Not abandoned, just really slow development. It sounded to me like they're trying (no promises) to get the test branch (not the official release) of the Mistlands update out by the end of this year, so the first half of 2023 should have more of the content people are looking for. But, y'know, don't hold your breath or anything.

Originally posted by ShaftAlmighty:

I totally understand your frustration but here's something for context: Skyrim has a massive development team, like top tier, and it took them 7 years. Iron Gate is an indie dev that just expanded a few months ago and expansion for a small group is chaotic. Valheim started about 2 years ago.

Eh, that's kinda apples-to-oranges. Outwardly, there's some commonalities, but Elder Scrolls games have a huge map that's designed by people. Sure, lots of assets get reused, but it's all designed and put together by people. Not to mention, there's all of those quests and characters with dialogue. The way Valheim is set up, it should only take a fraction of the work hours to accomplish--which is good, because they do have a significantly smaller team.

Also, I'm pretty sure they got started on Valheim more than 2 years ago. It's been on the steam store for almost 2 years, but that's not when they started the project. If they really started about 2 years ago, than it just raises more questions. Like how did they get meadows, black forest, swamp, mountains, plains, base-building, character design, skills, equipment, etc. mostly done in a few months (in time for Steam release) but can't get a single new biome done in the following 2 years? Doesn't add up. Simplest explanation is that they were working on the game for quite a while before launching on Steam.

And yes, I know they've also worked on other things during this past 2 years, not just Mistlands.