Howdy, caravan mates! In today’s blog post we’ll be discussing the Road Map for Sanctuary Saga’s development based on the incredible feedback we’ve received from launch week. Thank you so much to everyone who has been playing and participating in the discussion! Without further preamble, let’s dive in!
Experimental Branches on Steam
We’re going to start here since this is likely going to impact every patch moving forward. We will be creating an Experimental Branch in Steam so we can let the community join the playtesting process. We’ll do a separate blog post later providing best practices for using these builds, so if that’s something you’re interested in please be on the lookout for that soon!
Patch 1.1
As of this morning, we have finished v1.1 and are starting our internal playtesting. Once this is done we will push it to Experimental some time next week with a more detailed set of patch notes. Here are the highlights!
Tutorial Rebranded to Prologue
One piece of feedback we consistently received surrounded the Tutorial Spread and how much story it contained. We realize in hindsight we really should have called this the Prologue Chapter from the beginning to better mentally prepare players for what it contains. So we’ve rebranded it!
Not only is it a change in title but also in mindset for us. All tutorial elements will now have a prompt asking if the player would like to receive more information about the topic before giving the information. This will allow players to opt out of all tutorial tidbits while still experiencing the Prologue’s story.
Boss Loot Increase
Epic fights of life and death should earn epic loot, right? We recognize we missed the mark on this and have increased the loot drops of both Mini-Boss and Boss encounters.
Loot Chests in Expedition Maps
Along with changes to boss loot, we will be scattering loot chests around the Expedition maps. Every puzzle room will have a chest after completing the puzzle guaranteed. Every expedition will have at least one chest, maybe more, randomly scattered around its maps to reward players who explore.
Early Game Relationship Levels
We also noticed we set the early RP required for Relationship Levels a bit too high. We’ve taken a pass over RP requirements at all levels to speed up the Forming phase of the inter-group plot elements. We think players will enjoy diving headlong into these relationships from the get-go instead of the unintended delay in the current patch.
Marie Skill Adjustments
We noticed players almost always using Dolgrim as their frontline character. He is a solid choice, of course, but we’d like players to be able to experiment with party composition without feeling punished. Marie has the second highest DEF in the game so we’re changing some of her Skills to be usable from the front row. Now players can choose between a front line DPS or front line support role (why not both!?) with relative ease.
Misc QoL Updates
We've witnessed a few content creators run into some feel bad moments by forgetting to save, or feeling the game is too easy but not upping the difficulty, so we've added a few reminder prompts to ensure players remember the various ways they can tailor the gameplay experience. All of these initial QoL improvements are geared towards ensuring the player's initial progression in the game is as smooth as possible.
Patch 1.2
Patch 1.2 will take a deeper dive into one of the game’s core systems: Skills.
Starting Skills
Player feedback has led us to believe there is a bit of “Skill Shock” once players receive their full party post-Prologue. Six new party members, each with six skills, is a lot to take in. In v1.2, party members will only start with three Skills. We’ll likely stick with those that are most at the character’s core gameplay. The other skills will be unlocked at the earliest Relationship Levels or from NPCs who join the Caravan early.
Skill Progression Now vs Future
With the current setup, party members gain new skills at very set intervals within the game. This leads to many characters unlocking skills around the same time. With the changes we’re making in v1.2 these skill advances will be much more spread out. We believe this will allow players periods of discovery and experimentation throughout the game as not only new skills are discovered, but those skills are also improved. For those who may not have noticed, enemies in the Untamed Wilds learn a few tricks of their own as they gain levels so now the player’s party better matches this pattern. We are hopeful this keeps the battle system refreshed to combat feelings of players having to grind levels for the story content.
Misc Expedition Map QoL Updates
The last parts of Patch 1.2 will be devoted to QoL updates on Expedition Maps. Most of these will focus on showing the player paths they have unlocked instead of having to explore areas they’ve already discovered (looking at you, Caverns Biome). Better clues for the puzzles rooms (maybe even hints if players seem stuck) are also in the works.
Thanks again to everyone who has joined us in this journey. Our goal is to have Patch 1.1 up on Experimental some time early next week. Feel free to let us know your thoughts in the Discord or on the Discussions page!