Fortune Favors the Bold
By now a lot of you have had a chance to play around in the Big World playtest. We have invited over 9,000 players into the test and run three separate worlds concurrently: U.S. East, U.S. West and Europe for days at a time.
Much blood has been spilt, our combat improvements were exceptionally well received, and everyone has been able to – for the first time – get a glimpse of the game that we are actually building.
What Comes Next?
The answer is: a LOT.
As I mentioned before, we’ve shifted our development approach to be more like a live MMO. That means features and contents will be released in fits and bursts; less predictability on exactly WHEN, but with a frequency of things being added.
Here are a few of the big ticket items, coming soon to a server near you.
Unique World Maps
Until now, the three distinct servers used a common world map. That’s about to change, and each of the servers will have a unique map -- mountains, swamps, villages, castles will be scattered in different locations. That also means you’ll have to search around to find the higher quality resources.
We’re also adding more stuff INTO each of these maps: new parcels, new types of terrain (we are trying out some canyons and rivers) and filling out the settlements with undead hero NPCs.
New Skill Trees
A handful of new skill trees are right around the corner, as well, including: Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, Runecrafting, Woodworking, and…
Necromancy
The end-result of this system is equal parts cool and morbid. It requires the use of a “spirit shovel” (similar to our other ghostly harvesting tools) to scavenge cadavers and body parts from graveyards, and unlocks crafting recipes that allow you to craft new…
Vessels
Players who want to experiment with new vessels will be able to do so… and, of course, this means that we will need to bring the “Crow” death & respawn rules online too.
Our design goal was to make the vessels system an interesting layer that players could choose to explore (or not). Players who don’t want to mess with vessels should find the system pretty familiar to other MMOs.
Embargo and Eternal Kingdom Prototype
…and lastly, all of this moves us close towards our next major hurdle, which is setting up a bridge between the (dangerous, resource-rich) campaign worlds and the (safe, resource-starved) Eternal Kingdoms.
Our first version of the Eternal Kingdom will be a common world where players can log in, drop a few test buildings and then use those buildings for advanced crafting. Resource harvesting in this world will be extremely limited (i.e. sub-poor quality items), which means that if you want to start building your economic empire, you’ll need to either brave the campaign worlds or find allies to trade with.
Initially, this core loop will be simple (no set import or export, just a container that allows you to transfer items between worlds). DON’T get too use to this set up! It’s the easiest way we can prove out the architecture, after which we’ll add rules that determine when, where and how you can move items between worlds.
More on this one later.
TL;DR Summary
…a LOT of crazy, cool stuff will be coming into the game in the next couple of months.
As always, THANK YOU for your continued support – and I want to throw out a special thank you to the individuals who invested in our offering.
“Offering?”, you say. “What offering?”
Great question! In case you missed, click here:
https://app.microventures.com/crowdfunding/artcraft-entertainment
It’s an incredible time for both ACE and Crowfall. Our vision is starting to materialize, and the excitement (ours and yours!) is palpable.
This game – this universe -- is going to be amazing, and I can’t wait to see where you guys take it.
J. Todd Coleman
Co-Founder/Creative Director, ArtCraft Entertainment