Gloria Victis News

We have some very unexpected and harsh news.

At this very moment, one of the biggest Data Center in Europe is burning (Strasbourg SBG2 - http://travaux.ovh.net/?do=details&id=49471 ).

Sadly, one of our machines, dedicated to the login/connection/database server is exactly in here. While the host company is working with the firefighters to extinguish the flames, we are implementing our Disaster Recovery Plan which is to move the login/connection/database machine based on backups to another host.

Please do keep fingers crossed for the firefighters, we do hope we won't be host the part of our services using the backups, because it will mean some kind of rollback and probably one day of service down to prepare everything to be online on another Data Center. Either way, we are already settling everything up to save time in case the fire damages won't make it possible to make our previous host machine back to work.

We are deeply sorry for the temporary break in our services, we are doing everything we can by our side to make sure no matter what happens, the game will be back and working as soon as possible. We do count on your understanding and support.

Let's all hope no one gets hurt during the firefighting.

Best Regards,
Jog

Greetings, warriors!

This week we are laying the foundation of upcoming changes in response to our Community’s voice. We were receiving a lot of suggestions and feedback related to the party system and its user interface, so today you will receive the first iteration of the updated party system that will be extended in the following weeks.

We can also show you the first look of player-made stalls that most likely will be introduced in the next update. We need some more time to introduce that new feature since we are extending the possibilities of trading and sharing items between players with that system and it needs meticulous testing. The most interesting thing that player-made-stalls will bring would be horse-trading, which with an extension of visual diversity and customization of horses will become a new branch of ingame economy.

As we are working on the updated client engine in the background. We received very positive feedback so far regarding improved FPS ranges and overall game performance. Still, there are some bugs that need to be addressed first, before we fully use the new engine on global servers.

Like in every update, we are delivering a lot of Quality of Life improvements and bugfixes, in huge part as a response to your reports and opinions.

Read below for details, and see you in battle!

The screenshot’s authors have been awarded. sh0tz, POM_Hephoof, MorbidReich and John – check your Ambers!



[h2]Party, people![/h2]

In response to community suggestions, we are introducing the updated system of party interface. First, from now on, you can adjust the size of the window to your liking, making the list of players in the party longer and/or wider, with more columns. Second, if you turn on in the game options a special “Medic mode”, the fallen players in the party will be sorted to the top, over the special divider, which will help battle medics to find and help players that need to be revived. Please have in mind that fallen players sorted above the divider are the ones in your area, but not always in the range of interaction. Those who are in range will be highlighted.

We are still working on that feature and there are some known issues, like the one causing the dead player would stay above the divider despite there being no option to help him already, but the system works well enough to start gathering your feedback, so we are counting on you!

Another important change in the party system, also as a result of one of the most upvoted player suggestions, is a new type of party used in world events. From now on the automatic party on Siege events, Volcano, Sea Wraiths, and Rites will be a “no leader” party at the beginning and will allow more experienced players to claim the leadership. This will also limit the cases where inexperienced players received the leader role and could struggle to manage it. We are taking a closer look at the system and thinking about further improvements in its regard.



[h2]Player-made stalls[/h2]

We are continuing our work on player-made stalls, which will create the possibility to create your own shops and collection points. In addition to that, you will be able to trade horses!
Another interesting feature of stalls will be the possibility of automated distribution of items – for example, bandages or warm food – between players. You will be able to offer items without a price, and limit the number of items that one player can take from the stall, so everyone will be able to share supplies in a faster and more efficient way than trading each player manually when the time is important – during sieges or events. It will be a great addition to the ingame economy and create a new type of market and activity!

And here is a small sneak peek of how the UI of it may look in the game. Please have in mind that this is still a work in progress! Since we are working on refreshing the game user interface, the new windows are already designed to be suitable for the new system :)

[h2]Siege engines[/h2]

Looking at the current siege meta, we want our sieges to be based more on siege machines instead of archers and axes. Especially in SoW battles, there is a lack of siege machines, because players need to wait too much to spawn another one, and castles are too defensive. Right now regaining one “ready siege engine point” takes 2 minutes, so to spawn 5 machines to break through ballistas fire we need to passively wait 10 minutes. To have a better chance, we need 10 machines, but it takes twice that time. Leaders can't risk too much spending so many points in Siege machines without a guarantee those will be successful, so they push every single machine to castle without grouping them. A single machine is an easy target and this is why ballistas are that deadly. Even if any leader will group machines, spending most SoW time in siege camp, spawning siege machines, this isn't something players want to do. This is why we want to speed up the siege engines' respawn possibilities.

Getting ready to deploy a siege engine point (from zero points to 1) will take in one and a half instead of two minutes, which means 25% faster. If people will spawn their machines immediately when they will be available to keep the respawn timer low, there will be 25% more machines spawned at the same time. Same work for defenders, they will have more trebuchets, and this will bring more machines combat, and frequency.

This change shouldn't change much in nation castle sieges, because right now people don't use fully "ready siege engine points”.



[h2]Quality of Life[/h2]

– From now on, the party window is resizeable, allowing to adjust its size to the players liking
– Added a special “Medic mode” for the party window, available to turn on in the game options. The fallen players in the party will be sorted to the top, over the special divider, which will help battle medics to find and help players that need to be revived.
– Generic UI windows are closing when the player will move away from a specific point (e.g. NPC). For now, it is implemented for siege tents, shops, and Auction House windows
– Improved synchronization between client and server

Who understood the reference without looking o the miniature on the bottom left corner?

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

– Fixed the issue causing the last selected character was not selected by default in the next game session
– Fixed the appearance of Midland City Guard Veterans in Audunstede, which were looking like other nation guards
– Fixed the wrong, too long mob spawn timers at "secrets of..." events of every nation - at the place just before quest chest (teleport), and in the room where there are 2 static chests to gather
– Fixed an issue preventing players to proceed through the Midland questline
– Fixed an issue causing wrong calculation of guild activity for group activities like an SOW and dynamic events. For calculation all players in the party were included without checking that they are in the area of activity, it caused that players from the capital were included in the calculation but they shouldn't
– Fixed the issue causing culling on the character could have been broken after the creation of character without hair or beard
– Fixed the issues regarding free building restrictions: Players should not be able to build:
1) gate next to the gate, stone keep, wooden keep
2) tower (straight and corner) next to the tower, corner tower, stone keep, wooden keep
3) keep (wooden and stone) next to the gate, tower, corner tower
Earlier we were missing a restriction like you couldn't build keep next to the gate but you could build a gate next to the keep

And at the end of this week's changelog, allow us to share with you a great beginner's guide created by our community member! Be sure to follow the Shimmering channel on Youtube and check other videos!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Greetings, Warriors!

This week we are introducing promised changes and fixes related to Sieges and the State of War. From now on, you are able to control the spawn of siege engines and set permissions that allow only people from your guild to use your tent. After a long and interesting discussion in the office, and as well on the suggestions channel on our official Discord, we also decided to update the way to deactivate weekly automatic tokens on guild castles and arrows regeneration for archers.

Thank you all for participating in the recent new engine test session! We received a lot of valuable feedback and positive opinions regarding game performance, as well as some good bug reports, so work on the update of the client-side of the game engine accelerated greatly.

As always, we also have for you many fixes and quality of life improvements! Check the details below and see you in battle!

The screenshot’s authors have been awarded. Siegbert, DoomCakes and Thory – check your Ambers!

[h2]State of War[/h2]

Automatic Saturday tokens on Guild castles were introduced to the game to encourage players to actively attack and defend castles on the global map and create more opportunities for sieges and changing ownership of locations. But in the long run, it became a little overwhelming, according to your feedback. That is why the token deactivation feature has been introduced. Players were able to deactivate their automatic tokens by participating in the map events and killing world bosses.

But even with this workaround, our data shows that it is still too easy to hold the castle passively, with not playing the game almost at all, and some Guild Castles on various servers are being held for a long time by guilds that are logging in just to SoW’s and not playing the game besides that, what have bad impact on the game balance and is weakening activity of a whole nation.

We decided to transfer the deactivation more towards daily challenges, which will create a more fair environment for active players and limit relying on allied guilds passively. Those changes will have the lowest impact on players and guilds who are already active in the game but will open wider the endgame content of Guild Castles for them.

Let’s break the changes one by one:

• We go from deactivating tokens per alliance to deactivating them per guild. Each guild has to take part in activities if it does not want to have a Saturday SoW. This will promote active guilds more and limit relying on alliances.
  
• Completing one daily challenge will grant one point to the deactivation bar. Every player in the guild will be able to help his guild by just playing the game. To make it clear - from our analytics, players now do 7 daily challenges on average [with more active players doing 12 of them every day!].
  
• Amount of points needed to deactivate the token has been increased from 2000 to 3000. Since we are expanding the ways to gain points, this change is reasonable to keep the balance.
  
• We add a clamp for points per guild that can be gained for performing events – the guild can earn a max of 500 per day from events. Events that still are granting points for token deactivation are: Killing a Kargald Champion, Sea Wraiths, Volcano, Catacombs.
  
• In exchange for removing points from Ragi/Sirius/Brandon events, you can now get points from events on the nation links, for example: “The Cohort Strikes Back”, “Kill the traitors!”, “Rite of the Acolytes”, “Kill the Gold Griffins”, “Kill Lynxes”, “Kill River Hogs”, “Raiders’ Encampment” and “Secrets of Dundrum/Yestad/Serai”.
  
• The amount of points you can get for participating in SoW as an attacker and for daily challenges is unlimited.

We believe those are very fair and healthy changes for the community and servers, but we are open for your feedback and opinions after the first week of the new system presence on global servers. The numbers of points can be tweaked and we will gather further data and observe the situation during the following weeks to adjust the calculations if needed.


[h2]Siege Tents and Siege engines[/h2]

During yesterday’s State of War we experienced some unexpected turn of events. We received many reports about potential design loopholes, and we moved to address such critical issues in our fashion - by uploading the fixes within the very next day. We are sorry for the inconveniences and thankful for numerous and detailed reproductions of the issues sent to us overnight that helped us to fix those problems right away.

In the edge case, when Siege Camp was built very close to the castle, the system was checking only the distance between Siege Camp and the place used to spawn the machine. From now we are checking the nation while the siege engine is deployed at the guild castle area - if it is an enemy, the siege engine is not deployed. This will not allow spawning machines right under walls or keep.

Second, we fixed the edge case way to bypass the limit of siege engines spawned at one time that could have been bypassed while using a siege tent by many players at one time.

Siege Tents received a new feature, suggested and requested by the Community. From now on you will be able to set up a guild limitation on your tent – so players who may be not mindful about their actions or trying to intentionally troll, will be not able to spawn siege engines and potentially spawn wrong machines and waste siege points.

[h2]Arrows regeneration[/h2]

After a few weeks of gathering feedback about the new archery system from players, we decided to change the feature of regenerating arrows for killing blows. Indeed, it was something that could lead to frustration when a low health target has been killed by a melee fighter or ballista for example, and despite dealing 90% of damage to that target with our bow we did not receive an arrow regeneration boost for that kill. The system has been changed and now it is using an assist system to count archer contributions to the kills and regenerating adequate quiver percentage for every kill we helped to get.

This will remove from archers the need to target low health targets to regenerate arrows and reward them for dealing damage with well-aimed shots fairly.


[h2]Quality of Life[/h2]

– According to the latest ingame questionnaire results (67% of players voted for "Rather Agree" or "Definitely Agree"), the Sea Wraiths event is from now on a non-loot event. We have closely checked all of your feedback, and most often negative feedback was related to worries about further expanding that rule to Volcano Event. This is not our plan
–Changed the respawn time of the quest resources nodes in the third line of questlines for every nation (Ismir questline: “Where is my husband?”, Midland “The Royal Huntsman”, and Sangmar: “The disappearance of Claretta”), from 500 to 30 seconds
– Changed the teleport time to observer Glory Arena from 15 to 30 seconds, and teleport to Global Arena from 20 to 30 seconds
– Changed teleport times from observing Glory Arena and Global Arena to Open World from 15 and 20 seconds to 5 seconds in both cases

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

– Fixed 55 bugs in level design including terrain, models, and colliders in various locations and terrain
– Fixed teleporting points (which are used during the siege by the players who aren't members of the guild that captured the flag) on Lordly Haven on the last gate for each upgrade
– Fixed the navmesh in the wooden main keep building that could prevent guards from getting upstairs in some cases
– Fixed the issue causing face texture was clipping through Sons of War helmet chainmail
– Fixed the guard position in Greenport – one of the guards were spawning under the keep’s floor
– Fixed the missing translation in Bastion worker's interface



- From now on, enemy siege engines cannot be spawned in castles colliders basing on the same rules as siege tents are using
- Added log files gathering data about spawn and usage of siege engines
- We added a bonus way to collect token deactivation points by doing daily challenges. You can get more points by claiming the daily challenges tier rewards, respectively 2,4,8 and 16 for each tier of the reward

Greetings, Warriors!

This week we were working hard on some upcoming features and continuing to address your feedback and reports! We are still working on the client engine upgrade since we faced some difficulties that need to be resolved before we can finish that task. After that, we will move to the next thing that the new engine will unlock – cluster system, to improve server load and to improve stability, performance, and optimization of the game. We overcame the issues we found so the task is nearing the happy end.

Our designers and coders are preparing player-made stalls, which will create the possibility to create your own shops and collection points! In addition to that, you will be able to trade horses!
Another interesting feature of stalls will be the possibility of automated distribution of items – for example, bandages or warm food – between players. You will be able to offer items without a price, and limit the number of items that one player can take from the stall, so everyone will be able to share supplies in a faster and more efficient way than trading each player manually when the time is important – during sieges or events. It will be a great addition to the ingame economy and create a new type of market and activity!

We are also introducing a small new feature related to Supporter Shop – Players will now be able to choose one of three additional rewards after their next (first from now) Ambers purchase. Each account can receive a bonus reward once. Thank you all for supporting the project!

Let’s check this week's changelog, and see you in battle!

The screenshot’s authors have been awarded. Vanjathyra, devnull and Siegbert – check your Ambers!

[h2]Quality of life[/h2]

– Added a possibility to turn off the enemy or ally nameplates completely for FPS performance improvement on large scale battles
– From now on, the game is remembering the last zoom position of the world map between game sessions.
– From now on, you can use left and right arrow keys to switch tabs in the character creation screen. You can also use up and down arrow keys to navigate in the character selection screen to choose the character you want to play with. And you can hit Enter to login into the game with the chosen character
– Added a warning of active Caps Lock on the ingame login screen



[h2]Fixes[/h2]

– Fixed an issue causing players on foot sprinting or horse riders riding uphill could partially fall under the ground from the perspective of other players
– Fixed an issue causing arrows/quiver UI were not refreshing properly after changing the bow
– Fixed an issue causing the last arrow could not be regenerated, despite having all archery related skills
– Fixed an issue causing wrong numbers of guards spawned on Temples last gates.
– Fixed the issue causing the wrong icon of 2000+ nation points buff. It could be mistaken for a Survival Instinct top tier skin icon
– Fixed a dialogue bug in quest “Sanctuary profaned” which was giving one of the tasks too quickly in a result
– Fixed the dialogue of Haldor in Ismir's optional quest “Take the Chieftain!”. There was an edge case where players couldn't take the reward for the quest
– Fixed the dialogue of Viator in Sangmar quest “The adventurous four”. Players couldn't proceed with that after the last changes in questline
– Fixed the position of reward marker in Ismir quest “Fall of the Raubritter”
– Fixed the issue causing destroyed siege engines could slowly ascend into the air before disappearing

Greetings, warriors!

We just started a new Glory season a few days ago, players are already fighting hard for placements in rankings and to gain the titles and achievements, so we hope you are enjoying your time in the game!

This week we are introducing a lot of fixes of issues reported by our Community that needed some more time to be reproduced and fixed. We are also closely observing the State of War’s and Sieges gathering as much feedback as possible regarding significant changes introduced at the beginning of the new Glory Season last Thursday. We are so far very thankful for your feedback and observations since we are receiving a lot of them via the ingame feedback tool!

Just because we are receiving a lot of your feedback, about 85% of the changes and fixes listed below are the result of Community reports and suggestions, so thank you for your help and continuous support! We also cannot stress enough to thank you for the awesome screenshots you are creating and sharing through our Community Hub on Steam. There are so many good ones that it is getting harder every week to pick the best ones!

Let’s see what we prepared for you this week!

The screenshot’s authors have been awarded. Wintar, glyuki, ScubAKing and Salty – check your Ambers!

[h2]Quality of life:[/h2]

Changes based on Community feedback and suggestions:

– Archers received new, more intuitive crosshairs with a dot, which should result in better precision of shot projectiles
– We added an unbound by default, attack break button, that will allow you to break the aiming/hold phase of ranged and melee attack
– Improved quiver user interface adding red, blinking animation when a player is trying to shot without having arrows
– Increased the range of combat direction indicator sensitivity from 1-10 to 0.1-10. This is an important one since we received feedback that players are not aware they can change that setting in options and adjust it to their preferences
– Following Community feedback, we changed the starting bows to reflex bows, which have the highest numbers of arrows and will explain better the arrows regeneration mechanic to new players
– Players asked us to place more furniture in the Guardhouse since it is a place that a lot of players are using as a meeting place and safe house. Furniture has been added
– Players suggested on our Discord that it would be nice to have a Coat of Arms on Siege Engines. Today, all mobile siege engines, excluding small battering ram, will have CoA of player who spawned them
– Blocked the possibility to revive a traitor from the party user interface if Friendly Fire is not active



Siege engines and their crew

Before, no matter the amount of siege engine crew numbers, pushing machines had the same speed. Looking at the player's behavior while using siege engines we decided to improve that, to encourage cooperation. We are also addressing the feedback related to the ballista range and usability of Warwolf:

- From now on, more crew in the siege engine means more speed. If the player inside the machine does not push any buttons, he strengthens the pushing speed anyway just by being on the machine and in that way is helping the driver. We added a UI indicator of the machine speed to make it clear.

Warwolf – it is time to fight

From now on, it will not be possible to use ballistas like mortars since their up tilt angle has been reduced, also changed the formula for the flight parabola of a ballista arrow. It will effectively reduce the possibility to preaim siege engines spawn points and lob ballista projectiles over covers on very long range. Warwolf's range and accuracy have been improved. Along with ballista changes, this should encourage players to use this siege engine more often, because the range of the Warwolf is greater than that of the ballista placed on the gate on the hill.

Votespy

Following the feedback of players, we are introducing the second iteration of the votespy command feature that will give players more options to avoid spies or trolls. When someone will be successfully voted out 2 times in 1 hour, this person will get a second level of banished status, and the area around the second report will be restricted for 30 minutes giving him wanted debuff instantly when he will come back. More power for players means also more responsibility, so use this feature carefully.

The feature is targeted to eliminate someone who: block the passage, for example blocking doors, blocking siege machines, burns siege machines points, block place where we want spawn something important for example siege tent (don't mess this with spawn fireplace, report someone for spawn things like the fireplace is also troll and is forbidden). You can't votespy someone just because you don't like him or any other things which the player does but this is normal gameplay. Always be sure to have backup evidence on such players' behavior because misuse of that command may lead to consequences for players who initiated the vote if they will not provide the evidence when asked.

Other improvements:

– Optimization improvements related to Freebuilding objects and their graphic computation



[h2]Fixes:[/h2]

Fixes based on Community reports and feedback:

– Fixed the issue causing wrong guild members could have been kicked from the guild by mistake, in the place of the players that should be actually removed from the guild
– Fixed the issue causing tutorial text could disappear under some conditions
– Fixed the issue causing mantlet colliders were not properly removed after the destruction of the mentioned siege engine
– Fixed an issue that caused wrong fisheries regeneration on highly populated servers
– Fixed the issue causing the wrong event, arena, and tournament teleport behavior. From now on the countdown to leaving the world event will stop immediately if the player chooses to move to a tournament or arena
– Fixed all known edge case issues related to arrows regeneration, among others, including user interface refresh rate, optimization, and siege engine usage while holding a bow in hands
– Fixed the issue causing respawning with the death animation
– Fixed the edge case issue related to the spawning of Recruiter NPC
– Fixed the issue causing burning damage on doors were applied in a wrong way, which could result in ridiculously fast door breaking while using torches
– Fixed the issue causing battering rams were falling under the map while pushed through the last gate in Lordly Heaven, Hordun Temple, and Abbey