KickStarter Vagrus: The Riven Realms - post-apocalyptic fantasy caravan master RPG - now with Sunfire & Moonshadow expansion

[Lares Hill]

[Source: Steam Store Page]

Devlog #54 | Combat Targeting Update

This week, we return to talk about the recently updated Companion Combat targeting options that suit different play-styles. The changes include a number of options from the main menu that allow the configuration of the way you target your foes and friendlies during the fights in Vagrus:

• Using keyboard only? Aside from picking a Skill with the keys '1-4' (and '5' for Move), you can use 'Tab' to switch between available targets, and 'Space' to confirm the action.
  
• Are you fine with mousing over stuff while resting your index finger? Hover over the target and trigger the skill from the keyboard without ever having to click with the mouse.
  
• Want to do away with having to confirm? Sure, attack like a pro without having to click twice by switching off confirm in the options.

Visual Improvements

There are also visual upgrades, like Area Targeting boxes instead of the previous visual effects on the metal bases of the characters.

We also added visual queues about Move + Action Skills in the form of the 'foot' indicating where the character is going to move while the player picks the target of the second part of the Skill.

Overall we are quite happy with these changes and the visible improvements of Companion Combat and while there are still further upgrades planned, we hope you like them already and find the best combination fitting your play-style.

Let us know how you like the options, and which type of targeting is the most usable for you!

Stay tuned and conquer the wasteland,
The Lost Pilgrims Team

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/909660/view/4184391141843279921

A New Build is OUT - Patch 0.7.00 - Codename: The Famous and the Furtive

Hey Folks,

with so many of you well over the hundred hours mark in the game, it was high time for us to add the opportunity to actually win it. The first winning condition we have implemented is the Renown victory. The other two, Wealth and Knowledge will become available in the 1.0 release later this year.

No worries, though, meeting the winning condition and actually retiring with your vagrus are two separate things. Even after you are able to win the game, you can decide to continue playing and trigger the victory screen later in the associated in-game Event, essentially postponing the victory (and the game's end).

The Movement (Warning: mild spoilers in this paragraph!)

Spoiler

The Abolitionist faction is a secretive one that only engages a
vagrus
when they see a like-minded individual, so many players have never met them. Still, even the
vagri
who did may have felt that their reach was rather limited in the previous builds. With this release, they receive a new mechanic that allows players to unlock interactions with them in many other locations over time as they gain the trust of the faction. This spreading mechanic also serves as the means to get faction Tasks from them in those unlocked locations and even have the chance to increase their faction presence in the settlement of your choosing

There are a number of other improvements as well, detailed in the patch notes below.

Important Note: Considering the extent of these 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 inbuild reporting tool (F1 button), forums, and our Discord server[discord.gg].

Now let's jump into the details:

--------------------------------------------------
Patch 0.7.00 - Codename: The Famous and the Furtive

New/Updated Features :shiny:

• Renown Ambition can be selected during vagrus creation
  
• Renown win condition implemented (triggered by the player from an Event)
  
• The option to change from Freeplay to Renown Ambition added (at the same location as the Renown victory Event chain)
  
• Callings now grant a temporary commission boost on the applicable Tasks (Trade or Mercenary)
  
• A great number of market, task, and equipment related tweaks
  
• Shorter initial loading time

New Content :gift:

• Option to unlock Abolitionist faction locations in numerous settlements via contacting cells
  
• A new NPC and quest line added that leads up to Renown victory (but part of the Event chain is playable by any vagri)
  
• New types of Wyrm enemies added
  
• New Jhakra and Legionnaire visual variations added

User Interface Improvements :pencil:

• Companion combat area targeting perspective added
  
• Leader UI rearranged a bit so the vagrus's details would not overlap
  
• Companion Perk UI runs a bit smoother (but still needs further improvement)

Bug Fixes :bug:

• Various trade and Task generation related fixes and tweaks
  
• Very rare Kindly Sister VIT to POW convert crash fixed
  
• Occasional Oghre Tantrum crash fixed
  
• Encourage now works during +1 Days in Events
  
• Liberating slaves now yields the correct amount of reputation with the Abolitionists
  
• Several animation sizes have been fixed
  
• Applied a great number of combat decal refinements
  
• Various other UI and/or bug fixes

Known Issues

• Companion Perk UI is bugged and lags - this will be fixed in a later build

'Is Vagrus properly balanced now?' - Nope.
'Was it a step in the right direction?' - We think so. Please let us know how you find it.

Coming Up Next
Crew and Settlement User Interface update and the first set of Companion loyalty questlines are inbound.

Between July 24 and 31, we are participating in DreamHack Beyond with Vagrus. Find us in the festivals' virtual world in Hall: Normal Hive 4 in the RPG Games room. You can claim a free ticket though the following link: DreamHack Beyond[dreamhack.com].

Stay tuned, stay alive, conquer the wasteland!
- The Lost Pilgrims Team

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/909660/view/4184391141854221207

Devlog #55 | Renown Victory, Abolitionist Rework, and Alternative Wyrms
A devlog post about the state of Vagrus - The Riven Realms​

As we are gearing up for the 1.0 release of Vagrus, we are finally coming around to implement the victory mechanics, which means that you will soon be able to complete a playthrough! There are caveats, of course, since we are still in Early Access, but we thought it was time to discuss what to expect (now and later).

Spoiler

The Design


Even in the first game design documents, winning the game was connected to Ambitions - Wealth, Fame, Knowledge, as well as some hidden ones perhaps. That is, you will select an Ambition at character creation and you win the game by reaching that Ambition through gameplay, then completing an Event that will reward you with a victory.

Freeplay


Once victory is achieved, the game offers you to continue in Freeplay Mode. This is mostly for fun or if you wish to complete some additional stories, because Achievements are turned off, and the longer you go, the less sense some stories will make when you put them in the context of elapsed time. Still, we wanted to give players the chance to keep on wandering the wasteland if that was their desire.

Victory Screen(s)


Once you complete a victory, you will receive a victory screen - for now. We are planning a series of screens touching upon the most important storyline states and companion questlines, but initially, only the single Ambition-related screen will be added, primarily because we want to hold back on story reveals and endings until 1.0. Also, only a Renown Victory is available for the time being as some things are still being worked out for the other two.

Abolitionist Rework

We've been working on the Abolitionists, too. It is a unique faction that is a bit hidden and up until now, their presence was very minor apart from their main base of operations. The build now includes a new system that you will be able to use to unlock new faction locations for the Abolitionists. This involves getting ciphers from an already unlocked location (initially their main base) and taking it (within a time limit) to a new settlement where it will unlock the faction's presence there.

What is the point of this? Most importantly, it allows you to get Tasks from these locations, making it possible to raise your Abolitionist reputation to its maximum more fluidly. Apart from that, some quests involving the faction at certain places now require you to unlock the specific location before interacting with the cell there.

This system fleshes out the somewhat shunned Abolitionist more and we hope that it will lend the much needed depth and infrastructure to a slaveless playthrough. We hope more of our players are now motivated to try a successful Abolitionist run.

New Wyrms

By 'alternative Wyrms' we do not refer to a group of odd subculture, but a series of new enemies that are coming to ruin your day! These Sand Wyrm variants share the general look of the basic creature with slight modifications (and in some cases, differences in size). The reason for this diversification is that the long, high-end storyline involving them we are working on called for more and more varied enemies to make fights interesting and keep players on their toes.

And so please welcome the Armored Wyrm, the Frenzied Wyrm, the Spitter Wyrm, and the Great Wyrm. We hope that they will cause the right amount of trouble. We are looking forward to hearing your reactions to the Renown victory aswell and see how easy or difficult you find it to reach.

Stay tuned and conquer the wasteland,
The Lost Pilgrims Team

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://vagrus.com/news/character-p...Wmd3KMVadjMWD5bjTeRi-svurDyoIlBT8yRGcb486Kg80

Character Poses - Necromancer
03 Aug | 10:00 am

Necromancy is the arcane art of manipulating life-force, allowing practitioners to communicate with the dead and animate Undead minions. In most of the Riven Realms, this school of magic is associated with the Priests of Ahskul - worshipers of the God of Death - and Necromancers. The majority of the latter either belong to the Church, too, or are otherwise licensed by the Empire. Thus in Vagrus, Necromancer enemies almost always strengthen Imperial rosters, although you can come across some rogue practitioners, too.

Necromancers are fairly squishy by themselves and do not cause a lot of damage either. Their power comes from their multitude of minions who they can buff up to become scarier in combat and even heal them using the following Skills:

Precision Cuts: A single-target melee Skill that does low damage but applies Bleeding. On top of that, this attack heals the Necromancer the same amount as the damage was due to the Perk they have called Life Leeching. Still, this attack is used mostly as a measure of last resort.

Raise Dead: The Necromancer raises the dead, and an Undead warrior joins his side of the battle. This costs a lot of Power, so it can usually be only done once per battle.

Embalming Fluid: This Skill heals a single Undead target.

Great King's Power: A single Undead target receives an INI and damage buff for 2 rounds, making them much more dangerous.

As apparent from the list of Skills, Necromancers like to surround themselves with Undead minions, then buff and heal them until they grind the enemy into dust. If left unchecked, they are terribly dangerous, especially since they regenerate POW each round, enabling more of the buffs or even another Raise Dead in the long run.

The Lost Pilgrims Team

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://vagrus.com/news/project-upd...eAnVk5KSgaxG1P905cOCGP1nBl7ITs_UCQBuJj5SFjiPA

Project Update - Reworked Crew UI​

06 Aug | 5:00 pm

In the long line of UI reworks, our next stop is the crew UI where all the panes will now receive a lot of changes and upgrades. We planned to make these changes earlier but the design was in motion all the time - with new stats and mechanics being added - and so other things were completed and added before these in the end. And so now, so close to 1.0, we finally got around to implement the new crew UI.

Apart from tweaking the visuals, there were technical considerations as well. Most importantly, we had to have UI elements on a single paper instead of four overlaid ones, with buttons switching between different contents of the page. This is not only more efficient with resources but also solves issues with the overlaid pages getting stuck, leading to soft-locks, which had us blocking this UI during settlement resting. The redesign solves this issue at last. Additionally, the buttons on top now share the same design as on other UI panes, resulting in a more unified look, which boosts usability.

The most spectacular changes appear on the Crew Pane since new stats were added to the display here. Among these is the workforce requirement and production of crew members, as well as their Combat Strength and Defense scores, along with the usual Upkeep and Consumption values. The same is true for Passengers, too, making it clearer when some of them pay with work beside coins.

The other vastly reworked part is the Companion Perk sheet. The formerly tiny and crowded Perk pane now opens onto the larger sheet and is thus easier to see and navigate. We love this new, clean design and we hope that it'll be well-received.

Be sure to check out the new UI and let us know what you think over at our discord or any other channels. As ever, we are grateful for the continued support - this game would not have been possible without you, the players.

Stay tuned and conquer the wasteland!

- The Lost Pilgrims Team

 

[fantadomat]

It looks like the best option is to go for a horde of mounted bastards. Hope that the game releases before the great economical collapse or the start of the Taiwan war.

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://vagrus.com/news/character-artwork-kal-rish

Character Artwork - Kal-rish

​

'You have taken our herd-brother captive, two-legs. Now you either trade him back to us or face the wrath of my tribe. I would think twice before you answer. When irked, we are not unlike Kal-dai-Ruhk, Great Spirit of the Eternal Wastes, when he summons his calamitous gales to wipe away whole cities.'

- The Kal-rish traveling merchant Ku-ro-Rath bargaining for his kin's life with a soon-to-be destroyed outpost's magistrate

The visual design of the Kal-rish had several important guidelines: the creature looks like a goat-centaur, sure, but they also had to have a sense of nomadic life, including their signature pile of cargo carried on their backs. Fans of the old Planescape AD&D setting might find them familiar, and admittedly, the Kal-rish are in part an homage to the bariaur of that amazing universe, albeit with several differences, especially when it comes to culture and history. Following the destruction of the original Realm of the Kal-rish, the race migrated onto the Outer Realms and spread to several worlds since, including the continent of Xeryn. They are regarded as pest at some places, traders at others, but almost all agree that their herds are powers to be reckoned with.

The Lost Pilgrims Team

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/909660/view/2990938683953638045

Devlog #56 | Settlement and Crew UI Update​

This week's devlog post is about the shiny new User Interfaces for settlements and crew.

Settlements

There are a large number of settlements (cities, towns, villages, outposts, encampments) that you can visit in Vagrus, all of them unique locations even though they share some characteristics and features. For a long while now, we have planned a rework for the original UI - as we usually do with all UI elements, really.

The most apparent change is that we did away with the tabs on the side and introduced buttons on top that now match other UI elements (but kept the stack of papers design that everyone knows). This allowed us to fill out the larger available space and show more on one screen.

The Stories pane now also has hover effects (in the same way as the Event choices) and numbering, so you can use the keyboard to select from the available stories. There have been other changes in the background, too, like the subtle substitution of a better-quality parchment under all of it, or tweaks to scrolling, among other things. With all these, we feel that the settlement UI has become more user-friendly and intuitive with some QoL elements you can personalize in the menus. We hope you'll like it!

Reworked Crew UI

In the long line of UI reworks, our next stop is the crew UI where all the panes will now receive a lot of changes and upgrades. We planned to make these changes earlier but the design was in motion all the time - with new stats and mechanics being added - and so other things were completed and added before these in the end. And so now, so close to 1.0, we finally got around to implement the new crew UI.

Apart from tweaking the visuals, there were technical considerations as well. Most importantly, we had to have UI elements on a single paper instead of four overlaid ones, with buttons switching between different contents of the page. This is not only more efficient with resources but also solves issues with the overlaid pages getting stuck, leading to soft-locks, which had us blocking this UI during settlement resting. The redesign solves this issue at last. Additionally, the buttons on top now share the same design as on other UI panes, resulting in a more unified look, which boosts usability.

The most spectacular changes appear on the Crew Pane since new stats were added to the display here. Among these is the workforce requirement and production of crew members, as well as their Combat Strength and Defense scores, along with the usual Upkeep and Consumption values. The same is true for Passengers, too, making it clearer when some of them pay with work beside coins.

The other vastly reworked part is the Companion Perk sheet. The formerly tiny and crowded Perk pane now opens onto the larger sheet and is thus easier to see and navigate. We love this new, clean design and we hope that it'll be well-received.

KÉP

As ever, we are grateful for the continued support - this game would not have been possible without you, the players.

Stay tuned and conquer the wasteland!
The Lost Pilgrims Team

 

[Mefi]

Seen their release date announcement is this week so tons of luck to them with the move out of EA. Looking forward to settling down to a full play through with it.

 

[Jinn]

Since release seems to be right around the corner, how much content would I be missing out on if I got this and started playing it now? I'm assuming my save game would transfer to the full release version without issue, right?

 

[fantadomat]

Since release seems to be right around the corner, how much content would I be missing out on if I got this and started playing it now? I'm assuming my save game would transfer to the full release version without issue, right?

I say play the prologue and maybe jerk around the starting area to get a feel for the game. Don't know if the saves will be compatible with the release versions. Also they will announce their release date so it will be most likely a month or two away.

 

[Jinn]

I say play the prologue and maybe jerk around the starting area to get a feel for the game.

Yeah, finally bought the game and that's what I decided on doing. Such a wonderfully written and fun game so far. We'll see what they have to say tomorrow.

 

[Infinitron]

Coming October 5th. fantadomat

 

[fantadomat]

Coming October 5th. fantadomat

Now put it on the jizz list to get some marketing before release

 

[Jinn]

October 5th sure does sound right around the corner to me!

 

[fantadomat]

October 5th sure does sound right around the corner to me!

Lets hope that ww3 doesn't start before that. I believe that they are non kwans,thus an economical collapse won't butthurt them much. So there is a good chance to play the finished game.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I think this was one I pre-ordered. Yeah.. prologue and the "in-dev" Sadly, I've been preoccupied so I am behind on patches, if any. A lot has changed since the prologue I believe.

 

[The Wall]

October 5th sure does sound right around the corner to me!

Lets hope that ww3 doesn't start before that. I believe that they are non kwans,thus an economical collapse won't butthurt them much. So there is a good chance to play the finished game.

They are Slavs, Czechs

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I've got this game on early access. Did it to support the team because I really liked the concept, etc. and it wasn't much dinero. Overall, played it a little bit. Hard and satisfying. I stopped playing it a while ago, not out of lack of interest, but rather similarly to Underrail I didn't want to have too much revealed to me, etc.

Overall, I think it's gonna be a good game with a long number of years worth of play as long as more stuff is added, community support, etc.

 

[Whisper]

I had a feeling from updates that they will develop for more time.
How much content will be in 1.0?

 

[Sztaszov]

I had a feeling from updates that they will develop for more time.
How much content will be in 1.0?

Hey, Vargus has a non-linear narrative with no 'main quest' so it's a bit hard to quantify. Depends a lot on the individual's playstyle. We typically see folks who follow the 'I want to get done as much as I can in a single playthrough' dogma to play 100+ hours but one can get to their first 'Victory' screen in much less time. (You can decide to continue playing). While perfectionists running multiple playthroughs are in the 4-5 hundred hours range. Hope this helps!

 

[Jinn]

While perfectionists running multiple playthroughs are in the 4-5 hundred hours range.

Sounds more like "speedrunners" rather than "perfectionists"!

Hope you guys have gotten a decent boost in sales and follows since the Gamescom trailer and release date reveal!

 

[Whisper]

I had a feeling from updates that they will develop for more time.
How much content will be in 1.0?

Hey, Vargus has a non-linear narrative with no 'main quest' so it's a bit hard to quantify. Depends a lot on the individual's playstyle. We typically see folks who follow the 'I want to get done as much as I can in a single playthrough' dogma to play 100+ hours but one can get to their first 'Victory' screen in much less time. (You can decide to continue playing). While perfectionists running multiple playthroughs are in the 4-5 hundred hours range. Hope this helps!

Must buy for me than.


Also, are there difficulty settings?

 

[Sztaszov]

Must buy for me than.

Also, are there difficulty settings?

There's a Dissonance (easy) mode and there are ways within the game to make it harder for yourself. (Plan to be rewarded with achievements)

 

[The Wall]

Must buy for me than.

Also, are there difficulty settings?

There's a Dissonance (easy) mode and there are ways within the game to make it harder for yourself. (Plan to be rewarded with achievements)

Have you thought of Hardcore mode, for us Masochists?