Hello everyone,

Today, we’re back to share more about the world of Dragon Age: The Veilguard (minor spoilers below). While the game is a crafted experience telling a rich narrative, there are many areas to explore. The Lighthouse, for example, is a central place for Rook to rest, spend time with Companions, and learn more about the world through conversation. The Crossroads allow the Veilguard to traverse Thedas in seconds, connecting the Lighthouse to more of the world than ever before.

Throughout the story, you will go through many diverse areas, from the beauty of the lush Arlathan Forests to the busy streets of Minrathous. Veterans of the series have heard whispers in the past about each of these places in Thedas, but now you will actually be able to explore and experience them in-game. Each area has its own unique feel and style. There are several areas for exploration; each inviting you to delve deeper into the narrative and uncover the many mysteries Thedas holds. Check out a few of them here:


Arlathan Forest – Ancient magic and powerful artifacts re-awaken and reality thins across the woodlands that once held the heart of the Elvhen empire. The Veil Jumpers, masters of ancient elven magic, seek to stabilize the region and keep reality from crumbling.


Hossberg Wetlands – Much of this once-peaceful marshland has been consumed by the Blight. Darkspawn roam the swamps with impunity, but the Grey Wardens mount a valiant defense of the last safe haven – Lavendel.


Minrathous – Capital of the Tevinter Imperium, the Venatori wield corruption as they try to turn the Empire’s heart to their own dark purposes. Yet the people resist, with the rebel Shadow Dragons leading the charge.


Rivain – An ancient Grey Warden fortress sits among sparkling waters and lush greenery of the Rivain Coast; the Lords of Fortune call this paradise home. The servants of the gods have their own plans, however, and threaten to turn this sanctuary into a battlefield.


Treviso – A merchant city known for the beauty of its canals – and the deadliness of its assassins – Treviso is under Antaam occupation, a state of affairs that sits poorly with the Antivan Crows.


While exploring the world, the Veilguard will come across many things to do and people to talk to. Of course, there will be loot to upgrade your equipment but there will also be puzzles and lore! There will be ancient statues, letters, and artifacts left behind to read and collect those Codex Entries. There are also new modes of transportation to find throughout the world, including fast travel.

There will be new ways for your Companions to interact with the world as well, with specific exploration abilities. For example, you may come across some ancient Elven artifacts for Bellara to Tinker with while you wander through Arlathan. Even when the Companions are back at the Lighthouse, Rook can use the Lyrium Dagger to take advantage of their Exploration Abilities. You may also spot Companions out and about, interacting with the world on their own. When heading to Treviso, we recommend finding Lucanis and enjoying a cup of coffee together.




The Lighthouse will serve as your new home during Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Each companion will have their own room, for them to decorate to their own taste. Their rooms will progress over the course of the story, and it will also be the main location for one-on-one chats with them. Rook will have a room of their own, as well! Lastly, you will find the Caretaker’s Workshop here, where items can be upgraded and enchanted.




From the home base of the Lighthouse, you will be able to access The Crossroads, a meeting place of many Eluvians. This area will serve as the main connection from the Lighthouse to the rest of Thedas, as well as lead to a lot of side content. The Caretaker will act as a guide throughout this area, ferrying the party to different islands in the Fade. Additionally, there will be more puzzles to solve in this area and even some extra missions, but we’ll leave those shrouded in mystery to discover on your own.

We recently held our in-person Preview Event with Content Creators and Press, so keep your eyes out for interviews and coverage in the coming weeks. While you’re waiting, don’t forget to check out our podcast Dragon Age: Vows & Vengeance. Chat soon!

— The Dragon Age Community Team

Citizens, please pay attention to the following important announcement.

The summer heat is subsiding, but despite the dropping temperatures, our officials' heads are still steaming — all in the name of improving our capital city. Returning vacationers can look forward to many fun activities, as well as an overall enhancement in the quality of life, especially in the areas of transportation and recreation.

Those of you who diligently follow our regular newsletter Vox Vivat are surely eagerly anticipating the updates listed below, so allow us to present them in more detail.


Fishing Season Open
Fishing enthusiasts are in for a treat. In collaboration with local authorities, we are offering every citizen free fishing gear to help control the overpopulation of certain species in Bratislava's rivers and lakes. For each fish caught, we are offering a financial reward, and for anyone who catches at least five fish, we have a special express delivery of fishing attire straight to your home.

Citizens can start fishing at designated spots at the Chorvát Canal in Petržalka and gradually move on to Štrkovec and Kuchajda lakes, and even the Danube river. Happy fishing!


Taxi Taxi
The Bratislava Tourist Office has registered an increased demand for taxi services throughout the city. Citizens who want to make some extra money should keep their eyes peeled. A raised hand and waving from fellow citizens by the side of the road is not just a friendly gesture but also a chance to boost your household income.


Vehicles and Traffic
The long-awaited vehicles ordered from Germany have finally arrived, and our rescue and fire departments are now able to enjoy brand-new service vehicles. In addition, drivers have also reported spotting a new model, the Poissy TD in combi version, and the rare custom-built Smola Bohemia by Medailex on the roads.

New vehicles:

• Unserevehikel Vanmaster + variants
  
• Medailex Sportster
  
• Poissy TD Combi

Rail and Water Transportation
Several key connections in Bratislava's railway network were temporarily closed over the summer due to essential trackwork. After completing all repairs, we are pleased to announce the reopening of train services between Hlavná Stanica, ŽST Nové Mesto, and ŽST Petržalka stations. For the modest ticket price, citizens can now travel across the city, even with their personal vehicles, without any additional charges.

Following the summer floods, the Water Management Company has lifted the restriction on navigation on the Danube. In addition to the return of tugboats, this has also allowed the city to reopen the beloved Propeler ferry. Thanks to an efficient shift rotation system, the ferry operates 24/7 between Tyršovo and Rázusovo embankments, completely free of charge. Citizens are advised to exercise caution when boarding and disembarking, as we've had reports of attempts to cut in line, push ahead, and jump the railing, all of which inevitably lead to sudden falls into the water.


IMPORTANT WARNING!
For the citizens and visitors of the capital city, we are issuing a warning based on reports received by local police units. According to our information, a dangerous type of grenade launcher has appeared on the black market. Investigators have determined that it is an under-barrel grenade launcher marked VG 70 — a prototype from the Czechoslovak era, with only a few units produced in the late 1960s.

How this historical, yet still very dangerous weapon ended up in circulation is currently unknown. We kindly ask all citizens for any information that could aid in the investigation and urge you to prioritize your safety and well-being.


Miscellaneous

• The main character, as well as all story characters, have undergone cosmetic skin adjustments: less sweat and shine.
  
• Story characters now react to certain situations while driving in a car (experimental).
  
• Improved police NPC spawning system.
  
• English mission names added to the English localization.
  
• Terrain and horizon distance adjustments.
  
• Various terrain improvements.
  
• Various adjustments to building, vehicle, and prop models.
  
• Minor adjustments in story missions.

Thank you for your attention and support, dear citizens. Our city is constantly undergoing gradual cleanup and enhancement, but there’s always room for improvement, so we continue to welcome all your insights, suggestions, and criticisms.

You can learn more about the latest happenings in Bratislava in the Vox Vivat newsletter as always. We wish you lots of fun!

40% OFF ON ALL MY GAMES!

Hello!

I've made this update on Steam so it is possible for a further community sided bug-report based on hotfixes of what was already reported. Hotfixing #1 was mainly for those long loading times, yet #2 is actually for most of your reports. Somehow, what will be reported in the future, or what was left unaddressed will be taken care of this weekend.

Most notable actions held on this update were polishes of current systems, quality-of-life improvements and baked some cookies.. Although, there's an Easter-Egg in the Changelog in-game. Disclaimer, there are some upgrades here and there, that I haven't yet got time to check if working properly, but I do think they're not game-breaking if not working as intended.

As the usual line goes.. if you're finding any bugs, please let me know via Ravensthorn Discord ( https://discord.gg/4YmS2ftX3u ), and in the meanwhile, happy gaming!


Musbrich.

- New system to be able to report players
- Improved the ultimate radar
- Improved player hud
- Improved sniper hud
- Improved the voting system at the end of the game
- Improvement of the escort map
- Improvement of allied indicators
- All weapon sounds have been changed
- New weapon switch options
- Added AI mushroom
- Added a new option to change the style of the crosshair
- We can now see weapon stats
- We now see the number of kills made without dying
- Now when someone dies in mini royal these weapons fall to the ground
- Now the weapons on the back move with the player's movements
- Now we see our grenades and heals on our character
- Now your character has animations when he turns on himself
- Now players can ping to give information to their team
- Footsteps sounds have been changed
- Impact sounds have been changed
- Some minor changes
- Bugs Fixes

Fix overall bugs

• Code Optimization: Performed code optimizations to enhance overall game performance.
  
• Data Corruption Prevention: Implemented measures to prevent data corruption, improving system stability.

• Figurant Basketball Animations: Added new basketball animations for figurants, improving NPC interaction variety.
  
• Provide Quest Special Loot Only During Required Objective: Implemented a system that provides special quest loot only during specific required objectives.

• NPC Health Restored After Fight: NPCs now automatically restore their health after a fight.
  
• Selected Weapon Removed From Inventory During Combat Fix: Fixed an issue where the selected weapon was removed from the inventory during combat.
  
• Can't Buy Weapons ("Max Reached" Alert) Fix: Fixed an issue preventing players from buying weapons due to a "max reached" alert.
  
• Quest Fixes: Applied several fixes to quest-related issues to improve player experience.
  
• Strong_morphs_targets_fix: Fixed issues related to strong morph targets, improving character appearance.
  
• Viewport Changes Reverted: Reverted viewport changes to fix visual issues.

Before, I thought that the game didn't had enough systems and current depth, so polishing and bug fixing was pointless to be given full focus since stuff will break either way in the future with new additions, but now I think it's in a pretty good state of playability, so I will give full focus to bug fixing and polishing and current features small-medium improvements(no overhauls or bigger additions), in the coming weeks, just to stabilize everything. If anyone doesn't feel that way do tell me :).

You can now choose settings for election messages
You can now remove items from characters
You can now remove items from inventory
You can now remove fronts
Added associate find beer talent to talent trees
Added associate find guns talent to talent trees
Added associate petty crimes talent to talent trees

Characters were not getting properly removed if an event happened during their job
Fixed an issue where a front wasn't producing liquid money
Fixed an issue where upon upgrade hierarchy ui wasn't getting updated.
Fixed an issue where you couldn't assign a lieutenant
Fixed boom talent stat
Added a fail safe scenario if something happens to all candidates in a mayor race that a random new character will be assigned
Fixed wrong starting tinkering
Fixed increasing of tinkering not working correctly
Fixed train ui to not have a duplicate cunning

Lowered amount of strength for required for unlocking collection
Lowered amount of strength required for performing collection
Changed tavern bullies event to not takeaway so much health
Characterized loanshark and protection racket as violence businesses
Illegal casino sell liquor had a wrong resource cost
You now receive a message when a protection can't be collected due to not having business to protect
There is now accounting data for collect protection

New position for male-female, male-shemale, female-shemale and shemale-shemale couples

- As for quests the combination of the queue and overtime caused some unexpected issues and the queue was mostly used to exploit the rng for quests anyway, I removed the quest queue. People who had it already got it refunded and their pet stones back.
- Added favourite slots as replacement. With a favourite slot you can set a quest as favourite which causes it to always appear on a daily reset, if the rank fits and it is not unique, so no rng needed anymore.
- Fixed a few issues, some small things, some offline issues, hopefully some online save issue. Some changes with save online behaviour.