Multi, game release, what's new?

[AndrewTilley]

Beyond the multiple developer blogs already mentioned you can read the nearly 8 hours of Multiplayer Dev Q&A with both Zizaran and Steelmage that took place on September 14 and 15 which I’ve transcribed in the threads below:

• Multiplayer Dev Q&A with Zizaran
• Multiplayer Dev Q&A with Steelmage

If you’re interested to know basically everything the developers have ever said about trade you can read through this thread, but be sure to continue reading beyond the original post as there’s several updates posted within that provide additional information:

• A brief history of Trade

From all these dev blogs, streams, and elsewhere you can (thus far) expect the following in patch 0.9:

• server authoritative multiplayer
• performance improvements
• combat feel improvements
• some form of item transfer (trade)
• cosmetic store (in a minimum viable state, or “beta state”)
• updated story content & UI
• new and/or reworked skills
• updated skill VFX/SFX
• update to ailments - both mechanical & performance changes
• update to melee, bow, and throwing damage - mechanical change
• new Unique items, enemies, NPC’s, armour, etc. – some of which are viewable in the aforementioned Dev Q&A - We’ve sprung a leak! thread
• the usual bug fixes and balancing changes
• and likely more that hasn’t been announced yet

As for when this patch is releasing, it doesn’t yet have a release date but the developers are currently aiming for sometime before year’s end, if possible. Though, as it nears closer to year’s end it could very well get pushed into next year but, regardless, a release date will be provided in a future development update when the developers are certain the date can be hit. That said, multiplayer is currently in closed alpha testing with those in the Community Tester Program.

For more developer responses about a possible multiplayer release timeline, the following are from recent developer streams. Firstly, when this question is brought up during the dev streams, EHG_Kain provides this answer in the comments:

We don’t yet have a date we’re ready to share. We want to make sure we’re confident we can hit a date before we state it. Once we have a date ready, we’ll have it posted everywhere to give everyone a head’s up - as well as the normal patch leadup posts.

In the dev stream on October 28th, this was asked and I’ve transcribed Mike’s response:

Q: Do you think we will get a heads up to a release time for patch 0.9 once its decided?

Mike: Yeah, as soon as we actually have a – maybe not as soon as, but we don’t even have an internal release timeline yet so there’s not like there’s a date that I’m not sharing or anything like that. Especially because it’s been quite a while and it’s such a big patch I can see there being a little bit more lead up than usual, but I’m not sure exactly how that rollout is going to happen. We do try and give as much notice as we can and, more than once, I found out a release date by the public announcement of something. I’d be like “when did we decide on that?” and they’re like “oh, well this morning” – like, “oh great.” [laughter]

We try not to hide these things. It’s sort of like we decide and then we tell you and it usually comes down to, “what’s the absolute earliest we can get this out?” We’ve got a while still. I know people are like really anxious but there’s just a lot to do still. I know people are under NDA for multiplayer testing but if they could talk I’m sure they would say that “while it’s going…” – I don’t want to put words in their mouth, I probably shouldn’t say this. What I think about the multiplayer is that it’s going really well but there’s a lot of stuff to do still and releasing now would not be a positive experience.

Source: YouTube Link

In the dev stream on November 4th, this was asked and I’ve transcribed Mike’s response:

Q: A couple of days ago I asked for a non-CT multiplayer update and you mentioned that dungeons were recently added to the MP environment, so does that mean all the core systems are working right now?

Mike: Well…I mean, define working – technically there and mostly functional with a ton of bugs? Yeah, all the core systems are there. [laughter] At a quality level we’d be happy releasing? None of the core systems are there. No, there’s still a fair bit to do.

There’s a lot of little things that come up that you’d never really expect, at least I wouldn’t. Sometimes it’s just unanticipated play patterns. We also get a lot of really good feedback that sparks conversations – it’s not just a take the feedback and do what it says. Sometimes it’s just things we’ve never thought of and it ends up being something that we’re like, “okay we need to discuss this now and figure out if we want to do anything about it.”

Source: YouTube Link