This week’s update addresses several issues that we’ve been aiming to fix since our last patch. It also adds several new small Quality of Life features that further streamline UI and UX elements across the board. Alongside this, we are continuing to work hard on our coming DLC, and will endeavor to share more about it as we move closer to the end of the development cycle.
As has become a habit, Vagrus is currently taking part in Steam’s Turn-Based RPG Fest, which marks the occasion of our final sale before price increases come into effect for Sunfire and Moonshadow and the Season Pass. So, if you’ve been on the fence about jumping into our newest content or have a friend who you want to introduce to the Riven Realms, you can make it happen for the old price with a discount to boot.
The detailed patch notes are below, as usual.
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.
Improved the particle effects on the campaign map.
User Interface Improvements :pencil:
From now on, Perk category Event choice dependencies also indicate whose Perks are required (vagrus only, whole comitatus) just like in Tests.
Changed the display of Quality dependencies without an added Quality level requirement so that they are easier to understand (the tooltip will no longer refer to a 0 requirement).
When starting a new game, the dialogue options of Agos can now be navigated by using number keys on the keyboard. We also added hover highlighting to them.
Removed the redundant X button from the Hunting and Foraging Results window.
Bug Fixes :bug:
Fixed an issue that caused Companion Combat Skills that forced the target to move (for example, Javek’s Hypnosis) to have no effect when the target was surrounded by other entities. Now the target can swap places with every eligible character when forced to move.
Fixed a rare issue that caused the Ahskulite Retinue not to disembark, blocking players from passing through Realmgates and in general causing a lot of headaches. Ahskul disapproved, though He is sated now.
The right side Character Sheet in Companion Combat that is supposed to be empty when no enemy is selected will no longer display Renkailon’s stats (sorry Ren!).
Fixed an issue with controllers (including Steamdeck) that caused Events happening upon leaving a settlement/point of interest to immediately activate entry into that place.
Fixed an issue that caused the Game Log to display the wrong information (stat changes) related to Camping if it was canceled.
Fixed an issue that caused the Character Sheet to be missing its background when opened during Hero Select.
Fixed an issue that caused overwatch-type attacks to not trigger when an enemy is force-moved into the overwatched position.
Fixed an issue that caused players to be unable to switch between summoned entities or close the window on their Character Sheets when using a controller.
Fixed an issue that caused the radial menu to be open when returning to the campaign map from the Main Menu.
You can no longer softlock the game during the Deputy tutorial.
You can no longer accidentally (or intentionally if you knew how) skip the Outrider tutorial.
Fixed an issue that allowed players to move farther in Forced March than they had MPs for if using double clicking.
As ever, more is coming, so 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!
This week we’d like to broach a matter for the sake of transparency. Reality in the context of global gaming industry trends has set in, and the result is hard times for everyone. We are no exception and, since we have an insatiable desire for creating quality DLCs, this has left us in a rather precarious situation.
Financially, our DLCs need to break even for it to make sense for us to produce them. Indie game development is a passion, that’s true, but it’s also a business that needs to sustain itself and the developers. To that end, we have decided to increase the price of our Sunfire and Moonshadow expansion (SaM), along with the Season Pass, which will of course only affect future purchases.
A Little Background
We were halfway through the development of SaM when we knew that its scope had grown far beyond what we had originally planned. We were, however, happy with the path it had taken, and wanted to keep a consistent quality throughout as well as enough “bang for your buck”.
Player feedback has vindicated its length and quality, with some saying that the expansion’s breadth encompassed hundreds of hours of additional gameplay. We are happy for it to have had so much good feedback, but there remains an issue.
Sales
Our revenue predictions were spot-on, but due to the increased scope of the expansion, our costs were far higher than expected. With inflation ravaging our studio much like it has most of the world’s economy, the expansion was very expensive for us indeed. This is why we will be increasing its price.
Old Acquaintances
This DLC took longer than we expected, but by this point, we had already learned our lessons from the previous expansion. Again, we put in a great deal of extra time and added many additional features, as it would seem we cannot help ourselves. Thus, we set a realistic price – one that we intend to keep the same. Unfortunately, however, sales on this DLC were not as high as we would have hoped.
The Future
Our next big release will be our upcoming region DLC, which – like all the others – has already been enriched by a large scope and a wealth of ideas. Again, it seems that this is just what we do. The number of art assets, NPCs, questlines, and stories in the Riven Realms is growing larger by the day, and we want to do our best to bring you as much added value as possible.
To help pay for all this, we will be selling this third DLC at a slightly higher price.
Lastly, we are considering adding some cosmetics for sale to those who may be interested; these would be alternative sets of clothing for Companions and would be marketed as supporter content. If you would be interested in these sorts of additions, please let us know – as always we are eager to hear from you. You can join our Discord and interact with us directly if you so wish.
Conclusions
And so, to summarize:
The price of Sunfire and Moonshadow will go up to $19.99
Old Acquaintances will stay at $8.99
The Season Pass’s price will increase to $34.99
The price of the third DLC (in the works and included in the Season Pass) is yet to be determined, but it will better reflect our production costs.
We are considering putting Companion cosmetics on sale and would appreciate your feedback about this idea.
Of course, the decision to increase some prices did not come about easily and we understand that this is not good news. However, we also believe in transparency and sometimes unfortunate things happen, too – but there’s a silver lining: we will have one more sale before these new costs come into effect. So, if you haven’t grabbed what you’re interested in yet, now might be the time to do so! That’s a wrap for now, so we’ll say goodbye and wish you luck out there, as we always do. Stay safe, stay vigilant, and conquer the wasteland!
– The Lost Pilgrims Team
A New Build is OUT - Patch 1.175 - Codename: Conrectus Ligaturae
Hey everyone,
As we’ve alluded to in recent posts, the recent release of Old Acquaintances has set the creative part of the team into action on our next DLC, but what have our programmers, UI, and quality assurance people been up to?
Why, improving the game, of course. This is why we’re happy to present some impactful quality of life (QoL) changes that will help make your Vagrus experience all the smoother.
Companions and Character Sheets
The first complaint we’ve received multiple times – and for which we’ve been trying to find a solution for a while – is related to the information available for Companions’ Skills. Currently, it is possible to use the arrow indicated on the right-hand column below to view the next Skill level above your current one by clicking on it. In the screenshot, you can see this is possible for both Suppressing Shots and Defensive Cut.
Now, you will be able to view all levels of the Skill. This means if you have Poison Arrow I. on Criftaa then you will also be able to see the statistics of levels II. and III.
But that’s not all: previously obtusely presented Skills – like Criftaa’s multi-phased Suppressing Shots – will now allow the player to toggle between their phases; the first phase is for the overwatch portion of the Skill, like in the picture above, while the second phase indicates how much actual damage it will do when it is triggered by an enemy.
Toggling between the two phases can be done simply by toggling the brown box just to the right of the Skill’s name.
We’ve also got changes coming for summoners. Previously, the issue was simply that one could not know what creature is going to be summoned and what its stats are. The below mockup – put together by our wonderful UI designer – illustrates how the player will be able to bring up information about the summoned creature from the character pane.
Campaign Map
The next serious QoL change we’re making is to campaign map movement and it’s simple: you will be able to double-click on the node you wish to move to and you will go there. No more clicking on the node then on the footprint icon, which some have decried as a finicky waste of time (it probably was).
As we continued working on these features, however, another crucial element loomed large: key bindings. They needed to be revamped to make some of the game’s controls more intuitive and logical. Thus, we set ourselves to the task of not only streamlining the handling and navigation of the comitatus, but also overhauling the default key bindings. One of the main goals here was to dramatically reduce the amount of clicks or keys the average sequence of actions takes and create a more modern, intuitive user experience. We’ve mapped out the changes below so you can take a look for yourself.
For some, the commands here will be nothing new but there is one entirely new addition: the “Comitatus Tabbing” command. This will bring up the default comitatus menu and allow you to move – or tab – between different panes within that.
We’ve worked hard on these changes and we’re very excited to deploy them. As usual, let us know what you think! Below you can check out the whole inventory of changes.
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.
You can now double-click to move on the campaign map.
Revamped key bindings: defaults have been changed to be more intuitive and grouped by topics or UI categories, and new hotkeys have been added.
The Leadership Perk “Command” has been reworked: it now unlocks all advanced Crew Combat actions passively and when Resourcefulness is spent, it raises Combat Strength and Defense by 15% as well as turns Critical Failure rolls to Failure.
The effects of multiple “Terrifying” Perks no longer stack. Stacking caused Skills that target multiple positions with characters with the Perk to be close to useless.
You can now butcher Beasts and Mounts directly at your Outpost instead of having to move them to the comitatus.
You no longer lose Mounts when Fighters leave you during Events (ie. Outriders do not take their Mounts) for narrative reasons.
User Interface Improvements :pencil:
Combat Skills with multiple phases are now displayed differently (better communicating these Skills) on Character Sheets. You can switch between the effects and stats of the different phases.
You can now check the stats and Skills of creature(s) that “summon” type Combat Skills spawn. Details are on the Character Sheet.
Improved the visuals during an Evade sequence in Companion Combat so that players will have an easier time understanding what input is required from them in cases where the target position has to be interacted with.
Evade is now displayed as a percentage on the Character Sheet.
Bug Fixes :bug:
Fixed an issue that caused the erroneous display (and only the display) of framerate in Options.
Fixed an issue that caused Renkailon’s Caltrops Skill to cause a lock in Companion Combat.
Ironed out the discrepancies in Renkalion’s Loyalty changes caused by player choice after his storyline is concluded so now they should work as was originally intended.
Companions now lose less Loyalty from becoming Severely Wounded, as was originally intended.
Fixed a rare issue that prevented Javek’s ending slide from appearing despite his quest being completed in that playthrough.
From now on, hiring the forces of Dragonlands factions to defend your Outpost actually costs money, as advertised by the choice. No more freebies, sorry.
Fixed a glitch that caused Mount/Dismount to not always work as intended in Crew Combat, especially in relation to ambushes.
Fixed the wrong tooltip display of Impervious Ward in Crew Combat.
All relevant Factions purchase Salt from your Outpost more often, making it much rarer for it to pile up.
Players have encountered further issues with the Wazirhai Curse quest, so we have attempted to fix some outlying problems that may have arisen from old scripts; we’re crossing fingers that we won’t have to return to this again.
Reworked the Aid tutorial: it now only activates when it is the player’s turn after a character was Downed and it also provides enough Resourcefulness to use Aid. These changes prevent any locks that could have happened previously.
Fixed a bunch of offset and oddly displayed tooltips.
Multiple text-related improvements, as usual. Thanks for all the reports and feedback!
As ever, more is coming, so 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!
A New Build is OUT - Patch 1.172 - Codename: Victorious
Hey everyone,
This new patch brings with it one really important and big change and some other fixes we applied since our last update. The large change in question is the altering of how victory works in a campaign. Previously, you were able to win the game, then choose to continue playing. This caused a lot of consistency issues with Ending slides, as you were unable to check them later on and so even if something changed (like a major questline that has its own slide was completed) after the victory, players would miss them. And so from now on, once you retire as part of a victory, you will not be able to continue playing afterward. You can complete the victory condition and then play indefinitely until the time comes you decide to conclude the playthrough and then retire to experience the Endings. Of course, you can also save the game, retire to check the slides, and then load to play more.
Because this will affect savegames where players have already retired but kept on playing, we have reset the Ambition quests in all such savegames to the point where you only have to retire to finish the playthrough. Doing so, you will be able to see the (now up-to-date) slides again.
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.
Reworked several old generic Events to be more in line with current quality and style.
Crime and criminality received an entry in the Glossary to explain how it works.
You can no longer play after completing a victory condition and retiring. This change was necessary because playing after this point caused several issues with Ending slides and their states in a continued game. You can still play indefinitely but once you commit to retiring to “win” a campaign and watch the Ending slides, you are returned to the main menu. NOTE: We have reset the last step of the Ambition Quest for every player past that point in current saved games, so they can simply complete that last step to retire or go on playing as long as they want before that.
Bug Fixes :bug:
Each ending slide now resets scrolling to the top.
Fixed an issue that prevented sending reports via the built-in Bug Reporting Tool (though note that there are still pending issues with it we are working on).
The Kal-rish enemies now have all their Skill art assets straightened out (they were missing one and used another instead).
The Black Moloch enemy is visible again! The trickery of Demons is truly nefarious.
Fixed an issue that caused the game to lock up when an enemy using the Skill “On Guard” was defeated by a multi-phased Skill.
The Skill “Taunt” on the Manumitteris hireling is now Incorporeal, as was intended, meaning it cannot be Evaded or Blocked, but Mind Resist can still neutralize it.
Fixed an issue that caused Faction Offers to be generated at a higher (unreachable) tier than intended
Fixed an issue that caused some players to be unable to trigger “The Curse of Wazir” quest even after prerequisites are met (completing “The Expansion of Wazirhai”, defeat Undead threatening the settlement, and waiting a couple of in-game months). The fix is retroactive, so you can now return to trigger the quest if you haven’t already.
The Skill of the Evocator Mortis hireling “Raise Dead” is now Enervating (preventing it to be used multiple times in a Round).
Repositioned the legend box of the Chart on Steamdeck and other 16:10 ratio displays so that it’s always visible now.
Fixed an issue that caused certain settlements to be impossible to highlight on the Chart. NOTE: This issue might have other, separate reasons, so please report to us if it still keeps happening.
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!
A New Build is OUT - Patch 1.170.0618W - Hotfix & Localization
Hey everyone,
Hot on the heels of last week’s Old Acquaintances release, today we’re deploying a hotfix to ameliorate the issues that players have reported. We are happy to see that there were no big problems, and even happier with the great feedback we’ve received from the players currently enjoying the DLC.
This hotfix also includes further use of DeepL technology in the machine translation of Vagrus's vast text base, notably adding translations for the contents of the 'Clandestine' Update and the Old Acquaintances DLC itself. Additionally, the update incorporates improved translation quality across the board (for most of the machine-translated languages in the game) due to the recent improvements of DeepL technology.
As always, we will be closely monitoring feedback from our Discord, the Steam forums, and all other channels. In the meantime, we hope you are enjoying the new content and wish you luck out there. Stay resilient, stay vigilant and conquer the wasteland!
Now let's jump into the patch details:
Important Note: We tried our best giving you a polished product, but given the game's complexity it might happen that something slipped under the radar. 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.
Fixed an issue where controllers brought up the radial menu in the wrong place when interacting with nodes out of March range.
Fixed an issue with Event text scrolling speed when using controllers and setting the scroll speed either on the minimum or maximum value.
Changed the default Movement direction with Combat Skills involving movement. Now the default is staying in the same line (instead of the topmost line), though all valid positions are still available, of course.
Fixed a rare crash caused by opening Price History in settlements.
Bonus Resourcefulness is now granted the first time a Companion is Downed during the Tutorial if there is not enough to use Aid to prevent a softlock due to the Tutorial prompt.
All Companions’ Prowess can now be reset in Dissonance Mode (including Eylani, Vorax, Sedarias, and Javek).
In most Events where you needed fighters for a choice, but Outriders and other armed crew made sense, now those fulfill the requirements, too.
Various (mostly minor) spelling, grammatical, scripting, and stylistic fixes in Events, especially in Old Acquaintances.
Machine translation was added to the new content of Clandestine Part I. as well as Old Acquaintances.
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!
Vagrus – The Riven Realms: Old Acquaintances is Out Now!
Hey everyone,
The time has come to release our next DLC, Old Acquaintances, which adds Javek and Sedarias to the main game, two Companions we’ve met in the prologue scenario previously. Both of them changed drastically in the time that passed since we first saw them and both offer extensive questlines to tell their stories, replete with new NPCs, enemies, allies, lore, and rewards.
The DLC also contains the Freelancers’ Guild, a specialized mercenary organization that allows you to recruit new hirelings (from a selection of four) to round out your crew. They can be found in the four major cities of the North and the Onyx Outpost.
Alongside the new content, the accompanying Patch (detailed below) contains a number of improvements and fixes to improve the general experience of Vagrus.
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.
The DLC ‘Old Acquaintances’ will now be unlocked to all its owners. It includes two Companions for the main campaign – Javek and Sedarias – with fully-fledged storylines including new enemies and rewards, their own Skills, Prowess progression, as well as four new Hirelings available at the Freelancers’ Guild in Tor’Zag’s Shelter, Deven, Avernum, Larnak, and (for owners of ‘Sunfire and Moonshadow’) the Onyx Outpost.
User Interface Improvements :pencil:
Clarified the visual guidance of Evading, including when you Evade to a position occupied by another character.
Clarified the visual guidance of Javek’s Hypnotize Skill.
We streamlined tooltip behavior while using a controller based on feedback and expanded their functionality.
Changed the Move Skill in Companion Combat, giving it better feedback and a more streamlined usage.
Bug Fixes :bug:
Steam cloud saves are now working and can store up to 200mb of save files.
Tutorial windows no longer appear minimized under any circumstances.
Owned DLCs will now always show up properly under ‘Extras’ in Vagrus games in GOG and Epic Games Store libraries.
Event choices with an Achievement dependency now show the proper icon (chalice).
When using a controller, the Chart tutorial no longer scrolls the same way as the Chart is zoomed in and out.
Fixed a rare issue occurring on GOG and the Epic Games Store, causing players to be unable to select the Knowledge Ambition upon vagrus creation when owning the Vorax Free-LC.
You can no longer turn back in the initial parts of Pilgrims of the Wasteland when using a controller.
Fixed an issue caused by owning more than 10.000 Bross upon loading a game.
Fixed an issue that caused the game to freeze in Companion Combat when Suppressing Shot would trigger an Evade.
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!
The time is finally nigh: we have a release date for Old Acquaintances and a fresh release trailer to boot!
The DLC will drop on the 12th of June, 2024, and those of you who have already played the ‘Pilgrims of the Wasteland’ scenario will surely recall the identities of the two returning companions. For those who do not, the man by the campfire is Javek, a remarkable telepath and sorcerer with unique abilities, while the bony hand that pushes through the black sands of Arenas Negras belongs to Sedarias, a Knight of the Black Sun and defender of the Empire.
How these two companions with strikingly different backgrounds will return, what paths will they take, and what hardships will they face? All of these answers await you in the DLC, along with new enemies, abilities, quests, and locations. Additionally, players will be able to employ new hirelings through the Freelancers’ Guild. For a full breakdown check out our refeshed store page.
With that, we must leave you now, for the wasteland beckons; stay safe, stay vigilant, and conquer the wasteland!
– The Lost Pilgrims Team
A New Build is OUT - Patch 1.166 - Codename: Dissonant
Hey everyone,
This time, we come to you with a nice package of changes to the game. The first order of business:
The Prologue (Demo)
This scenario offers players a fixed timeframe within which they can play Vagrus without purchasing the game. Since its release in May of 2023, we’ve been eyeballing it for quite some time, and have finally overhauled it with many of the quality of life improvements the main game has seen. See our Steam post here for more information.
And now, onto the patch for the open-world campaign:
Patch Notes 1.166
As part of an ongoing effort to address any concerns players may have, improve the game across the board, and offer hotfixes to any issues that have cropped up, we’re releasing another build today. Scroll down to the patch notes section to see exactly what smaller issues we have fixed and read on if you wish to know about some of the more significant gameplay changes.
Dissonance Mode Changes
As part of the lead-up to our coming Old Acquaintances DLC, some members of the team have been taking on board the feedback regarding certain aspects of the game’s difficulty, and thus, we have decided – along with a slew of other things – to revamp Vagrus’s Dissonance Mode. Most importantly, once we release this update, players will be able to switch their Wasteland Mode savegame into Dissonance mode at any time. After the switch, if they then save the game, two copies will be available in the Main Menu: one will contain the old Wasteland save and a fresh, new Dissonance mode savegame. Players only need to click the new icon (circled below) and they will be taken to a transition screen where they can confirm the change.
We’re also working on adding several additional elements to Dissonance Mode, but before we get into that, let’s talk a little bit about the goals of the game mode.
It is no secret that Vagrus - The Riven Realms simulates a difficulty more often found in old-school RPGs, which is why we knew at release we’d have to implement a mode that would be a little more forgiving. That mode was and still is Dissonance Mode. While Wasteland Mode simulates dynamics closest to what we feel is the reality of the Riven Realms, its alternative is set up to give players various advantages and make things slightly easier. It is, by no means, an “easy mode”. Dissonance Mode confers the following benefits to players:
The vagrus receives a hidden advantage in Tests and other percentage rolls
Companions heal at a faster rate while resting
Reduced enemy Accuracy in Companion Combat
Respeccing Companions can be done an unlimited amount of times
Trading is, as a whole, slightly more profitable
Supplies are cheaper
Hunting or Foraging have higher yields
There are greater breaks between random Crew Combat encounters
The player has more favorable odds in Crew Combat encounters that occur randomly
Penalties for missing crew are less harsh
In general, the game is more forgiving to players from the start of a playthrough and for a longer time
Those benefits are already in play, but the trouble was that players could only begin a new campaign in Dissonance Mode. Consequently, if a player was struggling to survive there was no way out; they simply had to start a new campaign. With the mode now accessible during a playthrough, those players will be able to curb some losses and effects through Dissonance Mode. It is important to note that once a savegame in Dissonance Mode is made, there is no going back in that game; this would cause too many issues and exploits. The player can, however, return to their old Wasteland Mode save. We are also considering offering some further optional benefits when the switch happens to somewhat set off the previous hardship, some of which are immediate. These are subject to change but currently include:
Stat boosts for comitati (Nutrition, Vigor, Morale, and Obedience)
Upfront coin to help propel a vagrus’s operations
A workforce boost to help the comitatus along (especially so if the comitatus is already dangerously low)
After this has been implemented, all players will need to do is select any savegame already in Wasteland Mode and load it into Dissonance Mode. Doing so will give a number of warnings (most notably that it is a one-way change), but after you click through, both immediate bonuses and long-term benefits will be accrued moving forward.
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.
The ability to switch Wasteland Mode savegames to Dissonance Mode is now available.
Introduced a tooltip mode for controllers, albeit it is incomplete as of now.
Bug Fixes :bug:
From now on, players will always gain the Insight reward for every tenth Codex entry (the fix was for an edge case related to saving and loading a game when the Insight was awarded).
The Outpost’s overseer is now more aware of what is going on at the Outpost and won’t nag the player upon leaving the Outpost to fix things that were not broken in the first place.
All Custodia type enemies are now visible again.
Fixed a number of bugs connected to the Outpost, most importantly one that stole money from the Outpost (yikes).
The Goods and pieces of Equipment whose effects on the Outpost were removed will no longer be visible in text-based Outpost interactions.
Fixed some edge cases that caused players to be unable to continue their savegames from the Demo in the main game.
Improved some Glossary entries to be more helpful and more informative.
Fixed a number of typos and textual errors in Events.
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!
A New Build is OUT - Patch 1.165 - Codename: Shore Up
Hey everyone,
We haven’t released a new build since way back in February, so we have got a slew of changes to discuss. While the changes are wide-ranging and significant, we’ve broken down each batch into easily digestible sections, the first of which is the Outpost and its coming update. For those of you looking for an abridged breakdown of what we’ve been working on you may simply scroll down to the patch notes.
Refurbishing and Redesigning the Outpost
The Outpost feature has been on our minds for a long time but with all the other pressing matters it kept getting pushed down our priority list. In the end, however, we were able to dedicate a week to making improvements, focusing on adding clarity and showing more information to players. Please note that while these changes are final for the time being, we welcome feedback and will patch accordingly. To better understand all of the Outpost’s issues, we asked our players on the various forums and on our Discord server to provide feedback. This has been extremely useful, as it has flagged multiple areas where the design was already covered but the game did not communicate it sufficiently. One good example is the consumption of Supplies at the Outpost. Due to its location in an extremely desolate environment, Scouts had little to no chance to hunt and provide for the crew there, which was never intended to work like that. As a result, players believed they needed to keep hauling Supplies to the Outpost themselves. For many, this turned its Upkeep into a chore, as they would never be able to journey far from the Outpost’s proximity. This, however, was a matter of miscommunication. The reality was that the crew automatically bought any missing Supplies to run the place from nearby comitati in the background and the UI failed to communicate that fact. Realizing that we had to remedy that created an opportunity: one that allowed us to include an option for players to choose where their Outpost gets their Supplies from. There are now multiple options (from cheapest to most expensive):
From nearby settlements (requires to have Beasts at the Outpost)
From passing comitati for a higher price
From Factions based nearby, which is even more expensive but will in turn help raise your Reputation with them
We have also added a new element called Work Shifts. Work Shifts allow players to set an amount of hours per day that their workforce will toil at the Outpost. Generally speaking, longer hours increase production but take a heavier toll on the crew’s Vigor, Morale, and Obedience. They also increase the potential for accidents or mishaps at the site, essentially offering the player another risk versus reward scenario for their operation. For this reason, we advise that you only set higher Work Shifts when the comitatus returns frequently to the Outpost and can take various measures to ameliorate problems if needed.
UI improvements have been made across the board; these focus on getting more accurate and better information across through the UI. Equipment that affects the Outpost is now highlighted in the Equipment section under the Warehouse tab and the length each such Equipment covers the needs of the Outpost for is also displayed. Green is used for anything beyond a year, yellow for half a year, and red for anything below. Equipment lost due to getting broken, eroded, or expired (in the case of animals) is indicated on a pop-up screen to the returning vagrus so they can bring replacements on their next arrival.
Players were instrumental in helping us decide on several further changes, and to that end, we’d like to offer our thanks. Though far from an exhaustive list, these changes include the following:
Scouts now decrease the chance of the Outpost getting attacked
The number of Equipment that affects the Outpost in some way has tripled
We went through all the UI panels to add missing tooltips and/or extend them with further information
While additional changes may still be on the cards, we are satisfied with the areas we’ve covered thus far, and we believe that all mechanics are now communicated in a much clearer fashion. As always, we encourage feedback and discussion regarding the new Outpost on both our forums and Discord server.
General Quality of Life and Design Improvements
As we close in on the release of our Old Acquaintances DLC, the portions of the team that are not busy drawing or writing have been hard at work on a plethora of miscellaneous QoL improvements, the fruits of which have now been made public.
Mercenary Tasks
We’ve always endeavored to make some sweeping changes to how Mercenary Tasks work, and happily, we’ve now had the time to implement them. These tasks have always had time limits, yet now, they function far more logically. This is to say that after you complete an elimination or defending task, you may return to the faction that gave it to you at any time after you do so, while in the past the time limit was still active, even after you had completed but haven’t turned it in.
Additionally, we have made significant changes to the corresponding UI for the Tasks, which will now be presented much like quests, displaying all appropriate information in an orderly fashion.
Companion Loyalty Details
You asked for it and we’ve implemented it: more detailed information regarding Companion Loyalty changes. We have achieved this by providing an additional option in the main menu, which will allow players to choose between “Basic” (the same change log messages that were shown in the past), “Indicative” (additional information that will let you understand the gravity of the Loyalty changes), and “Off”, which won’t show anything at all regarding Loyalty. The last might just be the best choice if you’re looking for a fully immersive experience!
Tests in Events
Tests in Events now indicate (via icons and tooltips) whose Perks are taken into account in the given Test: the whole comitatus’s, only those of the Companions previously selected to accompany the vagrus, or only the vagrus’s.
General Design Improvements
Here’s a selection of design changes that we’ve also included in the update:
Negative Resistance values now raise damage from the specific type as it was originally intended (for example, a -50% Cold Resistance raises a Cold type damage of 2 to 3). The way Resistances work against Effects remains unchanged (ie. they provide a chance to entirely negate Effects when the Resistance roll is successful).
Damage from Critical Strikes in Companion Combat is now always calculated from the upper half of the used Skill’s damage value (for example, if the damage of the Skill is 3-6, then Critical Strikes from it are always calculated as if a 5 or a 6 were rolled). This makes Critical Strikes deadlier for both foes and Companions.
Critical Strikes in Companion Combat are now always Armor-Piercing, which also raises their usefulness but also makes it possible to down very armored enemies even without the right abilities (albeit still being very, very difficult).
General QoL Improvements
Lastly, we have also made a number of smaller improvements to make life easier for players:
We have reworked tooltips and general UI elements to provide more detailed information in a more understandable way
We concluded another round of performance improvements all across the board (related to both CPU and GPU usage)
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is it – at least for now. We’re sure to have further improvements on the way, though for the time being we are primarily focused on our upcoming DLC. More news is coming on that front soon, so stay tuned. In the meantime, you can check out the aforementioned patch notes below.
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.
Outpost rework: most of the UI (buttons, structure, tooltips, and more), mechanics, and balancing received a major rehaul.
More pieces of Equipment have an Outpost-related effect now.
Savegame files made in the free Demo can be loaded up automatically in the full game from now on.
Negative Resistance values now raise damage from the specific type as it was originally intended (for example, a -50% Cold Resistance raises a Cold type damage of 2 to 3). The way Resistances work against Effects remains unchanged (ie. they provide a chance to entirely negate Effects when the Resistance roll is successful).
Damage from Critical Strikes in Companion Combat are now always calculated from the upper half of the used Skill’s damage value (for example, if the damage of the Skill is 3-6, then Critical Strikes from it are always calculated as if a 5 or a 6 were rolled).
Critical Strikes in Companion Combat are now always Armor Piercing.
Penalties for successive Evade and Block attempts in the same Round have been doubled (for example, the second attempt in the Round incurred a -5% penalty and now it incurs a -10% penalty).
Timers on Mercenary Tasks now stop when it makes sense narratively (and so timed task bonuses are granted based on this moment in time, not the moment of the turn-in). Once the timer stops, players have more freedom to turn in these Tasks. For example, the timer on Defense Tasks stops when the vagrus successfully defeated the foe during the defense battle.
Added a new setting to Options: Companion Loyalty Details. You can now use it to set the nature and depth of information the game log and Events provide on the Loyalty changes of Companions: Off: No feedback is provided. Basic (Default): Only the fact of the change is provided and its direction. Indicative: The measure of change is also provided (for example: Greatly disapproves, Slightly approves).
The highest Loyalty tier for Companions was renamed from ‘Amicable’ to ‘Loyal’.
Companion Upkeep (daily) is raised by 5 Changers for Companions assigned to a Deputy role and this is reflected on their character sheet and the tooltip of Companion Upkeep.
Further tweaked and enhanced the controller experience.
Updated Content :gift:
Some Perks that Harvek was supposed to have but were actually missing were added back in. Players who have him in their comitatus receive a complete reset on him and regain the Insight to be able to respec him.
Gor’Goro received new, easier gift options in his Banter. Additionally, his personal questline’s first segment awards a lot more Loyalty now.
The Prowess (2) requirement to trigger Renkailon’s personal questline now has an alternative of a Renown requirement.
Entering Avernum’s Ossuary is now possible even with the Disdain of Ahskul property (allowing the completion of Nedir’s questline in a playthrough where you aim for certain achievements).
Eylani now loses Loyalty when you decide to fight against beasts in Kabur’s arena.
New entries on Companion Loyalty and the Outpost were added to the Glossary.
We have added a hidden, alternative way to get a certain quest item for Vrak the Haunted’s quest whereby you can circumvent having to interact with the Ahskulites in Deven (allowing the completion of Vrak’s quest in a playthrough where you aim for certain achievements).
Removed much of the Coal from Scrapheap in ‘Pilgrims of the Wasteland’ to avoid players accidentally buying it out and going broke during the early tutorial.
User Interface Improvements :pencil:
The display of chances in Crew Combat (Critical Success, Success, Failure, Critical Failure percentages) now shows the actual percentages (this was only a display issue).
Reworked the “Faction Reward Filter” button on the Settlement UI to be more logical, displaying the active filter’s status.
Long savegame names will now be broken into more lines and they show in full on the loading screen.
The (glitchy) highlighter on selected choices in Events was changed to a more subtle underline.
The new “Enervated” Skill effect now has a proper icon and tooltip explaining it on the Character Sheet.
The ‘minimize’ button on tutorial popups was moved to the top right corner.
From now on, you can only change font size while the Event UI, Journal, and Codex are closed to prevent locks, and other issues.
All Mercenary Tasks now display objectives in the quest-style (using status-sensitive bullet points).
The Mercenary Task UI in the Journal was significantly improved and now presents more information more consistently.
The requirements of using certain Advanced Tactics in Crew Combat that were nebulous before are now much more informative (including why you cannot use one when you do not meet said requirements).
Added and improved various new Crew Combat tooltips to provide better information on mechanics.
The bug that caused the Outpost’s Consumption to be erroneously displayed was fixed.
The Font Size slider in Options became more informative (providing a percentage as well as demonstrating actual font size below the option, not in a janky tooltip).
Equipment tooltips no longer display the price you originally bought it for (it was obsolete and confusing).
Localized steps and choices in Events are now marked differently if they were merely machine-translated or were translated by a person.
Vitality and Power Regeneration are now correctly displayed on Companions’ character sheets.
Tests in Events now indicate (via icons and tooltips) whose Perks are taken into account: the whole comitatus’s, only those of the Companions previously selected to accompany the vagrus, or only the vagrus’s.
Bug Fixes :bug:
Fixed missing or glitchy dependency icons in Events.
You can no longer win the main campaign by retiring to your own upgraded Outpost while not having the Wealth Ambition (this was possible by choosing a combination of options during the Outpost upgrade process).
The Ahari and Chimera Legion Faction tabs now always display valid (including unlocked) Faction presence locations.
Cadmador does not show its faction locations any longer, as was originally intended.
Passengers headed to the Sunken Tower will no longer show up until a path to said location has been unlocked by the player through quests.
Removing a Deputy that provides an Equipment slot for the /comitatus/ now refreshes the slots immediately, preventing players from keeping Equipment in a closed slot.
When owning no Beasts of Burden, swapping to a different Beast Type no longer modifies Movement Points.
The font size of the Glossary will now reflect the one set in Options.
Great Lamps are no longer sold in core game territories when you do not own Sunfire and Moonshadow.
Tweaked Companion Combat AI significantly, especially regarding the avoidance of performance drops and the use of Overwatch-type Skills.
Performance improvements all across the board (regarding both CPU and GPU usage).
The Spell Penetration Perk now provides the -15% Resistance it advertises.
Fixed several bugs related to Mercenary Tasks (mostly related to Escort Tasks with interim targets).
Fixed various glitches, typos, and performance issues in the Glossary.
Dragging Market listings and dropping them earlier than your own cargo space will not purchase them now but cancel the interaction as it was supposed to.
Fixed an issue that caused parts of some localized (machine translated) tutorial windows to be off-screen.
Your Scouts can no longer find perilous calerus Events (that would slay an unprotected comitatus) when you have protective Equipment equipped.
In Crew Combat, you no longer need an active character to Stand Down once the enemy is retreating (as opposed to Pursue where you need someone to pursue the foe).
Coming Up Next
The option to change between Wasteland and Dissonance modes during a playthrough
New DLC: Old Acquaintances
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!
Great news, everyone: today we at Lost Pilgrims are excited to announce the release of a new Praetor Edition of the game coinciding with Steam’s Spring Sale. Similar to the Centurion Edition, the Praetor Edition will feature the updated soundtrack, which we wrote about at length here, the Patronage Pack, and here’s the kicker: the Season Pass, too. The Season Pass is a package that includes our major expansion, Sunfire and Moonshadow, and two upcoming DLCs we plan to release: a Companion DLC and a Region DLC. Picking up this is a great way to support the ongoing development of Vagrus and nab some of our upcoming content at a slight discount to boot.
Perhaps the best thing about the Praetor Edition – aside from the glorious art, mind – is its simplicity. We’ve set it up so that buyers will always receive the package discount on the products they don’t already own; this way, no matter how many Vagrus products you own, you only ever get the ones you don’t. This discount is cumulative with any ongoing sales that are taking place on various platforms, like Steam’s Spring Sale. And yes, we are taking part in that sale, so if you’re looking to get the best bang for your buck, keep your eyes peeled for us.
But wait, there’s more! We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention our plans to expand the Patronage Pack to include more goodies for those who wish to support the team in such a generous way. Another way to show support is via our Patreon page, where you can unlock wallpapers, early access to articles, and more for a monthly contribution.
The Praetor Edition is a great way to complete your set of Vagrus products. It’s the game’s Collector’s Edition, except without all the wasteful spending and tedium other such editions force you to endure. Perhaps most interestingly, when our next two DLCs are released, any Praetor Edition owner will have immediate access to every conceivable extra to boot. What will those DLCs contain? What locales or adventures will they explore or delve into? Well, we’ll keep that close to the chest for now. Development continues apace as we strive to bring you more of the wasteland, so until that time, do as you always do: stay tuned, stay vigilant, 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!
But wait, there’s more! We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention our plans to expand the Patronage Pack to include more goodies for those who wish to support the team in such a generous way. Another way to show support is via our