While there's no date for Patch 31, we can reveal some more information of it now to ease the wait. Or maybe it's just to tease. You decide. :)
In the video, Panzar's lead designer AriOrH explained in great detail some of the new features, most notably the revamped Forge and crafting system. Since the time the video was published, some of the plans have already changed several times as the design team goes through the plans to work out the flaws and improve the functionality. Below is however the summary of the features discussed in the video. Please feel free to comment and speculate, but also remember that everything is still subject to change.
The New Forge
Forge User interface (UI) has been re-designed from the ground up, along with the actual crafting system. Instead of having a chance of success, crafting now always succeeds but will take time to finish. Once an item is being built, you can follow the its progress, and even use crystals to speed up the crafting process.
You will also be able to start crafting an item without initially having all the required resources, and add them as you progress (they will also add automatically when previous resources will be used). You will also be able to pause the crafting, and continuing it later when you've gained more of the required materials.
With the new changes, old gear will also have a new use - instead of selling gear to the vendor for some gold, it can be salvaged, allowing you to reclaim some of the resources used in making it.
Finally, under the Forge-section, the item upgrade system will also be redone. Instead of the coin-flip to see if the item is upgraded with another level or resets back to default, using gold to upgrade the item will now see the potential upgrade the item will receive. If you're happy with the new version, you can accept and apply the upgrade.
The catch is that there are several power levels of upgrades that will be available at random, meaning you'll need to make decisions of what level of upgrade you want. Each upgrade will increase both Mastery and Health, instead of just one or the other.
New Map: Cursed Altar
Siege maps are usually understood as covering a large area, with several capture points the attacking team must push through. To challenge this perception and to see how siege mode works in smaller scale, we're introducing a new siege map; Cursed Altar.
Cursed Altar is a small siege-styled map with 2 capture points. To make things interesting, when a capture point is being taken over, it will rise from the ground, making access to it difficult. We hope that the Cursed Altar will offer a new siege-like, intense gameplay experience.
Other possible features and changes.
These topics were discussed in the video, but they are not planned to be part of Patch 31. They are however, possible (if not likely) future changes to Panzar.
-Resource exchange. Allows exchanging of resources to others, e.g. iron -> wood. No details, such as the exchange ratio, have yet been decided.
-Possibility of permanent runes is being discussed. However, this is something that is a very complex question on many levels, and no immediate changes are expected.
-To allow for better compatibility for different PC setus, more video settings are being planned to be added.
-Spectator mode is rather rudimentary, and a host of improvements are being planned to better keep the viewers informed.
-Much discussion about the role of clans has been had, and as a first step to improve the functionality new clan menu and settings will be designed and tested.
-To address some issues with e.g. queue times, the experience slider will likely have a minimum of 25% of either experience or gold, eventually forcing progress.
-To accommodate the forge changes some talents, specifically the crafting ones, will be redone.
That concludes the *preview* of the *potential* *possibilities* of what the future *may* hold. Like mentioned, many things change a lot during their planning, designing, implementation and testing, and while we want to offer some thoughts and insight into what is happening, remember that anything and everything in the list is subject to change.
Please also offer your comments and feedback. While speculation does not equal testing, constructive feedback will always be valuable.
