ArkCo News 8/8/14

Hey ArkCoNauts! Time for an update on the massive and very hype-worthy upcoming patch! The team has been working non-stop, jamming more and more into this one, and the patch notes are definitely showing that. Two weeks out, and we already have a scroll bar! There are so many changes, fixes, and additions - we won’t spoil the main event goodness, but we can tell you a little about what to expect. Outside of the big headline features, the focus has been further polishing and fixes to quality-of-life type features. This means eliminating pesky bugs such as the spazzing character animations when you look straight up, implementing the real day/night transitions, continued improvements to the UI, and more. Paul has been working on further optimizations to CPU cost, increasing frame rate with stabilization, and smoothing the game out overall. This patch will begin to show the transition from solidifying the core, and making sure the basic gameplay mechanics are feeling good. A huge focus will be adding in more of the major features that players have been waiting for. From here, the game will lose that “skeleton” feeling, and start to be fleshed out in a variety of ways. We know that one question people have on their minds currently is whether character and world wipes are coming with this one. On that note, while we do not currently know for certain, I do want to assure you that if that does appear to be needed closer to the time the patch launches, we will definitely announce ahead of time as much as we can to give you some warning. Should that be the case, please be aware that we would only do character/world wipes if we definitely feel that there is enough content coming to be worth the trouble. Keep those fingers crossed that we can pull off an update this size without a wipe! In addition to the ongoing work on the patch, the team is gearing up to head out to PAX Prime at the end of the month. It’s always an exciting time, and we hope to meet many of our fans out there at the show! The big patch will be rolling right before they leave, so we will be counting on you guys to help pound out those bugs. We’ll want to hotfix any major ones before the guys leave, to be sure EoS is looking its best out there. On the community side, I have been busy as well, planning some fun things for you guys. I will be announcing the dates as soon as they are locked in, but you can expect to see a couple of livestreams in the near future, as well as the return of our IRC Q&A with the team. Behind the scenes, I am working toward setting up the forum points store, the Halloween event, and more. No rest for the CM! As always, thanks for reading, and we’ll see you next time for ArkCo News!