Yes, yes... It's finally time to continue the story of CrossCode! And boy, did we take our sweet time with it. Though we did also release some cool new stuff in between, so it's all good, right? Anyway, this update doesn't just continue the story but also adds in new features, balancing and so on. We also got another Contest for you! Let's get right to it!

Finally More Story

This is the big one. The story continues in Ba'kii Kum. C'tron will be properly introduced and you get to spend more time with the First Scholar guild. In case you already continued playing you have the option to get set back to the previous end of the story. We strongly encourage you to do so since the game will most definitely break otherwise! But don't worry you can keep all the loot you obtained. This story will also take you into an area some of you might already know...

Extending Autumn's Fall

Autumn's Fall got a bit bigger! The area felt a bit small at times and since we wanted story to happen in the area we decided to add a few maps all neatly tight together with a quest that is required in order to progress.
Prepare for a real mischief maker! Also for the first time ever, Rookie Harbor North opens up! The map is still Work-in-Progress but we already have a lot of happy people strolling about.

Equipment Level

We often had the feedback that players felt under-powered, even when the enemy level matched the player level. Usually the reason for this was that players used equipment that was outdated relative to the foes they were facing. Equipment plays a huge role in your stats. Much more than skills or level-ups. It was our mistake to not properly communicate the importance of equipment enough. Now with showing a level for each equipment piece we feel it's much easier to notice when it's time to upgrade! So as you can see, each piece of equipment now shows you which level it is best used at. No worries: the level is only a recommendation, not a requirement you can still wear whatever gear you can get your hands on! Additionally we added a small UI in the equipment menu that shows both the player- and average equipment level. Your equipment level should always be above or equal to the player level. Colors indicate how well the levels are aligned. Here's a small clip showing how it looks in action: https://gfycat.com/FinishedFreeAntarcticgiantpetrel And lastly we made small change to how the colors are displayed when checking out an enemy via your Seeker Senses. Instead of just comparing your level against the enemy level it now also includes the average equipment level. This means that when fighting an enemy at the same level you might still get a red color indicating that his enemy is stronger than you are. We hope that these changes will help players in the future. It could be said that this feature was implemented thanks to the community, so thanks everyone for the feedback!

MORE QUESTS

What? You thought we would release a major update without new quests? As always we tried to come up with interesting ideas as well as stories. New Quests can be found in Ba'kii Kum, Basin Keep (Remember the Galaxy Spiral Drill Trader? Visit him again. However his quest is not finished right now.), Bergen and Rookie Harbor. But this time we also removed quests! Namely those tedious and boring fetch-quests you could get at the Rookie Harbor Questhub. Instead the Faction-Indroduction-NPC and a new quest NPC will be in front of the desk. Hopefully this gives a better first impression of quests! Finally, you might notice that we added new UIs for quests too. Like a nice countdown or a dedicated score UI for quests including mini games.

Controls

A common request we had ever since we released the game was the people would like to have a dedicated Melee- and Guard-Button. Well, guess what? We finally implemented it! Mouse & Keyboard users can setup the button inside the bindings section of the options menu. Gamepad users can use X/Square for a melee attack and B/Circle for guarding. We added some additional options to disable the melee/guard actions for the previous input methods in case you want to go all out on the new setting.

New Music

Of course this update also includes a few new themes composed by Intero himself. You listen to them on his Twitter account through these links: Lea's Theme https://twitter.com/interovgm/status/874568358032809984 Battle Theme https://twitter.com/interovgm/status/844540035106050048 Casual Theme https://twitter.com/interovgm/status/836333376693026816 Sorrow Theme https://twitter.com/interovgm/status/880903410853269504

Other Stuff

You can now finally see what each buff item does! Just hover over an item, press H/Start to open the help screen and select the icon in the bottom left corner. As you can see, you will get a nice overview over what each icon means. Plus, the buff icons now look much better. Thanks T-Free!
Also you can now place Pins on your map, choosing from a number of symbols! That should help to keep track on things you find around the area. We also spend a lot of time balancing equipment and enemies again. Spoilers: HP Regen got a nerf! It was just way too powerful! But on the plus side, enemies now have new damage ceilings preventing them from doing too much damage to the player at once! (Looking at you Mr. Snowman.) Overall equipment has also been buffed. Especially the trader gear which sometimes felt weaker compared to the base equipment you could buy.
This new language selection UI has also been added to make it easier to add more languages later on. As you can see you get a nice flag icon now! Doesn't it look slick? More changes can be found in the changelog inside the game as usual.

Contest: Win the PvP Fight!

Another Boss contest? Sure why not! In fact, version 0.9.5 comes with several new boss fights! What we want you to record is the PvP Battle that you will have in front of Faj'ro Temple! Show us how you win the PvP battle in front of Faj'ro Temple! Just create a public video (Youtube, Twitch, doesn’t matter) and send us a link to contest@radicalfishgames.com. You can add your live reaction or leave it out, whatever you prefer! Among all people who send us a video, we’ll draw the following prize: You get your personal NPC guest role somewhere in CrossWorlds - you decide the location! You can be an Avatar, a regular citizen or maybe something else? We’ll work together to figure out the details! Deadline: Saturday, July 8, 23:59 PST Alright, that's it. Quite a lot, we know. It's time for you to play now! And once you're done, tell us what you think about the new stuff. Until next time! ... Let the bug reports commence!