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Retrograde

Weekly News #21 The first rift

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Hi Everyone!

 

Well, we had our first rifts opening across all servers today (a little early, so I missed out too!) but the issues that we encountered have been corrected, and fixed. We have also got the unstable client running the new rendering engine, with plenty of feedback to sort through and improve on, I'd like to thank you all for taking the time to provide your feedback and information. But with that said, on with the news!

Patch Notes

Wurm Online

Spoiler

Patch Notes 27/MAY/16 Rift Tweaks
May 27, 2016 by Retrograde    

  • In response to the hiccups in today’s rift opening, all servers will have their rifts reset to spawn again with an opening time planned over this weekend. The issue with them opening early has also been identified and corrected.
  •     Delay from Rift spawning to Rift opening changed to 3 hours on PvP servers and 2 days on PvE servers.
  •     Removed chance for loot from Rift creatures summoned via Summoners.
  •     Bugfix – Removed possibility of Rifts closing early when all creatures were killed. Rifts will now require sacrificing the hearts or source salt only to summon the next wave.
  •     Bugfix – Fixed issue where restarting the server caused incorrect opening times for the rifts.
  •     Bugfix – Fixed issue where examining gates in some cases crashed clients.

    
Patch Notes: 25/MAY/16
May 25, 2016 by Retrograde    

  •     Bugfix – Players may now place and resize deeds on servers that have closed their rift.
  •     Bugfix – Corrected issue with players being too crowded for enemy players and creatures to attack.


Patch Notes 24/MAY16 Jackal Rising
May 24, 2016 by Retrograde    

  •     Rifts
  •         Invasions from the moon Jackal! Team up, kill creatures and sacrifice their hearts to bring the next wave.
  •         Rifts will spawn randomly over the server, away from deeds.
  •         Source can also be sacrificed to open the rift if hearts are not available.
  •         They will spawn on all servers.
  •         Collect loot dropped by Rift creatures, with shoulder pads, rings, bracelets providing over two dozen different bonuses!
  •         Bonuses from Rift equipment will be disabled on PvP servers (for now).
  •         Invasions will be marked with a red light shining into the sky, they will appear 3 days prior to an invasion on PvE servers, and 1 hour prior to the invasion on PvP servers.
  •  Cave dwellings!
  •         Currently PvE only, they will come to PvP when adequate countermeasures are introduced.
  •         They require reinforced flat floors.
  •         Can be built up to 8 stories.
  •         Plain stone building types only.
  •         Can be built against walls on deed only.
  •         Take fast decay when off deed
  •     Unstable Client 4.00
  •         New unstable client with the new rendering engine is also live!
  •         Check out the New Client Here!
  •         Please post any bugs, issues or oddities here.
  •     Source Crystals can now be mined from any tile type.
  •     Silver Mirrors can no longer be traded in containers.
  •     Bugfix – Fixed a few grammatical and text errors.
  •     Bugfix – Destroying altars now checks the ‘destroy items’ permission for allies and non-citizens
  •     Bugfix – Scythes no longer take damage when harvesting non grain fields.
  •     Bugfix – Movement speed on bridges corrected.
  •     Bugfix – Attaching a lock to a group of items now only locks the first unlocked item.
  •     Bugfix – Fences in arched walls have improved permission checks for destroying.
  •     Bugfix – Unlocked and unmoored boats on PvP servers can now be dragged by anyone with the appropriate strength.
  •     Bugfix – Keyholders can now take items from locked containers even if they lack permissions.
  •     Bugfix – Corrected an issue which allowed some priests to pray at any altar.

 

Rift Tweaking
The invasion system went live this week, with the rifts opening a little earlier than anticipated (or advised) and closing even earlier! We’ve looked into why they opened early and also closed after the first run, and that has been corrected in today's update.

As a result of this, we’ve reset the timers for rifts, and they will open up over this weekend, with currently 2 days warning. We’ll be implementing countdown measures as well, to ensure that players have adequate time to prepare themselves for the fight!

I know there were some reports of the Rift Beasts being taken down quite easily, but don’t forget they’re the baseline grunts for these rifts, with Ogres, jackals and mages packing an incredibly strong punch!

Each rift creature killed has a roughly 5% chance of dropping loot (higher for the warmaster and champions). So participation is the key to getting loot, the more you kill, the greater your chances!

We’ll continue to see how the rift system goes, and adjust how often it occurs, as well as loot and warning times as things go on.

 

Starter deeds
A little delayed, but I’ll be in contact with the winners of the starter deed makeover contests this week, and organise times with the GM team in order to provide resources and such, so expect to see the new deeds soon!

 

Cave dwellings and PvP
We’ve started work on the counters for cave dwellings within PvP servers, with the awesome new battering ram! The model for it is finished, and can be shown here:

rams.png
We’ll have more info on the functionality and mechanics in the next news hopefully.

 

The optional path switch feature from Path of Insanity should also be live next week, pending some inhouse testing.

 

Wurmpedia Assistants!
As many of you have read, our Wurmpedia is now managed by Keenan, and his assistant Seedlings (with random capitalisations). We are now looking for Wurmpedia Assistants to help monitor the Wurmpedia and ensure that editor updates are correct and timely. It is a proper staff position so the requirements of over 30 days playtime and good standing with the community are important!

To apply, follow this link: http://goo.gl/forms/RCOXiVolWHLd9P1B3

 

Steam update

Wurm Unlimited will be updating with cave dwellings coming to beta on Monday at around 8am UTC-5, so plan accordingly!

 

Shop update

We will be performing some upgrades to our web store this coming Tuesday at 3am UTC, while we don't expect significant downtime we apologise for any inconvenience it causes.

 

Community content

We have two pieces this week, first off comes Evenings finds of amusing recruitment notices, wonder how many clothing optional villages we have

 

The second is some fun with Rolf, a shot from his recent vacation has been slightly Wurmified, with a huge axe and helm. Perhaps he was simply researching combat?

Spoiler

4BPfdL9.jpg

 

That's it for this week, we'll be checking out the new rifts opening on Sunday to ensure it all operates smoothly, until then, keep on wurming!

Retrograde and the Wurm team.

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If the insanity path switch is offered before the meditation rebalancing is done, will we get another chance to switch when the paths are rebalanced? Because otherwise using the switch now would be a waste if the path we switch to is due to be overhauled in the near future.

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Rams you say?

 

Smoosh....

Edited by Nadroj
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So instead of trying to fix the current pvp you going to add more stuff that most likely will be broken?

We got a nerf of sotg and the removal of info minister and that's it?

Not looking into priests?
Not looking into damage reduction wearing moonmetal / valrei items?

Not trying to balance anything?

Just a battering ram and houses in caves and some stupid Rifts that there is no reason to even go do on a PVP server?

 

 

Edited by Meep
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what u doing to pvp we need LOF fixed / Med pathes fixed / we need it so u cannot cast oakshell on horses and other of  pvp fixes but hey battering rams always a great fix to help boast pvp wd guys rly see the game going places

Edited by Erinyesthegreat
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33 minutes ago, Retrograde said:

Rift Tweaking

 

The invasion system went live this week, with the rifts opening a little earlier than anticipated (or advised) and closing even earlier! We’ve looked into why they opened early and also closed after the first run, and that has been corrected in today's update.

As a result of this, we’ve reset the timers for rifts, and they will open up over this weekend, with currently 2 days warning. We’ll be implementing countdown measures as well, to ensure that players have adequate time to prepare themselves for the fight!

 

 

I hope we keep the warning period. The main reason it should exist is to give everyone plenty of time to prepare. Wurm isn't really a game (at least on PVE) where you can be there instantly to jump right in. We have travel times, player-made travel routes (or lack of), mobs randomly attacking us on the way and various other survival problems. :P

 

If they opened any sooner/instantly, then people are definitely going to miss out, with no time to prepare at all.

 

Most of all, since this is a community-driven game (IMO) it gives people a bit of time to make room for the event in their personal lives and actually be part of the fun if they choose to.

Edited by syncaidius
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At what time (GMT/UTC) will the new rift on Xanadu open? Because the one we had earlier opened up when it was midnight (Rolf's time) rather than 3x24 hours after it spawned.

Are the 2 days counted as 48 hours from spawn?

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52 minutes ago, Retrograde said:

The second is some fun with Rolf, a shot from his recent vacation has been slightly Wurmified, with a huge axe and helm. Perhaps he was simply researching combat?

  Hide contents

4BPfdL9.jpg

 

Hehe, looks like a fun vacation.  :)

 

I want that axe!!

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47 minutes ago, syncaidius said:

 

I hope we keep the warning period. The main reason it should exist is to give everyone plenty of time to prepare. Wurm isn't really a game (at least on PVE) where you can be there instantly to jump right in. We have travel times, player-made travel routes (or lack of), mobs randomly attacking us on the way and various other survival problems. :P

 

If they opened any sooner/instantly, then people are definitely going to miss out, with no time to prepare at all.

 

Most of all, since this is a community-driven game (IMO) it gives people a bit of time to make room for the event in their personal lives and actually be part of the fun if they choose to.

I disagree completely.  Rifts are community driven, yes, but there is no reason to stall a Rift for a couple days so everyone and their mother on the server (and other servers mind you) have time to rally and wipe out a Rift.  Personally I don't want to see 40+ people at every Rift.  That is way too laggy, and ends the party way too fast.  24 hours AT BEST should be the only warning we get.  I'd be game for even a 6-12 hour warning or none at all.  Rift's shouldn't be an impalong where everyone in the game attends.  It should be very quick to spawn, very local, very exciting and challenging!  Gathering 40+ people doesn't offer challenge whatsoever.  Here's hoping the staff catches on and continues to dilute the wait time over the coming weeks.

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Cool seeing my gatehouse in the news, but its not finished yet!

 

 

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any update on when i can get off of path of insanity?

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Yes, King, is is the OP:

 

Quote

The optional path switch feature from Path of Insanity should also be live next week, pending some inhouse testing.

 

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1 hour ago, syncaidius said:

 

I hope we keep the warning period. The main reason it should exist is to give everyone plenty of time to prepare. Wurm isn't really a game (at least on PVE) where you can be there instantly to jump right in. We have travel times, player-made travel routes (or lack of), mobs randomly attacking us on the way and various other survival problems. :P

 

If they opened any sooner/instantly, then people are definitely going to miss out, with no time to prepare at all.

 

Most of all, since this is a community-driven game (IMO) it gives people a bit of time to make room for the event in their personal lives and actually be part of the fun if they choose to.

How much time do you need to prepare then? Do you still have to make you boat, armour and weapons or something? Timers should be like on pvp servers, pve should not mean easy mode. In contrary, the environment should be worse on such servers because the harder to deal with oponents (other players) are non-existent. Players have to die even figthing rifts, it has to be a challenge and be rewarding. It needs to stand apart from existing events, not be some kind of clone in another coat.

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21 minutes ago, Slickshot said:

I disagree completely.  Rifts are community driven, yes, but there is no reason to stall a Rift for a couple days so everyone and their mother on the server (and other servers mind you) have time to rally and wipe out a Rift.  Personally I don't want to see 40+ people at every Rift.  That is way too laggy, and ends the party way too fast.  24 hours AT BEST should be the only warning we get.  I'd be game for even a 6-12 hour warning or none at all.  Rift's shouldn't be an impalong where everyone in the game attends.  It should be very quick to spawn, very local, very exciting and challenging!  Gathering 40+ people doesn't offer challenge whatsoever.  Here's hoping the staff catches on and continues to dilute the wait time over the coming weeks.

Slickshot shares my opinion pretty well. From what it looks like right now, rifts are turning into a unique(i.e. dragon) hunt with different loot.

When i first heard of the rifts i expected them to be for smaller groups of players(4-10max).

And what we have got now is rifts for medium groups of people which will be so easy to get to(due to the IMO too long warning time) that we will have large amounts of players around.

Yes, everyone wants a part of the fun and the devs have to find a way to make it easy enough, so that many players can have fun with rifts, but if every single player has got enough planning time so that everyone can attend a single rift then they won't be a challenge at all.

Guess that i won't be attending any rift for some time.

Edited by kekstier
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yep, little to no warning please.  Make these spontaneous.

 

Also, consider the methods for counting "kills" and how it will inspire the opposite of cooperation.  Since I was late to the rift, I thought I'd run a test and see how many kills I could get in.  I just started moving from critter to critter, before each one was killed and managed to get a fair number on the kill list.  There should be some "damage & healing done + damage received" method for determining participation levels.

 

If I slap 70 beasts bare handed, while someone else focuses on one beast at a time, doing godly amounts of damage, who should be rewarded the most?  If Henry Healing Hands runs around keeping the team alive and never lands a hit, how shall his contribution be counted?  What about Hank the Tank?  He gets the agro and holds it, until he has to back away and heal up.  While off healing up, 2-3 beasts get taken down, reducing his potential standing, yet Slap Happy Sam is dodging and weaving through the critters, scoring one touch on each and moving on, to become the grand champion of the event.

 

Don't misunderstand me though, I'm not complaining that we have rifts.  I love them!  I just want the rewards process to be considered for some fine tuning to promote a fair shake to all that sacrifice for the good of the group, not just those that know how to game this, like I did in my test.

 

Maybe that is just what we all do?  As long as there is a 2-3 day warning, there will be huge crowds and things will be dying so fast, the best we can hope for is to slap as many as possible before it closes?

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The opening event was badly done, there are no other description that fits it.

 

Players were ready to go tuesday, then waited till friday and are now waiting till sunday because of a mechanic *palm* up (a swift announcement saying that the rifts would reopen as planned today as soon as a hotfix was applied would have been a better solution than pushing it off till sunday)

 

It was poorly done and the devs have dissapointed a lot of players on that account.  Personal gripe, I camped for 3 days and got jack as a reward for that and I won't be able to attend the re-opening sunday due to work comittments so I got pretty badly *palmed* over since I forked out for a reprem to enjoy this feature. The recompense offered (sunday reopening), however, is reasonable for other folks and they are definitely taking on player feedback with the timers (and one would hope frequency) of rifts so its not all bad.


I can't comment on the rifts themselves because I missed the opening last night however the aftermath is definitely interesting, especially the traps that remain afterwards.  I'll look forward to a rift that I can actually attend and no doubt I won't be dissapointed once I get my teeth into this feature.

 

Well done devs on an promising and fun sounding feature and taking into account player feedback, buck up your ideas on your releases though because that was a disaster!

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20 minutes ago, Etherdrifter said:

The opening event was badly done, there are no other description that fits it.

 

Players were ready to go tuesday, then waited till friday and are now waiting till sunday because of a mechanic *palm* up (a swift announcement saying that the rifts would reopen as planned today as soon as a hotfix was applied would have been a better solution than pushing it off till sunday)

 

It was poorly done and the devs have dissapointed a lot of players on that account.  Personal gripe, I camped for 3 days and got jack as a reward for that and I won't be able to attend the re-opening sunday due to work comittments so I got pretty badly *palmed* over since I forked out for a reprem to enjoy this feature. The recompense offered (sunday reopening), however, is reasonable for other folks and they are definitely taking on player feedback with the timers (and one would hope frequency) of rifts so its not all bad.


I can't comment on the rifts themselves because I missed the opening last night however the aftermath is definitely interesting, especially the traps that remain afterwards.  I'll look forward to a rift that I can actually attend and no doubt I won't be dissapointed once I get my teeth into this feature.

 

Well done devs on an promising and fun sounding feature and taking into account player feedback, buck up your ideas on your releases though because that was a disaster!

Ether, This isn't a one time only event.  Relax, there will be more and it will get better.  You have been around long enough to know how wurm works.  The next rifts may come off with bugs again,  The rifts after may also.  But given a few weeks of rifts, I bet the system starts getting ironed out better and better, to the point where you can count on a predictable amount of fun.  You do come here to have fun?

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Honestly, cave dwellings should ALSO be a WURM ONLINE feature only.  Give more incentives to people to pay premium to play WO over WU.

 

Edited by Eyesgood
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...wait, Rolf goes hunting in a jacket and chinos?   What is this, casual Friday?  Where's his tie?!?

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32 minutes ago, Wurmhole said:

Ether, This isn't a one time only event.  Relax, there will be more and it will get better.  You have been around long enough to know how wurm works.  The next rifts may come off with bugs again,  The rifts after may also.  But given a few weeks of rifts, I bet the system starts getting ironed out better and better, to the point where you can count on a predictable amount of fun.  You do come here to have fun?

 

This is pretty much how the multi-story houses release went. It had plenty of issues on release day. After a week most of them were gone and we were left with shiny new houses.

Edited by syncaidius
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Did the rift on chaos, was fun, didn't get no spiffy gear, maybe next time though.

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Ok, we need more rifts like them:

 

[14:03:24] 37 other players are online. You are on Deliverance (538 totally in Wurm).
[14:07:08] You finish your prayer to Libila.
[14:07:08] You feel calm and solemn.

 

Darkness is coming over freedom - Libila are back :P:wub:

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3 hours ago, Retrograde said:

the awesome new battering ram! The model for it is finished, and can be shown here:

rams.png

 

Rant below.

Spoiler

Uh.....

"new" battering ram eh?

 

ce802d6f19.jpgc61bd6ec12.jpg

 

and why is the wheels so... fragile....

Like ya realise its gonna be the very front of a siege... right?

the wheels spooks arent even reinforced or atleast thick (if not fully solid which was very normal)....

Battering rams are not made to be super mobile and thus having so thin spokes is just a liability....

and why is it just thinly untied ropes and not rigid chains...?

I mean this is not a "housed" big battering ram like this:

battering-ram-1.jpg

It's just thin ropes that an arrow could cut in half..

 

And what about the physics...?

Did you even look at the log....?

like 40% is past the first rope... and it has a tremendous metal piece on it's front... it would flip.... by gravity....

Also since the log isnt even tied up, what do you think will happend when you charge the massive untied log into the wall? it will bounce. its not tied. its gonna bounce further away backward comparable to where it started.... imagine actually using that to break a door/wall... it would be hell and require the people to lift up the log just to put it back in place...

 

Like... I get that you wanna save as much time as possible by simply reusing the catapult... and ya succeeded... but it looks like ###### becouse of it.

 

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3 hours ago, Slickshot said:

I disagree completely.  Rifts are community driven, yes, but there is no reason to stall a Rift for a couple days so everyone and their mother on the server (and other servers mind you) have time to rally and wipe out a Rift.  Personally I don't want to see 40+ people at every Rift.  That is way too laggy, and ends the party way too fast.  24 hours AT BEST should be the only warning we get.  I'd be game for even a 6-12 hour warning or none at all.  Rift's shouldn't be an impalong where everyone in the game attends.  It should be very quick to spawn, very local, very exciting and challenging!  Gathering 40+ people doesn't offer challenge whatsoever.  Here's hoping the staff catches on and continues to dilute the wait time over the coming weeks.

 

I must say i agree with you partly but the rifts that had spawned had rpound 1 creatures easy creatures the other ones later on will take teams of people smashing.,, i was on the test and even a 90 level fighting with 90 weopon skill charcter wasnt able to defeat some of the mobs with 90 imped scale or drake.. so i look forward to see what happens.. but maybe 2 days is still too long that i agree with..

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no news abouts pvp changes/updates. I'm losing hope

Go take the ideas of desolation and reset epic and give us a small map, everything will be fine.

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