Vagrus - The Riven Realms News

• Milestone 3 - Extended Narration Voice Over for Agos
  
• Milestone 7 - Character Idle Animations in Companion Combat
  
• Milestone 8 - Enduring Effects (it means curses, of course)
  
• Milestone 9 - Random Passengers, and
  
• Milestone 12 - Workforce Mechanics (partially).

The have been or will be game design posts about all but one: narration so let's focus on that for a second.

New Content: Extended Narration
It has taken much longer than expected to reach Charles - the voice of Agos the Wanderer - due to some personal matters as well as his change of career. We are happy to share that now we have all the narration recorded for Agos through-out Pilgrims of the Wasteland, and even for the beginning of the main game as he leaves your comitatus after sharing his story. We plan to make a few minor sound editing changes to these new recordings but wanted to delay this build no further, so we will do that in a subsequent iteration only. When playing the PotW story, it gives so much to it already that we think you will like this a lot. Also, here's a shout-out for Charles' new focus as he instructs singers on how to become more confident. Check out and sign up to support his Patreon page if you are interested.



So, with that happy image of Charles, let's recap everything in our Patch notes. Well, actually...before jumping into the details of the patch, we would like to ask you guys to lend us a hand with something. We use a tool called Airtable and we outgrew their free plan so we need to pay for it in hard coin (~hundred bucks/year/user) going forward. They have a referral program, though, which grants us $10 credit for each new sign-up coming through our: referral link (it costs you nothing).

We do believe it's a great tool that you may even make use of but that is not actually needed, just to register in case you wanted to help with footing the bill this way; which also means we, instead, can spend that money on even more and better content. Yay! 🎉 Thanks in advance! 🖤



Behind the Scenes :construction:
- Upgraded to Unity 2019.2 - enabling the efficient animation of character variations 🎉
- Property system implemented - allowing us to add a whole heap of mechanics later on 🧰

New Features :eyes:
- Combat Idle Animations added 🤺 (some may not be final)
- Enduring Effects system used for Sergorod's Blessing 💢 & Mushroom Rot in Pilgrims of the Wasteland (& many more to come in the main campaign)
- Crew Pane UI changes to accommodate adding Enduring Effects (&more to come :wink: )
- Random Passengers now appear (sometimes) in the settlement mansios 👥
- Random Settlement conditions also added but will only come into play in the main campaign 🏛️
- Workforce Mechanics now requires you to have enough workers/slaves to tend to your comitatus. Otherwise, your Movement gets severely hindered. :muscle:
- Goods tooltips now show some price info ⚖️

New / Updated Content :gift:
- Narration voice over through-out the complete Pilgrims of the Wasteland story 👴 🗩
- An additional random event on the wasteland 🏜️ :scroll:

Bug Fixes 🛠️
- Inspire leader skill now grants its buff immediately (as intended)
- Re-engineered how Movement Points are calculated (players should not notice much other than it now calculates correctly)
- Tutorial box tweaks for 16:10 screens
- Passenger count indicated properly even if they come through events
- Various small equipment effect fixes
- Nodes in reachable distance shown correctly while scouting
- Enemy character sheet available only during the player's turns

Coming up next 📈
- MS 6: Crew combat ⚔️🛡️:skull:
- MS 10: Chart Exploration 🗺️:eyes:
- MS 11: Companion Select during Events 🧙‍♂️🧝🏿‍♀️
- MS 13: Hidden Stash and Smuggling Contraband 🌿⚠️
- MS 14: Unrest and Obedience Mechanics :triumph:⛓️

The Lost Pilgrims Team

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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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As the new Trading system was shaping up for Milestone 5 alongside the emergence in our storylines of some of the less lawful factions (such as the Loader's Guild), we figured we would need a sub-system for smuggling goods as it makes sense that these organizations would be willing to hire a vagrus to do just that.

The key to this are the comitatus equipment called Hidden Stash and the contraband property of certain goods. These goods are either monopolized by the Empire or some kind of organization or are outlawed completely. Good examples of the former are Obsidian Blades (Imperial Trading Houses have a monopoly on them) while Dragonbone is for the latter. Whichever the type is, goods such as these are contraband, and if you have any of them in your cargo hold, guards in major cities will stop you and confiscate it at the gates unless you can pass a difficult test of hiding it.

Unless you have them stashed away in your Hidden Stash, of course. When equipped, it converts some of your cargo hold into a stash that can be used normally, except that contraband put in it is disregarded by checks and guards. Alternative smuggling methods include bribing the guards or having connections in the criminal underworld or Imperial organizations or Churches (though these inevitably lower your reputation with said factions). Once smuggled into town, contraband goods have to be sold to the right people, too, so there are still further considerations.

We are also looking into adding different ways contraband will work with different powers (such as Tarkian cities, the Dragonlands, and so on) later on, as well as adding specific faction Tasks that ask you to smuggle certain things into faraway cities. So if you are interested in risking smuggling, it could become a viable option for your comitatus.

The Lost Pilgrims Team
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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!

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

In short: GameDevDays was phenomenal. The speakers and the community made it an absolutely amazing experience for us.

It started off a little rough considering that we could not borrow a reasonable size car for the trip to Graz and with all the tech equipment we needed to bring along it was a miracle that everyone could squeeze in. In the end we did get there even if a bit cramped. The next hoop we needed to jump was a mix-up with our accommodation (someone was already in the room we booked :O ) but eventually we solved that, too.

From then on, our trip just became better and better. The organizers of the show were helpful and easy-going, the venue was really cool for the size of the event, and then there were the speeches. It would be hard to list all of them, but our favorite two were probably Josh Sawyer (Obsidian) and Marta Fijak (11 Bit Studios).

The visitors who played Vagrus all praised its art, music, story, and enjoyed it so much that one guy that they often ended up playing for hours on end. Someone managed to establish a new record: he played for three hours straight. On the second day we had to put an additional laptop to work so more people could try the game without waiting for long.

The greatest moment of course was when RPG dev legend Josh Sawyer came to our table and played the game himself.



As the lead designer of many great RPG titles (Neverwinter Nights 2, Pillars of Eternity I-II, Fallout: New Vegas), Josh is a role model for us and his works are very important sources of inspiration, so him playing Vagrus and talking about RPGs was a dream come true. Our team was beaming when he joined us for a team photo, too (see the header image of this post).

The conference was an eye-opening experience from a community perspective as well. With support from the city of Graz and Technical University Graz but mostly thanks to the many dedicated organizers and volunteers from the gaming community, this event felt like everyone knew each other and looked at each other as friends. We listened to the local GamedevTunes orchestra with awe at the opening of the event and at the closing night-out, not only because they were awesome but because having a group so enthusiastic to practice and play on stage game soundtrack tributes from within an already small game developer subculture was almost unbelievable.



All in all, we had a great time in Graz and felt that we met more enthusiastic Vagrus fans than at any gameshow before. We would not be surprised to find ourselves attending GameDevDays Graz on future occasions as well.

The Lost Pilgrims Team
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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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For the last couple of weeks, Szonja has been busy animating our idle characters after we had finally managed to settle on a process. There are still a lot of things to test and work out but after the first few prototypes we came to several important conclusions.
For instance, we decided to have two distinct types of idle combat animations. One would be a very simple 'breathing' anim that is the default one for characters, in an endless loop. The other is a more pronounced movement that sometimes breaks up the more monotonous breathing one. A good example is when Javek fiddles with his goatee or when Gor'Goro brandishes his axe and stomps on the ground. We may even end up using the latter type for character activations in combat.

But for the time being enjoy these gifs that provide a glimpse into the future for our Companion combat idles.

The Lost Pilgrims Team
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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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We are actively working on what we call Enduring Effects for the game. What are these? Well, in short and to put it simply, these are all buffs and debuffs that last for several in-game days or are permanent (until removed somehow). They come in a variety of types and can be used for a lot of things to enhance gameplay and narrative alike.

Challenges and Results

The challenges of implementing such a system are more complex than one would think simply based on how they are supposed to work. We had to create a property system and make it compatible with a huge number of stats and attributes across a variety of in-game entities. Though it involved some heavy lifting (mainly from coding) and it is almost impossible to demonstrate, we are very satisfied with the results. The goal was to have a system that allows content creators to go wild and expand indefinitely, to keep adding stuff wherever the story or the gameplay requires it.

Enduring Effect Types

Apart from the simple distinction of positive and negative effects (that aid and hinder the player, respectively) we identify a number of parameters that set Enduring Effects (EEs) apart into neat little categories.

Leader: This type of EE affects your character, the vagrus. Typically it'll modify stats like Resourcefulness (or making certain Leadership Skills cheaper or more expensive), or alter Perks your character might have.

A good example is Inspiration, which raises the maximum Resourcefulness temporarily, or Blessing of Bal Ur Kaal, which raises the level of social Perks like Charismatic, Con, and Persuade.

Crew: EEs of this kind affect your crew and only your crew (meaning they don't affect Companions for example or your character). Crew-related stats are typically altered by these, such as Vigor or Morale.

Examples include Favor of Irafons, which gives MP to your comitatus, or Hangover, which lowers maximum Vigor for a day.

Companion: This type of EE affects a specific Companion or all of them. Since these characters have a wide range of abilities, combat skills, and Perks, these EEs tend to be complicated more often than not.

The Blessing of Sergorod, for example, gives a Companion some Accuracy and Critical Hit boosts, while the Wrath of Sergorod makes it so that enemies are more accurate and score criticals more often against your cursed Companion.

Comitatus: EEs that effect your whole comitatus can be more complex, modifying a wider variety of stats and mechanics. They tend to have a Companion-related EE counterpart that is automatically assigned when the parent EE is assigned.

Black Rot, for instance, is a dreadful disease that is very contagious. When your comitatus receives this EE, it is transferred to all Companions currently in your employ as well - and keeps killing your crew and Companions until you can rid yourself of the horrid sickness.

Disdain of Ahskul affects the whole comitatus, making it more common that Undead show up as random encounters as well as buffing Undead type enemies against you.

Hope this allowed a little glance into what goes on behind the scenes and gives you all an idea of what to expect from this feature package. Next up, we'll probably talk about animation. See you around, dear Follower!

The Lost Pilgrim team

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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 | Website | Youtube | Twitter | FacebookInstagram | Patreon | Discord