The Repopulation Patch Notes — August 9, 2020
Aggregated from Steam, cross-tracked with Battle.net coverage on GamePatchNote.
Good morning community! It has been another busy month of development for the team. So let's jump right in and discuss recent work, the coming Container System and supporting subsystem Items and its tiers. These systems will not be implemented for some time, but we want to help familiarize you with the coming changes.
Before we transition into our main topic I'd like to touch on the continued work to clean up ticket issues. As always we are thankful for all the feedback and support we receive from the community. We’ve recently brought on additional QA members. We’d like to extend a big thank you to them and all of those who send in bug reports. It is thanks to all of you that we are able to identify existing issues.
In an ideal setting, we could address each issue as they are found. However, with so many systems in need of overhauls, it can feel like a slow process. We appreciate your patience and look forward to each issue we can mark as resolved.
We've looked into several reports of harvesting nodes spawning inside of assets such as rocks and trees. This issue is occurring due to the nodes spawning outside of their defined regions which is not as intended. Our engineer will be looking into what changes were made to the default settings by the previous team. Once these changes are identified we'll work to revert them, and begin reviewing troubled regions' areas.
In previous articles we made mention of generated missions players receive by mail not completing as intended. We believe all generated missions affected by the issue have been identified and corrected. Should a player complete one of these missions, and find it remains on their mission log with a green checkmark we ask that they please send in a bug report.
These are just two of the issues we've recently addressed. You'll find a detailed patch notes list included with the future patch as normal. Please be aware that our patch cycle has been every six weeks, but our next push has not been scheduled. This is due to the amount of work that must be completed first. Once we have a projected patch date we'll make it public. Once again thank you for your patience.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Container and Item System:
We believe a critical part of future revamps being successful includes the players understanding why these changes are being made. As with many of the existing systems, there are hurdles that we must clear in order to fashion a smoothly running game. The most difficult part of this system overhaul we currently face is the sheer scope. There is not a single system left unimpacted by these changes. To better understand just how much is affected I’d like to go over a portion of data that belongs in a container.
In general, when you think of a container you think of your player inventory. What items you wear, consume, and gather. However, it is a little more complicated than that. The inventory system itself is actually a subsystem of the Container System. This also means that the Item System is anything data-wise that goes into a container. A container can hold anything from skills, UI bars, gear, etc. This creates a web of information that all tracks back to the rootnode.
As mentioned previously all systems are affected by the container and item system. Because of the multiple systems that were previously created, we must unify all of these under a single system with subsystems to allow us to create more cohesive and unified systems. For example, in order to alter the containers, you must adjust some aspects of the items. As changes are made it will become difficult to ensure nothing is broken in the process. ItemWikiItemHierarchy
Essentially, this work will be carried out in a manner that will allow us to have two systems, implemented in very different ways, fully functional side by side. It would be ideal to be able to build out a new system that is completely separate from the existing but that has its own set of challenges. It would also become increasingly difficult to make sure the new system could support all of the features that are already implemented with the old system.
Other supporting systems must be addressed with care in order to ensure the changes implemented fit well with the existing system. This includes the Item system which is essential due to so many aspects of the game and the way items are stored in inventory, replicated, associated, and exposed to all the game systems that need them. As you can imagine every change we make creates its own chain reaction of necessary and dependent changes throughout the server and client. So each change we make creates a chain reaction of additional bugs that must be fixed and adapted to the new system.
An example being the backend handling of items and containers that have many UI components that are impacted with each change. This means work will be done back and forth between various areas such as the server, client, and GUI.
In order to overcome the current limitations and issues of the existing system, there are certain key changes that we have to make. This includes implementing a better architecture, as mentioned above, for managing all items and inventory. Our end goal is to improve efficiency and stability with these systems. This means simplified scripts, reduced redundancies that exist in the current system causing unneeded overhead and processing both on client and server side. These in turn will save time and add flexibility for future development and easier bug tracking. ItemWikiItemAppearances
As work has progressed we’ve taken note of some areas that need particular focus. These include ensuring better handling of items that can be visualized such as equipment, weapons, etc. The system is also in need of improved item stack handling.
Our plan is to stand up the new/improved system alongside the current system and develop a strategy for converting the player’s inventory automatically to the new system. In general, the conversion should not be too difficult. Our engineer has performed testing alongside his work and his findings support this.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Items and Tiers:
Much like the Container System we face the task of unifying the items into a singular system. Currently, there are multiple systems in place that handle the items in a less than an ideal manner. Our goal is to create systematic unity which in turn will assist players to identify their skill levels and reduce the feeling of randomness. Our new system will ensure creation of an item will not include components of a higher tier than the item being created. This also reduces the players’ need to level out a skill completely before attempting the item or being forced to outsource the item.
The current system was created without levels, experience gain system, or an integrated faction system. Current crafting recipe skill levels were not set with unity or faction in mind. This is partially due to the number of people who worked on their creation, early stages of some systems, and the manner they were documented.
This left us with some items that feel well thought out and complex while others feel forced and overly simplistic. We’ll be working to create items with proportional tiers and who feel as though they fit with the other crafting categories. This will allow for consistency and a reasonable learning curve. With these adjustments, players will be able to eventually create complex and unique items. It’s important players be able to pick up the system without feeling as though they are being led on with constant hand holding.
We will be using a system of tiers and sublevels. These will consist of Tier-0 to Tier-6, ranging from an initial soft cap of 0 to 5999 skill points. Listed below you’ll see an example of how tiers will be broken up. Please note that the levels you see below are used to measure crafting difficulty progression between recipe and items not character levels.
Gaining skill levels as you do now will not change. However, how we organize and label each tier will be added in to give a cohesive and logical progression going from the most basic and simple items to more complex items.
Tier Skill Levels:
• level 0: 0 - 00
• level 1: 100 - 199
• Level 2: 200 - 299
• etc…
• level 50: 5000-5099
• level 51: 5100-5199
• etc...
With the new Container System, we will have room to expand these Tiers and Skill Points in the future as the game grows. As well as adding additional recipes and items which are currently hindered by the existing system, we’ll continue to update the community on adjustments made for experience gains and curves as development progresses. We look forward to when we can release a full featurette for the coming systems, and surveys based on them. As always we look forward to your feedback be it positive or otherwise.
This year has been one with many hurdles for everyone. Some more than others and we are truly appreciative of the continued support of our community. We wish you all well in these difficult times and hope you all stay safe.