The Alpha Playtest #2 is now open! The playtest will run for approximately 56-60 hours. We’ve been working hard preparing this playtest. Here are some of the updates you can expect in the Alpha Playtest #2.
Alpha Playtest #2 Changelog
Trader’s Guild. Pay a Trader’s Guild to safely barter high-value items.
B2 Crypt map Updates.
A New B2 Crypt test map intended to collect feedback on larger more open areas.
Minor modifications to the previous B2 Crypt maps.
Removal of an older B2 Crypt map.
Inferno Map Updates.
New monsters including a new Boss monster.
Weapon and Shield/Parry balance.
Shields/Parrying are no longer unstoppable forces. Blocking/Parrying item have a blocking rating. Attacking weapons have an impact rating. The blocking player will stagger heavily if the impact power exceeds the blocking power. The blocking player will stagger modestly if the impact power and the blocking power are equal. If the blocking power is greater than the impact power, then the blocking player will simply block the attack like the previous playtest.
The movement penalty for attacking and being hit has been changed from a set-amount penalty to a percentage-based penalty.
The movement penalty when attacking has been tuned for each weapon. Please try each weapon to a feel of the change.
The movement penalty when hit by a weapon has been tuned for each weapon. Heavier weapons generally slow targets by a greater amount.
Monsters also have an impact endurance rating and reducing it will cause them to stagger.
Perk and Skill balance including a few new ones.
Starting gear weapons and armor added to the game. The effectiveness of normal ‘poor’ weapons and armor has been slightly improved.
Merchant updates. All items can be sold to a merchant. Starting items will return zero gold. Item prices have also been updated.
Added more dedicated server regions.
Added background music to the main menu.
Add a Streamer mode option.
Minimal Custom Keybinds. We will continue to improve it in the future.
Male characters now have different faces based on their classes.
Added easter eggs in recognition of previous top players.
Small Halloween event added for the playtest.
Many more bug fixes including crashes, unloaded textures, and buggy item drops.
We look forward to your feedback in our community forums and on our official discord and hang out with other adventurers in the Dark and Darker Steam group.
Thank you once again for your support in Dark and Darker!
Alpha Playtest #2 Starting Time
Hi Everyone, we have finalized the starting time for the upcoming October 28-30 Alpha Playtest #2. We hope you can join us as we test some vital new features and balancing changes this weekend.
The playtest will start on US West (Oregon) - October 28, 2022 3:00 PM US East (Virginia) - October 28, 2022 6:00 PM SA Brazil (Sao Paulo) - October 28, 2022 7:00 PM EU Central (Frankfurt) - October 29, 2022 00:00AM (Midnight) SEA (Singapore) - October 29, 2022 6:00 AM East Asia (Seoul) - October 29, 2022 7:00 AM Oceania (Sydney) - October 29, 2022 9:00 AM
Testers that participated in our previous playtest will automatically have access to this playtest. If you still have the previous playtest client install on you system you can simply restart your Steam client when the playtest commences to receive the update.
New users can easily join the playtest by going to our Steam store page and pressing the "Request Access" button for the playtest. New testers will automatically receive access to the playtest and will have the 'Dark and Darker Playtest' added to their Steam library.
We will also be adding several more server regions to help accommodate our growing test userbase. This playtest will have servers for US West, US East, EU Central, SA Brazil, East Asia, SEA, and Oceania.
We will post a list of major changes when we get closer to the start of the playtest.
Thanks again for your support!
See you this October for the next playtest!
The QA Bug Squashing playtest has now ended. Thank you for the most exhilarating week of our lives! The response from everyone was absolutely incredible! We will be taking a much needed rest this week and will be back stronger than ever. We look forward to seeing you for the next playtest this Oct 28-30! Thank you!!!
Final Hotfix for the QA Bug Smashing Playtest
Thank you for enjoying the game.
We will be applying a final hotfix patch to fix some issues and improve the game so you can enjoy the remaining time. For the application of this hotfix, the server will be down from September 28, 2022 12:00 AM to September 28, 2022 1:00 AM
# Changes - Fixed the issue where the treasure chest in the secret room of the Crypt : Dark Magic Library faced the wrong direction. - Fixed the issue where the secret bookcase of the Crypt : Dark Magic Library was bugged. - Fixed an issue where you could burn even if you were not in lava in the Inferno : Gate. - Fixed an issue where Mimic's animation could move and attack while closed. - Fixed an issue where Campfire's healing state could last forever. - Fixed an issue where the secondary attack of Zweihander, Halberd, etc. sometimes became impossible to attack. - Fixed an issue where sometimes it was not possible to get to the lower floor. - Fixed an issue where trap detection could not diplay the proper shader. - Fixed an issue where the Lich's Curse effect could not be dispelled. - Fixed an issue where portals could appear in strange places. - For testing, the drop rate of the Skull Key has been increased. - Adjusted the spawn location of the skull key to be more visible. - Increased the damage of the crystal sword by 10 physical damage. - Added more Korean translations.
Thanks you for your support and the enthusiastic response this past weekend!
One More Playtest Extension!
After hours of data gathering and hard work from our valiant server team, we've made some big improvements that addresses the matchmaking issues. We have deployed a hotfix on our main server that should improve the load on our main server.
We need your help to make sure this fix is working properly. In order to collect as much data as possible and push our server to the new max, we have decided to extend the playtest for a final 24 hours. The new playtest end time has been extended until Sept 28, 5AM EDT.
The data you help us collect will help us improve and better prepare for the next playtest on Oct 28-30.
With your help we will strive to bring you the best extraction dungeon experience possible! Thank you very much😇
Playtest Extended! Thank you to the Testers!
A message from our Director,
It seems that we have finally solved the match-matching problem. We've definitely found the problematic part through the debug data you've gathered and fixed it. As we watched the 'dungeon' overcome the 'lobby', we raised our hands and shouted with joy.
The developers were very impressed with the active help of the players this time around. We are developing games to do just that! All of this is because you have generously helped us. Thank you very much!
The remaining server problem seems to be solved only by increasing the AWS server we are using. Especially on US East, there are a lot of players, so a lot of expansion is needed. This will also take some time as it requires communication with AWS and you may encounter this issue again on the overloaded region. For now we ask players to select the proper server region (US West, US East, EU) when looking for a game.
And in return for your great help, we're extending the QA playtest until Sept 27, 5AM EDT. Thanks everyone!
QA Test Extended!! Let's find and squash the Matchmaking/Reconnect Bug Together!
Ok the last hotfix didn't work, so we have decided on a new plan of action.
We will be doing a true QA bug squashing playtest to find and squash this insidious matchmaking/reconnect bug once and for all. We will be adding a ton of logs to our service server to pinpoint the bug and only by you guys suffering in long queue times and never ending reconnect loops will we be able to find the culprit. We will extend the playtest until we can find and fix this issue. We call on all true testers to keep trying to play the game even through all the upcoming disruptions and disconnects. Once we fix it, we'll leave the playtest up for another 24 hours so everyone can actually enjoy the game as it was meant to be. We will need to playTEST first so we can eventually get to the real PLAYtest. Thanks for your patience and understanding!
Also here is a suggestion from one of our community members if you get stuck in a specific reconnect loop. Thank you to Fugitive Jay for this workaround. "Guys ive learned that if you have issues getting into a match, and it kicks you back to the lobby, click ok on reconnecting, it wont work because your party never went into the match, and unready, stash your gear and alt f4, and reload the game. has fixed it for me and my two buddies multiple times"
if that fails then you'll have to bite the bullet and Alt+F4 out and then press "Cancel" on the reconnect prompt and you'll lose your items but you should be able to re-queue into a new match.
Hotfix for the Matchmaking Issues!
Bug squashing QA playtest Hotfix #2
# Fixes - Fixed several technical issues related to the matchmaking/reconnect servers. - Implemented a temporary feature to allow players to turn off invitations from other players. This feature can be found in the options. You can still send invitations even if you are ignoring incoming invitations. Sorry Summit1G and Forsen! - Fixed an issue where monsters would not play the Blood VFX when they got hit. We have implemented a temporary effect for now.
Bug squashing QA playtest hotfix
We are going to do a hotfix patch to scale the server and fix some bugs. It will take place from 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM EDT. Sorry for the late delivery of hotfix information.
# Fixes - The homing function has returned to Wizard's Magic Missile. - Fixed an issue that caused a transparent collider to remain and block ranged-attacks when opening a wooden door with a window. - Fixed an issue where moving an item to Equipment while using a campfire would cause the item to disappear. - Fixed an issue with no sound in certain shoes. - We have temporarily made it impossible to purchase Gold Coins because there is a problem when purchasing Gold Coins with Silver Coins. - Fixed an issue where Spear could not be equipped in the lobby even when using the Ranger's Spear Proficiency. - Fixed an issue that could cause a crash with a high chance of hitting Cancel on the party invitation popup window. - Fixed some spawn bugs in the dungeon level. - Added a small temporary information message to Cleric's resurrection magic. - The playable time on the B3 floor has been changed from 7 to 9 minutes. - One more escape portal now occurs in the last ring.
We haven't been able to fix the issue where party invites can stack forever. Really sorry.
Bug Squashing QA Playtest #1 Sept 23-25
Thank you for your interest in Dark and Darker!
We will be doing a bug squashing QA playtest from Sept 23 (6PM EDT) to Sept 25 to test out some early new features. Anyone interested in helping us test and find bugs can simply join the playtest directly through the 'Request Access' button that will appear on our Steam page when the playtest starts. Players that participated in our first Alpha test will automatically have access to this QA test.
For this playtest we will be testing the following early features: 1. A simple character level system 2. Basic class perks and skills customization. 3. Random modifiers on (epic+) weapon and armors. 4. Various lighting and darkness setups. 5. A new Inferno (bottom floor) map. 6. Slight improvements to the block/parry system.* We will be doing a full R&D investigation to improve blocking for the next playtest.
This is a true QA playtest to test basic functionality and to start tuning the balance. Please note that these systems are very early in development and will lack a lot of polish and need to be balanced. We look forward to your feedback in our community forums and on our official discord. Your feedback will lead to a much more polished and complete Alpha playtest that we have planned for the end of October. We thank you for your patience and understanding and joining us on our journey to give you a proper fun playtest next month.
Thank you once again for your support in Dark and Darker!
* Shield change details Although we were unable to implement major improvements to the blocking system for this playtest, we would like to reassure players that we are continually doing R&D to improve it for the future. We were able to add a small update where attacks will no longer ignore shield collision if an attack managed to hit an uncovered part of the body before it the shield, i.e. the top of the head. You will still take damage from the initial hit, but the weapon will now properly bounce off the shield instead of passing through the mesh in this instance.
