NPCs#
The goblin valley gets its back half: three new goblins hold six camps on the high ground past the Big Runt's den, and the Goblin Chief runs the lot from his walled camp at the far end.
Chief's Machete
Baby Goblin Chief
The Goblin Chief
- A full boss at level 10, with a boss health bar, a kill count and his own collection log page.
- Chief's Charge: every third swing he picks a fighter and a strip of ground toward them lights up for 2 seconds. Then he rushes down it in a cloud of dust and hits everyone in it for four times a normal hit. Step out of the strip and he ends up past you, standing with his back turned for a moment.
- He calls the camp: at two thirds health a Goblin Brute runs in, and at one third a Goblin Hexer, which heals him. Kill the Hexer first.
- He shouts orders as the fight goes, and has his own music: his gong and a stinger when the fight starts, then his theme, For Now.
- Drops: his unique, the Chief's Machete, the spiked machete he fights with. It's a one-handed Strength weapon that needs Strength 10 and hits most of the way from an iron to a steel weapon. He drops it often, since you'll outlevel him fast.
- Goblin Fangs every kill, several at a time, plus Silver Coins every kill, his Goblin Round Shield, Strength Potion I and the usual goblin extras.
- A pet, the Baby Goblin Chief, already giving orders.
Why: he's the top of the goblin band, where you train from level 1 to 10. His fight teaches two things a first boss should: get out of the way, and pick the right target.
The back camps
- Goblin Sharpshot, level 7: shoots from range with a bow, and draws a sword when you close in.
- Goblin Brute, level 8: a big goblin behind a bigger shield.
- Goblin Hexer, level 9: casts Arcane Orb and Arcane Blast, and heals itself or a friend that's hurt.
- All three attack on sight and come to each other's help. They drop what they carry, Silver Coins every kill (more the higher they are), the goblin extras and a potion to match: Dexterity Potion I, Strength Potion I or Mana Potion I. Hexers also drop Hex Beads and Crystal.
Why: until now nothing in the goblin valley sat between level 7 and 11. These camps fill that gap on the way to the Chief.
Alderwic's great hall
- Ealdorman Osmund now holds his great hall, with his household: Reeve Godwin, Scop Wynstan, Cook Hild, Cupbearer Wynn, hall guests, a yard hand and off-duty Huscarls.
- People in the hall and the tavern sit on the benches, stools and chairs near them, with the odd sip or bite now and then. They stay seated when you talk to them and only get up for a fight. While they sit, their weapons are put away.
- More Huscarls guard the hall: 15 in Alderwic (was 8), at the gate, on the steps and by the high seat. The Alderwic Thegn sits in the hall too.
Leashes
- No NPC chases further than 40 m from home before turning back, bosses included. For everyone but bosses, the 7-second chase after you leave that range now ends 80 m from home at most.
- From 45 m: Goblin Runt, Scout, Warrior, Shaman, Sharpshot, Brute and Hexer, The Big Runt, the Goblin Chief, Skeletons, Hobgoblin Runt, Scout, Warrior, Shaman and Healer, the Possessed Hobgoblin and Ugrot the Unrested.
- From 50 m: Deer, Foxes, Stags, Reavers, Mangy Wolves, Smugglers, Smuggler Brutes, the Dark Witch, Giant Rats, Forest Bears, the Smuggler Ringleader, Swamp Dragons, Green Dragons and Varric the Smokefang, plus Alderwic's Huscarls, Rangers and Thegn, Fallhaven's Guards and Rangers, Captain Hale, Scout Leader Wren and Garrow's Guard.
Why: chases reached into places they shouldn't: hobgoblins from the camp beside the great hall into the hall, Goblin Runts into the east edge of Alderwic, and Smugglers onto the Fallhaven docks.
Try it: Walk south from Marlow's Hut into the goblin valley, past the Big Runt's den, and climb to the Goblin Chief's camp.
Quests#
War Horn
Osmund's Ring
The War Horn (new)
- Every night a war horn calls the goblins out of the valley. Ealdorman Osmund wants it silenced and brought to him.
- Start it by talking to Osmund in the great hall once you've finished Scout Sweep. There's no combat level needed. Thegn Tom points you up the hill when you finish Scout Sweep, and if you finished it before this update he says so now.
- Kill 6 Goblin Sharpshots, 6 Goblin Brutes and 6 Goblin Hexers, in any order, then take the war horn from the Goblin Chief. Everyone who fights him gets their own horn.
- Bring it back to the hall, hear Scop Wynstan out, and choose how the story ends.
- Rewards: 1,000 Silver Coins from Reeve Godwin, 2,500 Hitpoints XP, and Osmund's Ring.
- Osmund's Ring is the game's first ring. It gives 5 mana regen every 5 seconds, and it can't be traded. If you lose it, talk to Osmund and he'll give it to you again.
- The Equip tab has a new Ring slot, beside your boots.
The Alchemist's Apprentice
- The brewing step now counts only Health Potions you brew at the bench while you're on that step. Bought or carried potions don't count, and the quest guides you to the bench. If you're on that step now, brew 3.
- Elias's and Farmer Tobin's lines are shorter, and each only talks about the steps that are theirs.
Why: Elias sells Health Potions, so the step could be bought instead of brewed.
Try it: Talk-to Ealdorman Osmund in Alderwic's great hall to start The War Horn.
Slayer#
Tasks last about 30 minutes
- A task now asks for what you'd kill in about 30 minutes, whatever the spawns where it sends you: Player suggestion
- NPCs up to combat level 10: 62 kills (was up to 41)
- Up to 30: 50 kills (was up to 33)
- Up to 60: 37 kills (was up to 25)
- Above 60: 25 kills (was up to 16)
- Before, a thinly spawned NPC gave a short task, sometimes 10 to 24 kills. Now spawns play no part.
- Boss tasks are longer too: Ugrot the Unrested, Varric the Smokefang and the Lampwarden 15 (were 9), Hespera 12 (was 8), the Snuffer 12 (was 7).
- The Goblin Chief has his own boss task, 18 kills, from Edric Thorne. He's no longer part of the Goblins task.
- The Goblins task now counts Goblin Sharpshots, Brutes and Hexers. The Big Runt is never a task.
- Tasks you already hold or have stored keep their count.
Why: tasks were too short, and on thin spawns you cleared the spot, walked out and walked back.
Slayer XP follows the NPC
- Each task kill now pays 85% of the Hitpoints XP that kill gives you. Before, it paid nine times the NPC's old hitpoints level.
- Most NPCs pay less, low-level ones the most so. Bosses pay about the same. Per kill:
- Goblin Runt 7 (was 45)
- Lowland Troll 61 (was 234)
- Giant Rat 118 (was 279)
- Mountain Troll 255 (was 648)
- Swamp Dragon 310 (was 621)
- Green Dragon 383 (was 594)
- Swamp Troll 635 (was 1,197)
- Goblin Chief 284 (new)
- Varric the Smokefang and the Lampwarden 788 (were 846 and 855)
- Hespera 1,276 (was 1,287)
- The Snuffer 1,838 (was 1,800)
- Overall, a Slayer level takes about 1.6 to 1.7 times as long as before, even with the longer tasks. Tasks you already hold or have stored keep their old XP until you hand them in.
Why: NPC health moved to their level in 0.5.3, so the old numbers went stale: a Mountain Troll paid more than a Green Dragon, and the best tasks were the easy ones. Hitpoints XP already follows an NPC's real health and level, so Slayer XP now does too.
How Slayer XP works
- A kill gives Hitpoints XP for the NPC's real health and its level, plus a bonus for a boss. Your Slayer XP for a task kill is 85% of that.
- So a tougher NPC always pays more, and a boss kill pays far more than an ordinary one.
- Example: a Mountain Troll task is 37 kills at 255 XP each, so 9,435 Slayer XP for the whole task.
- In a party, only players holding the task get Slayer XP, each for their part of the kill, as before.
The Slayer window and tracker
- Taking a task now opens that NPC's Codex page if you hadn't seen it yet. That goes for swapping, a shared task and a task you take back from storage too.
- While an NPC is your task, its Codex page and the Slayer window show what it's weak to straight away, instead of only once you've Studied it. This covers the task's own NPC, not the rest of its family.
- Under your current task, the Slayer window shows what your Codex knows about the NPC, with an Open Codex button. Player suggestion
Why: the Slayer master who hands you the task tells you what the NPC is weak to.
- The × on the Slayer tracker now hides it only until your next task, and a chat line tells you how to show it again: right-click Slayer in the Skills tab. If you hid it before this update, it shows once more. Player suggestion
Try it: Talk-to Edric Thorne in Alderwic for your next task.
Codex#
- Weak to no longer shows a percentage: "Magic (+367%)" now reads "Magic".
Why: big numbers like +367% read as a bug.
Interface#
Conversations
- An NPC's line now has a page of its own. Your choices come on the next page, under "Select an Option".
- When you pick a choice, your character says it on its own page, under your name, and then the NPC answers.
- The talk box is wider, so long lines take fewer rows.
- Every NPC's head now shows beside their lines in conversation, and yours beside your own, moving and nodding as you talk.
Trackers under the minimap
- The quest, Codex and Slayer trackers now stack under the minimap, with the damage meter below them. Before, they sat top left, under the party cards.
- A party no longer pushes them down into chat.
- When space runs short, the quest you're following stays in full, the others shrink to their name, then fold into "+N more".
Quest guidance
- The flashing arrow at the edge of the screen is gone. When your quest target is off screen, a yellow arrow on the rim of the minimap turns toward it and bobs. Once the spot is on the minimap, a down arrow bobs over it.
- The quest arrow and "?" over the world bob and glow softly, and the "?" is bigger.
- NPCs with a quest for you show the "?" on the minimap and the World Map, instead of a plain dot.
- On the World Map, the spot your quest needs you at is marked with the same bobbing yellow arrow, instead of a plain yellow dot.
- Arrows over rocks and other objects now sit above the object. Before, some sat over a corner of it.
NPC nameplates
- An NPC's name, health bar and combat level now show only while you hover it, fight it, or it's coming for you, or while you hold the highlight key. Before, NPC names showed within 20 m by default.
- The four NPC nameplate settings are gone from Settings → Game (Nameplates, Friendly Nameplates, Combat Level and HP Bars for NPCs). Player nameplates and their settings are unchanged.
Why: idle names over every NPC crowded busy places like the great hall.
Attacking NPCs
- The NPC Attack setting now starts on When higher: left-clicking an NPC above your combat level walks you there, and Attack is in its right-click menu. If you'd already picked a setting, you keep it.
Shops and hovering
- Shopkeepers, bankers and Slayer masters show their shop's map icon over their heads when you're nearby, so you can spot them across town. Turn it off in Settings → Game, Shop Icons.
- Hovering an NPC, player, object or item on the ground now shows its name on the thing itself, and the cursor shows what a click will do. The line of text that followed your pointer is gone.
- New cursor icons: a flame for cooking and fires, a sprout for farming and pens, and a magnifier for Examine and Read. Use, Repair, Fill, Take back and Slaughter get icons too.
And also
- Right-click on another player is shorter: Walk here, Trade with, Follow, Examine. Message, Add friend, the party and clan invites and Report are now buttons on their sheet, which Examine opens.
- Right-click the compass to face north, east, south or west. Left-click still faces north. Player suggestion
- A new Interface setting, Split XP drops, shows one line per skill when a single action gives XP in several ("+520 Slayer xp") instead of one total. It's off by default. Player suggestion
- The World Map always lets you pan one tile of fog past the edge of the world, at every zoom level, and opens fully zoomed out.
- The Mining guide lists the Great Crystal Vein (Mining 51).
Music#
- A new song, For Now, the Goblin Chief's theme. It plays in his fight and unlocks the first time you come near him. The music player then lists it under The Goblin Valley. In the valley itself it only plays when you pick it.
Chat#
- The same line twice in a row now shows once with a count, like "Your inventory is full. (2)". Before, a system message that came again straight away didn't show at all, so it looked like nothing had happened.
Settings#
- On the download, the Graphics settings' Crowd Detail has a new Auto option, and it's the new default. Auto keeps everyone at full detail until your game is running slower than it should with 30 or more people and NPCs in view. Then it trims crowd detail a step at a time, and gives it back as soon as there's room. Other players are always drawn within 60 m.
- If you'd picked Budget or Full yourself, you keep it. In the browser, Crowd Detail is still Budget or Full.
Why: a cut that costs looks should only happen when your own game needs it, not by a fixed setting for everyone.
World#
- The swamp has far fewer low clouds, only faint wisps, and its sky can now clear between showers. Its ground mist stands taller. It still rains there more than anywhere else.
- In the goblin valley, the grass now grows on the darker and leafy ground too. It's taller in hollows, along tree lines and at cliff feet, and shorter on paths and camp floors.
- Alderwic's roofs are all thatch now, and its yards are earth.
- Birches are mostly green now, with some yellow, and every tree has its own slight shade. Before, they were all the same amber-gold.
Spellbook#
- Bound Armour and Bound Blade can now be raised or dropped in combat, like swapping a weapon. Before, only out of combat. The spell's tooltip says "Works in combat too." Player suggestion
Skills#
- Armour that unlocks later in its tier is now worth a little more than the tier's first piece, and shops pay and charge to match: up to 7% more in tiers I and II, and less than 5% from tier III up. A Steel Cuirass is worth 194 (was 186), a Tyrian Cuirass 2,171 (was 2,139).
Why: the first piece in a tier always rolled better quality, so it paid best and there was no reason to make anything else.
Shops#
- The blacksmith, fletcher and clothier now start stocked with every tier of plain weapons, armour and arrows, not just tier I. Each tier has half the stock of the one below, never less than 1:
- Benny Smith: iron weapons and armour 5, steel 2, mithril and above 1
- The Fletcher: iron arrows 500, then 250, 125, 62, 31 and 15 up to tyrian; Oak Bows 5, Willow 2, Swampwood and above 1
- The Clothier: hard leather and hemp 5, troll hide and flax 2, higher tiers 1
Farming#
- Bulls from your pen give Raw Bull Meat, and slaughtered cows and bulls give 2 Animal Hides (was Raw Meat and 1 hide). The pen card shows it. Player suggestion
Fixes#
- Quests: an NPC who is only a later step in a quest offered you that quest before you'd started it (Alchemist Elias for Scout Sweep). Only the quest giver offers it now.
- Quests: when a hand-over couldn't happen, the NPC went through the whole conversation first and only then said you were missing the items or had no room. They say it up front now.
- Quest arrows: in a step where you kill two kinds of NPC in any order, the arrows only marked the first kind until it was done (Scout Sweep pointed at Goblin Warriors until all 6 were dead). Every kind you still need is marked now.
- Quest rewards: a quest step that hands you a stack only topped you up to the amount: with 4 Health Potions in your bag, Elias gave you 6, and Farmer Tobin gave no Wildleaf Seed if you already had one. You get the full stack now.
- Varric the Smokefang: while he'd vanished in his Smoke Step you could still target and hit him. Now nothing lands until he reappears behind you, and your attack picks up again when he does. Damage over time still ticks.
- Minimap: zoomed out somewhere busy, it stopped drawing dots after 40 people and NPCs and icons after 24, and some quest givers lost their "?". It shows them all now.
- Pets: Pick Up showed on other players' pets. Only the owner sees it now.
- Play in browser: a long session that used a lot of memory could drop the connection with "Invalid wire frame length".
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