MMORPG Tycoon 2 News

[p]Hi folks! A small update today:[/p]

• [p]Improved district title customization; you can now set three different colors (both ends of the title gradient as well as the title outline color), and can also set exactly where you want the title to appear within the district.[/p]
• [p]Fixed recoloring of water during initial lake district placement, if you had configured that.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a rare case where non-walkable terrain (mountains, chasms, etc) could sometimes incorrectly override flattened districts which were drawn over that terrain and set as walkable.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a rare assertion failure involving terrain painting tools and opening and closing the "Design", "Reports", or "System" menus.[/p]
• [p]Fixes to the new "spinner" UI widget's drag-to-edit functionality, which fixed some awkward UI issues during combat ability editing.[/p]
• [p]Applied the new "spinner" UI widget's changes to the related "integer spinner" widget. This improves several UI elements throughout the game.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the map layout preview during the New Game UI flow to look much nicer and less garish.[/p]
• [p]Quest chains now have their level set based only upon their hunt quests (if there are any hunt quests in the chain). This really only matters for multi-level regions; if you have a region which has (for example) players of level 1-10 and you have a quest chain which consists of five "Fight those level 1 monsters" quests and one "Go talk to that other quest-giver" quest, previously the quest chain was considered to be level 1-10, because the "go to" quest on the end wasn't combat and was considered appropriate for any level. Now the quest chain is instead treated as level 1, so you won't have level 10 players trying to do the quest chain just to get to the later quest in it.[/p]
• [p]High-level players no longer ignore low-level monsters. They don't seek them out and they don't feel particularly happy about winning the fight, but if they end up in combat with them they will kill them instead of just walking away.[/p]
• [p]The "What's New" window no longer appears for first-time players -- leave them alone and let them get on with starting their first game![/p]
• [p]For non first-time players, if we're going to show them the What's New window (because there has been a new major update since their last run of the game), then open the window after their MMO launcher window, so the new update information appears on top and they can actually read it![/p]

[p]Thanks so much for your feedback and issue reports, everyone![/p][p][/p][p]-T[/p]

[p]Hi folks! This update contains fixes for two issues which were found pretty quickly after the most recent update went out:[/p]

• [p]Fixed the game failing to launch on SteamDeck, regardless of whether it was trying to run the native Linux build or the Windows build via Proton -- It didn't like one of our shaders! I've now placated it, and seems to be happy again.[/p]
• [p]Fixed being unable to enter the 'Character Design' interface for players, monsters, or NPCs past the first eight. I'd done something which subtly broke how scrolling worked and never noticed! Now fixed.[/p]

[p]So that's all for this little hotfix update. [/p][p]But hey, while I have you here, it's been pointed out to me that I didn't mention all the new things in the Rivers&Bridges update. I completely forgot to mention that we added four new water-themed character costumes (including a diver, a fisherman, a narwhal, and a platypus!). [/p][p]We also added a bunch of new water-themed scenery items including buoys, lanterns, lily pads, a fishing boat, and more! So.. please enjoy those bonus additions as well, and we'll talk again soon![/p][p]-T[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]Hi folks![/p][p]This is another update that got a bit bigger than I expected! Let me tell you about it.[/p][p][/p][p]You can now place "districts" in your world. Districts let you create and define areas within your world. [/p][p]Districts work a little like monster zones in that you paint them down onto the ground. Once painted, you can select them like any other object to modify them. Note that they are only selectable while the Terrain action bar tab is active; they're hidden (apart from their effects on the map) in all other modes.[/p][p]Currently, there are three kinds of districts:[/p][h2]Normal Districts:[/h2][p][/p][p]Normal districts are very simple. They let you mark down a region and give it a name, which optionally can be made visible on the map when you're looking at that part of the world. You can also give them a description, if you want![/p][p]You can also recolor the ground within the district, including adding or removing grass within that area.[/p][p]These simple district types can often be useful for delineating small villages, for changing the ground color to make farms, or just for general organization.[/p][p]As an "advanced" option, you can also mark a normal district as an obstruction, basically turning it into one large invisible wall which will prevent your players from entering! If you're showing the district's title you can also change the title's size, placement, and color from the advanced options page of its information window.[/p][h2]Flat Districts:[/h2][p][/p][p]Flat districts are very much like normal districts, with one exception; the area inside the district has its ground completely flattened. This is great for making larger towns where you want the area to feel more urban, with all the buildings built precisely on the same level.[/p][p]Once a flat district is created, you can then select it and raise it up or down (within limits!), as well as modify how smoothly it blends out into the naturally undulating terrain outside the district. Note that the game will try to keep things working approximately sensibly; if you use flat districts to make steep cliffs, the game will try to treat those cliffs as barriers and stop players from walking up and down them. If you want that to work differently for a particular flat district, you can overrule the game and tell it whether or not to allow players to walk on its sides or even on its top.[/p][p]As with normal districts, flat districts can optionally have their ground recolored, and have grass added or removed, however you wish![/p][h2]Lake Districts[/h2][p][/p][p]Moving on from flat districts, lake districts let you paint down areas of water. As with flat districts, lake districts are always approximately flat, but will build a small lip of land around the body of water, and will fill it with water.[/p][p]If you wish to make rivers that flow downhill, you can connect multiple lake districts together at different altitudes, and the water will automatically connect up, even making waterfalls if the change in height between districts is high enough![/p][p]As with flat and normal districts, lake districts can optionally recolor their ground, and they can also change the color of water inside the lake district![/p][p][/p][p]There are a lot of advanced options for lake districts; play around with those to see what else you can do![/p][p]By default, lake districts will mark their water areas as obstructions to players, and if their sides are steep then those will be marked as obstructions as well, but as above you can override both of those choices if you want it to work differently![/p][p]Since I feel that all these district types are so useful for organizing towns and customizing regions, we have them available for all players from the very start of the game; they don't need to be researched or developed; You'll find them over on the right side of your "Terrain" action bar right from the very start of the game.[/p][p][/p][p]So with all these new waterways, it's now particularly important to be able to let players get across them, and so we've added bridges to the game![/p][p]Bridges are a new technology you can now research from very early in the game. By default, there are four bridge types available, but there are many more of them hidden away in various art packs! Bridges work very much like roads, but can only be entered at either end, and can extend across un-walkable areas, like most rivers![/p][p][/p][p]There's a bunch of other new stuff in this build! Here are some of the more interesting bits:[/p][h2]Visible Obstructions[/h2][p][/p][p]When you're in an editing mode, we now preview where there are obstructions that players won't be able to walk through. This can be handy when you're placing a building, so you can be sure that you're placing it somewhere where players will be able to reach it![/p][p]These visible obstruction layers are hidden when you're in "Inspect" mode or when you've hidden the UI to take a screenshot, and they also can be disabled globally from within the View Options window (accessible via the gear icon near the top right corner of the screen)[/p][h2]Global Region Lighting[/h2][p][/p][p]In previous builds, lighting was global; when the camera was inside one region, that region's lighting applied to the whole world, even different regions which were somehow visible (say, through a mountain pass). [/p][p]Now, we can apply region lighting no matter where the camera is - bright regions are now always bright, and dark regions are always dark, regardless of where the camera is located.[/p][p][/p][p]Related to this, the controls for editing region lighting have been improved, and we've made it much simpler to select regions and tell when they're selected![/p][h2]New Custom Rules[/h2][p]Ever since the Progression Update, we've offered a dozen or so "Custom Rules" which can be applied to individual games to change the way they play.[/p][p]In this update, we're adding several new custom rule options for automatically unlocking more types of tech, most notably subscriber-facing game features (such as Instant Messaging, PVP Duels, etc), for unlocking debug aids (searchable server logs, anticheat software, etc), and for unlocking ingame bonuses (Increased Inn capacity, etc).[/p][p]As always, these rules can be enabled or disabled at any time, for any save, so you can add them to old saves if you wish, or remove them if you change your mind. There's no need to start a new game to use them, unless you want to![/p][p][/p]

• [p]Improved the 'Spinner' UI widget (which is used for editing most numbers in our UI), to make it easier to use. You can now click+drag anywhere on the widget to easily change values, instead of repeatedly clicking on the up/down arrow buttons, or instead of using the keyboard to type in a new value.[/p]
• [p]Fixed some bugs around detecting wall-wall intersections.[/p]
• [p]Fixed possible incorrect awarding of 'Quest Master' achievement.[/p]
• [p]Fixed water to correctly be illuminated by point lights.[/p]
• [p]Fixed elite monsters in multi-level regions sometimes being given access to combat abilities which were higher-level than the monster.[/p]
• [p]Fixed mouse interactions with multi-region network fibers, in the network view.[/p]
• [p]Fixed an engine bug which was sometimes causing negative numbers with a decimal point to sometimes be displayed as positive numbers.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a whole bunch of small rendering glitches where various objects would sometimes briefly appear at the far southwest corner of the map.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a performance issue when making text selections inside extremely large text edit boxes.[/p]
• [p]Improved placement of player names over players on flight paths.[/p]
• [p]Improved placement of party members when the party is traveling together on a flight path.[/p]

[p][/p][p]So that's this update! I hope everybody enjoys all these new tools and features! We have two more big content updates planned for before the end of the year, and I'm turning my attention toward the next big feature updates. As always, huge thanks to everyone who tested this build while it was in the public test branch, as well as to everyone who has submitted bugs, feedback, and ideas![/p][p]Okay, two more pieces of administrative trivia to get through. First, huge thanks to everyone who filled in our community survey a few weeks ago. We got far more responses than we expected, and we'll deliver some results once we've finished tabulating numbers and figuring out what it all means! And second, Leanne tells me that I should encourage everyone to come visit our Discord if you want early looks at what's coming next, or if you just want to share your creations or see what other people have been making![/p][p]We'll talk more soon![/p][p]-T[/p]

[p]Edit: Thanks so much for the huge response, everyone! This survey is now closed. We'll post an update with results and takeaways once we've run the numbers! -T[/p][p][/p][p]Hi folks, Leanne here today![/p][p][/p][p]For those of you I haven’t met yet, I’m the community manager here at VectorStorm. I’ve been here almost 3 years now and if you’re in the Discord, we’ve definitely crossed paths![/p][p][/p][p]I have something a little different for you today, and hopefully also a little exciting? Today I bring you… our first ever player survey! [/p][p][/p][p]It's 21 questions, mostly multiple choice, with 3 fun ones at the end. This will give you a chance to let us know what’s important to you for the future of MMORPG Tycoon 2 and how to make sure we make a game you’re excited to play. I know, I know. Survey’s are boring and take too long and we’re all very busy. But please know that if you can take five minutes to fill it out, we’d be very grateful! We’ll be closing the form in 2 weeks so don’t take too long to think of your answers![/p][p][/p][p]Oh, and those last 3 questions? They involve telling us anything and everything you want for the game, pitching a name to go in the player name generator, and pitching a theme for a future decoration style update, we'll pick our faves and have a vote on Discord.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]And as always, don’t forget you can come hang out with us and talk about all things MMORPG Tycoon 2 on Discord. [/p][p][/p][p]Okay I’m done now I promise, have a good one![/p]

• [p]Leanne[/p]

[p]Hi folks! We have two things for you today. First, bugfix build 0.22.89 is now live![/p][p][/p][h2]Here's what's changed:[/h2]

• [p]Fixed several combat bugs when assuming manual control of characters and triggering combat abilities using keyboard hotkeys.[/p]
• [p]Fixed 'heal', 'protect', 'weaken', and 'slow' visual effects to better match the sizes of the affected characters. (they could get lost inside really large characters, before!)[/p]
• [p]Monsters now try to move to get into range for their shortest-range ability which is currently available to use, whether or not that ability is the next one in their combat schedule. This makes it much less likely for monsters to repeatedly skip over melee attacks because they were out of position, while still allowing them to back off to missile range while a slow-recharge melee attack recharges.[/p]
• [p]Fixed multi-stage dungeon boss health values for high-level bosses, as their health values were scaling more quickly than the configured level power scaling, making them much more difficult foes than they should have been![/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue which could cause parties to get stuck in "forming" state.[/p]
• [p]Tweaked tutorial messaging around assigning developers to projects, which had been causing confusion for some new players.[/p]
• [p]Made a number of small fixes to using scenery painting tools inside dungeons.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a crash if you tried to force-quit the game while it was saving.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the New Game Summary page to show the correct statistics values.[/p]
• [p]Fixed dungeon monsters respawning if you had configured monsters respawns to happen instantly. (dungeon monsters aren't supposed to respawn at all, even if no delay is set on respawns!)[/p]
• [p]Fixed price sync on newly placed buildings.[/p]
• [p]Fixed parties sometimes not gathering properly.[/p]

[p]That's live on the default branch on Steam right now![/p][p][/p][p]And for those of you who'd like a preview of what's coming next, here we go:[/p][p][/p][h2]A Sneak Preview of the Next Update:[/h2][p][/p][p]Now it's time to talk about the upcoming update that I've been working on for the last month or so! It's something I never thought I'd be able to put into MMORPG Tycoon 2 without exploding our save sizes, but our main artist said something that inspired me to think about terrain in a different way, and.. I had to do it![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]New in the next update, you'll be able to edit your game's terrain in far more detail than ever before. You can now draw directly on the terrain to change its height:[/p][p][/p][p]This same system will let you flatten areas of the terrain, lift areas up or down, recolor it, create regions of lake or water, and do all sorts of other new stuff![/p][p][/p][p]As part of this, you can now label parts of your world![/p][p][/p][p]And of course, with the new ability to place bodies of water anywhere you want, you'll be needing[/p][h2]Bridges[/h2][p][/p][p]On launch, we'll have nine different bridge models available within the game, all of which can be made long or short, straight or curved, etc.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]So.. the question people always ask at this point is about when the release of these new features will be, and the disappointing answer I always have to give them is that I'm not entirely certain! I'm hoping that it'll only be a week or two more; I'm fixing bugs pretty much as quickly as we find them, and once it all seems fully stable, we'll be rolling it out on the main default channel![/p][p]But if you're feeling a bit adventurous, this update is accessible right now on our public 'test' build ; please come join us and try it out! From the Steam library just right-click on the game and go to 'Properties', switch over to the 'test' beta branch, and let Steam download the update! And you can use our discord server or the in-game bug report/feedback tool to let us know what you think![/p][p][/p][p]I'll be talking to you all again soon, when this gets rolled out to the main default build, and I begin work on one of our next big roadmap item: Factions. [/p][p]Thanks so much to everyone who's sent us ideas, feedback, bug reports, and everything else![/p][p]-T[/p]