Emerald is a birthstone of a May, and this is the monthly of the dev and the game state, yeah I need a better headline.
Still a wall of text, sorry for not being graphical nor provide the popular roadmap. (I rarely promise, so no roadmap from me, but I showed so here is the state)
Chatty Chi-Chat
Hi everyone. Things are going slow during April due to a lot of things, I have a burned out effect for weeks, from not getting a rest and a game reception, also an undesirable seasonal working environment with a 35-40+ Celsius room temperature and a lot of everyday distraction and an external pressure are not cool to work with at all.
So, first... the next patch (0.94.0) has been postponed and will come on the later but a beta version will come soon if things go as planned because I decided to go All-In, adding things more than the scope for this patch.
Secondly, I'll also do a bit of marketing by posting on Reddit and ask around the gaming website and hopefully, it will knock that single digit player count up and more exposure. And yeah, hopefully going Free to play is the right choice of the game career.
But I can show you the major thing will come on the next patch.
More Enemy Variation
The enemy elemental model has been tripled (boss included) mixing across the multiple mutated species to improve the game visually.
New Boss Mechanic
The new patch will change the boss mechanic as well as new 8 boss type (9 in total) Boss have been weakened but will spawn in a group of multiple boss type and supporting each other. This suit the horde-style gameplay better than a single boss with no additional mechanic. The big boss fight, however, will be kept for a later and specified mechanical.
Game Variety and Map Visual
Barrier now has its shape and color randomize, instead of fixed by difficulty.
This patch also addressed map visual. At first, I didn't add structure because I don't like static object much and lore issue, hence no broken ancient wall, house, random broken thing but instead a new Shrine Mechanic that gives more interaction and the Anomaly Mechanic is the background stuff both will improve the map beautifulness, gameplay, and some background lore.
Shrine
These ancient shrines aren't for show and can be interacted. For example, Wayshrine is like a bigger Travel Stone and gives more benefits to everyone on activated. A Recombine Shrine and allow you to reroll unwanted loot to a new one which required a small sum of the shard to powered.
There will be 6 shrine type this patch.
Anomaly
Anomaly is the natural occurred thing that will improve the game visually, and again, they aren't just for show and will affect the gameplay by being an Aura of the sort on the area it appeared. Anomalies are region specified and will not available on other regions, some are global, however.
There will be 2 global and 2 regions specified each.
Weather and Environment
Unfortunately, the weather (Rain and others) are not coming with this patch, I haven't decided if it is time-based or area assigned, gameplay effect (like the Clear Sun and Clear Night bonus).
Overall Game Balance
Overall the game difficulty should be harder but slightly easier on low Enemy Power.
Enemy Power now affects bonus Loot Rate and Spawn Rate but have a slightly reduced stats scaling on the low enemy power.
Spell Balance
The spell now uses less AP across the board and should be complete with Art ability.
Network
I haven't tried or change to the new Steam Networking yet and will see if I should change it or use the current one and try to see if I can find a way not to crash randomly when using Steam Relay server.
QoL and Other Things
A Character and Equipment Stats, Team Preset and Vault Withdraw Loadouts as requested this patch. A better enemy name and icon and a better Mouse hover over the item and interactable text hint.
Item will automatically move to Stash when lose to reduce some confusion.
Melee hit animation now recoil backward a bit instead of a full stop. (Punching still look funny and may need to change)
Codex has been removed and will be Patch Notes instead. (I figured to better use time to make the game than to write things first)
Beta, Trailer and Game Description
There will be a Beta Testing before the game is updated to see if there will be bug, crash or some change, I'll post an announcement once it is available.
The trailer will need to be remade to reflect the new patch and will need some change on game description for a better explanation and a buzz word that reflect overall gameplay better rather than an "Action-RPG Hard Game". (Opening to suggestion)
With that said, I currently finishing on the Shrine then will start working on Anomaly and I'll release the Beta after that while working on the marketing material.
That's all for today, and thank you for reading and your support, if you have a question please ask away.
