Skylore: Development Diaries, August 2020

[Ollie]

Friends!

As you know the last alpha test of the mobile MMORPG Skylore was completed in May 2020.

Thanks to all the participants! Together we have discovered many bugs and errors: from small and sometimes very funny to serious and critical. Our experts have reviewed all reports to bring the game to perfection.

Now we are preparing to move on to the next important and responsible stage of testing. The launch of the beta version of Skylore is a guarantee that the main mechanics of the game are ready and will no longer undergo major changes, and the development vector will be more focused on preparing and creating new content than on reworking and changing the existing one. That is why we are so thrilled with setting goals and planning now, and that is why we’ve decided to share with you our thoughts on the future of the project.

Today we are going to tell you about some improvements and ideas that are based on your feedback. Please, note that not all of the new items described will be presented during the next launch of the game. You can find out what will be included in the next version of the client from the updated project development plans. We will tell you the details about the new beta testing just before it starts.

Don't forget that the project is under development, and the implementation of the described mechanics and solutions may differ from the original idea and description. We’ll keep you updated on changes.

Now we are ready to tell the details, let's go!

Adamantine Grotto and Free PvP

There will be important changes of the PvP component of the game: in the Adamantine Grotto, PvP will become truly open. You will be able to fight not only with the players of the hostile alliance, but also win a profitable spot for farming from your representatives. 

This will help the location to reveal itself according to the original idea that the only possible option for farming would be grouping with other players. Also, the Adamantine Grotto will be extremely interesting for the Guilds: they will compete for the most profitable places for farming and organize real guild wars.

We understand that such a novelty will tighten the conditions for players. Therefore, we have thought over some possibilities for your safety — so that everyone can find a way out of an unpleasant situation:

Safe entrance — the player entering the location will receive a buff of complete invulnerability for a few seconds, which will allow him to avoid being ambushed when moving to the location and to have time to orient himself.

Improvement of the buff upon revival — now the player will receive upon revival not only a few seconds of invulnerability, but also immunity to the effects of control over the character, which will eliminate the possibility of death in an endless cycle near the statue of revival.

Battlefield

The mode is sent for reworking. Probably, you won't see Battlefiled during the beta test. However, the old format of this regime may appear as one of the guild battle modes. We will tell you about the new PvP mode for players another time.

We are planning to transfer the updated mode to an event format, i.e. it will be available only for limited times during a day. At the same time, we will take into account that Skylore heroes live in different countries and time zones, and we will try make the schedule convenient for most players.

Arena

Now we are working not only on new maps for 3v3 fights, but also on new formats and mechanics for conducting battles in the Arena. And of course, we continue to work on the balance of matchmaking so that the teams compete in the most equal conditions.

Dungeons 

The mode will acquire new locations with monsters, mini-bosses and the main villain. In addition, a new mechanic will appear — modifiers, but we will talk about them a little bit later.

 Activity center

According to the most players, the mechanics went with a bang! At first, we encountered some problems — impossible tasks and zeroing of activity points — but we tried to fix all the errors quickly.

Now the priority of the development of mechanics will be the balance of rewards, namely the balance of the number of issued activity points, depending on the complexity and time required to complete the activity.

We also understand that the maximum number of activities is limited, and not everyone has time to complete them on time, so we will make the necessary changes to the mechanics of issuing activities so that players who have not entered the game for a long time can receive new activities much faster.

Dynamic areas 

Another Skylore mechanics that players loved are the dynamic areas and the new daily quest system. Recall that in the alpha version of the game the Legion and the Sentinels had their own dynamic areas, and each of them had up to 3 states (skins) with a specific set of quests.

We’ve decided to open access for the characters of the Sentinels and the Legion to the territories of another alliance. Heroes of the Legion will be able to roam freely in the Holygrove and Somber Swamp, and the Sentinels will be able to wander in the lands of the Factory and Scorched Highlands. The only exceptions will be the capitals of Amber and Echo: only characters from a certain alliance can still get into them.

In open areas the characters of each alliance will have their own side and story quests, but the dynamic areas will become common as well as the quests for them.

Locations will operate according to the no-PvP system, i.e. other players, including representatives of a hostile alliance, will not be able to attack you.

In the future we will increase the number of both dynamic areas and their states (skins). Also in the plans there is a system for generating a set of quests for each state of the region, i.e. the same states may differ in a different set of quests.

We also didn’t forget to take into account your wishes regarding the number of interactive objects located in dynamic areas. We will work on a balance in this regard so that all quests and states can be completed equally comfortably and without long queues.

Leveling up and combining items

During the alpha tests mechanics were introduced to increase the characteristics and quality of equipment. According to our data, pumping equipment for the players turned out to be much more exciting than the constant search for new armor and weapons.

The mechanic of combining items was less popular with players and was used mainly by high-level characters. It is absolutely certain that this was due to an error in the balance of the interaction of the mechanics of leveling up and combining items. We have made the necessary fixes, and now it will be as useful and beneficial as possible to improve the quality of the existing equipment at any character level.

 

Enhancing

Another way to upgrade your gear in Skylore is to enhance it. We will not dwell on the description of the mechanic, because any player who has played in the MMORPG genre at least once is familiar with it. We will share only observations: according to statistics, players were engaged in enhancing the top items only in order not to waste resources on intermediate equipment. We are working on the following changes:

• limit the level of the enhance of an item depending on its quality, 
• realize the possibility of transferring the gain level of an item to a higher quality item when combined.

We are confident that both solutions will help diversify the gameplay and save players from wasting resources.

Tutorial and gameplay

Alpha testing participants know that the initial quest chain teaches players the basics of control and leveling up in Skylore. However, it was created in the early stages of the testing and didn’t include many of the mechanics that appeared during the development. We decided to work on the tutorial and make it much more informative and useful for players. Be sure that there will be much fewer questions like "How to get to Factory / Holygrove ": D

In addition, the gameplay will become easier and more convenient due to an important update in the quest log: all available quests will be added to it automatically, which will definitely allow you not to miss a single story or side quest!

Race abilities

Many of the players have noticed that the races in Skylore don’t have any fundamental differences except for the appearance. The dilemma between character appearance and a useful racial stat for your chosen class is too common in MMORPG games.

We strive to ensure that each player has the opportunity to create a unique character and determine the path of its development independently. Therefore, in order not to put a fundamental choice in front of the player and to maintain a balance between classes, we decided to abandon racial bonuses.

Create a character based only on the visual component, select equipment with the necessary characteristics and pump glyphs in abilities as it is necessary for your particular play style, and we will definitely add more hairstyles and faces for each race!

 

***

 

That's all we would like to share with you today. However, these are not all of our plans: we are preparing a lot of interesting news and pleasant surprises for you and will share them as soon as possible!

We will tell you more about the mechanics and changes in the next versions of the game just before the launch, and we will publish information about the next start of the server very soon.

See you!

[PopRevolt]

Awesome! Thank you the update on your hard work. I am happy to see some of the things I suggested are being implemented, espiecally: 

58 minutes ago, Ollie said:

make the mechanics of full or partial transfer of the level of enhancing to a new item.

 

[Devilrokas]

Question is will autumn release aka beta version save our data or you gonna reset again ?

[Rowan]

20 hours ago, Devilrokas said:

Question is will autumn release aka beta version save our data or you gonna reset again ?

We will share the info about this a bit later 😉

[Osmou]

If there is going to be a reset, Im not going to touch the game in beta, maybe not at all. Since diablo immortal is probably out by the official release.

[Oagye]

When the actual game coming?

Изменено 16 августа, 2020 пользователем Oagye

[Bkmz]

В 15.08.2020 в 23:26, Osmou сказал:

If there is going to be a reset, Im not going to touch the game in beta, maybe not at all. Since diablo immortal is probably out by the official release.

Nobody care

[Ollie]

В 16.08.2020 в 11:27, Oagye сказал:

When the actual game coming?

The game will be released after the end of beta testing. 
We will announce its start 2 weeks in advance - stay tuned!

[Vlaconan]

On 8/17/2020 at 3:37 PM, Ollie said:

The game will be released after the end of beta testing. 
We will announce its start 2 weeks in advance - stay tuned!

Hello @Ollie, 31 august open start ? without test server ?
 

Изменено 31 августа, 2020 пользователем Vlaconan

[Vlaconan]

On 8/13/2020 at 5:47 PM, Ollie said:

 

Arena

Now we are working not only on new maps for 3v3 fights, but also on new formats and mechanics for conducting battles in the Arena. And of course, we continue to work on the balance of matchmaking so that the teams compete in the most equal conditions.

WHERE 2x2 ? FIRST BEST NEED ADD 2x2 AND 3x3 TOO ⚠️

Изменено 31 августа, 2020 пользователем Vlaconan

[Ollie]

15 часов назад, Vlaconan сказал:

WHERE 2x2 ? FIRST BEST NEED ADD 2x2 AND 3x3 TOO ⚠️

About this not now, in the near future there are no plans to develop a 2x2 mode

[Vlaconan]

On 8/17/2020 at 3:37 PM, Ollie said:

The game will be released after the end of beta testing. 
We will announce its start 2 weeks in advance - stay tuned!

now 3 weeks.... when open server? or info more news

Phone's possibilities on PC and Mac through Samsung DeX Skylore works keyboard?
 

Изменено 4 сентября, 2020 пользователем Vlaconan

[Maverick]

On 8/13/2020 at 9:47 AM, Ollie said:

Friends!

As you know the last alpha test of the mobile MMORPG Skylore was completed in May 2020.

Thanks to all the participants! Together we have discovered many bugs and errors: from small and sometimes very funny to serious and critical. Our experts have reviewed all reports to bring the game to perfection.

Now we are preparing to move on to the next important and responsible stage of testing. The launch of the beta version of Skylore is a guarantee that the main mechanics of the game are ready and will no longer undergo major changes, and the development vector will be more focused on preparing and creating new content than on reworking and changing the existing one. That is why we are so thrilled with setting goals and planning now, and that is why we’ve decided to share with you our thoughts on the future of the project.

Today we are going to tell you about some improvements and ideas that are based on your feedback. Please, note that not all of the new items described will be presented during the next launch of the game. You can find out what will be included in the next version of the client from the updated project development plans. We will tell you the details about the new beta testing just before it starts.

Don't forget that the project is under development, and the implementation of the described mechanics and solutions may differ from the original idea and description. We’ll keep you updated on changes.

Now we are ready to tell the details, let's go!

Adamantine Grotto and Free PvP

There will be important changes of the PvP component of the game: in the Adamantine Grotto, PvP will become truly open. You will be able to fight not only with the players of the hostile alliance, but also win a profitable spot for farming from your representatives. 

This will help the location to reveal itself according to the original idea that the only possible option for farming would be grouping with other players. Also, the Adamantine Grotto will be extremely interesting for the Guilds: they will compete for the most profitable places for farming and organize real guild wars.

We understand that such a novelty will tighten the conditions for players. Therefore, we have thought over some possibilities for your safety — so that everyone can find a way out of an unpleasant situation:

Safe entrance — the player entering the location will receive a buff of complete invulnerability for a few seconds, which will allow him to avoid being ambushed when moving to the location and to have time to orient himself.

Improvement of the buff upon revival — now the player will receive upon revival not only a few seconds of invulnerability, but also immunity to the effects of control over the character, which will eliminate the possibility of death in an endless cycle near the statue of revival.

Battlefield

The mode is sent for reworking. Probably, you won't see Battlefiled during the beta test. However, the old format of this regime may appear as one of the guild battle modes. We will tell you about the new PvP mode for players another time.

We are planning to transfer the updated mode to an event format, i.e. it will be available only for limited times during a day. At the same time, we will take into account that Skylore heroes live in different countries and time zones, and we will try make the schedule convenient for most players.

Arena

Now we are working not only on new maps for 3v3 fights, but also on new formats and mechanics for conducting battles in the Arena. And of course, we continue to work on the balance of matchmaking so that the teams compete in the most equal conditions.

Dungeons 

The mode will acquire new locations with monsters, mini-bosses and the main villain. In addition, a new mechanic will appear — modifiers, but we will talk about them a little bit later.

 Activity center

According to the most players, the mechanics went with a bang! At first, we encountered some problems — impossible tasks and zeroing of activity points — but we tried to fix all the errors quickly.

Now the priority of the development of mechanics will be the balance of rewards, namely the balance of the number of issued activity points, depending on the complexity and time required to complete the activity.

We also understand that the maximum number of activities is limited, and not everyone has time to complete them on time, so we will make the necessary changes to the mechanics of issuing activities so that players who have not entered the game for a long time can receive new activities much faster.

Dynamic areas 

Another Skylore mechanics that players loved are the dynamic areas and the new daily quest system. Recall that in the alpha version of the game the Legion and the Sentinels had their own dynamic areas, and each of them had up to 3 states (skins) with a specific set of quests.

We’ve decided to open access for the characters of the Sentinels and the Legion to the territories of another alliance. Heroes of the Legion will be able to roam freely in the Holygrove and Somber Swamp, and the Sentinels will be able to wander in the lands of the Factory and Scorched Highlands. The only exceptions will be the capitals of Amber and Echo: only characters from a certain alliance can still get into them.

In open areas the characters of each alliance will have their own side and story quests, but the dynamic areas will become common as well as the quests for them.

Locations will operate according to the no-PvP system, i.e. other players, including representatives of a hostile alliance, will not be able to attack you.

In the future we will increase the number of both dynamic areas and their states (skins). Also in the plans there is a system for generating a set of quests for each state of the region, i.e. the same states may differ in a different set of quests.

We also didn’t forget to take into account your wishes regarding the number of interactive objects located in dynamic areas. We will work on a balance in this regard so that all quests and states can be completed equally comfortably and without long queues.

Leveling up and combining items

During the alpha tests mechanics were introduced to increase the characteristics and quality of equipment. According to our data, pumping equipment for the players turned out to be much more exciting than the constant search for new armor and weapons.

The mechanic of combining items was less popular with players and was used mainly by high-level characters. It is absolutely certain that this was due to an error in the balance of the interaction of the mechanics of leveling up and combining items. We have made the necessary fixes, and now it will be as useful and beneficial as possible to improve the quality of the existing equipment at any character level.

 

Enhancing

Another way to upgrade your gear in Skylore is to enhance it. We will not dwell on the description of the mechanic, because any player who has played in the MMORPG genre at least once is familiar with it. We will share only observations: according to statistics, players were engaged in enhancing the top items only in order not to waste resources on intermediate equipment. We are working on the following changes:

• limit the level of the enhance of an item depending on its quality, 
• realize the possibility of transferring the gain level of an item to a higher quality item when combined.

We are confident that both solutions will help diversify the gameplay and save players from wasting resources.

Tutorial and gameplay

Alpha testing participants know that the initial quest chain teaches players the basics of control and leveling up in Skylore. However, it was created in the early stages of the testing and didn’t include many of the mechanics that appeared during the development. We decided to work on the tutorial and make it much more informative and useful for players. Be sure that there will be much fewer questions like "How to get to Factory / Holygrove ": D

In addition, the gameplay will become easier and more convenient due to an important update in the quest log: all available quests will be added to it automatically, which will definitely allow you not to miss a single story or side quest!

Race abilities

Many of the players have noticed that the races in Skylore don’t have any fundamental differences except for the appearance. The dilemma between character appearance and a useful racial stat for your chosen class is too common in MMORPG games.

We strive to ensure that each player has the opportunity to create a unique character and determine the path of its development independently. Therefore, in order not to put a fundamental choice in front of the player and to maintain a balance between classes, we decided to abandon racial bonuses.

Create a character based only on the visual component, select equipment with the necessary characteristics and pump glyphs in abilities as it is necessary for your particular play style, and we will definitely add more hairstyles and faces for each race!

 

***

 

That's all we would like to share with you today. However, these are not all of our plans: we are preparing a lot of interesting news and pleasant surprises for you and will share them as soon as possible!

We will tell you more about the mechanics and changes in the next versions of the game just before the launch, and we will publish information about the next start of the server very soon.

See you!

What about guild system ?