Patch Notes 1.5 for Season #8 (October 6th 2017)
Since going into Early Access we have listened to your feedback in the forums, via direct messages and in the game itself. As you all noticed, The Exiled did not live up to the expectations we had for it, leading to a very small players base and little player interaction. Our efforts during the last months did not have a significant impact on this. Survival Mode was interesting but not good enough. So here is what has to happen: 1. We decided to remove the three-hour-time-window we introduced with Survival Mode. This did not lead to more engaging play sessions and it prevented you from playing - so it had to go. 2. We are extending the free trial to an unlimited duration for everybody. That means that you can play The Exiled for free as long as you want without having to pay for it - as long as you do not want the goodies in our Supporter Packs like multiple character slots or extra skins. 3. We will go back to the drawing board with our plans to re-set the game. Expect smaller bug fixes from us in the coming seasons but no major changes. We are still supporting the game, keeping the servers running and answering your support tickets but as long as we have no convincing plan for the future of the game we will not make any further major changes to it. Yes, we have read multiple suggestions to "just get a publisher", to "just spend some money on marketing" or "just make the game free-to-play". We can assure you that if there was a "silver bullet" to make the game work out then we'd go that route in an instant. We have spent the last four years of our lives living and breathing The Exiled and we are fully aware of the options we have. Thank you for supporting The Exiled so far - do not hesitate to share your feedback with us! We'll keep you posted. Sincerely, Alex and Sebi Your The Exiled team
[ 2017-10-02 13:40:50 CET ] [ Original post ]
These are the Patch Notes for The Exiled version 1.5 that will be released with the start of our Season #8 game worlds (October 6th until November 2nd 2017). Please check out our list of known issues before playing and reporting bugs.
- Removed the three-hour-window - game worlds are now available 24/7 again.
- Increased the maximum duration you can go without drinking to 60 minutes.
- Doubled the daily limited lives regeneration for all players.
- You are now always able to drink water from a well as long as you are not overloaded.
- You can now see the next well on the side of your screen.
- Fixed a localisation issue with the character creation screen.
- Removed "Points of Interest" from the game since they did not create meaningful gameplay.
- Removed Efficiency and Elegance leaderboards from the game since they did not create meaningful gameplay. The Clan and Solo leaderboards are staying.
- Removed the inactive "mods menu" from the game.
A Note from the Developers
Since going into Early Access we have listened to your feedback in the forums, via direct messages and in the game itself. As you all noticed, The Exiled did not live up to the expectations we had for it, leading to a very small players base and little player interaction. Our efforts during the last months did not have a significant impact on this. Survival Mode was interesting but not good enough. So here is what has to happen: 1. We decided to remove the three-hour-time-window we introduced with Survival Mode. This did not lead to more engaging play sessions and it prevented you from playing - so it had to go. 2. We are extending the free trial to an unlimited duration for everybody. That means that you can play The Exiled for free as long as you want without having to pay for it - as long as you do not want the goodies in our Supporter Packs like multiple character slots or extra skins. 3. We will go back to the drawing board with our plans to re-set the game. Expect smaller bug fixes from us in the coming seasons but no major changes. We are still supporting the game, keeping the servers running and answering your support tickets but as long as we have no convincing plan for the future of the game we will not make any further major changes to it. Yes, we have read multiple suggestions to "just get a publisher", to "just spend some money on marketing" or "just make the game free-to-play". We can assure you that if there was a "silver bullet" to make the game work out then we'd go that route in an instant. We have spent the last four years of our lives living and breathing The Exiled and we are fully aware of the options we have. Thank you for supporting The Exiled so far - do not hesitate to share your feedback with us! We'll keep you posted. Sincerely, Alex and Sebi Your The Exiled team
Patch Notes 1.5 for Season #8 (October 6th 2017)
Since going into Early Access we have listened to your feedback in the forums, via direct messages and in the game itself. As you all noticed, The Exiled did not live up to the expectations we had for it, leading to a very small players base and little player interaction. Our efforts during the last months did not have a significant impact on this. Survival Mode was interesting but not good enough. So here is what has to happen: 1. We decided to remove the three-hour-time-window we introduced with Survival Mode. This did not lead to more engaging play sessions and it prevented you from playing - so it had to go. 2. We are extending the free trial to an unlimited duration for everybody. That means that you can play The Exiled for free as long as you want without having to pay for it - as long as you do not want the goodies in our Supporter Packs like multiple character slots or extra skins. 3. We will go back to the drawing board with our plans to re-set the game. Expect smaller bug fixes from us in the coming seasons but no major changes. We are still supporting the game, keeping the servers running and answering your support tickets but as long as we have no convincing plan for the future of the game we will not make any further major changes to it. Yes, we have read multiple suggestions to "just get a publisher", to "just spend some money on marketing" or "just make the game free-to-play". We can assure you that if there was a "silver bullet" to make the game work out then we'd go that route in an instant. We have spent the last four years of our lives living and breathing The Exiled and we are fully aware of the options we have. Thank you for supporting The Exiled so far - do not hesitate to share your feedback with us! We'll keep you posted. Sincerely, Alex and Sebi Your The Exiled team
[ 2017-10-02 13:40:50 CET ] [ Original post ]
These are the Patch Notes for The Exiled version 1.5 that will be released with the start of our Season #8 game worlds (October 6th until November 2nd 2017). Please check out our list of known issues before playing and reporting bugs.
- Removed the three-hour-window - game worlds are now available 24/7 again.
- Increased the maximum duration you can go without drinking to 60 minutes.
- Doubled the daily limited lives regeneration for all players.
- You are now always able to drink water from a well as long as you are not overloaded.
- You can now see the next well on the side of your screen.
- Fixed a localisation issue with the character creation screen.
- Removed "Points of Interest" from the game since they did not create meaningful gameplay.
- Removed Efficiency and Elegance leaderboards from the game since they did not create meaningful gameplay. The Clan and Solo leaderboards are staying.
- Removed the inactive "mods menu" from the game.
A Note from the Developers
Since going into Early Access we have listened to your feedback in the forums, via direct messages and in the game itself. As you all noticed, The Exiled did not live up to the expectations we had for it, leading to a very small players base and little player interaction. Our efforts during the last months did not have a significant impact on this. Survival Mode was interesting but not good enough. So here is what has to happen: 1. We decided to remove the three-hour-time-window we introduced with Survival Mode. This did not lead to more engaging play sessions and it prevented you from playing - so it had to go. 2. We are extending the free trial to an unlimited duration for everybody. That means that you can play The Exiled for free as long as you want without having to pay for it - as long as you do not want the goodies in our Supporter Packs like multiple character slots or extra skins. 3. We will go back to the drawing board with our plans to re-set the game. Expect smaller bug fixes from us in the coming seasons but no major changes. We are still supporting the game, keeping the servers running and answering your support tickets but as long as we have no convincing plan for the future of the game we will not make any further major changes to it. Yes, we have read multiple suggestions to "just get a publisher", to "just spend some money on marketing" or "just make the game free-to-play". We can assure you that if there was a "silver bullet" to make the game work out then we'd go that route in an instant. We have spent the last four years of our lives living and breathing The Exiled and we are fully aware of the options we have. Thank you for supporting The Exiled so far - do not hesitate to share your feedback with us! We'll keep you posted. Sincerely, Alex and Sebi Your The Exiled team
Patch Notes 1.4 for Season #6 (August 10th 2017)
[ 2017-08-09 21:03:05 CET ] [ Original post ]
These are the Patch Notes for The Exiled version 1.4 that will be released with the start of our Season #6 game servers (August 10th until September 6th 2017). Please check out our list of known issues before playing and reporting bugs.
This month sees the initial launch of our Survival Mode rule set. You can learn more about survival mode here and about our reasoning for the update here.
Note: To properly test Survival Mode we are deactivating the 7-day-trial restrictions for Season #6.That means that everybody will be able to play the full season, even if you did not buy a Supporter Pack.
New Features
- Limited Availability: All game worlds are available for exactly 3 hours per day.
- Limited Lives: All characters have a limited amount of lives. You lose one every time you die in the game. Lifes refill every 24 hours. New players will have increased lifes and decreased refill timers.
- Thirst: In order to survive you need to find water. Find a Well on the world map in order to quench your thirst.
- from 17:00 UTC // 19:00 Germany // 20:00 Moscow
- to 20:00 UTC // 22:00 Germany // 23:00 Moscow
- and then every day at the same times for 30 days
- from 00:00 UTC (Friday) // 5 PM PDT // 21:00 Brazil // 8 PM ET
- to 03:00 UTC (Friday) // 8 PM PDT // 00:00 Brazil (Friday) // 11 PM ET
- and then every day at the same times for 30 days
Patch Notes 1.4 for Season #6 (August 10th 2017)
[ 2017-08-09 21:03:05 CET ] [ Original post ]
These are the Patch Notes for The Exiled version 1.4 that will be released with the start of our Season #6 game servers (August 10th until September 6th 2017). Please check out our list of known issues before playing and reporting bugs.
This month sees the initial launch of our Survival Mode rule set. You can learn more about survival mode here and about our reasoning for the update here.
Note: To properly test Survival Mode we are deactivating the 7-day-trial restrictions for Season #6.That means that everybody will be able to play the full season, even if you did not buy a Supporter Pack.
New Features
- Limited Availability: All game worlds are available for exactly 3 hours per day.
- Limited Lives: All characters have a limited amount of lives. You lose one every time you die in the game. Lifes refill every 24 hours. New players will have increased lifes and decreased refill timers.
- Thirst: In order to survive you need to find water. Find a Well on the world map in order to quench your thirst.
- from 17:00 UTC // 19:00 Germany // 20:00 Moscow
- to 20:00 UTC // 22:00 Germany // 23:00 Moscow
- and then every day at the same times for 30 days
- from 00:00 UTC (Friday) // 5 PM PDT // 21:00 Brazil // 8 PM ET
- to 03:00 UTC (Friday) // 8 PM PDT // 00:00 Brazil (Friday) // 11 PM ET
- and then every day at the same times for 30 days
Season #6: Survival Mode v1 starts August 10th
[ 2017-08-08 22:09:29 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everybody,
as announced in June we are nearly ready to start testing Survival Mode. On Thursday, August 10th we will launch two new game worlds for you, both running the new Survival Mode rule set.
Here are the start times:
European Game World
- from 17:00 UTC // 19:00 Germany // 20:00 Moscow
- to 20:00 UTC // 22:00 Germany // 23:00 Moscow
- and then every day at the same times for 30 days
- from 00:00 UTC (Friday) // 5 PM PDT // 21:00 Brazil // 8 PM ET
- to 03:00 UTC (Friday) // 8 PM PDT // 00:00 Brazil (Friday) // 11 PM ET
- and then every day at the same times for 30 days
Features:
- Limited Availability: All game worlds are available for exactly 3 hours per day.
- Limited Lives: All characters have a limited amount of lives. You lose one every time you die in the game. Lifes refill every 24 hours. New players will have increased lifes and decreased refill timers.
- Thirst: In order to survive you need to find water. Find a Well on the world map in order to quench your thirst.
FAQ:
- Will there be other game worlds that are not running Survival Mode? No. This season we will exclusively test Survival Mode.
- Will the game be F2P during the season? Yes. We will disable the trial phase restriction and everybody will be able to play for the full 30 days, even without having bought a Supporter Pack.
- Will Survival Mode stay forever or become the new normal? We don't know yet. This depends on your feedback during the season.
Season #6: Survival Mode v1 starts August 10th
[ 2017-08-08 21:27:45 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everybody,
as announced in June we are nearly ready to start testing Survival Mode. On Thursday, August 10th we will launch two new game worlds for you, both running the new Survival Mode rule set.
Here are the start times:
European Game World
- from 17:00 UTC // 19:00 Germany // 20:00 Moscow
- to 20:00 UTC // 22:00 Germany // 23:00 Moscow
- and then every day at the same times for 30 days
- from 00:00 UTC (Friday) // 5 PM PDT // 21:00 Brazil // 8 PM ET
- to 03:00 UTC (Friday) // 8 PM PDT // 00:00 Brazil (Friday) // 11 PM ET
- and then every day at the same times for 30 days
Features:
- Limited Availability: All game worlds are available for exactly 3 hours per day.
- Limited Lives: All characters have a limited amount of lives. You lose one every time you die in the game. Lifes refill every 24 hours. New players will have increased lifes and decreased refill timers.
- Thirst: In order to survive you need to find water. Find a Well on the world map in order to quench your thirst.
FAQ:
- Will there be other game worlds that are not running Survival Mode? No. This season we will exclusively test Survival Mode.
- Will the game be F2P during the season? Yes. We will disable the trial phase restriction and everybody will be able to play for the full 30 days, even without having bought a Supporter Pack.
- Will Survival Mode stay forever or become the new normal? We don't know yet. This depends on your feedback during the season.
State of the Game // Survival Mode
In the weeks and months after launching The Exiled into Steam Early access we updated the game with larger updates for each new Season and smaller hotfixes in between. We added some new content, we tweaked the game balance and we fixed bugs. We also experimented a bit with our Trial period, giving out extra trial days and even making the trial last for a full month-long season. But as anyone who can read a line chart can see, The Exiled does not currently have a large enough player base to sustain the game, let alone our development team. So in order to make up for the missing game revenue we had to do what all game developers do in such situations - we take on contract work to pay for our bills while working on the game in the time we have left. And that worked really well. Sebi and I went from being 100% completely broke to being able to pay our rent on time again. We're now in a good groove that allows us to combine consulting gigs with working on The Exiled indefinitely. And so we can finally get back to work on making the game as good as we always wanted it to be. After all, we are in Early Access and we still have a lot to do.
Since launching in Early Access we got a lot of feedback from our players. First of all: Thank you for that feedback! Even though sometimes emotions get a little heated and some Steam reviews are a bit hard to parse - you can still be sure that we read what you wrote and made sure to give your feedback thorough thought - especially those awesome, long forum posts where some of you spent a lot of time on analyzing the game. Thank you! Most recently we invited you to take part in a Community Brainstorming. And while that was happening we did our own brainstorm sessions and jotted down a lot of ideas about where we should push the game in the future and how we can make sure to deliver the experience we want to create. Before I get into the details of what we decided I want to address some very valid points of feedback and explain why we are NOT going to develop the game in that direction. Not because we do not think that these ideas are bad per se - they just do not fit our possibilities as a team and our vision for the game. 1.) "Make it more like a real MMORPG"' We often get the request that we should do away with limited server lifetimes, add more PvE content to the game, more interesting mobs, quests, dungeons and a proper storyline, increase the size of the game worlds and add more concurrent players to each world. We are not going to do that. Why? One reason is purely practical and financial. We are a tiny, independent team with a very limited budget. We just cannot pay for the hundred of thousands of hours that go into the creation of large game worlds full of PvE content. We also think that we do not have to do that. There are already hundreds or large MMOs out there that deliver exactly that kind of "adventure in a huge world" experience. And we neither can nor want to compete with them on this experience. Both our team and our technology setup has not been designed for this approach and it never will be. 2.) "The game needs to be more responsive/lag-free/polished"' This is a hard one for me because it is a very reasonable request. We are all used to an amazing amount of polish from the games we play these days. And while I would love to at some point have a game where each action feels as juicy as in a Diablo III and where the game controls are so amazingly tweaked as in Battlerite - this is again a tall order for a tiny team like ours. We will not be able to make sure that our game with its 100 to 200 concurrent players of pings between 30 and 300 feels as great as singleplayer game or one that has up to 4 players with perfect ping in its arenas. So while we will improve our experience here, we will also never hit the high bar that other games with different development focus can deliver. Of course there were hundreds more suggestions that I have not discussed in detail here. Some of them are very doable and will make it into the game eventually. Others will never happen for similar reasons as stated above. So now that we know what is not going to happen, let's talk about how The Exiled is going to change in the near future and why that is going to be awesome!
While The Exiled currently has many flaws, it also has some strengths. The one that we find the most important is that when the game works as intended, when you are in the game world for a few hours and you're engaged in PvP combat with and against other players, then it is a ton of fun. The times where PvE and gathering becomes a side-task and back-drop for your very immediate PvP experience is awesome. The problem right now is that this experience is pretty rare. Many times we log into the game, run around, find only a few or no other players and then turn to farm some mob camp or collect resources. And that is just plain boring. So here is what we will do: In time for Season #7 (August) we will launch a new type of game worlds that we call "Survival Mode". Here is how they differ from the current game: Focussed Action: Three Hours per Day Survival Mode game worlds will only be accessible for players for a short time per day (currently we think 3 hours). How does that make the game better? Simple, it makes sure that we are all in the game at the same time and that finding opponents for PvP is way more likely. And this ensures that we do not have to fall back to the rather boring "farm some stuff" mode of being. Yes, we have to get a lot of details right here. For example we need to get your feedback on during which times our game worlds should be online for each continent and time zone. A survey about this will go out to you soon. And yes, we know that some players will not like this idea at first. But please: Give it a try and then decide if you like the new experience or not. And yes: We will have an offer for those of you who just cannot play during the final time slots. Limited Lives Survival mode also comes with a gameplay tweak that you already know from our "world end" event: On Survival Mode worlds you will have a limited amount of lives. Every time your character dies, you lose a life. And if you run out of lives, you have to take a break from playing. You're out of the game. But of course we will make sure that lives are not suuuper scarce and that they refill over time (current plans: 6 lives max and you get 3 new lives per day). And we will make sure to give new players a lot of extra lives so they can find into the game (which requires some extra dying) before they run out of lives. This small change will make PvP a lot more adrenaline-filled as it currently is and that is exactly how we want the game to be. Thirst: Get some water! This feature was often requested by players but it only makes sense now in conjunction with the 3-hour time windows and Limited Lives: On Survival Mode worlds you will need to find an oasis at regular intervals and stock up on water. If you do not get to an oasis in time to quench your thirst you will slowly loose health and eventually die. And yes, oases will be relatively rare and you might actually have to negotiate or fight to access once. Which is great in our book since we want to have even more interaction between players in the game.
So this is it, now you know our plans going forward. Of course we're also working on some smaller and bigger bug-fixes, performance improvements and balance tweaks. But Survival Mode will be our focus for the coming months. We will release more detailed info about it over the coming weeks and we will make sure to discuss it with you in detail and take in your feedback. After all, this is Early Access. We know that big changes like this are sometimes painful but we're also committed to being here and to discuss it in detail with you. So please make sure to head over to the forums and talk to us about Survival Mode. See you in the game! Fairytale Distillery (Alex & Sebi)
[ 2017-06-24 14:18:49 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everybody,
for a while now you have only really heard from us in forum posts and via support tickets. Sorry for the lack of info. We owe you a long blog post to explain what is currently going on in the distillery. Here it is:
Recap: The Last Months
In the weeks and months after launching The Exiled into Steam Early access we updated the game with larger updates for each new Season and smaller hotfixes in between. We added some new content, we tweaked the game balance and we fixed bugs. We also experimented a bit with our Trial period, giving out extra trial days and even making the trial last for a full month-long season. But as anyone who can read a line chart can see, The Exiled does not currently have a large enough player base to sustain the game, let alone our development team. So in order to make up for the missing game revenue we had to do what all game developers do in such situations - we take on contract work to pay for our bills while working on the game in the time we have left. And that worked really well. Sebi and I went from being 100% completely broke to being able to pay our rent on time again. We're now in a good groove that allows us to combine consulting gigs with working on The Exiled indefinitely. And so we can finally get back to work on making the game as good as we always wanted it to be. After all, we are in Early Access and we still have a lot to do.
Player Feedback and Developer Decisions
Since launching in Early Access we got a lot of feedback from our players. First of all: Thank you for that feedback! Even though sometimes emotions get a little heated and some Steam reviews are a bit hard to parse - you can still be sure that we read what you wrote and made sure to give your feedback thorough thought - especially those awesome, long forum posts where some of you spent a lot of time on analyzing the game. Thank you! Most recently we invited you to take part in a Community Brainstorming. And while that was happening we did our own brainstorm sessions and jotted down a lot of ideas about where we should push the game in the future and how we can make sure to deliver the experience we want to create. Before I get into the details of what we decided I want to address some very valid points of feedback and explain why we are NOT going to develop the game in that direction. Not because we do not think that these ideas are bad per se - they just do not fit our possibilities as a team and our vision for the game. 1.) "Make it more like a real MMORPG"' We often get the request that we should do away with limited server lifetimes, add more PvE content to the game, more interesting mobs, quests, dungeons and a proper storyline, increase the size of the game worlds and add more concurrent players to each world. We are not going to do that. Why? One reason is purely practical and financial. We are a tiny, independent team with a very limited budget. We just cannot pay for the hundred of thousands of hours that go into the creation of large game worlds full of PvE content. We also think that we do not have to do that. There are already hundreds or large MMOs out there that deliver exactly that kind of "adventure in a huge world" experience. And we neither can nor want to compete with them on this experience. Both our team and our technology setup has not been designed for this approach and it never will be. 2.) "The game needs to be more responsive/lag-free/polished"' This is a hard one for me because it is a very reasonable request. We are all used to an amazing amount of polish from the games we play these days. And while I would love to at some point have a game where each action feels as juicy as in a Diablo III and where the game controls are so amazingly tweaked as in Battlerite - this is again a tall order for a tiny team like ours. We will not be able to make sure that our game with its 100 to 200 concurrent players of pings between 30 and 300 feels as great as singleplayer game or one that has up to 4 players with perfect ping in its arenas. So while we will improve our experience here, we will also never hit the high bar that other games with different development focus can deliver. Of course there were hundreds more suggestions that I have not discussed in detail here. Some of them are very doable and will make it into the game eventually. Others will never happen for similar reasons as stated above. So now that we know what is not going to happen, let's talk about how The Exiled is going to change in the near future and why that is going to be awesome!
Enter Survival Mode
While The Exiled currently has many flaws, it also has some strengths. The one that we find the most important is that when the game works as intended, when you are in the game world for a few hours and you're engaged in PvP combat with and against other players, then it is a ton of fun. The times where PvE and gathering becomes a side-task and back-drop for your very immediate PvP experience is awesome. The problem right now is that this experience is pretty rare. Many times we log into the game, run around, find only a few or no other players and then turn to farm some mob camp or collect resources. And that is just plain boring. So here is what we will do: In time for Season #7 (August) we will launch a new type of game worlds that we call "Survival Mode". Here is how they differ from the current game: Focussed Action: Three Hours per Day Survival Mode game worlds will only be accessible for players for a short time per day (currently we think 3 hours). How does that make the game better? Simple, it makes sure that we are all in the game at the same time and that finding opponents for PvP is way more likely. And this ensures that we do not have to fall back to the rather boring "farm some stuff" mode of being. Yes, we have to get a lot of details right here. For example we need to get your feedback on during which times our game worlds should be online for each continent and time zone. A survey about this will go out to you soon. And yes, we know that some players will not like this idea at first. But please: Give it a try and then decide if you like the new experience or not. And yes: We will have an offer for those of you who just cannot play during the final time slots. Limited Lives Survival mode also comes with a gameplay tweak that you already know from our "world end" event: On Survival Mode worlds you will have a limited amount of lives. Every time your character dies, you lose a life. And if you run out of lives, you have to take a break from playing. You're out of the game. But of course we will make sure that lives are not suuuper scarce and that they refill over time (current plans: 6 lives max and you get 3 new lives per day). And we will make sure to give new players a lot of extra lives so they can find into the game (which requires some extra dying) before they run out of lives. This small change will make PvP a lot more adrenaline-filled as it currently is and that is exactly how we want the game to be. Thirst: Get some water! This feature was often requested by players but it only makes sense now in conjunction with the 3-hour time windows and Limited Lives: On Survival Mode worlds you will need to find an oasis at regular intervals and stock up on water. If you do not get to an oasis in time to quench your thirst you will slowly loose health and eventually die. And yes, oases will be relatively rare and you might actually have to negotiate or fight to access once. Which is great in our book since we want to have even more interaction between players in the game.
The Way Forward
So this is it, now you know our plans going forward. Of course we're also working on some smaller and bigger bug-fixes, performance improvements and balance tweaks. But Survival Mode will be our focus for the coming months. We will release more detailed info about it over the coming weeks and we will make sure to discuss it with you in detail and take in your feedback. After all, this is Early Access. We know that big changes like this are sometimes painful but we're also committed to being here and to discuss it in detail with you. So please make sure to head over to the forums and talk to us about Survival Mode. See you in the game! Fairytale Distillery (Alex & Sebi)
State of the Game // Survival Mode
In the weeks and months after launching The Exiled into Steam Early access we updated the game with larger updates for each new Season and smaller hotfixes in between. We added some new content, we tweaked the game balance and we fixed bugs. We also experimented a bit with our Trial period, giving out extra trial days and even making the trial last for a full month-long season. But as anyone who can read a line chart can see, The Exiled does not currently have a large enough player base to sustain the game, let alone our development team. So in order to make up for the missing game revenue we had to do what all game developers do in such situations - we take on contract work to pay for our bills while working on the game in the time we have left. And that worked really well. Sebi and I went from being 100% completely broke to being able to pay our rent on time again. We're now in a good groove that allows us to combine consulting gigs with working on The Exiled indefinitely. And so we can finally get back to work on making the game as good as we always wanted it to be. After all, we are in Early Access and we still have a lot to do.
Since launching in Early Access we got a lot of feedback from our players. First of all: Thank you for that feedback! Even though sometimes emotions get a little heated and some Steam reviews are a bit hard to parse - you can still be sure that we read what you wrote and made sure to give your feedback thorough thought - especially those awesome, long forum posts where some of you spent a lot of time on analyzing the game. Thank you! Most recently we invited you to take part in a Community Brainstorming. And while that was happening we did our own brainstorm sessions and jotted down a lot of ideas about where we should push the game in the future and how we can make sure to deliver the experience we want to create. Before I get into the details of what we decided I want to address some very valid points of feedback and explain why we are NOT going to develop the game in that direction. Not because we do not think that these ideas are bad per se - they just do not fit our possibilities as a team and our vision for the game. 1.) "Make it more like a real MMORPG"' We often get the request that we should do away with limited server lifetimes, add more PvE content to the game, more interesting mobs, quests, dungeons and a proper storyline, increase the size of the game worlds and add more concurrent players to each world. We are not going to do that. Why? One reason is purely practical and financial. We are a tiny, independent team with a very limited budget. We just cannot pay for the hundred of thousands of hours that go into the creation of large game worlds full of PvE content. We also think that we do not have to do that. There are already hundreds or large MMOs out there that deliver exactly that kind of "adventure in a huge world" experience. And we neither can nor want to compete with them on this experience. Both our team and our technology setup has not been designed for this approach and it never will be. 2.) "The game needs to be more responsive/lag-free/polished"' This is a hard one for me because it is a very reasonable request. We are all used to an amazing amount of polish from the games we play these days. And while I would love to at some point have a game where each action feels as juicy as in a Diablo III and where the game controls are so amazingly tweaked as in Battlerite - this is again a tall order for a tiny team like ours. We will not be able to make sure that our game with its 100 to 200 concurrent players of pings between 30 and 300 feels as great as singleplayer game or one that has up to 4 players with perfect ping in its arenas. So while we will improve our experience here, we will also never hit the high bar that other games with different development focus can deliver. Of course there were hundreds more suggestions that I have not discussed in detail here. Some of them are very doable and will make it into the game eventually. Others will never happen for similar reasons as stated above. So now that we know what is not going to happen, let's talk about how The Exiled is going to change in the near future and why that is going to be awesome!
While The Exiled currently has many flaws, it also has some strengths. The one that we find the most important is that when the game works as intended, when you are in the game world for a few hours and you're engaged in PvP combat with and against other players, then it is a ton of fun. The times where PvE and gathering becomes a side-task and back-drop for your very immediate PvP experience is awesome. The problem right now is that this experience is pretty rare. Many times we log into the game, run around, find only a few or no other players and then turn to farm some mob camp or collect resources. And that is just plain boring. So here is what we will do: In time for Season #7 (August) we will launch a new type of game worlds that we call "Survival Mode". Here is how they differ from the current game: Focussed Action: Three Hours per Day Survival Mode game worlds will only be accessible for players for a short time per day (currently we think 3 hours). How does that make the game better? Simple, it makes sure that we are all in the game at the same time and that finding opponents for PvP is way more likely. And this ensures that we do not have to fall back to the rather boring "farm some stuff" mode of being. Yes, we have to get a lot of details right here. For example we need to get your feedback on during which times our game worlds should be online for each continent and time zone. A survey about this will go out to you soon. And yes, we know that some players will not like this idea at first. But please: Give it a try and then decide if you like the new experience or not. And yes: We will have an offer for those of you who just cannot play during the final time slots. Limited Lives Survival mode also comes with a gameplay tweak that you already know from our "world end" event: On Survival Mode worlds you will have a limited amount of lives. Every time your character dies, you lose a life. And if you run out of lives, you have to take a break from playing. You're out of the game. But of course we will make sure that lives are not suuuper scarce and that they refill over time (current plans: 6 lives max and you get 3 new lives per day). And we will make sure to give new players a lot of extra lives so they can find into the game (which requires some extra dying) before they run out of lives. This small change will make PvP a lot more adrenaline-filled as it currently is and that is exactly how we want the game to be. Thirst: Get some water! This feature was often requested by players but it only makes sense now in conjunction with the 3-hour time windows and Limited Lives: On Survival Mode worlds you will need to find an oasis at regular intervals and stock up on water. If you do not get to an oasis in time to quench your thirst you will slowly loose health and eventually die. And yes, oases will be relatively rare and you might actually have to negotiate or fight to access once. Which is great in our book since we want to have even more interaction between players in the game.
So this is it, now you know our plans going forward. Of course we're also working on some smaller and bigger bug-fixes, performance improvements and balance tweaks. But Survival Mode will be our focus for the coming months. We will release more detailed info about it over the coming weeks and we will make sure to discuss it with you in detail and take in your feedback. After all, this is Early Access. We know that big changes like this are sometimes painful but we're also committed to being here and to discuss it in detail with you. So please make sure to head over to the forums and talk to us about Survival Mode. See you in the game! Fairytale Distillery (Alex & Sebi)
[ 2017-06-24 14:13:24 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everybody,
for a while now you have only really heard from us in forum posts and via support tickets. Sorry for the lack of info. We owe you a long blog post to explain what is currently going on in the distillery. Here it is:
Recap: The Last Months
In the weeks and months after launching The Exiled into Steam Early access we updated the game with larger updates for each new Season and smaller hotfixes in between. We added some new content, we tweaked the game balance and we fixed bugs. We also experimented a bit with our Trial period, giving out extra trial days and even making the trial last for a full month-long season. But as anyone who can read a line chart can see, The Exiled does not currently have a large enough player base to sustain the game, let alone our development team. So in order to make up for the missing game revenue we had to do what all game developers do in such situations - we take on contract work to pay for our bills while working on the game in the time we have left. And that worked really well. Sebi and I went from being 100% completely broke to being able to pay our rent on time again. We're now in a good groove that allows us to combine consulting gigs with working on The Exiled indefinitely. And so we can finally get back to work on making the game as good as we always wanted it to be. After all, we are in Early Access and we still have a lot to do.
Player Feedback and Developer Decisions
Since launching in Early Access we got a lot of feedback from our players. First of all: Thank you for that feedback! Even though sometimes emotions get a little heated and some Steam reviews are a bit hard to parse - you can still be sure that we read what you wrote and made sure to give your feedback thorough thought - especially those awesome, long forum posts where some of you spent a lot of time on analyzing the game. Thank you! Most recently we invited you to take part in a Community Brainstorming. And while that was happening we did our own brainstorm sessions and jotted down a lot of ideas about where we should push the game in the future and how we can make sure to deliver the experience we want to create. Before I get into the details of what we decided I want to address some very valid points of feedback and explain why we are NOT going to develop the game in that direction. Not because we do not think that these ideas are bad per se - they just do not fit our possibilities as a team and our vision for the game. 1.) "Make it more like a real MMORPG"' We often get the request that we should do away with limited server lifetimes, add more PvE content to the game, more interesting mobs, quests, dungeons and a proper storyline, increase the size of the game worlds and add more concurrent players to each world. We are not going to do that. Why? One reason is purely practical and financial. We are a tiny, independent team with a very limited budget. We just cannot pay for the hundred of thousands of hours that go into the creation of large game worlds full of PvE content. We also think that we do not have to do that. There are already hundreds or large MMOs out there that deliver exactly that kind of "adventure in a huge world" experience. And we neither can nor want to compete with them on this experience. Both our team and our technology setup has not been designed for this approach and it never will be. 2.) "The game needs to be more responsive/lag-free/polished"' This is a hard one for me because it is a very reasonable request. We are all used to an amazing amount of polish from the games we play these days. And while I would love to at some point have a game where each action feels as juicy as in a Diablo III and where the game controls are so amazingly tweaked as in Battlerite - this is again a tall order for a tiny team like ours. We will not be able to make sure that our game with its 100 to 200 concurrent players of pings between 30 and 300 feels as great as singleplayer game or one that has up to 4 players with perfect ping in its arenas. So while we will improve our experience here, we will also never hit the high bar that other games with different development focus can deliver. Of course there were hundreds more suggestions that I have not discussed in detail here. Some of them are very doable and will make it into the game eventually. Others will never happen for similar reasons as stated above. So now that we know what is not going to happen, let's talk about how The Exiled is going to change in the near future and why that is going to be awesome!
Enter Survival Mode
While The Exiled currently has many flaws, it also has some strengths. The one that we find the most important is that when the game works as intended, when you are in the game world for a few hours and you're engaged in PvP combat with and against other players, then it is a ton of fun. The times where PvE and gathering becomes a side-task and back-drop for your very immediate PvP experience is awesome. The problem right now is that this experience is pretty rare. Many times we log into the game, run around, find only a few or no other players and then turn to farm some mob camp or collect resources. And that is just plain boring. So here is what we will do: In time for Season #7 (August) we will launch a new type of game worlds that we call "Survival Mode". Here is how they differ from the current game: Focussed Action: Three Hours per Day Survival Mode game worlds will only be accessible for players for a short time per day (currently we think 3 hours). How does that make the game better? Simple, it makes sure that we are all in the game at the same time and that finding opponents for PvP is way more likely. And this ensures that we do not have to fall back to the rather boring "farm some stuff" mode of being. Yes, we have to get a lot of details right here. For example we need to get your feedback on during which times our game worlds should be online for each continent and time zone. A survey about this will go out to you soon. And yes, we know that some players will not like this idea at first. But please: Give it a try and then decide if you like the new experience or not. And yes: We will have an offer for those of you who just cannot play during the final time slots. Limited Lives Survival mode also comes with a gameplay tweak that you already know from our "world end" event: On Survival Mode worlds you will have a limited amount of lives. Every time your character dies, you lose a life. And if you run out of lives, you have to take a break from playing. You're out of the game. But of course we will make sure that lives are not suuuper scarce and that they refill over time (current plans: 6 lives max and you get 3 new lives per day). And we will make sure to give new players a lot of extra lives so they can find into the game (which requires some extra dying) before they run out of lives. This small change will make PvP a lot more adrenaline-filled as it currently is and that is exactly how we want the game to be. Thirst: Get some water! This feature was often requested by players but it only makes sense now in conjunction with the 3-hour time windows and Limited Lives: On Survival Mode worlds you will need to find an oasis at regular intervals and stock up on water. If you do not get to an oasis in time to quench your thirst you will slowly loose health and eventually die. And yes, oases will be relatively rare and you might actually have to negotiate or fight to access once. Which is great in our book since we want to have even more interaction between players in the game.
The Way Forward
So this is it, now you know our plans going forward. Of course we're also working on some smaller and bigger bug-fixes, performance improvements and balance tweaks. But Survival Mode will be our focus for the coming months. We will release more detailed info about it over the coming weeks and we will make sure to discuss it with you in detail and take in your feedback. After all, this is Early Access. We know that big changes like this are sometimes painful but we're also committed to being here and to discuss it in detail with you. So please make sure to head over to the forums and talk to us about Survival Mode. See you in the game! Fairytale Distillery (Alex & Sebi)
Patch Notes 1.3 for Season #4 (May 18th 2017)
[ 2017-05-17 20:45:21 CET ] [ Original post ]
These are the Patch Notes for The Exiled version 1.3 that will be released with the start of our Season #4 game servers (May 18th until June 14th 2017). Please check out our list of known issues before playing and reporting bugs.
This month a lot of our dev time was spent on upgrading the project to the latest version 5.6 of the Unity game engine powering the game client. This is going to improve performance for many players and fix a lot of smaller bugs with rendering. It will also make future development easier for us.
Note: With Season #4 we are activating the trial period restriction again. So if you have played The Exiled for more than seven days you'll be required to purchase one of our three supporter packs to continue playing.
Technology Changes
- Updated the game to Unity 5.6 which should increase performance and fix a number of bugs.
- Doubled all settlements' caravan storage capacity.
- Increased the world map visibility range for high-level meteors and carcasses.
- EU primetime is now an hour earlier.
- The siege time window has been slightly reduced.
- The "join a clan" popup now shows the current server of each clan.
- The whisper tab will now always show the "*" sign when you have an unread whisper.
- Updated the descriptions for Meditate and Deflective Shield.
- Fixed a settlement layout where a siege flag could be captured from outside a wall.
- Fixed a bug that allowed settlement gates to be displaced.
- The clan details window now correctly states if a clan is recruiting or not.
- The character window now properly shows 3 armor skill slots at level 9.
- Link buffs now end when you remove the link skill from your skillbar.
- Players can no longer format chat text.
Patch Notes 1.3 for Season #4 (May 18th 2017)
[ 2017-05-17 20:45:21 CET ] [ Original post ]
These are the Patch Notes for The Exiled version 1.3 that will be released with the start of our Season #4 game servers (May 18th until June 14th 2017). Please check out our list of known issues before playing and reporting bugs.
This month a lot of our dev time was spent on upgrading the project to the latest version 5.6 of the Unity game engine powering the game client. This is going to improve performance for many players and fix a lot of smaller bugs with rendering. It will also make future development easier for us.
Note: With Season #4 we are activating the trial period restriction again. So if you have played The Exiled for more than seven days you'll be required to purchase one of our three supporter packs to continue playing.
Technology Changes
- Updated the game to Unity 5.6 which should increase performance and fix a number of bugs.
- Doubled all settlements' caravan storage capacity.
- Increased the world map visibility range for high-level meteors and carcasses.
- EU primetime is now an hour earlier.
- The siege time window has been slightly reduced.
- The "join a clan" popup now shows the current server of each clan.
- The whisper tab will now always show the "*" sign when you have an unread whisper.
- Updated the descriptions for Meditate and Deflective Shield.
- Fixed a settlement layout where a siege flag could be captured from outside a wall.
- Fixed a bug that allowed settlement gates to be displaced.
- The clan details window now correctly states if a clan is recruiting or not.
- The character window now properly shows 3 armor skill slots at level 9.
- Link buffs now end when you remove the link skill from your skillbar.
- Players can no longer format chat text.
Patch Notes 1.2 for Season #3 (April 20th 2017)
[ 2017-04-19 22:55:27 CET ] [ Original post ]
[img=http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27026462/3287c197e20c673e3f8b0781d17b83107da53d57.jpg][/img]
These are the Patch Notes for The Exiled version 1.2 that will be released with the start of our Season #3 game servers (April 20th until May 17th 2017). Please check out our list of known issues before playing and reporting bugs.
Unlimited Free Trial during Season #3: In order to make it easier for new players to get into The Exiled we have decided to get rid of the 7-day trial period during Season #3. Yes, that means that you and all of your friends can play The Exiled for free for the coming four weeks. Just start the game and you're in. You can (and should) still buy a Supporter Pack to unlock more character slots and get unique visuals for your character but it is not required anymore to play the game.
Open Clans: We have changed the clan system to allow for three new recruiting states. "Accepting Applications" is the default and it works as before: Applicants can message clan leaders and recruiters in order to be sent a clan invite. "Not recruiting" means just that - there will be no way to get in touch with the clan. And "Open" means that everybody will be able to join your clan at the click of a button without needing an invite. We also added a window notifying new players of the most active clans they could join.
Balancing Changes
- Fewer meteors, carcasses and caravans will now be spawned but they will carry much more loot. This should lead to more competition between players.
- Entering your email is not mandatory anymore to start playing. You should still do it to unlock a new pet, the Grey Snapper.
- Added a proper error message for when you are trying to equip gear you cannot use.
- The party channel now also supports in-game voice chat.
- Added new UI elements for map unlocks, donation points and city centers.
- Made sure that target calling [T] now works both in clans and parties (parties are preferred).
- The "called target" arrow is now much more visible.
- There can now be only one "called target" [T] per clan and party.
- You can now see your party members when they are in tall grass and you are not.
- Player names in the Help chat channel are now colored again and not just pure white.
- Added a Rare Mob that drops Healer ability sigils.
- Renamed all Rare Mobs with names befitting our game lore.
- Fixed some missing sound effects (bind to tree, open/close gates).
- Added new attack and death sounds for non-humanoid mobs.
- Reduced the density of tall grass in lower quality settings.
- Made sure that the new cloth-wearing mobs properly get tracked for opportunities.
- Fixed a bug where sometimes players would see the old login screen instead of Steam.
- Made sure that new players do not get the stars (ranking system) in the tutorial.
- Fixed a bug where you would sometimes would get a tutorial server with very high ping.
- The server end boss now has a health bar that actually updates when she gets damaged.
- Fixed a bug that visually removed (de)buff icons for characters outside of your view range.
- Fixed a bug that still displayed (de)buff icons created by links even once those links were broken.
Patch Notes 1.2 for Season #3 (April 20th 2017)
[ 2017-04-19 22:48:58 CET ] [ Original post ]
[img=http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27026462/3287c197e20c673e3f8b0781d17b83107da53d57.jpg][/img]
These are the Patch Notes for The Exiled version 1.2 that will be released with the start of our Season #3 game servers (April 20th until May 17th 2017). Please check out our list of known issues before playing and reporting bugs.
Unlimited Free Trial during Season #3: In order to make it easier for new players to get into The Exiled we have decided to get rid of the 7-day trial period during Season #3. Yes, that means that you and all of your friends can play The Exiled for free for the coming four weeks. Just start the game and you're in. You can (and should) still buy a Supporter Pack to unlock more character slots and get unique visuals for your character but it is not required anymore to play the game.
Open Clans: We have changed the clan system to allow for three new recruiting states. "Accepting Applications" is the default and it works as before: Applicants can message clan leaders and recruiters in order to be sent a clan invite. "Not recruiting" means just that - there will be no way to get in touch with the clan. And "Open" means that everybody will be able to join your clan at the click of a button without needing an invite. We also added a window notifying new players of the most active clans they could join.
Balancing Changes
- Fewer meteors, carcasses and caravans will now be spawned but they will carry much more loot. This should lead to more competition between players.
- Entering your email is not mandatory anymore to start playing. You should still do it to unlock a new pet, the Grey Snapper.
- Added a proper error message for when you are trying to equip gear you cannot use.
- The party channel now also supports in-game voice chat.
- Added new UI elements for map unlocks, donation points and city centers.
- Made sure that target calling [T] now works both in clans and parties (parties are preferred).
- The "called target" arrow is now much more visible.
- There can now be only one "called target" [T] per clan and party.
- You can now see your party members when they are in tall grass and you are not.
- Player names in the Help chat channel are now colored again and not just pure white.
- Added a Rare Mob that drops Healer ability sigils.
- Renamed all Rare Mobs with names befitting our game lore.
- Fixed some missing sound effects (bind to tree, open/close gates).
- Added new attack and death sounds for non-humanoid mobs.
- Reduced the density of tall grass in lower quality settings.
- Made sure that the new cloth-wearing mobs properly get tracked for opportunities.
- Fixed a bug where sometimes players would see the old login screen instead of Steam.
- Made sure that new players do not get the stars (ranking system) in the tutorial.
- Fixed a bug where you would sometimes would get a tutorial server with very high ping.
- The server end boss now has a health bar that actually updates when she gets damaged.
- Fixed a bug that visually removed (de)buff icons for characters outside of your view range.
- Fixed a bug that still displayed (de)buff icons created by links even once those links were broken.
Season #3: Unlimited Free Trial
[ 2017-04-17 13:36:56 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everybody. In order to make it easier for new players to get into The Exiled we have decided to get rid of the 7-day trial period during Season #3. Yes, that means that you and all of your friends can play The Exiled for free for the coming four weeks - starting on Thursday. Just start the game and you're in. You can (and should) still buy a Supporter Pack to unlock more character slots and get unique visuals for your character but it is not required anymore to play the game. Season #3 will start on Thursday, April 20th at 3 PM CEST with a completely fresh set of game servers and a bunch of cool games changes - expect patch notes on Wednesday. Cheers! Fairytale Distillery (Sebastian & Alex)
Season #3: Unlimited Free Trial
[ 2017-04-17 13:36:56 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everybody. In order to make it easier for new players to get into The Exiled we have decided to get rid of the 7-day trial period during Season #3. Yes, that means that you and all of your friends can play The Exiled for free for the coming four weeks - starting on Thursday. Just start the game and you're in. You can (and should) still buy a Supporter Pack to unlock more character slots and get unique visuals for your character but it is not required anymore to play the game. Season #3 will start on Thursday, April 20th at 3 PM CEST with a completely fresh set of game servers and a bunch of cool games changes - expect patch notes on Wednesday. Cheers! Fairytale Distillery (Sebastian & Alex)
Season #2 is here!!!
[ 2017-03-23 15:46:21 CET ] [ Original post ]
Dear Players,
Our Season #2 is starting and it brings a lot of fun with it!
New Servers!
- BR - Papagayo
- EU - Mistral
- US - Hurricane
New Features!
- Party System: You can now form parties with other players you meet in the game. That means you can share XP and see each other on the world map without having to be in the same clan (or any clan). Party members will also (like clan members) be preferred target for support abilities like heals.
- Diplomacy System: Clan leaders and managers can now add other clans to a "friend" and "enemy" lists. Clan members will then see those friend and enemy tags and be able to easily recognize your clan's status with another clan. These tags are NOT visible to anyone outside of your clan. They are one-directional (the other clan can choose a different status for you).
- The Healer: Added the Healer (Cloth) armor class to the game with lots of new abilities. The healer is still work-in-progress and will be balanced based on your feedback. It comes with a new ability type - links - that should open a lot more gameplay options for team-players who like a supportive playstyle.
And of course, we fixed a lot of annoying bugs! Do you want to know more details? Visit our Patch Notes 1.1 This season will run from March 23rd till April 19th, will you survive?! Thank you for supporting The Exiled, do not hesitate to share your feedback with us! Sincerely, The Exiled Team
Season #2 is here!!!
[ 2017-03-23 15:46:21 CET ] [ Original post ]
Dear Players,
Our Season #2 is starting and it brings a lot of fun with it!
New Servers!
- BR - Papagayo
- EU - Mistral
- US - Hurricane
New Features!
- Party System: You can now form parties with other players you meet in the game. That means you can share XP and see each other on the world map without having to be in the same clan (or any clan). Party members will also (like clan members) be preferred target for support abilities like heals.
- Diplomacy System: Clan leaders and managers can now add other clans to a "friend" and "enemy" lists. Clan members will then see those friend and enemy tags and be able to easily recognize your clan's status with another clan. These tags are NOT visible to anyone outside of your clan. They are one-directional (the other clan can choose a different status for you).
- The Healer: Added the Healer (Cloth) armor class to the game with lots of new abilities. The healer is still work-in-progress and will be balanced based on your feedback. It comes with a new ability type - links - that should open a lot more gameplay options for team-players who like a supportive playstyle.
And of course, we fixed a lot of annoying bugs! Do you want to know more details? Visit our Patch Notes 1.1 This season will run from March 23rd till April 19th, will you survive?! Thank you for supporting The Exiled, do not hesitate to share your feedback with us! Sincerely, The Exiled Team
Patch Notes 1.1
To know the details of this update, please look at the list below:
[ 2017-03-20 16:01:15 CET ] [ Original post ]
These are the Patch Notes for the version 1.1 for the start of our Season #2 game servers (March 23rd 2017). Please check out our list of known issues before playing and reporting bugs.
These Patch Notes are available on the following languages:
To know the details of this update, please look at the list below:
- Party System: You can now form parties with other players you meet in the game. That means you can share XP and see each other on the world map without having to be in the same clan (or any clan). Party members will also (like clan members) be preferred target for support abilities like heals.
- Diplomacy System: Clan leaders and managers can now add other clans to a “friend” and “enemy” lists. Clan members will then see those friend and enemy tags and be able to easily recognize your clan’s status with another clan. These tags are NOT visible to anyone outside of your clan. They are one-directional (the other clan can choose a different status for you).
- The Healer: Added the Healer (Cloth) armor class to the game with lots of new abilities. The healer is still work-in-progress and will be balanced based on your feedback. It comes with a new ability type - links - that should open a lot more gameplay options for team-players who like a supportive playstyle.
Balancing Changes
- Addressed the “gank ping pong” problem where players could be kept KO for unlimited amounts of times: 1.) You can now only be ganked one time while KO after having been knocked out. 2.) When ganked close to your bind point you will spawn at a randomly selected bind point, not always at the same one.
- Added storage containers to player-owned workshops.
- Reduced the effect of playtime on the player ranking system (stars).
- Made sure that more white and black pigments drop in the game world, especially for new players.
Usability Changes
- Added a “camera lock” option to the control menu (J) that centers the camera on your character, disregarding mouse movement.
- Added a new settings menu (ESC) and moved all settings there plus the option to exit the game.
- Streamlined the layout of the control settings menu.
- Unified the character name and map marker colors for your character (white), clan members (green) and party members (teal).
- Added a “open to everybody” button so you can easily share meteorites and carcassess with other players.
- Clan and party invites now require one click, removed the need to press (ESC).
- All hotkeys in info texts are now highlighted in green.
- Added a help text that explains the ranking system (stars) the first time it appears.
- Clan and party members are now visible anywhere on the world map, even in unexplored areas.
Visual and Audio Changes
- Added more exploration music to the game, tied to the swamp biome.
Performance Changes
- Improved audio performance through streaming.
- Fixed a bug where a loot window would flicker many times when walking away from a mob’s corpse.
- Fixed a bug that sometimes showed your character list as empty even though you had one or more characters.
- Fixed a bug that showed the “error 418” popup unnecessarily often to some players.
- Made sure that players could not get stuck outside of the world map.
- Fixed a bug that prevented the fame reward thumbnails in the customize menu from showing sometimes.
- Fixed a lot of small localization and UI issues.
- Fixed a bug where even at 0% volume voice chat was still audible.
Patch Notes 1.1 for Season #2 (March 23rd)
To know the details of this update, please look at the list below:
[ 2017-03-20 16:00:06 CET ] [ Original post ]
These are the Patch Notes for the version 1.1 for the start of our Season #2 game servers (March 23rd 2017). Please check out our list of known issues before playing and reporting bugs.
These Patch Notes are available on the following languages:
To know the details of this update, please look at the list below:
- Party System: You can now form parties with other players you meet in the game. That means you can share XP and see each other on the world map without having to be in the same clan (or any clan). Party members will also (like clan members) be preferred target for support abilities like heals.
- Diplomacy System: Clan leaders and managers can now add other clans to a friend and enemy lists. Clan members will then see those friend and enemy tags and be able to easily recognize your clans status with another clan. These tags are NOT visible to anyone outside of your clan. They are one-directional (the other clan can choose a different status for you).
- The Healer: Added the Healer (Cloth) armor class to the game with lots of new abilities. The healer is still work-in-progress and will be balanced based on your feedback. It comes with a new ability type - links - that should open a lot more gameplay options for team-players who like a supportive playstyle.
Balancing Changes
- Addressed the gank ping pong problem where players could be kept KO for unlimited amounts of times: 1.) You can now only be ganked one time while KO after having been knocked out. 2.) When ganked close to your bind point you will spawn at a randomly selected bind point, not always at the same one.
- Added storage containers to player-owned workshops.
- Reduced the effect of playtime on the player ranking system (stars).
- Made sure that more white and black pigments drop in the game world, especially for new players.
Usability Changes
- Added a camera lock option to the control menu (J) that centers the camera on your character, disregarding mouse movement.
- Added a new settings menu (ESC) and moved all settings there plus the option to exit the game.
- Streamlined the layout of the control settings menu.
- Unified the character name and map marker colors for your character (white), clan members (green) and party members (teal).
- Added a open to everybody button so you can easily share meteorites and carcassess with other players.
- Clan and party invites now require one click, removed the need to press (ESC).
- All hotkeys in info texts are now highlighted in green.
- Added a help text that explains the ranking system (stars) the first time it appears.
- Clan and party members are now visible anywhere on the world map, even in unexplored areas.
Visual and Audio Changes
- Added more exploration music to the game, tied to the swamp biome.
Performance Changes
- Improved audio performance through streaming.
- Fixed a bug where a loot window would flicker many times when walking away from a mobs corpse.
- Fixed a bug that sometimes showed your character list as empty even though you had one or more characters.
- Fixed a bug that showed the error 418 popup unnecessarily often to some players.
- Made sure that players could not get stuck outside of the world map.
- Fixed a bug that prevented the fame reward thumbnails in the customize menu from showing sometimes.
- Fixed a lot of small localization and UI issues.
- Fixed a bug where even at 0% volume voice chat was still audible.
Story Timeline - Current State of the World
Today is the final story timeline release. For those that haven’t followed along, we have been releasing bits of the story and lore behind The Exiled weekly, leading up to last week’s launch. This week, we are going to cover the current state of the world. Just like every week, we are also giving away a Steam key from our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/the.exiled.game/). Make sure you follow our Facebook page as we will be asking a question that’s relevant to today’s post in the near future. If you answer the question correctly, you’ll be entered into a random drawing for the Steam key. Below are links to all the story timeline posts until now: - Story Introduction: http://www.the-exiled.co/post/156941147702/story-introduction-and-pre-launch-giveaway-news - The Past - Part 1: http://www.the-exiled.co/post/157199335479/story-timeline-the-past - The Past - Part 2: http://www.the-exiled.co/post/157494434256/story-timeline-the-past-part-2 We hope you’ve enjoyed learning more about the history behind The Exiled and we look forward to growing our game with you, during its time in early access. Fairytale Distillery Team
We in the Mekar valley are sealed off from the rest of the world by Katakan. It is a place of desolation, corruption and sour waters. It is inhabited by us, the Outcasts. Some are here because they fell foul of the merchant’s council of Katakan. Some are here because heavy bribes were paid to make them disappear. Some chose to be here - some seek adventure and fortune, some seek old friends and vanished relatives. The Outcasts cluster in crude settlements, some larger than the others. Although there is lawlessness, a rough justice prevails, ever since the Treaty of the Hollow allied the major settlements. Despite these alliances, the valley is by no means a safe place. There are patrols of the Katakani, out to steal resources or to slaughter rebels. And there are older, stranger things; once-people, the Revenants, the Sasar. These are remnants of the Mekari, twisted and changed by the strangeness of the land. Monstrous things, apparently without intellect, acting on instinct and hostile to any who walk their lands. Then there are the Keepers. These strange creatures appeared only this year. They are hooded, robed, and faceless, and seem to be shades of a sort - any who have tried to strike them say that their weapon merely passes through. Yet they are not hostile. They do not seem to talk, but are aware of the Outcasts. It is said that sometimes, if an Outcast comes to death by mischance, the Keeper will bring them back to life. Some people believe that these creatures are servants of the gods. Others that they are demons. Those people brought back by the Outcasts are named Kai-nol, Empty Ones, and some settlements treat them with respect and awe; others with terror and disgust. Flux has become a de facto currency within the Valley; those skilled in the arts of the use of Sigils and Flux use it to reshape their abilities, while others use it as a base for strengthening other more mundane materials for building and other crafting. The Katakani patrols have increased in numbers. The city’s defences around the dam and the valley walls have grown thick and strong. The Katakani have heard the legends... somewhere in the valley the Exile is building an army of superlative warriors with blue marks on their skin. Dian Batari and her cohorts are now maneuvering to declare open war on the valley - to strip it open for its resources, to destroy Rukh and her revolutionaries, and to rip out the strange magical secrets which will let them use the Sigils. It’s up to the Exile and her Outcasts to stop them.
[ 2017-03-01 18:16:45 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello Everybody,
Today is the final story timeline release. For those that haven’t followed along, we have been releasing bits of the story and lore behind The Exiled weekly, leading up to last week’s launch. This week, we are going to cover the current state of the world. Just like every week, we are also giving away a Steam key from our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/the.exiled.game/). Make sure you follow our Facebook page as we will be asking a question that’s relevant to today’s post in the near future. If you answer the question correctly, you’ll be entered into a random drawing for the Steam key. Below are links to all the story timeline posts until now: - Story Introduction: http://www.the-exiled.co/post/156941147702/story-introduction-and-pre-launch-giveaway-news - The Past - Part 1: http://www.the-exiled.co/post/157199335479/story-timeline-the-past - The Past - Part 2: http://www.the-exiled.co/post/157494434256/story-timeline-the-past-part-2 We hope you’ve enjoyed learning more about the history behind The Exiled and we look forward to growing our game with you, during its time in early access. Fairytale Distillery Team
Current State Of The World
We in the Mekar valley are sealed off from the rest of the world by Katakan. It is a place of desolation, corruption and sour waters. It is inhabited by us, the Outcasts. Some are here because they fell foul of the merchant’s council of Katakan. Some are here because heavy bribes were paid to make them disappear. Some chose to be here - some seek adventure and fortune, some seek old friends and vanished relatives. The Outcasts cluster in crude settlements, some larger than the others. Although there is lawlessness, a rough justice prevails, ever since the Treaty of the Hollow allied the major settlements. Despite these alliances, the valley is by no means a safe place. There are patrols of the Katakani, out to steal resources or to slaughter rebels. And there are older, stranger things; once-people, the Revenants, the Sasar. These are remnants of the Mekari, twisted and changed by the strangeness of the land. Monstrous things, apparently without intellect, acting on instinct and hostile to any who walk their lands. Then there are the Keepers. These strange creatures appeared only this year. They are hooded, robed, and faceless, and seem to be shades of a sort - any who have tried to strike them say that their weapon merely passes through. Yet they are not hostile. They do not seem to talk, but are aware of the Outcasts. It is said that sometimes, if an Outcast comes to death by mischance, the Keeper will bring them back to life. Some people believe that these creatures are servants of the gods. Others that they are demons. Those people brought back by the Outcasts are named Kai-nol, Empty Ones, and some settlements treat them with respect and awe; others with terror and disgust. Flux has become a de facto currency within the Valley; those skilled in the arts of the use of Sigils and Flux use it to reshape their abilities, while others use it as a base for strengthening other more mundane materials for building and other crafting. The Katakani patrols have increased in numbers. The city’s defences around the dam and the valley walls have grown thick and strong. The Katakani have heard the legends... somewhere in the valley the Exile is building an army of superlative warriors with blue marks on their skin. Dian Batari and her cohorts are now maneuvering to declare open war on the valley - to strip it open for its resources, to destroy Rukh and her revolutionaries, and to rip out the strange magical secrets which will let them use the Sigils. It’s up to the Exile and her Outcasts to stop them.
Story Timeline - Current State of the World
Today is the final story timeline release. For those that havent followed along, we have been releasing bits of the story and lore behind The Exiled weekly, leading up to last weeks launch. This week, we are going to cover the current state of the world. Just like every week, we are also giving away a Steam key from our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/the.exiled.game/). Make sure you follow our Facebook page as we will be asking a question thats relevant to todays post in the near future. If you answer the question correctly, youll be entered into a random drawing for the Steam key. Below are links to all the story timeline posts until now: - Story Introduction: http://www.the-exiled.co/post/156941147702/story-introduction-and-pre-launch-giveaway-news - The Past - Part 1: http://www.the-exiled.co/post/157199335479/story-timeline-the-past - The Past - Part 2: http://www.the-exiled.co/post/157494434256/story-timeline-the-past-part-2 We hope youve enjoyed learning more about the history behind The Exiled and we look forward to growing our game with you, during its time in early access. Fairytale Distillery Team
We in the Mekar valley are sealed off from the rest of the world by Katakan. It is a place of desolation, corruption and sour waters. It is inhabited by us, the Outcasts. Some are here because they fell foul of the merchants council of Katakan. Some are here because heavy bribes were paid to make them disappear. Some chose to be here - some seek adventure and fortune, some seek old friends and vanished relatives. The Outcasts cluster in crude settlements, some larger than the others. Although there is lawlessness, a rough justice prevails, ever since the Treaty of the Hollow allied the major settlements. Despite these alliances, the valley is by no means a safe place. There are patrols of the Katakani, out to steal resources or to slaughter rebels. And there are older, stranger things; once-people, the Revenants, the Sasar. These are remnants of the Mekari, twisted and changed by the strangeness of the land. Monstrous things, apparently without intellect, acting on instinct and hostile to any who walk their lands. Then there are the Keepers. These strange creatures appeared only this year. They are hooded, robed, and faceless, and seem to be shades of a sort - any who have tried to strike them say that their weapon merely passes through. Yet they are not hostile. They do not seem to talk, but are aware of the Outcasts. It is said that sometimes, if an Outcast comes to death by mischance, the Keeper will bring them back to life. Some people believe that these creatures are servants of the gods. Others that they are demons. Those people brought back by the Outcasts are named Kai-nol, Empty Ones, and some settlements treat them with respect and awe; others with terror and disgust. Flux has become a de facto currency within the Valley; those skilled in the arts of the use of Sigils and Flux use it to reshape their abilities, while others use it as a base for strengthening other more mundane materials for building and other crafting. The Katakani patrols have increased in numbers. The citys defences around the dam and the valley walls have grown thick and strong. The Katakani have heard the legends... somewhere in the valley the Exile is building an army of superlative warriors with blue marks on their skin. Dian Batari and her cohorts are now maneuvering to declare open war on the valley - to strip it open for its resources, to destroy Rukh and her revolutionaries, and to rip out the strange magical secrets which will let them use the Sigils. Its up to the Exile and her Outcasts to stop them.
[ 2017-03-01 18:16:45 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello Everybody,
Today is the final story timeline release. For those that havent followed along, we have been releasing bits of the story and lore behind The Exiled weekly, leading up to last weeks launch. This week, we are going to cover the current state of the world. Just like every week, we are also giving away a Steam key from our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/the.exiled.game/). Make sure you follow our Facebook page as we will be asking a question thats relevant to todays post in the near future. If you answer the question correctly, youll be entered into a random drawing for the Steam key. Below are links to all the story timeline posts until now: - Story Introduction: http://www.the-exiled.co/post/156941147702/story-introduction-and-pre-launch-giveaway-news - The Past - Part 1: http://www.the-exiled.co/post/157199335479/story-timeline-the-past - The Past - Part 2: http://www.the-exiled.co/post/157494434256/story-timeline-the-past-part-2 We hope youve enjoyed learning more about the history behind The Exiled and we look forward to growing our game with you, during its time in early access. Fairytale Distillery Team
Current State Of The World
We in the Mekar valley are sealed off from the rest of the world by Katakan. It is a place of desolation, corruption and sour waters. It is inhabited by us, the Outcasts. Some are here because they fell foul of the merchants council of Katakan. Some are here because heavy bribes were paid to make them disappear. Some chose to be here - some seek adventure and fortune, some seek old friends and vanished relatives. The Outcasts cluster in crude settlements, some larger than the others. Although there is lawlessness, a rough justice prevails, ever since the Treaty of the Hollow allied the major settlements. Despite these alliances, the valley is by no means a safe place. There are patrols of the Katakani, out to steal resources or to slaughter rebels. And there are older, stranger things; once-people, the Revenants, the Sasar. These are remnants of the Mekari, twisted and changed by the strangeness of the land. Monstrous things, apparently without intellect, acting on instinct and hostile to any who walk their lands. Then there are the Keepers. These strange creatures appeared only this year. They are hooded, robed, and faceless, and seem to be shades of a sort - any who have tried to strike them say that their weapon merely passes through. Yet they are not hostile. They do not seem to talk, but are aware of the Outcasts. It is said that sometimes, if an Outcast comes to death by mischance, the Keeper will bring them back to life. Some people believe that these creatures are servants of the gods. Others that they are demons. Those people brought back by the Outcasts are named Kai-nol, Empty Ones, and some settlements treat them with respect and awe; others with terror and disgust. Flux has become a de facto currency within the Valley; those skilled in the arts of the use of Sigils and Flux use it to reshape their abilities, while others use it as a base for strengthening other more mundane materials for building and other crafting. The Katakani patrols have increased in numbers. The citys defences around the dam and the valley walls have grown thick and strong. The Katakani have heard the legends... somewhere in the valley the Exile is building an army of superlative warriors with blue marks on their skin. Dian Batari and her cohorts are now maneuvering to declare open war on the valley - to strip it open for its resources, to destroy Rukh and her revolutionaries, and to rip out the strange magical secrets which will let them use the Sigils. Its up to the Exile and her Outcasts to stop them.
Hotfix 1.0.1
[ 2017-02-28 15:05:17 CET ] [ Original post ]
Dear Players,
After our first launch on Steam, we are very happy to see that you are having fun with The Exiled, we will keep working hard to improve the game and, of course, fix all those problems that you are reporting to us, also we would like to take this chance to thank you for your amazing feedback! please keep doing it ;)
These are the details of the Hotfix 1.0.1 that will be implemented on February 28th, 2017. Please check out our list of known issues before playing and reporting bugs.
Performance Improvements
- Major performance improvement: There are no more lag spikes when large numbers of mobs spawn at the same time.
- Major performance improvement: Massively reduced the base load of the game servers, leading to a smoother experience.
- Balanced quality settings are no longer capped at 30 FPS.
Map Changes
- Fixed some holes in the environment colliders that separate world map areas from each other.
- Removed the invisible collider on the eastern map unlock (debris) in the swamp.
- Meteorites and carcasses do not spawn outside of the game world anymore.
- Meteorites and carcasses should not spawn in ruins anymore.
Usability Changes
- Fixed a number of smaller localization issues.
- Identical popup messages do not open multiple times in a row.
- Added a cancel button to the server selection screen.
- Changed the layout of the controls window.
- Added a message that notifies you when you cannot log in due to being banned.
- Fixed a bug that prevented some Linux users from confirming their email addresses.
- Fixed a bug that prevented Steam users with special signs in their nicknames from logging into a game world.
- Fixed a bug where characters migrating over from a dead game world did not get resurrected anymore.
- You should get stuck in buildings like the Dojo less often.
- Made sure that players have an easier time getting unstuck.
- Fixed a bug that made some chat tabs unselectable (Whisper).
- Fixed a bug where some servers were greyed out in server selection unnecessarily.
- Fixed a bug where some players could not leave broken "ghost clans" and join new clans anymore.
- Disabled some developer hotkeys that could confuse players by disabling the HUD.
- Fixed a bug that scrolled all text windows with the mouse wheel instead of only the active one.
- Fixed a bug where a loot window would open multiple times while you walk away from the containing entity.
- Fixed a bug that prevented meteorites and carcasses to be looted by everybody in their last phase.
Sincerely, The Exiled Team
Early Access Seasons
Season #1 starts with update 1.0
Mid-season update slot for update 1.0.1 (can be skipped)
End of Season #1 game worlds with a massive Jailor attack
Season #2 starts with update 1.1 Thank you for supporting The Exiled, do not hesitate to share your feedback with us and visit our Facebook!
[ 2017-02-22 17:01:50 CET ] [ Original post ]
Dear Players, Starting with Early Access on February 23rd we are going to switch to a 28-day development cycle and 28-day seasons. That means that every 28 days we will start a new group of game servers (in different locations of the world) which will run for a bit more than 27 days. At the end of each season we will release the final leaderboards and world maps. We’ll also include two days per cycle where we are likely (but not guaranteed) to release new game updates. Obviously we will launch hotfixes right-away if those are necessary. All updates that require a game server wipe will happen in between seasons. Here is the first cycle for season #1:
February 23rd 2017 (Thursday) - 3 PM CET / 6 AM Pacific
Season #1 starts with update 1.0
March 9th 2017 (Thursday)
Mid-season update slot for update 1.0.1 (can be skipped)
March 22nd 2017 (Wednesday) - 8 PM local time
End of Season #1 game worlds with a massive Jailor attack
March 23rd 2017 (Thursday) - 3 PM CET / 6 AM Pacific
Season #2 starts with update 1.1 Thank you for supporting The Exiled, do not hesitate to share your feedback with us and visit our Facebook!
Sincerely, The Exiled Team
Patch Notes 1.0 Early Access Launch
[ 2017-02-22 16:47:52 CET ] [ Original post ]
These are the Patch Notes for the version 1.0 February 23rd 2017 Steam Early Access release. Please check out our list of known issues before playing and reporting bugs.
These Patch Notes are available on the following languages:
- Steam Support: There is no more username/email loading screen. You now start The Exiled from Steam and get automatically logged in. This also enables a ton of other Steam features such as a lightning-fast patcher and a great screenshot tool (F12).
- Localization into six languages: You can now play The Exiled in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Russian. This was made possible by the relentless efforts of our amazing volunteer team.
- Re-designed in-game UI: All ingame windows have gotten a visual and usability treatment. The Character and Equipment screens have been merged. Dojo and Workshop have received major redesigns.
- Ingame Music: We've started to add in-game music to the game. Music is context-sensitive and will react to where you are in the game and what happens around you.
- Vanity Pets: Vanguard and Harbinger level supporters will be the first players to be accompanied by (purely visual) pets. They won't interfere with combat or have a negative performance impact. They're just cute.
- Chat Report: Added a button that allows you to report violations of the code of conduct in the in-game chat.
Balancing Changes
- Removed the veteran debuff for "normal" players (formerly rank B). Only *, ** and *** players will now be debuffed in the desert.
- Increased world defense donation requirements per round and decreased early respect gains through donations.
- Down-time for knocked out characters now scales with player rank. Newcomers have a shorter downtime, veterans a slightly increased one.
- Newcomers using their stash now get the same on-attack invulnerability buff as when using a dojo or workshop.
Ability Changes
- Heal Wounds (Staff): Increased self-heal, decreased heal other.
Usability Changes
- You can now use unlimited stashes all around the world map, not just one. Those stashes are not connected, you still need to move your loot around on foot if you want to change your home base.
- Improved tutorial sign placement and texts to make it a bit easier for newbies to get into the game.
- Made sure that you can properly see footsteps in the swamp biome.
- Tutorial servers now get automatically selected primarily by ping, making sure you get the best ping when starting out.
- Added a "are you sure you want to recall and drop your items" popup to make this mechanic very clear.
- Merged the characters stats ( C ) and equipment windows ( B ) into one window.
Map Changes
- ]Massively improved collision detection. Your character now does not get stuck on environment colliders anymore.
- Added more major roads to the game, especially connecting the swamp biome to the desert and the mountains.
- Roads have been changed so that they now adhere to a strict 45-degree-system. That means they are easily walkable with ( W - A - S - D ) and you do not need to correct your path every few seconds.
- Massively improved environment art variety both for "blockers" (forests etc.) and for resource camps.
- Added walls to small settlements to give smaller clans some additional protection.
- Re Added three types of different refineries and spread them among the to the medium and big settlements.
- Added more exits to neutral towns to make sure that they're not too much of a death trap.
- Fixed a number of invisible colliders in the swamp.
- Fixed an invisible grass patch in the swamp.
- Fixed a bug that made a number of small environment assets flicker.
- Removed all grey cubes from the swamp biome. Good bye, cube buddies!
Visual and Audio
- Improved all default attack animations and added animation cancelling to make sure animations always feel snappy and instant.
- Fixed a lot of broken animations (Meditation, looting, etc.).
- Added new VFX for root and snare plus a couple of other VFX improvements (physical and mental corruption).
- Fixed the Lunge VFX that had the tendency of sticking around longer than it was actually welcome.
- The swamp biome now has a much more fitting ground color that makes it less dark and depressing.
- Resource camps environment assets now fit the biome they live in.
- Added a new app icon.
- Added a number of sound effects to the game menus and common actions.
Performance Changes
- Merged small assets in our environments, increasing render performance.
- Fixed a bug that prevented the game from properly downloading the latest map files.
- Moved to a new email delivery provider to make sure your registration and feedback emails get delivered in time.
- Fixed the audio volume sliders to make sure they actually remember their current value.
- Make sure that game worlds get the proper donation requirement on their first day.
- Fixed a bug that could lead to some players spawning outside of the tutorial area.
- Fixed a bug that sometimes made your character invisible even outside of brushes.
- Fixed a bug that lead to some newbies actually being flagged as veterans.
- Made sure that newcomers always spawn at one of the bottom three towns after the tutorial.
- Fixed a bug that could lead to your character to forget the rez, gank and recall abilities.
- Added our esteemed volunteers and more development supporters to the to credits(WiP).
- Fixed a bug where the level up popup was filled with bogus data.
- Made sure that players do not linger outside of the actual world map.
- Fixed a hand full of potential server crashes.
- Fixed a bug that made the "items" menu button invisible and prevented you from accessing your skins and animations.
- Made sure that every player has a valid reply address in their bug report and feedback messages.
- Fixed a bug that allowed some particle effects to stay in the game world forever.
- Made sure that the game always has the latest localization texts on startup.
- Audio sliders now behave as expected and do not turn off sound around 70%.
- Fixed a bug that lead to respawns at the wrong spawn points.
- Fixed a bug that prevented clan leaders from removing people who had access to a building or were blocked.
- Fixed a bug that added outdated buildings in abandoned settlements.
Thank you for supporting The Exiled, do not hesitate to share your feedback with us and visit our Facebook! Sincerely, The Exiled Team
Story Timeline - The Past Part 2
Link to Part 1: http://www.the-exiled.co/post/157199335479/story-timeline-the-past
The Outcasts banded together to protect each other, forming small communities where they could. There was still some fertility in the land, in places; there was even the occasional pool or spring of untainted water. There was something else, too. In some places, at some times, often after a long cold night, we found a fine glittering blue dust speckling the stones or earth. We had no notion of what it was; some attempted to collect enough to place in a fire to melt, thinking it was a form of metal like tangam, but it did not act like metal - it did not melt as expected. With no other idea what to do with it, some used it for what it was - a glittering blue pleasing to the eye - and worked it into decorations alongside other pigments, perhaps on stones, or on garments. It became known as Flux, and it became a desired trade item.
Some amongst us occasionally bring back flat disks of metal from our scavenging. These are thin, flexible, about the size of a person’s palm. They seem manufactured, and are wholly new - nothing like this was ever seen before Starfall. We first thought that they might be tangam, but it seems not. They are decorated, although at first, they look like plain metal - if you tilt them towards the light, silver-blue shapes dance on the surface. Symbols in an unknown script. These disks we now call Sigils, and they were at first sought after as curios, or by some people as messages from the gods. Perhaps the latter is closer to the truth, but as you shall see, that is not all they are. We learned, much later, that these things are to be found all over the world; some in the City have gathered them from trade with lands around, but have found no use for them.
Six years ago, things changed. Dian was at the height of her reign when a young Katakani commander led a patrol into the valley. It was routine; the patrols through the valley were seen as a way to blood new recruits. Sometimes against the Outcasts; sometimes against Revenants. What she saw horrified her. She saw our way of life. We had precious little fresh water to drink, we had no medicine, and we scrabbled for food amongst the filth-heaps of Katakan. We were as likely to die of a minor illness as we were at the hands of a Revenant. She took her arguments back to Katakan and the Merchants’ council. If this was simply another young commander, she would have been dismissed or upbraided. But this was Rukh Batari, daughter of Dian. Ah, I see you know the name. She found herself head-to-head with her mother. Factions formed around them amongst the guilds; it became a very public split. One that Dian could not tolerate. ‘Evidence’ was uncovered that Rukh was guilty of treason. She was tried and convicted. As Dian’s daughter she was given a choice; to lose all rank and remain in the City as a prisoner, or to take exile. She chose exile and was cast into the valley with nothing but the clothes she stood up in.
Rukh was trained and trained well. Seeing no other alternative for the Outcasts and seeking a place in the valley, she decided to approach a small band of them and try to lead them, with the intent of taking on some of the Katakan patrols; that would mean that they were then better armed with tangam weapons, and better armed meant there would be more chances against the patrols and perhaps - one day - they might find some means of freedom from Katakan’s yoke. But we Outcasts had no desire to follow a Batari. She was scorned by us. What attempts she made, by herself, to hamper the Katakan patrols and take weapons and armour from them failed, resulting in the crippling loss of three fingers of her left hand. She became dispirited, another among the Outcasts, nameless, and perhaps that is how things would have remained. However, then came the Hollow. It was a small settlement which she was staying in overnight. It was attacked by a Katakan patrol intent on slaughter. The patrol was led by a young commander seeking glory and to test his troops. Rukh called out the commander in front of his force, challenging him to single combat. He laughed, refusing to fight a crippled wretch. Rukh then revealed who she was. The commander saw his chance to make his name and win Dian’s favour, so he accepted Rukh’s challenge. And died. The Outcasts of the settlement rallied, and the patrol was driven back, with only a small force escaping to Katakan. Buoyed by this success, some of us started to take her at her word. A small band grew around her, and they successfully surprised and overpowered several patrols. The Katakani decided to deal with her and sent in a much larger patrol specifically to eradicate her force. She was taken by surprise and lost several followers. She would have lost all and been killed or captured, but at the last moment, she was saved by a strange group of warriors, their skins painted with blue sigils. These were undisciplined but incredibly quick and strong, driving back and destroying the Katakan force. These newcomers led her north, to a hidden grove near the northern ruins, where several hundred Outcasts had made their home. And there they showed her their secret, a secret that has spread far since. I see from your faces that you know of this already. Flux, for some of us, can be worked into the skin as a dye - and if you follow the patterns on the sigil disks, those symbols change you. They can heal you. They can give you strength, or make you swift. We can reshape our bodies and our minds through the use of this wondrous material. Armed with this new knowledge, and this new strength, Rukh began to put together an army. She called those in it her Talons.
Two years ago Rukh and her Talons met with representatives of our three major settlements and came to an agreement: raiding and warfare between them would gain nothing when the true enemy is the City outside. It did not end all aggression, but strict conduct rules were put in place in case of disagreement, so if there was fighting, it would abide by certain rules or those taking part would be destroyed by the union of all the others. Healthy competition was encouraged, and counted as training against a true enemy. The treaty brought another goal to the attention of all - Rukh’s plan. Those living in the valley now hold a loose alliance while they prepare an effort to strike at the City. They also gather funds, and forward those to Rukh’s old allies within the City itself; those funds are spent on bribery, on political campaigning, and on resources - everything possible to stall Dian Batari and her allies in declaring all out war on the valley.
This is the way it has been for five years now. Two armies building: one the great war machine of Katakan; one a scattered group of rebels under the Exile’s banner, nimble, devious, and slowly growing. It is unclear how or when Dian Batari or Rukh, the Exile, will make their move. But something else has changed. Mysterious figures have appeared in the valley in recent days. Grey wraith-like creatures, robed and cowled. Those who have glimpsed their faces report in horrified tones that they are faceless - the skin is smooth, no eyes, no mouth. They drift through the world, seeming not to touch it or to be touchable. They do not react when challenged or spoken to or even attacked - merely drift around the valley and observe. Some think they are spirits. Some think they are some new form of Revenant. Others hark back to old Mekari legend, believing them to be the gatekeepers of the nether lands, here to carry away those souls lost in the coming struggle. They are called, in the absence of another name, the Keepers. Whatever they are, they are here. Change is coming.
[ 2017-02-20 18:36:02 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everybody,
It’s a new week, so that means we have more story details to share, but not only that, on the 23rd, everyone will be able to download and play The Exiled! We’re looking forward to sharing our game with all of you and we can’t wait to get all of your feedback.
This week’s story reveal is part 2 of last week’s timeline of the history of The Exiled. Just like the previous weeks that we’ve done this, make sure you follow our official Facebook page as we will be randomly posting a question this week regarding the information in this post. Those who answer the question correctly will be entered into a random drawing to win a free Steam key for The Exiled.
Below are links to all the story timeline posts until now:
- Story Introduction: http://www.the-exiled.co/post/156941147702/story-introduction-and-pre-launch-giveaway-news
- The Past - Part 1: http://www.the-exiled.co/post/157199335479/story-timeline-the-past
We hope you’re as excited as we are for the upcoming launch (February 23) and remember, The Exiled will be free to everybody for 7 days!
See you next week!
Fairytale Distillery Team
The Past - Part 2
Link to Part 1: http://www.the-exiled.co/post/157199335479/story-timeline-the-past
The Flux
The Outcasts banded together to protect each other, forming small communities where they could. There was still some fertility in the land, in places; there was even the occasional pool or spring of untainted water. There was something else, too. In some places, at some times, often after a long cold night, we found a fine glittering blue dust speckling the stones or earth. We had no notion of what it was; some attempted to collect enough to place in a fire to melt, thinking it was a form of metal like tangam, but it did not act like metal - it did not melt as expected. With no other idea what to do with it, some used it for what it was - a glittering blue pleasing to the eye - and worked it into decorations alongside other pigments, perhaps on stones, or on garments. It became known as Flux, and it became a desired trade item.
The Sigils
Some amongst us occasionally bring back flat disks of metal from our scavenging. These are thin, flexible, about the size of a person’s palm. They seem manufactured, and are wholly new - nothing like this was ever seen before Starfall. We first thought that they might be tangam, but it seems not. They are decorated, although at first, they look like plain metal - if you tilt them towards the light, silver-blue shapes dance on the surface. Symbols in an unknown script. These disks we now call Sigils, and they were at first sought after as curios, or by some people as messages from the gods. Perhaps the latter is closer to the truth, but as you shall see, that is not all they are. We learned, much later, that these things are to be found all over the world; some in the City have gathered them from trade with lands around, but have found no use for them.
The Exile Walks
Six years ago, things changed. Dian was at the height of her reign when a young Katakani commander led a patrol into the valley. It was routine; the patrols through the valley were seen as a way to blood new recruits. Sometimes against the Outcasts; sometimes against Revenants. What she saw horrified her. She saw our way of life. We had precious little fresh water to drink, we had no medicine, and we scrabbled for food amongst the filth-heaps of Katakan. We were as likely to die of a minor illness as we were at the hands of a Revenant. She took her arguments back to Katakan and the Merchants’ council. If this was simply another young commander, she would have been dismissed or upbraided. But this was Rukh Batari, daughter of Dian. Ah, I see you know the name. She found herself head-to-head with her mother. Factions formed around them amongst the guilds; it became a very public split. One that Dian could not tolerate. ‘Evidence’ was uncovered that Rukh was guilty of treason. She was tried and convicted. As Dian’s daughter she was given a choice; to lose all rank and remain in the City as a prisoner, or to take exile. She chose exile and was cast into the valley with nothing but the clothes she stood up in.
The Exile’s Banner
Rukh was trained and trained well. Seeing no other alternative for the Outcasts and seeking a place in the valley, she decided to approach a small band of them and try to lead them, with the intent of taking on some of the Katakan patrols; that would mean that they were then better armed with tangam weapons, and better armed meant there would be more chances against the patrols and perhaps - one day - they might find some means of freedom from Katakan’s yoke. But we Outcasts had no desire to follow a Batari. She was scorned by us. What attempts she made, by herself, to hamper the Katakan patrols and take weapons and armour from them failed, resulting in the crippling loss of three fingers of her left hand. She became dispirited, another among the Outcasts, nameless, and perhaps that is how things would have remained. However, then came the Hollow. It was a small settlement which she was staying in overnight. It was attacked by a Katakan patrol intent on slaughter. The patrol was led by a young commander seeking glory and to test his troops. Rukh called out the commander in front of his force, challenging him to single combat. He laughed, refusing to fight a crippled wretch. Rukh then revealed who she was. The commander saw his chance to make his name and win Dian’s favour, so he accepted Rukh’s challenge. And died. The Outcasts of the settlement rallied, and the patrol was driven back, with only a small force escaping to Katakan. Buoyed by this success, some of us started to take her at her word. A small band grew around her, and they successfully surprised and overpowered several patrols. The Katakani decided to deal with her and sent in a much larger patrol specifically to eradicate her force. She was taken by surprise and lost several followers. She would have lost all and been killed or captured, but at the last moment, she was saved by a strange group of warriors, their skins painted with blue sigils. These were undisciplined but incredibly quick and strong, driving back and destroying the Katakan force. These newcomers led her north, to a hidden grove near the northern ruins, where several hundred Outcasts had made their home. And there they showed her their secret, a secret that has spread far since. I see from your faces that you know of this already. Flux, for some of us, can be worked into the skin as a dye - and if you follow the patterns on the sigil disks, those symbols change you. They can heal you. They can give you strength, or make you swift. We can reshape our bodies and our minds through the use of this wondrous material. Armed with this new knowledge, and this new strength, Rukh began to put together an army. She called those in it her Talons.
The Treaty of the Hollow
Two years ago Rukh and her Talons met with representatives of our three major settlements and came to an agreement: raiding and warfare between them would gain nothing when the true enemy is the City outside. It did not end all aggression, but strict conduct rules were put in place in case of disagreement, so if there was fighting, it would abide by certain rules or those taking part would be destroyed by the union of all the others. Healthy competition was encouraged, and counted as training against a true enemy. The treaty brought another goal to the attention of all - Rukh’s plan. Those living in the valley now hold a loose alliance while they prepare an effort to strike at the City. They also gather funds, and forward those to Rukh’s old allies within the City itself; those funds are spent on bribery, on political campaigning, and on resources - everything possible to stall Dian Batari and her allies in declaring all out war on the valley.
The Keepers Come
This is the way it has been for five years now. Two armies building: one the great war machine of Katakan; one a scattered group of rebels under the Exile’s banner, nimble, devious, and slowly growing. It is unclear how or when Dian Batari or Rukh, the Exile, will make their move. But something else has changed. Mysterious figures have appeared in the valley in recent days. Grey wraith-like creatures, robed and cowled. Those who have glimpsed their faces report in horrified tones that they are faceless - the skin is smooth, no eyes, no mouth. They drift through the world, seeming not to touch it or to be touchable. They do not react when challenged or spoken to or even attacked - merely drift around the valley and observe. Some think they are spirits. Some think they are some new form of Revenant. Others hark back to old Mekari legend, believing them to be the gatekeepers of the nether lands, here to carry away those souls lost in the coming struggle. They are called, in the absence of another name, the Keepers. Whatever they are, they are here. Change is coming.
Story Timeline Reveal - The Past (Part 1) + Giveaway Announcement
The way it works is each Monday we will share more story details here and later in the week (at random), we will ask a question on our Facebook page. For those who answer the question correctly, you will be entered into a random drawing and we will pick 1 winner each week. That winner will get a Steam key for The Exiled. Below is this week's story reveal, the past. Since the past holds such a rich history, we are breaking it into 2 parts. Check back next Monday for part 2 and don't forget to like us on Facebook for the giveaway question.
Why is the valley this way, you ask? Why choked, poisoned, dried to dust and walled off from the world around? Why are folk prisoned here? Why do the Katakani guards keep us in check? It is a long story, and one of which I only know the bare bones. The Mekari Once, fisherfolk, farmers and herders lived along the river that ran through this valley. It was the Mekar river, and they called themselves Mekari in its honour. None now know where they came from; they had always been here. They told tales of a time that they might have been more - old artefacts, strange formations of stone and ruined buildings showed that the valley had been greater once. But they were simply tales; none knew what the truth might be. The river Mekar flowed from north to south through this valley to where it opened into the sea, its mouth a delta of sand and rock. The Mekar had cut deep into the surrounding land, the walls of the valley steep, craggy and inaccessible. The only route was to the sea. Katakan - A Jewel in the East The valley was a fertile, rich place, a place of fish and farming, of lush greenery and burgeoning wealth. It was due to the valley’s wealth that the fishing port of Katakan at the river’s delta became a trade destination for many up and down the coast, growing from a few stilted huts to a bustling city of bridges and riverways. Because of the upper valley’s inaccessibility, Katakan became the gatekeeper of the wealth of the valley, controlling the traffic of the river Mekar. It became rich, and rose in power and craft, becoming known as Katakan, Jewel of the East. None equalled it in sea power, the long craft of Katakan a familiar sight along the coast. The Sayatchi riders from the north west traded with the city, as did the Atiba caravans from the north-eastern desert, even the Ticaret sailors from over the sea. They became familiar figures. Some stayed. The city broadened in outlook, becoming something more than Mekari. Katakan had been ruled by a group of elders, as was the case for all Mekari settlements. This group widened to allow advisors from amongst those foreigners who settled. In time, those advisors were treated as elders in their own right, and it became a full council. The Mekari valley rose in power as Katakan rose. Wealth flowed from the city up the valley in the form of forged tools, woven cloth and other finished goods, medicines, even a few luxuries; raw resources flowed the other way. With wealth, more settlers came. The valley’s resources started to be stretched - leeched by the flow of goods down the river to the city. Fish stocks were overfished, fertile ground became overfarmed, forests vanished faster than they grew. But this could be reversed, surely, over time, as more techniques were introduced? Then the stars fell. Starfall Three nights of chaos as fire rained from the sky across all of the surrounding lands. The fertile valley was bombarded, destroying crops, killing livestock, sending up great gouts of steam from the Mekar. And Katakan burned. The air was grey with choking ash for weeks, and it ate away at lungs and skin. It passed. The Mekari people survived. But the world was changed. The northern stretches of the Mekar were poisoned, and the foulness spewed filth downriver towards Katakan and the sea, killing and altering many plants and animals. The land, already weakened by over-farming, could not cope with the flood of poisoned water, and our once-fertile valley became desolation. Wrecked and scorched, Katakan survived. The citizens set about rebuilding. But they decided that the sick waters of the Mekar could not be allowed to pollute the sea, and so the great dam was constructed at Katakan; and at the valley’s head, many of the smaller streams were diverted away from the valley to feed new irrigation. That decision signed the death warrant of the valley and those in it. Tangam - A World Forged Anew Over time, the world discovered what else the rain of fire had brought - a great quantity of ore-bearing rock. This star-metal was mined, reworked, found to offer great strength despite its lightness. Tangam, it was called, and became the chief material of the rebuilding and, later, the focus of all trade for those outside the valley. Tangam was flexible, easy to work and held a keen edge. Before that we had used copper, tin and bronze, and they could not compare - tangam opened up a wide range of new tools and weapons. Those who controlled the tangam controlled the future, and many peoples across the world found their way of life changed; some for the better, but some - the slower to adapt - were ground under heel. The people who were isolated in this valley scraped a living, but were forgotten, lost, as Katakan rebuilt its links with the world and shuttered them away. They became known as the Sasar, the Lost. The name Mekari changed, and was nothing more than a name for the people of a particular heritage who lived in Katakan and on the surrounding coast. The memory of Katakan’s old glories did much to strengthen it now in the minds of others. Through careful negotiation and trade, it rose once again, relying now on resources from the sea and from trade rather than from the valley. The Mekar river, poisoned and polluted, dwindled and dried leaving only sick and silted pools. The valley, choked with poison, became desolation. Only at the far north was there greenery, amongst the waterfall-riven rocks. There, as the waters dried up, ruins were revealed - ghosts of an older time. The Rise of Dian Batari In the city hard choices were made. Katakan no longer lived off the wealth of the valley; it had to fight for its place, relying on skilful trade and a long reputation. But it seized the moment and it grew. Trading houses rose based on Katakan’s position as a meeting point of sea-trading nations. These houses were families of power and distinction, winning their places by treading on others. The rule of the city became the rule of the merchants. And the merchants’ council, by popular acclaim, was chaired by a first amongst equals, First Speaker. ‘First amongst equals’ and ‘popular acclaim’ quickly became ‘de facto dictator’ and ‘whoever has the most money’, as such systems often do. Within the span of a hundred years after Starfall, House Batari were the effective rulers of Katakan, and Dian Batari rose to become the First Speaker. You know of her, I think. She is a shrewd woman and a skilled orator, with the money to have a strong military force on her side, and the support of several of the larger religious sects. She sent Katakan troops regularly patrolled the lands up and down the coast, seeking out tangam ore and making sure that they controlled it. The Revenants and The Outcasts Patrols even braved the valley of the Mekar, seeking fallen stars. But instead they found desolation, ruin, and strange mutated beasts. It seemed that the human survivors were no more; they had changed, mutating into horrific forms haunting their former settlements. Patrols who survived long enough to explore found fallen stars, but no tangam ore. Here, unlike anywhere in the surrounding lands, the fallen stars were worthless. The Katakani called the creatures Revenants. The valley was sealed as too dangerous; with no tangam present, no wealth, there was no need to search for it. Instead Dian Batari declared the place a dumping ground, both for the trash of the city and for those who had no place in her modern Katakan - criminals, political opponents, those resisting Batari takeover bids, and anyone else who resisted Dian’s drive for authority . Katakan laws have evolved from tribal custom and merchant statutes - it is not a simple matter to simply kill criminals convicted of lesser crime, or to slaughter the undesirables. Life is sacred, after all. Instead, Batari invoked the old law of tribal exile; the unwanted are herded into the valley and left to their own devices. Others made their own way to the valley. Some followed stories of treasures, in the belief that Katakan was hiding something behind the wall. Some sought knowledge. Some simply sought adventure against the creatures there. Whoever they are, those who have come to the valley are called Outcasts and, my friends, you are amongst them now.
[ 2017-02-13 19:00:19 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everybody, Our release date is getting closer and we feel like it's a great time to start expanding on The Exiled's deep history and story. Moving forward, we will be revealing more about the world of The Exiled every Monday. Not only that, but we will also be holding a giveaway on our Facebook page.
Giveaway Details:
The way it works is each Monday we will share more story details here and later in the week (at random), we will ask a question on our Facebook page. For those who answer the question correctly, you will be entered into a random drawing and we will pick 1 winner each week. That winner will get a Steam key for The Exiled. Below is this week's story reveal, the past. Since the past holds such a rich history, we are breaking it into 2 parts. Check back next Monday for part 2 and don't forget to like us on Facebook for the giveaway question.
The Past - Part 1
Why is the valley this way, you ask? Why choked, poisoned, dried to dust and walled off from the world around? Why are folk prisoned here? Why do the Katakani guards keep us in check? It is a long story, and one of which I only know the bare bones. The Mekari Once, fisherfolk, farmers and herders lived along the river that ran through this valley. It was the Mekar river, and they called themselves Mekari in its honour. None now know where they came from; they had always been here. They told tales of a time that they might have been more - old artefacts, strange formations of stone and ruined buildings showed that the valley had been greater once. But they were simply tales; none knew what the truth might be. The river Mekar flowed from north to south through this valley to where it opened into the sea, its mouth a delta of sand and rock. The Mekar had cut deep into the surrounding land, the walls of the valley steep, craggy and inaccessible. The only route was to the sea. Katakan - A Jewel in the East The valley was a fertile, rich place, a place of fish and farming, of lush greenery and burgeoning wealth. It was due to the valley’s wealth that the fishing port of Katakan at the river’s delta became a trade destination for many up and down the coast, growing from a few stilted huts to a bustling city of bridges and riverways. Because of the upper valley’s inaccessibility, Katakan became the gatekeeper of the wealth of the valley, controlling the traffic of the river Mekar. It became rich, and rose in power and craft, becoming known as Katakan, Jewel of the East. None equalled it in sea power, the long craft of Katakan a familiar sight along the coast. The Sayatchi riders from the north west traded with the city, as did the Atiba caravans from the north-eastern desert, even the Ticaret sailors from over the sea. They became familiar figures. Some stayed. The city broadened in outlook, becoming something more than Mekari. Katakan had been ruled by a group of elders, as was the case for all Mekari settlements. This group widened to allow advisors from amongst those foreigners who settled. In time, those advisors were treated as elders in their own right, and it became a full council. The Mekari valley rose in power as Katakan rose. Wealth flowed from the city up the valley in the form of forged tools, woven cloth and other finished goods, medicines, even a few luxuries; raw resources flowed the other way. With wealth, more settlers came. The valley’s resources started to be stretched - leeched by the flow of goods down the river to the city. Fish stocks were overfished, fertile ground became overfarmed, forests vanished faster than they grew. But this could be reversed, surely, over time, as more techniques were introduced? Then the stars fell. Starfall Three nights of chaos as fire rained from the sky across all of the surrounding lands. The fertile valley was bombarded, destroying crops, killing livestock, sending up great gouts of steam from the Mekar. And Katakan burned. The air was grey with choking ash for weeks, and it ate away at lungs and skin. It passed. The Mekari people survived. But the world was changed. The northern stretches of the Mekar were poisoned, and the foulness spewed filth downriver towards Katakan and the sea, killing and altering many plants and animals. The land, already weakened by over-farming, could not cope with the flood of poisoned water, and our once-fertile valley became desolation. Wrecked and scorched, Katakan survived. The citizens set about rebuilding. But they decided that the sick waters of the Mekar could not be allowed to pollute the sea, and so the great dam was constructed at Katakan; and at the valley’s head, many of the smaller streams were diverted away from the valley to feed new irrigation. That decision signed the death warrant of the valley and those in it. Tangam - A World Forged Anew Over time, the world discovered what else the rain of fire had brought - a great quantity of ore-bearing rock. This star-metal was mined, reworked, found to offer great strength despite its lightness. Tangam, it was called, and became the chief material of the rebuilding and, later, the focus of all trade for those outside the valley. Tangam was flexible, easy to work and held a keen edge. Before that we had used copper, tin and bronze, and they could not compare - tangam opened up a wide range of new tools and weapons. Those who controlled the tangam controlled the future, and many peoples across the world found their way of life changed; some for the better, but some - the slower to adapt - were ground under heel. The people who were isolated in this valley scraped a living, but were forgotten, lost, as Katakan rebuilt its links with the world and shuttered them away. They became known as the Sasar, the Lost. The name Mekari changed, and was nothing more than a name for the people of a particular heritage who lived in Katakan and on the surrounding coast. The memory of Katakan’s old glories did much to strengthen it now in the minds of others. Through careful negotiation and trade, it rose once again, relying now on resources from the sea and from trade rather than from the valley. The Mekar river, poisoned and polluted, dwindled and dried leaving only sick and silted pools. The valley, choked with poison, became desolation. Only at the far north was there greenery, amongst the waterfall-riven rocks. There, as the waters dried up, ruins were revealed - ghosts of an older time. The Rise of Dian Batari In the city hard choices were made. Katakan no longer lived off the wealth of the valley; it had to fight for its place, relying on skilful trade and a long reputation. But it seized the moment and it grew. Trading houses rose based on Katakan’s position as a meeting point of sea-trading nations. These houses were families of power and distinction, winning their places by treading on others. The rule of the city became the rule of the merchants. And the merchants’ council, by popular acclaim, was chaired by a first amongst equals, First Speaker. ‘First amongst equals’ and ‘popular acclaim’ quickly became ‘de facto dictator’ and ‘whoever has the most money’, as such systems often do. Within the span of a hundred years after Starfall, House Batari were the effective rulers of Katakan, and Dian Batari rose to become the First Speaker. You know of her, I think. She is a shrewd woman and a skilled orator, with the money to have a strong military force on her side, and the support of several of the larger religious sects. She sent Katakan troops regularly patrolled the lands up and down the coast, seeking out tangam ore and making sure that they controlled it. The Revenants and The Outcasts Patrols even braved the valley of the Mekar, seeking fallen stars. But instead they found desolation, ruin, and strange mutated beasts. It seemed that the human survivors were no more; they had changed, mutating into horrific forms haunting their former settlements. Patrols who survived long enough to explore found fallen stars, but no tangam ore. Here, unlike anywhere in the surrounding lands, the fallen stars were worthless. The Katakani called the creatures Revenants. The valley was sealed as too dangerous; with no tangam present, no wealth, there was no need to search for it. Instead Dian Batari declared the place a dumping ground, both for the trash of the city and for those who had no place in her modern Katakan - criminals, political opponents, those resisting Batari takeover bids, and anyone else who resisted Dian’s drive for authority . Katakan laws have evolved from tribal custom and merchant statutes - it is not a simple matter to simply kill criminals convicted of lesser crime, or to slaughter the undesirables. Life is sacred, after all. Instead, Batari invoked the old law of tribal exile; the unwanted are herded into the valley and left to their own devices. Others made their own way to the valley. Some followed stories of treasures, in the belief that Katakan was hiding something behind the wall. Some sought knowledge. Some simply sought adventure against the creatures there. Whoever they are, those who have come to the valley are called Outcasts and, my friends, you are amongst them now.
We're launching on Steam on February 23rd!
[ 2017-01-17 13:14:20 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everybody,
Two years ago, more than 4500 of you helped us blast through Steam Greenlight. In those two years you've asked us when we'll launch on Steam. Our answer has always been: When the game is ready for it. I've got good news: It's nearly ready!
On February 23rd 2017 we will launch The Exiled on Steam via the Early Access program. From that day on you'll enjoy all the benefits of Steam, including a lightning-fast, rock-solid game updater and one-click password-free login.
This also means that from that date on we'll run The Exiled as a live game that is online 24/7 for everybody. You will not have to wait for Alpha invites and Alpha tests anymore - you can just get the game and play whenever you want.
Our payment model is dead simple: Everybody will get to play The Exiled for free for seven days. To continue playing from this point on you need to buy a Supporter Pack that will allow you to continue playing the game as long as you want to.
As before, there will be three different Supporter Packs at three different price points: â
The Exiled
Fairytale Distillery
Fairytale Distillery
2017-02-23
RPG MMO EA
FREEGame News Posts 26
🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse
Mixed
(455 reviews)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/332650
The Game includes VR Support
The Exiled Live - Linux [1.01 G]
The Exiled - Nomad Pack
The Exiled - Seeker Pack
The Exiled - Vanguard Pack
The Exiled is a social sandbox MMORPG where survival strategy meets skill-based PvP combat. Cooperate or conquer, craft or combat; every decision is critical as you seek to flourish in a forsaken valley. A classless system means you shape your character to fit your style of play. With no grind, full loot and unrestricted PvP clashes, you must constantly balance risk and reward as you decide how to interact with the world and your fellow players. Craft equipment, construct your settlements and build alliances, as you explore challenging open world environments with unique geography and features. Each skirmish and siege will define your fate, as you vie to win your freedom from The Exiled.
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Why we're creating The Exiled
To make a long story short: We love PvP but we hate having to grind for it. Doesn't matter if that grind means clicking on rocks and trees, farming rats or watching our mining lasers overheat on some asteroid. We just want to log into the game, find a friend or two and compete with an army twice our size. We want a game that takes us seriously as adults and allows us to make our own diplomatic decisions instead of throwing us in a battleground with a bunch of randomly selected "friends" and "enemies". We want a game that is constantly changing, keeping us on our toes and forcing us to get better instead of showering us with meaningless rewards and digital bauble.-
Meaningful PvP
- Open PvP: Engage other players in combat anywhere, anytime.
- Full loot: Carrying high-level equipment into combat means you risk losing it.
- Player-run clans: No pre-built factions. You decide who you ally with.
- City building and sieges: Build up your own towns - or raze those of your enemies.
Skill-based Combat
- Full friendly fire: Make sure your fireballs hit the enemy and not your allies.
- Line of sight: Hide behind a bush to ambush your enemies - and look behind you!
- Footsteps: Every player leaves them behind - want to be a bounty hunter?
Free Character Development
- 15 different class combinations: Have you ever played a Scythe-wielding mage?
- 80+ combat abilities: Build a lightning wall, lay explosive traps or shoot a hail of arrows.
- All equipment is player-crafted: You can tweak your gear to fit your play-style.
A Changing World in Conflict
The world of The Exiled is in a state of upheaval. A once peaceful and prosperous trading city turned from a multi-cultural melting pot into a stone cold dictatorship. You are on the receiving end of this societal change and together with hundreds of other misfits - criminals, political rebels and adventurers - you get exiled to a barren land -The Valley. Now you have to decide how to continue your life. Do you become a lone wanderer and live off the lands? Will you join the rebels and try to leave the valley by force? Or do you turn to your baser instincts and survive by robbing your fellow inmates?MINIMAL SETUP
- OS: Ubuntu 12.04 or SteamOS
- Processor: Intel Dual-Core 2.4 GHzMemory: 2 GB RAM
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: Shader model 3.0 and 1 GB VRAMNetwork: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 2 GB available spaceAdditional Notes: The Exiled is still in development. System requirements are subject to change.
GAMEBILLET
[ 5951 ]
GAMERSGATE
[ 3198 ]
FANATICAL BUNDLES
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1 days, 18 hours, 26 minutes
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37 days, 18 hours, 26 minutes
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43 days, 18 hours, 26 minutes
HUMBLE BUNDLES
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4 days, 12 hours, 26 minutes
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20 days, 12 hours, 26 minutes
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