Dragons of colors – check; paladinshit – check; orcs elves dwarfs ogres ogrepaladins and many more – check. Nuked or whatever it's still full of tolkienish fantasy garbage.
Devlog#63 | Glossary and Back-end Improvements
Hey everyone,
Revamping campaign map movement and scouting into a sleeker system finally allowed us to move on to other things our players have expressed the need for. First off, many of you wanted more information and clarity on gameplay mechanics to be able to better understand its complexity – rightly so. That is why we are publishing a Beta version of the new Glossary.
The Glossary
This feature doesn’t contain story or lore content, but is aimed at clarifying game mechanisms and UI segments. It is accessible in the game by pressing ‘G’ or clicking on the eye icon in the top-right corner of the screen.
The Glossary is structured into seven main categories representing the main facets of Vagrus’s gameplay mechanics. These categories are Story, Combat, Comitatus, Factions, Trading, Settlements, and Campaign Map. All of these have subcategories, which in turn have their own subcategories, making the Glossary appear in a three-tier structure. Thus, when you browse the Glossary, you can read more about a certain topic by navigating to subcategories, after which you can easily get back to higher levels.
<<Video:GlossaryDemonstration>>
Furthermore, entries contain references to other entries of relevance. You can just click on a highlighted word or expression to navigate to its entry. There is also a search function that comes in handy when you know what you are looking for, but you’re not sure where to find it.
As stated above, the Glossary is still very much in Beta; by no means do we consider it final. Therefore, we would appreciate your feedback so that we can improve its usefulness to players (the easiest way to provide feedback is always our discord server or via the bug-reporting in-game tool).
Unity Addressables
There is something else we have been spending a lot of time on, and probably most of our players won’t even realize its outcome. It is about the Unity Addressables function. Essentially, it assigns keys to assets (most prominently art), acting as a reference ID, enabling us to move art assets out of the so-called Resources folder in Unity. The primary purpose of using Addressables is for game assets not to take up memory when they are not being used, only when they are.
This is because the way it used to be was sub-optimal and hindered the porting of the game to Android and iOS. Doing things this new way will allow the game will run more smoothly on more low-end PCs and eventually, on smaller devices, such as tablets. In practice, this means that location arts in settlements and events or combat backgrounds along with all character assets including animations, icons, and portrays are now treated as addressables, which required a lot of restructuring.
We have been working on this for almost two months along with other tasks and we dare say we are more than content with the outcome. This way, we managed to reduce the initial loading time, the game’s memory usage, and the installed game itself is now 3.4 GBs instead of the 4.6 GBs it used to be.
We are definitely planning to pursue further optimization not only in this direction but also to achieve a more enjoyable gameplay experience on smaller displays. Furthermore, we are going to explore the possibility to add controller support benefiting devices such as Steam Deck – or eventually other consoles as well.
With all that said, we are gearing up for the next (free!) content DLC, Seekers of Knowledge. More on that very soon. Until then, stay tuned and conquer the wasteland!
That’s all for today, so for now – stay tuned, stay safe, and conquer the wasteland!
The Lost Pilgrims Team
Announcing Free DLC: Seekers of Knowledge coming September 22
Free DLC: Seekers of Knowledge coming September 22
Hey everyone,
Great news, vagri: after testing our new content as much as possible, we can now put down a release date for what will be our second free DLC – Seekers of Knowledge. That’s right; mark your calendars, because Seekers of Knowledge will be dropping on the 22nd of September.
With this DLC we are aiming to enrich the already vast playable realm and to further add to the victory paths already available to players. The DLC itself unlocks a variety of extensive questlines and introduces the Sunken Tower; a massive new dungeon and the focal point of the release’s new, unique stories.
Once known as the Tower of Akarius, the Sunken Tower was home to a host of esteemed Elves, Humans, and Dwarves – all of whom worked tirelessly toward the unified pursuit of knowledge. Millennia have passed since that time, however, and thanks to the Calamity, the Tower now wrestles with a different fate. A fate where its once proud denizens languish in the recesses of its hallowed halls, seeking respite, unable to escape the terrible power that has beset the place.
Along with the Sunken Tower, this DLC introduces a variety of new enemies, NPCs, quests, and the new Knowledge Ambition questline, which tasks the player with amassing and uncovering all kinds of knowledge to achieve victory. The quest itself encompasses one of the largest stories yet to be told in the Riven Realms – a story that will inevitably see vagri descend into the darkest depths of forbidden knowledge and madness-inducing truths that are best left forgotten.
Conquer the wasteland!
The Lost Pilgrims Team
Hey everyone,
This time, we've got a new free DLC for you, along with revamped Scouting, a Glossary to clarify gameplay mechanisms and UI elements, as well as major backend improvements. It would be no understatement to say that this is a huge stepping stone for us and the Riven Realms.
Before we get into anything, feel free to check out our highest-ever discounts as
Vagrus - The Riven Realms is participating in the TactiCon sales between September 22nd and 26th.
Having already touched upon some elements that this patch will be covering, let’s get into the most important points and details.
Scouting Rework
We think we have managed to enhance player agency by bringing Scouting to a place where it offers a great deal to those who are willing to make use of its more niche qualities while incorporating enough concrete drawbacks that it does not become a default or even mandatory choice for vagri traversing the wasteland. To support that, scouting results remain visible for three in-game days (or turns).
Manual Scouting is conducted in your general surrounding area, which can be expanded greatly if you have enough scouts at your disposal. Covering a large area can be a great way to find specific things you really need or want; for example, great hunting and foraging nodes, or combat encounters if you play an aggressive comitatus. It is also important to note that the more distance covered, the lower the chance of success becomes in general. Also, Vagri may now use Resourcefulness to guarantee success during manual scouting, which can be especially useful if you absolutely need to know specific results.
While out traversing the wasteland with Auto-scouting on, you are not prompted by results in the same way you are when you initiate Manual Scouting. Results that can be moused over will show on the campaign map, but to get a full overview, you will need to click the emblem in the top left corner. Contextual options allow you to set up rules about when to stop the comitatus if you want to investigate something you found along the way.
Glossary
The Glossary does not contain story or lore content but rather it is aimed at clarifying game mechanisms and UI elements. It is accessible in the game by pressing ‘G’ or clicking on the eye icon in the top-right corner of the screen.
The Glossary is structured into seven main categories representing the main facets of Vagrus’s gameplay mechanics. These categories are Story, Combat, Comitatus, Factions, Trading, Settlements, and the Campaign Map. All of these have subcategories, which in turn have their own subcategories, making the Glossary appear in a three-tier structure. Thus, when you browse the Glossary, you can read more about a certain topic by navigating to subcategories, after which you can easily switch back to higher levels.
Entries contain references to other entries of relevance. You can just click on a highlighted word or expression to navigate to its entry. There is also a search function that comes in handy when you know what you are looking for, but you’re not sure where to find it.
Please note that the Glossary is still very much in Beta; by no means do we consider it final. Therefore, we would appreciate your feedback so that we can improve its usefulness to players (the easiest way to provide feedback is always our discord server or via the bug-reporting in-game tool).
Seekers of Knowledge Free DLC
We are also releasing our second free DLC – Seekers of Knowledge! With it, we are aiming to enrich the already vast playable realm and to further add to the victory paths available to players. The DLC introduces the Sunken Tower, a massive new dungeon and the focal point of the release’s new stories.
Once known as the Tower of Akarius, the Sunken Tower was home to a host of esteemed Elven, Human, and Dwarven scholars – all of whom worked tirelessly toward the unified pursuit of knowledge. Millennia have passed since that time, however, and due to the Calamity, the Tower now wrestles with a different fate. A fate where its once proud denizens languish in the recesses of its hallowed halls, seeking respite, unable to escape the terrible curse that has beset the place.
This free DLC introduces a variety of new enemies, NPCs, quests, and the new Knowledge Ambition, which tasks the player with amassing and uncovering all kinds of knowledge to achieve victory. The quest encompasses a story that will inevitably see vagri descend into the darkest depths of forbidden knowledge and madness-inducing truths that are best left forgotten.
And 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.
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Patch 1.1.25 - Codename: Seekers
Seekers of Knowledge Free DLC
- The Sunken Tower can now be unlocked via questing
- A massive storyline centered around the Tower was added (it can be played through without doing the new Knowledge Ambition)
- The Tower is a massive dungeon that changes each time you enter - it can be explored bit by bit, unlocking more dangerous locations, secrets, and precious Insight
- A number of new enemies, Gear, and commercial Items were added to give the Tower its own challenges and rewards
- The Knowledge Ambition can be selected during vagrus creation or switched to from Freeplay
Content Update
- A number of new opportunities added to obtain certain Codex entries to already existing locations and Events
- Two new achievements connected to the newly added questlines
New or Updated Features
- Scouting update (new representation of results and a revamped Manual Scouting)
- Added the Auto-scouting feature
- Added the Glossary
Design Tweaks
- The Renown Victory condition raised to 40 Renown to be more on par in terms of difficulty with Wealth and Knowledge Ambition victory conditions
- The Church of Sergorod is now the opponent of both the Ratharnak Alliance and the Scythichnis Covenant (and vice versa)
- Significant combat AI improvements (the game may have gotten harder)
User Interface Improvements
- Added a new text template to the Gamelog
- New Prowess tooltip was added when there is insufficient Insight
- A new Prowess button has been implemented
- Companions now have 5 status lines instead of 4
Bug Fixes
- Finndurarth storyline crash was fixed
- The Block/Evade button is available only after the tutorial in Pilgrims of the Wasteland
- Companions are no longer falsely indicated as wounded
- Events that negatively effect Movement and Autocamp will now calculate MPs correctly
- Double position character markers form a single block now
- "Damage" text in Crew Combat Actions is no longer white
- The tutorial will recommend Aid instead of Inspire when there is a Downed Companion
- Goods tooltip will mention Price History only after Price History has been unlocked
- A lot of minor tutorial-related polishing
- The bottom choice box text is no longer obstructed in Events
- Fixed some cases where Companions occupied the same position in combat
- The long tooltip on the Factions tab has been fixed
- Event tests are no longer rigged massively in the players’ favor
- Dragonlands-related Points of Interest (POIs) will not offer slaves as passengers
- The bug related to incorrect percentages shown for Odd Jobs has been fixed
- "Due to" Game log text will not be displayed twice
- Skills with self-targeting phase in the Combat Log have been fixed
- Players can no longer receive Yrg beasts through crew combat but will receive Supplies instead
- Various settlement background art-related bugs fixed
- A large number of mistakes, typos, and issues with texts all across the board were corrected
What’s Coming Up Next
- Optimization to Steam Deck and other tablets
- Controller support
Currently Known Issues:
- Escort tasks-related anomalies
- Crew combat chance percentages are sometimes shown in reverse
Since we are adding a massive amount of content, revamping Scouting, and changing backend technology by implementing Unity addressables, there are bound to be issues that neither we nor our testers realized or flagged, so we will be taking all feedback sent by next Monday and address serious issues in a hotfix the same week.
Stay tuned and conquer the wasteland!
- The Lost Pilgrims Team
A New Build is OUT - Patch 1.1.250930K - Seekers Hotfix
This patch brings quick fixes to the latest build
Hey everyone,
Thanks for the amazing welcome of the Seekers of Knowledge DLC and our patch published parallel with all kinds of improvements. Seeing so many new players and hundreds of old ones who picked up the game again made the whole team very happy, especially with the game’s full release anniversary coming up soon. Expect a post on the day from us with a summary of the first year.
So, with a content and code update of such size, there were indeed some issues that we needed to iron out. Thanks for everyone reporting them and sorry for the inconvenience they may have caused. This hotfix will make the game much more stable while we continue to work on further fixes, improvements, and who knows, we might even start on new content.
And 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.
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Patch 1.1.250930K The Seekers of Knowledge - Hotfix
Bug Fixes
Currently Known Issues:
- Game will no longer crash when ESC is spammed before an Event loads
- Crash while Finndurarth used Electrify to kill an Orc Marauder with Die Hard perk was fixed
- Fixed a crash related to the tutorial pins
- Icons are no longer multiplying when dragged repeatedly in the Cargo menu’s Owned Equipment section
- Crash involving Nedir’s Conflagration and a Wight’s Grave Call cast on the same position was fixed
- Texts and event choices are now fully visible in ultrawide resolutions
- Fixed a bug where in rare occasions, the game crashes when entering the first fight of Pilgrims of the Wasteland
- In case the comitatus moves via a camp/quick camp order, and the movement is interrupted by an Event, camp/quick camp will not come up automatically
- Various problems related to the comitatus having excess cargo were fixed
- Heat Shielding Crystal will no longer be unequipped automatically
- Fixed a bug where the game crashes during vagrus creation in rare instances
- Sedarias will start the second PotW fight in Block mode as originally intended
- Fixed a bug where the game crashes if an Event comes up after camping in rare instances
Stay tuned and conquer the wasteland!
- Escort tasks-related anomalies
- Crew combat chance percentages are sometimes shown in reverse
- Some infrequent crashes are still being investigated
- The Lost Pilgrims Team
Vagrus's 1-year Anniversary
Today we celebrate the 1-year anniversary of the full release of Vagrus – The Riven Realms. We are happy to have reached this point, and perhaps most importantly, we couldn’t have done it without the help of our backers, supporters, and players along the way. So here’s to you, vagri, for all your encouragement, assistance, feedback, and goodwill! In this post, we’ll be taking a little bit of a trip down memory lane, from the beginning and creation of the game to its release exactly one year ago. We’ll finish up with a small glimpse into the future of Vagrus and what players can expect moving forward.
We first imparted our vision for Vagrus back in 2017, establishing Lost Pilgrims, with a small team of just four developers. We had and still have a love of games, strategy, and tabletop roleplaying, but when it all started, we might say that we were a little naive. Not because releasing a game we could all be proud of was impossible – indeed, where we stand now makes it more apparent than ever that it wasn’t. However, we were naive in that we did not fully comprehend the gargantuan task in front of us, nor the intensity with which we would have to work to create the game we wanted and promised to our backers. We’ve always said that the game is a labor of love, and that’s exactly what we needed to cross the finish line: love. Oh, and a lot of hard work, naturally!
Nevertheless, in July 2020 we released our first public build – an Early Access version of the game already featuring a ton of content. We continued to plod forward before eventually dropping a full release of the game on October 5, 2021. We were blown away by some of the critical reception to the game’s launch, some of the highlights (like being included in IndieDB’s PlayersChoice top ten), having the game covered by numerous high-profile media outlets, along with receiving a plethora of awards and nominations, most of which can be found on our Steam page for those interested.
All in all, we were greatly honored by the critical reception of the game, and by the wealth of positivity about it from many independent content creators on YouTube, such as SplatterCatGaming, who covers indie games extensively (and covered ours here). After the success of the game’s full release, we immediately set ourselves to the task of finding a new office, and to recruiting additional Lost Pilgrims. The process began with Ákos[vagrus.com], a graphic and UX/UI designer. Then, in February, we took on Viktor[vagrus.com] and Beni[vagrus.com] as coders and programmers, and finally, in April, we welcomed James[vagrus.com] and Zeli[vagrus.com] to the team as new writers to be able to keep adding content in the long run.
We were also able to create various merch for the game provided to those who backed us on higher tiers or who purchased the Emperor’s Edition. While we were certainly elated to see what we had worked on brought to life in physical form, the process was far more daunting and difficult than we had anticipated. Regardless, you can take a look at merch here[vagrus.com], and we’d also like to say that there are those who have still not claimed their goodies because we do not have their addresses; if that’s you, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us and we will send it along.
Moving forward now, let’s focus on what has happened since release. We have continued to improve the game, adding a slew of quality-of-life features such as custom notes, map movement UI reworks, a slew of Companion Combat improvements, and a complete overhaul of Scouting – as requested by the community on many occasions.
On the content side, we started out with Kingpins of the Realms: a sizable patch introducing new questlines for the Loaders’ and Carpenters’ guilds, then releasing our first free DLC with the new companion Vorax[vagrus.com] in May. More recently (last week) we released Seekers of Knowledge[vagrus.com], our second free DLC and major content addition, which has further expanded the ways players can achieve victory in the game by acquiring Codex entries and working towards the Knowledge Ambition’s fulfillment. It is our hope that these pieces of content will pave the way for our next big DLC – a paid piece of content that we have just begun working on, and that will open up an entirely new region for vagri eager to continue or resume their journey in the Riven Realms! Provided that everything goes swimmingly when we can release this content next year, we have many more ideas for future additions to the game moving forward.
We hope you have enjoyed this little trip down memory lane, and a short glimpse into the future. We have a great deal more to speak about in the coming weeks, so – until then – stay tuned, stay safe and conquer the wasteland!
Stay tuned and conquer the wasteland!
- The Lost Pilgrims Team
Devlog#64 | Update on Vagrus Localization
Project Update about the progress of the development of indie game Vagrus - The Riven Realms.
Hello everyone,
This one is going to be an update on localization. A while back, we cited the game’s complexity, size, and it being a niche game that resulted in a relatively low sales volume as factors that made any kind of localization unlikely. Despite that, we have been encouraging players to still wishlist the game and let us know what languages they would like to see it translated into in a dedicated localization thread and promised to reassess the situation after a while to see what is desired and viable and what is not. A year has passed since, and it is time for us to do just that, which led to a good and bad news kind of situation. The bad news is that sales figures and declining wishlists in non-English-speaking regions made the prospect of official translations not viable.
BUT the good news is that we have been – and still are – eager to reach people to show them the world of the Riven Realms. We would like to ensure that even those whose level of English proficiency represents a language barrier can have a chance at adequately understanding and enjoying the game. Thus, we have already started working on things that would help them. Sadly, the way we built the game and stored data were unconducive for effective localization. We had to restructure our Event Editor tool and change several things in Unity, etc. This was quite tiresome and the process has been ongoing for months now. However, we’ve been gladly dedicating working hours to pave the way to localize larger chunks of text. Smaller things in the UI, however, are very tedious work, so we cannot promise to make it work for every little detail. Admittedly, our focus lies in making the story and the most used elements translatable.
Since the base game and the DLCs combined contain about 1.3 million words’ worth of text, volunteer translators are unlikely to pop up. As a result, our approach was to subscribe to a machine translation tool called DeepL and generate localization files in various languages that will be made accessible and editable in order to facilitate fan translations through polishing said files. We are still not entirely sure as to the demand for such an endeavor or if the underlying technical facilities are indeed there. In case it could work and it garners sufficient interest, we are planning to allow fan translation groups to add their own translations and improved machine translations through Steam Workshop. Signups for such groups will be open for whoever wishes to undertake translations. This is all still subject to deliberation along with the exact details and the way of going about the entire process. A reason for this approach is that we are not planning to actually incorporate the fan-translated texts into the game proper, merely to facilitate translation for community translator groups who would be actually working on them and under whose banner their respective addons will run.
As a result of all that outlined above, we still don’t know how much interest this project will generate and how enthusiastic our players will be, so we are not expecting quick developments in the matter. Naturally, the quality of machine translations is very far from the level of an official translation, making them rather unfit to create the kind of atmosphere and immersion we believe is needed to fully enjoy the game. Thus we cannot in good conscience recommend using them as the main language, of course.
In short, these machine translations are more likely to be a sort of an aid for those who, from time to time, wish to look at raw translations in their native tongue. The player will first have to acknowledge a disclaimer stating that what is to follow is machine translated and not intended to be taken as a full-fledged official translation for the game. Once that is out of the way, the player will be able to set a primary and a secondary language through the UI. All events and codex entries will be displayed in the primary language and the secondary language texts will assist in understanding the primary language texts.
The machine translation tool DeepL has its limitations and so we go as far as the subscription options go. Thus, initially, only some supported languages will be covered. We aim to create this localization model in a way that will allow contributors to set up files that match the structure. The game itself will then be able to manage these files and make new languages selectable as primary and secondary languages in-game. Due to versioning, every non-translated text will automatically be displayed in English.
That said, we are looking for community translation coordinators for each language.
Since we are not going to have adequate capacity or competence to review translations, we welcome volunteer groups to form and start working together, but we cannot take on the role of an arbitrator either. Eventually, if enough progress is made and the files become available through Steam Workshop, they can be submitted and maintained by said volunteers as well. Coordinators will receive beta branch access to the game to cooperate with us to set up this localization file system. During the selection of coordinators, prior participation in such projects and credentials will play important roles to make sure they are reliable and competent, as they will be responsible for the translations and reviews. In order to improve translations based on machine learning, compiling a dictionary of specific words and expressions for the machine would go a long way, so that the AI does not come up with its own strange translations. Teams working on such a dictionary will also be encouraged.
Last, but not least, we are overjoyed to have been able to afford long development hours to lay down the groundwork for the localization environment and for the whole thing to even be able to kick off. The whole venture, however, will be tons of effort and consist of countless iterations, so we kindly ask for your patience.
Take care and conquer the wasteland!
The Lost Pilgrims Team
Vagrus and Adventure X 2022 – The Narrative Convention
Project Update about the progress of the development of indie game Vagrus - The Riven Realms.
Hello everyone,
Good news, everyone: Lost Pilgrims Studio will once again be participating in Adventure X’s Narrative Convention. For those not in the know, the event is held annually in London and its primary goal is to bring together devs and gamers passionate about interactive storytelling. As it stands, AdventureX is the UK’s only convention dedicated to narrative-driven gaming, which is why we attended in 2019, and are ecstatic about being a part of it again, if only online this time. Aside from the in-person event, there will also be a live stream that you can check out here, and if you’d like to follow updates from the organizers, you can do so via their Twitter account here.
Perhaps most importantly, this also means that we’ll be running a sale as part of the event, so if you have got a friend who is a little on the fence about purchasing any narrative games, now is the time!
For those interested in a little trip down memory lane, you can also find some pictures of our attendance in 2019, with the first featuring a wonderful snap of our creative director and world builder, Geri:
The second shot below shows our amazingly talented graphic artist – clearly deep in an explanation – Szonja:
That’s all for today. Be sure to check the convention out, and of course – stay safe, stay sane, and conquer the wasteland!
Take care and conquer the wasteland!
The Lost Pilgrims Team
Hand-held Porting, Screen Optimization, Accessibility, and Controller Support
Hello all,
This week we’re proud to reveal a little more about what our best and brightest pilgrims have been working on here at Lost Pilgrims Studio. The first major change is something we foreshadowed in a Steam post a while back – porting. We will also be covering the integration of controller support across platforms later in this post, so read on if you’d like to know more about that.
For now, back to porting. Included under that heading is the optimization of Vagrus for all mobile devices, tablets, and, of course, the recently released Steam Deck. Naturally, the main goal of these projects has been to bring the game to a larger audience; an audience that can play on the move, which certainly suits turn-based games such as our own. So, without further ado, let’s examine what we’ve been able to achieve so far, starting as so many players do with Agos – the enigmatic vagabond who introduces players to the Pilgrims of the Wasteland scenario.
Another key aspect it has allowed us to address is accessibility. Players have, at times, expressed concerns about the font size in Vagrus, and with us focusing on porting, we have also been able to implement a zoom feature for the PC client. We are still in the process of fine-tuning and fully integrating the feature, but we are confident that in doing so we will improve user experiences across the board.
As you can see above, we’ve optimized the formatting of the text to be legible on handheld devices. But what about in-game? Is it possible to read all the wonderful prose that players have come to expect from the Riven Realms? Absolutely! Just double-tap to zoom in, as shown below.
For the sake of following up, we’ve also included another screenshot of a closer view – after the player has used the double-tap feature, of course! Check it out below.
Luckily, that’s not all. Because we want to make sure that players’ user experience does not suffer even slightly while using a small screen, players will also be able to scroll or swipe to navigate the UI, as captured below with the journal.
And since we’ve set a precedent of following up, here’s the subsequent result of the player swiping left…
Multi-platform Controller Support
We are working on full controller support for standard controllers and gamepad layouts including PCs, mobile devices, and – at some point – we hope we can get things working on hand-held and desktop console ports as well.
It is important to note that all this is still very much work-in-progress, most of what you are about to see and read is subject to change, and the implementation is quite time-intensive, so please bear with us. That said, PC players are likely to be the first ones to enjoy controller support.
We have created a modern navigation system on UI and for all functions from scratch, specifically for controllers. In other words, it isn’t simply the existing cursor-based system repurposed for controllers.
Direct buttons will be assigned for specific functions to make things easier.
Selecting and switching between UI elements during gameplay will also be comfortable.
What about analog stick use? We’ve come up with a radial menu to best tackle that issue.
We are also working on an easy drag & drop system to be implemented at various points of gameplay.
We are simplifying Perk selection and trading functions in settlements, too.
Though they are deep in the pipeline currently, we hope that when released these changes will help improve player experiences across all platforms. In the coming months, we will be able to share more and more of what we’ve been working on and intend to release.
Vagrus is also currently taking part in Steam's Autumn Sale, so if you or a friend is looking to pick the game up for a discount, the time is now, pilgrims!
As always, stay safe – stay tuned – and conquer the wasteland!
The Lost Pilgrims Team
Steam Autumn Sale & Steam Awards Nomination
Hello everyone,
Recently, we have shared posts pertaining to various areas of development, such as multi-platform controller support (featuring an adaptive button UI and drag & drop system), mobile and tablet porting & screen optimization of Vagrus for all mobile devices and the recently released Steam Deck, and finally, Localization in the shape of community translations. This post is going to be a bit different.
Steam has just launched its Autumn Sale as well, filled with huge discounts! This is an excellent opportunity to take advantage of an amazing deal and stock up on hundreds of hours of the splendid SRPG experience that Vagrus has to offer for the coming rainy, cold, and dark days.
In other related news, the Steam Awards nominations are now open! Allow us to ask for a little assistance here. If you feel like nominating Vagrus for the Labor of Love Award, please do so here! We have been working on Vagrus for over a year since its initial release, which has been made possible by the unwavering support of our players. Moving forward we will keep pushing to make our beloved game better, to create more content, and bring it to more people. We owe you a debt of gratitude for keeping us going; your support and encouragement is indispensable.
Stay safe and conquer the wasteland,
The Lost Pilgrims Team
Devlog #66 - Public Beta Plans, Upcoming Price Changes, and a Tiny Teaser
Happy New Year everyone!
We hope all of you had a great holiday season, feel recharged, and are looking forward to the New Year. After a much-needed break on our side, we are ready to start the year now, reinvigorated to bring Vagrus to more devices and deliver a new DLC this year.
On the development side, we have been working on implementing small screen and controller support to enable playing Vagrus on Steam Deck (and eventually, other handheld devices, too). We did expect that tackling these additions would be a daunting task, though truth be told, it has proven even more difficult than we had hoped. Nevertheless, we are nearing a point where our progress may be worth sharing on a public beta branch so more folks with Steam Decks and controllers could chime in.
We are implementing a new version of the in-game reporting tool. Not just to make it easier on the eyes but to improve their classification and automate part of the process on our end, thereby helping us not to lose track of anything important. Stay tuned for these changes.
Important Notice - Price Changes Coming
We published a thread on our discussion forum back in November about this but we would like to draw everyone’s attention to the upcoming price changes again. Especially, as the currently running discount cycle (Jan 12-16, 2023) is the last sale during which Vagrus can be bought at its current price.
As you may have read in the news, Steam has updated (and is said to be doing so more frequently) its regional pricing tables to better reflect the turbulence of current exchange rates, and we are following suit. In some currencies, the game will actually become cheaper, while in others the price will remain the same or increase slightly.
Some background on this: in our view, regional pricing is a great thing, allowing players who live in regions where their purchasing power is much less to buy games via Steam at a reduced price. Steam's system requires developers to set a fixed price for those regions which, as the exchange rates move, becomes outdated. We can also see that countries with the lowest prices account for a disproportionate amount of copies sold, which indicates that despite Steam's region-lock efforts, these currencies are also being used for resales.
We understand that no one likes price increases. We live in a country with 50%+ inflation on food, so we get it. We also have to pay for said food, so sadly, we do not exactly have the luxury to ignore these changes. We want to stay afloat and keep enriching the world of Vagrus. We hope everyone can appreciate this.
Skittering in the darkness
- Currencies with no price change: USD, CAD, AUD, NZD, RMB, JPY, IDR, PHP, VND, CLP, COP, ZAR, SAR, AED, and ILS.
- Currencies with the price decreasing: MYR, SGD, THB, MXN, TWD, PEN, KWD, and CRC.
- In any other currencies, the price will increase (including the CIS regional USD price).
Last but not least, a bit of a shameless teaser; something is brewing in our kitchens at Lost Pilgrims, and it’s not just coffee. We simply wish to present you with an image, of a land whose denizens and inhabitants have been exterminated, but not by the Calamity… What could have happened? You will be able to find out, in time.
Also, in our next lore update, you will be able to read about the most dangerous ruins of the continent.
With all that out of the way, stay tuned and conquer the wasteland!
- The Lost Pilgrims Team
As the person above said, Vagrus is totally different from those games and Sunless Sea is the closest comparison I can think of. That being said, the game is fantastic and it features one of the best RPG settings that I've ever played. The artwork is beautiful, everything feels smooth when you play, and there is even some fun (if a little simplistic) turn-based companion combat and large party combat. Unless you're allergic to narrative games, I would say it's a must try.
So what’s new on that public beta branch? Basically, everything we have added for hand-held porting and controller support, as well as screen optimization and accessibility features. A more detailed rundown of these can be found in our previous devlog here.
As a small surprise, the Patronage Pack DLC now includes two additional wallpapers, one for each of our free DLCs: Vorax & The Seekers of Knowledge. Enjoy!
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.
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Patch 1.1.30.0126J - FIRST OF ITS KIND PUBLIC BETA
Content changes
New/Updated User Interface Features
- Knowledge victory questline: Increased the drop rate for Pristine Crystals in the Crystal Archives
- Slightly better price for Spice in Larnak, should you bring some from Tectum Carvos
Bug Fixes
- Revamped Bug reporting screen (and backend integration on our side)
- A new, Full UI Zoom feature can be activated in the Video Settings. It makes the game’s content easier to read and manage on smaller screens.
- Tutorial windows are resized and repositioned when the UI zoom is active.
- Players can zoom into an active UI window using the UI Zone Zooming feature also found in the Video Settings. UI Zone Zooming has 3 modes: Pinch, Double Tap, and Direct Button.
- A button has been added to check the location info of newly acquired Rumors.
Known Issues:
- The game no longer freezes on the Throw-out pane after a Mount-up + Dismount outrider combo
- Fixed a bug where Movement Points were not refreshed on a new day after inventory overflow
- A number of tooltips that were disappearing are now fixed
- Predicted Authority can no longer go over 6
- Fixed a bug where Event texts were chopped off on resolutions higher than 1080p (Full HD)
- Fixed a bug where the Heat Shielding Crystal was not working in some cases
- Some UI inconsistencies in ‘Pilgrims of the Wasteland’ were fixed
- Reenabled shadow effect on Load Game/Save Game screens
- Fixed a bug that caused certain Companion Combat preparation animation phases to be missing
- Fixed a bug where the decals of DOT Skills were missing
- The name field of the description in Companion Combat is now empty when there’s no character to show the description of
- Fixed a bug where sometimes the combat background was black if Companion Combat was triggered in a settlement
- Finndurarth’s missing Skill SFX was added
Coming Up Next
- There are still some inconsistencies with UI zooming and the new tutorial windows
- Sometimes escort/rescue Tasks do not work correctly
- The character sheet pictures are sometimes not correct in Companion Combat
- Sometimes Gear is shown to be still used by a Companion who has already left the comitatus
- The Lost Pilgrims Team
- Controller support 'beta' refinements (e.g.: campaign map movement)
- option at the end of Crew CombatDeal with the slaves
- Obstacles in Companion Combat
- Stay tuned and conquer the wasteland!
