Hey everyone - just wanted to share some upcoming game updates that I'm sure will make quite a few of you happy.


The testing on Dev for rollin340's new Material system is slowly wrapping up. Things seem to be looking good and the issues that have been raised have also been fixed. We feel it's in a good enough state to now push it to Main. We're expecting to release the new system to everyone sometime this week (hopefully). When this happens, the game will likely need to go down for a bit so the tables can be populated accordingly and no new materials are being generated during that process which could cause some data inconsistencies. So if the game is down while you're trying to login - now you know why.


That also means this maybe your last few days to buy/sell any materials you may want on the market to other players before we adopt the new system. Just a friendly reminder that trades don't really matter for materials in the new system.


I'd also like to mention another change we're adding in the behavior of Flashlights. Currently flashlights lose 1t for every single job you do. So if you do 3 jobs at once you'll lose 3t on your flashlight. But you'll still only get 1 drop. What this means is you could burn 3 trades yet only yield 1 maximum drop. Given that flashlights guarantee you a drop, I feel this was poorly designed so we've gone ahead and changed it so that you only lose 1t on your flashlight regardless of how many jobs you do at once. Ensuring you're guaranteed to get 1 drop for every 1 trade you consume. This change is also expected to come out the same time as the new material system so I advise any players who have flashlights to hold off on using them till then. There is a workaround of course where you can just do a single job at a time to ensure you maximize your flashlight's value, but it goes without saying it's quite tedious.


I'd also like to give a special thanks to rollin340 for putting in the time and effort in making these updates happen for everyone so please do show your appreciation to him in anyway you can!


P.S. - Though we're mostly done with testing the new Material Storage, there might always be edge cases we may have missed. Please be patient as we adopt this new system and we'll try our best to fix issues as they come up as quickly as possible. Also keep in mind this is a band-aid fix and not really a permanent fix to the game's lag. But it should improve the game's current state for a few years at least.

The drop table of crystal entities has been adjusted to ensure that you get a better, more accurate yield of crystals, especially the rarer ones.

PM Lynx with concerns, if any.

~Devs

Couple of things to share today!

1. There is a game vote up to vote on the next round's WL Map. Please see Pie's thread in the WL/Raid forum for details on each option and then proceed to vote in the Game Vote.


2. Faelust has released 5 new colored Neon paints on the plat store! Go check them out


3. There is a new Holiday Pack of emojis created by UnicornBob available for purchase in Joe's Merchandise for a limited amount of time (i.e. only during seasonal holidays like right now). It contains some very fun, seasonal emojis, including a few animated ones!


4. The equipment template module has a new, real-time Attack Style switching option. It currently only works in the Hive but an update soon should allow it to work while in WL as well.


5. Dev currently has a pretty ginormous update on it that I've been working on periodically over the last couple of years.
   
   
   
   
   1. In terms of visible/testable changes, the raid map engine has been updated to use the WL Map engine code.
   
   
   2. Alongside that, all hive combat is now replaced by a new, real-time Combat page for PvP and PvE (both regular hunting and SNPC hunting).
      
   
   
   3. Combat in raids also uses the new combat code that powers this combat system (no functional changes to combat formulas though).
   
   
   
   
   If you get a chance, do test and share bugs in the Main Forum on Dev.
   
   It's a little hard to express non-technically why this update is important but suffice it to say that once it's fully done, it'll allow us to do more with combat more easily. I can also only move ahead with SH3... and some other stuff... once this update is in.


6. The Chapter 5 raid design is in progress. ETA is probably by the end of the first week of January given its ...size. >


7. Also, at some point in the first week of January, I am going to take Shad down and replace it with something else with a similar reward/setup and potentially as a private raid to counter leeching concerns in this instance.

Yo. it's blog time again.

So the very sparse (and next to non-existant) feedback I have recieved on elite guards, an update that allows gangs to equip guards with items from the armoury will be coming soon.

Please note, that the items equipped on guards, does not affect the passive damage dealt, only damage dealt during fights.

That being said, below you'll find answers to some of the questions likely to be asked.

Does material costs still apply?
Yes - These have not been changed.

Will gangs be able to use the items while they are in use?
No - Gangs will not be able to withdraw the items while they are in use by one or more elite guards.

Will the items be destroyed or consumed upon use?
No - They will be available again once the elite guards in question are no longer in the wasteland.

Will trades/forge point, or the likes be deducted?
No - Only material costs still applies.

Will gangs be able to see which guards used which weapons?
Yes - An additional column has been added to the overview.

What happens if gangs don't equip their guards?
A default build (same as the current pre-update build) will be automatically applied.

Is it required to have an equal amount of items to guaards dispatched?
No - Once and item is available in your armoury, all alite guards can use that item, however, you will need 1 item for each slot.
This means, that if you want to use 2x Scout Drones for both misc slots, you must have 2x Scout Drones available.

Have any other stats been changed?
No - The base stats remain the same.

Do you have a preview or teaser?
Yes - Click here to see

Hope this answers most of the questions you may have.
If not, please ask away in the comments, or make a thread in the help forum.

Kind Regards
- Lynx