80 Days of Requiem: Update Announcement

Announcements, updates and news concerning the Requiem project.
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Sic
Aeolian Staff
Posts: 368
Character: Isidor Abendroth

80 Days of Requiem: Update Announcement

Post by Sic » May 21st, 2021, 7:18 pm

Good evening everyone. We have now hit our 80 day mark of being open and in our open beta “prelude” portion of our release cycle, and we’ve had some truly amazing success with the project thus far. I’d like to lead off with some quick stats to share with everyone to help put into perspective where we’ve come in the past two and a half months.

For some clarity, our core team of six staff here at 13 Thrones comprises of:
  • One lead author/GUI developer/website developer/lead & core mechanic developer
  • One sub-system developer/custom client lead programmer/community liaison
  • One balance, spawning and in-game development administrator
  • One lead map, decoration and static-design developer
  • One in-engine asset developer and conceptual designer/community manager
  • One out-of-engine art developer and conceptual designer/community manager
In these past 80 days, our core development team of six people has:
  • Approved over 250 character applications, averaging out to a rate of more than three a day.
  • Recently helped to promote and reach a new milestone of 500 members in our Discord channel.
  • Committed close to 600 additions and revisions to our code repository, averaging out to a rate of more than 7 commits a day (this is not taking into consideration consolidated “patches” that drop in chunk, of which hold many commits and only count as one!)
  • Answered nearly 750 Discord tickets for assistance, averaging out to a little over 9 per day.
  • Silently administered numerous bans and disciplinary actions against reported (minority) and non-reported (majority) violations of various rules and regulations of the shard and community standards
  • Avoided any large-scale data loss of character and belongings persistence.
  • Have been able to use donation funding to the project to commission and purchase new, custom in-game assets for the shard along
  • Have been able to use donation funding to the project to commission and purchase a digital map of Vitaveus (to be released for launch).
With the added help of our community volunteers in mapping and content developing, along with numerous responsible players and community members, we’ve also managed to:
  • Code, develop and launch Bright Lantern, an end-game related area to help meet emerging needs/desires of the player-base.
  • Bring to completion the map of Penitence Valley, a sprawling new area and mechanic addition for launch.
  • Track down numerous private issues, exploits and bugs.
  • Balance and perfect numerous systems and mechanics for a more enjoyable experience.

Where We Are

As part of this update, I would like to take a moment to share where we are specifically as of today. Currently, our core staff team is working on two major meta-development projects: the Cooking Review and the Magic Review. These two reviews have been kept private for the most part and have been in development since the beginning of the month.

The Cooking Review, spearheaded by GM Archin and assisted by a few Content Team members, is focusing on re-imagining this craft skill from the ground up and re-developing food items to be more meaningful and useful. There has been a core deficit in this craft skill that is being addressed by this task force and we expect big things in the coming days.

The Magic Review, spearheaded by Rex, Mal and Coty along with the assistance of a few Content Team members is focused upon a post-launch balance pass of everything magic, with the intent on establishing firm and transparent meta-design of everything from CCs, buffs, utilities and damage. This review is absolutely critical to the furthering of our project and is one of the most important tasks we’ve set upon yet. While it was not within our immediate plans post-launch to embark on such a hefty task, our observations and feedback required our team to improvise and adapt to the needs of the project to include this review in sooner rather than later. I have a lot of faith in the task force that is working on this project and we’re all looking forward to seeing how things pan out.

In terms of other development, core-development of the project is now getting back on the original rails we had laid out for Prelude. This includes focusing on both QoL additions and revisions, sprucing up existing content, balancing existing content, and finalizing late-cycle development on the Faction System. With a little luck, our recent diversions away from our intended Prelude plans should now be properly accounted and planned for.

Where We Are Going
(You wont need eyes to see...)

We have had a lot of great development in these past 80 days and we have ironed out a ton of issues with the project from a technical standpoint. As we are now getting back to our original plans for Prelude, we will slowly begin transitioning out from a primary focus on pure development/mechanical things to a larger focus on in-game development and support. Examples of this include more spawning and new NPCs, the opening of new areas (starting with Penitence Valley), the development of new dungeons, and most importantly, the launching of staff plotlines and Faction Verses. Our final Prelude plans have been laid out in a timeline for easy reference, and can be located here:

https://timelines.gitkraken.com/timelin ... 982e81ecdf

Included in these finalization plans are some outstanding issues and projects that we’ve not had a chance to address in earnest due to our internal prioritization of mechanical issues. This is not to say that if a system or shard aspect is not listed on this list, it isn’t going to be worked on: this is simply our prioritization list in order for us to feel confident inmoving forward with our next iteration of development for the shard, which includes more in-game content and support. Also coming with our transition out of Prelude and not listed on this timeline will be more strict enforcement of community standards, a full review of our rules, implementation of new rules and community guidelines for things such as stealing, burglary, etc., and generally a larger focus on QoL issues for our community in general.

Season One Launch

In proper Requiem fashion, we will be launching Season One when we feel it is ready. A great indication of when this will be is somewhere between “pretty soon” and “when that timeline stuff is done”. Season One will be kicked off with the official opening of Penitence Valley, in a similar vein and fashion as we tested the launch of Bright Lantern (new vendors, mechanics, infographic, lore, etc.). With this will come some major changes to the game-world, and a far greater emphasis on NPC related responses and repercussions. More spawns will be added to reflect what we have planned with the Season One launch and where we “see” the First Province realistically in terms of how it looks and what’s going on in it. Things may change, mob locations may be moved/altered, and you may find yourself running into a lot more danger in many other places around the map. I’d simply take this moment to remind everyone we’ve been in a mechanical beta for the past 80 days and the plans we’ve had going forward have always been there from the start!

In Closing

I’d like to thank everyone that has stuck it out in this community the past eighty days for their dedication and support. To our donators, thank you for your generosity in helping support this project and our vision. This has been, without a shadow of a doubt, the most successful iteration of Requiem to date, and we haven’t even got started. Very soon we will be moving forward with some big exciting changes that we can all enjoy and have fun with, and in the meantime, we will remain vigilant and hard at work trying to provide the most feature-rich project of this kind to date. Thanks again!

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