Hope you had a lovely summer. We're back with a preview of the next Mask of the Rose update, just for you.
Laburnum is going to focus on the Storycrafting element of Mask of the Rose. It will also introduce more autosave points, and all the bugfixes we can squeeze in.
Our overall aim with this update is to reduce the cognitive overhead involved in crafting murder-related stories. We’re making changes to help clarify what murderboard choices actually matter, and you should feel like you have more understanding of and agency over the trial itself.
- We've made the initial Ministerial Exposé assignment that Archie gives you after the tutorial more linear. The idea is that it guides you, step by step, through the process of first forming a question (a hypothesis) on the board and how this opens up new options to explore on the map, which lets you unlock new tokens before being able to form solutions (a theory) which can be handed in.
- We’ve made the murderboard smaller (every slot on it now potentially really affects the trial outcome). This will only impact murder-related stories; stories about rats, revolution, romance, etc will have the same number of slots as they currently have.
- We’ve also made both the generated text and Harjit's response much clearer about what you've generated, whether it's a hypothesis or a final theory, and what it's likely to achieve.
- Harjit will now expressly warn you if you've formed an "incorrect" murder theory, something that's plausible but hard to prove, and which will therefore mean the trial is likely to go sideways.
- You now can't invent explanations that are too fundamentally incoherent (like that Griz took the candles in to David, because everyone knows she didn't).
- It'll be harder to get into a bad situation in the trial unless you do it on purpose, but also easier to get out of said situation using One Weird Trick (can’t wait for you to discover this one, hahahah).
We hope this makes the whole experience simpler, the categories of murderboard outcome easier to understand, and the generated text more consistently satisfying (because it's less likely to be full-on bonkers).
Opting in to the Laburnum beta
If you'd be kind enough to opt in to the Laburnum beta and send us your thoughts, we'd be so grateful. We'll be taking feedback until the end of October.
Instructions for accessing the beta
From Steam, install Mask of the Rose and open the menu on Mask of the Rose from your games library.
Select “Properties”
Select “Betas”
Enter the access code “DarkdropCoffee” under “Private Betas”.
From Beta Participation, select “laburnum_beta” from the drop down.
That’s it - Steam will automatically update.
The Beta test is only accessible on Steam, but the patch will be available on all platforms.
For avoidance of doubt, the build numbers you're looking for are as follows:
Windows 1.4.903
Linux 1.4.904
OSX 1.4.119
Starting a New Save
While existing save files will work with this patch, we’d like to request that you start a new save.
How to send feedback
Please use the in-game bug reporter to submit all feedback. Select the category that closest matches your feedback. Normally this would just be used for bugs, but please use this method for everything to do with the beta.
What feedback are we looking for?
There are two elements of Storycrafting that we'd like your thoughts on:
The “Ministerial Exposés” assignment from Archie has been streamlined. We’re interested in learning if this is a clearer and more comprehensible way of introducing the storycrafting mechanic.
- Do you feel like you understand what to do and where to go next?
- Do you feel concepts like the difference between hypotheticals (questions) and conclusions (solutions) are clear?
The “Mystery Solutions” (murder case) assignment that Harjit gives you has been simplified.
- Is it easier to form questions and theories?
- Do you feel like you know what to do and where to go for answers?
- Do you feel able to form solutions and present them to Harjit?
And we'd like to hear about any bugs, of course.
How long should you play?
Any amount of time is appreciated, but to test the major changes introduced here, we ask you to play up to Yule and experiment with the revised “Mystery Solutions” storycrafting assignment.
Saving
If you’ve already got three saves in progress already, we suggest you rename one of the existing save files temporarily, and start a new save file. You can then delete the new save file when you are done, and set the name of the save you wished to retain back to the previous name. Where to find your saves.
New saves created in the beta branch will not be backwards compatible - if you switch to the standard branch they will not work. They will carry forward, however, and be compatible with the release version of the patch.
Note: The final version of this patch will increase the frequency of autosaving, but this is not in the beta version.
Thank you, delicious friend!
