Though once housing hundreds, the camp now only serves a half dozen or so full time Scouts. The rest of the defenders come from neighboring towns and villages that sprung up after the decline of Lilygrove's renaissance.
The Lost Legends of Redwall: The Scout - Act 1
Setting Highlight: Hilltop Camp
Though once housing hundreds, the camp now only serves a half dozen or so full time Scouts. The rest of the defenders come from neighboring towns and villages that sprung up after the decline of Lilygrove's renaissance.
Patch Notes: 4-9-2021
We have taken the time over the last few months (Years ….) to redesign Act 1 to make it feel and act like the remaining acts of The Scout. This is not a “quick” updated. There were a multitude of bugs that were squashed. It would be trite to try and write them all out. The biggest change is we have fully redone, both in structure and looks, The Scouts and The Pirates (First two levels). All levels have at least at some level been updated.
General – Update all visuals and created new foliage. Worked on making the game run smoother. Adjusted some achievements to fit in the new experience.
The Scouts – Restructured the whole tutorial. Adjusted the size and instruction of the whole level. It should be easier to follow and understand.
The Pirates – Morphed into an easier to experience stealth level. Make sure you find a way to put those last three rats to sleep.
February 2020 Major Update (More like Re-Build)
- Major improvements to scent system including all-new visuals.
- Huge improvements to environmental visuals across the whole game.
- More depth and operation in dialog system.
- Major rework of overall flow and goal progression.
- On-Screen Objective markers.
- New interaction system for spatial positioning, facing sensitivity, and clarity.
- Big performance improvements.
- Reworked all trees and underbrush improving both visuals and performance.
- Smoothed and improved player control overall.
- Global geometry polish and improvements.
- Checkpoint and save system overhaul.
- Plus hundreds more updates, improvements and bug fixes!
The new and improved scent system is the most obvious. We always felt this system had a lot of legs but until this build, it really wasn’t matching up with the original design goals. Now, for the first time, it looks the way we intended, it plays the way we intended and we’re now really starting to play with this feature in a fun way.
Also in this build is a huge update to the game’s environmental visuals.
Everything from the trees to the rocks and the water. We’ve really doubled down on making the world of Redwall come alive. We will continue down this path as we go into the next episodes, but the improvements here over the last 6 months are huge.
Looking toward the ‘fixing” the two largest complaints we had in the last build were around player direction and avatar controls. People were getting lost, unsure how to proceed, and feeling like Liam and Sophia were sluggish and unresponsive. With that in mind, we’ve reworked almost all of the control systems to be much tighter and added several new systems to make next steps more clear. The biggest addition is a new on-screen objective system marker and “Martin’s Marks”, a hinting layer to make sure players always have the clues they need to proceed.
Your scout tools have been given some TLC too, with an improved wayglass for rooting ut those geocaches and more power and precision from your slingshot. We hope they will treat you well on your upcoming adventures and look forward to even more from these tools in Acts II and III.
It was a tricky decision on whether or not to go back to Act I and update it, or just continue forward with these updates in Act I and beyond. But we realized that we have so much support and input from our earliest adopters that upgrading Act I was the only honorable thing to do. We hope you like what we’ve done.
Happy gaming and please enjoy..
Thank you, everyone, for your support and wishing you only the best,
-Soma Games
July 5th 2019: Update and Bug Fixes
Added Death Audio Narration
New Controller Controls featuring thumb-stick tilt speed control
Pick Pocketing Mission added to "the Pirates"
Re-Worked Scent System
- New Wind Mechanics – Increased Performance
- Scents Release Each Note at Same Time
- Scent Notes Are Release with Same duration
- Scent Icons Only Show in Active Scent Mode
- SCENTS CAN ONLY BE LEARNED IN ACTIVE SCENT MODE
Re-Worked the Approach to make it easier to save the farm
Re-Worked Rat AI
Re-Worked Mouse AI
Performance Changes
Re-worked Camera Collision
Idle Rat Chatter Improvements
MAJOR SPRING NAMEDAY UPDATE Mar 21st
This is the largest addition to The Scout including what we are calling the Woodlander Update that adds an entirely new playable character - Liam Rivermouse!
Along with making Liam playable, this build adds around two full hours of new story, 2 never-before-seen supporting characters and a major rework of several core systems and levels.
We expect this release to be the last major content update for episode one but we will still be working on optimization, bugs, and polish - so we’re not done with this episode just yet.
-New Cross Level Riddle and related Lore with a special surprise inside!!
-A few new Easter Eggs added (and linked to achievements)
-Still fighting with Lighting - but getting better with every pass
-Improved Frame Rate and Speed and a LOT less lag
- Adjustments to climbing ledges for more climbing and less phasing through walls like a phantom
- Rats are more efficient and meaner than ever ~ Watch yourself out there brave scouts!
-Scumsnout adjusted to be a tiny LESS mean and gives you a fighting chance on the ascent to the Lighthouse
-New Audio and Sound Effects on items and terrain sprinkled throughout the game
-Improved Tutorial and Tooltips to help guide you through the levels (and some new hint markers to boot)
-New log trap in the 'Pirates' level for the mischievous hero
-More reliable NPC pathing, now with a mega speed boost - never get bored waiting on your party again
-You can now MOVE while in your Wayglass or Slingshot :)
So please enjoy and we hope to hear from you!
February 11th 2019: Update and Bug Fixes
-More Reliable Scent learning that doesn't break the tutorial scent cave
-Refined Lightmaps and all around better lighting (Just one more level before this topic is called complete)
-Remodeled hillsides now without holes
-The Pirates mid-level cutscene now able to click through
-Performance boost to Catacombs level
-Rats more responsive to player distractions
-No more rats running off to fight their friends
February 1st 2019: Update and Bug Fixes
-The second moving rat in the stealth maze now activates and deactivates accordingly
-Sidle interacts have been cut and replaced
-The "Retry" test issue for the Scent and Stealth courses has been resolved! Tests properly reset and save
-Score Screen no longer reports untracked scores (anything that would read 0/0)
-Improved Rat Navigation (they no longer attempt to walk through water)
-Some Rat's have been given torches
-NEW! Can now lock rat's in rooms using collected keys in the Catacombs
-Addressed Lag Spikes in the Catacombs level
-Fixed buggy Cameras for Squeeze doors and the transition to the Cellar in the Catacombs level
-A smoother experience for the final boss level
-Addressed some animation weirdness in rescued Refugees
-Updated rats who enjoyed walking through shut shutters
-Fixed the issue that prevented completion of the Scent Cave when loading level from level select
Thanks for sticking with us, and we hope to continue polishing the experience. Still in progress:
-Fix for a save issue that prevents completion should you choose to "retry" a tutorial trial (Note: this fix was already found and made but did not make this build push - sorry for the inconvenience)
-On going re-evaluation of the save/checkpoints system
-Make the Pirates level final gate openable by player as well as rats
-Discussions on Possible AI overhaul
-Rework of the Checkpoints/Save system
-Introducing new riddle/puzzles and ways to disable rat threats
Ideas, Concerns, just wanna say Hi? We want to hear form you!
January 25th 2019 : Update and Bug Fixes
- Can now dismount zipline early without issue
- Further lighting improvements
- New party décor in Hilltop Camp
- Sound now properly pauses in the ESC menu
- New Side route in the Pirates Level
- New Ichabod Model!
Coming Soon to Steam Near You:
- Camera Polish in the Catacombs level
- New lootables in chests
- Extra Player Guidance via pop-ups
- Finally Pin down that pesky Bonus-Cache-not-saving bug in the Hilltop stealth maze
Give it a look - and as always - we hope to hear from you! Feedback, comments, just to say hi ~
Oh and if you are among the players with concerns about the checkpoint system, we've heard you, and we are currently evaluating the best way to proceed. We understand that our current save system is rather punishing, and we are looking at a more comprehensive solution, but unfortunately that will take a bit more time than these bi-daily builds, but know that we are working on something to relieve your headaches
Thank you for Playing :smiley: Have a fabulous day.
-Best,
Soma Games
January 23rd 2019 : Update and Bug Fixes
We recognize that the latest Woodlander Update introduced some new issues and bugs. But we've been working hard to crush the worst of these new bugs, as well as some previously reported, and are happy to announce the first in a series of fixes has gone live. Expect more updates every couple of days until we have the game ship-shape and working for you fine folks.
What's Changed?
-Major Improvements on finicky rat AI especially in regards to "the Pirates" level
-Major Improvements to the saving and checkpoint system
-Fixed the bugs that made the final level nigh impossible to beat
-General Changes to brighten the lighting across the entire game
-Improvements to squeeze-hole camera's (more still to come)
-Improved performance in "the Catacombs" level
What's Next?
-Continued polish of Hilltop Camp level and tutorial courses
-Further Improvements to lighting and post processing
-Further edits to rat AI for smarter and more interesting enemy interactions
-A new puzzle and route within the "Pirates" level to allow more fast paced and personalized game play
Thank you all for sticking with us and sorry for any inconvenience in game play. We invite you all to play again soon and see what changed. And as always, our lines are open for your feedback! We want to hear from you - what you like, what you didn't: together we will make this game the best it can be. On behalf of Soma Games, best wishes and a great day to you all.
December 21. 2018 : The Christmas Update V 1.5
This build adds in a huge new amount of content, primarily on account of adding a whole new playable character!
Now you can choose to play as Liam, or Sophia..or both if you’re really into it.
Along with making Liam playable comes close to full hours of new story, 2 never-before seen supporting characters and a major rework of several core systems and levels.
We expect this release to be the last major content update for episode one but we will still be working on optimization, bugs, and polish - so we’re not done with this episode just yet.
We hope you’ll find all the new content exciting and if you were an early adopter and haven’t been back in a few months, now would be a great time to check out all that’s been added and improved since V1.0.
What’s New:
- A entirely new playable character! Liam Rivermouse.
- Two new scenes, Dorabella’s Cellar and Sexton’s Hill.
- Total rework of Hilltop Camp including a whole new gear upgrade system.
- Added and improved conversation trees for several woodlanders like Ichabod Cornsilk, Fr. Thomas Beechwhite, and Dorabella and Belladora Ivywain.
- A HUGE performance improvement, especially on rigs at the lower end
- A metric bungload of bug fixes.
What’s Next:
- There’s still plenty of room for optimization and performance updates, we plan to squeeze out another few FPS.
- Our bug list is shrinking little by little but we have another big bug push on schedule after the first of the year.
- …and primary development continues on Act II as well...
Lastly - if you're into that kind fo thing - Merry Christmas!