Life is Feudal is getting another round of closed beta testing, and it’s due to launch today. To celebrate, developers Bitbox have released a new video running you through the game’s key features, and it makes clear just how far the game has come since its first form.
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In case you hadn’t heard, Life is Feudal is an MMO that focuses on simulating life in the Middle Ages. Unlike many games with a Medieval aesthetic, it aims for realism, and lacks any fantastical elements such as dragons or magic. Nonetheless, there’s still plenty of danger – you’ll need to cooperate with other players to gather resources, build shelter, craft tools and form a fully functioning feudal society in an unforgiving world. You can carve out a place for yourself in that society as a vassal, a knight, a farmer, or even as royalty.
The game’s current form is styled Life is Feudal: MMO, reflecting its growth since its launch in November 2015 as Life is Feudal: Your Own (which is still on Steam). Back then, it was designed for only 64 players in a single map of just four square miles. Now, however, developers can host over 10,000 players in a map of 169 square miles. As a new video explains, its key features include:
- Terraforming and construction: deform terrain, dig tunnels, raise or level hills, and build structures like stone towers and castles.
- Battle formation system: players can be grouped up into battle formations to fight better together and gain damage bonuses.
- Crafting: create tools, weapons and more from resources found in the world.
- Realistic damage: combat damage depends on weapons used, armor worn, and your character’s current physical condition.
- Seasons and weather effects: there are five climate zones with distinct weather tendencies, each of which has a real impact (e.g., trees grow best in cold climes, farming is better in warmer climates, etc).
- Survival gameplay: players must consider hunger, blood loss, frostbite, and fend off wild animals.
- Complex food and cooking system: multiple ingredients, when mixed with cooking skills, create recipes to help keep players strong. Higher quality food equals better skill bonuses.
- Double health and stamina bars: one HP bar measures physical health, and one consciousness. Lose all ‘soft’ HP and you pass out, but lose all ‘hard’ HP and you die. A hard stamina bar determines how long you can run long-distance, while the soft bar governs sprinting and short-duration activity.
- Private property/land claims: players and groups can claim to territory, which then protects it, and buildings on it, from random looters.
Sound good? If so, head over to the game’swebsiteto sign up for the latest round of closed beta testing. It starts today and will run for “approximately two weeks”, say Bitbox.For more information, you can check out Life is Feudal on Facebook or Twitter.