Hello everyone!
I haven't posted an update in a couple of days, so I wanted to let everyone know what I've been working on.
A lot of you have been asking about the upcoming Hero Class overhaul. That is still my primary focus, but before I can build Hero Classes the way I want to, I need to solve one of the biggest progression problems currently in the game: portal scaling.
When I originally looked into this, I thought it would be a fairly straightforward change.
It wasn't.
My original plan was simply to expand the level ranges used by the existing portals. On paper, that sounded easy. In practice, the underlying zone levels are deeply tied into how enemies, progression, and rewards are generated. It quickly became clear that properly scaling every portal would require a much more comprehensive solution than simply changing a few level values.
To put the current progression into perspective:
At higher levels, you can gain roughly one level from Whispering Woods in around 7 clears.
The same amount of experience in Royal Keep would currently take over 800 clears.
That isn't just a balance issue anymore—it's a progression issue.
My goal is simple: I want you to be able to play any portal, at any level, and have it remain rewarding. Instead of feeling forced into whichever portal has the best numbers, you'll be able to play the content you actually enjoy.
Difficulty, experience, rewards, and progression should all adapt naturally to your character.
On paper, this sounded like a fairly small change. In practice, it meant stepping back and reworking part of the underlying architecture. Different kinds of encounters currently generate enemies in different ways, and before I can make every portal scale correctly, those systems need to be brought together under one consistent framework.
While this has delayed the next content update by a few days, I've learned over the past several weeks that investing time into the foundation now saves me from spending much longer chasing bugs and regressions later. Building systems the right way today makes future content faster to develop, easier to balance, and far more reliable.
Once this framework is in place, the plan is to begin bringing the remaining portals over to the new scaling system, with Celestial Rift currently planned as the first test case.
I'm not going to promise a release date just to rush it. I'd rather take a little more time now and build a solid foundation that I believe will make everything that follows—including Hero Classes—much smoother to develop.
As always, thank you all for your bug reports, suggestions, balance discussions, and encouragement. Every report helps improve Portalborn, and I genuinely read all of them.
There's still a lot of work ahead, but I'm excited about where the game is heading. Thank you all for your continued support and for joining me on this journey.