7/28/2017

## Developer Comments

It’s full steam ahead for us here at Blue Isle Studios! We’ve been absolutely blown away by the warm reception we’ve received since our Early Access launch two days ago, and have been working tirelessly to crush bugs, tweak gameplay balance and prepare new and awesome content for you guys to enjoy.

## Content Drop

We’re ready to put out our first content update, which adds five new crafting recipes for the early levels of the game. Since we know most of you are still finding your footing in Ignus, we figured you’d appreciate a few more early-game options to add a little variety to your experience. Here’s what we’ve got for you:

### Iron Armor

First up is the newest addition to our lineup of armor types: Iron Armor. Once you’ve unlocked the Iron set in the Knowledge Tree you’ll be able to repurpose the natural iron deposits of Ignus into an extremely robust protective garb. Just don’t skimp on the Carrying Capacity! The dense, metal plating that covers this substantial set of armor is extremely heavy, and can be cumbersome for mages who aren’t ready for the additional burden.

This set is perfect for players adopting a close-range tank-style playstyle, but less ideal for mages interested in long-range, nimble combat. Despite being a low-tier set, the iron armor is pretty demanding from a crafting perspective. You’ll have to gather a heck of a lot of Iron Ingots, Rune Crystal, Leather and Cloth if you’ll want the whole set.

### Bear Claw Gauntlet

For those interested in a more barbaric vibe, we’ve also added the brand new Bear Claw Gauntlet. Hunt and kill the savage Bears of Ignus and use their Pelts and Bones to create this intimidating new weapon. Though it may look primitive, the Bear Claw Gauntlet is a great early-game choice for casting the devastating damage-over-time spells the gauntlet sub-category is known for.

## Patch Notes

We’ve also made a bunch of changes, including bug and exploit fixes and balance adjustments.

The biggest change you’ll notice is that we’ve buffed structures by a lot. We’ve been hearing your feedback that the current means of raiding is just too aggressive. We’re implementing this buff as a temporary measure to mitigate the potential for griefing while we work on a more elegant solution in the future. (Note: Existing structures will unfortunately not have their HP update, but new ones will have the effect applied. We’ll deploy a free refill on all structure HP with our next patch).

We’ve also cleaned up a few key exploits. Swapping potions no longer gives you their effect for free, and we’ve also made it so that you can’t kill a high level friend at a low level to get insane amounts of XP. Additionally, we've removed an exploit that allowed some players to have zero HP and become unkillable.

Lastly, thanks to the out-pouring of bug reports and crash logs you’ve sent us, we’ve managed to inject another round of crash fixes and server optimizations into the game.

* Various crash fixes
* Various server optimizations
* Bear Claw Gauntlet added to the game
* Iron Armor added to the game
* /ban command now properly works for server admins
* Swapping potions no longer gives their effect for free
* PVP XP rebalanced to avoid exploitation
* Structure HP increased