Game updates
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: https://cdn.projectgorgon.com/news.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.
Click Here for a complete archive of Game Updates
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 was 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.)
Click here to return to the Game Updates page.
Update: Aug 21, 2024
This was a server-only update, no new Steam download needed.
- - Fixed stability issue with combat which could cause monsters and players to behave oddly
- - Ended an experiment from previous update, the "Burst Radius Bonus" system (see below). This let burst attacks have more than 3 full-damage targets depending on the radius-size of the burst. This was a powerful buff to both players and monsters, and was an interesting experiment, but needs more study. We'll be back with more combat experiments soon.
Click here to return to the Game Updates page.
Update: Aug 14, 2024
- Fixed issues with some entities in Serbule Hills.
Click here to return to the Game Updates page.
Update: Aug 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"
Click here to return to the Game Updates page.
Hotfix: July 30, 2024
We fixed a bug in today's patch that caused some elves to be invisible. If you are still seeing invisible elves -- err, not seeing -- anyway if that's happening to you, please patch through Steam. If you don't see a patch available you may need to restart Steam.
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.
