Hello everyone, Hope you've all been enjoying the Second Act update and everything that came with it! Now we've got that monster of an update out into the world, we can talk a bit about the future and what's in store for The Rogue Prince of Persia in 2025. Behold, the new roadmap! [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44971889/647ddb0ee65b77b4e28689aeddeeb9f8e2d39069.jpg[/img] Most of that is pretty self-explanatory, but we want to expand a bit on some points which might be misunderstood... [u][b]Medallion management[/b][/u] Before you panic, we're not going to change the Medallion system again - just how you find, improve and setup your Medallions. Right now the system of filling your Medallion bag through kills, then opening it, then picking up the Medallions, then only being able to adjust them at altars or with Astara is, well... just too complicated, time-consuming and frankly it can kill the flow of a run. So, we've got some big improvements coming to this whole system to make it more fluid, streamlined and fun! [u][b]Improve control input & response[/b][/u] We've seen some reviews and posts about the game controls feeling slow, that they have input lag, problems with getting locked in to animations etc... After swearing a blood oath to hunt these people and their entire families down, we realised that we actually agree that this can be improved, so we're going to address it! We're not going to go into detail about exactly how, as there's a lot of background tech & number stuff involved, but it's coming soon! Now, we also get lots of positive comments about the movement and controls, so if that's you don't worry, we're not going to make crazy radical changes either. [u][b]Make biome layouts more random[/b][/u] Some biomes have an issue where they feel the same in every run, even though they're procedurally generated. This shouldn't be the case, so around half of the biomes are currently being worked on to add more variety to their layout and 'rooms', without sacrificing the feel of the biome. [u][b]Improve loading transitions[/b][/u] The first round of improvements will be purely visual - making the entrances/exits of biomes and the transition screen itself more good-looking. Then later on in the year we'll be trying to reduce the loading time. To put it simply, the loading screen is there to entertain your eyes while the game generates the level design of the next biome. Sometimes this level generation fails and has to start again - we have several ways to improve this process, but we have a small team, the solutions take a long time to test, and we have many other things to do, so this has to come later on in the year. But it IS coming! [u][b]Improve traversal & combat 'feeling'[/b][/u] This is kind of a follow-up to the 'control input & response' point. While we think we've earned the right to say that the gameplay is satisfying, we think there's a good 20% of extra satisfaction to be found. Whether it's making the animations more fluid, adding more audio feedback or adjusting the visual effects, next year we'll be searching for more of that sweet sweet "gamefeel" nectar. [u][b]Environmental interactions and breakable environmental items[/b][/u] Our artists' work on the "glow-up" for the Second Act update was incredible, but the environments can still lack a bit of life. So we're going to be adding things in the background that you can interact with, as well as random things happening in the background. Maybe a flock of birds will fly off as you get close, maybe a part of a tower will collapse - events that make the world much more lived in. You'll probably also be able to break some random pots, because can a video game really exist without that? [u][b]Summary[/b][/u] This year we've put all the structures in place to get the game in a good position for 1.0, now we just need to polish the absolute hell out of these features, while taking the community's feedback into account. We'll add some extra spice along the way, then the final story act, biomes and boss and we'll be good to go!! [u][b]Denuvo + Ubisoft Connect on Steam - update[/b][/u] We've noticed people asking about Denuvo (the anti-piracy software) and whether it will be in the game at 1.0. Well, we can tell you that Denuvo will NOT be in the game on Steam. On the same note, Ubisoft Connect will be available as an [b]optional-only[/b] activable feature at 1.0 on Steam. Voila. See you soon, Matt & the EE team