Wildmender Alpha Report

Greetings Wildmenders!

Thank you so much for joining us for the first ever Wildmender Alpha! In less than 4 short weeks, we’ve gotten a tremendous amount of invaluable feedback, and you’ve helped us uncover a number of bugs, with some that have eluded us thus far. Before we share those delicious data again, let us first announce that, for those of you who participated in this inaugural Alpha test session, you will be receiving an exclusive in-game item as well as your name in the credits!

To receive the in-game item when it becomes available and have your name in credits, please help us fill out this form.

We can’t thank you enough for all your hard work and for bearing with us!

And now on to the data:

Player Feedback

The feedback this time almost doubled what we received during the demo session, which was exactly what we were hoping for. There is significantly more content for everyone to go through this time, so we anticipated more comments, ideas, and issue reports from all corners of the game. The total pieces of feedback that we’re committing to work on will surely rise as more feedback comes in and as we review more of them.

The feedback ranges from night time garden look and feel, salt flat outpost & Stryge temple combat clarity, map improvements, and tent rest display and interaction, to adding a glossary, naming of pets, more structure and plant ideas, and many, many more.

We will once again continue to go over everyone’s feedback and suggestions daily, so please keep them coming!

Play Time Stats

During the Alpha, we saw median play time nearly doubled, while average play time increased by 2.75x. Over 54% of all participants spent over 2 hours in-game (a 12% increase from demo) while nearly 40% of the players played for over 5 hours (a 19% increase from demo). About 15% of the players played for over 20 hours, and about 4% played over 50 hours. Tutorial completion rate was on par with the demo, while Naia completion rate jumped to 48%, a 16% increase from the demo.

Around 20% of all players completed the Salt Flats progression and overcame the challenge at the Stryge Temple. 14% of the players completed the Canyons progression and overcame the encounters at the Gleb Temple. Overall over 12% of players completed both the Stryge and the Gleb temples, congratulations!

Amazingly, 95% of the players who started each of the temple encounters were able to complete them successfully. With the Naia Temple engagement, the completion rate was even higher. 98.6% of the players who started it were able to complete it. While some players found the combat to be difficult, people who started the fights pretty much finished them.

We anticipated the Canyons to be more challenging than the Salt Flats, and the data reflected this. People reported a number of ease of use issues, such as the clarity of the shrinking circle at the outpost and the storm wall at the Stryge Temple. The Canyons also had in-development art assets and progression indicators that made the journey tougher. In future iterations, as we better address these issues as well as finetune the balance of the game, we expect the rate of completion to increase. However, we are cognizant of still presenting sufficient challenges to the players to keep the experience rewarding and interesting.

Once again, we are humbled by the level of investment and dedication from everyone despite all the pain points and issues that everyone reported to us. Some of the issues, such as the Salt Flat outpost crash and the missing assets on reload, were progression blocking and had escaped us in the QA process leading up to the start of Alpha. Players were able to submit a number of crash and player logs that were instrumental in helping us investigate and debug.

Survival Stats

What is a survival game without deaths, and what is a survival game in an arid world without death by hunger and dehydration. With the introduction of the Canyons, and with it being the most difficult zone, we are not surprised to see poison being the second leading cause of death. We are surprised to see deaths by falls being higher than deaths by wraiths and outposts. We suspect that in actuality, player deaths were resultant from a number different factors leading to attrition and then death. For instance, in combat in the Salt Flats, players may sustain direct and/or poison damage, and then die from dehydration from the water wraith or the environment. What we did find was that death was not a deterrent from people to keep playing the game. Only 1% of the players quit their sessions as a result of death. The persistence is definitely encouraging for us to see.

Total Resource Collected

Here are totals of all the resources people collected in the game during Alpha. At first glance, the total numbers may be less when compared to the demo. However, if we consider the significantly smaller pool of players in Alpha vs the demo, then the resources collected per capita during Alpha were truly staggering. We are now seeing a wider variety of resources being collected and used as crafting options expanded.

Total Plant Seeds Collected

While grass seeds and amaranth are still at the top when compared to the demo, the distribution of seeds collected during the Alpha has been much improved. We are also seeing Mistberries, a fruit of the Salt Flats, being collected in higher quantities than a couple of the Dunes seeds. This makes sense as Mistberries are not only a great food source, it is also needed to activate outpost encounters. As more players get deeper into the game, we should expect to see the quantities of some fruits collected from the later zones increase, and the distribution even out even more. We’ll continue to monitor players’ feedback and improve seed drop and germination rates. But it is heartening to see that some of the work we’ve done made a positive difference.

Items Crafted

It’s great to see that people haven’t forgotten the habit of composting! With the streamlining of the composting design, we are seeing composts being used more extensively, which is great. People are also producing large amounts of honey, which is a pleasant surprise as honey is a late game item in this Alpha build. It is exciting to see people finding a wider variety of ways to improve soil and plant growth conditions. With the Canyons and Salt Flats more treacherous to traverse, people are also crafting relatively higher quantities of healing items. As players start to embark on the large-scale quests of zone revival, we are seeing blessed drops, life sparks, and even life flames being crafted as well.

Popularity of Trinkets

Unsurprisingly, the most crafted trinkets are geared towards survival and mobility. Jade Ring receives lower usage perhaps because of the availability of the Cleansing Totem, although this is something we would like to continue to observe. It’s great to see the Bead Bracelet in more prevalent use. Sand surfing is fun!

Survey Results

We had 108 responses from the Alpha survey, a 251% increase from our demo participation. Responses came from all over the world, but primarily from Europe and the United States. People’s favorite survival games are: Minecraft, Valheim, Subnautica, Stardew Valley, Breath of the Wild, Project Zomboid, and No Man’s Sky. For everyone who filled out the survey, thank you! It’s incredibly useful and insightful for us once again.

Close to 15% of the surveyed players played over 2 hours, and additionally, ¾ of all surveyed players played 5-20 hours. More incredibly, ⅓ of all respondents played more than 20 hours.

Most people really enjoyed the Alpha. Having said that, we did have a few ease of use issues and critical bugs that hindered the gameplay experience for a few people. Going into the next test session, we will be shoring those up to deliver an even better experience for everyone. This result motivates us to keep improving and delivering.

Tutorial:

People generally had a good experience with the tutorial. There are a number of ease of issues that people raised however, such as the cutscene causing a bit of motion sickness, people missing the prompt to interact with the guide Vidyas, players not knowing to return the first Shard to Vidyas, and the interaction highlighting not displaying clearly enough. We will definitely be looking to address these issues to make the tutorial clearer and easier for the next session.

Dunes:

People generally had a positive to very positive experience in the Dunes, and most found the zone to be relatively easy. Some players had a bit of trouble traversing deep into the zone and struggled with food and water retention. A few players found combat at the outposts to be difficult. The task of returning the Shards needs to be clearer. Finding enough food in multiplayer was difficult for some as well. With the feedback, we will be monitoring the balance and improving clarity going forward.

Specifically with the engagement at the Naia Temple, over 80% of the respondents completed the fight. Most people found the temple experience to be fun, with a few people finding it to be difficult.

The vast majority of players who completed the Dunes did so within 5 hours, and this aligns well with what we’ve seen from the demo. We also had a few players who engrossed in gardening so much that they spent well over 5 hours but chose not to complete the temple fight.

Salt Flats:

Over ⅔ of the respondents got to the Salt Flats, and of all the people who ventured into the Salt Flats, close to 70% crushed at least one outpost with the crab titan and close to 60% bested all the enemies at the Stryge Temple.

In this vast zone, player deaths often resulted from exploring too far and running out of water.
To overcome the harsh sun of the Salt Flats, which drained water more quickly, 78% of the respondents upgraded to the Amber Bottle, 78% crafted the Water Ring, 75% were armed with the Crystal Mirror, 70% found and activated sigil gates, and 63% wielded the Memory Seed.

One of the biggest issues players had in the Salt Flats was with the clarity of visual feedback at the outposts. Some players did not understand how the shrinking circle worked. It was also at the outposts where players encountered the cripping crash bug. These are top priorities for us to address before the next test session.

While the over 75% players completed the Salt Flats within 5 hours, the rest did decide to spend more time in the zone. It is a larger zone than the Dunes with more destinations and quests to complete. 12% of the respondents were able to complete the Salt Flats within 1-2 hours, while a small percentage of the players were even able to complete the zone in less than 1 hour. To these players, we salute you!

Based on the survey responses, the confrontation at the Stryge Temple is the most difficult of all the temple fights. Major factors that made the fight more difficult were the enclosed space coupled with the number and variety of enemies/hazards. Players also reported an issue with the clarity of the storm wall, at times not knowing that they took damage from it. We’ll continue to monitor and tune balance, and a priority is for us to improve the visual feedback and clarity of the storm wall. With the upcoming implementation of difficulty settings, it would also help players tailor their experiences by selecting the desired difficulty level.

Canyons:
48% of the respondents waded into the Canyons, and of them, 75% completed at least one gear quest and close to 60% completed the entire progress and the Gleb temple fight. ⅓ of the players spent over 5 hours in the Canyons before completing the Gleb temple.

While people enjoyed the gear quests and the Canyons overall and did spend significant time in the zone, traversing the Canyons and dealing with the poisonous air did prove to be difficult and hindered the experience for some. The major feedback for players here is a better explanation and call out of poison. In the Alpha, we also used some in-development assets in the zone, in particular the gear store house structures. The use of in-development assets combined with quirks in procedural generation as well as lack of stronger visual cues, made the gear storage locations difficult to find. These issues we definitely aim to address going forward. As we improve the game map, we feel that it would make referencing direction and pathing easier as well.

The experience at the Gleb temple appears to be well balanced and enjoyable overall. Most people find the difficulty to be in balance or skewing towards the easier side. With the introduction of the difficulty settings in the future, we could further finetune, segment, and tailor the experience for people.

Gardening:

It’s great to see that the players continue to enjoy the gardening experience overall. The work we’ve done since Alpha to improve germination and seed drop balance also appears to pay dividends. People enjoy watching life return to the desert, which is immensely gratifying to see.
As the garden increases dramatically in size though, plant growth and water management can still be overwhelming, and self propagation and germination could still be too abundant. Based on the survey results, we would also like to look for more ways to increase the usage and relevance of some of the structures.

Crafting:

With crafting, people found the storage basket, compost bin, root sigils, and the ancestral altar to be most useful. It’s great to see the compost bin make a comeback with the improved and streamlined composting design. People generally had a positive experience with crafting overall but wanted more selection of cosmetic items . While the usage of more basic consumables were prevalent, the harder to craft consumables were crafted and used less. Some people did not see as much of the value proposition in the higher tier consumables. This is something we’ll be investigating as well.

Survival:

In terms of survival difficulty, the results showed a relatively normal distribution, and people’s experiences were positive overall. Our goal is to have players proceed with exploration and cultivation in tandem. As players expand their oasis and unlock recipes for more crafting items and upgrades, survival would hopefully be easier.

Multiplayer:
13% of our respondents tested in multiplayer. Of the people who played in multiplayer, over 70% of them played in 2-players.

We want to thank the brave souls for helping us test multiplayer once again. When it worked, the multiplayer experience was enjoyable for people. Dsync remained a major issue, and some players experienced performance issues and low framerates. Some players were also confused by how to rest, while some people had issues gathering or producing enough food earlier on. Performance optimization will continue to be a top priority going forward for us.

Additional Community Reports

Here we want to note a few of the community reported issues not mentioned previously that are high priority and harder to tackle:

• The Horn Crash: This was a top progression blocking issue in this Alpha test. Through Nilar’s debugging and tremendous help, we were able to track this bug down and patch midway through the Alpha.
• Performance: We have fixed a few things which caused frame drops regarding AI. With frame issues, we’ll continue to work with everyone as well as the Kwalee QA team to test against various hardware as well.
• Issues with world generation/placement of objects and building (Ex. Ghosts or graves inside of terrain): This one we are well aware and will be systematically investigating.
• Save File missing objects: This was one of the most critical and hard to pin down issues that arose from Alpha testing. It was something that had occurred very rarely in the past, and we were not able to reproduce it previously. Thus far, we have created a script to detect when this could possibly happen. This would allow the Kwalee QA team to better help us reproduce the issue.
• Multiplayer “desync”: With this one, we will be reaching out to the people who’ve experienced it to get a more detailed understanding of what they are seeing. For anyone who has experienced this, if you could send us a video clip, and share with us in Discord, that would be incredibly helpful.

Community Suggestion Highlights

Petting & Naming Creatures: How about hugging the frog and giving it a name? Petting and naming your creatures was a popular request, and we’ll be making it happen.

Map Upgrade: The upgrade of the map has begun. We’ll be increasing the map size, improving the ability to pan and zoom, creating more map markers, enhancing the map’s look and feel, adding map legend, and more.

Gardening Controls: We know those big gardens get unruly, and we're planning some new magic to give players more control over how and when plants produce seeds. We’ll also be tuning the existing mechanics to keep essence glow under control and keep rootbeards from taking over the world.

Richer Journal: To better explain game mechanics and collect the stories and dialog you encounter along the way.

Tent & Rest Improvements: Resting in the tent has been a source of confusion, and we’ll be clearing that up. We’ll be updating the text as well as visuals as players are resting, so they would know time-of-day and what it means to end rest.

In Closing

We want to thank everyone for your incredible help once again! Your feedback and suggestions were invaluable. We will continue to process them and juggle the work on improvements while building out the rest of the game. As always, stay tuned in Discord for more news and updates.

- Team Muse