Valkyries Fall

Minor bug fixes and results of charity drive

03 January 2022

I hope you've all had a good holiday period.

The charity drive for Mind UK didn't reach the minimum level at 10% of donations made to game. So as I promised, I will add some in myself and donate £100 to them.

now, the fixes:

• Fixed an issue when signing up, not adding an authentication role to a new player, which allows them to see the ingame page.
• Fixed an issue with tutorials, where it wouldn't remember that you've already done it and come up on every refresh.
• Fixed an error occuring with getting quests on your location, when you haven't completed any.
• Added some more preventative measures for the issues when multiple people attacking valkyries. I'm hoping this mitigates the problem. Please let me know.

Swatting Flies

20 December 2021

Bug fix update from the recent rewrite.

• Prevented spaces being allowed in usernames. This was causeing some issues in the new way usernames/passwords are now being stored.
• Fixed market item sold messaging going to the buyer instead of the seller.
• Preventative measures in place for a race condition happening when multiple people attacking a valkyrie at the same time.
• Fixed an issue with Purchasing diamonds/subscriptions.
• Fixed private beasts, being initially private but persisting for everyone. so if someone refreshed, they'd be able to see your private beast spawn message.
• Fixed issue with beastiary where random spawns could spawn even the ascended valkyries.
• Hid online counter, because its broken and not fixed yet.
• Fixed an issue that would 0 your diamond count if you found an auto attack or valkyrie shard when fighting monsters. Compensation pending for those affected. I will mail you diamonds once i get counts verified from a backup.

If the paypal error or online counts still show, you will need to clear your cache. New caching systems are very "sticky".

Christmas theme and event will be applied from tomorrow and last until January 3rd. Remember we do have the charity drive for mental health this month. Donations have been low, so I will be pledging at least £100 (GBP) of my own money to the cause.

Game rebuild and many other content updates

16 December 2021

We have some big changes afoot today. The game has been completely rebuilt in the latest framework. This improves security and speed ofthe game. This also allows for new things to be possible and also makes us more future proof to things to come.

Almost every line has been changed. Most things now utilise asynchronous and multi-threading methodology (making things quicker).

Heres some highlights:

• Chat completely rewritten and should be more robust, with automatic connect/diconnect/reconnect from the websockets as required.
• New security tests. These should be a lot easier for you all to pass than the ones we recently had. You just need to type in the digits of the number stated. eg: if it says Eight Thousand Five Hundred Two, you type in: 8502.
• Dependency injected controllers. This means instead of having to instantiate new controllers upon actions, everything is quicker and smoother, using already instantiated controls.
• Asynchronous calls. This uses multi-threading too, so spreads the load across multiple CPU cores making it quicker to calculate and render information.
• Most things with look and behave no different to you, just (hopefully) faster and more secure. Not to mention making it easier to work on in the future.

Onto the new stuff!

• Build max boats button added. buy button also now disappears if you already have max boats
• Spawning a valkyrie via the beastiary is now private. All specific spawns are private, random ones remain public.
• Private spawns now also spawn on your loctation.
• Note that private spawns can still be killed by anyone, so if you need help lowing it etc, you still can.
• If you have a concentrated skill, it now highlights this in the skill tab
• Concentrated skill has had its rate increased by an additional 100% (x5 instead of x4)
• New section next to chat, Recent Drops. Instead of clogging up chat with tons of diamond drops, now only diamond drops of 8+ will be made public. All drops go into the Recent drop list, including valkyrie drops and skills. This list does not persist. So if you refresh, the list will empty.
• 2 new random monster drops added. You now have a small chance to find an auto attack or a valkyrie shard from normal mobs. (if you have ideas for any more, hit me up)
• This one slipped into the game already, but auto attacks now automatically start when you log into the game or refresh. This can cause a security test, just like pressing the button yourself.
• new chat command "/event". You can see when the next event will be and how long it will last.
• Added 4 new "Ascended" valkyries. These are just 4 new beasts, with a feeble power that is stronger than the current mythological level of the normal valkyries. These can drop a new level of equipment. Each Valkyrie has 2 items in its loot pool, so you need to kill all of them to get all the pieces for the new set. Drop rate is the same as existing Valkyrie items. (upgrading these new items to come in an update soon). These cannot be bought from the beastiary, only found at random. Ascended Valkyries also only have 1 slot in the drop pool for a beast spawn. IE: There are 6 normal valkyries and 4 acended ones. If you spawn a valkyrie, it only checks 1-7. 1-6 being normal ones and 7 being any one of the 4 ascended ones.

Fixes:

• Fixed several null reference checks that clog up logs
• Fixed issue with market that didn't check database after reading cache for whether an item/resource listing still existed.
• Levels/gold/diamonds gained when killing a beast now also update automatically upon killing them
• Fixed the maintenence page and handling for other error type pages.
• A change in how auto attacks are managed has been made to prevent an issue that resets your auto attacks if the server is restarted.

Known issue:

When adding items to market, due to the asyn nature of the update, it might not be in cache yet, or the market listing even created, so when market refreshes, the item/resource doesn't appear in the list until you go back to the market.

December Charity Drive

30 November 2021

Throughout the whole month of December, 10% of all donations made to the game (after PayPal fees) will be donated to the Mind Charity in the UK.

Why Mind?

You may remember last year we gave to this very same charity. This year I wish to do the same, in honour of a friends boyfriend who sadly took his own life not too long ago.

Mind is a mental health charity. With the continued effects of the Coronavirus and everything else going on, i feel it's best to try and support a charity like this.

I wish you all the best :)

Black Friday 2021

22 November 2021

I have added a special offer for getting BOTH light and dark orb for 7,000 diamonds!

Largest % off on a sale we've ever had.

Double exp/gold for the duration of the event.

Enjoy! :)

Spooktober

22 October 2021

Hi Guys!

Just a quick heads up that there will be a halloween event. it will run from the 29th - 1st. Enjoy some free double and enjoy the super spooky theme ;)

I keep getting asked what I'm currently doing for the game, which is why I've been more verbal about it recently in chat. I am rebuilding it in a new version of the language it's written in. this will make the game incredibly more performant and down the line should make it cheaper to run too. Not only am I rebuilding it, I am adding new features and some quality of life updates along with it.

When? Soon™

If you would like to contribute any ideas for QoL etc, dont hesitate to get in touch. I do listen (most of the time).

Also, if anyone is interested in some storywriting for the game, I would be interested in chatting about that too :)

More security tweaks

27 August 2021

Removed characters 1,i,j,8,b,s,5,0,o from tests to reduce any confusion over whats correct.

Found and fixed a bug where if you double clicked the button to submit a test, it'd pass the test then fail a non existant test additionally.

Security Tweaks

23 August 2021

Security tests have been tweaked a little, while i work on a few more things to tweak them too.

• Test frequency has returned to the rate it was before the new tests were introduced.
• Severity of punishment has been decreased.
• Extended length of time allowed to pass a test.

There's a few things I have been unable to do though. On some tests there are background letters or as it's called, a watermark. This appears on some tests regardless of the test type and cannot be removed. Locked behind a paywall for the system I used, and currently unable to afford license.

Same goes for the audio. The "demo audio" is intentional by the captcha people because i currently don't pay for license. This isn't on all tests.

With the increased length of time to pass a test. if you aren't certain of a test because of the watermark or the audio, just refresh the test until you get a good one.

In the interrim, I'll either find the money for the license or look at other options. Hopefully this eases some of the complaint ;)

Crackdown

18 August 2021

There's been exploitation of our old security tests. Due to the way it was initially written, it was possible to purposely fail a test by letting the timer expire and then pass said test, to lock it out and not receive any more tests.

This meant that you could not get tests and then exploit the game by using automated programs.

I started punishing people for this, but then realised it was most of the active playerbase. Rather than kill my own game by wiping out half of the small community we do have, I've decided to let it go.

I have however completely rewritten the bot test system.

It is now a completely self hosted challenge (doesn't require google now). It will always challenge you. It is completely randomised, and it can be difficult to see the characters, so I've also added in the ability to refresh, or for it to be voiced out.

I removed the timer, but they're still timed. The time is shorter than before too. Refreshing the test does not reset the timer.

I have also massively decreased the amount of failed attempts before a jail occurs. I was always too lenient on everyone because I don't like to have to use the "power" i do have. The leniency has to end however, as the majority of you have ruined it, and I can't trust you anymore.

Don't worry though. there's still plenty of time in the challenge to be able to pass it without issue.Just ensure you refresh the test so that you can clearly identify the characters/numbers there.

Other changes:

• Added admin ability to identify exactly what a player is doing by adding a watcher to their actions.
• Added discord link to Navigation, make it more prominant.
• Added a null reference check to some previous changes to prevent some non-error errors appearing in the logs.

Upcomming updates:

There's not been much lately in terms of updates. I'd like to explain why. I'm working on a few massive features, such as the rune system. But that's not all. I am also rebuilding the games codebase in a newer version of the language used. This is primarily so we can host it on a linux system, rather than relying on a windows server. Not only is this cost effective, it will also inherently be significantly faster.

Runes, new sets of Valkyries (beasts), loot/drop tables for normal mosters. Big Tings.

Hand over those Shards

14 June 2021

New features in the blacksmith! (Not the settlement one)

• You can now spend Valkyrie Shards (and gold) on upgrading the base power of your equipment. This power isn't weapon specific, so you can still upgrade to new items and keep these bonuses.
• You can also now smelt down ★ items into valkyrie shards! This should give those mid tier ★ items some more relevance and be useful for everyone.

Custom Titles - You can now spend some diamonds to create a custom title. This will replace your normal rank title. If you want to return to your rank title you'll need to change your rank again and leave it blank. Any title that goes against the games guidelines, IE being racist, harrassment, or suggestive of being game staff, will beremoved without refund. Repeated offences will be punished more severely. As is stands you'll only be able to use alphnumeric characters and spaces. I will look at adding things like emojis as possibilities in the future.

QoL

• Reversed the sorting of buy orders so that the highest price is on top
• Added hover-over tooltips to you equipped items. This will quickly show you your items power (yes, finally!), and equipment training bonuses from the above update to blacksmith.
• Added a descriptive tooltip to each skill, so you can see what they do easier.
• Highlight of yourself in top list rankings, if you're logged in.
• The ability to refresh your auto attacks mid auto, without having to cancel and restart. Be warned that when you restart them, you can get a security test, just like when you normally first start an auto. You won't get them during, as normal.

Fixes/Changes

• Fixes spelling error in a label on settings page
• When you log in from a device/browser, the game will now log you out of any other devices/browsers that you may have that user logged into. Having multiple tabs open of the same user will now push the older tabs back to the index page of the game, preventing multiple tabs open of the game for the same user as well. These changes were made as having these open can cause issues with sockets and break your chat. Or worse yet, doing actions in multiple tabs at the same time can cause race conditions which could make you lose your gold/diamonds etc. This wasn't abusable, but should prevent some random inconsistencies ingame.
• Added a new rank, Æsir. There's a couple people close to the requirements so i figured I'd add it in as a nice little bonus.
• Updated Skills help page to be more accurate since changes previously, lifting the skill cap.