Hello everyone!
Good news — work on the patch is full steam ahead and nearing completion.
Here’s what I’ve been working on since the last update:
Added 15 new enemy types, not counting those I mentioned in the previous news.
Added several large new locations.
Created appearances for over 60 characters.
Completed all bounty board quests in Crimson Yar and the village before it.
Added 25 new dungeons — and that’s just in the territory available in the upcoming patch. For comparison, in Early Access there were only two.
Nearly finished work on ambient sounds for the new locations and new enemies.
Added a Bestiary to the player’s journal — after killing an enemy for the first time, you’ll learn about its weaknesses and backstory.
Loot crates can now be broken open with weapon strikes.
The upcoming patch’s territory is now populated with loot, crates, chests, items, alchemy plants, ore veins of different types, and other collectible elements.
Set up enemy loot tables.
Finished work on the Dark Forest location.
Added a forest trader of rare goods who trades them for acorns (which can be farmed from forest creatures).
Added 4 upgrade tiers for the following weapon types: swords, dual swords, greatswords, axes, dual axes, greataxes, spears/halberds, bows. In future patches I’ll be adding staves, throwing axes, wands, maces, crossbows, and more.
Added new items — for example, a grindstone that can be crafted from stone and ore, and when used increases the damage of piercing/slashing weapons.
Began implementing the weapon sharpening system — most likely it will be fully added after the patch release.
Assigned NPC patrol routes and basic simulation of their activities.
Completed many small tasks I can’t even recall, like setting up NPC mouth movements, and so on.
What’s left to do:
Trader inventories.
Optimization of the new areas.
2–3 more days of combat polishing.
Play through the game a couple of times to set at least some initial difficulty balance.
Another pass of quest polishing and finishing minor details.
And generally, since everything I’ve done for the patch so far has been at about 95% completion, now it’s time to tie up all the loose ends — fix, finish, and add anything I’ve missed.
Some things I’ve decided to add later, after the patch release — for example, everything related to sorcerers and their magic/staves. This is a huge chunk of work that would delay the patch.
I’d like to (and might be able to) finish the patch by the end of August, but if I’m not satisfied with the quality after my test playthroughs, the release will be moved to mid-September.
In any case, I recommend waiting for the full release version rather than playing an incomplete build, as there’s still a lot of exciting content to come.
The patch will mainly be released so it can be tested, and to remove any doubts about the work being done. But the best experience will be at full release.
The patch may contain a lot of bugs (or maybe not) since I’m currently focused on adding content rather than polishing it. All polishing will come afterward.
Thanks everyone — back to work!