The update finally arrived! It includes a new tutorial server, portals, a reworked action system, client rendering improvements, quality of life changes and so much more.

All major changes have been grouped into their own lists below for easier reading.

New Server: Guidance

• Added a special tutorial server for new players to learn the game named Guidance [/*]
• Web shop items can't be bought while on Guidance [/*]
• Mail can't be sent between Guidance and other servers [/*]
• Treasure hunts, rifts, holy sites and the highway system are disabled [/*]
• Many stronger/high-difficulty creatures are prevented from spawning [/*]
• Unique creatures are prevented from spawning [/*]
• Becoming priest is not possible on Guidance, priests travelling there from other servers can't cast spells [/*]
• All skills are limited to 30 while on Guidance [/*]
• Player-owned villages/deeds are disabled on Guidance, use building permissions and the new yard system to protect your property instead [/*]
• Players can only own one building at a time [/*]
• Newbie buffs, including the new item protection buff, have their timer frozen while playing on Guidance, making them effectively permanent until you are leaving the server [/*]
• Wells and fountains are always refilled, no matter what tile they are on [/*]

New Feature: Quests

• Quests given by NPCs have been added to Guidance, to help introducing new players to the gameplay [/*]
• NPCs with quests available have a "!" icon above their head [/*]
• The "Talk" option in the right-click menu of such NPCs opens a dialogue window with all the details [/*]
• An improved "Journal" window was added to the quick bar where you can always track your quest progress [/*]
• Quests can have multiple stages with multiple goals [/*]
• Quests can have rewards for completing or starting them, reward details are displayed in the NPC dialogue or Journal window [/*]

New Feature: Yards

• Added a yard system to Guidance which lets you protect small areas surrounded by fences [/*]
• The "Expand yard" and "Remove yard" options are available in the right-click menu for tiles when a mallet, hammer or trowel is activated [/*]
• Yard tile sections are only protected if connected to a building at some point [/*]
• The building which owns the yard must be entirely surrounded by walls or fences [/*]
• The "View protection" option in the right-click menu lets you view currently protected tiles and tiles which need additional fences for protection to apply [/*]
• Yard tiles can be invalid if not surrounded by fencing, making them removable by any player [/*]
• Yard tiles require the same amount of carpentry skill as adding tiles to a building, minus the skill required for the walls as yard tiles don't have those [/*]
• The total number of yard tiles is limited to the number of actual building tiles, so a 2x2 building for example would allow 4 yard tiles [/*]
• Yard tiles have the same placement restrictions as actual building tiles, which means they can't touch other buildings [/*]
• Items that are not allowed inside buildings are also not allowed inside yard tiles (such as mission structures or guard towers) [/*]
• Yard tiles can protect mine entrances as long as a mine door is present, removing the mine door will also remove the yard tile [/*]
• Yards prevent actions that would invalidate the yard, such as tunneling a cave entrance, unless the player has permission to modify the structure [/*]

New Feature: Building packing & deployment

• Added a building packing mechanic to transfer buildings from Guidance [/*]
• Added "ornate puzzle box" item as quest reward which lets you pack a building into it [/*]
• You must stand outside of a building owned by you on Guidance and activate the ornate puzzle box to get the "Copy building plan" option in the right-click menu [/*]
• This stores the entire building (excluding yard tiles) inside the ornate puzzle box and destroys the structure [/*]
• After moving to another server, the "Preview building" and "Deploy building" options will appear for the filled ornate puzzle box [/*]
• The area needs to be prepared (flat) and you need permissions for it in order to deploy the building from the box [/*]
• After the building is deployed, the ornate puzzle box is destroyed [/*]
• The ornate puzzle box cannot be dropped, traded or lost on death [/*]
• Deploying a packed building is not possible on PvP servers [/*]

Quality of Life & New Player Experience Improvements

• Fences within buildings (or their yards on Guidance) are now protected against destruction, lock picking or locking/unlocking using the building permissions [/*]
• Iron rocks now yield 2.0kg of iron lump instead of 0.8kg [/*]
• Bashing a fence, bridge or part of a building now always uses the same damage bonus you would get from having the deed permission to destroy structures as long as you are the owner of the structure [list]
• In other words, bashing your own structures is now as fast as bashing structures as a village mayor [/*]

[/*] [*] Bashing a fence, bridge or part of a building no longer requires 21 body strength if you are the owner of the structure it is part of or if you are the mayor of the village it is in

• In other circumstances you now require 21 body strength in all cases [/*]

[/*] [*] "Reimbursements" action on settlement tokens is no longer shown when it's irrelevant/doesn't do anything anyway [/*] [*] "Manage player payments" action on settlement tokens has been renamed to "Purchase premium time" and was moved out of the "Bank" submenu [/*] [*] A new newbie buff has been added, granting item protection on death [/*] [*] Changes have been made to action timers:

• Penalties to action speed caused by hunger, thirst or low stamina have been decreased, with the maximum penalty staying the same but partial penalties being substantially lower [/*]
• Having the water bar above 85% prevents thirst from affecting your action timers at all [/*]
• Most actions have had their maximum timer lengths shortened significantly [/*]
• These changes have the general effect of faster action timers at low skill, low stamina or low tool quality, with far less impact in cases where the timers were close to the fastest possible times already [/*]

[/*][/list]
Change: Action System Rework

• The whole system handling Actions is now more robust and has a lower impact on server performance [/*]
• Actions converted to the new system can always be bound to keys, be set as default action or are able to use the new toolbelt mechanic [list]
• Converted actions: Dig, Flatten, Level, Dredge, Mine, Tunnel, Cultivate, Pack, Pave, Sow, Farm, Harvest, Cut down, Chop up, Prune, Pick sprout, Plant sprout, Shear, Tame, Brand, Unbrand, Milk, Groom, Feed, Lead, Stop leading, Climb up/down, Improve, Repair, Create map, Embark/Disembark, Settlement related actions (Add to upkeep, Settlement management, ...) [/*]
• Some converted actions may have minor changes made to their functionality to fix various bugs or to improve their usage [/*]

[/*] [*] Invalid actions are now visible in the right-click menu and show more informationabout what is needed in order to complete them

• These invalid actions can be enabled and disabled by clicking the [?] icon in the top right-hand corner of the right-click menu [/*]
• This should help new players to understand what to do how, the "Dig" option for example shows up and hints that you need a shovel set as active item [/*]

[/*] [*] Some actions now have embedded options in the right-click menu, indicated by a triple-dot icon on the right edge

• Right-clicking the triple-dot icon allows you to toggle or select more options related to that action [/*]
• The "Dig to pile" option can be toggled for the "Dig" action that way for example [/*]

[/*] [*] Not all actions are converted to the new system yet, but will slowly be updated over time

• Converted actions are usually placed on top in the right-click menu, with icons showing their required active item [/*]
• If you run into any issues with actions not performing as they previously did, please create a bug report [/*]

[/*][/list]
New Feature: Action Queue Window

• The action queue is now visible in its own UI element inside the event window [/*]
• Actions in the queue can now be reordered or canceled in their UI window [/*]
• Holding alt while hovering an action in your queue shows more information about that action [/*]
• The action queue window can be undocked from the event window and moved around on the screen [/*]
• The action queue window can be hidden entirely by right-clicking the top right corner of the event window [/*]

Change: Toolbelts

• The existing toolbelt UI element has been removed, including all its functionality [/*]
• Toolbelts are now containers, holding up to 15 items (2 base, 1 additional for each 10 quality, 1 additional for each rarity level) [/*]
• While a toolbelt is equipped, all items inside are considered activated for actions which have been converted to the new actions system [/*]
• If your actual activated item is not valid for a given action, items inside your toolbelt are checked by the system to see if something from them will work [list]
• If your actual activated item is valid, it will be used instead and the toolbelt items are ignored [/*]
• Actions which work with multiple items have their own preference list for items, "Cut down" will prefer a hatchet over axes, weapons or a saw for example [/*]
• If multiple items inside your toolbelt have the same preference level, the item with higher quality will be used [/*]

[/*] [*] An icon on the left in the right-click menu indicates what item will be used for the action [/*] [*] More details about the action and the used item is available when hovering over the action in the action queue [/*][/list]
Change: Quickbar Improvements

• Added a new quickbar which combines functionality from the existing quickbar, select bar and toolbelt [/*]
• The quickbar consists of two rows for slots, each slot able to hold an item or a quick bar button [list]
• You can drag items from your inventory onto quickbar slots [/*]
• You can remove buttons by dragging them off the quickbar [/*]
• Clicking the [+] icon at the top right of the quick bar opens a menu with more buttons which can be dragged onto the quickbar [/*]

[/*] [*] The top row of the quickbar changes its contents based on the selected tab on the quickbar, making large amounts of items and buttons available for it

• You can create up to 10 tabs by clicking the [+] next to an existing tab [/*]

[/*] [*] The bottom row of the quickbar will not change when selecting a different tab, allowing a static list of commonly used items or buttons [/*] [*] Clicking an item on a quickbar slot will activate it [/*] [*] Quickbar slots can be bound to a key by hovering the slot with your mouse pointer and holding the key you want to bind it to [/*] [*] You can scroll with your mouse wheel to activate items in the top row when hovering your mouse pointer over the quick bar [/*] [*] The arrow on the far right corner of the quickbar allows you to toggle the select bar [/*] [*] The lock icon on the quick bar locks all slots to prevent accidental changes to them [/*] [*] The size of the quickbar can be adjusted by right-clicking it [/*][/list]
Change: Default Actions

• Default actions have been changed from a static list of action combinations to a dynamic, customizable system [list]
• Default actions must be enabled in the user interface tab in the client settings in order to work [/*]

[/*] [*] When hovering something that has a valid default action, the default action keybind and the name of the action that will be performed are shown

• If "Repeat action" is bound to a key, the last action performed on that target type is also shown so you can repeat the action with that key [/*]

[/*] [*] The new star button in the top right of the right-click menu can be used to edit your default action configuration for the currently active item and target type

• When hovering the star button with your mouse, you can hold down a key to change the default action keybind [/*]
• The currently set default action for the given combination is highlighted in the right-click menu [/*]

[/*] [*] Clicking the star button lets you edit your default action for the current combination of the active item and target type

• Clicking the star button will start the "edit mode", making valid options for the default action begin to flash [/*]
• Clicking a highlighted action (the current default) in edit mode will remove that default rule from your settings [/*]
• Clicking a non-highlighted action while in edit mode will set that as new default for the current combination of active item type and target type [/*]

[/*] [*] Advanced customization for default action rules is available when right-clicking a valid action while in "edit mode"

• The first option is the rules related to the active item, letting you select any item of the current item type (e.g. any hatchet), just the current item (e.g. a specific hatchet), any item, or any item that match any of the selected categories [/*]
After selecting the active item rules, you can select the rules relating to the current target of the action [list]
Similar to the active item options, these let you choose any of the target type (e.g. any birch tree), just the current target (e.g. a specific birch tree), a broad "any" category (e.g. any tile), or any target that matches any of the selected categories [/*]

[/*]

These advanced rules can differentiate between being mounted, not mounted, or both, which can be toggled between by clicking the very bottom option of the target rules before selecting the target rule
[/*]

Once a new default action has been set for the current active item and target pairing, if any other default actions that exist have a higher priority than the newly set rule, they may be removed from your configuration to ensure the new default works
[/*] [/list][/*]

The new default action settings are saved in their own configuration file alongside any other settings files the game client creates (e.g. the keybindings file)

• The client is shipped with a preset file of default actions, allowing you to use many of the new default actions immediately without having to customise anything [/*]

[/*][/list]
New Feature: Portals

• Added a new portal system, allowing access to all servers with a single character [/*]
• The new portals (big blue crystals) will soon become available in starter towns on PvE servers and Chaos, allowing you to select another starter town on your current server or on another server to teleport to [/*]
• Your current server and the destination server combination will determine what will transfer together with you [list]
• Travelling between Southern Freedom Isles (SFI) and Nothern Freedom Isles (NFI) transfers everything except items [/*]
• Travelling to a server which is also reachable with a boat transfers everything that would also transfer when you would be travelling with a boat [/*]
• Starter items are an exception and will transfer between Southern Freedom Isles, Nothern Freedom Isles and Guidance [/*]
• Existing transfer rules between Northern Freedom Isles and Defiance are unchanged, use the PvP portal like before to travel between these servers [/*]
• Existing transfer rules between Southern Freedom Isles and Epic are unchanged, use an Epic portal like before to travel between these servers [/*]

[/*] [*] All servers have a direct link to Guidance, where everything except items will transfer to

• When leaving Guidance, all items you have will transfer together with you (away from Guidance) [/*]
• When travelling to Guidance from another server, you must return to that server first before you can continue travelling to another server [/*]

[/*] [*] The master cape is exempt from item transfer rules and will always follow you to any server [/*] [*] There is a 10 minute cooldown for using the portals [/*][/list]
Client Graphics Upgrade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHTorpBUW5w

Change: New Terrain Renderer

• The terrain renderer has been completely rewritten [/*]
• Added support for mesh tessellation, which adds fine geometric details to tiles depending on their texture [/*]
• Remastered all terrain textures to higher resolution for more details [/*]
• The video memory usage (VRAM/GPU memory) should be lower by a few hundred megabytes now [/*]
• Only available when the modern renderer is selected in the graphics settings [/*]

New Feature: Eye Adaptation ("Auto Exposure")

• The total brightness of displayed objects on screen now affects the scene exposure, preventing overly bright scenes [/*]
• This prevents light sources making snow tiles blindingly white and reduces overall light intensity when many light sources are around [/*]
• Only available when the modern renderer is selected in the graphics settings [/*]

Change: Lighting Improvements

• Added moonlight and moon shadows [/*]
• Fixed sun shining through objects after sunset [/*]
• Updated light rendering formulars to more modern calculations, better incorporating the specular light component [/*]
• Updated ambient lighting (base light independent of light sources) to use hemispheric lighting, which makes objects in low light scenes more detailed [/*]
• Added environment reflections to metallic objects [/*]
• Only available when the modern renderer is selected in the graphics settings [/*]

Change: Client Improvements

• Implemented multiple major performance improvements [list]
• Some new rendering features might negate these improvements, please report situations with worse performance than before so we can investigate [/*]

[/*] [*] The modern renderer is still disabled on Mac until we can fix the remaining issues on MacOS which emerged during testing [/*][/list]
Other: Server Changelog

• Change: Pushing, placing and dragging other peoples items onto lava is possible again on PvP servers [/*]
• Change: Added the ability for alliance capitols to enable/disable sending alliance messages to Discord [/*]
• Change: Offdeed fences on PvP servers are now 5x easier to bash (with a 5 second bash timer) [/*]
• Bugfix: Vehicles and mounts can now be commanded once reaching the exact required skill instead of requiring skill higher than that value [list]
• This allows new players to ride donkeys without the need to raise their body control skill at least once [/*]

[/*] [*] Bugfix: Updated text for achievements related to foraging and botanizing [/*] [*] Bugfix: Fences can now be constructed on all edges of a village underground [/*] [*] Bugfix: "Lore" should work more consistently now on containers with recipe ingredients inside [/*] [*] Bugfix: Fixed rare cause of a server crash due to meditating [/*] [*] Bugfix: Added creator name to items purchased from the rift store [/*] [*] Bugfix: Containers with glow runes applied to them will no longer give a false warning that items placed in or on them might be burned [/*] [*] Bugfix: Fixed wrong names of some vehicles in the vehicle management window [/*] [*] Bugfix: "Seal" action should now appear properly in the right-click menu for the basins inside alchemist's cupboards [/*][/list]