Its finally happening: the first playtest for Therais Book is coming up in just over two weeks,
from 06.06.2025 to 09.06.2025!

Most of the playtest will take place in the starting village Fawe. The focus will be on a tutorial-style questline in a small part of the map, so everyone can jump in, explore, and help me see how things hold up under real conditions.

This will be a full test of the current build, running on actual server infrastructure, with as many of you as possible. I really want to see what happens with real players, real connections, and real chaos.

Some important notes:

• Some features are still missing (logically, its not all there yet, its an alpha).
  
• Balancing will be WAY off, but that’s what the playtests are for! I need as much feedback as possible from you all, so don’t hold back.
  
• Feedback can also be given right in the game using the report system, just make sure to use the correct type.
  
• The map will be limited to just the area around Fawe for this test.
  
• Accounts, characters and progress will not persist after the playtest.
  
• You have to be a registered tester on the website to access and download the game there.

Im super excited (and a bit nervous) to finally get people running around in the world after working on this new version for such a long time.
Also, I will be streaming at the start and at other points during that event, to answer questions, show the game, and so on.

Mark your calendars! Lets make this a fun weekend and see what breaks.
Thanks for sticking around and being part of this journey!
Hope to see you in-game!

Hello everyone!

I know it's been a long time, over three years, since the last game update. I want to start by saying sorry for taking this long and not posting many updates. Life, development challenges, and shifting priorities kept me from sharing as much as I wanted to, but the project has never been abandoned.

A lot has changed since then. The game has evolved significantly, from core systems to mechanics to overall design, and I finally feel ready to show you where things stand. Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing updates on what's new, what’s improved, and what’s coming next.

I really appreciate everyone who stuck around since the last test phase and supported the project despite the lack of updates. Your patience means a lot, and I hope you'll be as excited as I am about what’s ahead.

A few weeks ago I finally started testing on proper "production" infrastructure again, and things are progressing nicely. Soon I will start a closed test over a short period. If you'd like to participate, please sign up in the forum linked below and reply to the testing thread. You will then be able to download the upcoming testing builds.

If you know anyone who might be interested, feel free to invite them! The more participants and feedback I can get, the better. You will be able to report bugs, issues and other feedback using the in-game tool, the forum or Discord.

https://crossorbit.de/community/main-forum-2-main-forum/alpha-closed-testing/

I made a post explaining the changes and improvements here[crossorbit.de].

Development on the game has been going on in the background and we will soon publish the first release of the new reboot alpha cycle with updates every 6-8 weeks.

Very soon the new roadmap will be available at our website, and progress will be posted to the forum.
The "nightly" launcher is still being worked on and should launch soon after the new alpha cycle begins.

Thanks for your patience. The update is now live.
I didn't get everything finished, but I wanted to finally release it.
Starting with this update, I will push a new version with the new patcher, not via steam, just so you know.
I will still post updates and news here :)


Some of the new things:
>Updated core components
>You can now play three classes: Warrior, Warlock, and Archer
>You can now choose between male and female for every class
>There is a new character creation screen for that, too.
>A completely redone map
>New Trees, grass, and textures with higher quality and better performance
>Most mobs are available again (had to redo all of them lol) and some new mobs have been added.
>New bosses (more coming soon)
>The new crafting system; not finished yet
>New recipes and professions
>Some swords have been removed
>New staffs and bows have been added
>Lots of balancing changes (probably worse now...)
>New crystals
>Some of the character skills have been removed for now.
>New UI elements and cleanup
>A new help window with useful information and tips (F1)
>New emotes (LeftShift + 1 through 5)
>A new global chat channel
>many new items
>New PVP system with PVP areas (still not balanced tho, be careful)
>And many smaller changes and probably some stuff I forgot....

We already found a few bugs. Let me know if you find anything, via DM, discord, email or the community tab. You can also email me: http://mailto:[email protected]

The website is in the works!

The servers will be down for 2-4 days, untill I release the new update.

A full update notice and details will be posted just before it goes live.

First of all, I want to thank everyone for testing the game and for all the usable feedback!
But I also want to clarify that Therais Book is not yet fully released as some seem to think.
This game is still in early development and only playable because of early access. If you're not ok with your character being reset sooner or later and experiencing bugs and maybe even crashes, early access is not for you! Please wait for the full release or at least beta. :)

With that out of the way, here is the news:
The patcher is done!
Details about the patching system and the upcoming update below.

!!! THIS UPDATE WILL REMOVE ALL CHARACTERS - MORE ON THAT AT THE END OF THIS POST!!!

The next build will have the patcher and an in-game update check, which checks for updates and starts the patcher only if it finds any.
This system has the advantage that you don't have to run the patcher every time when you start the game. (I hate that)
The patcher will only be opened when I upload an update and download only the changed and new files, instead of the whole game.

You will probably feel like there is not very much new in regards to gameplay, and that's somewhat true. Let me explain.
Besides the patching system, I changed a lot of the core systems.
I updated the engine and the MMO framework, which comes with a lot of improvements, but was a major setback as well.
I had to redo and change a lot of things that were not compatible with the updated core components. This was ~75% of what I did since the last update.
After that was "done" I worked on the Terrain system and then started creating the new world.

Since I got the terrain culling system to work, it is now possible to run the game with the
massive open-world I wanted to have for Therais Book from the beginning.
This new map should stay even for the release if nothing major changes, breaks or you want something completely different. I can add and change parts of the map tho, so adding some mountains or something similar is no problem.
I can also add more islands or parts to the map in the future as well, but for now, it will be more than enough work for me to fill the map with interesting and fun environments to play in. I already have a rough plan for most of the map, but you're more than welcome to suggest changes, villages, or whatever you'd like to see in the world.
You can also send me questlines, characters, or anything you think would fit into the game like some of you already have. You can use the discord, e-mail, the forum, or the steam community for this.

I still want this to be a project anyone can be part of and add their ideas to the game.

Here is a list of most of the changes for this update. Please be aware that it's not ready yet and some things will probably be removed or added until the release of the update.

>You can now play three classes: Warrior, Warlock, and Archer (The archer still has some bugs and might not be available instantly)
>You can now choose between male and female for every class
>There is a new character creation screen for that, too.
>As mentioned above there is a new map
>New Trees, grass, and textures with higher quality and better performance
>All mobs are available again (had to redo all of them) and some new mobs have been added.
>New bosses
>The new crafting system; It's rather complex, so please read the in-game tutorials.
>New recipes and professions
>Some swords have been removed
>New staffs and bows have been added
>Lots of balancing changes (still far from perfect tho)
>A few new quests have been added
>New crystals
>New armor for all classes (won't be shown on the characters yet)
>Some of the character skills have been removed for now. This system will be properly extended soon.
>New UI elements and cleanup
>A new help window with useful information and tips (F1)
>New emotes (LeftShift + 1 through 5)
>A new global chat channel (/a)
>MANY new items
>New PVP system with PVP areas (still not balanced tho, be careful)
>New mounts and pets
>And probably some stuff I forgot....

Some new stuff that's not ready yet:

>I implemented a new Mesh-changer system by Trugord, but it won't be ready for this update. This will enable armor and character details like different hair and clothes to be changed and visualized _on the character model_ in the future.
>The new registration system with email-verification and password reset option (lots of PHP...........)
>Another new class
>And some more things that are secret for now :P

Please let me know what you think about the changes and what you think I should focus on for future updates. My main focus at the moment is still on the core components.
Once they are done I will focus more on content. I want to finish the player components as soon as possible so we won't have too many character resets with new updates.
This Update will reset all characters. That's because of major changes to these systems that won't be compatible with the old characters. There will be a few resets when I extend/change the character components like the skills, attributes, and similar parts of the game. Adding new stuff won't be a problem when the core components are finished.
This update also has the new gender setting which the old classes didn't have. That's another reason.
I won't give any gold or items back to anyone in this update since there have been sooo many changes to the items themselves, the prices, crafting, etc.
In future updates, when a character reset happens, you will be able to sell your items before an update and get the gold back after the update, if you want that. You won't have to.

That's all for now. If you have any questions feel free to ask all of them!
I will post the whole changelog when I upload the new update.
Thank you for reading all of this, thanks for being part of this project, thanks for all the support so far, you are awesome!
Thank you :)

First of all, I want to thank every one of you for checking out the game. We reached 500 registrations today which makes me really happy :)

And also thanks for all the useful feedback and comments! I didn't have too much time for this update, but I fixed almost all the bugs we found and added some small things :D
The next update will have more new content, too.

Changes:

+ NA (DALLAS) SERVER (thanks to Nekron for sponsoring the upgrade!)

Visuals and Performance:

-Reduced amount of trees
-Graphics settings fixed
-Map size reduced, added a barrier
-Reduced poly-counts of some models

Gameplay:

-First quest gives you both sword and staff now
-Fixed „Loot All“
-Fixed the „mob-number bug“
-Player collider changed for easier clicking and targeting of NPCs and mobs.
-Harvesting works now → Buy the books and tools from the old miner.
Learn them when you reach level 2 and collect metal and wood from the nodes.

-Added a recipe book (pressing C will open and close both the recipe book and crafting window)
-Added craftable shield and sword.
-Added BGM for tavern and menu.
-Added a safe zone to the tavern.

-Some skills, weapons, and mobs have been nerved or buffed (balancing)
-Fireball disallows movement now but has a shorter cast time


Other changes:

-Sound settings have been fixed and divided between SFX and BGM
-LOD bias and distances of some trees have been changed
-Server tick is now 30 instead of 20
-Server has been upgraded a bit

On this Sunday, 04.04.2021 I will shut the server down and upload the 0.0.12a update. This might take a few hours.

If everything goes right there will be a second server to play on, hosted in Dallas.

I will also upgrade the current server in Germany for a little better performance and lower ping.

I will post a complete changelog once the update goes live.