After last week’s sprint presentation, the teams had their meetings at the beginning of this week to plan out the next sprint which will last for two more weeks.

Next week there’s a patch we’re going to issue. In this patch we address several bugs including fixing the staff enchantment bug, bloodcraft and shadecraft effects stuck after dying, we address dungeon logging, we add an expiration to clan war declarations (1 week), clan bank policies and permissions for use,  and a few more that aren’t verified yet so I shouldn’t list them here yet.

Following this patch we should have more that will include changes to the alignment system, something we’re working on right now.

The worldbuilders have moved on to new areas, Dwarven and Mahirim, the design and layout of these areas has been debated and optimized all week.  Related workflow is being optimized since when one team finishes something another team takes over. It’s a work-flow cycle between designers, artists, worldbuilders, AI team, sound engineers and back. We’ve added two more people to help with the environmental music and the sounds,  and we’ve also added a new artist to the team.

We’re refitting the armors to the updated character models which are being prepared for the upcoming expansion. The armor system we described in previous updates, where the armor you wear may determine the role you play best in battle, is in the forefront of design considerations and research at the moment.  Currently it’s protections and balancing that are the focus. We’re also looking at changes to weapons, reevaluating how these work, how they’re crafted,  and how they can better support the changes we’re pushing in armors. The context for all of this is PvP and the design team is currently working on these features to add more diversity and depth to it.

There’s also a lot of work being done on the point system of the competitive structures of Darkfall Arena. I understand this might not mean anything to you yet,  but it’s what we’re working on at the moment and this part by design is dependent on player input.

More research on the way crafting works is underway, adding new materials to the crafting process, and the possibility of salvaging materials is being explored. We’re also looking at changes in enchantment, including possibly being able to mix different quality materials using gems.

Fishing boats will fish more than just fish and the things they pull out of the water may lead to new options.

The changes to the lighting system are looking very impressive and should make a tremendous visual difference to the game which should look great even at the lowest settings. Between the changes to the lighting system, the updated character models, new equipment, new and updated monsters, new animations, environmental sounds, the new terrain already in the game and the new GUI, and finally the streamlining and optimizations to the world,  this will definitely look like a completely new game.

This weekend we have the event on the NA server, lots of devs participate and watch these events, so we hope to have a good turnout from the players.

Thank you for reading.