Announcement Source Update Plans

[Seiichi]

Due to the DDoS attack that we have been dealing with since late May we had to delay our plans for the source code update as we wanted to focus on getting server stability back under control, which we mostly have now. We are still undergoing a large scale DDoS, but the load balancing and other changes we have made has mostly handled the major issues we had. We may still get a few issues once in a while, but those are generally related to the DDoS mitigation service.

Currently we are aiming to get the source update out within the next two weeks, either this coming Monday (September 21st) or the following Monday (September 28th). The initial update will include everything except the items to max or change Dragon attributes, as I will want to test them live to just verify that they work on the live server before I push them publicly; they will likely follow several days after the update, or at the most a week later if changes are needed.

We are also going to look at pushing language updates for French, Russian and German. I am still looking for a Chinese, and Japanese translator, and possibly a Turkish one depending on if the person who was interested still wants to do it.

We will also be looking at releasing the 4 dragons previously teased in the last development update (Developer Update - The coming update, and some more Dragons) and have started working on a new Dragon for Halloween.

Leading up to the update we will also be purging 1500+ shards; originally this was going to be 1400+ but we are going to wait until we can make a tool to automate checking the logs to delete only exploited shards below 1500+ (this exploit has been fixed in the source update). This was one of the things that lead to the delay, as we had to make the tools to track shards in every form that they are stored or used in the game.

EDIT: Things are looking more like it will be the 28th for the update, rather than the 21st. I got a lot of the data for the update completed, but there are a few backend changes that are needed before we can release. I am also trying to fix Shadow Cry, so that it works on more than one Dragon, but we'll see how far I get on that.

EDIT2: So I found how to make non-rare Dragons and rare Dragons have the same stats, however we will need to compile the patch and data and that will not be ready this Monday (yay for systems that are all different and spread out). The source patch will officially drop on the 5th now, as this will also give us a bit more time to make sure things are all done.

This patch is likely going to be fairly large, as it is going to have a large data update, and also some updates to binaries and shaders.

 

[dragon Blood]

do you make polish to ?

 

[Seiichi]

do you make polish to ?

There is probably at most 10 polish players on the server, and there are almost 3m words to translate. If someone who also has strong English wants to volunteer to translate it, that is fine, but we're not able to invest the time into doing so ourselves as no one on staff speaks Polish, and the cost of paying an outside company to do it would be exorbitant. We would then also start getting requests to do so for other languages, and that is not happening.

 

[Seiichi]

We're trying to get the new Dragon stats to apply properly to non-rare Dragons currently; they do some weird post-capture stat adjustments, so we're having to compensate for that in case removing it breaks something.

 

[Seiichi]

We're trying to get the new Dragon stats to apply properly to non-rare Dragons currently; they do some weird post-capture stat adjustments, so we're having to compensate for that in case removing it breaks something.

We have got this to... almost work I guess.We've gotten the upper limit to increase, but it is not in line with the rare dragons, and the max attribute item is not working the way it is intended to work on non-rare Dragons. So we are likely going to be delaying further until we get this fixed as we were wanting there to be parity between rare and non-rare Dragons.

That said, Dragon managed to fix the high texture setting for the game, so you will no longer be stuck at medium textures when playing. I also believe that Borderless Window is being added, but that may be a later patch.

I will keep this updated as we work on resolving the issue with non-rare Dragons, as that is currently the last thing we are waiting on.

 

[Seiichi]

I've updated the first post with a bit more information. We are having to delay one last time, as I was only able to finally fix the non-rare Dragon issue last night at about 3am, and still need to do a few minor changes and tests to make sure everything is all good. However this does mean that things will all be ready for October 5th, which is when we the update will now take place.

• Fixed a bug with object loading, which significantly decreases loading time and provides better performance, though not necessarily a FPS increase.
  • We've made another change that should hopefully further increase loading times and fix stability and performance, though it is probably only a minimal difference.
• Added configuration options to ignore skill, stat and talent popups when leveling up or swapping masteries.
  • DisableNewSkill = True
  • DisableTalentPoint = True
  • DisableAttrPoint = True
  • DisableBagFull = True
• Overhauling the chat system to fix many bugs, and also to add new channels.
  • We will be adding a trade and recruitment channel; these will be global channels and use megaphones the same as World chat.
  • We will be adding language specific channels, primarily for the following languages: German, French, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Turkish. We may be willing to add more channels depending on the population of that region.
• Removed intro movies when opening client.
• Removed button mash mechanic from capturing Dragons.
  • This is being done to hopefully make it easier for players who have issues with their hands.
• Increased Shard Bag to 32 pages.
• Increased Auction House to 60 items.
• Increased Recipe limit.
• Increased Friends List to 500.
  • We are also looking at increasing the room mate size, though that is dependent on finding it.
• Added new functionality so we can release items that allow for maxing out or randomizing the attribute/attribute rate bonus of a dragon without re-egging (this means all skills, and levels remain).
• Added new functionality so we can release an item that will allow changing the attribute bonus stat for a dragon without re-egging.
• We are looking into increasing the maximum stats for wild and marketplace dragons (as they use the same system). This will not apply to the egg system as they are on they're on a separate system, but the previously mentioned items can be used to get the new stats.
  • New maximum stats are going to be 9/11.70 for wild caught/marketplace Dragons, at least to start with. We are hoping that the boost in base stats will help to make Dragons a bit more viable for end game dungeons while we start looking at raising the dragon level cap, higher level dragon armor and being able to overstat or shard Dragon armor.
  • Non-rare Dragons have been changed to be inline with Rare dragons, where they are going to be 6/6.9-9/11.70.
• New Emoji parsing system similar to Discords where you do :<keyword>: dppout: for a custom pouting pillow emoji). This system is a bit more versatile as it does not have the same bugs that are in the current emoji system. We can also add as many emojis as we wish without much overhead to players.
• Discord Rich Presence has been implemented.
  • It currently shows your character name, your level and the character class.
  • It also has an option that will show your current subzone in game; this can be disabled with a new setting we have added to the configuration: DisableDiscordLocation = True
• Fixed High Texture setting in Windows 8+.
• Borderless Window Mode (this may not make it to the first actual update, but will possibly come later)

The above are the list of changes that are coming, as well as a few others that I have probably forgotten.

 

[Dryadia]

Thank you for your continued hard work

 

[DumbNFat]

Can't wait for the update. Glad to have you guys.

 

[Kitalia]

O.O so Happy ty ty ty for all your hard work hon, much appreciatied