Alpha 9.1 Update

Alpha Stress Test is Beginning

We are starting the Alpha Stress Test this morning. Every person with an Alpha, Alpha Invite, Early, Explorer or Open Enrollment account will be able to log in to goblinworks.com and get the Alpha 9.1 client and log in to the game.

We are staging the arrival of all the new players. If you are eligible for the stress test you will receive an email from us telling you that your access has been enabled. Our system is going to send approximately 380 emails an hour for the next 24 hours. If you have not received yours by Monday the 13th, please contact us (customer.support@goblinworks.com) for help.

Alpha 9.1 Has Arrived!

Today we are delivering the Alpha 9.1 update.

Discuss this Update on the forums!

This update is mostly focused on fixing bugs and improving system stability but there are a few new features of note.

Animations

We have been working on many of the animations and animation systems and preparing a major update of the animation tech. That update arrives today. Animations will now appear more fluid and lifelike and you will see fewer strange animation behaviors. Weapons will be attached correctly to hands. We have built these animation suites using the male human avatar and that model will show the most improvement. The other racial avatars and the female models are using the new animation suites but they have been retargeted from the male human model and have not all been hand-adjusted for maximum improvement. That is work that we'll be doing incrementally over time.

Various player movement animation improvements.

Fixed broken arm animations on a number of weapon suites.

Characters

Selecting different races and genders in character selection has less of a delay.Major overhaul to animations, which fixes much of the combat timing for feats (reducing the number of dropped animations).

For players who have never set which character accrues xp, when they initially select a character, that character will obtain bonus xp (as if their character was created on September 29th), but only for the first character they begin training. All other characters start at 1000 xp. Anyone who lost XP will not have their missing XP restored - our sincere apologies.

Combat

If a character has no target and that character receives damage, the source of that damage is automatically targeted

Hostile players can now be tab-targeted.

Environment

Added missing war wizard facility and trainer to Wizard/Fighter template.

Added definitions for all new hexes so they will spawn nodes and monsters properly.

Added maps for all templates of player settlements, and made some minor updates to NPC settlement maps.

Fixes issues in the following player settlements: Gardheim, Talonguard, Auroral, Hammerforge, Golgotha, Brighthaven, Keeper's Pass, Blackwatch, Dagedai.

Minor cosmetic fixes to Thornkeep, including removing a tree from the middle of a bridge.

Fixed floating encounter objects around several unoccupied settlements.

Fixed several building collision issues.

The mini-map is fixed, after having been broken in the previous build.

Escalations

Adjusted reinforcement percentages to make Escalations more manageable at 100% strength.

Easier Escalations are now more likely to start up than the harder ones. This will get readjusted as the player base levels up.

Feats

Update the auto-generated feats that show up when first selecting a weapon.

Any changes made to the slotted feats are saved when a weapon is removed and later reequipped.

Gear

Removed energy resistance from heavy armor. This is the first stage of reducing the desirability of heavy armor for players of lighter-armored roles, as the removal of speed penalties left it way better than intended at low level. Expect further adjustments to armor balance as a few more tech pieces (like spell penalty and encumbrance) are implemented soon. Once those are in, we can get a more updated impression of what else armor needs to have a good continuum of desirability.

Loot