Dev Log

A city, a guild of thieves, and the first dungeon

• Frostgate is open. The realm's first dungeon lies under the Whitecrown, for levels 18 to 20. Walk into the blue portal and your group gets its own copy for an hour. On the main quest, Bren goes in with you: fights beside you, heals you when you're in trouble, and brings you back if you fall. Two bosses, the Rime Mother and Vaskar, and the Rimeguard set in their spoils, once a day per character.
• Learn to dodge. In Frostgate's Gate Hall, Bren shows you how: with Fight selected, double-tap a direction (or hold Shift and press it) to roll. For a moment nothing can touch you. Then practise on a few harmless rings.
• Rings on the ground. Bosses now warn you before a big hit. A light blue ring gives you 1.2 seconds to step out, a white-violet one 2 seconds, and you should always roll. A gold ring under a boss means it's casting and open: hit it hard.
• Harrowgate, the first city. Over the Kingsneck on the Eastmarch coast, the hub for levels 10 to 20. Half of it stands out on the water: stone islands and canals round a harbour basin, the Sea Stair up to the Lantern Market, and Harrow Keep on the crest with the Hearthfane cathedral and the Proving Yard. The harbour has gulls, fish, cats, dogs and rats, and people going about their day.
• Gull Isle, the mage quarter. One of Harrowgate's islands: homes of every size, shops round a crystal fountain, a park, and the Spire at the tip.
• The Thieves' Guild. Under Harrowgate runs a maze of old drains, and at its heart, a cistern hall where the guild drinks. To get in, start with Silas Wick in a Stormridge back alley: he teaches Backstab and Pickpocket, then has a job for you, Who's Going to Know. Pull it off without ever being seen for a bonus and the title Unseen. After that, somebody will find you.
• Sneaking, Skyrim style. Using a skill no longer ends your sneak. Fight stance, guarding, striking and jumping all keep you hidden. Only pressing C, being spotted, or being hit gives you away, unless a skill's description says it breaks your sneak (Backstab does, when it lands). Sprinting, swimming and riding still end it. Your gear fades properly too, bows included.
• Herbs and alchemy, rebuilt. Every kind of herb now has four fixed effects, helpful or harmful, and you start out not knowing any of them. Learn them by eating a herb, studying it in a test tube, brewing with it, or with a good eye for Herbalism. At an alchemy table, mix two herbs (three at Alchemy 25, four at 50): the potion gets every effect they share. Every brew that works goes into your recipe book under My Brews, so you can make it again with one click. Brew something more harmful than helpful and it comes out as a thrown Poison or Smoke Flask.
• Kinder to new herbalists. Below Herbalism 25, a fumbled pick just loses you the plant. No more poisoning yourself on your first day.
• A real potion book. Healing Draughts and Energy Tonics from Minor to Major, elixirs of the Bear, Cat and Owl, Ironskin and Stoneblood, flasks that last through death, Swiftness, Water Breathing and Night Eye. Aldous teaches recipes up to Alchemy 30 and Isolde Fairweather in Stormridge from there.
• Caves come alive. Bats roost in the roof, water drips into puddles, and some stalactites ooze green slime. Walk under one and a Cave Ooze drops on you.
• New in the wilds:
  • Gnarlwights: dead trees that walk, deep in the Old Wood. Some stand still among the living trees until you chop the wrong one.
  • Precious: about once a week a great sow turns up at the boar wallow. Hurt her young and watch for the red line in the grass: that's where she charges.
  • Wayside graveyards near Brackenford, on the Bog road, on the Kingsneck and under the Whitecrown, so your ghost has less far to walk.
• More to learn in Stormridge. Edda Rookwood teaches Padded and Silkweave cloth to dedicated tailors, and Ulric teaches bronze and iron arrows. Corwin now teaches you to make your own fishing rods.
• Film look (Game Options > General): a warm colour grade, soft bloom and smoother edges. It starts on; turn it off for a plainer, slightly faster picture.
• Also: arrows you buy, loot or pick up go straight into your quiver, and bandits sheathe their weapons at the hip until a fight starts.

Coming soon: the realm's final map, a far bigger island with a snow-capped mountain at its heart. It's being built piece by piece on a test world, and we'll only move over to it once it's right. Take a first look.

A walled town on the road east

• Stormridge. A new walled town stands at the ford on the road into the Eastlands: a round palisade, a gate, watch platforms, and archers walking the wall. It's the place for adventurers of level 5 to 10 to rest up before heading further out.
• New level bands. The land now gets tougher in steps. The country round Stormridge suits levels 5 to 10, and the Eastlands run from 10 to 20, with the snow plateau at the top end.
• Pets learn special abilities. Tame an animal of level 5, 10, 15 and so on, and you learn the next lesson for that kind of animal. Any pet of that kind you own then uses it in a fight, as long as the pet is a high enough level. A wolf might bite harder, howl to rally you, or go for the legs. Type /pet abilities to see what you know.
• The Old Wolf has new moves. It now uses every wolf ability a wolf of its level could, on top of its own. You'll see the name float up when it does. Listen for that howl.
• Every Silver Dragon has a name. Each Rare foe is now a unique named enemy, with a polished sheen and a pale silver glow that's easy to spot in a dark cave or at night. The glow goes out when it dies.
• Bandits walk the trails at night. At dusk small bands leave their camps and patrol the paths. Camp leaders can now be Silver Dragon chieftains, named and better dressed than the rest.
• Dying is kinder to new characters. Below level 10, the spirit healer brings you back for free, with no wear on your gear. And while you're a ghost the world turns grey, like in WoW, so you always know you're dead.
• Sneaking fades you further. Crouch and you're nearly invisible now, skin and hair too, leaving only a faint glassy outline.
• Steady aim with Ember Bolt. Stand still with an enemy targeted and the red + on it, and your bolt is much more likely to lock on.
• Carts look the part. A hitched cart sits close behind its animal, held on by two leather straps. The Cart Trunk has gold, silver and copper boxes just like your bags, so moving coin in and out is easy.
• Also: the inn's fires are quieter, cave entrances no longer let you see through the hillside, and snakes lie along the ground instead of floating over slopes.
• Launcher download fix. If a download gets cut off or stalls, the launcher now picks up where it left off, and falls back to a plain download if it has to. Its first line now reads Launcher version with the date it was built, so you can check you have the newest one. If yours is older, grab a fresh copy from the Download button.

Coming soon: Harrowgate, a city on the coast, and Frostgate, the realm's first dungeon. No dates yet; we'll tell you when they're ready.

Dragons, bows, and a cart of your own

• Silver and Gold Dragons hit harder. A foe with a silver dragon round its portrait (Rare) now has twice the health and damage of an ordinary one, and a gold dragon (Elite) three times. Cave bosses are always gold.
• They come to help each other. Hit one goblin, bandit or Kragmor and its idle kin nearby join the fight. If they can't see you, they come looking.
• Your own cart, and a bank. Wendel sells a Hand Cart and a Cart Trunk. Set the cart down, fit the trunk, and the trunk is your bank: twenty slots that only you can open. Hitch it to any pet big enough to ride and it follows you about. No such pet? Hollis at the stable sells a draft animal, and he'll send a lad to fetch a lost cart back to his paddock.
• Bows, start to finish. Corwin teaches three: the Rugged Bow from the first day, the Sturdy Bow and then the Hunter's Bow. Fill your quiver, drag Shoot onto your bar, and loose. Aimed Shot rewards standing still; Rapid Fire rewards not.
• New things in the dark:
  • The Goblin Boss now rules the Goblin Warren caves. Big, horned, and always a gold dragon.
  • Bog Creeps den in twos and threes on the mud of the war swamp. Watch for the quick Mire Stalker and the rare, hulking Fen Horror.
  • Forest Spiders hunt the woods, and white Frost Spiders the snowfields of the Eastlands.
  • Something large and winged, the Fellbeast, prowls the snow plateau.
• Taming hints. Now and then, the right choice glows. The better your Taming (and Willpower) against the animal's level, the more often it does.
• Quest marks on the things you need. A gold ! now floats over the ore veins and trees that finish "There Be Nodes", and over the herbs and animals other quests ask for.
• Gathering and crafting give experience. Picking herbs, mining, felling trees, fishing, skinning, crafting and brewing all teach you a little, more for harder work in more dangerous places.
• A bigger world map. Press M: it covers every land now, the Eastlands too, and stays centred on you at every zoom.
• Also: herbs are bigger and easier to spot, Threadreed is easier to pick, dodging costs half the Fatigue, a second action bar (Shift + 1-5), the Mend healing spell at Hester's, proper sneaking, and a message in a bottle might hold any recipe or spell in the game.

Picks, pets and a pot of stew

• Mining. Garrick teaches it and sells the pick. Copper veins in the gentle hills, tin further out, iron in the far hills -- and caves nearly always hide a vein. New miners mostly knock loose flint; the better you get, the more copper comes out. Garrick buys ore and flint, and his daily job, "There Be Nodes", always asks for something you can actually mine.
• Stone gear. Blacksmithing now starts with flint and stone weapons and tools, before any metal.
• Corwin Ashdown, the Hunter, stands just outside the gate nearest the young boars' wallow. He teaches Taming, Survival (bone gear, nets) and, for a steep price, Pet Riding. Every day he has a buyer wanting a tame animal matched to your skill: bring it back, then keep it -- or hand it over for money too. He'll mind your own pet while you're out.
• Edith Penrose, the Tailor, teaches Tailoring and deals in cloth gear. Osbert now handles everything leather. Each shop buys and mends only its own kind of gear.
• Repair kits. Leatherworkers and tailors can make kits that fully mend gear of their material, at the kit's tier or lower.
• Odo Tallow, the Cook, works the inn kitchen and buys raw meat. He wants something different every day -- chicken, rabbit, boar... and some days, for his famous Special Stew, something you'd rather not know about. Do that one for him and he'll write down the recipe.
• Fishing plays like you'd hope: cast, watch the bobber, and when it plunges with a splash, click it. There's a free rod at the end of the pier.
• The swamps got livelier: every swamp has a geyser that rumbles and erupts, and the Mire Gnats are easier to see -- and to burn.
• The Old Wolf's howl now comes from where he actually is. Listen for it.
• Party members show on your compass as dark blue triangles.

Bandits, a blacksmith, and something howling in the hills

• The Old Wolf. A huge dark wolf now roams the whole island. When it sees you, it stops and howls. If you're still close when the howl ends, it hunts you to the death. It sees far in front and poorly behind, it can't swim, and it heals fast if you hit and run. Sometimes it hunts goblins and deer instead.
• Bandit camps. Bands of two to five bandits camp in forest clearings: lookouts, thugs, knife-throwers, a leader who isn't always home, and scouts who stay hidden until you spot them or they strike. Clear a camp and loot the chest of stolen goods.
• Garrick Hale, the Blacksmith, sells arms and armour, buys your old gear and repairs anything worn or broken.
• Goblins and Kragmor now drop gear, already a bit worn. Now and then it's something green, or even blue.
• Crafting has begun: stitch five Leather Scraps into Raw Leather.
• Villagers keep daily routines: Walker practises on his dummy, Osbert works his hides, Garrick hammers at his anvil. They all stop to talk when you walk up.
• The village children now pester Walker: "Is it true, Mr. Norris…?"
• Villagers speak aloud, each in their own voice.
• Spells lock on to their target based on your skill in that school of magic.
• The launcher shows a progress bar and can resume an interrupted download.

Into the water, and something in the slime

• Swimming. Wade in chest-deep and you swim. Space swims up, Alt dives. Hold your breath and a sky blue Breath bar appears; let it run out and you drown.
• New skills: Swimming and Running. The more you swim or run, the faster you get and the less it tires you. Run out of Fatigue in deep water and you'll sink.
• The Mimic Slime. A see-through jelly full of the bones of whatever it ate, with a skull for a head. Its neck cracks like a whip.
• Kragmor tide-callers throw bolts of water, and Mage Goblins throw fire. Casters now have a blue energy bar; when it runs dry, they come at you up close.
• About one enemy bolt in three now locks on. Keep moving.
• Hills matter: running uphill is slower, downhill faster.
• A rooster crows once at daybreak. Only once. We promise.

The Kragmor coast

• New Kragmor village pieces: reed huts, stilt huts over the shallows, fishing nets, drying racks, a bone-and-shell totem, spear racks, a canoe, and a pig roasting over a real fire.
• Kragmor now come in seven fish colours, with a wet, scaly shine.
• Children play in the village, and now kick a ball around the whole town.
• Mossy cliffs, rock formations and the winter lands' ice cliffs render properly again.

Villagers who talk back

• Walker Norris at the well greets newcomers, trains fighters, and answers anything you say in Local chat, in his own voice, and he remembers you.
• Osbert Barker, the tanner, buys hides and gives the realm's first quest: Hides for the Tanner.
• Money is gold, silver and copper, and it comes from looting, trade and quests, not from every rabbit you kill.
• Critical hits flash, and fighters yell. Level up and everyone nearby sees you glow.

Death, and the walk back

• When you die your body stays where it fell, and your ghost starts at the graveyard. Walk back to your body to rise again. The living can't see ghosts, and ghosts can't deal with the living.
• A starting village is grown from the world's seed, down by the sea.
• Nine stats, points to spend at every level, and gear you can see on the character sheet.