A few devlogs ago I listed “polishing the Convergence hub (visual fidelity at 60% of where I want it)” as a work item. It is still at 60%. That is not procrastination — the last 40% turned out to be a different kind of work than the first 60%, and this devlog is about the difference.
What the Convergence hub is
In the lore, the Convergence is the neutral ground where all twenty-two factions can exist without the war — the one place an Arctic envoy and a Horde war-band share a roof. In the game it is the social layer: spawn point, meeting space, quest board, the room you return to between sessions. If the seasons are the loop, the hub is the hearth.
The 60% that exists is the functional part. Spawning works. Territory control banners update. Players can actually gather — which sounds like table stakes until you remember this is a faction war game and the neutral room is a design statement, not a lobby.
What “the last 40%” actually is
The remaining work has no single bug to fix. It is a stack of small truths the room is currently failing:
- Scale. A place that hosts twenty-two factions should feel monumental. Right now it reads as a nice room. The ceiling needs to go up — literally and figuratively.
- Faction presence. Nineteen faction seats exist in the layout, but a seat should feel claimed — banners, essence-light, small details that say the Sylvan corner grew and the Clockwork corner was machined. Currently they are colored chairs.
- Wear. A place fought over for a thousand seasons should not look freshly painted. Scuffs, repairs, the marks of old seasons — the wear is the history.
- Light. The Convergence crystal is the only guaranteed light source in the lore. The hub’s lighting needs to come *from* it, not from invisible fill lights.
None of these are hard alone. Together they are slow, because every change lands on a room people already use — the last 40% is done in public.
Why I am doing it anyway
Because the hub is the first thing a new player sees and the last thing a leaving player remembers. A lobby that looks like a lobby teaches players the world is cosmetic. A hearth that looks lived-in teaches them the world persists — which is the entire promise of the reset loop.
The bar I am using: when a screenshot of the hub could be mistaken for a piece of concept art, it is done. We are not there. That gap is the 40%.
Keep reading
- The Convergence — realm entry
- Why the Convergence crystal is the only safe place
- The 5 bugs I shipped last week
- Play EFER
- Join the Discord
Agree, disagree, or caught something off? The comment form is below — I read all of them.
