Autumn 2023 Pt2 - Mines/Terraf./Fightpage/Herbkeeper/Dragon
Dec 8, 2023 17:36:54 GMT 1
Nishikienrai likes this
Post by Belouch on Dec 8, 2023 17:36:54 GMT 1
Game Update - Autumn (Part II) - Mines/Terraforming/Fightpage/Herbkeeper/Dragon
Game Updates
-New Fight Page
-New Mining System
-Terraforming Change
-Herbkeeper & New Quest
-Dragon stats and AI Change
-New Images
Game Updates
New Fight Page
While the fight engine is a never-ending abyssal labyrinth of herculean trials, the old fight page is incredibly just as wild. It consisted of 6 frames, each doing its own behaviors and section of code in isolation, all out of sync, all needing login verification, the whole nine yards.
Recently, we had our Helloween Skeleton event, and with the big fight at the end against the Skeletal Dragon, by pure coincidence, both factions jumped at the same time. With all players active and online, and spamming refresh on the fight page, this created over 300 active connections, which isn't insane at all we just don't meter our current hardware for it on the regular day-to-day. We've optimized a whole lot this year, background processes, schedulers, all of our automation and interactions between databases, refactored and smoothened out, the realistic assessment is that the fight page is just old, utterly broken, and causing really stupid issues for no reason, and it had to go.
Just like with the new mine system for Titanium, and the new monster spawners and AI for Helloween, we really wanted to get this out for you by the tournament, the christmas raid season, and upcoming Nyx. It being a very big and important page for the game, it also needs to be out early and to be pressure tested for happy little accidents. So we present you, the new fight page.
Warning: Make sure to clear your cache (Ctrl+F5 in most browsers).
The new page format and code:
- Cuts login verifications and other queries on refresh by 5/6ths, much less spam on the connection servers and much more optimized traffic.
- Massive recalculation of diplomacy processing and building local title tables for players in the current fight, cutting the load by well over half.
- No blinking, out of sync, auto-refreshing frames trying to catch up with one another.
- Weapon XP bar is now green, yellow, and red depending on your below softcap, softcap and hardcap state.
Alongside technical resources being freed up, the page brings along a few quality of life features, and some mobile improvements.
- With Alliance and Enemies columns built into the main page, they are freely scrollable on mobile just like the rest of the page.
- Updated header information allows you to view turns and movement points while fighting.
- Updated info-boxes contain spirit catch totals for the current monster target.
- More visual page as you can see the profile pic of all allies/enemies/third party.
- Updated images allow for shortcuts to target, simply by clicking the images, instead of small text links.
- You now have Health information (rounded to 10%) of your enemies in the fight! This should make group fights more tactical and realistic.
We are looking forward to your feedback on it and to fine-tune it even better!
New Mining System
Today, we will be switching over to our new dynamic mining system introduced in the titanium war event, for most mines found every day in Agonia. This is a fresh, built from the ground up and robust backend system that allows us a lot of customization for mining gameplay, and has a few key tenants:
-To encourage more moving about
-To ensure more balanced distribution of the mines (if one is ideally located, then at some point it expires and respawns elsewhere)
-This hopefully has a boost on trading, exploration, and players finding value in something other than evolution.
Here is how it works (in case you missed the Titanium event):
Only exception to this:
Note that we also added 1 Copper Mine and 1 Tin Mine on Freefolk Island. These two mines will follow the same rules but will always remain somewhere on the island.
Coal fields and Sulfur fields, as well as the initial limestone deposits near the capitals are not affected and will remain the same for now.
There will be a diamond mine as well, to serve as a sort of lottery you can try your luck at, but your chances are not good! This is more of a fun discovery than something we expect to change the economy or Nozama prices.
Terraforming change
The process for terraforming has been modified and is now incorporated into the Infrastructure page.
To terraform a forest or a mountain:
Before this, terraforming was basically completely free, since the turns spent on it provided full crafting XP. This resulted in spams of piles all over the map and some unwanted terraforming. Now terraforming comes with a price, meaning players won't do it out of boredom, but because of a real added-value (and possibly a salary from the Mayor).
Herbkeeper Shop & New Quest
Put simply, this is the Nozama of Herbs. Except he is not in the capitals, but in an isolated lake-house that you will discover via the new quest.
The other difference with Nozama is that there is only one location where to find him, which is the same for all factions.
New Quest [Requirements: 400 main skill]: A murder of crows is flying high over the witch's hut in the forest, her usual signal requesting help from the capital.
Dragon stats & AI Update
Some big changes for Dragons!
First the stats:
A Round of New Images
New AI generated images have been sourced for a multitude of items, from resources and materials, to all kinds of alchemy consumables, to new rings and equipment. We've also gone through and made some existing assets look much, much nicer.
We've also had assistance from our fantastic resident artist (currently known as Gotrek) to touch up our tribal portraits. One of the annoying parts of using AI for them was that it lost a lot of uniformity, the backgrounds were turning into a gradient after so many generations. He's given them a pass and introduced our original Agonia smoky miasma background, and touched up many of the AI detail oddities, such as the marks on the Leafborn female face, and the Giant's double ear. He has also supplied us with the pixel art that we are using for our new mines.
And last but not least, we had our dream-team of generative AI experts (Oinky and Bjorntorson) whip up some new fauna images for the creatures whose current images didn't look so good. Hope you'll enjoy discovering the new ones on your travels! We'll tease you with just a few:
Other
Next Update
The next Game Update is planned for early 2024.
Two major components will be:
Game Updates
-New Fight Page
-New Mining System
-Terraforming Change
-Herbkeeper & New Quest
-Dragon stats and AI Change
-New Images
Game Updates
New Fight Page
While the fight engine is a never-ending abyssal labyrinth of herculean trials, the old fight page is incredibly just as wild. It consisted of 6 frames, each doing its own behaviors and section of code in isolation, all out of sync, all needing login verification, the whole nine yards.
Recently, we had our Helloween Skeleton event, and with the big fight at the end against the Skeletal Dragon, by pure coincidence, both factions jumped at the same time. With all players active and online, and spamming refresh on the fight page, this created over 300 active connections, which isn't insane at all we just don't meter our current hardware for it on the regular day-to-day. We've optimized a whole lot this year, background processes, schedulers, all of our automation and interactions between databases, refactored and smoothened out, the realistic assessment is that the fight page is just old, utterly broken, and causing really stupid issues for no reason, and it had to go.
Just like with the new mine system for Titanium, and the new monster spawners and AI for Helloween, we really wanted to get this out for you by the tournament, the christmas raid season, and upcoming Nyx. It being a very big and important page for the game, it also needs to be out early and to be pressure tested for happy little accidents. So we present you, the new fight page.
Warning: Make sure to clear your cache (Ctrl+F5 in most browsers).
The new page format and code:
- Cuts login verifications and other queries on refresh by 5/6ths, much less spam on the connection servers and much more optimized traffic.
- Massive recalculation of diplomacy processing and building local title tables for players in the current fight, cutting the load by well over half.
- No blinking, out of sync, auto-refreshing frames trying to catch up with one another.
- Weapon XP bar is now green, yellow, and red depending on your below softcap, softcap and hardcap state.
Alongside technical resources being freed up, the page brings along a few quality of life features, and some mobile improvements.
- With Alliance and Enemies columns built into the main page, they are freely scrollable on mobile just like the rest of the page.
- Updated header information allows you to view turns and movement points while fighting.
- Updated info-boxes contain spirit catch totals for the current monster target.
- More visual page as you can see the profile pic of all allies/enemies/third party.
- Updated images allow for shortcuts to target, simply by clicking the images, instead of small text links.
- You now have Health information (rounded to 10%) of your enemies in the fight! This should make group fights more tactical and realistic.
We are looking forward to your feedback on it and to fine-tune it even better!
New Mining System
Today, we will be switching over to our new dynamic mining system introduced in the titanium war event, for most mines found every day in Agonia. This is a fresh, built from the ground up and robust backend system that allows us a lot of customization for mining gameplay, and has a few key tenants:
-To encourage more moving about
-To ensure more balanced distribution of the mines (if one is ideally located, then at some point it expires and respawns elsewhere)
-This hopefully has a boost on trading, exploration, and players finding value in something other than evolution.
Here is how it works (in case you missed the Titanium event):
- Each mine now has a visual cue on the map
- Each mine has a random quantity of stock, once it is exhausted it disappears
- Each mine has a random downtime between respawns
- They will respawn somewhere random
Only exception to this:
- 1 Tin Mine and 1 Copper Mine near both caps will have unlimited stock and never respawn somewhere else. This is to ensure the location of these mines for new players and starter quests.
Coal fields and Sulfur fields, as well as the initial limestone deposits near the capitals are not affected and will remain the same for now.
There will be a diamond mine as well, to serve as a sort of lottery you can try your luck at, but your chances are not good! This is more of a fun discovery than something we expect to change the economy or Nozama prices.
Terraforming change
The process for terraforming has been modified and is now incorporated into the Infrastructure page.
To terraform a forest or a mountain:
- Chop logs (forest) or raw stones (mountains) on the tile. This action provides the full crafting XP.
- Once you reach 400+ logs or stones, go to the Infrastructure page by clicking on Infrastructure on your Main Page.
- You can now turn 400 logs into a Log Pile (or 400 stones into a Stone Pile) for 150 turns. This action gives ZERO crafting XP.
- The requirements are the same as before (you need 6 Piles of Logs for a forest, 6 Piles of Stones for a Level 1 Mountain and 9 Piles of stone for a Level 2 Mountain).
Before this, terraforming was basically completely free, since the turns spent on it provided full crafting XP. This resulted in spams of piles all over the map and some unwanted terraforming. Now terraforming comes with a price, meaning players won't do it out of boredom, but because of a real added-value (and possibly a salary from the Mayor).
Herbkeeper Shop & New Quest
Put simply, this is the Nozama of Herbs. Except he is not in the capitals, but in an isolated lake-house that you will discover via the new quest.
The other difference with Nozama is that there is only one location where to find him, which is the same for all factions.
New Quest [Requirements: 400 main skill]: A murder of crows is flying high over the witch's hut in the forest, her usual signal requesting help from the capital.
Dragon stats & AI Update
Some big changes for Dragons!
First the stats:
- DP and HP have been greatly boosted.
- This is made so that dragon fights last significantly longer (aim is about 12-15 minutes) to make the fight really epic, instead of something that gets blown through in 6 minutes.
- The confetti rate has been halved.
- The seeking has been fixed (see general update point on Monster Seeking).
But also the AI:
- Dragon movement has been completely revamped
- Dragon capacity to detect something/someone has changed completely
- Dragon behavior as a whole is very different, much more complex, and much more interesting
- Be very cautious at first, try to understand some patterns, although you won't be able to identify and plan all of its behaviors
- People will die
A Round of New Images
New AI generated images have been sourced for a multitude of items, from resources and materials, to all kinds of alchemy consumables, to new rings and equipment. We've also gone through and made some existing assets look much, much nicer.
We've also had assistance from our fantastic resident artist (currently known as Gotrek) to touch up our tribal portraits. One of the annoying parts of using AI for them was that it lost a lot of uniformity, the backgrounds were turning into a gradient after so many generations. He's given them a pass and introduced our original Agonia smoky miasma background, and touched up many of the AI detail oddities, such as the marks on the Leafborn female face, and the Giant's double ear. He has also supplied us with the pixel art that we are using for our new mines.
And last but not least, we had our dream-team of generative AI experts (Oinky and Bjorntorson) whip up some new fauna images for the creatures whose current images didn't look so good. Hope you'll enjoy discovering the new ones on your travels! We'll tease you with just a few:
Other
- The faction power benchmark used for PVP kill leadership XP calculations has been changed from the power of the top character to the average power of the top 5 characters.
- Large scale refactors of automated game schedulers for fight round optimizations and organization. Notably for players, fertility and player turns are now regenerated on :00, :12, :24, :36, :48 of the hour instead of offset awkwardly.
- Monster seeking skill! DANGER! We noticed we had an issue in the code for monster seeking, meaning they were much easier to flee than intended. This was the case for Dragons as well. This has been fixed. You are warned!
Next Update
The next Game Update is planned for early 2024.
Two major components will be:
- A new Spell system (mitigating expectations: we said spell system, not 'new spells'!)
- The long-awaited Fauna relocation