Project: Gorgon News

Lots of interesting stuff for you today! This update revises the outdoor environment, fixes 5000 bugs (approximately), adds voice chat, and sprinkles bits of new content all about.

We're still hard at work on the major city of Statehelm, and we're excited to show it to you soon! But not yet. However, Statehelm has so many new systems and quests that it's impossible to keep them all hidden away, so you may encounter items, recipes, places, and even skills that don't seem fully fleshed-out. As a rule of thumb, if we don't mention it in the notes below, it's probably a "Statehelm Thing".

Also, the game's JSON files (always available at https://cdn.projectgorgon.com) have more Statehelm clues in them. This was unavoidable. Please remember to use spoiler tags if discussing unreleased content in-game or on Discord!

[h2]Graphics Updates:[/h2]
We've improved the sky, weather, water, and and some vegetation in outdoor areas. This was a large undertaking and there may be a few graphical issues as a result -- please report them!

This update is intended to be a "drop-in" replacement for the old systems, but as part of the change we've also refined some of the graphics-quality settings and added a few more controls. See the "Settings and UI" section below for details.

This update also introduces rain. It's a relatively rare occurrence (at least for now), and can only happen in certain outdoor areas. While being rained on, there's a chance for fire damage-over-time effects to "fizzle out" and prematurely end. The chance of this happening is based on how hard the rain is falling. (This is basically a mechanics-test to make sure we're detecting rain properly; we have other planned game behaviors for rain -- coming soon.)

[h2]Voice Chat:[/h2]

• In this update we've added basic voice-chat for hunting groups. It is automatically enabled when you join a hunting group. To speak in the voice channel, hold down the Push-To-Talk hotkey (default ` , the "grave" key)
  
  
  
  • note: this key was once the default "Run/Walk" key. If you've had the game installed for years, this key may now be double-mapped for you. You'll want to change the keystroke for one of the two commands
    
• The Group UI panel shows when someone is speaking (with a tiny animated microphone icon). You can also click this icon to configure audio for that group member
  
• In Settings, under Sound, added a section for speech settings where you can configure input and output sources and volume
  

[h2]Hammer:[/h2]

• Knockdown effects have a base duration of 4 seconds, up from 3 seconds
  
• Look at my Hammer ability restores a bit more Power at all tiers
  
• Pound to Slag base reuse timer improved from 45 seconds to 40 seconds
  Changed Hammer Treasure:
• (Head, Off-Hand): "Core Attacks cause the next use of Look At My Hammer to restore +50 Power" => "Look at My Hammer Reuse Time is -5 seconds and Core Attacks cause the next use of Look At My Hammer to restore +50 Power"
  
• (Head): "Look At My Hammer reduces the damage you take from Slashing, Piercing, and Crushing attacks by 54 for 5 seconds" => "... for 15 seconds"
  
• (Hands, Main-Hand, Legs): "After using Look At My Hammer, all other Hammer attacks cost -N Power for X seconds" => the "X" value is different for each slot. Previously it lasted 8, 10, and 12 seconds. Now lasts 12, 15, and 18 seconds
  
• (Hands): "Pound To Slag deals +40% damage and hits all enemies within 5 meters, but reuse time is +10 Seconds and Power cost is +35%" => removed the reuse time penalty
  
• (Necklace): "Pound To Slag deals +190 damage and hastens the current reuse timer of Look at My Hammer by 5 seconds" => damage increased to +280
  
• (Head, OffHand): "Hammer attacks that kill an enemy via direct damage restore 46 Power to you" => "... and hasten the current reuse timer of Pound to Slag -4 seconds."
  
• (OffHand, Ring): "Discharging Strike and Latent Charge boost your Epic Attack damage +110 for 15 seconds" => for 60 seconds
  
• (Feet): "Latent Charge deals +100 direct damage. In addition, the target takes a second full blast of delayed Electricity damage after an 8-second delay" => "Latent Charge direct damage becomes Electricity and deals +100 direct damage. In addition, the target takes a second full blast of delayed Electricity damage after a 4-second delay"
  
• new treasure effect that only drops in high-level boss loot as an augment: (Feet) "Look At My Hammer causes your next ability to deal double damage."
  

[h2]Shield:[/h2]

• Infuriating Bash: base ability taunt increased
  
• Fight Me You Fools: base ability taunt increased
  
• Changed treasure:
  
  
  • (Hands) "When you are hit, all Shield abilities taunt +182 for 20 seconds (stacks up to 10 times)" => "When you are hit, all Shield abilities taunt +264 for 30 seconds (stacks up to 20 times)"
    
  • (MainHand) "When you are hit, Finish It damage is +80 for 20 seconds (stacks up to 10 times)" => "When you are hit, Finish It damage is +105 for 40 seconds (stacks up to 20 times)"
    
  • NEW: (OffHand) "Finish It Damage +240 and Taunt +200%"
    

[h2]Fire Magic:[/h2]

• Missing Fire Magic abilities Scintillating Flame 7 and Spontaneous Fireball 7 can now be researched
  
• Spontaneous Fireball reset time is 12 seconds instead of 60
  
• Adjusted the cost to learn higher-level research recipes by a modest amount
  
• new treasure effect that only drops in high-level boss loot as an augment: (Main-Hand) "Scintillating Frost and Scintillating Flame can be used while stunned. When used while stunned they deal +50% damage and knock the target back."
  

[h2]Animal Handling:[/h2]

• All "Get It Off Me" effects and mods now last the full 30 seconds
  
• Add a ton of debug info when a pet is examined. This is intended to help us track down scenarios where pets become unresponsive mid-combat. If this happens to you, please examine the pet, take a screen shot of the debug info at the bottom of the examine screen, and paste it into the discord thread about pet problems. Thanks! With a bit of luck this will help us understand what's going wrong.
  

[h2]Knife:[/h2]

• The mod "For 10 seconds after using Opening Thrust, all knife abilities with 'Cut' in their name deal +X damage" now properly lasts 10 seconds
  

[h2]Vampire:[/h2]

• The mod "Ripple of Amnesia increases targets' Psychic vulnerability +X% for 30 seconds" now properly affects Psychic instead of Trauma
  

[h2]Alchemy:[/h2]

• Memory Inhibitor Potion: recipe adjusted to use lower-level mushroom suspension
  
• Fruitbreath Potion: recipe adjusted to use lower-level mushroom suspension
  

[h2]Necromancy:[/h2]

• gain a synergy bonus in Necromancy when reaching Vampirism 50
  
• Raise Zombie's reset time changed from 60s to 30s
  
• Zombies' innate bleed effect is doubled
  
• potency of treasure that boosts existing summoned zombies have been moderately reduced because these effects can now be stacked twice as high. (But this is still a dramatic empowerment of the zombie overall)
  
• The mod "Life Steal restores X Health" now properly restores health to the caster, not the target
  

[h2]Druid:[/h2]

• Fix bug preventing the augment "Delerium becomes a 10m Burst Attack that deals +33% damage to targets that are not focused on you" from dropping in high-level boss loot as intended
  
• most bows and crossbows are now Wooden for purposes of activating druidic abilities
  

[h2]First Aid:[/h2]

• gain bonus Synergy levels by reaching Anatomy 35, 65, and 95
  

[h2]Battle Chemistry:[/h2]

• Earn synergy bonus levels in Battle Chemistry when reaching Mycology 80, Alchemy 70, Candle Making 60, and Gadgeteering 50
  
• Summon Golem: reuse time reduced from 90 seconds to 30 seconds. However the ability can no longer be used in combat.
  

[h2]Candlemaking:[/h2]

• improved the effects of most candles
  
• The Gazluk candlemaking station now works properly
  
• Moved the candlemaking station out of the fae realm and into Errruka's Cave dungeon. (Its location in the fae realm was temporary; all candlemaking stations are intended to be in dungeons, but an appropriate dungeon wasn't available at the time.)
  

[h2]Animal Husbandry:[/h2]

• The max Simultaneous Breeding Attempts for animal husbandry has been raised from 5 to 6 per account. Animal Husbandry now gives a total of +6, while Genetics (the umbrella skill) gives none
  
• Fix bug with the calculation of simultaneous animal breeding attempts - it was erroneously using your Animal Handling skill level instead of your Animal Husbandry skill level
  

[h2]Angling:[/h2]

• Gain bonus synergy Angling levels when reaching Orcish 38, Fishing 70, Fishing 100, Sushi Preparation 40, Foraging 53, Foraging 80, Fish Anatomy 50
  

[h2]Sword:[/h2]

• new treasure effect that only drops in high-level boss loot as an augment: (Off-Hand) "Wind Strike causes your next ability to cost 0 Power if it is an Attack ability."
  

[h2]Weather Witching:[/h2]

• Yogzi now sells a new belt, "Belt of the Weather Witch"
  

[h2]Pig:[/h2]

• Ability Pig Rend - damage-over-time happens in 8 seconds instead of 12
  
• (Chest, Hands) "Pig Rend has a 60% chance to deal +100% damage" => "Pig Rend damage +40%, with a 15% chance to deal +100% more damage"
  
• (Head, Necklace) "Pig Rend deals +288 Trauma damage over 12 seconds" => 320 damage over 8 seconds
  
• (Chest, Feet) "Pig Bite Damage +34" => "Pig Bite boosts the Trauma damage of Pig Rend and Squeal +188 for 30 seconds"
  
• (OffHand, Necklace) "Strategic Chomp deals +100 damage and taunts -205" => "Strategic Chomp deals +100 damage and generates no taunt, instead detaunting by 100% of the ability's direct damage"
  
• (Necklace, Ring) "Squeal deals 320 Trauma damage over 10 seconds"=> "Squeal deals +114 direct damage plus 456 Trauma damage over 8 seconds"
  
• NEW: (MainHand) "Strategic Chomp debuffs target's Trauma Vulnerability +42% for 20 seconds"
  
• (Head, OffHand) "Pig Punt deals +40 damage and slows target's movement by 45%" => damage increased to +100
  
• (Ring) "For 10 seconds, Frenzy boosts targets' indirect damage +10 per tick" => now also available on Necklace slot
  
• NEW: (Legs, OffHand) "Strategic Chomp and Squeal deal +268 Trauma damage over 8 seconds"
  
• (Necklace) "Max Armor +100 when Pig skill is active" => now also available on Feet slot
  

[h2]Brewing:[/h2]

• alcohol that boosts damage for a specific anatomy type has increased damage
  
• alcohol that boosted damage vs plants and reptiles incorrectly claimed to boost damage vs. crone-kin
  
• reduced evasion chance boost from the "Partier's" effect that boosts it
  
• one of the two brewing recipes that result in a damage boost vs. canines now boosts damage vs. dwarves
  
• alcohol that boosts Sonic or Divine damage have been replaced, as those damage types were long-ago removed from the game. The replacements are secondary recipes for boosting Trauma and Nature damage, respectively
  
• one of the recipes for alcohol "of Placeholder Effects" has been changed to reduce power cost for Priest, Weather Witching, and Vampirism
  
• one of the recipes for alcohol "of Placeholder Effects" has been changed to reduce power cost for Warden, Rabbit, and Spirit Fox
  

[h2]Lore:[/h2]

• New Lore recipe: Word of Power 6. It auto-unlocks at Lore level 19, and contains 11 new Words of Power
  

• bugfix: some Fire Elementals were using electricity attacks (instead of fire attacks)
  
• Balance adjustment: most monsters need 1 more ally nearby before they can try to use their Special Buff ability. (E.g. instead of needing two allies in combat with them, they now need three)
  
• bug fix: Flapskulls in Povus were missing the damage-over-time part of their poison gas attack
  
• Burying a slime that's spawned allies no longer dispels the allies it spawned
  

• A new NPC has arrived in Vidaria! Pitre Ferrence is here to keep an eye on the goblin Korbok, and uncap Animal Husbandry level 90
  
• Stables access in Vidaria has been moved from Korbok to Pitre
  
• The area around the Frozen Mushroom in Vidaria now spawns more fitting monsters, including a new Rimy Kuvou
  
• the stoves in the inn in Vidaria can be cooked on
  
• Ferris Blueheart has a new questline
  
• Most Human NPCs in Vidaria now respond to nudity & treat loneliness
  
• Tweak loot drops for some monsters in Vidaria, in particular making the "Whittling: Yew Butterfly Harness" recipe available
  

• The settings "Camera Far Clip Plane" and "Maximum Entity Simulation Distance" now scale higher by default at higher qualities
  
• "Maximum Entity Simulation Distance" now has a max value of 1000 (previously 400)
  
• New Graphics Setting: "Precipitation Quality". Lets you control rain & snow particle collisions, and turn the particles off entirely
  
• The "Cloud Quality" setting is now called "Sky Quality" and affects the entire sky in certain zones, not just the clouds
  
• /accuse, /akimbo, and /cheer2 are now properly labeled as VIP emotes in /help emotes
  
• The horse dialog window no longer closes when you analyze their genes, so they won't run away as easily
  
• Items that require you to be an animal for 3 hours now return a more accurate error message if that requirement is not met
  
• The "Two Free Horses of Good Breeding Stock" special redemption requires you to have two stable slots open. Previously if you didn't have those slots open, the redemption simply didn't show up in the list at all. Now it will be grayed out with a note explaining what's wrong
  
• The special redemption "Basic Horse, Riding Skill, and Saddlebag" now gives a (non-breedable) genetic horse
  
• Fix a bug causing the Map label to update incorrectly in Mysterious Locales
  
• Revamp the Recipe Item tooltip to match existing Item & Ability tooltip UIs
  
• Tweak status effect icons to better match normal effect icons. "Status effect icons" are those that show up when you are hungry, high/low on community/cleanliness/peaceableness, inventory overflowing, etc.
  

• Norbert tells druids how much longer they must be an animal before they're welcome in Animal Town
  
• Fix some fox animations not looping properly
  
• The "Desert Watchers" druid event should now scale properly. It was stuck using the minimal version of the quest all the time, but is intended to be a bit harder when more druids are online
  
• Tweak loot profiles of all secret chests, so they give more varied loot
  
• Creatures can no longer walk underneath the Vidaria windmill
  
• Fix bug preventing creatures from walking through the curtain in Hogan's Basement
  
• Monsters can more easily traverse wooden bridges in the Serbule Sewers
  
• Fix a bug with the Rahu Fae Stone puzzle not properly resetting when the buff isn't collected
  
• Fix a stuck spot in Eltibule in the southeastern corner of the map
  
• Add bridges to Carpal Tunnels, which were actually supposed to be there the whole time but were invisible!
  
• The arrival points of Gazluk's Tower View & Amaluk Valley Cave entrances have been swapped, to be more spatially accurate
  
• The spoon-unlocked chest is now repeatable
  
• Fix a bug causing a certain bed in Gazluk to sink you into the ground when slept in
  
• Fix typo causing Palebloods to be referred to as Snowbloods
  
• Items attuned to someone else can no longer be used at Item Sacrifice Altars
  
• New item: Large Box of Space! Ability that summons a 40 slot storage crate, reusable every 3 hours of in-game playtime. Available from Riston in the Red Wing Casino for 150 LECs. You must already know the ability 'Small Box of Space'.
  
• A new Lore Note has appeared somewhere in Eltibule...
  
• Kunax Poison is now Attune-On-Pickup
  
• Fix typo in Gardening Display #E, causing it to show up as Gardening Display #D
  
• Fix Stephie Blackhammer's crafting quests requiring the items to be crafted in order - you can now craft them in any order
  
• Dying while on a ladder is now handled more gracefully, and should no longer render you immovable
  

The main focus of this update has been technical: we're now using Unity 6! This is a major version change to our game engine, so expect the unexpected in terms of bugs. Please report weird things you find.

Besides the version upgrade, we've also spent time on other technical aspects of the game, along with a random assortment of other fixes and changes and new stuff.

(Statehelm is still in heavy development, and still 1-2 months away. This is a *big* city -- by far the biggest we've ever done! But it's coming along nicely.)

• Serbule Inn facelift
  
• Art revisions to Dark Chapel dungeon
  
• Tweak waters in all outdoor zones to improve reflections and better reflect the sun/moon light
  
• Fix graphical issue between fog and trees in Anagoge
  
• Tweak rock collisions in Kur near Ratuk
  
• Fix Rahu's horizon
  
• Fix infernal egg dropped appearances
  
• Fix broken beds in Eltibule
  
• Fix for sleeping underneath a bed in Ilmari instead of on top of it
  
• Fairies should sleep more comfortably in beds now
  
• Fix coffin in Truxartis' hideout
  
• You can now strafe left/right while swimming and flying
  
• Enemies will no longer get stuck on a certain rock in Necromancer's Courtyard
  
• Fix a few pathfinding issues in Povus Caves,
  
• Fix some issues with water rendering in Povus Caves (and possibly other dungeon)
  

• A new puzzle has appeared in Rahu, providing Lore XP when solved for the first time,
  
• Furlak in Rahu offers 2 new quests,
  
• The quest "Stop the Aktaari! (Repeating)" now requires the player to have at least one level 70 combat skill
  
• Ungulates are now slightly more abundant in the world, to ease the XP curve when leveling ungulate genetics
  
• Add more charged boars to Dark Chapel,
  
• Add dedicated rhino spots to Rahu & Fae Realm,
  
• Analyzing wild horse genes gives double the experience as it used to
  
• Add a new Item Sacrifice altar to Serbule Hills - it has existed in our data files for many years but was never actually turned on!
  
• A lore item in Eltibule that was previously unobtainable can now be interacted with
  
• Adjust wording of a Strange Altar in Vidaria to better indicate where to go to solve it
  
• The unmarked altar in Vidaria can now be used every 30 days instead of 90
  
• Reconfigure the way a certain 6-sided coin works
  
• Ferris Blueheart is now too busy to chat with anyone below level 30 combat skills, and only accepts gifts from and hands out favors to those with level 70+ combat skills
  
• Liamu no longer gives a Demonic Research Scroll as a favor-up gift
  
• Increase spawn rate of Lesser Behemoths in Vidaria
  
• Adjust spawns of Demonic Overseers and Justiciars in Vidaria, so at least 1 of each type is always present. They still abide by the laws of spawning, so you may have to wait a few minutes after killing one for another to show up
  

• Touch up appearances and animations for dozens of creature types. This includes:
  
  
  
  • Fixing animation bugs
    
  • Polish animations, in many cases speeding them up so they look more realistic
    
  • Add idle animations that trigger every once in a while, making the world feel more alive
    
  • Randomize many creatures' idle animation speeds, so 2 of the same type of creature standing next to each other will no longer remain completely in-sync
    
  • AI-driven monsters now adjust between their walk and run animations; previously they always used just the walk animation
    
  • Most non-bipeds now stick to the ground realistically (based on your Non-Bipedal Ground Alignment setting, of course),
    
• Big Golems now explode when destroyed, and their individual pieces obey physics (this is tied to a new setting which can be turned off, and is off at low graphics settings - "Death Physics")
  
• Speed up some bat attacks so they are faster than global cooldown (this impacts both monster bats and player bats)
  
• Fae bees, bears, and rhinos have their original anatomies once again, instead of Fae anatomy. Changing their anatomies had unintended consequences on their behavior as pets
  

• Fix missing "Genes" button for some pets in stables
  
• Fix "0 Quests" being reported in the quest window
  
• Long character names no longer wrap in the target UI
  
• Work Order for "Awesome Throwing Knives" is now correctly labeled "Superb Throwing Knives"
  
• Fix typo in Ratkin Digestif error message (disgesting -> digesting)
  
• The Lore Skill's report should now be completely up-to-date, and all Max Lore XP values should be accurate.
  
• Improve shadow rendering; they should not flicker as badly in outdoor zones
  
• Shadow Distance setting is now capped at 500 (previously 1000)
  

• Corpse Talking 51-60 unlock now accepts Shamanic Infusion as an alternative to Necromancy level requirements
  
• There is now an alternative method of unlocking Corpse Talking 61-70, which does not require Priest levels
  
• Ratkin Digestifs now last through zoning, and correctly give Power Regen instead of Health Regen
  
• Increase health restored for Reconstruct 7 (200 -> 230), so it's not the same as Reconstruct 6
  
• Druid treasure effect "While Druid skill is active: abilities that have Burst targeting deal +X Nature damage over 8 seconds" was dealing Poison damage by mistake
  
• Butterfly Harnesses were racial-slot equipment instead of belt-slot equipment as intended
  
• Druid treasure effect "Rotskin deals X Nature damage to health over 12 seconds" now displays correctly in the ability tooltip, and actually does direct health damage
  
• Treasure effect "Embrace of Despair becomes a Sonic ability and deals Nature damage instead of Psychic. Sonic Ability Damage +45% while Vampirism skill active" was accidentally affecting Eclipse of Shadows instead
  
• Treasure effect "Bite attacks deal +24% damage and hasten the current reuse timer of Blood Mist by 2 seconds" only worked for the two bite attacks in the Vapirism skill; now works for all bite attacks
  
• Treasure effect "Song of Bravery has a 30% chance every 4 seconds to grant listeners a Moment of Bravery: all attacks deal +50% damage for 5 seconds" actually boosted damage by 25%, not 50%. We've split the difference and now the description and effect both agree that it adds +33% damage
  

Added some new synergy bonus levels:

• Unarmed: Endurance 60, Cow 75, Deer 75, Pig 75, Rabbit 75, Lycanthropy 75, Giant Bat 75
  
• Sword: Calligraphy 75, Bladesmithing 25, Bladesmithing 50, Bladesmithing 75
  
• Lycanthropy: Rabbit 70 (know your prey), Pig 70, Howling 50
  
• Rabbit: Survival Instincts 60
  
• Fire Magic: Jewelry Crafting 70, Ice Magic 80, Alchemy 60
  
• Ice Magic: Ice Conjuration 25
  

We're still working behind-the-scenes on the last major city of the game. (You may see new references to Statehelm, but it's not accessible yet.) In the mean time we have lots of fixes, rebalances, and things to find:

• Added "default" Endurance requirements to most high-level loot dropped gear.
  
  
  
  • Most higher-level items that do not have any combat skill prerequisites will instead have an Endurance requirement.
    
  • Endurance requirements start at item level 30 and slowly increase from there. By level 65+, the requirements follow these rules:
    
    
    
    
    • Loot gear default Endurance requirement is (item level - 10)
      
    • Crafted gear default Endurance requirement is (item level - 15)
      
    
    
  • These changes were made to prevent low level characters from using high level equipment (that had literally no requirements before), and to set a baseline for items that have only generic gear mods (in the absence of other combat skills).
    
  • These changes are retroactive. Your gear may automatically unequip itself when you log in if you do not meet the Endurance requirements.
    
• Egg run quest rewards reduced. This affects gear rewards; recipe/scroll drops and xp are untouched.
  
  
  
  
  • Adjusted Cheb's sales numbers to be normal for a high-level vendor (instead of extra cranked)
    
• Increase spawn rate of interactive Graves across the world, roughly doubling them
  
• Elite & Boss demons in Vidaria now possess Astonishing Demon Skulls
  
• Add a second repeatable method of obtainable Scrolls of Demonic Research
  
• Increase likelihood of Vidaria Secret Chests to drop Mementos (if you've unlocked the Memento mechanic)
  
• Slightly improved drop chance for Pixie Dust
  

• Add 16 new Item Sacrifice Altars across Alharth
  
• Fix one source of "error cubes" being shown in-game. This fixes a specific scenario where you have already loaded the scene successfully (without errors), but still come across an error cube, possibly long after loading into the area.
  
• Fix for "3-Color dye recipes don't properly handle only 2 dye types"
  
• Some chairs, such as those in Serbule Inn, are now sat in from the side to avoid clipping into the tables. We added new tech to enable this, so if you spot clipping on other chairs in the world please report them!
  
• Nameplates now respect the Bold and Italics GUI options
  
• All "Fae" animals now have Fae anatomy and count toward Fae-related quests. Previously only Panthers followed this rule, now it applies to all animals
  
• Fix bug causing some Swarmers to get stuck in the Rubywall
  
• We now export two now JSON data files: abilitydynamicdots.json and abilitydynamicspecialvalues.json. These files are used by the game to add extra info to ability tool-tips when certain requirements are met. (In other words, these describe DoTs and buffs that can be added to abilities by special buffs and treasure effects.) These are likely of limited use for tools, but who knows.
  
• Extracting an augment from an item automatically aborts if the provided gem doesn't match any of the item's powers. (Previously the gem and item were destroyed.)
  

Druid was already a very capable healing and support skill, but its offensive abilities and skill synergies received some improvements. To help you take advantage of these changes, Transmutation costs for Druid gear will be reduced this month.

[h2]Druid Ability Changes[/h2]

• Toxinball deals a bit more base damage at each tier; other treasure adjusted slightly as a result of this formula change
  
• Cloud Sight is now a Ranged attack (instead of Melee) with a range of 30 meters
  
• Cosmic Strike reuse time hastened from 45 seconds to 40 seconds
  
• Fill With Bile: increases Indirect Poison (per tick) by twice as much
  
• Delerium has higher base damage; some treasure effects adjusted slightly as a result of this formula change
  

[h2]Druid Treasure Changes[/h2]

• (Hands, MainHand) "All Druid abilities have a 38% chance to restore 25 Power to you" => "All Druid abilities except Shillelagh have a 59% chance to restore 50 Power to you"
  
• (Necklace, Ring) "Cosmic Strike deals +19% damage and boosts your Major Healing +100 for 10 seconds" => ...deals +38% damage and boosts your Major Healing +100 for 20 seconds"
  
• (Head, Legs) "Cosmic Strike deals +264 damage, generates no Rage, and removes 705 Rage" => ...deals +310 damage, ...
  
• (MainHand) "Cosmic Strike deals +143 damage and reuse timer is -5 seconds" => "Cosmic Strike deals +280 damage and reuse timer is -10 seconds"
  
• (Head) "Cloud Sight causes target's attacks to have +5% more chance of missing, but Power cost is +15%" => "Cloud Sight causes target's attacks to have +5% more chance of missing."
  
• (Legs, MainHand) "Energize restores 117 armor to each target" => 180
  
• (Feet, Ring) "Energize restores +28 Health and conjures a magical field that mitigates 10% of all physical damage they take for 1 minute (or until 100 damage is mitigated)." => "Energize conjures a magical field around each target that mitigates 20% of all physical damage they take for 1 minute (or until 200 damage is mitigated)."
  
• (OffHand, Necklace) "Energize Healing +82" => +120
  
• (Head, Legs) "Delerium depletes +440 rage and deals +83 damage" => "Delerium depletes +440 rage and deals +320 Nature damage over 8 seconds"
  
• (Chest, Hands) "Rotskin deals 354 Trauma damage to health over 12 seconds" => "Rotskin deals 444 Nature damage to health over 12 seconds"
  
• (OffHand, Necklace) "Max Health +50 when Druid skill is active" => +70
  
• (Head, MainHand): "While Druid Skill Active, Druid Base Damage +50%" => "... and Nature Vulnerability -18%"
  
• (Head, OffHand) "Heart Thorn coats the target in acid that deals 580 armor damage over 8 seconds" => 480 armor damage over 3 seconds
  
• (MainHand, Ring) "Delerium depletes +810 rage and taunts -600" => ... and deals +115 damage
  
• (Head, Legs): "Delerium depletes +440 rage and deals +320 Nature damage over 8 seconds" => 360 Poison damage over 6 seconds. (Delerium is a poison attack and was supposed to have a Poison DoT, but some wires got crossed)
  
• (Ring) "Rotskin hastens the current reuse timer of Regrowth by 5 seconds" => previously there was only one tier of this effect. This tier is unchanged. But there are higher tiers of the effect which hasten the reuse timer of Regrowth a bit more (by 7.5 seconds at level 100)
  
• (Head) "Cloud Sight causes target's attacks to have +5% more chance of missing." => previously there was only one tier of this effect. This tier is unchanged, but there is a second tier available starting at level 70. It increases target's miss chance +10%
  
• (Legs) "Fill With Bile causes any Nice attacks that deal direct Poison or Acid damage to deal +180 damage for 3 minutes. (This effect does not stack with itself.)" => +76% damage
  
• (Hands) "Fill With Bile causes any Core attacks that deal direct Poison damage to deal +180 damage for 3 minutes. (This effect does not stack with itself.)" => +220 damage
  
• (Feet) "Your Healing Sanctuary heals +23 health and buffs Melee Accuracy +14" => +25 health and buffs Melee Accuracy +23
  
• NEW: Loot drop only: (Hands) "Delerium becomes a 10m Burst attack that deals +33% damage to targets that are not focused on you"
  
• NEW: (Ring, Chest) "Indirect Poison Damage +48% when Druid skill is active"
  
• NEW: (Hands, Legs): "While Druid skill is active: abilities that have Burst targeting deal +328 Nature damage over 8 seconds"
  
• NEW: (Off-Hand) "Direct Slashing, Piercing, and Crushing Damage +18% when Druid skill is active"
  
• NEW: (Hands, Ring) "Cloud Sight Damage +125 and Reuse Time -2 seconds"
  
• NEW: (OffHand) "Cosmic Strike deals +320 damage and if it kills your target, you recover 9999 Health and 9999 Armor"
  
• NEW: (Feet) "Fill With Bile reduces target's Indirect Poison Vulnerability and Indirect Acid Vulnerability -40% for 3 minutes. (This effect does not stack with itself.)"
  
• NEW: (OffHand, Feet) "While Druid skill is active: abilities that fire a projectile, such as Toxinball, Fireball, or most Archery abilities, deal +248 Poison damage over 8 seconds"
  

[h2]Other Druid Changes[/h2]

• Some shields are now Wooden for purposes of activating druidic abilities
  
• Changed icon for druid ability Inject Venom as it was accidentally using a spider icon
  
• Added new wooden harnesses for butterflies. These are belt-slot items that enable Druidism. They must be hand-whittled by an expert whittler, who can find the recipes as loot drops
  

There were a few other skill changes that just happened to happen in this update.

[h2]Warden Changes[/h2]

• Warden ability Aggression Deterrent: base range increased to 10m
  
• Warden treasure effect changes:
  
  
  
  
  • (Head, Necklace) "Warden Base Damage +50%" => "Warden Base Damage +50% and Electricity Vulnerability -18% while Warden skill active"
    
  • (Chest, Legs) "Indirect Poison and Indirect Trauma damage is +24% per tick while Warden skill active" => +36% per tick
    
  • (Feet, Ring) Indirect Nature and Indirect Electricity damage is +24% per tick while Warden skill active => +36% per tick
    
  • (Chest) "Apprehend deals +48 damage and hastens the current reuse timer of Controlled Burn by 1.5 seconds (so it can be used again more quickly)" => "Apprehend deals +150 Fire damage over 6 seconds and hastens the current reuse timer of Controlled Burn by 2 seconds (so it can be used again more quickly)"
    
    
    
    
    • In addition this treasure effect is now also found on the Main-Hand Weapon slot
      
• Warden bug fix: Apprehend generates extra Rage (as a result of the Fire damage type); Lethal Force does not generate extra rage anymore
  

[h2]Archery Changes[/h2]

• The ability Bow Bash is now a Basic Attack and costs 0 Power to use. It otherwise remains the same (including its 3-second cooldown)
  

This is a minor bug-fix update.

• Fix crash from clicking the Summon button in the recipe window
  
• Fix text issues with popup UIs
  
• Fix issue with chat button going onto 2 lines
  
• Fix for manticores getting stuck in their crystals
  
• Fix for Winter Turrets getting stuck inside rocks
  
• Fix for spiders in Myconian Cave never coming down from their vantage points
  
• Improve pathing in Rahu Sewers (though it's still not 100% up to par yet)
  
• Reduce texture-memory usage in "Enter the Light" area; previously low-end PCs could hit out-of-memory crashes when entering this area
  
• Fix bug where charmed enemies' pet-mode wasn't displayed correctly (should be assisting but was displayed as passive follow)
  
• Fix broken unarmed treasure effect "Slashing Strike deals +64 damage and worsens the target's Slashing Vulnerability +16% for 60 seconds."
  

In this update we revise several combat skills and make improvements in many areas.

Note: We're still working on the upcoming city Statehelm; it's probably two major updates away. You may see new references to it in-game, but it's not accessible yet.


We've updated the game to use Unity 2022.3. This is a major version change, which usually causes some hiccups and weirdness -- we've tried to smooth everything out, but if you see new problems please let us know. In particular, Unity 2022.3 uses a new navigation system. If you find places where monsters or pets cannot traverse (when they could before), that's a bug we'd love to hear about!

This upgrade doesn't directly add a ton of new features, but it includes many subtle bug-fixes for various hardware configurations.


If you did the Lost Scapegoats event sub-quests before obtaining the main quest, the main quest will update properly the next time you talk to Miss Chievous. This applies to every sub-quest except for Miss Take - you'll have to go and talk to her again after obtaining the main quest.

• Adjust UI defaults to look better on a 1920x1080 screen. Namely:
  
  
  
  • GUI Scale defaults to 1.5, and has a new maximum value of 3
    
  • Several window default sizes have been increased: Quest Log, Recipes, Item Info, Chat
    
  • Note: These changes will only affect new installations!
    
• The setting "Chat Text Size" now affects the chat input font size
  
• There's a new default chat tab called "Chat" with the following channels: Nearby, Global, Tell, Status, Error, Emotes, Trade, Help. This tab is selected by default for new players
  
• New setting "Windows Text Size" affects the font size of the Quest Log, Recipes, & Item Info windows. More windows may be added in the future
  
• New setting "Popups Text Size" affects the font size of the Summon Item, Split Stack, & Informational Popups
  
• You can now ctrl-click on an item to view More Info about it
  
• Slightly adjust text of the Word of Power popup
  
• Slight changes to some of the windows, to make them look better and be easier to read
  
• New setting, "Use Reflections", turns reflections on or off. Find it in Settings > Graphics > Advanced > Lighting & Shadows
  

[h2]Ability Changes[/h2]

• Summon Doomstorm: chance to consume necromancy dust reduced from 33% to 10%
  
• Tsunami: Base Damage significantly increased (e.g. Tsunami 6 from 741 to 1007). Some treasure effects adjusted as a result of this formula change
  
• Deluge: Base Damage significantly increased (e.g. Deluge 9 from 578 to 882). Some treasure effects adjusted as a result of this formula change
  
• Summon Tornado: works in water
  
• At level 50, weather witches gain a lore recipe to determine the current weather in all outdoor areas
  

[h2]Treasure Changes[/h2]

• "Tsunami Damage +116, Targets also take +20% damage from sentient weather phenomena for 30 seconds" => ... take +30% damage
  
• "Tsunami deals +469 Nature damage over 7 seconds" => +560
  
• "Tsunami Damage +179, Every other casting resets the timer on Summon Tornado (so it can be used again immediately)" => "Tsunami Damage +252, ..."
  
• "Deluge deals +102 damage on contact and increases the target's Poison Vulnerability and Electricity Vulnerability +15% for 30 seconds (non-stacking)" => +18%
  
• "Dampen deals Cold damage and debuffs the target so that it takes +90 damage from future Cold attacks for 10 seconds" => ...takes +12.5% damage from future Cold attacks
  
• "Dampen debuffs the target so that it takes +90 damage from future Nature attacks for 10 seconds" => ...takes +12.5% damage from future Nature attacks
  
• (Head, Chest) "Shocking Grasp Damage +114. Every other use has a 25% chance to stun the target" => "Shocking Grasp Damage +95. Shocking Grasp has a 100% chance to stun the target"
  
• this treasure effect is now only available on Head-slot equipment. Chest-slot items that have this effect have become Legacy Items. You can use Transmutation to remove this treasure effect and make the item "un-Legacy", or speak with the Legacy Item Helper golem in Serbule to get a randomized replacement item
  
• new: (Head): "When you use Summon Tornado 3 or higher, you summon a second tornado that is 2 ability-tiers weaker. In addition all summoned Tornadoes deal +15% Damage"
  
• new: (Main-Hand, Ring): "Using Dampen, Lightning Bolt, Shocking Grasp, or Hailstorm while simultaneously channeling a different Weather Witching ability boosts your next attack (which is typically the channeled ability, unless it's not an attack) damage +34%"
  
• new: (Chest) "Shocking Grasp Reuse Time -5.5 seconds"
  

• Dominate ability: no longer has a casting time
  
• Sidebar ability "Giant Bat Form" no longer requires you to have the Vampirism skill active to cast it
  
• Fixed bug that prevented rakshasa enemies from dropping blood
  
• Treasure changes:
  
• (Feet) "Enthrall Range +15 and Damage +138" => "Enthrall and Dominate Range +25"
  
• (Feet, Necklace) "Dominate Reuse Time -10" => "Dominate Duration +10 and Reuse Time -10"
  
• new: (Off Hand) "If you abort Dominate before it naturally expires, or if you use it on an Elite target, the target is stunned for 6 secs and it suffers +25% damage from all Indirect Damage sources for 30 seconds"
  
• new: (Chest, Hands) "Dominate boosts its victim's Direct Damage +79% and Taunt +1000% while charmed"
  
• new: (Ring) "Dominate boosts its victim's non-Rage attack damage +162% while charmed"
  

Animal Handling saw changes both to the skill itself, and to the various pets you can tame.

[h2]Ability Changes[/h2]

• Ability Clever Trick is now marked as a Survival Utility ability, which allows some buffs to apply to it
  
• Changed the level that you get "Sic 'Em" from 9 to 3. Changed the level that you get "Feed Pet" from 3 to 4. Since newly-trained Animal Handlers are automatically raised to level 3, this means Animal Handlers will always have an offensive combat ability they can put on their bar. (You need to use an Animal Handling ability at least once per minute to earn Animal Handling XP, but previously newbies only had "Feed Pet" available at level 3, and it wasn't intuitive that they needed to feed their pet before battle to earn XP.)
  
• Ability "That'll Do" no longer has a casting time. Reset time is 15s instead of 30s
  
• Added a new ability "Mark Target". This ability will eventually be trained by an NPC in Statehelm, but in the short term it can be learned from Crelpin in the Fae Realm.
  

[h2]Treasure Changes[/h2]

• (Chest) "Direct Cold Damage +20% when Animal Handling skill active" => "Direct Cold Damage and Direct Darkness Damage +20% when Animal Handling skill active"
  
• (Head) "Direct Electricity Damage +20% when Animal Handling skill active" => "Direct Electricity Damage and Fire Damage +20% when Animal Handling skill active"
  
• (Hands) "Direct Piercing Damage +20% when Animal Handling skill active" => "Direct Piercing Damage and Direct Slashing Damage +20% when Animal Handling skill active"
  
• (Head, Main Hand) "Animal Handling pets' Sic 'Em abilities taunt +1500" => +2000
  
• (Legs, Main Hand) "Animal Handling pets deal +20% damage when they critically hit" => +50%
  
• (Legs, Necklace) "Animal Handling pets taunt as if they did +200% additional damage" => +400%
  
• (Chest, Ring) "Animal Handling pets taunt their opponents 40% less" => 57% less
  
• (Necklace, Ring) "Animal Handling pets' damage-over-time effects (if any) deal +162% damage per tick" => +200%
  
• (Legs, OffHand) "Animal Handling pets recover +21 Armor every five seconds (whether in combat or not)" => "Animal Handling pets have +11% Max Armor, and every second they recover Armor equal to 2% of their Max Armor"
  
• (Hands, MainHand) "Animal Handling pets' Clever Trick abilities deal +24% damage" => +27%
  
• (OffHand, Ring) "Animal Handling pets' basic attacks deal +15% damage" => +26%
  
• (Main Hand, Necklace, Legs) "For 19 seconds after using Clever Trick, pets' basic attacks have a 15% chance to deal double damage" => 30% chance. Also fixed bug that caused high tiers of this effect to only last as long as the lower tiers.
  
• (Legs, MainHand) "Animal Handling pets' healing abilities, if any, restore +53% health" => +73%
  
• new: (Chest, Ring) "Mark Weakness Damage +193"
  
• new: (Main Hand, Feet) "Mark Weakness Damage +75%"
  
• new: (Hands) "When Mark Weakness is used on a target that has less than 33% of their max Rage, it triggers again, targeting an enemy within 8 meters of the first (using Mark Weakness 9)"
  
• new (Off-Hand) "Mark Weakness further increases target's Pet Vulnerability +16%. Reuse time -4 seconds."
  
• new (Necklace, Legs) "Mark Weakness causes your next attack to deal +182 damage if it is a Psychic attack"
  
• new (Head) "Psychic Damage +18% while Animal Handling skill active; Crushing Damage +18% while Animal Handling skill active"
  

[h2]Dev Commentary[/h2]
Notes on a weird treasure effect: "For X seconds after using Clever Trick, pets' basic attacks have a X% chance to deal double damage":

• Note that some pets have better inherent Basic Attack damage than others. Pets that aren't damage-focused, including most Bears and some Rats, have better Basic Attacks than damage-centric pets such as Cats. (This is because the cats' damage bonuses are applied elsewhere, usually to their Sic 'Em and/or Clever Trick attacks.) So Basic Attack-boosting treasure is a way to improve the damage of less damage-focused pets.
  
• If you equip multiple copies of this effect, the percentage-chances aren't added together; instead each is rolled separately. If you have two copies equipped and they both trigger on the same attack, the pet would deal 400% more damage than normal.
  
• If you use these treasure effects, it's recommended that you also use the effects that boost pets' Basic Attack Damage!
  
• Also consider the treasure effects that boost pets' Critical Hit Damage. Most pets have about a 10% Critical Hit Chance with all their attacks. (Chance is based on the pet's Enthusiasm.) When their Basic Attacks crit, the crit damage is also doubled, which can stack with this effect.
  
• Typical builds that use this effect only use one or two copies of it (because other treasure effects are more important). Three copies are available to provide build flexibility
  

[h2]Animal Handling Pet Ability Changes[/h2]
Animal Handling pets have three abilities: a basic attack, a Sic 'Em attack, and a Clever Trick. (You can examine your pet to see what abilities it uses.) We've revised most of the Sic 'Em and Clever Trick abilities as follows:

• Bear Taunt: is now an 8m Burst attack. High-level versions of Bear Taunt have a percentage-based taunt bonus instead of a flat bonus
  
• Bear Stun: is now an 8m Burst attack
  
• Bear Ultra: is now an 8m Burst attack. Base damage is higher
  
• Bear Warmth: self-taunt buff is now percentage-based instead of a small flat amount
  
• Bear Self-Heal: restores same amount of health, plus restores even more armor
  
• Bee Inject: increased damage over time (by more than double at higher-level tiers)
  
• Bee Poison Vuln: lasts 30 seconds instead of 15; range increased to 40m
  
• Wasp Blast: damage increased; ranged increased to 40m
  
• Wasp Ranged Slow: damage significantly increased; range increased to 40m
  
• Wasp Ranged Debuff: damage increased; range increased to 40m
  
• Wasp Burst Pierce: damage increased
  
• Big Cat Kill: now an 8m Burst slashing attack
  
• Big Cat Ultra-Kill: deals more damage; deals its full damage directly to both Health and Armor (doubling effective damage and bypassing armor mitigation)
  
• Big Cat Root: now a Burst 8m effect
  
• Raking Claw (Slashing Debuff): now a Burst 8m effect; debuff lasts longer
  
• Big Cat Heal: retains its instant heal and also has a heal-over-time effect that restores twice as much (total) health over 10 seconds
  
• Grimalkin Puncture: bleed damage dramatically increased
  
• Grimalkin Flee: added massive built in taunt plus an increased temp-taunt to more reliably pull target away
  
• Rat De-Rage: base damage is higher
  
• Rat Heal: now is a 20m burst heal that targets the pet, owner, and any other allies
  
• Rat Poison Vuln: now a 8m burst attack
  
• Rat Burn: fire DoT damage dramatically increased
  

[h2]Other Pet Changes[/h2]
Almost all Animal Handling pets had some changes to (hopefully) improve their utility in their intended role. The biggest changes are to their abilities as listed above. Pets also may have received Max Armor, Max Health, or damage changes. Those changes are too numerous and minor to be listed here (sorry), but below are changes that are more dramatic than just stat-changes:

• Bees with melee poison attacks now deal Poison damage-over-time with every basic attack (with shorter and weaker effect than their special move, but scaling at all levels)
  
• Chopjaw's regeneration has been reduced. Previously it regenerated 361 health per second at level 100. This was a bug; it was using monster-regen instead of pet-regen. Chopjaw now recovers 15% of its Max Health every second, which by default is 89 health/sec at level 100. This value can be buffed by using equipment or abilities that boost the pet's Max Health.
  
• Freeze Wasps' basic attack is now ranged
  
• Shooty wasps now have all ranged attacks (some had melee-range basic attacks)
  
• Grottofang has nature resistance instead of cold resistance
  

• revised pet AI logic for "Aggressive" and "Aggressive Seeker" pets so that they attack a nearby enemy immediately upon existing, even if their owner is not in combat. Previously they could not detect foes that weren't actively in combat with themselves or their owner.
  
• To help players adjust to the skill changes in this update, the following skills will have discounted Transmutation costs through April: Weather Witching, Animal Handling
  
• The Serbule Community Chest is now known as the Serbule Dynamic Safebox. The name has changed, but everything else is the same.
  
• Elven Lily, Red Rose, & Cedar Wood are now a bit more abundant, and each now spawns somewhere in the world
  
• Game now specifies that Denton Razor likes "Elvish" jewelry
  
• Upgrade fat dropped by Vidarian Hogs
  
• The footpath in Vidaria no longer counts as being in water
  
• Vidaria Orc Invasion event now shows up on the map
  
• Add a note to a strange panel in Vidaria to denote that it doesn't do anything yet
  
• more locations are accessible via teleportation coordinates
  
• Elite and Boss monsters have increased Critical-Hit Chance (from a flat 5% chance to up to 8% for some epic bosses)
  
• fix bug that allowed Battle Chemistry mutations to stay on pets even when the caster stopped using the Battle Chemistry skill
  
• fix bugs that caused you to lose/gain Body Heat, Flight Power, Breath, Radiation, Cleanliness, Peaceableness, and Hydration while the client was still loading a new area
  
• Fix Eltibule and Vidaria trees not providing shade for vampires
  
• Fix for Corey the Croaker not actually providing a hangout
  
• Fix Makara's dialogue not progressing
  
• you can now train Corpse Talking if you have either Necromancy 20 or Shamanic Infusion 20
  
• monsters who hunt by scent no longer track dead players
  
• fixed certain abilities such as Castigate that could not be used in water unless you were standing on the bottom of the lake or pool