Thank you to all of you who are supporting us! 

Your direct support is the reason we are able to continue working on Verdict, and hopefully be able to continue working on it and other projects in the future, while providing support for all VerdictGames.

A special thank you, to those who have supported our Patreon, or made direct donations, or purchased a copy of one of our games. 

Thank you for supporting us, and thank you for supporting Indie games!

We're proud to announce the new 2.0 update to ABSENCE: Verdict of Silence - "Of Souls and Sand"

This update serves as an almost complete overhaul of many aspects of the game, with a large focus on improving the play experience and stability of the game, as well as loading it up with new content that new and existing players will both enjoy!

Primarily, we wanted to address a number of issues with the game, with a large variety of bugs being fixed, content being brought up to scratch and balance changes being made across the board.

In addition to this we've added a wide variety of new content, spruced up much of the existing content and given the game an overall new shine that should make it more engaging to play, and provide players with more long-term enjoyment of ABSENCE: Verdict of Silence.

If you would prefer to read the patch notes, they are located near the bottom of this post.

New Companion! 

To go along with the new items and balance changes, we've added a long awaited companion to the game, who had been briefly mentioned before but unfortunately did not make the cut before version 1.0:

Fisket is a wild, passionate Raskitt woman with a deadly kit of tricks and schemes that she can use to debilitate enemies and turn even the most hopeless battle to your favor. 

Though small, she is particularly feisty, and has a fully integrated dialogue with almost all previous interactions - adding new context and content to all previously thought to be explored adventures.

Fisket primarily prefers to use ranged weapons and small arms, such as daggers, whips and knives, which makes her excellent at any range on the battlefield, and capable of taking on the smallest Skrack, or the largest Kar'pei!

Players wishing to recruit Fisket to their party can find her at the Borderlands, recovering after a long trek in the Gantinmi Desert.

The Soul Key System

The "Soul Key" system is our newest (and possibly most complex) feature added to ABSENCE: Verdict of Silence!

Utilizing this system, players can now synchronize their game progress with a verdictgames.com account, allowing them to upload their achievements and progress to be stored on our servers, which will be used to unlock bonus content, items and other goodies in our future games (such as the new, upcoming Verdict of Silence!)

All a player needs to do is login with their verdictgames.com account through the game's settings menu, and then use the "Synchronize Data" button to upload their progress, which will then be stored for you to obtain future goodies and gifts in our other games!

Please do note that no personal information is stored, or gathered through this system, only data about your game save and progress.

Currently, the Soul Key system in ABSENCE: Verdict of Silence tracks your game progress, character achievements and other hidden achievements, so be sure to scour every corner of Asalthana!

Players that enable the system, and synchronize their data for the first time in ABSENCE: Verdict of Silence will receive a bonus animal companion, as well as access to a secret vendor in Vasalthein!

These bonus items are obtainable from the crate that will arrive outside your camp after synchronizing.

Game Balance Overhaul

Something that we felt was long overdue was an examination of the game's balance with a fine-tooth comb, as there were many systems, pieces of equipment, characters and features that didn't necessarily mesh well with each other, or became eclipsed by later content.

Much of the content added at the start of ABSENCE: Verdict of Silence's development was designed with a larger and longer experience in mind, and then ended up being haphazardly mixed in with the other bits and pieces when the scope of the game was compacted (as explained in our 1.0 post, here), which ended up creating a lot of strange imbalances in many aspects of gameplay.

The first and foremost change we have made is limiting the player's maximum level to 20, as well as rebalancing the player's experience curve to match this new change. 

What this should mean for the player, is at the end of a play session - if the player has purely done the main story - then they should be about level 15 - 18 by the time they reach the final quest, but may easily be level 20 if they complete a large portion of the side content.

We felt this was important to the player experience, as the previous level cap was set to 100 - which created a number of issues for players who spent a lot of time exploring the world and doing side content - namely out-levelling a lot of the world and ending up with a long period of no new abilities, skill points, gear, or weapons.

With these changes, every player should have a more uniform and gradually progressed experience that won't feel overly halted, or haphazard anymore.

After this experience rebalance, the hope is that the process of levelling during your journey will feel much more rewarding - with periodic unlocking of content like skills, talents, gear and abilities.

To further improve the experience of growing your character, we have added a whole host of new items, weapons, armor and consumables that have been distributed among the loot table of the game's chests and creatures.

Most of these new pieces of equipment and items are primarily targeted at the mid to early range of characters, as this was a category of gear that was severely lacking.

A pretty common result we saw from player feedback was that characters would often end up with wildly varying levels of power due to their own scaling, as well as a very uneven distribution of loot and item power.

Because of this, we have made an effort to rebalance the game's drop tables to even this imbalance out, by making certain unique and powerful items more rare, and adding a variety of newly created mid to low level gear in to bulk it out.

The end result of the loot and item rebalancing should mean that the player will receive more mid to low level items, allowing them to fill out a party's gear slots more evenly, and higher level, unique items will be more rare and coveted (many having had their power increased to match this rarity.)

While we had the nerf-bat out, we've also taken a look at data from all other parts of the game, with many creatures, abilities, consumables and other content having been either nerfed or buffed to make a smoother experience for the player.

One of the biggest problems that was present for many players was the often random seeming distribution of power among enemies, with many being able to sucker-punch the player with huge amounts of unexpected damage for seemingly no reason.

This issue has been addressed in a variety of ways, primarily being that many of the monsters in the game have had their stat values and stat scaling evened out to match their peers, and many of them have had a variety of new, rebalanced moves added.

Though this should even out some of the more unexpected damage spikes, we do warn players who use normal difficulty or above to be prepared for a (much more fair) challenge, still.

While this doesn't nearly cover every balance change we've made, the hope is that the player's experience will be much more enjoyable and and that they will encounter less frustrating roadblocks along their journey.

Map Changes and Updates

Asalthana is a vast world, and in ABSENCE: Verdict of Silence the player sees such a small chunk of this world.

In many cases, we felt this could create a rather claustrophobic experience and a feeling of trekking backwards and forwards through the same areas over and over again.

To alleviate this feeling, we've both added and expanded a number of locales, drawing from the future open world vision we have for Asalthana. We hope players enjoy the added breathing space, with more to discover, explore and adventure in.

The first of these changes is a revision to the Gantinmi Desert.

Gantinmi was severely underloved - being mostly locked off cut content for the majority of ABSENCE: Verdict of Silence's lifetime due to it being a feature of later parts of the story, however we wanted it to be established as part of the story early on as well, so that players are familiar with the locale, the culture and it's people.

Firstly, when a player arrives in the Gantinmi Desert, they now land in a small border village that offers protection and solace to anyone wishing to steel themselves for the trek ahead in the desert. 

This village also has a small shop and trading venue that can stock the player up on Raskitt themed offerings, such as equipment and potions, which will help them survive in the harsh dunes of Gantinmi.

The desert itself has had a number of changes as well, including a new dungeon, The Gantinmi Sewers, that provides players with a variety of unique enemies, items to obtain, and secrets to explore - as well as touch ups to many of the existing locations there to add more content and polish.

Next up is a large expansion to Denskroll, including two new areas: The Denskroll Thickets and Glitterweald.

Denskroll Forest was underutilized in previous versions of the game, with very little content there besides part of the main quest line, a secret quest series, and (just recently in the 1.0 update) the Maison du Oufrei dungeon.

We have decided to give Denskroll a little love - by expanding it with two new subzones and a variety of new creatures, content and more that should make it a desirable location for mid to high level players to explore.

Denskroll Thickets is a new, twisting path through the depths of Denskroll that is fraught with danger, and treasures to match. Many an adventurer has been lost in these almost impassable, twisting mazes that connect to one another like a Shabbat's warren.

Players who manage to successfully navigate through the Thickets, will reach a small Dryad village where they can find food, rest and a variety of colorful characters to interact with - though understanding them may be hard.

Just beyond this small village lies the town of Glitterweald, hidden away amongst the trees and ran almost entirely by Dryads - it holds many mysterious secrets, as well as being a grand tourist destination for those who have more exotic tastes.

Along with the changes to Gantinmi and Denskroll, there is two new minor areas accessible from Felodrift, each with their own story and content.

The first, The Grimmstench Swamp, is a poisonous swamp that runs through the lower part of Felodrift forest, covered with pools of weeping, sticky sludge that saps the life of anyone reckless enough to wander through it.

Grimmstench Swap is home to naught but irate, corrupted plants and creatures that will provide players with additional challenges and loot compared to their more common brethren.

Rumors tell that deep at the heart of Grimmstench is a witch of the woods, who is known to trade ancient magicks for bits and bobs.

Next, is the Pelstat Village - an idyllic hamlet that lies near the border of Felodrift and Camlen, once a popular destination for travelling merchants and adventurers needing a rest, it now lies locked up and patrolled by the Kingsguard due to an outbreak of a mysterious plague.

Players visiting Pelstat will be able to assist the Kingsguard in figuring out the cause of this plague, and clearing out infected dangers.

To compliment these new areas, many existing maps have had minor updates, filling out missing parts, adding more details and adding additional dialogue, portraits and more.

Token Redemption System

For a lot of the content in the game, after the primary quests were completed, secrets found and all other tidbits rounded up, it felt like there was not a lot of a reason to return to those areas (or spend any extra time enjoying them!)

This was a problem with the design because it could lead to the player feeling like they're wasting time when visiting these areas, especially if they are conjoining zones that the player needs to travel through to get somewhere.

To solve this issue, we've create a new system, called the "Token Redemption" system that will hopefully make it feel like less of a slog, and more rewarding, when a player chooses to visit these zones.

The Token Redemption system stems from an original idea we had for alternative currencies - primarily Bodal's Shop - which allowed the user to trade junk items for tokens, which could be redeemed for unique items and gear.

We have taken the system that was used for Bodal's Shop, and extended it to a variety of new vendors found across Asalthana - each one with a unique token item that can be found around the world (usually close to the vicinity of the vendor).

Each of these vendors offers a set of new, unique items, weapons, armor and more that are thematic to the vendor - and the zone they are found in.

This system, along with the changes made to balance and loot distribution, should make a very positive change to the long term experience of players, and the replayability of the game.

Patch Notes

Alongside these major changes, a number of minor tweaks, balances and edits have been made, all with the aim of providing a deeper, more rich experience for both new players, and existing players alike.

For those interested, here is the full list of patch notes:

Added Content

• The Soul Key system has been added, allowing players to transfer save data for bonus content in upcoming games.
• Fisket has been added as a new party member.
• Several new variations of guards have been placed around the world, including Raskitt and Human.
• Companions have had interaction dialogue for Fisket added.
• Added over 100 new items, consumables, weapons and equipment.
• Added a new weapon category: Whips
• Added a new weapon category: Scythes
• Added a new consumable category: Scrolls
• Added a new consumable category: Vials
• Many NPCs now have new portraits and conversation backgrounds.
• Many combat encounters now have new enemies added to them.
• Added a variety of new combat encounters to existing areas
• Added 20 new enemy types.
• The Travalence system has been completely reworked, with many new locations
• Added a new area: Faskrinn Sewers
• Added a new area: Pelstat Village
• Added a new area: Grimmstench Swamp
• Added a new area: Denskroll Thickets
• Added a new area: Glitterweald
• Added a new ability to Laurel: Caulk'it
• Added a token redemption store in Glitterweald
• Added a token redemption store in Pelstat
• Added a token redemption store in Gantinmi

Improvements

• Players are now warned before difficult fights, allowing them to prepare if necessary
• Almost every loot table in the game has been rebalanced.
• Raskitt Guards now have a unique sprite
• Cerrie now has a unique portrait
• Party members now gain increased experience upon joining.
• Added a quick exit to the Temple Catacombs for players wishing to return at a later date.
• Mama Merkle now has a unique portrait
• The Desert Fanatic faction has been expanded with new monsters, locations and more.
• New Dialogue has been added to many flavor and side conversations.
• The majority of side-quests have had new dialogue added, and much of their dialogue reworked.
• Many shops have had their stocks adjusted, and new items added.
• Vasalthein Castle Courtyard has been expanded.
• Vasalthein Academy has been expanded.
• Maison du Oufrei has been expanded.
• Baylie, the magic shop owner, now has a unique portrait.
• Kurt, the weapon shop owner, now has a unique portrait.
• Alan, the blacksmith, now has a unique portrait.
• Many of the side characters in Gantinmi Borderlands and Vasalthein now have unique portraits.
• Many of the conversations in Vasalthein Markets have had their missing conversation backgrounds added.
• Marcie, the chef, now has a unique portrait.
• The Travalence Witch outside Vasalthein has been moved to outside the inn.
• Players now arrive in a small town when they travel to Gantinmi

Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused the cat in Vasalthein Market to talk to itself.
• Fixed a Bandit during the camp entrance cutscene using the wrong portrait.
• Fixed a bug that caused the conversation to get stuck during Canse's recruitment.
• Fixed some incorrect grammar in the introductory cutscenes.
• Fixed the descriptions on a variety of items being truncated incorrectly.
• Fixed a variety of grammatical issues in item descriptions.
• Fixed a bug that would allow actors to attack while silenced.
• Fixed a bug that caused Plenkyt to be confused about where he came from.
• Fixed a number of conversations in the Vasalthein Market that had bad formatting.
• Fixed a bug that allowed the cat in Vasalthein Market to transform into an entirely separate cat.
• Fixed a bug that caused the game to crash upon viewing certain entries in the encyclopedia.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Guard Tower's map name to not display.
• Fixed a bug in item value calculations that would sometimes cause them to cost negative amounts.
• Fixed a bug that excluded certain items from loot tables when they should not be excluded.
• Fixed a number of grammatical errors with Surprise-o-bags.
• Fixed an issue that caused players to get stuck inside herb bushes.
• Fixed a number of tileset issues that allowed players to climb walls in situations they were not intended to.
• Fixed the incorrect portraits on the Vasalthein Alley bandits.
• Fixed a number of incorrectly layered triggers in the Maison which prevent extra keys being obtained.
• Fixed a number of missing inspect icons in the Maison.
• Fixed a bug that would cause certain party members to not want to talk about Canse.

Balancing

• Almost every item has had it's value and loot chance adjusted to make average items more plentiful, and unique/magical items more rare.
• Unleash skills have had their power increased to better bring them in line with late game spells.
• Basanir's Solstice now restores 45% health and mana on revival.
• The boss fight with Cultist Domina and their Acolytes has been adjusted, slightly decreasing their power overall.
• The power values, scaling and mana cost of many magical abilities has been smoothed out to lessen their exponential growth.
• Many abilities such as Power Attack, Pincushion and Verdict of Flame have had their power increased, to make them more viable.
• The Bandit Ambush boss fight has been adjusted slightly, with Steif now healing the player for more, and the guards dealing more damage.
• Many weapons and armor pieces have had their stats adjusted to better fit in with the new progression.
• Many weapons and armor pieces that were underused or plain useless have been given buffs.
• The auto-optimize values for the entire party have been adjusted to prevent Bastion being a gear hog, and to better distribute gear equally.
• The exponential power curve on some ability upgrades has been lowered by a significant amount.
• Many ability stat curves have been adjusted to prevent a player ending up with unusable abilities (or excessively powerful abilities).
• Many of the loot tables in the game now include a variety of new items to provide a more even distribution of loot.
• The Max Level has been reduced to level 20, and all experience values adjusted to match, so as to provide the player with a smoother levelling process.

In addition to this update - we've posted a long-form blog post about the current progress of the new version of Verdict of Silence, which you can read here.

You can keep up to date with information about ABSENCE: Verdict of Silence, Verdict: The MMORPG and Verdict of Silence at the links below:

VerdictGames Website

VerdictGames Forums

VerdictGames Discord

We would like to thank those that have supported us on this journey, and those that continue to support us.

We hope that our new and current projects will continue to bring excitement and joy to our fans.

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