Patch Notes

Below you'll find information on each major playtest release, including what's been added/changed. As we move forward in the testing schedule we will eventually switch to a more traditional versioning system.

April 20, 2017

Welcome to the first test of the OrbusVR Closed Alpha! We're thrilled to have you back with us in-game. From here on out things are going to move very quickly. If it's your first time here, please be sure to review the Getting Started guide. There is not yet a full in-game tutorial so it's important to review the guide before starting otherwise you will have a hard time playing the game.

If you're coming back after participating in a previous Stress Test, here's what's changed:

Major New Additions

• Re-tuned combat to be more appropriately challenging, especially for solo adventurers at lower levels. Generally speaking, a same-level monster should be a challenge for a solo player but beatable, and solo players should have a hard time taking on 2 on 1 or more. An elite should require 3+ adventurers to defeat. Note that some classes (such as the Ranger and Musketeer) are inherently easier to solo with than others -- in particular the Runemage is very challenging to solo unless you can consistently cast your spells accurately nearly every time.
• Re-did underlying network architecture to be more reliable for spotty Internet connections.
• Added grass to the ground
• Added the Player Compass to the game, including Party Voice chat.
• New icons for the inventory screen that actually match what they're for.
• New launcher which will auto-update your game files to make sure you're always on the newest version of the game.
• Introduced day-night cycle which is now synced to the server, so all players will see the same sky.
• Added first version of Player Housing to the game. You can enter your player house next to where you start the game in Highsteppe. There's nothing to do in your house currently other than enter it and exit it, though.
• The Warrior class has been re-worked. Now your shield can actively block all attacks from enemies and has a separate health pool which will cause to temporarily "break." Blocking attacks also generates aggro.
• Added support for long-range grabbing of items such as loot bags. If you see a white circle in-game, hold your hand toward the item and the circle will widen, then you can use the Grip button to grab the item.
• Added basic support for currency in the game. There's not really a way to get any yet, though.
• Added new Character Creation screen, which allows you to customize the skin tone, eyes, and mouth that are used for your Character in-game.
• Introduced the official Naming Policy for the game.
• In-game health bars will now always face your position, rather than face toward the direction the creature is looking.
• There is now an in-game line which will appear when another player is teleporting to show you where they are going.
• Added the new Guild City to the game world.
• You can now reach M'aat's Keep in the game world by going through the cave near the bridge to the Guild City. The entrance to the cave dungeon has moved to where the Pigmen spawn.
• There is now an indicator in-game which appears next to the player's name to show who is talking. Eventually the player faces will animate to show this as well.
• If you are using the Front-Facing setup, you can now use the thumbstick/touchpad to turn left/right in 45-degree increments without holding down the Grip button.
• If you wipe on the Rock Golem boss in the dungeon, the key mechanic will now reset so that you can attempt it again without needing to reset the whole dungeon.
• The Ranger's damage output is now dependent upon how far back you 'draw' your arrow before firing it. This is to combat the "Rambo firing" approach from previous tests.
• You can now no longer change your Combat Discipline (class) while you are in combat.
• The "Back to Start" menu option has been renamed to "To Graveyard", as it now just kills you and lets you respawn at the closest graveyard.
• The "Bug Help" menu has been moved under the Settings menu and is now called "Bug Fixers".
• The positioning of the "hand" models has been changed so that they better reflect the natural positions of your hand when holding the controller. Instead of starting "palm downward" then are now "palm sideways."
• You can now scroll through the list of nearby players if there are more than 10. Just use the scrollbar to the right of the list by selecting it with your pointer and moving downward.
• Pressing down on the thumbstick or sliding down on the trackpad while Trackpad Locomotion is enabled will now cause you to slide backwards.
• When you are in a party, you can now gain a Chain XP Bonus. The bonus begins at 1.1x and can go as high as 1.5x. You have a limited time between each subsequent monster kill to keep the XP chain going. Your current bonus is shown under your XP Bar when you look up. Only monsters that are one level below you or higher will trigger the bonus.

Major Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue preventing you from picking up loot sometimes.
• Fixed LOD issues on housing models in Highsteppe.
• If a monster is unable to path to a player, it will now immediately reset instead of getting stuck running in-place and becoming unattackable.
• Fixed missing death animations for some creatures such as the Sheep and Wolf.
• Runemage rune detection has been loosened so it should now be slightly easier to cast spells successfully.
• It should now be much less likely that you will get stuck in combat after killing monsters that use status effects (e.g. spiders).
• Fixed a bug where the Warrior's sword couldn't hit things even when it was drawn after teleporting around (server-side patch).
• Fixed a bug where some monsters would get stuck and not take further damage. (server-side patch)

Known Issues

• The burning trees of the Wenderwood seem to be missing sometimes. We're trying to figure out why they keep disappearing. :-)
• Although there are multiple graveyards per zone, you only currently resurrect at the same graveyard each time you die, rather than the closest one.
• Monsters that are on hilltops will "float" toward you instead of walking along the ground to reach you. This doesn't affect your ability to attack them but it is weird and disconcerting.