With today’s patch, we are bringing you two things that we announced in the previous work-in-progress insight. Guild banners that grant active buffs to the players in the area and we are introducing destructible buildings such as houses and huts in capturable locations. We want to make the atmosphere of our sieges more interesting, we want to introduce a feeling of war and destruction that affects not only the fortifications around the castle but also the buildings in the center of the location, where players stay and fight through a significant part of the siege. These houses and huts will be a great addition to the locations not only in terms of battle but also for immersion purposes.
On top of that, with today's patch note, we are bringing to you another portion of Work in Progress insight. Make sure to read them and share your thoughts with us on our social media.
We are constantly working on Guild Castles which are our top priority for a long time already, and we are happy to introduce that we already feel comfortable enough that we will start doing sneak peeks about design details just next week. Stay tuned for more information!
The screenshot’s authors will be awarded. Rambs, Prometheuz and [AV] Liutbert – Contact Koma#4247 via Discord to receive your ambers!Video of the Week
We always look forward to watching and sharing the awesome videos posted by our community. It brings us a lot of happiness and gratitude in the office to see players exploring content, having fun, and showcasing their skills. This week, the reward of 2000 ambers goes to I3rooX
https://youtu.be/jRYd2kIEcQk
Congratulations to the winner and good luck to all competitors for next week’s Video of the Week award!
Work in Progress insight
Resource gathering rebalance
In the previous “Work in Progress Insight” we announced that we are working on a complete resource rebalance, including moving the tier 4 and tier 5 resources exclusively to the Loot Zone, and placing the resources of tier 3 and below only in the safer zones. Tier 4 and 5 resources will be also available through raids.
Today, we would like to shed some more light upon what are the ground concepts of these changes:
A clear crafting path
The new placement of resources will be an intuitive way for new crafters to start their path to becoming a crafting master, as while progressing to more dangerous zones they will also come across new, higher-tier materials, giving a clear sign when a progression to a higher tier zone is needed.
What is more, the new placement of resources improves not only the gameplay of adept crafters, it also introduces a clear distinction where to find resources one needs. Our crafting system is based on a concept, where a higher tier item takes a lower tier item and some additional enrichments to be crafted – crafting bulat bars requires dziwer bars, which require steel bars etc.
Thus, having the resources placed in clearly distinct zones enables the best crafters to optimize their gathering spots and look for the required components in a more efficient way.
Economy shaped by the players
Together with this change, we plan on bringing the Market Keeper to each major location on the map. This tweak will enable players to gather the resources that can be found in their location and easily put them up for sale on the market. This change will not only bring more life to the marketplace, as there will be a constant flow of the Loot Zone exclusive materials to the buyers in the Non-Loot (and vice versa), but it will also enable the players to spend more time in the open world location of their preference without the need to move back to the capital to sell their goods or stack up on some equipment.
Higher price for high-tier goods
Currently, all materials can be found all around the map, with more of them appearing in the Loot Zone. This is not ideal for the market of high-tier materials, as their price is lowered due to the fact that they can be obtained in a less dangerous zone.
The change in the placement of the resources will increase the price of the more exclusive materials found in the Loot Zone, thus making controlling locations in the Loot Zone, as well as roaming through this zone more profitable.
Promoting roaming
Roaming is of key importance to the game, as it enables more thrilling encounters and fights to happen around the map. However, it’s more difficult than other types of activities as a leader is needed to guide the roaming party around the map effectively as good coordination is a key to success. We want to reward active parties and active leaders by increasing the yield of resources in the open world. While the mines will still provide a relatively safe and steady flow of materials, the nodes found out in the open will be quicker to mine and provide a better yield ratio than their counterparts.
Regarding the mines, currently, players may arrive and find them empty, requiring them to wait for resources to appear. Alternatively, they may be lucky and find resources still available for collection. After gathering these resources, players move on to another mine. To ensure that players always have resources to collect, we plan to accelerate the respawn of resources. However, to prevent the economy from being destroyed, we will also slow down the extraction of mine resources and reduce the amount extracted. This will ensure that resources in the open world are more valuable and they are justified. In addition, raw materials in the open world will yield more resources and be mined faster.
Location with unique resource
We would like to try a different approach to some of the resources by making them unique for a given location, let’s say nitrite will be only available to gather at Skergard, sulfur at Audunstende, and calcite at Aquitania. We will balance mentioned resources with each other, to make them equal in terms of the yield gathering and use of resources during crafting. Of course, you will be able to find them in the open world too, to avoid a situation where a given nation is “cut off” from a given resource and to diversify the source of the resources. A nation will never be denied access to a given resource, they will be able to gather mentioned resources in the open world, will be able to buy them from the market, and will be able to get them thru raids.
That resource distribution will create a situation where players will need to care and fight over these locations, and that change will make the marketplace more alive because players will be buying more often the resources they need.
Reinforcement and crafting changes
Another key change we want to implement in the foreseeable future is the rework of how the reinforcements and crafting bonuses work. We believe there are a few changes needed in order to make the games’ crafting and reinforcing more challenging and rewarding.
Currently, the game features an item upgrade system where each item can be crafted or then reinforced all the way from a +0 to a +7 item grade. While this system provides an additional level of item management and offers a reward for the highly skilled crafters, it has its flaws which we want to take care of. Having a system, where the top crafters using top-tier workshops are able to consistently craft items with a base upgrade of +4 or above renders the items of a lesser upgrade useless. What is more, this system has a negative impact on the item reinforcement system too. Not only do the Common and Decent Item Reinforcements have a lower value than they should, but also makes items of a higher item grade but a lower tier better than the ones of a higher tier but with a lesser item grade.
In order to battle the flaws of the system and make it more rewarding, we decided to change the system in such a way that the max item grade possible to be crafted will be +3 (instead of +6 like before) and all the lower item grade chances will be lowered accordingly. This change alone will leave more space for the item reinforcements and increase the rarity and price of items of a higher grade.
Another topic that we are going to change is how the reinforcements work. Currently, a successful item reinforcement enables players to fully repair the item. This has a negative impact on the economy as it enables players to go through several “full durabilities” of an item before it breaks for good. On top of that, the ability to consistently perform successful item reinforcements is reserved for veteran players, who have a big reserve of item reinforcements and a high crafting level. This results in deepening the economic margin there is between veteran and new players.
In order to fix that issue, we want to change the way item reinforcements work. Firstly, the new reinforcements will not repair the item upon success. In order to balance out this change though, we will also change what happens upon fail-in item reinforcement. Now, a failed reinforcement results in the item getting destroyed, while in the reworked system failing an item reinforcement will result in the items’ grade dropping (i.e. from a +4 to +3).
The changes mentioned above will result in a clearer system itself and will boost the economy and the need to hold castles. What is more, this change should shed more light on the item renovation kits, as they will be the only way to increase the item's max durability back to its base state (as repairing items depletes it slowly).
But to let you know, we are still debating if this is the correct approach or not, so let us know what you think. We are debating whether to make this change or stay with the current item burn if the upgrade fails.
Answers to community questions regarding WIP
Since yesterday, we have been carefully reading your comments and concerns about the upcoming changes in the reinforcing items and their craft. Today we wanted to say a few things.
Before we jump further, let's answer the question of how players will be restoring the durability of the items.
Remember that durability is displayed as current/max(base).
Example A: 4,000/4,000(4,000) for a brand new, or fully renovated, or “properly” reinforced item.
Example B : 1,275/4,000(4,000) for an item which has been used but never repaired at an NPC vendor before.
Example C: 1,275/1,275(4,000) in the case of an item which has been used and repaired at an NPC vendor.
In the new system, Common, Decent, and Master Reinforcement kits will no longer restore any durability. If the reinforcement fails, the item will not be destroyed, it will lose 1 quality to a minimum of +0. Meteoric Iron Reinforcement kits will no longer restore any durability. They will simply improve the quality of the item if successful, otherwise they will work the same as before. Players were using the reinforcement kits’ durability restoration to extend the life of items too long especially in the situation of an item in similar condition to Example B above.
We noticed that players were concerned about meteoric reinforcement kits and their availability. We will certainly consider this in order to increase the amount of meteorite mined. We are considering the introduction of other ways to obtain meteoric iron, for example, by buying meteoric iron with CP, or maybe decreasing the amount of needed meteorite to make a repair kit.
There will be two ways to restore durability:
The first way to restore durability will be for the player to use the Renovation Kits craftable from Meteoric Iron. This can bring an item back up beyond its Max durability all the way to its Base durability. We are not making any changes to Renovation kits. Read more right here: https://wiki.gloriavictisgame.com/index.php/Renovation_Kit
The second way to restore durability is the Merchant NPC. Currently, merchants restore 50% of used durability and the max durability is reduced. We will be increasing the amount that the NPC can restore. We're also planning to introduce a guild tech that will further increase the merchant's durability recovery.
A large part of the community is wondering what the role of crafters and workshops will be in the future that we have presented. In the current crafting system, items from +0 to +3 have roughly the same value, and it even happens sometimes that the +0 item has a higher value because the restoration of durability with reinforcing makes it last longer overall.
In the new version of crafting, items created by hand will be a maximum of +0 quality. Items created in a workshop will have a maximum quality of +3. And, without the restoration of durability from reinforcing, the items crafted in hands will have a lower value than items with +2 and +3 quality because of their statistics. There will be differences in the price of these items which will be related to the cost of their reinforcement, as is currently the case for equipment quality in the range of +4 to +6. A higher crafting level and a better workshop will affect the profit of crafters because they will add the value of their skills and abilities in improving items to high reinforcements to the price of the item.
There have been suggestions that we should increase the durability of items as compensation for removing the repair of items with reinforcement kits. Our response to these concerns is that there will be an increase in durability restored when repairing items at merchants. Currently, merchants restore 50% of used durability, and we will be increasing this amount. We're also planning to introduce a guild tech that will further increase the merchant's durability recovery.
At this point, we would like to discuss Tier 5, 4, and 3 items because some in our community believe that the proposed changes will reduce the availability of Tier 5 and 4 items and that these items will be expensive to maintain. You have pointed out that tier 3 equipment may become common, but in our opinion, it will not. We want to make reinforcing items to +5 and +6 quality of any tier firstly more difficult, and secondly more expensive. We can assure you that tier 4 or 5 items of lower quality will be as available as now. Currently, a blue (tier 3) item at +5 or +6 quality can be done using cheap reinforcements, and we want to make it so that achieving +5 or +6 quality will require more expensive tools and will only be possible with them. We want to make the player think about whether it pays to use an expensive master reinforcement kit to improve the blue item to +6, or whether it will be better to invest the value of this kit in a better tier item.
Will this change to reinforcements weaken new players? New players mostly wear tier 3 blue items and new players do not devote themselves to upgrading items to high qualities. At this moment, the practice of reinforcing is used by veteran players who could afford to use equipment of higher tier, yet they want to use cheap and solid versions of equipment, especially in the loot zone. Such players are able to make tier 3 items of high quality at nearly no cost because their characters are well-developed in the crafting of such items and because of the price of low-tier reinforcement kits. A new player alone is not able to create an item with +6 quality or able to afford to buy it at the market. Also, new players are not able to reinforce their items to such high values because their characters are not developed.
Changelog v.1.1.6
Guild banners
We are introducing Guild banners that give allies buffs in the area of effect. Guild leaders will receive 10 banners for reaching 150% of the guild activity and the banners expire after 7 days.
Banner Mechanics:
– Spawn the banner by using the item in inventory. It will appear in the player’s hands.
– Walk and run with the banner. You can't sprint with it.
– Banners can not be carried while mounted.
– Players cannot fight while carrying the banner.
– Unused banners can be traded between players' inventories or sold on the market and sales booths.
– Drop the banner on the ground to fight.
– Any other player may pick up and use a dropped banner, including enemies
– Banners in inventory cannot be looted.
– The banner spawn lasts for 20 minutes from the time it is deployed regardless of who holds it.
– BUFF ALLIES: Press the attack button while carrying the banner to buff nearby allies with +1 Health regeneration and +20% stamina regeneration for 30 seconds. This buff is usable once every 30 seconds.
– BUFF ALLIES: Press the block button while carrying a banner to buff nearby allies with -90% stamina drain while attacking for 1 minute. Players can receive such buff once per 20 minutes.
Destructible buildings
With today’s patch, we are adding new destructible buildings to fort locations: wooden houses and huts that spawn additional guards. By introducing them to the game, we want to increase the siege immersion. We want to create the feeling of war and destruction around the fighting location.
Each house spawns additional guards in the location and the guards that come from the houses have reduced respawn time compared to the guards from the guardhouse. A destroyed house and hut do not respawn guards, so destroying them will make the siege easier because that way players will be reducing the number of guards.
In the first iteration, we are introducing houses to the forts. Each fort has 6 houses, 3 inside the location and 3 outside. Players can destroy them by axing, burning them down, and by using siege engines.
The houses have 3 upgrade levels:
– Level 0 – Destroyed house. Does not spawn guards and will transform into ruins.
– Level 1 – Simple hut. Spawns one guard.
– Level 2 – House. Spawns more guards than a simple hut.
Side note: In the future, we will let defenders rebuild these houses during an ongoing siege.
VoD score tweaks
In today's update, we have made changes regarding the required score to win the VoD tournament. We decided to decrease the score in the following way. We made it because the VoD events last for too long in these days.
Ismir theme map requires 500 points to win, (previously 1000 points)
Midland and Sangmar theme maps require 600 points to win, (previously 1000 points)
The siege map requires 1000 points to win.
The reason why the Ismir theme map requires 500 points is due to the fact that there are fewer flags that are generating points.
Quality of life
– Optimizations in the shop filters.
– Tweaks to the amount of audio and sounds being played at the same time. We made it to decrease the feeling of a “sound void” during huge battles.
– Increased the cooldown for quest boards related to crafting for beginners from 15 minutes to 2 hours.
– Group loot chest. From now on, loot from the chest will be spread among the players with the highest rolls. The player with the highest score will receive the item which is the most valuable based on the value from the market. This works only with regular brown chests.
– We made some GPU-side optimizations. This should result in potentially smoother FPS.
Fixes
– We found out that Midland was missing a quest board for beginners dedicated to tailoring and leatherworking. With today's patch, we are introducing it.
– We have fixed all reported and reproduced edge cases of invisible kicks. If anyone knows of any additional reproduction please remember to send them to us.
