Hello! Welcome back to Grim Misadventures! Today’s update is a little overview of what you can look forward to with the release of Build 20. But first, a multiplayer progress update!
We now have people running around in multiplayer testing all the functionality and looking for those pesky bugs that can ruin your fun. We are getting close but there is still some work to be done before it can be released. This includes finalizing some of the multiplayer UI elements and tracking down and fixing some of the more serious bugs, such as those that could potentially corrupt your character save data. Once the major issues are taken care of, we will release it in a “play at your own risk” state for those who want to be the first to try it out and help identify any remaining issues. We are now in a process of making fixes and retesting until we can verify the major bugs have been worked out. We expect multiplayer will be ready within the next two weeks.
However, we are also trying to wrap up work on the new skill Transmuters, which will have to be finished before we can put the build out since they are committed to the database and there is no easy way to release another build without them. So, the downside is that multiplayer cannot go out until the Transmuters are ready to go but the upside is that you will be getting the Transmuters in B20 instead of having to wait for B21. Altogether, our estimate for B20 release is sometime in the next 2-4 weeks. It mainly depends on how much iteration and retesting is required on Transmuters before we feel confident about them. The main thing we want to avoid is releasing them, finding that one just is not fun / balanceable and then potentially having to remove it after players have allocated points into it. Since people can buy back the points with sufficient warning, that is not the end of the world but it is obviously not ideal. B20 also includes some significant balancing work, so it is shaping up to be a pretty big update and we are excited to finally see everyone enjoying these new features.
In other news, we have begun preliminary work on the Arcanist, the last mastery that will be included with the initial release of Grim Dawn. We intend on giving you a little sneak peek when the class is more finished. 
Now on to the upcoming release of Build 20! As with all of our major updates, you can look forward to an extensive list of improvements and additions. We have already talked about Dismantling and Transmuters, but that is only scratching the surface. Below is a sample of the features and updates coming with B20:
Steam-Cloud Saving
This has been a feature that’s been asked for many times over the last few months. Happy to say that it will be making B20, including an improvement to our save system which compacts those 342765 fog files into 1!
Many Epic and Rare Items Have Been Updated
With B20, we took some time to look back on what we had so far to see where we could make improvements. With that in mind, we went through all the epics in the game and made adjustments that should make many of them more focused and interesting. In some cases, they have been significantly redone (I’m looking at you, Boots of Unseeing Swiftness).
Included in this update is a complete overhaul of set items. Collecting set pieces did not feel sufficiently rewarding and individual pieces were sometimes too awesome on their own. We have shifted some of the power to the set bonuses while also making the bonuses much more interesting. Completing sets should also be easier as some sets have had pieces removed from the collection.
Lastly, you can look forward to 5 new epic items, including 4 medals created specifically for casters. We felt that the variety of options available to casters in that gear slot could use improvement.
Visual Updates
Those of you returning to the Warden’s Laboratory will find that it’s been redecorated with all-new floor textures. We also made improvements to several areas in Act 2, including Edmund Doyle’s hideout and the Four Hills region.
On the item side, you will find that several epics have been updated with their final art. In addition, all unique guns now have firing FX appropriate to the damage type they deal (ex. Orwell’s Revolver shoots lightning bullets).
”The Infamous Death Room”
The first trap room in the Steps of Torment, commonly referred to as the “Death Room”, will experience some adjustments to its difficulty. It will now spawn a few less monsters and Skeletal Golem heroes will no longer appear there, which means you will never end up with two Skeletal Golems at once.
In addition, we have adjusted the slowing effects applied by Skeletal Warlocks and Skeletal Golems, making their combined debuffs less painful to deal with.
Item Classification
In B19, we added classification to all armor so you could tell which items are considered light armor and which are heavy armor. In B20, we are taking this a step further. You will now be able to tell exactly what gear slot any item is intended for as well as its quality.
We Fixed Many Bugs
This is almost a given with every build, but we are always striving to polish up your game experience. You can look forward to more bug fixes and optimizations. Keep on reporting any bugs you encounter. You are helping make Grim Dawn the best game it can be!
All this and more is coming your way when Build 20 is released in the coming weeks. Grim Misadventures will return with another update on development on 08/04/14.
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