Good day Mercians!
In today's blog post we thought it would be best to discuss some of the content in development for the next update (to be released very soon) including some hints towards future developments for the game, so gather around and witness whats coming to........ the black death:
Private sessions
We recently decided before adding lots of new content it would be best to make sure the game can be played in anyway the player likes. So it's my pleasure to announce we had developed a new client-run listen server system (private sessions) for the black death.
What does this mean? Well essentially players will be able to create their own "private" worlds (without the need of server hosting) and invite their friends to join, enabling single-player or co-op experiences, however we are also working on functionality to allow players to list their “sessions” publicly. Currently this is going through heavy testing and has reveal some exciting possibilities you will be able to discover soon. This system is additional and does not affect the current online server infrastructure we have in place.
This will be an extra step towards the black death becoming the experience everyone expects it to be, for those who are curious to how this may “detract” from the online experience we are working on systems to compliment both infrastructures that will hopefully increase online activity whilst keeping client-run listen servers relevant with a whole new “meta” mechanic, as we truly believe the black death is better experience when played together. So keep your eyes peeled for future announcements, great times are ahead.
Bigger world (15%)
Mercia is always being improved by the world artists and designers but today we finally get to show progress that has been made to increase whole world play area by 15%. As you can see in the screenshot above 3 new regions are being added that is just over a square kilometer in size! The new regions are named freeman’s castle (overlooking freemans port) Murkridge and Freelaw. These locations are currently planned to be raid areas including a town for bandits and outlaws named Freelaw fort (if you are of the outlaw profession you can freely explore and shop there).
Freeman’s castle will seem like the nation’s capital at first sight but once you’ve entered you’ll have difficulty leaving alive, experience a town within castle walls void of law and order.
Murkridge will be a resourceful bridge between the other two new regions filled with travelling citizens, events and ambushes so tread carefully and carry a big sword. This area will also include more stable ground for all your building needs.
Flagellants
In an attempt to re-work the current monk NPCs we felt it was best to remove them as hostile npcs and return them to their former neutral state towards the player and have them try to heal the world instead of burn it, so they take their place we have been building a new NPC type that better fits the role of a dangerous religious fanatic, these are flagellants.
Flagellants were rampant during the black death and a great depiction of the time, an exciting opportunity to further improve immersion and lore throughout the world. These new enemies will drop exclusive item types such as weapons and clothes.
Item refactor
We are currently addressing issues with disappearing items and in whilst doing so we discovered a few ways we could improve and increase performance within our inventory system, in the next update for the black death will include not only fixes for the current issues within game but a new faster more stable system that should be more responsive across the board.
We will be looking to get this update out as soon as possible however we will be testing on our beta server this week so stay tuned for a update announcement.
Hope you enjoyed catching up with us and as always thanks for playing everyone and we will see you in Mercia!
The S.I.G. Team