Greetings Mortals,
As we mentioned in our last website post, we have been working on a new update which includes some new content for Sarducaa.
This development update post will talk more about what we have been working on and some of what you can expect from the next update.
The new content is only a small piece of the lion’s share of development effort, with the primary focus having been working on some brand new analytic infastructure which will be described more below, along with a rebuild of the Game Master support ticket system.
There will also be some miscellaneous changes and fixes which you will be able to read once PTR happens and the patch notes are out.
New Sarducaa Content
As we want the specifics about the new small content addition in the update to remain a surprise for the moment, we won’t be spoiling exactly what it will be in this post.
However, we can say that there will be a new soft material which can be used as an armor backing or for handle wraps, and this new material will be obtainable on the PTR via a special vendor so that it can be tested and feedback can be given about its stats so that any necessary adjustments can be made before it goes live to ensure it’s behaving as intended.
Along with the above, almost all of the new creatures on Sarducaa will now also be mountable and with craftable bags.
One of these newly mountable creatures will hopefully be particularly interesting for anyone wanting to give a ride to more than one passenger, however as this one is still being tested we will refrain from mentioning more about it here in case there are some more serious problems found with it between now and the PTR for this update.
New Analyics Backend
Given the enormous scope and number of detailed systems in the game, it is often times difficult to get a clear overview of certain information we may need about the state of things.
In the past we have utilised in-game polls as well as external questionnaires to gather feedback, however both of these have their own issues, and the gathered information varies wildly by who chooses to respond to any given question. The external questionnaires often provide insight to only the most dedicated and veteran slice of the playerbase, while the in-game surveys have historically only been Yes/No questions, which although useful are still extremely targeted and narrow in scope.
This new analytics tracking funnels an enormous amount of valuable player data into our systems so that we can easily check the answers of even quite complex questions about player behavior; This affords us the ability to make far more well informed decisions, for example to direct balance changes. It will allow us to very quickly identify aspects of the game which are almost never interacted with, and those that are most commonly used.
As soon as we turn on the new system once the update goes live, it will begin collecting data and after the system has been running for a short time we will be using the data collected to make various balance adjustments as needed in a follow up patch.
New Support Ticket System
The Game Master contact / support ticketing system has been rebuilt to flow smoother and allow the Game Masters to offer better support to players in need, as well as offering the option to give feedback about your support experience once a ticket has been closed.
There will be more information about these changes in the patch notes of the update.
PTR Date Coming Soon
The PTR for this update will be held in the near future, and we will be making an announcement with exactly when and how you can get involved in that quite soon.
We have also begun work on something quite large in scope, however it is far too soon to be talking about that in any detail in this post apart from that there are some things coming down the pipeline which we are rather excited for.
Expect to learn more about that further down the line.
See you in Nave,
The Star Vault Team