What's new?
This week's QA patch brings a ton of fixes, QoL features, and a new zone to explore. Our testing focus is always everything in the patch notes, but in particular this week we are looking for feedback on the new Grimstone Canyon zone and new level 34 abilities.
To acquire these things first read this post to get familiar with downloading the QA client and where to obtain the new goodies. The QA merchants will have level 30 and level 34 potions along with level appropriate gear. The early part of Grimstone is level 30, while the later parts go up to level 34. Please try to test as a level 30, and then as a level 34 (with new abilities) independently.
Bug fixes / improvements:
New stuff:
Dueling
Have you ever wanted to face off against another player? Well now you can, with dice! Our game is strictly a PvE game and the back-end system are designed with that in mind. Enabling any sort of player vs. player combat would require significant engineering time which we are in short supply of. Given that our game is heavily based on dice we thought it appropriate to add duels by dice rolls in place of actual player vs. player fighting.
Duels in our game are nothing more than a classic "death roll". The way these work is that the starting player rolls a 100 sided die. Their opponent then rolls a die with as many sides as the result of the previous player's roll. This process continues until someone rolls a 1 and they are deemed the loser. So as an example, let's say Undone and Drindin duel it might look something like this:
To duel someone simply execute the "/duel <opponent name>" or "/deathroll <opponent name>" chat command, or select "Duel" from right clicking the player's nameplate. Players must remain within 10m of the initial duel spot otherwise the player leaving the area will forfeit the duel. Duel requests from blocked players will be declined automatically. Duels are not legally binding...unless you want them to be.
Social window improvements
To increase visibility (and hopefully usage) of the LFG/LFM tool we have split the social UI into two separate panes. In the left pane you will find the LFG/LFM tools, while on the right you will find the friends/block/guilds management section. The window can now also be resized vertically. A number of new features have also been added:
(NEED UPDATED SCREENSHOT)
Merchant Buyback
Merchant's of Embers Adrift have finally come to their senses and will allow you to buyback what you sold to them. When selling items to merchants they will appear in the "Buyback" tab of the merchant UI for the next 30 minutes allowing you to buy it back for the price sold. Each item will show the time remaining before expiration on the tooltip.
Grimstone Canyon
Grimstone Canyon is a level 30+ zone located to the north east of Dryfoot. This zone is currently segmented into three "phases" with this first release being the first phase only. The second phase will be the higher altitude portion of the canyon, while the third phase will likely be a new zone released farther down the line.
The beautiful red-walled canyons north of Dryfoot are marred only by the Grimstone Marauders dwelling within - earning them the name "Grimstone Canyons." These marauders are even worse than their Drybone counterparts - if that was possible. They are ruthless beyond measure and will do anything to get more "slagrock," their term for ember ore.The views you'll find in Grimstone Canyon are quite stunning, but don't let them distract you from your surroundings. If you don't pay attention you're prone to be ambushed by any manner of vicious creatures. From the fearsome Redmanes to the deadly scorpions that call these canyons home.
Thurs Feb 16th changes:
This week's QA patch brings a ton of fixes, QoL features, and a new zone to explore. Our testing focus is always everything in the patch notes, but in particular this week we are looking for feedback on the new Grimstone Canyon zone and new level 34 abilities.
To acquire these things first read this post to get familiar with downloading the QA client and where to obtain the new goodies. The QA merchants will have level 30 and level 34 potions along with level appropriate gear. The early part of Grimstone is level 30, while the later parts go up to level 34. Please try to test as a level 30, and then as a level 34 (with new abilities) independently.
Bug fixes / improvements:
- Tech
- Fixed a number of client-side exceptions.
- Fixed issue where players were considered to be crouching while holding crouch with their weapons out.
- Fixed issues with feared NPCs not running away from players.
- Fixed an issue where feared NPCs could still attack
- Potentially fixed issues with center screen announcements not showing for some players.
- Minor performance improvements to the water shader
- Disabled volumetric fog anisotropy. This should give a moderate performance improvement at the cost of less dramatic lighting. This should also further reduce the washed out look when looking towards the sun.
- Reverted max cloud shadow distance back to where it was before disco time was introduced (flashing light at dusk/dawn)
- Increased cloud shadow quality
- Cloud reflections are now updated over multiple frames for a minor performance boost.
- Slightly increased animation lerp rates.
- Camera damping is now off by default to make things a bit "snappier". You can re-enable this in your gameplay options. Camera damping eases the camera movement between different movement speeds. Kind of an "easing" that happens most noticeable when your character stops or starts moving.
- Environment / Art
- Fixed some misc prop issues in Newhaven City
- Fixed some misc prop issues in Redshore & Redshore Ridge
- Fixed some stuck spots in Dryfoot Stronghold & Central Veins.
- Fixed Ashen Mandrake frond texture issue.
- Fixed a number of missing diffusion profiles on misc. vegetation items that were causing them to be overly green.
- Fixed missing shield visuals for Crag Kite Shield
- Added a new targeting reticle graphic.
- Learning animation replaced with a book reading animation.
- Updated road signs in Meadowlands.
- Disabled a few non-functional anvils.
- Reduced bloom post processing effect intensity and ubiquity. Hopefully this will help with the "washed out" look some have mentioned.
- Adjusted humanoid skin material to reduce light bleed when close to light sources.
- Reduced shininess of humanoid skin slightly.
- Reduced the size of Forestry logs slightly.
- Adjusted Stun animations.
- Added water ripple visual effects when moving through water.
- Added new swimming animations.
- Added new water visual effects while swimming.
- Audio
- Male & Female jump audio clips are now more consistent (all clips are the same voice now). Pitch variation reduced as well.
- Normalized a number of animal audio clips (bear, boar, wolf, frog, spider, stag, bat rat). These could likely still use some work but hopefully they are better than they were before.
- Increased frequency of ground sampling for your character to produce more accurate footstep audio.
- Added water slosh audio when moving through water.
- UI:
- Fixed bank locations being swapped on the Newhaven City map
- Fixed trigger count not decreasing on target dummies, rats nests, and ant hills (they were decreasing on the server - your UI was just not updating correctly).
- Fixed trigger chance not appearing on tooltips for some abilities (i.e. open wound)
- Fixed item counts not properly updating in the trade window with item splits and merges.
- Fixed exceptions when adding item links to chat.
- Fixed an issue where some players were not receiving group invites.
- Fixed an issue where you could select a different character via the arrow keys on character selection after hitting "enter world"
- Fixed incorrect font usage on character creation input box.
- Fixed issue where you could not repair individual items while missing a bag as it was not properly checking your stash for cash.
- Fixed an issue where you were unable to purchase a bank expansion even if you had the appropriate funding until you relogged.
- Fixed crafting & harvesting books to now have correct Blue/Red requirement tooltips based on the level of the required skill. Previously these were only comparing against the highest level crafting or gathering skill.
- Gathering tools now require the level of the appropriate skill to use. Previously they were only checking against the highest level Gathering skill.
- Adjusted chat font to include extended ASCII characters (accents, etc)
- Added "Bees of Knowledge" toggle to Game Options. When checked the bees will show for all who learn.
- Added "Legacy Jump Audio" toggle to Audio Options. When checked jumps will use many voices as they once did.
- Added a "Consider" keybind option which echos the Chevron+Color difficulty tooltip text to the chat (unbound by default)
- Added tips to load screens.
- Added notifications to chat when abilities rank up
- Added "Who" command to player context menus
- Tabs on the Skills & Crafting UI are now slightly more pronounced and hopefully a bit more noticeable.
- Leave Group icon changed from the "x" to something more appropriate.
- Experience bar below the action bar will now more intelligently select another item to track if you forget the selected role or profession.
- Tooltips are now more opaque. One day I'll get a slider in so you can adjust it yourself but for now I have made them less see transparent.
- Loot roll results are now sorted in chat by Need/Greed/Pass. Within each category rolls are sorted by value, then by name with the Winner always appearing at the top of the results.
- Highlighting items when their counts increase.
- Highlighting bag icons in the upper right when items are added to your bag, gathering bag, or equipment.
- Increased maximum bank size to 8x8 slots for both your personal & shared banks.
- Adding VFX overhead of NPCs that are feared.
- Improved combat logging for DOTs/HOTs and other applications.
- Design:
- Ability Patch reduced healing amount by 10%
- Shortbows and Crossbows reduced delay from 5s to 4s
- Brookhollow Knuckles have DMG/HIT now instead of Avoid/Block
- Fixed issue with Ashen Toads referencing the wrong loot tables.
- Fixed issue with Ashen Ant loot tables not including Ash.
- Fixed issue with mobs always using the lowest level of specialization skills such as Venom Strike.
- Riposte ability split into player & npc versions. Player version has higher damage and threat multipliers.
- Increased base speed of Mandrakes
- Increased respawn rates for various camps around Redshore.
- Mob ability Vice Grip duration reduced.
- Quillback Spines, Viperid Toxins, Hemorrhaging Strike, Open Wound, and other damage shields will no longer miss and instead always get a "normal" hit.
- Adjusted gap between low and high tier tea. Deer leafs add duration.
- Added flatworms to Redshore Ridge
- Added new consumables and crafting items to Redshore merchant
- Poplar recipe available at level 25 instead of 46
- Enabled dynamic threat scaling for Disengage
- Quests:
- Added default dialogue to Phil in Newhaven Valley
- Fixed a few misc. typos.
- NOTE that new quests are NOT available on QA. I just wanted to list them here for future reference and so that you know they are in and coming to live when this patch deploys
- Runty's Revenge
- The Circle Expedition
- In the Forest of Madness
- Stone and Bones
- The Hunt
- The Great Hunt
- Eye in the Sky
- The Fight for the Freehold
New stuff:
Dueling
Have you ever wanted to face off against another player? Well now you can, with dice! Our game is strictly a PvE game and the back-end system are designed with that in mind. Enabling any sort of player vs. player combat would require significant engineering time which we are in short supply of. Given that our game is heavily based on dice we thought it appropriate to add duels by dice rolls in place of actual player vs. player fighting.
Duels in our game are nothing more than a classic "death roll". The way these work is that the starting player rolls a 100 sided die. Their opponent then rolls a die with as many sides as the result of the previous player's roll. This process continues until someone rolls a 1 and they are deemed the loser. So as an example, let's say Undone and Drindin duel it might look something like this:
- Undone rolls a 1d100 --> 74
- Drindin rolls a 1d74 --> 53
- Undone rolls a 1d53 --> 23
- Drindin rolls a 1d23 --> 4
- Undone rolls a 1d4 --> 4
- Drindin rolls a 1d4 --> 1 --> LOSES
To duel someone simply execute the "/duel <opponent name>" or "/deathroll <opponent name>" chat command, or select "Duel" from right clicking the player's nameplate. Players must remain within 10m of the initial duel spot otherwise the player leaving the area will forfeit the duel. Duel requests from blocked players will be declined automatically. Duels are not legally binding...unless you want them to be.
Social window improvements
To increase visibility (and hopefully usage) of the LFG/LFM tool we have split the social UI into two separate panes. In the left pane you will find the LFG/LFM tools, while on the right you will find the friends/block/guilds management section. The window can now also be resized vertically. A number of new features have also been added:
- "Online Only" toggle for friend & guild lists
- "Friend Request" option on guild member context menus
- "Invite to Group" box added to the bottom of the LFG/LFM panel.
- Added level, zone, and role to friend list entries.
- Added "Last Online" to guild member tooltips.
- You can now sort your friend list by Name, Role, Level, Zone, and Last Online status in either ascending or descending order.
- You can now sort your guild list by Name, Rank, Role, Level, Zone, Join Date, and Last Online status in either ascending or descending order.
(NEED UPDATED SCREENSHOT)
Merchant Buyback
Merchant's of Embers Adrift have finally come to their senses and will allow you to buyback what you sold to them. When selling items to merchants they will appear in the "Buyback" tab of the merchant UI for the next 30 minutes allowing you to buy it back for the price sold. Each item will show the time remaining before expiration on the tooltip.
Grimstone Canyon
Grimstone Canyon is a level 30+ zone located to the north east of Dryfoot. This zone is currently segmented into three "phases" with this first release being the first phase only. The second phase will be the higher altitude portion of the canyon, while the third phase will likely be a new zone released farther down the line.
The beautiful red-walled canyons north of Dryfoot are marred only by the Grimstone Marauders dwelling within - earning them the name "Grimstone Canyons." These marauders are even worse than their Drybone counterparts - if that was possible. They are ruthless beyond measure and will do anything to get more "slagrock," their term for ember ore.The views you'll find in Grimstone Canyon are quite stunning, but don't let them distract you from your surroundings. If you don't pay attention you're prone to be ambushed by any manner of vicious creatures. From the fearsome Redmanes to the deadly scorpions that call these canyons home.
Thurs Feb 16th changes:
- less variation in jump audio pitch shifting
- auto decline duel requests from blocked players
- more reliably add "You challenge X to a duel" to chat
- disabling more non-interactive anvils
- added default dialogue to Phil in Newhaven Valley
- fixing some prop issues in Redshore & Redshore Ridge
- sorting loot roll results by Need/Greed/Pass & dice value with the winner at the top
- Highlighting items when they increase in count via loot/purchase/etc.
- Highlighting bag icons in the upper right when an item is looted/added.
- Reverted some audio loading changes that I think was the cause of background audio issues for some
- Hits from Quillback Spines, Viperid Toxins, Hemorrhaging Strike, Open Wound, and other damage shields will now always score a "Normal" hit (no more missing).
- Potentially fixed an issue causing Center Screen Announcements to stop showing (needs testing!)
- Added Grimstone base map (no POIs yet)
- Cloud reflections are now updated over multiple frames for a minor performance boost.
- Increased maximum cloud shadow distance to further reduce disco time.
- Reduced bloom intensity and adjusted the thresholds. Hopefully this will help with the "washed out" look some have mentioned at times.
- Adjusted humanoid skin material settings to reduce light bleed when close to bright light sources.
- Reduced the shininess of humanoid skin material slightly
- Increased animation lerp rates by a small amount
- Camera damping is now off by default. It can be re-enabled in your gameplay options.
- Fixed issues with feared NPCs not running away from you.
- Fixed an issue where feared NPCs could execute attacks.
- Added flatworms to Redshore Ridge & Grimstone Canyon
- Added new consumables and crafting items to Redshore merchant
- Poplar recipe available at level 25 instead of 46
- Reduced stamina cost of Chaotic Strike
- Reduced execution time and cooldown of Duel
- Reduced cooldown of Second Wind
- Reduced cooldown on Rockhide
- Decreased stamina cost of amputate and increased the duration of the effect
- Reduced cooldown, stamina cost, and execution time on Resuscitate
- Increased damage of Despair. It now bypasses armor and active defenses.
- Enabled dynamic threat scaling for Disengage
- QA-only updates
- Added level 38 & 42 level up potions
- Added ember stone chest. Right clicking this chest will now equip your character with an ember stone and fill it up. Right clicking again will "tier up" to the next ember stone with a higher capacity and fill it up.
- Extended cloud shadows to further reduce disco time
- Disabled volumetric fog anisotropy. This should give a decent performance boost at the cost of less dramatic volumetric effects. It should also further reduce the washed out look when looking towards the sun.
- Reduced forestry log size slightly.
- Added Grimstone POIs to the map
- Adjusted stun animations
- Added Fear graphics overhead
- Added water slosh audio when moving through water.
- Added water "ripples" when moving through water
- Removed non-visible props from Grimstone Canyon's expansion area (Phase 3)
- Social UI updates:
- Social window can now be resized vertically
- Added "Online Only" toggle for friend & guild lists
- Added "Friend Request" option on guild member context menus
- Added "Invite to Group" box added to the bottom of the LFG/LFM panel.
- Added level, zone, and role to friend list entries.
- Added "Last Online" to guild member tooltips.
- You can now sort your friend list by Name, Role, Level, Zone, and Last Online status in either ascending or descending order.
- You can now sort your guild list by Name, Rank, Role, Level, Zone, Join Date, and Last Online status in either ascending or descending order.
- Ability Updates (more updates/adjustments are in the pipeline for tomorrow)
- Smash now adds damage for heavy hits
- Increased Rawhide's resists while increasing the cooldown
- Increased damage of Venom Shock while decreasing the stamina cost
- Reduced cooldown on Eye of the Storm
- Reduced stamina cost of Stagger
- Fixed some stuck spots in Dryfoot Stronghold
- Fixes some stuck spots in Central Veins
- Fixed some holes in dungeon walls.
- Fixed some exceptions when sorting friend and guild lists.
- Improved combat log text when things are applied without damage
- Improved combat log text for HOTs/DOTs
- Added missing ruin to Grimstone Canyon map
- Added terrain sound controllers to Grimstone Canyon (better footstep audio)
- More creature audio normalization
- Added new swimming animations
- Fixed sizing issues for guild members with long names in zones with long names in the guild member list
- Improved pooling for water trail VFX
- Reduce cooldown on Flanking Maneuver
- Replace Brigand's Paralyzing Strike with Mark
- Brigand Hidden Strike progression reduces stamina cost
- Amputate stops natural regen
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