We know there was some confusion surrounding why we're delaying the wipe, and we wanted to answer some of the questions we've seen.
Q: WILL THERE STILL BE A WIPE?
A: Y E S. We are still planning on wiping the game, just not in October like we originally stated.
Q: OKAY BUT WHEN IS THE MAIN BRANCH WIPE GOING TO HAPPEN?
A: We don’t have an exact date yet for the main branch wipe. We want to open up the beta branch first and see how that goes before we set any date. Once we do know when we want a wipe to happen, we’ll give plenty of heads up.
Q: WHAT IS THE PTR AND HOW WILL IT WORK?
A: We’re going to be calling it “BB” for Beta Branch instead of “PTR”. The main difference is that this branch will be active for a longer duration than PTR, which would run only for a few days, and also that BB will be getting periodic updates up until it becomes official with a wipe. It will also have a full-sized dynamic realm just like the official one.
You'll be able to switch the branches at any moment and play either on the official realm with your current character or the BB realm with a new one.
Q: WHAT WILL HAPPEN WITH PRIVATE SERVERS? WILL THEY GET THE BETA BRANCH UPDATES?
A: We don’t have a concrete answer for this just yet. Once we do, we will make sure to post about it.
Q: IS THE BETA BRANCH PERMANENT?
A: It's permanent in a sense that we do not expect it to be wiped. However, at the moment, we don't plan to have it running in parallel with the official branch once that one gets updated and wiped as mentioned last week.
Q: HOW OFTEN WILL YOU WIPE THE MAIN BRANCH / INTRODUCE THE CHANGES MADE IN THE BETA BRANCH TO THE MAIN BRANCH?
A: As of now, we're mainly considering the Beta Branch as the testing ground for the Commerce Update and all the core game changes that are coming with it. The idea is that we'll continue iterating on those changes within the Beta Branch until they're fully ready and then put them all together on the main branch in the end.
We don't have any specific plans for wiping the main branch afterwards, but, considering the nature of Early Access, if there will be large changes that affect the core of the game, a wipe might be a necessity.
DEVELOPER SPOTLIGHT: LUCAS
Hello, fellow members of the Last Oasis community! My name is Lucas, but you can call me Stannis. I am a producer here at Donkey Crew, working with the amazingly talented team behind the development of Last Oasis.
I’m glad to share with you my thoughts on one of my favorite subjects: Game Production! That’s right. So, let’s get to it.
Game Production is a field of work in the games industry which is formed by professionals dedicated to lead and oversee the development process of a game, from the earlier ideas to a shipped product that players will love (or not...).
Producers deal with and manage all kinds of resources that a studio has available to invest in the development of a game project, from money and time to hardware and software. The Producer is a bridge between the creative process and the business objectives. The Producer is a facilitator of the development process, helping developers and team leads to make decisions that are aimed at making the game the best it can be, taking into account the limitations in place and, a lot of the times, working with the teams to remove those limitations.
That all sounds interesting (well, to me at least), right? But most importantly, Producers work with People. People which are creative, passionate, driven. People that want to leave a mark through their creative work, people that want to make a game that brings a smile to someone’s face, or maybe some wrinkles of excitement. People that want to create an amazing experience that will be remembered. People that love what they do. So, in my humble opinion, the Producer's biggest and most important role is to empower those and help them do their best work. That’s what I like the most about it. Driven people aiming to do their best alongside their teammates. I like to help people like this.
Being a Producer in a project as big and ambitious as Last Oasis is a challenge, but what I love about it is the ability to work with an international team of individuals on a unique setting, with a lot of novelty features that brings us a lot of excitement (and also some trouble, to be honest). I also love the fact that Last Oasis is being followed by a passionate community that cares about the future of the game. Both positive and negative feedback helps us a lot in shaping our discussions on how to tackle the biggest issues the game has, but also to bring new and exciting gameplay. I always like to say that Game Development can get incredibly emotional. Well, as I’ve said, we’re driven people trying to make the best we can to deliver a memorable and fun experience. A lot of times, we succeed, and it’s amazing. Sometimes we don’t, and it can be very frustrating. But that’s part of the road of an Early Access game. It’s nothing but a blessing to help lead this project and have you all as companions while we work on polishing the rough edges.
I guess that’s it, everyone! That covers a lot of my thoughts on producing games and producing Last Oasis. Thanks to you that read and to sum this up, I would like to take this opportunity to give two big shout-outs. The first one to my fellow Production Team colleagues Chris, Marcin, and Victoria and all our Development Team amazing people. And the second one, of course, to our amazing community at our Discord Server.
See you next time! :)
COMMUNITY QUESTIONS
Don’t forget to check out our Living FAQ to see what we’ve answered in the past! If you have a question you want to ask the devs, join our Discord. A new question form will be posted in #announcements tomorrow (Friday)!
Q: Will there ever be a way to track player and walker kills? Maybe a way to know player "reputations" based on players always attacking first or something like that? A way to back up some trash talking would be nice. There are steam achievements that track some of that, but having in-game numbers and a maybe a kill/death ratio would be really fun.
A: We’ve briefly mentioned things like titles before, and stats or leaderboards would fit perfectly with those! Reputation system is quite tricky, as it would likely turn into a griefing simulator until the enemy has enough of it and attacks first, but tracking various types of kills and other things is something we’d like to explore.
Q: Are you thinking about adding a dyeing system to the game?
A: We’re a bit on the fence with dyeing, since it would overlap with the clan coloring system, but we’ve had some ideas already for how to implement it. Will definitely be considering it for one of the future updates.
Q: How’s development on Commerce and future themes going?
A: Commerce is almost here! We’re finishing up the last bits and pieces, and doing some balancing and internal tests before putting it out on the Beta Branch for you to help us test all the core gameplay changes. The next theme is currently being planned by our production team (like Lucas ♥) and some of the features are already being prototyped in parallel.
Q: Will we ever be getting a place to show off wealth? A place for players to meet in safety and either show off walkers or gear or just hang out a little while taking a break from the PvP?
A: That's generally what we imagine the Flotilla to be. A peaceful place for Nomads to meet, trade, participate in events, fight at an arena, and just relax away from the dangers of the outside world.
Our video producer, Jakub, is working on another one of his side project narrative videos! Enjoy a little tease of what’s to come at the end of the month 🎃:
*remember: these videos are things Jakub makes on his own in-engine, and are not meant to show anything related to the development of the game. This video will be a little Halloween treat!