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What's New?[/h2][p][/p][p]This development update post will go into detail about some of the key things we’re working on for the next patch, namely an update to the War mechanics, Ether Wayshrines, the Banking Overhaul and the introduction of Caravan Campsites.[/p][p]We have also included mention of something we have been discussing internally but that is not coming in the next patch, at the end of this post.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p]
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Banking Overhaul[/h2][p]
In our last Into the Vault post we went into detail about various issues the current banking experience has, and what our plans were to address them.[/p][p]If you missed that post and would like to read more about what the planned changes are, you can do so by visiting our last development update here on our website:[/p][p][/p]
[p]Into the Vault #150 | Update Info & PTR Date[/p]
[p][/p][p]Your responses via the feedback form were very positive, resulting in 82.5% of you voicing that you think the described Banking Overhaul would be a positive improvement to the game. We would like to thank everyone who took the time to submit their feedback.[/p][p]As a result of such a positive response, we plan to include this as part of our next update.[/p][p][/p][p]We also asked if you thought the ability to create lists of “Favored items” that can be withdrawn with a single click in specific quantities would be an important inclusion to the overhaul, and 83% of you said yes, so we will be working on making that happen as well.[/p][p][/p][p]Additionally, we initially stated that it would no longer be possible to place items in bags within the bank. However, due to feedback and some internal discussions we now plan to allow this, giving bags their own dedicated primary category. The current plan is for you to be able to see all of your bags as well as the items in them without needing to open each one, and either empty the contents of a bag to the bank or withdraw the bag to your inventory using some handy new UI buttons.[/p][p]Items contained within bags will still appear in the auto-sorted bank categories, however you will now be able to drop a bag into the bank and withdraw it again without needing to manually withdraw each of the items it contained.
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Ether Wayshrines[/h2][p]
As mentioned in our last development update, the Quality Survey we ran last month indicated that the second most mentioned issue many players had was with the experience of spirit travel.[/p][p]In the past we have proposed and asked for feedback on a feature called Ether Wayshrines a few times, and so some of you in the community will be familiar with the concept already.[/p][p]We have known for a long time that this area of the game has needed to be updated, however we haven’t quite had the opportunity to tackle it properly until now.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]
Spirit Travel Frustrations[/h3][p][/p][p]When traveling from one place on Myrland to another, it is often the choice of many to do so as a spirit. This is because of a few reasons, namely that you naturally risk nothing when traveling as a spirit compared to being alive, where you must obtain and risk a mount along with any equipment or items you might choose to bring to better survive the journey.[/p][p]A less prominent but still relevant reason is the lack of threats which might interrupt your journey, from other players and spawning AI like Outlaws, to something as simple as fall damage which is of no concern as a spirit.[/p][p]Being a spirit allows you to take more direct paths to your destination at a respectable speed, in addition to the more savvy players being able to hop around faster when reaching key milestones via the Nearest Priest mechanic.[/p][p]These benefits come with a significant downside however, which is the growingly tedious process of manually navigating around and avoiding small obstacles which can cause your spirit to become stuck while on auto-walk, such as rocks and trees. Doing so demands constant attention, which often becomes boring and frustrating.[/p][p]Considering the amount of time the average player has to experience our world each day, too much potential quality play time is taken up by this manual spirit traveling.[/p][p]These grievances often result in either logging off, not moving in the world and becoming frustrated, or not logging into the game in the first place due to being too far away from friends who are playing in other areas of the world.[/p][p]It is this manual and tedious process which we plan to automate, allowing you to simply choose a destination via the new Wayshrine system and then do as you please while you travel, without needing to constantly monitor the game and course correct.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]
Wayshrine Travel Explained[/h3][p][/p][p]We would like to clarify a few key aspects of this new feature, as we know that there is the potential here for it to be confused or conflated with what is traditionally known as “Fast Travel”.[/p][p]
Ether Wayshrines is not a traditional Fast Travel system.[/p][p][/p][p]Wayshrine travel will occur in real time, and will not consist of teleporting your character to a new location in the span of a few seconds.[/p][p]When using a Wayshrine you will be moving at a faster pace than regular spirit walking, however it will still take some time to arrive at your destination depending on how far apart the Wayshrines are which you are traveling to and from.[/p][p]You can expect to save a bit of time if moving from one side of Myrland to another this way, but
we want to be clear that this is not an instant teleport.[/p][p][/p][p]To use a Wayshrine you will first need to activate and unlock it by visiting it while alive.[/p][p]You will then be able to travel to and from your activated Wayshrines as a spirit by first navigating to one and then departing from it, as well as view their locations on your map.[/p][p]When traveling by Wayshrine, your spirit will be sucked through a conduit like a pneumatic tube toward the destination location over a period of time. This is not planned to be a simple loading screen, but rather you will see the world moving by around you so that you may see how close you are to your destination, accompanied by etherworld appropriate screen VFX and sounds.[/p][p]There will also be lore notes which talk about what is happening during this process, and how it is possible within the context of the world.[/p][p]After traveling by Wayshrine, you will receive a debuff called “Strained Spirit” which prevents you from traveling by Wayshrine again for a time and represents the stresses that occur during transit through the conduit, and the required recovery time to avoid a person’s “Ahk” being torn apart by the forces at play while moving through the network.[/p][p]If you wish to cancel your Wayshrine travel, you will be able to do so and return to the Wayshrine you departed from.[/p][p]Naturally, you can not bring anything with you when traveling via Wayshrine, including Spirit Boxes or Fluxes. Items which do not drop on death are allowed.[/p][p][/p][p]Our primary goals with this new feature are to simplify spirit travel by removing the manual tedium and make it easier to get around the map in order to do things such as link up with friends or complete daily tasks easier, but doing so in an immersive way that does not include traditional Fast Travel mechanics.
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Caravan Campsites[/h2][p][/p][p]After the releases of the more recent dungeons such as the Undercroft, Melisar’s Vault, Sylvan Sanctum and Shinarian Labyrinth, we have seen a large number of players build houses outside the dungeons and greatly enjoy an accessible and low time-investment gameplay loop of equipping themselves in their houses, running into the dungeon to try and kill some AI and get some loot, then trying to make it out and drop off what they found in their house a short distance from the dungeon.[/p][p]The new Caravan Campsite feature is designed to lean into this type of gameplay and facilitate it while making certain dungeons more easily accessible to more players.[/p][p]It includes adding new Caravan Campsites set up nearby several dungeons, which contain a priest, a limited banker (with much fewer item slots than the town banks), key vendors such as Utility and Magic, Weapon and Armor crafting benches and nationless mercenary guards of low strength, similar to an outlaw for example, who only attack criminals.[/p][p]The goal here is to create a small staging point where players can gather outside the dungeons and form their own parties with others or socialize in a relatively low safety environment while having relatively quick access to the dungeon content.[/p][p][/p][p]A key point here is that although many players are facilitating this gameplay loop already, it is only accessible to those players who either place their house next to a dungeon or have a friend who has done the same.[/p][p]Seeing as you can only have one house per account, this requirement in order to engage in the gameplay loop is quite a restrictive investment, that is not accessible to many players who have their homes elsewhere, or do not wish to dedicate their only house to serving this function.[/p][p]Adding these Caravan Campsites makes dungeon gameplay more accessible to everyone, without needing a significant commitment and maintaining the risk of needing to transport any valuable loot from the Caravan Banker with very limited slots to a town, much in the same way this needs to be done already with player houses.[/p][p]We would also like to add taskmaster NPCs to these campsites who have specific tasks for whatever is in the nearby dungeon, with rewards scaled down to be appropriate for their proximity to the dungeon. It will always be more profitable to take tasks from town taskmasters than from the campsites. This addition however is not critical to the intended function of the Caravan Campsites, and so it will be a nice bonus if it makes it into the final update should we have time for it.[/p][p][/p][p]Conceptually, these are travelling caravans who have set up a campsite nearby a dungeon or significant point of interest.[/p][p]
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War & Sieging Updates[/h2][p][/p][p]Originally we planned to release a patch which almost solely focused on War, Sieging and Territory Control updates, many of which we have described in previous development update posts.[/p][p]However, after the results from the Quality Survey and feedback we have received over the past several weeks, we have decided to adjust the scope of these changes for this next update and only focus on a few key aspects rather than opting for the complete overhauls.[/p][p]This is because doing so would have meant waiting longer than we would like to before being able to work on the above mentioned features in this update, which will affect more players on a daily basis than for example large scope changes to the Sieging systems.[/p][p]This is now the list of changes being worked on as part of this update:[/p]
- [p]Preventing Supply Lines and Supply Storehouses from being rebuilt during active Siege windows.[/p]
- [p]Adding no-build zones around Keep Supply Lines to prevent them being unintentionally walled in.[/p]
- [p]Note that any structures inside the new no-build zones will be moved outside of them, and we may offer refunds of the structure plans to the owners depending on a few factors once this is completed.[/p]
- [p]Updating the placement distance restrictions on several cheaper TC structures to prevent them being commonly used as placement blockers.[/p]
- [p]Guilds will need to be at War for a minimum amount of time before being allowed to declare a Siege.[/p]
- [p]This is for many reasons, however one primary purpose is so that at a minimum, both the directly attacking and defending guilds will not be able to report the other side for murder during the siege window due to being at war.[/p]
- [p]Naturally this does not affect third parties.[/p]
- [p]Keep owners will have increased Region benefits while inside controlled Regions which are connected in an unbroken chain back to their Keep.[/p]
- [p]The requirement to have 2 murderers in a guild in order to declare war on them is being removed, and replaced by the upkeep mechanic described in our previous Into the Vault post.[/p]
- [p]Declaring war on a guild will now incur an ongoing upkeep cost as long as the war is active, which scales in cost depending on the average standing of every guild member.[/p]
- [p]This means that guilds with high standing will be more expensive to declare war on, while guilds with severely negative standing may incur no upkeep cost due to being hated by the realm.[/p]
- [p]Something we are looking into which is not specifically a War or Sieging change is making it so spawning at the same non-town priest will incur longer Death Sickness waiting times for each consecutive death within a short time after resurrecting.[/p]
[p]Please note that the above list of changes represents what we would like to be able to do for the next update, however there is always the chance that we won’t have time for some of them depending on how development progresses.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][h2]
Merging Standing & Murder Counts[/h2][p]
Please Note[/p][p]This is not something that will be included in the next update, however we want to mention it here as it is something we are discussing internally. We have also seen some members of the community talking about it in an event of seemingly parallel thinking on our platforms recently, and so it seems appropriate to open up the topic to broader feedback and gauge how everyone feels about it.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]With that disclaimer out of the way, here is the idea:[/p][p][/p][p]We currently have two systems which attempt to deal with player actions through the lens of justice, the Nation Standings, and Murder Counts.[/p][p]Murder Counts are received when another player reports you for murder, having 10 or more Murder Counts causes you to become flagged as a murderer which makes your name appear Red globally, and allows other players to kill and loot you without consequence as well as placing you in the pool for potential bounty hunters.[/p][p]Nation Standing represents how each individual Nation feels about you, and can be gained or lost in many different ways. If you have a negative Standing with a Nation, their guards will attack you on sight.[/p][p]These two systems do not currently interact with each other, and are disconnected.[/p][p]The change being discussed would be to remove Murder Counts entirely, and add their current functionality to the Standing system.[/p][p]This would mean:[/p]
- [p]Having negative Standing with a Nation would cause you to become Red flagged while inside a Region which is controlled by that Nation.[/p]
- [p]This would naturally come with the necessary grace periods and fanfare alerts when crossing Region borders so it is crystal clear what is happening.[/p]
- [p]Similarly, having negative Standing with a Nation would mean you would be in the pool of potential bounties which are obtained from Bounty Hunting Taskmasters inside Regions belonging to that Nation.[/p]
- [p]Nation-based bounty hunting will likely be more prevalent, as there are more people with negative Standing in one Nation than there are people with more than 10 murder counts currently.[/p]
- [p]This ensures penalties remain regional, so you can kill people in Tindremic Regions but not Khurite, and not be a murderer in the Khurite Regions.[/p]
- [p]This puts a lower cap on how negative you can go.[/p]
- [p]Meaning it’s less possible to make a character go permanently red with no recourse other than waiting many months or even years of in game time to go blue again.[/p]
- [p]It gives players a direct activity to atone for their actions and return to positive Standing to lose their red status in the affected Regions which is not simply waiting a long time.[/p]
- [p]Maintaining positive Standing is more incentivized in order to avoid the penalties of being a red flagged murderer in affected Regions.[/p]
- [p]The Standing, murder and bounty hunting systems become simpler and easier to understand, without an additional value and mechanic to keep track of and learn as a newer player.[/p]
- [p]It will no longer be possible to be flagged as a murderer and also have positive standing, allowing you to be inside towns as a red player, due to a requirement for becoming red being that you must now have negative Standing with a Nation.[/p]
- [p]This is something we are interested in feedback about, as we have several options here, such as for example not making guards attack negative Standing players on sight as they currently do, but instead keeping the control of towns in the hands of the players, as they would simply be allowed to attack and kill any negative Standing red player who enters a town or the Region.[/p]
- [p]Naturally town guards will always attack grey flagged criminals.[/p]
[p]We are rather interested in your feedback about this topic, and so we greatly appreciate everyone who submits a response to the feedback questionnaire linked below![/p][p]Additionally, a change such as this is naturally extremely sensitive for the game, and so must be gone through and evaluated with the finest toothed comb imaginable. As such, it may be some time before you hear about it again depending on feedback.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p]
[/p][h2]We Want Your Feedback![/h2][p]
If you have any thoughts, feedback or suggestions about these new additions and changes, please provide it using the link below to our new feedback questionnaire![/p][p][/p][p]
https://forms.gle/D78zotqbSKoojpJLA[/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p]
NotePlease keep in mind that as development progresses, any details described above may change or be adjusted where necessary.[/p][p] [/p][p][/p][p]See you in Nave,[/p][p][/p][p]
The Star Vault Team [/p]