Hello, Wurmians, and welcome to another Valrei International! I'd like to start off this one by thanking everyone who has reached out to me with congratulations and well wishes. I am very excited to be working with the team and the community in this role, and I have been working on ideas for fun community events and interactions (once I'm all settled in, of course!) This issue is a bit light on the content development side of things, but by the next issue I should have some more news to share with you all!
Ready Your Weapons!
After some public testing, our new combat update is now live! Fighting will be more interactive than ever, with the ability to choose separate offensive and defensive stances and some new visual clues on how the fight is progressing. Some of the bigger visual changes such as floating text and screen shaking are optional, so if they're not your cup of tea that's okay! We will continue tweaking things for a while to get it just right, and plan to reduce randomness in combat. We are also working on making archery more comfortable, and useful on PvE as well as PvP.
Click here to see the patch notes detailing all of the combat changes!
Achievements Unlocked!
Also live with this update is the new achievement system! These will be available both in Steam and in-game. There are 80 achievements to earn, all accompanied by some fancy new icons. They can be found in-game by navigating to the main menu and clicking the new "Goals" button.
Community Event - Easter Impalong
On Deliverance in the Southern Isles, a beautiful deed has been built especially for hosting community events throughout the year. I'm very excited to share the news of its Grand Opening Impalong scheduled for Easter weekend! From April 2nd (Good Friday) 18:00 CET / 12pm EST until Easter Sunday April 4th 22:00 CET / 4pm EST. I'm sure it'll be a hoppin' good time, with lots of eggcellent festivities.
Check out the details here for the Impalong Event!
Our team is growing!
And last but not least, I'd like to announce that we have a new contracted developer on the team! They have been working hard in the code basement but are still getting settled in, and asked for just a brief announcement at this time while they adjust to the new role.
That's it for this issue of the Valrei International. See you in two weeks for the next! Until then, keep on Wurming :)