Update 44: September & October 2024

Written By Shawn Lord

Hi all!

It’s been a relatively calm couple of months with folks wrapping up their summers and getting back to their routines. Periods like this are always a fun balance for us, since we’re an all volunteer team. That said, it’s nice to report that we’ve continued to hammer away.

During this time, we’ve been focused on optimizations and fixes stemming from the various Stress Tests, and looking ahead to the work that needs to be done in 2025 if we’re to be ready for Early Access in 2026. As we’ve mentioned in Discord, we’d love to get at least one more test in before the end of the year.

We’ve also added two new team members:

  • Eric - has joined us as an Editor and Writer. He’s a Senior Technical Writer for a software company.

  • Erskine - has joined us as a Content Designer. He’s also a Senior Technical Writer for a software company.

Read more about both of them, as well as our other recent additions, on our Team page.

We’ve also hit another milestone:

Thanks go to Alex/Goblin for the image & kind note.

We’ve also surpassed 7,000 people on our mailing list!

Thanks again for all of the wonderful support and for sharing the word with your friends & families.

And now, here’s the update…

 

Concept Art & UI

  • Continued concepting gods

  • Quick concepts for a Goblin area within Night Harbor’s Underdocks

  • Some Signage

  • Concepts in support of Evergrove work

  • Continued Texture Pipeline & Style explorations with Environment Artists

  • Color Palette discussions for zone texture updates

 

Character Art

  • New Drake Model

  • New Skeletal Drake Model

  • New Mycothane Model

  • New Tarantula Spider Model

  • Player Cape Refactor

  • Continued work on Wood Elf Armor Sets

  • Wererat Texture Tweaks & Clothed Texture Variation

  • Ratman Modelling Continued (not to be confused with Wererats)

  • The Perfect Sword was created

 

Animations

  • Crouching Animations for all player races!

  • Additional Wood Elf Animations

  • Dervish Rig and Animations

 

Environment Art

  • Secret area in Night Harbor reworked

  • A different secret mini-dungeon in Night Harbor expanded and propped

  • Propping in Night Harbor continued

  • Propping in Fallen Pass

  • Vale of Zintar’s Giant Area near completion

  • Additional Points of Interest added in Vale of Zintar

  • Continued work in Evergrove, including cliff-work, lighting & fog adjustments, ecology planning, & refining layout / POIs

  • Various bug fixes throughout the world

 

Audio & Music

  • Robert was mostly touring/away the last two months

  • Added sounds for drowning

 

Design

Systems

  • Melee Attack Radius has been increased by roughly double for most races

  • Auto Follow Max Range increased from 8m to 25m

  • Corpse Drag range increased from 10m to 12m

  • Races now know their racial specific languages by default

  • Added No Bind Zones

  • Underwater visibility greatly increased

Content

  • Tattered Field Pack drop rate increased

  • Bone Construct adjustments

    • Balance and Encounter Tweaks

    • Bone Construct level increased from 18 to 20

    • Now banishes players above Level 20, up from above Level 15

    • Fixed a minor issue with the encounter

  • Fixed certain NPCs being assigned the abilities from the wrong class

  • Added Sawmill station

  • Anvil combine button now says "Smith"

  • Forge combine button now says "Smelt"

  • NPC Ability Lists greatly expanded

  • NPC Appearance Updates

  • Night Harbor Faction, NPC, and Spawner Adjustments

  • Added new population and quests to a secret location within Night Harbor

  • Fallen Pass population mostly done (for now)

  • Vale of Zintar spawn work started

  • Evergrove placeholder spawn work

  • Slight population adjustments in Tel Ekir

  • The Ashira now have more tasks and rewards for friendly adventurers

  • Glass Flats: Fang Guard Keep and Garrison spawn work continued

  • Shallow Shoals layout & design

  • Evergrove design continued

Itemization

  • Cleavers size/weight increased

  • Increased Carapace drop rate

  • Fixed Bronze Chain armor appearance

  • Increased drop rate of Gems from Mining Nodes

  • Increased drop rate of Wyrmsbane armor back to original value

  • Well-worn Cloth Tunic (Starter Chest) now starts in the Shirt slot (old Arms slot)

  • Quivers now give 10% Ranged Haste

Tradeskills

  • Storage Crates (Carpentry)

    • Public, Personal, Group, and Guild Storage Crates are now available to be constructed from the Carpentry Tradeskill

  • Tailoring

    • Cloth Piece and Cloth Piece recipe have been replaced with Bolt of Cloth and Bolt of Cloth recipe 

    • Wool and above Tailoring recipes now use Bolts of the corresponding cloth type

    • Many Tailoring recipes now use Thread

Traits

  • Added Carpenter Minor Noncombat Trait

  • Woodworker trait is now selectable

General Abilities

  • The heal amount of Exceptional Heal has been increased from 600 to 700

  • The heal amount of Heal has been increased from 60 to 70

    • Note: This balance update also fixed a bug where Heal was not properly giving the right amount of healing, and it's tooltip was incorrect

  • The Unique Healer lines have been rebalanced

    • The goal of these changes is to make using them feel more strategic and less spammy, as well as more impactful to use, both in the increased amount of health healed, and increased mana costs

  • Kick is now on its own cooldown timer

  • Melee Special Abilities bonus chance to hit increased from 25% to 30%

  • Many Melee Damage Dump Abilities have had their cooldown increased from 8 seconds to 10 seconds

  • A number of Abilities that were meant to only work on certain NPC races now have the proper race assigned

  • Life Drain line abilities now only drains as much health as the exact damage done

  • Mana Drain line abilities now only drains as much mana as the exact mana drained

  • Mana Drain rebalanced

  • Added Ability: Enduring Breath to Druid, Shaman, Enchanter, Ranger, Beastmaster

  • Tooltips updated for Mind Surge line

  • Fighter/Zombie Pet: Unnerving Shout/Wail changed. Now lowers Physical Damage of Affected Targets by 15%, instead of lowering Strength

  • Added Ability: Bind Vision to Enchanter, Ranger, Wizard

Beastmaster

  • Added Ability: Exhaustion

  • Added most of Berserker Spirit line (except for the highest level buff in the line)

  • Removed generic Melee Stats lines

Cleric

  • Impart Blessing Line

    • The heal amount of Impart Prayer has increased from 80 to 140

    • The heal amount of Impart Devotion has increased from 200 to 300

    • The heal amount of Impart Faith has increased from 400 to 600

    • The heal amount of Impart Favor has increased from 700 to 1200

    • The heal amount of Impart Sanctity has increased from 1100 to 2400

    • The mana cost of Impart Prayer has increased from 35 to 70

    • The mana cost of Impart Devotion has increased from 75 to 115

    • The mana cost of Impart Faith has increased from 130 to 195

    • The mana cost of Impart Favor has increased from 200 to 330

    • The mana cost of Impart Sanctity has increased from 275 to 500

Druid

  • Added Ability: Prowl of the Wolves

  • Touch of Nature Line

    • The direct heal amount of Touch of Earth has been increased from 40 to 70, and the heal over time amount has been increased from 20 to 35

    • The direct heal amount of Touch of Healing has been increased from 100 to 150, and the heal over time amount has been increased from 50 to 75

    • The direct heal amount of Touch of Life has been increased from 250 to 300, and the heal over time amount has been increased from 100 to 150

    • The direct heal amount of Touch of Harmony has been increased from 350 to 600, and the heal over time amount has been increased from 175 to 300

    • The direct heal amount of Touch of Creation has been increased from 550 to 1200, and the heal over time amount has been increased from 275 to 600

      • Note: This balance update also fixed a bug where Touch of Life was not properly giving the right amount of healing

    • The mana cost of of Touch of Earth has been increased from 35 to 70                                                           

    • The mana cost of of Touch of Healing has been increased from 75 to 115

    • The mana cost of of Touch of Life has been increased from 130 to 195

    • The mana cost of of Touch of Harmony has been increased from 200 to 330

    • The mana cost of of Touch of Creation has been increased from 275 to 500

Elementalist

  • Corrected reagent in Elementalist pet tooltip

Enchanter

  • Added Psionic Hemorrhage Ability line with abilities: Psionic Hemorrhage, Psionic Hemorrhage II, Psionic Hemorrhage III, Psionic Hemorrhage IV, Psionic Hemorrhage V

Fighter

  • Ability acquisition has changed for several abilities

  • Strike removed. Replaced with Ability: Rend

  • Added Ability: Charge

  • Added Ability: Armor Break

  • Added Ability: Rallying Shout

  • Added Ability: Frenzy

  • Added Ability: Shield Bash

  • Now uses Melee GCD for some Abilities

Inquisitor

  • Added Mana Burn line with Abilities: Mana Burn, Mana Burn II, Mana Burn III, Mana Burn IV, Mana Burn V, and Mana Burn VI

Paladin

  • Now has access to Resuscitate at Level 44, and Reawaken at Level 56

  • Removed Divine Courage/Divine Strength/Divine Fortitude in favor of new ability "Divine Spark"

Rogue

  • Sap now has a 45 second cooldown

Shaman

  • Healing Spores Line

    • The heal over time amount of Salubrious Spores has been increased from 20 to 35

    • The heal over time amount of Salutary Spores has been increased from 50 to 75

    • The heal over time amount of Restorative Spores has been increased from 100 to 150

    • The heal over time amount of Regenerative Spores has been increased from 175 to 300

    • The heal over time amount of Chloroplastic Spores has been increased from 275 to 600

      • Note: The Spore Discharge ability has been updated to compensate for these balance changes, increasing it's healing amount from 10 (L4) to 275 (L52) to 10 (L4) to 600 (L52)

    • The mana cost of of Salubrious Spores has been increased from 35 to 70

    • The mana cost of of Salutary Spores has been increased from 75 to 115

    • The mana cost of of Restorative Spores has been increased from 130 to 195

    • The mana cost of of Regenerative Spores has been increased from 200 to 330

    • The mana cost of of Chloroplastic Spores has been increased from 275 to 500

Spellblade

  • Unstable Barrier stacks now provide 1% Melee and Spell Damage per stack, instead of 1 Strength

  • Fleshed out Unstable Barrier line with: Unstable Barrier II, Unstable Barrier III, Unstable Barrier IV, Unstable Barrier V

  • Added Ability: Root

  • Aura of the Arcane now also provides 10% Spell Damage

Wizard

  • Added Ability: Arcane Invocation

  • Added Ability: Translocate

 

Tech

Fixes

  • Fix hotbar clearing on /reload

  • Fixes and improvements to the GM /repop commands and /reloadzone

  • Fixed merchant buy/sell price adjustments based on faction being inverted

  • Fixed bug with dying and respawning inside a volume such as a no water volume

  • Fix message when attempting to scribe an item that is not an ability scroll

  • Fix not sending BankClose packets when closing the bank by closing the inventory

  • Fixed reloading client state through bank/trade not properly re-activating activated items such as torches after reloading

  • Fixed bug where abilities attempting to remove more items than the stack had could result in doubling the stack size

  • Fixed charmed mob will continue to get attacked by its target after charm breaks

  • Fix not sitting while camping

  • Fixed exception when buff apply messages are null.

  • Fixed hot buttons of inventory slots to work with the updated UI code

  • Fixed several issues with ranged weapons not showing on character and inventory avatar

  • Fixes and polish to the air/breath system and UI


Changed/Added

  • Added modern chat mode and option to switch between classic and modern chat modes

  • We now save player hotbar contents to the database

  • Moved macro saving from local file to database

  • No longer send activated/deactivated messages to chat when items such as torch get reloaded due to bank/trade interaction

  • Using an ability that consumes reagents now consumes them across multiple stacks properly

  • Charming a casting npc will interrupt its casting

  • When a player is deleted, we now remove that player's corpses

  • We no longer remove attribute and trait data from the database when a character is marked as deleted

  • Don't allow sitting or camping when stunned/mez'd/feared

  • Show server name in character select

  • Added support for no bind volumes

  • Added zone-scope can bind flag

  • Added No Levitate zone flag

  • Refactored some client-side inventory code

  • Added code support for several new types of abilities

  • Added logic for learning experimental recipes, and supporting learn only and experiment only

  • NPC AI can now play animations while processing their idle loops

  • Instant cast spells now support VFX on the caster

  • Channeled abilities now work correctly

  • Some channeled abilities now feature a beam VFX

  • Single target abilities that cause damage now enable auto-attack

  • Some abilities can now disable auto-attack when used

  • Swimming speed is now based on swimming skill, which skills up through use

  • Reimplemented the modifier stack system for buffs and statistics to remove performance bottlenecks

  • Fully implemented foundational work for custom UI framework: “MnmView”

About MnmView:

We've recently completed converting our UI over to the new MnmView UI framework code. The recent changes help our team internally by establishing, essentially, an air traffic controller for handling UI logic. It's now easier to maintain and build new UI screens for our team. 

Before, UI was a free-for-all when it came to creating and handling logic across our growing 50+ UI screens and panels.  Each time a new UI element was added, additional logic had to be coded to handle the initializing, showing, and destroying of the screens for each type of UI panel.  As it grew in complexity it made working with UIs more challenging and error prone.  The MnmView system establishes a solid foundation for adding more robust UI functionality going into 2025.

The new framework has "drag and drop" custom components which enables the theming framework.  Currently, it allows players to switch between five different themes which are themes that were taken from Night Harbor's trimsheet art.  This was a quick solution for us to create the placeholder UI themes fast because the art was mostly sourced from the Night Harbor environment textures. We should expect to see the UI art continue to come online leading up to the remainder of 2024.

This work begins to lay the foundation for eventually allowing players to reskin their UI client (something we might see come online later in 2025). 

About the Buff Changes:

During the last stress and public tests, we noticed that combat was causing a lot of server lag. Upon deeper inspection of the profiles, we found that a lot of it originates in stat and skill checks, especially in relation to active buffs on the character.

The solution to this was a literal back space of all the code relating to buffs [Ali means he deleted all the code and started over].

This time we rewrote it with performance in mind, using caches and cache invalidation. Additionally, we made effects use their own "Modifier Stack" which is a generic system that applies to buffs, items, traits, and anything else that may modify your character. This allowed us to unify a lot of code across the various systems.


In Closing

Fall 2024 has begun and we’re looking ahead to 2025. It’s going to be a wild year for us.

As mentioned above, it’s amazing to see our Discord and Mailing List grow this year. If you’d like to support us, please keep getting the word out:

See you in the next update!

Shawn Lord
Next

Update 43: July & August 2024