Highlights
Hey all,
Alongside our latest Developer update over on YouTube we wanted to create a written version of the update for those who cannot access audio content and/or prefer to see things written down so they can refer back to points made. On August 25th 2023 we released a glimpse into some of the upcoming projects the team are working on, alongside some technical advancements we have made as well as elaborating further on the Ability System's progress. This thread will summarise the points made in the video.
Please note, as also explained in the video, these changes are not in their final form(s) and release dates will be made public closer to the date.
Ability System Overview & FAQ:
A few weeks ago, we shared a post outlining the ongoing rebuilding of our ability system. This post highlighted the steps we have taken, the tools we’ve engineered, and the current stage of development. and wanted to provide some additional context to this.
Several months ago, we conducted tests integrating our new ability system with Mythics 1.4.8 ability data —as a benchmark of our new systems functionality. The ability data on the current RoR build had a lot of problems, rendering it pretty much nonfunctional. We had to reimplement the Return of Reckonings changes on top of the good 1.4.8 data, which has taken a couple of months.
It's important to highlight that abilities tied to Monsters, Keep Lords, Fort Lords, Items, Dungeons, and other elements saw minimal attention during this period. Now, this has shifted, as our focus is now on addressing these components to ensure a release-ready system.
Our current phase includes testing of the ability system as a whole. For player abilities, we've asked our testers to partake in evaluating the system's performance on our test server, and progress is going well.
It's important to acknowledge that this is a dynamic testing phase. The noted changes are by no means set in stone; they're already evolving, with fixes actively being implemented. We will be posting an update to the patch notes possibly this week.
Our goal is to have a way to transition this rewrite to the live game server, wherein players can seamlessly log in, engage in RvR, participate in Scenarios, run Dungeons, and more. Presently, we find ourselves working across two workstreams, maintaining changes in both the old ability system and the new one.
It's important to note that while we've dedicated significant efforts to this project, comprehensive large-scale testing of combat remains a vital step. This testing phase is pivotal, as it will provide us with an assessment of each career. We will be able to see how they all perform in the new ability system balance wise. We can then use this information to inform us of any changes that need to be made and what direction we move with the career.
Our goal here is to bring a more streamlined development process for our internal team which in turn should result in faster changes, more bug fixes, more frequent balance changes and more reliable abilities in the long-term.
We have been seeing a number of frequently asked questions on the forums surrounding the ability changes, so we’ve pulled together a few to go through. So…
Is anything changing about how defensive stats work?
No, the initial ability system release won't include direct changes to defensive stats.
