Our next stress tests are scheduled for:
What's new?
This week brings a slew of performance updates, a new quest log, and changes to how Ashen creatures work. In addition we have made your lives a little easier by modifying how dungeon egress points work. Finally we have increased the number of "wild" spawns in the Meadowlands to see how far we can push our server hardware and the navigation system. For the dev test tonight lets please all head to Meadowlands and engage as many creatures as possible to push this system to it's limits and see how things perform (i.e. how responsive are the creatures?).
We are seeking focused feedback on these items this week:
Bug fixes / improvements:
Quest Log
This week brings the promised new quest log. This new UI window is bound to L by default (be sure to update your bindings if this causes a conflict) While there are still improvements to come, this new UI should make tracking your quests easier. In addition to displaying the objective information previously only available via the /listobjectives command, this log also displays a log entry written in the first-person to provide you with more context regarding your current quest progress.
In the future, this UI will be expanded to include a tutorial codex where you may review helpful information similar to the popups you see throughout the game. Additional quest list management tools are also planned, such as the ability to archive certain quests (putting them in a different expandable section of the list) and the ability to sort/search the list (this is also needed in the crafting UI).
Ashen Creature Updates
We have made some modifications to Ashen spawns that should improve the experience across the board:
Shader Updates & Cleanup
Since our last open beta weekend I have identified a number of issues with shaders throughout our project. Shaders are basically a "program" that tells the graphics card how to draw things on the screen. We use different shaders such as grass, leaf, bark, cobweb, skin, eyes - each of these things have different rendering parameters that require them to be drawn a bit differently.
I found that some shaders were unnecessarily being loaded multiple times at run time. This had a pretty significant memory overhead and is completely avoidable with some attention paid to our asset bundle layout. This week I spent a great deal of time optimizing this layout and ensuring that no duplicate shaders were being loaded. In addition, I have eliminated a few high-memory shaders that were only being used for a few items. With these shader optimizations I was able to reduce the vram footprint in some situations by 300-500mb.
Finally, all custom shaders have been updated to be fully compatible with our version of the high definition rendering pipeline. This should resolve some misc rendering issues with a number of things such as the sparkling cobwebs. Optimization work here is still ongoing so don't think I'm stopping now! As always, let us know if anything looks wrong or broken.
Works in progress:
To see a full list of what is currently in progress head on over to this thread. I will do my best to update this list on a weekly basis and highlight the differences from the previous week with bold font. Below I will highlight some of the upcoming changes in more detail.
Pending Crafting Improvements (timeline: 1-2 weeks)
Thank you to everyone who has provided feedback on our recent crafting overhaul. After some internal discussions and recipe rearrangements we will be slightly revamping the professions and condensing them down to the following 6 professions (recipe assignments subject to change!):
Weapon & Armor Augments (timeline: 1 week)
When the above crafting improvements go live we should have weapon & armor augments ready to roll. These will give your equipment a little extra pep for a bit!
Content Delivery Network (CDN) (timeline: 1-2 weeks)
We are nearly finished with updating our patching process to make use of a CDN. Up until this point everything has just existed on a standard cloud server which has been throttling downloads like crazy. Deployment via a CDN is a bit different so it has taken us some time to revamp the process. Hopefully by next week we can fully switch over and provide a better patching experience for everyone.
Repair Cost (timeline: 2-3 weeks)
We are looking into improving how repair costs are calculated to mitigate repair costs at higher levels. Still some work left to do but just wanted you to know we are working on it!
Known Issues:
Wed. September 28th @ 8pm central
(Thurs. September 29th @ 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 launcher found on your account page.(Thurs. September 29th @ 1am UTC)
What's new?
This week brings a slew of performance updates, a new quest log, and changes to how Ashen creatures work. In addition we have made your lives a little easier by modifying how dungeon egress points work. Finally we have increased the number of "wild" spawns in the Meadowlands to see how far we can push our server hardware and the navigation system. For the dev test tonight lets please all head to Meadowlands and engage as many creatures as possible to push this system to it's limits and see how things perform (i.e. how responsive are the creatures?).
We are seeking focused feedback on these items this week:
- Are you beginning to notice performance improvements with the changes made in the last two weeks?
- Meadowlands Mob responsiveness --> since increasing the spawn count are the NPCs still responsive?
- Have you encountered NPC hard leashing? If so what are your thoughts?
- What are your thoughts on the egress points taking you back to town instead of to the beginning of the dungeon?
- Additional thoughts and comments on the updated crafting consolidation listed below?!
Bug fixes / improvements:
- Tech
- Reduced memory overhead of Newhaven & Northreach terrain shader.
- Reduced size of a number of textures to further reduce memory overhead.
- Added code to validate a player's inventory content before sending data to the client. This should prevent instances where a player cannot log in because they have invalid items in their inventory.
- Enabled impulse on large bear footsteps and body falls.
- Fixed: targeting commands will no longer fire off when chatting or typing in a field.
- Fixed: improved monolith teleporting issues when crashing during a zone. Instead of coming back in the same zone at the default spawn point you should show up where you crashed.
- Fixed: ember monolith costs are now deducted after a successful zone. If zoning fails due to a crash or some other reason this should no longer result in lost essence.
- Fixed: holding left mouse button while turning your character should result in the character turning independent of the camera's direction.
- Fixed: adjusting spawn zone height on Rat Nests and Ant Hills to reduce the chance of mobs spawning below them.
- Enabled some features to further optimize asset bundle packing. This may slightly improve loading times and reduce their size on disk.
- Reduced session key timeout. This will result in less time waiting after a crash. Let us know if you encounter any issues zoning to a new scene.
- Environment / Art
- Fixed: removed some rogue colliders in Central Veins.
- Rebaked nav mesh for Central Veins.
- Fixed: missing ear lobe with certain helms.
- UI:
- Added: trade chat channel. This can be accessed by the /t, /tr, /tra, /trad, /trade commands. Channel currently shows as overhead chat - this will be fixed for the weekend. Your saved chat settings have been reset to accommodate this change and have it included by default.
- Updated: recipe ability level display is now more clear that it is referring to a level in the crafting UI.
- Quests:
- Added: Hallick's Tower quest to Newhaven Valley
- Fixed: Discovery objective not properly listing undiscovered if the player has discovered nothing.
- Fixed: many quest typos and grammatical errors.
- Updated: Loot objectives will now show an initial progress notification if you already have some of the items.
- Design:
- Added a new Ember Ring and egress point to South Central Veins.
- Egress points are now zone points that take you back to town rather than the start of the dungeon.
- Rupture radius doubled
- 2 new dungeons are now available via Northreach Ember Drifts.
- Increased density of wild spawns in Meadowlands. --> Let us all load into meadowlands this evening and see how the server handles this increased creature load.
- Bat ears spawn rates again increased.
- Red Flatworm buff changed to avoid health regen spam
- Ants, Mires, and Spiders can now all turn Ashen.
- Hot fixes from last weekend:
- Fixed: skybox getting stuck. This was happening after a camera "cut" event which was any time you teleported (ladders, giving up, etc). The skybox would basically get stuck for as long as you had been playing in that zone up until that point. But this should no longer occur!
- Fixed: server side crafting exception.
- Fixed: a number of consumable recipes were outputting the wrong item.
- Updated Tinkerer role description.
- Added tools to Provisioner description
- Added missing recipes to the recipes merchant.
- Enabled a tech called "mip map streaming" which should significantly lower GPU VRAM usage. On my machine VRAM usage dropped by roughly 2gb. This will vary depending on where you are in the scene, how many players/npcs are around, and other factors. But overall this should decrease the GPU VRAM footprint. Let me know if you find any rendering oddities.
Quest Log
This week brings the promised new quest log. This new UI window is bound to L by default (be sure to update your bindings if this causes a conflict) While there are still improvements to come, this new UI should make tracking your quests easier. In addition to displaying the objective information previously only available via the /listobjectives command, this log also displays a log entry written in the first-person to provide you with more context regarding your current quest progress.
In the future, this UI will be expanded to include a tutorial codex where you may review helpful information similar to the popups you see throughout the game. Additional quest list management tools are also planned, such as the ability to archive certain quests (putting them in a different expandable section of the list) and the ability to sort/search the list (this is also needed in the crafting UI).
Ashen Creature Updates
We have made some modifications to Ashen spawns that should improve the experience across the board:
- You now gain adventuring experience for the original kill meaning that for an NPC+Ashen encounter you will gain experience for both individually.
- Ashen creatures will now spawn in at the same level as the creature that spawned them.
- When an NPC turns Ashen it will "tier down" in difficulty. This means that a 3^ mob will turn into a 2^ Ashen, a 2^ mob will turn into 1^ Ashen, and the 1^ mobs will remain a 1^ Ashen.
Shader Updates & Cleanup
Since our last open beta weekend I have identified a number of issues with shaders throughout our project. Shaders are basically a "program" that tells the graphics card how to draw things on the screen. We use different shaders such as grass, leaf, bark, cobweb, skin, eyes - each of these things have different rendering parameters that require them to be drawn a bit differently.
I found that some shaders were unnecessarily being loaded multiple times at run time. This had a pretty significant memory overhead and is completely avoidable with some attention paid to our asset bundle layout. This week I spent a great deal of time optimizing this layout and ensuring that no duplicate shaders were being loaded. In addition, I have eliminated a few high-memory shaders that were only being used for a few items. With these shader optimizations I was able to reduce the vram footprint in some situations by 300-500mb.
Finally, all custom shaders have been updated to be fully compatible with our version of the high definition rendering pipeline. This should resolve some misc rendering issues with a number of things such as the sparkling cobwebs. Optimization work here is still ongoing so don't think I'm stopping now! As always, let us know if anything looks wrong or broken.
Works in progress:
To see a full list of what is currently in progress head on over to this thread. I will do my best to update this list on a weekly basis and highlight the differences from the previous week with bold font. Below I will highlight some of the upcoming changes in more detail.
Pending Crafting Improvements (timeline: 1-2 weeks)
Thank you to everyone who has provided feedback on our recent crafting overhaul. After some internal discussions and recipe rearrangements we will be slightly revamping the professions and condensing them down to the following 6 professions (recipe assignments subject to change!):
- Weaponsmith: 1h/2h swords, 1h/2h axes, 1h/2h maces, polearms
- Woodworker: short/long bows, regular/heavy crossbows, arrows, bolts, quarterstaff, wooden bucklers, banners
- Outfitter: inner armor (clothing), leather outer armor
- Armorsmith: metal outer armor, metal buckler/kite/heater, hauberks
- Provisioner: potions, smelling salts, food, drink, tools, ground torch, repair kits
- Tinkerer: jewelry, throwing knives, daggers, belts, masks, weapon augments, armor augments
Weapon & Armor Augments (timeline: 1 week)
When the above crafting improvements go live we should have weapon & armor augments ready to roll. These will give your equipment a little extra pep for a bit!
Content Delivery Network (CDN) (timeline: 1-2 weeks)
We are nearly finished with updating our patching process to make use of a CDN. Up until this point everything has just existed on a standard cloud server which has been throttling downloads like crazy. Deployment via a CDN is a bit different so it has taken us some time to revamp the process. Hopefully by next week we can fully switch over and provide a better patching experience for everyone.
Repair Cost (timeline: 2-3 weeks)
We are looking into improving how repair costs are calculated to mitigate repair costs at higher levels. Still some work left to do but just wanted you to know we are working on it!
Known Issues:
- Loot roll occasionally does not trigger leaving the loot open to anyone. We are currently investigating.
- Terrain textures have a bit too much tiling. This will be resolved shortly.
- Characters can get stuck in any looping animation if they do not properly complete. This is most noticeable for strikers using a bow.
- Not all ember rings and/or POIs are proper map discoveries. This is especially true in Dryfoot, Dryfoot Stronghold, and Redshore. 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)
- MacOS:
- Zooming the camera while holding the right mouse button can cause your chat window to scroll. This is not intended behavior.
- At some camera angles the sun may go dark. This should not happen frequently but is readily reproducible at some locations. Investigating a fix.
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