Hi everybody,
It’s been a while since we put out our last letter and people have been chomping at the bit to hear more about our plans for the future.
I apologize if people feel the communication around issues with the game has been lacking; we are focused on improving this. With a percentage of the team having their well earned (and state mandated) vacations, customer service and the community team have not always had access to developers who can answer their every question.
We’ve been playing whack-a-mole with bugs, cheats and exploits during the July month of summer. We’ve banned thousands of cheaters, fixed a bunch of duplication and exploit bugs and continued working on the stability of the game. We’ve been working to achieve a cadence of patches that allows us time to make stable and consistent fixes, while being fast enough to address issues like exploits before they get too far out of control.
Live Game development is a blend of reactivity and long term planning.
This week, at Gamescom, we are going to be talking about the Chapter 2 Free Update and The Lost Harvest DLC, our first major additions to the game, which will be releasing in parallel. Some of you will note that while Chapter 2 and the DLC add new content and cosmetics to the game, they are not focused on the endgame. This is because Chapter 2 and the DLC were planned and began development before launch.
Take a look at our Roadmap below. You can see both the free updates and paid DLCs planned for the near future, and our monthly development cycle as it pertains to player feedback, bugs, and cheats. This monthly cadence is not necessarily always achieved, but it serves to give a window into our approach.
We will share more about the major content and features coming in Chapter 2 and the DLC soon, but in terms of quality of life improvements, we’re adding the ability to rename vehicles, storage containers, and other placeables; more reliable ornithopter rockets for combat enthusiasts; and the highly requested option to swap seats in a vehicle with a hotkey. All of these features will be available for testing on the Public Test Client soon!
So let’s talk about the endgame. During summer we’ve made changes and tweaks to the formula of the Deep Desert – with varying degrees of success. We have attracted very different demographics to the game and they are asking for very different things.
We’ve identified several core issues; loss of items/vehicles, players feeling that they are forced into PvP, exploits and cheats, and lack of endgame content/grind.
There are things that we can do in the short term to address some of these, and things that will take us longer to improve.
Short-term, we will be making changes that are heavily requested by players. Here are some that are coming quickly:
Improved Player Logging – One of the key frustrations we see is the lack of information and clarity around why certain items/objects/vehicles are gone. We will increase the information in your logs so that you have a better idea of what is going on. For example, listing the names of people who take things from chests in your base.
Vehicle Salvaging System – We’re working on a vehicle salvaging system that will allow you to recover lost vehicles.
Cobalt Paste/Vehicle Inventory – We’re adjusting the volume of the infamous cobalt paste and adding more slots to the Assault Ornithopter vehicle inventory. We will be adding a cargo container that can be carried by the Carrier Ornithopter.
Instanced Deep Desert Loot – The constant camping and queuing of the Deep Desert Testing Stations leads to a frustrating experience where people arrive at an empty Testing Station. We’re going to change these to be more in line with the rest of the game.
Offline Notifications about important events – We understand that not everybody can or wants to log in to check power/taxes constantly in the game. We would like to create a notification service that sends you the status of your base via email. This one is squarely aimed at you, Ben.
These are in addition to the current slate of UI/UX improvements, continued crackdown on exploiters/cheaters, and stability improvements.
Now let’s talk about longer term planning and what we have in store for the endgame.
As we’ve mentioned previously, the Landsraad is supposed to be the endgame activity driver. Currently it does not have the breadth or depth of content or progression to serve that function. As we work towards Chapter 3, we will begin to tie the faction progression of the game to the Landsraad, while also systematically building out the Landsraad with a greater variety of activities across the world.
As a player this means that you can increase your faction rank by completing Landsraad tasks, checking in with your Duke or Baron occasionally to perform special missions and visit faction vendors.
Landsraad activities will become contract based, rather than delivery based, which will allow us to effectively remove the issue of stockpiling that is currently endemic in the game.
This ensures that people are rewarded for solo play (as well as making contributions easier for them to track) and will give you many choices in how you progress over time.
As for the planned activities, we have plenty in mind in addition to the current testing stations and shipwrecks. The following list contains examples, and not promises, as these will take work and time to deliver. But currently we are thinking of things like: Assassinations, Treasure Maps, Races, Construction Challenges, Duels, Faction vs Faction maps, Improved control points, Scavenger Hunts, Temporary Crafting Challenges etc.
These activities will make use of the Overland Map, spawning in new maps as required. We have always wanted to flesh out the Overland Map over time, and this will boost that along.
Of course, we are open to your suggestions so please share with us on social media the kinds of activities you would like to see in the Landsraad.
As the Landsraad activities become more fleshed out, we will then transition the Deep Desert back towards the original intention – a sandbox area where players can compete for control of the spice. We will continue to iterate on the Deep Desert – adding no-fly zones to enforce ground combat, adding more layouts with more variety and challenge, and ensuring that there is clear progression. In addition, we are experimenting with the tech behind the Deep Desert and if things go well, you will experience the Deep Desert in a much more stable environment.
A lot of this will become our focus in the latter half of 2025. We hope to make significant changes that will satisfy and thrill you. Hopefully you agree when we say that we have a great foundation for the endgame, which we can build on moving forward.
Thank you.