Hey everyone,

This time, we come to you with a huge package of changes to the game. The first order of business:

The Prologue (Demo)

This scenario offers players a fixed timeframe within which they can play Vagrus without purchasing the game. Since its release in May of 2023, we’ve been eyeballing it for quite some time, and have finally overhauled it with many of the quality of life improvements the main game has seen. See our Steam post here for more information.

And now, onto the patch for the open-world campaign:

Patch Notes 1.166

As part of an ongoing effort to address any concerns players may have, improve the game across the board, and offer hotfixes to any issues that have cropped up, we’re releasing another build today. Scroll down to the patch notes section to see exactly what smaller issues we have fixed and read on if you wish to know about some of the more significant gameplay changes. 

Dissonance Mode Changes

As part of the lead-up to our coming Old Acquaintances DLC, some members of the team have been taking on board the feedback regarding certain aspects of the game’s difficulty, and thus, we have decided – along with a slew of other things – to revamp Vagrus’s Dissonance Mode. Most importantly, once we release this update, players will be able to switch their Wasteland Mode savegame into Dissonance mode at any time. After the switch, if they then save the game, two copies will be available in the Main Menu: one will contain the old Wasteland save and a fresh, new Dissonance mode savegame. Players only need to click the new icon (circled below) and they will be taken to a transition screen where they can confirm the change.

We’re also working on adding several additional elements to Dissonance Mode, but before we get into that, let’s talk a little bit about the goals of the game mode.

It is no secret that Vagrus - The Riven Realms simulates a difficulty more often found in old-school RPGs, which is why we knew at release we’d have to implement a mode that would be a little more forgiving. That mode was and still is Dissonance Mode. While Wasteland Mode simulates dynamics closest to what we feel is the reality of the Riven Realms, its alternative is set up to give players various advantages and make things slightly easier. It is, by no means, an “easy mode”. Dissonance Mode confers the following benefits to players:

• The vagrus receives a hidden advantage in Tests and other percentage rolls
• Companions heal at a faster rate while resting
• Reduced enemy Accuracy in Companion Combat
• Respeccing Companions can be done an unlimited amount of times
• Trading is, as a whole, slightly more profitable
• Supplies are cheaper
• Hunting or Foraging have higher yields
• There are greater breaks between random Crew Combat encounters
• The player has more favorable odds in Crew Combat encounters that occur randomly
• Penalties for missing crew are less harsh
• In general, the game is more forgiving to players from the start of a playthrough and for a longer time

Those benefits are already in play, but the trouble was that players could only begin a new campaign in Dissonance Mode. Consequently, if a player was struggling to survive there was no way out; they simply had to start a new campaign. With the mode now accessible during a playthrough, those players will be able to curb some losses and effects through Dissonance Mode. It is important to note that once a savegame in Dissonance Mode is made, there is no going back in that game; this would cause too many issues and exploits. The player can, however, return to their old Wasteland Mode save. We are also considering offering some further optional benefits when the switch happens to somewhat set off the previous hardship, some of which are immediate. These are subject to change but currently include:

• Stat boosts for comitati (Nutrition, Vigor, Morale, and Obedience)
• Upfront coin to help propel a vagrus’s operations
• A workforce boost to help the comitatus along (especially so if the comitatus is already dangerously low)

After this has been implemented, all players will need to do is select any savegame already in Wasteland Mode and load it into Dissonance Mode. Doing so will give a number of warnings (most notably that it is a one-way change), but after you click through, both immediate bonuses and long-term benefits will be accrued moving forward.

Now let's jump into the patch details:

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 1.166 - Codename: Dissonant

New Content

• The ability to switch Wasteland Mode savegames to Dissonance Mode is now available.
• Introduced a tooltip mode for controllers, albeit it is incomplete as of now.

Bug Fixes

• From now on, players will always gain the Insight reward for every tenth Codex entry (the fix was for an edge case related to saving and loading a game when the Insight was awarded).
• The Outpost’s overseer is now more aware of what is going on at the Outpost and won’t nag the player upon leaving the Outpost to fix things that were not broken in the first place.
• All Custodia type enemies are now visible again.
• Fixed a number of bugs connected to the Outpost, most importantly one that stole money from the Outpost (yikes).
• The Goods and pieces of Equipment whose effects on the Outpost were removed will no longer be visible in text-based Outpost interactions.
• Fixed some edge cases that caused players to be unable to continue their savegames from the Demo in the main game.
• Improved some Glossary entries to be more helpful and more informative.
• Fixed a number of typos and textual errors in Events.

Stay tuned and conquer the wasteland!

- The Lost Pilgrims Team

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