This patch introduces significant changes to the Mournel tree-balancing algorithm to address community feedback. The issues we’re addressing are:
In our first Mournel balancing, large trees dropped a significant amount of Mournwood, and when this tree type spawned, it was always the only one available in Lyonesse at the time. As a result, the optimal strategy for gathering Mournwood was to form a large, uncontestable group, undermining the intended PvP dynamics in Lyonesse.
Additionally, spawn times are currently concentrated within a very narrow time window.
There’s been wide speculation about how the instances affect the Mournels. We fully agree that we don’t want any tree to be harvestable without being contested.
These changes to the trees will be as follows:
The base spawn times will be expanded to cover 4:30 PM local time to 11:30 PM local time, every day, in the region, with the most spawns happening between 7 PM and 9 PM, so the time span covered is more than double that of the earlier.
Spawn times - Mon to Sun – 4.30 PM - 11.30 PM
NA shards are set to MT (UTC-7); EU shards (including Arcadia) are set to CET (UTC+1); SEA shards are set to SGT (UTC+8)
Every day of the week will feature the same base spawns, which are all made of the small trees, with all four buildable areas of Lyonesse getting a spawn at the same time. The 7 PM and 9 PM spawns will feature a total of 8 concurrent spawns, 2 per area. With this change, a large group can still dominate a single tree if they so choose. Still, it will be impossible to block all tree acquisition for the spawn moment entirely, and the wood yield per participant will be very low, so the optimal strategy will be to go after multiple small trees with smaller groups.
The large number of spawns will also mean smaller groups are much more likely to find a tree that might not be contested at all, or is being harvested by a group they can engage. The intent of the trees has always been that there is a significant risk of PvP when harvesting them, but actual fighting is not guaranteed every time, and this update should move the needle in this direction.
Having spawns occur concurrently in four areas greatly reduces the chance of a second instance being created, which in rare cases could otherwise leave a group alone in that second instance.
Tuesdays and Saturdays will continue to be special, with extra spawns in the central Lyonesse area. These spawns partially overlap the spawns in other areas, so up to 11 trees will be spawned at the same time in the whole of Lyonesse. Both days will feature an additional medium and large tree spawn, so there is still a reason for larger-scale battles.
To accommodate the significantly higher number of spawns, the amount of wood per Mournel has been slightly reduced to 16, 50, and 160. Overall, the total amount of Mournwood that can be gathered per day and per week remains almost unchanged after these balancing adjustments.
We’ll monitor how these changes affect the overall experience in Lyonesse and continue to discuss the game's future with all of you on Discord.
Notably, we are aware of performance issues in large-scale battles and have profiled the game to identify the root causes of the degradation. We have good leads on what is happening and are actively working to fix the performance issues we’re seeing. We’re also working on additional changes to improve performance presets for rendering.