Greetings, cultivators:
We’re back to welcome August! It's been a month since the last update of the Sunset Inn message board and it's about time to turn the tables, don't you think? Mostly because you'll be eager to know what kind of content is coming to Immortal Life this month.
First of all, we must admit that adjusting the battle system is coming with a great number of difficulties we never imagined. Even though you'll notice huge changes in our current Alpha testing version, there’s still a lot of work to be done to bring it up to the level of other features of the game. In the upcoming months, we'll keep introducing better battle sounds and visual effects, developing an enhanced enemy AI, and planning how to relocate monsters all over the map. In other words, we haven't forgotten our promise! We just need a little more time to create a combat system that feels natural, fun and, of course, full of magic.
Mission updates for July
With all that said, here’s a short summary of the new features, content and gameplay enhancements we worked on last month. They’re now part of Alpha branch to be tested before reaching the main game:
- Overhauling the battle system: 1. There’s no need to draw and sheath the word to activate/finish the combat anymore. 2. Now you can attack or cast a spell while moving, jumping, climbing or collecting items. No need to sheath your sword! 3. WASD keys can be used for moving. 4. From this version of the game, you’ll decide the direction of our normal attacks and spell casts with your mouse. 5. Use Left Click for a normal attack and Right Click for casting spells — we even have created a spell menu for choosing which one to use. 6. [Temporary] MP consumption per spell will be reduced as a part of a temporary design we will change this very month. In the meantime, you’ll also find there’s no spell cooldown.
- New building: Clan Kitchen
In our current Alpha version, you can invite Mu Xia to join the Guiyun Sect and rebuild the Clan Kitchen. It’s way bigger than Sunset Inn’s kitchen, with new cookware (Deep-Frying Wok, Pot...), recipes and, of course, challenging mini-games to put your cooking skills to test!
- New solar term mission: Help the Clan Kitchen for each solar term After you unlock the Clan Kitchen, y this special mission will appear every solar term. It will allow you to earn new rewards and increase your friendship level with the cult members. Don't worry about the ingredients, they're all provided by the sect.
- New map: Deep in the Mine The map's almost finished, except for a few details we need to adjust for a better experience. Soon we'll give you an official update on the status of this area.
- New map: Mystery Valley Lake Island
After fixing the Lake Pier, you'll be able to visit the Mystery Valley Lake Island from the docks. Guess what: on that island, you can invite your fellow Sect Members to enjoy the dishes you made!
- New Feature: Banquet table On Misty Valley Lake Island, you can invite your fellow Sect Member to enjoy your dishes at the Banquet Table! Everyone has their own taste, so they would give you unique reviews on different dishes. A good score could help you unlock gifts!
- House renovation Starting now, You Jinghe will help you with the house renovation after rebuilding the Main Hall. That means you can get new Floor, Wall, Stair, and Corridor recipes from him!
- More character stories We started working on personal stories for the secondary characters you like the most. These sub-stories will help you improve your relationship with them and learn new interesting information about their pasts after reaching certain Friendliness requirements. We’ve just introduced the personal story of Mu Xia in our Alpha branch. Stay tuned for future updates!
- Making Spirit Orbs We’re now allowing everyone to make a new decorating furniture, the Spirit Orb.
Plus, we’ve worked on the following changes:
- Adjustments on the Mine We’re rebuilding the Mine to suit our new battle system, which includes a redesign of certain levels and a relocation of its monsters and collectible items.
- Adjustment on the Yuhua Mystery Realm As the combat system also influenced the design of the Mystic Realm of Yuhua, we are including some changes to the map and the location of enemies and collectibles — we hope you like it!
- Redesign the Spell System Redesigning the battle system also means that we had a job to do on the Spell system. It evolved so much that you can easily identify the changes. This rebuild is way bigger than what it looks like on the surface, we also changed some parts of its code and redesign the structure deep down in our game build foundation. But the good news is, this would give us more space for introducing new features on the Spell System, please stay tuned.
- Monster AI redesign Same reasons as the others, yes, the battle system redesign also requires us to do changes on the Monster AI, and we did that, period.
Content developed for August
- New realm: Flower Valley We know that adventure lovers hate to sit still for too long, so here's good news: the Flower Valley is open to visitors! You will have to complete a specific mission to unlock this new location, in which you'll find new monsters and fishing spots, more collectible items and, of course, new recipes.
- New personal story: Chen Yuanzhou We've heard you loud and clear, dear cultivators. Some of you have fallen in love with our favourite fisherman and need to find out more about him, so with this new mission you are going to discover his story. We can hear your heartbeat from here!
There are some other elements of the game we’ll start working on this very month. However, the development team might need extra time to polish them depending on how things go with the redesign of the battle system.
- New events in the main questline
- Becoming friends with Xie Wentian
- New sect facility: Garrison
- New sect facility: Training Ground
- New system: Spell Updates System
- Personal story: Ji Yaohua
We'll share new photos and videos as soon as these designs look more like their final versions. If you have any suggestions for us to improve the game, don’t hesitate to share your thoughts in the comments below or join our Discord Server to share your ideas! We'd definitely give it a chance after a proper discussion inside our team. After all, everything in Immortal Life is subject to change, please wait for future announcements for disclosing the details.
Thank you for your support, wish you enjoy your time in the Misty Valley and find your way to become immortal.
YiFang Studio & 2P Games