Heal - Empathy

If you heal a target below 50% life you get a buff reducing your resource consumption.

Tank - Anticipation

If you are at 100% life you get a shield up to 5% of your total lifepool.

Fervor

After 3 consecutive critical hits you receive 15 power temporarily.

[ 2025-04-13 15:16:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Essence Laboratory

You can access the new level through the laboratory in Academy Halls The Essence laboratory enables you to craft bichromatic essences from monochromatic ones.
Bichromatic essences have two ability modifiers instead of one. So you can power scaling and procc chance combined in one essence. They also count as two essences for the color bonus during avatar compilation. You can open the dialog while standing in front of the desk.
You can select a recipe, drag in the required essences and craft your new essence.
I am looking forward to add special trichromatic essences soon. Those will have special effects added to them so stay tuned :)

[ 2025-04-06 21:11:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

New Features: - Added experience bar at the top of the screen (you can modify the scale and position) Bug Fixes: - Laser in the "Gateway" map will do damage again - Fixed possible NPE in name plate buffs - Fixed auras disappearing in world maps after death Thanks to @ishakson for the reports!

[ 2025-02-23 18:49:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Modifiers for Essence Forge

You can obtain the modifiers by killing elementals in the Desert of Pain.
You can use them in the essence forge dialog.
# Bug Fixes Thanks to @ishakson, I was able to correct a couple of bugs: - Scaling of ui elements not persisting - No area indicator in Auditorium - Auras not applying

[ 2025-02-16 17:38:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Introducing Essence Forge

You can access the forge through the cave in the Desert of Pain.
Essence Forge allows you to forge three essences into an upgraded one.
At start there are three recipes available. To determine the level of the resulting essence the following formula is taken: resulting_essence_level = average_input_essence_level + 1

Three random essences generate a new random essence

Three essences of the same color generate a new essence of this color

Three identical essences generate a new identical essence

Here is a short video about the forging progress. [previewyoutube=HHRze2ECF8Q;full][/previewyoutube] I plan to add an intro quest for the forge. Furthermore, I am experimenting with forging modifiers.

[ 2025-02-02 21:26:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

There are Weekly and Daily recurring quests

Daily quests will reward experience and essences. They reset 24 hours after the last completion. Weekly quests reset 7 days after the last completion. They also grant essences and experience.
Additionally, they also grant Zonert used for upgrading your cell.

You can click on the 'i' to display more information

The small yellow arrow icon indicates whether it is a daily (1) or (7) weekly quest.

I am adding raid-strategy behavior to bots.

For example in Pit of Elements if a tank has a vortex, they will automatically move to a stone pillar.

Fixed several bugs

Thanks to @Raitaki for reporting those bugs: - wrong configuration on Sweep spell for the Stormcaller - Bug that prevented abilities from being casted while switching to another player

[ 2025-01-19 19:06:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

- Fixed experience for raid completion - Fixed essences on raid completion - Reworked Lightning of the Gateway level

[ 2024-12-08 21:45:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Thanks again to @Fendse for these sophisticated bug reports! :) - Enable compilation of avatars with weapons < max obtained level: Discord Thread - More fixing of AE and Buff tooltips: Discord Thread - Wrong materials displayed in cell: Discord Thread - Fixed Teleporters in Buried Entrance, Firebound Forge - Fixed trash mobs in Firebound Forge - Fixed bot movement on area effects - Fixed multiple error messages in the client

[ 2024-12-01 12:34:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Reworked design for zone terminus

I also composed a new soundtrack for the zone terminus.

Fixed several bugs

Thanks to @Fendse for reporting all those bugs: - wrong talents for Chroniker and Enigma Ornat: discord-thread - missing tooltips for sequence abilities: discord-thread - wrong essence number in compilation interface: discord-thread - wrong spell tooltips in compilation interface: discord-thread

[ 2024-11-24 13:46:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

More space in the Training Hall

I also composed a new soundtrack for the training hall.

Bots will now use the new spells

Recently, I reworked all weapons and added new spells and chain abilities. Bots will now use these abilities.

I want to rework the marketing material and polish the game.

There are still some unnerving bugs pending. I cannot reproduce all of them, but I plan to do exhaustive playtesting. Before gathering marketing material I also want to redesign the Zone Terminus world zone. After that, I will redesign the Steam page and create a new trailer.

[ 2024-11-17 16:15:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

New balcons for the compilation core

I added decoration and a new soundtrack.

Stormcaller no longer crashes the game server.

Thanks to a_seraphic_chicken for finding that bug. I also added some performance optimization for server side ray casting.

[ 2024-10-27 19:06:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

New Weapon Animations Release

There are two completely new weapons.

Father of War is a two-handed tank weapon.

[previewyoutube=EjwktnY6Qoc;full][/previewyoutube]

Moonseeker is the overhauled version of the old versatile crossbow weapon.

[previewyoutube=g2Xi-vmHVgg;full][/previewyoutube]

All other weapons got reworks too.

Protectors of the Lost

[previewyoutube=exIzVJtpz9w;full][/previewyoutube]

Water Stream

[previewyoutube=zrgJjwYxQoU;full][/previewyoutube]

Urikas

[previewyoutube=oXQQfsAChRw;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2024-10-20 11:52:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Animation Rework: Urikas and Water Stream

That concludes the animation rework. All weapons are now reworked. I plan to release a new version next weekend.

WaterStream got new animations and a chain primary attack.

I updated particles and character animations. I scrapped the Summon Water Totem spell. Instead, you can now stand on the area effect Water Source to summon the totem. [previewyoutube=zrgJjwYxQoU;full][/previewyoutube]

Urikas also got new animations and a chain primary attack.

The Blessed Buff is now part of the attack chain. You can either Bless an ally or apply a debuff to the enemy. The new ultimate Summon Orb creates a sphere that heals allied targets. [previewyoutube=oXQQfsAChRw;full][/previewyoutube]

Area Effects and Target Zones will now use a Decal Projector.

Those effects will now get projected onto the ground. So they also follow stairs and inclined planes.

[ 2024-10-13 18:05:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Animation Rework: Moonseeker and Relieving Journal

Introducing Moonseeker

I completely reworked the design of the crossbow weapon Versatile Crossbow. I was neither satisfied with his theme nor his animations. The new weapon Moonseeker replaces this weapon. It is also a bow weapon and shares some spells. As the name might indicate, it is a lunar ranger weapon. Here is a video showcasing the spells of MoonSeeker. [previewyoutube=g2Xi-vmHVgg;full][/previewyoutube] I reworked the talent tree. You can read about all spells here: https://raiding.zone/docs/items/weapon/f4d485be-52a5-4fb8-b27f-7d1d1c99f949/

Reworked Relieving Journal

Like the damage weapons, I added a chained base ability to the Relieving Journal. This results in a new spell Reap that deals area damage and can be skilled to heal allied targets. The Journal got new animations and effects. [previewyoutube=eYfEI9LA7f4;full][/previewyoutube]

I want to finish the weapon reworks in two weeks.

There are only Urikas and WaterStream left to rework. I think they will get chain abilities.

[ 2024-09-29 18:32:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Progress Report: Animation Rework

I am proud to announce that I am halfway through all weapon animations. The fact that I am reworking some talents and abilities on the way slightly hinders my progress. I want to show you the new animations for the Obsidian Warhammer, the Staff of Burning Souls, and the Protectors of the Lost.

Staff of Burning Souls got an auto-attack rotating and a new ultimate skill.

I axed the Fire Ball ability. Your first ability is now rotating. It contains: Sear, Burn, and Blast. To fill the open position at Blast, Pyroball is now part of your default ability set. The new ultimate Beacon takes the old place. [previewyoutube=pcc3Fzrv-bk;full][/previewyoutube]

Obsidian Warhammer got new animations, particles, and an auto attack rotation

The auto attack is now a sequence of 3 spells. The first spell Siphon applies the Siphon-Debuff. The second grants Obsidian Infusion as before. The third attack Spread will spread the Siphon-Debuff to surrounding targets. Every tick of Siphon-Debuff on enemy targets will grant you energy. I scrapped the requirement to have Obsidian Infusion for the other spells. They now only cost energy. [previewyoutube=T_3SZcLzeDs;full][/previewyoutube]

Protectors of the Lost has new animations and two new spells.

This weapon also has an attack sequence of 3 spells. Bash is now part of this sequence. On the position of Bash you now have the new spell Claim. It is an area attack that consecrates the earth. [previewyoutube=exIzVJtpz9w;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2024-09-15 19:14:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

I reworked the way I create animations.

Previously, I took all animation from asset packs from the Assetstore or Mixamo. But it is hard to modify those and adapt them to your own weapons.

Father of War has two stances.

An offensive and defensive stance. You can switch those through the Switch Stance ability. The sword effect color indicates your active stance. [previewyoutube=JOX-bZbRFuY;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

Basic attack is a sequence of three abilities

[previewyoutube=EjwktnY6Qoc;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

In attack stance you can access Riposte, Leap and Whirl

Riposte

[previewyoutube=wsbafz3rz-I;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

Leap

[previewyoutube=J_QROhRVFeU;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

Whirl

[previewyoutube=guCe7mwJgUs;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

In defensive stance you can cast Parry, Intercept and Steel Curtain

Parry

[previewyoutube=AGABL30_ps0;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

Intercept

[previewyoutube=RIkSJzdFKi4;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

Steel Curtain

[previewyoutube=MXp-03GnALQ;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

The death animation is inspired by the blockbuster King Arthur

[previewyoutube=JrMrJhFe0V0;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

[ 2024-09-01 20:55:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Father of War is a tank weapon.

It is a two-handed long sword. You have two basic abilities.
Switch Stance changes your abilities from an offensive to defensive state. Each stance has three abilities. Offensive abilities focus on damage and threat generation.
Defensive abilities focus on damage mitigation and protection.
Furthermore, after choosing the talents you have access to ultimate abilities.
Like all other weapons, Father of War has 15 talents.
Now I will focus on animating the new weapon. By doing this I also rework all existing animations.

[ 2024-08-18 17:26:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

I fixed a bug that was preventing players from casting there spells using the keyboard.

[ 2024-08-03 19:49:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Introducing ability reordering

After countless requests, I could finally implement proper ability repositioning. You can now reorder your spells and auras. [previewyoutube=d079z8VZCRI;full][/previewyoutube]

Reworked UI-Modifications

The new interface is cleaner and less complicated. [previewyoutube=r9211TCEcyo;full][/previewyoutube]

Modify Control Bar Keys

Previously, these settings were located in the settings dialog. Now you can change them directly on the control bars. [previewyoutube=ixi-Izu4Jtc;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2024-07-30 13:38:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

I've finished the war room in the prison complex. It is accessible through the compilation core.
It contains emitters displaying all active raids in your current zone.
Currently, it serves as a visual representation. I plan to add more meta information to those emitters. The goal is to enable joining or applying to raids from this room.

I had time for some bug-fixes.

The third stage of Sludge Madness is now accessible.

The code checked if Varanoth died, but he only appeared in the next stage. I changed it to Phenia and Gooness. Now it is working again.

Fire nova will not crash the client.

The Unity client is not able to parse NaN double values. The Fire Nova spell produced such values and crashed the client. I removed the NaN values, and it behaves properly now.

Upcoming changes - Further development

• Reintroduction of Bloodshed Arena
• Character Animations
• Spell Key Rebinding
• New Weapons and Accessories for the new levels
• Bot-Control enhancements

[ 2024-07-07 18:50:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

You can finally play the Desert of Pain!

Thanks to @Madraox for this awesome level concept. You can reach the new level through the Zone terminus. You can use it to farm materials and experience.
You have to solve four puzzles to summon the four elemental queens. After you kill all of them, Solarion will spawn in the middle.
I prepared a video, so you can catch a small glimpse at the fight. [previewyoutube=j7OPzdzuvek;full][/previewyoutube]

You can now upgrade your cell.

The upgrade costs 3 Zonert material. You can get it by slaying world bosses. The new cell contains two additional compilation slots.
Furthermore, I reworked the way compilation time is calculated. You should notice shorter times in most cases.

I could also add some bugfixes.

Storm Lance - Thunder Lunge won't drag you along the whole map.

I normalized the wrong vector and bugged the character.

Umbra Embrace won't self-damage the buffholder.

I added a check so that you don't hurt yourself.

Damage numbers will now properly disappear.

This is a regression bug. I thought I fixed the code but broke it at that location.

[ 2024-06-30 10:57:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

I want to show you some monsters for the upcoming world level: Desert of Pain. There are four zones: Earth, Thunder, Desert, and Fire. Each of these zones has its elementals. This week I could finish three zones.

You will find Cassey at the mountaintop.

But she will only spawn if you solve her puzzle ;)

Ember roams in the lava cave.

You will find another puzzle to solve there.

Kryona waits in the Desert

You may ask, what has an ice elemental to do with a desert? But deserts are also known for their frosty weather, especially at night.

After you've taken down all four elemental queens. They will teleport to the center.

There awaits you another boss to fight.

[ 2024-06-16 22:14:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Desert of Pain is a new World level.

The idea, game design, monsters, and most models originate from Madraox.
The level is divided into four zones.

The earth zone contains rocks and a plateau.

The fire zone is filled with volcanic activity.

The dune-themed zone with some oasis in between.

The thunder zone is dominated by the Telsa trees.

I got inspired by the Hyperion series from Dan Simmons.
I finished the level design and lightning. Now, I need to implement the game logic for this level. Madraox envisioned some intriguing puzzles. Finishing this level will take another 1-2 weeks.

[ 2024-06-09 10:06:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

I could not decide whether to release the content directly to the live servers. Then, I discovered a nasty bug on the live systems and decided to take two steps forward. So, I released the raid to live. You might remember the old Pit of Elements and Firebound Forge level.
They got a complete overhaul. Both are now part of the same raid **Run of Elements**. I've also added a new level right between them called **Buried Entrance**.
## Buried Entrance features a zerging fight. You have to unearth the buried entrance to the Firebound Forge.
If you kill it, it will explode and damage the entrance.
Normal, Challenging and Adamant difficulty feature additional mechanics. But I don't want to spoil the whole raid for you. Special thanks to **Madraox**! He is the designer behind many creatures in this raid. My favorite is the scorpion. ## Next up is a desert-style world level. Madraox already designed most of it. Design, gameplay, and most of the decoration are already in place. I need to compose it together and implement the mechanics he envisioned.

[ 2024-06-02 14:26:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

I want to show you the first pictures of the new raid Run of Elements. It contains 2 already existing levels: Pit of Elements and Firebound Forge. I reworked both of them and added a third stage in between.

Pit of Elements is the first level in Run of Elements.

I made it bigger and added more details.
The pit itself got some visual upgrades.

The second level is called Buried Entrance.

It is a zerging fight. You have to blast your way into the mountain.
After completing this stage you will enter the final stage: Firebound Forge.

[ 2024-05-26 20:30:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Firebound Forge gets a new look.

I wanted to emphasize the lava cave look.
Zorn and Iphrit already made themselves comfortable.

The raid elemental run will contain three stages.

Firebound Forge is the final encounter of this raid. You start with the fight in the Pit of Elements. This level is lined up for rework too. I will create a new level in between. I am thinking of a zerging encounter.

Iphrit got a new face.

The old one didn't look good.

[ 2024-05-12 20:06:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

The Rework of Soul Towers is finished

With new textures, decorations, and enemies.
Say hello to our latest fiend Siphon:
You can get a quick look at the level: [previewyoutube=MGjOORxdNXk;leftthumb]{{< youtube MGjOORxdNXk >}}[/previewyoutube]

Highlighting is working again.

There were some bugs in the render pipeline. I learned a lot of stuff about the scriptable render pipeline.

Thanks to Zemn for the bug-reporting

There was a bug with the experience system. Experience on weapons didn't show up on the compilation screen. In the end, it was a caching problem.

Next Up: Firebound Forge Rework

I also want to rework the design of the Obsidian Warhammer. The changes I introduced with diminishing returns did hurt the gameplay.

[ 2024-05-05 20:36:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Today I can finally release the pending changes on the live servers. The primary changes are the new avatar compilation and the ongoing raid rework. The raid rework isn't finished. Yet I couldn't find a reason to further delay the live update. For this release I re-enabled the Escape Attempt raid. It is a two-stage encounter with fights in the perimeter, and the final in the gateway.

In the perimeter you will fight the *Custodian*.

The Custodian is a stationary defense system.
You can get a first look at the fight in this short video: [previewyoutube=2wqKMy0q4bg;leftthumb]{{< youtube 2wqKMy0q4bg >}}[/previewyoutube] ##

The escape attempt fight against Ava got a visual update

The character configurator is now live.

The character configurator compiles all your equipment into one avatar. These avatars get stored in compilation booths in your cell.
You interact with the booth to open the compilation dialog.
After selecting your equipment, and talents, you can assign essences.
If you mount the right essence colors into your abilities, you will unlock bonus stats.
The label in the bottom right corner shows how long the compilation will take. More items, talents, and essences result in a higher compilation duration.

[ 2024-04-28 17:50:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

It took the whole week to finish the lightning for the three levels. There is a tiny parameter: `Pushoff` on the Lightmap Parameter Asset This parameter solved all issues with black stripes on the light-maps. I will gradually rework all available raids. In this first release, only Sludge Madness is playable.

Sludge Madness is a 3-stage raid.

You start with the well-known encounter. It derives from the initial Sludge Madness raid. I've updated some models and reworked the lightning.
After defeating Murkas, you get to the second stage. Skyzo and Phenias are paranoid characters. You will need to kill both of them to continue.
At last, you will meet Varanoth in the Auditorium. That completes the raid. You can get back to your cell through the Teleporter.
I've added some small puzzles to the raid.

Escape attempt rework is already underway.

This raid receives a 2-stage design. The existing fight between the laser gates will be the final encounter. I can give you a first look at the new design.

[ 2024-04-21 11:54:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Last week I was busy. I made some progress on the Sludge Madness raid. It will be a 3-level raid.

The existing library will contain the first encounter.

After you killthe Murkas you can progress into the next stage.

You will fight the Gooness and Phenias in the Laboratory.

After that, you will progress to the final fight in the auditorium.

The demon Varanoth awaits you in the auditorium.

I already showed you some pictures of the auditorium in the last post. But I can show you the blood altar I added.

[ 2024-04-14 21:58:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

I am currently reworking all dungeons for better visuals. I hope to develop most of them into multi-stage encounters. To support this development, I need some changes in the game server. The first raid I reworked is the Sludge Madness. I am adding a second stage to it. After the rework, I plan to have three stages in total.
I stay in the academy theme and add and an auditorium to it. I reused the boss @Madrao designed for the Academy Halls.
He is an ascended adept of the dark arts. You will have to fight his magic based on arcane and blood. Thorough testing of the raid is still pending, so I can only show you some pictures.

[ 2024-04-07 21:35:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

I spent the week implementing a quest system. I use it to introduce the players into the game.

At first, you have to farm materials.

The player has to enter Academy Halls and farm 10 of each material. That takes approximately 15 minutes. You can see your active quests above the chat window on the left side.
To open the quest details, click on the small yellow icon.

After gathering, you have to compile avatars for the remaining roles.

To start a dungeon you need a tank, healer, and damage dealer. You open the compilation dialog and use the farmed materials to build the avatars.

At last, you are sent into the Soul Towers for your first raid.

After you compiled all roles, you are ready to conquer the Soul Towers.

Relieving Journal got a slight alteration.

Fendse pointed out that the Relieving Journal doesn't use its full potential. We could improve it with some slight adjustments. - Sprout on enemy targets is now called **Leech** and deals damage over time. - New talent **Sowing** that buffs **Harvest Life** every time one of your HoT effects ticks.

[ 2024-03-31 14:18:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

I could finally release the new crafting system to the beta servers. Thanks to @Madrao for finding most game-breaking bugs so this release feels functional. If you followed the updates of the recent month, there is probably not much new. If not, I will iterate through the changes below.

The character configurator compiles all your equipment into one avatar.

These avatars get stored in compilation booths in your cell.
At the start, you have two of them. You can unlock a third one. You interact with the booth to open the compilation dialog.
After selecting your equipment, and talents, you can assign essences.
If you mount the right essence colors into your abilities, you will unlock bonus stats.
The label in the bottom right corner shows how long the compilation will take. More items, talents, and essences result in a higher compilation duration. Each compilation will cost you several materials. Right now, you can find these materials at the world level. I think I will add them to the raids too. You can see your material inventory in your cell.
After compilation, you can add your avatars to raids or summon them at the world level.

After finishing the compilation feature, I will rework the existing raids.

There is still some work to do till I can release the compilation on the live servers. Some visuals are suboptimal. And the whole system needs more thorough testing. I will work with @Madrao to release the new world-level Desert of Pain. Additionally, I want to rework the raids to enhance the visuals and raid design.

[ 2024-03-24 13:22:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

I can finally show you more progress for Raiding.Zone. I need to rework all talents for all weapons, armors, trinkets, and boots. Weapons and boots are more or less done. I think I can finish the armors and trinkets next week.

The new talent trees are circular

Each weapon has 16 unique talents. You start to skill them from the center. The red circles are ultimate talents that grant you additional spells or auras. Staff of Burning Souls
Obsidian Warhammer
Urikas
Feel free to explore the other weapons. I didn't want to paste all the trees into the blog. Weapons There are also new talent trees for each role. You can find them under each weapon talent tree.
Initially, I thought I could release something this week but the talent rework was way too much. After finishing armor and trinket talents, I only need to add drop rates for the new materials.

[ 2024-03-17 21:23:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

I planned to release something to the beta servers this week. However, I underestimated the effort needed to implement the new equipment system. Nevertheless, I can show you the avatar compilation interface.

You select your equipment blueprints on the Loadout screen.

All items have a material cost associated. You can see the material cost at the bottom. You can also see all currently available spells there. The name for the new avatar gets prefilled through a name generator. You can always override it with your own choice or generate another.

Experience for all items gets pooled.

You will still gather experience on the items you use. During the compilation, all experience gets summed up. You can use that experience to unlock role-, weapon- or accessory talents.

Accessory talents have an additional ring bonus.

If you choose all heal-associated talents, you get a ring bonus.

Essences only boost specific abilities.

Each ability can mount up to 3 essences. The amount of essences you can mount is the sum of the item capacities. A weapon has the following capacity: 2 + item.level + (item.bonusLevel / 5) Armor, Trinkets and Boots: 1 + (item.level / 2) + (item.bonusLevel / 10) So if you have four level four items, your essence capacity is 15.
Essence combinations are still present, but they will only give stats now. If you look at the cover, you will notice that I reworked the essence design.

I will focus on finishing the avatar compilation.

Most UI code is already finished. I have to integrate the compilation process. After that, I have to migrate all items to the new circular talent tree.

[ 2024-02-25 18:39:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

I want to introduce you to a new crafting and equipment system. There are multiple reasons to overhaul the current one. The current equipment system is functional and customizable. It has some serious downsides.

• Passive effects are present in talents and essence combinations, which makes it hard to keep track of them.
• You cannot use different talents and essences on the same weapon.
• Essences allow you to easily overpower your character through stat-stacking.
• It is tedious to add bots to a raid and most of the time you end up with the same armor, trinket, and boots on all.
• There is no identity connected to your chosen build. This one is a bit fuzzy, to be honest.

The new system was inspired by Warframe.

The story of Raiding.Zone is, that we are all prisoners of a computer simulation. To create a character we compile all information about it to form a new entity. You can imagine it like a character creation wizard. You choose a weapon, armor, trinket, and boots. Then you choose talents and mount essences. After that, you start the compilation. The process takes resources and needs some time to complete. That will introduce grind to the game. You will need to farm these resources at the new world levels. I want to keep it low. I might need to start higher than needed. Nerving the cost is more popular than increasing it.

The talent tree is now a circle.

There will be some new talents and some talents are dependent on each other. There are also anti-affinities between talents. This means you can only choose one of two or three talents. All passive essence combination effects of the weapon will move into this talent tree. Additionally, all trinket and armor essence combinations move into a role-specific talent tree.
Currently, I don't have a solution for the boot essence-combinations. I will tell you soon what happens to them. You can try out the interactive demo for the talent tree here: Staff of Burning Souls

Essences are now ability-specific.

That means that you don't mount essences directly into the weapon. Instead, you will assign them to an ability. Buffs, pets, and area effects have at minimum one ability from whom they profit. I also changed the effects of the essences, and we now have two per color:

Blue

• Enthusiasm (Cooldown Reduction)
• Continuity(Lifetime)

Yellow

• Spell-Cost Reduction
• Multi-Hit (Versatile CB Multishot hits additional target)

Green

• Critical chance
• Effect range (TargetZones, AE-Effects get bigger)

Red

• Power Scaling
• Ambition (Critical Multiplier)

Violet

• Cast Time Reduction
• Tick Rate

I'm especially looking forward to the effect range and multi-hit essences.

Essence-combinations grant base attributes.

Avatars, weapons, armor, and trinkets have essence combinations. You fulfill them by mounting the required colors somewhere in your equipment.
For example, if you mount four power-scaling(red) in Blast and three ambition(red) into Fireball, you get seven power.

Nobody will lose their progression.

I haven't figured out how to do the migration yet. The current plan is to convert all items into blueprints. I plan to provide enough material so you can easily craft your first character.

Thanks to Fendse, Madraox and HighSky.

They helped me tremendously with the concept.

[ 2024-02-18 20:32:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixed Highking not appearing in Tutorial.

[ 2024-02-11 15:31:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

I am proud to release the first update this year. The Academy Halls update is now live. I will give you a quick overview of the update. If you are interested in more details, you can read the previous dev logs. But first, I want to thank Madraox for his work. Most of the voxel monsters, their animations, and a lot of decoration originate from him.

Academy Halls is a world map.

You can reach it by going from the Compilation Core into the Zone Terminus.
All players share the same level instance. The map contains several NPCs you can kill for experience and essences.
If you kill an NPC, you will receive energy. You can use this energy to spawn bots that help you. You can spawn up to two bots that fill the remaining roles. For example, if you are a damage dealer, you can summon a heal and a tank bot.

There are several enemy spawns that you need to capture.

Each spawn generates monsters while not captured. During capturing, the spawn frequency increases. At 15% rest, the flux summons a group of defenders. As long as the defenders are alive, the spawns health wont decrease. You need to kill them to capture the spawn. spawns Each wing in academy halls has a boss that spawns if you try to capture the middle spawn.

Capture all spawns to summon the boss.

Each wing of the academy has three spawns. If you can capture all of them before the first one recharges, a boss spawns in the middle.

We will add more world zones.

Right now, Madraox works on the next world level. It will have a sand-desert flair. You will have to fight elementals and solve puzzles. Here is a small peak on the foretold elemental.

I will work on a crafting system.

I dont want to spoil much because I have not carved out all the details. The base idea is that you build/compile your whole character. You select a weapon, armor, trinket, and boots. Then you put essences in those to unlock augments. As soon as I finish the concept, I present it to you.

[ 2024-02-11 11:51:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Tweaking the lightning filled up most of this week. My new Radeon card is fast, but it behaves differently from the 1080 I had before. I think the result is somehow passable and better than before.

New NPCs for Academy Halls

With the help of Madraox, I could add more variety to each wing of Academy Halls. We have three new normal monsters:

Jumping Spider

An aggressive spiderling that charges onto enemies.

Arcane Book

A book that learned to cast the arcane spells it contains.

Zelot

A ranged caster that channels demonic energy.

Mini-Bosses as spawn defenders

Four new elite monsters spawn on defending the middle spawn of each wing

Gooness

Gooness is a mega Goo that spreads disease and slime.

Devotee

He studied demonic magic and could ascend. Now he teaches those who are deemed worthy.

Phenias

Phenias is another monstrosity created in the Academy Halls. He prefers to attack with his massive body.

Murkas

This one is the same model as in Sludge Madness. I hope we can build a raid with the other three too. With this patch, Academy Halls are almost final. There are just a few finishing touches needed. I think I can release it on the live server soon.

[ 2024-02-04 22:01:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update is smaller than the last one. I was busy fixing stuff in the academy halls.

You can get pickups in Academy Halls!

Every mob you kill has the possibility to spawn a pickup. Currently, there are five different types of pickups:

• Health: restores 10% of maximum health
• Resource: restores 10% of your resource pool (Mana, Energy, Rage, Focus)
• Experience: grants 150xp to your current equipment set
• Essence: grants a random essence with a random level

They have different drop probabilities. Health and resources have the best chance. Experience and essence drops have a lower probability.

There is a minimap in the top right corner.

It shows all players on the map as well as all spawns. Red spawns are active, yellow ones are getting captured, and green ones are inactive.

Skyzo drops loot!

If you defeat the world boss of Academy Halls, you have a chance to receive the Tetraband trinket.
It grants rotating base attributes on ability cast.

Fixes

• Regression ability can not be cast, if you have less then the base amount of resource
• Bloodshed arena vassal doesnt get killed. I hope this is fixed now but we will see after more testing.

Thanks to @Fendse and @Tengoku for reporting those bugs!

[ 2024-01-21 16:12:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Welcome to the first update in the year 2024. I am proud to introduce you to a PvE world-level Academy Halls. The level is 25x times bigger than Sludge Madness but belongs to the same setting. This is the first world-level and there are several more planned. In Academy Halls, you wander a lost university. Monsters are roaming free through the floors.

There are several enemy spawns that you need to capture.

Each spawn generates monsters as long as they are not captured. During capturing, the spawn frequency increases. At 15% rest, the flux summons a group of defenders. As long as the defenders are alive, the spawns health wont decrease. You need to kill them to capture the spawn.

Capture all spawns to summon the worlds boss

Each wing of the academy has three spawns. If you can capture all of them before the first one recharges a boss spawns in the middle.

You can summon bots with energy

Every monster that you kill grants you energy. If you have 100 energy, you can summon a bot to your help. You can find the bot summoners near the entrance.
You can only control three characters at a time and only one from each role.

There is currently no reward for fighting in Academy Halls

Sure, you get experience. That could be enough to fight there. But right now, the mobs and the boss have no additional loot. This will change soon. In the short term I plan to add loot to monsters and the boss. The monsters will probably drop some essences and the boss could drop a random item. Midterm development focuses on academy halls I want to add additional mini-bosses for each building wing. Additionally, there will be more NPC variety. I want to thank Madraox for his immense contributions. Most of the voxel monsters and animations got designed by him.

There are known issues

I introduced new features to the server code, and some things are not working as intended. Infight state in Academy Halls is global right now Either all players are infight or outfight. That is terrible. I need to implement that on a per-player basis. Monsters are stuck at wall-edges I dont know why they lump there, but it looks bad and needs a fix. Energy gains are assigned to the killer That could be harmful if someone steals your kill on a monster and gets the energy instead of you. This issue is not pressing because the probability is low. I think I can fix it when I rework the infight-state of players.

[ 2024-01-14 22:27:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

I used the holidays to rework the training area and tutorial and added a new world zone.

Compilation Core

After leaving your cell you will now enter the Compilation Core.
It acts as a connection to other world levels. I plan to add an area for raid creation and another hallway for more zones.

Training Hall

Also, I overhauled the training area design. It now looks more sci-fi and cybernetic.
I added DPS and HPS displays in the training hall. The Best shows the weekly record. [previewyoutube=7-7GmA0toDQ;full][/previewyoutube]

Tutorial

The tutorial also got adapted to the new look.
There is still a problem with the shadow through the windows. To fix this, Ill have to separate the window glass from the frame and make it a different model. The changes are released on beta and life server.

[ 2023-12-31 11:34:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

The mesh didn't make it in the initial release. But it is now also updated.

[ 2023-12-25 11:16:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

In the last weeks, I focused my efforts on adding a new adamant difficulty. The latest update releases it to the live server. The difficulty is only accessible through a Cipher. You get a Cipher by completing a challenging level. Adamant raids introduce new raid mechanics. You can read about them in the previous dev logs. To further complicate things, adamant raids have weekly changing obstacles. These are additional effects, that will try to kill you.
If you complete an adamant raid you can receive a level four item. Additionally, you get your rewards at the end of every week in a chest in your cell.

Redesign of items in GUI

The previous item display celebrated his first birthday some time ago. The adamant rewards gave me the perfect excuse to rework it. The arrows on the left symbolize the item tiers (Story, Normal, Challenging). The symbol in the bottom right shows its bonus/adamant level. This symbol gets more complex as you reach higher bonus levels. The current maximum is 20.

Ability timers for boss abilities

During the boss fight, you will now see a new window. This window shows the ability timings of the boss.

Updated Weapon Models

Madraox designed new meshes for all weapons. There are different meshes for each item level.

Thanks for the awesome year!

I want to take the chance and thank all who supported Raiding.Zone throughout the year. The amount of ideas, inspiration, and insight you gave me is phenomenal. A special Thank-you goes to Madraox, Fendse, Wuzanari, Hiighsky, and Honk. I wish all of you a merry Christmas and a good start to the new year.

Raiding.Zone will continue to be a raiding-centered game

But I want to add some open-world elements to it. Places that you can explore alone or with other players. I want to explore different game modes with defensive and survival aspects to them. At Start, I will rework the training hall and split it into several levels. After that, I want to add a level in the setting of Sludge Madness. The level instance gets shared with all players on the server. You will have to fight monsters and collect stuff. There will be several bosses in this area. So you can bring your bots and friends to fight and loot together.

[ 2023-12-24 23:20:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Adamant mechanics

I added adamant mechanics for all levels.

Firebound Forge

Every meteor will spawn a dragon egg. Those eggs need to get destroyed, or dragonkins spawn.

Pit of Elements

At the start of the boss fight, Khorin spawns a big vortex that rotates around the arena. Another vortex spawns, every time he casts meditation.

Soul Towers

The High King got a new ability. He will periodically summon a High Priest. The High Priest stuns and damages a fixed target as long as he lives.

Weekly chest

If you have completed at least one adamant raid this week, you will get an adamant chest in your cell. You can see a timer on it. That indicates when you will receive your loot. The format is Days:Hours:Minutes. chest On opening the chest you will see an overview of your weekly raids and rewards.

Redesign of items in GUI

The previous item display celebrated his first birthday some time ago. The adamant rewards gave me the perfect excuse to rework it. The arrows on the left symbolize the item tiers (Story, Normal, Challenging). The symbol in the bottom right shows its bonus/adamant level. This symbol gets more complex as you reach higher bonus levels. The current maximum is 20.

Panels in the training area

I added panels that show the best adamant run per level of the last week. There is also a display detailing the current adamant obstacles.

Continuity Nerf

Fendse found another way to get infinite damage. That required me to nerve the Continuity essence combination to 8% increased lifetime.

Next Steps

Now that the adamant difficulty approaches completion, I can pursue the roadmap further.

Visuals

Madraox designed new weapon models. Every weapon tier will get a special model. I think I can implement it with the next update. I also want to push the changes on beta to the live server to give everyone adamant difficulty.

Roadmap

After that, I want to use the holidays to implement the next point on the road map. I want to explore different game modes and try to give Raiding.Zone more variety. There are already a lot of ideas in my head. But before I tell you about them, I have to try them out :]

[ 2023-12-17 18:06:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

This week I released adamant difficulty for three raids on the beta server. Those raids are Bloodshed Arena, Sludge Madness, and Escape Attempt. They all got new boss mechanics. In the case of Bloodshed Arena, I improved the existing mechanics. The boss will now get a shield as soon as a vassal spawns.

Five obstacles at the start

Adamant raids will get an additional obstacle. Every week a lesser and a higher obstacle is chosen. If you begin a raid with up to 4 bonus difficulties, you get only the lesser obstacle. Lesser obstacles are:

• Capacity: 30% more life for all enemies
• Inhibitors: Healing is reduced by 40%

At +5 bonus difficulty, you will also fight against a higher obstacle. Higher obstacles are one from these at the start:

• Arcane Pulses: Periodically creates arcane pulses that deal damage and silence the player on hit.
  
• Eruption: Deal damage around players every 20 seconds.
  
• Static Charges: Gain a StaticCharge buff every time you move. At 5 stacks, it will deal damage to the nearest player.
  

You can set your cipher by using the /beta-ciper command of the Discord-Bot. You have to enter the name of the level you want the cipher for. You can also rotate the obstacles with the /beta-new-adamant-week command.

Ability timers for boss abilities

During the boss fight, you will now see a new window. This window shows the ability timings of the boss.

Minor changes:

• Discord-Bot is now deployed on the server.
• Essence base attributes were halved.
• Havoc will now always respect the 20 stacks limit for Fissure (Thanks to Fendse)
• Reducing resource consumption will also reduce the required resources in the game-client (Thanks to Fendse)

Known issues:

• Adamant loot does not function the way it should. The adamantine box in the cell will not grant loot right now.
• Static Charges damage is too high. The bots will probably kill you.
• Sludge Madness spawns way too many Goos in Adamant difficulty
• Escape Attempt passage order bugs if you do not walk in the correct order

[ 2023-12-10 20:18:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

We will test the adamant difficulty in Sludge Madness, Bloodshed Arena and Escape Attempt

[ 2023-12-10 16:35:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

First, I want to apologize for missing the Twitch stream this Sunday. I was sick and couldnt find the energy to stream.

New Difficulty Adamant

I want to introduce you to a new difficulty level. It is called Adamant and has more boss mechanics, than the Challenging difficulty. I spent the whole week finding a concept how to implement it. I had some ideas for boss mechanics but nothing for loot and rewards. The result is similar to the mythic+ difficulty in World of Warcraft (big surprise). Since the start of Raiding.Zone I always got requests to implement a system like this. Upon completing a level in challenging difficulty you will get your first adamant cipher. This cipher unlocks the adamant difficulty of a certain level with a bonus difficulty. At +6 bonus difficulty, the enemies have doubled health and damage compared to the challenging difficulty. Adamant raids also get weekly changing obstacles. From bonus difficulty +1 to +4, there is a lesser obstacle. Lesser obstacles are:

• Capacity: 30% more life for all enemies
• Inhibitors: Healing is reduced by 40%

At +5 bonus difficulty, you will also fight against a higher obstacle. Higher obstacles are one from these at the start:

• Arcane Pulses: Periodically creates arcane pulses that deal damage and silence the player on hit.
• Eruption: Deal damage around players every 20 seconds.
• Static Charges: Gain a StaticCharge buff every time you move. At 5 stacks, it will deal damage to the nearest player.

Adamant raids will drop level 4 items. Furthermore, if you completed at least one adamant raid in the last week you will get a crate. This crate is located in your cell and will grant you a level 4 item with the bonus level of your highest adamant raid. You will also get one level 4 essence for each adamant raid you complete. Bonus level on items grants bonus stats. At bonus levels 5 and 15, you will unlock additional essence slots. These bonus slots unlock three essence combinations on a level 15 weapon.

Minor visual upgrades

I updated the player screen in the player cell.
There is also a new effect for the cell separator.
I added a sphere in the middle of the training area. This sphere symbolizes the compilation core of Raiding.Zone.
Raiding.Zone story is about your mind getting sentenced to a virtual prison. With this core, I want to emphasize this fact. I plan to add a band for each player online on the server. But first, I need to figure out how this would impact the performance.

Upcoming

I am trying to complete the work on the adamant difficulty. The core is more or less done. I still need to implement the adamant mechanics for most raids. Parallel we are working on new weapon meshes so each weapon level gets its own upgraded mesh.

[ 2023-12-03 21:56:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

[ 2023-11-26 17:00:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

All changes on the Beta branch are now live on Steam. I will reiterate all changes below. If you already read the beta posts, you can skip the points.

New Trailer

Thanks for all your feedback and suggestions for the new Trailer. Primarily I wanted to show the new raiding interface and some enhanced visuals. [previewyoutube=1w0bHI7UxQQ;full][/previewyoutube]

New Spawn animation

To enhance the Sci-Fi look, I created a shader with ShaderGraph that spawns your character on entering the level. My work isnt complete yet because the new shader ignores lightning. Unity wouldnt build the shader with lightning enabled. I think I will switch the shader after the spawn effect completes.

New Area Select animation

The old area selection effect was a relict from the 2D version. I reworked it and added a rotation effect.

Visual for Essence on Weapons

I wanted to show your mounted essences on the weapons.
Skip if you already read the beta update These are the previous patch notes. You can skip them, if you already read the beta updates.

Visuals for boots

Your choice of boots will now determine how your character looks. Right now, we have six different boot models. But maybe we will add a wider variation. @Madraox designed the majority of them. He made it possible to pack the boots in this release.

Bots will now dodge area-effects

They wont move out of effects if you set their target mode to follow. They will also move into helpful area effects like ring of hope or flood. When they cant reach their current target while staying in them, they move out.

New target-zone visuals

As you can see in the GIF above, target-zone visuals were reworked. Now, you also see the zones around players you need to dodge. All target zones the player needs to dodge have a red underlay. All helpful target zones are colored green.

Calculation of percentage attributes

Thanks to @Fendse for her rigorous testing. It seems that she tests every possible equipment combination to find the most broken and buggy ones. This week, she found a miscalculation for the damage-reduction of tanks. Protectors of the Lost could reach a damage reduction rate of >100%. That means you get healed from the damage you should take. That is unintended. I figured that I needed a different scaling for damage reduction. Before this change, I would sum up all additional attributes. So if we have the following buffs active with 50 power:

• Fortify: 30+(0.5*50)= 55% reduction
• ShieldWall: 15+(0.5*50)= 40% reduction
• Charge: 3+(0.1*50) per stack= 40% reduction (at 5 stacks)
• Black Rock Cuirass active: 20% reduction

That resulted in a damage reduction of 155% percent. That is bogus. I changed the way these numbers get merged into multiplication. Im using the following formula to combine these reductions now: (1 - stat1) * (1 - stat2) So in the end we get to 81% reduction which is ok for a tank for a short period. All percentage stats will get multiplied instead of summed up. For decreasing percentages, we use the formula above for increasing we use this formula: (1 + stat1) * (1 + stat2) So if we have two buffs that increase our damage by 30% and 20% we end up with a 56% increase. (1 + 0.3) * (1 + 0.2) = 1.56 For transparent stats, I added a new window above the statistics window.

[ 2023-11-26 10:06:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Visuals for boots

Your choice of boots will now determine how your character looks. Right now, we have six different boot models. But maybe we will add a wider variation. @Madraox designed the majority of them. He made it possible to pack the boots in this release.

Bots will now dodge area-effects

They wont move out of effects if you set their target mode to follow. They will also move into helpful area effects like ring of hope or flood. When they cant reach their current target while staying in them, they move out.

New target-zone visuals

As you can see in the GIF above, target-zone visuals were reworked. Now, you also see the zones around players you need to dodge. All target zones the player needs to dodge have a red underlay. All helpful target zones are colored green.

Calculation of percentage attributes

Thanks to @Fendse for her rigorous testing. It seems that she tests every possible equipment combination to find the most broken and buggy ones. This week, she found a miscalculation for the damage-reduction of tanks. Protectors of the Lost could reach a damage reduction rate of >100%. That means you get healed from the damage you should take. That is unintended. I figured that I needed a different scaling for damage reduction. Before this change, I would sum up all additional attributes. So if we have the following buffs active with 50 power: Fortify: 30+(0.5*50)= 55% reduction ShieldWall: 15+(0.5*50)= 40% reduction Charge: 3+(0.1*50) per stack= 40% reduction (at 5 stacks) Black Rock Cuirass active: 20% reduction That resulted in a damage reduction of 155% percent. That is bogus. I changed the way these numbers get merged into multiplication. Im using the following formula to combine these reductions now: (1 - stat1) * (1 - stat2) So in the end we get to 81% reduction which is ok for a tank for a short period. All percentage stats will get multiplied instead of summed up. For decreasing percentages, we use the formula above for increasing we use this formula: (1 + stat1) * (1 + stat2) So if we have two buffs that increase our damage by 30% and 20% we end up with a 56% increase. (1 + 0.3) * (1 + 0.2) = 1.56 For transparent stats, I added a new window above the statistics window.

[ 2023-11-19 14:11:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

We will play on the beta server and test the new features. The new features are:

• Bots will now dodge harmful ae effects and try to move into helpful ones
• New visuals for boots
• New visuals for target zones
• Dimishing returns for reduced damage taken, cast speed and movement speed

[ 2023-11-18 21:03:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta Branch is now live. Changes: - new movement spells - Avatar Face Rework

[ 2023-11-12 23:17:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Playtest with the Developer on the Beta server.

[ 2023-11-12 16:43:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Avatar face rework

I spent most of the week redesigning the face meshes of the avatars. It began with an experiment last Sunday with a new mesh for the druid.
It was such an improvement, that I needed to redesign the rest of the faces.

New boot mesh

I got a new boot mesh from Madraox and added it to the avatar. We are currently designing the remaining meshes. After we finish this, I can add visual-changing boots.

New ability SoulStorm for the HighKing

The HighKing was the first boss I designed for Raiding.Zone. He always lacked mechanical depth. He got a new ability called Soul Storm. You have to take shelter in a Resolution zone to prevent this damage. He uses this ability on all difficulty levels.

Shader for equipment system

For the boots, I needed to rework rendering for equipment. I googled a bit and got inspiration from World of Warcraft and Skyrim. You have to mask out certain areas of the torso dynamically. If the player equips an armor piece, you will mask out the mesh of the torso beneath it. That will prevent the torso from glitching through the armor. I implemented this system by assigning a torso mask to each armor piece. Boots have a texture that masks out feet. Armors have a texture that masks out the chest and parts of the arms. The custom shader will then multiply these two images. If a pixel got masked out in any of the boot or armor masks it wont render. I needed to create two different shaders. One for the default player and one for the equipment screen. The default shader is a Unity Surface shader and looks like this: void surf (Input IN, inout SurfaceOutput o) { fixed4 c = tex2D (_MainTex, IN.uv_MainTex) *_Color; o.Albedo = c.rgb; // Multiplicate the armor and boot alpha values o.Alpha = tex2D(_BootMask,IN.uv_BootMask).a*tex2D(_ArmorMask,IN.uv_ArmorMask).a; } For the UI I had to write a fragment vertex shader similarly. That makes it possible to have multiple boot meshes too. So stay tuned!

Various Bug fixes

I did several playtests this week and found a couple of things to fix. Bots will always follow and not cast if set to follow There was a misimplementation of bot the movement. The bots would not follow you if they were casting. They will now always follow and abort their cast. Charges wont crash the game server There was an error in the ChargeModifier for spell charges. That crashed the beta server a couple of times. Right now, it should be stable again. Bots and other players looked in the wrong direction while running This was fixed by setting their direction to the direction they run towards. OSX users wont get a warning on installing Steam displayed a warning, that Raiding.Zone isnt compatible with 64-bit OSX versions. I deactivated the warning because there is no problem with 64-bit. To be precise, I compile Raiding.Zone only for 64-bit. Next Step: New Difficulty for levels I already have a lot of ideas for new mechanics in the raids. They will focus on group interaction. That makes them hard to do alone and predestined for multiplayer. I also want to implement weekly changing obstacles for the levels. They are inspired by the affix system in mythic+ WoW. My main problem is, that I havent figured out a reward system for the adamant difficulty yet.

[ 2023-11-12 13:58:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

We will play on the beta branch and test the new movement spells.

[ 2023-11-05 17:00:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Complete Art Rework

In the last update, I presented a new logo for Raiding.Zone. This week, I reworked the complete artwork for the product page.
I also updated the road map for the rest of this and the upcoming year.

Movement Spells

After the community poll on movement spells, I added a new item type. You can now equip boots in your loadout screen. At the start, we have five different boots to choose from. movement spells Like trinkets and armor, all boots have three experience levels. They have three unique essence combinations, so you can further customize your movement.

Here can you see some gameplay with the new boots: [previewyoutube=psaYMNI-aBI;full][/previewyoutube] The movement update is live on the beta branch. Keep in mind that you have to use the beta server too.

HighKing has a new Axe

Madraox did his best and got me a new model for the axe of HighKing. It looks badass now.

New path-finding algorithm

Per default all pathfinding in Raiding.Zone is done using the A*algorithm. However, there exists a faster alternative for some cases. If you can see your destination, you can go there directly. So if your path is without obstacles, the server will take less CPU time to calculate your way now.

Next steps

I will work closely with Madraox to show the boots on the character. Also, we will try to enhance the meshes of the character faces. There is also still the new trailer on my to-do list. But, I want to with it, till we have enhanced the visuals. I will also start to implement the new difficulty level for all levels.

[ 2023-11-05 13:46:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

[ 2023-10-29 14:07:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Pit of Elements is now released on the live server. It is a 2.5-phase fight. The first phase contains lightning vortexes and stone pillars. The stone pillar will always spawn on the damage camp. The vortex will spawn on the tank that doesnt have boss aggro. If there is only one tank the vortex will spawn on him. At the end of the first phase, Khorin will absorb near Stone Pillars and grant himself a shield. He begins to cast mediation that applies a Burning debuff to all players. As soon as the Earth shield breaks, you can interrupt him. After that, begins the second phase. It is very similar to the first one. Khorin summons IceBlocks on the off tank. You should place them so you can walk around them. Then, Khorin summons a Fire Elemental targeting a random non-tank player. The Fire elemental has a shield that damages anyone who attacks him. That shield can be removed by kiting the Fire Elemental to an IceBlock. At the end of this phase Khorin casts Nova. You will have to hide behind Stone Pillars or IceBlocks to dodge it. After that all pillars and IceBlocks get destroyed, and Phase One begins again. Here you can see myself struggling with normal difficulty. [previewyoutube=gfVGJjZLVso;full][/previewyoutube]

Four New Items

Water Stream and Siphon and Carnage are now released on live. Water Stream is an energy-based healing weapon.
Siphon and Carnage are melee daggers.
Furthermore, there is a new armor and a new trinket item. The armor Cooling Carapace will reset all your cooldowns once you fall below 50% life. The trinket Chroniker grants you Power for a short period every 20 seconds.

Level Ending Screen

There is a new level ending screen that shows after every win or wipe. It shows your awarded experience, items, and essences. On the Insight tab, you can get statistics about the raid. It displays Damage and Healing done, damage taken, and a Death-Recap for each player.

The US server is online

I had some trouble finding cheap and reliable servers for deployment in the US. I finally managed to find some appropriate servers hosted by GTHost. These servers are located in Seattle Washington. So everyone in North America should have an acceptable Ping. I will remove the disclaimer from the Store shop page and add a Hint, about the current server locations. So that anyone from Australia or Oceania can reconsider if they want to buy the game. You can select the server in the Login Screen.

Chat Enhancements

I started with reworking the chat. At first, I fixed the bug that you cant scroll in it. I also added the possibility to change the size and position of the chat window.

Chat bubbles

If you have the nameplate of players enabled, you will see the chat messages appear over their heads.

Chat Commands

I also added some basic chat commands that should help you with raiding. /gg kills all players as the leader /y displays a raid warning for all players /help displays all available commands

New logo for Raiding.Zone

I created a new logo. I wanted it to match the UI of Raiding.Zone.

Further Development

After releasing the new level, my next goal is to create a new trailer. Primarily, I want to show the enhanced UI and the new level. I could find a very talented voxel artist to design new weapons and overhaul some existing models. Applause to Madraox for his enormous efforts. I will develop new weapon concepts, so we can use his awesome models. There is also an ongoing community poll for new movement spells. I will finish the poll this Sunday. After that, I will then start to implement the choice.

[ 2023-10-29 14:03:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Join us on the Stream or in Discord: https://discord.gg/Qb2hQmRg?event=1163929678390775930

[ 2023-10-22 10:45:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

US Beta servers are ready.

I spent nearly the whole week searching for proper and cheap servers on the US west coast. My first try was with OneProvider. It is the cheapest I could find. But sadly, it is cheap for a reason. It took three days to set up my server. When it was ready, I tested the bandwidth and had 10 MBit/s. That is insultingly low. I switched to GTHost. They are slightly more pricey, but you get your server in 10 minutes. The bandwidth is also like the promised, so the game runs smoothly. To test the US server, select the beta-Branch on Steam and select Beta server on the login screen. You can then select the US server. us server select

Pit of Elements fight is more deterministic.

I was cooperating with the German streamer realxuffix and the game tester highsky this week. They tested the new level and weapons and had some constructive remarks. The first version of the fight was too random. An overall raid tactic was missing. You have two camps now. There is the tank camp and the range camp. The range camp will bait the stone pillar to determine its position. The vortex always spawns on the tank that doesnt have aggro. If you have one tank it will spawn on this tank. The tank with the vortex will now move to the stone pillar to eliminate it. Then, the raid moves in a circle for the next pillar ability.
For the ice and fire phase, the tactic is similar. The FireElemental will spawn and fixate a random non-tank player. This player needs to kite him to an IceBlock. But you can also kill them where they stand.

Pit of Elements and Sludge Madness are more performant.

For Pit of Elements, the solution was pretty simple. I turned on Skinning on GPU. Promptly, it runs smoothly. Sludge Madness was more difficult because there were so many targets in it. I figured out that the target highlighter was causing the problems. I use Ultimate Outlines & Highlights. It is easy to use and looks good. But every time you enable a highlighter, it searches the whole scene to find all the others. I had to change that and keep track of all highlighters myself.

Siphon and Carnage got a Chain Spell.

One of the beta testers honk mentioned that the new daggers dont feel quite right. He suggested chain spells like in Guild Wars 2. I looked at it and decided to try it out. It feels more dynamic and rewarding. I implemented a new component that keeps track of the current chain status on the server. When you cast the chain spell, the server sends a new ability-id. So the client can render different icons and descriptions.
You can see the spell icons changing in the spell bar at the bottom.

WaterStream Flood spell optimized.

During the playtest with realxuffix, he also mentioned that the new weapon WaterStream, has a problem. The spell Flood required four global cooldowns to cast. You need to place 3 Water Totems. Only after that, you can cast it. I changed it to only require one totem and added an area effect around each totem to the spell.

Next steps: Raid ending screen

I will continue testing Pit of Elements and the US servers. In the meantime, I plan to add a proper raid ending screen. It should contain your experience gains, loot, and statistical information about the raid. I want to implement some damage and healing diagrams. There should also be insights about your ability damage and healing distribution.

[ 2023-10-22 10:43:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

I have an update for those who tried the beta and got kicked/timeouted. I identified an issue that occurs if you switch from beta to live or vice versa. In this case, the ping is still connected to the old one, resulting in being kicked because no ping was received. I pushed a fix for this to the Steam beta branch. If you are playing on live, a restart after switching should fix the problem. If it persists for someone, I would like to hear from them

[ 2023-10-15 10:17:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Pit of Elements is now released onto the beta server. It is a 2.5-phase fight. The first phase contains lightning vortexes and stone pillars. You will have to move the vortexes to the pillars. Then comes an intermediate phase. You have to pierce the earthen shield to interrupt the cast. After that, there is a longer phase with fire elementals and ice blocks. At the end of the cycle, you should hide behind the pillars or the blocks to dodge the nova cast.

Four New Items

Water Stream and Siphon and Carnage are now released on the beta branch. Furthermore, there is a new armor and a new trinket item. The armor Cooling Carapace will reset all your cooldowns once you fall below 50% life. The trinket Chroniker grants you Power for a short period every 20 seconds.

Chat Enhancements

I started with reworking the chat. At first, I fixed the bug that you cant scroll in it. I also added the possibility to change the size and position of the chat window.

Chat Bubbles

If you have the nameplate of players enabled, you will see the chat messages appear over their heads.

Chat Commands

I also added some basic chat commands that should help you with raiding.

• /gg kills all players as the leader
• /y displays a raid warning for all players
• /help displays all available commands

Minor Fixes

• more exp per level
• runic healing for Obsidian Warhammer should work again (https://github.com/mayope/raids-issues/issues/14)

Mind that to access the beta, you need to select the beta-branch in the game properties in Steam. Also, you have to select the Beta server on the login screen. Those with enabled permanent login, need to log out first.

Further Development

While testing Pit of Elements and the items on the beta branch I will focus my efforts on deploying a server in the US. You might wonder how this got priority. The majority of player (>90%) plays from the United States. I already did some research about server costs. I am sure I can deploy an instance for under 200 $.

[ 2023-10-14 10:48:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

I want to introduce you to the new level Pit of Elements. You will fight against the elementalist Khorin. He controls rocks, thunder, fire, and the tides.
There are also new weapons as a reward for the boss fight. Thanks to Madraox for providing the tree model on top of the valley!

Water Stream

Water Stream is a healing weapon. It has its inspiration from the healing shaman in WoW. I have focused the gameplay around the healing totem. All your spells either originate or use the water totem.

You can find more about Water Stream in the documentation(https://raiding.zone/docs/items/weapon/ec0639b8-da2b-468b-a9ae-f9aedeaab420/).

Siphon and Carnage

Siphon and Carnage are melee weapons. You will feel like an assassin engulfed in a bloodbath. The gameplay centers around Orbit Blades. They deal damage around you and buff your abilities.

You can already read about the weapon in the documentation(https://raiding.zone/docs/items/weapon/55dc0e84-61a6-48c8-a93b-233997cce445/). I hope to finish the level in the coming weeks. The server implementation is complete. But I still have to test the level and add some animations.

[ 2023-10-07 14:03:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Merge of the beta to the "default" branch. You can find the complete changelog here: https://raiding.zone/docs/posts/soloraidwithmultiboxing/

[ 2023-10-03 17:36:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

I got a lot of feedback that the game lacks fun if you are play alone. The bots are intelligent enough to compete in the more complicated raids. So I threw away the bot system and created a new raid control system. I got inspired by the way you control the players in Fifa. There, you can constantly switch between your players and control the entire team. The term multiboxing comes from World of Warcraft. It describes playing with multiple characters simultaneously, and is strictly forbidden. I added it as a game mechanic to Raiding.Zone You can add any raider to your team in the lobby configuration.
Once you have entered the raid you can switch between your raiders using CTRL+Left Click or PageUp and PageDown keys. [previewyoutube=Z8_F8dh5bDE;full][/previewyoutube] I was able to beat Firebound Forge on Normal alone. Firebound Forge needs two tanks and lots of movement. I had to constantly switch raiders and move them out of the meteors and into the water. [previewyoutube=b9Eyr8IcAJs;full]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9Eyr8IcAJs[/previewyoutube] You can test the new mode on the "beta"-Steam branch. **Keep in mind that you also need to select the "Beta Server" on the login screen**.

[ 2023-10-01 11:22:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

New GUI

I reworked the complete ingame GUI.
And overhauled all dialogs.

Target zone Rework

All target zones are now clearly visible.

Solo raiding improvements

There is more bot control now. - Ping Position let's the selected bot go to that position and stay there - Ping Target let's the bot follow the target selected on casting (You have to select a target after clicking on the ability) If you are the only human player, you also get access to Cleanse and Interrupt spells.

[ 2023-09-12 21:44:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

You users were created successfully but there was neither a success message nor a loading of the correct scene. Now, you will see a proper error message if you are already register with your steam account.

[ 2023-09-05 11:35:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Balancing

Balancing damage is a problem. I avoided it since starting Raiding.Zone. It is not fun being forced to play the only weapon that does exceedingly more damage than the rest. My initial plan was to balance everything in the Early Access phase. But this could set a strain on everybody who decides to try the game. I found an alternative way for basic Balancing. My game server runs with Kotlin. Kotlin has first-class support for concurrency through Coroutines. Coroutines are lightweight threads and allow you to have explicit structured concurrency. They also have a solid test framework. This framework has with tools that allow you to skip any delay in your code. So when you have a routine that executes every second, you dont have to wait 10s to execute it ten times. You can use a test coroutine context and accelerate time. I used this feature to gather 1000s of damage data for each weapon and calculate an average DPS value.
These numbers are just the bare configuration of that weapon. I didnt add any talents, essences, armor, or trinkets. The whole test suite executes in 60s. I plan to add more configurations for talents, essences, and other items.

Tank warning

I got some feedback that tanking is more confusing than it should be. It is hard to see when you lose aggro to a damage dealer. I added a warning for that. It will display if you are a tank and a mob attacks someone who isnt a tank.

Fire nova particle rework

I was unsatisfied with the particles of the Fire Nova. It didnt feel like an expanding wall of flame yet.
Minor changes

• Furious dummies will now deal 10% of your maximum life pool per hit
• Key combination will not be assignable if there is another already present. Thanks to hboelke for the bug report.
• Websockets will now reconnect if the connection fails
• Exceptions occurring in the client get sent to the server for analysis.

[ 2023-09-02 10:36:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

New talents and ultimates

All weapons got 4 new talents including an ultimate spell that you unlock on maximal level. Here are some short examples of new spells:

Fire Nova on Staff of Burning Souls

Expanding fire nova that hits all targets up to 450 range and applies Ablaze.

Congregation on Plaguecarrier

Prevents all your Plague buffs from running out. congregation

Lightning Ball on Stormcaller

Consumes all vortexes and summons a Lightning Ball.

Sanctify on Urikas

Heal all blessed targets and damage the surrounding area.

Avenging Shield on Protectors of the Lost

Deal ae damage in 150 range and reduce the damage done of affected targets.

Bugfixes

Special Thanks to Hiighsky for the bug reports!

• Essencescombination-Auras will now get assigned to all players
• TargetDummys are not killable anymore

[ 2023-08-27 11:28:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Buffs and Health bars in Nameplates

Healthbars and Buffs now display on target Nameplates. You can deactivate them in Settings->Interface.

Talent reset

You can now reset your weapon talents. That removes all active talents and resets the experience to zero. Unlocked avatars will stay unlocked.

Essence combination hints

You can now view all essence combinations for the selected item. If you hover over the "Combination Guide" it will show all combinations.

Attribute tooltips

Tooltips now display for attributes in the Armory.

Minor changes

- Mouse won't move to the center on the right click. This change does not work on Linux and Mac because there is more research to do. - Quality settings can be adjusted in the settings.

Bug fixes

- removed "p" panorama mode - Death removes the leader spell bar - talents for armor and trinkets not assignable - firebound forge is too dark - 21:9 resolution, UI is cut off

[ 2023-08-22 09:31:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

After numerous requests I introduce to you: The mindless jump [previewyoutube=BL_V76dig8I;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2023-08-17 12:24:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

[ 2023-08-07 07:05:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

cover I got feedback that my avatars dont feel quite right. So I learned some things about anatomy and face proportions. The new faces have twice the voxel count than the previous ones. It was a real struggle to simplify the resulting mesh. Initially, each avatar had more than 1 million vertices. [previewyoutube=95Ckvf1Y6oI;full][/previewyoutube]

Chat Rework

The chat UI now aligns with the rest of the interface. The font is weightier and fits the rest of the UI. I also replaced the backend technology for the in-game chat. Previously I used MongooseIM. Mongoose is an XMPP server, and it is hard to use. I implemented the same functionality with less code with Kotlins Shared-Flows. I will share another article on how the chat system works internally. The only drawback of using my implementation is that I lost the ability to store chat messages. The current implementation will redirect the chats to the destined clients.

Statistics Rework

The statistics window rework feels more intuitive. I dropped the second window and moved the information into the tooltip. The tooltip shows the percentage that each ability contributed to the stat.

[ 2023-05-29 14:39:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ive spent the last two weeks implementing a new GUI concept. The old design felt confusing and cluttered. I added more space and hopefully made it more intuitive. [previewyoutube=GxICxjcPQYA;full][/previewyoutube] The new interface should conform to the immersion I want to create. The whole game places you in the simulation of a giant corporation named Raiding.Zone. This cooperation bought your conscious self. You only live in a simulated environment. Thats the reason the game places you in a virtual cell. You can meet other players in the Training Area. Besides this, your only purpose is to fight in Raids for the amusement of the public.
In future updates, I will use this cell to provide visual feedback on your raiding progress. My plan is to further extend this cell as you progress in Raiding.Zone. I plan to extend this cell the further you progress in Raiding.Zone. There will also be additional rooms to visit in the prison. I also added a loading screen picture to make it less boring.

[ 2023-05-13 09:47:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey Raiders, the implementation of Raiding.Zone in 3D is near completion. I already assembled a gameplay trailer containing all levels: [previewyoutube=nRkdU8nlBr0;full][/previewyoutube] There is also a new logo for Raiding.Zone:
I fixed some bugs during the playtest and implemented a proper loading screen. All weapons have an enhanced range now. Versatile Crossbow peaks with 400. Plague Carrier and Staff of Burning Souls have a base range of 350. The role abilities Cleanse, Interrupt and Taunt also have a range of 350 now. Next up will be a rework of the user interface. It is too cluttered and doesnt transport the setting.

[ 2023-04-30 15:53:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Progress Report: Arcane Factory

The 3D migration progresses a lot slower than I expected. I have to get my head around a bunch of conceptual stuff. The concept I used for animation was unintuitive. [previewyoutube=l6V9ii-OuNA;full][/previewyoutube] Furthermore, the 3D area effects need a height to look like they should.
Blender is an incredible tool but the learning curve is steep. I used it for character rigging, and it works far better than the MagicaVoxel-Toolbox. Nevertheless, I completed the Arcane Factory. You get to see the weapon Stormcaller in action. The next level to migrate will be the Bloodshed Arena.

[ 2023-03-12 17:58:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

I gathered a lot of critics and advice for my game. I concluded that I could not market my game as a 2D-TopDown game. Its not appealing enough to gather any audience. So this is my first teaser for the 3D-Version. [previewyoutube=FkXYUCYvuFc;full][/previewyoutube] The level in the video is the only playable right now. It has all features that are present on other levels. The server calculates the map in 2D, but all textures and effects are now in 3D. My plan for the oncoming weeks is pretty simple. I will create a bunch of voxel models and rework the remaining 2D-Effects. After finishing, I will release the new 3D version. In the meantime, you can still play the 2D variant. I use MagicaVoxel for creating my voxel art. The tool is pretty simple and effective. To import it into Unity, I used the MagicaVoxel-Toolbox. The toolbox is cheap for the number of things you can do with it. I also omitted the Lobby-Level. The default screens now show your equipment.
Im still searching for motivated people to develop the game with me. Particularly Im interested in people with experience in voxel graphics or particle effects. I would be more than glad to share my profits with anyone who can contribute.

[ 2023-02-25 12:25:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

New Male and Female Sprites

We added new sprites for male and female players. The characters also got a walking animation. [previewyoutube=DR0iAB-LXA4;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

New Weapon sprites

There are now new sprites for every weapon and armor in the game.

New casting Animation for Relieving Journal

The new animation goes better with the book. [previewyoutube=7M6xZKpRVow;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

[ 2023-01-22 16:15:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Plague Carrier

Plague Carrier is a new distance weapon. It has a lot of damage over time(DoT) effects. Your main goal is to maximize the uptime of your DoTs on the target. The full ability descriptions are available here: https://wiki.raiding.zone/docs/items/weapon/e71d4fd5-2082-4fb7-9835-40ba3efb3864/. [previewyoutube=8XwodXuDshg;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

Mass Performance Test

We tested the game server with 2000 players playing together. You can only see 80 in this video because the server runs 25 instances of this level in parallel. The main problem was bandwidth. My developer setup doesnt have enough throughput to simulate 2000 players. So I had to use another server to supply the other half. It was quite a rough optimizing journey. We got from 1000MBit/s per 1000 players to 130MBit/s. The primary optimizations were reducing the payload and better encoding. I will write a follow-up article on this one. It will detail the process to reduce the bandwidth. [previewyoutube=QAYJfpEAMtw;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

Name plate customization

You can now define the way names are shown over targets.

Password reset

You can now reset your password. You need will your original Invite-Id or be logged in your Steam-Account.

[ 2023-01-12 08:47:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

I am proud to deliver another update to this game. In this release, I created a new weapon, added in-game music, and designed an essence system.

Stormcaller Meele Weapon

Stormcaller is a lightning-induced spear that attacks your enemy in melee range. Every spell accumulates energy. At 70 energy you can summon a powerful thunder vortex. The full ability descriptions are available here: https://wiki.raiding.zone/docs/items/weapon/f76f16d6-2464-4be8-9722-b22fe6a1b7c5/. [previewyoutube=bOdVUkPSIT8;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

Ingame Music

There are now different music tracks for each map and additional infight music. Furthermore, sound effects for all abilities have been added.

Essence System

Every item can now be mounted with up to 3 essences. There are 5 different essences right now: Stamina, Awareness, Spirit, Power, and Haste These essences grant you a bonus on their own and an additional bonus by interacting with the other mounted essences. Certain combinations will also grant you additional effects for your items. All essence combinations are available here: https://docs.raiding.zone/docs/essencecombinations/ Essences are looted after every level. You can get up to 3 essences per raid. [previewyoutube=8O77XxscyTg;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

Interface Modification

We granted you complete control over your raid interface. You can Move, Scale and Modify all interface elements to better suit your playstyle. [previewyoutube=DvhvUE-8nu4;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

Raid-Lead spells

We added additional tooling for raid leaders.

Revive

Arguably the most important spell. It enables you to revive a friendly bot or player infight with 50% life at your position. The game grants you 1 revive opportunity per 5 players in-game.

Mark Position Green/Blue

This two spells lets you mark a specific position on the map with a green or blue effect.

Ping Position

This ability marks a position in-game for a short time.

Mark Target

This spell marks a target with a skull. It is intended to be used as focus target.

Reset Targets

This spell just resets all marks that have been placed.

Steam integration

You can now invite friends to your current raid or join the raid of your friends. Your current raid is also displayed in your game info for your friends.

[ 2022-12-26 11:50:13 CET ] [ Original post ]