These weeks in Veloren 250

Refresh your reflection, see what's been making waves, and pay respects to the sites of old.

- horblegorble, TWiV Contributor

Contributor work

Thanks to everyone who contributed to veloren these last weeks: @isse, @unii, @UncomfySilence, @Gemu, @horblegorble, @floppy, @anyone, @Supa, @do-no-van, @Necti, @srpapinha, @Sam113, @xMACx94, @tibbon1, and @imbris.

Thanks to the weblate translators who contributed these last weeks:

Merged work

Be the change you want to see in yourself

The humble cauldron continues to amaze us with its ability to concoct a seemingly endless variety of beverages. Now, after brewing in the minds of @isse and @unii, a new recipe has bubbled up to the surface. It might push those simple vials to their limits, but you can distill the rejuvenating fire of a phoenix feather. So if you've got some spicy plumage to spare, and have been looking for a personal rebirth (without having to turn to ash first), go give it a whirl.

There's often more to a name than meets the eye, but have you thought about its flavour in different tongues? Let's hear from @Limina on what it takes to cook up a tasty translation:

Recently, the HRT (Hastened Reformation Tincture) potion was added, which lets us change body types! I'm a translator for French, and had worked voluntarily on Dauntless before, so believe me when I say one of the (many) challenges in translation is acronyms – often times, they have to either be changed to fit the target language, or have their meaning slightly altered. Retaining the original intent can be a REAL headache, and that's what we try to stick closest to.

As soon as I knew the existence of that potion, I knew I had to find it a fitting name. And here for once, it came to mind almost instantly: in French, we have a completely equivalent acronym for this type of gender affirming care: THS, short for "Traitement Hormonal de Substitution", a basically perfect 1:1 translation already. It naturally came to be the Tisane Hâtive de Subversion™ in French!

If you're proficient in at least one more language than English, give translation a go! It's a great way to get better in both English and the language you're translating to (even if you're a native speaker!), and brings accessibility to people that may otherwise not have had the chance to play the game. And sometimes, you get to do silly things like naming a trans potion in your language. 💙🩷🤍

You can get started by reading the Veloren owner's manual, right here

~ Cheers to all contributors to this amazing community. <3

GitLab: !4926

Pick out a new look

@Gemu has been diligently threading voxels, and is taking a well-deserved stretch after looming over four new styles. For us, it's time to clear out some wardrobe space and dust off those full-body mirrors for a fitting session. Newbies and smurfs alike can pick up something blue from their local trader, while those after a more rebellious aesthetic will have to steal their look. Just mind townsfolk getting tense from the latter fashion sense.

The logistics of going from workshop to wearables was managed by @UncomfySilence, who's here to catwalk us through the latest outfits:

The More Player-Facing Armor branch has finally been merged, and with it a few more low to mid-tier sets: Adventurer, Pirate, Buccaneer, and Witch (T1, T2, T3, and T4 respectively).

More interestingly is the inclusion of previously NPC exclusive armor sets, like the Witch and Pirate armor. Given Veloren’s philosophy to minimize the differences between players and NPC, in attempt at grounding and immersing players into the world, we thought it’d be fitting to have some of the armor and items deliberately made for humanoids, yet unobtainable to players, finally be made obtainable!

This is the first of several planned player-facing armor updates in which sets you see in your day to day Veloren life, and more, are made accessible.

Eventually we’d also like to expand on the acquisition of certain sets to make them more interesting. For instance, whilst the witch set is currently obtainable from locked chests in their huts, we’d like eventually move the witch armor pieces to that of the Witch Apprentices’ and True Witch's inventories, with which you could trade them Ooky items they’d use for their dark magic rituals for a fancy, spooky witch set and learn to become a Witch Apprentice yourself!

Though, unlike a Gorgon's petrifying gaze, things may not be entirely set in stone and are subject to change ;)

If you're gearing up to spook and plunder, you'll need more than a toothpick to break those fabrics out of lockup. Hopefully you find enjoyment in one of the fiddlier jobs of a blacksmith, and don't mind getting picky between copper, iron, and cobalt.

Savvy dungeoneers may notice that the common pirate has travelled a long way from the sea to nick their chests from some Adlets (presumably as bewildered as we are). However, it seems that in the heat of the heist, our swashbuckling crew broke the locks.

Oh, and a heads up – those greedy miners got their hands on witchy lockcraft for their front door.

GitLab: !4921

Each to their own

Fresh-faced items get to make their own entrance into the world as @horblegorble wins back their personal space in a change to auto-stacking. After all, don't items deserve to be itemised? Well, not if they've been through your inventory it seems. The original purpose of the auto-stacker hasn't went away.

GitLab: !4892

New tidings

Across study halls and field sites, Veloren's biologically inclined have been swept up in a wave of speculation. Hastily scribed opinion letters fill the academic record as everyone tries to stake their theory as the authoritative explanation for something truly unprecedented: evolution of life away from a crab. While classically-minded thinkers insist on holding out for more verified reports, it seems impossible to deny that the Tidal Warrior has shed its shell for scales, swapped out mandibles for a beastly jaw, and dropped its pincers for webbed digits. Dexterous enough now to wield a grand trident, sharpened well beyond ornamental purposes.

One hypothesis gaining traction is that this is a delayed metamorphosis, triggered by submission to Karkatha as new 'crankiest crab'. But not everyone is convinced, with some early-career scholars floating suspicions that something more fishy has went down. For them, the mutation of a Sahagin underling is decidedly more plausible. Though they do concede it's an open question of how aquatic specialists beat out terrestrial competence. Whether by mutiny or abdication, this 'identity theft' theory is still swimming upstream to establish legitimacy.

Meanwhile, many field biologists insist that it's better to see things for yourself, instead of blowing bubbles back and forth. To this end, some have taken to donning homemade Sahagin disguises to make discreet observations and uncover the real truth of the matter. They say this 'fins-on' approach to science is the only sure way forward – even if some of them don't make it back to shore.

Here on the sidelines, we'll be waiting to find out how well the Sahagin fortress can guard its secrets. For now, early studies suggest that this new Tidal Warrior belongs to the @Gemu genus, with behaviours that are notably @floppy-an.

GitLab: !4930

Plugging the memory leak

After an upstream bug had people's RAM spilling out of their paddocks, @anyone came to rescue with a workaround fix:

Hello! So I did some testing regarding the crash. At first I could not reproduce any crashing, but I noticed steadily increasing memory usage when moving around the world. Also when loading different singleplayer worlds after each other or when generating a custom world I could get the memory usage up to about 26GB which finally made everything crash.

Using git bisect (as @nadja suggested) I arrived at d9291896 being the first commit that has the issue. Further I saw that mimalloc is only used on windows so I removed and downgraded mimalloc (and libmimalloc-sys) which both seemed to fix the memory issue.

GitLab: !4936

Safety first

Following numerous accounts of spontaneous disembarkment, the fleet managers at Airloren are hoping to kill the music on a bizarre dance trend that has had folks moonwalking off the back of airships. A safety review led by @Supa and @horblegorble has recommended the retro-fitting of fallback safety nets to keep our hands, feet, and selves onboard at all times. In simple terms: raising the railings on seating and observation decks. It will take more than a slippery boogie to slide over them now.

While early feedback from disco enthusiasts has been positive, some passengers more interested in sightseeing have lodged complaints about obstructed views of the landscape. When interviewed, one Airloren captain remarked "Well, it's better than a surprise close-up view." Hard to argue there.

So if you fancy throwing shapes high above the world, feel free to relax that glider instinct a little. Maybe shift focus to your oxygen levels instead.

GitLab: !4911

C-c-c-combo!

Break down the combo gates and go wild testing abilities, with a specialised buff courtesy of @do-no-van. Pop in a buildup rate and duration, then watch all your imaginary battles yield real attack tokens.

GitLab: !4901

Gizmo gadgets

The navigation engines of NPCs have had their hoods lifted by @isse, allowing us a close look at the machinery in action. Through wayfinding eyes, watch the turning of mental gears as future-looking threads are woven through the world. Now any admin can leverage /gizmos to become a super solver for pathfinding bugs.

GitLab: !4939

Teaching by doing

@isse's audience got a surprise treat when free tickets to her lesson on beginner Rust wisdoms turned out to also be front row seats to Veloren development. In and around plenty of Q&A, she added a /buff option to clear all current effects, as well as a flag to /repair_equipment for including inventory gear.

GitLab: !4895 + !4896

Out of site, out of mind

Another layer of git sediment was laid down into the archaeological record, marking the burial of ye old site code. Having been held in config stasis since version 0.11, @isse arranged the funeral for its final rest. We look back now with fond memories of free-form architecture and sprawling farmlands.

GitLab: !4908

More changes:

• settled down hat model hiccups in voxel and manifest files - @Necti - !4918
• parry precision paired back to parity with backstabs - @srpapinha - !4917
• hanging sign sprites updated to @Sam113's newly shaded model - @horblegorble - !4905
• updates for crates - @xMACx94 - !4928
• fix ups and touch ups for documentation comments - @tibbon1 - !4054
• as part of Rust 2024 edition preparations (!4770), reduced unsafe scope in EcsAccessManager - @imbris - !4780
• typo fix sent desert creatures back to their own biome - @horblegorble - !4920
• merged non-starter lantern recipes into one and tweaked some pricing - @horblegorble - !4731
• balanced fierce raze to be slower, with less poise damage - @unii - !4923
• changed campfire and bed interaction texts - @horblegorble - !4929
• fixed typo in name of punching bags spawned by /dummy - @horblegorble - !4934
• got a bigger ruler to measure distances in large worlds - @isse - !4943
• cleaned up old build artifacts and set an auto-expiry - @xMACx94 - !4945
• only one file used a header comment for credits, so removed them - @isse - !4937

Ongoing unmerged work

Follow the crowd

Do current affairs keep hitting you with waves of fear and doubt? Well sit back and go with a different flow, riding the relaxing ripples of an oceanic music video.

This is an extension of @do-no-van's work on fishing, taking our scaly friends back to school to learn some bird-oid (boid) movement. The idea is that each fish tries to align with and move towards the centre of a group, while still giving space to their neighbours. In doing so, they shift the group's centre and direction, and the process iterates to create the overall motion.

Getting this all to run smoothly wasn't without its own turbulence. Clowning around with the underwater hustle and bustle led to some explosive growth in local fisheries.

The elephant in the room

From @Gemu's wild modelling studio, the mammoth's much less hairy cousin is looking to migrate into Veloren. Once of course @do-no-van finishes clearing the path to give the final go-ahead toot. Hopefully we don't get stuck compulsively thinking of them until they arrive. At least they're not pink... Though there is one question worth pondering: will they be forever free spirits, or will especially intrepid trainers find a way to tame their hearts?

GitLab: !4976

Community showcase

Concept art

First-hand accounts of various explorations in voxel space. A mix of things intended for use in-game, and more experimental ideations.

Legoom Lounge

Bombs away

After some avid dungeoneering left @And_i with a dangerously large stockpile of coco-nades, they decided to put Mindflayer on blast with an exorcism by explosion. Viewers be warned: this video contains unhealthy levels of potion sickness, burning rapidly through stackables, and an application of sword & axe buffs that may nauseate members of the balance team.

The Gigas Aquatic

Veloren's ecologists have another puzzle to contend with, as it turns out Frost Gigas are surprisingly amphibious for their mass. We have here observations recorded at Lake Hudar by @horblegorble, who couldn't be reached for comment afterwards. Our supervisor kept citing the insurance costs of approaching someone hot-headed enough to use a firestaff for drying out their own equipment.

You see right through me

Veloren's philosophy of transparent development may be being taken a bit too literally, as @Necti demonstrates how to spy out enemies and oddities. With these powers of x-ray vision, nothing is truly opaque.

The gruff and the graceful

With all the time spent by campfires, you'd think Veloren would have more stories to tell by now. Well, maybe it's more a matter of putting them to paper. An effort that @c00k13777 has taken a stab at with their short story 'Never the same again', which looks at life after caving incidents. Be sure to clear out any butterflies from your stomach before reading – things go from bloody beginnings to strange encounters, and surprise participation in 'science'.

PvP playbacks

And now, a double treat for the armchair duelists among us. First off we've got sharp-stick showdowns from @unii, followed by @And_i's more long term perspective on combat. Don't forget to post a play-by-play analysis, and update your fantasy league PvP teams.

Events

Pre-planned events hosted on the official server (server.veloren.net). You can keep an eye out for future announcements on the discord channel.

Tournament of Time!

Wind your clocks back to 2021... The hey-day of forgotten sites. Not an LoD model to be seen. When a great equality was the rule, whether it be dungeon themes or skill tree variety. Gnarlings, still a purple-boxed glimmer of an idea, had yet to cut down their first giant tree. This was the world of version 0.10. Chosen as the battlefield to host a PvP tournament for the ages. Or at least, that was the idea.

Enter @Necti, our mastermind of party planning. She thought she had found the exemplar setting for a good old fashioned throw down: an island stranded from mainland abundances, a cultist armoury at the ready, and injury indemnity from @isse, mayor of the hosting server. But the key ingredient was lost in shipping – a hunger for winning. Instead of fighters, it was friends that arrived with an appetite to build, not brawl. So, paying little heed to best-laid plans, they worked from a different blueprint to construct just about everything except a finished arena.

Word is that a tournament was in fact held at some point in the midst of all this whimsy. Though there seems little doubt that the event will be remembered for its comradery, rather than its competition.

Screenshots

This developer blog is based on information collected in #blog-content, where game contributors are always invited to communicate their updates or simply post a link to a different channel.