All the new level-less stuff is coming Monday or Tuesday, not today...

[x4000]

How will all the changes in the upcoming update affect existing worlds? Would a restart be advised?

That's... a complicated question.  The shortest answer is: do what pleases you.  We've maintained forward compatibility, and you shouldn't have any issues with old worlds not functioning or being in stuck states.  Except perhaps some REALLY old worlds from the alpha, with dozens of lieutenants or whatever.  Those have a high likelihood of sinking into the sea due to failure to win the first continent.  But even there, the world can be won and continued with without any real issues.

In terms of the rest of it, a few notes:

1. Any spellgems you already had unlocked in previous versions of the game, you'll get access to the tier 1 versions of in the new version.

2. All of the EP stuff will be starting at 0 anyway, like you started a new world.

3. You'll have none of the unlockables applied retroactively (except NPC unlocks), so you'll have to get all those either way.

4. So really, the main thing that is different is that you'll potentially have a slight (or substantial) bonus by porting forward old worlds, in that you'll have a bunch of spells and resources "for free" in terms of EP.  But any advantages conferred in that fashion disappear as soon as you move to the next continent.  And if you just started a new continent, even that wouldn't be a downside.

[Hyfrydle]

Thanks for the speedy reply I'll probably load up my old world and start a brand new one as a comparison. Haven't played AVWW for quite a while so it will be especially interesting with all the changes in the last few updates.

[x4000]

Sounds good!

[GrimerX]

Ah, forums.  How have I missed you until now?  I really enjoyed the math test when signing up.  It was helpful to know The answer was only one digit ;-)

Re this:
We're still sort of feeling our way along, chipping away everything that doesn't look like an elephant, but I think that the 1.0 state is firming up pretty well (with a target still in March for that).  If we try to push too much into 1.0, we're going to run out of funds to keep developing this out at our current staffing levels, and I hate laying people off (having had to do it multiple times in the past).  Arcen really isn't in any danger at this point, but we can't maintain our current staffing levels more than another few months without actually coming out with a new game that is reasonably popular (as popular as AI War, or even less to some extent, would probably do -- though of course we'd like more).

What kinds of bugs/feedback are most useful to help you land this thing?  I can switch to "shipping is a feature too" mode :-).  Which in this case means more filing things that I think will help the game sell which are achievable in 6-8 weeks alongside the rest of what you need to finish up.    I definately want you guys to be successful -- both because I like your team and how you operate, and selfishly, I like to play your games :-)

[x4000]

Ah, forums.  How have I missed you until now?  I really enjoyed the math test when signing up.  It was helpful to know The answer was only one digit ;-)

Welcome to the forums -- I think you may be the first person to start out hugely involved in mantis before eventually joining the forums.  It's almost always the other way around!

Re this:
We're still sort of feeling our way along, chipping away everything that doesn't look like an elephant, but I think that the 1.0 state is firming up pretty well (with a target still in March for that).  If we try to push too much into 1.0, we're going to run out of funds to keep developing this out at our current staffing levels, and I hate laying people off (having had to do it multiple times in the past).  Arcen really isn't in any danger at this point, but we can't maintain our current staffing levels more than another few months without actually coming out with a new game that is reasonably popular (as popular as AI War, or even less to some extent, would probably do -- though of course we'd like more).

What kinds of bugs/feedback are most useful to help you land this thing?  I can switch to "shipping is a feature too" mode :-).  Which in this case means more filing things that I think will help the game sell which are achievable in 6-8 weeks alongside the rest of what you need to finish up.    I definately want you guys to be successful -- both because I like your team and how you operate, and selfishly, I like to play your games :-)

We're wanting whatever you think of, to a large extent, but Keith and I are going to be ignoring anything that doesn't fit into the 1.0 time schedule until after 1.0.  To some extent this is where Josh comes in, working triage on the stuff that is submitted.

All that said, of course, if you have ideas that are particularly aimed at helping with the polish/refinement phase for 1.0, then that is the most helpful of all.  At this stage we are looking for basically lots of things that are small/midsize in scope at worst, but which have a big improvement in the player experience.  There's tons of that sort of thing, so there's not much incentive for us to go with larger new features until after 1.0 (and given the increase in bugs, testing, complexity, etc, there's specific disincentives at the moment).

If you look in the release writeup for the latest version of the game (0.562, linked here in the forums and on our news blog), that talks specifically about our short term goals for finishing out beta phase 2, and then what we're going to be looking at ongoing for beta phase 3.

Thanks for all the kinds words, and your ongoing support!  It really means a ton to us.

[GrimerX]

All that said, of course, if you have ideas that are particularly aimed at helping with the polish/refinement phase for 1.0, then that is the most helpful of all.  At this stage we are looking for basically lots of things that are small/midsize in scope at worst, but which have a big improvement in the player experience.  There's tons of that sort of thing, so there's not much incentive for us to go with larger new features until after 1.0 (and given the increase in bugs, testing, complexity, etc, there's specific disincentives at the moment).

Sounds good.  I filed a bunch just now with an eye towards the new player experience.  I think the learning curve can be bent down a bit -- you want people to make it far enough to want to buy the game.  :-)  Feel free to approve/reject as you see fit, of course.

Thanks for all the kinds words, and your ongoing support!  It really means a ton to us.

No worries, you've earned it.

[x4000]

Appreciated once again -- some great stuff in there, will respond individually in mantis.

[tigersfan]

Sounds good.  I filed a bunch just now with an eye towards the new player experience.  I think the learning curve can be bent down a bit -- you want people to make it far enough to want to buy the game.  :-)  Feel free to approve/reject as you see fit, of course.

That was some good stuff, thanks. I was surprised when I woke up this morning and found notices of all those tickets in my inbox. Haven't seen that many at once in a while.

[Souls-Stream]

Let me say : wooooww !

The more this game gets closer to 1.0 the more I get excited about it !
Those changes are amazing and I totally love the game even more at each update

I think 1.0 is far but will be way worth it ! The pre-order is a total steal for such a great game !

So much that I didn't reach very far until now because I erase and start a new world at each update lol !
Those changes are so addicting

Will I ever progress further without erasing my old games ? LOL