Chronicles of Vaeltaja: In Search of the Great Wanderer · published
Good day, Traveller!
Chronicles of Vaeltaja is getting some pretty great improvements and enhancements with the next update. This is going to be a long one, so I’ll get straight to the point.
There will be lots of it. So far I've had to rely on parallel processes when creating certain mechanics for the game. These parallel processes are very intensive for cpu and one of the biggest, if not the biggest, bottlenecks of the engine. I designed a bunch of very light plugins to handle all those mechanics, for example the torch and lantern system, so there are no longer heavy parallel processes causing unnecessary workload.
The new plugins are designed to be active only when they are needed to avoid any unnecessary per-frame work. And I didn't stop there: I went through all my previous plugins and some other plugins that I'm allowed to edit (and which aren't obfuscated), and eliminated all the possible per-frame work that I could. There were some mechanics in a few of the plugins that were running constantly, even though it wasn't necessary.
These are some of the mechanics that were turned into lighter plugins: Torch and Lantern system, Party HUD tracking (checks if the HUD is enabled/disabled when transferring from one area to another), Instant Movement and the player icon tracking on minimap. Also the weather and Magic Map plugins both had some unnecessary per-frame work going on that were optimized to work only when needed.
Of course, not all the per-frame work can be avoided all the time, for example time must be tracked all the time, and torch duration must be tracked when the torch is lit, but these are lighter to achieve with plugins than with multiple parallel processes running at the same time. I don't know how much all this improves performance on mobile cpus, because I lack the hardware for testing, but I'd expect the game to run better on Steam Deck after the update.
So these are the biggest optimizations I can make at this point, and since adding these improvements to the game took so much time and effort, I don't plan on adding them to the demo version, which is based on already dated build anyway.
These new optimizations allowed me to finally add proper dynamic shadows cast by other light sources than the sun. This means that now wall and town torches cast shadows too, and so does the player's torches and lanterns. These new dynamic shadows really makes a difference when exploring the dark dungeons or the overworld at night. There's also Options setting to turn off the player's light source shadows, because shadows in general can be a bit demanding with this engine on weaker cpus. And this reminds me that I've done some organizing in the Options Menu too.
Night skies will get stars, which are not 2d skybox layer, but actually 3d dome, so the stars stay the same and they work with Nvidia 3D Vision too. Not to mention that the night skies look much more atmospheric than before.
I've made some adjustments on lighting system, and stormy nights are now darker than before. Also, Autumn Valley and Winter Wilds have their own day/night lighting and skyboxes to give them own unique atmospheres. And speaking of skyboxes, the battlebackgrounds have new skies too, and what’s even better: The weather conditions follow to the battles too! I created a battle weather plugin that adds a weather layer for rain, storm and snow.
Some other improvements: Camping animation is fixed to scale properly on 1440p resolution and thunder storm sounds much better.
While Chronicles of Vaeltaja has never meant to be an immersive sim, I’ve always wanted the kingdom of Twin Falls to feel as immersive as possible. Of course there are some very clear limitations when it comes to interaction, because as a solo developer I need to draw the line somewhere, but compared to most grid-based 1st person RPGs the game is already pretty feature rich. In the early development, when the game wasn’t nearly as deep as it has become, I made some choices to exclude certain mechanics found in many games of the genre; for example the need for food, water and rest. For some time now I’ve had this idea of implementing them, but because not everyone likes the pressure that these kinds of mechanics will bring, I wanted to make them optional. Also, the idea of adding just optional visual gauges to keep track of felt a bit lacking, so I gave the whole idea some time to develop in the background, and eventually Hardcore Mode was born.
Hardcore mode can be enabled/disabled at any time in the Options menu, and it makes some dramatic changes to the game: eating, drinking and resting are mandatory, lanterns need oil or recharging, torches are affected by rain, most states/status effects are no longer removed after battles, enemies are stronger in every way and they can ambush when the party is resting or passing time. Adding to that, Inns are more expensive and they offer room with or without a meal.
When enabled, Hardcore Mode adds Water Flask and some Food Rations in the inventory’s ‘Tools’ tab and alternative item shop inventories with necessary supplies. Food rations, Water and Oil Phials can be bought from the item shops, but Water Flask can be re-filled in spring water fountains/ponds, and the party can drink from those same spots too. The Lantern Maker in the Castle Town will re-fill Oil Flask when paid, but certain dungeons have oil jars for re-filling. Food Rations, Water and Oil Flasks and Phials can be assigned to the quick bar and used like any other tool. These new tools and items are hidden from the inventory when the Hardcore Mode is disabled.
There are optional visual gauges to track Food, Water and Restfulness, but also some other optional visual sings to help notice these new conditions: for example, the colours will start to fade from the game world when the party gets hungry or thirsty. But there are other penalties too: the party will get weaker and more vulnerable, movement speed slows down, characters start to lose energy and eventually health. When hunger or thirst strikes one Food Ration or sip of water is enough for the whole party, so there is no need to feed each character separately.
Light rain dims torch light, medium rain extinguishes the torch after a short while and heavy rain won’t allow it to lit at all. Lantern and Bright Lantern need oil, while Magic Lantern, Spirit Lantern and Lantern of Life need recharging after they run out of energy. I designed the whole torch and lantern system with the Hardcore Mode in mind, so the whole system is much more flexible than before.
Cold will be a factor too in Winter Wilds with some visual indicators, and of course, gameplay related penalties.
While testing these new features and mechanics, I have also been working on the next content update’s assets, and I’m trying my best to finish enough content to release at least some of the Winter Wilds’ areas with these new improvements at the end of this month. I have had to re-design some of the sprites, and I’m still working on some of those re-designs, so things haven’t progressed as fast as I had hoped for, but I’m pretty optimistic to get some meaningful content ready for the update.
There’s always a risk of delays, but if nothing unexpected happens, the update will be released before the month is over. If I fail to create enough content for the Winter Wilds, I may consider delaying only the content and release these improvements at the end of this month. Whatever the case, I will keep you informed when the time comes.
I hope these news get you excited, because after this update Chronicles of Vaeltaja will be even better than ever before!
Chronicles of Vaeltaja is currently 25% off.
Thank You!
Jani/Witchgrove Games