Hello mates! Baron here, and as promised, I am back with the preview news for the Sentara Update. If you didn't catch the news last time, check it out here because it has the preview for the other half of content coming to 1.2.
Still no release date confirmed, but we are feeling fairly confident about an end of February ballpark.
Update 1.2 is going to be all about the nation of Sentara, so let's jump into what is to come!
Sentari Themed Weapons
The staple of every Byeth Update - new themed weapons.
As you may have guessed, the Sentari weaponry are inspired by maritime and pirate weapons.
To kick it off in the sword category, we have a nice dueling sword and sabre.
But it's not just swords, a new boarding axe joins the roster, and an unusual entry to the spear category; the harpoon.
In small daggers, we have a fancy looking stiletto.
And of course, as revealed in the last news, the classic cutlass.
But wait there's more!
It is a pirate update after all, so you may have guessed it - we have a surprise weapon:
Sentari Firearm
This was a huge question mark weapon because it opens a can of worms on whether or not to add gunpowder into the world of Blade & Sorcery, and what would that mean to do so.
It also raised a big question that if we were to add some kind of realistic musket, would it involve a full blown loading and firing simulation - if it didn't, that wouldn't seem right, and if it did, it would end up making the weapon too laborious for players for players to find useful (despite 18th century being my favourite time period and muskets are my favourite weapon, even I think having the player load a gun for 20 seconds via a complicated procedure would be too much)
With all this in mind, we opted to not add gunpowder into the world of Blade & Sorcery, for all the complications it creates. Instead, we leaned into a lore-friendly solution for Sentari firearms being crystal-based.
But since the Sentari are not particularly magical, this is not "shoot a fireball from your fingertips" type of magic, this is more "banging crystals together to make a boom" type of magic. ːamadeus_happyː
The result is something that is SO FUN, and that was the most important thing for us.
The Sentari firearm operates by imbuing a base crystal with an element, and then striking crystals to produce different effects.
A gravity imbued gun will blast an arc of enemy away with extreme force, meanwhile a fire imbued gun can ignite enemies and create fires.
And of course, the lightning blast, which is quite something to behold, lol.
The rule of cool was in full design effect here, though despite being incredibly powerful, I think we struck the perfect balance between the firearm being fun and useful, without the reload and single shot mechanic being too laborious.
Sentari Concoctions
Some of you guys were commenting on my little sneak reveal of the bottle in the last news and I read a bunch of comments from people saying it was probably just a new health potion.
And nice and very reasonable guess, but you should know better from Warpfrog!
Nope, this ended up being an entire scope creep addition lol, so I present to you, Sentari concoctions!
When designing these, we specifically did not want to add potions that were purely offensive tools, since there is a ton of that already in the game. So with these, the goal was adding something more fun, but that also may have a bit of latent utilitarian use.
The concoctions come in three different varieties:
Feather draught
My favourite! Used by Sentari sailors to quickly scurry up masts and rigging, this potion allows the drinker to become temporarily weightless and "swim" though the air.
But be careful because when it runs out, there is no featherfall!
Burning draught
Often banned by Sentari captains due to repeated mishaps while are sea, this spicy fire brew causes the drinker to belch out flames.
A nice little passive bonus effect is that it causes a short period of illumination from the drinkers body, which is good if you are stuck in a dark location with no torch.
Shocking draught
A classic prank to pull on fellow sailors at meal time, this zingy brew will cause the drinker to experience a short period of magnetism, pulling all nearby metal objects into orbit.
In terms of gameplay, you might imagine how this could be utilitarian when surrounded by a bunch of metal armoured enemies wielding metal weapons!
Sentari Themed Armour
As with all Byeth Updates, there will also be a faction themed armour.
Here is a render of the full outfit!
For Sentara, it was super fun to watch the art and modeling team work on these because it was a bit less traditional in design to do a full cloth attire with a little razzle- dazzle.
The outfit is lightwear comprised of a shirt, jacket, trousers, boots and hat, as well as some jewellery pieces.
Some of you eagle-eyed folk noticed the jewelry pieces on the player's hands in the previous news - well spotted! Just to clarify, they are purely cosmetic pieces!
The Sentari faction AI will also wear this armour and mix-matched variants of it.
You will be able to fight the Sentari faction in both sandbox and in Dungeons.
Sentara Themed Map
I mentioned last time that the Sentara Update will feature two new faction themed maps.
Last month I showed you the Rakta map that we are adding retrospectively, so this month I am now pleased to show you guys the Sentara map!
The map will be available in both sandbox and as one of the playable arena maps in Crystal Hunt.
If you are wondering what is the deal with the lighthouse, there is some fun for you there. I don't wanna spoil too much because we wanna let you explore that on your own. ːtmntdonː
New Music
To go along with our new maps, new themed tracks are included with each map, and all future Byeth maps will have a new music too.
The songs are composed by Glamdok, our same composer who did all the original game music.
Here is one of the songs as a taster -
Buoyancy Simulation
You can't have a water themed map without simulating floating!
What started off as a small simulation test got surprisingly deep (no pun intended!). Included in Sentara, objects will now simulate floating in water depending on various factors such as weight and material.
And if you are wondering if that includes bodies, yes it does!
Honestly, it was a weird December, lol... Wully went down a strange rabbit hole of madness with this for a couple of weeks.
Checking in to see how he was doing and you would find him crunching numbers to try determine the most realistic calculations for how a dead body would float, lol. "But what if the body is chopped up??" ːsteamlaughcryː
Exhibit A: evidence of Wully's madness
Survival Achievement Rework
Not so much a big thing, but worth mentioning because I know it was a pain for many of you guys -
One of the achievements, "Wildfolk Stamina" involves surviving 50 waves of survival mode consecutively. Even before release there was a bunch of dissent from the team on this achievement, as besides being incredibly hard, it is also just too grindy to have to power through 50 waves. Even if you are farming achievements and use a cheat to insta-kill all waves, you are still gonna be sitting there for about 20-30 mins.
We knew the odds were high that this achievement was going to be overbearing, and indeed it was. As a result, a change is coming in the Sentara update to alter how the achievement works: The 50 waves will now be cumulative.
That means you could do 20 waves in one play session, another 15 here, another 15 there, and it will all total up to 50 to unlock the achievement. You won't have to do it all in one run, or worry about losing your run because you died on wave 49.
That's it for now, folks!
Next time I post a news, there should be a release date. ːpraisesunː
Bye for now!