Hello Everyone
We hope you have all had a great week!
There has been a heap of changes and advancements here at RDBK.
There is a lot to get through, so let's crack straight into it.
Connection Issues, Fatal Errors
First, to address the progress made on the connection issues and crashes, we have since on-boarded the amazing folks at Code Wizards to help solve these issues, as they are far more knowledgeable in EAC than we are.
Once this is pushed to live servers, all we ask is for anyone still experiencing the issues to please grab these new logs and make a ticket here in the discord. This should directly be able to tell us a lot more information on the cause of the issue so we can get that fixed and behind us.
Combat
Its become incredibly clear to us that the current combat is our number one issue, its almost entirely collectively agreed that this is not it, and we have come to agree. There are many reasons for this. Firstly, the phasing and desync issues have been uncovered to be a problem systemic to the current implementation.
The skill ceiling and barrier of entry for new players is also incredibly high. Any game with full-loot and raiding is a hardcore game. Combining that with our current combat might have just pushed that a little too far for the majority of players.
So now to discuss what we have decided to do;
As mentioned, the current code of the combat is causing most of our issues. We could either spend 2 months trying to pull it apart and put it back together again, or we could spend the same time designing a new, simpler system that is more in line with what our player base wants.
However, there will still be changes to the current combat over this time. We will be using our current combat as a test bed to play around with different mechanics and find what works best for Renown.
Ultimately, we are hoping to create a system that still allows skill expression but is not be overly oppressive for new melee combat players. This way, at least they’ll be able to understand what's going on and feel as if they have a chance to enjoy the combat before being killed.
Combat Feedback
Combat feedback has also been a massive issue. Parrying and hitting players had little to no impact; at times, you might not even know a hit has been landed. We are working on implementing hit reaction animations, blood effects, camera shake, and parry sparks; these all in conjunction should create a much more punchier and immersive combat experience.
Optimization & Performance
The next major point of development work is, of course, Optimisation and Performance, both on the client and the server. In terms of client performance, we have identified two major systems that will help a lot in this regard. One being World Partition and the other being Skeletal Mesh Merging. These two systems should greatly improve client performance, allowing more players to be in one place at the same time and considerably lowering the cost of the map.
Regarding server performance and the weekly wipe requirement, we identified the current save system as the main issue.
With targeted improvements and rewrites, we believe we can achieve biweekly and eventually monthly wipes.
Optimisation and Performance is constantly a major focus of ours; we are always looking for any area we can squeeze performance out of.
Bows & Thrown
Renown was always meant to be a fast-paced game, but our bows and thrown feel slow and clunky. This was never intended, and over time, they were changed and shifted so many times that they now just feel horrible to use. We have opted to create a much simpler, faster system for bows and thrown, something that feels snappier and more inline with the game we are trying to create.
On top of just how they feel to use, we want bows and thrown to have a much more important place in the progression and PvP interactions of Renown. These should be weapons that most people use in the early game and only really become more obsolete as people are entering into full plate. We are also planning on adding the ability to throw all weapons and items that can be held.
Large Content Updates & Smaller Patches
Over the course of the development of Renown, we have had an issue with content and changes being pushed before they were adequately tested and confirmed to be working. \[/p]
We want to make sure that going forward, when we do large content updates, these are in a more polished state and are ready to be used in-game.
We have finally been able to work on implementing development streams. This is a system that allows development work to be broken off into branches, allowing larger systems to be worked on in isolation, only being pushed to the main branch once they are ready.
This will allow us to push smaller patches that address bugs and exploits as they arise rather than having to work around larger updates. This goes hand in hand with our player count. Renown relies on having a server of players for people to enjoy, it would make more sense to have larger updates that bring back a bunch of people all at once than lots of smaller ones.
Expanding the Development Team
We are aware there are some concerns in the community on our current player count and our ability to continue development. Again, we just want to reiterate that the team has never been in a better position to push forward and build Renown into what it needs to be.
We will help quell those concerns through continued updates and improvements. One of those ways we are working towards that goal is by expanding our team. Since release, we have on-boarded 2 new programmers, and are in discussion with two more who will be specifically brought on for the new combat systems.
Additionally, we are now working with Prismatic Studios, a Gold Service Provider of Epic Games. They have been assisting on any high level issues we experience.
Finally, we wanted to let everyone know MR.Z is no longer working on Renown due to creative differences. Game development is not an easy business, and it's very common for people to have differing views.
It's understandable for people to worry that this will negatively impact the speed at which we can develop. The new programmers have been getting a handle on the project a lot faster than we could have imagined, and we are back into full swing already.
Due to the above changes, we are now able to start working in C++, which will allow us to create systems that, at a base operate 10-30% faster and more efficiently than Unreal Blueprints. It will take time to move all our major systems over to C++, but at least now we can make a start.
Geforce Now
We had a lot of people reach out to me asking about Geforce Now. We went away and worked with Nvidia to get Renown up and running on that system. It should now all be operating correctly. If you experience any issues, please create a ticket and we’ll reach out to Nvidia to get that fixed up.
Patch 3.1.6
3.1.6 is following suit with our earlier comments in keeping it a smaller patch, addressing some particular issues while we save the bulk of our work until it's ready for a large content update.
The main problems being addressed in this patch are the catapult exploit fix and a new system for fixing the research disappearing bug as well as some balance changes to the treasure system.
We want to thank you all for sticking with us! I'm so excited to show off what we are cooking up.
Keep an eye out for the next “The Road Ahead” update, where we discuss some of these future systems in some more depth.
Patch Notes
Features
Added Research Menu Refresh Button (temporary research disappearing fix)
Balance
Treasure drop rate decreased heavily
Treasure sell price increased
Smithy Hammers and Tailor Kits drop rates increased
Balanced External Costs (Increased) and Health (Increased)
Exploits
Fixed Catapult Raiding Exploit
Servers/Community Hosting
Server Browser UI Improvements
Fixed LastWipeTime Incorrect Value
Added Config bUseOfficialWipeSchedule
Added Config WipeSchedulerInterval
Added Time Until Wipe Info element
Fixed Issue for Wipe Date info element
Reduced Wilderness Respawn Cooldown to 3s was 30s
General Fixes
Fixed auto attacking on exiting Catapult
Fixed Claymore blood mask
Fixed Blacksmith Bench floating slightly