Update Notes: August 28, 2017

This is a huge update, the result of more than a month of hard work - much of it spent revamping what used to be "South Serbule" entirely.

But that's not the only thing in this update by far! We've given the abbreviated version of the notes here, and more in-depth information on the forum.


Serbule Hills

There is a new exit from Anagoge, the tutorial island. Hidden at the bottom of the abandoned Anagoge Record Facility (aka the newbie dungeon) is a tunnel that leads to Serbule Hills.

Serbule Hills used to called South Serbule, but there's a lot more here than just a name change. The zone has been completely redone to be more useful and intuitive for new players and to be more interesting in general.

PLEASE HELP US PLAY-TEST THIS NEW EXPERIENCE! Create a new character - you can use a guest account if you're out of character slots - and use the tunnel to reach Serbule Hills, then let us know how well it works for new players. Is it too hard? Missing something important? Let us know!


Level 65-70 Gear Mod Changes

This update reduces the potency of most level 65+ gear mods. You can find an explanation of the changes - and the philosophy behind the changes - in detail here. The bulk of the changes are aimed at balancing gear mods above level 60 in such a way that they can scale all the way up to level 125 without being completely insane. But there are a lot of details in there, so we urge you to read the dev blog.


Augmentation & Transmutation Changes

Augmentation and Transmutation see some major changes in this update as part of gearing up for Steam. This dev blog explains the changes in detail, but here's the brief version:

• The necessary materials now occur in three tiers: Small (0-30), Medium (31-60) and Large (61-90). All existing prisms, contraptions, beads, baubles, and ornaments have been turned into Legacy Prisms, Legacy Contraptions, Legacy Beads, etc.
• Legacy Resources can't be used in recipes, but you can take them to the Legacy Golem in Serbule to trade them in for whichever tier of item you need.
• There are new recipes for each tier. The old recipes became the low-level (0-30) recipes, and you can learn the higher-level ones from the usual trainers.
• The XP requirements for leveling these skills has increased - an increase that is perfectly offset by increases in the XP you earn from level-appropriate recipes. (The difference is the 'level-appropriate' part.)

Poetry Podium

In Serbule's inn there is a podium that allows you to recite poetry books aloud, giving Poetry Appreciation XP to all players nearby (including you), and giving you Oratory XP as well.

This is a prototype, and right now we're most concerned with the technical implementation: can you break the recital system? If so, please let us know! We have some future improvements in mind, such as letting your Oratory skill affect the potency of poetry buffs, but that will come later. We'll also add more podiums to other cities, and eventually let player-carpenters craft their own.

The poetry podium itself has instructions, and hopefully it's intuitive enough to figure out. If not, we'd like to know that, too!


Spawn Density

We have improved the spawn density in Serbule. This was done at the last minute, and more work needs to be done, but it seems to be more fun this way, so we're shipping it!

However, due to the rushed nature, there may be unforeseen side effects. Please report any spawn problems that seem crazy! Examples: tons of monsters all standing together in a knot of death, lots of loot or resource items in the same area, monsters respawning too quickly, etc.

Serbule should feel denser, but definitely not "Holy crap I'm just going to stay in this area forever and collect all the loot and never have to move again!" dense. Or anywhere close to that, really. Denser, but not stupidly dense.

There is a second spawn change in this update, although this one is just a bug fix: in certain dungeons, spawners were broken so that they didn't create the proper number of "add-on" monsters. The most notable affected locations were:

• Several large rooms in the minotaur dungeon
• Many of the encounters in Gazluk Keep

Be on guard when doing these dungeons and if things are now too hard, let us know.


NPCs & Training

• Joeh's barter options (e.g. trading a spoon for fish scales, etc.) have been removed. They were the prototype barter options when we were testing the barter feature, and they never really made any sense.
• Joeh's intro quest to kill tigers (which collided, story-wise, with his quest to collect tiger eyeballs) has been removed. It, too, was a prototype from a bygone era. However, the collect-tiger-eyeballs quest now gives 750 Sword XP instead of 250, so that doing just the eyeball quest earns the amount of XP you would have gotten from both. There's also more tigers (due to the spawner changes mentioned above).
• Joeh's max purchase caps didn't increase when raising favor from "Like Family" to "Soul Mates".
• Joeh no longer unlocks Calligraphy. That is now unlocked by a new NPC in Serbule Hills.
• Jara no longer trains the recipes for calligraphy benches. They are taught by a new NPC, Paul Vaughn.
• Nishika's storage has changed from "ingredients for any skill" to "food or cooking ingredients". This will not affect items already in storage, but once you withdraw an item that no longer counts, you won't be able to put it back in.
• The recipes for Butter, Mild Cheddar Cheese, and Beginner's Buttermilk are now taught by Braigon (the Eltibule cheese trainer) instead of Fainor (the Serbule cooking trainer).
• Durstin Tallow has new recipes to train.
• Among other new recipes added to the game in this update, Paul Vaughn in Serbule Hills has recipes to convert perfect lumber into a large number of wood chips.

Food Changes

• Butter has a new icon.
• Bacon-lover's omelet requires 1 fewer egg and no milk.
• Barley Bread requires 1 less Barley and no milk.
• Basic ham omelet requires 1 fewer egg and no milk.
• Chicken and Broccoli requires 1 fewer broccoli.
• Crab Roll recipe has been revised to serve 2. Takes more flatbread and crab meat. Now requires a stove.
• Value of flatbread has been reduced (as it contains only vendor-purchased ingredients).
• Glazed Beets has been revised to serve 2. Takes 1 more beet.
• Hydration Punch now requires a lemon instead of coral mushroom powder.
• Kraken Calamari requires 1 fewer lemon.
• Laura's Cheesy Biscuits require 1 fewer Sharp Cheddar Cheese.
• Lemonade no longer requires an orange.
• Mushroom Barley Soup requires 1 fewer Barley.
• Shepherd's Pie no longer requires butter.
• Spicy Cavefish requires 1 fewer lemon.
• Super Fishy Surprise requires 1 fewer Potato Cubes. [Assuming this changed as mentioned below.]
• Vegan Nut Barley Bread requires 1 fewer barley.
• Existing recipes that used Meat Tenderizer: chance of Meat Tenderizer breaking dropped from 20% to 10%.
• Many food items changed in cash value. For recipes that were altered (as listed above), this was automatic based on the formula that calculates value. Other dishes were artificially boosted by up to ~100 councils to help offset difficulty of obtaining materials.
• Mutton now comes in two varieties, low-level and high-level. All existing mutton has been turned into Great Mutton, which is still used in the existing mutton recipes without changes. The new mutton, just called Mutton, comes from Serbule Hills Lowlands sheep and is used in new recipes
• The recipes for Potato Cubes, Onion Cubes, and Onion Slices have been removed. Recipes that needed potato cubes, onion cubes, or onion slices now take a potato, an onion, or two onions instead.

Other Changes and Fixes

• Rebalanced how each type of armor boosts your Combat Refresh. Leather, cloth, and organic armor give more resources from a combat refresh, while metal armor gives less. NOTE: The amount of Armor you get from wearing each piece of equipment hasn't changed. The only thing that changed was what happens when you perform a Combat Refresh (by using a basic attack, once every fifteen seconds).
• In the center of Gazluk City is a new altar to the god of war, Tast. Hardcore players can use this altar to gain a 5% buff to max health and max power. The buff is lost only on death (and has to be re-acquired.)
• Fixed an exploit that allowed players to loot solo-monster corpses that they didn't actually have permission to loot.
• When crafting gear, if you used a crystal that has no skill attunement (such as Diamond), the item could end up with more than two combat skill requirements (and thus be immediately flagged as Legacy).
• You can now see basic likes/dislikes for an NPC even if you are Tolerated or Disliked by an NPC. (This helps with cases where you accidentally piss off an NPC and then don't even know what to give him as a gift.)
• Made it easier to see particles applied to bears (typical particles will appear near the bear's head instead of the bear's midsection).
• Began replacing particles that have become obsolete due to changes in Unity engine. Most noticeable: the "on fire" particle is changed to a better-performing particle.
• The default keyboard map now sets the commands "Select Next Interactible" and "Select Previous Interactible" to ` and shift+`, respectively. Previously they were unmapped by default. (This only has an effect on new installations of the game. If you want these commands available in your existing setup, configure them from the Options->Keyboard Commands screen.)
• Tab-targeting selection distance increased in outdoor zones (from 60m to 80m).
• Bottles of milk stack to 5.

September 1 Update

This is a "hotfix" update to address some data errors from the Aug 28 update:

• Fixed various errors in directions given by NPCs in Serbule and Serbule Hills.
• Fixed various places where Serbule Hills was still called South Serbule. Note that the in-game map description still says South Serbule because map labels can't be hotfixed. It will be addressed in a future full-client update.
• The puzzle altar in Serbule Hills that says it gives a ring as a reward actually gave cooking XP instead. Now gives a ring.
• On the work order board, orders for candied apples, fried mycena bites, and pork chops with watercress were described as work orders for potato cubes and other obsolete items. This was a labeling problem; the work orders themselves have not changed.
• Sona and Makara's new barter options were not available.
• The cooking fire in the Tapestry Inn did not allow you to cook. Conversely, a spot on a lake bank in Ranalon Territory (where the Tapestry Inn once stood) DID allow you to cook. These have both been fixed.
• Hunting quests in Serbule Hills for Guard Scrays, Ranalon Gardeners, and Ranalon Stoneshapers actually required you to kill chickens.
• The treasure mod that boosts Slashing Strike damage can no longer appear on off-hand items besides claws, since claws are required to use Slashing Strike. Existing off-hand items that boosted Slashing Strike have become Legacy Items and can be replaced with the Legacy Golem in Serbule.

Because this is a hotfix, not a full-client download, some bugs could not be fixed today. They will be fixed in the next client update:

• Floating building and teleporter in Serbule Hills (but note that the floating teleporter can still be used, just stand underneath it!)
• The poetry podium in Serbule requires you to stand uncomfortably close (within 8 meters) to hear the recited poems.