Rotwood News

Hey Everybody, it's time for another playtest!

We've got a bunch of new stuff for you to check out!

This test is less directly focused on a specific area of the game, so please feel free to let us know anything that's on your mind.

Please remember that this is an early playtest. We are currently light on content and many aspects of the game like character customization and progression are still in very early stages. We'll do our best to keep things interesting and fun during the test, but we're expecting a lot more content and balance to come in the future before we move to early access.

[h2]What's new?[/h2]
The highlights include a new Dungeon (Now called Hunts), a new room type to discover while out Hunting, a revitalized equipment system, a weapon returns to multiplayer and some updates to character progression and customization.

More details here:
[expand]

• A new Hunt!
  • Nocturne Grove has been added!
• Market Room
  • You can now run into market rooms while out on Hunts!
  • Alphonse & Nimble, two new NPCs, are hanging out in the market.
• Weapon Changes
  • Striker
    • Striker is back, and supported in networked multiplayer games!
  • Cannon
    • Reloading is now executed by pressing Dodge -> Dodge, instead of Dodge -> Light Attack.
    • There are two new types of attacks after pressing Dodge. Try Dodge -> Light Attack or Dodge -> Skill.
• Equipment Changes
  • Added new armour type: Legs. There are now three armour slots instead of two, allowing you to further customize your build.
  • Reworked many existing armour sets, and added new sets.
    • Boss equipment is not in this playtest
  • Equipment now has weight, and can push your build into either Light, Medium, or Heavy, each with their own unique dodge + unique characteristics
• Heartstone Changes
  • Heartstones now provide your player with powerful bonuses that persist from Hunt to Hunt.
• NPC Changes
  • Hamish
    • Hamish is not in this playtest
  • Berna
    • Berna will not be crafting armour in this playtest, but will be around to perform upgrades.
  • Glorabelle
    • Glorabelle is not in this playtest
  • Toot
    • Now shows up in the village
• Miniboss Encounter changes
  • Miniboss fights have been redesigned to present players with challenges unique to the mechanics presented by the miniboss.
• Frenzy Changes
  • Frenzy levels 1 - 3 are in this playtest.
    • The previous Frenzy Levels have been compressed into these three to provide spikier, more interesting challenges.
• Player Customization Changes
  • There are new ways to customize your character
  • Glitz
    • You will earn Glitz by doing Hunts, allowing you to unlock new customizations 
  • Armour Dyes added!
    • Every piece of armour can be dyed one of four different colours
  • Emotes
    • Added emotes!
       

[/expand]
[h2]How long is the test?[/h2]
We are aiming for one week. However we may run longer if we see value in running it longer. The longer we run the test the longer we're focused on feedback so we want to get things resolved pretty quickly.

[h2]Who can play?[/h2]
Everybody in the last playtest will be able to play immediately and we will be letting in new signups as we progress through the week.

[h2]Can I stream or make videos?[/h2]
Go ahead. But please note that this is very much a test and we do expect issues. We're testing our networking code here, there will be issues.

[h2]How do I find people to play with?[/h2]
You can look for people that want to play in the official discord here: https://klei.gg/discord And you can also use the Looking for Group Steam forum here. https://steamcommunity.com/app/2451740/discussions/1/

[h2]How do I report bugs or submit feedback?[/h2]
F8 is the very best way. But you can also report bugs over here. And you can participate on our forums here. You can also report stuff on the steam forums, we gather feedback from everywhere, but our focus will be on F8 reports.

[h2]UPDATE[/h2]
Playtest will conclude December 20th.

Hey everybody!

The Multiplayer Playtest has concluded.

A huge thank you to everybody that has joined up and sent in your feedback and reports. We had a bunch of bugs in there and you all were absolutely instrumental in allowing us to find these issues and get them fixed up.

We are not done with the playtests however. We're back to focusing on working our way to the next playtest.

We will have more information on dates for the next playtest soon.

We are currently at 200k accepted playtesters! If you did not get in this round please keep an eye out for the next playtest, likely in late October or early November. We're hoping to move to open playtesting sometime in the next round, so if you have any friends who you want to play with, tell them to come sign up so they can be notified when the next test begins!

We're update here as soon as we have more info.

Thanks again and we'll see you soon!

Hey Everybody.

Quick update.

First, a big BIG than you to everybody that has participated so far. We were able to identify and address many issues thanks to your feedback and bug reports. This test is a bit different than usual because this not only helps for a better play experience now, but also helps us avoid future issues as well.

With that being said. We have not been able to add as many new testers as we wanted because we felt that it was necessary to correct some of the more pressing issues before adding too many people.

We have added about 30k testers since this test started and beginning today we will be adding a large number of testers each day until the end of the testing period. This should ensure we keep a decent amount of people playing through to the end of the playtest.

This is going to put a bit of a strain on us to keep up with the feedback, but we feel that it's important for us to be able to get more of your friends in to play with you.

If you have friends that you might want to play with, have them sign up now. We're can't let in EVERYBODY, but we will be letting in enough that they should have a decent chance to join you.

We will be extending the test until the 27th so that we have enough time to gather more feedback and reports while we add more players.

Thanks again everybody. Have fun out there!

Hello everybody.

The multiplayer playtest starts now!

This is a bit of a surprise, but we're trying to keep things relatively quiet because this is the very first external multiplayer playtest.

We're gearing up to hopefully participate in the upcoming Steam Next Fest so we want to make sure we're in good shape.

The previous playtest was an entirely unnetworked game. This version is almost the same as before, but now entirely playable online. There is no new content in this version and contains the same two stages as the last playtest.

We have plenty of future content we've been working on, but this playtest we're focused on getting these two stages polished for the Next Fest Demo, so that's where we are focusing at this time.

[h2]-Warning-[/h2]
We have been testing multiplayer for a long time time, since well before the combat playtest. However we can only catch so many edge cases so we do expect some issues. There will be bugs. You may lose your progress, it may be frustrating. But we hope not.

If you find yourself frustrated by early testing issues, you might want to wait for Next Fest.

[h2]FAQ[/h2]
[h3]What's different?[/h3]
The content at this time is essentially the same, but now with network and local multiplayer. We're keeping our tests focused on the multiplayer experience so new content will not be in the playtest.

[h3]How long is the test?[/h3]
We are aiming for one week. However we may run longer if we see value in running it longer. The longer we run the test the longer we're focused on feedback so we want to get things resolved pretty quickly.

[h3]Who can play?[/h3]
Everybody in the last playtest will be able to play immediately and we will be letting in new signups as we progress through the week.

[h3]Can I stream or make videos?[/h3]
Go ahead. But please note that this is very much a test and we do expect issues. We're testing our networking code here, there will be issues.

[h3]How do I find people to play with?[/h3]
While we are in closed beta, it's going to be a bit harder to find people to play with.

You can look for people that want to play in the official discord here: https://klei.gg/discord
And you can also use the Looking for Group Steam forum here. https://steamcommunity.com/app/2451740/discussions/1/

[h3]How do I report bugs or submit feedback?[/h3]
F8 is the very best way. But you can also report bugs over here. And you can participate on our forums here. You can also report stuff on the steam forums, we gather feedback from everywhere, but our focus will be on F8 reports.

Hey all,

We just wanted to take a moment to thank you for participating in the combat playtest!

It's been really fun for us to watch everybody play and discuss the game, and the feedback has been extremely helpful and actionable. Even aside from how helpful it's been, it's also been really rewarding watching you experience the world we've made.

Our next step is to prepare for a multiplayer networked playtest so that you can experience that world with your friends.

We'll have more details as we get closer to that playtest. We hope you'll join us again!