Albion Online Updates

Beyond the Veil

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Hotfix 1

Hotfix 2

Queen Update - Ver. 1.16.392 / REV 158262 - 20 January 2020

Features

New Outlands

The Queen update completely reworks the Outlands, with lower-tier zones at the outer edge and higher-tier zones at the center. This allows guilds of different strengths to compete at their own levels, and alongside numerous additional new systems such as Hideouts and Open-World Territory Battles (see below), allows guilds to truly live in the Outlands.

The updated Outlands continent contains three small towns: Arthur's Rest, Merlyn's Rest, and Morgana's Rest. Each has a bank, repair station, and local marketplace, as well as a shrine for an invisibility buff lasting 30 seconds or until departing, allowing players to choose their exit in secret.

All clusters within an Outlands region now share the same prefix for improved search and navigation, and portal clusters are indicated by name.

Overview of changes: https://albiononline.com/en/news/devtalk-new-outlands

Player/item migration: https://albiononline.com/en/news/player-item-migration-queen-update

The distribution and spawn behavior of resources in the Outlands have been reworked: https://forum.albiononline.com/index.php/Thread/122488-Resource-Distribution-Changes-in-the-New-Outlands

Additionally, the temporary changes to construction / demolition (to assist players moving buildings prior to the update) has ended. Constructing a building gives general Fame once again, and demolishing a building returns 90% of the original resources used to build it.

Avalonians, Elite Dungeons, and Avalonian Armor

The Avalonians are a new elite faction found in Elite Randomized Dungeons, which spawn in all T6-8 Outlands zones and offer a high-level challenge to groups of 10-20 players. Along with the highest-value loot in the game, these dungeons contain a shrine that offers a week-long Fame increase for killing mobs.

In addition to the Avalonian Basilisk mount, tools, and foods already introduced with the Standalone Season, players can now obtain artifacts and shards from defeated Avalonian mobs which can be crafted into three different sets (cloth/leather/plate) of Avalonian Artifact Armor with a wide range of new abilities. (Currently all levels of this armor have the same appearance when worn, tiers will be differentiated in an upcoming patch.)

Hideouts

Hideouts allow guilds to place underground bases in open-world black zones. After a construction phase, during which the Hideout can be attacked, it becomes a powerful, autonomous "home base" with a guild bank and building spaces, and at higher levels can include a Marketplace, Artifact Forge, Energy Manipulator, and Guild Hall. Hideouts can also be used as respawn points, filling the role formerly played by territories (see "Open-World Territory Battles" below).

Requirements and limitations:

  • The player placing a Hideout must be in a guild
  • Max. 1 Hideout per guild per cluster
  • Max. 6 total Hideouts per guild across the whole gameworld
  • Cannot be placed too close to critical objects and game areas, including other Hideouts
  • Can only be placed during cluster primetime

More details, including crafting and refining bonuses: https://albiononline.com/en/news/devtalk-hideouts

Open-World Territory Battles

Guilds now claim territories via open-world battles, with the zerg debuff (introduced with the Standalone Season) ensuring that armies cannot triumph on numbers alone. Via the Crystal League (see below), Watchtowers can also be upgraded for cluster-wide bonuses.

Territories and siege camps have been removed from the Royal Continent. (Two siege camps still exist in Birken Fell and Wyre Forest for attacking Caerleon.) Additionally, Outlands territories will no longer have banks (though battlevaults are still available), and can no longer be used as respawn points, with Hideouts now playing this role.

There is now a maximum of one territory per Outlands cluster. Upkeep, claim, and attack costs for territories have been adjusted to reflect this change.

Crystal League

The Crystal League offers Silver, Fame, Season Points, and rare mounts, with rewards increasing with each successive bracket. Crystal League battles require a token of the correct level, and are accessed either via Energy Manipulators in cities / Lv.3 Hideouts (by any premade team) or owned territory towers (by the owning guild). Winning via the latter gives tower level upgrades that grant improved defense, resources, and mage efficiency to the entire cluster.

Lv.1 Tokens can be purchased from the Energy Manipulator. Winning gives each member of the winning team a token for the next-higher level. In addition to the Energy Manipulator in Caerleon, there are now Energy Manipulators in the other Royal Cities, found inside Conquerors' Hall.

Timeslot / IP cap details: https://forum.albiononline.com/index.php/Thread/121753

Cluster bonus details: https://forum.albiononline.com/index.php/Thread/122485

Smart Cluster Queue

When a yellow, red, or black zone is overcrowded, players now queue to enter. This queue assesses guild, alliance, and strength, and lets in players from various teams as evenly as possible to prevent zone-locking and ensure fair fights. Guilds can assign preferred access to certain members via the Guild Rights Management interface.

Wardrobe Skins and New Vanity Items

Wardrobe Skins include new items as well as old costume items that have been converted to skins. These can all be purchased via the Marketplace or unlocked in the Appearance section of the player menu.

For converted costume items with spells, such as the Portal Gun or Fox Crop, an additional button appears in the spell UI for casting "vanity" spells.

List of affected items: https://forum.albiononline.com/index.php/Thread/122487

Enchanted Stone

  • Enchanted stone now appears in T4-8 zones, like all other enchanted resources
  • It can be gathered normally and refined at the Stonemason at the following rates:
    • Uncommon: 2 blocks
    • Rare: 4 blocks
    • Exceptional: 8 blocks
  • The bonus does not apply to blocks needed for refining - e.g. 1 Tier 5.3 Enchanted Stone produces 8 T5 Stone Blocks, but also requires 8 regular T4 blocks
  • As with all other resources, local refining and Focus bonuses give raw enchanted stone in return
  • The tool levels required for gathering Enchanted Stone are the same as those for other enchanted resources

Enchanted stone makes it easier to build Hideouts and makes territory tower boosts more meaningful for stone gatherers, as well as making leveling stone gathering easier and more rewarding.

Improvements

Cursor Improvements

  • Added additional cursor colors for improved visibility (Gold and Crystal in addition to the default Iron)
  • Updated all cursor icons for maximum visibility
  • Added new cursor icons that appear when mousing over resources, mounts, and entrances
  • Limited cursor sizes to 32x32 so all platforms have the same-sized cursors

UI/Chat Improvements

  • Added keyboard shortcut to inspect currently selected player (Default: Y)
  • Hold shift while drag-and-dropping stacked items to place half the stack into the target slot
  • Improved and streamlined farming UI
  • After crafting an item, the crafting UI stays in place rather than returning to the top
  • When both the Marketplace and Inventory UI are open, you can now shift-click on an item in inventory to automatically search for it in the Marketplace
  • Disbanded alliances are now automatically removed from island access rights
  • Chat now remains active when CTRL-clicking items
  • Zooming on the Destiny Board now centers at the cursor's position
  • Typing /wiki in chat now opens the Albion Online Wiki, and following it with a page name opens that page directly
  • Tabs in the Settings menu have been reorganized and simplified
  • Avatars and Avatar Rings can now be selected via the Appearance UI
  • Emotes are now listed in the Character menu, and 4 new emotes are available: "yes", "no", "charge", and "sleep"
  • Guild account logs have been reworked and are all now accessible from one UI

Item Sort Improvements

Pressing "Sort" in any inventory display (chests, personal inventory, etc.) now sorts items as follows:

  1. Equipment items, further sorted by slot (Weapon, Armor, Accessories, Mounts, Tools, Gathering Gear)
  2. Consumables
  3. Consumable from inventory (e.g. Tomes of Insight)
  4. Farmables
  5. Simple items (e.g. resources, cooking ingredients)
  6. Furniture items
  7. Journal items
  8. Any other items (Uncategorized, etc.)

Within each of these item types, the sorting will work as follows:

  1. Shop Category
  2. Shop Subcategory
  3. Item Name (e.g. Hunter Jacket)
  4. Tier
  5. Enchantment Level
  6. Quality
  7. Stack size
  8. Durability

Sort order is descending, i.e. highest power, enchantments, etc. are listed first.

Audio Improvements

  • Lowered and adjusted the ambience and music levels throughout the game to make sound effects more audible
  • Adjusted default audio settings with this new balance in mind

Mobile Improvements

  • Larger HUD layout
  • New right-aligned Spell button layout
  • Context menu replacing many HUD buttons - can be closed by swiping it right or tapping anywhere else on the screen
  • Increased size of important UI elements
  • Automatic UI scaling option based on screen size
  • Auto landscape screen rotation
  • Screen now stays active while game is running (does not enter sleep mode)
  • Main game and minimap can now be zoomed by pinching the screen
  • Minimap zoom levels optimized for mobile
  • Input box now appears when typing
  • Double-tap to move items to and from containers
  • Added tap-guards to corners of HUD to prevent accidental character movement when using UI elements
  • Cluster map can now also be opened by tapping the cluster label under the mini-map
  • [iOS] Fixed blackscreen issue when loading game
  • [iOS] Notch support for iPhone X and newer

Additional Improvements

  • Updated World Boss icons to better indicate boss type
  • Reworked Veteran, Elite, and Boss mob Avatar Rings
  • 9 new achievements related to Elite Dungeons, Crystal League, and Territory Claiming have been added
  • Reworked numerous spell effects for more accurate visual feedback
  • Added a new potential uncommon boss encounter to Keeper Randomized Dungeons
  • Visuals for all Judicator Armor sets have been reworked and improved
  • Reworked visuals for T8 Legendary Explorer's House

Changes

Item Power Progression Changes and Mastery Modifiers

Item Power progression has been streamlined and simplified, and now increases in a linear manner. More details: https://forum.albiononline.com/index.php/Thread/121085

In addition, Mastery Modifiers have been added to the Mastery Bonuses of high-tier equipment:

  • 5% on all T5 items
  • 10% on all T6 items
  • 15% on all T7 items
  • 20% on all T8 items

This bonus applies to all Armors, Weapons, and Offhands, and includes IP bonuses from basic Specializations as well as advanced Masteries. Enchanted gear will be calculated at the level of its base tier, i.e. T5.0 through T5.3 all receive the same 5% bonus.

Sample case: if you get an additional 100 IP from your Destiny Board Masteries for swords, using a Tier 6.2 Sword will give you a 10% additional boost to that Mastery bonus, for a total bonus of 110 IP.

Tier 7 and 8 Mob Fame Changes

With increased quantity of and access to high-tier zones, the Silver and PvE kill Fame given by T7-T8 mobs has been reduced. The Avalonian Grail Buff (see above) gives high-level players additional opportunities to earn increased PvE Fame.

Royal Zone Changes

  • Ten T5 red zones have been changed to yellow zones:
    • Forest: Willow Wood, Hornbeam Wood
    • Steppe: Snapshaft Trough, Slowtree Plain
    • Highland: Gutras Hill, Lewsdon Hill
    • Swamp: Nightcreak Marsh, Sleetwater Basin
    • Mountain: Cairn Glascore, Cairn Fidair
  • Additionally, the rate of enchanted resources in the red zones around Caerleon has been increased

Realmgate Changes

  • Portal access to the Outlands from Caerleon has been removed
  • Each of the other five Royal Cities (Bridgewatch, Martlock, Thetford, Fort Sterling, Lymhurst) retains its Realmgate
  • Realmgates can now be found within Conquerors' Hall, which now appears in each city
  • With the launch of Queen, all existing portal locks will be removed - the next Realmgate used will then activate a new portal binding

City Crafting Bonus Changes

  • Improved display of city crafting bonuses
  • Increased city-specific refining bonuses of Royal Cities and their islands from 35% to 40%
  • Caerleon gained a city-specific crafting bonus of 15% to gathering tools, demolition hammers, food, and potions (also applies to Caerleon islands)

Avalonian Crafting Changes

  • Removed "Avalonian Items" tab from the Energy Manipulator
  • Avalonian items can now be created at the following locations:
    • Avalonian Basilisk: Saddler 
    • Avalonian Foods: Cook
    • Avalonian Tools: Toolmaker

Outlands Treasure Changes

  • Lesser Outlands treasures spawn every 5 hours
  • Greater Outlands treasures spawn every 7 hours
  • Treasures spawn at castles and castle outposts at cluster prime time on Saturdays and Sundays

Randomized Dungeon and Dungeon Map Changes

  • Chests no longer unlock if too many mobs have been alerted but not killed en route to the chest - this includes mobs that have aggroed and de-aggroed AND mobs bypassed while invisible
  • You can now transmute 5 Solo Dungeon Maps into 1 Group Map and 5 Group Maps into 1 Elite Map at the Artifact Foundry
  • The maximum distance maps will find a dungeon has been reduced (with zero being the current cluster):
    • Group: 3 → 2
    • Solo: 3 → 1

Other Changes

  • Adding resources to buildings during construction/repair/upgrading is now 5x faster and you can add up to 999 resources in one action (previously 30)
  • Cost of overcharge has increased from 1 Siphoned Energy to 10 to make overcharging a less clear choice on low-tier items
  • Global discount reference rate adjusted to match current gold market economy
  • Zerg debuff ("Disarray") no longer applies in red and yellow zones
  • The number of fragments needed to enchant items has been doubled as enchanting with fragments was too cheap and undermined crafting with enchanted resources
  • Trash icon updated for better visibility while looting
  • Changed main tutorial area name from "Hideout" to "Cove" to avoid confusion with the new Hideout feature
  • Changed Marketplace category for several items:
    • Dungeon Maps: Consumables/Maps
    • Chopped Fish: Products/Cooked
    • Undead, Keeper, and Morgana Mount Upgrades: Materials/Other
    • Avalonian and Siphoned Energy: Materials/Other

Combat Balance Changes

Axes

  • Rending Bleed (all Axes):
    • Removed the per-stack Healing Reduction
    • Instead, 3 stacks now applies a 20% Healing Received debuff for 3 seconds
    • The debuff itself cannot be stacked

Mounts

Mounts intended for transport have had their transport stats increased, while those intended for battle have had their transport stats decreased:

  • Saddled Direboar:
    • Carry Weight: 1252kg → 2623kg
  • Saddled Wild Boar:
    • Carry Weight: 739kg → 1477kg
  • Saddled Direbear:
    • Hitpoints: 1855 → 2847
    • Carry Weight: 2469kg → 5408
  • Saddled Winter Bear:
    • Hitpoints: 1689 → 2365
    • Carry Weight: 1231kg → 2462kg
  • Grizzly Bear:
    • Hitpoints: 1770 → 2686
    • Carry Weight: 2146kg → 4498kg
  • Elder's Command Mammoth:
    • Carry Weight: 3977kg → 1187kg
  • Venom Basilisk and Flame Basilisk:
    • Carry Weight: 3311kg → 946kg
  • Siege Ballista:
    • Carry Weight: 1505kg → 499kg
  • Crystal Tower Chariot:
    • Carry Weight: 4118kg → 989kg
  • Gold Tower Chariot:
    • Carry Weight: 3579kg → 788kg
  • Silver Tower Chariot:
    • Carry Weight: 3142kg → 623kg
  • Crystal Battle Rhino:
    • Carry Weight: 3293kg → 791kg
  • Gold Battle Rhino:
    • Carry Weight: 2862kg → 630kg
  • Silver Battle Rhino:
    • Carry Weight: 2514kg → 499kg
  • Bronze Battle Rhino:
    • Carry Weight: 2141kg → 391kg

Miscellaneous

  • Healing Sickness:
    • Healing Received Reduction (2 Healers): 25.9% → 30%
    • Debuff Duration (2 or more Healers): 5s → 8s

Fixes

Spell fixes:

  • Displacement Immunity now only resists the displacement effects of a spell as intended, rather than all effects - e.g. for a spell with Knockback Slow, and Damage, a target with Displacement Immunity will only resist Knockback and will not resist Slow or Damage
  • Dodge:
    • Replaced whole-spell immunity with just CC effect immunity (similar to Displacement Immunity changes above)
  • Frost Shot (all Bows):
    • Fixed an issue where Frost Shot had no Jump effect when used directly after Dodge
  • Morgana Raven (Carrioncaller):
    • Damage now ticks 5 times instead of 4 as intended

Other fixes:

  • Fixed an issue where Reflect Damage spells caused Hellgate boss kills to count multiple times, spawning the final boss early and locking other players out of the Hellgate
  • Fixed an issue where players were not put into combat mode when attacking a mob without receiving damage from it
  • "Browse to my position" now works as intended in the Season Rankings UI
  • Editing a guild tag now updates the tag in the Access Rights dropdown menu
  • Numerous audio fixes, including replacing missing ambiences in all mob camps and faction homebases and correcting reverb settings in steppe clusters
  • Numerous additional visual, animation, terrain, and localization fixes

Known issue: the tooltips for Rending Swing (Axes) and several emotes and vanity items appear in English for some non-English languages. This will be fixed in an upcoming patch.