What's new?
We are very excited to bring this month's patch to you all. It includes substantial changes to the combat feels of the game in the form of reduced execution times and increased NPC difficulty (at higher levels). We are also introducing the Hunting Log to help you keep track of how many rats you have actually slain. It also includes a new Ember Vein for players in their low to mid 40s, and improvements to Rupture & Drift visuals. Oh and let's not forget three new quests along with a slew of bug fixes and improvements!
Bug fixes / improvements:
Ability Execution Adjustments
With the aim of improving the feels of combat without drastically changing the formula we have enhanced our execution pipeline to better support instant executions. With this improved tech in place we have reduced a number of ability execution times; the majority of non-healing abilities have had their execution times reduced by 1 second. We have also improved the timing of most ability animations (or replaced them all together) to better align with these new executions times.
Risk vs Reward and Difficulty Adjustment
Reductions to ability execution times created an imbalance in player damage further shortening mob uptime. While addressing this point we also sought to address balance issues at higher levels across the board. Armor, Health, and Outgoing Damage have all increased for mobs, increasing more significantly at the higher levels of 30+.
We recognized this slowed player progression so we have also reduced the amount of experience required per level at 25+. The reductions range from about 10% at level 25 to about 35% at level 49 while the early part of the game remains largely unchanged. Please note that your current level and % level progression on your characters will be unchanged.
Hunting Log
The long awaited hunting log has finally arrived! This new feature tracks the kill count of specific creatures. As your kill count goes up you will unlock "perks" in the form of titles and stat bonuses. Each perk is a decision to be made: title perks allow you to choose one of the two available titles while stat perks allow you to choose a single stat bonus from the three available options (which are unique to each creature). The titles are purely cosmetic while the stat bonuses apply only when engaged with that specific creature. In other words: the stats will not be reflected on your character sheet.
All of this can be tracked via the new tab added to the Log window aptly named "Hunting". When selected you will find a list of which creatures you currently have a log for, how many kills into your current tier you are, and the total amount of kills. If you have any perks available to select it will be highlighted in blue to draw your attention to it. When selecting an individual log entry the right panel will show the creature name, total kills, and stat tally in the upper right portion. In the lower section you will find your progress through your current tier, and below that which tier perks you have chosen and which are available. When a perk becomes available a button will show allowing you to select one of the available options (all options are visible via tooltips on the specific tiers).
Given that you are making choices along the way we needed to offer the ability to "respec" if you want to change your selections at any point. To do this you simply right click on any individual entry and select "Reset Perk", at which point you will be presented with a confirmation window:
Resetting to a specific perk will reset your tier progress to the previous tier. As an example, if you reset to the 250 tier your tier progress will be reset to 100 and you must "re-earn" your way back to the tier in question (note that your total kill count is NOT reset when reseting a perk). We feel that this method of respeccing aligns with other mechanics in the game and forces you to think twice before hitting the yes button. Think of your total kill count as something tracked for fun, while you can think of your tier progress as your "experience" with a specific creature.
Also note that we have built the hunting log with a great deal of flexibility in mind. If we end up changing the tier or reward structure then we can easily increment the version of a specific creature, or the entire hunting log, which in turn will automatically refund your selections without resetting your tier progress. In other words: if any changes are made to the choices offered rest assured you will get a free respec.
Armor Weight Adjustments
Armor Weight has been globally shifted down while maintaining existing armor weight ratios. For most players this should yield individual pieces of armor offering less protection but you can now wear more pieces. Additionally, Defenders have been granted an additional 5 Armor Weight at maximum level. With these changes we have assured that a level 50 would be able to wear specific full armor sets:
Utilizing the newly enabled decal tech mentioned above, we have added new visuals to Ember Veins and Ruptures. These visuals add some "veins" to the surrounding ground/walls/etc while also periodically pulsing energy through them.
For the Ruptures the radius of the new visuals is representative of the range in which creatures will turn to Ashen.
New Ember Vein
A new Ember Vein, Blightroot Grove, has been added in the Northern Sections of Highland Hills for players in the low to mid-40s. This Ember Vein is relatively unique and is the first to include a solo-player section along with full group content. This is similar to how areas such as Karst and Undercroft have been structured to allow for solo/duo players to have play areas near group content when forming groups. Feedback on this style of content is appreciated as we look to roll out more similar content in the future.
Ember Vein Names
The Ember Veins have been given proper names reflecting their contents, theming, and locations in the world. The list is as follows:
We are very excited to bring this month's patch to you all. It includes substantial changes to the combat feels of the game in the form of reduced execution times and increased NPC difficulty (at higher levels). We are also introducing the Hunting Log to help you keep track of how many rats you have actually slain. It also includes a new Ember Vein for players in their low to mid 40s, and improvements to Rupture & Drift visuals. Oh and let's not forget three new quests along with a slew of bug fixes and improvements!
Bug fixes / improvements:
- Tech
- Fixed an issue where NPCs would back into you after being stunned.
- Fixed an issue where the LOS check was failing for unconscious players in some locations. This should be far more reliable.
- Fixed an animation issue that would sometimes result in your character dropping into the ground or performing a flying kick.
- Fixed an issue where guards were not helping against previously passive creatures (i.e. Doe).
- Improved respawn reliability in the Meadowlands oasis area. Through the wolf cave and up until you enter the spider cave you will respawn in the south east at the river north of the wolf cave. Once in the spider cave you will respawn in the south west of the zone just north of the spider plateau entrance.
- Weapon abilities no longer execute if your weapon is broken. You will instead be notified that they are broken.
- Improved NPC navigation preferences; animals should now be more likely to avoid paths when wandering.
- Enabled new decal tech. This allows us to exclude players, npcs, weapons, etc from receiving the projected red/blue targeting reticles.
- Environment / Art
- Removed a number of non-interactive ladders.
- Ashen creatures will now sound a bit different from their non-ashen counterparts.
- Fixed a number of environmental, props, and stuck spots in Redshore, Forgotten Depths, Northreach Grimstone Canyon, Highland Hills, and Newhaven City.
- Fixed some navigation issues over certain rocks in Redshore and associated zones.
- Reduced the size of a large rock in Redshore and associated zones that was allowing NPCs to spawn inside of it.
- Performance improvements to Redshore Ridge and Freehold.
- Performance improvements for Ember Ring VFX.
- Enabled a well traveled road heading south from the crossroads in Meadowlands.
- The rope in Undercroft should be much easier to interact with.
- UI:
- Added a long-overdue item count to the Crafting UI's output preview.
- Added the Hunting Log (see below).
- Design:
- Added Crafted tag to Firewater quest reward so that it would better stack with crafted versions.
- Ammo crafted with Raven Feathers output new Feathered arrows (Known issue that only imbued arrows and non-imbued bolts are working).
- Slagjacks, Muckippers and Terradiles now have pursue abilities (ranged attack used while chasing targets).
- Ore spawn in Southern Highland Hills increased.
- Reduced Mandrake/Woodclaimed/Mangrove respawn rates in Southern Highland Hills.
- Smuggler's Cap armor weight corrected to 0.
- King's Guard Shield reduced resists amount to balance against similar items.
- Death's Door can now be used on unconscious players.
- Fixed issue preventing most Heals from being interrupted. Healing interruption rates have been reduced from initial values. They start at 33% chance and reduce to 0% after half the execution time has completed.
- Fixed issue with mob self-healing attacks incorrectly healing them after the initial attack had missed.
- Fixed issue preventing mobs from taking full advantage of haste buffs or innate haste values (notably this makes named mobs a bit more dangerous).
- Fixed issue where ore would spawn at the Forgotten Depths door.
- Grub Bat Ears are now stackable.
- Mole Bears are now skinnable.
- Ashen Mangrove reduced damage shield damage.
- Harvesting resources from slain mobs will grant up to 3 resources depending on the difficulty of the mob.
- Carcasses are now "Carcass Parts".
- Coal and Graphite reduced chance to drop, increased amount dropped. These share loot chances with gems. We want to have them be available but not feel like you are not getting something in return when it pulls Coal over a Gem.
- Rat debuff "Festering Strike" no longer reduces health regen.
- Quests / Lore:
- Fixed a typo on a Meadowlands' abandoned farm door.
- Irreconcilable Differences should now properly assign titles to players upon completion. Titles will be retroactively applied to players who have already completed the quest.
- Added the following quests:
- In the Name of Science
- The Lost Settlers
- Into the Shrieking Warrens
Ability Execution Adjustments
With the aim of improving the feels of combat without drastically changing the formula we have enhanced our execution pipeline to better support instant executions. With this improved tech in place we have reduced a number of ability execution times; the majority of non-healing abilities have had their execution times reduced by 1 second. We have also improved the timing of most ability animations (or replaced them all together) to better align with these new executions times.
Risk vs Reward and Difficulty Adjustment
Reductions to ability execution times created an imbalance in player damage further shortening mob uptime. While addressing this point we also sought to address balance issues at higher levels across the board. Armor, Health, and Outgoing Damage have all increased for mobs, increasing more significantly at the higher levels of 30+.
We recognized this slowed player progression so we have also reduced the amount of experience required per level at 25+. The reductions range from about 10% at level 25 to about 35% at level 49 while the early part of the game remains largely unchanged. Please note that your current level and % level progression on your characters will be unchanged.
Hunting Log
The long awaited hunting log has finally arrived! This new feature tracks the kill count of specific creatures. As your kill count goes up you will unlock "perks" in the form of titles and stat bonuses. Each perk is a decision to be made: title perks allow you to choose one of the two available titles while stat perks allow you to choose a single stat bonus from the three available options (which are unique to each creature). The titles are purely cosmetic while the stat bonuses apply only when engaged with that specific creature. In other words: the stats will not be reflected on your character sheet.
All of this can be tracked via the new tab added to the Log window aptly named "Hunting". When selected you will find a list of which creatures you currently have a log for, how many kills into your current tier you are, and the total amount of kills. If you have any perks available to select it will be highlighted in blue to draw your attention to it. When selecting an individual log entry the right panel will show the creature name, total kills, and stat tally in the upper right portion. In the lower section you will find your progress through your current tier, and below that which tier perks you have chosen and which are available. When a perk becomes available a button will show allowing you to select one of the available options (all options are visible via tooltips on the specific tiers).
Given that you are making choices along the way we needed to offer the ability to "respec" if you want to change your selections at any point. To do this you simply right click on any individual entry and select "Reset Perk", at which point you will be presented with a confirmation window:
Resetting to a specific perk will reset your tier progress to the previous tier. As an example, if you reset to the 250 tier your tier progress will be reset to 100 and you must "re-earn" your way back to the tier in question (note that your total kill count is NOT reset when reseting a perk). We feel that this method of respeccing aligns with other mechanics in the game and forces you to think twice before hitting the yes button. Think of your total kill count as something tracked for fun, while you can think of your tier progress as your "experience" with a specific creature.
Also note that we have built the hunting log with a great deal of flexibility in mind. If we end up changing the tier or reward structure then we can easily increment the version of a specific creature, or the entire hunting log, which in turn will automatically refund your selections without resetting your tier progress. In other words: if any changes are made to the choices offered rest assured you will get a free respec.
Armor Weight Adjustments
Armor Weight has been globally shifted down while maintaining existing armor weight ratios. For most players this should yield individual pieces of armor offering less protection but you can now wear more pieces. Additionally, Defenders have been granted an additional 5 Armor Weight at maximum level. With these changes we have assured that a level 50 would be able to wear specific full armor sets:
- Warden/Brigand/Duelist/Warlord: Full Leather
- Berserker/Sentinel: Full Scale
- Juggernaut/Marshal: Full Half-Plate
- Knight: Full Full-Plate/Chitin
Utilizing the newly enabled decal tech mentioned above, we have added new visuals to Ember Veins and Ruptures. These visuals add some "veins" to the surrounding ground/walls/etc while also periodically pulsing energy through them.
For the Ruptures the radius of the new visuals is representative of the range in which creatures will turn to Ashen.
New Ember Vein
A new Ember Vein, Blightroot Grove, has been added in the Northern Sections of Highland Hills for players in the low to mid-40s. This Ember Vein is relatively unique and is the first to include a solo-player section along with full group content. This is similar to how areas such as Karst and Undercroft have been structured to allow for solo/duo players to have play areas near group content when forming groups. Feedback on this style of content is appreciated as we look to roll out more similar content in the future.
Ember Vein Names
The Ember Veins have been given proper names reflecting their contents, theming, and locations in the world. The list is as follows:
- Northreach:
- Torchbug Tunnels
- Watcher's Folly
- Meadowlands:
- The Noxious Bog
- Derelict Sanctuary
- Spinner's Recluse
- Dryfoot:
- The Crawling Burrows
- Basilisk Run
- Redshore:
- Flooded Ruins
- Highland Hills:
- Blightroot Grove
- Redshore Ridge:
- Cragscale Caverns
- Grimstone Canyon:
- Arkhos' Lair
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