Pathway Devlog #8 - Preview Builds & Update Cycles
Wow, Pathway has been out for only a little over a week!
Up to now we've been in overdrive-mode fixing bugs. Additionally, we've also started introducing a handful of quality of life updates such as the undo button when recycling items as well as improved tooltip comparisons. Updates have been almost daily during this period to make sure critical issues are addressed promptly.
With today's post we want to explain what the next few months are going to look like.
New Update Cycle
From now on, we're switching to a more predictable update cycle: Every Wednesday we will release a new update. However, new features and changes will always first go to our public Preview branch. Once those changes had a bit of time to go through a testing and feedback phase we will then push them to the main branch. So in practice this means changes will generally linger in the preview branch for a week before appearing on the main branch. Sometimes we may decide to keep some things in the incubation stage for a bit longer before they make it to the live branch.
The preview branch will serve as an experimental area, where we can try out some changes and gather feedback from the community before making them available to everyone. So if you want to be a part of shaping the game's future, we'd love to have your help there!
The first preview build will go live next Wednesday. We will post instructions on how you can join the preview testing then.
Here's a little taste of what's coming to the first preview build:
Improved Damage Information
An area we see confusion about frequently is how damage is calculated in Pathway. In the upcoming preview, we're adding an overhauled tooltip when hovering over enemies during an attack action. In the compact view you simply see the effective damage potential. This includes all adjustmens that may occur from things like the weapon's damage type or if your character has a special bonus/penalty against an enemy type. If you press tab, you will get a more detailed breakdown of how exactly the final damage calculation came together. We hope this will help in making some of the game's more complex damage calculations clearer.
Rebalanced Loot Distribution
We're making the beginning adventures more rewarding in terms of loot drops. We want to keep the legendaries for the mid to end game, but we feel like the first two adventures could use a boost of rewarding items.
Reworked Perk Branches in Events
Another feedback we've seen popping up often is that the perk branches in events don't feel weighty enough. We are starting to address this issue by taking a lot of luck out of the perk branches. So far, you'd always have a significantly improved chance at success, but in practice it often felt like you're gambling just as much as when using one of the other standard branches. Starting with this build, perk branches will now give you a success in an otherwise risky situation. There are a few exceptions to this rule still. We think this change will make character perks a lot more rewarding to use and provide a more tangible benefit.
There will be a full changelog with the release of the build on Wednesday that will of course also include a bunch of general bug fixes and improvements!
THANK YOU again for playing our little game and sending us your feedback. We truly do appreciate every constructive comment coming our way - We're constantly reviewing your ideas and and we are looking to address a lot of the concerns in the next little while.
