Hello and welcome once again to the WalkScape dev blog! I have some exciting news about the engine rework and, as promised, a first look at the gear sets!

Wave 3.5 starts this week!

Wave 3.5 of WalkScape Closed Beta begins on December 15th! Players who have supported development on Patreon or Buy Me a Coffee will receive immediate access when the wave goes live. Those who support development before January 6th will also gain access during this wave, as mentioned in our previous dev blog.

More instructions about how to get access are available here: https://walkscape.app/help

Gear sets: introduction

Let's dive into the exciting new QoL feature that's launching alongside the engine optimization: gear sets!

According to our previous poll, gear sets (or presets) were the most requested QoL feature, making them our top priority. I'm happy to report that I've designed the system and completed its core functionality. I just need to add some finishing touches and polish the UI, and it should be ready.

Here's what this system aims to solve:

• Switching gear between skills is tedious. With presets for skills and activities, you'll be able to swap your entire loadout with just a few taps.
• Finding the optimal gear for activities and skills can be tricky. We're adding tools to help you pick the right equipment, especially when managing lots of items.
• Whether you're a min-maxer or casual player, these features will make your life easier.

Now, let me walk you through all the features coming with gear sets!

Gear sets: how do they work

When designing this system, we needed features that would work well for both casual players and min-maxers. I wanted to get it right so that managing gear builds would be much simpler for everyone in the future.

Here's a list of our features! We're also planning to integrate gear sets with the Travel + 1 Queue, which will make swapping sets even easier when switching activities.

Create set from current items

This is the most common way to create gear sets. Simply wear your optimal gear, create a new set, and click "copy currently equipped gear." That's it! After saving, you can easily re-equip your favorite set whenever needed.

Customize and prepare

When not walking, you can create gear sets to prepare for activities or update your existing ones.

I've created an advanced in-game tool called the "gear explorer" to help you find the right equipment for your sets.

When creating or editing a gear set, simply click any gear slot to open the gear explorer. You'll see a list of all items that fit that slot (from your WalkPedia discoveries), with several ways to find the perfect item:

• Sort by attribute: Choose any attribute, like Work Efficiency, to see items ranked from highest to lowest.
• Filter by activity: Select specific activities like "cut birch trees," "cut pine trees," or "cut oak trees." The list will show only items with relevant attributes, and sorting will be calculated for those selected activities to show which items provide the greatest benefits.
• Filter by skill (not done yet): For a broader view, filter by skill to see all related items.
• Compare items: If you already have an item equipped, you'll see a helpful comparison to make upgrading easier.
• Search: Find items quickly using the search function, just like in the bank.

Share or import gear sets

Don't want to figure out the best gear yourself? You can ask the community to share their gear sets! The game allows you to export your gear sets and import ones made by others.

When you import a gear set, your character gets a copy with the same configuration. For example, if someone has created an optimal set for the Search Team activity (a common question), they can share their gear set data for others to easily import and use.

If the gear set includes items your character hasn't discovered yet, they'll appear with a "?" sprite and no without stats or rarity, but their names will still be visible. Since players who share and import gear sets typically use the wiki anyway, showing item names makes it easier to look up how to obtain missing gear while not ruining the feeling of discovery for those who don’t want to use wiki.

Organize

Finally, let's talk about organizing your gear sets for easy access when you have multiple saved.

Each gear set has these customization options:

• Name: Give it a memorable, descriptive title!
• Icons: Add multiple icons that will appear before the set's name.
• Color: Use colors to categorize your sets - like green for woodcutting sets!
• Skills: Choose which skills the set appears for. For example, your fishing set won't clutter the menu while you're smithing.
• Activities: Specify activities where this set should appear. Like skills, this helps keep your gear list relevant to what you're doing.

Note: When your character is idle, all gear sets will be visible when you browse them regardless of skill or activity filters.

Smart with inventory space

Let's look at how gear sets handle inventory management.

When switching gear sets at a bank location, you'll be asked if you want to store your current gear in the bank. If not, the items will go to your inventory.

If you're at a bank and your desired gear set contains items stored there, those items will automatically be withdrawn. If you have them in your inventory, your inventory is always prioritized before the bank.

If some items in your gear set are unavailable (whether they're missing, you don't meet requirements, or you no longer own them), you'll see a list of these items and can decide whether to proceed with the switch.

Engine optimization

Last week, we completed the engine optimization with only a few minor features missing and released it to our internal testers.

This work took quite a while, but I'm very happy it's finished. If we had postponed it and allowed technical debt to accumulate, it would have taken much longer to complete in the future.

Initial testing has revealed bunch of small bugs in the optimized engine, but these should be rather quick to fix. After completing the gear sets (hopefully by next week), I'll focus on fixing these bugs and preparing everything for release. Due to the holiday break, this update will likely be ready for closed beta testers sometime in January - the timeline mainly depends on how quickly we can resolve the bugs!

Holiday break and until next time!

Lastly, the development team will be taking a holiday break from December 23rd to January 1st. While we may check Discord and contact@walkscape.app emails for any Wave 3.5 issues, we'll primarily be enjoying time with family.

Due to the break, there won't be a devblog on December 26th—the next one will be posted on January 9th.

That's all for today, folks! Thanks for reading, and happy holidays to everyone. Keep walking and stay hydrated ❤️