Aldermere 0.4.6: Chickens in Alderwic, shield blocks and regional weather

Farming#

Chicken pen in Alderwic. Everyone gets their own private flock of up to 32 birds
Farmer Tobin sells Hens, Roosters, chicks and Animal Feed
Fill the trough (1 feed = 1 day of laying), collect eggs, muck out for Manure, Leave to brood with a rooster for chicks, Name your birds
Farming XP: 15 per egg, 10 per chick grown, 30 per Slaughter, 5 per muck level
Manure on a growing herb or fibre patch: grows 20% faster and gives 20% more at harvest
Patch timers now run in game days: herbs 105 min, fibre 210 min
New Farm tab in the side panel, plus map pins and chat lines when a pen needs you

Shields block: a blocked hit does no damage and shows "Block". 25% for metal shields, 15% for Wooden and Goblin shields
Orb specials, dragonfire, beams, rings and burns can't be blocked
Holding a shield doubles your threat, and Cleave hits make double threat
NPCs with shields block too, guards and goblin warriors included
New DPS tab in the side panel: your DPS and DTPS, biggest hit, session totals and a party breakdown. Interface → "Show DPS meter" adds a small readout under the minimap

Set a target level or XP on any skill: right-click it in the Skills tab or the XP tracker. Shows XP and actions left, and chat tells you when you reach it

You now gather with the best rod, pickaxe or axe you have the level to use. Tools above your level no longer help
Tool tooltips show their tier, what they mine or chop up to, and which tool you're using right now
Hen, Rooster and Goose drop far fewer Feathers, and the Fletcher's Stall stocks fewer
The Knife is retired: Fletching is done at a workbench, and the General Store no longer sells it

Weather now belongs to the place: you can see a storm over the next region from the sun, with an 80 m blend at the edges
Clouds cast shadows where they actually are, and fog and mist are tinted for the region they hang over
Rain curtains hang in the distance where it's raining, and lightning lights them up
Ground stays wet where it rained, and every player sees the same wet ground
First Light trim now glows, and the Alpha Tester cape sheds teal motes as you walk

Yell is removed. Say reaches twice as far, and /1 talks to the whole world
Global is now called World
History is kept per channel, so a busy World tab no longer pushes out Party, Clan or System lines

Item cards now show in the shop, bank, loot, trade and bank courier windows. Shops show what an item costs, or what they'll pay you for it
Every item has a card now: arrows show their damage with your bow, materials show what they're used in
Icon buttons have hover labels (Close · Esc, World map · M, Add friend)
The HUD has quieter frames, so pop-up windows stand out. Top bar buttons share one style

Names can't start with a staff tag (Mod, JMod, GM, Dev). Names like Modest or Devon are still fine

Windows now runs on Direct3D 11 first, which should stop the crashes some players hit
After a short network hiccup you see "Reconnecting" straight away instead of your clicks piling up
If the game crashes, the launcher now says so and shows the error code instead of "Could not start the game"
After a crash, the next launch sends one crash report: build, graphics card, logs and where you were. Your home folder and user name are removed and no IP is kept