Homesteading part 2 & Combat update, stabler-er finetune (1.16.4-rc.2)

[Tyron]

Dear Homesteaders
v1.16.4-rc.2, a unstable release, can now be downloaded through the account manager.

We did some thorough playtesting and found several spots where the game felt unbalanced. So this minor update will grow into a somewhat larger balancing patch. I'm sure many of you will be happy with those changes

For our Vintagehosting customers: This update also adds the ability to force stop a unresponsive server. If you do have an unresponsive server on occasion, please make sure to update to version 1.16.3 or newer.
 

 

Game updates

• Feature: Vintagehosting Added ability to kill an unresponsive server
• Tweak: Gameplay balancing
  • Halved produce drop rate on wild crops (they were doubled in 1.16, unintentionally)
  • Acacia trees now also spawn resin
  • Reduced mushroom spawning during worldgen by 20% and they stay harvestable less longer (30 days -> 20 days)
  • The Bell alarm mob spawning rate now scales with the amount of nearby players
  • The hacking spear can now also be made from bisbronze and tinbronze
  • Increased fruit tree cutting growth chance (25% -> 40%)
  • Increase resin spawn chance 2.5-fold
  • Increased rusty gear drop rate for drifters (normal: 0% -> 1%, deep: 2% -> 3%, tainted 5%->7%, corrupt 7%->10%, nightmare 10%->20%)
  • Beds now stack (1 -> 2)
• Tweak: Rifts sounds volume is now reduced by 85% when the player is not in direct line-of-sight of them
• Tweak: Distant rifts are now less visible
• Tweak: Can now do increment time via command in months and years /time add 2 years or /time add 2 months
• Tweak: Reduced creature aggro sound rate if they cannot find a path. Should mitigate endless drifter growling around your base.
• Fixed: Hitting creatures with a torch did not ignite them on occasion
• Fixed: Should fix multiplayer animation derp when a player has a torch in hands and similar
• Fixed: Itemstack tooltips sizing derps on sub-8 gui scales
• Fixed: Consuming liquids played the eat sound instead of the drink sound in some cases
• Fixed: Server disk space checks after the server has been started were failing silently, potentially causing loss of many hours of progress
• Fixed: Dropped Shields sinking into the ground
• Fixed: Player floating in air when breaking the block below and not moving (1.16.4-rc.1 bug)
• Fixed: Small memory leak in crates
• Fixed: Some derp with fruit tree branches not regrowing after being cut
• Fixed: Pathfinding issues:
  • Entities that have fall damage would be willing to fall from greater heights instead of the opposite effect (but did add a reckless attribute so drifters still fall from large heights)
  • Creatures believed they could walk through diagonal openings. Should mitigate cases where drifters bunch up in corners
  • Potentially fixes hares "leaping" fences in winter when they should not [Detail: fixes a pathfinding issue where creatures believed they could step high off a low block such as snow layer]
  • Chickens looking for a Henbox to lay in are now less likely to give up when half-way there
• Fixed: Rifts not affected by fog
• Fixed: Dense fog causing fog even at very near distances. Should mitigate heavy fog inside homes a bit

 

View full record

[Streetwind]

25 minutes ago, Tyron said:

Tweak: Gameplay balancing

• Beds now stack (1 -> 2)

My god This will shape the meta for years to come!

 

In actual seriousness, some very good changes. Reduced noise of hidden rifts, reduced background drifter growling, no more drifters pressing themselves into diagonal corners, more secure fences, fruit tree branches regrow and are more likely to take root, resin for equatorial spawns... and I was kind of wondering why I had such absurd amounts of food when starting out as a hungry hungry hippo Blackguard in 1.16.

[Sinda]

I like the sound of these changes  Especially less growling from drifters, they can be very annoying with that, other changes are also very needed 

[daretmavi]

Hi,

there is still the clay forming lag issue (#1686).

Clay forming is the important part of the game and this is on Linux very unpleasant.
Could you please look at it. Thanx.

[Davis]

These look like solid balance changes, happy to see the fruit tree changes. Well done to the team as always!

 

[Irulana]

Nice changes to beds and fruit tress .

I don't understand reduced spawn of mushrooms, the new ones are so extremely rare. I play VS every day, and I found only one new ground type since I update. And few on trees but mostly south.

[Laskuna]

No increase bucket stack max size to 5?

 

[Khornet]

Fruit tree cuttings not growing still doesn't seem fixed.

[Laskuna]

"The Bell alarm mob spawning rate now scales with the amount of nearby players"

I hope not 1 to 1  , 200% at 2 player and 300% at 3. 
Now gameplay is: "-the bell, come and help me!"
Don't make it: "-the bell, run away i will solo them, its our only chance"  

 

[Doctorgeo7]

Really liking the increase to resin spawn chance. They've been a major bottleneck for my resources.

[Tyron]

On 2/16/2022 at 5:37 AM, Laskuna said:

"The Bell alarm mob spawning rate now scales with the amount of nearby players"

I hope not 1 to 1  , 200% at 2 player and 300% at 3. 
Now gameplay is: "-the bell, come and help me!"
Don't make it: "-the bell, run away i will solo them, its our only chance"  

 

It uses the same scaling as for other mobs, server config value "spawnCapPlayerScaling", which is 75% by default. So 1 player = 100%, 2 player = 175%, 3 player = 250%, etc.

[Laskuna]

I dont hink this will be good. Now drifter spawn is ok, i i set low value it will be to easy / boring. But with Bell already its not easy ( espetially deeper underground, when they spawn hi tier drifters ), bell will be impossible to kill if spawn army of drifters, so only chance can be build bunker, or try kill them on solo - both option dont add more fun to actual gameplay. It shouldn't be more than +50% extra per player. 

 

[Streetwind]

@Laskuna It is a config setting a server owner can adjust to their liking.

[Laskuna]

I know, but this is a global setting, i dont want have less dirfters everyday. Just not army of drifter when fighting bell with friends.

[Laskuna]

Today we have 2x bell spawn simulation, second bell was close but behind wall XD.

[XarenHypr]

I might be an anomaly, but I actually liked the appearance/sound levels of the rifts in 1.16.3 and there was always a layer of 'aww crap' when I'd hear one spawn in, especially if I couldn't see it.  Would it be possible/feasible to have those tweaks be configurable?