What's new?
This month's patch brings a slew of new content and features for you to explore. You are getting a handful of new quests, a new dungeon, a number of bug fixes, quality of life updates, and an improved grouping experience. And your bags got a little extra space as well!
Bug fixes / improvements:
Group Elevated Level (GEL)
Today we introduce a new feature that should make it a bit easier to form groups with a larger range of player levels called GEL. GEL automatically raises a player's "effective" level to the highest group member's level with a few limitations. What we mean here by "effective" level is the value put through the combat calculations. When the player hits an NPC or an NPC hits the player we look at the level difference to determine a few things such as: higher level resists, advantage/disadvantage, and level-adjusted armor class. GEL allows lower level players to group with higher level players and bypass any disadvantages they may have previously had going up against higher level NPCs. The limitations of this system are as follows:
A new icon has been added to the party window which indicates your current GEL status. In the following screenshot you can see what it looks like when GEL is inactive (you are the highest level player nearby), and when it is active (you are not the highest level player nearby) along with the corresponding tooltips for each case.
Finally, a new toggle has been added to the gameplay options called "Show GEL Indicators" which will add the GEL icon to overhead nameplates and UI nameplates. The GEL icon will be colored in accordance to how your GEL level compares with the mob's level while the chevron indicators will remain colored based on how they compare to your true adventuring level. We have found that this additional icon can cause some confusion so we have disabled this option by default.
We hope this new feature will open up a wider range of possible group mates. Come GEL with your friends!
First Person Camera
Embers Adrift now supports a first person camera. This option however, is disabled by default and must be enabled in one of two ways. The first is a new key bind called "First Person Camera"; activating this key bind will toggle you in and out of first person mode. The second is enabling a new toggle in the gameplay options called "Enable Zoom to First Person" which will allow you to zoom in to enter first person and zoom out to exit. It should also be noted that this camera perspective is not fully featured and has a few minor quirks (i.e. your body is not rendered, but weapons are).
Dynamic Cloud Coverage
The first step in implementing any sort of weather system is adding dynamic cloud coverage. Up until this point the amount of clouds present in Embers Adrift has been static. Clouds will now dynamically adjust their coverage (lots of clouds vs not many clouds) based on the date, time, and location. Right now this is mostly randomized but in the future we plan to involve a much more complex relationship with different weather patterns.
Forgotten Depths
Deep within the halls of the Forgotten Depths, Ember is bent toward a dark purpose. A long forgotten sect of disgraced philosophers from the earliest days of the Academy in Newhaven have found sanctuary in these ancient caverns. Banished from Newhaven for horrific experimentation upon their fellow citizens, this Cabal of alchemists sought a new home to push the boundaries of what Ember can do. They found a secluded home in the Forgotten Depths where they can experiment without restraint - no matter the cost to human life or their own sanity. Rumors have begun to spread amongst the Redshore inhabitants of a threat emerging from underground. Nocturnes stalk the night, stealing captives away for their dark masters. Those who wander too near the cave disappear, never to be seen again. Shrieks of torment can be heard echoing from the foreboding caves. Brave drifters are needed to put an end to this evil. Gather your courage & companions and delve into Forgotten Depths… if you dare.
Forgotten Depths is a new dungeon accessible via Redshore for levels 28-32. This is the first phase of this dungeon with two more phases in development.
New Creatures
Forgotten Depths also introduces two new creatures: the Muckripper and Terradile.
This month's patch brings a slew of new content and features for you to explore. You are getting a handful of new quests, a new dungeon, a number of bug fixes, quality of life updates, and an improved grouping experience. And your bags got a little extra space as well!
Bug fixes / improvements:
- Tech
- Fixed an issue causing NPCs to moon walk into the player when feared in enclosed areas.
- Fixed a rare case where spawn controllers could get stuck in a loop causing all spawns to stop. The entire game has had undergone a spawn point audit to remove invalid spawn points and code has been added to prevent the controllers from getting stuck. This bug impacted NPCs, Resource Nodes, and Chests but was not wide spread; the issue was most prevalent in dungeons and Redshore Ridge.
- Fixed an issue preventing those who are missing their bag from rolling on compatible reagents.
- Fixed: DOT ticks will no longer forcibly select an offensive target.
- When executing an ability that requires a defensive target and you have none you should now auto target yourself.
- Auto run is now disabled on a successful interaction with merchants, monoliths, and harvesting nodes.
- Combat Auras no longer need to be reapplied every time you re-enter combat stance. Once activated it will reactivate every time you re-enter combat stance. However, after being knocked unconscious, giving up, or zoning these Auras will need to be reactivated.
- Frogs, Quillbacks, and Emberflies, can now properly navigate over water.
- Added protections to some inventory logic to prevent rare cases of a partially failed trade causing inventories to error out.
- Improved right click to equip logic (thanks Pelirow!)
- Holding shift when equipping a piece of equipment that has both left and right variants while both slots are full will swap with the right slot rather than the left.
- (Strikers only) Right clicking a 1H weapon in your inventory while your main-hand is full and off-hand is empty will equip the weapon into your off-hand.
- (Strikers only) Holding shift while right clicking a 1H weapon in your inventory while both your main and off-hands have 1H weapons will swap with the off-hand slot rather than the main-hand.
- Experience fixes & adjustments:
- Fixed a bug where chevron & group multipliers were being stripped when awarding experience for Red con mobs.
- Increased experience gain from light blue mobs.
- Slightly increased experience gain from green mobs.
- Environment / Art
- Misc. environmental fixes to dungeons.
- Added an additional small set of ruins added to Northreach
- Added swim animations for frogs/toads, ridgebacks, and quillbacks.
- Canceling transition from Sit to Stand if the player starts moving. This should reduce the occurrences of butt sliding.
- Reduced the emission intensity on targeting reticles.
- Fixed issues with Meadowlands' waterfall rendering at night.
- Increased backpack indicator brightness during the daytime.
- Adjusted gated area in Ravenrock near the bank so you can escape.
- Moved the bank in Redshore near the Dryfoot exit away from the Hallow.
- Grimstone Canyon:
- New props added along some of the canyon walls.
- Fixed issues with water preventing NPCs from swimming.
- Audio
- Adjusted mandrake footstep audio.
- Added trickling water audio to Newhaven City's "stream".
- Added stream & waterfall audio to Meadowlands.
- Added "Audio Listener at Player" checkbox to the audio options. This moves the audio listener to the player's position and should provide a more consistent audio experience. Note that the rotation of the audio listener will still track the camera's rotation so it continues to sound "correct" regarding L/R pan of audio. However, many levels may be off and will likely require adjustment. Please give this a go and provide feedback on what needs to be adjusted. If all goes well I would like to make this the default option next month.
- UI:
- Fixed a typo in Scavenger Hatchet
- Fixed heals not showing heavy/critical in the combat log.
- Fixed issues with combat text when something is fully resisted.
- Fixed some triggered effects (open wound, hemorrhaging strike, viperid toxins, etc) not properly reflecting the player as the source. The damage from these effects will now show in the combat log as coming from the player and will go through the appropriate filter.
- Fixed LFG/LFM text wrapping.
- Improved overhead nameplate height consistency
- Added more loading tips. Corrected grammar and spelling on others.
- Added a field-of-view (FOV) slider to the gameplay options. This defaults to 50 degrees and has a range of 40-80 degrees.
- Expanded both the bag and gathering bag by 1 row (5x additional slots).
- Orange cons have made a return! Mobs that were previously red but you could still hit them are now orange. Red is now full resist (+5 and above) only.
- Guild masters can now modify members with invalid ranks.
- Quest log expanded states are now saved between sessions.
- Redshore Map:
- Fixed Monolith positioning
- Added north eastern path to Redshore Ridge entrance for clarity
- Design:
- Normalized rare spawn rates and drops for more consistency. This resulted in an increased spawn rate for most named NPCs.
- Weapon damage increased on level 33+ weapons.
- Reworked tool progression to be more consistent from tier to tier.
- Pushed back hostile spawns from Grimstone Canyon entrance in Dryfoot.
- Basilisks now drop reagents.
- Enabled LOS checks for additional camps in Redshore Ridge
- Execution time for Smoldering Ash reduced.
- Feared mobs can now cause social aggro.
- Fixed multiple NPC abilities using incorrect animations (WIP)
- New skinning nodes have been added to outdoor zones. These function in much the same way as forestry or prospecting nodes but are less common in areas populated by skinnable animals.
- Increased the spawn rate at a number of camps.
- Mires now include their type in their main name instead of as a title.
- New characters start with 5 more armor weight. Armor weight progression remains the same after level 6.
- Over time fixes for off-duration tick counts for Crafted Regen potions and Sentinel's Replenish.
- Abilities:
- Reduced the initial cooldown on Salvo
- Open Wound proc damage increased.
- Reduced the range on Despair from 8m to 6m.
- The following abilities now reduce cooldowns as part of their progression: Collateral Damage, Breach, Bash, Crushing Blow, Sweep, Quick Strike, Pressure, Pummel, Acid Strike, Assist, Salvo.
- The following abilities have had their static damage values increased at level 33+: Rip, Perforate, Bleeding Strike, Venom Strike, Quillback Spines, Lingering Strikes, Viperid Toxins, Combined Strike, Serration.
- Quests:
- Our quest reward system and UI have been updated to allow more flexibility in what combinations of rewards we can provide.
- New Quests:
- A Veteran's Guidance
- The Pie Rat
- Meadowlands' Antiquities
- Lost to the Sands of Time
- Under the Branches of History
Group Elevated Level (GEL)
Today we introduce a new feature that should make it a bit easier to form groups with a larger range of player levels called GEL. GEL automatically raises a player's "effective" level to the highest group member's level with a few limitations. What we mean here by "effective" level is the value put through the combat calculations. When the player hits an NPC or an NPC hits the player we look at the level difference to determine a few things such as: higher level resists, advantage/disadvantage, and level-adjusted armor class. GEL allows lower level players to group with higher level players and bypass any disadvantages they may have previously had going up against higher level NPCs. The limitations of this system are as follows:
- Only accounts for group members within range of one another (which is indicated by the +N value on the group window). That means that your elevated level may change depending on which group members you are within range of.
- The maximum elevated level a player can be is their current adventuring level +5.
- The elevated level does NOT rank up abilities, stats, or health.
- NPC chevron colors are still in comparison to your actual adventuring level.
- Adventuring XP rewarded for kills continues to use your real adventuring level, NOT the elevated level.
A new icon has been added to the party window which indicates your current GEL status. In the following screenshot you can see what it looks like when GEL is inactive (you are the highest level player nearby), and when it is active (you are not the highest level player nearby) along with the corresponding tooltips for each case.
Finally, a new toggle has been added to the gameplay options called "Show GEL Indicators" which will add the GEL icon to overhead nameplates and UI nameplates. The GEL icon will be colored in accordance to how your GEL level compares with the mob's level while the chevron indicators will remain colored based on how they compare to your true adventuring level. We have found that this additional icon can cause some confusion so we have disabled this option by default.
We hope this new feature will open up a wider range of possible group mates. Come GEL with your friends!
First Person Camera
Embers Adrift now supports a first person camera. This option however, is disabled by default and must be enabled in one of two ways. The first is a new key bind called "First Person Camera"; activating this key bind will toggle you in and out of first person mode. The second is enabling a new toggle in the gameplay options called "Enable Zoom to First Person" which will allow you to zoom in to enter first person and zoom out to exit. It should also be noted that this camera perspective is not fully featured and has a few minor quirks (i.e. your body is not rendered, but weapons are).
Dynamic Cloud Coverage
The first step in implementing any sort of weather system is adding dynamic cloud coverage. Up until this point the amount of clouds present in Embers Adrift has been static. Clouds will now dynamically adjust their coverage (lots of clouds vs not many clouds) based on the date, time, and location. Right now this is mostly randomized but in the future we plan to involve a much more complex relationship with different weather patterns.
Forgotten Depths
Deep within the halls of the Forgotten Depths, Ember is bent toward a dark purpose. A long forgotten sect of disgraced philosophers from the earliest days of the Academy in Newhaven have found sanctuary in these ancient caverns. Banished from Newhaven for horrific experimentation upon their fellow citizens, this Cabal of alchemists sought a new home to push the boundaries of what Ember can do. They found a secluded home in the Forgotten Depths where they can experiment without restraint - no matter the cost to human life or their own sanity. Rumors have begun to spread amongst the Redshore inhabitants of a threat emerging from underground. Nocturnes stalk the night, stealing captives away for their dark masters. Those who wander too near the cave disappear, never to be seen again. Shrieks of torment can be heard echoing from the foreboding caves. Brave drifters are needed to put an end to this evil. Gather your courage & companions and delve into Forgotten Depths… if you dare.
Forgotten Depths is a new dungeon accessible via Redshore for levels 28-32. This is the first phase of this dungeon with two more phases in development.
New Creatures
Forgotten Depths also introduces two new creatures: the Muckripper and Terradile.
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