Dev Update #15 - Content

Hello Everyone!

This week’s news post should be an interesting one! We wanted to pull back the curtain a bit on some of the work we’ve been doing, and the process we’ve been following. 

Let’s start with some of the exciting stuff!

👀What new content is in the works?

We’ve been working on loads of new content, and we want to share some information on this. We’ll go into lots more detail when each piece of content is ready to drop - for now, here are some of the highlights!

We’re not 100% sure when everything we talk about below will be arriving in the MI2 Alpha, but just know we are trying to pack the v0.7.0 Major Update with lots of content goodies.

While we’re incredibly happy with our progress so far, we won’t be releasing any of these until we think they’re ready to be in your hands! ☺️

COMBAT

We’re happy to confirm that initial development for Combat has begun. There are no timeframes at this stage, but Coolrox has finished up the Localisation feature and shifted focus to Combat development.

Super vague, I know, but I think this is an extremely important milestone that we just had to mention! We’ll go into Combat more, including progress updates, in future dev posts.

New Skills in development - Ranching, Herblore, Agility & Thieving

For many many weeks, we’ve had a prototype developed for these Skills (some more feature complete than others) which are being tested and adjusted accordingly. We’re really happy with the direction they’re going so far, and the progress on them is exciting.

Rapid prototyping of Skills is something we’ve begun doing as of late, as it allows us to get a clear picture of how the plan plays out in practice. While Coolrox may be working on something like Localisation, Malcs is generally busy at work getting prototypes created at the same time. They’re relatively “quick” to put together, as it's all built upon core systems that were created in the early days.

As you know from our updated Roadmap, both Agility & Thieving require Combat to release. This is due to both Skills including mechanics where you will take some amount of damage (We’re testing without damage at the moment). When Combat does eventually release, both of these skills won’t be far off release at all.

Ranching is probably the most feature-complete, with artwork in progress and more fine-tuning being done in the background. This will most likely be the next non-combat Skill that will be released. A dedicated dev post will be created to take you through the Skill when it's ready!

Herblore has seen great progress over the last 2 weeks as well. This is starting to take shape, although balancing this skill is quite tough. There’s still a lot to figure out with the underlying design, but early testing is showing that we are heading in the right direction.

Pets!

We’ve added the initial systems for Pets, and added in the first 10 Pets for Melvor Idle 2 (Pending artwork)!

The Pet system is relatively similar to Melvor Idle, but we are expanding it to support multiple Pets per Skill, while also adding support for unlocking Pets via methods other than RNG (Like completing certain tasks).

We’ll keep it vague for now, as this is a feature that will grow over time!

Cooking Recipes

We’ve added (and are still adding) a huge amount of new recipes for cooking! Intermediate and Expert Recipes are on the way, which should help with those extremely slow Cooking grinds that you are seeing right now.

Intermediate and Expert recipes will use ingredients from both Fishing & Farming, and will also provide unique benefits around the game (Like contain modifiers for your character).

This also means we will see the addition of the Cooking Mastery Guild tasks.

Farming Mill

The Mill is on the way to Farming! This is a feature that allows you to passively grind products from Farming into other products like Flour, Sugar and Grain (used in Ranching). It also comes equipped with its own Farming Plots dedicated to growing resources used within (Like Wheat or Sugarcane).

Side Quests

We’re working on an initial small batch of Side Quests to add to the game, which will act as our little test for the system as a whole. These quests will each feature an actual storyline, while tasking you to do varying things to complete.

Our goal with the initial batch of Side Quests is to just get a feel for how they play out in general, and see what kind of UI flow or quality of life we can add to help.

So, what’s the plan for new content in v0.7.0?

We understand the underwhelming nature of v0.6.0 when speaking about content, so with v0.7.0 we wanted to try and make amends.

Here’s what we want to achieve for the v0.7.0 release. Note, as always, this is subject to change:

• At least one new non-Combat Skill (Ranching, most likely).

  • If by some miracle Herblore is at a stage we’re happy with, we’ll include it.

• Farming Mill, including addition of Wheat and Sugarcane

• New Cooking Recipes

• Cooking Mastery Guild

• Pets

If we can get some more quick pieces of content finished like the Firemaking Bonfire, Mastery Guild bonuses, or anything else then we will also include that.

We don’t have an ETA for this update, but many of the content inclusions are already finished and awaiting artwork. Skills are tougher to finalise, but they are also the most exciting additions.

❓What has been worked on these last few weeks?

We’ve talked before about how much work is going into putting systems in place at this stage of Melvor’s development. Naturally though, some of you are asking about new content, and we completely understand why. Our last update was mainly focused on QoL changes, and didn’t introduce too much new content - and it’s been a while since we’ve had a new content drop. With that in mind, we want to show you some of what’s in the pipeline - and how we’re making sure we’ll be ready to deliver new content as soon as the systems are ready!

First up, the summarised version.

We’ll go into a lot more detail on this below - but if you don’t want to read all of it, here are the key points.

• We’ve been focusing on systems like localisation early in the process. If we left systems like that until later in the development process, we’d more than likely end up needing to re-do a lot of the work we’d already done.

• We’ve also been focusing on things like QOL features in the meantime. Getting these in now means you can focus more on the content and gameplay, without usability issues muddying the waters. This also means we can get more focused and valuable feedback!

• While Coolrox has been working on Localization, we’ve been working on multiple skills in parallel As mentioned earlier, we’ve been creating playable prototypes (with bare minimum UI) which has let us refine these skills faster.

• Using this process, we’ve already essentially locked down the mechanics of multiple new skills (Agility, Herblore, Thieving and Ranching), and we’re continuing to test and refine them. This should result in a much more polished skill when we release it into the game, which we hope will let you focus less on broad issues and more on minor adjustments in your feedback.

• There’s lots of new content in the pipeline (with combat being a primary focus). We know it’s taking a while to arrive, but we’re confident our approach will let us deliver the best game we possibly can.

What was being worked on, and why is it done this way?

A lot of the work we’ve been doing lately has been work that lays the foundation for Melvor Idle 2. We’re working in Godot, an amazing open-source engine, and it’s been fantastic for us! But there are some core features that we’ve needed to either add or improve - things we know from our experience with Melvor Idle need to be sorted out as early as possible.

The biggest example of this is our Localization system. Those of you who’ve been following these updates will know that Coolrox, who’s mainly responsible for developing systems like these, has been working on Localization for some time now. But why focus on localization, especially this early?

Firstly, localization is really important to us for Melvor Idle 2. We had an amazing reception from international audiences for Melvor Idle, and that was in no small part because of the availability of multiple languages with Version 1.0.

That said, it wasn’t exactly a smooth process to implement localization in Melvor Idle. When we started adding localization support, we already had nearly everything else ready for 1.0 - and that meant we had to backtrack through all of those systems, lines of dialogue, tooltips, etc. and modify them to work with the new localization system. That took a huge amount of effort - none of those systems had been designed with localization functionality in mind, and some of them needed quite a bit of adjustment to accommodate for it.

By adding localization (and other under-the-hood systems like it) now, we’re setting ourselves up to be able to really focus on the core content in the game later. The same mindset is why we’re prioritising highly requested Quality of Life features early on - when we can get QOL issues out of the way early, all of you can focus more on the content itself without the constant interruptions.

So what does this mean for new content?

While Coolrox has been focused on localization, Malcs and Prat have been working on prototyping and testing a bunch of new skills for the game (e.g. Agility, Herblore, Thieving, Ranching). 

In working on these skills, we’ve settled into a really productive method of prototyping. Rough concepts for these skills are usually done before anything is added - documents, spreadsheets with suggested drop tables, all the usual good stuff. 

What’s new in our process is that we’ve been creating very early prototypes - barebones examples of the content, with the bare minimum UI needed to get an understanding of how it feels to play. We’re doing this prototype testing earlier in our process than we’ve done before, and it means we can get hands on with the ideas much sooner.

This may not sound like a huge deal, but this change to our process has massively increased the pace at which we can improve these skills! So far, we’ve used this process in our prototyping and testing for Agility, Herblore, Thieving and Ranching, and it’s been really valuable. Getting hands-on with the skills in a way that’s much closer to the actual gameplay experience has helped us refine them faster, and further, than before.

All this means we’ll (hopefully) be able to deliver new content to you in a state that feels much better from the start. We’re always going to need to adjust based on the feedback we get from you - that’s the entire point of this Alpha! But being able to iron out more major issues before we ever push these skills live should make that feedback even more valuable for us, and make these new skills more fun for you!

What about Combat?

This is (unsurprisingly) the question we get most often. The answer is… it’s on the way! When? We genuinely can’t say for sure, and we never like to make promises when we’re not 100% sure we can keep them.

Basically everything in Combat relies on new systems that will need to be built from scratch, and Coolrox is going to be taking the lead on those systems. Now that he’s finished with the localization system, he’s been able to switch gears over to Combat! We’re still pretty early in that process, but he’s already made some amazing progress.

As soon as we can give you more information on what’s coming with Combat (and when), we’ll let you know - keep an eye on our posts here for that! For today, we have some updates on the other content that’s in the works!

🏋️ What the team have been working on 

Here is what the team has been working on since our last post!

Development

Malcs:

• Delivered a Prototype build to Prat with Ranching, Herblore, Thieving and Agility.

• Added some new features for Ranching based on testing.

• More refinement for the prototype Skills.

• Completed the Grain Mill feature for Farming.

• Added the framework for the Pets system, while also adding 10 initial Pets (One per Skill).

• Liaising with our creative writer for the initial batch of Side Quests.

• Still working and liaising on certain secret projects.

• Added new Cooking Recipes.

• Began planning the Cooking Mastery Guild Tasks.

Coolrox:

• Completed work on the Localization system!

• Created documentation around the new Localization systems to make sure future implementation is as easy as possible.

• Updated the release management, enabling automatic Steam uploads when building a new update.

• Started work on Combat systems!

  • Completed a Triggers system that will be used around the game (Used for consumable item consumption and many other aspects around Combat/Non-Combat).

  • Began working on the underlying architecture of Combat's setup.

Game Design

Prat:

• Testing and refining various skills - most notably working on:

  • Agility

  • Ranching

  • Herblore

  • Thieving

• Working on Herblore Potion balancing (ingredients and bonuses).

• Has provided many adjustments to Skills within the prototype.

• Has progressed very far in Ranching, Thieving, Herblore & Agility, ready to brag about his completion in Discord when they release.

Artwork

Tapi:

• More new monsters! There are loads of monsters to draw, so this will be the focus for a while.

• Completed artwork relating to the Grain Mill

• Has begun initial drawings of the Animals for Ranching!

The new monster illustrations are really exciting - check out these new previews: the Dreadspine and the Drowned Crewman! In next week’s Patreon post, we’re going to show off a lot more of Tapi’s incredible monster art - make sure to check that out, it’s one you won’t want to miss!

Conclusion

Hopefully this post has given you a better understanding of how we’re working on Melvor 2! We’re as excited as everyone to deliver new content (and to play it!), but it’s really important to us that we take our time with vital systems like Localization. Giving ourselves a solid foundation now means we can keep ourselves focused on the content and gameplay down the line, which we believe will make Melvor Idle 2 the best game it can possibly be!

As always, please don't be shy about passing on your feedback on Patreon, on Discord, and via the feedback and bug reporting forms!

• Althalus