The Repopulation - New Site, Build Notes, & Screenshots

The biggest news this week is that our new web site has gone live. You can check it out, or apply for testing by visiting the site here: www.therepopulation.com. That's not to say that we haven't kept busy. This patch includes a major update to the Engagements system, map upgrades, basic lighting improvements, and a number of upgrades to the mission system.

Crafting

- Doubleclicking on the Crafting Station will now automatically open it, rather than asking you if you wanted to.
- Added 9 new mob dropped recipe books in the Smithing, Firearms Crafting and Melee Crafting sets.

Effects and Abilities

- Fixed a bug related to an AoE Knockback isFacing check.

Engagements

- The engagement system has received significant updates. For those who are unaware of this system, engagements are instanced events that occur randomly. Players can flag themselves as Available for Covert Ops or Available for Emergency Response in the Social window. If they are flagged, they are added to a queue. When a new engagement is spawned it selects players from the queue based on the necessary criteria. Engagements are designed to be able to be PVE or PVP. The PVP versions are similar to Battlegrounds in World of Warcraft or Scenarios in Warhammer. The PVE versions are similar to Public Quests in Warhammer, except in an instanced environment. When the engagement is over, loot and rewards are automatically assigned and the player is teleported to wherever they were before accepting the engagement.
- Engagements can now be set to link certain zones to certain engagements.
- There can now be respawn points in an engagement.
- There is now an Engagement window that can provide more information on that particular engagement.
- Engagements can now have multiple sequences and multiple kill lists or save/rescue lists that need to take place before they advance to the next stage.
- Sequences can be time limited with a failures or successes being based on objectives being completed within the time limit.
- Engagements and Battles can now have their respawn rates tweaked to a finer degree.
- Added a new engagement that takes place in the Dank Dungeon.

General

- Monsters should no longer stack up on top of players when fighting multiple mobs.
- Monsters in engagements should no longer begin stacked on top of one another.
- Added more control to corpses and looting, so that we can control the decay rate, whether or not to hide names, etc on different objects.
- Added two new military achievements.
- Immortals now have the ability to add or remove faction.
- Fixed some issues in the battle code.
- Resolved some bugs wih the mob variant system.
- Fixed a tracking related bug that occured during timeswitches.

Graphics

- Basic lighting has gotten a facelift. Shadows have been re-enabled and there is now a baked lightmap for terrain in basic lighting.
- Decals are once again functional and have been activated. There is now an option in the Options Menu to disable them if you.
- We've improved the particle system so that it can use a wider variety of special effects.
- Added a number of new weapon models.
- Tweaked the Faugea's materials.
- Fixed an environment/cloud related server side issue with indoor zones.
- Fixed some UV issues with the brown rocks in Plymouth.

Items

- Added new particle effects to ranged weapons, aerosol weapons and flame throwers. This includes things like dust kicking up on the ground near a player when you miss an shot at them, seeing the sprays of aerosol from your weapons.
- Melee weapons have also received a number of new particles, including particles when certain weapons are equipped, and others when they land an attack.
- Added a number of new items that are created and dropped by the Faugea species.
- Added new collectible items to the Lesoo and Faugea species.
- Flame Throwers now have an activatable Flame Wall ability. This ability will lay a wall of fire in front of your feet that will last for 30 seconds. If anyone passes over the flame wall, it will cause them to take Fire damage over time. This ability is activatable, which means you must click it when you wish to use it. You can still attack normally with your flame thrower, as was the case previously.
- Added a new type of Robot Parts.

Missions

- We've added the ability to double click an object or an item to start a mission.
- Missions (both static and generated) can give loot from any tier through any action, so long as it is defined in the quest template. For generated missions this means you can now have multiple rewards in one mission if the template is designed to support it. For static missions this means you can now receive random loot rewards if the templates calls for it.
- You will now automatically track all generated mission NPCs on your map. You do not need to click the mission in the mission helper window for that to happen. If you wish to have the guiding arrow though you will need to do so. Static mission NPCs are also automatically marked.
- We've expanded the mission system to be able to play animations during different stages of an animation. We're currently using this for NPCs to give off emotes when certain things take place.
- Fixed some mission tracking related issues that could occur previously if you logged out during the middle of a mission. Sometimes the tracking didn't update properly when you logged back in.
- Added a new static mission to Pontoc City that takes place in the Tikt Tunnels.
- Added a new static mission to Wailing Chasm that allows players to slowly raise their reputation with the shadier types by providing stingers for poisons.
- Added a new rare mission template: The Truth, The Whole Truth.
- The static missions: Freedomtown Defense and Plymouth Defense will now accept Lesoo Leadership Beads in addition to the zone specific requirements from before. They will also reward players with a chance at loot.
- Added a chance to obtain generated loot to all Lost and Found and One Time missions.
- Adjusted the rewards on the Rare Nickel Collection.
- Added a new hidden static mission.
- Adjusted the faction rewards on many missions to try to bring them in line with the level of progression desired.
- The Town Supplies static quest NPCs will now have a quest indicator above their heads.
- Fixed a minor bug in the following mission templates: An Urgent Request, Hardware Pickup, Byna Berry Muffins, Unholy Creations, Breaking and Entering, Weapons Runner, and Paranoid Hacker. This bug was allowing players to talk to the NPC who gave them a certain item more than once and to get several version of the mission's unique item. These items were worthless but should not have been given as they cluttered inventory space and might confuse players.
- Fixed a bug in the tracked locations of the Patrolling Plymouth mission template.
- Fixed a bug that was causing the Harvesting information entry to overwrite the Crafting one.
- You should no longer be offered the Patrolling Freedomtown mission while in Plymouth.

User Interface

- The mapping system has been improved in a number of ways. Points of interest, and mission-related NPCs are now automatically plotted on the map. Previously you had to track them in order for them to appear on the map, but they are now permanently indicated there. It should be noted that you must be in range and the mission that you are currently on must be flagged for mission tracking in order for this to happen.
- There is now an option to disable decals in the Graphics Options Menu.
- There is now an Engagement window that can provide more information on that particular engagement.

World

- We've added a large new dungeon in the form of the Tikt Tunnels, which are located underneath the Wailing Chasm. This dungeon is populated by Faugea.
- NPCs can now emote random speeches, emotes or animations from time to time when players walk near them. They can also use special abilities such as buffing the player. We hope that this adds some more life to the world. You'll find a few places where NPCs will emote these things.
- There are now random ground spawn chests that can be found throughout the world. These can result in valuable items or collection items. These are rare spawns, and are designed to encourage exploration. They become more common the further you stray into the wilderness.
- You can now double click to exit instances, access Control Point Mainframes, access the Control Panel in your home, DNA Stations, accessing Faction Teleportals, or opening the crafting station, rather than needing to confirm it.
- Added several new types of Faugea, Cyborg and Crawler mobs. This includes new bosses.
- Added two new special abilities to the Faugea species.
- Made another major but hidden improvement to the Faugea species. Players will need to discover what those are though for themselves though.
- Made some adjustments to native species factions. Some of the native species now have dislikes and disputes with some of the other species or tribes.
- Wailing Chasm has a new loading image.
- Added Timbertol Pass Station to the list of trackable points of interest in Plymouth.
- Pontoc City's slumlord has returned.
- Reduced the steepness of the road to Timbertol.
- Adjusted the direction in which some of the NPCs in Plymouth and Wailing Chasm were facing.
- Fixed the exploration point for Pontoc Lookout.

Here's some work in progress shots that includes a preview of the new Plymouth City, and a shot of the upcoming Timbertol.