TUXDB - LINUX GAMING AGGREGATE
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Update Notes: November 22, 2024

This is a minor update to begin our Thanksgiving-themed event. There were also some fixes and revisions ready to go, so they're included here. (We're still working on the upcoming "major update" that will include Vampirism.)

Bard Skill Revisions


The changes here ensure that bardic songs can be powered up at high level so that they remain very impressive group and/or solo buffs. In addition we've added new ways to make the horn "blast" abilities more useful, both when used in conjunction with a lute or when used with a melee weapon such as a sword or axe. Bard ability changes:
  • Song of Discord: base damage increased a bit at all tiers
  • Song of Resurgence: base healing amount increased
  • Song of Bravery: power-cost reduction increased at all tiers (by roughly double)
  • Blast of Defiance: "reaps Health and returns it as Health" => "reaps Health and returns it as Health (or Armor if Health is full)"
  • Moment of Resolve: now restores Health (or Armor if Health is Full). Previously it restored Armor.
  • Moment of Resolve: physical damage mitigation lasts 8 seconds instead of 5 seconds
Changes to bard treasure:
  • "Song of Bravery boosts allies' Basic Attack and Core Attack damage +67" => +151
  • "Thunderous Note costs -20 Power and range +6 meters" => "Thunderous Note costs -30 Power and damage is +10%". Note: previously this effect was on Necklace and Hands slots. It is now only available on Necklace slot equipment. If you have gloves with this effect on them, they have become Legacy. You can use Transmutation to roll the effect off of your gloves, or you can get a randomly generated replacement. Speak to the Legacy Item Helper golem in Serbule for more information.
  • "Blast of Defiance reaps +22% of the Health damage to you as health. The reap cap is +100" => "Blast of Defiance reaps +22% of the Health damage to you as health (or armor if health is full). The reap cap is +150"
  • "Song of Resurgence also restores 10 Power every 4 seconds to each target in range" => 16
    • Also, fixed bug that caused this effect to incorrectly add in benefits from Song of Resurgence health-restoration effects
  • "Song of Discord deals +X damage and has a 5% chance to stun each target every 2 seconds" => 10% chance to stun
  • "Song of Discord has a 53% chance to deal +25% damage to each target every 2 seconds" => 33% chance to deal +100% damage
  • "Song of Discord Damage +20%" => +26.5%
  • "Song of Discord reduces targets' Rage by -238 every 2 seconds" => "... and deals +55 damage"
  • New effect: (Chest, OffHand): "Song of Discord deals +100% damage to targets with less than 33% of their Max Rage"
  • New effect: (Head) "Thunderous Note deals +84 damage and is considered a Bardic Blast ability."
  • New effect: (Hands) "Every 2 seconds while Song of Discord is active, your Bardic Blast ability damage is boosted +10.5% for 30 seconds"
  • (Head, MainHand) "Song of Bravery has a 15% chance every 4 seconds to grant listeners a Moment of Bravery: all attacks deal +25% damage for 5 seconds" => 25% chance to boost all attacks by 50%
    • Dev note: this was originally coded in an old-school way, where each slot's effect triggers separately. This seems like the most fun approach here, so that hasn't been changed. What this means is that if you have both the Head and Main-Hand versions of this effect, you don't have one 50% chance to get a moment of bravery, but rather two 25% chances. If both effects trigger, damage is boosted twice.
    • Also note: there is a new tier of this effect for level 90+ gear, with 30% chance instead of 25% chance
  • New effect: (Legs, Ring) "Direct Nature Damage +24% and Indirect Nature Damage +48% while Bard skill active"
  • New effect: (Legs) "Song of Bravery further reduces ability costs -20 and increases Direct Damage +11.5%"
  • "Song of Bravery causes allies' Combat Refreshes to restore +92 Armor" => +143
  • "Moment of Resolve dispels any Stun effects on allies and grants them immunity to Stuns for 8 seconds." => "In addition, Moment of Resolve can be used while Stunned."
  • "Song Of Resurgence Healing +22" => +30
  • New effect: (Ring) "Melee abilities boost your Bardic Blast ability damage +15.5% for 30 seconds"
  • New effect: (Ring) "Blast of Fury Damage +182"
  • "Blast of Defiance reaps 23% of the Armor damage done (up to a max of 150), returning it to you as armor" => "Blast of Defiance Damage +120 and Reuse Time -2 seconds"
  • "Blast of Fury deals +52% damage and knocks the target back, but the ability's reuse timer is +2 seconds" => "Blast of Fury deals +28% damage and knocks the target back"
  • New effect: (Ring, Necklace) "Blast of Fury Damage +120 and Reuse Timer -1 Second"
  • New effect: (Legs, Chest) "Bard Blast abilities cause target to suffer 280 Nature damage over 8 seconds"
  • New effect: (Legs) "Melee abilities boost your next attack +62.5% if it is a Bardic Blast ability"
  • "Whenever you take damage from an enemy, you gain Bard Base Damage +10% for 15 seconds. (Stacks up to 10x)" => "Whenever you take damage from an enemy, your Bardic Blast abilities deal +10% damage for 20 seconds. (Stacks up to 12x)"
Bard item changes:
  • Bard horn weapons that boosted "Bard Base Damage %" now instead boost "Bard Damage %". (This is a buff as it is generally a larger bonus for high-level players, and the same bonus as before for low-level players.)
  • Rakshasa Lute has been revised to reduce Moment of Resolve reuse time
  • Fairy Lute now also reduces Moment of Resolve reuse time
  • Starlute now also reduces Virtuoso's Ballad reuse time

Changed Necromancy Treasure Effects


This is a snapshot of the Necromancy skill which is still under minor development -- that is, there may be some more changes that coincide with the future launch of the Vampirism skill.
  • (OffHand) "Death's Hold causes target to take +10.7% damage from Darkness for 15 seconds" => +11.57%
  • (MainHand, Ring) "Summoned Skeletons deal +18% direct damage, but take +50% more damage from cold attack" => deal +24% direct damage, but take +50% more damage from cold attacks
  • (Feet, OffHand) "Summoned Skeletons have +130 armor" => "... and suffer -20% damage from Burst attacks"
  • (Chest, OffHand) "Summoned Skeletons have +93 health" => "... and suffer -20% damage from Burst attacks"
  • (Feet, OffHand) "Summoned Skeletal Swordsmen have +149 armor and +10 Crushing/Slashing/Piercing Mitigation" => "+149 armor and -20% Crushing/Slashing/Piercing Vulnerability"
  • (Hands, Ring) "Summoned Skeletal Archers and Mages deal +50 direct damage" => +70
  • (Head, MainHand) "Provoke Undead restores 64 Health to you and causes your attacks to taunt +20% for 10 seconds" => "Provoke Undead restores 83 Health to you (or Armor if Health is full) and causes your attacks to taunt +58% for 20 seconds"
  • (Feet, Ring) "Provoke Undead deals 72 damage to your minions, who then deal +72 damage for 10 seconds" => deal +129 damage for 10 seconds
  • (Feet, MainHand) "Provoke Undead causes your minions to deal +29% damage for 10 seconds, but also take 175 damage over 10 seconds" => +46% damage
  • (OffHand, Necklace) "Provoke Undead causes your minions to deal +43 damage for 10 seconds" => "Provoke Undead's Reuse Time is -5 seconds and it boosts your minions' damage +48 for 10 seconds"
  • (Feet) "Heal Undead restores +22 health/armor and grants target undead +17 Mitigation from all attacks for 8 seconds" => "Heal Undead causes target undead to take -39% damage from Elite attacks for 8 seconds"
  • (Legs, MainHand) "Heal Undead restores an additional 156 Health/Armor over 12 seconds" => "... and also hastens the current reuse timer of Rebuild Undead -5 seconds"
  • (Chest, Ring) "Using Raise Zombie on an existing zombie raises its Max Health +195 for 60 seconds (and heals +195)" => for 5 minutes

Other Changes and Fixes


  • To help you adapt to changes in this update, transmutation costs for Necromancy and Bard skills are reduced
  • Fixed bug with Archery treasure effect: "Blitz Shot Damage +X% and Critical Hit Chance +Y%". The critical-hit chance bonus was not applying.
  • Fixed bug with Archery treasure effect: "Aimed Shot deals +X damage, has +Y% Critical Hit Chance, and also grants this Critical Hit Chance bonus to your next Archery attack". The critical-hit chance bonus was not applying to Aimed Shot
  • Added display of buffed critical-hit chance to ability tooltips
  • Bug fix: Bladesmithing sharpening kits no longer add a Bladesmithing level-requirement to the item. They now apply a Sword, Knife, or Unarmed level requirement, as appropriate. Note that this fix can only apply to newly-used kits; weapons sharpened prior to this update will still have a Bladesmithing prerequisite until they are re-sharpened.
  • The JSON file `abilitykeywords.json` has a new structure. (Sorry)
  • Jack o'lanterns and a few other art items can now be "installed" in guild halls
  • Fixed bug that caused elven judgment student key trunk to give no loot to party members except the one who receives the poison. (All party members should be able to get loot, just not the poison)
  • Fixed many Effect descriptions to have precise buff amounts in them. (This is shown in a tooltip when you hover over an Effect.)
  • Changed Weather Witching treasure effect: "Deluge deals +102 damage on contact and increases the target's Poison Vulnerability +15% for 30 seconds (non-stacking)". This effect now debuffs both Poison Vulnerability and Electricity Vulnerability. (It was bugged to debuff Electricity, and when fixing that, we decided it can just debuff both.)
  • Bugfix: fixed recipe for "Dwarven Stout (1 glass)" so that it better matches ingredient ordering from "Dwarven Stout Keg"
  • Fix pet skeletons not persisting across Areas. (And btw we can't currently implement spiders persisting, so that's why they don't. But it's on the todo list.)
  • Horse Apple Bushes no longer have collisions
  • Norbert no longer treats druids as animals, unless they are in an actual animal form. Previously you would see the countdown and it would get stuck at 0 and not let you progress - now he just directs you to speak with Spot
  • Field Surgery 4 now requires Field Surgery 3 instead of 2
  • Brugo the Wise now actually gives a gift at Best Friends favor
  • Adjust graphics sliders: Shadow Distance & LOD Bias now have max values of 1000 and 10 respectively, and Ultra setting respects these maximums
  • Lower flash brightness of certain get-hit effects
  • Fix Gardening uncap icon in Floxie's training menu
  • Fixed bug that caused game UI to show incorrect ability reset times when certain unrelated buffs or debuffs were applied to them


[ 2024-11-23 02:49:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Bugfix update: 10/28/2024

This is a minor client-only bugfix update to improve stability. There is one new very minor feature: if you hold down the SHIFT key on your keyboard while pressing the Quit button in-game, the game will open an Explorer window to the folder that contains the game's log file. If you are experiencing problems logging in, we may ask you for your player log, and this is an easier way to find it.


[ 2024-10-28 10:45:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update Notes: October 25, 2024

It's Halloween! In Project: Gorgon, that means the traditional annual incursion by Zhia Lian, goddess of Whimsy. Your characters will receive a quest when they log in to help them get started with the holiday. There are lots of activities and some pretty cool rewards! Now let's take a look at everything else in this update:

Not Vampires


Originally we wanted to launch a new Skill, Vampirism, along with this Halloween update. Unfortunately that skill needs to cook a little longer, and we didn't want it to delay our Halloween celebration any further. So vampires will make their debut in the next major update. We can't wait for you to play with them! If you see in-game references to Vampirism, just treat those as teasers for now.

Horse Genetics


Last update introduced horse genetics, and an entirely different way of looking at your mounts. In this update we continue to iterate on this system with necessary tweaks and bug fixes.
  • A floating sphere deep beneath Povus teaches new high-level textile recipes for creating Mare Blankets that accelerate gestation. (These recipes will eventually be learned from an NPC in Statehelm.)
  • Dozens of genes are now quite rare in wild horses. As a result of increased gene rarity, wild horse stats in general are now lower - by about 10 points per stat.
  • Several horse breeds were missing some coat-related functionality; it has been added to pre-existing genes. It's very unlikely but this may affect the appearance of some horses. If it does, it will be an obvious change.
  • One of the Satincoat Scale genes now boosts friendliness when previously it gave nothing
  • Moved an attribute from horse gene 28E4 to 28F1, so 28E4 doesn't affect multiple attributes.
  • Wild Horses now display their virility alongside other stats when you Pet them.
  • Wild horse hitboxes are more accurate.
  • Wild horses now take small breaks from running every now and again.

Mount Glamours


This update adds something else new and fun for mounts: mount glamours! This is similar to glamouring your equipment, but there are some big differences. A mount glamour is a new piece of mount equipment that overrides a horse's appearance. In other words, when your mount has a mount glamour item equipped, it will look like a different horse. This lets you show off your quest mounts - like Pantiflax - without giving up the superior stats of the horse you so carefully tamed, bred, or bought. (Note that Inella now gives the glamour version of Pantiflax rather than the mount version.) If you received a quest mount in the past, you will need to turn it into a glamour item before you can apply it to your regular mount. You can access a Horse Glamourizer near Mythander in Eltibule.

New Inventory Slots


All players receive 4 new inventory slots. These correspond to the equipment slots for horses: saddle, saddlebag, reins, and horseshoes. All items that go in the new equipment slots for banners, horse cosmetics, and horse glamours give +1 Max Inventory when worn. Background: What's this about? New players sometimes ask why equipped items take up inventory slots. The answer is that it's just easier to manage your inventory that way! We wanted to give players the best of both worlds, so we simply increased the max-inventory size for each equipment slot. This change just updates our plan to accommodate the new equipment slots. We didn't do the same thing for the cosmetic-only slots (banners, horse cosmetics, and horse glamours) because of... psychology. We've already heard some players express that they won't be using these slots because they won't "waste" precious inventory. Even if we gave you slots to compensate for them, a fair number of players simply wouldn't spend their equipment slots to making their horse look better. And we want players to be excited for our horse hats and other nonsense. Instead, we've enchanted all the cosmetic-slot items to give you +1 Max Inventory slot when worn. This way, they effectively don't take up an inventory slot when worn.

Community Activity System


This is a new option to unlock 30-day slots in the Serbule Community Chest. Completing certain tasks or events will accumulate points that will be applied toward unlocking slots in the chest. Example: Completing any wave of the Povus nightly will contribute points toward an unlock. There are also other ways available in game to score points and more will be added over time. Slots unlocked by this system will be noted on the Community Chest screen as 'Community Activity'. The options to purchase slots with councils or LECs will remain available.

Everything Else


  • Yoy in the Myconian Caves has a new favor which unlocks a new Mentalism ability. (Requires Myconian 17 and Mentalism 20, and may require a friend to complete the quest.) (Higher tiers of this ability can be trained from myconians Sem and Mope, for now.)
  • Fixed a bug that caused treasure effects not to work. These effects were ones that were triggered by the state of the target (such as "if target is not Elite").
  • Updated some Povus favors to require proper quantity of items. They previously only required half of the items crafted.
  • Sped up several humanoid animations.
  • Anatomy-Based Critical Hit Chance % attributes now display as percentages instead of decimals.
  • All Bladesmithing weapon recipes now require you to be near a forge.
  • Added a ladder to the Serbule Hills watchtower and sprinkle some items on its balconies.
  • Fixed a bug that broke movement completely if you tried to climb a ladder while already climbing it.
  • Saddlebags are now accessible in guild halls.
  • Fixed bug preventing moon phase from affecting genetics mutation chance.
  • Player bats can be clicked on again.
  • Fixed inverted permission for picking up others' items in guild halls.
  • You now get a stable slot at Racing 50 instead of 60.
  • Fixed graphical glitch with horse manes when teleporting within a zone.
  • Closed ceiling hole in deep Povus Caves.
  • Update Joeh's store.
  • Update Marna's Front-of-House.
  • New JSON file: abilitykeywords.json lists Attributes that apply to any Abilities that have a certain keyword. These have been broken out into separate listings to better reflect that abilities can dynamically add or remove keywords (e.g. when a Melee attack becomes a Burst attack due to an equipped piece of treasure).
  • VIPs, don't forget to claim your more-or-less-monthly gifts from the Persona panel! The November gift will become available on November 1.


[ 2024-10-25 14:20:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update Notes: September 30, 2024

Horse Genetics


Long promised, and finally here! This is one of the most outlandish features we've added to the game: we've modeled the genetics of ridable horses, using over 1500 genes to create nearly-countless possible horses, including many real-world horse breeds as well as fantasy ones. When these horses mate, we use real-world genetics rules to create offspring that are a realistic mix of both parents. These genes control the horse's appearance, speed, temperament, and more. Getting horses: there are simple new events in each outdoor area (except Rahu, for now) which run every hour or so. Defeating the Horse Thieves in these events will release a handful of wild horses, and more horses can spawn in the vicinity after the event ends. What can you do with these horses?
  • If you don't know the Riding skill, you can attempt to "pet" wild horses which will eventually teach you Riding. (You can also just train Riding the usual way, which is faster, but costs Councils.)
  • If you have the Riding skill, you can attempt to tame these horses (if you have their favorite food).
  • If you have the Animal Husbandry skill, you can speak to a stablemaster to breed two tamed horses (a male and female) together.
  • If you have the Genetics skill, you're a very high-level player and you likely already know who to speak to in order to unlock the new Ungulate Genetics sub-skill. With this skill and the right equipment, you can view the actual genome of horses, both in the wild and in your stables.
  • Once you have bred a new horse, you can use animal crates to package them for transfer or sale to other players.
If you already purchased a horse from Mythander, you may be wondering what happened to that horse. Nothing has happened to it, but it cannot be used for breeding. There are more details to discover, but we'll leave them for you to figure out! Other Horse- and Genetics-Related Changes:
  • You now gain an additional stable slot when reaching level 25 and 50 in Racing skill.
  • Reduced individual gene mutation chance by an order of magnitude, from 0.1% to 0.01%.
  • Genes mutations are more likely during the full moon.
  • Backers who purchased a Thoroughbred Breeder or Horse Lord Shop package can now claim the two horses of good genetic stock that are included in those packages. Make sure you have two empty stable slots!
  • Improved various genetics and breeding-related UIs.

Instanced Guild Halls (Soft Launch)


We're hard at work on Statehelm, the last major city that needs to be added to the game before we can officially "launch" (leave Steam Early Access). One of the big features in Statehelm is being able to lease your own instanced apartment, and/or Guild Hall for your guild. That feature requires a ton of new tech, so in this update we're testing that tech by letting guilds lease Guild Halls in the Red Wing Casino. To get a Guild Hall for your Guild, find the door near Riston in the casino. There is a 100,000-Council fee and your Guild will need to be at least level 1. (There will also be a daily rental fee eventually, but we're waiving those fees during this soft launch.) When you enter the Guild Hall you'll see a console near the door. This allows you to enter "Edit Mode", which lets you "install" items, moving and placing them as desired. When you leave Edit Mode, the items become locked in place. The Guild Hall available in the casino is very bare-bones, so you will need to provide your own lighting and decorations. Decorations like torches and tables can be crafted from recipes trained by Leah Bowman and Amutasa. You can also purchase basic decorations (like wall torches) from a Guild Sign if you are willing to spend Guild Credits on them. Many game-world items, such as chairs, paintings, and so on, can be "installed" into the Guild Hall also. You can always Uninstall items to retrieve them back into your inventory. Other things to know:
  • The casino Guild Hall has a limit of 50 installed items at a time.
  • You can drop items on the floor in a Guild Hall and they will never be auto-destroyed. You can have at most 50 items on the ground before being unable to drop more.
  • There are several new Guild Permissions related to the Guild Hall; guild leaders may want to review these
  • There are two new Guild Chests that can be installed and accesses in the Guild Hall. These chests can be purchased from a guild sign. Once set up in the guild hall, you can purchase slots in that chest in the same way as other guild chests.
Note: this is the first time we've ever had instanced areas in Project: Gorgon. Adding this required significant new technology. And while we're 99% sure all of this new code is perfectly debugged, we don't recommend dropping any precious heirloom items on the ground in your Guild Hall during this soft launch.

Treasure Effect Changes


Archery: We've made some big improvements to Archery! To help you adjust to these changes the Transmutation costs for Archery will be reduced this month.
  • New treasure effect: (Chest) "After using Fire Arrow, your next Archery attack will simultaneously shoot a Fire Arrow 10 at a target within 8 meters of that attack's main target. This extra Fire Arrow consumes ammunition as normal."
  • New treasure effect: (Legs) "After using Mangling Shot, your next Archery attack will simultaneously shoot a Mangling Shot 9 at a separate target within 8 meters of that attack's main target. This extra Mangling Shot consumes ammunition as normal."
  • (Hands, Feet) "Fire Arrow deals +26% damage and taunts +1475" => "Fire Arrow deals +160 damage and taunts +1475"
  • (Head, OffHand) "Archery Base Damage +50%" => "Archery Base Damage +50%, Anatomy Critical-Hit Chance +3%"
  • (Legs, Feet) "Blitz Shot Damage +46%" => "Blitz Shot Damage +53% and Critical Hit Chance +10%"
  • (Ring) "Heavy Shot deals +18% damage and reuse timer is -5 seconds" => "Heavy Shot deals +18% damage and reuse timer is -6 seconds"
  • New treasure effect: (Chest, Necklace) "Heavy Shot Damage +390"
  • New treasure effect: (Legs) "Aimed Shot deals +88 damage, has +13.5% Critical Hit Chance, and also grants this Critical Hit Chance bonus to your next Archery attack"
  • New treasure effect: (Hands) "When an Archery attack Critically Hits, you erupt in a burst of acid, dealing 89 Health and 89 Armor Damage to all foes within 8 meters. This effect is increased by treasure that boosts Acid Arrow."
  • New high level loot-drop treasure augment: (Feet) "Acid Arrow and Poison Arrow hasten the current reuse timer of Fire Arrow by -5 seconds"
  • (Head, OffHand) "Max Power +42 when skill Archery active" => "Archery attacks that Critically Hit restore 43 Power and boost your Anatomy Critical Hit Chance +1% for 20 seconds"
  • New treasure effect: (MainHand) "Anatomy-Based Critical Hit Damage +48.5% while skill Archery active"
  • New treasure effect: (OffHand) "Archery attacks that Critically Hit deal 396 Poison damage over 12 seconds. This amount is further increased by treasure that boosts Poison Arrow's damage-over-time"
This may be a good time to mention that Critical Hits are determined once per attack, based on the primary target. If an area-effect attack is a Critical Hit, it deals bonus damage to ALL targets regardless of their anatomy/phrenology/etc type. (This is kind of weird, and might change, but that's how it works right now.) Fire Magic:
  • "When you are near your Fire Wall, you heal 12 Health per second." => "When you are near your Fire Wall, you heal 15 Health per second. Fire Wall reuse time is -3 seconds."
  • "Fire Walls deal +65 damage per hit." => "Fire Walls deal +52% damage per hit. Fire Wall reuse time is -3 seconds."
  • "Fire Walls have +220 Max Health." => "Fire Walls have +220 Max Health. Fire Wall reuse time is -3 seconds."
  • "Fire Walls' attacks taunt +310%." => "Fire Walls' attacks taunt +310%. Fire Wall reuse time is -3 seconds."
  • "Frostball, Scintillating Frost, and Defensive Chill boost your Nice Attack Damage +83 for 7 seconds" => for 10 seconds
  • "Molten Veins restores 145 health to any Fire Walls within 10 meters" => "Molten Veins and Flesh to Fuel restore 145 health to any Fire Walls or other pets within 10 meters"
  • Fire Mages can train new fire wall variant spell research recipes from a floating sphere in Povus. (These recipes will eventually be obtained from an NPC in Statehelm.)
  • Scintillating Frost now once again has a frostier ball than Frostball.
Hammer
  • (Legs, Necklace) "Rib Shatter deals +210 damage to targets that are knocked down" => "Rib Shatter deals +140 Damage. If target is Knocked Down it deals a further +44% damage"
  • (Chest, Feet) "Seismic Impact deals +70% damage to targets that are Knocked Down" => "Seismic Impact deals +160 Damage. If target is Knocked Down it deals a further +49% damage"
Unarmed:
  • (Chest, Hands) "Cobra Strike and Mamba Strike boost your Nice Attack and Signature Debuff ability damage +67 for 7 seconds" => +105
  • (Necklace) "Cobra Strike Damage +100" => "Cobra Strike deals +100 damage and boosts your Melee Evasion +14.5 for 7 seconds"
  • New treasure effect: (Main-Hand) "Mamba Strike deals +67 damage and boosts your Melee Evasion +5.25% for 6 seconds"
  • (Head, Off-Hand) "Mamba Strike Damage +59 and Reuse Time -1 sec" => "Mamba Strike Reuse Time -2 seconds". This effect is now only available on Off-Hand items. Head items with this treasure effect have become Legacy. You can transmute this effect off of the item to un-Legacy it, or you can get a random replacement item. Visit the Legacy Item Helper golem in Serbule for more assistance.
  • New treasure effect: (Head) "Mamba Strike boosts your Melee Evasion +10% for 10 seconds"
  • (Off-Hand, Head) "Slashing Strike boosts your Melee Evasion +5.25% for 5 seconds" => "Slashing Strike deals +64 damage and boosts your Melee Evasion +5.25% for 5 seconds"
  • New treasure effect: (Ring) "Slashing Strike deals +64 damage and worsens the target's Slashing Vulnerability +16% for 60 seconds (this effect does not stack with itself)"
Weather Witching:
  • New treasure effect (Main Hand): "Storm Shield targets all ally pets within 20 meters, but ability reuse time is increased +5 seconds"

Writ Challenge Wrap-up


Our first Writ Challenge went really well, and we will be adding it to our event rotation to be an annual Summer event. From now until the end of November 17th, you may /redeem your Writ Challenge Rewards Pack. This contains all Non-Community Chest rewards that were unlocked during the challenge: 10 Glamour Credits, Limited Edition Cosmetic Pet, 6x Orran's Super Inventory Expander Potion, Liquid Super Buffs (24 Hours), and a Sparkler Crate. Please note that the Liquid Super Buffs will self destruct 60 days after claiming, so don't forget to use it!

Other Bug Fixes & Tweaks


  • Sun Vale: Ranalon Guardians are higher level to match the rest of the area (were level 23, now 35).
  • Fixed bug with the AI configuration for several types of skeletal archers. These archers were supposed to flee if their target got too close, but they didn't.
  • Some NPCs were supposed to give out higher-level versions of their reward-items at certain times (such as Christmas or when increasing Favor Level), but they were configured incorrectly so those items had the NPC's base level. This is usually lower than the intended level
  • Slightly improved distribution of stats across the bee genome to increase available virility and intelligence.
  • Change wording of Recall Heart's Home so that it's accurate: "Sends you to the Teleportation Circle that you have recalled to the highest number of times" -> "recalled from"
  • New setting: "Cloth Physics": Provides more control over cloth physics simulating, allowing you to enable it only for yourself, for other players, or for everything (or turn it off completely). Found in Settings > Graphics > Advanced > Animation & Physics.
  • New setting: "Easy-Drop Items": Allows dropping items by dragging them out of the inventory window. Previously this was hidden, it is now accessible from inside the Inventory window's Settings (the gear at the top right).
  • New setting: "Mute Guild Quest Sounds": Mutes update sounds for guild quests. Found in 2 areas: Settings > Sound > Other, and by right-clicking on the floating "Quests" HUD element.
  • Contextual keybinds in Settings are now organized a bit better into subcategories: Corpse Actions, Build Mode, & Other
  • Several new items have been added to Riston in the Red Wing Casino and the guild credit shop.
  • Sparklers last longer (from 7.5 seconds -> 11 seconds).
  • Multicolored Sparklers' emitted light now changes color.
  • Watcher pets now float off the ground a bit more.
  • Fae Dragon pets no longer continuously divebomb while idling; they only do it every once in a while.
  • Improved a *lot* of visuals in Serbule Hills
  • Fixed bug that could cause the server to hang up on players during long loading screens.
  • Giant bats are slightly cuter. (You may need to re-bat to see this change.)

Update Notes: September 30, 2024, Patch #2


This update fixes some issues with the update earlier today:
  • Fix bug causing the scroll wheel to no longer zoom the camera in and out
  • Fix bug preventing vegetation and terrain features from appearing in some areas
  • Fix for horse feathering not appearing
  • Reduce size of Wall of Coldfire's icon
  • added missing portal entity for Nightmare Cave Summoning Device
  • Update the book "Secrets of the Ungulates" so it requires Non-Ruminant Anatomy instead of Ruminant Anatomy
  • Watcher Pet now hovers slightly higher from the ground
  • Adjusted mount points for hats on new Giant Bat model
  • Fixed bug that prevented evasion-reply effects from working


[ 2024-09-30 19:01:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update Notes: August 13, 2024

Today we have a very small update with some bug-fixes and tweaks we wanted to get out sooner rather than later. We're clearing the decks - the next update after this looks to be a big one! In this update:

    • Writ Challenge:
    • Changed "Do Your Part" objectives to be concurrent, not sequential
    • Adjusted several loot profiles for writ drop chance
  • Fixed bug with last update's experimental boost of AoE target counts before penalties. The effect worked on indirect damage but not direct damage
  • Current VIPs can now actually use /knuckles and /cower.
  • Guild storage is now included in the "Find" tab of Item Info.
  • "Hotbar Periphery", aka the UI that surrounds the main hotbar, can now be disabled via the "Show Hotbar Periphery" setting (accessible via right-clicking the hotbar as well).
  • You can now hold shift while hovering from item to item in your inventory, instead of having to re-hold it on each item.
  • Forest Gourds are now targetable by clicking on them.
  • Fixed a minor rendering issue causing the current favor level to show up underneath the favor bar for NPCs.
  • Fixed a bug allowing recipes to be "used" from the right-click menu.
  • Improved graphics in the Anagoge Records Facility.
  • Fixed a bug impacting rock collision in Ilmari.
  • Updated mini golem textures.
  • Improved visual quality of assorted props.
  • The Tapestry Inn in Serbule Hills has received a facelift.
  • Fixed a bug preventing Bard's Blast of Defiance's Armor Reap from working properly.
  • Weather Witching treasure effect "All channeled Weather Witching abilities channel -0.5 seconds faster, and Tsunami costs no Power to use." has been changed to: "Channeled Weather Witching abilities are not aborted if you are attacked while channeling."
  • Rabbit ability Play Dead no longer has a self-stun aspect
  • Rabbit treasure effect "Play Dead causes all affected enemies to take 410 Psychic damage after a 10-second delay" => ... after a 5-second delay
  • Rabbit ability Play Dead's earlier tiers have a faster reset time. The reset time for the highest tier, Play Dead 7, is unchanged (at 35 seconds)
  • New Rabbit treasure effect: (Head) "Play Dead Area of Effect +5 meters, and victims suffer -174 direct mitigation for 30 seconds"


[ 2024-08-14 05:04:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

Project: Gorgon is on sale this week!

Project: Gorgon is having a special Steam sale this week! From now until August 19th at 1pm US EDT, all PG products will be discounted!

  • Base game - 50% off
  • Extra Character Slots Pack DLC - 25% off
We're even offering discounts to help kickstart your Steam VIP subscription! Discount will only apply to your first installment. All recurring charges will be billed at regular price.
  • Monthly - 25% off first installment
  • All other subscriptions - 10% off first installment
Get the Game Get the Slots Pack Get VIP Still deciding on Project: Gorgon? Try the free demo!


[ 2024-08-13 16:38:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update Notes: July 30, 2024

Today we have a nice well-rounded update for you, with a bit of combat mechanic tweaking, some necro love, a bit of horse cosmetics, a new horse race and more.

Combat Changes


Changes to Area-of-Effect Damage and Monster Buffs


Some background: when an area-of-effect attack hits more than 3 enemies, its direct damage is reduced. But due to technical limitations, the amount of INDIRECT damage was not reduced. This caused many players to create builds focusing heavily on indirect damage and burst attacks, to the detriment of basically all other attack styles in the game. This allowed players to fight monsters in much larger groups than intended, so more recently we added monster buffs of various potencies that only kick in when fighting a large group of monsters. The most potent monster buff, "Burst Reaction", dealt damage to attackers whenever they used Burst attacks. This caused players some consternation, as it could easily lead to sudden player death. In this update we're experimenting with other approaches to this balancing problem. We've solved the technical issue that prevented indirect damage from being reduced in burst attacks. Burst attacks now deal reduced damage when they hit more than 3 targets, similar to direct damage, although the dropoff is slower and less dramatic than the dropoff for direct damage. (Indirect damage falls to a minimum of 50% damage when hitting 9 or more targets, while direct damage falls to 25% damage when hitting 9 or more targets). Alongside this change, we've changed monster buffs as follows:
  • "Burst Reaction" Monster Buff has been replaced with new damage-resistance buffs
  • Monster Buffs no longer stack with themselves
  • Monster Buffs last 30 seconds instead of 60 seconds
  • Most Monster Buffs are diminished in potency, with the notable exception of the "Angry" buff that boosts non-Rage attack damage -- that buff remains very dangerous!

Burst Radius Bonus


Since we're exploring changes to area-of-effect logic, we also made a change that benefits players here. For every 10 meters of radius in a Burst attack, you can hit 1 more target without suffering damage penalties. So if you used a Burst attack with a 20 meter range, you can hit 5 enemies without penalty instead of 3. If an attack's Burst Radius is not divisible by 10, the remainder is used in a random die roll to see if you get +1 more target. For instance, if an attack has a burst radius of 7 meters, there's a 7-in-10 chance that it will target 1 more enemy without suffering damage dropoff. The drop-off rate for Burst Attack direct damage was also tweaked so that it falls to its minimum damage when hitting 9 targets instead of 8 targets. A reminder: monsters use the same combat logic as players. Their burst attacks and direct/indirect damage are affected the same way that players' are. A group of players (and their pets) can use this to their advantage. These are experimental changes that we'll run for a few weeks before iterating again on the design. We may revert these changes entirely or refine them, based on feedback.

Damage Reflection Changes


Monsters that previously had innate "Damage Reflection", such as Giant Beetles, now have "Damage Reaction". When these monsters are attacked, the attacker suffers damage, the amount of which is based on the monster. But the TYPE of damage is the same as the damage dealt to the monster. Example: player Bob attacks a Manticore with a Crushing attack. They suffer 100 Crushing damage in response. This change affects: Giant Beetles, Manticores, Refraction Spiders, Osslars

Aktaari Burst-Reflection Changes


Monsters that previously had innate "Burst Damage Reflection" now have "Burst Damage Reaction". The damage amount is based on the monster's stats. The TYPE of this damage is always Smiting (unmitigatable damage). This currently only applies to Aktaari.

Necromancy


This update sees a number of adjustments to treasure effects for necromancers.

Treasure Changes


  • "Raised Zombies deal +28 damage and speed is +10" => +60 damage and speed is +10
  • "Raised Zombies deal +47 damage and taunt as if they did +200% more damage" => 65 damage
  • "Summoned Skeletons have +62 health" => +93
  • "Summoned Skeletons have +92 armor" => +130
  • "Summoned Skeletal Archers and Mages deal +36 direct damage" => +50
  • "Summoned Skeletal Archers and Mages deal +24% direct damage, but take +50% damage from any slashing, piercing, or crushing attacks" => "Summoned Skeletal Archers and Mages deal +28% direct damage, but take +50% damage from crushing attacks"
  • "Summoned Skeletons deal +22% direct damage, but take +150% more damage from any cold attacks" => "Summoned Skeletons deal +18% direct damage, but take +50% more damage from cold attacks"
  • "Summoned Skeletal Archers and Mages deal +15% direct damage, but are instantly destroyed by ANY Nature Damage" => "Summoned Skeletal Archers and Mages deal +25% direct damage, but take +50% damage from nature attacks"
  • "Provoke Undead deals 69 damage to your minions, who then deal +62 damage for 10 seconds" => "Provoke Undead deals 72 damage to your minions, who then deal +72 damage for 10 seconds"
  • "Heal Undead restores +24 and has a 25% chance to boost targets' mitigation +43 for 8 seconds" => "Heal Undead restores an additional 156 Health/Armor over 12 seconds"
  • "Summoned Skeletal Swordsmen have +140 armor" => "Summoned Skeletal Swordsmen have +149 armor and +10 Crushing/Slashing/Piercing Mitigation"
  • "Heal Undead restores +28 Health/Armor and boosts your next attack +59 if it is a Darkness attack" => "Heal Undead boosts your next attack +117 if it is a Darkness attack"
  • "Rebuild Undead restores 67 Health to you" => "Rebuild Undead grants targets +20% Universal Damage Resistance for 6 seconds"

Other Necro Changes


  • Heal Undead ability restores a bit more health at each tier.
  • Pet skeleton archers no longer try to back away from their target until they have less than 50% of their Health remaining.
  • Skeleton Swordsmen have more innate Max Armor.
  • Daniel Murderdark in Rahu trains a new recipe to create 10 Necromancy Dust at a time.

Mount Cosmetics


Our mounts are getting a little snazzier in this update! Mounts have two new item slots that they can use to equip different types of cosmetic items. The Banner slot lets you equip a banner or similar item off the mount's flank. The Cosmetic slot is more general and allows you to equip decorative reins, a garland, and more. The mount UI has been slightly rearranged (and polished!) to account for these new slots. We'll be adding more mount cosmetics in the future, of course, but there are a couple of mount cosmetics you can get your hands on in this update:
  • Riston offers a new mount cosmetic item for Live Event Credits.
  • A mount cosmetic item can also be won in the new Moat Circuit race in Serbule! Check for the start banner on the south side of Serbule Keep.
  • The August VIP gift also contains a mount cosmetic. (VIP gifts are available to anyone who is/was a VIP during the given month. The August VIP gift will be available starting on Aug 1.)
Other mount changes:
  • Pouch reins allow saddlebag access when no saddlebag is equipped (since they have pockets, too!).
  • The Mount window now shows item levels & rarities.
  • Auto-Close Mount Window setting now works for all mount actions.

Bug Fixes & Tweaks


Gameplay


  • "Anti-Invincibility Poison" special quest item no longer disappears immediately when you log out. Instead, it lasts up to 75 minutes before self-destructing. Because the self-destruction feature can only be used on non-stacking items, "Anti-Invincibility Poison" items no longer stack in inventory. To offset the combat problems this causes, the poison no longer takes 1 second to cast; it is instant-cast when used.
  • "Anti-Invincibility Posion" debuff now shows at the top of the debuff list when it's present.
  • Increased the duration of all Orran Inventory potions to 5 hours (previously 3).
  • Changed the self-destruct timer of all Liquid Super Buff potions to 60 days (previously 30 days).
  • Fixed a bug that caused some evil Sun Statues to not count for Sun Vale blood portal event.
  • Animal forms can now wear Firefly Hats, Orbiting Gems, & Floating Pumpkins.
  • Fixed a bug that restricted gene mutation when breeding animals.
  • Fixed a bug causing corpses to sometimes be unlootable when using the new loot window.
  • Fixed a bug causing undiscovered landmarks to show up on the minimap over top of the fog.
  • Tuneup kits no longer prevent transmuting.
  • Tuneup kits now have a warning that they will add a Bladesmithing requirement to any weapon they sharpen. (This is a temporary fix; eventually they will not add a requirement.)
  • Elven Ceremonial Longswords now count as Elvish for the purposes of gift-giving.
  • New emote for all players: /wave2
  • New emotes for current VIPs: /cower & /knuckles
  • Military Blue Dye can now be found in loot.

UI


  • Improved genetics window readability.
  • Added loot radius to the persona window stats, under "General Stats".
  • Temporary items now go to the top of the inventory when it's sorted.
  • Better handling of missing items on hotbars when Show Item Levels is enabled.
  • Tracked combat skills now update when you gain XP in them.
  • Change the "High-Quality Anti-Aliasing" setting to "Anti-Aliasing", with a dropdown so you can choose your AA or turn it off completely.

Other


  • Fixed mixed-up descriptions of VIP/package titles.
  • Fixed misplaced snows in Goblin Caves & Anagoge Records Facility.
  • Fixed misplaced water splashes in Gazluk Keep.
  • Fix for some elven hair being see-thru.
  • Fixed a broken texture on Tree in Fae Realm.
  • Fixed Dark Chapel ceiling with a hole in it.
  • Fixed a floating mushroom in Kur Caves.
  • Fixed a hole in mountains of Eltibule.
  • Reduced server read timeout to 30 seconds to avoid interference with relogging when players violently lose connection.


[ 2024-07-30 22:34:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update Notes: June 20 & 24, 2024

Update Notes: June 20, 2024


This bugfix update has the following fixes:
  • Fix memory leak in the new loot window, which should hopefully fix the freezes & crashes
  • Fix various bugs with Inella's rewards in the new dungeon
  • Fix bug causing inventory pack data to carry over between characters
  • Fix logic bug with judgment lever that could cause the door to not open
  • Dance skills can be used again while music volume is muted

Update Notes: June 24, 2024


This bugfix update has the following fixes:
  • Fix Sun Vale blood portal event failure state
  • Fix bug causing mounted animal forms to appear strangely on the character select screen
  • Fix incorrect dye colors on some pieces of armor
  • Fix bug causing some arrow abilities to get dropped when queueing a lot in a row
  • Quicken Deadly Emission particle effects
  • Retting bundles now take the proper 30 minutes to treat (instead of 20s)
  • Fix critical-hit tuneups for dirks
  • Slight revamp of the training window to better display training options with long names (such as golem abilities)
  • Add recipe names to self-learning bladesmithing workbooks
  • Fix for gene window being blank above a certain font size
  • Make all Peltast Gear dyable


[ 2024-06-25 03:25:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update Notes: June 19, 2024

Summer is finally here -- and with it, another big update to the world of Project: Gorgon. This one took us a little longer than expected, but we think the results are worth it. New dungeon? Check! New skills? Multiple checks! Performance improvements? Also check! Ongoing QoL improvements? Major check! Combat balance? Progress made! Visual improvements? Looking good! Bug fixes? So many, many bugs have been fixed! In fact, we have a lot of stuff to talk about today -- so let's get to it!

Price Drop


Before we get into the nuts and bolts of the update, though, we have a happy announcement: Project: Gorgon is now $20 on Steam. That's not a half-off sale - that's a permanent price drop! But there's a small catch: the $20 package only includes one character slot. We've created a new DLC package that adds three more permanent character slots to the basic account. Everyone who bought the game prior to the price drop automatically has this DLC for free, so those players will see no change: you still have four character slots. (Note that since you automatically own this DLC, you can't buy it again to get more.) The intent of this price change and structure is to lower the barrier to entry for new players, while still honoring the investment that earlier players already made. Looking for more than four character slots? Remember, VIP membership comes with access to another 4 additional slots while you are a VIP member!

Elven Judgement


The Nightmare expands! Deep under Povus, beyond the frogs, beyond the warren of caves, past the horrific mummies, past even the confused bandits, there sits an elven bureaucrat with a question. This new adventure is intended for a group of six players with level 90+ combat skills and equipment.

Combat & Treasure


Special Monster Buffs Sometimes in combat a monster will take a second (well, actually they take precisely 5 seconds) to buff itself before joining the fight, which displays as a green up-arrow bubble effect. We call these Special Monster Buffs, and in this update we have made some changes to how they work:
  • Previously, most Special Monster Buffs only affected the monster that was buffing itself. Now it affects all monsters within 20 meters of the caster.
  • The Special Monster Buff "Reflective" is now "Burst Reply" instead. It no longer reflects a percentage of damage back at attackers; instead, when the buffed target is hit by a Burst attack, they reply with a fixed amount of damage. The buff will react to the next 3 burst attacks (not infinite attacks, as Reflective did).
  • Several of the Special Monster Buffs have unique particle effects to help quickly differentiate them.
(By the way, did you know that during the 5-second window while a monster is casting a buff, you can stop their casting by stunning, mesmerizing, fearing, or knocking back the monster? This is a game-mechanic that we don't teach very well yet.) "Thick Armor" replaced with "Resilient" Previously, some monsters had "Thick Armor", which caused them to take significantly reduced damage while their Armor was high. This effect has been replaced, and now all those monsters are instead "Reslient", which means that they take half damage from Indirect damage sources (such as damage-over-time). (By the way, did you know that indirect damage sources cancel out regeneration? This is one of the many game systems that we don't do a good job teaching yet. If a monster has Regeneration, any indirect damage you deal will cancel out an equivalent amount of regeneration. If you deal 10 damage, the monster will regenerate 10 less health than it otherwise would.) Ability Type Fixes In this update, we fixed a fairly subtle but widespread bug: some abilities weren't correctly marked as Melee, Burst, or Ranged attacks, which affects the buffs and debuffs that apply to them. For background: every offensive ability has precisely one of the following keywords at any given time: Melee, Ranged, or Burst. If the ability has any area-of-effect radius, it's Burst. If a Melee ability gains an area-of-effect due to treasure, the ability would stop being Melee and start being Burst.
  • Some abilities were incorrectly treated as Ranged attacks and are now Burst attacks: Panic Charge, Multishot, Heavy Multishot, Astral Strike.
  • Some abilities were incorrectly treated as Ranged attacks and are now Melee attacks: Deathgaze, pet bee stinger attacks.
  • Some abilities were incorrectly treated as Melee attacks and are now Burst attacks: King of the Forest, Deflective Spin, pet bee poison-debuffs.
  • Some abilities were incorrectly treated as Melee attacks and are now Ranged attacks: Chill.
  • Some monsters had abilities that incorrectly marked as Ranged or Melee instead of Burst: Hexapuses, high-level undead swordsmen, Electrified Pigs, goblin fire mages, Kuvou, orc fire-archers, watchers, Lamia, ratkin mentalists, spike traps, training golems, (and probably other one-off monsters that reuse the abilities of the above).
  • Some monsters had Ranged attacks that are now Melee attacks: Vipers, Wasps (stabs).
  • Some monsters had Melee attacks that are now Ranged attacks: ogres' boulder throws, electric-wizard skeletons, various fae, some spiderwebs, wasps (bullets), giant beetles, tentakillers.
  • Some monsters had Burst attacks that are now Melee attacks: Minotaurs.
  • Some bosses were affected similarly: Ratkin King, Lethargy Puck, Eye of Hate, Scion of Discord, Astarion, Sherzat, and probably others.
Bard Treasure Changes
  • Bard ability Virtuoso's Ballad: Reset time changed from 60 seconds to 50 seconds; minor treasure number changes as a result.
  • (Legs, MainHand) "Virtuoso's Ballad restores 200 Armor" => "Virtuoso's Ballad restores 192 Health (or Armor if Health is Full)"
  • New treasure effect: (Head, Feet): "Virtuoso's Ballad causes target's next attack to deal +376 damage"
  • (Legs, Hands) "Blast of Fury deals 276 Armor damage and restores 43 Armor to you" => "Blast of Fury deals 440 Armor damage"
  • (Feet) "Disharmony causes target to deal -10 damage with their next attack" => "Disharmony causes target's next attack to have a 16% chance to automatically Miss. (This effect does not stack with itself.)"
  • (Ring) "Disharmony causes target to deal -10 damage with their next attack" => "Disharmony causes your next attack to deal +47 damage"
  • (Head, Legs, OffHand) "Bard Blast-Ability Range +5" => "Bard Blast-Ability Range +5, Bard Blast-Ability Damage +84" (Note: previously there was only one tier of this treasure effect, which could be found starting at level 50 and up. There are now multiple tiers of the ability. If you had this effect on your high-level item already, the item will still have the level 50 version. You can use Transmutation to remove the treasure effect from the item and (eventually) re-roll it with a higher-tier effect.)
Hammer Treasure Changes
  • (Head, Chest) "Discharging Strike Power Cost -44" => this effect is now only available on Chest, not Head. Helmets with this treasure effect have now become Legacy. You can use the Transmutation skill to roll this effect off of the helmet and it will stop being Legacy. Alternatively you can speak to the Legacy Item Helper golem in Serbule for a randomized replacement item
  • (Ring, Off-Hand): "Pound To Slag restores 144 health to you" => "Pound To Slag restores 144 Health (or Armor if Health is full)"
  • (Chest, Feet) "Leaping Smash restores 64 Armor to you" => "Leaping Smash deals +100 Damage and restores 64 Armor to you after a 6-second delay"
  • (OffHand, Necklace) "Seismic Impact restores 100 Armor to you" => "Seismic Impact deals +100 Damage and restores 100 Armor after a 6-second delay"
  • (Feet, MainHand) "Rib Shatter restores 48 Health to you" => "Rib Shatter deals +100 Damage and restores 48 Armor after a 6-second delay"
  • (Legs, Necklace) "Thunderstrike heals you for 51 health" => "Thunderstrike deals +60 Damage and restores 60 Armor after a 6-second delay"
  • New treasure effect: (Head, Necklace): "Discharging Strike Damage +140"
  • New treasure effect: (Chest): "Hammer abilities that restore Armor after a 6-second delay have +100% Armor restoration"
  • New treasure effect: (Hands, Legs) "Hammer abilities that restore Armor after a 6-second delay also restore 25 Power, increased by 20% of the Armor restored"
To assist Hammer players trying out these changes (along with the changes in the past couple of updates), Transmutation costs for Hammer will be reduced this month. Warden Treasure Changes
  • (Feet): "Controlled Burn costs -33 Power" => "Controlled Burn and Aggression Deterrent cost -37 Power"
  • (Feet, Ring): "Aggression Deterrent Power Cost -22; Aggression Deterrent Damage +43" => "Aggression Deterrent Range +5; Aggression Deterrent Damage +43"
  • (Legs, Necklace): "Apprehend costs -47 Power" => this treasure effect is now only available on Necklace. If you had this effect on Leg armor, that item has become Legacy. You can use a Transmutation Table to remove this effect and it will stop being Legacy. Alternatively you can speak with the Legacy Item Replacer golem in Serbule to get a new randomly-generated item.
  • New treasure effect: (Legs): "Apprehend Damage +98. Non-Elite targets do not call for help."
Knife Treasure Changes
  • Fixed bug with knife treasure effect: "Knife abilities with 'Cut' in their name cause all Knife abilities WITHOUT 'Cut' in their name to have a 48% chance to deal +39% damage for 10 seconds". This treasure was applying the buff for a different treasure effect.
  • Bleeder Shiv now boosts trauma damage instead of poison.
  • Fix the mod "Backstab deals +X direct damage. You recover X Health (or Armor, if Health is full) over 12 seconds". It now actually heals you.
  • Surge Cut is now affected by mods that affect Minor Heals.
  • (Legs): "Marking Cut deals +60 damage and grants +85 Accuracy to your next Knife ability" : No changes to the displayed effect, but this treasure effect also quietly made Marking Cut prevent monster-shouts. A different treasure effect is supposed to do that (and does), so that's been removed from this one.
Other Abilities & Treasure Changes
  • Abilities with longer attack times are no longer overridden by queued abilities (most notably, certain archery abilities).
  • Archery: Fix ammo-related typos for Heavy Shot 8 & Multishot 7.
  • Battle Chemistry: Fixed bug with golem's Self-Sacrifice ability potentially causing damage to the owner.
  • Psychology: Soothe's critical damage is now affected by mods.
  • Psychology: Fixed a bug with the mod "Psychoanalyze causes the target to be worth X% more XP if slain within 60 seconds"
  • Deer: Deer Bash 8 now does the correct damage (288 -> 400).
  • Fire Magic: The mod "Fire Breath and Super Fireball deal +X damage over 10 seconds" now does more damage at higher levels.
  • Mentalism: Power Wave ability: Restores Power every 4 seconds instead of every 6 (effectively increasing Power recovery 50%)
  • Mentalism: (Head, Hands): "System Shock restores 56 Armor to you" => "System Shock Damage +78, System Shock Critical-Hit Damage +40%"
  • Mentalism: (MainHand, Ring): "System Shock boosts the damage of your Signature Debuffs by +116 for 6 seconds" => "... for 8 seconds"
  • Priest: Give Warmth 6 now restores 35 body heat (up from 25).
  • Spirit Fox: Power Glyph ability: the amount of Power restored by the glyph is increased; this is a display fix (the glyphs gave out this amount of Power before, but it was listed as less.) Also adjusted description to explain that group members can use the Power Glyph
Other Combat Changes
  • Based on feedback, we've made the Hardcore Living skill require more XP to level up. (As always when XP tables are changed, your current level in the skill is unchanged. But the amount you need to reach next level will be affected.)
  • Fixed a bug that caused monsters to behave strangely when hit by Slow effects while already moving at high speed.
  • Ranalon Guardians' blind attack is now actually a 20 meter Burst as intended.
  • Yetis with a slowing-ice ranged attack now have a range of 20 meters as intended (instead of a range of 6 meters).
  • Portal-summoning mantises no longer hurt themselves when they summon portals.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause monsters to get stuck while wandering.
  • Improved damage of higher-level explosion sigils, electricity sigils, and acid sigils. Electricity Sigil 4 and Acid Sigil 4 are a higher level as a side effect of rebalancing.

Off to the Races!


There's a new activity for Project Gorgon's most expert riders: horse races! These are checkpoint races through the wilds; to finish the race, you must ride through each glowy domed checkpoint in order. There are other glowing points to look out for as well: if you run through a speed-up pool, your horse will go faster but become more anxious and may suffer other negative effects, while other glowing pools can reduce anxiety and help counter the speed-up's negative effects. Oh, and most importantly: avoid monsters! You can get started by visiting one of the Race Flags:
  • Eltibule Cirtcuit: In Eltibule, near Mythander.
  • Amulna Grand Tour: In Ilmari, outside the north entrance to Amulna.
  • Kur Mountain Debry: In Kur Mountains, just outside Syndra's barn.
You can also use the race flags to view the leaderboard for each race.

Quality of Life


One of our areas of focus over the past several updates has been on improving quality of life (QoL) and reducing friction: that is, smoothing out some of those small annoyances that make the game less fun. In this update we've done major work improving inventory management, especially as it pertains to corpses, as well as added some useful features like unread quests and notification dots. Corpse Management
  • The corpse-looting window now displays other nearby corpses, and allows switching between them via Tab. This key is configurable in Settings > Keys > Contextual > Corpse: Select Next.
  • "Take All" on corpses now loots items that you have partial stacks of in your inventory, even if your inventory is otherwise full.
  • Using Take All on a corpse when other corpses are nearby will now auto-select the next corpse.
  • Burying a corpse no longer closes the window if other corpses are nearby.
  • The distance at which you can loot a corpse - your Corpse Loot Radius - can be increased!
    • Leveling Foraging increases this distance by a total of +3 meters at level 75.
    • Leveling Skinning, Butchering, and Survival Instincts increases this distance by a total of +2 meters each at level 80.
    • Gain a total of +1 meter by maxing Werewolf Metabolism to 50 (as that is the level cap atm).
Other Inventory Management
  • Guild chests are now included in ctrl-f item searching (or /isearch).
  • Item Search (ctrl-f or /isearch) now highlights items that it finds in your inventory.
  • Storage Deposit All and Stow buttons now have hotkeys, configurable under Settings > Keys > Contextual. Defaults are G and Shift-G respectively.
  • Withdrawing items from storage now deposits them into the currently-open inventory folder.
  • Abilities that require an item to use now show the current amount of that item in your inventory in the tooltip.
  • You can now Ability-Lock inventory folders, similar to Vendor-Locking them! This prevents items inside that folder from being used by abilities.
  • New icons were added to the inventory window to denote when the current folder is Ability- and/or Vendor-Locked.
  • Abilities with ammunition now pull their ammo from the smallest stack in your inventory.
  • You can now show the number of free inventory slots you have at all times as a small number on the Inventory button on your right-hand sidebar. Enable "Show HUD Inventory Space" under Settings > GUI > Windows & HUD > Other Windows Settings.
  • The item info window now has a "SELL" tab that lets you view all NPCs that buy the item in question.
  • Moved a few inventory settings from buttons in the bottom right of the window to the gear icon at the top right.
  • Goblin Calling Cards and Orcish books now display their level requirements on the icons.
  • Equipment icons now show their levels in the persona window.
Other New QoL features
  • When a Quest auto-completes (meaning it doesn't have to be turned in to anyone), its outcome now goes into a new section in the Quest Log, rather than being presented right away. Some quests, namely event-specific ones, are exempt from this behavior.
  • When you have one or more unread auto-completed quest, the Quest sidebar button now shows a notification dot, and clicking on it takes you straight to the unread quests section.
  • Tracking & untracking quests in the Quest Log is now more responsive.
  • We now display a notification dot on the Persona button and Redeem button (in the Persona window) when a new redemption is available.
Even more UI bug fixes of a smaller sort can be found below in the UI section.

UI


  • New targeting settinng: Auto-Select Attackers. This setting can be found under Settings > GUI > Targeting > Tab Targeting (Experimental). It defaults to enabled.
  • New targeting hotkey: Select Nearest Enemy. This keybind can be found under Settings > Keys > Targeting > underneath the keybind for "Select Previous Enemy".
  • "Select Next Interactible" now prioritizes NPCs.
  • The /target command now prioritizes non-corpses.
  • Map pin labels now show on the minimap.
  • Added party members' names above them on the map.
  • Added Viedesi, Urglemarg, and Puffy Ben to the Sun Vale map.
  • Willem Fangblade's map info now knows that he has a store, and shows his council count.
  • NPC map icons will no longer overlap your own after first meeting them.
  • Fixed a a bug causing party members and pets to sometimes disappear from the map.
  • Fixed a bug that caused minimap buttons to become unreadable at different GUI zoom levels.
  • Holding shift while viewing an item with enchantments now shows the enchantment levels.
  • Extract Augment recipe descriptions are now clearer, and reference the new functionality of holding Shift.
  • Polished the loading screen a bit, and added several new tips -- many provided by players! A big thank you to everyone who contributed!
  • Some hotkeys now have explanatory tooltips; those that do are marked with an asterisk (*).
  • Fixed a bug causing XP values to sometimes wrap to the next line.
  • Fixed a bug with gear sometimes disappearing in the persona preview window.
  • Fixed a minor UI bug in Skills Window causing level numbers to sometimes wrap strangely.
  • Fixed a bug causing UI elements to lose their locked status across multiple play sessions.
  • Tooltips should no longer appear in their old position before quickly updating to their new position.
  • Fixed a bug causing the horse window to not remember that it was closed when it closes itself after opening the saddlebag.
  • Fixed a bug causing some face portraits to not display.
  • Improved tooltip readability of certain items with long names (notably Crisp Mint Vanilla Cinnamon Coffee).
  • Right-click options that are simple on/off settings have a new icon, and can be toggled without closing the context menu.
  • Added some polish to the right-click menu.
  • Standardize fonts, colors, and spacing across many UI windows with a focus on window titles.
  • Item durability no longer rounds up, which resulted in the transmutation window sometimes not working.
  • Update the transmutation window UI to be more in-line with the rest of the game's UI.
  • Right-clicking an empty hotbar slot now lets you set that slot's ability (for primary and secondary skills).
  • Item levels & rarities are now shown in the loot window.
  • Werewolf Altar abilities are now visible en masse when their prerequisite level-uncap is purchased.
  • Fix visual glitch on many elven hairs.
  • Fix 'Show Player Stats Pane' GUI setting.

Other Changes & Fixes


Art
  • Bard Armor is now dyeable!
  • Snail Armor is no longer dyeable since it doesn't dye properly.
  • Mended Thentree Armor so your legs no longer peek through the skirt.
  • Visual improvements to all Cloth armors.
  • Visual improvements to all Leather armors.
  • Visual improvements to several other armor sets, including: Thentree, Peltast and Steel Platemail.
  • Improved animation for laying in a bed and subsequently waking up out of one.
  • Added new animations to all butterfly dances.
  • Added more particle effects to some pig dance variants.
  • Added new animations to several spider dance variants.
  • Sealed holes in spider model.
  • Fixed a few cases of infini-looping animations.
  • Swordsman's Elven Longsword offensive topology is now different and less offensive.
  • Furniture in the Abandoned Sunvale Inn now has textures.
  • Closed holes in Kur Tower.
  • The lake bridge in Povus should no longer disappear when seen from certain spots.
  • Fixed the physics on rocks in Povus.
  • Added better handling of NPCs in flight that can also swim. Also improved fly-follow logic for flying monsters, to further reduce jitter in the air.
  • Improved minotaur animations.
  • Improved animation, VFX, and SFX for summoning cosmetic pets.
  • Fixed some gear that previously was supposed to glow but wasn't.
  • A number of off-hand weapons have new more distinct icons.
Gameplay
  • The loot from defeating Knight Eggs is improved.
  • The guardians of the Knight Eggs, Gross Maggots, are no longer worth any XP.
  • You now gain a synergy level of Civic Pride when reaching level 38 of Compassion. (This allows players to receive the final level-up benefit of Civic Pride which is obtained at level 51: "+1% Favor from Hangouts".)
  • Many cosmetic pets and player titles are now shared across all the characters on an account. You will need to login the character who originally gained the pet/title once before being able to access it on other characters on the account.
  • New emote for everyone: /bow. In addition, the emotes /taunt and /thank have new animations.
  • Current VIP members can also use two new emotes: /accuse and /monkey.
  • You can no longer promote someone who has recently left your party.- If you misplace a certain key related to a certain skull, you can now get a replacement from the thing that gave you it to begin with.
  • Fished a missing skull button out of the wall (in a certain trap room that has a lot of skull buttons).
  • Added missing skill-training unlock for Pathology 90.
  • The recipes for Crafted Alchemist's Claws are no longer Blacksmithing recipes; they are now under a new skill. They are no longer trained by Kohan
  • Crafting Caravan: All quest titles have been updated for better sorting in the Quest Log.
  • Crafting Caravan: Prices for some items bartered by Orran have been reduced.
  • "Awesome Bard Boots" are no longer erroneously called "Amazing Bard Boots".
  • Fixed a typo on Birch Pants.
  • Updated quest text for "Holistic Wellness: Yarn" to clarify the required number of yarns.
  • Fairy Soul Anchors now bestow 3 seconds of invulnerability to protect against immediately re-dying.
  • Increased drop rate of orcish wheat grinders.
  • Fixed a typo in Sie Antry's dialog.
  • You can no longer try to dance if no nearby music is playing.
  • Changing equipment while using furniture now continues using the furniture afterward.
  • You can no longer mount your horse while using furniture (chairs, beds).
  • Mounts turn a bit slower in water.
  • Fixed a bug causing horses to not jump if you aren't actively pressing forward. (As long as they still have momentum, they'll jump.)
  • Fixed a bug that could cause multiple Hissy's to spawn in the desert.
  • Fixed bugs that caused monsters in the Fae Realm to never spawn in pairs or trios as intended.
  • Improved performance of monster and pet movement.
  • Fixed the appearance of dice in Monsters and Mantids when game graphics are set extremely low
  • baruti BaRuTi BARUTI

VIP Gifts


We're proud of our VIP program -- we believe we've managed to offer some fun (but not required!) benefits for players who want to offer us additional support. Part of those benefits are monthly VIP gifts: if you logged in as a VIP member during the month, you can redeem a VIP gift for that month. (Note that you don't have to be an active VIP member to redeem the gift; you just need to have logged in as a VIP sometime during the month.) And in a case like this update, the gift may not be immediately ready, but as long as you were a VIP during that month you will be able to redeem it when it becomes available. The VIP gifts for May, June, and July contain some of our coolest gifts yet, including pets and titles and dyes ... and a rather strange and itchy Firefly Hat. In addition, current VIP members will also get access to two new emotes in this update: /accuse and /monkey.


[ 2024-06-19 18:03:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

New Pricing Structure is now live!

Project: Gorgon is now $20 on Steam. That's not a half-off sale - that's a permanent price drop! But there's a small catch: the $20 package only includes one character slot. We've created a new DLC package that adds three more permanent character slots to the basic account. Everyone who bought the game prior to the price drop automatically has this DLC for free, so those players will see no change: you still have four character slots. (Note that since you automatically own this DLC, you can't buy it again to get more.) The intent of this price change and structure is to lower the barrier to entry for new players, while still honoring the investment that earlier players already made. Looking for more than four character slots? Remember, VIP membership comes with access to another 4 additional slots while you are an active VIP member! Buy Project: Gorgon Buy the Extra Character Slots Pack Become a VIP


[ 2024-06-10 19:56:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update Notes: March 12, 2024

Just a quick update today with a lot more map updates and improvements, some knife balancing (which is just as dangerous as it sounds), and a host of bug fixes and tweaks. Let's dive in!

Map Fixes & Tweaks


Last update, we made major revisions to our map and mini-map. We asked for feedback -- and we got it! With your copious feedback and commentary, we've fixed a lot of bugs and added a lot more improvements, including:
  • The map's zoom slider returns!
  • Added several customization options to the map, accessible by clicking on the new gear icon.
  • The map sidebar can now be attached to either the left or right side of the map.
  • Auto-following of the map can now be disabled, so you can freely explore the map while moving.
  • Minimap resizing & disabling is now more obvious via the gear icon.
  • Zone name & current time are now shown when the map sidebar is collapsed.
  • NPC Vendors now display their currently available councils and, if applicable, how long until their councils reset in their map info.
  • Party member names are now shown when their map icon is hovered over.
  • When a map pin is selected or created, its label text field is auto-focused.
  • Most portals throughout the world now show up as portal icons when targeted.
  • Fixed a bug with party member map icons breaking.
  • Your pet no longer prevents placing of map pins.
  • Map pins can now be deleted by right-clicking on them.
  • Map pins can be added directly on the minimap.
  • Minimap resizing now saves.
  • Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause map pins to not save properly.
  • Fixed nameplate placement of portals.
  • Removed fae molluscs & cows from maps.
  • Uriana and the Wintertide Portal, both in Fae Realm, now display on the map.
  • NPCs now disappear from the map when they de-spawn.
  • Added a new map filter for Events.
We think the new map is a pretty good upgrade -- but your feedback has made it a thousand times better than it would have been alone. Thank you!

Knife Tweaks


Knife sees some loving refurbishment this update, with a host of changes to abilities and treasure -- plus a bunch of all-new treasure!

Knife Ability Changes:


  • Surprise Throw: changed from having a 45-second reset time to 12 second reset time; treasure revised accordingly, see below. (Note: this change is a *dramatic* buff to the ability's total DPS and usefulness, although the treasure numbers below may make it seem like a nerf.)
  • Poisoner's Cut: buffs from this ability last 8 seconds instead of 5 seconds
  • Fending Blade: innate Rage reduction is increased
  • Venomstrike: deals its Poison damage over 10 seconds instead of 12
  • Surge Cut: reset time changed from 20 seconds to 10 seconds. It is now a Minor Heal ability instead of a Survival Utility ability. Treasure effects recalibrated/rewritten.
  • Bug fix: Fan of Blades is now marked as a Burst attack instead of a Ranged attack

Knife Treasure Changes:


  • (Head, Necklace) "Surprise Throw Damage +78%" => +40%
  • (Chest) "Surprise Throw deals +43% damage and stuns the target if they are not focused on you" => +134 damage and stuns the target if they are not focused on you. Also, this effect is now only available on Chest, not Legs. Items that already have this effect on Legs will now be Legacy. (See below.)
  • (Hands, Ring) "Surprise Throw restores 143 Power if the target is not focused on you" => "... restores 80 Power if the target is not focused on you"
  • (Legs, OffHand) "Fan of Blades, Hamstring Throw, and Surprise Throw deal +44% damage and reuse timer is -1 second" => "... deal +25% damage and reuse timer is -1 second"
  • (Legs, Feet) Backstab deals an additional 695 Trauma damage over 10 seconds if the target is not focused on you. => 1400
  • (MainHand, OffHand) "For 5 seconds after using Opening Thrust, all knife abilities with 'Cut' in their name deal +28 damage" => +60
  • (Head, MainHand) "Blur Cut restores 52 Health after a 15 second delay" => "Blur Cut restores 35 Health"
  • (Chest, Feet) "Slice deals 175 Poison damage over 10 seconds" => 275
  • (Head, Legs) "Fending Blade deals +64 damage and reduces Rage by 600" => +102 damage
  • (Feet, Ring) "Fending Blade restores 32 Health to you immediately and reduces the target's Rage by 400 after a 5 second delay" => "Fending Blade restores 41 Health to you and reduces the target's Rage by 400"
  • (MainHand, Ring) "Venomstrike deals an additional 240 Poison damage over 12 seconds" => 375 over 10 seconds
  • (Hands, OffHand) "Venomstrike has a 50% chance to stun the target and deal +60 damage" => "Venomstrike deals +100 damage and has a 50% chance to stun the target"
  • (Chest, Feet) "Gut deals an additional 260 Trauma damage over 10 seconds if the target is not focused on you" => 440
  • (MainHand, OffHand) "Gut deals +60 damage and if target is not focused on you, deals +25% Trauma damage over 10 seconds" => "Gut deals +80 damage and if target is not focused on you, deals +40% Trauma damage over 10 seconds"
  • (MainHand, Necklace) "Surge Cut restores +95 Health to you" => 72 health
  • (Chest, Legs) "Surge Cut restores 120 Armor to you" => "Surge Cut restores 67 Power to you"
  • (Head, Ring) "Surge Cut deals 265 Trauma damage over 10 seconds" => 305
  • (Chest, Legs) "Blur Cut deals 145 Poison damage over 10 seconds" => 215
  • (Necklace) "Marking Cut deals +146 armor damage and does not cause the target to shout for help" => this effect is now only available on Necklaces. Existing off-hand items with this effect have become Legacy. (See below.)
  • (Legs) "Slice ignores mitigation from armor and deals +101 damage" => this effect is now only available on Legs. Existing off-hand items with this effect have become Legacy. (See below.)
  • (Head, MainHand) "Backstab steals 121 health from the target and gives it to you" => "Backstab deals +198 direct damage. You recover 198 Health (or Armor, if Health is full) over 12 seconds."
  • (OffHand, MainHand) "For 5 seconds after using Opening Thrust, all knife abilities with 'Cut' in their name deal +60 damage" => For 10 seconds
  • (Chest, Hands) "Opening Thrust has a 25% chance to cause all Knife abilities WITHOUT 'Cut' in their name to have a 38.5% chance to deal +39% damage for 10 seconds" => "For 10 seconds after using Opening Thrust, all Knife abilities gain +20 Accuracy and have a 20% chance to deal +25% damage"

Knife New Treasure:


  • (Head) "Fan of Blades, Hamstring Throw, and Surprise Throw deal +100 damage and can Critically Hit based on your Anatomy skill levels"
  • (OffHand, Necklace) "When wielding two knives, Knife Fighting attacks with 'Cut' in their name deal +43% damage"
  • (Chest, Feet) "Poisoner's Cut boosts Direct Poison Damage an additional +79 per attack"
  • (OffHand, Ring) "Knife abilities with 'Cut' in their name leave a Lasting Mark in the target for 30 seconds. When the target dies, each Lasting Mark hastens the active reset time of Backstab by 3 seconds, or if Backstab isn't on your ability bar, you instead recover 36 Power and your next Slice attack deals +80 damage."
  • (Hands) "Backstab deals +83% Direct Damage to Elite targets"
  • (Legs, Feet) "Surprise Throw boosts your Epic Attack Damage +206 for 30 seconds if target is not focused on you"
  • (Head, Ring) "Taunt from Attack Damage -33.5% and Rage From Attacks -10.5% while Knife Fighting skill active"
  • (Hands) "Duelist's Slash hits all targets within 8 meters and deals +82 damage"
  • (OffHand) "Slice deals +86 damage and causes target to suffer +86 damage from future attacks for 30 seconds"
  • (MainHand) "Backstab deals +85% Direct Damage if target is stunned"
  • (Legs) "Marking Cut deals +60 damage and grants +85 Accuracy to your next Knife ability"
  • (Ring) "Duelist's Slash deals +82 damage and for 12 seconds afterwards all melee Knife abilities can Critically Hit based on your Anatomy skill levels."

Legacy Equipment:


If you use transmutation to remove the effect that caused a piece of equipment to become Legacy, it will stop being Legacy. You can also take Legacy items to the "Legacy Item Helper" golem in Serbule for a randomized replacement item.

Cheap Transmutation:


To help Knife fans adjust to these changes, transmutation costs for Knife will be cheaper this month. Transmute away!

Hardcore Living


Last update we introduced a new skill, Hardcore Living, for our Hardcore players. Unfortunately, we also introduced some bugs with it. In this update we've got the bugs under control, and even better, the level-up benefits on this skill are significantly improved... But there's a catch: If you stop being Hardcore, you automatically forget the Hardcore Living skill and lose its benefits. You do keep your unlocks, though, so you will only need to unlock higher tiers of Hardcore Living once.

Other Tweaks & Fixes


  • Slightly increased the drop rate of barley seeds when harvesting barley.
  • Bug fix: Battle Chemistry: (Ring) "Toxic Irritant causes the target to suffer +15.5% from Acid Damage (including Toxic Irritant) for 15 seconds." => This effect did not work (in fact it debuffed the caster instead of the target). It's been revised as follows: "Toxic Irritant boosts your Acid Damage (including from Toxic Irritant) +15.5% for 15 seconds. (This effect does not stack with itself.)"
  • Khyrulek's curse damage no longer benefits from the victim's Trauma buffs.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause monsters to react to damage they suffer after death. (Which could cause doors to be opened/closed incorrectly.)
  • Community Chest slots in Serbule can now actually be purchased with Live Event Credits.
  • Deer are no longer invisible up close.
  • Fixed a bug causing the party UI to stick around if you switch characters.
  • Using /nap while in wolf form no longer infiniloops.
  • Fixed a bug with channeled abilities causing you to infinitely loop an animation the next time you perform an emote.
  • Fixed a bug where someone playing music near you would later cause your own animations to interrupt your music playing.
  • Bird forms' music-playing is no longer interrupted by other animations.
  • If you are Friends with Irkima in the Red Wing Casino, you might want to check in with him. (Requires one 70+ combat skill.)
  • VIPs now have access to a few more special emotes, including a real head scratcher. And don't forget to check out the VIP redemption for March if you haven't already! Pity you can't glamour that bug ...


[ 2024-03-13 02:22:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update Notes: February 23, 2024

Welcome to another exciting PG update! Can you believe it's late February already? Today's update has the usual set of additions, improvements, fixes and tweaks, of course -- but the biggest news is an extensive update to the map system! (You know, that sounded more exciting in my head.) Let's take a look!

Updated Map System


One of PG's charms is the sheer amount of exploration available. It's a big world filled with hundreds of people and places to remember, each with their own lore and likes and history to explore. There are hundreds of skills to learn, thousands of items to collect, trade, or gift - the world is wide open! But keeping track of all of that in a way that makes it fun for you to explore the world and set your own goals - especially in relation to NPC management - has been a bit of a long-standing problem for us. To address that, we've taken a hard look at the map system in Project: Gorgon and made some pretty sweeping improvements. The in-game map now lets you view NPCs, portals, meditation pillars, and teleport platforms as you discover them; even better, you can now find some of the most critical info about NPCs in your area at a glance -- which can really help you decide what you want to focus on. Let's look at the details:
  • NPCs: After meeting an NPC for the first time, they'll show up on your map. Their list of known services and item preferences are displayed, showing more and more information as you uncover them. Your current favor level with that NPC is displayed, alongside any new unlocks you'll get when you level up their favor. You can also take custom notes on any NPC.
  • Teleport Platforms: You can now see Teleport Platforms on the map, with how many times you've used each one.
  • Meditation Pillars: You can now see Meditation Pillars on the map, with the corresponding Combo that's granted when you meditate at one.
  • Portals: You can now see portals to other areas/dungeons on the map.
  • Filters: Don't want all the new info cluttering up your map? Simply turn them off!
  • Pin Customization: There's now a more intuitive UI for customizing your own map pins, with extra color options.
  • Pets: Your pets now show up on the map, and can be clicked on to see which one has fallen behind.
  • Minimap: The minimap has gotten a visual upgrade. You can easily toggle between seeing all pins, personal pins only, or no pins at all on the mini-map.
We're excited to develop these ideas further with the ultimate goal of making it easier to set your own goals and explore the world of Alharth in your own way. And we're eager for all your feedback on the new map!

VIP Program


Recently, many players have been reaching out to us to ask how they might continue to support PG now that they've purchased the game. There are a few different ways: for example, the Gorgon Shop sells backer packages that are meant for this purpose specifically and which include some neat features like extra character slots or a custom title. Or if you prefer, you can also donate money directly to us. Our community has been amazingly generous; it's impossible to say just how much the extra support has helped us. But we've noticed that many players aren't aware of the other program that's available if you'd like to kick in some extra monetary support: the VIP program. VIPs pay a small monthly charge through Steam, and in return they get a bunch of small benefits and fun stuff, like extra character slots and regular gift redemptions. (Backer pacakges usually include some VIP time as well.) In this update we've tried to make it more obvious what being a VIP entails (without being too annoying about it) by adding a small button on the sidebar that opens the VIP panel. We've also added a cool new system for VIP emotes in this update. These are emotes -- slash commands that make your character do an animation -- that can only be used by current VIP members. The first one we're introducing is /flex; we'll be adding more very soon. And VIP members: Don't forget to check your redemptions regularly! You may find some fun little gifts in there. (You can find those in the Persona panel on the right-hand sidebar, under the icon of a present. Or you can type /redeem in chat.)

"Hardcore Living"


There's a new skill, "Hardcore Living". Hardcore players earn XP in this skill when you kill a monster whose level is at least as high as your Hardcore Living skill. There are already some inherent benefits to leveling this skill, but its primary purpose will come in the future: we plan to use it as a "gating skill" on Hardcore gear. Currently, Hardcore gear mostly uses Endurance as its gating skill, and that seems weird. (We haven't updated Hardcore gear to require this new skill yet -- we wanted to give you time to level this skill first.)

Monster Adjustments


  • New experimental monster behavior: Monsters no longer chase players as far if they've only taken minor damage and are unable to land a hit.
  • New experimental monster behavior: Monsters who are called in to assist their friends are slightly less dogged in how long they chase.
  • Improved some loot drop unique stats for Boss Gauntlet bosses.
  • Fixed AI bug: during the first second of combat, monsters could choose to use their self-buff even if no other allies were supporting them.
  • Orc monsters' reaction to being slowed or being unable to chase their attacker is to throw a Khopis; this Khopis now slows their opponent.
  • Aktaari that are slowed or unable to successfully chase their attacker use a new slowing spittle attack.
  • Spriggan Weeds have unique combat behaviors (instead of using generic animal logic).
  • The Big Slime in Carpal Tunnels should no longer summon level 90 slimes.

Abilities & Combat & Loot


  • Abilities that have a chance for critical hits now display this info in their ability tooltips.
  • Minor change to Hammer treasure effect: (Necklace, Ring) "Reckless Slam deals +89 damage and taunts -345" => "Recklass Slam deals +105 damage"
  • Alchemical item "Aiming Potion" now applies to critical hits from anatomy criticals as well as phrenology criticals.
  • Alchemy items "Telka's Teeth": all tiers now last 15 minutes.
  • Changed treasure effect: "Long Shot increases target's vulnerability to Trauma and Acid +10% for 20 seconds. (Max of 2 stacks.)" => now also debuffs Poison
  • Changed treasure effect: "Tundra Spikes stuns all targets after a 6 second delay" => 8-second delay. (The top tiers of this effect were reduced because the delay was too short to take full advantage of.)
  • New treasure effect: Archery: (Chest, OffHand): "Acid Arrow deals 365 Poison damage after a 6-second delay"
  • Low-level item "Ring of Critical Hits" now applies to anatomy criticals as well as phrenology crits. (Just because it should.)
  • "Bounding escape dispels any active Slow or Root effects..." now works on Ice Cocoon.
  • Fixed scaling on high-level Provoke Undead & Raise Zombie abilities.

Other


  • Added new basic emotes: /point, /yes, /no, /agree, /nod, /disagree
  • New command: /target targets the closest entity whose name matches or contains the text. This is rudimentary right now, and does not affect the order of tab-targeting. /ta is an alias.
  • Added 2 new hotkeys: Select Next Pet & Select Previous Pet.
  • Right-clicking a pet's state (Attack, Follow, etc.) now sets that state for all active pets.
  • When a pet is selected, its name now highlights in the pet window.
  • Item rarity and level overlay now applies to storage & merchant UIs.
  • Vendor item prices now update in real-time, if e.g. you buy back all of the items you previously sold the vendor, or a player updates their store's pricing.
  • Attempting to Stow an item with a max carryable amount into a maxed stack no longer deletes the item.
  • Added right-click menu options for turning mushrooms into powders.
  • Fixed right-click menu options for Hides (to easily convert them to leather rolls).
  • Low level Werewolf Hind Leg Guards (Enchanted) recipes only require the non-enchanted versions now.
  • Fixed teleport platform in Serbule Hills that would cause Foxes to fall under the world.
  • Kur now uses dark versions of map icons.
  • Fixed bug causing Book UI button text to overflow the button.


[ 2024-02-24 02:22:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update Notes: January 12, 2024

Welcome to our first update of 2024! Today we say farewell to the Ri Shin celebration, and hello to a host of improvements, changes, fixes... and a new high level dungeon.

Boss Gauntlet 2


First, about the original Gauntlet: at the end of 2022 we released "Boss Gauntlet '22", which was intended to be a temporary super-hard encounter that would be removed later on. Then we remembered how we hate throwing good content away. So now it's permanent! (Yes, you predicted this back in '22. Shush.) The 20 original bosses of Boss Gauntlet '22 are now called "Boss Gauntlet 1". These bosses have had their level raised to the new maximum of 95, and some of the encounters have been beefed up a little based on feedback. We're excited to introduce Boss Gauntlet 2, with even more bosses and even crazier scenarios for your group to deal with. You can enter Boss Gauntlet 2 by completing the first one -- a door will open and let you in. Alternatively, there's a portal machine in the beginning of Boss Gauntlet 1. Using this machine will let you jump directly to the new gauntlet. It costs Hubris to activate the portal. Completing Boss Gauntlet 2 for the first time will net you 25 Live Event Credits, same as the first Gauntlet. (A note for those who ran the original Gauntlet '22: there used to be five hidden bosses; these have been taken from their hidden rooms and added to Gauntlet 2.) Most of our group-play content is intended to be enjoyable with pick-up groups, where you join up with whoever you happen to meet in the dungeon. But Boss Gauntlets are intended for a dedicated group, typically a guild, who want a very difficult challenge to overcome. If our usual group content is more your style, there's good news: we're hard at work on the final portion of Errruka's Cave, which will be a level 95 group experience. Coming soon!

Monster Changes


Elite and Boss monsters now have a bit more health and armor. The amount varies by monster tier and level, but to give some generalizations:
  • A typical level 80 Elite now has 12% more Max Health and Max Armor.
  • A typical level 80 boss now has 20% more Max Health and Max Armor.
  • The hardest tier of bosses now have 25% more Max Health and Max Armor.
We've also buffed the "tough solo" monsters. These are typically named monsters that are intended to be soloable, such as Salmpo, the Mauler, or the named creatures in desert War Caches. These creatures gained about 12% more Max Health and Max Armor by level 80. In addition, we revised monster self-buff reaction abilities:
  • These abilities previously stunned the monster that used them for 5 seconds and then applied a buff.
  • Now, the monster stands still (but not stunned!) for 5 seconds, then uses the ability.
  • If the monster is killed, stunned, mesmerized, feared, or knocked back during those 5 seconds, the buff is aborted.
  • Important Bugfix: Monsters no longer consider dead allies when calculating whether they have enough friends to perform a self-buff.

Other Monster Changes


  • Tornados have faster cooldown on their lightning bolt attack.
  • "Turret Crystals" -- those crystal enemies that shoot beams at you -- have faster attack speed.
  • Gazluk Healing-Suit Tester is weaker (receives less healing from nearby crystals).
  • Orcs' Electricity Sigils are a bit more potent.
  • Ranalon Guardians of all levels have a bit more Max Health.
  • Tornado Spiders can fly (although they still prefer walking).
  • Mantis Teachers in Mope's dungeon are a bit tougher.

Aktaari Event Adjustments


  • The "Aktaari Queen" event now starts at the same time each game day, at 9am (game time), rather than starting at whatever game-time the first player showed up. This should help players plan better.
  • Elite Aktaari (guardians and bosses) are now a bit tougher, and are marked as "no-lock", meaning that their loot is available to all players that help kill it (instead of just the first hunting group that attacked it, as before).
  • Moved a teleport destination in Aktaari caves to an earlier point in the cave -- after the giant blocks but before the acid pit rather than after the acid pit.
  • Fixed "air tube" type apparatus in several dungeons, including Aktaari caves. They were using testing values that caused the air to refill in 10 seconds instead of the intended reset of 2-3 minutes (depending on the dungeon).

Glamour Changes


In this update, we've made some changes to the way glamouring works. Glamours allow you to change the look of your equipment. (Other games often call this transmogrification.) Previously, you used items -- Glamour Gourds or Glamour Berries -- to do this. Now when you use a Glamour Berry or Glamour Gourd, you receive 1 "Glamour", which is a new pseudo-currency stored in your character. (If you have any, you can see it in the Persona window, under Currencies and Pseudo-Currencies). The Glamour recipe now costs 1 Glamour to use, instead of directly using berries or gourds. This has two benefits: first, you don't have to store unwieldy gourds anymore! Just consume the items to get the Glamours out, and then spend the Glamours whenever you want. Second, this makes it easier for us to give VIP players free Glamours every month, without saddling them with a ton of gourds.

Cargo Suits


We've added "cargo suits" explicitly for mule characters. The crafting recipes can be found on the usual tailoring trainers. These garments give you lots of extra inventory similar to having a perfect set of "pocket gear". Crafting them costs the same amount of resources as full pocket gear. The big benefit is that these suits have no equip requirements, and never will, so they can be worn by any character. In a future update we'll be adding Endurance requirements to high level gear that doesn't have any other requirements. Don't worry, there'll be plenty of info and warning about this change in the future -- we'll be making this transition as painless as possible. We wanted to release these now to help you prepare. Long story short: if you're planning to make a "mule" character, we recommend using these garments rather than crafting "no reqs" max-pocket gear.

Other Tweaks & Bug Fixes


Combaty Stuff


  • Hammer: new treasure effect: (Head, Off Hand): "Hammer attacks that kill an enemy via direct damage restore 46 Power to you."
  • Hammer: new treasure effect: (Ring): "Direct Electricity Damage, Direct Fire Damage, and Direct Cold Damage +20% while Hammer skill active"
  • Knockdowns are now separate from Stuns for purposes of diminishing returns. This means you can Stun, then Knockdown an enemy, and have full duration from both.
  • Weak slow effects no longer affect diminishing returns for subsequent strong slows/roots.
  • Bugfix: Some sources of indirect damage did not reduce monster regeneration as intended.
  • Bugfix: Unarmed treasure effects that absorb damage and redirect it into your attacks were bugged: they stopped working when you logged out or switched areas, and wouldn't work again until you re-equipped the item.
  • Bugfix: "Raise Skeletal Ratkin Mage 7" raised the same level of pet as "Raise Skeletal Ratkin Mage 6".

Other Stuff


  • Emoting (such as watering plants or waving) should no longer interrupt music playing.
  • Stephie Blackhammer in Povus no longer offers barters; instead she has daily crafting quests
  • When each phase of the Povus nightly event is completed, any leftover monsters from that phase de-spawn much more quickly
  • An augment's associated skill could clash with the skills of the mods already on the item, causing the transmutation system to think no mods were available due to skill incompatibility. This will no longer occur.
  • Crafting Electric Cyan Dye now requires real ingredients instead of just Masterwork Metal Slabs.
  • Crafting Caravan: Added level 90 tasks to all applicable Caravan NPCs.
  • Crafting Caravan: Changed the required items on two tasks to bring them in-line with their level range.
  • Fixed a bug causing hard-core broken gear to not display properly when horse-equipped gear also breaks.
  • When selecting a title in the GUI list, tooltips explain how that title was earned.
  • Fixed tooltip display issue with damage from Bun-Fu Kick's delayed damage.
  • Using some Fireworks and Confetti Bombs now triggers an appropriate emote. (Except for Small Confetti Bombs; those are just too quick to look right.)
  • Restored some info to various sources JSONs.
  • VIPs: Don't forget to check your redemptions! (It's the little gift box icon at the bottom of the Persona panel, which you can find on the right-hand sidebar - third button from the bottom. Or just type /redeem in chat.)

Update: January 12, 2024 - Part 2


A quick update to fix some bugs:
  • Revised both versions of the "Healing Suit Tester" encounter in various ways (but making them easier overall).
  • Fixed an exploitable bug with a Finishing Blow treasure effect that incorrectly boosted indirect damage. This is fixed on the server, but tooltips can still be wrong in-game until the next client update.


[ 2024-01-12 21:27:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update Notes: December 13, 2023

This is a quick bug-fix update.

Bug Fixes & Tweaks


  • Battle Chemistry Fix: "Bomb attacks deal +50 damage and cause your next Healing Mist to restore +60 Health over 30 seconds" => this was actually boosting healing 6x more than intended. Corrected to match description.
  • Battle Chemistry Fix: "Bomb attacks deal +61 damage and cause your next Healing Mist to restore +50 Armor over 15 seconds" => this was actually boosting healing 5x more than intended. Corrected to match description.
  • Summon Deer 6 now requires Summon Deer 5 instead of 4.
  • Fixed: When analyzing the genetics of a corpse, XP earned was based on the level of the player rather than the level of the corpse being analyzed.
  • Survival Instincts: Lend Grace 5 is now grouped with its other Lend Grace buddies.
  • Three-Nostriled Barrier now remains open appropriately.
  • Swollen Hands curse no longer prevents you from wearing a helmet.
  • Glamour Berries from Riston are now usable (and more generally, attuned ingredients can be used in crafting).
  • Tomato plants grow much slower.
  • Renamed some "Amazing" hat recipe-teaching items to "Astounding".
  • Human-Style Pizza with Tofu is now correctly labeled as a meal.
  • Added a comma to food-related crafting recipes, to separate the recipe level from the type of food it creates (meal, snack etc.).
  • Evu Fruit is now affected by foraging bonuses.
  • Bug fix: Added missing titles for some long-term animal form behavior badges (e.g. while you have the Eternal Fox behavior badge, you also now have the Eternal Fox player title).
  • Fixed typos for Snowleaf & Irkima.
  • Fixed a spot in the Serbule Hills Goblin Logging Camp that was easy to get stuck in.
  • Fixed selection colliders & face cams for Osslars and Gricklings.
  • Fixed some wands that were appearing as big white cubes.
  • Bug fix: Festive Holiday Maggot is more festive.
  • This is the 400th published build of Project: Gorgon! As a thank you for reading the patch notes, use the command /400 in chat to receive a dumb title


[ 2023-12-13 22:57:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update Notes: December 4, 2023

Happy holidays from Project: Gorgon! Today we celebrate the turning of the season, from bountiful autumn harvest to gift-giving extravaganza. In other words, we're finally done with Halloween - it's time for presents! If you've become Friends with any townsfolk in the game, they will have gifts for you the next time you speak with them. (Make sure to have your favorite combat skills active when you talk to them, in case their gift is a randomly-generated treasure item!) The Ri-Shin event is also underway -- look for townsfolk wearing red santa hats (err Ri Shin Hats) for more information. There's one in each town or settlement. In addition, we have a bunch of improvements, tweaks, bug fixes, etc.

Combat Changes/Fixes


  • Transforming into an animal no longer changes your active skills if one of them is already the appropriate animal skill. For example, changing into Deer while Bard and Priest are active will change one to Deer; changing into Deer while Bard and Deer are active won't change either.
  • High-level deer-summoning mods now summon the appropriate level deer.
  • Chemistry Staves now support Druid mods.
  • Fixed the mod "Finishing Blow causes your next attack to deal +X damage if it deals direct Psychic, Trauma, or Poison damage"; it now actually affects Trauma and Poison damage, and the Psychic damage is reduced to what it should be.
  • Fixed the mod "If Finishing Blow or Decapitate kills its target, you gain +X% direct damage for 15 seconds".
  • Fixed a bug causing lower-level enchantments to be transmuted for Weather Witching and Druid.
  • Increased healing amount of Healing Mist 10 (110->120).
  • Changed James Eltibule's Sword damage boost from 0.1 back to 17.
  • Nissim no longer teaches Debilitating Blow 4 - it was only getting in the way of his Psychology lessons, after all.
  • We're still not sure what could cause players to not retain the repeating aktaari quest, but added a backup system that will reapply the quest whenever players are in the Aktaari lobby area.
  • Revised a certain boss encounter a bit. Should be a piece of cake now :) :) :)

UI Changes/Fixes


  • You can now view item levels and rarities overlaid on the item icons in your inventory. Toggle this view by clicking the "Show item rarities & levels" button in the inventory window, next to the "Show Equipped Items" button.
  • Important monster buffs, such as Damage Reflection, now show up first in the list of Active Effects on the target.
  • The Damage Reflection buff on monsters now has a unique icon.
  • Fixed icons for Fire Magic unlocks at Sand Seer & Bendith.
  • Added "(or better)" to the arrow requirements of some Archery abilities.
  • Dropping an item onto another in inventory or storage now always puts that item in the dropped slot, never the slot before it.
  • Acid Sigil icon is now green.
  • Your current equipment now has a yellow border in the compare-item view, to make it more obvious.

Other Changes/Fixes


  • Fixed a bunch of level 90 crafting recipes that had placeholder material ingredients.
  • You can now raise Textile Creation to level 70 via trainer spheres beneath Povus.
  • Some corrected item-creation recipes now require Enhanced Yarn; you can learn the recipe from the same trainer sphere in Povus.
  • Fixed some items that would let you learn their recipe but not their ability, thereafter breaking the item for the original learner. (We're still working on a way to fix those characters already affected by the issue and will have something in the next update.)
  • Cosmetic pets now stay alive when you switch areas or log off (so you don't need to resummon them).
  • When you have a cosmetic pet active and summon a different pet, the first pet is automatically dispelled (rather than making you dispel it manually first).
  • Updated directions for getting to the Sacred Grotto.
  • Removed an extraneous warning sign from Serbule Hills.
  • New JSON file is available on the cdn (at https://cdn.projectgorgon.com/), called tsysprofiles.json. See the updated index page for more information.
  • Updated JSON file: tsysclientinfo.json now includes the internal names of each tsys power, so they can be mapped with the new profile JSON file.


[ 2023-12-13 19:52:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update Notes: November 27, 2023

This is a pretty little update chock full of bug fixes and gameplay tweaks. Let's see what we've got!

Sword Skill Revamps


  • (Hands) "Decapitate Reuse Timer -12" => "Decapitate deals +250 damage and reuse timer is -12 seconds"
  • (Head, Necklace) "Decapitate deals +525 damage to non-Elite targets" => +1200 to non-Elite targets
  • (Legs) "Decapitate deals +255 damage and terrifies the target for 7 seconds" => "Decapitate deals +300 damage and the next attack you use stuns its target"
  • (Feet, Ring) "Finishing Blow and Decapitate damage +190" => +264
  • (Chest, OffHand) Finishing Blow deals 530 Psychic damage after a 4-second delay" => "Finishing Blow causes your next attack to deal +380 damage if it deals direct Psychic, Trauma, or Poison damage"
  • (Legs) "Wind Strike causes your next attack to deal +142 damage" => "Wind Strike deals +142 damage and causes your next attack to deal +142 damage". In addition, this is now available on both Legs and Feet slots
  • (Main Hand) "Wind Strike gives you +50% projectile evasion for 5 seconds" => for 10 seconds
  • Wind Strike ability: increased amount of bonus damage added to the next attack
  • New treasure effect: (Head, Necklace) "Indirect Poison Damage, Indirect Trauma Damage, and Indirect Psychic Damage +50% while Sword skill active"
  • New treasure effect: (Off-Hand, Ring) "Parry and Riposte boost your Indirect Trauma Damage +24/tick for 30 seconds"
  • New treasure effect: (Hands) "If Finishing Blow or Decapitate kills its target, you gain +63% direct damage for 15 seconds (this effect does not stack with itself)"
  • New treasure effect: (MainHand) "Decapitate deals +165 damage. If the target is killed, Decapitate can be used again immediately."
To help you adjust to these changes, transmutation costs for Sword will be reduced through December.

Group XP Changes


We've increased the bonus XP you earn for being in a group up to 100% for each participating group member. This means that if you're in a group of players that kill a monster, the monster is now worth 100% of its total XP to every group member! This is an experiment. The intent is to remove barriers to grouping -- now, it's inarguably mathematically better to group up than to compete for kills. Are there major down sides to this? We dunno -- guess we'll find out! This does not otherwise change how XP is calculated (in terms of XP dropoff, skill level discrepancies, personal XP bonuses, etc).

Other Bug-Fixes and Tweaks


  • All high-level skill unlocks now require that you also have already unlocked the previous tier. In other words, in order to unlock 'Skill 81-90', you must have already unlocked 'Skill 71-80' (in addition to your current skill being 80+). If you run into a skill that looks like it will let you unlock skill caps out of order, please let us know through the in-game bug report. (That's the '!' on the top of the right-hand sidebar.)
  • Jewelry Crafting: Astounding Arisetsu Medallion actually taught the recipe for Astounding Enchanted Necklace. The recipe is right - only the name of the recipe book was wrong. The new name is: Jewelry Crafting: Astounding Enchanted Necklace.
  • Orcish Plate Gauntlets erroneously said in their description: "(Must be near a forge consecrated to Umrad.)" They now correctly say "(Must be near a forge consecrated to Tast.)"
  • Fixed a bug causing your last-used emote to play again when you change gear.
  • NPCs are now listed in their correct, precise area in the Quest Log & Item Info windows. This fixes some bugs that resulted from separate areas being located in the same zone technically, e.g. Carpal Tunnels being reported as Khyrulek's Crypt, or Winter Nexus reported as Kur Caves. If any NPCs are still wrong, please let us know ASAP through the in-game bug report. (That's the '!' on the top of the right-hand sidebar.)
  • Unfetter 3 now lasts for 20 seconds.
  • Galdyr's Tasty Energy Flask will now come with Battle Chemistry mods.
  • The recipes Reliable Flask and Reliable Flask (Repair) now have a chance to consume their hammer ingredient.
  • Updated the text displayed when you first learn Necromancy, to match how raising skeletons works now (via Necromancy Dust).
  • "Mock and Ridicule deal +X% damage and taunt +Y" now properly affects Mock.
  • Icons for Acid Bomb 10 & Mycotoxin Formula 10 now have the correct number.
  • Fixed Triage 9, which was broken.
  • Changed verbiage of whether Wanted Posters are usable or not, and hooked up verbiage properly.
  • Update leveled requirements of new tailoring scrolls to match their associated recipes.
  • Greta is no longer considered an arthropod.
  • Added a basic dance animation to eagles.
  • Fixed some quests that were giving out high-level items with low-level enchantments; most notably, several brand-new quests and Fae Realm Beehive quests.
  • Fixed Mudbath 6 healing amount.
  • Basilisk and Lamia slow abilities are now affected by Slow & Root immunity.
  • Enchantments that can't be obtained via transmuting are no longer shown in the Transmutation window.
  • Fixed a typo in soybean sprout item description.
  • Bug fix: "Rotskin deals 354 Trauma damage to health over 12 seconds": the ability tooltip listed this as 8 seconds, the treasure listed it as 12, and the actual DoT lasted 15 seconds. The correct duration is 12, and other values have been changed to match.
  • Animal Handling pets may now earn XP past level 80.
  • Fixed a typo in Ruxandra's Bite item.
  • Small Fireworks now stack to 99 instead of 20. Recipe for Small Fireworks makes 99 instead of 20.
  • You can now unlock Gardening 81-90, and Cooking 81-90 at a mysterious entity deep beneath Povus.
  • Fixed recipe ingredients for Awesome Werewolf gear.
  • Fixed intermittent issue with mount anxiety bar not showing.
  • Ruxandra's Bite is now augmentable.
  • Recipes with no crafting time can now be used while sitting; this allows calligraphy benches to be used while being sat upon.
  • If you can't craft a recipe, hovering over the button now tells you why.
  • Altered Flaming swords' text (such as Flaming Gazluk Sword) to clarify the DoT damage they do.
  • Removed references to Master Flopsy from Master Boop's text.
  • Fixed a typo in Meat Candy (tonue -> tongue).
  • Fixed stats on crafted belt buckles that got messed up in an earlier November update. (And buffed many of them!)
  • Fixed many treasure effects that didn't correctly scale past level 80. At this time we believe ALL treasure effects should correctly scale to level 100. If you come across one that doesn't, please report it through the in-game bug report. (That's the '!' on the top of the right-hand sidebar.) Please report this even if you've reported it in the past.
  • Fix to Rabbit treasure: (OffHand, Necklace) "Thump causes the target to take +20% damage from Cold attacks for 10 seconds": this effect did not stack if you had it on both slots.
  • Fix to Rabbit treasure: (Head, OffHand) "Bun-Fu Kick causes the target to take +18% damage from Trauma attacks for 20 seconds": this effect did not stack if you had it on both slots.
  • Change to Knife treasure effect: (Hands, Ring) "Fending Blade restores 22 Power" => 44
  • All (non-Demo) players should check their redemptions to see what special gifts they may have available this month! You can do that by typing /redeem in chat, or by checking the "View Redemptions" button on the bottom of the Persona panel, accessible from the right-hand sidebar. VIPs, you've got two!


[ 2023-11-28 00:58:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update Notes: November 17, 2023

This is a small update that fixes a number of bugs, as well as tweaking and extending the new content from our last update.

Dungeon-Related Fixes and Improvements


Warning -- these patch notes contain spoilers. If you haven't started the new dungeon in Errruka the Benefactor's cave, just skip this section.
  • The acid slime in Errruka's Cave now displays in the correct location. It was displaying too low, leaving players thinking they were high and dry when they actually weren't.
  • Previously, the animal combat-skill trainer challenge required you to be an animal for at least 7 days of real-world time and 12 hours of gameplay time. The former requirement of real-world time was not communicated, leaving some animals unsure why they couldn't open the door. For simplicity we've dropped the real-world time requirement.
  • Added a few special respawning eggs to the Aktaari event. These "egg events" are a prototype way to add replayability to the Aktaari event. In the future we may implement a large number of these sorts of "events", and randomly choose which are active during each Aktaari run.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Aktaari Princess's door from activating.
  • Completing the mummy puzzle reopens doors leading to the puzzle (if they happen to have closed).
  • The exit to the Lady room remains unlocked for several minutes after leaving (in case players return immediately).
  • Rixie's Floating rings respawn more quickly.
  • Evu Fruit requires Foraging 85, down from 95.
  • The Elite version of Mangler Scorpions have been replaced with much larger Mutilator Scorpions (to make it easier to differentiate them from the non-Elite scorpions).
  • You can now unlock Hammer 81-90, Battle Chemistry 81-90, and Butchering 81-90 at the appropriate trainers.
  • You can no longer unlock Fishing 81-90 until you've unlocked Fishing 71-80.
  • Fixed a bug where giving Support Local Fauna Initiative flier to Hazy Mirror yielded no item.
  • Fixed typo in Serendipity Cheddar's dialog.
  • Added an additional boss encounter (although there's still at least one boss that has yet to be discovered)

Non-Dungeon-Related Fixes


  • Fixed a whole bunch of typos in skill hints.
  • The ability Summon Doomstorm no longer refers to "frangments" instead of "fragments".
  • Awesome Spring Fairy Shoes, the recipe, and the recipe scroll, are all now properly Awesome instead of just Amazing.
  • Changed labels of armor- and power-restore after death-avoidance attribute, so they no longer just say "Healing".
  • Fixed display of triple digit levels on your hotbar.
  • The recipe for Astounding Skinning Knife was erroneously called Awesome.
  • Coffee beans and soybeans are worth more Foraging XP.
  • Fixed: Stun Trap 5 had same stats as Stun Trap 6.
  • Orcish Wheat now grows in visible stages.
  • Fixed the broken locked-NPC UI icon.
  • Performance Appreciation info effect should now disappear when you're not appreciating any performances.
  • Fixed some bugs causing instrument playing animations to get out of sync.
  • "Square" map indicators have been renamed "Pointed Square", and a new Square (which is the old square) has been added in its place.
  • Updated player nameplate colors in real-time as a response to entering or exiting PvP mode.
  • When your targeted player is in PvP mode, an icon will indicate as much (replacing an old bugged-out icon showing their level as 0).
  • Animal forms that are in skeleton illusion can now mount properly.
  • Updated Brambleskin 10's damage.
  • Changed level at which the third cheesemaking cask is unlocked to 40 (previously 41).
  • Fixed mount form for skeletons when their underlying form is spider.
  • Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause unlisted vendor items to list for 0 councils.
  • Updated Bounding Escape 6 numbers (7 speed for 12 seconds -> 9 speed for 17 seconds)
  • System Shock abilities dealt 1 point of Damage-over-Time even when no DoT treasure effects were in use.
  • Warden (Necklace): "While Privacy Field is active, melee attacks that damage you have a 75% chance to restore 34 Power to you" => this treasure effect did not work correctly
  • Icesnake can now occur with Ice Magic treasure effects.
  • Head Candle will now persist through zoning & changing gear.
  • Deep Wasps now count for the "Bats Eat Bugs" quest.
We'll be back with more fixes and updates soon!


[ 2023-11-17 06:32:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update Notes: November 10, 2023

It's here! After a rather longer wait than we intended, we are proud to share this new update with you. It's got everything -- dungeons, skills, puzzles, and a scary holiday party.

Halloween


Alharth is not the real world, and Zhia Lian isn't the goddess of Halloween. Nevertheless it's always been our tradition to hold our scary holiday event at the end of October. But this year we ran into a long series of bugs, leading to a long delay in the update, and the scary holiday had to wait as well. But never fear! Zhia Lian has finally poked her way into our world with her whimsical demands. The event begins now, and we'll be scheduling the Zhia Lian parties for later this month. Keep an eye on the event calendar or check our Discord #events channel for the latest dates and times.

New Dungeon


You can now enter Errruka the Benefactor's home in Povus. This is a very large dungeon with a great many things to discover. It's also probably tuned to be more difficult than we really want -- it hasn't been playtested too much. But we know you've got this. Good luck!

Skills & Abilities


  • Crossbow: Knockback Bolts 9 was using ammo one tier lower than intended; this is fixed.
  • Floxie in the Fae Realm can now train Fletching to 70.
  • Orcish Battle Cry: fixed bug that prevented this from working.
  • Priest: Healing amounts for various abilities fluctuated by a few health points due to formula changes.
  • Priest: Castigate 7 and 8 deal more damage to undead.
  • Psychology: (OffHand, Necklace) "Mock and Ridicule deal +65 damage and taunt +200" => "Mock and Ridicule deal +43% damage and taunt +200"
  • Psychology: new treasure effect: (Chest) "Ridicule damage +93 and range +10 meters"
  • Psychology: new treasure effect: (Ring) "Ridicule damage +93 and target does not call for help"
  • Psychology: (Chest, Legs) "Psychoanalyze restores 212 Armor to you" => "Psychoanalyze deals +100% damage and restores 130 Armor to you"
  • Psychology: (Head, Legs) "Strike a Nerve generates no Rage and instead reduces Rage by 610." => "... It also deals +200 Armor damage"
  • Psychology: (Feet, OffHand) "Strike a Nerve deals +236 armor damage" => "Strike a Nerve deals +100 damage and hastens the reuse timer of But I Love You -1.5 seconds"
  • Psychology: (Chest, Hands) "Strike a Nerve deals between 60 and 200 extra damage" => "Strike a Nerve deals +80 damage, and has a 33% chance to deal double damage"
  • Rabbit: "Play Dead boosts your Psychic attack damage +100 for 20 seconds" => +320

UI


  • Abilities that require specific animal forms now say so in their tooltips.
  • Clicking a notepad tab now scrolls the text all the way to the top.
  • Remaining hangout time should no longer show absurd amounts of seconds remaining.
  • Updated map player indicators once again, to further clarify which direction you are facing.
  • The old map player indicator styles are available via Settings > GUI > Windows & HUD > Map Player Indicator Styles.
  • Fixed a bug causing the Performance Appreciation explanation effect to appear when it shouldn't.
  • Skill Tracker should no longer move around the screen.
  • Fixed item previews when opening the More Info screen and not clicking around.
  • Pain Bubble will now show up in debuff lists on current target & party members.
  • Freezing Mist tooltip now includes Bomb-related mods.
  • Fixed a bug causing Shocking Grasp to show Spirit Bolt mods.
  • Updated tooltip for music boxes to reflect the effective level of music supplied.

Other


  • New items! There are new high level items to discover in loot. Some of these are based on designs created by our early backers. Others are named after important community members as gifts to those players. (And others are just entirely made up by us.)
  • Eternal Greens and Chalice of Life both now cause Resurrection Sickness. Resurrection Sickness prevents you from consuming more greens or a Chalice of Life for 15 minutes.
  • Chalice of Life can now only be consumed by druids.
  • Chalice of Life now stacks to 3.
  • Many crafted items have significantly boosted innate stats.
  • Added missing behavior titles for career-long Foxes, Rabbits, and Butterflies. (Earned after staying in that form quite a long time, and lost if you leave the form.)
  • For players who want to get their friends into the game faster, or players who just hate tutorials, you can use the chat command /leavetut to skip the tutorial island and appear in Serbule. (You can always go back to the island later.)
  • Gain bonus levels in Brewing when you reach Alcohol Tolerance 80, Alchemy 49, Battle Chemistry 70, Cooking 70.
  • Completing nightly Povus event quests earns a bit more Xogrite at each reward tier.
  • When you Miraculously Avoid Death, you also instantly recover 10% of your Max Health. This amount can be changed through treasure and buffs.
  • Purchasing items from Drima now costs 2 Sir Johnson Bucks instead of 3.
  • Crafting Caravan: Added an option to purchase a legendary version of the Enhanced Windstep Shoes and Amulet of the Rugged Traveler for 2x the token cost.
  • Adjusted leather armor so it blends into the world more.
  • Moved Serbule Hills spawn point closer to the portal to Serbule.
  • Adjusted raven-form attack speeds for some archery attacks.
  • Mummies are a little more dangerous.
  • Polar bears now have Health Regeneration.
  • Hook beasts attack faster.
  • Donkeys and cattle now have an innate buff that knocks back any Burst attacker that hits it.
  • Fixed a bug causing monsters to stop attacking their current targets when a subserver restarts.


[ 2023-11-11 12:57:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update Notes: September 1, 2023

This minor update includes some neat new stuff, as well as a horde of tweaks and fixes.

Serbule Community Storage Chest


This update, we've added an interesting new community feature - the Serbule Community Storage Chest. This is a way for rich players to give back to the community, donating some of their wealth to lease an extra storage slot that anyone can use. You can find this chest in Serbule in the 'golem house' - the room near the central well that also houses the Account Package Manager and the Legacy Item Helper golems. Players can donate 1 million councils or 20 Live Event Credits to lease a slot in this chest for a month, and all players can take advantage of that slot during that time. Note that these slots are leased, not purchased, so wealthy players will need to break out their wallet once a month to keep the slots accessible. When the lease expires after a month, the total number of slots available to players in the chest will go down by one. If that means that you now have too many items in the chest, you will only be able to pull items out, not put any more in -- until either you don't have too many items, or someone chips in another cool million (or 20 LECs). Players can donate as much and as often as they like, up to a maximum of 150 inventory slots total. The Community Chest lists top contributors (by guild and by player) as an incentive to donate, along with 500 Civic Pride XP, a world broadcast, and a mention in the highlight log. (That's the scroll on the login screen, which also gets posted to Discord.) Remember, these storage slots can be used by *all* players -- so convince your rich friends to donate today!

Notepad Improvements


One of the weird things about Project: Gorgon is that it sometimes expects you to write things down. We do offer an in-game notepad, at least -- and now we've made that notepad more useful by adding tabs.
  • You can now organize your notes in up to 5 tabs!
  • All of your existing notes will be in the first tab.
  • You can rename the tabs by right-clicking on them.
  • The hotkey to open the notepad defaults to 'n' and can be changed in System > Keys.

Gameplay Fixes & Tweaks


  • To help make animal loot stack up better against the loot of bipedal monsters, most types of animals now have a high chance to drop phlogiston. (Look, I don't know. Maybe they ate it?)
  • Povus: Being in combat no longer stops you from using the Povus quest sign.
  • Povus: Giving gear to Ishiko the boatwoman in the morning now earns double town XP.
  • Povus: Ishiko the boatwoman now gives Civic Pride XP for each donation, rather than waiting until you've donated 100 times.
  • Battle Chemistry: Fixed a bug with the new treasure effects that boosted minigolem damage +25% (along with some other buffs). This boost did not apply correctly. After it worked correctly it was clearly overpowered, though, so it's been reduced to a +15% damage boost.
  • Increased the chance for monsters in a group to perform self-buffs before engaging in combat.
  • Priest: Fixed the treasure effect "Triage restores X Health over 15 seconds" -- the highest-tier levels of this effect were weaker than intended.
  • Fixed a bug from the last major update that caused delayed-healing effects to trigger twice (once when added, and again after the delay).
  • Added Glamour Berries to the very-rare consumables loot table (the same table that drops Eternal Greens and Minor Panaceas).
  • Reduced the cost of some LEC items on Cinnamon in Sun Vale.
  • Reduced pricing on Riston in the Red Wing Casino for multiple items.
  • New item added to Riston: Liquid Super Buffs! (24 hours) for 150 LEC.
  • Slightly increased the chance to loot Pixie Dust on appropriate mobs.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Chitterface to not drop its quest item if you had killed it in the past 3 hours.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented necromancer pets from being targeted by burst attacks, group buffs, and area heals - Dev comment: the bug was that they couldn't be burst-attacked. In fixing that bug, they became targetable by beneficial spells as well. This wasn't part of the original design of the skill (in particular they were supposed to be immune to most types of healing), but we want to see how this change feels in play.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented some creatures from tracking aggro properly.
  • Young Krakens for the Serbule Druid quest will now stick around for the entire duration of the event.

UI Tweaks & Fixes


  • Main storyline quests are now marked in the Quest Log.
  • Your current hangout is now viewable from inside the Quest Log, at the top of the list of quests
  • An item's associated quests are now shown in the "More Info" window. (Only the quests you are currently on, not ALL quests!)
  • When viewing a work order at the board, you can now view its associated recipe (if you have it unlocked) by right-clicking on the work order icon.
  • Docile enemies (those that don't attack-on-sight) now have their own nameplate color. It defaults to white; you can change that in Settings > GUI > Colors.
  • Made "deliver" quests more obvious by adding the number of items to deliver to the text.
  • Fixed a bug that caused the XP Tracker to reset its position on launch.
  • The current number of free inventory slots is now always visible in the window, even at the smallest size.
  • Fixed a bug that caused nameplates to not sort properly, so closer ones would appear behind further ones.
  • Updated the map UI with new icons for characters and pins.
  • Fixed a bug that made certain ambient sound FX lower than intended.
  • Performance & Dance Appreciation effects are now more obvious.
  • The current Appreciation level is visible on the buffs themselves.
  • A new icon will appear when you are actively appreciating a performance. It shows the level of the current performance and explains how your current buff levels change over time.

Other Stuff


  • Failed network calls on the login screen should no longer cause the Loading screen to hang after picking your character.
  • Your character should no longer get "stuck" and keep moving with your mouse even when you aren't holding in right-click.
  • Updated to Unity version 2021.3.29. This should fix several bugs in Linux, including: - Some parts of the screen are inaccessible to the mouse when in full-screen mode. - Clicking and dragging the mouse doesn't lock the cursor.


[ 2023-09-01 23:08:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update Notes: August 12, 2023

This is just a quick bug-fix update, with some added chemistry!

More Battle Chemistry Changes


Small change to the "Healing Mist hastens X" treasure effects to allow them to apply to all targets of the mist, not just the caster:
  • (Hands): "Healing Mist hastens the remaining reset timer of Pep Talk by 10 seconds (if Pep Talk is not already ready to use)" => "Healing Mist accelerates the current reuse time of Pep Talk (for any targets that use Pep Talk)"
  • (Head): "Healing Mist hastens the remaining reset timer of Reconstruct by 10 seconds (if Reconstruct is not already ready to use)" => "Healing Mist accelerates the current reuse time of Reconstruct (for any targets that use Reconstruct)"
  • (Ring): "Healing Mist hastens the remaining reset timer of Regrowth by 10 seconds (if Regrowth is not already ready to use)" => "Healing Mist accelerates the current reuse time of Regrowth (for any targets that use Regrowth)"
And a few more new treasure effects for battle chemistry healing:
  • New: (Legs): "Healing Mist accelerates the current reuse time of Mend Flesh (for any targets that use Mend Flesh)"
  • New: (OffHand, Necklace): "Bomb attacks deal +50 damage and cause your next Healing Mist to restore +50 Health over 30 seconds"
  • New: (Head, Chest): "Bomb attacks deal +61 damage and cause your next Healing Mist to restore +70 Armor over 15 seconds"
  • New: (Hands): "Acid Bomb deals +61 damage and causes your next Minor Heal ability to restore +41 Health"

Bugfixes and Improvements


  • Fixed a bug preventing BC golems from using their new abilities.
  • The Battle Chemistry trainer in Rahu is no longer afraid of scary animals.
  • Lowered the cost of training new golem abilities a fair amount.
  • Animal forms are treated as always having an "unarmed weapon" equipped.
  • Werewolves are treated as always having an "unarmed claw weapon" equipped.
  • Combined Extra Toes & Knee Spikes effect descriptions into a single effect.
  • Fixed bug with treasure effect "Toxic Irritant deals +N damage. If target has 5 or more Damage-over-Time effects, it also stuns them". This effect incorrectly always stunned the target.
  • Fixed a bug with the Battle Chemistry treasure effects that boost flat acid and poison mitigation: the acid one was buffing poison and vice versa. They've been swapped to match their descriptions.
  • Fixed a bug with the effects "You heal N health/armor/power every other second while under the effect of Haste Concoction". These effects incorrectly applied their healing every second instead of every other second.
  • The minigolem's abilities no longer display buff info about minigolem-summoning abilities.
  • Tweaked audio falloff settings of nightmare creatures.
  • Fixed a bug causing your own avatar to not respect the "Avatar Portraits" setting.
  • Sped up recipe sorting.
  • Fixed assorted typos.


[ 2023-08-12 20:22:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update Notes: August 10, 2023

This update sees some serious upgrades for Battle Chemists, improvements to pet and enemy AI, an XP system tweak, and - as always - a lot of bug fixes large and small.

Battle Chemistry Changes


We've heavily revised Battle Chemistry in this update. This will seem like an especially large change, because it is! Battle Chemistry was "skipped over" during the last round of skill rebalancing because we were considering splitting the skill into two separate skills. But after prototyping that split, it doesn't seem more fun than what we already had. So instead we're embracing the skill's quirky nature and refining the ways you can take advantage of its many tools. While most of these changes should be good news to battle chemists, note that there's an effective nerf, too: we've fixed a bug that allowed you to take off your Mutation-buffing equipment but still keep the benefits of that equipment. The intended behavior is that taking off equipment disables all the buffs it provided. (This should be true for all skills, btw! If you find places where that isn't the case, please report it.) Battle Chemistry has three key features: the programmable golem pet (also called a "minigolem"), Mutations, and chemical attacks and buffs. We'll give the details for each. To help you adjust your character to these changes, Battle Chemistry Transmutation costs will be much lower for the rest of August.

Mini-Golem


Battle Chemistry features a programmable golem which is given a list of rules to follow in combat. Previously, it checked its rules once every 5 seconds, meaning that it only used an ability once every 5 seconds. To improve responsiveness, the golem now chooses an ability every 3 seconds. Golem abilities that previously had a 5-second reuse time now have a 3-second reuse time: Poison Bomb Toss, Taunting Punch, and Healing Injection. These abilities were revised based on this new reset time. The "Trigger Golem" side-bar ability is no longer a toggled ability. It now has a 15-second reuse time. Using the ability will instruct the golem to immediately check its ruleset and choose an ability, rather than waiting until its regular 3-second timer is up. (You can use the golem conditional "Owner has triggered golem" to program a specific response to this ability.) The golem was already a pretty good healing-bot, so it has comparatively minor buffs in that area. Its combat abilities, on the other hand, have been improved dramatically as there was much room for improvement. For historic reasons Battle Chemistry has a bunch of three-slot treasure effects for the golem -- meaning that the same power can show up on Chest, Legs, and Head gear, for instance -- and that seems interesting because it allows you to really hone in on a few specific golem abilities. But since "programmability" is the point of the golem, we don't want your gear to lock you out of using other abilities too much. So all those three-slot effects also boost the golem's overall damage or health. Next is a list of all the changes. Before we begin, a note on syntax. Here's how we document a change to a treasure effect:
  • (SlotsThisPowerCanShowUpOn): "This effect does blah blah blah at level 100" => changed behavior of the effect at level 100
With that out of the way, here's the golem-related changes:
  • UI: fixed blank ability labels in golem programming UI window
  • Fixed the ability icons of some of the mini-golem's abilities
  • New golem conditional group: "Any group member is below X% Health"
  • Minigolem abilities: all damaging abilities deal more damage
  • Minigolem abilities: all abilities now scale to level 80. You can purchase the new ability tiers from the usual dude in Rahu
  • Minigolem ability Rage Acid Toss: now aoe-splashes to hit all enemies within 20m of its target. (Primary target can still be up to 35m away)
  • Minigolem Rage Mist abilities: reset time is now 5 seconds instead of 15. (But ability still requires a full Rage bar)
  • Minigolem Rage Acid Toss abilities: reset time is now 5 seconds instead of 30. (But ability still requires a full Rage bar)
  • Minigolem Self Destruct abilities: aoe range increased from 10m to 20m
  • Minigolem Taunting Punch abilities: increased innate temp-taunt so that golem can briefly pull aggro more reliably
  • (Head, Necklace): "Your golem minion's Taunting Punch deals +100 damage" => "Your golem minion has +25% Max Health and its attacks taunt +600"
  • (Chest, Legs, Head): "Your golem minion's Poison Bomb deals +82 damage" => "Your golem minion's attacks deal +120 damage"
  • (Hands, Feet, Ring): "Your golem minion's Self Destruct deals +360 damage" => "Your golem minion's attacks deal +25% Damage, and its Self Destruct deals +777 damage"
  • (Head, OffHand, Necklace): "Your golem minion's Rage Acid Toss deals +243 damage" => "Your golem minion's attacks deal +25% Damage, and its Rage Acid Toss deals +357 damage"
  • (Ring, MainHand, Feet): "Your golem minion's Doom Admixture deals +340 damage" => "Your golem minion's attacks deal +25% Damage, and its Doom Admixture deals +340 damage"
  • (Legs, MainHand): "Your golem minion's Invigorating Mist heals 58 health" => "Your golem minion's Invigorating Mist restores +58 Power"
  • New treasure effect: (OffHand): "Your golem minion's Fire Balm absorbs the first 198 Fire damage you suffer in the next 15 seconds"

Mutations


Mutations are the Battle Chemist's signature buff. Mutation abilities go on your sidebar. You use these abilities on yourself and your allies, and they provide potent buffs that last an hour. There's only one small catch: you can only have one Mutation on you at a time. For that reason, all available Mutations need to be pretty good, or else you'd use a better one instead! We've whittled down the previous five Mutations into three: Extra Toes grants nimbleness and speed and makes your Kicks dramatically better. Extra Skin protects you from damage, and Extra Heart helps you regenerate Power and, to a lesser extent, Health. Here's the details:
  • The abilities "Mutation: Knee Spikes" and "Mutation: Extra Toes" have been combined, giving the benefits of both in one. For fiction reasons, the name Extra Toes makes more sense than Knee Spikes. But the old Knee Spikes ability had more tiers, which makes for smoother leveling. So we've dropped the old Extra Toes ability and renamed the old Knee Spikes ability to Extra Toes. If you're confused, we don't blame you, but long story short: if you were using Knee Spikes OR Extra Toes, you'll want to make sure that Extra Toes is on your ability bar.
  • The ability "Mutation: Stretchy Spine" has been retired as being too niche. Its treasure effects were revised to apply to other mutations instead.
  • Extra Heart abilities: instead of boosting Power Regeneration, now boosts Combat Refresh Power Restoration
  • Treasure Effects that previously boosted Knee Spikes now boost Extra Toes
  • Mutations: fixed bugs that caused treasure buffs to remain on targets even if the caster unequipped the treasure responsible for the buff
  • (Chest): "Your Stretchy Spine mutation randomly repairs broken bones twice as often" => "Your Extra Heart mutation grants you -50% Indirect Poison Vulnerability and randomly repairs broken bones over time"
  • (Head, Chest): "Your Knee Spikes mutation also causes kicks to restore 22 Health to the kicker" => "Your Extra Toes mutation also causes kicks to restore 44 Health to the kicker"
  • (Legs): "Your Knee Spikes mutation causes kicks to deal an additional +24% damage" => Your Extra Toes mutation causes kicks to deal an additional +30% damage
  • (Hands, MainHand): "Your Extra Skin mutation causes the target to heal 67 Health every 20 seconds" => 78 every 15 seconds
  • (Necklace, OffHand): "Your Extra Skin mutation provides +22 mitigation from Slashing attacks" => +27 mitigation from Slashing and direct Acid damage
  • (Legs, MainHand): "Your Extra Skin mutation provides +22 mitigation from Piercing attacks" => +27 mitigation from Piercing and direct Poison damage
  • (Hands, OffHand): "Your Extra Heart and Stretchy Spine mutations grant the target +67 Max Health" => "Your Extra Heart and Extra Skin mutations grant the target +71 Max Health"
  • (Necklace): "Your Extra Heart mutation causes the target to regain +74 Power every 6 seconds" => every 8 seconds
  • New treasure effect: (Feet): "Your Extra Toes mutation grants the target +100% Knockback Resistance"
  • New treasure effect: (Legs): "Your Extra Toes mutation grants the target +58% Slow/Root Resistance"
  • New treasure effect: (Chest): "Your Extra Heart and Extra Toes mutations grant the target +67 Max Power"
  • New treasure effect: (Head): "Your Extra Heart mutation grants the target +23% Max Power"
  • New treasure effect: (Hands): "Your Extra Toes mutation grants the target +15.5% Ranged Evasion"

Splashin' Chemicals


While Battle Chemistry isn't intended to be a damage powerhouse, it still had room for improvement in terms of synergizing with other combat skills. Each of the skill's three main bomb abilities now has a treasure effect that adds a corresponding damage-over-time (DoT) effect. Note that these DoTs are a little special: unlike most DoTs which tick every 2 or 3 seconds, these DoTs tick every second. As a result, flat indirect damage boosts are more potent for these specific DoTs. Since Extra Toes is all about kicking, it seemed a shame that the Unarmed skill couldn't take full advantage of it for themselves (because they'd need to hold a beaker). So we've added new Alchemist's Claw craftable weapons specifically to enable this skill combination. (They're kind of a pain to craft, though -- not intended for beginners.) We've also added craftable staff-beakers so you aren't as reliant on the handful of random loot items that enabled that combination before. There are also new crafted items that allow spiders, giant bats, and pigs to use Battle Chemistry! These recipes are rather difficult, though, and may require the assistance of an expert crafter (with hands). Here's the change list:
  • Kohan in Rahu now teaches recipes for Alchemist's Claw weapons, which are complex unarmed/battle chemistry hybrid weapons. Crafting requires Gadgeteering 50 and a high level of Toolcrafting.
  • Ufkar in Rahu now teaches recipes for Chemistry Staff weapons, which allow all manner of staff-based skills as well as Battle Chemistry. Crafting requires Gadgeteerig 50 and a high level of Carpentry.
  • Staff-Beaker combo weapons (such as the Beaker-Stick and the new Chemistry Staff) are now elligible to have Staff treasure effects on them. (And Fire Magic effects for fire-staff-beakers.)
  • Yogzi in Sun Vale teaches recipes for Arachnid Mechaharnesses, which allow spiders to use Battle Chemistry. Crafting these intricate belts requires high levels of Toolcrafting skill.
  • Yogzi in Sun Vale teaches recipes for Aerosolizing Bat Harnesses, which allow giant bats to use Battle Chemistry. Crafting these exotic belts requires high levels of Toolcrafting skill.
  • Backfat in the Fae Realm teaches recipes for Porcine Blast Dispersers, which allow pigs to use Battle Chemistry. Crafting these bizarre bracelets requires high levels of JewelryCrafting skill.
  • Toxin Bomb abilities: base damage increased
  • Toxic Irritant abilities: no longer a melee attack; now a ranged projectile attack with a 10m range
  • Mycotoxin Formula abilities: base damage increased
  • Acid Bomb ability: ability now does both direct Health and direct Armor damage. Power cost and base damage increased
  • Freezing Mist ability: reset time changed from 45s to 30s. Ability fully functions as a Bomb. (The fire DoT treasure effect previously didn't work on it). Damage revised upwards.
  • (Chest, Feet): "Acid Bomb Damage +53%" => +59%
  • (Feet, Ring): "You heal 26 health every other second while under the effect of Haste Concoction" => 36
  • (Hands, Chest): "You regain 18 Power every other second while under the effect of Haste Concoction" => 34
  • (Necklace, Legs): "Freezing Mist restores 165 Armor to you" => "Freezing Mist restores 165 Health (or Armor if Health is full) to you"
  • New: (Head, Off-Hand): "Acid Bomb deals 198 Acid Damage to Health and Armor over 6 seconds"
  • New: (Hands, Necklace): "Mycotoxin Formula deals 392 Nature Damage to Health over 8 seconds"
  • New: (Chest, MainHand): "Toxin Bomb deals 385 Poison Damage to Health over 7 seconds"
  • New: (Hands, Ring): "Freezing Mist Damage +195 and Reuse Time -7 seconds"
  • New: (Hands): "Toxic Irritant deals +61 damage. If target has 5 or more Damage-over-Time effects, it also stuns them"
  • New: (OffHand): "Toxic Irritant Damage +52 and Range +20"
  • New: (Ring): "Toxic Irritant causes the target to suffer +15.5% from Acid Damage (including Toxic Irritant) for 15 seconds."

Game Systems Changes


Pet Logic


  • Pets can now target Feared monsters. (They still cannot attack Mesmerized monsters.) This is an experiment; let us know if you like this change.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause pets to stop responding to Sic 'Em and/or Clever Trick instructions.
  • Potential fix for pets returning home too quickly. We'll monitor this to see if more needs to be done.
  • When an Animal Handling pet tries to determine a target for Sic 'Em or Clever Trick, it can now check its owner's target's target. This means that if you have the group tank selected and use Sic 'Em, the pet can lock on the group tank's target.
  • Fixed several subtle bugs where monsters and pets wouldn't use the right ability at the right time.

New Experimental Gameplay System: Monster Gang Buffs


Many monsters can now notice when they're ganging up on a target. When these monsters notice they're fighting alongside others, they will sometimes choose to stop fighting and buff themselves. This buff takes 5 seconds to cast, leaving them helpless during that time. Different types of monsters have different buffs; some are mild while others are pretty strong. The intention of this system is to add some variance to larger battles. These buffs all have the same visual cue: the monster will be surrounded briefly in a green bubble with an up-arrow floating over it.

XP Dropoff Change


A few months ago, we made some changes to how much XP you earn from enemies above and below your level. we asked for your feedback on how this affected you, and based on that feedback we've revised how killing higher-level monsters works. Previously if your combat skill was more than 25 levels above the monster's level, you earned 0 XP. Now the monster's XP will downscale up to 100 levels of difference, effectively letting players kill any monster in the game and get a level-appropriate amount of XP for doing so. Note that after downscaling, higher-level monsters will earn roughly the same amount of XP as same-level monsters. So there's no big incentive to hunt monsters that are dramatically higher-level than you... there's just no punishment for doing so.

Everything Else


VIP Challenge


The VIP Challenge that ran during the Summer Sales didn't do as well as we had hoped. We really wanted to give you more stuff! But we understand that money is tight for a lot of us. As a consolation prize ... err, participation prize, anyone who was a VIP member during the VIP Challenge has a new redemption available. You can find your special redemptions by clicking on the Persona tab on the right-hand sidebar, and then clicking on the icon of a present on the bottom right of that panel.

Combat


  • Basic Attacks: many Basic Attacks deal slightly more damage at high level.
  • Pig Frenzy ability: changes to the damage boost amount at each ability tier; highest tier changed from 60 to 118.
  • Pig: (Legs, Ring) "Frenzy restores 30 power to all targets" => 76
  • Pig: (Main Hand, Necklace) "Grunt of Abeyance restores 28 Power to all targets" => 52
  • Pig: fixed some treasure effects that did not yet scale past level 80.
  • Survival Instincts' Lend Grace ability: significantly increased Power regeneration. The stated +10% evasion buff is now actually applied.
  • Rattail-Ring of Screeching: Nature Damage bonus reduced from +20% to +10%.
  • The Sonic Burst Combo mod for bats will now do the correct damage on the final step.
  • Toxic Flesh abilities: deal more damage to melee attackers.
  • Hammer treasure effect: (Feet): "Rib Shatter dispels any roots or slows you are currently suffering. Power cost to sprint in combat is reduced -3 for 9 seconds" => "Rib Shatter dispels any roots or slows you are currently suffering. Sprint Speed is increased +3 and Power cost to sprint in combat is reduced -3 for 9 seconds"
  • Droaches: high level Droach monsters deal more damage when their armor is depleted.
  • Fixed a bug where monsters with special opening moves wouldn't always use them.
  • Fixed an issue that might be the cause of reported "DoT persists for way too long" bugs. We'll monitor this to see if more needs to be done.
  • Fixed bug that prevented earning auxiliary-combat-skill XP if you didn't earn XP in both of your main combat skills.

Other


  • Added work orders for all new angling fish. These can be found randomly at the work order sign in Sun Vale and the Red Wing Casino.
  • Added new "bulk" work orders for fish. These bulk orders require 99 fish and have a higher payout rate than normal. These work orders can be found as Angling junk loot.
  • Reverted changes to fish fillet icons that unintentionally broke match-3.
  • Elite Training Dummies have been renamed to Healthy Training Dummies, and no longer give combat wisdom.
  • Fixed a bug where learning teleportation from Elmetaph would break future crafting animations.
  • "Prioritize Unlooted Corpses" setting will no longer cause tab-targeting to stick to unlooted corpses.
  • Fixed a bug causing some ability tooltips to show the wrong damage type when the type is changed via an item mod.
  • Fixed a bug causing Skill XP Tracker to change its position.
  • Fixed a bug causing tooltips to blink in the wrong spot when Use Tooltip Animation is disabled.
  • Fixed a bug causing the minimap to be invisible until you toggle its visibility in settings.
  • Search golem item results will no longer have a "1" in the icon.
  • The crafting error message for being in the wrong area is now more accurate. (It tells you you must be IN the required area instead of NEAR it.)
  • The Create New Character UI now scales with the screen size properly.
  • Fixed a couple instances in the UI where the waving flag is invisible at certain resolutions.
  • Default enemy nameplate color is now red.
  • Fixed a bug preventing you from turning left/right after crafting certain recipes.
  • Replaced the animations of several crafting recipes to be more accurate, rather than just sitting.
  • Fixed some graphical problems with elven faces and hair.
  • Lowered volume of some sounds, including eating and drinking sound effects and the water-ball particle effect used by some monsters.
  • Revised audio settings on fireworks.
  • Reduced horse selection hitbox size.


[ 2023-08-11 06:14:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update Notes: July 20, 2023

This is a relatively small update with some relatively large changes. In brief: based on player feedback, we're reverting some of the recent balance changes we made to Power generation and consumption. In addition, we've also taken some time to optimize performance in some areas to improve framerate. And, of course, there are bug fixes.

Power Balance Changes Reverted


We agree with the general feedback that the recent Power changes were too much too fast. We've reverted the Power costs to levels from before the June 28 update, with a few minor deviations. We'll continue to work on Power accessibility tools and may increase Power costs more slowly in the future.

Misc skill changes


There are some new Hammer effects related to Power consumption, as well as a tweak to a new Sword effect.
  • Hammer: Slight changes to cost and potency of Reckless Slam and its treasure effects.
  • New treasure effect: (Off-Hand, Necklace) "Core Attacks cause the next Look At My Hammer to restore +50 Power"
  • New treasure effect: (Feet) "Rib Shatter dispels any roots or slows you are currently suffering, and Power cost to sprint in combat is reduced -3 for 9 seconds"
  • Sword treasure effect tweak: (Hands, Feet) "All Sword abilities deal +13% damage to targets with less than 33% of their Max Rage." => +18%
  • Known bug: the Fire Magic ability Flesh to Fuel currently costs Power (it should be free). This will be fixed in the next game update

Optimizations


This update includes a number of optimizations in specific problem areas that should improve graphics performance and framerate. Optimization is an ongoing process; it hasn't been a high priority while we are in Early Access, but as we move closer to launching it becomes more important. We made a start on some of the more notorious spots for bad performance in this update and we'll continue with other problem areas as time permits.
  • Optimized lighting in Povus city to improve framerate, particularly at night.
  • Fixed some LODs in Povus to reduce pop-in.
  • Optimized Gazluk terrain, which should fix most framerate issues in that zone.
  • Fixed framerate issues in Kur at one of the orc camps.
  • Optimized UI updates of nameplates. This should have a significant performance boost when using the new UI in areas with a lot of entities.
  • Persona and Mount cameras now turn off when those windows are not open; previously they were always on and wasting time being rendered.

New Backer Package Incoming


As you may know, you can visit the Gorgon Shop to purchase an optional 'backer package' to help support Project: Gorgon. These packages have some nice benefits, from a free horse to spontaneous snack cakes. They also include VIP time, which comes with some of its own nice benefits, like extra inventory. (You can read more about the VIP program here.) One of the problems with all of our old backer packages (what we now call Primary Packages) is that you can only apply one package to your account. Players who wanted to purchase another backer package to show their continued support couldn't do that -- until now. We're now introducing our first Gorgon Shop Add-On Backer Package - the Summer 2023 Add-On! As the name implies, you can purchase an Add-On package in addition to a Primary package and get the benefits of both. But you don't have to use the Add-On as an add-on: you can purchase it even if you don't have to have a Primary Package yet, and you'll be able to add a Primary later if you wish. But note that you can only purchase one of each Add-On package! So the new rule is: You may have one Primary Package and one of each Add-On package per account. The Summer 2023 Add-On package is very much intended as a way for players to support the game, with a planned price of $75 USD. Here are the planned benefits:
  • Auto-unlock the advanced Orc character race for your account when they become available. (Orcs have not yet been implemented! Normally you would need to complete in-game quests to unlock the Orc race.)
  • Receive a unique cosmetic mini-pet for all characters on your account.
  • Be granted the special title "Summer's Fairest".
  • Receive a unique new food to help level your Gourmand.
  • 9 months VIP membership.
PLEASE NOTE: The Summer 2023 Add-On package will be available in a few days, and the details are still subject to change until then. In addition, please keep in mind that the Orc player race is not yet available; you won't actually be able to make an Orc until we finish developing them. You can claim the other rewards immediately. If the new package is popular, we'll explore adding more of them in the future.

Other Stuff


  • Items can now be summoned from the Warden chest when in Kur.
  • Fixed a bug that caused dropped items to appear above the character instead of on the ground; this was notably bad in the Red Wing Casino, where items would seemingly disappear into thin air (but were actually stuck in the walls).
  • The events on the login page now auto-scroll.
  • Some light polishing of the login screen.
  • Fixed a bug that caused the waving flag on the login screen to disappear at certain resolutions.
  • Fixed a formatting error in the score in the golf UI.
  • Fixed a bug with spring fairy gear that caused elves to have purple skin.
  • Animal players should no longer "ping-pong" (rotate back and forth very quickly) when standing still in certain scenarios.
  • Pigs & deer no longer rotate when strafing left & right.
  • Polished "On Fire" particles.


[ 2023-07-20 06:36:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update Notes: June 30 - July 6, 2023

Update Notes: June 30, 2023


  • Update to fix problems with animation loops in yesterday's patch

Update Notes: July 4, 2023


A small update to fix some bugs:
  • Drowning & dehydration put you in combat again, so that regeneration doesn't prevent dying.
  • Fixed a bug that broke channeling as a bat almost-completely.
  • Fixed a bug where an error that prevents channeling causes you to be stuck in the animation (E.G. trying to harvest wood without a saw).
  • Fixed a bug causing NPCs to get stuck in dancing or instrument-playing animations.
  • The new treasure effect that causes Heart Thorn to deal Acid armor damage over time did not show in the ability tooltip.
  • The new treasure effect that causes Heart Thorn to deal Acid armor damage over time did health/armor damage, not armor damage as intended.
  • Using Premeditated Doom showed the effect icon for mod-activated healing even if you didn't have appropriate mod.
  • Treasure effect "Signature Debuffs deal +80 damage and restore 90 armor to you after a 10-second delay" could not show up on Uncommon crafted belts.
  • Added more detailed instructions on how to find Elmetaph to the barrier wall in the newbie dungeon.
  • Good Bait is now a level 30 recipe (instead of 45).
  • The meals Venison Psi-Mantis Style and Chicken Psi-mantis Style are now properly marked as containing fish.
  • Added a line to Words of Power 1 to make it more obvious that you have to manually jot them down.
  • New setting that keeps your current target selected if you click away from it (without clicking on another target): GUI > Targeting > Mouse Selection > Clear Target on Click. Note that it's only supported in the new UI.
  • Fixed a graphical issue with leather headgear.
  • Decreased the SFX volume for some Weather Witching abilities.
  • Fixed a bug causing the camera position to reset when zoning.
  • Fixed a bug in the old UI where letting go of left-click while holding in right-click would un-hide the mouse.
  • Set Near Clip Plane's minimum value to 0.1, to avoid occlusion issues (notably in the casino).
  • New feature: 5% of all randomly-rolled Legendary loot items will be "Foretold in Prophecy", gaining 60 additional crafting points. It will have additional benefits in the future.

Update Notes: July 6, 2023


Another quick update:
  • Rebalanced all abilities and treasure effects that generate/restore Power. We have a list of specific changes, but it's quite long so we'll save that for the discord-linked patch notes. The short version is that all such abilities and treasure effects are more potent to varying degrees. In many cases the Power restoration increase is pretty dramatic.
  • Fixed a bug that sometimes caused gathering animations to not play.
  • Skeletons now play the correct attack animations again.
  • Fixed sit/nap animations for Nightshade's bed, a moldy bed in the Carpal Tunnels, and Utimak's chairs.
  • Fixed an invisible boulder in Eltibule.
  • Added an Elite Training Dummy with 100k hit points to Serbule.
  • Lowered cost of Glamour Berries on Riston from 20 LEC to 5 LEC each (but they are now account-bound upon purchase)


[ 2023-07-06 19:16:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update Notes: June 29, 2023

This update primarily focuses on game balance issues and quality-of-life (QoL) issues. And it's time for summer... and the Steam summer sale!

Summer Sales


Project: Gorgon will be on sale for most of July, from June 29 to July 27, at a big discount - 75% off! We know that the $10 price point is more feasible for some potential new players, so if you have any friends left who haven't tried PG, this may be the time! If you don't have any friends to invite, you can still get involved -- we just want your scintillating presence! There are lots of ways you can participate in-game during the sales, including special events for newbies and existing players alike, free redemptions each week, rotating buffs, and another VIP Challenge.

Balance Changes


This update has a lot of balance changes. We'll cover the systemic changes first. Then we'll break out individual skills that received multiple changes. If your favorite skill isn't listed here -- or if these changes aren't to your liking -- don't worry, there will be more changes to all skills in the future. In general we're trying to power up weaker skills while toning down the most problematic treasure effects. Please give us your feedback after you've played with these changes a while.

Transmutation Cost Changes


We've been too stingy with Transmutation. Creating and experimenting with new builds is a big part of the game's fun, and it needs to be more accessible.
  • Decomposing an item into Phlogiston now yields an average of +100% more Phlogiston. (But note that there's more randomness in the yield than before.)
  • Durability costs for using Transmutation are now as follows:
    • Legendary: was 25%, is now 8%
    • Epic: was 20%, is now 6%
    • Exceptional: was 10%, is now 5%
    • Rare and Uncommon: unchanged. (Was 5%, is now 5%)
  • Note that it no longer matters whether the transmuted slot is "generic" or not for purposes of durability cost. (But it still affects phlogiston cost.)

Power-Cost Changes


The Power system isn't pulling its weight in terms of gameplay, so Power costs have been increased across the board. The magnitude of this change depends on the internal "cost tier" of the ability. For some abilities the change is modest (and a few even got cheaper), but for many abilities it's quite noticeable, especially at high level. We're a little worried that this change will have unintended consequences in middle level ranges -- if you find this to be too big a squeeze, let us know. And for low-level players, it's more important than ever to remember to eat both a meal and a snack! That's the best way to recover Power between battles. Another tip: while plentiful, raw fruit is a low-potency meal, so eat something better when you can.

Favor Rewards


  • Favor Quests now reward more Favor (averaging +50 Favor per quest).
  • Hang Outs that reward Favor now reward significantly more Favor (about +90%).

Inventory Slots


New players now have 8 more Inventory Slots than before. These slots were previously earned by leveling up Endurance. (Endurance previously gave out 30 Inventory Slots at level 100; it now gives out 22.) For existing players: If you've already gotten all the extra Inventory Slots from Endurance, you won't see a change. If you haven't, you will gain access to the Inventory Slots you hadn't earned yet.

Deer


First a note about formatting. When a treasure effect has changed, the format we use is:
  • (SlotsThisCanShowUpOn): "Old level 100 version of this effect" => changed level 100 version
Now the actual deer changes:
  • (Head, Necklace): "Summoned Deer Rage Attack Damage +183" => "... In addition, if it deals Indirect Nature damage (such as via Insect Egg implantation), damage is +20 per tick"
  • (Hands, Necklace): "Deer Kick implants insect eggs in the target. (Max 4 stacks.) Future Deer Kicks by any pet deer or player deer will cause target to take 390 Nature damage over 5 seconds" => This effect has been re-coded so that the attacking deer's indirect nature buffs are added to the damage dealt. It can also now be found on Ring (as well as Hands and Necklace)
  • New treasure effect (Feet): "Bounding Escape dispels any active Slow or Root effects on you and grants you immunity to similar effects for 15 seconds"
  • New treasure effect (Head): "Forest Challenge deals Psychic damage, and damage is +200"
  • New treasure effect (Hands): "King of the Forest deals Psychic damage, and damage is +120"
  • Summoned deer pets now periodically use an Antler-Slash move in between Deer Kick moves. This was done to somewhat reduce the number of Egg Infestation stacks per deer (when those mods are used)
  • Pummeling Hooves: This ability is now considered a Kick (for purposes of buffs and combos).
  • Fixed a bug that caused the "Forest Caller's" treasure effect to not show up for all item levels.

Druid


  • Removed treasure effect (Legs, Hands): "Fill With Bile heals 92 health and 92 armor" => This treasure mod has been replaced with the new effect below. The new effect can only be on Hands, not Legs, so if you previously had it on Legs, that piece of gear leg-gear is now Legacy (because the new effect will be on your pants and shouldn't be!). Use transmutation to remove the effect and it'll stop being Legacy.
  • Replacement treasure effect (Hands): "Fill With Bile causes any Core attacks that deal direct Poison damage to deal +180 damage for 3 minutes. (This effect does not stack with itself.)" Note: this mod applies to Toxin Ball, Toxin Bomb, and Inject Venom.
  • New treasure effect (Legs): "Fill With Bile causes any Nice attacks that deal direct Poison or Acid damage to deal +180 damage for 3 minutes. (This effect does not stack with itself.)" Note: this mod applies to Acid Bomb, Spit Acid, Delerium, and Venomstrike.
  • (Chest, Legs) "Heart Thorn coats the target in stinging insects that deal 378 Nature damage over 12 seconds" => 480 damage over 8 seconds
  • (Hands, Legs) "Heart Thorn deals Poison damage (instead of Nature) and also deals 330 Poison damage over 12 seconds" => 440 damage over 8 seconds
  • New treasure effect (Necklace): "Heart Thorn causes target to suffer +19% damage from all Indirect Damage sources for 15 seconds"
  • (Head, OffHand) "Heart Thorn restores 90 armor to you" => "Heart Thorn coats the target in acid that deals 580 armor damage over 8 seconds"
  • (Hands, OffHand) "Pulse of Life restores 100 Health over 15 seconds" => 260 Health over 15 seconds
  • (Head) "Pulse of Life gives +18 Fire, Cold, and Electricity Mitigation (direct and indirect) for 15 seconds" => 22
  • (Hands, Feet) "Brambleskin deals +120 Nature damage to melee attackers" => This is now available on Main-Hand gear, as well as Hands and Feet
  • New treasure effect (Chest, Head) => "Brambleskin deals +34% damage to melee attackers"
  • New treasure effect (Legs): "Rotskin debuffs target's Indirect Nature Vulnerability -28% for 12 seconds"
  • (Chest, MainHand) "Cloud Sight covers the target in insects that deal 312 Nature damage over 12 seconds" => "304 Nature damage over 8 seconds"
  • Ability Toxinball: deals the damage over 8 seconds instead of 12
  • (Hands, Legs) "Toxinball deals +234 Poison damage to health over 12 seconds" => 224 damage over 8 seconds

Rabbit


  • (Chest, Ring) "Bun-Fu Kick Delayed Trauma Damage +221" => +358. The delayed trauma damage happens after 5 seconds instead of 8.
  • Long Ear ability: Removed the movement-speed debuff. Normalized buff duration to 15 seconds at all tiers.
  • Hare Dash no longer cancels Long Ear.
  • Love Tap ability: Revising to make this more interesting as a combat-opening "puller debuff". (Note that it already prevented help-shouting.) Ability no longer generates any Rage. Ability has bonus Accuracy. Hastened reset time of all tiers. In addition to increasing the target's rage-fill requirements, Love Tap now also Slows the target 45% for 10 seconds.
  • (Head, Main Hand) "Love Tap deals 415 Trauma damage after an 8-second delay" => 505 Trauma damage after a 4-second delay.
  • New treasure effect (OffHand): "Love Tap causes target to suffer +14% damage from future physical attacks (Slashing, Crushing, and Piercing) for 10 seconds"
  • Love Tap and Bun-Fu strike are considered bodypart attacks (for purposes of certain buffs).
  • New treasure effect (Feet, Necklace): "While Rabbit skill is active, all Kick abilities deal +25% damage, with a 15% chance to deal double damage"
  • Fixed leftover attributes that referenced "Bun-Fu Blitz" (now renamed to Bun-Fu Kick).

Spider


  • Spider: Incubate ability: it now takes 10 seconds to incubate an egg, not 15
  • (Hands, Main Hand) "For 12 seconds after using Infinite Legs, additional Infinite Legs attacks deal +28 damage" => "After using Infinite Legs, additional Infinite Legs attacks deal +58 damage" (The duration is now the same as the built-in buff for that tier of ability, i.e. 10 seconds at level 1 and 18 seconds and level 8.)
  • (MainHand, Ring): "Premeditated Doom restores 128 health after a 10-second delay" => "Premeditated Doom restores 231 health (or armor, if health is full) after a 10-second delay"
  • Removed Treasure effect (Head, Necklace): Premeditated Doom restores 200 armor after a 10-second delay => this treasure mod has been replaced with the one below. The new one can only be on necklaces, so if you had the old effect on Head gear, you now have the NEW effect on head gear... which is illegal, so your head gear has become Legacy. If you use transmutation to remove the effect it will stop being Legacy.
  • (Necklace): "Premeditated Doom boosts your Crushing damage +80 for 20 seconds"
  • (Head): "Premeditated Doom boosts your Direct Poison damage +97 for 20 seconds"
  • (Legs, Hands): "Gripjaw deals +42% damage and hastens the current reset timer of Grappling Web by 5 seconds" => 41.2% and 6 seconds
  • (Main Hand): "Spit Acid raises your Poison Damage +23% for 30 seconds (this effect does not stack with itself)" => "Spit Acid raises your Poison Damage +22% for 12 seconds"
  • (Head, MainHand): "Terrifying Bite causes the target to take +16% damage from Poison attacks" => +24%
  • (Hands): "While you are near your Web Trap, you recover 6 Power per second" => 10
  • (Hands, OffHand): "While you are near your Web Trap, you recover 13 Health per second" => 18
  • New treasure: (Head, MainHand): "Incubated Spiders' Rage attacks deal +1056 Poison damage over 12 seconds"
  • (Legs, Necklace) "Gripjaw restores 78 Armor to you" => "Gripjaw deals +78 Armor damage and restores 78 Armor to you"

Sword


  • Ability Hacking Blade: Trauma damage from this ability is generated over 6 seconds instead of 12.
  • Ability Many Cuts: This ability now deals Trauma damage to health (instead of dealing Slashing armor damage over time); amounts increased.
  • (Head, Legs) "Precision Pierce deals +40 direct health damage and further reduces target's Rage by 300" => +63 damage; -350 rage
  • (Feet, Main Hand) "Hacking Blade deals +240 Trauma damage over 12 seconds" => over 6 seconds
  • (Necklace, Off Hand) "Hacking Blade and Debilitating Blow deal 162 Trauma damage over 12 seconds" => over 6 seconds
  • (Head, Necklace) "Flashing Strike deals +269 damage to undead" => +580
  • (Chest) "Flashing Strike deals +35% damage and gives you 50% resistance to Darkness damage for 4 seconds" => for 7 seconds
  • (Main-Hand, Necklace): "Many Cuts and Debilitating Blow deal +166 damage to Arthropods (such as spiders, mantises, and beetles)" => "Many Cuts and Debilitating Blow deal +134% damage to Arthropods (such as spiders, mantises, and beetles)"=> Also, this effect can now only be found on Necklaces. (Main-hand weapons with this effect are now Legacy, until it's removed from them via Transmutation.)
  • (Legs, Main Hand) "Many Cuts deals 236 armor damage" => "Many Cuts deals +228 Trauma damage over 6 seconds"
  • (Feet) "Many Cuts deals +25% damage and stuns targets that have less than a third of their Armor remaining. However, Power cost is +33%" => "Many Cuts deals +12% damage and stuns targets that have less than a third of their Max Rage."
  • (Head, Feet) "If target has less than a third of their Armor remaining, Many Cuts knocks them back and deals +40 damage" => "Many Cuts deals +86 damage and if target has less than a third of their Max Rage, also knocks them back."
  • New treasure effect (MainHand): "Debilitating Blow deals +75 damage and causes target's Rage attacks to deal -20% damage for 10 seconds"
  • (Chest, Off-Hand) "Finishing Blow restores 128 armor to you" => "Finishing Blow deals 530 Psychic damage after a 4 second delay"
  • New treasure effect (Hands, Feet) : "All Sword abilities deal +13% damage to targets with less than 33% of their Max Rage."
  • (Legs) "Decapitate deals +100 damage and terrifies the target for 4 seconds" => +255 damage and terrifies for 7 seconds
  • (Chest, Off-Hand) "Decapitate restores 197 armor to you" => "Decapitate increases your Max Health +137 for 60 seconds (and heals 137)"

Other Skill & Ability Changes


  • Fire Magic: (Hands, Feet): "Indirect Fire Damage +48% when skill Fire Magic active" => +38%
  • Necromancy: (Hands, Necklace): "Indirect Fire Damage +48% when skill Necromancy active" => +30%
  • Shield: (Chest, Ring): "While Bulwark Mode is enabled you recover 34 Armor every second" => "... every 3 seconds"
  • Shield: Elemental Ward ability: protective buffs last for 20 seconds instead of 30
  • Warden: (Hands, Feet): "Indirect Fire Damage +77% when skill Warden active" => +42%
  • Unarmed: Abilities Cobra Strike, Mamba Strike, and Slashing Strike have a new innate benefit: "Dispels the strongest Damage-over-Time effect you are currently suffering from"
  • Hammer: removed artificial Power-cost increases for this skill, resulting in a 5-10% cost decrease. However, this decrease is completely overshadowed by the major Power-cost rescaling explained above. (But Hammer users can now rest easy knowing their skill no longer has artificially-high Power costs.)

Note on Legacy Gear


Some gear for a few skills may now be marked as Legacy. This can happen when effects on the item are no longer allowed to show up on that type of gear. Legacy items become unusable after 30 days. But! You can fix these items (making them non-Legacy again) by using Transmutation to remove the now-invalid treasure effect. If you're unsure exactly why the item is Legacy, visit the Legacy Item Helper golem in Serbule. It can examine your item and give you more info. To facilitate this, these skills will enjoy much cheaper Transmutation costs for the next month or so: Deer, Spider, and Druid. And Sword. (We're including Sword because of the significant gameplay changes it's seen this update.)

Monster Changes


  • The creatures variously known as "Garden Tenders", "Sand Dogs", and "Snow Leapers" (depending on their variety) are now immune to slow and root effects.
  • Orcs: Sword-wielding orcs previously had a Parry move which drained a tiny amount of Power. This Parry move now reduces Core Attack damage by 75% for 10 seconds.
  • Orcs: Melee-range orcs can now throw a knife up to 20 meters. They use this when slowed or rooted.
  • Slimes are now immune to slow, root, fear, and mesmerize effects. (But notably not knockbacks.)
  • Monster tornadoes are now immune to slow and root effects.

Angling


  • Dramatically increased the amount of XP earned by catching high level fish. (All levels of fish are affected, but will be most noticeable after level 50.)
  • Quest "Angling: Toxic Blooms": The toxic blooms only appeared during nighttime hours, but should appear at all hours.
  • Adjusted the level & distribution of fishing zones in Povus.
  • Added some more types of angling fish to Povus zones.
  • Grapefish on the line are now purple.
  • Fixed an Angling visual effect with transparency issues.
  • Quest "Angling: Vicious Eels": Fixed the description; it had been "Angle Invasive Ice Fish". The fishing pool on the northeast side of the main Sun Vale island previously gave a quest that rewarded you with the "Angling (Advanced)" ability. This ability's level has been lowered to level 30, and is now given out by a lower-level pool: the one on the north end of the main island. (The northeast-side quest still exists, but now gives bait and XP as a reward.)
    • Note: the "Catch And Release (Advanced)" ability is still level 45; it will changed to 30 (and moved to a level 30 pool) in a future update
  • Catching junk like crates and bottles now gives better XP at higher levels.

UI


  • You can now search for items with Ctrl+F! Note: This is a new keybind, located in Settings > Keys > Interface > "Search for Item".
  • Adjusted vitals-change animation speed so larger changes will animate quicker.
  • Fixed bug causing "Save Changes" popup to show erroneously due to some custom chat channel preferences.
  • Settings tooltips now only show when you hover over the name of the setting.
  • Closing the Settings window without saving changes will now properly update the window the next time it opens.
  • Fixed bug preventing the settings "Save" button from enabling when modifying some graphics overrides.
  • New setting to disable enemy AOE ranges from appearing: "GUI > Windows & HUD > Abilities & Items > Show Enemy AOE Areas". Defaults to true.
  • Better handling of AOE Range opacity, and default the setting to 0.5 instead of 1 (resulting in dimmer AOEs).
  • Renamed "Reset Camera Position" keybind to "Re-Align Camera to Character".
  • Fixed bug that sometimes caused party-member nameplates to get stuck on the screen.
  • Target of target's avatar portrait is now controlled via the "Avatar Portraits" setting.
  • Right-clicking on your target to use it will no longer use the thing behind it.
  • Fixed bug causing the cursor to not change properly when your hovered target disappears.
  • Drastically decreased the time dropping & picking up items stops you for (especially for humanoids).

Defaults Changes


In this update, we also changed a slew of default settings for the UI in order to make things a little more useful and familiar for new players. Note that these defaults only affect new players! Keybinds:
  • Open Inventory: I, B
  • Open Skills & Abilities: K, Ctrl+D
  • Open Social Window: O, Shift+Ctrl+S
  • Open Crafting: C, Ctrl+R
  • Open Quest Log: L
  • Open Chat: Ctrl+C
Other:
  • Chat no longer closes when pressing Esc.
  • Ability Tooltips appear near the cursor, not in the top corner of the screen.
  • Change tooltip font size from 11 -> 12.
  • Skills, Abilities and the Quest Log start out as larger windows.
  • The "Tip" window (that shows tutorial messages) is centered on the left of the screen.
  • Channeling bar is centered above the character's head.

Other Changes


  • Added an "Observation Golem" to Anagoge to help direct lost players.
  • Added a "Training Golem" to Anagoge Records Facility to point out some hidden-but-useful game settings for new players.
  • Demo players can no longer be sent pigeon mail. (This was a bug.)
  • Golf: Fixed a number of bugs, refined the golf UI, and tweaked some functionality for a (hopefully) improved experience.
  • Fixed bugs with fairy chimes not properly updating.
  • Fixed the sometimes-broken nib barters on Shala.
  • Adjusted minigolem hitboxes to be more exact.
  • Improved handling of looping animations for most animals.
  • Toned down some Battle Chemistry visual effects.
  • Prevented particles from sticking around in certain conditions.
  • An assortment of graphics touch-ups in the character select & create screens.
  • Updated a number of icons.
  • Damage from falling, dehydration, and drowning will no longer put you into combat.
  • Fixed a bug causing playable animals to not rotate properly when strafing when ground alignment was turned off.


[ 2023-06-30 02:54:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update Notes: June 10, 2023

This is a small update to fix some of the bugs we introduced in the June 1 update. It also includes some other balance changes and bug fixes as well. (Sometimes bug fixes sprawl. One thing leads to another and so on, and suddenly you're making changes to Deer.)

Angling


- Animals can no longer angle: you must have hands to angle. - The ability Catch and Release now gives 25% _bonus_ xp rather than just 25% xp. - Clicking on Fish Tacos recipe in chat can no longer crash the client. It was the sour cream: the Fish Tacos recipe incorrectly indicated that it consumed half of a sour cream. It now correctly requires 1 sour cream, with a 50% chance it'll be consumed. - Canceling angling (by pressing the ability) no longer consumes another piece of bait. - Fish should no longer be selectable when they are attached to a fishing line. - Fixed broken Dorado fish. This should help complete the angling quest in Ilmari. - Angling ability descriptions no longer say they are test animations. - Lungfish now look like lungfish (more or less) while on a fishing line. - The Perch Fillet in the Loot Master Game is no longer just a blank white square. - Fixed the reversed east/west text of the angling quest in Serbule Hills. - Fixed missing particles on several "non-fish" angling targets.

Changes to Deer


After review, it seems like Deer has good bones and interesting potential, but it could use some buffing. - "Deer Kick deals +X damage and grants you -10% Fire Vulnerability for 10 seconds" => for 60 seconds - "Combo: Deer Bash+AnyMelee+Any Melee+Deer Kick: final step hits all enemies within 5 meters and deals +X damage." => combo is now Deer Bash+Any Melee+Deer Kick - Ability "Deer Bash" base damage increased significantly (288 => 400) - Revised correlated mod downward a bit: "Deer Bash Damage +72%" => "Deer Bash Damage +66%" - "Forest Challenge damage is +158 and reuse time is -1 second" => "Forest Challenge and King of the Forest damage is +116 and reuse time is -1 second" - "King of the Forest has a 90% chance to deal +200 damage" => "King of the Forest damage +100. There is a 22% chance to summon a deer ally for 30 seconds" - Ability "Summon Deer" tiers 2-5: all tiers now have reset time of 30 seconds - "Summoned Deer have +73 armor" => "Summoned Deer deal +61 damage and have a +10% chance to crit" - "Pummeling Hooves has a 60% chance to deal +78% damage and taunt +500" => "Pummeling Hooves deals +60 damage and restores 80 Health over 8 seconds" - "Deer Bash has a 60% chance to deal +134% damage" => "Deer Bash deals +100 damage and has a 24% chance to deal +134% more damage" - New treasure effect: (Head): "Forest Challenge deals +100 damage and you take -15% damage from Elite attacks for 20 seconds"

UI & Graphics


- AoE range indicators should work in all areas now. - Doubled the speed at which vitals bars animate. - Dying now enables the cursor in Action Mode. - Skills now remember if they are expanded or collapsed when zoning. - New setting: "AOE Area Opacity" located in GUI > Windows & HUD > Abilities & Items - Fixed a bug causing Show/Hide durationless effects to cause a short framerate dip. - Fixed a bug preventing players from booting up in the Old UI. - Fixed broken combat numbers in the Old UI. - Fixed a bug that caused animals to get stuck dancing. - Channeling an ability while playing a bard song should no longer cancel the bard song animation. - Acid Bomb & Freezing Mist effects now display even when nobody is hit by them. - Added explode-y effects to Toxin Bomb & Mycotoxin Formula to make them feel more... explode-y. - Removed some mud from pig dances until we can make it look better.

Other


- Increased bonus XP earned for killing monsters in a group. The bonus depends on the number of group members that helped fight the monster. Bonuses for (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6) group members changed from (+0%, +25%, +33%, +50%, +66%, +75%) to (+0%, +33%, +66%, +100%, +133%, +166%). Note that this was actually in the June 1 update, we just forgot to tell you. - The Warden mod "When privacy field deals damage, it also ignites the suspect, dealing 64 damage over 8 seconds" will no longer ignite the user of Privacy Field. - Jesina's dialog did not change after you received the Nexus Adjunct Matter Aligner. - Jesina can now give players a replacement Nexus Adjunct Matter Aligner if they have misplaced theirs. - Percy Evans now refuses gifts of the Nexus Adjunct Matter Aligner. - The lowest-tier versions of "Summon Sandstorm" and "Summon Doomstorm" now use the same cooldown timer as all other summoned storm abilities. - Doomstorms did not make any ambient sound. - Summon Doomstorm 2+ and Summon Sandstorm 2+ abilities were grouped with Summon Sandstorm abilities in the ability window. This has been fixed. - When you had multiple stacks of ammo, ammo would be consumed from the largest stack, thereby slowly depleting all the stacks at an even rate. This felt weird; now ammo is consumed one stack at a time, starting with the first ("leftmost"?) stack in your inventory. - Increased the chance of wolfsbane spawning in the Werewolf Forest in Kur Mountains. - Mushroom boxes & box recipes were using a fishing pole icon. (They always have, but the old icon was too murky to make out.) - Potion of Random Resistance and Potion of Universal Resistance incorrectly gave back an empty bottle after drinking. - A handful of old icons have been updated.


[ 2023-06-10 20:07:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update Notes: June 1, 2023

Welcome to June, and also the latest Project: Gorgon update! This update contains a new much-requested skill, Angling, as well as new UI features, quests, balancing, and a ton of bug fixes.

Main Story


We've expanded the main story quest-line by a few steps. If you've already reached the point in the storyline where you were asked to have dinner with Jessina (via a hang out), the hang out is now available, and you should log in to see that your character has a "reminder quest" to hang out with Jessina.

New Camera Types


Players come to us from different games with different control schemes and camera views, and they often ask us if we can imitate the camera styles they're used to. So we gave it a try! We know that getting movement behavior just right can be tricky, so *please* give us feedback on how these work for you. There are now 3 camera types to choose from, located in Settings > Controls: - Traditional Camera: How the camera has always worked. Right-click rotates your character, left-click rotates only the camera. Mouse is always available. - Free Camera: Camera control is completely separate from character control. Mouse is always available. - Action Camera: Mouse movement always controls character. Mouse cursor is only available when a UI window is open, or when the Toggle Cursor key is pressed (configurable). NOTE: only available in the new selection system!

AoE Visibility


Area-of-Effect abilities that are centered on the caster now have a visualization for their range. - When an ability is used, the AOE range briefly displays on the ground as a circle. - When an AOE ability icon is hovered over, its AOE range displays on the ground for as long as it's hovered over. - Visibility is configurable via Settings > GUI > Windows & HUD > Abilities & Items > "Show Beneficial AOE Areas" & "Show Detrimental AOE Areas". By default they are "Party Members Only" & "Self Only" respectively. Detrimental enemy AOEs will always display. - Many "aura"-type pets display their aura ranges in a similar fashion, such as a druid's Healing Sanctuary or a fairy's Fae Conduit. These should also follow the visibility settings described above. - Note: as of this update, all AoE abilities are centered on the caster, except for two Weather Witching abilities that are explicitly centered on the target. Previously, all AoEs were centered on the target, but the game didn't say that anywhere, and most players assumed it was centered on the caster! So this seems much more intuitive. But if there are specific AoE abilities that you feel should be centered on the target instead of the caster, please let us know and we'll consider it.

Angling


Traditionally, fishing in Project: Gorgon has involved scooping fish up out of the water with your bare hands -- what we might call 'tickling' the fish. And that's fine, as far as it goes. It takes real skill! But not all fish can be caught this way. (And more importantly, players have told us that an MMO "needs" to have traditional fishing in order to feel like a complete MMO.) So we've expanded Fishing with a new sub-skill: Angling. All you need is a fishing pole, some bait, and a body of water with catchable fish. (Also Fishing 15. And hands!) In order to get started, talk to Roshun the Traitor in Serbule. The precise mechanics of Angling aren't spelled out in the game at the moment. Since this game focuses on exploration, we expect players to be able to figure out how Angling works. Please let us know what parts of the system were hard to figure out, and we'll work to make those bits more obvious.

Skills & Abilities


From here out (and probably through the rest of beta), we'll be making small balance changes. We don't want to overnerf/overbuff things, so most changes will be relatively modest, and then we'll re-evaluate and adjust further after more observation. Warden: We've revised the formulae used for damage reflection, which resulted in nerfs to Privacy Field. On the other hand, multiple bug fixes actually increase the Warden's power significantly in other ways. - Privacy Field abilities: reduced base ability damage (Privacy Field 5 changed from 196 -> 138) - Treasure: "Privacy Field deals +60 damage to all melee attackers, and the first melee attacker is knocked away": 60 => 42 - Treasure: "Privacy Field also deals its damage when you are hit by burst attacks, and damage is +86": 86 => 47 - Treasure: "Privacy Field also deals its damage when you are hit by ranged attacks, and damage is +57": 57 => 48 - Treasure: "When Privacy Field deals damage, it also ignites the suspect, dealing 156 damage over 12 seconds": => 156 => 80. Note: previously this effect did not work at all, so this is technically a huge buff, not a nerf! - Treasure: "While Privacy Field is active, melee attacks that hit you have a 100% chance to restore 20 Power to you" : 100% chance => 75% chance. Note: previously this effect did not work at all, so this is technically a huge buff, not a nerf! - Treasure: "Apprehend deals +48 damage and hastens the current reuse timer of Controlled Burn by 2 seconds (so it can be used again more quickly)" : 2 seconds -> 1.5 seconds. Note: previously this effect did hasten Control Burn at at all, so this is technically a huge buff, not a nerf! - Controlled Burn: area-of-effect reduced from 15 meters to 10 meters. - Aggression Deterrent: area-of-effect reduced from 10 meters to 6 meters. Weather Witch: - New ability Summon Sandstorm: This is a variant of Summon Tornado intended to be more convenient in groups. It does not knock back foes, instead dealing bonus Armor damage. All tiers of this ability can be learned from the Sand Seer in Ilmari. - New rare ability Summon Doomstorm: This is a variant of Summon Tornado. It does not knock back foes. Instead it deals Darkness damage. Damage is improved over base version. This pet is marked as undead for purposes of ability targeting. In other words, heals that don't work on undead don't work on this pet either. Buffs that work on undead DO work on this pet. For now, all tiers of this ability can be found as loot scrolls. - Fixed bug that caused high-level summoned tornados to move incredibly fast. Normalized tornado speeds. - Summoned tornadoes accidentally had vulnerability stats for Cold Spheres. They now correctly have vulnerability stats for Tornadoes. Giant Bat: - "Your Confusing Double deals +67% damage with each attack": 67% => 45% - "Confusing Double summons an additional figment. Each figment deals +77 damage with each attack": 77 => 50 - "Confusing Double Reuse Timer -15": -15 => -10 Fire Magic: - "Fire Breath hits all targets within 8 meters and deals +30.5% damage, but reuse timer is +3 seconds and Power cost is +33%" => "Fire Breath hits all targets within 8 meters and deals +60 damage, but reuse timer is +3 seconds and Power cost is +40"

Settings


- The "Reset" button in Settings now resets the currently-selected tab to its default settings. The old functionality, undoing all current changes, is still doable by simply closing the window. - Added new experimental settings for Tab Targeting. You can find them in settings under GUI > Targeting > Tab Targeting (Experimental). -- Combat Range: Control the max range of tab targeting when you are in combat. -- Combat Lock: If your current target is in combat, only other in-combat enemies will be targeted via tab, unless none are in view. -- Prioritize Unlooted Corpses: When tabbing through corpses, should all un-looted corpses be targeted before looted corpses? -- You can now tab through targets as quickly as you can press the button. - Overwriting a keybind that's already bound now shows a confirmation prompt, including the name of the keybind being overwritten. - Reorganized and renamed several Settings, to make them more intuitively grouped and easier to find.

UI Changes


- "Controls" settings have been organized into Camera & Character controls, with sub-menus.- Allow clicking through entities in the new UI, similar to how it works in the old UI. If you click on something that's already selected, it selects the entity behind it (if there is one). - Reduced precision of click-selecting entities, so they can be selected without hovering directly over them. - All stat bars (and globes) now smoothly animate when they change, instead of statically changing to the new value. - Item stack size font now resizes properly for vaults (including saddlebag). - Fixed nameplate placement for mounted humanoids. - Fixed bug causing mouse cursor to disappear completely if mouse-dragging while zoning. - Fixed bug that caused very large tooltips not to display sometimes. - Removed hover-text about avatar portraits coming soon -- because they're here now! We live in the future! - Ability tooltips now display Special Values before Special Info, as those make more sense grouped together with the other numerical data. - Polished the lootable-corpse particles a bit. - Nameplates now fully fade out with distance instead of just the names. - Better handling of left-clicking nothing to deselect your current target. - Improved display of Crafting button when no hotkey is assigned. - Fixed quest window display bug when objective count number was very large. - Removed the "1" from the item slot in the bug report window. - Fixed bug causing stack sizes of items in the sidebar to get out of sync.

Graphics & Animation


- Wolves & cows now animate at proper speed when going up and down hills. - Replaced wolf's Hunting Speed animation with a howl animation. - Polished bard animations, so they flow together better now. The play-lute animation now always plays when you are playing a bard song, even if you use other abilities while playing the song. - Improved instrument-playing animations. - New VFX (animations, particles, & shader effects) for all Battle Chemistry abilities. - You can no longer auto-move while jumping. Doing so previously resulted in some very strange-looking animations. - Fixed weird animation bug when trying to do certain things while sitting or kneeling. - Failure to interact with something now returns the player to idle stance. - Fixed bug with Thentree armor causing weird shadows on male characters. - Mage Armor is now more polished, a bit darker, and has glowier gems - Fixed bug that would cause a dancing pig's mud to stick around forever. - Fixed bug where mounting while dancing would continue some dancing effects. - Improved texture for Spring Fairy armor. - Fixed face cam for Pigeons.

Other Bug Fixes & Tweaks


- Some legacy equipment that should have been Mastercrafted wasn't. Those items should be fixed now. - When you un-legacy equipment by pulling an invalid power off of it at the transmutation table, the legacy and broken state of that equipment is now properly updated. - Fixed bug allowing recipe items to be summoned from anywhere. - Updated Shadow Feint tooltip to display the correct AOE distance for blinking back to position. - Phrenology-based Mentalism & Psychology bonuses to critical chance now properly affect heals. - Improved logic related to channeling abilities; this should hopefully fix stuck-in-channel bugs. - Modified Mutation Injection ability descriptions to make it a bit clearer how they work. - Lycanthropy ability "Become Wolf": the skill check to disable wolf mode is no longer downleveled when your combat skills are downleveled. - Newly learned abilities, Wild Endurance, & First Aid should now correctly auto-rerank. - Dying by falling through the world now shows a special button in the death window, "Teleport to Last-Touched Ground", which teleports your dead body to the last ground you were standing on. While this isn't an ideal solution, it should allow you to be revived in party situations - Fixed bug causing skeleton warrior pets to repeatedly retreat a short distance when fighting something. - Astounding Cloth Shirt (Max-Enchanted) and Camouflaged Astounding Shirt (Max-Enchanted) recipes now require the correct ingredients. - Pressing spacebar while in an animal-mount form will no longer play the horse neighing sound. - Fixed typo in Evasion Boots (Enchanted) recipes. - Changed icon color for Acid Bomb to more of an acid-y color (and match the new VFX). - Acid Boost Potion recipe now correctly states that it lasts 30 minutes. - Fixed typo in quest "Holistic Wellness: Yarn" (twelve -> twenty-four balls of yarn). - The tsys mod, "Psi Health Wave grants all targets +X Mitigation vs. Electricity, Acid, and Nature attacks for 20 seconds" now displays in the effects list when it's active. - Fixed Dwarven Fixer causing screen brightness (instead of hiding it). - "Toxic Flesh" tooltip now takes poison damage buffs into account. - Using Objective Orienteering on "The Borghild Lead" quest now leads to the correct area. - Fixed typo in quest "The Borghild Lead" (south -> north). - Harry now hints more strongly that his Minor Panacea will not cure ALL curses, just a specific one. - The quest "Goblin Avenger: Ratkin!!!" now correct gives 10 Xedrite. - JSON users: Note that in skills.json's level-up rewards, "Ability" can now refer to a single ability or an array of abilities. Got feedback? Want to discuss these changes? Please join us on our Discord: https://discord.gg/projectgorgon


[ 2023-06-02 00:53:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update Notes: April 11, 2023

In this minor bug-fixing update: [olist]

  • Fixed broken item displays for quests.
  • The Legacy Item Helper golem can now detect when an item can be made un-Legacy by increasing the item's rarity, and can increase rarity to fix those items. This means you can now give the Legacy Item Helper your non-Legendary max-enchanted items, and it will fix them by just bumping their Rarity up one tier.
  • Fixed shields becoming Legacy when they have shield wax on them.
  • Scaled item stack size text with icons.
  • Treasure effect "Reconstruct causes the target to take X less damage from attacks for 10 seconds" is now 30 seconds. [/olist]


    [ 2023-04-11 20:12:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

  • Update Notes: April 6, 2023

    Welcome to update #383! Today we have some more tweaks and additions that expand upon the major changes we made in the last update. Plus, as usual, a bunch of bug fixes. Let's get to it!

    Changes to Uncommon and Rare Equipment


      We've made an experimental change to the lowest-rarity magic loot:
    • Uncommon (green) items now have two additional generic powers (for a total of 3 powers, but only 1 is specific to a skill).
    • Rare (blue) items now have one additional generic power (for a total of 3 powers, but only 2 are specific to skills).
    • In addition, we've created new generic treasure effects aimed at improving low- and mid-level player capabilities.

    Mastercrafted Items


    In the last major update, we temporarily removed the concept of "over-maximized" gear -- that is, Legendary max-enchanted items which were effectively "Legendary+". In this update, we've brought this concept back (but at a much lower power level). We've also set up the groundwork to allow us to improve these items in the future when overall high-level balance is in better shape. These "max-enchanted-beyond-Legendary" items are now called "Mastercrafted" items, and have the following benefits over regular Legendary items:
    • Mastercrafted items have 40 more Crafting Points than non-Mastercrafted items.
    • There is a new recipe that lets you restore a Mastercrafted item's transmutation durability as often as desired (for a hefty cost in prisms). The recipe can be learned from Sona in Gazluk.
    Newly-crafted Mastercrafted items will have these benefits. (This replaces the "get a second free Legendary" reward used in the last update.) Pre-existing (legacy) Mastercrafted items also have these benefits, but they still have the OLD benefit too (of an extra treasure effect). The Legacy Item Helper can remove that extra power, and then the pre-existing items won't be legacy anymore -- they'll be just like newly-crafted items.

    Legacy Item Helper


    Pre-existing Mastercrafted items still have one too many treasure effects on them, and in this patch they're marked as Legacy items. This means that you can continue to use them for 30 days, after which they stop being wearable. (NOTE: they will not *be deleted* after 30 days -- they just *stop being wearable* until you have the item repaired.) We've beefed up the old "Legacy Item Replacer" golem in Serbule -- giving it a new name, the "Legacy Item Helper". Hand your Legacy item to this golem and it will explain why the item is Legacy and offer ways to fix it:
    • If the item can be fixed by removing a power from it (because it's got more than the prescribed number of powers), the golem prompts the user for which power they want to remove, and removes that power.
    • If the item can be fixed by just transmuting a power off of the item, the golem tells the player this. The player can choose to go and transmute the item, or just get a replacement from the golem (like before).
    • For any other causes of Legacyness, the golem can only replace the item with a new one as before (for now). Hopefully, though, the new wording and warnings will make this less scary and error-prone!
    Remember: The golem can work with broken items, so even if you don't get a chance to fix your legacy item before it breaks - **don't** throw it away!

    Other Crafting Tweaks/Fixes


    • There are new recipes that let you reset a piece of armor's crafting points by wiping the item's enhancements, pockets, augments, etc. These are difficult high-level recipes. For now they can be trained from Felmer in the Fae Realm.
    • Revised some "rubywall" generic treasure mods to be less terrible. (They still don't scale very well, by intention. They're just less terrible than before.)
    • Fixed a bug where an item could have the same skill for both chosen skills, resulting in an item with bonuses for only one skill, causing it to immediately become a Legacy item.
    • Drima, Sir Johnson's assistant, has raised the price on all equipment from 2 "Sir Johnson Bucks" to 3. The items are now guaranteed to be Epic+ rarity (instead of Exceptional+).
    • Fixed a bug that prevented you from taking off equipment when your skills were temporarily down-ranked to the point that you no longer met the equip reqs of the item. (This could also generate errors when trying to use loadouts.)

    Ability UI Improvements


      Abilities now automatically change their rank when skills change, when either entering or exiting a skill level disparity. For example:
    • If you change from Necro 60/Bard 60 to Necro 60/Shield 10, all Necro abilities on your hotbar will de-rank to level 35 abilities.
    • If you change from Necro 60/Shield 10 to Necro 60/Staff 55, all Necro abilities on your hotbar will up-rank to level 60 abilities.
    • If you change from Necro 60/Bard 60 to Necro 60/Staff 55, Necro abilities on your hotbar will not change ranks.
    This new auto-reranking of abilities can be disabled quickly by right-clicking the Ability hotbar and choosing Settings > Disable Ability Auto Re-Rank. It can also be toggled in the Settings panel, under GUI > Features > Abilities & Items > Auto Re-Rank Abilities. In addition:
    • Individual abilities on your hotbar can now be changed quickly by right-clicking an ability and selecting "Change Ability".
    • You can now disable the display of the hotkey assigned to that hotbar slot.
    • The rank of an ability is now displayed on its ability icon.
    You can toggle all of these options by right-clicking the ability hotbar and choosing Settings > Show Ability Ranks or Settings > Show Hotbar Hotkeys. These options can also be accessed in the Settings panel, under the GUI > Features > Abilities & Items submenu.

    More UI Fixes


    • Pressing alt will now show any currently-hidden overhead labels in the new UI.
    • Changed the names of some ability groups in the Skills and Abilities window so they are more generic, such as "Tame Rat" -> "Tame Animal".
    • Polished lots of ability tooltips to rearrange how some data is presented on them, mostly the Special effects.
    • Many abilities cannot be used in the air. Attempting to do so will now behave like any other cannot-use-ability case: the icon will gray out and the error will display in the tooltip.
    • The "Search Corpse" button on pets now properly updates to "Check" when the pet is revived.
    • Combat Info no longer shows Player levels (which were always showing as 0 anyway).
    • Fixed a UI bug that would cause all items to display as sellable if the vendor reset timer somehow goes negative.
    • Fixed a bug causing items to sometimes not float to the correct location when the inventory is open and any bag besides the first one is selected.
    • Added a new beta command, **/reloadchar**, that will reload your character's appearance. This should fix many animation issues that arise because it re-initializes the whole character, including their animations. (You should still report any bugs you run into, but this command is a quick way to fix yourself - after you send in a report!)

    Other Fixes & Tweaks


    • Fixed issue that could cause players to fall through the world when using the new selection system.
    • Fixed a rare bug when switching areas that could cause a player character to effectively "roll back" to a version of their character that is about 1 minute in the past, losing any progress from the previous minute.
    • The mod "Reconstruct causes the target to take X less damage from attacks for 30 seconds" now correctly states 10 seconds.
    • Butchering an Ice Runner now gives the player a Raw Paralytic Chicken instead of a plain Raw Chicken. Note that the butchering requirement has been raised from 10 to 35 (to match Ice Runners' target level). In addition, Ice Runners have a small chance of dropping Raw Paralytic Chicken as loot.
    • Tyler Green in Serbule Hills will now install low-level augments at Neutral favor. (Before it required Friends.)
    • Moved the Council Proclamation Form to its own fancy little table on the other side of the room so it won't be in Hulon's way.
    • Animal illusion forms can no longer milk cows.
    • Bulwark Mode now turns off when you change form.
    • Summoning recipe ingredients now takes your saddlebag into account.
    • Fixed a bug causing HP to sometimes get out of sync when hit by projectiles.
    • The special teleportation scroll "Teleportation: Recall Gazluk Animal Camp", which can now be found rarely in loot, was teaching the special teleport destination "Recall Serbule Docks" instead. This has been fixed.
    • Ukorga's tanning rack can be selected. This fix also fixes items falling through the floors in the houses in Kur Mountains.
    • It's no longer freezing inside Ukorga's house.
    • The quest "Cleo's Lost Books" from Cleo Conyers now tells the player to go east, not west.
    • Newbie players can find a free butcher knife at the top of Elmetaph's tower. (Previously there was a small chance to find a butcher knife in Lawara's chest; this has been removed)
    • There has been a small change to the flow in the Anagoge Records Facility (the dungeon on the newbie island). There's a new barrier between the second and third floors that requires the player to talk to Elmetaph. This should not affect existing players who have already made it to Serbule Hills.
    • Added a new emote! /kneel
    • Added new dance animations for Cow, Pig, and Wolf dance variants. Cows speed up or slow down depending on the variant. Pig dances now involve a lot more mud. And some Wolf variants now come with glowy eyes!
    • Polished Cow, Pig, and Wolf animations in general, adding some new ones and making them flow together more smoothly.
    • Fixed grass pop-in issues in several zones.
    • Fixed a bug where channeling while jumping breaks your character.
    • Fixed a bug causing the Unarmed combat stance to sometimes show up when it shouldn't (for example, while playing a Bard song).
    • Failure to revive a pet no longer plays the kick animation.

    Update Notes: April 6, 2023, part 2


    In this bug-fixing update:
    • Items should no longer erroneously report stack sizes of 1.
    • Fixed alcohol becoming Legacy. (Any booze that went Legacy is un-Legacied.)
    • Fixed crafted Uncommon belts having three treasure effects -- belts are still only supposed to have 1. (Any existing 3-effect crafted belts have become Legacy.)
    • Remove text from cosmetic pet icons.
    • Cows now use a subtler animation for many non-cow abilities.
    • Added rank numbers to spontaneous fireballs.
    Known Bugs: Some items are being shown as Legacy when they shouldn't:
    • We're investigating reports that shield wax can make a shield become Legacy -- but only until the wax wears off
    • Max-enchanted non-Legendaries are being reported as Legacy because they have more effects than they're supposed to. In the next update, we'll improve the Legacy Item Helper golem so that it can fix these items by increasing their rarity. (e.g. the fix for a max-enchanted purple is to turn it into a normal yellow.) Hold on to those items for now.
    If you run into another situation where an item unexpectedly becomes Legacy, please report it in-game, and include the item in your bug report. (Including the item is very important!) We'll fix these issues before the 30 day Legacy timer winds down, so after reporting the bug, you can just continue using the item like normal.


    [ 2023-04-07 05:40:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: March 11, 2023

    This minor update fixes bugs and refines the new systems from last week's update. We'd also like to use these patch notes to give extra behind-the-scenes info for long time players about why the recent gameplay changes are happening, and where we're headed. You can skip all the "Background Info" sections if you just want to read about the changes in this update!

    XP Changes:


    Background Info: Goals of the XP Changes


    The recent XP changes had two different goals. The first goal is to prevent players from staying in the same hunting area for too long. Previously, since XP amounts was relatively flat across levels, players could stay in one spot (such as the goblin dungeon in Eltibule) for many, many levels because it was easy and effective. This left players weak because they were only finding level 30 equipment all that time. And farming the same dungeon for 30 levels is boring game design. The other goal is to require players to actually use a skill to level it. Previously, experienced players would level one pair of combat skills to 80, and then they could level literally ALL other combat skills in a fraction of the time it was supposed to take. They just paired a new level 1 skill with one of their level 80 skills. They never needed to find gear for those lower levels, or visit lower-level dungeons at all. That's awful game design because it obsoletes almost all of the game's content. Ideally, if a level 80 player switched to using two new level 1 combat skills, they'd effectively be a combat newbie -- aside from the cheaty powers on their sidebar. Thus they would need to return to Serbule or somewhere similar to level up a bit, then head to appropriate level 20 areas, then 30, then 40, etc. That's our eventual goal after more iterations. It doesn't really work yet because not everything scales yet. For instance, Max Armor doesn't scale yet, so your gear still gives you all the armor of a level 80 player even if your combat skills are level 1. Finding good solutions to all these scaling issues will take time.

    Background Info: Leveling Speed


    The intent with the last update was to keep the relative XP value of monsters the same, so that a level N player killing a level N monster would give the same relative advancement as it did before the update. However, there were many bugs (and "surprise game-system interactions") which made that not work. We've fixed those issues, but we've also abandoned that goal! After reviewing the old XP curve more carefully, it had problems that made leveling happen too fast. Even though there have been a lot of fixes in this update, leveling should feel somewhat slower than before. Leveling needed to slow down so that players are more likely to find level-appropriate gear before they level up too far. Now that we've fixed a bunch of bugs, we'd like more feedback on how the curve works! We'll keep refining things as needed.

    In this update: Revised XP Dropoff Rate (When Killing Higher-Level Monsters)


    In the last big update, we added a new rule that if you kill monsters higher than your level, you get reduced XP. In this update, we've refined the rates at which XP drops off. In the last update, if you killed a monster 5 levels above you (or less), you got 100% of the XP. This was a big problem because monster XP rates now increase VERY dramatically: about 10% per monster level! An average level 50 monster is worth 1373 XP, while a level 55 monster is worth 2249 XP. By killing monsters exactly 5 levels above their level, players could advance at almost double speed. On the other hand, after 10 levels, the old curve dropped off very quickly, such that you got essentially 0 XP for monsters more than 15 levels above you. This seemed a bit too punitive, at least given the current content landscape. Now, the XP dropoff is 10% per level, which approximates the 10% monster XP increase per level. So no matter what level you are, you get about the same amount of XP for that higher-level monster, up to 25 levels above it. Here are some examples: Suppose you are level 49 and are fighting a level 50 monster worth 1373 XP. Since the monster is 1 level higher than you, the penalty would be 10%, and you would receive 1236 XP. (This is approximately how much a level 49 monster would be worth.) Suppose you're level 45 and are fighting that level 50 monster worth 1373 XP. Since the monster is 5 levels higher than you, the penalty would be 10%, then 10% of THAT value, then 10% of THAT value, then 10% of that value, then 10% of that value. The level 50 monster worth 1373 XP becomes 811 XP when killed by a level 45 player. (A typical level 45 monster would be worth 861 XP, so you can see the math isn't perfect, but it stays in the same ballpark.) Now we'll go to the extreme end: suppose you're level 45 and you've managed to solo a level 70 monster worth 12,498 XP. Since you are 25 levels below the monster, we apply the 10% penalty 25 times, and the level 70 monster ends up being worth 897 XP when killed by a level 45 player. (The final cutoff is still 25 levels -- if the monster had been level 71 instead of level 70, you would receive 0 XP because it's more than 25 levels above you.) This revision means that you can hunt in places up to 25 levels above you and get appropriate XP, without giving overmuch XP to players who can kill those higher-level monsters (such a by being in a group with higher-level players). These XP curves and ideas are still in heavy development, so expect more changes as we refine our goals and implementation. PS - remember that monster XP is split between your two active combat skills! Half of the XP goes into each skill, and the penalty is calculated per-skill. So if you kill a a level 50 monster worth 1000 XP, half of that 1000 is given to your first active combat skill (and possibly reduced as explained above, if that skill is higher than the monster's level). The other half is given to your other active combat skill (and is reduced if it's higher).

    Background Info: Max-Enchanted Change


    I (Citan, head dev) want to apologize to the long-time players who have max-enchanted legendaries. This is definitely a nerf, and it's intentional, because I can't balance the game when the power disparity is as large as it is at high levels. Mod potency is multiplicative, and those 9 extra mods really are a big deal in terms of overall power scaling. (Even when treasure mods aren't literally multiplicative they still have a pseudo-multiplicative effect on your character's potency -- for instance, by making characters much more versatile than they should be.) We made this change now, months BEFORE launching new levels, because the expectation is that you will need new gear at higher level. We're not marking those items as Legacy yet because we don't need to do that yet -- you can keep using them for now and we'll mark them as Legacy before we raise the level cap. The change was made now to give you time to prepare for the change, and to stop crafters from making more gear that would ultimately get nerfed. To answer questions that players have asked:
    • We'll provide a way to pick one mod to remove from you max-enchanted legendaries, making them non-Legacy so you can keep using them.
    • Mega-raffle gear that's max-enchanted legendary will be treated like other max-enchanted legendaries.
    • We're not going to "grandfather" existing level 80 max-enchanted legacies. In many cases, that one extra treasure mod on a level 80 item makes it better than a level 100 item with one fewer mod. That would mean players with these grandfathered items don't need to replace them until we launch level 100+ content! That is problematic for balancing in many ways.

    Background Info: Crafting vs. Looting


    The old max-enchanting system existed for too long, and we should have changed it long ago. I'm sorry about that. I don't apologize for most nerfs -- this is beta, and there will be lots more nerfs -- but I apologize for this being such a surprise. The old max-enchanting system made it seem like we wanted crafted gear to always be better than looted gear. But that is definitely not the case. I want crafted gear to be the best choice for some builds, but looted gear should be the best choice for at least half of the game's builds. I want Project: Gorgon to have exciting loot! I want to find a legendary item in a high level dungeon and be super excited. I do not want to be in a high-level dungeon only to farm "mats" (materials) so that a crafter can craft my gear at some future date. I know some games do that, but It's not what I want for my game. However, I do expect crafting to play a big role in max-level play. (And yes, farming mats to play a role as well.) The existing armor-crafting recipes are mainly there to help you level and create something useful. (And in some cases, to create the best possible gear for certain builds.) At max level, these skills will also offer repeatable buff recipes -- e.g. armorsmiths can "reinforce" a piece of armor for a time, giving it a buff. Weapon crafters can "sharpen" the weapons, etc. This will give max-level players a repeating reason to visit crafters (or be one themselves). The potency of these buffs will be similar to a "generic" treasure mod, but it will wear off after enough use. The intent is for those buffs to last for quite a while, but eventually to need reapplying. It doesn't really make sense to implement these buffs until we've implemented level 100+ content. But that's where we're headed.

    Weather Witching Fixes


    • Weather Witching + Warden equipment is now a valid combination that can be found in loot and treasure. (Although note that only butterflies can use such equipment!)
    • The following Weather Witching treasure buffs were bugged such that they disappeared as soon as you used an ability:
      • "While Wind Ward is active, you gain +N% Melee Evasion"
      • "While Wind Ward is active, you gain +N% Burst Evasion"
    • The following Weather Witching treasure debuffs were similarly bugged, and disappeared as soon as the monster used an ability:
      • "Dampen deals Cold damage and debuffs the target so that it takes +N damage from future Cold attacks for 10 seconds"
      • "Dampen debuffs the target so that it takes +N damage from future Nature attacks for 10 seconds"
      • "Deluge deals +N damage on contact and increases the target's Poison Vulnerability +15% for 30 seconds (non-stacking)"
      • "Deluge deals an additional N nature damage over 7 seconds. For 7 seconds, target has a 15% chance to Miss with any Melee attack."
    • The following abilities can now be used underwater or in shallow water: Dampen, Deluge, Tsunami, and Hailstorm.
    • Hailstorm is now a Signature Debuff ability.
    • The effect "Summoned Tornadoes move much faster and their attacks deal +N% damage": tornado speed is buffed +6 instead of +9.
    • The effect "Summoned Tornado attacks deal +N damage and cause the target to take 15% more damage from Electricity for 10 seconds (non-stacking)": this debuff was stacking incorrectly. Is now non-stacking as intended.
    • The treasure mod "Shocking Grasp Damage +N. Every other use has a 25% chance to stun the target" will no longer generate extraneous error messages.
    • Corrected recipe text for level 80 Weather Witching research: there are four level 80 spells, not five.

    UI and Graphics Fixes


    • Nameplates of entities that update (such as growing garden plants) will no longer get stuck on the screen.
    • When the thing you have selected updates, the button will update too when applicable (such as trees/bushes running out of fruit).
    • Nameplates no longer get in the way of dragging to move the camera.
    • Fixed selection problems with the following: Beer Barrels, some Chests, Writing Benches, Firefly Boxes, Zombie Hands, Urns, & Jack-o-Lantern turrets.
    • The Animal Town transfer chest, grapevines in Serbule Hills, and the New Prestonbule portcullis are selectable with the new UI.
    • Fixed mouse-cursor-changing logic so the mouse should no longer disappear.
    • The escape key no longer sends chat messages.
    • When the party leader changes, the new leader's party frame will jump to the top of the list.
    • New UI now respects the "Use Floaty Numbers" and "Auto-Move to Interactors" settings.
    • Modified the logic of looping animations. This should fix bugs where the character gets stuck in an infinite looping animation.
    • Added missing water bubble icon. This affected multiple items, including Kraken Potions and Water-Breathing Potions.
    • Grass Draw Distance setting is now properly clamped between 50 and 500.
    • Fixed visibility of some graphics dropdowns.
    • Ability tooltips now use proper number formatting for any "special" numbers, such as Cur Tempest Energy or the amount that Blast of Defiance Reaps.
    • Fixed the Damage Over Time calculation in ability tooltips, so it now matches the actual damage done.
    • Portrait combat numbers will no longer get stuck when zoning.
    • Effect stack text now scales with effect icon size.
    • Fixed bug causing text overflow for some ability tooltips.
    • Changed color of highlight around items that are usable in the current-selected recipe to orange.

    Other Fixes


    • Fixed bug that broke storage switching if certain crafting recipes were open.
    • Fixed bug preventing "That'll Do" from activating properly, leaving the character in a weird, very slow condition.
    • Fixed bug that caused alcohol toxins to not wear off if you moved to a different area or logged out drunk.
    • Fixed more logic bugs that could cause a piece of equipment's instant effects to be re-applied at inappropriate times. (a/k/a "Sometimes when my instrument is equipped, my skill bar changes to Performance".)
    • Fixed a bug that was causing armor set buffs to wear off when zoning.
    • Illusive Guise and Insidious Illusion sidebar abilities don't need to be kept on the sidebar to maintain the buffs.
    • Fixed a bug that caused Fairy Magic abilities to bypass the 25-level skill disparity cap.
    • Fixed a bug that caused Crossbow and Endurance sidebar abilities to bypass the 25-level skill disparity cap. For now, the other sidebar abilities (such as Stake the Heart and Spade Assault) are usable regardless of combat level disparity. We'll revisit this after a while to see if it's a good idea.
    • Comfortable Bed in Serbule and Rustic Bedroll in Serbule Hills are now slept in properly. In addition, the Rustic Bedroll no longer shoots the camera through the ground.
    • Adjusted the colliders on humanoids. This might help prevent Velkort from getting stuck on his flame buddy.
    • Foxes won't get stuck in certain areas as easily anymore.
    • Sir Arif now lets animals turn in delivery quests to him.
    • Endurance previously used a placeholder XP table. It now uses an XP table tailored to modern monster damage output. This makes it dramatically easier to level Endurance compared to a few patches ago.
    • Repeatable kill-quests that reward Combat XP now scale the same way monsters do. In other words, completing a level 80 kill quest now scales down the XP reward if you're lower than level 80, the same way higher-level monster XP is scaled
    • Fixed some monster-pets (monsters spawned by other monsters) that were worth XP.


    [ 2023-03-12 00:06:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: March 3, 2023

    This patch fixes bugs in yesterday's patch:

    • Fixed gift-giving window & related windows not working.
    • Spiders can use non-spider abilities again.
    • Fixed the "sometimes while my horn is equipped my skill bar changes to stringed instruments" bug.
    • Player Work Orders will no longer immediately expire.
    • Creature levels now display at anatomy level 5 instead of 50. (This is a temporary hack -- we have other ideas on how to display level disparity in the future)
    • Certain First-Aid abilities are now exceptions to the new rule that you must keep the ability on your bar to maintain a buff. Affected abilities are: "Soberize", "Emergency Alcohol Treatment", and "Field Prophylactic".
    • Fixed bug preventing humanoids from playing music.
    • Saving settings will no longer cause nameplates to get stuck on the screen.
    • Fixed bug causing nameplates to multiply infinitely.
    • "Use New Selection UI" setting should be properly respected when restarting the game.
    • Cursors on linux should no longer be gigantic.
    • There is a new setting for disabling cursor changes when hovering over things: Settings > GUI > Mouse Selection > Change Cursor on Hover
    • Fixed bug where Animal Handling pets couldn't follow your commands because they had -1 Power
    • added Shock Dust to level 20 powders loot table (it is also in the level 30 and 40 powder tables)
    • reset version of Drunkenness effects (which may help users suffering from infinite drunkenness)
    Thanks for your reports! We're still investigating some issues with the XP curve (seems slower than intended), as well as working to repro a few minor bugs. But if you're experiencing a new BIG bug and it wasn't fixed here, please let us know ASAP!


    [ 2023-03-03 17:01:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: March 2, 2023

    As winter winds its way towards spring, we have another exciting update full of bug fixes, improvements, and big changes. The experimental selection UI is finally becoming a real boy, XP curves are getting lots of work done, and there's a brand new combat skill to learn.

    Preface: Bugs!


    We already know about several bugs and are working on a fix for them:
    • the Give Gift menu option doesn't work for most NPCs. We will fix this within 24 hours.
    • nameplates in the new UI get "stuck" when you switch on/off the new UI system. We will fix this within 24 hours -- in the short term you can fix it by restarting the game.
    • new beds in Serbule Hills look weird when you sleep in them. We will fix this in a future update.

    Combat XP Changes


    We've made lots of improvements to how combat XP is earned. We'll discuss the changes and the reasons for them next.

    XP Curve Rework


    We've adjusted the combat XP level-curve so that you need a LOT more XP to level up each level, and monsters are worth dramatically more XP with each level, too. The goal here is to encourage players to fight monsters closer to their level. The number of same-level monsters you need to kill hasn't changed (much). In other words, when you're level 80, killing a hundred level 80 monsters will advance the XP bar just as much (or more likely, more) towards level 81 as before. So what's changed? Previously, instead of killing those 100 level 80 monsters, you could kill 250 level 40 monsters to get the same amount of XP. Players often found this to be much easier and faster than fighting monsters of your same level, so players tended to stay in the same low-level hunting areas for way too long. This causes lots of problems: your gear doesn't keep up with your level, for one thing. And it's super boring to grind the same dungeon for 40 levels, too! NOTE: Your existing skill levels are unchanged. This affects earning XP going forward and is not retroactive.

    Monster XP Values Rework


    We've also done lots of work to make monster XP awards more logical and fair. The XP amounts for monsters were pretty arbitrary before, mostly focusing on the amount of Health the monster has. This caused "glass cannon" monsters, which are some of the deadliest, to be worth pitiful amounts of XP, while damage-sponge monsters were worth 200% to 300% more. All monster XP values have been revised to take health, armor, damage, and special features (such as evasion) into account.

    XP Scaling Changes


    Now that monster XP scales non-linearly, we also need a cutoff for earning XP above your level. Why? Consider the case of a high-level player grouping with a newbie: high level monsters are now worth so much XP that the newbie would insta-level by 10+ levels per monster defeated! We don't think it's bad for high level players to "carry" newbies, but there need to be reasonable limits. Now, if the monster you defeat is more than 5 levels higher than one (or both) of your active combat skills, the amount of XP you earn in that skill is reduced. If the monster is 25+ levels above your skill level, you earn 0 XP in that skill.

    Treasure-Effect Scaling Changes


    We've also re-enabled a feature we implemented last year. (It was buggy so we had to turn it off.) If your two active combat skills are more than 25 levels apart, your equipment's random treasure effects will now downscale automatically. For instance, if your active skills are level 50 and level 1, that's more than 25 levels apart. Your "effective gear level" is your lower skill plus 25, so in this case any treasure effects that have level requirements above 26 will be reduced to lower-level versions where available. This does not yet affect "white-label" effects, that is, the innate features of your gear. So in the previous example, your treasure effects would downscale to level 26, but you would still have all the Max Armor of a level 50 player. This makes you functionally invincible against level 26 creatures, of course, so it's something we'll be slowly working on over additional updates.

    Feedback Needed


    With this many changes, we expect there to be problems. Bugs with some XP tables, perhaps, or special scenarios we haven't thought of. Please let us know what you run into and we'll get things fixed up. In the short term if you are unsure of whether an XP-curve issue is a bug or a feature, you can communicate with the devs via the discord channel. (Normally we ask that you submit bugs via the in-game bug-report button... and we STILL want you to do that! But if you aren't sure if something is a bug, feel free to ask.) We also realize that this change will push players to find new hunting grounds, and some level ranges may not have adequate dungeons available. That's a good thing! We need to know where those problem areas are so we can fix them.

    Weather Witching


    With all these combat-XP changes, it seemed like a good time for a new combat skill. Weather Witching was planned long ago, then was scrapped, but now it's back! This is a chaotic magical skill that requires a bit of finesse to use optimally. But most importantly, it's a lot of fun. To get started, find a pair of elves in Serbule Hills -- they're camping in an old hunting lodge. For animal players, first the bad news: Weather Witching is unavailable to most animals. But the good news: several animals saw improvements this update, including Spirit Fox and Werewolf. (See below.) Butterflies are the special case: they can use weather witching via a magical item that can be purchased from Yavazek in Animal Town.

    New Buff/Debuff Requirement: Keep It On Your Bar


    If a buff or debuff effect is applied due to an ability, that effect will now be dispelled if you take that ability off your ability bar. The goal is to prevent players from gaining the benefits of too many abilities at the same time (by switching load-outs between fights). This restriction does not apply when you are on a mount.

    Max-Enchanted Recipe Change


    The meaning of "Max Enchanted" recipes has changed. Previously, these recipes increased the number of powers on the item by 1. Now, they increase the Rarity of the item by one tier. Since each rarity level increases the number of powers by 1, this is effectively the same thing, except for when the item is naturally a Legendary item. Since a Legendary item can't have its rarity increased, we give an alternative reward: the crafter creates two Legendary items instead of one. (We're working on something more exciting for the future, possibly giving the max-enchanted Legendary an additional 20 crafting points, or something like that.) Existing Max-Enchanted Legendary items, meaning items that have 1 power more than is now possible to obtain, will eventually be obsoleted -- you can think of them as Legacy items. However, we haven't yet marked them as Legacy items because that would start a 30-day countdown before the items break, and that's sooner than we need them gone. Before we mark them as "officially Legacy", we'll add a way to let players "demote" these overpowered items (by removing a power) so that they can still use them. (We will also auto-upgrade existing max-enchanted non-Legendary items so that the have a higher rarity in the future, normalizing things so that 1 rarity tier = 1 ability mod.)

    Channeled Ability Changes


    In the past, the Priest skill's channeled abilities had a weird unintended side-effect: you could cast another ability while you were channeling the first ability, so long as the other ability was fast and didn't require movement. This was unintentional, and that "feature" was mostly lost when animations changed. However, it does seem like a fun idea and we want to try it officially! Since Weather Witching also has some channeled abilities, this seemed like the right time to try this mechanic out. So now if you use a channeled ability, and you time it right, you can perform another ability while the channeling is happening. The second ability can't require movement, and not all abilities can work this way, but most can. This is an experiment where we're looking for fun gameplay, not balance per se. It's likely that this change makes Priest overpowered, and also makes some Priest treasure-effects pretty useless. We can revise that kind of stuff if the idea seems worth keeping.

    Spirit Fox Changes


    • Power Glyph: this is now correctly marked as a Survival Utility ability (bug fix).
    • New treasure effect: (Chest) "Galvanize Reuse Timer -10.5 secs"
    • New treasure effect: (Necklace, Legs) "Galvanize boosts targeted pets' non-Rage attacks +X for 45 seconds"
    • New ability: Infectious Instincts: usable only on an allied pet, this boost's the damage of the pet's next attack. Learnable from a Completely Normal Fox deep beneath Kur.
    • New treasure effect: (Head, Ring) Infectious Instincts boosts target pet's next attack +160
    • New treasure effect: (Chest, OffHand) Infectious Instincts boosts target pet's non-Rage Attack damage +58 for 12 seconds
    • New treasure effect: (Hands, Feet) Infectious Instincts grants target pet +43 Mitigation vs. elemental (fire, cold, and electricity) damage for 20 seconds
    • New treasure effect: (Legs, Necklace) Infectious Instincts grants target pet +29 Mitigation vs. physical (slashing, crushing, and piercing) damage for 20 seconds
    • New treasure effect: (Necklace): "Galvanize grants pets Health (or Armor if Health is full) equal to the amount of Power generated +105"
    • After one too many complaints from stablemasters, we've decided that Spirit Foxes are no longer allowed to ride horses. Instead, they should seek out Mittens in Kur to learn how to fast-travel directly as a spirit fox. (Requires Spirit Fox 25, Friends, 1000g)

    Skills & Abilities


    • Getting stunned should no longer interrupt an attack that's usable while stunned.
    • Fire Magic: There are only two "Flare Fireball" abilities, but they were numbered "Flare Fireball 2" and "Flare Fireball 4". Renumbered to 1 and 2, respectively.
    • Fire Magic: The ability "Flare Fireball 4" (now renamed to "Flare Fireball 2") was a level 50 ability learned at level 55. Ability is now level 55 (with slightly higher base damage).
    • Ice Magic: Cold Spheres now have a small amount of Armor.
    • Lycanthropy: New treasure effect (Necklace): "If you are reduced to 0 health while Shadow Feint is active, it automatically triggers and cancels the damage. In addition, Shadow Feint boosts your accuracy +N until triggered."
    • Lycanthropy: New Altar of Norala options: "+1 Non-Combat Sprint Speed" (costs 3). Purchasing this unlocks the second tier version "+1 Non-Combat Sprint Speed & +1 Movement Speed" (costs 3).
    • Lycanthropy Pro Tip: Stat boosts from the Altar of Norala work in any form, not just in wolf form
    • Removed ability-usage delay for butterflies.
    • Added contextual hotkey for Analyze Genes.

    Everything Else


    Selection UI


    After months of gathering feedback and making changes, we have officially promoted the new selection UI - it's no longer experimental! The setting to use the new UI is enabled by default, but you can change this in the Settings panel, under GUI > Mouse Selection > Use New Selection UI. (In a future patch, after we're certain we have any major bugs dealt with, this setting (and the old UI) will be removed completely.)

    Target of Target


      Another exciting change in this update: You can now see your target's target!
    • At Anatomy level 25 (for each sub-anatomy, E.G. "Fae Anatomy"), you'll be able to see your target's current target, as well as their current health, armor, and if they are enraged. Clicking on the target will select it.
    • The existing Target UI has been adjusted a bit to fit the new target-of-target UI. Most notably, Real-Time Effects and the Combat Info button have been moved.
    • Seeing Real-Time Effects on a target has been moved from sub-Anatomy level 25 to 35.

    Chat Commands


      We have slightly revamped how custom chatroom chatting works:
    • '/c ' no longer exists.
    • '/c ' sets your current chatroom to .
    • '/c ' sets current chatroom to and sends to it.
    • '/cc ' sends to without setting it to the current chatroom.
    • 'global', 'nearby', and 'guild' can now all be used with the /c commands.
    We've also added a help button to the chat window - a little question mark in the upper right - which shows the same info as typing /help.

    Other UI Stuff


    • The strength of the highlight when hovering over an entity can now be controlled via GUI > Mouse Selection > Overlays > Hover Highlight Strength.
    • New selection UI now shows distance to current target when you hold in alt.
    • New selection UI now handles the "Hold to Bypass Clicking Players & Pets" key.
    • New Selection UI now respects all of the "Overhead Info" settings.
    • Improved the new click-selection algorithm, so entities should be easier to click on.
    • Updated selection hitboxes & facecam avatars for a long, long list of creatures.
    • Fixed a bug that caused the cursor graphic to get stuck if a nameplate disappears while you're hovering over it.
    • Added "Show/Hide Hotbar Globes" to hotbar & player stats right-click menus.
    • Added "Show/Hide Metabolism Bar" to player stats right-click menu.
    • Organized Graphics settings and changed several sliders to dropdowns.
    • Right-clicking on the active-skill hotbar is now easier; if you click the space between ability icons it will still show the full context menu.
    • Ability Tooltips now show multiple "Other" effects in a more concise format.
    • Fixed bugs that prevented some Privacy Field mods from showing up in the Ability Tooltip.
    • When you use an ability on a party member, that ability's icon will once again appear on their party frame to indicate that it went through.
    • Party frames can now be resized and re-padded, under "Settings/GUI/Features/Party Frames", "Party Frame Scale" and "Party Frame Spacing".
    • Fixed bug that prevented right-clicking on a party member who is not in the same area as you.
    • Added outlines to party names.
    • Added max-use info to recipe window.
    • Right-clicking a craftable item in a quest objective now shows the "Jump to Recipe" option for Enchanted recipes.
    • Moved the settings "Scale Names with Distance" and "Overhead Name Fade Distance" under a new section, "Old Selection UI", which is only visible when using the old selection UI.
    • Added button to GUI Settings that resets all window positions & sizes to their default, in case a window goes off-screen or any other GUI weirdness happens.

    Graphics & Such


    • Fixed several instances of armor being invisible on one side (such as being able to "see through" the inside of a helmet, or spring fairy leggings).
    • Fixed some helmets that would allow the wearer's scalp to poke through.
    • Fixed bug that caused some particles to appear on invisible creatures.
    • Personal Rainstorm effect is now easier on the eyes.
    • Added mount trails to Cow & Pig.
    • Fixed bug with fae feet when chopping wood.
    • Added turning-while-standing-still animation to humanoids (out of combat only).
    • Added smoke VFX to hags.
    • Revamped Fire Rat visual; they now glow and have a flame at the end of their tail.
    • New visuals for Fire Sheep.
    • Fixed Biting Vines death animation.
    • Fixed graphical glitch with Drakeworms.
    • Faces of Death now stop animating when they die.
    • NPC hares should no longer sink into the ground.
    • Wolves no longer float above the ground.
    • Fixed bug causing dead players to stand back up.

    Other


    • Bottled items in stacks now have a right-click option to "Empty All Bottles" (if their stack size is greater than 1).
    • When crafting, fillable ingredients are now highlighted in your inventory.
    • Fixed a bug that prevented work order cancels from returning councils.
    • Fixed a bug preventing level 0-10 Industry and Foraging textbooks from being read when you don't have those skills yet.
    • Gifts of equipment to NPCs are now worth notably less Favor.
    • You can now deploy ice fishing gear properly on the lake near the Necromancer's Tower in Kur Mountains.
    • Ice fishing lakes in Kur Mountains once again give a variety of fish, including some species that weren't available there before.
    • Campfires in Kur are a little safer now to cut down on campfire murders. (Does not include the orc camp fires.)
    • Northern, Pure, & Augmented Bounceweed now affect foxes.
    • Lowered council value of fairy starter gear.
    • Removed coin purses from Fae Newbie Chest and moved them to a reward for completing the Fae starter arc.
    • Fire Sheep are more deadly when they explode.
    • Fixed bug that prevented players from seeing a notification message when an item gets used up in combat.
    • The JSON file npcs.json has a bit of new information in it: item preferences now have a "Desire" field which will be "Love", "Like", "Neutral", "Dislike", or "Hate". This information corresponds to what is displayed in-game when you learn an NPC's likes and dislikes. (You could kinda-sorta figure this out before from the "Pref" value, but that's becoming less and less accurate -- in fact, the "Pref" field will eventually be removed from npcs.json when the client stops referencing it. If you're using that field, please switch to using the "Desire" field where possible.)
    • A number of JSON files have had changes to their format: sources_items.json, sources_recipes.json, sources_abilities.json. They now include additional information, some of which is not yet used by the client (but will be in the future)
    • The JSON file sources_items.json is now documented in the CDN's help page. (The file format is now reasonably stable. Yay!)


    [ 2023-03-03 02:44:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: January 17, 2023

    This fixes some issues in yesterday's update.

    • Fix bug preventing abilities from being queued
    • Fix swim-jump-skating
    • Fix bug that causes nameplate to get stuck when you select a party member from their party frame
    • You can no longer select things through walls
    • Promoting or kicking party member will now show their name instead of "PartyFrame(Clone)"
    • Fix broken floaties & speech bubbles for default selection UI


    [ 2023-01-18 03:26:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: January 16, 2023

    New Year, New Database Code


    The Ri-Shin Celebration is over for another year, and the residents of Alharth have put away their red fur-trimmed hats. But don't worry - we have a lot of exciting additions in store this year! This particular update, however, we had to start 2023 off slow: we've done a bunch of internal database code updates. It's very unsexy server work, but it's very important! It's possible there are new bugs related to database features -- things like storage vaults, player shops, player mail, etc. If you find a bug, PLEASE report it in-game via the '!' button at the top of your right-hand toolbar. (Reporting this way also includes your exact location in case that's relevant to the bug you found.) But even while we were focused on that boring stuff, we managed to get some nice fixes and tweaks into this update!

    New Party Frames


    One quality of life improvement in this update is new party frames! (That's the UI that lets you monitor and select your party members when you are in a group.) We've revamped party frames to be more compact and easier to read, and the right-click menu for party frames is now more organized and has several new options including "Leave Party". All party-frame settings can also be found grouped together under Settings->GUI->Features->Party Frames.The non-compact (default) version of party frames now also has working face cam. But the big change: You can now hover-cast on a party member. If you hover over their party frame and use an ability, it will cast on the targeted player (assuming they are a valid target for the ability). This is a setting which is off by default, but can be enabled in the new party frame right-click menu under "Settings".

    Experimental Selection UI


      We continue to build out and improve the Experimental Selection UI. Changes in this update:
    • Entities can now be targeted & interacted with via their nameplates. This is a setting that defaults to Enabled, located in GUI->Experimental Selection UI->Nameplate Configuration->Select Via Nameplate.
    • Humanoid nameplates now follow the creature's movements more readily.
    • Humanoid selection colliders are now shaped to the humanoid rather than being a big box that surrounds them.
    • Humanoid Skeleton (Archer, Mage, etc.) improvements: they are now easier to select in the experimental UI, their shoulders jut out a bit more, and their neck bones attach to their spine.
    • Mouse selection is now more lenient.
    • Crafted chairs can now be selected.

    Other UI Changes


    • Combat Info polish: The window is now available for all combatant targets (NPCs and players) all the time, and more clearly indicates what the next info unlock is.
    • Anatomy skills now list more specifics instead of "More Combat Info Shown". For example, "See Abilities in Combat Info".
    • Increased hitbox of nameplates.
    • The Keys Settings menu is now grouped into categories.
    • The "Quest UI sounds" setting now saves properly.
    • Changed confirmation popup animation.

    Graphics & Animations


    • Improved VFX for Phoenix Strike.
    • Slightly sped up Many Cuts animation.
    • Added some new animations for Sword attacks, Shield attacks, and Multishot.
    • Added unique animations to humanoids when being knocked back or forward.
    • Added knockdown animation to humanoids.
    • Humanoid hands are now placed more realistically when sitting.
    • Equipped weapons should be visible in hands more reliably now.
    • Fixed meditation hover-hands (hands will be in the meditator's lap now).
    • Camera zoom level now persists between play sessions.

    Other Tweaks & Fixes


    • Playable animal colliders are now the same size as humanoids, so they can fit in all the same areas. This should let them escape pit traps in the Gauntlet.
    • Jumping is now more responsive. For regular jumping, you can now turn mid-air (but your momentum continues in the direction you jumped in). For steerable jumping, you can now control it via the movement keys.
    • Flying while jumping will no longer shoot you into the air.
    • Energy Bow Blitz Shot should now receive all the same mod bonuses as regular Blitz Shot.
    • Fixed icon for Blitz Shot (was using the Aimed Shot icon).
    • Red Wing Casino: Added an attendant mantis in the high-stakes table room. She announces the winners of each arena battle as a convenience to the high-rollers. (The announcer Kuzavek's voice doesn't travel that far.)
    • Fixed a bug that prevented some monsters from using their special abilities (such as healing or buffing themselves)
    • Fixed a bug with player shops when using the for-guild-members feature
    • Dramatically reduced the chance of spontaneous Olugax sightings
    We'll be back soon with more!


    [ 2023-01-17 02:07:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: December 7, 2022

    Ri-Shin Celebration


    The human holiday celebration of Ri-Shin is in full force, and townsfolk in every town and settlement need your help setting up their Ri-Shin trees! Look for townsfolk wearing a red festive Ri-Shin hat. There are trees to set up in Serbule, Serbule Hills, Eltibule, Kur Mountains, Gazluk, Ilmari, Rahu, the Fae Realm, Sun Vale, Povus, and Red Wing Casino. While you're helping out with the trees, make sure to speak to the locals! All the townsfolk that you've befriended (meaning you have Friends favor-level or higher) will have gifts for you when you speak to them. Make sure to have your favorite combat skills active, because if they give you equipment, it will likely be tailored to those skills.

    A Holiday Gift


    As a small thanks for joining us this holiday season, there are new redemptions available - one for everyone (except demo players), and an extra one for our VIP members. You can access these through the button on the bottom right of the Persona window, or if you're old-school by typing /redeem in chat. Remember, these rewards are one per account, so make sure you choose which character gets it wisely!

    Experimental Selection UI


    We've made more improvements to the experimental selection UI, and it's about to stop being "experimental". We'd love to get your feedback on it! You can switch to using the new selection UI by going to Settings->Special and adding the line "ExperimentalSelectionUI" (without quotes) to the special settings box. After you have done that, a new header will appear in Settings->GUI called "Experimental Selection UI" with all the new options. Changes in this update:
    • Wolves can now be targeted. Yay!
    • Serbule Crypt can now be entered when using Experimental UI.
    • You can no longer select things through walls.
    • Nameplates will no longer get in the way of clicking things.
    • Fixed a bug that caused cursor graphic to get stuck.
    • Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause some corpse hotkeys to not work.

    UI, Graphics & Animation:


    • Dye recipes now have a preview, so you can play around with colors more easily without having to apply them.
    • Item tooltips now list which dyes have been applied to a piece of equipment, if any.
    • Equipment can now be previewed in the "Item Info" window (accessed by right-clicking and selecting "More Info").
    • Armor types are now consistently shown & named in item tooltips; E.G. "Metal Armor", "Leather Armor", "Cloth Armor", and "Organic Armor". Previously "Cloth Armor" was listed as "Clothing", and "Organic Armor" was not listed at all.
    • New Combat Refresh icon animation makes it more obvious when it triggers and better hints at how it works.
    • Combat Refresh usage particles now include the blue-wings icon, so it's more obvious when it's been used.
    • Reconstruct & Restorative Arrow will now properly list their Restores in the ability tooltips.
    • Claw Barrage DoT will no longer display in tooltip unless it does > 0 damage.
    • Improved VFX for most mentalism attacks.
    • Stacking animal forms will now properly remove the underlying forms' buffs/debuffs from the UI. This should only affect druid bird forms and butterflies.
    • Tigers & Panthers now align to the ground more realistically.
    • Reduced "glow" highlights from flowers and humanoid eyes.
    • Fixed a bug which sometimes showed multiple "requires beast form" messages on a single item.
    • Fixed some wonky-looking animations that would make humanoids enter and then immediately exit combat stances.
    • Reworded the skill level disparity effect to make it clearer how the number is calculated: lowest-level-skill + 25.

    Other Fixes & Tweaks:


    • Fixed a bug that could cause spawned monsters to disappear sooner than intended.
    • Changed the way durability works in crafting: if a recipe consumes durability, an item with less than that durability can now be used. If a recipe consumes the full item (with no durability consumption), then an item with ANY durability loss cannot be used. For example, "Cottage Cheese" consumes 15% of a firkin's durability, so you can now use a firkin with only 10% durability in this recipe. "Sour Cream" however requires an entire firkin, so you cannot use a firkin with 85% durability.
    • The following Major Heal abilities are now affected by Yagreet's Staff:
      • Restorative Arrow
      • Ilth Hale's Kiss
      • First Aid Bomb
      • Rally
      • Carrot Power
    • Added a hotkey for giving an item to an NPC which defaults to X. You can change this setting under Settings/Keys/Contextual Actions/NPC: Give Item
    • If you are disconnected, the game will now attempt to reconnect to the server.
    • The /isearch command now has a shorthand version: /i
    • On any event-related reward chest, (including the key chests in Serbule) if you are mounted or are in a beast-form travel mode, you will be locked out of the chest until you dismount.
    • Increase hitboxes of some projectiles, so they'll hit short targets such as bear traps and chickens.
    • Corpse hotkeys bound to Spacebar should no longer cause you to jump when the window closes.
    • Dyes will no longer dye the UI slot they are removed from.
    • Cranberry-Turkey Sandwich recipe now actually creates 2 servings.
    • Fixed iocaine powder recipe to read "field mushrooms" instead of blusher.
    • The recipe "Crude Cow Shoes (Enchanted)" now only requires 1 Basic Metal Slab instead of 2.
    • Fixed typo in fairy potions ("cannot not").
    • Many item short descriptions (E.G. "Potion", "Quest Item" etc) are now determined and stored during the data pre-parse step instead of at runtime. This should have a minor positive impact on performance.
    • Repeat completions of the Gauntlet will no longer trigger global broadcasts.
    • Boss Gauntlet '22: There are some new hidden rooms with a few new challenges. There's another room or two left to come in another update, but we wanted to get feedback on this part. It's a bit whimsical (which means cruel), but you'll be fine. When you get to that encounter -- you'll know the one -- we'd love your feedback. We're planning to use that encounter in a future dungeon. You're playing a prototype. Good luck!


    [ 2022-12-07 22:27:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Fix for linux graphics bug

    There's a new version for Linux that addresses the "super brightness bug". (Other OSes won't have a patch to download at all.)


    [ 2022-11-21 07:35:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

    MacOS Hotfix

    MacOS users have a new version of the game which fixes problems that prevented the game from running. (Users on other operating systems won't see a new download.)


    [ 2022-11-17 07:24:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: November 15, 2022

    Welcome to another beautiful fall season! Zhia Lian's tricks and treats are behind us, and we're ready for the tofurkey. In addition to Thanksgiving, this update also contains a lot of bug fixes large and small - plus a special new dungeon for the most powerful players to test their might. So let's get to it!

    Turkey Time!


    Now is the time for delicious fall meals! Wild cranberries are in season, and turkeys can be found hiding everywhere! Vegetarians will want to speak with Ricatu in Povus. And there are whispers... of something angry. Something powerful. Vindictive. Watching. It's probably nothing though! Remember, turkey recipes can only be found during this event, so collect 'em all!

    Introducing the Boss Gauntlet!


    For high level players, the game's in an awkward spot of development: we're not ready to introduce higher-level content yet. And when we do raise the level cap, we'll take that opportunity to do a bunch of gear rebalancing at the same time, like we've done in the past -- in other words, nerfs. So what are high-level players supposed to do right now? What's the point of getting better gear? The Boss Gauntlet is the answer. Once you're able to complete the group dungeon in Povus, you're ready to attempt the gauntlet. The Boss Gauntlet is underneath the Povus dungeon and consists of 20 named bosses of increasing difficulty, culminating in some INSANELY tough battles. If your group can defeat all 20 bosses in one session (specifically, within 3 hours), you'll complete the Boss Gauntlet and prove your group's unparalleled prowess! This Boss Gauntlet won't last forever: it will be retired when the level cap increases, probably around February. (If it's popular, though, it'll no doubt return in some new form eventually...) Rewards The monsters in the Boss Gauntlet are all level 85, and drop high-quality level 85 gear. They also drop a lot of money! For those who love collecting stuff, each boss also has a chance to drop a unique novelty title. Collect all 20! If you complete the Gauntlet, you'll also receive a one-time reward of 25 Live Event Credits, and your character's name will be included on a permanent in-game list of Boss Gauntlet '22 Winners. PS - As with all new content, this will probably need some refinement. It's intended to be super hard, but not impossible! We'll make changes based on your feedback as usual.

    New Version of Unity


    We've upgraded the underlying graphical engine, Unity, to a new major version. Whenever this happens there's a chance for weird graphical problems or other incompatibilities to show up. If you see weird stuff, please report it! We are optimistic that this update will fix the problem that some users on new-silicon Macs experience, the issue that requires typing in "MacHack" in the special settings to work around it. ("MacHack" also turns off most of the sky graphics, so that was always intended to be a temporary fix.) If you previously needed the MacHack hack, can you please remove "MacHack" from your special settings, restart the game, and see if it's fixed? Please let us know either way.

    Experimental UI Changes


    • Fixed bugs with highlights being out of sync with their models, such as rotating around them.
    • Actually removed broken highlights from fairy wings. (They were still showing up sometimes.)
    • Added outline to selected-entity description.
    • Selecting an entity for the first time using tab instead of click will no longer cause their highlight to display in the face cam.
    • Favor floaties now round the number.
    • Using hotkeys to select & interact with something will now work 100% of the time.
    • Experimental UI now shows current Power, in a UI similar to Rage but different enough to easily be able to differentiate it.
    • Experimental UI now handles player title changes.
    • Implemented stat bars for party members.
    • New Settings: "Show vitals over players' heads?" & "Show combat numbers for other players?". These are each dropdowns with multiple options.
    • All entities should now be selectable; some entities were still missing colliders.
    • Speech bubbles and floaty combat numbers now both display even when their entity isn't in line of sight.
    • Experimental UI now respects the "PortraitFloaties" special setting.
    • New settings for outlines, located under GUI/Experimental Selection UI: "Outline Opacity", "Outline Width", and "Outline Quality".
    • New overhead label color for dead enemies. Only applies to the experimental UI. Located under GUI/Overhead Labels/Overhead Label Colors.
    • Add extra image (a little diamond inside the power diamond) to self nameplate to more easily differentiate it from others' nameplates.
    • Speech bubbles no longer overlap the speaker's name if they are selected.
    • Experimental UI now changes the cursor when you hover over something, which are higher res versions of the existing cursors.
    • Vital bars now only animate when hp/armor/power/rage changes, not when the creature's appearance changes.
    • If your current target changes its appearance (E.G. changes gear, polymorphs, etc.) it will now be re-selected after the appearance change is complete.

    Other Changes


    • The ladder on Anagoge can now be climbed. (New ladder tech! Expect to see it more often in the future.)
    • The mod "Bun-Fu Strike deals Cold damage..." now correctly states that it replaces Slashing instead of Crushing.
    • The mod "Love Tap deals X Trauma damage after an 8-second delay" now correctly says Trauma instead of Ice.
    • Recall Stones now take a few seconds to swallow (rather than allowing instantaneous teleport).
    • Fixed an error that caused some Alchemy potions to not have a Metabolism Cost when they were supposed to. Affected potions are:
      • Poison Resistance Potion (10)
      • Thin Fae Energy Potion (20)
      • Thick Fae Energy Potion (30)
      • Gooey Fae Energy Potion (80)
      • Rez and Shine (10)
    • Move Those Legs! now works while mounted.
    • Deer will no longer neigh like a horse while in travel form.
    • Ducks, foxes, & ravens can now fit into all areas that humanoid forms can.
    • Fan of Blades 5 & 6 now list the proper consumables.
    • Fixed audio for Bear Traps, Pigeons, Tentakillers, and Blur Smoke.
    • Item tooltip names should no longer overlap their short description.
    • Completely redesigned Ability tooltips to be easier to read.
    • Combat Refresh stats on items are now easier to read, and visually similar to new Combat Refresh UI in Ability tooltips.
    • Overlayed a unique icon on abilities that cannot be used due to level disparity.
    • Fix for new Ability Tooltips: Labels no longer linebreak
    • The area you click to select a monster now updates when a monster dies even if the monster is currently selected.
    • Monster-click areas for humanoids now match their dead bodies better.
    • Better handling of appearances disappearing while they're being loaded. This should fix the current round of stuck-on-loading-screen issues.
    • Fixed broken deereye particle effect.
    • Gathering crystals now looks like you're actually gathering instead of sitting.
    • Improved animation for "Become Wolf" ability.
    • New animation for Necromancy Dust recipe.
    • New visual effect for Ice Magic Research recipes.
    • Speed up Sonic Burst animation so it stops interfering with other attacks.
    • New 3d model for health, armor, and power potions.


    [ 2022-11-15 20:47:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: October 19, 2022

    Welcome to the yearly Zhia Lian event - aka Halloween! You'll receive two quests from Zhia Lian when you log in after the update. Completing these quests will unlock more and more -- there's about a hundred quests in all, including three brand new group quests for high-level players. This update also contains some small bug fixes and tweaks.

    Experimental Selection UI:


    • If your selected creature dies, it now updates properly (loot button will appear & name color will change)
    • Fixed bug that caused speech bubbles to stick around forever
    • Fixed bug that caused floaty numbers to queue up while off-screen and then display all at once
    • Fixed bug that would crash client if you logged out and then back in while something is selected
    • Floating numbers now respect the size settings (Size of Combat Numbers)
    • Darkened outlines around Experimental UI names
    • Mounted players can now be selected, and their nameplates are positioned better

    Other:


    • Legs in Sun Vale now trains a Riding ability for spiders when in their travel mode.
    • Fixed all tier 1 Bat ability cooldowns.
    • Fixed bug that causes vendors with low gold amounts to sometimes have large gaps in their Sell tab.
    • Added POI markers near the portals in Kur Mountain so they are easier to find.
    • We now show a subtle cooldown overlay on all abilities when the global cooldown is in effect.
    • Non-humanoids display better on the character selection screen and in the Persona window.
    • Improved nameplate placement, highlighting, and selection colliders for all monsters.
    • Fixed bug that prevented camera panning if you clicked on certain GUI elements, such as floaties or speech bubbles.
    • Sped up Hare "ear-scratching" animation, which is used mostly for support abilities.
    • All animals will now stick-to-ground more smoothly.
    • Fixed issues with cow appearance under certain lighting.
    • Fixed error resulting from rapidly changing appearances.
    • Fixed bug that causes "Loading 1 additional assets" to stay on the screen forever.


    [ 2022-10-20 01:40:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: October 12, 2022

    This is a small bug-fix update that covers some important initial bugs (as well as some pretty minor stuff that got fixed in passing). We're planning another update next week to address more complicated bugs. Your feedback is *essential* to this process, so a big thank you to everyone who has reported problems or shared their experiences so far!

    Fixes & Tweaks:


    • ExperimentalSelectionUI setting now saves properly.
    • The Experimental Selection UI now respects font sizes and updates settings in real time instead of requiring a relog.
    • New settings for the Experimental Selection UI, located under GUI/Experimental Selection UI:
      • Flash Selected Nameplates: Should nameplates flash when something is selected? Defaults to enabled.
      • Speech Bubble Font Size
      • Name Font: Allows selection between serif and sans-serif fonts for entity names. Defaults to serif.
    • Fixed Werewolf Hunting Speed.
    • Fixed Winter & Dark Werewolf armors.
    • Mounts will no longer show up in the character select screen.
    • Adjusted fox mount animation so it sits in the saddle instead of hanging on.
    • Snow Raven form and Deer now stick to the ground appropriately. In addition, animals that stick to the ground now take most decorations into account.
    • Deer will once again fall over when dead.
    • Lowered volume of spider skates by half.
    • Fixed some wonky looking selections for doors and a fire in Eltibule.
    • Slightly decreased egg drop rate for Ice Hen.
    • All bugs which caused client out-of-sync issues (E.G. entities being too-far-away to attack, not moving, not animating etc.) should now be fixed.
    • Fixed the color-picker window.
    • Fixed some NPCs in Kur that were inaccessible.


    [ 2022-10-12 23:34:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: October 10, 2022

    Welcome to our latest update! There's a lot of important changes, so we'll dive right in. It was hard to prioritize all the different changes, so please at least skim over the topics to make sure you know what you need to know! If you find issues, please report them ASAP! Given the number of changes, we may need a quick hotfix to address any big problems. (And regardless, we'll do another update next week to start the Halloween event!)

    Revised Zones: Eltibule & Kur Mountains


    We've made large changes to Eltibule and Kur Mountains. The changes to Eltibule are largely cosmetic in this update, replacing the ground map, trees, foliage, and many props. The map is roughly the same, although there are changes. The most important change is that the exit to Kur Mountains is now beyond Hogan's Keep -- you need to go through the Keep to reach it. The changes to Kur Mountains are broader: this will be the future home of the orc playable race, and the old map didn't work for that. This is a new terrain, and pretty much everything in the map has changed location. We tried to keep things in rough relative position, but please be careful when you first venture out! Many areas of spawned monsters and foraged items have shifted or become larger. For example, you will likely run into more winterhue and rabbits during their respective times of day. You might also run into a lot more orcs. So please let us know if you run into trouble with areas that seem too sparse or too dense. The cold weather mechanics in Kur Mountains are unchanged. If you were logged out in either Eltibule or Kur Mountains, you will be transported to the new entry point of that zone on login.

    Treasure Cap for Uneven Active Skills


    Note: there was a problem with this new system and it was disabled at the last minute, except for the level cap on AH pets. To repeat, this cap is NOT active right now. This is how the system will work in the future, though. We've tweaked the way that treasure effects on items behave when your active skills are more than 25 levels apart. Here's the rundown: If your two active skills are more than 25 levels apart, we automatically downgrade your equipped gear by temporarily lowering the treasure level until the mods are below the cap. So if you have Archery at 25 and Sword at 75, the Sword treasure mods will be capped at 50: the lower-level skill plus 25.
    • The base effects of the gear ("white label effects") don't have any scaling info so they just stay the same all the time.
    • If no lower-tier effects are usable, that effect is just disabled.
    • A new icon in the effect bar explains that they are downgraded, and lists which slots are affected.
    • Equipped item tooltips display the correct downgraded information (or an indication that the enchantment is disabled) if the item is affected by skill level disparity.
    • Looking at the abilities themselves will also show that the capped effects are being used.
    If one of your active skills is Animal Handling, we also cap your pet's level. If your Animal Handling skill is more than 25 levels higher than your other active skill, we automatically reduce the level of your pet to the lower-level skill plus 25. If a pet is already summoned and your skills are changed in a way that would result in its level lowering, it is automatically unsummoned.

    Necromancy Summon Change


    Another important change we wanted to call out: Necromancers no longer need to be in a graveyard to raise standard skeletons. Instead, you need Necromancy Powder, which is created by powdering bone in a graveyard late at night.
    • Necromancers automatically learn the recipe to do this at level 2.
    • If you are already level 2 or higher in Necromancy, the recipe has been automatically added to your recipe book.
    • The recipe requires a femur or other large bone, and can only be performed in a graveyard during the in-game hours of 10pm and 4am.
    • All tiers of the ability "Free-Summon Skeletal Archer" have been removed.
    • All tiers of the ability "Raise Skeletal Ratkin Mage" are unchanged: these abilities still require you to be indoors and have a ratkin medallion.

    New AoE Buff Logic


    We had to cancel our recent Boss Invasion event due to server lag. We've made some internal optimizations to fix this, but one of the most important fixes has gameplay ramifications. (And it's something we should have fixed long ago... it just wasn't a priority until now.) The biggest performance problem was area-of-effect (AoE) buffs! When several hundred players (and their pets) were grouped into a tiny clump, these buffs would apply to hundreds of entities -- so many that it actually takes a noticeable amount of time on the server. When a bunch of players in this clump are all applying buffs at the same time, it generated lag. AoE buffs are balanced around the idea that they might apply to an entire hunting group of six players (and their pets). Definitely not hundreds! That's a performance problem as well as a game-balance problem. So we've tried to fix it. But we also want buffs to continue to work intuitively in 95% of day-to-day situations. Here's the new rule: AoE buffs and heals affect at most seven players (and their pets). If there are more than 7 players in range, the caster and their group-mates are prioritized first. If the caster is targeting another player that isn't in their group, that player is also always included. (This is so you can continue to offer "drive by assistance" in dungeons.) After that, players are picked randomly until seven are chosen. For simplicity, we count seven players, and automatically include those players' pets. e.g. If a player and their pet are both within range, the pet will get buffed if the player does. If a pet is in range but the player isn't, that pet still counts as one player (for purposes of picking seven). We hope that this system will be invisible most of the time, only being a problem when there are more than six players fighting the same monster. (In those cases, the nerf is intentional.) If this rule causes unforeseen gameplay problems, we'll revisit it.

    Monster Hatred Calculation Change


    We wanted to call out a small but important change: Indirect damage effects (such as Damage-over-Time effects, Damage-Reflect effects, and Delayed-Damage effects) previously did not generate monster hatred, but now do. Each point of indirect damage generates as much hate as a point of direct damage. This is an experimental change. We'll be watching closely, and we'd love to hear your feedback after you have a chance to play with this some.

    Changes to Mentalism Treasure


    We've made some relatively small changes to Mentalism.
    • "Electrify, System Shock, and Panic Charge restore 30 Health after a 15 second delay" => 53 Health after a 7 second delay
    • "Mindreave taunt -500" => "Mindreave taunt -665"
    • "Reconstruct restores +30 Health and causes the target to take 24 less damage from attacks for 10 seconds" -> "Reconstruct causes the target to take 18 less damage from attacks for 30 seconds"
    • "Revitalize restores +30 Health and causes the target to take 30 less damage from Psychic and Nature attacks for 10 seconds" => "restores +30 Health and causes the target to take 26 less damage from Psychic and Nature attacks for 12 seconds"
    • "Psi Health Wave heals all targets for 90 health after a 25 second delay" => "Psi Health Wave heals all targets for 109 health after a 15 second delay"
    • "Psi Armor Wave and Psi Adrenaline Wave restore 202 armor to all targets after a 25 second delay" => restore 139 armor to all targets after a 15 second delay
    • "Psi Power Wave and Psi Adrenaline Wave restore 70 power to all targets after a 25 second delay" => restore 56 power to all targets after a 15 second delay
    • "Panic Charge boosts the damage of all your attacks +23 for 20 seconds" => +57 for 20 seconds
    • Fixed several other treasure effects that didn't get more powerful after level 80.

    Other Treasure Changes


    There are various other treasure changes, including a nerf of Warden's Privacy Field ability.
    • Archery: New (Head, Main Hand): "Heavy Multishot boosts the damage of your Nice Attacks and Epic Attacks +167 for 10 seconds"
    • Archery: "Acid Arrow Taunt -1260" => "Acid Arrow deals +280 damage to Armor"
    • Shield: Display Fix: "When you are hit, all Shield abilities taunt +10 for 20 seconds (stacks up to 10 times)" now correctly states the stack count, "10 times", instead of "15 times". (It already stacked the correct number of times; this was a simple typo fix.)
    • Spirit Fox: Display Fix: "While Blur Step is active, Soul Bite has a 33% chance to deal +7 damage and hit all targets within 7 meters" => +124 damage. (It already dealt this much damage, it was just incorrectly listed as +7.)
    • Staff: "For 30 seconds after using Phoenix Strike, your Survival Utility and Major Heal abilities restore N Health to you" => Fixed bug that caused this to restore Power instead of Health as intended.
    • Staff: "After using Headcracker, you take -N% damage from Psychic attacks for 15 seconds" will now stick around for the entire 15 seconds. In addition, we fixed a bug that caused the level 85 version to be weaker than the level 80 version.
    • Warden: Privacy Field ability: reduced base damage at all tiers. (The highest tier changed from 275 => 196.)
    • Warden: "Privacy Field deals +65% damage to melee attackers" => +48%
    • Warden: "When Privacy Field deals damage, it also ignites the suspect, dealing 180 damage over 12 seconds" => 156 damage over 12 seconds
    • Warden: Small tweaks to several other warden treasure. (These were formula revisions.)
    • Minigolem abilities Healing Mist, Invigorating Mist, Haste Concoction, and Rage Mist have increased area-effect range.
    In addition, all treasure effects should now persist through zoning and logout. The following effects previously were not doing that and have been fixed:
    • "While Unarmed skill is active: any time you Evade an attack, your next attack deals +X damage"
    • "While Unarmed skill is active: you gain +4% Melee Evasion and any time you Evade a Melee attack you recover X Armor"
    • "When you are hit, Finish It damage is +X for 20 seconds (stacks up to 10 times)"
    • "When you are hit, all Shield abilities taunt +X for 20 seconds (stacks up to 10 times)"
    • "When you are hit by a monster's Rage Attack, the current reuse timer of Stunning Bash is hastened by 1 second and your next Stunning Bash deals +X damage"
    • "When you are hit by a monster's Rage Attack, Reinforce restores +X Armor for 60 seconds (stacks up to 10 times)"
    • "Privacy Field causes you to recover X Power when a melee attack deals damage to you"

    Mounts


    All animals forms should now be able to ride horses or use a unique travel mode.
    • Spider form has a new travel mode: Spider-Form Travel Mode can be learned from Legs at Animal Town in Sun Vale. You must be Comfortable with Legs.
    • Many animal forms can now ride horses, including: Hares, Foxes, Giant Bats, and Butterflies. Riding a horse in these forms behaves just as if you were riding in a bipedal form.
    Mount Fixes & Tweaks:
    • Mounts now come to a stop more slowly, except when stopping to interact with something. Note that you can stop more quickly by holding the "move backward" key.
    • Safe Fall no longer persists while mounted.
    • Fixed a bug that allowed prevention of fall damage by mounting.
    • Dying from a projectile while mounted should no longer let you walk around while dead.

    Butterfly Changes


    • Player butterflies no longer have +25% Mentalism Base Damage; instead they have +10% Psychic Damage and +10% Nature Damage.
    • There is a new butterfly-only recipe which allows you to drink nectar from flowers (or flower arrangements). This consumes the flower and buffs your Health Wave, Armor Wave, and Power Wave abilities for 30 minutes. The potency of the buff depends on the quality of the flower(s). For now, this recipe can be learned from Yavazek in Sun Vale.
    • Butterfly dances are a bit more unique now with different particle effects for each move. And butterflies now float subtly while moving or dancing. Very pretty!

    Other Animal Forms Tweaks & Fixes


    • Stuns should now properly affect all forms.
    • Ducks can now fit into areas that all other forms can.
    • Shrunk the pigeon hitbox.
    • Your Persona window will now correctly update when you switch between forms.
    • Most animal forms now adjust the camera so that the new form remains in the center of the screen.
    • Foxes and spiders now "stick" to the ground, similar to hares.
    • Polished deer animations, including new dance moves.
    • Added new dance moves and color variations to fox dances.
    • Spider dance variants B & C are now slower & faster versions of the base dances.
    • Added new dance moves to giant bat dances.
    • Spiders, foxes, and bunnies now all kinda-sorta look like they are swimming & flying.
    • Added falling animations to giant bat, spider, & fox.
    • Improved animations & visual effects of giant bat attacks.
    • Spider abilities should now be quieter.
    • Polished some spider attack particles.
    • Sped up some Hare attacks.
    • Fixed the specularity on player cow texture.

    VIP Challenge Limited Edition Vanity Pet - The Ice Hen


    The reward from the VIP Challenge is here! If you logged in during the Challenge, then you can collect your limited edition vanity pet from now until November 30th. The Ice Hen is our first interactive vanity pet, released in remembrance of The Great Egg Famine of 2018. Your personalized Ice Hen has a chance to lay eggs at a higher rate than wild chickens. Now you have the power (and the chicken) to help ensure we never run short of eggs ever again! You can collect your pet in game by opening the Persona panel (it's the face icon towards the bottom of your right-hand bar) and then clicking the gift box icon at the bottom, or you can type /redeem in chat. Once you have redeemed your Ice Hen, you can summon it by clicking the "Manage Cosmetic Pets" button on your Persona panel. Do not procrastinate collecting this gift, because after November 30th this pet will never be offered again!

    More Backer Package Benefits


    Many of the backer packages (from Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, or the Gorgon Shop) comes with small in-game benefits. In this update, we've hooked up a couple more of those features. Players who purchased a package that included free Lycanthropy/Teleportation skills, or the ability to create a stack of Duke's Cakes, can now access those rewards through the redemption panel. Again, you can collect your rewards by opening the Persona panel (it's the face icon towards the bottom of your right-hand bar) and then clicking the gift box icon at the bottom, or you can type /redeem in chat. Please note that the Teleportation rewards can be redeemed on *all* of your characters, while the Lycanthropy benefit can only be redeemed on a single character, so choose wisely! Redeeming the stack of Dukes Cakes works very similarly to redeeming player title scrolls -- any character on the account can redeem the cakes, but only once a week. In addition, players who purchased a Grand Duke or Archduke backer package can now send out their proclamations and decrees all across the land -- that is, make short world broadcasts. Each proclamation can be up to 255 characters long, you may make up to three proclamations, and each proclamation has a 7 day timeout period. A Council Proclamation Form can be found in Hulon's house in Serbule Keep. Player-broadcast proclamations are not considered official and do not have any effect on gameplay. They also include a short disclaimer so that they can easily be told apart from admin or game system broadcasts.

    New Selection UI


    We're working on a new selection UI, and in this update you can start helping us test it (if you want to)! The new UI changes the way that selected objects are highlighted and the way their information is displayed when they are selected. You can switch to using the new selection UI by going to Settings->Special and adding the line "ExperimentalSelectionUI" (without quotes) to the special settings box. After you have done that, a new header will appear in Settings->GUI called "Experimental Selection UI". All new-UI settings will go under here, although there's currently only 1 setting. This is an experimental change, so please give it a try and then give us your feedback!

    Other UI Changes


    • Chat tabs now turn green instead of italic when there are unread messages.
    • Unread notifications can be turned off for chat tabs, in the "Edit Tab" menu (by right-clicking the tab itself).
    • Tracked skills now persist through sessions.
    • The "Hide Known Recipes" filter on vendors is now just "Hide Known", and applies to both recipes and abilities.
    • The enter key can now be used to confirm item summons and splits.
    • When summoning an item, the amount to summon is now automatically selected so you can quickly change it.
    • Player-bestowed title messages will no longer show color tags in chat.
    • Recipe tooltips now accurately state when an ingredient is not consumed, instead of "(% chance to consume)".
    • Hovering over an effect when it wears off will now properly update the tooltip.
    • Equipment gained from a barter will now show the proper level when hovered over in the barter window.
    • The tooltip icon cooldown overlay should no longer appear on items.
    • Fixed stretching icons in Player Work Order sign and crafting UI.
    • Fixed rounding error in client display. Certain buffs could make it seem like you had 1 more Max Health than you did.
    • Quests that cannot be abandoned now have a greyed-out "Abandon Quest" button with some informative text. This should make it clearer that this inability to abandon some quests is intended, and not a bug.
    • More clearly delineated item attributes from the info below them when there's no enchantments.
    • Optimized NPC vendor UI to remove freeze-up when first opening the UI or switching tabs when there are a lot of items present.
    • Better handling of on-screen messages that display as soon as you enter a new area.

    World Draw Distance Changes


    Previously, several graphics settings were only supported in older areas (such as Serbule) and not newer areas (such as Povus). The following settings now work in both old and new areas: tree-draw distance, tree billboard distance, grass distance, and grass density.
    • Maximum tree-draw distance increased from 2000 meters to 3000 meters.
    • Minimum tree-draw distance increased from 0 meters to 100 meters.
    • Minimum grass density increased from 0% to 35%.
    All graphics presets have new default values for tree-draw distance, tree billboard distance, grass distance, and grass density. This may slightly impact FPS. Note that any overrides for tree-draw distance, tree billboard distance, grass distance, or grass density that you may have set have been reset to their default values, and will need to be re-adjusted.

    Other Animation & Graphics Changes


    • Added a new Graphics setting, "Realistic Non-Bipedal Placement", which is like "Realistic Foot Placement" but for non-humanoids. This will make non-bipedals "stick" to the ground realistically, rather than just float above it. Currently only implemented for bunnies, foxes, spiders, and horses.
    • Added animations when humanoids evade attacks.
    • Added particle effects to recipes for Shamanic Infusion and Fire Magic.
    • Added a new visual effect to Take The Lead.
    • Revamped Priest attacks (animations, visual effects, and some sounds). This has the effect of speeding up some attacks.
    • Revised armor appearance to be less washed-out. This is most noticeable on metal armors.
    • Numerous appearance loading improvements and fixes, which could cause the loading screen to hang or fail.

    Other Bug Fixes & Tweaks


    • Rewrote water wells. Now instead of being a single-use interactible that fills one jug of water, it works in a delay loop, filling water repeatedly until you move away from the well (or run out of empty bottles). It starts slowly and then accelerates.
    • Ursula's Curse: when Ursula appears, she immediately targets the cursed player.
    • Equipped gear can no longer be transmuted.
    • Show error messages when attempting to transmute equipped or low-rarity gear.
    • Dropping items no longer stacks them on top of each other, they are spread out in a grid around the dropper.
    • Increased chance of dropping Ilmari gems on all four types of Rahu mineral nodes.
    • Added actual fire to static campfires (like those in Kur Mountains) when they are fed with wood.
    • Projectiles will no longer stick around indefinitely when shot at ghosts.
    • Dead humanoids should no longer skate around dead some of the time.
    • Fixed recipe Secret Calligraphy: Hemorrhage to give the intended effect.
    • "Astounding Cloth Shirt (Max-Enchanted)" and "Camouflaged Astounding Shirt (Max-Enchanted)" now have the proper pre-requisites.
    • Changed effect name of Agonizing Speed Potions from Bleeding Speed to Agonizing Speed.
    • Changed instances of "Amazingly" inks to "Amazing".
    • Emptying bottles of water no longer counts for quest "Holistic Wellness: Drink Water".
    • Serbule Hills outhouses are now easier to interact with, and have a more appropriate search animation.
    • Added Pet owner's name to the name of some of the vanity pets - Death on a Leash, Fae Dragon, Radish, Winter Beet (and the new Ice Hen).
    • "Level 10-20 Event Loot Key"s are now properly called "Level 15-20 Event Loot Key"s.
    • Fixed typo in Jumper's quest "The Bridge Bully" that indicated the wrong direction (southeast instead of northeast).
    • Fixed typo in Fist of the Green Man (wayword -> wayward).
    • Fixed typo in quest "A great new calligraphy bench".
    • Changed "Kill Toxic Frogs in Gazluk While Nude" to "Kill Toxic Frogs in Povus While Nude".
    • In quest "Kill Barghests in Gazluk", fixed "klil" typo.
    • Changed mushroom name from "Groxmak" to "Groxmax".
    • Converted all quest titles containing 'Halloween Event:' to 'Zhia Lian Event:'.
    • Assorted improvements to server and client performance.


    [ 2022-10-11 00:47:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: July 3, 2022

    This is a minor update to make adjustments to the Summertime Experience event which starts tomorrow. There are a few other changes and bug-fixes:

    • Add better handling of rapid changes in a humanoid's equipment. This should fix the bug where some players' textures display as bright pink
    • Remove duplicate Blitz Shot 6 training option from Alravesa
    • The "Heed The Stick" mod that grants mitigation from direct attacks will now always last 10 seconds
    • More debug info to track down remaining "stuck on loading screen" bugs
    • The local player mesh is now optimized again, this functionality broke as part of recent loading optimizations
    • Deselecting an object that has just changed (such as a flower as part of gardening) will no longer re-select the object, or previously-selected objects
    • The Healing-Suit Tester (a high-level boss) now recovers less health when there's only a few healing crystals


    [ 2022-07-03 15:16:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: June 26, 2022

    This is a minor update. It addresses the following bugs:

    • Fix bug that could cause the loading screen to get "stuck" with a few remaining downloads
    • Fix bug that caused queued ability icons' green highlight to stick around longer than it should
    • Remove framerate stutter when opening the quest window (when it had hundreds of quests in it)
    • Better error handling when reapplying particle effects
    • Fix bug that prevented ghosts from loading correctly
    • Fix bug that causes hotkeys to break when an appearance failed to download (for any reason)
    • Fix bug that caused the Skill Tracker to disappear if positioned on the left side of the screen
    • Fix typo in instruments ("Enabled musical performance" -> "Enables musical performance")
    • Add better handling of dynamic music; this should fix bugs with background music overlapping instrument music, and background music not playing at all
    • Fixed bug that caused Ultra Item Rafflers to be counted toward an area's max-temporary-entities count. (Only this raffler was bugged)
    And non-bug changes that happened to be ready:
    • The player rabbit model now uses the new animation system instead of the legacy system. (This is in preparation for future content)
    • Player rabbits will now "stick" to the ground better, so it looks like they are on it (similar to how humanoids have realistic feet placement)
    • Removed the ability to select 'Set limit per customer' on Item Rafflers. This is now permanently set to 1
    • Players can no longer buy a ticket for their own raffles
    • All Item Rafflers can now be used to raffle Event Loot Keys


    [ 2022-06-26 16:08:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: June 10, 2022

    Welcome to our 364th update! This one is jammed full of new features and bug fixes. Let's take a look!

    Animal Travel Mode


    Since our recent addition of mounts, animal-form players have been asking for their own mounts. But some types of animals should really be able to travel on their own! In this update, we've given those quadrupeds a new "travel mode" which makes them behave as their own horse. Once a player meets the requirements, they can learn the appropriate technique from a trainer. After that, the Mount UI will appear (even if they don't have a horse in their stable), and they can "mount up" while in that animal form. This also lets these characters equip a saddlebag, if they have one. They can also earn Riding XP by "riding themselves." Don't think too hard about it. A couple things to note:
    • Bounceweed now has a new effect on these animals, increasing their animal-form top "travel speed".
    • The particle on the animal form's footsteps while traveling is a placeholder.
    • Not all animal forms have a travel mode yet; others' travel methods are coming soon!

    Werewolf


    • Sanja in Kur teaches wolf players to enter travel mode. This requires Werewolf level 40.
    • The werewolf Hunting Speed abilities (1 through 3) are no longer sidebar abilities. They are now Riding abliities, meaning that you should place them on your ablity bar while "riding yourself" as a wolf. They are still unlocked via the werewolf altar as before.

    Deer


    • Silvia in Sun Vale teaches deer players to enter travel mode.
    • Silvia also teaches Bounding Speed, a deer-only Riding ability.

    Cow


    • Both Raul and the Suspicious Cow train player cows how to enter travel mode. This requires Cow 25 and Comfortable favor.
    • Both Raul and the Suspicious Cow train Cud Speed, a cow-only Riding ability.

    Pig


    • Norbert trains player pigs how to enter travel mode.
    • Norbert teaches Porcine Speed, a pig-only Riding ability.

    Archery Changes


    Archery is a combat skill that can be learned early. It's not the easiest skill to get into (as you must either learn to make your own arrows or buy them), but the intent is that the skill rewards the extra effort: it has strong damage plus a lot of battlefield control (e.g. stun/mezz/movement). Archery was a very popular skill in alpha, but fell off in popularity over time. The skill had only a couple of great skill pairings, and its treasure hasn't been as exciting as some newer skills' offerings. In order to make Archery more appealing, we've kept the existing builds and skill pairings intact, and added a bunch more treasure effects. Some of the new effects synergize with older Archery treasure effects. Others were added to make the skill a better companion to other high-damage skills. We've also fixed some bugs in the skill's high-level treasure effects.

    Removal of Basic Shot


    Archery's Basic Shot was about as standard as a basic-attack could be, but there was a variant version called Blitz Shot. Blitz Shot was faster, but had reduced range and increased Power cost. These two abilities have been combined into one, taking the best features of both. Internally, we renamed Basic Shot to Blitz Shot, and deleted the old version of Blitz Shot. So if you were using Basic Shot before, you'll now see Blitz Shot on your ability bar. If you were using Blitz Shot before, there will be an empty spot on your ability bar... just put Blitz Shot back into the slot, and you're good to go. But note: there's two new tiers of Blitz Shot! Previously there were 7 tiers (ranging from level 1 to 80). We've added two more tiers, for a total of 9. This way players get a new tier of Blitz Shot every 10 levels or so. The only down side is that if you're high-level in Archery, you'll need to learn these new tiers. They are trained by Floxie in the Fae Realm. This also affects Faebows: you'll need to learn the newest tiers of Blitz Shot before you can use "Blitz Shot (Energy Bow)". Also note: as a minor side-effect, the level requirement for Long Shot 1 was changed from level 12 to 13. This will only matter if you happen to be exactly level 12 in archery: in that case, you've already learned Aimed Shot 1 prior to this update. Your character will still know the ability, but you won't be able to use it again until you reach level 13.

    Note on minor Changes


    Many of Archery's treasure effects were bugged such that they didn't correctly scale past level 80 (or in some cases past level 70.) These bugs have been fixed, and pre-existing high level Archery gear will automatically have the corrected stats. We also made lots of small changes to older treasure effects. All small number changes have been omitted for brevity, but all substantial changes are listed below. (As always, the most up-to-date numbers are available in the game's JSON data, so third-party tools will have all the latest numbers after they update.) Also note that most of the numbers here are for the hypothetical level 100 versions.

    Treasure and Ability Changes


    • Changed treasure effect: "Long Shot boosts your Armor Regeneration (in-combat) +16 for 15 seconds" => "Long Shot and Hook Shot Damage +121"
    • Changed treasure effect: "Restorative Arrow restores an additional 126 Health over 30 seconds" => "Restorative Arrow restores 58 Power"
    • Changed treasure effect: "Restorative Arrow boosts target's Nice Attack and Epic Attack Damage +188 for 10 seconds" => "Restorative Arrow covers the target in a barrier that mitigates 40 damage from Crushing, Slashing, Piercing, Acid, and Fire attacks. Lasts for 20 seconds or until it has absorbed 200 total damage."
    • New treasure effect for off-hand: "Restorative Arrow targets yourself and all allies within 30 meters and restores +52 Health, but reuse time is +10 seconds"
    • New treasure effect for off-hand: "Hook Shot Damage +132. Non-Elite targets do not call for help."
    • New treasure effect for feet, necklace: "Long Shot increases target's vulnerability to Trauma and Acid +10% for 20 seconds. (Max of 2 stacks.)"
    • New treasure effect for hands, necklace: "Hook Shot increases target's vulnerability to Fire and Poison +10% for 20 seconds. (Max of 2 stacks.)"
    • New treasure effect for head, feet: "Hook Shot and Bow Bash deal +200% damage to Stunned targets."
    • new treasure effect for legs, ring: "Poison Arrow deals +480 Poison damage over 12 seconds"
    • New treasure effect for head: "Blitz Shot deals +59 damage, and the damage type becomes Poison."
    • New treasure effect for ring: "Direct Poison and Acid Damage +124 while Archery skill active."
    • New treasure effect for necklace: "Direct Fire Damage +124 and Indirect Fire Damage +16 (per tick) while Archery skill active."
    • New treasure effect for hands: "Multishot deals +99 damage, and the damage type becomes Fire."
    • Buffed effect: "Aimed Shot deals 132 additional health damage over 12 seconds" => 270 over 12 seconds.
    • Buffed effect: "Multishot restores 90 Health to you after a 15 second delay" => 132 health after an 8 second delay.
    • Buffed effect: "Long Shot restores 61 health to you after a 15 second delay" => 86 health after an 8 second delay.
    • Buffed effect: "Fire Arrow suddenly deals an additional 400 indirect Fire damage after a 12 second delay" => 500 after a 6-second delay.
    • Ability change: Hook Shot base damage increased slightly at all tiers.

    Cow Changes


    • Chew Cud, Moo of Calm, Stampede: these abilities can be used while stunned.
    • Changed treasure: "Stampede boosts your Slashing/Crushing/Piercing Mitigation vs. Elites +8 for 30 seconds (stacks up to 5 times)" => +16
    • Changed treasure: (Hands, Feet) "Chew Cud increases your mitigation versus Crushing, Slashing, and Piercing attacks +18 for 10 seconds" => "Chew Cud increases your mitigation versus Crushing, Slashing, Piercing, and Fire attacks +18 for 10 seconds. Against Elite enemies, mitigates +18 more"
    • Changed treasure: (Chest, Ring) "Chew Cud increases your mitigation versus Crushing, Slashing, and Piercing attacks +18 for 10 seconds" => "Chew Cud increases your mitigation versus Crushing, Slashing, Piercing, and Cold attacks +18 for 10 seconds. Against Elite enemies, mitigates +18 more"
    • Changed treasure: "Stampede boosts your Slashing/Crushing/Piercing Mitigation vs. Elites +8 for 30 seconds (stacks up to 5 times)" => +20
    • New treasure: (Ring): "Stampede boosts your Fire/Cold/Electricity Mitigation vs. Elites +20 for 30 seconds (stacks up to 5 times)"
    • New treasure: (Necklace): "Stampede deals +860% damage if used while you are stunned"
    • Changed treasure: "Cow's Bash heals you for 66 health" => "Cow's Bash heals you for 66 health and reuse timer is -1 second"
    • Changed treasure: "While Cow skill is active, you regenerate +40 Health every 5 seconds and resist +20 damage from Elite Crushing, Slashing, or Piercing attacks" => now resist all Elite damage types (not just Crushing/Slashing/Piercing)
    • Changed treasure: "Chew Cud's chance to consume grass is -42%" => "Chew Cud restores +80 Armor. Chance to consume grass is -42%"
    • Changed treasure: "Graze boosts your out-of-combat sprint speed by 8.5 for 30 seconds" => "Graze boosts your out-of-combat sprint speed by 3 for 50 seconds"
    • New treasure: (Necklace) "Stampede deals +1050% damage if used while you are stunned"

    Psychology Changes


    • Ability change: Soothe: all tiers have higher base damage; reuse timer changed from 15s to 13s; Power cost increased
    • Ability change: Cause Terror: all tiers have higher base damage
    • Ability change: But I Love you: all tiers have higher base damage
    • New treasure: (hands) "Fast Talk targets all enemies within 10 meters and Power cost is -18"
    • New treasure: (chest and feet) "But I Love You and Cause Terror Damage +58%"
    • Changed treasure: "Fast Talk heals you for 74 armor" => "Fast Talk reduces target's rage by -1190 and reuse timer is -2 seconds"
    • Changed treasure: "Inspire Confidence restores +104 Health after an 8 second delay" => "Inspire Confidence restores 60 Power over 9 seconds to all targets"
    • Changed treasure: "Soothe further reduces target's Rage by 1210" => "Soothe reuse timer is -1 second and it further reduces Rage by 1370"
    • Changed treasure: "Fast Talk taunts -540 and reduces Rage by 900" => "Fast Talk taunts -2196"
    • Changed treasure: "Inspire Confidence increases the damage of all targets' attacks +16 for 30 seconds" => +69 for 30 seconds
    • Changed treasure: "Tell Me About Your Mother restores 177 Armor to you" => "Tell Me About Your Mother restores 123 Health (or Armor if Health is full)"
    • Changed treasure: "Soothe boosts the healing from your Major Healing abilities +56 for 10 seconds" => "For 10 seconds after using Soothe, your Major Healing abilities restore +68 Health and your attacks generate -30% Rage"
    • Changed treasure: "But I Love You boosts your Nice and Epic Attack Damage +91 for 8 seconds" => 10 seconds (fixes description typo; actual effect was already 10 seconds)
    • Changed treasure: "Cause Terror Damage +214" => "Cause Terror deals +214 damage and restores 46 Health to you"

    Staff Changes


    • Blocking Stance: Reduced bonus mitigation vs. elites by 50%. Thus Blocking Stance 1 now mitigates +5 and +5 more vs. elites; previously it mitigated +5 and +10 more vs. elites.
    • Changed treasure: "Deflective Spin restores 82 Health instantly and provides +58 Mitigation from all Elite attacks for 15 seconds" => restores 82 health and provides +37 mitigation from all Elite attacks for 10 seconds
    • Changed treasure: "Blocking Stance mitigates +15 physical damage (Crushing, Slashing, Piercing) for 30 seconds. Against Elite enemies, mitigates +30 more" => "... Against Elite enemies, mitigates +15 more"
    • Deflective Spin ability: "You take X% less damage from all attacks for 15 seconds." => 10 seconds
    • Changed treasure: "Deflective Spin costs -11 Power and mitigates +13 damage from each attack for 15 seconds" => "Deflective Spin damage +100. Targets' next attack deals -10% damage"

    Shield Changes


    • Shield: "While Bulwark Mode is enabled you recover X Power per second" -> "While Bulwark Mode is enabled, abilities cost -X Power to use"
    • Shield: "Elemental Ward mitigates +40 elemental damage (Fire, Cold, and Electricity) for 30 seconds" => "Elemental Ward mitigates +40 elemental damage (Fire, Cold, and Electricity) for 30 seconds. Against Elite attackers, mitigates +40 more"
    • Shield: "Slashing Mitigation +8, Piercing Mitigation +7, Crushing Mitigation +7 while Shield skill active" => "While Shield skill active: Mitigate Slashing +16, Piercing +14, and Crushing +14. Versus Elite attackers, these values are doubled"
    • Take the Lead abilities: now boost sprint less. (Take the Lead 6 was +10.5, now +6.5)
    • "Take the Lead boosts your sprint speed by an additional +5 and you recover 48 Power after a 15 second delay" => "Take the Lead boosts your movement speed +3 and you recover 58 Power after a 15 second delay"

    Ice Magic Changes


    • Ice Armor: now has reduced mitigation vs. elites. (Was 27 and 54 more vs. Elites; is now 27 and 27 more vs. Elites)
    • New treasure: (Chest, Hands) "Blizzard Damage +150 and you gain Elite Resistance +10% for 20 seconds"
    • "Ice Spear heals you for 58 health after a 15-second delay" => "Ice Spear heals you for 80 health after a 7-second delay"
    • (head, feet) "Frostbite causes all target's attacks to deal -22 damage (this effect does not stack with itself)" => "Frostbite causes all target's attacks to deal -22 damage, and their Rage attacks are further reduced by 10%"
    • Ice Veins, Ice Armor, Cryogenic Freeze: these abilities can be used while stunned

    Other Balance Changes/Fixes


    • Animal Handling: treasure effect "Animal Handling pets recover +X Armor every five seconds" now actually recovers the armor.
    • Bard: Fixed bugs that allowed abusable "stacking" of bard song healing.
    • Bard: Added damage type (trauma) to Song of Discord description.
    • Fairy Magic: The treasure mod 'Fae Conduit's Power cost is -X and reuse timer is -Y seconds' now actually reduces the reuse time.
    • First Aid: Reset time changed from 30s to 20s for Treat Disease [1-4], Set Broken Bone, Moss Bone Repair, and Soberize.
    • Rabbit: effects that change Bun-Fu Blast and Bun-Fu Strike damage to cold will no longer revert the damage type later on.
    • Unarmed: New treasure effect: (Hands): "Cobra Strike, Mamba Strike, and Slashing Strike deal +50 damage and can be used while stunned. Doing so removes the stun effect from you."
    • All metal armor has been rebalanced to give slightly less Max Armor and slightly less Armor recovery from combat refresh. In exchange, it now has modest Power recovery from combat refresh.
    • Pulling a target toward you (with E.G. Hook Shot) will no longer fling the target off into the distance if you are standing on top of one another.
    • Bonus pet health and armor from treasure effects will now persist through the pet's death.
    • After zoning, pets will now have the correct state selected in the UI instead of always Follow.
    • The werewolf altar buffs to increase physical mitigation have been changed into percentage-based vulnerability buffs.
    • Transmutation costs will be reduced for the next month for Archery, Cow, Staff, Psychology, Shield, and Ice Magic skills

    Boss Encounter Revisions


    Some high-level boss encounters have been tweaked as follows:

    Gazluk Healing Suit Tester:


    • The healing crystals now have a much more pronounced effect on the boss's regeneration. When all 8 crystals are up, he recovers 100% of missing health every 5 seconds.
    • Healing Crystals now have 8000 max health each instead of 125.
    • Destroyed crystals respawn more quickly.
    • Nearby "Healing Suit Technicians" are now Elite.

    Gazluk Clutchmaster:


    • More eggs spawn at the beginning of the encounter.
    • Eggs have more health (but still not all that much).
    • When eggs hatch, they now spawn an Elite urak that wanders.
    • Eggs respawn more quickly.

    Productivity Expert:


    • The expert's assistants are now Elite, and more numerous.

    Arkura:


    • Arkura has been upgraded from a named Elite to a Sub-Boss, with commensurate bonuses to health, damage, and annual compensation.
    • Some of Arkura's skeleton minions have been replaced by (elite) Mutterer Cabalists.
    • Arkura and her minions have exceptional help-shouting capability.

    Shower Slime:


    • Has more health and lots more regeneration.

    Zukelmux the Intransigent:


    • Zukelmux's summoned backup are now Elite.

    Beakhorse:


    • Beakhorse is a bit more powerful (especially the beak).

    Captain Evergloam's Bridge:


    • The captain and her crew have all been promoted one or two tiers of potency. This makes Captain Evergloam an Epic Boss.
    • This does not change their loot, because their loot was already epic-tier for some reason.

    Coldfeather:


    • Security crystals have more health (but remain extremely vulnerable to knockback).

    Hotfeather:


    • Hotfeather has more health and offensive power.
    • Hotfeather and friends have larger help-shout radii.

    Dalvos's Astral Projection:


    • Summoned assistants are more powerful and numerous.

    Chet Thunder:


    • Chet Thunder is stronger.

    Gue and Wormback:


    • Both have been promoted from Elites to Basic Bosses.

    Eeaeiikik and Funguile:


    • Eeaeiikik has been promoted from Elite to Basic Boss.
    • Funguile is a bit stronger.

    Everhorn and Shockybug:


    • Both have been promoted from Elites to Basic Bosses.

    Vemuta's Area:


    • Vemuta has been promoted from Basic Boss to Epic Boss.
    • Some of the myconian students in each teaching cluster are now elites. (Randomly picked, with higher chances of elites in Vemuta's cluster.)

    Imarak:


    • Imarak has been promoted from Basic Boss to Epic Boss.
    • Imarak's adds are a bit stronger.
    • Young mantises in general are stronger.

    Guzyerp:


    • Guzyerp has been promoted to Epic Boss, with commensurate loot improvements.
    • Nearby bears are a bit tougher.

    Peacemaster Guztok:


    • Guztok's hobgoblins are a bit tougher in general.
    • Guztok is more epic.
    • Guztok now calls for Elite backup after taking a little damage.

    Deathcore Penalty


    The Death Penalty sign in Serbule Keep now lets you switch to "DEATHCORE" death penalty. DEATHCORE death penalty is not really intended for regular use; it's for special situations, such as a guild all agreeing to participate together. In DEATHCORE penalty, you simply cannot respawn at all. If other players know how to resurrect people, they can still resurrect you, and special items such as Eternal Greens can still respawn you. Other than that, though, if you die, you will stay dead forever! There are no additional benefits for using DEATHCORE over Hardcore. There will never be any extra reason to enter DEATHCORE mode except for the challenge and the bragging rights.

    Discord Integration


    If you use Discord a lot, you'll be excited to know that we've added some basic Discord integration. There is a new "Discord Integration" tab in Preferences where players can decide what info is displayed about them in Discord (while they are playing the game): their character name, guild name, and/or general location. The default setting is to not display any info in Discord, so if you're not interested in this feature you can just ignore it. There's also a new chat command /discord to quickly join the official Project: Gorgon Discord server!

    UI Improvements/Fixes



    Update Notes: April 27, 2022

    This is a bug-fix update. The purpose is mainly to fix a UI bug when viewing alcohol casks, but we've also included some other fixes and changes that were ready to go. We've heard some reports of issues with golf balls occasionally "glitching" in various ways. We're still investigating these, and will fix them as soon as we can. If you have a reproducible situation that causes problems, please bug-report it!

    Glamour Gourds in the Guild Shop


    You can now purchase "Glamour Gourds" with Guild Credits (from any Guild Sign). These work like Glamour Berries, with a few caveats. When you buy a Glamour Gourd, it is automatically attuned to your account. Glamour Gourd items also don't stack in inventory. (The latter is a technical limitation because attuned items can't be stackable.) We're using these Gourds instead of Glamour Berries because we want to avoid reselling for now. We want these items to be a reward for doing guild quests, not a way to make Councils off of other players. It's possible that we're being overly cautious here, in which case we'll make further changes in the future.

    Other Changes/Fixes


    • Alcohol items now show their effect information when examined.
    • Fixed the start and goal beacons for holes 8 and 9 in Pennoc's Pennant.
    • Rebalanced reward tiers for Pennoc's Pennant based on initial scoring this round. (This only affects the reward tiers you haven't received yet, of course.)
    • Improved legibility of the recipe UI window.
    • Fixed skill reward text-wrapping UI issue.
    • In addition to Glamour Gourds (discussed above), you can also buy Portal Summoning Devices with Guild Credits (sold at any Guild Sign).
    • Increased the cost of Extra-Gigantic Coin Sacks at the Guild Signposts. Cost increased from 2 to 4 Guild Credits.
    • You can now occasionally find Live Event Credit Vouchers (worth 10 Live Event Credits) when playing the high-stakes match-3 game in the casino.
    • Added a Portal Summoning Device for Fungal Fortress that is available through Riston and the Guild Sign.
    • Fixed client bug that could cause items in your storage vault to display incorrectly if you clicked and dragged really fast.
    • Riston now sells VIP Tokens, as well as Povus Teleportation Devices, for Live Event Credits.


    [ 2022-04-27 21:10:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Project: Gorgon is on Sale for Half Price!

    Project: Gorgon is on sale for 50% off! We've been working hard to polish and improve the game, and now we want to share it with new players -- at a discount! If you're still on the fence about joining us, why don't you check out our free demo? The demo lets you play a BIG portion of the game, and your demo character will auto-upgrade to a real character when you buy the game. It's a great way to explore the breadth of content that PG has to offer. If you checked us out during Alpha but haven't been back since we started Beta, this is a great time to see what's changed. We've been smoothing out newbie game flow, removing irritants that frustrate players, improving general quality of life, and making the game's content more accessible, discoverable, and useful. Not to mention all the features and content that we've added recently, like horseback riding, animal husbandry, and a big new level 80+ outdoor zone. Just for extra fun, we've got some newbie-accessible events lined up for the next two weeks, including an Easter-themed bunny invasion, a golf tournament, and a risk-free chance to try out an animal form. See you in Alharth!


    [ 2022-04-19 21:22:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Hotfix Notes: April 16, 2022

    This is a quick patch to address some bugs in today's earlier update, including a fix for teleportation.

    Kalaba Logic Fix:


    We fixed a bug that let you start Kalaba's quest "Phlogiston Basics" from his Favor menu, before he taught you Transmutation. If you did this, he wouldn't actually teach you Transmutation! If this has happened to you (meaning you have this quest but you don't know the recipe the quest refers to), just cancel the quest in your quest journal. That will fix the NPC logic and you'll be back to normal. Kalaba will give you this quest automatically after teaching you the skill (after you finish his two panther-related quests and he asks you about a "business opportunity").

    Werewolf Fix:


    Werewolves were randomly losing their Norala buffs and Tokens of Norala. We can't reproduce this bug, but we think we fixed the root cause. We'll keep an eye on things to make sure. We don't have an easy way to restore the exact number of Norala Tokens you lost, so we've just decided to give every werewolf a dozen extra tokens during this full moon. Type `/redeem` in chat and you'll see a redemption called "Werewolf Fix: 12 Tokens of Norala".

    Other Bug Fixes:


    • Fixed: some recipes (including common Teleportation recipes) could not be used
    • Fixed: some portals in Serbule Crypt had sunk into the ground
    • Fixed: some title scrolls caused client errors when dropped on the ground


    [ 2022-04-17 04:01:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: April 16, 2022

    Continuing our focus on improvements for new players, this update makes some changes to Transmutation. We are also premiering our new glamour mechanics (which some other games call transmogrification). And we have exciting news - we're going on sale for half off!

    Known Issues:


    • Some recipes aren't able to be used right now, most notably certain teleportation recipes. We'll be fixing this in a client patch later this evening.

    P:G is on Sale!


    Project: Gorgon will be 50% off from April 18 at 10am PDT (1pm EDT) to May 2 at 10am PDT (1pm EDT)! This is a bigger discount than we've done before, because the game is in better shape than ever and it's time to get more players involved! (And as we talked about in the latest dev blog, we need more mid-to-high level players to help us balance combat. You can read the dev blog on our forum, or you can read it in-game by typing /blog in chat!) So this is a great time to get friends into Project: Gorgon! If your friends are on the fence, remember that our free demo lets you play a BIG portion of the game, and your demo character will auto-upgrade to a real character when you buy the game.

    Transmutation


    Transmutation is an important skill that we expect all high-level players to take advantage of. It allows you to randomly replace treasure effects on your equipment, fine-tuning them to your specific gameplay style. But for such an important skill, it's been pretty obscure. Higher level combat requires transmutation in order to keep up with the difficulty curve. But transmutation was hard to find on your own at the appropriate level, and confusing to boot. We found that players who discovered how to use transmutation to their advantage tended to stick around, while players who missed it tended to stop playing when they couldn't keep up. This is a huge problem, so we've made some changes: Previously, you learned Transmutation after becoming friends with Makara, a hermit in the Ilmari Desert (a level 50+ area). Makara is still the advanced Transmutation trainer, but now you can learn the basics from Kalaba in Eltubule, a level 20+ area. Kalaba offers to teach you Transmutation after you complete his second panther-killing quest; he teaches the basics and has Favors that give more XP, recipes, and prisms. Eventually these favors culminate in a request to meet Makara in the Ilmari Desert for advanced Transmutation training. (If you have previously learned Transmutation through Makara, you won't be affected by this change.) In addition, some of the mechanics of Transmutation have been tweaked to remove some of the frustration: now when you use Transmutation to replace a power on an item, you won't roll the old power again immediately after. We track the last two replacements on each item and prevent them from being rerolled. (Since we weren't storing this info until now, existing items have no history, but it will get filled in as you transmute.) We also realized that new players often don't even know what an enchantment *is*, because items have their own built-in powers (which are non-fungible) as well as enchantments which can be changed. We've redesigned equipment tooltips to help make this more intuitive. (See below for more on that.) Other related changes:
    • Added a Transmutation table to Kalaba's work area in Eltibule.
    • The Transmutation level requirement for "Distill Rare Magical Item (0-30)" is now 5 (instead of 10).
    • The Transmutation level requirement for "Repair Transmutation Damage 1" is now 10 (instead of 5).
    • We now allow transmuting when shield wax is on an item.
    • Fixed a bug with the transmutation animation swipe not working correctly.
    • Changed "power" to "enchantment" in the Transmutation window, for consistency.

    Glamour Berries


    Glamour Berries are a nifty cosmetic feature that let you make your equipment look like other equipment. This can be really useful when your tired of wearing non-matching armor! (Some other MMOs call this process "transmogrification", but that word seemed too close to "transmutation", so we call it "glamouring".) Glamour Berries are magical fae fruit that can permanently make any one piece of gear look like another piece of gear. This is only an illusion, though -- the glamour has no effect on the item's stats or behavior. This includes NPC behavior: NPCs automatically "see through" glamours, so they will react to you as if you were wearing the original item. For instance, if you're wearing "hideous" clothing that's been glamoured into something beautiful, NPCs will still think you look hideous. Here's other important details:
    • Any piece of armor can be glamoured to look like any other piece of armor that goes in the same equipment slot. Main-hand and off-hand items can be glamoured to look like similar items (e.g. you can glamour a sword to look like another sword, but not a hammer or a shield).
    • Glamoured items can't be dyed (because glamours hide the original paint, so dyes wouldn't do anything).
    • You can glamour a piece of gear as often as you like, as many times as you like.
    • Glamouring the equipment doesn't attune the equipment; in fact, attunement doesn't affect glamouring at all.
    • Glamours can be copied: if you glamour an item to look like another glamoured item, the new item will have the same glamour as the other item.
    • If you glamour an item to look like something that is animal-only (such as Werewolf Armor), the glamour will only be active when worn in that animal form. It will look un-glamoured in other forms.
    • We haven't yet implemented UN-glamouring, so the effect is very permanent! (But you can always apply a different glamour on the item.)
    The VIP Program gift for April is 12 Glamour Berries -- check the Redemptions button on the Persona window (or type /redeem in chat) to get them. Glamour Berries can also be purchased for 20 Event Tokens from Riston in the Red Wing Casino, or rarely found in the high-stakes casino Match-3 games. In the next update (or soon thereafter) we'll also be adding a way to obtain some with Guild Credits. Related changes:
    • Due to internal changes, certain "head gem" items, such as the Orbiting Gem, are no longer shown on your character when you're in an animal form -- they are only visible when you're a biped. The old behavior was accidental, but it was fun, so we expect to add new animal-specific floating gem items soon. Affected items are: Orbiting Gem, Rohina's Mind Gem, Monger's Boon, Ever-Hateful Jack O' Lantern, Ever-Glaring Jack O' Lantern, and Fae Navy Communicator.

    Item Tooltips


    Items - weapons and armor and potions and foods and all sorts of items - are extremely important. They're information-dense, and getting all that information into a readable, comprehensible form can be really tricky. We've rewritten the item information blocks that are shown when you hover over an item (called "tooltips") to help make some of that info more understandable. These tooltips are a work in progress, so we'll be reacting to your feedback and suggestions, and we really need your bug reports! Changes:
    • There's now a "short description" right underneath the item name that tries to point out the most important aspect(s) of the item. Some items do not have a short description.
    • "Attributes", "Enchantments", "Augment" and "Shamanic Infusion" for equipment are now grouped together in a display that's easier to digest and (hopefully) makes the underlying mechanics more obvious.
    • Augment rarity is now displayed in the tooltip.
    • Augment tooltips now explicitly indicate the required rarity of the item it can be placed in.
    • Dynamic stats (durability, doses, waxes, & craft points) are now more obvious when they show up.
    • Added an indicator to tooltips for items that can be used, such as "Right-click to Drink".
    • Shield short descriptions are now accurate (instead of "Level X OffHandShield").
    • Crystal color now displays in the tooltip.
    Known Issues:
    • When you raise the Tooltip Font Size to the higher ranges allowed by the slider, equipment tooltips don't fit on the screen well. We'll be working on this in future iterations.

    UI Features and Bug-Fixes


    • Added an "Always compare items?" setting under GUI/Features. This auto-compares items without having to hold the Alt key. Defaults to off.
    • Added a purchase confirmation to player-vendor purchases. The amount over which the confirmation presents itself is set by the "Purchase Confirmation Amount" setting, under GUI/Other. Default is 10,000 councils.
    • Active combat skill levels are now displayed on the bottom bar.
    • Skill tree collapse states are now character-specific.
    • Skills are now added to the Skills & Abilities window when you first earn XP in them, instead of when they first hit level 1.
    • We now show skill levels in the skill list on the Skills & Abilities window.
    • We now display your new skill level in the pop-up message when leveling up.
    • Loot Mode is now displayed properly in the UI; previously it would reset every time you logged in.
    • Monster info should no longer get cut off in the combat info window.
    • Inventory items can be used via double-click while the Crafting window is open.
    • We now account for XP mods when displaying the addition in the crafting XP bar.
    • Sped up the minimum crafting repeat time from 2 seconds to 0.5 seconds.
    • The "repeat" feature of the Crafting window now takes into account durability and consumption rate when calculating the max number of times you can repeat the recipe.
    • The quest tracker respects the "Show Quest Tracker" setting again.
    • Tracked quests are now saved properly.
    • The quest log now displays the associated NPC's name in the list of quests.
    • The chat channel of the current tab will now remember when it is switched via a command, such as '/p' or '/n'. So if you switch to another tab and then back, you will remain in that channel. This should reduce mistells.

    Physics & Graphics


    • The "High-Quality Anti-Aliasing" graphics option now uses a different anti-aliasing algorithm that doesn't cause as many visual artifacts. (The old one could cause a type of unintentional "motion blur".)
    • We now properly set camera effects (vignetting, blur, etc.) when entering a new area.
    • Fixed a bug that caused heavy framerate loss when certain static objects were selected in the world.
    • Removed the "Overhead Name Fade Distance" setting for now, as it didn't actually do anything.
    • The change in moving upward to falling during a jump is now smooth instead of instant. (The jump physics still isn't 100% realistic but it should look a little better now.)
    • Added particles to Fire Shield ability to make it more obvious when the effect ends.
    • Polished fairy Free-Flutter animation.
    • Fixed several bed sleeping animations.
    • Polished Brambleskin particles.
    • Animated Crafting XP & NPC Favor bars.
    • We now do better handling of your currently-selected entity's appearance changing (such as Vendor Fox coming out of its box).
    • Fixed mounting/dismounting bug that would enable infinite jumping.
    • Reduced lag, and fixed a bug that caused the screen brightness to change, when mounting the first time.
    • Prevented ice fishing holes from falling through the ice or being un-clickable.
    • We now only reduce selection box size when entities are behind the player. This should make things like large doors and trees easier to click on.

    Other Changes


    • Added keybinds for corpse actions, such as Autopsy, Bury, etc. They default to keys 1-6, and can overlap with non-corpse keys (such as ability keys). The corpse action keybinds are used only when the corpse window is open.
    • Added a "Loot All" hotkey for corpses that defaults to Spacebar.
    • Werewolf-altar buffs now last until the next Full Moon (instead of the next Waxing Gibbous Moon). Note: since this patch is happening DURING a full moon period, things are a little weird - if you logged in yesterday as a werewolf, your timer is currently set to end on the next Waxing Gibbous Moon. If you log in today or tomorrow, your timer will be updated so the buffs last until the next Full Moon.
    • Werewolf's "Lunacy" buff ("You feel powerful.") now buffs Max Health +30% instead of +30.
    • Fixed bug with treasure effect "Tundra Spikes deals +19% damage, gains +8 Accuracy, and lowers targets' Evasion by -16 for 20 seconds". The evasion debuff did not stack with itself (if you had this effect on two pieces of gear).
    • Uncommon items in loot now glow green, but do not have an associated humming sound.
    • Characters now have some control over their jumps while mid-air (e.g. jumping with no momentum and then moving forward).
    • Higher-level poisoned blades can now be used for lower-level Poison Knife abilities.
    • Loot bonus related Words of Power now last 1 hour instead of 15 minutes.
    • Dead pets can now always be interacted with.
    • Enemies can no longer sink into the floor.
    • Corpses of sheep and floating skulls can now be walked through.
    • Fix typo in Spider Speed effect.
    • Sarina, the enslaved fairy in the Goblin Dungeon, no longer just pretends she is leaving after you free her. She now uses a nearby teleporter to leave. It's also now possible for multiple players to finish the quest by talking to her as she leaves (or before she leaves) rather than having to re-kill the goblin boss.
    • You can now loot fruit trees even if your inventory is full (in which case your inventory will become overflowing). You cannot loot fruit trees when your inventory is overflowing.
    • Bone Meal can now be stored in gardening-related storages.
    • Work Orders for Healing Potion Omegas are now correctly labeled Mycology instead of Alchemy.
    • Work Orders for werewolf armors are now correctly labeled Armorsmithing instead of Blacksmithing.
    • Cloth enhancements now require a tanning rack.
    • Changed references to "Enhancement Points" to "Craft Points" for consistency. "Craft Points" is shorter and thus easier to display in the UI.
    • Changed Serpentine to an Orange Crystal instead of Orange + Green.
    • Hiral now gives juices at each favor level-up.
    • Added durations to pineal juice descriptions.
    • Torches in Eltibule now turn off when they're not lit.


    [ 2022-04-16 23:21:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: March 16, 2022

    This is a minor bug-fix update to fix issues with our latest major update.

    • Fix problems with projectiles that persist after monster death
    • Reverted unintentional lighting change that made certain dungeons extra dark (including "under the model home" and "Dark Chapel" dungeons)
    • Fixed treasure effect "Nip boosts the damage of Basic, Core, and Nice attacks +X for 6 seconds" which actually buffed the enemy, not the attacker
    • Item prompt now only shows when appropriate for NPCs
    • Fix floating barrels in Goblin Dungeon
    • Stop auto-running when using an ability on an enemy
    • Fix minor padding issue in crafting window ingredients
    We'll be back with more fixes and features soon!


    [ 2022-03-16 21:08:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: March 11, 2022

    In this update we've done a ton of polishing and bug-fixing, and we have some new content for the Eltibule region.

    Eltibule Content


    After a very long hiatus on the game's storyline, we've started expanding it again. We've only added a few new steps in this update, though it may be somewhat obvious where things are headed. We'll be adding more storyline quests in future updates. Until now, the storyline ended with the quest "Chasing Dalvos to Eltibule". That quest completed when you talked to Oritania, and there were no further quests. Oritania now has a new storyline quest which she will bestow after "Chasing Dalvos to Eltibule" is complete. You will need to run some errands for her first (although you may have already done those errands for her in the past). There is also a new "top floor" to the dungeon underneath Eltibule Keep. Most of the top floor has low monster density, making it more approachable to players who don't yet have solid level 30 equipment. There is also a new quest on this top floor, which starts in the first room. (The new "top floor" connects to the older floors, which are almost completely unchanged.)

    UI


    • Polished all of the main UI windows to have consistent header fonts, colors & sizing.
    • Organized the GUI/Features settings with headings.
    • Augment sub-skills now show up under the "Augmentation" umbrella skill in the Skills & Abilities window.
    • Fixed an issue with Skills being displayed in a weird order in the Skills and Abilities window.
    • Repeated searches within the Skills & Abilities window will no longer mess up Skill name padding.
    • Reunited Toxic Flesh 9 with its friends Toxic Flesh 1-8 in the Special Abilities window.
    • Mushroom Farming max grow-box bonus is now displayed in the Skills and Abilities window.
    • Set correct error message for abilities whose parent skills are not high enough level, most notably when Fairy Magic is higher level than Mentalism.
    • The right-click hotbar submenu "Change Skill" will now display in 2 columns when you have 25+ combat skills. This prevents the list from going off the screen.
    • Tightened the display of the right-click submenu that displays list of combat skills.
    • The Crafting window now has an XP bar, displays the associated skill under the recipe name, and has a star icon to quickly favorite the selected recipe.
    • Clicking an item while the crafting window is open will now place that item into any applicable ingredient slots.
    • Attempting to craft with an ingredient in storage will now show an accurate error.
    • Improved algorithm for single-clicking an inventory item with the crafting window open:
      • If there are multiple ingredient slots, it will no longer swap them and will instead fill successive slots.
      • If there is a single ingredient slot, it will swap any existing ingredient in the slot.
    • Empty stable slots now have a custom UI that is more descriptive.
    • The mount preview window should no longer be black.
    • Polished pet UI, including highlighting the currently-selected mode (Assist, Guard, etc.).
    • Added a new setting, "Automatically show pet UI?" under GUI/Features, which auto-shows the pet UI when a pet is summoned. Defaults to true.
    • Added an option "Close mount window after action?" to prevent mount window from closing after performing an action.
    • Properly resize Dismount button text.
    • Mount anxiety bar now changes from green to red as anxiety increases.
    • Added Riding to list of toggleable shop skills.
    • Fixed a bug that prevented you from toggling off Riding skill when using the shop search golem (if you first talked to the golem while on a mount).
    • General polish of the transmutation window.
    • Transmutation now always uses the new transmutation window.
    • Polished the Quest Tracker a bit.
    • Added an icon to quest list headers when one of their quests is completed. (It's a little green dot.)
    • Tracked quests can now be right-clicked to view the Quest details or untrack the quest.
    • Allowed locking of the hotbar from the right-click menu of the ability icons.
    • Sidebar is no longer movable when attached to the main hotbar.
    • The minimap now starts at the correct location when changing zones.
    • The second floor map of Gazluk Keep now uses the correct map pins.
    • The item comparison tooltip now properly disappears when the compare key isn't held in, and the equipped item in the comparison is more obvious. (It has an "Equipped" label.)
    • Chat bubbles & selection boxes for yourself should no longer be jittery.
    • Scaled down selection boxes for large rabbits, so they stay more-or-less centered on the rabbit itself instead of hovering over its head.
    • We now update a selected target's description in real-time (if, for instance, someone's title changes while you have them selected).
    • Monster name colors now update properly when the monster dies.
    • The monster Rage-Full indicator (in Combat Info) now only displays on attacks that actually require full Rage.
    • Removed blue power bars from above target heads.
    • Polished favor bar in the NPC interaction window.
    • Julius Patton's favor increase text now lines up properly with his storage unlock.
    • Moved the effect icon for "background downloading" to the end of the effects list, and only show it when background downloads are active for more than half a second. This should prevent pop-in of the icon repeatedly, which shifted the rest of the effects icons.
    • Float item pickups to the correct place when they go into a different inventory pack than is currently selected.

    Graphics & Animation


    • Added a new "Gather" animation for collecting fruit from trees/bushes.
    • The transmutation animation is now quicker, and can be skipped via clicking on it.
    • Changed animation for all fae recipes.
    • Fixed fairy swim animation.
    • Fairies should continue looking like they're floating when using most emotes.
    • New pickup animation for rabbits.
    • Revamped Knife Fighting animations.
    • We now correctly orient knives during stab animations.
    • Add particle effects to bard songs that last as long as the song is active.
    • Improved mount ability animations.
    • Add particle effects to mount abilities.
    • Reset horse state completely when swapping between mounted & unmounted.
    • When mounting, the camera now raises so your head is still in the same position on the screen.
    • Polished spawn premonition particles.
    • Eltibule: replaced legacy Unity trees with speedtree trees to fix problems with LODs. (The actual tree choices are still a work in progress, but good enough for now.)
    • Eltibule: fixed LOD on "casino castle" (the facade entrance to casino).
    • Removed advanced graphics setting for "Tilt Shift". (It hasn't actually done anything for a long time.)
    • Added advanced graphics setting for "High-Quality Anti-Aliasing". Previously this was always enabled when you set the graphics quality to "Great" or higher. (And that's still the default, but now you can override it.)
    • Added two new graphics settings:
      • There's a new Advanced Graphics Setting for "Torch Flicker". This is on by default for "Great" or higher graphics settings. It's a relatively inexpensive graphical flourish.
      • There's a new Advanced Graphics Setting for "More Lightsource Shadows". This causes some torches and fires to cast dynamic shadows. This is a MUCH more expensive graphical flourish, but it looks neat in the goblin dungeon. This feature is off by default for all quality settings (even Ultra).
    • Fixed camera reversal when entering Serbule sewers via the lake.

    Abilities and Treasure Effects


    • "Headbutt and Knee Kick Damage +X" now correctly applies to Headbutt instead of Barrage (and still applies to Knee Kick, of course).
    • "Provoke Undead deals extra damage" will no longer do double the specified damage to the minions.
    • "Basic Attacks restore X Power" now properly restores the power.
    • "Trick Foxes have +X Max Health and +X Max Armor" now properly gain the specified Max Armor instead of a Taunt boost.
    • "Ridicule taunts and causes target's next attack to miss" now applies the chance to miss to the target instead of the caster.
    • "Spirit Pounce hits all enemies within 6 meters" now displays in the ability tooltip.
    • Fixed the icons for various treasure effects.
    • Elemental Ward's darkness and trauma mitigation effects will no longer display if they aren't active.
    • Bulwark Mode's health & armor leech effects will no longer show up in the effects list.
    • The treasure mod for System Shock's DoT now correctly reports the DoT damage type as Psychic instead of Trauma.
    • The armor ability from Gazluk War Wizard Armor ("War Wizard's Battle Cry") now has a reset time of 180 secs and restores 300 power.
    • The armor ability from Gazluk Death Trooper Armor ("Death Trooper's Battle Cry") now restores 350 armor as well as 350 health.
    • Attempts to transmute a mod with no possible replacements will now be prevented.
    • Endurance mods will now show up on crafted gear as intended, and can be extracted.
    • Endurance mods can now be transmuted into generic mods.
    • One of the treasure effects that gives small +Armor bonuses previously had no requirements and now has endurance-level requirements.

    Other Bug Fixes


    • Toned down the rate of XP decay in Povus (until there are more high-level players to work on it).
    • We now put abilities on cooldown immediately, and refund cooldown if you are stunned before ability goes off.
    • Reverted an old change to in-combat fly costs. The earlier change raised flight costs exponentially the longer you were flying, which definitely did fix the exploit we were trying to fix, but took away a lot of the fun of being a fairy. (Now the cost is still not cheap, but it increases linearly instead of exponentially.)
    • Fixed a bug that caused pets to reduce the total XP value of monsters they fought.
    • Fixed a bug that caused Saddlery skill to give permanent health/power bonuses for leveling it up.
    • Fixed bug that prevented you from earning Riding XP if your bonus synergy levels put you over the level cap.
    • All effects that require a specific active ability will now persist while mounted, such as Summoned Skeletons, Battle Chemistry buffs, etc. The only exception is Bulwark Mode, which will be dispelled as normal.
    • Fixed an issue with mounting/unmounting in water sometimes not updating your speed correctly.
    • Humanoid illusions can now ride mounts (including some skeletons).
    • Banana & Guava trees now have 3 of their respective fruits.
    • Add bananas to banana tree models.
    • When a tree has no fruit but still has wood, its name now changes to "Harvested Tree" to denote the change.
    • Guava trees now yield Maple Wood when they run out of fruit.
    • Banana trees now yield Cedar Wood when they run out of fruit. (What, you've never heard of banana cedars?)
    • Made it clearer which foods and effects are meals vs snacks.
    • Recalling to the underwater teleport circle in Sun Vale will no longer teleport you to the circle near the druids.
    • Fixed Carpal Tunnel chairs that were embedded in the ground.
    • Fixed errors for some golems in newbie caves.
    • Filled in the mini-pools in the caves in Gazluk, making them shallower to prevent exploitability.
    • Kur beds can now be slept in properly.
    • Fixed a bug that caused the server to think you were floating when you first enter a new area (until you move). This could lead to messages like "You can only do that when standing on the ground" when trying to drop items, and cause your mount to generate anxiety (because it thought it was flying).
    • Newly spawned entities will place themselves on the ground quicker.
    • You now stop auto-running after interacting with something that is too far away. This would cause problems when interacting with things while mounted.
    • Added a lore note in the tomb of James Eltibule I.
    • Replaced the lore note for James II (found in a secret place in Eltibule). Note that this text canonically replaces the original lore.
    • Misc. lore cleanup; notably, moved the text of "Sedgewick's Journal" from a static entity into a lorebook file.
    • Fixed yet more references to "Davlos". (It should be Dalvos.)
    • Roshun the Traitor's favor should no longer reset for fae.
    • Nelson Ballard's small talk is more accurate (to indicate that he accepts all Carpentry items, not just hand-made ones).
    • Glajur should now teach everyone Phrenology, unless you have both the skill and the research recipe for each individual phrenology.
    • Irkima will now offer a hangout if you've finished Probing Tavilak's History.
    • Added a new favor to Jesina in Eltibule which is automatically given to "scary" animal players. After completing this quest, you can interact with her normally.
    • Game client now retries Steam authentication if the first attempt fails for any reason. (If the second attempt also fails, we show an error message like before.)
    • Added a new redemption package for our 4th Anniversary on Steam. Redemption will run Mar 11 - Apr 30.


    [ 2022-03-11 22:59:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: February 9, 2022

    This is a bug-fix update. Here are the fixes:

    • Fixed bug causing some entities to be invisible and some particle effects to be permanent
    • Fixed issue that prevented monsters from fully loading, causing a permanent loading screen
    • Prevent placing a saddlebag inside of itself
    • Put an ability on cooldown only when the ability successfully completes
    • Added crossbow mods back to crossbows. This also fixes crossbows thinking they are legacy because they have crossbow mods on them
    • Fairies now sit on horses properly
    • Fixed the avatar pictures on the login-screen & persona window when character is on horseback
    • Elevation changes while flying are now smooth when Camera Vertical Smoothing is turned on
    • Remove duplicate "Read more about V.I.P." buttons from UI
    • Bring horse to a full stop before interacting with an object after moving via right-click (and bring the horse to a stop quicker). This fixes the issue with the player attempting to collect something with a delay but not actually collecting the thing
    • Forbid mounting/dismounting while performing an attack. This should prevent some edge-casey bugs that prevent you from using abilities
    • Toggle saddlebag window instead of showing it every time the button is clicked
    • Show floaties again for DoTs on self
    • Properly dismount horse when un-mounted due to a DoT
    • Change "Mount Anxiety Cost -20" to "Mount Anxiety -20" for horse calming abilities
    • the Riding skill gives bonus Max Health and Max Power when active
    • Mount doesn't gain or lose anxiety while the client is still showing the loading screen


    [ 2022-02-09 19:56:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: February 2, 2022

    This update introduces mounts! There are also a LOT of new user-interface features. Read the "UI Improvements" section carefully, it's full of useful stuff!

    Mounts


    In this update, you can learn to ride a horse. This mount is useful for traveling and can also serve as extra storage. All the horses in this first version look and behave exactly the same. In the future there will be multiple breeds of horse that use the genetics system to allow a huge variety of mounts, but first we need your help testing the basics! We'll continue to polish and improve the basic functionality for a few updates, and when things seem good, we'll start introducing more mount types. We don't want to explain all the ins and outs of how mounts work because we're hoping it's understandable enough that you can figure it out in-game. If it isn't, we'll need to make things more obvious! But here are some basics you should know:
    • You can purchase a horse from a trainer in Hogan's Keep, Eltibule. The total cost is 6000 councils. You'll also need an empty stable slot to store the horse.
    • All players who log in this month can redeem a pack of basic horse tack. Click the redemptions button at the bottom of the Persona window.
    • There is also a new crafting skill that lets you create better tack. The trainer is in Amulna and the skill requires Leatherworking 50 to learn.
    • Players in an animal form can't ride horses. However, they can access the saddlebag even when not on the mount, so there's still some benefit. (Animal forms will eventually have a travel mode, but we haven't decided how it will work yet.)
    • We've talked in the past about revising how "sprint gear" works, and we still intend to do that, but not until mounts are more thoroughly tested. For now, there are no changes to how gear works.
    • You can access your saddlebag while on your mount, and you can also access it while NOT on your mount, as long as you're in an area where you could theoretically ride the mount. (In other words, you can't access your saddlebag in dungeons.) The Red Wing Casino is a special case: even though you can't ride a mount there, you can still access your saddlebag.
    • If you have a backer package that includes a horse, basic riding skill, and a saddlebag, you can now redeem that feature. Click the redemptions button at the bottom of the Persona window. NOTE: horses require a stable slot. If you don't see the redemption, make sure you have an open stable slot!
    • If you have the "Thoroughbred Breeder" package, those horses are not yet available -- they'll be added when horse genetics are in. You can safely redeem the free horse+riding skill+saddlebag now; you'll get the two "breeder" horses at a later date.

    UI Improvements


    • Added a new window for cosmetic pets, accessible via a button in the Persona window. Pets are summonable from the window directly or can be placed on the sidebar like before. All cosmetic pets have been moved here from the Skills & Abilities window.
    • Added a "Hotbar Layout" option for attaching the sidebar to the main hotbar, which turns it horizontal and places it underneath the active skills hotbar. You can access this in Settings, under GUI/Features, or by right-click the sidebar and selecting "Attach to Hotbar", or "Detach from Hotbar" when attached.
    • Added the setting "Camera Vertical Smoothing" under Controls in the Settings window. This causes the camera to smoothly follow the player vertically instead of being directly tied to them. Enabled by default.
    • Added options to individually lock most HUD elements, either by right-clicking on the window's titlebar or by clicking a lock icon. To enable the lock icons, go to Settings->GUI->Features and check the "Show GUI Locks?" option.
    • Added confirmation to stable slot purchasing.
    • The Transmutaion window has been redesigned. Due to its complexity, we'd like your help testing it! When you use an item workbench, you can choose between the old and new interface. Please try out the new interface first. We're leaving the old one available in case there are bugs. (Both interfaces use the same server-side transmutation code "under the hood"; only the interfaces are different.)
    • The "Hide Known Recipes" toggle is no longer displayed when the Sell tab is selected.
    • Added a hotkey in Settings, under Keys, that bypasses players and pets when clicking, titled "Hold to Bypass Clicking Players & Pets". For example, while holding this key you can click on a player who is blocking your view of a corpse and select the corpse, not the player.
    • When a party member dies, the party status window should now display the text "DEAD" in all of the attribute rows, rather than 0's or, worse, incorrect non-0 values.
    • Added a search bar to Special Abilities in Skills & Abilities window.
    • Added a news ticker of player activity to the login screen.
    • The skills window now lists previously-earned skill rewards under the list of upcoming rewards.
    • There's a new hotkeys to summon your mount. It defaults to Shift+NumLock. (The Auto-Run key defaults to NumLock, so you can press Shift+NumLock, then NumLock, to start traveling.)
    • There's a new hotkey to view your saddlebag. (It doesn't have a key by default.)

    Animations & Graphics


    • We now take animations into account when attempting to queue an ability. E.G. When summoning a pet and then queueing up another ability, the summoned pet animation will finish (thus actually summoning the pet) before firing the queued ability.
    • Polished all Necromancy animations and particle effects.
    • Sped up animation and removed the movement slowdown for Dig Deep & Push Onward.
    • Slightly sped up animations for First Aid and Patch Armor.
    • Improved Fae Bee attack animations.
    • Fixed a bug with players not standing back up after dying.
    • When initiating flying mid-jump, the jump will properly be canceled and the character can no longer fly sideways/diagonally.
    • We now delay shooting of some archery projectiles until the proper moment; they were shooting right away.
    • Fixed LOD issues with buildings and some terrain objects in Rahu.
    • Adjusted camera settings and draw distances in Eltibule to reduce the horrendous pop-in. This change may impact performance for some users on low-end machines, but hopefully not too badly!

    VIP Changes


    • We've cleaned up the half-assed VIP panel in the settings window. It now explains what VIP is, and has a link to the Steam store page for non-VIPs that may want VIP.
    • Most of the features under the VIP section now actually require VIP. The exception is basic chat logging, which will remain permanently available to everyone. The option is still in the VIP section, labeled as a "VIP preview feature". Note that combat logging does require VIP.
    • Added new combat logging options, including ways to log indirect damage and healing amounts. (These options show the raw damage/healing amounts, but it's not always easy to tell which ability caused which indirect damage/healing. This is something we want to show in the logs, but it will require some rearchitecting. So this is an incremental improvement.)
    • VIP members who log in during Jan 25 - Feb 28 can redeem a February VIP gift package: a Sturdy Music Box.
    • New permanent VIP benefit: VIP players gain +15 saddlebag slots.

    Favor Fixes


    • We realized that many NPCs did not have their target level set in data, effectively making them level 0 NPCs. This made them more receptive to gifts than intended. We've fixed these NPCs, and as a result they will give somewhat less favor for gifts. (This is a bug-fix, not an overall balance change. We're fixing bugs in preparation for balance work.) Affected NPCs include:
      • Gorvessa in Hogan's Basement
      • Yalox in the Goblin Dungeon
      • Glajur in Kur Tower
      • Percy in Eltibule
      • Sem in Snowblood Shadow Cave
      • Rubi and Cassie in the Warden Cave
      • Laura Neth in Kur Mountains
      • Ratuk the Thinker in Kur Mountains
      • Mope in Povus
      • Hirochi in Rahu
      • Ichin in Rahu
      • Wintria Irasca in Rahu
      • Silvia in Sun Vale
    • Several NPCs who said they liked "Magical Equipment with Skill X prereq" actually liked anything with that skill prereq, including textbooks. Now they only like actual magical (i.e. loot and crafted) equipment. Those NPCs are:
      • Alravesa in Ilmari(Archery)
      • Falkrin Overstrike in Ilmari (Hammer)
      • Sand Seer in Ilmari (Fire Magic)
      • Sugar in the Warden Cave (Deer)
      • Leah Bowman in Povus (Animal Handling)
      • Ashk in Rahu (Mentalism)
      • Lady Windsong in Rahu (Druid)
      • Jumper in Sun Vale (Deer)
      • Raul in Sun Vale (Cow)
      • Silvia in Sun Vale (Druid)
    • Crafted belts and buckles now count as 'magical equipment' for favor gifting.
    • For the purpose of gifting favor only, textbooks now cap how much an NPC will value them. This does not affect their actual Council value, just how much favor an NPC will give for the gift.

    Mount-Related AI Changes


      We've made some small changes to how monsters react to players when they are on a horse. We'll be refining these ideas in the future.
    • While you are mounted, melee-centric monsters have 33% reduced player-detection radius. (They still respond to help shouts at the same distance, however.)
    • While you are mounted and not in-combat, melee-centric monsters ignore your out-of-combat pets. (But ranged attackers will still shoot at pets, which will bring the pets into combat. And then melee monsters will notice it! So best not to rely on this overmuch.)

    Other Changes


    • When mining in Povus, there was a chance to receive the message "You didn't find anything valuable that time, but you can still try again." This seemed like a failed skill-check to players, but it was actually just random. We've replaced this with an equivalent change to mine very-low-value items (such as Pebbles and Flint). This way it's clear that you haven't failed at anything, you just have more mining to do. (The total number of high-value items in each node is unchanged.)
    • Items with shamanic infusions on them should now be transmutable. The infusions also show up differently in the UI with the new transmute window.
    • Crossbows mods will no longer appear on non-crossbow off-hand items.
    • We now prevent right-click movement when dead.
    • Bulwark Mode is now fully dispelled on death. (Previously a few side effects of it would stick around.)
    • Chat logs now include timezone offset when you login to the game (to aid automated tools).
    • Fixed Amutasa's broken "Install Augment" option when your favor level is too low to augment.
    • You no longer stop auto-running when using an ability without a channeling time. This functionality can be re-enabled via the "Always Stop Auto-Moving when Using an Ability" option in the Settings window under Controls. Note: You WILL stop auto-running if you use an ability outside of its range and have Auto-Move to Attack turned on.
    • Added collision to the gates in Rahu.
    • Fixed the MacHack3 special setting so that it works more reliably: you no longer have to re-apply it whenever switching areas.
    • Removed MacHack1 and MacHack2 special settings because they didn't actually help Mac users fix the visual problem. You can now just type MacHack instead of MacHack3 in the special settings. (Although MacHack3 continues to work.)


    [ 2022-02-02 18:37:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

    SUPER BUFFS Event!

    In celebration of the new year and the outstanding level of support we have received from the PG community, we want everyone to start off the new year with a little something in their pockets! So, for ONE DAY ONLY (Jan 1), we have turned on a whole bunch of our special event buffs and cranked them to max, including double combat and crafting XP!!! These buffs will turn off at midnight server time (US EST), so get out there and grind it up while you can! Enjoy the super buffs and we thank you again for playing and supporting Project: Gorgon! Happy New Year!


    [ 2022-01-01 06:03:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: December 24, 2021

    New Dungeon


    There's a new level 85 group dungeon available for high level players who are Friends with Mope in Povus. Speak to Mope to get started. This one is intended to be a challenge for a group of six level 85 players wearing reasonably good gear. It's brand new in the sense that we finished it up last night, so no doubt it'll need some refinements. Remember to report bugs, and after you've been into the dungeon a few times, please share your balance feedback with us!

    Ri-Shin Event Changes


    • Povus now has a Ri-Shin tree to set up; speak with Leah Bowman for more information.
    • There is a small chance to receive a Live Event Credit when opening a Ri-Shin tree present.
    • Tweaked the Ri-Shin Shrine event in various ways, changing the required item amounts, adjusting buff effects, and adding a small chance to receive a bonus Live Event Token each time you receive a Ri-Shin Token from Snowleaf.

    Combat Changes


    • The basic effect of Sword items has been recalculated. Weapons that boosted "Sword Base Damage" now boost "Sword Damage" (to different amounts). This is a buff to high level sword damage.
    • The basic effect of Dagger and Dirk items has been recalculated. Weapons that boosted "Knife Base Damage" now boost "Knife Damage" (to different amounts). This is a buff to high level knife damage, especially dual-wielding damage.
    • Fixed brewing buffs that are supposed to buff damage versus a specific anatomy group (e.g. Bears). (Previously they did nothing.)
    • Fixed brewing buffs that are supposed to buff Burst damage vs. Elites. (Previously they incorrectly boosted Melee damage.)
    • Revised brewing buffs that were intended to buff Projectile damage vs. Elites; they now buff Ranged damage. (Previously they incorrectly boosted Melee damage.)
    • Fixed ability "Toxic Irritant" not applying certain buffs/debuffs.
    • Fixed minigolems' "Taunting Punch" not applying certain buffs/debuffs.
    • Fixed pet rats' "Rat Burn" Special Trick not applying certain buffs/debuffs.
    • Fixed the Problem Spider's curse.
    • Fixed treasure effects that make Pixie Flare deal bonus damage vs. Demons.

    Other Changes


    • Items with only generic mods should extract properly now.
    • Sunstone & Goshenite will now properly extract generic augments.
    • Brought back the "Genes" window at stables.
    • Stable pet previews should now always show.
    • Persona window preview should now properly display at all times.
    • Fae now float in the character select screen & persona window.
    • Improved how effects line up with the attack animations.
    • Polished & sped up hammer animations.
    • Mushroom Box use level requirement changed from 0 to 1.
    • Corrected tutorial text after researching your first fire magic spell. (The UI has changed since it was originally written.)
    • Fixed typo in foods (mitigatation -> mitigation).
    • Summon the correct skeleton with Free-Summon Skeletal Archer 6.
    • Elite members of the "Evil Carnivore" gang (seen during a Povus invasion) now correctly have group loot instead of solo loot.

    Bonus Levels


    • Animal Handling: Fishing 42, Skinning 15, Feline Anatomy 19, Bear Anatomy 29, Animal Husbandry 25, Animal Husbandry 50, Animal Husbandry 75, Rodent Anatomy 19, Rodent Anatomy 39
    • Archery: Meditation 25, Human Anatomy 19, Crossbow 25, Crossbow 50, Crossbow 75
    • Armor Patching: Armorsmithing 15, Armorsmithing 45, Armorsmithing 70
    • Bard: Art History 15, Art History 45, Poetry Appreciation 35
    • Battle Chemistry: Mycology 30, Cooking 55, Iocaine Resistance 30
    • Cow: Unarmed 27, Gardening 51, Gourmand 25, Foraging 26
    • Crossbow: Fletching 21, Fletching 34, Fletching 53, Archery 32, Archery 58, Gadgeteering 15, Gadgeteering 45
    • Deer: Unarmed 16, Psychology 17, Ruminant Anatomy 17, Cow 26
    • Druid: Mycology 45, Rabbit 42, Pig 48, Nature Appreciation 38, Nature Appreciation 65
    • Fairy Magic: Fae Anatomy 49
    • Fire Magic: Battle Chemistry 20, Battle Chemistry 40, Armorsmithing 28
    • First Aid: Priest 15, Priest 45, Compassion 15, Compassion 42, Phrenology 10, Druid 29
    • Giant Bat: Animal Handling 46, Necromancy 55, Bard 40
    • Ice Magic: Fire Magic 28, Fire Magic 39, Fire Magic 65, Armor Patching 55, Meditation 30, Battle Chemistry 30, Battle Chemistry 55
    • Hammer: Unarmed 26, Mining 65
    • Necromancy: Undead Anatomy 19, Undead Anatomy 49, Incorporeal Creature Anatomy 26, Spirit Fox 29, Paleontology 24, Paleontology 49
    • Pig: Mycology 65
    • Priest: First Aid 45, Pig 55
    • Rabbit: Unarmed 10, Unarmed 38, Gardening 25, Gardening 53, Gourmand 30, Foraging 28, Deer 16, Animal Handling 28
    • Shield: Armorsmithing 48
    • Sigil Scripting: Calligraphy 10, Calligraphy 30, Calligraphy 45, Calligraphy 60, Battle Chemistry 11
    • Spider: Psychology 19, Psychology 46, Arthropod Anatomy 13, Textiles 34
    • Spirit Fox: Unarmed 49, Fishing 37, Gourmand 35, Psychology 51, Myconic 40, Foraging 47, Mentalism 30, Canine Anatomy 23, Fae Anatomy 29, Incorporeal Creature Anatomy 49
    • Staff: Sword 42
    • Unarmed: Staff 60
    • Werewolf: Skinning 35, Canine Anatomy 19, Canine Anatomy 47, Butchering 34, Giant Bat 25, Animal Handling 60
    Merry Christmas, and we'll be back with more updates soon!


    [ 2021-12-24 22:57:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: December 15, 2021

    It's time for Alharth's holiday season! All the townsfolk that you've befriended (meaning you have Friends favor-level or higher) will have gifts for you when you speak to them. Make sure to have your favorite combat skills active, because if they give you equipment, it will likely be tailored to those skills. The human celebration of Ri-Shin is also in full force, and townsfolk in every town and settlement [except Povus] need your help setting up their Ri-Shin trees! Look for townsfolk wearing a red festive Ri-Shin hat. There are trees to set up in Serbule, Serbule Hills, Eltibule, Kur, Gazluk, Ilmari, Rahu, the Fae Realm, Sun Vale, and Red Wing Casino. We've actually been working on a different Christmas present for our long-term players, a new level 85 group dungeon, but it's not quite ready yet! We'll do another update next week to introduce the new dungeon. In the mean time, if you have a high-level character, you may want to make sure you are Friends with Mope in Povus. (Oh, and Povus doesn't have a Ri-Shin tree yet, but will get one in next week's update!)

    A Holiday Gift


    As a small thanks for joining us this holiday season, there are new redemptions available - one for everyone (except demo players), and an extra one for our VIP members. You can access these through the button on the bottom right of the Persona window, or if you're old-school by typing /redeem in chat. Remember, these rewards are one per account, so make sure you choose which character gets it wisely!

    UI


    • There is a new vendor filter: "Hide Known Recipes".
    • You now auto-select the number box when splitting a stack, to allow quicker precise splits.
    • Tooltips for the sidebar buttons (like the Inventory button) will now show the keyboard shortcut for that button (if any is assigned).
    • You can more easily clear out social statuses ("Who's Online" status and "Friends" quote).
    • Fixed bug where cancelling a confirmation window would accidentally confirm it instead. This could happen if, for instance, you quickly clicked "Erase This Loadout" twice in a row and then chose to cancel.
    • The first time you open the recipe window from a world object (like a fire) in a play session, it will now start recipes at the top of the window instead of in the middle.

    Animations


    • Skeletons can now perform emotes and sit in chairs!
    • Accounted for latency when performing attacks, so they should now line up better with animations on clients.
    • Polished animations such as First Aid, Armor Patch, Dig Deep, & Push Onward.
    • Sped up a few animations used by buffing abilities and made them able to be used while moving.
    • Made pickup & eat corpse animations more responsive. (You can move more quickly after performing the animation.)
    • Sped up dig animation, and use it when burying a corpse.
    • Players are now placed into beds more appropriately.

    Other


    • Bulwark Mode must now be kept on a hotbar in order to be sustained.
    • You can no longer earn combat XP for "fake" auxiliary skills (like performing a song right before murdering a monster to get Stringed Performance XP from the kill). This was considered an exploit and is not the normal way to earn XP for these skills.
    • Cheese casks & brewing barrels should no longer get stuck in walls.
    • We now properly change your active skill on your first polymorph. For example, the first time Ciervos turns you into a Deer you will reliably activate the deer skill.
    • Dead humanoids no longer have collisions (after being un-targeted).
    • Removed duplicate descriptions from food items.
    • Fixed description of cranberry sauces in their recipes. (Snacks -> Meals)
    • Fixed Spicy Fried Tofu Cubes recipe typo. (Feeds two -> Feeds three)
    • Made bed on Ivyn's farm (in Serbule) more easily usable.
    • Renamed Cat Anatomy Decoction to Feline Anatomy Decoction.
    • Ability "Spade Assault" now gains damage bonuses from gear that boosts Kick or Front Kick damage
    • Higher tiers of "Spade Assault" have a higher chance of the shovel breaking (going from 5% to 7%)
    • If you are Comfortable or better with Mope, you can stand at the base of the giant mushroom and say "Mope, Up!" in local chat. If you then stand still (and out of combat) for a few seconds, Mope will teleport you to him. (This is something he now tells you when you reach Comfortable favor-level, but if you've already reached Comfortable before today... well, it's a good thing you read the patch notes.)
    • Adjusted the buffs from the [spoiler]Ri-Shin pool in Kur[/spoiler] so that they last 90 minutes instead of 60, but can only be received once per day. Hopefully this makes them more useful without being too overpowered.
    We'll be back with another update soon!


    [ 2021-12-15 21:02:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: November 18, 2021

    Happy Thanksgiving! It's harvest season in Alharth and you know what that means: turkeys are hiding in all the bushes, and there's classic fall foods to eat. High-level crafters should visit Ricatu in Povus to learn to craft some new kinds of food! We also have many fixes and improvements for you. Are you on a new Mac? Is the screen opaque? Scroll down to "MacOS Visual Fog Bug" below.

    Povus


    • Povus ratkin drop more cheese mold, especially root-tenders and miners.
    • Povus nightly quest "Undead Surprise" has been revised.
    • Povus nightly quest "Warmaster Brukal" more reliably has the necessary elite orcs.
    • Fixed Povus buildings that could have frogs spawn trapped inside the ceiling.

    UI


    • There are two new chat commands to let you see login screen information while you are in-game: /events will display upcoming events, and /news will display login news.
    • Improved the clarity of genetic-info tooltips in the genome-view window:
      • H, S, and V are now shown as "hue", "saturation", or "intensity".
      • If both the dominant and recessive behaviors boost the same attribute (but to different amounts), only the more potent behavior is listed.
    • VIP players now see a "Save" button on the Genome View window. This saves the genome as a .txt file in the user's "reports" folder. (The format is subject to change based on your feedback, so let us know what you'd like to see here!)
    • Abilities in the Skills and Abilities window that are different levels of the same ability will now sort correctly. For example, Blocking Stance 5 no longer sorts before Blocking Stance 4.
    • Sub-skills are now sorted alphabetically in the Skills and Abilities window.
    • Recipes that share cooldown timers, such as Mushroom Recall and Mushroom Un-Recall, will now all display the appropriate timer in their recipe.
    • Closing the corpse window too quickly after performing an action will no longer cause the loot window to pop right back up again.
    • The show/hide effects UI is now handled properly when player doesn't have sufficient anatomy skill level.
    • It's possible to drag the "NPC talk" window far enough left on your screen that the left-side menu doesn't show. New players often do this by mistake because the first few NPCs they talk to have no side-menu. Later when they're talking to NPCs with side-menus, they have no idea what they're missing. To fix this, the left-side menu on an NPC's talk window is now prevented from going off the left side of the screen. (If you really want to drag the sidebar off-screen for whatever reason, you can use special setting, AllowSideMenusOffScreen.)

    New Tab-Targeting Option


    Tab-targeting will sometimes target something far away rather than something that is right next to you. This is because we take the monster's "hated target" into account -- for example, an archer who is attacking you from far away will be selected before a docile monster that's closer to you. We believe this is usually desirable behavior, but some players have found it confusing or inappropriate for their needs, so we've added a special setting, RemoveHateFromTabTargeting, which causes tab-targeting to completely ignore monster-hate and sort targets solely by distance. Give it a try (by adding that word to the "Special Settings" box in the Settings window) and let us know if the new behavior is useful!

    Other


    • Knockdowns are considered stuns for purposes of dispelling them. This applies to both player and monster knockdowns.
    • Fixed a bug with NPC_Errruka that prevented some dye recipes from showing up in her barters.
    • "Analyze Arthropod Genes" ability was incorrectly making a skill-check against the Arthropod Anatomy skill instead of the Arthropod Genetics skill.
    • "Proclamation" note in Serbule is targetable again.
    • You can no longer sit in a chair that you are already sitting in.
    • All instances of the name "Davlos" should now correctly use "Dalvos" instead. Just for you, Beta Notus!
    • Some archery abilities were missing the text "(or better)".
    • Many typos have been fixed.
    • New bandwidth improvements to networking protocol. This will not be detectable during gameplay except to players with VERY poor networks -- it's mainly intended as a feature for players on metered or limited bandwidth, so that the game uses less bandwidth overall.

    Food Tweaks


    Non-cheese food items have been buffed to also provide direct damage mitigation. The numbers we're using here are very preliminary -- we're not as focused on the exact balance of the idea as much as figuring out if this idea is useful. We want both cheese and non-cheese foods to be valuable, and we'll also need to accomodate one more planned food-making skill, Baking, in the future. All this food should have uses or at least niches where they're valuable. So expect more iteration on food buffs!

    MacOS Visual "Fog" Bug


    We're aware that certain MacOS users (mainly those with the latest laptops) can't play the game because the 3D world is opaque. We're unable to reproduce the problem. Our guess is that it's a video driver problem for specific macs, but since we don't know if/when Apple will update their drivers, we'd like to find a work-around. Since we can't reproduce it, we're taking the "shotgun approach": we have three potential work-arounds, and hopefully one of them will help. While in-game, open the Settings window and find the Special Settings tab. In the text box, type the words MacHack1 MacHack2 MacHack3 and save your settings. This will enable all three hacks. The effect should be immediate: you'll instantly either be able to see stuff... or you won't. If none of these work, we'll try some more hacks soon! If the hacks DO help, please let us know which one(s) are needed. You can remove each of the words in the settings box to turn off the corresponding hack. Remove MacHack3 first and see if the problem comes back; if not, try removing MacHack2 or MacHack1. It may be that several combinations of hacks remove the problem -- that info would also help us narrow it down. These hacks are VERY hacky. They disable major graphical systems (like the entire weather system!). The game will definitely be uglier with these hacks on, but hopefully the game will be playable. And once we know of a hack that helps, we can start refining the hack with less-aggressive mini-hacks. Once we have some clues to start with, we may reactivate the Steam "beta" channel to iterate on the problem more quickly. Thanks for your patience!


    [ 2021-11-18 19:38:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: October 29, 2021

    We're back with another update! This one's a little earlier than expected because we wanted to fix a Halloween-event bug (the quest "Skeleton Dance?"). The Halloween event will run for another week or so, into November, so there's still plenty of time to finish the quest lines! But this isn't just a bug-fix update -- there's also major changes to the Povus nightly quest system, plus a new UI feature.

    Povus - New Feature: "Bonus" Nights


    Some nights in Povus, the quests are worth more. This happens every 4-8 game days (which maps to 8-16 real hours, which means this happens an average of 2 times per realtime day). On Bonus nights, each quest earns the town +100 additional town XP, plus additional item rewards for participants. The town signpost has an indicator if the upcoming night's quests will earn bonuses. In addition, at the signpost you can "join Tremmond's pigeonmailing list" to receive notifications the game-day before a bonus night. (These notifications are sent to currently-online players every game-hour during the game-day, so you may not be notified if you're offline at the wrong moment. If in doubt, just check the signpost!) Note that at this time, "Bonus Nights" aren't actually any harder than regular nights. They're just bonusier. Some of the in-game flavor text suggests that nastier things are coming, but they're wrong. We might change this in the future as we continue to evolve Povus.

    Povus - New Feature: Armor Shipments


    When the "Light the Lamps" quest is completed at night, local merchant Ishiko will stop by the Povus docks at 10am game-time the next day to buy crafted metal armor. Each piece of armor you give her earns Town XP for Povus, helping it level up. But the cash payout is very poor, so this is primarily a way to donate armor to improve Povus.

    Povus - New Feature: Capstone Quest


    There's an additional quest added to the end of the Povus nightly quest-line. This one's for those nights when there are LOTS of players in Povus. Starting the quest requires a whopping 16 players.

    Povus - New Feature: Town Storage


    When you complete a Povus nightly quest, you can now earn storage slots as part of the reward. The first few slots are earned just by completing one or two quests, but later slots require more quest-completions. Eventually you can have up to 80 slots in the Povus storage chest. (This is technically a bug fix, but since it didn't work at all before, it's also a new feature!)

    Povus: Other Changes


    • Increased the number of players needed to start Povus nightly quest stages. Tiers previously required 1,2,3,4,5,6 players; now require 2,3,4,6,9,12 players. This should better match the actual quest requirements.
    • Fashnagar the Prognosticator's post-bath prognostications now have a kernel of truth: many of his lines now accurately hint at how soon the next Bonus Quest Reward night is coming. (Previously they were entirely random.)
    • Made sure enough Invincible Ratkin Skeletons spawn for the quest "Bone War!"
    • Fixed the spawn rate of Enchanted Mega-Scrays during quest "Povus Safety: Ranalon Assault"
    • Reduced the kill-requirements of most higher-tier Povus quests a little bit (e.g. kill 35 flapskulls instead of 40)
    • The second-highest-tier Povus nightly quests now earn the town 200 XP instead of 100
    • The highest-tier Povus nightly quests now earn the town 300 XP instead of 100

    UI Improvement: See Active Buffs on Targets/Party Members


    You can now see active buffs/debuffs on targets and party members. They are customizable via settings under "GUI > Features > Effects Display", and some of the options are available by right-clicking the party or target displays. They follow the usual Anatomy level requirements, so you need to have level 25 of the appropriate Anatomy skill to view them, even on party members.

    Other Changes


    • Fixed a bug that caused Spawn Premonitions to be permanent, instead of having a 5% chance to dispel on death as intended. As part of this fix, all existing spawn premonitions were erased, so you will need to reapply them!
    • Also reduced the 3-second universal spawn premonition to a 2-second premonition, and the 5-second universal premonition to 4-second
    • Summoned deer are now correctly unsummoned when player leaves Deer form
    • Frostbite & Rib Shatter stuns now remove Ghosts' nigh-invulnerability
    • Now treat /em custom emotes as chat messages, so they are affected by /ignore, moderator gagging, etc.
    • Polish Hammer animations
    • Fixed a "click really fast" exploit with Genetics XP
    • Properly loop stun animation for NPCs
    • Reduce crouching of female elves with realistic foot placement turned on
    • Fix sideways-sitting chairs in New Prestonbule and Serbule
    • Skeleton dancing is functional again
    • No longer send endless undeliverable messages for pigeon messages with no items attached
    • Place bulwark shield particle correctly on Skeleton Mages
    • Play animations (invisibly) when in first-person mode. This fixes some subtle bugs
    • Prevent auto-selected targets from interfering with tab-targeting


    [ 2021-10-29 21:11:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: October 16, 2021

    Halloween is here! Zhia Lian, the demanding god of Whimsy, has new higher-level tasks for you to take on. The Halloween event now has over 90 quests! So get out there and see what whimsical random things she wants now! Just remember the first rule of the Cult of Zhia Lian ... In addition to new quests and rewards for Halloween, this update also includes a bunch of fixes and improvements.

    UI


    • Added auto-repeat back into crafting, for use primarily with recipes that don't always consume their ingredients.
    • Skills and sub-skills are now properly listed in alphabetical order in the abilities window.
    • Fixed a bug that prevented area-specific loading-screen tips from showing when you logged into the game. (They could only be seen when you teleported to other areas.)
    • The search bar is now cleared when opening the recipe window from the "More Info" context menu.
    • Changed "Virility" to "Fertility" for female pets during direct pet inspection.

    Animations


    • Players can move their characters a small amount even when they are performing "locked" combat animations. In other words, players can slide around while their feet are doing other things. This is an experiment in our ongoing animation work, as we continue to try to balance graphics quality with gameplay benefits.
    • Players sit better on chairs.
    • Birds sit properly on bird perches.
    • Deer have a jump animation.
    • Animal forms now display Bulwark Shield correctly.
    • Skeleton archer animations play correctly.
    • Smoothed out movement/rotation of equipment during animations.
    • Many, many animations have been polished, including: Archery (and crossbows) animations; dance animations for Butterfly, Deer, & Owl; Psychology animations; animations for playing harp & fairy chimes; and others.

    Other Stuff


    • We've reverted earlier Povus change that allowed monsters to auto-despawn even if players were near them. This was intended to be beneficial to players, but proved detrimental, because it could despawn corpses that you wanted to loot. For now, Povus event monsters no longer auto-despawn if any player is within 20 meters of them. (We'll revisit this idea soon, as we continue to evolve the Povus nightly event system.)
    • Fixed genetic equipment breakage rate, from 50% to 5%.
    • Gestation time is now properly modified by the special-event that's supposed to cut it in half. (For the next time we run that special event.)
    • Ghostly creatures that spawn during Povus invasions now correctly have the anatomy type Incorporeal.
    • Glajur now teaches individual Phrenology skills instead of the overarching Phrenology skill.
    • Dog Ear actually wants insect meat now.
    • Eltibule treasure map treasures will no longer generate out of zone bounds.
    • Goats now spawn in Gazluk instead of sheep. The availability of wool and mutton has not changed.
    • Ratkin Root-Tenders (and their servants) can drop wood as loot.
    • Ratkin Miners can drop ores as loot.
    • Swapped north/south east/west in Povus surveys.
    • Fixed the Zukelmux World Boss Portal to actually teleport players to the Fae Realm rather than back into Gazluk Keep (for next Attack of the World Bosses event)
    • We now display accurate damage of Song of Discord when a damage mod like Bulwark Shield is active.
    • Having Giant Bat form no longer slows your jump or renders you unable to make the lift jump in Wintertide.
    • Fixed typo in Murky Tunnel in Povus.
    • Fixed Latent Charge typo.
    • Added a check to prevent players from dropping items if there are already 20 entities within 5 meters. (This is to prevent players from dropping 100+ items in very close proximity, which breaks Unity's physics engine.)
    • Reduced intensity of fogginess on foggy days. Most areas are dramatically less foggy; Povus is still notably foggier than other areas (but still half as foggy as last update).
    • Fixed brightness changes to indoor areas, such as from "Brighter World" and "Echolocation".


    [ 2021-10-16 20:20:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: September 27, 2021

    Today's update is a big one. There's a new high-level zone, several new skills to find, and a metric tonne of UI fixes and improvements. Please keep in mind that with as many changes as are in this update, we are really relying on you for feedback to help us identify problems and bugs. Thank you!

    Povus


    Povus is a new high-level outdoor area for players with combat skills from 75 to 85. (We haven't raised the level cap past 80 yet, but you can reach 85 with synergy bonuses.) The town in this area has an event every night where they need your help! Monsters invade from 8pm to 7am game time (NOT real time!). But a series of quests can help put things right. As you complete these town quests you'll help "level up" the town, unlocking more NPCs and amenities as you go. Visit the bulletin board in town for more information. This is an experimental design that we'd like your feedback on! There are other somewhat-experimental game mechanics in Povus which we invite you to discover. There are also a couple of mysteries to solve. (And there's a few unintentional red herrings: places on the landscape where we intend to add content, but haven't yet. But we're confident you'll figure everything out quickly enough!) There are also some new non-combat skills to discover in Povus, but since they're integrated into the area's quests, we'll leave them for you to find. Of course, with this added complexity comes the added chance for bugs. There's sure to be some to find, so please report them and we'll get them fixed. Povus is conceptually west of Rahu and north of Gazluk, and can be reached from those two areas. The temporary portals that previously connected Gazluk to Rahu now connect these areas to Povus. (This makes the portal location in Rahu a little weird, since it's on the southern edge of the map, instead of the western edge -- we'll address this when we do the Rahu art revamp in the future.)

    Animal Husbandry


    One new skill you can learn in Povus is Animal Husbandry. This skill lets you breed the pets in your stables to create new baby pets. Once you have the skill, speak with a qualified stablemaster to begin breeding. You'll receive an in-game document giving you more information on how it works. Note that there's a limit on the number of pets you can breed at once, and this limit is per-account, not per-player, similar to limit on player workorders. (The limit increases as you raise Animal Husbandry, but the total across all your characters can't exceed this character's current limit.) One of the fun things about breeding pets is selling or giving away the babies to interested parties. For this reason, we've added a way to "store" pets, turning them into items which can be given to other players. These players can then use the item to add that pet to their stable. But there are caveats! First, only pets that were born in your stables can be sold. Pets that you capture in the wild can never be sold to others. (This means, for instance, that you can't capture and resell Hissy.) Second, you'll need to obtain a Pet Cage item -- and this will require a gadgeteer player who knows the recipe. And lastly, pet cages can't contain a pet forever! Each type of pet cage has a maximum lifespan. If the pet isn't taken out of the cage (and put into somebody's stable) before that time runs out, the pet escapes and is lost forever. (In other words, the cage item self-destructs.)

    Pet Genetics: What You Need To Know


    Also in this update we've started our rollout of pet genetics. Right now, only bees and wasps have a genome, but we'll be adding genomes to the other animal families (bears, cats, rats) in the future. We simulate the pets' genome using simple Mendelian genetics. (If you don't remember that from high school, you might want to google it!) Their simulated genome has hundreds of genes that control their appearance as well as seven new pet traits: Ferocity, Toughness, Ruggedness, Friendliness, Enthusiasm, Intelligence, and Virility. They range from 1 (abysmal) to 100 (perfect) and affect things like your pets' health, damage, and so on. The seven pet traits can be viewed on each pet in your stable, provided you have moderate skill in Animal Handling. Rather than explain all these traits here, we'll direct you to an in-game document. You'll receive this document when you learn Animal Handling. Players that already know Animal Handling can get this document by talking to Gisli in Serbule. (Ask him for tips on animal handling, then ask him to explain combat stats.) Once you have it, you can find the document again in the Books and Lore tab. Also note that we no longer model the Happiness of your pet -- we just assume the pet is pretty happy all the time. The stuff Happiness used to affect (such as XP-earning rate) is now controlled by the aforementioned seven genetic traits. If you had a pet bee or wasp in your stable -- surprise! It probably looks different now. In the past, each type of bee or wasp had a fixed appearance, but now that's determined by their genes. Your pet's stats are also probably different, too. But to avoid too much heartbreak, we've used a mulligan system for existing pets: if any of their genetic traits came out below 30, or if more than 3 traits came out below 40, we re-rolled the genes a few times to try to get better stats. This means pre-existing pets are probably better than average, and at the very least, they're definitely "playable" in quality -- they have no devastatingly low trait scores. We also use this mulligan system for fairy starter pets, to ensure that they have nice stats. But we have another concern here: since fairies get free pets, and you can generate as many fairy characters as you like, it would be too tempting to re-roll hundreds of fairy characters to get good pets for breeding. To alleviate this problem, all starter fairy pets are marked as "Dormant". The in-game fiction is that these fae creatures are so ancient that they've entirely forgotten about sexuality. We may add a way to make dormant pets breeding-ready in the future, if there's demand for that feature. However, it will require a high-level item and/or quest to complete, and it will only work after your pet is at least a real-world year old. That means fairy characters created today would need to wait a year before they could breed their starter pets. (But we've back-dated pre-existing starter pets to be the age of your fairy character.) Sages say that there's a way to peer into the genetic code of a creature, to "read" it, and to partially understand what each gene does. And the sages are right! But we'll leave it to you to discover this well-kept secret.

    Free Bees


    Bees/wasps are the first pet with genetics, but we realize that not every Animal Handler uses them. To help us test Husbandry, you can get a free male and female insect added to your stable. Here's how it works: first, learn Animal Husbandry. Second, have at least two slots free in your stable (one for each free pet). Then view your Redemptions in-game (there's a button on the Persona window.) You'll see choices for two males and two females. You can pick one of each, and they'll be added to your stable. These free bees have been given "mulligans" on their genetics to ensure their stats are pretty decent. Note that this redemption is per account, not per character. The free bees will be available until the end of this year, so you have a few months to unlock Husbandry and claim them.

    Animal Handling/Pet Changes


    In this update we've avoided making changes to the Animal Handling skill, or to individual pets' abilities and base stats. Our focus has been on genetics specifically. It's much easier to understand how it works (and make sure it's working right) if we don't change too many things at once. We DO plan to make changes to Animal Handling in the future: it needs a treasure revamp and probably a new ability. But for now we've made only minimal changes:
    • Fixed a data problem that gave AH pets two opportunities to perform a critical-hit. This caused high-level pets to crit more often than we desired.
    • AH pets no longer gain automatic crit-damage boosts as they level up.
    • One treasure effect directly changed the pet's Enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is now controlled by genetics and can't be meaningfully enchanted, so we've replaced it with an effect that is vaguely similar to the old one. We'll revisit this effect when we make deeper revisions to AH.
    • "Animal Handling pets have +80 Enthusiasm (which boosts XP earned and critical-hit chance)" => "Animal Handling pets deal +20% damage when they critically hit"
    • Pet bears whose Special Trick dealt crushing damage actually dealt slashing damage. This has been fixed.

    Psychology


    We've revised Psychology a bit in this update:
    • "Psychoanalyze restores 143 Health to you after a 15 second delay" => after an 8 second delay
    • "Psychoanalyze restores 224 Armor to you" => 212 armor
    • "Psychoanalyze causes the target to take +20 damage from Psychic attacks for 60 seconds" => +78 damage for 15 seconds
    • Soothe ability now deals a small amount of direct Health damage.
    • Soothe ability is now eligible for phrenology critical hits.
    • "Soothe, But I Love You, and Cause Terror Damage +86" => damage +205
    • "Inspire Confidence / Positive Attitude Healing +83" => +98
    • The effect "Inspire Confidence increases all targets' Accuracy +20 for 10 seconds" now stacks with itself.
    • "Inspire Confidence restores +205 Health after a 25 second delay" => restores +150 Armor to all targets
    • "Soothe Damage +128" => Soothe and Psychoanalyze damage +167 and range +5 meters
    • "Ridicule deals +57 health damage and taunts +525" => Ridicule taunts +800 and target's next attack has a 25% chance to automatically miss
    • "Mock deals +125% damage and taunts +500, but reuse timer is +2 seconds" => Mock deals +125% damage, taunts +500, and hits all targets within 20 meters, but reuse timer is +1.5 seconds
    • "Strike a Nerve deals +168 armor damage" => 236 armor damage
    • Some Psychology treasure effects did not correctly scale past level 80; this has been fixed.

    Werewolf


    There are some werewolf skill/treasure changes in this update:
    • "Future Pack Attacks to the same target deal +100 damage" => +610 damage
    • "For 8 seconds after using See Red, all other Lycanthropy attacks deal 148 Trauma damage over 8 seconds" => Effect now lasts for 10 seconds after using See Red.
    • "Sanguine Fangs deals +280 trauma damage over 8 seconds" => +360 trauma damage
    • New treasure effect: Chest/Feet: "Pack Attack deals +100 damage and causes target to be 12% more vulnerable to Trauma damage for 10 seconds"
    • "Sanguine Fangs suddenly deals 350 Trauma damage after an 8-second delay" => 450 trauma damage
    • "Sanguine Fangs causes the target to take +15% damage from Slashing attacks for 15 seconds" => +18% damage
    • New treasure effect: Legs: "For 10 seconds after using Sanguine Fangs, all other Lycanthropy attacks deal 180 Trauma damage over 8 seconds"
    • "Werewolf Claw, Double Claw, and Pouncing Rake Damage +62" => +81
    • Replaced treasure effect: Legs: "Double Claw Power Cost -21" => "Double Claw deals +40 damage and reuse timer is -2 seconds"
    • "Pouncing Rake deals +220 Armor damage" => 304 armor damage
    • Some werewolf treasure effects did not scale past level 80; this has been fixed.

    Animal Armor Changes


    • Crafted Werewolf armor has been rebalanced to have less Armor and more offensive buffs. It also has a potent new sidebar ability that can be used when wearing a full set. (Equip a chest-piece to learn the ability.)
    • The recipes to craft Werewolf Armor are no longer Blacksmithing recipes. They're Armorsmithing recipes now. If you previously had any of these recipes, you still have them, but you'll need to earn the appropriate level of Armorsmithing skill before you can actually use the recipe again.
    • Solgribue in the Fae Realm now trains the recipes for level 80 wooden cowshoes and deershoes.
    • Added level 80 versions of various other animal armor (but the recipes must be found).
    • Revised Werewolf Armor recipes: high-level versions now require slightly fancier ingredients.
    • To make Werewolf Armor work like the other prestige metal armor sets, you now need to forge it in a spot consecrated to Norala. There is a new forge for this purpose in the Kur wolf cave.
    • Recipes and stats for crafted Snail Armor, Cow Barding, and Cow Champrons have changed.

    Staff, Shield, and Cow Nerfs


    We're still evaluating the efficacy of the defensive combat skill changes made earlier in the year. We aren't ready to evaluate their use in solo combat (because solo monsters may still become more powerful in the future) but they definitely seem overpowered in terms of Elite monsters. One culprit is that we gave out too much percentage-based Elite invulnerability, so we've nerfed/replaced some of those effects. We'll continue to evaluate these skills as we move forward.

    Staff


    • "Blocking Stance costs -20 Power and mitigates +10% of physical damage from Elite attackers for 30 seconds" => "Blocking Stance increases your Max Health +63 for 30 seconds (and heals you for 63)"

    Shield


    • Bulwark Mode 3 previously granted +27% direct invulnerability => now +17%

    Cow


    • "Max Power +37 and Vulnerability to Elite Attacks -10% when Cow skill active" => now -5% vulnerability

    Synergy Level Changes


    • Players gain a new bonus level to Shamanic Infusion when reaching Psychology 70 and Skinning 70.
    • Fixed bug that prevented players from gaining the intended synergy levels to Sushi Preparation when reaching Fishing 55 and Knife Fighting 60.
    • Gain a new synergy level of Sushi Preparation upon reaching Fish Anatomy 31.
    • Gain new Mining synergy levels by reaching Hammer 24 and Hammer 46.
    • Gain new Surveying synergy levels by reaching Calligraph 35, Calligraphy 55, and Nonfiction Writing 25.
    • Gain a new Calligraphy synergy level by reaching Nonfiction Writing 15.
    • Gain new synergy levels in Gardening when reaching these levels: Flower Arrangement 57, Nature Appreciation 55, Plant Anatomy 20, Carpentry 45.

    Misc Treasure Changes


    • Fixed bugged Knife treasure effect: "When wielding two knives, all Knife Fighting attacks have a 33% chance to restore 41 Power". This did not work at all.
    • "Signature Debuffs deal +29% damage and also deal 156 Armor damage" => 220 armor damage
    • "Many Cuts deals +172 armor damage" => 236 armor damage
    • "Wind Strike and Heart Piercer deal 164 armor damage" => 224 armor damage
    • "Unarmed attacks deal +42 Armor damage" => 52 armor damage
    • "Tundra Spikes deals 290 armor damage and taunts +750" => 380 armor damage
    • "Marking Cut deals +80 armor damage and does not cause the target to shout for help" => 146 armor damage
    • "Blast of Fury deals 200 Armor damage and restores 43 Armor to you" => 276 armor damage
    • "Spit Acid deals +240 armor damage" => 360 armor damage

    Sky and Camera Changes


    We consolidated our camera-FX stacks, so now all areas use the same camera system. And this camera-stack has new color tuning and other features which hopefully make the game look better. We are also using a new sky system in most zones. Each area has its own weather setup ranging from clear skies to heavy clouds to fog (although never rain or snow). Again, please report any bugs or weirdnesses you see with these new systems!

    September/October VIP Gift


    We've added our first gift specifically for VIP members: the recipe "Dye Making: Dye My Rabbity Fur Blue". You don't need to actually log in and claim this reward immediately -- as long as your account has VIP at some point (from now until the end of October), the redemption will be available any time. This is a cosmetic recipe only: you must be a rabbit already to dye your fur blue. It requires blue dye. This special appearance will become available to non-VIPs in the future (via a learnable recipe), after a period of VIP exclusivity.

    UI Fixes and Improvements


    • We no longer randomly remove your "Who's Online" status.
    • The display of active buffs on other players would often disappear when changing zones. This is now fixed.
    • In the Friends panel, long quotes will no longer overlap other fields.
    • The volume of quest sounds can now be controlled separately from other types of sounds.
    • Items in locked inventory folders will no longer be affected by the 'Stow' commands.
    • We now handle character turning via mouse during large framerate drops better.
    • Using mouse-look, you can now look vertically when both left- and right-mouse buttons are clicked simultaneously.
    • There is now a search bar on the recipe panel. You can search by name ("baked potato"), by type ("meal", "snack", "instant-snack"), by level ("L 10" for level 10 items), or by some combination of those.
    • You can now specify how many times you'd like to craft a recipe.
    • Headers in the quest list now indicate when one of that area's quests is being tracked, to more easily locate tracked quests.
    • We've added a search bar to the list of skills.
    • Non-integer effects now display their real value, so "+0.5" instead of "+0".

    Player Shops


    • The number of unread notes you have waiting for you in your player shop is now included in the text of the "Read Notes From Customers" button.
    • You can now reserve items to be bought only by members of your guild. This requires a minimum guild level of 5.
    • You can now mark items in your shop "Accepting Offers", which prevents the item from being purchased and instead allows shoppers to "Make Offer" and leave a shop note with the owner, indicating the price they are willing to pay.

    Particles, Animations, and Other Visual Things


    • Many animations have been fixed or improved.
    • Many ability particle effects have been fixed or improved.
    • There is a new Graphics setting called "Realistic Foot Placement" which improves animation quality in exchange for a small performance penalty.
    • When you take damage to Health, the screen now only flashes red if you have below 25% health remaining.
    • When you take damage to Armor, the screen now only flashes yellow if you have below 25% armor remaining.
    • Fixed a bug where an ability's particle was not played on the target if they didn't take direct damage from the attack.
    • Sometimes a creature with a 'crown' quest would display their own texture over their head instead of a crown. This has been fixed.
    • Deer now consistently fall over when killed.

    Misc. Crafting


    • You can now raise the Cheesemaking level cap to 80; see Bendith in the Fae Realm.
    • You can now raise the Blacksmithing level cap raised to 80; see Solgribue in Fae Realm.
    • The level cap of several other skills can be raised by NPCs in Povus.
    • Bard instrument recipes that require a Perfect Conch (meaning "Great Musical Conch", "Amazing Musical Conch", and "Astounding Musical Conch") are now guaranteed to have a minimum rarity of Exceptional, and have improved chances for higher rarity. (This only applies to newly-crafted items.)
    • The level 45 item "Great Arachnid Harness" has been nerfed from +8 inventory slots to +6. There are new higher-level arachnid harnesses with increased buffs up to +10 inventory slots. (The toolcrafting recipes drop as rare scrolls.)
    • The recipe ID for the obsolete recipe "Legacy Bat Belt" has been reused. If you had this old alpha recipe, congratulations: you now know how to craft the "Amazing Arachnid Harness" (but you can only use the recipe when you have the necessary Toolcrafting level).
    • Fixed some recipes that were supposed to require a Forge but didn't, including: various utility knives, armor stakes, and tool hammers. (Note that metal throwing knives are intentionally omitted from the forge requirement.) Improved the error messages when you try to use a recipe but aren't in the right place. e.g. "You must be near a TanningRack" became "You must be near a tanning rack."
    • "Gazluk Plate"-type armors are now dyeable (up to 2 colors). If you were wearing Gazluk Plate when you logged out, your character will show up incorrectly in the character-select screen the first time. This is normal, and will fix itself when you log in.
    • Moving, jumping, and Escape all cancel recipes with a crafting time.
    • You can now summon partially-used items from storage.
    • Items that cannot have work orders can no longer be sold in player shops, and now have the tooltip: "This item cannot be sold to other players." If you have an item like that in your shop, you'll get a notification to remove it.
    • An internal numbering problem requires us to change the ID for Firkins of Sour Cream. If you had any of these in your inventory or storage, they are now marked as "Firkin of Sour Cream (OBSOLETE)". Please use these ASAP as they will disappear in the next update.
    • The recipe for gold dye has changed.
    • "Snail Plate Armor" is now Organic armor, like other snail armor.

    Other


    • Certain skills are now explicitly marked as "umbrella skills". The max level for these skills is 0, so the only way to earn levels is via synergy bonuses. The following skills are umbrella skills: Anatomy, Phrenology, Performance, Augmentation, and Genetics. Players who had inadvertently earned XP in these umbrella skills (through content bugs in alpha) have had their levels recalculated.
    • Goats (regular goats, not scapegoats!) have a new AI profile and use knockback attacks.
    • Revised all non-Elite healing monsters so that their heal amounts are more meaningful (typically about 15% of their max health, but it's not actually a percentage-heal, so the amount varies per monster). This change was done individually per monster, so some monsters may have been missed. If you notice a monster that heals for a negligible amount (like a monster with 1000 max health healing for 50) please report it as a bug!
    • Increased the damage of scray monsters' acid attacks, and higher-tier scray acid needs higher-tier First Aid to dispel.
    • You no longer earn Gourmand XP for eating additional raw cantaloupe or fairy nuts beyond the first consumption. (It previously earned 1 and 2 XP respectively.)
    • The results of treasure maps, such as motherlodes, should now correctly spawn on top of the ground and not embedded into it.
    • The debuff "Spore Coating" used by certain fungal enemies no longer keeps you in-combat. Using First Aid 2 or higher now removes one stack of the debuff.
    • Jace Soral now succumbs to his nature when the moon is full.
    • Item Dispensers and Item Rafflers are no longer subject to premature item-cleanup. They will last for 2 hours starting when they are placed in the world, or until they run out of items/tickets. High-end rafflers can have explicit durations up to 2 hours (instead of 90 minutes).
    • Previously, wild deer had junk genetics for testing. They still have junk genetics for testing, but it's different junk now. They should be less Evasive overall.
    • Changed "Tremor"'s boss curse: instead of permanently disabling Basic Attacks, it now gives the attacks a 15-second reset timer. As a side-effect, players with the old version of the curse will be automatically cured.
    • A few monsters (that are supposed to be extremely evasive) are slightly more evadey.
    • The world now goes gray when you are dead.
    • The 'Stuck Report' is intended to get your character free of being stuck in something like a tree or cow. It is not to be used for free transportation. There is now a highly visible warning when you file a Stuck Report making that very clear for those players who have been using it for teleportation. Don't worry if you get stuck a few times; just don't use Stuck reports dozens of times a week!
    • We've added the ability to use '/e' or '/em' to perform custom emotes (no animation, you supply the text). You can also use '%t' to include the name of your target. Emotes display in their own chat channel, so you can decide which chat tabs you want to include them.
    • Guild quests now display in the guild audit log when they are started, canceled, or completed.
    • Flying enemies will now stay at roughly the same elevation as their target, to prevent being unable to attack them with melee.

    Hotfix Notes: September 27-28, 2021


    We've rolled out some quick-fixes for bugs that arrived with yesterday's major update. (A couple of these were fixed last night, consolidated here for convenience).
    • Recipes with no ingredients (such as some teleportations) can be crafted again
    • You could get multiple notifications for completing Povus night quests
    • Fixed Grakelsput's quest "Cleanup Duty: Triceratops"
    • Povus lamp logic no longer considers player pets to be "monsters"
    • Augments can once again be sold in shops
    • Swamp Gourd item tooltips now have a line indicating whether they've been eaten before
    • Changed an additional Psychology treasure effect: "Inspire Confidence restores +151 Health after a 15-second delay" => restores 104 Health after an 8-second delay
    • Fixed error in ability-tip text for Psychoanalyze's delayed-heal buff
    • Fixed typo in names of "Hexameat Wraps" and "Superb Parchment"
    • Corrected the start time in Povus instructions (it starts at 8pm, not 7pm)
    • More orcs spawn in the Povus orc camp
    • Correctly limit the reassembly of [redacted] to Povus
    • Fixed Povus vegetation that had no collisions
    • Arianna Fangblade no longer tries to sell you a stable slot when you ask for a hot betting tip
    • Could not correctly train Armorsmithing from Tremmond in Povus
    • The nightly Povus invasion system was bugged and did not correctly advance to harder quests
    We'll be back soon with more fixes and improvements!


    [ 2021-09-27 20:01:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: June 30, 2021

    We've got a quick and dirty update for you today -- a smorgasbord of bug fixes and improvements that we've put together in the background while we continue to work hard not only on Animal Husbandry, but on a whole new high-level zone! But while those features are in active development, they aren't ready yet -- and we didn't want to wait any longer on fixing these annoying bugs. Here's the list: Animations

    • Improved locomotion animations of both flying and non-flying creatures.
    • Female humanoids slouch less. (But more tweaks still to come, especially for rakshasa females.)
    • Updated Sword ability animations.
    • Updated Shield ability animations.
    • Updated Bard ability animations.
    • Tweaked Archery animations. In particular, all Archery animations should now aim toward their target.
    • Bard abilities no longer have a delay before their damage or healing is applied.
    • Fixed animation problems with Deer that caused certain attacks to take a very long time to trigger.
    • Changing gear, then flying, no longer causes your character to use walking animations instead of flying ones.
    • Limited how far your character will crane their head while looking at something.
    • Disabled headlook while dead.
    • Sword slash particles now face toward the attacker and not the attackee.
    • While loading into a zone, you will no longer appear to other players as if you were falling.
    • Ghosts now float again.
    • /cry cries. Improved many other emote animations also. Note that some animations, such as /wave, have become full-body emotes for now, meaning that you cannot move while waving. We plan to make them upper-body-only emotes again in the future, so that you can e.g. walk while waving.
    • Wings should now stop flapping when a fairy dies.
    • More improvements to sitting and lying animation sequences.
    • Hags in the character introduction screen are still creepy, but no longer 'sink into the ground' creepy.
    UI Improvements
    • Player Vendor UI Improvements:
      • Items can be moved up & down with buttons instead of right-clicking.
      • Items can be moved to the top & bottom of the list via right-clicking.
      • Saving an item will no longer revert unsaved changes of other items.
      • Text colors change to indicate whether item is or is not currently shown in shop.
    • Loadouts can now be renamed.
    • If an NPC likes a gift but you don't know that yet (because they only share that info at higher Favor levels), they will now show up in the "Item Info" -> "Gifting" window as a "person who hasn't told you they like it." For example: "This item is a good gift for 2 people you haven't met yet, plus 1 person who hasn't told you they like it."
    • Current vs. required favor levels are now taken into account when showing gifting highlights. In other words, if your character couldn't "know" that an NPC likes an item, the item doesn't show with a purple border as a gift.
    • Gifting an item to an NPC no longer causes the highlights of other items to disappear.
    • Selecting group members via nameplate in the mini-group UI will no longer intermittently fail.
    • If you are the last remaining player in a group, you will no longer receive an extraneous "You are now the leader" message right before being disbanded.
    • GUI window resizing now properly responds to locking the GUI with a hotkey.
    • Better resizing of Quest Rewards when the Quest Log is tiny.
    • Replaced the inventory folder lock icon with an outline around the bag instead, in order to let the bag itself to be more visible.
    • Buff durations in tooltips now update in real-time when you leave the mouse over the effect icon.
    • Map pin labels now place above their respective pins instead of overlapping.
    • NPC shops could show the wrong price for certain multi-buy items like Salt, Flour, and Sugar. This has been fixed.
    • Tooltips should no longer occasionally get stuck to your cursor.
    • Combat numbers and speech bubbles should no longer appear in the wrong place.
    • If you're disconnected to the main menu with the cursor hidden -- for example, while holding right-click -- your cursor should now properly reappear.
    • Tweaked the item-pickup floating animation to be quicker & no longer centered on the player. There are two new Special Settings to control the floating start point: PickupItemsStartX & PickupItemsStartY
    Other Changes
    • When examining a corpse, if you have an autopsy kit and no chance to fail the autopsy, the corpse is instantly auto-autopsied.
    • Deposit All will now only attempt to store stackable items and not, for example, non-stacking items like equipment that shares the same name.
    • Added the word "unlocked" to Deposit All wording, to clarify that items cannot come from locked inventory folders.
    • Stow Items now works properly for the Warden Chest when in Kur Mountains.
    • Mobs will no longer knock you into the air if you are very close to them.
    • When at negative max HP -- for example, due to anti-regeneration -- the player can no longer: Respawn, Eat items that require you to be dead (Eternal Greens, etc.), or be affected by abilities that require the target to be dead (Resuscitate, etc.). This brings gameplay behavior in line with our intention: if you lose literally all of your Max HP due to debuffs, you can't come back to life until those effects wear off. The main way this can happen is by consuming too much deadly iocaine powder, and we recommend that you don't do that!
    • Lycans should now be able to survey at the bottom of water.
    • Fixes bug where player sinks to bottom of water when interacting with something.
    • Polished a number of projectiles, most noticeably the "darkness ball" used by several necromantic abilities and necro-monsters.
    • Fixed bug in particle from Death's Hold: it could leave behind orphaned zombie arms.
    We'll be back soon with more bug-fixes and new content!


    [ 2021-06-30 11:21:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: May 24, 2021

    This update has a lot of different stuff. In it we've added... wait, let's just do a bullet list. That'll be easier. In this update, we have:

    • Soft-launched our long-awaited VIP program.
    • Added lots of UI features -- like the ability to lock the UI!
    • Bumped up the difficulty of high-level solo monsters.
    • Revised the Unarmed skill.
    • Added a new crafting skill, Non-Fiction Writing.
    • Introduced a new player messaging service: Pigeon Mail.

    VIP Membership Program


    This update introduces our new VIP Membership program. We've been talking about VIP for years -- all the way back to the Kickstarter campaign -- so we are very excited to get it going! VIP is an optional monthly subscription plan that helps players support the game's development while getting useful benefits in return. The most notable benefits are extra slots: more character slots, inventory slots, and transfer slots. Read all about the VIP plan, and the reasons for it, in our blog post (see the news links above these patch notes for a button that jumps to the blog post.) As of this patch, the VIP Program is "soft-launched". We're still waiting on final Steam store-page approval, so it may be a week or two before it's possible to subscribe via Steam. But if you have VIP time as part of a backer package, or if you own a VIP Token, you can access VIP now. If you have a backer package, you can redeem your time from the redemption window -- look for the icon on the bottom right of the Persona window. If you have a VIP Token, just use that item in-game to receive 30 days of time. A note about "package upgrading": in the past we've often been able to help players upgrade their backer packages (e.g. by paying more to switch to a fancier package). We can still offer this service in some cases, but keep in mind that if you Redeem any features from the package (such as VIP time), it will definitely not be possible to swap it for a better package.

    Pigeon Mail


    You can now send mail to other players via 'pigeon mail' -- hard-working and well-trained carrier pigeons that can fly all over the world delivering messages. And you can even attach an item to your message! The mail will be delivered in about 60 seconds if the player is online, or the next time they log in if they are offline. Speak with Irkima in the Red Wing Casino to send a pigeon. The cost to starts at 100 Councils, and increases if you send multiple messages too close together. (The birds get tired!) Attaching an item costs an additional 100 Councils, but Irkima will waive the fee for his Close Friends. If an item isn't delivered after 7 days, it is returned to you. You can't send messages to people who are ignoring you, of course, and you can turn off receiving mail entirely if you prefer in the 'Social' window, under 'Restrict'. ('Social' is the icon on the right-hand bar that looks like three little people.)

    Unarmed Changes


    We've talked in the past about various potential changes to the Unarmed skill, but now that we've taken a closer look, it doesn't really need a major overhaul: it's got a good mix of tanking, damaging, and controlling abilities which lets it pair successfully with multiple skills, and there are some interesting choices to make when building Unarmed loadouts. So there aren't many huge changes here. Mainly, we've added new options to make some build styles work better. There's also a few damage changes (both up and down). After these changes there are still a few underwhelming treasure effects, but most of those, like the damage-over-time effects, are earmarked for future game-mechanics changes, so they've been left alone for now. The following changes use numbers from (currently hypothetical) level 100 gear.
    • Changed treasure mod: (Head, Chest) "Infuriating Fist generates no Rage and instead reduces Rage by 910" => "Infuriating Fist damage +73 and for 10 seconds all Elite attacks deal -8% damage to you."
    • Changed treasure mod: (Head) "Bodyslam deals +47% damage and slows target's movement speed by 45%" => "Bodyslam deals +100 damage and grants you immunity to direct damage for 3 seconds"
    • Changed treasure mod : (Head, OffHand) "Slashing Strike and Claw Barrage boost damage from Epic attacks +98 for 10 seconds" => "Slashing Strike boosts your Melee Evasion +5.25% for 5 seconds"
    • Changed treasure mod : (MainHand, Necklace) "Slashing Strike deals +150 Trauma damage over 6 seconds" => "Slashing Strike and Claw Barrage deal +150 Trauma damage over 6 seconds"
    • Changed treasure mod: (Hands, Necklace) "Hip Throw deals +286 armor damage" => "Hip Throw deals +200 damage, plus Armor-specific damage equal to 15% of the attack's total regular damage"
    • Changed treasure mod: (Head, Off-Hand) "Mamba Strike Damage +67%" => "Mamba Strike Damage +59 and Reuse Time -1 sec"
    • New treasure mod: (Necklace): "Cobra Strike Damage +100"
    • New treasure mod: (Chest, Feet): "Claw Barrage Damage +147"
    • Adjusted treasure mod: "Barrage costs -14 Power and restores 31 Armor to you" => now -16 power
    • Adjusted treasure mod: "Kick Damage +78" => now +100
    • Adjusted treasure mod: "Mamba Strike and Front Kick Damage +100" => now +84

    Solo Monster Upgrade


    For several patches we've been working toward being able to upgrade solo monsters' stats. We're finally ready to start doing that! In this update we've changed the health and armor of all creatures over level 40. Previously an "average" level 70 solo monster had 1163 armor and 2373 health (total of 3536 health+armor). That "average" creature would now have 1588 armor and 2922 health (4510 health+armor). So an average level 70 creature gained about 1000 health+armor. Since group monsters are implemented as superpowered solo monsters, they are also affected by this change. (An "average" level 70 group monster would also have 1000 additional health+armor.) This is just the first pass, and although it's definitely a noticeable change (at high level), the numbers still probably need to go higher. But before we increase these numbers further, we need to play with these changes and get feedback on what skills are breaking down, what's (still) insanely overpowered, what's newly frustrating, etc. In the future we'll be making more changes to solo monsters: we'll (probably) raise their health and armor even more, and we'll also be taking a look at individual monsters' special attacks, XP values, Max Rage, and damage-type vulnerabilities. We're also considering some mechanics changes (such as revisions to DoT damage), and possibly new AI combat tactics to react to perching and AoE-camping. And, of course, we'll also be revising player combat skills and loot effects in tandem with these changes. In other words, there's lots more balancing work to do! Your feedback has been and will continue to be extremely valuable.

    Non-Fiction Writing


    One of the benefits of the VIP program is the new Autodidacticism skill, which lets players slowly earn XP while offline. This is done by performing a Hangout with a textbook instead of with an NPC. This isn't a fast way to earn XP compared to just playing the game, but it's useful for players who can't play often, or who want to level an "alt". As you can imagine, there are many limitations to this skill, and one of them is that VIPs must find the necessary books to hang out with. And where do these textbooks come from? The new Non-Fiction Writing skill! There are new NPCs in Rahu (Hirochi and Wintria) who can help you unlock the skill, provided you have at least level 50 in Calligraphy. Non-Fiction Writing is done via offline hangouts, each of which takes two real-time days. The resulting books can then be used by VIP players who meet the requirements of the book. Each textbook is for a certain skill and a certain level range. To write the book, your level in the book's skill needs to be 25 higher than the book. In addition, your level in Non-Fiction Writing has to be at least as high as the book's level. So to write a level 11-20 Sword book, you'd need level 11 in Non-Fiction Writing, and level 36 in Sword. Because of this requirement to be 25 levels higher than the book, it won't be possible to create the highest-level books right now. Most skills don't go higher than level 80 or 85-ish (depending on how many bonus levels are available for each skill), so the highest textbooks would be for level 55 or 60. This limitation will naturally disappear as we raise the level cap. If you aren't a VIP, you won't be able to use the books you create, but you can gift them to NPCs or sell them to other players. (Remember to check the player work-order boards for book requests!) Books lose durability when used in Autodidactic hangouts, and are used up after 20 days of use. Tips on rarity: your first books will probably be terrible, and will have crappy stats (namely a penalty to earned XP). But as you level up in the skill, it's possible to create higher-rarity books which have XP bonuses. These range from Uncommon (green) books with a 5% XP bonus, all the way up to (extremely rare) Legendary books with a 25% XP bonus. Your chance of a bonus is based in part on your Non-Fiction Writing level: the higher it is above the book's level, the better, capping out at 25 levels above the book's level. It's relatively easy to create Uncommon and even Rare books (with a +10% bonus) but higher-rarity books require both high skill-level and random luck. Limited book options: in this first launch of Non-Fiction Writing, we've only implemented books for a few dozen skills. This is just due to the sheer amount of data-wrangling involved -- we'll add textbooks for the other skills when we're more confident that we've got the XP numbers right. Right now, you can write books for any combat skill, as well as for any auxiliary combat skill (such as First Aid), and a small number of crafting skills (like Carpentry). To figure out what books you're able to write, just use Hirochi's Non-Fiction Writing Table (after learning the skill). This table will list all the books you're eligible to write given your skill levels (and which books have been implemented).

    Autodidacticism


    If you've just enabled VIP, all of the features will be pretty obvious, with one exception: Autodidacticism. This is a new skill which only VIPs can use. It allows you to earn XP while you're offline. (With many caveats, such as a limit of two characters on your account at once -- see the blog for all details. Key restrictions are also explained in-game.) You don't need to explicitly unlock Autodidacticism - you can automatically use the skill while you're a VIP. However, your level in the skill will start at zero, so at first you'll only be able to read beginner's books -- books for the lowest levels of a skill. For instance, if you've never leveled up the Sword skill, you can buy the "Sword Levels 0-10" book from Hirochi. It requires Autodidacticism 0, so you can read that book. To do so, use Hirochi's study nook. This will begin a Hangout lasting for a specified number of days. Once that many days of offline time has elapsed, you can log in and receive your XP. But what if you are a long-time player and have already leveled every skill? You can't use the "Sword Levels 0-10" book if your Sword skill is higher than 10. How do you earn Autodidacticism XP? Hirochi comes to the rescue! Hirochi has a sequence of hangouts which will give you Autodidacticism XP. You can repeat these hangouts as often as necessary. Hirochi sells books for many combat skills, up to level 30. Wintria Irasce sells books for a few non-combat skills. All other books have to be created by players using the new Non-Fiction Writing skill.

    Experimental Optimizations Enabled by Default


    The recently-added experimental optimizations seem stable, so we're enabling these optimizations by default for new installations. If you already had the game installed there is no change, although we recommend you go and manually turn on these optimizations if you haven't already done so. (It's in the Settings window, Graphics sub-section, "Experimental Optimizations" checkbox. The optimizations won't fully kick in until you log out or teleport to a new game area.) These optimizations give a noticeable framerate upgrade for most computers, but there is one visual side-effect: creatures more than 100 meters away are not rendered at all. If you find this limiting, you can just disable the Experimental Optimizations checkbox in the settings, or you can change the max-distance with a custom setting: in the Settings window, click on "Special", then add the line AppearanceRange=200 to the text field. This will render creatures up to 200 meters away, which is usually plenty far.

    Storage UI Improvements


    We've added a button to the bottom right of the storage UI labeled 'Deposit any items that are already stored'. Clicking this button checks to see if any items in your inventory are also in the storage (stacks of apples, for example) and if there is room for those items to fit in the storage -- and if so it deposits all the items for you. It first tries to fill up any partial stacks that are already in the storage, then uses empty storage slots. In addition to this new feature, there are other improvements:
    • Any items in your inventory that could be deposited with 'Deposit any items that are already stored' will be highlighted in your inventory with a green border.in your inventory.
    • Shift-clicking an item while the storage UI is open now deposits/withdraws a specific amount, instead of just splitting the stack.
    • While the storage UI is open, you can also now right-click an item to split a stack into or out of storage.
    And many bug fixes:
    • Ri-Shin Shrine Storage is now accessible from other storage NPCs in Kur.
    • Bookshelves now allow direct access to nearby storage selections (like other storage NPCs do).
    • Summoning items via practical summoning will now update the "More Info" menu properly.
    • When withdrawing an item from storage, the tooltip will now update properly.
    • Storing items after summoning a stack of another item will no longer cause visual weirdness.
    • When using Practical Summoning, and the storage that you're summoning from is open, stack numbers will now update properly.

    Other UI Improvements


    Many other areas of the UI also received attention in this update:
    • You can now promote a member of your party to be party leader.
    • There is now an option to lock your UI windows in place. You can find it in the Settings window, on the GUI tab, in the Features section. There is also a hotkey.
    • There are 3 new settings to control the display of tooltips: "Tooltip Delay", "Instant Tooltip Duration", and "Use Tooltip Animation". You can find these in the Settings window, on the GUI tab, in the Features section.
    • There's a new option on that screen as well, under the "Chat Behavior" section: "Close Chat With Hotkey".
    • The "Jump to Recipe" functionality now extends to work orders and quests.
    • You can now give NPCs an item by single-clicking instead of dragging.
    • It's now harder to accidentally close an official admin message. And if you do, there's also a line in chat to explain how to see it again.
    • You can now collapse and expand the list of quests for an area in the Quest window.
    • (Most of) the rewards for a quest are now displayed as part of the quest in your quest log.
    • Made some improvements to the quest tracker presentation.

    UI Bugfixes


    And of course many UI bugs needed squishing:
    • You can (once again) select your target's target.
    • Players can no longer receive friend requests when their friends list is full.
    • Note: you can now have a maximum of 150 friends (up from 100).
    • Quotes in the friends list will no longer disappear after relogging.
    • Players with long names in the friends list will no longer screw up the display formatting.
    • The first time using an item on the hotbar now updates its stack size properly.
    • Opening the recipe window will no longer sometimes show the incorrect required number of an ingredient.
    • The pet information screen no longer has overlapping text and icons.
    • Text in vendor shops is now correctly sanitized of HTML tags (no more color codes)
    • When using Automatically Select Chat Channels, the channel you change to will now persist when changing zones.
    • Backspacing after using chat shortcuts with Automatically Select Chat Channels on no longer leaves the shortcut in chat.
    • Placing unusable gear in persona window will no longer cause it to show an empty slot.
    • Better updating in general of entered social texts, such as your friend status or party name.

    Other Changes and Fixes


    • We've revised how "knockback" works (which also covers "pull forward" attacks such as Snare Arrow or Grappling Web). The effect happens faster and is more accurate, knocking enemies in a more predictable direction.
    • Slowed down the respawn rate of golems in the goblin dungeon's "red room" crystal encounters.
    • "Live Event Token" items are being replaced with a new pseudo-currency, "Live Event Credits". Tokens can be converted to Credits by using them. Riston in the Casino now sells items for credits instead of tokens.
    • You no longer need to hold the Dive Down key while surveying underwater, you only have to be at the sea floor.
    • Fire Magic's Cold Protection ability no longer hurts you when you use it.
    • All of the mods for Triage and Shadow Feint will now display on the ability tooltip.
    • Clearing an inventory slot will no longer disable Bulwark Mode.
    • Frostball is now cold & snowy instead of electric.
    • Added missing animations for main-hand knife attacks.
    • The option for a Hot Tip will no longer disappear on NPCs in the Casino.
    • In Match-3, 'Possible Moves:' text will no longer show up when it's not unlocked.
    • Percy Evans will no longer accept your Barter item for an Animal Nexus key if you already have one.
    • Fixed a bug where right-clicking an object to auto-move to it would never actually reach it. You would just run around the entity in circles.
    • Added a troubleshooting command /zapgolemprogram which erases your current golem program. This is to help players who, for instance, program their golems to "Self-Destruct: Always", making it difficult to reprogram the golem since it instantly self-destructs.
    • The performance in Gazluk Keep has improved.
    • Birds and Crickets in Serbule and Serbule Hills are now properly affected by the Ambient Sounds volume slider.
    • The selection boxes for things like a Fire Wall should no longer jump around.
    • Fixed non-animating water textures in Eltibule's waterfall.
    • Improved the behavior of the camera during bad FPS dips. (This is especially noticeable in areas with many players.)
    • Sitting in chairs works somewhat better.


    [ 2021-05-24 21:06:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Dev Blog: All About the VIP Membership Program

    All About the VIP Membership Program


    Monday's game-patch will launch the Project: Gorgon VIP Membership program! This program gives players extra benefits while they are a VIP member. The intent is to give players another way to support the game's development while getting useful benefits for doing so -- kind of like becoming a Patreon patron. First, we'll discuss how to become a VIP. Then we'll cover the benefits.

    How to Become a VIP Member


    You can gain VIP membership in a variety of ways:
    • Purchasing a Steam subscription
    • Claiming VIP time from a backer-package you purchased
    • Using VIP Tokens in-game
    Steam Subscription: You will (soon) be able to buy a VIP Membership subscription from Steam. Due to Steam's approval process, subscriptions will not be available immediately on Monday -- it may be a week or two before they can be purchased. We'll have several price points depending on whether you pay monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually. Here's our planned pricing: [table] [tr][th]Months[/th][th]Price[/th][th]Price/Month[/th][th]$$$ Saved[/th][th]Discount[/th][/tr] [tr][td]1[/td][td]$11.99[/td][td]$11.99[/td][td]$0.00[/td][td]0%[/td][/tr] [tr][td]3[/td][td]$29.99[/td][td]$10.00[/td][td]$5.98[/td][td]17%[/td][/tr] [tr][td]6[/td][td]$54.99[/td][td]$9.17[/td][td]$16.95[/td][td]24%[/td][/tr] [tr][td]12[/td][td]$99.99[/td][td]$8.33[/td][td]$43.89[/td][td]31%[/td][/tr] [/table] Backer Plans: Many of our backer plans, such as the Kickstarter backer plans or the plans we sell on our website, include VIP time. Players who have this benefit can use the Redemption window in-game to claim the included VIP time. (Look for the button on the bottom right of the Persona window.) Once you've redeemed the VIP time, it will start ticking down daily. (So if you want to save your VIP time until the game is out of beta, just don't redeem the VIP time until then!) This VIP time is non-transferable: only the account who has the special package can claim the VIP time from the backer package they purchased. If you purchased a backer package and don't see a redemption (after Monday's update): don't panic, we can fix it! We probably need a bit of info from you to connect your account to your package. Email us at support@projectgorgon.com and we'll figure it out. VIP Tokens: These tokens are in-game items that can be consumed by a player to claim 30 days of VIP membership time. The tokens themselves can be used on your own account or given to others. VIP tokens can come from various sources in-game. Overlap: What happens if you have VIP time from several sources? What happens if you have a Steam subscription *and* time from a VIP token? Do the days from your VIP token keep counting down? Can you lose any time? (Short answer: No.) When using up your VIP membership time, Steam subscriptions are counted first. While you have a subscription, you are not using time from any backer packages or VIP tokens that you may have claimed. That VIP time will be applied if your subscription lapses.

    VIP Member Benefits


    An account with an active VIP plan gets the following:
    • Four extra character slots -- for a total of 8!
    • 15 extra inventory slots -- for each character!
    • 25 extra slots in each item-transfer chest! There are four such chests now (75 extra slots) and two more coming (for a total of 125 extra slots).
    • Access to offline advancement via the Autodidacticism skill! (You can read all the details about this benefit below.)
    • Access to special in-game reports, such as a "character sheet" that lets you view all your character's stats in a simple spreadsheet.
    • Extra saddlebag slots for mounts (when mounts are implemented) (mount not included).
    • And more benefits to come! We're exploring ideas like giving VIPs custom chat colors, unique emotes, and monthly gift-redemptions that give out amusing trinkets.

    All About Slots


    With a VIP membership, you gain access to all sorts of slots: character slots, inventory slots, and item-transfer-chest slots. Those extra slots are not permanent, so if your VIP plan ends, they go away. But you never lose stuff permanently! If those slots were in use, they become "overflow" slots, meaning that you can't access them, but they're still there. As you free up space, they become visible. Inventory: if your VIP plan ends and leaves your character carrying too much, you'll be "overburdened". (This is exactly the same as if you had drunk a potion of inventory-expansion, and it wore off while you were carrying extra items.) You'll be able to access the normal number of items, and the rest will be hidden until you make space. As you drop, sell, or otherwise remove items from your inventory, the "overflowing" items appear automatically. Transfer slots: just as with regular inventory, if your VIP plan ends and leaves your transfer slots overflowing, you will only be able to see the regular number of items in the chest -- the rest will be hidden. As you remove visible items, the hidden items reappear one by one. (You cannot add items to a chest while it's overflowing, so all you can do is remove items until it stops overflowing.) Character slots: if your VIP plan ends and leaves you with more than 4 characters, only the 4 most-recently-played characters will be accessible. The others will be hidden. If you choose to delete any of those characters, one of your hidden characters will appear in the now-empty slot. (In Monday's patch we've revised the UI to make it obvious which characters are in "regular" slots and which are in VIP slots. So if your VIP is going to lapse, you'll be able to easily plan and organize which characters should stay visible.) Summary: You never permanently lose access to your extra items or characters. They're still hidden in the background until you make room for them -- or until you have a VIP membership again!

    Autodidacticism (and Non-Fiction Writing)


    Autodidacticism - in addition to being a hard word to spell - is a new skill available only to VIP members that lets you gain XP while offline. It's intended to help players who can't play as often as they'd like, or who want to slowly level "alt" characters. Of course, we're worried about this skill giving VIP players too big of a gameplay advantage over non-VIP players. We don't expect that to be a problem due to the many limitations and restrictions on the skill (see below), but even so, we'll keep an eye on the rate of advancement. We want Autodidacticism to be a "secondary" way to level skills, so if it ends up feeling like the easiest or most efficient way to level a skill, we'll fix it. Autodidacticism is a non-combat skill. To use the skill, you basically hang out with a book. You can visit an in-game library -- in Rahu, and eventually Statehelm -- where there are study tables to hangout with your chosen textbook. This is a real hangout, so you cannot hangout with an NPC at the same time -- it's one or the other. You can choose whether to hang out for one, three, or five days. But the duration isn't too important, since -- just like a regular hangout -- you can interrupt these without penalty: the hangout timer will stop while you're logged in, and resume when you log out again. So where do you get these textbooks? Well, NPCs sell books for some skills, but books for most skills (and most level ranges) come from players who write them. There's another new skill called Non-Fiction Writing which is used to make these books. Non-Fiction Writing Non-Fiction Writing is not a VIP-specific skill. Any player can learn this skill and create textbooks, provided they have at least 50 levels in Calligraphy to unlock the skill. (And they need time, since writing a textbook is done via a multi-day hangout as well.) But the resulting textbooks can only be used by VIPs. Each textbook is for a certain skill and a certain level range. To write the book, your level in the book's skill needs to be 25 higher than the book. In addition, your level in Non-Fiction Writing has to be at least as high as the book's level. So to write a level 11-20 Sword book, you'd need level 11 in Non-Fiction Writing, and level 36 in Sword. Because of this requirement to be 25 levels higher than the book, it won't be possible to create the highest-level books right now. Most skills don't go higher than level 80 or 85-ish (depending on how many bonus levels are available for each skill), so the highest textbooks would be for level 55 or 60. This limitation will naturally disappear as we raise the level cap. Limitations to Keep in Mind There are other wrinkles to using Autodidacticism:
    • Autodidacticism is a skill that has to be leveled up! You can't read a textbook for a skill level that's higher than your Autodidacticism level, so you'll need to practice by studying low-level books first.
    • Only two characters on your account can participate in Autodidacticism hangouts at a time.
    • With few exceptions, you can't unlock skills via Autodidacticism. For instance, if you don't know the Knife Fighting skill yet, you can't read the newbie Knife Fighting book. You must unlock the skill normally first.
    • You still need to raise your level cap in the normal way: you need to unlock level caps at level 50 and every 10 levels thereafter.
    • You need to obtain the books themselves, and as explained above, very-high-level books won't be available for a while.
    • Books lose durability when used in autodidacticism hangouts. Most books will last for about 20 days of offline hangouts before disappearing.
    • At first launch, only a subset of skills can have textbooks. This is just due to the sheer amount of data-wrangling involved -- we'll add textbooks for the other skills when we're more confident that we've got the numbers correct.
    The amount of XP you earn depends on the skill. At low level, the books are very efficient, but as you level up (and the XP curve gets steeper), books become less efficient. In general, combat skills earn XP faster than non-combat skills, much like they do in-game. In fact, you can easily out-level the low-level books: it might only take one 5-day session to raise your Sword skill from 0 to 10, so your skill will be higher than the book's level-range before the textbook is used up. (You can then sell it, give it away to someone else with VIP, or use it with another character.) Whereas for high-level textbooks, 20 days of offline time may not be enough to out-level the book's range: in some cases you may need multiple high-level textbooks for the same level range. These skills are brand new, and as with all new skills, you should expect changes while we experiment with them. Again, the goal is to make Autodidacticism a useful auxiliary leveling mechanism... but not TOO useful, and not TOO annoying to use, either! We'll find the sweet spot eventually, though it may take some iteration.

    Special Reports


    VIP players can access special reports, including:
    • Character Sheet: generates a .csv (comma-separated-value) text file of all your character's stats. This file can be loaded in any spreadsheet app.
    • Inventory Dump: lists every single item that one character possesses (including the stuff in various storage chests) as a text file. This file can be loaded into any word processor.
    • Combat log: records every hit your character takes or deals to others in a text file. This text file is too verbose ("spammy") to be useful to most players, but it's being provided as a way for 3rd-party tools to generate new kinds of reports.
    • With more reports added in the future!
    These reports are actually available to all players right now, VIP or not, so that we can test them and gather more feedback about them. They will continue to be available to everyone for another patch or two, and then they'll become VIP-members-only.

    VIP Is a Big Deal... But Never Mandatory


    Releasing the VIP service is a huge milestone for us, because it represents a new stage of the game's development. We've talked about the VIP plan for years, but didn't want to implement it until we were in a solid place technically, where we could leave the "prototype" stage and enter the "production" stage. And we're finally ready to enter that stage! That's super exciting for us, and hopefully for you! We've been extraordinarily careful with the funds we've earned from backers and purchasers, and it's let us develop the game slowly for many years -- and in fact we can continue to make the game at our current rate of development indefinitely. But we're finally in a place where it makes sense to hire several more people and widen our production capacity. This is incredibly exciting: we're talking about better graphics, more content, and lots more polish. (We're honest with ourselves and know this will never be as polished as a "AAA" game... but we can eventually come pretty close!) Not Mandatory But Useful In terms of game systems, we have two goals for VIP:
    • Although we talk about it as "patronage", the benefits of VIP should be worthwhile. We aren't asking for charity here, so VIP should be useful!
    • But it needs to be entirely optional -- we expect most players won't be VIPs, and that's fine. VIP should never feel "mandatory" at all.
    These goals are somewhat in conflict, so our first attempt at the VIP feature-set may not work out. If we don't meet both of these goals initially, we'll keep working on VIP until we do. Thank you for everything you do to help us make this crazy game. We'll have more details about VIP (and book-writing) in the patch notes of Monday's update.


    [ 2021-05-22 22:56:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: March 30, 2021

    This is a quick bug-fix patch to address some issues in the March 25 update:

    • NPCs will no longer appear to be dancing even after they have stopped.
    • The Redemptions window will no longer tell you about redemptions that you are not eligible for.
    • Your mouse cursor will no longer sometimes stay locked and hidden after you change zones.
    • The Quest Tracker will no longer refuse to remove certain quests after they are completed.
    • The Trade window will no longer fail to disappear after a trade.
    • Sandstorms no longer use the new distance optimization, meaning they can once again be seen from more than 100m away.
    • Fixed animation issues when interacting with things that have a usage delay (such as mining, meditation, and chopping lumber).
    • Fixed bugs with head-look when looking at certain in-scene entities (such as wells, item workbenches, and inscription tables).
    • Tweaked movement animations a bit.
    Lastly, a reminder: enable Experimental Optimizations in the Settings->Graphics window to turn on a significant new optimization! (Even if you had enabled Experimental Optimizations before, you will need to re-enable it, because you are "opted out" of new experiments.)


    [ 2021-03-30 22:09:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: March 25, 2021

    Welcome to another exciting Project: Gorgon update! This one has been in development for longer than usual - we usually aim for an update every month. But we've been working on bringing our animation system into the modern day and that took a bit longer than planned. This update includes our work on the animation system, as well as a potluck collection of new features and bug fixes. So let's dive in!

    Animation System Replacement


    The old animation system had to go. It severely limited our ability to add new animations or replace old ones. So we've replaced it! More specifically, we've replaced all the code in the system. Most of the actual animations are the same, for now. Our goal is to get this new system working at least as well as the old one did; then we can start improving things in earnest. That said, there are definitely improvements to be found already, especially in how animations are blended. But there's also a lot of stuff that still needs tweaking, tuning, and fixing. You'll see bugs. You'll see weirdness. And you'll probably see some very silly things. You'll also see some new animations, here and there. There are several new dance moves in this update, and now that we have the ability to add more, you can expect to see animations play a bigger role in the game in the future. So please report all the silly, strange, or broken animations you see! The sooner we get those worked out, the sooner we can start pushing on new animation features. (And we'd really love to hear about the silliest animation bugs you run into! We're thinking about offering an in-game prize for the best 10-second video clip.)

    Interpretive Dance


    Certain NPCs in the world now have unique dance moves! If they choose to dance, they'll perform their move. If you dance along with them (and your Interpretive Dance skill is 10 or higher) you will eventually learn their dance move. The amount of time it takes to learn the move is random, but usually pretty quick. NPCs have gotten a little more picky about music, though - they now require a robust musical performance before they'll start dancing. (That's at least 3 performers.) Your Interpretive Dance level cap also increases by +5 for each new move you learn. There are 12 new moves, so the max level cap of Interpretive Dance is now 70. Note: animal forms still only have six unique dances. You can learn and use the other dance moves as an animal, but your character-model will just use the old animations for the new dances. You can gain new synergy levels by raising the Interpretive Dance skill:
    • Holistic Wellness - 19, 49
    • Performance - 30, 50, 70
    • Bard - 35, 65
    • Endurance - 39
    • Unarmed - 59

    VIP Panel


    You can now find a VIP tab in the Settings window. Nothing on this panel actually requires that you be a VIP member yet - we're testing out some of the features before we launch the VIP program and we'd like to get your feedback. (Just remember that these features will eventually become VIP-only.)

    Special Reports:


      In the " Special Reports" section of the VIP panel, you can export a lot of information about your character and the items you have in storage. There are a couple of reports and formats depending on what you need, including:
    • a spreadsheet (.csv) of every item in every (non-shared) storage vault
    • a JSON file with similar information about your storage (for programmers)
    • a JSON file with information about your character

    Combat Logging:


    In the "Combat Logging" section of the VIP panel, you can enable and configure combat logging. When this is enabled, details about combat will be displayed in the 'All' chat tab. There is also a new "Combat" channel which you can enable in any chat tab. This combat info will also be recorded into the chat logs if you've enabled chat logging (also in the VIP panel). Note that this is a first-pass attempt at combat logging and is fairly primitive. We may do another more complicated version that only writes to file -- writing every single point of DoT damage to the in-game chat log is far too spammy to ever be useful.

    Chat Logs & 'Book' Mode:


    You can also configure chat-logging and book-logging in the VIP panel. These previously used the special settings LogChat and BookSaveToFile. Those settings have been retired; you can safely remove them from your Special Settings window. Please explore these new features and give feedback! But be aware that these features will eventually become VIP-only.

    New Performance Optimization


    We are excited about our newest performance optimization! This one will be especially dramatic on lower-end PCs, but all players should see at least a small improvement. This is still experimental, so it's off by default. To enable it, open the Settings window. In the Graphics section, check the "Experimental Optimizations" box, then click save, then logout and back in. Details:
    • The optimization won't fully turn on/off until you switch to a new area, or logout and log back in.
    • The old "experimental optimizations" have stopped being experimental. The checkbox has been turned off for everyone, so you'll need to turn it on again!
    • This optimization works by unloading some of the assets for entities that are more than 100 meters away from you. As a side-effect, those distant entities won't be visible... even if you've set the entity-render distance higher than that!
    • If you have a high-end PC and like to fly at high distances (or like to travel at light-speeds), you may want to increase this range. You can do so with a new special setting. In the Settings window, Special Settings area, add the words AppearanceRange=200 to double the range. (The minimum range is 100, the default setting.)

    Fix for Mouse-Cursor Centering


    Some players found it unintuitive that the mouse-cursor was repositioned in the center of the screen after dragging the camera with a mouse-drag. We've fixed this issue, but unfortunately the fix is only available on Windows so far. (But we are optimistic that this will be possible for the other OSes eventually.) We've been testing this for a while now and it's worked well, but let us know if you discover problems. If you need to turn it off (or if you just like the old behavior better): open the Settings window in-game, find the Special Settings section, and add the word RecenterCursor to the settings box. (Note that this only does something on Windows OSes; other OSes are always in recenter-cursor mode.)

    Transmutation Change for Fairy Magic


    Previously if you transmuted a Fairy Magic power on an item, you would always roll another Fairy Magic power. And if you re-rolled a Mentalism power, same thing, you would always re-roll a different Mentalism power. This made it impossible to replace Mentalism powers with Fairy Magic powers, or vice versa. Now, if you have an item that originally had a Fairy Magic power on it, transmutation will randomly choose between both Fairy Magic and Mentalism powers for all replacements on the item. This allows you to add more Fairy Magic powers, or to remove Fairy Magic powers. This works by using a hidden attribute set on the item during its creation. If the item was originally created with at least one Fairy Magic power, it'll always be possible to transmute Fairy Magic on/off the item. But if the item didn't originally have a Fairy Magic power, transmutation can never roll Fairy Magic powers. (But what if you want to add Fairy Magic to an item that doesn't have it? For now, we've added a "back door" way to activate this. If you add a Fairy Magic augment to a Mentalism item, it'll be eligible for Fairy Magic transmutations. You can remove or replace the augment when you're done transmuting.)

    Graphics & Such


    Head-Look:


    Project: Gorgon now supports 'head-look' - your character can turn their head to look toward the thing you have selected. It's still a little rough; this is the "first gen" version of the feature. (Also, it only works for bipeds so far, sorry animals!) This feature is enabled/disabled by default based on your graphics quality level. For graphics levels below Good, head-look is off by default. For Good and Great graphics levels, it is on by default but only applies to the local player - you will only see your own head movements, no one else's. For Amazing and Ultra, head-look is on for all bipeds - including other players and humanoid monsters like orcs. (Note that most NPCs don't yet use this tech.) You can change this setting in the Advanced Options section of Graphics in the Settings menu.

    Screenshots:


    The "super res" screenshot feature had stopped generating high-res screenshots due to an incompatibility with the newest Unity camera post-processing system. For now we have disabled post-processing for high-res screenshots, so they won't have all the bells and whistles, but at least they'll generate correctly! We'll review this workaround when Unity next improves their postprocessing system. Screenshots that you take are now saved in a dedicated screenshots folder. You can see where that folder is, and open it, in Settings->GUI->Features.

    Other graphic-y things:


    • The flash you see on your screen when you are being hit ('screen flash') is less obtrusive. If you had it turned off via Special Settings, you might try it out again.
    • The Graphics "Brighter World" option will no longer uncheck itself after the client is restarted.
    • The Graphics setting "Resolution in Full-Screen Mode" no longer has multiple duplicate options.
    • Pet particle effects are now correctly disabled by /particlespam and the NoParticleSpam Special Setting.

    UI Tweaks and Fixes


    • The Recipes UI will no longer jump when crafting items at the bottom of long list of recipes.
    • The Recipes UI will no longer scroll to a selected button that is already visible.
    • Improved functionality of "Back" button in the Work Order board.
    • Fixed a bug where closing out of certain menus also canceled the recipe you were crafting.
    • The casting bar will now remain open when stopping interactions that are not directly tied to the casting. Note that standing up from a chair will cancel casting, no matter what.
    • The Quest Tracker will no longer display as a grey dot when no quests are being tracked.
    • Quests will no longer linger in the quest tracker after switching characters.
    • Action button cooldowns will also reset properly when switching characters.
    • The cursor could sometimes get stuck in a mode (like the interact hand). That should no longer happen.
    • Fixed a bug that could cause the top ability slot on the sidebar to clear itself.
    • Fixed a bug that could cause dragging an item in your inventory to drop an item.
    • Certain items that required metabolism, or which were broken, would flash rapidly when placed on the sidebar. This will no longer happen.
    • At certain screen resolutions, it was not possible to see the text menus for configuring shop items. Now you can!
    • Character generation options with no choices - for example, there is only one human male face at this point - no longer display as options in character generation.
    • Improved formatting of the fight and fight result windows in Monsters and Mantids.
    • Fixed some display issues with the Settings menu options.
    • Prettied up the Redeem menu. Previously you accessed this via /redeem, but now you can also use the handy button in the Persona window.
    • In addition, we've added two new redemptions this update! Both of them are time-limited; click that new Redeem button in the Persona window for more details.

    Skills Changes


    • Sigils, traps, fire walls, crystals, turrets, and other stationary objects are now immune to Fear. (It was adorable watching crystals flee in terror, but too exploitable.)
    • Treasure that added damage-over-time to Deadly Emission was twice as effective as listed (it fired every second instead of every other second).
    • The ability Fish Gut now requires (and can consume) an actual Skinning Knife. Previously it could use (and potentially consume) any knife that could skin animals.
    • Fixed some Animal Handling pet commands that could break due to a bug in the targeting logic.
    • Fixed a skill-check that was using the wrong skill when performing a butchery on a dead corpse (specifically, using your Skinning skill when rolling to get "bonus meat").
    • Fixed the displayed base damage for Warden's Stun Trap abilities. (The actual damage did not change, just the displayed amount.)
    • Moo of Determination 4 no longer shows up twice on Raul's training menu.
    • Hammer abilities have new icons.
    • (Looking for the Unarmed changes? Rebalancing of the Unarmed skill was postponed due to the animation system changes, but should be included in the next major update.)

    Other Changes


    • Added a lot of exciting new event content and tech. Stay tuned for dates and times!
    • Fixed a large number of bugs with unreachable spawns, monsters walking through walls, bad collision, etc. in: Serbule, Kur Mountains, Ilmari, Rahu, Winter Nexus, Animal Nexus, and the Labyrinth. Possibly others!
    • Vendors would sometimes lie and tell you that they could afford to buy an entire stack when they were actually too low on money! Now, instead of lying about it, they will do their best to figure out what they *can* afford, and present that information to players.
    • Fixed exploit scenarios where a character could change between animal forms mid-conversation to gain access to unintended dialog options.
    • Quest dings and warning screens are slightly less obtrusive.
    • A number of creatures, including spiders and horrors, and a number of abilities, are a bit quieter and can no longer be heard from across the world.
    • You can now quit out of the game directly from character generation.
    • Durstin Tallow in Serbule Hills will no longer rent a room for 100 councils as many times as you ask.
    • Gisli in Eltibule no longer displays the wrong stable slots number when he offers to sell you one. (He was off by one.) This was a display problem only.
    • Cows now strafe correctly.
    • Fixed a very rare bug that could cause players to be unable to log in after a game patch (which previously required administrator assistance to fix).
    • It is now possible to bind 'Escape' through the Keys menu.
    • Thanks for reading and don't forget the time-limited gifts!


    [ 2021-03-25 23:10:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: December 11, 2020

    It's time for holiday festivities! In addition, there are big changes to Elite and Boss monsters in this update. There are also revisions to the Ice Magic and Deer skills. And, of course, various other things as well. Read on for more info.

    Ri-Shin Celebration


    The holidays are upon us! While Alharth doesn't celebrate Christmas, it does celebrate Ri-Shin Day, and New Years' Day. Townsfolk who are your Friends will offer you gifts when you speak with them. (Make sure to have your favorite combat skills active in case they give you a piece of randomly-generated gear!) There's also a Ri-Shin festival waiting to happen in each city and township in the land, but they will need your help getting their trees assembled. Look for townsfolk in festive red Ri-Shin hats to get started. This year, there's also a new way for the community to work together. This is an experiment -- we've never tried anything like this before. You'll receive an introductory quest for this part of the event after you've assembled a few Ri-Shin trees. (If you're a Druid, you'll be briefed immediately upon login.)

    High-Level Elite/Boss Changes


    As mentioned in the last patch's notes, we're working on making high-level combat take longer. This will eventually include both solo and group combat, but we're focusing on group combat right now. Some of the big-picture details are in flux a bit as we experiment and see what's going to work (e.g. "how many Elites is a tank supposed to be able to handle at once?" answer: "we're not sure yet"). We've been improving the "tanky skills" in preparation for these longer fights, but it's been hard to get good tanking data because most high-level Elite monsters simply haven't needed a tank: a group of players could blast them to death in seconds. So it's time to make Elites live longer and see what happens! In this update, Elite/Boss monsters have a lot more health and armor, and Bosses deal less damage. We'll be watching your feedback (and our combat data logs) to try to figure out where to go from here. We may need to temporarily revert these changes, reduce them, increase them, or add more systems into the mix to address specific problems. Bosses (but not Elites) also deal less base damage than before. The actual amount varies by boss-tier and the bosses' personal stats, so it's hard to generalize, but at level 80 an "average boss" deals about 25% less base damage. Both Elites and Bosses deal less damage with their Rage attacks, also. The median reduction in rage-bonus-damage is about a 40%, but again it's hard to generalize too much. Here's some more details about the implementation.
    • Prior to level 35, elites/bosses have about the same overall health+armor, but some of their health has been switched to armor as a side-effect of the formulaic changes. This will make them a bit harder, so be careful!
    • Starting at about level 35, elites/bosses gain more health and armor than before. This increases fairly gradually until level 50, then it starts going up more quickly. By level 80, the total health+armor of most elites and bosses has almost doubled! (And a lot of that increase is in armor, which means the monster has more mitigation for longer.)

    Elite/Boss Loot Changes


    We've also added some additional rewards for killing Elites/Bosses. When you loot an Elite, you'll now automatically "find some Councils" on the corpse. The amount is based on the monster's level, with some random variance. Bosses also drop extra money in the form of Council Coinpurses. (And bosses with curses drop more money sacks.) Finally, the most deadly tiers of bosses have a higher chance to drop high-rarity gear. (These quick generalized changes were made because we didn't want to revise every monster's custom loot table just yet. But hey, maybe it's fun enough to remain permanent. Let us know what you think after you've had some time to try it out.)

    Ice Magic Changes


    Ice Magic is supposed to be a versatile wizarding toolkit: it can provide exceptional crowd control, potent survival tools, and decent damage, depending on which abilities you use. Its crowd-control abilities were already top-tier, so we've focused on other aspects of the skill in this update. There's a few nerfs and a lot of buffs.

    Fire Magic Over-synergy


    The biggest nerf to Ice Magic is actually a change to a Fire Magic treasure mod:
    • (Chest, Hands) "Calefaction causes target to take +45% damage from Cold for 12 seconds" => now +16% damage
    We realized this mod was overpowered shortly after it was introduced, but it was a "let's wait and see if this is actually a serious problem" scenario. A lot of accidentally-overpowered treasure turns out to be fine, and sometimes an accident like that can really make everything "click" and help define a skill. But not this time. It was hamstringing our ability to make Ice Magic more powerful on its own, so it had to be reduced to a more reasonable level. (And it's still probably the most powerful cross-skill synergy mod in the game.)

    Cryogenic Freeze


    Cryogenic Freeze needs to take its rightful place in the Ice Magic survival toolbox. It has TREMENDOUS mitigation, and it's intended to be something of a "freebie" for Ice Mages: it's useful without needing to invest lots of treasure mods into it. The only cost is that you have to make room for it on your ability bar. (And treasure makes it more versatile and useful.) Of course, Cryogenic Freeze has the extreme down-side that you are completely frozen and cannot move. But now instead of a forced 10-second lockdown, you can control the duration precisely.
    • Cryogenic Freeze now lasts 20 seconds or until dispelled by using the ability again. The reuse timer is 20 seconds, which begins as soon as Cryogenic Freeze ends.
    • Power cost increased; all treasure effects recalculated in potency

    Ice Armor, Ice Veins, and Shardblast


    Ice Armor has been buffed up a bit. We've also worked to make Ice Veins and Shardblast more useful. You can now use either one to reset Ice Armor's timer, allowing you to immediately put your armor back on. Which, in turn, allows you to take advantage of Ice Armor's healing mods again! This "Ice Armor loop" technique can be very powerful but requires a lot of treasure mods to reach full potential. It's also possible to use Ice Armor in a more passive role, and there are mods to support that style also (such as the ones that boost Cold damage).
    • Ice Armor: highest tier of ability has slightly higher mitigation (+27 vs crushing, slashing, piercing, and ice), and all tiers now grant extra mitigation from Elites (+54 additional at highest tier)
    • Ice Veins: power cost and base damage increased. All treasure potency recalculated
    • "Ice Armor restores 80 Power over 30 seconds" => "Ice Armor costs -19 Power and restores 51 Power after a 6-second delay"
    • "Ice Armor restores 170 Armor over 30 seconds" => "Ice Armor mitigates +16 Physical and Cold damage, and mitigates +32 more against Elite attacks"
    • "Ice Armor boosts Cold attack damage +34" => +50
    • "You regain 44 Health when using Ice Nova or Shardblast" => "Ice Nova and Shardblast deal +61 damage and cost -12 Power"
    • New treasure (off-hand): "Ice Veins heals +16 Health and resets the timer on Ice Armor (so it can be used again immediately)"
    • "Ice Veins heals 120 Health over 10 seconds" => 180 health over 10 seconds
    • Ice Veins is now marked as a Minor Heal ability (making it eligible for equipment that boosts Minor Heals).
    • New treasure (head): "Ice Armor instantly restores 80 health"
    • "Shardblast resets the timer on Ice Armor (so it can be used again immediately)" => "Shardblast deals +X% damage and resets the timer on Ice Armor (so it can be used again immediately)" *

    Cold Sphere Changes


    Cold Sphere's old Rage attack (at high level) was a 10-second root. This was too much of a good thing and it's now a 5-second root at all levels. We've tried to make Cold Sphere useful in two different scenarios: for Ice Mages who are using a different skill as their primary damage source, they can invest in Cold Sphere mods to get a bit of extra damage on the side (plus its innate root is always handy). For players who ARE using Ice Magic as their primary damage-dealer, Cold Sphere's damage-boosting mods are often not worth using, but there's a new mod that gives it a Cold-vulnerability debuff. This makes Cold Sphere an interesting (but not mandatory) option for any Ice Mage.
    • Cold Sphere: increased base damage-boost of all pets level 50+. The "root" effect from their rage attack is reduced from 10sec (!) to 5sec
    • "Your Cold Sphere's attacks deal +34 damage and taunt -65%" => "Your Cold Sphere's attacks deal +50% damage and taunt -25%"
    • "Your Cold Sphere gains 156 Armor" => "Your Cold Sphere gains 90 Health"
    • New treasure (chest): "Your Cold Sphere's attacks deal +24 damage and cause the targets to suffer +12% damage from future Cold attacks (non-stacking)"
    • New treasure (head, hands): "Your Cold Sphere's attacks deals +170 damage, but their Max Health is -80"

    Other Ice Magic Changes


    Added a bit more damage overall. Nerfed one of Frostbite's mods, but don't be misled: it's still an extraordinarily good debuff. (And it will only become more powerful as combat duration increases! In fact, we may need to tone it down some more later.)
    • Ice Nova: power cost and base damage increased. All treasure potency recalculated
    • Frostbite ability: ability base damage increased slightly
    • "Blizzard deals 328 armor damage and generates -120 Rage" => "Blizzard Damage +255"
    • "Frostbite deals +154 damage and raises the target's Max Rage by 79%, preventing them from using their Rage attacks as often" => "Frostbite deals +176 damage and raises the target's Max Rage by 33%, preventing them from using their Rage attacks as often"
    • "Freeze Solid resets the timer on Ice Spear (so it can be used again immediately)" => "Ice Nova deals +110 damage and reuse timer is -2 seconds" *
    • "Freeze Solid restores 161 armor to you after a 15 second delay" => "Freeze Solid restores 112 armor to you"

    One-Tier Mods Changed (*)


    You may notice a couple of asterisks above. Those are treasure mods that previously only had one "tier" of effect. The revised versions add more tiers to each mod, allowing the mods to become slightly more powerful at high level. This resulted in a slight quirk: pre-existing items with these mods are still stored as having the first tier of the mod. This means even high-level items will have the lowest-tier version of these mods. This isn't really a huge deal in terms of potency, but if you want to fix it, you can Transmute the mod off the item and then Transmute it back on -- it will be the appropriate tier when it's re-added. (And this month, Transmutation is cheap for the Ice Magic and Deer skills.)

    Deer Changes


    The earliest animal forms were all experimental designs, and Deer was originally the prototypical "off-tank" skill. Then we decided that off-tanks weren't useful in a game without raids, so Deer was revised in a few other directions. But the most recent revision made Deer fairly tanky again, so let's build on that. Here's a fresh idea: what if Deer was like an "off-tank"? In old-school MMO terminology, an off-tank can act as a tank for an elite enemy (or multiple solo enemies), but may have trouble tanking some bosses -- although dedicated healers can help there. What makes them unique, though, is an ability to take over aggro for anyone... including a tank! (Hence the name "off-tank", because they can pull monsters off the tank.) We'll try to give Deer that ability and see what it's like. There's new treasure that gives you a new sidebar ability "Feign Injury", which "temp taunts" a target. Temp taunting works like regular taunting, except it decays at a rate of 20% per second. So a temp taunt of +10,000 would be 10,000 Taunt at first, then a second later would be recalculated as 8,000, then a second later as 6,400, etc. So this ability should help Deer get aggro from anyone, anywhere... at least for a few seconds. An off-tank should also have solid taunting and survivability, and deal decent damage. So that's what we'll try to do here. In addition, the Deer skill has always had incredible mobility (which is what makes them an interesting off-tank), and we want to keep that too.

    Rethinking Deer Pet


    Deer players can summon an ally deer to aid them. Previously these deer had an innate 300% taunt multiplier and were intended to be sort-of off-tanks themselves, sharing tanking duties with the player deer. We recently gave these summoned deer the benefits of our experimental genetics system, which could randomly give these pets incredible health and armor. Better for tanking! But yet... at high level, a well-equipped player deer can easily out-taunt and out-tank a pet deer. This just feels like an unwieldy design. We've dropped the idea that these pets are tanks, and focused them on damage. They no longer have an innate taunt bonus or souped-up genetics. However, they have higher base damage, and the pet's taunting-related treasure effects have been changed into a damage boost. There are also new treasure mods that summon additional deer for a few seconds at a time. This makes for a fun solo build, although it's somewhat mod-intensive and also pretty chaotic. But a fun kind of chaotic! (For those who don't want chaos, we've also bumped up Deer's more traditional murder methods.) It's useful to know that every attack your pet deer makes is considered a "deer kick". This is relevant for one specific treasure mod:
    • (Hands, Necklace) "Deer Kick implants insect eggs in the target. Future Deer Kicks by any deer cause target to take 310 Nature damage over 5 seconds"
    This mod is unchanged, except that it no longer stacks more than four times: twice for each piece of equipment it can show up on. (That's *not* a limit of 4 stacks of damage, it's 4 stacks of the debuff that applies the damage!) Also, we've reworded the effect to clarify that pet deer can trigger the damage.

    Removed treasure mods


    We've tried hard to avoid breaking existing equipment by repurposing obsolete Deer effects with new ones. However, in one place this was impossible. A head-slot mod was removed without any replacement. If you had this mod on a piece of head gear, that item has become "Legacy", meaning it will stop working after a month. You can fix this by using a Transmutation table to remove the mod off of your helm, or you can speak to the Legacy Golem in Serbule to receive a randomly-generated replacement item. (Transmutation of Deer treasure is much cheaper this month, to help you adjust to these changes.)

    Specific Deer Changes


    • Doe Eyes: Power cost increased. Ability now resists more physical damage, especially against Elites, and lasts for 24 seconds instead of 10. (At level 77 it now gives 36 mitigation, plus 72 more vs. Elites)
    • "After using Doe Eyes, your next attack deals +169 damage" => "Doe Eyes reuse timer is -2 seconds, and after using Doe Eyes your next attack deals +190 damage"
    • "Doe Eyes restores 95 armor" => "Doe Eyes mitigates +16 physical damage (Crushing, Slashing, Piercing) for 26 seconds. Against Elite enemies, mitigates +32 more"
    • "Doe Eyes heals 80 health" => "For 10 seconds after using Doe Eyes, you mitigate +36 from all attacks, and a further +72 from Elite attacks"
    • Ability "King of the Forest": base damage and Power cost increased slightly; all treasure stats tweaked slightly as a result
    • "King of the Forest gives you +15 mitigation of any physical damage for 20 seconds" => this effect was available on two slots, but only applied once. This was intentional at the time, but now we're trying to make all treasure mods stack together when possible. New (stacking) version: "King of the Forest mitigates +14 physical damage (Crushing, Slashing, Piercing) for 10 seconds. Against Elite enemies, mitigates +28 more"
    • "Cuteness Overload heals you for 114 health" => "Cuteness Overload Damage +270"
    • "Combo: Deer Bash+Any Melee+Any Melee+Deer Kick: final step hits all enemies within 5 meters and deals +100 damage." => deals +240 damage
    • Summoned Deer no longer have the benefits of the experimental genetics system, but have higher base damage
    • Summoned Deer no longer have an innate 300% taunt bonus
    • Summoned Deer can randomly be male or female
    • "Summoned Deer Taunt +X%" => "Summoned Deer Rage Attack Damage +Y"
    • "Antler Slash has a 50% chance to restore 48 armor" => this effect has been replaced with an entirely unrelated effect. (head, chest): "You can use the Deer ability Feign Injury, and it temp-taunts +11300. (Equipping this item will teach you the ability if needed.)"
    • (Hands, Feet) "Deer Bash deals +120 damage and knocks the enemy backwards" => "Deer Bash has a 15% chance to summon a deer ally for 30 seconds"
    • New (ring): "Cuteness Overload deals +160 damage and knocks the target backwards"
    • New (Head, Necklace): "Pummeling Hooves deals +45 damage and has a 8% chance to summon a deer ally for 30 seconds"
    • "Antler Slash deals +X% damage" => "Antler Slash hits all enemies within 5 meters and taunts +Y". NOTE: this effect used to be available on two slots, Head and Hands. It is now only on Hands. See above about Legacy items.
    • "Psychic Mitigation +34 while Deer skill active" => "Psychic and Nature Mitigation +34 while Deer skill active"
    • "Nature Mitigation +34 while Deer skill active" => "Burst Evasion +8.5% while Deer skill active"
    • "Deer Kick Damage +85" => "Deer Kick Damage +45 and grants you -10% Fire Vulnerability for 10 seconds"
    • New: (main-hand) "Combo: Forest Challenge+Any Melee+Any Melee+Any Epic Attack: final step deals +150 damage and summons a deer ally for 30 seconds."

    Live Event Token Prize Changes


    We've revised some of Riston's special prizes so that they use abilities instead of items. For those that have already purchased a Vendor Fox in a Box or the Small Box of Space, the summoning item in your inventory has been converted to a skill book that will teach you the new ability. This skill book can only be used once, so use caution if you must transfer this skill book to another character on your account. Also with this change, you will have to purchase these items per character now if you wish to have it on more than one character on your account.

    Other important notes:


    • Once you learn the Vendor Fox in a Box ability, the ability requires you to have some type of crate in your inventory. Any crafted storage crate and most pet crates (when Animal Husbandry is released) will work to allow use of the ability. The crate will not be consumed. The cool down timer on the ability will reset in 2 real-time hours, but you still need to spend 2 hours in-game before you can use the ability again. (You can see that timer in your effects bar under the effect 'Boxed Fox'.)
    • Once you learn the Small Box of Space ability, there are no other requirements. Just use the ability to summon your storage box. The cool down timer for this ability has been extended to 90 minutes (from 60 minutes). The cool down timer on the ability will reset in 90 real-time minutes, but you still need to spend 90 in-game before you can use the ability again. (You can see that timer in your effects bar under the effect 'Spaced Out'.)
    As time goes by, we will slowly be adding more and more items, abilities and services to the game that will require Live Event Tokens. For this update, we have added a new 50 token prize! Find Riston in the Red Wing Casino to check it out!

    Other Changes In This Update


    • Bug fix: Rabbit: "Bun-Fu Blast deals +80 damage and restores 44 Power after a 9-second delay" => this did not add damage to Bun-Fu Blast as expected
    • Bug fix: Rabbit: "Bun-Fu Blast deals +78 damage and hastens the current reuse timer of Bun-Fu Strike by 3 seconds" => this did not add damage to Bun-Fu Blast as expected
    • Rabbit: added Astounding Familiar Controllers (level 80 ice magic tiara) to loot
    • Flight in-combat: the Power penalty for flying while in combat now has a much higher cap (meaning flying while in-combat for more than a few seconds costs more Power than before)
    • Added a "quit" button to the login and character-select screens
    • Fixed AI bug that caused monsters to hate the first attack that hit them more than intended
    • "Carbon-form Scrutinizer Array" only gave a +5 pathology bonus instead of intended +10 bonus
    • The visual appearance for Winter Court Murder Armor (level 80 Hardcore armor) did not glow as intended
    • "Rubgag's Dancing Shoes": sprint buff now only works out of combat
    • Worked around Unity shader bug that could cause treants to turn into nightmarish blobs of polygons
    • Fixed bugs that caused "corpse stink" particles to continue emitting after the corpse was closed


    [ 2020-12-11 18:19:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: November 6, 2020

    With this update, the Halloween event comes to an end. But there is a silver lining: it's cranberry season! Also look for special seasonal recipes (they can drop as loot scrolls) throughout the month. There are also some balance changes in this update, mainly for Shield, Staff, and Cow. You can read on to get an understanding of the longer-term goals, or just jump to the sections on each specific skill. The changes will require players to adapt a bit -- especially high-level players -- so for the next few weeks all the affected skills are much cheaper to Transmute. This will help you convert your equipment as needed. Remember to report any bugs you find with the in-game bug report button, and thank you for helping us make Project: Gorgon!

    Skill Rebalances: Background Info


    One of our near-term goals for combat is to make high-level fights last longer (both solo fights and group fights). Combat will be more strategic and frankly more fun when each fight lasts a few seconds longer to allow for more decisions. One of the problems with this plan is that currently, most players would die if they had to stand toe-to-toe with monsters for much longer than they do now. So in the future, we'll be experimenting with some new game mechanics to increase player survivability. Before we make big systemic changes, though, we need to review the existing tools for survivability, namely skills, abilities, and treasure. So in this update, we aren't doing anything to actually lengthen combat yet. We're doing a review of the "tankiest" skills in the game: Staff, Shield, and Cow. (We'll look at other skills with defensive aspects, such as Unarmed, Ice Magic, and Deer, in a separate update.) Some of Staff and Shield's abilities have been changed pretty dramatically to help support longer combats. We'll use Staff's ability "Blocking Stance" as an example of how we've changed things. This ability could be explained as: "for 10 seconds out of every 30, you don't take physical damage (slashing/crushing/piercing)". This ability was jaw-droppingly powerful... a third of the time. The rest of the time you just had to wait (or die). This ability could be really fun, but it wasn't a great fit for our plan to lengthen combat duration. And due to its extreme potency, there wasn't much for the ability's treasure to do: it was already so powerful that treasure couldn't go much further. Hence boring loot. The new version of Blocking Stance has flat physical mitigation that lasts 30 seconds (meaning you can sustain it indefinitely), and the treasure effects are more directly beneficial to survival. We've tried to keep some of the ability's original "use it at just the right moment" flavor too by keeping 3 seconds of invincibility (instead of a whopping 10). Two other combat abilities were similarly changed to work better in longer fights with less downtime: shield's Elemental Ward and staff's Deflective Spin. Beyond that, we've done a bunch of balance tuning-up for all three skills, buffing a bunch of treasure (and nerfing a few), adding some new treasure effects, and for the Shield skill, trying out a new combat ability. Some of these changes are a little experimental, in the "hmm, maybe this will be interesting, let's find out" kind of way. So we'll be awaiting your feedback. These changes will definitely mess up high-level players' builds. So to help you get back up to speed, we've dramatically reduced the Transmutation costs for these skills for the next few weeks. Visit an Item Workbench to see the effective costs for your items.

    Shield Changes


    Shield is intended to be a super-versatile survival skill, able to pair with all sorts of other skills to help keep you alive. One notable weakness was that it wasn't great at tanking Elite bosses, so we've added some new options to help you build for that job. Bulwark Mode: The ability "Vigorous Defense" has been completely replaced. New ability: "Bulwark Mode". This toggled ability reduces your damage output and sprint speed in exchange for damage mitigation. The highest version (at level 75) reduces your damage output by 50%, reduces sprint by 15%, and reduces all direct damage you take by 27%. It can be turned on and off at will with no Power cost.
    • If you already knew Vigorous Defense, you now automatically know Bulwark Mode instead.
    • Treasure change: "Vigorous Defense Restores +48 Power" => "While Bulwark Mode is enabled you recover 13 Armor per second"
    • Treasure change: "Vigorous Defense boosts your Sprint Speed +7 for 15 seconds" => "While Bulwark Mode is enabled you recover 10 Power per second"
    • New treasure (Legs): While Bulwark Mode is active all your attacks taunt +50% and restore 17 Health to you
    • New treasure (Head, Main Hand): "While Bulwark Mode is active all your attacks taunt +50% and restore 26 Armor to you"
    Elemental Ward:
    • Changed the Elemental Ward ability to: "Reduces elemental damage (Fire, Cold, or Electricity) by 35 for 30 seconds, and for the first 3 seconds, provides complete immunity to elemental damage." [This is the level 75 version.]
    • Treasure change: "Elemental Ward mitigates 45% of all Poison damage for 10 seconds" => "Elemental Ward mitigates +54 Darkness damage for 30 seconds"
    • Treasure change: "Elemental Ward mitigates 45% of all Trauma damage for 10 seconds" => "Elemental Ward mitigates +55 direct Trauma damage for 30 seconds"
    • New treasure (Chest, Ring): "Elemental Ward mitigates +32 elemental damage (Fire, Cold, and Electricity) for 30 seconds"
    Other Treasure Changes
    • "All types of shield Bash attacks restore 16 armor" => 21 armor
    • "Stunning Bash deals X Trauma damage over 12 seconds" did not apply to Emergency Bash, but now does
    • "Finish It Restores 62 Health" => this treasure effect was bugged and did not work. Also, healing changed from 62 to 68 (@ level 80)
    • "Disrupting Bash deals +40% damage and taunts +460" => "Disrupting Bash causes the next attack that hits you to deal 29 less damage"
    • "Infuriating Bash generates no Rage and lowers Rage by 725" => "Infuriating Bash reduces the Power cost of melee attacks by 10 for 6 seconds"
    • "Direct Acid Mitigation +24 and Indirect Acid Mitigation +4 while Shield skill active" => "Max Armor +36, Direct Acid Mitigation +24, and Indirect Acid Mitigation +4 while Shield skill active"
    • New treasure effect (Feet): "All Shield attacks have a 22% chance to conjure a force-shield that mitigates 10% of all slashing, crushing, and piercing damage for 30 seconds (or until 100 damage is absorbed). Stacks up to 5 times
    • New treasure effect (Hands): "All Shield attacks have a 22% chance to conjure a force-shield that mitigates 10% of all direct nature, darkness, demonic, and acid damage for 30 seconds (or until 100 damage is absorbed). Stacks up to 5 times
    • New treasure effect (Chest, Legs): "Fight Me You Fools deals +18% damage and restores 96 Health over 8 seconds"

    Staff Changes


    Staff is another extremely defense-oriented combat skill. It was already pretty good at that role, although its Elite-tanking options were a little limited. As explained above, the skill's two signature defensive abilities, Deflective Spin and Blocking Stance, were heavily revised. This will take some getting used to, but will hopefully end up being more fun in the long run. (With good gear, of course! These abilities now benefit more directly from their treasure.) Deflective Spin
    • Ability Change: At max level the protective buff changed to 13% universal mitigation for 15 seconds. Base damage increased.
    • Treasure: "Deflective Spin heals 108 Health over 60 seconds" => 270 health over 15 seconds
    • Treasure: "If you have less than half of your Health remaining, Deflective Spin heals you for 31% of your Max Health" => "Deflective Spin restores 66 Health instantly and provides +50 Mitigation from all Elite attacks for 15 seconds"
    • Treasure: "Deflective Spin restores 54 Power after a 20 second delay" => "Deflective Spin costs -9 Power and mitigates +11 damage from each attack for 15 seconds"
    • New Treasure: (Ring): "Deflective Spin gives you +18% Projectile Evasion for 15 seconds"
    Blocking Stance
    • Ability changes: "For the next 10 seconds, you suffer no physical damage" => "Reduces any physical damage you suffer for 30 seconds, and for the first 3 seconds you are immune to physical damage" (base ability @ level 77 mitigates +34 slashing/crushing/piercing from regular enemies, and +68 more against Elites). Ability cost increased.
    • Changed Treasure: "Blocking Stance restores 50 Power to you" => "Blocking Stance costs -16 Power and mitigates +10% of physical damage from Elite attackers for 30 seconds"
    • Changed Treasure: "For 30 seconds after using Blocking Stance, your Mentalism Base Damage is +14.5%" => "Blocking Stance boosts your Psychic Damage +6.75% for 30 seconds"
    • Changed Treasure: "Blocking Stance boosts your Direct Cold Damage +19.5% for 30 seconds" => "Blocking Stance boosts your Cold Damage +6.75% for 30 seconds"
    • New Treasure: (Head, Necklace): "Blocking Stance mitigates +12 physical damage (Crushing, Slashing, Piercing) for 30 seconds. Against Elite enemies, mitigates +24 more."
    Other
    • Lunge: ability's internal "power category" was increased, increasing Power cost, base damage, and potency of treasure effects. (All Lunge treasure was affected at least slightly; for brevity only significant changes are listed here)
    • "Lunge hits all enemies within 5 meters, but deals -8% damage and reuse timer is +2 seconds" => "Lunge hits all enemies within 7 meters and deals +175 damage to health and armor, but reuse timer is +2 seconds"
    • "Lunge deals +121 armor damage" => "Lunge causes the next attack that hits you to deal 29 less damage"
    • "Double Hit costs -16 Power and makes the target 10% more vulnerable to Slashing for 15 seconds" => "Double Hit costs -16 Power and makes the target 10% more vulnerable to direct Fire and Cold damage for 8 seconds"
    • Smash, Double Hit, and Heed The Stick Damage +69 => +125
    • "Pin boosts Core Attack and Nice Attack Damage +68 for 7 seconds" => +98 for 15 seconds
    • "Phoenix Strike deals +36% Fire damage to melee attackers, and ability reuse timer is -7 seconds" => +36 becomes +41%
    • Headcracker and Strategic Thrust deal +16% damage and reuse timer is -1 second => +22%
    • "Lunge deals +39% damage to health and armor" => +43%

    Cow Changes


    No huge changes here, but some new treasure. Many of these are mix-and-match tools for tanking high-level Elite enemies. Since Cow is a true "tank" skill, properly prepared Cow players should obviously be able to tank Elite monsters... but we also recognize that not all cattle dream of leading a herd into battle. So we've tried to combine the new Elite-specific buffs with buffs that are useful for solo play. For technical reasons (to avoid "breaking" any existing equipment), some treasure effects had to be shuffled around a bit, e.g. treasure that lowered an ability's Power cost may have switched to a different slot. So your existing equipment may have unexpected buffs. (But at least they won't be marked as Legacy Items.) Remember that Cow gear can be Transmuted cheaply for the next few weeks!
    • "Chew Cud increases your mitigation versus all attacks by Elites +14 for 10 seconds" => now +34. Also, this treasure effect was bugged and did not work before
    • "Tough Hoof has a 66% chance to deal +86% damage and taunt +800" => "Tough Hoof costs -26 Power and mitigates +11% of all Elite attacks for 8 seconds"
    • "Tough Hoof deals +51% damage and taunts +800" => "Tough Hoof deals +51% damage and reuse timer is -1 second"
    • "Cow's Bash restores 33 Power to you" => "Cow's Bash deals +80 damage, taunts +800, and reuse timer is -1 second"
    • "Indirect Nature Damage +40% when skill Cow active" => "Indirect Nature Damage and Indirect Trauma Damage +40% when skill Cow active"
    • "Deadly Emission Deals +255 Nature damage over 10 seconds and Taunts +400" => 255 to 415
    • "You regenerate +20 Health per tick (every 5 seconds, in and out of combat) while Cow skill active" => "While Cow skill is active, you regenerate +32 Health every 5 seconds and resist +16 damage from Elite Crushing, Slashing, or Piercing attacks"
    • New treasure (Feet): "Cow's Bash costs -33 Power"
    • New treasure (off-hand): "Deadly Emission Deals +170 Nature damage over 10 seconds and reduces targets' next attack by 35%"
    • New treasure (ring): "Clobbering Hoof deals +35% damage and if target is Elite, reduces their attack damage 10% for 10 seconds"
    • New treasure (chest, hands): "Max Power +31 and Vulnerability to Elite Damage -8% when Cow skill active"
    • New treasure (hands): "Tough Hoof deals +132 damage and taunts +950"

    Rabbit Changes


    Rabbit isn't a tanky skill, so this is a bit off-focus for the rest of the skill changes, but there's a rabbit-themed live event coming up soon, so we've made some changes to make high-level builds a little more fun and impressive, whether combined with Unarmed or Ice Magic.
    • Ability change: Carrot Power: Base chance to consume carrot changed from 33% to 10%. Tweaked wording to make it clear that Rabbit Treats act as Carrots for purposes of this ability
    • Ability change: "Bun Fu Blitz" is renamed "Bun Fu Kick", and is now considered a kick for purposes of effects that boost kicks. ("Thump" also continues to be a kick.)
    • Treasure change: "Bun-Fu Blast deals Cold damage (instead of Psychic). Reuse timer is -1 second and damage is +68" => "Bun-Fu Blast deals Cold damage (instead of Psychic), and Ice Magic attacks boost the damage of Bun-Fu Blast by 16% for 60 seconds (max 20 stacks)"
    • Treasure change: "Carrot Power restores 144 Health after a 12 second delay" => 240 health after an 8-second delay
    • Treasure change: "Carrot Power boosts the damage from all kicks +124 for 10 seconds" => +192
    • Treasure change: "Bun-Fu Strike deals Cold damage (instead of Crushing) and deals +112 damage " => additional feature: "... and hastens the reset timer of Bun Fu Blast by 2 seconds"
    • New treasure effect (Chest): "Love Tap boosts your Melee Evasion +11.5% for 15 seconds"
    • Rabbit gear can be transmuted cheaply at Item Workbenches for the next few weeks

    Spirit Fox Changes


    Just bug-fixes this time around. The fox's treasure tables aren't completely full yet, so there's room to add more special treasure effects, but we haven't decided what yet. (Perhaps we'll add tools to synergize with another skill... what skill pairing would you like to see?)
    • treasure that boosted Paradox Trot only lasted for a maximum of 20 seconds (not 60 as intended)
    • treasure that boosted the stats of summoned Trick Foxes did not work
    • "Blur Step provides +N% Burst Evasion for 20 seconds, and Paradox Trot boosts Sprint Speed +1": this treasure effect is available on two item slots, but having both did not stack
    • "Blur Step provides +N% Ranged Evasion for 20 seconds, and Paradox Trot boosts Sprint Speed +1": this treasure effect is available on two item slots, but having both did not stack

    Nimble Gear Nerf


    These crafted garments triggered too often and have been toned down. (This is actually a reversion of a buff from a while back. Nimble gear isn't intended for tanking, and the shorter reset times ended up being too good.)
    • Crafted Nimble Coat: Every 15 (or 12) seconds, automatically Evade the first Melee attack aimed at you => triggers every 30 (or 25) seconds
    • Crafted Nimble Pants: Every 15 (or 12) seconds, automatically Evade the first Ranged attack aimed at you => triggers every 30 (or 25) seconds
    • Crafted Nimble Shoes: Every 15 (or 12) seconds, automatically Evade the first Burst attack aimed at you => triggers every 30 (or 25) seconds

    "Monster Shout Suppression" Indicator


    Certain abilities prevent a monster from shouting for help. For instance, if you mesmerize a monster, it does not call for backup. A handful of crowd-control abilities have this feature, and a few surprising abilities have it also. We've been considering how this feature might evolve in the future, and suddenly realized this info wasn't actually visible in-game anywhere. So it is now! The following abilities now indicate that they prevent the target from shouting for help. Remember that this is only a display change; these abilities already did this.
    • Unarmed: Front Kick, Barrage, Hip Throw, Claw Barrage
    • Fire Magic: Defensive Burst
    • Psychology: Tell Me About Your Mother, Cause Terror
    • Pig: Pig Punt, Squeal, Harmlessness
    • Deer: Deer Bash
    • Cow: Cow Bash
    • Staff: Redirect, Suppress
    • Necromancy: Deathgaze
    • Archery: Snare Arrow
    • Spider: Gripjaw, Terrifying Bite
    • Shield: Stunning Bash, Emergency Bash
    • Hammer: Leaping Smash
    • Ice Magic: Freeze Solid
    • Bard: Entrancing Lullaby
    • Rabbit: Play Dead, Love Tap
    • Miscellaneous: Horrifying Screech, Visage of Kajich
    A few other abilities gain this power from treasure effects, namely Werewolf's Sanguine Fangs and Knife Fighting's Marking Cut. In those cases, it was already displayed.

    Other Changes


    • Players receive new bonus levels in Cooking by reaching level 70 in Gardening, level 49 in Knife Fighting, level 30 in Shamanic Infusion, level 35 in Alchemy, and level 60 in Skinning
    • Tweaked cow porkpie hat visual positioning
    • Removed physics collision from some deployable candles
    • Fixed significant framerate drop in Serbule and Serbule Hills during certain hours of the morning, when the camera was facing certain directions. (The "fix" involves making the sun not cast shadows too early in the morning. It's not exactly an elegant or permanent fix, but it'll do for now. The "real" fix will probably involve replacing the sky system again.)
    • The Ilmari Desert has undergone graphical renovation. This is mainly a test of a new system for terrain decoration. Theoretically, you should have about the same framerate as before, even though the desert now has thousands more decorative elements (mainly boulders, but also clumps of trees, grass, etc.)
    • Fixed bug with certain Graphics Settings sliders that incorrectly rounded a fractional number to the nearest whole number, even if that made the value invalid. E.g. when a slider was supposed to have a minimum value of 0.1, it got rounded to 0.0. (You can still type in "invalid" numbers manually, but they will be capped to the intended min/max the next time you move the slider.)


    [ 2020-11-06 21:37:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: October 15, 2020

    The Halloween event is live! This year it's much longer than before. If you encounter problems with any of the new quests, please remember to bug-report them.

    Balance changes:


    • We've modestly increased the Power cost of most abilities. (We'll use level 80 abilities as examples since the changes are most noticeable at high level.) A typical high-damage level 80 ability costs 4 or 5 more Power than before. E.g. Barrage 7's cost changed from 48 to 52. A few abilities (ones in the highest "Power tier", an internal measurement) were increased more dramatically. Most dramatic is probably "You Were Adopted 6": its cost changed from 90 to 110 Power.
    • We've revised how quickly bosses respawn. Most bosses now respawn 5-10 minutes faster, with an average speed up of seven minutes. The exact change depends on how complex the boss's scripting is, and how easily we could revise things to be faster (without having to re-engineer the whole encounter). If you run into problems with this new respawn rate, please report them. (An example problem is if the boss's sidekicks respawn much faster or slower than the boss themselves.) NOTE: one of the ways we sped up boss respawns is by hastening the rate at which their corpses decay. Most boss corpses decay 2 minutes sooner than before.

    Other changes:


    • Added lighting to Hogan's Basement
    • Added lighting to Goblin Dungeon
    • Treasure bug fix: giant bat Sonic Burst combo effect accidentally also boosted Giant Bat Base Damage for 10 seconds (which comes from a different combo)
    • Tweaked cow eyeballs
    • Nishika in Rahu has new hangouts that can teach you how to turn mountains of cheap meat into small amounts of low-quality animal fat
    • Tweaked spawn density in Hogan's Basement
    • Slightly tweaked game performance in some dungeons


    [ 2020-10-15 16:01:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: September 17, 2020

    Bug fixes/tweaks:

    • Fixed a bug that disabled several framerate optimizations (such as Culling Distance Multiplier)
    • Fixed label problem on candles: they said they lasted 45 minutes, but actually last 90
    • Fixed bug that let you place 2 buffing candles at once (this is mainly a sanity-check mechanism since players can only have one candle buff at a time anyway)
    • Fixed bug that let you place 6 decorative tealights instead of 5 (which was wildly exploitable)
    • Ultashk now demands Filthy Animal Fat instead of Candle Stumps to get past his gate
    • Some rats had gained the ability to fly; this is fixed
    • Winter Court Frostmakers didn't advance quests requiring you to kill Winter Court troops in the Fae Realm
    • Made Fae Ensigns' consoles opaque for purposes of line-of-sight checks (which also means they can't shoot through them)
    • Some Fae Ensigns were unable to hear calls for help
    • Fae Ensigns are more susceptible to mesmerisation
    • Coldfeather is a bit tougher
    • Captain Evergloam is a bit tougher
    • Fixed some more treasure buffs that kept working after switching combat skills
    • Fixed coloring on named grimalkin "Hissy" and "Chopjaw" (this is a temp patch until animal genetics are enabled, at which point each instance of these creatures will have a slightly different color chosen by their genetics; for now their coloration is always max-intensity)
    • Improved the new "Alarmer" behavior, which is used by Captain Evergloam (and entourage), as well as by security aboard the Wintertide. (Creatures with this behavior will have "Alarmer" listed in their portrait tags when selected.) Previously, Alarmers called for help whenever they used an ability. Now, they call for help as soon as they enter combat and every 4 seconds during combat, except when stunned, mezzed, or feared. (Note that this change makes Fearing an Alarmer creature very dangerous: they won't actually shout for help while fleeing, but they will shout as soon as they return to normal combat. So watch out for that.)
    • Changed which animals can drop animal fat. (The intent is that mammalian-type animals will drop fat as an organ.) Some creatures such as bees and dinosaurs were dropping fat, and no longer are. Other creatures such as fae bears and entourage panthers did not drop fat, and now do. A few creatures have changed what type of fat they drop. (The type of fat is based on the level and the general role of the creature; meat animals such as cows, goats, and deer will have the best fat drops for their level.)


    [ 2020-09-17 23:34:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: September 10, 2020

    New Dungeons


    The main feature of this update doesn't need a lot of patch notes: there's two new dungeons to explore! One is a group dungeon that can be reached from the Fae Realm. The other is a solo experience inside Hogan's Keep (which will require you to be on good terms with Hogan to get in). There's also a new skill that can be learned in one of them. We plan to do a little bit more with each dungeon (decorations, a few lore notes, side quests, etc.), but these are ready for you to test! We're particularly interested in feedback regarding problems with dungeon flow or monster difficulty (too easy/too hard).

    Aurest Missions


    The Autumn Resistance is looking for mighty heroes who are willing to work for Councils. Each day there's a different high-level group dungeon available from the local Aurest leader, who can be found in the casino (usually near the bar). To speak with Lady Alethina, you'll need to be famous enough for her to have heard of you (Notoriety 25), and have two combat skills level 50+. And on some days, the daily mission has a higher level requirement than 50. There are 7 different Aurest missions (so far). Each day a new mission is chosen randomly, leaving out the ones that ran the past four days. So you won't see the same quest too quickly in a row.

    Goblin Dungeon Revamp


    We've remade the "Goblin Dungeon" (under Castle Eltibule) with a new art set. The original dungeon was just too ugly: it was made during pre-alpha with placeholder art, and the textures were too low-res to be saved. But we didn't want to make a NEW dungeon, we wanted to keep the old dungeon! So this is actually a replica of the old dungeon's layout. It uses approximately the same spawns, loot, monsters, etc. just with different dungeon art. The old dungeon was unfurnished, so this replica is too. We'll definitely be fixing that, but first we want to make sure everything still works, more or less as it did before. If it doesn't, please let us know.

    Combat Balance Changes


    • Animal Handling pets have reduced health and armor (not very noticeable at low level, but reduced by 20-40% at level 80, depending on the specific pet)
    • Significantly nerfed the damage of Elite and Boss monsters (by about 70-120 damage per attack, for level 80s).
      • (But note that their Rage attacks weren't nerfed! They deal approximately the same damage as before.)

    Manticore Changes


      Manticores are involved in one of the new Aurest missions, and have been refactored for that purpose.
    • Nerfed the hell out of manticores' stats
    • Nerfed loot also
    • Changed respawn rate to be more typical (to make it plausible for a group of level 55s, say, to farm them)
    • Hegemonic Storage Keys drop much more often, although the amount of loot from the hegemonic chests is reduced a bit

    Other Changes


    • Fixed animation issue with golems that made them seem to blip around as they walked
    • Fixed animation issue with trolls that made them keep running when they should have stopped
    • Frost Hippogriffs, which were previously just blue versions of regular Hippogriffs, now have more distinctive attacks
    • Solving the vault puzzle in a War Cache now also gives out 1-4 sacks of Councils, as well as a random piece of gear as before
    • Emotes like /wave and /cry now have a different message when you have something selected, versus when you have nothing selected
    • Added "/thank" and "/cheer" emotes (which just perform a waving animation for now)
    • You can no longer butcher Striga for meat (because they are sentient)
    • Fixed display issue that caused all Elite/Boss monsters to have the Thick Armor descriptor. (This wasn't technically a bug, because all Elites do get some thick armor automatically. But this made it impossible to differentiate typical elites from elites that have a LOT of thick armor. Now only the thickest elites are so labeled.)
    • Recipe for Forensic Analysis Kit now requires a higher-quality first aid kit
    • Tweaked Qatik's Casino Excursion quests to actually require you to pick up the items requested
    • "Labyrinth" dungeon tweaks: entrance is easier, Asterion is nerfed a bit, final maze has a somewhat more reasonable monster distribution, added a map
    • Laura Neth now accepts work orders from animals
    • Fixed bug with treasure generation on Fairy Dirks
    • The emergency-exit portal at the bottom of the Wolf Den dungeon could not be selected (except at a very odd angle)
    • Fixed a bunch of ability buffs that could persist even after the caster switched combat skills. In some cases this could be exploited by rapidly switching loadouts to gain the benefits from more than two combat skills at once. We've fixed many of these type of bugs, although we're still rooting them out of nooks and crannies of the game and some probably still remain. Please report them! It is never intentional for you to keep the benefits from a combat skill that's no longer active.
    • Fixed a few abilities and treasure effects that boosted Movement Speed when they were supposed to boost Sprint Speed. (The difference is that Movement Speed also boosts fly/swim speed, and prevents roots/slows from being as effective.)
    • Moderately increased the cash value of higher-level magic items. (Only applies to newly-generated weapons.)
    • Fox Outpost defense crystals no longer shoot foxes on sight (other fox tweaks to come, just didn't fit in this update!)


    [ 2020-09-11 00:15:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: July 16, 2020

    This is a minor update in terms of new stuff, but it's a major update internally -- after a lot of work, we've upgraded to the latest LTS Unity version! With luck, you'll notice better performance. (And a heartfelt thanks to the brave Beta Testers who helped us make this work!) In terms of new content, there's a new animal form for experienced players to discover. It can be found deep in a cave in Kur. (We consider this the "preview edition" of this new animal form; all mechanics are implemented, and most of the treasure, but not much in the way of NPC interactions yet.) We also want to remind players to always take warnings in item descriptions seriously!

    Changes to Settings


    We're using a new version of the Unity engine. It performs better for most hardware configurations. (Benefits will vary based on your hardware and OS.) Because a lot of the graphics settings changed subtly, we decided to wipe all game settings. So you'll need to reconfigure everything! We apologize for the inconvenience -- it shouldn't happen again for at least a year (when the next LTS stable Unity engine is released). Important Files:
    • The filename of the game's settings file has changed. It used to be GorgonConfig.txt. For new versions of the game, it's GorgonSettings.txt.
    • Previously, the game's log was saved to a file named output_log.txt on Windows. That file is now Player.log. This is the log that we usually request when debugging.
    • In Windows, both of these files can be found at: C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\LocalLow\Elder Game\Project Gorgon
    SphereCull: The SphereCull "special setting" has been promoted to a regular setting. It is now shown as a checkbox on the Graphics setting window. By default, spherical culling is turned on; to turn it off, uncheck that checkbox. (Typing SphereCull in the special settings window no longer does anything.) 3D window viewport size: The rarely-useful "3D window viewport size" settings (there were four separate sliders for x, y, width and height) have been demoted to Special Settings. To set these values, go to the Special Settings window and add, e.g. 3DWindowX=0.25 to make the camera not render on the left-most 25% of your screen. (See the in-game Special Settings help for more information.)

    UI Fixes & Changes


    • Another attempt to tame the Settings window's complexity: the features of the GUI section are now broken up into sub-sections that can be expanded or collapsed.
    • Added the ability to set the color of different types of overhead labels. (Experimental)
    • Fixed bug where resizing a game panel or window would not persist in its new size after restarting the game.
    • Fixed bug where talking in Party chat while not in a Party would go to the Global channel. (This now displays an error message instead.)
    • Fixed bug where chat tabs would switch to speaking on Global channel after switching to a new area.
    • The game now saves the channel you want to talk on as part of its settings, so it will remember them when restarting the game (as long as you were speaking on a channel that is actually received in that room -- this is a safety precaution).
    • When you click the chat-channel-chooser button to pick which channel you're talking in, the listing shows only the channels that are actually displayed in that tab. (Well, actually the other channels are still displayed, in a special sub-listing, because we didn't want to remove old functionality without feedback. So! Do you use the sub-listing to speak in a channel that isn't displayed in the active tab? If so, why? Would you be sad if it went away? Let us know!)

    Combat XP Tweak


    If you're only actively using one of your two combat skills, you no longer get a "bonus" of XP in your active skill. Let's step back and explain how XP is earned: basically, if the monster is worth 100% of its XP, each of your two skills get 50% of that... but if one of the skills hasn't been actively used within a minute, it doesn't earn anything. (That behavior is unchanged.) Previously, half of that thrown-away XP was added to the first skill's earned XP as a bonus. But this code was easily abusable by pet classes, and the only thing we really wanted to keep from this setup was the "double-bar trick". So now, we just explicitly support that trick: If you really just want to level a single skill, you can assign both skill bars to the same skill. When both your bars are for the same skill, that skill earns 75% of the monster's total XP instead of only 50%. (This behavior is unchanged, we're just documenting it.)

    Monsters and Mantids


    • Monsters toughened up! All monsters beyond level 2 have a bit more health and deal a bit more damage. (More tweaks and random encounters are still in the works.)
    • Fixed several events with missing messages (where it would just say "null" instead of a message).
    • Fixed golem encounter bug that could lead to fighting a fairy instead of a golem.
    • The "skillcode" column on the leaderboard now encodes chosen perks. (Not retroactive for existing leaderboard entries.)

    Treasure Fixes


    • Treasure effect "Warning Jolt restores X Armor and taunts +Y" restored Health instead of Armor.
    • Treasure effect "Warning Jolt restores X Power and attack range is increased 5 meters" restored Health instead of Power.
    • Treasure: "Deadly Emission Damage +X and Reuse Timer -1 second" didn't correctly shorten the reuse timer.
    • Treasure: "Barrage and Headbutt ignite the target, ..." did not work for the Claw Barrage variant of Barrage.
    • Some treasure effects that buff kicks did not apply to rabbits' "Thump" or spiders' "Infinite Legs".
    • Priest treasure change: "Direct Fire Damage +35 while Priest skill active" => now +100.
    • Necromancy: new off-hand treasure effect: "Death's Hold causes target to take +9% damage from Darkness for 15 seconds"

    Other Changes


    • Added a new animal form. It can be discovered deep in a cave in Kur.
    • Kelim required only level 50 to unlock 60-70 Gardening; he now requires level 60.
    • The notoriety message for defeating Betra the Cold incorrectly referred to her as Murdebok the Valiant.
    • Yogzi has recipes for a few missing skill belts.
    • Backfat now charges the usual royal jelly fee for first aid techniques.
    • Pets now follow closer to their owners.
    • Fixed bug that prevented pet grimalkin from being summoned by animal handlers.
    • Undead creatures are now 50% vulnerable to Darkness damage (instead of 0%). This applies to pets as well as monsters.
    • Spider's "Insidious Illusion" reset time changed from 1 hour to 20 minutes.
    • Werewolf quests from the Altar of Norala now abort right after the full moon ends (instead of aborting right before the next full moon, as they did before).
    • Alchemy: several "Max Health +N" potions had too short of a duration and were fixed to last 1 hour.
    • "Toxin Resistance Potion" is now considered a resistance potion for gifting purposes.
    • "Steroid Drink" is now considered a max-health potion, not a restorative potion, for purposes of gifting.


    [ 2020-07-16 14:02:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: May 28, 2020

    This update is heavy on UI improvements. There's also some new things to discover in Sun Vale (which we won't spoiler here since it's exploration content). Plus a broad assortment of other stuff... read on!

    General User Interface Changes


    We've made a lot of general tweaks and changes to the user interface in this update. Some are experimental while others are basically just bug-fixes.
    • The "overhead labels" GUI options are now enabled by default. This change will override your old settings, meaning that if you don't want overhead labels on, you'll need to go into the Settings window and turn them off again. (Sorry about that.)
    • The "avatar portrait" GUI option is now enabled by default. We've made a lot of improvements to the portraits in this update, and while there's still a lot to do, we asked ourselves "Would you rather have portraits enabled, or a pointless blank space in the UI?" And for the first time, we decided portraits were better than nothing. So they're enabled! (But you can still turn them off in the settings, of course.)
    • The "Close Last Panel" keyboard command (default Escape key) no longer closes the Pet UI. (Experimental, feedback desired! The old behavior just felt wrong most of the time.) You can still close the pet UI by pressing the pet-UI key (default P) or pressing the pet icon on the bottom bar.
    • Another experimental tweak to the "Close Last Panel" keyboard command (default Escape key): if no closeable panels are found, it tries to clear your current selection instead. If you have no selection, it shows the system menu, as before.
    • The Recipe window now has back/forward history buttons (to let you view the previous recipe you were looking at)
    • Floaty damage numbers that affect both health and armor at the same time have been combined into one number. If the damage was split between health and armor, it will be shown in orange. If the damage was applied entirely to health, it will be shown in red. (If you prefer the old format you can use the special GUI setting DualFloaties to get the old behavior back, at least for now. This may end up being obsoleted unless lots of players indicate that they prefer it.)
    • Hide permanent effect icons: you can now remove clutter from your effect-icons bar by hiding your "permanent" effects (ones without a timer duration, such as Armor Bonuses and Curses.) There's a little "..." icon in the effect bar to turn them on and off.
    • Some permanent effects that previously didn't have an effect icon (to avoid adding too much clutter) now have an icon. Most notably, Spawn Premonition buffs are now shown.
    • Changed the visual effects for monsters who feel vulnerable. (Still a work in progress.)

    Chat


    • You can now customize the colors of each chat channel. These options are in the Settings window, in the GUI section. (You can also set whether the text is bold or italic, which is actually slated to be a feature of our VIP subscription plan, alongside a bunch of other fancy GUI options. We're not actually sure if this tiny feature will end up being VIP-only, but if it does, consider this a preview.) Known issue: if you join a new chat room while the Settings window is open, you will need to close and reopen the Settings window for that new chat room to appear in the color list.
    • You can now share recipes in chat. On the Recipes window, right click the name of a recipe and choose "Share in Chat"
    • When sharing items or recipes in chat, you no longer have to type a message. You can just say the item (or recipe) without further commentary if desired.
    • In an attempt to make item/recipe sharing a little bit more comprehensible, there's a new "Send Chat" option shown when you click the "+1 Item" button on the chat window. The "Send Chat" option is the same as pressing Enter while typing chat text: it sends whatever's been typed, along with the chosen items/recipes.
    • Made the Chat window behave a bit more like other windows in a few ways. Most noticeably, there is a close button on the window now. More subtly, the window is no longer in the "background" behind other windows. This means that it can now appear on top of other windows. It's hard to explain, and not that important, but if you're wondering "wait, did this change?" then you're not insane, yes it did.

    Particle-Spam Limiter


    To help cut down on "particle spam" in busy towns, there's now a rate-limiter on how many unimportant gameplay particle-effects will be displayed. The limit is determined by your graphics quality level, or you can manually set it in the Settings window: it's an advanced Graphics setting called "Max Low-Pri Particles Per Second". What is a "low pri particle"? It's a particle-effect from a buff or ability that doesn't seem like it will directly affect you much: buffs and heals cast on other players (who aren't in your current group). Buffs and heals cast on you are never considered "low-pri", so even if you set the limiter to zero, you'll still see particles when people cast spells on you. We hope that this automatic limiter will prevent framerate problems in busy areas. (After a few tweaks to its algorithm, probably.) But there's also a second tool at your disposal. This one is intended for use in VERY busy areas (such as during live events). Type /particlespam in the chat box to turn on an aggressive particle-blocker. It will block all buff/heal particles cast by any player aside from you and the people in your current Group. (Unlike the automatic limiter, this command WILL hide spells that are cast on you by other players. This can be confusing in combat situations, so we don't recommend leaving this on for regular play.) You can return to normal by typing /particlespam in the chat window again. If you want to ALWAYS be in no-particle-spam mode, you can instead add the word NoParticleSpam to the Special Settings box in the Settings window. This setting supercedes the chat command. Also, as a general optimization, we no longer render "low-pri" particles on players that are very far away (specifically, players that are far beyond your Animation Cutoff distance).

    Monster Buffs


    • High-level monsters have more health. The change starts at level 40, though it probably won't be noticeable until significantly higher level. By level 80, however, the change is noticeable, giving monsters around 20%-40% more Max Health. As an example, a level 77 fire spider's health increased from 2013 to 2898, gaining 885 health. Max Rage also increased proportionately. This change is aimed at solo monsters, although it also affects group monsters by the same amount. (e.g. if there were a Boss version of the aforementioned level 77 fire spider, it might have 20,000+ health, but regardless, this change would only add 885 to it, the same as if it were a solo monster.)
    • Scray's delayed acid damage is a bit more painful.
    • Bees and wasps with poison-DoT rage attacks now deal a bit more poison damage per second.
    • Werewolf enemies whose rage attack is a healing-howl: the heal is now a meaningful amount, although still not especially impressive.
    • Sharks were accidentally using generic forest-animal attacks (in fact, their bites could inflict lice!) They now have unique attacks: they have a crippling opener move, and their rage-attack is a bleed.

    Bee Hive Encounter Revisions


    The "poke the hive" group encounters in the fae realm have been revised to be much easier. We still recommend a group of 5-6 level 70+ players, although it is possible for a very coordinated (or very well-geared) small group to handle some of them. These encounters are not well-tested. That's your job! We'd love your feedback on these encounters after you've tried them out a few times. Since we need detailed balancing feedback, you'll need to know how things are supposed to work. So the rest of this section is a spoiler! When you poke a hive, it spawns a first wave of solo enemies. After a few seconds, if your group is still alive and nearby, you'll see a note that more reinforcements are on their way. A bit after that, you'll see another note about more reinforcements. When you see those messages, it means the reinforcements are 10-20 seconds away from arriving, depending on their movement speed. They take a while to spawn in, and then have to travel to the hive. If you have the ability to perceive creatures before they spawn, you can detect these reinforcements before they spawn in. No wave of enemies has more than one elite/boss creature in it. However, the waves are short and speed is still important to avoid monster pile-ups. Positioning is also important: the hive only summons reinforcements as long as 3+ players remain close to the hive (specifically within 30 meters). If there aren't enough (living) players in the area when it's time to call reinforcements, you'll instead see a message that they've been called off. (The already-spawned reinforcements will still fight to the death, however.) The encounter ends after the third wave -- the reward is the loot from the monsters themselves. The solo monsters have higher-than-normal chances for honeycombs, even for creatures that normally don't drop honeycomb. The elite monsters have high chances of dropping Royal Jelly (although not as high as in the earlier incarnation of these encounters). We want these encounters to be frantic, and feel dangerous, but not feel insane. In other words, they should be fun. The hives nearest town are intended to be relatively easy, and the later ones should be more difficult. One of the biggest unknowns is how much time should elapse between each round of reinforcements. If your feedback indicates that certain hives are too hard, we can slow down the reinforcements, or reduce the number of enemies per round. One other thing -- the elites in these encounters now have a chance to drop Fairy Soul Anchors. They are rare and drop as a bonus item (meaning that they don't reduce the amount of "regular" loot received). Fairy Soul Anchors are useless to non-fae, and always will be, but they drop for players of all races to allow fairies a way to purchase them from other players.

    Monsters and Mantids


    After receiving your detailed feedback on this casino game (thank you!), we've revised it to have more choices, more diversity, and a bit faster playing speed.
    • when your Gaming skill is 15, you can now tip your game master. Game masters provide hastier service for big tippers.
    • when your M&M character reaches XP level 2, 3, and 5, you'll pick a Perk from a random selection of Perks. Perks are small buffs and benefits.
    • when your dice-roll ends in death, you no longer receive your tickets and rewards before the dice are finished rolling. Instead, press the "Continue" button to receive your rewards.
    • the ante for playing the regular game has increased from 500 to 650, and Pro tables increased from 750 to 900. Expected average earnings for skilled players are still a bit higher than before, though.
    • the ability Prey deals +2 damage and heals -1 health (at all tiers)
    • the ability Lurk deals -1 damage (at all tiers) to injured enemies
    • the code for the random-encounter system was rewritten in this update, and all the encounters were converted to a new system. It's possible there are bugs -- if you find them, please report them!
    • there are some new random encounters, with more to come

    Fairy Tweaks


    • All beehives in the fae realm now have a quest available to fairies. (Previously, most of the hives were "coming soon".) Each hive can now be completed once every 5 days instead of every 1 day. The item rewards are also tweaked: they now sometimes give valuable items (such as royal jelly) instead of fairy Soul Anchors, although the most common reward item is still a Fairy Soul Anchor. All 12 of the hive quests give 200 Fae racial XP upon completion.
    • Most items made of ice now melt less quickly. (Raw ice is about half as likely to melt each tick.)
    • Using the Fairy Wing Potion was much more tedious than intended because the potion chose randomly between 30+ different wings. There are now five different fairy wing potions, each covering only one or two styles of wing. This way, when you know which shape you want, you can more easily find it in the color you want by brewing the appropriate potion. These new recipes are unlocked by raising Fey racial skill.

    Previews of Animal Husbandry


    We're working on a complex system for breeding and selling pet animals. It's not ready yet, so we've "turned it off" for this update. However, there are lots of little details (and bugs) that still made it into the update.
    • The Stable window has been rewritten in preparation for the upcoming Animal Husbandry system. You'll notice that the new version indicates whether your pet is male or female. This will be important for breeding purposes, but won't have any other effect.
    • The Stable window will say that your pets are "Unregistered" -- this can be ignored for now
    • The Item Info window has a new tab labeled "Preview". This will be how you examine a pet who's stored in a travel-cage item. For now, it does nothing.
    • Some animals are currently using genetics internally. This includes cats, wasps, bees, deer, and a few others. These genes can affect the creatures' stats: they may have more or less max health than normal, or have evasion, toughness, etc. However, the genomes these animals are using are junk genes, intended only for testing.
    • Two types of creatures, deer and bees/wasps, not only use genetics internally, but externally as well: their genes affect their visual appearance. You'll notice that different individuals have unique colors, sizes, and (in the case of bees), deformities, particles, or other strangeness. Again, these animals' genomes aren't permanent, they're just for testing the system. (Especially the deer's appearance genes, which currently generate rainbow-colored deer.)
    • Pets are NOT using genes at this time, so when you tame a wasp (for example), you'll get a standard wasp, ignoring the genes of the creature you tamed.
    • Some animals have the wrong colors (e.g. Hissy isn't red). This is temporary and will be fixed.

    Bug Fixes/Other Stuff


    • Worked around a Unity UI bug that could cause your mouse cursor to get "stuck" in the center of the screen whenever it touched the edges of a GUI window.
    • Basic ambient sound-effects added to Fae Realm
    • Some words of power that said they lasted 15 minutes only lasted 5 minutes
    • The crossbows "Hunting Crossbow" and "Double Crossbow" were incorrectly flagged as having a necromancy gem; the gem is now removed.
    • Archery ability Snare Arrow's description indicated that it used 5 arrows, but only actually needed 1. The description was incorrect and has been fixed
    • Food item "Gobbledygook" was incorrectly marked as a meat dish
    • The "Bridge Bully" has been relocated to a more recognizable bridge
    • Velkort's pet flame now acts as a waste disposal service for the town of Serbule: you can discard junk in it.
    • Fixed bugs that could cause the wrong icon to be shown on the "casting" progress bar
    • Fixed exploitable bug: high-level Fairy Magic abilities could be used even when paired with a very low-level skill (It didn't honor the max-25-level-difference cap between your active skills.)
    • Tamed Blinding Wasps' special abilities were both named "Wasp Ranged Debuff" -- one of them is now renamed "Wasp Burst Pierce". Behavior is unchanged, only the label was wrong
    • Fixed bugs where Objective Orienteering abilities could report "The quest objective is not anywhere in this zone" when they were, in fact, in the zone, just very far away. This bug could happen for quests in Sun Vale or Ilmari Desert.
    • Fixed a bug that caused Combos to be aborted when you triggered a Combat Refresh
    • Tweaked spawn range of motherlodes in Kur to prevent spawning off the map
    • Fixed display errors where your Friends list would occasionally show incorrect amounts of time since your friends were last online.
    • Some types of clothing did not show up in the "paper doll" in the Persona window (and some still don't... still working on it)
    • Changed the default LOD Bias value for the graphics level "5: Amazing". It is now 3 instead of 1000. (3 sounds small, but it's actually quite dramatic: it's a 300% increase in how far away the game will render things in their highest level of detail.) The value of 1000 was only intended for "6: Ultra", which still uses that default. 1000 is so high that it essentially turns off the level-of-detail system entirely, always rendering everything at max resolution, even if it's miles away. This is dumb, but Ultra.
    • Fixed login issue: if you were disconnected due to internet problems, then tried to reconnect, you could get a message telling you to try again, but no means of trying again (forcing you to restart the game). If this happens now, the client waits a few seconds on the "try again" error screen, then switches back to the login screen so you can try again.


    [ 2020-05-29 00:45:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: March 20, 2020

    This update had a short timetable because we wanted to release these fairy bug-fixes ASAP. Even so, we were able to fit in a few other changes and rebalances. We'll be back soon with more content for fairies and non-fairies alike!

    Fairy Bug Fixes and Changes


    • Revised the newbie fairy quest lines to be a little more intuitive. New fairy players will have an overarching quest that directs you to other NPCs you need to help, and some of the quests have been revised to be less annoying. If you were currently working on fairy quests when you last logged out, you may need to speak with the relevant NPC to re-get the quest.
    • Limited the number of Troll Honeytenders that spawn in the fae realm.
    • Increased number of deer that spawn in Sun Vale -- there's an area on the large island where they like to congregate
    • The "Stuff to Do" tab for fairies no longer includes tasks that are irrelevant for fairies (like "Learn Mentalism from Echur").
    • Fixed fairy animations when strafing and swimming.
    • Fairy Soul Anchors could not be used; they can now.
    • Fairy Magic abilities could be used from the sidebar; they can't now.
    • Fairy Magic abilities on your bar now correctly get replaced by higher-level versions of those abilities (when you unlock them).
    • Marrowchomp doesn't attack fairies.
    • Fairies now learn Sword abilities like other races do.
    • Resuscitating a dead pet with fae energy now actually consumes the energy. Cost is lowered from 30 to 20 fae energy.
    • Treasure effect "Astral Strike deals +85 damage and resets the timer on Pixie Flare (so it can be used again immediately)" did not reset the timer on Pixie Flare.
    • Recipes for Fairy Cake and Fairy Stew consumed 10 more fae energy than listed.
    • When large stacks of Crystal Ice melted, too much of the stack melted at once. The number of items melted at once has been reduced by half (to a minimum of 1).
    • Pixie Flare's sound was playing in 2D instead of 3D.
    • Reduced the volume of a particularly loud fairy light.
    • Fixed exploit that let fairies respawn outside of the fae realm if they closed the game client at the right moment.
    • Fairies gain a fae-only version of Recall Beginnings when they reach Fae Racial 24. It's like the level 20 Teleportation recipe except that it costs a Fairy Dust and doesn't need an amethyst.
    • Added a few more hangouts to fae-realm NPCs, with more to come!
    We're working on more fairy content, as well as more fairy-specific NPC text, for the next update.

    General Fixes


    • Prevented "empty" augments from dropping in loot.
    • Phoenixes remembered they have wings!
    • When taming a Fae Ocelot, it turned into a fae panther in your stable. (It was named "Fae Ocelot" by default, but was otherwise a panther.) This has been fixed so that newly tamed ocelots are ocelots. For now the only difference is their size, but they may have stat differences in the future. Already-tamed pets are unchanged; they will permanently remain fae panthers.
    • Improved animations for butterflies.
    • Fixed selection box sizes for some monsters.
    • Improved performance of floaty damage numbers when there are an insane amount of them (more than 30) on-screen at once.

    Diminishing Returns for Stuns


    When a monster (or player) is stunned multiple times in rapid succession, the latter stuns have a shorter duration than normal. (In MMO jargon, this general concept is referred to as "crowd-control diminishing returns.") Project: Gorgon already had diminishing returns for stuns, but in this update, we've made 'em diminish faster and more predictably. Previously, a stun couldn't be shortened to less than about 2 seconds duration. Now if you get stunned enough, the duration can go all the way to 0 seconds. Monsters have a faster rate of stun-reduction than players do, but both players and monsters have significantly faster stun-reduction than in the previous update. Elite/boss monsters with stun attacks are special: their stuns are never reduced below 2 seconds duration, no matter how often their target has been stunned. Flat-Footed Debuff Duration: Stuns also apply the "Flat-Footed" debuff, which disables all Evasion. Previously this debuff lasted for 8 seconds and now lasts for 6 seconds. (Note: it lasts 6 seconds regardless of the length of the actual stun; even a 0-second stun leaves you Flat-Footed for 6 seconds. We may scale the duration in the future.)

    Physics-Exploit Fixes


    We've rewritten the system that determines if a monster is being "perched", meaning that it can't possibly reach you due to geometry or pathing issues, while you sit back and safely whale away on it. We've also revised how monsters react when this happens. Previously, the monsters would either try to run away, or some monsters could use special ranged attacks they normally don't get to use. But that's much too complicated and error prone. For now, the monster response is very simple: if a monster is being exploited to death, it just magically heals to full, with a chat message indicating what happened. The code should be more reliable now, but this sort of system usually needs some fine-tuning. So if you get false positives, don't take it personally! Just let us know so we can tune the code.

    Other Balance Changes


    • Fire magic treasure: "Super Fireball deals +40% damage and reuse timer is -1 second, but generates 50% more total Rage" => "Super Fireball deals +90 damage and reuse timer is -1 second"
    • Fire Magic treasure: "Ring of Fire Damage +32%" => "Ring of Fire Damage +152"
    • Fire Magic treasure: "Indirect Fire Damage +57% when Fire Magic skill active" => +40%
    • Druid treasure: "Cosmic Strike deals +51% damage and reuse timer is -5 seconds" => "Cosmic Strike deals +115 damage and reuse timer is -5 seconds"
    • Poetry Podium: earn less Oratory XP when reciting poetry to large groups.
    • Bard: "Song of Discord" no longer affects targets that can't see you.
    There was some complex code involved in fixing Song of Discord, as well as the related perching fixes. And with fancy code comes fancy bugs. Please be on the lookout for monster AI problems that may have been introduced in this update. We're a tiny team and your bug reports are very valuable to us! Thanks!


    [ 2020-03-20 07:16:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: March 9, 2020

    This is a big update with a lot of changes, and these update notes are pretty in-depth. The big news is the playable fairy race, but we also have major Animal Handling changes and a big set of monster rebalancing, plus more smaller tweaks, additions, and bug fixes than you can shake a wing tassel at. Buckle up!

    Fairies!


    This update introduces our first 'advanced' playable race: fairies. Before you can make a fairy character, you need to unlock the race by completing a quest for Fazzi called "Free Tortured Fairies". (It's not a new quest, but it previously gave no reward for completion. If you've already completed the quest, you can now repeat it to receive the quest-unlock reward.) The quest is pretty short, but it's in the Winter Nexus, which is a very dangerous area, so a group is recommended. To reduce crowding, the imprisoned fairies are temporarily set up to respawn every 60 seconds instead of every 5 minutes. (Some monsters respawn faster, too, so be prepared for chaos!) The quest has also been revised to support groups: when you free a fairy, everyone in your group gets credit. So remember to group up with others! Please note that this is a "soft launch" of fairies - which means that while the mechanics are in place, you'll see some places where quests are "Coming Soon!", or where NPCs don't yet recognize that you are a fairy when you talk to them. We're working on these elements for release later in the month, but we didn't want to delay getting feedback on the basics. For more information on the fairy race, see our recent blog post. (Also note: fairies wearing too much metal armor receive a penalty to their damage. Fairy armor does not count for this purpose. This was a late addition to the fairy details described in the Fairy blog post.)

    Animal Handling Changes


    Animal Handling was revised to make it more powerful at high level. To do that, we now expose more game-mechanics about your pet. This also makes it possible for us to differentiate pets more, and will make it easier to buff/nerf individual pets in a future update. Instead of thinking of pet damage as one monolithic number (which was boring and hard to balance), treasure effects now focus more heavily on buffing each of the pet's three abilities: their Sic 'Em attack, their Special Trick, and their "basic attack" (which they use when not directed to use something else). All pets' Sic 'Em and Clever Trick abilities now deal more damage. Most pets' basic attacks deal more damage, too, especially those pets whose special abilities aren't very damaging. Bond Levels now increase pet damage more, also. Pets Hastened: Animal Handling pets are now better able to match the speed of their owners. Every few seconds, they recalculate their speed to be equal to their owner's speed. They can still fall behind for various reasons, but they're generally much more sticky. Pet UI Rewrite: We've received a bunch of bug reports about the pet window (the window that shows pet stats and lets you set the pet's mode), but haven't been able to reproduce those bugs, so the code for the pet window was rewritten to make it more robust. It's unclear whether this actually fixed any bugs, or indeed if it added new bugs in exchange. If you encounter a bug with the pet window, whether old or new, please report it! Changes to Pet Examine Screen: When you examine an animal handling pet, it now shows more information about its specific abilities. It shows info about your pet's basic attack, Sic 'Em ability, and Clever Trick, and tells you how much of each ability's damage comes from buffs, from Bond Levels, etc. (Note: this is implemented with the NPC dialog system, for now, so those stats aren't automatically refreshed!) (An important thing to remember about gear buffs: pets only get buffs from the gear you were wearing when you summoned the pet. If you take that gear off, the pet loses the buff. It doesn't get new gear buffs until it's resummoned.) Aggro Bug Fixed: We've fixed a bug that prevented pets from causing as much aggro as intended. Your pet will get enemies' attention much more easily during fights. Other Pet Changes:
    • Pet bond levels now increase base damage a bit more. This affects all levels. For example at Bond level 40, base damage increased from +41 to +56. At bond level 80, it increased from +101 to +157.
    • Pet bond levels now also boost the damage of pets' Sic 'Em and Clever Trick abilities. At Bond Level 80 this amounts to about a +150 damage bonus (which stacks with their base-damage bonus).
    • Increased the base damage of nearly all pets' Sic 'Em and Clever Trick attacks. At max level, this increases their special-attack base damage by several hundred (for most pets).
    • Increased the potency of several pets' Sic 'Em and/or Clever Trick abilities (heals, buffs, debuffs, DoTs).
    • Fire Rats: these pets' Clever Trick accidentally dealt the full DoT damage with every tick. Since it ticked 4 times, it effectively dealt 400% of the intended damage. This has been fixed. (Complicating the math, however: the base DoT damage was approximately doubled during rebalancing, so the new DoT is about half of the old value, not 1/4th. And there are new treasure effects which can increase it above the old value.)
    Pet Treasure Changes:
    • "Animal Handling pets' healing abilities, if any, restore +27% health" => restore +45% health
    • "Sic Em boosts your pet's Crushing attacks (if any) +26 damage for 10 seconds" => +80 over 10 seconds
    • "Sic Em boosts your pet's Slashing attacks (if any) +26 damage for 10 seconds" => +80 over 10 seconds
    • "Animal Handling pets recover +24 Armor every five seconds (whether in combat or not)" => +17 armor
    • "Unnatural Wrath causes your pet to bleed for 160 trauma damage over 10 seconds, but also deal +54 damage per attack during that time" => now deals +144 damage per attack during that time
    • "Animal Handling pets gain 16% melee evasion" => "Nimble Limbs gives pet +19% melee evasion for 30 seconds"
    • "Animal Handling pets gain +5 Armor Absorbency." => new effect: "Animal Handling pets absorb some direct damage based on their remaining Armor (absorbing 0% when armor is empty, up to 20% when armor is full)"
    • "Animal Handling pet attacks bypass 33 mitigation derived from armor" => "Animal Handling pets' damage-over-time effects (if any) deal +130% damage per tick"
    • "Animal Handling pets deal +36 direct damage with each attack" => "Animal Handling pets' Sic 'Em and Clever Trick attacks deal +100 damage"
    • "Get It Off Me heals you for 95 Health after a 15 second delay" => 160 Health
    • "Feed Pet restores 90 Health (or Armor if Health is full) to your pet after a 20 second delay" => 140 Health (or Armor if Health is full)
    • "Animal Handling pets deal +20% direct damage with each attack" => "Animal Handling pets' Sic 'Em attacks deal +16% damage"
    • New treasure: (chest, off-hand): "Animal Handling pets' Clever Trick abilities deal +245 damage"
    • New treasure: (hands, main-hand): "Animal Handling pets' Clever Trick attacks deal +16% damage"
    • New treasure: (chest): "Direct Cold Damage +16% while Animal Handling skill active"
    • New treasure: (necklace, legs, main-hand): "For 17 seconds after using Clever Trick, pets' basic attacks have a 15% chance to deal double damage"
    • New treasure: (ring, off-hand): "Animal Handling pets' basic attacks deal +13% damage"

    Elite/Boss Monster Changes


    In this update, Elite and Boss monsters have more health and armor. They also have larger Rage bars, which means they can't perform their Rage Attacks as often. The changes are most dramatic in the high-level areas outside of Gazluk Keep and the Fae Realm. For instance, the level 65 boss called the Ratkin King previously had 18k health and now has 23k health. Elites in Gazluk Keep and the Fae Realm already had special boosts to their stats, so they didn't receive much buffing compared to monsters in other high-level areas. We've removed those "artificial" boosts, and given all monsters comparable benefits. We've also made some other systemic changes that affect monster balance (both for regular monsters and elites), which are described below. A note about Gazluk Keep: I mentioned recently on the forums that I feel Elites/Bosses drop a bit too much high-rarity loot, and I'm considering lowering them a bit, but that didn't happen in this update. However, when removing the hacked-in artificial boosts for Elites in Gazluk Keep, we found several bugs where Elites received the boosts intended for Bosses instead of Elites. This meant they were proportionally a bit tougher than intended, and they also dropped much more Exceptional, Epic, and Legendary gear than intended. These errors have been fixed as part of the clean-up process. (This primarily affected Elite orcs in hallways.)

    Changes to Monster Regeneration


    Some monsters have Regeneration. The way this works has changed. Previously, regeneration happened only every 5 seconds, so if a fight was shorter than that, no regenerating happened. Monsters now regenerate every second. At higher level, monsters regenerate more overall, too. To counter regeneration you can use indirect damage, such as damage-over-time effects. This was always the case, but the formula has changed to make damage-over-time more effective in countering regeneration. Another problem with regeneration was that it was difficult to tell when it was happening. So this new system of regeneration uses healing. This way you can see the healing numbers coming from the monster, and at least know what the heck is going on.

    Changes to Elite Monster "Rage Crits"


    When a monster makes a Rage attack, it has a chance to "critically hit" and receive extra buffs. The behavior for non-elite monsters is unchanged: a Rage Crit for a regular monster restores 25% of their health instantly. The behavior for elites/bosses has changed: previously they healed 25% of their health and 100% of their armor. Now, they recover no health and only 25% of their armor. But in addition, they gain a "Rage Shield" buff which increases their damage by 10% and shields them from 50% of direct attack damage for 7 seconds. (We're trying different mechanics to see what may work best; expect more changes in the future. Also remember that since elites have larger Rage bars now, they have fewer Rage attacks and thus fewer Rage Crits overall.)

    Changes to Monster Armor, and "Thick Armor" Monsters


    Some monsters have "thick armor". This is when a monster's armor reduces the damage it receives more than normal. Monsters like rhinos, uraks, and snails get this feature. The intent is to make these monsters MUCH tougher to just blast away at. This makes armor-removal abilities more valuable, as well as making damage-over-time and direct-health-damage abilities more interesting. But it's never really met that goal, and it needs to. In fact, all monster armor needed some improvement. The old system used small flat mitigation boosts. The new system uses percentage mitigation. This applies to all monsters -- and makes all monsters a bit tougher. Normal monsters now mitigate 20% of all direct damage when their armor bar is full. This mitigation drops as their armor is removed, so when they're at half armor they mitigate 10%, and when their armor is gone they have no extra mitigation at all. Monsters with "Thick Armor" mitigate 50% of direct damage at max armor, scaling down to 0% as their armor is removed. Elites/bosses have a bonus to this, between +10% and +20%, depending on the tier of eliteness. This stacks with thick armor, so a thick-armored Elite can have as much as 70% resistance when their Armor bar is full. Attacks that directly lower health or armor aren't mitigated. So an attack that removes 500 armor always removes 500 armor.

    Armor-Damage Formula Tweaks


    We've tweaked the formula for armor-damage from treasure, which caused various treasure effects to change (mostly very slightly). Treasure changes:
    • Staff: "Lunge deals +102 armor damage" => 121 armor damage
    • Sword: "Many Cuts deals +110 armor damage" => 132 armor damage
    • Sword: "Wind Strike and Heart Piercer deal 108 armor damage" => 124 armor damage
    • Unarmed: "Unarmed attacks deal +18 Armor damage" => +32 armor damage
    • Unarmed: "Hip Throw deals +192 armor damage" => 226 armor damage
    • Mentalism: "Strike a Nerve deals +113 armor damage" => 132 armor damage
    • Werewolf: "Pouncing Rake deals +152 Armor damage" => 172 armor damage
    • Ice Magic: "Tundra Spikes deals 120 armor damage and taunts +600" => 220 armor damage
    • Ice Magic: "Blizzard deals 128 armor damage and generates -120 Rage" => 248 armor damage
    • Knife: "Marking Cut deals +48 armor damage and does not cause the target to shout for help" => 52 armor damage

    Changes to "Thorns" Damage


    Damage-reply effects ("thorns") no longer bypass armor when dealing instant damage. This does not apply to Damage-over-Time effects, only instant damage. The following abilities and items are affected:
    • Acid Shield Potion
    • Fire Shield Potion
    • Molten Veins
    • Fire Shield
    • Toxic Flesh
    • Brambleskin
    • Phoenix Strike
    • Privacy Field
    • Acidic Shield Wax *(already worked this way)

    Druid Changes


    • Fill With Bile: all tiers of this ability now boost direct Poison damage a bit more
    • "All Druid abilities have a 20% chance to restore 15 Power to you" => now a 30% chance
    • "Your Healing Sanctuary heals every 4 seconds (instead of every 5) and heals +16 health" => the speed-up feature of the old effect didn't work due to technical issues, and Healing Sanctuaries didn't really need more buffing anyway, so it's been replaced entirely: "Fill With Bile boosts target's direct Poison damage +51"

    Shield Item Fixes


    • A bunch of shields were incorrectly tagged as "metal armor", which caused them to count toward the metal-armor-suit bonus (for having 3 pieces of metal armor on). This also means NPCs that like "Metal Armor" do not like these shields anymore. But note that shields are still considered "weapons" for gifting purposes.
    • Stalwart Targe: is now a Holy Symbol
    • Thentree Shield: is now a Holy Symbol, and is Elvish (for gifting purposes)
    • Dream-Keeper's Shield: is now a Holy Symbol
    • Elven Shield: is now Elvish (for gifting purposes)
    • Finesse Targe: is no longer indestructible nor antique

    Staff Treasure Changes


    • "Redirect deals +84 Trauma damage over 15 seconds" => deals 448 over 8 seconds
    • "Phoenix Strike restores 126 Health to you" => "Phoenix Strike deals +189 Fire damage to melee attackers"
    • "Phoenix Strike deals +21% damage and reuse timer is -8 seconds" => "Phoenix Strike deals +36% fire damage to melee attackers, and reuse timer is -7 seconds"
    • "Strategic Thrust and Lunge damage +61%" => +31% (this fixes a formula error)
    • "For 30 seconds after using Blocking Stance, your Mentalism attacks deal +16 damage" => "For 30 seconds after using Blocking Stance, your Mentalism Base Damage is +12.5%"
    • "Smash, Double Hit, and Heed The Stick Damage +18" => +69
    • "Nice Attack Power Cost -22 when skill Staff active" => Power cost -30

    Augments In Loot


    Augments can now be found in loot from monsters. Augments are much more likely to drop from animals (e.g. bears and wolves) than from sentient enemies such as goblins. The skills you have active will influence the types of Augments you find (e.g. you'll find more Ice Magic augments while using Ice Magic), but there is also a large randomness factor. The goal of adding augments to loot is to make augments more available to low-level players. For this reason, augments are more likely to be found on low-level monsters than high-level monsters. (At higher level we expect player-augmenters to make up the difference; the plan is that when we eventually have level 125 monsters, they won't drop augments at all -- only player augmenters will be able to make max-level augments.) For the non-Augmenters out there: augments are items that contain a random treasure effect, like you'd find on a piece of magical equipment. They can be installed into a piece of equipment to add their power to the item. If you find an augment, you can take it to any equipment-shop NPC who can install it for a fee. Both crafted and loot items can have augments installed into them. (Installing an Augment costs 100 crafting points, and all items have at least 100 crafting points.) Player Augmenters can install augments, and they can also destroy the augment currently in your item and restore the item's crafting points, allowing you to install a new augment. This option is not yet available from NPC shopkeepers, who can only install them. At low-level, though, our advice is not to worry about removing augments: you'll soon outgrow that level 20 sword, so if you find a level 20 augment that's useful, install it now, and expect to replace the sword (and the augment!) with better stuff soon. In conclusion, you should use augments. Augments are powerful.

    Ice Throwing-Knife Changes


    Ice Throwing Knives have been removed from the game. Instead, knife-throwing abilities can now use either regular throwing knives or clumps of Crystal Ice. Crystal Ice is no longer sold by vendors; instead, there is a new Ice Conjuration recipe that turns any food item into Crystal Ice. You can learn this recipe from Ichin in Rahu. (If you already knew how to craft Simple Ice Throwing Knives, you automatically know this new recipe instead.) Fairies have their own alternate methods for creating crystal ice. (They can use the Ice Conjuration recipe if they want to, but their method also generates fae energy, so is better for fairies.)

    Hoplology


    You now gain a bit more armor-restoration from Hoplology at low-level, and the rewards also now scale past 50. (It's always been possible to raise the skill higher than 50, but there were no rewards above level 50.) At level 50 Hoplology, you regain 24 Armor with every Staff attack (up from 15). At level 90, you regain 52 Armor with each Staff attack. There are not yet rewards above level 90. It now takes more XP to level Hoplology above level 30. Already-earned levels are unaffected, but your next level may need more XP than before.

    Burying Players


    To help alleviate "tombstone spam" in crowded areas, players can now bury other players' tombstones after their grave has been mourned enough. Here's how it works: if you mourn a tombstone and it's been mourned by enough other players before you, you'll be asked whether you want to bury the corpse or not. If you do, the tombstone will go away and you'll receive a small amount of Compassion XP (but not more than once per gameplay hour, to prevent abuse). You will only be asked if you want to bury a corpse if you have a shovel. The number of people that need to mourn the tombstone (before it can be buried) depends on several factors, including some randomness. Spammy deaths (such as "Suicide by Poison") can be buried after only a few mourners, whereas unusual deaths require more mourning. Hardcore deaths (by non-suicidal means) require more mourners than non-hardcore deaths. But in any case, hardcore players should remember that their tombstone is just a convenience: you can still repair your items even if the tombstone is gone. Just stand in the general area where your tombstone was and double-click your broken items to repair them.

    Metal Armor Set-Bonus Change


    The "set bonus" for wearing 3+ pieces of metal armor has changed. It now gives a point of universal direct mitigation for every 50 points of Max Armor. So a player with 600 Max Armor would reduce all attacks by 12 damage.

    Viewing Buffs/Debuffs on Monsters


    There's new benefits for raising your Anatomy skills: when you reach level 25 in any anatomy skill, you can see any active buffs/debuffs on monsters of that anatomy type. For now, this info is displayed in the Combat Info window (the same place that the monster's vulnerabilities are shown). When you reach level 50 in an anatomy skill, the Combat Info window also shows a few extra stats. This information is also available when you examine another player, as long as you have at least 25 of the relevant anatomy type. e.g. you need 25 Elf Anatomy to see the effects on an elven player. (If your relevant anatomy skill is less than 25, the window is disabled for that player, since there's no info to show.)

    Other Tweaks & Fixes


    • The /behaviorreport command now has "fake badges" for each equipment slot if you've NEVER used any item in that slot slot before. (There were already "real" badges for long-term refusal to use an item slot, which come with in-game titles, e.g. "Shoeless", but these "real" badges take much longer to earn and aren't as useful for behavior reports.)
    • /behaviorreport also now includes the information from /age (e.g. # of attacks made, time online) - Players now have an anatomy type appropriate to their race. (For instance, elves have Elven Anatomy, humans have Human Anatomy, etc.) This has minor ramifications for certain abilities and powers. It also means that in PvP, players are subject to archery critical hits from their anatomy type.
    • Skeleton Ice Mages had varying levels of cold resistance/immunity. They now have a uniform 50% cold resistance at all levels. They also now have less resistance to Trauma.
    • Skeleton Fire Mages and Skeleton Darkness Mages had varying levels of fire resistance, typically having 100% (immunity). These skeletons now have a uniform 50% resistance to fire, and gain a 25% vulnerability to cold as well. Note that these changes do not affect summoned skeleton mages (which never had fire resistance anyway)
    • You can no longer fly upwards when overburdened. (In the strange event that you become overburdened during flight, you can still fly forwards or down.)
    • The teleportation platform in Animal Town incorrectly bound you to a different island in Sun Vale.
    • Preta's favor "Powedered Mammal" was intended for Agrashab (the one in Sun Vale). If you've not completed the quest before, it is now given out by (and generates favor for) Agrashab. If you already completed the quest, nothing has changed.
    • Amberjack now appear more frequently in the deep waters off of Sun Vale
    • Battle Chemistry: mini-golems now auto-match to your movement speed, allowing them to keep up with you better
    • Energy Turrets (used as part of traps) are no longer worth XP
    • Knife abilities Surprise Throw, Hamstring Throw, and Fan of Blades no longer technically require you to be wielding a dirk or dagger, as long as you have appropriate throwing knife ammunition and hands to throw it with. (This has little practical benefit, but it seemed more reasonable.)
    • Ability Fire Shield 6 did not do as much damage as listed (it used the base damage from Fire Shield 5 instead)
    • Treasure effect for Castigate that made it deal Fire damage did not also increase Rage generated.
    • Recipes for turning bones into bone meal no longer give extra XP after the first usage (too spammable for XP)
    • The item "Fairy Wand of Cold" has been renamed to "Grand Fae Wand of Cold".
    • Fixed a lightning-bolt projectile whose sound effect played in 2D instead of 3D
    • Fixed several monsters whose reactive combat sounds played in 2D instead of 3D
    • Fixed "floating" animation when firing a bow
    • Added server buttressing to prevent Steam lag from impacting in-game performance


    [ 2020-03-09 23:17:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Dev Blog: Say Hello to Playable Fairies

    Say Hello to Playable Fairies


    We've long planned to add three "advanced" character races to Project: Gorgon: Fairy, Orc, and Dwarf. Unlike the standard races (Human, Elf, and Rakshasa), the advanced races are unlocked by completing quests in-game. This is important because these races are harder to play. They require more experience and knowledge than the other races and aren't suitable for brand new players -- you at least need to understand the basics of the game first. The next update includes the soft launch of our first "advanced" character race: fairies! Why a soft launch? Because my plan is to create a different play experience for each of these three races. Each will have different trade-offs and new opportunities, and that's going to be tricky to get right the first time. Fairies in particular are fragile and small, but magical and dangerous. As true immortals, they have a very strange relationship with death. Their experiences are very different from the other races - and so are their game mechanics. Let's look at the unique game mechanics for fairies.

    Fairy Physical Attributes


    First off, fairies are significantly smaller than the regular races. They can't carry much, but they can fly. We've modeled this with a couple of attributes:
    • They can fly with a default speed about the same as other basic flight, e.g. raven flight.
    • They have reduced inventory space -- 16 fewer slots than other races.
    • They are slightly more susceptible to knockbacks. (They are knocked slightly farther away.)
    It's useful to think of these as "physical attributes" because they're tied to physically being a fairy. If a fairy gets cursed and turns into a cow, for instance, these things go away, replaced with whatever physicality the new form has. In other words, fairies turned into cows do not naturally fly!

    Fairies and Death


    When fairy characters physically die, they respawn at their lifestone in the fae realm. In game terms, this means that when fairies press the "Respawn" button after death, they respawn in the fae realm, not in whatever area they died in. They also can't "Enter the Light." This ironically makes fairy deaths more punitive than other player deaths. Story-wise, other races don't "really" die: they're saved from death at the last instant by a mysterious force. (You meet him when you Enter the Light. The mysterious force's name is Richter.) But story-wise, fairies aren't prodigies and don't have this protection. When fairies die, they really do die -- except being immortal, they're reborn at their lifestone. This aspect of being a fairy is true regardless of what physical form the fairy has. A fairy turned into a cow is reborn as a cow in the fae realm. There are many ways for fairies to prevent this. Fairies can benefit from all the regular resurrection methods available to anyone, such as the Resuscitate ability from First Aid, or eating Eternal Greens. Fairies can also use their Fae racial powers to create an item that lets them respawn in the local area like other races would.

    Skill Bonuses for Fairies


    That covers most of the bad stuff involved in being a fairy. Let's look at some of the good stuff! Story-wise, new fairies have had a convenient memory-wipe like new-player humans, elves, and rakshasa. But thanks to thousands of years of practice, fairies still retain some combat memories. Fairies start with four combat skills at level 30: Ice Magic, Knife Fighting, Animal Handling, and Mentalism. They also get special bonuses for each of those skills -- some bonuses are small, some large. Let's go over each. Ice Magic: Since the fae realm is controlled by the Winter Court, fairies are currently very in-tune with Ice Magic. It comes quite naturally to them. For game purposes, this means fairies don't have to perform research to learn new Ice Magic spells. Instead, they automatically learn a new Ice Magic spell each time they level the skill, and a few spells are learned from fairy trainers. Knife Fighting: Fairies can create "crystal ice" with their racial skill (see below) and use it in knife-throwing abilities like Hamstring Throw and Fan of Blades, so they dont need to carry metal throwing knives. They also learn an alternate version of the ability Slice which uses thrown ice. There are also a few new treasure effects that may be useful to knife-fighting fairies, although those are available to all races. (Note that the in-game prototype skill "Ice Conjuration" has been obsoleted; fairies don't have to turn their crystal ice into "Ice Throwing Knives"; they just throw the ice directly. Less inventory hassle.) Animal Handling: Fairies start the game with two free pets already in their stable, a bee and a wasp. These pets weren't mind-wiped like the fairy was, and they still remember how to fight! They are level 100 pets with maxed loyalty Bond Levels. (Animal Handling pets are capped to the player's Animal Handling level, so at first they behave as level 30 pets, since fairies start with level 30 Animal Handling. But they don't need any training or bonding time; whenever the fairy levels up, the pets can immediately be re-summoned at a higher level.) The bee and wasp pets are similar to ones that are found in the fae realm. So other races CAN tame these pets, but not until they reach a pretty high level. In addition, fairies can choose to resurrect dead Animal Handling pets using their fae racial magic instead of needing to use First Aid Kits. Mentalism: Saving the best for last, perhaps: there's a new combat sub-skill for Mentalism called Fairy Magic. (Note: "Fairy Magic" isn't the same as Fae racial magic!) Fairies can put both Mentalism abilities and Fairy Magic abilities on their Mentalism bar, mixing and matching as desired. Fairy Magic has new abilities such as Fairy Fire, Astral Strike, and Fae Conduit, plus new treasure effects. Fairy Magic adds more diversity to the types of builds possible with Mentalism.

    Fae Racial Skill


    Lastly, there is a new racial skill for fairies, representing things that only fairies can do. This involves several new mechanics. Fairies have a new energy meter for Fae Energy, similar to the Metabolism meter. They can use Fae Energy in several ways, usually in conjunction with two new material resources, Crystal Ice and Fairy Dust. Fairies learn how to turn junk items into Crystal Ice, and how to turn unwanted magical equipment into Fairy Dust. As a side-effect, these transformations also generate Fae Energy to fill up their energy meter. Fairies can use Crystal Ice directly as thrown weapons (with the Knife Fighting combat skill). They can also directly consume Fairy Dust, which acts as an instant healing item and a flight-speed buff. But the most impressive fairy tricks involve combining ice, dust, and fae energy together. Fairies eventually learn how to create temporary items such as health kits, utility knives, short-lived food, and more. This "fairy stuff" is made partially from ice and so eventually melts if not used, but can act as sources of common items, or at least backups. The fae racial skill is also where we've stashed other "fairy things" ... powers and abilities that magical beings like fairies ought to have. Some powers are basically cosmetic, such as summoning colored lights or changing the color of their wings. Others are precious convenience features, such as being able to teleport without needing expensive materials. Fae can also craft a few unique items that other races may want, such as potions that randomly (and permanently) change hair color or beard shape.

    Balancing Pros and Cons


    All told, fairies have to be more careful when fighting, and they have to travel a bit lighter than other races. But these negatives are offset by positive benefits and unique combat tricks. My hope is that playing a fairy feels like a fresh way to play, with different things to think about and consider. There are a lot of different aspects to the race's balance, so it's likely to be a bit bumpy at first. But we'll work out the kinks over time. Being a low-level fairy is also notably harder than being a high-level fairy. That's just sort of how it goes, I'm afraid: since fairies get new tricks as they level up, they can eventually take more risks and have less downtime. I'm trying to counterbalance that a bit by giving low-level fairies some extra gifts from quests. For instance, some "pocket pants" help newbies cope with reduced inventory space, and there are alternative ways to unlock a few skills early on (such as Transmutation). But even after unlocking the later tricks and features, fairies will always need to be more careful than other races. So if playing a fragile yet powerful spellcaster -- or a tiny flying knife-wielding maniac -- sounds fun, then this is the race for you!

    Combat-Balance Blog Soon


    There are also a bunch of combat-mechanics changes coming in the same update as fairies. This includes changes to pets, to monster stats, and to monster behaviors and traits (such as the "Thick Armor" monster trait). I'm working on a blog post about those changes which should be ready soon! The actual update will be ready "soon" too, though, so if the update arrives before the blog, I'll just work some of the background info into the patch notes. (I'm hoping to get both things done by the end of February, but testing and tweaking is taking a while, and the patch may end up being in the first week of March instead.)


    [ 2020-02-21 23:29:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Dev Blog: Let's Brainstorm about Housing

    [This blog post is from the developer, Citan.] Discuss this blog post on our main forums here! (This started out as a forum post but got too big and became a blog post. The Fairy race blog post is about a week away, I expect.)

    Let's Brainstorm About Housing


    We're deep in the middle of coding the playable Fairy race, and after that we've got a new dungeon lined up, and after that there's a major city to add! So why talk about housing now? Because that city, Statehelm, is also where we'll introduce housing later in the year. Now is the time to brainstorm housing, to let the wild ideas percolate, to figure out what might be fun. And if you're thinking "housing isn't fun", then that's exactly what I'm talking about. I'm not adding housing to check off a feature list. I'm adding it because I think it can be amazing!

    Landscape vs. Instanced? Already Settled


    First, let's get the landscaped-vs-instanced question out of the way: we won't be using landscape housing. That's when the houses exist in the regular, non-instanced world, and each house can be bought and owned by one player. This design seems the most immersive at first. Who wouldn't want to own part of your favorite game city? But in practice, landscape housing is always terrible. (Except in pure PvP games, where landscape housing has a different function and can work well... but this isn't a PvP game!) The most immediate problem with landscape housing is that it doesn't scale. We'd start by adding hundreds of homes to the game, filling every nook and cranny of the existing world with houses... but that wouldn't even come CLOSE to letting every player have a house! It would only let the richest players buy one. What about the thousands of other players? Well, everyone who plays must eventually be able to have a home, so we'd obviously need thousands more homes. We'd need to add new areas to the game just to have a place to stick their houses. You may have seen areas like that in other MMOs: for practical reasons, they're not very fleshed out. They're just places to stick houses. At that point, the houses might as well be instanced. It's not like their home is in the "real" game world anyway! The second problem is that landscape housing eventually creates barren, empty game areas. At first, there's a decent chance that some of the homeowners will be in their houses while you log in, so the place might seem bustling and active. But after a year or two, that's never true. Players who own those homes will eventually stop playing... but they won't give up their homes. They'll log in just long enough to pay the upkeep costs of their house, then leave again. This creates ghost towns. The only way to fix this is to force players to lose their homes if they don't keep playing - for example, by having arduous rental requirements or minimum play times. But that feels kind of like blackmail to me: "Keep playing every month or we'll take your pretend house away." This really isn't a great long-term retention strategy, either, because MMO players tend to take breaks from their favorite game before returning a year or two later. They'll log in to see what's new... but if they realize that their beloved house is gone, they're likely to just log back out again. I want returning players to feel welcome. (Old-school MMO companies generally LIKED this design, because it meant homeowners had to keep paying a monthly subscription fee forever. But we don't have a monthly subscription fee. We'll eventually have an optional VIP plan, but I want it to feel truly optional, not something you'd need to own a house!) The third problem of landscape housing is that it "locks in" parts of the game world. As these games mature and housing areas slowly feel more and more empty (due to all the homeowners who never log in), why don't game developers take steps to fix it? Because that would upset those homeowners! Even adding monster-spawns to quiet areas will piss people off. If someone bought a landscape house because of its safety, they're going to feel betrayed if it stops feeling safe! There are a few other things that can be added, but for developers, it's mostly just too much work with too little reward. Instead of pissing off homeowners, devs are much more likely to create new areas instead. Those old barren areas are left to rot forever.

    Instanced Housing Doesn't Have to Be Boring


    We can side-step all of those problems by using instanced housing. Instanced housing is where the door to your home is in town, but when you go through that door, you appear in a private mini-area. Lots of players can use the same door in town, and each enters their own "instance" of the interior area. Lots of games implement instanced housing, mostly just to tick off boxes on their feature list. They add the expected features: some storage, some decorations, maybe a crafting table. In other words, they're pretty boring, so you're forgiven for thinking instanced housing HAS to be boring. But it doesn't! In fact, this is a fertile area for new MMO designs, and I want to try some out. I want housing to be integrated into the game's systems at a deeper level, so it can be a jumping-off point for high-level player adventures and goals. There are opportunities here for gameplay that wouldn't make sense otherwise. Here's some ideas:

    Meet the Neighbors


    Just because your house is instanced doesn't mean you can't have player neighbors. Quite the opposite! We can avoid the big barren areas of non-instanced housing by using the reality-bending power of instancing. For example, in an instanced neighborhood we could dynamically group players based on who's online. Suppose that when you go out the door of your instanced apartment, it leads to a hallway with a bunch of other doors -- each one dynamically assigned to be the doors of other people who are in their homes right now. You can knock on any door and say hi, and maybe come in to visit and look around. Or maybe you can slip a note under the door. Or sneak into their homes... Or maybe that hallway leads to players that have been online recently, and who have left their houses in "open" security mode, so you can wander in and visit. Or maybe the hallway leads to other active members of your guild, so your neighbors are always guildmates. Or maybe we organize housing based on skill choices, so if you move into Explosion Heights with the other wizards, you can expect to encounter wizards... and wizard-related problems. Because instanced houses aren't on the 'real' landscape, we can hook them together in ways that aren't constrained by real physics -- ways that create new gameplay. For example...

    The Front Door


    Every house has a door, and we can use this to let adventures come to you. Imagine you come home just in time to hear a knock on your door. It's your neighbor: he asks you to deal with the foul odor coming from your basement. What odor? "The movers brought in those coffins yesterday, so I assume that's the stench!" What movers? What basement?! (Okay, discovering that you have a secret basement may be too far. Or maybe not... the basement door could teleport you to a different mini-dungeon depending on what quest is going on.) Or perhaps your apartment in the Statehelm slums is plagued by a mob of rat-men. They knock incessantly, demanding payment in cheese... do you dare answer? What happens if you don't? Do they try to set your house on fire? Or maybe they let pests into your vents. Or maybe they just sneak in and subtly move the furniture to enrage you... "Notice anything different? This wouldn't have happened if you'd left Roquefort on the mantle!" Or maybe the visitor is your old friend Rita from Serbule. She's in town to do some shopping and wants to fill you in on the latest gossip. She says Sir Coth has started talking about "invisible intruders" again; maybe you should visit Serbule and see what's up? Or perhaps the visitor at your door is just a salesman with a magic mirror to sell. "It shows serene pictures of nature when you're trying to go to sleep!" says the merchant. But after you buy it, something else happens...

    Marriage


    One of the big benefits of instancing is that NPCs can be instanced too, and they can behave differently inside your home than they do outside. This means you can marry an NPC and unlock all sorts of new behaviors. We've seen the beginnings of fun marriage systems in games like Skyrim, but they're rarely very deep. Marriage has actually been part of Gorgon's rough design plan since the beginning -- for instance, the internal Favor Level above "Soul Mates" is called "Married" -- But that doesn't mean I've figured out how everything will work. It'll take experimentation to learn what sorts of mechanics are fun and scalable. Right now, the exact game mechanics are completely open. Marriage could have its own Marriage Mood Meter, and different moods could trigger all sorts of behaviors depending on the NPC you married. Tantrums, fights, sulking, subterfuge... or lovely gifts, cozying by the fireplace, making you a delicious meal... Or your spouse may have their friends over for parties... which might lead to jealousy later if you paid too much attention to their friends... Or maybe one of their friends has gotten into serious trouble. There's a mystery to figure out, and your spouse has stakes in the outcome. Or maybe their friends bring over an exotic housewarming gift with some unusual properties... I think different NPCs would have very different marriage experiences. Some would crave cozy domesticity; others might have freaky demands for new sex toys every week; some might suffer from depression and need extra support, while others keep inviting their friends over every night and insist that you keep the icebox stocked! Rakshasa have only had non-arranged marriages for a few decades, so they may have a lot of trouble settling down. And surely some elves have difficulty marrying a non-elf... knowing that they're going to outlive their spouse by hundreds of years might make it hard to have real emotional bonding. And if you marry a mage, are they going to feel jealous of your skill when you inevitably out-level them? What are the repercussions?

    Fertile Grounds for Fun Ideas


    None of these ideas are especially well thought out, obviously. This is brainstorming! But I'm excited about the possibilities, and I'd like to hear what ideas interest you. Of course, housing will also be an opportunity to decorate, to craft, to store items, all the usual stuff. But one of my goals with this game is to dig deeper than most MMOs do, and find the fun ideas that they don't reach. So what sounds fun to you? What outlandish thing do you want to do in your imaginary home? PS - Most of these design ideas could apply to guild halls too! We plan to eventually add instanced Guild Halls, so that every guild can have a meeting spot. (A handful of the most expensive Guild Halls will also have non-instanced lobbies or exteriors, where the guild could set up vendors or signposts or things like that... but the majority of the place will be instanced.)


    [ 2020-02-15 00:23:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Dev Blog: The Life and Death of Charged Pig

    [This blog post is from the developer, Citan] [If you're looking for info about the upcoming Fairy playable race, stay tuned -- there'll be a blog post about that soon! This blog post isn't about upcoming features at all -- it's behind-the-scenes design notes about recent game updates.]

    The Life and Death of the "Charged Pig" skill


    Have you ever noticed that all the talking pig NPCs in the game mention that they obtained sentience after being struck by lightning? Probably not. But they do! And this is because of a skill I've long planned to add. I've often used animal skills as an opportunity to experiment with game-mechanics ideas. The Pig skill was my first try at making a "bard" combat skill. It's been rewritten several times since I first added it, and it's evolved into its own unique group-support style -- one which doesn't step on the Bard skill too much. But it took lots of iteration and experimentation to figure out what would work, and I was able to apply some of those lessons to Bard. The Charged Pig skill was also intended to prototype something. In this case, it was prototyping "combat sub-skills". The Charged Pig skill didn't have its own combat bar; instead, you could mix-and-match Pig and Charged Pig abilities on the Pig skill bar. This would give the Pig skill some needed solo viability. (Sidebar: You may be thinking "why bother?" Why not just add more abilities to the existing skill? Adding too much content to a skill makes it harder for players to use. That sounds counterintuitive, but consider treasure-effects: right now the Sword skill has a dozen or so combat abilities, and there are unique treasure-effects for all of them. Since you only use 6 of the 12 abilities on your skill-bar at once, half of the Sword effects you find in loot aren't useful to your particular build. if I added a bunch more abilities to Sword, along with new treasure-effects, it would get harder and harder to find treasure that worked for your specific combat style. When its broken up into sub-skills, the game only gives out sub-skill-specific treasure if you're actually using the sub-skill. That's one benefit; there are similar "compartmentalization" benefits with training, unlocking, crafting, and base-items.) So I implemented Charged Pig, allocating a full month to work on it since it would need lots of experimenting. I created a handful of unique abilities, added some treasure-effects, worked out all the logistics of how the skill interacted with XP-earning and loot tables and so on. Then I created a pig character and started testing it, and realized I was missing a bigger opportunity. Charged Pig did add more soloing power to the Pig skill, which was nice... but since I could only use a total of six abilities, I ended up losing too much of the fun stuff from the Pig skill. What Pig needed was a new partner skill, something more solo-oriented that could synergize with the skill. So I turned Charged Pig into a regular combat skill. That way, you could use six Pig abilities and six Charged Pig abilities at the same time. That made a lot more sense! In fact, all of the animal-form combat skills could use another viable partner skill, so Charged Pig evolved into Warden, which is a combat skill usable by any animal. But a full combat skill requires a lot more work than a sub-skill: it needed more abilities, a LOT more treasure, and unique content to go with it. The earlier experiments used up a lot of the time available for the skill, though, so I crunched to create all the new abilities and treasure, while Sandra created the Wardens' special home, the Sacred Grotto. (We came up with some fun content ideas for the grotto that couldn't be implemented in time, so this is just the first version of the place.) The Warden skill has one other unique mechanic: special daily quests. This would have been impossible to fit into our schedule, except that I'd already written most of it in an earlier prototyping session. That session resulted in adding gardening almanacs, oddly enough. Which is why, internally, the daily warden quests are driven by their own hidden almanac! But even with the technology handy, we still had to actually write the quests that used the feature. So, in short, we worked really hard to flesh out the Warden skill, and I think it turned out pretty well, especially for the first version of a major combat skill. Of course, we'll continue to improve and iterate on it over time. The Charged Pig skill, on the other hand, is dead. It remains in the data files, but it'll only be used for internal testing now. It did its job as a prototype sub-skill, though, and the first "real" sub-skill will show up soon! The first one will probably debut with the playable fairy race. Later, I expect to use sub-skills to provide some weapons diversity, among other things. For instance, the Axe skill will tentatively be a sub-skill of Hammer; Spear will be a sub-skill of Staff; there might eventually be a Greatsword skill which is a sub-skill of Sword. Each sub-skill will add a few new abilities to an existing skills' repertoire, as well as unique requirements, unique treasure, and unique training.

    Warden vs. Druid


    Many animals can be druids, but pigs can't. There's nothing explicitly preventing pigs from being druids, mind you, there's just no equipment for it. Druids need to be holding a wooden item, and pigs don't have hands. Other animals have workarounds: for instance, cows can get wooden "cow shoes" made for them by a player carpenter. But I intentionally didn't give pigs an item like that because I knew they would eventually be getting the Charged Pig skill. Druid and Charged Pig don't play the same, but they cover a lot of the same ground, and they weren't designed to stack. Then Charged Pig evolved into Warden, which is usable by any animal. So now several animal forms can use Warden and Druid together. And yep, it's unbalanced. They share too many of the same tricks, and those tricks stack, and it's too much. It's not "oh crap shut everything down now" levels of overpowered, mind you, but it's something that needs to be addressed during balancing. Keep in mind that the goal of the Warden skill is to give the animal-specific combat skills (like Cow, Pig, Spider, etc.) a new partner skill, to make those skills more useful and interesting, especially for solo play. If the best partner skill for Warden ends up being Druid, then Warden is a failure at its goal! So right now I'm leaning toward disabling the Warden+Druid skill combination for balance reasons. I'm not yet sure what game mechanic will prevent the pairing, though. (The silver lining is that once that's done, I can add druid activation-items for pigs.)

    Evolution of Game Storylines


    (Important background info you may or may not know: the game takes place on the continent of Alharth, where the druids are run by the god Dreva. But on the distant continent of Fosulf, the druids are run cooperatively by Ri-Shin and Au-Shin together. They're much older gods than Dreva, and although they're technically allies of Dreva, there's also a bit of hostility. Dreva is a young hotshot god who has decided to "police the gods", and that doesn't always make you popular with other gods.) The Charged Pig skill also had its own storyline. It was fairly silly, because we're talking about flying pigs with electricity powers, and that seemed like it should have a lighthearted storyline. The story was that Au-Shin, the god of Animals, got into a huge fight with his brother Ri-Shin, the god of Plants, over who had dominion over fungi. Both gods felt that mushrooms should be in their domain! This debate had been going on for millennia, and it was slowly destroying their friendship. Due to this impasse, mushrooms had been considered "off limits" by both gods. But then Ri-Shin declared himself God of Mushrooms, and created Mushroom Treants (tentatively those might have ended up being the Myconians, or they might have been a new variety of treant... I didn't get that far into the details). Au-Shin was outraged at his brother's betrayal, but in public he had to continue to support his brother. It would be devastating for all of nature if animals and plants became enemies! So Au-Shin worked in secret. He created a covert team of intelligent animals to fight these fungi. Pigs are great at sniffing out mushrooms, so Au-Shin chose them as his secret agents. His friend, the god Lo-Maj, helped him bestow powerful electricity powers on them which could even let the pigs fly for short periods. Like I said, it was a silly storyline. It's basically just enough of a story-hook to create some quests and rewards and so on. But when Charged Pig turned into Warden, the story also shifted. As soon as I started writing the Warden NPCs, I realized I needed something more serious in tone, because it was feeling too silly: I couldn't create any story tension at all. The new storyline still involves Au-Shin (with a little help from Lo-Maj), but all the other details have changed. In the new storyline, Au-Shin decided to gain more influence on the continent of Alharth. He created dozens of magical lakes and springs that could give animals intelligence and powers. These worked well for a few hundred years -- a very short time by godly standards -- until Norala, the god of the hunt, decided to put an end to it. Her influence is very strong on Alharth and she refused to let other gods move in on her territory. So she directed her werewolves to stamp out the Wardens and destroy their magical springs. She was very successful, and Au-Shin was forced to abandon the project. The Wardens you meet in-game are some of the last of their kind. After suffering terrible defeats from the werewolves, they've retreated to the Hidden Grotto, one of the last remaining sacred springs. And it's precious! There's a secret community of intelligent animals that use the grotto to give their children human-like intelligence. If the werewolves win and the grotto is destroyed, all future offspring will remain normal animals. So the Wardens are fighting for their survival, as well as the happiness of their children and their children's children. That's a little more meaty! Abandoned by their god, they're fighting for more than just their lives... they're fighting for their whole way of life! That's good stuff! But the Warden NPCs still ended up being more light-hearted than I intended. I just can't manage to write talking animals that aren't a little silly. It's harder than it sounds! But the new backstory took the silliness down a few notches, and gave them a lot more depth than they would have otherwise had. And when I step out of my "game writer" role and step into the "game producer" role, I can see that the backstory does its job: it provides some interesting quest-hooks, story locations, tangible god-politics, and a jumping-off point for additional systems in the future.

    Next Blog Post: Fairies!


    I originally intended to end this blog post by revealing that the playable fairy race was coming soon. But then I forgot and tweeted that info a couple days ago, ruining the surprise. So... you may have already heard, but: the playable fairy race is coming soon! This is an advanced race. It's a more difficult game experience than the existing three races, especially at first, but it also offers new benefits and opportunities. My goal is to create a different game experience than humans, elves, and rakshasa have. Not "better", or "worse," but "different". That's a pretty ambitious goal, though, so in the initial launch, the balance will probably be shit. But it's beta, so we're gonna beta-test it! Since fairies add even more complexity to an already-complex game, you really need to understand some of the game's basics first. So the fairy race is "unlockable": you'll need to use a different character to complete a level 40 quest, which unlocks the ability to create fairy characters. I have a lot more info to convey about playable fairies, and they deserve their own blog post. I'm working on that now, but the game-mechanics are still in development, and I need to get a few more details locked down first. In the meantime, I answered a few questions about the fairy race here: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?2384-Some-General-Fairy-Questions (Discuss this blog post on the forum! https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?2385-Dev-Blog-The-Life-and-Death-of-Charged-Pig)


    [ 2020-01-31 04:44:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Daily Deal - Project: Gorgon, 33% Off

    Today's Deal: Save 33% on Project: Gorgon!*

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    [ 2020-01-10 18:04:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: January 9, 2020

    This is a smallish update with bug fixes and design iterations. We've also added Treasure Cartography to Sun Vale.

    Sun Vale Treasure Cartography


    Preta in Sun Vale teaches the recipes for creating Sun Vale treasure maps from found clue items. As for finding the clue items, that's for you to figure out... but if you've unlocked Treasure Cartography in Eltibule you'll have a pretty good idea of where to look. A tip: we had the new selection-box changes (explained below) in mind when creating this content. If you're finding it difficult to click on massive things, turn on the experimental option!

    Swimming Tweaks


    Previously, players were slightly buoyant underwater, meaning they slowly floated to the surface. This was intended to be helpful, but it's annoying to float out of range while fighting or interacting with things underwater, so it's been removed. Buoyancy was originally added for one specific reason: it helped make jumping from the water's surface more intuitive. If you jump out of the water and splash back in, you might end up underwater, at which point you start losing breath until you get back to the surface. This can be very surprising for new players who don't expect to drown by pressing the jump key. We've replaced buoyancy with a more subtle technique. Now when you jump out of the water and splash back in, the game automatically simulates pressing the "Up" movement key for a fraction of a second to push you back to the surface. (Unless you're pressing the "Down" key at the time.) This new solution is supposed to be unnoticeable, so it doesn't last very long. If your character's jump-speed is magically enhanced, you may land too far underwater and will need to press the Up key manually to reach the surface. This is annoying, but it's the best compromise solution so far.

    Experimental UI Tweaks to Selection Box Logic


    We've tweaked how the selection-box works when you've selected something very large, very close to the camera, or partially off-screen. The box size is more accurate and should move more predictably when you turn the camera around. This is a small iterative improvement, not a massive change. The only time it will be really noticeable is when you've selected massive entities such as giants, statues, or dungeon doors. For just this update, the change is disabled by default. To enable this change, open the Settings window. In the Graphics screen, check the box labeled "Experimental Optimizations", then press Save. You can turn it off again later by unchecking that box. (If you had previously checked this checkbox for the last experiment, it's been unchecked automatically so that you aren't accidentally opted in to this new experiment. And no, this experiment isn't actually an "optimization", that's just a handy checkbox that we're reusing for this purpose.) If these changes cause new problems, please let us know! It's easiest for us to keep track of opinion-type feedback if you post it on the forum, but please use the in-game bug reporter for bugs like "the new selection-box goes insane when I select this portal" or similar problems. In-game bug reports automatically include your game coordinates so we can quickly locate the problem.

    Removal of Channeling for "Pre-Combat" Abilities


    A few abilities have a channeling time specifically because they're intended for use pre-fight, and they're supposed to be more dangerous to use in the middle of combat. That's a reasonable goal, but it's annoying to have to wait for the channeling time between every fight. So in this update, the relevant abilities no longer have a casting time when used out of combat (but still channel when used during combat). Affected abilities are:
    • Shield: Rapid Recovery
    • Shield: Strategic Preparation. (Casting time in-combat went from 1.5 to 2 seconds)
    • Spider: Premeditated Doom
    • Warden: Stun Trap

    Sushi Changes


    Following up on the previous update notes, we're going to try the "nigiri is basically like potions" approach and see how that feels. Nigiri changes:
    • Nigiri items have lower item levels than before, so they heal less health and power when eaten
    • Nigiri items no longer have a usage delay, allowing them to be eaten in combat
    • Nigiri recipes now require an herb or lettuce of various types (e.g. dill, swamp weed, oregano... you know, classic sushi ingredients)
    • Nigiri recipes now require less vinegar
    In an attempt to make sushi recipes more predictable, we've changed Sushi Roll recipes to use the same herb needed by the corresponding nigiri recipe. For instance, Eel Nigiri now requires Oregano, so Eel Sushi Roll also requires Oregano (instead of Seaweed). Also, Cavefish Sushi Roll became level 40 food instead of level 35.

    Other Instant-Snack Changes


    It seems best to be consistent with the idea that instant-snack foods have no usage delay. (In fact, loot items like Rattus Root and Raw Oyster were supposed to be instant already.) The following instant-snack foods are now truly instant:
    • Raw Oyster
    • Cleaned Shrimp
    • Shark Chew
    • Cavefish Sticks
    • House Cat
    • All Candy Canes
    • Fried Potato Sticks
    • Laura Neth's Famous Tart
    • Pepper Venison
    • Fairy Honey
    • Rattus Root
    • Cactus Juice
    • Bottle of Sugar Water
    • Large Strawberry
    We expect there will be further changes to instant-snack food as we continue to iterate on the design.

    Other Changes


    • Kelp armor has a new appearance
    • Kelp armor can now be dyed (with the Organic 1-Color Dye recipe)
    • Live Event boss kraken "George" now has a boss curse
    • Certain (non-event) Kraken now deal less damage with their rage attacks... but they still deal more than 1,000 damage per rage attack, so for most players the change is irrelevant
    • Squidlips has a few new recipes for amberjack
    • Animal Town inhabitants are now able to differentiate between players killing their guardians vs. killing actual enemies of Animal Town
    • Fixed the Cotton Gin in Sun Vale
    • A bug in Khryulek's crystal communication device prevented her from correctly talking about weird items you presented to her
    • Gazluk plate leggings were unintentionally dyeable; this has been fixed. (The armor material isn't set up for dyes yet, so it looks extra-special terrible when dyed. It'll become dyeable eventually.)
    • Fixed bug in treasure effect "Armor Received from Patch Armor +X" : it incorrectly restored bonus health instead of armor
    • Fixed bug that prevented Norbert from finishing the Warden intro sub-quest "The External Resource Coordinator"
    • Improved equipment rarity in various loot chests, most notably high-end chests dug up with treasure cartography
    • For technical reasons the game previously allowed you to unearth treasure maps and surveys while swimming at the surface of water, even though it explained that you must be "standing on solid ground" to use a map. Now you must actually be standing on solid ground as intended. In some cases this means you'll need to swim to the bottom of a body of water to reach the ground.


    [ 2020-01-09 21:06:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: December 20, 2019

    Holiday Event The Holiday event has begun! Talk to any NPC that you have "Friends" or higher Favor with to receive a present from them. In addition, each city (and some non-city areas) have a Ri-Shin tree that needs decorating. Look for the NPCs with red hats on to get started.

    Sun Vale 2.0


    This update includes a big change to the Sun Vale map. It has the same content and connections as before, but it looks quite a bit different. (And larger.) This is a 'soft launch' of the new Sun Vale. There's a lot of missing props and some odd graphical issues left to fix, but you can see the bones of the new place and how things are supposed to work together, and we need feedback on that! Sun Vale is for players in the 30-40 level range, so hopefully you can find things worth doing in any level of that range. (But as usual, you may have to explore around a bit to find them.) There are some new things to do, and the "Things to Do" list in your quest journal has been updated to get you started. We'll be doing another pass on Sun Vale soon to incorporate the upcoming playable fairy race. In the short term some Sun Vale NPCs have definitely had a downgrade of their homes -- in fact a bunch of the fairies no longer even have a roof over their heads, let alone any possessions -- but that's temporary. In this particular update we're most interested in game-mechanics feedback: is the combat is survivable? Is it worthwhile? How well do the new mechanics work, and are you able to figure out how everything fits together? That sort of thing. Stun Trap Nerfs
      Stun Trap was too overpowered and has been nerfed a bit.
    • Ability change: Stun Trap has a casting time of 2 seconds; being hit during the casting time aborts.
    • Ability change: Stun Trap cannot be reused while previous Stun Traps are still active. (You can manually dispel unneeded traps from the Pets window.)
    • Treasure change: "Stun Trap deals +85% damage to all nearby targets (when it activates)" => now +45% damage
    • Treasure change: "Stun Trap reuse timer is 16 seconds faster" => now 10 seconds faster
    Sushi Roll Nerfs Sushi Roll items have been reduced in effective food level. Theyre intentionally higher-level than their ingredients would suggest... but they went too far, being so overpowered that they made most other cooking recipes irrelevant. They've been toned down a bit while still trying to retain their purpose:
    • Eel Sushi Roll: went from level 40 to level 30
    • Cavefish Sushi Roll: from 50 to 35
    • Shark Sushi Roll: from 60 to 45
    • Green Vexfish Sushi Roll: from 65 to 50
    • Crelpin's Sushi: from 72 to 60
    Note that the Nigiri recipes from Sushi Preparation have not been changed at this time, although they're also MUCH higher-level than their ingredients would suggest. (Nigiri is instant-healing food which is so good that it basically obsoletes healing potions at high level.) There are pros and cons to having a food item be better than healing potions. One of the cons is that we don't really have room to give Alchemists the ability to brew healing potions. Those potion recipes couldn't possibly be easier or more convenient than "slap two fish slices on storebought rice"! But on the other hand, it's fun flavor for sushi to be the best in-combat healing item. We're still considering the options, and leaving it alone for now. Other Changes
    • Fixed a bug that caused Electricity Elementals and Cold Elementals to have the same damage-type vulnerabilitites/strengths
    • Fixed a bug that caused Fire Rats and Pumpkin Mimics to have the same damage-type vulnerabilities/strengths
    • Giant bats can once again fly inside the Red Wing Casino
    • A few types of loot swords that were supposed to have holy symbols did not
    • Rugen in Rahu now trains Fishing up to level 70 (although note that the highest fishing recipe/req is currently 65)
    • Sushi Preparation now goes to 30 instead of 25. (And for technical reasons Ice Conjuration also goes to 30 instead of 25, although there are no new recipes for it yet)
    • Rabbit: the ability Long Ear can now be placed on the side ability bar
    • Newbie Island: added a gentle deterrent for new players who decide to try swimming off the island (which is a reasonable idea, but not successful here)
    • Ranalon lose their resistance to Nature damage
    • Higher-level Ranalon loot profiles improved
    • Added a few "Things to Do" entries for Sun Vale
    • Cow: new treasure: Head: Chew Cud increases your mitigation versus all attacks by Elites +14 for 10 seconds
    • Cow: new treasure: Necklace: Stampede boosts your Slashing/Crushing/Piercing Mitigation vs. Elites +6 for 30 seconds (stacks up to 5 times)
    • Cow: treasure change: "Stampede has a 50% chance to deal +56 damage" => "Stampede boosts the damage of future Stampede attacks by +38 damage for 60 seconds (stacks up to 15 times)"
    • Cow: treasure change: "Stampede Taunt +310" => +440
    • The archery ability Acid Arrow is no longer taught by The Wombat. It's now taught by Squidlips.
    • Recipes for Cavefish Sticks and Spicy Cavefish now use Cavefish Fillets (rather than un-fileted cavefish)
    • Water Lung Potion: this potion now boosts your Max Breath +10 seconds, instead of reducing your breath-consumption. The recipe now requires oyster meat instead of wool. (The potion's old effect is now granted by a new potion, the "Water Breathing Potion".)
    • Trollbane Oil: cash value reduced
    • Swimming Potion: this potion now requires Alchemy level 25 instead of 40. Duration is 30 minutes instead of 60. Recipe no longer requires flour or shark fillet, instead requiring an eel fillet
    • You now earn synergy levels in Fishing by reaching the following levels in other skills (previously only Knife Fighting 22 provided a synergy level):
      • Knife Fighting 22,
      • Knife Fighting 55,
      • Cooking 35,
      • Foraging 22,
      • Foraging 65,
      • Animal Handing 22,
      • Animal Handling 55,
      • Skinning 25,
      • Fish and Snail Anatomy 22,
      • Surveying 25,
      • Druid 65,
      • Nature Appreciation 22,
      • Sushi Preparation 25,
      • Psychology 22
    • Daisy now trains the recipe for Trollbane Oil. (It is also still dropped as a loot recipe)
    • Fixed bug that prevented Bounceweed from giving Giant Bats bonus flight speed
    • Fixed some base-stats of items (which were statted for the wrong level range):
      • Un-Tal bow: Archery Damage +10% -> +8%
      • Quality Cestus: Unarmed Damage +2 -> +5
    Thanks! Thanks for helping us make the game better with your feedback! If you type "/redeem DevGift2019" into the chat box (without the quotes) you'll receive a unique title and some XP potions. This is our way of saying thank-you for your patience and support! (If you've been around for many years you may have an additional novelty title to redeem; use "/redeem" to see a list of available redemptions.)


    [ 2019-12-20 09:24:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: November 22, 2019

    This is a bug-fix update, more or less. (The Fae Realm changes might not be "bug fixes" exactly, but close enough!)

    Water Fixes


    • Fixed water in Serbule Sewers not reaching far enough
    • Fixed some unexpectedly swimmable areas in Wolf Cave dungeon
    • Removed some places in Eltibule where cows could graze underwater
    • The river in Sun Vale doesn't work well with our new deep-water system, so for now it's using our older "puddle" system. The entire river is now treated as a giant puddle, which means you can splash in the river, and fill bottles from it, but you can't drown... even if the water goes over your head. (The new terrain for Sun Vale is in development, so this is a temporary band-aid for the existing terrain.)

    Flight Changes


    • Flight Potions, Flight Words of Power, and all other forms of flying no longer work in dungeons. (The flight effect is suppressed indoors but will resume when you go back outdoors.)
    • Giant Bats can no longer fly indoors. (But they still retain other wing-related benefits such as turning mid-jump and not taking damage from falls.)
    • Fixed flight-behavior anomalies for giant bats that turn into ravens

    Fae Realm


    • Lethargy Puck gives Notoriety XP on first kill (or your next kill, if you've already killed him before)
    • Felmer in the Fae Realm now teaches recipes for Astounding Winter leather gear
    • There are now a bunch more milkable Fae Molluscs in the Fae Realm (10 total instead of 4), but the timeout before you can re-milk is now a day instead of an hour. The intent is to make "slime-collection runs" more practical

    UI Fixes


    • UI: fixed bug where the "Combat Refresh Ready" icon would flash and beep at incorrect times
    • UI: fixed bug where the blue border around basic attacks would not reappear when combat refresh was ready again
    • UI: fixed situations where mouse cursor could get stuck as a resize-handle cursor if a window closed while the mouse was over resize-grips
    • UI: fixed bug where an Effect tooltip would get "stuck" on the mouse cursor if the cursor was over the Effect icon right as the Effect ended

    Other Fixes


    • Fixed typo that caused the Guild Quest "Fox Outpost (25-member)" to require slightly more grapes than intended
    • Fixed spurious "blank" error message when using the ability Rotflesh
    • Fixed bug where you could lose your empty bottle if you were interrupted while collecting Dirty Snow Water from a Snow-Covered Rock
    • Fixed typos in a few recipe names
    • Fixed a few quest directions which were inaccurate
    • Fixed a few recipe descriptions that claimed they served 2 when they serve 1
    • Amazing Venison is now interpreted as raw venison for gifting purposes
    • Increased maximum number of temporary entities allowed in the Red Wing Casino (to prevent vegetables from disappearing when a bunch of players are farming simultaneously)


    [ 2019-11-22 19:37:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: November 8, 2019

    This update brings some changes and experiments to the game. There's new Fall foods, changes to swimming, and changes to the stats of food.

    New Seasonal Content Experiment


    In this update we're experimenting with new kinds of seasonal content. Here we're using "Fall foods" as the experimental base, but we might expand this idea to many other types of crafting (and other "seasons") in the future. Or we may change this design dramatically, or even throw it all out, depending on your feedback. After you've had a few weeks to play with this, please let us know what you think!
    • There are two new seasonal ingredients available for a limited time. Cranberries and turkeys can be found in Serbule, Serbule Hills, and Eltibule, among other places.
    • In addition, the pumpkin seedlings (which dropped from undead during Halloween) continue to drop from a wide range of herbivorous and omnivorous animals in the 25-55 level range. This includes ferocious boars, many types of slime, most rhinos, polar bears, tundra deer, mountain sheep, Gaz-Uraks, and many others. (And even a few sentient creatures such as trolls.)
    • There are 21 new food recipes that involve the new seasonal ingredients. These recipes can be found on a broad range of animals (with the best chances being from herbivorous/omnivorous animals).
    • In addition to the new recipes, the handful of pumpkin recipes from Halloween can also still be found in loot, although the chances are much lower than during Halloween. (And the other Halloween items no longer drop.)
    • There are also new Work Orders for all of the new foods (and the Halloween pumpkin foods). These work orders will only show up during this "season", and they have a much larger cash reward than normal work orders of their level. They can also be completed every 5 days instead of every 30 days. You can find these work orders at the work-order signs in Serbule, Redwing Casino, and the Fae Realm. (They won't always show up, but when they do, they will be at the bottom of the work-order list.)
    • A few of the Halloween pumpkin foods already had work orders (such as Basic Pumpkin Pie). They've been turned into "seasonal" work orders

    Swimming Changes


    In preparation for upcoming content we've made improvements/changes to how swimming works. Please play with these changes and give us feedback and bug reports!
    • Changed how we emulate gravity underwater. Previously you would instantly sink in deep water, but now you are slightly buoyant: you'll very slowly float upwards toward the surface. This means that if you wish to reach the bottom of a deep body of water you will need to use the Down movement key (default F) to swim down. To swim up for breath use the Up key (default R) -- or you can use the jump button underwater as a "swim up" button.
    • You now recover your breath automatically when you are swimming on the surface of the water, and breath recovers much more quickly than via the old "hopping in and out of the water" technique. (But still not as fast as when standing on solid ground.)
    • "Breath" meter is more granular while losing breath
    • Fixed various problems, bugs, and glitches in the swimming system
    • Fixed problems with indoor water pools
    • Note: the river in Kur continues to behave oddly; this is a known issue that will be addressed when the final art for Kur is ready. All OTHER water should behave reasonably sanely now

    Food Changes


    We've rebalanced food a bit to make Meals more useful. This mainly involved moving some of the power of Snacks into Meals. Snacks once lasted only 15 minutes, and so were much more potent than meals. But in a previous update we changed Snacks to last as long as Meals (and even receive the Gourmand bonuses that Meals receive), and we're pretty happy with that change. And the total potency of Meals+Snacks combined was in the right ballpark -- it's just that most of that potency was coming from the Snack, and the Meal was largely irrelevant. This is obviously dumb and needed fixing. We've also made other small rebalances to food stats, including some changes to Cheese stats. Cheese received both minor nerfs and minor buffs. (And since eating a Cheese Meal plus a Cheese Snack was already often over-healing while out of combat, nerfing those numbers isn't as noticeable as buffing the in-combat regen. But the in-combat regen buff was small... so... basically it's a wash.) Explaining the overall changes is tricky. The changes affect food at all levels, but we'll use some hypothetical level 80 food as an example. That will show the changes the most dramatically. Tldr: For players that already ate both a meal and a snack, the changes will probably not be very noticeable. If you only ate Snacks before, though, you will definitely notice how empty your stomach is now. Level 80 (Non-Cheese) Meal: (arrows indicate changes in this update; no arrow means no change)
    • Out-of-Combat Health Regen (per tick): 273
    • Out-of-Combat Power Regen (per tick): 222
    • In-Combat Health Regen (per tick): 48
    • In-Combat Power Regen (per tick): 32
    • Metabolism Regen (per tick): 5 -> 6
    • Max-Health Boost: 0 -> 160
    • Max-Power Boost: 0
    Level 80 (Non-Cheese) Snack:
    • Out-of-Combat Health Regen (per tick): 273 -> 193
    • Out-of-Combat Power Regen (per tick): 160
    • In-Combat Health Regen (per tick): 32
    • In-Combat Power Regen (per tick): 32 -> 48
    • Metabolism Regen (per tick): 0 -> 2
    • Max-Health Boost: 160 -> 0
    • Max-Power Boost: 80
    Level 80 Cheese Meal:
    • Out-of-Combat Health Regen (per tick): 273
    • Out-of-Combat Power Regen (per tick): 222
    • In-Combat Health Regen (per tick): 48 -> 80
    • In-Combat Power Regen (per tick): 48
    • Metabolism Regen (per tick): 5 -> 3
    • Max-Health Boost: 113 -> 220
    • Max-Power Boost: 0
    Level 80 Cheese Snack:
    • Out-of-Combat Health Regen (per tick): 273 -> 193
    • Out-of-Combat Power Regen (per tick): 268 -> 160
    • In-Combat Health Regen (per tick): 32
    • In-Combat Power Regen (per tick): 48 -> 64
    • Metabolism Regen (per tick): 0
    • Max-Health Boost: 160 -> 80
    • Max-Power Boost: 160
    Other Changes:
    • Items removed from storage vaults now auto-stack with compatible items in your inventory
    • Fixed bug that prevented carrots from receiving garden bonuses during carrot-specific events
    • Fixed a Deer combat particle that played at full volume no matter how far away you were from the Deer player
    • Spriggan Nuts now stack (to 99)
    • Treasure effect "Stun Trap reuse timer is N seconds faster" was bugged (it actually lowered Power cost by N instead of reset time)
    • Treasure effect "Lethal Force deals +N damage and reuse time is -3 seconds" was also bugged in the same way (it lowered Power cost instead of reset time)
    • Treasure effect "Stun Trap deals +N damage, and there's a 50% chance you'll place an extra trap" was bugged and never generated an extra trap
    • Iceheart Sustenance Oil counts as a Max-Health potion for gifting purposes
    • The Sacred Grotto is now marked as a cave for craft purposes
    • Meat-eaters in the Sacred Grotto are now a little more aware of what's being stored by their fellow Wardens


    [ 2019-11-08 11:14:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: October 24, 2019

    This is a minor bug-fix patch:

    • Fixed bug that prevented the "fireworks" particles from playing when you level up a skill
    • Fixed a bug in the favor quest "Checking in on Trekker"; the quest incorrectly had you checking in on a different NPC. The quest's version has changed, so if you were on the quest, you will need to re-get it from Tangle. (If you already completed it, you don't need to complete it again.)
    • Some tiers of Masquerade Masks and Bat Hats were misnamed, using the wrong descriptive adjective. (In most cases, they skipped over the adjective "Quality".) So the "Decent Masquerade Mask" became "Nice Masquerade Mask", "Great Masquerade Mask" became "Quality Masquerade Mask", etc. This was a naming fix only, the stats on all the items are unaffected.
    • Warden ability "Privacy Field" did not cause as much damage as indicated. (The ability's base reflect damage was not included, although treasure bonuses worked.)
    • Certain skeletons in the fae realm didn't count toward the Halloween quest "Kill Skeletons in the Fae Realm"
    • Fixed erroneous error messages when using Giant Bat's Confusing Double or Warden's Stun Trap
    • Milton only liked green peppers; he now also likes red peppers
    • Tangle didn't show a Favor progress bar
    • Added a level-80 Event Loot Chest (it's behind the Serbule inn, with the other Event Loot Chests)
    • Fixed some exploitable scenarios involving flight
    • When a Rakshasa who is under the influence of Telka's Teeth turns into an animal, the positive benefits of the drug are immediately aborted (loophole fix)
    • The "Dye Placeholder" NPC is now completely gone, and Larsan in Serbule has graciously volunteered to be the Dye Making trainer for now. He teaches the skill at Comfortable favor level (still requiring Gardening 25). He also trains various dye recipes when you reach higher favor levels with him.
    • Fixed bugs in the chat window where the chat-channel indicator could show the wrong channel. This bug mainly showed up when deleting partially-typed chat commands. For instance, if you typed a command like "/r hi" (to reply to someone) but then deleted that text without actually sending it, the chat-channel indicator would keep showing the Tell channel, but the next message you typed could be sent to some other chat channel. We've fixed this bug and some related bugs. If you run into any other situations where the chat-channel indicator is wrong, please let us know!
    • Fixed name of Calligraphy recipe "Goblin+" to "Mangle+"
    • Various typos and small issues addressed


    [ 2019-10-24 23:21:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: October 17, 2019

    Happy Halloween! The Halloween event has begun! You will receive a quest when you log in to get you started. There's also some fun new stuff for animals in this update. Animals, if you're friends with the Suspicious Cow in Eltibule, Norbert in Sun Vale, or Red in Kur Mountains you should pay them a visit. Plus, the Giant Bat skill has gotten a major makeover.

    General Changes


    • The Serbule work order sign has been moved from the docks to Serbule Keep itself, near the player work-order sign. (You still turn in completed work orders on the docks)
    • The "Dye Placeholder" in Eltibule has sailed off to the east. (His clone, also named "Dye Placeholder", continues to live in Serbule.)
    • For new players, Lawara's chest has a few partially-random items in it when first opened. (Bug fix.) (This is not retroactive; if you've already opened the chest, its contents are unchanged!)
    • When you right-click an inventory item and choose "More Info", there is new information shown. The "Find" tab now lists vendors who sell the item in their "Buy New" tab, and barterers who trade for the item in their "Barter" area. This only lists permanent ways to obtain the item, so it can't search the "Used" tab of vendors, nor does it search player-hired vendors, etc. But if you've ever wondered "which vendor in town sells nails?" you can now check under More Info.
    • Jesina the Fairy no longer sells strawberries. (Once strawberries could only be found in loot, so Jesina was an expensive alternative... but now that strawberry bushes exist, this is no longer needed.)
    • Missing level 74 Deer ability "Cuteness Overload 5" can now be learned from Noita the Green
    • Missing level 75 Necromancy ability "Raise Skeleton Mage 6" can now be learned from Bendith the Banished
    • AI tweak: pets summoned during combat now figure out what's going on slightly faster. (Previously they would sometimes need a few seconds before joining a fight already in progress.)
    • Fixed erroneous message "Error: you can only use that ability on yourself!" that was sometimes shown when a Combat Refresh triggered
    • Some modest changes to spawn locations in Kur (more monsters in the northeast corner, and more yetis east of the Yeti cave entrance)
    • Giant Beetles now have a small chance to drop food Beetles as bonus loot. (There are other ways to obtain beetles during Halloween, but this is a permanent way to obtain a small number of them year-round)
    • New Rabbit treasure effect (Hands and Main-Hand Weapons): "While Rabbit skill is active, any Kick ability boosts Melee Evasion +6.5% for 10 seconds"
    • Recipe "Amazing First Aid Kit (Combo Method)" no longer has a prerequisite to know "Amazing First Aid Kit", as they are for different skills
    • Recipe "Astounding First Aid Kit (Combo Method)" now has a prerequisite of " Amazing First Aid Kit (Combo Method)", not "Amazing First Aid Kit", as they are for different skills
    • Sour Cream now stacks to 5
    • Bottles of Sugar Water now stack to 5
    • The "Icy Feet" debuff used by Battle Chemistry's Toxin Bomb was intended to reduce movement speed by 75% (as indicated in effect description), but actually reduced it by 100%. "Icy Feet" is also used by various monsters and traps, so the fix applies there as well

    Giant Bat Changes


    This skill had a lot of abilities with different damage types (piercing, slashing, darkness, nature, electricity), and treasure that involved yet more damage types (mostly trauma). This wide spread of damage types meant Giant Bat could take advantage of a lot of different monster weaknesses, but made it difficult to "stack" damage-type buffs. We think the "sweet spot" is a little smaller, so we've consolidated some of these, and also added a bit more treasure that can change damage types. Ability category changes: We've also had to reorganize the skill's ability tags (e.g. Core Attack, Nice Attack, etc.) This has several effects -- most obviously, things that affect a certain category will benefit different abilities. But these changes also change the "treasure budget" for these abilities. For example, Smouldering Gaze switched from a Nice Attack to an Epic Attack, allowing the loot to be more powerful. (This also has down sides, notably Power cost increases.)
    • Tear: Core Attack. (Was nothing special)
    • Screech: Was a Core Attack; now a Nice Attack.
    • Virulent Bite: Wasn't in a category before; now a Signature Debuff
    • Smouldering Gaze: Was a Nice attack; now an Epic Attack. In addition, this ability has been renamed. (See below.)
    Ability Changes
    • Drink Blood now deals a moderate amount of direct-health damage, in addition to draining health. (The bite is Piercing damage, and the health-drain effect is still a Darkness attack, meaning that undead are immune to that part.)
    • Drink Blood 8 now steals 84 health instead of 68 health. (Bug fix.)
    • Screech became a Nice Attack, which involved stat-changes: reset time is now 10s instead of 9s; base damage is increased (e.g. 289 damage is now 401 damage); Power cost is increased (e.g. 47 instead of 33); all treasure rebalanced.
    • Smouldering Gaze became an Epic Attack named Deathscream, which involved stat-changes: base damage is increased (827 instead of 588); Power cost is increased (87 instead of 68); all treasure rebalanced. Damage type is now Nature instead of Electricity.
    Treasure Changes
    • "Drink Blood deals 96 damage over 12 seconds, and 50% of the damage becomes health for you" => all of the damage becomes health for you. This is now Darkness damage (not Trauma).
    • "Drink Blood restores 19 Power and 19 Armor" => "Drink Blood costs -27 Power"
    • "Screech Deals 127 armor damage" => "Screech Damage +122"
    • "Screech Damage +47%" => +41%
    • "Screech has a 60% chance to deal +108% damage" => 60% damage to deal +90% damage
    • "Tear deals +70 damage and restores 20 Armor to you" => "Tear and Virulent Boost deal +85 damage"
    • "Rip damage +27" => "Rip deals +34 damage and restores 11 Power"
    • "Rip has a 50% chance to deal +68 damage" => " Rip has a 50% chance to restore
    • "Rip has a 50% chance to restore 20 Power" => "Rip restores 20 Armor"
    • "Bat Stability restores 100 Armor and 16 Power" => "Bat Stability restores 145 Armor"
    • "Confusing Double Reset Time -11 seconds" -> -13 seconds, and is available on a second slot (necklace).
    • "Confusing Double restores 71 Power after a 10-second delay" => 112 Power after a 10-second delay
    • "Confusing Double restores 90 Health" => 123 Health
    • "Smouldering Gaze damage type is changed to Nature. 7 seconds after use, it deals 384 additional damage" => "Deathscream deals an additional 594 Trauma damage over 12 seconds"
    • "Sonic Burst has a 60% chance to deal +60% damage to all targets" => "60% chance to deal +100% damage"
    • "Combo: Rip+Tear+Any Melee+Rip: final step hits all targets within 5 meters and deals +85 damage" => Combo is now Rip+Any Melee+Any Giant Bat Attack+Tear. Also, this effect was previously found on both Feet and Necklace gear. It is now only found on Feet gear; necklaces with this effect have become Legacy.
    • "Combo: Screech+Any Melee+Any Melee+Virulent Bite: final step stuns the target and deals +100 damage" => Combo is now Screech+Any Giant Bat Attack+Any Melee+Virulent Bite.
    New Treasure
    • Legs, Ring: "Your Confusing Double deals +55% damage with each attack"
    • Main-Hand, Necklace: "Confusing Double summons an additional figment. Each figment deals +61 damage with each attack"
    • Hands: "Rip and Tear deal +33 damage and hasten the current reuse timer of Drink Blood by 1 second"
    • Chest: "Deathscream deals +45% damage and Power cost is -32, but the ability's range is reduced to 12m"
    • Main-Hand, Off-Hand: "Screech, Sonic Burst, and Deathscream deal 256 Nature damage over 8 seconds"
    • Off-Hand, Ring: "Sonic Burst deals 210 Trauma damage over 12 seconds"
    • Main-Hand, Off-Hand: "Screech deals 240 Trauma damage over 12 seconds"
    • Chest, Necklace: "Indirect Trauma Damage +57% when Giant Bat skill active"
    • Off-Hand: "If Screech, Sonic Burst, or Deathscream deal Trauma damage, that damage is boosted +75% per tick"


    [ 2019-10-17 20:12:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: September 20, 2019

    This update brings a smorgasbord of new mechanics, new content, tweaks and fixes. The Fae Realm gets some more polish, there are new recipes and new treasure effects to check out, armor sets are a thing (sort of), and lots more. So let's get to it!

    Combat Refresh Boost


    In this update we focused on providing players with more survivability options, and one part of the game that wasn't pulling its weight (in terms of importance to players) is the Combat Refresh. Every 15 seconds, your Basic Attack triggers a "Combat Refresh" that restores extra health, armor, and/or power. The amount you recover is partially based on the level of your Basic Attack, but the biggest increases come from your armor: every piece of armor increases the health, armor, and/or power recovered from a Combat Refresh. The amounts are based on the material the armor's made of: cloth, leather, metal, or organic. In this update, we've boosted these numbers quite a lot. For purposes of comparing old to new values, we'll imagine a hypothetical set of level 80 armor of each material. First we list how much this hypothetical set added to your Combat Refresh before this update, then we list the new amounts for this update. Cloth:
    • Old: 96 health, 144 power
    • New: 320 health, 280 power
    Leather:
    • Old: 160 health, 48 power
    • New: 240 health, 240 armor, 96 power
    Plate:
    • Old: 60 armor
    • New: 320 armor
    Organic:
    • Old: 36 health, 36 armor, 36 power
    • New: 96 health, 96 armor, 96 power
    Just to make sure it's clear: your armor doesn't need to all be made of the same material to get Combat Refresh bonuses! We're just using the "full suit" numbers to make it easier to understand what's changed. Each individual piece of armor adds a portion of the above numbers to your Combat Refresh, so if you're wearing a mixture of different materials, your total Combat Refresh bonus will be a mixture of the numbers shown above. But what if you ARE wearing a full suit made of the same material? In that case, see below...

    Armor-Material Set Bonuses


    In this update, we're experimenting with bonuses for players who wear all (or mostly all) of the same type of armor. There are five main armor slots: head, chest, legs, feet, and hands. If at least three of these are made of the same material (cloth, leather, metal, or organic), your Basic Attack has a special bonus:
    • 3+ Cloth Items: If your power is below 20% of max, your Basic Attack restores Power equal to 20% of your Max Power. (Max once per minute.)
    • 3+ Leather Items: If your health is below 33% of max, your Basic Attack restores Health equal to 33% of your Max Health, plus your Combat Refresh Healing amount. (Max once per minute.)
    • 3+ Plate Items: If you are out of armor (below 10% of max), your Basic Attack restores Armor equal to Combat Refresh Armor amount. (Max once per minute.)
    • 3+ Organic Items: Your Combat Refresh happens every 12 seconds (instead of every 15 seconds).
    The game doesn't tell you about these set bonuses anywhere at the moment -- so it's a good thing you read these patch notes! Once you have enough pieces for the bonus, the bonus shows up on the ability description for your Basic Attack like normal, but nothing in the game tells you that wearing 3 pieces of same-material gear will give you that bonus. This reflects the fact that this system is extremely experimental and may be removed or dramatically altered. Keep that in mind as you try it out, and tell us what you think about it!

    New Skill-Agnostic Treasure Effects


    In this update we worked to improve skill-agnostic (a/k/a "generic") treasure effects. We've added new treasure effects, mostly focusing on defensive and support options that can be easily worked into existing skill builds. It may be worthwhile to check the ability tags on the skills you use, because sometimes the categorization can be surprising. For instance, the Deer skill's Minor Heal is also an attack; Battle Chemistry's Major Heal is an area-effect group heal; the sidebar ability First Aid is a Major Heal; almost all combat skills have a Signature Debuff, even if they're not particularly debuffy; etc. Due to the diverse nature of these abilities, in a few cases the treasure won't be useful to a particular skill -- for instance, Mentalism's Signature Debuff deals no direct damage, so the treasure that boosts Signature Debuff damage by +25% isn't helpful. (But the armor-damage still applies.) The numbers shown below are for the level 80 version of each effect:
    • Main-Hand: "Core Attacks deal +32 damage and hasten your current Combat Refresh delay by 1 second"
    • Main-Hand: "Basic Attacks restore 12 Power"
    • Off-Hand: " Nice Attacks deal +64 damage and hasten your current Combat Refresh delay by 1 second"
    • Head: "Nice Attacks deal +40 damage and cause the target's next Rage Attack to deal -25% damage (debuff cannot stack with itself)"
    • Head: "Major Healing abilities also restore 112 Armor"
    • Hands: "Signature Support abilities restore 80 Armor to all allies within 20 meters"
    • Chest: "Major Healing abilities restore +78 Health"
    • Chest, Waist: " Signature Debuffs deal +80 damage and restore 96 Armor to you after a 10-second delay"
    • Legs, Off-Hand: "Minor Heals restore 71 Armor"
    • Legs, Feet: "Major Healing abilities have a 65% chance to restore an additional 152 Health"
    • Feet: "Core Attacks deal +41 damage and reduce the Power cost of your next Minor Heal ability by -22"
    • Necklace: "Signature Debuffs deal +25% damage and also deal 108 Armor damage"
    • Ring: "Minor Heals restore +33 Health and reduce the damage of the next attack that hits the target by 20%"
    • Ring: "Signature Support abilities restore 32 Power to all allies within 20 meters"
    In addition, we tweaked the potency of some existing generic treasure effects and added level 80 versions of some effects that didn't have any. Notable changes include:
    • "Patch Armor restores +77 Armor" => +110 Armor
    • "First Aid restores +55 Health" => +74 Health

    Mentalism Changes


    Mentalism didn't receive the full "revamp" treatment in this update: we experimented with some new ideas, but they haven't panned out so far. But there were a number of buffs and revisions. Abilities:
    • Electrify is no longer taught by Mu. Instead, mentalists automatically learn the first two tiers (at levels 22 and 36), and the next tiers are trained by Rohina in Sun Vale, with the highest tier (Electrify 5) trained by Raina in the Fae Realm.
    • Armor Wave now restores armor every 3 seconds (instead of every 4 seconds), effectively boosting armor restoration by 25%.
    • Power Wave now restores power every 8 seconds (instead of every 10 seconds), effectively boosting power restoration by 20%.
    • "Psi Armor Wave 6" now restores 18 armor/tick instead of 15 armor/tick. (This effect was bugged and used the value for Armor Wave 5.)
    Treasure effects:
    • "Psi Armor Wave and Psi Adrenaline Wave restore 90 armor to all targets after a 25 second delay" => 158 armor
    • "Psi Health Wave and Psi Armor Wave instantly restore 76 armor to you" => 84 armor
    • "Psi Power Wave and Psi Adrenaline Wave restore 34 power to all targets after a 25 second delay" => 54 power
    • "Psi Power Wave and Psi Armor Wave cause all targets' melee attacks to cost -6 Power for 20 seconds" => -8 power. (This effect was bugged and the level 60 variant was used for levels 70 and 80 as well.)
    • "Psi Health Wave, Armor Wave, and Power Wave grant all targets +6 Psychic Damage for 60 seconds" => +42 psychic damage
    • "Psi Power Wave instantly restores 28 power to all targets" => 31 power
    • "Psi Power Wave and Psi Adrenaline Wave instantly restore 26 power to you" => 32 power
    • "Revitalize restores +20 Health and removes ongoing Trauma effects (up to 22 dmg/sec)" => (up to 26 dmg/sec)
    One thing that the in-game text doesn't do a good job of explaining is that most of Mentalism's heals, including the health/armor/power waves, are subject to phrenological "critical heals". This works similarly to phrenological "critical hits" for damage: if you're healing an elven player and your Elf Phrenology skill is 50, you have an 8% chance to "critically heal" that player. (Note that this applies to Psychology's heals as well!) By default a critical heal increases the healing by 25%, but treasure effects can boost this number very dramatically. Since every "tick" has a separate chance to critically-heal, high-level Mentalists who use stacked Healing Waves (for instance) will see a big improvement to their total group healing by using gear with "Psychology/Mentalism Critical Hit Damage +X% when skill Mentalism active". (And, of course, by raising their phrenology skills to 50.) We're considering replacing this system with something that's more intuitive... and a little easier to balance. The current system doesn't do anything at low level, when you probably haven't even discovered Phrenology, and yet by very high level, it starts to become too powerful. (In fact, this is one of the reasons we've held off on raising Phrenology skills above level 50.) So it's possible this entire system will change, but that's how it works right now!

    Fae Realm


    We've fixed a bunch of bugs and made some tweaks to content in the Fae Realm. We have more content in the works for the area in future updates, and we're still actively evaluating and tweaking the combat and training details, so please keep sending in the feedback and bug reports!
    • Lethargy Puck's warning screen was not reliably activating.
    • Fixed recipes for "Dinobites" and "Rustic Meatsterpiece" to use the type of dinosaur meat found in the Fae Realm.
    • Changed pear and peach trees to drop higher-tier wood; this also increases the level requirements to chop the wood.
    • Increased the number of special lootable items that spawn only during the day or only during the night (such as certain butterflies, flowers, and mushrooms). There are now 300% to 400% as many of these items in existence at any given moment. This is largely a "bulk" change, and more individual tweaking is likely needed. Play with it for a while and if something seems excessively common or extremely rare, please let us know!
    • Dramatically increased the chance to find rare level 80 recipe scrolls. (They're still pretty rare, but this fixes a bug that made them INSANELY rare.)
    • Trolls' auto-healing has been nerfed a bit. (This applies to trolls in all areas.)
    In addition, there is a new work order board near Solgribue's work station. The NPC who accepts completed orders is not in town, however -- he appears during nighttime at the second mushroom circle.

    Other Changes & Fixes


    Carpentry:
    • Solgribue now trains Carpentry levels 71-80, along with recipes for various carpentry items.
    • Jara in Serbule no longer trains recipes for chairs. (They were already also trained by Paul Vaughn in Serbule Hills.)
    • A couple of high-level Carpentry recipes that were taught by Jara and Paul Vaughn are now taught by Amutasa in Rahu.
    Mining:
    • Urzab now raises the level cap for Surveying and Mining to 70, and has new recipes for motherlodes in Gazluk.
    • The new resource "Semi-Real Hassium" can be found as a rarely-occurring resource all throughout Gazluk, and can also be bartered for with Fluffikins.
    • Fluffikins now has identical barters for both glowy yellow crystals AND safety-coated glowy yellow crystals.
    • Awesome Metal Slabs are now called Superb Metal Slabs. (We are renaming "Awesome" items to "Superb" because we have too many other descriptors that start with "A"!)
    • Superb Metal Slabs can now be located outdoors in Gazluk or in various Gazluk caves (albeit quite rarely).
    • Removed physics from motherlodes so that you cannot get stuck inside them when they spawn.
    • "Expert Metal Nodes" can no longer be found randomly spawning in Gazluk or associated caves. (They are junk metal at that level, and there's already enough junk spawning.)
    Other:
  • More recipe-book cash values have been normalized (in this case, generally making rare recipe books more valuable).
  • Added right-click shortcuts to turn animal skins into leather rolls (assuming you know the appropriate Tanning recipe).
  • A new rare-drop recipe allows you to combine gold nuggets into gold ore.
  • Solgribue has a new blacksmithing recipe to melt golden acorns.
  • Solgribue has a new ring-crafting recipe available.
  • Solgribue has new blacksmithing recipes to add pockets to metal and organic armor.
  • Added new code to prevent items that enable Necromancy from randomly having Priest treasure effects, or vice versa.
  • UI: When you right-click the sidebar and choose "Choose Special Abilities", the ability list previously only showed abilities that can ONLY be on the sidebar (such as, say, Dig Deep). But there are other abilities that can OPTIONALLY be on the sidebar, such as Raise Skeletal Archer or Hunter's Stride. Now when you right-click the sidebar and choose "Choose Special Abilities", these abilities are now listed, too. (These abilities are also listed under their specific skill, as before.)
  • Nightshade now trains a new recipe to augment wands. This recipe can augment the only two wands in the game, "The Galvanizer" and the Fairy Wand of Cold. (We're still in the process of figuring out how wands will work and how they differ from the staves; these wands are prototypes.) Previously neither of them could be augmented.
  • Added "acidic shield-wax" recipes to Armor Patching trainers: Tyler Green, Arlan, and Pegast. These were intended to be added last update, but weren't, so now they are.


    [ 2019-09-20 12:54:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

  • Update Notes: August 25, 2019

    The Fae Realm


    A new explorable area has been added to the game! It's for those hardy adventurers who can already survive the dangers of Gazluk. Being another plane of existence, it's not especially easy to reach. There is an entry method via the Winter Nexus dungeon, and there is also a way in via one of the caves in Gazluk. This area is a work in progress -- it will eventually also be the starting location for the playable fairy race, so you'll notice a few empty shop stalls, some suspiciously empty ruins, etc., which will be filled in later. (There's other things to discover, but we've stayed deliberately vague in these update notes to avoid spoilers for those of you who want to explore the new area fresh.) IMPORTANT: Given the sheer number of things added in this update, the odds of bugs are pretty high. Please report bugs ASAP so that we can triage and fix them quickly! If serious issues arise, we'll do another update within a day or two. Thank you for helping to beta-test Project: Gorgon! We also need your feedback about the new area's difficulty, both in terms of soloing and group content. We've experimented with different monster densities, monster-listening ranges, and monster varieties. It could be we got it just right on our very first try... but we probably didn't. Your feedback will be very important!

    Shield


    We try to revise a combat skill in each major update, and this time around it's Shield. Normally we'd use this time to refine the balance of the skill, but Shield was in a relatively good place balance-wise. Instead, we're trying to inject more fun. The Shield skill was already extremely good at keeping players alive, but much of the treasure felt dull. Shield has a lot more potential to be exciting and engaging! So in this update, we've experimented with a bunch of new treasure effects, just to see how they play. Most of the new effects replace existing treasure that's been underused by players. Since these changes are more experimental than usual, they run a higher-than-normal risk of needing to be nerfed later if we overshot the mark, or being replaced entirely if they just don't work out. Your feedback is important in helping us shape the skill! Seriously! We don't hear a lot about the Shield skill, and when we don't hear from you then there's always the danger that something you love could get scrapped. If you play with this stuff and find something to be really fun or really annoying, let us know on the forums or in-game feedback.

    Armor Repair and Shield Wax


    Armor Repair is the Shield skill's "auxiliary skill", much like Calligraphy is for Sword, or Meditation for Unarmed. There are new Armor Repair recipes that allow you to enhance your shield in a few ways. Tyler Green teaches the basic shield wax recipes. (And if you're wondering why there's a bunch of Acid-buffing gear, it's because of the new acid-based Shield Wax recipes.)

    Shield Treasure Changes


    • "Vigorous Defense restores 85 Health" => "Vigorous Defense restores +48 Power"
    • "Infuriating Bash deals +40% damage and taunts +330" => +36% damage (This was a spreadsheet error; the low-level versions are stronger but the high level is a little lower.)
    • "Fight Me You Fools and Finish It boost Core Attack Damage +146 for 6 seconds" => +200 Core Attack Damage
    • "Shield Team causes all targets' Survival Utility abilities to restore 64 Armor to them. Lasts 20 seconds" => 100 Armor
    • Replaced (Hands): "Reinforce Power Cost -32" => "When you are hit by an attack, all Shield abilities taunt +182 for 20 seconds (stacks up to 15 times)"
    • Replaced (Chest, Off Hand): "Stunning Bash restores 35 Health" => "When you are hit by a monster's Rage Attack, the current reuse timer of Stunning Bash is reduced by 1 sec and your next Stunning Bash deals +80 damage (stacks up to 10 times)"
    • Replaced (Ring): " Fight Me You Fools grants you 33% damage reflection for 10 seconds" => "All Shield Bash Abilities deal +50 damage and hasten the current reuse timer of Fight Me You Fools by 2 seconds"
    • Replaced (Chest, Off Hand): "Fire Shield and Elemental Ward restore 57 Armor" => "Elemental Ward boosts your direct and indirect Electricity damage +40 for 30 seconds"
    • Replaced (Legs): "Strategic Preparation hastens the current reset timer of Emergency Bash by 10 seconds" => "Strategic Preparation boosts your Indirect Acid Damage +25% for 20 seconds"
    • Replaced (Off Hand, Ring): "Strategic Preparation boosts your in-combat Health regeneration +18 for 20 seconds" => "Strategic Preparation causes your next attack to deal +130 damage if it is a Crushing, Slashing, or Piercing attack"
    • New (Main Hand): "When you are hit by an attack, Finish It damage is +64 for 20 seconds (stacks up to 10 times)"
    • New (Hands): "All Shield Bash Abilities deal +50 damage and hasten the current reuse timer of Finish It by 2 seconds"
    • New (Head, Legs): "When you are hit by a monster's Rage Attack, Reinforce restores +42 Armor for 60 seconds (stacks up to 10 times)"
    • New (Off Hand, Necklace): "Infuriating Bash deals +48 damage and boosts your Indirect Acid Damage +54 for 7 seconds"

    Shield Ability Change


    In addition, there is one Shield ability change:
    • Elemental Ward: Power cost has increased, and the first tier of the ability lasts 9 seconds (instead of 10). Second tier lasts 10 seconds (unchanged); there is a new third tier of the ability taught by Gorvessa that requires level 55 and lasts 11 seconds.

    Level Cap Increases


    All combat skills can now be raised to level 80 (plus bonus levels). Additionally, many auxiliary-combat skills and non-combat skills have higher level caps. Most of these caps can be raised by training with the fairies of the Fae Realm. Fae Realm trainers require a substance called Royal Jelly in addition to cash. For the most expensive training, this pricing works in players' benefit: e.g. instead of charging 500,000 Councils to raise a combat skill level-cap, they charge 400,000 Councils and 3 Royal Jelly -- and 3 Royal Jelly is easier to come by than 100k councils. However, in other cases the fairies have simply added a Royal Jelly cost without significantly reducing the cash cost. We have explained to the fae that this is not how prices are expected to work, but fairies are ancient, stubborn creatures who are immune to Haggling. They insist that "mortals will be fine" and "this Royal Jelly is really important" and "you need to stop being so greedy, human". We will continue to monitor the cost issues, but our advice for high-level players is to carefully choose your training priorities. Of course, you were doing that already. Some NPC trainers already taught abilities in the mid-70s level range. These abilities are now learned via new 70-80 trainers in the fae realm. The NPCs continue to train them also, but the favor requirement is Soul Mates, which is extremely difficult to achieve. The design intent is that any ability training that requires Soul Mates can also be learned from some other method. Other level cap increases:
    • Foraging level cap can now be raised to 70 by Jesina in Eltibule.
    • Ashk in Rahu can now raise the level cap of Pathology to 70.
    • Nishika and Rugen in Rahu can now raise the level cap of Skinning to 70.
    • Nishika and Rugen in Rahu can now raise the level cap of Butchering to 70.
    • Jake the Buckler in Sun Vale can now raise the level cap of Buckle Artistry to 60.

    New Bonus Skill Levels


    • You earn a bonus level of Lycanthropy when reaching Howling level 25.
    • You earn a bonus level of Spider when reaching Animal Handling 50, Arthropod Anatomy 41, or Survival Instincts 37.
    • Fire Magic now grants bonus Fire Mitigation into higher levels. (Previously the final bonus point was at level 45.)
    • You now gain bonus levels of Sushi Preparation at Fishing 55 and Knife 60.
    • You now gain bonus levels of Armor Patching when reaching Blacksmithing 50, First Aid 25, Endurance 20, Anatomy 20, Anatomy 40, and Toolcrafting 35. (This is in addition to the previously-existing bonus level at Blacksmithing 35.)
    • Players earn an additional bonus level of Leatherworking when reaching Tanning 60.

    Training Changes


    • Fletching: Some fletching recipes have new requirements. You learn the recipe for Precision Fletchings automatically at level 50 Fletching. (If you are already that level, it will be in your recipe list when you log in.) This recipe creates the feathery bits for Amazing and Astonishing arrows; some of the types of Amazing arrows already existed and those have had their recipe changed accordingly.
    • Mittens now teaches Toxic Flesh 8 at Soul Mates; it can also be learned in the Fae Realm.
    • Some of the very-high-level cheese recipes that Braigon previously taught have been moved to a different trainer.
    • The level 66 hammer ability Rib Shatter 5 was missing from the game; it is now trained by Falkrin Overstrike.
    • Furlak no longer trains Knee Kick 5 or 6. (Knee Kick and Jab are alternate powers that are only learnable from loot scrolls.)

    Health & Power Advancement


    Previously, you received +1 Max Power for each level above 50 in your active combat skills. You now receive a point every other level in the 50s, then receive no further Max Power increases after level 60. For a player with two level 70 combat skills, this amounts to a change of -30 Max Power in total, counting both skills. Most animal-form skills (except werewolf and bat) are a special case: they use a different power advancement curve, and their Max Power starts dropping off in the 60s instead of the 50s.
    • Lycanthropy now grants bonus Max Health into higher levels. (At low levels it gives an average of 2.5 Max Health per level, but previously it changed to 2-per-level after level 60. It now gives an average of 2.5 at all levels.)
    • Previously, the Pig, Spider, and Rabbit skills gave slightly more Max Health and less Max Power than normal combat skills (following the "tanky" pattern of the Lycanthropy skill), but this doesn't really fit the nature of those skills very well, so they now gain max health and max power at the regular rate. (Total change is +10 power and -15 health at level 50.)
    • The Cow and Deer skills now give slightly more Max Health than before (a total of +15 Max Health at level 50).

    Recipe XP Drop-off


    When you complete a recipe that is significantly lower than your skill level, you will now earn less than the full XP for that recipe. This is a pretty gradual process: for most recipes, the XP doesn't drop to 0 until your skill level is more than 50 levels above the recipe's level. The Recipe window now shows you how much XP you'll earn for repeat completions. (Note that this number doesn't include weird one-off XP awards, such as the Teleportation XP bonus for binding to a new teleport spot -- it just shows the basic XP earned from the recipe.) Not all recipes work this way because it just doesn't make sense in some cases. And a few recipes have slightly different drop-off rates. The intent isn't to make it super-hard to level up, just to push players away from using way-too-easy recipes at very high levels. If you feel a skill is now much too hard to level up (perhaps because of a lack of recipes in a particular level range), please let us know so we can address it! This doesn't apply to the first-time use of a recipe, which intentionally awards a large bonus. That large bonus is always the same regardless of your skill level.

    Other Skill & Ability Changes


    • Most abilities cost a bit more Power at very high level. A typical level 70 ability costs 1-4 more Power than before. The most dramatic change can be seen in the Epic Attacks; for example, Decapitate 5 (the level 72 Sword Epic Attack) previously cost 72 Power, and now costs 80 Power.
    • Animal Handling: "Sic 'Em" ability boosts the pet's speed and damage for a few seconds, but the in-game description was bugged and the damage bonus wasn't shown.
    • Animal Handling: Feed Pet/That'll Do: minor reduction to heal amounts at high level. (formula fix)
    • Archery: Multishot 5 consumes 5x Amazing Arrows (instead of 5x Masterwork Arrows).
    • Archery: Blitz Shot 3, 4, and 5 each consumed an arrow that was one tier lower than intended for that level.
    • Armor Patching: Levels 2-6 restored more armor than they said they would. This has been fixed to match ability description.
    • Battle Chemistry: Several tiers of Summon Minigolem summoned a golem with lower-than-intended health/armor/rage stats.
    • Cold Magic: The description of Ice Armor indicated that it reduced movement speed by 33%, but actually reduced by 25%. The ability description was incorrect and has been fixed.
    • Druid: Healing Sanctuary 5 restores 55 per tick instead of 60 per tick. (data fix)
    • Druid: Energize 2 and 3 restored 20 Health more than indicated in the ability description. (data fix)
    • Fletching: Recipe for Amazing Snare Arrows now consumes Expert Wood Glue instead of Advanced Wood Glue.
    • Fletching: Recipe for Precision Fletching now consumes Expert Wood Glue instead of Advanced Wood Glue.
    • Hammer: Way of the Hammer 2 and 3 did not buff crushing damage by as much as listed in the ability description.
    • Knife: The description of Hamstring Throw indicated that it lasted 5 seconds at all levels, but high-level versions last up to 10 seconds. The ability description was incorrect and has been fixed.
    • Pig: "Grunt of Abeyance" ability has a stronger innate heal. (formula change)
    • Rabbit: Carrot Power indicated that it consumes 1 carrot, but actually there is only a 33% chance of consumption. The ability description was incorrect and has been fixed.
    • Staff: Blocking Stance 3 now mitigates 35% of all damage (reduced from 40%).
    • Staff: Phoenix Strike now causes melee attackers to suffer significantly more fire damage (more than double the previous values).
    • Survival Instincts: All tiers of Toxic Flesh are now more potent (dealing about 2x more damage to melee damagers). Ability has been changed slightly: it now harms "melee damagers" instead of "melee attackers". This means the attacker must do at least 1 point of damage to you in order to qualify. (This is not normally a problem.)

    Other Changes & Fixes


    Trade Window
    • Fixed errant gold icon floating in middle of window.
    • Made the green "accepted" overlay click-through-able; this has the important benefit of letting you mouse over the items and see their tooltips. (Previously the green overlay prevented the tooltips from showing up.)
    • Fixed race-conditions that could cause the trade window to get out of sync, making the trade incompletable and requiring players to start the trade over.
    Monster Vulnerabilities Note that only changes are listed here, not full vulnerability/resistance lists.
    • Summer and Autumn fairies are now vulnerable to darkness but not psychic.
    • Giant scorpions are now vulnerable to darkness.
    • Hippogriffs are now vulnerable to darkness.
    • Gargoyles are now vulnerable to acid.
    • Hippos are now vulnerable to acid.
    • Treants are now resistant to trauma and psychic, but vulnerable to darkness and acid.
    Misc
    • Pet AI tweak: Pets in Assist and Defend mode ignore 75% of the aggro they would normally generate due to attackers hitting them. This is to ensure that pets continue to assist/defend you even when being attacked by other foes. (This also applies to mini-golem AI.)
    • Notoriety: raising Notoriety above level 50 now has stat rewards.
    • The previous update notes said that some orcs now have bonus Accuracy, but due to an error this change didn't actually make it into the game until now.
    • The chance for monsters to drop "Telka's Teeth" items has been lowered dramatically. (The chance is approx. 1/4th of its previous chances in desert rakshasa junk loot, and approx. 1/10th of previous drop rate in war caches specifically focused on Telka's Teeth.)
    • Fixed bugs with the guild quest "Fox Outpost (25-person)". If your guild was actively on this quest, you will need to re-obtain it.
    • Borghild: Fixed some spawn-positions for loot items and acid sigils; they spawned on shelves where they could not be interacted with.
    • The cash value of recipe books (found in loot) now follows a simple formula instead of being completely arbitrary. Some scrolls are worth more than before, some less.
    • NPCs who like "artwork" (Sir Coth, Lawara, Eveline Rastin) considered poetry books to be about twice as nice a gift as intended. This has been fixed.
    • Lemon shaved ice requires 1 fewer lemons; banana shaved ice requires 1 fewer bananas.
    • You cannot read Timothy Elerimon's hoplology book while in combat.
    • With the advent of more fae creatures in the game, Hiral no longer sells Pixie Sugar. (He sold it at an astronomical +2,000% markup anyway.)
    • Several recipes that incorporated venison were not marked as containing deer meat in the final dish.
    • Fixed texture problems with Spring Fairy Boots.
    • Lakrea's Holistic Wellness quests now give better rewards, thanks to a grant from the Redwing Fund for Biped Wellness.


    [ 2019-08-25 10:30:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: June 26, 2019

    This update is a potpourri of tweaks, bug fixes, and new content. So let's get to it!

    Gardening Almanac


    Starting in this update, different gardens across the world will get daily Gardening bonuses. There are different bonuses each day; for example, today there might be a bonus to growing carrots in Gretchen's garden in Serbule Hills, and tomorrow there might be a bonus for growing daisies in Sun Vale. Gardeners who want to take advantage of these bonuses can check out the new Gardening Almanac in Serbule, Rahu, and the Casino. This book can tell you about current and upcoming Gardening bonuses. The Serbule almanac is in the windmill. Since it's possible for these gardening events to happen in Kur or Gazluk, we've added locations in those areas where it's possible to grow vegetables. However, while it's now TECHNICALLY possible, most players will run into practical difficulties due to the climate. Not all Gardening events are equally useful!

    Shop Search Upgrade


    You can now use the shop-search golems to search for equipment or augments that meet certain requirements. Just click the appropriate option on the golem's sidebar menu to begin. You can search by slot, skill, rarity, and level range. This feature involved a lot of new code and could have bugs, so report them if you see them!

    War Caches


    • We've added six more War Cache quests in this update. These are a bit harder than the earlier ones. (But are they too hard? If so, let us know!)
    • The rewards from spending "Sir Johnson Bucks" were previously guaranteed to be Epic (4-power) items. That ended up being too good for the work involved; new reward items are now Exceptional (3-power) with a chance for higher-rarity items.

    Gazluk Keep


    Gazluk Keep continues to be our testing ground for high-level group content. The following tweaks have been made in this update:
    • Bosses have significantly improved chances of rare-drop items. Chances of finding Exceptional (3-power) items are 2-4x higher, and chances of Epic (4-power) items and Legendary (5-power) items are about double. (The exact amount of change varies per boss.)
    • Certain types of orcs now have some Accuracy in their attacks, allowing them to overcome player Evasion. Affected orcs indicate this in their monster info (when selected). NOTE: this change also happens to affect a few monsters outside of Gazluk: "Orcish Thaumaturges" anywhere in the world now have Accuracy. Give them a pat on the back for powering up. (Even though it may be only temporary.)
    • Bug fix: Stolen War Golem eventually stops calling for backup after its enemies flee or are killed.

    Live Events


    We've added some major new tools for admin-run live events. We're continuing to improve the design of live events based on your feedback, so please continue to give feedback after any live event you participate in! Thanks!

    Unarmed Skill Changes


    Unarmed is the oldest skill (its internal ID is #1) and it has seen many permutations. It is intended to be a strongly defensive skill with a lot of control abilities, moderate damage potential, and powerful combos. In a previous update we accidentally created a scenario where it was possible to use the skill's Epic Attack every 15 seconds, which added a huge amount of damage potential. As usual, we left it alone for a while to see what the ramifications were (lots of times, balance errors end up working out fine), but in this case it's obvious that this is not going to be sustainable into future higher levels, and it gets more overpowered every time we add a way to buff Epic Attacks. So we've nerfed the treasure effect responsible. We're also working on making percentage-based mitigation treasure scale better between low and high levels, and Unarmed is the first skill to see those changes. Previously, low-level mitigation treasure was very weak (e.g. "3% of the physical damage you take is mitigated"), then it scaled to the original target power-level around level 50, and then kept going higher after that. Our plan for percentage mitigation now is that it will start off much stronger and cap out around level 50 or 60, and we're adding other effects to the treasure that can continue to scale past that level. The Unarmed skill was created before Evasion existed, but it's a natural fit for the skill, so we've added a bit of Evasion to the treasure effects. In addition, the game engine can now support "side-effects" of Evading, and Unarmed is the first recipient of these effects. (For instance, one treasure effect is "Any time you Evade an attack, your next attack deals +133 damage".) As with any new tech, bugs are possible; please report them! We've also tweaked most of the meditation combos. Those changes aren't documented individually here because it's too spammy, but in general the combo changes came in two flavors: boosts to damage, and replacing "Punch" steps with "Any Melee" steps. Some other changes were made to add more synergy with other Trauma-damage skills. Ability Changes:
    • Mamba Strike: This ability has changed from a Crushing attack to a Trauma attack that deals direct health damage. When the target's armor is low (below 33%), it now deals +33% immediate Trauma damage, instead of adding a Trauma damage-over-time effect. Reuse timer lowered from 8 sec to 6 sec.
    • Slashing Strike and Claw Barrage: We updated ability descriptions to mention that being an empty-handed animal with claws is sufficient to activate the ability. (The behavior is unchanged, it was just not well-documented. Currently only werewolves have claws.)
    Treasure Changes:
    • "Bruising Blow deals +28% damage and hastens the current reuse timer of Bodyslam by 10 seconds" => Now hastens by 5 seconds. (This is the big nerf.)
    • "Headbutt deals +20% damage and conjures a magical field that mitigates 20% of all physical damage you take for 10 seconds (or until 200 damage is mitigated)" => Now mitigates 15% for 10 seconds or until 400 damage is mitigated. All levels now mitigate 15% physical damage; the damage bonus and mitigation cap increase with each level.
    • "While using Unarmed skill, 36% of all Darkness and Psychic damage you take is mitigated and added to the damage done by your next Punch, Jab, or Infuriating Fist" => now 25% at a 300% rate. (This effect previously scaled from 8%-36% mitigation with a constant 100% soak-reflect; it's now 13%-25% with a continuously increasing soak-reflect.)
    • "While using Unarmed skill, 22% of all Acid, Poison, and Nature damage you take is mitigated and added to the damage done by your next Kick at a 100% rate" => now 21% at a 280% rate. (This effect previously scaled from 8%-22% mitigation with a constant 100% soak-reflect; it's now 1%-21% with a continuously increasing soak-reflect.)
    • "Mamba Strike deals +250% Crushing damage and +400 Trauma damage (if target's armor is below 33%), but reuse timer is +8 seconds" => "Mamba Strike damage +55%"
    • "Mamba Strike and Front Kick deal 95 Trauma damage over 15 seconds" => "Mamba Strike and Front Kick damage +80"
    • "Barrage and Headbutt ignite the target, causing them to take 130 damage over 20 seconds" => 212 damage over 8 seconds.
    • "Unarmed attacks have a 23% chance to conjure a magical field that mitigates 10% of all physical damage you take for 1 minute (or until 100 damage is mitigated)." => "While Unarmed skill is active: you gain +4% Melee Evasion and any time you Evade a Melee attack you recover 64 Armor"
    • "Unarmed attacks have a 16% chance to conjure a magical field that mitigates 10% of all physical damage you take for 1 minute (or until 100 damage is mitigated). Damage mitigated in this way is automatically added to the damage you do with your next Kick attack." => replaced: "While Unarmed skill is active: When you Evade an attack, your next attack deals +188 damage"
    • "Hip Throw and Bodyslam deal +148 armor damage" => "Hip Throw deals +192 armor damage"
    • "Cobra Strike and Mamba Strike boost your Nice Attack and Signature Debuff ability damage +44 for 7 seconds" => +55 for 7 seconds
    • "Slashing Strike and Claw Barrage boost damage from Epic attacks +60 for 10 seconds" => +74
    • "Infuriating Fist taunts +460 and deals 150 Trauma damage over 12 seconds": This effect can no longer be found on Hands slot, only on Legs slot. Hand items with this effect have become Legacy items. (See below for instructions on what to do with Legacy items.)
    • New treasure effect for the Hands slot: "Infuriating Fist damage +103. Damage becomes Trauma instead of Crushing"
    • Slashing Strike: The damage-over-time is now applied over 6 seconds instead of 12.
    • "Slashing Strike deals +126 Trauma damage over 12 seconds" => over 6 seconds
    • "Infuriating Fist taunts +460 and deals 138 Trauma damage over 12 seconds" => over 6 seconds
    • "Cobra Strike and Mamba Strike Damage +38%" => +58%
    • "Cobra Strike and Mamba Strike restore 32 Armor to you" => 40 armor
    • "Bodyslam deals +37% damage and slows target's movement speed by 45%": This effect is no longer available on Hands, just Head. Items with this effect on Hands have become Legacy Items. (See below for instructions on what to do with Legacy items.)
    • New hands treasure effect: "Bruising Blow deals Trauma damage instead of Crushing, and targets suffer 12.5% more damage from other Trauma attacks for 20 seconds"
    • "While using Unarmed skill, 22% of all Slashing, Piercing, and Crushing damage you take is mitigated and added to the damage done by your next Punch, Jab, or Infuriating Fist at a 100% rate" => now 18% at a 260% rate. (This effect previously scaled from 3%-22% mitigation with a constant 100% soak-reflect; it's now 10%-18% with a continuously increasing soak-reflect.)
    • "Headbutt and Knee Kick deal +138 armor damage" => "Headbutt and Knee Kick Damage +108"
    • New treasure effect for the chest and off-hand slots: New chest and off-hand treasure effect: "Headbutt Damage +44%"

    Legacy Items


    Legacy items are items that cannot be generated in-game anymore, typically due to changes to the treasure-effect tables. If you have a Legacy item, you can continue using it for 30 days before it becomes permanently broken. There is a small golem in Serbule (in a house near the well) called the Legacy Item Replacer. This golem can tell you why an item is Legacy, and can replace the item with a new randomly-generated item with the same rarity. New to this update, you can also use Transmutation to remove the treasure effect that is making your item Legacy. After you've used Transmutation to change the offending effect into something else, log out and then log back in so that the game re-examines the item and removes the Legacy status. (If it works, the message "THIS IS A LEGACY ITEM" should disappear from the item description after relogging.)

    Werewolf Treasure


    We've taken a second look at a few treasure effects, especially the effects for Shadow Feint. We didn't correctly account for its dual-state nature and the effects were a bit too weak.
    • "Blood of the Pack restores 90 Health over 30 seconds to you and your allies" => over 10 seconds
    • "Shadow Feint causes your next attack to deal +144 damage if it is a Werewolf ability" => +192 damage
    • "When you teleport via Shadow Feint, you recover 50 Armor and your Sprint Speed is +3 for 10 seconds" => 83 Armor
    • "When you teleport via Shadow Feint, you recover 70 Health" => 100 Health
    • "Shadow Feint reduces the taunt of all your attacks by 35% until you trigger the teleport" => 46%
    • "Shadow Feint raises your Lycanthropy Base Damage +36% until you trigger the teleport" => +52%

    Fixes to Damage Type Overrides


    When a treasure effect changes the type of damage an ability deals, the game previously only partially implemented this: the target's vulnerabilities and resistances to the new damage type were calculated correctly, but it still used the original damage type when calculating total damage. For related reasons, the ability tooltip didn't completely show what was changing, only mentioning it at the bottom under "Other Effects". This is fixed, both internally and in the displayed info. The tooltip will show the new damage type in green (indicating it is enchanted), and the damage is calculated based on that new damage type.

    Sonic Damage Retired


    We're retiring the "Sonic" damage type. It was basically only accessible from the Giant Bat and Bard skills, and Giant Bats can't be Bards, so there wasn't much synergy (except perhaps in groups). After playing with some ideas, we realized no upcoming new combat skills were going to do a lot of Sonic damage, either. So we're converting all Sonic attacks to a different damage type to allow for more interconnectedness between skills. We've converted them all to Nature damage for now, although some may get changed to another damage type when we next focus on the individual skills involved.
    • Bard ability Blast of Fury damage type is now Nature.
    • Bard ability Blast of Defiance damage type is now Nature.
    • Bard ability Blast of Despair damage type is now Nature.
    • Giant Bat ability Screech damage type is now Nature.
    • Giant Bat ability Sonic Burst damage type is now Nature.
    • Bard Treasure change: "Thunderous Note deals +45% damage, and damage type is Sonic instead of Trauma" => Nature instead of Trauma
    • Bard Treasure change: "Thunderous Note causes the target to take +13% damage from Sonic attacks for 15 seconds" => Nature instead of Sonic
    • Giant Bat Treasure change: "For 30 seconds after using Drink Blood, all sonic attacks deal +45 damage" => all Nature attacks deal +45 damage
    • Giant Bat Treasure change: "Sonic Damage +32%" => "Nature Damage +32%"
    • Bard Crafting: Bard Shirts and Bard Gloves now boost Nature damage, not Sonic damage.
    • Council Pathfinder Helm now mitigates Nature, not Sonic.
    • Ratty Tactics Ring now boosts Nature, not Sonic damage.
    • Rattail-Ring of Screeching now boosts and protects against Nature, not Sonic.
    • All monsters that were vulnerable or resistant to Sonic have been changed. Most are now resistant/vulnerable to some new type instead.
    • All monster attacks that dealt Sonic damage now deal Nature damage.

    Preventing Unintentional Quest Turn-ins


    Having an NPC steal your good boots, when what you wanted was to give him your not-nearly-as-good boots, is a frustrating pain! So we've tweaked the behavior a little:
    • Equipment that is part of a Load-Out is never counted as part of a Quest or Work-Order.
    • Equipment that is in a Vendor-Locked folder is never counted as part of a Quest or Work-Order. (Note this only applies to equipment, not other items. This is so that players can still put regular quest items in vendor-locked folders to prevent accidentally selling them, and the items can still be turned in for the quest.)
    These sound like small bug-fixes, but they involved a bit more work than it may seem. The changes have been tested, but as always, please be on the lookout for bugs or complications.

    Footsteps


    We've made major changes to the footstep sound-effect system to allow for more types of sounds, such as squishy sounds for sand and splash sounds when running in shallow water. More work is planned in this area eventually, including volume fixes and different sounds for different boot types. (Currently the game assumes you're always wearing metal boots.)

    Other Changes


    • Fixed many teleportation arrival positions where the camera could get switched around to face the player instead of being behind the player.
    • Made configuring guild permissions a little more intuitive.
    • Fixed bugs that could prevent the "glowing" effect on high-tier loot (in the loot window).
    • Thimble Pete no longer notices if you are an animal while turning in a work order. (But still won't train animals.)
    • Small performance improvements to humanoids (both NPCs and Players).
    • Trolls' regeneration (when not on fire) is MUCH more potent!
    • Tweaked resistances and abilities of mummies.

    Lore Adjustments


    We've made a few small tweaks to game lore:
    • The "Rains in Ilmari" lasted for 2 years, not 20. (Exaggeration at its best!)
    • References to the "Red Mantis Gang" have been fixed to reference the "Red Wing Gang".
    • Removed a reference to the god Bogdelle because she has been retconned out of existence.
    • References to "Mirraverre" have been fixed to the correct spelling "Miraverre".

    External Character References


    We're working on some new ways for you to share your deeds and actions with the outside world. One thing we're working on is a "news ticker" that shows recent heroic exploits, such as killing a boss, completing a recipe for the 1000th time, maxing out a skill, that sort of thing. (It's not live yet -- we're still experimenting with it.) We'll only be using your character's name, and possibly other in-game names such as your guild's name -- we'd never share any real-life information. But if you are uncomfortable with having your character name-dropped outside of the game, you can opt out: in the "Social" window, under the "RESTRICT" tab, turn off "External References". And, of course, when you're in Incognito mode you're also left off of the news ticker, because you obviously want to be incognito! (As a reminder of how incognito works: you can log-in Incognito by holding down the SHIFT key at the character-selection screen. The "LOGIN" button will change to say "INCOGNITO LOGIN". This mode prevents your friends-list from being notified that you logged in, prevents you from showing up in /who lists and Guild-Online lists, etc. If you want to play incognito all the time, you can type "/incognito on" (without the quotes) into the chat window.)


    [ 2019-06-26 12:28:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: May 9, 2019

    This is a small update to add fixes and new features for future live events. Stay tuned to see them in action! There are also some other bug fixes:

    • Fixed repeated Minotaur Vault rune in War Cache S-1
    • Drinking a second Spider Punt Potion no longer gives the confusing message "Error: You already know that ability."
    • Fixed a bug that prevented Spider Punt ability (or other sidebar abilities) from working if dragged onto the sidebar under certain conditions
    • Fixed a related bug that could cause changes to the sidebar to stop being sent to the server (meaning your sidebar stopped working, and reverted to old contents when you logged out and back in)
    • Collect Milk 2 & 3 incorrectly required Clobbering Hoof 6 as a prerequisite
    • Sanja in Kur had incorrect training requirements for raising Lycanthropy skill cap
    • Fixed bug that prevented slimes in War Cache D-3 from combining into each other, thus allowing infinite slimes
    • Added missing warning screen for the Shower Slime in Gazluk Keep
    • Fixed bug that caused volume UI sliders (and other number-sliders) in the Settings window to stop updating correctly if an invalid number was manually typed into the text field
    • Fixed bug that prevented placing map pins in war cache D-4
    • Added a missing Spider Punt Potion to war cache S-3
    • Tweaked fire magic mod that added Rage to Super Fireball: it adds less Rage and has a slightly more clear description


    [ 2019-05-09 13:42:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: April 26, 2019

    Ilmari War Caches


    Decades ago, the Crone Hegemony built massive bunkers in the Ilmari Desert, bunkers which have since been buried deep in the shifting sands. But what the wind hides can be unhidden... Ilmari War Caches are mini-dungeons with level 50-60 solo monsters. Each War Cache is designed to be a quick solo adventure. Each time you start a War Cache quest, you'll get a map that works much like a treasure map, except the treasure is an entrance portal. The map is used up when you enter -- you can't get back in if you have to leave, so you need to come prepared! (If you fail the quest you can just cancel it and get a new quest, but the next quest may send you to a different dungeon.) However, these quests aren't time-limited: you can log out of these dungeons and log back in later. You just can't leave the dungeon and come back later, since leaving would fail the quest. These are not instanced dungeons, so it's possible for other players to be randomly sent to the same dungeon. Any quest items that come from monster loot are cloned for each person that loots it. However, since this is primarily a solo experience, all the "puzzle" mechanics are instanced. This means when you flip a lever to open a gate, only your version of the lever flips and only your version of the gate opens. We did this to ensure that other players can't screw up your puzzle, intentionally or not. Note that the "map fog" in War Caches erases itself when you leave, so if you repeat the war cache, you'll need to map it again. (Clearing this fog does not earn Cartography XP.) This is our way of saying "don't obsess over clearing every inch of map fog, just play!" To get started with the War Caches, talk to Sir Johnson in Amulna. We'd love to get your feedback on this experience! To report a problem with a particular quest, please refer to it by the indicator mentioned in the quest text, such as "War Cache T-1". Note: Because these dungeons aren't instanced, and because we expect a lot of players will want to check them out immediately after the update, please expect some congestion at first and schedule your time accordingly.

    Transmutation Cost Changes


    We've changed the amount of Phlogiston and Durability consumed by Transmutation. Transmutation costs are now tied to the rarity of the item. This is generally a "buff"; costs are reduced in most cases. For reference, the rarity levels are Uncommon (green), Rare (blue), Exceptional (red), Epic (purple), and Legendary (gold). Skill-Specific Effects: When you transmute an effect associated with a specific skill (e.g. "Unarmed Base Damage +20%"), the cost now depends on the rarity of the item:
    • Uncommon and Rare: 5 Durability and 25 Phlogiston
    • Exceptional: 10 Durability and 30 Phlogiston
    • Epic: 20 Durability and 35 Phlogiston
    • Legendary: 25 Durability and 35 Phlogiston
    • Previously, the cost for all Rarities was: 25 Durability and 35 Phlogiston
    Generic Effects: When you transmute an effect that isn't tied to a skill (e.g. "Max Health +10"), the cost now depends on the rarity of the item:
    • Uncommon and Rare: 5 Durability and 10 Phlogiston
    • Exceptional: 10 Durability and 15 Phlogiston
    • Epic: 15 Durability and 20 Phlogiston
    • Legendary: 20 Durability and 20 Phlogiston
    • Previously, the cost for all Rarities was: 20 Durability and 10 Phlogiston
    In addition, the phlogiston cost is reduced for low-level items:
    • 15 less Phlogiston for items level 15 and under
    • 10 less Phlogiston for items level 30 and under
    • 5 less Phlogiston for items level 45 and under

    Hammer Changes


    The Hammer skill was somewhat heavily-impacted by the damage-formula changes in the last update, so we spent some time refining this skill. We've restructured some of Hammer's gear to have more favorable synergy with other effects, sometimes by changing small percentage bonuses to larger flat bonuses. We've also added a few new treasure effects (not listed here, as usual). Concussion Debuffs: Certain hammer treasure effects apply Concussion debuffs which makes the victim "prone to random self-stuns". - These debuffs are now a bit more effective. (Also note that these three debuffs stack with each other, although that isn't a new thing.) - One of the aforementioned Concussion debuffs has been moved out of treasure and added to the basic Rib Shatter ability Rib Shatter: This ability previously caused Trauma damage over time. But since Hammer doesn't have much Trauma synergy (and doesn't really have room for it in its treasure tables -- Hammer has a lot of other stuff going on!), Rib Shatter has been revised. It is now a heavier-hitting hammer attack that also causes the target to be prone to random self-stuns -- in other words, it applies the Mild Concussion debuff that used to be a treasure effect for Reverberating Strike. Various treasure effects were adjusted or replaced as a result.
    • "Rib Shatter deals +220 Trauma damage over 10 seconds" => "Rib Shatter restores 40 Health to you"
    • Way of the Hammer: "For 10 seconds, all targets deal +15% Crushing Damage" => +35%
    • "Way of the Hammer boosts Slashing and Piercing Damage +17% for 10 seconds" => +34%
    • "Way of the Hammer boosts all targets' Electricity Damage +20% for 10 seconds" => +35%
    • Way of the Hammer is now marked as a Signature Support ability for the purpose of buffs that affect Signature Support.
    • The treasure effect "Hammer attacks deal +16% damage but generate +48% Rage" was incorrectly boosting hammer Base Damage, not regular damage. This has been fixed, making the effect typically generate more damage in high-level builds.
    • The cost of Pound To Slag was tweaked slightly, and its Reuse Timer changed from 50s to 45s. (Some treasure mods were recalculated very slightly as a result of the shortened reuse timer.)
    • Latent Charge: Delayed electricity damage now occurs after 5 seconds, not 8 seconds.
    • The treasure effect "Pound To Slag hastens the current reuse timer of Look at My Hammer by 5 seconds" was previously available for all levels 50+, and did the same thing at all levels. There are now higher tiers of this effect which also boost Pound To Slag damage. All pre-existing versions of this effect are still the level 50 one, but new gear can obtain higher versions now. (Note that this effect is still not available in gear below level 50.)
    • "Reckless Slam deals +33% damage and taunts -360" => "Reckless Slam deals +64 damage and taunts -285" (It deals about the same damage but synergizes more nicely with other Reckless Slam mods.)
    • "Reverberating Strike restores 38 armor to you and taunts -275" => " Reverberating Strike restores 96 armor after a 6-second delay"
    • "Hurl Lightning Damage +39% and Reuse Time -1 second" => "Hurl Lightning Damage +94 and Reuse Time -1 second"
    • "Thunderstrike Damage +38%" => "Thunderstrike Damage +128"
    • "Reverberating Strike deals 70 direct health damage and applies the Mild Concussion status: target is susceptible to random self-stuns" => "Reverberating Strike Damage +85"

    Lycanthropy


    Lycanthropy is one of the oldest skills in the game, existing since "pre-pre-alpha". It's changed many times over the years of early development. (It went through a "tons of loot-activated combos" phase for a while, and a "super-fast-Bite" phase, and a "corpse-eating gives infinite healing" phase ... Good times!) But after our last batch of changes (way back in 2017!) we switched our attention to other skills. Returning, finally, to Lycanthropy, we've found that it has some overpowered damage combinations, but also had a bunch of crufty stuff. Some of that crufty stuff was left over from previous versions of the skill (like one Piercing ability in a skill that's now focused on Crushing/Slashing/Trauma), or abilities that were prototyped in the 2017 revision but didn't pan out like we'd hoped (like See Red, which just ended up being a random mishmash of buffs and heals). Other problems were due to engine limitations that are now fixed -- the new version of Shadow Feint is much closer to what was originally imagined, but couldn't be implemented at the time. So there are a bunch of changes here which will take some time to get used to. These changes do nerf the most common damage combination currently in max-level use, but despite that, we expect this will not feel like that big of a nerf after players adjust to the new skill. (And in many cases will be a buff.) It's also simply more fun to play than before. General:
    • Sanguine Fangs damage changed from Piercing to Crushing.
    • "Sanguine Fangs suddenly deals 280 Trauma damage after a 12-second delay" => 8-second delay
    • Sanguine Fangs base direct damage increased. Some treasure effects revised as a result.
    • Blood of the Pack has a faster animation.
    • "Werewolf Claw, Double Claw, and Pouncing Rake Damage +22%" => " Werewolf Claw, Double Claw, and Pouncing Rake Damage +50"
    • "All Werewolf attacks have a 31% chance to deal 64 Trauma damage over 8 seconds" => 47% chance
    • "Double Claw deals +114 armor damage" => "Double Claw deals +88 damage"
    • "All Werewolf attacks have a 31% chance to deal 64 Trauma damage over 8 seconds" => "Werewolf Max Health +35"
    Skulk: Skulk's base damage boost was too high, and some of its loot was also too powerful.
    • Skulk: The "next attack" bonus damage is reduced significantly. (For example, Skulk 4 now gives +223, instead of +359.)
    • "Skulk grants you +35 Mitigation against all attacks" => +24 Mitigation
    • "Skulk causes your next attack to deal +70% damage if it is a Crushing attack" => +43% damage
    • "When Skulk is used, you recover 52 Health and all enemies within 10 meters are taunted -1375" => taunted -700
    • Skulk now has a faster casting time and a different in-use particle
    See Red: See Red had some treasure that was a little overpowered, but most of its treasure (and its inherent buff) were underwhelming. Since werewolves already have several other nice 30-second-reset abilities, See Red just felt a little out of place. So in this update we've tried something new. The ability has been entirely re-envisioned: instead of a self-buff, it's now a melee attack. Its treasure still provides a broad range of utility, though, and with the shorter reset time (10 sec instead of 30), it's more versatile.
    • See Red is now a Trauma attack with a 10-second reuse timer and a lower Power cost.
    • See Red no longer buffs Piercing/Slashing damage.
    All treasure effects revised:
    • "See Red restores 132 Armor" => "For 8 seconds after using See Red, all other Lycanthropy attacks deal 116 Trauma damage over 8 seconds"
    • "See Red grants you Melee Evasion +18%" => +14%
    • "See Red increases the damage of your next attack by +260" => +95
    • "See Red restores 54 Health and costs -20 Power" => "See Red deals +36 damage and Power cost is -16"
    • "See Red heals you for 85 health" => 38 health
    Because the ability is now an attack, it needed more ability tiers than when it was a buff. The ability previously went up to See Red 4, and now goes to See Red 7. Sanja trains up to See Red 5, and the last two are taught from the Altar of Norala. If you had the old See Red 3 or 4, you still have them, but they are now for a lower level than before; you will need to obtain the new tiers. Shadow Feint:
    • Shadow Feint: This ability is now a toggle. Use it once to enter "feint mode." You will see a small indicator showing where you will teleport back to. Use again to teleport back. The range of the ability has decreased from 40m at all levels to 30/35/40m. Teleport time window shortened.
    • Shadow Feint Has faster animation, and the 1-second channeling delay was removed.
    All Shadow Feint treasure effects were overhauled:
    • "After using Shadow Feint, your Lycanthropy Base Damage increases +36% for 30 seconds or until you are attacked" => "Shadow Feint raises your Lycanthropy Base Damage +36% for 20 seconds or until you trigger the teleport"
    • "After using Shadow Feint, your Sprint Speed increases +3 for 15 seconds and your next attack deals +120 damage" => " Shadow Feint boosts the damage of your next attack +144 if it is a Lycanthropy ability" (note that the old version also only buffed Lycanthropy abilities; it just didn't say so)
    • "Shadow Feint heals 130 health and 130 armor when you teleport" => "When you teleport via Shadow Feint, you recover 70 Health"
    • "Shadow Feint boosts your In-Combat Armor Regeneration +35 for 20 seconds" => "When you teleport via Shadow Feint, you recover 50 Armor and your Sprint Speed is +3 for 10 seconds"
    Beast Metabolism:
    • Werewolves no longer need to be "out of combat" to eat corpses.
    • Inherent recovery-per-level from corpses is a little higher.
    • Previously, raising the Beast Metabolism skill only increased the duration of the recovery buff. It now also slightly increases the amount of healing and power recovered (per tick). This can be further boosted by treasure effects.
    Norala Altar Buffs:
    • Boosted potency of Max Health buffs from +10/20/30/40/50 to +10/20/35/50/75 and added a sixth tier that goes to +100.
    • Boosted potency of Corpse Eat Healing buffs from +4/7/10/12/15/18 to +4/8/12/16/20 and added a sixth tier that goes to +25.
    • The fifth tier of Max Power buffs is reduced in cost from 3 tokens to 2.
    • The fifth tier of Physical Mitigation is reduced in cost from 2 tokens to 1.
    • Clarified labels to indicate that "Werewolf Damage Boost %" increases Base Damage.
    Training: It costs fewer altar points to learn abilities and raise your level cap at the Altar of Norala. This is still the primary way you're expected to raise the skill level cap. (Keep in mind that the altar lets you buy level-cap increases before you reach your max level.) If you don't want to wait until a full moon, you can now also train with Sanja in Kur. This is VERY expensive, however! Sanja also temporarily teaches the new tiers of See Red, to help existing werewolves adapt to the changes. She will stop training these in the next update after the full moon -- they are normally learned from the Altar of Norala.

    Other Skill & Ability Changes


    • Bard: "All bard songs restore X Health [or Armor] to YOU every 4 seconds" => fixed bugs that allowed these treasure mods to get applied multiple times when switching songs.
    • Bard: Fixed a bug that caused some song-oriented treasure effects to apply themselves for 60 seconds after you had manually toggled the song off.
    • Priest: The ability Invigorate claimed to restore Power but restored that amount of Health instead. Now it restores Power as intended. (Treasure effects were already correct, only the base Power healing from the ability was wrong.)
    • Spider: Due to changes to the game engine, the treasure effect "Web Trap sets a teleport spot. If you are hit 6 times within 30 seconds you'll automatically teleport back to that spot. (Must be within 40 meters of teleport spot.)" no longer worked. Since it was really not very useful, we didn't try to make it work and just replaced it. It is now: "While you are near your Web Trap, you recover 4 Power per second".
    • Treasure effects that boost Spore Bomb, Stake the Heart, Fish Gut, and Crossbow attacks are more potent.
    • Many pieces of equipment that innately boost a damage type by a percentage (e.g. Spring Fairy Shoes, which have inherent bonuses to Nature and Electricity damage) have been buffed.

    Monster Balance Changes


    Monsters' critical hits were dealing too much damage when their Rage Attacks critically hit, potentially killing a player instantly. This was most prevalent in Elites, but a few solo-oriented monsters were also too dangerous. We're adjusting things a bit: now when monsters' Rage Attacks critically hit, they no longer deal +100% damage, but instead deal +50% damage and also heal the monster for 25% of its Max Health. If the monster is an Elite or Boss, Rage Attack crits also heal 100% of the monster's Armor. Non-Rage-attack crits continue to boost +100% damage as before. Note that this change also automatically applies to any pets that have Rage Attacks (such as Necromancy minions). Rage and Crit Bug Fixes While working on critical hit damage for monsters' Rage attacks, we encountered and fixed some other bugs related to critical hits and Rage. Due to a data-processing bug, abilities that are supposed to generate extra Rage in enemies had stopped doing so. This was broken for a fairly long time (over 6 months), but is now fixed. Affected abilities should once again show this info in the ability info window. This affects:
    • Most Fire Magic abilities
    • Battle Chemistry's Toxin Bomb
    • Mentalism's Mindreave
    • Archery's Fire Arrow
    • Priests' Flamestrike and Righteous Flame
    • Shambling Corpses' health-reaping attacks
    • Skeleton Mages' fire attacks
    • Pet Fire Walls' attacks
    • The melee attacks of fiery pet rats
    In addition:
    • Several Psychology abilities were not correctly marked as receiving critical hits from Phrenology; this is now fixed.
    • Crossbow abilities now gain the same chance to "critically hit" that bows do, based on your Anatomy skill and the target's anatomy type. Crossbows gain a +50% damage mod when they crit. (This isn't a bug fix, it's a small power-up.)
    • Several monsters did not deal full intended damage with their Rage attacks: Worghests, Gazluk Elite Tacticians, Ratkin hammer-users
    Gazluk-Only Balance Change: Gazluk Keep continues to be our testing ground for changes to high-level group content, since it's the highest-level group dungeon at the moment. We believe high-level group monsters need a large increase in Max Health to make group combat play out as intended, so we're experimenting with that in GK. Elite monsters in Gazluk Keep now have between 3000 and 4000 extra health, and bosses have up to 6000 extra health. This is an interim step -- it's probable that group monsters need even more health than this, but other changes are probably needed before we crank it all the way up. So this is an experiment so we can gather feedback and see what the ramifications are.

    Other Changes and Fixes


    • Desert Environments: If you are entirely out of hydration in the desert there is now a small chance every second that you will die of dehydration. Stay hydrated! Going into a NPC's building, such as Arlan's shop or Makara's tent, will stop dehydration. In fact as a convenience, being anywhere within the city walls of Amulna prevents dehydration.
    • Fixed a bug with Crafted Nimble Boots and Crafted Nimble Pants, which evaded much more often than the listed times.
    • The tailoring recipes that add +1% damage of a particular type to shirts and pants have been changed to add +2% damage instead. This change is retroactive. (Note: there was a "round off" bug which could cause these recipes to effectively add +0.9% instead of +1%. This bug has been fixed for new uses of the recipe, but unfortunately it could not be fixed retroactively. So if your old gear added e.g. +5.7% damage, it now adds +11.4% damage, not +12% damage as you might expect.)
    • You can no longer use Practical Summoning to summon items that have less than 100% durability. (In other words, you can summon a pristine firkin, but not one with 70% durability remaining.) This is a temporary limitation. Previously, summoning partially-used items magically repaired their durability, which was unintentional.
    • You can no longer use the "Reuse Liquor Barrel" or "Reuse Beer Keg" recipes on NPC-brewed liquor (such as Spiked Egg Nog or Burn-Throat).
    • Brewing results that raise Max Armor for a particular race were incorrectly labeled as raising Max Health for that race. These now correctly say that they boost Max Armor. (Just to clarify, there are ALSO brewing results that raise Max Health for a particular race, and these are unchanged. The bug was that the armor-boosting ones were labeled as health-boosting.)
    • You can now right-click raw fish in your inventory and choose "Fillet Fish" to quickly bring up the appropriate fillet recipe. (Assuming you know how to fillet that type of fish, of course.)
    • Breaking down Treant Wood now requires Carpentry 50 instead of Carpentry 20.
    • Swapped the icons for Sunstone and Morganite to better match the gem descriptions, and the dye color they create.
    • Fixed a bug where malachite attuned to the Rabbit skill did not work correctly in recipes if the malachite was placed in the second gem slot.
    • Torgan correctly appreciates gifts of Awesome Metal Slabs.
    • Lady Windsong's favor "Escaped Snail Meat" bestows a special druid ability Rotflesh, but if you were not eligible for the ability (generally because you didn't yet know Rotskin 6, its prerequisite), you did not learn the ability. This is fixed retroactively, so if you've completed the quest the ability is now in your list. (But you still have to learn Rotskin 6 before you can actually use it!)
    • The Amulna residents Falkrin Overstrike and Alravesa the All-Hunter are still not fully written, despite having important roles to play. They can now be found in the dining area above Selaxi's shop, where they can at least have a drink while they wait.
    • The Guardian Rhino's curse "Gored Pockets" changed from -10 Inventory to -5 Inventory. Players who had the old curse will find they are magically cured; this "free cure" is just a side-effect of an internal version number change, and not something we typically need to do when tweaking a curse. But hey: free cure! You're welcome.
    • Sentient tornadoes are now more dangerous. They gain innate Projectile Evasion and Melee Evasion, and they a different set of resistances and vulnerabilities than before. However, they are very vulnerable to Burst attacks.
    • Fixed a bug that prevented Ice Cocks from breaking more than one toe at a time. (It was supposed to stack to x9 originally; it now stacks to x3 because 9 is too much.)
    • The "Slaughterer of Spiders" behavior badge was tied to generic animal killing, not spiders. (Meaning it was the same as the Slaughterer of Countless Animals badge.)
    • Made it easier to maintain the "Slaughterer of X" badges -- they no longer require you to have killed more of that monster type than other kinds of monster. (They still have the requirement that you have killed 1000+ in your lifetime, and 500+ in the past 30 days real-time or 24 hours game time. Meaning that they "wear" off and you lose them if you stop murdering that type of foe.)
    • If you attempt to use an ability but the server doesn't think the reset timer is up, the game client is updated to show the ability's remaining time needed, rather than showing the ability as having been just-used.
    • Improved the performance of "floaty numbers" (damage and healing numbers). Lots of floaty numbers could cause framerate lag.
    • Also, floaty damage numbers for your character now float overtop your character's head, like they do for other characters. Previously they floated down from the "portrait box" in the top-left corner, but it was very hard to notice them. If you prefer the old format you can enable it in Special Settings by typing the word PortraitFloaties into the text box.
    • Fixed bug where changing the font size of "Size of Combat Numbers (Self)" did not get saved to preferences.
    • Fixed map issues in Gazluk Keep (such as weird pointer direction and lack of map fog).
    • Optimized memory usage and loading times in Gazluk Keep. These changes should help people whose computers crash when loading into this area. Note: it's now a VERY bad idea to use the "NoCull" Special Setting while in Gazluk Keep, because the Keep now relies very heavily on occlusion culling for performance.
    • Updated the contents of the Live Event Reward Chests (located behind the Serbule inn) so that newer types of equipment have a chance of being found in them.
    • Command /shop opens a web page to the Gorgon Shop.


    [ 2019-04-26 06:34:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: February 20, 2019

    Welcome to another large Project: Gorgon patch! This is a dense update with a lot of moving parts, including balance changes, new powers and abilities, and a large new dungeon. And these are some really long update notes... so let's get to it!

    Rahu Sewers


    This update includes a new solo-oriented dungeon, the Rahu Sewers. This dungeon hides many secrets and is home to new types of level 60 creatures. Some of these monsters pose new challenges to overcome, and the dungeon itself holds various tools to help you overcome them. (Along with the many tools that already exist in the game!) The sewer is balanced around players who have decent level 50-55 equipment. We know that it can be difficult for solo players to get gear in the level 50-55 range -- that's something we'll be working on in a future update! If you don't feel that your equipment is up to par, you might consider some pick-up duoing with another player in the short term. (And remember: being in a group boosts the XP you both earn, too!) While the dungeon is intended for solo (or duo) play, there are also a few Boss monsters tucked away as challenges for pick-up groups. They aren't pushovers, though. If you run into a boss warning screen, don't get complacent: the boss curses here are real! A few NPCs in Rahu have favors connected to the sewer, although you need to meet certain requirements before those favors are accessible.

    Game Balancing Changes


    There are quite a lot of changes in this update that touch on high-level game balance and underlying damage formulas. This section gets really dense, so feel free to skip ahead if your eyes start to glaze over. (If you do skip ahead, just remember: There may be bugs. If it seems weird, report it!) We want to get you up and running with these changes quickly in order to help us gather data and feedback, and to find the less obvious bugs. So for the next week(-ish), transmutation tables will not consume enhancement points when you transmute an item. This will give you a chance to re-configure your equipment a bit more quickly and easily. In conjunction with these changes, we've also reduced the health of all Elite/Boss monsters by 12% to 30% (depending on the level and tier of Elite/Boss). This adjustment is really just an initial estimate on our part, though; there have been a large number of combat changes, so it's difficult to predict how much damage player groups will be able to deal at top level. This is one of the areas where we'll be gathering feedback, and we will buff or nerf monsters as needed. Percentage-Damage Treasure Rebalance Treasure effects that boost a specific ability (such as "Finishing Blow Damage +25%") are now a bit weaker. A typical ability that had two percentage-based treasure buffs will be reduced in damage by about 8%. But it's difficult to talk about a "typical ability" in this game! The exact impact will depend entirely on what treasure buffs you use. (And the other combat changes described below will affect it further.) To give a feel for what this change means, here are some examples from the Sword skill. Other skills have changed in a similar fashion. (Note that the numbers used here are for level 80 treasure effects, which cannot yet be found in-game. That's the worst case scenario, so the actual change for you will be a bit less than you see here.) Example changes from level 80 Sword treasure:
    • "Debilitating Blow Damage +66%" => "Debilitating Blow Damage +55%"
    • "Decapitate Damage +55%" => "Decapitate Damage +47.50%"
    • "Finishing Blow Damage +53%" => "Finishing Blow Damage +44%"
    • "Flashing Strike and Hacking Blade Damage +33%" => "Flashing Strike and Hacking Blade Damage +29%"
    • "Parry and Riposte Damage +54%" => "Parry and Riposte Damage +49%"
    • "Precision Pierce deals +188% damage but its reuse timer is increased +4 seconds" => "Precision Pierce deals +145% damage but its reuse timer is increased +3 seconds"
    • "Parry and Riposte Damage +24% and Power Cost -8" => "Parry and Riposte Damage +20% and Power Cost -8"
    Damage-Type Calculation Changes This update also changes how damage-type-specific buffs are calculated. Previously, these were added very late in the calculation process. This meant that a flat damage-type buff such as "Slashing Damage +5" would indeed add 5 to the damage, but the +5 wouldn't get multiplied in with other ability multipliers. This is different from most flat bonuses which are added in before multiplicative bonuses. On the other hand, percentage damage-type buffs such as "Slashing Damage +10%" benefitted from this setup, because they were a separate multiplier piled on top of everything else. Damage-type-specific buffs are now calculated exactly the same way as other buffs: flat boosts are added to the ability's damage first, then all multiplicative boosts are added together before multiplying by the flat amount. This means that flat damage-type boosts ("Slashing Damage +5") are more effective, since other ability multipliers now include them. But percentage damage-type buffs ("Slashing Damage +10%") are weaker because that percentage buff is now lumped in with other percentage-damage buffs. Whether this is a "nerf" or a "buff" depends on the particular treasure and abilities you use. Treasure like "Double Hit causes your next attack to deal +100 damage if it is a Crushing attack" is more potent, but treasure like "Piercing Damage +16% when Animal Handling Skill Active" is weaker. We didn't make this change specifically to nerf or buff anything -- we changed it so that it'd be easier to understand and remember, for both players and developers! (In fact, many of the existing treasure effects were designed with the assumption that it worked this way already, because we'd misremembered how damage-type calculations worked. Hence the programmer mantra: "Having fewer special cases is better!") We've made some changes to specific abilities and skills as a result of this change -- as described in the lengthy notes below -- and we will make additional revisions in future updates as necessary. Base Damage Changes Base Damage Multipliers are one of the few special cases we intend to keep around. Base Damage Multipliers increase your ability's damage, but they aren't supposed to be multiplied by anything else. In theory, if your Sword attack does 100 damage and you have "Sword Base Damage +10%" treasure, the treasure should never add more than 10 damage, no matter what other bonuses you may have. But due to the way the game engine worked, some bonuses multiplied the base damage: damage-type bonuses (such as "Fire Damage +5%" equipment) and damage-type vulnerabilities (such as when monsters are inherently weak to fire). Since we were fixing damage-type calculations, this seemed the best time to also fix the base-damage calculations. Now, Base Damage Multipliers will no longer get multiplied by anything else. (Theoretically -- bugs are always possible! Did we mention that you should report any bugs you see?) There's an upside to this change: every combat skill except Animal Handling has a treasure effect that boosts base damage for that skill. For Sword skill, this is "Sword Base Damage +26%", for Unarmed it's "Unarmed Base Damage +26%", etc. These effects needed a bit of a boost, but the system change needed to happen first. Now that that's done, these treasure effects can scale up:
    • All combat skills: Highest tier of "Skill Base Damage +X%" changed from +26% base damage to +40% base damage.
    We intend to use Base Damage in more interesting ways in the future. (A note on terminology: there used to be a related concept called "Base Damage Bonuses", which were flat bonuses such as "Sword Base Damage +5". These bonuses would get added to damage after certain other multipliers were already applied. We removed this special case several updates ago. Those bonuses are now just regular bonuses, like "Sword Damage +5". They get added in with all other flat bonuses first, before any multipliers. This change was made a while ago, but some treasure effects still used the old labels. We've cleaned up the game's terminology to be more consistent.) Ability Damage Formula Recap As of now, here's how ability damage is calculated:
    • Start with ability's base damage.
    • Add all additive (a/k/a "flat") damage buffs (universal damage boosts, skill-specific boosts, damage-type-specific boosts, boosts just for Kicks or Bombs, etc.).
    • Now sum together all percentage buffs (universal multipliers, damage-type-specific multipliers, multipliers for a specific ability, multipliers for Epic Attacks, etc.) and multiply by the previous step.
    • Now multiply by target's vulnerabilities and resistances (universal vulnerability, damage-type-specific vulnerabilities).
    • Now add in bonus damage from Base-Damage Multipliers (reduced if the target is resistant to the damage type).
    • Now reduce damage by the target's Mitigations (armor mitigation, universal damage reduction, damage-type-specific mitigation, etc.). If mitigation is negative, they take that much extra damage instead
    This gives a general idea of how it's supposed to work. If it seems complicated, well... it is. But it was a lot more complicated before this update! There are literally hundreds of ways to get boosts and buffs, though, so there's lots of space for mistakes or omissions. If you find problems, especially problems where the ability tooltip wildly disagrees with the actual damage done, please assume these are bugs and report them! Remember to report the gear, abilities, and buffs involved, plus the monster you're attacking -- the monster is very important since it can have vulnerabilities and resistances. You can 'attach' an item to a bug report, which is handy, but we don't yet have the ability to include screenshots in your in-game reports. So if you want to include a screenshot, please make an in-game report and then also e-mail the screenshot to support@projectgorgon.com, or post the screenshot to the forum. Thanks! Fire Magic One of Fire Magic's core combat abilities was pretty irrelevant: Fire Bolts simply didn't have much purpose anymore, given the availability of better area-effect attacks. After some prototyping a replacement, we ended up with ... an ability that's pretty much exactly like the Shield ability "Fire Shield". But it's more potent, and hey - it stacks with Fire Shield! (... which also received some improvements in this update. See below.) - The ability Fire Bolts has been replaced with a new ability, Molten Veins. All equipment that affected Fire Bolts has been revised to affect Molten Veins -- albeit in different ways, since the abilities are entirely different. Other Fire Magic changes:
    • Wall of Fire costs less Power, and treasure effects that boost Wall of Fire are more potent.
    • "25 seconds after summoning a Fire Wall, you regain 77 Health" => "You heal 10 Health per second when you are near your Fire Wall"
    • "All fire spells deal up to +36 damage (randomly determined)" now has a much higher random boost (+115).
    • "Scintillating Flame and Scintillating Frost stun and deal +100% damage to Vulnerable targets": This effect was previously found on three gear slots: Hands, Head, and Main-Hand Weapon. It is now only found on Hands. (This was done to make room for new treasure effects, since the stun didn't stack anyway.) If you had gear with this effect on Head or Main-Hand Weapon, the item has become Legacy and will need to be replaced with the "Legacy Item Replacer" golem in Serbule.
    Druid Healing Sanctuary, intended to be one of the most potent tools in the druid's arsenal, was finnicky and annoying to use. And due to technological limitations of pet-buffing -- which have since been fixed -- the treasure effects were mostly kinda dumb. So:
    • The requirement for the Healing Sanctuary itself to be "in combat" (meaning that it could detect an enemy nearby) has been removed.
    • The requirement for the healing recipient to be "in combat" has also been removed.
    • "Healing Sanctuary immediately restores 80 health to you upon summoning" => "Healing Sanctuary restores 16 Power with each heal"
    • "Healing Sanctuary immediately restores 115 armor to you upon summoning" => "Healing Sanctuary restores 40 Armor with each heal"
    • There are also new treasure effects for Healing Sanctuary.
    Other Druid changes:
    • Brambleskin deals more damage to enemies, especially at higher levels.
    • "Brambleskin heals you for 82 health" => "Brambleskin deals +96 Nature damage to melee attackers"
    • "Cloud Sight and Delerium Damage +X%" => significantly reduced percentage (bug fix)
    • Pulse of Life is now fully marked as a Minor Heal ability. (Some minor-heal buffs already applied to it, but not all.)
    • Rotskin's damage debuff is more potent (-48 mitigation vs -22) and treasure can further improve the debuff. However, multiple Rotskin debuffs no longer stack. (If multiple druids cast Rotskin on a target, only the strongest debuff is used.)
    • "Rotskin hits all targets within 10 meters and deals X direct health damage" => "Rotskin hits all targets within 10 meters and further debuffs their mitigation -X"
    Shield Since we were adjusting the damage-reflection abilities of Druid and Fire Magic, we also adjusted Shield's damage reflection ability, Fire Shield.
    • Fire Shield now deals more damage when melee attackers hit you. Reset time is 20 seconds instead of 60. Power cost is increased.
    • A new treasure effect increases the potency of Fire Shield's reflection; other Fire Shield treasure effects tweaked.
    Other Shield changes:
    • "Shield Team grants all allies X% evasion of burst attacks for 10 seconds": The higher-level versions of this effect were the same as the level 50 version; they now grant higher percentage evasion.
    • "Shield Team grants all allies +8 mitigation of all physical attacks (Crushing, Slashing, or Piercing) for 20 seconds" => +16 mitigation
    Other Skill & Treasure Changes
    • Various: A number of abilities have slightly adjusted base damage and power costs; their treasure effects have been revised as a result.
    • Various: A dozen or so treasure effects that restore health or armor were buffed to heal 5-20 more health or armor. (formula change)
    • Various: Several treasure effects of the type that 'generates no Rage, and reduces Rage by X' have slightly reduced Rage reduction numbers. (formula change)
    • Various: An assortment of treasure effects had higher tiers that were identical to lower tiers. These have all been fixed.
    • Various: Numerous treasure effects gained a skill prerequisite that they were missing. For example, the Giant Bat mod "Sonic Damage +X%" is now "Sonic Damage +X% When Giant Bat Skill Active". (bug fix)
    • Healing Sigils' AI was changed to work similarly to the druid's Healing Sanctuary: they can now heal without needing to have line of sight to a nearby enemy.
    • Animal Handling: "Sic Em causes your pet's attacks to generate -X Rage for 10 seconds" has improved rage reduction. (bug fix)
    • Archery: "All Archery attacks deal +52 damage but cost +4 Power" => "Archery Damage +70"
    • Giant Bat: "Screech has a 60% chance to deal +X% damage": Higher-tier versions now have a significantly lower damage percentage number. (bug fix)
    • Hammer: Reckless Slam removed less than the amount of armor listed in the ability description. This has been fixed.
    • Lycanthropy: "Taunt from Attack Damage -33%" => "Taunt from Attack Damage -27.5% while Lycanthropy skill active" (formula change, plus fixing missing skill requirement)
    • Rabbit: Treasure effects that boost Carrot Power are more powerful. (formula change)
    • Shamanic Infusion: "Signature Debuff abilities restore X Power" => "Signature Debuff abilities cost -X Power"
    • Shamanic Infusion: Added missing earlier-tier prerequisites (e.g. the third tier of a recipe is supposed to require you to already know the second tier, etc.).
    • Shamanic Infusion: You now receive bonus synergy levels in Shamanic Infusion when you reach Alchemy 42, Animal Handling 32, Battle Chemistry 41, Mycology 55, Anatomy 50, and Anatomy 70.
    • Sword: "Precision Pierce deals +X% damage but its reuse timer is increased +4 seconds => " ... reuse timer is increased +3 seconds" (side-effect of formula change)
    • Sword: "Sword Damage +16" => "Sword Damage +70"
    Belt Changes
    • Belts that you find in loot now have a chance to be Uncommon rarity -- green tier, that is, with one treasure effect. The effect is always a generic power that isn't tied to any particular skill.
    • Any belt-creation recipe that requires a trophy skin also now generates Uncommon belts.
    • Recipe for Great Hardcore Belt was changed to require a trophy skin (to generate Uncommon belts).
    • "Lucky Belts" for specific classes are now just called "Belts" (e.g. "Lucky Belt of the Swordsman" is now just "Belt of the Swordsman"). These belts once affected random-loot generation, but that was long ago. Now they boost damage, so the "lucky" terminology seemed weird.
    • All formerly-lucky belts increase Base Damage Multipliers a bit more than before (10% for single-skill and 7% for double-skill).
    • Belts that actually affect treasure in some way are still called "Lucky".
    • Added missing belts/recipes for rabbit and priest belts.
    Quest-Item Fixes "Quest Items" are items that are only needed for a certain quest. (Their icons have a thin red border.) If a special monster drops one of these items, each player that can loot the monster is supposed to be able to pick up their own copy of the quest item -- or, if the monster only has a chance to drop the quest item, each player has their own separate chance. A few monsters didn't behave this way: "Mr. Squeaky", James Eltibule, and Mudtusks. These monsters now drop quest items per-player as intended. Another problem was that solo-oriented quest monsters could be buried or eaten by the first person that looted them, thereby preventing other players from looting their quest items. So quest-item-dropping monsters can no longer be buried or eaten. Spawn Precognition There are new rituals (recipes) that allow you to detect where a newly-spawned enemy will appear a few seconds before it actually arrives. Ashk in Rahu teaches two of these rituals. The first, allowing you to see respawning monsters 3 seconds before they appear, can be learned if you've completed the Eye of Fate favor and have Meditation 25 or Shamanic Infusion 25. Other Changes
    • Added "Accuracy Boost" stats to the Miscellaneous Enchantments tab of the persona screen. (Only shown if you have any accuracy buffs.)
    • Shamanic Infusion now requires much less XP to level, and recipes earn more XP. Now the first-time completion of a recipe (of your current level) will always raise your level by at least 1, and usually raise it by 2. (Existing skill levels are unchanged.)
    • The drug Sharpen has been revised so that it is significantly more potent. However, the higher tiers of Sharpen now have Survival Instincts requirements.
    • Cooking: Recipe "Tart Applesauce" has been changed to actually use tart (green) apples.
    • Necromancy: skeleton mages no longer flee to create distance between themselves and melee assailants.
    • Fixed recipe for "Amazing Cloth Pants (Max-Enchanted)", which incorrectly required Maximized Sardonix x2, among other problems. It now correctly requires Vervadium x1 like other level 70 crafting recipes.
    • Fixed some work order scrolls whose level requirement (to read the scroll) did not match the actual work order's level requirement.
    • Replaced the weird yellow "sewer rat" model with a different model (which is also temporary, but much less terrible in the meantime).
    • Fixed a small (100 m square) chunk of the Ilmari desert where nothing could be selected.
    • Fixed various monsters whose combat sounds were too loud (because they were not using 3D positioning, so were always at max volume regardless of distance).
    • Fixed a bug that caused fire walls to make combat sounds repeatedly when not in combat. This also fixes some Sigil-Scripting sigils that had the same problem.
    • The "Proto-Druid" and "Proto-Wolf" titles can no longer be earned. (They were actually supposed to stop when alpha ended.)


    [ 2019-02-20 12:26:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: January 9, 2019

    Player Work-Order Board: Browse Categories


    The "browse recent orders" option on Player Work-Order boards now lets you see orders for just a particular category of thing, such as arrows or gems. This helps work-order fulfillers see a broader picture of demand for their particular skill. We've created a lot of browse categories just to see what ends up being useful to players, and we'll evolve them based on usage. (If a work order doesn't show up in the category you expect, such as a crystal order not showing up in the Crystals section, please report it as a bug.)

    Zombie Changes


    Necromancer's zombies were too hard to keep alive, even with necromancer-provided healing. There are a few changes to help alleviate this:
    • zombies' inherent self-bleed is reduced by about 75%
    • zombies now reap 25% of the health damage they deal (meaning that every time they deal damage to an enemy's health, they are healed by 25% of the health damage they dealt)

    Training Changes


    • Battle Chemistry: the trainer in Rahu now uses the Training system for golem conditionals and abilities, instead of selling them as books. This makes it easy to tell which ones you've learned: only ones you haven't learned yet will show up!
    • Tanning: previously the easiest way to learn Tanning was to complete a favor for Kleave. This is too hidden for such an important low-level skill, so Kleave's training menu now has an entry to Learn Tanning for 500 Councils, which she teaches at Comfortable. (If you prefer, you can still learn it by completing the favor. This will save you a few hundred Councils in Training costs.)
    • Learning the first level of Tanning (from whatever method) now teaches the first Tanning recipe. (The other Tanning recipes are still taught by Kleave.)
    • Leatherworking: Kleave now teaches her Leatherworking recipes from the Training menu, like a normal trainer. (She previously sold books of leatherworking recipes instead)

    Other Changes


    • the ability Set Broken Bone did not have the intended 33% chance to consume the Master First Aid Kit. (Instead the kit was always consumed.)
    • added another background music track to Red Wing Casino
    • Spider: Treasure effect "Premeditated Doom channeling time is -1 second and boosts your Indirect Poison damage +X (per tick) for 20 seconds" was bugged. Data errors caused this effect to use the level 80 version for all levels 60-80
    • the game now tries a bit harder to ensure that summoned and deployed items (such as tapped kegs, growing vegetables, motherlodes, etc.) are in an accessible location, and not trapped underground or in a wall. Note that as a side-effect, they can now spawn up to 12 meters away from you (instead of 5 meters as previous), and can now appear above or below you in some cases, so you may need to look around for them
    • removed terrifying error about speed-hacking when you try to turn off a toggleable ability too quickly (such as giant bats' Echolocate). You can now turn off abilities like this instantly, without having to wait for the ability's reuse timer to be up.
    • fixed a bug where the Party chat channel could be dropped from custom chat tabs when leaving a party
    • as a side-effect of cleaning up some old treasure system mechanics, the drop-chances of some treasure effects have changed. Most notably, effects that boost base-damage (e.g. "Sword Base Damage +X%") used to drop at a rate 15x higher than regular mods; they now drop 5x as often. (During pre-alpha those effects were extremely crucial and they needed to show up a lot, but they're more "optional" now.)


    [ 2019-01-09 15:13:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: December 20, 2018

    Ri-Shin Winter Celebration


    Winter is here, and humans and their friends across Alharth have begun celebrating the winter festival dedicated to Ri-Shin, god of plants and trees. Many towns and communities are looking for help to make their areas a little more festive, and you may find that your NPC friends have New Years' gifts for you as well!

    "Dangerous Improvement" Recipes Disabled


    When we opened the Red Wing Casino a few updates back, we introduced blacksmithing recipes to "dangerously improve" some types of weapons. This was a bit of an experiment for us as we looked at different ways to meet our goal of helping level-40 players improve their gear. After watching the recipes in action and tweaking them a bit, we've realized that this implementation will probably never meet our goals: it just requires too many resources for level-40 players to afford. And since "dangerously improved" weapons were overpowered in the hands of higher-level players, it didn't make sense to leave them in the game as they were. We apologize for having to remove this experiment. We're still prototyping replacement systems that will meet our goals better, and when we've chosen that new system, we'll attempt to update your equipment in whatever way seems to make sense. We'll do our best to preserve the time and effort that you've put into your "dangerously improved" weapons and translate that into the new system. In the meantime, we've left the non-working enhancements encoded into your weapons; you may seem them listed as "Do Nothing +X". Similarly, the recipes are still in your recipe list, labeled as "OBSOLETE", until we decide how the new system will work.

    Treasure Effect Location Fixes


    Several treasure effects were misconfigured, making them unavailable on randomly generated items. These have never actually been seen in the game before. So really, it's like they're brand new effects! Other treasure effects were only available in some of the locations or on some of the objects they were intended to cover. Bard:
    • Some treasure effects for main-hand weapons could only be found on Lutes, and some effects for off-hand weapons could only be found on Horns.
    Battle Chemistry:
    • "Toxic Irritant boosts your Nice Attack Damage +X for 8 seconds" is now available on rings and main-hand weapons.
    Druid:
    • "Toxinball Damage +X%": This was intended to be findable on necklaces and main-hand equipment, but couldn't be found on main-hand equipment.
    Ice Magic:
    • "Tundra Spikes deals +X% damage, gains +Y accuracy, and lowers targets' Evasion by Z for 20 seconds": This mod comes on two equipment slots, but the evasion-debuff aspect of the mod did not stack with itself.
    • "Ice Spear heals you for 46 health after a 15 second delay": This was intended to be findable on gloves and off-hand items, but couldn't be found on off-hand equipment.
    Knife:
    • Many treasure effects for main-hand weapons could only appear on Daggers. Now that dirks can be wielded in the off-hand, it's now reasonable to have a sword with Knife effects!
    • "Poisoner's Cut boosts indirect poison +X per tick" is now available on pants and off-hand weapons.
    • "Gut deals +X% damage and reuse timer is -1 second" is now available on shirts and necklaces.
    Pig:
    • "Grunt of Abeyance restores X Power to all targets": This was intended to appear on necklaces and main-hand equipment, but couldn't be found on main-hand equipment.
    Staff:
    • "Phoenix Strike deals +10% damage and triggers the target's Vulnerability" is now available on staves.
    Werewolf:
    • "All Werewolf attacks have a X% chance to deal Y Trauma damage over 8 seconds": This was intended to appear on helmets and main-hand equipment, but couldn't be found on main-hand equipment.
    Unarmed:
    • All main-hand treasure effects could not be found on daggers (but could be found on other weapons such as swords).
    Other:
    • Fixed several dozen Feet-slot treasure effects that could not be found on animal shoes (such as Deer Shoes).
    • Fixed a handful of other cases where certain treasure effects could not be found on certain specific types of equipment.

    Skill Revisions


    Several skills have gotten a bit of holiday love! For the following skill changes, we've tried to avoid turning gear "Legacy". (Legacy items are invalid items; they stop working and have to be replaced after 30 days.) To do that, retired treasure effects have been replaced with new effects that use the same equipment slots as the old. As a side-effect of squeezing new effects in wherever they can fit, it's possible that your gear will have effects for entirely different abilities than it had before! Sorry about that. We try to avoid that, but sometimes it's unavoidable.

    Necromancy:


    Necromancy has never been especially powerful at high-level, in large part due to a bunch of buggy treasure effects. You could build some interesting "darkness blaster" necromancers, but at high-level the pets were generally useless. We started out just fixing the bugs, but then decided to go a lot further: the majority of Necromancy's treasure effects have been altered with an eye toward creating interesting pet-oriented playstyles and skill combinations. Ability Changes:
    • "Create Super Zombie": This ability has been removed! It is now merged into the Raise Zombie ability (which was previously called Create Shambling Corpse).
    • "Create Shambling Corpse" was renamed "Raise Zombie". (It was already called in some parts of the game.) You can now use Raise Zombie even while you have a zombie alive, in which case it buffs and heals the existing zombie. The reuse timer on Raise Zombie is increased to 60 seconds and the Power cost is higher. All gear pertaining to zombies has been revised, and many new gear effects have been added for zombies.
    • Wave of Darkness: Changed from a 20m burst to a 10m burst. Changed base reuse time from 30 seconds to 18 seconds. All treasure mods that affected Wave of Darkness have been rebalanced as a result.
    • Provoke Undead: The inherent damage boost is slightly larger. Also, all treasure effects that were supposed to boost the damage from Provoke Undead were bugged and did (almost) nothing. These effects have been fixed and significantly revised, and new effects were added as well.

    Treasure Changes of Note:


    Since there were almost no Necromancy treasure effects that were entirely unchanged, this just lists the ones that changed significantly in function. Many other effects were rebalanced but not fundamentally changed, and a bunch of other Necromancy effects were entirely removed to make room for new ones. (See below.)
    • "Provoke Undead causes target undead to deal +X% damage for 10 seconds" => was bugged and did not work. It has been refactored to deal +X% damage but also deal Y damage to your minions over a 10 second period.
    • "Provoke Undead causes target undead to deal +X% damage for 10 seconds, but also take Y Health damage after a 10-second delay" => also did not work correctly. It has been refactored to deal damage immediately, not after a delay.
    • "Provoke Undead causes target undead to deal +X% damage with their Fire/Ice/Electricity attacks (if any) for 10 seconds" => also didn't work correctly. It has been refactored into a flat global damage bonus instead of an elemental percentage bonus.
    • "Life Steal targets all enemies within 10 meters and deals +X damage but reuse timer is +3 seconds" => was tweaked a bit because the +X flat damage wasn't useful. It is now: "Life Steal targets all enemies within 10 meters and steals +X health, but reuse timer is +3 seconds and Power cost is +Y".
    • "Wave of Darkness heals you for 66 health" => was replaced with a new effect: "Wave of Darkness damage +X and reuse timer is -1 second".
    • "Rebuild Undead restores X health/armor to your undead after a 15 second delay" => now has a 10-second delay.
    • "Summoned Skeletons deal +X direct damage with each attack, but take Y% more damage from any cold attacks" => damage bonus is a percentage instead of flat.
    • "Summoned Skeletal Archers and Mages deal +X direct damage, but take +50% more damage from any slashing, piercing, or crushing attacks" => damage bonus is a percentage instead of flat.
    • "Summoned Skeletal Archers deal +X direct damage with each attack" => now also applies to Skeletal Mages.
    • "All Summoned Skeletons deal +X damage with each attack, but are instantly destroyed by ANY Nature attack" => damage bonus is a percentage instead of flat, and this effect no longer applies to skeleton swordsmen.
    • "Death's Hold causes target to take +X% damage from Slashing for 15 seconds" => was quite overpowered, or would have been if it worked. It works now but has reduced efficacy.
    • "Rebuild Undead restores X health/armor to your undead after a 10 second delay" => accidentally healed the necromancer, not the undead minions.

    Retired Necromancy Treasure Mods:


      All of these have been replaced with entirely new effects.
    • "Death's Hold deals +X damage and Stuns target after a 15 second delay": This effect was almost always useless. It has been replaced.
    • "Necromancy Base Damage +%": The skill actually had two of these mods for a total of 4 slots' worth. This didn't seem to fit the Necromancy skill as it is currently envisioned, so two of those slots have been repurposed to boost Skeleton pet damage instead.
    • "Summoned Skeletal Archers and Mages regenerate +X health every update, both in and out of combat": Most tiers of this ability did not work on the right kinds of skeleton. It was fixed, but then completely replaced with a new effect.
    • "Summoned Skeletal Mages deal +X direct damage with each attack": This effect has been merged with a different one (above), so it was repurposed for a new effect.
    • "Create Super Zombie also heals yourself for 192 health, 192 armor, and 38 power": This has been replaced with a new effect that buffs Raise Zombie.
    • "Create Zombie also heals yourself for X health": This has been replaced with something that actually makes zombies better.
    • "Provoke Undead causes target undead to recover 66 Armor": Although it was one of the only Provoke Undead treasure effects that actually worked, it was thematically inappropriate for the ability. It has been replaced.
    • "Heal Undead restores +X Health/Armor and boosts targets' Slashing damage +Y for 8 seconds": The amounts here were so small as to be useless. Replaced.

    Cow:


      Cows' gear configuration posed a slightly thornier problem. While it was possible to build robust tanky builds, it required a lot of gear before it started to work: there were separate treasure effects for crushing, slashing, and piercing protection, and a typical "tank" would need all three -- and at high level they would probably want two of each. And since all six of those effects appeared on only Hands and Feet gear, cow gear ended up feeling pretty uninspired. We've changed those effects around, and also tried to address some other problematic play aspects and build limitations.
    • "Chew Cud boosts Crushing Mitigation +22 for 10 seconds" => "Chew Cud boosts Crushing/Slashing/Piercing Mitigation +14 for 10 seconds". In addition, this effect is now available on 4 slots instead of 2.
    • "Chew Cud boosts Slashing Mitigation +22 for 10 seconds" => was replaced with a new effect.
    • "Chew Cud boosts Piercing Mitigation +22 for 10 seconds" => was replaced with a new effect.
    • "Stampede Damage +X" => "Stampede Taunt +X" (for a much bigger X).
    • Ability "Tough Hoof" has been revised. "If the target attacks and damages you within 5 seconds, you regain X health" => is now "Each time the target attacks and damages you within 8 seconds, you regain X health". The ability's damage is a bit lower and reuse timer is 12s instead of 10s. Treasure effects have changed also.
    • There is also a new ability for Cows, as well as a bunch of new treasure effects. The new ability can temporarily be learned from Raul in Animal Town. (Although not permanently, as he finds it extremely uncouth.)

    Deer:


    • Cuteness Overload is now marked as an Epic Attack for purposes of equipment that boosts Epic Attacks.
    • "Summoned Deer deal +X damage" => damage is now percentage-based instead of flat.
    • "Deer Kick deals X armor damage and reduces target's rage by Y" => accidentally dealt Health damage instead. It has been refactored to just deal regular damage.
    • "Deer Kick implants insect eggs in the target. Future Deer Kicks by any deer cause target to take X Nature damage over 5 seconds" => didn't work. It now works as intended. In addition, all attacks made by player-summoned deer are now considered "Deer Kicks" for the purposes of this treasure effect.
    • "Deer Bash heals X health" => accidentally restored Armor instead.
    • Plus a new ability and a number of new treasure effects! The new ability can temporarily be learned from Jumper in Animal Town.

    Rabbit:


    The rabbit skill was unfinished: it had basic treasure effects but the selection was very shallow, which especially caused problems at high level. We've added two new abilities and dozens of new treasure effects to give Rabbit players a wider range of builds. Rabbits are the only animal form that can access Ice Magic, so some of the new rabbit treasure synergizes with it. We've also deepened the possibilities for melee rabbits (when combined, presumably, with Unarmed) and added more tools to build supportive Mentalist rabbits. We've also worked harder to make Carrot Power the defining feature it was meant to be. Rabbits love veggies and we want rabbit players to love veggies too, thanks to their powerful game effects! There were two problems with carrots: they was too expensive to use routinely, and the effects didn't really justify that hassle. So we've tackled the problem from both directions, making rabbit abilities consume far fewer carrots (especially with gear effects), as well as buffing up the potency and versatility of the ability's treasure options. (And remember that the ability's requirement for "carrots" can also be met with carrot-flavored rabbit treats, which can be bartered in Animal Town. This is how you turn other veggies into "carrots"!) Other changes:
    • Reuse timer of Hare Dash changed from 30 to 25.
    • Reuse timer of Play Dead now gets faster with each tier of the ability.
    • "Carrot Power Boosts Direct Cold Damage" => now boosts direct and indirect cold damage.
    • Fixed effect-ordering bug where the Play Dead effect that boosted Psychic damage did not apply to the Play Dead effect that dealt Psychic damage.
    • Plus two new abilities and a large new assortment of new treasure effects! The new abilities can temporarily be learned from Cinnamon in Animal Town, although they will be taught by a different NPC in the future.

    Spider:


    Abilities:
    • Incubate is no longer marked a Nice Attack. Spit Acid is now a Nice Attack.
    • Incubate can now be placed on the sidebar.
    • Baby spiders' rage attacks now have significantly better poison DoTs, and the spiders have smaller rage bars so they can use their poison a bit more often.
    • Spit Acid now destroys more armor on immediate impact.
    • Inject Venom's poison DoT deals more damage in a much shorter time window (12s instead of 20s).
    • Premeditated Doom reset time changed from 40s to 20s. Durations of various treasure effects adjusted accordingly. Treasure:
    • "Incubated Spiders deal +X direct damage with each attack" => now boosts damage by a percentage instead of a flat number
    • "Spider Bite has a 50% chance to deal +X damage" => now works for both Spider Bite and Infinite Legs, and it boosts damage by a percentage instead of a flat number.
    • "Combo: Gripjaw+any+any+Inject Venom deals +X damage and +Y over 20 seconds" => now deals +X% damage instead of a flat boost. The Damage-over-Time aspect has been dropped, but it was awful and you won't miss it.
    • "Spider Bite deals +X% damage" => has been replaced with "Combat Refresh restores +Y Power while Spider skill active".
    • "Premeditated Doom restores X health" => restores health after a 10-second delay.
    • "Premeditated Doom restores X armor" => restores armor after a 10-second delay.
    • "Infinite Legs restores X health" => now also applies to Spider Bite.
    • "Spider Bite restores X health" => was made obsolete because the Infinite Legs version now applies to both abilities. So it has been replaced with a completely new effect, one that buffs Premeditated Doom.
    • "Infinite Legs restores X armor" => has been replaced with "Infinite Legs deals +X% damage and reuse timer is -0.5 seconds".
    • "Grappling Web causes the target to take +X% damage from Poison attacks" => now correctly stacks with itself when the effect is present on two equipment slots.
    • "Poison Mitigation +X while Spider skill active" => now also mitigates Acid.
    • "Acid Mitigation +X while Spider skill active" => has been replaced with a new treasure effect for Spit Acid.
    • Plus various rebalances and new treasure effects to flesh out the spider's arsenal.

    Other Stuff


    • Abilities that summon pets now list the treasure effects that will apply (just as other types of abilities do).
    • You can now click on your pets in-game and examine them to see a rudimentary report of their combat stats at that moment. (Previously this was only available to Animal Handling pets.)
    • Sammie Grimspine in Serbule Hills sells Skinning Knives to her Friends. (This is a backup method for demo players who lose the knife they get from Ivyn's favor reward.)
    • Fixed equipment-crafting bug where using two of the same gem could generate Legacy items.
    • Fixed bug preventing Rabbit treasure mods from being extracted into Malachites.
    • Equipment-crafting recipes are changed so that using two of the same gem now usually results in gear for that skill + generic enhancements (rather than being for that skill + a randomly-picked skill) .
    • Fixed a bug where Death Avoidance gear did not always take your remaining armor into account before activating.


    [ 2018-12-21 03:16:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: December 5, 2018

    This is a quick touch-up to last week's update.

    • Inventory window: did not show the special overlays shown on top of quest items and broken hardcore items.
    • Practical Summoning: manually typing a number did not always correctly change the number summoned.
    • Recipe Sorting: the "Sort by Times Used" option did not work in some situations
    • Inventory window: showed incorrect status messages in the chat history when locking/unlocking a folder.
    • Fixed the level requirement on about two dozen work orders. These work orders' rewards are unchanged, only the level requirement was incorrect.
    • Fixed physics bug that could cause oversized monsters to fall through the world
    • Miscellaneous very minor data tweaks.


    [ 2018-12-05 17:16:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: November 28, 2018

    Today's update contains a huge array of new features, bugfixes, and quality of life improvements.

    Crafting UI


    Practical Summoning: You can now learn "Practical Summoning", an advanced teleportation technique that allows you to teleport recipe ingredients from nearby storage vaults into your inventory while you are crafting. When you learn Practical Summoning, it adds a special feature to the Crafting UI. If you don't have an ingredient on hand, the Crafting UI will display a "Summon" button. Pressing this button will attempt the teleport. You can also right-click a recipe ingredient and choose Summon Ingredient. To learn this technique you will need Teleportation level 12. For now, Irkima in the Red Wing Casino teaches this to his Friends for a price of 10,000 councils. (It will likely be moved in the future when more practical summoning techniques are added.) Auto-Repeat & Recipe Delay: We've tweaked auto-repeat crafting: the "repeating recipe" progress bar, which is displayed to give players a few seconds to cancel the recipe, will no longer be shown if the recipe already has a suitable built-in delay. For instance, carding cotton at a cotton gin takes 3 seconds, so the "repeating recipe" progress bar isn't needed -- there's already time for you to abort the auto-repeat. We've also removed the inherent recipe delay from many intermediate recipes, including most tool-creation recipes and all textile-creation recipes except for carding cotton. In addition, the inherent recipe delay of in-the-field decomposition recipes changed from 5 seconds to 3. Other:
    • You can now sort your recipe list in three ways: alphabetically, by recipe level, or by most-used recipes. There is no button for this UI feature yet; to access it, just right-click the name of a recipe in the list in the Crafting UI.
    • You can now mark recipes as Favorites by right-clicking the recipe name in the list. There is a new drop-down option at the top of the list to show only favorite recipes.
    • When crafting an enchanted item, the crafting window now shows info about the base item (the unenchanted version of the resulting item).

    Inventory UI


    Vendor Lock: If you've unlocked at least 1 extra inventory folder, you can now right-click the folder and choose "Vendor Lock" to keep the contents of that folder hidden from the vendor sales screen. Items from vendor-locked folders simply won't be shown in the sales list at all, just as items used in a Loadout are not shown. Inventory Hints: The inventory panel now offers you hints about items that are useful for your current situation. For example, when you are giving a gift to an NPC, the UI will highlight appropriate gifts in the inventory window with an animated overlay. Similarly, when you are viewing a storage vault that can only store certain types of items, items you are allowed to store in that vault are highlighted. Likewise with consignment: the items you are allowed to consign with that vendor are highlighted. Sorting Tweaks: We've refined the Inventory Sort button to automatically recognize new categories of items. The goal is for similar types of items to clump together when sorted. For example: mushrooms now sort next to each other, different stages of cotton sort together, silk sorts together, skinning knives appear near other tools, throwing knives sort together, and many more. Other:
    • Added an "Update this Loadout" button to loadout window; this button just replaces the contents of the loadout with the currently-active abilities and gear.
    • Added a spot on the inventory window that you can drag items onto to get More Info. This is the same as right-clicking the item and choosing More Info.
    • Fixed several subtle mouse-click bugs with the inventory window. Most notably, you couldn't drag items around in inventory while you were "in combat".
    • Cleaned up confusing error messages and sometimes-buggy behavior with the Split Stack window. (BTW, did you know you can quickly split a stack of items by clicking the inventory item while holding down the SHIFT key?)

    Main UI


    Drag Lock: If you want to prevent accidentally messing up your ability bars, there's a new option for you in the Settings window under the GUI tab. Just disable the option "Allow dragging things off of ability bars". You'll still be able to drag icons from the Abilities window ONTO your bars; you just won't be able to drag them OFF of the bars. Effect Wiggle: Beneficial effects that last more than 5 minutes will now "wiggle" when the effect is nearly over. This is intended to alert you that important buffs (such as Food) are wearing off, and that you had probably better do something about that. Other:
    • Added a new setting to let you turn off the player stats bar that's usually in the top-left corner. This is for players who would prefer to just use the stats globes to track their health/armor/etc.
    • The sidebar now has a right-click menu item to bring up the Special Abilities list, similar to the option already available on the bottom bars.
    • Fixed bugs with the sidebar's contents getting changed or lost when using potions and effects that increased the number of sidebar slots (such as Gur-Horta)
    • Fixed bug where changing the horizontal/vertical layout of the ability bars was not always saved in the settings for the next time the game started.
    • On the character selection screen, if the character is not Hanging Out with someone, it instead shows the area the character is in.

    Miscellaneous


    Steam Family Sharing: We no longer support Steam's Family Sharing feature, which lets other family members "borrow" your games while you aren't playing them. This was being used by a few people to create extra "mule" characters for free. Very few players are affected by this change, but if you are affected and you need help sorting things out, just drop us an e-mail at support@projectgorgon.com. (And remember that if you want to let someone try out the game, you just can point them at the free demo!) BookSaveToFile: Remember the old save-reports-to-file feature that was lost when we replaced the UI? No? Well, we've re-implemented it. If you add BookSaveToFile to your special settings, the "book" UI window will have a button that saves the contents to a file on your hard drive. This feature is intended to let players save reports such as the results from '/isearch' or '/guild who' so they can reference this information outside of the game. (Please note that this convenience feature may eventually be restricted to people who have the VIP subscriber plan.) Other:
    • At the Guild Management Sign, the Roster option can now be sorted by rank/name (the default, as before) or by Last Time Online.
    • When using the Eject Guild Members option, that popup list is sorted by Last Time Online. (We assume that if you're making room in the roster, you probably want to eject people who haven't been online recently.)
    • Fixed a bug with Dwarven Fixer: It did not correctly block the bright-lights screen effect of Delerium Tremens (the nastiest withdrawal state of an alcoholic). If you have Dwarven Fixer in your system already, you may need to drink another dose to get the fixed effect.
    • Dwarven Fixer now lasts 3 hours instead of 1.
    • Fixed several scripted scenarios where the game said you were lit on fire, but you weren't actually lit on fire (such as when trying to break into Ivyn's chest or when giving the wrong answer to the creepy crystal).
    • Fixed various scripting bugs that caused players to receive items with impossibly-high stack sizes instead of receiving multiple stacks of the item.
    • Fixed bugs when using the /leave command to leave a chat room that was in use in more than one chat channel.
    • Improved the heuristics for closing chat tabs automatically.
    • Fixed bug that caused the Group window to sometimes lose track of a party member (showing blank health/armor/power bars for them).
    • Miscellaneous performance optimizations related to the user interface.
    • Added new icons for resource items that are commonly confused with other resource items.
    • Added missing titles from player packages. If your account still doesn't have a title and it should, please e-mail support@projectgorgon.com ASAP so we can get you sorted out.


    [ 2018-11-28 20:10:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Dev Blog: November 15, 2018 - The Demo Is Live!

    I wanted to give you an update on our plans for near-future game updates. But first, let's talk about the demo!

    Project: Gorgon Demo Is Available!


    We're happy to announce that the "demo" version of Project: Gorgon is available. This has taken a while, but we knew it was important for this game. Project: Gorgon is pretty unusual, and you can't really tell if it's going to be your thing until you try it. So now you can! (You can download it from our Steam store page here -- just click "Download Demo" on the sidebar.) I wanted to make sure the demo encompassed more than just the tutorial area, to really give demo users a feel for how the game plays. So the demo lets players explore Anagoge (the newbie island), Serbule, and Serbule Hills, as well as most of the dungeons in those areas. Demo characters can unlock new skills as usual, and they can raise any of their skills up to level 15. This gives demo'ers a broad sampling of the game's content to explore. Once they buy the actual game, demo characters automatically become "real" characters without any restrictions, so it's quick and painless to transition from the demo to the regular game. We also worked hard to prevent "demo abuse". Since players could theoretically create as many demo characters as they want (limited only by the number of Steam accounts they want to create), there are a lot of potential abuse scenarios, such as harassment, market-manipulation, muling, even power-leveling. (Power-leveling? Really?! Yes... at least, in limited forms. Imagine someone using in a bunch of demo characters to play music for their main character's garden -- that's technically power-leveling, since music makes plants grow faster!) Let's go over the CANs and CANNOTs of the demo. Demo users:
    • CANNOT join a guild
    • CANNOT trade with other players
    • CANNOT send or receive money via /tip
    • CANNOT pick up items dropped on the ground (except items they themselves dropped)
    • CANNOT milk other players (or be milked, if they become a cow)
    • CANNOT listen to poetry orations or recite poetry
    • CAN unlock and use regular storage
    • CAN sell items at vendors, but CANNOT buy other players' used items
    • CANNOT buy consignment items or place their own consignments
    • CANNOT purchase from player stores or open their own stores
    • CANNOT play any instrument, but CAN listen to performances
    • CANNOT place or complete player-work-orders
    • CANNOT use deployed gadgeteering items such as vending machines and rafflers
    • CAN add friends (it prompts the other player to confirm, as normal)
    • CAN join hunting groups (and can chat in hunting group chat)
    • CAN speak in Local chat, and in Group chat (when they're in a group)
    • CAN speak in a new chat room called Demo
    • CAN listen, but CANNOT speak, in all other chat rooms (including Global, Trade, and Help)
    • CANNOT send private messages (PMs) unless both the sender and recipient are in the Demo chat room (see below)
    We want to let our amazing community help Demo players if they get stuck or have questions, but it has to be easy to opt in and out. That's why we've tied private messages to the new Demo chat room. If you want to help Demo players, simply join this chat room. (Right-click a chat tab, choose Edit Chat Tab, and add "Demo" to the tab's channels. Or you can type /join Demo to quickly create a new chat tab for it.) While you're in the Demo chat room, you'll also be able to communicate via PMs with demo users. If you leave the Demo room (by closing the Demo chat tab), demo users will be unable to PM you further (and vice versa). Demo users are still bound by the same code of conduct as regular players, and demo users that are abusive will be gagged or banned as usual. And you can always use /ignore to ignore obnoxious users. But since it's so easy to create new demo characters, we wanted this extra layer of abuse-protection for our community. To sum up: If you're happy to help demo users, join the Demo chat room. If it becomes too distracting, just leave that chat room. No design is ever perfect on the first try, so I'm sure we'll need to tweak these rules after we see what problems demo users run into. But I think this is a good first version.

    Upcoming Game Improvements


    We've talked before about the next big engineering task, which is rewriting the animation code to use Unity's newer 'Mecanim' system instead of our current home-brewed system. This coding work has been outsourced to our partners, who are developing it in a separate code branch. Unfortunately, it's taking longer than anticipated, and I'm not yet sure when the new animation system will be ready to integrate into the game. That also means horses are delayed, because the mounts need Mecanim. In the mean time, we're working on other parts of the game: improving the UI, fixing bugs, adding missing content, and revising game systems. Plus adding a few more new game systems to keep it interesting.

    Improving the UI


    The next update has some iterative improvements to the UI. For instance, it seems that a lot of players never find the "More Info" feature for items. (You currently find it by right-clicking an item and choosing 'More Info', and it can tell you things like who to gift the item to... no note-taking necessary!) I'll be adding an alternative way to get to that info so that it's easier to discover. More substantively, there's a new little feature called Practical Summoning. This is designed to make it a little easier to manage crafting ingredients. I can't count the number of times I've been trying to craft something and realized I forgot an ingredient and have to run and get it from storage. Once your character masters Practical Summoning, there's a new button in the crafting window to summon missing ingredients. (As shown by the "Summon..." link in this in-development screenshot.) Clicking that button lets you summon items from nearby storage areas -- all the storage in the current town you're in, more or less.

    There are a few caveats -- namely, it only works on fixed ingredients, not ingredients that you drag and drop into recipe slots. And it can't help you put stuff away after you're finished crafting. But I'm enjoying it and I think it'll be a nice little quality-of-life improvement. You'll be able to learn this trick from a mantis in the casino -- it costs a few thousand Councils and requires Teleportation level 12. The next update also fixes a bunch of annoying UI bugs, and there are some other new UI features that I don't want to talk about yet (because they may not work out... they're still being prototyped as I write this). And there are, of course, many more UI improvements to come in the future, too.

    Fleshing out Content


    Over the next few months we'll be taking a look at the higher-level areas: Kur, Ilmari, Rahu, and Gazluk. These areas all need more points of interest, more things to discover, most stuff to do! There are also a bunch of unfinished NPCs in these areas, and even entire storylines that just haven't made it into the game yet, plus some missing dungeons (a few larger ones, but mostly smaller soloable ones). Some areas will also see heavy revision for technical reasons. In particular, the terrain of Rahu will probably need to be remade. It was created via a different method than the other outdoor areas, as an experiment. We'd hoped this new method would work better than it did. (But hey, that's what experiments are for.) We'll be revising it to use the technique we used in other outdoor areas. I'm not sure what new content will be in the very next update yet (if any!). But I wanted to give you an idea of what we'll be working on for the next couple of updates. (Plus, of course, there's the Christmas event! It will be based on last years' alpha event, but with more stuff.)

    Revising Game Systems


    This game has a lot of game systems. A LOT of game systems. Many are pretty nicely fleshed-out, but some are basically just prototypes that need a lot of revision. I have a long list of systems that need to be improved. Some of those systems include mushroom farming, "dangerous improvement" recipes, guild features, and several combat skills. Some of these things just need tweaks and refinement, while others may go back to the drawing board entirely.

    Note: All This Will Take Several Months!


    I don't want to give the idea that all of this stuff will happen in the very next update, which is only about a week away. The next update is mostly UI stuff. We like to work in short sprints of two or three weeks, so we'll be rolling these changes out piecemeal over several months. This way you get access to the features ASAP, and we get timely feedback. A big advantage of this work style is that we can pivot to new priorities very quickly. And we often do just that! When the new animation system is ready, it'll probably be higher-priority than a lot of these tasks, so unfinished tasks on this list may go to the back burner. However it goes, I'll keep you posted! Thanks for supporting us! - Citan (Eric) PS - we could really use your help getting word out about the demo. It can be downloaded via the "Download Demo" link on our Steam store page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/342940/Project_Gorgon/ Discuss this blog post on our forum


    [ 2018-11-16 15:47:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: November 3, 2018

    This is a small bug-fix update. The Halloween event is NOT over yet -- it will run through the middle of the week (Wednesday or Thursday).

    • Fixed navigation issues with the boardwalks in Serbule and Anagoge Island
    • Fixed bugs that prevented the thick green "queued ability" overlay from showing up on a queued ability
    • Fixed bug where the faces of some male elves were lighter-colored than their bodies
    • Fixed bug with human and elf female eyelashes (they looked creepy in some light conditions)
    • Tried to work around weird behavior with Windows 10 firewall: if you log out or disconnect due to being AFK too long, the firewall would sometimes decide the game wasn't allowed to use the internet anymore and constantly break any connections to the server, requiring you to restart the game to log back in. The cause of this is unknown (Microsoft does not document much of anything about how their firewall app works or why), but we've made some changes based on hunches and we'll see if it helps.
    • Worked around Unity 2017 bug that caused the lowest graphics tiers (Bad, Abysmal, and Retro-Terrible) to be less efficient than they should be
    • Partially worked around a Unity engine bug involving shadows (where performance gets worse at certain times of day when facing certain directions outdoors). This is a partial fix, meaning the issue persists but is reduced. There is a side-effect, though: interactive elements such as monsters, NPCs, signs, lamps, chairs, etc., are no longer lit by the sun or moon. Usually this is completely unnoticeable, but sometimes it can be really surreal: "why is that lamppost not casting a shadow?!" If it's distressing, you can disable this fix by opening Settings and adding EntityShadows to the special-settings box. (There are better ways to address this problem in bleeding-edge versions of Unity, so we anticipate that this workaround is temporary.)
    • We'd like players to test out a new experimental graphics feature: spherical culling. To enable it, open the Settings window in-game and add SphereCull to the Special Settings window. Normally the game uses frustum culling, meaning anything that's not right in front of the camera isn't rendered. This is theoretically optimal: why render stuff that's not on the screen? But it has side-effects. One problem is that when you spin around in a circle, a lot of art assets have to be swapped in and out of video memory, which can cause framerate to drop momentarily. Spherical culling means everything in a circle around you is rendered. This may have a lower framerate overall, but it will greatly reduce "turning lag". Please try it out and report your experiences with it (especially bugs, such as missing water or other things being invisible)! And remember: you may need to lower your settings to effectively use this, especially if you've overridden settings like view distance or animation distance!


    [ 2018-11-03 21:47:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: October 18, 2018

    Halloween


    Strange things are going on in Alharth. You'll receive more information as soon as you log in.

    Slow-Boxes Optimization Turned Off By Default


    If you have noticeably worse framerate after this update, read on: In this update we disabled one of the experimental optimizations known as "slow boxes". This optimization *does* improve framerate when lots of selectable things are on-screen, but the improvement often isn't worth it: the targeting selection-boxes can move around randomly, which can be deadly in combat situations. We've turned this optimization off while we improve it. If you want to re-enable it (which might be needed on low-end machines in busy areas), open up the settings window in-game, click "Special", and type SlowBoxes into the special settings box. This will reactivate the slow boxes optimization. (The old special setting NoSlowBoxes no longer does anything, since slow boxes are off anyway.)

    Changes to Damage Formula


    We've corrected a problem with how damage is calculated for target-conditional modifiers that increase damage by a percentage. Target-conditional modifiers are things that only apply if the target is a certain way. For instance, "+X% damage to non-Elite targets", "+X% damage to undead", "+X% damage when the target's rage meter is 66% or higher", etc. Previously, if these modifiers added a percentage of damage to your attack, that percentage wasn't added to your other percent-boosters like other mods; instead it was multiplied separately, very late in the calculation process. These percent-boosters are now included with other regular percent-boosters. In other words, if you had two mods, "+25% damage all the time" and "+25% damage if the target is Elite", the combination will now result in +50% damage. Previously that combination would result in +56% damage, because they were multiplied together instead of added together.

    "Dangerously Improve Weapon" Recipes Return


    The three blacksmithing recipes to "dangerously" improve an item have returned. (The "danger" is that the item may shatter and be destroyed.) The chance for the item to be destroyed has increased from 2% to 3%, and the weapon now gains simple damage, not regular damage. Simple damage is not multiplied by any other gear mod benefits, but it is still multiplied by the enemy's vulnerabilities, or lack thereof. There is now a cap of 300 simple damage that can be added to an item, and to prevent these items from being used as insanely overpowered newbie gear, the weapon must be at least level 30. Weapons that were dangerously improved with the old recipes have been updated to use simple damage and have a cap of 300. To sum up, the recipes now read like this: Add +2 Simple Sword Damage to a sword, up to a maximum of +300. The sword must have enchantments of at least level 30. Simple damage is added to the total damage after all other multipliers. This recipe does not use Enhancement Points, but there is a 3% chance the weapon will shatter and be destroyed. (Must be near a forge.)

    Item Rafflers & Item Vendors Changes


    Ultra Item Rafflers with timers set to greater than 1 hour could sometimes be garbage-collected by the server before their timer was up (causing a winner to be immediately chosen from the people who had already bought a ticket). Large-Capacity Item Vendors and Fancy Item Vendors that are deployed in busy areas will now last longer before being garbage-collected by the server (and unsold items mailed back to the owner). A note about how these work: when there are a lot of items in an area, the server deletes old items based on internal priorities. If the server decides to delete a vend-o-matic, the remaining unsold items are mailed to the creator. If a raffler is destroyed before all tickets are sold, a winner is immediately chosen from among the sold tickets. If no tickets were sold, the raffle items are mailed to the creator. Most gadgeteering items will last about an hour in a busy area, but can last much longer in areas that don't have a lot of items on the ground. The above-mentioned high quality vend-o-matics will typically last 90 minutes in busy areas.

    Other Changes


    • All pet damage is increased noticeably. This is especially true of necromancers' skeletal pets. The most dramatic example is high-level skeletal mages, whose base damage increased by more than 50%. (The adjustments in this update are a "bulk" formulaic change; further adjustments will be made in the future.)
    • As of the last update, Elite monsters that are killed with only area-effect attacks are no longer combat-locked. But if a group killed an Elite with ONLY area-effect attacks, the elite would incorrectly act like non-elite for turn-based looting. Non-combat-locked elites now "faux lock" themselves to the group of the main killer when they die so that the group's turns are honored.
    • Higher tiers of the ability Spade Assault did not correctly have the lower tiers as prerequisites.
    • Fixed a scenario where you could skin an illusion of a dead werewolf if you were really, really quick.
    • Fixed weird particles appearing when drake worms burst out of the ground.
    • Fixed a client display bug that caused some damage attributes to not be updated after equipment was taken off. This was only a tooltip display bug.
    • Fixed a server-side rounding error with base-damage multipliers that could cause attacks to deal 1 less damage than the client tooltip indicated it should.
    • Stuffed toy bears can now be deployed for others to be able to hug. (The bear is not destroyed; only one bear can be deployed per 15 minutes per player.)
    • The map in the casino was shifted over a bit to include the new party room. The fog is reset, and any map pins in the casino will be off by a small amount. Sorry about that!
    • Added signs to the Red Wing Casino to help guests navigate more easily.
    • Added a "secret" entrance/exit to Gazluk Keep.


    [ 2018-10-20 19:16:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: September 21, 2018

    Red Wing Casino


    The Red Wing Casino is now open! You can find the entrance to this "teleportation-accessible luxury resort destination" in Rahu. (And perhaps there are easier ways ...) To help us test the games in the casino, type the command /redeem RedWingTickets in chat to receive some free game vouchers!

    Storage Cleanup


    In this update we've tried to clean up a lot of storage-related weirdness. For example, one big problem was that many ingredients couldn't be stored in storage for "ingredients" -- because every ingredient had to be manually flagged by us and we often missed some. Now we've switched to automated tagging of ingredient types. We've also cleaned up the categories. Several NPCs stored "Ingredients for any skill," but now that all ingredients are being tagged automatically, this is far too large a category -- nearly everything is an ingredient for something! In practice, only food items were reliably tagged as ingredients in the past (and not even all of those), so "ingredients for any skill" storage were effectively cooking storage. As such we've converted "ingredients for any skill" storage into "food or cooking ingredients" storage in this update. We've also changed the storage of Joeh in Serbule. He offered a large amount of storage for equipment, but Serbule is the newbie town. Newbies don't have a lot of extra equipment to store and it's a much better idea for them to sell or gift any excess equipment instead of trying to store it! So Joeh was actually hurting our newbie experience by teaching newbies that they should hoard low-level gear. Joeh now has storage for any type of item, but fewer storage slots than before. (Tyler Green remains unchanged because his equipment storage doesn't open up until players reach Best Friends favor level, at which point they aren't likely to be newbies.) We've added more Equipment-specific storage in the new casino area (along with tons of other new storage), but it's been tweaked a bit: Equipment storage now also lets you store ammunition. This includes things like arrows (obviously) but also includes anything consumed by an ability: throwing knives, first aid kits, diamonds (used by a certain ability), and many others. The intent is to let you store all the items for a particular combat skill in one place. In all cases where a storage vault changed, existing items are still there. If you take those items out, however, you won't be able to put them back in if they no longer meet the requirements for that storage. Specific notes:
    • Laura Neth: "ingredients for any skill" ==> "Food or Cooking Ingredients"
    • Selaxi: "ingredients for any skill" ==> "Food or Cooking Ingredients"
    • Julius Patton: "Food or Cooking Ingredients" ==> "Food, Cooking, or Brewing Ingredients"
    • Joeh: "Equipment" ==> "any item". Max slots reduced from 64 (at Like Family) to 40.
    • Tyler Green: "Equipment" ==> "Equipment and Ammunition"
    • Charles Thompson: "Alchemy [potions]" ==> "Potions and Alchemy Ingredients"

    Monster Crits


    High-level monsters needed to do a bit more damage, and high-level combat also needed to be a bit less predictable. So instead of just buffing monster damage as we've done in the past, this time we've introduced monster crits. Monsters now have a chance to critically-hit for double damage. The chance is based on the monster's internal combat level. For every level after 30, monsters gain 0.25% chance to crit. This means that by level 70, they have a 10% chance to crit for double damage. Elite and Boss monsters have an extra +5% chance to critically-hit. (This is a flat bonus that's the same at every level. This means that even newbie bosses will occasionally lay the smackdown. It's for your own good! Dying builds character.)

    (Non-AH) Pet Crits


    Some of the pet skills are in an awkward place right now because high-level player damage is still so high that pets can't contribute very usefully. We're still working on high-level player damage scaling. In the short term, the tech for these new monster crits give us an interesting way to buff pets a bit. For every pet-level above 30, the pet gains 0.25% chance to crit. Note this is not YOUR skill level, but the pet's level. (Each summoned pet has an inherent level; to get a higher-level pet you need to use a higher-level summoning ability.) Pet crits deal +100% damage at level 30, plus 1% more for every level above that.
    • Example: the pet summoned by Raise Skeletal Archer 4 is level 47. Thus it has a 4.25% chance to critically-hit, and crits deal 217% damage.
    • Example: the spider summoned by Incubate 5 is level 70. Thus it has a 10% chance to critically-hit, and crits deal 240% damage.
    This change may not be permanent, but it will help high-level pets in the short term. Note that this applies to all pets EXCEPT animal-handling pets. Animal-handling pets use a different critical-hit mechanic already. So this affects necromancy pets, baby spiders, summoned deer, minigolems, etc.

    Other Changes & Fixes


    • Monsters no longer notice players before the player's loading screen finishes.
    • Area-of-effect attacks no longer "loot-lock" monsters hit by the burst.
    • Added a button to sort storage vault contents. (This uses the same sort order as the inventory-sort button does.)
    • About 200 new Work Orders have been added to the game; there is a new Work Order sign in Red Wing Casino, and all existing boards have at least a few new ones.
    • In addition, many old Work Orders have been moved from one city to another (to try to make things a little more sensible... but it still needs more reorganization in the future). You may want to check your active Work Orders in case they now need to be delivered to a different city than before!
    • Some melee abilities were not flagged as melee, so buffs/debuffs applicable to melee attacks did not work on them: Phoenix Strike, Bun-Fu Strike, Rabbit Scratch, Doe Eyes.
    • Some burst attacks were not flagged as bursts, so buffs/debuffs applicable to burst attacks did not work on them: Wave of Darkness, Song of Discord, various minigolem abilities.
    • Druid ability Cloud Sight did not benefit from equipment that boosted druid base damage by a percentage.
    • Stopped damage-reply effects (such as Fire Shield Potions) from activating due to friendly damage (e.g. from Restorative Arrow).
    • "Fight Me You Fools" had untyped damage instead of Crushing damage.
    • Some healing abilities that normally deal 0 damage (since they're heals) could inflict damage when flat damage-type boosts were added (e.g. a Ring of Psychic Pestering, which adds +2 psychic damage, would cause some mentalism heals to deal 2 damage).
    • Corrected the Causes of Death from Priest attacks.
    • The sidebar ability Fish Gut has been completely redesigned: it no longer uses fish scales as ammo and instead uses a skinning knife (with a 5% chance the knife will be lost). Creatures with Fish anatomy take double damage. This is considered a (non-bleed-inducing) variant of Gut for purposes of equipment and combos.
    • Renumbered the IDs of poetry appreciation effects to allow room for new effects in the future; if you had a poetry appreciation buff on, it has been dispelled - sorry!
    • Recipes for exotic mushroom substrate have fewer ingredients but only yield half as much substrate.
    • The cow ability Chew Cud now only consumes regular "Grass", and not other grasses such as "Evil Grass" or "Barley". This is because chewing something besides regular Grass is pretty much always a mistake, and sometimes a tragic one (like when you chew up your Eternal Greens).
    • For similar reasons, the ability Organ Displacement now only takes basic Aquamarines, not things with aquamarines in them (such as Aquamarine Rings).
    • For similar reasons, the ability Resuscitate now only takes basic Diamonds, not fancy diamonds (such as Winterprize) or equipment with diamonds in them.
    • The recipe for some alchemy potions has been simplified: Persona Reducer Potion, Memory Inhibitor Potion.
    • Reduced the ingredients needed for high-level Shamanic Infusion recipes.
    • Fixed recipe icons that did not match the items generated by the recipe.
    • Bottles of Fertilizer now stack to 5.
    • Rennet now stacks to 5.
    • NPCs that like specific flowers (e.g. Brianna Willer likes Dahlias) now really like bouquets containing just that flower (Dahlia Bouquets in this case).
    • Fae Felt can now be dropped by all killable fairy enemies. It is an extremely rare drop for low level fairies such as fairy slaves, and an uncommon drop for higher level fairies.
    • Crazed Alphas are more dangerous.
    • Fixed missing icons (shown as all-white squares) when viewing player raffle boxes or vend-o-matics.
    • NPCs that interact with lamps (such as Sir Coth does at night) can once again actually turn said lamps on/off.
    • Slightly shrank the default NPC dialog font text from 18pt to 16pt. (This does not affect existing installations. You can always manually change the font size in Settings->GUI->Font Sizes.)
    • Upgraded to a new version of Unity, 2017.4.10


    [ 2018-09-21 20:52:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: July 9, 2018

    This is a server-only update to fix some networking and database performance problems. The only gameplay change is the following:

    • Bard treasure mod: "Whenever you take damage from an enemy, you gain Song of Discord Damage +6% and Song of Resurgence Healing +6 for 20 seconds." => This now stacks up to 12x (instead of infinitely)
    • Bard treasure mod: "Whenever you take damage from an enemy, you gain Bard Base Damage +8% for 15 seconds." => This now stacks up to 10x (instead of infinitely)
    That's it for now, but we're hard at work on a new content update which will be ready in a few weeks. More info soon!


    [ 2018-07-12 18:40:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: June 20, 2018

    Catalog Golems


    You can now find Catalog Golems in the hall of player-run shops in Serbule Keep! These adorable little constructs will be happy to search the player vendors for specific items on your behalf, and let you know which shops have what you need. The golems can't tell you how much the price is, and they don't deliver the goods, but they also don't demand tips. So stop by and take advantage of this free service today!

    Augment-Installation Services


    Some NPCs can now install Augments for you! By using one of these NPCs, you do not need to have learned the various Augment Installation recipes from Nightshade. Learning Nightshade's recipes will eventually be a cost-savings for max-level players who do a lot of augment-installing, but at the current max level of 70, most players will find it cheaper to just use these NPCs. The following NPCs can install Augments for you:
    • Joeh in Serbule can install level 0-20 Augments for 50 Councils.
    • Kalaba in Eltibule can install level 21-40 Augments for 250 Councils.
    • Urzab in Amulna can install level 41-60 Augments for 650 Councils.
    • Rick Snapley in Gazluk can install level 61-80 Augments for 1000 Councils.
    • Torgan in Gazluk can install level 61-80 Augments for 900 Councils. You must know Orcish.
    • Preta in Sun Vale can install level 0-50 Augments for 350 Councils. You must be Close Friends or better.
    • Tyler Green in Serbule Hills can install level 0-25 Augments for free. You must be Friends or better.
    • Amutasa in Rahu can install level 0-70 Augments for 650 Councils. You must be Friends or better.
    • Nightshade in Kur can install level 0-100 Augments for 2000 Councils.

    Skill Changes


    These changes are a continuation of our DoT (Damage-over-Time) ability revamps. We are now mostly finished with the conversion, except for a few DoTs with special behavior that can't be converted. Those handful of unique DoTs will use the older system for the foreseeable future. (And of course we may have missed some or made mistakes!) Archery
    • Treasure: Mangling Shot deals 330 Trauma damage over 10 seconds => 462 Trauma damage over 12 seconds
    • Ability: Fire Arrow deals damage over 15 seconds => same damage but over 10 seconds
    Crossbow
    • Ability: Fiery Bolt 6: Deals 468 damage, plus 230 damage over 20 seconds => 418 damage, plus 288 damage over 12 seconds
    Druid
    • Treasure: Cloud Sight covers the target in insects that deal 170 Nature damage over 15 seconds => 252 Nature damage over 12 seconds
    • Fixed bug that caused Heart Thorn and Poisoned Thorns DOTs to deal 5 more damage per tick than listed.
    • Treasure: Rotskin deals 190 Trauma damage to health over 15 seconds => 282 damage over 12 seconds
    • Treasure: Toxinball deals 114 Poison damage over 12 seconds => 186 over 12 seconds. Also note: this treasure effect was bugged and previously didn't work at all. Now it works.
    Giant Bat
    • Treasure: Virulent Bite deals 115 trauma damage over 10 seconds => 222 Trauma over 12 seconds
    • Treasure: Virulent Bite has a 50% chance to deal +76% damage plus 120 trauma damage over 10 seconds => This effect has been overhauled. It is now: "Virulent Bite deals 192 Trauma damage over 12 seconds and also has a 25% chance to deal +76% direct Piercing damage"
    Hammer
    • Treasure: Latent Charge deals +200 Electricity damage after an 8 second delay => 240 after an 8 second delay. Also note: this treasure effect was bugged and actually took 15 seconds to activate, not 8 as intended. This is fixed.
    Lycanthropy
    • Ability: Sanguine Fangs 6: Deals 120 damage over 8 seconds => 140 over 8 seconds
    • Treasure: Sanguine Fangs deals +144 Trauma damage over 8 seconds => 224 over 8 seconds
    • Treasure: All Werewolf attacks have a 31% chance to deal 48 Trauma damage over 8 seconds => 64 damage over 8 seconds
    • Treasure: Sanguine Fangs suddenly deals 240 damage after a 15 second delay => 280 damage after a 12-second delay
    Spider
    • Treasure: Grappling Web deals 224 Poison damage over 12 seconds => 300 over 12 seconds
    Misc
    • Various meditation combos that dealt DoT (damage-over-time) damage have been adjusted to new DoT balance.
    • Various monsters with DoT (damage-over-time) attacks have been adjusted to new DoT balance.

    Other Changes and Fixes


    • Fixed bugs with Skill tree UI not retaining state.
    • The item-tooltip for Augments now lists the skill level requirement of the augment.
    • Augment-Installation recipes no longer have an extra-ingredient cost (e.g. fish scales, fire dust, etc.).
    • When extracting an Augment from an item, you can now extract generic (non-skill-specific) powers by using any of the "desert gems": Turquoise, Sapphire, Emerald, Morganite, Sunstone, Tiger's Eye, Opal, Goshenite, Danburite, and Ruby. Previously these gems did nothing when used with extraction, so for now they are all assigned to generic-augment extraction. Eventually some of these gems will be needed for other things, though. So just to make it official, Sunstones and Goshenites are the permanent generic-augment-extraction gems. Some of the others may be reassigned to do other things in the relatively-distant future -- 3+ months from now.
    • Adding augments to items no longer affects how much phlogiston or other resources are obtained when decomposing or distilling the item.
    • Using Shamanic Infusion on an item now adds a Shamanic Infusion requirement equal to the level of the recipe. (Previously all infusions accidentally installed a requirement of Shamanic Infusion level 1, even for max-level infusions.) This fix does not affect existing items... UNTIL those items are used in transmutation. Transmutation (and a few other crafting processes) automatically recalculate the item's wield-requirements, and this can cause the correct Shamanic Infusion requirement to appear.
    • Fixed Fire Shield Potions and Acid Shield Potions so that their reflection does not stack if you drink multiple potions.
    • Fixed ingredient errors in crafted Priest Staff recipes.
    • Fixed rounding and calculation problems that caused a number of converted DOT effects (from the last update) to deal 1 or 2 more damage per tick than intended (and more than the tooltip said it would deal).
    • Enchantments that boosted movement-speed attributes by a fractional amount were displayed as adding a whole number. For instance, items that add +0.5 to Sprint Speed would say they added "Sprint Speed +0". (This was only a display bug.)
    • Fixed invalid locations where monsters could spawn, notably under Marna's shop in Serbule.
    • Additional texture memory optimizations.
    • Removed yellowish hue to the specular layer of Elvish Armor. (This will affect how the armor looks when dyed. It should look closer to the dye color, and less yellow. Unless you dyed it yellow, in which case... who knows.)
    • Fixed texture error with female dwarf NPCs that made their faces look extra wrinkled and weird.
    • The 3rd-party tools JSON for treasure mods now includes the minimum level-requirement for each tier of each treasure mod.
    • Added a bit more documentation for the 3rd-party tools files.


    [ 2018-06-20 17:11:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Dev Blog: June 18, 2018

    Hi guys! The next update is coming in just a few days. I've been focusing pretty heavily on the update, but I had some time today, so I wanted to give you a status update. Remember, this is a dev-blog. It's not an official announcement about future changes, it's just me talking about what I'm doing and thinking. I like to share my current plans, but these plans change often. Speaking of which...

    About That Treasure Rebalancing


    The last dev blog talked about some major revisions to treasure balance. And then the next two updates came out, and there were no revisions to treasure balance. The revisions aren't going to be in the next update either. What's going on? Well, after I implemented some of the changes, I wanted to sanity-check them... and realized my gameplay data metrics were out of date. The game server normally collects anonymized combat metrics that let me answer questions like "How long does it take a player using skills X and Y at level Z to kill a level-appropriate monster?" or "If a player is using skill X in area A, how often do they die?" These insights are very helpful in making sure my changes aren't insane. But I don't have that data right now, because metrics-logging was turned off. After we launched on Steam we had unexpected server stability problems, and the very first thing I did was to turn off all non-essential functions to rule them out as the cause. So metrics logging has been turned off for months, which means the data I have is pretty old and doesn't reflect recent changes to the game or the player-base. I realized this problem late last month, but at that time we were STILL having occasional server problems, and it seemed dumb to turn the metrics back on while I was still hunting for problems. The server has been extremely stable after the last batch of server fixes (on the 8th), though, so I'm going to turn the logging back on in this week's update. Then it will take about a month to collect new data. I don't always use metrics data when making changes, because it takes a very long time to analyze that data. For situations like the AoE nerfs (see below), it's pretty easy for me to test what will happen when I make the change: I can create some AoE characters and try them on my local server. But this upcoming rebalance will impact a LOT of skills and treasure effects, and I can't predict all the side-effects. There will inevitably be some weird issues stemming from this change, and that's fine, we'll fix them... but I guess I want more reassurance that this change is moving the game in the right direction. And I need more data for that! So long story short: there's been some delays. In the meantime, I've focused on more client optimizations and new game features.

    Client Optimizations


    The next update doesn't have any of the large-scale Serbule optimizations that I talked about in the last dev blog, such as replacing the sky/weather system, but it does have a lot of more traditional optimizations: the game's texture-memory footprint is reduced by over 100mb in most areas, which will help users with integrated video cards (or any video card with less than 2gb of RAM). We've also done a bunch more LOD optimizations in Serbule and Serbule Hills, which will help framerate on mid-tier video cards. The impact of these particular optimizations will depend entirely on your computer's hardware, so they might make a big difference for you, or they might not. We'll watch your feedback to see what you think. And there are many more optimizations in the works, of course!

    Vendor-Stall Searching


    The next update will add a way to search player-run-shops. There will be little Catalog Golems in the shop hall, and you can ask them to list all the shops that are selling a particular item. I'm walking a fine line here, and I wanted to mention the reasoning behind it. The golems' results are intentionally pretty simple: they tell you who sells it, but don't tell you the price they're charging. Why not? For one thing, it can be very difficult to show a price because player shops can sell the same item for lots of different prices at different quantities. But the main reason is that I don't want to make shops compete on price alone. That would drive costs down extremely quickly, instead of the slower market adjustments that I want to see, and it's basically not any fun for player shop-keepers. And it would ruin my long-term plans to let shopkeepers compete in innovative ways. For instance, in the future shopkeepers might be able to offer frequent-buyer discounts that reward repeat customers. Shopkeepers might also be able to set up raffles contingent on purchase: "Buy any _____ and automatically be entered for a chance to win _________!" The shop system was designed to have little features like this added in pretty easily, and they'll eventually let shopkeepers be really creative. But if catalog golems showed the cheapest price, most players would just go for the cheapest stall regardless of anything else that other shops had. This is also why we don't have an auction house: it's super convenient for consumers, but it drains every drop of fun out of being a pretend fantasy merchant. For a game with this much crafting in it, I need to protect shopkeepers and make sure they're having fun, even if it means there's a little more hassle involved in buying something. However, the current shopping process, which I guess can be summed up as "if you want to buy something right away, first you have to browse 100 player shops" is FAR too difficult and irritating. I'm okay with there being a little friction when shopping, but not anywhere near that much. So this vendor-stall-search feature is a step in that direction, and we'll evolve the game as needed, until we find a good balance of buyer convenience and shopkeeper control. (If you're interested in this topic from a game-design point of view, I wanted to direct you to some of the old blog posts I wrote about Project: Gorgon's economic plans... but unfortunately our old pre-alpha dev blog is offline right now. So instead let me point interested readers at a great old blog-post by Raph Koster, of Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies design fame. Just to be clear, not everything he talks about is applicable to us! Star Wars Galaxies was a very different game from ours, with permanent item loss and a bigger focus on crafting than we have. But he explains some underlying design ideas that will help you understand where I'm coming from. His post is called "Do Auction Houses Suck?" )

    AoE Nerfs


    Some players felt blindsided by the changes to area-of-effect abilities in the May 25 update. Which is understandable since it was definitely an abrupt change: I decided that it shouldn't wait any longer, I needed to drastically reduce the power of AoEs. Not in a subtle "maybe we'll reduce this one a little bit" kind of way, either -- they were so overpowered that they were creating new farming playstyles that shouldn't exist at all, with players able to safely kill eight or ten monsters at once. This isn't new -- for a long time a small number of players have been using "AoE Death Builds" to kill dozens of monsters at a time. And that was obviously a problem, but it hadn't really been at the top of my to-do list. To be frank, there's a lot of overpowered stuff in the game right now, and I intentionally try to avoid making knee-jerk adjustments just because somebody found a way to abuse something. Since the game's balance is still changing pretty dramatically, an overpowered ability may suddenly stop being overpowered a bit later. So I try to focus on the big picture. I do try to tackle balance problems if they're getting out of hand, though, and I should probably have jumped on this one earlier. These AoE builds had started to become really popular, and more and more players were using them. Listening to players talk in global, it's clear that most of these people realized they were overpowered, and were rushing to exploit AoEs before they got nerfed. So I nerfed them. Let's talk about AoE balance a little bit. Most AoEs are balanced around the idea that they hit 1.5 people on average. That means we expect that half the time they'd hit a single target, and the other half of the time they'd hit two targets. If they hit three or more targets, that's "free" damage, but of course there's a lot more risk when fighting so many monsters. And that's the underlying balance problem: players were using AoEs to hit more targets than I originally intended, and with less risk of dying than I expected. I'm not just talking about the really crazy builds that could kill dozens of monsters at once. If you talked to any player using an "AoE build", it's clear they didn't plan on hitting a mere 1.5 monsters on average! The obvious fix would be to nerf their damage, Power costs, and other effects, rebalancing AoE abilities around the idea that they'd be hitting more enemies on average. But I'm resistant to that idea because it turns AoEs into very specialized, very boring abilities. Instead, AoEs were changed so that if you hit more than three targets, the damage is lowered dramatically. If you hit six or seven monsters, the AoE does almost no damage. But if you take care to only hit three monsters at a time, the damage is unchanged, and it's still FAR more efficient than single-target attacks. I prototyped some other ideas before using this one. One idea was to increase the reset timer based on the number of enemies hit, so if you hit six targets, the ability would be on cooldown for 3 extra seconds. In practice this doesn't work -- the AoEs still do too much burst damage, and if they don't manage to kill the enemy, you have no recourse except to flee because your abilities are on cooldown. I also experimented with increasing the total Power cost based on the number of targets you hit, with similarly crappy results. I eventually settled on the current solution. And I like the current solution -- it's not perfect, but it's the best I've come up with so far. It means AoE builds are still extremely powerful in the right hands, but they're not the mindless death-buttons that they were before. You need to be a bit more situationally aware, and that takes a little bit of skill. That's nice! I think the most serious problem with this solution is that having a bigger radius isn't as big a win anymore. There are a handful of abilities with 10 meter burst radii (or even bigger!), and these abilities are much harder to use now. They hit so large an area that you can't always predict how many monsters will get hit. I may end up just reducing their radius, but first I'm trying some experiments to see if I can find a better approach for these abilities. Anyway, I'm letting the current solution stand for another update or two while I ponder the issue, gather feedback, and prototype some more ideas. Oh, and one more thing: monsters currently use the same AoE code as players do. If you're in a large group and fighting AoE-spamming monsters, keep that in mind.

    NPC Augment Installation


    I think the game is a bit unfair at higher level. There's an intentional power jump around level 50, then another one at 60 and 70, where the game starts to expect you to have decent gear and know how to use your abilities. The problem is that the game doesn't give players a lot of feedback on what's going on. Players often report feeling "stuck", unsure of why they seem unable to tackle higher-level areas. The game isn't giving them enough information to figure out how to advance. So I've been slowly working on making this power transition smoother. NOT easier... just smoother. I think it's fine for the game to demand that you "get good" at high level, but the game has to give you lots of context to understand what's wrong and how to evolve your character. And ideally, it should do that well before you reach the point where you're saying "Huh? I can't kill these monsters in the desert. Why not?!" One transition hurdle is that by level 60, the game is balanced around you knowing Transmutation and having access to basic Augments. Most players discover Transmutation on their own eventually (although I'll be making it easier to find soon, because it's really important! I expect every player to know and use Transmutation). But Augmentation is made up of several difficult crafting skills that I really don't expect every player to learn. Creating Augments is a pain, but USING Augments should be easy: you should be able to go to a player crafter and buy the Augment you want, then plug it into your gear. This update moves us closer to that idea by letting NPC vendors install Augments into any piece of equipment for a small fee. This service is available even at low level: Joeh will happily install low-level Augments into your newbie gear if you want. I don't really anticipate that newbies will buy a lot of Augments (although who knows?), but I want low-level vendors to offer this service so players can discover that Augments exist and learn how they work. This also means that players don't have to deal with that scheming elf Nightshade. Of course, he will still teach you how to install augments yourself if you have the cash, and I've made the augment-installation recipes cheaper by removing the extra recipe ingredients, like Fire Dust. But I expect most players will just use these NPCs, at least until they're very high-level. The Augment skills have always been intended to be dedicated crafting skills: Augmenters create Augments, which can be sold to other players. So I'm hoping this update will jump-start the Augment economy a bit! We'll probably need more shopping tools to really make Augment-buying easy, but hopefully this will get things started. The next update will arrive in a few days! In addition to the stuff I've talked about, it also has the usual bug-fixes and skill tweaks. It also lays the groundwork for the new Gorgon Shop. We'll be bringing the shop back online a few days after this update, so people who missed our Pre-Release Packs will be able to buy them. (But this time they're implemented as add-on packs, so they expect you to already have a Steam key. They just add features to your existing Steam account.) I'll be back with more dev-blogginess soon!


    [ 2018-06-19 04:15:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: June 8, 2018

    This is primarily a bug-fix update. It includes important server-side bug-fixes, plus other fixes and improvements that happened to be ready to go.

    General Changes


    • Fixed more server-side performance bottlenecks, and installed a new tracking tool to find remaining bottlenecks.
    • The winners of the Steam Screenshot Contest will receive an in-game notification, along with a package of items, later today.
    • To make finding the 3rd-party-tools JSON a bit less mysterious, tools developers can now just visit http://client.projectgorgon.com. This page will automatically redirect you to the page for the most recent game data, along with available documentation.

    UI Fixes and Improvements


    • The Skills window now remembers which parent skills you had opened/closed in the skill tree (between runs of the game).
    • Fixed a timing bug that caused chat messages to be lost if they arrived during a certain part of the loading-screen process.
    • Improved the Training UI so that it doesn't forget your scroll position when you train something.
    • The tooltip for ability scrolls now shows a warning message if you need to learn an earlier ability before you can learn this one. (Previously the error message only showed when you tried to use the scroll.)
    • Fixed a bug with the Last Seen time in the Friends list window. Part of the calculations were done in UTC time instead of your local time zone, so if a player had just logged off, instead of saying they were last seen a few minutes ago, it would say they were seen X hours ago, where X is how many hours you are behind UTC time. (If your timezone is ahead of UTC, it would say they were seen "< 1 Min ago".)
    • Due to a bug, if you had multiple informational message boxes waiting for you when you logged in, some of those messages could have been missed. Only certain types of messages were vulnerable to the bug, including messages about e.g. shop items that didn't sell. The item would still be returned, but you might not get a message about it. (If you are worried you may have missed a message, note that you can always use the "/messages" command (without quotes) in chat to see recent messages.)

    Skill Changes


    We're in the process of converting all damage-over-time (DoT) effects in the game to use a new system that stacks better and has more information in ability-tooltips. (We're about 2/3 finished with that conversion as of this update.) While doing this technical conversion, we're also recalculating DoT treasure effects using new formulae and guidelines that should make DoTs more useful and understandable. (One of these guidelines is that a DoT that lasts more than about 12 seconds is too long.) We're also trying to normalize DoT tick count to every 2 seconds. Some DoTs would "tick" (deal damage) every second, while others ticked every 2 seconds, or 3, 4, or 5 seconds. This was done to work within other existing balance ideas, but when all DoTs behave so differently, it's too hard for players to understand what's going on and how to make their DoTs better. So we're unifying most of these DoTs to deal damage every 2 seconds. Most DoTs will deal increased damage under the new balance guidelines, although a handful of DoTs that had 1-second ticks may effectively be weaker (depending on what per-tick buffs you had). Aside from DoT changes, there are some other bug-fixes and problem-adjustments that were easy to fix while doing the conversion. Animal Handling:
    • Ability: "Call Living Stabled Pet" did not work at all.
    Archery:
    • Treasure: Fire Arrow suddenly deals an additional 335 indirect Fire damage after a 15 second delay => 320 after 12 second delay
    • Ability: Poison Arrow 6 deals 240 damage over 20 seconds => 180 over 12 seconds
    Battle Chemistry:
    • Treasure: All bomb attacks ignite the target, causing them to take 130 fire damage over 10 seconds => 140 over 10 seconds
    Druid:
    • Treasure: Heart Thorn coats the target in stinging insects that deal 180 Nature damage over 15 seconds => 306 over 12 seconds
    • Treasure: Heart Thorn deals Poison damage (instead of Nature) and also deals 192 Poison damage over 12 seconds => 258 over 12 seconds
    Fire Magic:
    • Ability: Ring of Fire Deals 63 additional damage over 35 seconds => 150 damage over 12 seconds
    • Ability: Fire Breath deals 80 damage over 40 seconds => 168 damage over 12 seconds
    • Treasure: Calefaction causes 213 additional damage after a 20 second delay => 213 damage after a 12 second delay
    • Ability: Flesh to Fuel: this ability was sharing an icon with a mentalism Psi Wave ability; it now has a unique icon.
    Giant Bat:
    • Treasure: The damage portion of "Drink Blood deals 96 damage over 12 seconds, and 50% of the damage becomes health for you" => this damage was applied to the caster, not the victim.
    Hammer:
    • Item: Flame Basher: All Hammer attacks have a 25% chance to ignite the target, causing 50 damage over 20 seconds => 33% to cause 30 damage over 12 seconds
    • Treasure: Rib Shatter deals +160 Trauma damage over 20 seconds => 220 over 10 seconds
    Mentalism:
    • Treasure: Agonize deals +425 Psychic damage over 10 seconds => 576 over 12 seconds
    • Treasure: System Shock deals +48 Psychic damage and 100 more over 10 seconds => 186 over 12 seconds
    • Corrected icon coloration inconsistencies between the various Psi Wave abilities.
    Necromancy:
    • Treasure: Death's Hold deals +175 Fire damage over 15 seconds => 228 over 12 seconds
    • Spark of Death deals 105 Psychic damage over 10 seconds => 168 over 12 seconds
    Pig:
    • Ability: Pig Rend 4 deals 75 Trauma damage over 15 seconds => 96 over 12 seconds
    • Treasure: Pig Rend deals +238 Trauma damage over 15 seconds => +240 over 12 seconds
    • Treasure: Squeal deals 266 Trauma damage over 15 seconds => 260 over 10 seconds
    Priest:
    • Treasure: "Exhilarate, Triage, and Invigorate restore +47 Health if you haven't been attacked in the past 15 seconds" only applied to Exhilarate, not Triage and Invigorate.
    • The tooltips for various Priest abilities reported 0 healing when there were treasure mods that could make the ability provide that healing, but the treasure mods weren't in use.
    Shield:
    • Ability: Stunning Bash causes the target to take 145 Trauma damage over 15 seconds => 210 over 12 seconds
    • Treasure: "Fire Shield causes melee attackers to ignite, dealing 42 Fire damage over 9 seconds" => 100 Fire damage over 10 seconds.
    • Also fixed a bug with the lowest-tier version of this effect (found on level 1-10 gear); it did not work correct, instead briefly boosting your Fire Mitigation.
    Spider:
    • Ability: Spit Acid 5 Deals 400 acid damage over 9 seconds => 400 over 10 seconds
    • Treasure: Spit Acid deals 228 Acid damage to Health over 12 seconds => 270 damage over 12 seconds
    Staff:
    • Ability: Pinning Slash 3 deals 60 Trauma damage over 15 seconds => 180 damage over 12 seconds
    • Treasure: Double Hit ignites the target, dealing 135 Fire damage over 15 seconds => 198 over 12 seconds
    Sword:
    • Ability: Hacking Blade: "Deals 210 Trauma damage over 15 seconds" => 252 Trauma damage over 12 seconds (but fewer Ticks)
    • Treasure: Hacking Blade deals 120 Trauma damage over 4 seconds => 192 Trauma over 12 seconds
    • Treasure: Hacking Blade and Debilitating Blow deal 126 Trauma damage over 12 seconds => 138 over 12 seconds
    Unarmed: Note: Slashing Strike's damage was calculated incorrectly; this affects the ability and all treasure effects related to it.
    • Treasure: Slashing Strike damage +51% => Slashing Strike damage +35%
    • Ability: Slashing Strike deals 120 damage over 15 seconds => 180 damage over 12 seconds (but fewer Ticks)
    • Treasure: Slashing Strike deals +26% damage plus 45 Trauma damage over 15 seconds => Slashing Strike deals 126 Trauma damage over 12 seconds (w/ no direct damage boost)
    • Treasure: Slashing Strike deals +23% damage and hastens the current reuse timer of Hip Throw by 2.5 seconds => Slashing Strike deals +15% damage and hastens the current reuse timer of Hip Throw by 2.5 seconds
    • Treasure: Infuriating Fist taunts +460 and deals 150 Trauma damage over 15 seconds => Infuriating Fist taunts +460 and deals 138 Trauma damage over 12 seconds
    Additional skill and ability changes, including tweaks to how area-of-effect attacks work, will be in the next update (in a few weeks). The treasure-mod rebalancing discussed in the May 2018 Dev Blog will still happen, but we're delaying it for bit while we collect more up-to-date gameplay metrics.

    Eltibule Changes


    • Bug-fixes and adjustments to Eltibule include:
    • Tweaked arrival spot from Serbule. (Just a gentle tweak - it didn't move across the zone this time!) As a side-effect, one of the meditation pillars in Eltibule has moved a short distance.
    • Adjusted map so that it covers the entire area. (Previously there were some edges that were "off the map".)
    • Fixed scenarios where bird-form druids would stop being birds if they flew too close to certain edges of the map (and then fall somewhat hilariously to their deaths).
    • Fixed scenarios where attempting to craft a map or survey could generate the error message: "You must be near an Eltibule to do that."

    Miscellaneous


    • Recipes for max-enchanted priest staves had incorrect (easier-than-intended) ingredients.
    • Arisetsu Medallions incorrectly allowed the Familiar's Recall ability to be used by long-term animal players that had bonded to a master.
    • The item-description for the necklace 'Treatment of the Poor' was lost and has been restored.
    • Sidebar abilities that involve using knives (such as Poison Blade) require the user to have hands.
    • Some musical performance abilities were grouped incorrectly in the skills UI listing.
    • The "Neurotoxin" movement-debuff from Biting Vines always succeeded regardless of movement-speed debuff protections.
    • Previously, tapped alcohol kegs showed a generic error if you were unable to drink for any reason: "Drink failed. You can only have 3 beer/wine and 1 hard liquor drink active at a time." Kegs now show more specific and accurate error messages if you are unable to drink for an unusual reason.
    • Fixed a bug introduced with the new UI that prevented many alcoholic beverages from bestowing their special effects when drunk from inventory.
    • If a chat message included items and had a spoiler-begins tag without a spoiler-ends tag, the chat line was displayed incorrectly.
    • For our volunteer guides: when -Guide- or -Moderator- chat flair is enabled, speech filters are ignored and spoken Words of Power are not activated.
    • Added internal tools to help us assist guilds whose guildmaster is gone.


    [ 2018-06-09 00:51:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: May 27, 2018

    This is a hotfix update to fix some bugs in Friday's major update. (A "hotfix" is just our term for any update that doesn't require you to download a new game client.)

    • "Bleeder Shiv" incorrectly boosted direct Poison damage by +500%. It was supposed to be a flat +5 boost. But while fixing the bug it was revised so that it no longer does any direct poison boost, instead it boosts indirect poison a bit more.
    • Note: the previous patch notes were incorrect; you DO earn extra XP for re-exploring Eltibule, but this is "phantom XP" that will disappear in a later update (when we make the Cartography skill do something meaningful).
    • Fixed data bug that prevented bard+priest gear from being generated.
    • Righteous Flame specified that it restored 0 Body Heat (which is true, but it doesn't need to tell you that).
    • The max-enchanted recipes for some items had the wrong prerequisites. This included: Crafted Cloth Shirts, Camouflaged Shirts, Cow Barding, Snail Coats, Bard Gloves, Crafted Winter Boots, and Spring Fairy Pants.
    • Fire Rats had the wrong internal settings. They now have fiery attacks, fire resistance, and if tamed they don't turn into a normal rat. (Previously-tamed rats are unchanged.)
    • Gloria Stonecurl was not appropriately peeved by the presence of necromancy pets.
    • Some weapons could not be augmented (this is fixed retroactively for existing weapons): Mutterer's Katar, Flask of Chills, Pounding Cestus.
    • The recipe "Amazing Cloth Pants (Max-Enchanted)" created max-enchanted Great Cloth Pants instead.
    • The recipe to install Dirk augments required Fire Dust instead of Fish Scales, which is what off-hand weapons are supposed to use for some reason.
    • Added the missing augmentation-installation recipes for bardic lutes and horns.
    • The various recipes for Bard Leggings generated lower-level gear effects than intended. (This can’t be fixed retroactively; existing items are unchanged.)
    • Previously, pets could attack monsters that were 'mezzed' if at least half the mezz duration had elapsed (the same time in which players can break the mezz). Now pets never directly attack mezzed or feared targets. Note that as a side effect, this means you cannot order your pet to attack a mezzed or feared enemy; pets now consider them "invalid targets".
    • Fixed a bug that prevented monsters in some areas from fighting. (Fixed in an earlier reboot.)
    We'll have a bunch more bug fixes in a full client update soon.


    [ 2018-05-27 17:41:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: May 25, 2018

    There's a new combat skill in this update! The Priest skill is primarily a healer and is especially powerful in groups. Unlocking Priest requires either Compassion 25 or Psychology 25. A priest in Kur Mountains' inn area can assist you in learning the skill. The Knife Fighting skill has also been improved. There is a new kind of knife for your off-hand. Off-hand knives are called Dirks. All pre-existing knives are main-hand knives, collectively called Daggers. You can wield a Dirk, a Dagger, or both when using the knife skill. If you wield two knives at once, you can take advantage of a few new treasure effects and a new dual-wielding-only knife ability found on loot scrolls.

    General Combat Changes


    • Burst attacks (or "AoEs", that is, attacks that hit multiple enemies) now deal reduced damage if they hit more than 3 enemies at once. The damage drops off rapidly as the number of enemies hit increases. Note that this only applies to direct damage from the attack; debuffs and other special effects are applied at full potency to all targets
    • DOTs (damage over time effects) incorrectly calculated their damage amount on every tick, instead of just once at the start of the DOT. This meant that if you poisoned a monster, then drank a +5 indirect poison potion while the monster was still poisoned, the remaining poison in the monster would magically do +5 damage per tick! While this this might sound like a beneficial bug, it actually made many small buffs worthless. For instance, Poisoner's Cut boosts indirect damage for 5 seconds, which is enough time to use one or two abilities. But due to this bug, after 5 seconds, the poison you'd just applied to enemies suddenly became weaker. This bug has been fixed so that DOTs behave like you'd expect: the damage of the DOT is calculated once, right when it's applied. (Note that this involved significant code refactoring, so please be on the lookout for weird behavior that may have cropped up.)
    • Treasure and spell effects that boosted a certain damage type by a flat amount ("All Electricity attacks deal +7 damage") worked correctly in combat but the damage was not shown in the abilities' tooltips in the client
    • Abilities with casting times (now called "Channeling Times") now show their channel times in the ability info tooltips
    • Abilities that have Extra Taunt were displayed incorrectly; e.g. an ability that taunted +300 would be listed as adding +30000% taunt

    Recipe Prerequisites


    Many equipment-crafting recipes now have prerequisites, other recipes that you must already know before you can learn the new one. For instance, you must know the "Decent" version of a recipe before you can learn the "Nice" version, and must learn the "Nice" version before you can learn the "Quality" version. There is one major exception to this rule: max-enchanted recipes. To learn max-enchanted recipes you don't need to know all the previous max-enchanted recipes in that line; you just need to know the base recipe. For instance, to craft a "Quality Leather Helm (Max-Enchanted)", you need to know how to craft "Quality Leather Helm", but you don't need to know how to craft "Nice Leather Helm (Max-Enchanted)". Players who had already learned recipes "out of order" will still have the recipes in their list (so they don't have to re-learn it), but the recipes can't be used until their prerequisites are learned.

    Player Titles


    If you preordered a deluxe version of the game that includes a custom title (such as the Kickstarter 'Duke' package, or similar packages from Indiegogo or the Gorgon Shop), that title is now available! (Assuming that you filled out the backer form to tell us what title you want... we are still waiting on those forms for dozens of people.) All characters on your account will automatically receive the title when you log in. You can also give your unique title to other players if you want to. There are two ways: you can use the new chat command /entitle to give your title to a nearby player (e.g. type "/entitle Bob" in chat, without the quotes, to give a player named Bob your title). In addition, you can create scrolls that bestow your title on whoever reads one -- these can be sold or given away. You can create 5 of these scrolls every 7 days. Use the command "/redeem CustomTitleScrolls" to get a stack of 5 scrolls. (You can use the command "/redeem" without anything else to see if your 7 days are up: if it says you have no redemptions available, you still have to wait!) NOTE: Once given out, you cannot take the title away from someone. So take great care! If you do NOT have a title and you think you should have a title, don't panic -- this is just the first pass, and there may be data errors or omissions. Just let us know and we'll straighten it out in the next game update! Note: Player-owned titles are colored yellow for now, but we are still deciding on colors, so that may change.

    Graphics Changes


    • Each race now has slightly customized out-of-combat idle stances (all animations are works in progress)
    • Fixed weird jerky foot movement in some Unarmed Combat animations
    • Fixed the shininess of several metal armors that were set up as leather instead of metal
    • Improved culling of distant particles
    • Previously if you set your "Shadow Distance" to 0 in the preferences, the game engine still did some of the computations needed for shadows, even though none could possibly be seen. Now if you set it to 0, all shadow processing is disabled
    • New special setting ForceHardShadows makes the game use a simpler system for generating shadows, which can improve framerate. However, note that this is automatically enabled for all graphics levels up to and including "2: Fair". So this does nothing unless your graphics quality level is 3 or higher.
    • Fixed the "T pose" of female avatars (when humanoids were past the animation cut-off distance, and had not yet had a chance to animate at all, they were supposed to be in a pose with arms extended, called the "T pose". Males were, but females were instead partially embedded in the ground)
    • Serbule only: adjusted the animation cutoff for fellow players so that they stop animating at about 35 meters instead of 70 meters. This is roughly equivalent to setting your "Entity Animation Distance Modifier" to 0.5 in the previous update, except that this only affects players, and only in Serbule.
    • New special setting PlayerAnimationCutoff=100: sets how close other players need to be in order for you to see them animating. (Distance is in meters. Note that this value is multiplied by your 'Entity Animation Distance Multiplier', which can be changed in the advanced graphics settings.) By default, the game determines this setting on a per-area basis, with values ranging from 35 to 80.
    • If you had manually overridden the "Entity Animation Distance Multiplier" graphics setting, it has been un-overridden, reverting back to the default for your graphics level. We did this because we changed the underlying distances that this setting modifies (see above), so it's unlikely you'd still want it to be set at whatever you had it set at! (You can, of course, override it again as you see fit.)
    • Fixed the Thentree Helmet, which was using the wrong texture and looked like a monstrosity

    Detailed Knife Changes


    The knife skill underwent many subtle adjustments over multiple iterations. It's possible that small tweaks were made that are not reflected in this list. (But we probably found them all.)
    • You can now wield a new kind of knife, called a Dirk, in your off-hand. You can wield either an off-hand knife or a main-hand knife (or both) to use Knife Fighting attacks
    • Boosted how much Poisoner's Cut increases indirect (dot) damage
    • There is a new Knife ability called Duelist's Slash. This is a variant of Slice that requires two knives equipped (dual-wielding). The ability can be found via loot scrolls
    • When a monster is Feared, it is treated as "not looking at anyone" for the purpose of abilities that do more damage if the target isn't focused on you.
    • When a monster is Mezzed, it is treated as "not looking at anyone" for the purpose of abilities that do more damage if the target isn't focused on you. (This was supposed to be true before, but was bugged in some cases.) [Note: previously there was a typo in this patch note that said it worked on Stunned enemies instead of Mezzed. Stunning an enemy does not prevent them from looking at you; this is intentional and is not going to change.]
    • Knife abilities no longer generate the error message "The target is looking at you!" (even when it's true), because it was spammy and unnecessary
    • Fixed several bugs related to the monster-looking-at-you system
    • Lisi the fairy (in Sun Vale) now trains some Knife special abilities (instead of Bahdba): Poisoner's Cut, Backstab, and Surprise Throw.
    • Lisi no longer trains level 60 knife; that's Rick Snapley (in New Prestonbule)'s job!
    • Flia the fairy (in Serbule) also had redundant training for some Knife abilities; these are removed
    • Lisi the fairy sells a couple of knife-related skill belts that had previously been unavailable
    Knife treasure changes:
    • Changed "Gut deals +48 damage and if target is not focused on you, also reduces rage by 800" => "Gut deals +48 damage and if target is not focused on you, Gut's trauma damage is increased 50%"
    • Changed "Indirect Poison Damage +X%" => this now buffs both indirect Poison damage and indirect Trauma damage
    • Changed "Poisoner's Cut deals 120 Poison damage over 10 seconds" => this mod was replaced due to technical limitations (the ability's purpose is to buffs DoTs, but it couldn't buff its own DoT, which is stupid). The mod now adds a Poison DOT to Slice instead.
    • Changed "Fending Blade restores 24 Health to you immediately and reduces the target's Rage by 320 after a 10 second delay" => now a 5 second delay
    • Changed "Slice ignores mitigation from armor and deals +65 direct health damage" => now deals +76 regular damage, not direct health damage (mainly a stylistic change)
    • Changed "Surge Cut deals +146% damage" => "Surge Cut deals 205 Trauma damage over 10 seconds"
    • Changed "Indirect Poison damage reduction +16 while Knife Fighting skill active" => "When wielding two knives, all Knife Fighting attacks have a 40% chance to restore 33 Power"
    • Changed "Projectile Accuracy Boost +19% while Knife Fighting skill active" => "Thrown Knife attacks deal +39% damage and reuse timer is -1 second"
    • Changed "Venomstrike has a 33% chance to deal 80 direct health damage and stun the target" => "Venomstrike has a 46% chance to stun the target and deal +48 damage"
    • Changed "Blur Cut has a 50% chance to deal +160% damage" => " Blur Cut deals 105 Poison damage over 10 seconds"
    • There are a couple of new treasure effects to flesh out the skill's repertoire
    • When viewing a Knife ability that deals damage over time, you can now press the Alt key (the "more info" key) to see additional details about the DOT, including how many times it "ticks". These changes were made to the Knife skill first as a prototype and when we're happy with them we'll adjust all DOTs in the game to display in this manner

    Changes to Other Skills' Treasure Mods


    Note: in the newest developer blog, we discussed an upcoming adjustment to percentage-based-damage treasure mods. This change has NOT been made yet because it needs more internal testing; it will happen in a future update. The following changes are side-effects of bug fixes or tweaks to how DOTs are calculated. There are more DOT-related treasure changes necessary; they will happen in a future update.
    • Battle Chemistry treasure that boosted specific golem abilities did not work for the past few updates (e.g. "Your golem minion's Poison Bomb deals +50 damage")
    • Ice Magic treasure that boosted the Cold Sphere's Rage Attack did not work for the past few updates
    • "Virtuoso's Ballad restores X Armor" => this accidentally restored Power instead
    • Changed "Heavy Shot and Heavy Multishot Damage +33%" => "Heavy Shot and Heavy Multishot Damage +21%"
    • Changed "Mangling Shot deals +9.5% damage and 330 Trauma damage over 20 seconds" => "Mangling Shot deals 330 Trauma damage over 10 seconds"
    • Changed "Mangling Shot causes target to take +14% damage from Piercing for 10 seconds" => "Mangling Shot causes target to take +11.5% damage from Piercing for 10 seconds"
    • Fire Arrow's burn (damage over time) changed from 300 over 20 seconds to 210 over 15 seconds (this change was made so that archery DOT treasure mods can stack more elegantly in the future)
    • Healing Injection, Revitalize: these Minor Heal abilities did not benefit from buffs that boost the healing of Minor Heals
    • Strategic Preparation: this ability is supposed to have a 1.5 second channeling time, but due to a bug the channel only took 1.0 second

    Miscellaneous Fixes


    • Increased size of chat history log
    • Fixed bug with dummy items from vendomatics
    • Brewing: brewing effects that caused you to deal extra damage vs. specific types of enemies did not work
    • Fixed a bug that caused some buffs to stick around for an arbitrary length of time after the caster had left the area (most obviously with Battle Chemistry mutations, since they last the longest). The intent is that any buffs that come from an ability (and that last longer than a few seconds) should abort if the buff's caster is not in the same server area as the person they buffed, OR if the caster switches to a different combat skill.
    • Revised the heuristic that determines druid event size. When very few druids are online (at the moment of premonition), druid events will be easier and shorter
    • Bellema Deftwhisper now likes Peridots, not Lapis Lazuli. People change.
    • The weapon "Gut-Ache's Chopper" did not have crafting points and could not be augmented; this has been fixed (retroactively for existing weapons)
    • Changed the map orientation, arrival point, and some of the spawns, in Eltibule. (The map had gotten turned all around; while fixing it we also tweaked and improved some spawns.) As a result the fog has been reset; apologies for the inconvenience! You will not earn Cartography XP for fog that you already cleared in Eltibule, but you will resume earning Cartography XP once you've cleared more fog than you had previously cleared.
    • Fixed monster AI issues that slowed down server processing


    [ 2018-05-25 18:23:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

    May 2018 Developer Blog

    Hi, I'm Eric ("Citan") Heimburg, the lead developer of Project: Gorgon. It's been a while since I did a dev blog -- while we were crunching on the UI rewrite, and then the Steam integration, there wasn't a lot to say besides "we're still doing that thing we already talked about." But now that we have some space, it's time for a dev blog! Before I start, though: What's a dev blog? It's a developer diary, a look at where we are right now. It's meant to give you some insight into how we're thinking and what we want to do. But the details aren't solidified yet. Dates and times, core details ... once or twice I've even mothballed entire systems that just don't work, right after having talked excitedly about them in the dev blog. So I apologize in advance for any inadvertent misinformation. I'm an optimistic person -- you don't start making an MMO by yourself if you're a pessimist -- and I want to convey some of what I'm excited about. And your feedback is a valuable byproduct of that -- we often change direction based on what people say here. Let's get started!

    Client Optimizations


    Framerate in Serbule is bad! We know. This isn't something that will get fixed overnight. There are some small optimizations coming, but nothing that will fundamentally fix the FPS issues. There's no magic code fix that will make everything good; it will take a bunch of steps to fix. But never fear -- those steps are in progress! Animation Overhead If you log into Serbule right after the server reboots, you will have a pretty good framerate. Not great framerate on lower-end machines -- see below for why -- but not abysmal, either. I get 60fps in Serbule on my personal test server... because it's a server with nobody else on it. The problem comes when there's a hundred or so other people nearby. This creates bottlenecks in two areas: animations and UI. The underlying animation bottleneck is a limitation of the graphics engine we use, Unity. Animations in Unity are all calculated in a single thread of the CPU, so when the game has to render 100 animating players, your performance will always be bad. And there's frankly nothing I can do to magically fix that. In the longer term, this is a problem that Unity itself will fix. Unity added a feature called "graphics jobs" which fixes the animation bottleneck. Unfortunately, the feature is still labeled "Experimental", and the last time we tried to use it (late last year), it caused random crashes for random people. They've made bug-fixes since then, but it's still labeled Experimental, so I'm hesitant to inflict it on players again. But when this feature is finally ready for primetime, it will basically solve the animation performance problem. In the meantime, what can we do? Well, we can reduce the number of characters that are animating. In fact, try this now: in the Settings window, under graphics options, click "Show Advanced Options" and then set the "Entity Animation Distance Multiplier" to its minimum value. This will cause players to stop animating when they're farther away from you, and you can see how it affects your framerate in busy areas. One avenue I'm exploring is creating a fancy heuristic option that quietly disables animations on some players when the screen gets too busy. Getting that to work well is a hard problem, though, and it doesn't make sense to try to write this until after our upcoming Mecanim Update (see below). UI Overhead The UI system has to do a lot of calculations to tell if you can click on something. These calculations are not simple, and when there's 50+ selectable players on the screen, those calculations really slow things down. I've added some simple hacky workarounds to improve framerate already -- you might have noticed how sometimes the labels over the heads of people trail behind the people themselves? Yeah, that's one of the optimizations to keep it from costing too much CPU. But a "real" fix will require a more intensive rewrite. That rewrite is waiting on some other things, but eventually the UI system will handle the problem more effectively -- and then the labels will keep up with the people more reliably. Serbule Assets Not all of Serbule's problems are due to having a lot of players in one tiny spot, though. Serbule itself is still a messy place. Throughout our long alpha, Serbule was the testing ground for new technology and design ideas. It's suffered several cataclysmic rewrites that entirely changed the map... and I expect there will be one more cataclysmic rewrite in its future. Some of the expensive parts of Serbule include: Sky: The sky may just look like a sky, but it's actually a dynamic weather system. With the flip of a switch we can activate rain, snow, sleet, lightning, fog, high winds, and more! But those features reduce performance, even when they're disabled. (And of course they have a bigger impact on performance when they're enabled, which is why they aren't.) The sky is based on a conglomeration of some 3rd-party Unity sky libraries that just haven't proven to be efficient enough. I've been making optimizations to them, but ultimately I suspect we'll need to replace the whole thing with a different system. (This sky system is also used in Serbule Hills, and is some of the reason for FPS slowness there. Other areas use an older sky system that's very cheap but very primitive.) Ground: The ground itself is not very expensive, and the trees in Serbule are Speedtree trees -- reasonably fast -- but the grass, little rocks, and other small details are too expensive. There are 3rd-party graphical libraries we can use here to improve things, eventually. Buildings: Serbule has a lot of buildings in it, and they ARE optimized... but unfortunately they're optimized for an earlier version of Unity. That's one of the problems with making a game for five years: there's lots of moving targets in terms of performance. The building geometry uses too many draw-calls and there's not much I can do to fix them in code -- the assets themselves will need adjusting or replacing. That's something we're starting to plan. So Serbule will continue to be a place where we experiment -- but now we're experimenting with new engine components for weather, grass, and so on. When we're happy with those underlying components, we'll either fix or replace the actual art of Serbule. Fixing Overcrowding by Spreading Players Out, a/k/a "Serbule is for newbies!" There's a lot of stuff we'll be doing to improve framerate over the coming months, but there's also a more fundamental problem. Serbule is the newbie town. New players show up here and learn how to play. They kill pigs and stuff right outside the gates. And Serbule is also, unfortunately, the only major hub city until level 60. There are many other mini-hubs in the world with vendors, storage, and supplies, but players aren't flocking there. Nothing is as central, as accessible, or as full-featured as Serbule. And that's bad content design. If there's 500 players online, 200 of them should not be in the same small area. So I think we'll need to prioritize adding another hub town between Serbule and Rahu, a home base for players after they get past the Serbule levels. There are two upcoming areas that might work: the elven city past Sedgewick Forest, and the dwarven city hidden in the mountains. These areas are currently slated to be mini-hubs (not much more elaborate than Amulna, another mini-hub), but we can expand one of them into a full city, and start reducing the game's emphasis on Serbule. To be clear, there's no new city in development yet! There's lots of planning to do first. But it'll probably need to happen before we implement Statehelm, the level 80 hub.

    Server Optimizations


    There are many kinds of lag -- in fact, the word "lag" is not a technical term, it's just a slang word that players use. (That's why, when you report that you're having "lag", we always have to ask what specific problem you mean. Framerate drops, monster "rubberbanding", and slow NPC response times are three completely unrelated problems which players just call "lag".) We've talked about framerate problems, but the server can cause delays and slowdowns too. Master Server Bottlenecks After the last content update, I spent the next few weeks looking into the causes of server bottlenecks, and I managed to fix a bunch of them. This was a high priority for me because the master server shouldn't be under any real strain. It can easily handle 500 players without breaking a sweat, but it was getting jammed up pretty often. Why? Well, the reason is bugs in the code. They're subtle bugs, though, that only show up when enough players try to do certain things at once. For instance, there was a bug where if enough players were downloading the contents of a storage vault at once, other NPCs in the area would stop interacting with players until one of the storage vaults finished downloading. (In java parlance, the NPCs were synchronizing on the wrong object.) I've already found and fixed the most glaring and damaging of these bugs. You may have noticed that the server was rebooted every night for about a week -- each day I would add more logging to track down these problems, then the next day I would retrieve the logs, find bugs, fix them, and repeat. There are still some more synchronization problems in there somewhere which I haven't found yet, because they happen too rarely. But I'll track them all down eventually, and the remaining bugs are rare -- they aren't causing a lot of trouble (or else I'd be able to find them). Sub-Server Problems There's another component to server "lag", though: the sub-servers. These are separate processes that connect to the master server and control the monsters, pets, and NPCs in an area, making them move around and do things that the master server requests. There's a bunch of sub-servers, and they can sometimes get disconnected -- either due to a network problem or because they crashed from a code bug. When that happens, players often don't notice. The sub-server automatically restarts and reconnects. But sometimes players DO notice, because their performance gets really bad. Why? What's happening? Well, that's a funny story. You see, there's a very fancy redundant system: when a monster needs to move but the sub-server is gone, the main server says "no problem. I'll just deputize a random player to do the work." It randomly chooses a nearby player and makes their game client perform the calculations to move the monsters! This is a powerful tool that we use internally during development and testing. And I figured, why not use it as an emergency backup system in the live game? It's not really much of a security risk to have a random client drive a random monster for a few seconds at a random moment. So what's the down side? If your machine is a beast, like our development machines are, there's no real down side -- the overhead is unnoticeable. But if your machine is running near its capacity, even a little bit of extra work can drop your performance into the pits. And when there's only one player in an area (like when you're the only person in a big dungeon), that player's client gets tasked with moving ALL the active monsters nearby, which can be way too much CPU load for lower-end machines. If there's lots of players around, the work is spread between them randomly, which results in less CPU cost for each player, but can cause latency problems. If you ever see a monster "rubberbanding" (zooming around between several locations) it's usually because some player with a terrible ping has been tasked with driving the monster. Overall, using this system as a backup seems to be causing a lot more problems than it's solving. I've been meaning to make improvements to it for a while -- maybe it could take your ping into account, and maybe keep track of how much CPU load it's using on each deputized computer, to keep from overtaxing people... but at the moment it doesn't make sense to focus on that. So in the next update, I'm just going to disable it. When a subserver disconnects, monsters and pets will just stand perfectly still for a moment until the subserver resyncs. I suspect that will be a lot less disruptive. We'll see how it goes!

    Treasure and Skill Changes


    So there's lots of engine work going on under the hood. But there's also a lot of very visible new stuff going into the next update: lots of skill and treasure changes. These fall into three categories. Percentage-Based Treasure Mod Descaling We aren't yet at the point where we're fine-tuning skills and treasure mods. I'll be fixing a few of the most problematic individual abilities and treasure effects, but most of the fine-grained balancing will happen later. Right now I'm still trying to get the "big picture" balancing done. And in the big picture, player DPS is out of whack at high level. The problem comes from treasure effects that multiply a specific ability by a percent, such as "Fire Bolts Damage +37%". The percentages for these mods are designed in a very naïve way: they assume they're the only buff you have for that ability. To use Fire Bolts as an example, on my balancing spreadsheets that 37% mod is calculated as adding about 100 damage -- which is what it adds if you have no other mods for the level 60 Fire Bolt spell. But, of course, there are lots of other mods that boost Fire Bolts, and during actual gameplay that 37% generates a much bigger number. This is all very intentional: the basic calculations are naïve on purpose so that you can find ways to crank up your damage. That's part of the fun of building gear sets! The problem is the calculations are TOO naïve. There are more ways to boost damage than I originally planned, and the resulting big numbers are causing problems when making content. Those problems aren't too bad right now; it's a bit tough to create content that works for lots of builds, but it's still doable. But it will become a severe problem by the time we reach level 125 content. I need to ratchet the damage percentages down a few notches. This doesn't have to happen immediately, but I figure we should get this sort of thing out of the way ASAP, so that we have as much time during beta as possible to analyze the results and make more adjustments. But fixing this problem is a little bit worrisome. The changes need to be made to the "average build" as if that's a real thing ... but it's not. If I drop the "average" player's overall damage by 25%, and drop monster health similarly, then the "average" player won't be affected much. But in this game full of weird unique builds, player damage is all over the spectrum. These changes will affect different builds very differently. Most skill combinations would still be fine -- maybe a bit slower to kill things, which is fine, as some are too fast anyway -- but some skill builds which are on the lower end of the damage spectrum might become unplayable. To limit the number of unforeseen problems, I think we'll do the change in two or three steps. In the next update I'll lower those percentage-mods a little bit, and adjust monsters a bit. Then we'll see how it feels, and I can react to problems while they're still relatively small. In a future update I'll do it again, lowering mods and monsters some more. And then a third time if necessary. The downside is there'll be repeated "nerfing patches", which are always stressful and annoying. But the upside is that none of the nerfing patches is super traumatic. Another option is to do all these broad changes at once, then help players to recover from it. During alpha when we had to make huge stat changes, we created a special "Cheap Transmutation Week" event, where Transmutation didn't consume durability. This let high-level players efficiently re-roll their gear to replace mods they no longer wanted. We could do that again, or something similar. So there are two ways: slow incremental changes, or we could rip the band-aid off and do it all at once, then help accelerate the healing. Much more dramatic, but maybe less annoying overall? I haven't decided yet, but I am leaning toward the slow incremental plan. Either way, this change will mostly affect players in the 50+ range, because that's when the mod-stacking becomes problematic. If you're lower level than that, you'll see changes, but not all that much. Off-Hand Knife We now have some basic animations for wielding a knife in the off-hand, and off-hand knives should be in the next update! The Knife skill can still be used by wielding a Dagger in the main-hand (and all existing knives will be considered Daggers). We'll also be adding new off-hand knives (called just "Knives", or maybe "Shivs" or "Stilettos" or something similar, to easily differentiate them from the main-hand weapons.) You can wield a main-hand knife, an off-hand knife, or both -- and I may add a few tricks for people who want to wield two at once. The more interesting thing to me, though, is the number of other skill combinations this opens up, such as Sword+Knife or Knife+Ice Magic or Druid+Knife. Lots of synergies to explore! Knife was always meant to have both off-hand and main-hand options, so this will help it reach its full potential. Damage Over Time (DoT) Ability Changes One balancing problem with the Knife skill is that it relies on DoTs (damage-over-time or "bleed" effects), and DoTs don't scale very well at high level. Why don't they scale? Well, in part that's because of what I mentioned above: monsters are getting out of whack to compensate for very high player damage. Bleed damage scales linearly, and there aren't too many ways to multiply how much damage they do. So in part, bleeds will be fixed by toning down direct damage. But there will also need to be new ways to buff bleeds and poisons. So part of the work I'm doing for Knife is rethinking how DoTs scale, and adjusting Knife's abilities and treasure mods to work better at high level. I also need to make improvements to how DoTs are displayed on abilities, because right now they don't take your buffs into account correctly. (For instance, the "Gut" ability always says it deals "25 trauma damage over 10 seconds", even if you have trauma-damage buffs that actually make that number much higher.) Reworking this logic will make Knife a lot easier to use and understand -- and in a future update, we'll backfit those improvements to other skills that use DoTs.

    New Skill: Priest


    The next update will also introduce a new core combat skill, the Priest. This is a support skill that focuses on group healing and recovery, with a smattering of other things for variety. We call it "Priest" for short, but the skill is specifically "Priest of Arisetsu". Arisetsu is the Goddess of Hope and Warmth, and she will be the patron deity of anyone that uses Priest abilities. Becoming a priest involves making a vow to Arisetsu that you will help her in the direst of times, "when all hope is dying in the world"... but practically speaking, that's not a day-to-day occurrence. Unlike "druid emergencies", there won't be any "priest emergencies" except, perhaps, during special events -- maybe a weekend event, or something like that. Arisetsu is a well-liked and easygoing god, and anyone can become a Priest of Arisetsu. The only thing Arisetsu refuses to tolerate is the undead, and you can't use the Necromancer and Priest skills at the same time. Other than that, you can pair it with anything. Priest has the most targeted healing potential of any skill, but some of the Priest's heals have a short "channeling time." If the priest is attacked while channeling, the spell aborts. In other words, Priests work best in a group, where they don't have to be on the front lines. But like most skills, Priest has versatility and room for customization. There's some unique debuffing abilities, some potent undead-killing tools, and a couple of fiery attacks related to Arisetsu's "warmth" aspect. These should allow for some interesting skill combinations. In fact, I'm excited to see someone try to make Fire Magic+Priest work as a deadly solo offensive combo! ... But in general, Priest is a support skill.

    Mecanim Update On The Horizon


    We have a custom animation synchronization system that's built on top of Unity's original animation engine. Well, a few years ago Unity added a new animation engine (called "Mecanim"), and we're working on upgrading all our code and assets to use mecanim. This is a big undertaking that involves a ton of work, and the work is being done in a separate branch of the code until it's ready. It won't be ready for at least a few updates... but when it's finally ready, it'll be a big deal. First, it will let us finally fix some of the annoyingly terrible animation glitches that we just can't fix right now due to the rigidity of our old animation setup. Second, it will let us blend animations better, allowing for more reasonable-looking combat animations. Third, we're plugging in new animation features necessary for mounts. (Just to be clear, mounts will take additional work on top of the mecanim update. But that will be one of the big features we focus on after.) I don't have any kind of an ETA on the Big Mecanim Update yet, but it's on the horizon. (Unfortunately for us, the Mecanim system uses a single-threaded implementation under the hood, the same as the older Unity animation system. So switching to Mecanim won't magically improve the game's framerate in crowded areas... but mecanim looks a LOT better! That's the point of this update: laying the groundwork for better-looking animations.)

    Other Changes


    The next update will be in about two weeks -- hopefully less, actually, but let's say two weeks. Time permitting, we'll also be tweaking some other skills, nerfing some problematic abilities and buffing a few others. But that's not the primary focus of the next update, so it may get pushed out to a different update. I also want to make some incremental quality-of-life improvements to the UI, but I doubt too much of that will fit into this update; we'll see how it goes. That's it for now. I'll be back soon with another dev blog. Thanks for playing and supporting us!


    [ 2018-05-06 21:41:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: April 15, 2018

    This is a bug-fix update.

    General Fixes:


    • Fixed several bugs that could bottleneck the server. (You can tell when this is happening because NPCs take a long time to respond when they're clicked on, among other problems.) It's likely there are more of these bottleneck bugs that only arise when 200+ players are in one small geographic region, so special logging was added to help track them down when they occur.
    • Fixed bug that allowed you to switch equipment during combat.
    • Fixed bug that caused players to have collision with other players if they transformed into/out of an animal form.
    • If you died while submerged in an indoor body of water, the camera could remain blurry after you respawned.
    • Fixed bug with Hardcore Mode sign allowing players to temporarily keep using hardcore items and buffs after turning off hardcore mode.
    • When a guild officer toggled a guild permission, it was logged incorrectly to the Guild Audit Log. (Pre-existing log entries are unchanged; new log entries should be correct.)
    • Fixed bug that could turn other players' hair mostly invisible ("ghost hair") if they stood at a certain point between the camera and your character.
    • Fixed pet/monster AI bug that caused melee-centric monsters to stand idly until their global cooldown was up, even if their target was fleeing. They now pursue fleeing enemies so they can more quickly be in range to attack again.
    • Additionally, adjusted pet/monster AI so that they don't slow down as quickly when chasing fleeing (or backpedaling) targets, allowing them to actually get in range of their targets more often.

    Animal Handling Fixes:


    • Fixed bug that caused Animal Handling pets to not respond to Sic 'Em/Clever Trick orders if their pet mode was changed.
    • Examining an Animal Handling pet once again lists the pet's unique abilities triggered by Sic 'Em and Clever Trick.
    • Animal Handling ability "Get It Off Me" referred vaguely to "potency is based on loyalty". Loyalty is now called Bond Level, and the ability was reworded to be a little more specific: "How well the pet focuses on your enemies depends in part on the pet's Bond Level." In other words, Bond Level determines how well the pet is "taunted" to attack your enemies, but other benefits of the ability are NOT based on bond level.
    • Increased how well pets stick to your enemies when Get It Off Me is used. (But this effect is reduced if the pet's Bond Level is low; see above.)
    • Removed obsolete references to pet Power in Animal Handling abilities.

    Content Fixes:


    • Fixed visual bugs with ghosts
    • Ranalon Den map now uses the new style map pins.
    • Fixed some stone objects in the Ranalon Den that could be walked through.
    • All old references to "Enoeos" are now spelt "Enoyos". (He'd probably prefer the other spelling, but it's easier to guess how "Enoyos" is pronounced: eh-NO-yose.)
    • The "Strange Stick" used in the quest "The Eye of Fate" works again.
    • Map fog in the Crystal Cavern behaves correctly.
    • Velkort's furniture no longer floats. Neither does Ivyn's house.
    • Trees and grasses in Serbule Hills are visible again.
    • Killing some types of Winter Court Fey did not correctly advance the guild quest Storming the Nexus (50-person)
    • Eltibule is using the new terrain shaders, although the foliage is not yet updated to match, so it looks a bit weird


    [ 2018-04-15 08:06:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update Notes: April 7, 2018

    This update contains a smorgasbord of optimizations, bug fixes, and new content.

    Ranalon Den


    Serbule Hills is home to a new solo dungeon for players of combat levels 18-24 or so. (There is group content planned as well, but most of it is not yet implemented.) This dungeon tries something a little new: a rapid-fire quest NPC roams the entryway. Let us know what you think! (The entrance is in a ranalon lake.)

    Animal Handling Changes


    Loyalty Level Becomes Bond Level Animal Handling pets have a "Loyalty Level" which starts at 0 for any pet and increases as you fight alongside that pet. This is not a new stat, and you've been able to earn these levels for a long time... but previously they didn't do anything. They now do something (see below). We've also renamed the stat from "Loyalty Level" to "Bond Level". The name change is supposed to help convey that this is a bond between you and your pet, so if this pet were to be, say, given away to another player, its Bond Level would reset to 0 for its new owner. (It's not yet possible to give away pets, though -- that feature is part of the Animal Husbandry skill tree, still deep in development.) Pets' Bond Level (previously "Loyalty Level") now boosts some combat stats: for each Bond Level, pets' base damage increases by 1 or 2, max health increases by 4, and max armor increases by 1. This is intentionally a somewhat modest effect -- we don't want Bond Level to be so important that you become effectively stuck with the same pet forever! (Since newly-tamed pets start at Bond Level 0.) But this is a noticeable buff at high level, rewarding players who stick with their pet a long time. We will no doubt adjust the effects of the Bond Level again in future updates, and we may have it behave differently for different pet types in the future. Removal of Pet Power When we added the pet-specific moves for Sic 'Em and Clever Trick, we also gave pets their own Power meter, with the intent to create interesting conundrums for animal handlers: deciding how and when to spend their pet's Power, whether the pet needed the benefit of Max-Power-boosting gear, etc. However after some experimentation it doesn't seem like it's going to be very interesting after all. So we're throwing that idea away: pets no longer need or use Power to activate their abilities. Instead, the animal handler's Power cost for Sic 'Em and Special Trick is increased a bit. For now, pets' abilities are unchanged aside from the removal of Power costs. Further balancing and development will happen here -- possibly including the re-introduction of Rage meters for pets, with a way to let animal handlers activate their pets' rage-attack. Making Enthusiasm More Important Animal Handling pets have another stat called Enthusiasm, which can be boosted by the owner's equipped items. (And boosted via other ways in the future!) Previously, the only purpose of Enthusiasm was to determine how quickly your pet gained Happiness. (Happiness determines how much XP your pet earns; if it dies, your pet's Happiness goes down, and the rate it recovers Happiness is based on the pet's Enthusiasm). All that is still true, but Enthusiasm has a second job now: it determines the chance for pets to critically-hit their enemies. The formula is based on the level of the monster, so higher Enthusiasm is needed to critically-hit higher-level monsters. If a pet performs a critical hit, the pet's direct damage is increased by 25% (for cats), 40% (for bears), or 50% (for rats). This system is a work in progress and will no doubt see changes (or even complete rewrites) in the future. For now the goal is just to make sure that Enthusiasm is a stat worth caring about, even if your pet is already really happy. Other Pet Changes and Fixes
    • A lot of the systems involved with Animal Handling are still too opaque: that is, it's very hard to figure out how they work. As a first step in helping explain everything, Gisli the Stablemaster now has a menu option where he will explain terms like Happiness, Enthusiasm, Bond Level, and so on.
    • Animal Handling abilities that target your pet should work even when you don't have your pet explicitly targeted. (This "mostly" worked before, but the icons were shown as being grayed out, leading to much confusion.)
    • Some Animal Handling abilities require you to be within a certain range of your pet. If you're too far away, using these abilities should now move you toward the pet until you're in range. Previously, due to bugs, your character would take one step forward and then give up.
    • Pets that are in "Follow" mode will no longer fight back against monsters that attack them. They will chase after their owner and never fight, even unto death. (Previously, switching a pet to Follow mode would briefly kick it out of combat, but if it was hit again it would go right back to defending itself. This made it difficult for players to flee without losing their pet.) Note that this change applies to all pets that can be put in Follow mode, not just Animal Handling pets!
    • The special abilities "Sic 'Em" and "Special Trick" will now automatically take the pet out of Follow mode if necessary in order to execute the attack you requested (placing the pet in Defend mode).
    • Due to a display bug, Enthusiasm was previously always shown as 0 or 1 on the pet's Examination window.
    • Due to a display bug, equipment that boosts pet Enthusiasm was listed as boosting it by a percentage, such as 20%. It actually boosts Enthusiasm by a fixed amount, such as 20.
    • Animal Handling ability "That'll Do 8" claimed to restore 450 health but only restored 400
    • "That'll Do" previously helped restore pets' Power; pets no longer use Power so "That'll Do" doesn't restore any.
    Animal Handling Equipment-Mod Changes The following treasure mods were changed. Existing gear has been automatically updated to use the new effects.
    • "Animal Handling pets regenerate +X Power every five seconds (whether in combat or not)" => "Animal Handling pets recover +Y Armor every five seconds (whether in combat or not)"
    • "Animal Handling pets gain X% melee evasion, and their special trick costs them -Y Power to use" => removed the Power reduction aspect of this mod
    • "Animal Handling pets earn +X% XP" => "Animal Handling pets' Sic 'Em abilities taunt +Y"
    • "Feed Pet restores X Power to your pet and Y Power to you" => "Feed Pet restores X Health to your pet after a 20 second delay"
    • "Animal Handling pets have +X Max Power" => "Animal Handling pets have +Y% Death Avoidance (ignores a fatal attack once; resets after 15 minutes)"
    • "That'll Do restores X Power to your pet and Y Power to you" => "That'll Do restores X Health to your pet and Y Power to you"

    General Changes


    • Improved framerate in Serbule and Serbule Hills (optimizations to sky/weather system). Further optimizations in the future.
    • Optimized UI bottlenecks to improve framerate, especially in busy areas
    • Fixed text that still referred to Serbule Hills as "South Serbule"
    • Reduced the chances of monsters "clumping up" into huge groups in the Ilmari Desert. (It can still happen, but is more rare.)
    • Ilmari desert now uses the new terrain shaders, giving it a rockier and more rugged look
    • Slightly increased spoon drops on newbie island
    • Reduced the number of temporary entities (such as tombstones) that are maintained in dungeons and on the newbie island
    • Changed the maximum length of a player vendor's shop name from 60 characters to 32 characters
    • Fixed issues with ambient sounds in outdoor areas
    • Fixed locations where monsters could spawn underneath buildings in Serbule
    • Fixed some abilities with buffs that didn't correctly abort if you switched to a different skill
    • The mini-map is now enabled by default for new installations of the game. (This does not affect already-installed copies of the game, just the default for new installs. You can still turn the mini-map on or off in the Settings window.)
    • Worked around bugs in Unity that caused animal-form players to move crazily when knocked back. The fix is complex because the bug is deep inside Unity so if you find more issues, please report them, with as much detail as you can.
    • Improved Hammer animations
    • The Serbule Hills "spider cave" and the Serbule "brain bug cave" are now properly marked as caves for purposes of crafting (e.g. cheese making)
    • Previously, when your hunting group used "any group member" loot mode, solo-monsters' loot was always tailored to one specific group member, chosen randomly, which never changed. Now, solo-monsters' loot is tailored to a different randomly-chosen group member each time. This is still not ideal, but it's a step in the right direction. And to reiterate, this does not apply to groups using the default "turns" looting mode -- in that case the monster is always tailored to the person whose turn it is. And, of course, Elite and Boss monsters work entirely differently -- they have instanced loot that's tailored for each group member.
    • Adjusted the spawn configurations of certain monsters that could easily be exploited with area-effect attacks. Most notably, Razorslash Panthers (pets of the orcs) now have orcs spawn among them, rather than a vast field of nothing but panthers. These are stopgap measures as we continue to analyze looting rates and monster density scenarios
    • Fixed some spawners that were incorrectly configured to respawn super fast (e.g. respawning every 5 seconds). This includes some areas of Eltibule and many areas of Kur. The outdoor respawn rate is supposed to be quite fast, but not so fast that monsters continuously respawn in your face
    • Fixed some spawners that were incorrectly super-slow (e.g. respawning every 60 seconds instead of every 20 or 30 seconds). Most notably this affects pretty much all of outdoor Gazluk (aside from Gazluk Keep town) and much of the Ilmari Desert
    • Monsters with Evasion all have a little bit more of it (5 points more across the board)
    • The "strange deer" spawned during the quest "Get Crystal Samples" no longer drop loot (besides the quest item) and cannot be skinned
    • Flia the fairy likes weird items and rare recipes a bit less than before (in terms of Favor received for gifts)
    • Tweaked spawn rates upward slightly during kraken invasions

    Fixes to Treasure Mods


    • "Reconstruct restores +X Health and causes the target to take Y less damage from attacks for 10 seconds" => this mod appears on two slots, Helm and Necklace, but if you had both mods active at once, the "take less damage" portion only applied once
    • "Revitalize restores +X Health and causes the target to take Y less damage from Psychic and Nature attacks for 10 seconds" => this mod appears on two slots, Hands and Feet, but if you had both mods active at once, the "take less damage" portion only applied once
    • "If Strategic Thrust is used on a Vulnerable target, it deals +X damage and restores Y Health to you" => this did not restore health if the target was vulnerable
    • "Strategic Thrust deals +X% damage, plus Y% more damage if the target is Vulnerable" => this did not do extra damage to vulnerable targets
    • "Scintillating Frost and Scintillating Flame stun and deal +X% damage to Vulnerable targets" => this stunned but did not do extra damage to vulnerable targets
    • "Hammer attacks deal +X% damage to targets whose Rage meters are at least 66% full" => this did not work
    • "Seismic Impact deals +X% damage to targets that are Knocked Down" => this did not work
    • "Discharging Strike deals +X% damage plus Y% more damage if target's Rage meter is at least 66% full" => this did not add more damage to targets whose rage was mostly full
    • "Unarmed attacks deal +X% damage when you have 33% or less of your Armor left" => this did not work. It works now, though the damage boost is a bit lower
    • "All sword abilities deal +X% damage when you have 33% or less of your Armor left" => this did not work. It works now
    • "Kick attacks deal +X% damage when you have 33% or less of your Armor left" => this did not work. It works now but the damage boost is lower

    "Special Settings" Changes


    • The experimental optimization OptimizeMeshes is now enabled by default. You can remove OptimizeMeshes from your special settings list because that no longer does anything.
    • A new special setting DontOptimizeMeshes is available as a precaution in case the optimize meshes feature needs to be disabled for some reason.
    • Added a new special setting, FPSUpdateRate. This takes a duration in seconds (default is FPSUpdateRate=0.5, max is FPSUpdateRate=10). When the FPS display is active, this is how long it waits between refreshes. While waiting, it averages your FPS. Using a value of < 1 shows your moment-to-moment framerate, which is usually what you want to see. But sometimes you want to know if a certain graphics configuration is an overall improvement or not, and a constantly-changing number is hard to use. In that situation setting FPSUpdateRate=5 makes it easier to see the "big picture".
    • A new special setting, MaxActiveLoads, might improve loading times when you enter new areas. Normally the loading screen tries to load up to 10 things at once, but on some computers (maybe most computers?) a different number would be better. The new setting lets you change the maximum number of simultaneous loads. Setting it to MaxActiveLoads=100 would allow up to 100 concurrent loads -- that'd be pretty much maxed out, and could speed up or slow down loading, depending on your machine. (A more practical value to try might be 5 or 20.) You might also try MaxActiveLoads=1 to make it stop multitasking at all -- this will probably be much slower, but it uses much less RAM during startup. If you experiment with this setting please let us know your thoughts after a few weeks' usage.


    [ 2018-04-07 18:32:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Project: Gorgon
    Elder Game, LLC Developer
    Elder Game, LLC Publisher
    2018-03-12 Release
    Game News Posts: 105
    🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse
    Very Positive (2062 reviews)
    The Game includes VR Support
    Public Linux Depots:
    • P:G Linux [7.37 G]
    Available DLCs:
    • Project: Gorgon VIP Membership
    • Project: Gorgon - Extra Character Slots Pack



    GO ON AN ADVENTURE

    Project: Gorgon is a 3D fantasy MMORPG (massively-multiplayer online role-playing game) featuring an immersive experience that allows the player to forge their own path through exploration and discovery. We don't guide you through a world on rails, and as a result, there are many hidden secrets awaiting discovery. Project: Gorgon also features an ambitious skill-based leveling system that bucks the current trend of pre-determined classes, allowing the player to combine skills in order to create a truly unique playing experience.

    AN IMMERSIVE WORLD

    When you play Project: Gorgon, we want you to feel as if you’re immersed in a whole new virtual world. Rather than trying to manage this with just graphics and excessive backstory, we’ve designed the game with dozens of gameplay features that make you feel like you’re really there interacting with the world, such as:

    • Each non-player (NPC) you meet has their own goals and interest, and reward players that choose to be their friend.
    • You can drop items on the ground, and other players can pick them up. What’s so great about that? Imagine laying down a trail of literal (virtual) breadcrumbs to guide your friends (or lure your enemies) into the woods.
    • Shopkeepers keep inventory, so you can buy items that other players have sold to them. Want to help out new players? Sell your cast-off items to the shopkeeper in the new player zone and watch the new players go to town.
    • If you are on fire, you can jump into a lake to put it out. This type of mechanic can have a subtle effect on your strategies, especially when you are fighting a fire mage!
    • You can inscribe messages onto items, write books, and even leave notes for other players. Make your name as an in-game poet, or pronounce your greatness to the world!

    UNIQUE EXPERIENCES

    In Project: Gorgon you kill monsters - a lot of them - and you take their loot. In order to keep the experience fun and interesting, we’ve developed unique combat experiences to keep the fights feeling fresh. The loot is randomly generated, monsters have unique abilities, and dungeons have puzzles, traps, and terrifying bosses! The combat skills are entirely free-form. You can learn as many combat skills as you want, and use any two of them at the same time to create your own personal “class.” Project: Gorgon features dozens to choose from, including:

    • Battle Chemistry: Create huge explosions, inject yourself with mysterious mutagens or program a pet golem!
    • Unarmed Combat: Grapple and control enemies using a situational-aware combo system that varies based on where you are and what day it is.
    • Animal Handling: Tame animals and train them to become ferocious fighters. Then breed your best and sell their offspring to other players.
    • Necromancy: Seek out corpses and graveyards to raise an undead army. No graveyard around? Well, there are always the corpses of your friends.
    • Cow: Got turned into a cow by that boss? That sucks. But learn some kicks and how to stampede, and you'll be right back out there kicking grass in no time!
    • That’s just a few! There’s also Sword Fighting, Combat Psychology, Staff Fighting, Sigil Scripting, Mentalism, and more.

    Player Choices are important in Project: Gorgon. You can learn as many skills as you want, but sometimes power comes with downsides. You can become infected with lycanthropy and gain access to very powerful skill sets. As a lycanthrope, you are able to roam the world in a pack or as a lone wolf; however, when there is a full moon (which is tied to the real world lunar calendar) you are stuck in your beast form. There’s no cure for lycanthropy.

    You can become a Druid - which will give you great power, but you have to vow to drop everything when there’s an emergency involving nature. It could be a forest fire, a monster invasion or even a pesky insect. Nature never lets you ignore your duties, ever.

    New opportunists come open, but others will be closed. Can you bear heavy burdens in exchange for greater power?

    JOIN THE COMMUNITY

    The community is a critical aspect of Project: Gorgon. We strive to maintain a strong, engaged community, supporting our players through:

    • Live Events with a focus on story.
    • Mechanisms For player-created quest content.
    • Player housing (limited and instanced).
    • Player-managed shops and vendor stalls.
    • In-game communication tools like bulletin boards.
    • Bookshelves where you can write and submit your own books and stories (and players can vote on their favorites).

    HELP DEFINE THE GAME

    During our beta ("early access") period, your feedback helps improve the game, from small things like bug-reports to large things like new skill suggestions, monster ideas, and more! We've already used hundreds of player-provided suggestions during our alpha period, and we'll use even more suggestions during beta as we get into the down-and-dirty details of combat, crafting, and exploration.

    MINIMAL SETUP
    • OS: Ubuntu 18.04
    • Processor: Intel Core 2 DUO 2.4 GHz / AMD Athlon X2 2.7 GHzMemory: 4 GB RAM
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 3870 / NVIDIA 8800 GT / Intel HD 4000 Integrated GraphicsNetwork: Broadband Internet connection
    • Storage: 10 GB available space
    RECOMMENDED SETUP
    • OS: Ubuntu 18.04
    • Processor: Quad Core Processor 2.4GHz or fasterMemory: 8 GB RAM
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070Network: Broadband Internet connection
    • Storage: 10 GB available space
    GAMEBILLET

    [ 6132 ]

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    15.99$ (20%)
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    3.38$ (77%)

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