[Vince]

February, March, and April were all about the demo. May was about Maadoran - our largest city. While Oscar's porting all Maadoran locations, I'm tweaking and expanding dialogues, adding everything we've learned from the beta test and the overall feedback.

More specifically:

1. Porting.

Brian wanted T3D for Dead State. T3D introduced significant visual improvements - better lighting, shadows, better transparency handling, glow, HDR, SSAO and other shaders, plus better tools, editors, and mission objects (ground cover and textures, forests, roads, wind, teleporter, sound space, physical zone, time of day, etc). Since it's the same engine family, Nick was able to tweak it and transfer all systems fairly quickly. Once we had a nearly identical (the scripting engine remained the same, which means we didn't have to touch quests) but graphically superior engine, porting AoD was an easy decision.

So, all we have to do now is to finish porting the locations, which wouldn't take much time.

2. Maadoran

Unlike Teron, it's a large and ancient city. There is a lot of history there, a lot to discover and explore, from the Abyss to more obscure locations.

Overall, Teron introduces the world, lore, and factions, without getting too much into it. Everyone's too busy to give a damn about what happened in the past. Maadoran's different in this regard. House Aurelian has spent a lot of time and effort securing relics and sealing what they couldn't secure (like the tower of Zamedi, for example), so you can learn quite a lot there.

Also, Maadoran has more characters to interact with, bigger ambitions and grander plots. If you liked Teron, you'll love Maadoran. You will feel like a provincial girl in a big city (and will probably end up dead).

Now, if you recall, it was very easy to end up dead in Teron, which really wasn't such a good idea in hindsight. We tweaked it in R2 and now we have to tweak it elsewhere, while preserving the "life is cheap" atmosphere.

We're also adding more dialogue options, quest solutions (like the poisoned wine options in R2), and various encounters (like the preacher, storyteller, refugees, etc in Teron). We did quite a lot in a month, which brings us to the next topic:

3. What should we show you?

What would you like to see and learn about in the next updates (telling you "hey guys we're working on stuff, honest!" month after month is kinda boring)? Over the years we've shown quite a lot, but it was mostly Teron's content, as we didn't want to spoil the rest of the game. Should we continue or not? Suggestions are welcome.

[onso]

I'd love to see some ruins to see what loremaster is capable for. All other backgrounds (maybe except grifter) are well presented, while loremaster in beta has to do merchant quests or end the demo by fixing the smelter.

[l3loodAngel]

3. What should we show you?

What would you like to see and learn about in the next updates (telling you "hey guys we're working on stuff, honest!" month after month is kinda boring)? Over the years we've shown quite a lot, but it was mostly Teron's content, as we didn't want to spoil the rest of the game. Should we continue or not? Suggestions are welcome.

3. I would like to see the upcomming combat system changes before they happen!

[Vahhabyte]

You will feel like a provincial girl in a big city (and will probably end up dead).

Muhahaha
[ATTENTION, Munchkin spoilers!]
http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,2715.msg88829.html#msg88829

[Qtone]

I'd love to see some ruins to see what loremaster is capable for. All other backgrounds (maybe except grifter) are well presented, while loremaster in beta has to do merchant quests or end the demo by fixing the smelter.

I was going to say "nothing", but I actually kind of agree with this. Although I wouldn't want to see just loremasters specifically, but rather how different builds manage with the ruins.

[陈瑞思]

No information please.  Even if I purposely avoid it here, Vahanabyte will post it in unrelated threads for months to come.

[Licaon_Kter]

any before/after pics of the engine/s?

[Oscar]

Before: play the combat demo.
After: play the public beta.

[suibhne]

Eventually, you'll want to show off some varied environments in media stuff. For the choir here, tho...no need.

[Niektory]

(click to show/hide)

(click to show/hide)

[dab]

@Vince
Would adding some (presumably) minor areas like mentioned but inaccessible in the beta Aemolas gold stash be too spoilerish?
And btw can we expect Alchemy to be implemented in Beta?
@Niektory
How old are these pictures? I must say even the one in the bottom looks aged when compared to current graphics...
Edit: after Vahhabyte's post below now I see...

[Vahhabyte]

See the evolution of AoD graphics here
http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php?topic=341.0

Also, this

[Vince]

@Vince
Would adding some (presumably) minor areas like mentioned but inaccessible in the beta Aemolas gold stash be too spoilerish?

Probably, since they *are* minor areas, so it's hard to show something without spoiling it.

And btw can we expect Alchemy to be implemented in Beta?

Yes, of course.

[skarai]

It's only so much you can show of any game. I don't think monthly updates themselves are necessary.
There's plenty of information already, along with the game being playable as a demo.
When there's something you want to show you can simply show it. It's not a big thing to ponder about.

[GhanBuriGhan]

I largely agree with skarai above - I think Alchemy would be worth an update once, but other than that a small progress report like above may be a tad boring, but its enough to show people that you are alive and working and that's enough to keep faith. I don't think you need to do more until you are close enough to release for your final PR push.