[2022] Monthly Development Update - August 2022

A lil somethin somethin: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page here.

Greetings Ascended,

It has been a few weeks since we launched Controller Support and the UI overhaul for Wolcen with patch 1.1.6.0 (you can find the patch notes here if you missed it!). Reading your feedback on this long-gestating project has been wonderful, and we are delighted with how well-received it has been. However, there is always room to improve, so, today we want to cover the future changes and additions coming to Controller Support and the UI for all users. We also have some news to share about a transition to a new Online Back End that we have been working on for a while. And finally, for those of you craving some balance in your lives, we will be divulging some information regarding our plans and progress for balancing. Read on!

Further UI and Controller Support Improvements
For gamepad users, we are currently working on some further features, which we will be adding to the game as and when they are ready. These improvements include:

• Playstation controller support and UI integration.
  
• Rumble.
  
• We will be adding a deadzone for analogue stick input to help those with drifting issues.
  
• The ability to remap controller buttons, and;
  
• Mapping templates so you can switch easily between predefined layouts.

For all players, both those who use controllers and those who play with keyboard & mouse, we will also be eventually adding new functionality to the reward selection popups, allowing them to be minimised and queued.

You can expect some of these features soon, while others still require more development time.

Moving Wolcen's backend infrastructure into the future.
Over the course of September, we will be switching our backend infrastructure from Gamesparks to an in-house solution built by our engineering team. This will ensure that we can handle future game development and improve the scalability, fault tolerance, and performance of our services. Migrating the player database to this new solution will require a downtime period, during which players will not be able to access Wolcen’s online component. We will, of course, be giving you all advance notice once we have narrowed down the exact date when the migration will take place. Once complete, no action will be required on your part except to connect to an online game and play!

Balancing Plans
Some time ago, we mentioned we were preparing a balancing pass for all skills in the game, and now we are at a stage where we will start internal playtesting very soon. With this little milestone, we wanted to take a moment to reiterate the scope of our intentions and provide some context for our plans. Along with Skills, we will be doing a balance pass on Unique items to help promote their utility, value, and potential for interesting builds. On top of that, we will also be assessing the parity of Weapon Types, with a particular focus on 2-handed weapons (barbarian archetypes, rejoice!).

These extensive balancing changes are being developed with future content in mind, and therefore will launch with Chapter 4 as they are fundamentally intertwined with what the new Chapter will bring. If you missed Chapter 4’s announcement, you can read it here.

While we cannot reveal much about Chapter 4 yet, we hope to give you some more specific information about balancing in subsequent communication updates. In the meantime, sound off below or on our Discord[discord.gg] about what Skills, Uniques or builds you want to see buffed or made viable (or perhaps even nerfed, you monster).