The world, redrawn
A redrawn map and re-placed content.
The last dispatch moved bosses onto the formation grid. This one is mostly about a reorganized world.
The map
Zones have been moved so that player progression flows more naturally throughout the map. This update also aims to address the “hub-and-spoke” design that the old map had. There are now more connecting zones and shortcuts through the map.
Enemies and resources have also been redistributed throughout the map, so most creatures have moved. Of the ones carried over, about half stayed inside their old region (a collection of related zones) and only 17 kept a zone they previously lived in. Roughly half had their stats adjusted as well, with the pass aimed at progression rather than at content for its own sake. The roster grew from 62 creatures to 84 along the way.
Harvesting
Harvesting is being expanded so that it’s no longer combat in disguise.
The first to be expanded is Fishing. Fishing now sees units waiting for a catch and then working to exhaust whatever they caught.
Mining, scavenging, and foraging have had minor changes to how resource nodes are placed. In the future, these methods will also have unique mechanics added to them to make the methods stand out.
As part of this effort, four new Meta Skills have been added, one per harvest method. Each raises what a node of its method yields.
More mob drops
Every creature and node leaves one common, low-value thing behind: a husk, a bent plate, the tailings off a seam.
They have two sinks.
- A merchant keeps a book per grade and pays a price that decays as resources are sold to them.
- A quest giver may ask for a number of drops and pays higher than the merchant but must be returned to in order to turn in the drops.
Inspect
Combat and harvesting now have an Inspect tab. Each body reports its own statline and active modifiers, gated on what a player’s bestiary has learned about the creature. It reports the round just fought, so a one-round effect is visible. A new fight ticker carries a running average of the whole run alongside the last round.
Item display changes
Items now have procedurally generated sprites (done in the game client, not via AI). This allows for the inventory to show more items on screen at once and sets the stage for actual sprites down the line.
Under the hood
Game updates are now compressed and use a custom byte format. An uneventful tick went from 980 bytes to 85 bytes.
The game client’s wire types are generated from the server now. The hand-written file they replaced had drifted 33 type errors looser than the server it mirrored.
The rest
- Boss fights can now be started as a public or private instance. A private instance has no damage cap.
- A session expires seven days after its last use, not seven days after a player signed in.
- Shop UIs have been reworked to be nicer to use.
What’s next
Unit, enemy, and item sprites along with more content.
Guest accounts are open at online.grindshell.com.
About the wipe
Alpha progress will be wiped when the beta arrives.