Game Update: January 2024
Introduction
It's a new year, and a great time to lay out what's going on with our game. As we step into 2024, we're excited to share our vision and the proactive steps we're taking to ensure the game's ongoing success and evolution. This update includes a rundown of our priority items and our action plan for the months ahead.
Your engagement is vital to us. Whether you're a dedicated player or a valued supporter contributing through donations or subscriptions, your role in our community is indispensable. We're incredibly grateful for your continued support and enthusiasm. Together, let's make this year the best one yet for our game!
What we are working on
New Player enhancements & New Player Island
- Ocllo/Haven Island with New Player Dungeon & more content for newer players
- Extension of Young Player duration (providing more time to play as a Young Player)
- See more of our current New Player plans here: https://trello.com/c/FQUuKTgr
PVP balancing (player versus player)
Multi-level building support
- We've achieved some success with adding multi-level support to the game via our SoB Launcher game extension
- We will need to perform Unity updates to every building in the game to complete this feature
- We are still experimenting and is not guaranteed to be added to the game
Naval Warfare
- cannons
- new mining material & crafting recipes to obtain
- grappling (for piracy & fetching loot from wreckages)
- NPC warships
New water content & water pets
- Will be able to use cannons to take out water creatures & NPC ships
- New pets coming: Shark (aquatic mount), Water Wyvern (amphibious) & Water Dragon (aquatic)
- Audits to collision inside of water that currently blocks passage in some spots
- Completion of collision around incomplete islands
House Collapse changes
- We're considering offering house decay warnings to players on login if their account owns a house and it needs refreshing (same for boats)
- We're considering offering to send Patron-bound items to the owner's account if a house collapses
- Houses that are IDOC (in danger of collapsing) will soon have their contents put into barrels when the house collapses, requiring players to punch their way through the barrels to look for loot
- Considering: IDOC Announcement Board for players to see houses that are nearing collapse
What is being planned or in discussion
Combat Balancing
- We've got ongoing discussions in the team to try to balance combat. Recently we have tried some different changes and they were reverted for further review.
- We plan to conduct more testing in the near future
PVE Content
- We are continuously looking for ways to enhance our existing PVE content and explore opportunities to introduce new content
- Our plans include continuous addition of more exciting content, which will feature new abilities for monsters, making each adventure engaging and unpredictable
Crafter Pets (previously Tinkering Golems)
- Introducing new pet options for crafters, currently in discussion: Craftable Construct beings, Ore Elementals that can be subjugated & tamed via Tinkering trap
- These pets will have durability instead of health and will need repaired with materials like Ore & Reagents
- These pets are intended to be useful for both PVP & PVE
Evolving Pets/End-game Taming
- We're looking into the possibility of end-game pets, commonly referred to Evo Pets in the UO community
- These pets would start out as smaller, weaker beings and you would train them to grow and evolve into tougher beings, with different species to pick from
- We've got a few new pet models ready to use for something like this, like beautiful new Dragons
Player Jails
- We're discussing the possibility of adding a Jailing system where players can "press charges" against their murderers. The culprits could then be captured and sent to jail to serve a sentence for their actions. This is a rough idea, and there's no solid plans or ideas yet.
What we've completed recently
Seasonal Challenges
- We've completed Season 1 and have just started Season 2
- Seasonal challenges offer a large variety of tasks for players to engage in, accruing points to unlock vast rewards
New mini-games
- Snowball Fight (available now near Windemere)
- Jousting (available now in Vesper)
- MOBA Game (was used with Chucky Doll for Halloween, will continue to iterate)
- more to come: Life Size Chess, and Texas Hold'em Poker
Water & Boating Expansion
- We've expanded the waters of the world. Previously only 2 regions were prepared for players to drive their boats around in, now every online region is capable of being sailed in.
Music & Sound Additions
- We've deployed several custom Music tracks written by previous team-member Beekel & some additional tracks sourced elsewhere by our team
- We've also added dozens of new sounds that may sound exactly like our favorite classic game!
- We will continue to expand and add more as time permits, including additional or replacement Sounds, Ambience tracks, and Music
- Disclaimer: All recognizable sound-effects incorporated in our project have been sourced from the US Library of Congress and are classified as Public Domain content.
There's much more that we haven't listed here, to see a list of recent patch notes, check out our News page here: https://shardsofbritannia.com/search/query:patchnote
Marketing
We periodically run paid ad campaigns on popular marketing platforms like Google, TikTok and other social media outlets from time to time. As you may know, advertising is very costly, so we are unable to run paid ads all the time. We try to run campaigns when it is strategically advantageous.
We've recently completed a polishing pass on our website to improve education for new players & to improve the general flow for new visitors, as this is where we point advertising viewers to when they click on our ad.
Joining Hands with Our Community
Fostering Positivity & Good Vibes
- We highly value the power of positive and productive interactions among our players. While we recognize the importance of expressing one's thoughts and emotions, it's crucial to ensure these expressions contribute positively to our community. Voicing opinions in a manner that isn't constructive or beneficial could potentially discourage new players from participating in discussions or trying out our game. Critiques about the game are not discouraged; however, we request you to frame them constructively.
Spreading the Word
- Your help in promoting our game would be greatly appreciated! We invite all members to share their experiences with friends, family, or anyone who might be interested. Whether they're fans of Ultima games or Ultima Online, or simply enjoy online sandbox games without any prior knowledge of Ultima, your word-of-mouth recommendations can make a significant difference. Please remember to do so respectfully and considerately.
