Hey All,

it's been a long time since we posted a project update, and we have a number of important news to share so here we go!

Lost Pilgrims is 2 Years Old

It is hard to believe that we founded the studio two years ago - who would have thought that time was going to fly so quickly. We have achieved many things and learned a LOT about game development. We lived through highs and lows alike, but the most important thing is that we persevered. Just to give you an idea, here are a few highlights:

I'd sooner go walking in Maar Gorad.

- A common saying in terra supra, meaning 'not a chance'

Not all regions of the northern part of the continent are deserts or arid wasteland, even though those are the most recognizable features as well as the most numerous. One region stands out with its wet, humid atmosphere and its moors that are almost impossible to navigate: Maar Gorad, the Unforgiving Swamp.

Obedience is a stat describing how disciplined (or disgruntled) the slaves owned by the comitatus are at a given time. It was implemented to give a rather fluid drawback to owning slaves: they might provide free workforce but keeping men and women enslaved does have its risks even if it is 'part of the system'. You typically lose Obedience if you do not guard your slaves well enough (too few fighters to look after them), if you get or buy a lot of new slaves, if you do not feed them enough, if you arm them in Crew Combat, or keep choosing options in Events that endanger or embolden them.

The wind was speaking to her, telling her terrible things, singing of her demise, chanting of her worst fears becoming manifest, of her never reaching her destination, never achieving her dreams, never being content, never finding rest or refuge or love. It kept on whining and screaming and whimpering until she herself started screaming in a vain attempt to blot it all out.

Ever since we came up with the idea of Vagrus, a game where you manage a comitatus, we knew we needed to develop an elaborate, dynamic trade system that would serve as one of the major features of the game and would also aid in fleshing out a living world.

Basic Premises 

While trading was always to be one of the main sources of income for the player, we also wanted to avoid creating a pure trading simulator game. It's not that those are not fun for the right people - stories about Gabor dominating the Auction House on our server in World of Warcraft for a period of time still surface in conversations among friends - but because our strengths lie elsewhere. Our unique setting, The Riven Realms, and telling stories with memorable characters was the first and foremost motivation to create Vagrus, so it was also much more likely to excel in that rather than in a simulation - which we knew relatively little of.

As we are getting closer and closer to releasing the first playable build of the main campaign of Vagrus, it is perhaps a good time to talk a bit about the differences between the open world campaign and 'Pilgrims of the Wasteland'. The focus of this is going to be narrative design and stories but there are going to be implications on gameplay as well.

Besides working on implementing new features into our Open Access build, we made great progress with prepping for the debut of the first Open-world region - Tor'Zag's Shelter and its surroundings -  which basically is about the first half of the main game. We are actually contemplating to bring its release ahead of polishing all the features.

'You can say a lot of nastiness about the Imperials but one thing is for sure: they know how to build stuff. Take Fort Larius, for instance. They constructed it over seven hundred years ago. It survived the war against the Dragons and the Orcish invasion! The fools abandoned it and the ages gnawed at its walls and turrets incessantly until it became a hollow ruin. And yet, the towers and walls still stand, only awaiting someone to occupy the place and make use of it.'

As the name suggests, Tainted Madmen are unfortunate souls driven insane by the arcane disease called the Taint. Even if it does not directly erode their minds, the more extremely mutated of these forsaken are cast out by family and society, which is often enough to start them down a path of madness and desperation.

As enemies in the game, Tainted Madmen are often encountered all around the central regions of the Empire. Living in city gutters, sewers, or caves in the wilderness, they often emerge to waylay passersby.

There are many quarries in the middle regions of the Empire, which consists of territories relatively rich in useful resources: stone, marble, crystal, and obsidian. Three of the sites stand out and will be locations in the game:

The Acherus Quarry is the largest and oldest one in the whole region. It was established before the Orc Wars when the armies of the Empire were in dire need of obsidian for the war effort. Since then, Acherus has run dry and only provides little of the black, glassy material every year. It is overseen by House Darius.