If you have ever run beta or demo version of The Matchless Kungfu, please use "clear all data" on the main menu first to start playing Early Access version, since we have changed the structure of save files.
Greetings to all players who have been following us.
With the support of everyone since the 2021 bilibili game festival, The Matchless Kungfu was released today in an Early Access form to meet you.
Compared to the emotions of the previous month, the apprehension has actually been diluted quite a bit now. On the contrary, today we would like to talk to all about the current version and our plans for the future with an honest and open mind.
For this kind of game, Early Access seems to be a reasonable and necessary process. As a content developer for this type of game, we are eager for the feedback from the community to digest and create the right content for development.
Below we'll go over the current version of the situation as best we can. Rather than painting a big picture, we'd like to give you enough information to determine whether or not it's a suitable purchase for you at this stage. For those who want the full version, we would recommend following our game for now, and staying tuned to our announcements.
First, the summary of the August internal test.
During the August close beta, we received help from beta players, located and fixed a cumulative total of 200+ bugs, and optimized several issues of concern based on players’ comments, and completing several updates.
For example, the archery tower in the sect, which caused a lot of unnecessary trouble for everyone, has been cut out for the time being in the current version;
The maximum number of talent points for each ability after the return to Karma is also shown in a clearer way;
The doctor NPC interaction option adds help for healing, and so on. There are also various optimization items, which will be too many to list here.
Compared with before the closed beta, our repair scope should have covered the early, middle and late stages of the current game. The version is much more stable, but there are still various unnoticed problems. However, we are excited to receive more bug reports from players after the Early Access release, which will be very much helpful to us and the game.
2. Problems and considerations in the current version
Through your feedback in our community comments and internal test comments, we have summarized several issues that still exist in the current version and need to be improved and supplemented in the future:
1) Adaptation issues and difficulty adjustments in the novice stage;
Many gameplays of the game itself are actually composed of some ideas hatched within the team, and we are also very happy to have been recognized by some players in the community, but this release will still target many players who have never experienced this game before. In view of this consideration, the novice stage of the current version has changed compared with the demo version of the Steam Next Fest. We have adjusted the performance of the opening plot and early Land Blocks. We believe that this version’s difficulty in the early stage is more friendly to novice players. If you encounter any problems in the experience, or there are things you need to know but not included in the Heavenly Scroll, welcome to join our complain in our "submit a bug" feature in game main menu, or join our Discord channel and share your idea.
2) Depth of martial art, management, life, and NPC interaction
In the current version, you will see that we have added a little more content for sects, life sim and NPC interaction.
However each of these systems still have long way to go. For example, there currently are no richer and special interaction options after the marriag. We will consider comprehensively, and then present these contents to players in the form of successive updates or major version updates. There is also the long-awaited baby-making system, which already has an implementation plan and will be updated at the right time.
3) Not the smartest NPC yet
Ashamed to say, we still have a lot to make up for in terms of NPC behavior logic. And we believe that this will also be a long-term accumulation process. For example, the current owner of the building does not have a corresponding identity, and when goods are out of stock, NPCs will not issue tasks for players to collect materials, NPCs can easily jump around in a certain place, and so on.
At the same time, the linkage between the NPC's behavior and the adventure system is fun but also requires rigorous tuning. The current version does not do a good enough job on this point, so it will lead to some contradictory behaviors of NPCs.
But we believe that with the update and iteration of the game version, old players will find that NPC will give people a little surprise from time to time; and every time new players join, they will have different feelings about NPC interaction.
4) The Complement of Adventure – the “random” little story between you and the NPCs
This is something we've been hoping to find time to add to. Although the overall positioning of "The Matchless Kungfu" is high-degree-of-freedom sandbox, as a martial arts-themed game, we also hope that players can experience rich and exciting stories of the world.
Compared with traditional martial arts, we have designed a set of [Adventure System]. Ideally, all adventures can be connected through a net-like system to give players a sense of [story]. The current version has 80+ short adventures and nearly 20 long-term adventures. Among them, the current version of the long-term adventure is relatively “silent” due to the triggering conditions, not all players can trigger these stories in one game. This is something that needs to be kept efficient and updated for a long time, and it is also one of the reasons why we hope to meet you in the way of early access. Many designs relying on community co-creation require everyone to have the premise of playing the game. We also hope that you will pay more attention to our community event in the future, and bring your favorite martial arts content to "The Matchless Kungfu".
3. Public development schedule and mod support issues
We must also convey to you again: the Early Access version released this time is not a finished game. We will continue to add content in the subsequent development process, and test major updates through the test branch.
In order to let everyone – in case there is any – that wish to know more about our development progress have a place to see it, we have opened our development progress list directly to players. Heroes, you can click the link below to view and supervise:
https://shimo.im/tables/Wr3Dpx60BWC9ZG3J?table=OdCFAH5ZJFU&view=cJ08HlqrgbO#/
【Please copy this link and paste it into an external browser for access. For some reason, this website is being recognized as a dangerous site by Steam, but it is simply a work scheduling table.】
* Please notice that the content of this link is not translated into English. You might need a little help from web translation to understand what we are dealing with now.
In the early days after the early access version is released, we will focus on solving the existing bugs of the version, and keep up with continuous small optimization and adventure filling. Then develop and test our "big ones" one by one.
At the same time, we have always kept in mind the issue of whether the workshop is open, which is of great concern to the majority of players. However, the early access version will face frequent changes and updates in the early stage. We are also very worried that if we ope n the workshop/mod support too soon, the mods that players and friends have worked so hard may be failed overnight, causing losses and troubles. So please heroes for now to stay tuned to our official account for good news!
Finally, thank you heroes for your support and attention to our game. We will, as always, listen to players' opinions and suggestions, continuously improve the game, and bring you a better gaming experience.
It will be our happiest thing if anyone can have unique fun in this Early Access version, give suggestions and witness the growth of The Matchless Kungfu!
See you in our patch notes! !
— Sincerely, HuanMos and bilibili