Last week Happy Cauldron Games, the indie studio reviving Fractured Online, encouraged fans to tune in to a livestream to hear more about its plans for the game and get a look at what’s coming, but perhaps you don’t have an hour and a half to sit and listen to two devs do a “freeform” broadcast. Don’t worry, we’ve scanned through for you.
- The devs first talk overall design vision: They state a motto admitting that development of features will be slow but will put community desires first and foremost – even if it’s based on things that they don’t necessarily agree with.
- “There will be a period of time in which there will not be the current instance of Fractured Online available,” the devs confirm. That period of time is not decided on yet but Happy Cauldron promises to keep fans informed. The devs further liken this relaunch to Final Fantasy XIV’s Realm Reborn.
- An action combat model is being experimented with, including WASD movement. It sounds as if things are in a prototype model right now – there’s a point when Duncan “TaNaHaRa” Davis talks about how the rough internal build of this new combat system already feels better.
- The number of spells and abilities are very likely being reduced in order to better zero in on character and class identity; quality over quantity is the guiding phrase here.
- Player housing will not be going away, obviously, and the devs promise that there will be plenty of functioning furniture pieces, decorations, and space for “even the smallest home [to] fit everything that it needs to fit perfectly.”
- The devs believe there is a place for solo and group play, though the social sandbox systems will still be a primary driver and will require other people playing together to really work. A given example is how other MMOs let solo players join in on guild PvP as a hired mercenary.
- Hunger and energy systems are going away; the devs understand these were in place to reduce grinding, but they believe there are better ways to limit that without leaving players stranded in the middle of nowhere with multiple debuffs because they forgot to get food or materials for a campfire.
- The devs will put out a list of milestones that are needed to relaunch but are hesitant to put out a roadmap, primarily because those who keep up with the regular comms promised will know exactly where development will stand. This sounds as if most details will remain within Discord. You love to hear it. /s
- Work on in-game Kickstarter rewards are in development, presented as skins instead of full-on armor sets. Furthermore, they will not be a central focus of design and development and will instead be completed alongside other work. There are also concept art previews of what these skins will look like.
- Speaking of previews, the stream shared a look at an updated human male model, some newly created armors, and some Unity 6 asset “mood boards” that are being used to build out the world, though the devs promise they won’t resort to asset flipping.
- Fans are once again being told that “substantial progress” has been made on backend migration. “We have the spell system, movement, attacking […] It’s such a major effort to move to another engine.”
- Monetization hasn’t been discussed yet, but the devs did confirm that there will not be pay-to-win, pay-to-progress, or crypto. Whether an optional subscription is coming or not has also not been decided.
If you do happen to have an hour and a half to watch the video, the full broadcast awaits below.
source: YouTube
