Blog

Map reset and major update

What's up guys!

The time has finally come. The highly anticipated major update has been launched and I am very excited to say this is the biggest update SamuTale had so far! Unfortunately, I've had to delay the update a few times as it was hard to calculate the amount of time I would need for it. Lots of new things came up along the way that I had to do or fix, but, here it is!

SamuTale has been in development for several years now and the game has grown a lot. I really wanted to let the community be part of the whole project and I want to thank everyone for their input, suggestions and bug reports. We have come a long way and I hope to receive your continued support in the future so we can make an awesome sandbox survival MMO!

The focus for this update was to create a more immersive game world, add raiding mechanics and more content.

New Game World

The game world has received a big overhaul again as I wasn't happy with the current generated landscape and feel. There were basically too many little mountains and ridges that made it hard to build and travel. It was also very hard to make any future adjustments to the map in terms of shape.

I took a look at my map generation code and it was actually not worth it to continue working with it, so, unfortunately, I had to start from scratch. I wanted to implement a biome based generation system to create a more diverse landscape while at the same time create more building space in a realistic manner. Every biome now has it's own unique terrain textures and fauna/flora which in my opinion gives a big immersion boost.

The new map generation system also makes it a lot easier to expand the game world in the future. It gives me more control over where to generate more land instead of letting it generate completely random. This way I have more control over the general shape of the landscape and it is easier to generate for example islands at specific locations. The islands are planned for a future update in which boats will take a prominent role in transport and exploration.

Like some of you already know, a map reset was necessary as we are looking at a completely remade map. Aside from resetting the game world I also had to reset all characters so everyone can have a fair and fresh start in the new map. Founders will receive their in-game rewards again which will be available in the personal storage located at Okura Trading Post.

Land Flags

The land flags had a very important function as it was basically impossible to build a settlement without one. Building a house without a flag nearby basically meant your house was unlocked at all times.

All gold founders get a land flag for free at the start while others don't. In order to acquire one, they had to smackdown a large sum of gold which took quite a bit of farming. I've seen a lot of people do it before even considering building their first house and this is not really what I wanted it to be like. That's why I did some changes.

I haven't removed land flags from the game but they will now only have one function, which is claiming land for your clan. They no longer protect your buildings and objects from player damage but they prevent other players from building on and nearby claimed land. I doubled the amount of land a flag covers to compensate for the loss of protection.

As of now, it's also possible to start building a locked settlement without a flag! You can either join or create a clan and share the buildings or play solo and have ownership over your buildings and objects. The downside of not owning a land flag is that other players can build close to you, on the other hand, you don't have to pay for land flag taxes.

Professions & Craftables

The new map gave me the opportunity to add new types of resources and rebalance a lot of crafting related stuff. Having different biomes has been perfect for resource distribution. I wanted to make biome specific resources to boost the need for traveling and trading while at the same time make the crafting more diverse.

New resources can be found all across the continent and I also added a lot of new craftable stuff. Aside from iron ore, there are now also other minable minerals like clay, coal, and sulfur. Coal will be mainly used in the production of steel and sulfur will be the main resource for gun powder. And yes, this means craftable explosive barrels that can be used for raiding!

Okura Trading Post

Those of you that played before will remember Okura Village, the main hub and safe zone of SamuTale. The village has been converted to a trading post. The village was way too big in my opinion and there wasn't a lot to do aside from using the shops, repair your gear and register your clan. The trading post can be seen as a smaller variant of Okura Village. There is a possibility more changes will be done at a later stage but as of now, it still has it's purpose.

Sale

To celebrate the biggest SamuTale release yet I've decided to start another discount period! All founder packs will be available at a discount of 40% for one month! Haven't got time to test out the game? Click here to see the available founder packs and have instant access!

Patch Notes

To get a full overview of the changes I did have a look at the patch notes:

Patch 0.2.0

• (Balance) A full map and character reset
• (Added) A brand new main land with six different biomes to explore
• (Added) Smelting, weaving, tanning, carpentry and tailoring professions
• (Added) Tier 1 & 3 version of houses
• (Added) Tier 2 & 3 version of doors
• (Added) Tier 3 version of the village gate and village wall
• (Added) Tier 2 & 3 version of the watchtower
• (Added) Tailoring Station
• (Added) Carpentry Station
• (Added) Kiln
• (Added) Tanning Rack
• (Added) Loom
• (Added) Spinning Wheel
• (Added) Two new bows
• (Added) Steel arrows
• (Added) New storage furniture to craft
• (Added) Explosive barrel
• (Added) Mineable clay nodes
• (Added) Mineable coal nodes
• (Added) Mineable sulfur nodes
• (Added) Stone boulders are now mineable
• (Added) New lootable resources like fallen trees, berries and mushrooms
• (Added) Lots of new crafting materials
• (Added) Taiga Biome
• (Added) Tundra Biome
• (Added) Animations for picking up items, gathering, sowing, eating and crafting
• (Added) New types of bushes
• (Added) New biome specific terrain textures
• (Added) World map zoom functionality
• (Added) Environmental dust particles
• (Added) Radial menu interface that gives multiple options for interacting with some objects
• (Added) Grass removal system that removes grass beneath buildings
• (Added) Loot notifications
• (Added) Build notifications
• (Added) Profession recipe unlock notifications
• (Added) Iron Hoe (finally)
• (Added) Steel axe, pickaxe and hoe
• (Added) Sound effects for certain animations
• (Improvement) Increased level cap to 20
• (Improvement) Small stones and logs no longer spawn randomly across the continent but can now only be found close to a source. Small stones can be found close to large boulders and logs can be found close to trees
• (Improvement) Better slope sliding behaviour
• (Improvement) Nodes and trees are now giving loot during the mining/cutting itself
• (Improvement) Updated smoke particle
• (Improvement) Stamina will now still recover even when you're starving
• (Improvement) Village walls and gates will now snap-in-place and also show a preview for corners
• (Improvement) Farming patches will now align with inclined terrain
• (Improvement) All trees have been updated with new models and more detailed grow cycles
• (Improvement) Anvil is now a smithing station and has been updated with a new model
• (Improvement) Small Furnace is now a Smelting Furnace and has been updated with a new model
• (Improvement) Stove has been updated with a new model
• (Improvement) Crafting Table has been updated with a new model
• (Improvement) Vegetation subsurface scattering effect
• (Improvement) Name tags will now become darker at night time
• (Improvement) Updated crafting interfaces
• (Balance) Land flags no longer protect damage on objects but will determine the area in which only your clan can build
• (Balance) Replaced Okura Village with Okura Trading Outpost which is smaller
• (Balance) Removed the failing mechanics for crafting
• (Balance) Changed lots of crafting recipes
• (Balance) Crafting will now yield more XP
• (Balance) Lowered clan registration price
• (Fix) Female chickens won't drop any eggs
• (Fix) Bush billboards are still visible after they are gathered
• (Fix) Climbing a watchtower will sometimes teleport your character to the edge of the map

See you guys in-game!

Cheers,
Royall