Game updates/2015-06-07

June 7 Update

This update changes the game engine from Unity 4 to Unity 5. It was a massive undertaking, but it ensures that Project: Gorgon will be able to take advantage of the latest gaming technology for years to come.

On many machines, this version will be faster and use a bit less RAM. It also has better pathing (moving you from point A to point B without turning you in the wrong direction, for instance).

Unity 5 has an entirely new lighting model. I've been converting assets to use the new model for weeks now, and it lets us do some very cool stuff... but there's a catch: their new lighting model is still quite buggy. (they are expected to patch it in the next month of two.) You will notice some weird light issues, most notably that the sunlight reflects on characters even while you are inside buildings. Those are just temporary until the light-baking bugs are fixed.

HUGE THANKS to the test-server testers who gave me feedback during the conversion! I really appreciate it!

Dye Fixes

Dyes had to be entirely redone, and some low-level problems were fixed. Dyes should be much more fun to play with now! There are still many more updates to come in the future: better colors, better dye mapping, etc., but at least now the dyes should come out in approximately the color you expect. Give or take.

Group-Loot Permission

Group members now take turns getting permission to loot corpses. When a corpse is yours to loot, you'll see purple sparks floating up from it. Once you close the corpse, it will be open to everybody else in your group (or, if youaren't in a group, to everybody else nearby). This is useful if you want to let somebody else skin/butcher/etc. the corpse after you've taken the loot.

You don't have to take turns for Elite and boss monsters, of course, because everybody gets their own set of treasure for those. So everybody will see purple sparks on these monsters.

You can disable this feature with a slash command in the chat window. Use:

/loot free : the old looting rules

/loot turns : the new take-turns rules

/loot : see what the current loot mode is

Only the group leader can change the group's loot mode.

Other Stuff

There were a bunch of bug fixes in this update, but unfortunately (as I mentioned on Twitter) my main development machine burned up last month. I retrieved the fixes from source control, but the dev-notes were lost. So I don't have a complete list of fixes. But don't worry, they were all awesome, probably.

Here are the fixes I *do* have notes on:

- added thaumaturges to other places orcs spawn in Kur

- fixed bug that gave Insane Matriarchs insane loot

- added a back-exit to the wolf cave for people who fall off the ledge into the deep ravine

- fixed broken timer on snake chest in wolf cave

- fixed bad geometry in wolf cave

- treasure that makes Strike A Nerve give you +10 sprint for 10 seconds has been nerfed to only last 5 seconds (this should have been done back when Strike A Nerve got a 5-second cooldown... stacking a huge runbuff like that is insane!)

- you shouldn't get interrupted by attacks while taming pets anymore (untested, I coded it last night)

- Moved the entrance of the PvP testing dungeon to the abandoned house in the back of Serbule (saw it as a suggestion on the forums)

- Mind Enhancement Gems now work when used in crafting recipes. (They enchange mind "mind-related abilities." (sic) Currently that's Psychology and Mentalism powers.)

- fixed the steps in new Kur Tower area, where monsters could get stuck

- fixed Velkort's sales configuration. For historical reasons, he was willing to buy anything for $10, but that's more confusing than helpful. Now he only buys documents - any sort of document, including lore books, recipes, junk scrolls, etc.

- fixed missing icon for Stomachs

- fixed client bug that let you change combat skills during combat

- stationary monsters like traps and turrets should no longer keep you in combat if you wander out of their range

- reverted change that caused recipe GUI slots to empty after completion

- tweaked the red-screen color flash when you take damage. Long ago it flashed blue for armor damage and red for health damage, but now you take both health and armor damage at the same time, so it always just flashed red. I changed it so that the screen flickers blue if you take armor damage but sill have more than 50% of your armor left, and red otherwise, so it can act as a vague warning about your armor level.

- feixed some of the bad seams from the rescaling of Sun Vale

- improvements to Sun Vale are underway, you will notice some new monsters and landmarks

- Sharks once again spawn in the sea of Sun Vale, not Cave Fish

- fixed bugs with max-enchanting recipes of Crafted Cow Barding

- fixed selection bug in the entrance to the Boarded Up Basement dungeon. (You could only select the entrance with the tab key.)

- added physics to trees

Note for statue crafters:

NOTE: there was an internal ID error with the basic statue-crafting recipes. There were two copies of the recipes in data! I deleted one of the copies, but it's impossible to to tell whether you have the right one or not! If you're missing the recipes for [x] Gryphon Statue or [x] Dragon Statue, you will need to re-obtain those recipes from the Borghild dungeon. I'm sorry for the mix up! On the up-side, if they're missing from your recipe book, you'll get "first time" XP when you complete them again. (This does not affect the gold and silver recipes, only the "base" recipes.)