Two Weeks in Veloren 212

These weeks, we look closer at two of the ongoing development activities 🌬️ 🌵 and ask you for feedback on hammer 🔨.

- Christof, TWiV editor

Contributor Work

Thanks to last two weeks' contributors @imbris, @walpo, @floppy, @aweinstock, @tormod, @archit, @mkatsenelson, @xMAC94x, @uniior, and Youssef Fahmy.

The merged work includes mapping between RTSim, character and ECS ids, migration towards IETF language tags, cliff town rework, a visual edge enhancement shader, town placement improvements, nix/flake updates, chat borders, CIDB server swap, more cacti models and small balance changes.

Ongoing (unmerged) work is happening on dwarven quarry, physics synchronization between server and client, cart tethering, inventory rework, coastal towns, axe rework, winit and iced changes, learnable recipes, terracotta ruins, beginner difficulty balancing, gnarlings close to giant trees, secondary cities, CI optimization, woodcrafting tools, better game controller support, food rework, plugin code cleanup, avoiding dungeon-cave-intersections, recipe and stats tweaks, and glider-wind-interaction.

Link to the weekly meeting minutes: Jun 17th.

Wind 🌬️ effects on gliding by @laund

In reality, gliders don't just glide downwards - they can reach quite high altitudes by using atmospheric phenomena that produce lift. I have been working on adding a few of these to Veloren to make it possible for gliders to climb up in the air.

The types of lift I have implemented are

• Thermals, which are columns of hot rising air created by the sun hitting surfaces and heating the air above. Thermals are more likely to occur in direct sunlight, so the time of day is a very important factor.
• Ridge lift, which occurs when wind hits the side of a mountain and is guided upwards. This is not very reliable as it depends on the strength and direction of the wind.

See also this discord thread for more info.

Cacti 🌵 rework by @Uniior

With feedback received from Gemu, I have remade the cacti models that were in the game since 2019, plus added a few extra ones made by Ge. Here's a comparison for both the old cacti and the new ones remade by me, for reference.

Hammer 🔨 skill questionnaire by @Sam

As the axe skill tree rework nears its completion, it is time to start collecting ideas that will be used in the hammer rework.

The hammer's intended play style is to provide crowd control and support.

The abilities in the hammer skill tree are broadly intended to deal a large amount of poise damage to stagger targets, and have a hefty amount of knockback to remove enemies from your allies.

Suggestions for the hammer abilities can be made in this form.

Assorted impressions