The Repopulation - 0.5.2 Build Notes
by J.C. Smith · 09/18/2009 (8:05 am) · 1 comments
Content development continues to move forward with an eye on balance and playability. We adjusted many monster levels and crafting recipes, introduced new industrial themed instances, redid the sewers instances, and added a wide variety of new quests.
We've added hundreds of new crafting recipes and results, and now have a reasonable number of instanced quest mission templates, and 20 new mission instance layouts, allowing us to demonstrate the way our mission and instance generation schemes are intended to work.
Our primary focus at this point is still on maximizing the fun early on in the game, and we still have at least one more upcoming patch focused primarily on that doing just that. Once we have the first 30 minutes of gameplay at a state that we are happy with, we'll begin moving on to higher end content and adding in more zones.
Build notes are posted below. We are currently in alpha testing. You can apply for an account by registering at our web site here: www.therepopulation.com . We've been sending out alpha keys every day. Once you receive a key you can register it and download the client by using the Manage Account section of the web site.
Combat
- The projectile code has been refactored. This means that objects such as grenades will now behave more properly and can explode from inanimate objects. This also means there are more complex calculations being used. A line of grenades have been added to the Firearms Crafting line. Projectiles are heat seeking and actually use collision so if they hit something else they will damage that target (or hit another object that isn't a player you will pretty much waste the projectile). You can also dodge or shield block a grenade and it will not go off. Seems a little silly to block it with a shield, but wanted to add more use for shields. Energy shields have no effect on grenades and most of the damage done is Physical (so armor will help absorb it). Have fun.
- Some attacks can now cause a bleed on impact. Bleeds act differently from other Damage over Times in that their damage scales differently, and they will only apply if you succesfully land your attack.
- Ranged attacks are now have a reactivation timer.
- Increased ranged damage skill up rate.
- Combat Rifles now fire at an improved rate.
- Automatic and Semi-automatic rifles now deal more damage.
- Shotguns received a balance pass.
- Added craftable Revolvers into the game. They are slower and do more damage than Pistols (and are dualwieldable). Need a new model for them as they are currently using the pistol ones.
- Additional armor/weapons added to all crafting trees to better match up with the equipment already in existance (such as spears and halberds)
Crafting
- We've made sweeping balance changes to most of the crafting skill trees. This was done to even the progression ratio down, and to bring things in line with the level or progression that we were seeking. There are roughly 4-5x the amount of recipes as before and just about 1/2 of the crafting skills are ready for Beta Testing (meaning they are halfway finished aka up to Tier 5).
- We have made significant improvements to our Crafting Mission system. There is now much greater variety in Crafting Missions, and appropriately scaling rewards and DNA.
- There are now 6 tiers of crafted armor and weapons.
- There are also now 6 tiers of harvestable stones and wood.
- Shieldcrafting and Armor Crafting have been merged into a single Armor Crafting skill. Armor Crafting now has Shields/Medium/Heavy armor recipes.
- There are many new Firearms Crafting results and components, including new types of crafted grenades.
- The Mines now have new gemstones.
- The vendor value and prices of many crafting items have been significantly altered for balance purposes.
- We've made adjustments to the Genetic Engineering and Animal Taming levels to bring them in line with the balance level we are looking for.
- Pharmaceutical and Cybernetic components now have 5 grades instead of previous 3. This has resulted in many new incremental upgrades for those crafting lines.
- Genetically engineered pets have had their power increased.
- EMP viruses are now available at a much earlier skill level.
- There are now multiple grades of Smithing Hammers.
- Helmets can now be crafted in both Tailoring and Armor Smithing.
- There are now new mine shop structures available for the higher grade metals. You can access your shops by visiting the Control Computer in your city of residence.
- Automotive Engineering recipes that were in Robotics were moved over. Still have a lot of work to do on both.
- Cooking/Brewing merged into Culinary Arts. Any skill you had in the previous ones will be lost
- Tinkering removed. Will probably put in a new system for weapon upgrades at a later time (scopes, silencers, etc)
Effects and Abilities
- The Robotics based ability: Sabotage Robot can now be gained significantly earlier than was previously the case.
Items
- Added a number of new types of grenades. There are now Frag, Stun, Entangle, Neural Shock, Energy Sapping, and Confusion Grenades. All are crafted from the Firearms line. Percussion is a single target grenade, the new ones are all AOE Grenades that hit near the target that was struck with the grenade. Will have more about these later in a wiki.
- Crafted weapons and armor have been better balanced, and there are now many new crafted items.
Missions
- We have revamped the Crafting Mission system significantly. You can now receive missions for most recipes, and you will receive appropriately scaling rewards and DNA.
- Missions can now be flagged as one-time only. This setting will be used for our epic quest chains and advanced class series quests.
- Static Collection Quests which result in armor have been significantly altered. The progression should now be in line with the mob level changes, and there are quests for each tier.
- We've adjusted the way our mission generators work, improving the ability to give players appropriately suited missions.
- Added the following mission templates based in industrial areas: Hostile Takeover, Unholy Creations.
- Added the following instances based in NPC homes: Unwelcome Guest, Robot Gone Mad.
- The sewers mission templates have been adjusted to be able to include random traps, containers and the new instances.
- Added a new epic storyline quest.
- We have added DNA rewards to many of the mission templates. Will finish this up hopefully in the next patch.
- Added some new harvesting quests that require some gemstones that can only be found in mines.
- Correcting spelling mistakes in the Enemies in the Sewers mission template.
- Improved random loot in generated instances.
- Fixed a bug that was causing quest tracking to not function for certain quests.
World
- Generated Instances have undergone some major refactoring which will make them easier to expand upon in the future. You will now find multiple layouts for the various types of instances, random bosses and traps.
- Added a sewers entrance in Freedomtown, allowing players from the FPR side to gain access to the sewer instances.
- The sewers now have a variety of random traps and storage containers.
- Added a new instanced dungeon set that is based on industrial areas, along with a number of missions to open entrance to it.
- Added new instances that take place inside of NPC's homes.
- The sewers have been completely recreated. The new sewer instances are larger and more visually appealing. These new sewers feature parallax mapping for those who have it enabled.
- We've made some balance changes to the power curve on NPCs at upper difficulty levels.
- Bosses have had their difficulty levels increased. Raid bosses in particular should be much more difficult to defeat than was previously the case.
- Lingmaa have had their difficulty levels boosted somewhat.
- Drakes have had their difficulty levels increased significantly.
- Adjusted the zone in location from Wailing Chasm to Freedomtown.
- Fixed a housing related issue that was causing NPCs to spawn in the wrong house instance.
- Fixed an issue related to exiting instances, that would only occur if there were multiple instances of the same area.
- Fixed a problem that was causing some human bosses to be invisible other than their name.
- The sign to the Aemar Mines in Plymouth has had its skin changed.
- There are new Industrial Complexes in Freedomtown and Plymouth. They will become trackable when you have a mission requiring them. In the future we will be adding Industrial and Sewer instances to assorted other cities.
- Water added to vendors. No more dieing of thirst.
- Added 3 vendors to both Plymouth and Freedomtown that break up the crafting components sold. They sell only the items in the 101 books (or should at least be) along with the 101 books for all of the crafting skills.
- Adjusted Drop rates for most consumed goods (ores, wood, etc). Will be doing another pass to check pop rates soon.
We've added hundreds of new crafting recipes and results, and now have a reasonable number of instanced quest mission templates, and 20 new mission instance layouts, allowing us to demonstrate the way our mission and instance generation schemes are intended to work.
Our primary focus at this point is still on maximizing the fun early on in the game, and we still have at least one more upcoming patch focused primarily on that doing just that. Once we have the first 30 minutes of gameplay at a state that we are happy with, we'll begin moving on to higher end content and adding in more zones.
Build notes are posted below. We are currently in alpha testing. You can apply for an account by registering at our web site here: www.therepopulation.com . We've been sending out alpha keys every day. Once you receive a key you can register it and download the client by using the Manage Account section of the web site.
Combat
- The projectile code has been refactored. This means that objects such as grenades will now behave more properly and can explode from inanimate objects. This also means there are more complex calculations being used. A line of grenades have been added to the Firearms Crafting line. Projectiles are heat seeking and actually use collision so if they hit something else they will damage that target (or hit another object that isn't a player you will pretty much waste the projectile). You can also dodge or shield block a grenade and it will not go off. Seems a little silly to block it with a shield, but wanted to add more use for shields. Energy shields have no effect on grenades and most of the damage done is Physical (so armor will help absorb it). Have fun.
- Some attacks can now cause a bleed on impact. Bleeds act differently from other Damage over Times in that their damage scales differently, and they will only apply if you succesfully land your attack.
- Ranged attacks are now have a reactivation timer.
- Increased ranged damage skill up rate.
- Combat Rifles now fire at an improved rate.
- Automatic and Semi-automatic rifles now deal more damage.
- Shotguns received a balance pass.
- Added craftable Revolvers into the game. They are slower and do more damage than Pistols (and are dualwieldable). Need a new model for them as they are currently using the pistol ones.
- Additional armor/weapons added to all crafting trees to better match up with the equipment already in existance (such as spears and halberds)
Crafting
- We've made sweeping balance changes to most of the crafting skill trees. This was done to even the progression ratio down, and to bring things in line with the level or progression that we were seeking. There are roughly 4-5x the amount of recipes as before and just about 1/2 of the crafting skills are ready for Beta Testing (meaning they are halfway finished aka up to Tier 5).
- We have made significant improvements to our Crafting Mission system. There is now much greater variety in Crafting Missions, and appropriately scaling rewards and DNA.
- There are now 6 tiers of crafted armor and weapons.
- There are also now 6 tiers of harvestable stones and wood.
- Shieldcrafting and Armor Crafting have been merged into a single Armor Crafting skill. Armor Crafting now has Shields/Medium/Heavy armor recipes.
- There are many new Firearms Crafting results and components, including new types of crafted grenades.
- The Mines now have new gemstones.
- The vendor value and prices of many crafting items have been significantly altered for balance purposes.
- We've made adjustments to the Genetic Engineering and Animal Taming levels to bring them in line with the balance level we are looking for.
- Pharmaceutical and Cybernetic components now have 5 grades instead of previous 3. This has resulted in many new incremental upgrades for those crafting lines.
- Genetically engineered pets have had their power increased.
- EMP viruses are now available at a much earlier skill level.
- There are now multiple grades of Smithing Hammers.
- Helmets can now be crafted in both Tailoring and Armor Smithing.
- There are now new mine shop structures available for the higher grade metals. You can access your shops by visiting the Control Computer in your city of residence.
- Automotive Engineering recipes that were in Robotics were moved over. Still have a lot of work to do on both.
- Cooking/Brewing merged into Culinary Arts. Any skill you had in the previous ones will be lost
- Tinkering removed. Will probably put in a new system for weapon upgrades at a later time (scopes, silencers, etc)
Effects and Abilities
- The Robotics based ability: Sabotage Robot can now be gained significantly earlier than was previously the case.
Items
- Added a number of new types of grenades. There are now Frag, Stun, Entangle, Neural Shock, Energy Sapping, and Confusion Grenades. All are crafted from the Firearms line. Percussion is a single target grenade, the new ones are all AOE Grenades that hit near the target that was struck with the grenade. Will have more about these later in a wiki.
- Crafted weapons and armor have been better balanced, and there are now many new crafted items.
Missions
- We have revamped the Crafting Mission system significantly. You can now receive missions for most recipes, and you will receive appropriately scaling rewards and DNA.
- Missions can now be flagged as one-time only. This setting will be used for our epic quest chains and advanced class series quests.
- Static Collection Quests which result in armor have been significantly altered. The progression should now be in line with the mob level changes, and there are quests for each tier.
- We've adjusted the way our mission generators work, improving the ability to give players appropriately suited missions.
- Added the following mission templates based in industrial areas: Hostile Takeover, Unholy Creations.
- Added the following instances based in NPC homes: Unwelcome Guest, Robot Gone Mad.
- The sewers mission templates have been adjusted to be able to include random traps, containers and the new instances.
- Added a new epic storyline quest.
- We have added DNA rewards to many of the mission templates. Will finish this up hopefully in the next patch.
- Added some new harvesting quests that require some gemstones that can only be found in mines.
- Correcting spelling mistakes in the Enemies in the Sewers mission template.
- Improved random loot in generated instances.
- Fixed a bug that was causing quest tracking to not function for certain quests.
World
- Generated Instances have undergone some major refactoring which will make them easier to expand upon in the future. You will now find multiple layouts for the various types of instances, random bosses and traps.
- Added a sewers entrance in Freedomtown, allowing players from the FPR side to gain access to the sewer instances.
- The sewers now have a variety of random traps and storage containers.
- Added a new instanced dungeon set that is based on industrial areas, along with a number of missions to open entrance to it.
- Added new instances that take place inside of NPC's homes.
- The sewers have been completely recreated. The new sewer instances are larger and more visually appealing. These new sewers feature parallax mapping for those who have it enabled.
- We've made some balance changes to the power curve on NPCs at upper difficulty levels.
- Bosses have had their difficulty levels increased. Raid bosses in particular should be much more difficult to defeat than was previously the case.
- Lingmaa have had their difficulty levels boosted somewhat.
- Drakes have had their difficulty levels increased significantly.
- Adjusted the zone in location from Wailing Chasm to Freedomtown.
- Fixed a housing related issue that was causing NPCs to spawn in the wrong house instance.
- Fixed an issue related to exiting instances, that would only occur if there were multiple instances of the same area.
- Fixed a problem that was causing some human bosses to be invisible other than their name.
- The sign to the Aemar Mines in Plymouth has had its skin changed.
- There are new Industrial Complexes in Freedomtown and Plymouth. They will become trackable when you have a mission requiring them. In the future we will be adding Industrial and Sewer instances to assorted other cities.
- Water added to vendors. No more dieing of thirst.
- Added 3 vendors to both Plymouth and Freedomtown that break up the crafting components sold. They sell only the items in the 101 books (or should at least be) along with the 101 books for all of the crafting skills.
- Adjusted Drop rates for most consumed goods (ores, wood, etc). Will be doing another pass to check pop rates soon.
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