April Update & A.00.03.52 Patch
The Repopulation Patch Notes — April 4, 2021
Aggregated from Steam, cross-tracked with Battle.net coverage on GamePatchNote.
Good morning community!
Spring has sprung, the team is busy with spring cleaning so to speak. Happy Easter, Spring Equinox, and Passover. We hope you are enjoying a safe and joyous day with those close to you. Today’s article will not be a particularly long one, but we will cover multiple topics. Let’s hop right in!
READ OUR PATCH NOTES FOR BUILD: A.00.03.16 HERE
ISSUES AND FIXES:
In Patch A.00.03.40 our updates revealed an old bandaid or two to the mission system had been removed during the Container update.
Generated Mission Related Bugs: Generated missions used additional unique container and item types. This resulted in two different issues that were found:
- Players would see that their required items picked up from NPC’s updating, but the Generated Mission system was not recognizing the count data. This meant that even though it showed those steps were completed with a green checkmark, the Generated Mission system was not getting that information.
- When a mission could be completed, the mission/quest items remained on the character node and in the Mission inventory.
In Patch A.00.3.52 which we pushed on Tuesday (30 March), we were able to make corrections to these issues.
Now when a mission completes the associated items contained in the Mission inventory should disappear. This inventory window can be brought up via a button push of L. The selection of the second tab which is labeled Items will allow the player to see what items they are currently holding.
Still remaining: Please be aware that Vulture Claws are not clearing from this inventory at this time.
Players should now find that generated missions will now complete as intended with one known exception: The mission is known as Declawing the Vultures is one of these exceptions. Please be aware this mission is currently NOT working.
Weapon Visualization Bug: Another old bug is back. Players may experience some temporary issues with weapon visualizations. Some of these are temporary and will resolve themselves. These include:
Some weapons appear to be invisible upon equipping to the slot associated with carrying a weapon on their back.
When double-clicking a weapon in the character sheet to remove it may take some time for the visual to remove itself from the player character.
When swapping weapons carried on the back players may see a temporary doubling of the old weapon and new weapon in the character sheet.
Players have likely noticed that when using dual weapons only one shows to be worn when sheathed/inactive. This is due to how the current character models utilize bones associated with weapons. These dual weapons should both appear once the players go into combat mode. They will then return to a visual of a single weapon worn when out of combat. This will be resolved when we replace the current character models with our new models.
Player City Teleporting Bug: After Patch A.00.03.52 Qa discovered there was an issue flying from Plymouth City to Player Cities. This issue has since been resolved. If players encounter this issue we ask that you please put in a bug report and alert the Gm on duty. We will then respin the area to resolve the issue.
ART UPDATE:
Our most recent patch brought with it new art changes. Two new/updated buildings have replaced the old for the Blue Hops Pub and the Inn in the FPR shopping district. We have also added additional signage around the island to give it a bit more life and help players know what the building's purpose is, or will be. You will be able to see the new signs and art in the next game update.
This update included two new building updates (two interior and exterior) for the tutorial island, and 175 signs, 96 of which are new.
New sign count listed below:
- 11 Banners
- 22 hydro/agriculture
- 11 garage
- 19 genetics
- 9 med/resurrection
- 8 blue hops pub
- 3 Clone cafe
- 11 robotics
- 2 workshop
FUTURE ITEM AND CRAFTING SYSTEM FEATURES:
We are excited to announce that both the new Item and Crafting system design is complete. Do note that we still have a bit of work to do for the actual components once we complete the item system this quarter. Here is what we currently have, however, some changes may be made during development and player testing.
The new Item System is the first that will be built. Since all other in-game systems rely on items and how they work from being indexed to use, this will be our prime focus for the next three months. Once completed, released and we’ve gotten rid of any bugs you all find, we will begin the Harvesting and Crafting systems.
TIER BASICS:
We will be unifying all the tiers into a more comprehensive method. In the backend, there are already tiers and levels of items. However, as that is displayed to the players, it can get quite confusing, especially between grade and quality. Tiers will range from 0 to 6, with corresponding levels. This will be standardized across all items in the game and will include crafting as well.
In the end, this means we will be able to remove items which have no use and implement a more logical order to the item and crafting system. As it is right now, there are a few end result items that are a lower tier (lower skill level), yet require subcomponents that are a higher tier (higher skill level). This can bring about some cooperation between the players, yet causes much more confusion for the new player coming into the game.
With the new crafting system, your end result item will always use the same tier or lower for the basic craft. The player will soon have the option to experiment with the items used. They will be able to make a higher-tiered item or a much more superior item by experimenting with different raw materials subcomponents of the same required type.
TIER QUALITY AND CONDITION:
This will be changing as well, but not as drastic as with the core crafting item and item types. Quality will become your base and the condition is what will determine how good the item is and how long it will last. We have found several issues with the current a-f and 0-9 that have persisted for a while. A few of these seem unique to only some of the players but not to all. To fix this, we will be making the adjustment towards a Quality/Condition system instead.
The core functionality will still be the same as you are used to now. The only real change will be a bit more information exposed to you and the wording. So the new system will have the following for all items; bought, found or created:
- Tier: level of the item
- Quality: How effective the item is
- Condition: How long the item will last (includes repairs)
Though this is almost the same as it is now, we hope that the unification of all in-game items will help players old and new, have an easier time recognizing the items and what is required of them. It will also help with making repairs be more consistent with understandable variables.
CRAFTING LEARNING CURVE:
The crafting on the front end will not change too much from what current players are used to. However, upon saying that there will be a few significant changes coming to the game. The first will be the ‘ease to complexity’ of crafting for players just starting out.
Crafting should be fairly simple to grasp for lower-end items or the most simple items that are found in-game. The beginning of crafting will be to introduce the new changes, as well as the standard How-to’s.
The depth, and some complexity, will come as players advance in tiers, gain new knowledge and begin crafting more complex items. There will be a learning curve from basic tier 0 items and moving through the more in-depth crafts as you progress to more advanced items of all tiers.
REPAIR SYSTEM:
Currently, only some items can be repaired. This can be good or bad under the current system depending on what that item is. However, it can still be confusing for many, and for us. The current condition system is set only to a random algorithm that will decide how much and when the damage of an item is taken.
This currently means Character1 may have an item that lasts almost forever, while Character2 may have to repair their items every couple of fights. It really depends on randomness and luck. There should be some luck involved, but it should not be the only determining factor, as this makes it unfair for some players while giving an advantage to other players or characters. We plan to bring some core logic to the underlying system, while still giving a small percentage of randomness so there is a more even playing field while still keeping each character's experience unique.
There will still be repair kits. Crafters can make these to sell or use themselves as it is currently. These will be tier-based as well. The higher the tier and quality the better chance to get a full (99%) repair from them.
A new addition that will be added in the game will be that crafters can also sell their services to repair items. This will be similar to a trade window, where PlayerA can drop in their gear they want to be repaired so PlayerB can repair it for an agreed price. Those crafters that specialize in their craft and repair may become in high demand. Unlike the Repair Kits, a grandmaster may have a chance to repair the item to 100% of the original condition.
DECONSTRUCTION (DECON):
There are so many items in-game currently that are “1 off’s” or have no use at all. The only thing they are really good for is selling fodder; to sell off to an NPC merchant. We do plan on removing most of these useless items from the game by giving most of them a purpose. One of those is allowing most items to be deconstructed for a small percentage of the core materials or a subcomponent. This should really help out those players that spent so much time and energy crafting trinkets to skill up only to be useless and sell fodder.
A good example would be crafting screws to level up your metalworking or similar skills. Instead of using up all of those materials only to sell them to an NPC and then either buying more raw materials or harvesting them again, you will be able to decon those. Let us say that you have 100 screws that required 10 steel bars to make. If you decon those, you will have a chance to get between 1-3 steel bars in return.
The player’s crafting tier and skill level will play a part in what their return is. Many items found in the world while adventuring will also be able to be decon’ed as well. So players will have a choice now to sell them to an NPC or decon them for the raw materials and/or subcomponents.
We will cover more on the new Item system in a feature post closer to the system release date. We hope you’ve enjoyed the article this month, and look forward to bringing you more news soon. Be safe and have a wonderful Easter.
READ OUR PATCH NOTES FOR BUILD: A.00.03.16 HERE
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
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