State of the Game – 12/2019

Hello!

Here is the end of year State of the Game for 2019.

Overall, the game has been going great! We have attracted many new players, done RP, and started to build our community. This is only the starting point for our adventures in ATS – we have so many fun activities and events planned in the future – into 2020!

Personally, the past 4 months have been difficult due to my RL situation. I want to thank you all for your support and it is very much appreciated! Thank you! My situation is slowly getting better and I’m hoping in a week or two, things will return to normal!

A shoutout to the RP Helpers who have stepped up and really kept things active while Actinate and I have been busy. Thank you for the, well, help!

Having said all that, let’s talk about what’s coming up on the future:

  1. Ethari Elves: they are making good progress. Unfortunately, given my RL situation, they have taken approximately three times as long. Right now, I’m going to say their release to the public will be sometime in January. Early Access folks will be able to roll them up sooner, in December, for testing purposes.
  2. Gear Evo: This was slated to come out in December but with the delays, it will come out in 2020 sometime. Right now, I am projecting a release date of June 1st.
  3. This is related to item 2: along with the Gear Evo system, a rebalancing of Group Monsters and stuns was to be done. However, given the delays with everything, I still want to include these changes in December:
    1. All group monsters will have approximately 100% hit rates on players, have more HP, deal more damage, etc. Your defense will be converted to some other mechanism so it is worth while (but capped to a certain degree).
      1. The purpose of this change is to make it an absolute requirement for them to require a tank, healer, CC, and 3 DPS. As such, they need to essentially hit everyone with 100% hit rates and also deal a lot of damage such that the Tank’s mitigation matters and also requires heals.
        1. This will be an on-going balancing act so expect to see adjustments. And if you can kill group monsters without the above core make up (ie: no healer or tank) let me know know ASAP. I’ll even give you a reward!
      2. Quad and below shall remain as is today – where defense can avoid all normal hits.
        1. It is our intention to make it so small groups can always have fun and a place to hunt. This is where Quad comes into play.
    2. Stuns(Not mesmerizes): There has been a large uptick with stuns in the game in the past year (ie: Ice Mages get a lot of stuns), and moreso with the Ethari coming. As such, a new stun resistance/immunity system will be going in this week. As with everything, we can adjust things, and this is the initial design:
      1. The first stun will be at 100% effectiveness. They gain a resistance a 50% resistance for 30 seconds.
      2. The second stun will be be at 50% if during the 30 second period.
      3. If a second stun lands during this 30 second period, the target will become immune for 30 seconds.
      4. If a stun is a lower duration (say 1-2 seconds, maybe 3 seconds), it will not trigger this system.
  4. Lunar Sages(Moon Magic/Healer hybrid): They’re still in the plan and will come out after the Gear Evo system. So right now, their projected release date is November 1st 2020.
  5. RP! Actinate and myself have several Main Story Line Quests planned that will really drive the world forward to new players! We’re going to start this in December!
  6. New City! Actinate is still working on the new city. It is taking a long time because his baby simply doesn’t sleep. I’ve seen it with my own eyes folks.
  7. Blood Shaman Newbie Area! It’s almost done! Actinate said there are only 3 days of work left! But, his baby doesn’t sleep and everyone’s sick! Projected Release Date is now January 1st (baby has to sleep sometime during this right?)
  8. And with everything, we’ll continually add small features and make adjustments as time goes on, and the above plan isn’t written in stone – things will change.

Again, thanks a lot for your time and for being apart of our community! It is an honor to have you all here!

Thanks,
Day, and Act

Ethari Elves Enter Early Access!

Hello!

The Ethari Elves, psionic elves, have entered Early Access testing. This testing will be roughly 2 to 4 weeks. During that time, you will see game updates that relate to their balancing and tweaks so keep an eye out open for that!

Additionally, we will be adding the website page for the Ethari Elves very soon so you can all gain some information about them to further your RP. Some parts are going to be intentionally vague and the best way is to find more and Ethari in game and ask them questions.

 

Thanks!

 

State of the Game – 09-2021

Hello!

I’d like to take a few moments of your time to discuss a game update from Actinate and I as it has been awhile.

First off, thank you for all your continued support during these strange times. Unfortunately for the majority of us, 2021 has been similar to 2020. We are happy to be ale to offer a place where brief escapes from real life can be an option for you all. We hope everyone has been safe and healthy!

My work schedule is optimistically turning around (trying not to jinx myself here). Due to this good news, I am returning to active development of the game. My planned activity level will be several times per week. Right now, Actinate and I are discussing the best way to finish and implement the rebalancing. It will still be mostly Actinate’s focus and I will defer any specific questions to him on what to see. We are hoping to make an update in the future on this focus.

I intend to fix some lingering issues such as website improvements and making a pass over the bug forums and fixing any issues that do not deal with abilities. Additionally, I’ll be finishing the ice prison shop (including the new frost-metal gear) and the oblivion maze monster and loot.

After, my focus will be:
1. Implementing Lunar Sages. The motivation here is all the end game systems (master specs, trade skills, etc) and grouping need to wait until after the re-balancing to revisit everything and redesign. As such, it makes sense to return to Lunar Sages. Early Access folks will be seeing the initial design and testing similiar to the Ethari. The intended role for Lunar Sages is a pseudo mage-healer-buffer type class. This is phase 1.

2. Then phase 2 of the Lunar Sages: Implementing the moon Honestus using procedural generation. This is a big a project as the system needs to be designed well and then the entire surface and subsurface needs to be generated. The long term motivation of this is to create a good engine to generate various types of areas that are interesting and allow us to assign initial values. This way, we can generate more of the game world for you as we all know this is something of high interest. This will then allow Actinate and I to focus more on building interesting areas such as cities or RP areas. We can’t do both, so we are trying this.

3. Light RP. There likely won’t be personal quest lines or anything of that nature. But rather more inclusive entire-player base events. With the ending of the Helper System, we simply do not hae the capability to focus simultaneously on everyone’s character. As such, please refrain from DMing me for personal RP quests as I cannot get to them all right away and I’ll slowly make my rounds. Thanks!!

Again, thank you for your continued support and building the community. If you have any questions let me know!

Oh, and I forgot something. I am taking applications for the Necromancer class. Your requirements are to email [email protected] with the exact subject header: “NECROMANCER APPLICATION – <your character name>” and in the body include:
1. who you are in-game (ie: I’m Vidar the level 100 Human MK),
2. not be Vidar,
3. why you should be selected and,
4. a VERY detailed character description (name, race, why they should be a necromancer). You can use an existing character (it will be converted) or decide to roll up a new one. I’m looking for real effort here.

Note: This is a fair selection and the best candidate will win.

I will not announce who the winner is or when one has been selected. Necromancers rely on stealth as they suffer from perm-death.

Thank you!
Dayrinni and Actinate
Actinate and Dayrinni

State of the Game – 10/2021

Hello!

I’d like to take a few moments of your time to discuss a game update from Actinate and I as it has been awhile.

First off, thank you for all your continued support during these strange times. Unfortunately for the majority of us, 2021 has been similar to 2020. We are happy to be able to offer a place where brief escapes from real life can be an option for you all. We hope everyone has been safe and healthy!

My work schedule is optimistically turning around (trying not to jinx myself here). Due to this good news, I am returning to active development of the game. My planned activity level will be several times per week. Right now, Actinate and I are discussing the best way to finish and implement the rebalancing. It will still be mostly Actinate’s focus and I will defer any specific questions to him on what to see. We are hoping to make an update in the future on this focus.

I intend to fix some lingering issues such as website improvements and making a pass over the bug forums and fixing any issues that do not deal with abilities. Additionally, I’ll be finishing the ice prison shop (including the new frost-metal gear) and the oblivion maze monster and loot.

After, my focus will be:
1. Implementing Lunar Sages. The motivation here is all the end game systems (master specs, trade skills, etc) and grouping need to wait until after the re-balancing to revisit everything and redesign. As such, it makes sense to return to Lunar Sages. Early Access folks will be seeing the initial design and testing similiar to the Ethari. The intended role for Lunar Sages is a pseudo mage-healer-buffer type class. This is phase 1.

2. Then phase 2 of the Lunar Sages: Implementing the moon Honestus using procedural generation. This is a big a project as the system needs to be designed well and then the entire surface and subsurface needs to be generated. The long term motivation of this is to create a good engine to generate various types of areas that are interesting and allow us to assign initial values. This way, we can generate more of the game world for you as we all know this is something of high interest. This will then allow Actinate and I to focus more on building interesting areas such as cities or RP areas. We can’t do both, so we are trying this.

3. Light RP. There likely won’t be personal quest lines or anything of that nature. But rather more inclusive entire-player base events. With the ending of the Helper System, we simply do not hae the capability to focus simultaneously on everyone’s character. As such, please refrain from DMing me for personal RP quests as I cannot get to them all right away and I’ll slowly make my rounds. Thanks!!

Again, thank you for your continued support and building the community. If you have any questions let me know!

Oh, and I forgot something. I am taking applications for the Necromancer class. Your requirements are to email [email protected] with the exact subject header: “NECROMANCER APPLICATION – <your character name>” and in the body include:
1. who you are in-game (ie: I’m Vidar the level 100 Human MK),
2. not be Vidar,
3. why you should be selected and,
4. a VERY detailed character description (name, race, why they should be a necromancer). You can use an existing character (it will be converted) or decide to roll up a new one. I’m looking for real effort here.

Note: This is a fair selection and the best candidate will win.

I will not announce who the winner is or when one has been selected. Necromancers rely on stealth as they suffer from perm-death.

Thank you!
Dayrinni and Actinate
Actinate and Dayrinni