Devlog: May 2026
Hey adventurers!
Time for an update. Let's start with the cozy stuff.
Fishing, water, and world mood
We now have the server-side foundation for fishing: different rods, different types of water, skill ranges, and time bands. We distinguish fresh water from salt water and brackish water, and canals from open sea, ponds and swamps. That means what you can pull up can depend on the time of day, where you are, and how good you are at fishing. Right now the system is still pretty simple: use your fishing rod near water and a random tile in front of you will be targeted, giving you a chance to catch something. We have plans for deeper interactivity here too, with fish pulling against you while you try to keep control long enough to land the catch.
There is something I really like about professions that are not about killing things as fast as possible. Sometimes you want to hunt monsters. Sometimes you want to stand by the water for a bit and see what bites. Eldria should have room for both moods. Fishing was decided a long time ago as a must-have for early access, even if the first version is simpler than the full feature we have in mind.
We also added world areas and hooked audio into them. This sounds very dry if you say it like that, so here's the less dry version: different parts of the world can now know what they are. A town, a field, a cave, a lighthouse, a strange little corner by the water - they can all carry their own context, and audio can follow that. The first implementation is music and ambient sounds, but the same system can be re-used for many other things, for example, to disable or reward PvP in specific zones. This system will give us a lot of flexibility.
More ways to build your character
The last devlog was all about skills, spells, and the whole "your character becomes what you do" direction. This month, equipment moved a lot closer to supporting that too.
We added new item slots, including belts and gloves, and added support for dual-wielding one-handed weapons. Gear can now carry more interesting bonuses, level requirements are becoming part of item progression, and our tools for editing weapons and equipment are much nicer than before.
That last part matters more than it sounds. If creating and tuning gear is painful, we create less gear. If the tools are good, it becomes much easier to add the weird little items that make builds fun: gloves that improves your fishing skill, boots with extra walking speed, or an off-hand mace with a chance to stun the enemy. That kind of variety is what gives depth and makes builds feel personal.
Monsters have levels now
Monsters now have levels, and those levels differ depending on where they spawn. A goblin in Mirenroot will be a very different problem from a goblin on the main island.
Monster levels scale their health, damage, and experience. This gives us a much cleaner way to shape the world, and honestly, it lets us reuse game assets in a way that makes more sense. There is so much effort and love in many of the monster sprites that it would feel like a waste if players never saw them again after leaving Mirenroot.
The world is easier to read
What would a devlog be without a few rendering issues? Honestly my least favorite part of the game client, but this one had to be fixed. As we started building content with more floors it became apparent that floors must be shaded differently to help players discern the floor level difference. A tall tower using the same floor tiles as the ground below could be almost impossible to read correctly. Now other floors are slightly shaded, and it makes a huge difference.
Stacks of items, like boxes, and blood splashes work much better now (uhm, the previous devlog showed quite a few of those bugs if you look closely). Sprite import and rendering got fixes. Creature drawing had some edge cases cleaned up. These are not giant headline features, but they were annoying little quirks that showed up all the time. Small visual bugs are funny for about five seconds, and then they quietly make the game feel stupider than it is.
Getting ready for more players
One last important thing: email sending capabilities are now in place in the accounts server, and the website account flows got more love too. Password reset, email verification, account creation, all that very glamorous machinery. It is not the kind of features you make a trailer about ... but it is the kind of feature you need when you are getting ready to let more people in...
And that is where we are headed. We are not announcing a launch date halfway through a devlog, don't worry. But more and more of the boring important pieces are clicking into place, and that feels pretty good.
See you in Mirenroot.
