KickStarter Vagrus: The Riven Realms - post-apocalyptic fantasy caravan master RPG - now with Old Acquaintances DLC

[Nos]

Read the good reviews here and tried to play it a couple times gave up fast just got bored...then third time the charm...couldn't stop playing-until days later...
...found out I'd screwed up on exp. point allocation, gave up and ragequit, swore I'd never play Vargus again LOL...

Picked it up again and finally getting into the grove, made it near endgame and DLCs are fantastic!
What a great game, takes a while to get into, but once you do it's a gem.
10/10 a most obscure indie...but one of the best games I've ever played!

 

[Boris Eysbroek]

Read the good reviews here and tried to play it a couple times gave up fast just got bored...then third time the charm...couldn't stop playing-until days later...
...found out I'd screwed up on exp. point allocation, gave up and ragequit, swore I'd never play Vargus again LOL...

Picked it up again and finally getting into the grove, made it near endgame and DLCs are fantastic!
What a great game, takes a while to get into, but once you do it's a gem.
10/10 a most obscure indie...but one of the best games I've ever played!

amen

 

[cyborgboy95]

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[discord.gg].

--------------------------------------------------
Patch 1.175 - Codename: Conrectus Ligaturae

New or Updated Features :gift:

• 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

 

[cyborgboy95]

Chunky DLCs and Price Increases

Hey everyone,

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

 

[Boris Eysbroek]

Vagrus is the game that keeps on givin'. The value this game offers is insane.

 

[Catacombs]

Vagrus is the game that keeps on givin'. The value this game offers is insane.

How so?

 

[Latelistener]

It's already too expensive.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

This game is like what, 6 years old at this point? They really gotta move on. Instead they want to resort to microtransactions to cover their costs. This shouldn't even get any more DLC at all.

 

[Infinitron]

It left Early Access three years ago. They promised one more region DLC in the Season Pass. I guess it'll be over after that since their audience has apparently moved on.

 

[thesecret1]

Vagrus is the game that keeps on givin'. The value this game offers is insane.

How so?

It's a great game chock-full of content.

 

[Catacombs]

It's a great game chock-full of content.

That's it?

 

[thesecret1]

It's a great game chock-full of content.

That's it?

What more do you need?

 

[Lyre Mors]

Game is a hard sell. It takes a decent amount of learning, patience, and of course reading to really get in to: three things even most modern RPGamers are resistant to. I'm really not sure what else they could have done to draw more players in, but if they want their setting to live on in videogame form, they're sadly probably going to have to try a different approach with their next project. I love the game and don't think it's asking too much of the player at all. It has a unique charm, and you're simply not going to find many games like it out there.

 

[Habichtswalder]

Game is a hard sell. It takes a decent amount of learning, patience, and of course reading to really get in to: three things even most modern RPGamers are resistant to. I'm really not sure what else they could have done to draw more players in, but if they want their setting to live on in videogame form, they're sadly probably going to have to try a different approach with their next project. I love the game and don't think it's asking too much of the player at all. It has a unique charm, and you're simply not going to find many games like it out there.

Based on the number of Steam reviews, the sale numbers are not horrific for such a niche game. Especially if we consider that the price is far above average for the indie market. I don't know how big the dev team is but I don't think they lost money on this.
(SteamDB estimates 40.000 sales on Steam alone and the price was never lower than 17,99.)

 

[Sztaszov]

Game sales math is always tricky.

In general, the deeper the discount the more copies you move (not completely true but hey), so while the base price is $29.99 the average copy was sold for around $22 maybe.
With regional pricing enabled (in some countries the base price is less than a dozen bucks), the actual average price is closer to $17.

Steam takes a 30% cut and deducts ~10% VAT on average so we're left with $10 for a copy. But, of course, we need to pay various taxes even after that.

SteamDBs sales estimate is more or less right, except the industry standard ~10% refund rate (part of which is fraud leaving us with the processing fees still payable towards Steam). Steam is king, though, and even all other platforms together do not make up for that 10% but let's be generous and say that they did: 40000 x $10 before local taxes, buying PCs, etc.

We started working on Vagrus back in 2017 and on average maintained a ~8 full-time equivalent team size (inner team + contractors).

This is not a complaint. We picked the genre knowing it's a niche market and that it's underserved for a reason (i.e.: it's costly to produce such a game). So while living large was never on the table, we love our work, the setting, and the game.
Not gonna lie: we are proud of surviving despite the odds and delivering a rather unique game as our debut title. Our goal is to keep going.

 

[Salvo]

Game sales math is always tricky.

In general, the deeper the discount the more copies you move (not completely true but hey), so while the base price is $29.99 the average copy was sold for around $22 maybe.
With regional pricing enabled (in some countries the base price is less than a dozen bucks), the actual average price is closer to $17.

Steam takes a 30% cut and deducts ~10% VAT on average so we're left with $10 for a copy. But, of course, we need to pay various taxes even after that.

SteamDBs sales estimate is more or less right, except the industry standard ~10% refund rate (part of which is fraud leaving us with the processing fees still payable towards Steam). Steam is king, though, and even all other platforms together do not make up for that 10% but let's be generous and say that they did: 40000 x $10 before local taxes, buying PCs, etc.

We started working on Vagrus back in 2017 and on average maintained a ~8 full-time equivalent team size (inner team + contractors).

This is not a complaint. We picked the genre knowing it's a niche market and that it's underserved for a reason (i.e.: it's costly to produce such a game). So while living large was never on the table, we love our work, the setting, and the game.
Not gonna lie: we are proud of surviving despite the odds and delivering a rather unique game as our debut title. Our goal is to keep going.

For what it's worth I'd rather have 1 Vagrus than 10 Baldur's Gate 3

 

[thesecret1]

Game sales math is always tricky.

In general, the deeper the discount the more copies you move (not completely true but hey), so while the base price is $29.99 the average copy was sold for around $22 maybe.
With regional pricing enabled (in some countries the base price is less than a dozen bucks), the actual average price is closer to $17.

Steam takes a 30% cut and deducts ~10% VAT on average so we're left with $10 for a copy. But, of course, we need to pay various taxes even after that.

SteamDBs sales estimate is more or less right, except the industry standard ~10% refund rate (part of which is fraud leaving us with the processing fees still payable towards Steam). Steam is king, though, and even all other platforms together do not make up for that 10% but let's be generous and say that they did: 40000 x $10 before local taxes, buying PCs, etc.

We started working on Vagrus back in 2017 and on average maintained a ~8 full-time equivalent team size (inner team + contractors).

This is not a complaint. We picked the genre knowing it's a niche market and that it's underserved for a reason (i.e.: it's costly to produce such a game). So while living large was never on the table, we love our work, the setting, and the game.
Not gonna lie: we are proud of surviving despite the odds and delivering a rather unique game as our debut title. Our goal is to keep going.

Do you have any plans for what happens after the next DLC? Will you expand the game more, or will you start working on a sequel? Or perhaps a different game entirely?

 

[Sztaszov]

Do you have any plans for what happens after the next DLC? Will you expand the game more, or will you start working on a sequel? Or perhaps a different game entirely?

50% donno 50% can't say. For now, all our focus is on delivering the third DLC of the Season Pass.
Whatever we do after that, though, is likely to take place in the same setting.

 

[Ibn Sina]

For the next game, add the player as a playable character in tactical combat. The MC being auspiciously absent from combat despite the game writing implying otherwise was a major juxtaposition that turned off a lot of players.

 

[cpmartins]

For the next game, add the player as a playable character in tactical combat. The MC being auspiciously absent from combat despite the game writing implying otherwise was a major juxtaposition that turned off a lot of players.

One of the easiest things for them to implement tbh. We already have recruitable companions, it's just a companion you start with.

 

[thesecret1]

For the next game, add the player as a playable character in tactical combat. The MC being auspiciously absent from combat despite the game writing implying otherwise was a major juxtaposition that turned off a lot of players.

The idea is that he commands from the back and isn't really a fighter, I believe.

 

[Salvo]

For the next game, add the player as a playable character in tactical combat. The MC being auspiciously absent from combat despite the game writing implying otherwise was a major juxtaposition that turned off a lot of players.

The idea is that he commands from the back and isn't really a fighter, I believe.

That is true, there's a lot of ludonarrative dissonance to have you never physically present thoug

Battle Brothers has the same problem

 

[Ibn Sina]

For the next game, add the player as a playable character in tactical combat. The MC being auspiciously absent from combat despite the game writing implying otherwise was a major juxtaposition that turned off a lot of players.

The idea is that he commands from the back and isn't really a fighter, I believe.

That is true, there's a lot of ludonarrative dissonance to have you never physically present thoug

Battle Brothers has the same problem

Battle brothers fixed the problem though by adding the lone wolf origin, one of the best origins in Vanillla BB. And modders have added since then more lone wolf origins. There is even a mod that adds a player character to every origin in BB.

 

[thesecret1]

For the next game, add the player as a playable character in tactical combat. The MC being auspiciously absent from combat despite the game writing implying otherwise was a major juxtaposition that turned off a lot of players.

The idea is that he commands from the back and isn't really a fighter, I believe.

That is true, there's a lot of ludonarrative dissonance to have you never physically present thoug

Battle Brothers has the same problem

Battle brothers fixed the problem though by adding the lone wolf origin, one of the best origins in Vanillla BB. And modders have added since then more lone wolf origins.

It never bothered me in either game, tbh. I just imagined MC as being a pencil pusher that's pretty clever, but would probably get curbstomped by the average teenager – it then makes sense why he wouldn't take part in a battle, and should the enemy break through his underlings, would just surrender.

 

[Ibn Sina]

For the next game, add the player as a playable character in tactical combat. The MC being auspiciously absent from combat despite the game writing implying otherwise was a major juxtaposition that turned off a lot of players.

The idea is that he commands from the back and isn't really a fighter, I believe.

That is true, there's a lot of ludonarrative dissonance to have you never physically present thoug

Battle Brothers has the same problem

Battle brothers fixed the problem though by adding the lone wolf origin, one of the best origins in Vanillla BB. And modders have added since then more lone wolf origins.

It never bothered me in either game, tbh. I just imagined MC as being a pencil pusher that's pretty clever, but would probably get curbstomped by the average teenager – it then makes sense why he wouldn't take part in a battle, and should the enemy break through his underlings, would just surrender.

In the CC you have options like Gladiator, former Solider, Captain, Mercenary, Slave hunter or war mage. If the MC was a canonical pencil pusher why add those options at all. You can play as a mage but never cast any spells, not even from the supposed "rear" you are leading from. It is just a terrible decision.