This is a fairly short update to let you know we’re still working hard, and a little of what we’ve been up to. We’ll also go over our current plans for re-opening for a public demo in the near future. [b]What has the team been up to?[/b] Currently we’re taking the time to address core issues which we’d have been unable to tend to, without the support from the crowdfund. One major area is the Animation Overhaul. KZ and Delta have been working hard on the locomotion sets which is what you physically see as characters walk, run and turn. For the last couple of months this has effectively been going full time. The attached Gifs directly show this work. Mr.Z needed to travel for a few weeks but used personal funds to purchase a laptop so he could keep support going for the project while away. Given he’s back, the team is currently starting on Combat Animations. Mr. Z has also been hard at work doing fixes and various other optimisations, leading us back to another Open Demo. A lot of other work going on, has been distinctly less “sexy” but is none the less very important. Without getting into too much boring detail; · Anti-cheat Systems will greatly help with cheaters and toxic players. · All players will have access to VOIP due to the removal of the Xsolla Launcher. · Bugs with Epic Online Services and servers disappearing are under investigation. · Improvements to the Tech Tree and other key UI work. · Required work for eventual backer skins distribution and implementation. We’ve been able to bring Moxie back on the team for Programming support thanks to the Crowdfund. He’s been working on the Steam Skin Integration, and currently is fixing up the new player tutorial. [b]What’s going on regarding another open demo?[/b] We’re just getting back to a place, that another Open Demo is about due to really stress test out the recent changes. Firstly, we would like to apologize for any testers put off by the lower population on servers and lack of organized events. As mentioned, the crowdfund has allowed us to address some really important areas. However, it’s hard to drive a car, when the engine is in pieces on the shop floor. If we’re able to stress test a lot of the changes and fixes, it provides the exact data we need to keep improving the base experience in the game. It should be noted we’re not expecting all these new changes to work perfectly. Veteran players will know to expect issues, but for our newer backers, please don’t be worried if the demo is a bit wild. If things go badly, it provides us invaluable information. If things go well, then we’re another step closer to Early Access. Either way, it should hopefully be a fun time and expect to see a boom in populated servers while the events ongoing. There's still a couple more things we want to change and optimize, but we’ll be putting out news regarding said Open Demo over the coming weeks. On behalf of the entire Renown team, I’d like to say another huge thank you for another year of amazing support and encouragement for this project. We truly couldn’t do it without you, and we’re really excited about what Renown could become this year. As always, till next time. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40614988/0c1d88868709a1194f365f5ca13084cda5b365f6.gif[/img] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40614988/867057d234666ad2ac088f2b245849fdfff05bfe.gif[/img] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40614988/12eb4d3839db47693ce589a176081947ddbcc308.gif[/img] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40614988/0d83652cfc554d78933e1d0475059ab0af9b2401.gif[/img] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40614988/f729762082c2d47b0dafce3c940a367cf88dc2ff.gif[/img]