The latest update, The Enchanted, is now live in BETA. There are many major changes in this update: enchantments, redesigned toolbar, and a new biome to name a few.
I want to reiterate that this is a beta version. Be sure to keep a backup copy of your worlds/characters before playing. You can join the beta by going to Crea properties on Steam, go to the beta tab and then select "unstable" from the dropdown menu.
There are many existing issues that have yet to be fixed. They will be my focus until I get them fixed. Please be sure to report any issues you run into. Even if you are not running into any issues please let me know if you are playing the beta so I can get a better sense of how stable v1.4 is.
I will save the feature highlighting for the full 1.4 release but I decided to include the changelog to wet your appetite.
Changelog 1.4
Features
Equipment is now enchantable with Enchantments
Enchanter NPC is now open for business
Redesigned toolbar
Illuminated items and bloom
New biome has been discovered: Mangroves
New family of slimes moved in
New higher level treasure chests are now lootable
Armory has been stocked with many new shields
Changes
Added new Chaos crafting skills, chaos effects and consumables
Chaos crafting rebalanced
Added simple chaos crafting tutorial
Characters now start with being able to perform attack combos, ledge grab, sprint and move while using shields and bows
Monsters are now momentary staggered when hit
Sword attacks now have a larger hitbox
Characters now have a brighter natural light
Characters now make a "hurt" sound when hit
It is now possible to place blocks directly ontop of the backwall
Equipment is no longer used in crafting the upgraded piece of equipment
Potential attributes removed from equipment in favor of enchantments
Weapons now have a range of power values with final power determined from item quality
Lowered level requirement for most lower level gear
Reduced Artisan Gloves crafting cost
Added new notifications for when boss realms become accessible
Increased the number of monsters that can spawn at one time
Dropped items now bounce a little
Entering water now makes a splash
Underwater sound ambiance added
Bug Fixes
Resolved issue with strips of blocks not rendering
Player can no longer change weapon loadout while defending
Resolved several interface issues with controllers
Enchanting Items
The next major update, "The Enchanted" (v1.4), is just around the corner! As we approach the release I wanted to share details about the new enchantments.
What are Enchantments
Enchantments are little trinkets imbued with some of the lifeforce found in remna. This gives them a wide range of special attributes. These attributes can be transferred to equipment through Chaos Crafting or with the help of the new Enchanter NPC for a price. Enchantment attributes range from simple "+X ATK" to the more complex such as on hit effects.
Where to get Enchantments
Enchantments are currently found in the treasure chests scattered about Crea. They can have special attributes only available from specific locations such as dungeons or bosses. So keep an eye out for them every time you crack open a casket.
How to use Enchantments
Enchantments are used during material selection when crafting equipment. Enchantments do have a specified level and using a higher level enchantment will raise the required level to equip the item. Many attributes on enchantments have a value range such as "+[5-8] ATK". By getting a higher quality through Chaos Crafting you can achieve the high numbers.
Changes to Equipment
With the addition of enchantments, there are many changes being made to equipment.
The most notable change is that equipment will no longer be upgraded from tier to tier. Previously you would need a Greatsword to craft an Executioner - now you don't! This also means that some high tier equipment have been weakened. This is especially true for bows.
Following that, another huge change is that equipment no longer have the "potential" attributes. Equipment will still have their unique attributes and armor will have some DEF and MIND but beyond those the attributes will have to come from enchantments.
Nearly all of the level specific items such as "Sano's Gorget Lv20" have been removed. Now the base item simply scales with the player by providing a percentage instead of a flat amount. For example, "Sano's Gorget" used to give +30HP but now it will give you +20%HP.
There are many other major changes coming to Crea in "The Enchanted". Keep an eye out for the beta announcement coming soon.
Let me know what you think about Enchantments and these changes below in the comments!
1.4 In Development
Greetings!
Since 1.3 has landed we have been hard at work on the next big update for Crea. This update is going to feature some massive changes that everyone will love. First, we are finally adding some brand spanking new content. This will include doubling the shields, a new biome and several new monsters. Beyond content, we have completely reworked the toolbar once again and are doing a huge overhaul on how equipment works.
Toolbar Redesign
No one likes the current toolbar and at best those familiar with it have come to tolerate it. The reason the current iteration (roughly v5) has existed for so long is simply because I could not come up with a better solution. Thanks to Josh and Jonatan we were able to tackle the design and make something that feels great. The primary challenge has been trying to make the toolbar serve two different game modes (build and combat). The current version took this literally but that resulted in many inconsistencies in the controls making the learning curve extremely steep and always a pain to use.
In the new version (above), the toolbar has been simplified down to a single toolbar. Everything is press to use making skills as quick as ever to use along with everyone else. Placeable items such as blocks and furniture will go into a placement mode nearly identical to when you grab it from your inventory. While placing items from your toolbar you can quickly change to another by either a key press or with the mouse scrollwheel. In case you were ever worried about toolbar space, put those worries aside because now you can instantly change between four different toolbars with ctrl+1-4.
Outside of placement mode, you can either have your weapons out (currently "W") or you can have your tool and offhand out (currently "Q"). We made switching between these separate keys so that you can always get to exactly what you want in a single button press. The weapons/tool are still usable with left/right mouse buttons and switching your weapon loadout is still Tab. Of course all of these keys are completely rebindable even including the toolbar numbers.
Equipment Overhaul
This next major update is bringing some substantial changes to equipment. Upgrading your equipment is being completely removed in favor of a much more juicy feature: ENCHANTMENTS! Through enchantments you will be able to customize your equipment while crafting to however you like - that is of course once you find the right enchantments. More details on enchantments will be in a future announcement as we get a bit closer to 1.4 release. (or you can just join the devstream)
Feedback
What equipment attributes are your favorite? Do you have any attributes you'd love to see?
Interface Renovation Released (v1.3)
After months of hard work we are thrilled to announce the update "Interface Renovation" (v1.3) is now available!
With "Interface Renovation", massive progress has been made in both stability and performance not to mention a shiny new interface.
Performance Improvements
Performance was never Crea's strong point and overtime with the addition of new content and features the performance suffered more and more. Now, a great deal of work, Crea is running much much smoother. The exact boost varies from machine to machine but there have been reports of going from 25 to 60FPS!
Interface Renovation
With the interface being the primary culprit in the performance issues, it was necessary to rewrite it from the ground up. While doing this we decided to take the opportunity to redesign some of it. Such as the crafting flow has been streamlined, Chaos Crafting has an all new interface, and researching received some lovely new graphics.
Visual Improvements
Along with the interface, there have been several other visual improvements. Lighting has dramatically been enhanced as well as many other various items such as dirt and stone. Overall making for a much improved visual experience!
Issues Resolved
We made sure to fit some much needed bug fixes in this update. Here are just a few:
Running Crea on older Windows OS is now much more stable.
Players no longer fall through the ground when teleporting to a new realm in mulitplayer.
Resolved issue with massive slowdown in other realms
While this update has wrapped up we've already begun to work on the next major update. Now that Crea is in a much better state we are finally getting some new content into Crea! Along with the new content the chaos crafting will be receiving some major enhancements. This next update wont be in development nearly as long as v1.3 so look forward to it next month. Be sure to join the community and follow along with development.
The next Crea update (v1.3) is available on the unstable (beta) branch!
In this update we have a new interface, massive performance optimizations, and some various other fixes. More details will be posted once the update is out of beta.
Thanks to those brave few (0xE1, Xalaron, MrPoundsign, Smile, and Fieke) who have been helping out with the testing we have managed to get it to a mostly stable place. Be warned though that there are likely still some issues lurking. That's why we'll fix with your help.
If you would like to test this you can find the unstable branch under "BETA" tab in Steam > Crea > Properties. Please report any issues you run into following this post. Feel free to also join my daily development steam and report issues there.
Continuing Performance Optimizations
Hello again, I hope everyone has been doing well! Apologies on the delayed status update. I have had my head down for a little too long now.
We have been hard at work on reworking the UI (User Interface) to use our own solution and have made some great progress. Unfortunately getting this update out is taking longer than I initially hoped but for good reason. Since we were have to reimplement all of the UI we are taking this opportunity to redesign some things and polish it up.
So far we have been focusing on the more complex interfaces such as the toolbar, research and crafting. Things are looking fantastic thanks to Jonatan's keen eye. Here is a sneak peak at the new talent and research UIs.
The crafting interface has been completely redesigned and is much improved. We made quite a number of changes to that so I will save the details for my next post. Spoiler: Chaos Crafting is looking very sexy now!
The foundation is more or less complete now including UI zooming and controller support. There are still a few more UIs to redesign and then implement. Once those are done I will spend a bit more time on smoothing out the performance in a few other places. Then we'll finally be onto testing this bad boy. We are still a few weeks away from getting this update out but it is looking glorious and is well worth the wait! Thank you everyone for your patience thus far. <3
Out of all of the UI dialogs in Crea, which one would you like to see given some love and why? Let me know in the comments!
Performance Optimizations Update
Hello! It has been a few weeks and so I just wanted to give an update on what is happening. I have been completely focused on implementing the new system and have made great progress with it.
It may look exactly like the existing inventory but this one is completely driven by my new system! Up to this point I have dedicated myself to building the UI system's foundation. I am nearly complete with it and will start converting all of the UI over very soon.
As far as performance gains go, I wont know the exact numbers until it is finished but I can say it is looking very promising. At the moment it looks like the UI will be around 10 to 100 times faster! In other words, it will no longer be an issue.
I should be able to get this optimized version of Crea out in a few weeks. With all of the major code changes there are several new issues that must be squashed. Thank you everyone for your patience in the meantime and feel free to join in the development streams to check in on the progress of things.
Performance Optimizations
Hello everyone! I wanted to give an update on what I've been working on and what to expect regarding the performance issues that many players have encountered. A quick summary would be that I am making some major changes that should greatly alleviate performance issues. Here are some more details for those interested. Performance issues primarily stem from heavy usage of Python scripting and the UI library solution.
TLDR
Major changes are under development to alleviate performance issues
Python Migration
In order to make Crea more moddable I have tried writing nearly all gameplay logic in Python which is completely exposed to everyone. The downside to this is that Python can be quite slow - especially when it is jumping back and forth between the game engine (c++) and Python. I have pinpointed several bottlenecks in the Python code and have migrated most of it over to the engine side. Crea is already around 20% faster due to these changes.
User Interface Rewrite
The remaining performance pressure point is the UI library. If you ever have low framerate it is likely because of the UI. For some it causes massive slowdown and can account for 50% of the framerate. Fixing this would be HUGE!
After a great deal of investigation and consideration I have decided to completely rewrite the UI with my own solution. Crea has a crazy amount of UI so this is no mere task. This means throwing away countless hours of work and spending another month or more of work on it. The end result will be a more mod friendly UI and a much faster game. Remember that 50%? Well if you're running at 30FPS then after this you should be able to achieve 60FPS!
Hopefully we'll be able to improve the UI some along the way too. If you have any feedback on the UI then definitely leave a comment below!
Hardware Performance Issues
One thing worth noting is that this does not mean all performance issues will be magically solved. Sometimes there are issues with hardware (namely graphics cards) that can cause major problems. After the next update I will spend time focusing on these types of issues so that way everyone can enjoy Crea at a smooth framerate.
End Transmission
Thank you everyone for your continued support! I will keep you all apprised of how things are progressing once I have something noteworthy to report.
Kaelie joins the Siege!
After 9 months of working on convincing her to join the team I am pleased to announce that baby Kaelie has signed on! She will undoubtedly bring much to the team!
I'm sure it is a little weird seeing a baby announcement here on Steam but there is good reason for it. Crea was for the most part a husband and wife project with myself, Jasson, doing the programming/design and Kelley doing the artwork. It has nearly been 5 years since we started working on Crea and we've shared a great deal of our lives through the process. We've now been working on Crea for the majority of our marriage!
Kaelie is our latest project we've been working on and couldn't be happier to announce her 1.0 release. Also for any of those who may be concerned, you may rest assured that she is not a clone of any sort.
Apologies for anyone running into issues right now. I will do my best to get around to them when I can but I do ask for your patience. Thank you everyone for your continued support!
Update "Rebirth" Released! (v1.2)
We are excited to announce that Crea's latest update, "Rebirth" (v1.2), is now out!
Rebirth brings several new key features along with an abundance of changes making this Crea's biggest update ever!
Death Penalty
For those who crave some punishment, we've added a death penalty to normal mode. Upon death a pack will drop containing all of your inventory items except for Way Shards. You must return to your death point to reclaim your items, however the heavier the bag, the more Shards it will cost you. Don't worry though, if you don't want this "feature" then you can simply switch to "Easy" mode anytime through the settings.
Anomaly Events
Various events known as Anomalies can now occur throughout the world Crea. These Anomalies will bring life to your worlds and offer new challenges and rewards. There are already a handful of anomalies out there, and you can expect more in future updates. My favorite is easily the "Chaos Crystal" anomaly which sees a Way Crystal become corrupted by the world's chaos forcing you to purify it!
Character Rebirth
Upon reaching the maximum level you can now "Rebirth" your character. This resets your character’s level and talents to 1, but grants a few extra infusion points allowing your character to become a bit stronger than before. Moving forward we may extend this feature so feel free to chime in with suggestions on the forums!
Player Feedback
With Crea's 1.0 launch there was a flood of new players and feedback. We have been hard at work and have incorporated a great deal of the feedback into this update. Here is just a highlight of some of your feedback that made its way into this update.
Inventory and toolbar are now expandable
Combat and movement "feel" has been given love
Key rebinding has been improved and now includes support for mouse and numpad
Treasure chest capacity has been increased
Bug Fixes
A great deal of issues have been resolved to make both singleplayer and multiplayer much more enjoyable experiences. This includes that annoyingly persistent "!" marker, as well as the frequent multiplayer crash when traveling to other realms. Controller support with the various NPC UIs has been greatly improved too.
State of the Game
Crea is at a much more stable place now than it was at 1.0 launch. There will still be the occasional crash, and some machines will still have troubles running Crea for one reason or another, but overall things will be MUCH better after with this patch. Multiplayer is finally at a state that I'm not hesitant to recommend it and it will only get better from here.
One area that Crea does need some work in is the performance side of things. While many players run at 60+ FPS, there are many that do not, despite having machines that should easily achieve that framerate. Crea was developed to be extremely moddable by writing most of the gameplay logic in Python. Unfortunately this has made optimizing Crea quite tricky at times. Moving forward I am going to do my best to alleviate performance issues as much as possible.
