Discuss the Update: April 7

[Citan]

The patch notes are here: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?1297-Update-Notes-April-7-2018&p=9906&viewfull=1#post9906

Please discuss the update in this thread!

We are aware of the following new issues:

NPCs can be "invisible" from certain camera angles (details not yet fully understood -- if you have more info on what's going on or how to repro it reliably, please post here!)
There's a farm building outside of Serbule that's "on stilts" and very high above the ground

[IndigoBlue]

This is the first update that has been released since I joined. Thanks for posting the patch notes so quickly! I've been waiting for this patch to try out Animal Handling.

[Karamasha]

i see you've made some icon changes again :D

is there any skill level increasing patch planned?

I'm thinking about the skills that's stuck at 60 mostly.

[Bindlestiff]

I know not everyone is experiencing this but I am encountering numerous spontaneous relog events in the game. They can take anywhere from 20 sec to 3 minutes in game. I have run into this in a previous patch but not sure what was done to correct it then. There may have been something sneal back into this update that is causing this to occur again. Also, there is a noticeable degradation in fps in Serbule town square. Others have reported wildly fluctuating fps rates as well. And others have reported improvements. So, overall, I am of the opinion that there are some technical (non-content) issues that have crept back in to degrade the overall experience. Once again, I wish I cold give you more background information for repeatability but it does not seem to be consistent.

[Quanzhigao]

Is there a free trial planned? 'Download the alpha client and try the game' has been suggested to anyone looking at it. 'just pay 40 dollers lol' seems much less likely to get someone to take the dive.

[Mikhaila]

Well, to be fair, it was free to play for years, and even now you can buy the game and return it with less than a few hours of play since it's through steam.

[Quanzhigao]

After receiving a key I activated account on a computer I don't regularly use, it auto synced to an account I made on the alpha client using that PC(which I logged into once) instead of giving me any option. SeemsGood

[Oqua]

"Fixes to Treasure Mods"

its not spelled out like I am 5, can I take it to mean these have been fixed?

[sudostahp]

I like the new razorslash panther / orc mix in Kur. It's more dangerous, which is a good balance to the reward. Unfortuantely the panther spawn has been dramatically reduced, and it seems that their respawn time has increased (it's hard to tell on the latter since there are so many fewer in the area). I feel that the pendulum may have swung too far in this re-balance.

[Jms60t5]

In the Sebule Hills area, there used to be nice, lush grass and trees. It was fantastic. (I run using "retro" graphics but advanced and set all to max - no lag before and looked fantastic). Now, it's barren -- it's utterly lifeless. No grass, few trees. I was told in-game that the devs removed the grass and most of the trees deliberately. Is this true? In what universe did that make sense? The area looks hideous now. I actually don't want to log in, if I have to go to that zone. It's so utterly barren-looking, it's actually depressing. Seriously. No grass?

-- Edit: thank heavens Sebule itself still has a good, lush look. I am literally trying to figure out how to play without having to go to Sebule Hills ever -- it looks so bad without grass and trees. I normally don't care about graphics, but even low-res grass would look better than the barren wasteland that is that zone now. Please, please, please bring life back to that zone. It look like farmland before -- it looks barren now. Not... good.

[srand]

After receiving a key I activated account on a computer I don't regularly use, it auto synced to an account I made on the alpha client using that PC(which I logged into once) instead of giving me any option. SeemsGood

Hmm. You should have needed to log in through Steam once on that alpha account before it became attached. But if you contact support@projectgorgon.com, we can de-Steam you so you can try again.

[srand]

In the Sebule Hills area, there used to be nice, lush grass and trees. It was fantastic. (I run using "retro" graphics but advanced and set all to max - no lag before and looked fantastic). Now, it's barren -- it's utterly lifeless. No grass, few trees. I was told in-game that the devs removed the grass and most of the trees deliberately. Is this true? In what universe did that make sense? The area looks hideous now. I actually don't want to log in, if I have to go to that zone. It's so utterly barren-looking, it's actually depressing. Seriously. No grass?

-- Edit: thank heavens Sebule itself still has a good, lush look. I am literally trying to figure out how to play without having to go to Sebule Hills ever -- it looks so bad without grass and trees. I normally don't care about graphics, but even low-res grass would look better than the barren wasteland that is that zone now. Please, please, please bring life back to that zone. It look like farmland before -- it looks barren now. Not... good.

We exchanged comments briefly on the Steam forum, and I have your in-game report. (Thank you!) I just wanted to clarify for other players that this is not a deliberate or intended change. We'll get it fixed. :)

[INXS]

Jms60t5 How you think the Ranalor got the new dungeon built? Had to tear down trees for it ! :)

[Citan]

The trees and grass in Serbule Hills got turned off by accident. They'll be back

[IndigoBlue]

The trees and grass in Serbule Hills got turned off by accident. They'll be back


Oh, thank goodness! I've been leveling Animal Handling in Serbbule Hills, and yea, it was kinda cool to see stuff better, but gosh darn, missed the foliage more.

[Uric]

So far I've enjoyed the new patch. I've seen some improvement in my FPS and the new dungeon has been great. I know that non-instanced dungeons are nothing new for this game, but as a new player I find it incredibly refreshing. It's awesome to meet new people at the dungeon entrance and work with them through a boss or two. Thanks for the update, I look forward to whatever is next!

[IndigoBlue]

Came in again today to say that I really like the new item icons. Probably haven't seen them all, but the ones I have, very nice!

[Unruly]

MaxActiveLoads=100 works just fine on my machine. It's not top of the line or anything. Middle of the road i3, SSD, 16gb ram & radeon 480+ gfx card.

Edit: having said that, at ANY gfx level, serbule (any area that is populated with humanoids) is still hard to navigate. My fps always shows a reasonable number, despite the stutter/jerkiness trying to navigate.

Maybe a special setting to tell PG how much resources for each zone to load? I've got an 8gb card, I imagine a lot of that is going to waste.

[Quanzhigao]

you nerf panther but people in the thread were saying they make 200,000 in 20 minutes

panther only way i know for make money, now i am poor


;_;

[alleryn]

I like the new razorslash panther / orc mix in Kur. It's more dangerous, which is a good balance to the reward. Unfortuantely the panther spawn has been dramatically reduced, and it seems that their respawn time has increased (it's hard to tell on the latter since there are so many fewer in the area). I feel that the pendulum may have swung too far in this re-balance.

This is exactly what i was going to say.

There used to be 50-100 panthers i'd say and now it's more like a dozen. As far as i know this is the only mob in the game that yields Quality skins (i may be wrong about this, please correct me).

I never farmed panthers regularly for cash, i only used them as a source when i needed specifically quality skins (usually to fill a work order). But now it just feels highly time-consuming to accumulate the quality skins i would like. [Edit: As comparison, even farming great skins from Grimalkin, with their low density, is faster, i believe.]

The addition of the orcs is great. They call for help and fire at you from range. I died more than once (of course i don't have great gear, so i suppose they're nothing more than a minor nuisance to stronger players).

One idea i had was to give the panthers some kind of evasion to aoe attacks to make it harder to farm them in bulk as people had been doing in the past. Perhaps this would make it possible to increase the number of panthers without their being the enormous cash cow they were in the past. I'm not sure if such an ability is possible with the engine, however.

Otherwise a great update. Still considerable lag in Serbule of course, but i think you're on the right track. It feels substantially better than before. Keep up the great work!

[Mikhaila]

There are several other places to get quality skins, panthers are just the easiest and most obvious. I get them in the Kur wolf cave, and at least one of the caves in gaz. I think i've also got some off of mobs roaming gaz in the open.

The panthers are fun now, and I think a good change over all. There shouldn't be such an easy path to make money. If panthers were the only way that someone knew to make money, that's an indicator that something is broken. Many people will follow the path of easy money, and the game is worse for it. Good change.

[alleryn]

There are several other places to get quality skins, panthers are just the easiest and most obvious. I get them in the Kur wolf cave, and at least one of the caves in gaz. I think i've also got some off of mobs roaming gaz in the open.

The panthers are fun now, and I think a good change over all. There shouldn't be such an easy path to make money. If panthers were the only way that someone knew to make money, that's an indicator that something is broken. Many people will follow the path of easy money, and the game is worse for it. Good change.

Some more specific info on which mobs drop quality skins would be nice. Kur wolf cave is a good suggestion, but are there really mobs in gazluk that give quality skins? It's more likely to me they give great skins and then qualities as bonuses (which is not what you want if you are trying to farm quality's).

Also gazluk is not really a reasonable option for players just starting to farm quality skins. Even the wolf cave is a large jump in difficulty from panthers and is going to be a serious impediment to learning leatherworking for newer players, if that is the solution.

I don't see any reason we can't simply add back some of the panthers while keeping their density lower than it was.

[Tagamogi]

I was really impressed with the new dungeon. My husband and I went there Saturday afternoon: There were 28 people in it initially, going up to 48 when we left. It seemed crowded at first since there were a bunch of people near the entrance when we zoned in ( and we actually missed the NPC initially because she blended in so much), but once we got a bit into the dungeon there was actually lots of stuff for us to kill. Towards the end, it felt a bit crowded again but with almost 50 people, that's understandable. Exploring the den was still a lot of fun; I quite enjoyed the atmosphere and the different areas.

I really liked the NPC quests - they were entertaining and had great rewards. I did about 3-4 of them and got a pair yellow boots and a new cooking recipe, so I'm super-happy. I'm wondering about the recipes though: Is there going to be an alternative of way of obtaining them (e.g. at super-high faction with an NPC), or is completing Chirra's missions going to be the only way? My immediate thought is that we are going to have a lot of high level players camping the dungeon because of the new recipes, although once the initial rush wears off, I don't know if that's going to be a concern really.

I did the dungeon on a bard/psychology alt around level 28-29 with no particular twinks. The difficulty felt about right for me, maybe a bit higher than the 18-24 suggested in the patch notes, since it felt very comfortable duoing the place (albeit with a rather absent-minded partner who was more inclined to run off on his own than help me when I got into a jam.) I got killed a couple times when I had 3-4 mobs on me, and had some power problems, possibly related to me going in there with nothing but onion omelets and Neufchatel cheese. The ramped up ranalon evasion surprisingly didn't seem that bad to me - I was really dreading that when I read it in the patch notes, but in practice it seemed to work out fine for me. The ranalons knocking me about turned out to be more of a nuisance than their evasion. (And I'm not unhappy with the knockback - it kept things interesting.)

The difficulty of the Doctrine Keeper also seemed about right to me - it seemed like the boss would take about 3+ average players to kill which is perfect for a crowded dungeon. ( Our attempts on the keeper were a bit weird - I ended up duoing the boss with some player I don't know and we wiped with around a third of the boss's health left. After running back, some other player had already engaged the boss and seemed to be tanking it pretty comfortably without doing too much damage. We joined up and had a pretty safe kill.)


In other patch things, the animal handling changes look neat. I'm really happy that we now have a passive mode for pets, even if I don't think I have any time in the foreseeable future to actually play as ah. One thought for a feature I haven't tried yet: Might it be possible to assign keyboard hot keys for the different pet modes? It would be difficult to handle if someone has multiple pets; I was just imagining some scenario where I want my pet to stop attacking NOW and I lost my mouse cursor in the current aoe effects...

I'm not sure if the patch did much to my FPS in Serbule. I was running at 30 fps at Ivyn's farm on Good which seems higher than normal to me. However, there were other lag problems which meant I wasn't paying a lot of attention to the fps since everything felt weird anyway. I only played a little bit in Serbule after the patch but generally it seemed that interacting with objects had several seconds of lag associated with them. My husband played Sunday afternoon and said the game was essentially unplayable for him: He tried a few times to catch a fish in a lake, but the fish never showed up in his inventory, so he walked out of the lake. A bit later, he then drowned in the middle of the road on dry land. He then explored Rahu for a bit and that zone worked fine for him. [ I assume the lag is a general server problem. I did not put in a bug report for my lag issues, and I'm pretty confident my husband didn't either. If it helps, we can do one.]

[Tagamogi]

Some more specific info on which mobs drop quality skins would be nice. Kur wolf cave is a good suggestion, but are there really mobs in gazluk that give quality skins? It's more likely to me they give great skins and then qualities as bonuses (which is not what you want if you are trying to farm quality's).

The Gazluk wolf (Tower View) cave seems to give me a pretty even mix of great and amazing skins, with the occasional quality skin thrown in. I haven't actually paid attention to individual skinning results but it seems likely they are coming from bonuses. On an alt with a lot of skinning failures, I've been coming back with maybe 8-12 each of the great/amazing skins and 0-2 of the quality skins. So, no, not a good spot to farm.

I'm pretty terrible remembering which tier drops where... what about the animals in the Animal Nexus? Probably too low level?

( With 2 characters maxed in leatherworking and 1 alt at the level 60 lock, I don't think I've ever farmed for skins. I just buy them from the NPC vendors. With the panther nerf, it's going to be interesting to see if my supply dries up.)

[alleryn]

Well i'm not sure if something was changed or what, but i tried farming panthers again today with very different results (about 2.5x as many skins farmed). Either the density was pushed back up or maybe yesterday there was another player farming them who i didn't notice.

I'd say the density is now approaching too high, although with the orcs' ranged attacks it's probably a lot harder to aoe. I can only take on like 5 or so panthers max anyways, i'm not sure if it's possible to pull more than that at a time. If not i'd say it's in a pretty good spot.

For reference i got about 60 skins in an hour yesterday and 160 today (a little more than an hour with gourmand bonus). I also didn't die today where yesterday i died probably 4-5 times so that was part of it also.

[Richgoo]

Animal Handling: Not sure if it's just me, but since the patch, Sic 'Em is very buggy. Generally it does nothing, sometimes it will result in the pet freezing up totally. I have filed a bug report, but I wanted to know if anyone else is experiencing the same thing.

[INXS]

I might have hunted the panthers in Kur maybe 2 or 3 times in my PG life, I fly above them a lot and the numbers of them hasn't been drastically reduced but there's a lot of orcs in amongst them. You can get quality skins from many places, just got to explore PG and find those areas.

[ArkadyRandom]

Loot Drops: I'm lower level (25 Fire / 20 Psych) and playing in Serbule, Serbule Hills, and Eltibule. Mobs used to drop gear for my equipped skills, but now that doesn't happen hardly at all. It's often a mix of stuff I don't even have leveled.

This is a problem because it's very hard to find suitable gear at vendors or player shops except for top tier rare gear. The cost and risk of selling consignment are too high at low levels to try and make money from that gear. It just feels like a bottleneck now. Before I would get more useful drops that would help shape my build. Now I don't see those often and I can't find them in vendors and player stalls.

[Citan]

We're exploring the causes of server latency (when the server is slow to respond to interactions with NPCs or entities). That's probably the most serious kind of "lag" because it means the whole area you're in will be experiencing the same lag. However it's not immediately obvious what's going wrong. It seems that a particular "thing" people are doing is causing much higher impact than usual, and it only happens under high loads. It could be something like the poetry podium, or the player work-order board, or perhaps player shops, or... well, lots of other things.

I may end up creating a debug build of the server with lots of logging enabled, and run that for a day or two to see if we can track it down. That will mean worse performance in the short term but hopefully will let us find and fix the culprit.

---

The chance of dropping items based on your active skills is exactly the same as pre-patch. The chance of it being exactly mapped to your two skills (and not generics or randomly-picked skills) is only like 65-75% or so, and always has been, so we often get reports that it's broken after each game update. But it's just random, so give it a bit of time to average out some!

---

RE: panthers - we haven't altered spawn density or anything like that since the update. Spawners have random spawn profiles, so sometimes there will be more or fewer panthers than at other times. It should average out to a fairly high number of panthers in general.

[Khaylara]

Loot Drops: I'm lower level (25 Fire / 20 Psych) and playing in Serbule, Serbule Hills, and Eltibule. Mobs used to drop gear for my equipped skills, but now that doesn't happen hardly at all. It's often a mix of stuff I don't even have leveled.

This is a problem because it's very hard to find suitable gear at vendors or player shops except for top tier rare gear. The cost and risk of selling consignment are too high at low levels to try and make money from that gear. It just feels like a bottleneck now. Before I would get more useful drops that would help shape my build. Now I don't see those often and I can't find them in vendors and player stalls.

Small tip/reminder- there are NPCs who barter for gear, Zeratak in Serbule, Gretchen in Eltibule, Ukorga in Kur:)

[Mechant]

Good update overall, can we have an option to pin the panels so they don't get closed upon pressing the close last panel key ?

[ArkadyRandom]

Small tip/reminder- there are NPCs who barter for gear, Zeratak in Serbule, Gretchen in Eltibule, Ukorga in Kur:)
Thanks! I'll check that out.

[Gracious]

Animal Handling: Not sure if it's just me, but since the patch, Sic 'Em is very buggy. Generally it does nothing, sometimes it will result in the pet freezing up totally. I have filed a bug report, but I wanted to know if anyone else is experiencing the same thing.

That is happening to me too :)

[PhamTrinli]

I tested the MaxActiveLoads at 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100

10 seems to be the best for me on average, in terms of load times

my spec's:
16GB DDR4 RAM
core i7 5930k CPU
samsung 960 1TB nvme SSD

One note: the longest phase of loading for me is ALWAYS the "Preparing to load area..." part of the loading process. And during this part, I am unable to minimize project gorgon window, or switch window focus to another window.

[PhamTrinli]

I'm still receiving massive frame drops and stuttering when moving my camera around in serbule