Hello!
Today we are releasing
Bonechill Quarry.
In this new location, you'll find all sorts of new content: a new boss, miniboss, enemies, equipment, decor items, powers, and more.
A huge thank you to everybody who participated in the beta and helped us with bug reports and feedback. We very much appreciate all of the kind words and support. Thank you!
[h2]About Early Access and Rotwood.[/h2]
Klei has operated and refined nearly a dozen titles through pre-launch testing and Early Access. Our process has always been to put down a solid, enjoyable experience that is worth playing for the price you paid for it and then we refine from there based on player feedback and what it is specifically that we are trying to accomplish with that game.
Rotwood is not a roguelike. It's not a brawler. It's not a souls-like and it's not a dungeon crawler. While Rotwood can be described using these terms and it certainly contains elements of each of them, it comes from a place of love for all these types of games, but it is not defined or limited by them.
Klei, as a studio attempts to do something interesting and new with our games. We take interesting ideas and see where we can go with them.
But this can sometimes result in time needed to help us adapt the game we are trying to make so that it better communicates what we are trying to accomplish. This was true in 2012 and it is true now.
To better communicate our vision we have two things coming for you soon. Shortly we will be sharing a more descriptive roadmap as well as a sneak peek into our minds and the future of the game.
[h2]Coming Soon![/h2]
We're aiming for a teaser update before the end of August. This update will bring a new "Super Frenzy" system for the first hunt. A Super Frenzy is when the game begins to change up gameplay to be significantly more difficult requiring not only tuned gear, but also a deeper understanding of the combat mechanics and tactics.
With the game only having the lower half of the game present, much of the difficulty and power progression is being condensed at the lower levels. This result is a more grindy experience with overall less progression happening in shorter time periods than there will be when more systems and content are present.
Many systems that existed in the playtest version of the game are still coming as support systems for these different progression mechanics.
Please read below for notes about what our goal is with this Hunt.[expand]
The Following was posted with the beta for this update. We are including it here for those that may have missed it.
As with all early-access games, Rotwood is a work in progress. At the present time, it is much easier to progress through this update than it will be at full release due to systems that have yet to be implemented.
Some updates during Early Access will feel more(or less) challenging due to systems that interact with each other not being yet fully available. Since the game is currently in active development, there are going to be some adjustments and experimentation.
We have previously made some changes to the Early Access launch version of the game that has placed us in an "Easy" phase after we tuned the game to better onboard new players. We have a much better experience for players now that we have a smoother ramp into more difficult challenges.
This update is not fully representative of what a "Hunt" is in Rotwood. While the this update does widen the game in terms of content by providing more things to do and more things to get, it does not yet deepen the game by providing further progression systems. This means, that those of you that are in the later parts of the current will not quite feel the challenge that this hunt will later provide. However this update also represents the beginning of the second half of the game which will later bring a new system that is not currently part of this beta. This new system will deepen progression further while bringing greater challenges and greater rewards.
We also want you to be aware that right now, the "grind" element of the game is being over represented for the reasons discussed above. We definitely want a grind element in the game for people who enjoy that content although it is not intended to be the focus of Rotwood and certainly not in the early game. The goal is to have progression and reward systems around a core game that you enjoy playing coupled with deeper long term elements that people can choose to take part in if they want to keep playing and further refine their builds.
If you feel that you MUST grind a specific piece of gear in order to play the game, it's because we're not quite there yet.
We have rearranged our update plans to offer players a better experience throughout Early Access while not all content and features are available yet. We'll soon be providing a roadmap that will better outline for you what you can expect from future updates; however, we want to wait to release this information until we have everything in place in that we believe is required to better illustrate what we are aiming to do with the game.
One final point. We should note, that weapons are intended to feel great for people that enjoy what any given weapon has to offer. We intend for each weapon type to be equally effective, however we do not intend for players to be equally effective with every weapon. Each weapon type should be viable throughout the game, and we are not designing each weapon to appeal to all players.
That being said. Thank you to everybody that have been sending in bug reports and feedback. You're truly helping us shape the game toward something great and we're very excited to show you what we have in store for you.[/expand]
For more details and full patch notes, please see the
official post on the Klei Forums.
