Quality-Of-Life, Major Engine Update, Free Play & Roadmap!
NOTE: you've missed The Hunt, the first major update to Fractured Online since release? Check it out here!
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Hi, fellow gamer and MMO enthusiast!
The big Quality of Life update that was promised has been released, and the game is now built with Unity 2022.3!
Read on for all the details on this major milestone and for more info on what's coming to the game in September!
RELEASED: Today's Patch Log
Free Play Extended
The Free Week has officially been extended once again until Monday, September 9, at 8am UTC!
We've taken this decision because we promised you'd be able to experience this major update during the Free Play event last week, but completing testing and fixing all the issues generated by the engine update took longer than expected.
This is the last extension though, so make the most of it! ;)
Please note that Steam doesn't allow running more than one Free Weekend per year for B2P games, so this event is available only on our Standalone Launcher. No worries though, if you later purchase the game on Steam you'll be able to link your Fractured Online account to your Steam account the first time you launch from Steam. No progression will be lost!
Unity 2022.3 LTS Upgrade
We'll be getting a litte technical here. If tech insights aren't interesting to you, feel free to skip this paragraph!
Due to restrictions in our backend engine, we've been long forced to use an older version of Unity (2020.3 LTS). Being a "Long Term Support" version, it was still being updated with bug fixes, but some of the core systems used by both our client and server were Beta releases, thus not fully stable.
Inherent flaws in those core systems are the reason behind the server crashes that we've been experiencing in the world in the last few days. Do note that the issues didn't lie in the core of our backend engine, which is not part of Unity, but in the Unity processes that control different areas of the world.
A first attempt to just update those Beta packages to the most recent Beta versiown supported by Unity 2020.3 LTS yielded no improvements. We then realized a full engine update was needed, which is now done!
This update also paves the way to many potential client and server performance improvents which we can't wait to start working on!
Quality of Life
Here we have some of the QOL changes most requested by the community!
First, we have added more options to the Settings menu, giving you the chance to:
Change controls to MOBA/RTS-like, i.e. you move with right click (basically mouse controls become inverted compared to the current ones).
Disable quick casting, i.e. you get a target cursor instead of casting the spell directly at your current cursos position.
Change the mouse cursors graphics to more visible (brightly colored) ones.
See the names of monsters on mouseover.
Second, we have implemented the following changes:
Mounting as Peaceful when not in combat takes 1 second instead of 4. Gatherers rejoice!
Targeting is now smarter - trying to cast an offensive spell on a target will ignore allied creatures on top of the target.
Dismounting as Aggressive when other non-allied Aggressive players are within 15 meters from you makes all your ability go on a 5-seconds cooldown.
Double-clicking on the center of a radial menu automatically selects the "default" option of the radial menu. This means that if you are mounted, you can pick up your wagon with double-click, while if you are dismounted, you can open the wagon's inventory with double-click. If you own a house, you can open a chest with double-click...
The I'M STUCK button can now be used in sieges, and Game Masters can enter active siege zones.
Trying to interact with an item while in Combat Mode now triggers a message saying "Can't do this while in combat".
Combat Mode is no longer triggered when casting spells or attacks if such spells or attacks don't connect with any target. This means you can now jump to that plant and harvest it right away, yes.
Instant-pickup (e.g. small stone) can be interrupted.
In the Book of Knowledge, if you've reached 100% knowledge of a creature, a text now explains you can't gain more KP from that creature.
Bug Fixes
We've got several big ones here, let's go over them!
Selecting the Italian language no longer disables the chat.
Claim item recovery is now functional. Items from abandoned claims have been saved correctly, but could not be recovered because the recovery UI would not open. If you've abandoned a claim, you can recover your items now.
The traps placer by a player no longer hurt the summons of that player.
The base damage of the Chadra Primal Form attacks is now correctly 140 instead of 100.
Totems now always attack, also when the caster is in Summon Follow or Summon Guard mode.
Auto Combat Mode no longer overrides Manual Combat Mode. If you turn on Combat Mode manually through the hotkey, it will stay on until you disable it.
Emote preview is now functional for all races.
The "combat mode prevents looting" option is now disabled for new players.
UPCOMING: September Roadmap
Premium Houses
Not much to add here. Owners of Founder Packs are getting their unique blueprints, and everyone will be able to buy house skins from the store to re-skin their homes :)
Consumables
You all want that dedicated consumable hotbar slot, even though there are just a handful of consumables to put in there. It's time to change this! We have a huge expansion of consumables in store, which will add value to items and events that currently have little, such as gems and ghosts. We can't get into detail in there, since this is such a big topic that it requires a dedicated post. Let's just say that you will get that dedicated hotbar slot, and you'll be able to put 1 consumable there out of several categories. Note: all numbers are for illustrative purposes only and still require balance.
Stay tuned for the dedicated post, and let's move to the next step of gear progression in Fractured: artifacts!
City Crafting Orders
Right now, there is no reason for players to upgrade their cities. This is also something that really needed to be changed, so here we go!
With the last patch of September, city shops will be populated with NPCs that require T1 items crafted by players. Each day each NPC will have a unique request, meaning it will look for a maximum N units of a specific type of item, made of a specific material and optionally with a minimum quality. Note: N unit from each player who wants to contribute, not N in total.
The more complex the request, the higher the amount of reward points earned! When enough points have been accumulated, they can be traded for a random reward, including:
Gold
Crafting Recipes (the ones currently found in chests and Divine Rewards, which will no longer be dropped there)
Artifact Recipes
The higher the level of the city, the better the requests of the NPCs that populate it and the largest the rewards. Moreover, the taxing system will be changed to equalize all cities. More details will follow, since this is also a huge topic.
Artifact Equipment
Once you've got your recipe, you can now use it to turn a weapon or a piece of armor of into an artifact!
The item must be of Legendary quality to undergo this process - that's a new quality level not yet available in game, only achievable by the most skilled crafters who are getting their crafts quality boosted by a Crafting Recipe. Note that the recipe is not the only requirement - unique items found battling Legends in PvE are also needed.
An item turned into an artifact gains a unique suffix which gives it a unique passive ability. Just a few examples below:
Weapon of Wizardry: attacks and physical abilities use Magical Power instead of Physical Power as scaling factor.
Shield of Absorption: Converts 20% of the magical damage you take into mana.
Armor of Strength: Your Strength score increases by 2 points.
Helm of Protection: You take 50% less damage from critical hits. Only the critical portion of the damage is affected.
Boots of Stealth: You move 20% faster while hidden.
Gloves of Brawling: Your unarmed attacks deal 20% more damage.
These are just a few examples out of many. Note: all numbers are for illustrative purposes only and still require balance.
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This is all for today! Enjoy Fractured Online!
Engine Update & French Localization
Hi all,
we have deployed an engine update that should put an end to the crashes (3 so far) that occurred to server processes in the last few days.
Together with that, we're also releasing an update to memory management that should make game clients faster at loading asset from disk and use less memory, and introducing French localization!
Next in line: big QOL patch + Spanish + Portuguese!
Cheers!
The Hunt Update & Free Week
NOTE: we recommend you read this article on our website, with all the nice image galleries :)
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Hi, fellow gamer and MMO enthusiast!
Less than 3 weeks have passed since the full release of Fractured Online, and we are already dropping the first major content update!
To celebrate, we are launching a Free Week when everyone can play the game without having to buy it... and it actually lasts longer than 1 week ;)
Read below for all the details!
Free Week
The Free Week will start on Friday, August 16 at 1pm UTC. Everyone will be able to play by signing up here on fracturedmmo.com and downloading our standalone launcher.
The event will end on Sunday, August 25 at 8am UTC. That’s more than 9 days of free play! After that, everyone who wants to continue playing will be able to buy the game on Steam or through our store.
Please note that it doesn't matter where you buy the game. If you play on the standalone launcher and then buy on Steam, once you launch the game from Steam for the first time you'll be able to link your Steam account to your Fractured account. No progress will be lost!
New Summons
Summons have undoubtedly been one of the most successful additions to the game this year, so... why not having more? 11 more, I say!
Ultimate, 5 control slots: Arboreal / Mountain / Ember Dragonling
Ultimate, 3 control slots: Crystal / Ice / Fire / Storm Elemental
Regular, 3 control slots: (Elder) Arctic Wolf
Regular, 2 control slots: Direwolf, Skeletal Mage, Skeletal Warrior
Dragonlings belong to the school of Hunting, while Elementals belong to schools of magic (Pyromancy, Geomancy, Cryomancy, Aeromancy). The former are well-rounded summons (and undoubtedly the strongest in the game), while the latter are definitely more offense-oriented.
The Arctic Wolf can be considered as the Hunting equivalent of the Ghoul, while the Direwolf as an offensive alternative to the Bear. The Skeletal Warrior is a more DPS-oriented alternative to the Skeletal Knight, while the Skeletal Mage plays the same role of the Skeletal Archer, with a twist.
There's something new for everyone here! Moreover, we are improving some aspects of summoner gameplay, like targeting and summon behaviors.
Adventurer Tasks
Adventurer Tasks are a system akin to the "daily quests" found in many MMOs but more respectful of your time, since they can be accumulated so they don't "force" you to login every day.
In this first iteration, Adventurer Tasks consist of missions that ask you to defeat monsters, from the weak Goblins to the mighty Jotunns. Each quest can be completed by hunting in a specific area of a continent, and can come in 5 difficulty levels. The maximum difficulty can only be obtained by rerolling (see below). The harder the quest, the better the rewards!
The maximum amount of quests you can accumulate depends on you rank, from 1 below rank 10 to 5 at rank 40 or above. If the current amount you have is below the maximum, a new one will be assigned to you at midnight (UTC). This means that if your rank is 40 or higher, you can let them accumulate and complete them all together every 5 days!
If you don't like a quest, you can reroll it to receive another one at random with a difficulty level that will be the same or higher (unless the difficulty is already at the maximum - it this case it might be lowered). VIP users get 3 rerolls per day, while regular accounts get 1.
Emotes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCGhDFyyQ6w
From the most utilitarian animations to static poses that would make Team Rocket jealous, here come the emotes of Fractured Online!
Up to 8 emotes can be assigned to your Emotes Wheel, which can be brought up with an hotkey (default: F1). All accounts start with several emotes unlocked by default, while more can be purchased from the Appearence menu for Dynamight Tokens.
Easy!
Balance
We are also doing a minor balance pass in this patch. The main change is a decrease in the profitability of the Trial of Galvanos and a boost to the profitability of the Trial of Babilis, Summonable Legends and Ultimate Legends. We're also tweaking some numbers in some armor sets.
Nothing major here, as we feel game balance is in a pretty good place right now. The details can be found here.
This is all for this update.
Enjoy Fractured Online!
Patch Log - r.0.0f - AFK Timer & Bank Fix
Hi all,
we've finally caught the bug that under extremely unlikely and convoluted circumstances caused the content of a player's bank to be saved incorrectly.
Together with this fix, we've also added a disconnection timer for AFK players (triggers after 30 minutes of inactivity). This is going to prevent a lot of characters from dying of starvation 😉
(the patch also contains some other stuff, but it's all internal - improved loggings, admin commands, etc)
Enjoy Fractured Online!
Patch Log - r.0.0e - Bug Fixes x5
Hi all,
here we go once again with some bug fixes!
Walls can now be built correctly, but existing bugged ones can't be completed. Please ask a Game Master for help - he will help you delete them, then you'll place a new one and the GM will insta-build it for you.
Fixed another instance where a player could jump below a Grokoton platform.
Depositing heavy materials into a crafting station with the "Deposit All" button no longer causes materials to be lost of the station's inventory is full.
It is now possible to track optional tutorial quests. If a new mandatory quest is assigned, the tracker will automatically switch to that one.
The top-center Divine Trial UI now appears correctly when logging in inside an active Divine Trial.
It is now possible for Aggressive players to steal the carts of other Aggressive players on Terra.
Patch r.0.0e Re-Deployed
Hi all,
the latest patch has been re-uploaded after a deploy error which would make the client connect to the wrong backend service. If you are being asked to re-link your account, it's because you're on the wrong patch.
It's also possible a handful of you have actually linked / created their account with the wrong backend. If so, once you have patched you will be correctly asked to redo the process.
It usually takes a bit for Steam to figure out there's a new patch, so we advise you close and reopen Steam, then the game will update.
Happy weekend!
Patch Log - r.0.0d
Hi all,
more and more fixes are coming!
Critical
Summons now correctly inherit the Attitude of the caster (Peaceful vs Aggressive). This fixes several issues and ways to grief Peaceful players.
Entering stealth now deactivates all Sustained abilities with AOE effects (e.g. cloaks, auras) and Summons. This could have been used to free-farm mobs - not as quickly as playing regularly with a skilled character, but still.
Serious
Fixed a badly designed behavior that would make monsters sometimes start homing (leashing) after killing a summon.
The Unstuck functionality can no longer be used when KO or dead. This could have led to funny outcomes.
Fixed a bug that would make game clients show wrong info for Divine Trials on the map and in game.
Medium
Fixed that damn unreadable color of the Recruit chat.
When trying to issue a Kill command to a summon against a target that is too far away, the user is now notified of that instead of just nothing happening. The targeting range has also been increased.
Unsummoning the Woodland Being no longer sometimes causes the Barbed Skin sound to loop forever.
Ricochet and Shimmering Sphere now bounce correctly among different valid targets.
It is now possible to mass drop crystals in the Distillery.
Fixed character creation and selection UIs that had would end up in weird positions on screens that weren't 16:9.
The first content patch is coming next week! Enjoy Fractured Online!
Patch Log - r.0.0c2
Hi all,
servers are now offline until Fractured Online comes out of Early Access tomorrow and the new server Elysium is launched! The reopen time is 1pm UTC!
Note: character creation is open already! Below are some additional bug fixes just deployed.
Bug Fixes
Fixed an ancient bug that made status effect disappear from time to time when changing area of the world. This caused a ton of different issues you likely never connected to the same root cause. The effects of potions disappering "after using the harbor" was likely the worst issue of all, but there were others too. They are gone!
Corrupted Divine Rewards now drop 50% more than normal DR, as intended, instead of as much as normal DR.
The rewards obtained from Heroic and Epic Corrupted Divine Rewards were inverted. They are now fixed.
Changes
The Trial of Galvanos now features 5 legends active at the same time instead of 10, and these legends have way more HP than before. This event was way too rewarding compared to the other PvP events. This is a temporary change pending a rework of the concept of the event itself, which didn't receive good feedback.
Some rewards obtained from Coins of Fate have been rebalanced.
Added a variable VFX when using a Coin of Fate.
Genesis
Some unplanned news: the legacy server Genesis will stay offline for the first days after launch.
This hard choice was due to technical issues with our multi-server stack that came up during stress testing, which are forcing us to launch with the more robust and well-tested single-server stack we've been using so far.
We are working hard to fix these issues and improve the performance of the multi-server stack and hope to be able to reopen Genesis within a week from launch. Everything in it (farms, maintenance, etc) will be frozen in the meantime, of course. The rewards for Genesis players will also be delivered soon, with some nice unplanned surprises compared to the original plan.
See you all in game tomorrow! Cheers! ❤️
Patch Log - r.0.0c - Bug Fixes | 2 Days To Release!
Hi all,
we got plenty of bug fixes this time, including some classics! Since it's so many, we've split them by level of criticality. Enjoy!
Critical
The effects of potions and Iridia bonuses / maluses are now saved at logout and will be there at relog.
Players can no longer get stuck flying on top of charcoal piles under construction.
Fixed a bug that would make it impossible to claim or abandon some land parcels in the wild.
Fixed a bug that would make Steam-Fractured account linking impossible for players with certain special characters in their passwords.
Added a button to the quest tracker that points to unclaimed quest rewards.
Serious
Fixed a bug that would make toggle spells (sustained and summons) deactivate from time to time while playing for no apparent reason.
The summons of Peaceful players can no longer be attacked by other players.
The Summoner talents have been reworked and are now functional. The first talent gives 5%x4 Max Mana Cost reduction for Summon spells, the second adds 2 Control Slots.
The Iridia are now created with the correct amount of attribute bonuses.
Quick cart load / unload can be performed with wagons.
Cart stealing between Aggressive players is now functional.
Normal
Energy Staff now correctly gives Magical Power instead of Spiritual.
The city filter of View Market Requests no longer shows the Buy Orders of a city in the wrong continent.
All summons now display values with ALT.
It's no longer possible to create a character with unspent attribute points.
If a player receives more than 7 different types of special rewards (divine rewards, corrupted DRs, coins of fate - a very rare occurence), a second line shows up in the inventory instead of the new reward being lost.
The coin of fate "repair" roll now actually repairs.
Fixed progress issues with the "Bounty Hunter" (= kill bandits) quest.
Summons now correctly trigger the flee response of monsters like rabbits.
Summons can no longer be commanded to attack allied summons.
The death of legends is no longer announced in the global chat.
Each projectile of Magic Missiles now procs spell vamp.
Totems no longer disappear some time after being cast (visual bug).
Minor
Fixed a visual issue with % of crafting expertise.
Fixed a localization issue with Grilled Marrows and Raw Bear Meat.
Crurg Overgrown Vines now stack.
Fixed old Alignment and Karma texts in character menu.
Rest button now has a tooltip.
ESC button now closes Change Attitude menu.
Fixed typo on horse taming quest.
Fixed typo in Iridia description.
Full Release Day Announced + Fresh Server Start
Hi, fellow gamer and MMO enthusiast!
It's finally happening: Fractured Online is hitting full release on...
Wednesday, July 24, at 1pm UTC!
As with all games, full release is a defining moment, the culmination of 7 years of hard work in which we run a successful Kickstarter campaign, released multiple alpha and beta testing phases, found a publisher that launched the game on Steam Early Access, broke up with said publisher, painfully relaunched... and finally, here we are!
During this time, some design ideas were loved by the community, while others simply made us lose a lot of players and had to be overhauled completely. Some unplanned content was added, and some other content had to be moved to post-release. In many ways, this has changed the game from how it was envisioned originally, but not at its core.
As an 8-people team, we are proud of the insane accomplishment that is Fractured Online (seriously, no sane person would embark on developing such a game starting with almost zero budget). Now, it's time to bring our dream sandbox MMORPG and our 20,000 backers (plus all the followers who haven't bought the game yet) into the next era of its lifetime!
Before we move to the usual FAQ, here's a very brief recap of all the changes you can expect to go live before / at release:
A fresh server, called Elysium, going side-by-side with the current one, called Genesis.
New PvP rules for the game, moving PvP from planet-based to zone-based.
Before: one planet as a whole (Aerhen) featured non-consensual PvP, the other (Terra) didn't. Both planets were pretty much equivalent in terms of rewards/hour.
Now: PvP is consensual-only in the bulk of both planets, but both have static and dynamic zones with free-for-all PvP. These zones are quite large and exceptionally rewarding, which means that proper risk-vs-reward dynamics are finally in play. On the other hand, players can now explore both planets and reach max rank / learn all abilities without being ganked and killed in the "leveling" process.
A fully revamped tutorial, much more comprehensive than before, which includes new starting backgrounds, quests and rewards.
Summons that can be evoked with various spells and directly controlled by the summoner - very useful for fragile ranged builds!
If you want to know more on the points above, you can read this post, or wait for the video/blog previews coming in the next days, as detailed here.
Now, to the FAQ!
FAQ
How can I play?
You can buy the game on our store and play from our launcher, or you can buy it on Steam. If you pick the latter, you’re still going to be asked to connect your Steam account to a Fractured Online account the first time you launch the game. If you don’t have one, you can create it directly from the game!
What has changed since the Early Access launch in November 2023?
Will my Founder Pack, VIP time, Dynamight Tokens and Skins which I've purchased / activated on the Genesis server work on the Elysium server too?
Yes, they will! They're all linked to your account, and your account is the same on both servers.
Will there be character transfers from Genesis to Elysium?
Character transfers are not planned for the time being. The purpose of the new server is to create a level playing field for the tens of thousands of players we are expecting to join us at full release.
What about planet Tartaros?
Work on Tartaros has already started, and will continue after full release. The planet has been re-envisioned as end-game content and will keep its original free-for-all PvP ruleset.
Any marketing planned?
Yes! When we launched in Early Access, we did stealth launch with zero promotion. This time, we're going to work with numerous content creators to ensure full release has maximum visibility.
See you soon in game - be it on the new server or the old one!
