A New Build is OUT - Patch 1.165 - Codename: Shore Up

08 May 2024Developer post

Source: Steam Community (opens in a new tab)

Hey everyone,

We haven’t released a new build since way back in February, so we have got a slew of changes to discuss. While the changes are wide-ranging and significant, we’ve broken down each batch into easily digestible sections, the first of which is the Outpost and its coming update. For those of you looking for an abridged breakdown of what we’ve been working on you may simply scroll down to the patch notes.

Refurbishing and Redesigning the Outpost

The Outpost feature has been on our minds for a long time but with all the other pressing matters it kept getting pushed down our priority list. In the end, however, we were able to dedicate a week to making improvements, focusing on adding clarity and showing more information to players. Please note that while these changes are final for the time being, we welcome feedback and will patch accordingly.
To better understand all of the Outpost’s issues, we asked our players on the various forums and on our Discord server to provide feedback. This has been extremely useful, as it has flagged multiple areas where the design was already covered but the game did not communicate it sufficiently. One good example is the consumption of Supplies at the Outpost. Due to its location in an extremely desolate environment, Scouts had little to no chance to hunt and provide for the crew there, which was never intended to work like that. As a result, players believed they needed to keep hauling Supplies to the Outpost themselves. For many, this turned its Upkeep into a chore, as they would never be able to journey far from the Outpost’s proximity. This, however, was a matter of miscommunication. The reality was that the crew automatically bought any missing Supplies to run the place from nearby comitati in the background and the UI failed to communicate that fact.
Realizing that we had to remedy that created an opportunity: one that allowed us to include an option for players to choose where their Outpost gets their Supplies from. There are now multiple options (from cheapest to most expensive):

From nearby settlements (requires to have Beasts at the Outpost)
From passing comitati for a higher price
From Factions based nearby, which is even more expensive but will in turn help raise your Reputation with them

We have also added a new element called Work Shifts. Work Shifts allow players to set an amount of hours per day that their workforce will toil at the Outpost. Generally speaking, longer hours increase production but take a heavier toll on the crew’s Vigor, Morale, and Obedience. They also increase the potential for accidents or mishaps at the site, essentially offering the player another risk versus reward scenario for their operation. For this reason, we advise that you only set higher Work Shifts when the comitatus returns frequently to the Outpost and can take various measures to ameliorate problems if needed.

UI improvements have been made across the board; these focus on getting more accurate and better information across through the UI. Equipment that affects the Outpost is now highlighted in the Equipment section under the Warehouse tab and the length each such Equipment covers the needs of the Outpost for is also displayed. Green is used for anything beyond a year, yellow for half a year, and red for anything below. Equipment lost due to getting broken, eroded, or expired (in the case of animals) is indicated on a pop-up screen to the returning vagrus so they can bring replacements on their next arrival.

Players were instrumental in helping us decide on several further changes, and to that end, we’d like to offer our thanks. Though far from an exhaustive list, these changes include the following:

Scouts now decrease the chance of the Outpost getting attacked
The number of Equipment that affects the Outpost in some way has tripled
We went through all the UI panels to add missing tooltips and/or extend them with further information

While additional changes may still be on the cards, we are satisfied with the areas we’ve covered thus far, and we believe that all mechanics are now communicated in a much clearer fashion. As always, we encourage feedback and discussion regarding the new Outpost on both our forums and Discord server.

General Quality of Life and Design Improvements

As we close in on the release of our Old Acquaintances DLC, the portions of the team that are not busy drawing or writing have been hard at work on a plethora of miscellaneous QoL improvements, the fruits of which have now been made public.

Mercenary Tasks

We’ve always endeavored to make some sweeping changes to how Mercenary Tasks work, and happily, we’ve now had the time to implement them. These tasks have always had time limits, yet now, they function far more logically. This is to say that after you complete an elimination or defending task, you may return to the faction that gave it to you at any time after you do so, while in the past the time limit was still active, even after you had completed but haven’t turned it in.

Additionally, we have made significant changes to the corresponding UI for the Tasks, which will now be presented much like quests, displaying all appropriate information in an orderly fashion.

Companion Loyalty Details

You asked for it and we’ve implemented it: more detailed information regarding Companion Loyalty changes. We have achieved this by providing an additional option in the main menu, which will allow players to choose between “Basic” (the same change log messages that were shown in the past), “Indicative” (additional information that will let you understand the gravity of the Loyalty changes), and “Off”, which won’t show anything at all regarding Loyalty. The last might just be the best choice if you’re looking for a fully immersive experience!

Tests in Events

Tests in Events now indicate (via icons and tooltips) whose Perks are taken into account in the given Test: the whole comitatus’s, only those of the Companions previously selected to accompany the vagrus, or only the vagrus’s.

General Design Improvements

Here’s a selection of design changes that we’ve also included in the update:

Negative Resistance values now raise damage from the specific type as it was originally intended (for example, a -50% Cold Resistance raises a Cold type damage of 2 to 3). The way Resistances work against Effects remains unchanged (ie. they provide a chance to entirely negate Effects when the Resistance roll is successful).
Damage from Critical Strikes in Companion Combat is now always calculated from the upper half of the used Skill’s damage value (for example, if the damage of the Skill is 3-6, then Critical Strikes from it are always calculated as if a 5 or a 6 were rolled). This makes Critical Strikes deadlier for both foes and Companions.
Critical Strikes in Companion Combat are now always Armor-Piercing, which also raises their usefulness but also makes it possible to down very armored enemies even without the right abilities (albeit still being very, very difficult).

General QoL Improvements

Lastly, we have also made a number of smaller improvements to make life easier for players:

We have reworked tooltips and general UI elements to provide more detailed information in a more understandable way
We concluded another round of performance improvements all across the board (related to both CPU and GPU usage)

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is it – at least for now. We’re sure to have further improvements on the way, though for the time being we are primarily focused on our upcoming DLC. More news is coming on that front soon, so stay tuned. In the meantime, you can check out the aforementioned patch notes below.

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 1.165 - Codename: Shore Up

New/Updated Features :shiny:

Outpost rework: most of the UI (buttons, structure, tooltips, and more), mechanics, and balancing received a major rehaul.
More pieces of Equipment have an Outpost-related effect now.
Savegame files made in the free Demo can be loaded up automatically in the full game from now on.
Negative Resistance values now raise damage from the specific type as it was originally intended (for example, a -50% Cold Resistance raises a Cold type damage of 2 to 3). The way Resistances work against Effects remains unchanged (ie. they provide a chance to entirely negate Effects when the Resistance roll is successful).
Damage from Critical Strikes in Companion Combat are now always calculated from the upper half of the used Skill’s damage value (for example, if the damage of the Skill is 3-6, then Critical Strikes from it are always calculated as if a 5 or a 6 were rolled).
Critical Strikes in Companion Combat are now always Armor Piercing.
Penalties for successive Evade and Block attempts in the same Round have been doubled (for example, the second attempt in the Round incurred a -5% penalty and now it incurs a -10% penalty).
Timers on Mercenary Tasks now stop when it makes sense narratively (and so timed task bonuses are granted based on this moment in time, not the moment of the turn-in). Once the timer stops, players have more freedom to turn in these Tasks. For example, the timer on Defense Tasks stops when the vagrus successfully defeated the foe during the defense battle.
Added a new setting to Options: Companion Loyalty Details. You can now use it to set the nature and depth of information the game log and Events provide on the Loyalty changes of Companions: Off: No feedback is provided. Basic (Default): Only the fact of the change is provided and its direction. Indicative: The measure of change is also provided (for example: Greatly disapproves, Slightly approves).
The highest Loyalty tier for Companions was renamed from ‘Amicable’ to ‘Loyal’.
Companion Upkeep (daily) is raised by 5 Changers for Companions assigned to a Deputy role and this is reflected on their character sheet and the tooltip of Companion Upkeep.
Further tweaked and enhanced the controller experience.

Updated Content :gift:

Some Perks that Harvek was supposed to have but were actually missing were added back in. Players who have him in their comitatus receive a complete reset on him and regain the Insight to be able to respec him.
Gor’Goro received new, easier gift options in his Banter. Additionally, his personal questline’s first segment awards a lot more Loyalty now.
The Prowess (2) requirement to trigger Renkailon’s personal questline now has an alternative of a Renown requirement.
Entering Avernum’s Ossuary is now possible even with the Disdain of Ahskul property (allowing the completion of Nedir’s questline in a playthrough where you aim for certain achievements).
Eylani now loses Loyalty when you decide to fight against beasts in Kabur’s arena.
New entries on Companion Loyalty and the Outpost were added to the Glossary.
We have added a hidden, alternative way to get a certain quest item for Vrak the Haunted’s quest whereby you can circumvent having to interact with the Ahskulites in Deven (allowing the completion of Vrak’s quest in a playthrough where you aim for certain achievements).
Removed much of the Coal from Scrapheap in ‘Pilgrims of the Wasteland’ to avoid players accidentally buying it out and going broke during the early tutorial.

User Interface Improvements :pencil:

The display of chances in Crew Combat (Critical Success, Success, Failure, Critical Failure percentages) now shows the actual percentages (this was only a display issue).
Reworked the “Faction Reward Filter” button on the Settlement UI to be more logical, displaying the active filter’s status.
Long savegame names will now be broken into more lines and they show in full on the loading screen.
The (glitchy) highlighter on selected choices in Events was changed to a more subtle underline.
The new “Enervated” Skill effect now has a proper icon and tooltip explaining it on the Character Sheet.
The ‘minimize’ button on tutorial popups was moved to the top right corner.
From now on, you can only change font size while the Event UI, Journal, and Codex are closed to prevent locks, and other issues.
All Mercenary Tasks now display objectives in the quest-style (using status-sensitive bullet points).
The Mercenary Task UI in the Journal was significantly improved and now presents more information more consistently.
The requirements of using certain Advanced Tactics in Crew Combat that were nebulous before are now much more informative (including why you cannot use one when you do not meet said requirements).
Added and improved various new Crew Combat tooltips to provide better information on mechanics.
The bug that caused the Outpost’s Consumption to be erroneously displayed was fixed.
The Font Size slider in Options became more informative (providing a percentage as well as demonstrating actual font size below the option, not in a janky tooltip).
Equipment tooltips no longer display the price you originally bought it for (it was obsolete and confusing).
Localized steps and choices in Events are now marked differently if they were merely machine-translated or were translated by a person.
Vitality and Power Regeneration are now correctly displayed on Companions’ character sheets.
Tests in Events now indicate (via icons and tooltips) whose Perks are taken into account: the whole comitatus’s, only those of the Companions previously selected to accompany the vagrus, or only the vagrus’s.

Bug Fixes :bug:

Fixed missing or glitchy dependency icons in Events.
You can no longer win the main campaign by retiring to your own upgraded Outpost while not having the Wealth Ambition (this was possible by choosing a combination of options during the Outpost upgrade process).
The Ahari and Chimera Legion Faction tabs now always display valid (including unlocked) Faction presence locations.
Cadmador does not show its faction locations any longer, as was originally intended.
Passengers headed to the Sunken Tower will no longer show up until a path to said location has been unlocked by the player through quests.
Removing a Deputy that provides an Equipment slot for the /comitatus/ now refreshes the slots immediately, preventing players from keeping Equipment in a closed slot.
When owning no Beasts of Burden, swapping to a different Beast Type no longer modifies Movement Points.
The font size of the Glossary will now reflect the one set in Options.
Great Lamps are no longer sold in core game territories when you do not own Sunfire and Moonshadow.
Tweaked Companion Combat AI significantly, especially regarding the avoidance of performance drops and the use of Overwatch-type Skills.
Performance improvements all across the board (regarding both CPU and GPU usage).
The Spell Penetration Perk now provides the -15% Resistance it advertises.
Fixed several bugs related to Mercenary Tasks (mostly related to Escort Tasks with interim targets).
Fixed various glitches, typos, and performance issues in the Glossary.
Dragging Market listings and dropping them earlier than your own cargo space will not purchase them now but cancel the interaction as it was supposed to.
Fixed an issue that caused parts of some localized (machine translated) tutorial windows to be off-screen.
Your Scouts can no longer find perilous calerus Events (that would slay an unprotected comitatus) when you have protective Equipment equipped.
In Crew Combat, you no longer need an active character to Stand Down once the enemy is retreating (as opposed to Pursue where you need someone to pursue the foe).

Coming Up Next

The option to change between Wasteland and Dissonance modes during a playthrough
New DLC: Old Acquaintances

Stay tuned and conquer the wasteland!
- The Lost Pilgrims Team
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