Update 50: Sept, Oct, Nov 2025
Hi all!
It’s been a few months since our last update. Apologies for that.
We jumped from the September playtest into the October stress tests, the November playtest, and then straight back into closed testing and prepping for Beta. In the meantime, we maintained normal Early Access and Module 1 production in parallel.
So, on the upside, there’s plenty to look at in this update.
If you’re on a slower connection, give the page time to download. There’s a decent number of images and gifs in this one.
We hope you enjoy it!
And again, thanks a ton for participating in the tests! We had an amazing time and look forward to getting you in and playing for good (I mention Beta at the bottom of the post).
November Playtest Overview
These numbers might be slightly off from other postings, as we’ve pulled GM/Dev accounts out of the data.
This playtest also included 1884 peak concurrent players. I just didn’t bother adding the graphic.
Character Art & Concepts
Weathered leather armor set added
Night Harbor cloth armor set added
Night Harbor plate armor set added
Wood Elf leather armor set added
Wood Elf cloth armor set added
New Elven helm
Fire Giant model added
Spectre model finished
New transparent LERP shader created
More Dervish versions added
Human skin textures touched up
New Zombie skins added
Worked on Dryad
A variety of Deep themed and future Module NPCs concepted
Gods concepted
Deep Elf, Dragon Crusader, and other armors and weapons concepted
Animations
Wood Elves:
Several animated emotes (Cheering, bowing, waving)
Kneeling/Looting loop
Swimming death/drowning animation
Spectres:
Idle animation for both combat and non combat + twitches
Flight animation for several speeds
Scythe swinging attacks
Casting sequences
Death sequence
Updated Rat and Bat animations
Shark animations
Swim
Chomp
Die
Ogre:
New attacks
Butt-scratch!
New Dwarf and Goblin combat animations
Human combat animation updates
Bear sit animation
Mycothane:
Death
Idle
Run
Ratman casting animations
Environment Art
Continued Night Harbor finalization work (incl. props and texture work)
Continued work on Night Harbor’s High Point Terrace district
Vale of Zintar finalization work
Continued work in Scarwood
Continued Keepers Bight polishing, including a new Evershade Weald facade
Finalized textures in Grimtide Sanctum
Continued work on Fallen Watch (Early Access dungeon)
Lighting and prop work in Underdocks (Module 1 zone)
Small tweaks to Rothold (Module 1 dungeon)
Continued work on Fields of the Lost (Module 1 zone)
Continued work on Ail’vorith, the Deep Elf city (Module 1 zone)
A ton of concept work for Ail’vorith
Some Deep Gnome related concepts
Started blocking out the Great Cavern Sea (Module 1 zone)
Upgraded to Crest 5, and:
Reimplemented it throughout existing zones
Added new bioluminescent shader graph
Added new color mask and foam controls
Added storm clouds when it rains
Waterfalls now look more waterfall-y
New Herbalism nodes added
Added various armor sets as props
Step stools added for Gnomes (not for Goblins)
Signs and other 2D assets for Night Harbor
Added Fallen Watch/Plagueborn props
Added props for Fields of the Lost
Disenchantment table added
Classic furnishings updated
Added Elven furnishings
Faerie village props added
Audio & Music
New combat SFX
New boat SFX
New Dervish SFX
New waterwheel SFX
New long-distance bell SFX in the Night Harbor Customs House signals the boat to Keepers Bight
Water footstep sounds are now responsive to water depth
Entering/exiting water via jumping (or falling in) now triggers a splash sound
New ambience for Ancient Crypt
New tension music for all dungeon music playlists
Randomization with silence gaps applied to dungeon music playlists
New zone music for Grimtide Sanctum
New city music for Faelindral
Several adjustments to the perceived spatialization of SFX and ambient sounds
Shaded Bloom cellar creatures will no longer be heard above ground
Bug fix for duplicate zombie sound events
Bug fix for certain spell SFX retriggering
Bug fix for bow attacks triggering a slashing sound
Fixes for certain missing SFX on player and NPC races
New mix for all game audio
Audio slider settings now default to max for the new game audio mix
Design
Systems
Racial and class stat differences added to Character Creation
Halflings can now start in Faelindral (except Clerics and Paladins)
Housing implemented in Night Harbor’s market and Shallow Shoals
Traits
Hide now properly applies its effect and breaks when moving
Bribe is now resistible
Tracker trait is now available for Bards, Druids, and Rangers
Racial active and passive traits assigned
Infravision and Ultravision remain as Major Non-Combat traits
Researcher now grants bonuses to Research instead of Spellcrafting
Tradeskills
Shirts can now be scrapped
Copper plate and chain can now be scrapped into Copper Scraps
Chain and plate now scrap into the appropriate scraps
Basic crafted armor now scrap into the appropriate scraps
Hammer and Chisel is now used to scrap chain and plate
Fixed scrapping; all Tattered, Patched, Rusty/Corroded, Tarnished, and basic crafted armor/weapons should be scrappable
Can now craft Metal Bars with Metal Scraps and an Ingot Mold
Scrap quantity required to craft a Metal Bar reduced from 10 to 8
You can now scrap a Metal Bar for 4 Metal Scraps
Result of combining Bronze Scraps now creates 1 Bronze Bar instead of 2
Pruned several enchants from various slots
Removed shirt enchants
Fixed several improperly flagged items from being disenchantable
Adjusted which items fall under which Disenchantment tiers
All wood types can now be used to fuel a fire
War Lances (Two Handed Piercing) can now be crafted
Barding now requires Leather Straps of the corresponding tier
Basic weapons can now be scrapped
Arrows are now created in 100, 500, and 1000 quantities; 20 and 200 removed
Component count for 100 arrows set to the old 20 quantity cost
Research initial implementation (early)
Itemization
Torches, lanterns, and lightstones are now small size
Jewelry cost adjustments
Loot table adjustments for basic armor and weapons tiers
Loot table adjustments for humanoid dropped gems tiers
Torch recipe now creates “Handmade Torch"
Crude Torch renamed “Crude Handmade Torch"
Added basic armor and weapon drops to more NPC races
War Lances can now drop
Wasp mob drops tiered
Named itemization pass
First droppable ability added
Eltindra's Blessing potions are now self-cast only
Slam scroll added to the Inquisitor spell merchant
Fixed an unspecified named loot table
King Mahraad itemized
Content
Ancient Crypt respawn time lowered
Bone Construct ability adjustment
Almost all named spawns updated for combat balance and immunity flags
Fixed certain guards being set to the PvP version on the PvE servers
Grimtide Sanctum spawn/loot table adjustments
Fang Guard Keep spawn/loot table/ability adjustments
Ancient Crypt spawn/loot table adjustments
Sungreet Strand has had many additional camps added across several levels ranges
Sungreet Strand has additional itemized named mobs
Shallow Shoals population and itemization adjustments
New quests added to Shallow Shoals
Black Shoals Fortress populated and itemized, quests added
Scarwood population revamped and itemized, quests added
Tel Ekir level band adjustments
Tel Ekir population and itemization adjustments
The [redacted] quest was implemented (Note: It’s pretty cool and we can’t wait for you to find it!)
Bones' quest part 2 implemented for the Necromancer and Shadow Knight classes
Corrupted Leather Armor is now more rare
Fixed a Tel Ekir faction issue with Font Spirits
Goblin Wizard disabled (quest unlock planned)
Aggro range increased
Added over 100 new descriptive MUD actions across various zones
Added guard direction prompts to Faelindral
Revised & updated Night Harbor guard direction prompts
Added some new NPC aggro/death/kill dialogue
Grammar & style pass on all existing MUD actions
Additional quests added to Evershade Weald
Continued work on the Wood Elf class quests; 6 more added to be exact
Continued work on the NPC population of Faelindral
Certain Wood Elf guild NPCs have had their appearance updated
Faction work for the city of Faelindral and the class guilds
Unique factions added for the orcs, naiads, faeries, widow spiders, and spore druids in Evershade Weald
Itemization of named mobs in Evershade Weald
Corrections and improvements made to many Evershade MUD actions based on player feedback
General Abilities & Global Changes
Tracking added for Ranger, Druid, and Bard
Tracking is now a Skill
Buff times increased from 30 minutes to 60 minutes
Feign Death fail rate reduced by half
Most forms of Snare and Root no longer stack
Many cold-based spells now have Dispel tags set to Movement Speed effects
All pets now use Provoke instead of Taunt
All pet cast time increased to 10 seconds
Provoke threat reduced by half
Provoke cooldown increased from 6 seconds to 12 seconds
Feign Death crit fail chance reduced slightly
Slam tooltip fixed; new effect: stunning target 1 second when used from behind
Charm Beast, Elemental, Undead cast time tiering changed multiple times (flat 6s then 3/4/5/6)
Zombie pet now uses the Zombie Drain ability
Strike weapon damage increased from 100% to 110%
Added ability: Summon Cureberries
Added some initial researched abilities
Elementalist, Necromancer, and Beastmaster pet damage increased
Necromancer pet HP increased
Haste ability line attack speed buff reduced
Archer
Fixed an issue where Disengagement would not reduce threat
Added ability: Immobilizing Trap
Immobilizing Trap moved to Level 11
Added ability: Aimed Shot
Aimed Shot “execute” portion now implemented
Aimed Shot damage increased
Healing debuff portion fixed
Added ability: Caltrops
Added ability: Distracting Shot
Bard
No longer have Double Attack
Molto Allegro moved to Level 60
Molto Allegro attack speed reduced
Filled out Molto Allegro ability line with multiple ranks
Added ability: Frightful Screech
Added mez shout ability line
Added ability: Selstie's Aeolian Aria
Beastmaster
No longer have Double Attack
Pack of the Predator re-added (Strength bonus → Agility bonus)
Now has access to the abilities: Haste, Adrenaline, Rapidity
Added ability: Resource Guarding
Added ability: Command: Kill
Added ability: Rat Form
Cleric
Added ability: Oath of Freedom
Divine Protection renamed to Oath of Protection
Resurrection line XP returns improved
Added ability: Redemption
Added ability line: Healing Light
Supplication reworked with Fulfillment effect
Druid
Added ability: Nature's Respite
Touch of Life HoT stacks again
Added animal rez ability line (disabled via 100x mana cost)
Grip of Nature now castable on other players
Woodskin/Stoneskin/Steelskin/Diamondskin/Natureskin levels updated
Added ability: Tree Form
Elementalist
Filled out Blast of Air/Fire lines
Blast of Air updated (no longer silences, interacts with Backdraft)
Blast of Fire updated (Fire Vortex, Steam Cloud)
Added Blast of Water and Earth lines
Blast lines now share a cooldown
Added ability: Summon Arrows
Added ability: Firestorm Shield
Added ability: Summon Throwing Daggers
Added Summon Mallet/Staff/Trident/Wind Blade lines
Removed Summon Rusty Dagger and Conjure Cloth Bandage
Elemental Fury pet buff attack speed reduced
Enchanter
Charm cast time changed multiple times
Added spell damage absorb line: Spell Ward → Mystical Ward
Fighter
Rend weapon damage increased from 110% to 125%
Can now Critical Strike and Crippling Blow
Now becomes Berserk at low health
Merciless Assault adjusted
Frenzy Weapon damage changed
Frenzy and Shield Slam now use melee GCD
Battle Cry now a group buff
Battle Cry and Unnerving Shout cooldowns increased
Inquisitor
Added ability: See Invisibility
Re-added ability: Slam
Now starts with Slam
Purifying Blow reworked with new effects and damage
Mana Burn line buffed (faster cast, higher damage)
Dominate the Mind duration increased
Silence duration increased
Added ability: Mandate of Silence
Added spell damage absorb line
Now has access to Haste, Adrenaline, Rapidity
Monk
Mend applies 25% AC buff for 30s
Round Kick damage increased and now may reset Celestial Strike cooldown
Celestial Strike damage and cooldown adjusted
Clarified Celestial Vitality and Way of the Water tooltips
Stone Stance now has SFX
Necromancer
Pet HP and damage increased
Added pet attack speed buff line: Unrelenting Dead, Unyielding Dead, Inexorable Dead
Added ability: Aspect of Vampirism
Added ability: Summon Minor Lifestone
Gains access to Malady DoT line
Paladin
Supplication moved to Level 2
Added ability: Blessing of Sanctuary
Restorative Smite heavily reworked with new effects, damage, and finisher heal
Restorative Smite healing text fixed
Ranger
Removed ability: Pack of the Predator
Added abilities: Truestrike Aura, Whistling Shot
Special Ranger arrows line added: Fire, Ice, Nature, Lightning
Camouflage moved to Level 15
Woodskin/Stoneskin/Steelskin/Diamondskin levels updated
Added ability: Hearth of the Ranger
Use Elemental Arrows line renamed to Imbue Arrows versions
Added VFX to Imbue Arrows line
Truestrike Aura now provides Throwing skill bonus
Rogue
Increased Ambush's chance-to-hit modifier
Uppercut damage component removed
Evade and Swift Strikes now considered neutral and no longer break Stealth
Shadow Knight
Added ability: Grip of Shadow
Added ability: Shadow Strike
Grip of Shadow range lowered and now requires line of sight
Grip of Shadow and Shadow Strike no longer permanently silence
Shadow Strike bonus strike chance clarified
Shaman
Healing Spores line stacks again
Added ability: Bear Form
Rapidity moved from Level 44 to 40
Malady and Infectious Disease costs reduced
Irking Illness moved from Level 44 to 40
Virulent Virus moved from Level 60 to 52
Spellblade
Chilling Embrace duration decreased from 60 to 30s
Added ability: Spellblade Animation
Added ability: Infuse Weapon: Illumination
Illumination now properly stops when out of mana
Wizard
Now has a chance to land Critical Hits with spells
UI & Community and CS Tooling
Character state icons added
New Player Guide (Book) button added
Additional icons and UI elements added
Chat tabs were introduced with activity indicators
Filters can now be toggled from the Chat Settings menu
The Commands element can now be collapsed (for you minimalists)
Hardcore/ Self Found tags added at character select and an indicator showing if that character is dead
Launched the Community Hub
A new FAQ page has been added that’s easier to search
Known Issues page added that links directly to our (specifically flagged) GitHub issues
/Petition and /Bug reporting now accessible from here as well
Links to Roadmaps, Updates, and Development History info (pages to be revamped soon)
New Player Guide accessible from here
Server Metrics page (only shows public server info for now); more metrics/dashboards to come
Patch Notes (including Closed Testing notes) to be added soon
Playtest Results to be added, but then likely merged with Metrics
Policies page added, including updated Play Nice Policies
Extensive Customer Service and Dev support tooling added
We may show some of this off one day, but hopefully it’s mostly noticed via our petition response times
CS tooling made available as a Progressive Web App, because yes we do have phones and everybody poops
Started on Economy Reporting Dashboards to help us with analysis and automated flagging
New Character Creation flow mocked-up
Tech
Additions
Name tags are now obscured in darkness unless the entity is near a light source
Added support for diminishing returns on CC abilities
CC related buffs are part of DR groups; a buff must have a DR group for DR to be applicable
A buff with a DR group will only have DR applied in PvP contexts by default, with the option for designers to enable DR for the buff in PvE contexts
Added “Who" option to unit frame right-click context menu
Added support for breaking buffs on movement
Added /smile emote
Added some GM commands
Added “/camp server" and “/camp desktop"
Added confirmation dialog window for a player to accept a soulbind
Added chat channel for ability resists
Added No Teleport flag for items
Added right-click a hotkey to open skills window
Added a tiny cooldown for clicky items to avoid spam click abuse
Added NPC command to walk to another NPC
Bind MUD look command to “L" by default
Separated damage shield combat text into its own category
/tt now works when targeting player corpses
Ability Specific Work
Added initial version of the Tracking system
Added support for buffs that cause an effect when the entity receives healing
Abilities can now require a minimum or maximum health to apply their effects
Allow races and classes to automatically grant traits (racial and class passives)
Melee abilities now match their range to autoattack melee range
Added support for autoattack and ability critical hits
Mana Burn over time effects now cancel when the target runs out of mana
Add targeting support for ground-target abilities
Buffs can now affect autoattack critical hit rate
Archer Flare and Caltrops abilities and VFX support
Berserk and Crippling Blow implementation
Added Triple Attack skill for Fighters
Added Safe Fall for Monks, Rogues, and Bards
Added threat and explicitly check social aggro when yoinking NPCs
Added support for Archer's Salvage Arrows ability
Feign Death will now clear all aggro after 60s
Fixes
Numerous memory leaks plugged on both client and server
Several fixes for supporting Enchanting, poisons, etc.
Synchronize attack animations with target's response animation and sound
Starting locations are now data driven, allowing us to set the starting location for specific race/class combinations
Fixed wolf form showing erratically in the inventory window
Illusions are no longer cleared when zoning or logging out
Fixed an issue where player and pet models would sometimes not load at all during zoning
No longer autocast Hide when ensuring stances are active
Prevent Bard animations playing while harvesting or doing another casting animation
Better support for placing mobs on the ground in spawn volumes
Pouches and other belt slot containers now show as BAG BELT since they are equippable in either
Several fixes to ability targeting
Prevent Bard instrument bonus stacking
Prevent using /reload to bypass mez and fear effects
Fixed self-stacking of buffs provided by Elementalist pets
Harvest nodes can now despawn when their conditions are no longer met (such as night-only)
Damage shields never fire on self-inflicted damage
Polish to swimming kinematics and animation
Summoning a pet while swimming now works as expected
Scribing and Feign Death no longer cause you to fall through water
Fix “dead in water” animations not playing
Can camp while swimming
Prevent players from drowning while zoning
Work on zoning while swimming
Prototyping mechanisms for better pathing for swimming NPCs
Update swim detection to work better with Crest 5
Fixed damage shield abilities being considered as aggro-able damage for the purposes of PvP guard protection checks
This means a player who attacks another player or player pet which has a damage shield will be considered the PvP aggressor, the attacked player (or pet) will not unless they actually attack back
Fixed diminishing returns tracking buffs being shown via Sense Magic
Resend position updates to clients when the server receives a position from the client with a stale version
No longer allow emotes like /wave to a player name that is not visible to you
Fixed clicky items ignoring the required level in some instances
Fixed NoSnare and NoRoot flags not being respected
Fixed activating a hotkey for a torch or similar item by using the keyboard shortcut not working as expected
Fixed tab targeting not working sometimes
Fixed being able to heal an NPC's pet
Fixed order of faction/xp/level up messages
Fixed NPCs visually in the wrong spot for the client when they aggro from a platform directly above
Fixed NPCs getting stuck sometimes transitioning from water to land
Skip cast prediction when the target is out of range
Escaping the smart scribe book selection prompt no longer proceeds with scribing
Fixed Holy Resistance stat not showing up on item descriptions
Fixed Holy Damage not being counted as spell damage for spell damage reduction abilities
Fixed some issues that caused players to not be able to see each other on boats
Fixed other players doing run animations while on a moving boat
Fixed movehack false positives when riding boats
Fixed lights on boats culling strangely
Fixed null ref when using /reloadzone while a player is on a boat
Fixed buffs being cleared on /reloadzone and /reloadzone all
Fixed log zone entry to client ledger skipping because client was not created yet
Send a backup world position in EnterZone packet to use if the client hasn't spawned the boat for some reason
Send your pet's misses due to dodges, parries, blocks, etc. to CombatMissPet filter instead of CombatMissOther
Make camera smoother when riding moving platforms like lifts
Made some pet hit messages more consistent in their wording
Fixed others hitting your pet not going to the CombatHitPet channel
Fixed sending pet attacks to the appropriate channel when your pet hits another client
Removed the restriction to drop items if self found, and allow picking up items that you dropped yourself
Allow GMs to pick up bags on the ground, even if self found
Fixed some pieces of entity models not rendering at certain camera angles after the death animation
Smoothly transition wave size when the weather changes
Fixed pet attack not working for charmed NPCs that you can't see (invis)
Fixed icons of items in links sometimes not showing up
Fixed exception if you have a merchant interface open during a /reloadzone
Fixed the buy/sell button at the bottom of the merchant interface not clickable
Reduced network traffic due to merchant interactions
Reset the animator state on TorchHolder every once in a while so that it doesn't spam errors after too long
Footstep sounds now trigger on models that are close to you, even if your camera is not facing them
Allow self-found to pick up items on the ground spawned by the world, and coins that they dropped themselves
Fixed NPCs not prioritizing close targets when rooted
Fixed pet resist messages not going to the owner
Fixed pet mitigation messages using the internal instead of the client facing name for the pet, and updated NPC resist messages to include the name of the ability, similar to client resist messages
Fixed NPC jittering when the ground is far from the nav mesh
Increased the distance in which you can see an NPC's cast bar and spell visuals
Fixed NPCs returning to the wrong spot when they were supposed to go back home
Fixed an issue where NPC pathing would get stuck if their target point was too far from the nav mesh
In Closing
Thanks for checking out the update! Hopefully, you found a few things that piqued your interest!
We’re going to follow this update with another one detailing our latest thoughts regarding Beta and Early Access timing.
We’d like to get that out within the next week. Two weeks at the latest.
Now that this update is finished, we can get back to locking down remaining Beta/EA timing details and reviewing them with the team.
We appreciate your patience with everything!
As always, if you’re a fan of the project and want to support us, the best thing you can do right now is get the word out:
See you soon!