The producer’s letter this month opened with mention of the “Road to Alpha” feature list which was released in March and provided some much desired updates towards building that road.
We learned of some additional hires into the studio which fills out some much needed talent to bring the world to life.
.. we bolstered our team with the design talents and production experience of Adam “Tehom” Mostel. His design chops are being invested into the Perception system, Dispositions/Traits and encounter design, as well as being a keen sounding board on many additional aspects of gameplay. In addition, Adam’s strong background in project management has provided us not only a stellar game designer, but a Production Assistant as well..
A new Environment Artist and public facing marketing positions are also being filled.
The game is coming along nicely with a particularly cool game mechanic, NPC Combat Awareness which will add some very cool depth to NPC encounters (and checks off an Alpha Roadmap item)!
..what I want to emphasize is this: this is not scripted NPC combat. Scripts can be very complex and interesting, but they are put together in specific ways to create a specific experience and sequence of events – every time. Our Combat Awareness system is not scripted. Instead, NPCs are given options based on layers of criteria which they may act on or may not.
Class development is progressing with a focus on the Monk, Ranger and Summoner. The monk will be getting the first dose of coverage in upcoming dev streams and web content. (The monk will be a playable class for the next Pre-Alpha session! Something I personally am quite interested in). Some very juicy upcoming roadmap items and game development was mentioned as well!
And as a reminder, once we finish with the Ranger, Summoner and the pet system (which also opens the door for Charm – Enchanters rejoice!), our next step in the Alpha Roadmap is to integrate our new networking stack and bring our terrain streaming system online. Once networking and terrain streaming are in place, you will begin to see us transition the Kingsreach zones out of greyboxing, which will be glorious indeed.
Class highlights list various improvements to the existing pre-alpha classes (as well as adding the monk). Programing highlights list out a couple of NPC updated as well as environmental tools and network improvements. Animation highlights include new monk combat animations and the Art department has been busy at work with new NPC models including: Skeletons, Lycandrels, Spiders and Wraiths. as well as a new world building focus on a zone called Wild’s End.
Lastly the pre-alpha testing will be focusing on the new NPC Combat Awareness system and the newly playable class, the Monk. I anticipate that monks will be flooding the hills, valleys and depths of the dungeons in the next Pre-alpha and I can’t wait to see how it goes!
Definitely head over to the official site to get all of the details from the most recent Producer’s letter! It’s well worth a read to get all of the tantalizing details of this highly anticipated game!