Upcoming Dark and Light Patch--What to Expect

[Hači]

Greetings Adventurers! The next patch is a big one - it’s focused mostly on quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes, but there are a few cool new items and features included as well. Check it out:

Part 1 - Game Performance Optimization:


● Resolved Missing / Rainbow-Colored Textures: Resolved an issue where low graphical settings would result in missing / rainbow colored textures across a number of objects. The quality of low graphical settings still isn’t exactly where we’d like to be just yet, so we’ll be continuing to optimize it across future patches.
● Resolved an issue where creature skeletons were randomly desyncing from the server, causing major performance issues.
● Creature Collision Optimization: Reduced the number of leaves, branches, roots, and other objects around the world with excessive collision points to reduce instances of creatures getting stuck on geometry in the world.
● Building Damage Optimization: What’s the fun of buildings on a PvP server if you can’t destroy them? We’ve noticed that there are some issues with effects related to building damage and destruction. We want to deliver a real visceral experience for players when attacking / destroying structures, so we’re continuing to optimize these effects.
● Lighting Optimization: Resolved a bug with lighting effects that was causing slowdown. We’ll be continuing to investigate and optimize lighting effects to further improve performance.
● Harvesting from creatures on slopes: Resolved a bug where it was often difficult or impossible to harvest materials from creatures on steep slopes.



Part 2 - World Design Optimization:


We’ve made a few changes to the scenery around The Sacred Path to make for an overall smoother experience:

[Collision]
● Improved physics on sloped terrain.
● Cleaned up invisible collision to help improve travel while mounted.
● Fixed areas where players got stuck in the world geometry.
● Fixed the collision detection of boulders in Ironfast.
● Rewrote some construction rules to allow construction and item placement on a wider variety of surfaces.
● Smoothed out vegetation and slopes near the swamp, to help players avoid getting stuck.
● Objects in cities have been rearranged to make them a little easier to traverse.

[Interactions]
● Adjusted rain effects in some areas and lowered the possibility that it will rain inside a covered house.
● Added fire damage to magma flows in volcanic areas. Watch your step!
● Adjusted the texture of interactable rocks and boulders, making them easier to distinguish from scenery.
● Addressed a bug related to harvesting on the Floating Islands; players can now harvest there normally.
● Resolved a bug that was causing trees and grass to float above the ground without even using magic.
● It’s called The Sacred Path for a reason - optimized paths around the world to make it easier to travel.

[Graphics / Scenery]
● Made some adjustments to various terrain models and textures.
● Added altar relics in the Crescent Plains.
● Improved the textures of Gaia (the ruined planet visible in the sky above Archos) so that it looks better during the night.
● Upgraded textures on foliage.

[Gameplay]
● We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from players who feel like it’s just a little too dark at night. We’ve shortened the duration of nighttime so that players can enjoy a longer, brighter, more productive day on The Sacred Path.
● Players should no longer accidentally respawn in the lava flowing beneath Ironfast.
● Adjusted spawn points for creatures spawned from meteorites - they should no longer get stuck inside of them now.
● We added some magic barriers for caves and dungeons that aren’t quite ready for exploration yet. We’ll let players build up their power a bit before unleashing the dangerous forces held within.

If you find any bugs in the world that you’d like to report, you can press “Delete” to display your coordinates in-game. If you take a screenshot of the bug with the coordinates displayed, you can send it to our support team at DarkandLight_CS@SnailGamesUSA.com and they’ll log the bug for our development team.

Part 3. System Fixes and Optimization:


[Knowledge / Skill System]
● Reaching Ironwork Rank 1 will now properly unlock the Iron Triangle Foundation Schema instead of the Iron Triangle Ceiling Schema.
● Gathering Mythril Ore will now properly result in Dwarf Manor Knowledge experience.

[Quest System]
● Fixed a number of bugged quests that weren’t properly tracking progress. Earning 100 gold from selling items will now complete the quest wherein you have to earn 100 gold from selling items. Seems pretty obvious in hindsight...
● Reduced the number of gold coins gathered from barrels required to complete the quest “Scavenging Scraps”.

As mentioned previously, we’re going to be making a number of revisions and optimizations to our quest system throughout the Early Access period. Thanks to everyone who has provided feedback and suggestions already!

[Character Creation]
● Character animations during the creation process have been improved slightly.
● Based on player feedback, we’ve adjusted customizable parameters for each race to allow players to focus more on their chosen race’s unique characteristics.
● Racial templates may now only be applied based on your selected faction. (CONFIRM)
● The “Random” feature will now only select random values from parameters available to your selected race.
● Added a “roughness” slider for both male and female character’s hair.
● Added additional beards for male characters.
● Resolved a bug where it wasn’t possible to select a hairstyle for male characters.
● Male characters’ short hair no longer looks like Muckripper scales.
● Character creation BGM has been adjusted.
● Hair will now display properly when in a shaded area.
● Improved the appearance of hair when adjusting a character’s head size.

We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from players on character animations during the character creation process. This patch hasn’t addressed that issue, but we’re working on a fix for a patch in the near future.

[Various Fixes]
● Taming should now work as intended in single-player mode.
● Added steam achievements.
● Resolved an issue where some creatures couldn’t be tamed even after exhausting them with Rope Arrows.

Part 4 - Items:


[Weapons]
● Elite goblins now have a chance to drop Goblin Clubs!
These sturdy clubs won’t do much damage, but you can use them to quickly knock out your foes.
● Spell durability will no longer decrease when being attacked. Now only shields will lose durability when being attacked.
● Modified the damage type and damage value that sickles and Draining Spells do to structures.
● Fixed the offhand Cobweb spell - players should now be able to use it normally.
● Increased the size of the iron hammer. Now you can truly look the part of a mighty hammer-wielding Dwarf!

We’re planning on adding a wide variety of additional melee weapons and magic weaponry in future patches - please look forward to it!

● You can now craft the Polymorph spell on a Magic Workbench or in a tamed sheep’s inventory.
● New sound effects have been added to Pyroblast, Rune of Acceleration, Rune of Warmth, Rune of Restoration, Hunter’s Eye, Rune of Light, and Bursting Arrows.

[Crafting]
● At Alchemy Rank 4, you will now unlock a Reset Potion Schema. Reset Potions can be used to reset a character’s stat points.
● Resolved a bug with crafting Acid, and reduced Acid max stack size from 100 to 10.
● Added Small Soulstone Schema to Taming Rank 5 - Small Soulstones can be used to capture the souls of Imps and resurrect them, fully tamed, at a Resurrection Pool.

[Miscellaneous Changes]
● We’re aware of a bug where Bedrolls will restore their durability after being picked up. We’re working on a fix to ensure that Bedrolls maintain their durability even after being picked up, but for now, we’ve disabled the ability to pick up Bedrolls once they’re placed.
● Resolved a bug where players were unable to use Bedrolls or Beds after using them once.



Part 5. Creature Fixes and Optimization:


● Elemental cores can now be crafted in a tamed Elemental’s inventory.
● Adjusted respawn rates for Fire Dragons in Dragon’s Respite (Dragon Island).
● Gryphons can no longer use their “seize” ability while on the ground.
● Adjusted Treant attacks to better match their animations.
● Goblins are a little heavier now, and will no longer fly away when killed with a heavy attack.
● Water Elementals will now blow pretty bubbles!
● Adjusted various underwater creatures so they should get stuck less when traveling through shallow waters.
● Light Elementals will no longer drop Wind Elemental Cores.
● Bramblehoppers can now be more easily hit with standing attacks.
● Resolved a bug where it was impossible to harvest from Nidhogs.
● Hellcats / Molten Tigers now have a new running animation - their walking animation is also now slightly faster.
● Bears have new animations for walking and running.
● Fire Elemental death sounds has been adjusted.
● Gryphon sound effects have been slightly adjusted.

Part 6 - Gameplay:


[Dark Altars]
Three powerful altars exist on The Sacred Path, which regulate the transmission of magical energies between the destroyed planet Gaia, and Archos.

These altars can be found high in the mountains, in the volcanic region, as well as on the floating islands.

By finding an altars and crafting a dark, powerful item in it, you can earn a bounty of advanced materials. However, there are consequences for your dealings with dark forces - proceed with caution.

● Added the ability to craft Souls of Darkness on altars.
● Players can occupy and activate an altar by crafting a Soul of Darkness on it.

[Soul Nodes]
There are 20 soul nodes in the Sacred Path. Players can craft a Soul of Light within them to occupy them.

Adventurers belonging to the same faction as ones who have captured a Soul Node will be able to select them as a respawn / teleport point.

● We optimized the respawn map, so that players can select different soul nodes to respawn at or teleport to.

We’re working on polishing the map to make it more easily-readable than before. We’re hoping that players can make the best use of this map to respawn and teleport themselves exactly where they want to go.

[Field Camps]
● Increased the health and attack of camp bosses.

Part 7. Defense Optimization:


[Small Spell Tower]
● Improved visual effects for activating / deactivating Small Spell Towers. It’s now easier to tell when one is active or not.
● Localization has been improved.
● Elemental Furnace detection range has been improved.
● Range display has been improved.
● Small Spell Towers can now be damaged and destroyed.
● Adjusted projectile movement speed.
● Added special effects on attacks.
● Attack value has been adjusted.
● Now displays a grid when using the Small Spell Tower from your inventory.

We’ve noticed that there’s a bug with the Small Spell Tower that causes special effects to not display properly. This issue won’t be addressed in this patch, but we’re working to get a fix out in the near future.

[House Seal]
We’ve noticed a number of bugs with the House Seal failing to properly protect against hostile players. We’ll be keeping a close eye out to ensure that the House Seal properly protects players’ belongings.

● Hammers, sickles, and other melee weapons can no longer damage player structures under the protection of an active House Seal.

[Construction]
● All interactable housing pieces (doors, windows, etc.) are now easier to target and interact with.
● Added Giant Iron Gate and Castle Ceiling Schemas
● Improved models for Wooden, Stone, and Iron Windows.
● Added new icons for Castle Ceiling Schemas.
● Adjusted construction sounds.

To help players more easily defend their homes, we’re planning to implement a new structure in an upcoming version.



Part 8 - City Optimization and NPCs:


● Finally, blacksmiths Talos and Estel have found their clothes and underwear. Many NPC hair and clothing bugs have also been fixed.
● Upgraded NPC face models and textures.
● Added a new feature for guards / soldiers.
● Fixed sliding and floating NPCs in cities.
● Added NPC vendors who sell Parachutes and Gliders - these vendors can be found near the Dragon Transport in each city.
● Adjusted the placement of NPC icons, so that the icons will not overlap with their names.
● Adjusted NPC SFX.
● Increased NPC health points. If they lose sight of their target, they’ll quickly return to their original position and quickly regenerate HP. NPCs will regain 100% of their max health within 2 seconds of exiting combat.

Part 9 - UI Optimization:


● Adjusted line spacing in tooltips.
● Adjusted backpack opening SFX.
● Improved localization for a number of items.
● Resolved a bug where the game would slow down when searching through another player’s inventory.
● Disconnecting from a server inadvertently will now display the correct error message.
● Added Bestiary illustrations for Elite Goblin, Grut Stag, and Ice Wolf.
● You can now press ‘Q’ in the inventory to toggle between detailed and simple item information displays.
● Added additional tips to the loading screen.
● The quest tracker can now be disabled.
● The correct tooltip should now display when hovering over items in the secondary belt.
● Vendor trading interface has been adjusted.
● Added a new icon for the upgraded Rune of Light.
● Improved targeting reticle precision.
● Respawn UI has been adjusted.

Part 10 - Localization Optimization::


● Fixed bugged text in the Quest and Inventory interfaces.
● Fixed localization problems in the tooltips characters enter/exit cities.

We realize that there’s still a lot of work to be done in regards to polishing Dark and Light’s localization. We appreciate all the feedback we’ve received so far, and we’re looking forward to announcing additional details on our plans for localizing Dark and Light in additional languages.