Update 42: May & June 2024

Written By Shawn Lord

Hi all!

First off, we’d like to welcome two new team members:

  • Jimmy - A veteran animator who is still working at a very well-known company, whose name we won’t disclose here. He’s working with Urkenstaff on animating our characters.

  • Callum - A software engineer building large-scale distributed databases for observability data and open source metrics + monitoring tools. He’s working with Ali and crew on tooling, data related topics, and performance.

We’ll update the Team section of the site shortly. With all of the new additions in recent months, we’re a bit behind.

~~~

Next, we’d like to offer our thanks for the fantastic participation in the Stress Tests leading up to the June Playtest, and for your patience and engagement during the playtest itself.

The response was so much better than we expected!

We greatly enjoyed seeing everyone running around, and despite knowing we had a few unresolved tech issues going into the test, it seemed like folks had a good time overall.

~~~

As a reminder or for people that missed our comments leading into the test, I’ll give a brief description regarding the tech situation leading into the June Playtest:

We discussed some issues during the Stress Test that appeared to be linked to changes and additions we’ve made since December. This was a good lesson in what can happen if we go too long without having real players on the server, since headless clients/bots can only simulate so much.

The tech team made some adjustments during the Stress Tests and shortly after, but there were bigger changes/fixes that we held off on prior to the Playtest. The logic was that we’d rather dance with the devil we know, than potentially introduce a show stopping bug that might significantly impact the Playtest.

We like to lock our builds down well in advance of a playtest, so that even if it’s not perfect we can guarantee that people that have planned ahead to play aren’t disappointed at the last minute by some random new bug.

Hopefully, that clarifies why things weren’t “perfect” going into the June Playtest. We’re working through various fixes now. So, don’t be shocked if we kick off another Stress Test sometime soon.

We’ll post more details (here or in Discord) soon, but here’s a quick overview of the June Playtest:

 

Concept Art & UI

  • New Item Icon Art

  • Support for Item Icon tinting

  • Book/Journal Art and Implementation

  • Environment Concepts for Vale of Zintar and other areas

  • Weapons Concepts

  • Player Armor Set Concepts

  • Treant Concepts Updated

  • Cyclops/ Eye Minion Concept

  • Dragon Types Concepted

  • Drake Concepts

  • Wraith, Specter, Shade, Phantom, etc Concepts

  • Ratmen (and Mousemen) Concepted

 

Character Art

  • Additional Cloth Armor sets

  • Additional Leather Armor

  • New Plate Armor set

  • New Halfling Male Hair Style

  • Gnome Hair Updated

  • Merchant Clothing

  • Cloth and Leather Texture Palettes for use in creating new textures

  • Undead Rat Texture

 

Animations

  • Wolf Rigged

  • Wolf Animated

  • Jackal updated with new rig and animations

  • Giant Rigged

  • Giant animations started

  • Fixed ducking/sitting glitch when multiple animations fire simultaneously

 

Environment Art

  • Ruins blockout in Vale of Zintar

  • Worked with Goblin on the Citadel(s) and related effects

  • Façade work in Glass Flats, Sungreet Strand, Night Harbor, and Vale of Zintar

  • Export of terrain elements in Glass Flats and Sungreet Strand

  • Mesh cleanup of Glass Flats and Sungreet Strand

  • Vertex painting of exported terrain elements

  • Adjusted surrounding statics and nodes in Sungreet Strand after import of final terrain elements

  • Minor vertex painting in Editor

  • Texture Iteration

  • Added some new environmental VFX to Deep Dunes lakes

  • Lighting and Prop Passes in Tel Ekir, Ancient Crypt, and Ruined Crypt

Light & Props (Before and After)

 

Audio & Music

 

Design

Commands

  • /gohome and /unstuck removed

  • /rewind is now on a 30 minute timer and has a confirmation box

PvP

  • Level 2 now required for PvP on PvP Servers

  • Cannot attack or AOE group/guildmates

States

  • Warmth of the Hearth (Inn "Commons Area" Buff) duration and acquisition rate now matches Warmth of the Campfire (Campfire Buff)

    • Note: Inn Rooms, Housing Rooms, and Guild Rooms, and possibly other options will provide greater durations (but at slower acquisition rates)

Content

  • More Bone Construct encounter tweaks

  • Front Gate, Newbie Desert, and Newbie Desert Transition areas mob spawn chances modified

  • Sungreet Strand’s Quarry populated and quests added

  • Ashira Faction quest series added

  • Fallen Pass Population started

  • Additional Population work in Glass Flats

Tradeskills

  • Added 98 Weapon Smithing recipes, 14 for each tier (Currently used in Blacksmithing)

  • Added new Weapons, Patterns, and Crafting Components for Weapon Smithing

  • Added higher level Bandages on different materials

Itemization

  • Bronze Weapons and Armor now only drops Level 20+

  • Minicrypt Itemization Adjustment

  • Wyrmsbane Itemization Adjustment

  • Added many new item icons to items

  • Quest Armor Rewards Pass

  • Tradeskill item and misc. cost updates

  • Various rewards balancing

  • Quiver cost and size adjusted

  • Added Quiver Backpacks

Traits

  • Minor Non-Combat Traits now grant 25 Skill, down from 50

Skills

  • Skillup Rate Increased

General Abilities

  • Tier 2 of the Healer Unique Lines mana cost decreased from 40 to 35

  • Tier 3 of the Healer Unique Lines mana cost increased from 60 to 75

  • Tier 4 of the Healer Unique Lines mana cost increased from 100 to 130

  • Tier 5 of the Healer Unique Lines mana cost increased from 150 to 200

  • Tier 6 of the Healer Unique Lines mana cost increased from 200 to 275

  • Weak Heal mana cost reduced from 7 to 6

  • Minor Heal amount healed increased from 10 to 12

  • Heal mana cost reduced from 40 to 35

  • Exceptional Heal mana cost increased from 190 to 200

  • Provoke has been removed from the game and replaced with Taunt, a more traditional Taunt style ability

  • Taunt is now resistable

  • Added Abilities to Mesmerize line for Enchanter and Inquisitor: Captivate, Hypnotize; and Trance for Enchanter only

  • Added Abilities to Torment line for Enchanter and Inquisitor: Torture, Traumatize, Anxiety, Dread; and Anguish for Enchanter only

  • Torment line debuff duration increased from 30 seconds to 60 seconds

  • Added Ability: Greater Purge for Inquisitor and Wizard

  • The Haste ability has had it's Melee Attack Speed Increase changed from 10% (L1) to 25% (L16) to 10% (L4) to 25% (L16)

  • Mesmerize abilities have had their threat reduced

  • Resist Debuffs have had their threat reduced

Archer

  • The Deadeye and Pinning Shot ability scrolls are now properly available on the Archer Spell Merchant

  • Added Ability: Illuminating Shot (missing some functionality)

Bard

  • Movement Speed decrease doubled for each tier of the Aria Attack Speed/Movement Speed slowing line

  • Fixed an issue where the Aria slowing line was not a PBAE

  • Aria line no longer erroneously requires a target

  • Added Ability: Unifying Anthem (Currently Bugged)

  • Expanded the Dissonant Riffs ability line with: Disruptive Riffs, Discordant Riffs, Despondent Riffs, and Dismal Riffs

  • Screaming Vocalization damage now has a damage variance of 150% (L1) to 350% (L60)

  • The Riffs DoT song line now begins scaling at each acquisition level instead of all from Level 1

Beastmaster

  • Beastmaster pets now have Taunt

  • All Beastmaster Pets and Tiers of Pets have had their Max Hitpoints (mostly increased, some higher level versions decreased)

  • Beastmaster pets now all have a damaging Melee ability

Cleric

  • Added Ability: Inhibit Pain

  • Blessed Barrier line duration reduced to 15 seconds down from 2 minutes

Druid

  • Grip of Nature now properly applies it's Root effect

  • Encircling Roots moved from Level 16 to Level 12

Elementalist

  • Air Elemental Pet Rush of Air aura effect proc rate increased, then slightly reduced

  • Added Ability: Heal the Elements

  • Elemental Pet Nukes reduced from 1 (L1) to 100 (L60) to 1 (L1) to 90 (L60)

  • Heal the Elements heal amount reduced from 50 to 40

Enchanter

  • Tranquility moved from Level 12 to Level 8

  • Fascinate moved from Level 16 to Level 12

Fighter

  • Added Abilities: Offensive Stance, Defensive Stance, Final Stand

  • Removed Ability: Weapon Shield

Necromancer

  • Added Ability: Mend the Dead

Paladin

  • Paladins now receive Blind at Level 9

  • Paladins now receive Stun at Level 24

  • Unleash the Light moved from Level 9 to Level 15

  • Ward the Dead moved from Level 16 to Level 12

  • Mark of the Crusader moved from Level 12 to Level 16

  • Mark of the Crusader healing proc reduced from 1 (L1) to 6 (L60) to 1 (L16) to 5 (L60)

  • Aura of the Pious armor reduced from 1 (L1) to 60 (L60) to 1 (L1) to 20 (L60)

  • Added Ability: Ancient Guardian

Shadow Knight

  • Lull the Dead moved from Level 12 to Level 11

  • Shadow Knight pets are now close in level to the Shadow Knight but have larger damage penalties to compensate

Shaman

  • The Spores Shaman unique heal line now does it's full effective heal in 24 seconds, down from 30 (healing per tick increased to compensate)

  • Healing Spores line cast time reduced from 2.5 seconds to 1.5 seconds

  • Healing Spores line tooltip corrected

  • Wolf Spirit pet now has Bite and Taunt

  • No longer can use the Strength, Stamina, Dexterity, or Agility Buff Lines

  • Added Abilities: Berserker Spirit, Berserker Rage, Berserker Fury, Berserker Frenzy, Berserker Wrath (Combined Strength, Stamina, Dexterity, Agility Buff Line)

  • Added Ability: Spore Discharge

Spellblade

  • Fire DD Infusion proc rate increased

  • Infuse Weapon: Fireburst moved from Level 4 to Level 8

  • Added Ability: Unstable Barrier

Wizard

  • Added Targeted AOE Abilities: Arcane Bonds and Arcane Shackles

  • Added Quad Targeted AOE Line: Blanket of Flame, Blanket of Fire, Blanket of Magma, Blanket of Lava


Tech

Fixes

  • Code refactoring and cleanup

  • Fixed lower level stackable buffs replacing higher level ones

  • No longer sending two messages per tick to the client if they dot themselves

  • Fixed duplicate buffs showing up when applying multiple stacks of a buff

  • Updated ocean light layer in a number of zones so it doesn't reflect the paperdoll light

  • Scribing an ability will now fail if you no longer have the ability scroll

  • Don't show range in tooltip of abilities with a target HID of 'slf'

  • Abilities granted by traits no longer say "you cannot cast this"

  • Fixed /scribeallspells scribing all traits

  • Fixed being able to booty-scoot while camping

  • Fixed buff breaks not stopping associated active abilities on NPCs

  • Widget creating abilities (such as campfire), will no longer consume reagents if the placement fails

  • Fixed pets attempting to spawn at 0,0,0 initially when entering a zone

  • Fixed Crest underwater renderer error spam / crash when switching quality settings

  • Fixed lag when gaining a skill or opening skill interface

  • Fixed IconData memory leak

  • Fixed exploit with spam-fizzing skill-ups

  • Players can no longer use abilities while feared

  • Cone abilities now properly use a 90 cone to determine targets

  • LOS is now properly calculated for AOE abilities

  • Fixed multiple cases of aggro not calculating correctly

  • Tweaked melee range calculation resulting in an overall decrease

  • Autofollow will now work better for multiple clients from the same device

  • Adjusted rain effect to not penetrate indoors in a few locations

  • Fixed some flicker of lights/shadows caused by performance optimizations

  • Several paperdoll bug fixes

  • When inviting someone to a party fails because they are zoning, it now shows a failure message and no longer leaves the invitee in a state where they cannot be re-invited for a period of time

  • Fixed an issue in NPC behavior where in some cases they would change their facing direction for a moment when they should be standing still

  • Fixed some issues with player to player item and currency trading

  • Fixed an issue where closing your inventory would prevent you from re-opening the bank.

  • Fixed an issue with invisibility that was needed after some performance tweaks we did following one of the stress tests.

  • On PvP servers, hostile actions are no longer possible with party and guild members.  (So for example you can use AoE abilities without hitting your party members now.)   Note: You can still duel party/guild members if desired.

  • On PvP servers, tab targeting will now select hostile players.

  • Fixed an issue where hostile AoE abilities did not hit players in PvP.

  • Dueling using /duel is no longer to the death, and the duel will end leaving the combatant at 1hp.  New command added /dueltodeath.

Changes:

  • Added /playercount command that tells you how many players are on the server.

  • GMs can use /corpse without consent

  • Added ip and ping to /stats tooling

  • Added /makeguildleader GM command to make your target the leader of their guild

  • Added /listinventory gm command to list all items carried by your target

  • Chat window scrolls faster when moving the mouse wheel faster

  • Inform client of buff duration and add duration to buff description when right-clicking

  • Buff icons blink when they have 30 seconds or less remaining

  • Enabled footstep sounds based on the target surface, first pass on tagging environment for the correct sounds

  • Implemented Target of Target window

  • Buffs now have a colored border to show harmful / beneficial status

  • Aurabar abilities can now be inspected

  • Screenshots taken with F12 will now be properly saved in the Screenshots directory

  • Added support for abilities to spawn custom projectiles, and put in initial projectiles for Archer abilities

  • Added support for the Enchanter "Enchant Ally" ability

  • Your guild tag will no longer be shown above your character when you are anonymous

  • You can now use /surname without a name to clear your surname.  This can only be used once per 30 days.

  • GMs now have more control over /surname name letter casing for granting titles and otherwise disallowed names

  • You will now see a chat log message for when a buff or debuff is applied to a target that already has that buff/debuff

In Closing

Again, thanks for all the fun memories during the playtest! The response definitely made all of the work leading up to it worthwhile.

We had a number of people tells us about them bringing along their families, old guildmates, and others. It was heartwarming to see.

As always, if you want to assist us, we only ask that you direct people to the links below:

Our Discord is now sitting at 8600+ people, so your efforts on this front are paying off.

That’s it for now.

See you all in the next update!

Shawn Lord
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Update 43: July & August 2024
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Update 41: April 2024