Developer Log - September 2023
Another month has both arrived and now about to leave, which means it is time for the latest Developer Log, giving you a brief update of many of the more interesting things we have been working on. Please keep in mind that this is not everything that has received developer or designer touch, and only a small snippet.
Endgame Gearing & Itemization
Alongside this month's developer log we also are releasing a blog post going into detail regarding our plans for itemization at endgame, and how gear will be aquired.
You can read the post at this link.
The Secret Life of Pets
Throughout Beta 1 and Beta 2, player pets of all types for Warlocks, Hunters, and even Mage Water Elemental, have been, to put it simply, broken in numerous ways. This essentially came down to fundamental issues with how they have been historically implemented core-side, and we have spent many months researching and investigating not only how it currently works but how it should work. During this time, we've applied temporary auras to try and nerf them and keep them in line; however, we believe that we have reached a point where this is no longer needed.
This is due to fundamental rewrites and essentially a ground up gutting of how pet stats and abilities work within our core and the data provided to it.
Warlocks
During Vanilla and the Burning Crusade, not only did Warlock pets such as Imp, Felhound, Voidwalker, etc. have differing/adjusted abilities, but they had a fundamentally different means of acquiring new abilities via the Grimoires and Demon Trainer system. In Wrath of the Lich King, this was essentially removed and simplified, and by proxy, was missing here on Project Epoch.
All Warlock Pet abilities have now been successfully restored using TBC Classic data, which fixes numerous reported issues within both betas. Alongside this, we are happy to say that we have restored the Grimoire system for acquiring Warlock pet abilities, re-adding a key part of the class's role-play and identity.
Hunters
All Hunter pets have had their abilities reverted to a 2.4.3 Burning Crusade state. Charge, Dive, and Dash are no longer included in the Pet Talent Tree due to this fix.
Pets no longer gain resistances every level passively. Resistances gained in the Pet Talent Tree have been increased from 30/60/80 to 50/95/140 to accommodate this, bringing the Pet Talent Tree closer to the values of 2.4.3 Beast Training.
Hunter Pets now have unique modifiers, ranging from -10% to +10%, across their Damage, Armor, and Health based on their pet family, just like they did during The Burning Crusade. For example, Raptors have +10% Damage, +3% Armor, and -5% Health. Moths have also received a new custom modifier, as they did not exist during Vanilla.
Related to the above, Hunter Pets are no longer incorrectly affected by a hidden effect that increased their Damage, Armor, and Health by 10%.
Alongside the above, selecting a talent that affects your pet no longer causes your pet to despawn and respawn instantly. This was because pets were not automatically re-generating their stats when their level changed or a talent chosen by the Hunter was gained or lost. They now correctly do.
Moody Nights and Reworked Lighting
Epoch Time is one of the features we're most proud of, both in how it has been received and how stable it has been throughout all of our betas. We always knew that we wanted to iterate on this concept, and now that nights are both shorter and more common on Project Epoch we have the ability to do so.
Since early on in Vanilla, community-driven patches that make nights radically darker have existed and are in active, yet optional, usage on other projects. While we do like that patch as a concept, we felt that it simply goes too dark and loses some of the visual identity of each zone that it functions in.
Thankfully, our art legend Intra has been cooking away purely based on their own passion, to create an overhauled lighting profile for every zone within Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. This overhaul not only makes them darker at night, but provides further flare in tone, fog density, and more.
This not only impacts deep night, but includes reworks to dusk and dawn lighting to bring you awe inspiring new views of the world that we all love.
Below is a very small direct comparison of the stock Vanilla lighting, and the updated lighting that all users will experience on Project Epoch. We of course cannot show all of it in huge detail, but we hope that the proof will be in the pudding once you all get to experience the changes in real-time during Beta 3 and the live environment.
Professions
Professions are an integral part of the game, and some of our work this month has been focused on continuing our additions to them in the form of new skills and recipes. A variety of items have been added to every crafting profession, including Engineering and Enchanting.
In total, over 25 new profession items have been added to the 45-60 bracket so far. We are also carefully working on end-game recipes that will be available from max-level instances, quests, and raids as well. Below you can find a small sample of new crafts currently added to the various professions on Project Epoch, with plenty more awaiting you in-game.
Expanded Gathering
From Beta 3 onwards, we are happy to report that Mining, Herbalism, and Engineering have all been expanded to essentially bring the TBC+ behavior of extended gathering down to a Vanilla world. This means that for Miners, you will be able to mine all Earth Elementals, Earth Giants, and Molten Giants within the world level-appropriate Mining loot, with a reduced chance to get outright ore compared to a normal vein.
Alongside the above, Herbalists will be able to utilize their skills in a similar way to gain herbs and other reagents from various plant-based creatures within the world. We also could not forget Engineering, with their capacity to Salvage from Mechanical creatures. We look forward to seeing how this feels in future betas and launch, and how it might mix up the economy long term.
Map Updates
Once again, we'd like to extend our appreciation to the community member Toscar, who has been working behind the scenes to update the world maps in various zones to reflect the new changes on Project Epoch. This includes entirely new maps for Tol Barad, alongside edits to the original exploration maps. This should mean it is much easier for players to locate our new points of interests and locales as they explore the world. We hope to continue to do this throughout the world.
Language, Location and Limitations
A little over a week ago, we released our latest "Let's Talk" blog outlining various plans for keeping Project Epoch an English-speaking community. Originally, this was going to be part of this monthly log; however, we felt that the extent, community discussion, and detail of the post required its own consistently linkable page.
If you have not read the post in question please feel free to do so by clicking here.
Beta When?
We see this question a lot, so we thought we'd give you at least a brief update on what we're thinking with regards to this. We are currently on track to be done with the final 45-60 content, numerous post-launch features, and bug fixes reported in both Beta 1 and Beta 2 within the next 90 days; however, that sadly would bring any kind of Beta to right within the Christmas period.
While we appreciate that you as players would love to get cozy over the winter period and play some World of Warcraft with us, to put it simply, as staff, we do not aim to run a server over that period. Once we are live, essentially one person on staff needs to be available even during major holidays such as Christmas and New Years, and this might quite possibly be the last time that some of us get an entirely free window of time with family. With that in mind, we can confidently say that the next Beta window will, without a doubt, not be until after New Years is over and behind us. Please be understanding that this is a hobby project first and foremost, and we need time with loved ones too.
We do not anticipate that the delay between Beta 3 ending and Launch will be an extended one, as we will be essentially spending that time focused entirely on bug fixes, tuning, and encounter tweaks within raids. However, we know you're itching to get some time on the server, even if not in a full-fledged beta capacity, so stay tuned for updates, Soon TM.
Conclusion
This has been a very busy month internally, with major decisions to be made, ironing out our estimated time road map, class fixes, and important new content across the board, but we're happy that we found time to include passion pieces such as our reworked zone night lighting and more.
Please stay tuned for our next update and any future Let's Talk entries from the team.
