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[Cryptite]

Announcing the Pale Reaches!
Dead are the Deadlands, here comes the Pale Reaches!
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Deep in the far southern reaches of Garama comes the Pale Reaches, a haunting successor to the Deadlands. Cloaked in shades of gray and white as far as the eye can see, this land is more than its color. Within its borders stretch vast forests, winding rivers, and a sprawling network of underground caves, each hiding secrets of their own. The Pale Reaches may greet you with an eerie atmosphere, but one question remains: will its haunting beauty drive you away or draw you deeper into its mystery?

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Featuring:

• 17 Total Territories
  • The 5 original Deadlands territories (62-66) have been reshaped and are now part of the Pale Reaches.
  • Savannah 102/103 & Mesa 60 have been reshaped to better accommodate the Pale Reaches.
  • Garama has been expanded by 12 additional territories, making for 17 total Pale Reaches tiles.
  • Significant underground portions, keeping with the original theme of the Deadlands a bit.
• Mobs:
  • The Creaking
    • Watch out, on Loka the Creaking does considerably more damage than vanilla!
• Restricted Resources:
  • Pale Oak Wood & Leaves
  • The Creaking Heart
  • Pale Moss
  • Resin Clumps & Blocks
  • Red & Brown Mushroom Plants & Blocks
  • All of these resources (minus the Creaking Heart) will also be produced by industries.

Launch Cadence
As we have done in the past, we will be releasing the Pale Reaches in two phases to allow players time both to explore the territories and plan ahead for where they might want to settle.

Initial Exploration
Land update: Tuesday, August 26th (Morning-ish)

Players will be able to access and explore the biome, but will not be able to set up new towns or take territories.

Available for Conquest/Town creation
Release: Friday, August 29th at 2:00 PM Server

At 2:00 PM server, players will be allowed to place towns and take territories. This is the peak time that US/EU players are typically online. Whatever shenanigans players choose to ensure they can place towns is considered fair game.

A big thanks to the development team, particularly @Mocc1, @Kotten, @Flgment, @z4nityy, @Thorgny, @FoxyBearGames, @koi0001, @Raddus_, and @SilentStormSix for the hard work put into this biome. From making schematics to playtesting to placing territory generators & inhibitors, this biome would not be possible without any of them. As always, if you're interested in making cool stuff like this for Loka, be sure to check out a Development Team Application!

And as always, Go Forth!

 

[Cryptite]

March Conquest Changes
No more Win Trading rule
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The key change to March is the removal of the Win Trading Rule (for Conquest, not ranked arenas). Despite it being a rule, and plenty of people being banned for it, too many players still do it it the valuable time of our admins. Too many constant, circular accusations (and bad faith interpretations of) the win trading rule has shown that it needed to be reevaluated. Further, we on Loka make a fine point of trying to reduce the amount of personal judgement calls that admins have to make. If the features of Conquest and Loka drive enforce how everything works - as opposed to a lengthy rulebook that everybody just "must magically know and abide by" - then admins can stay out of everyone's business and we all go home happier.

But we cannot just remove the rule and call it a day. As a result, the following small changes are being implemented to help make Win Trading a less viable option in the first place. It should also be mentioned that internally we did not even like it being named Win Trading (feeding strength is more appropriate) as we pretty uniquely only enforced it when it involved placing an attack with no intent to win. Every other "angle" of WT was not considered as such. At any rate, let's get into it.

• Vuln windows (center hour) can no longer be chosen between the hours 12-8am server time.
  • The reality of these windows is that 90% of the time they were chosen only to prevent being attacked and were commonly part and parcel of attempted win trading.
  • The only legitimate use case for these would be a fully APAC (Asia Pacific) alliance. However, as Loka remains a US East Coast Server, we cannot prioritize geographically supporting the furthest and fewest players we have over a far more abusable feature.
  • This does not mean the edges of your vuln window cannot include those hours, you just can't select that as a center hour.
• We have adjusted the strength calculation equation, lowering the scale factor from 400 to 250. Very plainlywhat this does is:
  • In the case of an upset (low strength beats a high strength collective), the strength gain is higher.
  • In the case of an expected win (high strength beats a low strength collective), the strength gain is lower.
  • In other words, it is less viable as a low-strength town to potentially try to feed strength to a top collective or vice versa (top collective tries to farm a small town).

To reiterate, we want a system with clear functions that everybody understands, and one that no staff member has to judge the outcome of. Even making the right call still pisses everyone off - it's a no-win situation. Because we terminated a fight at the end of the February cycle, it invariably chose a winner. In this case we elected to have no capital of Ascalon because of rampant win trading on that continent, but the fact that our judgement of Win Trading decided winners and losers felt bad and virtually all the Guardians and above felt equally annoyed/bad about it.

What does this mean for you? It means you will need to adjust accordingly, knowing your enemies could conspire against you. It means leaving small strength differences at the end of the month become far more risky. Make use of Conquest's systems. Remember that if you reduce an alliance to 0 territories, they fully cannot place for 48 hours.

We're open to suggestions and brainstorming for more ways to make win trading less viable, but it's worth reminding that Conquest has been around for 10+ years now and we've thought of (or tried) a lot of variations and so a lot of basic ideas have probably already been poo-poo'd. But don't let that stop you.

Ok Go Forth!

 

[Cryptite]

April Conquest Changes & Respawn Anchors
Kill, Die, Respawn (somewhere else!)
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Policy Changes
Not actually much in the way of Conquest Changes except a Policy change!

• Swift Sailing has been removed and is now available to all players for 48 shards per fast-travel.​
  • We wanted to remove this as part of a greater policy revamp update but as that is not on the near horizon, we have decided to remove it now.​
  • This is clearly a mandatory pick - it is picked, always and is no fun.​
  • Now all players are able to freely fast travel for 48 shards per trip.​
  • The Fast Travel Conquest Points Buff has now changed and makes fast travel free while you have it.​
• To replace it, is a NEW Policy: Module Blockade. Ban an Attacking and Defending module of your choice.​
  • This will lack functionality for picking at first so I will reach out to policy choosers to coordinate with this if chosen​
  • Should act as a minor fun meta shakeup!​

Respawn Anchors
No not for PvP
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Announcing a new feature and a use for Ruined Essences! Respawn Anchors can now be crafted and with a new custom item called a Soul Tether, you can set your respawn point in your Town instead of spawning at Spawn.

• Visit Jeriah at the Meridian Gate Docks who now sells Crying Obsidian and Soul Tethers both for 6 Ruined Essences a piece.
• Respawn Anchors can only be placed in towns and are not for PvP and don't explode.
• As long as you have Interact town/zone perms where the Respawn Anchor is located, you may apply your Soul Tether to permanently set your respawn point there, respawning on top of the anchor instead of in Aladra.
• If at any point you lose town perms or zone perms, you will instead respawn at spawn. If town access or zoning perms are restored your respawn point will function again.
• There is no limit on the number of players who can tether to an anchor.
• The number of charges on the anchor will reflect the number of players who have it set as their respawn point. Capped at max charges (4).
• If you wish to move your respawn point you will also need to use a new Soul Tether.
• If you /kill within 5 blocks of your respawn point, you will instead respawn in Aladra to prevent possible abuse/traps/etc.
• You can do whatever you want with the Crying Obsidian if you wish to just build with it. Expensive though!

Worth mentioning that Ruined Essence is something meant to drop from future bosses/pve content on Loka so prices may be adjusted accordingly in such a future.

Okay! Look forward to seeing these in use!

Go Forth!

 

[Cryptite]

Zyre Domination
At long last, KOTH!
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Domination is a timed, party-based capture mode on Zyre. Control the point, stack score, and walk away with the spoils. Natural caveat is that the numbers below are very likely to change as we watch how these go. Let's get into it!

The short version​

1. Get in a party
2. Drop into Zyre when Domination is live
3. Fight for the capture point (look for the ring + flag, also there's a flag waypoint indicator on the Zyre compass)
4. Hold it to earn points
5. When the round ends, the party with the most points wins the loot!

When it runs​

• Domination runs daily, alternating between 2pm/8pm server time like with Fishing Tournies (afternoon one day, evening the next).
• A network-wide heads-up goes out 15 minutes before each round. The Zyre drop map hologram also shows when a round is upcoming or live.
• While Domination is active, the Corruption is frozen, so the storm doesn't rotate mid-round.

Getting in​

• You must be in a party to drop into main Zyre during Domination. Solo drops into Zyre are blocked.
• On the Aladra drop map, the region hosting the active KOTH point glows so you know where the fight is.
• While you're on Zyre during Domination, party join / leave / invite is locked — your party is your team for the round, but you can still add people not actively in the match.

How capture works​

• A capture point/tower appears in one of Zyre's major regions (outside the storm).
• Stand inside the ring (about a 20-block radius around the flag) to contest and capture.
• Capture speeds up with more of your party on the point:
  • ~2 minutes alone
  • down to ~30 seconds with 6+ party members on point
• If enemies are in the ring with you, the point is contested — progress stalls until one side clears it.
• Leave the ring while capturing and your progress will bleed back toward neutral over time (~4 minutes if fully charged and abandoned).
• Fully capturing the point flips control to your party. The ring and flag take your party's colors.

Scoring​

• The party that controls the point earns 1 point every 5 seconds.
• Highest score when the timer hits zero wins.
• Rounds last 30 minutes.

Fighting on the point​

• Inside the capture ring you're put into Adventure — you can still fight, but you can't break/place the world there.
• Same Zyre PvP rules otherwise: bring your kit, expect a fight.

Rewards​

• During Domination, a portion of death loot is held for the winners (about 10% of dropped items, soulbound excluded).
• Loot also includes Shards, Mending, Diamonds, Bolas, Ancient Ingots, Sentry Armor Trim, and Ruined Essences
• When the round ends, the winning party's spoils are sprayed around the point (fun!)
• Only the winning party can pick that loot up.
• Winners get a free /leave during the 5m post-game period. Everybody has to use the escape boat like normal.

Achievements​

There are 18 new Domination achievements to chase — first claims, solo captures, long holds, comebacks, shutouts, and a win series.

Lastly, Zyre has now been fully removed from the rotation of small gank isles.

Go Forth!