Posted January 11, 2018 Welcome one and all to the first Valrei International of 2018! I hope you all had a wonderful new years break, and settling back into the ride that the next year is going to be. Valrei International Changes With the new year we’ll be making some changes with the Valrei International. Firstly, it will be released on Thursdays instead of Fridays, giving us a better timeframe to work in (and not while everyones looking to get out the door) Secondly, we’ll be changing from weekly news to to fortnightly releases of the news. The reason for this change is to better match development releases (usually fortnightly) and allow us to collaborate and fill the new with tons of tasty goodies, as well as a few competitions and giveaways! We'll be trialing the fortnightly news over the coming, uh, fortnights, seeing how it fits in with development and our projects, with some long term projects in the works (such as the new UI, already underway). We may also use an alternating system of community news and events, just enough to keep you all in the loop! Affinities As we all know, (or for those who don't) affinities grant a 10% skill gain bonus to the skill they're attached to. The existing mechanic with affinities is each player starts with one (hidden until premium), but it can be lost through a death to an enemy kingdom player when above 20 fight skill. With the next update, we’ll be changing how affinities are gained and lost, as well as expanding on a more PvE friendly mechanic as well., Firstly, we’ll be introducing the ability to gain new affinities via the use of skills, with a small chance to gain any affinity of a skill you’re using, including characteristics, parent skills, and sub skills. Secondly, gaining affinities via PvP will be changed to take into account the killer’s existing affinities in that skill, where there will be an increasing chance to not gain the affinity lost by the deceased depending on the number of affinities the killer has in that skill. This will mean neither the deceased or the killer will get that affinity. We’ll also be making some changes to how the overkilling mechanics in PvP work, so alt abuse is less prevalent. Firstly with overall kills on a single character being taken into account rather than just the number of kills on that character from a specific other character, and secondly with tweaking how the existing overkilling timers work. We’ll be including more information on these features in the patch notes upon launch, so stay tuned for that. Miscellaneous changes A couple of quality of life updates, long desired are also in the works for the upcoming patch: Sealed containers Coming with the next update sealed containers will be possible to stock on merchants for sale. This has been desired for a while, so I’m sure you’re all keen to see it come in asap! On 12/5/2015 at 0:13 AM, Retrograde said: Digging! Another upcoming change will be that digging will now work similar to mining, with the dirt appearing on the tile, as opposed to into your inventory. This will only be for digging, and levelling/flattening will continue to work as it does currently. Well that’s a little embarrassing… Nevertheless, I’m for real this time! After a few delays, this change has had the cobwebs dusted off, and cleaned up, and will be coming in the next update! Just to prove I'm serious: This will only be a keybind (dig_to_pile) and won’t affect leveling or flattening, but regardless, I’m just glad it’s finally coming in! More info will be made available about all of these changes in the upcoming patch notes for the next update. Community Content - Wurm base jumping This weeks community content is an old video shared on our Discord server. One of the first things I ever did when I got a flying account was go up to the top and jump off, and I'm positive I'm not the first! This is a really old video, with the green tunic avatars even, I may have to go up there and do an updated jump... That's it from us this week, the new update should be out prior to the next news, so expect those features live then! Until then though, Keep on Wurming! Retrograde & the Wurm team 25 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 19 minutes ago, Retrograde said: Secondly, gaining affinities via PvP will be changed to take into account the killer’s existing affinities in that skill, where there will be an increasing chance to not gain the affinity lost by the deceased depending on the number of affinities the killer has in that skill. This will mean neither the deceased or the killer will get that affinity. This is a bad change, I am sure you can come up with a mechanic that still rewards affinities 100% for legit pvp while still preventing the exploiting. I suggest you rethink this before implementing as this is a nerf to the rewards for real pvp. 9 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 (edited) 29 minutes ago, Retrograde said: Ahahaha, how long has it been "working in progress"? Well it's good to have it on board FINALLY, since this is very much wanted feature! So thanks for checking the old archives and blowing the dust off. Edited January 11, 2018 by Kadmint 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 (edited) Going to have to agree with Threap here. Simply changing things so NO-ONE gets the prize of the kills means there is now going to be EVEN LESS incentive than there previously was (which is absolutely none) to actually engage in PVP because now, there is a chance that I might not even get the damned affinity. Seriously at this rate you may as well just remove PVP servers and Epic from the game entirely because there is currently NO reason to play PVP on either cluster unless you simply want the experience of having done so. There is no rhyme, reason, or reward to doing so that cannot be obtained by other means. And NOW you're telling us that what little reward it used to yield, it will now have a chance to just not, entirely. On top of the fact that the only way previously one could have multiple affinities was from having engaged in PVP. Now that will no longer be the case. Dreadfully thought out, if it was at all. So glad I sold out of this game before all the recent brash changes and hasted updates. Edited January 11, 2018 by shakys Moderation Edit Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 (edited) I thought the fix for affinity farming would be something akin to wiping all affinities (to undo abuse), resetting every character and letting food be the sole provider for an affinity. Oh well. I like the idea of grinding for affinity in PVE. However, I still am of the opinion that there is absolutely no way to make affinities and PVP fair, regardless of the complexity of the rules. Since we will have food affinities plus grinding affinities (I hope they stack 5x like normal), do we still need pvp affinities? Is that such a major reason to pvp that it ruins the pvp experience? If so, I think that is sad. Edited January 11, 2018 by Eyesgood Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 >Firstly, we’ll be introducing the ability to gain new affinities via the use of skills, with a small chance to gain any affinity of a skill you’re using, including characteristics, parent skills, and sub skills. how small is a small chance? rare-tier? supreme-tier? fantastic-tier? thx 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 Excellent overall QoL - I'm ecstatic to be honest to see a lot of these changes coming into fruition. Keep up the good work, thanks for listening to the community. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 Yaaay! for digging to piles 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 56 minutes ago, Worksock said: >Firstly, we’ll be introducing the ability to gain new affinities via the use of skills, with a small chance to gain any affinity of a skill you’re using, including characteristics, parent skills, and sub skills. how small is a small chance? rare-tier? supreme-tier? fantastic-tier? thx Or even like some figures. Or will we need to wait the 18 months for the update to reach WU so that we may extrapolate the figures ourselves, assuming the same code is ever added 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 Digging changes, and changes to affinities to PvE sounds interesting. Can't wait to see what happens. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 Well done on the affinity changes. Seems balanced and thought out. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 Why does one need to earn affinities during pve? There is already cooking affinities for pve side of the game. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 1 minute ago, Chlodovech said: Why does one need to earn affinities during pve? There is already cooking affinities for pve side of the game. They're temp affinities. Just to give a boost to make the grind less grindy. Not permanent. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 2 minutes ago, Chlodovech said: Why does one need to earn affinities during pve? There is already cooking affinities for pve side of the game. Ok lets remove cooking affinities from chaos then. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 1 hour ago, Threap said: This is a bad change, I am sure you can come up with a mechanic that still rewards affinities 100% for legit pvp while still preventing the exploiting. I suggest you rethink this before implementing as this is a nerf to the rewards for real pvp. 50FS and 25 BodyStrength (or 30 overall body?) minimum 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 (edited) 10 minutes ago, Benie said: They're temp affinities. Just to give a boost to make the grind less grindy. Not permanent. I think he understands that. Affinities are supposed to be a reward for doing pvp not cause you just play the game. I think temp affinities via food is fine for pve/pvpers to use. Permanent affinities should stay with being a pvp reward instead of pulling an Oprah and being like... "YOU GET AN AFFINITY AND YOU GET AN AFFINITY AND EVERYONE GETS AN AFFINITY!". Edited January 11, 2018 by Launcelot 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 Just now, Launcelot said: Affinities are supposed to be a reward for doing pvp not cause you just play the game I forgot that Launcelot was one of the founding fathers of Wurm and knows what they had in mind when creating the game. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 (edited) 4 minutes ago, Launcelot said: I think he understands that. Affinities are supposed to be a reward for doing pvp not cause you just play the game. I think temp affinities via food is fine for pve/pvpers to use. Permanent affinities should stay with being a pvp reward instead of pulling an Oprah and being like... "YOU GET AN AFFINITY AND YOU GET AN AFFINITY AND EVERYONE GETS AN AFFINITY!". So why should it be limited to PvP? If the argument is "PvP should be rewarding" or "There needs to be a reason for people to PvP" I can tell you right now sure as hell that isn't going to fix anything or draw any new players in. It's been limited to PvP for a long time now and has done nothing to help. Edited January 11, 2018 by Budzilla 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 Great news, all of it. About time something was done about the affinity farming exploits (which has nothing to do with PvP, Launcelot), but better late than never I guess. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 1 hour ago, Threap said: This is a bad change, I am sure you can come up with a mechanic that still rewards affinities 100% for legit pvp while still preventing the exploiting. I suggest you rethink this before implementing as this is a nerf to the rewards for real pvp. Agreed. Thank goodness I've already got skills with 3 or 4 affinities though. Now nobody will ever catch up in that regard! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 2 hours ago, Retrograde said: Firstly, we’ll be introducing the ability to gain new affinities via the use of skills, with a small chance to gain any affinity of a skill you’re using, including characteristics, parent skills, and sub skills. Do you have a hint about how small a chance? Great edition to Valrei International as usual. 2018 is starting great. Thanks! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 1 hour ago, Kadmint said: Ahahaha, how long has it been "working in progress"? Well it's good to have it on board FINALLY, since this is very much wanted feature! So thanks for checking the old archives and blowing the dust off. 3 years or so !!!! tnx team! i would focus dev team more into cactus and palm trees then pvp Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 Hello, This is a great move for pve and its a end game for people over 90 skill can work towards. Please put more things in like this. So now I can put bloodthirst on my weapons and go grind hunting and one day may get it. Thank you devs. Im also a 90 weaponmaster and now i can keep grinding on this to get it one day. The affinity Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 Great stuff , Thanks again for all the work you guys put into this very unique game. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11, 2018 Also I feel like the latter part of the affinity changes is going to lead to another huge Window of Opportunity that people seem to be complaining a lot about lately. Accounts that have been around awhile in PvP will forever have the most affinities simply because the chance to get more than 1 affinity is so little. If the numbers are changed in such a way where it's a miniscule difference, why even bother do it to begin with? And if we're talking like 20% harder to gain after 1 affinity, then I'd argue it's too drastic and unfair. Really, there is no suitable middle ground..... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites