Update 48: May & June 2025
Hi all!
Thanks for showing up to the June 27th playtest weekend! We had a great time and got even more useful data. We also found a few critical bugs during the playtest, which we were able to immediately address on the tech side.
We’re following this recent 3-day playtest with a 5-day playtest at the end of this month. The July open playtest will run from Wednesday the 23rd through Sunday the 27th.
We hope to see you there!
Oh, and before I forget…
We’d like to give a huge thanks to everyone that brought friends, family, old guild mates, etc. to the test this time around. There was a noticeable number of comments from people who dragged their people along with them.
It’s incredibly heartwarming to hear! Thanks so much!
June Playtest Overview
The next playtest is coming up fast, so we really wanted to get this update out asap. We’ll follow up with a more detailed breakdown and some analysis of the June playtest soon.
For now, here are some high level stats to tide you over:
5592 unique accounts played
1274 concurrent players
8.22 average hours played per account
500+ players supported in a single zone (Night Harbor)
We’ll hopefully post the more detailed update this week.
Concept Art & UI
Created environment concepts for the Underdocks (Module 1 zone)
Created environment motif concepts for [undisclosed expedition zone]
Created character concepts for Deep Elves and Deep Elf armor
Planned for Deep Elves and Deep Gnomes
Created concepts for Basilisks
Created new item icons
Completed UI work to allow for:
a collapsible panel in the primary character sheet
a mini stats pop-out window
a context menu that appears when right-clicking the character sheet
Reworked the merchant view with options to lock your equipped items and only show items of interest to the vendor
Added window scaling to customize many GUI elements
Character Art
Added new crafted plate armor textures
Added the Treant model
Added the Donkey model
Added the Shark model
Updated several LERP colors
Started work on the Specter model
Started work on the Deep Elf player model
Started work on the Deep Gnome player model
Animations
Added Wood Elf special attack animations
Added Ratman animations
2-hand spear attack
2-hand swing attack
Block
Dodge
Added Myconid, Treant, and Bear animations
Added Giant swimming & combat animations
Added Skeleton sit and death animations
Overhauled Skeleton rig
Added Treant & Bear rigs
Environment Art
Continued work on Faelindral
Completed some detailing work on Rothold (Module 1 dungeon zone)
Began/continued work on Scarwood (Extra Early Access zone designed by the community on stream)
Continued vertex painting in Night Harbor
Continued expansion work in Night Harbor Sewers
Updated some areas in Keepers Bight, Fallen Pass, and Glass Flats
Added some props and VFX for an undisclosed Early Access expedition dungeon zone
Began work on an undisclosed expedition outdoor zone
Added the Basic and Gothic weapon sets as props
Added gray stone mining node variants for non-desert regions
Continued propping, adding camps, bug fixes, and polish in various zones
Audio & Music
Shallow Shoals
Added new sounds for the ocean, ocean surface waves, two waterfalls (with different recordings), and a rock formation rumble
Added different ocean sounds for day and night, with a one hour crossfade at dusk and dawn
Added SFX for lighthouse orb trails
Fallen Pass
Added a thunder “canyon" state that bounces thunderclap sounds between the cliff walls when players are between them
Added pond, river, and waterfall sounds
Night Harbor
Added shoreline, at sea, bay water gurgle, stream sounds (4 new audio sources)
Added whistling wind sounds at the Wyrmsbane tunnel entrance
Added eerie, low-frequency drone sounds near the Wyrmsbane zone entrance
Shaded Dunes
Added shoreline and river spline audio emitters that follow the player's position
Sungreet Strand
Added sounds to the remaining water bodies
General
Updated Audiokinetic Wwise to version 2024.1.5
Generated our first sound banks for Mac and Linux
Created the effect of thinner air at higher altitudes using an RTPC (Real-Time Parameter Control) linked to the player’s altitude, which controls a high pass filter on the ambience bus in Wwise; it also lowers the audio volume of crickets by fading them out as the player levitates
Limited audio stingers (Level Up, Quest Complete, Death, etc.) to a single voice instance to prevent overlap (e.g. When leveling up while turning in a quest, the Level Up stinger takes priority); additionally, only one Quest Complete stinger will play when handing in multiple items
Added sound effects for opening and closing stone doors
Added Giant footsteps, death, and falling-to-the-ground sounds
Added bell sounds to the lifts in Evershade Weald
Added an Idle Sound Controller script to handle idle sounds for much better control; added this script to the Skeleton prefab
Added Zombie wheezing idle sounds
Implemented a new Spline Follower script that allows us to attach audio emitters to non-linear sound sources—such as rivers or curved shorelines—so they can follow the player more naturally along the path
Fixed an issue where the Background Sounds and Background Music functions didn't work
Repaired the Toggle Music and Toggle Sound keybinds
Fixed lingering underwater sounds when zoning out from Ancient Crypt
Fixed an error in the Event Position Confiner script
Updated the AkSoundEngineController script
Cleaned up PalmTree prefabs from redundant audio components that took tons of resources
Increased the max instance limit on the Spell Sound Actor-Mixer to mitigate dropouts on spell casting sounds
Fixed certain Wwise events that were lingering after zoning out from Shaded Dunes
Removed the bird sounds from Fallen Pass
Fixed a voice starvation error in Wyrmsbane
Completed additional audio bug fixes and optimizations
Design
Systems
Slightly increased the Vale of Zintar sphere of influence radius
Significantly increased the Caves of Irem sphere of influence radius
Added Holy resistance
Removed the Pet Summon command
Added the possibility of rain to more zones
Adjusted rain frequency and storm intensity
Added more available skills to Class Trainers
Fixed the PvP loot bug
Traits
Added the Holy Resistant trait
Decreased the skill rate adjustments of refining, crafting, and core gathering/tradeskill traits from 25% to 5%
Enabled the Poison Maker trait
Factions
Fixed an issue where NPC pets would sometimes cause a faction war
Content
Changed the appearances and factions of Night Harbor north bank bankers
Updated Bard NPC ability lists
Increased the difficulty of many Fallen Pass named mobs
Adjusted many Night Harbor factions
Continued population work in Keepers Bight and Shallow Shoals
Added additional camps to several existing zones
Added a Guild Registrar to Evershade Weald
Rebalanced Skyseer Illya
Fixed several Trainers that were not set up properly
Reduced the Guardian of the Life Font’s level from L60 to L40
Updated itemization for the Guardian of the Life Font
Implemented various bug fixes from Friends and Family and playtest feedback/bug reports
Quests
Added starter quests to Evershade Weald for Archers, Bards, Beastmasters, Druids, Fighters, Rangers, Rogues, and Shamans
Fixed the Wizard starter quest in Night Harbor
Updated the Ashira faction quest
Adjusted several class quest rewards so that they are usable by all races
Reviewed all current quests for grammar, spelling, formatting, and style issues
Tradeskills
Changed Leatherworking recipes for hides to use newer components (similar to the crafted Rawhide armor)
Changed Tailoring recipes for wool to use newer components (similar to the crafted Fine Cloth armor)
Adjusted various “trivial” skill levels
Increased gem drop rate from Mining
Made Canvas and Strap recipes similar in their trivial skill levels
Fixed Hide Armor recipes to properly use Hide Canvas instead of Rawhide Canvas
Adjusted Leatherworking Armor recipes to use Tailoring-created Padding instead of Thread
Adjusted Tailoring Armor and Leatherworking Armor recipes to use merchant bought Thread
Fixed certain recipe quantities
Adjusted Alchemy potion durations and tooltips
Itemization
Reviewed Ancient Crypt itemization
Reviewed Tel Ekir itemization
Updated Fallen Pass itemization
Tweaked and balanced various items
Added higher tier player-crafted Thread items
Added higher tier player-crafted Canvas items
Added higher tier player-crafted Fastener items
Adjusted the Tailoring-created Thread cost
Adjusted the Leatherworking-created Canvas cost
Adjusted the Leatherworking-created Strap cost
Adjusted the Blacksmithing-created Fasteners cost
Adjusted Scraps cost
Assigned an icon for Coarse Sand
Fixed a typo in Minor Serums and expanded the tooltip
Slightly increased Scraps drop rate
Reduced the weight of Ore, Stone, and Limestone
Added self and group teleport spells to Evershade Weald spell merchants
Fixed Shirt slot item weights as they were incorrectly set to the wrong values after we converted them from the Arms slot
Corrected Ability Scroll costs for L50 - L60
Slightly lowered the acquisition level of Tier 2 basic drops
Slightly lowered the level at which Tier 1 basic drops stop dropping
Adjusted the Volatile Rift Potion to cast instantly and be consumed on use
Adjusted the crafted Throwing Dagger cost
Started review of Fallen Pass itemization
Added new lerps for Alchemy Serums
Increased the brightness of light sources
Updated satchel item icons
Itemized Shark and Treant NPCs
Reviewed all current item descriptions for grammar, spelling, formatting, and style issues
General Abilities
Reduced the periodic chance for Charm abilities to break early (where applicable)
Increased the max levels of non-Enchanter Beguile-tier Charm abilities from 23
Changed the Cleric Shock Nuke line and Holy Strike to use the Holy Element
Created the Holy Resistant ability and buff for the Holy Resistant trait
Added Abilities: Holy Protection and Holy Resistance
Removed Exsanguinate
Increased the level of Speed of the Predator
Fixed an issue where Evershade Weald self and group teleports were not properly applying their port effects
Increased all Auras to 30m range
Changed all Mesmerize spells to the Conjuration school of magic
Changed Reclaim Essence to the Conjuration school of magic
Beneficial Dispel abilities can no longer be resisted
Reduced the total healing of the highest level tier of healer-unique lines to 1800
Reduced the mana cost of the highest level tier of healer-unique lines from 500 to 450
Reclaim Essence can no longer be used on charmed pets
Fixed an issue where Druids and Rangers still had access to the Invisibility spell (they have the Camouflage line now, and Ranger also has the Shroud line)
Decreased pet levels by 1
Reduced Hypnotize’s mana cost from 120 to 90
Increased Trance’s mana cost from 40 to 160
Changed Zeal’s level haste scaling from 60% (L48) to 65% (L55) to 60% (L44) to 65% (L50)
Changed anti-undead abilities to Holy resist
Added the Spirit Break ability line for Necromancers/Shadow Knights
The Mana Burn line now works beyond the first rank
Reduced Weapon Shield Physical Damage Reduction from 10% to 5%
Removed Unnerving Wail
Bard
Sonnet of the Unseen now breaks properly under the right conditions
Molto Allegro can now be cast while moving
Molto Allegro is now considered a Primary Haste and does not stack with other forms of Primary Haste
Beastmaster
Level 36 pets now do less damage than Level 40 pets
Removed Bat Form
Cleric
Replaced Atonement with Chasten
Added Ability: Atonement
Druid
Whispers of Eth-es:
Reduced Whispers of Eth-es from L40 to L20
Updated the tooltip to now specify the increased mana return
Reduced the cost of the Whispers of Eth-es scroll to match the L20 ability cost
Added Ability Line: Bear Pet (Tiers 1-8)
Fixed Grip of Nature so that it doesn't break after a tick
Added Ability: Coax Beast
Added Ability: Persuade Beast
Increased Bear Pet levels
Added higher level “Sanctuary" evac ability line for all available teleports
Moved Summon Drink from L4 to L12
Natureskin can no longer stack
Fixed an issue where the Ability Scroll for Sanctuary: Sungreet Strand couldn't be used
Changed the Unity resist element to Magic
Unity is now slightly more difficult to resist
Fixed an issue where Unity would not cast on enemy targets
Removed Abilities: Summon Firewood and Conjure Firewood (will likely be reworked and reimplemented in the future)
Fixed an issue where the Druid Bear Pet did not have Taunt
The Bear Pet now has access to Charge (Charge currently does not work for NPCs)
Elementalist
Added Ability: Coax Elemental
Added Ability: Persuade Elemental
Fixed an issue which caused Commune of the Honorable’s cast animations to persist indefinitely
Fixed an issue where Minor Creation: Water was not creating a pet
Expanded the Heal the Elements ability line with Revitalize the Elements and Rejuvenate the Elements
Fixed an issue where Elementalists could not scribe Rejuvenate the Elements
Enchanter
Memory Fog now has a chance to critically fail
Renamed Enchant Ally's Runeskin to Enchanted Runeskin
Increased Enchanted Runeskin’s absorb from 25 to 25 (L8) to 800 (L52)
Fixed the tooltip for Enchanted Runeskin
Enchant Ally abilities can now be cast while the Enchanter is sitting
Beguile now properly applies its effect
Added Ability: Coax
Added Ability: Persuade
Added Ability: Amnesia
Updated the Amnesia tooltip to be more accurate and descriptive
The Runeskin line no longer stacks with another caster
Decreased Enchanted Runeskin’s duration from 30 minutes to 6 seconds
Increased Enchanted Runeskin’s cooldown from 20 seconds to 30 seconds
Mana Drain line:
Reduced the Mana drained and Mana cost by half
Now has a 30 second cooldown
Removed the casting sound
Modified the casting hit sound
Fighter
Increased Offensive Stance’s physical damage buff from 10% to 15%
Frenzy now also increases your Melee Attack Speed by 10% for 1 minute
Updated the Offensive and Defensive Stance tooltips to show the correct Physical Damage increase/reduction
Decreased Unnerving Shout’s Physical Damage reduction from 15% to 5%
Unnerving Shout is now L5, up from L2
Battle Cry is now L2, down from L5
Inquisitor
Dominate the Mind is now an Innate ability
Monk
Fixed the Stone Stance tooltip to correctly state that it reduces Melee Damage, not all damage
Paladin
Attempted to correct an issue which caused the Ancient Guardian to kill you when it expired
Ancient Guardian's level now scales with you
Increased Divine Light’s heal from 30 to 30 (L12) to 700 (L54)
Decreased Divine Light’s cast time from 4 seconds to 3 seconds
Necromancer
Removed the Health Drain line (not Life Drain)
The self Mana Regen line no longer stacks with Enchanter Mana Regen buffs
Added Ability: Coax Undead
Added Ability: Persuade Undead
The Lich line of abilities now properly gives a Skeleton illusion
Fixed Lich Spirit's cooldown, cast time, and duration
Expanded the Mend the Dead ability line with Stitch the Dead and Reconstruct the Dead
Ranger
Fixed an issue where Shroud and Greater Shroud were not properly applying their Invisibility effect
Rogue
Fixed an issue where Stab/Backstab would roll for 0 damage
Fixed an issue where Sap would not work on all races that the tooltip said it did
Fixed Backstab damage (again)
Fixed Snaring Poison
Added Ability: Pick Pocket
Shadow Knight
Aura of the Unholy now properly scales
Shaman
Increased Spirit Wolf pet levels
Reduced Spore Discharge’s heal over time from 10 Health (L10) to 600 Health (L52) to 10 Health (L10) to 450 Health (L52)
Wizard
Reduced Arcane Infusion’s Mana Regeneration from 1 (L1) to 25 (L60) to 1 (L1) to 15 (L60)
Increased Seal of Magic's Mark of Magic effect from 1% per stack to 4% per stack; a max stacks increase of 5% to 20%
Fixed ability names for the Blanket of Fire line
Blanket of Fire now does the proper amount of damage
Added a higher level “Evacuation" ability line for all available teleports
Fixed the Spell Haste line giving too much Spell Haste
Fixed an issue which caused Invert Gravity cast animations to persist indefinitely
Tech
Fixes
Fixed a bug where you could see invisible group members
Fixed /who guild name not working correctly
Fixes to the static placement tool
Fixes to the /random command
Fixed anon players being included in /who queries with level constraints
Fixed spell gem hotkeys when using the stack size selection interface
Fixed receiving timeout message after declining a guild invite
Fixed showing class descriptions on items with SlotMask == 0 AND ClassMask == 0
Fixed reagents not consuming on item cast
Fixed a null ref when a campfire that’s being used for crafting burns out, to prevent it from eating items you have left in the crafting window
Fixed some characters using fallback fonts
Fixed campfire flame visuals being inconsistent
Casting an ability with an effect that would give you a unique item that you already have will fail at the end of the cast without consuming reagents and let you know why
Fixed not sending hotbar and macro data to a client after a crash and quick return
Gave the harvest ability messages a chat channel of AbilityMine instead of none so that they are filterable
Removed duplicate begin harvesting message
Fail more gracefully if there was a problem reading from chats_v1.json
Only send the vial of smoke message to clients targeting the disappearing caster
Allow all classes that can use throwing weapons to be able to gain skill points in throwing
Fixed Cooldown reduction effect not working
Fixed crit fail message and normal message both being sent
Fixed aoe effects failing the level requirement check when the data is set to -1
Fixed punctuation on loot coins message
Fixed object placement not cancelling if you camp while placing an object
Fixed crafting recipes through experimentation
Performance improvements to recipe retrieval
Fixed ingredient overlay colors in crafting window
AOE abilities assigned to a player pet will now work correctly
Activatable abilities now go on cooldown if the associated buff is removed for any reason
Polish tweaks to the inventory avatar
A team of helpful gnomes, assisted by less helpful goblins, have plugged leaky ceilings across the realm.
Numerous performance improvements occlusion, npc swimming, and animation
Minor rework to the way stance / aura abilities are handled on the client and server
Haste effects no longer receive bard instrument bonuses
Fixed discrepancy between level meditate was trainable at, and the level you'd start getting skillups at for hybrids
NPCs now get their intended mana regeneration while in-combat
Fixed several issues caused when doing a /reload
Sort AOE targets so that the intended target is always included, the closest targets are chosen first, and min/max level limits on the ability are applied
Items with more than 99 charges will now always display a gauge instead of text display
Ensure active items are deactivated when removed for any reason
Fixed the Reclaim Essence ability not applying correctly
Fixed several instances where movement was still allowed while feigned
Make ascending to water's surface a little easier, and jumping at water's surface more intentional
Bubbles while swimming should no longer show for some races when your head is above the water's surface
Reloading while swimming while no longer break the swimming animation
Fixed player trades - players can now manipulate items / coin, before "complete trade" is selected to lock the trade in
Fixed aura message spam for group members when certain classes with auras level up
Fixed /target to more appropriately match the nearest player or npc, with a minimum number of characters of two (e.g. /target al)
Fixed threat system to properly remove threat for skills which reduce threat on the target and those skills to scale appropriately with the player level
Fix to zones starting empty
Fix to volume based entities such as inns and zone lines breaking
Fix to zonelines not working if they overlap with other zonelines
Fix refueling of lanterns
Fix housing doors
Fix NPCs sitting and thinking when they need to be moving to their next waypoint
Closed some cooldown and /reload or zoning based exploits
Fixed some performance bottlenecks relating to animation
Fixed some performance bottlenecks relating to loading zone data
Fixed some performance bottlenecks relation to creating and destroying entities
Changed how charms and roots break
Changes to address FD exploits
Mob HP changes
Mob resist changes
Changes to address Kiting exploits
Fixes to mob pathing where someone uses a navigation exploit and the mob cannot get to you
Added anti cheesing code relating to navigation
Fixes to group exp distribution
Mobs differentiate being VERY snared and rooted preventing mobs from turning around and attacking you when they are snared and have very low health
Pets no longer forget to /pet back as soon as they are attacked again
Fixed melee and ranged slows, and ranged hasted
Fix for monks unequipping 2 handed staves and then losing their offhand punches
Adjusted lighting levels to give more lighting resolution
Adjustments to moons and some bug fixes related to moons
Ability to set mob spawn when successfully fishing (for those big fishing based bosses)
Added
Added the ability to require reagent for clicky item.
Added and improved a number of GM commands.
Added notes in the description of food and drink items that they are a meal or a drink.
Added min/max target level descriptions when inspecting abilities.
Added confirmation to /split command.
Added /clear command to clear your current chat window.
Added the ability to set hunger and thirst modifiers for zones.
Allow /who level arguments to be separated.
Added support to respect ability cooldowns for item procs.
Added some additional error messages when inviting an invalid player to a guild.
Added /char alias to /charinfo command.
Added specific text for all emotes when you have yourself targeted.
Added /welcome emote.
Added animation support for riding mounts
Recipes can now use tags to specify ingredients
Improved internal tooling for placing harvesting nodes, adding weapon models, and configuring NPC appearance
Mount controls such as mount/dismount and mount inventory added to pet window
Added support for Pickpocket ability
Quests can now require a certain skill level to activate
Item enhancing effects such as poison now use a click interface to select the item
Chat message persistence - chat will persist through zoning
Bigger Features
Mounts now have a dedicated set of equipment, including a rigging slot that controls what types of containers can be equipped by the mount. Rigging changes your mount between a rideable steed, a pack animal, or pulling a cart
When killed, equipment can be looted off the mount, or the mount can be brought back to life with a spell
While not quite ready for player purchase, support for purchasing mounts from Stablemasters has been added
Combat idle animations can now vary based on your equipped weapon
Ledgers - Character and Social Ledgers (still some work to be done here)
Styling added for UI checkboxes, sliders, and dropdowns
Individual window scaling - Most windows have the option to scale them up or down to customize their size individually along size the UI scale (see UI section above)
Independent chat settings menu - there is now a separate chat settings window in the main menu, previous settings were under interface (see UI section above)
Chat color selection - Customize your chat channel colors
Player inspection system - You can press Y (default) or right click on a player target and select inspect, to see what items are equipped
Shortcuts to your hotbar can now be added from any of your inventory bags, allowing you to swap equipment and use items like bandages, alchemy, or potions from inside your bag
In Closing
That’s about it. As I mentioned above, we’ve got another playtest coming up, so we’ll be focused on getting ready for that.
You’ve done a great job getting the word out. Thank you for your support, and please keep at it! As always, if you’re looking for ways to help, share the game with folks you think might be interested and send them to one of the following links:
If you do bring in new people to check out the game, we recommend sharing the below video with them. We found it to be incredibly helpful and wanted to spotlight it here:
While any comparison to other games is completely coincidental—since we’re an entirely new creation that derives its inspiration from many different sources—we felt that this creator got a ton right.
If you liked the video as much as we did, please give acatwithopinions a sub and a like on the video! Maybe the cat will make another one…
See you in the next update!