Emps-World Forum

Emps-World => Update Notes => Topic started by: Thomy on April 29, 2020, 07:32:58 am

Title: Updates April 29th 2020 - Farming Patches, Login Screen Rework and More!
Post by: Thomy on April 29, 2020, 07:32:58 am
Hey guys,

In this update I've added many more patches that you can farm on. I've also given spirit trees more functionality allowing you to teleport between fully grown ones. Our outdated login screen also received a little overhaul improving performance and visual feedback. Competitive Season 2 is also starting soon, have a look here: https://emps-world.net/forum/events/emps-competitive-season-2/?~22079

Farming Patches
I've rewritten the code that handles interactions with farming patches. You will now always be facing the patch you interact with. Moreover you can no longer walk over patches to ensure you cannot get yourself stuck. There's now also more plantation spawns resulting in no more empty spots. This doesn't affect any harvest rates, it's just visual improvements. I've also added about 50 new patches across the entire worldmap for plantations. All new patches being at least 3x3 in size support trees. Spirit trees can now also be used to teleport to other spirit trees you have planted. You can plant more than 5 Spirit trees but only the first 5 will be listed as teleport options.
(https://emps-world.net/img/updates/farming_patches.22082.jpg)

Login Screen Overhauled
I've reworked the graphics of the game client's login screen. It now looks similar to the elements on the homepage and offers the option to remember your username. The background and logo image loaders have also been reworked to ensure they are rendered correctly. There were some rare instances where the background image would not occur. The login process was also reworked to work in background without affecting core game logic. Meaning that if you disconnect you can still see player animations playing and move the camera. The UI however remains unresponsive meaning that you cannot click it showing you that interactions are not possible at that point. The reconnect code has also been sped up allowing the game to try a reconnect quicker and more often. Here's what it looks like:
(https://emps-world.net/img/updates_no_preview/loginscreen_rework.jpg)

Hit Splat Size
I've fixed some issues with scaling head icons and also applied the same mechanism to hit splats. They scale depending on how far you are away from the text in 3d space. This has limiters, so they won't become smaller than 80% nor larger than 110% of their original size. My aim is to reduce visual clutter in larger fights. Hit splats and the HP bar of your player now also always renders on top of others.

Item Drop System and Death Item Timers
I've received quite a lot of reports recently about people  losing their items and requesting them back through our Helpdesk. We have taken a look at some cases and on rare occasions have decided to return items because they were impossible to be picked up in time. I'm now changing that policy that we are not returning any items lost upon death unless of course lost or deleted by a bug. I am additionally changing the death item timers to 10 minutes. That means that your items lost on death will be visible to you for 8 minutes and an additional 2 minutes to other players. This is more than enough time to run back and grab your gear even if your internet connection fails you. Below's a list of all (changed) item timers: I think this death mechanic is fairer and also won't punish failing internet connections too much anymore. I know that this has been mentioned in the previous update too but I want to make sure this is seen one more time since it's quite a big change!

Watch Dog for Game Client
I've created a watch dog process for the game client that monitors the client's state and gives you a popup in case a crash was detected. It also collects information about the crash and stores it on your computer for a maximum of 3 days. This feature was created to further investigate crashes on certain computers and also collect information about what could have gone wrong. If you get such a popup please send me the file it mentions and tell me what you've done. I will have a look at it and see if it can be fixed in a future update! :)

Game fixes / changes:
Engine fixes / changes:
Good luck in advance for our Competitive Season 2! We will be showing off some of the rewards in the game from now on. :) In the next updates I will probably be focusing on a new boss and some skilling additions.

All the best,
Thomy
Title: Re: Updates April 29th 2020 - More Farming Patches, Login Screen Overhaul and More!
Post by: Helmaos on April 29, 2020, 08:42:02 am
Nice update. Thanks Thomy. I like the sound of a new boss   :D
Title: Re: Updates April 29th 2020 - More Farming Patches, Login Screen Overhaul and More!
Post by: Rotanas on April 29, 2020, 01:59:53 pm
thomy makes my heart warm by grinding new updates at these quarantine days :D
good job keep going  ;)
Title: Re: Updates April 29th 2020 - More Farming Patches, Login Screen Overhaul and More!
Post by: Sopa on April 29, 2020, 11:02:10 pm
Great Thomy! Good job man :D