Note en français
Dear all,
Here we are already in February, and here is a little note concerning the progress of the project. This Dev Diary will be quite brief and very general, but it will give you the outline of what is planned throughout this year.
Since November
Since last November, the project has generally made a good progress,
- PvE; Many PQ's made functional, the appearance of the first Dungeon, some monsters that begin to have specific skills
- RvR; the reworked roll system, dynamic siege system keep/BO
- Core developments; the approaching patcher, increased hardware capacity
Of course all this development is also source of new bugs and crashes, but it is always the case when we make progress!
We will dedicate 2018 to strengthen the project, concentrating our efforts around 2-3 flagship projects:
- Make the server more stable, track down and eliminate server crash sources
- Finish Open RvR and make a push to implement fortress zones
- Refine Gunbad and start a new dungeon
- Client Control and patching, which opens up realm locking, addon control, truly NEW content, and unlocking things not solely found in the 1.4.8 version of WAR, along with many many many tooltip updates we won't annoy you with in the patch notes.
Server Stability
This is THE project of this year. This task naturally forces us to slow down everything else, so dev teams try after each crash to understand what the core cause is, and to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. This is a long-term task and we ask you to be patient as it may take a long time before causes are found and resolved. For now, we've increased the amount of RAM we have available on the server, but this has only prolonged the amount of time between crashing, not a permanent fix.
Open RvR
The ORvR mechanics is finally deployed in its essential form. It remains some small adjustments here and there but the essential is there. Nevertheless, as announced several months ago, there are some elements to complete the picture:
- The keep claiming system (not necessarily as on the official)
- The war treasure system (resource carrier on kills)
- The war effort (guild investment)
- Ordnance management
Part of our time will also be devoted to a very rudimentary mechanic, although it has so far proven to be problematic: the contribution system.
It is possible that small adjustments are made to T1 in the wake of these changes.
Finally, once that's over, implementing the fortresses. We hope to see this before the end of the year, along with the release of Invader gear as the top-end RvR set.
We do not plan to work on capitals this year (this will probably be done in 2019)
Dungeons and PvE
Gunbad was the nice surprise of 2017 for many of you, we need to refine it now. Nevertheless, we hope to be able to offer you another dungeon before the end of this year. Submit your issues to the bugtracker so we can get all the adjustments done that are needed.
Lhéanna and her team (DB) do a great job every week that makes PvE content richer and more complete. You should enjoy a little more!
To those who are desperately waiting for the Land of the Dead, I regret to announce that - although we could open it now - nothing is planned for it at the moment. Opening a new PvE zone just for fun does not seem to be a priority. The land of the dead when it is offered to you must be something other than a vast expanse of sand or lizards and beetles have chosen home to the delight of the craftsmen.
Patcher and Client Control
We've been talking about it for over a year, and more than ever it's more real. We have great hopes in this patcher because it will drive many possibilities that we will finally have access to, like additional content (or even long-term new original areas!), managing approved addons and third-party software, introduce the concept of realm lock, allow a client location (translated quests), update descriptions and tooltips, create new items and why not new playable classes (maybe not this year) ... in short, a whole universe of possibilities. Nevertheless our priority remains and will remain to respect as much as possible the logic of the original game while pushing it's boundaries. It should be noted that this client control will allow us to work in a much more precise and powerful way the whole system of skills; which implies a possible overhaul of ALL the skills of all classes and mechanics.
To fully understand the interest we have in it, I will try to make an image that is understandable for everyone. Since the beginning of this project we are forced to make sure that the server complies with the client without knowing what the client really wants, which forces us to "cut" pieces of puzzle to "mostly ready" to meet the requirement . Having access to the game client will allow us to:
1- To really understand what it wants
2- To provide him EXACTLY what it desires
3- That it accepts EXACTLY what we want
And that will change everything.
So here is this little Dev Diary. The road is still long, but we have more than ever the feeling to make progress. We are well aware, when we read your reactions on the latest patchnotes that changes upset you, and that some of you do not always understand where we are coming from, but once again, be assured that this project is at least as important for us as it is for you. We are trying our best to make it better every day.
Yali and the RoR team.
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