Note from the Dev Team
Hello Descendants! This is the The First Descendant Dev team.
We hope everyone spent a warm 2022 year end as well as a vibrant new year! We know its quite late to say ‘Happy New Year!’ but our Dev team has been busy over the past few months, working on improvements that reflect the results of last year's Steam Beta test, whilst developing new contents.
To keep everyone informed about what we're working on and how we're adapting Steam Beta feedback to the project, we'll be providing regular updates on our community channels.
Through this note, our Dev team would like to share where we are headed in terms of development since the Steam Beta test, and we would like to show some details of our current objectives.
We broke down our development plan into 3 key objectives: Overall Completion, Game Depth Enhancement and Play Experience Enhancements. The first focuses on the core integrity of The First Descendant to exceeding the standards of the latest global games. 'Game Depth Enhancement' will provide a more sustainable and enriching gameplay experience, and lastly, we are focusing on improving the gameplay and leveling to provide a more comprehensive and satisfying gaming experience.
We will continue to share and gather feedback on the specific preparations made for each key objective. Today, we would like to share more details, focusing on the Overall Completion of the game.
■ Improvements Towards Overall Completion
First of all, we'd like to talk about optimization.
Currently, our Dev team has completed the implementation of Unreal Engine 5.1 and is working on the latest version, 5.2. With the latest version, 5.2, we expect to see many positive results, as we attempt to resolve instability issues and improve optimization. Additionally, we're conducting various optimizations to provide a more stable play environment for both low-end and high-end PCs compared to before. Of course, we are working on console versions as well. Further information will be shared in the future.
Secondly, we are implementing solutions on controls based on your feedback.
To begin with, we would like to share that we are actively addressing various issues related to sprinting in the game, particularly unintentional sprinting cancellation and issues with reloading. We are also working on addressing the grappling hook, which made up a huge portion of the feedback from the community, by implementing full-scale improvements such as rotation, inertial movement, acceleration, and deceleration. We are currently testing these improvements and hope to provide visual contents to share the changes in the near future.
Last but not least, we'd like to share the improvements made to the gun sound effects.
Following feedback received during the previous Steam Beta test, where users reported that the gun sound effects were lackluster, we are currently committed to enhancing the sound effects of firearms, such as firing, bullets, impacts, kills, and other elements, with a focus on improving the overall user experience.
We are also adding an in-game Audio Mix option, which will allow players to personalize their audio experience by not only adjusting the Equalizer but also other sound elements like Compression and Loudness.
We're excited to reveal some of the gun sound effects we've been working on. We're confident that you'll notice a significant improvement in the gun sound effects compared to the previous version. Please keep in mind that we've deliberately left out the recoil of the guns in this video to focus on the sound changes.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Also, as you can see in the assault rifle "After" section, we have minimized the delay motion between reloads. Previously, characters would make a standby position after reloading, which resulted in a clunky combat experience. So, we have worked on enhancing the gun's usability to enable immediate firing after reloads.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
In addition to the improvements mentioned so far, we are also making adjustments to gun characteristics and balance. Furthermore, we are currently completely revamping our UI/UX, in response to the feedback that many of you have shared with us. We will discuss these updates in greater detail next time.
Our Dev team will try to be as transparent as possible and provide regular updates on our progress, so we hope you follow along and continue to share your thoughts. We will bring you more development news and updates in the future.
Thank you.
