I wanted to give an overview of what's planned for the game world and how we plan to change things moving forward into the full launch.
What you've been testing so far has been a proof of concept, basically systems in place for a much bigger world that we have planned.
I'm happy to say that most systems are functioning well, and from the survey it seems like most of you enjoy it at least somewhat, which is awesome! But we're not where we want to be yet when it comes to the game world, so below you can read about what we've got planned and some changes we're making to slow down and drag out content longer (in a good way).
This will also make it clear why we are doing a full character reset on launch, as most systems will change!
Progression Speed
We are making changes to the progression system across the board for a couple of reasons:
- It's been mentioned by the community multiple times that early-game feels too fast
- It will give us more time to put out content before it's been "consumed", allowing us to create more and better content
- Rewards and progression will feel more rewarding
We are not doing this only by lowering numbers in our formulas. We are also doing it through adding more skills, adding crafting timers, gold sinks and more.
Guilds
The first version of our Guild system will hopefully be out by the end of this week if everything goes as planned. For now, there will most likely be 5 placeholder Guilds where one of them is interactive as a demo.
If you didn't read about the Guild system, you can read more about it in our Discord server, but essentially it is a way to give your character an identity based on what habits you're doing.
Habits/Todos -> Skills
Recently, we decoupled habits from being connected to a skill. This was a great decision for the game world, as the main problem was that we had to build skills around habit categories which limited what we could do.
But, I've listened to the community and what you've been asking for, and we are going to reintroduce connecting a habit to a skill. This will basically make the XP go to the skill of your choice rather than to the XP Lamp, so now you can train multiple skills based on what habits you have.
This will be optional though, as the main effect habits will have on your character will still be the Guild system.
Combat, Training & Monsters
When it comes to combat, we will be using the Combat Triangle which consists of Melee, Ranged & Mage.
You will not be locked to just one of them, there is no class selection. All combat styles will play a role in our world. Some monsters might be weaker to Mage, some might be killable from a distance with Ranged, and some might have light armour that swords pierce through easily.
We are also changing the way you practice your combat skills. Instead of just sending your character away on an adventure mindlessly, there will soon be a new UI for slaying different types of monsters.
Monsters scale, and as your account grows stronger, you will be able to defeat harder monsters.
This will act as a gateway to dungeons. We want dungeons to be the "goal" you're working towards, so you no longer need to send your character into a dungeon and just die in there.
Monsters will also drop items and have their place in the world, with big uses in skills like Alchemy, Crafting, Intelligence and more.
Dungeons
Dungeons are a key part of the app, it's where your character will be unlocking the coolest and best-in-slot gear as you progress.
The current system is subject to changes, and I'd love to hear your feedback on how dungeons feel right now, especially when it comes to loot and consuming food & potions.
Crafting
Crafting is getting some changes coming into launch.
First, crafting will no longer be completely instant but rather have a short duration per item made. Right now, if you had 1000 iron ingots, you could make 200 platebodies in an instant. We are changing that so it will create one every few seconds instead, just to make it a bit slower and more meaningful.
A new crafting skill will also be implemented to support the upcoming Magic & Ranged skills, as well as adding the ability to craft jewelry from gems.
And finally, to make sure that crafting items is not just for generating gold and seeing a number go up, there will be a chance to randomly boost certain stats on a crafted item. For example, a Platebody that was crafted could have the chance to be better than one that was bought or looted from a dungeon or monster.
Economy
Right now, the flow of gold is too high for early game and there is nothing to spend it on. That is going to change.
Gold rewards will be lowered in the early game and more ways to spend your gold will be added to make sure we have some basic gold sinks moving into launch.
Some things that are planned:
- More tools for resource gathering (e.g Iron Axe for Woodcutting)
- Dungeon Keys (some dungeons might require a key to enter)
- More seeds
- Character Titles
These are just the ones we're looking at for launch. In the future, as the world grows, so do the gold sinks. For example, a long-term goal we have is a way of constructing your own house which will cost a lot of coins!
Resource Gathering
Resource gathering is getting some changes to introduce new items into the game:
- Woodcutting will have a chance to drop Bird Nests which can include seeds
- Mining will have a chance to drop Gems which will be used in crafting for jewelry
Woodcutting will also have a more important role soon as you will be able to craft bows and other equipment from wood.
We are also adding more fishing spots to balance out the progression between food sources. We also have an idea to add a Cooking skill as a second layer to fishing, where you have to cook your food before it can be consumed. This could introduce more types of foods where stews and such could give better effects.
Farming
Farming was recently changed from a passive skill to an interactive skill, which is a decision I personally like because it opens up possibilities for more progression.
However, it was kind of left on its own after that change. I have plans to introduce more seeds, longer-growing crops that give more XP, more herbs and to extend the Alchemy skill even further.
Quests
More quests are going to be introduced. Right now, the current quests are baseline and their function is to guide you into the different game aspects of the app.
Soon there will be quests that have requirements to start and which will unlock more content in the app, like new dungeons, new fishing methods, new crafting recipes and more.
UI & UX Across the board
I'm also going to do a full run-through of the UI & UX for the game features to make sure things are easy to use for all users:
- Improving the Item Details Menu (UX, item sources, etc.)
- Inventory (better organizing)
- Shops (more items & better support for selling items)
