Rift Update Testing

[jaytoo 687]

 

Please attend my test rift on Druska so we can balance points with higher player counts.

US Friendly:

 

Second one, Euro Friendly:

 

 

 

 

Hey all,

 

Below you will find the changes we've crafted to improve the overall Rift experience. Please join us on Druska to test the rewards at any time. A test menu option has been added to give yourself rift points and that will allow you to use the rift shop and get rewards. If there is an active rift feel free to try out the new point system. I will be conducting a rift battle or two to gather balancing information on the new point system with higher player counts but those will be subject to my availability. They will likely be weekends at night in western US. For testing the pre combat phase a rift has been placed near the starter in Druska. 

 

Pre Combat Phase Colossus ( red beam but no enemies )

 

4 unfinished colossus (one for each god) will be created when the rift beam first arrives (2 days prior to rift start). They spawn north south east and west of the rift beam. Render range on unfinished objects isn’t quite enough to see them from the center so you may need to walk a bit. During this time if a colossus has a part added the player has a 25% chance to get a rift point and a 5% chance to get a rift material. The reward points are ones you spend in the shop, not the participation points that you get during the active rift. This means you do not need to be present at the rift to benefit from building. Colossus build requirements and difficulty have been cut in half for these structures. See rift sickness for more specific information about difficulty. Colossus and unfinished colossus are destroyed when the rift concludes and will not litter the area. When completed a global light beam will show up near the rift beam.

 

Rift Sickness

Adding parts to a rift colossus will give the user rift sickness making it more difficult to continue building. Rift sickness wears off every hour by half of the accumulated amount.

 

During the active rift if a colossus of a god has been completed a buff will be activated for those within the rift zone.

 

Fo - 1 random wound healed with no healing resistance added every minute, willow spine is applied

Mag - Mass Stamina is applied every minute, frantic charge is applied

Vyn - Excel is applied

Lib - Only fight skill will be lost on death, double rift creature spawns

 

Rift Point Rework Notes

 

Points will be awarded when you damage a rift enemy. Everyone gets the Kill points (same way it works now) although they are reduced for weaker enemies. Damage Points are given out based on how much damage you do. You get the damage points at the moment you do the damage. Damage values aren’t rounded, if you hit a rift beast for 35% of his HP you will get exactly 1.4 points. However when you check your points using /rift you will see a rounded down value. (3.99 will show as 3). When damage points are depleted a unit will no longer give points. If they Heal for whatever reason that does not give them more points to give.

 

	Kill points (per participant)	Total Damage Points
Beast	0.25	4
Jackal	0.25	5
Summoner	0.25	7.5
Caster	0.25	7.5
Ogre	1	15
Ogre Mage	1	15
War Master	20	0
Rift turrets	1	0

 

Rift Rewards Rework

Any time a rift item applies an effect to anything on the test server it should now log it in the event window.

For example Layered Shoulder pad should show:

 

Heavy Armor Crush Damage Reduction Bonus of " + crushBonus + " From Shoulder Pad Being Applied

 

Please run through the various items, Especially the socketed ring, to confirm function of the huge amount of applications.

 

Items reworked:

Wiki links are to the existing item to compare old uses.

Small shoulder pad	increased glance vs crush in studded and below
Double shoulder pad	increased glance vs slash in studded and below
Curved shoulder pad	Increased DR against bite in chain and heavy
Triple shoulder pad	increased glance chance against bite in light
Elaborate shoulder pad	increased glance chance against pierce in light
Exquisite shoulder pad	DR against elemental (fire cold acid) when in light armor
Basic shoulder pad	DR against slash in chain+ armor
Shielding shoulder pad	DR against Pierce in chain+ armor
Stylish shoulder pad	Head/Face damage protection (40% each at 100ql)
Layered shoulder pad	DR against Crush in chain+ armor
Chain shoulder pad	DR against Elemental in chain+ armor
Crafted shoulder pad	Reduce armor damage to light armor
Boar shoulder pad	New effect: Tank affinity, reduce incoming damage by 10% but also reduce outgoing damage by 10%
Ribboned shoulder pad	Reduce armor damage to chain+
Skull shoulder pad	Buff dual wielding, up to 15% chance per pad to not consume the off hand swing in a combat round
Human skull shoulder pad	New Effect: Berserker affinity: +10% incoming damage and +10% outgoing damage
Dragon shoulder pad	Reduce movement speed Pen of Heavy armor by up to 50%
Socketed ring	Rune style effects tied to the ring, just applied to whatever the user is doing with gem ql units lost per action when the effect is applied Star gems give drastically more uses Sapphire - 10% gather ql, 1ql/10 uses Emerald(most common) - + tend/forestry +10% effect 1ql/20 uses Ruby - skill check bonus 10% 1ql/40 skill checks (can be many per action) Opal - imp ql 10% - 1ql/20 imps actions Diamond - repair ql loss 10% - 20 repair ticks per ql Pearl (most rare) - Usage speed - 10% 1ql/10 uses
Artisan ring	same effect style, but you get to pick a skill, it's up to 10% bonus skill, there is a higher upfront cost but you can recharge the ring with rift points.   When the ring is almost depleted, a right click event for charging it will appear on the ring. This will give a box that asks if you wish to spend points to charge it.
Soul stealer necklace	Now only triggers (damages necklace and increases skill) when the enemy is over 15 CR and your share of the exp is more than half of the total
Bracelet of inspiration	While wearing this bracelet if you get a MOI while imping it will 100% rare the object and removes the imp fail chance. Raring an item destroys the bracelet instantly.

 

 

Other Misc Updates

• Unfinished colossus visibility range extended
• Artisan ring will be enabled on PvP
• Many Rift Items will now be impable and repairable
• Left and Right shoulder pads have been consolidated into one fits both sides
• Removed land deformation on rift landing (will still remove trees and grass but will not create dirt from other tiles or make mounds)

 

Test Server Instructions:

 

• Only available on our test server Druska for testing.

 

• A drystal portal to Druska is available near the starting area in Oracle
• To use the test client, use the Test Client launcher shortcut or the Choose Client shortcut and choose the test client. For Steam, right-click Wurm Online in your Steam Library and click Properties. Then add a -c to the Launch Options. This will give you a prompt to select the Test Client.
• Logging in with a new username/password will register an account automatically and log you in.
• Test Menu
  • The test menu now has a field where you can give yourself rift shop points
  • #riftTeleport has been added as a text command to send yourself to an active rift
  • If you need gems for the socketed ring you can spawn vesseled gems in the test menu.

 

[Atndy 385]

What was the thought process behind this? You literally took the two most hated things in wurm to do and mashed them together...

[Akuzic 136]

Actually really like the thematics of building colossi to the four gods for them to help you out during the rift

Edit: I was thinking about this wrong. Looking at them just as a chance for crafters to get rift points, makes sense, especially since you dont need to finish them

Otherwise love the look of the rest of the changes!

Edited July 29, 2023 by Akuzic

[Karrde 344]

Hrm rather would have siege machinery and related defenses play a role. Colossi are a pain to build for rift locations that can move around a bit, even when cut in half.

Edited July 29, 2023 by Karrde

[Sinnjinn 509]

7 minutes ago, Atndy said:

What was the thought process behind this? You literally took the two most hated things in wurm to do and mashed them together...

What he did was create a way for non-combatants to contribute to the rift, and get rift points.

[Oblivionnreaver 5,175]

is rift gear still disabled in pvp or will this change enable them

[Akuzic 136]

Talked about this on discord but would be cool if each colossus had different material requirements, that way crafters of different types could contribute

Maybe?

Mag - Blacksmithing

Fo - Tailoring

Vyn - Woodcutting

Lib - Masonry

[Kvisto 13]

Just now, Akuzic said:

Talked about this on discord but would be cool if each colossus had different material requirements, that way crafters of different types could contribute

Maybe?

Mag - Blacksmithing

Fo - Tailoring

Vyn - Woodcutting

Lib - Masonry

Why would you want to complicate something that is already considered a pain to gather resources for, and make them exclusive between the different deity colossus?

[Akuzic 136]

16 minutes ago, Kvisto said:

Why would you want to complicate something that is already considered a pain to gather resources for, and make them exclusive between the different deity colossus?

That way you arent SOL if you dont do much masonry - you dont have to bring every type of material, not like theres a penalty for not doing it

[SweetSerenade 183]

Firstly the items sound great!

 

The mechanics of these do not fit in with a lot of Wurms correct narrative but that's okay, they sound incredible and so much fun, will the artisan rings be working on PVP servers, feels like they wouldn't break things, same with a few others.

 

Fo colossus sounds incredible, is this highest damage wound or a random wound?

 

Lib sounds even better, more creatures means more points, I wonder if that means we get twice the war masters too lol

 

Mag, maybe a damage boost instead, I really don't see anybody building even a half material colossus for mass Stam, it's so easy to break away and recover Stam with no issues, the only time I think anybody would use this is the person who is tanking the war master.

 

Vynora, defensive CR is so meh, again maybe only decent for the person doing the tanking but I don't see this one making a difference, I might need to check back once I think of something more applicable for a Vyn boost.

 

Edit: do skill rings still no longer apply SB benefit?

Edited July 29, 2023 by SweetSerenade

[Steveleeb 1,067]

wibble

[Fearil 200]

Will the rift point purchase prices change at all with this update?

[Arronicus 642]

I like this!

Also, wts colossus bricks.

[Bearclaws 44]

Thank GOD !!

 

Points will be awarded when you damage a rift enemy. Everyone gets the Kill points (same way it works now) although they are reduced for weaker enemies. Damage Points are given out based on how much damage you do. You get the damage points at the moment you do the damage. Damage values aren’t rounded, if you hit a rift beast for 35% of his HP you will get exactly 1.4 points. However when you check your points using /rift you will see a rounded down value. (3.99 will show as 3)

 

Everyone gets the Kill points (same way it works now)  So if you have a alt setting around and i hit a mob and and kill it (Everyone gets points ? like i dont know why you think it should be that way if this is what your saying.

 

I always got sick of watching ppl just sac and fo cast over and over again and get more points than the ppl who's killed 60 rift mobs. like this system been sh@t for years this is why i just quit going to them.

 

Thanks for looking in to it !!

 

+1

 

Edited July 29, 2023 by Bearclaws

[SweetSerenade 183]

19 minutes ago, Bearclaws said:

Sick of watching ppl just sac and fo cast over and over again and get more points than the ppl who's killed 60 rift mobs. like this system been sh@t for years this is why i just quit going to them.

 

 

Going to be the one and say I'm fine with this, they need to prepare saccables and/or gems and often make the rift a lot easier to manage, let's not remove the healing points.

[Gingeko 223]

22 minutes ago, Bearclaws said:

Everyone gets the Kill points (same way it works now)  So if you have a alt setting around and i hit a mob and and kill it (Everyone gets points ? like i dont know why you think it should be that way if this is what your saying.

currently all you need to do to get points is open combat with the mob never hit or do damage. so thats called "tagging"  currently the only way to get points other then heal.

Edited July 29, 2023 by Gingeko

[Wulfmaer 413]

On 7/27/2023 at 6:03 AM, jaytoo said:

For testing the pre combat phase a rift has been placed near the starter in Druska. The unfinished colossus are there but view distance is low so you will have to walk near them to find them. View distance is planned to be fixed during this test.

 

Would be good if the hover over the unfinished colossus gave a tooltip that said which colossus it was - rather than just 'unfinished item' - should say 'Unfinished xxx Colossus' where xxx is the particular god.

 

The restriction of needing to be of a particular faith to build should probably be removed, so there is at least a chance that these will ever get built. Even with reduced items. Add in that having clay local to a rift is extremely unlikely, so all the mats will need to be prepared before hand and imported (7 crates).

 

On the larger servers, couple in the larger distances, periodically inaccessible rift locations, and it can be hard enough to get more than a handful of people to a rift. Most people either ride, or are summoned, so even less likely a colossus will be built.

 

Maybe part built/completed colossus at one rift should reduce the requirements at the next one. Or maybe reducing the requirements to 1/4 or 1/3 rather than just a half.

 

Other than building a colossus there doesn't seem to be anything new to the pre-combat phase. Given that 'test' doesn't spawn colossus bricks...

 

Regarding "25% chance to get a rift point" per successful add - just make it 0.25 points per successful add.

 

Also looks as if that rift is not going to open "[06:10:35] You guess that this Rift will open in approximately -1 hours."

 

On 7/27/2023 at 6:03 AM, jaytoo said:

I will be conducting a rift battle or two to gather balancing information on the new point system with higher player counts but those will be subject to my availability.

 

Really also need to test with typical rift numbers, less than 10, and often less than 5, is fairly typical. But I hope you have records of the numbers from the live servers so already know that.

 

Kill points reflecting enemy strength is welcome, but best/jackal/summoner/caster and ogre/ogre mage are not all the same strength. Also will the enemy condition factor into this? A champion ogre should give more than a sly one! Or maybe this should be reflected in the damage points, or maybe both to some extent?

 

Damage Points. Why no damage points for the War Master? Should the total number of damage point be modified based on any condition? What about those mobs that jump away or wander off and heal up some, maybe that should increase the total damage points (with some cap to prevent exploiting)?

 

Not too sure what to think about the items rework. But, are existing items going to become legacy and keep their current effects? If not then there will need to be something to ensure that those using them know that the effects have changed. For example changing the human skull pads from "The human skull shoulder pad gives a buff to weapon damage increases while wearing medium or light armour." to "New Effect: Berserker affinity: +10% incoming damage and +10% outgoing damage" could give somebody a very nasty surprise. But the same applies to all the changes.

 

Really needs a one page summary of all those item changes with what they do now, and what they will do.

 

[Lisimba 779]

Didn't see this here, but from Discord:

 

Quote

Jaytoo: shoulder pads don't take damage anymore. and there are no left or right variants

 

That's really nice, it makes the pads actually viable. I gave up on using them because they wore out fast and I kept on having to choose when to put them on and take them off just to get the full effect.

 

On 7/27/2023 at 7:03 AM, jaytoo said:

When the ring is almost depleted, a right click event for charging it will appear on the ring. This will give a box that asks if you wish to spend points to charge it.

 

If the ring depletes entirely, will it be destroyed, like an item whose damage reaches 100%? Or will it just sit inactive until you get around to charging it again? I'd greatly prefer the latter.

 

Also, does anyone know if you can re-socket socketed rings whose uses are depleted? I've never actually tried those in game.

 

On 7/27/2023 at 7:03 AM, jaytoo said:

While wearing this bracelet if you get a MOI while imping it will 100% rare the object and removes the imp fail chance. Raring an item destroys the bracelet instantly.

 

Does this do anything for objects that are already rare?

 

As much as I would like to upgrade everything I own to fantastic, I don't think that would be good for the game. On the other hand, rares are already fairly easy to acquire by established players, so if this is indeed limited to just rares, it would just help fill in the gaps where you've had bad RNG. That seems good.

 

Edited to add:

Quote

Blazecraze, in another thread: Please report about the absolute crashing stocks of Wurm Bricks - my empire is in shambles right now.

 

Do you do colossus bricks?

Edited July 29, 2023 by Lisimba

[Gingeko 223]

1 minute ago, Lisimba said:

Also, does anyone know if you can re-socket socketed rings whose uses are depleted? I've never actually tried those in game.

the ring reverts to empty ring and can be reused 

[Jaz 2,666]

On 7/27/2023 at 7:03 AM, jaytoo said:

Bracelet of inspiration

While wearing this bracelet if you get a MOI while imping it will 100% rare the object and removes the imp fail chance. Raring an item destroys the bracelet instantly.

Price at 1000 RP is way too low in my view, it is definitely a more powerful item than metallic liquid. I would bump it up to 2-3k at least.

[Vorticella 958]

I like this concept! I've barely even looked at the rift shop items until now because they felt out of reach with how long it takes to save up enough points, and with the shoulders decaying too, it was all too harsh. So these changes are very welcome indeed!!

 

Now that I'm actually interested in using it, I notice how cumbersome the rift shop is. It would be amazing if it could have a more visual layout like the silver shop, but if that's not feasible for the moment, at least being able to choose multiple items, and more than one of an item (eg buy 2 shoulder pads in one transaction) would make the process smoother. It's also odd not to have any previews of items we can equip.

 

On 7/27/2023 at 7:03 AM, jaytoo said:

Any time a rift item applies an effect to anything on the test server it should now log it in the event window.

For example Layered Shoulder pad should show:

 

Heavy Armor Crush Damage Reduction Bonus of " + crushBonus + " From Shoulder Pad Being Applied

 

Of the items I've tried so far (triple, double, stylish, and small shoulder pads, and necklace of focus), none of them have shown anything about effects in the event log. Only the basic text: "[10:27:44] You wear a double shoulder pad."

 

Is there any chance of having the /rift window continuously update while the rift is in progress, so we can just glance at it instead of having to type /rift and close that window over and over?

 

Finally, many of us skip rifts just because of time consuming travel. Anything that would help us get there and back more easily would certainly increase participation. There was talk about the karma village teleport being changed to include mounts. I'm guessing if that's still planned it's being bundled in with a bigger project focused on karma, but if that particular one could be singled out and squeezed in with this update, or if we can get something similar just for rifts.. perhaps priest summons can include mounts.. maybe even carts now that we'll want to bring building materials.. it would make it a lot easier to leave home for such events.

 

Thanks for your awesome work!!

[Lisimba 779]

7 minutes ago, Vorticella said:

Is there any chance of having the /rift window continuously update while the rift is in progress, so we can just glance at it instead of having to type /rift and close that window over and over?

 

Having a counter on screen would be best, yes.

 

But if that's not feasible (yet), an interim solution would be to put updates in the Events tab, in the same way that skill updates go in the Skills tab. Something like "[19:35:43] Rift points increased by 0.25 to 15.25". I expect some people would want to turn that off, so it'd also need a checkbox somewhere in settings.

[Tharonel 1]

A really interesting idea. Having only just returned I can't speak much for the items/point redemptions; provided they are balanced I can't see any major issues.

 

The pre-rift construction is something I really like the look of though, and has given me some ideas/suggestions I wanted to put into words specifically about the mechanics. 

 

A Justification: The idea behind this seems to be to allow non-combat players the chance to get involved in rifts and earn points that in turn give boosts to those fighting to close the rift. The current implementation is also tied into the specific gods, seemingly with the aim of requiring teamwork to gain access to all 4 bonuses. This is just my interpretation, but that seems to be the intended outcome of these additions. Not completing them does not inherently change the way rifts work compared to the current state. 

 

It is my understanding that the core mechanics of the rifts is not changing, only the rewards obtained (beyond the scope of this reply) and the pre-rift construction phase being added (which can give bonuses to the actual rift).

 

1) The use of Colossi - Someone in discord mentioned this which got me thinking - all credit to them for noticing this.

Having a colossus for each of the gods is interesting and thematic, and lowering the cost to half lowers the barrier to entry. This is a very one-dimensional implementation though utilising only masonry from the plethora of non combat skills available. It was suggested that each colossus could require different materials, depending on the god, to broaden this scope. This does make things seem a little weird though; for example making a Fo colossus from cloth, and could run into issues with some colossi being more awkward or having a greater cost than others. 

 

The suggestion: Change from colossus to something more akin to an altar or obelisk. These constructions could require multiple different materials (the possibilities here are endless with different combinations of raw materials and constructed goods) which helps bring other crafting skills into the light and can be different for each god giving them a unique edge.

 

2) The construction Process - It has been mentioned that the cost of these constructions is quite high and therefore participation may be limited especially if the rift does not change in difficulty. 

The up front cost of 4000 colossus bricks and 4000 clay to gain these bonuses is high, and whether this cost outweighs the bonus given remains to be seen. If suggestion 1 is taken into account we can also assume a similar cost requirement (just spread over different items) which again would be considered against the bonuses given. If these constructions are only available during the pre rift and require so many materials I fear that participation would drop. 

 

The Suggestion: Make each construction a multi-stage process where each stage has a lower resource demand (can be similar overall) and applies a bonus of increasing power for each stage completed. The difficulty of each stage can be tied to the materials required (mostly raw materials for stage 1 etc.). It would also potentially be useful to have longer to complete these but I am unsure what effect this would have on the rift process overall and would need to be considered separately. It could also be possible to continue construction after the rift has started, for most servers this will not matter as rifts are usually completed quickly, but for quieter servers with lower populations could give time to fully complete them, therefore allowing them to be completed more easily with fewer players.

 

3) Rewards and Participation - What is the purpose and who is this aimed at?

This addition seems be intended as a way to get rift points without focussing on the combat aspect and should we consider how this is achieved; First the required materials must be gathered/created, then they must be transported in bulk to the rift site, they must then be added to gain the bonus. Each material added will give a 25% chance to gain a rift point (it was suggested further up to change this to just give 0.25 rift points per material, and I think this is a great suggestion) which will result in ~1000 rift points being available for completing all 4 constructions. If the intention of this is to bring new players into rifts (especially newer players to the game with little combat skills) I fear that they would not have the capabilities to bring materials over and would not engage with this content.

 

The suggestion: The veteran players of Wurm would not find any barrier to this type of content, and would only need to balance the effort involved against the rewards given to decide whether to engage. We could instead break this apart into two distinct areas that would allow greater participation overall. If we reward players for bringing materials into the area - having some form of storage that allows items to be placed inside (but not removed, and only limited to required materials for the construction) veteran players with the capabilities can earn rewards for the task of bringing materials in. This then separates the logistics and the construction, allowing new players to the game the ability to follow the big red light and get involved, utilising the on site materials to add to each construction. (It is worth mentioning players who would rather complete both aspects can still do this). In addition to this, adding in an additional bonus for the number of players involved (for example 1 person adding everything versus 10 people working together to add everything) changes the dynamic of this content to incentivise working together and bringing new players to the rift to get involved. Now the way these rewards are split is beyond the scope of this post, and would need balancing with the other aspects of the rift content.

 

I apologise for the long post; I read through the original post and am a really big fan of this idea, but wanted to put across some of my thoughts around how it could best be implemented. These ideas are by no means finalised or perfect but I feel they could be iterated upon further to elevate this aspect of rifts into something to help engage new players in this content and bring different aspects of the community together.

 

Thanks for reading.

[Lethyria 161]

Sounds great.

Testing notes:
#riftTeleport doesn't seem to work, might be because no rift  is active

The rift doesn't seem to have opened properly [11:48:16] You guess that this Rift will open in approximately -6 hours.

[Borstaskor 503]

The pads effect scaling with its ql would be fine..

.. if the pads were able to be imped.

 

Them coming as a random ql introduces a gambling aspect that is directly tied to performance. Sounds like an unnecessarily frustrating system which doesn't (as far as my opinion goes) make the game better.

 

I'd love for pads to be impable (and obviously also repairable, which would even solve the issue some people have with their pads taking damage..).

Edited July 29, 2023 by Borstaskor