Steal and Silence contracts, Social, Crafting and Summon improvements.

Hi folks,

As I've mentioned before, I have big plans for updating this game and making it the best it can be. And naturally, many of you ask me, "Hey Raven, what's the roadmap?" My answer is usually, "There's a beta branch that gets weekly, and sometimes even more frequent, updates. You can opt in, check out the patch notes on Discord, or wait for the monthly update."

That's not because I don't have a roadmap. It's because a roadmap reflects what I want to add to the game, not necessarily what you want added. This update, and the last one, focus on things the community asked for and I agreed with, along with a few features I personally wanted to include. If I had shared a roadmap, it wouldn't have been accurate anyway, and I'd rather show progress through action than promises.

The things that didn't make it in aren't off the table. They'll just take more time. Speaking of what's coming, I want to add more recipes, properties, and sandbox goals, as well as new story arcs, including "the second book" that continues from your ending. The world is already massive, so expanding it further is a secondary goal, but eventually there will be more towns and regions too.

All that will come as they're ready, with top priority always going to community quality of life improvements and, of course, bug fixes. I don't do design committees, but I'm making this game for both of us, and I will listen and consider everything you're willing to suggest.

So without further ado, let's dive into what's new in this update. There's plenty of new stuff and fixes in this one, but here are a few highlights you'll probably enjoy most.

• First off, the Silence and Steal contracts are finally here. The Contracts UI got some love too, and you can now see both the contractor and adversary tied to a job.
• One on one Duels make their debut. You can provoke rivals or hostile NPCs into single combat. Some bounties and Silence contracts may also end in duels. When chasing bounties, if your target is three or more levels below you, it's an instant win. Lose, and besides the humiliation, they'll snatch one of your items, which might make them stronger the next time you meet.
• Stealth got a full rework. Each failed enemy hit now reduces its duration, breaking when it hits zero or when you're detected. Enemies now avoid stealthed targets whenever possible, making sneaky play more predictable and fair.
• Glancing Blows fix the frustration of hitting heavily armored foes for nothing. A weapon skill of 3 or higher now guarantees at least 1 unblockable point of damage, plus 1 for every 3 ranks beyond that. Skill always counts now, and those debuffs can finally slip through thick armor.
• Summons got a serious boost. All have been rebalanced for better scaling at higher levels. Rituals now feature 14 new summons you can unlock through fresh recipes. Animal summons also got a modest buff and will see further improvements in the next update.
• You can now Research recipes at your camp. If you or a companion have rank 3 or higher in Cooking, Herbalism, Smithing, Alchemy, or Enchanting, you can discover recipes you don't already know.
• Crafting expanded with 132 new gear recipes across offhands, attire, and armors.
• There's also a unified interaction hub for merchants and townsfolk, with new interactions. You can now ask shopkeepers and adventurers about bounties or local info.
• A new "Locate Person" action helps you find any town resident to talk to or feed when no one seems to be around. You might still come up empty, but it's now much more likely you'll find someone.
• Travel times were overhauled. Terrain and weather now influence your pace. Towns and flat ground are much faster, with trips there now taking 30 minutes instead of 2 hours and 30 minutes. Rough terrain and bad weather still slow you down, but overall travel is snappier. The Shortcut action in towns is cheaper and no longer has a cooldown.
• Skipping time is now instant, so you can advance time without waiting for hostile or neutral turns.
• UI got plenty of polish. Summon tooltips now display current and max levels plus upgrade paths. Right clicking a summon let's you view its character sheet. In the Barter UI, right clicking returns items to your inventory.
• Added 'milestone rewards of extra SP and PP' at levels 5, 10, 15, and 20 for smoother progression.

There are tons more small fixes and balance tweaks packed in too, but you can read the full details in the patch notes below. This is a huge update, so have fun and let me know if you encounter any issues so I can fix them as soon as possible!

Patch Notes - 05/11/25 # 1.0.57

Bugfixes

• Fixed an issue where, in certain cases, the wait popup could lead to meeting the bounty's contractor instead of resolving the bounty.
• Fixed a potential blocker that could prevent the "Mirage in the Dark" objective from advancing in one of the routes.
• Added a workaround for cases where the "Mirage in the Dark" objective is stuck. Rent a room at the Anchor and rest there to advance the quest on affected saves.
• Fixed an issue where replacing certain effects didn't reapply their condition tag. This was especially important for cases like replacing a Stealth effect with another, which could unintentionally break Stealth.
• Stealth avoidance and detection now work correctly when resolving composite actions such as Move + Attack.
• Fixed an issue where confronting or framing rivals could incorrectly recruit them into your party.
• Fixed a softblock where certain Dismiss NPC options were missing the ReturnToAction() Lua call.
• Fixed an issue where the Top 3 Camp Duties for vampires could display duties they can't be assigned, such as Hunting or Blood Hunt (which is exclusive to the MC).
• Fixed a potential visual glitch caused by a VFX object becoming null while merging two hostile bands.
• Fixed an issue where an event did not grant the correct item, the Invitation to Gnosis Society.
• Corrected several conditions for NPC gift approval that previously triggered fallback lower influence gains.
• Fixed an issue in contracts where the contractor and the target of a bounty could be the same person.
• Added several safeguards when saving NPCs in WorldData.json to prevent data corruption.
• Added a safeguard in the Tile Inspector to prevent the same actor from appearing twice on the same tile.
• Added extra safeguards to prevent new contracts from using the same destination tile or contractor as active contracts from other regions.
• Fixed an issue where ChoiceEffect, PartyEffect, Flirt, Relationship, and RelationshipHidden methods could modify the influence of Thrall characters.
• Fixed an issue with the wait popup that could unnessarily prompt meeting the contractor of the lair contracts.
• Fixed an issue with Blood hunt showing up in the top 3 duties of Vampire companions (it's exclusive to vampire MC)
• Fixed an issue where you could meet your doppelganger in Urban events.
• Fixed an issue where the absence of the Spellbook field in modded weapons could cause modded encounters to break.
• The compass button to locate the contract on the map is now properly disabled for Silence contracts while the target destination is unknown.
• Talking to any companions in an environment not scripted for them, will fall back to their generic interactions.
• Starting the Back to Emerald Basin quest without Anya in your active party will move her into your active party, even if this temporarily exceeds your party limit. She will still sit out the encounter if your party is already at full capacity.
• If you began the quest without her and are stuck in downtime, you can still progress it by interacting with the campfire, as long as Anya is in your reserves. She will still sit out the encounter if your party is already at full capacity. If she isn't a member of your group for any reason, you can leave the area instead of getting stuck.
• Fixed an issue where succeeding in the initial bounty contracts could instantly trigger the direct confrontation outcome.
• Fixed an issue where hostile actors could sometimes ignore their line of sight.
• Fixed an issue that could affect how hostile actors decide whether to summon.
• Fixed a typo in a few perks that were granting duration and magnitude bonuses in "Fortitude" instead of "Fortify."
• While viewing the inventory of non-party members, their Crafting and Recipes tabs will remain disabled.
• Fixed a typo in one of Olivia's romance scenes.
• During downtimes, if the party exceeds six members and the extra ones are assigned random tiles, they will now avoid tiles reserved for placeables.
• Added safeguards to prevent NPCs from having negative Max HP caused by equipment penalties.
• Added safeguards to prevent enemy tokens from being created with negative Max HP caused by equipment penalties.
• ESC is temporarily blocked while an Encounter is initializing to prevent glitches during asynchronous token loading on maps.
• Fixed several enchanting crafting requirements to properly match the perks that grant their recipes.
• Fixed an issue where having multiple bounties or silence contracts active at the same time could prevent you from asking for information about your next target after completing the first.
• Graveforged Knight can now properly equip his sword.
• Bone Colossus can now properly evolve to Marrow Lord.
• Fixed an issue where multiple known contracts on the same tile would create overlapping POIs.
• After a conversant dies, is arrested, or escapes as a bounty, the tile inspector will now hide to prevent edge cases when that actor was in view.
• Added additional safeguards to the contract generator to ensure that the contractor and adversary exist and aren't in prison, dead, or MIA, preventing cases where a contract is accepted but the actor can't be found upon arrival.
• Added the Silence and Steal contracts to the contracts UI sanity checker to preemptively remove any contracts from the pool that can no longer be completed.
• Added a safeguard to prevent the tile actor sanitizer from replacing places with actors.
• Fixed incorrect terrain types in a few world tiles.
• Empty cave, dungeon, ruin, and POI tiles no longer display an icon to avoid the impression that they currently have any significance.
• Fixed an issue where it was possible to ask about the whereabouts of a silence target outside their region.

Combat Changes

• Updated Stealth rule: Stealth now decreases by 1 each time an enemy attempts to hit you and fails. Once Stealth reaches 0, or if you're detected, it breaks automatically. For example, Stealth 1 lets you avoid one hit, Stealth 2 up to two hits, and so on.
• New mechanic, Glancing Blow: When an attack would deal 0 damage after defenses, a skilled combatant can still land a glancing blow. If the attacker's governing skill is 3 or higher, the attack instead deals 1 unblockable damage, representing a precise strike slipping through the gaps in an opponent's armor. For every 3 additional ranks in the governing skill (6, 9, 12, and so on), this minimum damage increases by +1.
• Refined Enemy movement and engagement logic in combat.
• Hostile actors will now try to ignore stealthed targets when possible and attack a different actor if available.
• Hostile actors will remember who they are engaged with and pursue that target, only switching if a closer or more imminent threat appears, or if their target becomes stealthed.
• Summon power now scales more with level.
• Buffed summons: Lesser Ghoul, Skeletal Scout, Ghastly Guard, Crypt Conjurer, Bone Colossus, Sanctified Guardian, Infernal Mistress, Henchman, Sellsword
• Buffed Animal summon's 'Primal Instinct' ability.

New Content

• Added Silence & Steal contracts.
• Merchants and random NPCs now use a unified interaction hub for greater consistency.
• The interaction hub has been reorganized and expanded, offering much higher interactivity with various NPCs.
• You can now ask merchants about local information or details about your active bounty.
• You can now provoke rivals and hostile NPCs into duels to the death.
• Some bounties can now lead to a one-on-one duel with your quarry.
• Failing a bounty or rival duel now lets the victorious NPC walk away with one of your items, possibly making them stronger the next time you face them.
• Added a few more choices when pursuing bounties.
• Added new summons: Feral Ghoul, Ravenous Ghoul, Flesh Golem, Skeletal Warrior, Bone Archer, Graveforged Knight, Phantom Warden, Crypt Marksman, Spectral Sentinel, Sepulchral Archon, Dirge Matron, Marrow Lord, Soulflame Lich, Blight Hierophant.
• Added several recipes that let you upgrade the base ritual summons learned through perks into their improved versions. If a summon can be upgraded, its tooltip will mention it. To perform the upgrade, drag the summon into the crafting UI.
• Added 53 new recipes for Offhand gear.
• Added 39 new recipes for Attire gear.
• Added 40 new recipes for Armor gear.
• Added new Research duties in Camp. Companions or the player with Cooking, Herbalism, Smithing, Alchemy, or Enchanting at rank 3 or higher can take on the corresponding research duty. On success, you'll learn a random recipe you don't already know, of a rank equal to or lower than your current skill rank.
• If you are tracking a bounty or quarry, you can also ask neutral adventurer bands in town through the diplomatic exchange.
• Added a new action "Locate Person," which lets you find any nearby town resident to talk to or feed if no NPC is available during this hour.

Qol and Misc Changes

• Moved the option to ask for information alongside the rest of the interactions.
• You'll automatically win a duel with your bounty if their level is at least three levels lower than yours. Otherwise, you'll face them in a one-on-one fight.
• Travel time is now more dynamic, factoring in both terrain and weather. Moving through towns and easy terrain takes significantly less time than before, while bad weather can extend travel time across rougher terrain.
• Skipping time is now instant and no longer passes turns.
• Removed the cooldown from the Shortcut action and reduced its AP cost to 1 and time consumption to 30 mins.
• The number of local contracts now varies based on region size.
• Increased the variety of generated Exploration contracts.
• After being forced to fight with limited party members, such as in solo duels, your full party is automatically restored at the end of the fight, and you'll have the option to confirm your party members.
• The Invitation to Gnosis Society can now be gifted to NPCs.
• You can now gift any NPC, not just companions, as long as you have a suitable gift and some influence with them.
• In the barter UI, you can right-click on an offered or requested item to return it to its owner.
• Increased the inventory value of General Stores, making it easier to find higher-quality tools and materials.
• Improved the contract generation algorithm. Each town tile will now offer a distinct set of contract options.
• Added the target's region to the description of Silence contracts.
• Added Contractor and Adversary buttons to the Contract UI. Before accepting a contract, you can now preview the NPCs that will be affected positively or negatively by your efforts.
• Changed the Connections + Bribe requirement in Silence contracts to Connections + Authority.
• Supply contracts now request items with values based on both the contractor's region and the player's level and in more reasonable quantities.
• Crafting recipes now support Party.Farthings:x as a requirement, deducting the specified amount from the party when crafting.
• Revamped the Recipes UI and added dynamic filters based on the available recipe type field.
• At levels 5, 10, 15, and 20, you'll now gain an extra SP and PP as bonus progression.
• The Summon tooltip now shows both current and maximum levels, helping you know when it's time to move on to a higher-rank summon.
• The Summon tooltip now indicates if an upgrade recipe exists for that summon.
• In the actor editor, you can now hover over equipped items to view their tooltips.
• You can now right-click summons in your inventory to view their character sheet. Their level depends on your level and the summoning action's rank, so the preview is dynamic.
• Items that are governed by level will be categorized by Slot in the Recipes UI
• Failing a discovery now grants a small amount of party XP instead of none.
• Improved the calculation method for the top 3 camp duties of companions.