The crickets have reached their peak maturation, filling my August evenings with an ocean of noise. A cool breeze is creeping through the windows again, and unfortunately that means confronting the same sorrowful news we meet every year:
Summer is ending. But Odyssey of Dremid'ir certainly isn't!
Since the game's release in April, we've been hard at work revisiting nearly every corner of Dremid'ir: improving performance, redrawing old artwork, adding new animations, polishing combat, squashing bugs, and giving some much-needed attention to parts of the world that we simply didn't have enough time to perfect before release.
Patch Highlights:
Combat UI Revamp
NPC Animations
(Even more) Engine Optimizations
New achievements
HD Combat HUD:
Probably the most immediately noticeable change in V1.1.2 is a complete remaster of Odyssey's combat interface.
The HUD has been redrawn from scratch at a much higher resolution, while its proportions and layout have also been adjusted to give important information more room to breathe.
More distinct colors make HP, AP, abilities and other combat information considerably easier to read at a glance, without abandoning the look of Odyssey's original interface. Rich golden trims and columns add to the sustained beauty of our hand drawn world.
We've also changed how pausing works visually. Rather than simply darkening the entire screen, an animated vignette now creeps inward from its edges, keeping the battlefield visible while lending a little more drama to those moments where you're deciding what to do next.
Making Dremid'ir Feel Alive -- NPC updates:
Dremid'ir is full of merchants, craftsmen, soldiers, travelers, villagers and other characters, but many of them were simply too static. They existed in the world, but they didn't always seem to live in it.
With the pressure of release behind us, we've finally had the opportunity to go back and give these characters some much-needed attention. More than a dozen NPCs have received entire libraries of new animations, while others have been redesigned outright.
New Bastion's trusty smith, Dryon, is one of them:
Just look at those muscles in action.
Dryon isn't alone. Lucien now keeps the books at his desk. Bolero cuts stone in his shop. Caliban reads during his spare time. Craftsmen actually practice their crafts. Merchants tend to their wares. Many of these characters have also received new and higher-quality sound effects to accompany their activities. When you walk into a town, the people living there should look like they have lives of their own, and that's truly what the core of this update aims to capture.
Perhaps the biggest beneficiaries of this update aren't important named characters at all, but rather everyone around them.
Generic citizens now have substantially larger animation libraries.
You'll find people:
writing and inscribing tablets, talking to one another, examining goods in markets, washing and hanging clothing, milling grain, reading, working and generally getting on with their day. We think they go a very long way in creating a more immersive world.
Old Creatures, New Life:
The inhabitants of Dremid'ir aren't the only ones receiving attention. Some of Odyssey's oldest creatures are being revisited as well.
The Lion was one of the earliest enemies ever created for the game—dating all the way back to around V0.5 internally—and its age was beginning to show, so we started over.
The Lion has been completely redrawn from scratch, with improved proportions, considerably more animation frames, and much more expressive movement.
That work has carried over to the optional Lion Rex boss encounter as well. Adventurers brave enough to track down his lair will find an improved encounter—and new spoils awaiting anyone capable of bringing the beast down.
Performance Improvements:
We've also continued the less glamorous—but extremely important—work happening underneath the hood, which have yielded rather substantial results. VRAM consumption (on average) is now below 1gb. That's especially significant because we've achieved it while continuing to add new artwork, animations and other assets to those same levels. We've spent the months since launch aggressively optimizing the way Odyssey loads, stores and unloads its assets, and we'll continue looking for further improvements wherever we can find them.
Forging has received a particularly large performance improvement.
Players with heavily populated inventories could previously encounter significant lag while navigating the system, and submitting a Forging combination could sometimes take 10–15 seconds or more.
The system has been substantially optimized, making experimenting with materials and submitting your creations much faster and smoother. And considering some of the other changes we're currently making to Forging... You'll probably appreciate that extra speed.
Loot items have seen a fresh streamlining process.
Loot items are now categorized by what general bonuses they give to Forging. Take a look for yourself:
ITEM TYPE: | BONUS: |
|---|---|
Ingots Gemstones Hides/Textiles Curios Spoils Luxury Jewelry | Raw Damage Attribute bonuses Defensive Combat utilities Status effects Just sell 'em Can be enchanted (or sold) |
The same now goes for alchemical items, helping players differentiate potion bases and reagents more clearly. Some Forging items have also seen some revamp, as there were quite a few existing effects with overlapping purposes and others without meaningful bonuses.
And We're Not Finished Yet...
Back in August, we teased The Double Feature—a pair of substantial new quests expanding upon one of the side stories already found in the base game. The quests form a trilogy about faith, conflict, despair, and grace.
What originally looked like a relatively straightforward addition has grown considerably beyond its initial scope. Rather than cutting that work down simply to meet our original estimate, we're giving these quests the additional development time they need. When it's ready, we'll have much more to show you.
For now, V1.1.2 is another big step toward making Odyssey of Dremid'ir the best version of itself it can be.
Whether you've been exploring Dremid'ir since April, haven't visited in a while, or have simply been watching the journey from afar:
Thank you!
There's still plenty more Odyssey ahead of us.
— Chiaroscuro Entertainment