Grote verandering in aantocht.
Milestone 62 Dev Notes
@Pre Alpha Access I wanted to update everyone on what to expect from MS 62. Next week, we will be rolling out a dev branch for this update which will contain a lot of large and disruptive technical and gameplay systems changes. If there is one take away from this post, its that MS 62 will be a noticeable step back in terms of overall fun and experience due to these changes. The purpose of this build, dev branch, and potential test is to find all the issues from these large changes and fix them so we can start taking steps forward again in MS 63 and beyond. To make an analogy, MS 62 is open heart surgery on the game while MS 63 is recovering from that.
Many of these gameplay system changes are towards the goals of:
- Integrating all types of players into the core gameplay and helping players work together more cohesively
- Moving away from Homesteads as a requirement for all players
- Moving away from Homesteads as "clan bases" and more towards specialized logistics areas that can be private or shared
- Supporting the new and more fully realized Avatar system
I will highlight some of these changes here:
New Avatar System
Avatars will no longer be item-like resources stored inside inventories, but will be individually tracked entities in the world. Each avatar will be a representation of a character in the persistent world that can be controlled by a player. Players can change to another one in the world at any time, regardless of where the player or target Avatar is. Avatars can have different access levels, which define who can take control of them: Personal, Family, Public.
Avatars can be stored or stationed at major locations like Towns, Fortresses, Homesteads, and Camps. They can also be transported around via a Caravan (and other vehicles in the future). Avatars cannot fast travel and as a result, the positioning and movement of Avatars across the world is a logistical effort that must be considered by players. This is akin to mustering armies and moving them around strategically in a war.
Avatars are divided into two major types: Auxiliaries and Named Avatars. Auxiliary Avatars are generic "faceless" characters that act as auxiliary personnel in the conflict. Auxiliary Avatars have fixed attributes that cannot change. Named Avatars have variable attributes that can be improved and also have a unique names. While Named Avatar attributes can be improved, each Avatar is uniquely strong in some attributes and weak in others. Named Avatars also have persistent equipment and inventories, which are stored together with an Avatar when they are stationed. Auxiliary Avatars are always public while Named Avatars can are owned by players or families.
The capability of an Avatar is significantly impacted by their health and hunger, which must be managed and maintained in the persistent world. Avatars can starve to death without sufficient food supply. They can also become wounded and will perform sub-optimally in combat if they aren't healthy. Avatars can recover from being wounded and restore health by being stationed at a Town, Fortress, or Homestead and resting in real time.
There are a lot of details about the new Avatar system that aren't covered here, but they will be revealed in the upcoming dev branch, test, and subsequent milestones. In MS 62, the system will be highly work in progress (expect many bugs) and some of the above features won't be implemented yet. MS 63 will add new content and gameplay to support the progression of Avatars.
Towns & Homestead Specialization
Town layouts will be player built again. Homesteads (with smaller areas) can also be built in Towns again. Both of these will work similar to how they did in the pre-alpha tests before Steam Next fest.
Homesteads will no longer be general purpose in every location. Some Homesteads will be more effective near Towns. Smithing & Cooking will require a new resource that are only available in Towns and are difficult to transport. So if you are building a Homestead for Smithing or Cooking its only viable to do so in or very near a Town. As a forewarning, this will be a big change that will cause a lot of friction for those used to how general purpose Homesteads are now. It will be a jarring change but consider it a test and stepping stone towards figuring out the optimal solution for this design goal.
Family System Changes
Families will no longer be tied to a single Homestead and can now be made independently. Families can claim Homesteads, Fortress Keeps, and vehicles. Players can also define a name for their Family when they create it, adding further customization to the system.
Note: We are working hard to get this feature into MS 62, but there is a chance it may be delayed to 63.
Family & Personal Inventories
Besides the public inventory at Fortress Keeps and Camps, there will now be a Family Inventory and a Personal Inventory that can be rented for Silver. These will replace the Storehouse and Public Lodgings that were previously in Towns. These inventories can also store vehicles now including Horses.
This will allow larger groups to use Fortress Keeps as secure areas for organizing and storing resources and Camps to stage equipment for raids or sieges. At the same time, solos or smaller groups can join these larger groups by stashing their own Avatars, resources, and equipment at these same areas.
Inventory Interface Changes
As mentioned in our last devblog, drag and drop has been implemented for inventories. Support for transferring a custom amount from a stack has been added as well. While these changes sound positive on paper, they will take some to get used to for existing players and there are definitely usability issues to iron out over the next few milestones.
Unreal 5.6 Engine Upgrade
While this isn't a direct user facing change, it should be noted that there are some massive underlying technical changes to the engine the client is running on due to the upgrade to Unreal Engine 5.6. This will result in many new bugs that we must hunt down and fix in the upcoming builds.
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ik zit bij de test blijkbaar van dit weekend. Heb hem ineens in me steam lijst staan. :strip_exif()/f/image/LjsqD0UUalCNFidMjbo1tRZ2.png?f=user_large)