Dev Update #18 - Next Major Update Preview

Hey Everyone!

In our last post we gave a preview of MI2’s next skill - Ranching! That post is a pretty in-depth look at the upcoming passive skill, and we’re really excited about the feedback and enthusiasm we’ve seen for Ranching so far!

This week, we wanted to give a broader overview of everything that’s currently confirmed coming in the next Major Update. This could change a little bit - we might have some extra bits ready to go, but we might also find that some of this needs a little more time in the oven. But as it stands, this preview is what we expect we’ll be getting into your hands in the near future!

Let’s dive right in ?

?Major Update Preview

This update is not currently released - we are hoping to release this update around Thursday next week.

Let’s see what it has in store.

?New Skill - Ranching

We spoke all about Ranching last week. If you missed it or want to revisit the details, you can do so here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/dev-update-17-141332619

?Cooking Recipes

We’re adding a whole lot of new recipes to Cooking! We’re still working out the details - we need to prove that these have risen to our standards, we’d hate to deliver something half-baked… (I’m not sorry for mixing in these puns, they’re important ingredients for a good crumby loaf newspost).

• There will be 25 new Intermediate Recipes, and 4 Advanced Recipes.

• Intermediate recipes generally consist of items that require ingredients from 2 Skills, and provide much better XP & Healing rates than Basic Recipes. Some intermediate recipes may also have bonuses applied to them when Combat arrives.

• Advanced recipes require a lot of ingredients, generally from 3+ Skills. These will always have bonuses applied to them that can be used in Combat.

These recipes are also themed/categorised to help with a clear understanding of progression and what kind of bonuses (if any) that may eventually provide.

?Cooking Mastery Guild

The Mastery Guild for Cooking is also arriving with this Major Update. We initially held off from the Mastery Guild as the lack of products that could be created would have not allowed it to be possible to implement.

?The Mill (Farming)

This is an extension of Farming, adding a Mill to the Skill that can create products like Grain, Flour and Sugar, while also adding a new category of plants to grow.

You’ll be able to unlock these by purchasing the Mill upgrade in the Farming Shop.Crops grown in the new Mill category can be processed using the Grain Mill to produce various resources. These resources are essential for some of the animals being introduced in Ranching, and the new Cooking recipes, so make sure you get your Mill production started early!

?Minor Farming Adjustments from Survey Results

We got some great feedback in the recent Farming survey!

While most of the comments are not being actioned upon this update, here is what we could change immediately based on what we read:

• Cost of later Farming plots are being heavily reduced

• Adding more stock for the existing seeds in the Shop

• Adding late game Herb & Orchard seeds to the Shop as well.

• Changed the UI for seed/compost selection tooltip to now show names and quantities of required items

Pets*

The Pets functionality is being added this Major Update, with only one pet per Skill being added.

Finding Pets will also become part of the Mastery Guild as Tasks.

*Please note that the Pets won’t have artwork on release. This is scheduled and will be added shortly after the release of the Major update.

Creation Steps mechanic in Crafting, Fletching and Runecrafting.

Back in our first Patreon survey, we asked if we should bring the creation step mechanic from Smithing to Crafting, Fletching and Runecrafting. There was an overwhelming yes to this question, so this Major Update will include this change.

Adding steps to items like Weapons and Armour means you will use less resources over time, but gain the same amount of XP & GP per hour. This means the amount of time you spend outside the Skill gathering the required resources is heavily reduced.

Item costs and XP rates are being adjusted accordingly to ensure they remain as close to today’s rates as possible. Although I will mention we were able to pick us some key issues with some XP rates while making the change.

The Mastery Guild Tasks are also being adjusted to accommodate for the changes to the Skills. This is a good change, as the preparation time required to complete the Guilds have been reduced by an average of 50%.

Runecrafting changes

There’s some very important Runecrafting changes on the way:

• Wizard Gear will now require either Wool or Silk to create, replacing Leather.

• The order of unlocks for Elemental Wizard gear has been adjusted to make more sense from a progression standpoint, instead of what seemed like an RNG assortment of levels applied.

Crafting changes

There’s some Crafting changes too:

• Leather and Dragonhide Leather is now created via Tanning in the Skill.

  • Cowhide turns into Leather

  • Cowhide & Dragonhide turns into Dragonhide Leather.

• The Journeyman Crafter guild bonus will increase the production rate of Tanning.

• The Veteran Crafter guild bonus unlocks Tan’s Tanning Emporium in the Shop, allowing you to instantly Tan Cowhide/Dragonhide at a small GP cost.

Artisan UI change

There’s been a lot of feedback on how it can be tough to distinguish the selected item from the item being created in the Artisan UI. We’re introducing a new UI layout for Artisan Skills that should hopefully help with this a lot.

Mastery Guild Task sorting

We’re introducing a new sorting method of Mastery Guild Tasks. By default, the tasks that were recently progressed will display first in the list, alongside a timestamp of when you last progressed that task during your active session.

This change will make it easier to keep track of the Tasks you are currently focussing on.

This new default sorting order can be disabled in the Interface Settings if you like the old sorting method.

Other stuff

If we missed anything, or add anything new before the update, they will be noted in the official changelog for the Update upon release!

?️ What the team have been working on 

Here’s what the team has been working on since our last post!

Development

Malcs:

• Full focus on finalising the Major Update.

• Ranching had a lot more to finalise than originally anticipated, and last minute balancing is still being done.

• Will continue to work on bug fixes and stuff leading up to the release.

Coolrox:

• Additional work on core Combat systems, mostly focused on locking in the main data management aspects of Combat (for experience, combat level, combat stats etc).

• General implementation for new stat calculation types used in Combat was finished.

• Continued to improve how data is handled across various parts of the game, including a new system to make managing modifiers simpler and more consistent.

Game Design

Prat:

• Continued with small refinements to Ranching as we get closer to completion

• His main focus has now moved to Hunter, where he’s continuing to work on finalizing the core elements in preparation for prototyping and testing

Artwork

Tapi:

• Still working on the artwork for Ranching! This includes some new absolutely adorable sleeping animals - check them out below ?

Conclusion

We’re getting closer and closer to the next major update! We hope you’re excited for Ranching, the new Cooking recipes, the Grain Mill, and everything else that’s coming up ?

We’ll be back with another update post next week, and as always we’ll be chatting over on Discord. See you there ?

- Althalus & Malcs