Follow-up to Tot's intervention

One big month without any news on the devblog, it's certainly been a while. Why such a long absence? Well, for the past three weeks, a conversation has been taking place on the French Wakfu forum between Tot and the players discussing the evolution of the game. For those who missed the fun, and to spare you reading through 26 pages in French, here is a summary of the main points followed by an update about the next patch.

Firstly, it is important to remember what we have been working on for several months: the combat system. Even if this feature will not necessarily make Wakfu THE original game you are expecting, it is essential that it is well built and it is one of the most complicated features to implement. Some more specific examples that we have reworked or will rework:

• States: We want to give them great importance in fights and to do that we need to make them clearer visually. We need to know who is in the grip of what state a quick glance (stars spinning above a character would make it clear).
• Spheres of combat: We're going to rework them. Not straight away, but it's planned and scheduled.
• Monsters: We will rework all of the monster families one by one to make them more "intelligent". We have also reduced the excessive number of species per family as we were getting nowhere with them.

We're also working in parallel on many other points and Tot has clarified some of the regularly recurring issues on the forum.

• Incarnam: You have discovered the first step of the tutorial and learnt more about the origins of Wakfu through the magnificent frescoes of Ben Piwate and Sephy. There are still many things to include and correct (the remarks on the forum have been noted ;) ), but we've kept a few surprises to make this tutorial more fun and memorable.
• Clan Members: This is a big piece of work, and big pieces of work take a long time to finish. Animations, balancing, AI, new options to add... Not everything needs re-working, but we know that we've started on a large project. We will take as long as it takes to get it all done.
• The islands all look the same: We've talked about this already on the devblog, there are 5 archipelagos in the world of Wakfu: Amakna, Astrub, Bonta, Brakmar and Sufokia. Each archipelago looks very different to the others. There will be 4 governable islands and a central island. The fact that the 4 governable islands resemble each other comes from us not wanting to put certain nations at a disadvantage. However, the central island will look different to its little neighbours.
• Multi-cell monsters: Tot raised the possibility that Kam might be able to work on monsters that take up 9 cells. Well, it's no longer a possibility, it's a fact! I've only got one thing to say: they'll be a feast for the eyes!
• Ecosystem: Again, like what's happening in Ankama's basement, there's a large amount of work to do here. For each new monster is not just a punching-ball that we have to think about, but a living being, interacting with its environment.
• Emotes: Character illustrations based on the smileys you type into the chat, that's Xa crazy idea. As such, even before reading your partner's words, you'll know their mood.
• Mounts: Will they be delayed as much as they were in Dofus? An excellent question from Dreking. The system is consistent with that of monster breeding (which will allow endangered species to be preserved). At the moment, we're brainstorming the subject. And believe me when I say we're not lacking in ideas that will be really worth the effort!
• Snow in Wakfu?Not for this Kwismas but Tot has clearly expressed his desire to see the lands of Amakna covered in white powder. We don't want our artists to work on it straight away, but you can look forward to being able to make snowmen one day.
• Why aren't there any houses in-game, only ruins? Eventually, players will be able to construct their buildings, part of Amakna island is also reserved for this purpose. Tot would like you to discuss this subject and is currently putting together a little explanation of what we've got planned.
• Banks? We still don't see the point in introducing them into the game. Chests are available to furnish the personal room of your Haven-Bag. Why give money to someone else when you can keep it comfortably on your back?

After this larger-than-I-was-expecting summary, let's talk about up-coming content. Tomorrow, Sacriers will land on the Amakna archipelago, and the Larva Dungeon returns as well.

We're preparing a more substantial update for the 15th October, with central island of Amakna to discover, its monster families, its giant monsters, its challenges, new dungeons and more surprises that we'll have the opportunity to discuss over the coming weeks. All this will be accompanied by the possibility of levelling your character to 100. However, it would seem that Srams are going to have a little bit longer to wait than initially thought, I'll tell you more next week.

To finish, and to stop the numerous private messages that are filling our moderators and staff members' inboxes, here's the order in which the next classes will/should arrive: Sacrier, Sram/Xelor, Feca, Pandawa, Sadida, Enutrof and finally Osamodas