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Patch Notes – 0.48 Update

Hey Folks,

Update 0.48 is here, and with it several exciting changes, additions, and bug fixes. This patch sees a complete replacement of the previous system for gaining Class Experience. As the prior system has been a pain point for players recently, we’d talk about some of the changes more in depth and our thought process behind them.

Historically we knew that the system being replaced wasn’t anyone’s particular favorite; it was largely the same system that’s been in place since before Early Access. What we did not realize was to what extent it was disliked; we hadn’t been receiving much feedback about it before Class Progression was implemented, so we thought players were mostly ambivalent about it. Obviously, we were wrong there. It seems like it was only the fact that prior to Class Progression being released, that system didn’t need to be interacted with much and so the pain points there weren’t made obvious.

Luckily, that system was a placeholder and was always meant to be replaced; we only kept it in so that Class Progression didn’t get delayed waiting on a new experience gain system to go with it. Based on your feedback though, we moved the new system up in priority and have it for you now.

With the new experience gain system, players will gain Experience by dealing damage and healing allies in RvR combat, and shared Experience will be granted from killing players and NPCs and from capturing RvR objectives. We hope that this new system will encourage group play and RvR engagement for both new and experienced players. We will be keeping a close eye on your feedback with how Class Progression feels, the pace at which you level up, and how natural leveling feels in an RvR environment.

Additionally, multiple teams have been hard at work improving gathering nodes and XP progression for gathering skills. Players will now encounter a much greater variety in gathering node levels as they explore the world. We’ve added numerous new leveled nodes, which will appear at levels 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 12, 14, 17, 19, and 20.

We’ve also updated how leveled nodes are distributed within Points of Interest to ensure that players consistently have a variety of resources available to gather, laid out in detail below:

Home Island PoIs

  • 45%* of resource nodes: Level 1
  • 35%*: Levels 1–5
  • 20%*: Levels 5–9

Contested Zone PoIs

  • 5%* of resource nodes: Level 1
  • 5%*: Levels 5 or 8
  • 40%*: Levels 10–14
  • 30%*: Levels 12–18
  • 20%*: Levels 17–20

*These numbers are approximations and actual percentages will vary due to the number of spawned nodes.

We’ve also increased the XP awarded by higher level gathering nodes. Players who seek out and prioritize the highest level nodes available to them will now progress their gathering skills significantly faster than those who stick to lower level resources. This creates a stronger incentive for gatherers to venture into contested territory in search of higher level resources and take on the risks that come with it. We don’t want crafting to feel totally detached from the Realm vs. Realm combat that is central to CU, and that means increasing both the risk and reward associated with creating the highest level items.

While we’re excited about new features, it’s also important for us to make time to polish what’s already there.

One particular area we focused on for this update is making the moment-to-moment gameplay feel better for the player. We’ve tuned how your character moves, turns, and jumps, so control should feel much more responsive. We’ve also improved UI feedback when activating an ability; the audio and visual indicators on the ability bar more accurately reflect the buttons you’re pushing or clicking in all situations. That may seem like a small change, but subtle clicks and clacks and flashes have a big impact on how responsive a game feels. Adjustments to the default ability queuing window and a fix for an issue that would lock you out of activating any abilities for several seconds round out game feel improvements.

Another priority for this release is making it easier to fight as a coordinated group. The new “Assist Friendly Target” keybind (default: T) lets you focus fire on pesky enemy healers. “Follow Friendly Target” (default: Shift+F) helps your group stay together as you roam the realms. “Stick to Enemy Target” (default: Ctrl+F), combined with the movement control changes, keeps you on target in the chaos of melee for all the sword-swinging, axe-assaulting, and mace-mashing you want. Once the dust of battle has settled, check the updated combat log for far more detail about abilities, statuses, and damage/healing effects.

Update 0.48 includes several more quality-of-life improvements worth highlighting. A big one is the addition of Respec Vendors on each Home Island, to ensure that you can experiment with and change your builds as much as you’d like without worry. All consumable items now stack up to 100 instead of being individually listed within your bags, fishing abilities are now auto-sorted to the upper bar for new characters, so they aren’t taking precious real estate away. and you will no longer be buried in tradeskill levelup notifications when you change characters.

There’s plenty more included in this patch. See the full patch notes below for all the details on XP sources, ability respecs, tradeskill progression adjustments, and more. And as always, we can’t thank you enough for your continued bug reports, feedback, and support.

See you in 0.48.1!

World Changes & Balance

  • Added a Respec Vendor that allows characters to reset their ability points for a gold cost. The gold cost will increase with your character level.
  • New player quests may now grant experience points towards your active character.
  • Updated the Combat Log to provide more detailed information on who is attacking and what is happening to whom.
  • Tuned the feel of how players move, turn, and jump to be more responsive.
  • Added level 20 (Tier 2 crafting) crafting stations have been added to keeps in contested zones.
  • Added level 10 (Tier 1 crafting) crafting stations to Home Island towns.

Class Changes & Balance

  • Updated the Experience gain system. The placeholder system for gaining Experience has been replaced with a more complete system. Players will now gain Experience in the following ways:
    • Killing Players in RvR will award Experience to your Warband.
    • Killing NPCs will award Experience to your Warband.
    • Dealing damage to players in RvR will award you Experience.
    • Healing yourself or allies will award you Experience.
    • Capturing a Keep or one of its surrounding buildings will award Experience to nearby realm members.

Audio

  • New Point of Interest music for Mines and Fishing areas in Home Islands.
  • New Point of Interest music for Camelot and Eriu Keeps.
  • Updated Vendor Music.

General

  • Added a map hotspot icon. Hot spots show up on the map when it detects players in combat.
  • Improved visual and audio feedback when clicking on or pressing an ability slot keybind (also works for empty slots).
  • Adjusted the default ability queue window to 200ms; players who had previously customized this value will have it reset.
  • Fishing abilities for new characters will be automatically sorted onto the upper ability bar.
  • The combat log now shows more detailed information for abilities, statuses, and damage/healing events.
  • Added an “Assist Friendly Target” command (/assist, default keybind: T)
  • Adjusted the behavior of and added keybinds for “Stick to Enemy Target” (/stick, Ctrl+F), “Follow Friendly Target” (/follow, Shift+F), and “Face Enemy Target” (/face, Shift+G)
  • Crafting materials now stack up to 1000. Existing stacks of more than 1000 can have items removed but not added.
  • Consumables like repair kits, food, and potions now stack up to 100.

Bug Fixes

  • Audio for speed buff statuses now Coincides directly with movement instead of a constant loop.
  • Clicking a disabled ability should no longer prevent clicking any abilities for several seconds.
  • Hodur’s Shroud will now properly contribute to the melee damage done by party members.
  • Fixed tooltip for the Blackguard’s Custom Munitions to properly display damage and area.
  • Tradeskill LevelUp notifications are no longer displaying as incorrect by one level.
  • Players will no longer be bombarded by LevelUp notifications when logging in a different character.