Build Log #08
The World Counts Itself
The eighth biweekly report of the MLM beta
On its hundredth day, the world revealed how carefully it counts itself. Rare dementals had been quietly vanishing for weeks, and the reason turned out to be a supply-capping economy: the world stops spawning the ones that carry scarce items once those items are already abundant, and only lets them return when players burn through the supply. To mark the milestone, the developer published a full public census of every object in the game. Alongside that, windows became fully functional, hunger gained real structure, and umbrellas started keeping the rain off.
A quiet stretch on the surface, but underneath it the economy showed its hand.
01What changed on the server side
Grouped by subject.
The world caps its own supply
- The mystery. For weeks players had noticed that rare dementals, the pyromaniacs, policemen, and lab-coats that carry scarce items, had almost stopped appearing. Only tool-carriers were still showing up. The community raised it repeatedly before the cause was found.
- The answer is economic. These dementals are deliberately not spawned when doing so would inflate the supply of the items they bring into the world. The world watches its own item counts and holds back the sources of anything already abundant.
- Supply has to be spent before it returns. A demental carrying diesel will only start spawning again once some existing diesel has been burned. Policemen do not spawn while there are too many pistol cartridges in the world. Scarcity is enforced at the source, not just by loss and decay.
- Why it matters. This is the kind of mechanic that separates MLM from other survival games. The economy is not decorative. The world actively manages its own inflation, so what is rare stays rare because the supply is capped, not because a drop rate was tuned.
One hundred days, counted
- A full census. On the hundredth day, the developer published a complete count of every item in the game, a public spreadsheet listing all objects in the world, with liquids and gases measured in hundredths of a litre.
- Real scarcity, in numbers. The census made the scarcity concrete. There are only nine lab-coats in the entire world, for example, and the count is exact because it is every item that exists, held by players, lying in the world, or carried by the handful of rare dementals still alive.
- A hundred days, no wipes. The world has run for one hundred days without a single reset. Everything counted has a history, and everything owned has been owned continuously since it entered the game.
Windows become functional
- Open, close, and shutter. Windows now open and close, along with their shutters. Open a window to let a breeze in, which makes a campfire burn brighter, and open the shutters to see what is happening outside. A campfire is no longer put out by wind coming through a window.
- Rolled out gradually. Windows were added over several days of frequent updates as they were tuned, and they were still being expanded at the close of the period. They are visible from almost any angle, with an actions menu when you stand close.
- Hotel windows are protected. Hotel windows have an unbreakable grille. The glazing can still be broken, so the advice is not to open the unbreakable shutters.
- A brief false alarm. During the rollout, a client-side visual bug made it look as though hotel rooms could be reached through windows. It was only a display glitch: the server was never affected, and no room with a closed door was ever at risk. Loot loss was paused while it was confirmed and fixed.
Hunger takes shape
- Four levels of fullness. The food level now runs through four stages: full, two thirds, one third, and empty. An empty stomach is the warning that death is near, appearing at random much like the thirst warning.
- Dying hungry keeps your loot, for now. It is possible to die of hunger, and in that case you do not drop your loot. That is a temporary state while eating is finished.
- Meat is the safe food. Only meat is balanced. All other food is not balanced yet, and negative effects from eating meat are not applied. Cooked meat restores more food than raw and will be safer to eat once effects are added.
Weather and fire
- Umbrellas work now. All kinds of umbrellas now protect from rain. Stand out in the rain and you see raindrops; equip an umbrella and they disappear.
- Campfire and bonfire. A bonfire spends fuel twice as fast as a campfire. A campfire becomes a bonfire once it holds more than 120 minutes of fuel, or 60 minutes for the reverse, switching back to a campfire when a bonfire drops to 60 minutes of fuel.
- Airflow feeds the flame. With windows now openable, a breeze through an open window makes a campfire burn brighter, tying weather, shelter, and fire together.
Map and world
- The map opened up. The map was changed to let players reach the centre and the Factory ruins more easily. New hardwood was added near the forest teleport.
- Sanity and cards. A 36-card deck must be 36 different cards. Once you have used all 36, you can no longer use porn cards to restore sanity, making a complete deck a spent resource.
02What changed on the client side
Releases
Client builds shipped frequently through the second half of the period, several flagged as required, as windows were added gradually across several days of quick updates. Server updates were near-constant during the window work, including one to update the world for new features that players would not visibly notice.
Version 18
The v18 line carried the window work, the hunger levels, umbrella rain protection, and the campfire and bonfire changes. Windows in particular were rolled out in stages, with the developer warning to expect frequent updates while they were tuned.
03Community contributions
If your name isn't here and you contributed, post in the forum and we'll catch you in Build Log #09.
04Events
Another quiet stretch over the summer, with no staged events. The activity was in development and testing rather than anything scheduled.
The 100th day census, August 27. The developer marked the world's hundredth day by publishing a full public count of every item in existence, a rare open look at the scale of the economy.
Windows rolled out, August 24 to 25. Windows were added gradually across several days of frequent updates. A brief client-side display bug during the rollout was investigated and confirmed harmless, with loot loss paused as a precaution while it was fixed.
Corpse and mob purges, throughout. Dead bodies, body parts, and at times all living dementals were cleared repeatedly, partly to investigate why rare dementals had stopped appearing.
05On the bench
Named but not yet shipped:
- PvP looting. Still the storm ahead. It has not landed yet, and remains the change the whole beta is pointed toward.
- Eating and food effects. Hunger and its four levels are in, but eating is not finished, and negative effects from food are not yet applied. Only meat is balanced.
- Weapon balancing. Tools will gain combat stats once weapons are balanced.
- More window features. Windows were rolled out gradually and were still being expanded at the close of the period, including the ability to open them fully.
06By the numbers
A quick snapshot of the period:
07Closing
Build Log #09 will cover August 30 through September 12.
A hundred days in, the world is running like the economy it was built to be. It counts what exists, caps what would flood it, and lets nothing rare become common. Windows open, hunger bites, and the scarcity holds. The one change still waiting is the biggest. When PvP looting arrives, the calm ends.