Enshrouded's 2nd Reddit AMA Recap!

Enshrouded just had it's second official Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) with our talented World Design Team, and you can check out the original thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Enshrouded/comments/1hbvfl5/enshrouded_ama_come_ask_the_developers_your/

But if you're not a fan of Reddit, we've collected all the answers for your viewing pleasure on this page (in no particular order). Enjoy!

Question 1

Atlantikus

Hello, Keen team! First of all, I want to say thank you! Enshrouded is quickly becoming one of my favorite games. The amount of energy and care you have put into it is obvious and I’m so excited to see where it goes from here! I have a question about the setting and lore of the game. How much time has passed since the player and other Flameborn were sealed in the cinder vaults, and Embervale finally succumbed to the Shroud? I recently explored Raven’s Keep and found the notes describing Lupa’s escape from prison. From that I gather the final collapse occurred within the lifetime of some living characters. So was it not so long ago? Or do Scavenger Matrons have abnormally long lifespans? Maybe this is answered somewhere in the game and I haven’t found it yet. If so, please let me know and I will keep exploring!

Keen

TopCat: We kept the passage of time ambiguous on purpose, but we're generally in the realm of 20-30ish years. During that period not all humans were gone already. There were still people trying to get away from the Shroud. And that is also the reason why some areas look less demolished then others. When it comes down to our larger destroyed castles and towns they have been largely affected by the Elixir War happening shortly before the fall. This timeframe has been picked to ensure quest reasonability and giving us options for new content in the future.

Question 2

The_Nights_Path

Not holding you to any firm commitment on this answer, but what is the world size going to look like out of early access? Also, why are so many people in this world dying on the toilets?

Keen

Jonas: The original worlds size was 8*8km, but we added an extra km on each border to have a more organic world border after we packed too much in too close to the border, so we are currently looking at 10*10km - so there is plenty of space left for us to fill especially since there is a lot of volume left underneath the surface and in addition to that the future might also bring locations outside of the current game world to travel to.Maracujahaha: I think the toilet deaths were added as an homage to other classic games!

Question 3

Quatchil

Will there ever be a way to permanently dispel the shroud from enshrouded areas? Renewing the land would be so cool!

Keen

At the moment, the Shroud is designed as a permanent threat that is in near equilibrium, or a push and pull, with the Flame or Flameborn. As a multiplayer game, we want to make sure that players can always join a world and earn their skill points, but we could imagine potentially adding this as a server setting in the future.

Question 4

Shullbitsy

Hi team, amazing game. I especially love the mountains and their sheer verticality. The custom map is beautiful with so many hidden secrets, you can feel the love poured into the design. Looking forward to the next biome! A personal bugbear is no autopickup! My “E” key has never been pressed so much. Please could it be added? 🙏

Keen

We know that many players would love such a feature, so there is a big likelihood that it will be part of one of the next updates :)

Question 5

B-52-M

First of all, this game is THE Answer for me and my wife as we both love different types of games. One thing we were both wondering is if you guys have considered making changes to the customization system or at least an option to edit our existing character’s look? Is it something you considered in the past? A lack of that option is really the only blemish I could think of for an otherwise outstanding game

Keen

Maracujahaha: We definitely have something fun in the works! It's to early to reveal anything, but it's something I'm excited to lend a voice to! Wink wink! :)

Question 6

ShadoweCZ

I understand that you want to push "new" content with new areas, but what about the old ones? What do you plan to do with all the inaccessible/empty areas, such as the in-between-area mountain ranges, edges of the playable map, or inaccessible structures that currently only serve as visual filler? For example, the mountain range between Revelwood and Blackmire or the mountain range between the Frozen Frontier and the Nomad/Kindlewastes. While those mountain ranges are inaccessible on foot, they can be glided to, and upclose, they are clearly unfinished/unpolished despite those areas being in-between completed biomes.What are your plans for those areas?I would love to see the playable area expanded to those mountain ranges, maybe with some POIs or just more polished spaces where we could build a nice base that are perfectly positioned in between old and new content. Also, parts of those mountain ranges contain a lot of indestructible, inaccessible structures, that in general can be found all around the map, (for example the fortress on top of the southern Pillar of creation, or next to the village of Shorewatch.What are your plans for those areas?Dungeons, future POIs, or will it just stay as visual background? Lastly, (when) can we expect an expansion of the older playable areas (for example, to the south of the Springlands and Low Meadows, or east and south of Kindlewastes) to finish the "island" in the see of Shroud (as it is shown in the image below) instead of being cut by the "playable area bounds"? The bounds in those areas feel very distracting to the immersion since there is mostly nothing behind them, and it only adds a feeling of being artificially blocked off for no reason.

Keen

Maracujahaha: We plan to polish old biomes. Many POIs are currently in the works and getting a fresh coat of paint, as well as the general environment. The same goes for the "visual filler" - we want to improve the world's edges, for example, and have plans for the empty structures (that you probably won't get to see for some time, unfortunately). We've got big visions for particular areas, too, but executing those requires a few key features currently in our backlog.TopCat: The closed Ancient doors you can find all over the world are placeholders to keep some areas open for us to further develop in the future. They are keeping the secrets which are still waiting for you to be discovered in the future. So stay tuned for the day we open them up!

Question 7

Optimal-Debt-2652

Will we get an awesome roadmap for 2025 like the one we had this year? Loving the game and the support you have been providing

Keen

We're happy that you love the game! We also love working together with Enshrouded's wonderful community. Rest assured that we are already working full force on the roadmap for 2025. We plan to post some news around the end of January.

Question 8

DisciplinedWolf

Hey Guys, Firstly, what a brilliant game. I hope you guys keep expanding this game forever. Do you intend to add a blueprint system for building? It would be incredibly useful for setting down cool community made structures, or homegrown structures into your game as you travel. It might also be a fun way for the community to interact and get more playtime in-between updates. Thanks for the endless hours of fun!

Keen

We've been looking at ways for players to share their bases with one another, but I'm not sure we intend to have anything akin to a blueprint system. It is a popular request on FeatureUpvote, though, so definitely drop it a vote if it's something you're keen to see! Building Blueprints

Question 9

Chicano_Ducky

I have a few questions:

• Outside Egerton Salt Mine there is an unmarked empty "Plaza" covered in shroud mushrooms with a hidden torture room but nothing else. What is this? A secret prison run by Gormander?
• Did prisoners work in the nearby salt mines? There are no beds or anything, so its confusing what its meant to be.
• Outside Pikemead Reach to the south there is a massive pit with a fortress overlooking it. Is this ground zero for the shroud?
• In the battlefield under the ancient bridge, the northern soldiers are still there and so is the commander. Why werent they called back by the Northern King after they destroyed Pikemead?
• Do the Northern army no longer have any sentience and just mindless wandering zombies now?
• In this similar vein, if the shroud still leaves some kind of intelligence then does Vorgoth, if he is still alive, know the players are eventually coming for him and are destroying the wells?
• Scavengers in most places seem to have lost their ability to reason or take care of themselves and their homes, but the scavengers up north seem to be smarter and take care of their homes. Why are they special?
• Vorgoth's men are somehow in the sun temple next to Emily Fray's Tavern. How did they get there? The shroud creatures in there wear the armor of the Northern Army. Did the Northern Army invade the Kindlewastes too?
• and final question, what does it mean only "pure souls" can be resurrected? They have never been touched by shroud?

Keen

TopCat:

• Empty Plaza: This poi was once a trading outpost and a collecting point for the salt of the nearby mine. Massive Pit south of Pikemead Reach: This giant hole has opened in the time the wells have been built as some kind of side effect. Also, it is just a placeholder for us to add in future content :)
• Battlefield under Ancient Bridge: When the northern kingdom attacked the southern ones their Army was still human-ish, most of them were infected already but they were still continued and following orders from their (also infected) king. When retreating to the north more and more soldiers fell to the Shroud infection and have been left behind.
• Vorgoth: When the Shroud came to the world the people didn't saw it as an initial thread, instead it was just this byproduct of the elixir wells. Everybody was just looking as the Elixir and the powers coming with it. Then slowly but steady the Shrout has infected living beings and the nature around the wells. A human being doesn't notice the infection. But the Shroud spores are infecting the brain at first and change your behavior and the reasoning behind things you are doing. Because of this the living being becomes a part of the "Shroud organism" and serves its purpose. There are also some very interesting fungal organisms here on Earth which are working the same. "Ophiocordyceps unilateralis" for example but be warned when searching for it, it is disgusting. What happened to Vorgoth you ask? Let's see what the future content brings in that regard. ;)
• Scavengers: The scavengers in the original biomes of the game are living in the remains of a world infected by the shroud and demolished by the Elixir wars. In the Mountains though, there was no war taking place. Scavengers have no reason to demolish their homes on their own, but their brains are also too damaged by consuming the Elicxir over and over again so that they can't rebuild towns or communicate properly anymore.
• In the Mountain biome though, our Dragon has caused the destruction on the settlements and castles and the scavengers try to fight it off with their huge ballistas.
• Infected Creatures in the Sun Temples: No Vorgoth himself never made it to the Kindlewastes but during his crusade more and more of his men were consumed by the Shroud infection and had to be left behind. As mentioned above from then on they are part of the "Shroud organism" and act in it's favor. So they continued where Vorgoth had to retreat. So some of his soldiers are still lurking the southern lands and were infecting other people. Also more armored Shroud Warriors just look cool in later Areas of the game ;)
• Pure Souls: Yes, pure souls mean that they have never been in contact with the Shroud nor a drip of the Elixir.

Question 10

Inside_Shake_3115

What about crafting recipes for ALL props that we have already in a game (talking about cool wooden fences, destroyed stuff from villages that we cant place again if we break it and many many more). It would be cool to have a small quest for each type of props (5-7 quests) which unlock all the recipes for them.

Keen

We have been trying our best to keep up in adding as many in-game props to the craftable stuff. It's a long and arduous job, mostly because of the amounts of things in the game! But we're doing our best to add stuff to the list with every update, on top of the new craftables if there are any, so we hope to eventually work our way through the backlog and give people to as many things as possible to craft.

Question 11

jerichoneric

I was wondering how you guys pick what blocks to add to the palette of the game. It seems like we get a lot of stone options and big epic blocks but have relatively few simple materials. Is this because of a focus on building big castles? Is the palette largely affected by what structures the devs would like to build in the world? I hope to see more wood types and simple materials in future to help make villages feel diverse.

Keen

Jonas: You're right, the new building materials usually are created together with a new biome so they are mostly determined by the resources that can be found there as well by the structures we need to build - also we have the "problem" that we can't use any material anywhere (for instance we could not use materials from the Cold Heights Mountains within a Grassland Farm since this would spoil the players biome progression and would show building blocks which would require resources that are not available until much longer into the game) - but yes, we do need some more wood building options or even other building features for more diverse villages (just imagine an option to tint a half-timbered house or a roof material with several different colors) - we're always discussing possible and sometimes impossible ideas and solutions to amp up the building pillar of Enshrouded!

Question 12

GregariousJB

Any chance we're getting the QoL building and storage features of other games?

• Signs!
• Build Camera from Grounded and modded Valheim
• "Quick stack to nearby chests" from Grounded, Terraria, modded Valheim
• Renaming chests/symbols on chests from Grounded, Terraria, and modded Valheim

Thank you!

Keen

We're always looking to improve the experience of Enshrouded, and we have brought and will continue to bring QoL features to the game. Signs have been part of our roadmap for a long time, so I can definitely confirm that they are coming. I can't speak to these other features, as they will have to be evaluated against other features and content we're developing, including suggestions from other users, but what I can say is we're far from done when it comes to making Enshrouded better for everyone.

Question 13

Squirrel09

As a hobby game developer, one thing that always gets me excited is when I solve a big problem. Sometimes those have major ramification to the back end of the game. But often the end user probably has no idea the amount of work that went into it. So, my question for the developers, any big problem solving you're interested in sharing that might not have been readily apparent to us players?

Keen

Maracujahaha: Maybe finding a balance between handcrafted vs. reusable content. We're pushing more and more towards meticulously designing our world, which guarantees a unique play experience and memorable POIs (points of interest). In the beginning, though, we were using our whitebox system more often and relying on scatter systems to fill the world with smaller content bits to flesh out our gigantic play area with a small team. It's a good sign that we can add more life into our world now after EA Release. We want to pour a lot more love into the world, for both new and old areas.CUB: This is also bringing its own amusing problems, like when we update an existing part of the world where players have built bases! Looking at you, townsfolk NPCs!TopCat: I would agree with Maracu, to find the balance between handcrafted content and whitebox content is hard to nail down and we have to constantly redefine this border for every content piece. Imagine you want to place a tree which has just been produced you can now go and place it manually in all needed POIs or enter it in our whitebox system and place that instead. The whiteboxes give us the freedom to just add additional variations of such tree in the future without going through all POIs again to place them manually but at the same time it is a random system, so you might not get this one tree you want to have at a specific location.

Question 14

AyaseAsukaF03A

The addition of townsfolk in the last update is such a neat addition and brings life to our base, but will there be a further update on them like adding new features or mechanics surrounding them?

Keen

Reception of our Townsfolk NPCs has been really positive from everyone, which is something we expected, but perhaps not to that extent! We've already had numerous requests for extra features for our NPCs, such as putting them to work around the base and its surroundings, or having them guard the area from enemies and wildlife. We've even got several requests from players who want to go the whole nine yards and marry their favorite NPCs, which I think means we must have been doing something right with them? Anyway as I'm sure you've seen, the NPCs are bringing a huge amount of complexity to the game, and as a result they brought a slew of new unexpected behaviors, bugs, and other fun things. Emily Fray wasn't meant to be hanging out on a roof, and the blacksmith going out for cigarettes never to return is also not what we envisioned for him. Not to mention questions of pathing in a world that at any point in time can be remodeled, because it's so easy to throw a grenade inside your own home... (actually we have made a change to ignore the first click when alt-tabbing back into the game, I'm sure it has saved countless players from making the mistake... it's certainly helped me a few times already!) So we're keeping an eye out for player requests and making notes for later, but right now, due to the added layer of complexity they add, we're looking at other areas of improvement when it comes to new features and content.

Question 15

NotScrollsApparently

The world design and overall sense of exploration is one of my favorite things in Enshrouded! I love the scale and numerous little details scattered throughout, or the unique decorations that we can unlock by exploring like the new mosaic pieces or big statues! As for the question, I guess this is somehow related but are there any plans to change the way gear rewards or general progression work? It's a bit weird to complete this epic unique quest for a sword that fell from the skies but then it's outclassed 30 minutes later by a random item from a chest, for example. Once you make the armor from gathered materials there is nothing new to find in the world to make it better or add a dimension to buildcrafting. It's been a recurring theme for most of the game for me, exploration is intrinsically satisfying but rarely gives actual good or satisfying rewards when it comes to actual items and I'm wondering what is your opinion on that.

Keen

We've heard your feedback and we are actively working on ways to make loot more interesting and to provide more exciting rewards for exploration and combat.

Question 16

Cheyrose616

Silly question, will there be livingroom furniture? Like soft couches and chairs? We have all the ingredients; padding, planks, leather/hard leather, etc. I think it would be neat to add springs at the blacksmith. If you wanted to get technical 😂 we just have everything BUT livingroom comfort

Keen

Jonas: You're absolutely right, when were creating assets we mostly have our ingame locations in mind - which, since they are part of a relic world are mostly pretty beaten down - but having more comfortable and luxurious props and furniture is definitely on our list

Question 17

The_Nights_Path

What is the goal for final player level, and with that how many skill points?

Keen

TopCat: That stays a secret for now, but 35 is for sure not the maximal level cap we are planning with. :)

Question 18

Creepy_Pin_1572

What is your typical day at work ? Do you place every single piece by hand or do you use assets for towns or houses ? Coffee or tea ?

Keen

Jonas: We have people working in the office as well as many people working remote so there is a big range - what all have in common is a daily meeting to get alligned and than i'd say the typical day is quite focused and productive nowadays since there are fewer newly-developed features which require lots of research and going back and forth. We have a system called "Whiteboxes" that select from a pool of asset options, but when it comes to more important entities its mostly handplaced to fit the location. Water for me, thanks.

TopCat: I'm mostly working remote from home nowadays. Aside from needed brainstorm meetings and planning tasks we mostly work directly on the topology of the world and creating or polishing already existing pois. Most of the poi("point of interest")- defining assets are being placed by hand to ensure the greatest possible quality. For less important parts of a POI like furniture, plants and loot locations we use our "Whiteboxes" which act as a shufflebag for valid props. For me it is tea :)

Maracujahah: I do hybrid, depending on the day. Since I also have a focus on writing, I have workdays/ weeks where I get to brainstorm, ideate, implement and partially playtest stories and quests. It's usually solitary work unless we're brainstorming bigger story ideas for new biomes or NPCs, in which case I often work with Dan. There's a push and pull when it comes to lore - sometimes, we create a new poi with a great core idea that the added story bits help to flesh out. Sometimes, the story or quest idea come first, and we create pois together to support the lore! Coffee all the way!

Toast: I don't build houses, just Reddit posts like this one 😅 And definitely tea, I have a whole cupboard of tasty caffeine plants that get me through each and every day.

Question 19

ChefRoyrdee

I want to start off by saying I love this game! You folks have done great work and I’m so excited to see where the game is headed. Are there any features in the pipeline that you all are particularly excited about? What was the feature you all wanted but logistically is not feasible?

Keen

Maracujahaha: Thank you very much! On the lore and NPC side, we've got one or two things in the works that excite me for sure. Something I wanted, that we couldn't implement (yet?), is NPCs interacting with each other. Think little mini convos and quips that happen when the NPCs pass each other in the base. Something to flesh them out and make them feel more alive. Aside from that, we all want water, crazy weather and more gameplay opportunities like traps and moving objects etc. in the game world.

TopCat: Yes, for me the most exciting things I would like to see in the world are mostly more interaction possibilities for the players, talking about water, traps, moving things, new ways for traversal and so on. Two of those things we have implemented with the mountain biome already (Ice and Upstreams) but couldn't use their full potential yet, stay tuned for more. :)

CUB: anxiety increases.

Question 20

Mysterious-Bug5408

Anything (not spoiler of course) you can say about the big flying fortress?

Keen

Antony: Not much to talk about yet unfortunately. It's just a blockout for future content, but it will likely change shape later on.

CUB: To me, this is the best reminder to our community or anyone who might first be discovering Enshrouded that the game is in Early Access, and there's more to come. The big flying fortress is the friends we made along the way.

Question 21

Panduz

How much of the portal knights DNA would you say is in Enshrouded, and what lessons did you learn developing portal knights that you applied during the development of enshrouded?

Keen

TopCat: If we're talking DNA, Portal Knights is your favorite uncle. The base structure of biomes and their ressources, base crafting progression and enemy / boss structure is highly influenced by our experiences we have collected with Portal Knights. The most prominent lessons learned in my eyes are: that our players love exploration, the mixture of crafting / exploration / RBG and our voxel based world which give the players the freedom to build what they want. So we invested in those points to create an improved, more defined voxel world as in Portal Knights and to give players what we couldn't give them in Portal Knights, an open world filled with interesting locations, quests, and stories.

Question 22

thatferrybroad

Hello World/Level design team! Thank you very much for your hard work, I've been obsessed and rack up hours almost every day, certainly every day I can- Enshrouded gets like... ALL of my free time now! I have .... multiple questions, I get if you can't answer them all, haha.

1. My partner's favorite area so far is the upper area of the ancient building where the Farmer is found and it would make my partner super happy to be able to have their base there: **Is there a lore reason we can't take over the ancient buildings and if so can that please be reconsidered? I totally get it if not, though!
2. Please tell me everything to do with the bestiary that you can, I love all the creatures in this game to bits! Best Vukah bros! :D
3. Are there any more legendary warriors we will hear only tales of rather than resurrect?
4. Are there any easter eggs that everyone has missed that you can tell us about?
5. In the future will there be plains/ farther spaced out high altitude green plateaus? I mean places where the other spawns/entities/elevation changes are all a little more spaced out, rolling hills and fields sort of vibe
6. Will we learn more about other far off realms even if it's impossible to show them to us given the extraneous factors that are limiting your team?
7. With the team at Keen, how much overlap is there with the technical dev team and the design team, if any?
8. Less a question more of a comment - I hope you don't let the vocally pushy people get to you.

Thanks again! ❤️

Keen

Maracujahaha Hey! Thank you for asking so many questions. I'll do my best to answer them! :)

1. First of all, I'm glad your wife found a cozy spot atop the farmer temple (I had a hand in building that! :D ) but sadly, the ancient structures are currently off limits because they usually house important gameplay bits that could be lost if players build a base there. In universe, they're sort of "sacred" areas too.
2. I love our creatures, too. Much is left unsaid regarding our flora and fauna. I'd love a proper bestiary at some point - something accessible in the game - but it's low priority. Fun fact: The Vukah are named after one of our artists who designed them, Vukasin.
3. Who we get to resurrect largely depends on our gameplay needs and technical limitations. More NPCs will be harder to process, etc, and resurrecting an epic heroic NPC that ends up just standing around and waving would be disappointing, I think. We do have plans to maybe eventually introduce more NPCs that were introduced in the lore, though.
4. Easter eggs: I didn't see anyone noticing, but I referenced the names of Dismas and Reynauld in one note beneath the Shroud in the Revelwoods. They're names for the first two default characters in Darkest Dungeon, which is a game I love that also borrows from lovecraftian lore.
5. We're totally planning rolling hills and green plateaus! Stay tuned!
6. Far off realms: I think if we ever come closer to finishing Embervale, we'll start to reference other continents and realms - but right now there's still so much to flesh out in the realm that we already have! It all depends on how long we get to develop Enshrouded for (as long as possible, I hope!).
7. Team Overlap: It depends on what you mean by technical and design, but the team working on our engine or performance and rendering is different from the design team. We're still all under the same roof though and constantly link up to ensure we're working in the same direction, or to secure features we need to have programmed and implemented so we can use them in design.
8. Vocal people: Thank you so much! I mostly see the positive, I think many in our team do - although constructive criticism is always the best/ appreciated!

Question 23

UchiR

Although this game is open world, we know the player is expected to advance from one area to the next in order of difficulty. How do you try to convey to the player the  order in which they ought to transverse between zones, without relying too much on quests and dialogue? (In terms of world design) (Because while playing I totally knew when I was going to meet a spike in difficulty, but it was never explicitly said. Just through observing the environment)

Keen

Jonas: in terms of world design we early on saw that we can't really force the player to take a certain route because apart from various means (like movement skills, the glider and especially transforming the landscape) players can often reach places that we didnt have in mind - so we tried as good as possible to foreshadow the rise in difficulty with locations that look more dramatic if they directly lead into higher level areas - Great to hear that observing the environment worked for you that well! 

Maracujahaha: On top of that, I think the only reliable gating we have are the fog zones and their level. They visualize where you can go or what new areas will open up to you when upgrading your Flame. But players can find ways around that when they really want, so it's not a hard cut-off point.

Question 24

Cumberfinch

Are there more updates on character customization! Like, will we be able to change our hairstyle on existing characters? Or even the face of existing characters? I couldn’t find something like this on your roadmap.

Keen

Maracujahaha We're working on it! :)

Question 25

browsetoomuch

Hi! It's pretty common that we see spears and polearms in the game. Is there any plan to add these to as playable weapons? Thanks!

Keen

We plan to add more playable weapon types moving forward, but we don't want to spoil what we have in store quite yet :)

Question 26

Cheyrose616

Are there plans to expand blackmire or connect albaneve to blackmire?

Keen

TopCat: We have plans for the area between Blackmire and the Albaneve mountains since the early stages of our world design. At this point it would be too early to give out further info but stay tuned for the things to come :)

Question 27

DigitalExpanse

I am curious as to why there are so many ancient structures in the game that have no visible access. Are these meant for future areas to explore or just design choices to add to the atmosphere of the game. I get the mysterious vibe they give, but it also gives the feeling of "unfinished".

Keen

Jonas: Exactly, we often used them as placeholders so we keep places blocked (players can't tear down ancient structures or modify them) so we can flesh out the ancient lore throughout the world down the road.TopCat: Also, they are keeping the secrets which are still waiting for you to be discovered in the future. So stay tuned for the day we open them up.

Question 28

NotScrollsApparently

How do you create so much content on such big maps, can you talk about tooling a bit? Is the first pass procedurally generated or is it all handcrafted? Do you have some ingame editor mode for it or is there an external tool you developed for it? Do you start with the terrain and then think of locations, or do towns and other POIs come first and then you adjust the mountains and terrain to fit?

Keen

Jonas: there is an older video on our youtube channel where i talk about the general process of injecting 3d models into our voxel world - usually the process when tackling a new biome starts with a very rough 3d model which can come from any tool really (its usually sculpted) which serves as a very rough foundation to get an idea for distances and possible poi locations - this is then added as a subbiome scene into the main scene and bit by bit smaller poi subscenes are added as placeholders to their locations while the environment connecting the pois is being plastered with hand placed voxel stamps to give the rough 3d topology base as much detail as the voxel resolution can display. I am in the industry for quite some time now and apart from art content creation was always heavily involved in game and world design (especially for terrain and topology they often go hand in hand) and i cant remember when working on a game world was so much fun as working with our voxel engine is in terms of speed and productivity.

Question 29

BoiFrosty

How long passed in world between the fall of the kingdom and the time of the game? Cities are in ruins like they've been abandoned for centuries, but other stuff is around like it happened a few months ago.

Keen

TopCat: We kept the passage of time ambiguous on purpose, but we're generally in the realm of 20-30ish years. During that period not all humans were gone already. There were still people trying to get away from the Shroud. And that is also the reason why some areas look less demolished than others. When it comes down to our larger destroyed castles and towns they have been largely affected by the Elixir War happening shortly before the fall. This timeframe has been picked to ensure quest reasonability and giving us options for new content in the future.

Question 30

GhostlyComa

Will you be looking at mage combat again in the future? As it is, the inability to dodge for a second after a wand/staff attack feels really jarring. All other forms of combat allow for a dodge right after attacking.

Keen

Earlier wand attacks had too little cost and you could block/evade instantly, so this was tweaked, but we will constantly continue to fine-tune combat mechanics and balancing moving forward. We'll review and look at this again.

Question 31

Rarnd

Hi team! First off; thank you for this game. I have been going through an exceptionally rough period of my life currently and Enshrouded has been my true escape. For that, I wholeheartedly thank you. Anyway, I have two questions about the world of Enshrouded!

1. I am a great lover of restoring the villages, towns, churches, buildings, etc. to their former pre-shroud glory! But one of the things that aggravates me during this process are the weeds and overgrowth. Currently, to remove such nonsense, you have to remove the "afflicted" block and then replace it. I presume the block with the weeds or damage is just a normal block marked as "damaged". Are there any plans, or could we possibly, get a new tool to remove this? Something like a broom, that acts the same as the Hoe but instead of flattening / levelling ground, it converts "damaged" blocks to "normal" blocks?TL;DR: Restoring towns is fun! Removing weeds and debris isn't! New tool please?
2. Exploring the history of the villages and towns is a sombre, wonderful experience. It's the best post-apocalypse world I've ever had the pleasure of journeying through and reading about! What are your plans going forward with the various towns and history of the world? Will we ever see friendly towns of people who have survived the shroud? How many biomes do you plan to add by release?TL;DR: World is amazing! Stories are sad! Want more! What's coming, vaguely?

Much appreciated, keep up the good work, much love from the UK <3.

Keen

Maracujahaha Hey, thank you for your questions! I can't answer question 1, unfortunately - it's outside my pay grade and field of responsibility - but I want to respond to question 2!First of all, it's so uplifting to me as a writer that the sad stories of Embervale have moved you. You saying that it's the best post-apocalyptic world you've ever played through or read about keeps me motivated! I usually feel as though many stories go unread and unoticed, so knowing some people really care and take their time to let the world around them sink in is good. What are our plans going forward? We want to expand our lore further and keep adding little stories, quests and secrets. We're adopting the habit of reworking old POIs and whenever we do, we try to check if we can support the new look with more or improved lore. There's a couple new little things in the works, focused on the Shroud. On a macro level, we want to expand our world with even more biomes, and of course, new lore. Will we ever see friendly towns? I think we won't for a while, if at all, to be honest. Our world is meant to feel like a desolate place that you're slowly rebuilding, after all - and the technical limitations regarding our NPCs would hold us back. I can't say how many more biomes we will do exactly but I think we're cooking up something neat.

Question 32

IllustriousScratch17

Hi! A friend and I are going through your game now, and it’s so fun! We’ve put in about 150hrs each on our first play through so far. You’ve done amazing work! My one question is basic? Will there be a way to design specific boundaries for the NPC and villagers to move around, say if I wanted to keep farmers on a farm? Also, will yall make it so NPCs can do things for us like farming, such as giving them what’s needed and they go and plant it?

Keen

So, Jonas confirmed with our creative director Antony that actually, after assigning an NPC to a bed, you can resummon them elsewhere and then set them a roaming perimeter... I never even knew that! It's huge!! As for "can I get my NPCs to do chores for me", I've fielded a couple of similar questions elsewhere, please keep an eye out. ;)

Question 33

Outsiders-Laptop

This game encompasses a lot of genres - RPG, survival, builder... how long until it gets Dating Sim features? Follow-up more serious question: Does the game have voiced NPC dialogue?

Keen

For now, no. Especially in early access, having voiced dialogues would really slow down the development for us.

Question 34

PreparationIcy6098

Hey Keen! Enshrouded has quickly become one of my favorite games, and before that Portal Knights is also one of my favorite games. That being said, I am curious if the lore or worlds of portal knights and enshrouded are connected or the same world. Of course there is that Portal Knights portal in the pillars of creation area I believe in enshrouded. A theory I have had in my head as I have played enshrouded is that the events of Enshrouded take place before portal knights. The ancients that made that Portal Knights portal probably would made more portals across embervale perhaps buried where they wouldn't be rediscovered until the events of the fracture in portal knights. Another thing I thought of is that maybe the shroud evolves into the toxic mushroom biome in portal knights and assuming most people you encounter in portal knights would probably be descendents of or relatives of the flameborn they are largely unaffected by the mushroom biome. Another thing is that Portal Knights is at least a little bit ahead of enshrouded technology wise since while enshrouded has powder bombs portal knights actually has Flint lock guns. Though one thing I thought of that might disprove this theory is that there is no mention of the sacred flame in portal knights or really the amount of fire references that are in enshrouded. Anyway thanks again for an amazing game! Also I am curious to hear other people's thoughts on this.

Keen

TopCat: Enshrouded is for sure the spiritual successor of Portal Knights. We reference portal knights in a few ways - in German, the Ancients are also called "Erbauer", or "builders" - which is the same name we used in Portal Knights for the mysterious faction building the old structures. And while your theories are sounding very creative and nice we have to tell you that Embervale is not the same world as Elysia from Portal Knights. But stay tuned for more, every portal has a reason ;)

Question 35

No1Schmuck

The voxel building mechanic has allowed for unique structures and deep customization of our bases, as well as interesting destruction effects. In the early access, we are primarily provided mostly angular options and I wonder if there are any plans for the team to provide more curved walls or dome ceilings?

Keen

Jonas: We've recently made experiments to have voxels that look like building materials but are voxeled the same way as terrain materials (so they can be more organic) but so far it has not been that easy to implement those into the ingame building workflow - if we want to add options like those we would not like to just limit those to the hardcore building masters, that are used to create large structures voxel by voxel but we would want it to work within a streamlined part of the building system, so with snapping options and large blueprints available - research is still ongoing on those topics but in general - yes we would love to provide players with more building options in the future

Question 36

Karthull

Absolutely loving the game and can’t wait to see more of what’s next! I get the progression of materials as you go up in levels and zones, but it bothers me how little use for the gems there are. Have you considered some sort of system where you engrave/embed/imbue gems into our equipment? With different gems perhaps providing different effects (this is assuming you plan to add future areas with missing gems like rubies, emerald, and diamonds etc) As well as more decorations, recipes, maybe even some building blocks that make use of the gems. As it is now there’s very little use for lapis lazuli and amethyst. Maybe some different magic items or structures that provide some effect at or within range of a base? Could build some magic soldiers or golems that can defend an outpost to make a sort of siege camp, that use gems as fuel and could limit how many you can have at one location of balance is a concern. With different gem types being used for different types of soldiers or whatever. And finally whenever you get around to the final epic legendary end game items maybe they require some of each gem from throughout the game and multiple different metals?

Keen

Gems in your equipment, you say...? What a fanciful idea of yours, some would say, a final fantasy, even...

Question 37

Demonking0366

Hey guys My question is from my partner who watches whilst I play Why didn't they just use big fans to keep the shroud away? Seemed weird that they jumped to putting people in pods when a fan would solve the issue

Keen

Maracujahaha: I remember asking the same question when I started working here a few years ago! The answer I have to give is that the Shroud isn't just in the air, it creeps through the ground and stone with its many winding roots, slowly corrupting the world with its spores and influence. The answer I want to give is that the idea of big fans was shut down by management.

TopCat: Yes we would all loved the big fans but oh well. On top of that: When the Shroud came to the world the people didn't see it as an initial threat, instead it was just this byproduct of the elixir wells. Everybody was just looking at the Elixir and the powers coming with it. Then slowly but steadily the Shroud has infected living beings and the nature around the wells. A human being doesn't notice the infection. But the Shroud spores infect the brain at first and change your behavior and the reasoning behind things you are doing. There are also some very interesting fungal organisms here on Earth which are working the same. "Ophiocordyceps unilateralis" for example, but be warned when searching for it, it is disgusting. :)

Question 38

_bromok_

Hey hey. Were you expecting your game to be such a success when you started developing it? Was there points where you thought you wouldn’t make it? (Like running out of money or huge obstacle’s) Keep up the grate work and stick to your way!

Keen

We obviously hoped for a big success, but our internal plans actually aimed for a much lower number of sales. We wanted to make sure that even then, we could support our team and to continue the development of the game in early access. Now that we have this level of success, though, we are actively expanding the team to develop the game faster and have a bigger level of polish. Prior to the Steam next fest of 2023 - there have been several difficult situations that we needed to overcome in order to be able to continue to work on our vision for the game and to make Enshrouded a reality. We are so proud of the team to have made it this far :)

Question 39

Protect_Wild_Bees

I really appreciate how balanced the crafting progression is in the game. For instance, by the time you need an upgrade of an item, there's usually 1-2 new resources you need to get, which can sometimes flow into other equipment or quests or upgrades that need to be completed. That said, it doesnt ever feel frivolous or overwhelming. It doesn't feel like it takes too long or that you need an excess of ridiculous resources that have very little utility. But it also doesn't feel too easy as well. It still takes time. What's the process like for balancing this system? Are there certain rules you follow for adding things into the crafting system?

Keen

TopCat: Yes, we have a couple of guidelines when implementing resources to the system and the world. One is for example that the players can find a certain amount of new resources per biome in the game. And on top of that, a certain percentage of those resources should be exclusive to Shroud and non-Shroud areas. By doing this, we ensure that our players always have a reason to spend a little bit more time in certain areas. Additionally, we aim to give every resource the players can find in the world multiple purposes. By doing that, we achieve this effect you were talking about, that you just need these 1 or 2 additional things in order to proceed.

Question 40

Powerful-Obligation8

Greetings Keen Team! Thank you for all the hard work to make this game what it is and for what it will become. My question is, will we be able to use animals (terrestrial and airborne) as mounts? Apologies if this has already been asked.

Keen

Currently, there are no design plants for mounts yet, but we could imagine them as a possibility for the future.

Question 41

Cillercat1337

Will the hoe ever be fixed, so it doesn't make these small step like slopes?

Keen

If I understand your question correctly, the answer is linked to the size of our voxels: they're half a meter a side, like our blocks. So this pretty much locks how granular we can be with our tools.

Question 42

Full_Let6901

Hello what wound you say is the hardest part about making a world like this

Keen

Jonas: I'd say its really mostly the shear amount of locations and the world's size - we're also learning new techniques and creating better assets with each iteration so there's not only the urge to get the world filled with any content but as our production methods improve also the desire to revisit old location - which just results in even more work to do - but seing players reactions when a new update is released or old locations are improved keeps us very motivated.

Question 43

Niggls

Are there plans to make the world (outside of your camp) permanent at some point?

Keen

There are technical limitations for this. The game has to be playable, stable, and have decent performance for not only the maniacs out there who stole a supercomputer from NASA, but also for their little bro who's playing on something that barely scrapes by the min specs. And that's even without factoring in the fact that we're also going to be releasing on consoles in the future, which means that those also have to be stable, etc etc.

Question 44

Memitim

When you're building the world areas out that are not specific to a quest, what is the design process? Like what considerations go into terrain generation, spawns, etc in the large swaths of in-between lands? I love to roam around and explore, and perform absurd parkour to get places, often breaking multiple picks in the process. Some areas are better suited than others, so I've been wondering how much of that is intentional versus what happened to get created, and what the goal is long-term for map traversal.

Keen

Maracujahaha For non-quest areas, there's usually an interplay between two impulses. The first is "we need a settlement/mine/boss arena/ traversal poi here to balance the world". We want to provide a varied gameplay experience that can cater to different player types. Some want to explore, fight, grind, complete collections, mine resources etc. Within the team, we then sometimes create a secondary impulse of "hey, wouldn't it be cool, if...". This impulse takes our first idea from a rudimentary, utilitarian POI to something with a little more visual character, lore or hidden secrets.

Question 45

tedzirra

Hello, you guys have made a great game here. Curious to know what was the inspiration for Shroud Roots? I think it's really cool for the underlying story. It would be interesting if they would have more impact on the surrounding area, and potentially larger radius above ground. I have seen similar in games like State of Decay 2 with Plague Hearts. When cleared, this affects a much broader area. And there are different types of plague hearts that have different effects on surrounding monsters and allows for a new dynamic to appear in those areas.

Keen

Maracujahaha Visually we were inspired by lovecraftian horror a lá Cthulhu or "color out of space". We wanted to evoke something eerie, otherworldy, and vagualy alive - a looming threat that spreads. Gameplay wise, we needed challenge areas that confront players with the Shroud while being necessary for progression. Different types of Shroud Roots would be really cool. Maybe something to note for later - we want to add more variety and \*spice\* in the Shroud areas, anyhow :) TopCat: Also as you might have noticed when clearing out a well the Shroud partly disolves and the terrain changes to a nonfog area. This is only the first step of that feature and we plan to further develop it in the future.

Question 46

ArkhIce

Hello! I wanted to ask about the giant dragon skeletons and how they came to be and the process to deciding how big to make them? Happy Holidays!

Keen

Jonas: Although its the least "fantastic" answer the size of the skeletons was mostly determined by our voxel resolution. Each voxel in the game world, no matter if its a terrain or a building voxel, is 0.5 \* 0.5 \* 0.5 meters so we required a certain "total dragon size" to be able to display the skeleton's details - if they would have been half the size intricate model areas would constantly be melted and smeared together - but since bigger equals "more epic" when it comes to dragon skeletons that wasn't much of the problem in the end.TopCat: And to add a more fancy lore answer to that: There was a time in our timeline in which those large creatures were living in our world but that time is long gone. The only remains are these large skeletons you can find in Albaneve Summits and the Kindlewastes. When you follow the lore snippets in Albaneve Summits you also might discover how our Dragon Boss is connected to them.

Question 47

spiraleclipse

Any plans to expand settlements in newer areas that have the likeness of Fort Kelvin or Glenwood's End? I'm imagining a 'Hyrule Field' type biome with a fortified city in the middle.

Keen

Jonas: Actually we just recently talked about a future biome which could feature vast open plains - coming up with new large settlements is always a big chunk of work but also fun to create so we'll have those for sure - and we will also be updating very old ones which sometimes feel a bit outdated compared to never locations

Question 48

LegLegend

What is the design philosophy when it comes to building abandoned towns or homes? Many players use these places as their homes they rebuild over time as they play. Is any of that considered when creating them?

Keen

Jonas: In the beginning we aimed more towards a procedual approach since we were afraid of not being able to get the amount of locations done with our rather small world team - as time went by we shifted more towards uniquely designing those locations as its hard to get the look and feel of handcrafted towns into a very technical approach and systems - so especially with those handcrafted locations we aim for something that is grounded on logical arrangements and depending on the theme of the location tries to get a certain mood across - from majestic to cosy - and its great to see when players use those locations as foundation for their own creations.

TopCat: In addition to what Jonas already said: All of our towns are designed in an intact state and we demolish them in the process of further defining the look and the gameplay within them. So all the locations in our wolrd are based on a design of how these locations might have looked before the Shroud came to the world. To see players rebuilding them was not expected to be honest but it is very nice to see how players repair what the Shroud has demolished.

Question 49

GJouas

I love the game and have only one suggestion. It would be so helpful to be able to name markers. If you find a great spot to mine sulphur, it would be great to mark it as such.

Keen

This is in our backlog and something we want to do, but we don't have an exact timeline on when it might happen yet. Rest assured, though, we also see the need for named markers.

Question 50

Moviecaveman

Can you hint at any deeper story narratives awaiting the full release? Also are you able to provide any insight into upcoming updates or if anything has been added to the development roadmap?

Keen

TopCat: We have taken some time before actively building the world and assets to come up with a lore bible and a timeline which covers all major events of the backstory. In there we have defined factions, such as the origin of the Shroud and how it devours the world, or events that happened before the Shroud that are affecting the world and its locations. Aside from what has been defined in there to help in producing new assets and locations in the world, we're very much crafting the narrative of Enshrouded as we go. We have an internal roadmap and timeline, of course, but what we do with the story is secondary to, and molded by, the demands of gameplay and our community :)

Question 51

eddieswiss

Any plans for underwater zones or activities?

Keen

TopCat: At this point it is too early to give out info about water, so underwater areas...? Let us put the horses before the cart... :D

Question 52

G4mE_bRe4k3r

How has the map evolved from initial concepts? What is the process for designing a level, specifically a shroud root. Is there a theme in mind?

Keen

Maracujahaha The map definetly evolved. I think TopCat and Jonas can say a bit more about it, but initially, we had a schematic map roughly lining out the biomes. Later we had a small 3 graphic with elevation levels and shroud zones defined, with the most important settlements and POIs listed. Then, we started building the world with rough blocks and eventually, we replaced the blocks with more organically flowing forms. While building we noticed many shortcomings, like certain areas feeling empty or not being visually appealing, so we started to rework them and to add more content (which we're still doing!)

TopCat: I think Maracujahaha already described it quite nice. When it comes down to the theme of certain areas: Most of the towns have a certain state of decay which is needed in our abandoned world. When we have certain enemy factions in a location then they are influencing the look of the poi in their very own way, for example Shroud overgrowth when a location has been devoured by the Shroud already. Visually we were inspired by lovecraftian horror à la Cthulhu or "color out of space". We wanted to evoke something eerie, otherworldy, and vaguely alive - a looming threat that spreads. Gameplay-wise, we needed challenge areas that confront players with the Shroud while being necessary for progression.

Jonas: Especially landscape-wise there have been a lot of changes also with the technical development of our tools and engine, and also us gaining knowledge of what works and what doesn't, so there is an overall progression in the quality towards the latest biomes i'd say which we constantly try to apply to older areas as well.

Question 53

BrooklynnJiji

Hey love the game! I wanted to know, what games inspired this for your team? I'd also like to ask, do you think it will ever be possible for us to make our own shape templates in game? There have been multiple big builds where I have caught myself longing for the feature

Keen

TopCat: First and foremost, we have been inspired by our previous game, Portal Knights :) Apart from that, we have taken an eye on Breath of the Wild, Valheim and games like Ark / Conan Exiles for some further inspirations.

Question 54

AnxiousAcerola

Hey guys, Thank you for the great game and also my biggest, sincerest thank you, hugs and kisses for including the arachnophobia mode. It improved my (and I'm sure many others) ability to play and enjoyment in the game so so much. I'm one of those people whose tried all the phobia treatment options already and nothing works, it's amazing to play a game without fainting or panic attacks!! For my question; I'm wondering if there are future plans to make the citizens of our little villages a bit more helpful. I'd love it if Balthazar would craft things while I'm away, if Emily could plant new herbs, or if Athalan could cook some food. Do you guys see this as a possibility in the future of the game?

Keen

Very sorry we made the spiders bigger that one time. Happy to hear you're enjoying the game with the new accessibility options! As to your question, I've answered it elsewhere already, see previous answer.

Question 55

Mis73

Hello Keen! I'm not a big gamer but I love Enshrouded. I play with a group of friends and we have an absolute blast. My question is, will you ever add the ability to type/chat? Usually we use Discord voice while playing sometimes people simply can't be on voice due to RL circumstances. The ability to type to each other in game would be awesome. Thank you!

Keen

We totally understand the need for in-game communication! It's something we are actively looking into.

Question 56

LifelessOne

Hi Keen team, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the game including building probably a base too large for the game to handle. That being said I’m experiencing some pretty intense performance issues including a lot of the lighting via candles and other illumination items not working at all (I’m assuming being limited due to volume) Are there any plans to address some of these issues for us builders who may be inadvertently pushing the games limits?

Keen

TopCat: If you haven't done it already, the best would be to report a bug to us with the save game attached, so that our coder team can dive into the issues you experiencing here. We are constantly working on issues coming from players and try our best to tackle everything.

Question 57

PerryUranus

First of all thank you for an amazing game, been enjoying the latest update a lot! I think it was pretty clear early on that the next biome was going to be the snow/mountain biome. Any hint on what the next big biome will be? Also there's these empty temples who appear to be placeholders for something. Can we expect any of them to be fleshed out in the coming patches/updates?

Keen

We can't reveal yet which biome is coming next, it's too early to share, but we for sure plan to activate the ancient temples later on as well.

Question 58

SineCompassioneNon

Why doesn't it snow in Polaris Falls? Will the Summits be the only part of the map with snow/what makes it snow in one area and rain in another? I'm loving the weather system!

Keen

TopCat: Technically there is no reason for missing snow in Polaris Falls, maybe you just have to wait a little longer. Snow can appear in all the Albaneve Summits. The difference between snow / rain is defined by the biome you are in. Further areas in the gameworld could have snow in the future, or perhaps different weather effects? Let's see.

Question 59

fuckingchris

Hi, Will we be seeing what is inside of those sealed elder vaults, like the one near the Highlands dam? Are they something important or just flame shrine type things?

Keen

Maracujahaha: Hey! Yes, we have plans for the sealed vaults, but they will be revealed at a later point in time. We do plan to make them accessible and fill them with content, though!

Question 60

fuckingchris

Lore wise, is the Hollow purely an ancient thing that some people just got trapped in over time, or is it an active cult thingy? Is it a cult? A trap? A ruined civilization? Something else? I'm super curious. The lore books I've read in the hollow halls seem to indicate that it is involved in some sort of anti-Flame cult that has come up now and then, but the halls themselves also seem like prisons meant to trap the souls of people who were forsaken by the flame or necromancers. Also, (including Crowley), what is the relationship between the Hollow/people using Hollow stuff, the Flame, and the Fell? Either organizationally, or power-wise, or both?

Keen

Maracujahaha The Hollow are anti-Flame, and by extension, anti-Flameborn, because they believe they've been "cursed" by the Flame. Every Hollow was at one point human, and tried to "steal" a part of the Flame and it's power. But when they came into contact with the Flame, it started to draw out all their warmth, changing both their mind and flesh. They slowly became husks, forever trapped in a cold void, unable to feel warmth - only guided by blinding, burning hatred and anger. This is not an "actual curse", and more like a "defense mechanism" or "accumilation" of the Flame, totally neutral in nature. But you can't argue that to the Hollow anymore. They're beyond reason. The people from the old world have outcast the "cursed ones". With no place left in the world, the Hollow have to withdraw to the coldest, deepest corners of Embervale. Relationship wise: The Fell won't attack the Hollow because they can't be "turned" and used for the Shroud's purposes anymore, and the Hollow ignore the Fell because their ire is directed towards the Flame. Crowley is faszinated by the Flame, and may or may not have some unfinished business with it.

Question 61

puppers275

What do you use or do for inspiration when designing new unique areas, building designs, and creative layouts? How do you keep things fresh when putting down so much?

Keen

TopCat: The first thing we take into account when designing a new area is the rough topology (where are the mountains, valleys, possible connections to other areas of the world). While that is being produced we take a look in our internal lore bible to gather information on what has happened in that new area of the world and what could be added according to the new enemies / features we want to bring to live. On this point we already get the very first impressions on how the general look of constructions and terrain structure will look like. Once that is done we concentrate on the POIs which are important for the player progression (The Wells, the Ancient Spire and hidden Shroud roots). From then on we fill the world with the most world defining pois like major towns, main roads and so on and continue from there to the less important pois like small enemy camps.

Question 62

LostAnything7109

Hallo Keen Team - nur eine Frage: Ist Ihnen aufgefallen, dass tatsächlich ein Steinmetz fehlt? Der Zimmermann stellt Grabsteine und andere Dinge her, die nicht sein Beruf sind. Das Gleiche gilt für die Metallarbeiten, die eher zum Schmied gehören. Grüße und vielen Dank für ein tolles Spiel!!

Keen

TopCat: Hallo, ja du hast recht, einen Steinmetz haben wir nicht aber unser Zimmermann ist vor dem Auftauchen des Miasmas viel rumgekommen und hat in verschiedenen Werkstätten gearbeitet. Dabei hat er sich so einiges abgeschaut und kann es dir nun anbieten :) 

Maracujahaha Unser Zimmermann hat ja auch eine viel reisende Tante, die ihm gerne Zeichnungen von diversen Bauten geschickt hat!

Question 63

ArmConnect9353

Hey Keen team, FIrst off just wanted to say thank you for this game, fell in love with it very quickly after I bought it a month ago. After 150 hours and not yet having finished the game I only have a few questions mostly relating to QoL. 1. Are you planning on enabling us to change the keybind for closing menu's ie: boxes and crafters with ESC being the default? 2. Is water in the works for 2025 or has development on Voxel water been scrapped for the foreseeable future? 3. Can we ever expect to see weapon transmogging?

Keen

1 & 3 are somewhere on our backlog, no ETA yet. 2: We're still working on water, but as Antony replied elsewhere, water is \*very\* complex to make interact in a meaningful way with a voxel, fully terraformable world.

Question 64

ALiborio

What considerations do you have to make when designing areas in a game where the player can reach almost any area via glider or pickaxe? The only real barriers seem to be deadly shroud and the OOB areas not available in EA. One thing that happened recently is I flew into the Sun Temple where you get the desert temple blocks and right into the balcony where the chest was and skipped the 3 puzzles needed to open the door. Are things like this intentional design choices or unintended side effects of the freedom the player is given?

Keen

TopCat: In all areas we have the abilities of the player in mind when designing them, especially the movement abilities are something to always keep an eye on, speaking of you here Mr. Glider or Ms. Double Jump. Things like your described situation in the Desert temple are partly intended but also partly happy/unhappy accidents to be honest. In our design philosophy, it is fine when the player can exploit certain gameplay areas and can feel cool about it when they use their tools / unlocks clever enough. That said, there are still enough unwanted occasions which we then try to improve once they are coming up (typing while looking into that sneaky Sun Temple...)

Question 65

runnsy

There's a chance I haven't gotten enough of the lore yet. But I have a few questions, no worries if there are no answers:

1. What do shroud spores do to living creatures? It seems like every living thing is infected; every creature you slay has a blue glow and a particle effect that indicates spores. We never see (nor hear about?) the intermediate stages of infection. Are there symptoms that progress through infection? Is there an end stage of infection past the raging, zombie-like stage?
2. Did dragons, wyverns, and/or wyrms exist before the shroud? Why are there so few dragoconic creatures? Could some dragons be resistant to the shroud due to their firey nature?
3. Did the shroud drink the water? I think I found a lore page indicating this. Could humans have been driven closer to the shroud as water tables receded?
4. What are the red goo lakes in the shroud? As in, what are they made of. The red lakes that insta-kill you. Are they goo or solid?

Thanks for the awesome game!

Keen

For the first part about the Shroud, you can see TopCats answer in this comment :) Previous Answer

TopCat:

1. What do shroud spores do to living creatures? Yes there is a certain "progression" a living being is getting through once infected by the Shroud. As mentioned above, it begins with a state of unawareness and behavior changing. This ends in a state of raging zombie-like creatures. In that state the living beings act as antibodies for the Shroud organism. You can find those creatures in the Shroud as the main enemies (melee warriors, mages, rangers, boars and the like) This state is followed by the decaying state in which the fogspores are more and more devouring the living being. In this state, moveability is strongly affected as muscles and bones stop working properly. You can see that state on some enemies in the Shroud with larger deformations on their back. Living beings in that state have the urge to spread the Shroud even further, they are searching for locations to lay down and being consumed completely from the Shroud spores. The endstate of all infected living beings are then the Shroudspore plants which you encounter in several areas of the world. (Yes the ones which are exploding if you come too close) These plants just wait for an uninfected living being to come close in order to explode and infect it with new Shroud spores. From here the cycle starts anew.
2. Did dragons, wyverns, and/or wyrms exist before the shroud? There was a time in our timeline in which those large creatures were living in our world but that time is long gone. The only remains are these large skeletons you can find in Alberneve Summits and the Kindlewastes. When you follow the lore snippets in Alberneve Summits, you also might discover how our Dragon Boss is connected to them.
3. Did the shroud drink the water? / What are the red goo lakes in the shroud? No but the shroud has contaminated the water by infecting the plant organisms around it. The outcome of that process are the red deadly Shroud areas you can find in the world. They are filled with infected roots and the like. All of them used to be fresh water sources once. Due to technical limitations, they are solid at the moment.

Question 66

LCData1701

How much of the story had you developed up front before the first release vs what you may have had to interweave into the existing story and/or locations? It seems like there has been a good bit of forethought so far, even when we get to revisit earlier locations as an early access player.

Keen

TopCat: We have taken some time before actively building the world and assets to come up with a lore bible and a timeline which covers all major events of the backstory. In there we have defined factions, the origin of the Shroud and how it devours the world, events happened before the Shroud came to the world and are affecting our gameworld and also locations which are needed. This lore bible and timeline have been developed to give us a guideline in development to make sure everything fits together. It also is loose enough to add areas, additional side stories or events which were originally not planned but which are important for upcoming features. When you ask for a percentage value I'd say roughly around 60-70% of the lore has been developed before the initial release.

Question 67

WablamoShizami1

Simple question: are you going to open all edges/areas of the map upon release? There is an amazing area with rock formations on the very east edge of the map, between Kindlewastes and the Summits, that is blocked behind the red wall. My wife and I want to build on top of these rock formations for our base. The rock formations are perfectly situated overlooking the shroud edge of the map. Idea: open it all up and make map edges deadly shroud.

Keen

TopCat: Simple answer :Yes. Long Keen At this point we can't tell you when exactly that happens but it is on our todo list.CUB:There will always be an area just out of your grasp that looks awesome and where you want to settle in, and eventually we NEED to find a way to make the world finite, and it will hopefully not be a painted wall and fake sky like in the Truman Show. So... keep in mind that if we make the inaccessible accessible, we will need another boundary and eventually, it can't be boundary turtles all the way down.

Question 68

Jojoejoe

Do you think we'll see where the Ancients went, as from what I've seen their split into two factions.

Keen

Maracujahaha: Oh, we plan to focus more on the Ancients in the future for sure - and yes, they've split into two factions! The "elder", more stubborn and stoic Ancients want to remain in neutral standing with the world as cold-hearted observers. The "younger" Ancients feel responsible for the plight that has befallen the world and wanted to help humanity persevere by building the Ancient Vaults alongside Balthazar, the Alchemist. The elder Ancients felt like it would destroy the purity of the Flame to create the Flameborn... so there's some trouble brewing there for sure. What happened to the elder faction you ask? That is up for the future to be discovered.

Question 69 (nice)

SaraRainmaker

Hi There! Thanks for taking some time out of your busy work week to talk to us. I actually have two (somewhat related) questions for you.

1. I was wondering, Having seen so many amazing builds from players that have been posted on the discord... Did you have any idea that the building system that you were creating, and the POI's you made would inspire such creativity and beautiful work from the player base? And did you expect so many people to take over and rebuild some of your own creations in the way they have?
2. Have you ever considered using player-made buildings to add into the base game?

Keen

I think we knew we were working on something special even before the reveal, and that a lot of the player fantasy of restoring the kingdom would naturally lead players to want to take over ruins and renovate them. Having said that, there's a difference between knowing something is good, and having three million players play your game because the building is cool! From the interior design goblincore chalets to the community that rebuilt Minas Tirith, and all the others working on things from fiction... it's a lot and we're just so happy to have given so many players the tools to create cool stuff. I think personally the only thing I'm yet to see is someone build a 1:1 replica of Star Trek's Enterprise.

TopCat: Yes we have thought about that opportunity but since one of our core aspects of the game world is a lore which makes sense it would certainly break the immersion when a player travels the abandoned lands of Embervale in order to search for the next Metal Scrap and all of a sudden, they find the aforementioned Enterprise. :P

Question 70

Front_Protection_423

Hey! How many biomes would you like to see by the end of 2025? What are your ideas for new biomes that could be added? Doesn't matter which ones end up being included or not! Have a nice Day 🤗 Kontreck

Keen

At least five 😉 And nice try, but right now, it's too early to say which ones are coming next. That said, like Antony mentioned in this question, there's already some parts of the world that can give you a glimpse into what might be coming next.

Question 71

MrNighty

Will we see proper dedicated server support for Linux? I know that some folks use them with Wine/Proton but a native Linux port would be nice :)

Keen

Yes! We're actively working on it, but still can't share when it will be ready to be released.

Question 72

thatferrybroad

I'd say not everyone understands what the scope of "world and level" actually means, but I include myself in that lol, as you can see in my own questions. Would it help to expressly clarify what the world/level team DOESN'T handle?

Keen

We aren't drawing a specific line in the sand. Like I said, we'll try to answer as much as we can :) But in our last AMA we had our lead producer and creative director, meaning they were much more in tune with the "big picture" parts of the game, like what the long-term feature plans were and such. Our world and level design developers have a much more specific focus on the artistic and technical side of things, for example the process of creating the game's map. So they might not have as much knowledge on like, what the next public roadmap would look like, for example.

And that's all of them! Bravo if you read this far, and we hope you enjoyed this recap of our World Team AMA!

The Keen Team