This is a short news blog conveying our thoughts and plans for the near term updates to the game. We’ve continued to sift through the feedback and reports we’ve received since launch (there’s been quite a bit!). With a focus on improving the game, aside from general jank, we've received few enough complaints expressing various degrees of frustration with some of the content in the game, starting with the ambusher groups roaming the mountains.
Mountain Ambushes
Though we think the concept remains good, we admittedly missed the mark with its implementation and the idea wasn't properly conveyed to the player. The ambushers roam a very specific section of the mountains, leaving some areas more chill whereas in others the player's expected to be more on guard. The intention was that the player might try to pick their fights, and rather avoid and try to escape groups of enemies that posed too much of a threat.
Nothing particularly prepares the player for these encounters though; their functionality isn't explained anywhere, nor does anything else in the game work the same way. When players are attacked, they tend to instinctively try to fight their way out of it.
If the player succeeded in defeating them early on, the problem was only compounded, as that triggered higher level ambushers to attack next time with better drops. The increasing ambusher levels were more intended as an optional end game challenge, but they were also overtuned, with their levels increasing too quickly compared to how many kills were needed for the end game craftables. While some of you experts handled them fine regardless, they did also leave a fair few players at their wit's end.
So, with that said, we're exploring ways to rework the encounters entirely. At the moment we're leaning towards building a minigame around the ambushers, including a potential introductory quest, which would leave the ambushes much less frequent/intrusive while not active, i.e. while you're not trying to hunt for them.
During the challenge, you would gain increasingly better rewards based on how many groups you're able to take out in row, and it would contain conditions for failing the challenge (dying or fleeing from a fight), which would reset your current tally and roll back the ambusher levels.
Early Bandit Fortress
It seems to us that some players get themselves caught up in the bandit quests, unintentionally bee-lining to the bandit fort encounter before even progressing the main quest to the Mistywood. Since the fort was designed as slightly higher level content, players would often end up running into it under-leveled and under-equipped, leading to a frustrating experience. In a few instances it seems the player thought they were on the main quest and believed their progression to be blocked.
To address the issue, we're planning to add a potential extra step to be performed in Thornhill, unlocked further along the main quest line, which should naturally guide players to continue along that path and hopefully progress a bit in power and consumables, before attempting to fight through the bandit fortress.
Thornhill Trainers Unlock
For few enough players the requirement to access Thornhill Academy has been a pain point. For us, we perhaps somehow assumed that of course everyone would ultimately seek to improve all skills, but in reality there are lots of different ways people have shown up to enjoy the game, at different levels, ready to put it down at different points in the journey.
As such, the Thornhill Academy pre-requisite quest presents a frustrating roadblock to certain types of play. But the way the quest works, requiring the use of all the various skills, it can't easily be adjusted either. So we're leaning towards uncoupling the quest as a requirement to access the trainers, and instead you would automatically unlock each trainer as you progress in that particular skill.
The quest itself would stay as optional to complete for the other rewards it offers, for which we may come up with an additional few to make up for the removal of the trainer unlock.
Re-selecting trainer traits
It's been requested for a while, quite a while... Well, we've finally worked a solution to be able to switch between the trainer traits where a choice can be made. You will be able to simply select another trait in the trainer UI to switch between them for the cost of coins, to be rolled out into the game within the next patch.
Modding Enthusiasts
We've noticed some of you like to mod. While we're not in a position to offer proper modding support and tools, we'll try to make it easier to those of you that are technically minded. First and foremost we'll remove the code obfuscation and expose some data files to be more easily modifiable, such as items, shops, npcs, dialogue, quests and npc interactions.
With that, it should even be technically possible to make simple quests of your own.
New content?
At least one new content update is currently planned to be added into the game further along in spring. We see more room for new quests in the late game, 50-100 level ranges. At the moment we have no details to share on that though, but what medieval adventure doesn't have a good old dragon slayer quest...?
Well anyhow, these and other smaller issues are on our agenda as we move into the new year. With that, it's time to wish you the best of year 2025, and most importantly, happy gaming!
Regards, Pura
Bugfix
Fixed Evergreen Hearth log splitting requiring level 40 in Fishing instead of Woodsmanship
Content Update - The Evergreen Hearth
Happy Holidays, medieval adventurers!
We're a bit later than we would have liked, but nevermind that - we've just wrapped up an update, which brings to the game a new quest, tasks and crafting! This update is focused on adding new options when leveling skills in the ranges of 30-60. In addition, a whole new area is added onto the map, full of festive winter cheer.
Winterpine Forests and the Hearthlight Festival
The road leading northeast from the City of Thornhill now brings you to a trade station, where you can join a merchant caravan traveling to Winterpine Forests in the far northern reaches of the realm. The caravan parks just outside a cozy little village - the Evergreen Hearth - where the villagers are set to celebrate their traditional Hearthlight Festival.
The market stalls have quirky items on offer in exchange for festival tokens, which are gained by engaging with the villagers and their various tasks. Sometimes those task will take you out of the village into the frozen landscape of Winterpine Forest.
Upon arriving at the cozy village of Evergreen Hearth, you may pick up the new quest by visiting the village hall and speaking to the village matron, Madam Vinter. Though the village is busy getting into the festive spirit, out in the woods vile goblins have been gaining ground...
Honest working villagers are under constant threat of goblin skirmishes. If only there was a brave outlander who'd arrive to help the villagers drive back the goblin menace... And even then, will it be enough? For it may be that the goblins have discovered a terrifying source of power...
New Harvestables and Crafting
Out in the wilds of Winterpine Forest, you can come across new woodcutting and mining opportunities. You'll be able to acquire Coldstone Iron ore and Winterpine Logs, which can be used for relaxed experience gains for the smithing and crafting skills. The new land also offers options to progress tailoring via purchasing a special fabric with village festival tokens.
While these new materials fall into the 40-50 skill range, we've further added Bramblewood to be gathered at the swamps, and regular steel to be made from iron and coal at the 30-40 range. These materials also contain new sets of item recipes.
New Friends to be Made Along the Way!
During the goblin witchcraft quest you may befriend Woofy, the friendly snow wolf, and gain him as a follower. He's a good boy and he'll do his best to protect you against your enemies. Another follower you can acquire is the bewitched snowman, who mostly excels at being a menace...
Finally, there's a new player house to acquire, which you may decorate and use to relax with your friends in the serene frozen landscape.
With that, I wish you all happy holidays and - most importantly - happy gaming!
Below are more detailed patch notes for those who may be interested.
PATCH NOTES
Quests and Environment:
New environments: Winterpine Forests
New Quest: Wicked Goblin Witchcraft
6 new tasks
4 new related achievements in world tasks and questing categories
Monsters and foes:
Snow wolf
Elk
Goblin raiders, tricksters and mystics
The goblin witch
Lesser wind elementals
Great wind elemental
Followers:
Woofy the Snow Wolf
Bewitched Snowman
Player House:
Lakeside Sauna Hut
New Spells and Abilities:
Snowstorm at level 40 sorcery
Frozen Arrows
~40 new Items, but notably (in no particular order):
Winterpine Log
Coldstone Iron Ore
Coldstone Iron Ingot
Clearwater Salmon
Cooked Clearwater Salmon
Winterpine Fabric
Spellbook: Snowstorm
Spellbook: Evergreen Hearth Teleport
Ability Book: Frozen Arrows
Survivalist's Bandage
Elemental Crystal
Elk Hide
Hearthlight Festival Token
Winterpine Wand
Winterpine Bow
Coldstone Iron Dagger
Coldstone Iron Staff
Tundra Robes
Tundra Hood
Elemental Wand
Elemental Bow
Enchanted Snow
Elk's Head Helm
Woofy Toy
Ring of Protection from Hypothermia
Frostwolf Fang
Wildseer's Ring
Raw Elk Meat
Elk Pottage
Steel Ingot
Steel Plate Helmet
Steel Plate Armor
Steel Kiteshield
Steel Broadsword
Steel Greatsword
Steel Dagger
Bramblewood
Bramblewood Wand
Bramblewood Staff
Bramblewood Bow
Furniture items:
Festive Gifts
Candy Cones
Hearthlight Wreath
Festively Decorated Tree
Ogre Head
Snowman
Snow Gentleman
Fun Wooly Sock
Hanging Festival Decorations
Reindeer Trophy
Snow Globe
Traditional Tundra Village Rug
Crafting and Gathering Skills:
Mining:
Mine Coldstone Iron Ore at level 45
Woodsmanship:
Chop Bramblewood Thickets at level 35
Split Evergreen Hearth Firewood at level 40
Chop Winterpine Trees at level 45
Fishing:
Ice Fishing at level 45
Blacksmithing:
Smelt Steel at level 35
Smelt Coldstone Iron at level 45
Iron Armor changed to level 24, down from 28
Iron plate helmet changed to level 30, down from 32
Iron Plate Armor changed to level 32, down from 35
Noble Iron Plate Armor changed to level 34, down from 36
Iron Kite Shield changed to level 29, down from 33 and is now craftable
Accursed Broadsword changed to level 48, up from 37
Accursed Kiteshield changed to level 49, up from 38
Accursed Platehelm changed to level 50, up from 38
Accursed Platearmor changed to level 50, up from 40
Accursed Greatsword changed to level 52, up from 40
Dreamguard Platehelm and Platearmor changed to level 55, up from 50
Changed material requirements to craft Dreamguard Platearmor and Platehelm from iron and coal to new steel ingots, and they are now crafted at the anvil (previously they were at the furnace)
Changed material requirements for accursed plate armors and weapons to also require steel ingots.
Crafting:
Craft Bramblewood Wand at level 35
Craft Bramblewood Bow at level 36
Craft Bramblewood Staff at level 38
Craft Winterpine Wand at level 45
Craft Winterpine Bow at level 45
Craft Elemental Wand at level 53
Craft Elemental Bow at level 53
Tailoring:
Ghoulhide Wraps changed to level 50, up from 44
Ghoulhide Hood changed to level 50, up from 40
Wraith's Robes changed to level 50, up from 44
Wraith's Hood changed to 50, up from 42
Cooking:
Cook clearwater salmon at level 45
Cook elk pottage at level 50
Miscellaneous:
Changed Winterbark trees to Crystalbark, since the addition of Winterpine caused way too much winter wood for one game already.
Monstrous Crustacean Helm item level changed to level 34, down from 38.
Banshee Robes item level changed to level 55, up from 50
Banshee Hood item level changed to level 55, up from 50
New music tracks:
Windchill (plays in Evergreen Hearth)
Kuura (plays in Winterpine Forests)
Hypothermia (plays during combat at new snowy areas)
Bugfixes:
Some kills in the outskirts of Thornhill should now count towards their respective achievement tasks.
Fixed tiny hitboxes on zombies in the dungeons of Greywall.
Potentially fixed an issue with Firestick Mixtures getting stuck in the air in the quest 'Battle of the Shearston Estate'. We'll continue to monitor this issue so please send a bug report if you notice it happening again.
Fixed a bug causing items to sometimes get stuck off grid while dragging them in inventory.
Fixed salvaging workbench items list constantly resetting to the top.
Regards, Pura
Devblog 18 - Preparing a Winter Content Update!
Greetings once again, medieval adventurers!
It’s been a moment since our full launch, for our means the turnout was plenty and the amount of feedback we’ve received has already been overwhelming. Thank you all so much for playing! We’ve been working on fixing the most egregious bugs we’ve seen come up. Work still remains to be done, but for now we’re shifting gears a bit and we’re aiming to squeeze in the first content update since launch.
The update we’re preparing is somewhat seasonally themed winter update and we aim to roll it out in time for the holidays this month, though we’re not giving a specific date here. Within it, we’re looking to address one major shortcoming some of you have pointed out, namely the gap in convenient crafting recipes for leveling skills around 40-60 range.
The highest level recipes around this range currently relate to Greywall, but they can be quite tedious and difficult to make. We actually want to keep it that way, and are instead bumping up the power of these items to reflect the effort put into crafting them. On the other hand, the new recipes we’re introducing aim to provide a more convenient, relaxed avenue for experience gains when leveling skills to 60, to unlock the first tier of recipes within the mountain area.
The update will bring with it a new wintery area to the game and introduce a new quest also. But we’ll go over the new changes in more detail once we’re ready to roll out the new update into the game.
We're keeping it short for now, so with that it's time to wish you all happy gaming!
Regards, Pura
Bugfixes and changes
Added an option to buy back items from shops
Added a 'Do Not Salvage' button to the Salvaging Workbench interface
Added a 'Do Not Salvage' inventory item right click option when carrying the Scavenger's Toolkit
Fixed Salvaging Workbench item list not updating when equipping an item with the interface open, sometimes resulting in salvaging the wrong item
Kills in northern Haywind now count towards their respective kill achievements.
Added a keyboard shortcut to open the all achievements window
'Interact nearest' shortcut now ignores depleted resources (for example a tree that has been cut down)
Cooldown on Arakite Hammer's unique effect is now shown in the item tooltip description
Coins can no longer be withdrawn as bank notes
Replenishment Crystal (Reward from the quest 'A Necromancer's Housecleaning') can now be retrieved from scavengers if lost
Bugfixes and changes
Added a visual tracker for the number of remaining ogres to kill in the quest Defense of the Bulwark Cliff
Fixed being able to attack Brellorg the Ogre Tyrant earlier than intended and get stuck in a cutscene
Open storage bags should now stay open when restarting the game
Fixed storage bag positions sometimes not saving
Added a keyboard shortcut to access Horsy's saddlebags
Keyboard shortcut to open all storage bags now also opens Horsy's saddlebag
The Drunkards in Little Grainwater that were often mixed with the Drunks required in the 'Sobering Up' achievement task in Grainwater town have been dealt with.
Fixed 'Sobering Up' task showing 100% completion before waking up all three drunks.
Added cooldowns to taking hatchets, fishing rods and pickaxes from the master tool racks.
Giant rat kills not counting towards the achievement in two caves in the Mistywood
Fixed a homecoming position in Ratcliffe tavern that sometimes caused players to get stuck.
Minecart in Ratcliffe mine should no longer hit Horsy or other followers
Fixed Resilience potions not working against knockbacks
Fixed shop window sometimes scrolling to the side, resulting in items going off screen
A drop from the Ghost of Greywall that was meant to be banknoted cursed bones, which was displaying as a blank non-existent item, has been fixed.
Adjusted combat stats on level 6 wolves and level 3 scrawny wolves.
Rewrote dialogue to a higher standard of quality in the following tasks:
Timberwell garden beds task.
Timberwell wolf hunter task.
Fenwater bank task.
Bugfixes and changes
Potentially fixed an issue that may have caused some loot to disappear after death unless reloading the game, will continue to monitor this so do let us know by sending an in-game bug report if you think you continue to encounter this.
Improved stutters when interacting with storage bags
Amount sliders (for example when moving items to storage bags) can now be confirmed/cancelled by pressing Space/Esc
Fixed storage bags returning too many items when selecting the "Take all" option
Stormweaver (Bulwark Cliff companion) should no longer heal enemy ghosts in the Greywall dungeon
Fixed being able to travel to the Bootlegger's Shelter too early using Homecoming
Achievement tasks for killing Murderslime and Murk crawler should now progress correctly
Added missing Shamanic Linens to enemy drops in the Ogre Stronghold
Black bear kills not counting towards achievement in Ashenside Bear Hunter
Fixed an instance of a reply option showing for recruiting deputy rieler to assault the bandit fort while not on the quest.
Fixed wonky pathing and colliders when interacting with the garden beds in Timberwell.
Fixed misleading journal instructions in Defense of the Bulwark Cliff - the town hall is on the western side of the village.
Bugfixes and changes
Fixed a possibility to fast travel to and get stuck in the Ogre Stronghold by talking to a quest npc earlier than intended (you should still be able to use Homecoming to get out if this happened).
Adjusted enemy spawn positions further away from the bosses in the bandit fortress assault.
Enemies should no longer spawn directly on top of the player in npc battles.
Adjusted Barbarian Ambusher levels to vary more and to not increase so rapidly.
Limited the number of health potions and food enemies can use.
Fixed gamebreaking experience gains when crafting certain trinkets and bracelets.
Maybe fixed an exploit in the harvest melee arena which allowed to cheese the opponents by jumping over the fence.
Fixed a possibility of getting stuck in the guard escort task in Thornhill.
Deputy armor may now be recovered from scavengers if lost for any reason.
Adjusted stats on a few outlaw npcs around Haywind (including those in the quarry, for frequent complaints of them being way too strong)
Fixed achievement for defeating Hubert triggering sooner than intended.
Removed a duplicate Melvin Greyr from Little Grainwater.
Various pathing fixes (including inaccessible copper node near timberwell).
Changes and bugfixes
Added new achievement categories for Quests and 'Fame' under 'Fame and Fortune', which includes all sorts of miscellaneous achievements.
Added 22 new achievements into the game under the new categories.
Stackable items placed in storage bags or Horsy now stack.
Cooldowns on follower's abilities now persist even if the follower is dismissed and resummoned.
The deposit all option in banks should now actually deposit all stacks.
Items deposited to the bank are now placed within the selected bank tab.
Items drag&dropped to the bank will now fall within the dragged slot.
Added a search function into the bank window.
Added 2 new keyboard shortcuts: open all storage bags and manual npc respawn
Fixed a possibility of getting stuck killing the remaining ogres in the quest Defense of the Bulwark Cliff.
Adjusted some things related to the encounter with Kyler Plair in the plague doc's quest that may perhaps have contributed to a possibility of never running into him. Also adjusted his combat stats and made him respwan after the quest to make it possible to recover the robes he drops in case the player loses them.
Increased the respawn times of bandit leaders Harkon and Astratov and gave them loot drops outside of their quest drops.
Removed a number of mountain bandit armors from displaying on milestones, they're worn by the mountain bandits and weren't meant to show up there.
Thinned out the overabundance of sweet grass near the river ruins.
Fixed an issue on the stairs of a certain kind of house that could block pathing into said house.
Gave staff of whispering woods better stats and fixed its behavior as twohanded weapon.
Fixed a bug that ended the misc conversation with Elda Rottenhouse in the swamp village when asking her about her guests.
Fixed Nature's Friend from showing up on the world map when it's not available. (Likely to edit away the choice between the two npcs related to this at a later date, so everyone will have access to both npcs.)
Fixed a sneaky bug in Druid Alwaron's dialogue in Mistywood which lead to completing his quest prematurely when continuing to ask him questions.
Removed persistant Logging Issues quest indicator from world map.
Changed a few questionable npc names around Haywind.
The journal for caretaker's demise now shows the correct amount of ingredients required for the mild healing potion.
Adjusted model sizes of mountain tier swords and applied greatsword animations to the mountain tier greatswords.
Fixed a typos; when interacting with the pile of planks in Thornbark Sawmill; in the officer's diary of Greywall dungeons; wrong directions in Logging Issues quest journal pointing northwest when it should have said southwest.
Keyboard shortcut to open the item info window (from item tooltips) can now be changed (i by default).
Some bandits that did not count towards killcount in Ashenside bandit hunter achievement should now do so.
Added 'Info' right-click option to bank items.
Items that fall to the ground due to having full inventory now take longer to despawn (10 minutes instead of 2 minutes previously).
Removed sfx from the eagle statue movementspeed buff.
Fixed some graphics options sometimes not correctly toggling on or off (Chromatic aberration, depth of field).
Added a camera height slider in video options to move the camera up or down.
Bugfixes
Some achievement tasks in Thornhill and Silvermirror Fen are not unlocking even when all requirements are completed.
Task icons now disappear from the minimap once the task is complete.
Dialogue and cutscenes should no longer close open tabs, such as the inventory.
Fixed pathing issues that were blocking access to coal nodes near the mining hut in Bulwark Cliff.
Fixed an issue where enemies killed by the Lacerate ability's bleed effect did not drop loot.
Added a keyboard shortcut for the Achievements tab.
Shopkeeper Rainer's package is not removed after completing the task.
Fixed an issue with speed buffs that sometimes resulted in permanently lowered movement speed until the game restarted.
Starting location[/th]
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