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The BB is going to be continuously updated. This means fixes and changes could be implemented at least weekly. We know that there are going to be bugs in the Commerce Update that’s available on the BB, and that there’s room for polish. Everything in the BB is subject to change. Keep that in mind when you launch the branch!
The BB will be up for around a month. We want to do plenty of testing before we bring the update and changes over to the main branch, and that will take some time.
To access the Beta Branch:
-Right click Last Oasis on Steam
-Select Properties > Betas
-Choose betabranch from the list.
It will switch to the new branch and update the game.
KEEP IN MIND: There are things shown in the trailer that may not be available in-game just yet. For example, the Ancient City map will roll out in the same way as medium and hard maps.
NOTE: We’ll be releasing the changelog over a few posts, since there was so much that went into this update and this devlog is already long enough. This portion focuses on some of the major components.
COMMERCE
- Added Flots withdraw/deposit at trading stations.
- Added wandering merchants with unique trade orders (tablets, etc.).
- Moved permanent trading station orders to wandering merchants (claiming license, etc.).
- Added Flotilla quests to trading stations.
- Added Flotilla auctions to trading stations.
- Added listing tax when placing an order, and sale tax when succeeding in selling an item.
- Added bidding on reserved slots for any tile.
- Added clan bank used for bidding on slots.
- Added global Flots vault to claim acquired money from any trading station.
- Made trade orders migrate automatically when a map burns.
- Added Flot drops from lootsites.
WALKERS
- Added Silur Walker - allows packing solid bases.
- Made Walkers Robust - damageable by everything except melee.
- Added Armored and Heavy legs for Buffalo and Hornet.
- Added Armored legs for Stiletto.
- Forbid building wings and legs if they're blocked by hanging structures (gun pods, etc.).
- Overhauled Walker repair system to encourage repairs out of combat.
OASES
- Added Ancient City event map - new lootsites, new rupu camps, new everything.
- Added Flot requirement and cooldown for teleporting to other tiles.
- Added 15 minute penalty forbidding spawn on beds and Walkers after teleport.
CLANS
- Added hard clan cap of 50.
BALANCE
- Increased yield of high tier tools.
- Lowerd Cluster Bomb radius and increased weight.
- Made combat timer dynamic based on damage.
STRUCTURES
- Buffed Clay and Concrete bases.
- Added Stone bases.
- Made ammo chest get disabled when netted.
- Made Sawblades require torque to operate.
ITEMS
- Allowed to unequip grappling hooks.
CREATURES
- Improved and adjusted Killin behavior all around.
FIXES & PERFORMANCE
- Improved performance across the board.
- Fixed vitamin requirement inconsistencies for high tier tech.
- Fixed quarry issues after server restart.
- Fixed various issues with opening/closing wingsuit.
- Fixed being able to build Walker constructions on Walkers.
- Fixed issues with Hornet Walker wings.
- Fixed a bunch of VOIP issues.
- Fixed being able to abuse foundations built on different heights.
- Fixed all kinds of issues with calculating weight.
- Fixed players and exoskeletons standing on sawblades.
- Fixed sawblades having enormous containers for some reason.
- Fixed Pyramids not appearing on maps.
- A ton of other additions, improvements and bugs.
Maps will be rolling out gradually, similarly to how it worked on release. First Easy and Medium oases, then Hard, and then event maps. It will allow for a more balanced initial progression, letting clans and players to catch up before moving forward.
serr wanted to take a moment to talk a bit more about the development of the Commerce Update:
Currently, when working on commerce update we had multiple goals in mind:
Make flots valuable: no more flotilla trade orders where you had to bring any resources to the trading station in any quantities to make money - from now on trading is only done by real players. Instead, for earning flots we are adding flotilla quests - tasks that can be taken from a trade station. For spending flots we are adding small traders scattered around the world like ruins where you can buy valuable items like tablets, modules, claiming licenses, etc and flotilla auctions at trade stations. That is not the only thing that makes flots more valuable, there is another one, more important (in particular, for clans), but we’ll talk about it later in this post.
Make trading between players easier and more convenient. Previously, placing sell orders wasn’t always a good idea - it required maintenance - you would need to manually transfer all the items before the tile burnt and you would need to visit tiles where your orders are placed to collect flots. Combined with the fact of how easy getting flots from AI orders was, no wonder it wasn’t very popular. With this update, we make player orders at the trade station migrate to the next tile automatically when oasis burns. Additionally, when someone accepts your order you can collect the flots from any trade station in the world.
This however would make an exploit of using trade stations as free safe storage for items even more powerful. To counter this, from now on you will need to pay upfront payment when placing a sell order, proportional to the price you set.
Improve clan gameplay. First, let's talk about the controversial decision of introducing hard clan caps. This was not in our initial plans or our vision of the game. We don’t consider the existence of large clans a problem and our intention always was to have large fights, politics etc. However the problems that we’ve seen during season 1 go beyond that. Large clans are naturally stronger than the smaller ones, but they are also more efficient, and that created the situation in which a lot of smaller clans started merging into zergs, in many cases considering it the only way to have fun in the game. That is a very serious problem for us. We are fully aware that having hard clan caps will lead to large clans creating lots of “sister-clans” and that is perfectly fine. Our goal is for the power of clans to increase linearly with more members instead of exponentially and for smaller clans to not lose their individuality.
Another addition that should help us achieve that is making it more difficult to reinforce your allies. Previously you could ambush a small squad of your enemies only to have their clanmates and allies instantly redeploy to that tile across the whole world, spawn on the walker you are attacking, thus making all your efforts pointless. We considered removing the redeploy feature completely, but that would make a lot less convenient, in particular for smaller groups. Instead we are adding a penalty period of 15 minutes after redeploy, during which players won’t be able to respawn on walkers or beds. That should give you enough time to finish the fight and get away with the loot before the reinforcements arrive.
Server capping. In Season 1 fights between large clans often revolved around getting a majority of slots on the server filled with your players, thus preventing your opponent from even being able to show up. Nothing is more frustrating than preparing your battle walker for a fight and being stuck in the queue instead… Well, maybe except cluster bombs, but even that is arguable.
With commerce update we will introduce “slots auction” - ability to pay flots in advance to reserve slots in the oasis for a period of time, making sure that your players can join the fight. Why is it called “auction”? Very simple - when multiple clans are trying to reserve slots for the same time interval - slots will be distributed proportionally to flots spent, so if you have a stronger economy - you can gain numbers advantage on the battlefield. Alternatively, if your opponent spends a lot on slots - he gains advantage for this particular fight (for which you may still choose not to show up at all), but it hurts his economy long term. Obviously, not 100% of slots can be reserved in this way and also the oasis owner has some slots reserved as before.
This feature should create a constant demand for flots from clans, encouraging them to trade their resources, items, tablets/flots and maybe protection to smaller groups (which don’t have the need to constantly spend flots on warfare)
Optimization. We are currently doing massive work on analyzing and improving performance in the game. For those interested in details, there are many different areas with room for improvement - walker physics, structures built on top of walkers, different meshes, foliage… But some of them are worse than others, we are prioritizing those where we can get the biggest improvements with the least amount of time spent and we are planning regular optimization updates in Beta Branch until we are satisfied with results.
Other improvements planned. This includes lots of bugfixes, removing different exploits and, by popular demand, and fixes to the queue system.
Keep in mind that a lot of these things are still work in progress, all of them are not balanced properly yet and probably have annoying or critical bugs. That is the reason why we are opening the beta branch - we want to test new mechanics together with you, making changes without being too worried about f*cking thngs up and in the end make sure that Season 2 will be fun and won’t have the same problems as Season 1 had.
Dev Spotlight: The Art Team and How They Designed the Ancient City Map
Ancient City is the new event map for Last Oasis.
It tells a story of an abandoned port city that centuries ago served as a trading hub.
Once home to an ever-busy bazaar teeming with merchant families and financiers, with gigantic trading Walkers docked to its massive piers, the city is now in ruins, infested by rupus and pillaged, left to a slow decay.
The opportunistic Nomad traders are scouring the land, drawn by the rumors of ancient wind-powered pylons, looking for remnants of the long-forgotten technology and trying to piece together what was left of it.
Similarly to the previous event map Asteroid Crater, the Ancient City is a limited-time randomly spawned 'tile' with a strong focal point in the center - the port city ruins.
Like with each new map, we're trying to push the boundaries of game and level design while offering a brand new look to the player’s environment.
With Ancient City, the main innovation comes in the form of introducing static geometry to compliment our predominantly procedural map creation process and adding new forms of interaction with the environment.
The static architecture of the city helps us guarantee smooth moment-to-moment level flow in constrained spaces and makes it possible to add small and micro scale features in a more controlled fashion. As one of the consequences, there's a lot of treats hidden around for curious and observant players to discover.
One part of the city that stood the test of time relatively well is the pipe system that long ago served as transportation means for the goods and packages to be moved around the city. Now, although in a state of disrepair, it can still be used by nomads piloting smaller walkers. With the proper use of some of the upcoming Walker-mounted weaponry, it might lead to some fan...tastic results :)
—Tomasz, Lead Level Designer
THE DESIGN OF THE MAP
When creating the new map, we wanted to create the next installment of the Last Oasis world. The distribution of the existing maps was based on a layout that assumed several areas with more difficult terrain and filling the free space with flatter terrain, allowing for free travel and exploration. For this map, we wanted to focus players' attention around one area.
The map also differs with a new stylistic idea, represented by architecture that is a remnant of a forgotten civilization. The map is supposed to be a place that arouses curiosity with a hint of mystery, which the architectural ruins emphasize. The city itself was very important to us in terms of fresh style and new solutions. The new forms, colors, and structures was a challenge, but also provides a respite from the ubiquitous wood in the game.
MOOD AND ATMOSPHERE
During long discussions about the mood of the map, we thought about how to achieve this new feeling. Space plays a huge role for us because it doesn’t only please the eye of the player, but also reflects and intensifies emotions. In addition, it serves the primary purpose of making the gameplay possibilities cleared. I really wanted to combine strong contrasts, but also to convey the impression of passing time and a forgotten place. The colors and the variety of forms definitely helped to achieve this feeling. Juxtaposing our very heavy brutalist forms, with the idyllic and soft landscape we want to express a past of strong but lost civilization, and a romantic nature, unmoved by the passage of time.
The colors of the trees played a very important role on the map. On the one hand, I wanted to refer to an important era of development, but at the same time to show a certain forgotten era of this world. The golden trees speak of prosperous times and transience at the same time. This is after all the Commerce Update.
When designing a map, I always try to look at individual elements in an abstract way and assess the relationship between them. Various elements need some tweaking, changing, or additions, for the map to achieve an aesthetic balance as a whole. I am looking for contrasts in color and forms so that the eye and the player himself can find themselves surprised and astonished.
—Robert G is a lead artist in DC and has a background in production design, his role in the new map was to lead the mapping team and provide the principal artistic direction.
The architectural structures that we introduce on this map were created to stimulate the imagination of our nomads. We’ve designed mysterious, monumental forms that together with the light and the environment form into a harmonious whole. We used simple shapes to create a basic style that would not reveal its history at first glance. We left room for the players, encouraging them to use their own imagination and decide what the story would be.
We deliberately made objects with missing pieces so that players can finish what we’ve started, fill in the gaps with their ideas and therefore become part of our artistic team.
Personally, I take great pleasure in working on an element that must become part of the existing composition, as it was with the new lootsite for this map. Creating a model that fits the rest of the environment is a very complex task. You need to work with different team members to fully absorb their ideas and understand the importance of what you are doing. You have to analyze the location where this element will be placed in order to finally create a piece that will become part of the existing whole, using the knowledge and tools you have acquired. It is a very fulfilling task.
—Caro, Environmental Designer
Working on environments is a multi-stage process. It includes taking the concept of a map and designing layout, map creation and distribution of masks for separate features, adding materials, grass, foliage, POI and optionally static objects. All goes in the iteration cycle divided by testing. A lot of testing.
Bringing the map to the end of the pipeline is a result of close cooperation between all team members.
A lot of ideas come during work, so sometimes we adjust our plan to new interesting concepts or we stick to the original plan.
For the Ancient City map we agreed on a lush forest on the hills with golden birches as we are approaching fall season. We wanted to combine white cliffs with the green of dense grass and old ruins overgrown with moss.
We wanted to distinguish several separate zones differing in flora to obtain areas with specific feeling, accessibility and distribution of resources.
So on AC map you can find golden birch forest hills, misty willow lakes, stone pillars, pipe ruins and ancient city- or what's left of it. Also across the map were scattered merchants, new lootsite and rupu camps.
In Last oasis foliage is done using a procedural approach. Map consists of multiple masks with assigned ground materials and grass. Foliage is also spawned on specific masks adjusted additionally using variation masks.
Each object needs to have a customized distribution, density of occurrence in groups, distance from each other and other objects. This specification results from the assumptions of the concept and balance of resources, which we have to keep in line with regulations of game design.
Using a procedural approach we can easily iterate subsequent versions of the map, because we don't have to place everything manually. Thanks to that we are able to combine different biomes together, like in the Volcanion map where we combined some areas of the Canyon and Volcanic map. This creates an opportunity to have much more diverse environments.
—Kasia, member of the Mapping Team responsible mostly for the foliage in Last Oasis.
Remember to join our Discord[discord.gg] and submit your questions to the devs through the form in #announcements! We’re anticipating the need for more clarification on the Commerce Update, and will try to have a video Q&A for the Community Devlog at the end of the month. Keep the questions coming, but be sure to check out our {LINK REMOVED}Living FAQ before submitting!
Q: What happened to the pyramids? I never saw them again after a few weeks. I kinda miss those POIs.
A: Pyramids were having some issues, but they're coming back to all high-tier maps in BB!
Q: Will you ever release a public API for things like Tile statuses, kill logs, item data, etc. so some of us savvy Web Devs can make some cool community tools/content?
A: We've been trying out some data output back in beta and added a clan log based on it since, but a proper public API is something we'll definitely be looking into in the future. Letting players customize tools for themselves is important to us, similarly to how we feel about mods as well.
Q: Will you improve current maps? Like hard maps with roads?
A: Being able to update maps and bring them in and out of rotation was always one of the major reasons for the existence of the dynamic world map. You might not have noticed it, but we've been updating maps multiple times by now, just not in major ways like moving whole mountains or adding new biomes. Those small improvements will continue and it's also likely that we'll be replacing current maps with better versions altogether.
Q: How many types of maps are you planning to make?
A: The sky's the limit! We don't have a definitive number of maps that there will be, but we also don't have any intention of stopping developing new types over time, even after full release. You can be sure that variations of existing maps, event maps, as well as entirely new types will continue coming out with most if not all major updates. In fact, we're already working on a completely new map type, while also preparing a full-sized oasis based on the Ancient City from Commerce Update.
Q: In this stage of Last Oasis's development, what is your plan for the future of the end game content for this game?
A: We're hoping to accommodate all kinds of players and make sure Last Oasis is fun for those with different interests. Our main focus with end game content at the launch of Early Access was clan combat - large war walkers, claiming lands, and everything else that appeals to clans who like a good fight. While we'd like to expand on that and add more branching options of things to do for larger clans, we'd love to provide more diverse experiences as well - new creatures and bosses to fight in groups and solo, exploration-based maps, even more opportunities to make trading a core concept of the game, and more in-depth features and systems that allow to enjoy the game for extended periods of time, including end-game progression levels.
Q: With every new update it seems like there are new farmer Walkers and ways to counter melee combat with a no-skill approach. Will melee combat remain a pivotal function of Last Oasis?
A: There will always be a split between personal and walker combat, and melee will always remain the focus of the former. The reason it might seem like we're moving away from it is just a side effect of Early Access - new features are added over time instead of having all related features together, so when a new powerful walker weapon is added, it may detract from other combat metas until it's balanced or some counter is added.
As an example, we'll be adding a Battle Fan next week, which will allow you to push away gases and bombs. This functionality will mean that using a powerful projectile (let's say Cluster Bomb) can easily backfire by having it fly back at your own walker. To say a bit more about melee specifically though, it's a much more complex system, so changes and additions to it are often more rare than other features, as they need much more balance and tweaking. We're absolutely still working on it though, despite the discord memes. Currently working on shields!
Q: How does Donkey Crew come up with Walker designs and ideas? I really love every design in the game, and I'm curious how they were came up with!
A: This is a question that is not so simple to answer, and we should probably do a more comprehensive section about this one day. Almost every walker has its own story and path to completion! Usually however, the first step is game design that has a new idea for a walker, (without a strong idea how it should look), but it’s properties and function should be defined. Sometimes there exists a blockout prototype and sometimes not. In the art department we ask ourselves what is the essence and most important feature of this new walker. Is it quick or slow? Expensive or cheap? What is it meant to do? Any specific gameplay requirements here? We meet and discuss potential solutions and try to give the concept artists a framework to work with. Creativity can live or die with constraints, and the trick is to find a good balance with constraints and freedom to give to concept artists. Presupposing too much of the design can be uninspiring for them, while having too much freedom can lead to taking wrong paths or getting lost in possibilities.
Concept artists usually do several iterative steps going from many sketches, before we select those that speak to us the most. This is the most fun and explorative stage, where we try to not hold back. In the end we choose one sketch and start designing it properly, solving 2ndary problems and improving. Once the drawings are done, we do final testing and adjustments working together with 3d artists, animators and game designers to finalize the walker asset. As a last step (when time allows) we do what we call “pimping” which basically means adding small flavorful assets in the editor.
Q: Are there any plans on expanding the lore? I found the world to be very interesting during the tutorial, but it feels like all the world building stops immediately after leaving the cradle.
A: Everything you see in the game is deeply rooted in our lore. From rupu behavior and materials used in crafting to the way event maps spawn and how chairs look. We didn't have much time to make it more prominent and out in the open yet, partially because we're still actively working on expanding it as new features are coming out, but you can be sure to see a lot more in the future. Even now, you could start making some guesses and assumptions by looking at how the world functions. Why is there a glow when an eclipse happens? How are apes so evolved? And what's the year the in-game events are happening in?
Q: When will the Ancient update come out? Will it be this year?
A: The timeline for the Ancient Update largely depends on how BB and Commerce goes. It's not impossible that it might still happen later this year, but it's more likely it'll be early next. We'll be announcing it properly once everything is properly assessed though, so take this prediction with a grain of salt.
Q: Are you planning to make the travelling more interactive so we can appreciate oases?
A: We're currently not considering a mechanic to require actually traveling through empty desert tiles to reach different oases, as we find it detracting from other aspects of the game. We want to make sure that it's possible to quickly jump into fun or productive gameplay experiences when you launch the game.
That said, we do want to encourage traveling around oases and spending more time on them in general. Coming with BB changes, bases are now much more desirable in addition to storing bank walkers offmap, promoting settling and exploring maps. Similar incentives are provided by the new quest system and other Commerce Update features. With all that, we'll be continuing adding new mechanics to make traveling around oases more appealing and interesting.
Q: Are there plans to add in dailies?
A: New quest system works somewhat similarly to dailies already - you get to pick a quest at a trading station and once completed, you can choose the next one. We'd love to expand on this feature though, and actual daily quests with bigger rewards is something we'll be considering.