Hello warriors!

Another update is live! This week we introduced the long-awaited optimization changes which should significantly improve the client-side performance in large battles – so get ready for the massive fights on the Saturday’s Open State of War!

Moreover, we updated the Glory assists system, so the tanks and medics will now be properly rewarded for their efforts in battles! There are also numerous improvements to the Freebuilding system and many fixes to reported bugs. Check out this update and good luck in battle!

Also, don’t miss the PVP event this weekend! It will start at 10:30 PM GMT (Friday, November 15th). Join us in the arena on [Europe] Eaglewood server and fight for fame in 5v5 battles. The winners will be immortalized on the in-game monuments and every participant will be rewarded – to arms!

(The event will take place on Friday to allow the European players to join it, as it takes place on EU this time. These events can't be hosted on Saturdays as they used to due to the Open State of War on that day, and they end too late in the night for EU players to run it on Sunday evening. However, the next event will be run on the American server and will take place on Sunday to allow its native players to join it.)

See you in battle!

Changelog v.0.9.0.3



Optimization:

This update introduces a huge optimization improvement for the humanoid characters, designed to improve the client-side performance – namely in the large-scale battles – by using an innovative technique for rendering the equipment models called “3D Imposters”.

The effects depend on the PC specification so they may vary quite a lot but our internal tests showed a significant performance boost (for both GPU and CPU usage), which scales with the number of NPCs and players displayed on the screen.

Since this optimization is meant directly to decrease the overhead from multiple characters, the biggest differences will be visible while being in massive fights, like the Valley of Death tournament or State of War battles on Guild Castles.



Glory Assists:

We’ve improved the Glory assists system. From now on, you will receive Glory Points points for more actions (“assists”) taken in combat, including not only dealing damage but also for blocked damage and reviving other allies. After reviving a player, the medic will receive a share of the Glory Points this player will earn for up to 2 minutes after the last combat action taken by such a player.

Thanks to this change, tanks and medics will now be rewarded for their efforts in battles as well as the other fighters which, as we hope, will lead to more variety of used characters builds.



Freebuilding:

This update includes several significant tweaks to Ballistas requested by the Community. Until now, these siege engines were very easy to take down with bows. It caused that the defenders could have lost one of the most important tools within the first few minutes of a siege. This update solves this problem, giving the defenders an actual chance to hold a castle for a while – although ballistas can still be taken down quite easily by a well aimed stone shot from a catapult. Read below for details:

– From now on, the main buildings have more ballistas slots available to turn on (+4 on stone keep, +2 on wooden one) – you can place more ballistas on those buildings when they are at level 2 and higher (we are aware that extra slots are being displayed and can be turned on at level 1)
– Updated the default gates permissions in guild-controlled locations so only the leader and vice leader of the guild owning given Guild Castle will be able to open gates, while the other members will teleport through them; the default permissions are now being set right after capturing a Guild Castle
– Doubled the durability of stone and wooden main buildings in the guild-controlled locations
– From now on, the ballistas have reduction against piercing damage so it will be harder to take them down with bows
– Increased the durability of ballistas by 50%
– Ballistas now cost 5 Fortification Points instead of 10
– From now on, ballistas have a nation set right after being built, so players from the same nation will not be able to destroy them without enabling Friendly Fire (which will be punished with the traitor status) anymore
– Fixed a bug allowing players to respawn their ballistas during the active State of War – from now on you can turn off a ballista but can’t turn it on while the SoW is going on
– Fixed a bug causing ballistas to disappear after server restart in some cases
– Fixed a bug preventing players from placing the main building in Guild Castles before 3 minutes have passed from its destruction
– Fixed a bug causing problems with generating resources by the workers in Guild Castles



Quality of Life:

– From now on, changing the nation will reset your ranking points – this change will encourage players to take part in their own nation’s ranking rather than switching nations just to get on top of the other nation’s ranking
– Removed a map render from the arena respawn window
– Improvements and fixes in two Sangmar questlines
– Halloween changes to world events has been withdrawn



Fixes:

– Fixed a bug preventing Mentors from receiving rewards when their proteges reach the 40, 60 and 100 level thresholds – you should now be able to take the rewards via the Notification Center
– Fixed a bug causing displaying the burning building indicator on the screen even after you moved the camera out of it
– Fixed an issue allowing players to set up their “respawn point” in once visited location using an arena teleport exploit
– Fixed a bug with displaying the English names of items under non-English translations which made it difficult to use the Market window’s search engine [Applied earlier in a hotfix]
– Fixed a bug causing economic points was not returned fully to the pool, when destroying workshops of higher than base level
– Fixed some edge cases bugs in Final Battle of State of War system
– Fixed a bug causing that a player could get stuck under the stairs when leaving one of the Valley of Death tournament’s respawn points
– Fixed a bug allowing players to get on top of the Market Keeper’s platform in Baalhammon
– Multiple minor fixes and improvements to localization and UI, including improved global messages regarding the completion of world events: Ragi, Brandon, Sirius and Catacombs