Greetings adventurers of Zoria, Now that the launch for Zoria: Age of Shattering Prologue is behind us, what we can say is the reception has been completely beyond our expectations and we thank you all for it. Since we have been gathering great feedback from you this whole week, and we will continue to do so, based on this feedback, we have a first update that introduces a number of changes and additions to the game, aimed mostly at quality of life and other issues and requests that could be developed in a timely manner. Local map and minimap are live: it is not a final implementation, as it is missing fog-of-war for the moment, but nonetheless it should be of real help in navigating the various areas in the game. At this moment, the overall design of the game does not include on-map quest tracking. This is not an oversight, it is intended in the overall design, as we try to avoid turning the game into quest-tracker hunting and instead encourage exploration and all the necessary clues are usually in the quest dialogue or description. Pre-combat positioning, a highly requested feature. We have managed to address part of the problem, and now the followers will group around the Commander and no longer remain behind. The next step we are working on is an actual formations system, but it will take a little more to develop and test properly. We will return with updates in the following devlog on the intended working of the system. Camera update: we have made an update to the camera with the following items: -Increased zoom-out to allow the player to see more of the surroundings; -Decreased minimum camera angle to the ground, to allow the player to see further ahead; -Slightly adjusted post-processing values to address some issues with overall color and representation of black; All this said, the camera is still not where we want it to be and there will be regular updates to its workings, as we gather more feedback and address all the issues that arise, so expect further changes in the future. New lore acquired information: we introduced a new UI feedback for the player, making him aware when new lore is acquired through any means (picking up a piece of information, encountering a new creature or character or the story advancing). Text edits and fixes we fixed some typos that managed to escape proofreading in the previous builds. Abilities and skill tree: We made an update to all the abilities descriptions to better illustrate the differences between them, since we found some major differences were not perceived due to insufficiently clear descriptions. Also, we made small changes on a number of abilities that were not performing as expected. With these changes in place, we are now working on an overhaul of the skill trees to make them more relevant to the players and allow for clear, distinct builds. We are also removing the level check for unlocking these abilities. This is a mock-up of what we have in mind with the new skill trees. Again, it's still a work in progress, nothing is final.
Now, with all this said, there is still much feedback from you that is being considered or worked on for future updates. One of the most important points was the lack of clear information on how to improve character survival and damage, so we are making a quick description on how various stats that affect survival work. Also, in the near future well be opening a Wiki page to allow players that want to delve deeper into stats and other systems have a place to find the information they need. Survival Stats: Stamina: it represents follower health and increases HP by about 4HP / Stamina Point Armor: is split into physical and magical armor and it is calculated in percentages. Resistances: are split into the elements the game systems are built around and offer direct damage mitigation. At lower levels, as expected, Stamina is one of the better investments possible, offering direct health increase, but it will have clear diminishing returns as the characters progress in level, since it will still deliver the same amount of HP regardless of baseline. On the other hand, the weak part of Armor is that is split between physical and magical armor, making its efficiency dependent on the type of incoming damage. Also, neither type of armor offer protection against poison, bleeding once applied to a character, and a few other effects. Resistances cannot be directly increased by the player while leveling the characters, only through gear that offers specific elemental protections. Against specific threats it is one of the best damage mitigation alternatives, and it will be a valid survival option in the main game, through crafting.