2023 has been an eventful year. We will take you back to what has happened and provide you with a small insight into our crystal ball regarding what we are planning for the first months of 2024.
What we achieved in 2023
The main focuses of 2023 can be divided into two categories: the development of quality-of-life and game features, and the complete redesign of our game.
We’ve added a vignette effect that serves as a health indicator, becoming more noticeable as your character’s health drops. When you’re running low on HP, the screen starts losing its color, fading to black and white. This effect intensifies the critical moments of survival without being too in-your-face about it. Another significant change involves the dropping of your backpack upon death. Consequently, you’ll lose everything in your inventory, retaining only what’s on your body. Within a specific time frame, everyone, including yourself, can loot the backpack before it – and everything in it – vanishes forever.
One feature that many of you have been wishing for is the “Loot All” button, enabling you to collect every item with a single click instead of right-clicking or dragging and dropping each item individually. If your inventory is too full to take all the items from a lootable, the “Loot All” button will open your inventory, allowing you to choose which items to take and which to leave behind. We’ve also addressed the issue of excessive system messages flooding the chat. Various system messages, such as gaining or losing money, are now displayed outside of the chat for improved clarity. To enhance visibility, we’ve added color to these messages. For instance, when you buy something, the spending amount is displayed in red, while the amount received from selling is shown in green.
Another noteworthy addition is the more realistic harvestable mechanics. Previously, items like trees, bikes, and pipes remained visually unaffected during harvesting. Now, they realistically fall apart or topple over after a certain amount of harvesting. To improve convenience, we’ve increased the space in the toolbelt, enabling it to hold more tools at once and reducing the likelihood of losing essential tools upon death. Additionally, we’ve implemented a mechanism where a tool is automatically activated for harvesting when placed in the toolbelt and needed, eliminating the need for manual selection.
While some of the features we’ve implemented may seem less crucial at the moment, their significance will become more apparent as our development progresses. With that in mind, we’ve introduced a headshot icon that appears when you successfully land a headshot on an enemy. This feature can be individually toggled on and off. We’ve incorporated weapon spread and recoil, so when you walk, your spread increases, and when you shoot, your recoil goes up. Furthermore, we’ve introduced an action bar that offers numerous possibilities for placing items (spoiler: and possibly other things) into it for quick use when needed. Another notable addition is the establishment of a “Protected Area” for players, including Junction. Within this zone, no player will take damage from another player, ensuring a safe space for interaction.
We’ve also introduced some significant features, including the first implementation of a party system. Now, up to five players can form a party and enjoy the advantages of working together. Each member can view the location, health, and stamina stats of other members. The party lead can be transferred between members, and all members are notified when someone from the party goes offline. Another feature that has been requested by you for quite some time is the possibility to gain a mount, in our case, a horse, which was and will be achievable again soon via a certain questline. Recognizing the need for item trading between players, we’ve implemented an auction house. This feature allows every player on the same server to bid on items or put their items up for auction.
Additionally, we’ve introduced our first single-player claim, which is a place only one player can claim for a set amount of time. While holding the claim, the player enjoys certain advantages. In our case, it serves as a fishing spot, where various fishing rods can be cast to automatically fish, with a bell ringing when a fish is caught. Players can also cook fish soup, which replenishes the player’s health when eaten.
The second focus was centered around the redesign of the game and is highlighted by our largest update so far. The majority of quests have been replaced with a whole new set, with the intention of creating exciting and challenging quests for you to finish. Thank you for all the feedback we have already received! Our game underwent a comprehensive transformation, featuring a new character design, new NPCs, and a completely revamped world map. This includes the addition of city districts, each having its own visual style and name upon entering, as well as the introduction of entirely new cities.
Last but not least, our team has grown, and we now are 13 people working full time on Persist Online. We’ve also launched our blog, which will be your primary source of information in the future.
Our Plans for 2024
So, what are our plans for the first months of 2024? Our main focus lies in the further development of our gameplay. This involves a whole revision of our Combat System and Item System to reflect the game we envision. We’ll inform you once these changes are online and would love to hear your feedback then!
Another gameplay change is the implementation of a contribution-based XP allocation. This means that when several players are attacking the same enemy, the XP given after the enemy’s death will be split among all contributors instead of each player receiving the full amount of XP possible.
Additionally, we are planning to launch our Persist Online Forum and our new website. But that’s just the beginning. We’ll keep you updated on what you can expect throughout 2024.
We always listen to your feedback and sincerely appreciate every suggestion we receive. We aim to create a game that is not only enjoyable for us but also for you, and your opinion truly matters. With that said, we want to express our gratitude: THANK YOU! Thank you for standing by our side and supporting us throughout the year. We are really looking forward to another great year together with you!
⁓ Your Community Management Team