Getting v1.70 up and running turned out to be a bit of a struggle, but the server is back online and all of the major bugs have been squashed. However, there are still several things that need to be addressed in v1.70 before I can turn my focus back over to the expansion:
- Players with massive savefiles are sometimes causing short server lag spikes when they log in and out of the game. We’ve had problems with this in the past on servers that had lots of “old” savefiles, so it’s not surprising that the issue has popped up again now that all the savefiles are on one server. The good news is that I’ve been working on a fix for awhile now, and although it didn’t make it into the initial releases of v1.70, it should be ready very soon.
- Due to a small bug, I took the second server instance offline earlier this week. This should be fixed soon as well, which means that players will once again be able to use the Savefile Management Tool on the Midgard (2) instance.
- The Marketplace is currently closed; I didn’t want to push my luck and introduce all of the cross-server stuff at once. It may be another week or two before the Marketplace is opened up again.
- The NEStalgia web client that will allow Mac/Linux/mobile device users to play the game is ready to go live. The web client will be available as soon as I can get the second server instance back online.
Though it may not seem like it on your end, this was a major transition and it’s a huge relief to have most of it wrapped up. I’m also very excited to be out of the savefile management business, as players can now manually perform savefile merges and key changes using the new tool. All of this stuff is going to free up a ton of my time in the coming months.
Please see this forum topic for an overview of the Savefile Management Tool.
What’s Next?
Once I get the remaining v1.70 issues dealt with, I’ll switch back to focusing all of my development efforts on the Key of the Exiles expansion. I’m going to continue with the weekly blog updates as well.
It’s been a long time since we did a NEStalgia podcast, so recording a new episode is on the agenda for next week’s update. If you have any questions about the recent v1.70 update, the expansion, or anything else NEStalgia related, please post your questions in the comments and we may use them for a Q & A session during the podcast. We’ll be recording early next week, so get your questions in by the end of the weekend!
Hoorah. Keep up the good work 🙂
Are you going to be increasing how fast you get experience for the first 32 levels? I feel like I have put so much time into this game, but my highest level character is still only 22. I guess as a father I don’t have as much time as I would have liked, but I thought 100 hours is still a lot of grinding in a old school style MMO.
Can you explain the reasoning behind the new shade timer?
For the podcast: What type of new abilities and, if any, status effects will we see with the Bard class?
What comes after key of the exiles? A new game? More content?
You’ve stated a few times in the past that we will be getting two new classes with Exiles. Bard has obviously been announced, and it would be nice to hear more about it but what about the other mystery class? I think we have known about bard for about 3 years now. As for me, personally, I’d like to hear your plans for the Valentines event and the Christmas event as well as anything else you might have been considering that could come to just give players a bit more to do in the time before Exiles.
Oh and are we ever going to be able to recruit the enemies in Steamonia? Could be a wonderful place to sneak in a plus storm passive that shows up a hell of a lot earlier than the Black Sanctum.
As one of the players with a huge savefile, I’m a bit opposed or hesitant to delete some of my characters, as I have grown quite attached to them and the memories associated with them.
In the future, will I have an option to purchase new keys for those files ? If not, what are the plans to manage those old files that had multiple characters across multiple servers ?
The Savefile Management Tool allows you to transfer extra savefiles over to a different key.
What has been the biggest hurdle these past few years since the Black Sanctum update? What do you anticipate will be the biggest hurdle in the near future (up until and including Key of the Exiles)?
You’ve said before that you feel very close to this project and would never hand it off to another group of people to develop it further even if it meant getting developed faster, but have you considered adding more programmers to your current team? If so, do you currently have plans to bring extra programmers on board?
What is your favorite color?
Can we expect any new dyes with the Key of the Exiles update?
What new feature are you most excited for players to experience in KotE?
Any news on those automated periodic tournaments that were planned at one point?
What’s your favorite quest in the game so far?
Do you have any new types of quests planned for KotE?
Sorry for all the questions, but I guess it gives you a lot to choose from 😛
I know a lot of people give you guys crap for taking so long to crank out updates, but I’d like to thank you for taking your time to release a quality product instead of releasing it too early and having it all janked up (let’s ignore the 1.7 thing; at least you then took the time you needed to fix it). If waiting a bit longer means that the game will be better, than I can afford to wait 🙂
Thanks for the hard work.
All great questions so far! Keep them coming, and I’ll get to as many as I can during the podcast 🙂
What mechanics/play style can we expect behind the new classes?
Will gold acquisition be increased at some point?
(It feels a bit low to be user friendly…)
Will transport between key areas be improved or expanded?
Will every town have a bank?
Do you have any plans to allow more skill points for small modifications to character builds?
Will companions become more viable for solo play?
Will there be new quests?
Will it become easier to obtain reputation?
I notcied some of the companion sprites got a paintjob, why is that?
Are there any plans on making a bigger Casino with more avilable gear and games? I’m awful at Poker.
What is the meaning of life?
Do you think the US should adopt the Metric System?
Is an option to get two additional Skill Points by completing all quests and opening all chests will be implented?
Will Adam Sandler ever make a good movie?
Are mini bosses going to be recruitable by having a chance to drop an egg after defeating them?
Is Disney going to buy this game from you once you will no longer be able to fund the servers due to massivle child support payments? (don’t take this one seriously, you should know me already)
Are Soldiers going to get gear sets with +Element on them to be finally able to propely benefit from enchants?
What is your name?
What is your quest?
What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
Uh, what about some info about the stats change that will be introduced with the expansion?
Super stuff so far ^^
What are your goal before the end of the year ?.
Do you plan to add more element or will it focus on those we are already?
Are we going to have the auto pvp tournement when KoTE will be out?
Does Lee at Ardan will ever have a Metal slime armor so i could pass without him blocking me ? xP
Thanks ^^ Wish you good luck!
As someone who’s fairly new to this game, apologies if this question has already been asked or is common knowledge.
But I’m curious if you have any intention of improving the AI for the monster allies? While I realize the point is probably to be reminiscent of the old dragon quest games, it would be great if you had more control over what they did. Even something as small as a same/different target toggle would be awesome, as it is now they always seem to try to target a different target than what you choose.
What of the server tournaments?
What about Acheron’s Awakening? Will we ever be able to play it?
There sure have been a lot of questions asked so far. What I’d like to hear is information regarding the return of Tournaments, which has been mentioned several times already, and some information about crafting once we get KotE, since it is supposed to be greatly expanded. For instance, I have vault bins full of crafting ingredients; will these ingredients be of use or will they be limited to what is currently craftable? Is one of the ship upgrades an enchanter of some variety? I hope to hear about these things in the upcoming podcast. Thank you.
Is Steamonia going to get expanded?
Will Steamonia enemies be able to be pets?
Any new pet reserves skills?
What kind of skills does the new Bard class do?
If we get get a ship that we can controll.will we ever be able to battle giant octipi? or any other sea encounters in the exspansion? I think it would be cool because it`s basicly battleing hydras except
in the ocean. Thanks for the update silk!
Wondering as well.. Will there be an XP boost for levels 1-32 once KoE comes out?
Thanks again for all of the questions everyone! We recorded the podcast late last night with Spiff joining us over Skype. It should be online tomorrow (Friday) afternoon, so check back soon.