in Den An'ura. The reward for completing this quest is Ares the archer.
- Level up skills for the main party will be completely finalized for their current classes and will be released in a post similar to the one about Amaya.
- Events from before Jack's departure will be extended. The goal here is to have Lvell feel more like home before being forced to leave so suddenly.
- The timeline will be more blatantly established. With this, some quests may become incompletable and marked as failed. You will not be timed or given a resource to spend which equates to time, but main story events will push the time forward. If quests are not completed on the 'day' they are received, they will be lost forever.
- The Pit (both versions) will extend to at least level 50. Back end troops have been set aside for a total of 5 battle configurations per floor up to level 120, for a total of 600 battlegroups across all floors once the pit is completely finished. Enemies in the pit are worth 1/4th their usual EXP value. Bosses in the pit are worth a higher custom EXP value.
-- These battlegroups may be used throughout the world at the appropriate level and may be changed or removed entirely if the need for troop space becomes an issue. There is a finite number of troops allowed within the engine which is 2000. The Pit troops take up #1400-#2000.
- An'ura Rifts Level 25 and 50 will appear in the Colosseum. With this, the Warden's vendor stock will be updated. This will finalize the An'ura version of the Colosseum. Planned DLC using hidden held items will act as the trigger for changing the Colosseum main lobby into a themed set of rifts based on the DLC. For example, holding the Scarlet Core DLC item will allow entry into the Scarlet themed Colosseum. More detail on this function later.
- A set of potential battles may occur on specific tiles throughout the world map.
- The way enemies appear on the field is undergoing a fundamental change. This should result in less instances of having the same unit trigger two battles back to back before disappearing.

What to Expect After 5.0's Release
- Bug fixes based on any reported.
- DLC in the form of character packs and themed events.
- Additions to the 'endgame' areas. I basically have two completely different minigames I want to inject into the game but will take a great deal of time to prepare, so I haven't messed with it yet.
- The potential formal discontinuation of the "main story questline" of CoA.

So, in the interest of transparency...
I've mentioned in the past that I have virtually no income from Cross of Auria. I went into this project by myself, and for the most part, I continue to work on it by myself. I have two volunteer artists who make enemies and icons sometimes, but the whole of the development falls on me. I have not taken a payout of any size from the CoA project since 2018, but I've still put in hundreds of hours of development time. I hope to see a return on that once the Orc War storyline is finished and I'm able to put out meaningful side-story DLC. Even when factoring in the Founder's Packs and the Headless Horseman DLCs, I'm currently at less than $0.20/hr income on development. That being said, I don't expect CoA to suddenly go viral or something, but I do need to diversify my time in other areas which may stand to bring in money. For those of you who don't know this about me, I'm 31 with two kids, and the whole "doing it for fun" isn't on the table anymore. I understand how some of you might feel reading that my focus is going to shift to paid DLC and other projects, but every game has a time when it needs to end. Realistically, I'd like to change my focus from CoA made on RPG Maker MV to CoA made on Unity. Before I can do that, I know that I owe it to you all to put some kind of cap on the current story of the game. It's something I still want to do, even though sometimes I don't have the motivation.

Before CoA is put to its permanent rest, there will be a handful of pricier DLC that goes live. There are two current ideas.
#1: Character Packs, which aren't as simple as paying for new party members. These packs will remove everyone from the party and take the player on a journey somewhere and sometime in the world of Isis to experience a story from someone else's perspective. The goal is to put out roughly four hour heavily story-driven events which end in Ruby obtaining the power to have the memory of the warriors whose story was witnessed fight by her side. Honestly, the success of this idea will determine the continuation of CoA-RMMV as a whole.
#2: Themed Events. For Halloween, you got a tiny taste of one themed event where a costumed-up Ruby & friends went to free a rift of the Headless Horseman's tyranny. This would be about the size of holiday themed events. However, the goal is to create something along the lines of having a small story (say roughly an hour or two) followed by the permanent unlocking of a Dungeon and a modified Colosseum. Dungeons are effectively heavily mechanic based challenge areas where saving is restricted to save points only. The Colosseum change would allow you to at-will change between the base theme (An'ura) to the theme of the DLC. Inside, levels 25-125 rifts would challenge and reward your team. So for instance if you purchased the Scarlet Fire DLC, you would be able to tell the Warden to change the rifts to Scarlet and then use those to cross into a specially redesigned Scarlet Cavern. The dungeon itself would appear in Scarlet's actual location by Lvell, somewhere deep within. For players without the DLC, they will see the entryway but be unable to pass through. DLC holders will see an entirely different area.

To sum up the future of Cross of Auria into one much smaller thought - the sales of the base game plus these planned DLC will determine if CoA (made with RMMV) has a life beyond 2021 or if this chapter is closed for good. CoA (made with Unity) on the other hand is likely to take root after the current planned "NG-" project going on in my discord comes to a close.



I know that was a lot, so thank you if you've made it this far. I'm going to go widen the gap between time spent creating and income earned on the project now until 5.0 is done. Realistically, you may not hear another update from me about 5.0 until May or later. Many of the things I want to do have no pre-existing bases to work off of.

That's it for me. Hardy out.

Discord invite link if interested in hanging out or using it to report bugs or participate in the "NG-" project: https://discord.gg/bMS9ktw

Quick reminder: the Halloween event in the Colosseum is leaving on November 15th! If you have not completed the event in the Rift, you will not be able to enter it starting at some point after 9pm Eastern US time this Sunday, so plan accordingly. Keep in mind that players with save files inside the rift will be able to continue the adventure, but re-entry will not be possible.

Originally, I wanted to keep what I'm about to reveal a secret, but in the interest of driving your interest back to the game from time to time, I've decided to be transparent instead.

As the Halloween event leaves, 4.1.4.3 will come bringing a new face to Revan - Amaya, the Wind Warrior. Amaya is a glass cannon dual-wielding melee assaulter boasting the ability to wield two short swords or katanas at once. Graceful as the wind itself, she has been spotted in the Black Forest setting up Wind Weak debilitations on her opponents and finishing the job with brutal wind strikes. Unlike the main party who are base 1100 point characters, Amaya has an astounding 1300 point spread with 400 of those points being in ATK at level 99.

Side by Side comparison: (Level 1, 99 Values Shown)
Ruby (Warrior) Amaya (Wind-Warrior)
HP: 200, 2000 HP: 150, 3000
MP: 50, 200 MP: 38, 938
-------------------------------------------
ATK: 5, 200 ATK: 5, 400
DEF: 5, 200 DEF: 5, 100
MAT: 5, 200 MAT: 5, 125
MDF: 5, 200 MDF: 5, 125
AGI: 5, 200 AGI: 5, 250
LUK: 1, 100 LUK: 5, 300
Total Level 1: 26 Total Level 1: 30
Total Level 99: 1100 Total Level 99: 1300

Amaya's Other Attributes:
Hit Rate: 97%
Evasion Rate: 2%
Critical Rate: 6%
TP Regeneration: 5%/turn
TP Charge Rate: 125%
Experience Rate: 105%
State Resistance: TP Degeneration (25%)
State Immunity: Air Current, Wind Weak
Attack State: Air Current (5%)
Can Equip: Sword, Katana, Leather Armor, Mail Armor
Can Use: Skills, Magic
Has Equipped: Aethersoul (Katana, Wind, 2 Upgrade Slots)

Amaya can be found in the newly expanded Black Forest area starting after Orcs appear on the world map.

Keep in mind this patch won't go live until November 15th and changes may still be made, but these are the things that are finished as of this post. Before we get to that, just a quick note of what else is in progress:
- Opening the outskirts areas of other cities.
- Filling the Colosseum Basement with other challenges.
- Expanding Hunter Lodge questlines.
- World Map tile-based random encounters.
- Orc War main story: target release December 15th.
- Complete removal of previous State system (poison, burn, etc) and the permanent replacement of the new variable dot system. Currently, both exist together which leads to some enemies not being resistant to states they would logically be immune to.

4.1.4.3 [Build #94, Release Date: November 15, 2020] New:
- The Black Forest has been expanded.
- “The Black Forest” quest may now be completed after the secret is uncovered.
- The Hunter’s Journal now tracks the amount of completed repeatable tasks.
- The Rabbit’s Foot (second version) in Auria now has a method for exchanging sellable items for Hunter Tokens.

Fixes:
- Quest step for pass the guards to go upstairs now marks as complete appropriately. Previously, if this quest was progressed with Miles & Riley in the party, it would continue down a branch of code that led to this quest’s previous position in the log.
- Ewynn in Auria should now accept the Hephaes book at the appropriate time. In case it still does not work correctly, the debug has been left in for the time being until a comprehensive test can be completed.

Minor Changes:
- Saving is now disabled in the Colosseum Basement. This zone may see multiple expansions as time goes on and the best way to prevent broken save files is to outright prevent saving in a space which will be differently accessible later.
- The location of the Scorpio and Wretch portals have moved. The functionality remains the same.
- Minor change to the Colosseum Basement layout.
- HP now displays in segments of 1000 instead of 100. This is largely due to the addition of new higher-level enemies whose health bars cannot be seen at all when the gauge is set so low.
- Field Orc units on the world map have been moved to prevent forced interactions between Frost Forest and Agartha.
- Field units in Alpha Ruins have been moved further from the entrance.
- Additional field spawns have been added to Alpha ruins.
- Blazerblade now applies the variable burn instead of ascending turn burns.
- Damage value and prices for flasks have been decided and are as follows:
-- Tier I flasks deal 100 damage and sell for 33 gold.
-- Tier II flasks deal 250 damage and sell for 77 gold.
-- Tier III flasks deal 750 damage and sell for 100 gold.
-- Tier IV flasks deal 1500 damage and sell for 133 gold.
-- Tier V flasks deal 3000 damage and sell for 175 gold.
- Poison Flasks now apply the new character based variable poison. Damage scales based on user magic and luck.
- Fire Flasks now apply the new character based variable burn and no longer use the custom -20% ATK state. Damage scales based on user magic. The character based variable burn also reduces the affected user’s ATK value by 33%.
- Frost Flasks now have a 5% chance to apply Freeze.
- Water flasks now apply Soak. Soak has the following effects: Reduces evasion rate (3%), arcane, wind and electric resistances (30% each). Increases poison resistance (30%), and fire resistance (50%).
- Wind Flasks now apply Air Current (10%) and Wind-Weak (10%).
- Earth Flasks now reduce target defense by 20%.
- Shadow Flasks now have a 30% chance to cause Fear. Fear prevents actions from being taken, reduces evasion by 100% for up to 3 turns, and has a 100% chance of being removed by damage.
- Electric Flasks now have a 30% chance to cause Paralysis. Paralysis prevents actions from being taken, reduces evasion by 100% for up to 3 turns, and has a 50% chance of being removed by damage.
- Dark Flasks now apply a Max MP, Defense, Magic Defense, and Luck debuff for 3 turns.
- Light Flasks now apply a Max HP, Attack, Magic, and Agility debuff for 3 turns.

Changes which occurred between 4.1.4.2 and 4.1.4.3:
- (4.1.4.2B) Fixed a missing audio file issue in the Lighthouse.
- (4.1.4.2A) Added a fix for Ewynn where if you took the Rabbit’s Foot quest for Hephaes before finishing the original Grand Library exploration, Ewynn would not react to the party having the book. This quest should progress as normal now.

I originally planned to release the Headless Horseman ticket DLC which enables the level 50, 75, 100 & 120 fights on Nov 17th, but we're moving that up to right now! Or, you know, a few minutes from right now. Either way, it should be ready by the time you are reading this.

Short version - I plan to use my steam payouts between now and christmas for presents for my two kids. Covid sucks and is the ruiner of lives.

Anyway, I know a lot of people are going to be unhappy with so many small DLCs being released so close to one another, so I'd like to elaborate a tiny bit on the current plan.

- Make low level (relative to current available main story) extras free.
- Make higher level (effectively challenge content) extras paid DLC.
- There will of course continue to be free to play events that happen in the game, which the base price of the game absolutely covers. You will never be asked to pay more for main story content. That being said, there are plans to release longer side stories which add characters permanently to the team as paid DLC as well, the details of which are not completely ironed out yet.

You might be wondering what's going on in the Colosseum basement, and you are right to. This will be where many of the DLCs will be contained moving forward. Plans may change, but the current idea is the following:

- Top Row: Single event bosses in a small boss room.
- Top Row DLC: Expands boss to at least level 120.
- Middle Row: Small/medium sized story-less dungeons, similar to the main lobby of the Colosseum as it is right now. Each higher level of the dungeon adds an extra boss and/or wing of the dungeon. Includes up to level 50.
- Middle Row DLC: Expands the dungeons with level 75, 100, & 125 additions.
- Bottom Row: Single bosses in a small boss room. Includes up to level 50.
- Bottom Row DLC: Expands these bosses to at least level 100.

Every higher level challenge adds to the current loot pool and enhances the current loot pools drop chances.
For example;
Headless Lv 20 may have 5 separate 20% chances to drop Midnight Essences, but the level 50 version has 5 separate 40% chances to drop Midnight Essences in addition to several additional 10% chances.
Headless Lv 20 may have a 1% chance to drop a Challenger's Band. Level 50 Headless may have a 2% chance to drop a Challenger's Band and now has an additional 1% chance to drop the Challenger's Signet.
(Above item names used for demonstration purposes only.)

I think that's all we need to go over for now. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them! I've been checking the notifications here daily just in case. I'm on the prowl for pesky bugs.

Anyway, good luck fighting Headless at the higher levels. Don't feel too defeated if you can't beat him yet - his rift in the Colosseum basement is permanent. Eventually both versions of the pit will extend to level 120, other characters and classes will be added, and the challenge won't feel so insurmountable. Even my team took a beating by the level 50, but we ended up with the win!

//hardytier

The redeemed quest added by Fuzzystingray is complete and now in game! Seek out the beginning in Hell's Gate. This quest is the first in a long time to be added to the game with Quest Log functionality - so if there are any bugs or crashes, please reach out ASAP.

Speaking of reaching out, the new Discord invite link is https://discord.gg/bMS9ktw. Please use the CoA section to report bugs.

If you want to add something in the game, have a look at https://www.streamloots.com/hardytier/collection/5f6cad28cd5571003489b0fe. We can talk more about this on Discord or when I'm living doing CoA dev work. Keep in mind that some of the cards are fragmented, meaning they require multiple copies to redeem. That being said, there are some conditions which would earn you free packs, the rest of which we will definitely discuss on Discord instead of here.

Anyway...

Following the example set by the release of the Horseman's rift in the Colosseum Basement, I have added an additional two bosses to this area with level 25 & 50 variants. The higher level version naturally has higher drop rates for items on the loot table, with a small handful of extra loot chances. Don't be turned away by their level - that's just what I use on the back end to determine stats. With the right setups and strategy, you may find yourself able to tackle the higher level fights!

Please note that all bosses in the Colosseum Basement require the completion of a Rift on the main Colosseum floor to respawn. So if you never complete the event rifts there, these bosses won't ever respawn.

Here's what you can expect on the loot table for the two battles added: Scorpio's Pupil (Lv. 25): Pit Coins, Weak Restorative Items, Water Flasks, Aqueous Essences, Essences of Life & Magick, Tome of Water Weapon, Challenger's Band & Ring.
Scorpio's Pupil (Lv. 50): Same as above, plus Challenger's Boots for all characters plus Buckler. Mid-tier Restorative Items, greater drop rates for Tomes, Essences, Flasks, and Pit Coins.

Eldritch Wretch (Lv. 25): Challenger's Cloak, Buckler, & Shield. Tier 1 & 2 Restorative Items, Midnight Essences, Pit Coins, Poison Flasks, Essences of Life & Magick, & conditional essence drops for other elements.
Eldritch Wretch (Lv. 50): Challenger's Helmets for all characters & greater drop rates for other items.

4.1.4.2 [Build #93, Release Date: October 29, 2020] New:
- A mysterious girl has appeared in Hell’s Gate with a challenge for the worthy.
- Two boss rifts have opened in the Colosseum Basement. Bosses in this area require a completion of one of the active main lobby rifts to respawn.

Changes:
- Elemental magic attacks now give 7 TP per tier 1, 10 per tier 2, and 12 per tier 3 skill. [This was released during the 4.1.4.1 emergency fix for Ruby’s starting location but went unnoted due to the nature of the patch.]
- Tome of Poison Weapon now applies V-PSN.
- Tome of Fire Weapon now applies V-Burn.
- Details added for Tome of Water Weapon.

The last update was accidentally launched without putting Ruby as invisible in the Pantheon (which is how the event functions as it does).

New games will now begin with the correct series of event.