Funcom Full Youtube Link (Starts at 10:03): 11/21/19 - Written Summary
Hello everybody. Here is the written recap for the latest stream. As usual, if something during the stream was covered, mentioned, hinted, or any other thing of substance, I will have it written here to the best of my ability. This is also the first time that I’ve used Gifs for a stream.
Today’s Funcom Staff Sightings were:
- Jens - Community Manager, on Stream
- Vlad - Senior Designer, on Stream
- Ignasis, Community Support, in Twitch Chat behind the Funcom Tag
- Andy B, Community Manager, enjoying the sites in chat
- Natascha, Community Director, casting her spells in the shadows over chats.
- Joel Bylos - Creative Director for Funcom, stopped by during the mounts discussion to say hi
- Robert - Senior Designer, provided Post-Stream answers from questions in Twitch Chat.
Today’s stream focus was all about combat changes, revealing new changes to the Trebuchet, and of course, Mounts. Vlad, who was hired almost a year ago as a Senior Designer, also came on stream for the first time today to discuss all the upcoming changes. With that, let’s get started.
Recap Since Last Stream
Jens went over some of the events that have occurred since the last stream (written recap for that stream is here). He discussed that two hotfixes have been released to address the widely reported hacking issue. If you would like to know more about those events, here is Funcom’s official notice on those events.
https://forums.funcom.com/t/current-critical-issue-and-rollback-of-some-of-our-servers/94370
Combat Changes
Dodging is getting a rework. From the get go, you can already see that Dodging has been changed to be a bit slower. Vlad discussed that the distance covered is the same, but that speed is obviously different.
Light Armor:
Medium Armor:
Heavy Armor: (Side-Step has been removed)
The speed in which the roll is done will be impacted by armor. As to be expected, light armor has the fastest roll, medium armor in the middle, and heavy armor being the slowest roll speeds.
The Agility stat has also been balanced to impact this upcoming change. The higher your character’s Agility, the quicker they can act as they come out of the dodge.
Vlad in the stream described that, based on his personal tastes from play testing, that around 10 Agility was the minimum he would recommend when using heavy armor. While others have reported they felt they needed at least 30 Agility.
Post-stream, just to clear up any confusion, Vlad confirmed that dodge speed is tied into the armor class (light, medium, heavy), and adding more points into Agility will not speed up the actual dodge roll. Only the action timings that can be performed coming out of a dodge.
The reason for this change described on Stream is that it’s very easy to dodge roll and escape in combat, in particular when using Light Armor. The change to the dodge is to make it so you have to commit to the action, and not so easily quickly disengage and avoid attacks. This also makes certain weapons more viable in combat, in particular PvP.
It was also asked on stream if I-Frames was still part of the Dodge mechanic and Vlad confirmed that this was the case.
Twitch Comment: Can we see what a more moderate level of Agility looks like? Say AGI 20?
Robert: I’ll comment on this since it wasn’t shown in the stream - You start feeling a real difference at about agility 15-20. At 30 it feels quite quick and at 50 attacking is more or less instant after a roll.
Character Acceleration Changes (20:10):
Your character no longer starts at maximum speed, but rather accelerates to that point now. The reasons given is similar to that of the dodge changes. It makes combat riskier in that you have to commit to the action, and it makes it harder to quickly dodge out of the way, as they feel it is too easy to do now.
A few weapons were mentioned on stream that were changed. Here is what was discussed for each of the following:
-
2 Handed Hammer
- Light Attacks are slower
-
Katana
- Vlad couldn’t recall the details of what was changed. He did mention that through play testing the changes that he died a lot to Katana attacks.
-
2 Handed Swords
- Light Attack has more Hyper Armor.
-
2 Handed Axes
- They have been speed up and are “a bit more viable now.”
-
1 Handed Mace
- Light Attack has Hyper Armor now.
-
- Arrow now flies directly where your reticle is aimed.
Twitch Question: Thralls can still solo bosses too easily. Just use healing arrows and its a guarantee win.
Robert: In the coming patch, we’ve nerfed healing arrows for this reason
First off, Jens wanted to clarify that there were some current issues in the build presented in terms of the textures of the Trebuchet. Therefore, it is advisable that any images or video from the Trebuchet itself to be considered a work in progress.
The Trebuchet now shows an angle in text form, as well as how much counterweight there is in percentage.
There is a new lever to adjust the percentage. It’s range starts at -25 Degrees, and extends out to 80 Degrees in increments of 5 degrees.
The projectile fired also received a change, in that the projectile will not bounce as much anymore as it does now. Projectiles will also penetrate god bubbles.
Finally, Trebuchet range is greatly increased. At 45 degrees with a clear line of sight and 100% counterweight, the boulder fired from a Trebuchet will fire past render range.
Twitch Question: I like the new trebuchets, but does shooting the projectile out of render range still make it able to hit its target?
Robert: Yes, we increased the network relevancy range for them, so even though you can’t see them (if you fire at max velocity) you will still hit a target. For long ranges we recommend having a spotter team-mate.
God Bubble Other Changes? Incorrect (25:16):
On the stream, Jens and Vlad indicated that both orbs and arrows would be able to penetrate God bubbles as well. However, post stream, Tascha made a correction.
Obviously, accuracy is important, especially in major PvP changes. So, who better to ask then Robert himself. He had this to say.
Orbs and Arrows work as they always have done - only Trebuchets were affected in their impact on God bubbles. To clarify, I know this because I’m the one who directly implemented that change.
Thanks to @Tascha for the attention into it!
Mounts - Raising and Leveling
As with many pets now, you will need to start with finding a baby horse to raise. However, mounts will be raised in a stable, rather than an Animal Pen. Below are a few screencaps of the stable shown on stream.
The Stable was designed to make it easier for players to place than the Animal Pen (much smaller, for starters). Building a stable is unlocked at level 20. Exact locations of the baby horses were not given, other taen that some could be found north of the beginning area river, as well as somewhere in the highlands, and “other locations.”
Twitch Question: Are there different tier of stables?
Robert: No, there is only one tier of stables for now.
Types of Foal’s (Baby Horses) (30:13):
Jens identified the Foal in the stable as a “Swift Foal”, and said that there are “Sturdy Foals” and “Regular Foals” as well. However, Vlad said that right now it just makes too much of a difference which of the foals are acquired. He did say there is a “small percentage chance” of a different color of horse, based on the Foal that is put into a stable. The horse attributes and stats are based on the leveling system (discussed in the previous stream) and are all the same in that regard.
Twitch Question: Are there Greater horses?
Robert: No
Twitch Question: Can you steal mounts
Robert: Not once they have been placed in the world, but you can steal them from inside a stable, yes.
Twitch Question: Can you mount the horse but not have it follow and have a thrall follow you?
Robert: No, you’ll be limited to one follower at a time (Mounts counts as followers once they’re mounted)
Twitch Question: Why should I ever take a horse over a thrall with me?
Robert: Or a pet for that matter - the answer is: “Options”. Pets and thralls will not make you traverse the map faster. Conversely, horses are not going to be as good at fighting bosses. Your choice of companion will be determined by the type of activity you want to do.
While the system for leveling is the same with pets as it is with mounts, what the attributes will do change on a mount versus a pet.
- Horse Strength:
- Affects how much damage you will do when attacking a target at full speed.
- Horse Accuracy:
- Makes bow shots that are fired while on Horseback more accurate.
An example of what types of Perks and Attributes is captured below.
The color will be random, with a slight chance at some undiscussed color depending on which foal you acquire.
Horse - Follow Command and Admin Leveling (31:52):
As with any Follower type, you may command the Horse to follow.
During this portion of the stream, Jens typed in a command to level the Horse using Admin powers. Obviously, this small portion of the stream only reflects single player and admin’s, but here is what I was able to gather from the very short snippet.
- Possibly needs the Mount (or Pet, or Thrall) be set to Follow the player first.
- I couldn’t make out the full admin command, as it was partially hidden and blurry behind Jens and Vlad on stream. Something along the lines of:
- LevelFollowerUpTo (numeric value)
- Possibly needs to be placed again using the “Guard” command.
Gaining Experience to Level the Horse (41:41):
The horse is described as one of the easiest and fastest to level of the various followers. Not only does it gain experience when you kill something (the method in which both Pets and Thralls level), it also gains experience as you ride the horse. Vlad gave a time estimation of 4-6 hours of playing time to max level a horse. This of course will vary depending on how you play and who or what you kill in that timeframe
Like pets, you may also rename your horse as you desire.
Horse - Riding
Horse Saddles and Inventory (33:56):
In order to ride a horse, one must of course, have a saddle. At level 20, the beginning level saddle is unlocked, and requires an Armor feat in order to unlock.
As you can see in the screenshot, this also unlocks the new worktable, the “Saddler’s Worktable.”
The various saddles are not just visual changes, but also come with different stats. Saddles protect the horse, but not the player (discussed at 55:21).
The three Warhorse saddles, unlocked at level 20, 40, and 60, Vlad defined as being best for PvE. The level 60 Vlad described as making the horse a lot slower, but able to take more punishment from enemy combatants. This of course, makes it harder to engage PvP targets that are more mobile.
Here are various screencaps for your enjoyment if you want to see what the Saddles look like.
The closest horse in this screenshot is using the level 20, with the second horse using the level 40 saddles.
Pictured below is the level 60 saddle.
Horse saddles are currently not dyeable. Vlad said he knows a lot of players would probably want that as a feature, but it’s not a feature supported currently. That could change in the future.
Twitch Question: Can we dye the saddle ?
Robert: Not right now, but we hope to make that possible in the near future.
Next pictured is the Aquilonian Scout saddle. Vlad described this saddle as best used as a traveling companion. It allows the horse to run for a long distance. Meaning, it’s a marathon type of runner, able to travel long distances.
Finally, concluding the saddle show and tell is the Pictish saddle. Vlad described this saddle as “the best” for PvP. Unlike the Warhorse saddle previously described, the Pictish saddle is best for speed and maneuvering, often ideal for PvP battles. The downside of course being that the saddle isn’t able to take as much punishment, so avoidance is key. Also, unlike the Aquilonian Scout saddle, this saddle is meant for sprints, rather than a marathon.
Horses also have their own inventory, just like any other Pet does now. This is where you place which saddle you want the horse to utilize as well.
The horse allows you to stock its inventory full like any other pet, and it will not impact the speed of the horse (or endurance consumed). However, if the player is encumbered and mounts their horse to ride off into the sunset with their bags of stone, the horse will inherit the player’s encumbrance and be unable to run or sprint.
Horse - Riding Speed and Endurance (38:37):
Players mounted on a horse will of course travel faster than they will on foot. Vlad estimated their maximum speed as being about 50% faster than a player can sprint. Vlad gave some numbers, though didn’t give a unit of measurement. He gave player sprint speed of “855”, and the top horse speed is set to about “1300.”
Horses have three different speeds in which the player may ride. They have a walking option, a normal trot, and a full on gallop. Gallop is the same controls as sprint is now for Players. On PC, this means Shift (Default) is used for Gallop. On controller, it is the left joystick.
Starting off, we have a gif of the horse walking while mounted.
Next is a gif of the trot.
Finally, gallop is shown in this gif, which you can observe the acceleration feature and endurance of the horse going down over time (level 20 horse).
Speaking of stamina, the maximum endurance for every horse is the same. How much endurance is consumed while sprinting is based on the saddle stats. If the player or horse takes damage, a portion of the current endurance is consumed as well (mitigated by the Armor, which comes from the saddle and agility rank). If the player is hit when the endurance is at 0, the player will be dismounted from the horse.
Twitch Question: Are horses able to run up player built ramps/stairs pretty easily?
Robert: Normal stairs, yes - that’s not a problem. If your stairs are windy and twisty, it might be tough to get the turning done if you’re running up the stairs at speed.
Horse - Jump and Swim (40:40):
Horses are able to both jump and swim. Standing still and using the jump button will cause the Horse to rear up.
Shown below is the Horse jumping during a full Gallop.
Twitch Question: Can Horses jump obstacles?
Robert: Yes
Horses swimming wasn’t shown on stream, but there was a very short clip posted on Twitter from Twitchcon a few months ago that briefly showed a player entering the water and the horse swimming. Obviously since this is an early build, it is unknown if what is briefly shown is considered final as far as function and animation.
https://twitter.com/ConanExiles/status/1178017494344310785
At 1:03:44, it was asked if horses can drown. No, horses cannot drown while swimming. Players can drown on a horse though.
Twitch Question: Can they swim and can they zone into dungeons?
Robert: Yes, they can swim. No, they can’t zone into dungeons.
Horse - Fast and Furious Drifting (42:57):
Drifting was added to the mounted system to allow more maneuverability while on the horse. In before 360 no scopes become a thing.
Twitch Question: How was the mount issue fixed? I heard the problem earlier was that the world couldn’t load quickly for the movement speed or something to that effect?
Robert: That is correct. Enough optimizations to the game has taken place (and takes place in this patch) that allows us to put mounts in. For example - the reduction in thralls put in by the thrall cap reduces server stress. It also reduces the amount of textures that need to be loaded into memory; combined with a number of other fixes and tweaks and improvements, this led us to finally allow for mounts.
Horse - Mounted Combat
Types of Weapons that can be used While Mounted (44:52):
While not every single weapon in the game will be usable in December, there are plenty of choices to choose from. List of Confirmed Weapons for Mounted Combat (shown at 45:58)
- 1 Handed Sword (Light Attack - Cripple)
- 1 Handed Axe (Light Attack - Bleed)
- 1 Handed Mace (Light Attack - Sunder)
- 2 Handed Spear (Slower, better forward reach, more damage)
- Lance
- Bow
- Torch (shown at 53:15)
Here is the list of not able to be used weapons that were mentioned:
- Daggers
- Thrown Weapons
- Shield
- 2 Handed Swords
- 2 Handed Hammers
- Katana (confirmed Post-Stream)
- 1 Handed Short Sword (confirmed Post-Stream)
Daggers were a flat no while on Horseback. 2 Handed Swords were also confirmed not able to be used. 2 Handed Axes were not mentioned directly, though it is likely they are not usable since they were not shown on stream.
Thrown Weapons was given the following quote from Robert post-stream:
Thrown Weapons, such as Javelins and Orbs, haven’t been implemented on horseback at this time. This may change in the future, but no concrete plans.
The shield was also left out (described at 53:20). According to Vlad, one of the reasons it wasn’t added in was because it would make mounted combat a lot more complicated. They didn’t feel like they had the proper amount of time to implement it, but would like to add the shield in the future.
Types of Mounted Attacks (46:49):
The light attack is the large AOE based attack. It can be held down to prep the attack, and released when ready to engage your target. Best practice is to use this for your hit and run attacks where you need to be more mobile.
The heavy attack is a single target based attack. It’s a much stronger attack, though of course it will be harder to hit your target while on the move. Like the light attack, it can be held down to prep the attack, and released when ready to engage your target.
Both the light attack and the heavy attack can be aimed using the mouse cursor. That means you can aim lower or higher, left or right, and behind as well.
Lances - New Weapon for Mounted Combat (50:11):
Lances can only be used while mounted on a horse. They can be equipped and walked around with, but they cannot be used if not on a horse.
To attack with the lance, you simply prep the attack and aim it. There isn’t any swinging with the Lance. The objective is to aim and move with the Lance until it hits your target. Anything the Lance hits will take damage.
The amount of damage the Lance will do is based on the velocity of the two targets. Meaning, two players moving at full gallop speeds will cause the most damage to each other when compared to a single player moving at trot speed attacking a standing still target. And if you are completely still and just aiming the Lance, it will cause little to no damage at all.
The specific criteria wasn’t described by Vlad, but the Lance will have a high chance of dismounting a player under the right conditions. To mitigate this chance, you will want to use the Warhorse saddle, and have the right attributes be given to your horse as it levels up.
Twitch Question: Are there multiple tiers of lances?
Robert: Yes, only two thought - basic and epic
Vlad describes bow combat as best to be used when targeting the opposing target (player) that is riding on their horse. The bow’s range is limited to 180 degrees, fired off the left side of the horse. This is standard in various other games that also allow mounted combat. In games that let you do a full 360 degree combat system, Vlad described the process as really expensive to implement. They may revisit this decision at a later date if they feel it’s really necessary, but won’t say for sure.
The bow has both a light and heavy attack, as players are already accustomed to. Heavy attack can be aimed prior to firing the arrow. As previously discussed in the stream, accuracy stat of the horse (as well as you the player) will determine how accurate you are with the bow, especially while on the move.
Firing your arrow at an opposing player’s horse’s legs will also result in a special debuff where it will do endurance damage to the horse.
Can You Knock Out a Thrall and Drag Them with the Horse? (59:40):
No. Thralls are also unable to ride a horse. Mounts are limited to players only.
Future Mounted Combat Changes or Plans (53:35):
A lot of the mounted combat is considered or described as a first step. Get horses in place, a mounted combat system in place, etc. Since mounted combat is a significant change from things Funcom has done in the past, they are eager to hear player feedback as time goes on. As this feedback rolls in, a lot of it will dictate the direction that Funcom chooses to go from there, and allow them to make the existing system more complex in the future.
Can Horse Mounts be Killed? (54:17):
Yes, horses can be killed like any other pet.
Twitch Question: Are you able to run over other players?
Robert You can, yes - internally this is referred to as “the snowplow”
Twitch Question: Can the horse kick something behind them?
Robert: No, but it can certainly stomp things in front of them
Wrapping Up and General Q/A
Mounts - Future Plans for Others Besides Horses? (32:49):
This was discussed as far back as September, but Horses are the only current mountable animals to be coming out in December. That is the plan for the time being. It is a “we will see” as far as implementing other mounts in the future.
Vlad did say that, from a modders side of things, its very easy to setup a new mount. However, the big challenge for modders would be implementing proper animations (purchased or manually created) for those types of mounts.
Twitch Question: Why only horses as mounts?
Robert: There wasn’t enough time to make anything else mountable and adjust animations, leveling, stats and combat for mounts other than the horse.
Twitch Question: Which one of you is going to make me a unicorn mod now?
Robert: Probably Sibercat
Twitch Question: Will there be something for us modders to block mounts from certain areas?
Robert: You can block them, yes.
Early December is the current ETA for the official update. Outside of that, there is no concrete date available for live or testlive. Funcom will announce those dates when they are ready to. All the changes shown today (combat, trebuchet, mounts), as well as the Follower update, are all expected to come out together in December as well.
Twitch Question: Are we going to have to wipe our servers when the Mount update comes out?
Robert: No
Other Hidden Mechanics (1:03:17):
Not everything was shown on stream today. Vlad and Jens are excited for players to uncover and learn other neat tricks once the update is in player hands.
Horses Count Toward Follower Cap (1:04:29):
This was discussed last stream, but horses/mounts do count towards the upcoming Follower cap.
Can You Repackage Thralls or Pets to Replace Them Post Leveling Patch? (1:05:21):
No. You cannot knock out your own Thralls either.
Vlad also described how pick-up mods work and why they won’t be able to implement it in an official capacity. Basically, when you are picking up an item, you are actually destroying the item (or Thrall or Pet) that is in the world, and replacing it with a new one. From a player perspective, that means any Follower you pick-up, all progress would be lost with the Leveling system and the player would have to start over with that Follower.
Not discussed on stream are the ways this can also be abused and exploited (and they can be, just ask the authors of those mods).
Twitch Question: Any chance we’ll get a new game with AO IP? Maybe a survival game like this?
Robert: I would love that, and I would sell my dogs and never leave the office if I worked on that.
Twitch Question: When is pet nerf coming? We don’t want 25k HP Thralls when this goes live. it already takes 30min to kill a 10K HP Thrall.
Robert: The 25k hitpoint thrall shown two weeks ago was from a build where stats were out of whack.
Twitch Question: Do horse balls shrink in cold
Robert: No - we have something better.
Twitch Question: Is that a new riding suit? (refers to Jens wearing the Asura armor)
Robert: It is the Asura armor color variant you can obtain from Sinner’s Refuge.
Twitch Question: Has the map had any major changes?
Robert: No, except for plugging undermesh spots.
