January 8, 2009
This update took place from 9:30am - 11:00am PST. It was originally supposed to end at 10:30, but was extended because "We're having a bit of a problem with one of the tools we use to push the build to the servers. (It was updated recently and the kinks are still being worked out of it.)
This glitch is going to cost us about a half-hour of time, so the servers should be back up at about 11am Pacific." (Original post.)
- Leadership migration now occurs properly within Crews. If your leader quits or goes off-line, then someone else in the Crew will become leader instead.
- Loading times have been reduced when loading into the game. Some players may notice no improvement at all, while others will see more marked improvements.
- Removed the Christmas tree, restored the Fountain Game, and moved everything back to its pre-Christmas position.
- Training mission fixes (from beginning of the game through Elizabeth's Defend and Explore paths). This is part 1 of the fixes that will be coming in over the next week or so. (Current fixes include the ability to complete "A Gaian About Town" after completing all quests for folks, as well as eliminating Elizabeth's overwhelming generosity with rings.)
Wiki Notes
- Game updated from v1.0.S23924 to v1.0.S.24250
- Duct Tape's animation now shows Duct Tape around enemies, rather than the sleeping animation that Queen Lorelei's Duct Tape shows.
- Null Chamber music doesn't stop playing even outside of the Null Chamber, or disappears into silence.
- Returning Regular Quest fixed - George (Barton Regular) now talks.
January 15, 2009
This update took place from 9:30am - 10:30am PST. (Original post.)
Gameplay
- The first step in our march to improve framerate occurs today. We found that we were drawing a few things WAY too often and we've prevented that now. This may improve framerate for a bunch of you by 2-3 frames.
- New mini-boss lairs have been added! The Katsumi's Kokeshi Doll encounter in Zen Gardens is now an instance, and so is the She Wolf encounter in Bass'ken Lake. You can replay these encounters as many times as you wish! You have to have the quest, or have completed the quest OR someone in your crew has to have, or have completed the quest, in order for you to enter the encounter area. Also, these quests have max CL limits, so you may have to Suppress your CL to play them. (Talk to Trixie in the Null Chamber to temporarily suppress your CL.)
- Big improvements were made if you are playing as a "guest". The flow into the game, and the ease of registering are now MUCH better.
- Lots of script bug fixes throughout Barton Town, the Sewers quests, and the training sequence were made.
User Interface
- There are icons added to the ame under player avatars. You can see an icon if someone has their "Looking for Crew" switch turned *off* so that you know they're not looking for a crew. And, there's another icon if you are already IN a crew (so that other people know not to invite you again). These icons are handy when looking at the people in your area for crewmates instead of using the RECREWT list.
- The Intro movie no longer plays automatically. To view the movie, just click the new, big "Play the Movie" button on the World List page. This prevents a hefty download of the movie file for new folks that don't have great bandwidth connections.
- A "News" page has been added to the World List page so you can stay up-to-date about the game even without checking the zOMG! forums.
Wiki Notes
- Game updated from version 1.0.S23924 to S24740 (1.0 is not listed)
- In game updates don't go back further than December 2, 2008, unlike this Wiki.
- Looking for crew icon colors explained: Red = Not looking for crew, Green = Looking for crew, Blue = In a crew.
- Selecting a character now shows their Health and Stamina as well as if they're looking for a crew.
- New Quest after final boss is beaten, but doesn't work. New boat in Gold Beach as well, possibly connected. [1]
January 16, 2009
This update took place from 3:45pm - 4:45pm PST (ran late to 5:09). Mostly fixed problems introduced by the previous update. Had a very short announcement window before it was applied. (Original post.)
- Keyboard movement stopping constantly making that movement method very annoying [fixed]
- The name color of the selected target doesn't change to grey anymore
- Guest registration window not closing after being opened [fixed]
- Mini-map flags sometimes sorted the wrong way around (with the active flag being behind a question mark)
- She Wolf and Kat's Doll scenarios have been better tuned for solo- and crew-play.
- Supercharger powerups can now be used once every 15 seconds, instead of once every 20 seconds.
Wiki Notes
- Game updated from version S24740 to S24908.
January 22, 2009
This update took place from 9:30am - 10:30am PST. (Original post.)
Animated
- Landshark now talks (sort of), respawns are more rare, and it doesn't create giant, persistent loot lists any longer.
- Kat's Doll & Wolf Den encounters : Fewer enemies at larger Crew sizes. More time between "waves" of enemies to give time for recovery.
- LTs, Mini-bosses, and Bosses all got their health totals nerfed...but they also got *small* increases in the amount of damage they do. Intent : Shorter fights, with a bit more paranoia about the monsters hurting you, and encouraging buffs, heals, etc that aren't highly utilized now.
- Additionally, post-Zen Gardens monsters (all of them) had their health nerfed somewhat as we decreased the bonus they were getting due to our assumption that players had all eight ring slots filled by that time. (We still assume that you have those rings, but we buff the monsters less due to that fact.)
Loot
- Common and Uncommon loot drop rates were increased (double the current rate to make collection quests less onerous).
- A *very* tiny chance of getting a PowerUp as a monster loot drop has been added.
Rings
- Area of Effect size has less impact on reducing the amount of damage the ring does. (Since AoE attacks *can* hit many targets at once, they shouldn't do the same damage as a direct attack. However, the "nerfing" rate based on AoE radius has been reduced, resulting in a buff for AoE rings.)
- The same is true of Recharge timers. The slower your recharge timer is, the bigger the effect multiplier will be for your ring. We still do that, but we were previously only extending the bonus if your ring had a 5-second recharge timer or lower. Now, the bonuses extend up to a 10-second recharge timer, which results in rings with slower recharge timers now getting more effect than they did previously.
- Attack range counts against you less now also. Therefore, rings with long ranges now will have better base effects. (For example, you now do more damage with Hunter's Bow than previously.)
- Turtle duration extended to 30 seconds instead of 20.
- Turtle recharge rate reduced from 240 seconds to 90 seconds.
- Rock Armor was incorrectly at 60 seconds instead of 360 seconds duration, like the other buff rings. That is corrected.
- Improbability Sphere now recharged in 15 seconds instead of 20.
- Healing Halo and Divinity durations increased to 240 seconds (instead of 180).
- Healing Halo and Divinity recharge rates reduced from 360 seconds to 300 seconds. (60 seconds between end of duration and next chance to use the ring.)
- Meat duration increased from 60 seconds to 120 seconds. (Recharge rate increased to 180 seconds from 120, so it results in two minutes on and one minute off.)
- Added a Dodge debuff to a target that is suffering through the Hot Foot effect.
- Heavy Water Balloon now causes a small Accuracy and Dodge penalty to those in its area of effect.
- Hornet's Nest now has a small chance of causing a Fear effect to targets in its area of effect.
- Diagnose recharge rate reduced from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.
- Bandage recharge rate reduced from 5 seconds to 4 seconds.
- Coyote Spirit, Knife Sharpen, Keen Aye, Adrenaline, Ghost, Iron Will, and My Density all have increased durations from 240 seconds to 300 seconds.
- The current weight increase gained using the "Fitness" ring is being halved. (Other anti-knockback additions can still be gained through the "My Density" ring or the "Space Trooper" ring set bonus)
- Pot Lid's recharge rate is 420 seconds now, which is longer than the 360 second duration of the effect. (It had incorrectly been a shorter recharge than the duration, which is an error since this ring can only be used on "self".) So basically, you'll have at least 30 seconds without the buff. Plan for it accordingly.
- Fleet Feet recharge rate increased from 45 seconds to 60 seconds.
Wiki Notes
- Game updated from to
January 27, 2009
This update took place from 9:30am - 10:30am PST. (Original post.)
PDA Map Warp-to-Friend Feature
The PDA Map friend icons are now much more useful. When too many people want to be in a zone at the same time, we have to spin up extra instances of that zone for the overflow. When one of your friends is in another instance of the same zone you're in, it can be confusing to understand on the PDA Map.
So now, you'll see a new icon start to appear when you have a friend in that situation. To join your friend, it's as easy as clicking on your friend's icon on the PDA Map and warping yourself to his/her instance. (To move your friend to *your* instance instead, you can simply invite him to your Crew. That will do the trick also.)
Huge Orb Drop Rate Improvements
Most of you are gonna like this one. smile
We've analyzed play over the last months, and played a bunch of the game ourselves.
One of the conclusions we reached was that there was too much *grind* in the game, and not enough sense of progress.
So we're loosening up the orb drops...a lot.
If you're only playing in Village Greens, you won't notice much improvement here, but if you're playing in other zones, you'll immediately see improvements in:
- Orbs granted per quest. The increases are obvious (even in Village Greens, where most quests used to drop 1 per quest, but now drop 3), especially in later zones where you might get 10, 20, or more than 30 orbs per quest.
- Monster drops. Monsters used to only drop 1 *4 orbs throughout the game, with the "big" drops only occurring in the latest levels. Monsters are now scaled per zone so that the later monsters drop many more orbs than monsters in the earlier zones. They still drop at the same *frequency* as before, but when they drop now, you'll get more orbs per drop. (Later-zone monsters do drop a lot of orbs.)
The effect of this change is to allow more rapid advancement through the game, with the end-result objective that it takes about 50+ hours (less, if you're loyal to the repeatable quests, which are much more lucrative now also).
Enjoy!
Null Fragment Pricing and Frequency Change
To help stimulate interest in Recipes, and to make them just generally more affordable and cool, we're dropping the price of Null Fragments from $0.25 each to $0.05 each. This brings the price of a recipe, even if you had ZERO null fragments in your possession, down to much more trivial prices than previously.
Additionally, we used to "front-load" the game with Null Fragments, dropping a ton of them in the early game, and fewer of them in the later game.
We're flip-flopping that now, and you'll be getting few of the Frags in the early-going, but you'll find later-game quests to be much more lucrative for finding fragments.
This gives a better incentive to find later areas in the game, and it also allows a player to have a wider assortment of recipes to choose from when you start getting lots of fragments to play with, so we think it'll be more fun all around.
Other Improvements
- The Clan chat channel works again now!
- New mini-boss lairs (the Saw Mill and Duneslam Island) are available in this update. Like Katsumi's Doll and the Wolf Den, these are repeatable instanced-missions instead of the old "open-air" boss encounters we used to have.
- Back Alley Bargains gets an overhaul to make it more like other shops and easier to understand. (The display case is removed, the starter clothing items are now in other stores, and the PowerUps are now in the main window. )
- The old Ring Polisher PowerUp that increased all of your currently-equipped ring effects by 150% has been discontinued. It has been replaced with the new Ring Buffer PowerUp instead. Whereas the Ring Polisher only lasted three minutes, the improved Ring Buffer now lasts ONE HOUR instead with the same 150% improvement. (NOTE: You can still use the old Ring Polishers, but they are just no longer for sale at Back Alley Bargains.)
- We reduced the size of a bunch of our SWF files, so you should see big improvements in loading times, especially if you're using a slower connection speed.
- Some artwork optimization work, but mostly just small tests right now. The one place that is changed in the game is the Sand Castle Golems. They used to be framerate hogs and are now dainty little bite-sized morsel-eating folks. (More changes along that line will be coming next week.)
- Big improvements (again) in the guest experience for new users. Vastly fewer clicks and better representation of the game. (For you already in the game, this is kind of a *yawn*, but for new folks, they'll get to the game easier, which is cool.)
Wiki Notes
Game updated to version
January 29, 2009
Unknown Update (Original post.)
This update happened so fast that I was never able to get a copy of it for the wiki. The original link was here however: [2]. The Topic was titled "VERY QUICK UPDATE THIS MORNING". If anybody has a cache or saved copy please add the details in!