I just wanted to put out this brief update to assure people that the game is still being worked on and version 1.5 is going well! I would have put out a full announcement for 1.5 today but I want to let it cook another week or so just to get more of it ready to show off. But I'm looking forward to getting really deep into this patch dev cycle as it represents a big moment in the history of the game.
From the very start back when version 1.0 released I always knew what the final patch was going to be and most importantly the final boss. Finally being able to work on that content is incredibly satisfying and also a bit scary as I've reached the end of the plan I had originally set out, but that just means I have to plan again. And I have, version 2.0, while it hasn't started development yet, has been in the planning stages for quite some time now and as soon as 1.5 wraps I'm jumping right into 2.0.
So that's all for this little post, there will be a proper blog in the first week of the new year detailing everything coming in 1.5 I hope you look forward to it!
Emperium 1.4 Patch Notes Preview
Emperium 1.4 is releasing on November 29th! Here are the Patch Notes, job changes will be released on Monday!
Emperium 1.4 "King's Fall" Update
Content in this update includes....
Nexus Dungeon Sun setting Phase 2
Nocturnum Temple Raid
Arcane Archives Dungeon
Elemental Weapon updates
Accessories 2.0
Hunting System Updates
New Story Chapters
Job Balance
Misc Additions and Updates
Bug Fixes
Nexus Dungeons
As stated in the version 1.3 patch notes further aspects of the Nexus Dungeon system are being removed. The Nexus has been completely closed if you character is still inside the nexus when version 1.4 releases you will be prompted to teleport out. You are now unable to purchase the Nexus related accessories from the exchange vendor in Agran City. Any extra Magnus Ren coins can be sold for Unaspected Aetherial Dust.
Nocturnum Temple Raid
A new two boss high difficulty raid will be made available upon completion of MSQ Chapter 23. This raid will drop item level 130 accessories
Arcane Arcives
A new three boss dungeon that will be made available upon completion of MSQ Chapter 22. This dungeon will drop item level 120 weapons.
Elemental Weapon Update
As of patch 1.4 tier 7 elemental weapons are available. These are made by scrapping the tier 6 to convert it into 60 essence, as well as 20 Beastial Bones a new item dropped from Hunt Monsters as of this update.
Tier 7 weapons are item level 120 and represent the penultimate stage of weapon. The final stage will be made available upon the release of patch 1.5
Accessories 2.0
Accessories throughout the game so far have been "evergreen" with them never really falling out of style and them remaining just as strong as they were when first introduced. This presented a problem as it restricted what could be done with class design as well as encounters. Having to think about what random ring from 2 raids ago could break the current one.
Unique accessories like the "Ring of the Umbral Heart" will have their current effect disabled and a new one will be added, with some exceptions. Accessories with resistence effects will not be changed.
This does not apply retroactively so I'm asking you to please don't abuse the old accessories and use the new ones instead m(_ _)m
Accessories Updates
Overview; As a baseline all accessories now have stats associated with their item level. All necklaces will give HP based on their item level. All rings will give MP based on their item level. All accessories will be generic
Stag Set; Unchanged Dreamer's Set; Unchanged Greater Knowledge Set; Unchanged Greater Fire Resistance Set; Unchanged Molten Set; Unchanged Heavy Frost Set; Unchanged Kilrogg's Warband; Updated Kilrogg's Eye; Increase Critical Strike Chance by 2% Equippable by; All Shattered Sun Accessories; Updated Shattered Sun Locket; +1% MP regen Shattered Sun Mage Relic; +1 Mana Cost Reduction Shattered Sun Emblem; +1% Critical Strike Damage Shattered Sun Warrior Relic; +1% Critical Strike Chance Shattered Sun Necklace; +1% HP regen Shattered Sun Pyromancer Charm; +3% Fire Resistance Pendant of Relentless Elements; Updated All element resistance +5% ----> +2% Set Bonus nerf 500 barrier ---> 250 barrier Ring of Southern Winds; Reworked Invictus Ring; Critical Strike Damage 1% Necklace of Frenzied Spirit; Updated +5% Critical Strike Chance ---> +3% Critical Strike Chance
Hunt System Updates
The three original world bosses have been updated to fit more in line with the Hunt system introduced on the Isle of Umbra. This means they now have spawn conditions that must be met rather than one spawning at random once per in game week.
All Hunt targets can now drop Beastial Bones which is a material integral to upgrading the elemental weapons to tier 7. (More information about Tier 7 Elemental Weapons can be found in their respective section)
Job Updates
The updates have been omitted, the full changes will be available on Tuesday when the patch releases.
Adjustments & Misc Additions
The appearance of Hawthorne Settlement in the Crestmorne Tundra has been changed.
Reformatted the Elemental Weapon Vendor menus
Cracked ground in the ruins in Daybreak Desert will now have random encounters.
Adjusted the recommended minimum item level for Citadel of Night.
Corrected bosses not resetting properly in the Citadel of Night.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug where Paladin Action "Shield Toss" was not properly classified as a physical skill
Fixed a bug that unintentionally teleported the player into Chapter 18 scenario instead of a location in the overworld.
Fixed a bug where an Attuned Aethertablet on the Umbra Isle would display its graphic incorrectly.
Fixed an issue in certain MSQ chapters where you would be able to travel out of bounds.
Fixed a bug where the Gunner skill Tactition was not working properly.
Emperium Devlog #15; 1.4 Release date, state of the game
Emperium 1.4 release date
After 6 long months full of burn out I have finally finished Emperium's fourth major update "King's Fall" will be releasing on November 29th, with the preview notes being posted tomorrow November 25th. Since it has been so long since the last Devlog detailing the 1.4 update, this log will mostly be a refresher on the content coming next Tuesday. There will also be a brief update on Emperium 1.5 the final update for Emperium 1.X cycle of patches.
The Content
Coming with the release of Emperium 1.4 you will be able to go through 5 more chapters of the main story, since this is the penultimate patch the story involving the Nightsworn will be mostly wrapped up, but there is a single loose end that will bring everything to a conclusion in 1.5.
Unlocked through the main story you will go through the Arcane Archives, located below the Citadel of Night it is home to an ancient treasure that might be the answer the Hero of Emperium needs to defeat Archiel.
Also unlocked through the main story is a two boss raid known as the "Nocturnum Temple" (Previously this was called the Magnus Ren ruins). While there are only two bosses they will be incredibly challenging and it is recommended you have the best gear you can get before challenging this raid. Completion of this raid is required to finish the patch story content, however a story mode of the raid will become available in 1.5.
The original world bosses have been updated to fall in line with the new hunting system introduced in 1.3. They all have unique spawn conditions and hints at those spawn conditions are available from a new npc in Agran city. Hunt targets have also had a new material added to their loot tables.
Finally Tier 7 Elemental weapons are now available. They are still weaker than the current best in slot but be assured that the final tier of elemental weapon will be worth all the effort you have put into it.
Emperium 1.5
while normally I would have more of the next patch done by the time the previous patch is about to release, 1.5 has only just entered preproduction. I don't expect it to take another 6+ months it will be some time, especially because I really want to get the final raid as good as it can be. Looking into the far future there will probably be news of Emperium 2.0 some time slightly before 1.5 releases.
Thank you all for reading this post it was a lot of text but I needed to update everyone, after such a long period of radio silence.
Emperium Devlog #14
Introduction
Hello! Welcome to the June update, this last month was fairly productive, there is still a fair amount of work to be done but here is a quick update going through each of the major pieces of content coming in this update!
As you can see the raid has been the primary focus of development, it's mostly done it just needs the loot and some boss testing. The main story is usually the last thing I work on as I like having the actual content as a framework for the story. For example instead of making the story first and then the dungeon, I like having the dungeon then the story. As a kind of scaffolding.
The new Elemental Weapon stages are tied into the new content, tier 6 is made with a raid material and tier 7 made with Hunt Target materials.
Generally the patch is on schedule for its release date, but it is a bit too early to give a time frame. Next month will probably be a release date announcement as well as information on Patch 1.5
Sorry for the kind of bare bones update this month but because of the scaling back in patch sizes it will kind of be like this until I begin posting updates about the development of 2.0 this will kind of be the scale of these devlogs. Anyways see you next month!
Emperium Devlog #13 1.4 Announcement
Emperium 1.4
Hello! Welcome to the first devlog on Emperium 1.4. This is the second to last major update for Emperium, and while these last two updates will have major features they will overall be smaller than something like 1.3. Now lets begin talking about the content!!! Firstly the name of this patch is....King's Fall
As made clear in the patch title, this update focuses on the Nightsworn King, and your final confrontation against him, however before you can fight him you must learn who he really is.
Major Content in 1.4 includes...
New 2 Boss Raid: Magnus Ren Ruins
New Dungeon: Arcane Vaults
Additional Steps to the Elemental Weapon
Expanded Hunting System
5 New Story Chapters
Accessories Update
What I'm most excited about is the raid, I've been planning it for a similar amount of time as the Citadel of Night. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say you will be fighting Archiel this patch, and I'm trying make the Archiel encounter really special.
here is a preview of the raid:
The final bit of information is that there is going to be a pretty major update to accessories in the game. Accessories are defined as anything that goes in the ring and necklace armor slots. Basically at the moment rings and necklaces are evergreen which is not something I would like. I want armor over time to become "junk" so that there is always a reason to run the most current content. To fix this accessories are going to focus mostly on "special" parameters like hp mp, and bp regen. Crit chance, crit damage
In conclusion, the patch is already coming along pretty smoothly. I have an internal release date I'm aiming for, and I think that newer techniques I discovered in the creation of the Citadel of Night will allow raid testing to go much faster. See you next month! We'll be talking more about the raid and gearing changes starting in 1.4
Emperium 1.3 "Into the Dark" Patch Notes
Emperium 1.3 is releasing on April 26th! Here are the Patch Notes, job changes will be released on Monday!
Emperium 1.3 "Into the Dark" Update
Content in this update includes....
Nexus Dungeon Sun setting Phase 1
Isle of Umbra Zone
Citadel of Night Raid
Ruined Sewers Dungeon
Hunting System
Gathering Updates
Item Crafting Update
Emperium 1 Year Anniversary Event
New Story Chapters
Job Balance
Misc Additions and Updates
Bug Fixes
Nexus Dungeons
Due to the sun setting of the Nexus system game play elements tied or associated to the Nexus will be removed/changed.
The Nexus Chapter of the Eternal Quest will be removed.
Hard Mode Dungeons will no longer drop +1 Keys.
Weekly Chest in Agran City will be removed.
Physical Entrance in Daybreak Desert has been removed.
The Minted Coins vendor will be removed in 1.4, you will be able to convert Minted Coins to Vials of Unaspected Aetherial Dust. The system will be completely disabled in version 1.5.
Citadel of Night Raid
A 9 boss raid instance with a Challenge mode available. The raid will drop Item Level 130 Armor and Weapons. It will also drop a new material used to make Aethercubes +2 for further gear enhancement.
Due to changes in accessories coming in 1.4 this raid will not drop accessories.
Ruined Sewers Dungeon
This is a 3 boss dungeon, due to story reasons the dungeon does not drop gear. Instead of a dungeon set the zone has a vendor that you can purchase gear using a material that can be gathered from mining nodes in the zone, or obtained via boss drops in the dungeon. The gear associated with this dungeon is item level 115 with no augment or gem slots.
Hunting System
The hunting system is an updated approach to world bosses in Emperium. Hunt Targets have specific spawning methods that are secret, an NPC will give hints to what they are but you will have no further help. A Hunt can only be killed once a week and it drops currencies. This is just the base of the system and will get expanded with more rewards and targets in 1.4
Gathering System Updates
Looking into the future of Emperium gathering is going to be getting a few major updates, and to start laying that groundwork a cap needed to be placed on Gathering Skills. Both Mining and Botany base values will be capped at 200. Botany and Mining gems have been removed. Originally they were intended to be an easy to way to get gathering skill, but that was also when it was uncapped. Currently with the direction I want to take Gathering it needs to be capped and the gems inflate that skill value too much.
Other changes to gathering include;
New tier 6 nodes have been added in the new over world zone "Umbra Isle"
Changed how gathering skill bonuses grant additional materials At each threshold rather than giving +2 and +3 on top of the base amount they will give just a single additional material for each threshold you reach.
Changed how gathering skill is gained. Previously on all nodes tier 2 and higher when you reach a skill threshold you gain an additional +1 to gathering skill for each threshold you reach. This has been changed so you only get a single skill point no matter how many thresholds you reach.
Crafting System Update
Crafting in Emperium has been a long overlooked part of the game, as consumables have always been important in MMOs I want them to be significant in Emperium as well. A full overhaul of the item crafting system has been done in order for existing consumables to be more accessible. What this will also do is make expansion of consumables with new tiers of food items and potions easier than before.
The system itself is straight forward, unlock it at the forger in Agran and a new "Synthesis" option will appear in the main menu.
Emperium 1 Year Anniversary
The Emperium 1 Year Anniversary is here! To celebrate speak with the Town Crier npc in Agran City. Finishing this event will give lots of important materials so you should really do it!
Job changes
Due to Jobs being tweaked up till the last second they specific job changes have been omitted from these notes.
Misc Adjustments and Changes
+2 Aethercube have been added. +2 Aethercubes have been simplified. They each only give 1 type of stat (except for fending) In order to craft you will need to obtain materials from the Citadel of Night Raid.
Striking +2
Healing +2
Casting +2
Fending +2
Aiming +2
Aethercube +1's have had their recipe changed; 150 Unaspected vials
New Recipes have been added
Resistance potions of all elements have been added
Stat boosting potions have been added
New Food Items have been added
Food Items have been reworked; instead of increasing a main stat food items now temporarily boost Max HP in a single combat. Each tier of food item increases MaxHP by an increasing amount.
Misc Updates;
The appearance of a certain location in MSQ chapters has been adjusted.
During certain MSQ cutscenes portraits have been added to the dialogue.
While in combat a new UI element has been added to track the current Turn Number.
Updated the Inn to be more specific about what content will be reset when triggering a forced weekly reset.
Updated the Inn to now reset the Clock Tower Raid upon forcing a weekly reset.
Significantly increased the amount of health restored via Health Potions.
Skill tomes from the Clockwork Tower Raid have had their drop chances increased.
Several new back end features have been added, one of them will enforce a Damage and Healing cap
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug where several chapters of the Main Story did not properly reset when you select the option to replay them.
Fixed a bug where Grand Draw did not work properly
Fixed bug where Fortune Teller still has % based MP costs
Fixed an issue in the tier 4 mining nodes where the the higher skill bonuses were proccing off of botany skill rather than mining skill.
Fixed an issue where the tool tip for the buff "Freshly Assembled" was incorrect.
Fixed MP potions restoring health instead.
Emperium Devlog #12
Emperium 1.3
Hello! Welcome to the 12th devlog and it's a big one. This is the Anniversary month Emperium released originally on April 27th 2021, while it won't be released on the exact same day cause the 27th isn't a Tuesday this year, so we're going to start all the anniversary stuff on the 26th!
Emperium 1.3 is releasing Tuesday April 26th
This patch release will coincide with the anniversary event which will run for two weeks (From the 26th of April to May 10th)
Emperium 1 Year Anniversary
To Celebrate the 1 year anniversary of the game there will be an in game event that involves a quick quest culminating in a special meeting. In the final cutscene there is a special dialogue that hints at the future of the game.
To coincide with the release of the patch there will also be a special anniversary sale the game will be 33% off for 1 week.
Emperium 1.4
So Emperium 1.4 is next, there will be more information coming in May, but I will say one thing. Achievements are coming to Emperium, not through Steam though. There will be an in game achievement system that rewards lots of stuff, and they track retroactively. So make sure to do lots of content to get lots of achievements when 1.4 comes out!
Devlog #11 Emperium 1.3 Status Development Update
Intro
Hi everyone! Welcome to the March Emperium Update, this is coming out a little bit later due a certain game being released recently that has been eating all my time. Despite playing other games I have been working on Emperium. This months update will focus on running through the progress of the patch as a whole, there are some details about the anniversary as well.
Progress
I'm going to break down each of the 3 segments of the patch into percentages just to show the progress of each.
Raid: 90% Main Story: 20% Hunting System: 15%
While this might not seem as far along as I'm saying it is, but the Raid is such a significant part of patch development in Emperium that it took two months to create a full 9 boss raid. The remaining features of the patch require significantly less development time,
In terms of the raid itself currently 8/9 bosses are done, all the loot has been made all that really needs to be done is finish the final boss and add the loot tables, as I balance the raid encounters as I make them.
The main story will take the second longest amount of time to make but it shouldn't be anywhere near as long as the raid as I usually go into the patch with a rough outline of where the story is going.
The hunting system still requires a decent amount of work as all that's currently is the bare bones proof of concept.
Anniversary Event
The anniversary event will start on the day of the anniversary (April 26th) and will last for a real world 2 weeks. Once the two weeks are over it will become an event based on the in game calendar during the same period of time.
The even itself is going to be more of a mini game instead of something combat focused like the Halloween event, it'll be closer to the Christmas one. The rewards will be generic currencies as well as a unique Proof of Victory
That's all for this month, its quite short compared to others but there isn't really much to talk about, hopefully April's update will have a release confirmation of 1.3 and the first sneak peak at 1.4, see you all next month!
Emperium Devlog #10 1.3 Dungeon and Hunting system preview
Introduction
Welcome back to the Emperium Devlog, This is February's entry and this month we're showcasing the dungeon and hunting system! Now like everything in Emperium 1.3 it's still very early and is subject to change.
Hunting System
Firstly what I wanted to do with the hunting system is iterate on the idea of World Bosses with something more interesting than a simple random spawn per reset. The basis of the Hunting system is that, in any given zone there will be at least 1 boss that can only spawn when certain conditions are met.
These conditions can be a handful of things, and discovering what those are is up to you as the player to discover. However, there will be hints available at a new NPC known as the Hunt Master. Hunt Masters are only in zones with active hunts, so at the moment old zones will not have a Hunt Master, however I am looking into expanding this system if it goes well.
When conditions are met a notification will appear letting you know that something has spawned. There will not be a marker on the map so its up to you to use the hints of the Hunt Master to find the location of the hunt monster.
Dungeon
The less significant aspect of the patch is the dungeon, and while in the previous I had detailed the raid its because this raid has been in the works since before the game even released. The dungeon however was only finalized after the previous devlog was already published.
The story details of this dungeon aren't going to be talked about. Why you're running through the sewers and where the sewers are is a mystery until you actually get to play the content. This dungeon is unique though, as there is only a single boss! This boss changes each time you fight them but it leads to a dungeon that feels unique and carry more influence on the story than others before. Another unique thing about this dungeon is that the gear is actually higher item level than base raid gear from the Clocktower. This is in an effort to standardize item level gains per patch.
The raid this patch will give item level 130 gear while the dungeon gives 115 gear, and the goal is to increase gear by 30 item levels every time a new raid tier releases. So the 1.5 tier will give item level 160 gear, and the 1.4 dungeon will give item level 125 gear.
This dungeon continues the trend of making dungeons more of an event compared to what they were pre 1.2
Conclusion
So that's all there is this month, I have my own internal deadlines that I believe I can meet, but I'm not going to share anything until it becomes clearer. Next month I'll begin talking about what to look forward to during the 1 year anniversary at the end of April, and hopefully have some news about 1.3 release!
Devlog #9 Emperium in 2022 and Update 1.3
Emperium 1.3
Even though Emperium 1.2 just released I'm working hard on 1.3 (though I am taking a couple days off for the new year) The 1.3 update is titled "Into the Dark" and is something I've been outlining and planning for a long time now.
The update is the first one that takes place on a new landmass outside of Emperium where the first 5 zones are. The Isle of Umbra is a massive island and is home to many dangers, the largest being the Nightsworn as the island is their base of operations, and of course what would an Emperium update be without new raid content.
In the Heart of the Isle of Umbra rests the Citadel of Night. A 9 boss raid Instance that will feature a more detailed raid environment when compared to previous raids in Emperium.
The Isle of Umbra zone is not like any other zone in the game, as it not only much larger but also contains its own unique system for spawning world bosses. Unlike the mainland, where world bosses are on a set rotation each week. The world bosses on the Isle of Umbra have their own timers and spawn conditions that are to be discovered in game and are integral to progression in 1.3. The zone itself is massive like I said before, it's so big in fact that it has 3 Aether Tablets
Moving onto the raid, its at the heart, The Citadel of Night is the beginning of the end in regards to the first story arc in Emperium. By the time you finish Chapter 20 you will know what the raid boss is going to be in 1.4. Just a preview of the raid environment;
The whole thing has this castle aesthetic with the first half of the raid has you going through the different sections of the castle, with the end boss being at its pinnacle. Almost all the bosses in this raid have had some appearance in the MSQ which is something new and is really only possible in a raid like this that ties together all the story threads so far.
Overall This patch is shaping up to be nice, I'm excited for the Hunting system as an experiment and plan to expand it further if it turns out well. I can't give a release date or time frame for the patch because it is so early on.
In other news I do plan on an Emperium 1 year anniversary update coming in April. That will be out independently of 1.3 so if 1.3 is not out by then the anniversary will still be there.
