Jul 27, 2023

Approaching Infinity - IBOL17

Thanks to player feedback, I've executed a major balance of the new ship combat systems.

One problem was that enemy difficulty was outpacing equipment available to the player. This has been fixed.

Is it too easy now? Still too hard? Let me know!

Other changes:

Away missions now employ a 4-frame animation for the landing party and monsters.
Space stations have new art!
Weapons can't force "crew crits" unless your shields are down.
Reduced the rarity and minimum sector of all new ship weapons, shields, and armor, making the more interesting ones more available.
Added explanation spiels about this and the shuttle's autopilot.
Increased the base hull points scaling of new ships from the shipyard, and those you repair yourself.
Some faction ships can have cloaking devices instead of shields!
Further reduced the cooldowns on most of the new space activated skills.
Changed the stealth runner's starting weapon to hull raker (thanks eharper256)
New device: Ballistic Accelerator : +1 range for all cannon weapons
New device: Cyclic Capacitor : +33% damage for all beam weapons
New device: Armored Missiles: +1 PD required to intercept your missiles, and they do more damage even through point defense.
New device: Missile Scrambler: Enemy missiles can't target your ship from a range greater than 5
New random quest: Gas giant survey: collect special data pickups near gas giants (fairly basic stuff).
New random quest: Embassy spying: intercept secret communications in space without being seen! (new and different!)
Skill change: Level 2 of Thermal Dissipators (Lava-walk) further reduces duration of burn status effect.
Skill change: Level 2 of Mountain Climbing skill reduces earthquake and cave-in damage.
Skill change: The new "scan every plant and tree for data" function is now tied to the "eco-examiner" skill of the explorer class.
Skill change: "Cartography" skill (explorer class) now helps you survey planets at less than 100%, at -5% per level.
Skill change: "scanning specialist" skill increases your de-cloak radius by 1 per level.
Skill change: "Mining Specialist": Level 1 automatically picks up whatever you get out of the asteroid. Level 2 automatically mines all adjacent asteroids. Level 3 increases this distance to 2 tiles!

I also updated the demo to include all changes here, and a fix for a rare bug that was plaguing some users.

Have fun out there, space captains!

Jul 27, 2023

Quickchat + QOL changes + Gameplay Tweaks

Last Train Outta' Wormtown - Get(Color)

Howdy!

QuickChat:
Replacing the old "ping" system, Pressing the QuickChat (default "T" or clicking "Right Stick") will open up a radial menu where you can easily send common and useful message pop ups. This works in lobby as well as in-game as a Pardner. Currently, there is no QuickChat for the Worm players, but this will be added in the future.

While playing as Pardner, the QuickChat is context sensitive based on your camera mode. For example, if you select the "Healing" chat bubble while aiming, it will ping where you're looking and display "Cactus Fruit over here!" to all Pardners. Alternatively, if you're not aiming, it will display "I need Cactus Fruit!" and display your current health to all Pardners.

New Lobby Features:
* New Custom Match Settings: For Fuel Required, Train Blockers, Number of Cactus Fruit, Pardner Max Health, and Worm Ability Cooldowns - there's now an additional < Custom > match setting. You can find this by clicking the > until Custom shows up. A slider will appear and you can set these values to your liking.
* Saving Match Settings: When selecting "Play Again" at the end of a match, the settings for the previous match will be saved and applied to the new lobby. Note: match settings will be reset when you go back to the main menu.
* Added more event feed pop ups for players connecting, disconnecting, and more.
* Clients can now "suggest" rule changes by clicking the < or > arrows in the match settings panel. This will inform players in the pop up feed.
* Host can now force start the game, ignoring if players are readied up or not.

Escape Mini Game Changes:
* Cleaned up the effects when successfully entering an input, so there should be much less visual noise and clutter.
* Can no longer get duplicate inputs in a row
* The Mini game now accepts arrow key inputs as well as WASD
* Lowered how much progress you lose with a failed input on the Hard mini game setting. You now lose 6 inputs of progress, where previously you'd lose all progress.

Sundown Changes:
* New music added for when nighttime begins.
* Worm Scream now deals 10 damage to Pardners in the close AOE. Just to be clear: This only happens at nighttime and when a Pardner is in the normal AOE of the scream - not the global detection range. Design insight: Night time is supposed to be an extremely Worm-sided end game scenario to stop long stalemate games. Even with the previous changes to buff Worms at night, there were still instances of Pardners camping inside the train with dynamite traps on all of the doors, allowing for more stalemates. Note: This change is most likely a temporary fix for this issue until the new Worm abilities are added in the near future.
* The Worm healing rate of the second and third rings has now been significantly boosted at night. The center ring has been unchanged. Design insight: Dynamite should be very punishing for the Worm, but I felt healing back to full took too long at night. This also is a nerf to the above mentioned stalemate strategy.

Gameplay Changes:
* Dynamite explosions will now light the fuse of other dynamites, but at half their normal fuse time
* Ghosts now push objects slightly further and their push cooldown has been reduced to 25 seconds (was 40)
* Heart Jars now have a permanent ping indicator when in inspection mode (right click/left trigger camera mode), so Pardners no longer need to intentionally ping it's location. Note: Only applies when they are lying around the map, not when inside of an inventory.
* You now see other Pardners health over their head in inspection mode.

Misc Fixes:
* Fixed 9 players being able to join a lobby (again lol). Note: I'm still planning on raising the player cap in the future, but this bug was causing other issues so it needed to be fixed in the short term

I'm still working on the big content update with new Worm abilities and Pardner equipment items! (Sorry it's taking long than expected!)

Stay safe out there, Pardner!

Jul 27, 2023

Item Augments and Gold Boost!

AdventureQuest 3D - Trinhtrin

Augmenting Items with Stat Modifiers

Who is ready to stack some stats and customize their character build? Equipable items now have the chance of dropping with various stat modifiers. Modifier quality ranges from Defective to Fiendish, with a variety of stats being affected within those ranges, and the chances of getting a higher tier modifier is shown in a handy guide on the side of the menu. And, yes, these augments stack on top of Infusions.

If you have an item that doesn’t have a modifier yet, or you don’t like the modifier your item came with, you should visit Maximus in the Battleon Town Square. Appropriately positioned near Cysero’s Forge, Maximus offers stats upgrades via Infusion and, now, Augment Rerolls via the Augment System. Maximus will show you which of your items is able to be augmented, which you then select to be modified. Rerolls, like Infusion, cost Gold for each time you use it, so keep an eye on your money as you reroll. You can always come back when you have more.

Gold Raven did a short 5 minute video reviewing the Augment System while it was on the PTR server (showing the old UI) if you want a quick visual tutorial. Click here to watch. OR if you want to read an in-depth explanation of the system, read our post HERE.

Server Wide Gold Boost!

In honor of the release of the Augment System, we’ve boosted the servers with double gold rewards until next week’s release. Plus, Gold Boost tokens can be bought from the Potion Shop in the menu for an additional 50% Gold boost. Take advantage of all the extra gold you get while adventuring to try out Maximus’ Modifier Rerolls!

Also, we’re thinking of making Gold Boosts a regular end-of-the-month update. What do you think?

Phoenix Gear Troves!

Thok’s Phoenix Gear crafting shop gives a lot of gear! So we’ve made troves for those items to save your inventory and bank space if you choose to complete the Phoenix Ranks quests and craft them all. You need to complete a Phoenix Rank quest and earn its title to unlock the respective trove.
Unlocking one of these troves also unlocks the Ornate Classic Phoenix Blade.

Wasteland Void Invasion Improvements

Increased exp/gold rewards on all voids
Increased requirements for Void Hunting
Voids level and hp has been increased and attack decreased

How does it work now?
Every 5 minutes 8 Voids will spawn in the wasteland. A notification will let you know the Voids are invading lore. After the players defeat the Voids, a 5-minute timer will initiate on which the Voids will respawn. However, when and only when all 8 Voids are defeated, the 5 minute timer will begin to count down; incentivizing players to team-up and fully defeat a wave in order to spawn another.

Last Chance

Don't forget to check your inventory for your legacy Vengenator sword, our limited time free item for logging in during the past week.

July Monthly Promo Item leaves the Upgrade Shop on Aug 2nd, 2023
July 4th event will leave Aug 2nd, 2023
Daily Chest Summer seasonal items and Pointe Less Isle Summer content leaves around Aug 30th, 2023

Thank you and… Next!

Next week is the first week of August. Look forward to an exciting new monthly promo item in the Upgrade Shop. We also have lots of exciting things in the works like Player Housing, Guild updates, and a fun new contest arriving this Friday! Check out all the news here!

See you in game and…
Battle On!

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