Project: Gorgon News

Welcome to June, and also the latest Project: Gorgon update! This update contains a new much-requested skill, Angling, as well as new UI features, quests, balancing, and a ton of bug fixes.

[h3]Main Story[/h3]
We've expanded the main story quest-line by a few steps. If you've already reached the point in the storyline where you were asked to have dinner with Jessina (via a hang out), the hang out is now available, and you should log in to see that your character has a "reminder quest" to hang out with Jessina.

[h3]New Camera Types[/h3]
Players come to us from different games with different control schemes and camera views, and they often ask us if we can imitate the camera styles they're used to. So we gave it a try! We know that getting movement behavior just right can be tricky, so *please* give us feedback on how these work for you.

There are now 3 camera types to choose from, located in Settings > Controls:
- Traditional Camera: How the camera has always worked. Right-click rotates your character, left-click rotates only the camera. Mouse is always available.
- Free Camera: Camera control is completely separate from character control. Mouse is always available.
- Action Camera: Mouse movement always controls character. Mouse cursor is only available when a UI window is open, or when the Toggle Cursor key is pressed (configurable). NOTE: only available in the new selection system!

[h3]AoE Visibility[/h3]
Area-of-Effect abilities that are centered on the caster now have a visualization for their range.
- When an ability is used, the AOE range briefly displays on the ground as a circle.
- When an AOE ability icon is hovered over, its AOE range displays on the ground for as long as it's hovered over.
- Visibility is configurable via Settings > GUI > Windows & HUD > Abilities & Items > "Show Beneficial AOE Areas" & "Show Detrimental AOE Areas". By default they are "Party Members Only" & "Self Only" respectively. Detrimental enemy AOEs will always display.
- Many "aura"-type pets display their aura ranges in a similar fashion, such as a druid's Healing Sanctuary or a fairy's Fae Conduit. These should also follow the visibility settings described above.
- Note: as of this update, all AoE abilities are centered on the caster, except for two Weather Witching abilities that are explicitly centered on the target. Previously, all AoEs were centered on the target, but the game didn't say that anywhere, and most players assumed it was centered on the caster! So this seems much more intuitive. But if there are specific AoE abilities that you feel should be centered on the target instead of the caster, please let us know and we'll consider it.

[h3]Angling[/h3]
Traditionally, fishing in Project: Gorgon has involved scooping fish up out of the water with your bare hands -- what we might call 'tickling' the fish. And that's fine, as far as it goes. It takes real skill! But not all fish can be caught this way. (And more importantly, players have told us that an MMO "needs" to have traditional fishing in order to feel like a complete MMO.)

So we've expanded Fishing with a new sub-skill: Angling. All you need is a fishing pole, some bait, and a body of water with catchable fish. (Also Fishing 15. And hands!) In order to get started, talk to Roshun the Traitor in Serbule.

The precise mechanics of Angling aren't spelled out in the game at the moment. Since this game focuses on exploration, we expect players to be able to figure out how Angling works. Please let us know what parts of the system were hard to figure out, and we'll work to make those bits more obvious.

[h3]Skills & Abilities[/h3]
From here out (and probably through the rest of beta), we'll be making small balance changes. We don't want to overnerf/overbuff things, so most changes will be relatively modest, and then we'll re-evaluate and adjust further after more observation.

Warden:
We've revised the formulae used for damage reflection, which resulted in nerfs to Privacy Field. On the other hand, multiple bug fixes actually increase the Warden's power significantly in other ways.
- Privacy Field abilities: reduced base ability damage (Privacy Field 5 changed from 196 -> 138)
- Treasure: "Privacy Field deals +60 damage to all melee attackers, and the first melee attacker is knocked away": 60 => 42
- Treasure: "Privacy Field also deals its damage when you are hit by burst attacks, and damage is +86": 86 => 47
- Treasure: "Privacy Field also deals its damage when you are hit by ranged attacks, and damage is +57": 57 => 48
- Treasure: "When Privacy Field deals damage, it also ignites the suspect, dealing 156 damage over 12 seconds": => 156 => 80. Note: previously this effect did not work at all, so this is technically a huge buff, not a nerf!
- Treasure: "While Privacy Field is active, melee attacks that hit you have a 100% chance to restore 20 Power to you" : 100% chance => 75% chance. Note: previously this effect did not work at all, so this is technically a huge buff, not a nerf!
- Treasure: "Apprehend deals +48 damage and hastens the current reuse timer of Controlled Burn by 2 seconds (so it can be used again more quickly)" : 2 seconds -> 1.5 seconds. Note: previously this effect did hasten Control Burn at at all, so this is technically a huge buff, not a nerf!
- Controlled Burn: area-of-effect reduced from 15 meters to 10 meters.
- Aggression Deterrent: area-of-effect reduced from 10 meters to 6 meters.

Weather Witch:
- New ability Summon Sandstorm: This is a variant of Summon Tornado intended to be more convenient in groups. It does not knock back foes, instead dealing bonus Armor damage. All tiers of this ability can be learned from the Sand Seer in Ilmari.
- New rare ability Summon Doomstorm: This is a variant of Summon Tornado. It does not knock back foes. Instead it deals Darkness damage. Damage is improved over base version. This pet is marked as undead for purposes of ability targeting. In other words, heals that don't work on undead don't work on this pet either. Buffs that work on undead DO work on this pet. For now, all tiers of this ability can be found as loot scrolls.
- Fixed bug that caused high-level summoned tornados to move incredibly fast. Normalized tornado speeds.
- Summoned tornadoes accidentally had vulnerability stats for Cold Spheres. They now correctly have vulnerability stats for Tornadoes.

Giant Bat:
- "Your Confusing Double deals +67% damage with each attack": 67% => 45%
- "Confusing Double summons an additional figment. Each figment deals +77 damage with each attack": 77 => 50
- "Confusing Double Reuse Timer -15": -15 => -10

Fire Magic:
- "Fire Breath hits all targets within 8 meters and deals +30.5% damage, but reuse timer is +3 seconds and Power cost is +33%" => "Fire Breath hits all targets within 8 meters and deals +60 damage, but reuse timer is +3 seconds and Power cost is +40"

[h3]Settings[/h3]
- The "Reset" button in Settings now resets the currently-selected tab to its default settings. The old functionality, undoing all current changes, is still doable by simply closing the window.
- Added new experimental settings for Tab Targeting. You can find them in settings under GUI > Targeting > Tab Targeting (Experimental).
-- Combat Range: Control the max range of tab targeting when you are in combat.
-- Combat Lock: If your current target is in combat, only other in-combat enemies will be targeted via tab, unless none are in view.
-- Prioritize Unlooted Corpses: When tabbing through corpses, should all un-looted corpses be targeted before looted corpses?
-- You can now tab through targets as quickly as you can press the button.
- Overwriting a keybind that's already bound now shows a confirmation prompt, including the name of the keybind being overwritten.
- Reorganized and renamed several Settings, to make them more intuitively grouped and easier to find.

[h3]UI Changes[/h3]
- "Controls" settings have been organized into Camera & Character controls, with sub-menus.- Allow clicking through entities in the new UI, similar to how it works in the old UI. If you click on something that's already selected, it selects the entity behind it (if there is one).
- Reduced precision of click-selecting entities, so they can be selected without hovering directly over them.
- All stat bars (and globes) now smoothly animate when they change, instead of statically changing to the new value.
- Item stack size font now resizes properly for vaults (including saddlebag).
- Fixed nameplate placement for mounted humanoids.
- Fixed bug causing mouse cursor to disappear completely if mouse-dragging while zoning.
- Fixed bug that caused very large tooltips not to display sometimes.
- Removed hover-text about avatar portraits coming soon -- because they're here now! We live in the future!
- Ability tooltips now display Special Values before Special Info, as those make more sense grouped together with the other numerical data.
- Polished the lootable-corpse particles a bit.
- Nameplates now fully fade out with distance instead of just the names.
- Better handling of left-clicking nothing to deselect your current target.
- Improved display of Crafting button when no hotkey is assigned.
- Fixed quest window display bug when objective count number was very large.
- Removed the "1" from the item slot in the bug report window.
- Fixed bug causing stack sizes of items in the sidebar to get out of sync.

[h3]Graphics & Animation[/h3]
- Wolves & cows now animate at proper speed when going up and down hills.
- Replaced wolf's Hunting Speed animation with a howl animation.
- Polished bard animations, so they flow together better now. The play-lute animation now always plays when you are playing a bard song, even if you use other abilities while playing the song.
- Improved instrument-playing animations.
- New VFX (animations, particles, & shader effects) for all Battle Chemistry abilities.
- You can no longer auto-move while jumping. Doing so previously resulted in some very strange-looking animations.
- Fixed weird animation bug when trying to do certain things while sitting or kneeling.
- Failure to interact with something now returns the player to idle stance.
- Fixed bug with Thentree armor causing weird shadows on male characters.
- Mage Armor is now more polished, a bit darker, and has glowier gems
- Fixed bug that would cause a dancing pig's mud to stick around forever.
- Fixed bug where mounting while dancing would continue some dancing effects.
- Improved texture for Spring Fairy armor.
- Fixed face cam for Pigeons.

[h3]Other Bug Fixes & Tweaks[/h3]
- Some legacy equipment that should have been Mastercrafted wasn't. Those items should be fixed now.
- When you un-legacy equipment by pulling an invalid power off of it at the transmutation table, the legacy and broken state of that equipment is now properly updated.
- Fixed bug allowing recipe items to be summoned from anywhere.
- Updated Shadow Feint tooltip to display the correct AOE distance for blinking back to position.
- Phrenology-based Mentalism & Psychology bonuses to critical chance now properly affect heals.
- Improved logic related to channeling abilities; this should hopefully fix stuck-in-channel bugs.
- Modified Mutation Injection ability descriptions to make it a bit clearer how they work.
- Lycanthropy ability "Become Wolf": the skill check to disable wolf mode is no longer downleveled when your combat skills are downleveled.
- Newly learned abilities, Wild Endurance, & First Aid should now correctly auto-rerank.
- Dying by falling through the world now shows a special button in the death window, "Teleport to Last-Touched Ground", which teleports your dead body to the last ground you were standing on. While this isn't an ideal solution, it should allow you to be revived in party situations
- Fixed bug causing skeleton warrior pets to repeatedly retreat a short distance when fighting something.
- Astounding Cloth Shirt (Max-Enchanted) and Camouflaged Astounding Shirt (Max-Enchanted) recipes now require the correct ingredients.
- Pressing spacebar while in an animal-mount form will no longer play the horse neighing sound.
- Fixed typo in Evasion Boots (Enchanted) recipes.
- Changed icon color for Acid Bomb to more of an acid-y color (and match the new VFX).
- Acid Boost Potion recipe now correctly states that it lasts 30 minutes.
- Fixed typo in quest "Holistic Wellness: Yarn" (twelve -> twenty-four balls of yarn).
- The tsys mod, "Psi Health Wave grants all targets +X Mitigation vs. Electricity, Acid, and Nature attacks for 20 seconds" now displays in the effects list when it's active.
- Fixed Dwarven Fixer causing screen brightness (instead of hiding it).
- "Toxic Flesh" tooltip now takes poison damage buffs into account.
- Using Objective Orienteering on "The Borghild Lead" quest now leads to the correct area.
- Fixed typo in quest "The Borghild Lead" (south -> north).
- Harry now hints more strongly that his Minor Panacea will not cure ALL curses, just a specific one.
- The quest "Goblin Avenger: Ratkin!!!" now correct gives 10 Xedrite.
- JSON users: Note that in skills.json's level-up rewards, "Ability" can now refer to a single ability or an array of abilities.

Got feedback? Want to discuss these changes? Please join us on our Discord: https://discord.gg/projectgorgon

In this minor bug-fixing update:

1. Fixed broken item displays for quests.
   
2. The Legacy Item Helper golem can now detect when an item can be made un-Legacy by increasing the item's rarity, and can increase rarity to fix those items. This means you can now give the Legacy Item Helper your non-Legendary max-enchanted items, and it will fix them by just bumping their Rarity up one tier.
   
3. Fixed shields becoming Legacy when they have shield wax on them.
   
4. Scaled item stack size text with icons.
   
5. Treasure effect "Reconstruct causes the target to take X less damage from attacks for 10 seconds" is now 30 seconds.
   

Welcome to update #383! Today we have some more tweaks and additions that expand upon the major changes we made in the last update. Plus, as usual, a bunch of bug fixes. Let's get to it!

[h2]Changes to Uncommon and Rare Equipment[/h2]

We've made an experimental change to the lowest-rarity magic loot:

• Uncommon (green) items now have two additional generic powers (for a total of 3 powers, but only 1 is specific to a skill).
  
• Rare (blue) items now have one additional generic power (for a total of 3 powers, but only 2 are specific to skills).
  
• In addition, we've created new generic treasure effects aimed at improving low- and mid-level player capabilities.
  

[h2]Mastercrafted Items[/h2]
In the last major update, we temporarily removed the concept of "over-maximized" gear -- that is, Legendary max-enchanted items which were effectively "Legendary+". In this update, we've brought this concept back (but at a much lower power level). We've also set up the groundwork to allow us to improve these items in the future when overall high-level balance is in better shape.

These "max-enchanted-beyond-Legendary" items are now called "Mastercrafted" items, and have the following benefits over regular Legendary items:

• Mastercrafted items have 40 more Crafting Points than non-Mastercrafted items.
  
• There is a new recipe that lets you restore a Mastercrafted item's transmutation durability as often as desired (for a hefty cost in prisms). The recipe can be learned from Sona in Gazluk.
  

Newly-crafted Mastercrafted items will have these benefits. (This replaces the "get a second free Legendary" reward used in the last update.)

Pre-existing (legacy) Mastercrafted items also have these benefits, but they still have the OLD benefit too (of an extra treasure effect). The Legacy Item Helper can remove that extra power, and then the pre-existing items won't be legacy anymore -- they'll be just like newly-crafted items.

[h2]Legacy Item Helper[/h2]
Pre-existing Mastercrafted items still have one too many treasure effects on them, and in this patch they're marked as Legacy items. This means that you can continue to use them for 30 days, after which they stop being wearable. (NOTE: they will not *be deleted* after 30 days -- they just *stop being wearable* until you have the item repaired.)

We've beefed up the old "Legacy Item Replacer" golem in Serbule -- giving it a new name, the "Legacy Item Helper". Hand your Legacy item to this golem and it will explain why the item is Legacy and offer ways to fix it:

• If the item can be fixed by removing a power from it (because it's got more than the prescribed number of powers), the golem prompts the user for which power they want to remove, and removes that power.
  
• If the item can be fixed by just transmuting a power off of the item, the golem tells the player this. The player can choose to go and transmute the item, or just get a replacement from the golem (like before).
  
• For any other causes of Legacyness, the golem can only replace the item with a new one as before (for now). Hopefully, though, the new wording and warnings will make this less scary and error-prone!
  

Remember: The golem can work with broken items, so even if you don't get a chance to fix your legacy item before it breaks - **don't** throw it away!

[h2]Other Crafting Tweaks/Fixes[/h2]

• There are new recipes that let you reset a piece of armor's crafting points by wiping the item's enhancements, pockets, augments, etc. These are difficult high-level recipes. For now they can be trained from Felmer in the Fae Realm.
  
• Revised some "rubywall" generic treasure mods to be less terrible. (They still don't scale very well, by intention. They're just less terrible than before.)
  
• Fixed a bug where an item could have the same skill for both chosen skills, resulting in an item with bonuses for only one skill, causing it to immediately become a Legacy item.
  
• Drima, Sir Johnson's assistant, has raised the price on all equipment from 2 "Sir Johnson Bucks" to 3. The items are now guaranteed to be Epic+ rarity (instead of Exceptional+).
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented you from taking off equipment when your skills were temporarily down-ranked to the point that you no longer met the equip reqs of the item. (This could also generate errors when trying to use loadouts.)
  

[h2]Ability UI Improvements[/h2]

Abilities now automatically change their rank when skills change, when either entering or exiting a skill level disparity. For example:

• If you change from Necro 60/Bard 60 to Necro 60/Shield 10, all Necro abilities on your hotbar will de-rank to level 35 abilities.
  
• If you change from Necro 60/Shield 10 to Necro 60/Staff 55, all Necro abilities on your hotbar will up-rank to level 60 abilities.
  
• If you change from Necro 60/Bard 60 to Necro 60/Staff 55, Necro abilities on your hotbar will not change ranks.
  

This new auto-reranking of abilities can be disabled quickly by right-clicking the Ability hotbar and choosing Settings > Disable Ability Auto Re-Rank. It can also be toggled in the Settings panel, under GUI > Features > Abilities & Items > Auto Re-Rank Abilities.

In addition:

• Individual abilities on your hotbar can now be changed quickly by right-clicking an ability and selecting "Change Ability".
  
• You can now disable the display of the hotkey assigned to that hotbar slot.
  
• The rank of an ability is now displayed on its ability icon.
  

You can toggle all of these options by right-clicking the ability hotbar and choosing Settings > Show Ability Ranks or Settings > Show Hotbar Hotkeys. These options can also be accessed in the Settings panel, under the GUI > Features > Abilities & Items submenu.

[h2]More UI Fixes[/h2]

• Pressing alt will now show any currently-hidden overhead labels in the new UI.
  
• Changed the names of some ability groups in the Skills and Abilities window so they are more generic, such as "Tame Rat" -> "Tame Animal".
  
• Polished lots of ability tooltips to rearrange how some data is presented on them, mostly the Special effects.
  
• Many abilities cannot be used in the air. Attempting to do so will now behave like any other cannot-use-ability case: the icon will gray out and the error will display in the tooltip.
  
• The "Search Corpse" button on pets now properly updates to "Check" when the pet is revived.
  
• Combat Info no longer shows Player levels (which were always showing as 0 anyway).
  
• Fixed a UI bug that would cause all items to display as sellable if the vendor reset timer somehow goes negative.
  
• Fixed a bug causing items to sometimes not float to the correct location when the inventory is open and any bag besides the first one is selected.
  
• Added a new beta command,
• */reloadchar**, that will reload your character's appearance. This should fix many animation issues that arise because it re-initializes the whole character, including their animations. (You should still report any bugs you run into, but this command is a quick way to fix yourself - after you send in a report!)
  

[h2]Other Fixes & Tweaks[/h2]

• Fixed issue that could cause players to fall through the world when using the new selection system.
  
• Fixed a rare bug when switching areas that could cause a player character to effectively "roll back" to a version of their character that is about 1 minute in the past, losing any progress from the previous minute.
  
• The mod "Reconstruct causes the target to take X less damage from attacks for 30 seconds" now correctly states 10 seconds.
  
• Butchering an Ice Runner now gives the player a Raw Paralytic Chicken instead of a plain Raw Chicken. Note that the butchering requirement has been raised from 10 to 35 (to match Ice Runners' target level). In addition, Ice Runners have a small chance of dropping Raw Paralytic Chicken as loot.
  
• Tyler Green in Serbule Hills will now install low-level augments at Neutral favor. (Before it required Friends.)
  
• Moved the Council Proclamation Form to its own fancy little table on the other side of the room so it won't be in Hulon's way.
  
• Animal illusion forms can no longer milk cows.
  
• Bulwark Mode now turns off when you change form.
  
• Summoning recipe ingredients now takes your saddlebag into account.
  
• Fixed a bug causing HP to sometimes get out of sync when hit by projectiles.
  
• The special teleportation scroll "Teleportation: Recall Gazluk Animal Camp", which can now be found rarely in loot, was teaching the special teleport destination "Recall Serbule Docks" instead. This has been fixed.
  
• Ukorga's tanning rack can be selected. This fix also fixes items falling through the floors in the houses in Kur Mountains.
  
• It's no longer freezing inside Ukorga's house.
  
• The quest "Cleo's Lost Books" from Cleo Conyers now tells the player to go east, not west.
  
• Newbie players can find a free butcher knife at the top of Elmetaph's tower. (Previously there was a small chance to find a butcher knife in Lawara's chest; this has been removed)
  
• There has been a small change to the flow in the Anagoge Records Facility (the dungeon on the newbie island). There's a new barrier between the second and third floors that requires the player to talk to Elmetaph. This should not affect existing players who have already made it to Serbule Hills.
  
• Added a new emote! /kneel
  
• Added new dance animations for Cow, Pig, and Wolf dance variants. Cows speed up or slow down depending on the variant. Pig dances now involve a lot more mud. And some Wolf variants now come with glowy eyes!
  
• Polished Cow, Pig, and Wolf animations in general, adding some new ones and making them flow together more smoothly.
  
• Fixed grass pop-in issues in several zones.
  
• Fixed a bug where channeling while jumping breaks your character.
  
• Fixed a bug causing the Unarmed combat stance to sometimes show up when it shouldn't (for example, while playing a Bard song).
  
• Failure to revive a pet no longer plays the kick animation.
  

In this bug-fixing update:

• Items should no longer erroneously report stack sizes of 1.
  
• Fixed alcohol becoming Legacy. (Any booze that went Legacy is un-Legacied.)
  
• Fixed crafted Uncommon belts having three treasure effects -- belts are still only supposed to have 1. (Any existing 3-effect crafted belts have become Legacy.)
  
• Remove text from cosmetic pet icons.
  
• Cows now use a subtler animation for many non-cow abilities.
  
• Added rank numbers to spontaneous fireballs.
  

Known Bugs:
Some items are being shown as Legacy when they shouldn't:

• We're investigating reports that shield wax can make a shield become Legacy -- but only until the wax wears off
  
• Max-enchanted non-Legendaries are being reported as Legacy because they have more effects than they're supposed to. In the next update, we'll improve the Legacy Item Helper golem so that it can fix these items by increasing their rarity. (e.g. the fix for a max-enchanted purple is to turn it into a normal yellow.) Hold on to those items for now.
  

If you run into another situation where an item unexpectedly becomes Legacy, please report it in-game, and include the item in your bug report. (Including the item is very important!) We'll fix these issues before the 30 day Legacy timer winds down, so after reporting the bug, you can just continue using the item like normal.

This minor update fixes bugs and refines the new systems from last week's update. We'd also like to use these patch notes to give extra behind-the-scenes info for long time players about why the recent gameplay changes are happening, and where we're headed.

You can skip all the "Background Info" sections if you just want to read about the changes in this update!


[h2]Background Info: Goals of the XP Changes[/h2]
The recent XP changes had two different goals. The first goal is to prevent players from staying in the same hunting area for too long. Previously, since XP amounts was relatively flat across levels, players could stay in one spot (such as the goblin dungeon in Eltibule) for many, many levels because it was easy and effective. This left players weak because they were only finding level 30 equipment all that time. And farming the same dungeon for 30 levels is boring game design.

The other goal is to require players to actually use a skill to level it. Previously, experienced players would level one pair of combat skills to 80, and then they could level literally ALL other combat skills in a fraction of the time it was supposed to take. They just paired a new level 1 skill with one of their level 80 skills. They never needed to find gear for those lower levels, or visit lower-level dungeons at all. That's awful game design because it obsoletes almost all of the game's content.

Ideally, if a level 80 player switched to using two new level 1 combat skills, they'd effectively be a combat newbie -- aside from the cheaty powers on their sidebar. Thus they would need to return to Serbule or somewhere similar to level up a bit, then head to appropriate level 20 areas, then 30, then 40, etc. That's our eventual goal after more iterations. It doesn't really work yet because not everything scales yet. For instance, Max Armor doesn't scale yet, so your gear still gives you all the armor of a level 80 player even if your combat skills are level 1. Finding good solutions to all these scaling issues will take time.

[h2]Background Info: Leveling Speed[/h2]
The intent with the last update was to keep the relative XP value of monsters the same, so that a level N player killing a level N monster would give the same relative advancement as it did before the update. However, there were many bugs (and "surprise game-system interactions") which made that not work. We've fixed those issues, but we've also abandoned that goal! After reviewing the old XP curve more carefully, it had problems that made leveling happen too fast.

Even though there have been a lot of fixes in this update, leveling should feel somewhat slower than before. Leveling needed to slow down so that players are more likely to find level-appropriate gear before they level up too far.

Now that we've fixed a bunch of bugs, we'd like more feedback on how the curve works! We'll keep refining things as needed.

[h2]In this update: Revised XP Dropoff Rate (When Killing Higher-Level Monsters)[/h2]
In the last big update, we added a new rule that if you kill monsters higher than your level, you get reduced XP. In this update, we've refined the rates at which XP drops off.

In the last update, if you killed a monster 5 levels above you (or less), you got 100% of the XP. This was a big problem because monster XP rates now increase VERY dramatically: about 10% per monster level! An average level 50 monster is worth 1373 XP, while a level 55 monster is worth 2249 XP. By killing monsters exactly 5 levels above their level, players could advance at almost double speed.

On the other hand, after 10 levels, the old curve dropped off very quickly, such that you got essentially 0 XP for monsters more than 15 levels above you. This seemed a bit too punitive, at least given the current content landscape.

Now, the XP dropoff is 10% per level, which approximates the 10% monster XP increase per level. So no matter what level you are, you get about the same amount of XP for that higher-level monster, up to 25 levels above it. Here are some examples:

Suppose you are level 49 and are fighting a level 50 monster worth 1373 XP. Since the monster is 1 level higher than you, the penalty would be 10%, and you would receive 1236 XP. (This is approximately how much a level 49 monster would be worth.)

Suppose you're level 45 and are fighting that level 50 monster worth 1373 XP. Since the monster is 5 levels higher than you, the penalty would be 10%, then 10% of THAT value, then 10% of THAT value, then 10% of that value, then 10% of that value. The level 50 monster worth 1373 XP becomes 811 XP when killed by a level 45 player. (A typical level 45 monster would be worth 861 XP, so you can see the math isn't perfect, but it stays in the same ballpark.)

Now we'll go to the extreme end: suppose you're level 45 and you've managed to solo a level 70 monster worth 12,498 XP. Since you are 25 levels below the monster, we apply the 10% penalty 25 times, and the level 70 monster ends up being worth 897 XP when killed by a level 45 player. (The final cutoff is still 25 levels -- if the monster had been level 71 instead of level 70, you would receive 0 XP because it's more than 25 levels above you.)

This revision means that you can hunt in places up to 25 levels above you and get appropriate XP, without giving overmuch XP to players who can kill those higher-level monsters (such a by being in a group with higher-level players).

These XP curves and ideas are still in heavy development, so expect more changes as we refine our goals and implementation.

PS - remember that monster XP is split between your two active combat skills! Half of the XP goes into each skill, and the penalty is calculated per-skill. So if you kill a a level 50 monster worth 1000 XP, half of that 1000 is given to your first active combat skill (and possibly reduced as explained above, if that skill is higher than the monster's level). The other half is given to your other active combat skill (and is reduced if it's higher).


I (Citan, head dev) want to apologize to the long-time players who have max-enchanted legendaries. This is definitely a nerf, and it's intentional, because I can't balance the game when the power disparity is as large as it is at high levels. Mod potency is multiplicative, and those 9 extra mods really are a big deal in terms of overall power scaling. (Even when treasure mods aren't literally multiplicative they still have a pseudo-multiplicative effect on your character's potency -- for instance, by making characters much more versatile than they should be.)

We made this change now, months BEFORE launching new levels, because the expectation is that you will need new gear at higher level. We're not marking those items as Legacy yet because we don't need to do that yet -- you can keep using them for now and we'll mark them as Legacy before we raise the level cap. The change was made now to give you time to prepare for the change, and to stop crafters from making more gear that would ultimately get nerfed.

To answer questions that players have asked:

• We'll provide a way to pick one mod to remove from you max-enchanted legendaries, making them non-Legacy so you can keep using them.
  
• Mega-raffle gear that's max-enchanted legendary will be treated like other max-enchanted legendaries.
  
• We're not going to "grandfather" existing level 80 max-enchanted legacies. In many cases, that one extra treasure mod on a level 80 item makes it better than a level 100 item with one fewer mod. That would mean players with these grandfathered items don't need to replace them until we launch level 100+ content! That is problematic for balancing in many ways.
  

[h2]Background Info: Crafting vs. Looting[/h2]
The old max-enchanting system existed for too long, and we should have changed it long ago. I'm sorry about that. I don't apologize for most nerfs -- this is beta, and there will be lots more nerfs -- but I apologize for this being such a surprise. The old max-enchanting system made it seem like we wanted crafted gear to always be better than looted gear. But that is definitely not the case.

I want crafted gear to be the best choice for some builds, but looted gear should be the best choice for at least half of the game's builds. I want Project: Gorgon to have exciting loot! I want to find a legendary item in a high level dungeon and be super excited. I do not want to be in a high-level dungeon only to farm "mats" (materials) so that a crafter can craft my gear at some future date. I know some games do that, but It's not what I want for my game.

However, I do expect crafting to play a big role in max-level play. (And yes, farming mats to play a role as well.)

The existing armor-crafting recipes are mainly there to help you level and create something useful. (And in some cases, to create the best possible gear for certain builds.) At max level, these skills will also offer repeatable buff recipes -- e.g. armorsmiths can "reinforce" a piece of armor for a time, giving it a buff. Weapon crafters can "sharpen" the weapons, etc. This will give max-level players a repeating reason to visit crafters (or be one themselves). The potency of these buffs will be similar to a "generic" treasure mod, but it will wear off after enough use. The intent is for those buffs to last for quite a while, but eventually to need reapplying.

It doesn't really make sense to implement these buffs until we've implemented level 100+ content. But that's where we're headed.

• Weather Witching + Warden equipment is now a valid combination that can be found in loot and treasure. (Although note that only butterflies can use such equipment!)
  
• The following Weather Witching treasure buffs were bugged such that they disappeared as soon as you used an ability:
  • "While Wind Ward is active, you gain +N% Melee Evasion"
    
  • "While Wind Ward is active, you gain +N% Burst Evasion"
    
• The following Weather Witching treasure debuffs were similarly bugged, and disappeared as soon as the monster used an ability:
  • "Dampen deals Cold damage and debuffs the target so that it takes +N damage from future Cold attacks for 10 seconds"
    
  • "Dampen debuffs the target so that it takes +N damage from future Nature attacks for 10 seconds"
    
  • "Deluge deals +N damage on contact and increases the target's Poison Vulnerability +15% for 30 seconds (non-stacking)"
    
  • "Deluge deals an additional N nature damage over 7 seconds. For 7 seconds, target has a 15% chance to Miss with any Melee attack."
    
• The following abilities can now be used underwater or in shallow water: Dampen, Deluge, Tsunami, and Hailstorm.
  
• Hailstorm is now a Signature Debuff ability.
  
• The effect "Summoned Tornadoes move much faster and their attacks deal +N% damage": tornado speed is buffed +6 instead of +9.
  
• The effect "Summoned Tornado attacks deal +N damage and cause the target to take 15% more damage from Electricity for 10 seconds (non-stacking)": this debuff was stacking incorrectly. Is now non-stacking as intended.
  
• The treasure mod "Shocking Grasp Damage +N. Every other use has a 25% chance to stun the target" will no longer generate extraneous error messages.
  
• Corrected recipe text for level 80 Weather Witching research: there are four level 80 spells, not five.
  

• Nameplates of entities that update (such as growing garden plants) will no longer get stuck on the screen.
  
• When the thing you have selected updates, the button will update too when applicable (such as trees/bushes running out of fruit).
  
• Nameplates no longer get in the way of dragging to move the camera.
  
• Fixed selection problems with the following: Beer Barrels, some Chests, Writing Benches, Firefly Boxes, Zombie Hands, Urns, & Jack-o-Lantern turrets.
  
• The Animal Town transfer chest, grapevines in Serbule Hills, and the New Prestonbule portcullis are selectable with the new UI.
  
• Fixed mouse-cursor-changing logic so the mouse should no longer disappear.
  
• The escape key no longer sends chat messages.
  
• When the party leader changes, the new leader's party frame will jump to the top of the list.
  
• New UI now respects the "Use Floaty Numbers" and "Auto-Move to Interactors" settings.
  
• Modified the logic of looping animations. This should fix bugs where the character gets stuck in an infinite looping animation.
  
• Added missing water bubble icon. This affected multiple items, including Kraken Potions and Water-Breathing Potions.
  
• Grass Draw Distance setting is now properly clamped between 50 and 500.
  
• Fixed visibility of some graphics dropdowns.
  
• Ability tooltips now use proper number formatting for any "special" numbers, such as Cur Tempest Energy or the amount that Blast of Defiance Reaps.
  
• Fixed the Damage Over Time calculation in ability tooltips, so it now matches the actual damage done.
  
• Portrait combat numbers will no longer get stuck when zoning.
  
• Effect stack text now scales with effect icon size.
  
• Fixed bug causing text overflow for some ability tooltips.
  
• Changed color of highlight around items that are usable in the current-selected recipe to orange.
  

• Fixed bug that broke storage switching if certain crafting recipes were open.
  
• Fixed bug preventing "That'll Do" from activating properly, leaving the character in a weird, very slow condition.
  
• Fixed bug that caused alcohol toxins to not wear off if you moved to a different area or logged out drunk.
  
• Fixed more logic bugs that could cause a piece of equipment's instant effects to be re-applied at inappropriate times. (a/k/a "Sometimes when my instrument is equipped, my skill bar changes to Performance".)
  
• Fixed a bug that was causing armor set buffs to wear off when zoning.
  
• Illusive Guise and Insidious Illusion sidebar abilities don't need to be kept on the sidebar to maintain the buffs.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused Fairy Magic abilities to bypass the 25-level skill disparity cap.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused Crossbow and Endurance sidebar abilities to bypass the 25-level skill disparity cap. For now, the other sidebar abilities (such as Stake the Heart and Spade Assault) are usable regardless of combat level disparity. We'll revisit this after a while to see if it's a good idea.
  
• Comfortable Bed in Serbule and Rustic Bedroll in Serbule Hills are now slept in properly. In addition, the Rustic Bedroll no longer shoots the camera through the ground.
  
• Adjusted the colliders on humanoids. This might help prevent Velkort from getting stuck on his flame buddy.
  
• Foxes won't get stuck in certain areas as easily anymore.
  
• Sir Arif now lets animals turn in delivery quests to him.
  
• Endurance previously used a placeholder XP table. It now uses an XP table tailored to modern monster damage output. This makes it dramatically easier to level Endurance compared to a few patches ago.
  
• Repeatable kill-quests that reward Combat XP now scale the same way monsters do. In other words, completing a level 80 kill quest now scales down the XP reward if you're lower than level 80, the same way higher-level monster XP is scaled
  
• Fixed some monster-pets (monsters spawned by other monsters) that were worth XP.
  

This patch fixes bugs in yesterday's patch:

• Fixed gift-giving window & related windows not working.
  
• Spiders can use non-spider abilities again.
  
• Fixed the "sometimes while my horn is equipped my skill bar changes to stringed instruments" bug.
  
• Player Work Orders will no longer immediately expire.
  
• Creature levels now display at anatomy level 5 instead of 50. (This is a temporary hack -- we have other ideas on how to display level disparity in the future)
  
• Certain First-Aid abilities are now exceptions to the new rule that you must keep the ability on your bar to maintain a buff. Affected abilities are: "Soberize", "Emergency Alcohol Treatment", and "Field Prophylactic".
  
• Fixed bug preventing humanoids from playing music.
  
• Saving settings will no longer cause nameplates to get stuck on the screen.
  
• Fixed bug causing nameplates to multiply infinitely.
  
• "Use New Selection UI" setting should be properly respected when restarting the game.
  
• Cursors on linux should no longer be gigantic.
  
• There is a new setting for disabling cursor changes when hovering over things: Settings > GUI > Mouse Selection > Change Cursor on Hover
  
• Fixed bug where Animal Handling pets couldn't follow your commands because they had -1 Power
  
• added Shock Dust to level 20 powders loot table (it is also in the level 30 and 40 powder tables)
  
• reset version of Drunkenness effects (which may help users suffering from infinite drunkenness)
  

Thanks for your reports! We're still investigating some issues with the XP curve (seems slower than intended), as well as working to repro a few minor bugs. But if you're experiencing a new BIG bug and it wasn't fixed here, please let us know ASAP!