Live Server / Revision #42616 8 years ago

DIRECTOR'S NOTES

Today we're releasing "Brutus" into the world of Albion! With the distractions of the holiday season and the bugfix release earlier this month, focusing on the production of new features has been challenging.

Nevertheless, we've managed to get a sizeable amount of improvements done since the last major Update in December. These include the often requested "Repair All" functionality and other convenience features. With the release of the Undead dungeons and gateways we've also taken another significant step towards improving the quality of our PvE content and restructuring how dungeons work in Albion.

It is important to note two things with this update:

1. Some changes, like the UI changes, are only the first steps on a longer journey. We can't change the entire User Interface in a month, but we also don't want to keep you waiting until it's all done - so we're releasing our changes in smaller steps.
   
2. Our focus is not just to add convenience features and UI improvements - but these were the changes we could without waiting for the results of longer term beta testing. By now we have a lot more feedback and observations to build on and future updates will focus more on expanding gameplay functionality. Watch our roadmap post for updates on our plans as they develop. We're taking a little time to think before we act, but we believe this is the right thing to do to put Albion's future on solid foundations.
   

The next major update will bring the next step in the UI overhaul, additional fixes to urgent issues and very likely already some significant changes to the game. Note however, that changing the entire game world and the associated features will take some time yet.


Stay safe on the roads of Albion!
- Robin "Eltharyon" Henkys, Game Director


CHANGES

• The Undead have their day in the sun:
  
  • New dungeons!
    
  • New mobs!
    
  • New bosses!
    
  • New lighting setups!
    
  • New entrances and exits!
    
  • Other spooky things that you will discover!
    
• There is now a Repair All button in the repair interface.
  
• Added a new shortcut: shift-clicking an item (or stack) in the inventory, bank or container can be used to move the item/stack to the inventory/bank/container if open, or from the inventory to repair/salvage/reforge/feed.
  
• Added a Friends List in the character menu and chat window, which requires both people to accept and then lets you see when your friends are online.
  
• There is now an option to reduce the size of primary HUD elements by 20%.
  
• Potions and food can now be stacked up to 999 units at a time, but are still limited to 10 items (food)/5 items (potions) in their respective equipment slots.
  
• Added the ability to select and delete multipe emails. Also added the ability to select all market mails with a single click.
  
• It is now possible to equip an item by dragging it to any point in the upper half of the inventory interface; it will automatically be equipped to the correct slot.
  
• Added a feature to collect all completed orders from the marketplace at once.
  
• Added the ability to sort and stack items in banks.
  
• Substantially improved the Destiny Board HUD, allowing multiple sizes and making the requirements clearer.
  
• Added visual indication for spell ranges, areas of effect of targeted spells, and the area affected by skillshots.
  
• Added the option to show spells at the bottom of the screen rather than at the side.
  
• Improved the information given in craft listings: below the item name, it now tells you what resources and quantities you need, and shows the numbers in red if you don't have sufficient resources.
  
• Added a delay before leaving the duel area counts as losing the duel, so players who involuntarily leave the area can re-enter if they're quick.
  
• Chance of an item being destroyed on death has increased from 20% to 30%.
  
• Increased durability of all weapons, armors and accessories by 50%.
  
  • NOTE: this will result in all previously full-durability items becoming 66% durability, and similar reductions in percentage durability for damaged items. No durability points are lost, but some items may cross damage thresholds as a result.
    
• Substantially improved many visual objects, including most buildings.
  
• All normal minimap icons should now also appear on the cluster map.
  
• Added the option to enable VSync.
  
• Added the option to set a frame rate limit.
  
• Made some performance improvements on tablet clients when viewing scenes with large numbers of certain objects.
  
• Made it possible to see connected dungeons on the worldmap when selected.
  
• Added additional feedback when attempting to activate spells that aren't currently castable.
  
• Improved shop categories considerably.
  
• Improved feedback when spells come off cooldown.
  
• Updated menu buttons in the top-right.
  
• Enabled Master's, Grandmaster's and Elder's beds and tables to be crafted in appropriate Toolmakers.
  
• Reduced weight of journals.
  
• Divided craft times of bread, flour, butter and alcohol by 10.
  
• Added a "Quick Equip" button to banks
  
• Added the ability to use Guild ranks in the access rights system.
  
• Guild Islands are now always owned by the Guild Master.
  
• Improved feedback when clicking on uncapturable capture points in GvG.
  
• Added Novice's Tome of Spells item.
  
• Balanced Elder's Claws (normal and Enchanted) to be the correct levels. This affects their crafting requirements and balance values.
  
• Added a small light effect to your player in the new Undead dungeons; this will be added to more areas of the game over time.
  
• Implemented diminishing returns on Crowd Control effects: multiple effects cast on the same target over a short period of time will become progressively less effective.
  
• Adjusted volume of many audio effects.
  
• It is now possible to kill your horse in more productive ways.
  

BALANCE CHANGES

Arcane Staffs

• Arcane Protection
  
  • Cast time reduced from 1.5s to 1s
    
  • Energy cost decreased from 12 to 7
    
  • Shield Strength increased by 30%
    

Frazzle

• Moved from slot 1 to slot 2
  
• Energy cost increased from 3 to 6
  
• Damage increased by 27%
  

Motivating Cleanse

• Now cleanses allies in a 5m radius around the target, and applies a CCR buff
  

Arcane Orb

• Energy cost reduced from 18 to 15
  

Axes

• Heavy Smash
  
  • Energy cost increased from 2 to 13
    
  • Damage increased by 3%
    
  • Armor and Magic Resist debuff increased by 7%
    
• Vampiric Strike
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 18 to 16
    
  • Self heal increased by 3%
    
  • Damage increased by 3%
    
• Rending Swing
  
  • Stand time increased from 0.4s to 1s
    
  • Energy cost reduced from 18 to 16
    
  • Healing reduction effect reduced by 20%
    
  • Damage decreased by 19%
    

Bows

• Multishot
  
  • Damage increased by 30%
    
• Rapid Fire
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 23 to 19
    
  • Damage increased by 30%
    
• Magic Arrow
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 22 to 17
    
  • Explosion radius reduced from 5m to 3m
    
  • Damage reduced by 5%
    
  • Stun duration reduced by 5%
    
  • Projectile speed decreased by 16%
    
• Rain of Arrows
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 21 to 17
    
  • Cast range increased from 11 to 13
    
  • Damage increased by 24%
    
  • Channel time reduced from 5s to 3s
    
  • Now applies a 23% slow for a base duration of 2s
    

Crossbows

• Auto Fire
  
  • Shots per second increased from 1 to 4
    
  • Damage per shot decreased by 75% (total damage remains constant)
    
• Snipe Shot
  
  • Range increased from 9 to 10
    
• Exploding Shot
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 21 to 17
    
• Sweeping Bolt
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 19 to 15
    
  • Damage reduced by 6%
    

Cursed Staffs

• Desecrate
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 15 to 12
    
• Armor Piercer
  
  • Armor and Magic Resist debuff reduced by 17%
    
• Death Curse
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 19 to 15
    
• Field of Death
  
  • Damage increased by 20%
    

Daggers

• Dash
  
  • Cooldown reduced from 10s to 8s
    
• Poison Coating
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 18 to 15
    
• Slit Throat
  
  • Max damage increased by 14%
    
• Disembowel
  
  • Attacks no longer shorten channel time
    

Fire Staffs

• Fire Wave
  
  • Energy cost increased from 10 to 13
    
• Wall of Flames
  
  • Energy cost increased from 11 to 15
    
• Pyroblast
  
  • Cast time reduced from 3s to 2.5s
    
  • Damage reduced by 15%
    
• Meteor
  
  • Energy cost increased from 20 to 24
    
  
  
  • Damage increased by 2%
    
• Contagious Fire
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 20 to 19
    
  • Damage increased by 9%
    

Frost Staffs

• Frostbolt
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 7 to 6
    
  • Damage reduced by 10%
    
  • Slow strength reduced by 10%
    
• Frost Bomb
  
  • Damage reduced by 25%
    
  • Slow strength reduced by 25%
    
• Frost Nova
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 15 to 13
    
  • Damage increased by 16%
    
  • Root duration increased by 16%
    
• Freezing Wind
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 18 to 15
    
  • Damage reduced by 2%
    
• Hail
  
  • Damage reduced by 25%
    
• Blizzard
  
  • Reworked: damage and slows stack up while the target stays within the area of effect (max 3 stacks).
    
  • Max Damage per tick decreased by 46%
    
  • Max Slow per tick increased by 120%
    

Hammers

• Slowing Charge
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 15 to 13
    
• Knockout
  
  • Sleep duration reduced by 14%
    
  • Damage increased by 100%
    
  • Can be used against mounts, and no longer applies an immunity
    
• Earth Shatter
  
  • Energy cost increased from 17 to 18
    
  • Damage reduced by 20%
    
  • Stun duration increased by 25%
    
• Groundbreaker
  
  • Energy cost increased from 18 to 19
    
• Giant Steps
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 24 to 20
    
  • Removed self-silence; added 25% self-slow
    

Holy Staffs

• Smite
  
  • Moved from slot 1 to slot 2
    
  • Energy cost incresaed from 2 to 6
    
  • Damage increased by 20%
    
• Desperate Prayer
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 17 to 14
    
• Holy Explosion
  
  • Cooldown reduced from 30 to 20
    
  • Knockback distance increased by 15%
    
  • Heal ticks per second increased from 1 to 2 (ie heals twice per second)
    
  • Heal per tick increased by 7%
    
  • Channel time reduced from 7s to 3s
    

Maces

• Silencing Strike
  
  • Energy cost increased from 11 to 17
    
  • Silence duration increased by 14%
    
  • Damage increased by 14%
    
• Powerful Strikes
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 23 to 19
    
  • Knockback distance reduced by 60%
    
  • Attacks now also apply a 1s silence
    

Nature Staffs

• Poison Thorns
  
  • Moved from slot 1 to slot 2
    
  • Energy cost increased from 2 to 4
    
  • Damage increased by 50%
    
• Rejuvenation
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 6 to 5
    
  • Cooldown reduced from 2s to 1.5s
    
  • Heal per tick increased by 4%
    
• Cleanse Heal
  
  • Cooldown reduced from 15s to 10s
    
  • Now cleanses all alies in a 3m radius, and applies a Crowd Control Resistance buff
    
  • Heal increased by 2%
    
• Revitalize
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 15 to 9
    
  • Cast time reduced from 2s to 1s
    
  • Cooldown reduced from 10s to 7s
    
  • Instant heal decreased by 23%
    
  • Heal over time decreased by 50%
    
• Circle of Life
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 19 to 14
    
  • Cooldown reduced from 30s ot 10s
    
  • Number of heal ticks reduced from 10 to 7
    
  • Heal per tick increased by 7%
    
• Brier of Life
  
  • Reworked as new spell Living Armor
    
• Living Armor
  
  • Single target Armor/Magic Resist and healing received buff
    

Spears

• Low Stab
  
  • Reworked as new spell Spirit Spear
    
• Spirit Spear
  
  • Self buff that increases auto attack range, and auto attacks also apply slows (can be stacked up to 3 times).
    
• Forest of Spears
  
  • Resized the area of impact, it reaches now much further
    
  • Energy cost reduced from 14 to 12
    
  • Damage increased by 7%
    
• Reckless Charge
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 22 to 18
    
  • Cooldown reduced from 30s to 20s
    
  • Radius reduced from 5m to 4m
    
• Harpoon
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 22 to 18
    
  • The root duration after the pull, now scales with Spirit Spear stacks
    
• Rooting Smash
  
  • Energy cost increased from 18 to 19
    
  • Now scales damage with Spirit Spear stacks, rather than root duration scaling with Low Stab charges
    

Swords

• Heroic Strike
  
  • Damage reduced by 7%
    
  • Now gives a movespeed buff that stacks up to 3 times
    
• Cleave
  
  • Energy cost increased from 4 to 5
    
  • Damage increased by 11%
    
• Mighty Blow
  
  • New spell for Broadsword slot 3
    
  • Single target physical damage, scaling with heroic strike stacks
    
• Mighty Swing
  
  • New spell for Claymore slot 3
    
  • AoE target physical damage, scaling with heroic strike stacks
    
• Fling
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 18 to 15
    
  • Damage now scales with heroic strike stacks
    

Quarter Staffs

• Heavy Cleave
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 16 to 14
    
  • Damage increased by 18%
    
• Forceful Swing
  
  • Energy cost reduced from 18 to 16
    
  • Cooldown reduced from 15s to 10s
    
  • Damage reduced by 2%
    
  • Knockback distance reduced by 8%
    
• Overpower
  
  • Energy cost increased from 13 to 15
    
  • Cooldown reduced from 30s to 15s
    
  • Damage reduced by 27%
    
  • Knockback distance increased by 10%
    

All Armors

• Mend wounds
  
  • Total health regeneration reduced from 50% to 40%
    
  • Channel time increased from 10s to 12s
    

Heavy Armors

• Root Prison
  
  • Root duration reduced from 5s to 4s
    

Shoes

• Flee
  
  • Movespeed bonus increased from 80% to 120%
    
  • Movespeed buff duration increased from 6s to 8s
    
  • Ignores overload for the duration of the spell
    

Misc

• Max number of targets for AoE buffs and heals increased from 4 to 5
  
• Spell disruption (pushback while spell casting) reduced by 25%
  

FIXES

• Fixed an issue where farm animals would sometimes stop growing with 1s left.
  
• Made it possible to upgrade Master's Alchemist.
  
• Fixed numerous issues with Destiny Board requirements and rewards.
  
• Fixed castle silver payouts: they should now be between 900,000 and 1,500,000 silver.
  
• Fixed Repeating Crossbow mob tier requirements on the Destiny Board.
  
• Fixed Vampiric Strike to heal even if the target is killed in the process.
  
• Fixed the Sword Wall spell on Claymore to not force you to stand still immediately after casting.
  
• Labourer journals no longer have durability and thus cannot take damage.
  
• Beginner's Sickle has had its mesh corrected.
  
• Fixed some issues where mobs would get stuck and no longer patrol.
  
• You can no longer reply to mails from "system".
  
• Disabled mission-less agents in Smuggler's Cove and Breakers' Bay.
  
• Made it possible to craft Grandmaster's Demolition Hammer in Elder's Toolmaker.
  
• Fixed an issue with transmutation not working correctly.
  
• Fixed icon on passive movement spells for medium armor.
  
• Rounded up some journal rewards that were previously rounded down.
  
• Fixed certain issues with charge-up effects not removing charges in certain PvP siutations.
  
• Fixed an issue with players being knocked through territory barriers in GvG.
  
• Fixed an issue with mob/player facing while feared.
  
• Fixed an issue where mounts breaking while mounted didn't dismount the player.
  
• Fixed some Fame values in Tinker's Journals, and stopped them returning higher-level materials that aren't used in any Toolmaker recipes.
  
• Fixed issues where leaving dungeons in PvP areas would display a warning that you were entering dangerous territory.
  
• Made it impossible to try and salvage an item that returns no resources.
  
• Fixed some issues with Recruiter's Cape.
  
• Made Enchanted Expert's Cloth equipment count towards Destiny Board advancements.
  
• Fixed an issue where mobs with no rewards could spawn right after the server starts up.
  
• Fixed an issue where cooldown reduction was reducing non-cast cooldowns (eg moving between regions).
  
• Fixed fully-grown farm animals in farm territories having their nutrition capacity reduced.
  
• Fixed mount spell tooltips to be more accurate.
  
• Reduced memory consumption on Android, which should reduced crashes on some devices.
  
• Prevented certain prototype items from erroneously appearing in market UIs.
  
• Fixed an issue where refining resources would sometimes incorrectly set quantity to 1 after returning resources.
  
• Fixed inability to use Crafting Focus in Mill building.
  
• Fixed an issue where closing and reopening the travel agent UI would cause it to list all destinations twice.
  
• Fixed an issue with transmutation seeming to leave you "stuck" after the progress bar has ended.
  
• Fixed minimap display in Ironhold.
  
• Undead mobs should now all drop correct loot.
  
• Reduced Repair Station nutrition storage by a factor of six, bringing it in line with other buildings.
  
• Fixed an issue where -15 and -20 defender bonuses were not correctly applying.
  

Live Server / Revision #42692 8 years ago

Fixes

• Fixed an error when trying to add a non-existant Guild in permissions settings.
• Disabled "OK" button when trying to enter an empty Guild name in permissions settings.
• Adjusted exploding skeletons: slower, more visible, less damaging, smaller radius.
• Fixed spell indicators showing for targeted spells when a target is already selected.
• Fixed spell indicators on tablet clients.
• Fixed a minor visual glitch with resizing spell indicators.
• Fixed move target indicator (the yellow circle showing where you're moving to) not showing when spell indicators are visible.
• Made it possible to craft Master's Heavy Enchanted Cloth armors.
• Fixed Elder's Repair Station build requirements.
• Known issue: gathering missions at T4 and T5 now ask for rare resources in the same quantities as normal resources, which makes them far too hard.

Live Server / Revision #42967 8 years ago

Balance Changes

Axes:

Axes are a little bit too energy-hungry right now. They are designed to be energy hungry damage beasts, but they run out of energy a little too fast, so we decreased the energy costs a little.

Rending Strike:

Base Energy: 6 -> 5

Axe Smash:

Base Energy: 13 -> 10

Bows:

The Bows have a lot of utility and sustain damage. The lack of burst damage made them a bit too slow in PvE, though, so we buffed Deadly Shot to give a strong Q-Spell choice for PvE.

Deadly Shot:

Damage increased by 20%

Base Energy: 3 -> 6

Holy Staffs:

As much as we want Healers to be able to also do solo PvE, we went a bit too far with the last buff for Smite, so we are rolling back the damage changes. It will still be better than before Brutus, but it should not steal the show of the main damage dealers.

Smite:

Damage reduced by 15%

Base Energy: 6 -> 5

Spears:

In the last content update the Spear got reworked. The item stats did not emphasize their new role enough. With this change the weapons will have more ability power and deal more damage, but as a trade off they will be less tanky.

The new Spirit Spear wasn't always a fit for everyone's playstyle. Especially the Halberd, that needs to stick on the target to hit its E-spell, wasn't really gaining much from the Spirit Spear. That is why we re-enable the Low Stab from before. You can now choose to play with either Low Stab or Spirit Spear. The slot 3 abilities on E can be charged up with both spells. The Spirit Spear's damage and buff duration got buffed. As a tradeoff the range was reduced. Also the damage buff stacking up was fixed.

All Spear Line Items:

Additional Damage Factor: 0.1 -> 0.15

Health Factor: 0.1 -> 0.05

Low Stab:

Re-added the Low Stab as a spell choice on slot 1.

Spirit Spear:

Buff Duration: 6s -> 8s

Attack Range Buff decreased by 20%

Reworked the Damage Buff: it now stacks up correctly and is based on Auto Attack interval.

Swords:

In the last content update the Sword got reworked. The item stats did not emphasize their new role enough. With this change the weapons will have more ability power and deal more damage, but as a trade off they will be less tanky.

The Mighty Swing got an increased AoE radius, as it was a tad too hard to hit disengaging enemies with its short delay.

All Sword Line Items:

Additional Damage Factor: 0.1 -> 0.15

Health Factor: 0.1 -> 0.05

Mighty Swing:

AoE Radius: 5 -> 6

Fixes

• Changed Destiny Board requirements such that all combat unlocks require a minimum mob tier of no more than 4 - you can now level any item on T4 or higher mobs.
• It is now possible to move extremely slowly while between 200% and 800% load (800% being roughly equal to Elder's Ox maxload bonus; previously you could not move above 200% load). You will not be able to move above 800% load.
• Fixed the issue where you cannot craft if more than 200% loaded; you can now always craft regardless of weight, but will be warned if it will leave you unable to move.
• City Guards will continue to attack until you lose aggro in any of the normal ways, rather than resetting as soon as illegal activity stops (eg your target dies).
• Removed self-cast on double-pressing cast hotkeys.
• Fixed an issue where using a short-cooldown skill on a moving target would make that spell unusable.
• Buffs and debuffs applied during casting will now correctly affect cast results.
• Fixed an issue with spells with target limits could fail if too many targets were hit.
• Fixed Legendary Explorer's Palace so it now accepts Elder's furniture.
• Fixed minimap icons in Ironhold and Ironfast.
• Allowed mobs to correctly fade out with invisibility spells.
• An error message is now correctly shown when trying to attack city buildings.
• Fixed an issue where played time on login screen was dealing with weeks badly.
• Fixed an error when trying to move items to a full bank with shift-click.
• Fixed issues with journals having invalid Fame values.
• Removed higher-level resource requirements from gather missions.
• Stability improvements!