Last Oasis News

We know there was some confusion surrounding why we're delaying the wipe, and we wanted to answer some of the questions we've seen.

Q: WILL THERE STILL BE A WIPE? A: Y E S. We are still planning on wiping the game, just not in October like we originally stated.

Q: OKAY BUT WHEN IS THE MAIN BRANCH WIPE GOING TO HAPPEN? A: We don’t have an exact date yet for the main branch wipe. We want to open up the beta branch first and see how that goes before we set any date. Once we do know when we want a wipe to happen, we’ll give plenty of heads up.

Q: WHAT IS THE PTR AND HOW WILL IT WORK? A: We’re going to be calling it “BB” for Beta Branch instead of “PTR”. The main difference is that this branch will be active for a longer duration than PTR, which would run only for a few days, and also that BB will be getting periodic updates up until it becomes official with a wipe. It will also have a full-sized dynamic realm just like the official one.

You'll be able to switch the branches at any moment and play either on the official realm with your current character or the BB realm with a new one.

Q: WHAT WILL HAPPEN WITH PRIVATE SERVERS? WILL THEY GET THE BETA BRANCH UPDATES? A: We don’t have a concrete answer for this just yet. Once we do, we will make sure to post about it.
Q: IS THE BETA BRANCH PERMANENT? A: It's permanent in a sense that we do not expect it to be wiped. However, at the moment, we don't plan to have it running in parallel with the official branch once that one gets updated and wiped as mentioned last week.

Q: HOW OFTEN WILL YOU WIPE THE MAIN BRANCH / INTRODUCE THE CHANGES MADE IN THE BETA BRANCH TO THE MAIN BRANCH? A: As of now, we're mainly considering the Beta Branch as the testing ground for the Commerce Update and all the core game changes that are coming with it. The idea is that we'll continue iterating on those changes within the Beta Branch until they're fully ready and then put them all together on the main branch in the end.

We don't have any specific plans for wiping the main branch afterwards, but, considering the nature of Early Access, if there will be large changes that affect the core of the game, a wipe might be a necessity.

DEVELOPER SPOTLIGHT: LUCAS

Hello, fellow members of the Last Oasis community! My name is Lucas, but you can call me Stannis. I am a producer here at Donkey Crew, working with the amazingly talented team behind the development of Last Oasis.



I’m glad to share with you my thoughts on one of my favorite subjects: Game Production! That’s right. So, let’s get to it.

Game Production is a field of work in the games industry which is formed by professionals dedicated to lead and oversee the development process of a game, from the earlier ideas to a shipped product that players will love (or not...).

Producers deal with and manage all kinds of resources that a studio has available to invest in the development of a game project, from money and time to hardware and software. The Producer is a bridge between the creative process and the business objectives. The Producer is a facilitator of the development process, helping developers and team leads to make decisions that are aimed at making the game the best it can be, taking into account the limitations in place and, a lot of the times, working with the teams to remove those limitations.

That all sounds interesting (well, to me at least), right? But most importantly, Producers work with People. People which are creative, passionate, driven. People that want to leave a mark through their creative work, people that want to make a game that brings a smile to someone’s face, or maybe some wrinkles of excitement. People that want to create an amazing experience that will be remembered. People that love what they do. So, in my humble opinion, the Producer's biggest and most important role is to empower those and help them do their best work. That’s what I like the most about it. Driven people aiming to do their best alongside their teammates. I like to help people like this.

Being a Producer in a project as big and ambitious as Last Oasis is a challenge, but what I love about it is the ability to work with an international team of individuals on a unique setting, with a lot of novelty features that brings us a lot of excitement (and also some trouble, to be honest). I also love the fact that Last Oasis is being followed by a passionate community that cares about the future of the game. Both positive and negative feedback helps us a lot in shaping our discussions on how to tackle the biggest issues the game has, but also to bring new and exciting gameplay. I always like to say that Game Development can get incredibly emotional. Well, as I’ve said, we’re driven people trying to make the best we can to deliver a memorable and fun experience. A lot of times, we succeed, and it’s amazing. Sometimes we don’t, and it can be very frustrating. But that’s part of the road of an Early Access game. It’s nothing but a blessing to help lead this project and have you all as companions while we work on polishing the rough edges.

I guess that’s it, everyone! That covers a lot of my thoughts on producing games and producing Last Oasis. Thanks to you that read and to sum this up, I would like to take this opportunity to give two big shout-outs. The first one to my fellow Production Team colleagues Chris, Marcin, and Victoria and all our Development Team amazing people. And the second one, of course, to our amazing community at our Discord Server.

See you next time! :)

COMMUNITY QUESTIONS

Don’t forget to check out our Living FAQ to see what we’ve answered in the past! If you have a question you want to ask the devs, join our Discord. A new question form will be posted in #announcements tomorrow (Friday)!

Q: Will there ever be a way to track player and walker kills? Maybe a way to know player "reputations" based on players always attacking first or something like that? A way to back up some trash talking would be nice. There are steam achievements that track some of that, but having in-game numbers and a maybe a kill/death ratio would be really fun. A: We’ve briefly mentioned things like titles before, and stats or leaderboards would fit perfectly with those! Reputation system is quite tricky, as it would likely turn into a griefing simulator until the enemy has enough of it and attacks first, but tracking various types of kills and other things is something we’d like to explore.

Q: Are you thinking about adding a dyeing system to the game? A: We’re a bit on the fence with dyeing, since it would overlap with the clan coloring system, but we’ve had some ideas already for how to implement it. Will definitely be considering it for one of the future updates.

Q: How’s development on Commerce and future themes going? A: Commerce is almost here! We’re finishing up the last bits and pieces, and doing some balancing and internal tests before putting it out on the Beta Branch for you to help us test all the core gameplay changes. The next theme is currently being planned by our production team (like Lucas ♥) and some of the features are already being prototyped in parallel.

Q: Will we ever be getting a place to show off wealth? A place for players to meet in safety and either show off walkers or gear or just hang out a little while taking a break from the PvP? A: That's generally what we imagine the Flotilla to be. A peaceful place for Nomads to meet, trade, participate in events, fight at an arena, and just relax away from the dangers of the outside world.

Our video producer, Jakub, is working on another one of his side project narrative videos! Enjoy a little tease of what’s to come at the end of the month 🎃:



*remember: these videos are things Jakub makes on his own in-engine, and are not meant to show anything related to the development of the game. This video will be a little Halloween treat!

CHANGELOG

- Added Volcanyon map.

VOLCANYON





We're introducing a new map, combining various aspects of other maps and some new twists on top: the Volcanyon. This one incorporates bits and pieces from the Canyon and the latest Volcanic map, while also having some unique areas that have a special feeling and provide new gameplay opportunities.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

COMMUNITY QUESTIONS

There’s a Community Update coming out tomorrow (Thursday), so we won’t have a Q&A in this post.

We know you want some clarification on the beta branch and the wipe, and that will be a big part of tomorrow’s post.

Here’s a little taste of something coming in the future:

CHANGELOG

- Added Panda Walker!
- Fixed various unpacking ownership issues.

NEWS ON THE COMMERCE UPDATE

We've been preparing for the Commerce Update and reading your feedback, and we'll be opening a new permanent Beta Branch to test all the changes. All new upcoming updates, including Commerce, will be going to the new branch, while the main branch will stay with a stable version up until all the changes are fully tested and approved.

What it means in practice is that official servers will not be wiped in October and you'll be able to play there normally. Instead, the new branch will be launched on the same date (still TBA) with all the changes we're planning for the Commerce Update. You'll be able to freely choose which version you want to play on at any point and both will fully work with dynamic tile burns and map numbers.

Our intention with this approach is to be able to test and improve on all the core changes before forcing them on the official realm. It will allow for much faster iteration over important aspects of the game like clan sizes or burn times, and actually testing them with all of you without worrying about breaking the official realm. To give you some examples of things that will be tested, we'll be increasing the burn time to 20-30 days, reworking Proxy battle timers, and finally trying out hard clan caps (by popular demand). A very strong focus will be on addressing the zerg problem.

Once the changes are fully tested, balanced, and work as intended, all the improvements will be moved to the official realm together with a proper wipe. Meanwhile, we'll be continuing with our regular content drops, which will also be going to the Beta Branch for the time being.

PANDA WALKER



-Make transporting all your Walkers even easier by packing them onto the Panda! Panda can pack and haul every type of a Walker except another Panda and has 5 whole slots to do so, although limited by total carry weight. In addition to its packing capabilities, it also has deck space for building structures and weapons, and has all other regular Walker abilities like a hatch or modules.
We named it Panda because Lucas didn’t want us to, and we’ll do anything to see if we can break Lucas’ eternal happiness. We got one small frown out of it.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



COMMUNITY FEATURE

-Gypster has made videos reading through each weekly blog post!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

COMMUNITY QUESTIONS

Want to submit a question to the team? Join our Discord and keep an eye on #announcements for a link to the form! New forms get posted every few weeks. You can also check out our past Q&As on our Living FAQ.

Q: What exactly is the plan for the crane? Initially it had a description that stated it was used to move smaller walkers. That was obviously not practical with how the rope snapped somewhat easily. The only real use was for with the lumbermill. Now that walker packers have been added that has replaced the role of what some of us thought was going to be the role of the crane. What is the plan for the crane as a utility tool, if there is one. A: We originally came up with the crane when the concept of physical trees was first brought up. It was intended to be used as a tool for transporting logs from forest to your stationary lumbermills. Later on we added a feature to lock its tether so it becomes close to unbreakable, allowing it to haul walkers.

For now, we're not thinking about changing its purpose, but we have some ideas for how to improve the functionality and usability, potentially making it stronger but more difficult to operate. We'll also be adding new things to move with the crane, possibly adding interactions with upcoming loot sites and other objects.

Q: Will there be musical instruments in addition to chanting at some point? A: We weren't planning instruments before, as we wanted a more unique approach to player-made music with chanting, but we do have some ideas brewing in that regard like drums.

Q: Why do backpacks not increase the max carry weight of a player? Is this something intended for the future? A: We're planning to add a system in the future that would allow special perks applied to any kind of item and increased carry capacity would certainly be one we'd look into.

Q: Hey, how many bricks had to fall on your collective heads that you decided it'd be a good idea to introduce wipes? Did the building fall down? The decision is so moronic and out of touch that I'm genuinely worried about the safety and mental well being of the dev team. A: To be a dev on the Donkey Crew team, you have to sign a waiver ensuring that you will follow the daily ritual of allowing a donkey to kick you in the face. This helps build character and resilience. So, no, it wasn’t a building.

But to quickly address the “What made us decide to add wipes” question, which we have answered before (see our Living FAQ): core changes to the game are going to be introduced with the Commerce update that necessitate a wipe. And, as we mentioned above, things are changing around a bit now.

Here’s a teaser of something coming soon:

CHANGELOG


BOMBS

- Added Cluster Bomb.
- Added Healing Bomb.
- Added Insects Bomb.
- Added equipment durability damage to the Sulfur Bomb.
- Made Chalk Bomb a smoke screen by removing damage.
- Improved performance optimization of bombs and gases.
- Improved visuals of bombs and gases.

FIXES & TWEAKS

- Adjusted UI elements of player/clan name overlay.
- Fixed being able to unpack things close to enemy bases.
- Fixed Slingshot not working with Ammo Chest properly.
- Fixed Camelop's protection bubble.
- Fixed Camelop continuing to pump after destruction.
- Fixed enemies being able to activate the Camelop pump.
- Fixed some missing item descriptions.
- Fixed water particles interaction with players.

BOMBS

This week, we’re introducing three new bombs! There’s the Cluster bomb, the Healing bomb, and the Insect bomb.







-The Cluster bomb explodes on impact and splits into more bombs, covering a large area with carnage. Be careful, though, it could prove to be dangerous if used without caution!

-The Healing bomb will release healing “gas” within a certain area, affecting everyone inside.

-The Insect bomb releases stinging insects that will follow players who get near them and do some continuous damage. It can also be used to snap grappling hook tethers!

-We've also buffed the Sulphur Bomb by adding durability damage to all equipment it covers with its toxic fumes and removed damage from the Chalk Bomb, turning it into a cheaper smoke screen. All the bombs and gases also received significant optimization improvements and some visual overhauls.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

COMMUNITY FEATURE

-For some good :sparkles: wholesome vibes :sparkles: https://www.reddit.com/r/lastoasis/comments/istcqn/the_boogaloo_way/


COMMUNITY QUESTIONS

Here’s a few more of your questions! Don’t forget to check out our Living FAQ, where you can see what we’ve answered in the past. If you want to submit some questions to the devs, join our Discord and check out #announcements for a link to the Community Questions form!

Q: In the wipe that was mentioned; will the content come out incrementally again (like at release), or will all of the content thus far be available at once? i.e; medium, hard, iron, volcanic released sequentially, or how it is now. A: It will be incremental like at release, but likely with some tweaks to order and the time between those phases.

Q: Will you be adding unique item stats to current weapon and armor? like bleed, +weight, resistance, etc? A: All weapons and armors have quite a lot of stats already! There is armor penetration, individual weapon speeds, all kinds of damage types with unique effects on the combat formula, and so on. We didn't want it to be an "excel min-maxing simulator" though, and instead let you pick your gear by how it feels to play with it, so most of those are hidden.

When it comes to new and unique equipment stats and perks though, we're definitely interested in making it more dynamic and interesting. Most likely, it would be either in a form of completely new equipment pieces or a new system that allows to customize existing ones, rather than changes to default stats of current weapons and armors. We'll see what we come up with though!

Q: Are there any deadlines within Early Access? Some list of goals to accomplish before the game can be launched? A: Not in a sense of specific content or features that have to be added before full release. We went with Early Access because we wanted to have a more reactive approach to development and release features based on feedback, our own observations, and what our community would find fun to play, rather than having a dogmatic list of things we would blindly add. It's not always exactly what you directly ask for, since we're looking at the game from a slightly different point of view, knowing its systems and how they interact under the hood, but everything we do is still entirely affected by you playing and sharing your opinions.

Q: Will there eventually be more construction based customization on walkers, ranging from just building small structures (like driver cabins) on your walker all the way up to building completely custom walkers from the ground up? A: There are lots of drafts and prototypes of various Walker structures like steering levers attached to toolpods and Walker deck shields. We absolutely will be adding more of those!

Completely custom Walkers is something we've had in the back of our minds for a while now. Our main concern here is ending up with a single meta build, which would nullify all other Walkers and destroy the balance entirely, not to mention box ship meta is also ugly... If we come up with a solid solution that balances out creativity and effectiveness, we'll definitely consider it.

Q: If I build an arena do you think we could force gladiator to fight in it? A: If you build an arena, you should definitely share it with me so I can see it and feature you in one of these posts! And who knows, I just might join you for a fight 👀

Q: Will the commerce update wipe include private server data? A: Yes. There are big server optimization changes that require it.

And now, for a teaser of something coming in the future:



What other types of bombs would you want added to the game?

CHANGELOG

- Added Camelop Walker.

FIXES

- Fixed whole lakes being highlighted when looking.
- Fixed some water lake visual issues.
- Fixed not being able to build in some lava map areas.

CAMELOP WALKER



We heard the feedback that collecting lava could be a better process. Introducing: The Camelop Walker, named after an extinct genus of camels, which acts as a pump to help with farming lava (and water!). It can hold very large amounts of liquids, but doesn't have a proper deck, so cannot be spawned on.

Pumping water is straightforward and relatively safe, but lava requires a smart approach and planning, as this fragile Walker can be damaged by it unlike most others. While it will be a challenge to overcome for those who want to acquire very large amounts, Camelop's legs burn in lava much slower than the rest, so it's possible to stay above the pool of liquid death as long as you're not being greedy.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]





COMMUNITY QUESTIONS

We’re still answering some questions from Reddit, on top of a few from the Community Questions form that gets posted in #announcements on our Discord.

Q: Are you going to offer anything unique (and useful, not just a skin) to the Early Access buyers of the game when you release the finished product? A: We don't have any specific plans for it yet, but we'd love to thank you for supporting us and providing feedback before the game is officially finished with something unique and cool. It's unlikely that it will be something with functionality that's not available to others, as that would basically be cheating, but we'll try to find an interesting solution to it.

Q: Have you considered having a section of the world not burn and contain a lot of elite endgame material so players who settle there will constantly be braving the wilderness to survive but in exchange can build a more static lifestyle? A: It would go quite heavily against our lore to have areas that never burn while others do, so we haven't been considering mechanics that would require it. That said, some special tiles could potentially use a feature like that, especially if it's some kind of event. We'll still think about ways to integrate it though, so let us know if you have any ideas.

Q: Will you add kinetic movement damage? A: We've been experimenting with it long before Early Access and would love to give it another shot. It definitely affects balance and the meta quite a lot, especially with walkers being both very valuable and tricky to properly control, so it might take us some time to implement it properly once we finally decide to go for it.

Q: What are your plans for modules? A: There are lots of ideas, both practical and creative, floating around for different modules and we're planning to keep adding them over time. As you've seen with the Volcanic Update, new modules will be introduced with new mechanics for obtaining them, so you can plan your activities to farm modules you actually want instead of having a random chance to get a random module with a random activity.

Q: You have commented about private server multi-tile access which is great but is there anything on expanded commands such as being able to perform wipes / spawn items? A: We're definitely planning much more control over private servers, including an ability to wipe and use admin cheat commands. Multi-tiled realms will be coming with the Commerce Update and we'll be announcing the dates for the rest later on. As we've mentioned before, hosting on your own machines will be coming as well in the future, which should allow for even more customization.

Q: Is there a combat rework patch planned, and what are your overall thoughts on melee combat as it stands right now? What do you personally think needs to be changed and what would you like to see changed in the future? A: You'll probably get somewhat different answers based on who you ask in the team, since everyone has their favorite aspects of melee and overall combat. When it comes to melee itself, we want to add more interesting mechanics, new unique weapon types, and in general try to make it more dynamic and fun to play, especially in synergy with other parts of the game like walker combat.

With balance specifically it's a little more tricky, since we want to keep the skill ceiling quite high for those who decide to dedicate to honing their melee skills, but, at the same time, we have to remember that it's not a purely combat game, so it should be possible for a new player to learn how to fight with relative ease. We're not in any way imagining that the combat is balanced at the moment and we'll be making changes and adding to it over time as we iterate the game during Early Access.



And now, for a little teaser of something coming later on!



What do you think about the new Walker? What other specialized Walkers would you want?