The Fractured Online team recently announced that the game would be making a return to Steam Early Access soon. Before that happens, however, there will be one final play test starting this week.
Opening this Thursday, September 28th at 2 PM UTC / 10 AM Eastern, the fall playtest will run until October 15th. Although the team had previously stated that their goal was to have a polished build for the return to Steam Early Access without a new wipe, there will be a wipe before this test begins. This will put everyone on a level playing field to start from scratch and be best able to give feedback on the full progression system.
The major changes that they announced in the last post about the Early Access return will be in this build, including the adjustment to charisma, replacing it with wisdom, the complete talent tree aside from a couple of nodes, reworked world bosses, and a ton of reworks and balance changes.
Dynamight is looking for feedback on progression, especially on changes that they've made to attributes and item balance on new characters on the progression journey. They've also revamped the talent tree and nearly the complete tree will be in this build. They've also introduced Enchanting and Divine Rewards, and they're looking for feedback on these new systems.
Many of the changes were made in order to open up additional player build options and to make things feel more dynamic. Equipment enchanting is also here, offering more build boosts, and Divine Rewards replace individual drops of orbs and recipes. Other changes include a visual upgrade of the tutorial island and the NPC cities in Aerhen.
When you consider how many of the changes impact early game progression as well as the early game feel, the new wipe makes a lot of sense. With this playtest, the team is also having a final relaunch sale, selling Founders Packs at discounted prices for permanent access to the game, and other perks. The sale will last until Steam Early Access begins.
See the Fractured Online fall playtest announcement for details.
