Changelog/2020/May 31

PATCH    **Pre-Season update #2**
*Updated: May 31, 2020*

Last update we spoke about changes to the warfare queue, item changes and a huge back end system allowing devs to push their code to the testing server easily along with some more bug fixes. We’ve taken a back seat from focusing on bugs this update and moved onto re-creating old 2016 island clash features.

### This update we will be focusing on three new big features we added.

Sir Chesterly will no longer say “Coming Soon…” as Cargo and Essence capsules, formerly magic crates, are back!

We need things to put in cargo and essence capsules so the backpack is back along with scrolls.

How do you get these scrolls from the hub onto your island? The bank has made a return!

## Sir Chesterly

Cargo Crates come in two forms, Minor Cargo and Major cargo. Similar to previous iterations Minor cargo rolls once, meaning you get one reward. Major cargo rolls twice, meaning you get two rewards! There is a small difference between the contents of the cargo. You have the ability to get bigger gold rewards and a higher chance of getting the rarer drops in Major than you do in Minor. You will be able to obtain cargo through in-game means. If you would like to see what drops there are in cargo, see below.

#### Drops include:

Gold 200 - 1100
Minor and Major Shield Scrolls - add a shield to your island to prevent you from being attacked.
Minor and Major Repair Scrolls - allow you to repair buildings from degradation damage and destruction.
Minor and Major Building Scrolls - speeds up the time it takes to build your building.
Harvest Scroll - gives you more resources when you are mining stone or chopping wood.
Treasure Scroll - gives you more gold when you collect resources.
Enchantment Crate - see below
Potion Crate - see below

### Potion and Enchantment crates

We thought how we would love the ability to give players actual items through cargo. However, we needed a way to make it so someone with a tier 1 island doesn’t get tier 4 gear through a crate and similar with tier 4 getting tier 1 gear. Enchantment and potion crates are drops in cargo and will appear in your bank, like scrolls, and can be opened on your island where you will receive free gear, these scale dependant on your islands town hall level.

The enchantment crate holds all enchantment books unlocked at your town hall level. This means you won’t get tier 3 books if you are tier 4. There is also a unique book to these crates, Efficiency. Efficiency is available at all levels and can be put on any pickaxe or axe to speed up mining!

Potion crates are a little different. Potions in the crate are based on your town hall<?span> level and also the potions you are missing, as some that can be bought in tier 1 aren’t “unlocked” at tier 2. This means you are able to get tier 3 potions in a tier 4 crate, but only the useful ones. However, these potion crates are more exciting as we have buffed up potions in them. You can get a Regeneration I potion which has been buffed up to 1 minute 30 from 45 seconds. Along with buffed timings for speed and strength pots.

### Essence Capsules

Essence capsules are our new “magic crates” these capsules are jam packed full of cosmetic items rated in rarity from Common to Mythic.

We currently only have one Capsule. However, we plan to use these capsules to hold seasonal cosmetic items, you will remember Christmas themed gadgets and pets back in 2016. We can also use these to make special capsules which only hold Epic+ Items. No more commons! We want our cosmetics to be good and worth while which is why our new, in training, developers have been working hard on making fun and interesting cosmetics that are actually worth it.

## The Backpack

Talking about cosmetics, the backpack is where you find all your cosmetic needs, emblems and titles have also been moved here. Returning with the backpack is the currency Essence. For those who were around before this is our purely cosmetic currency. We wanted to change how our cosmetic system worked. Previously if you got something that you didn’t want then you were stuck with it. Now you have a choice. If you don’t want that item, you can disenchant it to regain a % of the item cost in essence so you can craft something you actually want. Anyone up for a dragon pet?

## The Bank

The bank is back including all it’s civilisation themes! The island now has storage so you can store items that you don’t want cluttering your inventory. This works hand in hand with cargo crates as items you gain from cargo are sent to your islands bank to be claimed. The banks slots are upgraded with each level, however you have to be careful because if your bank is destroyed you will lose a line of inventory slots, which means you lose those items. The bank may not seem useful now but with all the extra content we are pumping into season 2, you will want that storage space!

## Notable bug fixes

* Inventories no longer carry over when you resign from an island, this means no more diamond armour on a level 1 island! This also carries over to the bank. Items you put in the bank are not saved unless they are unclaimed packages from Sir Chesterly (this is the same as back in 2016).
* Delay on sending a message in global chat from the hub has been reduced. It hasn’t reduced on the island so we will continue to work on getting that reduced too.
* Items glitching on inventory move and equip has been improved significantly.

### Start of season issue

When we announced seasons we said that all island members, except the owner, will be kicked. This is still true, however we came into a problem, please read this below if you want detail into this decision, if not skip past this paragraph.

#### Reasoning

Currently on the live server we have over 1000 islands. These islands are a mixture of inactive islands where players won’t join back, inactive but will join back and active during pre-season. The decision to let emperors keep their island is mainly so players can keep their island name and island ID without risking someone taking your island name in a reset. It acts as a nice soft reset which allows islands to purge members and start a fresh at tier 1. However by doing this we risk having 1k islands loaded at the same time. Remember launch for season 1? We had limited island slots open and this was to push and force players to join other islands as well as a cost of 500 gold to promote people forming a party so they can get an island for free. This was a great way that we combated solo islands/not overloading the system with island/warfare servers on launch. Removing this gateway and having 1k “free” islands poses a problem. We will have limited island slots available on season 2 launch, like we did for season 1, so if we keep it this way it becomes a who gets on first battle which is unfair and just would be a nightmare. We need to get as many people on islands without having to open up all island slots.

**TL;DR** removing the 500 gold cost, as emperors stay on their island, is a problem for players and the big issue for the system.

Because of this problem we have had to add a unlocking fee for your island. This is the only way we found that could help combat this. It was either an unlocking fee or starting again from scratch (with having to pay 500g or make a party). This unlocking fee will be 250 gold. Half the price of purchasing an island from scratch. Which is a small price to pay if you want to keep your island. We will also include parties in this, if the emperor creates a party you will be able to unlock the island for free. Obviously this is not ideal but we should announce this now rather than later!

Oh and you will be able to rename your island as we will be adding rename scrolls back into the game! Tired of that old name you chose, don’t worry we’ve got you covered.

#### Moving forwards

The next big feature to work on, and I mean big is Conquest. We will be adding back conquest for season 2. And of course along with conquest comes the siege workshop and the wonder. We’ve also still got war camp improvements, the degradation improvements we mentioned last update, tutorial improvements and a tonne of bugs that need fixing.

Thanks as always for sticking around and being patient with us! We are really excited to bring you season 2 and are working super hard to bring it out for you guys as quickly as we can!

IC team.