Community Patch 1.60 Beta Test Release

[dimitrius154 612]

Technically, it should be enough to have the graphics20 - graphics24.zip in the pak folder. The game scans these archives, detects the "hq" folders and the "Elite" texture option becomes visible.

[WallsOfJericho 18]

5 hours ago, Recath said:

I'd like to ask how to access the elite textures, I run it on gold version on steam but I don't have the option of elite textures.

Hi, Samuel

I use steam-version too. (I have install-guide in steam)

Here is original Elite Textures (ISO-file). "Elite" texture option will become visible, 100%

Try to install it. And then - Trimmed ET, if you have any probs with them

GL

Edited October 8, 2017 by WallsOfJericho

[Androdion 875]

So guys, what's the status on the final version on the patch?

[Flix 5,116]

Dmitriy, being who he is, keeps adding features.  The latest is improving the Blacksmith skill in various ways.

I've been ready to build the final installer for what seems an eternity now but we want to make sure no more bug reports or game issues trickle in from testers.

[Androdion 875]

6 minutes ago, Flix said:

The latest is improving the Blacksmith skill in various ways.

How?

Yeah I can understand that you're trying to release the most perfect cut ever. I'll keep waiting.

[Flix 5,116]

Yes, and since Czevak is being kind enough to build the installer, I would very much like to ensure we have a bug-less release that won't require hotfixes and the like. 

Right now the Blacksmith plan is this:

Each Blacksmith Art will now gain a 3rd bonus after learning the Blacksmith skill (and/or mastering it, haven't decided yet).  Bonuses are also as yet undecided.  I'm leaning towards:

• Whet: Chance to Disregard Armor +X%
• Anneal: Detrimental Magic Effects -X%
• Enhance: Casting Speed +X%

Blacksmith Arts can now be removed from within the smithing interface.  No more having to sell the item and buy it back to clear the slot.  Of course, when removing them, this also triggers the destruction of the other socketed items, just as if the Art was a rune or jewelry.  And the Arts can in turn be destroyed by removing other socketed items.  Of course you don't really "lose" the Art, since you can forge it right back in, and for cheaper than selling and re-buying the item.

Speaking of which, the player will now have a base chance to extract an item without destroying the others (30%) - even without the Blacksmith skill.  This will stack with the Blacksmith Mastery bonus.  I'm trying to see if we can start the "Chance to extract" bonus scaling as soon as the player learns the Blacksmith skill, rather than having a base 30% chance that magically jumps up when mastering Blacksmith.  A smooth, steady progression from being skill-less to becoming a master Blacksmith would be best. 

Dmitriy is also in favor of ramping up costs of Blacksmithing.  He feels players have way too much gold and not enough things to spend it on.  He wants Blacksmithing to become a new gold sink.  If you have any notions to the contrary, now's your chance to dissuade him.   

[dimitrius154 612]

On blacksmithing:

 

There are three factors warranting changes being introduced:

1)  Default state Blacksmith Arts offer fixed general boni of limited utility. That approach hampers their widespread use somewhere around the middle part of Bronze difficulty progress. By introducing a random middle tier rare bonus(unlocked by possessing the Blacksmith skill) and a random high tier rare/unique bonus(unlocked by possessing the Blacksmith mastery) the skill begins to offer the operational flexibility, allowing players to modify their gear, maximizing properties they need for current playstyle. 

2) Possessing Blacksmith skill, or utilizing an NPC blacksmith(who possesses the skill) should be enough to be able to extract forged items, with some base chance of success. 30% is about right, all things considered. Once Blacksmith mastery is reached, this base chance is complemented by the bonus from the skill.

3) Starting around the middle part of Bronze difficulty progress players start to accumulate vast amounts of gold, as income begins to largely exceed expences, more so, if they possess the Enhanced Perception skill. By introducing the Blacksmith skill as expensive, but viable for constant use the financial balance is shifted to a more controlled state.  

[Androdion 875]

Why not have the Blacksmith skill act like Shield Lore? The more points you put into it the more your "chance to block -> chance to remove items" increases until mastery and then it keeps stacking. Except it doesn't stack with a shield's chance but with the base 30% value, and ramps up to stacking to 100% when mastered. Of course by then you won't have any necessity to keep putting points in it, unless there's an added bonus after mastery that scales too. And if the idea is to make Blacksmith a gold sink, which I wholeheartedly agree, then that bonus could be something as simple as a percentage that slightly lowers the added cost. Balance until mastery and balance after mastery, and a way that allows you to keep investing in the skill if needed.

Since you guys are working on General skills why not improve the others as well? You already made them available to all classes so why not ramp them up a notch too?!

Edited October 11, 2017 by Androdion

[dimitrius154 612]

51 minutes ago, Androdion said:

You already made them available to all classes so why not ramp them up a notch too?!

Coding specifics. What we do is limited by available functions and coding space.

53 minutes ago, Androdion said:

that bonus could be something as simple as a percentage that slightly lowers the added cost.

No incentive to use the skill often. People will be doing shop runs instead - better net result.

55 minutes ago, Androdion said:

Of course by then you won't have any necessity to keep putting points in it

Indeed. Also the property description would be unseemly.

[Androdion 875]

Ok, so the idea is to make it usable and a gold sink but only make it worthwhile to master and nothing else. If that's the case then it would be best that the "chance to remove item" wouldn't amount to 100% on mastery, so that it keeps stacking up with each added point (or +1 all skills point), with diminishing returns of course. That way the skill still becomes more worthwhile the more points it gets. I don't know the math there, but it's a matter of doing a 0-200 table like every other skill where 200 equals 100% chance (or a 70% increase over the base 30% on the toon, if you will). Something like that.

[Flix 5,116]

5 hours ago, dimitrius154 said:

On blacksmithing:

 

There are three factors warranting changes being introduced:

1)  Default state Blacksmith Arts offer fixed general boni of limited utility. That approach hampers their widespread use somewhere around the middle part of Bronze difficulty progress. By introducing a random middle tier rare bonus(unlocked by possessing the Blacksmith skill) and a random high tier rare/unique bonus(unlocked by possessing the Blacksmith mastery) the skill begins to offer the operational flexibility, allowing players to modify their gear, maximizing properties they need for current playstyle. 

2) Possessing Blacksmith skill, or utilizing an NPC blacksmith(who possesses the skill) should be enough to be able to extract forged items, with some base chance of success. 30% is about right, all things considered. Once Blacksmith mastery is reached, this base chance is complemented by the bonus from the skill.

3) Starting around the middle part of Bronze difficulty progress players start to accumulate vast amounts of gold, as income begins to largely exceed expences, more so, if they possess the Enhanced Perception skill. By introducing the Blacksmith skill as expensive, but viable for constant use the financial balance is shifted to a more controlled state.  

4 bonuses on a single forgeable item?  Not even Legendary Jewelry has that kind of power.  And there will be three such items just available at a vendor at all times?

Random bonuses on Blacksmith Arts?  How would that work?  Is the bonus randomized on opening the Blacksmith Window?  Randomized on forging the art?  People would just keep opening/closing the window or forging the Art over and over until they got the one they want.

It needs to be 3 properties max.  And the bonuses need to be set.

[Androdion 875]

I get both sides of the question. I think it all comes down to making forging "a thing" on Dmitriy's side, but if the game never offered that possibility in the first place... Call me Switzerland again.

[gogoblender 3,068]

10 hours ago, Flix said:

Yes, and since Czevak is being kind enough to build the installer, I would very much like to ensure we have a bug-less release that won't require hotfixes and the like. 

Right now the Blacksmith plan is this:

Each Blacksmith Art will now gain a 3rd bonus after learning the Blacksmith skill (and/or mastering it, haven't decided yet).  Bonuses are also as yet undecided.  I'm leaning towards:

• Whet: Chance to Disregard Armor +X%
• Anneal: Detrimental Magic Effects -X%
• Enhance: Casting Speed +X%

Blacksmith Arts can now be removed from within the smithing interface.  No more having to sell the item and buy it back to clear the slot.  Of course, when removing them, this also triggers the destruction of the other socketed items, just as if the Art was a rune or jewelry.  And the Arts can in turn be destroyed by removing other socketed items.  Of course you don't really "lose" the Art, since you can forge it right back in, and for cheaper than selling and re-buying the item.

Speaking of which, the player will now have a base chance to extract an item without destroying the others (30%) - even without the Blacksmith skill.  This will stack with the Blacksmith Mastery bonus.  I'm trying to see if we can start the "Chance to extract" bonus scaling as soon as the player learns the Blacksmith skill, rather than having a base 30% chance that magically jumps up when mastering Blacksmith.  A smooth, steady progression from being skill-less to becoming a master Blacksmith would be best. 

Dmitriy is also in favor of ramping up costs of Blacksmithing.  He feels players have way too much gold and not enough things to spend it on.  He wants Blacksmithing to become a new gold sink.  If you have any notions to the contrary, now's your chance to dissuade him.   

The moment I read the word gold sink I see slot machines in my mind :lol:... Instead of a permanent  what about a chance of  something special from blacksmith everytime he smiths ...it can be long on odds as well... a true old school gold sink with the possibility of  a winning golden ticket?

You guys can just ramp up the costs and dont even tell us if you want to..just let "talk" and whispers be the road^^

 

gogo

[klinklang40 4]

When is full patch release ? My sacred 2 is already giving me problems so I want to wait for full version to setup

[dimitrius154 612]

7 hours ago, Flix said:

4 bonuses on a single forgeable item?  Not even Legendary Jewelry has that kind of power. 

Could remove the set default ones - except for Chance for Critical Hits, they are not that useful. Then it would be 2. An the intensity does not need to be as high, as with jewelry. Blacksmith Arts should be amplifiers, not relics on their own.

 

7 hours ago, Flix said:

Is the bonus randomized on opening the Blacksmith Window?

Right.

 

7 hours ago, Flix said:

People would just keep opening/closing the window or forging the Art over and over until they got the one they want.

Like they spam shopping points in Thylysium and Griffinborough? Same thing, less tediousness.

 

7 hours ago, Flix said:

It needs to be 3 properties max.

Could be 2. But random. 1-st from skill itself, 2-nd from Mastery.

 

7 hours ago, Flix said:

And the bonuses need to be set.

Defeats the purpose. Slap a set universal modifier everyone wants - everyone forsakes otherwise interesting pieces of jewelry. Slap a set modifier no one wants - nobody uses Blacksmith Arts.

[Flix 5,116]

I realize now why I object to these changes. It's not appropriate for the CM Patch.  I'll put them in the Enhanced Edition.

[Flix 5,116]

Download link updated with the following fix:

The maximum amount of items, extracted from a stack by SHIFT+ Left Click is 50 now(used to be 20). A bug, where putting a stack of runes into an item slot would immediately reset the stack to 1 is fixed - one can no longer put a stack into an item slot.

Removable blacksmith arts and boosted chance to extract items = going into CM 1.60

Other blacksmith bonus changes = going in a mod

[Androdion 875]

Finally got a few minutes to play again, went to the Orc Cave and wow! In and out in seconds, no delays!  Finally we can do extended runs there without the game crashing or halting.

[Owl 7]

Should we install Legacy Physx driver or the newest version is fine?

Edited October 12, 2017 by Owl

[dimitrius154 612]

Should be the newest version.

[Menolly4 2]

The Scaron Boss in the Lake of Dreams in the Crystal Plane area does not appear anymore. I played this area with different characters, newly created with Mod 1.60.

Win XP, Fallen Angel and Ice & Blood disc version.

[Flix 5,116]

42 minutes ago, Menolly4 said:

The Scaron Boss in the Lake of Dreams in the Crystal Plane area does not appear anymore. I played this area with different characters, newly created with Mod 1.60.

Win XP, Fallen Angel and Ice & Blood disc version.

Is the Dragon Mage visible in the main menu?  I need to make sure I didn't trigger that bug again by forgetting to package those protected files.

[Menolly4 2]

1 hour ago, Flix said:

Is the Dragon Mage visible in the main menu?

Yes, DM is visible! Just tried to create a DM character.

Edit: Just downloaded the latest version of the patch as I read that it was updated and went to crystal plane.

Scaron Boss appeared.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Edited October 13, 2017 by Menolly4
Correction

[Flix 5,116]

Download is updated once again.  We made more changes to Blacksmithing and its "chance to extract" mechanics.

Now, ONLY damage converters and Blacksmith Arts are destroyed when unsocketing an item.  This is because they are easy to replenish at the Blacksmith's shop (if you can cough up the gold of course).  No more worrying about rings, amulets, and runes being lost.

Because having a chance to extract items without destruction is less important now, we've removed that base 30% chance we added in the last version.  Blacksmithing mastery will still grant its chance.

 

There's also a small change to throwing weapons.  Now, when you throw a star/potion/stone/dagger, the thrown projectile will have the elemental VFX just like the weapon in the character's hand.

[Androdion 875]

Won't that, in the long term, defeat the purpose of levelling up the Blacksmith skill?! I mean if with a single point in the skill you can already forge items in lower slots (ring in bronze slot, amulet in silve slot), levelling the skill will only make you spend less gold and be able to use higher level items right? Won't that mean that players can now basically spend a single point in the skill and have the best possible benefit without having to worry about spending more points in it?!

Just a thought.

PS: I'm all for correcting the fact that Blacksmith arts can't be removed from a socket except while selling the item and repurchasing it, I truly am. But I think that fundamental changes to a skill's mechanic are more Mod material (I.e. Enhanced Edition) than for a "vanilla" patch. I quite like the idea of making forging a thing with random bonuses that make you able to forge your specific armour and weapons, because it's really a cool thought. I just don't think it's something that should be made available on the CM patch because that's usually more about lesser changes. Add a few sets, items or quests, sure. But changing game mechanics... I hope I'm making my opinion clear enough.

Edited October 14, 2017 by Androdion