Hi Chieftains!
Maggie here, sending my greetings! I hope you're all doing well as you explore the vast world of Soulmask and uncover the secrets of ancient civilizations!
As Soulmask nears the 6-month mark in Early Access, we thought it’s a great time to look back on the journey so far and share some of the major updates we’ve made. Whether you’ve already donned the mysterious mask or are just diving in, take a moment to check out the massive changes we've made over the last half-year, where constructed together with your feedback.
Let's get straight to the point: In these nearly 6 months, we've implemented 748 improvements. Even we were amazed by this achievement!
This achievement wouldn’t have been possible without the feedback from every single one of you. While Soulmask has its own vision, it’s your insights that have truly helped make it better.
I've been considering how to make our updates more noticeable for everyone. So, we decided to show you a direct comparison between the issues players raised six months ago and how we've addressed them in the latest version of Soulmask.
Solo Play Difficulty
Since Soulmask launched in Early Access, one of the less favorable impressions has been regarding the difficulty of the single-player mode.
We're committed to addressing this issue for our players as quickly as possible! That's why feedback on difficulty has been our top priority. Let's take a look at the improvements we've made for solo players over the past six months!
Enhancing the Main Character
The issue of the main character being too weak has been one of the biggest points of contention since day one.
We understand the importance of a strong main character for solo players. Previously, the original main character felt underwhelming with low stats and no passive skills, making them easily replaceable by any random tribesmen. To address this, we've introduced an exciting new system:
DNA Replication: With just a few resources, you can now upgrade your character’s body to match the abilities of your strongest tribesmen!
And the best part? You can replicate their abilities multiple times, allowing you to switch between different powerful builds as you fight on the front lines!
Reducing Death Penalties:
Shortly after Early Access release, Soulmask quickly earned a reputation as a "Souls-like survival game," known for the especially harsh death penalties in dungeons.
In response, we’ve added respawn points throughout major dungeons so that players can restart from checkpoints.
We've also addressed the frustrating experience of losing all progress when premium tribesmen died. Now you can perfectly preserve your tribesmen with the Perfect Remodel feature - save their best state at any time and revive them directly at campfires!
Combat Mechanics Improvements:
Another major issue players faced was the overly repetitive AI commands that could make enemies feel predictable. We’ve updated the AI of most human enemies to make them behave more realistically. While still dangerous, they now use their attacks more strategically, reducing the frustration of facing unfair tactics.
We’ve also introduced a new skill called Recover Sense, which helps you recover quickly from hitstuns during battle. This is especially helpful when fighting multiple enemies, as it gives you more room to breathe and recover.
For the beasts, we’ve reduced the spawn density of dangerous creatures, such as the Jaguar, on the early maps. We’ve also moved the infamous Anaconda to a small island—so long as you avoid them, they won’t bother you!
System Balancing:
After careful consideration about smoothing the single-player experience, we've adjusted various game values. The difficulty curve across all high-level areas, from volcanoes to snow mountains, has been modified - you can now survive and progress in late-game areas even with modest gear.
We’ve also addressed some of the previously annoying drop issues, such as those with rubber and other essential materials. Plus, we’ve updated the enemy spawn mechanics in dungeons and barracks, creating a more balanced and enjoyable solo experience.
Teleport and Travel
We haven't forgotten the feedback from our first week after launch. Many of you loved the beauty of our vast map but found the long travel times frustrating. We clearly underestimated your eagerness to explore! So, we’ve been hard at work improving the system.
Teleport and Travel
Originally, we had portals scattered across regions, but they just didn’t feel frequent enough, especially for dungeons. A failed run could lead to long trekking back.
So we've restructured the map's portal network - they're now more densely distributed at key locations. No more lengthy journeys just to farm high-level materials!
We've also lowered the requirements for crafting portals, making them accessible in early-game dungeons.
Even better, custom portals can now directly connect to various ourdoor portals and teleport your followers. As player put it, "The subway now reaches your house"!
Mount Improvements
As our faithful companions, mounts have been one of our most discussed features. While many mount changes require more time and careful consideration, we haven't touched the core systems in these six months.
For example, we've significantly reduced the difficulty of obtaining rare mounts, and mounts can now teleport to players within a certain distance. But I know this isn't what you're most excited about - more new travel methods are on the way!
Tribesmen
Tribesmen have been Soulmask's most distinctive feature and most beloved content since launch. Over these months, we've gradually made these followers both stronger and smarter.
Boosting Follower Combat Power
At the start of Early Access, our followers' combat abilities were limited. Over the past six months, we've implemented "intensive training" to enhance their skills. We've steadily improved their combat AI and stats, making them more proactive and aggressive in battle.
Their survival ability has also improved. On normal difficulty, even if you fall, your tribesmen are more likely to stay alive and come to your rescue!
Building on these enhanced follower capabilities, we wanted to do something more ambitious: we've added tribesmen legions. If you wish, you can deploy your entire clan to assault a barbarian camp or even Holy Ruins...
Tribesmen Intelligence Improvements
Ever since Soulmask's EA launch, we've been hearing your feedback about the production AI for our tribesmen. We're excited to share that we've come up with several ideas to help tribesmen manage more tasks efficiently:
● We’ve added the inventory management feature, so your tribesmen will automatically organize materials and resources in your storage. All you have to do is drop your gathered items in one spot, and they'll handle all the sorting and storage work.
● We’ve also introduced the maintain inventory command. With this, your tribesmen can keep the right amounts of intermediate or finished products, ensuring you're never overstocked or understocked.
● Lastly, we've added the upgrade construction command. Select a building, issue the command, and your tribesmen will use the Construction Hammer and materials from storage to upgrade it to the higher tier.
Of course, we still have much to improve regarding pathfinding logic, trap avoidance during combat, and other issues. Please bear with us, we'll soon turn tribesmen into your most dependable allies.
A Cozier Home
We deeply understand the importance of players' personal spaces in survival games. Over these six months, our updates to building and management systems had one goal: making it easier for players to establish a cozy home.
Tribal Management: Quality of Life Improvements
The new animal management interface lets you monitor your companions' status at any time, making them easier to locate and manage.
Most importantly, Soulmask players can now craft from inventory. No more running back and forth with materials - handle everything right from the workbench!
More support construction
Next, I'd like to introduce the new construction added to Soulmask over these six months. We’ve always hoped our functional construction would genuinely solve players’ issues:
Mysterious Converter: It can convert surplus low-level materials from logging and mining into high-level rare materials at set ratios! Best of all, it's fully automated - just assign tribesmen, and they'll handle the rest.
Hibernation Pod: Due to the game’s tribe population limit, sometimes you’d miss out on excellent barbarians due to full population. Now the Hibernation Pod lets you put temporarily unused tribesmen into hibernation, saving population space while not having to abandon anyone.
We also have training dummies for AFK character training, treasure chests for secretly storing items in PVP battles...We hope these features let players discover more gameplay possibilities. Of course, beyond functionality, more decorative constructions are on the way, so stay tuned!
Building Interface Optimization
Building construction has been one of the most criticized aspects of our game. Over the past six months, we've made significant improvements, including updates to construction collision, the user interface, and material upgrades (such as the automatic upgrades mentioned in the tribesmen section). We've also implemented various other optimizations. Now, all you need is a Construction Hammer to easily create the home of your dreams.
Oh, and we’ve added “Building Mode”! Press Esc to enter this mode, and you can freely fly and inspect your tribe from any angle. We hope this satisfies some super builders.
We have much more to say about Chieftains' houses, but let’s save the main event for late November! Now let’s discuss something you might be more interested in: Mods!
More Variety
If I say customization is the soul of survival games, there shouldn’t be much controversy, whether it’s in-game freedom or community content. This was clearly a weak point when Soulmask first launched. Therefore, we’ve invested considerable effort here over these six months.
More Customization Options
If you got our game six months ago, you'll find the customization options have expanded dramatically:
From building height limits to load adjustment, from sub-base numbers to tribe population caps, plus that extensive list of optional settings - while it might seem a bit complex, I can guarantee that whether you're playing solo or hoping to run your own server, we now provide enough customization choices.
And if that's not enough, we've also enabled console functions in single-player mode - whatever you want is just a mouse click away!
Introducing Custom Appearances
Many players noted that our late-game gear felt too uniform, with tribes becoming gatherings of "generic soldiers"... So we've added the "Gear Transmog" system. You can now obtain all appearances from common barbarians to chiefs from the game's three major hostile tribes - dress up however you like!
Mod Support
And saving the best for last - Soulmask now supports Steam Workshop! Community content from mod creators worldwide awaits your discovery.
Whether you want new construction:
*Soulmask Extreme By SiberCat
Or new mounts:
*Mountable Bosses By Leesionto
Mods are where imagination comes to life! Or perhaps you'd like to create one yourself...?
What’s Next?
Reflecting on our progress, it’s clear that many of these improvements were driven by your feedback. Soulmask wouldn’t have reached where it is today without your active participation.
More importantly, we feel this is just the beginning. We're working tirelessly to address many existing issues, and we need your feedback now more than ever!
Coming up, we have the real main event - at the end of this month, we'll bring our most substantial "Mammoth Update" since EA. Stay tuned for more news, which will be shared first with our Steam community. This is Maggie, and we can't wait to see you soon!