Closed Alpha 7 Begins Tomorrow: Tombstones, Pet Dragons, Hair, and more!

Tomorrow at Noon (12 PM) US Central Time, we'll be kicking off our seventh Closed Alpha Test which will last for 35 hours. (Here's a handy Countdown to the start of the test).

If it's your first time in the Alpha

For the first time, everyone who has Closed Beta access (basically, those with the "Founder" pack and above) will be able to participate in the test. So if that's you, welcome to Orbus!

Be sure to check out the Getting Started Guide on the Wiki. There is now an in-game tutorial as well that you will see when you first log in on a new character, but the Guide is still worth reading.

Download the launcher to install the game: https://community.orbusvr.com/t/alpha-game-client-download/1261?u=riley_d

NOTE: We updated the Launcher to v0.7 -- you must download the new launcher to participate in this test!

If you don't already have access to the Alpha, you can purchase access on your My Account Page at any time.

For our testing veterans

This test's feedback thread is here: https://community.orbusvr.com/t/alpha-test-7-feedback-thread/1801

The main focus of this test was adding a lot of little things that have been on our list for a while. Pets, hair, death penalty, revamped settings menu...these are all fairly minor things on their own, but when taken together they add up to some nice improvements to the overall game. In addition, we've approximately doubled the number of quests in the game world, so if you completed all of them during the last test, you can continue your journey by heading to the Guild City to speak with Bishop Roma on University Island.

Pet Dragons

One of our Kickstarter stretch goals was to add a Pet Companion system to the game, and we now have the beginnings of the system in the game for you to play with. Just speak to the NPC at the Highsteppe Market and you can get the dragon for free right now. Once you have it, equip it to your new "Pet" slot on your equipment list to summon it.

Once equipped, your pet will dutifully follow you around the world on your adventures. You can pet your dragon by simply moving your hand near it and stroking it. You'll also receive 5 Pet Treats when you get your dragon, which you can equip to your quick slot and toss to your pet, causing them to do a little happy-dance. There are a few other tricks up your pet's sleeve so keep an eye out while you take it into the world.

As we move into Beta and beyond we'll expand this system to feature multiple varieties of pets, and additional information on the pet like its overall happiness level with you.

Hair

We've added the ability to give your Character hair when you create it, including choosing from a variety of styles and colors. There's also a mirror that appears now when you are making a new character so that you can see what your hair looks like from the back and the front at the same time.

There's a new setting under the Settings screen called "Show Helm", which allows you to choose whether you'd like to display your equipped helm or your hair instead.

Tombstones and the Death Penalty

All equipment in the game now has a durability rating, which will decrease whenever you perish in combat. When that happens, when you release to the graveyard you'll leave behind a tombstone to mark the place where you died. If you make it back to your tombstone within a reasonable time (currently around 20 minutes real-time), you'll receive a significant portion of your durability back.

This means that getting a fellow player to resurrect you is now very valuable, because you will instantly resurrect right where you died, allowing you to regain most of your durability right away. It also means that if you find yourself in a very dangerous area that is far above your level, you may have trouble returning to your tombstone, which could cause you to lose a significant portion of your durability.

If your weapon's durability drops to 0, you'll now become "Unarmed", so keep that in mind. It's best to stay well-repaired when venturing out into the world, otherwise you may find yourself in an area you have difficulty returning to as an unarmed player.

There are now Apprentice Smith NPCs scattered throughout the world, in most major villages and cities, who can repair your gear for you. Just talk to them and choose the "Repair My Gear" option, and you'll be able to pay a small fee to get your gear repaired. The higher-level your gear is, the more durability it will have, which means it will cost more to repair.

Note that currently, you will not receive the death penalty when using the "Return to Graveyard" option in the Settings menu. In addition, you will not receive any durability damage to your permanent gear when dying in a PvP Arena. Finally, if your maximum level on all classes is Level 4 or less, you will not take durability damage when you perish.

Improved Settings and Equipment Screen

We've re-worked the Player Menu to introduce a few new things. First off, the Settings menu has been re-worked to be a much more spread out dialog box. Scrolling down, you'll find that you now have settings for individual volume sliders as well, so you can fine-tune your volume across Voice Chat, BGM (Background Music), Environmental sounds, and more to your personal taste.

In addition to that, you'll notice that there are now additional gear slots for Pet, Ring Left/Right, Wrist, and Back, which we'll be creating gear for in the coming months. We've redone the layout on the equipment screen to accomodate these new slots. Finally, we've added a stats screen to the left of your equipment, where you can see the current stats for your character, including those gained from gear and from temporary effects such as potions. Right now there's not much gear that adds to your stats aside from Attack and Armor, but we'll be introducing additional gear that does soon.