Wayfinder News

Hello Wayfinders and Happy New Year! The team is back and recharged from the holidays, and we are ready to introduce the next set of features into Wayfinder!

We discussed at the end of last year having more meaningful updates faster, and this is the first real test of that adjusted philosophy where we are releasing content a little earlier than “done” so we can solicit feedback before fully releasing it.

The goal of working alongside all of our players remains the same: Make sure things are both functioning as well as fun and rewarding. Going forward, we’ll be calling these events/features in this state “Previews.”

[h2]The Job Board Preview is LIVE!
[/h2]
The goal of the Job Board Preview is to provide players with another source of XP for the player’s Wayfinder and Weapon, as well as their Reward Tower. It’s also a place where you can get some memory fragments, gloomstone shards, dyes, cosmetics, and more!

Do you find jobs fun? Do you have ideas for jobs? Did you find a bug associated with the board or the rewards? There will be a dedicated Feature Upvote Board specifically for answering these questions and posting whatever other feedback associated with the Job Board during this preview.



NOTE: As we have previously mentioned, this was the most efficient and direct path towards earning Reward Tower keys, and as such, we have also adjusted Reward Tower XP rates down slightly and will be monitoring them in the short and long term.


We are excited for players to jump in today, tackle some of these jobs to help out the citizens of Skylight and share with us what you think at
https://jobboardpreview.featureupvote.com/ !

[h2]Q1 Roadmap
[/h2]

As we discussed last year, we have a big year planned for 2024. We recently updated our public facing roadmap.

We also discussed a lot of these systems, as well as introduced you to faces behind the Discord names you see on our final 2023 dev stream we had last month. If you haven’t seen that yet you can view it here.

While things are always subject to change since game dev is hard and always shifting, we are currently on track to deliver the following in Q1 of 2024.


[h3]Job Board
[/h3]The foundation version of this system introduces daily and weekly rewards for players. Rewards include Gloomstone Shards, Memory Fragments, Reward Tower XP and in the future; exclusive items and cosmetics!

[h3]Armory Rank[/h3]
Armory Ranks are a new form of progression. When you level a weapon to 30, you’ll gain an armory rank. At certain ranks you can expect to gain bonuses such as base weapon stat Increases or weapon echo capacity. You can also unlock additional tempers granting more echo sockets. The max Armory Rank for now will be 20.

[h3]Archetype System
[/h3]When implemented, the Archetype Accolade track will have you earning bonuses such as increased max equipment level, affinity points, and archetype specific passives as you play with various Wayfinders. The second version of this will be the Archetype Talent Tree which will include branching paths and choices for players to really customize their Wayfinder + playstyle.

[h3]Mythic Hunts
[/h3]They may be the fights you know and have memorized, but they will be designed to present an extreme challenge for players and in return have drastically increased accessory and crafting component drop rates, Mythic Rush echo variants, new accessory sets and Black Gloomstone drops to use alongside the increased Affinity Cap. Mythic Hunt Bounties will also be introduced which upon completion, guarantee an Essence or Vestige for Awakening levels 4 + 5.

[h3]Frostmarch Expansion
[/h3]Our first new open world zone since launch will be 2x the size of the current Highlands. Here you’ll find POIs that contain challenges, quests, events, world bosses and even some secrets...

[h3]Mounts[/h3]
We can’t introduce a massive new zone without making it a breeze to travel around can me?! Mounts will allow you to traverse Skylight and open world areas with ease with Founder’s finally getting to show off their Highlands Strider!

[h3]Grendel + New Reward Tower
[/h3]Grendel as well as his associated Reward Tower will be smashing their way into Evenor. All players who purchased a founder’s pack with the FS2 Reward Tower will be getting Grendel and his tower!

All of these systems will culminate in the ultimate challenge - our 1st 6 player Raid. The Raid will launch early in Q2 to allow Wayfinders to gear up and prepare themselves and their squad. We're incredibly excited about this challenging end-game content we’re designing so stay tuned for more info as we get closer!

In between these large releases we will continue to focus on hotfixing the game to improve performance + server optimizations, balance, bug fixes and more.

2024 is the year we see our original vision for Wayfinder coming to reality. We’re incredibly excited about the future and as always thanks for playing and being a part of this growing and awesome community!


[h2]Patch Notes[/h2]
Daily and Weekly Jobs are now available in Skylight

• Upon completing the main quest “Bad Omens” you will receive the Priority quest “No Better Friend” to unlock Jobs! Complete this priority quest to gain access to the Job system!
  
• The Job Board is available in Skylight near the Great Lift and behind Lord Halar’s Hut
  
• You can also find a Job Board in Lower Skylight and and in Deepwood Holt.
  
• All boards contain the same quests.
  

Performance

• Mouse smoothing is now OFF by default resulting in a smoother gameplay experience in the event of sudden frame drops.
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the Gloom Collapse mutator wouldn’t start correctly
  
• Fixed a crash in the Mines during the “Bond of Blood” quest
  
• Fixed an issue where Signal Fires could appear inactive in the Highlands on the map
  
• Pages for “Restoring the Archive” will now spawn when using Greed or Solar mutators
  
• Reduced the frequency of the Farseer beam attack
  
• Fixed an issue where max gear level would display as 1 after changing echoes
  
• Radiant Dawn weapon ability will now properly refresh instead of stacking
  

Patch 0.2 - Eventide

The team has been working tirelessly to prove to the world their capabilities and commitment to bringing Wayfinder as both Developer and Publisher.

The result of that heroic effort - over 2,000 bug fixes, performance improvements, combat rebalances, Wayfinder reworks, system implementations, content enrichments, additional cosmetics and much much more. With that we say goodbye to Version 0.1 of Wayfinder, as this is indeed deserving of us moving to 0.2!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Important Notes:
[/h2]

• This update is a total repackaging of all of our files and assets. Download and install may take longer than usual.
  
• When you start the game for the first time, shaders will recompile which may results in reduced performance for a minute or two before retuning to normal.
  
• The game now requires an SSD.
  
  

[h2]Patch Highlights:
[/h2]
Awakening System (Part 1) - A major implementation for late game progression for players in Wayfinder. Upon reaching maximum level, Players can collect & craft Awakening Stones to add a new echo slot, increase echo capacity, as well as buff to all of their stats on Wayfinders and Weapons. Right now the current cap is 3*. In the future we'll be expanding this system to 5* as well as implementing archetype levels and other horizontal progression for your Wayfinders and their entire archetype.

Performance - We know performance has been a huge pain point for many members of our community, this is the first of many patches were we’ll directly be working on performance + optimization. This patch delivers hundreds of improvements on backend optimizations as well as client changes that have a dramatic impact on overall performance. We aren't done with improving performance, but this should be a huge leap in the right direction.

Senja Rework - As the Last of the Iron Sisters and Champion of the Imperial Arena, we didn't feel as though Senja was packing the punch we envisioned. Senja players should expect some major improvements to Sejna’s mobility, durability and offensive capability! These aren't only stat adjustments, but sweeping buffs/reworks to her core kit of abilities.

Event Timers on the map - No longer do you have to guess when events are happening or how long world bosses will be up! Our v1 of this system has timer markers on the map. In the future we'll be adding names as well as more info there about drops, progress etc.

Rifle Subclass Reworks - The goal with this subclass rework is to incentivize creative loadout compositions, depending on the challenge Wayfinders face. Rather than have every rifle weapon essentially perform similarly asides from their weapon ability, we want each subclass to have a distinct utility to distinguish themselves.

• Shotguns - Significant break power and close quarter splash damage
  
• Rifles -Mid-range Low break but high broken DPS
  
• Railguns - Long range single target burst
  

Stat Rebalance - We want player builds to be diverse and interesting, with clear benefits for investing in the full spectrum of offered stats. Specifically Ability Power and Defensive stats were underperforming when compared to Weapon Power and Crits. To address this we are implementing some major buffs to AP builds, and fundamental improvements to Defensive stats as a whole.

Lost Zone Event items changes - Specific items in Lost Zones that may drop from a specific event now have a chance to drop in all events within that Lost Zone. This means that those hard to find crafting ingredients just got a little easier to get.

New Wayfinder + Weapon Dye Tech - We love seeing the huge diversity of player expression with our style system and dyes, but more is always better! Take a look into the new Dye options to see additional slots for Wayfinder VFX, even more trim customization, and three new slots for Weapon Dyes!

Updated Music and Combat Sound Effects - We are already very proud of the music and ambiance in Evenor, but prepare for even further immersion with loads of improvements to Combat feedback sounds (Hits vs Crits, breaks, deaths, dodges etc.) and a new music system.

Inventory Management and UI upgrades - Players will now have improved sorting functionality for their Echoes, ability to view Affinities and Echo slot types in shop/inventory lists, and sell multiple instances of items with a single input! We have laid the framework for Mass Tag + Sell/Dust with a single click as well as Multi-Crafting, so stay tuned as we look to add these and additional functionalities soon!


Underperforming Weapon Buffs - We want all weapons to be on a level playing field, with distinct strengths and weaknesses depending on the encounter. Sword & Shields as a weapon class are statistically less relevant compared to other weapon types, so there are a number of changes to weapons to bolster some of the less popular choices and give them a chance to shine.

XP Caches - XP Resonance Caches for Wayfinders and weapons are now enabled! When we rolled out the 300% XP Buff, we had mentioned that we'll be adjusted XP once again to account for these scrolls. We have reduced the overall gain from expeditions and hunts and put that difference in these XP caches.

Helper Coin Shop Update - It has been incredible to see how many Wayfinders take advantage of the Helper Queue system to help fellow players push back the Gloom. We want to reward that collaboration even more with tons of new additions to the Helper Shop, including new items and resources, as well as exclusive cosmetics not sold in-game; all available for FREE.

New Weapons - Five brand new weapons await crafting. Bastion, Bloodsong, Windmother’s Fang, Umbros and Voidbreaker!

Eventide Live Event - The citizens of Skylight are celebrating Eventide, but that means they’ll also need your help in making sure it’s the holiday the citizens deserve! Our biggest live event yet will be active in the weeks following this patch’s release and feature a vendor with exclusive housing items and cosmetics.

Eventide Known Issues:

• Sometimes Lures will not be placeable at the Plunderfool event.
  
• Presents are not placeable under the Eventide Holiday Tree.
  

These 2 issues will be fixed Monday 12/18 and do not prevent you from earning Eventide exclusive cosmetics!

[h3] The full 79-page, 27,430 word Patch Notes can be found here
[/h3]

[h2]What's in store for 2024?
[/h2]
As always thank you to everyone that has supported us when we announced, when we launched into Early Access and when we began our transition of service. We hope that this patch shows our continued commitment to Wayfinder. With the launch of Eventide, our team will be taking a much deserved break for the next few weeks. In early 2024 we'll return to our weekly/biweekly patch cadence. We're also going to be pausing adding additional MTX items (outside of Eventide themed items) to the store while we focus on v0.2 being a great new foundation.

These patches will includes fixes and balances changes as well as content. Rightfully people have asked about the things we promised in Season 2. By not being bound to a Seasons for the time being means we'll be able to quickly release content. We are truly just getting started, because In early 2024 you can look forward to:

• Mounts
  
• Job Board
  
• A new zone
  
• Raids
  
• Grendel
  

From everyone here at Airship Syndicate we thank you from the bottom of our heart for your continued support of Wayfinder. We quite literally could not do it without everyone.

2023 might be winding down, but Wayfinder isn't!

In fact, we're happy to announce that our largest game update ever will be hitting soon in December.
This update contains over 2,000 fixes and changes to the game and brings us from v0.1 to v0.2!.



We've said all along that we believe actions to speak louder than words so we hope that this shows our dedication to Wayfinder.

Some of these 2,000 changes include:

- Performance + UI improvements
- Weapon + stats rebalance
- Ability to earn cosmetics in-game
- New customization options
- Senja rework
- Ranged rework
and so much more!

Today we'll preview some of those changes below.

[h2]Brand new customization!
[/h2]
⚔️Fully Customizable Weapon Dyes
🔥Two new Wayfinder Dye Slots (including Heroic Kyros' FX!)

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]We're speeding up Sword & Shield + Scythes' attacks!
[/h2]We also made changes to parry, and weapon abilities now scale 50/50 with ability & weapon power resulting in more interesting ways to build your Wayfinders.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]All of our ranged weapons are getting adjustments.
[/h2]
This includes more defined subclasses; each with pros and cons and each having a unique buff when landing a perfect reload.




[h2]A trickster told us that you want more coins...
[/h2]
Some materials are difficult to farm, so we are standardizing some drops across Lost Zones, and guaranteeing rewards from the Trickster!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


[h2]Multiselect + Echo display in UI
[/h2]
Have a ton of accessories? Find selling them more painful than The Reaver King?

We've revamped the sell window to display echo types as well as selling multiple items at once!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]XP Resonance Caches
[/h2]
Those XP caches you've been gathering since Early Access launch are probably piling up by now. XP caches will be enabled in v0.2!

So why not use them?! Character and weapon caches can fast track leveling those new Wayfinders and weapons!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]New Music + combat sounds 🎧
[/h2]Immerse yourself in the serenity of the snow laden Highlands and Skylight.
New festive music, as well as improved real-time audio feedback when in combat so you can actually hear crits, parries and more! (Shout out @Koud3x for the rad art!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

For those that may have missed it, this jump to v0.2 is not Season 2. We are pausing our Seasons as we go ahead and reassess our release calendar as we take over the publisher role. This doesn’t mean that content is drying up, in fact the opposite. We won’t be sticking to a seasonal “wrapper” for content and instead can release things faster when we believe things are ready for players vs waiting to put everything under the season banner. In case you missed it; check out this interview for more details: https://massivelyop.com/2023/11/16/interview-wayfinder-pauses-seasons-as-it-hunts-for-a-publisher-and-rebuilds-roadmap/


As you can see our team has been incredibly busy. As we transition from developer to developer + publisher there will be quite a few changes in Wayfinder. The entire team at Airship is dedicated to keeping to our original promise if shaping the game alongside our players.

* Players can now respec affinities and resources spent will be refunded
* NOTE: THIS FEATURE WILL BE ENABLED EARLY NEXT WEEK due to a bug that was found last minute
* Added cooldowns to ability icons
* Talon of Pyre should no longer become unresponsive during his final phase
* Increased Accessory limit from 100 to 125
* Increased Reward Tower XP for Hunt completion by 1625%
* NOTE: The old XP values that are live now included a bug. While this number is high and you will see gains, it isn't as astronomical as it reads on paper
* Fixed an issue where a pre-made parties were unable to leave Expeditions and Hunts before the travel timer reached 0
* Fixed an issue with "The Caged Bird Sings" where players could not craft a Gloomtrace
* Fixed an issue where torches could be duplicated in a Gloom Collapse
* Fixed an issue where Gold Mutator wasn’t spawning gold piles