The Repopulation November Development Update

The introduction of an entertainment skill line, the addition of many PvP features, and a bevy of other changes are the subject of the November update for the Repopulation, a sci-fi sandbox MMO currently in Alpha.

Snippet ahead:

For the first time since alpha testing began, there was no patch in November. We’ve held off releasing that until the Hero Engine 2.0 patch hits in early December. We’ll detail the ways in which we are taking advantage of the new Hero Engine features in next month’s progress report. Work has not slowed in any way, shape or form, however. In fact November was one of our most productive months to date. Let’s take a look at some of the major changes before going into the build notes.

Perhaps the biggest news this month was the introduction of the Entertainment skill line. This skill reflects your ability to entertain other players, through music, storytelling, dancing, crowd motivation, or other means. It acts as a social skill, and also grants long-term buffs to players who are entertained by it. In order to gain the benefit of the buffs you must be in specially marked social/resting areas such as pubs, inns, town squares, or theaters. Players can also create their own temporary social areas by setting up camps in the wilderness, however. You can find complete details of the implementation in the Entertainment section of the build notes below.

Equally important is the addition of many of the games PvP features. We’ve made it easier to players to identify opposing factions, and introduced PvP related extensions to both missions and engagements. PvP wasn’t the only improvement for engagements though this month. We also introduced a new “cooties” system which opens the door for a number of interesting new engagement types. We have opened a new fast recurring PvP engagement that takes advantage of all these features and given players the ability to teleport to it for testing.

Dens have also seen some important upgrades. The default den style is for NPCs to spawn in waves based on time variations adjusted by the number of players. If players can squash a den early, it will never become a significant problem. This month we introduced a second option which allows us to require players to clear waves within a time limit in order to spawn a more powerful wave. The difficulty will increase as you go, but new boss opportunities will also open up. Dens also now support optional day and night variations. This month also was the beginning of a solid start to getting resources and recipes ready to be introduced into the game at a much higher quantity than before. We have had a few in place during development for testing purposes, but will look to introduct many of them that will be available upon release in the coming month or two. We will have a deep followup in that area to report on toward the beginning of the year as most of the pieces all come together there.

We’ve also done a lot of server side and GM improvements, which may not be immediately recognizable to testers, but which will be working behind the scenes to improve their experience.