Q3 Sprint Three: Mounts, Cosmetic Shop, and more!

Launching on Monday August 6th, our next sprint features some great new quality of life improvements to the game as well as the introduction of our in-game cosmetic shop.

Mounts

A long-standing complaint of OrbusVR players has been the lack of a fast-movement option to make getting around the game world a little faster and easier. One of the reasons that we haven't rolled this out sooner is we wanted to have time to experiment with mounts in VR and find out what worked and what didn't. We tried a variety of approaches, from riding horses with reigns to flying around in a small airship-like device. In the end, we settled on an approach that allows the player to hop on board a flying disc (and other disc-shaped objects) to get around the world while gliding up off the ground.

You'll find a new equipment slot on your Inventory screen where your mount can be equipped. Upon doing so, bringing your hands together and pressing the Grip button, then drawing them apart, will summon your mount into existence. It's a really cool feeling that adds a special flair to mounting up and gliding off on your next adventure!

Mounts can be used anywhere that you can go in the game. If you are using Sliding Locomotion, they will increase your slide speed, as you would expect. If you prefer Teleporting to get around, they will increase the speed at which your teleportation charges to allow you to get places faster. Engaging in combat (either by getting damaged or causing damage) will cause the mount to disappear. You also cannot summon your mount while you are in combat.

The Disc Mount (shown above) will be made available as part of the Main Story Quest, and a new vendor will be added to the game world which gives out the mount to existing players who have already completed the quest.

Cosmetic Shop

The Windup Donkey Cart pet makes a fun companion!

The in-game Cosmetic Shop is now available via the Player Menu, and can be accessed at any time. In the shop you'll find a variety of fun items to add some flair to your gaming sessions, including new windup pets as well as some quirky hats. The hats can be used as a transmog option as well, so you can apply that look to your existing headgear without sacrificing your stats. Note that all items in the Cosmetic Shop give no in-game mechanic advantages. So for example, all mounts in the shop are the same speed as mounts found from in-game activities. All pets in the shop are purely cosmetic and not used for breeding. All hats in the shop have no stats and can only gain stats when used as a transmog skin for existing gear.

Look dapper with the Top Hat!

Note that the Cosmetic Shop transactions will run through whichever store you are running the game on. So for example if you launch the game via Steam, you will use your Steam Wallet to purchase items, while those on the Oculus Store will use their checkout system.

The Western Hat is the best way to say 'Howdy!'

After purchasing an item, it will appear immediately in your inventory. We'll also add an Account Item (similar to how the Backer Rewards worked), so if you go to the Backer Rewards vendor on any other character on your account, you will receive the item as well.

The Nimbus Mount is a stylish way to fly around on a cloud!

Your purchases on the Cosmetic Shop help fund further game development and improvements, and we appreciate your patronage!

Expert Mode Raids

The other big addition coming to the game with this update will be the Expert Mode Raids, launching August 10th. We'll have more details on those next week as we prepare to unleash the most challenging content we've ever built. You can expect punishing fights as well as some new twists to keep you on your toes!

In addition to this, one of the pieces of feedback we've heard from the community is that it can be too difficult right now for more casual players to keep up with raiding due to the required number of materials and potions that make raiding possible. We'll be rolling out some additional opportunities to earn ingredients for potions via daily Shard Dungeon runs next week as well, to hopefully further expand the pool of players that can take part in end-game Normal and Hard mode Raids. More details on that to come!

Networking Improvements

Finally, we've been experimenting with some major improvements to the networking system of the game via our Beta branch and with some brave testers. We're pleased to report that this new networking is now ready for a wide-spread rollout. In this you should see much smoother movement of fast-moving objects (such as Fireball spells), as well as much higher stability on the "Default" networking type for all players.