Hey Everyone!
It’s been another busy week of Melvor Idle 2 development. We’re now on the final stretch for the next Major Update!
This week was an interesting week in terms of finalising the update, as we've spotted some large balance issues that we needed sort out.
Balance, Balance, Balance
A big challenge of releasing such a large update with so many synergising mechanics is ensuring its balanced and everything is accounted for in terms of content and desired rates.
"Balanced" in this scenario can relate to all sorts of things like:
Ensuring nothing is too overpowered, or too weak for their level.
Monsters are not too strong or too weak.
Preparing for Combat does not take too long, especially in the higher levels.
Ensuring we've given you enough bonuses now to optimally play the game without frustrating bottlenecks.
Drops are not too common or too rare.
This week we took a very close look at the current state of Ranged and Magic, specifically relating to their Production vs Consumption rates, to ensure they were balanced and no too restrictive.
While the planned rates in the future (close to v1.0) are already known and planned for, that doesn't fix potential issues and bottlenecks in the game today. What we found was that there just isn't enough bonuses right now to ensure Combat feels fine for its initial release state.
We are looking at implementing more avenues to obtain extra Rune & Ammo production quantity in this update instead of releasing it and having you wait for the next Major Update. There's no benefit to us or you if we release an update while knowing certain issues like this are present.
Another issue we came across was relating to Beastcrafting. While working on the Mastery Guild, it was found that the recipe costs for creating items were too limiting and hard to maintain. Beastcrafting in general is designed to be slower and harder to level, but the state of it was too punishing in our opinion. With this knowledge, we reworked all of the recipes to make them a bit easier to maintain.
These are the things we tend to come across on the regular as we finalise updates. As the release of an update approaches, we begin to look deeper and deeper to see where something might feel off.
This is also a testament to the great feedback we have received via Surveys and Discord. The struggles and frustrations that are voiced tend to be similar across each Skill in the game which allows us to hopefully catch potential bottlenecks before release.
Yeah okay cool but when update?
Hopefully in the next couple of weeks! Combat got the tick of approval from Prat to release, and non-combat Skills are close to also being finalised for release.
Here's what's left to do:
Agility Mastery Guild (the others are done)
Implement more sources of Rune/Ammo quantity bonuses as per the above section.
Agility still needs its final look-over and content finalisation.
Miscellanous content implementation. Already planned and ready to add.
Non-Combat Tool cost reworks (the one you buy in the Shop).
Implement nitial Hunting changes based on survey feedback.
Bug fixes! We want to sort out a lot of long standing bugs for this update.
UI (send help)
Most of this stuff won't take too long individually to tick off. By the end of next week I should have a much better idea on exactly when this update is going to go out.
🏋️ What the team have been working on
Here’s what the team has been working on since our last post!
Development
Malcs:
Reworked a lot of behind the scenes planning material, updated to be more accurate and efficient for future content planning and implementation.
Reworked Beastcrafting recipes as per the above.
Started implementing a conceptual Combat UI for quick testing.
Finished Mastery Guilds for Herblore, Thieving and Beastcrafting.
Coolrox:
Continuing to work on Cloud stability updates including better error handling for saves.
Fixed many critical bugs relating to Combat that were picked up during testing.
Game Design
Prat:
Testing, testing and more testing!
Finalised Combat, ready for release.
Has been working further improvements to behind-the-scenes planning and design material.
Artwork
Tapi:
Back in action! Main focus has been on NPC artwork for Thieving. These have been reworked based on initial feedback.
Ash:
Back to working on Items! Primarily Beastcrafting items, check out these awesome Griffin pieces!
Also started work on artwork for unique Items from Combat.
Conclusion
That’s all for this week! We’re now truly into the final stretch for this update development cycle. We can’t wait to get this into your hands and see your reactions - bear with us just a little longer as we put the finishing touches on.
See you around!
Malcs & Althalus