As we teased in our latest devlog post about Mercenary Tasks, we are extending Crew Combat with a new feature: you can deal with the enemy from now on following a victorious battle. This simply means that you can decide the fate of the defeated foe.

The option appears on the Crew Combat UI at the end of the fight opposite your heal options provided that your enemy surrendered (remember, only humanoids can), fled or retreated but you caught some of them while pursuing them.

Crew Combat is the most common way you will handle violent conflicts as you roam the wastelands of the Riven Realms. We wanted to give you a rundown of the basic concepts here so that those interested might find some insights.

Disposition

Each Crew Combat encounter identifies the two sides as either the Attacker or the Defender. The player's comitatus can typically be the attacker when they raid small settlements or prey upon other travelers, while they are often found as the defender when getting accosted by monsters, outlaws, or worse.

You will come across many caverns and subterranean tunnels in Vagrus, mostly under cities or sometimes out in the wilderness. Whether these are the lairs of terrifying monsters, the shadowy hideouts of bandits, gateways to ancient, buried ruins, or simply hollow ground is usually difficult to tell at first. There is no specific lore or design insight to be delved into here, so the only thing that remains is to admire this version of the cavern illustration by Attus, one of our artists.

'A simple matter, eh? A wee bit o' thrashin', you said, a right an' proper shindin'. Just seventeen guys, you said. What you forgot to mention is those seventeen are bloody Orcs, every single one of 'em! From the Chipped Fang tribe, no less. So here's your coin, find someone else to get killed. The Dread Reavers ain't takin' this one.'

The greatest cause for mutations in the Riven Realms is a mysterious arcane disease that people call the Taint. There’s no telling how it spreads or why it attacks the ones it does; its workings have eluded medical science altogether. These days, every third human on the continent is Tainted. The Taint begins with a period of incubation when the victim falls gravely sick and suffers seizures and spells for days or weeks. About half of them perish during this interval.

The Empire has been strewn with ruined fortresses and keeps since the Calamity. Additionally, the brutal wars and conflicts ever since the catastrophe have done considerable damage to the reclaimed and rebuilt forts, leaving many in disrepair or outright abandoned. Fort Larius, Fort Teltulis, Fort Tirnos, one of the Twin Towers - the list goes on and on.

Here are some character poses for the Orc Marauder enemy to feast your eyes upon!

The Bruiser returns with some combat phases/poses! These are:

• Cheap Shot (top left): A melee hit that puts a severe debuff on the target. Also, ouch.
• Dodge (top right): Triggers when the Bruiser avoids an attack.
• Bull Rush (bottom left): The Bruiser rushes the target and pushes it back.
• Smack (bottom right): A melee attack against a single target.

The Bruiser is a basic frontline character in the outlaw roster. Though not armored or particularly good at avoiding damage, he is fairly tanky and is able to dish out a lot of pain as well as debuffs and other effects. It can be extremely effective in cooperation with the Brigand and the Slinger.

It's time to share some combat images for the character 'Slinger' (more on him here: https://vagrus.com/news/character-artwork-slinger ).

This week's character reveal is the Orc Marauder. Orcs are popular fantasy characters with many different iterations since their addition to fiction by Tolkien. The Orcs of the Riven Realms are creatures prone to violence, sharing a mystical past and origin but they were created fairly recently. They are tribal in their homeland called Darkmoor but rarely travel in groups when far from it.