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We’d like to remind you that all the changes on the Beta Branch are experimental and in relatively early states, so it’s entirely possible that there will be significant changes to one aspect or another before the update goes live on public servers. We’re constantly reading your feedback and discussions, and checking statistics on everything that’s going on in the game to potentially balance or even overhaul some of the features.
There’s some exciting things coming in November and beyond, and we can’t wait to share more soon!
To kick things off, we wanted to say Happy Halloween, Nomads! Enjoy this narrative cinematic: Possession. Jakub, our video editor, made this just for fun and as a spooky treat. It is not a teaser related to development.
Some Clarifications
Performance, Lag, and Other Unpleasant Things
To clarify once again why you might experience more stuttering on BB than on public servers - we're using a development version of servers that allows us to test and profile them at any time. Unlike the version that public servers have, this one is much more performance heavy on average, but it means that we can identify and fix issues much easier, which helps with iteration speed and will ultimately bring the Commerce Update to public servers sooner and in a more stable state.
We're currently focusing on many aspects of optimization overall and we're confident that there will be a noticeable difference between the current public version and the one coming with the wipe. After that, we're still planning to continue optimizing over time to make sure the game runs as stable as possible on the majority of hardware.
Clan and Tile Caps
Regarding the clan/tile caps, we're still assessing their impact on the game during BB. We've had an overwhelming amount of requests to add clan caps in the past, and while we weren't convinced on paper that they'll solve all the issues, we decided to try them out, since it's a testing Beta Branch. When it comes to hard tile caps though, while they might have a larger impact on the zerging issue itself, it would likely introduce significant issues to the travel, make queues much more punishing, and in general cause many additional problems. That said, we're still considering different options and collecting more information on how the current solutions actually affect the game, so it's possible there will be some changes coming in the future.
BB and Private Servers
Private servers will be getting the Commerce Update and all other changes from BB as soon as they're available on public servers. Together with those, all private server owners will be able to host multi-tile realms at the same time.
This week: Our Merciful Lord and Savior, pogosan, Blessed be His Name:
We’ve seen a lot of positive feedback so far regarding the changes to the game meta introduced with the Commerce Update, but also quite a few questions about the gameplay intentions behind some of them. While we wanted to give you time to experience all the changes on your own for the first week of the Beta Branch, we’d like to explain some of the ideas behind the two most significant balance overhauls that we didn’t mention in the original Commerce post.
Bases and the Silur
One of the biggest shifts in the meta that occurred due to the Commerce changes must be the gameplay surrounding bases. By making it possible to build a home you feel secure in early on, many decided to invest in a base and store some of their belongings there.
The idea behind making bases a more viable option in a moving world revolved around multiple problems we’ve seen in the game. The main one was such a heavy focus on the edge gameplay, where a large portion of the game happened in the travel zone, as it’s much safer and every player would have banking Walkers there at any time to conveniently use. This resulted in tedious and boring interactions that didn’t require much thought or had any potential consequences. Other issues included most of the oases being always empty and lifeless, as there were no man-made structures around, and, as a side effect, almost every possession in the game was always safe, making exploration rather boring.
With the introduction of the Silur Walker, allowing packing of solid bases and moving them when oases decay, and affordable stone base structures, it is now much more convenient to have at least some form of a base deployed in the oasis. Even though it’s somewhat less secure than banking everything in a lobby, it’s a tradeoff of a little bit of security for convenience of having a place to spawn and store your loot right in the gameplay area. That results in the world being much more diverse and interesting to explore, since each oasis will now have unique bases and structures all around it. Some might be fortified and not worth attacking, some have glaring security issues, allowing to steal some things. In the end, it’s more convenient for everyone who wants to store things closer to where they play and more fun for those who want to try to attack it.
When it comes to balance of solid bases though, we’d like to achieve situations where they’re sieged only when attackers have a good idea that it’s worth the loot inside. If there’s a 2x2 stone box with a firefly nearby, it’s better to leave whoever is inside alone, as it’s likely just some wood and fiber, but if there’s a fortress with Cobra Walkers on alert, it might be a good idea to try to get inside.
Walker Combat and Farming
Another significant change that came with the Commerce Update is making all Walkers less sturdy, allowing to damage them with any kind of a projectile or even the environment itself. While hullbreakers still remain the obvious choice for battles due to their high damage over time, now every shot in a battle counts, which goes both ways.
What this change means is that every Walker engaging in a battle will likely be damaged and, potentially, destroyed. Whether it’s a small Mollusk going about its day farming bone or a large war Falco attacking it for some loot, both will likely end up with damages that need to be repaired and accounted for.
With the meta formed in the previous balance, it was clear that those with more resources will always have the means to pirate Walkers, no matter how much more difficult it is to obtain hullbreakers. While the new balance ideology doesn’t address this specific part, what it does is it puts the pirates at risk as well, no matter how well-defended their Walker is or how much ammo the nomad being attacked has. There will almost always be some losses on the side of the attacker, and the more they attack, the higher the risks.
The changes to the combat timer and the Walker repairs play hand in hand with the Walker balance overhaul as well. Combat timer makes it more dynamic based on how serious the attack is, while the new repair system encourages careful planning before a battle, as you won’t be able to repair your Walker until after a battle is fully completed and you’re able to stand still for repairs.
Since Walkers are essentially more vulnerable now and are likely to be lost more frequently than before, harvesting balance has been changed as well to accommodate rebuilding Walkers more often. While it won’t be noticeable early on, as low tier tools still harvest similar amounts of resources, once you start progressing towards larger Walkers, requiring more structures on deck, and have more items to lose, higher tier tools will provide much larger quantities of resources, allowing you to rebuild quicker and get back to your regular activities.
Remember to join our Discord and submit your questions to the devs through the form in #announcements! Keep the questions coming, but be sure to check out our {LINK REMOVED}Living FAQ before submitting!
Q: Will there be new mechanics added to the combat system?
A: As we've mentioned in the Commerce Update post, we're currently working on a melee shields mechanic, which should provide some more diversity in combat. We're also considering some other features regarding that like new moves for nomads during combat and unique attacks for different weapon types.
Q: Why add the 3 day period where you are unable to join a clan after leaving one alongside adding a 50 man cap?
A: The main reason for this is to prevent switching between clans to avoid soft cap penalties and other potential clan system abuses. That said, we'll likely make this mechanic somewhat less punishing pretty soon.
Q: Are you thinking of adding any color blind settings?
A: Definitely. We'd like to add as many ease of access settings as we can to accommodate all kinds of players in the future.
Q: What sort of content do you have planned for small groups/solo players?
A: To add to what we already have in the Commerce Update, we'd love to make quests and other similar mechanics something that solo players and small groups can excel at more than large clans, essentially fueling the economy together with those large clans, who instead focus on wars and territory control for the most part. In general, we want to separate goals of different types of players to avoid confrontation between them, while encouraging symbiotic gameplay.
Q: Will the Main Branch wipe be a full one? When is that going to happen?
A: Yes, the main public branch will have a full wipe like we've announced before. It will happen once we're happy with all the changes and balance on the Beta Branch that we're doing at the moment. As we've estimated at the start of BB, it will likely take around a month of time in total.
Q: Could you add an option to leave the queue from a full server to return to your previous server?
A: Improvements to the queue system, including leaving the queue, are something we're working on right now and it will be available in BB before the wipe.
Q: Will private servers get multi-tile access before or after the commerce update phase testing?
A: Both the Commerce Update changes and multi-tile realms will be available on private servers as soon as they come to the public servers after the testing period.
Q: Can we get community events or play against devs at some point?
A: We can definitely look into community events in the future! As for playing with the devs, you may have already played with them and not known :eyes:
Q: How about introducing a leaderboard at the trading station? The clans that put the most proxy, burned them, or own a large number of oases?
A: We were mostly considering leaderboards for individual players, as clans are very often dynamic - they split, combine, dissolve, and so on. It even happens that a clan that once started with a group of players will change their roster so much that it'll be a completely different group, so any kind of statistics for a clan could be quite misleading. We'll definitely consider it though, and try to find a good solution.
Source: https://store.steampowered.com…/view/2958262581891238269
