The Looming Future for Book of Travels
about 2 years ago – Mon, Nov 14, 2022 at 10:31:01 PM

Greetings Traveller,

As we know you are all feeling hype over our coming updates and feel something big is coming we think it's only fair we give you some ideas of what you can expect.

Many of you who have played recently will be aware of the many performance increases we have delivered as well as minor lore changes that hint to the many story lines that exist within the world of Braided Shore. The question we are often asked is “Where is Kasa?” and we understand the level of frustration people have where they want more of the world to explore. As you will know, Kasa is closed. Something happened. Someone died.

Over the next few months as part of the developing story, you, Traveller, will need to find out what. Once that is solved, hopefully the Coroners will allow Kasa to be fully opened – assuming it is now safe to do so. Be aware that this part of the story will only be active during the Prologue period. There may well be items that can only be collected during the Prologue period…. We know some of you may solve this in hours, and some of you may take days. We also think some of you may take steps to stop it being solved…

Here’s what you can expect over the next few weeks and months:

Starting Scenarios – Prologue means the start of the game changes. There was often talk of “character wipes” which we really don’t want to do. However, please be aware that the starting scenarios you have completed for your current characters will change to be a more robust introduction to Braided Shore, with changes to the starting quests to help you on your journey. Some part of this have already happened, but there is more to come. Changes to quest systems run the risk of severing what your current character has done and how quests evolve over time. We don’t expect any major issues but there may be a small period of time where if you are halfway through an introduction quest it will change and your progress may need to restart.

More Vehicle Improvements – We continue to iterate on the quality of vehicles. We will soon be rolling out the need to use tickets for your journeys as well as improving the overall experience.

Quests – Take a step into Kasa. Find out what happened. Help ease the worries of those in Braided Shore. Or don’t…

The Journal and the Log - Track where you have been, write down your thoughts.

Weather Changes – Seasons change, and with it the weather. This will affect how you survive and explore Braided Shore. Whilst Braided Shore is a temperate climate you may need to think more about those wind shelters and where you build your fire. Nights will get longer but the brightness of your lamps will aid you in your travels. Be hopeful though that brighter days will return.

The importance of food – Survival elements of the game will lead to changes in the food system. Travellers may need to huddle around a fire in the rain and see what they can cook up to keep themselves alive.

Fishing for fun or survival – Fishing may be a mellow pastime for some, but there may be a need for a more professional fishing skill to find scarce resources.

Combat – Duelling a Warden is not the same as battling wolves. The combat system will evolve to reflect these differences.

Death will return – Travelling alone will be far more dangerous than travelling in a group. Die alone and prepare to complete your journey from the spirit world at a cost to your immortal soul. Winds are fickle, and prayers of the lone Traveller are not always answered. Die in the company of friends and hope their mourning will make the Sefra show pity on you.

May you always travel safe roads

Joe

A Year of Travel
about 2 years ago – Sat, Oct 15, 2022 at 02:34:32 AM

Dear Traveller,

It has now been 12 months since we released Book of Travels, the Tiny MORPG (MMO-Lite) to early Access on Steam. Whilst initial momentum was beyond expectation, seeing us hit the top 10 most popular games on Steam, server instability and a number of frustrating bugs showed us that we had some issues we needed to solve.

The first thing we looked at was the team. It may have not been explained very well at the time but we essentially took the team that had made the very successful single player focussed Shelter series and asked them to deliver a multiplayer experience. It became clear, and was poorly communicated at the time, that we needed to re-asses the team and hire different competencies. This had additional impact on the Shelter 3 release and the on-going support for Meadow and is a challenge to solve whilst remaining an independent developer.

A new team

The creative core and art direction was working well, but we needed different skills around multiplayer gameplay elements, server infrastructure and a different type of “production pipeline” to accurately release frequent updates for an MMO-Lite style of experience. Over the past 12 months we have hired a large number of engineering staff whilst keeping the majority of the art, stories and design the same, with the aim of improving on what we have. In order to deliver the existing Feature Set we have planned, and outlined as part of the new Road Map, some 7000 hours of development work remain ahead of us. This is before we add in things like bug fixes, design tweaks and adjustments based on feedback. Adding in a new Beta infrastructure allows us to playtest some of these new features early and work on fixes and tweaks as the features develop and ultimately will lead to cleaner update releases in the future (but we are not there yet).

The Pillars of Creation

Part of the rethink of the Feature Set has led us to look at the games positioning in your gaming library, where MMO-Lite sits and what we offer that makes us stand out from other games on the market. Our key focus can be divided up into pillars which are: Survival, Exploration, Trading and Mystery. As we deliver DLC in the future (and PDLC where applicable) we will touch on these four pillars both as the core DLC for each pillar, but also a percentage of change in each of the 4 in each DLC. So, we may release a DLC focussed on Survival, but it will contain elements that touch the other 3 pillars.

Long Term Pricing

Whilst many of our reviews comment on “what do I do?” the vast majority of our players have spent hundreds of hours in the game world with some spending in excess of 1000 hours. We will address the starting scenarios to better introduce players to the game world, even “holding their hands” for at least the first 20-60 minutes, but after that point the players will be free to explore and survive in a large and growing open world environment where dangers and mysteries lurk in unpredictable and often hard to find places. As content is released and the world grows, the number of “seats per server” will increase so the chance of encountering a player remains at the same level even though the world is larger. This growth is balanced against overall game client and game server performance that was addressed as part of our main tech rebuild (and is a constant area of improvement). To this end, the overall price of the game will increase as and when more content is added, the first of which is expected mid-November.

In Summary

The launch was far from ideal, and we had lessons that we needed to learn. We have had a major rethink and addressed these lessons and remain committed to delivering the vast world of Braided Shore. Book of Travels has performed well enough for us to remain dedicated to it for the long term and we are pleased with the reception, the player reviews and the excitement we hear in our community. We have a lot to show you over the next 12 months and look forward to watching your journey.

May your tea never grow cold.

Joe.

A Trainload of Vehicular Improvements Is Coming
about 2 years ago – Tue, Aug 23, 2022 at 01:14:04 PM

Dear Traveller,

We are working on a lot of exciting things, as well as fixes and optimisation (some of which you can try out before it goes on the live environment by logging on to the beta branch) - but today I'd like to take a quick moment to shine a light on what improvements we are doing specifically for the vehicles of Braided Shore. 

We all love trains and boats but we know that, in our game, they could function better and be more intuitive to use. We wanted to change that, and the changes that I'm going to detail in this post are expected to begin rolling out in the coming weeks. 

First off, when you board a vehicle you will immediately sit down and begin resting. There's no sense in straining yourself when occupying a cosy vehicle, right? You will also be able to check your map and inventory without automatically disembarking your mode of transport, which will be handy for plotting out your next course of action. 

Currently, as you may know, there is a time-to-departure progress bar that indicates how long you have to wait until the vehicle in question starts heading out. Instead of that, we're rebuilding the system to convey that information to you in a more immersive way through visual and auditory cues like horns, whistles, smokestack changes, and announcements from the conductor. 

On top of that station masters and dockhands will provide you with information about expected arrivals and departures for the trains and boats of Braided Shore. You will also be required to have a train or boat pass to take the trip, which will be consumed from the inventory upon boarding. Of course, we're also working on ironing out bugs and glitches causing you and your vehicle to end up in unintended places. 

Lastly, the team is looking at ways to enable the player to... partake in some ill-advised travelling etiquette. Obviously, no one at Might and Delight formally recommends you to, say, take a boat ride during a storm. Or jump off a train mid-journey. Or try to sneak onboard a vehicle without paying for a pass. But we kind of do want you to be able to, and then face the consequences of those actions. Let's call it a "dismantling of safety measures". Because what fun are those?

Until next time! May your tea never grow cold.

Best wishes, 

Oliver and the team at Might and Delight

The scribes are hard at work, chronicling the world of Braided Shore
over 2 years ago – Mon, Aug 15, 2022 at 09:57:35 PM

Dear Traveller,

Today we wanted to talk about how our work looks in regards to the story of “Book of Travels”. We're thinking a lot about how we want to present the larger story of the game to the player, and how to expand it over time while still holding true to our original vision and design philosophies about not wanting to hold the player's hand too tightly or spoon feed them.

When it comes to story in the world of Braided Shore, there is much to do. We are both looking to introduce more lore details to the world, and to expose the intrigue of the Prologue so that more players have the chance to find and play through it.

We’re introducing new lore both through item descriptions and, eventually, new encounters and events. We want the storytelling of Book of Travels to feel intuitive, and like something you unveil as you travel. With every item in the game world telling you bits and pieces of information, we’re hoping to add another layer to your roleplaying and immersion.

We also want the world to feel alive, whether you’re wandering through the deep woods or bartering in a bustling town. Ensuring that interactions with NPCs feels worthwhile, and that the world highlights the quests and events available to you, is also a major focus of our current work.

When looking at the Steam Achievements, and talking to the community, we can tell that the main intrigue of the Prologue is incredibly hard to find, and that many players simply have not played through it. We want to expose this story to the player, and ensure that the way we tell the story is in line with how the game is played; what if there wasn’t one singular path to the great city of Kasa? What if there was a way for Travellers to find many clues that point to the city, and the cause of its peculiar lockdown?

This autumn and winter, you can expect hundreds of new item descriptions in-game (our story team has already written over 15 000 words of new lore in the past two weeks), many new dialogues and small encounters, as well as a mystery that seems to permeate the lands of Braided Shore.

For a behind the scenes peek at what we’re up to, you can find our work on the Beta, where it will be featured alongside bug fixes, polish of features, and experiments with new gameplay mechanics.

We’re hoping that, from the very start of the game, you’ll feel the call of the open road, and that the stories you encounter along the way will not only entertain, but stay with you whenever you brew a soothing cup of tea, or when you walk past a grassy field and feel like you might spot omin hiding amongst the underbrush.

You'll hear more from us in the coming weeks. As always, we encourage you to sound off in the comments and on the forums about what you think of any new information we put out.

Until next time, Traveller. May your tea never grow cold...

Best wishes,

The Might and Delight team

Elaborating on the Updated Roadmap
over 2 years ago – Sat, Aug 06, 2022 at 10:41:50 PM

Happy Friday, Traveller!

Earlier this week we updated our roadmap. Since we didn't provide much context to the changes that were presented, we knew that the community was going to have questions about them. Since then we've been putting our ears to the ground, listening for what the most frequently asked questions were, and today the team has put out their response. 

You can read it on our Steam forum. Click right here.

Best wishes,

Oliver and the team at Might and Delight