Closed Beta Launch Update Notes - 3/26/2014

[Balandar]

Welcome to Closed Beta!

For those you that played in Alpha, we have created templates of all claims you had when the worlds came down on Monday. You can see these templates in your template window with a name that matches your claim name. Currently, it will be nearly impossible to paste one of these templates in a new claim because you cannot see the actual edges of the template if they were air. We’ve got a fix coming for this and we’ll have it to you this week. Once that’s in, you’ll be able to overlap the edges of a claim with a template and when you place it, it’ll only paste the parts that are inside the claim. Until then, have fun gathering resources, finding the spot for your new claims and create all of the workstations, harvesting tools, and building tools that you’ll need to do incredible things!

New Features

Claim Ratings

• The first phase of Claim Ratings is now in game! Once a player has tagged their claim, you can visit them and give them a thumbs up. As more people upvote their claim, their Temperature Gauge will change from an icy blue to a fiery red. (Votes expire after seven days.)
• As this is just the first phase of Claim Ratings, we have lots more to look forward soon, including, but not limited to:
  • Searching via ratings / tags / visitor count / recommendation count
  • Filtering via ratings / tags / visitor count / recommendation count on the Map
  • Sending Feedback / Tips to the owner of the Claim

Claim Upkeep / Foreclosure

• Claims now require an upkeep cost.
• You must deposit resources in your Upkeep Bank to pre-pay for upkeep. To fill (or refill) your Upkeep Bank, press “U” to open the Claim Management window, and click the “Upkeep Management” button.
• Upkeep is due every 24 hours, but can be pre-paid for up to 5 days of real time.
• If your claim expires, it is automatically deleted. However, we'll template up your claim(s) for you, and email you all of the resources and props that were present in the claim when it was foreclosed on.
• FOR NOW, the upkeep cost is 300 copper ore per claim - this will change in the future to use in-game currency.

Character Create

• We've added new options to character create! Choose from a variety of faces, hairstyles, and facial hair for both male and female characters.

New Islands

• We've generated a bunch of new islands for you explore and stake your claim on.
• Previously almost all (48 of the 50) of the islands were either Tropical / Desert or Tundra / Old Growth Forest. No longer!
  • We now have all available combinations available! Want a lush tropical jungle that blends in to an old forest? Maybe you'd like the cold mountainous tundra, that smoothes in to the rolling sand of a desert? You can choose!
• Since we've also added new islands... how about a new Tier? Tier 4 is now available! You can now find Mithril and Diamond in Tier 4 continents.

Founder's Pack Chest

• We've added a chest to the Spire that will automatically re-grant any Founder's pack items that you might have missed or accidentally deleted.

New Outfits

• There are two new outfits that each come in 7 different color combinations that can be crafted at the Outfitter’s Table.

Harvesting / Crafting Changes

The Crafting and Harvesting systems have received significant overhauls.

• Tools and Resources
  • “Resource Rating” has been renamed to “Tier” and all previous resource rating values have been flattened to 6 tiers, each of which corresponds to the tiers that resources are actually found in. Several resources were reallocated to support this change.
    • All mined resources are introduced in the tier before their home tier, meaning that Tin and Iron can be found in limited quantities in Tier 1, even though they are Tier 2 resources.
  • Pick progression has been modified to support the resource rating change, and rare pick upgrades have been removed from the game.
    • All picks still have a chance to be crafted as rare or legendary, but picks that required uncommon picks as a recipe component, such as bronze and silversteel, no longer exist.
  • Axe progression has been modified to support the resource rating change and now has 6 tiers.
    • The Tin Axe now harvests special jungle trees which yield the Tier 2 resource palm heart.
    • The Silver Axe now harvests special desert trees which yield the Tier 3 resource thistle seed.
    • The Gold Axe now harvests special old growth trees which yield the Tier 4 resource ancient rootstock.
    • The Rubicite Axe now harvests special tundra trees which yield the Tier 5 resource spindle cone.
    • The Etherium Axe, which completes this progression, won’t be available until Tier 5 islands and the Deciduous Forest biome have been added to the game.
  • Pick and Axe item descriptions have been updated to indicate the resources they now harvest.
  • Picks, starting with Iron, now require special tree resources corresponding to their crafted tier, not the tier they can harvest (e.g. iron requires palm heart).
  • Axes, starting with Silver, now require special tree resources harvested by the axe from the tier below (e.g. silver requires palm heart).
  • Axe damage and speed was tweaked to provide a better progression cadence.
  • All axes now have the potential to be created as either Superior, Exceptional or Legendary.
  • All axes now have a chance of getting a random mod.
  • Item descriptions for resources have also been updated to provide information about tier and, where necessary, the location they can be found.
  • A new recipe which creates coal from wood has been added to the series of forge crafting stations.
• Tree Harvesting
  • All trees can now be targeted while an axe is equipped, even trees the equipped axe cannot harvest.
    • Attempting to harvest a tree that cannot be harvested by the currently equipped axe results in an error message explaining why.
  • Tree health has been rebalanced to better match tree size.
  • Tree rewards, including heartwood and special resources, have been standardized across tree size to drop at a consistent rate regardless of tree size.
  • Plant resources are no longer dropping from trees.
• Plant Harvesting
  • Plant harvesting has been added to the game!
  • Using the Silver Sickle, which is crafted at the Stone Forge, you can now hunt for special plants procedurally spawned across all islands. These plant resources are used in various clothing recipes that have been added to the new Outfitter’s Table.
• Crafting Stations
  • A new crafting station, called the workshop, has been added to the game.
    • This station crafts other crafting stations, props, and utility items. It can also refine lumber and stone.
    • A basic workshop has been added to each of the Hubs across all islands.
  • The series of Forge crafting stations now exclusively produce tools, metal ingots, and also coal, in addition to the new series of ingot refining stations.
    • All forges after the Stone Forge have been removed from the game. Recipes previously crafted at the higher tier forges are now available at the Stone Forge.
  • The Enchanted Alchemy station is now simply known as the alchemy station, and is used to combine special tree resources with heartwood to make higher tier heartwood.
    • Oil sub-combines previously created at the alchemy station have been removed.
  • The series of Workbench crafting stations have been removed and replaced with the Outfitter’s Table.
    • The Outfitter’s Table crafts outfits and accessories. Outfits are produced with woven cloth, also created from the Outfitter’s Table using resources gathered through plant harvesting.
• Refining Stations
  • Several new crafting stations have been added to the game that are used to refine raw materials into refined materials with improved efficiency.
    • The smelter produces metal ingots.
    • The infuser produces heartwood.
    • The loom produces woven cloth.
  • The series of Saw Table crafting stations are now used exclusively for refining wood and stone with improved efficiency.

Bug Fixes / Optimizations

• Made numerous client optimizations that should speed up your initial load time. This should also greatly reduce the amount of spinning gears / bouncing you might get when running through the world.
• The state of your props will now save whenever we have to bring the game down for any reason. This means you don't need to turn on all your torches and lights when the worlds go down for maintenance. Rejoice!
• Clicking on another player should be much more reliable now.
• You can now enter Tweak mode even if the cursor is red. This should make it much easier to place large templates or paste volumes.
• Added a new Party Bonus icon, along with a tooltip that describes what it does.
• You should now get a warning when attempting to delete a mail that has an attachment
• The Mail compose window should close once you send the mail. No more accidentally spamming mail to your friends!
• The Mail compose window shouldn't get in an odd state anymore when resizing it.
• Crafting stations will now show if the item you're crafting will reward more than one of that item. For example, you can now see that ten wood logs will generate 100 wood planks.
• Previously, Claim and Spire Teleport shared a one hour cooldown. They now have separate one hour cooldowns, and the cooldown for teleporting to a friend is 30 minutes.

source: https://forums.station.sony.com/landmark/index.php?threads/closed-beta-launch-update-notes-3-26-2014.26040/