Hello, chieftains:
This is Maggie, your community manager. Since the launch of Early Access, our team has been on an incredible journey. We've been working tirelessly to address your feedback and elevate Soulmask to new heights. As we mentioned before EA, every member of our community plays a crucial role in shape this gaming universe.
I have to say, insisting on polishing our game and showcasing the peculiarities of Soulmask are always the belief of us as developers. Meanwhile, we are making all effort to enhance the experience for you, allowing people to explore Soulmask world more freely while sticking to their routines. Achieving both of these goals has never been an easy task, but each of us believes that as a long-term project, Soulmask can only get better and better.
Today, we're excited to share a recap of our progress over the past month and unveil some game-changing updates coming your way next month. Plus, we'll address some ongoing issues.
Ready? Let’s dive in!
30-Day Review
In the past 30 days, we have made nearly 600 modifications based on the feedback from chieftains. This includes enhancements of game experiecne, and adjustments to some game mechanics according to your suggestions while still maintaining the integrity of the world lore! Most importantly, making Soulmask even more "sandbox-like" with more custom options.
Here are the highlights:
Perfect Remodel for Tribesmen
This was your top concern in the first two weeks of EA, and we acted swiftly:
In the latest update of Soulmask, we've added a "Perfect Remodel" feature to the advanced settings for both single-player and private servers. This feature acts like a "tribesmen save file," allowing you to store and update all tribesmen data on the Mysterious Stone Table. When resurrected, your tribesmen will return with their most recently saved data!
We've also introduced an option that allows you to adjust the cap on savable tribesmen, giving you more freedom to preserve your favorite tribesmen.
We hope these enhancements will boost your confidence in sending your best tribesmen on daring adventures. And good news—we're planning to roll out Perfect Remodel on official servers soon!
Map Teleport Optimization
Maggie vividly remembers that in the first week of release, Soulmask was dubbed a "walking simulator" by the community, due to the extensive travel times caused by exploration and death.
We can't rely on campfires that can be extinguished by rain to solve all problems, so we've decided to take action. For instance, we've added new portals in all Pyramid and Holy Ruins areas, increasing the total number of portals in Soulmask to 13.
We've also enhanced the practicality of player-crafted portals. These portals are now unlocked much earlier in the game, and we've added a single-player option that allows you to carry materials through portals. More importantly, your followers will now accompany you for quick travel via portals.
Lastly, we've added many new respawn points in mid-to-high-level areas. These points can be accessed by clearing the Fog of War, making exploration in these advanced areas significantly safer.
More Customization Options
One of the most frequently mentioned issues by players during the first month of EA was the lack of custom features. Addressing this has been one of our main priorities since then. If you're a player who loves personalized gaming experiences, you'll be excited to know that Soulmask now offers even more options in its advanced settings:
- We have introduced a switch to prevent enemies from respawning in barbarian camps when players are present—useful for PVE servers.
- We have introduced new options to adjust the crafting limits for bonfires and portals, and increased the limit on official servers to 10. This update offers greater flexibility in selecting your base locations.
- We now support the adjustment of load coefficient, allowing you to carry more ore.
- We have introduced an option to enable unlimited building height, allowing you to construct skyscrapers even with thatch. However, be cautious! Re-enabling the height limit will cause these towering structures to collapse!
- We've introduced an option to adjust the morale cost for tribesmen, so they won’t need sleep if you prefer.
Of course the above isn't not all. For Soulmask, freedom isn't just reflected within the game world; we will continue to enrich the custom options to fulfill everyone's diverse needs. Therefore, we sincerely welcome every chieftain to provide more specific feedback on your needs.
Difficulty Curve Improvement
In our first month, we have been primarily focused on optimizing game difficulty and late-stage statistics. We hope to delve into the intricacies of stat design in future discussions. Our current optimization efforts are concentrated in the following areas:
- Adjusted the late-game difficulty curve, particularly in the snow mountain and volcano regions
- Enhanced various difficulty mechanics to improve gameplay balance. Notably, we have removed monsters from dungeon entrances to increase player survival rates during exploration. Additionally, we've reduced the lethality of diseases and plagues, particularly for tribesmen.
- Increased the output of key materials, including higher multiplier for BOSS and elite monster drops in multiplayer battles. Also, we've boosted the yield of essential items such as rubber and adhesive to support technological development.
- Shortened the stamina recovery time from 2 seconds to 0.5 seconds and made humanoid enemies use defense more than dodge for ranged attacks.
Optimization for Tribesmen Followers:
Tribesmen are core to Soulmask. Over the past month, we’ve re-evaluated their roles and found many areas for enhancement:
For instance, when acting as followers, their survivability and support to the leader were lacking. To address this, we have improved their combat AI and increased their attack aggressiveness. In assist mode, they can now proactively engage in combats. Additionally, we've enhanced the overall survivability of all tribesmen; after being knocked down, they can quickly enter a feigned death state to recover. During this recovery period, enemies will no longer perceive them as threats—making them more valuable allies in battle.
We have also enhanced their functionality, allowing them to cultivate crops more intelligently. Additionally, we have improved their pathfinding capabilities: when an error occurs in the path, they can make slight adjustments using the mysterious power of the mask.
More Official Server Support
We strive to deliver unique experiences on our official servers. In the first month of Early Access, we introduced cross-server functionality for Asian, North American, and European PvP servers. Players can challenge different worlds through pyramid portals and defend against invaders!
We’ve also launched official servers in South America and Oceania, responding to feedback from Chiefs in those regions. Whether you prefer PVE or PVP, you can now play on a server in your area!We’ve also launched official servers in South America and Oceania, responding to feedback from Chiefs in those regions. Whether you prefer PVE or PVP, you can now play on a server in your area,
Updates for the Next Month
In our first month, we made significant progress, though it often felt like we were correcting mistakes on an imperfect test. But ZIMA is eager to achieve even more. Up next, we'll dive into the exciting new content planned for the coming month. Buckle up; we're venturing into uncharted territory!
Main Character Enhancement
Since our "Design of Beginning Charactersr" post, we've been contemplating the best approach to tackle the main character issue.
The first step, of course, is to strengthen our starter character—they should be as capable as any ordinary tribesman.
In the upcoming major update, the starter character will be reclassified as an outcast with moderate rarity. Similar to other tribesmen, they will acquire unique talents as they level up—special survival skills honed from escaping sacrificial rituals and tribal wars.
We’ve also increased the proficiency cap for the starter character. They may not match the experts in the tribe, but they’re definitely capable.
We remain committed to crafting the "ultimate solution" for our protagonist. Thankfully, we have an enthusiastic community of chiefs who continuously inspire us with your ideas! Your contributions have significantly streamlined this process. Today, we're thrilled to unveil our final design: Data Replication.
Data Replication
From the Mysterious Stone Table, the chieftain not only discovered how to enter their tribesmen's DNA information but also uncovered a magical function within it: using this entered genetic data to transform chieftain’s ordinary body—ultimately inheriting all abilities of their tribesmen.
"Data Replication" is an exciting new feature coming in our next major update. By using mask energy and crystals, you can conduct a deep genetic scan of specific tribesmen and modify the starter character’s body with tribesmen’s genetic data. This process transfers their unique talents to the main character, allowing them to harness these abilities. With this feature, the main character can embody the skills of any tribe member, unlocking the mask’s ultimate potential.
Note that due to the uniqueness of genes, this operation is irreversible. The replicated tribesmen cannot be recorded again - Perhaps making them base guards would be a good idea?
Crafting from inventory
The enigmatic mask continues to reveal its mysterious powers. Recently, chiefs discovered that the mask can teleport raw materials needed for production from storage boxes to the workbench through spatial teleportation technology.
In the upcoming month, we will be updating the global resource calling function. This enhancement allows chiefs to utilize materials from any storage box within the campfire's range while crafting. This improvement minimizes the need for constant trips between storage boxes—leave that task to the tribesmen who aren't wearing masks!
The Follower Squad
A single follower is no longer sufficient for the increasingly intense battles. Our tribesmen have been trained in team combat tactics using the mask's data.
In this month's late update, we're introducing an adjustable coefficient for the "number of followers" in single-player mode and private servers. This new feature will allow you to send multiple tribesmen into battle. This is just the beginning for the tribesmen squad; we have plans to further expand its tactical potential in future updates. Stay tuned!
More?
We have an array of exciting changes lined up for our major July update. While we can't detail everything due to the length constraints of this post, I can assure you that July will be a transformative month for Soulmask.
And this is just the beginning. We know there are still many issues with Soulmask that need to be addressed, such as the cheating problem that everyone is complaining about—we will share our progress on ensuring fair play later on—or the longstanding issues like interface usability and sound effects.
We are aware of these issues and are working diligently to resolve them. We will share our progress with you as soon as possible. A glorious civilization isn't built in a day, but that day is not too far off.
You’ll soon be able to experience all of this and more. Stay tuned for updates from Soulmask. I'm Maggie, and we'll see you in the next developer’s log!