Vagrus - The Riven Realms News

[h3]Hi Folks,[/h3]

Thank you for all the feedback you shared with us in the last few weeks! This was immensely useful from the smallest bug reports to the super-ambitious ideas on how to turn Vagrus into a AAA title [thanks for crediting so grand a potential to our tiny team], and we appreciate you taking the time to help us with your insights.

One of the most commonly flagged missing feature was the option to Flee from Crew Combat encounters, and so after the first bundle of quick-fixes, we shifted our focus to that. Soon after starting to design Flee, we just felt that Appeasing enemies -bribing them to let you go without even having to run for it - was so tied to the Flee mechanic that it only made sense to implement both. And so we did.
We also made a number of tweaks, including the change that Tax collectors no longer factor in cargo from Trade tasks when calculating the tax amount.

It took a little more time than we originally planned and we wanted to make it available as soon as possible, so it has not been extensively playtested. The game might have become a tad too easy with these changes - please share your views about that once you had the chance to play a couple of hours with this new build.



Okay, time to dive into the list of changes:

[h2]Patch 0.5.15 - codename: Flee![/h2]
New/Updated Features

• Crew Combat Flee 🏃 including the first version of Appease
  - In case the Enemy is the attacker, you may choose to Flee instead of fighting
  - Some Enemies are slow and easier to flee from while others are good at chasing and you may be better off fighting them
  - Increase the chance of your Flee by Appeasing the enemy with leaving stuff behind
  - Based on their attributes, enemies accept offerings and appreciate them on a different level
  - Auto-offer does not work for goods yet
  
• Crew combat enemy-demands scale a bit better
  
• Tax collectors no longer factor in Trade Task cargo when coming up with the tax amount. At the same time, tax immunities through Factions also reduced.
  
• The accidentally released Perk Summary Tab properly implemented now 🧮
  
• 'Manual' companion heal phased out by natural healing replacing it completely - as planned
  
• Loads of perk related updates and fixes:
  - Perks granted by gear/etc do not count towards certain requirements (other Gear, Perk prerequisites, etc)
  - Gear/Deputy/Combat perk requirements only consider the companion's base perks now
  - On the Leader and Companion Perk UIs, only the base perks are indicated
  - Perk insight and proficiency costs consider base perk levels only (no overcharge for levels granted by other things)
  

UI improvements

• Companion Perk UI refreshed (still not the final version, though)
  - Split to three columns now instead of the previous four and also added new tooltips
  

Bug fixes 🤞🏽

• Settlement Slave/Mounts sell, also Banter misdirects to the Chart fixed
  
• Dream event script fixed
  
• Fixed disappearing proficiency points on deputy skills
  
• Price tooltip resets when all goods are sold
  
• 'Location ?' bug on the 'Load game' screen fixed
  
• POTW Chapter 9 autosave occasional load-back issue resolved
  
• A number of typos and event script errors fixed
  
• Tooltip improvements
  
• Various smaller fixes
  

Known issues

• Gear & Status bonuses will be added back to the Companion and Leader Perk UIs
  
• Scouting result crash - unable to reproduce
  
• One combat decal crash - unable to reproduce
  

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

Now that we have released Flee, we are moving on to design and implement Companion Progression, which will move the cap on companion Prowess to five from the current two and bring along new combat traits to increase companion stats. It already looks and feels awesome, we think.
We are also changing our approach to content releases and instead of very rare big drops, we plan to open up new campaign map areas in smaller chunks. The first one will most likely be the salt basins above Mines of Plenty, including Salum, the headquarters of the Scythichnis Covenant and the Auguros Work Camp of the Empire.

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

P.s.: We are still receiving a high number of messages, bug reports, and improvement ideas via the various channels so we might not able to respond to everyone but we're trying our best. ✌️

We have always planned a fairly elaborate system of healing mechanics but when creating 'Pilgrims of the Wasteland', we first focused on getting the main features ready and implemented a more streamlined, placeholder set of healing rules.

Out with the Old

The PotW system simply had you use a relatively valuable resource - medical supplies - to fully heal one Companion at a time during camp. This is not only too 'gamey' but also very obtuse and not what we intended for the game or the setting.

The old healing system did have hidden statuses, however they were not used for anything really:

• Hurt: Received after losing 50% Vitality, limits Maximum VIT to 80% until removed.
  
• Wounded: Received after Downed, limits Maximum VIT to 60% until removed.
  
• Mortally Wounded: Received after falling Out of Action, limits Maximum VIT to 30% until removed.
  

In spite of these elaborate statuses, healing remained the same: the use of a medical supplies item healed Companions up to their Maximum VIT right away.

In with the New

When Crew Combat was added, we implemented an elaborate system that was used to heal up your wounded Crew and Companions at the end of each skirmish. It was based on rolls stemming from the Healing Perk. Now that we decided to rework Companion healing, we basically use the same principles for natural healing.

During camping, you roll for natural healing for each Companion that is not at Maximum VIT. The heal roll chance comes together from the following factors:

• Major impact from Heal Perk levels (from Companions, the vagrus, gear, etc.)
  
• Minor impact from Herb Lore Perk levels
  
• Major impact from settlement accommodation if any (second or third Rest tiers only)
  
• Major impact from taking it slow with the comitatus (spending less MPs before camping)
  
• And most importantly: from medical supplies (item) if you choose to use them
  

Even without many impacting factors, Companions recover VIT more often than not, except if the natural healing roll is a Critical Failure and in that case can even lose VIT but only until it reaches 1, so Companions can not die but their condition can worsen.

The statuses from the old system still exist, and if a Companion reaches the temporary limit (for example, 60% of Maximum VIT when Wounded), a successful natural healing roll removes the current status and applies the next 'higher' one (for example, a Wounded Companion then becomes Hurt). A Critical Success results in a two-stage jump.



Using Medical supplies provides a huge advantage, as it removes the status even if the Companion has not reached the associated temporary VIT limit. It also increases the chance of status improvement and VIT recovery greatly.

Previously, one full healing required one medical supplies item with a 100% result. Now, there is a chance on the result and hence these healing items can be lost or retained based on a chance with each usage. Normally, this depends on the roll, like treating a Wounded with a success roll has a 10% chance to use up the item, while rolling a fail increases that chance to 20%, and so on.

We implemented the natural healing part already but left the Event heal option in too for the time being, at least until the changes on the Camp UI can be implemented, allowing the players to decide on the usage of medical supplies each time they strike camp. This new system is much better-suited to what we were planning from the beginning, and is also more fair, although healing will be slower and so you'll have to think twice before jumping into combat too soon.

The Lost Pilgrims Team

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[h3]Hi Folks,[/h3]

Our EA release has been an emotional roller coaster on both sides. Most managed to hold on tight, some even got to the finishing line (took them ~50 hrs on average) but there were also many who fell out of the carts. Sorry about that.😬 Know that most of the root causes are bugs and not intended design.

[h3]Have we entered EA too early? - we asked ourselves. Well, Yes and No.[/h3]
In retrospect, parts of the game could have been much better balanced, some critical features should have been added before the release. On the other hand, we did not have enough fresh eyes and those areas were confirmed 'okay' by hundreds of veteran players who played on way harder versions than the current one (survivor bias). Considering that, it is great that we got a new wave of players and learned about those issues, so now we can focus on the right things. Truth be told, if we entered EA a few months later we would have developed a bunch of new stuff and jumped into the same hot water. It will get better, though, promise.👌

Time to dive into the list of immediate fixes we have applied.

[h2]Patch 0.5.14 - codename: Bandage[/h2]

• Almost all crash bugs fixed (still chasing one in the companion combat)
  
• A massive number of performance improvements
• Chapter 9 autosave added at PotW climax combat sequence
  
• Trade Tasks a bit more profitable
• The bug that preventing low-level Trade Tasks generation resolved
  
• Another bug hindering Trade Tasks generation in general fixed
  
• Crew combat strength calculation corrected
  
• Crew combat difficulty introduced slower (The true answer will be 'Flee', though)
  
• Random Crew combat on Point of Interest nodes bug resolved
  
• Scouting into multiple directions costs less Resourcefulness
  
• Scouting Movement Point cost got a little cheaper too
  
• The tax percentage reduced on non-cargo valuables in the generic Road Tax event
  
• Imperial 'wanted criminal' status increases slower but still can get locked out of Tor'Zag
  
• Fixed the issue where companion recruitment events could be repeated
  
• Companion loyalty losses in events and due to game mechanics reduced a bit
  
• The bug that caused permanent Resourcefulness loss resolved (for the future only)
  
• Some wide-screen problems (like chat-heads covering text, etc.) solved
  
• Brand new GFX setting boost performance
• V-sync option now properly saved
  
• Music loop time setting added
  
• Corrected the sound balance (it was accidentally heavy on the right channel)
  
• A metric ton of typos and event script errors fixed
  
• Tooltip improvements
  

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

From next week we will start to design and implement the Flee option in Crew Combat, also diminishing returns on Evade and Block in Companion combat to stack against RNG better. We are hoping to roll these out too within a few weeks.
After delivering those two and some smaller improvements, we plan to focus on bigger tickets, like Faction Rewards, Companion Progression, and more.

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

P.s.: We are flooded with messages, bug reports, and improvement ideas sent to us via the various channels so we might not able to respond to everyone but we're trying our best. ✌️

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Thanks to all the insights you have shared with us during Vagrus' Open Access period, the game has grown and improved massively in the last twelve months. We are proud to share that we kick off our Early Access journey with over fifty hours of available content that we look to expand further during our EA period, which is expected to last until the eventual full release sometime in 2021.

We have come very far but if you dive in for the first time and play the current build, please keep in mind that the game is in no way finished yet - see bugs and less polished areas for what they are: potential to make the game even better. Your help by reporting those using our in-game tool (F1) and sharing your experiences on our Discord server (discord.gg/vagrus) will continue to be the key for learning about and prioritizing focus areas in our development process.

Check out our game and if you like it, spread the word, and don’t forget to leave a review on its store page!

The Lost Pilgrims Team
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Wanna get the game 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!

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The time is upon us! As we have previously announced, a permanent version of Vagrus' free Demo has finally landed on Steam today (July 10) following its success on the Steam Summer Event, released as a separate application here on Steam called Vagrus - The Riven Realms: Prologue.

You will probably be pleased to know that this incarnation of the demo has a small set of achievements you can complete, too.



The Prologue is made up of two parts:

• The first section of the standalone story 'Pilgrims of the Wasteland', which is also the tutorial of the game.
  
• A taste of the Open-World main campaign with character creation and the first five turns to play.
  

The Demo has about 2-3 hours of playable content (depending on playstyle), and it is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

To help us and the game, consider writing a review about the Prologue on Steam and recommend the game to your friends!

Please bear in mind that the Prologue is a Demo of an Early Acces game. Some aspects are still being polished. You may find our disclaimer here, and we appreciate you submitting bugs and ideas on this thread here.

The Lost Pilgrims Team

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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