Perenthia release version 1.1.0 is live and includes the following:

• Network changes (You will need port 4530 open to connect to the game server)
• User Interface updates, the chat, map and player panels will remember where they are dragged between sessions so you can layout your game client the way you want it.
• Server code changes that include some required backend changes for the networking and for some new features to be added soon.

Next Release

The next Perenthia release will include some changes for turn based combat, rather than being able to spam the server with attacks. This will lead the way for co-operative play and player versus player combat.

Still to Come

After the combat system is re-worked then Households will be implemented which will lead the way to Household versus Household combat/wars and Household towns.

I have been working on finishing up the Perenthia maps, re-working some game internals to help the overall game perform faster and doing some re-tooling based on player feedback. I thought I would go ahead and post the map of Perenthia so far, this map is generated from actual game tiles and as I finish more cities I will add them as well.

(Click on the photo to see the full 4096 X 4096 image)

Some much needed improvements to the way Perenthia sends data to and from the server to the client are currently underway. Along with these improvements are some additional features which will be blogged on more as the release gets a little closer. So far, the networking improvements have sped up Perenthia about 25%, which is not all that much but there are still a few more changes planned that should increase this number.

Wanted to give an update and talk about some of the new features currently under development and slated for the next release.

For starters, the drag and drop system is being improved along with the addition of context menus on items. The image below illustrates the context menu (the little green arrow). This menu will give you options depending on the type of item you have selected. This, along with the drag and drop improvements should resolve several of the equipment related issues that have been cropping up.

Player run Households (Clans, Guilds, etc.) system is being actively developed, more on that feature when it gets closer to being finished.

The official Perenthia web site will be the host for the Silverlight client moving forward, which means once the next update is released you will need to re-allow the Perenthia client to store files on your hard drive.

You will also be able to login with several different service providers and associate the service provider accounts with your Lionsguard ID, making it easier to use a familiar login such as Facebook, Live or Google.

The Twitter updates will start to change over the next few updates, the kill updates will be replaced with level increases, Household formations and other in-game event information.

The next release 1.0.11 should be live within the next few weeks. The updates are starting to take a bit longer as there are a lot of tests that need to be executed to ensure the new features don’t break existing features.

Release Notes 1.0.9

Perenthia Release 1.0.9 is now live and includes the following new features:

Local Storage

Local storage allows Perenthia to store information on your local hard drive to speed up game loading and response times. The Microsoft Silverlight plug-in Perenthia uses in the web browser permits Perenthia to write to a specific place on your hard drive. By default, this space is limited to 1MB of data. while this is sufficient space for storing common web site information Perenthia will ask for 25MB of storage space, allowing for eventual download of image resources as well as map and item data. Because Silverlight isolates the storage area and space and does not permit unauthorized access to this area you will be prompted by the plug-in to confirm the increase is space. This will only happen once, unless you choose not to allow it, in which case Perenthia will continue to download the required information while you play. You will also see a check box in the player lobby that allows you to turn on/off the local storage option.

Changes to Skill Advancement and Experience Gain

Spells, weapons, etc. will only increase your skill level in the required skill to a maximum of 4 levels above the required value for using the spell, weapon, etc. In other words, a level 1 heal spell will only increase your Life skill to 5 no matter how many times it is used. Likewise, a level 1 dagger will only increase your Daggers skill to 5 and so on. You will need to acquire better items in order to advance skill further. In addition to a skill cap and experience gain cap has been placed on creature kills. For every level your are above +5 of the creature you are fighting you will receive up to 10 less experience for the kill so that low level mobiles can not provide sufficient experience  to progress.

New Room Type

A new room type has been added that will randomly generate a creature within a pre-determined level range. This should prevent some of the areas from becoming stagnant.

New Areas

Some new areas have been added to the world. Fray Woods (levels 5 - 10), a wilderness just south of Delcor, a series of caves (levels 11 - 15) along the Angarath Road north of Delcor and a small fishing village to the northeast of Delcor, along the Angarath Road. You will also notice that the Angarath Road continues east for a while and then stops. The city of Angarath is still being added so once it is complete this road will connect you to it.

Merchants

Merchants should now only display the items they specifically sell, rather than everything sold to them. This feature was implemented to reduce the amount of load time required when viewing a merchant's goods and make it a little easier to get the items you need without sifting through everything else.

Equipped Items

Items that are equipped in your inventory should be displayed not with a green border and slight yellow highlight so you do not accidentally sell your equipment when you have more than one of the same item. Still outstanding is the ordering of items in your inventory, bags, etc.

Game Offline Status

If Perenthia goes offline for maintenance or updates and you are playing or opening the game client as new screen will be displayed telling you the game is offline. This screen also continues to check the server to see if the game is back online and will redirect you back to the player lobby once the game is online again.

New Items

Some new items have been added that you should start being able to collect or purchase.

Update on Quests

The Quest framework is still being developed and will hopefully make it into the next release. It is taking some time to get this framework complete but hopefully it will provide a flexible system that will make quests intriguing and fun without becoming too repetitive.

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The following bugs/issues were also corrected:

• Fixed an issue where keyboard shortcuts for movement, etc. were still active when typing in the Tell action window
• Several internal issues were cleaned up that should improve some performance related bugs
• Fixed an issue when buying and selling where quantity was not working, still working on the issue of Priest health and refresh quantity not working

Some outstanding issues still waiting to be fixed:

• When items are dropped using the "X" in the item slot icon an underlying issue prevents you from logging off and logging back in, a long delay (giving enough time for your character to clear from the active players queue) seems to clear it up in the short term.
• Priest healing and refresh quantity does not work
• Moving in an invalid direction causes the room panel to clear (causing un-looted mobs to disappear)
• Inventory does no maintain item positions and re-orders when buying and selling at merchants
• Not all skills are valid for play
• Mobiles need some form of AI, to wonder around, re-act to changes, allow interaction, etc.
• Need ability to train skills and repair items

I have finished the majority of the work needed to the Perenthia World Builder to start building out the Perenthia world.

Starting to pave the roads in the city of Angarath:

I marked Delcor and Angarath on this map to make it a little easier to see why Delcor remains a small village:

I have been steadily working on the quest framework and ensuring that all skills are valid for play. With the initial alpha launch not all of the skills available were actually valid for play but over the next few weeks more and more of them will have spells or abilities added that make them playable.

In addition to skills more items are being added and will appear for sale by merchants or drops from creatures.

Quests are slow going right now as the ones I have planned require some travel to different locations and those locations have not been added to the main game database as of yet. work progresses on the admin tools that will allow a little more rapid building of these areas.