This month's patch includes five new solo loops, the ability to inspect other players, and custom LFG/LFM notes. That is in addition to a number of QoL improvements, bug fixes, and task updates. We had intended to launch our new mail system this month but it needs an extra few weeks for polish and QA (see more info below).
New Ember Vein Solo Loops
Added 5 new Ember Vein solo loops. Each include new sections, new named, and some with updates to existing uncommon drops. These new solo loops can be found in:
Inspections
This patch adds the ability to inspect other player's equipment if they are nearby. This can be done via the context menu of the player or the chat command "/inspect <player name>". When being inspected you will receive a simple chat notification that someone else is inspecting you (unless you have blocked said player). If you do not want others to inspect your gear you can disallow inspections by unchecking a new box in your Equipment UI next to the title dropdown (this setting is saved on a per-character basis):
Once the inspection window is opened it does not change. In other words, the items in the inspection window are more of a snapshot. This allows you to continue inspecting a player long after they have left the area or have logged off (as long as you keep the inspection window open). In order to "refresh" an inspection you simply re-inspect and the window contents will refresh.
A few quick caveats:
Next Month (April 2024)
Mail?
We fully intended to launch the newly developed post system in this patch. However, there are a few critical polish tasks we feel are needed before we release it into the wild. Given that we are going to allow players to send items & money to one another we wanted to make sure that these systems were water tight to prevent potential any loss of goods. The system is 95% of the way there and has just a few tweaks to go before it is ready. Expect to see this feature on QA very soon where we will be asking you to break it.
Engine Upgrade?
Through most of this month we have been testing Unity 2022 on QA. Every time we are about to make the switch final some random issue crops up at the last minute making us reverse course. This time around there was an issue with how Unity 2022 handles refresh rates compared to previous versions which needed to be addressed. Given how late in the month this issue was discovered we decided to push this launch back so the fix can have more time on QA.
- Tech
- Added Drag Bag keybind (unbound by default)
- Improved bag dragging mechanic by allowing your bag command to drag nearby group member bags if you have consent. This also applies to the keybind mentioned above. If your bag is within range it will have drag priority, otherwise it will drag the closest group member bag.
- First person camera height should now more closely correspond to the hight of your character.
- Added an option for high resolution sun shadows in the Graphics Settings.
- Increased AFK kick time from 15m to 20m.
- NPC Tech
- Fixed an issue preventing mobs from resetting to their spawned rotation when returning to their spawn point.
- Improved the return behavior of mobs returning to their spawn point.
- Environment / Art
- Fixed stuck spots in: Newhaven Valley, Newhaven City, Ember Veins, Forgotten Depths, Dryfoot, Highland Hills, Grizzled Peaks, Grimstone Canyon, and Aquifer.
- Fixed a floating tree in Redshore.
- Fixed some floating props and LODs in and around Newhaven City
- Fixed Smuggler Vik's weapon animations.
- Disabled a number of props inside of the Dryfoot Fortress for performance improvements in Dryfoot.
- Disabled shadows on some Alchemy VFX that were not rendering correctly.
- Closed up an erroneously opened cabin in Meadowlands.
- Reduced the camera shake impulse force for Drolscs.
- Added Leather Faulds visuals
- Improved blending of shadowy area in Watcher's Folly.
- Added fog around Eastern Farm in Northreach.
- UI:
- Fixed incorrect Bulletin Board references on the Northreach map (was showing the name of the Newhaven Valley BB)
- Fixed resizing issue with LFG/LFM window
- Fixed some issues with windows closing and causing movement to stop.
- Fixed a typo in Grimstone Pauldron.
- Fixed a typo in some mob emotes.
- Fixed a typo in Patrolling Northreach.
- Fixed a typo in the Delvin conversation.
- Fixed a typo on Popular Smoked Meats (Poplar)
- Fixed overhead combat text not showing for instant AoE ability hits.
- Renamed purchased Spring Water to Rain Water as to avoid confusion with Barrel of Spring water.
- Moved tutorial tab in the log UI to be the last visible tab.
- Added None/Greed/Pass auto loot options to the Gameplay Options menu for:
- Known Recipes
- Non-Usable Recipes (not for your professions)
- Non-Usable Reagents (not for your spec or base role)
- Basic Items (excludes recipes and reagents)
- Added a custom notes option for LFG/LFM entries in the social UI. This feature is not available for trial players.
- Added an icon to the lower left of items in need of repair. This icon will show when an armor piece goes below 80% durability and has reduced effectiveness. For weapons this icon will show when the weapon drops below 20% durability and has reduced damage output.
- Added text to item tooltips when the repair icon is shown indicating such.
- Added /e as a valid alias for /emote.
- Added /smile, /bye, and /wink to default emotes.
- Updated context menu title for XP bar bubble to say "Track Experience For"
- Updated resist tooltips to indicate that they grant a chance to fully resist.
- Defensive NPC UI nameplates will now show a thin health bar instead of a thick one.
- Design:
- Fixed mob requirements for Freeing Meadowlands
- Increased applicator radius on flatworms to make them easier to catch.
- Reduced execution time of Wild Strikes at lvl 30 from 1s to 0s to be consistent with higher level versions
- Simplified flatworm buffs to avoid cases where the worm is "consumed" but no buff is applied.
- Reduced 1^ mobs innate avoidance by 50%.
- Reduced 2^ mobs innate avoidance by 30%.
- Reduced Damage on Ashen Mangrove conal attack
- Adjusted Noxious Bog poison fog areas to be more consistent with visuals.
- Fixed spawn distribution for Blightroot Grove and outside of Blightroot Grove (should be a more even mix of Mangroves and Mandrakes).
- Generic Cloth can be used for any Ground Torch Recipes
- Doom Spiders are no longer ranged
- The Doom effect from Doom Spiders now has a lesser version for 1^/2^ mobs with reduced duration.
- Changed spawns around farms in Northreach to be consistent to match the quests involving them.
- Increased respawn rate for areas of 1^ Marauders in Dryfoot Stronghold
- Increased armor damage ability effectiveness.
- Added "Stalker" type mobs to all outdoor zones except for Newhaven Valley
- Tasks
- We've updated the bounty tasks for hunting uncommon creatures. These tasks will have an additional objective to hunt for creatures that potentially could respawn as the uncommon type. For example a task that previously asked you to kill 5 Sap Spiders. At times there may be no Sap Spiders spawned, leading to some confusion. So the task has been updated to kill 3 Sap Spiders and additionally kill 12 of any spider. The goal with this is to ensure there is this affirmation of killing place holders for the uncommon types as also being intended as part of the task.
- Descriptions improved for various tasks with harder to find mobs (i.e. Scorpions and Raccoons in Grimstone Canyon)
- Reduced kill count for Meadowlands Rat Ruins task. Objective is now also just "Kill Rats".
- Camp added to Meadowlands for the task to /wave all clear on rocks above River. Description updated to match.
- Tasks that ask the player to emote will explicitly use "/" to indicate the slash command should be used for the task.
- Snatchscale Stalker kill count reduced
- Removed Meadowlands Spider Plateau task
- Redmanes included with Wolves for Highland Hills North Wolves Task
- Highland Hills North tasks for Blightroot/Deeproot mobs now count both Mandrakes and Mangroves
New Ember Vein Solo Loops
Added 5 new Ember Vein solo loops. Each include new sections, new named, and some with updates to existing uncommon drops. These new solo loops can be found in:
- Meadowlands:
- Spinner's Recluse
- Derelict Sanctuary
- Dryfoot: Basilisk Run
- Redshore Ridge: Cragscale Caverns
- Grimstone Canyon: Arkhos' Lair
Inspections
This patch adds the ability to inspect other player's equipment if they are nearby. This can be done via the context menu of the player or the chat command "/inspect <player name>". When being inspected you will receive a simple chat notification that someone else is inspecting you (unless you have blocked said player). If you do not want others to inspect your gear you can disallow inspections by unchecking a new box in your Equipment UI next to the title dropdown (this setting is saved on a per-character basis):
- You can only inspect someone once every 1s.
- Inspection window does not include the player's light source, tools, or Ember Stone.
- The cosmetic slot appears in the center of the window where the Ember Stone typically resides.
Next Month (April 2024)
Mail?
We fully intended to launch the newly developed post system in this patch. However, there are a few critical polish tasks we feel are needed before we release it into the wild. Given that we are going to allow players to send items & money to one another we wanted to make sure that these systems were water tight to prevent potential any loss of goods. The system is 95% of the way there and has just a few tweaks to go before it is ready. Expect to see this feature on QA very soon where we will be asking you to break it.
Engine Upgrade?
Through most of this month we have been testing Unity 2022 on QA. Every time we are about to make the switch final some random issue crops up at the last minute making us reverse course. This time around there was an issue with how Unity 2022 handles refresh rates compared to previous versions which needed to be addressed. Given how late in the month this issue was discovered we decided to push this launch back so the fix can have more time on QA.
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