1.2A(13) goes gold!

[Zwiebelchen]

Please report any bugs you can find immediately, as always!

Note that the official version does not accept loads from 1.2A(9) beta! Please import your 1.2A(8) codes via -comp to play the new release!


DOWNLOAD:
http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/...1effd3c174c45c685a093e09a&dateline=1422311789

GENERAL/BUGFIXES:

v1.2A(13)
- Gold income from killing is now divided by the number of players (and mercs) in range; however, you will now always gain at least 1 gold
- Fixed a bug with blurred motions causing the game to crash
- Fixed a bug with the soldiers of Mytargas escort quest not following correctly on first attempt
- fixed head attachment point of rangers
- Fixed a typo in Linen Hood Recipe
- Fixed a bug with Flaming Arrow +duration Talent
- Fixed Eternal Strings attack speed bonus
- Gravestones can now be selected via the idle-worker button
- Fixed a typo in Cold Death recipe
- Fixed 'Stone Skin' cooldown talent
- Fixed a bug that caused some talents not to reset properly when unlearning talents
- chance to drop outdoor scrolls on low level bosses increased
- chance to drop dungeon scrolls on D1 bosses increased
- chance to drop Ogre boss scrolls increased
- shifted weights on Ogre boss treasure drops more towards items (instead of demon heart)
- adjusted a lot of drop weights for rare, common and boss materials to make lowlevel crafting easier
- completing the first kill quest now rewards a white armor
- corrected some faulty stats on the hero selector units
- Fixed a bug with the Dispel Magic AoE-talent
- Fixed a rounding error that caused mercenaries to slowly lose HP when repeatedly equipping items

v1.2A(12)
- Fixed a bug with water globes
- Reduced mana gain per level of all classes by 20%
- Rebalanced of health and mana scores of all classes


v1.2A(11)
- The disappeared anvil in lumberjack camp finished its travel through space and time
- Fixed a bug that made items of same level as character not load properly in hero inventory
- Rebalanced stat gains for Ranger, Berserker, Sorcerer, Necromancer and Monk
- Base attack speed of Assassin, Bard and Monk increased by 33%
- Fixed a bug with the tier 4 druid talent not applying the correct mana bonus to the spirit
- Water Elemental is no longer affected by Magician tier 4 talent
- Fixed haste of spirits
- Fixed two bugs with Hunter talents for attack speed and ArP not applying correctly
- 'Beast Fury' can now be used on mechanical units
- Fixed a bug with Assassin stealth movement speed talent
- Fixed incorrect vendor value of "Sparkling jewel"
- Fixed a bug with certain talents modifying abilities not applying when relearning the ability
- Fixed a tooltip inconsistency with level 25 squire talents
- By popular demand: changed attack and stop icon back to its default icons
- Removed the command card from backpacks, as it is no longer used


v1.2A(10)
- Fixed a bug with the talent reset dialog
- Fixed a bug with the threat system that caused creeps to follow units endlessly on certain conditions
- Talent Archive now also shows the description of not selected talents on the viewed tier (greyed out)
- Fixed a bug with 8th tier cooldown talent on Berserker applying extra mana
- Fixed a bug with 7th tier crit talent on Berserker not working
- Fixed some typos in talent descriptions
- Fixed several bugs with pet stats not applying values correctly
- Changed tier 8 Sorcerer Talent (Lightning Charge now always hits an additional enemy for 50% damage)


v1.2A(9)
- As new variables have been asigned to the Save/load, codes from 1.2A(8) version MUST be imported to 1.2A(9) by using the -comp command instead of -load
- 1.2A(9) is not compatible to the beta releases of 1.2A(9). Loading from beta releases might result in invalid codes. Please import only codes from 1.2A(8)!
- Talents now accessable from the hero command card
- changed the way talents work to a select-one-of-three choices instead of talent lines
- a new talent point will now be granted every 5 levels starting with level 10
- added "talent archive" to view learned talents
- featuring several house redesigns from SonofJay in the starting area (more to come in the next releases!)
- Changed the visual appearance of all armors; instead of attachment models, all characters will now change their skin depending on the armor equipped; the current selection of skins is still very limited, but will be vastly extended over the next releases (skins made by Daenar7)
- Outfitter NPC added to all major quest hubs; allows to change hair color and to switch helmet sfx on and off
- Fixed the camera messing up when repicking while 3rd person camera is active
- Fixed a bug causing the backstab ability to disappear with bladedancer level 3
- Fixed a bug that prevented players from picking up 'Healing Salve' and 'HUnter's Net'
- Fixed tooltip errors of many items
- Changed behaviour of enemies to attack the pet first when the "attack" command is used on a group of enemies
- Pet damage reduction rules changed: If a pet or minion is first in threat, it will now take normal damage from deadly boss spells
- Multishot AoE buffer range slightly increased to allow it to hit larger enemies at maximum spell range
- Collapsed Golems will now spawn with a small random displacement, to make them easier to target
- Fixed a bug with Tenets of Guidance level 3, subtracting wrong amounts of Mana on casts
- Fixed a bug with the 'Mind Twist' ability from Mind Breaker staff
- All non-trivial heals (those that display green numbers) can now have a critical effect based on your crit chance
- Critical heals are affected by spell critical damage score with a base value of 150%
- Attack speed awarded from agility is now calculated in the same way as spell haste (but can not be negative)
- Str, Agi, Int, Constitution and Wisdom skills have been replaced by new skills
- Potions are now no longer affected by skills; healing potions now heal a larger amount of hitpoints
- Due to the changes to skills, heroes now gain additional life and mana as they level up
- Imported music has been removed, as I felt the compression was too high and audio fragments destroyed the feeling the music was trying to deliver ... I will probably upload a custom MPQ with a complete new soundtrack for Gaias in the future
- Dice rolling, Pet behvaiour, music and quickbar toggle, such as the PvP command are now accessable through the hero command card
- Automatic respawning now requires a confirmation for revival
- Greatly reduced spell cost for advanced class spells to make respecc less punishing
- Detonating Bones will now only deal 50% damage to skeletons instead of destroying them; duration of debuff reduced, cooldown increased
- Blood Magic Level 4 talent of Necromancer changed
- Changed Parry to block 15% of attacks by 50% of damage instead of 10% of attacks for 150 damage
- Increased level gains for STR, AGI, INT scores by 50% to compensate the overall reduction of power through the changes to the skill system
- Base scores have been affected by this aswell and should combat progressing power creep occuring at max levels
- A mercenaries' guild executive now also resides in the Lumberjack Encampment
- deaths below level 10 no longer cause gold loss
- added several training dummies to the military plaza in Mytargas
- Halved stat gain for crit, crit damage, spell crit damage and evasion from main stats
- Changed calculation formula for spell casting time from spell haste: 100% haste = half casting time. 200% haste = 1/3 casting time, etc.
- Due to the removal of the skill system, the 'Shadow Seal' quest has been removed from the game; The Shade does no longer drop the Shadow Seal
- Shadow Seal quest replaced with a new level 24 quest; characters that have the shadow seal quest completed will also have this quest marked as completed
- Ranger pets now no longer change their appearance. Instead, the appearance can now be selected at level 25

 

[Jumbo]

Great, thanks Zwieb. The icons still need a little work though. Maybe make them a little less shining, they hurt my eyes atm . And add something that makes them look a bit more "natural" to fit the Gaias theme perhaps.

 

[Vestra]

Booyah.

 

[kevs926]

woo it's finally heere

 

[S0ulseeker]

About to host with me and vestra on battle.net clan orpg for those who want to join :] were rolling new toons

 

[Vestra]

About to host with me and vestra on battle.net clan orpg for those who want to join :] were rolling new toons

Characters. Heroes. Don't you dare say fucking toons or I will call you a dudu.

 

[kevs926]

so thats why ent doesnt allow me to create gaias game name

 

[Ihazdialup]

Vestra is back from the dead?

 

[ALEXz407]

So far update looks awesome (except talent respec lock out bug).

And about new icons. They are placed on standart 5 buttons positions and have same color scheme, so subconsciously I still think what this is just recolored standart things and ignore it, lol. Maybe it's just a matter of habit.

Backpack now doesn't have any useful buttons, so maybe you will hide command card for it like in material bag? Move and Stop in backpack looks weird a bit.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Vestra is back from the dead?

I was just about to say the same thing... damnit vestra, I need you for writing new quest texts for 1.2B, so better get your arse back in the seat!

 

[kevs926]

why are the new talents 10, 15, 20, 25 have lesser impact than the old skill system?

they are supposedly replacements for the skill system.

 

[PachaXD]

any thing I can do if a couple of my heroes are saved at (9) alredy? :S

 

[Jumbo]

I suppose not. I have lost 3 chars this way too. Its Zwie meeting my request for a code wipe 50% .

 

[PachaXD]

I suppose not. I have lost 3 chars this way too. Its Zwie meeting my request for a code wipe 50% .

LOL JUmbo hahahahahaha. I have no problem, just losing from 50 to 49 on serker and from 42 to 41 on necro, no big deal

 

[Jumbo]

The thing is, my monk only had lvl 48, had erased all previous codes. But whatever, Monk is a boring class to me anyway as it is .

 

[PachaXD]

The thing is, my monk only had lvl 48, had erased all previous codes. But whatever, Monk is a boring class to me anyway as it is .

maybe u can check for old versions? trash? xD

 

[Jumbo]

naah its on old com which I dont have anymore .

 

[sonofjay]

Congrats! Keep up the great work!

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Updated to 1.2A(10).

Talent reset has been fixed now; also, some other minor bugs.

 

[Vestra]

I was just about to say the same thing... damnit vestra, I need you for writing new quest texts for 1.2B, so better get your arse back in the seat!

yessir

 

[kevs926]

- Fixed several bugs with pet stats not applying values correctly

druid pets are still superfast casters.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

druid pets are still superfast casters.

Is that a bug report or just a random statement?

 

[SHBlade]

Damn, I need to get back to home quickly.

 

[kevs926]

Is that a bug report or just a random statement?

i already reported this yesterday. Just stating it still wasn't fixed. Unless that changelog entry didnt really refer to the fast cast bug.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

i already reported this yesterday. Just stating it still wasn't fixed. Unless that changelog entry didnt really refer to the fast cast bug.

To be honest, I couldn't really decipher the meaning of your report from yesterday:

efreet spell haste increases after first cast.

i think you need to 0 its haste at the start of function instead of recalling it again. Since the new haste is now a +haste function instead of a setting it's haste to 20 or so

When I read that, I was like "wat?" ... I couldn't figure out what you mean even after reading it twice.

 

[kevs926]

oh, isee.

efreet and nymph has spell haste right? they are 0 at default.

one of the talents increase their haste by 20 which makes firebolt 2.5s > 2.08s cast time, but it looks more than 400 haste when they cast firebolt and cure. It appears they cast 0.5s only, sometimes a bit slower. I can easily say it is not the expected 2.08 cast time.

what im trying to say, is that the probable cause is the function that adds 20 haste to these pets. that particular function has no line of code that resets the haste to 0, so it ends up adding 20 haste everytime that function is called.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

oh, isee.

efreet and nymph has spell haste right? they are 0 at default.

one of the talents increase their haste by 20 which makes firebolt 2.5s > 2.08s cast time, but it looks more than 400 haste when they cast firebolt and cure. It appears they cast 0.5s only, sometimes a bit slower. I can easily say it is not the expected 2.08 cast time.

what im trying to say, is that the probable cause is the function that adds 20 haste to these pets. that particular function has no line of code that resets the haste to 0, so it ends up adding 20 haste everytime that function is called.

Ah, I see. I will fix that asap.

 

[Krotos]

If Zwieb doesn't mind, I could use my mapper account to upload 1.2A(10) instantly instead of having to wait for MMH approval.

 

[Scorba]

Hey,

I encounterd a minor bug i guess, while leveling my new squire today.

I can not save the item "the Wall" (Shield), as soon as i hit level 20 i equipped it (was in my backpack for 3 levels, no problems there) i -saved and left the game. Upon loading i noticed my shield was gone.

However i noticed it is perfectly saveable if i just unequip it and put it in my backpack before saving.

 

[Krotos]

Enchanted Opal - the misc item you can buy from Lumberjack Camp - doesn't save itself if equipped.

 

[Scorba]

The Weapon i bought for 2k gold from the smith in Mythargas also did not save, however if i keep it in my backback or just simply move it there before saving i am able to save it.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

It seems those items DO get saved, but they don't get loaded - this is due to a new protection I built in against loading invalid codes. It seems to bug in certain occasions and will be fixed for 1.2A(11).

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Update!

 

[Ihazdialup]

these were good fixes, good job

 

[Jumbo]

Good job Zwieb!

 

[Jumbo]

Sorry for doubleposting, but this is kinda important. The map says it was released "27 january 2014". I hope I am not alone in 2015...

 

[sonofjay]

Its 26 Jan 2015 to me.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Sorry for doubleposting, but this is kinda important. The map says it was released "27 january 2014". I hope I am not alone in 2015...

Isn't that obvious? Gaias Retaliation destroys the delicate fabric of space-time.

 

[Ihazdialup]

Bard should probably get like a 20% increase to health, just because I feel like as a support class more than dps, its fine for it to have more survivability than the rest of the dps classes

 

[BoxOfFaith]

Level 35 hunter talents all kinda seem meh.

Increased time of flaming arrow
Increased time of ensnare
20% reduced threat.

I think this would be a good place to institute another health boost. Her first one is generally ignored because increasing the pet is so valuable. I propose replacing the increased time of flaming arrow with a +15% health boost.

In her current best gear (including Kensai for +50 HP) She sits at 490 health. This leads the options to:

Increase her suvivability
Increase her CC ability
Reduce her chance of stealing aggro.

All three of these are valuable in their own right and depending on the group and playstyle.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

To be fair, it's just a level 35 talent... I think none of them is really interesting for any class.

Adding a health boost on this talent would imho create a clear best-choice scenario, which is what I'm trying to prevent. I feel that taking +health should always be a tough choice for the user (hence why +health is usually paired with +damage and +mana for spellcasters). In this case, it wouldn't come at a real loss.

 

[BoxOfFaith]

Okie, its no problem really. Shes not terribly under health'd, and if we're gonna modify items to fit better anyway this can be addressed within that.

Out of curiosity should we create a couple low level int based leather items while we're at it?

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Out of curiosity should we create a couple low level int based leather items while we're at it?

I don't think there's a real need for this, considering there aren't any tank clothes for clerics below level 25 either. But adding 2-3 items for that purpose probably won't hurt. Just make sure you add them at the bottom of the list so that the save/load doesn't get screwed up.

The registry has changed a little, due to the new interchangable textures. You must now also define a destructable rawcode that holds the texture for the armor. I'd say check out the textures that already exist and select one of them. I won't add new textures or models for mid-game-only items.

 

[BoxOfFaith]

Will do. Probably just a hat that gives 10 MP and 2 Int, and a body that gives a bit of of the same. Figured they could go on Zibnix and replace studded leather armor + polished scalemail drops, since the crab drops these already anyway.

 

[ALEXz407]

Yesterday we played the new version from the very beginning and I want to leave a review here (replay here)

Game start

At the beginning of the map we have a party with 5 players: 2 newcomers and 3 experienced.
After game start we lost 1 newcomer because of desync. So our group was:
- Squire
- Cleric
- Magician
- Ranger (newcomer)

First levels

We have reached level 5 in 15 minutes. I can say what we have very unlucky drops so all party was almost naked.
It is not surprising that the Crab boss killed us. We also forgot about mercenaries and trying to kill him with our characters only.
I can say what healing is much more challenging task now, because heroes have a smaller HP pool. Careless DPS can die from full hp bar before healer finish his cast.

Now about newcomers. Well one player is not a big sample, but I can see some things:
- Gold. Gold income is very poor at low levels, you can only hope for item drops for sale. (just check ranger's gold amount in the replay)
Maybe add 1 gold drop to wolves for better feeling of the progression?

- Abilities. They are now easier to obtain, but they are still heavily dependent on luck with gold farming. Press only two buttons for 15 minutes can be a bit boring. (1 button for rangers)
What if you give a third ability as a reward for new game introduction quest? Three buttons are much more interesting than the two.
Thus it can be: Squire - 'Gaping Wounds', Ranger - 'Claw Strike', Thief - 'Embrittling Acid', Cleric - 'Crippling Curse' and Magician - 'Frost Cage'. As you can see, all usefull for d1 abilities must be purchased anyway, but player now have more tactical choices and better feeling of his class.
Additionally, you can reduce the price of starting abilities to 100g.

- Ressurection. This is a real blow to the feeling of gameplay. We were lucky and newcomer did not die from first wolf packs, but if you play around 2 minutes and die and must wait 1 minute to revive... You just leave the game, as you have seen so far is only a small part of possibilities. (I can not say it's coincidence or not, but the ranger leave the game shortly after our wipe on the Crab boss)
What if change ressurection mechanics? Reduce cooldown to 1 second and just check if there are any mobs/players in battle mode within 1000 (4000?) radius around the gravestone. So you can resurrect instantly if you're playing solo, however in boss fights you must wait until all party wipe or win.

Ankmaron bosses and D1

After fail with the Crab boss we took mercenaries, composition changes a little but in the end we stick to:
- Squire & Troll (+aggro from poison, DPS)
- Magician & Shaman (additional healing, DPS a bit)
- Cleric

I can say that bosses were really challenging!

Crab
With armors from bandits quest it was easier, but still challenging. Our magician died here due to high aggro.

Wolf
It was hard to heal, especially when shaman out of mana after 2/3 of the fight.

Zibnix
It was difficult to heal sometimes, but with better armors it became easier.

Deakan
Without on time switching and sufficient damage was a difficult boss. Also, shaman always prefer to attack controlled enemy and make our life harder
It's possible to add debuff check in followers AI, so they will not attack targets in 'Frost Cage' automatically?

Gaelas Tar
Everyone knew the tactics, so we did not let him cast 'One-Shot-Thing' and smash 'Frost Cage' from friends quickly. Therefore, we beat him on the first try.
Several times I was confused when select 'Soul Strike' instead of 'Attack' and vice versa, but that's not much a problem.

Troll
We knew about the curse, so we went to him only when the magician bought 'Dispel Magic'. It was easy. The only problem was that we had only one cast interrupt at this time and boss can sometimes cast heal freely.

In all encounters mana pool coming to an end at around 30% of boss HP remaining if you actively use abilities. Therefore, mana potions were very helpful and mana management plays an important role.

Trade route

It was so nice to finally complete quest with boars . Also reduced cost of abilities allowed us to immediately buy them (and this is nice thing for gameplay).
In my opinion at this point in the game is not enough shops with intermediate items. Players start to collect money that simply can not be spended on anything.

Trade route bosses and D2

Rock Golem
It was difficult, but we defeated him before than Sanev. The main problems for us were high resistance/armor and spike damage which almost kills the tank.

Sanev
He was a real problem. Spike damage with 'Magic Missile' and 'Fireball' can kill a tank pretty quickly. Also 'Crippling Curse' ticks for high damage. But with good 'Dispel Magic' and preventive 'Heal' we were able to do it.

The Protector
This boss makes healer sweating. Under 'Feline Reflexes' he kills tank before you finish casting your 'Heal' (don't forget, we had only one stun ability with 1 second duration and tank used it in rotation to keep aggro). Eventually we were able to beat him with 'Heal' spamming.

Afterword

Gaias has become more complex and interesting. These changes in stats and balance are highlighted class roles and gameplay brighter.

However, Gaias lacking some action at the beggining. The slow pace at the start of the game leaves a feeling of boredom. Also, players used to idea what later game will have even slower pace. That's why people leave after first death or some couple of minutes I think.
So it would be good to add some action at low levels:
- Unlock third ability with a starting quest (more fun at battles)
- Faster level up (twice exp for mobs until you reach lvl 10, so you can faster try first talent)
- More friendly resurrection (how it can works read above)

With these changes the pace of the game will look like this: 1-10 fast, 10-18 normal, 18-25 slow, 25-50 even slower.
This method is used in all RPG and MMORPG games and is based on the psychology, so I think it could help with newcomers.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

I think the biggest problem currently is the lack of gold sinks in the game.

1.2B will tackle that. But there's still a long way to go. I'm also thinking about introducing a gold penalty for larger groups (like 30% less gold income for each character in shared-XP range), simply because the new ressurection mechanic has eliminated a huge gold sink.

--> So basicly the new kill gold is DROP*0.5[if merc]*0.7^(n-1)+1 with n being the number of players around. +1 is added so that a kill definitely awards a gold piece at the beginning of the game.

The price of 150G for the starting abilities is justified. It didn't take me longer than the starting quests around Riversdale to get that money in my testing games.

 

[S0ulseeker]

I think the biggest problem currently is the lack of gold sinks in the game.

Yay Zwiebel agrees with me!

I like the idea of group penalties on gold. You already implemented it with hiring a merc and it makes sense for a group as a whole.

The price of 150G for the starting abilities is justified. It didn't take me longer than the starting quests around Riversdale to get that money in my testing games.

I agree that 150G is reasonable for starting quests but I still feel that the trade route spells or Mytargas spells need to be buffed slightly in value.

 

[ALEXz407]

--> So basicly the new kill gold is DROP*0.5[if merc]*0.7^(n-1)+1 with n being the number of players around. +1 is added so that a kill definitely awards a gold piece at the beginning of the game.

The idea is good, but why merc owner must pay twice? First time his gold reduced with party penalty and second time with merc penalty.

Maybe better add merc penalty to all players? Since his services are used by everybody who are around.

DROP*(0.7^(m*2+n-1))+1

where "m" - mercenaries count, "n" - players count.

And the real players will be more valuable, because they less reduce gold income.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Because the 50% reduction is basicly the "payment" of the merc. Call it profit sharing. And since he is only obliged to the owner player (only the owner can dismiss them), it makes sense that they take the cut directly from the owner, not from the rest of the group.

Besides, the formula you proposed doesn't really make a difference for the owner. Let's just assume 50g as the monster drop, 1 merc and 3 players (which is basicly the worst-case scenario possible for the owner of the merc):

My formula:
50 * (0.7^(3-1)) * 0.5 + 1 = 13.25 G

Your formula:
50 * 0.7^(1*2+3-1) + 1 = 13.01 G

In fact, the player comes out ahead with my formula, even in the worst-case scenario.

 

[ALEXz407]

Because the 50% reduction is basicly the "payment" of the merc. Call it profit sharing. And since he is only obliged to the owner player (only the owner can dismiss them), it makes sense that they take the cut directly from the owner, not from the rest of the group.

But the benefits of a mercenary is divided between all players.
It turns out that the owner of a mercenary is a philanthropist .

Divided mercenary fees will make money flow smoother.
With your formula players without a merc will collect money twice faster than the merc owner. In the long run it will make a big gap between them.

Anyway it's not a big deal. If player will pay for mercenary from his own gold, he can just demand items for sale without a roll sometimes.