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Our goal with these Community Updates is to post them every month. If there's anything you want us to cover in particular, let us know!
To kick off gamescom, Last Oasis will be on sale for 34% off from now until August 31st, 10 PM PDT.
Development Updates
We’ve been keeping an eye on how the last two content pushes have been received, and wanted to let you know that we’re going to continue with these weekly releases! These won’t take away from all the work being done on the Commerce Patch, and we still plan on releasing that update sometime in October.
“How are you going to address the zerg issue / make it easier for solo players / etc” is a question we’ve gotten a ton recently. Giving a straightforward answer is tough, since our approach is going to be a bit more indirect for right now. We want to add content that can be used that will benefit players that aren’t in larger clans, and make the game easier for them in the long-run.
But what about wipes??
We are planning on introducing full wipes periodically. The first one will happen with the Commerce patch in October. We know this is a point of contention, and we are working on making it more straightforward for returning players.
We've been considering different ways of organizing this wipe while reading your discussions and decided to make it a full wipe with additions and improvements to the core mechanics. Since the focus of the update is commerce and trading, we're revamping the way Flots are acquired by introducing unique but limited Flotilla orders for each Trading Station, traveling salesmen with stalls you can find by exploring the world , and many other new trading mechanics.
When it comes to unlocking new tech, we wanted to add a very different process of getting Tablets, while sticking with the commerce theme. Once the patch is out, you'll be able to buy Tablets for Flots. While it might sound too easy compared to the current grind, keep in mind that Flotilla never officially sells Tablets containing ancient knowledge. If you want to buy them and other players are not selling, you'll have to travel and find black markets to trade with shady nomads for hard coins. Between acquiring Flots, finding black markets and bringing them physical coins, the new process will be comparable in difficulty to crafting the Tablets, but very different in gameplay and feel.
In general, wipes have a lot of pros and cons. We won't list all of them here, as you most certainly know them from different discussions we've all seen on forums and discord. There is one, though, that makes this decision much simpler for us - in a game like ours, it is close to impossible to introduce big changes without doing a wipe. Both for technical and gameplay reasons. Bringing changes that we're preparing in the Commerce Update without a wipe, for example, would not work well at all because of the already existing economical situation.
In addition to that, with the upcoming update we are doing significant changes to database structure to prevent the majority of server crashes and in general improve stability under heavy load. Trying to migrate the old data to the new structure would require a lot of time and come with significant risks.
We'll keep sharing more details about the update and specific features in our weekly posts, so make sure to check them out and send questions for the Q&A!
Community Features
-@pixelcave has been creating great videos, like this guide to the Cobra Walker:
-MatureMindedGamers made a beginners guide back during launch:
-This post on r/LastOasis gave us a good laugh!
Community Questions
A new Google Form for Community Questions will be posted to Discord [discord.gg]on Monday!
Q: Do you have any plans to do something about combat timers?
A: We know they can cause some frustration with accidental hits, so we’ll be looking into expanding the system to make the timer triggers a little “smarter”. The system is quite complex and breaking it would cause a lot of gameplay issues, so we won’t be rushing with quick fixes for it and designing it properly instead.
Q: There's a lot of noise from a vocal minority around safezones, PVE tiles, PVE protection timers/hours - do these suggestions for a mechanic that turns PVP off fit your vision for the game at all?
A: As we’ve mentioned above, introducing wipes will allow us to do larger core changes to the game, so experimenting with solutions for PvP/PvE split will become much easier. That said, we’re not currently considering features that would completely disable PvP on official servers. Since Last Oasis has always been envisioned as a PvP sandbox survival with PvE elements, and not the other way around, we’re more inclined to look for solutions to merge the two ideas instead of replacing them.
Q: What is a feature the team is looking forward to most in the Commerce update?
A: There isn’t really just one feature that everyone is excited for the most, but many are itching for the big changes to Flots and the new map. While not the biggest thing coming out with the update, black markets is the one I’m personally looking forward to the most. More specifically the idea and systems behind it, as it opens up a lot of new possibilities and ways of integrating new features in. - pogo
Q: Will the trade station be expanded to buy and sell craftable items, quality items and/or gear?
A: It’s possible we’ll add Flotilla orders for crafted items in addition to raw materials, but it’s more likely you’ll find those kinds of orders elsewhere. We’ll be adding systems that allow them with the Commerce Update, but we’re still considering if and how to introduce them properly, so they might come a bit later.
Q: Are you discouraged at all about the negativity of some people in the community about the game?
A: We've done our own fair share of sh*tposting, so can't really say it affects us negatively. If anything, it's just more feedback. We still get much more use from your discussions of the game itself, but if it's not your cup of tea in its current state, we hope you check it out again after a few updates. That's the whole reason we went with Early Access after all.
Q: Why is it so long now between patches or any activity from developers?
A: As we mentioned in the first Q&A, there was going to be some stretches of time between larger patches. And, like we’ve mentioned now, there will be smaller weekly pushes on top of those large updates. We’ve been busy strategizing and planning what we wanted to kick off this new approach with.
Q: When will you add more armor?
A: Definitely check out our AMA tomorrow, there might be something teased you’re going to like!
Q: Do the developers play the game themselves to ensure they keep up to date with current metas and release relevant changes that players would want?
A: Not as much as we'd like to, but all the devs responsible for gameplay spend quite a lot of time playing the game. The main difficulty for us in that regard is all the issues it would cause if we officially participated in clan affairs, so we're relying heavily on your feedback when it comes to high-level gameplay like that.
Q: Is there a specific team focused on the development of private servers? It feels like if worked right, it may be the most entertaining and best player driving experience out of survival games.
A: Our backend engineering team is working on everything related to private servers. While it’s not their only focus, supporting and improving the systems for it is an important part of their work. We’re planning to expand the possibilities of hosting private servers drastically over time. More control over how and what spawns in your realms, ability to host servers on your own dedicated machines and more.
Q: Multi-tile access for private servers?????
A: We’re aiming to have this available with the Commerce update!
Q: Are we supposed to be the flotilla or will we meet the actual flotilla that gets mentioned in the tutorial? Will we get more characters like the tutorial voice guy?
A: The Flotilla is a giant walking city with streets, houses, and everything else you’d expect in a town (except you probably wouldn’t expect legs). It’s built on detachable platforms, so it can split up into parts for various reasons like crossing tough terrain, but is still, essentially, the capital of mankind.
We’re planning to add the Flotilla to the game in the future and add more content to it over time. Narrative-driven features like the tutorial are also on the table, but we don’t have any specific plans for them yet.
Q: Is Donkey Crew already working on another game?
A: No. We’re all fully committed to Last Oasis for any foreseeable future.
And now, for some teasers for a few things coming up...
What do you think they could be?
Thanks for reading!
To kick off gamescom, Last Oasis will be on sale for 34% off from now until August 31st, 10 PM PDT.
Development Updates
We’ve been keeping an eye on how the last two content pushes have been received, and wanted to let you know that we’re going to continue with these weekly releases! These won’t take away from all the work being done on the Commerce Patch, and we still plan on releasing that update sometime in October.
“How are you going to address the zerg issue / make it easier for solo players / etc” is a question we’ve gotten a ton recently. Giving a straightforward answer is tough, since our approach is going to be a bit more indirect for right now. We want to add content that can be used that will benefit players that aren’t in larger clans, and make the game easier for them in the long-run.
But what about wipes??
We are planning on introducing full wipes periodically. The first one will happen with the Commerce patch in October. We know this is a point of contention, and we are working on making it more straightforward for returning players.
We've been considering different ways of organizing this wipe while reading your discussions and decided to make it a full wipe with additions and improvements to the core mechanics. Since the focus of the update is commerce and trading, we're revamping the way Flots are acquired by introducing unique but limited Flotilla orders for each Trading Station, traveling salesmen with stalls you can find by exploring the world , and many other new trading mechanics.
When it comes to unlocking new tech, we wanted to add a very different process of getting Tablets, while sticking with the commerce theme. Once the patch is out, you'll be able to buy Tablets for Flots. While it might sound too easy compared to the current grind, keep in mind that Flotilla never officially sells Tablets containing ancient knowledge. If you want to buy them and other players are not selling, you'll have to travel and find black markets to trade with shady nomads for hard coins. Between acquiring Flots, finding black markets and bringing them physical coins, the new process will be comparable in difficulty to crafting the Tablets, but very different in gameplay and feel.
In general, wipes have a lot of pros and cons. We won't list all of them here, as you most certainly know them from different discussions we've all seen on forums and discord. There is one, though, that makes this decision much simpler for us - in a game like ours, it is close to impossible to introduce big changes without doing a wipe. Both for technical and gameplay reasons. Bringing changes that we're preparing in the Commerce Update without a wipe, for example, would not work well at all because of the already existing economical situation.
In addition to that, with the upcoming update we are doing significant changes to database structure to prevent the majority of server crashes and in general improve stability under heavy load. Trying to migrate the old data to the new structure would require a lot of time and come with significant risks.
We'll keep sharing more details about the update and specific features in our weekly posts, so make sure to check them out and send questions for the Q&A!
Community Features
-@pixelcave has been creating great videos, like this guide to the Cobra Walker:
-MatureMindedGamers made a beginners guide back during launch:
-This post on r/LastOasis gave us a good laugh!
Community Questions
A new Google Form for Community Questions will be posted to Discord [discord.gg]on Monday!
Q: Do you have any plans to do something about combat timers?
A: We know they can cause some frustration with accidental hits, so we’ll be looking into expanding the system to make the timer triggers a little “smarter”. The system is quite complex and breaking it would cause a lot of gameplay issues, so we won’t be rushing with quick fixes for it and designing it properly instead.
Q: There's a lot of noise from a vocal minority around safezones, PVE tiles, PVE protection timers/hours - do these suggestions for a mechanic that turns PVP off fit your vision for the game at all?
A: As we’ve mentioned above, introducing wipes will allow us to do larger core changes to the game, so experimenting with solutions for PvP/PvE split will become much easier. That said, we’re not currently considering features that would completely disable PvP on official servers. Since Last Oasis has always been envisioned as a PvP sandbox survival with PvE elements, and not the other way around, we’re more inclined to look for solutions to merge the two ideas instead of replacing them.
Q: What is a feature the team is looking forward to most in the Commerce update?
A: There isn’t really just one feature that everyone is excited for the most, but many are itching for the big changes to Flots and the new map. While not the biggest thing coming out with the update, black markets is the one I’m personally looking forward to the most. More specifically the idea and systems behind it, as it opens up a lot of new possibilities and ways of integrating new features in. - pogo
Q: Will the trade station be expanded to buy and sell craftable items, quality items and/or gear?
A: It’s possible we’ll add Flotilla orders for crafted items in addition to raw materials, but it’s more likely you’ll find those kinds of orders elsewhere. We’ll be adding systems that allow them with the Commerce Update, but we’re still considering if and how to introduce them properly, so they might come a bit later.
Q: Are you discouraged at all about the negativity of some people in the community about the game?
A: We've done our own fair share of sh*tposting, so can't really say it affects us negatively. If anything, it's just more feedback. We still get much more use from your discussions of the game itself, but if it's not your cup of tea in its current state, we hope you check it out again after a few updates. That's the whole reason we went with Early Access after all.
Q: Why is it so long now between patches or any activity from developers?
A: As we mentioned in the first Q&A, there was going to be some stretches of time between larger patches. And, like we’ve mentioned now, there will be smaller weekly pushes on top of those large updates. We’ve been busy strategizing and planning what we wanted to kick off this new approach with.
Q: When will you add more armor?
A: Definitely check out our AMA tomorrow, there might be something teased you’re going to like!
Q: Do the developers play the game themselves to ensure they keep up to date with current metas and release relevant changes that players would want?
A: Not as much as we'd like to, but all the devs responsible for gameplay spend quite a lot of time playing the game. The main difficulty for us in that regard is all the issues it would cause if we officially participated in clan affairs, so we're relying heavily on your feedback when it comes to high-level gameplay like that.
Q: Is there a specific team focused on the development of private servers? It feels like if worked right, it may be the most entertaining and best player driving experience out of survival games.
A: Our backend engineering team is working on everything related to private servers. While it’s not their only focus, supporting and improving the systems for it is an important part of their work. We’re planning to expand the possibilities of hosting private servers drastically over time. More control over how and what spawns in your realms, ability to host servers on your own dedicated machines and more.
Q: Multi-tile access for private servers?????
A: We’re aiming to have this available with the Commerce update!
Q: Are we supposed to be the flotilla or will we meet the actual flotilla that gets mentioned in the tutorial? Will we get more characters like the tutorial voice guy?
A: The Flotilla is a giant walking city with streets, houses, and everything else you’d expect in a town (except you probably wouldn’t expect legs). It’s built on detachable platforms, so it can split up into parts for various reasons like crossing tough terrain, but is still, essentially, the capital of mankind.
We’re planning to add the Flotilla to the game in the future and add more content to it over time. Narrative-driven features like the tutorial are also on the table, but we don’t have any specific plans for them yet.
Q: Is Donkey Crew already working on another game?
A: No. We’re all fully committed to Last Oasis for any foreseeable future.
And now, for some teasers for a few things coming up...
What do you think they could be?
Thanks for reading!