Hello Defiers!

As we reach the end of October, we wanted to pass along news of the next patch, as well as an update for those anticipating a revised & accessible roadmap for early access!


We will be releasing updates at a wider cadence going forward for the sake of efficiency. For a little additional context on these dates, check out my super professional video here:

I sent this video to the directors for review, and their response was, and I quote: "What is an acceptable level of cringe. Scientifically." Let us know if you have shriveled into a raisin while watching this video. Fax them your opinions.

Thanks for playing with us and continuing to support us in our early access development. The best is yet to come! As for me, I’ll continue improving how we share updates on the game’s development to you all! For now, here’s some bits of work happening in the background:


Early this month, our animator had gone back to improve glide, particularly the weaponed stance. The main detail he adjusted was the wrist and head, lowering the position so they align better with the movement animations. He says while the work isn’t challenging, it is time consuming because he has to make manual adjustments for all the weapons, including all flight directions and speeds.

Our environmental artist is working on new foliage! Tree types are first created with specific branch, trunk, and leaf proportions. Once a tree type’s visual style is established, different size variations are created using the same rules applied to the parent tree. An asset that can be chopped down is complex compared to a flower that can simply be picked. A tree requires around 20 assets working together in game to accomplish our chopping mechanic. The colored clusters shown here visualize groupings and hierarchies in the tree that are used for wind animations.

Our stone doorways recently got doors attached, thank goodness, but did you notice the detail of the different sounds for the different door types. If you didn’t, its probably because our audio director’s really good at his job. As you guys know, he records all the sound effects himself! He sent me a whole bunch of clips of his original audio capture, testing to find the right sounds for the doors.

As mentioned in the video, some enemies may now be roaming the map, so you’ll have to be extra vigilant. The soldiers on the Isle of Arrival, in particular, are extra scary when you’re still starting off and crafting decent gear. Here’s a small glimpse at your future playthrough:

As a treat for spooky season, here’s a new recording for a fun addition coming to our November patch. I will be providing no further context. What do you think it is?


While that’s the last of the behind the scenes previews for now, we do have one thing to ask of you! If you’re a fan of building in Dawn of Defiance and anxiously awaiting more build pieces and decor, please swing by this poll we’ve started that compiles the various buildable-related requests we’ve seen! We ask that you vote on the types of buildables you’d most like to see (or see first).

PLEASE NOTE: The conclusion of this poll does not guarantee these buildables will be included in the next couple updates, but it will help our art team get a sense of which items players are most excited about. Plus, just because we're polling players on buildables, that does not mean buildables & decor are our highest priority at the minute. This is one of many things being worked on!

You can vote in Discord[discord.gg] here. Disclaimer, the following poll link only works if you're an existing Discord member with Defier permissions: Discord Poll.[discord.com]

If you don't like Discord, you can also vote in the Steam Discussions post here: Discussions Poll.

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That’s all for today’s news, but I’ll see you again later this week with our Temple Tracker “Haunted Crossing” build submissions and clips of the Playtrials: Tides of Triumph relay race! If we don’t catch you then, have a wonderful rest of your month and get excited for the update in November!

Best,
Traega Monday & Team