It's finally here! Optimizations! This update is a pretty big one, so we're hoping to get as many people into the game as possible. To entice you all into doing so, the first wing of Cave of Wonders (the bosses and itemization at least) is now on test server as well, featuring five new raid targets, a new loot system, and a new stat. Character loading and saving has seen intense optimization. On the front end, there should be very little noticeable difference, except a large reduction in lag spikes on the server. Note that for now, the current test DB is blank, meaning that you won't have any characters there. At a later date, we'll do a full copy of the live character DB to the new test DB. Character buff management has seen intense optimization. Aside from the BBO changes from a prior patch, there should be little to on functionality change. Charging spells will now slow the caster to walking speed (just like when you are casting a spell). Fixed several bugs related to movement speed. Item Attachments (also known as Enhancements or Augments) are now unique per item. Equipment currently augmented with duplicate augments will not be affected, however, new duplicate augments will not be allowed. All pets now cross chunk lines and move through riftways. Corpse loading and saving has been dramatically optimized. The Vault section of Cave of Wonders is now ready to test. Teleporter NPCs can be found at all four starting locations. When they teleport you to Cave of Wonders, you will receive 10 platinum (for the first teleport only) in order to deck our your characters in new gear and learn spells after leveling up to 55. Experience buffers are available in the Cave of Wonders entrance, along with item vendors and skill trainers for each of the archetypes (trainers are downstairs). Bosses and NPCs in the Cave of Wonders have a new stat called Ferocity. Collect Defiance Enhancements in order to put them in their place. As always, this being the test server, remember to keep an eye out for bugs, crashed, or anything else that seems out of the ordinary. Things that go wrong big are easy -- it's the small things that we are really focused on. Just as important is your feedback on how the new content feels. We're especially interested in how the new gear is. You'll notice that it's a bit more powerful than the screenshots we showed in the Developer Roundtable, to hopefully help it match up to existing gear. And remember, Greed always wins. Note: The patch is going on right now. It should be done in the next hour or so. =)
Do you know when that "Later Date" will be? How will we be able to test the content if we don't have our characters there? It's end game content with level 1 toons? As much as I love a challenge, that sounds a little steep! haha Btw: VERY excited to see this hit test finally! WOOT!
all i can say at the moment is that having no stairs inside CoW might just turn it around for vanguard
a bit shocked to see augs as unique retroactively. could you explain the reasoning behind this further?
Chipn, didn't you hear? Disciples have been removed from the reward metrics entirely. All jokes aside, the gear will get unlocked (for testing, we can't say that it will be membership unlocked when it goes live) and the the disciples will get added to the Medium Armor.
Uh, wait a minute. Are you talking about old augments like Ethereal Twilights and Runes of Rage Resistance? Cuz. Uhm. No. Don't do that. Don't do that at all. If you want to make that for new augs, fine, but don't mess up this old system like that.
if you decide to log onto test and create a character some helpful tips 1. look for a djinn standing where your character starts, hail him to get to cow 2. the various npcs will provide you with xp to level both adv and crafting 3 other npcs have gear and augs 4. there is no apparent way to get skillups , just attributes and abilities 5 there is no crafting gear or utilities so that testing will have to wait. see you there
Test dummies would be a nice addition to COW testing. And I think the Devs need to explain about the augment thingy more better kinda causing some confusion...
Buffs Bugs: Sorcerer's Spell "Force Barrier" is not showing in the buff window but i'm getting the effect. Under certain circumstances buffs overwrite other buffs, i've seen it only once, i'll try to find a way to reproduce it. Edit: If i change the chunk the ability will appear, in top of that the problem is not always there, i'll keep testing to see where is the problem.
Couple things I'm working on now. Skill ups Removing membership restrictions from gear. Adding Adhesive and Solvent to augment merchant. Adding Disciples to medium armor. Fix for crash bug we're running into. Adding learned, dropped, and 51+ abilities to the trainers. If you know of any abilities that are learned, dropped, or 51+, please PM me on the forums so I can add them to the trainer lists. @Grestah: thanks.
It seems there's some confusion about this. Seeing players in game talk about this, people seem to be under the impression that this means that augments will be unique throughout your whole inventory. That's not the case. It means that per piece of gear, it can only have one of each augment attached to it at a time. For exmaple: A Breastplace has three Core slots. They can not be filled with three Major Cores of Constitution. They can, however, be filled with a Major Core, a regular Core, and a Minor Core of Constitution. You can have a Major Core of Constitution on your breastplate and one on your Legs. Does that clear it up at all? The driving design force behind this is that specialization comes with diminishing returns.
I think their concern is not with the new Augs but the old world Augs like Runes of Efficiency and RoRR's and such. Although that doesn't bother me either considering a Run of Efficiency and a SOCKETED Rune of Efficiency are technically different items so I wouldn't worry too much Jakkal.
