Blog: Getting to Sandbox 1.0

2024/08/02

Written by Ryan Mattson

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Game director Jon-Paul Dumont notes in his Year-of-improvements Steam post (crossposted on our site here) that we created the Sandbox world to “provide a more procedural, non-linear generation of Moria that is narrative-lite but rich in freedom.” We were pleased with the reaction to the alpha version, but we always knew we would need to iterate towards the best version of a more procedural world. 

It has been very exciting to see players delve into Sandbox worlds, and we’ve gotten lots of feedback from the community. Keep your tickets and Discord posts coming! We also took time to interview several members of the community who have played significant amounts of the Sandbox world to get more qualitative, subjective feedback to help us make it even better. Thank you again for your time and feedback, Mereak Firmaxe, DurinDeathless, and Augimund.

One aspect of the game we changed in the Sandbox was which crafting recipes players would unlock where. Because the Sandbox world is larger than the Campaign world, with larger and more numerous ‘biomes’ than in the Campaign world, we had to adjust where recipes are unlocked to ensure players have a consistent ramp of upgrades. We found in playtesting, however, that certain areas had a scarcity of unlocks. This afforded us an opportunity to develop new items to unlock for players, including new armor sets, and new weapons.

Despite the Sandbox world being richer in exploratory freedom, the world still ramps in difficulty. The further you explore away from the starting level of the mountain, either to higher levels, or lower deeps, you encounter more difficult enemies. However, some of the ways the world was generating made exploring to levels or deeps you should be able to get to more difficult than they needed to be. For example, to descend to the first deep, players need to find the Second Stair, which lets them descend deeper into the mountain. This stair was previously generated in an area that was functionally inaccessible because it required engaging with enemies that were at a much higher difficulty than players would be prepared to engage early in the game. We figured out a better way to generate the placement of the Second Stair to encourage further exploration.

There was another issue, similar in its effect, where in the later game players were often forced to route through one of the most difficult Orc strongholds in the game just to get to areas critical to building up the resources to fight these Orcs. While this might provide for some exciting encounters, we figured out an alternative way to generate the world that provided access to the resources and recipes necessary to build strength against these Orcs without serving players up on a silver platter to them.

Many of the other improvements we made to the Campaign world also benefit and make the Sandbox world, too. For example, in the blog post “Behold, new stuff!” we outline the addition of the âbakh boosts players can find or craft in the world. Just in case you do happen to find yourself in an area for which you are a bit underpowered, be sure to carry a Swift âbakh or two so you can sprint to safety.

We also took another look at the environments that can be found in the Ruins biomes, or the Desolation as it’s known in the Campaign world. We always intended this to be an extension of Dwarrowdelf City that had been ruined by the Balrog’s emergence. Until now the areas comprising this environment made it feel less like a destroyed city, and more like a hodge-podge collection of mines and other environs with some city thrown in for good measure. With this new update, we’ve retooled which environments show up here so it feels much more like a destroyed extension of Dwarrowdelf City.

Players can also find more hidden areas in new worlds. Keep your eyes open for doors you haven’t seen before, or fallen dirt, stone, or crumbling brick walls that might contain some hidden gems behind them.

We also added more environmental variation to the Elven Quarter biome, which appears several times in the Sandbox world, and helps fill it out as a fun explorable environment akin to the other biomes found in the world. Quoting one team member during an internal playtest, “I really want to make a base here!”

Sandbox 1.0 is coming to all platforms this Fall alongside the Steam and Xbox releases. Whether you’re a new player, or a returning one, we’re excited for you to explore these updates. Keep an eye on our socials and join our Discord so you don't miss any announcements about other cool new features coming to Return to Moria this Fall!