AVWW Beta 0.573 "Vital Signs Improving" Released!

[x4000]

Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2012/02/avww-beta-0573-vital-signs-improving.html

This one is mostly a bugfix/balance release, but it includes a lot of helpful items.  It also introduces three new "diluter" enchants that are helpful for getting the specific kinds of tier orbs you need.  The biggest change in this version is a host of shifts to how vitality stones work: basically making them less annoying and death more meaningful.

More to come soon.  Enjoy!

This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater itself, if you already have 0.500 or later. When you launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found if you're connected to the Internet at the time.  If you don't have 0.500 or later, you can download that here.

[Gallant Dragon]

I was just looking at the release notes for the last version when this popped up.  That was fast...

[BobTheJanitor]

Something I never saw an answer to in the last version's thread: What's the formula for unlocking new enchants? Once I got past the initial jump of getting an enchant with every pickup from what I had already stored, it seems like they were coming at random intervals. How many enchant points equal one new enchant?

[x4000]

I don't remember on that exactly; Keith implemented it.  But it should be about every 30 minutes of concerted exploration.

[freeformschooler]

The enchant unlocking system is a bit unclear to me. I've unlocked three enchants via picking up containers so far, and they're all the exact same thing: minor resilient form at 15%. Is that just random chance having a good laugh at my expense or does it take doing other things to unlock new types of enchants? The continent is only T1 if that makes any difference.

[x4000]

It's pretty much just random chance -- we may need to make the randomness more intelligent in the future, but it's pretty random what you get.

[keith.lamothe]

Odd that it gave you the same one three times in a row, but yes, possible.

[x4000]

We ought to add a rule that enchant containers will never give an exact duplicate of an enchant that the receiving players is already holding.  Something like:

Step 1: Generate an enchant at random.
Step 2: Check if they already have exactly that.
Step 3: If so, increment the loop count by 1 and go back to step 1 -- unless loop count is > 10, in which case just give them nothing but hold onto the enchant points for a later try at unlocking something.

I think something like that would work out in a much kinder fashion, and would prevent useless enchants from stacking up for players.

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, that sounds like a good idea

Of course, will have to add something nasty to counterbalance the being-nice-to-the-player.

[x4000]

Hahaha.

[tigersfan]

Yea, that sounds like a good idea

Of course, will have to add something nasty to counterbalance the being-nice-to-the-player.

If the player gets nothing three times in a row a second Overlord is added to the continent?

[freeformschooler]

I've gained two of the same ones since my last post, bringing the total up to five in a row. I also have twelve Moderate Inner Light enchants from stash room pickups. This leaves two possibilities I can think of.

-Truly bizarre luck
-A problem in the enchant seeding, maybe due to being a pre-572 world or something else entirely

I DO have one dissimilar enchant (same base enchant + Emits Light, which is equipped) which I gained from the enchant containers picked up before upgrading to 572. I forget whether I got it retroactively or upon grabbing the first container in the new version. At least I know it's not a completely consistent problem.

I like the idea of forcing enchants to differ, even just a little. But it may just be me

[x4000]

The enchants you find in stash rooms use entirely different logic -- there are only a few of them that you can find, and they don't use the general logic you'd expect.  Probably we need to make them automatically blacklist any players who come into the room who already have the enchant they are offering.  That way you're not picking up crazy numbers of duplicate stuff there.

[Toll]

Are NPCs rescued supposed to show up in the current settlement among the other NPCs? I've rescued three or four since the new version, and there are still only the original bunch in there from before I started...

EDIT: Oh, I know what happened. They popped into the first settlement, not the settlement on the continent. Onward, Mantis!

[Toll]

On a related note... Is there a list somewhere with the settlers in a settlement?