Reign of Guilds News

Dear friends!

Two months of hard work with a sprinkle of short vacations moved us very close to PT#5. This patch is going to be the major one before the playtest.

During that time, we concentrated on accomplishing the following objectives:

• Refactoring the mechanics that received most of the criticism or caused too many technical issues during PT#4;
  
• Adding new mechanics and content;
  
• Considerable changes of game balance and economy;
  
• Server and client optimization (especially in Dwarrhan);
  
• Preparing to host the game world in two separate data-centres to divide Dwarrhan into East and West, as was originally planned.
  

In this patchnote, we’ll try to explain in broad strokes the majority of fixes, but some of them were fixed simply by refactoring the problematic mechanics.


MECHANICS:

Refactored:

• (WIP) Combat prediction system:
  
• it helps the client give feedback on player actions without waiting for a response from the server;
  
• the server still stays authoritative;
  

Resource refiners and processers:

• deals with them now also have taxes and DVB;
  
• fixed errors and added some server checks;
  
• vendors have new stocks and sets of parameters universal for vendors of the same type;
  

Crafting:

• changed the approach to code checks and their quantity;
  

Real Estate:

• decreased server load with the new mirroring system;
  

Tooltips:

• new approach to ability and spell descriptions;
  
• new tooltip appearance made to fit the cosmetic item feature;
  
• Unified notification system (battle log, messages, chat, sound notifications, etc.):
  
• all notifications are aggregated by this system;
  
• added more types of notifications;
  

Quests:

• the mechanic was completely refactored and optimized;
  
• added new types of quests:
  
• random quests;
  
• regular quests;
  
• Added random rewards that can be rerolled and change in real time (not the same as Dynamic Quest Balance);
  
• Quests can now require that collected items have a certain percentage of current durability;
  
• Added new UI/UX features to quest window;
  

Inventory | Equipment | Containers:
Changed:

• item wear system: exception for items that have a certain number of uses before breaking;
  

Combat System | Magic:
Added:

• a mechanic that allows buffs to use certain other magic logics;
  
• new magic system triggers;
  

Character:
Added:

• Female character;
  

Changed:

• “Suicide” command now has a cooldown: unpunished suicide can be used only once every 30 minutes; using the function during CD will make your character die a regular death, losing items and XP according to the rules of the karma zone;
  
• 
  

AI | NPC:
Added:

• 3 new types of mobs with their own mechanics and magic (menada, spider, and troll warlord);
  
• new skins for existing mobs with changed stats;
  
• inclusion of height difference in the damage calculation when using magic;
  
• “accuracy” mechanic for AI;
  
• mobs can no longer cross the boundaries of their spawners;
  
• probability of certain reactions occurring when triggered;
  
• certain mobs can now call for help from other mobs of the same type;
  
• new animations of IDLE behaviors;
  

Changed:

• increased the height and angle of mob mobility;
  
• killing mobs can give or subtract players’ karma;
  
• certain mobs can roam around the world, even beyond the boundaries of their spawners;
  

Fixed:

• spells now also affect the counters of successful or unsuccessful attacks for triggers;
  
• damage offset also affects magic attacks;
  
• mob spawn errors;
  

Optimized:

• (server) transitions, navigation and logic calculations;
  

UI | UX | Visuals| Localization:
Added:

• 3 voices for the female character;
  
• new sound categories for character voiceovers;
  
• SFX/VFX of mob animations;
  
• tooltip of satiety bonuses when hovering over the satiety gauge;
  
• new icons for abilities, magic, and items;
  

Changed:

• SFX for magic attacks, buffs, mobs, and environment;
  
• the approach to sound attenuations;
  
• VFX of magic and buffa;
  
• character window;
  
• refining and processing windows;
  
• real estate window;
  
• tooltips;
  

Fixed:

• a number of visual effects now change brightness and saturation depending on time of day;
  
• cancelling text entry when changing keyboard layout;
  
• jittering during camera shakes while standing in one place that occurred at high ping;
  
• SFX played twice when interacting with world containers;
  
• after teleportation, the nameplate of the NPC that was on the screen stayed there;
  

GAME DESIGN:

Economy:

• better monetary rewards for brewing powders compared to just selling the ingredients;
  
• better monetary rewards for gathering, refining, and selling resources;
  
• increased quest rewards, added chance for quests to randomly roll better rewards;
  
• added very rare plants and mob loot that has increasingly high price;
  
• higher prices for selling herbs and powders;
  

Vendors:

• in every hub settlement, there are more vendors with different item quality ranges;
  
• vendors that sell weapons of bad quality give additional discounts (apart from the discount provided by the quality system);
  

Resources, materials, and crafting materials:

• new type of gathering plants (mushrooms);
  
• a considerable change of alloys and their recipes, prices of some increased by 15 times;
  
• added more types of fabrics, changed their prices and ranges;
  
• small ingot is now the basic crafting material for items that require metals;
  

Powder brewing:

• simpler recipes - instead of mob loot, they require mushrooms;
  
• the amount of powder each brewing yields depends on the type of powder;
  
• added private cauldrons of different levels and stats (they have varied powder yields, durability, weight, and prices);
  

Crafting and enchantments:

• nearly all the recipes were revamped due to the addition of a number of new ingredients;
  
• ingredients requirements are a bit more realistic;
  

Items:

• (general) added the items of levels 4-9 and their recipes;
  
• (pouches) changed the approach to the quantity of slots, weight, and carrying capacity depending on the level;
  
• (food) complete revamp of food stats (satiety, fullness, and fullness cooldown) and food prices;
  
• (armor) changed stats;
  
• (armor) increased the average requirements;
  
• (weapons) increased the average requirements;
  
• (powders) increased the average requirements;
  
• (offensive powders) increased damage, changed the speed and distance of projectiles, and mana usage;
  
• (defensive powders) a considerable change of required stats and a minor change of bonuses;
  

Quality system:

• new approach to rolling stats of items appearing in the world;
  

CONCLUSION:

This patchnote doesn’t include the details of the work done in terms of:

• adding new locations;
  
• adding new content;
  
• dividing the territories of West and East continents into separate Seamless Zones;
  
• filling the 3 new counties with AI, resource, and herb spawners;
  

However, we should draw special attention to our efforts put into adding the underground locations since, in a short time, they will be added to the locations of Rivulet Island and Dwarrhan and will have a lot of purpose in terms of game design.

P.S.
Changes since 09/15/23 for ROG Club tests:
AI:

• (ALL) chase time was decreased by 30-70% (they leave you alone if they don’t manage to land a hit);
  
• (Menada) decreased speed (-10%) and acceleration (-15%);
  
• (Wolf) decreased the radius of the call fore reinforcements (-30%), decreased the attack animation speed (- 15-20%), decreased the damage of the regular attack (-10%), jump attack less accurate;
  
• (Bear) won’t roar as often, decreased PD & MD, increased the HP pool;
  
• (Island - Cave Troll): no longer gets stuck in the landscape, added loot drops;
  

Quests:

• quests unavailable due to random rolls or other reasons are now kept at the bottom of the quest lists and have a different button color;
  

Resources:

• (Island) fixed with the issue of herb and mushroom spawns, increased the spawn density (average of +35%);
  
• Increased the price of all loot and mushrooms;
  

Vendors:

• (All) changed quality ranges and price modifiers for vendors that sell equipment;
  
• (Island) Innkeepers charge less for food compared to the continent;
  

Satiery, food, energy:

• Issue with the decrease of max energy and absent energy regeneration;
  
• Issue with incorrect satiety maluses (0);
  
• Changed the bonuses and maluses of different levels of satiety;
  

Other:

• fixed the bug related to using Tabula Rasa that broke character stats;
  
• issues with item stacks;
  
• issue related to equipping items after transferring through seamless;
  
• item icons and models;
  
• Crossbow UX;
  
• chat tags;
  
• karma colos;
  
• enchantment window;
  
• dropping equipped items;
  
• tower shields;
  
• a huge but not final fix of powders (powders, magic, buffs);
  
• forced turning on or off of FSR in certain locations and override of other settings;
  

Dear friends!
This patch note includes information about the first week's updates, including the one we released today.

[h3]Game Changes:[/h3]
Added:

• Field cauldrons now brew more powders. Public cauldrons only yield 25 powders per brewing;
  
• Several refiner and post-processor NPCs;
  

Changed:

• Powders of levels 2+ received a buff of damage, a change of CD and mana usage;
  
• Increased the price at which vendors buy powders;
  
• Prices and accessibility of certain crafting ingredients;
  
• All NPCs take a zero count tax;
  
• Herb spawners: changed spawn rates, added new types of herbs;
  
• Named bosses: increased stats, turned off XP gains, increased their respawn time, added respawn time offset, decreased their roam area, and increased the size of black territories around their spawn points;
  
• golem received a buff to its walking speed;
  
• stickman received a buff to HP and Magic Defense;
  
• wolf doesn’t push as hard anymore, decreased the chance and strength of critical hits;
  
• mobs near Harbur village got debuffed to be comparable to the mobs in the northern part of Rivulet Island;
  
• Vocation quests were made reusable;
  

Fixed:

• Stats and requirements of a number of enchantments and items, as well as item types, that made them unusable or impossible to enchant;
  
• Added missing or lacking powder tiers and recipes, including crafting recipes;
  
• Issue with prices caused by several vendors having the same DVB ID;
  
• Refiner NPCs don’t cheat anymore: turned off the hidden DVB price growth;
  
• A number of issues related to quests;
  

[h3]Tech Changes:[/h3]
Added:

• Level markers near immersive nameplates that display the level difference between the target and the character;
  
• SFX for the interaction between light and environment;
  
• GMs are now able to kick and ban players off the servers;
  
• Changed the scale of castle siege UI;
  
• New weapon icons;
  

Changed:

• “Take all” is now bound to just “E”, not “hold E”;
  

Fixed:

• Client crashes related to UI: UI reset, NPC interaction, P2P trade;
  
• Server crashes related to abilities;
  
• Issues related to abilities disappearing from the ability list when transferring between servers;
  
• Permanent invisibility after using abilities that grant invisibility;
  
• Errors related to actions bound to “Esc” key;
  
• Immersive nameplate errors emerging after Seamless transitions and teleportation;
  
• Enabled magic AI projectiles;
  
• AIs are no longer able to go beyond their spot;
  
• Hair artifacts occurring on certain graphics settings;
  

Optimized:

• NPC interaction;
  

[h3]ROG’oms Up![/h3]

Dear friends,

First of all, we are thankful for your feedback and reports that instantly started pouring in the moment we launched PT#4.

Secondly, we are thankful to those who support our project by making pre-orders. After all, for the past year and a half, our team has been operating on its own funds.

Some of the changes we prepared for PT#4 were technical; others concerned balance and economy. Apparently, just like you, we see all those issues that ensued from the scope of work that had been done in-between the playtests.

PT#4 Concept:

We decided not to wipe player characters of levels 15 and above. However, we deleted all their items and replaced the money they had with small set sums. Apart from that, they were all transported to Rivulet Island.

Economy:
We’ve drastically changed the prices of most items. It came as a result of changing processing prices. Before the change, processing bear pelt cost less than flatbread. We also increased the income that people receive for their in-game activities. Unfortunately, our efforts were rendered useless by the DVB system, which increased processing prices dramatically.
All these problems will be fixed during PT#4. We’ll also try to make crafting powders as profitable as crafting items.

Items:
We’ve made significant changes in the growth of item stats and requirements. The basic concept is that a character of level 60 will never be able to wear both armor and weapons of level 11+ simultaneously, to say nothing of the more powerful enchantments of these items.

AI:
We didn’t neglect the balance of AI. All AIs’ default levels were set to 60. The stats of an AI that happens to be spawned in a lower level spawner are multiplied by the number that corresponds to the level of the spawner.
Besides, all the mobs except animals have immunities to certain types of weapons and magic.

Our primary goal for starting locations was to make mobs easier to kill, including the named ones. We decreased their damage but increased their HP. The “duels” will get longer but players will have more chances to make mistakes
This is another aspect that we will change and fix according to the feedback we receive.

Some gameplay simplifications:
Some simplifications to make the experience easier:

• Ability trainers locations and their quests;
  
• Token prices (especially those that lead to castles);
  
• Prices and craft requirements of elixirs;
  
• Castles AI;
  
• Vendors’ stocks. At the moment, they sell items that we do not plan to sell in the future.
  

ROG’oms up!


Severs | Backend | Seamless
Added:

• A tracker that keeps track of the number of created characters, decreasing the starting money the more characters have been created;

Fixed:

• Buffs of higher levels were replaced with 1st level ones after a seamless transition;

Inventory | Equip | Containers:
Fixed:

• Bonus HP received from items was unrestored after going through a seamless transition;
  

Combat system | Magic:
Changed:

• 2H alternative attack doesn’t have to be charged, but was made 20-30% slower depending on the weapon;
  
• Re-balanced HP/MP restoration powders;
  
• Decreased camera shake and bob with crossbow equipped;
  

Fixed:

• The error in the damage formula of 2H special attack;
  

Character | Vocations and Abilities | Quests
Added:

• The character’s hunger status has a visible tech buff;
  

Changed:

• The party XP bonus was doubled;
  
• Increased the duration of invincibility after teleportation or entering the game world;
  

Fixed:

• Wrong character stats after relogging;
  
• abusing overweight with suicide;
  

Resources | Processing | Crafting | Enchantments
Fixed:

• Crafting stations didn’t “see” recipes stored in containers;
  

AI | NPC:
Added:

• forced teleportation to the spawn point after expiring certain individual timers;
  
• several SFX for AIs;
  

Changed:

• wolves were made 20-30% slower: running speed, acceleration, attacks;
  
• bears don’t shove so much when chasing their targets;
  
• Changed the sizes and behaviors of rats and hares
  
• Named AIs drop loot of higher quality and weight;
  

UI | UX | Visuals | Localization:
Added:

• “Tabula Rasa” window opens on using the item
  
• quest rewards tooltips (items/abilities);
  
• quest tracker that tracks 3 last accepted quests;
  
• the missing sounds for certain NPC windows;
  
• localization of a number of menus;
  

Changed:

• the attenuation of in-game sounds (fixed 2D sound effects);
  
• attribute, processing, black market, and enchantment widgets;
  
• global chat is set as default;
  

Fixed:

• certain map markers;
  
• visual issues with dividing item stacks;
  
• issues with NPC capsules being shifted.
  
• 
  

Dear friends!

It is finally time for us to launch Steam Playtest #4. As we have already stressed, most efforts were put into addressing the feedback that we received after PT #3. Including refactoring the problematic mechanics and adding new content in Dwarrhan, such as additive abilities for Vocations.

Soon, we are going to publish a brief FAQ that will tell more about the vision and certain assumptions regarding this PT and also the patch note.

The test is open:
We will host it using the Steam Playtest. It means that everyone applying will be granted access, be it before or during the testing session.

The session will last for 13 days:
from 14:00 (GMT+0) 07/05/2023 to 19:00 07/17/2023.

Server:
It’ll be Normal. Participants from the Steam playtest will be on the same server as those who received the keys earlier.

Locations available:
Tutorial Tavern, Rivulet Island, Daerkunn County;

Intermediate update:
We do not plan to release any intermediate updates apart from fixes.

[h3]ROG’oms Up![/h3]

Dear friends,

At last, we are ready to present the main patch note before PT #4. Here, we’ll tell you about everything we have done since the end of PT #3.

To put it briefly, most of our efforts were invested in refactoring the mechanics that received the majority of bug reports, such as quests and AI Spawners. Apart from that, we have been working on improving Seamless Zones and transitions, abilities, UX design, and the visual aspect of the game.

We are planning another 1 or 2 weeks of work on fixes and adding content to Dwarrhan. This build contains a number of known issues, but the sooner it gets into the hands of the ROG Club, the more known issues we will have ;)

We apologize for not being able to meet the scheduled deadlines for PT-4, but we are trying to really develop the project between playtests, albeit to the detriment of deadlines.

[h3]ROG’oms Up![/h3]

[h3]Refactored Mechanics[/h3]

• since these mechanics were completely rewritten it is needless to mention anything about their old bugs that had been reported by players:
  
• Quests;
  
• AI Spawners;
  

[h3]Server Part | Backend | Seamless[/h3]
Added:

• New Seamless Zones of different shapes (not just cubes);
  
• the algorithm for many-staged loading of character inventory;
  
• the script that automatically reboots servers according to the schedule;
  

Changed:

• character saving system;
  
• (exploit) external container item caching and saving system (bank, chests, etc.);
  
• (exploit) the process of logging into game, from the point of launching it to the moment of creating the character;
  

Fixed:

• (rare) an issue that set the character back to level 1.1 when rebooting the game too quickly;
  
• hotbar slots emptying on their own;
  
• Optimized:
  
• AI and their spawn;
  
• memory consumption for game servers;
  

[h3]General Balance | Economy:[/h3]

• revision of the prices of resources, processing and, as a result, of most of the items;
  
• revision of equipment bonuses and requirements of levels 2+;
  
• revision of the proportion of stats values between robes/light/medium/heavy armor, 1H & 2H weapons, weapon types (swords/axes/maces);
  
• made the process of crafting more rewarding financially;
  
• revision of the requirements and stat bonuses of the enchantments for Large Gear, Small Gear, and Jewelry;
  
• new approach to mob stats;
  

[h3]Tavern (Tutorial Map)[/h3]

• deleted several more redundant steps from it with accordance to the feedback received from PT #3 participants;
  

[h3]Inventory| Equip | Containers:[/h3]
Added:

• pressing “I” opens both the inventory and the equipped pouch;
  
• this function can be turned off by pressing the button in the pouch window;
  
• the button that allows to bring up the pouch window maximized or minimized;
  

Changed:

• the number of slots pouches give were considerably increased, limitations being placed on the pouches maximum weight capacity and its own weight;
  
• increases the number of items in stack for most items;
  

[h3]Combat System | Magic:[/h3]
Added:

• SFX for flying projectiles;
  

Changed:

• 2H alternative attack doesn’t need any more “charging” before being used;
  
• effects that change cooldown also make the animations of the actions they affect quicker;
  
• energy use and 2H sprint attack effects;
  

Fixed:

• an error in technical buff stack calculation, especially with those that deal DOT;
  
• Optimized:
  
• server load caused by spell logic and projectiles casts;
  

[h3]Character| Vocations and Abilities | Quests[/h3]
Added:

• new type of abilities - passive abilities that give constant passive bonuses while the ability is slotted in the character window;
  
• new type of abilities that change the behavior of weapons;
  

Changed:

• increased the speed and the distance of dodges;
  
• decreased the energy use of jumps and dodges, including the penalty for repeated dodging/jumping. The intensity of the penalty for carried weight was increased, however;
  

Fixed:

• dodging animation jittering when playing from 3rd person;
  
• attribute experience transfer powders;
  
• Archmage’s levitation wouldn’t end after the effect had already expired;
  

[h3]Resources | Processing | Crafting | Enchantments[/h3]
Added:

• messages notifying of crafting or enchantment results;
  

Changed:

• enchanted items tooltips;
  

Fixed:

• (exploit) errors with using ingredients that aren’t part of a single stack in inventory;
  
• enchantment: issues with attribute bonuses, requirement multiplier, and added requirements;
  
• the error that caused jewelry level to change after it was enchanted;
  

[h3]AI | NPCs:[/h3]
Added:

• mobs can now be completely or partially invulnerable to certain weapon/magic types;
  
• increased the number of bosses on the Island and Dwarrhan;
  
• every boss is now in the Black Zone;
  
• wolf;
  

Changed:

• brand new system of spawners in Dwarrhan - the quantity of mobs will depend on the biome where they are being spawned;
  
• a number of mobs had their idle mode turned back on (they can roam the areas around the spot where they have been spawned);
  

Fixed:

• wrong level scaling of HP regeneration;
  

[h3]UI | UX | Visuals | Localization:[/h3]
Added:

• “immersive” nameplates (“classic” nameplates can be turned on in the settings);
  
• animation for turning on spot;
  
• several voices for character to choose from;
  
• characters will use vocal reactions in more different scenarios;
  
• dynamic VFX emissive brightness change according to time of day;
  
• automatic transition to cursor mode when interacting with NPCs;
  
• new weapon models (including the replacement of old ones);
  

Changed:

• battle log messages made shorter and clearer;
  
• Improved LODs for a number of objects in settlements;
  

Fixed:

• saving hotkeys and displaying hotkeys of the bottom line of the hotbar;
  
• saving the position of windows after relogging;
  
• incorrect display of the attack value at the first equip of the powder;
  
• incorrect display of the amount of powders in the cell when using them through the hotbar;
  
• the cursor in the aiming mode takes into account the change in the range of the weapon depending on the character's height;
  
• the character window does not take into account the modified weapon stats;
  
• FPS drop when playing a number of VFX;
  
• bug with restarting the global cooldown timer on abilities after transitioning through Seamless;
  
• localization of different Karma zones;