Reddit AMA Highlights!

Greetings, Flameborn! 🔥

To celebrate Enshrouded’s most recent update, Hollow Halls, the Keen Games team hosted an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on our game's Subreddit a couple of weeks ago! 

Our Creative Director Antony, Producer Simon, as well as several other members of the team got together for several hours to answer questions from the players, and this post is the highlights of some of our favorite questions!

If you'd like to see the complete list of every original question, our Community Managers Toast and CoolUsernameBro collected every single question and answer in a post that you can find by clicking on this link!

If you're not a fan of reading, we also have a video highlight of the best questions that you can watch here!

Anyway, let's get started!

What was each team member's favorite game that holds a special place in their heart to this day? - u/Skeith4000

Antony: Dungeons & Dragons (pen & paper ;) )

Simon: Beyond Good & Evil

Ben: Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Toast: The original SSX series, especially SSX 3. I get a blast of nostalgia just from hearing that game's soundtrack <3

CoolUsernameBro: Dune, the 1992 Cryo game

Kall: Way too many to count. It's a bit cliche but can't go wrong with Chrono Trigger

Hi Dev Team! Thanks for doing this. What feature are you guys most excited about working on? - u/fwambo42

Antony: Base sharing & weather (although both will still take a longer time)

Kall: I'm looking forward to seeing more of the world. I think what we have in store is gonna be really cool :D

CoolUsernameBro: The "shared gameplay experiences", because I'm a huge fan of user-created adventure maps. Gimme your parkour challenges and your obstacle courses. Gimme your Vukah mazes. Gimme your Tuscany bathrooms.

Toast: Does our Discord server count? 🤔

Ben: Improving and advancing the combat. Adding new monsters, small and big.

Appreciate the work on the game, we have enjoyed it a lot!
Is this a game you expect to do further development on post-Early Access? - u/ninethreeseven739

Simon: It's a bit early to talk about what's coming post Early Access, but we definitely want to keep working on Enshrouded for as long as we can! We and also the community will not run out of ideas of what to add to the game anytime soon.

Awesome game and really impressive that it was developed on a proprietary voxel engine. Is the engine something that you plan to incorporate into later games(or maybe license to other studios) or was it made only for Enshrouded? - u/magicarmor

Antony: Currently, the focus of the whole studio is to make Enshrouded the best game possible and to ship it on other platforms and to continue to support the game with updates beyond 1.0 release. We currently have no plans for future games, but we plan to improve the engine itself over time and use it for future projects.

Why did you decide a voxel based world would work with the game? It's honestly the main selling point for me, as it really makes the game feel more grounded and like I have more of an impact on it. It's hard to find a good voxel based game though, let alone a great one like Enshrouded! - u/grumbles_to_internet

Simon: Our team already had lots of experience working on voxel based games in the past when we made Portal Knights, so it made a lot of sense for us to take our learnings from that project into this one too. The creative aspect of building a base was essential to us as well as allowing players a lot of freedom to explore the world, so it was important from the beginning to create the game on the technical foundation of our voxel engine.

Can we expect reworks and changes to combat? (paraphrased) - u/Asherogar, u/Ikelo, and u/Optimal-Debt-2652

Antony: We are actively thinking about improvements to the combat system, but can't promise imminent changes, as some of that is still experimental.

Toast: Of course! Our combat systems are not final, especially at this stage of development. We already have changes planned for the near future, and will continue to make changes as players give us more and more feedback over time. The team already has improvements in the pipeline for our melee combat, for example.

Simon: We will continuously review class/skill balance and will try to improve and add things. Right now, we are looking at curtailing some outliers while giving melee builds a little love.

Couple of questions:
Will build assets be able to be rotated in full 3D eventually?
Do we have an ETA on the ability add location names on to our maps?
Do you have a planned total of NPC crafters you will have in the game? - u/mopar63

Antony: Prop rotation: We currently don't have plans, but will think about it. Main reason for that is the complexity of our controls & UI, but we see the creative value.
Add location names: We are planning to add naming for several elements, like naming your bases, naming custom map-markers or creating named signs. We do not have an ETA, but it is likely that those elements will be part of one of the next updates.
NPC crafters: We are not decided yet on how many NPC crafters there will be in the game; however, there are plenty of ideas for different NPC roles. So expect your bases to be a lot more crowded in the future 😉.

hey guys, just want to say that hallow halls are super fun! I love the dungeon delving and they just look so good! So after everything in the roadmap- fishing has to be coming down the pipe right? Every great game as a fishing mechanic ;) - ZGoot

Toast: We don't even have water yet, and you're asking us to commit to a fishing mini-game? Where would you fish, in the lava pools?!

Any update on the topic of individual quest progression? - u/ElegostElkai

Simon: World versus personal progression is currently tentatively scheduled for the next update. We've been a bit taken aback by how common the request was, because we had not realized just how many of you would want to hang out in your world, exploring and questing, even when your friends aren't around! It's a testament to how immersive the game can be, in a fun "here is a new thing nobody thought would be a problem" sorta way. Anyway, we're on it.

Will we see the map slowly expand in small updates during early access or will it all become avalible at once when the game launches fully? - u/markgatty

Antony: This will come over time with our major updates, usually in the form of new biomes (or extensions of existing biomes), as development progresses during early access. To manage expectations, it will take us several months before we will be able to release the first full map expansion.

Simon: Generally map expansions should come regularly with our major updates, usually in the form of new biomes, or content like we released in Hollow Halls. So no, the general plan is to release it when we feel it's ready. We're not going to hold it all back and force you guys to wait for the full release :)

Are there plans for vertical expansion of the map? - u/runetrantor

CoolUsernameBro: No spoilers. The only thing we will say is that the world is now a full kilometer taller than the map that was available during the closed beta. For... reasons.

Right now, other than building, there's very little to do after completing all of the quests. How do you plan to add or address Re-playability? - paleh0rse

Simon: First off we need to preface this with a big caveat: most of the things listed below are projects for the future! This means end of Early Access or later. Now with that out of the way, here are some of the ideas we have been toying with:
World events
Instanced Dungeons
Gameplay Settings for Servers
Adding more Biomes / expanding the game world
Base sharing / user-generated content

Love love LOVE this game, have two QOL requests:
The ability to customize map markers would be a huge lifesaver!
And a quick pick-up for everything around you in a specific radius would also be amazing! - u/PotatoMuffinMafia

Antony: Further improvements to the map are coming.
Radius-based loot pickup is something we have scheduled as a quality of life improvement as well :)

Are there plans to add more weapon archetypes such as dual wielding and whatnot? Also, I would do anything to be able to use the two handed scythe I saw an enemy using in the hallowed hall! - u/EJECTED_PUSSY_GUTS

Antony: Definitely! We are always cooking up ideas for new weapons, and I think you'll be very happy with one of the things we have coming in the next major update.

Are you guys going to implement bug fixes on a weekly basis to avoid game-breaking bugs existing for months until next patch comes? - u/Stylu_u

Simon: If an issue is severe enough to warrant fixing immediately, we will generally aim to correct it in a hotfix. If it can wait a bit, it will be collected with other fixes in a patch. If it's not urgent, it will wait the next update. We have released some 12 hotfixes and two patches, the last of which was this week! We're doing our best to prioritize issues to ensure that as many people as possible can play, while at the meantime enough bandwidth to keep on developing the game and adding content.

Would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses or 1 horse-sized duck? - u/SpuckMcDuck

Antony: The horses, obviously. Normal ducks are already psychopaths, I can't imagine their destructive power if they were over 100 times heavier.

Are there any plans for adding non-hostile npcs you can encounter in the open world? - u/Even_Mixtuire_9748

Antony: Our focus for now is on making your base feel more alive (more NPCs) and enriching the world with additional wildlife and enemies.

First of all, congrats and thank you for this game. Second, is there an approximate date for next map portion release? - u/Kh3ll3ndr0s

CoolUsernameBro: We aim to release a smaller sub-biome with our second major update. It adds more variety and new content to an already existing biome. For the next full-size biome, we're looking further out than that, several months at least, as it needs a lot more content to come with that.

How do you like the idea of ​​optimizing the map? When you press M, instead of 60 fps I get 20. And I have a powerful PC. Could you please somehow fix this? - u/Initial-Rough9102

Antony: We are aware that there are performance issues for some PCs regarding the map, and are actively looking to improve that.

Are there any plans to add more to Hand to Hand combat? Really hoping for some gear or perks to combine with the stunning trickster punch - u/Ecwins

Simon: While we prioritize to improve class balance overall, we also want to improve and extend more exotic playstyles in the future.

Hello! Are there plans to increase the max level and/or make the skill tree larger? - u/FirelitZephyr and u/Alive_Tomorrow_8175

Simon: 100%, our skill tree is not going to stay the way it is forever, we will definitely be changing and expanding it with time. Same goes for our current max level/max skill points. As the game continues to grow and expand with future updates, your Flameborn will, too.

Antony: We plan to expand the level cap during early access, but it is not currently planned for the next update.

Your game is the most fun I’ve had recently. I would love to see tons of new bosses, including field bosses! What are you plan regarding those? - u/rheawh

Antony: It is definitely on our radar to add new bosses and further down the road world events.

The devs are awesome. I really hope that you guys have a continious sustainable business model to keep your awesome team (and the game) alive for decades. I would definitively pay for future dlc's (after the game is complete) if the content and quality resembles this output for the price i've arealdy paid. - u/Owyanos

CoolUsernameBro: We're very happy to hear that we have built a community that is so supportive of Enshrouded and our team. We currently don't have plans for any paid content, but we are clear that we won't offer any kind of paid content during early access. After full release we might consider paid DLC in addition to free updates (similar to what we did with Portal Knights), but we are not sure yet. Our focus is on offering a premium game in the first place.

Absolutely love the game, after the recent fix to the unlimited flight… any plans for endgame “flight”? I absolutely love flying over the gorgeous world you have created. - u/Durzo_Monk

Antony: We think the current high-level glider is already powerful, and we don't want to go for 'unlimited' flight too quickly, but we are thinking about other fun ways to mess with your glider in the future.

Hi, great job on the game!
My question, will there be any way to separate people in a server so they don't work as a "team" and don't loot, steal, destroy your stuffs? - u/JoseJoko

Antony: Playing nice and safely together is really important for us. We've started work on server settings and user rights, but we'll introduce these settings across multiple updates.

Hi Guys, thank you for giving us this opportunity.
It seems that the lore choice to have all water turned into shroud "stuff" was a deliberate one. Can you speak to what the thinking behind that was? Are there engine limitations with liquids, or is it going to play an important role in the lore? Both?
Thanks. - u/PearlClaw

Antony: Don't hold your breath for water (ha!). It is probably one of the most complex features to add to Enshrouded, and we're just in preliminary exploration phases of it would work with our system. For now, luminescent blocks it is!

Simon: Simulating liquids realistically is extremely complex, even in games where the world is static and cannot be modified. If you add the possibility of changing the terrain around the liquid, and even worse, changing it in real-time in a volumetric voxel world with networking, the problem becomes orders of magnitude more complex (not to mention demanding in resources).
It was clear that we won't be able to include water into our early access version of Enshrouded, but we wanted to have natural barriers within the shroud, so we designed our lore around that. We love the idea to have water and heard the call from the community, so we want to make it work. It is still a technical research topic for us. In terms of lore we can imagine that regions above the shroud would leave bodies of water untouched in certain regions.

Can you make it so your stuff doesn’t drop in the terrain during the last gliding section of the kindlewastes Hollow Halls? - u/bird-tts

Antony: We're aware of this issue, and it's definitely frustrating when it happens, so we're looking into solutions to it. We already have ideas on how to address it, but we're still working on it, so meanwhile, I recommend being careful when flying around in there 😅

How long did you develop Enshrouded for before the early access release? Did you work on it at the same time as portal knights, or did you stop development on Portal Knights before developing your next game? What led you to decide on a game like Enshrouded after a game like Portal Knights? - u/Etzello

Simon: We started work on prototypes for Enshrouded after development wrapped up on Portal Knights, unfortunately (not our decision at that time, as we don't own the IP). Enshrouded is the first game we could self-publish and we had a lot of ideas how to improve on what we did with Portal Knights. The rough idea for the world of Enshrouded existed for quite a while before Portal Knights, but it was too ambitious to go for it back then.

It would be nice if the changes by player makes to the world could be saved. Will this thing happen? - u/Cyan_64

Antony: It is currently not planned to remove the world reset outside the player bases. Saving all of those changes would have a significant impact on performance and stability, and we need to be mindful of that.

If it hasn’t been asked about yet, can we get a faster way of planting and harvesting crops? It’s extremely tedious to plant and harvest large amounts at the moment. - u/Gadsdenraven

Antony: We've discussed some improvements to this, but they won't be ready by our next update, unfortunately.

Will we be able to place other items like potions, meat, food, weapons, etc. Armor and weapon stands? Feels like a waste to delete the old armor. Collect the whole set!
Villagers for a community feel?
Will there be more map options? Right now it's difficult to label areas with 4 symbols and 4 colors. Example: Maybe add a pickaxe so we can label our favorite spots to mine. - u/WiccanGoddessLAM

Simon: We are certainly planning to add more props for decoration with every update (as well as new recipes for existing, but inaccessible props). Displaying things is also something we think about. Villagers are already on our roadmap as well. We will also continue to improve our map.

Is there an ETA on any kind of Bloom toggle in the graphics settings? - u/Auren-Dawnstar

Antony: We've heard you and want to improve post-processing in general. As this has an impact on some assets (esp. VFX) it will take a bit of time until we have additional improvements.

Are you planning on implementing invasions or attacks on player bases? - u/cmisanthropy

Antony: This is a very common suggestion, but it certainly raises some design concerns in a game like ours. The biggest problem with base invasion systems in games is finding a way to make it fun and challenging, without making it easily cheesable, or just frustrating for the kinds of players who don't want to engage with it.
It's particularly challenging in Enshrouded, since our base building systems are almost completely unrestricted in what we allow players to do. A "normal" base invasion system would be extremely easy to trivialize in the current game, you could just build a floating base or something.
We thought about this topic early on and decided against having it for our early access launch, as creative base building was our focus. Anyway, we still like the idea, but we have to settle on a good design for it first.

I really like the game so far and would like to know which steps are next (and maybe when) for better steam deck support - u/Zockeromi

Simon: The Steam Deck version still needs a bit of optimization to earn its Steam Deck Certified sticker. We're currently working on it.

What are your thoughts on creative mode and/or photo mode? (paraphrased) - u/Homitu

Simon: Longer term we can imagine adding an actual creative mode (as we did in Portal Knights), but that is not part of our current roadmap.
Photo mode with free cam, that's another popular request. Nobody is asking for this one harder than our video producer, for reasons you may imagine. It's a maybe.

You have really developed a great game! Are there any plans for equipment that is not intended for combat? For example, mining equipment that has a helmet with a lamp so that you have light while mining. And the equipment reduces stamina consumption when mining and increases the yield. - u/Shaitan1805

Antony: Well, we do have vanity equipment on the roadmap, so who's to say what we could include once that feature is released? Basically, what I'm saying is, if you have cool ideas, we're always listening...

Do you plan on adding more building block materials in addition to to the option to craft more base material such as how you added flower pots, round windows and doors and will there be more building blueprints added such as triangle blueprints so we can build arches and diamond style windows. - u/SirHarryAzcrack

Antony: Oh for sure, our artists are always coming up with new decorations, several of which we added in the Hollow Halls update like our new round doors. We also have more types of blocks in the works, but I don't think I'm allowed to spoil what those are yet, so you'll just have to wait and see 🙊

My husband, friend and I played Enshrouded and we loved it but we finished all the missions! Are there going to be more missions added in the near future? - u/dark_angel_rose

Simon: With every update, we will add not only bug fixes and improvements, but also content. This usually, but perhaps not always, will mean new quests, and new things to do. From time to time we will add a new part to the world (a new Biome). This will include new enemies, new quests and much more.

And that's all for today! Thank you all so much for showing up to our Reddit AMA and asking us your questions. We wish we could have gotten to them all, but the thread blew up far more than we expected it to, and we were overwhelmed (in a good way!) with all the attention it received. We will likely do something similar to this at some point again in the future, so thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all the positivity and great questions!

Until next time, Flameborn.
The Keen Team