Hi everyone,
Today we wanted to provide you with an update on our security measure progress, as well as present the initial changes that are planned to be in at server opening. The official patch notes will be released once we reopen the servers so these are subject to change. In an effort to re-do the musical score for Darkfall: Rise of Agon, we also wanted to present a music sample from one of the composers working on the project who is creating a new piece for us to use in game.
Security Measures Update:
Phase 1 of our security measures are completed and will be ready for our server reopening. We are working out the final kinks in client obfuscation and then will be ready to prepare for the remaining one to two weeks of our "Alpha" gain rates. This will allow people to test both the new User Interface and the changes we will have implemented at the start or closely thereafter. We hope to have these tasks completed and ready for final review by the end of next week, and will make sure to update you on this progress.
At the moment we have a lot of changes that are either fully completed, currently in progress or ready to move into testing. We expect to have a lot of these initial changes ready for the server reopening, and a much larger list of tasks we plan to get in shortly thereafter. The following is a preliminary list of the changes we plan to have in once the server opens up again.
Preliminary Update Patch Notes:
- Phase 1 Authentication security measure update
- User Interface changes including the following capabilities
- Sword and board on one keypress
- Auto-cast functionality
- Trigger on Release to queue up spells
- Charge on Press to initiate spell on hotkey
- Spell cycling of specific hotkey slot
- First Available to select first available spell in hotkey slot
- Added Auto-sprint hotkey to key binding list to allow auto-sprint capabilities
- Developed batch drag-and-drop feature to allow easier sorting of non-stackable items. Like items will also sort by weapon damage first, and durability second, to increase the usefulness of this feature. Two functions are currently available:
- SHIFT + drag will drag and sort all like items in an array at the target container
- ALT + drag will drag and sort all like items on top of one another at the target container
- Auto-save key binding changes instead of requiring a command
- Auto-save hotbar changes when they are modfied in game
- Created initial hotbar bound items and spells for new players entering the game
- Rearranged Lesser Magic spell requirements to compensate change of providing new players with all transfers at character creation
- Unlocked transfers for all new characters
- Unlocked all three starting weaopn slots for new characters
- Removed wheat from Merchants, bread from Dungeon vendors, and potions from Alchemists
- Reduced paperdoll lock cooldown to 200ms
- Reduced weights of resources
- Corrected skill requirements for smelting
- Items in crafting windows will be ordered by rank, and then alphabetically
- Increased speed, acceleration and turning speed of both ships and warhulks
- Implemented new default key bindings
- Added many passive skills to new characters by default at max level and hid them from view (such as fortitude, willpower, constitution)
- Other passive will need to be bought but will max out on purchase (such as endurance, fitness, pack mule)
- Associated skills removed from Meditation
- Lowered refining times by 50%
- Added initial inventory items that newly created characters have containing basic items to start their journey
- Provide skill "Dig" to new characters at base skill level 1
- Have "Show FPS" enabled by default
- Meditation enabled Online
- Removal of many system messages from the game
- Increase number of binds in village house spots
- Alter chaos chest loot
New Music Composition:
We also wanted to present a sample that George Karagioules, one of the composers contributing to Darkfall: Rise of Agon, put together for new music to be used in the game. George brings a lot of experience in musical composition and sound design, and you can view his work at his website: http://www.georgeksound.com/
Conclusion:
Thank you for reading and make sure to join in on the discussion. We wish you all a very happy weekend and to those in the United States, a happy Fourth of July.
Sincerely,
- The Team at Big Picture Games