Update Discussion: March 25, 2021

[Sims]

The update notes are here: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?2806-Update-Notes-March-25-2021

Discussion is in this thread! But please remember to report any bugs through the in-game reporting system so we can track them.

[Citan]

The option to enable chat logging has *always* been clearly marked as being eventually VIP-only in the special settings documentation. Same with book-save-to-file. So we haven't changed anything about our plans, we're just finally getting ready to launch VIP and giving these features proper UI toggles.

[Citan]

Addendum: Known Issues
This patch has a few bugs worth knowing about:
- There's a bug where NPCs can look like they are still dancing even when they stop. Remember that if you can't hear any music, the NPCs aren't really dancing! (And thus you cannot learn their dance moves.)
- Your Redemptions window may show an entry for "player title scrolls" and indicate that you can't get them because you already got them too recently. This is a display bug; you won't really get title scrolls. (Unless you purchased a custom title from the shop, obviously! In that case, the timer will be accurate.)

Also, remember to turn on Experimental Optimizations in the settings menu. It has been turned off by default, so you have to "opt in" if you want the biggest of the new optimizations.

[Mbaums]

When I zone from casino to rahu, and from rahu to casino my mouse got lost. It feels like I got stuck in mouse look, but can't really look. This happened 3x tonight which is a lot. I did a bug report, but just putting it here too.

[Celerity]

I think the mouse bug is from holding down mouse turning while changing zones.

Great update though, learning dance moves from the npcs is a great mechanic and some of the new dances are honestly amazing. The purple dance 5 (variant c) is probably my favourite but there's a lot of great ones. I love how you can chain them together now too and it actually flows and looks good. The pathing npcs can be a bit stubborn to get to dance, especially the one in sun vale (don't want to spoil). It was kinda funny at first all of us chasing after the npc and playing music at them but after 15 minutes when one of us still hadn't gotten the dance it had gotten a bit tiring.

Performance is so much better. I usually got 60 fps but would get seemingly random hitching or drops of 1-2 frames consistently, whether I had vsync, frame limit or neither which made it a bit stuttery. Since the update I haven't had that issue anymore and it runs so much better in crowded areas that I can actually use mouse turning. Strangely, it was much better performance even before I turned the experimental optimisations on, so unless something else changed I guess the old animations were really that bad for performance.

Fairy magic rerolling isn't the cleanest but I'm sure this isn't planned as a permanent solution. I'm just glad it's actually possible now.

Bug fixes are always good, the recipe list jumping all over the place was especially annoying as well as recipes and abilities cancelling when you closed an unrelated window.

EDIT: Removed bit about exp table, realised I derped and calculated minutes not hours

[Citan]

That's a good point -- this update does have some more framerate optimizations dealing with stuttering, which should have been mentioned in the patch notes! They were relatively straightforward changes, so they aren't "experimental", they're just always enabled.

Also, we are looking into the mouse cursor disappearing if you switch areas while mouse-looking.

[PezOfDoom]

I did notice that it's taking me substantially longer to change zones. The zone loading screen is definitely taking longer; the red bar isn't progressing through the first quarter of the screen for quite a few seconds.

If I were to timebox it; changing between Serbule and Serbule Hills typically took 4-10 seconds pre-update.
Post update, at the fastest it's taking 10 seconds and at the longest I was waiting a full 20 seconds from clicking on the portal and being able to move my character in the new zone.

[Clip]

Chat Logs. People who do surveys use them to plot courses in the Survey Helper.

If it helps, the Survey Helper started out as being usable without chat logs. Originally it was an autohotkey script where you hovered the mouse over the survey location and hit a key while saying "Poink!" out loud. The verbal component was the most functionally important and dignified step, of course.

I never released that version mostly because my tester never bothered to look at it, but that could happen? I haven't really thought about what the right thing to do there is. (Like, maybe leaving that connection to VIP is a good thing?, except it's really easy to build, so I may as well release it in that case to not be a jerk? I'd want to re-ask for permission in that case.) Mostly the takeaway is to not be TOO worried, because there's lots of ways to get little dots with numbers next to them.

Before that the Survey Helper was a sheet of clear plastic taped to my screen and a dry erase marker. I really don't advise that if you're the kind of person who can't always remember when you should and shouldn't poke a marker at a screen, and also has trouble remembering which markers are permanent. Just, you know, speaking hypothetically.

I think Niph's survey tool works without chat logs, too?

[Niph]

No, my tool requires chat log as well.

[binome]

cant get the game to launch since update. just goes to black screen and eventually closes. running on linux. anyone else having troubles?

[binome]

and now its working. go figure.

[Niph]

Since the patch the desynchronization between graphic of your target and the interaction button has become really bad. It used to be annoying, but now it feels buggy.

For instance, in normal view (after view reset for instance), if I summon the corpse of my tiger pet, the corpse appears at my feet at the bottom of the screen, but the Check button is at the top, hidden behind buff icons.

[Mbaums]

I am appreciative of the changes, and happy ya'll are looking into new bugs so quickly. I finally got around to looking at the new hammer icons and my thoughts... they're not very good. I get they are what they are and they won’t be changed again but here is some feedback moving forward. I also get there is that bias where people are used to what they know, and I viewed it in the skill window so they were smaller than intended. It looks like the designer was told the icons need to be intuitive to the name of the skill so they tried to make some scene based on that. The results are just too busy. And it kind of looks like it was designed with color markers and paper, or by those cartoonist that try to draw children visiting the boardwalk where they ask if they like baseball and they draw them playing baseball. No idea of the name of those artist, but they’re a thing!

I think treating it like a simple logo-style is better. There is criticism with that as well ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZp7BvQJnU8 ). To talk about a few skills that kinda bug me, the smoke/dust in pound looks like cartoon fists and the hammer (which looks like an anchor) is about to play fisty cups with someone. Or maybe it’s a mustache. I can’t even tell whats going on in reckless slam. I think Thunderstrike and leaping smash would be better if the pictures were zoomed in, cutting off the person doing the action some. Way of the hammer is actually really good because it’s simple and distinct.

Icons are not the end of the world, but I think less is more with these things.

[INXS]

Loving the update, great work and glad now the base to build on is finally in, can't wait for what's to come.

Since someone talking about it, looking at the old Hammer icons it was good thinking of changing them with more action instead of a bunch of big hammers images.
The new icons for the Hammer skill are weird looking some are decent but most are not good i can see a broader description of the ability is being interpreted but i think when it came to compressing these images to icons something happened. 'Look at my hammer" not sure i'm playing PG on that one or watching Anime.

[ShieldBreaker]

I want in on the Hammer Icon talk as well :)

I really like the new Way of the Hammer icon. I also like the Reverberating Strike, Seismic Impact, Rib Shatter.

Now Look at my Hammer is a special case. For me I actually like it, I am charmed by it's cuteness. If I was thinking about moving away from the being cute, I would go with trying something like a hammer extended high above wielders head. But I know from experience that working on small symbols is really hard.

I would say the rest of the icons are okay.

But I also can't tell what is going on in Reckless Slam.

[Niph]

The Animal Handling pet Window is still hard to read:

18

[Yaffy]

This update is good but losing the old dance 4 is a travesty. That was the best dance!