Major release – Alpha 0.1.3

by Farworld Studioon Posted on

This release introduces a new version of the Howling Valley map, that is 400% larger than the previous version. It also adds the day/night cycle feature.
Many reworks on rendering systems such as lights to improve both visual quality and performance. Another focus is on fixing several issues around interactive items that are physically present in the world.

Progress is currently capped to level 5 and Tier 1 specialization skills.
Available specs : Swordsman, Pyromancer, Cleric.
XP rate is at 300% to facilitate testing.

New Feature – Day/Night cycle

Synced by server with everyone, a full cycle is about 1h45 (1h of day, 45min of night). Several other features will be directly affected by the cycle, including events, monster and resource spawning. For this first version, we mostly want to be sure the cycle is : rotating properly, doesn’t create visual glitches and doesn’t affect performance negatively.

We have some adjustments to make on the light during the night. Some moments might be way too dark at this point, we are working on it and listening to your feedback.
For a limited time, every player will have the “Orb Of Light” Talent skill unlocked for free to help navigate during night. Other features will be added in the future as an alternative to this spell, such as potions or other items.

New Exploration Map – Howling Valley v2

The Howling Valley is a level 1 to 5 map that is in a fall season mood and sepia tone.
This new version’s main difference is its size, 4x bigger.
A lot of content is missing and level design is not completely finished, so for now, it might feel a bit empty.

At this stage we mostly want to test how the performance is going with a map of this size, both on the framerate client side and also the memory/cpu usage server side.
We start this map test by opening about 15% of it. It corresponds to the starting area of the game where monsters are lower level and easier to kill. Rest of the map will be available in futur alpha patches.

You will find 2 new types of monsters in addition to the previous tests, Wolves that are in very early devs and Horned Rabbits. Both visual designs are placeholders. Goblins, Deers and Earth elementals are also present in this area. More will follow.

New Feature – World items

Items can now be present in the world from the start (without having to wait for a killed entity to drop them), so you can now find various lootable items anywhere, making it a lot more fun and rewarding to explore. For this first test, the amount of world items is quite low, we intend to add more once the system is tested properly.

Note – there’s currently a small physics hiccup on those items when they load. We’ll fix it asap.

New Feature – Combat and day/night music

The background music will now change when you engage in combat. With at least 2 basic enemies or 1 elite one, a combat music starts. When engaging a boss, boss music is played.
Musics are saving the current playing time, so when you re-enter combat the music will continue where it stopped last, to avoid only hearing the beginning of it every time.
Each map of the game has 4 different playlists for ambient music (night and day), combat and boss combat.
The combat music feature can be disabled in audio options.

Improved map UI

Another development iteration was made on the map UI to fix bugs and improves its usability.

  • Added a zoom slider to the side
  • Maps can now display icons with tooltip when you hover them with your pointer.
  • Continent and World maps UI are now merged since it didn’t make much sense to separate them
  • Maps are now more precise and show a bit more details but the art will be improved
  • The continent map art now uses the monochrome version instead of the badly colored one as it improves readability a lot
  • The current position icon now plays a small animation on map opening, to make it easier to spot where you are
  • A fog of war will be added later to hide parts of the local map you have not explored yet

Better tutorial popups

The large tutorial popup windows, which mainly appear at the start of the game, are now much less intrusive. When you encounter a feature for the first time, the help window will appear. Once closed, this help will no longer show unless you click on the small help icon located where the feature is presented.

These help prompts can also be triggered in certain situations to explain gameplay mechanics. For example, finding a gatherable resource without having a gathering tool equipped will open a window explaining how to equip one.

Other improvements and smaller features

  • Items
    • Dropped items are now properly streamed by the server and will be unloaded if you get away from them and loaded again if you get close to them
    • Items freshly dropped by enemies are now floating slightly above ground to make them easier to find in dense vegetation
    • Items freshly dropped by enemies are now ignoring physics until you touch them to avoid them falling or rolling away
  • Graphics
    • Screen Space Ambiant Occlusion (SSAO) is now available as an alternative to Ground Truth Ambiant Occlusion (GTAO). Since GTAO is way more resource intensive, this SSAO option is best if you don’t want to hurt your framerate too badly.
    • Indirect lighting was heavily reworked. It has better visuals, better performance and can adapt to the day/night cycle.
    • Added big trees to several locations in maps
    • Emberstone design was adjusted a bit with the arrival of big trees and the addition of the Howling Valley that is partially visible from the outpost.
    • Many adjustments were made on models (level of details) to improve performance.
  • User Interface
    • The boring location name “Southern Mine” has been renamed “Emberstone”.
    • Enemies now have a healthbar displayed above their head when they are not full life. In the future, options will be added to customize this UI element behaviour.
    • The casting movement UI now shows a preview of the movement in 3D in front of you, instead of the small videos. This makes the expected movement demo much simpler to understand. The visual representation of the movement will be improved to look nicer.
    • Removed most of the casting movements since we have to re-train the AI with adjusted parameters. Only a couple of simple movements are available for now; this is temporary.
    • Adjusted the visual of many tooltips for items and skills. Some information such as the damage type or reload time (cooldown) is displayed as icons. Buff/Debuff in skill description is now a different color to make it more clear when skill applies something to the target.
    • All skills descriptions have been updated with their correct text and icons.
    • Fixed many inconsistencies with font quality and type.
    • Many minor adjustments on all UI to add tooltips, textual help, reduce aliasing and increase readability.
    • Indirect light graphic option now allows changing the quality instead of being a simple On/Off feature.
    • Dungeon icons on map and UI are now red instead of blue, to make it more obvious that they are dungeons and not regular maps
    • Gold and silver coins are no longer displayed in the inventory UI if you have none (except for the silver if you have at least 1 gold)
    • Dropping an already equipped weapon in the back like it is a new loot, will reattach the weapon to your belt instead.
  • Gameplay
    • Entities engaged in combat will adjust their position a bit better to be able to hit you in melee. Reducing the risk for them to attack the air.
    • A new server-side AI behaviour system allows us to create enemies that circle around their target. The new monsters, the Horned Rabbits are the perfect example of what this new system can achieve.
    • Added a first group of creatures that can attack in melee without weapon (claws, fangs,…), so from a very limited range. Since they are still physics-based attacks, a lot of adjustment on animations may be needed to improve their chances to hit their target.
    • Server-side AI has been improved to allow making attacks that introduce a movement. Since the server was first to check if the movement is doable (check if there’s a wall for example), it needed extra devs. We are now testing it with a few basic jumped attacks. Those rabbits really are an adventurer nightmare!
    • Enemies’ weapons can now only do damage when they are attacking. So for example, stepping on the weapon that is on the ground after defeating the enemy, won’t trigger an attack anymore.
    • Parries can now only occur if the target is attacking. If it’s not the case, a simple impact will occur without consuming the energy of a parry. This previously made melee combat complicated since the energy was consumed for no reason very easily by this.
    • Parries energy cost when the opponent is the same power or weaker, has been greatly reduced.
    • It is no longer possible to teleport to Divine Conduit or Shrine while engaged in combat.
    • Improved the way respawn and teleport positions are managed to make it more consistent. For example, using the Divine Conduit will teleport you near the crystal instead of the entrance of that map.
    • Added a physical presence to the minor elemental boss so you can no longer stand inside
    • Parries made between two projectiles are now called “Deflect”, to make it clear that you deflected a projectile with another one… Which is very different from a parry since it doesn’t consume extra energy (the energy to launch your projectile was enough).
    • A first version of ragdoll mode (corpse physics) was implemented on non-humanoid entities such as deers and horned rabbits. They are a bit stiff for now or flies a bit too easily, it will improve.
    • Enemies will now grant experience points (XP) based on the level difference between you and them. Higher is the difference, lower is the reward. For example if you are 3 levels above, you get only half of the XP.
  • Audio
    • The music frequency option is now working
    • The combat music toggle option is now working
    • When player character HP are under 33%, the character will say “I need healing”, “I’m wounded” or other phrases of the same type to notify that your health is low. This phrase will be at max repeated once every 30s.
  • Skills, Talents and balancing
    • Swordsman
      • The Slash skill was reworked completely. It now launches shockwaves with your sword. The more you charge the skill before swinging the sword, the bigger and deadlier the shockwave will be. Some adjustments to improve the feeling of it will be done.
      • The Slash skill charging cost is reduced to 1EP/s (was 2EP/s).
    • Pyromancer
      • The Fireball skill charging cost is reduced to 1EP/s (was 2EP/s).
    • Talents
      • New Talent skill available – “Orb Of Light”. It summons an orb of light that will follow you for 5 minutes, making it easier to navigate in dark areas and during night. Since the Talent UI is not available yet, this skill is automatically unlocked for now
  • Other
    • Reworked several rendering sub-systems to improve performance when using very high resolution (super-sampling). On average, you can expect +25% framerate compared to the latest version in this type of configuration. We continue our efforts to increase framerate.
    • Improved performance of birds that are randomly flying around maps.
    • Adjusted combat stats on many entities
    • If your instance crash server side, the game will now properly disconnect you in the following seconds (return you to the login screen) instead of keeping you inside an instance that is no longer responding properly

Bug fixing

  • After a successful parry, the weapon can’t damage you anymore for the current attack.
  • Sold items tooltip at merchants no longer disappear after selling an item.
  • The “Sell all useless items” at merchants is now working properly.
  • Fixed an issue with weapon-based skills that didn’t unload properly after changing specializations.
  • Humanoid enemies should look you in the eyes more consistently while fighting, unless they are very small and very close to you (melee goblins).
  • Fixed a performance issue around eyes and head animation that could create small CPU usage spikes.
  • Audio volume sliders in options will now correctly set the volume at 0% when the slider is at 0%, instead of going back to 100% (sorry for the jumpscares guys!).
  • Main UI will now close automatically on map change or teleport, avoiding the confusion of it being displayed far away (it required to push the button twice to respawn the UI near you).
  • The “Recenter on me” button on the map UI is now working properly
  • Several portals teleported on the correct map, but not always at the correct position inside it
  • Fixed a rare case of music not loading on the login screen
  • Fixed a bug that caused dropped items to not be grabbable from a distance
  • Improved readability of direction signs when they are not directly lit
  • When reattached to the belt, weapons are now oriented properly
  • Dropped items should now properly display quantity when it is higher than 1
  • Physical interaction of minor earth elemental is improved a bit; it was particularly an issue on the boss version that could be pushed into the ground too easily
  • UI animated effects are now properly hidden when they are scrolled out of view
  • Fixed a crash on the news panel of the login screen when the news server can’t be reached
  • Fixed a possible character drifting (slight movement over time) that could occur more easily when the headset is not detected, mostly on headsets that enter standby mode when you don’t wear them
  • The chat log is now properly cleaning old entries when full
  • Fixed a rare case of player character not properly generating after login
  • View should now be properly positioned on character’s eyes position instead of being a bit down (it felt weird!)
  • Female player characters voice are now correctly playing the female sounds
  • Several server crash and server performance improvements has been done
  • Items should fall under the map way less frequently
  • Parrying a projectile with another (for example, stopping a fireball launched at you by shooting it with an arrow), no longer consume extra energy
  • Grappling hooks can no longer be used from a very far distance
  • The virtual keyboard can be displayed again outside of the login screen
  • Ghost hands during the login screen won’t go on camera when the headset isn’t detected
  • Enemies will no longer enter in Evade mode if they were not stuck before leaving combat
  • Fixed a minor memory leak client side

Known issues

You’ve found an issue that is not listed below? We may be not aware. You can report it in-game (use the bug report tool at the side of the main UI) or at https://support.farworld-studio.net/. Thank you!
You can expect the next minor patches to fix several if not all, those following issues.

  • Performance needs to be improved, this is a permanent need during development but it is at the worst during alpha stage
  • Since changes on our vegetation rendering system, changing “Vegetation Quality” option doesn’t reduce vegetation density – so it doesn’t improve performance to change this option. It will be fixed very soon.
  • There’s a specific issue in Emberstone outpost that is reducing framerate (by ~25%) only in this place. This one is high priority to be fixed.
  • A framerate drop occur for a second when loading human NPCs for the first time
  • Water doesn’t receive indirect lighting, making it black or almost invisible when not lit directly
  • Ragdoll (dead corpses) physics isn’t tuned very well for several creatures (do you like flying bunnies?)
  • Following several changes in our rendering systems, Nvidia DLSS and AMD FSR don’t improve the framerate and barely improve the aliasing
  • NPC’s animations are not always fluid during the transition between two states, like running and attacking simultaneously
  • The trail effect on weapons during melee attacks is visually bad
  • Bows can launch arrow at max power without pulling the rope to its max
  • The main UI controller button can conflict with SteamVR or VirtualDesktop buttons. We’ll add an option to be able to rebind every key.
  • During the character creation, highlighted/selected colors on the UI are sometimes incorrect
  • During the character creation, the floating UI above character is square shaped instead of following the painted art style, if DLSS or FSR is activated
  • After the very first loading, players are sometimes spawned under the map and quickly teleported back to the entrance of it
  • Explored points of interest are not saved between game sessions and map load
  • When changing the casting movement for a skills, it is not saved between each game sessions and resets to the default movement
  • Fast moving/shaking weapons for melee attacks is a bit too efficient at very low levels, even if it drains your energy super fast
  • On death, player character corpse stay attached to you and slides on the ground while you are in a spirit form
  • Some trees in the Howling Valley have no colliders
  • Hand animations can be incorrect when holding items
  • Held items are not well aligned with the hand, especially if collisions or fast movement is involved
  • Sometimes the equipped weapon don’t come back into the belt slot after a while or switching equipment. It usually happens after dying with the weapon in hand.
  • Grappling Hooks can be used through walls
  • Ziplines don’t return to their starting position after usage
  • Spirit Echoes dialog bubble when touching them is displayed too far from view
  • PSVR2 adapter is currently not detected as a valid PCVR headset
  • Physical keyboards are not working in UI
  • The game launcher may display an error if you cancel and restart an update fast
  • Player character bounce a bit on the ground when going down slopes, which is bad for comfort
  • Casting movement does not work properly while running
  • NPC name position is not adjusted to the character’s height
  • During the first launcher installation, a Windows security warning may be displayed. It can be ignored for now, a fix should be available in the next patch
  • Few trees bark are too dark
  • Few items like ingots, are too dark when not directly lit
  • Rabbits belly is stretched when they die
  • Grabbing items sometime put items far from the hand and act a bit weirdly when trying to drop them
  • Grappling hook may require a too precise aiming when the player is close (less than 10m)
  • Grappling hook can shake the camera when used
  • On rare occasion, gathering tools don’t get out of the quick grab menu
  • On rare occasion, world items are not loaded properly in the whole instance and not displayed
  • Non-combat NPCs animations (hands movements while talking, expressions, etc) are stuck to idle
  • Party member healthbar don’t follow the player correctly
  • After a change in the way character moves, trying to move while looking up or down reduce movement speed and can feel weird.
  • Under yet unknown circomstances, on rare occasions, there’s a character position mismatch between client game and server, causing several issues such as monsters not spawning around you or attacking, other players not visible, items on ground/loots not loaded, skills launched at an incorrect position.

Partially available features, awaiting future development iteration

The following features are still early in development. We are aware that they look bad or unfinished. What’s available in the alpha test is only a part of that feature, we are still working on them.

  • Players Inverse Kinematic is far from being done
  • Human characters (players and NPC) are placeholders
  • Armors are mostly placeholders
  • Dialogs voice over are mostly AI-generated and low quality (with few exceptions); they are placeholders until we start working with professional voice actors, as soon as possible
  • Physics in melee combat isn’t great yet, lacking sense of impact, weapon weight and target reaction
  • Bows don’t feel great to use yet
  • Passive skills aren’t working yet

Next development focus

Bug fixing. Almost all of the previous known issues are the main focus. Then, adding / finishing those features in the playable alpha as soon as possible :

  • Finalize players’ animation (inverse kinematic) and characters height adjustments
  • Integrate the passive skills system
  • Integrate the talents system
  • Integrate buff/debuff system
  • Improve player-player physical interactions and actions visibility such as skills used
  • Improve physics in melee combat (impacts, weapons movement, feeling)
  • Party UI improvements
  • Performance improvements