Project: Gorgon News

There's a new level 85 group dungeon available for high level players who are Friends with Mope in Povus. Speak to Mope to get started. This one is intended to be a challenge for a group of six level 85 players wearing reasonably good gear. It's brand new in the sense that we finished it up last night, so no doubt it'll need some refinements. Remember to report bugs, and after you've been into the dungeon a few times, please share your balance feedback with us!

• Povus now has a Ri-Shin tree to set up; speak with Leah Bowman for more information.
  
• There is a small chance to receive a Live Event Credit when opening a Ri-Shin tree present.
  
• Tweaked the Ri-Shin Shrine event in various ways, changing the required item amounts, adjusting buff effects, and adding a small chance to receive a bonus Live Event Token each time you receive a Ri-Shin Token from Snowleaf.
  

• The basic effect of Sword items has been recalculated. Weapons that boosted "Sword Base Damage" now boost "Sword Damage" (to different amounts). This is a buff to high level sword damage.
  
• The basic effect of Dagger and Dirk items has been recalculated. Weapons that boosted "Knife Base Damage" now boost "Knife Damage" (to different amounts). This is a buff to high level knife damage, especially dual-wielding damage.
  
• Fixed brewing buffs that are supposed to buff damage versus a specific anatomy group (e.g. Bears). (Previously they did nothing.)
  
• Fixed brewing buffs that are supposed to buff Burst damage vs. Elites. (Previously they incorrectly boosted Melee damage.)
  
• Revised brewing buffs that were intended to buff Projectile damage vs. Elites; they now buff Ranged damage. (Previously they incorrectly boosted Melee damage.)
  
• Fixed ability "Toxic Irritant" not applying certain buffs/debuffs.
  
• Fixed minigolems' "Taunting Punch" not applying certain buffs/debuffs.
  
• Fixed pet rats' "Rat Burn" Special Trick not applying certain buffs/debuffs.
  
• Fixed the Problem Spider's curse.
  
• Fixed treasure effects that make Pixie Flare deal bonus damage vs. Demons.
  

• Items with only generic mods should extract properly now.
  
• Sunstone & Goshenite will now properly extract generic augments.
  
• Brought back the "Genes" window at stables.
  
• Stable pet previews should now always show.
  
• Persona window preview should now properly display at all times.
  
• Fae now float in the character select screen & persona window.
  
• Improved how effects line up with the attack animations.
  
• Polished & sped up hammer animations.
  
• Mushroom Box use level requirement changed from 0 to 1.
  
• Corrected tutorial text after researching your first fire magic spell. (The UI has changed since it was originally written.)
  
• Fixed typo in foods (mitigatation -> mitigation).
  
• Summon the correct skeleton with Free-Summon Skeletal Archer 6.
  
• Elite members of the "Evil Carnivore" gang (seen during a Povus invasion) now correctly have group loot instead of solo loot.
  

• Animal Handling: Fishing 42, Skinning 15, Feline Anatomy 19, Bear Anatomy 29, Animal Husbandry 25, Animal Husbandry 50, Animal Husbandry 75, Rodent Anatomy 19, Rodent Anatomy 39
  
• Archery: Meditation 25, Human Anatomy 19, Crossbow 25, Crossbow 50, Crossbow 75
  
• Armor Patching: Armorsmithing 15, Armorsmithing 45, Armorsmithing 70
  
• Bard: Art History 15, Art History 45, Poetry Appreciation 35
  
• Battle Chemistry: Mycology 30, Cooking 55, Iocaine Resistance 30
  
• Cow: Unarmed 27, Gardening 51, Gourmand 25, Foraging 26
  
• Crossbow: Fletching 21, Fletching 34, Fletching 53, Archery 32, Archery 58, Gadgeteering 15, Gadgeteering 45
  
• Deer: Unarmed 16, Psychology 17, Ruminant Anatomy 17, Cow 26
  
• Druid: Mycology 45, Rabbit 42, Pig 48, Nature Appreciation 38, Nature Appreciation 65
  
• Fairy Magic: Fae Anatomy 49
  
• Fire Magic: Battle Chemistry 20, Battle Chemistry 40, Armorsmithing 28
  
• First Aid: Priest 15, Priest 45, Compassion 15, Compassion 42, Phrenology 10, Druid 29
  
• Giant Bat: Animal Handling 46, Necromancy 55, Bard 40
  
• Ice Magic: Fire Magic 28, Fire Magic 39, Fire Magic 65, Armor Patching 55, Meditation 30, Battle Chemistry 30, Battle Chemistry 55
  
• Hammer: Unarmed 26, Mining 65
  
• Necromancy: Undead Anatomy 19, Undead Anatomy 49, Incorporeal Creature Anatomy 26, Spirit Fox 29, Paleontology 24, Paleontology 49
  
• Pig: Mycology 65
  
• Priest: First Aid 45, Pig 55
  
• Rabbit: Unarmed 10, Unarmed 38, Gardening 25, Gardening 53, Gourmand 30, Foraging 28, Deer 16, Animal Handling 28
  
• Shield: Armorsmithing 48
  
• Sigil Scripting: Calligraphy 10, Calligraphy 30, Calligraphy 45, Calligraphy 60, Battle Chemistry 11
  
• Spider: Psychology 19, Psychology 46, Arthropod Anatomy 13, Textiles 34
  
• Spirit Fox: Unarmed 49, Fishing 37, Gourmand 35, Psychology 51, Myconic 40, Foraging 47, Mentalism 30, Canine Anatomy 23, Fae Anatomy 29, Incorporeal Creature Anatomy 49
  
• Staff: Sword 42
  
• Unarmed: Staff 60
  
• Werewolf: Skinning 35, Canine Anatomy 19, Canine Anatomy 47, Butchering 34, Giant Bat 25, Animal Handling 60
  

Merry Christmas, and we'll be back with more updates soon!

It's time for Alharth's holiday season! All the townsfolk that you've befriended (meaning you have Friends favor-level or higher) will have gifts for you when you speak to them. Make sure to have your favorite combat skills active, because if they give you equipment, it will likely be tailored to those skills.

The human celebration of Ri-Shin is also in full force, and townsfolk in every town and settlement [except Povus] need your help setting up their Ri-Shin trees! Look for townsfolk wearing a red festive Ri-Shin hat. There are trees to set up in Serbule, Serbule Hills, Eltibule, Kur, Gazluk, Ilmari, Rahu, the Fae Realm, Sun Vale, and Red Wing Casino.

We've actually been working on a different Christmas present for our long-term players, a new level 85 group dungeon, but it's not quite ready yet! We'll do another update next week to introduce the new dungeon. In the mean time, if you have a high-level character, you may want to make sure you are Friends with Mope in Povus.

(Oh, and Povus doesn't have a Ri-Shin tree yet, but will get one in next week's update!)


As a small thanks for joining us this holiday season, there are new redemptions available - one for everyone (except demo players), and an extra one for our VIP members. You can access these through the button on the bottom right of the Persona window, or if you're old-school by typing /redeem in chat. Remember, these rewards are one per account, so make sure you choose which character gets it wisely!

• There is a new vendor filter: "Hide Known Recipes".
  
• You now auto-select the number box when splitting a stack, to allow quicker precise splits.
  
• Tooltips for the sidebar buttons (like the Inventory button) will now show the keyboard shortcut for that button (if any is assigned).
  
• You can more easily clear out social statuses ("Who's Online" status and "Friends" quote).
  
• Fixed bug where cancelling a confirmation window would accidentally confirm it instead. This could happen if, for instance, you quickly clicked "Erase This Loadout" twice in a row and then chose to cancel.
  
• The first time you open the recipe window from a world object (like a fire) in a play session, it will now start recipes at the top of the window instead of in the middle.
  

• Skeletons can now perform emotes and sit in chairs!
  
• Accounted for latency when performing attacks, so they should now line up better with animations on clients.
  
• Polished animations such as First Aid, Armor Patch, Dig Deep, & Push Onward.
  
• Sped up a few animations used by buffing abilities and made them able to be used while moving.
  
• Made pickup & eat corpse animations more responsive. (You can move more quickly after performing the animation.)
  
• Sped up dig animation, and use it when burying a corpse.
  
• Players are now placed into beds more appropriately.
  

• Bulwark Mode must now be kept on a hotbar in order to be sustained.
  
• You can no longer earn combat XP for "fake" auxiliary skills (like performing a song right before murdering a monster to get Stringed Performance XP from the kill). This was considered an exploit and is not the normal way to earn XP for these skills.
  
• Cheese casks & brewing barrels should no longer get stuck in walls.
  
• We now properly change your active skill on your first polymorph. For example, the first time Ciervos turns you into a Deer you will reliably activate the deer skill.
  
• Dead humanoids no longer have collisions (after being un-targeted).
  
• Removed duplicate descriptions from food items.
  
• Fixed description of cranberry sauces in their recipes. (Snacks -> Meals)
  
• Fixed Spicy Fried Tofu Cubes recipe typo. (Feeds two -> Feeds three)
  
• Made bed on Ivyn's farm (in Serbule) more easily usable.
  
• Renamed Cat Anatomy Decoction to Feline Anatomy Decoction.
  
• Ability "Spade Assault" now gains damage bonuses from gear that boosts Kick or Front Kick damage
  
• Higher tiers of "Spade Assault" have a higher chance of the shovel breaking (going from 5% to 7%)
  
• If you are Comfortable or better with Mope, you can stand at the base of the giant mushroom and say "Mope, Up!" in local chat. If you then stand still (and out of combat) for a few seconds, Mope will teleport you to him. (This is something he now tells you when you reach Comfortable favor-level, but if you've already reached Comfortable before today... well, it's a good thing you read the patch notes.)
  
• Adjusted the buffs from the Ri-Shin pool in Kur so that they last 90 minutes instead of 60, but can only be received once per day. Hopefully this makes them more useful without being too overpowered.
  

We'll be back with another update soon!

Happy Thanksgiving! It's harvest season in Alharth and you know what that means: turkeys are hiding in all the bushes, and there's classic fall foods to eat. High-level crafters should visit Ricatu in Povus to learn to craft some new kinds of food! We also have many fixes and improvements for you.

Are you on a new Mac? Is the screen opaque? Scroll down to "MacOS Visual Fog Bug" below.

• Povus ratkin drop more cheese mold, especially root-tenders and miners.
  
• Povus nightly quest "Undead Surprise" has been revised.
  
• Povus nightly quest "Warmaster Brukal" more reliably has the necessary elite orcs.
  
• Fixed Povus buildings that could have frogs spawn trapped inside the ceiling.
  

• There are two new chat commands to let you see login screen information while you are in-game: /events will display upcoming events, and /news will display login news.
  
• Improved the clarity of genetic-info tooltips in the genome-view window:
  
  
  
  • H, S, and V are now shown as "hue", "saturation", or "intensity".
    
  • If both the dominant and recessive behaviors boost the same attribute (but to different amounts), only the more potent behavior is listed.
• VIP players now see a "Save" button on the Genome View window. This saves the genome as a .txt file in the user's "reports" folder. (The format is subject to change based on your feedback, so let us know what you'd like to see here!)
  
• Abilities in the Skills and Abilities window that are different levels of the same ability will now sort correctly. For example, Blocking Stance 5 no longer sorts before Blocking Stance 4.
  
• Sub-skills are now sorted alphabetically in the Skills and Abilities window.
  
• Recipes that share cooldown timers, such as Mushroom Recall and Mushroom Un-Recall, will now all display the appropriate timer in their recipe.
  
• Closing the corpse window too quickly after performing an action will no longer cause the loot window to pop right back up again.
  
• The show/hide effects UI is now handled properly when player doesn't have sufficient anatomy skill level.
  
• It's possible to drag the "NPC talk" window far enough left on your screen that the left-side menu doesn't show. New players often do this by mistake because the first few NPCs they talk to have no side-menu. Later when they're talking to NPCs with side-menus, they have no idea what they're missing. To fix this, the left-side menu on an NPC's talk window is now prevented from going off the left side of the screen. (If you really want to drag the sidebar off-screen for whatever reason, you can use special setting, AllowSideMenusOffScreen.)
  

Tab-targeting will sometimes target something far away rather than something that is right next to you. This is because we take the monster's "hated target" into account -- for example, an archer who is attacking you from far away will be selected before a docile monster that's closer to you. We believe this is usually desirable behavior, but some players have found it confusing or inappropriate for their needs, so we've added a special setting, RemoveHateFromTabTargeting, which causes tab-targeting to completely ignore monster-hate and sort targets solely by distance. Give it a try (by adding that word to the "Special Settings" box in the Settings window) and let us know if the new behavior is useful!

• Knockdowns are considered stuns for purposes of dispelling them. This applies to both player and monster knockdowns.
  
• Fixed a bug with NPC_Errruka that prevented some dye recipes from showing up in her barters.
  
• "Analyze Arthropod Genes" ability was incorrectly making a skill-check against the Arthropod Anatomy skill instead of the Arthropod Genetics skill.
  
• "Proclamation" note in Serbule is targetable again.
  
• You can no longer sit in a chair that you are already sitting in.
  
• All instances of the name "Davlos" should now correctly use "Dalvos" instead. Just for you, Beta Notus!
  
• Some archery abilities were missing the text "(or better)".
  
• Many typos have been fixed.
  
• New bandwidth improvements to networking protocol. This will not be detectable during gameplay except to players with VERY poor networks -- it's mainly intended as a feature for players on metered or limited bandwidth, so that the game uses less bandwidth overall.
  

Non-cheese food items have been buffed to also provide direct damage mitigation. The numbers we're using here are very preliminary -- we're not as focused on the exact balance of the idea as much as figuring out if this idea is useful. We want both cheese and non-cheese foods to be valuable, and we'll also need to accomodate one more planned food-making skill, Baking, in the future. All this food should have uses or at least niches where they're valuable. So expect more iteration on food buffs!


We're aware that certain MacOS users (mainly those with the latest laptops) can't play the game because the 3D world is opaque. We're unable to reproduce the problem. Our guess is that it's a video driver problem for specific macs, but since we don't know if/when Apple will update their drivers, we'd like to find a work-around. Since we can't reproduce it, we're taking the "shotgun approach": we have three potential work-arounds, and hopefully one of them will help.

While in-game, open the Settings window and find the Special Settings tab. In the text box, type the words MacHack1 MacHack2 MacHack3 and save your settings. This will enable all three hacks. The effect should be immediate: you'll instantly either be able to see stuff... or you won't. If none of these work, we'll try some more hacks soon!

If the hacks DO help, please let us know which one(s) are needed. You can remove each of the words in the settings box to turn off the corresponding hack. Remove MacHack3 first and see if the problem comes back; if not, try removing MacHack2 or MacHack1. It may be that several combinations of hacks remove the problem -- that info would also help us narrow it down.

These hacks are VERY hacky. They disable major graphical systems (like the entire weather system!). The game will definitely be uglier with these hacks on, but hopefully the game will be playable. And once we know of a hack that helps, we can start refining the hack with less-aggressive mini-hacks. Once we have some clues to start with, we may reactivate the Steam "beta" channel to iterate on the problem more quickly. Thanks for your patience!

We're back with another update! This one's a little earlier than expected because we wanted to fix a Halloween-event bug (the quest "Skeleton Dance?"). The Halloween event will run for another week or so, into November, so there's still plenty of time to finish the quest lines!

But this isn't just a bug-fix update -- there's also major changes to the Povus nightly quest system, plus a new UI feature.

[h2]Povus - New Feature: "Bonus" Nights[/h2]
Some nights in Povus, the quests are worth more. This happens every 4-8 game days (which maps to 8-16 real hours, which means this happens an average of 2 times per realtime day). On Bonus nights, each quest earns the town +100 additional town XP, plus additional item rewards for participants.

The town signpost has an indicator if the upcoming night's quests will earn bonuses. In addition, at the signpost you can "join Tremmond's pigeonmailing list" to receive notifications the game-day before a bonus night. (These notifications are sent to currently-online players every game-hour during the game-day, so you may not be notified if you're offline at the wrong moment. If in doubt, just check the signpost!)

Note that at this time, "Bonus Nights" aren't actually any harder than regular nights. They're just bonusier. Some of the in-game flavor text suggests that nastier things are coming, but they're wrong. We might change this in the future as we continue to evolve Povus.

[h2]Povus - New Feature: Armor Shipments[/h2]
When the "Light the Lamps" quest is completed at night, local merchant Ishiko will stop by the Povus docks at 10am game-time the next day to buy crafted metal armor. Each piece of armor you give her earns Town XP for Povus, helping it level up. But the cash payout is very poor, so this is primarily a way to donate armor to improve Povus.

[h2]Povus - New Feature: Capstone Quest[/h2]
There's an additional quest added to the end of the Povus nightly quest-line. This one's for those nights when there are LOTS of players in Povus. Starting the quest requires a whopping 16 players.

[h2]Povus - New Feature: Town Storage[/h2]
When you complete a Povus nightly quest, you can now earn storage slots as part of the reward. The first few slots are earned just by completing one or two quests, but later slots require more quest-completions. Eventually you can have up to 80 slots in the Povus storage chest. (This is technically a bug fix, but since it didn't work at all before, it's also a new feature!)

[h2]Povus: Other Changes[/h2]

• Increased the number of players needed to start Povus nightly quest stages. Tiers previously required 1,2,3,4,5,6 players; now require 2,3,4,6,9,12 players. This should better match the actual quest requirements.
  
• Fashnagar the Prognosticator's post-bath prognostications now have a kernel of truth: many of his lines now accurately hint at how soon the next Bonus Quest Reward night is coming. (Previously they were entirely random.)
  
• Made sure enough Invincible Ratkin Skeletons spawn for the quest "Bone War!"
  
• Fixed the spawn rate of Enchanted Mega-Scrays during quest "Povus Safety: Ranalon Assault"
  
• Reduced the kill-requirements of most higher-tier Povus quests a little bit (e.g. kill 35 flapskulls instead of 40)
  
• The second-highest-tier Povus nightly quests now earn the town 200 XP instead of 100
  
• The highest-tier Povus nightly quests now earn the town 300 XP instead of 100
  

[h2]UI Improvement: See Active Buffs on Targets/Party Members[/h2]
You can now see active buffs/debuffs on targets and party members. They are customizable via settings under "GUI > Features > Effects Display", and some of the options are available by right-clicking the party or target displays. They follow the usual Anatomy level requirements, so you need to have level 25 of the appropriate Anatomy skill to view them, even on party members.

[h2]Other Changes[/h2]

• Fixed a bug that caused Spawn Premonitions to be permanent, instead of having a 5% chance to dispel on death as intended. As part of this fix, all existing spawn premonitions were erased, so you will need to reapply them!
  
• Also reduced the 3-second universal spawn premonition to a 2-second premonition, and the 5-second universal premonition to 4-second
  
• Summoned deer are now correctly unsummoned when player leaves Deer form
  
• Frostbite & Rib Shatter stuns now remove Ghosts' nigh-invulnerability
  
• Now treat /em custom emotes as chat messages, so they are affected by /ignore, moderator gagging, etc.
  
• Polish Hammer animations
  
• Fixed a "click really fast" exploit with Genetics XP
  
• Properly loop stun animation for NPCs
  
• Reduce crouching of female elves with realistic foot placement turned on
  
• Fix sideways-sitting chairs in New Prestonbule and Serbule
  
• Skeleton dancing is functional again
  
• No longer send endless undeliverable messages for pigeon messages with no items attached
  
• Place bulwark shield particle correctly on Skeleton Mages
  
• Play animations (invisibly) when in first-person mode. This fixes some subtle bugs
  
• Prevent auto-selected targets from interfering with tab-targeting
  

Halloween is here! Zhia Lian, the demanding god of Whimsy, has new higher-level tasks for you to take on. The Halloween event now has over 90 quests! So get out there and see what whimsical random things she wants now! Just remember the first rule of the Cult of Zhia Lian ...

In addition to new quests and rewards for Halloween, this update also includes a bunch of fixes and improvements.

• Added auto-repeat back into crafting, for use primarily with recipes that don't always consume their ingredients.
  
• Skills and sub-skills are now properly listed in alphabetical order in the abilities window.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented area-specific loading-screen tips from showing when you logged into the game. (They could only be seen when you teleported to other areas.)
  
• The search bar is now cleared when opening the recipe window from the "More Info" context menu.
  
• Changed "Virility" to "Fertility" for female pets during direct pet inspection.
  

• Players can move their characters a small amount even when they are performing "locked" combat animations. In other words, players can slide around while their feet are doing other things. This is an experiment in our ongoing animation work, as we continue to try to balance graphics quality with gameplay benefits.
  
• Players sit better on chairs.
  
• Birds sit properly on bird perches.
  
• Deer have a jump animation.
  
• Animal forms now display Bulwark Shield correctly.
  
• Skeleton archer animations play correctly.
  
• Smoothed out movement/rotation of equipment during animations.
  
• Many, many animations have been polished, including: Archery (and crossbows) animations; dance animations for Butterfly, Deer, & Owl; Psychology animations; animations for playing harp & fairy chimes; and others.
  

• We've reverted earlier Povus change that allowed monsters to auto-despawn even if players were near them. This was intended to be beneficial to players, but proved detrimental, because it could despawn corpses that you wanted to loot. For now, Povus event monsters no longer auto-despawn if any player is within 20 meters of them. (We'll revisit this idea soon, as we continue to evolve the Povus nightly event system.)
  
• Fixed genetic equipment breakage rate, from 50% to 5%.
  
• Gestation time is now properly modified by the special-event that's supposed to cut it in half. (For the next time we run that special event.)
  
• Ghostly creatures that spawn during Povus invasions now correctly have the anatomy type Incorporeal.
  
• Glajur now teaches individual Phrenology skills instead of the overarching Phrenology skill.
  
• Dog Ear actually wants insect meat now.
  
• Eltibule treasure map treasures will no longer generate out of zone bounds.
  
• Goats now spawn in Gazluk instead of sheep. The availability of wool and mutton has not changed.
  
• Ratkin Root-Tenders (and their servants) can drop wood as loot.
  
• Ratkin Miners can drop ores as loot.
  
• Swapped north/south east/west in Povus surveys.
  
• Fixed the Zukelmux World Boss Portal to actually teleport players to the Fae Realm rather than back into Gazluk Keep (for next Attack of the World Bosses event)
  
• We now display accurate damage of Song of Discord when a damage mod like Bulwark Shield is active.
  
• Having Giant Bat form no longer slows your jump or renders you unable to make the lift jump in Wintertide.
  
• Fixed typo in Murky Tunnel in Povus.
  
• Fixed Latent Charge typo.
  
• Added a check to prevent players from dropping items if there are already 20 entities within 5 meters. (This is to prevent players from dropping 100+ items in very close proximity, which breaks Unity's physics engine.)
  
• Reduced intensity of fogginess on foggy days. Most areas are dramatically less foggy; Povus is still notably foggier than other areas (but still half as foggy as last update).
  
• Fixed brightness changes to indoor areas, such as from "Brighter World" and "Echolocation".