A note from the developers:
The time has finally come. In Early Access since September 2021, this Final Reckoning major content update launches FOREWARNED into its full 1.0 release! Our largest and most ambitious update yet, this release comes with a ton of new content, including the seventh Mejai, two new maps, a new tomb variation, a complete ritual revamp, and so much more detailed below.
We want to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts for your support and for being part of FOREWARNED's early development. Through your feedback, suggestions, bug reports, and sharing your experiences, you have improved and made the game what it is today. We love hearing about players encountering their first Ouphris, or about your first experience in the "nightmare room". This community and the love for FOREWARNED has motivated us throughout development, so we want to once again thank you!
As a final note, while we consider FOREWARNED to be a game filled with enough content at this point to launch out of Early Access, we're happy to share we already have more in development. This is not the end of content updates, but rather the finalization of the game's base foundation. Stay tuned in our official Discord to stay up to date on the latest and we'll keep you posted.
Stay vigilant during your future expeditions, as the resounding echoes of bones breaking heralds the arrival of the 7th Mejai, Ptahmes the Resilient. Close to death, Ptahmes gave in to temptations of blood magic for salvation. Enduring an endless cycle of agony and healing, this relentless horror will move in for the kill when you least expect...
- Ptahmes is now an option to select when entering all ruins' inner tomb
- The PDA has been updated to include Ptahmes' research notes as well as selection in the Evidence tab
- 10 new lore pages are available for collection which tell the story of how Ptahmes came to be
- New inner tomb notes are available specific to Ptahmes' behavior
- A new achievement is available when Ptahmes is banished for the first time
Two new maps have been added to the game.
- Secret Temple of Ptah: A team of archaeologists discovered an ancient village thought to have been lost to time, with a mysterious temple at its peak. After much effort spent excavating the ruins and even installing a mechanical lift, the entire team of archaeologists seem to have disappeared. Discover what horrors lie within, but take caution to avoid the same fate as earlier explorers.
- Royal Outskirts: Another team of archaeologists received word of a new ruin etched into the face of a hidden valley. Just as they approached the entrance, a sandstorm picked up, causing them to seek shelter inside. Believed to be where the Mejai Ptahmes first gained his powers, the outskirts hold mysteries worth unraveling...
A new procedurally generated tomb variation - Outdoor Ruins - has been added. This new tomb style can be found within the Secret Temple of Ptah and Royal Outskirts maps.
- Over 30 new rooms, including several dangerous trap rooms
- New spirit and horror events to keep you on your toes
- New tomb lighting and style with sandy floors and open ceilings showing the sky
- New variations of the existing ushabti puzzles fitting to the Outdoor Ruins theme, plus a special variation-specific puzzle
- New, thrilling ritual chamber with unique effects and challenges
- New ambience and sound effects
- New creature lurking throughout
The Mejai banishment ritual has been reworked to introduce additional challenges and mechanics, and is now designed to feel much more like a final showdown between you and the Mejai you're banishing. The new ritual is best experienced first-hand, but here are some general notes on the changes:
- The Mejai's spirit now has the ability to break out of the ritual cage and try to impede your progress
- Each tomb variation has its own unique setup for banishing the Mejai, and the spirit can exhibit different powers in each variation (so be sure to check out each one!)
- The ritual itself has been reworked into a multi-phase banishment, with several elements added to further excitement and replayability
- Ritual Wards have been introduced to each chamber. The wards' activation must be performed in a specific way depending on the Mejai's weakness
- All ritual chambers have received design changes to allow further spawn possibilities for creatures heading towards the altar
- Ritual creature spawning has been optimized to better take into account the number of players in the expedition and the chosen difficulty, ensuring the challenge scales accordingly
- All ritual intro sequences have been sped up significantly to avoid tedious delays before the ritual starts
- Hostile mummies that have been lit on fire can no longer perform damage to the ritual altar
- Players can now capture proof of the Mejai's existence using a camera while it's in its physical form in the ritual cage
- Notes near the ritual chamber's entrance have been updated to reflect the new mechanics
To further replayability and make each expedition feel more unique, especially when banishing the Mejai, we've added eight brand new ushabti puzzles to the game.
- Each tomb variation has a new, special puzzle found only within that particular map type
- Additional puzzles have been added in each tomb variation, always with a randomly generated solution
- While the original ushabti puzzles prior to this update may have presented a challenge, many of these new puzzles offer further excitement and horror unlike anything introduced before
The Hierodex (A.K.A. the Hierolens) is now available for purchase in the shop. Starting as default equipment and found in the Research Notes of your journal, this tool allows you to translate even the most cryptic of hieroglyphics on the fly! Useful for several puzzles and a component of the new banishment ritual. Once upgraded, it can even be used to transcribe lore pages in the shop for free.
- For players that have seen the "relic acquiry" cutscene more than a few times, a significantly shorter cutscene will now play, reducing the time between grabbing the relic and the spawning of both the Mejai and blue escape lever
- Increased the hitbox on reanimated mummies and sleeper zombies
- Improved the network syncing of mummies burning
- Slightly decreased the necessary range to ward off zealots and cobras
- Slightly increased the torch's hitbox for igniting fire stands
- Performed AI balancing and improvements to Mejai patrol routines
- Improved the photo camera's ability to take photos of objectives
- Tweaked the Mejai spirit's phenomena invocation timings to reduce spamming interactions
- For new players, certain maps can only be selected once reaching a minimum required player level
- Changed default frame cap to 120 down from 144 (you can still raise it if desired in Settings)
- Given the increased depth of the game, FOREWARNED's reward system has been updated. Now, upon a player's demise, instead of forfeiting all XP, a penalty will now apply (scaling per difficulty) that deducts a certain percentage of total rewards, rather than clearing them entirely. This new logic also applies to gold and other collectibles, so long as at least one team member survives the expedition and collects anything you dropped upon death. Therefore, group play is encouraged to maximize your rewards in the case of your untimely demise! • EASY = 40% Reward Deduction Upon Death • NORMAL = 50% Reward Deduction Upon Death • HARD = 60% Reward Deduction Upon Death • BRUTAL = 70% Reward Deduction Upon Death
- Over 30 new achievements have been added to the game, each with a newly designed achievement icon
- An opening cutscene has been added. This only plays once by default, but can be toggled to always show via the Gameplay settings menu if desired
- A torch hit confirmation visual effect and sound now occurs when successfully warding off a creature
- Players can now cross out evidence they believe to be invalid in their journal when selecting observed phenomena
- 15 new loading screen images have been added
- Performed minor design changes to the Mejai's spirit to make it more ghastly in appearance
- Additional bobbing animations have been added to player hands when moving with tools
- Archaeologist character crouching and other movement animations have been improved
- Added an Easter egg question and response to the Transmitter
- Fixed an issue in which pets could collide with the light ray puzzle's laser beams
- Fixed an issue in which items were reactivating upon exiting the journal
- Implemented logic to help re-sync tomb generation if the host disconnects during the round starting
- Fixed an issue in which Dekan would not appear to face the player he was attacking
- Fixed an issue in which AI would not target VR players' bodies when attacking
- Fixed an issue with readable notes in the lobby area being unreadable at certain angles
- Fixed an issue in which Mejais could potentially get stuck in one place and no longer move around
- Fixed an issue in which zealots wouldn't spawn if the host disconnects
- Fixed an issue that could cause the game's vignette effect to be too large for ultra wide resolution monitors
- Fixed an issue with fonts not displaying correctly with certain special characters
- Fixed an issue related to ectoplasm's radioactivity detection via the Geiger Counter tool
- Fixed an issue related to shadow casts on rare treasures
- Fixed an issue in which abominations could fail to behave correctly during variation #5's ritual
- Fixed an issue related to leaving a game while underwater in the Oasis maps
- Fixed an issue with the inner tomb door note not appearing in tomb variation #3
- Fixed an issue with pet placement when first spawning
- Fixed an issue in which players could navigate out of bounds in the Oasis maps
- Fixed an issue in which the Animal Memory Puzzle pedestals were missing collision in tomb variation #1
- Fixed a missing collider in Dread Valley
- Performed significant performance improvements across the board
- Performed translation improvements