Vagrus - The Riven Realms News

Today we celebrate the 1-year anniversary of the full release of Vagrus – The Riven Realms. We are happy to have reached this point, and perhaps most importantly, we couldn’t have done it without the help of our backers, supporters, and players along the way. So here’s to you, vagri, for all your encouragement, assistance, feedback, and goodwill! In this post, we’ll be taking a little bit of a trip down memory lane, from the beginning and creation of the game to its release exactly one year ago. We’ll finish up with a small glimpse into the future of Vagrus and what players can expect moving forward.

We first imparted our vision for Vagrus back in 2017, establishing Lost Pilgrims, with a small team of just four developers. We had and still have a love of games, strategy, and tabletop roleplaying, but when it all started, we might say that we were a little naive. Not because releasing a game we could all be proud of was impossible – indeed, where we stand now makes it more apparent than ever that it wasn’t. However, we were naive in that we did not fully comprehend the gargantuan task in front of us, nor the intensity with which we would have to work to create the game we wanted and promised to our backers. We’ve always said that the game is a labor of love, and that’s exactly what we needed to cross the finish line: love. Oh, and a lot of hard work, naturally!



Nevertheless, in July 2020 we released our first public build – an Early Access version of the game already featuring a ton of content. We continued to plod forward before eventually dropping a full release of the game on October 5, 2021. We were blown away by some of the critical reception to the game’s launch, some of the highlights (like being included in IndieDB’s PlayersChoice top ten), having the game covered by numerous high-profile media outlets, along with receiving a plethora of awards and nominations, most of which can be found on our Steam page for those interested.



All in all, we were greatly honored by the critical reception of the game, and by the wealth of positivity about it from many independent content creators on YouTube, such as SplatterCatGaming, who covers indie games extensively (and covered ours here). After the success of the game’s full release, we immediately set ourselves to the task of finding a new office, and to recruiting additional Lost Pilgrims. The process began with Ákos, a graphic and UX/UI designer. Then, in February, we took on Viktor and Beni as coders and programmers, and finally, in April, we welcomed James and Zeli to the team as new writers to be able to keep adding content in the long run.

We were also able to create various merch for the game provided to those who backed us on higher tiers or who purchased the Emperor’s Edition. While we were certainly elated to see what we had worked on brought to life in physical form, the process was far more daunting and difficult than we had anticipated. Regardless, you can take a look at merch here, and we’d also like to say that there are those who have still not claimed their goodies because we do not have their addresses; if that’s you, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us and we will send it along.



Moving forward now, let’s focus on what has happened since release. We have continued to improve the game, adding a slew of quality-of-life features such as custom notes, map movement UI reworks, a slew of Companion Combat improvements, and a complete overhaul of Scouting – as requested by the community on many occasions.

On the content side, we started out with Kingpins of the Realms: a sizable patch introducing new questlines for the Loaders’ and Carpenters’ guilds, then releasing our first free DLC with the new companion Vorax in May. More recently (last week) we released Seekers of Knowledge, our second free DLC and major content addition, which has further expanded the ways players can achieve victory in the game by acquiring Codex entries and working towards the Knowledge Ambition’s fulfillment. It is our hope that these pieces of content will pave the way for our next big DLC – a paid piece of content that we have just begun working on, and that will open up an entirely new region for vagri eager to continue or resume their journey in the Riven Realms! Provided that everything goes swimmingly when we can release this content next year, we have many more ideas for future additions to the game moving forward.



We hope you have enjoyed this little trip down memory lane, and a short glimpse into the future. We have a great deal more to speak about in the coming weeks, so – until then – stay tuned, stay safe and conquer the wasteland!

Stay tuned and conquer the wasteland!
- The Lost Pilgrims Team
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If you like Vagrus, please consider sharing our pages and posts with your friends through your favorite social media channel(s). It is much appreciated!

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

[h2]Update [Oct 3]: Redeployed after fixing the Event issue[/h2]

-------------- The Original Post ----------------------------------------------------------


[h3]Hey everyone,[/h3]

Thanks for the amazing welcome of the Seekers of Knowledge DLC and our patch published parallel with all kinds of improvements. Seeing so many new players and hundreds of old ones who picked up the game again made the whole team very happy, especially with the game’s full release anniversary coming up soon. Expect a post on the day from us with a summary of the first year.



So, with a content and code update of such size, there were indeed some issues that we needed to iron out. Thanks for everyone reporting them and sorry for the inconvenience they may have caused. This hotfix will make the game much more stable while we continue to work on further fixes, improvements, and who knows, we might even start on new content. ;)

And now, let's jump into the patch details:

Important Note: Considering the extent of the 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 inbuilt reporting tool (F1 button), forums, and our Discord server.

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[h2]Patch 1.1.251003L The Seekers of Knowledge - Hotfix II.[/h2]

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

• Game will no longer crash when ESC is spammed before an Event loads
  
• Crash while Finndurarth used Electrify to kill an Orc Marauder with Die Hard perk was fixed
  
• Fixed a crash related to the tutorial pins
  
• Icons are no longer multiplying when dragged repeatedly in the Cargo menu’s Owned Equipment section
  
• Crash involving Nedir’s Conflagration and a Wight’s Grave Call cast on the same position was fixed
  
• Texts and event choices are now fully visible in ultrawide resolutions
  
• Fixed a bug where in rare occasions, the game crashes when entering the first fight of Pilgrims of the Wasteland
  
• In case the comitatus moves via a camp/quick camp order, and the movement is interrupted by an Event, camp/quick camp will not come up automatically
  
• Various problems related to the comitatus having excess cargo were fixed
  
• Heat Shielding Crystal will no longer be unequipped automatically
  
• Fixed a bug where the game crashes during vagrus creation in rare instances
  
• Sedarias will start the second PotW fight in Block mode as originally intended
  
• Fixed a bug where the game crashes if an Event comes up after camping in rare instances
  

Currently Known Issues:

• Escort tasks-related anomalies
  
• Crew combat chance percentages are sometimes shown in reverse
  
• Some infrequent crashes are still being investigated
  

Stay tuned and conquer the wasteland!
- The Lost Pilgrims Team
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If you like Vagrus, please consider sharing our pages and posts with your friends through your favorite social media channel(s). It is much appreciated!

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

[h3]Hey everyone,[/h3]

This time, we've got a new free DLC for you, along with revamped Scouting, a Glossary to clarify gameplay mechanisms and UI elements, as well as major backend improvements. It would be no understatement to say that this is a huge stepping stone for us and the Riven Realms.



Before we get into anything, feel free to check out our highest-ever discounts as Vagrus - The Riven Realms is participating in the TactiCon sales between September 22nd and 26th.

Having already touched upon some elements that this patch will be covering, let’s get into the most important points and details.

[h3]Scouting Rework[/h3]

We think we have managed to enhance player agency by bringing Scouting to a place where it offers a great deal to those who are willing to make use of its more niche qualities while incorporating enough concrete drawbacks that it does not become a default or even mandatory choice for vagri traversing the wasteland. To support that, scouting results remain visible for three in-game days (or turns).



Manual Scouting is conducted in your general surrounding area, which can be expanded greatly if you have enough scouts at your disposal. Covering a large area can be a great way to find specific things you really need or want; for example, great hunting and foraging nodes, or combat encounters if you play an aggressive comitatus. It is also important to note that the more distance covered, the lower the chance of success becomes in general. Also, Vagri may now use Resourcefulness to guarantee success during manual scouting, which can be especially useful if you absolutely need to know specific results.



While out traversing the wasteland with Auto-scouting on, you are not prompted by results in the same way you are when you initiate Manual Scouting. Results that can be moused over will show on the campaign map, but to get a full overview, you will need to click the emblem in the top left corner. Contextual options allow you to set up rules about when to stop the comitatus if you want to investigate something you found along the way.

[h3]Glossary[/h3]

The Glossary does not contain story or lore content but rather it is aimed at clarifying game mechanisms and UI elements. It is accessible in the game by pressing ‘G’ or clicking on the eye icon in the top-right corner of the screen.



The Glossary is structured into seven main categories representing the main facets of Vagrus’s gameplay mechanics. These categories are Story, Combat, Comitatus, Factions, Trading, Settlements, and the Campaign Map. All of these have subcategories, which in turn have their own subcategories, making the Glossary appear in a three-tier structure. Thus, when you browse the Glossary, you can read more about a certain topic by navigating to subcategories, after which you can easily switch back to higher levels.

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Entries contain references to other entries of relevance. You can just click on a highlighted word or expression to navigate to its entry. There is also a search function that comes in handy when you know what you are looking for, but you’re not sure where to find it.

Please note that the Glossary is still very much in Beta; by no means do we consider it final. Therefore, we would appreciate your feedback so that we can improve its usefulness to players (the easiest way to provide feedback is always our discord server or via the bug-reporting in-game tool).

[h3]Seekers of Knowledge Free DLC[/h3]
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We are also releasing our second free DLC – Seekers of Knowledge! With it, we are aiming to enrich the already vast playable realm and to further add to the victory paths available to players. The DLC introduces the Sunken Tower, a massive new dungeon and the focal point of the release’s new stories.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2079340/
Once known as the Tower of Akarius, the Sunken Tower was home to a host of esteemed Elven, Human, and Dwarven scholars – all of whom worked tirelessly toward the unified pursuit of knowledge. Millennia have passed since that time, however, and due to the Calamity, the Tower now wrestles with a different fate. A fate where its once proud denizens languish in the recesses of its hallowed halls, seeking respite, unable to escape the terrible curse that has beset the place.

This free DLC introduces a variety of new enemies, NPCs, quests, and the new Knowledge Ambition, which tasks the player with amassing and uncovering all kinds of knowledge to achieve victory. The quest encompasses a story that will inevitably see vagri descend into the darkest depths of forbidden knowledge and madness-inducing truths that are best left forgotten.

A bit of a designer's note (or notes, we should say) for Seekers of Knowledge and how to play it:

[h3]The points below are not really spoilers but do NOT read more if you want to go in completely blind.
[/h3]

1. Although you can switch to the new Knowledge Ambition from Freeplay in an existing playthrough since it takes quite a lot of time to complete the new Ambition, you might be hard-pressed to complete it in the allotted time limit in an advanced playthrough. Thus, consider a new playthrough in this case if you care about achieving victory this way.
   
2. lso, because exploring the Tower completely is a long affair as well as a difficult one, it behooves vagri to stretch the related questline for a whole playthrough and not try to do a lot in one visit to the place. Space it out. This might be intuitive to some players, less so for others, but the intent was to explore the Tower in bursts and then return to other stuff, go back to the Tower, explore some more, etc.
   
3. Because it is not entirely evident where the quest begins, here's a little pointer: Those who seek knowledge should look for books and those who peddle them.

For more on this, hit up the spoiler channel on our Discord server if you wish and ask! Some preview build testers can point you in the right direction.

And now, let's jump into the patch details:

Important Note: Considering the extent of the 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 inbuilt reporting tool (F1 button), forums, and our Discord server.

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[h2]Patch 1.1.25 - Codename: Seekers[/h2]

[h3] Seekers of Knowledge Free DLC[/h3]

• The Sunken Tower can now be unlocked via questing
  
• A massive storyline centered around the Tower was added (it can be played through without doing the new Knowledge Ambition)
  
• The Tower is a massive dungeon that changes each time you enter - it can be explored bit by bit, unlocking more dangerous locations, secrets, and precious Insight
  
• A number of new enemies, Gear, and commercial Items were added to give the Tower its own challenges and rewards
  
• The Knowledge Ambition can be selected during vagrus creation or switched to from Freeplay
  

[h3]Content Update :gift:[/h3]

• A number of new opportunities added to obtain certain Codex entries to already existing locations and Events
  
• Two new achievements connected to the newly added questlines
  

[h3]New or Updated Features[/h3]

• Scouting update (new representation of results and a revamped Manual Scouting)
  
• Added the Auto-scouting feature
  
• Added the Glossary
  

[h3]Design Tweaks[/h3]

• The Renown Victory condition raised to 40 Renown to be more on par in terms of difficulty with Wealth and Knowledge Ambition victory conditions
  
• The Church of Sergorod is now the opponent of both the Ratharnak Alliance and the Scythichnis Covenant (and vice versa)
  
• Significant combat AI improvements (the game may have gotten harder)
  

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

• Added a new text template to the Gamelog
  
• New Prowess tooltip was added when there is insufficient Insight
  
• A new Prowess button has been implemented
  
• Companions now have 5 status lines instead of 4
  

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

• Finndurarth storyline crash was fixed
  
• The Block/Evade button becomes available in the Pilgrims of the Wasteland story only after its tutorial
  
• Companions are no longer falsely indicated as wounded
  
• Events that negatively effect Movement and Autocamp will now calculate MPs correctly
  
• Double position character markers form a single block now
  
• "Damage" text in Crew Combat Actions is no longer white
  
• The tutorial will recommend Aid instead of Inspire when there is a Downed Companion
  
• Goods tooltip will mention Price History only after Price History has been unlocked
  
• A lot of minor tutorial-related polishing
  
• The bottom choice box text is no longer obstructed in Events
  
• Fixed some cases where Companions occupied the same position in combat
  
• The long tooltip on the Factions tab has been fixed
  
• Event tests are no longer rigged massively in the players’ favor
  
• Dragonlands-related Points of Interest (POIs) will not offer slaves as passengers
  
• The bug related to incorrect percentages shown for Odd Jobs has been fixed
  
• "Due to" Game log text will not be displayed twice
  
• Skills with self-targeting phase in the Combat Log have been fixed
  
• Players can no longer receive Yrg beasts through crew combat but will receive Supplies instead
  
• Various settlement background art-related bugs fixed
  
• A large number of mistakes, typos, and issues with texts all across the board were corrected
  

[h2]What’s Coming Up Next[/h2]

• Optimization to Steam Deck and other tablets
  
• Controller support
  

Currently Known Issues:

• Escort tasks-related anomalies
  
• Crew combat chance percentages are sometimes shown in reverse
  

Since we are adding a massive amount of content, revamping Scouting, and changing backend technology by implementing Unity addressables, there are bound to be issues that neither we nor our testers realized or flagged, so we will be taking all feedback sent by next Monday and address serious issues in a hotfix the same week.

Stay tuned and conquer the wasteland!
- The Lost Pilgrims Team
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you like Vagrus, please consider sharing our pages and posts with your friends through your favorite social media channel(s). It is much appreciated!

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

[h3]Hey everyone,[/h3]

Great news, vagri: after testing our new content as much as possible, we can now put down a release date for what will be our second free DLC – Seekers of Knowledge. That’s right; mark your calendars, because Seekers of Knowledge will be dropping on the 22nd of September.

With this DLC we are aiming to enrich the already vast playable realm and to further add to the victory paths already available to players. The DLC itself unlocks a variety of extensive questlines and introduces the Sunken Tower; a massive new dungeon and the focal point of the release’s new, unique stories.

Once known as the Tower of Akarius, the Sunken Tower was home to a host of esteemed Elves, Humans, and Dwarves – all of whom worked tirelessly toward the unified pursuit of knowledge. Millennia have passed since that time, however, and thanks to the Calamity, the Tower now wrestles with a different fate. A fate where its once proud denizens languish in the recesses of its hallowed halls, seeking respite, unable to escape the terrible power that has beset the place.

Along with the Sunken Tower, this DLC introduces a variety of new enemies, NPCs, quests, and the new Knowledge Ambition questline, which tasks the player with amassing and uncovering all kinds of knowledge to achieve victory. The quest itself encompasses one of the largest stories yet to be told in the Riven Realms – a story that will inevitably see vagri descend into the darkest depths of forbidden knowledge and madness-inducing truths that are best left forgotten.

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 help to make the game's launch successful so we can keep expanding and improving it? 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]

Revamping campaign map movement and scouting into a sleeker system finally allowed us to move on to other things our players have expressed the need for. First off, many of you wanted more information and clarity on gameplay mechanics to be able to better understand its complexity – rightly so. That is why we are publishing a Beta version of the new Glossary.

The Glossary
This feature doesn’t contain story or lore content, but is aimed at clarifying game mechanisms and UI segments. It is accessible in the game by pressing ‘G’ or clicking on the eye icon in the top-right corner of the screen.



The Glossary is structured into seven main categories representing the main facets of Vagrus’s gameplay mechanics. These categories are Story, Combat, Comitatus, Factions, Trading, Settlements, and Campaign Map. All of these have subcategories, which in turn have their own subcategories, making the Glossary appear in a three-tier structure. Thus, when you browse the Glossary, you can read more about a certain topic by navigating to subcategories, after which you can easily get back to higher levels.

[previewyoutube]<>[/previewyoutube]
Furthermore, entries contain references to other entries of relevance. You can just click on a highlighted word or expression to navigate to its entry. There is also a search function that comes in handy when you know what you are looking for, but you’re not sure where to find it.
As stated above, the Glossary is still very much in Beta; by no means do we consider it final. Therefore, we would appreciate your feedback so that we can improve its usefulness to players (the easiest way to provide feedback is always our discord server or via the bug-reporting in-game tool).

Unity Addressables
There is something else we have been spending a lot of time on, and probably most of our players won’t even realize its outcome. It is about the Unity Addressables function. Essentially, it assigns keys to assets (most prominently art), acting as a reference ID, enabling us to move art assets out of the so-called Resources folder in Unity. The primary purpose of using Addressables is for game assets not to take up memory when they are not being used, only when they are.



This is because the way it used to be was sub-optimal and hindered the porting of the game to Android and iOS. Doing things this new way will allow the game will run more smoothly on more low-end PCs and eventually, on smaller devices, such as tablets. In practice, this means that location arts in settlements and events or combat backgrounds along with all character assets including animations, icons, and portrays are now treated as addressables, which required a lot of restructuring.

We have been working on this for almost two months along with other tasks and we dare say we are more than content with the outcome. This way, we managed to reduce the initial loading time, the game’s memory usage, and the installed game itself is now 3.4 GBs instead of the 4.6 GBs it used to be.

We are definitely planning to pursue further optimization not only in this direction but also to achieve a more enjoyable gameplay experience on smaller displays. Furthermore, we are going to explore the possibility to add controller support benefiting devices such as Steam Deck – or eventually other consoles as well.

With all that said, we are gearing up for the next (free!) content DLC, Seekers of Knowledge. More on that very soon. Until then, stay tuned and conquer the wasteland!

That’s all for today, so for now – stay tuned, stay safe, and 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 help to make the game's launch successful so we can keep expanding and improving it? 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