Gloria Victis News

Hello Warriors!

This week we’ve focused mostly on improving the AI of humanoid NPC enemies. The abilities of the NPC enemies couldn’t be even remotely compared to how the players fight – but no more! From now on, the NPCs are going to pose a real challenge. It also means that we could decrease the number of the NPC enemies in the world, which means improved server- and client-side optimization and, at the same time, improved ways to teach new players the combat basics. Read below for details!

Moreover, we’ve updated the training PVP arena to adjust it to the current needs of the growing Community, and to prepare it for the planned automated and improved 5v5 tournaments. Check it on your own!

See you in battle!

[h2]Changelog v.0.9.3.4[/h2]


As always, the screenshot's author is rewarded. Ensiheiluja – check your Ambers after the next scheduled restart!

[h3]AI Update & NPCs Balance:[/h3]
The changes done to the AI of NPC enemies in melee combat will be especially helpful for new players, who will be able to learn the necessary reactions through practice, and quicker enter the world of PvP as worthy opponents for the experienced players.

Secondly, the experienced players used to the existing mechanics should be aware that the NPCs will now use blocks and feints more efficiently – you might need a while to adjust to this change but, finally, you will have any challenge in PVE combat.

At the end of the day, the changes allowed us to reduce the number of NPC enemies in the world, which led to improving the game’s optimization, both client- and server-side. The new changes will be tweaked in the following updates, i.e. we’ll be implementing some “mistakes” to be made by the NPCs. List of changes done to the AI:

– NPC enemies will react faster and attack faster – higher the level, faster and smarter they now get in combat (reactions of the level 1-10 NPCs are additionally slowed down to help new players learn the ropes)
– Higher the level, better the chances that the NPC will block from the correct direction and that the block will come right in time
– NPC enemies use kicks more often now, except for NPCs below level 20
– NPCs can now effectively feint, except for NPCs below level 20 – higher the level, more chances that the NPC will feint from time to time
– The NPC enemy’s attacks can’t be interrupted with yellow powerbar attacks any longer, so now it works the same as against players
– Kicking the NPCs will no longer stun them unless they were actually blocking, so now it works the same as against players
– Fixed staggering an NPC when the player successfully blocks a shieldbash
– Updated the statistics and placement of numerous NPC enemies and guards in the world

[h3]Servers’ Optimization:[/h3]
Thanks to many videos which we’ve received from our players, showing exactly specific issues, we were able to find many areas where we can improve the servers’ performance. Moreover, we’ve already applied numerous fixes in this update, which should help reduce the lags happening when the current population of a server reaches its’ max capacity, as well as in the largest battles.

Thanks to those videos we’ll be able to apply more improvements over the next few weeks, so every developer at Black Eye Games who can contribute to this aspect will fully focus on it. We’ll still be profiling the servers at large battles and State of War and, of course, further videos from such events with /showuidebug command enabled will help use even more.

Thank you for your help!

[h3]Arena Update:[/h3]


[The first tourists visiting the construction site of a new Arena complex]

We’ve updated the training PVP arena to adjust it to the current needs of the growing Community, and to prepare it for the planned automated and improved 5v5 tournaments. What’s changed?
– The arena stands are now closer to the combat area
– The inner square is now visibly separated from the other parts of the arena
– Places where players could get blocked by each other have been reworked
– Added 6 new 1v1 ranked duel arenas (there are 9 in total now) to prevent players from waiting for a free spot in the duel arenas, and added additional stands for the spectators

[h3]Quality of Life:[/h3]
– Several optimization improvements – thanks to many videos from our players, showing exactly specific issues, we were able to find many areas to improve, and already applied numerous fixes which should reduce the lags happening when the current population of a server reaches its’ max capacity, as well as in the largest battles
– From now on, the recently added skins for 1-handed axes (Black Coats' Tomahawk, Battleborn's Axe and Strithox) can be applied to the Black Guard’s Battle Axe too
– Slightly increased the blades of the Black Coats' Tomahawk, Battleborn's Axe and Strithox axes skins
– From now on, all skins for longswords can be applied to the Karleonian Longsword too
– Removed some buttons in the Party window aren’t needed any longer after the recent update of the Party system
– Added the option to change the Party type to the Party list panel displayed on the game’s HUD
– Updated the wood billets delivering stage in the Florin’s Lute quest to make it more intuitive
– Improved the detail of the Kargald Champion’s Helm skin
– Minor improvements to the starting tutorials

[h3]Fixes:[/h3]
– Fixed a bug causing that a player could get false-positive marked as a traitor because of assists
– Fixed updating the damage multiplier value when equipping the parts of armor
– Fixed a visual bug causing that the cooldown on using the /home command, which lasts for 2 days after joining a guild – could get shortened (only visually) down to 10 minutes after moving to the Guild Castle via Logistician
– Fixed a bug causing that blacksmith Eligius didn’t open his shop after completing the starting Sangmarian quests
– Fixed displaying colors on the lowest Level of Detail meshes of the Black Guard’s Armour
– Fixed several equipment clipping issues

Hello warriors!

First things first – you've got a free skin! As you probably already know it, that our friends from Fish Tank Studio are making Gloria Victis: Siege which will be set in the Gloria Victis world, and they just hit 10.000 on Steam Wishlist!

It means that every player who logged to Gloria Victis in the last week, as well as those who will log in before the next scheduled restart at 9:20 AM GMT, will get the Ismir Leader Helm from the trailer for free!

• Every player who logged within the last 7 days received an in-game notification which lets you claim the badass Kargald Champion Helm skin
  
• Moreover, every player who logs until the next scheduled restart (Apr 24th, 9:20 AM GMT+2) will get the skin too, right at the restart
  
• Next goal – the public reveal of the first soundtrack made by famous Marcin Przybyłowicz and Magda Urbańska!
  
• We will reveal another goal next week, so stay tuned!

On the other hand, a new weekly update has arrived – and we've overhauled the party system! With the addition of customizable player icons on the map, toggleable visibility of such, new types of the party which you can choose from, and numerous smaller or bigger improvements, this system will be much more convenient from now. Besides that, there are several optimization changes, various gameplay improvements and some new crazy looking skins to choose from.

Try out the update and claim your own Kargald Helm skin for free, and see you in battle!



[h2]Changelog v.0.9.3.3[/h2]
[h3]Party System:[/h3]
– Introduced the party management panel allowing the party leader to:

• Set the party type
  
• Toggle the map position visibility for each player
  
• Set the detailed permissions for party members
  
• Set the displayed symbol for each player’s position marker

– Introduced various party types, besides the standard one:

• Hidden – allows to hide the position of party members and give permissions to see them to selected players, so you can i.e. hide your scouts from the spies or hide everyone, or show only leaders, and so on
  
• Open – every player can invite new members and accept them, although still there is a leader who can change the party settings, kick players, hide their positions and so on
  
• No leader – a common party which doesn't require preparations; by default, no player takes the rulership and all members are equal but any member can become the leader at any time

[h3]Quality of Life:[/h3]


– Several server-side optimization improvements
– Updated placement of the NPC enemies to improve the server-side performance and reduce the number of NPC enemies encountered in the PVP areas, i.e. in the central part of the world
– Numerous minor improvements to the players synchronization, such as fix to the bug causing that the first step made by the player’s character seen by another player was made in the same direction where the character was moving when in stopped, or that the character seen by another player didn’t immediately stop when running at another character, even though it actually stopped on the player’s PC and on the server
– Updated the crafting chance calculation due to a recent fix to a bug causing that the Mentor Points used to give way too much bonus chance, which was additionally hidden by the fact that, by design, the bonuses from Mentor Points are not visible so even if the interface displayed i.e. 84% chance for +4 item, it was actually 100%; we don't want to bring back the wrong calculations for Mentor Points but we increased the base chance for using +4 workshop, so instead of the former 84% chance for +4 items you used to get with all bonuses except cards, it will now be 90% (plus the hidden “luck factor” from the number of your Mentor Points), so while creating a +3 item at the top workshop will theoretically be possible, it’s not going to happen frequently
– Added the [Group event] prefix to the names of dynamic events which are designed for groups
– Several minor improvements to various quests and dynamic events
– Addeda new set of skins for the Black Guard medium armor, fitting to the Mercykiller’s Helm
– Added 3 skins for one-handed axes



[h3]Fixes:[/h3]
– Fixed the arena button’s tooltip and progress bar texts when moving to/from the arena
– Fixed displaying the interaction labels when hovering the cursor over the mount
– Fixed a bug causing that the player’s attack could get false-positive registered as an ally hit
– Fixed a bug causing small client-side desynchronization of the mount’s disappearing
– Fixed the clipping issues for several shoes models
– Fixed the Midland nation’s name Chinese translation – it’s been changed from 中土 to 米德兰

Hello warriors!

Another update filled with Quality of Life improvements is live! This week we’ve added a long-requested feature: quick chat commands selected from the roulette that let you give orders to your allies!

Moreover, from this update, you’ll be rewarded for being active in the State of War! Either a defender or attacker, join the siege to get your effort paid back. Check down below for details!

Also, we’re thinking about a satisfying solution for the Open State of War which takes place on Saturdays. We’re aware it might be inconvenient to be forced to come for it every week, even though the addition of Open SoW has been welcomed warmly since it created a lot of open-world PVP opportunities, and that’s why most of us play Gloria Victis. Moreover, prior to introducing the Open Sow, there was at least one nation without any Guild Castle on every server, which isn’t the case anymore.

For these reasons, we’d like to keep the Open SoW in-game, but to reduce its frequency a bit. So our idea is to have an Open SoWs once every 2 weeks, and in between them you’ll have a chance to take part in the automated and improved 5v5 tourneys, with complete matchmaking and grouping system. We'll be aiming to have more different activities in the future, so Open SoWs could then happen less frequently.

Tell us what do you think about this idea! Of course, we’re all for introducing more various activities for Saturdays in the future, so we encourage everyone to share your ideas too.

See you in battle!

[h2]Changelog v.0.9.3.2[/h2]



As always, the screenshot's author is rewarded. sCaRfaCe – check your Ambers after the next scheduled restart!

[h3]Quality of Life:[/h3]
– Introduced a command system which lets you select quick commands from a roulette [default: X key] to display them in the Say chat – this addition should greatly help coordinate the actions of a group of players in the heat of battle
– Introduced rewards for the activity in State of War (can be gained only once during the given time frame of State of War) to promote more engagement and actually attacking the enemy locations:

• Single reward for defenders who were present in the province during State of War, if the location was eventually captured
  
• Double reward for defenders who were present in the province during State of War, if they successfully defended it – this reward replaces the single reward for a lost defense
  
• Single reward for the attackers who were present in the province during State of War, if they managed to reach 100% of activity in the siege
  
• Additional single reward for the attackers who were present in the province during State of War, if they eventually captured the province
  

– From now on, the boiling oil at the guild castle keep has 3 minutes of cooldown, contrary to 1 minute at the nation-controlled castle keeps
– Slightly increased the mount’s running and sprinting speed
– Disabled a possibility to unstuck while swimming to prevent exploiting it
– Improved placement of numerous resource nodes in various locations
– Updated the placement of NPC enemies near Otton the Raubritter’s hideout and doubled their respawn time
– Updated the levels of the dynamic events in the area between Blackrock and Volkvar castles because they weren’t visible for most of the players
– Updated the location upgrading tutorial and the name of the Architect’s Table



[h3]Fixes:[/h3]
– Fixed an edge-case bug causing receiving the traitor status for a player who applied bleeding to an ally in the open-world arena (i.e. in the guild castle) and left the arena before the bleeding ended
– Fixed a bug causing that equipping an already equipped item by a hotbar key used to queue up, ending in a loop of equipping the same item
– Fixed searching items in the Market window in German and Korean languages
– Fixed a bug causing that the production speed bonus at player-build furnaces worked only until the server restart
– Fixed a bug causing that the medics didn’t get a share of NP for kills gained by the player who they revived, but those players gained more NP than they should get
– Fixed a bug causing that when comparing two items, the tier/quality overlay was copied from the first item to the second one
– Fixed a bug causing that the 1v1 arena duel icon was replaced with an old icon after registering to a duel
– Fixed the dialogs of Sir Rodric and Askell
– Fixed the respawn time of mercenaries in the “Menace in the Mist” questline
– Fixed a bug causing displaying a false icon of the player’s mount on the map even before it was spawned
– Fixed a bug causing that the ambient sound effects of birds could stack on each other in some cases
– Minor fixes to various dynamic events
– Fixed a bug causing that the dynamic events in the area between Dimar and Waterford castles weren’t visible on the map

Hello warriors!

Last week’s update has introduced a lot of new content, but this one brings dozens of the player-suggested Quality of Life improvements! Also, even though it’s a bit late, there’s a short quest added on the occasion of the April Fool’s Day. Complete it to obtain a unique player title!

Moreover, we’re close to complete the first part of our wishlist challenge for Gloria Victis: Siege. Don’t forget to add this upcoming survival game to your wishlist and obtain the Kargald Champion’s Helm skin for free!



Be sure to try out the update and see you in battle!

[h2]Changelog v.0.9.3.1[/h2]


As always, the screenshot's author is rewarded. sCaRfaCe – check you ambers!
[h3]Quality of Life:[/h3]
– A bit late, but – added a short quest on the occasion of the April Fool’s Day which not only lets you gain a unique player title but also promotes being responsible in the recent situation; talk to Mr. Chicken in the capital to start the questline and follow his instructions!
– Introduced the possibility to compare an item with the currently equipped one – simply hover your cursor over an item to display its tooltip and wait for a second to see a tooltip of the equipped item too
– Added an option for the party leader to clear the map markers placed by the other party members
– From now, you can be invited to the other party even if you are in another one (unless you’re a party leader), which is especially important for new players
– Updated the accuracy of mounted archers – slower your ride, better the accuracy will be now
– Increased the drop rate of the Extra Attribute Points, for both character and mount, which can be looted from the Kargald Champion
– The Crafting Events are now disabled during the server’s Nightlock to prevent a problem of players rewards on servers in a different time zone, having little to no enemies to beware
– Added a confirmation window displayed when attempting to leave a guild province to avoid abandoning them by mistake
– Updated the ranked arena duel’s registration button to make it more intuitive
– Updated the look of the fast travel cost in the location’s tooltip on the map
– Improved the placement of NPCs at the Baalhammon main square so they shouldn’t block the road by the fountain anymore
– Improved the placement of the Glory Quartermaster in Waterford to prevent him from spawning in the same place with another NPC
– Updated the visibility of the font for location names displayed by the minimap
– Slightly increased the max rotation angle of the mounted player compared the horse
– Improved the description of the Battle Horse passive ability – now it clearly tells that the increased damage reduction is applied to the mount, not to the rider
– Lowered the HP of the team Rocket antibot NPCs
– Added a new item designed by a player: “Geliand's Crusaders Chainmail”, a medium chest piece which can be looted from NPCs, as well as its recipe scroll
– Introduced a brand new set of skins for the “Black Guard” light armor – the “Clan Nightroar's” set
– Updated the name of the “Nightroar” helmet skin – now it’s called “Clan Nightroar's Hood”



[h3]Fixes:[/h3]
– Fixed a bug causing that you couldn’t earn Nation Points at Guild Provinces
– Fixed a bug which decreased the cooldown for /home command when a new player joined the guild or a new guild joined the alliance – the cooldown was decreased from 2 days to 45 minutes, now it’s back to normal value
– Fixed a bug causing desynchronizing the rotation of a mounted character in some cases
– Fixed bug of regenerating mount’s stamina in the water which allowed to swim forever
– Fixed refreshing the mount’s statistics, both on the game’s screen and in the mount’s panel
– Fixed a bug causing that received damage used to interrupt mounting or dismounting – now it’s only interrupted by being stunned
– Fixed an edge case bug causing that the players can’t be moved to the Valley of Death tournament
– Fixed a bug causing that the player couldn’t display the Valley of Death’s tournament scoreboard by pressing the TAB key
– Fixed displaying the descriptions of Extra Attribute Points for both character and mount
– Fixed a visual bug with the displayed level of the NPC guard Faris – it’s level 100 now, like the Midland’s Knight and Ismirs’ Huskarl

Hello warriors!

We’ve got a huge update for you! The center of the map has been updated to become a much more populated PvP place out of State of War time. What has changed?

First of all, we have added a new rare world boss – the Kargald Champion. The people of frosty Kargald belong to the most dreadful warriors of the world who raided the countless tribes (as it can be seen in the Reveal Trailer of Gloria Victis: Siege). The wild look of their helmets fills the heart of their enemies with fear – and now they invaded your land! The Kargald Champion can be found find in the middle of the map – with randomized time and spawn points. In his loot, you can find unique items which allow you to add extra attributes for character or mount. not connected with level, so from now you can add 20 more attributes points!
– We have added 3 new Event Chains: Black Sickle, Outlumbered, Heathen Plague and refreshed 3 others: The Griffins Company, Rogue Highlanders, Enclave of the Rejected. They are added for 2 reasons:
1) New possibilities to level-up and extra earnings
2) Extra activities while hunting for the world boss

3 of the events are available from 40 level: Black Sickle, Outlumbered, Enclave of the Rejected. The other 3 are available from level 60. Check them out, and read about other changes introduced with this update!

Quality of Life:

– Added a new feature decreasing non cleave player damage by 70% if the hit went trough the ally player first. There were no change to cleave attacks as they were already dealing less damage based on each target they hit, including allies.
This change is pretty deep in terms of balancing the game, and should promote smaller skirmishes instead of fighting in one big blob. The damage decrease percentage and entire feature is something we want to check in the battle, please remember to leave us a feedback about that change.
– Added indicators of hits going trough the ally players.
– Implemented a new mechanics allowing players to unlock additional 20 attribute points by using special items which drop from the bosses on the center of the map. Those points pool of player points are not being lost while using restat of attributes.
– Implemented a new mecahnics allowing horses to have unlocked additional 20 attribute points by using special items which drop the bosses on the center of the map. Horse points are being added to the specific, active horse.
– Updated the mounts-related abilities, combining some of them together to make the horse build affecting foot fight less. We want a horseman to be a subclass, just like a medic instead of full class to not prevent horseman players from taking part in the Sieges. Due to the changes done to abilities, every character receives a free reset of abilities – they can be claimed at the Notification Center for the next 14 days– Added Holy Temples links to the Guild Castles, they are harder to take by the enemy and so are less vulnerable to cutting off the nation from the fast travel to their GC increasing the Holy Temples value.
– Decreased base stamina horse usage to ensure riding on horse is more efficient way to travel long distances
– Player stamina regen is no longer blocked by riding the horse on the fast speed
– Removed bonus regen to player stamina for moving slowly/not moving while being at horse (no changes while regenerating on foot)
– Added new stat to K/D/A window which is sum of kills and assists
– Added new horse hp and stamina UI
– Increased max level to participate on events around Swamp, Leaktown, Twinfall and Audun into 70 from previous 50.
– Added the missing event near the Audunstede for killing deserters
– Added an additional information while trying to launch the game using Steam Family Sharing which leads to "Invalid Steam Token" error, now it will be much clearer for the users who had that issue.
– Added new skin to the game which will be unlocked to all players who were logged in the game in the last week, from the moment of reaching 10 000 wishlists of Gloria Victis: Siege, and it will be added to the shop by that time.

Fixes:

– Fixed an issue leading to not loading friend lists for some players
– Fixed the wrongly shown number of cooldown time to use fast travel to Guild Castle
– Fixed an issue which made horse stamina regen being blocked when player stamina regen was blocked
– Fixed an issue which made castles which were abandoned by the guild were bugging further tokens put in the same server session
– Fixed an issue which lead to showing wrong amount of experience required to level up a horse
– Fixed an case of receiving traitor debuff while fighting on the small arenas.
– Fixed an edge case which every relog while having traitor debuff increased it's time by one hour
– Fixed an edge case of player dying on the open world, who was been damaged on the arena before causing traitor to assisting players.
– Fixed an edge case of event for Raubritter Rejected not spawning mobs on the second wave of the event.
– Fixed an edge case issue of tutorials videos not appearing
– Fixed a bug allowing to get under the floor of the inner sanctum at the Sirius’ castle