Patch Notes

# Introduction

You can find the different Patchnotes for The Exiled below, from newest to oldest.

All patch notes can be found on the blog.

*The Site is under construction and misses older patches at the moment.*

# Patch Notes 2016

## December 1st 2016

**New Features**

* **Clan Finder** We added a clan List and a player List to the clan window ( N ) that allows you to both flag yourself as looking for a clan and your clan as recruiting. Here you can also add some more info about yourself or your clan to make it easier for other players to learn about you and get in touch if they want to join you or want you to join them.

* **Whisper Chat** You can now send private messages to other characters across all servers using the /w NAME message command. Note that you need to add double quotes around the name /w "FIRSTWORD SECONDWORD" message if a character name contains blanks.

**Changes (Performance, Balancing, Map)**

* New character limits per cluster: 3 for Harbingers and Vanguards, 2 for Seekers, 1 for everyone else.
* Moving items from the donation tent to the ground is not instant anymore.
* Fixed a bug that made roads sometimes turn invisible.
* All small settlements now have walls for you to build.
* Medium and large settlements now have one of four different refinery types.
* Fixed some visibility problems with grass patches near resource camps.
* Roads should not be blocked by trees and rocks anymore. Really, this time.
* You can no longer teleport through the map unlocks.
* Map unlocks can now be properly damaged by all abilities, tweaking the hit-box.

**Visual and Audio Changes**

* Added gamescom armor skins to the game that will be automatically unlocked for all players who signed up for The Exiled during gamescom 2016.
* All new bow models now have proper animations.
* Fixed and tweaked a lot of sound effects and ambience audio.
* Added a first version of the small and medium dojos and workshop visuals to the game.
* Changed meteor eggs to actually look like eggs.
* The visual effect of Totem's Bubble is now visible again.
* Changed the VFX for Staff Incinerate.
* The loading screen is now using our latest artwork.

**Usability Changes**

* Bug reports ( F3 ) will now automatically fill in your email address if you are logged in so we can contact you if we have any questions.
* The dojo icon is now visible globally on the world map over the fog of war.
* Changed map marker range and optimised event ticks.
* Buildings and other world objects now have an outline on hover.
* Changed the first tutorial door to be more easily visible.
* Changed tutorial visuals and guides to make the first steps easier for newbies.
* The bug report form ( F3 ) now links to the list of known issues.
* The bug report form ( F3 ) now gives you information about our office hours.
* The bug report form ( F3 ) now properly shows a success popup when in-game.
* The popups for clan invites and tutorial skip are now more easily readable.
* Added more detailed error messages if map files cannot be saved due to file systems problems.
* The name of your current game server is now displayed on the minimap.
* You can now use TAB to jump between text fields in the account creation and login.
* Clan recruiters can now kick clan members.
* The login queue now saves your position and gives you an estimate of login time.

**Misc Changes & Bug Fixes**

* Fixed a bug that did not release a clan name after that clan had been disbanded.
* Fixed a bug that prevented some popups from being clickable when they spawned over other UI windows.
* You can no longer copy & paste invisible symbols into registration text fields.
* Fixed a bug that sometimes corrupted the tutorial when a character was deleted.
* Fixed a bug that prevented the audio and control buttons in the main menu from working.
* Fixed a bug that sometimes made players invisible even when no grass patches were around.
* Fixed a bug that gave some players a very high playtime and inflated their rank.
* Fixed a bug that made players spawn outside of the tutorial start zone sometimes.
* Made sure that all settlements always spawn a full set of walls.
* Made sure that players always spawn in one of the three newbie towns when coming out of the tutorial.
* Fixed a bug that made the leaderboards show wrong numbers.

## November 15th 2016

**New Features**

* **Introducing Clusters and Seasons** Up until today all game worlds in The Exiled have been 100% independent of each other. That is no longer the case. We are now allowing for (highly restricted) migration between game worlds using the following rules:
	+ You now select a game world AFTER finishing the tutorial. The new world selection screen suggests you a world based on ping and server load but you can override this suggestion and pick your own world at any time to play with your friends.
	+ Characters can currently migrate to other game worlds once every 24 hours. This number is not yet set in stone and may change in the future.
	+ Characters are forced to pick a new game world if their old world ends. How do game worlds end? They end if the inhabitants of a world can not donate enough resources to the valley defense fund. Donation rounds are now daily and quite challenging. This will make sure that lower population game worlds eventually merge together to ensure that everyone has enough people to play with.
	+ When moving from one world to another your character, equipment, inventory and stash will come with you. You cannot take settlements with you. They’re a bit too big for that.
	+ Clans are now transcending worlds. That means that your clan can now have members (characters) on as many game worlds as you like.
	+ All four leaderboards are now also transcending worlds. So you no longer just compete with your neighbours but with all The Exiled players.
	+ Three chat channels (Help, Global and Clan) are now working across all game worlds.
* **New Meteor and Carcass Events** Meteors and carcasses were added a long time ago in a first draft and to be honest - they were pretty boring. This has changed. The carcass now attracts waves of hungry predators and the meteor event spawns a large number of explosive critters. Both events now also scale in difficulty and rewards based on where they are spawned (easy in the desert, normal in the swamp, hard in the mountains) and based on how many players participate in the event.

* **New on-character UI** The UI elements on your character and all mobs have been changed to be easier to read and less cluttered. The health, energy and determination bar are now invisible when a character is at full health/energy respectively zero determination. Additionally, up to 8 effects affecting a character will now be displayed above its health bar. The C-to-A++ rank system has been replaced by a star system. A++ = 3 stars. B = no stars. C = NEWCOMER.

**Changes (Balancing, Map)**

* Decreased Forceful Throw min and max damage by 50.
* Scythe: Sweep, Mental Sweep, Sacrificial Sweep and Ravage now hit up to 3 targets at a time.
* Removed the desert/swamp map unlock to give high ranked players a way out of the newbie zone early.

**Visual and Audio Changes**

* Finished work on the new bow and staff visuals.
* Fixed a grass flickering bug affecting unlocks.
* Tweaked the VFX for Gravity Well and Hurricane.
* Added fitting graphics for the weapon and armor racks in the tutorial.
* The Magic Bolt VFX does now gets deleted in time.
* Tweaked ability icon colors to fit the new color palette.

**Usability Changes**

* Added a new UI element for both small events (carcass, meteor).
* The “you will hit a target” preview mode (yellow) now does no longer override the “you cannot cast” preview.
* Buffs and debuff icons of the same type now get properly merged.

**Misc Changes & Bug Fixes**

* Boss mobs now use proper (ranged) abilities and do not act like mindless zombies anymore.
* That sneaky invisible raptor is now visible again.
* Fixed a bug that would override your ability cast setting with the global defaults.

## October 18th 2016

**New Features**

* **Target Preview:** The target preview for your active skill does no longer get displaced by mobs or players. Instead it changes its color when it would hit an opponent. The preview now gets lowlighted when the skill cannot be cast due to energy costs or cooldowns.
* **Casting Modes:** There are now three casting modes in the game that you can set for each single ability in the skills (K) menu: Instant (the new default behavior), Cast on Release and Cast on Confirm (the old default behaviour). In other news: You will now also be able to reliably cast any ability even when keeping your default attack button (LMB) pressed.
* **Movement and Collision:** The movement code and the code for collision with static colliders (environments) have been massively tweaked leading to improved server performance and less rubberbanding. There is still one bug left though that sometimes makes characters out of sync with their server position and that will lead to one big local rubberband. This is still to be fixed.
* **Performance:** We massively improved the server performance and can now support around 3x more players on the same server hardware. This also massively improves big fights with many players on the same spot. These big fights now should have improved FPS, too, even though there are still two rendering hiccups that will need to be fixed in the future.
* **Traffic:** Massively reduced the amount of traffic sent from the server to the client which will safe you bandwith and us money.
* **New HUD:** We have added the first draft of the new heads-up display interface that scales to all sorts of different resolutions. It comes with a new font rendering system that especially improves font rendering at lower resolutions.
* **Mobs:** Mobs are now smarter and more diverse than before. We’ve added 15 new jailor mobs, 9 new revenants, four new animals and a deadly plant. Jailor mobs now drop a lot more ability patterns (look at their gear) and other mobs drop more resources and materials. We also increased the number of rare mobs spawning which all are guaranteed to drop three ability patterns.

**Changes (Performance, Balancing, Map)**

* Improved render performance for the Gravity Well VFX (still more to come).
* Reduced the size of the projectile for Pin Down.
* Fixed a lot of broken or invisible colliders in the game world
* Roads are now guaranteed to be free of any objects that might have blocked them before
* Fixed visibility problems with a lot of our new tall grass patches
* Fixed a broken mob camp where all mobs were constantly cuddling with each other
* Reduced the amount of tall grass in some of the new mob camps
* A lot of small and large rocks now have proper colliders that match their size

**Visual and Audio Changes**

* Projectile VFX are now being destroyed when they hit a character - and not after. They also move way more smoothly now
* Changed the visuals of the tutorial map to fit its prison character better
* Tweaked a lot of sound effects - “the frog” sound on Magic Bolt is finally gone!
* Changed the VFX for: Magic Bolt, Lunge, Pin Down, Emergency Rescue, Banish,Clear the Field, Physical Corruption, Mental Corruption, Draining Burst
* Added new models for all staffs and some bows. These are still WiP.

**Usability Changes**

* You can now change your ability loadout in the Dojo even if one of them is still on cooldown.
* We now display a proper error message when a server does not accept new connections due to technical reasons.
* Zerg markers now fit the screen layout better.
* The server list now shows you your ping to each game server.

**Misc Changes & Bug Fixes**

* Mobs now find their camps again and do not get lost on the way home.
* Mobs no longer ignore environment colliders. No more walking through walls.
* The login queue is now more reliable and saves your spot for a while if you get disconnected.
* You cannot drop items into buildings anymore if you would not get them out again afterwards.
* Added the awesome game-icons.net to the credits.
* Fixed a bug where you could teleport into environment colliders - the “map unlock” still needs to be fixed though.

## July 29th 2016

**Performance Changes**

* Improved scripting performance to reduce server lag at high load.

**Ability Changes**

* Robe - Delayed Teleport: reduced energy costs
* Robe - Chaos Bolts: increased damage
* Robe - Draining Burst: reduced cast time and energy costs
* Robe - Ghost Form: reduced energy costs
* Robe - Decoy: increased duration and range, decreased energy costs
* Robe - Aether Form: decreased energy costs
* Robe - Deflective Shield: reduced energy costs, greatly decreased cooldown, slightly decreased duration,
* Splint Mail - Sponge Form: decreased energy costs
* Splint Mail - Rock Form: reduced energy costs
* Splint Mail - Self Sacrifice: reduced energy costs, reduced self damage
* Splint Mail - Juggernaut: decreased energy costs, increased max health buff and max duration
* Splint Mail - Meat Shield: reduced energy costs
* Splint Mail - Meditation: reduced energy costs
* Splint Mail - Transform Pain: reduced energy costs, reduced max cooldown
* Splint Mail - Ignore Pain: reduced energy costs
* Leather Armor - Hide: increased AoE radius
* Leather Armor - Lonely Prowl: removed snare
* Leather Armor - Freedom: increased cooldown, decreased energy cost, decreased base speed boost
* Leather Armor - Caltrops: increased damage and root duration
* Leather Armor - Sprint: increased cooldown and energy costs, decreased speed boost and duration
* Leather Armor - Tumble: reduced max cooldown

**Visual Changes**

* Fix a bug with the spear’s position in hand.
* Changed VFX for Hurricane, Handle Bash, Energy Drain, Fire Bolt, Sleep, Explosive Trap, Stun, Caltrops.

**Usability Changes**

* Local target preview now properly ignores low colliders.
* Fixed many worldmap markers.

**Misc Changes & Bug Fixes**

* Reduced the amount of people getting stuck in the environment.
* Fixed a bug that allowed meteors and carcasses to spawn in lakes and forests.
* Improved projectile collisions for spear throw abilities.
* Fixed a bug that allowed settlement gates to be opened from the outside.
* Removed the upgrade window from max level storages.

## July 22nd 2016

*Note: We have just released a small patch with a big impact on server performance and some minor balancing tweaks and fixes. Next to-do: Even better server performance.*

**Misc Changes & Bug Fixes**

* Smarter static collision to reduce server performance with higher amounts of players.
* Added a proper error message when the game cannot save the world map due to access rights issues.
* The target preview for projectiles is now more accurate.
* Increased the amount of essences (XP items) dropped by mobs and events by about 2x.
* Increased the amount of meteors and carcasses spawned by 33%.
* The world map is now properly centered on your character.
* All map markers can now be toggled on and off.
* Fixed some typos in pop-up messages and skill descriptions.

## July 19th 2016

*Note: This patch fixes a number of major bugs on our four Summer Alpha game servers. Another patch with server lag improvements and visual fixes is being worked on and will be released later this week.*

**Misc Changes & Bug Fixes**

* Moved map download to new storage, fixes “can not connect” bug.
* Fixed a server crash when kicking players from a clan.
* Fixed a server crash connected to popups.
* Automatically disconnect AFK players during the tutorial.
* Improved tutorial server performance.
* The queue now respects the “first come first serve” principle.
* Players will not be teleported to 0|0 anymore.
* Fixed a bug where players lost items after having skipped the tutorial
* Fixed a problem with Suspended Lightning’s max distance.
* Fixed the tutorial texts for Spear and Totem.
* Escape shot now deals full damage.
* Fixed the description for burst shot.

## June 18th 2016

**New Features**

* Added rare boss mobs that spawn in random camp locations every 10 minutes
* Added a first draft of the tutorial (WIP, probably broken)

**Ability Changes**

* Banish: Increased cooldown & decreased heal efficiency when cast on self
* Delayed Teleport: Increased mezz duration
* Draining Burst: Increased base radius, reduced cast time
* Suspended Lightning: Increased AoE range and decreased delay
* Pestilent shot: Increased debuff strength
* Doom & Gloom: Increased debuff strength
* Mental Sweep: Increased damage
* Chains and Hook: Slightly increased range

**Usability Changes**

* Added a visual effect when a crowd control effect was blocked by determination
* Dropping an item to the ground now uses the leftover below your character if one exists
* Dojo UI: Streamlined and added help texts (WIP, probably broken)

**Misc Changes & Bug Fixes**

* Fixed some VFX that impacted FPS too much
* Fixed a bug where the game froze when you dragged items from your inventory to the dojo
* Fixed a server crash bug
* Fixed a bug that prevented you from dropping items to the ground

## May 20th 2016

**29 New Combat Abilities**

*Note: These abilities exist in a “first draft” state. All their SFX and VFX are placeholders and will be replaced over time. Many of these skills are not yet properly balanced. We rely on your feedback to find out what’s OP and what’s completely gimp. Still: Have fun. =D*

* Bow
	+ Crescendo Shot: Three shots in rapid succession that deal increasingly more damage.
	+ Escape Shot: Fast shot that pushes you away from your target if you hit it.
	+ Salvo: Shoot 5 arrows in a fan in front of you.
	+ Demoralizing Shot: Shot which decreases your target’s determination.
* Scythe
	+ Burning Hook: Pulls a target towards you, burning it over time
	+ Mental Sweep: Deals mental damage to one target in close range.
	+ Physical Corruption: Decreases the target’s healing received and increases your physical resistance.
	+ Mental Corruption: Decreases the target’s healing output and increases your mental resistance.
* Staff
	+ Suspended Lightning: Stuns and damages targets in the area after a short delay.
	+ Heal Other: Strong heal that only affects other players, not the caster.
	+ Emergency Heal: Heals one target for a large percentage of its maximum health poins.
	+ Lightning Wall: Static lightning damages and stuns anybody who comes too close.
* Totem
	+ Droplets: Fast projectile that deals increased damage with every consecutive hit.
	+ Suppression: Reduces one target’s damage dealt by a significant amount.
	+ Banish: Stuns one target while making it invulnerable and invisible.
	+ Protective Bubble: Makes your target invulnerable for a short duration.
	+ Healing Seed: Heals a small amount on the first hit on another player but for a lot of damage when hitting the target again.
* Robe
	+ Draining Burst: Drains the energy of other players in an area around you, healing you for each enemy drained.
	+ Chaos Bolts: Fires dozens of mental projectiles in random directions while making you invulnerable.
	+ Energize: Increases your energy reserves for a while.
	+ Delayed Teleport: Teleports you to a ground target after a delay and mezzes everybody around you when you arrive.
* Leather
	+ Preparation: Decreases your cooldown speed for a short time and increases it for the same duration afterwards.
	+ Sneak Attack: Makes you invisible for a short time. The longer you stay invisible the more damage you deal afterwards.
	+ Zephyr: Increases your energy regeneration and removes the speed penalty for running backwards and side-stepping.
	+ Smoke Screen: Sets up a smoke screen around you that makes you fully invisible. All other players in the area are snared.
* Splint
	+ Self-Sacrifice: Sacrifice your own health to heal others around you.
	+ Rock Form: Makes you resistant to physical attacks but more susceptible to mental attacks for a short time.
	+ Dampening Field: Decreases the cooldown speed of everyone around you while active.
	+ Sponge Form: Increases all healing done to you and reduces damage done to you and dealt by yourself.

**New Features**

* Clan leaders can now name their clan settlements.

**Ability Changes**

* Spammable attacks now have a 1s “global cooldown” triggered by other abilities.
* Freedom: removed healing components, decreased cooldown drastically.
* Stasis: Damage shield effect only lasts as long as the mezz.
* Decreased gank & rez mana costs by 50%.
* Increased Gravity Well root duration & snare strength.
* Deflective Shield and Tumble: can now run during use. This might be temporary.
* Increased Fire Bolt DoT strength.
* Increased Muck Damage and determination gain.
* Healing Totem duration doubled.
* Meat shield turned from channeling ability to insta-cast buff.

**Balancing Changes**

* Increased player base HP from 1000 to 1500.
* Tweaked the ranking numbers to flag more players as newbies.
* Increased the maximum number of skills you can learn at higher levels.

**Usability Changes**

* Added poper timestamps to the siege UI.

**Map Changes**

* Added decorations to the left-over Revenant mob camps.

**Misc Changes & Bug Fixes**

* Fixed a sync issue that lead to rubberbanding when teleporting with a bad ping.
* Fixed a bug that always told you you were “ahead of 0%” of other players.
* The patcher now downloads zipped files and should be much faster.
* Removed collision from the defensive center ruins.
* Fixed a bug that allowed you to build without having the right amount of resources.

## May 6th 2016

**New Features**

* Your clan members are now being displayed on the world map wherever they are.
* While knocked-out and regenerating health you now build up short-term (30s) buffs to runspeed, determination, resistances and damage dealt.
* Large group of players are now visible on the world map and through warning signs on the screen border. The player density and warning ranges scale with the current amount of players in the game.
* Added a popup on level-up that shows you exactly what you just gained.
* New players (B + C) now get a 30s invulnerability buff when being attacked at public dojos and workshops.
* Added a “notification flash” when you get attacked while using a major building (dojo, workshop).
* Added a popup that makes it clear that a new player was just killed by you or a clan mate nearby.
* Mobs now scale in power & aggression with increased player ranks.
* Mobs now prefer veteran players (higher ranks) over newbies (lower ranks).
* You can now also use items from your inventory when crafting at workshops and training at Dojos.

**Ability Changes**

* Massively decreased cooldown reduction on equipment, tweaked balance costs.
* Decreased the cooldowns for Sweep, Snipe and Magic Bolt (1.5s > 1s) and Muck (1.5s > 0.5s) while reducing damage-per-hit (-> DPS stayed the same).
* Ignore Pain: Reduced minimum duration, increased maximum duration.
* Ghost Form: Decreased effect strength to scale from 25% to 75% damage reduction.
* Revitalize: Slightly increased max damage reduction.
* Heal Wounds: Decreased min heal effect, increased max heal effect.
* Sweep: Slightly inceased range.
* Sacrificial Sweep: Slightly decreased range.
* Aggressive Leap: Slightly decreased stun duration and radius.
* Increase determination gains from Staff and Bow’s silencing abilities.
* Lonely Prowl now has a smaller reveal radius and shorter cooldowns.

**Balancing Changes**

* Reduced the spawn rate of reagents by 50%.
* Slightly increased the spawn rate for small events in the pelts territory.

**Visual Changes**

* Changed VFX: Earth Wall, Hook Shot, Hemorrhaging Chains, Pestilent Shot, Sacrificial Sweep, Gravity Well, Blink, Swap.
* Fixed a bug where Ghost Form and Ether Form’s VFX cancelled out each other.
* Added new (WiP) VFX for stun and silence effects.

**Usability Changes**

* Improved the user interface for small events and resource flags.
* Added proper health bars to the Earth Wall elements.
* Added new error messages for problems in crafting (workshop) and training (dojo).
* The event schedule now includes a reminder to give your respect to someone else it will be randomly awarded.
* Removed text labels from the minimap to make it more readable.
* Changed the death messages to be a bit more clear and cheerful.
* Small event’s lootable phases no get tracked in the event schedule.
* Renamed crafting resources to “materials” and “reagents” respectively.
* Fixed a broken description for Ghost Form.

**Map Changes**

* Added decorative environment assets to two Revenant camps. More to come.

**Misc Changes & Bug Fixes**

* Improved client-side collision to get rid of the annoying “rubberbanding” in the mountain area.
* Fixed a bug that allowed players to wear items that belonged to a different weapon/armor class.

## April 21st 2016

**New Features**

* Added an “event calendar” (hotkey H) to the game that shows you all currently active and upcoming game events.
* Added a “Power level indicator” before your character name. It goes from C (complete newbie) to A++ (top 5% of all players). This indicator is an amalgation of your play time, equipment quality, ability levels and K/D-ratio.
* Removed “over time” experience and replaced it with a “sliding scale” XP multiplier that gives you more XP when behind the power curve and less XP when hitting the soft cap.
* There is now a +100% “rested” XP bonus for the first 1000 active and item XP every day to make it easier for casual players to keep up.
* You can now upgrade your personal stash to store up to 4.800 units of weight - if you can pay for it.
* Added a “Doy ou want to be resurrected?” popup to avoid rez-ganking.
* Settlement ruins now unlock for claiming over the course of the first days of the game server. Check the event calendar for the exact times.
* Clan leaders can now hand over clan lead (and all their votes) to another clan member.
* Donation tents now give point multipliers of between 200% and 300% during prime time.
* Added a new “Manager” role for clans that allows non-leaders to change the access rights for buildings.
* Added an “abandon settlement” option for clan leaders.

**Ability Changes**

* Added range markers for the Lonely Prowl and Hide abilities.
* Ghost form now gives you resistance against mental damage but exposes you to physical damage.
* Mark target does not increase determination anymore.
* Reduced the damage buff provided by Mark Target and Shatter.
* Reduced the max damage of Snipe but increased the min damage.
* Slighty reduced the duration and strength of Ensnaring Shot.

**Balancing Changes**

* You can now create up to three different characters per server.
* Decreased attack speed for melee mobs, giving melee newbies some more breathing room.
* Decreased duration of the “jailor siege” phase of the world end event form 60 to 30 minutes.
* Decreased maximium opportunities tracked from 5 to 3.
* Recall and resurrect cast times are back to their original values.

**Visual Changes**

* New / improved VFX for: Ensnaring Shot, Hemorrhaging Chain, Lightning Bolt, Toxic Spray, Freedom, Captivating Sprint.
* Fixed a bug in the animation system that made your character “burrow” in the ground sometimes.
* Re-added a missing VFX for the Transform Pain ability.

**Usability Changes**

* Started working on the UIs for small events and resource camps to properly display time stamps and capture bars.
* The coordinates in the bottom right of the world map are now readable again.
* The clan member list now shows online clan members first.
* Added a system message when someone captures your small event.

**Map Changes**

* Fixed a hole in the wall of the north-eastern settlement.
* Fixed a missing collider that allowed you to leave the world map in the north-east.

**Misc Changes & Bug Fixes**

* Teleportation abilities no longer allow you to squeeze through very tight spaces.
* Fixed a bug that showed the “storm of death” everywhere on the map from the first seconds of the end fight.
* Fixed a bug that showed wrong donation values inside the donation tent.
* You can now send clan invites to players who are already in a clan.
* Fixed a bug in the “smart target” system where some abilities hit the wrong (dead) targets.
* Fixed some bugs in the chat and chat bubble systems.
* You now longer use your default attack when clicking on a UI button.
* Players and clans now gain XP when capturing small events (meteors, carcasses).
* Removed the XP use stack bonus.
* You can now claim small events (meteors, carcasses) for your clan, not only for yourself.
* Clan-less players can now claim resource camps and refineries for themselves.
* +8 Splint mail now properly costs 800 clay instead of 80.
* Players do no longer respawn inside of tar pits and other large colliders.

**Performance Improvements**

* The patcher is now faster when not patching and will automatically restart when encountering problems.
* Reduced the grass density which should lead to better performance for players with weaker hardware.

## March 24th 2016

**Bug Fixes**

* Fixed a bug that prevented settlement owners from upgrading their dojos.
* Fixed a bug that made dead characters “soak up” abilities and that sometimes prevented ressurect and gank from working when living players were too close by.
* Fixed a bug that prevented the smart targeting system to work properly in some cases. Mobs now kill each other way less. And you will hit your allies more reliably.
* You cannot drop items into the caravan storage barrel anymore.
* The audio menu is now properly sized again.
* Fixed a number of bugs in the chat window.
* Fixed a bug that made chat bubbles appear too dark.
* Fixed a text bug in the Valley Defense window.
* Fixed Aggressive Leap’s target preview radius being larger than the actual radius.

**Balancing Changes**

* Increased resource costs for equipment crafting drastically. Existing items stay unaffected.
* Slightly increased Ressurection cast time and massively decreased Recall cast time to prevent “gank rezzes”. This is still work in progress as we develop a better system.
* Aggressive Leap: Increased cooldown, decreased base radius, slightly decreased range.
* Ghost Form: Slightly decreased max duration and increased min cooldown.
* Sweep: Increased damage.
* Sacrificial Sweep: Increased damage.
* Handle Bash: Slightly increased stun duration.
* Fire Bolt: Decreased burn duration from 3s to 2s.
* Muck: Decreased determination increase by 50%.

**Misc Changes**

* Non-clickable UI elements like the minimap no longer prevent you from casting abilities.

## March 21st 2016

**Bug Fixes**

* Fixed a bug that crashed the Mac version of the game on startup.
* Fixed a bug that made the minimap and the on-character UI flicker.
* Fixed a bug that prevented your XP bar from updating sometimes.
* Fixed a bug that showed wrong XP values in the XP bar.

**Balancing Changes**

* Increased caravan HP from 3500 to 5000.
* Refineries now produce twice as many resources every day.

**Misc Changes**

* Changed the description for the Recall ability to make clear that you drop your inventory (but not equipment) on use.
* The inventory and loot windows are now smaller and do no longer completely overlap on lower resolutions.
* You no longer attack when clicking on a UI element like a popup or the minimap.

## March 18th 2016 (Mayhem)

**New Features**

* Added access rights to all player buildings. You can now black- or white-list any player or clan in the game to use (or ban from) a building. Only the clan leader can change those access rights.
* Added a new “recall” ability that can be used when dead and alive. This replaces the old “F5 to respawn” system and gets you back to your bind point. Attention: You will leave your inventory (but not your equipment) behind when recalling.
* The decision if you can respawn at your spawn point is no longer based on distance but now based on distinct respawn areas. You no longer respawn at a random bind point when recalling/getting ganked too close to yours. You now get teleported to the next bind point.
* All resource drops in the game are now based on the location of the drop source.

**Ability Changes**

* Decreased Bow Snipe DPS slighty.
* Increased Scythe Sweep DPS slightly.
* Burst shot no longer stuns the caster during it’s duration - now uses a mezz.
* Juggernaut’s HP decrease when ending cannot be blocked by invulnerability abilities anymore.
* Removed the snare effect from Reap & Sow.
* Mark Target now longer snares its target.
* Freedom’s healing effect is now capped again - even if you are affected by many snares or roots.
* The Earth Wall skill no longer traps players, it pushes them away instead.
* Lonely Prowl, Hide and Decoy now make you completely invisible to mobs - they do not aggro you any longer.
* Gank now sets the targets HP to 1 and disables their recall ability for 300 seconds.

**Balancing Changes**

* Mobs in the end game event now give 3x the respect.
* Rebalanced the drops of caravans, meteors and carcasses.
* There are now many more time slots to pick from when getting sieged.
* Settlement gates now automatically close after five seconds.
* Massively decreased the amount of donations needed for the valley to defend against the jailors each round.
* New players do no longer respawn instantly.
* Random respect from other players now only gives 25% of its former value.

**Visual Changes**

* New VFX: Aether, Ghost Form, Bow Swing
* Using Juggernaut now temporarily increases your character’s size.
* Added a plethora of new vegetation to the game world.
* Fixed a bug that prevented players from seeing other people change their equipment.
* Fixed some rendering problems with the grass in the valley.
* Fixed a bug that flipped the fog of war texture on some graphics cards.
* Changed the game logo and app icon.

**Usability Changes**

* You can now change your equipment while an ability is active or on cooldown.
* Added “Thanks!”, “Sorry!” and “Good fight.” shouts to the game (V).
* The crafting sliders now only move in 10% steps.
* Added a new FPS / ping display (F11).

**Map Changes**

* Fixed a bug that made some mountain bushes not hide players.
* Moved map markers around a bit to better fit the new mob camp locations.
* Added a second storage building to all clan settlements.
* Added many new Veteran and Newcomer spawn points to the world map.
* You can no longer leave the valley to the unfinished zones in the north.
* Opened up another path into the forest in the south.
* Fixed a collider at the northern clay pit that allowed everyone to circumvent the wall.
* Removed all mob spawns from siege tent areas.

**Misc Changes & Bug Fixes**

* Fixed the patchers for Mac OSX and Linux. IMPORTANT: Please re-download the latest patcher from our web site.
* Fixed a bug that increased runspeed on mountain biome roads too much.
* Fixed a bug that broke some buildings when being successfully sieges by the jailors.
* Mobs and caravans should no longer spawn inside the environment and should get stuck less.
* Fixed a bug that broke the cooldown timer for Toxic Spray.
* Fixed some bugs that made channeling abilities (like Robe Heal) “get stuck” a lot.
* Removed pack animals from the game. They will be back when they have learned to behave and actually be useful.
* Fixed a bug that prevented meteor and carcass opportunities from being resolved.
* Fixed a bug that visually messed up the display of items in containers over time.
* Added all current dev supporters to the credits and gave them access to their special items.
* Fixed a bug that displayed wrong values when donating resources to the valley defense.
* Fixed a bug that caused chat tabs to overflow and become invisible.

**Performance Improvements**

* Massively decreased the VRAM usage of the game which should improve performance anyone with 1 GB or less VRAM.
* Expanded and renamed quality settings.
* Tuned the camera movement mode to be more smooth even at varying frame rates.
* Updated the client to Unity 5.3. This fixes many graphical issues and massively increases performance.
* Decreased network traffic by removing some unnecessary data.

## February 21st 2016

**New Features**

* Added the “Caravan Raid” event. Caravans are now starting out from resource camps every 10 minutes. They carry the same kinds of resources. Raid them to get their content. Clans with both settlements and resource camps are advised to defend their caravans as they will gain a hefty resource bonus if their caravans arrive unscathed.
* Added Pack Animals to the game. They will follow you around and carry your loot for you. But be aware that they can be easily stolen by other players - their loyalties are quite fickle.
* Clan leaders can now give Recruiter Status (invite rights) to other clan members.
* Tweaked crafting opportunities to suggest equipment that you can actually use.

**Balancing Changes**

* Increased the skill levels you can reach at the newbie dojos (2 -> 5) and neutral dojo (4 -> 10).
* Miner mobs have been renamed to Revenants.

**Visual Changes**

* New VFX for: Pestilent Shot, Ensnaring Shot, Hook Shot, Bow Swing.
* Re-designed the Jailor mob camps with new environment assets.

**Usability Changes**

* Add new map icons to better distinguish different event locations.
* Added opportunities for caravan raids and the world map in general.
* Added new hints to the loading screen.
* The world map now shows the location of your cursor in the bottom right.

**Misc Changes**

* Improved the F3 bug report menu to now send error logs if possible.
* F3 bug report screen shots are now compressed as JPGs to save bandwith.
* Added a first version of a semi-automatic generated minimap.

## February 6th 2016

**New Features**

* Added the Opportunities system to advertise game features to new players.
* Added the Equipment Drop Chance system to protect newbies from too much gear loss.
* Added Practice Dummies to the game so you can try out new abilities easily.
* Added a Clan Leader role that has the power to invite and kick clan members and disband the clan.
* Added a new Clan Elections system that allows clans to vote for a new leader at any time.

**Balancing Changes**

* Added a small but significant power increase to player-crafted equipment.
* Tweaked the balancing values for equipment stat modifications in the workshop.
* Added a new bow ability: Pestilent Shot (replaces Charging Shot)
* Reduced mana costs all over the board.
* Tweaked the way that Blink’s range scales with ability levels.
* Meditate now removes all buffs and debuffs from the caster.
* Massively increased Incinerate, Earth Wall, Explosive Trap and Gravity Well duration.
* Aggressive Leap no longer allows you to teleport through walls.
* Totem’s Revitalise and Healing Totem buffs have been increased.
* Ghost Form now increases magic damage received and scales with ability levels.
* Hook Shot’s teleport range now gets affected by the target’s determination.

**Visual Changes**

* Improved the visual effects for: Muck, Sweep, Sacrifical Sweep, Shatter, Ravage, Ghost Form.
* Changed the display of attributes to allow for more precision.

**Bug Fixes**

* Fixed a bug that allowed the creation of characters with weird names.
* Fixed a bug that prevented the respect gain from defeating the dictator to show up in the leaderboards.
* Fixed a bug that prevented the Meditation animation to show.
* Fixed a bug where the stun effect would be on your character for ever.

## January 24th 2016

**New Features**

* Added the “world end” event and a “limited lives” game mode to be tested this Sunday.
* Added a “quick shout” system (hotkey: V) to make quick communication easier.
* Added a “slow loot” behaviour to make ninja-looting harder.
* You can now flag yourself as “friendly” in character creation.
* You can now flag yourself as “looking for clan” in character creation.
* You can now “call targets” (hotkey: T) within your clan.

**Balancing Changes**

* Increased the clan xp gain radius for donation tents and resource camps.
* Reduced the number of carcasses and meteors spawning but increased their loot.
* Gank: Increased cast time and cooldown.
* Totem: Gravity Trap now has persistent AoE effect on the ground.
* Totem: Increased Muck snare strength.
* Totem: Decreased Poison damage over time.
* Totem: Revitalise heal now affects the caster at 25% efficiency.
* Scythe: Increased Sweep damage, Handle Bash stun duration, Reap damage, Hurricane damage.
* Scythe: Chains recast increased from 6.9s to 9.9s.
* Staff: Heal other now affects the caster at 25% efficiency, renamed to Heal Wounds.
* Staff: Doubled lightning bolt range
* Massively increased PB duration for bow and staff abilities.
* Bow: Increased Ensnaring Shot snare strength, decreased snare on mark target.
* Leather Armor: Drain Life efficiency halved, doubled duration.

**Visual Changes**

* Added animations for looting and stashing items.
* Colored all buildings in the new biome properly & fixed shadows.
* Changed VFX: Muck (WiP), Ghost Form (WiP)
* Added some more visual wall variations to the game.

**Bug Fixes**

* Fixed a bug that prevented players from being invited to a clan.
* Fixed a bug that made your character look like a golem after being stunned.
* Changed the text in the donation tent to be less confusing.
* Fixed a bug where you could not use the full storage room of a building.

## January 9th 2016

**Re-Design: Leaderboards**
The leaderboards have been completely re-designed. People and clans in the valley now exclusively measure each other in how much respect they have earned from their peers. Respect can be gained by contributing to the defense of the valley and it can be directly given to other players. There are now four leaderboards: Solo Respect, Clan Respect, Clan Efficiency (respect divided by clan member play time), Clan Elegance (respect divided by force applied).

**New Feature: Valley Defense & Donations**
The valley will now get attacked by the jailors every couple days. The inhabitants will have to donate resources and equipment at special buildings in order to fend off the jailors. Failing to do so puts the settlements of all clans in peril. '

**New Feature: Respect**
Players can now give each other (and their clans) their respect every day. Respect is the ONLY way to “win” the game and is meant to be both a measure of success and a currency for trade.'

**Balancing Changes**

* Re-balanced XP gains for a two week server duration.
* New XP curve: Gain XP faster in the early days.
* Decreased prime time length, each slot is now 30 minutes long instead of an hour.
* Decreased skill pattern drop rates from 3% to a 2% chance.
* Slightly increased building storage capacity.
* Increased upgrade costs for major player buildings.
* Changed building costs to include pelts, obsidian and fur more often.
* Reduced crafting costs for highlevel equipment.
* Equipment tiers are now displayed as +1 to +8 modifiers.
* Decreased the respawn rate for some mob camps.
* Wall ruins now have a weight limit.

**Ability Changes**

* Gravity Well does not spawn a projectile anymore.

**UI Changes**

* Automatically open your inventory on container open.
* Mob containers now close instantly when you press “loot all”.
* Add more tooltips to dojo window & fixed some drag & drop behaviors.
* Improved skill tool tips to better display scaling stats.
* Negative determination values are now displayed in the status HUD.

**VFX and Animations**

* Added new visual effects for: Gank, First Aid, Silencing Aura, Explosive Trap, Healing Aura, Energy Drain, Earth Quake, Healing Totem, Quintuple Blast, Stasis, Fire Bolt, Ice Bolt, Poison, Rejuvenate, Muck (WiP), Gravity Well (WiP)
* Projectiles FX should not visually “shoot through” colliders anymore.
* Added new animations for Hurricane (WiP), Chains (WiP), Totem abilities, Bow Swing, Aggressive Leap
* Added a new animation system (WiP, animations are currently cut off in some cases).
* Fix Incinerate VFX bugs (pink textures).

**Visual Changes**

* Fixed shadow maps for many environment assets.
* Fixed the tall grass shader - was too dark.
* Fixed a bug that caused characters to be rendered twice.
* Fixed an animation bug that happened after you died.

**Miscellaneous Changes**

* Massively improved collision: Getting stuck in the environment should now be way less common.
* Mobs now have clans and the ability to capture settlements and resource spawns.
* New (faster) build server - new version numbers.
* Fixed the support link in the patcher.
* F3 bug report emails now contain info about the server the player is on.
* You will now even see the server list even when your client time is way off.
* Fixed a bug where resource boxes were owned by a different clan than the resource flag.
* Switch the client to 32bit on Mac OSX.

# Patch Notes 2015

## November 2nd 2015

**Bug fixes**

* Fixed a bug that allowed for settlement walls to be moved by players. FD-Alex will move your walls back when the servers are up.
* Players who get ganked (or press F5) in range of their bind point (75 units) now respawn at a random oasis.
* Increased the time it takes for non-newbie players to respawn after getting ganked (or pressing F5) by re-activating health regen.
* If out of sync, your character now gets reset after one second of not moving (from three seconds).
* The Garrison building (flag) now has a proper, smaller collider.
* The “use” command on XP essences has been moved down in the list.

## October 23rd 2015

**Changes:**

* Activated the refinery building - feel free to build one in your settlement now. They activate at 6 PM UTC tomorrow and will provide you with resources if you can keep them. Other clans can of course raid them at the same time.
* Increased loading time when opening a well-stocked workshop. Not perfect yet but better. More improvements to come.
* Removed XP costs from weapon/armor switching and decreased switching costs (5 > 2). That should make switching easier.
* Fixed weight on obsidian and leather and generally decreased weight on all resources. More stuff to store!
* Added new SFX and VFX for Toxic Spray (Totem) & minor SFX improvements.
* Fixed the “Support” button in the patcher.

## August 29th 2015

**ADDED MOBS TO THE GAME WORLD**

* Humanoid mobs (AI Monsters) now inhabit one of seven camps or freely roam the valley.
* There are four different kinds of Jailor and five different kinds of Miner mobs - all with different stats and abilites.
* Mobs give differing amounts of active XP and they drop one to three essences.
* Clan members now share all experience gained through last-hitting mobs if they are within sight range of each other.
* Added a boss monster (Rah'Nos the Ancient) that will visit us in the upcoming playtest. Bring a group to defeat it.
* Small events (meteors, carcasses) now spawn two mobs when being activated.
* You can no longer gank or rezz mobs.

**TECHNICAL RE-DESIGN OF THE USER INTERFACE**

* Complete technical re-design of all user interface menus. Removed DFGUI and switched over to UnityGUI.
* Affected screens: All out-of-game-screens. Inventory, Equipment, Statistics, Clan Management, Clan Leaderboard, Crafting, Ability Management, Ability Training, Siege Tent.
* Every loot container now contains a “loot all” button at the bottom.
* Double click to loot, equip and un-equip items.
* Automatic stacking & precise de-stacking of stackable items.
* Dragging an item to the ground (outside of all windows) drops it.
* Added confirmation popup when you trash an item.
* Added new blur effect when in menu mode.
* The clan window now displays a list of all clan members and their online status.
* ESCAPE now closes all menu windows (instead of just toggling visibility).

**IMPROVED USABILITY & NEWBIE EXPERIENCE**

* Streamlined event markers on the world map to reduce clutter and increase visibility for active events.
* The minimap now displays arrow markers that guide you to active events.
* Added mouse-overs for all abilities in trainer, management windows and ability bar.
* Added mouse-overs for item blueprints in the workshop.
* The equipment window now clearly has one slot marked “armor” and one slot marked “weapon”.
* When getting invited into a clan there is now a small popup window in the bottom right that you need to click to confirm.
* Changed the map layout to give new players more sheltered spawn locations with basic training & crafting.
* Some bind points (oasis) are now only accessible to new players - others are free for everybody to bind at.
* No more popup numbers when damage or healing dealt is zero.
* Added loading screen hints with interesting bits of knowledge about the game.
* Added a gobal HELP chat channel for new players to ask questions.
* Players now spawn at the oasis with full health.
* When you press any movement key (WASD) while in menu mode then menu mode closes and your character starts moving.

**BALANCING CHANGES**

* Robe’s Healing Aura will now run until toggled or until you are of out energy - increased energy costs drastically.
* Scythe Sweep: Removed micro-push.
* Removed effects like HORROR and SOOTHING for now - they need to be redesigned later.
* Splint Push now root all affected targets and gives the caster speed buff depending on how many targets were hit.
* Removed all resources and essences from barrels spawned at server creation.
* Small events now count for the Dominion and Prosperity leaderboards.
* Central crossroads now inhabits medium-level trainers and crafters - player settlements exclusively have high level buildings.

**BUG FIXES**

* Fixed a bug where chat text was deleted over time.
* Fixed a bug that caused the chat bubble to flicker.
* WASD movement no longer interferes with chatting.
* Menu windows no longer overlap (when possible) and they should not exceed your screen size anymore.

**MISC**

* Reduced package sizes to significantly decrease network traffic.