Hey everyone,

today, we are happy to share the changes we squeezed into this new update! Better yet, we have included two additional features that we managed to implement on top of our initial plans.

A quick recap of what we have added (skip ahead to see the bonus additions):

New Content:

• The Deven region with one major settlement, Deven, and a smaller one, Sun Rock, as well as a lot of new ground to explore.
• The Church of Ahskul faction is fleshed out in all its macabre glory.
• Try your luck at tomb robbing in the Valley of Sleepers - if you dare.
• The Ratharnak Alliance's headquarters were extended and moved to the Mines of Plenty.
• Your journey with the Dread Reavers continues!
• A lot of new (shorter and longer) storylines you can follow through.
• The Dark Elf companion Renkailon can now also be recruited through story progression.

Crew Combat Improvements:

• Looting in crew combat
• Destroy the enemy or make it flee and get all their valuables
• Gather/Harvest items, money, and goods from fallen enemy units
• Catch - with a small chance - the surviving mounts of your Outriders who fell in battle
• Extract supplies from mounts that did not survive

Of course, the Riven Realms remains a dog-eat-dog place, so none of this loot is available if you lose or are forced to flee. Also, 'immersion is king' even when it comes to looting. Do not expect desperate lowlife tugs attacking your comitatus carrying heaps of valuables. Now, in case you are the aggressor and ambush their camp with all their possessions... that is another story. Provided that you are okay to prey on the weak. Will your companions approve? Will you provoke the Empire's ire?

Combat preparations

• You can mount Fighters or dismount Outriders right before crew combat (except if you are ambushed)

Goal (objective) selection changes

• Now you select a goal on the defensive side as well, so you can choose what you defend the most (crew, beasts, cargo)
• The main target of the enemies is only revealed in the second round
• You can change your objective at the end of each round
• Added the option to flee or retreat even during ongoing crew combat (albeit at potentially heavy losses)

New 'defense' stat introduced

• It better reflects how easy or hard it is to take out certain enemies and characters (ie: Outriders are much harder to damage for example)
• You can improve your crews' combat strength and/or defense stats with equipment and properties separately

'Actions' in crew combat (tactical commands)

Giving more tools to the vagrus, we are now enabling 'Actions' in crew combat. These can significantly influence the outcome of crew level combat encounters. Our ultimate goal is to enable entering Companion combat directly from Crew Combat but even until then, players can choose from a number of actions (more to come), like:

• 'Launch a mounted attack' that increases the effectiveness of Outriders for the round
• Form a 'Shield Wall' to increase the defense of your Fighters
• 'Insult' the enemy to increase the chance of them making a mistake

Impervious crew combat enemies

Specters, Haunts, Living Shadows. Horrors that are immune to mundane weapons. Improve your companions, gain the blessing of Gods, gather rare magical items to defeat them. Alternatively, do the only thing you can if you come across these deadly enemies... FLEE!

• Impervious enemies are marked with purple borders and their defense stat is colored as such, too
• Only your Enchanted companions and/or crew can damage Impervious enemies in crew combat. Enchanted combat strength is highlighted - the axe and the CS value are colored to purple.

Miscellaneous Changes:

• Event UI performance updates to ease the jittering (still not 100% but we are committed to fix it as soon as we are able)
• Higher Authority now reduces Companion loyalty penalties
• Outriders now automatically dismount to create cargo space in case the throw-out screen is (or would be) triggered

And the additional changes we managed to squeeze in:

• With the game growing, so did loading times but finally we got around to add a loading screen that also gives tips to new players.
• Made a massive number of smaller performance improvements, which together - hopefully - have an tangible effect on how the game runs.
• Implemented the Command leadership perk that opens up advanced Crew Combat Actions.

Let's dive into the detailed list of changes:

Patch 0.5.20 - Codename: Plunder!

New/Updated Features

Crew Combat changes

• Looting added
• Goals on the defender side added & option to change your goal between rounds
• Defense stat introduced
• Actions & Advanced Actions with the Command Leadership perk added
• Impervious enemies now appear
• Mount/Dismount at start of combat added
• Retreat/Disengage/Flee options mid-fight now possibel - they take a full round to execute

Load Screens added with tips

Updated mechanics

• Outriders auto-dismount to free up cargo space if needed
• Keeping an 'army-sized' comitatus got a little harder

New/Updated Content

• Deven region added with the settlements Deven and Sun Rock and a ton of new content
• Renkailon can be now recruited normally (without Braxius' involvement)
• Ratharnak HQ moved to Mines of Plenty; Church of Ahskul more prominent in Deven (their new HQ)
• The Dread Reavers hit the road again and get into all kinds of shenanigans

UI Improvements

• Progress Counter shown on certain Quality journals
• Animation and decal refinements
• Various smaller UI changes & Tooltip updates

Bug Fixes

• Sorcerer's Apprentice background is back
• Shedload of smaller fixes

Known Issues

• We will explore options to reduce the initial loading time
• Scouting result crash - still unable to reproduce
• The visual presentation of companion combat skills with two phases are not final yet

'Is Vagrus properly balanced now?' - Nope.

'Was it a step in the right direction?' - We think so. Please let us know how you find it.

Stay tuned, stay alive, conquer the wasteland!

The Lost Pilgrims Team

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