Update 0.532: three dungeons, Knight and the quest log

A big one. Three dungeons have opened: the Orc caves near Geffen, the dungeon under Byalan island and the Sunken Ship off Alberta with the MVP Drake. Swordsmen can now become Knights and ride a Peco Peco. A Hypnotist in Prontera resets stats and skills. Damage on monsters is shown in white, as in RO, and the cell under the cursor is highlighted. You can drop a quest from the log, and the hotbar shows casting and skill delay. We also closed a few loopholes for bots and home-made clients.

Dungeons

Orc caves

There is an orc village on Geffen Field 10: five houses, each with its own door from the field, as in RO. The western house leads down into the Orc Dungeon, the central one goes straight to the second floor.

• The first floor belongs to Orc Zombies, the second to Orc Skeletons and Zenorcs. All three are new. Zombies and skeletons hit with undead attacks and can land a critical hit; Zenorc hits with darkness and poisons.
• They share the caves with Steel Chonchon, Familiar, Drainliar and Orc Archer.
• The Kafra in Prontera and Geffen will take you to the caves for 1700 zeny.

Quests in the orc houses

The orcs in the houses have headgear quests, as in RO. They don't always agree at once, so sometimes you have to talk to them again.

• The Orc Warrior opens up to a character of level 55+ for 1000 Jellopy. After ten stories about his tribe he gives away his Orcish Axe. Then comes the trial: 10,000 Orcish Vouchers, which you can hand in a few at a time. The reward is a Viking Helm.
• Next: 100 Heroic Emblems from Orc Heroes and an Orcish Sword.
• The Orc Hero recognises one of his own and trades the Viking Helm for a Helmet of Orc Hero signed with its owner's name: «Bob's Helmet of Orc Hero». A signed item can't take cards.
• Aite weaves a Bride's Corolla from a Silk Ribbon and 1000 Maneater Blossoms.

Byalan dungeon

The sailor in Izlude will take you to Byalan island, and from there a portal leads down into the underwater dungeon. It has five floors, and the deeper you go, the meaner the monsters.

• New monsters: Marc, Strouf, Swordfish, Kukre, Deviace, Marse and Merman.
• Merman strikes with his spear from up to 7 cells away, and it counts as a ranged attack even point-blank, as in RO.
• Deviace gets angry in a fight: it attacks on its own and turns on whoever hit it, until it dies or calms down.
• Familiar faces too: Plankton, Marina, Vadon, Hydra, Obeaune and Marine Sphere.

Sunken Ship

Fisk the sailor in Alberta takes you to the ship for 250 zeny, and Paul signs you up for an expedition for 200. On the island there is a Kafra and a tool dealer with arrows and potions, and Fisk will bring you back for free.

• Two holds. The lower one is home to the MVP Drake: he calls Wraiths and Wraith Deads for help and leaves a tombstone with his respawn time when he dies.
• New monsters: Pirate Skeleton, Penomena, Wanderer and Wraith. Wanderer knows Auto Counter: it takes a stance and answers a melee hit from the front with a crit.

All three dungeons have RO music and sounds, minimaps and a place on the world map. Monsters, drops and respawn times come from rAthena.

Knight

The exam takes place in the knight order in Prontera castle, as in RO. A Swordsman with Job Lv 40 applies to the captain, and then:

1. Trophies for Sir Andrew. With Job Lv 50 you can skip this step.
2. Questions from Sir Siracuse.
3. Trial by combat on the new «Knight arena» map: three rooms, 3 minutes each to defeat every monster. One candidate at a time is on the arena, the rest wait in the waiting room.
4. Etiquette with Lady Amy.
5. Trial of patience: 5 minutes in a room full of monsters. Touch one and you fail.
6. A talk with Sir Gray.

The reward is 7 Awakening Potions and the Knight job. The quest log guides you through every step.

• Skills: Spear Mastery, Pierce, Spear Stab, Spear Boomerang, Brandish Spear, Two-Hand Quicken, Counter Attack, Bowling Bash, Peco Peco Ride and Cavalier Mastery. Formulas and effects as in RO.
• One-Hand Quicken is in the tree but only works under the Soul Linker's Knight Spirit, and there are no Soul Linkers in the game yet.
• Charge Attack is a quest skill from Essofeit in the order: a tour to the 7th squad at the castle gate, then 5 Candy Canes and 3 Witherless Roses.
• Peco Peco. A Knight with Peco Peco Ride can mount one at the breeder in Prontera for 2500 zeny. Riding makes you 25 % faster, adds 1000 to your weight limit and lets a spear hit medium monsters as if they were large, but attacks are slower — Cavalier Mastery removes that penalty. To dismount, use the «Dismount» button in the equipment window.
• Claymore from Sir Gray: for Knights, for Steel and 74,000 zeny.

Step by step on the Knight page.

Quest log

• «Abandon». In the «Map» window, a selected quest in «My quests» now has an «Abandon» button. A second click («Really abandon?») removes the quest from the log. The NPC story is not reset: the quest shows up again in «Available», and if you take it again, it continues from where you left off. The academy and Izlude introductory courses can't be abandoned.
• No more than 30 quests. The limit of 30 active quests used to be checked only by the «Take quest» button. Now NPCs won't give you a 31st either: «You can't have more than 30 active quests».

Hotbar

• While you cast, the skill icon fills with a golden «charge» from the bottom up, so you can see how long the spell still needs.
• Once the skill goes off, its icon turns grey and gets its colour back over exactly the after-cast delay. When the colour is back, you can use it again. A skill's own cooldown is shown the same way.
• In RO the after-cast delay is shared: if it is longer than half a second, the other skills on the hotbar grey out too, because they can't be used yet either. Short delays only dim the skill you used, so the bar doesn't flicker.
• If the cast is interrupted, the icon goes back to normal at once.

Stat and skill reset

The Hypnotist at cell (146, 232) in Prontera now works. He resets stats and skills, and each of the two resets has three tries:

1. the first one is free while your Base Lv is below 40;
2. the second costs 150,000 zeny while your Base Lv is below 60;
3. the third costs 1,000,000 zeny, 1 Emperium, 20 Oridecon and 20 Elunium while your Base Lv is below 90.

The tries go in order. If you have outgrown a try, it is lost, and the Hypnotist offers the next one right away. Before the reset he names the price and asks you to confirm. After the third try there are no more resets.

• A stat reset sets all six stats to 1 and gives back every point. Characters who were created with fives in every stat get those points back as well.
• A skill reset gives back all skill points. Quest skills and Basic Skill stay. You'll have to rent the cart and the falcon again; the items in the cart are kept.

Damage numbers and the cell under the cursor

• Damage on monsters is now white, as in RO. Damage on you is still red, and crits are yellow on a star. If you prefer red numbers, switch them back in «Settings» → «Game» → «Effects» → «Damage to monsters».
• The numbers can be smaller. «Damage numbers» now has ×0.5 and ×0.75 sizes.

• Cell highlight. A green frame on the ground under the cursor shows the cell your character will walk to, as in the RO client. There is no frame over walls, water or windows, so you see at once where you can't go. You can turn it off in «Settings» → «Interface».

Mute pets

«Settings» → «Game» → «Effects» now has a «Mute pets» checkbox. With it, pets stay quiet: no lines over their heads or in chat, and no sound of their steps or attacks. Monsters are not affected.

Monsters

Thief Bug Eggs and other monsters that transform and call for help now call ordinary monsters, as in rAthena. Thief Bug larvae no longer follow the transformed monster around and no longer die together with it.

Protection against bots and home-made clients

We checked what a home-made client or a bot could do by sending the server something the real game never sends. We found a few loopholes and closed them. Fair play is hardly affected, but you may notice a few things.

One account — one character in the game

If someone is already playing from your account in another window, the second window won't let you in: you'll stay in character selection with the message «This account is already playing in another window». Before, the second login kicked out the first. To switch windows, first leave the game in the first one.

If the connection drops, the client reconnects by itself, as before. If the game closed completely, for example it crashed or the computer was turned off, the server notices in about a minute, and then you can log in.

Wrong password

After 5 wrong passwords for one account within 15 minutes, password login in the game is paused. This stops anyone from guessing a password by brute force. Google login keeps working during the pause. Wrong passwords in the game and on the site are counted together, and the site, as before, asks for the «I'm not a robot» check after three mistakes.

Inventory

Items and zeny are now saved strictly one operation at a time, even if a party member is putting loot into your inventory at the same moment. Once in a while you may see «The inventory changed, try again». It means loot arrived while you were selling or putting items into storage. Nothing is lost, just try again.

Frequent clicks no longer slow the server down

A home-made client could click on the ground hundreds of times a second, and the server dutifully searched for a path on every click — and everyone lagged. Now a path is searched at most 10 times a second per player, and long paths across the whole map from different players are computed in turn. Normal walking, including holding the mouse button and clicking on the minimap, works as before.

200 clicks a second from one client used to take twice as much work as the server has time for, and the game froze for everyone. Now such a stream takes about 15 % of the server's time.

And also

• NPCs only answer players standing near them on the same map.

The client updates itself on launch. Thanks to everyone who writes to «Report a bug» and on the forum!