Not every week of development produces flashy new features and this past week was one of those weeks.

A goblin works the mines

A lot of our effort went into improving the underlying engine that powers the game: we made changes to how the world is stored, performed some cleanup following earlier refactoring efforts, and continued to make performance improvements. While these changes aren’t the sort of thing players will immediately notice, they’re important long-term investments in the health of the project.

This week wasn’t entirely without player-facing additions, however.

We’ve now implemented instanced tutorial areas for new characters. Rather than beginning with a shared starting location, each class starts in its own introductory area designed to teach the basics of the game while establishing a bit of identity.

Warriors begin at a Steelgarde training camp where they receive their first bits of equipment and learn the fundamentals of adventuring. Priests start within a temple of Ilin and mages begin their journey in a mysterious tower where they take their first steps toward mastering the arcane arts.

These tutorial areas introduce the core commands and systems players will use throughout the game, including movement, exploration, combat, equipment, and interacting with the world around them. This onboarding experience is designed to work for newcomers and veterans alike. Players who are new to MUDs should come away with an understanding of the basics, while experienced players can move through these quickly and get on with their adventures.

There’s still plenty of work ahead, but every improvement to the engine and each new piece of content helps move the project forward. Some weeks will be focused on new features, while others will be spent laying the groundwork for what’s to come. Both are important if we want to build something that lasts.

We’ll have more to share as development continues.