Morning everyone!
We noticed there's been a lot of discussion about the Backer Alpha and your suggestions for how we can improve the game before the final release, and we're catching up on reading those now!
There have been some big discussions slated for this week and the next, as well as sprints dedicated specifically to tying together the narrative, quest loop, level design, and more, all while tackling some of the problems brought up by many of you. Keep in mind that some things, such as object highlighting and narrative VO being cut down, is much easier to remove and toggle because we are already planning for that.
Many of you have also expressed suggestions that are already in the game, but not present in the Backer Alpha:
*Steel doors that can only be lockpicked
*Wooden doors have now been tweaked so swords cannot bash them down as quickly
*Weapon durability
*Player torch is being fine-tuned
*Runic spellcasting is nearly finished
*Maps are getting a new pass, etc.
For those of you worried about the hub, I would encourage you to think of the hub as just another level with specific NPCs you can interact with, rather than a safe zone. In fact, depending on how dire the situation is, it may be a hard fight just to return to Marcaul at all...
It's a spoiler, do not click if you do not want to see it.
We've been quiet because we're hunkering down on the game, and most notably coming up on external playtesting soon. There's a lot of things we're experimenting with based on your feedback, and we'll need your input soon, so keep an eye out for an email either by the end of this week or the beginning of next week. If you are interested in possible opportunity to participate in that playtest, be sure and join our Discord: discord.gg/underworldascendant
Thanks,
Dev Team