Hail Cormyrians!
The FRC Team is happy to announce the following update:
Player HousingSuzail Market Square Apartments – Vacancies Available!Be sure to speak to the landlord Macham about the new real estate in Suzail available in economical, standard, and large dwellings. He has a deal for you!
Need extra keys for your friends and partners? The Shiny Skeleton has opened its doors and Micky will be happy to help you out.
The player housing area system is entirely built into the module and allows players to decorate their own homes in game or allow other players to help. This opens up roleplay opportunities for interior designers and decorators as character professions.
Anyone may purchase up to 1 apartment in Suzail for themselves and may furnish it to serve as a dwelling and/or gathering place or home business.
While Macham's Apartments in Suzail will be our first location for player housing there are plans to expand housing to other locations in the future.
House interiors can be customised via in-game commands.
There are numerous placeable appearances in the creator, so unleash your creativity! Just remember Macham's Apartments are a dwelling in Suzail so designs created are considered vanity & decoration only.
Functional seating and other furniture items can be purchased from the usual furniture stores for use in dwellings. In the future, crafting stations and more furniture options will be available.
New Language SystemThe language token system is being replaced with a more modern system with support for:
- Mixed language/translated use (e.g:
[This will be translated] while this won't [but this will be])
- Support for other chat channels (whispers/party chat)
- More free inventory space by removing undroppable items
Additionally, the system implements a "language proficiency" value. This means that when you decide that your character wants learn a language, you will receive the language "token" immediately.
This token will start with a proficiency level of 0. When your character speaks, it will be near intelligible to other characters who know the language.
As DMs observe progression in the language, additional proficiency levels will be granted until the character is finally fluent when reaching a proficiency of 100.
As experience in the language grows, the translation will have less and less typos and be more easily understood.
Instance Timers - Replacing the "7 Day Rule"FRC is removing the The Seven Day Rule and introducing instance timers for all hostile encounters and loot spawns. Players are no longer limited to visiting an adventure area more than once a week. However, XP and loot gained from return visits will behave differently.
Unlike the initial design proposed in last years transparency report, our new approach for timer resets is based on two different timers for experience and loot gains from encounter and treasure containers
Loot is rewarded per party, while experience will be rewarded individually.Individual Players returning alone to an adventure areas within 7 days will receive no XP or loot.
By joining a party, Individual players returning to an adventure area within 7 days will receive loot but not XP. Any member of the party who is visiting the adventure area for the first time within the last 7 days will receive both XP and loot from encounters and treasure containers. Loot will spawn normally for the party and eveyrone may share.
An entire Party returning to an adventure area will receive no XP and no loot
only if every individual in the party has visited the adventure area previously within the last 7 days.
ExamplePlayer A and B decide to complete the goblin camp together. If they return together or individually, they will not receive experience or loot drops when entering the area again that week.
If player A and B invite Player C for a return visit and this is the first visit for Player C this week, the party will gain loot. XP will only be gained by player C however, as players A and B have already visited the dungeon this week.
We hope the Instance Timer system relieves some of the pain points around the 7-day rule, particularly the OOC issue presented when forming parties and deciding which dungeon locations are open for the group. We also hope this will better facilitate finding new groups to play with.
Hidden Damage LevelsA new chat command has been added to hide your character's damage level floaty text when desired.
Bank Vault Improvements:We have improved the Bank Vault system to now support direct gold deposits and to significantly increase the item limit for hoarders.
Accompanying this is a brand new User Interface with buttons to Deposit and Withdraw items and gold.
Content Updates: FRC is now using CEP 3.03, which introduces the following content additions among others:
Placeables
- Txpple's Giant Statue Parts and Golem head
- Stonehammer's Statues from the November 2021 CCC
- Project Q Thrones Jet Black and Red Quartz
- Project Q Swirling Portals
- Project Q Carpets
- Stonehammers Placeables from CCC Building Bricks
Creatures
- Solar, Planetar, Aasimar (Model by Shemsu-Heru and skins by Shadguy)
- Various creature reskins for zombies, ogres, skeletons, doomknight and many more.
Item/Appearance
- Winternite's Scimitars (Twinkle, Icingdeath, Drow Scimitar and Orcrist)
- CODI Samurai Robes
- The Lich King's armor including Frostmourne and Shadowmourne in different variations, Greatsword, Longsword, Bastard sword, and for the axe Greataxe and Dwarven Waraxe. (Armor by Stonehammer, Weapons by Winternite)
- Green Knight Axe from CCC Arthurian Legend (Shemsu-Heru)
- Winternite DND Longswords
- Robes from Project Q & Eurgiga
- Peasant Armors from Stonehammer
- Weapons from The Amethyst Dragon, fancymapped by Pstemarie
- Shields by Pstemarie
Spell ChangesRanger- Barkskin is now available as a 2nd level spell.
Introduction of Player Character CEP Weapon FeatsThe following CEP Weapon Feats are now available. With this change more CEP weapons will become available on FRC in the near future.
New Feats
- Weapon Focus (mercurial longsword)
- Epic Weapon Focus (mercurial longsword)
- Weapon Specialization (mercurial longsword)
- Epic Weapon Specialization (mercurial longsword)
- Improved Critical (mercurial longsword)
- Overwhelming Critcal (mercurial longsword)
- Weapon of Choice (mercurial longsword)
- Weapon Focus (mercurial greatsword)
- Epic Weapon Focus (mercurial greatsword)
- Weapon Specialization (mercurial greatsword)
- Epic Weapon Specialization (mercurial greatsword)
- Improved Critical (mercurial greatsword)
- Overwhelming Critcal (mercurial greatsword)
- Weapon of Choice (mercurial greatsword)
- Weapon Focus (Wind Fire Wheel)
- Epic Weapon Focus (Wind Fire Wheel)
- Weapon Specialization (Wind Fire Wheel)
- Epic Weapon Specialization (Wind Fire Wheel)
- Improved Critical (Wind Fire Wheel)
- Overwhelming Critcal (Wind Fire Wheel)
- Weapon of Choice (Wind Fire Wheel)
- Weapon Focus (lance)
- Epic Weapon Focus (lance)
- Weapon Specialization (lance)
- Epic Weapon Specialization (lance)
- Improved Critical (lance)
- Overwhelming Critcal (lance)
- Weapon of Choice (lance)
- Weapon Focus (heavy pick)
- Epic Weapon Focus (heavy pick)
- Weapon Specialization (heavy pick)
- Epic Weapon Specialization (heavy pick)
- Improved Critical (heavy pick)
- Overwhelming Critcal (heavy pick)
- Weapon of Choice (heavy pick)
- Weapon Focus (light pick)
- Epic Weapon Focus (light pick)
- Weapon Specialization (light pick)
- Epic Weapon Specialization (light pick)
- Improved Critical (light pick)
- Overwhelming Critcal (light pick)
- Weapon of Choice (light pick)
- Weapon Focus (sai)
- Epic Weapon Focus (sai)
- Weapon Specialization (sai)
- Epic Weapon Specialization (sai)
- Improved Critical (sai)
- Overwhelming Critcal (sai)
- Weapon of Choice (sai)
- Weapon Focus (nunchaku)
- Epic Weapon Focus (nunchaku)
- Weapon Specialization (nunchaku)
- Epic Weapon Specialization (nunchaku)
- Improved Critical (nunchaku)
- Overwhelming Critcal (nunchaku)
- Weapon of Choice (nunchaku)
- Weapon Focus (falchion)
- Epic Weapon Focus (falchion)
- Weapon Specialization (falchion)
- Epic Weapon Specialization (falchion)
- Improved Critical (falchion)
- Overwhelming Critcal (falchion)
- Weapon of Choice (falchion)
- Weapon Focus (sap)
- Epic Weapon Focus (sap)
- Weapon Specialization (sap)
- Epic Weapon Specialization (sap)
- Improved Critical (sap)
- Overwhelming Critcal (sap)
- Weapon of Choice (sap)
- Weapon Focus (katar)
- Epic Weapon Focus (katar)
- Weapon Specialization (katar)
- Epic Weapon Specialization (katar)
- Improved Critical (katar)
- Overwhelming Critcal (katar)
- Weapon of Choice (katar)
- Weapon Focus (heavy mace)
- Epic Weapon Focus (heavy mace)
- Weapon Specialization (heavy mace)
- Epic Weapon Specialization (heavy mace)
- Improved Critical (heavy mace)
- Overwhelming Critcal (heavy mace)
- Weapon of Choice (heavy mace)
- Weapon Focus (maul)
- Epic Weapon Focus (maul)
- Weapon Specialization (maul)
- Epic Weapon Specialization (maul)
- Improved Critical (maul)
- Overwhelming Critcal (maul)
- Weapon of Choice (maul)
- Weapon Focus (double scimitar)
- Epic Weapon Focus (double scimitar)
- Weapon Specialization (double scimitar)
- Epic Weapon Specialization (double scimitar)
- Improved Critical (double scimitar)
- Overwhelming Critcal (double scimitar)
- Weapon of Choice (double scimitar)
- Weapon Focus (goad)
- Epic Weapon Focus (goad)
- Weapon Specialization (goad)
- Epic Weapon Specialization (goad)
- Improved Critical (goad)
- Overwhelming Critcal (goad)
- Weapon of Choice (goad)
Additional Weapon Feat ChangesThe following items benefit from
Shared Weapon Feats:
Club - Shared with Fashion Accessories, Drinking Mugs, and more
Dagger - Shared with Assassin Dagger
Quarterstaff - Shared with Magic Staff and Two Handed Tools
Spear - Shared with One Handed Spear
Trident - Shard with One Handed Trident
The following items now act as
Monk Weapons, similar to the Kama:
Katar
Nunchaku
Sai
Wind Fire Wheel
Weapon Balance ChangesAs it is now possible to take combat feats for these weapons, we saw some weapons overshadowing their base game counterparts especially in certain builds. Other weapon types have been underperforming, and the intention behind these changes is to bring these outliers into more standard damage models for balance.
Falchion
- Damage type changed from piercing/slashing to slashing
Goad
- Weapon proficiency changed from martial to simple
Heavy pick
- Damage die increased from 1d6 to 1d8
- Critical multiplier reduced from 20 x4 to 20 x3
Katar
- Damage die changed to 1d6 x2
- Piercing Monk Weapon
Lance
- Damage die increased to 1d8 x3
- Martial Weapon
Light pick
- Damage die increased from 1d4 to 1d6
- Critical multiplier reduced from 20 x4 to 20 x3
Mercurial Longsword
- Critical multiplier reduced from 20 x4 to 20 x3
- Damage Type changed to Slashing
Mercurial Greatsword
- Critical multiplier reduced from 20 x4 to 20 x3
- Damage Type changed to Slashing
Nunchaku
- Damage die changed to 1d6 x2
- Bludgeoning Monk Weapon
Sai
- Damage die changed to 1d6 x2
- Piercing Monk Weapon
Trident, One Handed
- Damage die changed to 1d6 19 x2
Wind Fire Wheel
- Damage die changed to 1d6 x2
- Slashing Monk Weapon
Beer Mug
- Damage type changed from piercing to bludgeoning
- Damage die reduced from 1d4 to 1d2
Fashion Accessory
- Critical multiplier increased from 20 x1 to 20 x2
Two Handed Tool
- Damage die increased to 1d6
- Critical multiplier increased from 20 x1 to 20 x2
Flowers
- Damage die reduced from 1d6 to 1d2
New Character ExperienceThe starting character zones have been rebuilt to better introduce new players to the module and give our veteran community members a fresh experience with new characters.
Welcome to FRC, newbies!
The updated character creation flow now introduces an updated window, replacing the former dialog system
The new window guides players through finishing touches for their character. The character creation window will also help guide players in the selection of nature deities, languages, and divine patrons favoring character alignment.
The choices you make during character creation will directly impact where and how you start the game.
Maybe there is other ways into Cormyr outside of a small border outpost...
New Character Background and Plot HooksTwo new editable texts have been added, allowing you to share your character story, and plot hooks with DMs:
The intent is to make this information more readily available to DMs to help develop stories and weave character plots together, while keeping it secret from other players.
Spell DescriptionsThanks to a lot of hard work from
DM Flash aaah , spell descriptions on the character generation screen and in-game now correctly show the spell balance changes made on FRC:
We will be addressing any other inconsistences over the coming updates.
Server MetricsBalancing the ruleset and module can be a contentious topic and one of the big hurdles is deciding what needs the most attention first. Which class is underperforming the most? What spells have been overtuned? How to better balance time slots between players and Staff?
Better data will help guide us to make more efficient, confident decisions.
In this update, we have introduced a new metrics system using
Prometheus, to answer such questions as:
- Monitoring aggregated player net worth -
How much gold does a level 20 have on average? What's a reasonable price for housing?- Area population -
What is the least popular dungeon? Where do players central mass outside of Greatgaunt?- Performance -
What is causing the most amount of lag?If the insights from the initial test of this system prove useful, we will explore adding additional metrics in upcoming updates.
Google Sheet ConfigurationDMs are now able to configure various systems and features of the server from google sheets.
This allows for expansion and updates of existing systems without scripter or builder assistance.
Build Team/Workflow ChangesOne of the primary goals over the last few months has been improving the workflow for updates and build team collaboration.
These changes have been implemented over the last few months and while there are still improvements to be made to the process, it has hit a point now where we can start rapidly delivering updates.
Misc Changes/Fixes- Fixed an issue that broke the DM selection box on 8193.34 clients.
- Speculative fix for a bug that caused triggers (traps/transitions) to fire when a player was nowhere near it.
- Fixed the /raffledm command not being recognised.
- Patch notes can now be applied externally without welcome area updates.
- Updated various configuration structures for easier maintenance by server admins.
- Added random encounter system for builders.
- Implemented support for dynamic and compiled areas.
- Compiled areas are used for areas like module loot and store waypoints to allow for individual changes to be pushed, instead of the whole area.
- Dynamic areas are used for areas that should not exist during server startup (e.g. player house templates).
- Implemented new drop table system for quest rewards, monster drops, and treasure containers.
- Implemented new generic reward system for quest rewards.
- Implemented new appearance editor for armor and body parts using NUI.
- Fixed a duplication exploit when changing item appearances.
- Added rate limiting to appearance changes to prevent server lag and TMI errors.
Scripting- Updated to Anvil 8193.34.19
- Updated to Toolbox 8193.34.0-dev.109
- Fixed a server crash caused by the 2da cache evicting old cache entries once full, and attempting to use the evicted 2da.
- Fixed an issue where DMs would be forced into the new character creation flow.
- When connecting for the first time, or being affected by a teleport token (Jail token), you now only see 1 loading screen instead of 2.
- Implemented migration flow for existing languages to new language system.
- Implemented a block/allow list for house placeables.
- Builders can now cherry-pick specific areas, blueprints and more to open with the toolset, greatly improving toolset performance and reducing load times.
- The module palette category definition file (pal.itp) is now defined in the module file for ease of updating and adding categories.
- Migrated nwsync and automated build & deploy system (Jenkins) to new server, improving download times and reducing test server updates from 1hr+ to 20 minutes after a change was pushed.
- Removed support for the DMFI language token system.
- Removed conflicting scripts for the new character flow.
FRC would like to thank the CEP 3 team.
We would also like to offer special thanks for
DM Jorteck and
DM Sauron for the labor of love producing this update.
The FRC Team also thanks our fantastic Test Team for their diligent effort and hours of support helping us over the hurdle.
There are more new things in the pipe that are coming soon - stay tuned!