Class balancing
A big part of this update is the class balancing. A lot of classes have been made stronger or weaker, to allow for an overall fairer experience. This is the full list of all class changes:
Skirmisher: Now has +1 sharpness
Mage: Now has a higher mage jump and protection 2 on chestplate (to compensate for helmet)
Hammerer: Now has -1 sharpness
Royal Guard: Now has +1 resistance and loses 4 hunger per spear throw instead of 3
Ranger: Arrows deal 5% less damage now
Archer: Arrows deal 5% more damage now
Ithilien Soldier: Now has speed 1
Spearman/Dol Amroth/Rohan Horseman/Harad Spearman: Now loses 4 hunger per spear throw instead of 3
Another big change to classes is the way trolls are different now. They have been given a massive update, making them more like they should have always been: Slow, easy to outmanouver, but extremely strong and resistant.
Trolls:
- Now look like Iron Golems
- Now has a bigger hitbox
- Now has +1 sharpness
- Now gets less knockback
- Now regenerates quicker
- Now has 30% more arrow resistance
- Iron Golem retextured as armoured troll
- Added custom sounds for damage/death
The troll changes are more effective when you're using our resource pack, because the custom texture and sounds really make the troll feel alive. Without it, they will just look like Iron Golems. We really advise everyone to use this pack, as it's becoming more and more important for making everything work and look properly.
To continue with what we did last update, we have also been going over more of the less popular maps, to make them more fun and more like other maps. The full changelist is as following:
Helm's Deep:
- Aragorn shout on berserker added
- Moved wall spawn further away from the flag
- Team balance changed more in favor of Uruk-hai
- New map specific lobbies
Minas Morgul:
- Tower orc spawn moved down
- Team balance changed more in favor of Gondor
- Tower orc spawn being blocked by enemies fixed
- New map specific lobbies
- Added narrow paths to the side of the tower
- Trolls can no longer spawn at the tower
- Fixed flags not giving points and captures
Minas Tirith:
- Main Gate health significantly increased
- New map specific lobbies
Edoras:
- Gate and walls made much bigger
- Gate health increased
- Ladders added to gate
- Automatic fire catapults added
- Team balance changed more in favor of Uruk-hai
- New map specific lobbies
Laketown:
- New gatehouse blocking the bridge
- Bridge moved to be centered properly
- Team balance changed more in favor of Orcs
- New rooftops area and flags
- Removed belltower sound
- Removed southern harbour flag
- Moved windlass flag closer to the other flags
- Blocked off most of the unused map to prevent people getting lost
- Added more signs pointing in the right direction
- New map specific lobbies
Moria:
- Moved delving orc spawn forward to make watchtower flag easier to capture
Moria Gold and Cove:
- Temporarily removed, until we figure out how to make them more fun.
For many years, it's been a big problem that new players did not understand how the server works. In order to make sure that new players stay and play on the server, we have now made an interactive tutorial that shows players how the main game aspects work. This should get a lot more players to stay, and will also make them ask less questions, since they will already have learnt it.
Although this tutorial is mainly for new players, old players can still access it by going to the spawn and clicking the [Tutorial] sign. Make sure to check it out if there's any things you don't understand fully yet, or just to enjoy our work
Staff
Sadly, there have also been more negative developments in our staff team. Arakrsptec has recently decided to quit our staff, and robwookie has been demoted for extreme inactivity. Luckily, Gelek is back from his holiday now, and Freek has become more active. We will be looking into how we're going to deal with these changes, and, if necessary, what new staff members we'll appoint.
Most likely the thing you will all enjoy most, is that we've finally solved the main lag problems. Although there's sometimes still a big lagspike every ~hour, it's nothing close to the lag we had with the old host.
This does mean that the server has become 30€/month more expensive, but as far as I'm concerned, that's more than worth it
Other changes
There have also been a couple smaller changes that didn't fit into any of these cathegories. The changes are as follows:
- Golden donator helmets now no longer give armor value. They're only decorational crowns.
- You now get removed from your team when you've been afk in the lobby for over two minutes
- Potion effects will no longer be visible ingame, so you won't be able to spot someone by the effect bubbles anymore.
- Fixed spear throwing when toggling a lever with spear in hand
And that's it for the balance update. This isn't the last update of this summer, so stay tuned!