What a fantastic showing by the Visionary Realms team today! We saw a brand new zone, a new class, enhanced animations and textures, and more in-depth combat systems, including some skillful split pulling by CohhCarnage. Firstly, the team was running the following group composition:
Cohh - Human Monk
Aradune - Human War Wizard* (*GM-only class, warrior/wizard hybrid)
Joppa - Human Shaman
Kilsin - Elf Rogue
Machail - Human Warrior
Zynxs - Gnome Wizard
Let's take a closer look at all of this glorious new information. As always, keep in mind this is an early iteration of the game, so almost anything is subject to change, but of course it's still very good to know what the current state of the game is. To begin, here are what I would consider the highlights - important information that is new or now more detailed:
Climate/Acclimation/Infusions:
- While under the effects of an extreme Frigid climate, your movement speed is reduced, the edges of your screen appear frosty, you take damage over time, and temporarily lose endurance over time.
- Some areas will have a combination of multiple climates at once. (Ex: some areas in a volcano could be simultaneously Scorching & Toxic, the very top of a mountain could be Frigid & Windshear, or deep underwater could be simultaneously Pressure & Anaerobic)
- There are 5 different tiers of Infusions for each type of Climate to help you acclimate to them.
- Infusions can be applied to your head, chest, arms, hands, legs, and feet. You can have a different type of infusion in each slot.
- Higher tier Infusions are harder to acquire.
- Higher tier Infusions overwrite lower tiers.
- Infusions last indefinitely (even after death) until you apply a different one. Even if you deactivate an Infusion, it remains available to be reactivated later.
- Infusions can be crafted. Some special multi-purpose Infusions may be only acquired through crafting.
Player Corpses:
- When you loot your corpse, your items are automatically equipped.
- When you die, you lose XP. Clicking "Release" brings you to the zone entrance with none of your gear. (subject to change - in the future, "Release" will bring you to your bind point)
- You cannot loot someone else's corpse.
- You can drag someone else's corpse with consent.
Perception:
- The perception system can allow you to determine a mob's disposition before engaging it. Otherwise, it will have to be discovered through trial-and-error by the player.
- Quests made available by the perception system are not focused on being a primary source of XP.
Combat:
- There are different animations for in-combat and out-of-combat meditation.
- You cannot change memorized abilities during combat.
- While attempting to meditate during combat, your character will remain standing. When meditating out of combat, your character will sit down.
- Some spells are instant-cast and can be cast while on-the-move. Others take time to cast, during which the caster must remain stationary.
- If a high level character casts a high level buff on a low level character, the effects of that buff will be scaled down so that it is not overpowered.
- Some abilities complement each other when used together. (Ex: See Rising Moon Kick and Setting Sun Kick below)
- When a mob with the Alarmist disposition is attacked, it will immediately run and get assistance from its nearest allies before engaging in combat.
- There is a chance that a Feign Death attempt can fail.
- XP earned from kills is divided equally among all group members. (subject to change)
Miscellaneous:
- Wizard familiars can aid certain abilities.
- Some weapons and armor will be able to act as a light source.
We got to see a wide variety of combat and non-combat abilities at play. We even got a sneak peek at the descriptions of several of them. Some of the exact numbers will probably be tweaked in the future, but it still gives us a pretty good idea of what some of the arsenals will be used for...
Abilities that were featured in the Monk's Living Codex:
Bandage: "(Single Target) Bandage the target, healing 3-10 points of health to target. [Required level: 1]"
Elbow Strike: "A quick strike that deals physical damage to your target."
Feign Death: "Causes you to stop breathing and appear dead to most creatures."
Fishing: "Fishing!"
Flurry Punch: "You attack with a flurry of punches, dealing physical damage with a small chance to interrupt your target's spell casting."
Mountain Pose: "You will your body to become hard as stone, increasing your Armor Class (250%) for 8 seconds."
Rising Moon Kick: "A powerful kick that deals physical damage to your target. If used within 6 seconds of Setting Sun Kick, this ability has a 50% chance to critically hit."
Round Kick: "A basic kick that deals physical damage to your target."
Setting Sun Kick: "A powerful kick that deals physical damage to your target, with a chance to slow their spell casting speed (20%) for 6 seconds."
Surge of Chi: "An explosion of chi energy that deals heavy physical damage to your target, with a chance to interrupt their spell casting."
Taunt: "Taunt your target to attack you, generating increased threat for 3 seconds. [L1]"
The Will to Live: "(Self-Only) When activated, all defensive passives will be successful for 6 seconds. [L1]"
Other various abilities that were featured:
Awaken Bravery - Cleric: increases hit points and armor class (instant cast)
Ethereal Studded Armor - Cleric: increases armor class
Grip of the Crags - Shaman: increases strength and stamina
Mental Breeze - Shaman: increases natural mana regeneration
Shadow Walk - Rogue: consumes mana while in use; acts like a Sneak ability
Shatter the Ice - Wizard: point-blank area of effect; deals damage to enemies and significantly decreases their speed (instant cast)
Smoke and Mirrors - Rogue: consumes a large amount of endurance; acts like a Mesmerize ability
For more information, click on the timestamps below:
00:06:56 - Introductions
00:09:48 - Amberfaet
00:10:13 - Acclimation & Extreme Climates
00:11:31 - Infusions
00:18:25 - Grouping up in South Saol
00:20:40 - Weapons and armor as light sources
00:21:20 - South Saol overview
00:21:54 - Animations
00:23:11 - Races & Classes available on release
00:24:51 - Group experience
00:26:05 - Wizard familiar
00:27:05 - Alarmist disposition
00:29:45 - Death
00:31:45 - Consent
00:32:30 - The Seraph
00:34:17 - Player vs. Player
00:38:07 - Group size
00:39:07 - Third-party mods
00:40:31 - Soloing in a group-oriented game
00:41:53 - Close-up of the Ogre model
00:42:27 - Ranged weapons
00:44:33 - Determining mob dispositions
00:45:36 - Crowd control classes
00:47:20 - Group compositions
00:49:38 - Two-handed weapons
00:49:57 - Diminishing returns of crowd control abilities
00:50:31 - Monk fist weapons
00:51:51 - Floating combat text
00:52:39 - Dual-boxing & macros
00:54:43 - Shaman wolf pet
00:56:44 - Leveling up by grinding vs. questing
00:58:27 - Rare & triggered spawns
00:59:57 - Decision to become a Keeper
01:02:05 - Consider system
01:02:25 - Perception skills
01:03:30 - Casting on-the-move
01:05:46 - Sneak
01:06:25 - Feign Death classes
01:06:50 - Shadow Walk
01:08:50 - Twinking
01:10:15 - Feign Death fail
01:11:18 - Mob trains
01:12:32 - Buff targets and scaling
01:15:15 - Monk weight limit
01:15:23 - Mounts
01:16:27 - Item restrictions
01:18:25 - Respawn timers
01:20:06 - Mentoring
01:21:46 - Instancing
01:23:07 - Travel
01:26:05 - Tower of the Reckless Magician
01:26:44 - Conclusion
I hope you all enjoyed! Overall, the amount of progress that has been made on the game is very impressive. And of course there will be plenty of more stuff coming our way during the next Twitch stream on Tuesday, May 2nd at 11am PDT (2pm EDT)!
To read my recap of Part 2, click here: https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/6076/-/view/post_id/110236
I also noticed that the dwarf and Arradune had throwing things. When the named was in that crag of rock the dwarf tried throwing something and missed, and in a separate fight aradune threw something at a sentry that hit before he charged in.
I like the spell effects, not too big, but still gave impressive/noticible effect. I could see myself learning quiet cues from seeing what spell was cast just by the display effects.
Mathir said:Thought Kilsin was clearly an Elf. No?
I thought he was. Either that or a very very pale human.
Awesome post! Well done. When they were talking about ranged attacks Brad started having fun with a ranged weapon of some sort.
Bazgrim said:Combat:
- You cannot change memorized abilities during combat.
Thanks a lot for the write-up Bazgrim! From your comments, that is one which stands out to me, because it is very different to how EQ worked. I hope it is not the final word on this topic. Apart from preventing "oops" moments (damn, I forgot to switch from my buff spellset to my combat spellset!), it could also help in difficult situations (for example, you see a patrol coming, but you have no root memorized).
I could only watch a short time of the stream, so I'll have to watch the video over the weekend. Looking forward to discovering more nice stuff! :)
Sarim said:Bazgrim said:Combat:
- You cannot change memorized abilities during combat.
Thanks a lot for the write-up Bazgrim! From your comments, that is one which stands out to me, because it is very different to how EQ worked. I hope it is not the final word on this topic. Apart from preventing "oops" moments (damn, I forgot to switch from my buff spellset to my combat spellset!), it could also help in difficult situations (for example, you see a patrol coming, but you have no root memorized).
I could only watch a short time of the stream, so I'll have to watch the video over the weekend. Looking forward to discovering more nice stuff! :)
I stumped over that as well, and yes loved that from EQ. And that if you didn’t have a mount to sit on then you had to sit on the ground drawing extra aggro, but a lot can happen they might change it.
However, it doesn’t work that way for actions at time stamp 15:01 in the streaming, while standing he changes his combat actions. It does however make sense that one will have easier access actions then spells you would have to memories.
But would be nice if that was make possible, but there defiantly should be a risk with it. Like you gain more aggro or you aggro distance is increase, or you simply memories the spell slower because you get distracted from the group fighting. And damage should make you stop, maybe even stun you for a sec or to.
To you Bazgrim nice recap, hope you do one for the 4.maj stream too.!
Wonderful post, thank you.
The details shown here for the first time demonstrate a lot of progress - not that we doubted this would be taking place but it is good to see it revealed.
Feign death won't work 100% of the time? Aaarghhhh how will I hit maximum level without ever dying, I RELY on feign death. Nerf this fast! Time to start a new thread.
Can't tell a mob's disposition just by looking at it from the other side of the zone? You don't .....you can't ...mean that mouseover won't tell me the mob's strength, inclination and what it ate for breakfast (probably ME before I released and came back)? Aaaaarghhhhhh. No one can play a game this hard. Any chance of a refund on my pledge?
Kilsin said:Great job Baz! :)
Mathir said:Thought Kilsin was clearly an Elf. No?
Yes, correct, a female elf and the same one I used in the first ever couple of streams :)
Edited the post to reflect that. I was pretty sure it was an Elf, but I didn't want to assume. I couldn't tell if you didn't mention it because it wasn't officially time to show off the Elf model.
Bazgrim Thank you very much. You deserve high 5 for this post, and it's well laid out content.
- I think your trying to take over Ben's job HHAH :) - Sadly i dont think it pays very well, though jking
Firstly i am so happy VR placed effort into this stream to reveal new features, and concepts. I am eager to see more.
I was very pleased with this stream, and look forward to seeing many more.
Thanks everyone.
Sarim said:Bazgrim said:Combat:
- You cannot change memorized abilities during combat.
Thanks a lot for the write-up Bazgrim! From your comments, that is one which stands out to me, because it is very different to how EQ worked. I hope it is not the final word on this topic. Apart from preventing "oops" moments (damn, I forgot to switch from my buff spellset to my combat spellset!), it could also help in difficult situations (for example, you see a patrol coming, but you have no root memorized).
I could only watch a short time of the stream, so I'll have to watch the video over the weekend. Looking forward to discovering more nice stuff! :)
I got the impression that it was just to further emphasize the need to plan ahead accordingly for where you are going. Before you encounter a fight you will have to be very careful about choosing the best abilities for it, based on past experience. Locking those abilities in during combat makes it much more challenging. But of course even in the process of changing out your spells for an upcoming journey, you could get jumped by a wandering mob and be left basically helpless. We'll have to see how that sort of thing plays out.
Bazgrim said:Perception:
- Quests made available by the perception system are not focused on being a primary source of XP.
Hey Baz ... thanks for all this! You da man!!
One thing ... when they mentioned XP from questing, I though they said questing in general wouldn't be the primary source of XP, not just the perception quests. Maybe we can get some clarification on this one.
Lghtngfan said:Bazgrim said:Perception:
- Quests made available by the perception system are not focused on being a primary source of XP.
Hey Baz ... thanks for all this! You da man!!
One thing ... when they mentioned XP from questing, I though they said questing in general wouldn't be the primary source of XP, not just the perception quests. Maybe we can get some clarification on this one.
It is my understanding that they are actually one and the same. The questing system is the perception system and vice versa. So all quests involve perception. And yes, quests are not the primary way to gain XP.
00:56:44 - Leveling up by grinding vs. questing
