As most of you know already, there is a wipe coming. I think it's time to write more about it.
What is wipe?
Wipe is a full server restart including removal of all player data. All factions, characters, private maps and items get removed and the new session is started. Reasons for doing that are:
- major changes in characters, maps and features,
- fixing the damage done by previous bugs and exploits or bad game mechanics.
So far, there were more than 45.000 characters registered since the launch of Reloaded and there are more than 22.000 maps (99% of them are private maps: tents, faction bases and such) with about 2.000.000 items inside them. Full server restart will help in bringing game economy to a healthy state, and not only game economy, but other things like PvP balance. It will also give an opportunity to a larger number of players to have a fair start.
When will it happen?
There is no exact date specified yet. It depends on when all work is done. Also, there will be a short testing session before wipe, on our test server (not the current Reloaded which will stay online until wipe). Our TODO list is huge and I think it will take approximately 2 months to get things ready.
I would not call it soon, so you can just keep playing and not be bothered much by wipe. Most items are easy to get and gaining 24th level isn't too timeconsuming, so after the wipe you should be back on track pretty fast.
What about updates?
The last updates were mainly bugfixes and changed minor stuff. Yesterday's update should be the last before the actual wipe and we're not going to make another update unless there is some gamebreaking bug or exploit discovered.
What is going to be changed?
Well, a lot of stuff. Our detailed TODO list has 20 kilobytes of text so it's pretty long. Some things probably won't make it because of various reasons, but still it's going to be a big update. Changelog will be posted when the test session starts. I hope that mojuk and Opera will help us with getting their character planners updated so you can prepare your characters on time.
How can you help?
Make maps. Encounter maps and base maps. We'll add them if they are good and complete. We could also add new vehicles if we have awesome graphics files for them. Other than that, report bugs and exploits so the game will be better when we launch another session. Make reasonable suggestions about how to improve existing stuff.
Below you will find a list of what we're going to change. I know it's not detailed but it should give you a basic idea what we are working on. Some things are small, but others require days (if not weeks) of work. Final changelog will be much longer and probably longer than an initial changelog for Reloaded.
Maps and activities
- New public locations,
- New base types (including very expensive ones),
- New encounter maps,
- New caravans,
- New enemies in encounters,
- New arenas for Hinkley,
- New PvP/PvE activities,
- New special encounters,
- New dungeons and existing dungeons changed,
- New maps and some of existing maps changed,
- An equivalent of Barter Ground in southern part of the map.
Crafting & Gathering
- New item bonuses,
- Changed some bonus of crafted items,
- Some recipes changed to make top stuff more expensive to craft and requiring new resources,
- Gathering resources will be removed from private locations (except Private Mines) and moved to towns and other public locations with increased accessibility,
- Limited capability of slave mining, but manual gathering more effective than it is now,
- Rare items possibly craftable from rare materials and blueprints.
Items
- New implants,
- Some changes in drugs and Jet Antidote,
- New usable map objects,
- New energy weapons,
- New flares,
- A possibility to upgrade item bonuses,
- Backpacks, sandbags, and other useful items,
- Rare stuff will be more difficult to get than it is now, but there will be more places to get it. Current TC lockers, Warehouse/NRA lockers spawns will be changed.
Skills & perks
- New support perks,
- Reserved skill will be changed to something useful,
- Sneak will be rebalanced and Stealth Boy reworked,
- New types of locks and explosives,
- New uses for Science and Repair,
- New minigames for Gambling skill,
- Perk changes in order to make some perks more interesting.
Followers
- New companion types,
- Allowing followers to attack players when guarding bases,
- Mercenaries will be able to attack players,
- Improved leveling followers and increasing their main skills.
And many other fixes and improvements.
Topic: To Reload the Reloaded (Read 122568 times)