Predecessor Report - July 2023

Welcome back to another exciting edition of the Predecessor Report!

Codename: L I Z A R D

What can we say about Lizard…

Well for one he can’t change colours, he has a reptile dysfunction! Okay that joke was a tad scaly, but we had to snake a few in! Badum-hisss!

Okay seriously though, with V0.10 nearly upon us (we’re currently targeting August 8th), it’s finally time to talk a little more about our next original Hero!

You’ve known them as Lizard for a while now, but today we can reveal their official name!

Drumroll please!

Oh it feels good to finally use that name. Zarus. ZARUS. Z A R U S.

You might recognise that shield from the Season 2: Road to Ascension roadmap too!

Zarus, known across the lands as The Champion of Nyr, is a melee bruiser with the agility to chase down his foes and the power to make them wish he couldn’t. His abilities combined with his durability encourages fast paced, high-risk high-reward trade-based gameplay that we hope you will love.

Speaking of abilities, here’s a sneak peek at a few of his ability icons!

A match made in heaven!

Earlier this week we released Sr. Operations Manager, JShredz, from his deep, dark, data den to shine a light on what’s been going on with Predecessor matchmaking.

The long and short of it is that true skill-based matchmaking is incredibly hard to do well, and takes a lot of time, data and resources to tune just right.

We’ve made some great improvements recently which have already had a substantial impact on the quality of matchmaking, and we have further plans for some major back-end changes that will make things even better still!

Don’t just take my word for it though, go read our dedicated Matchmaking Improvements blog!

New UI hype!

So we’ve spoken a bunch of times now about how we’re prioritising delivering a new User Interface (UI) over new features right now. As already explained, this is because the UI is a major piece of infrastructure that many other features depend upon, meaning that the longer we put it off the slower and harder it becomes to deliver other new features. It’s also an important milestone on our journey to console!

So that’s the technical reason, but you might still be wondering what benefits the new UI will bring to you when you boot up Predecessor.

Put simply, the new UI will overhaul the entire Predecessor experience ( well, everything except the gameplay side of things). It impacts which buttons you have to press to travel between the various screens and menus, how items in the shop are displayed, what settings are available to you as a player, and much, much more.

Console when?

It’s still a common question, and we’re excited to see such an unstoppable eagerness from our console community!

While we don’t currently have a confirmed release date for console, we have recently hit a couple of crucial milestones meaning that we’re closer than ever:

• One of the requirements to submit a game to console is the creation and implementation of a Code of Conduct or, as we’ve called it, a Community Charter.
• We’ve completed a number of important branding, key art and asset requests from PlayStation that are required in order to list on their store.
• We’ve begun submitting game builds for review by Sony and Microsoft as we start the process of getting Predecessor in front of their various checks and balances.

Keep an eye out for more news and information, including a release date for console, coming soon!

Let’s talk toxicity!

Let’s not beat around the bush. There are a minority of players that are purposefully making games unenjoyable through the use of grotesque, overtly aggressive, or outrightly discriminatory language. And we won't stand for it.

Earlier in the month we unveiled the first step in our journey to tackle this malicious behavior - AI controlled, automated chat muting.

For more information, please read Community Experience Manager Zuzu’s blog post, Tackling Toxicity.

Omeda Asks - Acquazzone

This month we’ve been deep in the trenches, battling all sorts of data. From toxicity to game balance, sales revenue to matchmaking; data is at the heart of everything we do.

We thought it would be a great time to sit down with Acquazzone, Principal Data Analyst here at Omeda Studios, to go over why data is so important.

Q: Hey Acquazzone! So what exactly does a Principal Data Analyst at Omeda Studios do?

A: My job is to make sense of telemetry events and use them to improve the player gaming experience.

Q: So how important is data to the Omeda Studios team?

A: We like to think of ourselves as data-informed, meaning any decision we make will always try to incorporate data among the information used.

Q: What’s one interesting aspect of your job?

A: I enjoy this circle of learning by iteration: belief, negation, new belief, new negation, and so on.

COMMUNITY ROUND UP

She’s a Kira, queeeeeen…

Two’s Company

Superb Screenshots

Check out some of Arkokin's stunning screenshots!

Prime Championship Circuit 5

Following the success of PCC 4, the Prime Championship Circuit is back with a prize pot of $3,500 and teams made up of some of the most talented Predecessor players out there!

If you’re at all interested in the Predecessor competitive scene, you should definitely be checking it out! Watch all the action on the PCC Twitch Channel on August 12th!

That’s about all we have time for this month! What do you think? Want us to continue this style of monthly blog post? Tag me over on Discord (@Karifora) and let me know!

~ Kari, Senior Community Manager