The Survival Update - v2 - 6/30/18

Discussion in 'Empire Updates' started by Aikar, Jun 30, 2018.


  1. Just over 5 years ago... Normal Mode


    Just over 5 years ago (we really tried to make this on the 5th year anniversary but could not), we unveiled the massive change to EMC: The Survival Update

    That update drastically realigned EMC to a stronger focus on Survival elements of the game. It switched us to the Normal Mode Difficulty (Normal Mode. Normal Mode. Normal Mode!!! You old timers know what i'm talking about).

    That update introduced custom monsters to EMC, as well as many custom items. It was our first big "Surprise" update that we intentionally were very secretive and ambiguous about, leaving discovery to be a complete surprise to the community.

    Today, we continue that, with the release of the super secret update we've been teasing for the past month, with a massive 2.0 update to the Survival System of EMC.
  2. New Enraged Mobs
    The following Enraged Mobs were added:
    • Enraged Polar Bear
    • Enraged Silverfish
    • Enraged Husk
    • Enraged Enderman
    • Enraged Wither Skeleton
    • Enraged Rabbit
    • Enraged Cave Spider
    • Enraged Spider
    • Enraged Witch
    • Enraged Blaze
    • Enraged Zombie Pigman
    • Enraged Ghast
    • Enraged Slime
    • Enraged Magma Cube
    • Enraged Vindicator
    • Enraged Illusioner
    • Enraged Stray
    • Enraged Evoker
    • Enraged Shulker
    • Enraged Ocelot
    • Enraged Endermite
    This roughly completes the standard land Hostile Monsters of the game. Water will come after 1.13.
    Passive may come at a later date.

    One thing to note here, most enraged that their vanilla counterpart has special spawning conditions, follow their spawning conditions, however there are a few deviations.

    Such as, Ghast and Zombie Pigmen may occasionally "virtually" use a nether portal and enter the overworld. This ghast change is especially useful to players wanting to obtain the Vanilla Advancements for Ghast in Overworld.

    The Illagers only spawn in Roofed Forests (but they will spawn outside of Woodland mansions)
    Silverfish spawn from monster blocks, but they also have a new type of block that they might spawn from too...
  3. New Bosses
    First off, EMC has always classified Momentus and Marlix as "MiniBoss", with the idea there might be another tier above.

    We've decided to drop the word mini. Everything is simply a boss. We don't want to feel like there is a cap on complexity of our bosses as we currently are capped with Enraged, saving "room" for even bigger things in a new tier.

    Instead, they are all Bosses, and the bosses difficulty will just vary :)

    With that, I introduce....

    - Eyender -
    The captain of the Enderman has portaled his way into the Overworld, ready to cause mayhem.

    He is said to be extremely resistant to attacks, but has a weakness towards ender energy....

    Think outside of the box.


    - Sorgina -
    The evil witch Sorgina has invaded the Empire. She brews up some quite nasty potions. She covets her lucky gem highly. Her cats are extremely protective of her. What sources of evil does she have on her?


    - Marlix -
    Marlix Pathing/AI has been improved, we found that he was apparently having split personality issues with where to go, that's been fixed.

    The fight mechanics of this boss will feel very different now.
    • Marlix has learned how to use its own weapons, and now shoots the enhanced shiny arrow behavior with its bow (Split Arrows)
    • Marlix can shoot some other arrows....
    • Marlix now will spawn a mixture of Skeletons and Wither Skeletons for guardians.
    - Momentus -
    Momentus wouldn't let us exclude him from all the fun.

    He's learned from players pesky mechanics to trap him in holes and water, and he will now find his way out of compromising positions...

    This mechanic also now applies to other boss and special mobs too!

    Risk Gauge
    The Risk Gauge system has been drastically updated to help further reduce false positives, and improve accuracy of the system.
    This means you should see less "That monster is having trouble getting to you" unless it can't. (Ok you won't see that wording at all as we updated the wording too)

    Not to say it still won't have false occurrences, but effort has been made to overhaul this system.

    Big thanks to Chicken for huge effort here! This was a daunting one.

    Particles
    The On Fire Aspect of Enraged Mobs and Marlix has been removed and replaced with a Particle based Fire Effect that looks so much better.

    Momentus and Marlix have fancy special Particle Effects
  4. New Items
    I heard you liek mudkips new items. On top of all the new mob heads, there are a bunch of new items from the Enraged, and of course the Bosses :)

    Item collectors.... You will be busy!

    There are currently (unless I counted wrong) 32 new unique items, plus new mob heads (mob heads are not included in that 32!), some with varying "levels"/configuration. More will be added even over the coming weeks too!

    Put extra effort into finding some of the items.

    Thread for item discovery: https://empireminecraft.com/threads/the-37-new-items.77427/unread

    Mob Heads
    New Mob Heads have been added - Drops from normal monsters at same rate as other mob heads, and boosted rate from enraged.

    But a new twist.... Mobs now drop a head that matches the current style of the creature killed!

    A red sheep drops a red sheep head! A red parrot drops red parrot head!

    Hostile:
    • Guardian
    • Elder Guardian
    • Endermite
    • Polar Bear
    • Husk
    • Silverfish
    • Shulker
    • Witch
    • Stray
    • Evoker
    • Illusioner
    • Vex
    • Vindicator
    • Zombie Villager
    • Netherhound
    • Charged Creeper (Enraged Creeper now drops this)
    Boss:
    • Momentus
    • Marlix
    • Eyender
    • Sorgina
    Passive:
    • Bat
    • Iron Golem
    • Snowman
    • Wolf
    • Rabbit (All Variants)
    • Parrot (All Variants)
    • Horse (All Variants)
    • Donkey
    • Llama (All Variants)
    • Sheep (All Variants)
    • Ocelot (Untamed and Tamed Variants)
    Lots of mob head textures have also been updated. Heads from before this update is unlikely to stack with anything post update, but post update heads should stack more reliably.
  5. Dropped Items on Death
    We are improving the overall experience of how dropped items on death result.

    This does not include manually dropped items - only items from death!

    BEFORE:
    • Items are despawned after being in a loaded chunk for 15 minutes.
    • If the chunk was not loaded, the timer did not run
    • This resulted in inconsistent despawn times, as if you were solo in the area, you could wait days to go get your items as long as no one else loaded the chunk.
    • However if someone was in the chunk, your items might would despawn in 15 minutes.
    • Items that were not picked up in 8 minutes, could be picked up by another player.
    NOW:
    • Items Despawn after 1 HOUR of ACTIVE time. Active Time is counted as time you are online the SMP, not dead, and not set to away.

      Active time is PER SMP. Being on SMP2 will not increment active time on SMP1, and will not put your items at risk.
    • Items do not need to be in a loaded chunk to count this 1 hour timer. If you die, you have exactly 1 hour to get back to those items. once the 1 hour mark is hit, they become subject to the standard 15 minute despawn rate.
    • Items that despawn will send you a notification if you are online that you lost the items.
    • Players are unable to pick your items up for 1 IRL day.
    • If after 1 hour of active time is determined on the item, and you are online, the item will despawn whenever it hits the standard 15 minute despawn timer.
    • After 1 IRL day, if another player loads the chunk, the item will despawn whenever it hits the standard 15 minute despawn timer. regardless of if you are online or not.
    Scenario:
    1. You die at 1pm
    2. You log out at 1:30pm without getting items
    3. You log in at 5:30PM
    4. Your item will despawn at 6:15PM if you are online, if the chunk was loaded the entire 15 mins
    5. If you never log back in after the items despawn, your items will despawn at 1 pm the next day, or later, whenever the chunk loads, after 15 minutes of active chunk load time has passed.
    These changes make item collection more realistic. If you are online, go get your items.

    If you don't have time to go get your items, logout!

    This gives you up to 24 hours to go collect your items without regard to if you were able to be online or not.

    If you're able to be online, and choose to not go get the items in that 1 hour, then you will lose them.

    Vouching
    While you are online, you may use /vouch <otherplayer> to give them permission to pick up your items for you.

    It will inform you in chat when your items has been picked up and what was picked up.
  6. Vanilla Reorientation - EXP Changes!
    Let me preface, that EMC has always deviated from Vanilla when it came to experience for most of its life time.

    Back in 2011-2012, the game was VERY different when it came to experience. It was harder to get, and using it consumed EVERYTHING. The game was a bit more difficult back then.

    Over the years, Mojang has made the game easier with so many various updates, and experience points are nothing like they were when EMC decided to change EXP behavior.

    Therefor, we are changing how EXP works to bring us back closer to the Vanilla experience, and add some challenge back (that we ended up removing with these changes we had)

    Cross Server EXP has been removed.
    On your next login, your XP will be reset to 0 on every SMP.

    Any EXP you had from before the update can be claimed with /claimxp on a single SMP.
    Choose your SMP wisely, we can not move it for you!

    EXP now drops on death!
    Scaled to difficulty level. Difficulty 1 will not drop any EXP, then its 10% for every difficulty level above that, so difficulty 5 drops 50% of your EXP. Up until Difficulty 7, all dropped XP can be recovered.

    Difficulty 7+ will destroy some of the XP on death, so it can not be recovered. 20% for 7, 30% for 8, 40% for 9, and 50% for 10.

    Any EXP dropped on death may not be picked up by other players, unless they are in your group and you are online.

    If the player picks up your experience and you are grouped together, you will gain the experience points back (not the player who picked it up).

    EXP Gain Improvements
    EXP that a player earns from doing actions outside of killing a monster, while in a group with other players, will now be eligible for group EXP Sharing, and give boosted experience per the same rules that killing monsters do.

    Mobs will once again drop EXP after killing them instead of auto giving it to group, and will be split once picked up.

    TEXP Changes
    EXP earned while sharing EXP in a group is worth even more towards TEXP.

    Breeding, Mining, and Smelting is now worth 5x the EXP for TEXP.

    TEXP no longer requires logging out to save your progress.

    Vanilla Reorientation - Beds
    We have also restored some vanilla behavior to setting your spawn points with a bed.

    What's Changed:
    • You may no longer set bed if you are combat locked (had recent combat, and unable to change difficulty). You will get a timer on how long you have left to wait. This timer is 1 minute.
    • You may no longer set bed if there are nearby hostile creatures within 8 blocks from you. This checks for Enraged/Bosses respective to auto aggression rules too. So someone on diff 5 COULD sleep next to a boss as long as they haven't attacked the boss. Once you attack it, you will no longer be able to sleep near it.
    What hasn't changed / different than vanilla:
    • You may still sleep in beds in the Nether/The End, given that you pass the checks for combat and monsters, and the bed won't explode (but you don't lay in it either)
    • You may sleep during the day time
    And one vanilla deviation but to improve player experience: When a player dies, a wider area is searched around the bed for a safe respawn point, almost eliminating any chance of receiving the "Your bed is obstructed" message.
  7. Do you feel lucky?
    The Luck attribute has gotten a face lift... We have rewritten the formula for how luck impacts loot chances in the Vanilla Engine, resulting in the luck attribute now being able to give you better odds at loot.

    When you loot a loot chest inside of dungeons (chests that are pre generated by the world and doesn't let you break them), the luck attribute now modifies your chances at results.

    The higher your luck, the less chance common items will appear, and more chance the rare items will appear.

    If you are a data/math junky and want to see the formula and some charts on variances, see:
    https://gist.github.com/aikar/40281f6c73ec9b6fef7588e6461e1ba9

    I'm nudging Mojang to make this the standard formula in Minecraft :)

    The EMC Custom Loot Pools used for mob drops have also been updated to apply luck.

    Mobs will store a luck value the same way they store a difficulty value. So you will want to kill the monster with luck active during the entire fight, and not just for the last hit!
  8. Groups Purpose
    You may now set /gr purpose <reason for the group, what activity you are performing, etc> that will be told to users when they are invited.
    Public Group Announcements
    If you make your group public (/gr public - which allows anyone to join without an invite), it will announce to players nearby the leader who are not in a group, as well as what the purpose is.
    There is a player setting to turn off seeing these public group announcements.

    Other Misc Notes
    • Effective Difficulty has been improved to no longer be drained by Fire and Thorns
    • Looting has also been modified to collectively store the value over the fight, and no longer apply only on the last hit. Meaning you can not switch to a looting weapon at the last swing to get a looting bonus, you must use looting bonus throughout the entire fight.

      Difficulty, Luck and Looting are all processed the same way. So if one player uses no Looting and does most of the damage, your Looting 3 will be devalued greatly.

      All Players attacking a monster need to be on the same difficulty, the same luck, and the same looting, if you expect the same effective result.
    • More vanilla common items added to some of the existing Enraged Mobs too
    • Netherhounds will no longer take fall damage, and can jump more. They are now always angry.
    • Shiny Arrows will no longer fire from your inventory. They must either be in your main or off hand like other arrows.
    • Arrows shot from off or main hand will now auto replenish when shot from other slots in your inventory if you have more arrows of the same type.
    • Marlix Bow should now retain its Enhanced Shiny Arrow behavior if it has been renamed.
    • If you have Enraged or Boss Spawns turned off, and encounter another monster spawned by someone else, those monsters will not auto attack you until you attack it.
  9. Credits
    Last but not least... A huge thank you to the entire Development team for making this special update a reality.
    The entire team all had part in this. We all divided up the work over various segments.
    To give you an example of sheer size of this update:



    And how big our "git pull" was post merge to master:
    https://gist.github.com/aikar/081d02af385046cf9d8014b88eb6386c

    So thank you:

    This was a true testament of our great team, and an amazing result!

    JD and Saz joined the team towards the end, but quickly threw them in the deep end and they helped out with the update too, and deserve their credit :)

    Also a thank you to the rest of the staff team for the constant testing and the lots of death that pursued creating Eyender and Sorgina :)

    Eyender for most of the project was a bit too difficult, but we finally toned him down a bit!

    Thank you for all your work finding bugs, especially since EVERY SINGLE FILE and monster was changed in this update.....

    Thank you all!

    Hope everyone enjoys :)
  10. Enjoy Netherhounds in the Overworld 😈
  11. Awesome work dev team :D
  12. Hope you'll like all the new things added <3
  13. Finally! It's Time for #UpdateHype! :D
    Great Work Devs!
  14. YEeee awesome

    High key did not read that I’ll go back and do that now
    loj, Kdrama, cubefragment and 5 others like this.
  15. This is great, thanks to everyone who helped deliver it :D
  16. YYYYYAYYAAAAAAYAYAY!

    Edit: Aikar, I noticed there is nothing about the release of dragon tombs?
    Kdrama, cubefragment and Elite like this.
  17. Dis pretty neat, I love enraged mobs!
  18. Awesome work! Thanks for everything you guys do and thank you for this update!
  19. Jesus Christ....

    This is...a lot. I feel old. Because I can't get with the new stuff.
  20. This might be just what I needed to stay. (At least for a little more while.)

    SMP6 may be gone, but it seems that the development team had an ace up their sleeves. Nice job, I'm going to have to try this out!
    Kdrama, cubefragment, 607 and 2 others like this.