As part of our ongoing efforts to elicit the best feedback, we’re focusing on you this week; we would like to know what pivotal decisions you made during our latest content releases. To this end, we would like you to answer a question.

Which Companion did you keep in Old Acquaintances?

Please visit Facebook to cast your vote.

To celebrate the release of Old Acquaintances in a somewhat different fashion than usual, the team gathered for a long-awaited session of boardgaming last week. And this, dear vagri, was no game of Monopoly – oh no! Instead, a struggle awaited us in the form of the game Eldritch Horror. And so everyone gathered, and we began learning the rules. This was the kind of team building we could all get behind. Sure enough, soon the pieces were in their places and it was time to cooperate; after all, we had an apocalypse of the Ancient Ones looking down the barrel at us!

Hey everyone,

This new patch brings with it one really important and big change and some other fixes we applied since our last update. The large change in question is the altering of how victory works in a campaign. Previously, you were able to win the game, then choose to continue playing. This caused a lot of consistency issues with Ending slides, as you were unable to check them later on and so even if something changed (like a major questline that has its own slide was completed) after the victory, players would miss them. And so from now on, once you retire as part of a victory, you will not be able to continue playing afterward. You can complete the victory condition and then play indefinitely until the time comes you decide to conclude the playthrough and then retire to experience the Endings. Of course, you can also save the game, retire to check the slides, and then load to play more.

Having deployed Old Acquaintances’ first hotfix, the team at Lost Pilgrims Studio has moved on to our next project: the regional DLC. The beginning of this process is iterative and requires intense coordination; it begins with the design phase, planning locations, and an overarching narrative. We need to understand what unique gameplay elements the DLC will bring to the table, which narrative beats we want to focus on, and finally, which characters or NPCs will drive that narrative.

Hey everyone,

Hot on the heels of last week’s Old Acquaintances release, today we’re deploying a hotfix to ameliorate the issues that players have reported. We are happy to see that there were no big problems, and even happier with the great feedback we’ve received from the players currently enjoying the DLC.

Old Acquaintances is now live! As part of the release, we have included a telling menu background, one which many vagri will be familiar with, especially those who have played the Pilgrims of the Wasteland scenario. The Black Sands and the distant ruins of Arx Mortis is, after all, where it all ended – and where it shall begin anew in the new DLC – for Sedarias.

New Content

• The DLC ‘Old Acquaintances’ will now be unlocked to all its owners. It includes two Companions for the main campaign – Javek and Sedarias – with fully-fledged storylines including new enemies and rewards, their own Skills, Prowess progression, as well as four new Hirelings available at the Freelancers’ Guild in Tor’Zag’s Shelter, Deven, Avernum, Larnak, and (for owners of ‘Sunfire and Moonshadow’) the Onyx Outpost.

User Interface Improvements

• Clarified the visual guidance of Evading, including when you Evade to a position occupied by another character.
• Clarified the visual guidance of Javek’s Hypnotize Skill.
• We streamlined tooltip behavior while using a controller based on feedback and expanded their functionality.
• Changed the Move Skill in Companion Combat, giving it better feedback and a more streamlined usage.

Bug Fixes

• Steam cloud saves are now working and can store up to 200mb of save files.
• Tutorial windows no longer appear minimized under any circumstances.
• Owned DLCs will now always show up properly under ‘Extras’ in Vagrus games in GOG and Epic Games Store libraries.
• Event choices with an Achievement dependency now show the proper icon (chalice).
• When using a controller, the Chart tutorial no longer scrolls the same way as the Chart is zoomed in and out.
• Fixed a rare issue occurring on GOG and the Epic Games Store, causing players to be unable to select the Knowledge Ambition upon vagrus creation when owning the Vorax Free-LC.
• You can no longer turn back in the initial parts of Pilgrims of the Wasteland when using a controller.
• Fixed an issue caused by owning more than 10.000 Bross upon loading a game.
• Fixed an issue that caused the game to freeze in Companion Combat when Suppressing Shot would trigger an Evade.

Stay tuned and conquer the wasteland!

Let’s keep it short and sweet: our new Old Acquaintances DLC is now available on Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store! It’s been a long time coming, and while we’ve enjoyed the ride, we can’t wait for you – the players – to sink your teeth into the stories of both Javek and Sedarias, the two new Companion characters included in this piece of content. We hope you’ll enjoy the expanded lore, characters, and hirelings on offer – all have been a pleasure to work on.

As part of the release of our upcoming Old Acquaintances DLC, The Freelancers’ Guild – or Collegium Mercennaris – will be added to the game, extending hireling options for aspiring vagri. Known across the Riven Realms for their neutrality, the Guild operates under a strict Imperial mandate, which allows them to lease out mercenaries to private persons. Collegia Mercennaris also prides itself on a diverse offering; ex-gladiators, legion veterans, and even Kal’rish warriors number among their ranks, as do licensed Necromancers who do not serve the Church for one reason or another.

The time is finally nigh: we have a release date for Old Acquaintances and a fresh release trailer to boot!

The DLC will drop on the 12th of June, 2024, and those of you who have already played the ‘Pilgrims of the Wasteland’ scenario will surely recall the identities of the two returning companions. For those who do not, the man by the campfire is Javek, a remarkable telepath and sorcerer with unique abilities, while the bony hand that pushes through the black sands of Arenas Negras belongs to Sedarias, a Knight of the Black Sun and defender of the Empire.