We've been working day and night for the past weeks to bring you Eterspire Beta 3. This new version of the game revamps multiple things, rebalances the entire combat and more. We hope you all enjoy it, and join us in this new Eterspire era!

New Content:

• The game now features a main storyline.
• We've introduced the Gemstone Cavern. Explore this new, beautiful dungeon and find the hidden crystal within!
• You will now find chests scattered across dungeons. Loot them all!
• You can now slay monsters using Maces: a new type of weapon that hits very, very hard!

General Changes:

• Helmets now longer provide defense. They are now just cosmetic.
• Rings are now available and provide bonus defense.
• Weapons now have a fixed hit chance, it no longer depends on your dexterity.
• The Max Damage (known also as the hit cap) has been removed.
• Weapons are now divided into two categories: Strength Weapons and Dexterity Weapons. The formers deal more damage based on your STR, the latter, based on DEX.
• The defense cap has also been removed. Armor now gives you bonus defense, and every point in the defense stat also grants you bonus defense.
• Mobs now have higher minimum damage so it's not as random as before.
• Mobs now provide XP on death, not by player damage dealt.
• Food can no longer be burned.
• Fishing spots now contain only one type of fish.
• Woodcutting has been removed.

In other news:

• Movement raycasting no longer collides with examinable entities.

Bwa-hah-hah! It's finally October and that means Halloween in Eterspire. Stonehollow has been decorated with pumpkin lanterns and there are costumes to party! This week we've also worked to improve some of the weakest points of the game, to make it feel better and less cumbersome. Continue reading to see what's changed!

New Content:

• Caliburnus, atop the Old Mill in Old Guswacha's Firefly Forest, is giving out costumes. Talk to him to get yours!

Bug Fixes:

• The game should no longer lag when there are too many items on the ground.
• Jimmy's Sunglasses should now work for every face type.
• Animals in the Snowy Hills and the Cursed Wolf Mountain should be aggressive again.

In other news:

• You can now buy in sell in bulk.
• Dropping, withdrawing and depositing items has also been improved.
• Item pick-up has been improved.
• Depositing multiple items will no longer deposit those that you have equipped.
• Hitsplats on a multicombat enemy no longer stack on top of eachother.
• Your hitsplats now look different to those of other players.
• Healthbars now change colours depending on how many HP you have left.
• The screen now has a graphical feedback effect when damaging an enemy.

This week we've been working on intermediate maps, a new quest, bugfixes and much, much more! We also had some issues with macroers and griefers, so we spent some time dealing with that. It's a shame, because that's time we could've used to add more content to the game, but some people just want to watch the world burn.

New Content:

• Multicombat: you can now attack mobs in groups. Some mobs have been buffed to accomodate this. We've also tweaked most graphical elements involved in combat.
• An Ice Warrior really, really wants to swim but he's afraid he'll melt if he goes into the water. An adventurer's help is required, so if you can spare the time, you'll meet him to the south-east of the Snowy Hills.
• We've added three new intermediate maps to make the world more cohesive, one between Stonehollow and the Snowy Hills, one between Stonehollow and Old Guswacha's Firefly Forest, and other between both firefly forest maps.
• When you die, you'll no longer drop your items. Instead, you'll be teleported to the Other Side, where you'll have to BEG the Resurrectionist to bring you back to life.
• We've also added metal capes to go along with your armour. Roy, in Stonehollow, sells some of them, along with Molly in the Mirekeep Inn, while others can be obtained as rare drops from mobs.

Bug Fixes:

• It's happened a few times that mobs drop items in inaccessible places, such as fences or hay cubes. This should be now fixed.
• The delay between attacking different mobs should have been fixed.

In other news:

• Gervasius the Valiant's capes will no longer vanish when dropped.

As we've been talking, we needed a consistent and predictable way to monetize the game. We've been over this, but we deceided to monetize the game via a subscription model, that we feel is fairer for everyone.

So, starting today, you can subscribe to Eterspire, monthly, to access the game. All subscribers are the same, there are no benefits for anybody. In this regard, Gervasius the Valiant will no longer give out capes based on your Patreon Tier, but on your character's level.

Subscription is 7.99 USD per month. You can subscribe via PayPal or via Patreon. Higher Patreon Tiers (15 USD and 25 USD) come with certain physical perks, but in-game benefits are the same as any other tier.

Existing subscribers and patrons can keep their subscription at their current prince. You don't have to do anything.

New players are automatically given a free one-month trial of the game. Current players have been given three months of free membership as a way of thanking them for being with us all this time.

We believe this changes are for the better, as they will allow us to dedicate more and more time to the development of the game. We hope you feel that way too! See you around!

Bugfixes:

• You shouldn't get stat points after level 500 anymore.

In other news:

• We've redesigned the battleaxe model.

(This announcement was made on the Discord Server a few days ago, I'm copying it here for completeness.)

Hello everyone. There’s two things that we’d like to announce.

There have been two things we’ve been talking about for the past weeks, both the in-game level rebalance and the new monetization schemes. We’d like to address both things in this statement.

First, the monetization. At first we thought that making the game free for everyone with an optional contribution or support via Patreon would make sense. That way, everybody would be able to experience the entire game. However, after giving it a second, deeper thought; after looking at our metrics, player numbers and so, we came to the realization that this monetization method will probably not be able to provide us with the income we need to be able to work full time on the project, that is our ulterior objective. We’d like to spend all our time making Eterspire expand and grow, and this –obviously– requires money. We’ve been almost working a second full-time job developing this game and, while we love doing so, in the long run it will certainly not possible to sustain this rate of work without Eterspire being able to pay for itself and for our time. While we still think that having optional patrons is noble and wonderful, there’s no real incentive for the average player to pay for the game, and so, any income will be provided only by a small percentage of the player base, composed mostly of very enthusiastic people that love the game and are willing to pay, even though there are no in-game benefits for them (thank you so much to you, our current patrons!).

In any case, this way of monetizing the game has some issues. Of course, the first one is that the number of paying players will be a minimal subset of the playerbase. This is reflected on a higher cost-per-player for us, as free players still consume bandwidth, server time, etc. But also, any situations that could lead to a patron to stop paying end up being a big hit for us, as we depend on our patrons good will, and sometimes that is not a hundred percent correlated to the effort we are putting into the game.

Regarding the specifics of the new monetization system, we will –at least for now– keep the 3 patron tiers we have. You guys originally signed up for that and we will honor it. Higher tier patrons will still receive the physical perks associated with their tiers, even though me might discontinue the tiers for new paying players in the future. Players that have signed up for the $5 tier will also have the price honored for as long as they remain patrons. For new players, the monthly fee for the game will be set to $7.99 (USD) per month. We are aiming at around 300 patrons, as this will allow us to start seriously approaching our objective of being able to dedicate our full time to the project. In-game, every player will have the same benefits.

The trial period for free players will consist on a one month trial. Current players will be given three free months for having participated in the technical beta. Also, and please, PLEASE pay attention to this: we don’t want any of you leaving. This is such a sweet community and we’d hate to see any of you leave because of monetary reasons. If you can afford to pay the monthly fee, that’d be more than amazing, because you’d be helping us make the game better for everybody. However, if you can’t pay, for any reason, reach out to any of us and we’ll figure something out. We want to make sure this change doesn’t break our community apart in any way.

Concerning the level rebalance, Tejo’s been working hard on the new experience curve, modifying mobs and drops and making everything more enjoyable and cohesive. He’s making sure new weapons feel better and that there’s a higher difference between different weapons of the same tier. The new rebalance update will be released on October 4th. The top 10 players in the highscores at 00:00:00 GMT-3 on October 4th will have their names engraved in honorific plaques in-game. All other players who have partaken in the technical beta will receive a commemorative cape and probably some other goodie. The current tech-beta highscores will also be kept on the website for posterity! As we would like you to test the new balance we’ve been working on, we’d like to reset your levels –but not your items– back to level 1. We will put this to vote, though. We’ll release a poll in the coming days so you can tell us what you think. If the level-reset were not to happen, we’ll update your levels to match the new experience curve.

(You can find the aforementioned poll here.)

It's been such a busy week! Tejo and I have been preparing exams, so this update doesn't contain all that we would've liked it to contain. But anyway, some progress has been done! Also, I'll note here some updates that have been added over the course of the week that hadn't been showcased.

New Content:

• Tarrasaga and the Shadow People have been spotted near the Stonehollow Mill. Apparently, this is a temporary thing.
• Molly the Banker in Stonehollow will now store up to 288 items. You can also now deposit and withdraw many items at once.
• Most areas now have maps in them.
• Added Moose Meat and Bear Meat.

Bug Fixes:

• The colliders for the Snow Hills bridge have been modified, so mobs don't get stuck in it.
• You shouldn't be able to interface juggle anymore.
• You should now be able to escape from combat immediately.
• In some situations, lag, desyncs and other ways of disconnection wouldn't send you back to the login screen. This has been fixed.
• Some typos have been fixed.
• Performance spikes when using the inventory should now be fixed.
• The performance of the Cursed Wolf Mountain should now be fixed.
• You shouldn't randomly stop cooking, fishing or woodcutting anymore.
• Items now show their debuffs properly.
• You shouldn't be able to talk to NPCs you can't see anymore.
• Katalyn won't sell you anything anymore before you get her her dagger back.

In other news:

• Sam the Sailor has fishing rods in stock. He's also increased the price of the sea-bug cage.
• The mob aggro range has been decreased, so you won't be chased by enemies that you can't see.
• The Drop button will change to Drop... when selecting a stackable item.
• Mobs no longer insta-heal when out of combat.
• The number of wild animals in the Cursed Wolf Mountain has been reduced.
• Wild Boars don't seem so aggressive anymore.
• Foxes have been spotted near the Snowy Hills bridge.
• You can now press escape to cancel text entry in the chatbox.
• The chat distance has been increased.
• The compass now rotates differently.
• The beast of the Cursed Wolf Mountain has been nerfed.
• Bear Meat now heals 160 instead of 120.

Last week's poll winner is a frozen land – a land where the wind rages, the snow falls and the only way to warm a chilly adventurer up is to give them a cup of tasty hot chocolate!

New Content:

• Two new maps: a second Showy Hills section and the Cursed Wolf Mountain! We've also introduced many new mobs, NPCs and places for your two discover!
• Two new armour sets: Onyx and Lypriptite.
• A new legendary weapon and shield to find!
• Mobs now heal when not in combat.

Bug Fixes:

• Capes no longer turn to dust before being deposited in your bank.
• We've fixed an XSS vulnerability on the signup page. Thanks Chippy for your help!
• The server now confirms every attack and interaction in order to mitigate speed cheats.
• You can no longer mash-click an opponent to steal its aggro from other players.
• You can no longer attack an enemy with another player if you both attack it at the same time.
• Initiating an interaction and clicking outside of it no longer resets it, mitigating macroers.
• Old Guswacha now unequips your items properly after a stat reset treatment.
• Mobs no longer get into houses or warps.
• You can no longer keep interfaces such as banks or shops open while doing other activities.
• Fixed a bug that kept background sound effects playing in maps that shouldn't have them.
• The response range for NPCs has been reduced.
• The game client should no longer desync. This has been tested as thoroughly as possible, but it might still happen in some unknown situations.
• Mobs' health bars should no longer disappear while in combat with two or more foes.
• While we weren't able to reproduce this, we believe invisible people should be no more.
• Health regen outside of combat wasn't working for some players. It should now.

In other news:

• Golden Greaves and Gauntlets are now more golden.
• Ex-patrons will lose their patron capes upon login.
• We've added a fadeout transition for music and BFX between maps.
• The camera can now be lowered down to the floor.
• We've removed the message censorship system, as it was largely broken.
• We've improved the way maps are loaded and cached, so map transition should be much faster.

Hello there! This week we've been on maintenance mode because the server has been working funny, so the number of updates brought to the table is a little smaller than we would've wanted. But don't worry, juicier content is under development!

New Content:

• Patron Capes! We've introduced capes to the game as a way of thanking our patrons for supporting the game. There are Adventurer's Capes, Hero's Capes and Legend's Capes, one for every Patreon tier. Ask Gervasius the Valiant in Stonehollow for yours!
• Equipable items in your inventory now display their bonuses and how these would affect your current stats when equipped, along with the prerequisites to equip them.
• Mobs now heal when not in combat.

Bug Fixes:

• Eels no longer classify as catfish when eating them.
• Guswacha won't change the price of her stat point reset treatment mid-conversation.
• The level required to cut some types of trees and the experience given by doing so has been fixed.
• Coins and items with no sell value can no longer be transmogrified.
• You can no longer sell an item with no value and end up with a stack of 0 coins.
• Fixed some typos.

In other news:

• Now you can walk away from NPCs some distance before they stop talking to you.
• You can no longer sell equipped items before unequipping them first to avoid selling your armour.
• Stonehollow has been redecorated a bit.
• We've added Patreon and Discord buttons to the game client.