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Chris' Daily Work Blog

Discussion in 'Developer Work and Blog posts' started by Chris, Apr 5, 2017.

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  1. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    Next release should bring better frame rate, especially in high stress situations! I'm calling it now, dance party will run at 30fps on an system with a decent video card! Also, I believe I identified the mysterious performance drain in Superstition Canyon and fixed it.

    Current focus is back to load times. A change was made to how we load assets that was making it super inefficient. This was adding as much as 10 seconds to some load times. Apparently this was a change made because doing multiple asynchronous loads from asset bundles in Unity was crashing Unity. We believe this is now fix and if it isn't, we'll be switching this a self throttled synchronous load system.

    Today I'll be putting together the final image for the DVD! Woot! Surprisingly, the DVD's are the fastest thing to manufacture so not needed until the very end.

    Also, we believe we have a fix for the 98% issue but we'll want help testing it later today on QA! Woot! Oh, and yes, this was not us but a Unity graphics thread issue. Grr....
     
  2. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    Also, forgot to mention that Harriote Hausen asked me to post something for her:

    "Thursday I'll be announcin' a challenge fer all th' scallywags out thar who wish t' help me in buildin' out Blood Bay. I'll post th' full details on Thursday but wanted t' let scallywags know t' be prepared fer it since 'twill be time sensitive.

    Th' short version be I be goin' t' be holdin' a contest t' choose two quartermasters t' help me. Each quartermaster will be assigned one side o' th' island. Exact rules will be posted Thursday but ye best be prepared t' get bloody if ye wants t' prove ye're worthy t' stand at me side 'n help me wit' me business."
     
  3. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    Also, update to QA build. We managed to repro the 98% bug...grrr... ok, throwing the next dart to fix it. Probably won't be live until tomorrow.
    *insert sadness meme here*
     
  4. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    Posting for Harriote Hausen:

    This is an exciting day for all Blood Bay citizens! Due to my overly busy I feel it is finally time I take on a pair of quartermasters, one to help managed each side of my island that we affectionately refer to as Blood Bay. The job of the quartermaster will be simple. They will be given a selection of decorations and a few lot markers to place on their half of the island to help fancy things up a bit. They will not be permitted to evict anyone or use the placement of the decos to grief anyone. These appointments will last for roughly 1 month earth time.

    As I’m only looking for the saltiest and most vicious people to join me, here are the rules for how I will choose my new quartermasters each month:

    • First quartermaster title will be given to the guild with the most qualifying kill points. The guild leader will get to name the person to act as quartermaster for one month.
    • Second quartermaster will be given to individual with the most qualifying kill points that is not in or has not recently been in the winning guild.
    • Guild winner will get first choice on which side of the island they represent.
    • Kills of guildmates do not count as qualifying kills.
    • Kills of players below level 60 do not count as qualifying kills
    • First kill of a player by the guild is 5 points, second 4, third 3, fourth 2, fifth 1, beyond 5 kills is 0. So killing the same player twice is 9 points.three times is 12 points, 5 times 15, 27 times 15. This also means a guild that has 10 players that kill a single player 5 times each for 50 total kills, still only get 15 points not 150 (15 points x 10).
    • Kills do not have to take place in Blood Bay. Any scene will do
    • Contest starts NOW!!!!!
    • Contest ends May 31 at 10AM.
    • Winners will be announced June 1st.
    Winners shall receive a unique wig, a special pirate cutlass, 4 lot deed markers to place, a few dozen city decos to place in Blood bay. They will also be recognized publicly! Cutlass will be their's to keep but wig and extra decos must be returned.

    The next quartermasters will be chosen based on the the same rules as above but the body counting will begin May June 7th at 10:30AM and run until June 28th.

    May the odds be ever in your favor... now get busy spilling some blood!
     
    Last edited: May 17, 2018
  5. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    Ok, I think we finally have a work around for the 98% that won't destroy performance. On a related note, load times in R53 got much worse and this change should also get them back to their sub 15 second times on many maps! Also, apparently new users have been starting in "Fastest" for the last 6 release.. DOH...

    Anyways, good news. We expect to have a patch for live today that will fix the 98% hang people have been seeing AND improve load times by 5-10 seconds as well. This will be our latest patch ever, BTW, but we think it is important enough to push it out.
     
  6. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    Been a while since I posted which is GREAT because it means I'll have a lot of stuff to talk about tonight in the live stream! For those that missed it, we are doing a mulligan on the Monday live stream because we had dozens of complaints from people saying they had no idea it was on Monday. If that many bothered to write and complain, that means probably 10x more feel the same way but did spend the time to write us. We did the stream on Monday for a change because Starr had a vacation planned and was leaving on Tuesday.

    Today, from noon until midnight Austin time, we'll be having the sale turned back on! I'll be hosting a live stream from 3PM until 7PM talking about the kind of stuff that I talk about and answering all questions! Richard will join me for the first half but he has an important engagement to attend half way through. So, with our parental supervision (AKA DJ Darkstarr) on vacation, expect Richard and I to be on our WORST behavior!

    Also, with Starr out, I'm spicing up the prizening a bit! So people might have heard that physical goods are in the production pipeline as we type this. One of the first things that had to be made so Richard could hand sign them, were the cloth maps. He has to sign all the cloth maps so they can then be shipped back to the production facility and then they can finish all the boxes.

    So the first shipment of cloth maps came in and we shipped the appropriate number off to Richard for him to sign BUT we intentionally ordered a few extras for give aways. Today on the stream, I'll be giving out one cloth map per half hour to the person who spends the most in that half hour. Let me say it again, each half hour, the person who spent the most in that half hour will win one of the first 8 cloth maps we've ever given out to ANYONE. I'll open the package on air. I'll give you the option of whether or not you want it signed by the team minus Richard/Starr and get it as early as next week, not signed by anyone and get it next week, or wait for a signature from Richard and/or Starr and get it in 2-3 weeks.

    tl;dr version
    • Sales from noon until midnight
    • Stretch goals continue starting from the Monday number of $47,500
    • Giving away a map (signed or not, your choice) every half hour DURING THE STREAM to the biggest spender
    • Giving away another map to a random person who spent anything every half hour DURING THE STREAM
    • Chris, Richard talking for hours about game stuff and answering ALL questions... (well, almost all)

    BE THERE! You guys need to make me look good today and show up! :)


    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jun 8, 2018
  7. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    UPDATE: Changing up the map contest a bit. We will give away TWO maps per half hour of the stream! One will go to the biggest spender during that half hour. The other one will go to a random person who purchased anything during that half hour.
     
  8. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    I'm way over due for both a post AND those formulas I promised you all! My apologies for the lateness but Starr is out this week so I'm even more swamped than normal which I didn't think was possible!

    Without further delay, let's get some formulas posted!

    First up is the Attunement math. This sheet shows caster attunement vs target's resistance + half attunment. For the Positive attunement, it uses attunement for caster/2 + attunement for target/2. If you cast on yourself, that is effectively just your attuenment.

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TmExutzo9x2H96c8UwVMW1RNKB8ZeUT_Vf-QKu4aa44/edit?usp=sharing


    Next up we have the player and skill level formula:

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18ZQR3H0KXmZ0d3ErxrYNVgzU4_LYRW03Zfdxn9GBdK0/edit?usp=sharing


    Next formulas is current Health Math! I say current because this is another I keep flattening the curve on a bit at a time...

    (10 + Strength * .7) * (1.1f + adventureLevel / 40))


    Focus is similar but slightly larger

    (10 + Intelligence* .7) * (1.1f + adventureLevel / 33))


    Math to break stun:

    sqrt( Intelligence + (strength+Dexterity) /4 )) / (600*stunStrength) as percentage

    Math to break Root

    sqrt( Strength+ (Intelligence +Dexterity) /4 )) / (600*stunStrength) as percentage

    With each failed attempt to break a root or stun, the stun strength is multiplied by 0.8


    Magic crit chance

    sqrt(skillLevel in spell cast + Intelligence)*0.015


    Damage multiplier for skill level:

    sqrt( skillLevel/100)*1.581

    If you're wondering why 1.581, that is because this is targeting skill level 40 to be base 1.0 damage and 1/sqrt(40/100) = 1.581


    Free attack damage multiplier

    1+tickCount*0.35



    Ok, that should keep people busy for a while so I can get back to doing two jobs! :)
     
  9. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    Deep breath.... ah... all good now. For reasons that are probably obvious, this release might be a little more crazy than most! Looking forward to being able to talk about some of the course changes we're making starting in R56 but can't talk too much about it until next week.

    Also, I'm adding a few more jobs to my already long list! First up is managing all the streamers out there! If you are a streamer and need keys to give away to promote your stream, send me a private message and I'll probably hook you up!
     
  10. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    Time for a real tech/design post!

    So we have a system for having a rune create an area effect volume that applies some effect to things in the volume. It is supposed to apply it once per duration of the effect. So, if you had something that was set to a 2 second effect it would apply it every 2 seconds. Runes also have a chance calculation on them so you can set it so something has a calculated chance of happening.

    So, for Meteor Shower, the design was that it would hit an area and every 2 seconds you would get a (10+(skillLevel/10))% to get a big meteor hit for high damage and then also a second (20+(skillLevel/5))% chance to get a smaller hit. Both could happen in the same tick if you got lucky. So again, this is supposed to be the above chances happening once every 2 seconds.... or at least that was the design. Turns out, if both rolls fail and neither meteors hit, instead of waiting 2 seconds to roll again, it tries to do the roll again the next frame. :O

    So instead of it being 2 small chances to have a meteor hit every 2 seconds, it guarantees that one or the other will happen every 2 seconds. Ugh... so that was actually something that changed a number of releases back but since most things that were using it, like ring of fire, were 100% trigger chance, it was never noticed.

    So, tl;dr, I found out why Meteor Shower is way more powerful than expected.

    My planned fix is to not change that tech back as players are used to the current behavior. Instead I'm changing it so it does either the big one or the little one but not both, once every 2 seconds.

    Other design changes that just went in is the "Negative Attunement" math changed slightly. Negative attunement is the math used when you cast a spell on an enemy. That is the YourAttunement -(theirAttunement/2 + theirResistance) value. The curve has been changed so that the effect is greater at levels below 150. At 150, the effect is identical to what it was in R54 and above 150 it will taper off slightly compared to R54. Here is a spreadsheet showing old and new:
    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TmExutzo9x2H96c8UwVMW1RNKB8ZeUT_Vf-QKu4aa44/edit?usp=sharing

    Also, fall damage has been decreased by about a third overall but damage at lower fall distances has been decreased even more. I changed this after looking into a heat map that showed where players died on Outskirt maps. LOTS of players dying from falls where I looked at the spot and immediately though, "No way that would kill someone!" Then I played it myself and YEP, new players died from far too trivial falls.
     
  11. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    I have to run get my wee one before school closes so keeping this one to the point! Did lots of stuff today for balance... here ya go:

    • Escape, Knight's Grace, and Berserker stance each remove one slow effect when triggered (2 if specialized)
    • Healing Grace, Knight's Grace, Passive Stance, and soon BANDAGES, each remove one bleed effect (rend, skewer) when used
    • Set all moon magic and ice field to the 100% unlearn list
    • Fixed a bug in icefield where the slow duration once you left the field was based on Positive Attunement math, meaning if you got hit with it and had a high water attunement it would actually last LONGER! Also shortened this duration once you leave. You'll be slowed the whole time you're in there
    • Draw and discard speed are now capped at 1/3rd of a second and 3 seconds respectively. No more exploding in flames when you use flurry and chaotic feedback at the same time!
    • Meteor shower adjusted to be about 10% less DPS than Ring of Fire at the same levels and attunement but hits more targets and has a larger area. Moon specialization will speed up the meteor hit speeds. (this is not on QA yet. What is on QA as of Friday afternoon is trash because I suck)

    Lots of other little tweaks but those are the big ones! Time to get my munchkin and see you guys over the weekend in game!
     
  12. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    Trying something new to help get word out about the 4 hour live stream tomorrow. I just made a post on Facebook about it. For every 25 shares that post gets, we'll add another day of double xps next week! Help us promote the live stream, raise awareness of the game, and help out your fellow players with some extra bonus XPs!

    It's the top pinned post about the live stream. Already has 20 shares! Only 5 more to go to get an extra day of double xps! Shoot for 2 extra days at 50 shares by the live stream tomorrow!
    https://www.facebook.com/ShroudoftheAvatar/
     
    Last edited: Jul 5, 2018
  13. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    WAY too long since I did a post. Expect a good one tomorrow....
     
  14. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    Ugh, and today didn't go as expected so I'll keep this one brief and try to do another one tomorrow. Mostly I just wanted to share some player made dungeon updates.

    First, Dungeons will be in addition to basements. So you can have a dungeon and a basement placed at any given time. They also store just like basements. So yes, you will be able to build multiple dungeons and swap them out for your friends.

    Second, we will be adding a rating system so players can rate dungeons. The town crier will show a list of the dungeons in town and let you sort on dungeon name, owner's name, rating, number of ratings, size, difficulty, and date last modified. Hoping to get all those in but likely will take some time. Also, we'll probably publish public dungeon data in the public API.

    Third, dungeons will work on a blueprint system. You will have to buy blueprints for pieces from a merchant. As an example, crafting a plain hallway might be 1 Hallway blueprint, 100 stone, 50 wood. A hallway blueprint purchased from a merchant for 100-ish gold. More interesting things, like encounter rooms might take a blueprint, 900 stone, 450 wood, 250 spider eggs. The blueprints are consumed on use. More visually unique blueprints will likely show up on crown merchants.

    This also means that we can start adding unique or themed blueprints to the game as rare drops. So for instance, you might kill a named Satyr and find a blueprint for a unique Satyr room that is a a large room, with dirt floor and glowing mushrooms populated by T10 Satyr's. So this will be another very interesting item that we can use to populate loot bundles.

    Max dungeon size will be determined by the lot they are placed on and how many extra chunks you've expanded it. Expansion will work roughly like bank slots and can be bought with gold or COTOs. Current target price is something like 1000 gold per extra chunk capacity for the first 20 and then 2000 gold for the next 20 and then 3000 gold for the next 20, etc. COTO prices will be something like 1 COTO per chunk for the first 50 and then 2 COTOs per chunk for the next 50. Those are absolutely "Don't lawyer me bro" numbers as more testing for what feels fair needs to be done.

    Dungeons will start with 50/100/150/200/250/300 based on Row/Village/Town/City/Keep/Castle.

    Chunks are an 8m x 8m x 5m section. For an example, Soltown Sewers is roughly 125 chunks. This means someone with a village lot would have to spend about 30k total gold to expand their space enough to rebuild Soltown Sewers. Someone in a Castle lot could probably rebuild Ravensmoor right away with little or no extra expansion.

    Like bank slots, the dungeon expansion will be tied to your account, not a specific dungeon or lot. So expanding your chunk limit expands it for all your dungeons on all your lots if you have multiple lots.

    Still investigating have a POT dungeon that is some kind of mega dungeon. Seems likely but step one is get base system in place.

    Dungeons will be deco-able EXCEPT for encounter rooms/spaces. Those will come with decos built in and new decos can't be added as it could lead to exploits. Encounter spaces will give xp and loot!

    First thing to arrive will be the dungeon entrances with place holder example dungeons that can't be edited. Those should arrive NOW. Well, later this week or next week. These will just be visual variants but will have some example dungeons showing off what players will be able to do with the system in future releases. Also, purchasing these will get you access to a growing set of Unity prefabs for dungeon planning in Unity for those with some basic skills.

    Second thing to arrive will be recipes and blueprints. These will likely arrive in this release and more in next release so players can start building a library of pieces so you're ready when the real thing arrives.

    Third thing to arrive will be the base construction system. This is where you'll be able to construct dungeons from your pieces. Exact ETA on this isn't certain BUT my goal is R58. That is a SUPER "don't lawyer me bro" number but as always, I'm the eternal optimist! This will include encounter rooms MINUS the actual critters most likely.

    Fourth thing to arrive will be the encounters. This is where some of the icky parts are hiding. Have to figure out a fast system for navmesh stitching and other unique challenges,

    Every release going forward, you can expect to see more interesting room, encounter, and trap options showing up in blue prints.

    For those who are worried this might hinder our performance and bug fixing push, it will but only a little. For the most part, the people working on this aren't the ones working on polish and performance.

    Ok, That is the quick brain dump for today. Time to get back to making it happen vs typing about it! :)

    Also, I'll be AFK next week so there is a chance that the dungeon entrances might slip until the official R57 release.
     
  15. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    Ok, only a bit of time again today as I'm swamped as always.

    First, for release in R57, I setup 5 new dungeon entrances. These will be placeable and will have some static dungeons under them, lord willing and the creek don't rise! Quick trivia, in that old saying, "creek" was capitalized and they believe it was referring to the Creek Indian tribe, not a creek with water in it. The ones I setup so far are a lunar rift looking entrance, a magic book entrance, a magic mirror entrance, a vaporous stone arch portal, and a flat boring stone tomb on the ground entrance.

    Several more long meetings on this today resulted in a few design changes.

    First, due to fear of people paying for their account to have a large dungeon and then trying to RMT large dungeons to other players, we're going to walk back the dungeon size tied to an account thing. As usual, this is why we can't have nice things. :/ We're working on a way to tie the upgrade to the dungeon itself now.

    First dungeon piece was placed through an in game interface! YAY! Progress. My initial design for using green balls on the wall was scrapped in favor of a blue one since green means successful placement in deco system. I warned them that using blue balls would just result in lots of jokes but was over ruled...

    Completely dynamic navmesh creation tests showed that it is possible to build a full, clean navmesh in a reasonable amount of time. Looking into further optimizations as it could mean as much as a minute or more wait for big dungeons while you're locked in the entry room. Worst case currently is you enter the dungeon and invisible wall blocks you in the starting space. This is similar to what happens if you get to a lot before all the decos are loaded. This was the scariest tech challenge and we already have a pretty workable solution. Woot!

    Answering a few questions I was asked:
    • Will the new encounter rooms respawn the creatures that were built into them after they've been killed once
    • If so, how long between respawns?
    They will respawn multiple times. The rate of respawn is currently be discussed.

    • I noticed you said that deco will not be an option for the encounter rooms due to exploiting. Would you consider allowing a 'treasure chest' type item for those rooms so that the player owner might increase the loot for that room by filling a chest with player made goodies?
    We plan on allowing a few decos along walls and in key spots. Just enough for a chest or two
    • Will the new dungeons have place-able teleport pads to enhance travel options within them?
    Teleports within the dungeon? Definitely. Who doesn't want to build a classic and confusing dungeon with a mesh of teleporters! Teleporters to other dungeons? Likely but not in the initial version. Teleporters to other random scenes, no.
    • Do you plan on allowing pieces of dungeon kit to be salvageable for some of the resources they cost to make?
    Of course!
    • To make meeting up with your friends easier, will you enable teleporting to your friends into these dungeons - perhaps via a teleport room or a summoning room? (similar to a WOW summoning stone)
    Maybe. Discussing lots of easier travel options as we continue to try and make the game less punishing for the average player.
    • Will the dungeons feature lockable gates/portcullis?
    Definitely. Many players will just use the dungeon as a way to build their own, custom basement and not even think about using it for a real adventuring space.
    • If so, will keys that are found at the bottom of one dungeon be able to open a specific door into a separate dungeon? (For instance, having a door match a specific key that can be found in one dungeon and used in another.
    Tech to be developed but yes, hopefully we can have doors that you can click on to buy keys from when in deco mode. Those keys can then be put in chests, handed out or whatever.

    Lockpicking definitely will make an appearance.

    Difficulty of spawns is being discussed. Expecting it to be customizable difficulty. Not entirely sure of the interface yet though. Might be as easy as an option you choose when the dungeon is in deco mode through the hatch interface. Something simple like a choice between Easy, medium, hard, or lethal. Another option we've discussed is making it so each respawn of the creatures in it gets progressively tougher.

    Reminder for those interested in the RP side of things. Quest system rewrite and NPC customization and lots more loot chest options coming so players can build their own story, their own quests, populate "limit, take one" chests. Also, chests that open on a magic word. This will be expanded as a major feature of episode 2. Basically episode 2 is a modest expansion of the lands, an expansion of the story line, and a huge expansion of the sand box elements. Custom quests are a huge part of that.

    As for avoiding repeating the mistakes of the Foundry system in NWO, no worries. Pretty much a fact that if you give players a set of rules, they will find the limits to exactly minmax those rules ASAP. Our system will work very much like our in world dungeons but with a hair tougher risk vs reward cycle. By that I mean that, like control points, there will be special versions of player dungeon creatures. These will effectively have the rewards of creatures 1-2 tiers lower. So they might fight like a tier 10 but give XP and gold like a tier 8. We're looking at other options to avoid the obvious player dungeon exploit of linking a daemon room to a daemon room to a daemon room to a daemon room, repeat until you have a big circle of daemons waiting to be farmed.

    Our goal is to give players rewards for playing the dungeons BUT to make sure they earn it and that it is likely still less efficient than the most efficient zones in game. On that note, the most effective zones in the game need to be brought back down to earth as well. UT is better this release but still a little too good. Expect another milder change like last release where the critters get a bit tougher in R57.

    Current plan is that there is only one location for monsters in encounter rooms but that was discussed today. Also discussed making it so you can set attributes on chunks so they are not decoable but monsters are then free to roam further. This came up because we're discussing ways to make wandering monsters work and also patrols. We might end up switching to something closer to just craft rooms, craft spawners and place them however you choose. The one catch is that they will likely all have to have the same faction to avoid players setting up monster arenas where monsters just endlessly fight each other. I know, sounds like fun but again, exploits and this is why we can't have nice things. :p

    Love the idea of a dungeon master mode. Need some thought on how best to make that happen without it being exploited... as always, TIWWCHNT...

    As always, Don't Lawyer Me Bro on this stuff. As always, we have ideas and we are trying to not repeat the mistakes of games like NWO but we're not the types to stick to on paper designs just because. When we get into the guts of things and see what really works well and feels good, we adapt designs. Likewise, when something is 10x as hard for little gain, we adjust. That was how we ended up with sizes being tied to accounts though, because it was the easiest option. Sadly, sometimes the hard road is the only real option so we'll choose the hard way on that one to avoid exploits.

    As for whether you must have episode 2 to do dungeon building, unlikely it will be required. We don't plan on capping features based on whether you have episode 2 or 3 or whatever. Those will be about new spaces and new quests in general. That said, GO BUY EPISODE TWO! :p Something that we likely will do is have some items drop only in episode 2 spaces. For instance, maybe some blue prints might only drop in episode 2 scenes but you'll still be able to buy those from other players.

    Ok, time to go get a munchkin! Take care and I'll try to post again tomorrow.
     
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  16. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    In stupid early today (3AM) but that means I'll be out around lunch to go start getting ready for our trip. Quick test using just 6 of the most basic primitive chunks players will be able to craft.



    This is a 50 point dungeon. Reminder that our current target is now 100 points for a row lot, 125 for village, 150 Town, 175 City, 200 Keep, 225 Castle.

    So a Row lot would have a dungeon twice this size BEFORE spending any gold or COTOs to enlarge.

    Doing this test also helped me identify a few new features we will absolutely want. Big one is that in deco mode, we need players to have some config options per tile so they can do things like toggle on/off wall torches and spider webs!

    Not too many other updates but wanted to share the video for a sense of scale.
     
  17. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    Only had a few free minutes and couldn't make the live stream so I made this for them to play. Not sure when they are going to play it so I might be scooping them with this:


    I'm out of town but not offline during next week! Likely no discord though so message me in the forums (not tag) if you need something urgent!
     
  18. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    Back from my trip. Monday was a day of meetings and planning.

    Today is real work. Started by fixing a bunch of code rot in the system I use to dump all information from all skills into a spreadsheet format. This was get ready to overhaul the aggro generation for all skills. As expected, the aggro values were all over the place. Quick brain dump on what I'm targeting. Damage skills already come with aggro from the damage so these should be zero in most cases. Buffing yourself or others should produce mild aggro (10), moving a target should produce modest aggro (20), healing a friend should produce aggro proportional to amount healed but at a lower rate than would be generated by doing that much damage, debuffs and stuns should produce large aggro (40). Modifying that, heavy armor skills should generate extra agro and setting a handful to certain values outside these guidance numbers, like coup de grace for instance.

    Cruising on these and expect to have them cleaned up and normalized
     
  19. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    Rune aggro adjusted for 121 different skills. The standout issue will probably surprise no one... Rapid Fire skill in ranged was adding significant aggro PER ARROW. So a normal high level archer with decent bow could generate significantly more aggro with a single rapid fire than a tank could generate by taunting multiple times.

    Heavy armor skills use the numbers I mentioned above but x2 so if you want to hold aggro, use heavy armor. Shields use the above numbers but x1.5.

    Moving on to loot table updates now...
     
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  20. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    It's that time of the release! The time when I finally have all other stuff done and can just focus on the balance stuff and things I think need to be changed. Quick brain dump of changes I made yesterday before I dive back in to do more stuff:
    • Most summoned pets should now be working as they should always have been working. All elementals, daemon, and phoenix pets were set to do a fixed amount of damage that didn't scale up with power. I just fixed this. Before the fix, with all skills at 100, earth elementals would hit for 2 to 12 ish damage, average around 7. After the change with all skills at 100 he was hitting for 23-35 damage with 60+ point crits.
    • Aetheric Feedback time window expanded by 1 second after discovering the bonus only applied if you completed the spell before the window closed
    • Stun locking improvements. Another tough nut to crack on best options to prevent stun locking in PVP without breaking PVE and keeping stun a meaningful effect. Current improvement I just added was to make it so you get the crowd control resist boost when you get hit by the stun/mez/root but then you also get another resist boost if you break it early. So players who actively work to break stuns will gain resist at twice the rate.
    • Polearm Pull skill had it's max range reduced 1M and the window where you can damage people with it also moved in a M to keep the window the same
    • Polearm max crit damage reduced from 2.5 to 2.25 to soften the biggest hits a hair
    • Smelling salts will no longer clear PVP transitions (really just a bug fix)
    • Bacchanal's belt will no longer add infinite strength if you get infinitely drunk. I know, I'm always the killjoy...
    • Massive update to boss loot packages to ensure you always get something that isn't trash, even if it is just a gem or a potion.
     
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