BETA TEST May 18th; what's new?

[Undone]

Our next stress tests are scheduled for:

Wed. May 18th @ 8pm central
(Thurs. May 19th @ 1am UTC)​

The developers will meet in Discord and test for approximately one hour. However, the servers will remain open for roughly 4 hours. The most up-to-date client can be retrieved via the patcher found on your account page.

What's new?
This week is mostly design adjustments as I was out of town from Thursday-Monday. However, the new skybox is finally being pushed for you all to test which brings significantly better lighting all around. Please let us know how performance is and what your thoughts are regarding the new sky, clouds, etc.

REMINDER: the servers will be open for 4hrs Wednesday evening. The servers will open again on Friday @ 12pm central and close on Tuesday at 12pm central. See events in Discord for timezone translations.

Bug fixes / improvements:

• UI:
  • Fading world-space nameplates based on distance away from your character.
  • Adding a toggle to "Gameplay" options to disable auto attack when your target dies. This is currently enabled by default - let me know if you think it should be opposite by default.
• Design:
  • Creatures spawned from destroyable spawn controllers (anthills & rats nests) now get a "charge" buff every time the parent spawner changes health "tiers". Our test today concluded that this is not enough to make the ants more dangerous so other improvements are being discussed internally.
  • Diseased bat loot table is now more consistent across levels
  • Adjusted rare woodsman tools to have consistent durability
  • Fix to northern Dryfoot and Dryfoot Stronghold resource spawns.
  • Dryfoot Stronghold now has chest spawns
  • Reduced spawn timers in some camps such as North Newhaven Exiles
  • Provoke effectiveness reduced slightly
  • Updated Overpower text to avoid confusing with bypassing defenses meaning just armor
  • The exiles have been forcibly removed from the Dryfoot mountain pass by the local Marauders
  • Made dropped spider silk available for use in crafting
  • Removed deprecated reagent drops from some loot tables
  • Serration proc damage reduced
  • "Battle Prep" abilities have been reworked to no longer be out of combat long duration buffs. These are now faster use shorter duration buffs. This includes: Unstoppable, Follow Through, Sharpen Edge, Serration, and Bolster Armor
  • Duelist's Weak Point has its resist debuff increased.
  • New abilities added for levels 22, 26, 30 for Juggernaut, Knight, Marshall, Brigand, and Berserker. The rest should follow next week.

New stuff:
Skybox
This week we are trying out some new Skybox tech which should yield the following improvements:

• vastly improved lighting, especially during dawn & dusk.
• vastly improved volumetric clouds (there may still be some artifacting near the edges but should be far less noticeable than the previous skybox)
• improved celestial rendering (phases, better exposure, etc).

In addition to the above improvements, I have added an "Exposure Adjustment" slider in the video options. Different monitors have different contrast ranges are calibrated differently; this can cause the brightness of night in our game to differ drastically from monitor to monitor. Case in point with this new skybox everything looked perfect on my Dell monitor, but upon examining the same scene on my macbook pro's display the scene was nearly black. At the end of the day I don't think we can accurately compensate for this based on the information available to us, which is why the exposure adjustment slider was added. This slider restricts the MINIMUM exposure of a scene meaning that it should not impact the day (it will also not currently work in the dungeons). The current range is 0-1.25, where 0 is brighter and 1.25 is darker. For my dell monitor a setting of 1.25 is appropriate, but on my macbook's display a setting of 0 (the default) is ideal.

Please let us know how performance of this build compares to that of last week - the only major change is the new skybox tech but there is a lot of changes wrapped up in that.

Works in progress:

• Zones: 4x additional overland zones have had an initial art pass completed
  • Redshore - accessed via Meadowlands & Dryfoot. Large tree forested region. Mid level range (approx 25-40). Mostly populated, nearing ready for testing.
  • Grizzled Peaks - accessed via Highlands, Redshore, and Gorge. Mountainous region with a number of tunnels. High level range (40-50). Has a one-way exit to Newhaven North.
  • Highlands - accessed via Meadowlands. Hilly region with sparse vegetation and water features. Mid level range (approx 30-40, likely to come after Redshore and Grizzled)
  • Gorge - accessed via Dryfoot. Large canyon-like area. Mid level range (approx 30-40, likely to come after Redshore and Grizzled)
• Dungeons: All of central veins has been delivered from the art team and is now awaiting integration into the game. This includes the starter dungeon currently found in S. Newhaven, and a larger more difficult area for N. Newhaven. Spawning tech for dungeons is mostly complete so we just have to iron out the details in the spawning workflow. Will likely need to reorganize all of the dungeon prefabs for easier usage moving forward. Will likely start this soon.
• NPCs: fully custom Bear, Elk, and Spider models are complete and integrated into the game. Spider is currently the only one implemented; elk & bear will come soon. Ashen creature varieties have also been integrated into the game but are not yet populating the world.
• Design: implement high level abilities, loot table adjustments/population, advanced crafting recipes.
  • Considering giving a native "bonus" to each of the roles. For example, maybe a base defender gets +10% damage mitigation, and if you take the defender flavored specialization as a striker/supporter you get +5% damage mitigation. Still working through what the bonuses would be for Striker/Supporter/Controller.
• Quests: a number of quests are in the queue for implementation/testing. Quest data structure and likely needs a refactor.
• Tech: npc improvements, npc merchants.
• UI: quest dialog redesign, tooltip improvements
• New clothing & armor is still in the works.

Crafting Updates
We are still discussing things internally on how to best move forward with crafting. The current list of things we are discussing and/or tossing around are:

• improve progression by unlocking recipes as you level up rather than giving them all to you right away. this can have the added side effect of not giving you a bunch of gear to wear at low levels when you maybe cannot equip it all due to armor weight limitations.
• add an augment system for equipables (previously discussed)
• loosely tie crafting level to adventuring level
• make some equipment slots only obtainable via crafting, and some only obtainable via adventuring (at least during the early levels, this may change at higher levels)
• if the we implement the above point, then we can bring regular crafted gear (no flux) back up to par with common drops. the issue has always been crafting stepping on adventurer's toes and vice versa - so by segregating the slots (again, at least at early levels) then we can avoid this and allow non-flux crafted goods to be roughly equivalent to dropped gear.
• make the experience of a craft proportional to the number of materials required to craft it
• increase the number of materials required for some items (which would also increase the xp gain)
• re-evaluate the role of "quality" in the make of an item

Stat Consolidation (timeline: 1-3 weeks)
The last thing we need to do for this is consolidate resists. This task is slightly more involved because it involves touching all of the current abilities and ripping out the old system. I hope to get to this soon but other tasks (<cough> crafting discussions <cough>) are taking up too much of my time.

Reagent Upgrade System(timeline: ...)
Ember essence collection and spending is on the list of things to do SOON, but is taking a back seat until we can iron out crafting, Unity 2021, and the above mentioned stat consolidation. Oh and I need to reorganize and prep the new dungeons so those can be implemented into the game. Does anyone have any time I can purchase?

Known Issues:

• Not all ember rings and/or POIs are proper map discoveries. This is especially true in Dryfoot & Dryfoot Stronghold. Discoveries and map uncovering is a WIP and will be revisited soon.
• Deconstructing crafted items returns junk 100% of the time.
• cannot roll on loot while unconscious
• not all clothing/armor has visuals
• Dragging a group-nameplate in the group window will set the wrong pivot point for the group window and the whole thing will drag a bit weird.
• typing chat text may occasionally become invisible. unfocus your chat window and trying again a few times typically resolves this.
• Sometimes when you respawn you don't end up at the proper Ember Ring --> if this happens please report the position where you died via the "/report" command or "/debugposition" (if using debugposition you'll need to paste the value here)

 

[Asbo]

Disappointed that the Friday to Tuesday is not being carried over weekly, I was under the impression after our chat it would be. If you are pulling it, then when will it be a thing permanently?
If you do not plan on having it then please remove the afk situation until game goes live please. Like i said to you I need a family life too.
So can you also confirm wipe will be 1 to 3 weeks please? I'm looking forward to the new sky box as are many others I'm sure.
Thank the whole team for all their hard work from us all.

Asbo

 

[Pelirow]

Undone, can you add a "Specific Feedback Request" section like you did for a previous patch note udpate? Being able to grab that list and paste it into a feedback blurb was really helpful in trying to comment in specific feedback items you wanted.

 

[Undone]

Disappointed that the Friday to Tuesday is not being carried over weekly, I was under the impression after our chat it would be. If you are pulling it, then when will it be a thing permanently?
If you do not plan on having it then please remove the afk situation until game goes live please. Like i said to you I need a family life too.
So can you also confirm wipe will be 1 to 3 weeks please? I'm looking forward to the new sky box as are many others I'm sure.
Thank the whole team for all their hard work from us all.

Asbo

Did not say that we were not carrying that over. I just copy pasted from a previous notes and did not update the appropriate line. We will however, evaluate player population and may peel it back to Monday's at noon.

 

[Undone]

Undone, can you add a "Specific Feedback Request" section like you did for a previous patch note udpate? Being able to grab that list and paste it into a feedback blurb was really helpful in trying to comment in specific feedback items you wanted.

If I don't have specific focuses then it's just all of the notes in general.

 

[Nfab35]

Game sure seems choppy/laggy. Not sure if it's the new skybox, but usually the game runs smooth. Not so much today I'm seeing

 

[Undone]

performance issue has been identified and I'm pushing out a fix now; it should be available soon.

 

[Meriven]

Your fix tonight has it runnng smoother than ever! Was a bit worried at the start of the night that I’d end up having to upgrade the machine.

 

[MrDDT]

Fix is working for me too and everyone I've talked to. Thanks for the quick fix.

 

[Undone]

Hot fixes for the weekend:

• fixing performance issues with new skybox
• enabling material attributes for carcasses
• fix trained bear skinning levels
• updating nav mesh in Dryfoot Stronghold. A problematic staircase has been replaced with a ladder.
• game time should now do a better job at compensating for time differences between your local clock and the server's clock
• safe fall, movement, regen, and haste now no longer require combat stance to be applied
• updating skybox initialization to hopefully avoid those unpleasant flashes
• adjusting stars in the night sky to improve the visuals a bit (this will improve in the future even more)
• adjusting some light parameters to avoid odd lighting issues near dawn/dusk. this comes with a slight increase in memory overhead, but should also result in more consistent lighting for different quality levels

(patches are building and will be out later today)

 

[Rydogg]

I'm not sure if this is just coincidence, but it did seem like the harvestable nodes in Dryfoot became more and more scarce, almost as if they weren't respawning as the days since the last patch went on. Yesterday after the patch Dryfoot seemed to be teeming with nodes again.

 

[Xeen]

Hot fixes for the weekend:

• fixing performance issues with new skybox
• enabling material attributes for carcasses
• fix trained bear skinning levels
• updating nav mesh in Dryfoot Stronghold. A problematic staircase has been replaced with a ladder.
• game time should now do a better job at compensating for time differences between your local clock and the server's clock
• safe fall, movement, regen, and haste now no longer require combat stance to be applied
• updating skybox initialization to hopefully avoid those unpleasant flashes
• adjusting stars in the night sky to improve the visuals a bit (this will improve in the future even more)
• adjusting some light parameters to avoid odd lighting issues near dawn/dusk. this comes with a slight increase in memory overhead, but should also result in more consistent lighting for different quality levels

(patches are building and will be out later today)

Movement no longer requires combat stance, but is still not used while in combat stance, correct?

As best I can tell:
normal movement may be something like 2 m/s, only normal movement speed modifies this
combat movement is around 0.8 or 1m/s, only combat speed modifies this

combat speed is not dependent on normal movement speed

 

[Undone]

Movement no longer requires combat stance, but is still not used while in combat stance, correct?

As best I can tell:
normal movement may be something like 2 m/s, only normal movement speed modifies this
combat movement is around 0.8 or 1m/s, only combat speed modifies this

combat speed is not dependent on normal movement speed

Movement speed is the baseline. When in combat stance you suffer a penalty to your movement speed. The Combat Movement stat is basically a way to negate that penalty.

 

[Xeen]

Movement speed is the baseline. When in combat stance you suffer a penalty to your movement speed. The Combat Movement stat is basically a way to negate that penalty.

Hmm, interesting. I see this as being too potent though. If you get 60% cms (easily attainable) or whatever the penalty is and its a '+60 counters -60' interaction, then you could move at full speed in combat.

Assuming that the penalty is 60% and the interaction is additive instead of multiplicative, what happens if you exceed 60? Do you move faster in combat than normal?

I will be able to test this tomorow.

 

[Undone]

Hmm, interesting. I see this as being too potent though. If you get 60% cms (easily attainable) or whatever the penalty is and its a +60 counters -60, then you could move at full speed in combat.

Assuming that the penalty is 60% and the interaction is additive instead of multiplicative, what happens if you exceed 60? Do you move faster in combat than normal?

I will be able to test this tomorow.

You won't exceed the movement penalty. Maybe late in the game you will be able to fully negate the penalty and be able to move at full speed during combat - but that's kind of the point of having the stat in the first place.

 

[Xeen]

You won't exceed the movement penalty. Maybe late in the game you will be able to fully negate the penalty and be able to move at full speed during combat - but that's kind of the point of having the stat in the first place.

I suppose that is fair. Any extra cms would be wasted beyond the amount required to counter the penalty.

I've been heavily building a character around cms and mobility in general. I've been laughed at so far by quite a few people. Will see how it turns out soon enough. Fingers crossed for tomorrow!

I think removing the penalty entirely is much easier to do sooner than you think. I believe I am at the threshold already, but I don't know the exact numbers and need to 'race' someone after crafting gear. This is assuming stat gains from gear I'm planning to make werent compromised.

 

[Undone]

I suppose that is fair. Any extra cms would be wasted beyond the amount required to counter the penalty.

I've been heavily building a character around cms and mobility in general. I've been laughed at so far by quite a few people. Will see how it turns out soon enough. Fingers crossed for tomorrow!

Play the game how you want to play. That's the whole reason we're making it! There is no "right" answers.

The stat was primarily designed with supporters in mind given that they are envisioned as a battle medic requiring a lot of movement during combat to keep everyone topped up etc. But it's useful to anyone who might want to move in combat...tanks...strikers...basically everyone!

 

[Undone]

I suppose that is fair. Any extra cms would be wasted beyond the amount required to counter the penalty.

I've been heavily building a character around cms and mobility in general. I've been laughed at so far by quite a few people. Will see how it turns out soon enough. Fingers crossed for tomorrow!

I think removing the penalty entirely is much easier to do sooner than you think. I believe I am at the threshold already, but I don't know the exact numbers and need to 'race' someone after crafting gear. This is assuming stat gains from gear I'm planning to make werent compromised.

What are you at right now? Ideally combat movement is only available on specific pieces and never exceeds the penalty. If that is not the case, then we likely have some nerfing to do.

 

[Xeen]

Play the game how you want to play. That's the whole reason we're making it! There is no "right" answers.

The stat was primarily designed with supporters in mind given that they are envisioned as a battle medic requiring a lot of movement during combat to keep everyone topped up etc. But it's useful to anyone who might want to move in combat...tanks...strikers...basically everyone!

Forging my own path then!!

I was indeed drawn to the duelist class because of the high CMS bonus combined from primary and secondary classes as my choice of supports. Marshall cc grants it some versatility/combat options as a tank. I highly value mobility and the ability to not rely on fighting 'straight up' shin-kicking matches , which is what tends to happen if you don't have the ability to gap an enemy through speed or cc.

IMO, all supports and strikers can be made into great mobile dps simply because of having a ranged weapon + equipment and stat options available, but Warden and Duelist do stand out to me for various reasons. Any support will do well though, as they all have heals + an armor attack from base class. Even if LotL and Aid have drawbacks to being used in combat (if you can use them at all), these skills are still very useful for scouting or recovery while not directly engaged in battle. A duelist's Triage isn't a super strong heal, however the 0% execution movement penalty and 5+5 cms are really good for a mobile strategy. Brigand is probably good a it too with the option to stun in an emergency, buy ground, recover, whatever. I'm not sure about how well a berserker would do with a mobile strategy.

Looking forward to seeing what new skills everyone gets! I took a peek at Marshall. That Quick Strike is going to be a game changer for them.

 

[Rydogg]

• Serration proc damage reduced
• "Battle Prep" abilities have been reworked to no longer be out of combat long duration buffs. These are now faster use shorter duration buffs. This includes: Unstoppable, Follow Through, Sharpen Edge, Serration, and Bolster Armor

This feels like a nail in the coffin on Duelists. Serration was already weak, and this cut the damage in half, delay from 3mins to 30 seconds, so you can't even apply to more than one person at a time. The faster cast is nice, but overall this is a net nerf.