Update 43: July & August 2024
Hi all!
Thanks again for participating in the June Stress and Playtests. We’ve had additional Stress Tests since then (with another underway as I type), and the patience and engagement is greatly appreciated!
And thanks for sharing word about them. It’s great to see so many families and groups of friends playing together already.
We’ve gained significant insight from each test. So, expect more. And hey, they don’t cost you a thing!
We mentioned last month that we’d update the Team page. That’s been completed. Take a look!
And it’s looking like we’ll need to update it again with a few new additions soon.
Okay, here’s the good stuff!
Concept Art & UI
Item Icon Art
Merchant Clothing Sets
Calafrey Areas
Ideas for Treant, Toadman, and Deep Dwarven “Flesh Collector”
Started on the Gods
Haradrel the God of War
Character Art
Upgraded human skeleton model to visually show chest piece and cape in addition to helm and shoulders
Chain Mail Armor Set
Did another helm fitting pass on most races
Drake Model in Progress
Merchant Clothing Set
Additional Wood Elf Faces
Reworked human and male dwarf capes (not pictured)
Lots of boring file organization work (no pictures of that, but just imagine Zukan sad)
Animations
Dragon Rig
Dragon Animations
Giant Animations
Started on race specific crouch related animations
Skeletons revised to allow for functional skeletons of various races
Environment Art
Giant Ruins blockout in Vale of Zintar
Refactored Fang Guard Keep to add more playspace
Tweaks to one of Night Harbor’s secret mini-dungeons
A few new mini-dungeons created by applicants/new team members
Evergrove (first Calafrey zone) blocking started
Continued work on Fallen Pass
Propping of Fallen Pass points of interest
Smuggler’s Bay & Tunnels
Mur’Hua (ratman) Escapee Hideout
Western Watch & Scavenging Areas
Tunnels to Lower Saman
Boneyard refactor
Skri’Var (ratman) Village
Texture pipeline explorations continued (Substance -> Handpainted Touch-ups)
Signage for Night Harbor continued
Evergrove blocking started
Audio & Music
Design
Content
Sungreet Strand Quarry POI Population & Quests Added
Addition Quarry related Quests added to Night Harbor
Fallen Pass Population Continued
Additional related Quests in Night Harbor
Adjusted level ranges of spawns in Night Harbor Catacombs (day/night)
Initial pass for population in [undisclosed Night Harbor Mini-Dungeon]
High Marshal Fionna adjustments
Skyseer Illya adjustments
Skyseer Illya respawn time greatly increased
Dust Devil adjustments
Ruined Crypt renamed Infested Crypt
Infested Crypt no longer has a mob spawn at the entrance in aggro range
Fixed some Infested Crypt issues
Wyrmsbane Armor now requires different gems dependent on armor type
Fixed several spawn volumes not having their Day/Night spawn flag properly activated
Wandering Ghoul can now spawn during Night Time as well
The spawn rate of Wandering Ghoul has been slightly increased
Skyseer Illya respawn time greatly increased
Created several new NPC ability lists for multiple NPC classes
Glass Flats Mob Ability Pass
Sungreet Strand Mob Ability Pass
Mendicants now wear clothes
Added Tailoring Trainer
Added extra Enchanting Supplies merchant
Itemization
Patched Rawhide Tunic no longer incorrectly gives stats
Various rare drop balance adjustments and new drops
Added new tiers of gems for Jewelcrafting
Added new components for Jewelcrafting
Replaced old components with new for Blacksmithing all armor sets higher tier than Copper
Cloth and Chain Leather tiers now drop from the same level of mobs as the current Chain and Plate tiers
Wyrmsbane Armor drop rate slightly reduced
Basic Weapon Two Handers have increased damage
The drop rate of Corrupted Heart has been increased
Adjusted basic armor and gem prices
More merchants will now buy gems
Various itemization changes and additions
Ancient Crypt itemization pass (more to come)
First itemization pass for Tel Ekir Monster City rares
First itemization pass for Night Harbor Catacombs rares
Tradeskills
Higher tiers of Bandages are now learnable and craftable
Jewelcrafting
Added Rings, Earrings and Necklaces for each gem type for all of the basic tiers and their respective recipes
Jewelcrafting recipes updated to no longer have only a gem and 2 Enchanted Metal Bars as components
Rings are created with: Wire and Setting (i.e. Bronze Setting/Bronze Wire), tier appropriate gem
Earrings and Necklaces are created with: Wire and Mounting (i.e. Iron Mounting/Iron Wire), tier appropriate gem
Wire is created with 1 Metal Bar of any type
Settings and Mountings are created with 2/1 Enchanted Metal Bars of any type respectively
All Rings, Earrings, and Necklaces are itemized/balanced and have unique icons
Blacksmithing
Non-Copper Chain and Plate armor components adjusted to require Metal Chain Links and Metal Plates just as the Copper tier currently requires you to make Copper Chain Links and Copper Plates to craft that armor
Mining
Mining Node basic ore loot tables updated to include Gem tiering for all tiers of nodes
Traits
Slippery now properly dispels active Movement Impairing Effects (but not Snare yet)
Hardiness now properly dispels active Stun Effects
Added Smelter minor non-combat trait
Added Stone Form major combat trait for Dwarves and Deep Dwarves
Fixed Stone Form trait not granting you the ability
Stone Form now also grants you immunity to Disease, Electricity, and Poison abilities during it's effect
Sneak trait now properly enabled for Halflings
Bards can now use Knife Thrower trait
General Abilities
Various tooltip corrections
Various icon fixes
See Invisibility acquisition level halved for all classes that receive it
Fear facing requirement removed
Skeleton Illusion and Ghost Skeleton Illusion texture fixed and eye brightness increased
Non-Pet Auras will now have a Purple background indicating a Group Buff
Pack Speed can now target other Groups as well
Resistant Traits abilities can be used while Feared, Mezzed, and Stunned
Self Full Immunities can be used while Feared, Mezzed, and Stunned
Hardiness can be used while Stunned
Added Ability: Greater Invisibility for Enchanter and Wizard
Added Abilities to fill out the Ward the Dead line with: Beset the Dead, Rebuff the Dead, Beleaguer the Dead, Assail the Dead, and Devastate the Dead
Updated some ability sounds
Pet Melee Damage Penalty reduced by 10% across the board for all pets (Damage Increase)
Archer
Quick Shot and Dispelling Shot are now considered Might abilities and share a cooldown
Disengagement threat reduction reduced and tooltip fixed
Bard
Repel threat reduction reduced to that of Evade
Frightful Howl removed
Added Ability: Hymn of the Dead
Bards can now use Throwing Daggers
Repel threat reduction increased
Many offensive songs now require Line of Sight to start and complete casting
Elementalist
Elemental pets now use new Crushed Malachite reagent
Other forms of Malachite can also be used as a reagent for Elemental pets
Added Abilities to fill out the Ward the Elements line with: Beset the Elements, Rebuff the Elements, Beleaguer the Elements, Assail the Elements, and Devastate the Elements
Enchanter
Charm mana cost reduced from 30 to 25
Fighter
Intimidation duration reduced from 10 seconds to 8 seconds
Inquisitor
Added Ability: Dominate the Mind
Paladin
Lay on Hands moved to Level 8
Shadow Knight
Lull the Dead moved to Level 5
Grip of Agony moved to Level 8
Wizard
Added Ability: Mark of Magic
Added Abilities: Teleport: Glass Flats and Portal: Glass Flats
Added Ability Line: Fire Lures with Lesser Lure of Flame, Lesser Lure of Fire, Lesser Lure of Magma, Lesser Lure of Lava, Greater Lure of Flame, Greater Lure of Fire, Greater Lure of Magma, Greater Lure of Lava
Added Ability Line: Cold Lures with Lesser Lure of Frost, Lesser Lure of Ice, Lesser Lure of Freezing, Lesser Lure of Chilling, Greater Lure of Frost, Greater Lure of Ice, Greater Lure of Freezing, Greater Lure of Chilling
Tech
Fixes/Adjustments:
Refactored positional netcode and network culling
We have completely changed the strategy of positional sync
This has allowed us to sync more often, at a lower delay, and with more accuracy, all without creating net congestion and cpu load
Refactored buff system
It is now a lot cleaner and will allow for more complex interactions between buffs
Refactor Sphere of Influence system for performance
Several miscellaneous server performance issues fixed
Enchant Ally now breaks when buff dismissed or leaving party
Fix blink and knockback abilities pushing through walls
Fixed inventory avatar not rendering correctly
Fixed /follow not respecting the max follow range, and not correctly breaking when your target dies
Auras and Bard songs that are active will now persist though camping and zoning
Fix skill caps being sent to and displayed as 0 in client
Buff window is now resizable via a drag handle in the bottom right. Grid options removed. Buff anchor settings fixed to immediately apply
Fixed pets healing to full upon loading into a zone or using /reload
Fixed hotbars retaining entries from other characters when switching characters without exiting the game completely
Fixed party member class not always showing when you and your party member zone at nearly the same time
Fixed another case of class/level not showing for party members when outside SOI during group joining
Fixed error when clicking skills
Fixed hover name appearing behind loot container UI
Fixed zoning into a zone with see invis on crashing the zone
Fixed issue where commanding a pet to attack an enemy would sometimes result in the enemy’s corpse disappearing if the master did no damage
Fixed sound triggers in NH blocking line of sight
Fixed ability LOS being blocked near shoreline in shaded dunes
Fixed volume model spheres being treated as boxes
Fixed hot buttons for primary, secondary, and ranged slots not saving/loading
Fixed hover text not working for macros
Fixed macro pages and made icon overlay text in the macro window more readable
Cleaned up code in numerous places
Interrupt casting when feared
Do not apply threat for beneficial dispel effects
Healing a unit that an NPC is aggressing now counts towards faction hits if that NPC is slain
Auto stand up if sitting when you turn on auto-attack
Landing a non-damaging threatening ability now prevents a mob from disappearing if your pet does 100% of the damage
Damage from DoTs now counts towards aggressor damage, fixing a case where 100% pet damage could cause the enemy to disappear
Set health to 100% and mana to 0% when respawning (previously 80%/20%)
Initialize endurance to 100
Mana bar is now a faded color for out-of-zone group members
Increased name tag view distance by 5m (from 30 to 35m)
Increased drag intention distance slightly to make looting a corpse easier when jiggling the mouse while right-clicking.
Loot UI is no longer beneath the inventory UI
Default party health/mana bars to full to prevent half bars when party members join out-of-zone
Appropriate items now show "Fuel" instead of "Charges"
Fixed division by zero error
Fixed not properly checking equipped weapon constraints before allowing ability use
Disabled hold-click creation of hot buttons from the ability book
Extended buff range of campfire
Additions:
Added /servername command
Added some GM commands
Added LOS requirement to ability descriptions
Added additional ability descriptions: cannot be interrupted, skill required, and groundwork for reagent description
Added distinct party member name color
Added global macros tab that is shared between characters
Added /autosplit command with no arguments to toggle between all and none.
Added support for some abilities to be castable while under crowd control
Support Bind Sight as an ability / buff effect
Created a tool for art to set texture on prefabs in bulk
Passive immunity traits now give resist instead of immune messages
Spellbook icons now show the target type background color
Pet Abilities and controls can now be dragged to hotbar
Enchant Ally host abilities can now be dragged to hotbar
Enchant Ally host abilities can now be bound to keys
Added minimum skill requirement to harvesting node
Added database structures for the religion system
Bag items that go in the bag slot now indicate so in their item description.
Random name generator has been added for character creation
Next step: clean up Goblin names
A new UI for crafting containers has been added, allowing you to craft via known recipes, experiment to discover new ones, or just keep using it to store all your rat teeth
A Blurb from Chip/Xilith regarding the new Crafting UI & UX:
The new crafting system and UI allows for both manually combining components to experiment or conveniently crafting known recipes with a click.
When the container is empty, you can select recipes from the list to preview their components. Components currently on your character are highlighted green, while components you are missing are shown in red. The recipe list shows known recipes color coded coarsely by their difficulty, with an indicator of how many combines you currently have the materials for. This list can be filtered by name, and possibly other criteria in the future. The window has an auto-inventory button you can use to drop off your crafting successes easily.
The inventory slots on the left of the window can be used in the same way you've always crafted. Drag items into the slots, and click the combine button. This can be used to craft hidden recipes and experiment to find new ones. When crafting at a station, closing the window will automatically return all the items you may have left behind, so you won't be wondering where your hammer went later.
Some recipes will be innately known by virtue of your tradecrafting skill level. Others can be learned from a trainer, book, scroll, or quest. More rare recipes may be learned through experimentation. Some recipes may never appear on the list as they are expected to be manually combined (mostly item deconstruction). Finally, some recipes must be learned before you can craft them, and you'll have to track down that knowledge first.
In Closing
It’s crazy to think that Summer is almost over. But, it should be a packed Fall and end to 2024 for us here. We look forward to seeing you in more stress and playtests between now and the end of the year.
As always, if you want to assist us it won’t cost you a dime. We only ask that you direct people to the links below:
Last update, our Discord was sitting at 8600 people and we just crossed 9600 last night. Thanks for that!
See you in the next update!