Release 21

August 27, 2015

• Crafting: Crafting skills will start to come online, and be used during crafting to modify results. Additionally, players will now have the ability to salvage items for materials and components.

• Base Skills: All Refining and Production skills now have a base skill that increases when used. (See Use Based Advancement, below.)
• Salvage: Players can now use crafting stations to salvage materials from items. Salvage will never yield all the original materials, but increasing your Salvage skill increases the amount of materials gained. Salvage is accomplished by placing an item on the appropriate crafting station (smithing for metal items, carpentry for wooden items, and tailoring for cloth/leather items) with the standard tool for that station and then hitting the “Salvage” button.
• Scrap: Sometimes salvage is not successful enough to render out full units of a given material so sometimes you will receive scraps. Scraps can be combined to create a full unit of a given material (like an ingot or a board).
• “Max” vs. “Current Max” Durability: Wear on gear (weapons and armor) will now not only decrease durability, but also decrease the current maximum. Using repair kits will only add durability up to the current max, not full maximum. Full maximum can only be reached again by repairing the item at a crafting station.

• Example: Durability 10 / 50 (Max 90)

• 10 = Item's Current Durability
• 50 = Item's Current Maximum Durability
• 90 = (Only seen in tooltip) Item's Maximum Durability

• Repair at Crafting Stations: Items (weapons, armor, and wooden decorations) can now be repaired at a crafting station using a repair kit and the corresponding tool for that station (ex. smithing hammer for metal weapons at a smithing station). This is the only method that will both repair durability and restore maximum durability. For now, there is only one type of repair kit. Starting in R22, repair kits will begin specializing (smithing, carpentry, and tailoring). In R21, all weapons and armor can be repaired to maximum durability at crafting stations. We will implement the repair of crafting tools in R22.
• New Crafting UI: In addition to adding Repair and Salvage buttons to the crafting UI (in both bag and list modes), we also made a new UI change for list mode. When a crafting station is used in list mode, a new interface will appear that shows a filtered version of your inventory displaying all items that can be used in the crafting system, This includes items that can be repaired and salvaged. This will also clean up the UI while crafting since you no longer need to have a separate window open for your Inventory. We plan to expand this in R22 to also be contextual based on the station you are using.
• Salvage & Repair Pages: We added information about how salvage and repair work to the Recipe book.
• Wooden Streetlamp Recipe: Players can now make Wooden Streetlamp similar to those seen in towns like Soltown and Braemar.

• Combat: The cover system will be introduced and will modify attack and defense values when you (or your target) are behind cover.

• Cover Delayed: With fundamental changes to how advancement works (see Use Based below) and some changes to combat math, we decided it was too early to introduce cover as another variable.
• Log Out Timer: Another aspect that needed changing was handling log-outs, so they will no longer be instant (an easy way to get out of a losing fight). Now when you log out, a timer begins and your character stays in the world, even if you disconnect.
• Auto-attack uses Free Attack: Auto-attack now shares the same logic as free attack. Essentially, auto-attack is now a free attack that is repeatedly triggered as long as you have a target in front of you and while your camera is facing the target. Double-clicking on a target or selecting a target then hitting the “T” key initiates auto-attack.
• Combat Math Changes: With the change to the use based system, much of the combat math had to change. Damage calculations and to-hit rolls are heavily dependent on the skill value in the related skill. Also, armor values and how they are used has been adjusted to make heavy armors avoid more damage but absorb less than in previous builds.
• Parry: The parry skill was moved from swords to the tactics tree and can now be used with any melee weapon. A successful parry blocks an amount of damage based on the weapon power and player strength. Most ranged attacks and spells can no longer be parried.
• Block: Shield block was given an upgrade for this release. When successful, it stops damage based on the shield type and the player’s strength. Also, block can now protect players from missile types AND many magic spells! We are also experimenting with giving block a weakness in that it doesn’t protect against skills in the polearm tree.
• Dodge: Dodge can now be used to help avoid many magic effects. Unlike Parry and Block, if successful, it completely avoids the damage instead of just stopping a certain number of points. Combine Parry, Block, and Dodge to become a defensive machine.
• Attack Range: Creatures can now have modifiers to attack ranges to make them easier to attack in melee range. This was particularly true of the wolf and bear models who really loved putting their noses where they didn’t belong. They can now be attacked from a range that more closely matches their visuals.
• Ranged Weapons and facing: Bows and other ranged weapons will now only work when facing the target. Sorry archers... no more sprinting away while shooting something behind you.
• Deck Size Scaling: For those that enjoy the deck mechanic, the minimum number of cards in your deck has been changed to smoothly scale with total adventurer experience earned instead of going up in increments of 5.

• Maps: Perennial Coast polish will continue and new scenes will come online that expand the story, including the desert town of Desolis and the Chamber of Souls dungeon beneath it.

• Desolis: This town of former nomads sits on top of the ruins of an ancient Obsidian Order city. It is dominated by a captured Obsidian shard and the ancient Obsidian Order fortress known as the Epitaph. The locals use the old fortress as a prison and death sentence.
• The Epitaph (aka Chamber of Souls): This vast underground complex was the heart of the Obsidian Order’s power. It was where they used the power of the Obsidian shards to create the Elves, Satyrs, Kobolds, and Trolls. Remnants of these experiments still roam the halls and eat unwary adventurers as well as those poor souls sent here as prisoners. It is also the location of the Chamber of Souls, where a key element of our story unfolds.
• Desolate Hills: The Desolate Hills of the Perennial Coast have been reduced to a ruined graveyard in the North, an abandoned settlement in the South, and a Shrine to a mysterious Obsidian Lord in the East. It is truly an inhospitable place for travelers, overrun with undead and wolves scavenging the bodies of the defeated.
• Hometown: Using the dynamic Player Owned Town tools, we built Hometown during R20 to include every single home and basement available in the game. Our amazing community jumped in and volunteered to decorate these spaces. If you are considering a property and/or home purchase, then we highly recommend visiting Hometown to get a feel for what is available (it’s on an island just off the southeast corner of Novia, near the starting town of Soltown).
• Polished Scenes: Polish passes were made on various scenes along the Perennial Coast including:

• Deep Savrenoc Timberlands: Updated all spawners to be dynamic, added nighttime spawners, added discovery points, and improved patrols / pathing for NPCs.
• Savrenoc Timberland: Added Elf encampment, improved graveyard area including adding nighttime undead spawners.
• Savrenoc Stronghold: Updated spawners and patrols, added discovery points, revised the ruined wall into an ancient platform with altar, improved the smaller elf camp, revised the larger elf camp and the ruins in which it sits.
• Necropolis Barrens: Updated all spawners to be dynamic, added nighttime spawners, added discovery points, and improved patrols / pathing for NPCs.

• Emote “Teaching”: Emotes will now be teachable to other players. Some emotes (like the ones tied to pledges) will only be teachable by the original owner. Teaching will be done via secure trading.

• Emote Teaching Delayed: The extensive amount of work involved with moving to use based advancement delayed this feature.

• Player Owned Towns: We will continue to expand the number of templates and introduce a new Player Owned Town to the game.

• Snowy Mountains Template: This is the first snowy biome template and is a PaxLair variant. We plan to create at least one more snowy template and at least one more mountain template (not snowy). New Player Owned Towns coming online this release who have selected this template will receive it, but if your PoT came online in R20, we currently do not have a way to swap biome without wiping all the town data (which would include everyone losing their houses, lots, items, etc.). So, unfortunately, some of you will have to wait until the next wipe (maybe R23?) to swap.
• Player Owned Town Decorations: Player Owned Town owners (and stewards) are now able to place certain items anywhere in their PoT without requiring a lot, if there is a large enough flat area to place the item on. The current list includes:

• NPC Buildings: These come pre-decorated and will not be customizable because otherwise they would basically be a player house without the lot deed requirement. Owners will find them in their bank. For now we have given each town owner one of each and four guard towers. Limits will enforce how many can be placed at one time. Please note that we do not yet have NPC placement working, but we hope to have that in R22. For now, these buildings are purely cosmetic. This is a very rough first iteration, expect this to expand in future releases. The list of currently available buildings includes:

• Tavern
• Bank
• Combat Shop
• Weapon Shop
• Armor Shop
• Magic Shop
• Home Shop
• Stables
• Cemetery
• Guard Tower
• Crafting Shop
• Fishing Shop
• Cooking Shop
• Public Garden
• Moon Tower
• Titan of Love
• Oracle Conservatory
• Dragon Bones

• Other Decorations: In addition to the NPC buildings there are other miscellaneous decorations that can also be placed including:

• Trees
• Pavers
• Statues
• Walls
• Fences
• Fountains
• Outhouse
• Battle Banner
• Wishing Well

• PoT Decoration Limits: With the launch of the above feature, we have added decoration limits to Player Owned Towns. Please note we do not have streetlamp decorations nor placeable NPCs just yet, but we hope to have them functioning in R22. The current limits are listed here:

• Holdfast

• 1 NPC Building
• 2 NPCs
• 20 Decos
• 5 Lights

• Hamlet

• 2 NPC Buildings
• 4 NPCs
• 30 Decos
• 10 Lights

• Village

• 3 NPC Buildings
• 6 NPCs
• 40 Decos
• 15 Lights

• Crossroads Village

• 4 NPC Buildings
• 8 NPCs
• 50 Decos
• 20 Lights

• Town

• 6 NPC Buildings
• 12 NPCs
• 80 Decos
• 25 Lights

• City

• 10 NPC Buildings
• 20 NPCs
• 100 Decos
• 30 Lights

• Metropolis

• 15 NPC Buildings
• 30 NPCs
• 130 Decos
• 40 Lights

• Arx Draconis: The capital town of the Syndicate (current holder of the Guinness world record for longest running guild) is our newest static Player Owned Town to come online. A large fortress with a Dragon statue centerpiece, it uses the island template and is located off Spindrift Island on the north side of Bay of Storms.
• Town Criers / Bankers: These will now be standard with all Player Owned Towns and will not be relocatable by the owner (unlike other NPCs). This is to prevent the issue where someone could change homes or be evicted and their items would have no location to go to. While this makes the Bank and Banker building slightly redundant, those items are still useful if you wish the bank to be accessible from a custom location and not just the default (and unmoveable) location of the Town Crier.
• Island Template Lot Areas: Fixed various areas on the template that were blocking lot placement, especially water lots on the beaches.
• 38 New Dynamic PoTs: We added another round of dynamic Player Owned Towns to the game. Here is the list of new towns that can be found in R21 plus an updated map of Novia (new towns are in yellow):

File:POT-R21.png

File:Novia POT R21.jpg

• Creatures: Dragons will begin appearing in Novia! Burninating will begin. All hail Trogdor, the Burninator!

• Dragon (model, texture, & rigging): Our amazing character team worked diligently on updating our dragon that we purchased to meet our standards. While that work is nearing completion we do not yet have the behaviors nor flight visuals to a releasable level yet. Additionally, the sheer scale of his wings and tail create sorting issues we don’t yet have solved. So instead of releasing the dragon in this state, we are holding him for one more release and using the Phoenix (see below) to test out some of these issues.
• Phoenix (boss variant): We decided to make a scaled up boss level variant of the Phoenix (summoned creature from Sun Magic) as a test case for behaviors we want to use for the Dragon, especially related to flight and combat. This meant trying to get a flying creature that can take off, land, hover, fly AND attack while doing so -- and have it feel right. While it still isn’t quite where we want it, we feel like its close enough that we can let you all play with it a bit. We also wanted the fire attacks from Phoenixes and Dragons to generate an area of effect and leave behind a fire field that lasts a long time. That means that the longer the fight goes on, more and more of the scene will be set on fire, therefore increasing the challenge. Look for these high level Phoenixes in the highlands of desert scenes.
• Troll Polish: We did some polish work on the textures for the Trolls and added some additional visual effects. We also did some behavior improvements, including making his 180 degree attack function and improving his throw attack logic for hitting players at range. Finally, we gave his knockback effects a trajectory so that players will actually be pitched up into the air, and in the case of the Ruined Keep, they can actually be kicked off the bridge and down into the gully below!
• Wolf Variants Polish: The color variation on the different wolves was too subtle so we increased the contrast between them, resulting in things like the Arctic Wolf being much more white.
• Under Dwellers: For The Epitaph complex, we created Obsidian experiment versions of Elves, Satyrs, Trolls, and Humans.
• Gustball Animations: We made a set of Gustball specific animations for our little Gustball, so movement, stopping, etc. should look a little better.

• Localization: We will begin crowdsourcing the translation of the game into various languages.

• Localization Crowdsourcing Delayed: While progress continues to be made on the architecture to support this, we have had to postpone the actual translation work so we can complete the work for the Journal updates (see below) and the server death validation (see above).

• Weather: Weather will make a first appearance with rain and snow linked to seasonal changes.

• Rain and Cloudiness: Weather makes a debut in R21, with rainstorms on Monday mornings. In future releases, weather will be linked to seasons, time of day, and regions. Also, these do not have any effects on gameplay for now, but we also have plans for that in future releases—especially when agriculture comes online.
• Snow Delayed: Until we can get seasonality and regional variation online, we are holding off on adding snow.

• Spells & Skills: More new spells, skills, and combos will come online.
• Control Points: These scenes will now pull you into them automatically if held by enemies

Additional Information

• Release 21 Instructions
• Release 21 Known Issues
• Quick Reference Card

See Also

• Release Dates
• Release 20
• Release 22
• Release 23