Vagrus - The Riven Realms News

[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
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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!

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[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.

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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

[h3]Hello All,[/h3]

As it has become standard since the release of Vagrus, the team has been hard at work on another much-requested update – this time it’s scouting we’re addressing. Players have been expressing their concerns about the state of scouting for some time now, and we’re happy to announce that we think we have managed to bring it 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 out traversing the wasteland.

The end goal of these changes is indeed quite similar to our aims with the recent hunting, foraging, and marching changes – adding player agency. We consider agency to be a central design philosophy at the core of all these changes and we intend to continue iterating on both present and future updates with this in mind. For now, the changes outlined below are still in the works and not reflected in the game just yet.

Manual Scouting

So, let’s delve into the specifics of manual scouting first. Previously, players had to choose which nodes they wanted to check, allocating scouts appropriately. Now, manual scouting instead uses your general surrounding area, which can be expanded greatly if you have enough scouts at your disposal. Covering the same amount of surrounding terrain will inherently cost more if you have a smaller number of scouts, and less if you have more scouts. Let’s illustrate with a few examples. In the image below, the player is about to scout the surrounding area.



In the next example (below), the player has many more scouts to utilize, and thus, not only is the movement cost reduced, but the distance available is far, far greater.



Examining these two examples, the question quickly becomes “well, how much is it possible to cover?” And the answer is: a lot. It will cost you dearly – in more ways than one – but 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. Here is an example of a much larger area covered, shown near the outskirts of Deven.



It is also important to note that the more distance covered, the lower the chance of success becomes in general. Another large change we’ve made to manual scouting relates to the use of Resourcefulness. Vagri may now use Resourcefulness to guarantee success in one of the four categories shown above, which can be especially useful if you absolutely need to know specific results, regardless of actually failing or succeeding.

Manual Scouting Results

When you receive your scouting results, each node will be flagged by a small banner that corresponds to an item on the scouting result list.

Below is an example of this flagging, in an instance where a large number of scouts were sent out to explore many nodes surrounding the comitatus, and where Resourcefulness was used to guarantee the success of finding Events. Looking closely, both failure and success can be seen at different nodes, but because the search for Events was bolstered, those results show even on the nodes where that failure occurred, or, specifically, nodes 54 and 59.



Additionally, from now on, when scouting in general, the results shall remain for three in-game days (or turns, gameplay-wise) on the campaign map. This allows players to plan their trips around areas that they had already scouted, consequently maximizing their returns on scouting endeavors. Simply mouse over the previously scouted nodes before the three days expire, and you can check those results again, as shown below:



Having now covered the overhaul to manual scouting, let’s do a deep dive into our newest feature: Auto-scouting.

Auto-Scouting

Auto-scouting allows you to scout ahead of your comitatus without spending movement points. The main trade-off of doing so is that your chances of success are significantly reduced when compared to manual scouting, which also means that you may lose scouts more frequently while doing so.

There are also two modes you can switch between – one where you simply scout the terrain directly in front of your comitatus’s current trajectory, and one where you cover adjacent nodes, too. The former is represented by the highlighted rightward arrow shown below on the UI, while the latter is depicted by the three multiple arrows which branch outward:



In this situation, the comitatus is set to scout everything on its path, and to stop automatically when a node has a base hunting and foraging chance of 45% or higher, along with an average yield of 245 Supplies. Other conditions can be set, too, one merely needs to toggle between the other options here: the axe represents conditions set for Crew Combat encounters, while the scroll represents conditions that can be set to stop in the case of Events or Mercenary Tasks scouted.

Auto-Scouting 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. Results will then be shown in a list as below:



The path scouted is also represented to the left of the list, displayed as an orange line on the campaign map. The results of each node and its corresponding number (shown as 11-15 here) remain visible for three in-game days (or turns, gameplay-wise), which means that charting your return journey from a settlement can prove to be a very fruitful endeavor indeed.

Now let’s look at a few more examples, this time using the second mode of auto-scouting through which your comitatus scouts the surrounding terrain. In the below example, ‘Ventures’ (meaning Events and Tasks) are the conditions through which the caravan stops automatically, set at a minimum of 15% on nearby scouted nodes:



Two things become apparent from this example – firstly, your chance of success drops dramatically when scouting both forward and adjacent nodes, and secondly, when you set conditions such as these your comitatus will stop less frequently because of auto-scouting. This is because it is generally harder to scout for Events than nodes that are ripe for hunting and foraging. Let’s take a look at the results in this instance:



In this final example, we can see both the nodes already scouted (denoted by the orange coloring) and an Event that was scouted and is now shown by the emblem with ‘89’ next to it. As it turns out, this node has a 100% chance to trigger an Event – this is because it is a fixed Event. What’s most important, however, is that Auto-scouting allowed the vagrus to see the Event before moving forward onto it, thus giving them a moment to consider how they might prepare for such a situation.

Along with Manual scouting, which is great for feeling out a larger area all around the comitatus as well as looking for something specific in a given region, Auto-scouting, which is great for finding opportunities along a journey, is the final piece of the puzzle that reworks campaign map movement and scouting into a newer, sleeker system. We are looking forward to hearing from our community about both Manual and Auto-scouting and hope that it opens new avenues to exciting gameplay.

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

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

Our team at Lost Pilgrims Studio is delighted to announce that we have been chosen for an ongoing event this week, which aims to showcase some of the smallest studios and their indie games. Called the Tiny Teams Festival, the event is run by Yogscast and will be covered online through both Twitch and YouTube. Several streamers who are involved in the event have requested keys to play Vagrus – The Riven Realms and naturally, we’re happy to comply. You can check out those streamers below:

• Hylian Fiend: https://twitch.tv/hylian_fiend
• Shambugi: https://twitch.tv/shambugi
• Pagrax: https://twitch.tv/pagrax
• Freyn: https://twitch.tv/freyn

Coverage is also provided through Yogscast’s main channels (these links are not yet live, but will be when the event has begun):

• http://youtube.com/yogscast
• http://twitch.tv/yogscast

Additionally, you can check out all the other games involved in the festival here. We have also decided to offer a twenty percent discount on our Centurion Edition during this time, though only until the festival is over. So, if there’s a friend you’d like to recommend the game to, or you simply want the most of Vagrus, you can visit our Steam store page for more information here.

There’s a lot more to come in the next few weeks for Vagrus, and we can’t wait to share it. Of particular note, we are now testing our next DLC – Seekers of Knowledge. This DLC will be free to those who own Vagrus – The Riven Realms, and we hope that it is merely the first in a chain of new pieces of content that we develop. For now, however, stay tuned, stay safe and conquer the wasteland!

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