The time to ring out the old, dying world, and ring in a new in its stead is fast approaching. Changes are as follows:
STEAM
---------------
- The single biggest change of W16 is that the game now supports Valve's Steam, meaning that the game can be downloaded and played from/on Steam.
- An H&H account may be linked to a Steam account using the "Account Security" page of the H&H Website.
- If the Steam client launches the H&H client, and there exists a linked H&H account for that Steam account, it will automatically be logged in to the linked H&H account.
- If no H&H account has been linked to a Steam account launching the H&H client, one will automatically be created for it, without a formal name.
- Such a nameless account can, whenever, be given a formal name using the "Login" page of the H&H website.
- All Lore events in the game are treated and implemented as Steam achievements.
- Achievements are authoritatively tracked by the H&H accounts, meaning that if you unlink your H&H account from a Steam account, that account will lose whatever achievements it has. Conversely, linking to an existing H&H account will reflect the achievements on that H&H account to Steam.
- Some attempt has been made to integrate with the Steam Workshop, and several custom client makers have already uploaded their clients to said Workshop. Having "Subscribed" to custom clients on the Workshop will allow choosing what client to use when launching the game from Steam.
WORLD
---------------
- We speculate, with the latest hardware upgrades, that our server capacity stands somewhere between 2500-3000 concurrent players. The historical record is close to 1700. Current Steam Wishlists stand at around 5500.
- We contemplated multiple servers, considering various variants of travel between them, but we would prefer not to split the playerbase/maintain a multiple server paradigm if that can be avoided.
- We have, thus, decided, after some contemplation, to launch one, and only one, server for W16, and hopefully that should be sufficient to handle the expected launch night peak.
FOOD
---------------
- Food Hunger values have been significantly reworked.
- Each food item now has, rather than a fixed hunger value, a fixed FEP-to-Hunger ratio.
- This fixed FEP-to-Hunger ratio is maintained even with crafting buffs applied to the food item, with some exceptions made for some crafting buffs which expliclity wish to modify the FEP-to-Hunger ratio, e.g. "Propolis".
- Most foods have been sorted into five primary tiers of FEP-to-Hunger ratios, namely 5, 6.25, 7.5, 8.75, and 10, FEPs per promille of Hunger respectively. Some exceedingly rare items (e.g. "Troll Ears") belong to higher tiers still, but those are exceptions.
- A natural implication of having a constant FEP-to-Hunger ratio would be that increasing item Quality does not improve it, however, we have made it such that; while the FEPs themselves increase by the normal quality factor, the FEP-to-Hunger ratio increaes by the square root of that. The FEP-to-Hunger ratio would, thus, double at Q160. A consequence of this is that Hunger does increase with quality, however at a slower rate than do the FEPs. The minutiae of these changes could be discussed, so feel free to.
- +2 FEPs are hunger equivalent with 2 +1 FEPs.
- For most foods, this is a significant buff to their historical levels, and an explicit intention is to significantly level the differences between various foods, with the design ambition that players should largely be allowed to eat what they want to produce, rather than have to produce what they have to eat.
- Buffed "Salt Crystals".
QUALITY
---------------
- Quests no longer yield local quality increases as a potential reward.
- The quality noise fields of foragables and animals drift every new moon, with animal quality drifting faster than herb quality.
COMBAT
---------------
- Aiming with ranged weapons can no longer be canceled, meaning you have to stand still for some time if deciding to aim with a ranged weapon, hopefully enforcing more intentionality in training your aim on targets.
- Restored the old behavior by which attacks will in general imply the initiation of pursuit mode on the attack target, with specific exceptions made for "Take Aim" and "Think", which do not initiate pursuit mode if the target is in range.
- Increased IP cost of "Storm of Swords" from 2 to 4.
- SUGGESTION: It has been suggested that it would be good if the block weight were reduced when moving (as it was in Legacy). If there is some consensus that this would be a good change, it is one we are willing to entertain. Feel free to opine.
REALMS
---------------
- Provinces are now generated in shapes other than Voronoi regions, attempting to find natural borders, rather than simply being a function of distance.
- Realms may construct "War Flags" to vie for control of unclaimed "Thingwalls" during every challenge window, rather than only during those challenge windows which would apply for the Thingwall were it claimed by a Realm. This change should allow for faster Realm expansion over unclaimed Provinces.
CAVES & MINING
---------------
- Removed build preventing obstacle from around Cave Entrances in the overworld. It is now, again, possible to build near Cave Entrances.
- Mine Pyres now have some soak.
- Slightly reworked metal progression, but you'll have to find out how for yourselves.
MISC.
---------------
- Reduced default crafting timer by 20%.
- Reduced Animal feed requirements by 25%..
- Characters turning "Roasting Spit"s will finish the roasting significantly faster. The aim being to increase throughput of spitroast food and reduce the need for constant botting.
Do note that this list is not necessarily final or exhaustive. If you have pet peeves you'd like to see fixed before launch, or if there is some change stated above that you disagree with, feel free to opine!
Most changes have been left to the joy of discovery, and out of this document.
TLDR: We will aim to launch the...
W16 server @ 20:00 UTC, Friday November 1st, 2024
Enjoy!
