Patchnote

• Alpha v0.1.3 r303 – Patchnote20 January 2026

  This patch introduces a new version of the Howling Valley map, that is much larger than the previous version. It also adds the day/night cycle feature and the latest improvements on light rendering. Another focus is on fixing several issues around interactive items that are physically present in the world.
  
  Progress is currently capped to level 5 and Tier 1 specialization skills.
  XP rate is at 300% to facilitate testing.

  New Feature – Day/Night cycle

  

  Synced by server with everyone, a full cycle is about 1h45 (1h of day, 45min of night). Several other features will be directly affected by the cycle, including events, monsters and resources spawning. For this first version, we mostly want to be sure the cycle is : rotating properly, doesn’t create visual glitches and doesn’t affect performance negatively.

  We have some adjustments to make on the light during the night. Some moments might be way too dark at this point, we are working on it.
  For a limited time, every player will have the “Orb Of Light” Talent skill unlocked for free to help navigate during night. Other features will be added in the future as an alternative to this spell.

  New Exploration Map – Howling Valley v2

  

  The Howling Valley is a level 1 to 5 map that is in a fall season mood and sepia tone.
  This new version’s main difference is its size, 4x bigger.
  A lot of content is missing and level design is not completely finished, so for now, it might feel a bit empty.

  At this stage we mostly want to test how the performance is going with a map of this size, both on the framerate client side and also the memory/cpu usage server side.
  We are opening about 15% of the map for this test. It corresponds to the starting area where the monsters are lower level and easier to kill.
  
  You will find 2 new types of monsters in addition to the previous tests, Wolves that are in very early devs and Horned Rabbits. Both visual designs are placeholders. Goblins, Deers and Earth elementals are also present in this area.

  New Feature – World items

  

  Items can now be present in the world from the start (without having to wait for an entity to drop them), so you can now find various lootable items anywhere, making it a lot more fun and rewarding to explore. For this first test, the amount of world items is quite low, we intend to add more once the system is tested properly.

  New Feature – Combat and day/night music

  

  The background music will now change when you engage in combat. With at least 2 basic enemies or 1 elite one, a combat music starts. When engaging a boss, boss music is played.
  Musics are saving the current playing time, so when you re-enter combat the music will continue where it stopped last, to avoid only hearing the beginning of it every time.
  Each map of the game has 3 different playlists for ambient music (night and day) and combat.
  The combat music feature can be disabled in audio options.

  Improved map UI

  

  Another development iteration was made on the map UI to fix bugs and improves its usability.

  • Added a zoom slider to the side
  • Maps can now display icons with tooltip when you hover them with your pointer.
  • Continent and World maps UI are now merged since it didn’t make much sense to separate them
  • Maps are now more precise and show a bit more details but the art will be improved
  • The continent map art now uses the monochrome version instead of the badly colored one as it improves readability a lot
  • The current position icon now plays a small animation on map opening, to make it easier to spot where you are
  • A fog of war will be added later to hide parts of the local map you have not explored yet
    

  Other improvements and smaller features

  • Items
    • Dropped items are now properly streamed by the server and will be unloaded if you get away from them and loaded again if you get close to them
    • Items freshly dropped by enemies are now floating slightly above ground to make them easier to find in dense vegetation
    • Items freshly dropped by enemies are now ignoring physics until you touch them to avoid them falling or rolling away
  • Graphics
    • Screen Space Ambiant Occlusion (SSAO) is now available as an alternative to Ground Truth Ambiant Occlusion (GTAO). Since GTAO is way more resource intensive, this SSAO option is best if you don’t want to hurt your framerate too badly.
    • Indirect lighting was heavily reworked. It has better visuals, better performance and can adapt to the day/night cycle.
    • Added big trees to several locations in maps
    • Emberstone design was adjusted a bit with the arrival of big trees and the addition of the Howling Valley that is partially visible from the outpost.
    • Many adjustments were made on models (level of details) to improve performance.
  • User Interface
    • The boring location name “Southern Mine” has been renamed “Emberstone”.
    • Enemies now have a healthbar displayed above their head when they are not full life. In the future, options will be added to adjust this UI element.
    • The casting movement UI now shows a preview of the movement in 3D in front of you, instead of the small videos. This makes the expected movement demo much simpler to understand. The visual representation of the movement will be improved to look nicer.
    • Removed most of the casting movements since we have to re-train the AI with adjusted parameters. Only a couple of simple movements are available for now; this is temporary.
    • Adjusted the visual of many tooltips for items and skills. Some information such as the damage type or reload time (cooldown) is displayed as icons. Buff/Debuff in skill description is now a different color to make it more clear that this skill applies something to the target.
    • All skills descriptions have been updated with their correct text and icons.
    • Fixed many inconsistencies with font quality and type.
    • Many minor adjustments on all UI to add tooltips, textual help, reduce aliasing and increase readability.
    • Indirect light graphic option now allows changing the quality instead of being a simple On/Off feature.
    • Dungeon icons on map and UI are now red instead of blue, to make it more obvious that they are dungeons and not regular maps
    • Gold and silver coins are no longer displayed in the inventory UI if you have none (except for the silver if you have at least 1 gold)
    • A first version of ragdoll mode (corpse physics) was implemented on non-humanoid entities such as deers and horned rabbits. They are a bit stiff for now or flies a bit too easily, it will improve.
  • Gameplay
    • Entities engaged in combat will adjust their position a bit better to be able to hit you in melee. Reducing the risk for them to attack in the air.
    • A new server-side AI behaviour system allows us to create enemies that circle around their target. The new monsters, the Horned Rabbits are the perfect example of what this new system can achieve.
    • Server-side AI has been improved to allow making attacks that introduce a movement. Since the server was first to check if the movement is doable (check if there’s a wall for example), it needed extra devs. We are now testing it with a few basic jumped attacks. Those rabbits really are an adventurer nightmare!
    • Enemies’ weapons can now only do damage when they are attacking. So for example, stepping on the weapon that is on the ground after defeating the enemy, won’t trigger an attack anymore.
    • Parries can now only occur if the target is attacking. If it’s not the case, a simple impact will occur without consuming the energy of a parry. This previously made melee combat complicated since the energy was consumed for no reason very easily by this.
    • Parries energy cost when the opponent is the same power or weaker, has been greatly reduced.
    • It is no longer possible to teleport to Divine Conduit or Shrine while engaged in combat.
    • Improved the way respawn and teleport positions are managed to make it more consistent. For example, using the Divine Conduit will teleport you near the crystal instead of the entrance of that map.
    • Added a physical presence to the minor elemental boss so you can no longer stand inside
  • Audio
    • The music frequency option is now working.
  • Skills, Talents and balancing
    • Swordsman – The Slash skill was reworked completely. It now launches shockwaves with your sword. The more you charge the skill before swinging the sword, the bigger and deadlier the shockwave will be. Some adjustments to improve the feeling of it will be done.
    • Swordsman – The Slash skill charging cost is reduced to 1EP/s (was 2EP/s).
    • Pyromancer – The Fireball skill charging cost is reduced to 1EP/s (was 2EP/s).
    • New Talent skill available – “Orb Of Light”. It summons an orb of light that will follow you for 5 minutes, making it easier to navigate in dark areas and during night. Since the Talent UI is not available yet, this skill is automatically unlocked for now.
  • Other
    • Reworked several rendering sub-systems to improve performance. On average, you can expect +25% framerate compared to the latest version (without DLSS or FSR). We continue our efforts to increase framerate more.
    • Improved performance of birds that are randomly flying around maps.
    • Adjusted combat stats on many entities
    • If your instance crash server side, the game will now properly disconnect you in the following seconds (return you to the login screen) instead of keeping you inside an instance that is no longer responding properly

  Bug fixing

  • After a successful parry, the weapon can’t damage you anymore for the current attack.
  • Sold items tooltip at merchants no longer disappear after selling an item.
  • Fixed an issue with weapon-based skills that didn’t unload properly after changing specializations.
  • Humanoid enemies should look you in the eyes more consistently while fighting, unless they are very small and very close to you (melee goblins).
  • Fixed a performance issue around eyes and head animation that could create small CPU usage spikes.
  • Audio volume sliders in options will not correctly set the volume at 0% instead of going back to 100% (sorry for the jumpscares guys!).
  • Main UI will now close automatically on map change or teleport, avoiding the confusion of it being displayed far away (require to push the button twice to respawn the UI near you).
  • The “Recenter on me” button on the map UI is now working properly
  • Several portals teleported on the correct map, but not always at the correct position inside it
  • Fixed a rare case of music not loading on the login screen
  • Fixed a bug that caused dropped items to not be grabbable from a distance
  • Improved readability of direction signs when they are not directly lit
  • When reattached to the belt, weapons are now oriented properly
  • Dropped items should now properly display quantity when it is higher than 1
  • Physical interaction of minor earth elemental is improved a bit; it was particularly an issue on the boss version that could be pushed into the ground too easily
  • UI animated effects are now properly hidden when they are scrolled out of view
  • Fixed a crash on the news panel of the login screen when the news server can’t be reached
  • Fixed a possible character drifting (slight movement over time) that could occur more easily when the headset is not detected, mostly on headsets that enter standby mode when you don’t wear them
  • The chat log is now properly cleaning old entries when full
  • Fixed a rare case of player character not properly generating after login
  • View should now be properly positioned on character’s eyes position instead of being a bit down (it felt weird!)
  • The virtual keyboard should appear properly when opening the bug report window
  • Several server crash and server performance improvements has been done
  • Fixed a minor memory leak client side

  Known issues

  You’ve found an issue that is not listed below? We may be not aware. You can report it in-game (use the bug report tool at the side of the main UI) or at https://support.farworld-studio.net/. Thank you!

  • Performance still need to be improved, this is a permanent need during development but it is at the worst during alpha stage 🙂
  • A framerate drop occur for a second when loading human NPCs for the first time
  • Players’ animation (inverse kinematic) is unfinished
  • Water doesn’t receive indirect lighting, making it black or almost invisible when not lit directly
  • Dialogs voice over are mostly AI-generated and low quality (with few exceptions); they are placeholders until we start working with professional voice actors
  • Ragdoll (dead corpses) physics isn’t tuned very well
  • Following several changes in our rendering systems, Nvidia DLSS and AMD FSR don’t improve the framerate
  • Still folowing the rendering system changes, the amount of ground vegetation is not reduced when reducing the vegetation quality in the options.
  • When getting out of combat, music sometimes fades twice
  • NPC’s animation is not always fluid during the transition between two states
  • The Howling Valley has no birds yet
  • The trail effect on weapons during melee attacks is visually bad
  • Bows need a gameplay improvement to make them stronger and funnier to use
  • Bows can launch arrow at max power without pulling the rope to its max
  • The main UI button can conflict with SteamVR or VirtualDesktop buttons. We’ll add an option to be able to rebind every key.
  • During the character creation, highlighted/selected colors on the UI are sometimes incorrect
  • After the very first loading, players are sometimes spawned under the map and quickly teleported back to the entrance of it
  • Explored points of interest are not saved between game sessions and map load
  • When changing the casting movement for a skills, it is not saved between each game sessions and resets to the default movement
  • On death, player character corpses stay attached to the camera
  • Smaller trees in the Howling Valley have no colliders
  • Grappling Hooks can shake players a lot
  • Grappling Hooks can be used through walls
  • Spirit Echoes dialog bubble when gathering them is displayed too far from view
  • PSVR2 adapter is currently not detected as a valid PCVR headset
  • Physical keyboards are not working in UI
  • The game launcher may display an error if you cancel and restart an update fast
  • Female player characters are playing male sounds
  • During the first launcher installation, a Windows security warning may be displayed. It can be ignored for now, a fix should be available in the next major patch

  Next development focus

  Aside from bug fixing, the focus is on integrating those features in the playable alpha as soon as possible.

  • Finalize players’ animation (inverse kinematic) and characters’ height adjustments
  • Integrate the passive skills system
  • Integrate the talents system
  • Integrate buff/debuff system
  • Improve player-player interactions and actions visibility such as skills used
  • Improve physics in melee combat (impacts, weapons movement, feeling)
  • Party UI improvements
  • Performance improvements

Previous patch notes

• Alpha v0.1.3 r303 – Patchnote20 January 2026