Greetings Salemites,
The new mining system is in and we are pretty much done now cleaning up all the crashes, loose ends, and other issues that we have to deal with that were straggling on. So here is the new roadmap.
I feel like a broken record when I keep saying this, but this next month is a hyper important one and we once again are unwilling to compromise on this system. Mortal Moments has secured what I would consider a 'fair' amount of financing to advertise the game. However, we have no intention of spending all that $$ if at the end of the day we cannot sit back and proudly look at the first 1-2 hours of Salem and say "yeah I think new players will give this game a shot". For that reason, having a near flawless Tutorial and noobie experience is extremely crucial to the final health of Salem come Launch Day.
Now when it got down to it there is A LOT that leaves a player wanting in the first 1-2 hours of Salem that goes far beyond the Tutorial. But here are FEW of the things we are addressing this month:
A brand new tutorial from a hand-crafted world complete with a handful of 'quests' to make sure you learn the game and key systems before being dropped on Providence. BRING THE HATE.
The Default Client
The Loading Screens
The Lack of a Game Manual
The Lack of a map/navigation abilitites
Alt Spam in town
As you can see, this patch has a LOT more to do than just making a few tweaks to the existing tutorial. I hate to be the guy that says "most of what we are doing you cannot see as it is a lot of under-the-hood stuff". BUT..... Most of what we are doing you cannot see as it is a lot of under-the-hood stuff. In addition to this, we still plan to add a few systems to for this upcoming month and continue our push for more content, more monsters, and more skills. So in conclusion, I'm revoking ANY and ALL previous expectations for a release date for this patch. Instead, what I will try to do is push some of these things in 'parts' so that you don't feel like we have abandoned you for an extended period of time. When we have a presentable 'map' situation and solution, I'll try to push that. When the game manual is done, I'll push that too... Etc. etc. etc. The 'main' focus of the patch though will not be completed or dropped until BOTH the Tutorial AND Default client are in working order.
As always, we appreciate your support and hope you are enjoying Salem.
Thanks,
John Carver
Mortal Moments Inc.