Hi, Chieftain!
This is Maggie & Peter! In case some of you forget, we want to remind you once again: our Open Beta is nearing its release date on May 1st, and it's completely free!
As for our friends who've been following Soulmask since Next Fest, we really appreciate your support. We also want to point out the differences between the Next Fest version and the one launching on May 1st, which you’ll be able to play for free. Recently, Peter had the chance to invite our chief designer, Royce, to a Japanese barbecue. Royce graciously agreed to an interview. He's going to talk about the major upgrades in the new Soulmask version and share some behind-the-scenes challenges and insights from its development.
Also, we randomly selected some specific questions from Discord and other communities. Now, Royce will have to answer them directly - as he can no longer run away from some of them!
So are you ready? Let's straight to the points!
1.Regarding to Open Beta
Hi, Royce, could you please briefly introduce yourself at the first beginning?
Hello everyone, I'm Royce, the lead designer of Soulmask. I'm primarily responsible for the overall game design decisions and quality control of Soulmask. At the same time, just like you, I'm also a gaming enthusiast, and action games featuring rougelike are my personal favorite
We want to know what interesting features will be available in this Open Beta. Could you provide us with some details?
In May Open Beta, compared to Next Fest, we'll be unlocking a portion of the Mangrove area. Additionally, we've added a new fierce and unruly tyrant creature to the rainforest- Anaconda. Be careful, or it will swallow you into its stomach!
Meanwhile, we optimize the weapon-attacking animations to make them look more fluent and natural. We also added mastery to each weapon to ensure players can select much more combat strategies.
Of course, besides the official PVE server, single-player and LAN server modes are still available for everyone to choose from. Playing solo? No problem! However, it becomes even more enjoyable when you play with friends. That's exactly what I plan to do on May 1st.
For the players who have experienced Soulmask in Next Fest, do you think what part should be payed most attention to in this Open Beta?
Oh, comparing with Next Fest, a lot of improvements we have made. You can review the last couples of developer's updates that we've posted on steam community, and almost 80% features that we have mentioned before have been implemented in this Open Beta. However, if you let me pick a keypoint among them, that would be our clan system - players can transfer the barbarians to one of their clan members by detering them and taking them to the bonfire - in this aspect, I think it's the most distinction of Soulmsk compared to other survival game, which can unleash players from collecting and making basic and duplicated materials.
Also, a lot of improvements have been made on operation as well compared with Next Fest, such as the simpler clan state list, where can help players to control their tribesmen to work more easily; Meanwhile, the behaviors of tribesmen have become more lively. For now, they can make some complains to the food state, dancing while they're in idle, etc. We really hope that these improvements can make players feel like their tribesmen are the real persons instead of the working mechines.
I know that there're plenty of cool suggestions given by our players in Next Fest, any are worth mentioning?
I have to say, as for us, the experiences based on players' feedbacks in Next Fext seemed not that friendly to players, in which the most impressive one is, some operations under the perspectives of developers, like defense and squat, players probably cannot handle it.
In fact, the core design of Soulmask is more focusing on the old style sandbox survival game: no more nonsense, intensive survival stress, and enough challenges. While the players' feedbacks from Next Fest also made us realize deeply that, players with different game experiences will also hope to experience the journey in Soulmask, that let us decided that we should do better jobs for the tutorial of Soulmask. At the same time, upgrade the layout of UI to enhance the usability, all of these will come out on May 1st.
Meanwhile, according to the comments from players in Next Fest, we think that the most attracting part of Soulmask haven't been shown fully at the initial stage of game, therefore, we adjusted the flow of it and try to speed up the pace of the game.
Of course, including this Beta, we'll continue to make sliver adjustments according to the player's feedback. So, welcome to provide any feedback!
Just let us upgrade the question to the relatively perfessional part: from the perspective of the developers, what questions you've solved from Next Fest to now?
Got it. In fact, except the feedback optimizations and bugs fixed we have mentioned before, we have devoted so many works for the post-game contents: especially the map elements for the Volcano and Snow Mountain, we must make sure that these contents won't disappoint everyone. You'll enjoy these in the EA version.
Another more important question: the lagging - this is a tough quesiton, the reson is so easy: compared to other similar games, Soulmask demands more precise attack detection and a large value of movement requirements, causing a excessively high server computational demands, which in some kind of level that indirectly leading to an unfriendly experience for players in Next Fest.
‒ So how can we solve this problem?
At the beginning of Next Fest, we tried to reduce the density of map creatures, but obviously no players will fond of an empty forest, so we did not make a compromise at the end;
And then we optimized the monster/boss AIs: when the server is suffering stressfully, they won't attack their enemies in such a precise way, this will reduce the lethality and accuracy of them to ensure parts of fluency - of course, these mechanics haven't been added into the single player mode and LAN mode, so all of you can experience the most original combat challenges.
At last, we also added the European server in order to solve the lagging possibility caused by the restrictions from regions.
Oh yeah, something that needs to be clarified is that the above may not be the final solution; we will continue to find a better way to solve this problem in the future, even after the EA.
So is there any experience issue that persisted 'till now?
As for me, the experience with a controller isn't so good——we brought a bunch of controllers to do some research. Still, it didn't reach a comfortable solution due to the time limit, which made me feel harmful to these controllers...Anyway, we will prioritize this issue after EA.
So during development of Soulmaks, any important challenges that we finally solved?
I have to say that, that is the unique combat part is different from other similar games. In fact, this is one of our prime goals at the blueprint period of Soulmask, but thank god we finally made it. Compared to other games, we are so proud of the more precise detection and cooler mastery.
For sure this causes some new issues to our official servers lol, but we won't regret to do so.
2.Community AMA
The next part, let us talk about the issues asked from our community players. At first, the question from @Ult: how about our anti-cheating mechanics, what system we're using? Any measures will be taken to the cheaters?
his is a serious issue, I want to give an overall answer first: We always take the strictest attitudes against cheaters from Soulmask.
Our anti-cheating system can be divided into two parts, we will access VAC after EA, which is the basic anti-cheating system; and then, we will have people to take care of the cheat detecting system, every strange behaviors in official server will be reported, be judged, and be banned by administrators.
Additionally, we have report system, if you find out any cheating behaviors alike, you can report it directly, we will investigate and then ban the account if it's deemed to be true.
We have a zero-tolerance policy towards cheating behaviors, we will regularly panish the verified cheaters with permanent bans from accessing official servers.
@BEASTMAMA is wondering that is it intended for the Ice to be only available end game? The reason why I ask this is related to the building Aspect of the game. I have to say that after entering the rainforest, there will be a big problem for farming and temperature control when breeding - so hot in it! Is there any way to solve this to be able to craft ice with water and salt of sorts? And the second question is, is there going to be mating of mounts in game?
Yes, this related to the Snow Mountain part of post game, and you know, it's not easy for the human beings to gain ice stably at any time in history - but we appreciate the method you provided, Beastmama, this sounds reasonable, and we will consider to add some extra ways for players to attain a small quantity of ice in the early or middle stage in the future.
As for now, the fact is that our temperature is related to the area around, because the south hill is near volcano, the entire heat will be higher, may be you can try to foster your career at northwest?
About the mating for mounts, for now we would more like the mount is a feature for you guys to explore the world and take adventure, collecting them and have some fun. I don't have too much idea about it temporarily, but as we all say, everything is possible in the future!
@Sergiomarch are interested in the balance regarding PVP: any jobs we did to avoid players from cross-server attacking abruptly at 4 a.m.? Or to prevent the material spots from being occupied by guilds directly once online?
Of course, we have; a strike window setting is added to the PVP mode server to ensure players won't be damaged by enemies within a specific time and don't worry - this window won't be put at 4 a.m. again.
As for the material spots issue, in addition to continuously adjusting the restricted area around the key locations, we also have administrators on the official server who can constantly monitor and manage the closure of material spots. All in all, we strive to ensure the balance of PVP, so please don't worry.
@Ezio Auditore notice that there're iracoterios in game, so if any gameplay about cavalry in the future?
Soulmask want to pay more attention on the things that other games don't have, therefore, if we finally deside to create the cavalry system, that would be different: sush as elephant cavalry, leopard cavalry, isn't that more exited?
To the iracoterios, they're more likely to be the special species, just let them settle down here casually in the grassland~
@Iris want to know if there's any feature for players to customize the appearance of tribesmen? Because I have controled a legendary tribesman but he turned out to be a small fatty man, that hurts my feeling.
No, we don't have such idea to open this feature, there's one thing we want to say is that, appearance is also a part of the power, not just a bunch of data!
3.Ending word
At the end, any words you want to speak to every player?
Recently, we've been working overtime on optimizing and fixing bugs for the game. However, we have to admit that many issues are still needed to be solved. Whether you have experienced Soulmask or not, we hope you will fall in love with this game through Open Beta. And yet the game's optimization is far from over; even after EA, it's still a long journey of updates. Stay tuned; you'll all see it.
Join discord: https://discord.gg/playsoulmask
