Nightingale News

Nightingale: Realms Rebuilt is our biggest update yet and the latest Dev Update jumps right into what you can expect - from a new handcrafted campaign to build limit increases, UI improvements, and loads of new pets (and some even wear hats)! Every area of the game has been touched by this update, so join us as we summarize as much as we can without making this video feature-length!

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For more information on the Realms Rebuilt update then check out our reveal blogs -
Part One: https://playnightingale.com/news/nigh...

Part Two: https://playnightingale.com/news/nigh...

As the Realms Rebuilt update approaches and Realmwalkers ready themselves for their first visit to the Crossways, we thought it would be a good time to jump into some details about how the build system will change in Nightingale. Tackling the tricky questions on the mind of every Faewild builder, Technical Director Jacques Lebrun digs into the numbers and shares insight into the past, present, and future of building in Nightingale.



[h3]Q: How did you envision the design of Nightingale’s building system? [/h3]
JL: When we set out to create a building system for Nightingale, we wanted to give players the right tools and an exciting, versatile canvas to express their creativity. While we didn’t set out to make a game that revolved exclusively around building with zero limits, we also appreciate that any technical constraint can quickly get in the way of that creative freedom and fun that players want to have when crafting their home in Nightingale.

[h3]Q: How does the building system work in Nightingale right now?[/h3]
JL: Nightingale supports two distinct types of structures:

1. Composite structures which snap together with under-the-hood adjacent pieces that are managed as a single entity (these include pieces like foundations, walls, and roofs).

2. Standalone structures are managed as independent entities but can provide more functionality, such as the ability to store items, provide traits to other crafting stations, handle crafting, etc. These types of structures require more overhead to manage, and include objects like storage containers, crafting benches, and augmentations.

In the initial version of Nightingale, we needed to place limits on how many structures could exist in the realm in order to ensure networking between clients and servers remained stable, and the client frame rate remained playable on a minimum spec rig.



[h3]Q: Can you talk about how community feedback informed changes you wanted to make in the Realms Rebuilt update?[/h3]
JL: In the initial release of Nightingale, players found managing three different building limits to be challenging, and sometimes difficult to understand - the three limits themselves were 100 composite structures, 300 pieces for each of those composite structures, and 350 standalone structures. It’s also not clear from the player’s perspective which structures fall into which category, so too much trial and error was required to figure everything out.

In addition to this, players were also frustrated that the building limits for the player were shared with structures that were pre-placed in a realm, which added additional limitations outside of the player's control. This included environmental architecture like statues, ruins, and points-of-interest.

With feedback on the above, we had a pretty clear path forward on what we needed to address to make the experience more accessible, flexible and enjoyable for players.

[h3]Q: Can you go into detail about how the building system changes in Realms Rebuilt?[/h3]
JL: In Realms Rebuilt, we focused our optimization efforts around improving the piece limits of composite structures. For example, an estate building that was previously limited to only have 300 roof/wall/floor pieces can now support up to 1500. This was achieved primarily through low-level optimization of how the structure data is represented.

Additionally, we implemented a new method of spreading networking updates for large structures across multiple server updates, which we hope can allow us to further increase the per structure piece limit in the future.



In order to give players maximum flexibility in terms of how many structures they can build, we changed how we track the structure limits. Instead of tracking composite structures and standalone structures separately, we now count them together but apply a variable weight depending on the performance overhead of a particular structure. This aggregated limit is calculated via Realm Building Points, which goes up to 30,000 (UPDATE: we previously communicated 20,000 but in the days since the blog was written, subsequent optimization work has upped the overall limit). You’ll find some structures like walls and roofs contribute very little to Realm Building Points, but other types like containers and crafting benches will cost more. We also keep track of player-built structures separately from the structures that are pre-placed in the Realm - so structures already in the Realm will no longer count towards the overall build limits.

[h3]Q: What tips would you give players who love building when creating their estate following the Realms Rebuilt update?[/h3]
JL: Okay, here’s a few tips:

1: If you consider yourself an avid builder, we suggest turning on the “Advanced Building Information” option in the Gameplay Settings screen. This will show you how you’re progressing towards the building limit for the Realm, the piece limit for composite structures, and the weighted cost for each individual piece. You’ll know what’s “cheap” and what’s “expensive”.

2: One approach to getting the most out of the building system is to prioritize building out the foundations, walls, roofs, which are very low cost.

3: Be conscious when building crafting benches, containers, decorations, portals, etc. that emit traits.

4: Standalone decorations like chairs and tables still have some moderate cost, but sit somewhere in the middle (no pun intended).

[h3]Q: What can players look forward to with the building system in the future?[/h3]
JL: While we prioritized building large composite structures for Realms Rebuilt, in the future we want to spend some time optimizing the decorations, containers, and workbenches you’ll want to fill your estate with. We look forward to being able to have an assortment of low-cost decorations to give players the freedom to furnish their estates to their hearts’ desire.





Thanks to Jacques for accommodating our questions. If there’s anything else you want to know about building in Realms Rebuilt, or you have any other questions on your mind, then why not join our Developer Livestream on September 11th at 11am MST/6pm BST. We’ll be previewing the Realms Rebuilt update and answering community questions. Join our Discord here to participate.

Until next time, fare thee well, traveler.‍

The world of Nightingale has been reborn, Realmwalkers.

Set forth on a new campaign, where adventure and rewards await beyond the ancient Crossways on September 12, 2024.

Watch the trailer here:

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For more details on the upcoming update, check out our blog posts:
Part 1 Part 2

Welcome Realmwalkers, to the second of our two blogs unveiling our next update Nightingale: Realms Rebuilt.

The ancient Crossways await

Our approach to Realms Rebuilt is to retain the core fundamentals of what players enjoy about Nightingale while refining, expanding, and enhancing the structure to create a more immersive experience. This is the biggest and most significant update to Nightingale’s Early Access experience to date.

In the last blog, we dug into several major changes coming to the Realms, including a new progression system, structure limit increases, information on the progression reset, and highlighted a trove of new weapons and magick you’ll have at your disposal.

Today, we’re stepping into the Realms themselves. From the moment Realmwalkers set forth in Realms Rebuilt, they’ll notice a very different Faewilds than the one they’ve become acquainted with in the past six months. From gravity-torn deserts to corrupted forests, the world of Nightingale is changing.

Let’s take a look at these improvements in detail.



[h2]Handcrafted Realms[/h2]

We’ve previously discussed that one of our major goals moving forward is to make Realm exploration a more rewarding and immersive journey for players. As part of that work, the team has been exploring different ways to make the Realms feel more unique and differentiated throughout the game, elevating the sense of adventure for Realmwalkers. The foundation of this approach is our new ‘Storied Realms’.

Realmwalker’s taking a brief glide through one of the new Storied Realms, Sylvan’s Cradle

The Storied Realms are handcrafted Realms set within the existing biomes, each designed with its own theme, aesthetic, and challenges. Storied Realms will be introduced as part of a new campaign that will arrive with the next update (more on that below). As you progress through the main questline, you’ll unlock unique Realm Cards - each leading to a new Storied Realm to discover and explore.

Your journey through the Storied Realms begins as soon as you step into your new Abeyance Realm. Every player now starts in a Forest Abeyance housing the important mystical landmark: The Crossways. This collection of ancient portals is your gateway to the Storied Realms, acting as the hub of your new adventure.

Early steps of a new journey to come

That’s not the only location worth paying a visit to. Among other sights to see and discoveries to be found, this handcrafted Abeyance also features a number of locations where tools and recipes can be unlocked as part of your Progression Tree, including the new bow.

The Bow Tool Site offers up some target practice for Realmwalkers

While Storied Realms become the defacto worlds for mainline quests, procedurally-generated Realms will still play an important part in your journey as a Realmwalker. Their role remains the same - use Realm cards to open Portals (either your own or ones you discover in the environment) and explore each location for further adventuring, new challenges, collecting valuable essences, and to harvest rare resources.

As with everything else in Early Access, we’ll continue to refine and expand Storied Realms content. But this is very much a big step forward for Nightingale. The handcrafted approach creates a more immersive environment, offering more opportunities for meaningful discoveries and adventures. This new approach also benefits future updates, increasing the speed the studio team can create new biome and Realm content.

Finally, for players who like more options when it comes to planting their roots and setting a Respite Realm, you’ll be able to set your Respite point at any of the Storied Realms or player-opened Realms you discover on your journey.



[h2]A New Campaign[/h2]

As mentioned above, Storied Realms are a central part of a new campaign in Nightingale: Realms Rebuilt. Puck is back with all new voice work from the incredible Marc Warren. He’ll be guiding Realmwalkers through each of the handcrafted Realms, featuring a series of new quests and challenges, while encountering some familiar faces from Nightingale’s cast of stranded survivors out in Faewilds.

While the fundamental premise of the story remains the same (Earth has fallen, the Portal network collapsed, and what remains of humanity is adrift looking for Nightingale), in Realms Rebuilt the player journey has been…well….rebuilt! As a Realmwalker, you will reawaken the ancient portals of the Crossways, recover secrets long buried and reclaim wonders once thought lost. This new adventure takes you across previously unexplored Realms from the corrupted woods of Sylvan’s Cradle, to the gravity-torn desert of Welkin’s Reach, and beyond.

The chaotic deserts of Welkin’s Reach

We hope your love of discovering the unknown will continue to guide you through these fantastical new Realms where Fae creatures roam, fellow survivors await salvation and deadly threats lurk in the shadows. We look forward to your feedback on the new campaign and can’t wait to hear about your new adventures.



[h2]Sites of Power and Boss Battles[/h2]

The more structured approach to the main campaign opened up the opportunity to punctuate each story milestone with a challenging finale. We’ve seen how much players have enjoyed some of the more formidable creature encounters in Nightingale, whether stumbling upon an Eoten in the forest or taking on an Apex creature in one of the Hunt Realms. We wanted to expand those types of encounters and weave them through Nightingale’s revamped story.

The first part of this is new Sites of Power, providing engaging combat encounters and intricate puzzles that test the skills each Realmwalker has developed up to this stage. These dungeons replace the current Sites of Power that were found across the Abeyance but are now set within new environments and contain different content.

The entrance to the new Abeyance Realm Site of Power

Each one of these dungeons also culminates in completely new boss battles. We wanted to bring more variety to boss encounters in the Sites of Power and these deadly adversaries are designed from the ground up and are set within distinctive locations, and pit players against creatures with unique abilities.

One of the new Site of Power boss arenas



[h2]New Points of Interest[/h2]

Another part of these changes to the Realms will be more Points of Interest (POIs) and the challenges you find within them and elsewhere in the Realms. The favorites are still around - the Bastille of Intellect and Agility sites, etc - but we’ve bolstered the range of POI challenges with new activities.

Concept art of a Bound Heart, which spawns Bound until it’s destroyed

As mentioned in the previous blog, we wanted to put more emphasis on Essence rewards when completing POIs, whilst expanding the type of encounters that players can expect. So we hope you both enjoy the new challenges you’ll face and feel suitably rewarded for your time exploring the Realms.



[h2]Next Steps[/h2]

While we still have new biomes and other content in the works (triangular tileset pieces are coming soon), we’re excited about the new adventures Realms Rebuilt will introduce to players once it goes live later this Summer. We’ll talk more about some other features to expect in our upcoming Dev Update, and you may want to keep your eyes peeled at Gamescom for a sneak peek at what’s to come.

We look forward to everyone sinking their axepick into this new update we’ve been working hard to bring you. It’s been a tremendous effort from the studio team that marks a step forward for Nightingale’s Early Access, as we continue to add and expand to the game on the road to 1.0.

Until next time, fare thee well, traveler.

- The Nightingale Team