The last month of development of Gloria Victis has been very busy but extremely effective. The version 0.5 update – the biggest one so far – finally went live! This is one of the biggest achievements during the entire development process.
This update not only introduced many of the long-awaited improvements and features, such as the total rework of the inventory, guilds, NPC shops and buffs systems, awesome performance increase, new locations or new NPC enemies, but also moved Gloria Victis to the Alpha stage!
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The most important among all of the improvements is the rework of the inventory and guild system that fixed numerous issues and improved the user experience a lot. Players can now expand their inventory and depot space by equipping additional sacks and bags.
Speaking of inventory, the layout of the NPC-owned shops has been improved as well with an addition of a buy-back tab and filters of assortment.
The guild system has been redone from scratch to bring maximum functionality. It contains a noticeboard which allows the guild leaders to manage their organization much easier using the announcements. The system will also be expanded soon with the implementation of the in-game coats of arms editor, allowing the guild masters to create their own multi-layer emblems – they will be visible on the flags and banners placed in locations captured by the guild and, in the later stages of development, on the shields and tabards used by the guild members.
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The buffs system also has been redesigned, so now players can use dozens of meals, beverages and potions to earn helpful effects. There is also the first of many various effects caused by weather – rain decreases the pace of stamina regeneration, for example. In later stages of development more of them will be implemented, such as overheating when wearing furs or full armor on a hot, sunny day.
Buffs for conquering and controlling locations have been implemented as well, giving an additional reward for domination in the war of nations and greatly increasing the meaning of the territory control system. The latter received numerous improvements as well, such as implementation of the fortifications repair mechanics or a reworked upgrades window.
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The overall user experience has been greatly improved as well – from the game interface, to new locations and NPC enemies to numerous minor improvements and fixes to the game balance, animations, graphics, sound effects and AI. New locations bring more immersion and increase the credibility of the world of Gloria Victis – from now the first towns where players start the game are surrounded by suburbs. They offer some of the basic resources, becoming a very useful place for learning the crafting as they are being patrolled by the NPC guards.
The NPC enemies received some new behaviors – let’s just mention that small animals run away from players and the humanoid NPC enemies are stepping back when a powerful player character comes close to them with their weapon unsheathed. On the other side, there are few new enemies to defeat who will be a challenge even for large and well-organized groups of experienced players.
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It is a great moment to join the game, as every player will have a fresh start. Moreover, as the milestone of moving to Alpha has been achieved, numerous new features and improvements are going to be implemented soon, such as the dynamic points of interest system, the in-game coats of arms editor or new locations, dialogs and background speeches for NPCs.
Anyway, increasing the performance of Gloria Victis networking is the most important goal right now and we will focus on it in the nearest future, as players have to be sure that the server’s capability won’t be a limitation as the in-game population is growing rapidly. Meanwhile we will focus on polishing the existing systems to improve the overall user experience even more.
