Hey Folks,
this patch is our biggest to date in terms of complexity including a new region and a number of big features, so the tendency of taking on a lot seems to become a tradition for Lost Pilgrims by now.
Important note: considering the extent of these improvements, there is little to no chance that we broke nothing in the process of adding stuff and failed to notice despite extensive testing. 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.
New Content
Larnak is huge, although somewhat smaller than Deven and Tor'Zag's Shelter. The city has several unique districts, shops, temples, adventure hooks, and more. Larnak is the headquarters of House Venari, as well as home to the embassy of an insectoid people that arrived to negotiate with the Empire. A dark threat is also appearing on the horizon, as the long-disappeared Sand Wyrms are returning in great numbers to prey upon travelers of the scorching deserts that surround the city.
Ash is a small town in the middle of a grey silt desert west of Sun Rock. Run by House Darius, it has become the largest slave market near and far. Unique opportunities await vagri with no scruples about forced labor.
The Forsaken Colony to the southwest of Larnak is a mysterious place. Abandoned along with the mines and an odd Yrg hive nearby, it has been largely avoided for decades. However, something stirs there at the far end of the desert and a new presence might have set up shop in the old colony.
We have also added a proper Oquo headquarters in the Drusian Quarry as well and the Dread Reavers continue their journey. Find these and more hidden stuff in the new build!
New Companion
Nedir the sorceress joins the companion roaster! Without spoiling too much, we can say that she is a spellweaver who specializes in fiery displays of destructive power as well as magic involving... well... Demons. She is completely in control of course! At least if you want to believe her.
Hirelings
To top it off, we have also added Venari Hireling characters who can be hired for a period of time to help out with the toughest of challenges, albeit for a small fortune.
Factions, Factions, and Factions!
Dynamic pricing was the first step to our final economy design. The second: Faction Offers is now added with this patch.
As the Factions own sole rights to trading in bigger quantities, finding enough goods to trade from the market can be quite challenging (and expensive with the prices shooting upwards with each bought stack). For the affiliates of the big Trading Houses though, the flow of goods opens up right away. Gain good standing with them and you will find their buy and sell Offers on the now enabled Faction Offers tab [Only in the open-world section]. Use a portion of your accumulated goodwill (reputation) and the deal becomes even sweeter.
Faction Rewards open up with each tier of Faction standing. Some of them you can reclaim at each of their headquarters, others are awarded simply by reaching new tiers (and lost when falling below a tier's threshold). These new rewards include:
- One-time obtainable rewards (like equipment and gear) can be reclaimed for most unlocked faction tiers. Some of these are not attainable anywhere else in the game.
- Constant effects, like increased worker efficiency, ambush chance, or Odd Jobs bonus. These are unique for each faction per tier and they have several levels you can unlock on higher tiers.
- New vagrus and comitatus customizations in the form of banners. Most factions give you their banner upon reaching a high tier of standing. You will be able to change banners on the leader UI.
Mounted Fun
Did we mention the third beast type becoming available for high-end comitati?
How about the option to mount up your whole crew (provided you do not have any beasts and have enough mounts for all your crew including companions, passengers, and yourself)?
Well, it would take too long to describe every fix and improvement in detail, so let's just switch to our traditional Patch notes format. Here goes:
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Patch 0.5.27 - Codename: Luminous
New/Updated Features :shiny:
- Faction Offers / Access to Faction reserves
- Faction Rewards (gained for each tier of standing)
- Buy Market info via your Faction connections
- The third beast type enabled (attainable via quests)
- Mount-Up (though not quite feasible yet, more enablers to come)
- Companion Combat formations (save and deploy your fav positionings)
- Hero Select autofill and remove (filling order based on health rate)
- Venari hireling characters (expensive professionals to hire)
New/Updated Content :gift:
- The Larnak-Ash region
- Venari HQ in Larnak
- Oquo HQ in Drusian Quarry
- New Companion: Nedir
- Dread Reavers on the road again (though technically this time you are on the road for them)
- Three new music tracks [Deven, Larnak, and an alternate Jaggest Waste]
- Brand new enemies, as well as new versions to existing ones
Updated Game Mechanics :tools:
- A great number of changes to the effects of existing and new equipment/gear/statuses
- In many cases, changes to the availability of equipment and gear (now often available as Factions Rewards only as opposed to the market)
- Stronger versions of equipment added - sometimes the original ones nerfed a bit to make the upgrade noticeable without breaking the balance completely
User Interface Improvements :pencil:
- Indicators added on both the Crew Combat and the Companion Combat side to better indicate which unit participates in them, and also if they were Elite or Leader units
- Market prices and quantities now shown in stacks when the 'mass trade button' is pressed
- Tooltip improvements all across the board
Bug Fixes :bug:
- The trickling reputation rates were in reverse for Opponents and Adversaries, now corrected which will make it a great deal easier to remain on good terms with opponents
- A great number of insight and reputation exploits closed off [sorry, not sorry :P]
- Event decisions impacting Faction presence in settlements were not working property - fixed and reconstructed for prior saves as well based on journal entries
- All known crash root-causes resolved
- Various other smaller fixes
Known Issues
- We will explore options to reduce the initial loading time.
- The visual presentation of Companion Combat skills with two phases is not final yet.
'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.
Stay tuned, stay alive, conquer the wasteland!
- The Lost Pilgrims Team
Coming up next... Mercenary Tasks and a return to Avernum. Yes, you read it right! Stay tuned.
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