2014 Patch Notes

Archived patch notes from 2014.

Patch Notes - 12/30/2014

Encounter Change, and Spires Goodness

Two bits of news to share:

• There was ambiguity in whether pet pulling the overgrown szithri in Abyss through nearby non-social trash was intended. Upon review of the code, it was clear that this was NOT the intent, therefore the encounter has been slightly modified. If that's how you used to pull it, you might want to adjust your strategy a bit.
• Someone upgraded the wards in and around Spires of Saitha. The sewer wards AND inside wards should now remember you once you've presented appropriate identification, eliminating the need to bring it each time. This won't show up in your keyring until next patch (it's a flag, not a true key). Please let Taryth know if any problems arise, especially inside. Until the change has been in for awhile, I'd recommend against trashing your scrolls. You know, just in case.

- taryth

Patch Notes - 12/07/2014

Monk Update Part Two

• Empowered Flying Kick base damage heavily adjusted.
• Bonus damage added to empowered Flying Kick
• Bonus damage scales with LEVEL (beginning at 50) with a small bonus from STR/DEX. (It's very small.)
• Life Tap moved to empowered Eagle Strike and numbers adjusted.
• Life Tap damage receives small bonus from STR/DEX. (Again very small.)
• Empowered Round Kick receives a small aggro boost.
• Stun / Interrupt moved to Kick.
• Ethereal Stance duration extended.
• Ethereal Stance gets a small duration boost from STA.
• Wall of Will Stance restored.
• Wall of Will Stance gets a small duration boost from STA.
• All discipline costs adjusted and tuned.

Items

• Some items had unusable Spell Ward replaced with different effects.

Tomes

• A mechanic has been added to Windstone Caverns that may result in getting Emberflow Tomes.
• You're going to have to work / explore / try things though, sorry.

- Slaariel

Patch Notes - 12/01/2014

Changes for ME:

• Just some dev stuff that you will never care about probably.

Item Changes:

• Some out-of-line weapon proc rates adjusted.
• Horok proc should be fixed.
• Many pet weapons rec-level dropped to 54 (for frogs you know).
• Many MNK-usable items have had STR/DEX adjusted (see next section).

Monk Update:

• Monks have lost most of their stances.
• Monks have lost my terrible combo system.
• Monks have lost the flat damage increase from +Hand-to-hand skill.
• Monks have gained a Discipline combat system similar to the Warrior stamina system.
• Each Monk special attack has an additional effect if used properly at >= 40% Discipline.

In AGGRESSIVE Stance:

• KICK activates a small Life Tap.
• ROUND KICK becomes an AE kick.
• FLYING KICK gains a large damage bonus.

In DEFENSIVE Stance:

• TIGER CLAW adds a hate proc.
• EAGLE STRIKE stuns or interrupts.
• DRAGON PUNCH adds a small knockback and root effect.

• A Monk attacking from the front of a target now INCREASES the "Aux-Tanking" cap for that mob slightly.
• A Monk attacking from the front of a target now ADDS EXTRA "Aux-Tanking" damage reduction.
• These bonuses stack PER MONK (up to three, of course).
• Monk Hand-to-Hand damage (weaponless only) now SCALES IN RATIO with a COMBINATION OF STR AND DEX.
• Accordingly, about 100 items have had stats adjusted to smooth out this curve. High end Monks should notice LITTLE DIFFERENCE or a SLIGHT INCREASE in bare-fisted DPS.
• ARMED monks who are Aux-tanking have a BONUS to AVOID peripheral melee attacks (RAMPAGE, etc.).
• ARMED Monks who are NOT Aux-tanking have a SMALLER BONUS to AVOID peripheral melee attacks.
• ARMED Monks who are Aux-tanking have a BONUS to MITIGATE spell damage.
• ALL MONKS are permanently unstunnable from rear attacks (permanent /s 6).
• These changes are ALL FIRST-ROUND INPUT and are SUBJECT TO DISCUSSION AND CHANGE.
• Please post comments in the thread.

Dalayan Blood Drive:

• It's over now! Thank you to all who participated and even thanks to those who really wanted to participate but didn't because they hate needles or believe that if they donate blood they will die. Maybe next time! I will hand out rewards over the course of the day; be sure to pester me if you are missed (somehow).

- Slaariel

Patch Notes - 11/29/2014

Windows XP And Below Users

For folks with XP who had trouble with 1.94 of the patcher, the new version (1.95) should hopefully fix that. Please report if it does not.

- Slaariel

Patch Notes - 11/04/2014

Dalayan.. blood drive?

Donate blood and prove it and I will give you 100 fame and a pat on the back. If you got a tattoo or something then I will offer you some consolation and advice on not making selfish decisions in the future. The awful nerd life you save could be your own!

Post proof of donation taking place between August 30, 2014 and November 30, 2014 (the official Red Cross three month window including the month of November) and I will hook you up thanks!

- Slaariel

Patch Notes - 10/26/2014

October 26, 2014 - DICE of MISFORTUNE

Are you good with the DICE? Do you want to win cool PRIZES?

This Sunday, October 26, 2014 is your chance to show your dicing skills and win cool prizes. We'll be hosting a Dice of Misfortune game at 4pm Alaska, 5pm Pacific, 7pm Cental, 8pm Eastern time, 1am Germany in Goblinskull Mountains just outside the Kaladim Gates. Bring your best dice and show us all how it's done.

Food! Drinks! Probably a bit of death! Probably a lot of death!

- Slaariel

Patch Notes - 10/16/2014

Halloween 2014 is fully live!

This year's Halloween quest is finally complete! A few caveats:

• The final event is timed, and locks out others while it's going on (and people are in the zone). Please be considerate in not tying up unnecessary time.
• While I tried hard to get the balance of the items right, I may need to tweak them (up OR down) in the upcoming days. Please be aware of this, and my apologies in advance if I need to back something down. It is a last resort, I assure you.
• If you find anything odd, such as being able to repeatedly farm things, etc., report them IMMEDIATELY. The final event is surprisingly complex, and thus I'm not ruling out unanticipated flaws. Do not take advantage of them, I will not be happy.
• Feedback on the forums is certainly welcome, and you will find additional details there.

- taryth

Patch Notes - 10/04/2014

Small Content Update

Bounty Merchants now sell boxes of pet weapons! Get your Snow Claws, Ice Rippers, and Glacial Mallets today! (Or for casting pets, Snow Globes, Frozen Foci, and Souls of Shojar!)

- Slaariel

Patch Notes - 10/02/2014

Halloween Quest 2014 - Part 2 Now Live!

Part 2 of the quest is now live. You will get an emote when you reach the end of the line where phase 3 begins.

A word to the wise - pay very close attention to the quest text, you can easily do things you don't intend by just blasting through /cm d1 all the time! Make sure you read what's going on, and refer to your journal. We won't be re-doing any "oops"es.

Also, you can now make Cured Silk Robes, though it may take a bit more ointment given its size and all.

- taryth

Patch Notes - 09/27/2014

Minor patch this time around!

• Fixed a long-standing item disappearance bug (but in a minor way).
• Fixed Maul proc rates on Blood Feast.
• Halloween content is... live? Undead? Just appearing over the horizon? At any rate there are masks to find and play with.

- Slaariel

Patch Notes - 09/17/2014

Bounty Food Upgrade

• Bounty Token foods now come in stacks of 20 and have slightly improved stats (for the same low, low cost).

- Slaariel

Patch Notes - 09/16/2014

Faction Reconciliation

An NPC has been added to facilitate the repair of accidentally trashed factions in the game in a more general version of several repair quests that already exist. Please see the Bounty Hunter area in Thurgadin for more details.

This is experimental still and extensible to a degree and is not a license to trash every faction with hopes that I will add to it because no one is going to enjoy it if that happens!

Please report any bugs or possible faction issues. Thank you.

- Slaariel

Patch Notes - 09/09/2014

Bug Fixes

• We have fixed the bug that would occasionally shoot adventure band members way ahead of their counterparts! Naturally, expect that AB members will receive slightly less exp as a result of this fix
• Fixed a bug where you could not abandon quick-camping
• Yclistian Runeward on Yclistian Rod of Primacy should actually work now!!
• Related to the above, certain blind bugs (such as not becoming un-blind after the spell expires) may also now be fixed, though these can be tough to test. Some fights, such as those in Shadowdale, may see an improvement as a result. Please provide some feedback on whether things look better there

Enhancements

• COH will work in raids as well as groups now

- taryth

Patch Notes - 08/24/2014

Critical hit/blast messages will now show for your own character regardless of distance whereas previously they were limited to 100 range. This should allow for more accurate parsing of critical damage. Additionally, the maximum range for other characters has been raised to 200.

- Jumbers

Patch Notes - 08/10/2014

BUG FIXES:

• People should land critical spells more normally again
• Dual-spells like Cryotoxin should be appropriately mimickable.

NEW CONTENT:

• Mielech's Laboratory open for first-looks. Expect bugs and changes as usual.

Have a great day!

- Slaariel

Patch Notes - 06/14/2014

More User Friendliness!

Dev-Taryth has put in the following work:

• You can now camp more quickly in safe zones like cities, assuming there is no war, you have no aggro and you are not PVP flagged. Be aware it will still say 30 seconds (though it is actually 10, you will get a message you feel safe), and at the end you will get a disconnect instead of a clean exit, though this should not affect anything. It's just a limitation of the 2.0 client sadly.
• Two new commands, /cm refreshgroup and /cm refreshraid have been put in to make fixing group/raid bugs a bit less annoying. This is a temporary fix until 2.5 where groups/raids are completely redone.

THANKS!

- Slaariel

Patch Notes - 06/14/2014

Codex of Power Change

Instead of the horrible grind through 550 AA worth of book to get your Codex of Power bonus, the power increase has been added innately based on the number of AA you funnel into other tomes. Every 88AA you spend on other tomes contributes the equivalent of one previous CoP up to a total of 440AA (5 CoP). All AA previously spent on Codex of Power tomes have been refunded and made available to spend on other tomes (or, if we add more AAs later, I will make them available for that). Visit Avilus the Librarian in Erimal to start filling up your books today!

- Slaariel

Patch Notes - 05/22/2014

• GOE has had its AE radius quadrupled
• GOE has had its duration doubled
• Druid Legacy of Blades has had its base duration doubled
• Druids now have a single target wolf form available: Shared Wolf Form. The *old* Share Wolf Form (group) has been renamed Pack Wolf Form
• Clerics have access to group divine benevolence (level 64). It is dropped just like the single target form. It is only usable out of combat, and requires 2 opals to cast
• Rangers now gain access to the Soothe spell at 44
• Talisman of the Brute has been changed to use the correct targetting type, meaning buffbots can actually cast it now
• NPCs will now return items you are attempting to trade to them if they depop

- Jumbers

Patch Notes - 05/16/2014

• Wizard familiars will now cancel an actively casting heal if they want to mimic a nuke.
• Rains once again have 1/3rd the chance to crit on players which matches the chance against NPCs.
• Hates Fury 6 man should no longer cause people to become trapped while zoning in.

- Jumbers

Patch Notes - 04/09/2014

Scheduled Server Maintenance

Update: The maintenance is now complete.

There will be scheduled downtime 9:30 PM EST for a minimum of 1.5-2 hours on April 10th, 2014.

During this downtime we will be retiring our current server and upgrading to a more powerful one. This will allow us to better host the 2.5 beta as we begin to expand it, and also hopefully cut down on lag and zoning times across the board.

Feel free to hang out with us in IRC during the transfer! Of course, if you really are having withdrawals, you can play the official Shards of Dalaya Offline Edition here.

- Woldaff

Patch Notes - 04/01/2014

Targeting Rings and Graphics Tearing

The two biggest graphic bugs in Shards of Dalaya history have been fixed. Radeon graphics cards should now properly show the targeting ring, and NPC models should no longer tear when in first person using an NVidea card. Rejoice!

Thanks go to "SoDQuester2" on the SoD forums. Be sure to bask him in adulation.

P.S. This is not a joke - just ironic timing. Patch and log in to see for yourself!

- Woldaff

Patch Notes - 04/01/2014

Track Bots:

There has long been a problem with older players utilizing armies of track bots to gain an advantage when racing younger guilds to raid events. We have decided to take action to address this in a way that is fair to players of all levels.

There is now a channel in game that shows two things. First, a message is broadcast whenever a raid boss is killed showing who it was killed by and what time and date it will respawn. Second, whenever a raid boss respawns, a message will also be broadcast.

In addition to the messages, you can also see a list of all mob spawntimes by typing /cmd oracle.

We think this is a fairer system than banning track bots or imposing a guild rotation on raid events. Although the new messages are on by default, you can turn them off with "/cmd hidekills on".

Generic/Archtype/Class Tomes:

We have taken all non-raid tomes that were Ikisith exclusive and have added them to group experience zones throughout the game. Generally, the relationship between the difficulty of an experience area and the rank of tomes they drop has been preserved.

Keep in mind that not all tomes were added to all zones, and that some of the easier zones may have only had tomes added to the harder area of the zone. The following zones have had tomes added to them:

• Catacombs of Elthannar
• Cyrtho Malath
• Everchill Caverns
• Fire Grotto
• First Ruins
• Highkeep
• Kedge Keep
• The Deepshade
• The Rust
• Windstone Caverns

New Area Bonus:

The amount of experience gain required to reset the New Area Bonus has been decreased by a third. Further, the time a player spends with no bonus before going negative has been substantially lengthened.

We are looking to adding in a way to purchase an early reset to your bonus with platinum in the future. Stay tuned for this in the next couple of weeks.

Highkeep:

In addition to the addition of tomes, parts of Highkeep are getting a small revamp.

• The dungeon area of the zone has had its spawn timer reduced by about a third. In addition to this, many new spawn locations have also been added. The staff hopes that this change will make the basement area a legitimate place to experience without the current problem of constantly running out of appropriate things to kill.
• Finally, next patch the basement area of the zone will be populated with new content, including a new named encounter. (Expect this Tuesday or Wed.)

Zone Experience Modifiers:

• The Deep, Kedge Keep and Runnyeye have had their experience modifiers moderately increased.

Bounty Rewards:

• Nearly all Thurgadin Bounty rewards have been given small increases in power. We hope to also add in more equipment slot options to the bounty system in the next few weeks.

- Woldaff

Patch Notes - 03/14/2014

Tower of Tarhyl:

• Quest pieces for tribal weapons now drop rarely from all chests instead of just "elaborate" chests.

- Woldaff

Patch Notes - 02/13/2014

Sense the Dead works properly now. I ASSURE YOU.

- Jumbers

Patch Notes - 01/29/2014

Things And Stuff:

• Rootfruit now exists. Are you a bad enough dude to find it?
• Bard AA innate proc from Sonic Blades now works while casting your songs.
• Spiders are no longer Reptiles nor Amphibians.

- Jumbers

Patch Notes - 01/22/2014

Welcome to Windstone Caverns

Shards of Dalaya's newest 6-man dungeon goes live after a good testing session over MLK/REL/Civil Rights/Confederate Memorial weekend! Come with your friends (Tier 9-ish) and explore the dark and probably tragic results of a once-promising colonization effort from long ago.

Updates from last test weeked:

• 15% Zone Experience Modifier added.
• Cash drops increased slightly.
• Bridge repaired (there is still some construction being done, though!)

Have fun!

- Slaariel

Patch Notes - 01/08/2014

Bugfix Bonanza:

• Dreadsilk actually really exists for really real now, I promise.
• Cascading Bond no longer causes the enchanter to die 87.5% faster at maximum rank!
• A bunch of people received fame for dialog errors and other stuff like that, so /bug them if you find them.

- Jumbers