Developer Frostkeep Studios has laid out their upcoming plans for Rend going into the Fall of 2018 and beyond into 2019. The team notes in its latest news update that they’ll be shifting their focus towards larger content updates and patches that’ll come every three to four weeks. Frostkeep was initially focusing on delivering patches every week or so which in turn meant that it was harder for them to focus on getting to the bigger issues that players are experiencing in the Early Access version of Rend. As an independent studio taking a bit more time to deliver patches and updates will allow them to solve problems more effectively.
The team then goes on to talk about what content they’re planning on fixing and adding leading up to mid-December. You can see all the upcoming fixes and content down below:
- Comprehensive Combat Improvements
- Tightens up the gunplay to bring it in line with modern shooters.
- Enhances the aesthetics of combat, making it feel more impactful.
- Updates all creatures with new abilities and behaviors to make interacting with them more interesting in and out of combat.
- Adjusts all biomes to feel more robust and challenging.
- Streamlined Features
- Overhauls game aspects such as crafting, storage, and much more with the intent of making Rend more accessible.
- Introduces a new way for players to store and share resources intended for faction progression: the stronghold warehouse.
- Adds account-level settings, allowing players’ Ascension Points to no longer be bound to individual official servers.
- Legendary Artifacts
- Introduces epic items from Norse mythology, including unique weapons and armor, that can shift the balance of power within a saga.
- Dynamic Siege Combat
- Makes raiding faction strongholds a more engaging experience.
- Adds new siege weapons and tools such as catapults and personnel flingers.
- Additional siege gameplay including bomb counterplay and delay timer for repairing damaged structures, and damage feedback from Divinity Stones.
- Communicates faction progress towards win conditions more prominently.via Yggdrasil.
- Refined Social Mechanics
- Shifts decision-making power from Elders to the faction through permission requests and voting.
- Applies force-fields that repel enemy players to faction stronghold doorways, mitigating griefing.
- Allows players on a faction to form parties and play more cooperatively in PvE and PvP combat.
These additions and patches will be accompanied by an article written by the developer who worked on them. As game development can be a bit wild, expect potential changes along the way. The team is also updating Rend to Unreal Engine 4.20 which will allow them to improve the game’s servers. The developers are also working on a mod kit but their main focus continues to be improving the overall game.
Rend is available now through Early Access on Steam. The game is a change-up to the survival genre, as it has three separate teams fighting for control of a large map while managing resources and bases. You can read my impressions from PAX East earlier this year if you’d like to know more.