Avowed lets you replace spiders with orbs in the first of its major updates coming this year

Avowed follows the classic RPG rubric for enemy types and is therefore full of spiders. It's also full of bears for some reason, but, trust me, there are lots of spiders. That means anyone who can't stand spiders couldn't play what is a pretty killer RPG.

Thankfully it's becoming more and more common for games to add arachnophobia modes as part of their post-launch support, and Avowed will be no different. With a new patch today, those spiders can be turned into far less hideous floating orbs.

Update 1.4 will be the first of many coming over the course of the year. In a blog post, Obsidian laid out a full roadmap of patches that include cooking and crafting improvements, new NPC abilities, new active and passive abilities, new unique weapons and armor, custom map markers, new game+, photo mode, and more.

The newest patch has a huge list of changes that might not make a whole lot of sense unless you've sunk a ton of hours into the game. If you're like me and were swept away by Monster Hunter Wilds soon after it came out, changes like a setting to show treasure chests on the map or being able to wait while at camp sound like solid quality-of-life improvements to return to. You can read about the rest of the changes on the forums.

Sadly, nothing in the roadmap says Obsidian will resurrect the funny spellcasting tutorial originally intended to be in the game. Region director Berto Riger told PC Gamer back in March that it would've involved a pyromancer accidentally blowing himself up on a cliff—the corpse of whom you find early in the final game. The goofy scene was a bit of a nod to the wood elf who falls from the sky early on in The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. A photo mode and more Godlike character features are a fine trade-off I guess, but if you're reading this, Obsidian, there's still time to put it back in.