We promised, so we deliver – here’s the Broken Ranks surprise. And not just one, we have a couple of them! Read the post, share your feelings and spread the word.

Broken Ranks surprise

As we promised, we have a surprise, or rather several surprises, for you. It’s also the reason why we decided to move the blog to today. We didn’t want a false start and it was hard for us to keep our mouths shut, but we’re sure that the information will be worth it. Let’s start with the new, awesome website of Broken Ranks (or its first part to be exact).

How do you like it? We think it’s really cool and Taern-like! 😉

Well, same as the new trailer which, we hope, will whet your appetite for Broken Ranks and will serve as an invitation. Put on your headphones, turn the volume up, feel the power and let us know in the comments how you like it! 😉

You can also subscribe to our Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/WhitemoonGames). Apart from the trailer, we’re going to publish more videos there. Stay up to date!

It’s not without a reason that we mention an invitation. As you know, we’ve successfully finished the first phase of Closed Beta Tests. We are proud to announce that we are starting the next stage of work on Broken Ranks – Closed Beta 2! We can safely say that this is a true milestone on the road to the release.

The tests will start on May 14th, 2021 and will take two weeks.

If you want to participate in the beta, you can sign up here: https://www.brokenranks.com/. Please note that the number of spots is limited!

You can also subscribe to our other social media channels where we will be posting more information about Broken Ranks:

• https://www.facebook.com/BrokenRanks
• https://www.facebook.com/WhitemoonGames
• https://twitter.com/Whitemoon_Games

We’re moving with the times and caring about your comfort, so in addition to providing new content, we’re also testing new communication solutions. That’s why one of the tools used to communicate during Closed Beta 2 will be Discord. We are planning to make it the permanent, official voice communicator for the world of Broken Ranks. It’s surely good news for many of you.

Current affairs

Apart from the above-mentioned preparations for the announcement and test, and working on marketing materials, we’re also adding new content to BR and thinking about the current version of the game. As far as BR is concerned, we have the following things on the menu:

• character creation – class illustrations
• character creation – avatar illustrations
• models – a bunch of models for episode 1 quests, e.g.: Sorcerers of the Lodge and Andayans (you can see their concept arts below)
• implementation of the prologue city: Thalia, working on the fort
• skills FX, new skill icons (see below)
• missing equipment (missing things that were left for last, new items like Furry Fury Fur)
• initial render of deposits
• rework of episode 2 quests
  
• world map features
  
• UI improvements
  
• Premium window
  
• chat improvements
  
• additional, missing tutorials (e.g. mob markers)

As for the current version of the game, we’re sure you’re very interested in what we’re going to do about shields. That’s why we would like to give you an outline of future compensation – what will be compensated and how. Details, including exact figures, are not yet set in stone. We’d very much like to hear your opinions. Maybe something’s missing or one of the forms is better than the other. We know that we can’t please everybody, but we want to be as fair as possible. As for the date, compensations will begin when druids get a new version of Fade. Most likely it’s going to be summer.

Please note that nothing here is final. Due to technical limitations and other issues, any part of the suggested solutions below may still change

What items will be compensated? In short – all shields, one-handed weapons and skins on the items, as well as upgrades. Here’s a more detailed list:

Shields:

• Keel
• Carapace
• Dragon Wing
• Isthrimm
• Gleam
• Shop shields

One-handed weapons:

• Malus
• Pinari Sword
• Derengil
• Isverd
• Avalanche
• Opener
• Pain
• Urntsul
• Tetanus
• Shop one-handed weapons

Skins:

• Chastity
• Little Death
• Water Dancer
• Skins of rare and epic items

The way you’re going to be compensated depends on the item and its type. We understand that there may be some exception that will need to be approached individually. However, we want the majority of the compensations to be quick and smooth. Here are the solutions we suggest in each area:

Repair cost – this is clear. We will refund the repair cost for all rare and set items. All rare/set items will be refunded in platinum added to the character, all shop items will be refunded in gold.

1. 1. Repair cost – this is clear. We will refund the repair cost for all rare and set items. All rare/set items will be refunded in platinum added to the character, all shop items will be refunded in gold.
   2. Purchase cost – they will be refunded in full for all shop items. As far as rares and sets go, the matter is a bit more complex. Pulling all the transactions for every player is very hard and, for older rares, simply impossible. Inflation also plays a huge role here – the same amount of gold a couple of months ago may be worth less now. That’s why we’ll have to simplify this and take into account the value of the item in recent times or just find another solution. Apart from refunds in gold or platinum, we’re also thinking about refunds in other items of similar value.
   3. The purchase and repairs costs of Tetanus and Urntsul will likely not be refunded. Both items will be adjusted so that they can be used as standalone weapons. We may refund upgrades since some of them might have been made with tournaments in mind.
   4. Pain will also be adjusted. Since it’s an endgame weapon without a successor (although there are other, similar items), we’re planning to also include it in the compensation process. The owner will be able to choose whether they want to keep it or get a refund. We’re also thinking of exchanging it for the Trident.
   5. Damaged Gleam – we’re mostly thinking of exchanging it for another item with similar value.
   6. Skins – we’re going to refund the morph and skin costs, we’re also thinking about refunding the average value of a given skin. As far as unique skins (e.g. Allenor on Pain), we’re going to approach them individually, most likely offering another unique skin or a refund.
   7. Psychoexp – will be returned to the owner of the psychorare, most likely in the form of an item working in a similar way to dielectric (but blocked in trade). We are also thinking about simply moving it to another item.
   8. Upgrades – we are thinking of several possible scenarios:
   • refund of the average cost of the upgrades (gold, flasks, inhibitors, dviggs, reols, essences) depending on the upgrade value.
   • moving the upgrades onto a different item of the same or lower rank at 1:1 ratio (so upgrades on a Gleam with +10 knowledge can be moved onto, e.g. Gathril. The Gathril will become +10 knowledge no matter what upgrades it had before).
   • if you do not want to move the upgrades onto an item of the same or lower rank, you will be able to move them onto an item of higher rank, but the ratio will take into account the cost of upgrading the new item, meaning that the upgrade will be lower than on the original item.
   • If you have all the items upgraded to the same or higher level than the item from which upgrades will be taken, then we’ll move the upgrades to an item of your choice, but the ratio will once again take into account the costs of upgrading the new item.

As far as technical details go, we’re working on a solution that will let us automatize the process as much as we can to minimize the effort you need to put into this and also the number of tickets on support. The above outline is still being worked on, so the details are bound to change.

Apart from the compensations, we’re also working on other things. We have some initial ideas about barbarians and the above-mentioned Fade. We’re still discussing them and thinking which ones are best. Once we have more details that we can share with you, we’ll let you know.

TaernCon 2021

For everyone who is awaiting information about this year’s convention, we have some good news. There will be a TaernCon! However, we still don’t know what form it’ll take. The situation with you-know-what is quite unstable, so we are discussing a couple of variants so that we can adjust dynamically to the current state of affairs. There are four possibilities:

• A classic in-person convention – the least likely possibility.
• A limited in-person convention – slightly more likely.
• A limited in-person convention that will be streamed online.
• An online-only convention.

To sum it all up, there will be a TaernCon, we’re making preparations but we’re also keeping in mind Covid restrictions. Please note that this event is likely to be in Polish only, but we’ll see!