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[Thothie]

Hopefully...

I'm restoring that FN server to its standard functionality while I await compiles/uploads. Some NY server is trying desperately to use it - though I am not sure to whom it belongs... (Oh, Stormshift... Sorry Stormshift...)

 

[Thothie]

Okay, looks like it's a bit late - so this patch will go live (drum roll....) tomorrow morning.

 

[zeus9860]

curses!

 

[Dridmar]

Just got home from work, patch done yet?!
Also, I hope I get to choose my item from edana priest again...

 

[Thothie]

Just waitin' for RKS to wake up... And for my coffee to kick in....

 

[Thothie]

...and here it is, at long last...

JAN2013a PUBLIC CHANGELOG:


Friggen fraggin delays...

New Stuff

• You can now name your pets, via "petname" command, in console
• ARROW CLIMBING RETURNS! ("Hooked Iron Arrow")
- New improved climbing arrows, without the *other* related sploits!
- Stuck by an arrow? Click +use on it, and it'll vanish - but mind ye, it won't go to your inventory - so use em wisely.
- Arrows touched by NPC's will vanish
- (Hopefully helps compensate ya for the lack of pet stacking...)
• Adjustable Glow
- When casting glow, hold the button until the light reaches the desired level
- (As per usual, max brightness requires SC 10)
• Boss Mobs Identified
- Boss monsters are tagged 'Elite' in their relationship indicator
• Shields have a chance to block push attacks and stun when blocking. Chance varies by type:
- Training Shield: 25%
- Wooden Shield: 25%
- Iron Shield: 50%
- Rune Shield (Ice): 75%
- Urdulian Shield: 75%
- Demon Shield: 75%
- Large Iron Shield: 100%
• Crashed in a gauntlet map? Back in Edana? As long as you've not touched another transition, you can still votemap for it!
• Timed status icons added for Demon and Vampire blood
• Stamina Potion - Provides rapid Stamina regeneration until death or map change
- Normally I put items in the spoiler section, but this new expendable is in the global list. So...

New Maps:

• Shender East (shender_east) by Lockdown (disconnected, hard to very hard)
- The shenders are a series of desolate lands running along the edge of The Wall, accessible from Melanion and parts north of The Wall.
- Here you will find new friends, and new foes...

• Sorccerbal (ms_soccer) by Caluminium (disconnected, PVP)
- Play a game of fütball, with your friends, or your favorite Shadahar Orcs! (Or both!)
- Ball can be adjusted to various weights by clicking +use on it.
- Spawn red or blue team sorcs with the buttons on one side of the field.
- Watch the game through special tracking cameras in the spectator/DJ booth!
- (Red Goal Cam, Blue Goal Cam, and Dizzy as F*ck Cam!)
- You can make various adjustments to the Orc players by clicking +use on them.
- Including: speeding them up, slowing them down, or removing individual orcs.
- (Troll Goalkeepers are neigh invincible, but you might try slowing them down before removing them.)
- NPC players regenerate HP fairly quickly to prevent accidental kills with stray kicks.
- Need to pause the game, but can't get at the ball? Type ballmenu in chat.
- First team to score five points wins!
- (Finven pending as sports commentator.)

Bug Fixes:
• Bloodrose Flesheater adds scroll/tome to be dropped at spawn, rather than death (may fix crash)
• Fixed Vampire Potion (Beware that drinking another vampire potion does not reset the timer)
• Hopfully fixed invincible Shadow Goblins
• Fixed boss flag on Clethin (Fire Guardian of Phobia forest)
• "Ring of Electrical Resistance" -> "Ring of Grounding" due to string length issues
• Weapon Strap description shortened, due to string length issues
• Fixed Felewyn's Elemental Guardians stunning/pushing folks they didn't actually hit
• Fixed bug where some monsters with an hp requirement range would spawn when they didn't actually qualify
• Fixed some mobs bypassing push resistances (Petrified Warriors, Ihotor)
• Fixed a potentially nasty bug with the Galat Storage Chest
• Fixed bugger up on Hunderswamp boss, and the Hunderswamp final chest
- also drastically increased chances for uniques - But you will have to work harder for them ^_^
• VOTEPVP should be working!

Nerf Log:
• Orc_for spiders ramp up to full XP value 30 minutes after map start
• Max HP for all player companion pets doubled
• Companion Pets will automatically egg before being damaged by powerful trigger_hurt's (bottomless pits/lava)

Minor Map Updates
• Kharaztorant Fotress (Kfortress)
- Khaz hired a new exterior decorator
• Hunderswamp North (hunderswamp_north)
- Changed the way access to the final boss works (forces exploring remainder of map)
- fixed some sploits

Other Changes:
• Healing others now heals a minimum of 10% of target's MaxHP (be they players or NPCs).
• Added bsp name to transition pop-up messages
• Various AI optimizations
• Monster check stuck on spawn system change/optimizations
• Tweaked the gold system on multi-inv chests, so you don't have to repeatedly withdraw packs of gold (also made it a bit more dynamic)
• Gold in multi-inv chests increases by 25% per player present beyond the first. (on FN only)
• Boss XP bonus now functions only on FN
• +200% XP when on FN, +50% XP per non-AFK player beyond the first.

New Mapper Toys:
• Addparam: set_xp_tr;<minutes> - XP time ramp
- Mob will not be worth its full XP until map has been running xx minutes
- Useful if you have an easy to reach high XP mob near the map start, and you want to prevent repeated restart exploits
• reqhp, reqplayers, reqelsetarget, and scriptevent functions now work on trigger_teleport
- aborts teleport for those not qualifying - calls scriptevent on those teleported
- add scriptevent ext_teleportfx1 for automagical teleporter fx on the destination end
• scriptevent now available on trigger_relay
- Usually saves need for otherwise confusing ms_npcscript ents
- Note that these usually have to be gm_ events, as trigger_relay usually can't tell who the original activator was
• scriptevent now available on func_breakable
- Runs the event on the player/mob who broke it
• killtarget now available on func_breakable (saves a relay)
• Changed Smart Edit "Target Script Event" to "Scripted Event" in FGD (less confusing set next to "Trigger Script")
- Remember events prefixed with "gm_" go to the game_master, not the player.
- Game_master recieves triggering player/ent as first PARAM, anything after the semi-colon as second
• Dynamic musak system!
- You can have combat music spin up when monsters spot or attack players, and switch back to idle music when not in combat
- You can change the combat and idle music on an area by area basis with scriptevent triggers, as follows:
- Only affects the player that crosses the trigger
- set_music;<idle_music_mp3>;<idle_music_length>;<combat_music_mp3>;<combat_music_length>;[play_idle_music_now:0|1]
- eg. set_music;d2-cav.mp3;4.5;d2-cav.mp3;4.5;1
- set_idle_music;<idle_music_mp3>;<idle_music_length>;[play_idle_music_now:0|1]
- set_combat_music;<combat_music_mp3>;<combat_music_length>
- There's no "play combat music now" option, as the system will not know when to stop it, however, monsters will play the player's current combat music when they spot or hit them
- You can also set the global default combat/idle music for all players via the gm events, by prefixing any set_music event with "gm_"
- If a player dies, their music will be restored to the global defaults
- When play_idle_music_now flag is set, it should clear the combat music when the player crosses the trigger
- But wait... There's more!
- You can also give specific NPC's specific music scores! Use the following Addparam:
- set_cbm_file;<combat_music_mp3>;set_cbm_length;<combat_music_mp3>
- eg. set_cbm_file;kk_edgen_battle.mp3;set_cbm_length;3.0
- And this mob will play this combat music whenever targeting or damaging a player, fading away after he dies
- So far only shender_east is using this, and it's probably using more variety of music than is sane, as a result, but the system seems to be working *fairly* well
- Though I've seen it get stuck in combat mode a few times - still diagnosing this
- (ToDo: Simplify this by making it a trigger entity.)
• New World Spawn (map) properties (also for the new dynamic music system):
- map_music_idle_file("Idle Music MP3") - default "none"
- map_music_idle_length("Idle Music Length (float)") - default "0"
- map_music_combat_file("Combat Music MP3") - default "none"
- map_music_combat_length("Combat Music Length (float)") - default "0"
- Like msarea_music / mstrig_music, lengths are floats, so 1.5 = 1 minute 30 seconds
• weatherchange_<weather_name> triggered during weather changes, so you can capture weather events
- (eg. weatherchange_rain)
- For say, only spawning certain mobs during rain, or what not
- Remember, as always, mstime_XX goes off every "hour", as well "time_counter". Dawn is at mstime_6, Dusk at mstime_17, and Evening falls at mstime_20

Known Bugs:
• If a lot of NPCs get stuck inside one of the goals on ms_soccer, it may prevent the goal from going off when the ball enters
• Sometimes Orcs that have their speed increased will get stuck inside goals or in the air, when they jump.
• Making the soccer ball "bouncier" usually makes it slide, but can sometimes have unpredictable effects.
• Sometimes ball will retain its momentum after returning from game-winning goal.
• Dynamic music system occasionally gets stuck in combat mode
• (Some other spoiler related bugs, in the spoiler section.)

[SPOILER SECTION BEGIN]


New Loots:

• Crescent Blades [30,32 Smallarms] - Matched Set
- Crescent blades can throw a shadow of themselves that flies in a boomerang-ish pattern, damaging monsters as it goes.
- If have a matching set of Crescent Blades equipped, you'll take no dual-weild penalty.
- Additionally, you can block by holding +use. While blocking, you abosrb 75% damage from frontal melee attacks, and are immune to push attacks.
- Crescent Blades can be found with various elemental DOT's. Crescent blades with differing elements are still considered matching sets.

• Blood Blades [30,32 Swordsmanship] - Matched Set
- Blood blades have vampyric properties, and can absorb health from enemies not immune to such effects.
- If you have a matching set of Blood Blades equipped, you'll take no dual-weild penalty.
- Additionally, you can cross the blades and block by holding +use. This blocks 75% of melee damage from frontal assaults, but, unlike the crescents, has no affect on push attacks.

• Demonshield [heavy,30 Fire]
- Provides 100% fire resistance when blocking
- At fire 30, if you hold +use while blocking, it will breath f*cking fire (similar to dragon axe)
- Parry_Multi: 1.5 Dmg_Absorb: 50% Deflect_Chance: 10%

• Fire Breaker [35-37 bluntarms, 20 fire]
- This massive maul can generate a burst of fire, striking the ground so hard it causes a fissure of fire to crack open in the earth, traveling forward and setting everything in its path ablaze.
- Like the Earth Breaker, this also stuns all targets in the immediate area of effect.

• Thunder Breaker [35-37 bluntarms, 20 lightning]
- This thunderous beast shocks all targets within a large area of effect, and each time, generates "snake lightning" that lazily jumps from target to target, as many as six times, causing yet more electrical mayhem over a prolonged period of time - often jumping back to a target, just as its previous lightning DOT has expired.
- Like the Earth Breaker, this also stuns all targets in the immediate area of effect.

New Beasties:

• monsters/ant_red_warrior - Giant Ant [medium]
- A giant ant (about 3' long), capable of getting into those tight nooks and crannies. Should scale well. Slow and weak, but bites pretty hard. Larger than normal alert radius aids in swarming behavior - though they are liable to crawl over one another in their eagerness.

• monsters/demonwing_ice - Icewing [medium]
- Ice variant of the of the Demonwing (actually slightly weaker, though it has frost attacks)
- Addparams: set_no_ceiling_idle ( do not stick to ceiling - same as described in monsters/demonwing_venom )

• monsters/demonwing_giant_ice - Gigantic Icewing [hard]
- Larger variant of the above
- Addparams: set_telebird;<radius> - This causes the bird to teleport away when there are no players within this radius from its spawn point (as determined from the ground level beneath the NPC's placement). Upon teleporting away, the bird will spawn 2-4 Icewings, depending on the number of players nearby. (This requires an additional 64 units of room beneath the NPC.) These Icewings will suicide one minute later, or when the Gigantic Icewing dies.
- Unlike the Demowing and the Icewing, the Gigantic Icewing does not stick to ceiling. (It maybe we can tweak the script to arrange it, but it'd require a lot of room.)

• monsters/giant_frost - Frost Giant Construct [hard]
- A giant automaton from some previous age - possibly as far back as The War of Fate - though they could be harnessed by others, with the proper magic...
- First appearing as a highly scaled "Greater Frost Giant" in shender_east.
- (Oddly has no cold attacks nor DOT, despite name and wielding a North Maul)
- Addparam: set_patrol;<radius> - causes the giant to only agro on players who attack him or wander into this radius from his spawn point, and not wander beyond it. Giant will calm down and return to his spawn point, should the offending player cease attacking, flee his reach, and stay outside his patrol area. Also causes monster to regen 1% of its maxhp every 10 seconds, when not attacking. (The patrol feature can be added to other monsters by request.)

• monsters/giant_fire - Fire Giant Construct [very hard]
- Meaner version of the above, with an array of weapons. First appearing as a slightly scaled "Greater Fire Giant" in shender_east.
- Addparams: set_patrol;<radius> (as above)
- set_weapon_dblud - Set weapon to Demon Bludgeon (fire damage + fire&stun burst)
- set_weapon_earthbreak - Set weapon to Earth Breaker (higher melee damage + longer stun burst)
- set_weapon_firebreak - Set weapon to Fire Breaker (higher fire damage + fire&stun burst)
- set_weapon_shockbreak - Set weapon to Thunder Breaker (shock dot + shock&stun burst)
- (If no weapon is set, the Fire Giant will pick one at random on spawn.)

• monsters/spider_crystal - Crystal Phase Spider [medium]
- Ethereal spider constructs, sometimes used by Seekers as hunting dogs.
- The Crystal Spider's default behavior is to cling to the ceiling and to toss down balls of lightning.
- Periodically, they will teleport to victims, in order slash them from close range (they also have a poison bite, should they get close enough). Should this flurry of blows fail to incapacitate their prey, they'll teleport back to their ceiling position, in hopes of getting in more blows from afar. (Rinse and repeat)
- Addparams: set_start_ground (causes spider to start on ground, instead of ceiling) set_stay_ground (no ceiling crawling at all)

• monsters/ogre_cave - Cave Ogre [medium]
- Bit weaker than the classic ogre, but also more aggressive.

• monsters/ogre_cave_welp - Cave Ogre Welp [medium]
- Youngin version of the above - weaker, but more maneuverable.
- Both these ogres are designed for easy scaling (set_self_adj, or dmg/hpmulti)

• monsters/morc_sniper - Elite Marogar Archer [medium]
- Similar to the Elite Blackhand Archer, knock back + freeze + melee attacks.

• monsters/fish_killie - Orca [medium]
- Big ass killer whale ('nuff said).

• shender_east/fish_killie - Nightmare Orca [invulnerable]
- This is a variant of the killer whale from Fedrosh's nightmare. If it bites you, and you survive the bite, you will be teleported back to spawn (no XP loss).

• shender_east/elemental_guard_ice - Lesser Nightmare of Ice [medium]
• shender_east/elemental_guard_ice2 - Nightmare of Ice [medium]
• shender_east/elemental_guard_ice3 - Fell Nightmare of Ice [hard]
• shender_east/elemental_guard_fire - Lesser Nightmare of Fire [medium]
• shender_east/elemental_guard_fire2 - Nightmare of Fire [medium]
• shender_east/elemental_guard_fire3 - Fell Nightmare of Flame [hard]
- These are all half strength variants of the elemental guardians normally prefixed with monster/, described elsewhere in the changelog.
- (Both this set, and the original elemental guardians, have been tweaked a bit. Mostly to fix issues with pushing and stunning players they've not actually hit.)

• shender_east/burning_one - Lesser Burning One [hard]
- Half strength variant of monsters/burning_one

• shender_east/telf_sleeping, shender_east/telf_quest, shender_east/telf_win - Fedrosh the Rammata
- Various stages of the Rammata dream quest elf.

• ms_soccer/sorc1 - Soccer Orc [non-hostile]
- Shadahar Orcs for Sorcerball
- Addparms:
- setsoc_blue - Sets team to Blue
- setsoc_red - Sets team to Red
- setsoc_leader - <Team> Leader - Kicks a bit harder, has double hp
- setsoc_def - <Team> Defender - Won't (normally) leave his team's side of the field
- (assumes red team is east of ball spawn, and blue team is west)
- If not set to leader or defender, Sorc defaults to "Wingman"
- Passive regen (5%hp/sec [base 400hp])

• ms_soccer/troll1 - <team> Goalkeeper [non-hostile]
- Goalies for Sorcerball
- setsoc_blue - Sets team to Blue
- setsoc_red - Sets team to Red
- setsorc_goalrad;<rad> - Sets radius of goal box (rarely will the troll move beyond)
- Troll can pick up the ball, if it is between him and the goal
- Passive regen (5%hp/sec [base 1000hp])

• ms_soccer/goal_blue_ref - Lets NPC's know where the blue goal is
• ms_soccer/goal_red_ref - Lets NPC's know where the blue red is

• ms_soccer/push_goalie_blue - Brush with this "scriptname" added as a property removed when blue team is summoned
• ms_soccer/push_goalie_red - Ditto, for red

• ms_soccer/soccer_ball - Soccer Ball [invincible, non-hostile]
- Das Soccer Ball

Other Spoilers
• Shender_East tips:
- You'll need push attack weapons and tough summons to complete the dream sequence.
- (Thunder Breakers, Dragon Axes, and bears come highly recommended.)
- The Demon Icewing will vanish if you leave the bridge, leaving more of his baby spawns behind. Additionally, he'll regenerate while he's out. So, to defeat him, stay on the bridge!
- The Fire Giant Construct is inaccessible if you don't first kill the Frost Giant Construct.
- Killing the Frost Giant Construct sooner, rather than later, yields less XP. (Full XP @ 20 mins - which is about as much time as it takes to complete the Dream Battle.)
- The Morc Chests will reduce their rewards with repeated runs. This is a timed function, so this is true even if you switch to another map.
- The Eyes of Death are worth reduced XP, the more they spawn, so don't hesitate in killing their master too long.

Known (Spoiler) Bugs:

• Crescent Blades and Blood Blades sometimes get out of sync when blocking - resulting in odd view animations.
- Shouldn't affect game play though.
• Matching sets of Crescent Blades and Blood Blades can still be used to block while frozen, sitting, paralyzed, or under heavy stun.
- Opted not to fix this - makes them more useful for some situations, though it looks a bit odd.
• Fire Breaker fissure has trouble traveling up hill, and doesn't always acquire burn targets well, though all targets in the immediate AOE, should burn reliably.
• Thunder Breaker snake lightning is fairly unpredictable (though repeated applications can counter this problem).


[SPOILER SECTION END]

Sorta...

There is one more REALLY BIG SPOILER - so BIG, indeed, I'm not even posting it here. YOU'LL KNOW IT WHEN YOU FIND IT! (If you can find it...)

First person who finds the big spoiler, WITH A SCREEN SHOT, who is NOT part of the development team or otherwise already privy to it, gets 5000 Internets! (And yes, all this >greentext is a hint.) ...At which time I'll post the rest of the related changelog.

DOWNLOAD FROM THE USUAL PLACE!

Might need a few second for the RKS servers to finish patching - but it'll likely be done by the time you're down downloading...

 

[Thothie]

It looks like someone may have found the big spoiler... (Other than Keldorn who found it before we even did the release - that l337 bastard...)

 

[Echo717]

Jaminporlantz :3

 

[Thothie]

No internets without a screen shot!

 

[prodigalist]

Well..

Do i win? (Keith)

 

[Thothie]

Well, damn I guess you do...

Here ya go:

Spend it wisely... ^_^

Although, I suppose I should warn that the bill is slightly used, as Keldorn found it first - before the full release. (Keldorn's a bastard that way...)

(/me reads text in screen shot) And screw you guys, that guy's a professional!

I'll put up the remainder of the related changelog in a bit.

 

[prodigalist]

So where do i cash this in galat seems to not know what it is!
(also the voice acting's REALLY bugged its muffled and static sounding cant understand it)

 

[Thothie]

Go here, and tell them you got it for slaying a dragon aspect. I'm sure they'll be able to help you.

I put the related spoiler changelog up in the changelog section as it'd be good for mappers to know how that sh*t's done.

I'm kinda surprised everyone who got there managed to navigate pass the reality tear okay. Took a lot of work to stick that in there, but it was bending my brain just lookin at it.

 

[Keldorn]

It looks like someone may have found the big spoiler... (Other than Keldorn who found it before we even did the release - that l337 bastard...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OQOEO9nHq0

 

[prodigalist]

I'm kinda surprised everyone who got there managed to navigate pass the reality tear okay. Took a lot of work to stick that in there, but it was bending my brain just lookin at it.

Rushing

 

[Thothie]

It looks like someone may have found the big spoiler... (Other than Keldorn who found it before we even did the release - that l337 bastard...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OQOEO9nHq0

*sigh* ... 120,000hp boss solo'd in 10 minutes, without a single death. Did I mention Keldorn's a bastard?

Hrmm... That voice seems to grind a lot on your system (and others, looking at the comments)... Maybe I should turn my surround sound off before testing voice tweaks, as I can barely hear him.

 

[Echo717]

hrmm you could make Jaminporlantz quieter OR change his name to Decibelantz.

 

[Dridmar]

Game is hanging while trying to load main menu. Anybody else got this?

 

[Pazrico]

(/me reads text in screen shot) And screw you guys, that guy's a professional!

A professional what? Chinese ear torturer??

 

[Jonzay]

As a 750hp character with few places to train, I happily welcome the double experience bonus.

However, I hope that future maps don't make a habit of compensating for this bonus by halving the base amount of experience they would have given mobs prior to this patch =P

 

[Thothie]

hrmm you could make Jaminporlantz quieter OR change his name to Decibelantz.

I think I still have the original voice files here, or if not, I can get them sent to me again... Bugger was just so quiet on my system, and still is... Guess I over-amped him.

 

[TheOysterHippopotami]

However, I hope that future maps don't make a habit of compensating for this bonus by halving the base amount of experience they would have given mobs prior to this patch =P

This is why it's always a bad idea to release dramatic content like magic shields that give 50% damage reduction, or potions that do the same, or rings that give 70% resistance right off the bat, or 200% extra xp across the board with no limitations.

Looks like we've backed ourselves into yet another corner.

 

[Thothie]

Blah... Desperate times and all... I was tempted to do it the other way around, so more players would be worth more than simply being on FN, but getting one person onto FN for additional XP, usually results in others joining him - and there's no hard feelings, with the XP boost that follows. If we want to add more incentives, it's just a matter of adding more unique features that are only available on-line. (And I already have some ideas for this...)

Biggest problem with it, is that it'll make folks hit the level wall faster, but hopefully that encourages people to work on lore maps so we can raise the max level - which, eventually, kinda wraps around anyways, should we ever get to the "end game" maps.

There's no ring that gives 70% protection off the bat. The Lightning resist ring only gives double your Lightning skill, and that caps at 60%, though it's true, it does more or less preclude any other Lightning resist items. There's helm that gives you 75% Stun resistance off the bat, but you have to sacrifice the elemental resistance of other helms to use it. Bigger problem is, there's already combinations for fire, poison, and acid that can give you 100% resistance to an element, without much sacrifice to defense - save that you won't have any resistance to any other elements, without using expendables (save for the aforementioned Lightning, of course). Granted, all that really does is force mappers to vary their elements a bit, which worked out alright for Phlames.

The ice shield's been that way since 2005 or so, and has to be maintained, and the mobs have managed to balance themselves to deal with it, more or less. Bigger problem is that it stacks with protection potions and the like, though that's why most of the bosses also have hazards nearby.

The balance in this game has always been very 'stair stepped', rather than smooth, sadly, and is very dependent on having the right equipment. It has the advantage that it forces you to hit certain maps, but yes, it also has the very major problem that it makes levels very unpredictable - hampering both item creation and monster creation efforts to the extreme. The core system has no levels, which makes a smoother, formulaic, leveling ramp neigh impossible.

 

[Thothie]

Brace for FEB2012...

It'll be a minor and optional patch though.

However, I need to wait for RKS's hours to swing around to set it up... Which means, prob not until 'morrow morn.

 

[Thothie]

JAN2013a to FEB2013a Betapack is now available at the usual place.

Currently, only the "fast patch" is available, and it requires JAN2013a (on the plus side, it's only 8mb - on the downside, it's a manual install inside a rar).

Still uploading the full, self-installing patch.

Setting up changelog, new bug report threads, etc, in a bit as well.

The RKS servers are running it - but the patch should be OPTIONAL so you should be able to play whether you have it or not.