Shadowbane Patch Goodness

LrdHades

This is just GD for all current, potential, or former SB players. The game is really moving forward into a new direction.

 

Patch Notes:

http://chronicle.ubi.com/Articles/News/patch20.htm

In-Development

http://chronicle.ubi.com/About/In-Development.htm

Copied Info here for the lazy:>

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Long have the peoples of Aerynth have looked to the Gods for guidance, but their prayers have gone unheeded. At last some of the Lost Gods stir again, and new demi-gods offer their favor to the scattered nations of the Age of Strife. Which would-be God will they follow? New altars arise in the cities, and quests have begun for the precious treasures the Gods demand as offerings. The Elves move to rebuild their shattered empire, but even as they raise glorious new cities, ancient pacts with Chaos exact a terrible price. The peoples of Aerynth look to Gods new and old – how will the rise of the Upstart Gods reshape the shattered fragments of Aerynth?

 

Strategic Siege Improvements (In-Testing)

Sieging is one of the core features of the Shadowbane experience.  To improve on this experience, various changes and additions will be made to the system.  One of the largest changes is the addition of "Siege Spires" which will alter the rules of the battlefield and will make sieges a more varied experience for the players, and mix up the strategy required to take down an opponent's city. 

Siege Spires are powerful buildings that a guildmaster can place in his city, which cast enchantments that effect the entire city zone. These spires affect everyone in the city zone, and as such guildmasters will have to pick and choose the effects which benefits his guild members more than the enemies. The most common siege spires will be those which limit teleportation and flight into and out of a city grid, but other enchantments will be made available.

Purchasing Siege <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Spires
Siege spires can be purchased off of Builders that are Rank 5 and above. Higher-ranked builders will sell more potent siege spires.

Building a Siege Spire
Siege spires can only be built by a guildmaster, and only on a guildmaster's own city grid. Siege spires take a long time to build, and as such, building one during a siege will likely be unfeasible. You may not place 2 of the same siege spire. The number of spires a city can have is limited based upon rank of the Tree of Life:

• Rank 1-3 cities may have 1 siege spire
  
• Rank 4-5 cities may have 2 siege spires
  
• Rank 6-7 cities may have 3 siege spires

Advancing a Siege Spire
Siege spires can be advanced in rank like other buildings. This will primarily result in the siege spires having more hit points. However, some siege spires will also have the power of their enchantment increase as well.

Activating a Siege Spire
Siege spires may be turned on and off at any time by the guildmaster of the guild. However, once you've toggled the status of the siege spire, it may not be toggled again for 10 minutes.

Siege Spire Costs
Siege spires will continually drain money while they are on - this amount will be negligible when a bane is on the city, but substantial when a bane is not on the city. This is to prevent players from having siege spires turned on in their cities all of the time. If a siege spire does not have enough money in it to pay for maintenance, it will shut itself off.

Entering a Siege Spire Zone of Influence
Whenever a player enters a city zone with a siege spire in it (which is slightly larger than the city grid itself), the enchantment that the siege spire disperses is put on the enchanted. Note: the siege spire effect is applied to both friendly and enemy units, so guildmasters should choose the spires they place carefully. Each siege spire can apply one and only one effect - if you change your mind and want a different effect than the one you already have, you need to build a new spire.

Siege Spire Enchantments
The exact list of siege spire enchantments is currently being refined. We are currently targeting at least 12 for the initial launch of the feature. Examples include:

• No-Flight (yes, this will affect natural flight)
  
• No-Translocate/Passwall
  
• No-Summon
  
• Specific Resist Debuff (Such as 'fire debuff' - perfect for those wacky temple guilds!)

We are currently open to additional siege spire effect suggestions. As a general rule, if something can be done with an enchantment spell, it can probably be done with a siege spire.

Destroying a Siege Spire
Siege spires can be protected by a runemaster (taking one of the valuable slots), but can be destroyed like other buildings when the bane goes active. Siege spires will be somewhat frailer than other buildings - some army generals will undoubtedly choose to take the Siege Spires out first when laying siege to a city.

 

Divine Favor (In-Testing)

The Divine Favor system is designed to make successful city building more important as well as add a new play activity to the game. City owners can place up to three of these shrines in their city and guild members can sacrifice offerings at shrines that match their own that are elsewhere in the world.  This will raise their city's stature.

Favor is gathered by conquering enemy cities and killing monsters. City members who are of that race or class may get a powerful enchantment, called a boon, and the size of the boon will be based upon how much favor the guild has collected.

Purchasing a Shrine
Shrines can be purchased off of builders. Racial shrines require an R1 builder, and class shrines require an R3 builder. They have a base cost of 250-300K gold. Each shrine will correspond to one and only one race or class.

Building a Shrine
Only guildmasters can place shrines, and shrines may only be placed on the guild's city grid. You may not have two of the same shrines in a city. Also, the number of shrines your city may possess is based upon the rank of the Tree of Life.

• Rank 3 ToL for 1st Shrine 
  
• Rank 5 ToL for 2nd Shrine
  
• Rank 7 ToL for 3rd Shrine

Shrines are large, visually distinct and very cool looking. There are no race-class limitations on shrines, however, as the race and class boons stack, it is advisable to choose a shrine where the race and class are compatible (Temple guilds will want the Human, Templar and Confessor shrines for maximum bang for buck).

Destroying Shrines
City leaders will be able to destroy their shrine (if say, the stated purpose of their guild changes). Once destroyed, any favor spent on those shrines is considered lost. 

Offerings
Offerings are objects found throughout the world which have value when offered to a shrine. Different offerings have different values at different shrines – for example, the Relic of St Lorne is worth 10 points at a Crusader shrine, 5 points at a Prelate shrine, and no points at a Templar shrine (the shrine won't take it). Guilds are advised to form trade alliances in order to maximize offering output.

Offerings are otherwise normal objects, and can be stolen, traded or junked. 

Gaining Offerings
Offerings are available in three ways:

• Monster drops 
  
• Conquering an enemy city with a shrine (see looting shrines, below)
  
• Killing or stealing from someone who is carrying an offering.

Sacrificing Offerings
You can only sacrifice an offering at a shrine where that offering has a favor score. If you do so, your shrine's score will increase by the value that offering grants to that Shrine (in the example above, the Relic of St Lorne grants 10 points to a crusader shrine).

Boons
Boons are enchantments that are granted by shrines. You must be a citizen of that city to get a boon, and you must match the race or class denoted by the shrine as well. These boons will be powerful boons that may well turn the tide of battle. Class boons will be slightly more powerful than racial ones.

Boons last about 1 to 2 hours, to encourage players to revisit their cities periodically. Boons are very substantial – players with boons will have a dramatic advantage over those who do not. Boons cannot be dispelled by standard enchantment dispelling means, but they do fade upon the player's death (as most enchantments do).

Boons stack with all current enchantments. Racial and class boons stack with each other – the most successful cities will have compatible race and class boons.

Players access the boon by talking to the Votary, an emissary of devotion which must be slotted into the Shrine for it to offer its boon.

Boon Quality
Boon quality will be adjusted as follows:

• Shrines that have the most favor on their server for that shrine type (i.e. the best Crusader shrine in the land) will get the boon cast at 100%. Shrines below first place will take a penalty to the enchantment effectiveness, with higher ranked shrines offering more benefit.
  
• The shrine bonuses are more substantial for the base (nation) guild.

Looting Shrines
A shrine can only be destroyed if the tree of life protecting it is destroyed. Once the shrine is in a 'destroyed' state, it is then lootable. A corresponding number of Super-Offerings are created a can be looted by any nearby player– these offerings will be 'generic' offerings that can be offered at any Shrine, so looting an enemy shrine is always a good deal! 

There are no limitations on who can loot a shrine. Be sure that your guild is around a shrine when a city falls, and be prepared to kill interlopers!

Leader Board
Players can open an interface at any time that tells which guilds have the top favor scores for each shrine type.

Favor Decay
Once per day, the two leading shrine of each shrine type loses 10% of their standing. This is to ensure that newer guilds can always compete in the system.

 

New Elven Zone with Epic Encounter (In-Testing)

Not only does this zone contain an epic encounter in the form of Vranaxxas, it also has several camps with monsters as powerful as those on Maelstrom. This could be the most difficult zone ever created for Shadowbane.

New Lore from Meridian!

Aeran Belendor has long stood as a stronghold of the Elves, an enchanted wood where vestiges of the blessed fist Twilight still linger. Even as the Deathless Empire contracted its borders, Aeran Belendor remained a bastion of the Firstborn. It remained unspoilt until the War of the Scourge, when Chaos loosed its fury upon it.

Vranaxxas, Dark Lord of Chaos, led legions of demonspawn into the wood, and the Elves were hard pressed to face the onslaught. The greatest Archmages of the Empire wove mighty spells, enchantments whispered to them by Saedron herself. The spells bound the Dark Lord, imprisoning him in a trap even the General of the Pit could not break. The demonic legions, dismayed by this defeat, withdrew. The Elvish archmages built a mighty fortress around Vranaxxas' prison, building great spires to channel ley lines and magical energies into the trap to keep it secure. Enchantments of forgetfulness and misdirection were laid around the borders of the wood, and Aeran Belenar went unnoticed even through the Turning… until the Rise of Chaos.

With the weakening of the Chaos Gate, the demon lord' s energy grew, and he tested the bonds of his magical prison with renewed fury. Finally, in the earthquakes the accompanied the rise of Maelstrom, one of the spires anchoring the magical web was broken, and the prison failed. Vranaxxas broke free and began immediately summoning his allies to his side, a cadre of demons and other foul beings who laid waste to the prison, the surrounding forests, and the nearby Elven settlements. He strode then to their greatest edifice, an arena once used for magical duels and entertainments, and raised a throne of blood in the middle of this arena. Since then, the wards around the wood have failed, and Elves from all the fragments have rallied here, fighting to reclaim their land, and scourge the area of demons and the servants of Chaos. Vranaxxas' legions will not go easily, however, and have twisted the creatures of the wood into hideous monstrosities. These beasts prowl the forest around the arena, preying on the Elves and anyone else foolish enough to enter the embattled wood.

 

Refurbished Zones (In-Testing)

The Aelfborn Timberlands and Wizard Forest were removed from the Aerynth newbie island, upgraded to rank 3 & 4 adventure areas, and are re-integrated into the Aerynth, Dalgoth, and Vorringia maps. Some creatures and monsters were increased in level, and other new ones were introduced. 

 

Safehold Trainers (In-Testing)
More trainers have been placed in safeholds on Aerynth and Dalgoth. Now most classes and professions will be trainable in (or close to) a safehold.

 

New Disciplines (In-Testing)
The Archmage and Elven Thrall discipline droppers and trainers have been integrated into all three world maps.

Archmage
Required Race: Elf
Required Class: Mage
Restricted Discipline: Blade Weaver
"The Elves were first initiated into the secrets of Magic by Saedron herself. Greatest of the Elf Wizards are the Archmagi, whose mental discipline grants them powers undreamed of by lesser minds." Archmage grants three powers: a massive power potency buff for emergencies; a fine damage and recovery debuff well-suited to disabling melee opponents; and a personal powerblock immunity -- good for, well, all the time (if only it were possible!).

Thrall
Required Race: Minotaur
Restricted Discipline: Blood Horn
"Minotaurs were bred to serve the Deathless Empire, bound to their masters by chains of sorcery. The mightiest serve as Thralls, shock troops who lend their strength and frenzy to their masters."  Thralls have access to several new weapon powers, including a short-range snare. Their Elven friends will also appreciate an Elf- and Minotaur-only health transfer and a stun break, perfect for the Elven groupmates who don't share their slave's immunity to the effect.

Discipline Droppers
Discipline droppers have been increased in number and redistributed in some cases. Discipline promoters have been redistributed in some cases.

 

Trees and Foliage (In-Testing)
Trees and foliage should sway in the wind and many tree branches will no longer cause collision issues.

 

Issues Fixed:

• Various Client-side memory leaks have been fixed
  
• Leave World should work much more efficiently
  
• Various client crashes have been fixed

 

 

Guildmaster
Lords of the Dead, LotD