Veloren

0.16 Release

Veloren is finally releasing 0.16! It has been 9 months since 0.15 was released so there has been a lot of work put into this version.

If you're reading this before 18:00 GMT on March 30th, make sure to join the release party. On the side, you can also watch the release party dev stream, where we'll be chatting with devs about what went into this version.

To join, you can download the game for free at veloren.net and create an account, then launch the game and hop on the default server. See you there!

We'll also be having a vote on discord for the new map to use for the official server in the coming days. Be sure to check that out! New in this release

Here are some of the changes in this release:

New axe skill tree.
Two new dungeons, haniwa catacombs and terracotta ruins.
Some new structures: airship docs, taverns and desert arenas.
We got a cool new mesa biome, where the mountain towns are built now.
Caves got a really cool update, with new cave biomes, be sure to check them out!
We are finally using a new wgpu version which allows people to run the game using OpenGl.
Plugins have gotten updates and it's now supported for servers to have plugins which are shared with the client when joining.
Map generation UI for singleplayer in voxygen.
Many balancing changes.
New models and shader changes so the low level of detail terrain will look a lot better.
While gliding you can now encounter updrafts.

Changelog

As always, there are always more changes than we can add to a single post! You can check out the full changelog here.

Thanks to this versions contributors (in random order):

Laura, Monty Marz, Yusuf Bera Ertan, Animoe, Gemu Peachems, Talha Qamar, BigKhan, Xiretza, Keegan-JW, Marcel Märtens, Tim Vincent, Woeful_Wolf, Youssef Fahmy, Pybit, Uniior, Haijo7, TelepathicWalrus, Treeco, JimmyDdotEXE, Benoît du Garreau, Dmytro Kovalchuk, Froggy, Hugo Famechon, Neras, Illia Denysenko, HEIEnthusiast, Joshua Barretto, Javier Pérez, Sorann753, JCoxeye, David Fisher, danielkenji83, Syniis, crabman, Igigog, Jaroslav Lichtblau, Francesco Vasco, Darren Salt, Otto Richter, Py bit, Thomas S, flo666, Justin Shipsey, Dominik Broński, Marcel, Avi Weinstock, Ben Wallis, Raul Wagner Costa, Stefan Glorch, Nadja von Reitzenstein Čerpnjak, Isse, Gaxrodi, walpo, Sam, Joaquin Tornello, Christof Petig, PopeRigby, nectical, RunRobDog, jshipsey, juliancoffee, Hrom, tygyh, Samuel Keiffer, Youser Nayme, Michal Sroczynski, Evgen Kot, UncomfySilence, 心慌慌脸红红, Brandon Dyer, uniior, James Hiew, laundmo, Sanctorum Thomas, do-no-van, Imbris, evgenkot, Scott Bronson, flo, João Capucho, DaforLynx, Jeffrey Cox, James Melkonian, Michał

Since the last release we have started using weblate for tranlsation contributions, those contributors are listed here (in random order): tidare, Vuizur, juliancoffee, AldanTanneo, guillermytho, Paw, marcelodemonn, Nylux, Vybearz, 5Litt, DiXiao, ezamux, Jasmia, Timm, thomas-babord, zoli111, leca, Renkal, macintosh, zerocraft, GeroinEX, RyanOrigins, Vallley, mapemka, tdehtyar, alextecplayz, Nifou, Axegaik, jadedctrl, loglizzy, Sinari, Dutchy5, aleeo, DominicF96, FruityHarriott, evgenkot, Witch, alexjhr, valebest26, fvasco, karinator, walpo, bov, jiangyi, Sovenok-Hacker, thatevilman, fnetX, SomeTr, Ixniyevonn, mozz, Positron832, dyegomb Support the Project

As always, feel free to support the project on Open Collective. It allows us to keep our servers running, and launch great release parties like the one for this release!

Veloren Open Collective

Explain

I was supprised how much the gameplay changed. I started playing when there was that money issue so I upgraded my character with trading. You can't do that anymore

I can't find them anymore

I am really impressed by the graphics and in game mechanics of Veloren. It has really matured as a game.

This week, we hear about the plans for the upcoming Christmas holiday week.

This week, we have a new episode of the Veloren Reading Club out. We also see some experiments with the new site system, and current work on ability selection. @Dalyc is also back with another devblog recap!

This week, we hear about changes being made to dungeon difficulty. We also dive into how skill persistence is being changed. Finally, we learn about some proposed changes to the Site2 system, and the addition of giant mushrooms!

This week, we hear about some changes to the textures of dropped items. We also see into how some concept art for larger cities in Veloren is being created.

Hats were merged this week, and the server hosting section of The Book was updated.

This week, we hear about improvements that are being made to the stealth system. Worldgen is also getting some work done.

Hey Veloren community! I love this game passionately. I also love open source, decentralization and distributed networks.

I recently discovered Aether. It is a Reddit/Lemmy alternative.

What separates it from Lemmy is that Aether is distributed, whereas Lemmy is federated. I highly encourage any of you to consider joining the new Veloren sub on Aether. I want to elect some new mods other than myself!

A not from the getaether site on this difference between distributed and federated: Mastodon is a federated app, where there are Mastodon instances that talk to each other delivering content to each other that their users can follow. You can think of it as different, separate copies of Twitter talking to each other under certain conditions.

The problem with this is that not all content is accessible everywhere - these servers make explicit decisions on which other servers they want to peer with. The only content you get by default are the content that your server allows, unless you explicitly follow the specific person. But if you don’t get the content, you won’t ever see the person and won’t know s/he exists in the first place.

Aether is a distributed app. It gives everyone one single universe with the same content. All users exist in the same user swarm with the same history, containing the same data, with the same deletion policy. It has no servers, unlike Mastodon, which has federated servers. Every node is its own full sovereign entity. All data goes everywhere. Then it’s up to the user’s client to render that data, and filter out content based on the rules and signals received from the network.

In other, more technical terms, users are not required to care about network topology.

    If you’re on a smaller Mastodon instance, you run the risk of your federated server provider one day deciding to just … shut down. (Or their basement floods and server was there, etc.)

    Aether doesn’t shut down, because it’s not (only) an app, it’s a protocol. So long as there is another node talking Aether, it will be online. The data will be there. Every node carries with itself a full copy of the network.

    Moderation actions are opaque, similar to centralised platforms, because these Mastodon instances are, effectively, centralised platforms that have a way of negotiating with each other. The ‘fun’ stuff runs in a box that you don’t control, therefore the owner of that box does have disproportionate amount of power over you.

    In Aether, moderation actions are applied on your machine. You can inspect which actions arrive from the network, and what to do with them, including ignoring them. You are the ultimate sovereign, what happens on your computer is fully under your control.

This week, we get an in-depth view into what was required for the wgpu integration. We see some changes to econsim, performance, and caves.

This week, 0.10 released! We hear from @Slipped about caves, plugins from @zesterer, and other improvements by @aweinstock and @juliancoffe.

This week, everything is wrapping up before the code freeze for 0.10. We hear about some physics changes, and other technical stuff.

- AngelOnFira, TWiV Editor

This week was Veloren's 3rd birthday! We are getting ready for the 0.10 release coming in two weeks.

- AngelOnFira, TWiV Editor

This week, we see lots of design changes to many systems. We hear about how this what is going on with the crafting and loot systems, as well as planned improvements in the combat fields.

- AngelOnFira, TWiV Editor