And some good news for you - this will be the final 1.0 preview news! After this, the next time you hear from me should be with a trailer drop and release date. ːsteamdanceː
Since this is the last 1.0 preview news, I felt it would be apt to give your guys an overview of just what Crystal Hunt is exactly, and how the game loop in the new progression mode is going to work. I wanted to do this news last, since everything had been so WIP and dev-art until only recently, so it wouldn't have done justice if I previewed things earlier.
Now, let's get into what Crystal Hunt is about!
Deep in the mountains of Eraden, entrances to long lost Dalgarian ruins have Inexplicably revealed themselves, triggering what folk have begun referring to as The Crystal Hunt. Within weeks of the first entrance discovery, major factions across Eraden mobilized to compete in finding these ruins and securing the valuables within.
Taking up temporary residence in abandoned Outposts dotted all around Eraden, the factions race to map out the surrounding wildlands and discover new Dalgarian entrances. This is where Player come in; also motivated to find Dalgarian ruins, Player will visit these faction occupied Outposts to gather intel on potential ruin locations.
The Outposts are as you know them in Sandbox and will be occupied by one of four factions, each presenting different challenges and difficulty levels. Outposts will have loot scaled on that difficulty, from gold and valuables which the player can use to purchase new weapons and armour in the shop, to Crystal Shards, which are minor magical crystals that can be used to unlock new skills on the skill tree.
Each faction is motivated by their own agenda in the Crystal Hunt, something a player can choose to delve into if they wish by finding lore and piecing together the bigger picture.
On this part, I've mentioned many times before that this won't be something forced upon the player and is optional. You could play the game at complete face value and enjoy it as a straight up action game with progression elements. But we know there are many fans who will be interested in the world of Byeth and the Blade & Sorcery universe, so we added deep lore for those players.
And as a side note, digging deep into the lore and the storylines of each competing faction may give you a more complete perspective on things! ːpraisesunː
The player will choose the background for their character and how they want to begin. Perhaps you are a lowly Gravity mage, or a Mind mage with slow-motion, or perhaps you would like a challenge and begin with no magic at all!
We also included a slew of customization options on start, from tweaking damage values, to death consequences (including permadeath for you mad lads who asked for it), to QOL things like whether you would like Dalgarian language to be translated automatically vs busting out a pen and paper and making an old school cipher yourself, which hardcore players may enjoy.
The player will begin progressing through Outposts and gathering intel on Dalgarian locations, ultimately leading the player to explore the Dalgarian dungeons themselves. From there, the objective will be to acquire a Crystal Core; this is the main currency for progression and what will lead the player to the end of the game.
The Dalgarian Dungeons are something we are deliberately holding back on over-revealing so that you guys can experience it firsthand in VR. ːlunar2019piginablanketː Images are cool, but they can't do justice to experiencing the scale of things in VR.
The Home map that Early Access players will be already familiar with will act as the hub between dungeon runs. Here the player can relax, visit the shop, equip new gear, or unlock new skills.
Remember this thing? It has been driving players crazy since U10 with wondering what the heck this thing was.
You guys jammed cups in it, came up with all sorts of conspiracy theories about its purpose, but now I am glad to put you out of your misery and confirm it is as some of you had correctly guessed - this is the skill tree!
When the player has at least one Crystal Core, they can interact with the skill tree; this was something we tried to make as interactable and immersive as we could for VR, as opposed to just a floating UI.
The Crystal Core itself is what unlocks a branch (the lowest branch) on the skill tree - Fire, Gravity, Lightning, Mind and Body. From here, players can use the lesser Crystal Shards they found in Dungeons to purchase skills within those branches.
If a player was to find a second Crystal Core, they can make a decision whether they want to unlock a new Skill Tree branch and diversify their character, or if they would rather merge Crystals together and push on to the next tier of power level in a specific branch.
There are pros and cons to either direction, so this will be up to the player! One player might find it cool to be able to slow time, featherfall, and cast the odd fireball, making themselves diverse and a little bit good at everything, whereas another player might decide to go all-in on specialization and become a full blown Fire Mage; outstanding at incinerating foes but not so versatile in other non-combat situations.
Release Status
What is the release status I hear you say!
Currently we are in full polish and bugfix mode. This is the final stretch (ːamadeus_happyː) but is also not estimable how long this stage will take (ːamadeus_spookedː). Polish means increasing the user experience by features more presentable to players, whereas bugfix on the other hand is fixing things that are broken in the game. And ... HO BOY.
Average Warpfrog dev bugfixing 1.0:
This update is a big one, so you can imagine the hell we are in right now with bugs.
With every update, we have always had a rough time with bugs simply due to the nature of the game being a physics simulation sandbox, but also because bugs are a compounding issue as ThunderRoad (our game framework) and the project have gotten more and more complex over the years.
So if you think of the trouble we might have had on any previous update, multiply this one by four. ːsteamdeadpanː
Random bugs. Random breakages. Lighting issues. Regression....
Wake up one day to test the build. Home is on fire? Cool, cool
Everything is on fire? Why not.
Some unholy Cthulu creature decides to manifest in your game? Just another day.
But despair not, we are on it! The whole team are trying their best right now and are pushing really hard to focus on cleaning up the game into a playable state. We can do it!
I should also state, I have read some comments of anxiety from players thinking 1.0 marks the final time we would touch the game. Be assured that 1.0 only marks our final major content update and the end of Early Access. There will be further patches for bugfixing, stabilization and QOL things. I certainly wish the 1.0 release was so perfect that it would need no improvements haha, but that is never the reality of things.
With that, I will talk to you guys next time at the trailer release news, so it is heads down until then and back to the bughunt for the Warpfrog team. Wish us luck!
