Vagrus - The Riven Realms News

[h3]Hey Folks, [/h3]

this patch is our biggest to date in terms of complexity including a new region and a number of big features, so the tendency of taking on a lot seems to become a tradition for Lost Pilgrims by now.

Important note: considering the extent of these improvements, there is little to no chance that we broke nothing in the process of adding stuff and failed to notice despite extensive testing. Assume that we did not want to make anyone's life harder. If you see something amiss, please flag it to us using the usual channels, like the inbuild reporting tool (F1 button), forums, and our Discord server.



[h2]New Content[/h2]

Larnak is huge, although somewhat smaller than Deven and Tor'Zag's Shelter. The city has several unique districts, shops, temples, adventure hooks, and more. Larnak is the headquarters of House Venari, as well as home to the embassy of an insectoid people that arrived to negotiate with the Empire. A dark threat is also appearing on the horizon, as the long-disappeared Sand Wyrms are returning in great numbers to prey upon travelers of the scorching deserts that surround the city.

Ash is a small town in the middle of a grey silt desert west of Sun Rock. Run by House Darius, it has become the largest slave market near and far. Unique opportunities await vagri with no scruples about forced labor.

The Forsaken Colony to the southwest of Larnak is a mysterious place. Abandoned along with the mines and an odd Yrg hive nearby, it has been largely avoided for decades. However, something stirs there at the far end of the desert and a new presence might have set up shop in the old colony.

We have also added a proper Oquo headquarters in the Drusian Quarry as well and the Dread Reavers continue their journey. Find these and more hidden stuff in the new build!

[h2]New Companion[/h2]

Nedir the sorceress joins the companion roaster! Without spoiling too much, we can say that she is a spellweaver who specializes in fiery displays of destructive power as well as magic involving... well... Demons. She is completely in control of course! At least if you want to believe her.

[h3]Hirelings[/h3]
To top it off, we have also added Venari Hireling characters who can be hired for a period of time to help out with the toughest of challenges, albeit for a small fortune.

[h2]Factions, Factions, and Factions![/h2]

Dynamic pricing was the first step to our final economy design. The second: Faction Offers is now added with this patch.

As the Factions own sole rights to trading in bigger quantities, finding enough goods to trade from the market can be quite challenging (and expensive with the prices shooting upwards with each bought stack). For the affiliates of the big Trading Houses though, the flow of goods opens up right away. Gain good standing with them and you will find their buy and sell Offers on the now enabled Faction Offers tab [Only in the open-world section]. Use a portion of your accumulated goodwill (reputation) and the deal becomes even sweeter.



Faction Rewards open up with each tier of Faction standing. Some of them you can reclaim at each of their headquarters, others are awarded simply by reaching new tiers (and lost when falling below a tier's threshold). These new rewards include:

• One-time obtainable rewards (like equipment and gear) can be reclaimed for most unlocked faction tiers. Some of these are not attainable anywhere else in the game.
  
• Constant effects, like increased worker efficiency, ambush chance, or Odd Jobs bonus. These are unique for each faction per tier and they have several levels you can unlock on higher tiers.
  
• New vagrus and comitatus customizations in the form of banners. Most factions give you their banner upon reaching a high tier of standing. You will be able to change banners on the leader UI.
  

[h2]Mounted Fun[/h2]

Did we mention the third beast type becoming available for high-end comitati?
How about the option to mount up your whole crew (provided you do not have any beasts and have enough mounts for all your crew including companions, passengers, and yourself)?

Well, it would take too long to describe every fix and improvement in detail, so let's just switch to our traditional Patch notes format. Here goes:

--------------------------------------------------

[h2]Patch 0.5.27 - Codename: Luminous[/h2]

[h3]New/Updated Features :shiny:[/h3]

• Faction Offers / Access to Faction reserves
  
• Faction Rewards (gained for each tier of standing)
  
• Buy Market info via your Faction connections
  
• The third beast type enabled (attainable via quests)
  
• Mount-Up (though not quite feasible yet, more enablers to come)
  
• Companion Combat formations (save and deploy your fav positionings)
  
• Hero Select autofill and remove (filling order based on health rate)
  
• Venari hireling characters (expensive professionals to hire)
  

[h3]New/Updated Content :gift:[/h3]

• The Larnak-Ash region
  
• Venari HQ in Larnak
  
• Oquo HQ in Drusian Quarry
  
• New Companion: Nedir
  
• Dread Reavers on the road again (though technically this time you are on the road for them)
  
• Three new music tracks [Deven, Larnak, and an alternate Jaggest Waste]
  
• Brand new enemies, as well as new versions to existing ones
  

[h3]Updated Game Mechanics :tools:[/h3]

• A great number of changes to the effects of existing and new equipment/gear/statuses
  
• In many cases, changes to the availability of equipment and gear (now often available as Factions Rewards only as opposed to the market)
  
• Stronger versions of equipment added - sometimes the original ones nerfed a bit to make the upgrade noticeable without breaking the balance completely
  

[h3]User Interface Improvements :pencil:[/h3]

• Indicators added on both the Crew Combat and the Companion Combat side to better indicate which unit participates in them, and also if they were Elite or Leader units
  
• Market prices and quantities now shown in stacks when the 'mass trade button' is pressed
  
• Tooltip improvements all across the board
  

[h3]Bug Fixes :bug:[/h3]

• The trickling reputation rates were in reverse for Opponents and Adversaries, now corrected which will make it a great deal easier to remain on good terms with opponents
  
• A great number of insight and reputation exploits closed off [sorry, not sorry :P]
  
• Event decisions impacting Faction presence in settlements were not working property - fixed and reconstructed for prior saves as well based on journal entries
  
• All known crash root-causes resolved
  
• Various other smaller fixes
  

Known Issues

• We will explore options to reduce the initial loading time.
  
• The visual presentation of Companion Combat skills with two phases is not final yet.
  

'Is Vagrus properly balanced now'? - Nope. 'Was it a step in the right direction?' - We think so. Please let us know how you find it.

Stay tuned, stay alive, conquer the wasteland!
- The Lost Pilgrims Team

Coming up next... Mercenary Tasks and a return to Avernum. Yes, you read it right! Stay tuned.


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Hey Folks,

Our concern that we may have broken some things with all the changes stuffed into the Beasty patch was not baseless it seems.😅 We hope that the glitches have not botched the experience much.

Although the game will have fewer bugs with this patch we have certainly not squashed all of them, so if you see something amiss, please flag it to us using the usual channels, like the inbuild reporting tool (F1 button), forums, and our Discord server.

After releasing this hotfix, we will continue working on the next big patch, which will include Ash and Larnak. Stay tuned for that, too!

Now, let's see the list of things we fixed and added:

[h2]Patch 0.5.26 - Beasty Hotfix[/h2]

[h3]New/Updated Features :shiny:[/h3]

• Thee immunity Perks added: Thick Skull (vs Stun), Immovable (vs Push/Pull effects), Fearless (vs Fear effects)
  

[h3]Bug Fixes :bug:[/h3]

• Butchering crash solved
  
• Price History UI off the screen on certain screen resolutions fixed
  
• Action Select buttons work again on the Crew Combat UI
  
• The bug that opened an exploit that allowed the instant healing of Wounded companions at the end of crew combat was removed. Now it works just like healing during Camping (as intended)
  
• Corrected the issue when the outcome of the companion combat started from crew combat overrode the results sent back to the encompassing Event (and sometimes the Event got stuck)
  
• Turning off the Open World Tutorials in the Options no longer suppresses the New Game starting-event with Agos
  
• Renkailon throws two daggers instead of one once again
  
• AI triggered Companion turn skips no longer occur in companion combat
  

Known Issues

• We will explore options to reduce the initial loading time.
  
• The visual presentation of Companion Combat skills with two phases is not final yet.
  

'Is Vagrus properly balanced now'? - Nope. 'Was it a step in the right direction?' - We think so. Please let us know how you find it.

Stay tuned, stay alive, conquer the wasteland!
- The Lost Pilgrims Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/909660?utm_source=steam&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=website&utm_content=footer
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Wanna see the full game released as early as possible with even more content? Please share our pages and posts with your friends through your favorite social media channel(s). Appreciate it!

Fig | Website | Youtube | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Patreon | Discord

Hey Folks,

this patch is a beast in all sense. So many new features and changes have been added that if you ever considered starting a new play-through, this might be the perfect time for it. A shedload of tweaks has been applied to make the early game a little more forgiving (without making the late game easier), and we look forward to your feedback on the direction of these changes.

Important note: considering the extent of these improvements there is little to no chance that we broke nothing in the process. Assume that we did not want to make anyone's life harder. 😀 If you see something amiss, please flag it to us using the usual channels, like the inbuild reporting tool (F1 button), forums, and our Discord server.

Now let's jump into the details.

[h2]Patch 0.5.25 - Codename: Beasty![/h2]

[h3]New/Updated Features :shiny:[/h3]

• Dynamic pricing allows for higher profits in smaller quantities. See our detailed design post.
  
  
  
  
• Enter Companion Combat from Crew Combat - actions enabled
  • The two combats 'run parallel' - you get to play first the Comp combat and see the result impacting the Crew combat side
    
  • You can decide which companions fight in which combat but only in one (meaning their CS/Def do not count in crew combat)
    
  • Every Crew Combat round allows you to fight six rounds in Comp combat. After that, the battle continues
    
  • Victory (killing all enemies) achieved within the six rounds causes 10 grit damage to the enemy
    
  • Defeat ( all deployed companions pushed to downed/out of combat) results in serious morale loss (so you better take it seriously)
    
• Summoning Skills for Necromancers and Hollow Eyes
  
  
• Price History is a new tool for all vagri to track goods' prices across settlements
  
  
  
  
• Equipment design changes - new slots, unlocked by deputy assignments
  
  • Equipment can be mounted into one or more slots specifically and the Miscellaneous slot is no longer a default for all
  
  
  
• Faction Flag selection (incl. minimap flag)
  
• Beast Type change option at the Manios between Mammal and Reptile
  
  

[h3]New / Updated Content or Game Mechanics :gift:[/h3]

• Created alternative versions for some of the bandit roster characters
  
• Few dozen Event balancing changes
  
• Beast & Mount Buy-Sell ratio corrected
  
• New game default beast type: Mammal
  
• Indirect Faction reputation change is not limited to the [-1 : 3] tier range
  
• A metric ton of smaller economy & crew combat tweaks
  
• Some Equipment stat changes [a shed load of new equipment coming soon as Faction Rewards]
  
• Road Tax event priority change (High to Preferred)
  
• Road Tax event no longer considers goods in Stash
  
• Road Tax event option to pay with Supplies
  
• Leader and Elite unit kills cause additional Grit loss to the enemy [regardless of dying from comp combat or crew combat damage]
  

[h3]User Interface Improvements :pencil:[/h3]

• Graphics config within Options (no pop-up)
  
• Options menu overhaul
  
• Combat Clash Speed option added (1.5x set as default)
  
• Combat Round Announcements
  
• Character turn announcement
  
• Turn off tutorials for Open-World gameplay
  
• Equipment is now listed in two columns
  

[h3]Bug Fixes :bug:[/h3]

• Criftaa Suppressing Shot + Evade crash fixed
  
• Negative Power stat companion freeze fixed
  
• Mass trading buttons removed from Discipline and Liberate screens
  
• Selling equipment when full cargo exploit fixed
  
• Empty Odd jobs result after settlement Rest due Scouting lock on the Camp UI
  
• Deputy perk refund exploit removed
  
• Death animation restored to its original size
  

Known Issues

• We will explore options to reduce the initial loading time.
  
• The visual presentation of Companion Combat skills with two phases is not final yet.
  

'Is Vagrus properly balanced now'? - Nope. 'Was it a step in the right direction?' - We think so. Please let us know how you find it.

Stay tuned, stay alive, conquer the wasteland!
- The Lost Pilgrims Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/909660?utm_source=steam&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=website&utm_content=footer
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wanna see the full game released as early as possible with even more content? Please share our pages and posts with your friends through your favorite social media channel(s). Appreciate it!

Fig | Website | Youtube | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Patreon | Discord

[h3]Hey everyone,[/h3]

first of all, Happy New Year. We made it to 2021 at last. 🥳

It's been a while since we posted a devlog entry and we figured that this would be a great time to do so. Today's topic, Dynamic pricing, has been on our minds for a long-long time, and finally, we've decided to pull the trigger on implementing it. To provide a little background on why we need it, let's review what happens in the current build of the game when you go trading.

[h2]Current Goods Pricing[/h2]

Buying and selling goods on the market do not affect those respective prices. The first stack you buy will cost exactly the same as the last one you grab from that market. Similarly, the first unit of pottery you sell will go for the same amount as the 535th unit you dump on the locals.

This means that after you figure out what makes sense to trade in small quantities, you can rely on repeating that no matter how big your comitatus grows and end up making the same rounds over and over again. The whole thing turns into grinding, which never was our intent, of course.



It's problematic from an immersion perspective as well since dumping twenty stacks of pottery on an oasis camp makes absolutely no sense. What the heck would they do with that many, right?

Lastly, but just as importantly, that system created an economy balancing issue, too. As once the size of your comitatus grows, it becomes more and more profitable to repeat tried and static routes. While the buy and sell prices are the same regardless of the quantity, the other costs (upkeep, consumption, etc.) are not scaling linearly with the cargo size.

We have struggled with this through numerous attempts at balancing, failing in a new way every time.

1. A low profit per stack created a suitable challenge for bigger comitati but smaller ones had an extremely tough time surviving.
   
2. When we raised the profits high enough to make it relatively easy for smaller comitati to make a living, by the mid-late game players were swimming in money (known as the golden age of vagrus players, with many owning 10,000+ Bross).
   
3. Right now we are in the middle where smaller comitati still struggle while there is little challenge for high-end caravans since money is never a constraint for them.
   

Our solution?

[h2]Dynamic Pricing[/h2]

The main change in this system is that markets react to the quantity available to them. The more of the same goods you sell on a market, the less they are willing to pay for it and similarly, the less quantity of a trade good remains on the given market, the higher the price they expect for it. It's a well-known concept: in economics, they refer to this as the 'invisible hand' that balances demand and supply at the right price.

[h3]But how does this help with the issues we listed above?[/h3]
It allows increasing the profit margins to the high spectrum, so smaller comitati would have an easier time while effective trading still maintaining a challenge for mid- and large-sized caravans. The higher quantities you buy and sell, the closer the buy and sell prices become, so the profit margins stick closer to your cost-efficiency.



[h3]Does that mean that the game will become much harder for mid- or large-sized comitati?[/h3]
Yes and no. Doing the same as before, running exactly the same trade rounds regardless of size, will not work well any longer. Players trying that will quickly see their profits dwindle and might feel that the game just got harder for them.

The answer is partly in: 'the bigger no longer means better' but also in: 'diversity over grinding'. Instead of trading in 2-3 types of goods in massive quantities, the best profits (better than before in small quantities) can be achieved in trading in many goods at once. Getting great deals and distributing between multiple locations along a trade route work much better.

It will be something new and challenging until players figure it out; also much less repetitive, hence more enjoyable, we hope.



It will surely take several iterations to balance this new system. We have already started testing it internally but the ultimate trial by fire will come when we make this available to you all and hear your insights: stories of success and failure. Learning those will help us tweak the system further and get closer to a good balance between challenging and enjoyable.

Hope you are just as enthusiastic about these upcoming changes as we are!

The Lost Pilgrims Team
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Wanna see the full game released as early as possible with even more content? Please share our pages and posts with your friends through your favorite social media channel(s). Appreciate it!

Fig | Website | Youtube | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Patreon | Discord

We at Lost Pilgrims Studio want to wish you all Merry Christmas (or whatever else you celebrate in your neck of the woods at this time of the year) and a hopefully-much-better 2021 than this year has been globally! We hope that you are safe and well in these dark times.

Keep a weather eye on the horizon, as we'll continue working hard on Vagrus, releasing content and features continuously, to be able to deliver a final game (in 2021🤞) that has the high quality we aim for as well as our quirky, unique touch. :)

The Lost Pilgrims Team



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Wanna see the full game released as early as possible with even more content? Please share our pages and posts with your friends through your favorite social media channel(s). Appreciate it!

Fig | Website | Youtube | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Patreon | Discord