It’s me, Peter again, back with another Q&A session as our team is currently tackling waves of bugs! I'm sure these questions are still on your mind.
Starting this time, we’re dividing the FAQ into two parts: feedback about bugs impacting your gaming experience, and suggestions for improvements.
No more chatter, ZIMA and I are ready:
Q: I can't get into the game! It's stuck on the loading screen
A: We're aware of this issue and are making every effort to ensure that everyone can enjoy Soulmask. There's already a proven solution in our community. Please join our discord.
We're also rolling out a new "Protection Mode" pretty soon, which will kick in automatically when this happens, making sure everyone gets to experience the new game world!
Q: My death package disappeared after my character died!
This is a serious issue. For some players, the "Time multiplier for Auto-Destruction of Death Packages" coefficient has been incorrectly adjusted to 0, causing death packages to disappear immediately after death.
If you encounter this issue while playing solo or on private server, please follow these steps:
Go to Advanced Settings and reset all systems to default settings.
Next, go back to Advanced Settings and adjust the "Time multiplier for Auto-Destruction of Death Packages" coefficient to 0. Save the changes.
Return to Advanced Settings and adjust the "Death Package Auto-Destruction Time" coefficient to the desired time.
If you want the death package to exist for a longer time, be sure to increase the coefficient! We're working on a fix to prevent this issue and expect it to be resolved within a week.。
Q: The tribesmen often get stuck, and they're too stupid!
A: We get it—this is an issue that requires time to improve. We are still figuring out ways to optimize the AI of the tribesmen. For now, you can try holding down "E" to reset their positions to resolve the issues.Of course, a larger construction layout can solve this problem; as overly compact crafting tables in an area raise the probability of encountering this problem.
In addition, rest assured about your tribesmen's work efficiency when you are out exploring. Your tribesmen won't slack off even if they get stuck!
Q: The mother panther always gets stuck when I'm trying to capture a panther cub. Also, I've already adjusted the rarity coefficient, so why haven't I gotten a black panther yet?
A: We understand the frustration of not being able to successfully capture mounts. Our team have gathered coordinates for some of the problematic areas and will try our best to fix the terrain issues. Catching mounts will get a whole lot easier for everyone! As for the rarity issue, the parameter settings were ineffective – that was definitely a bug, and we've already fixed it in yesterday's update.
Q: Why are the mineral models still there, but I can't collect them?
Currently, a small number of players are experiencing "air minerals." We'll address this issue as soon as possible, hopefully this week. For now, single-player players can try restarting the game to resolve this issue.
Q: Not supporting FOV in a 2024 game is unacceptable!
A: We're working on it! However, it's important to note that adjusting FOV requires careful consideration of its impact on art assets and visual style. This may take some time.
Adjusting FOV may cause minor issues. To ensure game stability and performance, we've decided to temporarily disable FOV settings. We'll consider adding this setting in the future, but we'll prioritize ensuring its quality before enabling it, which might take some time.
Currently, the game does offer a feature to change the camera distance in the settings. You can try that out. Besides modifying the game files to adjust FOV yourself, we'll also provide a quick way to do it soon. However, these modifications may cause minor issues. Feel free to modify it if you don't mind these potential problems.
Q: The anacondas are so terrifying! I'm scared of snakes!
We understand, snakes aren't everyone's favorite. But don't worry, anacondas are very slow, so they're basically like avoidable obstacles—you don't really want to get close to them unless necessary. Also, we have concentrated their spawning areas on the island in the mangrove forests.
Maybe we should place a "Beware of Anacondas" sign...
At the same time, we're also tweaking the anacondas' attacks to be less intimidating, for a more comfortable gameplay experience.
Q: Why does fighting the BOSS in a group only drop one unit of materials? We have to fight the BOSS several times!
A: We are considering adding a mechanism whereby teammates from the same tribe fighting the BOSS will enhance its difficulty, yet increase the drops to ensure each participant receives adequate essential items.
What do you think? Feel free to tell us in the comments section.
Q: My key bindings are constantly conflicting, we need more keybinding options! / I can't even enter a space when naming markers on the map..
Got it. In fact, in yesterday's update, we already added some keybinding customization options. More customization options are on the way, including the space key.We are always committed to improving the UI, aiming to provide a smoother experience based on full functionality for our players.
Q: I'd like to see a backpack filtering feature, sorting by weight, acquisition time, rarity, etc.
A: Got it! As mentioned, UI improvements are a constant focus for us! Backpack filtering and sorting optimization is already in the works, and we're currently testing its stability. Please give us a little more time, it'll be available soon.
Q: The diseases are too terrifying! I end up killing my entire tribe without even knowing it
A: We've optimized the disease mechanism. Now they won't be as devastating.
Q: As the chieftain of a large tribe, having a limit of only 50 tribesmen is too few
A: In the future, we will consider a mechanism where the tribesmen limit slightly increases with each new member added. The main issue here is fairness, so please give us more time to make these adjustments
Q: During the official server's PVP hours, why can't I deal damage to buildings?
A: First, you need to ensure your battering rams are powerful enough to damage enemy buildings: lower tech-level rams are ineffective against higher tech-level walls.
That’s all for this Q&A session. If your question hasn't been answered yet, don’t worry—they will be addressed tomorrow. We welcome everyone to share their questions and suggestions about Soulmask. We will continue to follow up and work together to make it better.
We’ve set up an Experimental Branch on Steam for PC. The purpose of this branch is to post builds and updates there for live testing before we make official updates! This is SUPER helpful to us as we are small team and there is no substitute for high volume testing!
We’ll be looking into adding Mac and doing it for GOG as well but one step at the time!
To join the branch:
Turn off steam cloud saves. Right click on the game and choose properties, then go to General and unclick the steam cloud saves.
Back up their save data. Found at “C:\Users\USER\AppData\LocalLow\High North Studios\SKALD_ Against the Black Priory\SaveFiles” copy the SaveFiles folder and put it on the desktop for example.
Go back to steam, right click on Skald and select Properties. Select tab Betas. Type in the pass: experimental and hit the button Check Code. Now select the branch from the drop down list.
Enter password: “ experimental”
Restart steam to trigger steam client to download the update
Please note that going back and forth between the Default and Experimental branch could POTENTIALLY cause issues with save files though we’re of course doing everything we can to avoid that.
Dear air traffic controllers, We are excited to share some great news with you all. We've signed a publishing agreement with Erabit Studios, and we're gearing up for the official release of 'Mini Airways' in the third quarter!
In the future, we'll continue to steer the game's development direction. Erabit is a global creative game publisher specializing in serving individual developers and small to medium-sized development teams like ours. They provide a range of support, including publishing, quality assurance, localization, and marketing, significantly easing our workload.
During the upcoming Steam Next Fest, there will be a brand new demo, showcasing updated visuals and various improvements. It's an opportunity you won't want to miss—play as an air traffic controller like never before!
As the development progresses, we eagerly await your feedback and ideas, so feel free to join our Discord and engage directly with the development team!
Lastly, don't forget to add us to your wishlist on Steam—it's a tremendous help to us!
Inspector Schmidt - A Bavarian Tale - Linnaea Borealis
Roadmap Update
There are still many things we want to improve on "Inspector Schmidt - A Bavarian Tale". The list below shows our planned Roadmap. It gives you a rough overview of the features and milestones we hope to achieve in the near future, but the contents are subject to change as we advance. We would love to hear your opinion on this. Please let us know which features and improvements you feel are the most important ones and if there is anything missing from this Roadmap. Thank you to all of you who have already given feedback, shared your experiences with "Inspector Schmidt" with us and flagged issues and bugs. We highly appreciate your contributions!
Roadmap as of June 2024
Coming Weeks
update to UE 5.4
optimize performance
perform several bug fixes (thanks again to our community for letting us know about the bugs you've come across!)
Longterm
improve on all localizations
add Steamcloud Savegames
Steam Collectors-Cards
record and implement narrator for all Choose-Your-Own-Adventure parts