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BETA TEST September 7th; what's new?

Undone

Codemaster
Stormhaven Studios
Our next stress tests are scheduled for:
Wed. September 7th @ 8pm central
(Thurs. September 8th @ 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?
Hi everyone! This week we are bringing you a number of smaller QoL updates, a few UI updates, new consumables that can enhance your Ember Ring experience, Ember Stones, and Ember Essence collection. Many of these newer systems are still a heavy work in progress but we wanted to get them out to you for testing as soon as possible.

Speaking of testing - these past few weeks you have all been very light on the feedback. This is especially true when it comes to the targeted questions I asked last week regarding recent implementations. We heard next to nothing about the new lull abilities, nothing about the NPC line of sight improvements, not much about egress points, and little on the performance updates. I thought we had a deal here?! I will repeat the questions in hopes that this week will be different :)

We are seeking focused feedback on these items this week:
  • Performance: how are things performing compared to two weeks ago? Especially with shadows.
  • Rare spawn rates increase - nice? or very nice? or no dice?
  • Northreach dungeon difficulty (both static entrances, and ember drifts). We are planning to revamp this dungeon - but we could use more feedback on the relative difficulty.
  • Egress points: are they useful?
  • Line of sight changes for NPCs: Is this working as expected? Have you noticed any oddities? How does it impact fights with longbow mobs?
  • Lull abilities: are they useful? are they OP?

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:
  • Tech
    • Fixed: minor performance issue when Resolution scale was set to 100%
    • Fixed: issues with weapon stats not being properly added.
    • Fixed: some allocation issues on the server regarding synchronized variables
    • Added: new option "Open Bag and Gathering Bag Together" to the gameplay options. When enabled using either key bind will open both bags.
    • Adjusted: holding RMB while pressing the turn left or right keys will now result in a strafe.
    • Adjusted: turn speed for the left and right turn keys is a more reasonable.
    • Enabled: the game client's window can now be resized freely.
    • Fixed: custom window sizes are now more reliably saved and restored when restarting the client.
    • Improved: Npc call for help code to take better account of distances. The closer the Npc is to the caller, the more likely they are to get flagged as hostile when alerted.
  • Environment / Art
    • Added: new loading concept art for Dryfoot
    • Fixed: disabled lamp post sway animation to avoid issues with cached static shadows
  • UI:
    • Fixed: "Combat Movement" overlapped value in stat window
    • Fixed: role limit message will now say "role" as opposed to "roles" if you can only learn 1.
    • Added: loot messages for items looted while solo.
    • Added: quantity to loot messages
    • Fixed: you can now right click on the buff bar and reset position or size.
    • Adjusted: buff bar's default location has been moved to just above your action bar and below your execution bar.
    • Adjusted: action bar was off center. How has no one noticed this?! The action bar is now centered properly :)
    • Updated: new icons for the upper right panel (settings, map, recipes, etc).
    • Added: gathering bag icon in the upper right panel.
    • Fixed: specialization tooltips will now reflect the proper level
    • Show/Hide helm dropdown has been converted to a checkbox similar to those seen on your reagent pouch. See the screenshot in the Ember Stone section below.
  • Quests:
    • Fixed: missing apprentice quest not triggering for one of its branches
    • Fixed: a number of quest typos and grammatical errors
    • Added: tutorial quest now offers additional ember ring information
    • Improved: a number of quest system fixes and improvements.
  • Design:
    • Zofly and Malfly Chitin Armor have additional stats added.
    • Bag Draw method enabled for rare item collections (should help improve the consistency of finding specific rare drops)
    • Dark Wolf Armor pieces have had their Armor Weight increased (each piece has 1 more weight than before)
    • Crafted Armors have unique visual tinting based on the material used.
    • Imbued Weapons now have unique visuals determined by the core component material type.
    • Crafted quality impacts the final product's durability. 100% quality gear has more durability than before, while 50% quality gear will have less durability than before.
    • Quest item Grub Bat Ears drop rate increased.
  • Hot Fixes from the previous weekend:
    • Fixed: some exceptions that were occurring in meadowlands
    • Fixed: texturing issues with the Basilisk
    • Fixed: quest npcs were not holding the weaponry they were assigned
    • Ashen fireflies and ants no longer play their spawn animations
    • Updated: internal input plugin
    • Adjusted: tree angle requirements in Northreach & Newhaven Valley (oaks were on too steep of an incline)
    • Adjusted: road masks in Meadowlands removing some trees and rocks that were blocking the path.
    • Fixed: ember vegetation around some ruptures in Meadowlands were not showing
    • Removed: "Multi Frame Cloud Reflections" checkbox option. This was mainly for troubleshooting skybox issues but since this did not help it has been removed. The option itself is enabled by default for performance reasons.
    • Removed: "Transmission" checkbox option. This is automatically disabled when shadows are at 0%
    • Dialog no longer "writes" and instead instantly appears. There are a number of readability improvements we need to make to the dialog UI before we can re-enable this feature without it being an annoyance.
    • When an NPC's loot is empty it should now say the name of the npc in the "Empty!" message.
    • Fixed: skinning level on some named mobs
    • Snatchscale staff item now has custom visuals.
    • Added: "Leave Combat after Looting" checkbox option to the gameplay options. When checked you will not return to combat stance after looting an npc, gathering node, or chest.
    • [LAUNCHER] Removed: "Disable GFX Jobs" toggle. This option has had no impact on the game since updating to Unity 2021
    • [LAUNCHER] Added: "Close Launcher on game start" toggle. When selected the launcher will close shortly after launching the game.
New stuff:
Enhancing Ember Rings
Smoldering Ash is now a consumable dropped by Ashen creatures. These consumables can be used while near an Ember Ring to increase its healing potency for ~30m. As you kill higher level ashen creatures you will start to find higher level smoldering ash which will yield improved healing powers of the ring, along with different colors. We likely still need to tweak the drop rates of the ash, and the duration of the Ember Ring buff.
aMjat7n.png


Ember Stones and Essence
This week we are introducing Ember Stones. These will eventually need to be obtained from a quest - but in the mean time you can pick one up at by right clicking on the new Ember Stone crate in the Northreach tunnel (this auto equips it, all you have to do is right click on the chest and it will show in your inventory). They will show up on your equipment panel along with a toggle in the upper left that allows you to show/hide their external visibility similar to your helm.
50jv2o9.png

In addition, the upper right shows your current Ember Essence count, while along the bottom is meter showing how "full" the stone is. Remember that Ember Stones have a max capacity that will be upgradable as you progress.
6k5sVKP.png

Your Ember Stone begins empty which will be reflected in the glow of the texture. An empty stone will not glow, but as you fill it the amount of glow will increase to indicate to yourself and others a rough estimate of how full your stone is.

So how do you fill your Ember Stone? I'm glad you asked! All you have to do is kill Ashen creatures that give you adventuring experience. The amount of essence per kill is a fixed value based on the level difference between you and the target - there is no essence splitting with your group. If you or your group kill a white, yellow, or red you get the full amount, whereas if you kill a blue or green the value is slightly diminished. Thematically, you receive an amount of Ember Essence based on the "challenge" the creature posed to you or your group (basically, your opponent has more time to focus their ashen energy).

NOTE that the amount of essence from ashens, the capacity of the stone, and the acquisition of the stone are all a heavy work in progress. As an example, there is currently no difference in Ember Essence from 1^ or 3^ mobs. Annnnd there is nothing to spend your essence on yet. We wanted to get these into your hands for testing sooner than later. The acquisition quest is currently in progress, we will continue to adjust essence rewards from ashens, and will get you something to spend it on soon!

Flatworms
New critters have been reported throughout the land. These little guys are quite skittish and come in a number of different colors. Rumor has it that if you are able to catch one you will be blessed with a long duration buff! But don't get knocked unconscious as you will lose it.
MpCkkcn.png

The different buffs from these little guys are signified by their color and do not stack (you can only have one of these buffs active at any given time). Buffs from critter in higher level zones may give you higher level buffs if you are of the appropriate level. The buffs are still a WIP. Also note that these are NOT targetable. In order to "catch" one you must be on top of it.

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.

Crafting Specs (timeline: 1-2 weeks)
Each crafting profession will be split into three specializations similar to adventuring roles. We are still working through the details of how recipes will be laid out but the general gist is the following:
  • flux will only be usable by specialization recipes
  • crafting specs will unlock recipes for item types that were previously not craftable
  • jewelry will be moved to the provisioner

Dungeon Revamp (timeline 1-3 weeks)
We are looking into revamping Northreach's Central Veins dungeon. Thus far, the small amount of feedback has been that the dungeon is too confusing and repetitive. We are likely to scrap most of the layout and rework it within the coming weeks.

Mob Leashing Updates (timeline: 1-2 weeks)
As it currently stands every mob has a "soft leash" distance. Outside of this distance if a mob is in the idle or wandering state they will elect to return to their point of origin before resuming their idle/wander. Implementing a "hard leash" or a "reset" state for an NPC is something we are considering, but it has a few extra complications. Some of which are for those who like to kite and issues with different zones/regions having different average leash distances for NPCs. In fact, we already implemented this tech, but it is currently disabled because it causes some funny business in a number of the above described scenarios.

Known Issues:
  • After resizing your game client some of the buttons in the upper right may no longer be clickable.
  • 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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Speaking of testing - these past few weeks you have all been very light on the feedback. This is especially true when it comes to the targeted questions I asked last week regarding recent implementations. We heard next to nothing about the new lull abilities, nothing about the NPC line of sight improvements, not much about egress points, and little on the performance updates. I thought we had a deal here?! I will repeat the questions in hopes that this week will be different :)
I didn't get a chance to play last weekend, spent the weekend relaxing with my fam and playing the new Magic set, but I'll definitely try to get on this weekend to check out the changes!
 
take back the weight added to the dark wolf gear. its already bad enough most things are way to heavy as it is..... Veeva resolution
 
lull is just fine. named mobs are better. maybe up a hair more. haven't noticed line of sight lately. north cv2 is better as far as difficulty. the problem with getting lost is you have to many go nowhere paths. i believe if you took out most of those it would be just fine. i get it all comes together in the middle like a web. if you had a compass it would not be hard to navigate it at all.
 
  • Adjusted: holding RMB while pressing the turn left or right keys will now result in a strafe.
  • Adjusted: turn speed for the left and right turn keys is a more reasonable.
  • Added: "Leave Combat after Looting" checkbox option to the gameplay options. When checked you will not return to combat stance after looting an npc, gathering node, or chest.
These right here make me happy and the Ember Stone is peaking my interest.
 
We are seeking focused feedback on these items this week:
  • Performance: how are things performing compared to two weeks ago? Especially with shadows.
  • Rare spawn rates increase - nice? or very nice? or no dice?
  • Northreach dungeon difficulty (both static entrances, and ember drifts). We are planning to revamp this dungeon - but we could use more feedback on the relative difficulty.
  • Egress points: are they useful?
  • Line of sight changes for NPCs: Is this working as expected? Have you noticed any oddities? How does it impact fights with longbow mobs?
  • Lull abilities: are they useful? are they OP?
Performance - I was using Balanced and had shadows turned way down or off, but last night I was able to turn shadows up a bit and increased the quality without having issues with frame rates. Thanks!

Rare Spawn Rates - I actually see named mobs, but I would still say they are rare. I’ve been through Newhaven CV (not all of it, mind you) a few times and I think I’ve seen maybe 1 or 2 named.

Line-of-sight Changes - I don’t know the full story/issue, but last night in CV I was able to pull ranged mobs all the way back, around corners, without getting hit. They seemed to follow expected LoS rules.

Lull Abilities - It feels like more classes need lulls since not having them, even in early stages, feels like an invitation to wipe. Too often I’ve pulled a single mob, even last night, where adds pulled from around corners, etc. The group didn’t have any lulls, so there was no hope.

Bug fixes / improvements:
  • Tech
    • Added: new option "Open Bag and Gathering Bag Together" to the gameplay options. When enabled using either key bind will open both bags
    • Adjusted: holding RMB while pressing the turn left or right keys will now result in a strafe.
    • Adjusted: turn speed for the left and right turn keys is a more reasonable.
    • Enabled: the game client's window can now be resized freely.
    • Fixed: custom window sizes are now more reliably saved and restored when restarting the client.
    • Improved: Npc call for help code to take better account of distances. The closer the Npc is to the caller, the more likely they are to get flagged as hostile when alerted.
Open Bag and Gather Bag Together - Yes. Thank you.

Holding the RMB will result in strafe - One of the best things that could have ever been done. I re-mapped “A” and “D” to turn left and turn right, immediately, and it was instantly familiar. Thank you.

NPC Call - I did notice that navigating CV (from the Bandit Mine side) was a little smoother, but there are always tight groups of mobs. The “distance to call” only really helps prevent straggers from pulling their entire family. When trying to break up larger groups, there needs to be more. Maybe implement LoS types of controls for the “call” where if there’s no LoS then the call distance is cut in half or more?


UI:
  • Fixed: you can now right click on the buff bar and reset position or size.
  • Adjusted: buff bar's default location has been moved to just above your action bar and below your execution bar.
  • Updated: new icons for the upper right panel (settings, map, recipes, etc).
  • Added: gathering bag icon in the upper right panel.
Buff-bar - Better position, but that’s typically where I put my health/energy status window right next to the mob’s (instead of having them both at the top-left). I just moved them up a bit but it kind of eats a lot of space in the bottom-center of the screen. Would be nice to be able to make the casting bar visible so it could be moved around - and all would be nice to resize/scale, individually, at some point.

New Icons (Upper Right) - Before the revamp, I did find the icons a little confusing. They’re a LOT better now.


Hot Fixes from the previous weekend:
  • Dialog no longer "writes" and instead instantly appears. There are a number of readability improvements we need to make to the dialog UI before we can re-enable this feature without it being an annoyance.
  • Added: "Leave Combat after Looting" checkbox option to the gameplay options. When checked you will not return to combat stance after looting an npc, gathering node, or chest.
Dialog no longer writes - Thanks! I don’t think the dialog should write at all, BUT if a quest log will eventually pop up with an abbreviated version of what’s being said, then I think it may make sense to let that information “write” (maybe something that can still be toggled under settings?)

Leave Combat after Looting - Hitting “Z” is just muscle memory now. It’s gonna be a hard habit to stop.

New stuff:
Enhancing Ember Rings
Ember Stones and Essence
Flatworms
The ashen drops sound like ways to offset some of the downtime. Not sure if it’ll be viewed as just “busywork” or “rng recovery”, but it does all tie into the lore and sounds like something that could easily become a natural part of the gameplay mechanic.

Maybe combining the first two is an option: Players might be able to use essence points to fire up the ring‘s healing abilities. The Ashen stuff could be a rare drop that can be used as a crafting augment for +damage to ashen-type creatures? Just throwing crap out there.

Crafting Specs (timeline: 1-2 weeks)
Each crafting profession will be split into three specializations similar to adventuring roles. We are still working through the details of how recipes will be laid out but the general gist is the following:
  • flux will only be usable by specialization recipes
  • crafting specs will unlock recipes for item types that were previously not craftable
  • jewelry will be moved to the provisioner
Crafting Specializations (Subclasses) - Sounds good.
Flux - Got it.
Crafting spec unlocks - Cool.
Jewelry moving to Provisioner - WHAT THE LITERAL FU…kidding. S’fine. I was looking forward to being OP as an outfitter, but w/e.

Dungeon Revamp (timeline 1-3 weeks)
We are looking into revamping Northreach's Central Veins dungeon. Thus far, the small amount of feedback has been that the dungeon is too confusing and repetitive. We are likely to scrap most of the layout and rework it within the coming weeks.
Heading into CV from the Bandit Mine entrance, I did notice a lot of re-used segments (castle ruins were the most-obvious). I think every development studio does (needs to do) this type of thing, but they hide it by changing minor details - an overturned pillar removed, moss/vines in different places, piles of stone moved/removed/added, tables/chairs/shelves/boxes in different spots, change the height of the cave/roof, etc. Some areas do literally look like an unchanged copy/paste with very little variation. I can see it unintentionally contributing to some directional confusion and burn-out on the dungeon dive experience (and less forgiveness from frustration while NPC combat/engagement mechanics are tweaked).

Mob Leashing Updates (timeline: 1-2 weeks)
As it currently stands every mob has a "soft leash" distance. Outside of this distance if a mob is in the idle or wandering state they will elect to return to their point of origin before resuming their idle/wander. Implementing a "hard leash" or a "reset" state for an NPC is something we are considering, but it has a few extra complications. Some of which are for those who like to kite and issues with different zones/regions having different average leash distances for NPCs. In fact, we already implemented this tech, but it is currently disabled because it causes some funny business in a number of the above described scenarios.
Maybe it’s possible to make hard leashes only apply when not in-combat (and no damage has been registered w/ a value less than “x” on the aggro-table)?

Known Issues:
  • Deconstructing crafted items returns junk 100% of the time.
  • typing chat text may occasionally become invisible. unfocus your chat window and trying again a few times typically resolves this.
That explains it, thanks.

  • 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)
I didn’t know this was a thing, but I’ll try to help when it happens!
 
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