Release 28

March 31, 2016
Release 28 represents a huge expansion of the Novian landmass with 42 new scenes appearing in seven different regions. Those scenes include adventuring areas, towns, mines, and dungeons. The story continues to advance, as well, with the underground areas of Malice and Skrekk representing pivotal moments in the Love and Courage storylines. Malice and Skrekk also represent the latest in a string of visually competitive environments. In Release 28, we also took the first of many steps to make our characters as comparable as our environments by completely overhauling our male character.

In addition, Release 28 contains a handful of general improvements to quality of life, such as increasing the top end of the Brightness slider to help those of you with darker monitors. You will notice even more of these improvements, especially in crafting. The Recipe Book has bigger and darker fonts, as well as a new table of contents with sub categories. We also introduced Bulk Crafting and Bulk Salvage..

Yet again, I want to express a huge amount of gratitude to our Dev+ backers who tested all of the items below on the QA server and uncovered lots of bugs. They also provided editorial feedback on this post. So, they are a big reason that this post actually matches what is in the game, and that it is easy to read.

Key:
 * Plain Text: The original plan for the Release deliverables. We intentionally preserve the original text so that our backers can compare plan versus actuals.
 * Italics: Extra notes and new deliverables
 * Strikethrough: These are items that did not make the release

RELEASE 28, March 31, 2016


 * Story: More polish passes will be made on existing maps for balance and story support. We will also continue to expand the story with new scenes, including the dungeon of Artifice and the Superstition Canyon control point.
 * WARNING: STORY SPOILERS IN THIS SECTION! Some players requested that we warn you that you may want to skip the story section of the update if you want the story to remain a complete mystery before you play the game.
 * Artifice Delayed: We have made significant progress on this culminating moment in the Truth storyline (as you have seen in our recent weekly updates and posts to the Dev+ forums) but it is not quite ready for players so we are holding until a future release.
 * Superstition Canyon: This control point between Forsaken Vale and South Paladis actually already appeared in Release 27.
 * The Shores of Malice and Malice: This ancient underground cavern on the shores of Stormwater Lake has long been used to inter the dead, but now the dead march forth from it. The Path of Love has led you to this final confrontation with the undead legions you have been fighting against ever since your arrival in Solace Bridge. A one-player instance, adventurers who brave the halls of Malice will discover much about their enemies… and their friends. Something, or someone is being held in its depths, and that threatens Ardoris and all of Novia  – can you discover what secrets the dead hide?
 * Norgard: This island off the northwest coast of Novia is where the culminating moments of the Courage storyline will take place and where you will eventually find Valhold (in Release 29). The hostilities between the humans and the kobolds has even spilled onto the mainland. In Release 28 you will find a mix of smaller towns and adventures scenes on Norgard and nearby Noreach.
 * Mud (town)
 * Estgard (town)
 * Norgard Fens
 * Naryad Moors
 * Thrones Foothills
 * Valhold Forest
 * Naryad Woods
 * Skrekk and The Caverns of Skrekk: While the Courage storyline does not yet take you to the kingdom of the Kobolds you can still visit this underground mechanical marvel in northwest Norgard. The Kobolds are the most adventuresome when it comes to technology in Novia and are the source of almost every advancement we see in the land today. These advancements have only accelerated with the onslaught of Outlanders and it is only the constant hostilities between humans and Kobolds that prevent true leaps forward in matters of science and industry. Humans brave enough to venture into the depths of Skrekk will be met with hatred and contempt but rewarded with incredible sights. The Caverns of Skrekk is a one-player instance and though you can talk to a few kobolds that are not immediately trying to kill you, in general the story content is not yet implemented for this scene.
 * Quel: The region around Etceter is now full of areas to adventure including the Boreas Colossus.
 * South Quel Woods
 * North Quel Woods
 * Sawtooth Thicket
 * North Quel Way
 * Boreas Colossus
 * The Crags
 * Elysium: This large island off the southwest coast of Novia is home to the pilgrim waypoint town of Xenos as well as several adventure scenes including the Elysium Mines.
 * Whispering Woods
 * Twins Foothills
 * Elysian Plains
 * Elysium Mines
 * Rumor Peaks
 * Xenos: The town of Xenos is the next step on the Path of Truth past Etceter, and quest NPCs have been added this release to move the story forward and lead you towards the dungeon of Artifice.
 * Noreach: This tiny town off the northern coast of Novia will be joined by a host of other Verdantis region scenes in Release 29.
 * Longfall: This region around the city of Aerie is now well populated with adventure scenes of various levels.
 * East Longfall Wetland
 * South Longfall Wetland
 * South Longfall Road
 * Longfall Woods
 * Bloodriver Forest
 * Grunvald: We added a few more scenes to this region including a new control point that connect to Drachvald.
 * Vauban Pass (control point)
 * Brisach Maple Forest
 * Sequanna Colossus
 * Celestis: This city can be found near Solania in the Perennial Coast region.
 * South Paladis: We added a few more adventure scenes and one more town to this region at the northern tip of the Bay of Storms.
 * Tenebris Harbor
 * Penmawr Island
 * Sunless Barrens
 * Oracle Colossus
 * Bramble (town)
 * North Paladis: Three more towns have been added to this region north of the Sanctus Spine.
 * Fortus End
 * Northwood(town)
 * Yew(town)
 * Midras Ruins (PVP): This is another ancient ruined city, corrupted by shards of obsidian. The dungeons beneath the ruins, which are the last remaining scene to be implemented in the Path of Love, have not yet been added.
 * The Rise: This new dungeon is the largest dungeon to date. The Rise is the first of the main hubs in the underworld and connects multiple dungeon maps. While simple passage through the massive dungeon for travel purposes only takes a few minutes once mastered, those fearless adventurers brave enough to take a deeper dive will find multiple hours of exploration ahead of them. The Rise is NOT for the unskilled adventurer, the faint of heart, or those who lose their way easily. It includes seemingly endless passages, dozens of chambers, multiple skill-based challenges, a half-dozen unique player experiences, and several encounters targeted at groups of skilled players. The Rise is old school, hardcore dungeon crawling at its finest. Bring friends you trust, plenty of supplies, and maybe even some graph paper!
 * Starting Scene Items: We made a complete pass through the starting scenes to make sure that all items that looked like they could be taken by the player could be, and that those items were either usable as decorations or could be salvaged for scrap. We plan to propagate this through the entire game over time.
 * Resolute: Added streetlamps and porch lights to the city.


 * Castle Defense Scenarios: Castle scenes will appear in the game along with siege weapons to attack and defend them.
 * Castle Defense Scenarios Delayed: As mentioned in the Final Wipe and Lot Selection Post this feature has been delayed until after Release 32.


 * Town Sieges: Towns will begin coming under siege from the eight Cabalists (also known as the Dark Lords). While towns are under siege players must fight, run, or sneak past the siege lines around the town.
 * Town Sieges Delayed: As mentioned in the Final Wipe and Lot Selection Post this feature has been delayed until after Release 32.


 * Creatures: At least one Cabalist will begin wreaking havoc on besieged towns. Players using Moon magic will now be able to summon Wisps to support them.
 * Cabalists Delayed: The Cabalists are part of Town Sieges and therefore delayed.
 * NPCs Lying Down: We have now expanded the behavior set of NPCs to include lying down. You will start to see this behavior appearing in their routines over the next several releases. Examples include the long-suffering Guard Winslow in Owl’s Head, who though wounded, hasn’t slept in bed properly since Release 1.
 * Sped up “Close to Talk” time: The speed at which players transition into conversation mode has been greatly sped up.
 * Wisps: Wisps will be summonable via Moon magic and will lead players to resources as well as casting a variety of support spells. Wild Wisps will begin appearing in Release 29.


 * Skills: The ability to forget a skill will now be available from trainers. Polish and balance passes will be made across all skills and spells.
 * Untrain: Listed as “forget a skill” above was modified to “untrain” and was in Release 27.
 * Low Health Effects: When your character is approaching death game will indicate through visual and audio effects.
 * No Level Caps: As part of our future proofing work as we prepare for final wipe, all level caps have been removed.
 * Summon Wisp: The Wisp represents our second support class pet (Water Elemental was the first). Wisps introduce a new behavior mode called Patrol selectable via right click, which is the mode where they will seek out and guide players to resources.
 * Safe Fall: New skill in the Subterfuge tree. Reduces fall damage based on skill level. Can only be leveled up through falling and taking damage. A skill level of 25 should allow around an extra 2 meters of fall distance and a Grandmaster should be able to fall around an extra 4 meters without damage.
 * Skills and Character UI: We removed the placeholder Stats UI and moved much of that information to either the Skills UI or the Character Sheet UI. The Skills UI has been improved to include an overview of stats about each skill tree. The number shown on each skill tree icon (left side of the window) is the sum of the skill levels in that tree. More stats may be added in the future. Damage Resistance and Damage Avoidance (previously shown in the Stats UI) are now shown in the Character Sheet UI. Damage Absorption is now presented as a component of Damage Resistance. The term “Damage Absorption” is no longer used. Tooltips have been added to some of the stats that are displayed in the character sheet. The new tooltips describe the effect that the stats have on the character.
 * Skill Tree Icons: We created new icons for each School of Combat, Magic and Crafting. We then modified the Skills UI to use these icons instead of a list.
 * Skill Advancement UI: Skills that advance during a play session now display the experience bar for that skill as well as the total delta of each skill level on screen during the session. This allows the player to see the total progress that each skill has made during the session.
 * Death Field: No longer usable in non-combat mode.
 * Engage: Now usable in non-combat mode and will auto switch to combat mode upon successful use.
 * Earthquake: Now includes a chance of knockdown instead of stun. Chance of knockdown reduced by target’s dexterity. All effects of Earthquake now only hit targets on the ground. Flying targets and players who are in the air are not impacted.
 * Life Reach: Should now correctly extend the range and radius of all life magic instead of just Healing Ray.
 * Poison Weapon: Damage from Poison Weapon has been doubled but no longer affects Undead or Elementals.
 * Coup de Grâce: Damage on near death targets increased from 2X to 5X.
 * Air’s Embrace, Enlightenment, and Strength of Earth: All of these buffs can now be used outside of combat as well as in combat.
 * Cure Plague Potion: Cure Plague Potions will temporarily prevent propagation and provide immunity for a limited amount of time, therefore potentially breaking the endless cycle of zombie nastiness.


 * Crafting: Polish and balance passes will be made on resources, recipes, and creature loot.
 * Recipe Book Polish: We did an overhaul to the recipe book to improve readability and usability. In Release 29 we will take this a step further and, in List Mode, recipes will be merged with the crafting station and the Recipe Book will only be used in Bag mode. Changes in Release 28 include:
 * Increased font size.
 * Darkened text color.
 * Changed color of non-available ingredients.
 * Reduced the number of recipes per screen to 4.
 * Added sub-categories to each crafting school (ex. Swords under Smithing) that can be used for navigating back and forth.
 * Crafting Station Information UI: We added a new window to the crafting stations to deliver information that includs success chance, critical chance, and whether placed items represent an unlearned recipe (which should greatly assist with experimental learning of recipes).
 * Bulk Crafting & Salvage: Crafters can now Craft and/or Salvage multiple items at once.
 * Obsidian: This rare and dangerous material is now part of the crafting system and can be used to create armor and weapons using the forge in Hilt Fortress. Obsidian weapons have very high critical damage chance, but low durability. They also do increased damage against Obsidian creatures. Obsidian armor reflects damage back against attackers but has low durability. For now, Obsidian ingots can be created from the Obsidian chips found on Obsidian creatures.
 * Coconut Trees: Coconuts, which are vital in the crafting of Coconut bras and in rapid transport, can now be harvested where coconut palms are found in locations like Tenebris Harbor, Penmawr Island, and the Longfall Wetlands.
 * Agriculture Growth Rate Indicator: Added a label above planter boxes that displays the growth rate as you place the object.


 * Single Player Offline: While Single Player Offline mode has been working internally since the start of the project, the work of making this available to players will begin. Additionally, features and content specific to Single Player Offline Mode will move into full production.
 * Single Player Offline Enabled: Players can now enable Offline mode. Please note that progress made in this mode is not stored on the server and will be overwritten when patched until the “Save Games” feature is implemented.
 * Offline Features Delayed: Allowing functions (AI, conversations, pathfinding, housing, etc.) to work robustly on the client without server verification took slightly longer than planned, so we had to push offline features (save games, companions, offline economy, etc) to later releases.


 * Service Hardening: We will begin a series of passes through the client, authentication, and server to harden the service for security and customer service. Special attention will be paid to the Patcher.
 * Sheet Music: Playing songs on musical instruments can now be done via in game items called Sheet Music. Just double click on the sheet music and your character will play the song using whatever instrument you have equipped. Neon Milk and Rule Britannia songs are connected to Sheet Music, and we will be expanding to include more music over time. Players can even attach ABC files to sheet music objects directly themselves (just like how we do custom books).
 * Recap (aka Space Bards) Neon Milk Rewards: As part of the Neon Milk Kickstarter 2 years ago, we did a cross promotion with Recap that is finally coming to fruition in Release 27 and 28. All backers of Shroud of the Avatar received the “gypsy dance” emote (as seen in the video above) in Release 27. In Release 28 all backers who backed both Neon Milk at $10 and Shroud of the Avatar at $25+ will receive a wax cylinder in custom Neon Milk green with a medieval instrumental version of Lord British Returns and the same song as an ABC file in Sheet Music format playable with in game musical instruments. Those who backed Neon Milk at $25 and Shroud of the Avatar at $25+ will also receive Sheet Music instrumentals of select songs from Neon Milk.
 * Player Homes & Decorations:
 * Guest Lot Binding: Players who have Guest (or higher) permissions on a lot can now bind for Recall to that lot.
 * Usage Log Clearing: Owners of PoTs and Lots can now clear the usage logs of containers.
 * Automated Phonograph: Unlike a normal phonograph which can only play one wax cylinder at a time, these wonderful devices (available in the Add On Store) allow you to store up to 8 wax cylinders and play them as a random playlist.
 * Ornate Automated Phonograph: The ornate version stores up to 16 wax cylinders.
 * Giant Pavers: These are 4 times as big as the large pavers which makes them great for covering large areas such as town squares or roadways. The Rough Stone and Rough Wood versions can be crafted in game and the other versions can be purchased in the Add On Store.
 * Kobold Homes and Decorations: A wonderful side effect of our work in getting Skrekk built was the generation of several new player home assets in the Kobold style including:
 * Kobold Wind Power Generator
 * Kobold Corkscrew Wind Power Generator
 * Kobold Tower Village Home
 * Kobold Dwelling Village Home
 * Kobold Dual Spire Village Home
 * Kobold 3 Story Row Houses
 * Kobold 4-Story Great Hall City Home


 * Performance: As with each release, a number of performance improvements have been implemented. Work this release was primarily focused on load times and worst case CPU issues. Players with powerful video cards and modest CPUs should see much improved frame rates in this release, especially at big events.
 * Load Times: Load times should be noticeably better, especially for large city scenes and story scenes with lots of dialog. In local tests, load times for Owl’s Head were cut in half. More metrics were also added for tracking load times.
 * UI Optimizations: Thanks to a number of optimizations, the UI is now MUCH faster. This should give a very significant improvement in scenes with lots of activity, such as the monthly dance party and the weekly PVP tournaments.
 * AI Optimizations: We made more improvements with AI and general creature performance.
 * Simplified Collision: This improves performance, reduces memory footprint, and stops the camera from hitting things like roof beams inside.
 * Row Houses
 * Obsidian Towers
 * Stone Keep
 * Knight Founder
 * Knight Marshal
 * Queen of Chaos
 * Edelmann Founder
 * Edelmann Benefactor
 * Baron Benefactor
 * Airship
 * Ardoris Palace
 * Lord Houseboat
 * Baron Galleon
 * Baron Frigate
 * Lord Benefactor
 * Edelmann Cabana
 * Lord Marshal
 * Lord Founder
 * Viking Home


 * Containers in List Inventory: You can now use containers in List Mode to sort and view your inventory. Previously List Mode would display everything in your inventory regardless of whether it was in other containers (bags, chests, etc.).
 * Social & Player Character:
 * Lying Down in Beds: Double clicking on a bed will now make the avatar lie down in the bed, much like how sitting in chairs works.
 * Examine: This option has been added to the menu when you right click on other players and allows you to see their paperdoll.
 * Scene User List (aka /who): This is a list of all players currently in the same instance of the scene you are in. Guildmates and friends show character names, others show as anonymous. By default this list can be accessed via Numpad 0.
 * Text Size Option for Nameplates: There is now an option to display player nameplates, guild name, chat bubbles, and player titles in a larger font.
 * New Titles (Outlander & Hospitaller): For many releases, experienced players help new players as they have logged into the world. This has taken many forms, like the Welcome Quest run by the Duchy of Dara Brae and the Novian Academy by the Phoenix Republic. Recently, it was requested we aid this work by the creation of game titles that players can use to signal that they are either seeking help or that they are giving guidance. So, we have added the titles “Outlander” and “Hospitaller” to all players. New players (or even veteran players) can press Keypad “-” and set their title to “Outlander” as a signal to other players that they would like either specific help… or just general newcomer guidance. Players can also set their title to “Hospitaller” as a signal they are available to provide specific help or newcomer recommendations.
 * New Emotes: Thanks to a suggestion from our players, we created emotes based on the three Titans. These emotes are learned from speaking to the students of virtue in Ardoris.
 * /truth
 * /love
 * /courage
 * 'Dance Emote names: The dance emotes no longer have generic number based names and instead have descriptive names (except /dance).
 * /dance2 = /allemande
 * /dance3 = /zombie
 * /dance4 = /gypsy
 * /dance5 = /magic
 * Belly Dance: The newest dance emote can be learned from the mighty Zangoff, feared blacksmith and master axe crafter, in Ardoris. Warning: once Zangoff performs his dance, you may not be the same.
 * Royal Founder Cloak: Royal Founders now can display their status by wearing this cloak with the unique color scheme of Royal Founders.
 * 9 New Shields: There are now 9 new shields in the game. In future releases they will be craftable.
 * Short and Long Kilts: In R27, the kilts displayed differently on male and female characters. On male characters, the kilts were long; on female characters, the kilts were short. After much feedback from players, we have changed this. The plain craftable Kilts now come in long and short versions, both wearable by both genders. The Ornate Kilt in the Add On Store is also now available in long and short styles. NOTE: If you previously purchased the Ornate Kilt we have issued you a store credit so you can repurchase the style of your choosing (note: until the next wipe you will temporarily still have a long Ornate Kilt in your inventory).


 * ''New Male Avatar: As many of you saw in a recent weekly update and Dev+ forum post, we have done a complete overhaul of the male avatar starting with the mesh and texture. We are still doing some final tweaks on the face, and next steps will be to polish all the armor and clothing. Once that is done, we will move on to polish and expansion of the hair styles. We will then repeat the entire process for the female character.
 * New Walk/Run Cycle: As part of the above, we have replaced the walk and run animation cycle for the male avatar to better match the new proportions.
 * Morph Target Fixes: We made a fix to the morph targets work on the face so that the shapes “average” versus “add” together. This now allows us much more freedom to push how far the shapes can go, therefore allowing players to create much more diversity in face shapes.


 * Spawn Camping: To combat this problematic issue in both PVP and PVE (yes NPCs will swamp incoming players upon login), we have made a few changes in R28.
 * Temporary Invulnerability: When players respawn after death or first appear in a scene, they are temporarily invulnerable for a few seconds, or until they perform an action.
 * Randomized Location: When entering a PVP map, players will now appear in a randomized location. NOTE: PVP PoTs do not randomize entry location.


 * Winter Telethon Rewards: Everyone who pledged at least $5 during our Winter Telethon will now receive their /snow emote and Snowflake Cloak (which extends the length of the /snow emote duration when worn).
 * Shooting Stars: The sky above Novia will periodically be visited by meteors burning up in the atmosphere.
 * Lighting:
 * Increased Top End of Brightness Slider: We increased the maximum brightness setting to a much higher brightness. This should help those with darker monitors.
 * Improved Lighting in Character Creation: Our Character Creation screen was using a very broken and old lighting model. We have done our best to update it to a better model, but the long term plan is to move this to a “real” scene in the game to take advantage of our in game lighting model. For now, it is at least better than it was.
 * Light Sources tied to Ambient: When we made a recent upgrade to our lighting model, we broke the effect that point source lights (torches, light spells, etc.) use to increase the overall ambient light level. This bug is now fixed, so in addition to providing a local source of illumination, they should once again increase the overall brightness of the scene.


 * Add On Store Tabs: The Add On Store has been reorganized with category tabs to make viewing the content easier.
 * Sound Effects: Another huge pass through the game upgrading and adding new sounds.
 * Zombies
 * Chest Mimic
 * Barrel Mimic
 * Bandits
 * Elves
 * Resurrection Ankhs
 * Death sounds
 * Spiders
 * Light
 * Enlightenment
 * Flame Fist
 * Douse
 * Healing Touch
 * Dash
 * Death Touch
 * Books & Parchment
 * Dungeon Breakthrough Walls


 * Localization: Various tasks were completed and bugs were fixed to support the ongoing localization effort. All the initial languages are advancing steadily with Spanish still in the lead at 83% and German steadily catching up with 65%. Italian has leaped forward and is now at 47%.
 * Player Owned Towns:
 * Mountain Template 01: This is both an entirely new layout (not at all based on the original PaxLair template) and a new biome representing a high mountain pass with a lake. Players who have selected this template and who have locked their submission form will be automatically switched over in Release 29.
 * Broadcast Automated Phonograph: Owners of a dynamic Player Owned Town will now be able to select the songs that play in their town using wax cylinders and a Broadcast Automated Phonograph. These songs will be played across the entire scene for all players to hear as a random playlist. We had originally planned for our world builders to add the music to the towns by hand, like we do any other scene, but as we have expanded the tools for the dynamic towns we realized we should extend those dynamic capabilities to music as well. We then realized we had already converted most of the music to wax cylinders. From there it was only a few steps (albeit complicated steps) to enable players to use those wax cylinders to build playlists for their towns. The number of songs that can go in the Phonograph is governed by the size of the town. We are currently delivering 20 of the game songs with the phonograph and we will add more as they are turned into wax cylinders. NOTE: Even though the songs are stored on wax cylinders, they do not sound like they are played on a phonograph and are entirely unfiltered.
 * Increased Resurrection Ankhs: We have greatly increased the number of Resurrection Ankhs in all Player Owned Towns. This should improve the mechanics in towns who flag for PVP.
 * Nested Templates in Hometown: To allow owners to make more informed decisions about what template they would like to choose for their town, they can now visit each of the current templates by visiting Hometown (which now has one of each template as nested PoTs).
 * New Dynamic PoTs: For PoTs that used the new Lock & Submit procedure, we processed any requests that don’t require a wipe, including new PoTs, interconnections, and size changes. Please note we cannot process biome changes or owner transfers without a wipe. We added 5 new dynamic PoTs (listed below). We also upgraded sizes on several PoTs and added requested interconnections to other PoTs. Finally we removed PoTs with incomplete or failed payment plans.
 * Blackrock Cove: Added interconnections (Cooper Shoals, Tara’s Rest). Removed interconnection (Minock).
 * Brickmaer: New addition (nested in Kiln).
 * Bricksium: Interconnection (nested in Xenos).
 * Cooper Shoals: New addition (nested in Blackrock Cove).
 * Dara Brae: Changed location to . Added interconnection (with Storm’s Reach).
 * Evergreen Farm: New addition (temporarily under Brittany Graveyard).
 * Italian Militum: Removed.
 * It’s a Town: Downgraded to Holdfast.
 * Malum Immortui: Removed.
 * Minock: Removed interconnection with Blackrock Cove.
 * Obsidian Ridge: Added interconnection (Cooper Shoals).
 * Painted Caves: Removed.
 * Papua: Removed.
 * Stinging Tree Hollow: Upgraded to Town.
 * Tara’s Rest: New addition (nested in Blackrock Cove).
 * Temples of Syrinx: New addition (nested in Desolis).
 * Tokuno: Removed.

Additional Information

 * Release 28 Instructions
 * Release 28 Known Issues
 * Quick Reference Card