The full design preview
Last month, Tulga Games visited GenCon, and got a lot of valuable feedback from folks who dropped by to check out Horizons and play for awhile. We found out what people think about the early game, and it helped give us some indication as to what we need to adjust to make it easier for new players just starting out for the first time.
This month, we will be primarily focusing on getting the Biped Tutorial completely overhauled and smoothly integrated into New Trismus and Lesser Aradoth. That does not mean that we will be setting aside the Confectioner revamp that we have been working on for awhile now. It just means that most of our time will be spent on the Biped Tutorial. Most, but by no means all.
The new Biped Tutorial will be completely overhauled ? new land, new areas, more thorough instructions on how to play the game, and lots more lore (with the opportunity to bypass it if you choose not to read it). More of Ryson Stormbringer's story will be presented, and it will help to form the groundwork for more lore-based story quests later in the game. However, experienced players creating new characters will not be forced to go through very much of the tutorial if they choose not to. We're also discussing some ways in which we can have more experienced players return to the Tutorial Area in order to complete some quests, although, this isn't set in stone yet.
In regards to the Confectioner School, much work has been done with it. This includes changes to the Death Point system and the penalties involved, as well as the manner in which food is eaten, the effectiveness of food and how much time it takes off of existing Death Points. Taverns will also be changed in order to amplify the effectiveness of food in Death Point reduction. Some things still in the 'rough draft' stages of food include food items that can be eaten to reduce the intensity of the Death Penalty, foods that can be eaten 'in the field' and on the go, more 'mystical' foods which will provide buffs and augmentations in similar manners to (but not encroaching upon) potions and possibly spells. Beverages are also in the planning stages.
In addition to new foods and uses being created, many new resources will be created for Confectioner and added to the world as well. Some of these resources will be gathered like normal, while others will only be available as Bonus resources when gathering from different types of Resource nodes. For example, while fishing for Bass, it may be possible to catch an Eel or two as a Bonus resource. Still other resources will only be available for purchase, or be extremely rare and difficult to find. All of these resources will have varying levels of refinement as well. Some, such as carrots for example, may be used in their raw, gathered form for one type of food, but may be processed into diced carrots for another formula. Other resources may even require multiple levels of refinement and combination for certain formulas.
After the completion of the Biped Tutorial and the 'Mundane' Foods for Confectioners, some other things we will be looking at are: a Loot Overhaul and redistribution among monsters and a focus on Invasion level monsters to be used for raids and assaults against the Living Races. This will go hand-in-hand with further improvements and polish for New Trismus and Lesser Aradoth. This will lead us into the Tier 2 overhaul as well. Of course, general bug fixes will continue to be an ongoing process, and is always considered a priority alongside any new content additions or changes.
There are a few general things we will be doing some preliminary work on as well, although these are lower on the priority list than the things I've already mentioned above. Some of these include Ancient Dragon Schools, re-examination of existing Biped schools (and the Primary Skill changes for Bipeds), the revamp and improvement of the Tier 5 and 6 areas.
Moving forward, we will be adjusting these Design Reviews to be less focused on a month-to-month basis, and give players more information regarding the changes and additions that are made from one update to another. This will sometimes be less than a month, and may also sometimes be more than a month between one Design Review and the next. During those longer spells, we will keep the community periodically updated with the progress of what we are working on.
So thats it for right now. Keep your browsers pointed here and in the forums to find out more about what's going on here with Tulga's Design Team, and the new content that we'll be adding. 'Till next time, have fun and enjoy your time in Istaria!
