Book of Travels News

[h3]Dear Traveller,[/h3]

It has now been 12 months since we released Book of Travels, the Tiny MORPG (MMO-Lite) to early Access on Steam. Whilst initial momentum was beyond expectation, seeing us hit the top 10 most popular games on Steam, server instability and a number of frustrating bugs showed us that we had some issues we needed to solve.

The first thing we looked at was the team. It may have not been explained very well at the time but we essentially took the team that had made the very successful single player focussed Shelter series and asked them to deliver a multiplayer experience. It became clear, and was poorly communicated at the time, that we needed to re-asses the team and hire different competencies. This had additional impact on the Shelter 3 release and the on-going support for Meadow and is a challenge to solve whilst remaining an independent developer.

[h3]A new team[/h3]

The creative core and art direction was working well, but we needed different skills around multiplayer gameplay elements, server infrastructure and a different type of “production pipeline” to accurately release frequent updates for an MMO-Lite style of experience. Over the past 12 months we have hired a large number of engineering staff whilst keeping the majority of the art, stories and design the same, with the aim of improving on what we have. In order to deliver the existing Feature Set we have planned, and outlined as part of the new Road Map, some 7000 hours of development work remain ahead of us. This is before we add in things like bug fixes, design tweaks and adjustments based on feedback. Adding in a new Beta infrastructure allows us to playtest some of these new features early and work on fixes and tweaks as the features develop and ultimately will lead to cleaner update releases in the future (but we are not there yet).



[h3]The Pillars of Creation[/h3]

Part of the rethink of the Feature Set has led us to look at the games positioning in your gaming library, where MMO-Lite sits and what we offer that makes us stand out from other games on the market. Our key focus can be divided up into pillars which are: Survival, Exploration, Trading and Mystery. As we deliver DLC in the future (and PDLC where applicable) we will touch on these four pillars both as the core DLC for each pillar, but also a percentage of change in each of the 4 in each DLC. So, we may release a DLC focussed on Survival, but it will contain elements that touch the other 3 pillars.

[h3]Long Term Pricing[/h3]

Whilst many of our reviews comment on “what do I do?” the vast majority of our players have spent hundreds of hours in the game world with some spending in excess of 1000 hours. We will address the starting scenarios to better introduce players to the game world, even “holding their hands” for at least the first 20-60 minutes, but after that point the players will be free to explore and survive in a large and growing open world environment where dangers and mysteries lurk in unpredictable and often hard to find places. As content is released and the world grows, the number of “seats per server” will increase so the chance of encountering a player remains at the same level even though the world is larger. This growth is balanced against overall game client and game server performance that was addressed as part of our main tech rebuild (and is a constant area of improvement). To this end, the overall price of the game will increase as and when more content is added, the first of which is expected mid-November.

[h3] In Summary[/h3]

The launch was far from ideal, and we had lessons that we needed to learn. We have had a major rethink and addressed these lessons and remain committed to delivering the vast world of Braided Shore. Book of Travels has performed well enough for us to remain dedicated to it for the long term and we are pleased with the reception, the player reviews and the excitement we hear in our community. We have a lot to show you over the next 12 months and look forward to watching your journey.

May your tea never grow cold.
Joe.

This version contains all previous Beta updates as below. Additionally we have the following known issues in this version:

• WASD Movement still tracks mouse cursor position. If you are unable to walk please ensure your mouse is in the center of the screen.
  
• Player may become stuck on boats: You should be able to press the Right Alt Key (Alt GR) and select unstuck should you encounter this issue.
  

Update to a new Unity Input System to allow for new control schemes:

• Added WASD movement.
  
• Changed how the "Tab functionality" works. Previously it showed all the nametags of interactable NPCs, now it does so in a range around the player while also highlighting pickups and other interactable objects in the world.
  
• Added foundations for future controller support.
  
• Added functionality for Key-binding in the settings menu.
  

Implemented some previously unavailable items in the Settings Menu:

• Voice Volume slider
  
• UI Size dropdown. Choose between Small, Default, Large.
  
• Reset Interface Positions. Resets all user moved UI to their default positions after closing the menu.
  
• Always Notify Effect Cards. Toggle to always show effect card notifications.
  
• Small Emotes. Toggle to show smaller-sized emotes.
  
• Always Show Party Names. Toggle to always show your party members' nameplates.
  
• Show Selection Circles. Toggle to show selections circles around the character you have currently selected.
  
• Show Area of Effect Range. Toggle to show the AoE circle for skills.
  
• Show Combat Circle. Toggle to show the circle around a combat encounter.
  
• Show Walk Arrow. Toggle to show the walking arrow when you use click to walk.
  
• Disable Unity Analytics. Toggle to enable/disable Unity Analytics.
  
• Show Effect Cooldown. Toggle to show the effect duration when hovering over an effect card.
  
• Tool Tip Speed. Slider to choose the speed at which tool tips appear when hovering over UI elements.
  
• Emote Opacity. Slider to choose the opacity of emotes.
  
• Changes to Resolution settings
  

Platform Specific Fixes:

• Changed anti-aliasing method for OSX clients
  
• Updated Steamworks .NET to 20.1.0
  

General Fixes:

• Fixed a bug that caused combat to not initiate properly.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused NPC nametags to not appear when pressing Tab until they had been interacted with at least once.
  
• Temporarily removed dockhand worker to stop slide backwards and other movement issues
  
• Tea effects will now stack properly
  
• Poems will not appear when in menus anymore
  
• Calm Trait will now increase energy replenish to 1.25% instead of 1% when eating edibles.
  
• Glutton Trait will now decrease energy replenish to 0.75% instead of 0% when eating edibles.
  
• Self-Sacrifice Trait will now decrease energy replenish to 0.75% instead of 0% when eating edibles.
  
• You now cannot cancel a trade anymore after a trade has been confirmed.
  
• Wasteful trait will now have a chance to discard 2 - 3 items instead of only 2.
  
• NPC Interaction adjustments so the speech bubble will now appear on the first click
  
• Gave every wearable "Body" item a unique description.
  
• Fix for if your inventory is full when receiving a quest item the quest will break
  
• Change to item UI for value layout so value appears at the top
  
• Fix for Kasa Incident quest during Night time encounters.
  
• Added four more poems for the train headed west from Crossings.
  
• Wrote 4 poems for every different departure of ferries and trains.
  
• Added a more descriptions to arm and glove items. (Around 5000 words)
  
• Edible items without a unique description have now received one.
  
• Endeavour tutorial text change
  
• Added around 7000 new words worth of item descriptions for Edible items (Bread, cakes, etc) and fixed a couple of text errors.
  
• Fix for boat leaving the player in the water in West_09
  
• Fix for Endeavour requirements flash when loading Endeavour
  
• Character customization should now work in game
  
• Fix for Large Dried Fish wrong item type
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the debug menu to always display the current weekday as Monday
  
• Temporary time adjustments
  
• Improvements to water reflections
  

[h2]Dear Traveller,[/h2]

We are working on a lot of exciting things, as well as fixes and optimisation (some of which you can try out before it goes on the live environment by logging on to the beta branch) - but today I'd like to take a quick moment to shine a light on what improvements we are doing specifically for the vehicles of Braided Shore.

We all love trains and boats but we know that, in our game, they could function better and be more intuitive to use. We wanted to change that, and the changes that I'm going to detail in this post are expected to begin rolling out in the coming weeks.

Screenshot by Steam user "Lunafreya"

First off, when you board a vehicle you will immediately sit down and begin resting. There's no sense in straining yourself when occupying a cosy vehicle, right? You will also be able to check your map and inventory without automatically disembarking your mode of transport, which will be handy for plotting out your next course of action.

Currently, as you may know, there is a time-to-departure progress bar that indicates how long you have to wait until the vehicle in question starts heading out. Instead of that, we're rebuilding the system to convey that information to you in a more immersive way through visual and auditory cues like horns, whistles, smokestack changes, and announcements from the conductor.

On top of that station masters and dockhands will provide you with information about expected arrivals and departures for the trains and boats of Braided Shore. You will also be required to have a train or boat pass to take the trip, which will be consumed from the inventory upon boarding. Of course, we're also working on ironing out bugs and glitches causing you and your vehicle to end up in unintended places.

Lastly, the team is looking at ways to enable the player to... partake in some ill-advised travelling etiquette. Obviously, no one at Might and Delight formally recommends you to, say, take a boat ride during a storm. Or jump off a train mid-journey. Or try to sneak onboard a vehicle without paying for a pass. But we kind of do want you to be able to, and then face the consequences of those actions. Let's call it a "dismantling of safety measures". Because what fun are those?

Until next time! May your tea never grow cold.

Best wishes,
Oliver and the team at Might and Delight

[h2]Dear Traveller,[/h2]

Today we wanted to talk about how our work looks in regards to the story of Book of Travels. We're thinking a lot about how we want to present the larger story of the game to the player, and how to expand it over time while still holding true to our original vision and design philosophies about not wanting to hold the player's hand too tightly or spoon feed them.

When it comes to story in the world of Braided Shore, there is much to do. We are both looking to introduce more lore details to the world, and to expose the intrigue of the Prologue so that more players have the chance to find and play through it.

We’re introducing new lore both through item descriptions and, eventually, new encounters and events. We want the storytelling of Book of Travels to feel intuitive, and like something you unveil as you travel. With every item in the game world telling you bits and pieces of information, we’re hoping to add another layer to your roleplaying and immersion.



We also want the world to feel alive, whether you’re wandering through the deep woods or bartering in a bustling town. Ensuring that interactions with NPCs feels worthwhile, and that the world highlights the quests and events available to you, is also a major focus of our current work.

When looking at the steam achievements, and talking to the community, we can tell that the main intrigue of the Prologue is incredibly hard to find, and that many players simply have not played through it. We want to expose this story to the player, and ensure that the way we tell the story is in line with how the game is played; what if there wasn’t a one singular path to the great city of Kasa? What if there was a way for Travellers to find many clues that point to the city, and the cause of its peculiar lockdown?

This autumn and winter, you can expect hundreds of new item descriptions in-game (our story team has already written over 15 000 words of new lore in the past two weeks), many new dialogues and small encounters, as well as a mystery that seems to permeate the lands of Braided Shore.

For a behind the scenes peek at what we’re up to, you can find our work on the Beta, where it will be featured alongside bug fixes, polish of features, and experiments with new gameplay mechanics.
We’re hoping that, from the very start of the game, you’ll feel the call of the open road, and that the stories you encounter along the way will not only entertain, but stay with you whenever you brew a soothing cup of tea, or when you walk past a grassy field and feel like you might spot omin hiding amongst the underbrush.

You'll hear more from us in the coming weeks. As always, we encourage you to sound off in the comments and on the forums about what you think of any new information we put out.

Until next time, Traveller. May your tea never grow cold...
Best wishes,
The Might and Delight team