Hello everyone,
It is about time for us to give you another update about the Realm, the Unity project, and what to expect in future months. It has been a while since the last letter, and we have been postponing the writing for a number of reasons, but here it is!
Since we last talked about RotMG Remastered, significant progress was made on the new client. We have dedicated a separate update to that, which we will release along with a new RotMG Remastered homepage next week. On this page, you will be able to follow development better thanks to a dev blog and get more regular status updates. Stay tuned!
While waiting for that, we want to give you more insights on what has been happening, what is to come with the current game, and take the opportunity to answer some of the questions we have seen asked on the sub and on Discord.
- First of all, when is the new client to be expected to enter beta?
Without spoiling the other update we intend to give specifically on the subject too much, we already know that we will not meet our initial target of releasing the new client for MotMG this year. Even if we progress much faster between now and then, it will not be ready to enter beta by that point. More importantly, we made that decision to make sure that we are not stretching ourselves too thin and to ensure we can deliver on both the new client and MotMG with the quality level that we want and you expect.
- Second, when is MotMG happening?
We are working hard and are excited to bring some cool events to the game and celebrate the Month of the Mad God together with the community. The specific plans and content are being mapped out and developed as we speak. We want MotMG to start as early as July this year, so stay tuned for more info on the event calendar!
- Third, what’s happening with all the features that were discussed in the roadmap a while ago?
It has been a while indeed, and back then we wanted to give more regular updates on those subjects. While some of the items discussed in our previous updates have been released, others have not. The best way to approach this is to give you a point-by-point update.
RotMG Development Roadmap Update:
Fame and Achievements Rework:
This project was set up in three phases, two of which have been completed and already released with the implementation of the new backend XP formulas and preliminary rebalancing of XP across various bosses and monsters in the game. The last phase, which is also the biggest, is the implementation of the new achievements and overhauled bonuses to more appropriately reward the many accomplishments of a character. While everything is designed on paper, we have not yet started the implementation. However, this is still on the roadmap.
Dungeon Rush & Heroic Dungeons:
We discontinued the idea of replacing the Arena with a Dungeon Rush feature after having invested some work, as we couldn’t harmonize the concept with the rest of the game. It didn’t feel fun to play and was too distant for the ultra-coop/multiplayer core of the game. The Dungeon Rush was one concept we explored as a solution to make older content more enjoyable and worth playing through again. Instead, we moved on to the idea of Heroic Dungeons: An easier to implement, event based, higher risk vs. higher reward formula for classic dungeons.
The first iteration (HUDL) went out as part of the Easter event and will be disabled soon (keys can still be used but will not drop nor be purchasable). The execution of our first experiment did not go as well as we had hoped, but we did get a lot of feedback on how to improve the concept. People were confused as to what this is for and whether it will replace work on new dungeons on top of the release missing some crucial features, such as a proper way to find the portal in the wild, easy access to keys, and above all, unique loot. We have taken all the feedback into account and are planning another iteration in the future, with better communication around the intent. This of course doesn’t mean that we have discontinued work on new dungeons. We have one big dungeon in the works internally that you may have already experienced in early public testing recently.
Class and Gameplay Changes:
Month of the Mad God last year was all about the Samurai, and this year we want to put some of the other classes in the spotlight and give them a meaningful rebalance. This doesn’t mean just tweaking a few values up or down, we want to try to also enhance elements of their actual gameplay.
We are introducing new items properties: Reactive procs. You might have acquired one of those already during the Easter Events and noticed that the Tiara of Eggscellent Sturdiness has a chance to summon an Easter Rabbit when getting hit! This is a brand new function, and we are designing a whole bunch of effects and “procs” that will have a chance to trigger when getting hit, using an ability item, or shooting at enemies. Automatic retaliatory attacks, passive bonus activations, and other previously unavailable types of equipment functions are now possible, massively expanding the possibilities for future loot. The Tiara was just the tip of the iceberg!
Additionally, we are currently working on making changes to the Realms to make them more interesting to play in and where more actions count towards closing the Realm than just defeating Heroes. We are also looking forward to making Event farming more dynamic and the overall Realm experience more rewarding/challenging. The details for this are still tentative, but we have already experimented with some interesting and promising systems that greatly shake up the rather outdated current mechanics.
Seasonal Game Modes:
This is the main feature we are currently pushing through and getting a working prototype for. We see a lot of demand for a classic mode and players wishing that they could feel the excitement of the early days. Our seasonal game modes concept is based on the popular player-made NPE mode: Everyone starts fresh and will be able to join Seasonal/Challenger servers for the duration of the season to complete objectives and claim exclusive rewards for their main account. We are looking forward to adding special game rules on the seasonal servers to spice things up. These tweaks can include - among some visual touch ups - stronger enemies, more restrictions on player numbers, weakened or absent pets, new skills and effects, new enemies and shot patterns, and of course more loot, especially stuff you don’t have yet! The duration of a season will vary, but our first iterations will most likely be short and not half-year long like you might have experienced in other games. This will allow us more flexibility for experimenting with different approaches efficiently, rather than committing to a system for a lengthy period of time that may not end up being very popular.
Bug Fixes & QoL Updates:
With every update we release, we continue to push for more fixes and QoL additions (e.g. Hotkey inventory item swapping, dungeon owner kicking rights, etc.). However, like we explained in previous communications, we have now entered the phase where adding new fixes or QoL changes does not make sense anymore from a cost benefit point of view since they will be fixed and improved in the new client. Same goes with a wide range of smaller improvements that could be made but will need to be either replaced or ported later. In general, do not expect the same level of updates in that category in the future than the one we used to have.
Thank you for your continued support and passion for the game!
As mentioned in the opening, keep an eye out for the new RotMG Remastered homepage to stay up to date with detailed Unity news in the very near future. We’re excited to open this new line of communication as the project advances!
r4ndomSXD
And now onto the patch notes for the new update!
[Edit: see: Patch X.31.7.0 [The Cursed Library] Notes for the patch notes. -Nevov]
