Developer Log - June 2023

Our second beta concluded roughly a month ago, and we consider it a huge success. The population was more than double our previous beta, and we are extremely happy with the reception and feedback we received.

But just because beta is over doesn't mean we haven't been busy! The purpose of this post is to provide an update to the community on the things we've been working on behind the scenes.

With over 700 new quests added, hundreds of new items, large reworks of professions, plenty of PvP content and completely revamped dungeons, Project Epoch stands to release with the most amount of custom content available at launch ever seen before in the private server scene. We believe action speaks louder than words, which is why you won't find empty promises or false hopes here.

Introductory Experiences

During the course of beta 1 and beta 2 one of the key pieces of feedback we've received is wanting a more visual representation of changes in the world on Project Epoch to be present sooner. With this in mind we have endeavoured to spend some time polishing up and overhauling two key secondary towns. The first of those we wanted to tease is Razor Hill.

While this is only a tantalising teaser we look forward to expanding in the future and primarily allowing players to explore with a renewed spirit in our next beta.

Stay tuned for future updates on our other ventures in the next developer log.

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

During the course of Beta 2 we received thousands of reports across many categories that have been filtered down to be hundreds of real world confirmed bugs that we as the developers are actioning. Below we wanted to cover some of the more broad, interesting and impactful cases that were both found and fixed.

TBC Classic to the rescue!

One of the more prominent bugs reported is essentially a collection of literally hundreds. Across every class and every ability that scales via Spell Power or Attack Power we were simply either missing or had incorrect scaling values. These values are not typically baked into a spells data itself in many versions of the game which prevented many TBC cores to simply have roughly guessed values, we were using this same guessed data.

However, with TBC Classic and the build of the game it requires, it meant that this data was now exposed to us. By modifying our spell conversion system to utilise data from TBC Classic we have been able to update all ranks of all scaling spells to their correct TBC values. Across the board in Beta 3 classes should scale appropriately.

Alongside the above, another majorly plaguing yet simple bug was able to be resolved, spell description line breaks. Throughout Beta 1 and Beta 2 we received reports of this issue particularly for classes that have combo based abilities such as Rogue or Druid.

And best for last, the TBC Classic data usage allowed us to fix many dozens of class bugs related to talents or abilities that impact another ability. For example reducing cooldown, increasing effectiveness, etc. We were plagued with these however feel relatively confident that large swathes of them have now been resolved.

Can I keep him?

An issue that has been reported many times on Project Epoch focused around the Hunter class and its capacity to Tame Beasts. Beasts that could not be tamed, could be tamed but had no abilities, could be tamed but had wrong level abilities and so on. We have retroactively updated hundreds of beasts throughout the world and behind the scenes now have a system to automatically apply a level and family appropriate set of abilities to any new Project Epoch specific beasts we add.

Much, Much More...

In total we have investigated, resolved and validated bugs across a broad spectrum of topics. Missing or invalid pathing, party loot drops, creature attack patterns, custom & blizzard quests, reputation discounts, etc. While we still have a good chunk to go we'd like to continue to keep you updated on this development journey.

Tol Barad Excursion

One of the things we've been working on this month is to polish and finish our Tol Barad island with minor terrain / object tweaks, brand new spawns throughout the isle, as well as ironing out exactly how players will make the journey to Tol Barad.

The entrypoint that you will take is via Faldir's Cove along with a brief introductory quest / attunement. On behalf of Captain Steelgut you will be sent on an exploratory gryphon ride across the seas as well as in and around Tol Barad. Once complete, from that point forth the enigmatic duo of Roost Master Hawkins and Roost Master Dawkins will offer safe passage into a secret cove of Tol Barad bringing you to the beginning of your exciting journey both on the isle itself and delving in to Baradin Hold.

The Team Grows

In the past couple of weeks, Project Epoch has begun its first public round of recruitment in more than a year. At the moment, we have recruited 2 actively working Quest Design trials. We hope that by the next dev log we can formally announce their joining, however the impacts can already be greatly felt impacting zones such as Azshara, Winterspring, Western Plaguelands, and initial ground on our immersive max level racial swap questlines.

An example of such work can be found in Western Plaguelands, which features a new 18-step quest chain surrounding Scholomance. Known as "Scholomance Academy" this new quest hub enrolls the player in introductory courses taught by adjunct faculty of the famous school of Necromancy. Can you survive this most challenging curriculum?

Another addition to Project Epoch lies in Winterspring, where multitudes of new quest chains await. Complex terrain edits have also resulted in a beautiful addition to this classic zone. Winterspring was called home for a great many highborne in days of old. A sister city to Kel'theril was mostly spared the calamity that shook the region, but many lost souls still remain. Delve into the ruins and fully experience the story starting in Everlook.

As a final teaser for our new quests, a shipwreck in Azshara leaves a crew fighting for its life and struggling to fend off ruthless naga attackers. Worse yet, the fate of missing crewmen remains a mystery. They cannot send word to Booty Bay for rescue without help. Just what fate awaits them, and how will they escape this dire situation?

World Difficulty

With Beta 2 providing enough talent points to essentially test any talent and levels high enough to have a much more thorough toolset, the topic of difficulty quickly arose in the community and behind the scenes as developers. To put it simply, the World (of Warcraft) is too easy.

This first became prevalent within the original WoW Classic release and continues to this day on Classic Era servers. Things hit for less than expected, have less armor than expected, cast less frequently etc. A huge amount of effort has been done by 1.12 cores to incorporate this new information particularly in the vMangos project which we use as essentially our own equivalent of Blizzard's reference client.

The extra talent points, along with generally allowing more interesting stats on lower level equipment here on Project Epoch, compounded with the above to make the world feel even more simple and easy.

With that in mind we knew we needed a way to tune the world at a granular level while also not requiring us to manually edit every creature.

Most cores have a very simple way to do this eg:

Rate.Creature.Normal.HP           = 1
Rate.Creature.Normal.Damage       = 1
Rate.Creature.Normal.SpellDamage  = 1

However this comes with two key caveats:

It's broad and applies equally to all creatures no matter the level and context.
Spell Damage increases only apply to explicit damage and importantly don't update the client. This leads to a visual mismatch of a spell is supposed to do X damage but instead does Y. This would lead to both confusion via lack of clarity as well as an increase in bug reports during betas.

Therefore, an internal formula was created designed with the intent of increasing difficulty throughout the world across key metrics such as Health, Armor, Melee Damage and Creature Spell Power. Those first three are very self explanatory being simple % buffs however the latter, Spell Power buffing, is a unique Project Epoch concept.

The simple explanation is that for every creature in the world we have taken their spells, made a unique copy, buffed the effectiveness of that spell in line with the creatures newly buffed stats, and then re-applied to the creature replacing the old spell. This means that clients correctly display that not only is it a new spell but also that it has higher values, ensuring player clarity.

An important aspect of this was to ensure it increases difficulty in a multitude of ways, and that meant expanding this system to as many spell effect types as possible rather than just damage. Some examples of ways this will impact creature abilities include:

School Damage
Health Leech
Weapon Damage
Mana Burns
Heals
Periodic (Ticking) School Damage
Periodic (Ticking) Heals
Periodic (Ticking) Health Leech
Periodic (Ticking) Mana Burns
Damage Shield Strength
Resistance Buffs / Debuffs
Stat Buffs / Debuffs
Absorb Strength
Attack Power Buffs / Debuffs
Healing Received Buffs / Debuffs

In total this impacts more than 3000 creature abilities increasing their effectiveness in various ways ensuring that the world itself has a renewed sense of difficulty and discovery.

The rate of which these increases in creature power occur is designed to correlate with the levels at which a player acquires one of their extra 10 talent points required to build out a proper TBC talent tree.

These levels are: 14, 19, 24, 29, 34, 39, 44, 49, 54, and 60.

Normal Creature Buff Distribution

Please note that in the following preview images the buff displayed will be hidden on live realms and solely exists for tuning in test environments.

A key aspect of world difficulty however focuses on a particular variety of creatures, Elites and Rare Elites. These are supposed to be difficult challenges forcing either skillful play or requiring groups to face them down together. However this is simply not how they play out in real world modern servers, where they become little more than a slight challenge bump.

With that in mind Elites and Rare Elites have their own heightened difficulty curve ensuring that they remain tough foes.

Elite Creature Buff Distribution

"But what about Dungeons?" I hear you ask. Since all Dungeon inhabitants are typically Elite or higher they are granted the difficulty scaling buffs that you can find in the above table. However since we know with certainty that you have a full level appropriate group for the content you are facing, we can go further and truly give you a challenge encouraging crowd control, selective killing and ensuring those who practice encounters and come prepared will have the greatest chances of success.

To accomplish this - on top of the above Elite modifiers - we further buff Health by an additional 30%, Armor by an additional 20% and Damage / Spell Power by an additional 25%. These effects impact bosses as well as trash.

Please note however that all of the above numbers are subject to tuning and this system allows us to do that quickly based on feedback.

Introducing: Valor's Expedition

Now that you have been given the full context of where we intend on pushing things, particularly for Elite creatures. we thought it was time to finally elaborate on developments within Silithus and the greater context you can expect there. As many of you know our Silithus is based in part on the earliest incarnations of this iconic zone, with terrain and spawns based on a Patch 1.2 state. This comes with drawbacks, particularly in the facts that Silithus was not a complete zone for up to 8 patches after Vanilla originally came back.

At launch on Project Epoch you will find that this Patch 1.2 base takes a radical new shape to bring journeying into Silithus for important reasons sooner in the timeline, and to encourage a strong sense of danger, adventure and comradery to those who brave it. This is handled in a very simple manner; Silithus becomes Project Epoch's first and only entirely level 60 tuned Elite zone.

Over this month we have checked every spawn of each creature and game object, ensured they conform with the 1.2 terrain, removed functionality that comes much much later in Vanillas lifespawn, buffed every hostile creature within by 3+ levels, marked them as Elite and increased their health and damage capabilities. It is strongly encouraged that all who venture within are well stocked and have allies at their sides.

Your first entrypoint to this newly hardened zone will be at the former Valor's Rest, now named Valor's Expedition.

Valor's Expedition is a central hub for level 60 activities at launch within Silithus, housing an all new reputation where you will build knowledge about the encroaching Aqir and Twilight's Hammer that are roaming through these sandy wastes, help members of the Cenarion Circle led expedition, and much more. Gaining favour with the Valor's Expedition is accomplished primarily through the means of rotating groups of daily quests, ensuring that for every day of the week you and your allies have a bold new adventure ahead of you. Your reward for these endeavours are all new recipes, items, mounts, consumables and plenty more to elaborate on at a future date.

To help you reach this locale at the edge of Silithus safely, both the Alliance and Horde have heeded the call of the circle and have provided new flight paths bringing you from Un'goro through to Valor's Expedition.

The expedition has a simple set of warnings for all who decide to assault the insect filled wastes of Silithus: "Keep your eyes to the horizon, keep your wits about you and most importantly of all...keep your friends close for these ancient grounds are stirring once more."

Community Shoutouts

We wanted to ensure that where possible we shout out those in the community who have gone above and beyond and contributed to Project Epoch. This month we wanted to give a special thank you to Toscar for providing us a wonderful new map for our Gillijim's Isle battleground due shortly after launch and available for testing within the next beta.

Conclusion

It has been both an extremely busy month for the staff, and a little more relaxed without the concerns of keeping a realm live and stable. Allowing us to focus entirely on fixing broad issues as well as adding new content for you all to enjoy.

Stay tuned for our next developer log at the end of July.