Patch Notes 27.7.X4.1 - discussion

#1

Cross post from: https://www.reddit.com/r/RotMG/comments/52xnf2/patch_notes_277x41/

Dear Community,
Please find below the patch notes for version 27.7.X4.1 - This is a smaller but meaningful release. Some of the changes will not be as immediately visible as others. We fixed several potential duping methods - one of the more known ones involving the Oryx Castle teleportation phase.

New:

  • We disabled the /pause function in all dungeons Note: We understand that this may inconvenience some people in certain situations. At the same time we are confident it will help to prevent some of the leeching that is happening in public dungeons. Consider this a test phase and feedback is welcome.
    • We added several chest event spawn locations
    • Puppet Theatre (start zone & boss)
    • Crawling depth (boss)

    Note: This is a change to prevent people from camping the exact same spot all the time. Help people clear the dungeon instead!

    • We updated the functionality of the “Chest Event”:
    • The chest will now send an announce to the dungeon upon spawning
    • The chest will now be invulnerable for 15 seconds after spawning
    • The hit points were upgraded from 120k to 180k
    • Upon being destroyed the chest will grant a small amount of fame

    Note: This only applies when a Chest Event is active.

    • New Mini Skins
    • Mini Rosen Blade (Ninja)
    • Mini Geb (Priest)
    • Mini Skuld (Rogue)

    Note: We are starting to introduce the 8x8 pixel skin versions of the 16x16 ST set skins. We decided to keep the legacy 16x16 versions the way they are (not replacing the set effect with the 8x8 skin or duplicating the same item sets and tying them to the new graphics.) We also wanted to create the opportunity for players to use the smaller skin if they prefer. The plan will be to use these new skins as drops in various locations to start and later to also use them in mystery boxes and events. (we will be disclosing drop locations as we add them).

    Fixed:
    Fixed a number of situations where duping could occur

    tl;dr:

    • Can no longer Pause in dungeons.
    • Unable to select items in trade screen during:
      • closed realm,
      • Oryx Castle,
      • Oryx Chamber,
      • Wine Cellar
    • Improvements to Event Chests.
    • 8x8 versions of some 16x16 skins, they are going to be added as drops? so there will be both the 16x16 and the 8x8 (idk).
    • #2

    Moved to Devs Corner. @Nevov, would you mind doing a full copy?

    #3

    @Doc I do not have the power to make an edit in this subforum.
    [Edit: @Stupidity is sorting the edit]

    #4

    No more pausing- really annoying cant go safely afk anymore, leeching is still very possible, so pretty useless
    Unable to select items while trading in wc and others-yay no more donations for wc-> a lot more people opening wcs

    Summed up: no improvment

    #5

    The Pause thing is OK I guess, just means nexus if you don’t trust who you’re with.

    The soulbound items: I guess the intention was only to make items SB during the closed realm, then back to normal from Castle onwards, but I guess it went wrong and has caused everything to be SB all the time in the realms. Or if the intention is to block trading completely then fine. Would have preferred a clearer patch note.

    The changes to Event Chest all sound like improvements.

    The skins, well I reckon it’s weird to have two versions of the same skin in different sizes. Either go with keeping the 16x16 and move on, or ditch them (replace) for 8x8.

    #6

    Sounds like we have an unpublished update: items go soulbound when realms lock. However, unlocking appears buggy. :-\

    #7

    I don’t really like either of the anti-leeching measures.

    Not every dungeon should be full cleared, from a design perspective. This is something I’ve always wished the community would get a grip on. The new chest mechanism shoe-horns the existing content into the framework of an imaginary system where every enemy needs to die in order for the game to make sense. Because it’s more fun to chase down that one abyss brute that you missed than to move on to the next dungeon? Because it’s more engaging to creep-drag than rush? I just don’t get it.

    Now blocking /pause. That doesn’t really prevent leeching at all. It prevents being safely afk. I suppose that could be seen as one form of ‘leeching’. However, most of the time leeching is active players standing around waiting for a few to do the work. In fact, most players have to actually watch pretty closely if they want to leech a dungeon or else they will miss the fight.

    It is possible that their actual goal is to break the way that advanced players are attacking dungeons. Maybe it’s not the newbie sitting at the entrance that is the problem. Maybe you’re the problem for running off ahead without full clearing for him. And maybe you’re the problem for pausing in a tomb and waiting for anyone who can’t actually participate ‘skilfully’ to leave.

    Or maybe they just don’t know what they’re doing.

    These last two changes have me thinking either

    1. deca doesn’t understand what the ‘leeching’ problem, from the players’ perspective
      or
    2. deca doesn’t agree
    #8

    Each recent update has had some random soulbinding stuff going on. Last time it was a few realms where everything was soulbound all the time, but it got lifted after an hour or so.

    Right now all items are soulbound in all realms (including dungeons), best I can tell. You can still trade/drop items publicly in the nexus. This could be an unpublished countermeasure to a duping method. the If that’s the case, the previous accidental releases may have been test releases.

    On the other hand, it could be that something they have been doing just screws with the way item ‘ownership’ is handled by the server which results is the soulbound dropping…in which case it will likely be reverted back to normal.

    I’m leaning toward it being intentional at the moment, seeing that it is everywhere this time.

    #9

    Agreed. IMHO on their face these changes appear to be more of Deca responding to the squeaky wheel du jour instead of thoughtfully breaking down player behaviors and motivations. This is simply treating the symptom and not the problem. I’m sure removing pause will make some people happy but the change itself is just as flawed as the problem it’s trying to solve.

    Here’s my proposed solution, though it’s dependent on a couple other ideas I haven’t found time to fully write down (primarily scaling boss fights, as more players = easier bosses).

    #10

    ok I get it.

    holy hairy hooligans, though…This is the death of tomb sales. No more ‘pay inside’

    #11

    You are right, removing /pause has no effect on the ‘lazy leecher’ and I think the cost to legitimate players is too high for little/no gain.

    And ironically it could cause players to seek out shadier methods of safely afking.

    #12

    That’s the fix to the Oryx Castle dupe. Technically not unpublished, but not made clear. I don’t know how it works beyond it requires trading and a crashed realm, so making stuff SB would probably be an effective fix to it. With any luck this should also drastically decrease the amount of times we get sent to a 10 minute title screen upon going to oryx, as most of those were artificially induced in an effort to dupe stuff.

    #13

    The /pause thing is quite contentious.

    On one hand, the people who /pause after the first boss in the Shats will probably not do so anymore. Although you can still leech by just standing around, I think many more people would be willing to actually clear for switches instead of idly waiting. No more “I just need to do something” or “I’m busy” and unpausing before the boss.

    On the other, there are some dungeons that don’t actually require everyone to (actually) help. Sure, your 8/8 wizzy can be clearing rooms in a tomb, but that’s not gonna make that Rogue/Warrior rushing to the next sarc any faster. Maybe the effort is what matters. There are actual times when you really do need to /pause of course, like answering a phone call or a door bell, for example. Abandoning a shats after contemplating risk vs. reward can be an unwanted situation for many.

    I’m glad they’re calling it a test phase; I’m interested in the overall feedback from the community.

    #14

    Not sure what to think… I’ve paused in dungeons maybe a total of five time throughout my career, so it doesn’t really bother me that much, but to call it an anti-leeching measure is too much.

    As others have pointed out - leeching without pausing is entirely possible. The biggest risk would probably be Abyss (where nobody paused anyway), Tombs (where it doesn’t really matter) and Shatters (where not pausing and afking can get you killed pretty fast). Most of the other dungeons have a pretty safe spawn locations.

    What I don’t like about this concept is that no pausing doesn’t mean no leeching on its own, it means there will be (or might be) fewer leeches, but someone will have to drag shit in their face to make them nexus or do stuff. Advocating dragging as a form of anti-leeching (no matter how indirectly) just doesn’t seem right.

    As for the no trading and soulbound bags - aside from messing up buying keys (which I rarely do), it messes up the concept of sharing stuff with people. I can’t be the only one who just drops contents of the bag around in case someone might find it useful, now it just won’t be possible, which means I’ll have to not even touch a lot more loot (which makes little sense in a loot-based game).

    Also I’m curious what they mean by Event Chests giving a small amount of fame. Do they just give exp? Do they give actual fame? If so, how much is “small”?

    I hope they add the chests soon. Even if they’re just gonna throw random crap inside. I just want to make sure the announcement and invulnerability work correctly before they decide to do an actual event with actual loot and find out that something’s wrong.

    #15

    Changes are useless but still theyre doing faster changes then kabam

    #16

    This is my favorite update to RotMG in years. Even though I’m not a big fan of taking away the /pause command in dungeons, we need to remember that going AFK while you’re still IN a dungeon is technically what DECA is trying to avoid. They don’t want people to go AFK, and in a rare time that you have to, you should probably just leave so you don’t end up “stealing” loot from people who hadn’t gone AFK.

    Aside from this, they directly (be it in a work-a-round way) patched one of the most prevalent duping methods! I get the feeling that people don’t think this was as big of a change as it actually is. Even though duping is not fully patched, it is now likely much more tedious and less worth it to do so. The effects duping had on the economy can be seen clearly with the newly added DECA rings. Because this update may trigger the closer stabilization of the economy, I couldn’t be more happy with it. Thanks DECA!

    #17

    Cleared all cdepths, no chest

    #18

    I believe the chest is only in puppet at the moment, they said on the event that there is a mystery dungeon starting on 18th, might be that is the cdepths chest.
    [Edit: the mystery dungeon wasn’t cdepths, but OT. The cdepths chest must be planned for a future event.]

    #19

    Yes, it’s puppets from the 16th to the 18th, then a “mystery” dungeon. So far three event chests in three puppets, only one vit pot as reward.

    #20

    INB4: Since duping is what caused UTs to become soulbound people start saying that since duping is finally fixed please make UTs UNSB.
    Also INB4 they find a way to dupe in the nexus or pre realm closing.