Patch Info
Recommended Level: 23-25
Summary
Now everyone can get hot and dirty in the Dragonbone Dunes!
Details
(This patch basically moves the Frontline content to the Stable branch - so Frontline players don't need to read this)
Finally there's some new Story Mode stuff, and it's the next area: Dragonbone Dunes (aka the desert)!
The role of the desert in terms of pacing is a bit different than how we did for Seasonne and Mt Bloom. The reason why is that Tai Ming itself was so very different from the other temples!
For one, Tai Ming was very NPC-heavy. This put us in a situation where players who leave Tai Ming might feel that the next part of the game seems like a ghost town in comparison. Since this is the final non-temple area in the game, and is supposed to be this bustling trade hub, we really didn't want that! In the end, we made over 70 NPCs for the desert and its port town.
Another thing we felt was that Tai Ming pushed the story forward into a place where another forced mini-dungeon (like the Toy Factory or Lurifix quest line in Mt Bloom) would be weird pacing wise. Still, if the desert just had a lot of NPCs but no gameplay content, that would be bad as well.
Because of this, we decided we'd shift the main/side content balance a bit for the desert, with a slightly more streamlined main quest (still with a couple of bosses), but more side content to do instead. This way, people who felt Tai Ming left them yearning for a more traditional gameplay/story pace can go through it relatively quickly, and people who want to spend more time in the desert area can do so with the side quests and secrets!
Hope you all have a good time in Dragonbone Dunes!
More Insight
If you want to follow the progress and get a glimpse of the wonderful hell/heaven hybrid that is game development, you can check out our DevBlog! Be warned that it contains spoilers, though!
What's next?
We'll skip Arcade Mode for now and go straight to working on the fourth dungeon: the mysterious ship!
