Game updates/2016-01-16

Jan 16 Update

This is a bug-fix update. It also includes some preparations for the Steam launch. There is no new content. (Well, actually, there's some new items and abilities.)

New EULA/Code of Conduct

In preparation for being on Steam, we have finally gotten around to adding these important documents. You must agree to them to play. The text is still a work in progress; if you have concerns about anything here, please create a post on the forums so we can discuss!

Newbie Island Fixes

- Cleaned up the physics of the bridge leading to the lighthouse, hopefully this will keep people from getting stuck there

- Elmetaph (the elf in the lighthouse) can now re-bind you to the lighthouse if you accidentally cast Bind Circle a second time instead of Recall Circle

- Elmetaph can now give you a spare amethyst if you accidentally cast Bind Circle twice and both of your amethysts blew up

- Elmetaph gives slightly more specific directions when he sends you off to recall to Serbule, explicitly telling you to use Recall Circle at the teleport platform

- Added music

- Made the hallway to Gajus the Big-Headed longer, so you have a little more time to read the warnings before you're in combat

- Removed spider spawns that were too close to newbie spawn spot

New Hotfix System

We now have the ability to change game data (like item stats and treasure effects) without requiring a large patch. Instead, you'll automatically download a "hotfix" when you start the game. This feature is not in use at the moment, but we'll put up a dummy hotfix in a few days to test the feature out.

Flying Fixes

- Changed the way the in-combat flight cost works. In the last update we raised the penalty to a flat 10-power penalty per second. It now starts at 5-power-per-second again, but grows larger the longer you stay flying. The penalty slowly goes back down as you stay on the ground or out of combat. The goal is to let you fly briefly in a pinch, like to get over an obstacle, but not let you use flight to kite monsters. Not sure if this will do the trick, but we'll keep iterating on it; feedback much appreciated!

- You can no longer fly as a cow/pig/deer/wolf/spider by becoming a raven or giant bat and then "stacking" the other animal on top

- If you logged out as a raven, your raven-ness will have been dispelled when you log in as a side-effect of the above bug-fix

- If you logged out as a giant bat, your giant bat form was dispelled and re-applied, which might mean you now look like a bat again

Fixes to Last Update's Content

- Norbert the pig's Barter options wouldn't work unless you reached a certain Favor level. This is still the case (because that's intentional) but now it displays "Need More Favor" instead of a non-working button. (This also applies to other NPCs who have favor-gated barter options, like Flia)

- Daisy the deer can now train the Bounceweed drug recipes

- Legacy Cheap Meat now works in recipes that call for Cheap Meat

- Fixed recipes for the new tools (e.g. Peening Hammer)

- The werewolf helm recipes accidentally made werewolf foreleg armor instead

- Fixed bugs with item rafflers and item dispensers. PLEASE TEST AGAIN! You can use the commands "/redeem Dispensers" and "/redeem Rafflers" to get a fresh supply. You will need Carpentry level 25.

- The guardian scorpions in Sun Vale's Animal Town no longer drop equipment

Item / Recipe Fixes

- The mini-dulcimer instrument drops from yetis

- Elahil has Long Arrow recipe for sale

- Thimble Pete has recipes for Quality Cloth Shirt and Quality Cloth Pants (level 50 gear). The Max-Enchanted versions are available as rare drop scrolls

- The recipes for Quality Evasion Shirt and Quality Evasion Pants are now rare drop scrolls

- The recipe for Loaded Baked Potato is now a rare-drop in loot. (Note that loaded baked potatoes are level 25, so expect them to be in low-ish level monster drops)

- The recipe for Shepherd's Pie is now a rare-drop loot recipe. (It's level 45, so Kur-type level range monsters)

- The recipe for Cottage Pie is now a loot drop. (It's level 35, so maybe the harder goblins type difficulty)

- The recipe for Laressa's Cheese can now be learned from a Hangout with Laura Neth (requires Cheesemaking 10 and Friends to see the hangout)

- The recipe for Cream Cheese can now be learned from a Hangout with Braigon (requires the Cheesemaking skill and Friends to see the hangout)

- Hiral in Sun Vale now trains the Fairwing Cheese recipe

- Recipes for the Wolfen Speed potions can now be learned from loot drop scrolls in the wolf cave (or elite/boss werewolves elsewhere). Note that only werewolves can craft Wolfen Speed potions.

- Also, removed the down side of Wolfen Speed (because it was dumb)

- The recipe for Never-Die Juice is a rare drop from desert rakshasa

- The recipe for Dirt Shield Potion is now a rare drop (some good places to look are Ursula, Psi Mantises, Goblin Life Mages, many others) (BTW this is an incredibly pointless potion, but whatever.)

- Found some loot items that weren't in any loot table; added them to the intended loot tables (e.g. orcs can now drop Orcish Katar; Kur monsters can drop Staff of Ice; the Stalwart equipment set now includes Stalwart Hammer; many others)

- Enchanted Bear Claws now actually drop from enchanted bears (and their bear groupies, for some reason)

- The recipe for Mountain Mutton no longer requires an unobtainable cheese

- The work order for chin straps now requires chin straps, not potholders

- Some work orders could not be completed because the items simply do not exist yet. These work orders will no longer show up on work boards or in loot. However, if you already had the work order, it will stay in your journal. (Those items will exist eventually, though you probably want to cancel the order for now.) Affected work orders: Great Calligraphy Benches, Great Chairs, Great Meditation Stools, Plain Porridge, Colby Cheese, Gul Cheese, Monterey Jack Cheese, Munster Cheese, Romsor Cheese, Slave's Cheese, Whisperwind Cheese, Weak Infusion Oils, Modest Infusion Oils, Reasonable Infusion Oils, Potent Infusion Oils

Missing Abilities Added

Some abilities that should already have been in-game were not actually available.

- The following abilities can now be found as loot-drop scrolls: Pouncing Rake 4, Spleen's Power 1, Spleen's Power 2, Deathgaze 4, Tell Me About Your Mother 4

- Jumper the Deer can now teach Deer Kick 6

- Rohina in Sun Vale can now teach Adrenaline Wave 4

- Roshun the Traitor in Serbule can now teach Blocking Stance 3

- The Shield ability Disrupting Bash 4 is now learned automatically at level 48. (If you are already that level or higher, you will find it in your ability list under the Persona tab.)

- Battle Chemistry: the golem abilities "Haste Concoction" and "Self Sacrifice" are now available from the Chemistry Placeholder NPC

- The "Soul Fireball" spells were variants of Fireball, but they made no sense after the recent changes to basic abilities. They have been rewritten into "Flare Fireball", a niche variant that at least has theoretical uses

Attribute Stacking Bug

There was a low-level bug that caused some percentage buff/debuff effects to not always stack correctly. For instance, if something said it reduced your Max Armor by 50%, it would not always take all of your armor buffs into account. :Similarly, if something boosted your universal attack damage, it may not actually have taken all attack-damage buffs into account.

It's hard to say exactly how many things this affected because it would only show up when effects were stacked a certain way on your character. But anyway it's fixed now.

Other Fixes/Changes

- Fixed more bugs with item sorting and abilities consuming expensive reagents instead of cheap reagents first. If you see any other cases where using an ability consumes an expensive item (when you had a cheaper valid item on hand) please let me know which ability and which items you had!

- Azalak no longer sells the "Myconian Primer" testing aid. New players will have to earn levels of Myconic the normal way.

- The /r command no longer forgets who you were talking to when you switch to a new area

- Fixed vendor/consignment exploits where you could purchase an item with a mostly-full inventory, get an "inventory full" message, but still get some of the items added to your inventory

- Treasure effect fix: the various pieces of gear that boost critical-hit chance now require their respective skill to be active (So you can't stack all three sets of gear at once.)

- Treasure effect nerfs: several Mentalism treasure effects, and a couple of Archery effects, were reduced in potency.

- Treasure effect removed: "After using Mindreave, your Reconstruct ability heals +240" was insane and frankly can't be made to work – the "right" number is so small that the effect is underwhelming. So this effect has been removed from the loot tables so it will not appear on new loot (or random transmutations, etc.). However, to avoid causing your gear to become Legacy unnecessarily, I left the effect in the system with an extremely reduced effect. This effect will get "recycled" into some new kind of Mentalism effect eventually.

- Fixed shield imbues not being applicable to shields

- Fixed the last-login date shown on the Friends panel. Note: a lot of code changed under the hood here. Please watch for problems with the friends system in general.

- Ability reset timers were getting cleared whenever you switched areas

- Added /stuck command temporarily while I continue wrestling with Unity's movement model. This command tries to move you a little bit to unstick you. It doesn't always work, but worth a shot if you get stuck. The normal method (of sending a "stuck" bug report) continues to be the main (and only documented in-game) method of getting unstuck.

- Fixed missing darkness debuffs, combat music, and warning screens in the "dark chapel" dungeon

- Sandstorms! Playing around with some new hazards in the desert.