A scoreboard instead of spam, and hits on the beat
On October 25 we cleared the extra noise out of chat, gave hits a rhythm and put training dummies at spawn. Part of what we did that day is already live, and part is waiting for the next update — more on that at the end.
Fights on the scoreboard, not in chat
“When a person enters PvP mode, they don't get any notification, nothing is written at the top. The little quest menu on the right just switches to PvP… The enemy's health doesn't need to be written anywhere or shown at all.” That's what we did. In a fight a “PvP” plate appears on the scoreboard on the right: who you're fighting and how long until the fight ends. While a teleport is underway there's a “Teleport” plate: where to and how soon. If both are happening, the plates stack one above the other.
Small messages — a new experience level, a sale to the Buyer — no longer clutter the chat: they pop up as little windows at the bottom left and quickly disappear. And with the /track command you can choose what the scoreboard shows: the story, the daily tasks or nothing.
Hits on the beat
The most damage per second now comes from a steady rhythm — about three hits per second. Frantic mashing hits weaker, rare hits hit harder, but not by much, so waiting it out doesn't pay. A hit exactly on the beat is marked with a short “perfect” flash. And two players hitting the same target no longer get in each other's way: every damage source has its own invulnerability window.
You can test your rhythm on the dummies — they're set up by the PvP arena and by the spawn point. Hit the dummy and you see the damage of your last hit, damage per minute over the last five seconds and over the whole streak, and how many hits per minute you're landing. The dummy doesn't die, no matter how much you hit it.
Items — with a double click
Double-clicking an item in your inventory opens the “Item info” window: what it is, its durability and which enhancements are on it.
Phones on par with computers
“This is so that players on mobile devices are roughly as strong as on a computer.” Hitting a target with a finger is harder than with a mouse, so a tap attack now turns your aim toward the nearest enemy in reach on its own — if you're not aiming at anyone right now.
And also
- When you join, you once again land straight in Anarchy.
- Joining the game got noticeably faster.
- The Infuser learned to brew flasks and mix flasks from any slot of your pockets, and the first mix in the prologue is free.
- Fish is now bought by the Angler, not the Buyer.
Done and coming in the next update
Everything else we did that day isn't live yet:
- Arrows and the combat harpoon fly beautifully, with a visible trail, and an arrow lying on the ground looks like an arrow. An arrow shot with “Endless Quiver” vanishes at a touch and doesn't lie around.
- On phones the bow, crossbow and harpoon get their own fire button.
- Signs can be placed, and the text on them is written in a window. Trapdoors that were invisible become visible, and double doors open mirrored, as they should.
- The Echo Coffer becomes a real block: it can be placed and opened, and every player has their own contents in it.
- Above the nickname of someone talking, instead of “((o))” there'll be a microphone icon that doesn't cover the nickname.
- “Radio waves” — voice rooms across the whole network, from any mode. Every room has a language, and the list can be filtered: “My language” or “All languages”.
