Kingdom of Loot
STEAM SUMMER SALE 25% OFF
Sunday Secrets #9 // New Map & Fullscreen
I shouldn't work on Sundays ... just realized that I almost forgot to post the new SS. Yesterday the labor of two weeks working "almost" day and night got online - the new level 25+ "SUNKEN SANCTUARY" map. The map is pretty special because its the first one to incorporate a "medium" = water into the gameplay. Given the complexity of the endeavor it went pretty smooth with only some minor issues to fix (which most I already did) and some people already mapping the whole thing.
We already started to work on the next map - which will be announced once we got something to show for and dead set to release a brand new map each month.
We also reworked most of the fullscreen code to be able to start the game fullscreen right from the start or at least via the settings tab if requested. Will launch a trail run next week with some other fixes and see how that turns out.
Pretty happy with what we got done for the last few days and hope to take the momentum into next week. 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.
Sunday Secrets #8 // Sunny Sunday
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.
Today its almost next to impossible to stay indoor and focused. Its a perfect sunny day and I will be out - so lets get this out early this time.
Last week we checked how the game runs on Linux, SteamOS and Mac. Linux seems to be okayish but MacOS has some problems. We got it to a point where we can get some more feedback and understand how other OS work together with Steam and leave it with that right now - takes too much time at this point.
All assets for the Sunken Sanctuary are complete and about 25% of the map integration is complete. Actually the first floor is almost complete. Maybe I add it as a preview to the next update - we will see. May spoil some stuff however. Prior to adding the new map to the game we had to fix and complete the map difficult system which never actually worked. It works now and monster level, Experience points and Loot vary accordingly. Also saving the progress never worked correctly and being able to cheat completion has been taken care of as well.
Next week we will split time between the new map and further bug fixing. We also have to start reworking the GUI at some point. Like Inventory and Merchant REV.01 ... 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.
Sunday Secrets #7 // Linux & Mac release
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 added a basic quest and npc dialogue sytem to the game. We also worked on the controls some more since we got tons of feedback on what needs to be fixed. Bug fixing in general still takes a lot of time and getting something to a degree where its okay for now feels good.
Work also continued on the "Sunken Sanctuary" map and getting one new map released each month is a set goal. All monsters are done and map building is in its final stage with only a few graphical assets left to complete like destroyable objects and traps.
We also spend some time on Linux & Mac release since we are almost 8 weeks late - looks good and hopefully we can get something released next week and move on.
Next week we will try to fix everything that needs to be fixed prior to the release of a new map and work some more on missing features and additional content.
Question: So when is the cleric going to be released?
Right now getting the "Sunken Sanctuary" done is highest priority. Cleric has been worked on as well but still needs time.
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 #6 // Quests & Sunken Sanctuary
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 patched in the new character control revision and introduced cycling through enemies (X) and target closest enemy (C) to the game. We also started to work on the quest system and are pretty confident that we will be able to patch in a first revision next week.
Work also continued on the "Sunken Sanctuary" map which will be released begin of June. We are sorting out a regular schedule on which we release new maps - perhaps every first Monday of each month. We will see.
We still got a lot of bugs bugs to fix and enhancements to make but we are getting somewhere. Introducing quests would be a nice change to build on and would keep people busy besides the usual grind.
Questions:
Right now our provider does not own server in Brazil. But demand is high, not only from our side so hopefully that will change soon.
Work on the GUI also continues and will introduce a new inventory and shopping system to iron out most of the reported flaws.
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 #5 // Somewhere its still Sunday
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 introduced a new targeting and attack system. Feedback was good after an initial rollback of the changes. Melee is okayish now ... ranged want their old system back. Okay lets adjust the target radar to accompany melee or ranged classes with each their own needs add means to lock and change through targets and we should be good to go.
We also revised the movement system which will be online in a few days. We decided to get rid of mouse movement and decided on keyboard and controllers only. Otherwise its just too many inputs to hassle at the same time leading to no good controls at all.
Work continued on art assets and we hired another hand to speed up things. We also hired a game designer who's only task it is to channel all the cluttered problems throughout the game into a coherent stream.
This week I'll work on some stuff open from last week. The rollback of the Rev.01 targeting system, revising and roll out Rev.02 took time away from other work. I had a discussion with player Dransik about what needs to be done first and how to prioritize. Its all little bits and pieces of a huge puzzle. We are a very small team and we didn't get this far because we totally lost track. Sure EA is a totally new thing but in the end its Easter 2019 what matters most. The day we will roll out KOL 1.0. Don't just loose faith so early and get all negative about things. Together we can make this good and that's what EA is about. If you disagree with something let us know we will listen!
I got many questions about new content. I addressed this in #4 its still valid.
Q) In Kingdom of Loot, what part of the game are you guys primarily trying to have as a part of the game that players will enjoy? For example, multiplayer, community, combat, etc.
A) Loot, create and trade better and better gear in order to advance enabling you to get even better loot and repeat.
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 #4 // Mothersday
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.
Today I have to keep it short since its Mothersday and mothers tend to disagree with their sons being in the office all day. We worked on the very core of the engine this week to implement and improve a new targeting system as well a more arcade style battle system. Coding is complete and we are testing the new system to fix obvious bugs and glitches. If things go well we will release in the next few days.
Work also continued on new graphical assets for the guildhall as well as a not yet announced instance inside "Emerald Forest" and the next high level instance "Sunken Sanctuary". Cleric class is also worked on ... fingers crossed we can show something pretty soon.
Okay this weeks questions:
Q) Will classes always remain gender locked? Will character customization be more widely available with more options later on?
We hate gender lock as much as you guys do. But for now its the only way to make the graphical assets required affordable ... lets see if EA goes well we can adjust.
Q) What's your planned business model? On other words, will this game be pay to win, or will it make money by just selling things like cosmetics in the future?
A) Whats about this pay to win all the time - it ruins games ... we might sell cosmetics and even that inst fully thought through yet.
Q) Will there be character customization one day?
A) Hopefully yes.
Q) There is a possibility in future create a South America server?
A) We got many request in that department and checking options.
Q) Its a question about the future of your game, I can't stand pay-to-win, and i have to know if down the road you will take that way OR you will NEVER go pay-to-win.
A) Question already answered. NO.
Q) Some people dont understand how Time-consuming a Class Creation can take, can you tell Us players: how many time its take in general ? (Balance-Skill-Art-test) include.
A) Puh there are so many things that are connected to class which also has be be created. I some several hundred hours.
Q) i can read that pvp will not be a priority,You will realy add PVP 100% after long time OR Dev team is not sure about the future of pvp in this game.
A) Not really sure ... we would love to but depends on the success of the game.
Happy Mothersday!!!
Development continues!
Presbyter and his team.
support@epicbeyond.com
PS. If you like the game please consider leaving a review.
Sunday Secrets #3 // Busy week ...
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.
We worked on some of the most requested changes on the attack system and Rogue class by introducing auto attack and fast attack to the game. We patched numerous bugs and glitches and added the first unique item (Ring of Jordan) to the game. In short - we have been busy.
Next week we will add the Adventurer Guild as starting area to High Castle. Entrance will be right building next to the Soulstone - here is a little teaser:
The guild hall will be used to welcome new players and host a Guildmaster who give some advice and a first quest before sending you out to the world on your own. In the picture you can also see the "Book of Wisdom" which will be a KOL compendium. Later we will add a teleport to a tutorial zone especially for each class.
We will also continue to work on the controls, ui (inventory), targeting system and various other below industry standard items. There are still some pretty annoying bugs - like the black void bug (teleporting fails and puts you outside map boundaries) and other curious mishaps. Too much to be happy right now but we are on it full force.
Vierbit will complete the Guildhall graphical assets next few days and we will pick up where we left at the "Sunken Sanctuary" Map ... which will add a new Level 25 hunting ground for the high level character.
Questions next:
Q) Is there going to be a user interface reset/reload command or button, so that we can reset the interface if we lose the minimap? (As soon as someone teleported me, I lost my minimap.)
A) We will fix the minimap problem with teleporting asap
Q) Will you disable the chat notification when a player enters/leaves a realm? I dont think anyone wants to know that bdsmlover has entered the realm.Or allow us to scroll up and down the chat.You could also disable the % loaded when entering a map.Don't think it helps either.
A) Chat and notification system will be reworked with players suggestions in mind.
Q) Will you make it that when you hit an enemy it shows how much damage you have dealt ?
A) Yes, will be a toggle option
Q) Will you add a feature that allows you to right click on the portrait of a party member to promote them to group leader?
A) Add this to the suggestion forum plz.
Q) Do you plan to add a feature which allows a party leader to right click on a party member's portrait and set whether that party member is allowed to invite others to the party?
A) Add this to the suggestion forum plz.
Q) Are you looking to implement a feature which allows you to set other interesting party related settings? (I.e. Loot division, etc.)
A) Add this to the suggestion forum plz.
Q) Have you planned to make it so that equipped items do not take up any inventory space? (It kind of makes sense for it not to take up space in your backpack if you are wearing/using the items in question, doesn't it?)
A) This will be implemented with the new inventory system asap.
Q) Do you need help working on spelling, dialogue and story telling? (I would gladly help you out.)
A) Yes, because we are german.
Q) Do you plan to address relatively elementary spelling errors such as: "Checkpoint Actived"? (This should of course be "Checkpoint Activated".)
A) Please report all spelling errors to the bug forum and I will fix them one by one.
Q) Is full-controller support on the roadmap for development?
A) Yes but down the line ... first things first.
Q) Will you add support for thumbsticks?
A) Yes we will.
Q) Will there be local co-op?
A) KOL is online only.
Q) Will there be more things to do besides fighting?
A) Yes exploring, crafting, questing etc ...
Q) Will there be pvp?
A) Maybe but down the line.
Q) How bout party vs party action?
A) Maybe but down the line.
Q) When is all this gonna be gone? Especially the re-working of rogue and cleric
A) Rogue is done. Cleric is work in progress. Asap.
Q) New gem, but Its will be possible to remove Old gem ?
A) Unfortunately not ... maybe later in development.
Got your own question? Leave them in comment section below and I will try answer next week or use "suggestions" or "how to ..." forum at community hub.
Development continues!
Presbyter and his team.
support@epicbeyond.com
PS. If you like the game please consider leaving a review.
Sunday Secrets #2 // What have you done?!
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 few days we spend an awful lot of time on fixing things and laying out what needs to be done next based on feedback and suggestions:
+ Highest priority is still fixing stuff to get a solid foundation to build on
+ Future player starting point will be the High Castle Adventurer Guild instead just being dropped at the Soulstatue with no clue what to do first
+ We reached out to other artists to help speed up the creation of graphical content
+ Changed the engine attack system to "hold to continuously attack" instead of pressing attack key all the time
+ Re-worked Rogue class to add a fast attack feature which burns stamina
+ Worked on the Itemgenerator to incooperate all item classes correctly and prepare for new items and cleric class
+ adding new gems to mine for socketing to the game
+ Work on cleric class continued with a pretty unique feature (no spoilers) but old SEYKEN veterans might know what I'm talking about
+ created the special visual drop animation for set & unique items
+ created all the other graphical assets to add unique rings and necklaces to the game
+++ Questions of the week +++
Q) What about more boss mobs and dungeons for the higher lvls?
A) We are totally aware of the fact that most higher players are eagerly waiting for new content. Feedback, reviews and suggestions however indicate serious problems in the very foundation of KOL which need to be addressed first in order to get a solid foundation to build on. We got a high level dungeon (Sunken Sanctuary) in the pipeline which also brings in interacting with water to the game to diversify game play a little.
+ We will bring boss fights to the game, game engine already supports basic bosses which needs to be enhanced to standards of the mana series.
Q) What about adding an change equip system and tooltip with both Equips and Red/Green indicators which is stronger?
A) Inventory and equip system needs to be highly modified and improved
Q) What about adding a faster sell/buy system
-- Like, hold shift and left/rightclick to sell/buy it immediately
-- Also don't reset the value of how many I wanna buy ( Arrows as an example )
A) Once the inventory is reworked the right mouse button should be free to add above features. Meanwhile we could add shift to make it work with current system.
Q) What about adding magic/rare/uniq mobs to locations?
A) Already working on this.
Q) Will you add a system to spot blue and Yellow loot, Its hard right now.
A) Yes we will add a system asap.
Q) loot sharing dont exist, its free-for-all in the future its possible to see that change ?
A) We might change to more modern way of sharing loot. Right now its free-for-all (with some exceptions).
Got your own question? Leave them in comment section below and I will try answer next week or use "suggestions" or "how to ..." forum at community hub.
Development continues!
Presbyter and his team.
support@epicbeyond.com
PS. If you like the game please consider leaving a review.
Sunday Secrets #1 // First week EA, what's next?!
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.
Lets get to the point.
First week of Early Access is over and what a week it was. We surpassed our wildest dreams in regards of sales figures and player response. In fact we did better than estimated by STEAM themselves. Occupying first place of "Popular New Releases" for almost all week and still are. All thanks to you!!!
What we spend most time on last week was getting some really nasty bugs fixed and bring back features which did not make it into the game before the actual release. Since KOL is a vast project - lots of things can and will go wrong - therefore its from utmost importance to have a solid strategy on how to proceed.
This is how we intend to keep this rocket flying: "Fix, enhance, expand."
We will work on the game with a 3:6, 2:6 and 1:6 ratio for now and hopefully come to a point where we can even out the strategy and go full steam on all three cylinders equally.
Right now we are a core team of four people - two coders "Matbtt" & me "Presbyter" next to "Vierbit" who does the graphics and "Claudi" who composes the music and creates sound effects. We also got some additional freelancers and specialists working with us from time to time. We are part of the Square Enix Collective and if you want to learn more about KOL and its vision you should check out our feedback campaign at:
https://collective.square-enix.com/projects/227/kingdom-star-of-star-loot
Unfortunately the Collective changed to a new design a few weeks ago breaking most of our layout and colors. Unfortunately the campaign is outside our reach of repair but the information is still valid. You can also check out the Team behind KOL with more details with the "Studio" link at the main top navigation. Its still worth a visit.
+++ Question of the week +++
The one most of the players asked me was: "What's next?" (in regards of new content). At this point we have to work on many different aspects of content in parallel, like completing Cleric class at least to a point we can bring her in. Completing the missing class skills for existing classes and fixing huge imbalances among the classes - like Rogue being under powered etc. Really new may be the return of the Questboard which will hopefully be back sometime next week. I know that new content is what players are hoping for most and I will try to keep them happy. But bug fixing and changes to game design and mechanics may keep us busy for some time but is absolute paramount to have a solid foundation to build on.
We will soon start to expand our Team with Freelancers to speed up content creation to a point where we can release at least one new map every month.
I could go on about KOL for hours on end and still would not cover half of whats on my desk already. Stay with us and be a part of development by reporting bugs, sharing opinions & thoughts (good or bad) next to suggestions at the community hub. We will listen.
Development continues!
Presbyter & his Team
support@epicbeyond.com