Welcome one and all to the newest version of Highsteppe, as many of you know Markos’ triumphant return, with help from a few brave adventurers, he has declared that now is a time of prosperity. With that, the city has invested Dram along with countless craftsman hours to restoring Highsteppe to its once great stature, that of itself before the dark times that fell upon us.





Today's patch going live around 11AM CST features the brand new remodeled Highsteppe and some minor bugfixes. You can read the detailed patch notes, with map notes and a list of changes with the positions of certain NPCs here:

https://community.orbusvr.com/t/patch-14-01-highsteppe-makeover/24279

We'll see you in game!

The updated Highsteppe will be coming out in a patch on Tuesday, August 31st. For a preview of the many upcoming changes, we turn to the pages of the Highsteppe Enquirer and their in-depth coverage on Highsteppe and all things Patreayl.

HIGHSTEPPE, PATREAYL - By edict of Markos of Runevale, recently returned to sanity and consciousness from the clutches of evil sorcerer Sephotep, the city of Highsteppe has been renovated in order to match the splendor of Patreayl!

Gone is the hodgepodge, ramshackle style of old Highsteppe. The raw timber and salvaged materials have been replaced city-wide with stone, glass and new wrought iron work crafted by our very own Master Smith.


Newly refurbished home of Patreayl's homegrown hero


Chef Lethrow's new kitchen

Mayor Kaia finally has her own office for conducting her mayoral affairs, and Pierre Cenn’s shop has received a facelift. Chef Lethrow’s kitchen has also received a major upgrade, with ample space for his cauldrons and cooking stoves, a necessary change as the chef has more mouths to feed with the ever-increasing population of the surrounding area. The Chef is helped in his culinary pursuits through the salvaging and harvesting efforts of Whisper, who has expanded her shop to include extra space for drying herbs.


New Fellowship Hall and Fellowship Court

Even your very own Highsteppe Enquirer has new offices, though our request to be moved off the side street into the thick of town was denied, so you will still have to visit us next to the airship dock to submit any bits of news or gossip for your local reporter. And speaking of the airship dock, the newly constructed dock offers a breathtaking view for the adventurous spirit willing to clamber all the way up there. (You will quite literally have your breath taken away after climbing to the top of the new dock. It's quite tall.)


View of Highsteppe from the top of the new airship dock

While the pathways through town have mostly remained the same, some unidentified person in city planning made the questionable decision to put a bank of new housing next to Mayor Kaia’s office, so all residents will now need to take the new tunnel off the bridge from the center tree in order to access the far side of town. This change has also created a dead-end alley behind Pierre Cenn’s Critter Capture shop, which no doubt will create a gathering place for the town’s riff-raff.


Pierre Cenn's renovated Critter Capture shop, with entrance to new tunnel on left

Trade with the Ottathamine and Parathine empires has been steadily increasing in recent months, and the payoffs of this prosperity can be seen all over town, from the new cobblestone walkways to the exquisite fountain under the Guardian tree to the peaks of the refurbished Fellowship Hall.

“It’s about time this city reflected the wealth of our empire,” Markos told this reporter. “Gone are the dark days!”

Not everyone believes the dark days are gone, however. The new stonework seen on buildings around town is echoed ten times in the newly strengthened stone walls of the city - which begs the question, if Patreayl has really returned from dark times, why are we strengthening our walls rather than venturing beyond them?

“Dunno what Markus is talking about,” said Rodolphous Dungbar, aged 36 of Highsteppe, who is always good for one off-color remark. “Last time I set foot outside the gates, a bush damn near took my head off.”

The countryside is no doubt still overrun with monsters and Scavs, though you can’t say that the wealth of monsters hasn’t translated itself into a wealth of another kind. All it takes is one look at Darius’s renovated shop to see that business is certainly booming for the Sphinxian bounty hunter. Inside you’ll find a menagerie of Patreayl’s finest monsters on display. Darius has even gone to the effort of organizing them by region of the country, so the city's intrepid explorers can see what fiends and foes await them in the lands beyond.


Interior of Darius's newly renovated shop

Speaking of the lands beyond, not all new construction has been relegated to inside the city's walls. The risk of monsters hasn't stopped Farmers Sam and Jonce from reestablishing their farmsteads in the Highsteppe Hills.

“After so many years of lying fallow, the soil in the hills is at its finest. I think we’ll see some of our best harvests this year,” said Sam, whose humble homestead can be found in the foothills of the path up to the plateau. “I’ve been working sun up til sundown since moving out here. Might have to advertise for a farmhand soon. Say, does the enquirer have a classifieds section?”

But whatever you do, don't take this reporter's word for it. Get out and explore your own town!

The Highsteppe Update Patch will release on Tuesday, August 31st. We will have more information about content in the rest of the patch in our next post.

Hi everyone,

It’s been awhile since we last put out an official roadmap, so here is a look at what is coming up in the world of Orbus between now and the end of the year.


The new Highsteppe will officially debut on Tuesday, August 31st! Along with a new look for the main hub town of Patreayl, we’ll also be introducing a couple new side questlines in this patch.




Early fall will also see the addition of new character styles! The update we have planned should have more than 40 new hairstyles, eyes, mouths and noses. There will be some new options for female characters in particular, as well as a few off-the-wall choices.




We will also be introducing a new Battlegrounds map in Q4 2021, which will replace the “arena” currently in-game. While the concept will remain the same (still “Capture the Outpost”), the new map should provide a more challenging and intriguing setup, with more capture points spread throughout both interior and exterior portions of a temple-like structure.


Everyone’s favorite seasonal festival (okay, maybe just our favorite seasonal festival) will also be back in early October. As always, the countryside will experience a terrain change, and we'll have a few new themed rewards to collect.



Other new content you can expect to see later this year:

• New Legendary Overworld Drops: We'll be adding a few new ones later this fall.
  
• World Boss: We'll be brining back a reimagined version of the fan favorite Esasa world boss from the original game. As with the other world bosses, defeat the Esasa Lord for a chance at a cape, world boss pet, and even a ring.
  
• Long-Term Missions: We’ll be adding some new long-term missions in a variety of activities (including some that haven't been covered yet, like dragon racing) to keep you grinding away.
  
• Winter Festival: And finally we will be ending the year as always with our winter festival!

Along with the above planned features, the Dev team is also dedicating time to fixing some class-specific bugs in order to improve the general playing experience of the community. Last week we successfully rolled out a patch with our first targeted class fix, which was for Ranger weak points. Next up we will be tackling the issue of Shaman orbs not respawning sporadically on top of the totems.

We appreciate the community helping with this process, as well as the continued support and patience you all have given us.

The OrbusVR Team

The latest patch is live, and with it a few updates.


Overworld boss Bjorn Stafrute (aka "Treesus") has now been temporarily added to the community event area Edge of Nowhere to facilitate larger community events in a less performance-intensive area.

Drops will still be the same, and don't worry: Bjorn can still be found in the overworld, too! We'll cycle Bjorn out for another world boss in future patches to keep the fun moving.

We encourage the community to organize some world boss events and let us know if hosting events in this new area significantly improves the large group experience!

As a reminder, you can access the Edge of Nowhere zone through a door in the Highsteppe Tavern (on the upper balcony, next to the Long-Term Mission Vendor).


With this patch we are also introducing a first pass on a new blocking feature. This is an additional option you may choose to employ from the proximity menu if muting is not sufficient. Blocking another player will turn them in a ghost orb, as well as mute and prevent spell effects from being seen.



Blocking does not currently prevent invite popup boxes, but we are looking to add this feature in the future.


It's been over two years since the release of OrbusVR: Reborn and we felt it was time for a new look to represent the game. Check it out!

The Summer Festival is now live! It’s the return of the fishing season in Patreayl, and the fishermen’s guild need your help bringing in their haul – as well as corralling one of their best fishermen into focusing on his work and stop chasing legendary fish.

Visit the Festival NPC outside the gates of Highsteppe to pick up the first quest in the line and start your way toward earning a few rewards. This year's lineup includes all-new summer-themed rewards. In addition to the customary festival cape – whose colors we're really digging! – there is also a Surfer Mount and a Fishy Plaque that you can hang on the wall of your Player House to celebrate your accomplishments. (If you need a reminder on how to use Player House furniture and decor, check out our tutorial video for step-by-step instructions.)







So get out your pole, whip up some fish scent attractor potions, and brush up on your lure making skills.

The Hard Mode Citadel Raid is now officially live. During the two-week beta period we made some changes to mechanics, as well as scaling, based upon community feedback. We are excited for players to go through the full raid, as it will be the most challenging content we have in game so far.

The bosses will drop +6 gear and weapons, with a chance at a +7 legendary. You can also earn an Enraged Sephotep pet, mount, and cape, as well as achievements and a title.




As with the normal mode raid you will receive a token for that specific gear every time you kill the boss if you do not receive an armor/weapon drop. These will be Citadel Hard Mode tokens that you can redeem at the Hard Mode Vendor inside of Highsteppe.

This patch also includes the second round of balancing for the tank/healer/support classes, with the changes we have made based upon player feedback.

Thank you to everyone in the community that offered feedback on Hard Mode Raid and class mechanics! We appreciate the input, as well as the patience in this longer-than-usual beta period.

Our next big patch is on the horizon! On Tuesday, April 6th we'll be releasing the following new content:


The Citadel Raid has been out for 3 months. Now that players have mastered each boss fight, we figured it's time to release the next set of harder mechanics.

We'll be releasing a Beta of the hard mode raid on April 6th, with the final version launching a week later on the 13th. This should give us enough time to work out any bugs, uncover any potential flaws in the fights, and make sure the balance is just the right amount of challenge.

During the Beta, no armor, weapons, or rewards will drop, but once the official hard mode raid launches, you'll have a chance to earn gear and weapons, an exclusive cape, and an Enraged Sephotep pet!




The citizens of Highsteppe have decided it's time to start expanding life beyond the walls of the city. When the patch goes live, you'll find a few small farms and one fishing hut dotting the hillsides of the Highsteppe zone. We're also bringing back the sheep from old Orbus to breathe a little life into the farms. While there won't be any new quests for the farms at launch, expect to see some in the future!




This patch will also include long-awaited some fixes for broken instruments and mechanics for the Bard class. Once these fixes are live, we will give the community some time to play and gather new data on the Bard class for the upcoming balance pass.


After the April 6th patch, we will begin working on the balance pass for the Tanks/Healers. We will be looking at things like aggro retention, healing numbers, damage, etc. We are not planning on doing any major mechanic or talent reworks, but hope to bring the classes to where we feel they need to be balance-wise.


As the community continues to grow, we are looking at ways to make it easier to report and mute other players. We will also be adding an additional feature to "block" other players, which will turn them into a "ghost" (similar to when a player dies in game), mute them, and prevent all invitations (trade, party, personal messages, etc.).

We will also be working on more automated systems behind the scenes to identify toxic behavior so that we can continue to ensure that players have the best possible in-game experience, and that our community as a whole continues to be the helpful, passionate, and caring community that this game has become known for.

Thanks for reading, and we'll see you in game!

Hey everyone, today's patch brings back the Spring Festival with some shiny new rewards, adds some new dragon colors to breed, and includes many bug fixes we've been working on the past weeks.





Full Notes:

• Added 3 new colors for dragon breeding
  
• Added tool tip data to all dragons bred from today’s patch forward will contain the name of the Player that bred the dragon
  All previous dragons will not see a change to the tool tip data (IE: No new breeder information for prior dragons)
  
• Added “Edge of Nowhere” community event area
  This area is accessed through the Highsteppe Tavern next to the player house
  Enter the door behind the Long Term Mission Vendor, then use the portal to return to the Highsteppe Tavern
  The entire zone will have no permanent game-play content (fishing, monster grinding, harvestables, etc) but may have limited time community events with game-play (like a community world boss event)
  
• Added Spring Festival event
  Can earn a new cape, Flower helm transmog and shoulder transmog
  The Spring Festival Mount from last year can also be earned
  
• Removed 3 Year Anniversary Festival
  
• Removed Winter Festival
  
• Fixed an error related to the Net Gun
  
• Fixed an error Teleportation Device causing problems when activated sometimes
  
• Fixed an error related to the Health bars above players
  
• Fixed an error with the Server wide bomb notifications
  
• Fixed an error with nearby players
  This has the possibility of reducing the number of players experiencing the “invisible” bug, while we don’t think it was causing it, we believe it was part of the problem
  
• Fixed an error related to the DLC on the server
  
• Updated the Khopesh harvester weight to 0
  
• Fixed an error with the player load out system
  
• Fixed an error with the plunder trait on pets
  
• Fixed an error with the Scoundrel card deck when drawing a card
  
• Fixed an error related to the fog/darkness in caves
  
• Fixed an error with the player world map
  
• Fixed an error related to activating dungeon shards
  
• Fixed error when carrying tool in hand across zones.

We'll see you in game!

Today’s patch is officially live, which means the 3-year anniversary scavenger hunt is officially underway. Visit the anniversary NPC next to the bulletin board near the Player House in-game to pick up the first quest. Complete the scavenger hunt to earn a Penguin Transmog set, perfect for enjoying the last month of winter in-game.



We will also be giving away a 3-year anniversary cake (Player House furniture) and cape. Visit the Rewards NPC near the Critter Capture shop to pick up both items.

We also look forward to seeing you all at our in-game event tomorrow evening. Several members of the Dev team will be hanging in/around the Highsteppe Tavern between 6-7 PM CST tomorrow night (Wednesday, February 3rd).

It’s been a big year of growth at OrbusVR. Our community progressively grew over the course of the year.

In last year’s anniversary post we shared some stats generated in the first two years of the game. We pulled those same stats for the past year, and were impressed to see just how much the community has been playing this last year.

December 2017 - December 2019

33,659,242 – Monsters killed
8,580,046 – Total pounds of fish caught
2,035,557 – Lootbags collected
136,695 – Potions brewed
98,854 – Characters made all-time
69,850 – Dungeons completed
51,549 – Dragon races completed
95 years 6 months 8 days 6 hrs – Total number of hours played

December 2017 - December 2020

65,140,766 – Monsters killed
13,876,228 – Total pounds of fish caught
8,493,628 – Lootbags collected
185,240 – Potions brewed
274,113 – Characters made all-time
284,130 – Dungeons completed
140,463 – Dragon races completed
173 years 0 months 24 days 19 hours – Total number of hours played

In just the past year, the community killed almost 2x as many monsters as in the first two years combined; made almost 3x as many characters; collected more than 4x as much loot and ran 4x as many dungeons. You all have been busy! And we couldn’t be happier about it.

As VR becomes more mainstream, we look forward to seeing even more players join the community!


The following quality of life improvements are also now live:

A new, safer way to delete characters to help reduce chances of any accidental character deletions. Now when you select “Delete” on the character menu, you will have to press and hold the Confirm button. Your controller should vibrate as you wait for the red dial to fill up, at which point your character will officially be deleted.



A new lock button for your inventory. With this new feature you can prevent accidental deletions when you’re cleaning out your inventory. Simply select the item in your inventory and select the “Lock” button below. You can still equip locked items, but in order to break them down and remove them from your inventory, you will need to first unlock them.

A check for new Fellowship members. Now when inviting members to join your fellowship, the game will perform a check to ensure they aren't already a member of another Fellowship.

Today's patch contains two big updates. The finalized Citadel Raid is available, but we’re also changing the terrain to winter and rolling out the Festival of Strangers again.




Last year’s festival contained a lot of activities. In addition to the main festival line surrounding the Heart of the Strangers, there was also the snowman critter capture mission and the floating lights quest. Since last year’s festival was so extensive, we’ve decided to bring it back as is.



We’re also bringing back last year’s Snowman Transmog set for those who either didn’t finish the questlines last year or have joined the game since. But don’t worry! There will be a few new rewards as well. Finish the Critter Capture quest to receive this year’s snowman pet (featuring a candy cane-striped nose). There will also be a cozy new fireplace you can add to your Player House, as well as a Snowshoes mount for making your way through the snowy terrain a little quicker.

As always, to pick up all the relevant mission and quests, you’ll need to visit the following cast of characters:

* Festival NPC outside the gates of Highsteppe
* Festival Farmer outside the Critter Capture shop
* Pierre Cenn inside the Critter Capture shop

For those who remember last year’s quests, you’ll know that completing the questline is much easier with friends, so don’t be a stranger in game and ask somebody if they want to play!


The finalized version of the regular mode Citadel Raid has also launched. In addition to the Raid queue in the Social tab of the Player Menu, you can also enter the Raid from a secret tunnel at the back of the Dragon Shoppe. (As it is a *secret* tunnel, it may not immediately be obvious to see, but look a little harder. It's there.) Be sure to speak with Helga before entering the raid inside the secret tunnel and see what she needs you to do to help free Markos.


You will have the chance to earn new weapons and armor through the raid. These sets will be +4 on the armor and weapon sets, with a chance at +5 legendary weapons from the raid. Each Raid boss will give you a chance at earning different gear, with Napur (Crystal boss 1) dropping Shoulder and Glove, Brynjua (Chain boss 2) dropping Helms, Geruvi (Gear boss 3) dropping Chests, and Enraged Sephotep (Boss 4) dropping weapons, a cape, and a small chance at a "Weak Sephotep Windup pet". Along with these drops you also can receive 2 new dyes from any of the bosses.


Here's a look at the new raid gear for each class.

From top to bottom on the Left Side (Musketeer, Paladin, Warrior, Scoundrel)
From top to bottom on the Right Side (Bard, Ranger, Shaman, Mage)






When you kill Enraged Sephotep you have a chance at a +5 Legendary weapon. Each of these weapons have been imbued with some magick from the Essence that Sephotep has managed to steal from Taella Bruha, which can be seen coursing throughout the weapon.

Here's a peek at the magick in effect on the legendary Paladin's hammer...but if you want to see the rest, you'll have to earn them for yourself.



For more background on the raid, as well as a teaser video, check out the most recent Citadel Raid post.


We are working to track down a bug that has appeared recently causing some players and monsters to appear as "invisible" to certain players. We hope to have a fix for this in the coming weeks and will keep the community updated as we work to squash this bug.

We are also working towards getting the improved Quest 2 graphics updated so that those players will be able to see mounts and tool belt items on players around them, along with increasing the amount of fully rendered players around them (instead of them appearing as "Ghosts"). This also we are planning to have out to the community before the end of the year.


As we near the end of another amazing year with Orbus, we look forward to celebrating our 3 year anniversary in game. Normally we would celebrate this in December, but with the Raid and Winter Festival both coming out this month, we decided that we would move it to after the first of the year. So be on the lookout for that in January, along with an updated road map for 2021.