Hello Folks, If you've spent time in Renown, you've probably felt it. It's not any single thing that's obviously broken — more like a thousand small moments of friction that add up over a session.
In this update2
Full notes
Full Renown update
Read the full published notes in a cleaner layout. The original post stays linked below.
Repeated intro
Hello Folks, If you've spent time in Renown, you've probably felt it. It's not any single thing that's obviously broken — more like a thousand small moments of friction that add up over a session. The building menu takes one more click than it should. Swapping weapons feels too slow. The crafting panel is hard to read until you've already clicked into it. None of these are game-killers on their own, but together they create a kind of fatigue that wears players down. We've been calling it our "1000 bugs of death" in the team. Over the past few weeks, Moxie has been focused on de-jank, targeting the areas that matter most: building, inventory, crafting, and the HUD. Here's what we're working on: (This blog doesn't touch on the crash fixing and other critical bug smashing, but that is also ongoing at the moment.)
What changed
1 fix2 additions3 changes2 removals
Performance
UI and audio
Gameplay
Fixes
addedHello Folks, If you've spent time in Renown, you've probably felt it. It's not any single thing that's obviously broken — more like a thousand small moments of friction that add up over a session. The building menu takes one more click than it should. Swapping weapons feels too slow. The crafting panel is hard to read until you've already clicked into it. None of these are game-killers on their own, but together they create a kind of fatigue that wears players down. We've been calling it our "1000 bugs of death" in the team. Over the past few weeks, Moxie has been focused on de-jank, targeting the areas that matter most: building, inventory, crafting, and the HUD. Here's what we're working on: (This blog doesn't touch on the crash fixing and other critical bug smashing, but that is also ongoing at the moment.)
addedBuildingThe current build system is the biggest target. Right now, it's pretty generic — selection is overly sensitive (barely moving your mouse changes what's highlighted), and right-clicking doesn't consistently close the menu; sometimes it just opens another state instead. We're looking at a new flow: a top category navbar with scroll and dropdown sub-selection, so you're not buried in nested wheels or hunting through pages. The goal is a system where pulling out your build tool and placing something takes as few clicks as possible, the menu closes cleanly when you want it to, and the last piece you selected is remembered so you're not starting from scratch every time. We're also looking at a cull of the build pieces. Renown has close to 50 buildable elements, which we'd guess the majority of players have never used. Some of that complexity is making the UI feel overwhelming before you've even started building. That said, we're attempting to balance this against removing scope for our master builders, while making the actual day-to-day process of using the system into something cleaner to look at and smoother to use. This effectively allows us to scrub the older building UI and its related systems for something that feels far more snappy to use, but also has better bones to work with as we re-build the major systems. Alongside this, we're currently working on:
changedBuildingThe key bind popup UI is getting modernised.
removedBuildingThe clunky build mode entry animation is being removed.
changedBuildingThe crosshair will now switch to an X when you're in build mode, so it's always clear what state you're in.
changedBuildingEquipping the mallet will automatically lock you into build mode rather than requiring an extra step/click. We're also looking at making the mallet just do building mode, so it's not interacting badly with the combat/swing system.
Renown changes
addedHello Folks, If you've spent time in Renown, you've probably felt it. It's not any single thing that's obviously broken — more like a thousand small moments of friction that add up over a session. The building menu takes one more click than it should. Swapping weapons feels too slow. The crafting panel is hard to read until you've already clicked into it. None of these are game-killers on their own, but together they create a kind of fatigue that wears players down. We've been calling it our "1000 bugs of death" in the team. Over the past few weeks, Moxie has been focused on de-jank, targeting the areas that matter most: building, inventory, crafting, and the HUD. Here's what we're working on: (This blog doesn't touch on the crash fixing and other critical bug smashing, but that is also ongoing at the moment.)
addedThe current build system is the biggest target. Right now, it's pretty generic — selection is overly sensitive (barely moving your mouse changes what's highlighted), and right-clicking doesn't consistently close the menu; sometimes it just opens another state instead. We're looking at a new flow: a top category navbar with scroll and dropdown sub-selection, so you're not buried in nested wheels or hunting through pages. The goal is a system where pulling out your build tool and placing something takes as few clicks as possible, the menu closes cleanly when you want it to, and the last piece you selected is remembered so you're not starting from scratch every time. We're also looking at a cull of the build pieces. Renown has close to 50 buildable elements, which we'd guess the majority of players have never used. Some of that complexity is making the UI feel overwhelming before you've even started building. That said, we're attempting to balance this against removing scope for our master builders, while making the actual day-to-day process of using the system into something cleaner to look at and smoother to use. This effectively allows us to scrub the older building UI and its related systems for something that feels far more snappy to use, but also has better bones to work with as we re-build the major systems. Alongside this, we're currently working on:
changedThe key bind popup UI is getting modernised.
removedThe clunky build mode entry animation is being removed.
changedThe crosshair will now switch to an X when you're in build mode, so it's always clear what state you're in.
Building
The current build system is the biggest target. Right now, it's pretty generic — selection is overly sensitive (barely moving your mouse changes what's highlighted), and right-clicking doesn't consistently close the menu; sometimes it just opens another state instead.
We're looking at a new flow
a top category navbar with scroll and dropdown sub-selection, so you're not buried in nested wheels or hunting through pages. The goal is a system where pulling out your build tool and placing something takes as few clicks as possible, the menu closes cleanly when you want it to, and the last piece you selected is remembered so you're not starting from scratch every time. We're also looking at a cull of the build pieces. Renown has close to 50 buildable elements, which we'd guess the majority of players have never used. Some of that complexity is making the UI feel overwhelming before you've even started building. That said, we're attempting to balance this against removing scope for our master builders, while making the actual day-to-day process of using the system into something cleaner to look at and smoother to use. This effectively allows us to scrub the older building UI and its related systems for something that feels far more snappy to use, but also has better bones to work with as we re-build the major systems.
Alongside this, we're currently working on
The key bind popup UI is getting modernised.
The clunky build mode entry animation is being removed.
The crosshair will now switch to an X when you're in build mode, so it's always clear what state you're in.
Equipping the mallet will automatically lock you into build mode rather than requiring an extra step/click. We're also looking at making the mallet just do building mode, so it's not interacting badly with the combat/swing system.
FixedBug fixYou currently can't upgrade a structure to the same tier, which breaks certain upgrade flows in ways that aren't obvious. That's getting fixed.
Inventory & Hotbar
The gear slots and pockets are currently on opposite sides of the screen, which means a lot of unnecessary drag distance. Slot restrictions — like the bow only working in a specific slot — aren't communicated clearly, so players just feel like something is broken rather than understanding the rule. In the short term, we're redesigning the slot icons to actually communicate what goes where (a proper bow silhouette on the bow slot, for example), and removing UI elements that exist but don't do anything. Long-term, we want to move toward a more flexible hotbar where items can go anywhere. A
