Difference between revisions of "Game updates"

Revision as of 23:49, 26 May 2016

This page includes the five most recent game updates. You are welcome to tidy up the formatting and add wiki links, but please keep any discussion in the Talk pages as these Game updates are meant to be verbatim from the launcher update notes. Game updates can be found on the launcher, or at the following link: http://projectgorgon.com/welcome.txt

If you are returning to the game and want short summaries of what was changed, see Quick Notes.

For information on possible future content, please see Knowledge of the Future.

Update Notes: March 10, 2026

This is primarily a tech update: we've changed major versions of the Unity engine to address some crash bugs. But of course there's lots of other stuff too:

New Unity Version

To fix some issues, we've upgraded to Unity 6.3 LTS. This is a major version upgrade (though hopefully the last one for a year or so). All Unity version upgrades are scary and prone to cause (or reveal) exciting new bugs; please report any that you see!

In conjunction with this change we have made significant changes to the vegetation and environmental render pipeline. It's expected that there will be some minor issues (such as weird color grading) here -- again, please report problems.

Redwing Casino Changes

We've added a new shopping mall to the Red Wing Casino! This is sort of a "sneak peek" version: it's still being fleshed out, but it's nice enough already that we wanted to get feedback and, more importantly, give people access to all the new stalls. There are 200 new player-vendor stalls here, in addition to the existing 50 stalls that were previously in other parts of the casino. The upper floor of the casino requires only that you have Retail Management trained; the lower floor requires Retail Management 10 to hire.

We've also nade other changes to the casino:

- Cashfall Match-3 gives out a bit more money for chain reactions

- Lootmaster Match-3 mode now costs 450c per game rather than 500c

- the "Lootmaster Deluxe" match-3 game was previously only found in the advanced gaming room. It can now also be found on the regular casino floor.

- A new match-3 game variant called "Sea of Gems" can only be found in the advanced gaming room

- when betting on arena battles, your max-bet used to be 5000 plus an additional 2500 for every 9 levels of Gaming you have. This has changed to be 5000 plus 2500 for every 5 levels. This changes the max bet at level 50 from 17500 to 30,000

- When betting on arena battles, only one character per account can bet at a time

- added a spotlight in the arena that turns on while battles are happening

Search Golem Improvements

We've also made changes to shop-search golems. (These apply to the shop golems in all areas, not just the casino):

- after getting search results, there is a new "pop out results into new window" button. this button opens a new GUI window that can remain open even after you stop talking to the golem. You can click on shop names in this window and a glowing path will guide you to that shop

- changes to golem search: if no equipment slots are selected, assume ALL slots are desired. If no skills are selected, assume ALL skills are selected. And so on. Default to nothing selected, to make it easier to customize as needed

- when searching for an item by name, we previously omitted equipment. (Because there is a separate equipment search that allows more specialized searching.) This behavior feels surprising so equipment is no longer omitted

- search results were previously fully randomized. They are now randomized by grouping, meaning that all the stalls that are in the same stall-group are listed together. The stall groups are still ordered randomly, but they are weighted such that stall groups with more matching stalls are more likely to be listed first. In the long term, this subtly encourages players to open stalls in the same stall-group as similar stalls. (And is also a side-effect of how we coded it, but it seemed beneficial so we're calling it a feature.)

Boss Timing Changes

We've increased respawn rate of bosses used by casino dailies. In most cases this means they now respawn 60 seconds after their corpse disappears. This was not a trivial change because the boss' allies and "adds" (that is, their buddies that appear mid-combat) were scripted with the expectation that the boss wouldn't respawn more than once every 5 minutes. These encounters had to be revised in various ways. A common revision was to make some of the boss' entourage respawn immediately the moment the boss respawns, to ensure the boss is never alone.

In addition, some non-boss spawners were sped up in affected dungeons. These were mostly for spawners that seemed pointlessly slow in the modern game.

Monster Recovery Changes

Elite monsters can be "locked" to a particular group that first attacks them. This "locked" status doesn't get reset until the monster has recovered ALL of their health. However, in the modern version of the game, most monsters regenerate at the insanely low rate of 1 health per 5 seconds out of combat. This meant that monsters could remain locked for a VERY long time, even though the people who locked it had long since left (or died).

As of this update, monsters who have been out of combat for a while (10-15 seconds, not including time spent being crowd-controlled) will automatically recover all their Health and Armor. This allows Elite monsters to clear their lock status and other combat history quickly.

(Note: it is intentional that monsters do NOT lose their accumulated Rage when they reset like this. They can still be pissed off about the earlier attack, and their feelings are valid.)

Everything Else

- Fix for more instances of the "desync bug" causing entities to not appear to be where they actually are

- More scenery changes to Serbule, Eltibule, Ilmari

- Optimize vegetation in Serbule

- Flesh Lumps are worth significantly fewer Councils (25 instead of 75). They are still the same amounts of chewy and regenerating and shameful, though.

- Bread snacks and Bread meals no longer stack with other types of snacks and meals. This was a bug that was pretty OP but we wanted to let people have fun with it for a bit. But time's up

- The quests "Statehelm: Ratkin Muggers" and "Statehelm: Myconian Vagabonds" could previously be completed every game-night. They can now be completed once every 8 realtime hours

- Added new favor quests for Sourgum in Statehelm

- Windows: using the /wiki command in-game now opens the browser in a way that doesn't cause Steam to think your browser is a part of Project: Gorgon. (This could cause your Steam game time to be inflated, because Steam counted the time your browser was open even after the game was closed.)

- the Scion of Discord once again has his group-chat curse on his rage attack

- Fix bug causing some raffles to not display their cash prize

- Creatures can now start in their dead animation, rather than appearing and animating dead despite being already-dead for quite some time

- Improve UI and animations for character deletion

- Humanoid characters now enter into an optimized state at a certain distance, controlled by 2 settings: "LOD Bias" and "Character LOD Bias"

- Optimize nameplate update logic to reduce framerate spikes

- Disable shadow casting for fae foliage and jewelry

- Decrease animation processing for humanoids that are currently not visible

- Adjust cloud visuals so it's more obvious when there is sun vs no sun, for fletching boxes & vampires

- Fix bug causing titles to sometimes display a tag (e.g. "<color=cyan>")

- Fixed incorrect requirement to train Battle Chemistry Prodigy

- Fix bug causing some bald characters to sink into the ground and stop animating

- The "Placeholder NPC" for Battle Chemistry has a name and no longer offers to teach Battle Chemistry for free "to help test it". It now costs 10,000 Councils to learn (in addition to needing Alchemy 50.)

- Minigolem targeting logic change: for attacks like Taunting Punch, the golem previously attacked the enemy that did the most damage to it. Now, it tries to attack its owner's selected target (if that target is an enemy, not dead, and not mesmerized). If that doesn't work it falls back to attacking the enemy that did the most damage to it.

- Strom Farblood can now train Battle Chemistry golem abilities above level 80

- tweak bipedal animation issue with the transition from jumping to landing

We'll be back soon with more changes and improvements!

Click here to return to the Game Updates page.

Update Notes: February 26, 2026<

Another quick bugfix update.

Character Deletion Purgatory

When you delete a character, there's now a timer during which you can recover that character. The character is in a "dying" state in the mean time. You can only have one "dying" character at a time.

The first time you delete a character, it stays in this purgatory state for 1 hour. The second deletion lasts 2 hours, then 8, and then 1 day for all subsequent character deletions.

This is intended to counteract newbie-cheesing, which is where players create new characters over and over to accumulate the gems and other convenience-items that we give to new characters. It also has the benefit of letting you undo an accidental character deletion.

Other Fixes

- Fix scenario where other players appear to be in the wrong place

- Fix bug that breaks everything when the "MaxActiveLoads" special setting is set to 0 or below

- Fix jittery camera when auto-moving to a destination

- Fix shield orientation on skeletons

- re-enable pre-alpha account linking on Arisetsu for returning pre-alpha players

- fixed some Statehelm skill-level unlocks that didn't have an alternate-currency price

- various server internal fixes

Click here to return to the Game Updates page.

Update Notes: February 21, 2026

This is a bug-fix update with a few little other things attached. Other things first:

Monster Density Adjustments

This update continues our revamp of outdoor spawn density, this time revisiting Kur Mountains, Sun Vale, and Ilmari Desert. The spawners will now maintain a minimum density level regardless of the number of players in the area. In addition, overall monster density and loot/harvestable density is increased.

These areas are also using new and improved "don't spawn a monster on player's heads" logic. Due to how our spawners work this logic is not infallible, but it's improved. This new logic has also been applied to Serbule, Serbule Hills, and Eltibule spawners.

A historical note on the Ilmari desert: originally this area was less about hunting monsters and more about being a bleak and dangerous path through the desert: it provided a hostile environment between war caches. The dehydration mechanic and the dense bunches of monsters made it a very dangerous place.

This design has not stood the test of time, most notably because we added horses and you can just ride past the monsters while sipping water from your saddle. So we're starting to re-envision the desert to be more practical for hunting, more diverse, and more rewarding. (But don't worry, it's still pretty dangerous.)

Log Format Changes

Special reports (such as the VIP character dump, skill reports, item dumps, etc) now have the server name embedded in their filename. Many reports also have the server name in the JSON itself. The chat log also mentions which server you log into, and notes whenever you switch game areas.

Graphics Fixes

- Revert changes to tree rendering in Serbule, to fix performance hits

- Remove shadow-casting from most lights in central Serbule, temporarily until we can do more performance work in there

- Further adjustments to tree LODs in Serbule

- Disable player hair rendering & physics at a certain distance, controllable by a new setting, "Character LOD Bias"

- Fix bug causing particles to not show in the item preview window

- Entity nameplates now stream in instead of all instantiating at once. This should reduce drastic framerate dips when high-density areas come into view. (For the settings-tweaker crowd, the rate at which they stream in is controlled by the "MaxActiveLoads" special setting)

Other Fixes

- Fix bug causing party voice chat to sometimes leak into other servers(!)

- Select Next Pet and Select Previous Pet keybinds now work if you only have a single pet

- when you enter a code into the Account Package Golem, it automatically brings up the redemptions window so that you don't have to fish for it in the menus

- Move one of Eltibule's respawn points into Hogan's Keep, away from monsters

- Double the drop rate of Icy Frog Skins on Frostbelch Frogs (changing from "infuriatingly low drop rate" to "pretty annoying drop rate" as intended)

- Touch-up navigation paths in Povus to help prevent monsters getting stuck in walls

- when a player accidentally puts a first aid kit or armor patching kit on their ability bar instead of the First Aid or Patch Armor ability, the item now gives a more helpful explanation about what's gone wrong than "That item cannot be used"

- Pasha in Ilmari now gives the Zoomer horse glamour instead of the old proto horse version

- Medium Prisms can be found in various sources of desert loot

- Some of the types of sand needed for glassblowing can now be found in Sun Vale and/or Ilmari

- Several glassblowing resources are still not (practically) available; this will be fixed soon

- Almanac users rejoice: gardening plants no longer self-destruct when an area is under heavy load

- Fix bug causing some looping animations to not play

- Adjust humanoid optimization logic to hopefully reduce crashes

- fixed bug with message about having already looted a boss when you hadn't

- fixed bug with orange and white mineral survey recipes in Vidaria not working

Click here to return to the Game Updates page.

Update Notes: February 17, 2026

This is a bug-fix update.

Horse Turning:

Our recent change to fix framerate-dependence in movement caused some unexpected behavior with horse turn radius. These issues are fixed now. And now that they are fixed, you may see some differences in turn-speed based on your horse's Friendliness stat: higher friendliness results in higher turn speed. (Self-mounting animals gain turn speed as they level up their animal skill.)

Also note that various horse gear also boosts turn speed, and some of it needs to be rebalanced now that these fixes are in. If your horse is still insanely fast at turning, try taking off your reins for now.

Other Fixes:

- Fix bug causing the camera to sometimes get stuck to your mouse after letting go of right-click

- Remove invisible colliders throughout Serbule

- Fix some tree visuals in Serbule

- Fix for Serbule rocks changing color as you approach them

- Ferris Blueheart in Vidaria now offers his Hellfire-curing hangout to anyone infected with Hellfire, regardless of level. This hangout cures 20 stacks and is repeatable daily.

- Realign Serbule boundaries so they match up with the map

- Fix for Serbule lamps turning back on immediately after turning off

- Fix visual bug with fairies when selected

- Fix SSAO affecting fairy wings in a strange way

- Various other Serbule physics/collision fixes

- Update floor textures in Red Wing Casino

- Add missing locked door in Statehelm

- Adjust statuary in Statehelm to use modern shader

Click here to return to the Game Updates page.

Update Notes: February 15, 2026

This is a bug fix update that also has some art changes.

- Fix camera jitter that gets worse the higher your framerate

- Horse speeds are no longer partially tied to your framerate

- Tweak handling of horse-related textures, to hopefully reduce crashes

- Fix for horse hair physics not working

- NPC nameplates are now blue by default

- Revised environment in Serbule - mostly lighting, sky, vegetation

- Revised environment in Casino - some props, lighting

- Revised environemnt elsewhere - vegetation

- More Statehelm graphical optimizations

- Fixed Casino not switching portals between each moon phase as intended

- Added measures to Nelson Ballard to prevent alt farming of his free 1000 councils. The lockout for receiving more Councils on a different character is 1 day (per server)

- Similary, Fae starter chests can only be used once per day per server to prevent players from cheese-alting

- fixed damage display of animal handling pets with Big Cat Ultrakill ability. (It listed damage as 0 because it does special direct damage)

- Players who purchased a shop pack with VIP now have that VIP accessible on all servers, not just Arisetsu

- VIP users who previously couldn't redeem the February VIP pack on any server can now do so. (But only on one server)

- fix scenario where monsters "desync" upon death and can't be fully killed

- many classic account-wide titles (for events and VIP rewards) are now accessible on all servers, rather than just Arisetsu server

- Improve error handling around preference loading at the start of the game, which should fix getting stuck on the login screen due to a corrupted GorgonSettings file

- Skeletal Frogs now properly use their rage attacks, and no longer infinitely stack their debuff on you

- Fix placement of some particles on new humanoid models, most notably Phoenix Strike, Brambleskin, and Fire Shield

- "Target Framerate" setting now has a max value of 240, and actually defaults to 60

- a bunch of quest items were missing the red "quest item" icon overlay

- VIP users who could not access their own reserved names from the Arisetsu server can now access them

Click here to return to the Game Updates page.

Click Here for a complete archive of Game Updates