Greetings Adventurers!
Its been a while since the Steam page went public and alpha testing started so we wanted to give an update on the fact we’re still alive and still moving towards Early Access launch.
So what’s been going on?
Well, we’ve had alpha servers running for a few months now, testing various mechanics and making sure the multiplayer and networking holds up – hopefully some of you have been enjoying the screenshots posted here from some of the testing. We’ve also made changes to the hardware the server/s runs on to provide greater capacity and more responsive performance from the AI elements – although this is something we expect might be tricky when we first open the doors and will be monitored closely.
We’ve also been collecting feedback, ironing out bugs and polishing the general experience.
As a result of this, we’re probably a little behind our original schedule with Early Access having intended to start in the first half of 2022 but this is looking likely to fall into the third quarter now. I know, we’ve had quite a lot of people interested and its always a shame when things take a little longer than we’d expect.
What’s left before Early Access?
There’s still some gaps in the ‘core’ quest line which prevents people getting as far as the content that's developed – there’s plenty to do outside the core quest experience but we want to make sure this runs a bit further than it currently does and gives Adventurer’s a good tour of the world and available activities.
There’s also quite a lot of content balancing to be done with hundreds of items, skills and monsters we don't want anything to feel too broken on Early Access launch.
Crafting and gathering is a core activity in TADO and we’ve recently changed the way crafting works to make it much more accessible to people who perhaps don’t want to master every trade skill but still want to find some value in those systems. We previously had a system where crafting would require you to dedicate points earned from levelling up to individual trade skills, but this felt overly restrictive and we've move to an 'on-use' level up system for all crafting and gathering skills. This feels good for people who aren't super into crafting, but also gives a strong sense of achievement as you master more trade skills for those completionists.
There’s also been a lot of work on content with new dungeons, bosses and quest areas having been introduced and several more to come before we open the gates to all adventurers.
Finally we’ve been paying a lot of attention to the ship control systems and travel time whilst out in the open seas. It’s a fun experience controlling a ship and exploring the world but if you find yourself doing a lot of travelling, maintaining the various sail heights and rotations starts to feel like busy work (particularly if you're playing solo!) and could become unfun and frustrating, so we’ve been working on slightly dialling back the ‘realism’ of the naval system and focusing more on making sure the gameplay is fun both in the moment to moment and when you’re making your 100th voyage at sea without undermining that great felting of being in control of some potentially very large vessels!
We’re looking forward to welcoming you all in The Adventurer’s Domain Online soon.
Monty