The Defender is done. Our first profession is finished, and all that's left is polish: grunts and voice on the animations, footsteps, and armour sounds.
The other big job this week was the world itself.
One world, not a bunch of maps
- The world is now one continuous map of nine regions, and it streams in around you as you move. We're building out the centre first: grass, over 2,000 trees, and a proper edge to the playable area.
- The sky, lighting and weather from our test map now run in the big world. Snow included.
- No more dropping through the ground when you arrive. You wait until the world around you has loaded.
- Monsters and NPCs can now find their way around the whole playable area.
Getting in and out
- Exit World takes you back to character select instead of closing the game.
- A loading screen for entering and leaving the world is on its way in.
- On character select, Back takes you to the realm list, red characters show their name in red, and each character lists its skills one line per profession.
- Double-click to move does the same thing as double-tapping Shift.
- The first server is called Greywater. That name might still change.
Your character
- Everyone starts in Tier 0 "Newbie" gear. Empty slots show bare skin now, not filler clothes.
- Empty slots on the paperdoll and hotbar just say "Empty".
- Fixed a gap between the knee and ankle on boots.
PvP
- Pulling the plug won't save you. If you disconnect, your character stays in the world until it's white and out of combat, then it logs out. If you're red and still getting hit when your 30 minutes are up, you stay until the fight is over.
Next up: making the world feel alive. Thick, wild growth everywhere, and things to gather for every profession, coming back somewhere between 1 and 5 hours after they're picked. After that we work on performance (we're aiming for 60 fps at 1080p on High), logging back in where you left off, the first town, and then the Wizard.
All of this is from a development build. Numbers are provisional.