Happy New Year, Envoys! The first news update for Soulframe for the year has finally landed in the form of the newest Devstream that wrapped up earlier today. Devstream 12 was a bit of an interesting showcase for the game. This is mainly due to the fact that it was emphasized multiple times that over the next 6 months in the Preludes program that there would be “major swings” to the core game systems. During Devstream 12, they went over one such swing, with the “Virtues” system, alongside more quality of life improvements and changes in Predlues 13. Here are all of the important news tidbits from Devstream 12!
The Important Bits from Devstream 12 for Soulframe
As mentioned previously, the biggest change shown for Soulframe was with the Virtues system. There has been a lot of clunk in how to work with this system and an obvious, clear meta with courage. This is now going to be more robust and impactful for everything regarding your Envoy. It is not just damage to your melee weapons and the effectiveness of certain abilities. It will now affect your armor and how useful it is. While also being “Prisms” that are equippable that streamlines the system.
Courage was described as making you harder to kill and wear heavier armor better. Spirit was described as leaning more into faster casting for abilities while making your weaponry weaker. While Grace was described as allowing for stealth attacks, bow attacks, and finishers to be even more devastating. Prisms will be tied to loadout slots, which will remove a lot of friction from the system’s previous point distribution system.
Shown directly afterwards was a way to finally customize your envoy easily. Verminia will now allow you to customize your hair, skin color, and even allow you to change your gender at will.
Afterwards, they showed off a new way to engage with Sparrow tales. Sparrow tales are the normal bounty system that gives you reputation with your chosen faction. As mentioned in my critique of Preludes 12, you can never tell what level a sparrow tale is to judge if it’s worth engaging in. This is being fixed, but you still do not know how much reputation you will earn in the new menu when approaching a world tree in the open world.
Finally, they showed that the new metal Ode towers will be getting a siege of sorts to engage in. What the rewards will be is unknown at this time.
When will Preludes 13 Arrive?
Good question, in normal Digital Extremes fashion, they left that question with a “very soon” response. They did mention there will be more changes coming in this update. Such as a major overhaul to the audio design in combat encounters. The camera will also be getting pulled back a little more, as well, and some tightening up in the movement was confirmed. There will also be 3 new weapons getting added in Preludes 13. This will include:
- A New Staff.
- Dual Swords that will be a sidearm.
- Another caster sidearm that fires fiery bolts.
But that wraps up everything from Devstream 12 today for Soulframe. If you are wondering if mounts are getting added. Digital Extremes confirmed that it is being added “this year”. For more minute details and the usual shenanigans, you can find a link to the full Devstream here.
