Frontiers - New Balance Update

Lars Simkins latest update for Frontiers has information about a new Balance patch.

Balance Changes

• Food & Water - Even the hardcore survivalists agreed these were punishing. So at normal difficulty you can now survive while drinking only once every three days & eating only once every week. Many new water sources have been placed in the game to make finding water easier, and you can now drink from lakes. The Civilization bonus you get from following paths and staying in populated areas is more potent so eating / drinking isn't a concern until you're in the Wild. (Note: In the future you'll be able to reverse these changes using custom difficulty settings.)
• Temperature - This system has been overhauled. Temperatures are milder in general and more consistent with climates. Structure interiors are always comfortably warm and cave temperatures are now suitable for shelter. Clothing can no longer cause you to overheat.
• Clothing- Shirts, pants, boots & gloves have been added to the game, and more varieties are incoming. You'll start the game with a basic set of clothing and you can craft more.
• Crafting - You no longer need to select blueprints before crafting. Several items have been reworked to be less expensive to craft (like the Canteen). You now start the game knowing how to refine metal and I've placed forges in the University area for public use. Charcoal is dropped by nearly all burnable items.
• Money - It's a lot more scarce. Purses contain considerably less money than before. Luminite no longer respawns indefinitely. Your cash is automatically converted to base currency when buying things.
• Animals - You're far more likely to find leather on dead animals. Many creatures are easier to kill in general. You can shear sheep for wool, pluck chickens for feathers and milk cows.
• Reputation - Damaging another person's goods will cause reputation loss. The rep system will play a bigger role now that money is more scarce.
• Paths - Several more arterial paths have been laid down in the South. More are coming.

He also mentions what bugs he is fixing for the games Beta.

Major bugs I'm still working on:

Not really related to balance but I might as well give you an update.

• The post-prologue crash is still happening for some of you. I'm still seeing more success cases with every build, and your reports have helped me pinpoint the exact cause, so thank you for that. I'll keep at it.
• Darkness Issue - The game is unplayably dark on a handful of machines. I'm frankly mystified by this one. I've made no real progress in figuring out the root cause. Hopefully the new brightness settings will help in the meantime.
• Disappearing buildings - the cause is known so now it's a matter of fixing the problem without causing more bugs in the process. I'm still seeking / interviewing programmers who can focus solely on this issue while I handle everything else. (Feel free to email me at frontiers.game@gmail.com if you're interested.)
• That one bug you really hoped I'd fix in the next update because it's way more important than balancing hunger, and besides how hard can it be to fix anyway? Yeah, that one's still in there. But seriously: don't assume that time spent on balance means bug [x] is getting forgotten or ignored. I know it sounds weird but that's not really how it works. A lot of these bugs have to get fixed a little bit at a time so the fixing doesn't break everything else. It's a l̶i̶v̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶n̶i̶g̶h̶t̶m̶a̶r̶e̶ long and difficult process. (Just kidding it's not so bad.)

And with that I wish you all a Happy New Year as news is scarce this week.

More information.

I feel all happy inside after reading this update. Digged in to find more about this game and i am excited! Didnt know about this game so big thnx rpgwatch!

I would really welcome a Watcher's thought on how this game has progress and if it has been a fun ride- even though early access. It seems to have loads of potential-- and there is just not time or money to try them all. I am still looking for that Sandbox Fix, that is still RPG enough to create my own story of growth in power, and community.
Currently trying Shroud of the Avatar for that itch…
But Frontiers, with it's nod toward exploration seems it has great possibilities

I'm in the same boat as you benetar. I'd also enjoy if someone could inform me on how Shourd of the Avatar is progressing!

What do you want to know about shroud?

Will it be a serious single player game or just an MMO with an attached single player mode?

Hmmm, they say it will be. It definitely has the potential to be one.

Really looking forward to this one. Exploration is one of my favorite things.

Has anyone around here played this one yet? I'm kind of tempted to break my "no early access, just completed games" rule, but would like to hear if it is enjoyable and relatively stable enough for a serious playthrough in its current state. I'm kind of in a horrible gaming drought where nothing is really grabbing me, and Frontiers looks very interesting.

Anybody? I'm kind of surprised no one has given this a go yet. If I decide to get desperate enough to take a plunge, I'll share my impressions.

Well as I said before members don't reply on every thread. As for me I backed the campaign but I'm tired of playing Early Access games.

So I'll hold off playing till its finished. Just a word of caution for future buyers this game is more about exploration than anything else. Don't except Skyrim either.

Here is an interview our site did with the developer earlier this year.

Update: Try this link instead as the other one wont link properly.

Link - http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25347

I always wait to play until the game is either finished or close enough because it really ruins a game…especially rpg's when you see too much.

That's true, good points Couch and Rune. It has been my firm stance as well to hold off, but I wonder if Frontiers is enough of a sandbox that starting over with new characters as the game updates would be tolerable. I was thinking about ignoring the story/main quest and just seeing how the exploration mechanics are, but I tend to prefer having one epic playthrough with a single character with these types of games.

Either way, reading various comments on Steam tells me that it would be better to hold off for the time being. It sounds fairly close to being enjoyable, but I'd like to see some of the stability issues ironed out first at the very least.

I purchased it yesterday and spent a good portion of the night playing.

It's… interesting. I really like what I've seen of the setting and the main story so far, but the game is still very raw at this point. The game world is huge. The dev says it it's around the same size as Oblivion but it seems slightly larger than that to me.

Visually, it's not much to look at compared to most recent games, but I like it from an artistic standpoint. The music and ambient sound fit the setting well.

There aren't a ton of NPCs yet, and only around 1/2 of them have dialogue options right now. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of AI either. I saw a variety of wildlife during the time I explored, but didn't encounter any hostile creatures. I'm not sure how large of a role combat is going to play in the final game, but it's obviously not intended to be very combat focused.

It's a fantasy setting, but I have a feeling there's more than meets the eye.

There are magic skills in the game, but I haven't progressed far enough to learn any. There are also skills for subterfuge, crafting, survival, etc. Afaict, You can learn skills from both books and trainers.

There's also a strong survival aspect. You have to eat and drink, and temperature can affect you over time.

Like I said, it's very raw at this point, but I think the potential is huge. It's only $15 though, so I think it's worth checking out if you like open world RPGs. I'll probably wait a few updates before messing with it again, but I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I purchased it yesterday and spent a good portion of the night playing.

It's… interesting. I really like what I've seen of the setting and the main story so far, but the game is still very raw at this point. The game world is huge. The dev says it it's around the same size as Oblivion but it seems slightly larger than that to me.

Visually, it's not much to look at compared to most recent games, but I like it from an artistic standpoint. The music and ambient sound fit the setting well.

There aren't a ton of NPCs yet, and only around 1/2 of them have dialogue options right now. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of AI either. I saw a variety of wildlife during the time I explored, but didn't encounter any hostile creatures. I'm not sure how large of a role combat is going to play in the final game, but it's obviously not intended to be very combat focused.

It's a fantasy setting, but I have a feeling there's more than meets the eye.

There are magic skills in the game, but I haven't progressed far enough to learn any. There are also skills for subterfuge, crafting, survival, etc. Afaict, You can learn skills from both books and trainers.

There's also a strong survival aspect. You have to eat and drink, and temperature can affect you over time.

Like I said, it's very raw at this point, but I think the potential is huge. It's only $15 though, so I think it's worth checking out if you like open world RPGs. I'll probably wait a few updates before messing with it again, but I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

I have played for a few minutes also and i agree with you. The game is very raw indeed. Visually it is a bit of a letdown for me. But I also think the potential is huge.

Thank you for the detailed impressions JDR, I almost missed it. It sounds to be what I was expecting: still a ways off from being ready for serious playing.

When the system isn't abused, it's great that Early Access exists in order to assist small teams with the funding of their projects. As a consumer though, I'm becoming increasingly irritated that nearly every new game I see that intrigues me turns out to be yet another early access, still several months or even years away from completion. I admit that there have been several games I lost interest in because of a seemingly endless stay in E.A. purgatory

Anyway, that tangent aside, I have a good feeling about Frontiers, based on impressions similar to those of JDR's (thanks again!). Hopefully this one gets out of E.A. this year.