Vagrus - The Riven Realms News

Have you played the previous Open Access build of Vagrus? Or are you considering just now to dip your feet into the deep lore of the Riven Realms for the first time? 
Visit our crowdfunding campaign and you can jump right in with some pretty neat improvements (via Discord).



Truth be told, we got trigger happy. We went further and deeper with some of the changes than we originally planned to, thinking that preparing the system for future features and enhancement will make our job easier later on and it would not impact our delivery timelines much. The first part we still stand by but the second... we were, well, a bit naive. We pulled ourselves into complexities we did not consider, game design decisions we thought to make only later on, not to mention testing and retesting every little thing. Especially the Journal part, which has already been an integral part of the game, proved troublesome to revamp. With all the changes, the hardest part was making the save files compatible backwards. We knew we would break the system - on purpose - we just did not expect to break it this much - not on purpose. Well, that and the untimely sickness grabbing our coder lead resulted in quite a bit of delay. We learnt from it though: gotta keep biting smaller chunks so we could keep up the pace of updates we would like to give you folks.

With the first two milestones delivered in this patch, we are going to start working on Scouting next. Mock-ups are ready; we've given it quite some thought, so we are fairly confident to deliver it in the indicated timeline.


We have been invited to showcase Vagrus at Dreamhack Summer between June 15-17, so if you are coming too, don't forget to drop by our booth and say hello.

But back to the present. Here's the list of changes. Let's call it:

Behind the Scenes 🚧

• Revamped the complete Journal engine to prepare the module for new features
  
• Relocated Passengers and Rumors between databases to allow expanding their use in the future
  
• Companion combat deployment logic upgraded to have more control over deployment restrictions (aka: so the Narrative designers could make things even harder for you 💀)
  

New Features / Content

• Delivering News 📜: from now on you can carry news between settlements, and trade with them at the Mansio
• Eight combat backgrounds refreshed 🎨
  
• New location art for Avernum 👀
  

User Interface Changes

• Divided the Journal 📖 tabs into Objectives, Qualities, Rumors, News, and Tasks (which is currently limited to Passengers) [includes a new UI art asset]
  
• Combat deployment ⚔️ icons added to indicate who can/can not/must be deployed, is locked to a position and/or wounded
  
• New/Improved Tool-tips and Tutorials for the above features
  

Bug Fixes

• Companion healing camp event now only displays wounded companions
  
• A number of event tweaks
  

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🎉 Our crowdfunding campaign is LIVE ▶️Get instant access to the Alpha build at Fig

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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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Instagram | Patreon | Discord

The soundtrack of Vagrus is of key importance in conveying the powerful atmosphere of the setting. Be it foreboding or hauntingly beautiful, the score by George Olah captures the essence of the ravaged world of the Riven Realms perfectly. Even more importantly, the majority of fans and influencers have told us that one of the most important parts of the Vagrus experience for them was the music.

Ever since we started working with George, we usually had him pour over the specific environment artwork and game world descriptions for each theme and together we listened to fantasy music that evokes the feeling we were looking for in that environment. With our tabletop RPG background, we were aiming for ambient, atmospheric music that goes well with each region of the game. Yet it was important for the environment tracks to be non-intrusive not to detract from the reading parts.

You can now get a taste of the main theme of the game above and listen to some other themes over at our SoundCloud page.


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🎉 Our crowdfunding campaign is LIVE ▶️Get instant access to the Alpha build at Fig

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

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!

Fig | Game Jolt  | Itchio  | IndieDB Website | Youtube | Twitter | Facebook 
Instagram | Patreon | Discord

Throughout your journeys as a vagrus, you will come across many people who want to get from one place to another on the broken continent of Xeryn. This might seem trivial but travel over the accursed wastelands of the Empire a perilous venture which makes most people try to avoid it whenever they can.

Those who that do undertake journeys often pay comitati such as yours to take them where they want to be. In-game, this provides an optional source of revenue to help you keep afloat but one that requires you to plan your path ahead considering several factors, including where your passengers wish to go and how long you have to deliver them there.

Passengers are available at mansios (and are randomized) or sometimes in events (where they are specific). You do not only have to feed them on the way but also have to protect them as attacking monster or outlaws can easily slay them. Mind you, some of them can even give you a hand in defending your comitatus (more on that later).

You can see the statistics of passengers related to crew on the Crew Pane, while other information can be observed in your Journal (redesigned to include a Passengers Page).

We feel this system adds another layer to planning and risks during travels in Vagrus, one which also has the potential to tell tiny stories of people who risk a lot by venturing forth with you.

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🎉 Our crowdfunding campaign is LIVE ▶️Get instant access to the Alpha build at Fig

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

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!

Fig | Game Jolt  | Itchio  | IndieDB Website | Youtube | Twitter | Facebook 
Instagram | Patreon | Discord

Just in a few days after launching the public phase of  our campaign we have passed five milestones already.

Thank you so much to all our Backers and supporters on social media! This would not have been possible without you!

So, let's take count of where we are and what comes next.





Last week was all about launching the public campaign but we also made some preparations to enable the development of Milestone 1-3, and now we can add Milestone 4 and 5 to the list, too.







We've already had fairly detailed plans, including mock-ups, for the Journal updates so we could start implementing those right away. So far the development seems to be progressing well. Beside adding the new features, we also need to break then reconnect some of the pieces. The reason for that is that in the new structure we're changing how and where we store certain data elements. Good examples would be Rumors and Passengers, both finding their new home in our data tables while before Rumors were recorded in our text editor and passengers were added directly in the code. We will also need to make some tutorial changes as multiple user interfaces are affected by this update.





This update includes two improvements:

1) We decided that the combat backgrounds needed some rework. Partly to make them visually more pleasing but also to harmonize their perspective (horizon, angles, etc.). We are also adding new combat backgrounds, some will come as extra into the stand-alone story *Pilgrims of the Wasteland*, while others you will only encounter in the main campaign. Producing art assets of course takes longer so we started to work on them soon after entering BackStage Pass. The good news is that not only are they ready but our artist working on them had time to create a brand new digital painting for Avernum, too. We felt we needed to do justice to that great city.



2) The redesign of our Companion Combat deployment user interface - which we prioritized so high based on the feedback of our players, and our experiences during a recent GameShow we attended; a good percentage of players found it unclear which companions were deploy-able vs. fixed already on the battlefield. With this change, though, we are also making preparations for future options, like indicating companions that must or must not be deployed, or the minimum / maximum number of companions to be involved in the given combat, and so on. We will start implementing this part soon after finishing the first Journal update, so while that is being tested we could add this.





We reached out to the voice actor who recorded all the lines for Agos the Wanderer in the past but have not heard back from him for over ten business days. It may not mean anything but we need to keep an eye on this. Based on his account updates - or rather the lack thereof - something may have prevented him from practicing his voice over service lately. Our preference and stance on the matter at this point is definitely to wait and keep trying to reach him but eventually we may need to consider recasting for Agos if we were not able to have him record the remainder of the narration for him. We will keep you posted on the subject but even until then feel free to let us know your views on whether to wait. Alternative voice actor recommendations are also welcome, just in case.





Have you felt during your Alpha build play-through how nice it would be to have some information about what you can expect on the nodes around you before committing to a direction with your *comitatus*? If yes, you will definitely like this feature. Scouting ahead will not only bring you intel about the events that may occur in a given location but also the likelihood of crew combat encounters ([Milestone 6](https://www.fig.co/campaigns/vagrus-the-riven-realms/milestones/14)). Of course, like everything in the game, this will come at a price: you will need to spend movement point (possibly Resourcefulness) and risk your scouts each time you send them out, making you weight the pros and cons of recon missions. Working on the coding and testing of this Scouting feature will come after the completion of Milestone 1, running parallel with the implementation of Milestone 2.







Trade Pricing System is a typical underdog feature: deploying it will involve no new shiny interface, it will just runs in the background, minding its own *business* (pun intended). Yet, it will have vital importance ensuring that hauling cargo between settlements would make sense financially. Well, if you take into account supply routes, actual demands and can deduct what some rumors might entail as to the prices of certain goods in given regions. The development of this feature will only come after on Milestone 4 so it for now just quietly stands in the queue waiting for its turn.







The next big thing. Having fighters and outriders in your crew might have given it away already that they would play an important role during your journeys across the wastelands of the continent. The feature that builds on them is crew combat. The design of this feature is in quite an early stage - we are in the process of prototyping our ideas. The main objective is very clear, though: we would like to give the option to players to get through random encounters using this feature instead of the slower companion combat. Players in most cases could pick between those two allowing them to build on their strengths. Of course, there will be many engagements where it is predefined which combat type - or even both - takes place.





Hope you are just as enthusiastic about our progress and upcoming milestone as we are. If so, help us pushing the campaign further with spreading the word about Vagrus. Start by sharing this post on your favorite social media channel. Post(s) with the highest Like/Upvote/etc. might earn the sharer some perks on our Discord server. ;)

Another crucial game mechanic that is being added to Vagrus as we are writing this is a system of Rumors. Rumors are short entries in your Journal that are meant to guide players to content and unlock locations on their Chart in order to help them plan journeys and find places. We have come to the conclusion during playtesting that not only do we need to differentiate these Rumor entries from your Objectives in the Journal but we also need to separate them entirely and move them to a different pane. As evident from this, Rumors have undergone quite a lot of change since their original conception.



Rumors can be found in Events sometimes or can be bought in settlements (in mansios, specifically) from a semi-randomly generated list. You will be able to discern from the list what each Rumor can grant you but not the specifics. We are still tweaking the way they generate but a certain randomness is going to play into it, so expect to rarely see the same set of Rumors in different playthroughs.



There are several types of Rumors we are planning to add:

Unlocks a Chart Item
This type of Rumor unlocks a settlement or point of interest location on your Chart. Apart from running into such places by wandering around, this is the only way to discover map locations.

Provides Information on a Storyline
This kind of Rumor points the player in the direction of a potential storyline or quest and gives hints on how to initiate it. Though the text is short, players may have to consult the Chart or explore a bit to find the exact place.

Provides Information on a Settlement
Information on a settlement's trade opportunities (what goods sell there for a good price), unique inhabitants, or important characters (such as the rare blacksmith or a powerful mage). Some of these might end up being generated to match the ebb and flow of markets around the Empire.

Gives Information on Encounters
These Rumors inform players about the dangers of a certain region or even provide hints on creatures and their habits that dwell there.

There might be other types added later but these four we would certainly like to appear in the game eventually.



In order to avoid keeping track of a huge amount of already obsolete Rumors, players will have the option to 'retire' a Rumor, that is, to move it into a searchable archive section of the Rumors list. This will be necessary to do from time to time for transparency's sake.

We feel that Rumors will play an important role in how players manage their goals and objectives, as well as in the way they explore the unknown and perilous reaches of the Riven Realms, so we will most definitely keep expanding on the concept as development goes along.

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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!

Fig | Game Jolt page | Itch.io page | IndieDB Website | Youtube | Twitter | Facebook 
Instagram | Patreon | Discord