QA May 2023

[Tulach]

Here is an example. Currently we have +healing on 6 potential slots. +healing we do not want going higher than a certain %, let's say that's 60% for simplicity's sake here (actual is higher). That means each slot we need to restrict to 10% +healing max. We cannot add more slots with +healing, we cannot exceed +10 healing, even if players cannot find the items or the quests are too hard to complete, it would exceed our targets and be bad generally to balance.

We could instead of doing it this way, have a cap of 60% healing, and give you items with 10, 15, 20 +healing or add healing to every slot and let you decide which piece is best based on their other stats and your available gear. The overall power, the amount of that +healing is determined by level and presence of other stats on the item, so it's not so much "power" increase, but shifting numbers around to allow for more targeted itemization. Like comparing an item with +10healing/+10stam regen vs +15 healing vs +20 stam regen. Their relative power and value could be similar depending on your spec and what you value. Ideally there is increased flexibility in the items that we can offer without "breaking the bank".

Yes we purposely keep the numbers low and don't go into exponential scaling. Content remains dangerous especially group content. This does shrink our dynamic range, but this is what we are aiming for in terms of relative power across the level ranges. Damage isn't exponentially increasing, but people definitely feel those bumps and players hitting for 100-200+ at higher levels and that feels good.

The smaller numbers involved make many items functionally worthless thou.

What do I mean.

When you start looking at percentages or percentages of percentages when the sum of those numbers are less than a whole integer you run into a place where many items simply are lost to rounding down.

Walk into a Sonic and order a drink..... Your design option: you have a 4oz drink or 60oz Big Gulp.... By increasing scaling you can offer a smoother delivery of options. you can order small, med, large, extra large, jumbo, big gulp.

Take a skill like the warlord stamina song for instance. Level 10 or something when you first get it the skill hits for +1 stamina, fast forward to something like level 25 or something and it starts to tick for +2. Those are very sharp steps in power and a ton of dead spots in-between. Yes that may make the skill feel more impactful when upgraded but it also feels pretty dang bad while you struggle in those dead spaces. You all added 25, 33, 36, etc gear for the same reason because every 10 levels was too much of a step. You remove many options for itemization and progression when a level 1 character has 100hp and the highest tank on the server has 350hp or something similar.

Lack of scaling also affects the derivatives of the potential outcome of damage and attack rolls. What do i mean?

When completing the function of an attack roll that has to fit between 100 and 350 say you have only so many options. You give the rolls multiple variables yet the sum must stay between a certain range. That becomes much smaller given that you can't design mobs that are going to one shot tanks and have to consider how quickly you can heal as well. This by the nature of the variables involved normalizes the potential outcome of the derivative with very little variation. This essentially trivializes gear progression almost all together and makes resists and con to level most important.

Tulach Smertnik

 

[Tulach]

Here is an example. Currently we have +healing on 6 potential slots. +healing we do not want going higher than a certain %, let's say that's 60% for simplicity's sake here (actual is higher). That means each slot we need to restrict to 10% +healing max. We cannot add more slots with +healing, we cannot exceed +10 healing, even if players cannot find the items or the quests are too hard to complete, it would exceed our targets and be bad generally to balance.

We could instead of doing it this way, have a cap of 60% healing, and give you items with 10, 15, 20 +healing or add healing to every slot and let you decide which piece is best based on their other stats and your available gear. The overall power, the amount of that +healing is determined by level and presence of other stats on the item, so it's not so much "power" increase, but shifting numbers around to allow for more targeted itemization. Like comparing an item with +10healing/+10stam regen vs +15 healing vs +20 stam regen. Their relative power and value could be similar depending on your spec and what you value. Ideally there is increased flexibility in the items that we can offer without "breaking the bank".

Ok let use your example above.

I am a healer trying to reach your imaginary +60percent healing cap that is implemented. To do so now I have to have 6 items with say +10 healing on them to get that place. Buy selecting those current items to get to +60 percent healing currently I have to make the choice not to put on flanking gear, or run higher AC, or +pen items. I make the choice to have maximum heal output.

Now lets go into Stat cap land instead of itemization land : Lets say you add a bunch of items with +20 healing using your example above. Now I only need three items with +20 healing and the other three items which will also have higher stats on them can have higher AC, high flanking, high pen, hit hit or whatever else I choose. So now instead of being super specialized and strong at only one thing. EVERYONE is at max stat cap across the board because. Toss in the lack of scaling i mentioned above and you just made everyone much stronger because of how you itemized. The only thing controlling power in that case then is what you arbitrarily set to the stat cap of each stat. Doesnt seem that fun to me

 

[AdricLives]

The smaller numbers involved make many items functionally worthless thou.

Sure, it's not lost on me, it's just not what we decided to do.

Now lets go into Stat cap land instead of itemization land : Lets say you add a bunch of items with +20 healing using your example above.

Whether you pick up 6 items with 10healing/10stamregen or 3 items with 20 healing and 3 items with 20 stam regen I don't really see how it's all that different other than letting you specialize more quickly and separate stats. You could see where the 3 stam regen pieces could alternatively be physical resist which the 3 healing pieces cannot have those stats. So it offers the potential to go 60 healing 60 physical resist (or whatever that cap) instead of forcing the player to go 10/10 on every piece and get stuck with 60 healing 30 stam regen 30 physical resist with no other choice.

 

[Tulach]

Sure, it's not lost on me, it's just not what we decided to do.



Whether you pick up 6 items with 10healing/10stamregen or 3 items with 20 healing and 3 items with 20 stam regen I don't really see how it's all that different other than letting you specialize more quickly and separate stats. You could see where the 3 stam regen pieces could alternatively be physical resist which the 3 healing pieces cannot have those stats. So it offers the potential to go 60 healing 60 physical resist (or whatever that cap) instead of forcing the player to go 10/10 on every piece and get stuck with 60 healing 30 stam regen 30 physical resist with no other choice.

As long as you stand by your decision and dont change it in the future sounds great to me. It fails from a math perspective but if that is the direction you are going the only request most of us would have im sure is that you pick something. YOU test it. Then stick with it. Every time you make major changes I lose friends from the game.

 

[Eryola]

The stat caps will be the reason for no difference between characters anymore... if you cap stat x at 100 for example, every member of a class will have 100x at lvl30-50 and the only difference will be in the "unimportant" stats, which won't have a big influence. Essentially every char will perform the same. Instead of doing this, it would be FAR better to actually make the other stats useful. Half of them are completely useless and even getting +20 or more would not be worth even losing +1 on your main stat. There is a reason people focus on just ONE thing: because the others SUCK.

For me, if this goes live, this is the definite "time to quit now" moment:
My whole build is based on +healing and I literally spent HUNDREDS of hours just focusing on getting the best gear in each slot for just this one purpose. I even spent more than 100(!) hours to get ONE lvl20 ring, to get +healing as high as possible. I would have to completely reitemize and everything done so far would be time wasted.
It will make the guide I wrote pointless too, since a) the build will no longer be possible, b) there will be new items with overpowered stats coming compared to the ones listed already, c) everyone will have the same stats anyway and d) I definitely don't want to play a duelist that casts Patch for like 50 each time, because the ability won't be able to keep up with incoming damage anymore. The -10% base healing nerf on patch was annoying already, but removing +heal bonus (I'm at 109 unbuffed atm, cap is 111! This can go up to 130+ with augments... this is not "happening in the future" this will 99% be a direct nerf to me NOW) is too much.
I also bet the stat caps will be an annoying "hidden" nerf on other stats (hello, physical resist, I'm talking about you!)...

 

[AdricLives]

Maybe it's not clear, the stat caps are intended to be set at the currently itemized stat caps. ie you have 10 slots with +healing each slot has at most 10 +healing (again this example is not using in-game numbers), so from your gear you have a max of 100 healing. The stat cap is set to 100 and nothing changes with your current gear.

Uncapped system means I cannot give gear with 11 healing, capped system means I can.

 

[Korraz]

Uncapped system means I cannot give gear with 11 healing, capped system means I can.

That's simply not true and is just an extremely lazy way of trying to defend this horrible decision. Stat caps are a very bad idea and will hurt the game immensely. All build diversity will be gone instantly. Stat caps will force players to build one specific way because the stats are not equal weight at all. It just leads to the eventual "LF AC capped tank for X" or "LF healer Depths, +healing capped only"

 

[AdricLives]

That's simply not true

It's a design constraint I put on the itemization. I break it in rare situations, but those situations I've broken my own rules have caused issues in the game and are often the source of most complaints with itemization. So yea I CAN but it is highly problematic for players and balance. Maybe the devil's in the details too much, hopefully we can release the numbers on QA and up any caps that is currently impacting players because we aren't looking to impact any current itemization, only plan for future expansion of itemization options.

 

[Tulach]

Yes we purposely keep the numbers low and don't go into exponential scaling. Content remains dangerous especially group content. This does shrink our dynamic range, but this is what we are aiming for in terms of relative power across the level ranges. Damage isn't exponentially increasing, but people definitely feel those bumps and players hitting for 100-200+ at higher levels and that feels good.

You know what these purposefully low numbers mean to me and everyone else that plays. It means if I take a video of gameplay for an hour at the exile camp behind raven rock with a level ten group and I turn off my UI, then I do the same with a level 40 group in freehold the people that watch the video wouldn't be able to tell that the groups are 30 levels(hundreds of hours farming gear) and months of gameplay apart. Also relatively speaking that level 10 group at raven rock is actually more powerful even.

 

[Eryola]

....we aren't looking to impact any current itemization, only plan for future expansion of itemization options.

Which essentially means: We're locking in current itemization, with NO items at lvl50 and only one healer item >40... this means: my current heal output will stay at this level, no matter what items drop for me and I cannot improve my char anymore. (And nope: having 20 more of insert-crap-stat-here won't make a difference) This makes waiting for Q4 for 50 content real fun! And sorry for sounding kinda frustrated, but getting hit with the nerf-bat -every. single. patch.- lately kinda starts to take its toll...
Instead of fixing the base problem (that of most stats just being worse or even -completely- useless) and changing how the stats work, this is again an el-cheapo solution of "hey, this one thing is too good, let's nerf it". Why do you think people are gearing for +dmg/+flanking/+healing/phys res? Not because we WANT to be unbalanced, but because the other stats are crap. Sure... go +hit and notice how much your output sucks as a dps... or go +pen as a tank and see how your aggro is less than before... or how about going +sta regen as a healer? Barely noticeable regen increase for tons less efficiency, especially when a warlord is in the group. And here I am only listing useful stuff... how about my CLASS BONUS as a duelist? +15 COMBAT MOVEMENT?!? That stat is so useless, it could as well be "make your Chithorn's shine 15% redder"... btw Chithorn's... lvl20 shoulders, still BiS slot at lvl50? Guess why? And it's not because the red is so nice to look at. 95% of the mobs do phys dmg and that's the reason why people focus on it.

You know what these purposefully low numbers mean to me and everyone else that plays. It means if I take a video of gameplay for an hour at the exile camp behind raven rock with a level ten group and I turn off my UI, then I do the same with a level 40 group in freehold the people that watch the video wouldn't be able to tell that the groups are 30 levels(hundreds of hours farming gear) and months of gameplay apart. Also relatively speaking that level 10 group at raven rock is actually more powerful even.

I'll add another challenge to this: Take a lvl 40 group that has the current standard itemization and another group of the same level with all non-core stats increased by 30 and find out, ONLY by looking at an UI-less video, which one is which.
These "purposefully low numbers" are exactly one of the reasons people have quit too. Because you don't FEEL the improvement... if I'm finally lvl30 Kung-Fucius I should be able to massacre my way through CV1/CV2 solo with EASE. This is actually what makes coming back to older content fun in other MMORPGs... killing all those bastards that gave you such a hard time in dungeon xy. Not so in Embers Adrift... mobs that give you no xp anymore because "they are no challenge" can very well kill you or at least take an eternity to kill. And the special added bonus is: you try to travel somewhere and the annoying ultra-low lvl wolves/bears keep aggroing on you, even though they are 20lvl+ deep gray to you and still snare you constantly. 90% of the leveling experience feels like it is color-gated: You would easily be able to defeat MUCH higher mobs than yourself, because the numbers aren't really that different. The ONLY thing keeping you from doing so is the bonuses mobs gain from being yellow/orange/red. This makes for a frustrating level experience, when not your own skill and -not even your gear- make a noticeable difference, but everything depends on that small number down there that now says 38 instead of 37 and suddenly opens up new content for you that would have been -impossible- with just 1xp less. And if you want an interesting experiment to see for yourself: Remove the penalties for fighting yellow/orange/red mobs... and you'd see lvl20 groups in redshore and well balanced lvl30 groups in Freehold. Oh... I forgot, you did that already... I think it's called G.E.L. (Actually I'm not complaining about the GEL system. It was a very much needed addition and works well. What I am critizing is the base system that lies below it and makes it a possible solution. In most other games "you get the level adjustment, but not the stats/skills" would lead to "ohhh... I just got one-shot for 3 times my maximum hitpoints... non-crit")

 

[AdricLives]

You know what these purposefully low numbers mean to me

You mean like any other MMO if you disable the UI? I'm not sure what expectations you have but I don't think we are aligned on what the game even is.

Which essentially means:

Which essentially means you are putting words in my mouth. As stated the initial system would not be impacted this includes any lvl 46, 48, 50 items as they are included in the initial itemization system.

You both appear to be rallying for exponential scaling and revamping the stat system. Which is fine feedback, but it's rather off-topic here.

 

[Tulach]

You mean like any other MMO if you disable the UI? I'm not sure what expectations you have but I don't think we are aligned on what the game even is.



Which essentially means you are putting words in my mouth. As stated the initial system would not be impacted this includes any lvl 46, 48, 50 items as they are included in the initial itemization system.

You both appear to be rallying for exponential scaling and revamping the stat system. Which is fine feedback, but it's rather off-topic here.

We are giving pretty detailed feedback to why we believe a stat cap system is a poor design element. My point of the above was to say there is no discernible difference between gameplay, design, mob difficulty, visuals, etc between a level 10 group encounter and a level 40 encounter. EVERY other major MMO you can see a difference in combat, gameplay, difficulty, visualization of gear, specialization of roles within classes, etc; with progression.

I completely agree with Eryola's points above.

Many of us have 20 years or more of MMO gameplay at high playtime levels across multiple game platforms. Some of us closer to 30 years including myself. I can probably provide the damage roll, defensive roll, and other game mechanics for every popular MMO ever made with full spreadsheets on how to min/max every system. We can continue to give neutral feedback in an effort to promote better long time gameplay for a game we enjoy, or you can also just tell us we are not interested in hearing what you guys have to contribute.

 

[AdricLives]

We are giving pretty detailed feedback to why we believe a stat cap system is a poor design element.

I'm not dismissing feedback, I'm addressing it. I have yet to be convinced by the feedback provided that stat caps would have such an impact on the game as is feared. I've explained the goals in the current system why this helps itemization. Concerns have been raised and addressed around nerfs.

The concern around players no longer having any differences between them I don't fully understand. In the context of comparing it to the current system, I don't see the example of this happening at least in making it worse than the current system.

There has been mention of some stats being too weak such as stamina regeneration. Stat caps allow us to start offering higher amounts of these stats at lower levels without it being game-breaking at high levels and offering tradeoffs with other more valuable stats. This is some of what I am trying to communicate, but failing to convey. Perhaps the request would be more to make the stat stronger instead, but because we are currently working with % values the scope of this request would be not to increase the potency but to replace the stat entirely.

My point of the above was to say there is no discernible difference between gameplay, design, mob difficulty, visuals, etc between a level 10 group encounter and a level 40 encounter. EVERY other major MMO you can see a difference in combat, gameplay, difficulty, visualization of gear, specialization of roles within classes, etc; with progression.

Right and I said it's fine feedback, but has nothing to do with the patch notes for QA and off-topic for our discussion.

We can continue to give neutral feedback

My personal gripe is feedback that equates to making a different game. We work with the community to shape the game and steer things in a better direction, but there is occasionally feedback that completely opposes the goals and core tenants of the game itself. So how do we address this and take into consideration the feedback that the game should be changed into something else entirely? We state our goals with the game and hope to direct feedback towards making improvements in that direction.

 

[Tulach]

I'm not dismissing feedback, I'm addressing it. I have yet to be convinced by the feedback provided that stat caps would have such an impact on the game as is feared. I've explained the goals in the current system why this helps itemization. Concerns have been raised and addressed around nerfs.

The concern around players no longer having any differences between them I don't fully understand. In the context of comparing it to the current system, I don't see the example of this happening at least in making it worse than the current system.

There has been mention of some stats being too weak such as stamina regeneration. Stat caps allow us to start offering higher amounts of these stats at lower levels without it being game-breaking at high levels and offering tradeoffs with other more valuable stats. This is some of what I am trying to communicate, but failing to convey. Perhaps the request would be more to make the stat stronger instead, but because we are currently working with % values the scope of this request would be not to increase the potency but to replace the stat entirely.



Right and I said it's fine feedback, but has nothing to do with the patch notes for QA and off-topic for our discussion.



My personal gripe is feedback that equates to making a different game. We work with the community to shape the game and steer things in a better direction, but there is occasionally feedback that completely opposes the goals and core tenants of the game itself. So how do we address this and take into consideration the feedback that the game should be changed into something else entirely? We state our goals with the game and hope to direct feedback towards making improvements in that direction.

Maybe put a huge post up on your goals, what you are trying to achieve, how you plan to do that, etc. Im not talking about a simple post saying this is our planned future content. I am talking about core gameplay mechanics on how the game combat functions. Most of the feedback you are getting from us is directly about core game system functions. We are mostly not complaining that max level players still look homeless, or bitching that much of the content looks and feels the same, or lack of other such polish things. We are talking about major gameplay mechanics, math on how things roll now and in the future, and how as a team you seem to disregard time invested by many of your high level community when you make sweeping changes to how classes are performing.

Post your actual defensive and offensive roll formulas. Let us pick it apart with itemization, stat caps, skill power, etc. I already have most of the formulas 90pct sorted anyway. Let us break it before you implement an entire new system that we have already seen fail multiple times in the past. We will do it with numbers and math so as to help balance the system now and in the future by giving the power of choice to players with a balanced benefit cost implementation. Your small hard working team has nothing at all to lose by enabling the very small group of us that want to help and have the skills and knowledge to assist you.

The feedback regarding scaling has loads to do with implementation of stat caps. The lack of scaling limits the amount of potential outcomes for a roll both offensive and defensively. Stat caps essentially place a minimum and maximum value on a given variable in the derivative function of those rolls. This severely limits the potential outcomes possible and leave very little room for vertical progression. To say it has nothing at all to do with stat caps is very closed minded with respect to the impact those caps have to potential outcomes.

We are not trying to make a different game. Those of us that are here have been searching for a game like this for years. We want you to succeed in every way. But we want to help ensure you make scaleable stable core mechanics that will continue to last in the future.

 

[XerWolf]

Commenting on just specifically stamina regen. I find it very useful as a striker. If you arent with a warlord, it matters a lot personally. I think some of the points that are being brought up are around the fact that if you start giving +30 stamina items then you will get more min maxing with people getting that one +30 item and freeing up belt, necklace, shirt, pants to focus on other stats causing a power creep that will lead to more players having the stamina higher than today and also having other stats higher as well.

 

[Pipz]

I think everyone here loves this game and wants it to succeed. But I think both sides need to give to make a better game. Most of us yes are veteran players. Coming from someone who played a final fantasy 11's red mage at broken levels and play magic: the gathering at a pro level there is alot of infomation to draw on from our players and what is game breaking or not. I personally think gear and skills are pretty weak and should be OP and welcome more powerful monsters. We can justify a 200 healing skill cap if dmg and HP were higher and I think certain caps do limit future progression. A evade cap or haste cap makes sense so dmg never goes to 0 or infinite but those are pretty much the only caps I can think that truly matter. As for halt, if you want the best of both worlds I think a reagents for it would make this more fun. To make it OP give a regeant that also stuns for 1-2 secs while the animation goes up so people have time to move. Then you could also have a reagent that poisons and ect. This doesn't need to be when you first get the ability but as long as people have goals to work toward to feel overpowered in their own right, they will stick to their characters and the game. I do have a problem with respec-ing and not saving progress. I should be able to enjoy being somewhat OP on another class and not punished for trying new things. I do love how you address feedback and hope we as players can be of help in figuring these things out.

 

[MarcusFromOz]

I'm concerned that by adding stat caps you will remove a large carrot from the game, the opportunity to be the first person to discover how specialising in XY skill makes you the best at a certain role.

The great thing about this game is that things are earnt, and the ability to put +20 healing pieces in every slot is earnt by committing a lot of time.
The majority of people won't make that commitment but those that do should see the benefit of it.

In addition, there is a freedom to this game that I hope does not get reined in, it would give the impression of trending towards "every other game".

I got all excited about helping design a UI for stat caps without thinking holistically about the system itself.
Now that I've read and thought about it, I'd prefer not to give up the current freedoms and the paths of discovery they take you on.

I'd rather you make other skills more attractive than suppress the fun of creating an original build.
And if that +20 healing piece also has -10 flanking, well that creates choices.

 

[MarcusFromOz]

About to do some QA server functional and regression testing, will update this as I go.

May 3rd:

• Live characters copied to QA as of May 3rd 2023.
  
  
• Tutorial Log:
  
  • The quest log has been extended to include tutorial information. Tabs have been added to the top of the window to allow you to switch between "Quests" and "Tutorial", and the window will soon be renamed to "Log". The new tutorial section serves as a place to revisit previously viewed tutorial tooltips. We hope this new resource will help new players more easily navigate the early game. (see screenshot below)
    The scroll bar to the right on the Quests screen seems unnecessary, did the page accidently grow too large? I notice it's not on the Tutorials tab.
    Overall the Tutorial Log is very good, covers many of the often heard questions and I learnt 3 things myself.
• Hunting Log: we have added tech which allows the game to track how many of each type of creature you have slain.
  
  
  • This information is currently only visible via the "/huntinglog" chat command, but as you can imagine a new tab will soon be added to the log window (described above) to display this information.
    Killed 3 rats, 3 vagrants and 1 poison frog:
    
    
  • Because I died just before the frog did, it didn't count the frog.
  • KIlled the second frog and it worked ok.
  • You will be awarded a new title once you reach the thresholds of 5/10/15/20 for each creature type. These titles and thresholds are placeholders to test functionality and will change before it goes live. You can expect the thresholds to be much higher. We would love to hear your thoughts on what those thresholds and titles should be though!
  • Initial thoughts on numbers:10/50/250/1250
  
  
  • Note that humanoids are NOT currently tallied in the hunting log. Noted
    Killed a vagrant in the Karst Aquifer and the hunting log didn''t update.
• Group Window:
  
  • When a group member is in a different zone or out of range their role, level, and group leader icon will continue to show in the group window
  • Simplified the method in which we update members within the group window. Hopefully this will fix the issue of keyboard shortcut labels being out of order.
  • Known issues: the status of an out of range/diff zone group member does not always update correctly. Currently investigating potential fixes.
• Monoliths
  
  • Can now only be used out of combat.
  • Added a confirmation dialog on usage.
• Dual Wield: increased ability off-hand weapon contribution for different weapon types (10% is the current live value for all weapons)
  
  • Hatchet --> 20%
  • Dagger --> 25%
  • Sword --> 30%
  • Knuckles --> 35%
• Warden:
  
  • Venom Strike and Acid Strike have had their damage values increased.
  • Eagle Eye increased +HIT amount
• Increased global interaction distance from 3m to 4m. The interaction distance on ember drift exits was a bit too restrictive, along with some other perception issues in first person mode we have globally increased the interaction distance. I can already tell you however, that this will be dialed back and I will more selectively increase interaction distance for items as needed. (did some more testing and the EV exit issue is something else I'm looking into - expect this change to be fully reverted)
• Increased damage of mobs lvl 25+ by 5-10%
• Feared mobs now have a chance to call for help when fear expires or is broken.
• Carrion Ravens, Redmane Prowlers, and Redmane Lurkers can no longer go Ashen.
• Reduced spawn rate of Shrieks in Grimstone Canyon
• Confirmation dialogs for Monoliths & Egress points (inside of dungeons) will now auto-cancel if you get too far away from the object you are interacting with.
• Added icon tinting for refined logs
• Added a different icon for higher level dopants
• Fixed skinning and resource level on Stark the bear.
• Fixed armor weight on Scale Mesh Mask to zero.
• Fixed a bug where NPC dots from the same name NPC could not stack. This could make Spiders a bit more dangerous...
• Fixed Ash consumable sharing a cooldown with potions
• Fixed issues with AoE line of sight checks (impacts which targets are selected in an AoE). This should make abilities like Intimidate easier to use.
• Fixed missing icon on CR1 hulking spider
• Fixed incorrect exp modifier on Great Axe recipes, they should now grant full experience.

May 4th:

• Global interaction distance set back to 3m
• Increase interaction distance on Ember Vein exits
• Renewing Resonance is now group-only
• Fixed group nameplate role/level while out of range being illegible.
• More reliably update group nameplates when players are in a different zone or out of range
• More reliably update guild member list status
• Tutorial text now shows dynamic key binds
• Updates to the Log window
• Daggers off hand ability damage modifier increased to 35%

May 5th:

• Weapons & Ember Stones will now show on your characters when on the Character Selection screen.
• Fixed some stuck spots in Forgotten Depths
• Fixed more issues with group nameplates showing the wrong information.
• Fixed a warning that was spamming the logs.
• Adjusted NPC patrols in Grimstone Canyon and Forgotten Depths to be less frequent.
• Warden:
  
  • Reduced stamina cost of Acid Strike, ViperidToxins, VenomStrike, Assist

May 9th:

• Bat's Screech should no longer stack
• Replaced water planes in Central Veins, Aquifer, Ember Veins, and all other dungeon rooms. It should look a bit more like water now.
  looks good !!
• Reduced memorization time for Lay of the Land & Resuscitate to 1s.
• Moved the Redshore Monolith to the western side of the zone.
• Augments can now be "stacked". You can stack a maximum of 5 on a single item. This only increases the hit count (weapons) and duration (armor) - not the stat itself.
• Added an Egress point to the Meadowlands' Ember Oasis.
• Fixed Insulated Trousers to provide Chemical Damage Resist instead of Chemical Damage.
• Fixed level on Dyed Jack Trousers
• Fixed some environmental bugs in Meadowlands, Northreach, and Dryfoot
• Fixed augments displaying information twice on tooltips
• Fixed +stats displayed on tooltips are now sorted for consistency between different items
• Started the process of cleaning up tooltips. This will likely take several iterations as there is a lot of data and different situations to work through. This cleanup includes general formatting improvements, spacing improvements, improved durability display, improved weapon dice display, and improved stat displays.
  
  Looks very clean except for the +100% Flanking.
  Maybe write that as:
  ^ +15 (+5 Flanking) HIT
  < +10 (+5 Flanking) PEN
  V +3 (+5 Flanking) DMG

Other Functional:
- Noticed the bleed effect on myself - nicely done
- Noticed the human enemies had a wider range of customisations - nice.

Regression:
- No issues so far.

Overall Impression
- Loved the changes, look forward to them adding to the horizontal progression in the game.

 

[Undone]

You all seem to be concerned with a system that hasn't even been detailed yet. You are all currently subject to stat caps; we just don't make it explicit because it's capped in spreadsheets. By codifying these caps it allows us a great deal more flexibility in itemization than what we currently have while not breaking the game. It's fine and dandy to theory craft but for this particular instance I ask that we wait for it to be implemented, try it out, and then provide feedback on our implementation.

 

[Korraz]

You all seem to be concerned with a system that hasn't even been detailed yet. You are all currently subject to stat caps; we just don't make it explicit because it's capped in spreadsheets. By codifying these caps it allows us a great deal more flexibility in itemization than what we currently have while not breaking the game. It's fine and dandy to theory craft but for this particular instance I ask that we wait for it to be implemented, try it out, and then provide feedback on our implementation.

So if it's clearly meeting so much backlash on mere mention then why not just keep it on the spreadsheets and to yourselves as it is currently. You get to have your caps that you insist are so important and we get to keep enjoying thoerycraftjng and building our characters as we have been. Maybe let's listen to the players "then" make changes