Last November brought the MMORPG Brighter Shores into early access with some distinct design choices, chief among them being combat professions that are specific to larger zones or “episodes.” It was a decision that didn’t particularly appeal to most players, and while lead dev Andrew Gower beseeched players to give it a chance, player feedback was loud enough that developer Fen Research confirmed that change was coming.
Now we know just what that change will look like: Episode-specific combat professions will now be merged into one, base monster levels will scale upwards in each successive episode, and there will be an “end game mechanic” that lets players increase an episode’s level (aka its “obelisk level”) to fight harder monsters and earn more rewards. Finally, monster level will scale if higher-level characters enter lower-level episodes.
In addition to combat profession merging, there will be two new skill trees: a character upgrade tree that lets players unlock major stat improvements or passive benefits, and an obelisk upgrade tree that unlocks the ability to wield special tuned weapons that drop in an episode and grant a boost while in that specific zone.
Naturally this will affect how weapons and armor work: Gear drops will be specific to an episode’s base level or obelisk level, while the maximum level of crafted weapons is calculated by adding 60 to the player’s current crafting profession level; making a level 100 Cryoknight weapon requires being a level 40 Blacksmith, for example. Additionally, crafted weapons can be used untuned but will not receive any boost until they are tuned.
Timing for these adjustments hasn’t been shared, and the devs even note that these changes aren’t fully set in stone and could change if problems arise after implementation, but there are adjustments to one of the MMO’s biggest problems on deck.
In the meantime, regular minor quality-of-life updates have continued, including a drop all feature for backpack items, the ability to queue multiple gathering actions, and an increase in the number of active combat monsters in map “rooms,” among several others. Taking the game’s temperature, we find “mostly positive” overall reviews yet “mixed” recent reviews on Steam and a concurrent player population of 1,600 in its last 24-hour peak.
