What's new and exciting?!?

rhinok

 The devs are working on some fun new stuff.  Per Stephen Nichols, here's what we can expect in the  near future:

Here's the skinny on what we're working on!

We've been working hard to get things together for our next build and future builds. As you know, we lost a large chunk of our development team recently and have been getting our act together since. Here's what we have in store for you:

We've continued to update our graphics engine a bit and have added a full-screen glow effect. This effect is only available for folks that have shader support (which is most of you). It makes the game look softer and prettier. Hooray for graphics updates. This will be in the next build.

We've also been adding more specular lighting to areas and items in the game. Woot! This will be in the next build.

We've updated our complier suite from Visual Studio 2003 to 2005. This allows us to take advantage of more recent features of the complier. What does this mean for you? Not too much, except that the game will be getting more optimized in the near future. Faster code FTW! This will be in the next build.

This new build has a major rework of our item data to support some coming features (i.e. item sets and socketing). We've removed some cruft from the item data in preparation for a major item upgrade coming soon. You shouldn't really notice much of a change if we've done our job right. This will be in the next build.

We're working on monster skills and behaviors to add more flavor to the various critters in the game. Pretty nice stuff. Some of this will be in the next build.

We've added some new procs to the new build that allows special events to take place when someone resists an attack. This is making its way into the improved monster behavior and item data. Some of this will be in the next build.

Code support for traps in the dungeon has been added. Designers are working to take advantage of this new support.

We've added three new skills to the game. More details will be coming on these skills shortly. Two of the skills are ranger fire skills and one is a new mage shadow attack. This will be in the next build.

Two full new armor sets have been added to the game. I'll scrounge up some pics of this and post them soon. This will be in the next build.

Work is being done to add a level 100 boss gauntlet to the game. This will be a new way to farm bosses for level 100 groups. New boss tokens are being added to the game that you will only get by farming these level 100 bosses. You'll need to farm one boss enough to get geared to access and farm the next boss. Special items that can only be found through this system will be available. This won't be ready for the next build, but it's coming along well.

The Dungeon Runners team is getting access to support our website directly. This will allow us to fix the game-generated blog RSS feeds. As of now, we're relying on another internal web development group to handle this. We're currently not very high priority for them. Once we get access to the website, it'll take us a few days to get the blogs to work. This will be in the next build.

We're also working on making the game a streaming download to help new players try the game more easily. This streaming download will be much smaller (about 20MB) and will automatially download new content as players move around the game. We lose about 40% of potential new players that never get past the 600MB download. We'd like to put a stop to that.

I expect that we'll have something to our QA group next week. I'm working to ensure this can be put on the PTS at the same time it goes to our internal test group. Once tested then we'll get it up live!

steve

Fun stuff and some optimization, too!

~Ripper

Sevenwind

That's right they did lose a good bit of their staff.

I wonder how they can make traps witty and funny? Maybe step in a pile a poop and it roots ya?

If you happen to find pics of the new armor sets can you post the pics Rhinok or link to them?

Lot of good stuff being done. Thanks for posting the info Rhinok.

rhinok

 Well, I won't know for sure until the content is loaded on the PTS or I get a sneak preview, but here are 5 full armor sets from the DR icon pack that don't currently exist in game.  It's a good bet they're all in some stage of development, but that 2 of these are what we'll see in the next heave/chunk (click for a larger view):

They all look pretty cool to me, but there are certain pieces I like:

The helm from the first set, the shoulders with orok scalp on the third, the helm on the forth, etc..

~Ripper

Sevenwind

I like the fourth and fifth set the best. The last set would be really cool looking if it was black. This game needs dye!

Thanks for showing the pic.

jimsmith08

Any new information leaked out on the new skills at all? I hope the ranged fire skills are ranged weapon based and not like Barf-O-Rama and the fiery farting one.

rhinok

 Nope  That was the last peep out of Steve regarding the new skills, unfortunately.  I'm hoping the build goes to the pts this Friday, next Friday at the latest.

Regarding the skills, I agree.  Barf-O-Rama can be useful, but only for specific builds and mostly in PVP for it's interrupt ability.  The mana cost is too high, IMO.  As for Monty's Revenge, it just plain sucks, IMO.  I and others gave feedback on it and Mark Tucker said he'd take a look at finding a way to make it more useful, so hopefully it gets changed in the near future. 

I wouldn't mind seeing an exploding arrow with an AOE  effect, a ranged root, a la fire cages or something else along those lines.

~Ripper

jimsmith08

Originally posted by rhinok


 Nope  That was the last peep out of Steve regarding the new skills, unfortunately.  I'm hoping the build goes to the pts this Friday, next Friday at the latest.
Regarding the skills, I agree.  Barf-O-Rama can be useful, but only for specific builds and mostly in PVP for it's interrupt ability.  The mana cost is too high, IMO.  As for Monty's Revenge, it just plain sucks, IMO.  I and others gave feedback on it and Mark Tucker said he'd take a look at finding a way to make it more useful, so hopefully it gets changed in the near future. 
I wouldn't mind seeing an exploding arrow with an AOE  effect, a ranged root, a la fire cages or something else along those lines.
~Ripper

 

I was excited about Barf-o-Rama until I realised it requires a ranged poison skill to be set off,which was a really poor idea imo. It could have opened up mage and (int based) fighter poison builds using Gaseous Blast + toxic talent. Instead its just an OK passive if you want to go strict poison ranger.

And Montys,yeah its pretty crappy unfortunately.  Flaming buddy and ray of gosh are good though.

rhinok

 New info - this build goes to the Public Test Server on Monday, December 8th (linky...):

This is the first build where our internal QA staff will be testing with you on the PTS! Hooray for faster turnaround and better coverage!

We've reworked the particle rendering for the game to improve batching and increase performance. Some sorting artifacts are present because of this and we are working to resolve them for the final deployment of this build.

We've added a light bloom effect to the game. There is also a new option in the graphics option page to control this. Pretty lights.

We've added 6 new skills to the game with this build: Shadow Words: Bad Touch, Cold Snap, Oh Snap!, Dungeon Inferno, Fire Shot and Gosh's Glorious Shower of Gold.

We've fixed some crashing issues with the group server and posse features.

Two more armor sets have been added to the game. Also, a mythic katana has been added. Also, a new mythic snowman hat has been added.

Shivery has been reenabled with a new quest line. Enjoy!

A major rework of the data organization for items has been implemented for this build. You really shouldn't notice anything, but if your character doesn't load, let us know!

We've added a new PvP queue to the game. Talk to the Pwnston Commander to enter this queue. It is an unrated queue that doesn't require balanced teams and will rebalance your character if outnumbered.

We've changed how the rated PvP match works. This match will now only last up to 5 minutes and no respawning is allowed. If you die in this match, it's game over and the other side wins. If you are part of a group and die then you will become an observer until the end of the battle. Timing for rewards on this match has been changed to compensate for the rapid pace.

 

and

 

Here are the detailed patch notes for the new skills we've added to build 151:

Shadow Words: Bad Touch (Mage Trainer)

You dig long and deep within your psyche to release a bunch of your pent up teenage angst. Doing so causes several dark tendrils of Shadow energy to emerge from your soul and randomly grow. Any enemy that is inappropriately touched by a tendril will take Shadow Damage. In addition to that, the damaged enemy has a chance to be stricken with a curse that increases all Shadow Damage they receive for a while!

Fire Shot (Ranger Trainer)

You have only one itching desire, for enemies to stand next to your Fire... Shot! Just play with this and your target might get burned for some amount of Fire Damage! Each successful hit has a 25% chance to explode, scorching nearby enemies that are diggin' it too close to your target. Mover over Rover and let the explosion take over! Each enemy will get swept off their feet if the target explodes and they will take some Fire Damage too!

Dungeon Inferno (Ranger Trainer)

Burn, baby, burn! Dungeon Inferno! Your shot is lettin' loose a fiery chain reaction that sparks up a 3 meter radius Dungeon Inferno! The initial target will take some Fire Daamge. The heat is on! Any enemies that boogie into the Dungeon Inferno take some Fire Damage for each second they remain. Smokin! Also, they have a chance to be cursed for some time, taking more damage from fire!

Gosh's Glorius Shower of Gold (Mage Trainer)

You call upon the Almighty Gosh to intervene and aid you in vanquishing your heathenish foe. Gosh will see to it that some glorious golden rays of light shall rain down from the heavens all around you. Each golden beam will release its Divine energy at the time that Gosh's Plan calls for it (aka. randomly). Any enemy close enough to an exploding beam will take some Divine Damage. Each beam can damage up to two enemies! On top of that, should an enemy survive the initial barrage, Gosh sees to it that his follower's enemies will meet theri maker (Him of course) by potentially placing a curse upon them that increases all Divine Damage taken for a while - in accordance with His Plan (meaning there is a good chance it won't happen). Ask and ye shall receive!

Cold Snap (Mage Trainer)

You create a magical ice storm at a location you target that randomly spews out 12 frozen ice crystals in a circle. Each shard of ice dishes out some sweet Ice Damage. The crystals will also heal your Chill Bill!

Oh Snap! (Mage Trainer)

Place this in your skill tray to improve your Cold Snaps. Every time you cast a Cold Snap you have a 66% chance that it will spew out double the number of ice crystals!

Just like with the posse magnate, I had to explain to my wife why Gosh's Glorious Shower of Gold was funny...

~Ripper

jimsmith08

:0

Very nice,,I wasnt expecting all that. Its opened up a lot of new builds,thats for sure. im especially happy about Cold Snap as its an ice AOE.

The new debuffs again open up a lot of new builds. I can see Gosh's Glorius Shower of Gold working well on an int/agi fighter with Soul rend,Divine Ascendancy and awesome cleavage.

Whats Shivery btw? An old dungeon that was removed? And what the hell is a snowman hat?!

rhinok

 I agree about the new skills.  As it is, I've been playing a fire mage/fighter hybrid over the last several days and My Flaming Buddy is what makes it really viable.  I'm not killing things as fast as I could with a pure mage, but it's pretty darn close.  It's also lots of fun to be a fighter with some magic skills.

Shivery the Incorrigible Snowman was an NPC put in last winter for the holidays.  He's a depressed, smart ass snowman in Townston who gives you a quest to open holiday presents in a special dungeon.  That dungeon was filled with various Calvin and Hobbes-ish  Snowman diaramas.  Cute and funny, if a little bit underwhelming as far as events go.  I'm curious to see what they do with him this year.

As for the hat, I assume it'll look either like the snowman's actual hat (see the link above) or even the snowman's head!  There's a mythic helm in game that looks like the cardboard mouse disguise the NPC wears in Algernon, so it's not outside the realm of possibility.

~Ripper

rhinok

 I've only had about 1/2 hour of test time on the PTS, but the new armor sets are the "wolf" armor (last line in the top row) and the cloth armor on the bottom row - it comes in white and black, btw.

~Ripper

rhinok

 I've tested the new build pretty thoroughly, along with some other great players who've taken the time to test and provide feedback.   The devs tried to get the new build published  live by 12/19/2008, but a bug was found at the last minute that needed to be corrected.  It was, but unfortunately there's a hold on non-critical live publishes over the holidays, so this pach won't get pushed live until January 5th

In terms of the new patch - I love the new fire ranger skills!  They rock.  The new mage skills are pretty sweet, too.  We had some lively discussion regarding Cold Snap and Oh Snap! on the boards and the skill has now been tweaked to the point that even the most vocal commentators now agree it's a pretty decent addition to a mage's arsenal.

While there's not a a lot of new content (monsters, dungeons, etc...), this is another solid patch and the addition of new skill helps players create ever-diversified character builds.

I'm really looking forward to what they put out in the future (which, based on my conversations with Stephen Nichols, is very, very bright).

~Ripper