This is not an update with new features, nor a software release. In fact the game isn't changing at all, however it's now moving into being marked as released. Many have asked why there are no updates, and asked for more communication. And rightly so, as the game has been in early access for quite some time, and hasn't received an update for a lot of that time. So this is an official communication about the state of the game.
Master Bladesmith was always an experimental game. This is especially true for the game's mechanics. This is fitting since it's a virtual reality game, and this is a new frontier for gaming, where developers have tried many different game mechanics and designs. The development of Master Bladesmith can only be described and a mish-mash of experimental mechanics. The ones that worked stayed, and the ones that didn't were thrown away (also some stayed that were not successful, but as curiosities - like the ‘out of body movement’ that remains an option to try). What was left as a result; is something I'm very proud of and something that is fun from both a game play and progression style game loop.
However the above led to a conundrum; that in order to keep pushing the game into a direction that I had dreamed for the game, it would have to push boundaries with game design so much that the mechanics didn't work together well. In the original roadmap there were open world elements, and dungeon like manual mining areas. This doesn't work well with the current game loop. So it became more and more clear that in order to achieve this without destroying the current game loop, it would have to be a separate project.
This development has now moved into a completely different game altogether. This is something that is going to be a very special project that I have been working on for 3 years now. It is a spiritual successor to Master Bladesmith. However this project is so different that it cannot work with the Master Bladesmith code. This project is an open world RPG; with questing, and party building aspects.
Moving Master Bladesmith to release is more-so an end to a project, than a beginning. It means that there will be no more updates for the game.
I realize that Master Bladesmith is still rough around the edges, and I have some regrets about this. I was skeptical of whether releasing was the right move for the game, since this didn't fit for my personal definition of finished. However, the community expects that a game marked as early access means that more updates are coming. So now that I have decided there will be none, the right thing to do is mark the game as finished (released).
I am, however, also intensely proud of what has been achieved here with this project. Credit also goes to all those that helped with the game, and its development.
A word about the players; there are many skilled warriors out there that have fought their way all the way to level 1000 !!
(Screenshots by players at endgame)
This requires both patience and crafting prowess, but also great skill with hand eye coordination on the higher levels, and this is something I haven't been able to achieve myself, nor any on the dev team, but many players have, and provided proof! I'm glad that many have had such a great time with the game.
Special thanks to the moderators, and all those who provided useful feedback, and help with beta testing and updates.
Much love to the community.
Mining and Washplant update (BETA)
Major New Features:
Washplant:
There are new major changes that will require much more management of the mining. However this allows the players to better control which ore is being mined. Also, if you are in need of a specific ore quickly you can now spend more fuel to get what you need quicker.
This should lower any advantage in leaving the game running to mine as the mining needs more direction than before.
Panels:
The 5 levels of panels have been completely redone:
Ore selection slider:
This now includes an ore selection slider which allows you to manually select the ore type you wish to mine. This replaces the previous mechanic of unlocking various ores by Time chamber (TC) level.
For example, previously you needed to get to TC level 100 to get more nickel, now you need to buy the level 3 panel to allow nickel mining.
Overdrive button:
You can now choose to mine ore much more quickly in return for a very large usage of fuel. For every 5x usage of fuel you will double the speed of mining. The overdrive button will turn off after a certain amount of time; it will be up to the players to discover the amount of time it lasts and the correct manner to use this.
Fuel Gem requirements:
Certain panel types now require specific fuel types. Also higher level panels will use fuel quicker. This all equates to more money required for fuel, and rewards have been adjusted to balance for this.
Some gems now have unique animations when inserted into the fuel panel, and upon close inspection of the fuel gems you may notice a track which slides to lock them in place in the panel. If you insert an incorrect gem into a panel, it won't animate, and will also warn you with a message.
Grating:
- improvements to textures and animations
Conveyor:
- improvements to textures and animations
Store changes:
Fuel Gems:
The fuel gems section in the store has been expanded to give you a new selection of the fuel gems required to control the washplant.
Upgrade books:
Information on each panel is now detailed in the panel upgrade book in the store. This paradigm will be used in the future to detail other upgrades.
Major Game Fixes:
- The Master Bladesmith tutorial has been adjusted to improve the spawn positions of the various MB avatars.
- The Master Bladesmith voice can now be adjusted up much higher than previous, and its nominal level at the start of the game is at the center to allow easy volume changes.
- The game will now close correctly and no longer hang in the taskbar upon exit.
- Cloud saves will now automatically restore the game across computers or upon windows file deletion, if you log in with the same Steam account (Steam auto cloud).
- The game has been updated to 4.27 to facilitate the above 2 changes. This then created a whole slew of secondary issues that needed to be adjusted including the lighting and cable components. Therefore there may be a slight change to the lighting brightness.
- Starting the game should no longer result in players falling out of the world, thus missing the starting tutorial
- If you do manage to fall out of the world before you have entered the TC for the first time you will be restored to the starting cave, instead of the TC area.
- Difficulty has been adjusted to make the game a little bit more challenging in the very early stages of the game 0 - 20. This will reset to how it was nearly a year ago, since the ease of these first few levels made the game too easy, and a lot of players were lost due to lack of challenge. Difficulty post level 35 is the same now as it always has been.
Notes on beta:
This update is now in the final phase of beta, and will be released to the full public in approx. 2 days time, in the meantime, ask any moderator on discord for the beta key if you wish to be part of this beta test.
Mining and Washplant update
Major New Features:
Washplant:
There are new major changes that will require much more management of the mining. However this allows the players to better control which ore is being mined. Also, if you are in need of a specific ore quickly you can now spend more fuel to get what you need quicker.
This should lower any advantage in leaving the game running to mine as the mining needs more direction than before.
Panels:
The 5 levels of panels have been completely redone:
Ore selection slider:
This now includes an ore selection slider which allows you to manually select the ore type you wish to mine. This replaces the previous mechanic of unlocking various ores by Time chamber (TC) level.
For example, previously you needed to get to TC level 100 to get more nickel, now you need to buy the level 3 panel to allow nickel mining.
Overdrive button:
You can now choose to mine ore much more quickly in return for a very large usage of fuel. For every 5x usage of fuel you will double the speed of mining. The overdrive button will turn off after a certain amount of time; it will be up to the players to discover the amount of time it lasts and the correct manner to use this.
Fuel Gem requirements:
Certain panel types now require specific fuel types. Also higher level panels will use fuel quicker. This all equates to more money required for fuel, and rewards have been adjusted to balance for this.
Some gems now have unique animations when inserted into the fuel panel, and upon close inspection of the fuel gems you may notice a track which slides to lock them in place in the panel. If you insert an incorrect gem into a panel, it won't animate, and will also warn you with a message.
Grating:
- improvements to textures and animations
Conveyor:
- improvements to textures and animations
Store changes:
Fuel Gems:
The fuel gems section in the store has been expanded to give you a new selection of the fuel gems required to control the washplant.
Upgrade books:
Information on each panel is now detailed in the panel upgrade book in the store. This paradigm will be used in the future to detail other upgrades.
Major Game Fixes:
- The Master Bladesmith tutorial has been adjusted to improve the spawn positions of the various MB avatars.
- The Master Bladesmith voice can now be adjusted up much higher than previous, and its nominal level at the start of the game is at the center to allow easy volume changes.
- The game will now close correctly and no longer hang in the taskbar upon exit.
- Cloud saves will now automatically restore the game across computers or upon windows file deletion, if you log in with the same Steam account (Steam auto cloud).
- The game has been updated to 4.27 to facilitate the above 2 changes. This then created a whole slew of secondary issues that needed to be adjusted including the lighting and cable components. Therefore there may be a slight change to the lighting brightness.
- Starting the game should no longer result in players falling out of the world, thus missing the starting tutorial
- If you do manage to fall out of the world before you have entered the TC for the first time you will be restored to the starting cave, instead of the TC area.
- Difficulty has been adjusted to make the game a little bit more challenging in the very early stages of the game 0 - 20. This will reset to how it was nearly a year ago, since the ease of these first few levels made the game too easy, and a lot of players were lost due to lack of challenge. Difficulty post level 35 is the same now as it always has been.
Update 15: Locomotion, Wall collision, Bug Fixes
General Locomotion fixes:
You can no longer walk through walls
- Walls are now a collide-able object both via locomotion but also via walking with real-life head / body - These changes make falling out of the world impossible or very hard to do - if you still manage to fall out of the world, the game will reset you back up - book menu changes to make locomotion options more functional, but also more legible. - When scrolling through the backpack, rotation will now be disabled
First Person Locomotion Changes:
- You will now rotate in one place, and can no longer rotate to traverse inside other objects via rotation - Axis of rotation will always work correctly no matter where you stand in your VR area, or which way you're turning (even outside your VR area), this has greater reduced motion sickness for smooth rotation - Default rotation speed has been approximately doubled - and greater option to adjust for speed - You can no longer rotate and move simultaneously by default in smooth turn mode - this can be turned off - You can no longer walk up onto forge - You can no longer walk up onto wall baseboards - Archways improved to allow very tall people to pass under
Teleport Locomotion Changes:
- You can no longer teleport through the floor at certain angles with the spline - The teleport spline will do a much better job of keeping the doors open - The teleport spline will do a much better job of finding spots on a staircase - The teleport spline won't allow you to get too close to a wall
For New Players:
- The difficulty curve has been adjusted - the first 30 levels are now easier this should ease people into the game easier - The first 4 relics have been made much easier to acquire - Highest difficulty relics will now have a higher chance of spawning closer - making sword throws more possible and less frustrating - however rarity has been increased to compensate - easier to get relics remain unchanged - The player will be rewarded with a small amount of arrows early on (before level 15)- to ensure they can't get stuck with no arrows and no money - Arrows at the beginning of waves have been further reduced - If the Auto Benchmark crashes the game (rare) when trying to determine your GPU on startup it won't attempt to determine it on new restart (keeping the max crashes to this at 1)
Graphical improvements:
- Gates added at entrance to the lower mine - (much more to come here) - Ore on the conveyor belt will no longer float - Ore getting dumped into the wash plant will now have correct physics always - Ore falling into the grinder will now have correct physics always - Texture animation on the wash plant conveyor has been improved - Texture animation on the wash plant belt has been improved - Ore will combine with stacks or like ores visually instead of disappearing - Ore/Gems have a destruction animation now if destroyed by the grating instead of disappearing - Cleaver graphic fixed in Cleaver blade page - Missing polygons and Z-fighting on wooden pillar fixed - Anything resembling a red cross has been changed to a red heart - Z-fighting visual artifact removed in the museum - Texture bleed though onto the back of the reward signs fixed - Some other minor graphical improvements - walls lining up, unnecessary polygons
Tutorial Voice:
- Voice volume increased by 10% - Voice specialization removed to allow those with only one working earphone to still hear the voice - When tutorial voice is speaking it will now reduce volume of other sounds more - When tutorial voice is speaking it will now reduce volume of ambience
Misc. Fixes:
- You can no longer lose the crucible to the wall in the smithing area - You can no longer lose your sword or other items to the wall in the smithing area - Increased price of the starting shield to prevent it being bought before acquiring one from the starter chamber - The bow on your characters back can no longer collide with things - Options book will no longer reset on top of the journal or vice versa - Coin display shouldn't show backwards progression - Coin display shouldn't show previous levels with irrelevant coin displays - You can no longer take a single fake coin into the shop form the rewards bag - You can no longer jump ahead from level 70 - 90 in rare cases - You can now equip your shield to your left hand as well as your right hand on initial equip - If you happen to drop string in the middle of the bow stringing into the bag it will reset the bow attachment, instead of bugging an attachment point - Gear sounds improvement - Can no longer pull an arrow out of quiver during pause - Forge door no longer closable on crucible
Bug Fixes 2
This is a smaller update but includes a lot of essential fixes to help the game become more stable:
-Fletching skill requirements reduced for the final 2 arrow types -Fixed chalkboard texture to match the above change -The chance of getting smithing skillup from hammering a blade has been reduced by approx. 17% -No room in inventory message will now show exactly which inventory type it's talking about -Target armor textures corrected for levels 960+ -There is now a level 1000. Achievement has also been fixed. -New desktop icon for the game. -The game can no longer autosave before the crank attaches to the door, leaving you in a stuck state -Autosave on weapon create was removed, as it was a minor feature that was causing a bunch of problems -You can no longer hit targets with fuel gems -Parts on the mining machine will no longer slowly drift out of place -Arrows level 900 - 1000 have improved visibility -Improved sale price of ore, ingots, crafted swords. Now you will make more money off swords and less money off ore. -Improved animation for the mining machines belt and conveyor -Sword will no longer pop into your right hand if entering the time chamber with it in your left -The lids of the crates now have collision -Your sword handle will no longer collide with stuff when sheathed -You can no longer kick around relics with your player -The battle ring will now highlight when you are inside in first person movement mode -Removed visual artifact/LOD change on elixir games logo at start -Fixed the player belt pouches flipping around at certain angles -Cloth on museum tables will now remove correctly when you reach level tiers -Coins that explode off of bullseyes will now show as the proper type -Sword duplication from time chamber finally squashed -The time chamber can no longer alter a blades appearance on exit -Can no longer get a relic more than once -Melting ingots can no longer destroy the crucible - leaving your hands floating -Improvements to the coin display on the reward coins, removing errors
More bug fixes coming very soon - (battle bugs)
Update 14: Mystery of the Museum finally revealed!
The Museum next to the starting area has been expanded to include multiple table displays. These tables are pedestals to display special relics that are collected in the time chamber.
The Hanging Displays in the Museum are now functional and will display a duplicate of any pristine sword you are able to create! These hanging displays will show the pristine swords of the best quality material you have ever created, so if you create one with a higher material it will replace it.
Upon reaching various tiers in the time chamber, the coverings on the table displays will be removed. The collected relics can be pieced together on the tables.
The bottom side of the relics are identified by numerals that match up to the tables.
Finishing each tablet will award powerful and unique items for each tablet collection completed (coming in update 15). All 10 tablets will be required in order to unlock the ultimate craft-able blade in future updates!
Relics collected in the time chamber will now show on the reward signs. There will also be a more accurate and detailed breakdown of the money collected from bullseyes vs money collected from level completion. When bullseyes are hit now in the time chamber they will explode with coins that much better represent the amount and denominations that are rewarded for each bullseye hit.
BUG FIXES:
You can no longer duplicate swords by moving them to the secondary queue slot and removing your sword as you enter the time chamber.
