Hello everyone,
We will show you the feature requests we’ve been receiving. This current one is about all the input we’ve received on existing and new features.
Back in October, when we published the game, we opened up a pinned discussion on our Steam Community Hub where our players were encouraged to post improvement ideas. The topic received 82 posts containing hundreds of ideas. We’ve been monitoring them, however, between managing a steady supply of ad hoc issues, hiring new Pilgrims, and creating and publishing the Vorax DLC, we didn’t have much time to give the matter the attention it deserves - until recently!
We were finally able to prioritize looking at and systematically analyzing all the input and the central points in detail. We’ve been looking into the community hub thread, as well as what we’ve received via the online reporting tool and on our Discord server.
Mapping out everything was no small task, yet it’s been fun. We selected the common points pertaining to the same areas as we really wanted to know what the most critical ones are according to the players. We compiled everything into Miro boards (#notanad), the result of which you can see below. Please note that it is deliberately blurred so as to avoid giving anyone wrong expectations that might not be fulfilled -- we don’t want to let anyone down, but we are super excited to show you what we are working on.
To nobody's surprise, the three most talked-about improvements were ones pertaining to map movement, scouting the campaign map, as well as Crew Combat. We are focusing on the first two. After that is done, Gods willing, we hope to overhaul Crew Combat. That said, we are planning to work on other stuff, too.
Please do keep your ideas flowing, they are invaluable in making the game better - which we are absolutely dedicated to.
Random Name Generator
Have you ever arrived at the final step of a character creation screen and felt completely stumped as to what you are going to call yourself in the game? Do you wonder what kind of names would be appropriate for your vagrus based on their background? We’ve been there, and we get it.
That’s why our new random name generator has been a long time coming. Our priorities were two-fold: give options to those who would rather not worry about such matters, and also to allow players some insight into naming conventions in the Riven Realms.
There are quite a few variations. From a lore perspective, we also thought players might like to understand some of the naming conventions in the Riven Realms – especially those that are less than typical or tie into the lore in some intriguing way.
First off, let’s talk about the Imperials. It’s no secret that the Roman Empire acted as inspiration for them; indeed, this is reflected in both their first and last names, too. We do not generate cognomen (the third, earned name) for Imperial characters – that is left to the player. Conversely, Kalani names are somewhat inspired by ancient Greek names, while Tarkian ones have a tenuous connection with middle-eastern cultures.
Interestingly, last names from Tark such as ‘al-Radan’ connote the city that that family is from historically speaking, which perhaps ironically is something that Dark Elves also share to some extent, for example using a first name in combination with “of Zhar” to show that person comes from that city state in the Everdark.
The most unique of naming conventions goes to the Orcs, however, whose names tend to be short and contain the name of the parent whose gender their offspring aligns with. In the case of Gor’Goro, this means that his father’s first name element was ‘Goro’, and when Gor’Goro was born, he took that as the second part of his original name. You can find many examples in-game, and one below too.
Next, we have Dwarves and Half-Elves, both of whom also have unique naming conventions, which fall outside of traditional fantasy tropes. Dwarves only take a first name – after the Calamity struck and the Dwarven kingdoms were all but destroyed, many of the race were disillusioned and jaded, which meant that most Dwarves cast off their family names and turned away from matters associated with them. Half-Elves, on the other hand, take last names that are connected with their proclivity for wandering and the road – with some of their ilk taking no last names at all.
Finally, there are Demonkin and the Dajmahans, who also use just first names. Demonkin names have roots in a variety of historically mythological places, while for Dajmahans, being mostly a jungle-dwelling people, we took name inspiration from traditionally African names.
Naturally, all of these traditions and developments relating to the races of the Realms have been incorporated into our name generator, and we can’t wait for players to experiment with it.
Map Movement Update
Next up is the other most talked about aspect of the game that needed improvement: the movement.
Autocamp
The way camp prompts work now is that the camp icon pops up whenever you run out of Movement Points. With the new update, you can click the camp icon on the target node to immediately trigger camping once you get there.
As seen on the map above, the nodes along the blue track can be traveled to by spending Movement Points, while the red section indicates that Marching will be required. By clicking on the camp icon on the desired destination node, the camping screen will be immediately triggered upon reaching said destination.
Automarching
You used to have to exhaust your Movement Points before you could switch to Marching. With the update, you will be able to elect to automatically begin your march right after you run out of Movement Points. Both features can be toggled on and off by ticking their respective boxes in the settings menu. This way, new players can avoid messing up while veterans may set it up the way they prefer it to work.
Quick Camp
It is common for players to go about camping the same way every time. In order to avoid having to go through the same motions, it is now possible to retain the previous settings – if requirements are met – when camping by clicking on the tent icon with the circular arrow. Just as with the features above, this one can be activated by ticking the corresponding box in the settings menu.
Last but not least: can you use both the automarch and the autocamp features at the same time? You certainly can!
That’s all for now – we hope you’ll like these new improvements.
Stay tuned and conquer the wasteland!
- The Lost Pilgrims Team
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