this is Presbyter letting you in on some insights about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name.
A lot of people keep asking about the Cleric class and its date of release and so on. Since its still not in the game I guess its a good time to show what we got so far:
As some of you guessed already - Cleric "Superskill" is to transform into an angel.
Also the "Hornet's Nest" map has finally been released and with it some changes to the "Emerald Forest" which shows the amount of details we are aiming for when it comes to building the game world.
Here are some comparisons between EA.018 & EA.019:
Last but not least the finished the basic gear & paperdoll sets for each of the six classes with six tiers of uprgrades:
That's all for this week and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Next SS we will talk about the future of the game. Which of your suggestions and feedback will make it into the game. Its size and changes to what we got now etc ... will be interesting.
Development continues!
Presbyter and his team.
support@epicbeyond.com
Sunday Secrets #17 // Update EA.018
Hello fellow Looters,
this is Presbyter letting you in on some insights about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name.
I delayed this issue a little to make sure to not get back to you empty handed. Which I wont. Gameservice will go down 30/31 of August to patch in the latest updates.
The new "Hornet's Nest" map will finally be added to the game - it's been a little more work then usually because the map is not in chronological order of expanding the game world since it will fill the gap between "Emerald Forest" and "Lost Temple" and required adjustments on "World" Map, "Emerald Forest" and the implementation of the map it self to make it work.
Vierbit already started to work on the next map which will hopefully be announced with a little teaser next Sunday.
Last few weeks we got a few inquiries from third party sites who are interested in adding KOL to bundles or other means of publishing. We gave it some thoughts and decided that we will not expose the game to a bigger audience at this point - other then just being on STEAM EA. I mean surely a partnership beyond EA would lead to increased sales numbers and income - which would help as well but the response we got from you the players so far is encouraging but also pretty unanimous when it comes to the verdict that there is quite a lot wrong in the Kingdom of Loot and I'm not talking about minor tweaks and shifts. I'm talking about major shortcomings in gameplay, concept and engine. Fixing some of them just requires work and that's it - some on the other hand shake the very foundation of the game. It will be challenge - a huge challenge. Expanding on a flawed foundation may bring the entire structure down at some point - so we are super careful on how to proceed and overcome the problems at hand. Unfortunately this takes a lot of time out of what's recognized as progress on your end.
After four month in EA we got a pretty good understanding on how big the "niche" is for a game like KOL and eventually will become during the cause of EA. At this point we sold about 10.000 copies and have 15.000 wishlist entries. Further work on the game will hopefully have a positive effect on sales - but to be honest - not a single update had a positive or even stabilizing effect on statistics. Our resources will remain limited and with the above in mind the challenge just got a little bigger.
So let's release EA.018 update and step by step work your suggestions and reports into the concept of what KOL will finally become and hope for the best.
Challenge accepted.
That's all for this week and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading.
Development continues!
Presbyter and his team.
support@epicbeyond.com
this is Presbyter letting you in on some insights about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name.
Last week we patched in a hugely requested feature - custom key mapping. Better game controller support will be next. We also finished the "Hornets Nest" map which will fill the level gap between the "Emerald Forest" and "Lost Temple" if all goes well the map will be patched in by the end of the week. Vierbit also finished all the graphical assets required for the cleric class, so expect some solid progress and more details in the next weeks. I don't wont to spoil the reason why Cleric class took such a long time to create the graphical assets but old SEYKEN veterans may already have an idea.
I also worked my way through the suggestions a little more and its becoming clear to me that we need to rethink most of the concepts of the game in regards of gameplay. I read also some of the online reviews and this one is pretty close to my own understanding of where we are at this point:
As I said in the EA launch afterthoughts - we will be together for a long and bumpy ride. It might just gotten a little longer. People are still taking an interest and provide feedback and thoughts, please continue to do so.
Next Sunday we will hopefully talk about EA.018 and its release.
That's all for this week and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading.
Development continues!
Presbyter and his team.
support@epicbeyond.com
Sunday Secrets #15 // New GUI & Customizeable Controls
Hello fellow Looters,
this is Presbyter letting you in on some insights about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name.
Last week we continued to work on the GUI and controls and got to the point where it seemed perfect to get started on customizable controls so the new GUI and controls would take advantage of this right away.
Got pretty far and most of the keyboard input can be re-arranged by the player and his style of playing. Will take a few more days to get all keys re-mapped dynamically but the core system is working.
Work also continued on the new "Hornet's Nest" map and requires some changes on the Word &Emerald Forest Map before release.
At this time of year there is Summer Holidays Season in Germany and like everybody else we also will be out of office for a few days to get a vacation and some rest. The Early Access launch and first weeks of being online took a huge toll on ourselfs and some time to recharge our batteries is something we really look forward to.
We will still be online and check the forums etc - I will also continue to work on the code since its something that actually relaxes my mind, but much more casual and infrequently.
That's all for this week and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading.
Development continues!
Presbyter and his team.
support@epicbeyond.com
Sunday Secrets #14 // Movement 3.0 & Inventory 2.0
Hello fellow Looters,
this is Presbyter letting you in on some "secrets" about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name.
Last week we released the latest Movement 3.0 update which fixed most of the reported issues like not being able to change direction while actively defending against enemy attacks (parry, block, dodge) or strafing with a ranged class. There is still an issue with diagonal movement where the keystrokes are sometimes recognized with delay or not being recognized at all. Wont be long until 4.0 will be released which hopefully fixes this I hope.
I also started to rework the inventory module to implement all the input given by players. Current inventory system is a pain to use and not intuitive at all. Worn gear will not occupy an item slot anymore for example next to other improvements like swap items slots on the fly without having to clear the slot first etc. The entire GUI will need a lot of work to get it to a reasonable state.
Work also started on better tools to replicate reported bugs by being able to clone a character into a developer account so we can see firsthand whats wrong. Implementing Inventory 2.0 will require this feature since its almost inevitable that it is 100% bulletproof right from the start.
Lastly I spend quite some time on reading and investigating all the feedback given by charge backs, forum, social media and emails.
It all comes down more or less to the point that the game needs improvement in almost all areas of development. I would divide the feedback into two directions ... more content regardless of the obvious flaws in the underlying game framework and do not add more content until you got the framework patched up since the players will be drawn out of the game right away before even reaching the content.
The feedback we already got will keep us busy for month. Not only in regards of whats already there but also where to go and what's to come. It takes time from actually coding and shifts to brainstorming problems and determining how to address and fix them before adding even more content to a flawed system. It all must be fit in the time frame of reaching beta Easter 2018 and Gold Easter 2019 as well as limited resources and man power. Will be quite an effort but necessary and worthwhile.
More on this once we got something solid to talk about.
Next content update will add the "Hornet's Nest" map:
That's all for this week and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading.
Development continues!
Presbyter and his team.
support@epicbeyond.com
PS. If you like the game please consider leaving a review.
Sunday Secrets #13 // Further Improvements
Hello fellow Looters,
this is Presbyter letting you in on some "secrets" about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name.
Last week I've been out of office for a few days but nevertheless managed to continue to work down the bugs and requested features list.
Among others I fixed the ColorTable used to colorize your gear, improved character movement routine and added icons to minimize or exit the game while login in via fullscreen mode. For more information check the EA.016 update patch notes.
Meanwhile Vierbit finished the "Hornet's Nest" map and is finishing up on the monsters populating the map. Rest of his month will be spend on creating further graphical assets required for Cleric class.
I will continue on the bugs list and further improvement of the GUI. We also got tons of feedback on how to enhance gameplay. May lead to some mayor changes - got a lot of data to process first thought.
That's all for this week and If you have been - thank you for reading.
Development continues!
Presbyter and his team.
support@epicbeyond.com
PS. If you like the game please consider leaving a review.
Sunday Secrets #12 // End of Summer Sale
Hello fellow Looters,
this is Presbyter letting you in on some "secrets" about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name.
As I anticipated - last week was pretty uneventful. We worked down the buglist some more and patched in two hotfixes to fix some problems with the new options and settings screen. The new auto reconnect feature is now online which will take care of everything in case of a disconnect.
Designing and "building" the "Hornet's Nest" map is complete - just got a preview from Vierbit - and we will soon start to add it to the "Emerald Forest" map to fill the gap between L1-3 Monsters and the "Lost Temple" L5+ map. The map will also have a "little" surprise - but don't want to spoil anything here. You will like it.
Summer Sale ended beginning of the week and was very successful. We got more support in SS which was a week then in an entire month! Thank you.
We got some homework to do. Creating better tools to get content online quicker. Work on the server side of the game some more as well as continue on bug fixing and the much requested new inventory and shop revision.
After almost two month on Steam we also got some idea on how big the additional budget generated by Early Access will be. The higher the budget the more content and additional support can be created and acquired. We got some more promotional events in the pipeline. More on that in the near future.
That's all for this week, thanks for reading.
Development continues!
Presbyter and his team.
support@epicbeyond.com
PS. If you like the game please consider leaving a review.
Sunday Secrets #11 // New Features & Bugfixes
this is Presbyter letting you in on some "secrets" about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name.
Last week we worked down the bug list and most requested features list. Biggest change was the implementation of the options and settings screen which lets you change character without having to actually restart the game. One feature didn't make it in the EA.015 update which is the auto re-connect feature in case of a disconnect. Also the server sided disconnect time could be reduced from five (which annoyed most players) to two minutes.
This week we pretty uneventful because we will just continue bug fixing and finalize the options screen to a degree that we easily can add sub menus and gui components. We will also continue work on the "Hornets Nest" Map and Clerlic Class.
That's all for this week, thanks for reading.
Development continues!
Presbyter and his team.
support@epicbeyond.com
PS. If you like the game please consider leaving a review.
Sunday Secrets #10 // Into the Hornets Nest
this is Presbyter letting you in on some "secrets" about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name.
Last week we changed the startup setting from window to fullscreen mode and fixed the difficult level system for all instances. We also fixed all reported bugs of the "Sunken Sacntuary" which was released just last weekend. Thanks to all the players reporting in.
Next week we will continue to work on the new Level 3+ beginner instance inside "Emerald Forest". Its called the "Hornets Nest" and will be released in July:
We will also continue to work on bug fixing and might even start on re-working the gui ... especially inventory and shopping. Depends on how far we get on the bug fixing part. We will see.
That's all for this week, thanks for reading.
Development continues!
Presbyter and his team.
support@epicbeyond.com
PS. If you like the game please consider leaving a review.
