We face some challenges (namely: ourselves) locking in the final scope. We act as responsible devs and cut stuff but then go soft and let them sneak back in...
What do you think of cutting,mechanics or story lands ? If it is land you could always add it post release as dlc or bonus patch etc. Have you decided how much of the map will be part of the playable game? Do you have a pic of it or something.He face some challenges (namely: ourselves) locking in the final scope. We act as responsible devs and cut stuff but then go soft and let them sneak back in...
Thus, we are hesitant to commit to a date, still. Hopefully, sometime this year. (2021)
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Devlog #44 | Project Update - Beast Types and Trade Offers
This time, we come to you with a double feature of sorts, combining two topics into a single devlog post: changing the types of the beasts of burden of a comitatus and the mechanics of Trade Offers.
Beast Types
The vagrus's ability to change the type of beasts their comitatus uses has been planned to be added to the game from the beginning but it had to wait until recently for a couple of reasons. The first being that there were a number of other - more important - things to be added before and also because changing between only two types would have been a bit lackluster, but the third type was locked behind content that we got around to just lately (and is available since the addition of Larnak).
Of the three types of beasts, two are accessible in most settlements in-game. Mammals are slightly more common, which means that you can buy them in greater number in mansios, except in the deep deserts where reptiles are more common. Neither of these two types are better than the other in all respects. For example, reptile beasts of burden carry more cargo and move a tad faster but march less effectively and have a much larger consumption. Reptile mounts are slightly better at combat but less effective on long journeys than horses. Mammals are cheaper and so make it easier to scale up your comitatus but require more animal care, thus more work. The third type, insectioids, work as an upgrade in basically every aspect and cost a lot to obtain. This type is meant for high-end comitati in general.
Changing the beast type of your comitatus happens in the mansio and it changes both your beasts of burden as well as mounts to the selected type at once. From then on, you buy beasts and mounts for the new, active beast type, meaning you can never have mixed beast types in your comitatus.
Trade Offers
Commerce in the Riven Realms is held in the iron grip of Trading Houses through official monopolies or the control of locations that produce valuable goods. A simple merchant who deals in smaller quantities of wares can not begin to imagine what profit these factions work with, especially compared to what the actual manufacturing or harvesting costs. Yet there are considerable expenses involved in these operations, too. If the hardships of travel over the accursed wastelands were not enough by themselves, factions regularly wage bloody wars for resources, mostly in the shadows but often openly as well out on the frontier - and these are astonishingly expensive.
In accordance with the above outline, we have always wanted players to only have access to large quantities of wares through factions. We had a lot of the feature in place, including UI elements, but we needed dynamic pricing to work before being able to add Trade Offers. Until it could be implemented properly, the temporary solution was to control stocks through the market of settlements, but it was less transparent in many ways - a lot of players neglected to check back to depleted or markets with a seemingly low goods density, believing that it will never change.
The concept of Trade Offers is not complicated: factions that have presence in a settlement post bulk offers for buyers and sellers alike. The content and quality of these offers depend on a variety of factors, including the faction's interest in and the supply-and-demand of the wares in question, the extent of their presence, as well as the player's unlocked Trade Offer tiers (from I. to III.).
Trade Offers can only be bought and sold in full stacks, and beside the normal price, vagri can get a better deal when spending faction reputation. Although factions do not sell their wares cheaper (except at higher standing with them on the source nodes of the goods), each unit of the offered stack costs the same, which is a great advantage over the dynamically changing market price even though it may seem that the initial couple of units cost less at the market than the offered ones. The result is that large scale trading is mostly viable through faction Trade Offers.
Apart from fitting the setting of the game, the point of this design is to keep smaller comitati more viable through normal market trading while to upkeep larger ones you would have to progress through factions. This is only true of course if the player wishes to delve into the trading aspect. Trade Tasks remain for those who mostly care about a fixed, certain profit without risking their coins.
We hope you will like these new additions - they certainly add new levels of depth and strategy when it comes to comitatus management.
The Lost Pilgrims Team
Project Update - Mercenary Task Design Part II.
In Part I. of our breakdown of Mercenary Tasks, we discussed what this new kind of gameplay element brings to Vagrus, how it works, and began describing the types implemented in the current build. In the second part, we focus on the other four types of Mercenary Tasks, in which passengers play an important role.
Escort
This type is a classical RPG task: take someone (or several people) to a location and protect them on the way there. There are simpler variants - usually lower level Tasks - where you have to take them between settlements. In contrast to most regular passengers, these have known enemies hunting them, so an attack during your journey is almost certain - and several attempts at higher Task levels.
Losing crew combat against the attackers fails the Task. A future update would change this so that certain passengers can be killed and then these Escort Tasks will indeed focus on keeping them alive in the fight.
A more difficult variant is where the passenger's destination is out in the wasteland, wait there until they finish their business, then escort them to their final goal.
Abduct and Rescue
These types are the opposites sides of the same coin in some respects. Both would have you find a location in the wasteland, win a battle there, be joined by a passenger whom you need to take to their destination. The biggest difference is that the passengers do not join you voluntarily in Abduct Tasks, of course.
Both types carry the risk of being attacked on the way to the final destination as the foe tries to recapture the passenger.
Capture
In this type of Mercenary Task, you do not escort or take certain passengers but rather have to gain them from defeated enemies, that is, capture prisoners and turn them in at the given location. Most of the time, this can be accomplished in more than one crew combat encounter, but it depends on how many of the enemy flees or is killed during the battle.
Somewhat connected to this is a future mechanic that will allow you to decide the fate of the remaining captured enemies after a Crew Combat encounter. This would mean that during Capture Tasks, you could take the right kind of enemies prisoner, hastening your Task completion. However, the details of this will have to be discussed in a future post.
Be sure to try Mercenary Tasks with the right kind of comitatus when they get added to the game and tell us what you think!
Stay tuned, stay alive, conquer the wasteland!
Devlog #45 | Event UI Revamp
In this short article we've collected the recent changes to the Event UI in a more detailed format. This is something that's been a long time coming and we believe that it improves the playing- and reading-experience considerably.
Choice Boxes
There is a frame around each choice now, and the whole box thus created is clickable while also providing visual feedback when hovered over, too. These choice boxes help differentiate the various choices better and contain everything you need to make the choice.
Dependencies
What you have and what you need to make choices are called dependencies (a fancier name for 'requirements' really) and from now on, these are much better differentiated. Each category has its own icon and detailed tooltips. Optional dependencies are now signified as such, and many hidden, story-related dependencies at least show up to inform players that they are lacking something for that choice.
Tooltips
A great number of improvements were added to tooltips in Events, which mostly deals with the clean-up of dependency tooltips.
Buying and Selling
Specialized shops or ad hoc deals are often encountered in Events. From now on, the choices that lead to buying or selling are better marked, with more information on the price (and its relation to prices elsewhere). You can also see the right icon for items, equipment, goods, and gear in these choice boxes.
Enhance
Last but not least, we have implemented the 'Enhance' Leadership Perk, which can be used to raise your choices in Tests presented in some Event choices. This has been planned for a long time and we hope that it will lessen the impact of the somewhat more arbitrary Tests and give you a measure of agency.
The team has done a lot of awesome work on the Event UI and we hope you'll like these improvements when you get your hands on them in the next build! Until then, take care, and conquer the wasteland!
The Lost Pilgrims Team
What do you think of cutting,mechanics or story lands ? If it is land you could always add it post release as dlc or bonus patch etc. Have you decided how much of the map will be part of the playable game? Do you have a pic of it or something.
That said i am very impressed with you guys,managing to play such a long campaign and ending up with such a cool world. Most campaigns end up getting derailed by weird barmaid picking up or two dudes larping a relationship.
I really look forward to playing this game,hope we live long enough to see it
Baring a few exceptions it's not so much as cutting from the original scope we set 3.5 years ago than being unable to add/implement all the great ideas we had along the way and we would have preferred to include as well.
Us too. :DI really look forward to playing this game,hope we live long enough to see it
LoL no problem mate,taking care of real life things i always more important than shitposting with some dudes on the internet,take care of yourself and get better.
LoL now the question is which came with the name first,you or Vogel. I am surprised that he is not butthurt about it.
You must have consumed quite the quantity of alcohol.
I've been actively playing multiple campaigns on an off. And you know what? I hope this is one game that you guys keep hammering at for years to come, at least, as long as you enjoy/afford it. Every few updates I start a new campaign and it never gets boring. I'm really excited for when artifact hunting and exploration mechanics come in. I really want to travel the whole of the map, and I hope you flesh it out! If the team needs extra cash, make a "support the devs" deal. I'm sure there are a number of idiots like me that are happy to toss some extra quarters at you.Us too. :DI really look forward to playing this game,hope we live long enough to see it
I was just thinking about it and ended wondering if there is a slave trade mechanic or were the salves the same price all around. It will be fun if you could specialize in to slavery.I've been actively playing multiple campaigns on an off. And you know what? I hope this is one game that you guys keep hammering at for years to come, at least, as long as you enjoy/afford it. Every few updates I start a new campaign and it never gets boring. I'm really excited for when artifact hunting and exploration mechanics come in. I really want to travel the whole of the map, and I hope you flesh it out! If the team needs extra cash, make a "support the devs" deal. I'm sure there are a number of idiots like me that are happy to toss some extra quarters at you.Us too. :DI really look forward to playing this game,hope we live long enough to see it
This game is the one that i am the most hyped about from all the upcoming games.The slave icon is chained feet
I've been actively playing multiple campaigns on an off. And you know what? I hope this is one game that you guys keep hammering at for years to come, at least, as long as you enjoy/afford it. Every few updates I start a new campaign and it never gets boring. I'm really excited for when artifact hunting and exploration mechanics come in. I really want to travel the whole of the map, and I hope you flesh it out! If the team needs extra cash, make a "support the devs" deal. I'm sure there are a number of idiots like me that are happy to toss some extra quarters at you.
Project Update - Devlog #46 | QoL Improvements and Vagrus in the Finals!
There has been a number of Quality of Life changes to the game in the last couple of months and we wanted to collect them in one post.
Comitatus UI
The comitatus UI on the top left over the campaign map is one of the most frequently used interfaces in the game and we wanted to add several stats to make it more informative. To save space, we changed text to icons and now it also displays Nutrition and Obedience, as well as Combat Strength and Defense for Crew Combat.
Traverse
Another addition to the comitatus UI is the button to use the Traverse Leadership Perk - the last one missing from that category. Activating it converts 3 March Movement Points to regular Movement Points, which can be done every 3 days for 4 Resourcefulness.
Deployment Autofill
When deploying your companions in Companion Combat, now you have the option to autofill the positions using the new button. The order in which they are deployed depends on their health (Wounded entities come later).
Formations
Similar to Autofill, this improvement helps with Companion Combat deployment. You can save and load three different formations. Especially since you can enter Companion Combat from Crew Combat, players have come up with their preferred setups so using Formations, they can access them very easily.
Chart Node Cards
These cards unify settlement and POI cards with quest and Task markers. Button mechanics are the same now and there is a significant visual tune-up, too. For settlements, Codex, Price History, and Mark buttons are available, while quest and Task markers have buttons opening the relevant Journal entry as well as Mark options.
Chart Markers
These were improved to show how many nodes fall into the area designated by the marker. They are color-coded to be easier to differentiate even at a cursory glance. Better yet, preview versions of these same markers are available for Tasks and Passengers (if the destination is unknown for your character), so you can better calculate travel times and risks.
We hope you'll enjoy these changes - we have put a lot of work into them.
Also great news
Vagrus has made it into the finalists in the Digital Dragons Indie Celebration competition!
Beside the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places awarded based on the votes of the jury, there is also a Community Vote you can participate in here. The list is in alphabetical order, so Vagrus is the last one.
By the way, the voting for Untold Games Awards' community award is still on, so if you haven't, head over there, too, and have your voice heard.
Words can not express how much we appreciate your continued support. Stay tuned, stay safe, and conquer the wasteland!
-The Lost Pilgrims Team
Of course! Voted and "Advocate" level patreon!hey, thanks a lot for that. In case you are looking for ways to support us, we have a Patreon page and our Fig campaign with higher tier rewards is still open. Even the smallest of contributions helps.
(snip)
Also, another great way to support is to spread the message and vote for Vagrus in these award nominations:
I'll spam the vote links in friendly places.
Of course! Voted and "Advocate" level patreon!
It's a shame that Steam Early Access doesn't have Fig-esque tier levels.
A New Demo Build is OUT - Patch 0.5.31. - Codename: Second Chances
Hey Folks,
we have been a bit busy. Sorry about that! Now we are coming back big time with a patch that is a culmination of all the changes we have made on the main game over the course of the last nine months.
COVID did not help matters for us but overall, we are happy with our progress thus far. Read more about how 2020 went for us in our Steam blog post here:
2020 Year-End Summary.
Vagrus - The Riven Realms News
As you could tell from the list of changes, we have been busy improving the main game. We added several new regions, expanding it to about 70-100 hours of playable content (depending on playstyle).
We are immensely honored, happy, and proud to share that Vagrus has been nominated for two awards in the upcoming Unfold Games Awards show, and got into the finals of the Digital Dragons - Indie Celebration completion. It feels like quite an achievement for a game still in Early Access, especially since hundreds of high-quality games entered both of these contests. The nominees were selected by a panel of judges comprised of top industry professionals. Both competitions have their own form of audience awards, so you can support Vagrus if you like until those digital polls are open:
- Unfold Games Awards: Best Game Design Award
- Unfold Games Awards: Audience Award - Vote for Vagrus
- Digital Dragons Indie Celebration: Community Award - Vote for Vagrus
We cannot express how much these mean to the whole team, how their love for the game and dedication to turn it into something truly special got recognized in the form of these nominations.
We are also grateful to You, our players, for having made it possible for Vagrus to get here. Your continued support, constructive criticism, and dedication to the game keep pushing us to deliver more and better.
Now let's jump into the details of what's included in this new build:
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Patch 0.5.31 - Codename: Second Chances
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.
General changes
- Open-world turn limit increased to 25 days (previously 5 days)
- Companion Prowess cap in the open-world section raised from 2 to 5
- Second level Skill upgrades enabled for companions (and can be boosted to third)
- Vagrus now can run in the background
- Options menu overhaul
- Graphics configuration options moved to 'Options' (no pop-up at the start)
New/Updated Features
- Mercenary Tasks were added
- Beast-Type change option added to the mansions (between Mammal and Reptile types)
- Dozens of new enemies (humanoids/creatures) added
- Impervious enemies introduced (they can be damaged only by magical means)
- Higher Authority now reduces Companion loyalty penalties
- Dynamic pricing allows for higher profits in smaller quantities
- Having a high reputation with Factions gives you fabulous treasures and useful equipment as a reward
- Having good standing with them also opens up better deals at markets under the Faction Offers tab
Leadership Perks
- 'Enhance' Perk and functionality enabled (allows you to raise Test chances further in Events)
- 'Traverse' Perk and functionality enabled (allows you to convert MMP to MP every few days)
- 'Exploit' Perk and functionality enabled (allows you to reroll available Trade/Mercenary Tasks)
Companion Combat
- Diminishing returns on successful Evades and Blocks introduced
- New Combat Traits implemented: Arcane Leech, Blood Magic, Channeling, Durable Spells, Frenzy, Life Leech, Siphon, Spell Penetration, Resolute, Defender, Diehard, Acrobatic, and Marksman
- Push and Pull effects can now switch the combatants in the front and back rows
- Move + Action skills can now go through occupied spaces automatically switching with whoever is standing there
- AI improvements - enemies can now use complex skills and are less likely to skip their turn
- Animation and decal refinements
- New SFX added for a number of enemies
Crew Combat
- Actions & Advanced Actions with the 'Command' Leadership Perk were added
- Enter Companion Combat from Crew Combat action enabled, allowing you to fight a portion of the foe with your Companions during a Crew Combat encounter, weakening them seriously
- Retreat/Disengage/Flee options mid-fight are now possible - they take a full round to execute
- Looting added
- Gather/Harvest items, money, and goods from fallen enemy units
- Destroy the enemy or make it flee and get all their valuables
- Goals on the defender side added & option to change your goal between rounds
- Defense stat introduced
- The options to Mount/Dismount at start of combat added
- Decide on the fate of the foe if they surrender or you capture them as they flee or retreat
- Enemy banners added in Crew Combat for flavor and categorization
User Interface Improvements
- Event UI revamp including: buy-sell icons, hover effect, clickable choice box, dependency icon improvements, and tooltip improvements
- Camp UI 'X' button added (the most requested feature ever) - goes inactive if any camp action is started, like banter, etc.
- Price History is a new tool for all vagri to track goods' prices across settlements
- Equipment design changes - new slots, some unlocked by Deputy assignments
- Banner selection for your comitatus with unlockable options via Factions
- Revamped mini-comitatus UI (campaign view top left) with more information
- Revamped Node & Marker cards on the Chart
- Objective area markers for certain events where you need to scout a larger area (like bounties), so you know, at least roughly, the location
- Added the use of preview markers: this allows you to check the destinations of Tasks before picking them up in settlements
- Goods category filters on the Market
- Specify quantity button on the Market - mainly for Steam Remote Play users playing on iPads
Bug Fixes
- The bugged 'Second chance' achievement supposedly fixed
- A metric ton of other smaller and bigger fixes from the last nine months
Known Issues
- The initial load time is much longer than we would like it to be
- The companion combat AI has not been fully optimized yet, so enemy turns take longer currently
'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.
Well, that's it for now. Quite a lot of things to, and more is coming soon to the main game!
Stay tuned, stay alive, conquer the wasteland!
- The Lost Pilgrims Team
Offer Fig keys to Steam Early Access purchasers? Steam key is $30. Fig is $25. TBH you only stand to gain Steam EA purchaser's Fig upgrades. Unless the steam cut is that crazy, Steam to Fig key for $5?If you offer my example above, I'm down.
That's a shame, because had I known about the Fig campaign (and the developer cut info) before seeing the Steam EA offer I would have most surely gone with that.
The Riven Realms, the setting of Vagrus, is a harsh, violent place. Up until now, many players have felt that their ventures are the primary targets of this cruelty but with Mercenary Tasks, you will have the opportunity to return the favor. This facet of gameplay has been in the works since we began developing Vagrus, and it not only adds a ton of variation and replayability but also goes a long way in softening up story content. Along with the branching story and trading, we consider mercenary work as one of the three pillars that hold up the game. Of course, we leave it to players which facet they want to concentrate on at times in each playthrough. Mercenary Tasks even allow for a completely combat-oriented gameplay, concentrating on forging a warband from your comitatus.
Mercenary Tasks are received from factions. Their orientation influences the ratio of Trade versus Mercenary Tasks with a given faction and also the type of mercenary contracts they hand out. Enemies in these missions can be almost any kind, from beasts to outlaws and Undead - even the mercenaries of other factions.
Eliminate
The simplest, most common type. You have to reach a location indicated on your chart, find the right node, then defeat the enemies, sometimes once, other times in a series of Crew Combat encounters. Victory and crushing the enemy is all that matters.
Defend
You have to reach a location and defend it against the enemy. An option to reinforce the location with fighters from your own crew is always present in this type. The cunning vagrus plans ahead and brings extra forces to be able to reinforce, of course, for weakening yourself before a battle might prove disastrous even though the number of warriors given thusly lowers the fight's difficulty somewhat.
After the decision of reinforcing or not, there is some waiting, since the enemy you have to defend against takes some time to arrive. This also makes planning ahead with supplies important. Just like with Eliminate, there can be a single enemy wave or several.
Conquer
This type is a sort of a combination of Eliminate and Defend: first you reach the location, then defeat the enemies already present there, then organize the defense (you can reinforce it similarly to Defend), wait for the enemy to arrive and beat it back. Should you fail the first time, you can attempt to complete the Task again until the deadline is reached.
Alternatively, you can move on after defeating the enemies the first time and hope that the place defends itself. In this case, you must reinforce it with fighters, however.
More To Come
As you can see, Mercenary Tasks mix things up in the best way possible and add a huge amount of variation. In Part II. we are going to discuss the rest of the types: Escort, Abduct, Rescue, and Capture. And who knows, in the long run, we might be able to add even more Mercenary Task types.
Mercenary Tasks are coming to Vagrus soon so stay tuned and let us know what you think once you give this new feature a spin.
Conquer the wasteland,
The Lost Pilgrims Team
