UE5 Starting Zones (Patreon)

Hi All,

This is not the UE5 development update - that's still coming later this week. This is something that the core team have been discussing today and we want to be entirely up front about; we always do our best to remain open and transparent, so this update covers a development decision we're in the middle of making right now. 

We'll take on board feedback, but it's really not something which can simply be decided by vote - it needs to be based on what we can/can't do without sacrificing the long-term quality of the game.

Planned Zones

The two main zones we had planned to release in the initial UE5 build were Tal-Senet and Mehden Island. There is a third zone involved, but that area is a brief "introduction" zone, doesn't really impact development, and is essentially complete.

Tal-Senet is an island covered in the ruins of an ancient library complex. It houses the only "authentic" Lybossan Taberna to be found in Sabu, and is home to a range of artisans and tradespeople. Our first in-depth romantic interest, Damaris, also calls the island her home.

Mehden Island is a larger landmass to the west of Tal-Senet, though it too is separated from the Sabuthi mainland by the Euphoris river. The island is a microcosm of Sabu proper, with both wealthy estates and rural farmsteads. River-based trade with a nearby Minoan-run city allows several metalworking smiths to ply their craft. As with other regions of Sabu, Mehden is built atop relics of the past, with many tombs and other forgotten dangers lurking beneath the sand. 

So what exactly is the issue?

Tal-Senet is almost complete, perhaps ~90% if we were to put a number on it. Mehden Island is not. The topography of the zone is mostly implemented, however many art assets/cinematics are not ready and the new mechanic to enter tombs is not fully functional (nor are the tombs assets entirely ready).

There are two (very brief) new quests which take place before arrival at Tal-Senet, however these are really only intended as flavour quests and don't constitute much gameplay. The three (full length) new quests require travel to Mehden Island at some point.

With the initial UE4 version of CI, all the way up to the most recent builds, we made sure to push gameplay content no matter what. We saw this as more important than anything else, as it ensured there was something for you to get your hands on asap. It did however cause problems. As time went on we hadn't finished an area, or an NPC, and quests began to encroach on each other and it became increasingly difficult to keep content as planned.

We do not want to repeat this mistake with UE5.

We essentially have two options;

Edit the quests to take place fully on Tal-Senet and release that area sooner.

Delay further and release with both Tal-Senet and Mehden Island completed.

What's wrong with editing the quests?

In short, we really don't want to do it. Not only is all the audio recorded and the quests themselves hooked up, but it would totally change the nature of Mehden Island as it would have no planned content at release. Moving the quests also alters how the game unfolds, including how choices are presented to the player.

Such a change would need to be permanent too, as if we moved everything again later it would cause yet another delay down the line; simply moving the delay into the future but not avoiding it. Worse, it would generate work that had to be undone, literally wasting time. For this reason any changed quests would necessarily remain changed.

Some elements cannot be moved, and so features like pregnancy wouldn't be fully functional (births currently can only take place at an Aethio shrine - there isn't one on Tal-Senet).

How has this happened & will it happen again?

It's simply the continued impact of having one less member of the team due to parental leave, along with sickness and general development hiccups - we made our best estimates of the impact on development but we have limited experience of operating with one less person; it's not as simple as 1/5th less work hours.

This cannot happen again as we've taken proactive steps to prevent it; we have finally managed to convince another former colleague to ditch their 9-5 industry job and take the plunge/join the dark side. It's taken a lot of time, including countless instances of singing "The Other Side" from The Greatest Showman at them, but they join the core team in February. In terms of skills they bring with them several overlapping disciplines, including both technical and art, meaning that the team will be far more resilient to staff absence going forward.

Will Ascended still get an update?

Ascended tier patrons will still get monthly updates to the UE4 build yes, this decision does not impact that.

Finally a personal note from me, echo. I'd tried to avoid arriving at this point, though the entire team knew it was a potential outcome. We don't impose crunch, and back in October I did step back from 14 hour workdays for a while, but I do tend to self-impose high workload whenever we're behind schedule as I can't help but feel personally responsible to all our supporters. For a few weeks I've been trying to brute-force the additional workload, working some 8am - 3am days and not taking weekends. I was making some very solid progress, but it's not something I can continue indefinitely and I have to ease off again.

This means that rather than being on a knife-edge of getting everything on both Tal-Senet and Mehden Island, the additional workload will definitely overrun and necessitates the decision outlined above.

I know that a lot of you are really excited to get your hands on the game, that's exactly why I've been pushing myself so hard, and I'm sorry that it will either be not as soon or not as substantial as I'd hoped. Please know that I put blood, sweat, and tears into trying to keep things on-time, and it will be worth it when we get there.

Team Carnal Instinct