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Single-player RPG and simulated MMO Erenshor is gearing up for its "biggest update" so far, with solo developer Burgee Media adding raids complete with tiered bosses and transmog-able loot, just like the true MMORPGs of old.
Burgee reveals the game's big summer update, The Planar March, in a new video. "There are a few more boss fights I need to make and script, but all in all, things are coming along really, really well," he says. The update has been in testing for about a month already, which lines up with a May Steam teaser.
The Planar March packs four new zones and over 20 boss fights, and the players who tackle them will find over 130 new items including new best-in-slot armor. Most of the bosses "have some sort of special mechanic or will require you to engage with the game differently," and that includes playing conductor to groups of NPC guild allies who can support you in this paradoxical single-player MMO.
Burgee says the update is chunky, dramatically expanding the game's scope. "Most testers are clocking in between 30 and 60 hours of content to see everything in the game. Now, that's not including people who have min-maxed their characters or really tried to optimize their builds. They're coming in closer to probably an additional 80 to 100 hours."
The raid UI included in the update, which adds commands like "pull" and "follow" for labeled groups, cleverly emulates the classic raiding experience. The mechanics and AI have apparently been set up in a way that groups should execute directions "without a ton of micromanagement from you," freeing you up to focus on your own battles.
Combat in Erenshor becomes more complex with this update, Burgee says, necessitating a system like this. The backbone of your raids will be the "A team" you designate within the guild system, essentially corralling your top NPCs and streamlining the process so you don't have to "hand invite them every time."
When you do form a raid, "your entire guild will show up to the reliquary where you summon them because everybody wants to go, so you'll have to make choices on who you're going to bring and who you're going to gear up."
To that end, the update also adds a new loot menu to help divide drops among active raiders based on their current gear, which is a fascinating translation of rolling need in teams of real people. You can save raid group setups for each character on your account, as "you'll need different configurations" if you're playing as a tank in one raid and a healer in the next. Features like these will be applied to existing group content as well: "Now it's a lot easier to trade with your group members".
Speaking with GamesRadar+, Burgee says he's wanted to make raids "from literally launch day," but he had "no clue" how to do them. After forcing himself to just try something, he ended up updating a lot of old code to support more sophisticated encounters – "sort of a product of having begun this project as a very amateur programmer and learning a ton along the way."
"Now that it's all up and running, it's turning into a really cool exercise in duality," he explains. "I have all these ideas for boss mechanics and cool events for the player to experience – but creating the fight mechanics is only half the battle because then I have to go through and make sure the SimPlayer logic can understand and handle all of the mechanics too.
"The final setup lets players set broad guidelines for SimPlayers like 'Assist that group' or 'Get any loose mobs' or 'Be the main tank group'. From there players get to issue more fine-tuned orders and it almost feels like a little RTS game within Erenshor. I'm really happy with how it came out."
A precise release date for the update is coming soon. The runes tied to these new raids are already available in Erenshor, Burgee teases, and some players have actually found them. I suspect using transmog, or the new cosmetic armor feature, will be a big motivator for completing raids.
