Co-op survival RPG Enshrouded got off to a great start in early access with over 2 million players diving into its massive fantasy world to build elaborate bases, battle monsters, and… well, honestly, mostly to build elaborate bases.
While player feedback has been almost entirely positive, there have been a few requests (technically, a few thousand requests) of how the game could be improved—and it looks like a lot of those requests are going to be answered this year.
Developer Keen Games posted an Enshrouded 2024 roadmap today, and it's packed with stuff players have been clamoring for. While stating that a lot of these features may turn out to be "more difficult than we can anticipate" and that studio is "wanting to keep [players] interested, without over-promising on our capacity to deliver," the roadmap still looks highly promising.
First off, "Water!" is on the roadmap, and that exclamation point is there for a reason. Despite the world being filled with mountains, hills, and valleys, there are no rivers, lakes, or even ponds, so some water is a highly requested addition. After all, isn't a base more cozy if it's next to a babbling brook or picturesque lake? (And don't we all hope that once there's water, there will be fishing poles and fish?) Weather is also on the list, since the world of Enshrouded has plenty of murky fog but no rain, lightning or thunder.
The world can also feel a bit empty and lonely—the only NPCs in Enshrouded just stand in place at your base. That's being fixed, too: NPCs will be added in towns, plus those townsfolk will have pets, apparently. As someone who uses an existing building as their base, the idea of moving into a populated town is even more enticing. (Also, can I have a pet, too? Just askin'.) Another way to make the world feel a little more alive is with the addition of enemy patrols, so the bad guys won't just be found in towns and camps anymore.
That all sounds great, and there are plenty more features on the way, including animal farming, new bosses and enemies, musical instruments, and round doors for all those players building hobbit holes instead of castles. On the technical side, Keen is also working on Steam Deck support (yay!), custom settings for servers, and a ping system so players can communicate more easily.
Here's the full roadmap if you want to check it out for yourself. Keen Games asks you to keep in mind that it's just a roadmap: there are no locked-in dates for any of these features and nothing listed is set in stone: "[The roadmap] will change as we develop the game and things turn out to be harder (or easier!) to implement than we originally thought!"
