Hello everyone! As you may know, we've just published The Balance Update on the Experimental Branch of The Slormancer. It is the result of a couple of months of work on new player experience, balance and changes. If you've missed the announcement, it's right [url=https://steamcommunity.com/games/1104280/announcements/detail/4264427597934140423?snr=2___]here[/url]! And if you've missed the Patch Notes, it's right [url=https://www.slormitestudios.com/patch_0_9_0.php]there[/url]! [h2]Balancing Balance[/h2] Since we published the Patch Notes a few weeks ago, we've been monitoring feedback we got about it and already made a few changes and additions that can be found in the "Changelog" part of the Patch Notes. This includes a few suggestions from our Discord members such as: [list] [*] Adding a few Quality of Life changes to The Blacksmith. [*] Adding new options for the Filter-o-Tron. [*] Adding more options for Raw / Skill Damage. [/list] Now that the update is live, we're still monitoring feedback and plan to make changes and adjustments before releasing the Update on the Live Branch. So please, give it a try and let us know what you think about it. If you want to jump in The Slormancer, I encourage you to do so on the Experimental Branch, it is now stable enough and introduces many changes to New Player Experience that we would love to get feedback on. And you will be able to keep your save once this Update goes from the Experimental Branch to the Live Branch. [b]Here's my 100% not biased opinion:[/b] I did a complete Playthrough from Level 1 to the end of Adam Nostrus' Trials right before publishing the Update, and everything felt really good, there is much less friction, everything tends to be unlocked at a much faster pace and it doesn't feel as grindy as it used to be. And this is very important for us, as much as Endgame balance is. After all, most players tend to stop playing after completing the Story-part of any given game, or stop as soon as the game gets stale or repetitive, so we've made a lot of effort to smoothen the experience. We may not be quite where we want to be regarding Endgame balance but I believe we got Early Game right, or at least, as right as it can be given the current state of the game and the time we have ahead of us. On this, I'd like to add that we're at a point where the price for perfection is prohibitive. We're working with limited resources and we're not trying to build a competitive environment so as soon as most players feel that they can build whatever they set their mind to in a respectable timeframe, without feeling the need to build the current metabuild, then we will be happy. We chose to build an ARPG because we love that genre but unlike most others in the market, we're not trying to build a Game As A Service that will last for a dozen of years. So if the game gets stale or if issues regarding balance or content start to arise after 200+ hours of gameplay, we believe that it is acceptable. That being said, we will keep updating and balancing the game for a few years, just because we enjoy it. [h2]What's next?[/h2] We will keep working on Balance for the next month, while brainstorming and finalizing the content for the Final Update but since we've just released new content, we currently have nothing new to share. Once we get endgame balance in a good enough state, we will move the Update to the Live Branch. And then... After 3+ years of Early Access and about 15+ Updates... We will move onto [b]The Final Update[/b]. It will introduce: [list] [*] A new endgame mode: The Warlords. [*] The end of the Story. [list] [*] Adam Nostrus' Trials Part III. [*] The Final Boss.[/list][*] About 120 Legendary Effects (to get to 200). [*] A Level Cap increased to 100. [/list] More on this Update in the next Slormite Chronicles. Meanwhile, please try out The Balance Update in the Experimental Branch! That's about it! Cheers!