Hello, necromancers!
Iratus: Lord of the Dead has been in early access on Steam for over half a year. During this time, we have received a huge amount of feedback from our players. Thanks to all who shared their suggestions for improving the game, Iratus is getting better and better because of you!
In this dev blog we will start sharing our near-term plans and upcoming features.
The release, Pre-Patch and open beta testing.
As we said, we are planning to release the full version in the second quarter of 2020.
Now we have a large number of new functions and mechanics, so we decide to release Pre-Patch, which includes most of the planned changes (but NOT new content - that will be just in the full version of the game). There are a lot of new features, so we decided to switch to a new patch in two stages:
1. At the first stage, it will be an open beta test of all new mechanics. Anyone will be able to join the beta branch on Steam with the newest version of the game. Beta testing will begin in February -- the exact date will be announced later. Instructions will be published on our Discord server (you can join it now):
2. After the beta testing will be over, a game update will be released for all our players.
Important: saves from old versions will not be compatible with the new version due to significant changes in mechanics. We'll notify players about this beforehand. The patch date will be announced later.
So, what new mechanics are we introducing?
Iratus and minion experience
Gaining experience for Iratus and his minions will be much more flexible and intuitive.
How much experience is gained from the effect of an artifact or event will depend on the current level of Iratus and his minions, and even the level of the minion from the Grave will correlate with the level of the current squad. As you progress along the map, you will gain more experience from victories and find more powerful artifacts and minion items in Coffins, Chests and on Sacrificial Altar.
Minion Upgrading
The most significant new feature is a much more convenient system for upgrading minion characteristics. Many players don't like the current part system:
- Random drop -- the player is forced to roll the necessary bonuses. Some amount of randomness is certainly needed, but we want to give you the opportunity to more comfortably customize your minions without RNG influence.
- Part creation requires a lot of routine actions and a lot of clicks.
- Upgrading-with-parts system is not intuitive and too complicated for new players.
- The most popular strategy was to cumulate low-rarity parts until the moment when you can make a Legendary part from them. In our opinion, it will be much more pleasant for players to immediately receive any obvious increases to the minion characteristics, without the need to store resources.
[...]
