We would like to present you a new project we are starting, which may change our future.

During the last 15 years we have gone through some amazing technology changes and we have increased the quality of our models, nearly doubled the complexity of our characters, added bump maps to all levels, added reflections, improved NPC dumbness...ehm, I meant intelligence, created new importers for latest 3D tools, refined the UI and more. That's because we love technology and we love to make PlaneShift look as good as we can.

Since the beginning, PlaneShift has had Crystal Space as its 3D engine and they have been a great partner to bring PlaneShift to life. But this year the PS team has been considering the possibility of an alternative. We reviewed all options such as Blender engine, Ogre, Unity, and Unreal.

Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) is our choice. Just take a look at this video.

Now, don't get TOO excited. Yliakum isn't suddenly going to look like THAT. Afterall, the engine and artwork are two different things, but it gives you an idea of what's possible. It gives you a glimpse of the robust tools we'll have to work with, especially in the areas of animation, particles and effects. The entire tool chain will be greatly improved and we can have the support of a very active community with a lot of documentation and tutorials at our disposal.

This has the potential to take us to the next level, where forests are huge and mysterious, foliage is lush, shadows are dynamic and realistic, your clothes move at the rhythm of the wind, spell effects are as elaborate as magic is, where your character can make facial expressions, monsters realistically drop to the ground, objects bounce as you kick them, you can slice consumers in two pieces and see the inside, and where water looks real and you also swim in it!

So as of today, the PlaneShift team is starting a fork of the current code and we will try to port everything we have to Unreal Engine 4. This will be a long transition and it will not be easy, but aren't we the project that created a (nearly) complete MMORPG from scratch? We feel we are up for this new challenge.

To achieve this ambitious goal, we need help from our great community! If you want participate, contact us on chat, and together, let's build the best open source and free MMORPG. The more people we have working on this, even little things, the more discoveries and progress we can make.

As first demo, we are looking to port:

• Our database plugin
• Adding a console to the server
• The character creation windows and logic
• The basics of the in game UI
• The particles we have for spells and level effects
• Player movement

As a second demo, we would like to port:

• Combat
• Magic
• Crafting
• The rest of the UI

If any of you can focus on one piece and provide us feedback on how it's proceeding, it will improve our efforts to evaluate better how complex it will be to do the full port. We already made some tests such as importing Hydlaa and getting a Kran to appear and wave. Let's see what else we can do!

Quests in PlaneShift are an important part of the immersion of the game. They are intimately tied into the progression of the game giving information about the world as well as a way for players to acquire key items and knowledge to allow use of skills, magic, as well as get special items and access to special locations.

With the latest releases we reached the amazing total of 1530 NPCs, including creatures you can fight. Of those, we have now more than 260 sentient NPCs, which will be part of the different quests in the game and your progression. At the moment there are 394 active quests in game with more being added in each update. We are on track to have more than 300 NPCs and over 400 quests in the next few updates. The current in game quests range from introductory tutorial quests, to informational quests, introductions to and progression of crafting skills and jobs, adventure quests, and some just plain silly and fun quests. We hope they all help characters learn about the world of PlaneShift, it's history, settings, people and places. They also award characters with experience and tria, give instructions on how craft and use items and to obtain critical items and tools to progress in the game, as well as unique items to personalise your character.

In the last hand full of years quest and related systems have gone through a massive revolution. There were extensive numbers of basic quests which were relatively simple and were unfortunately filled with numerous errors. We can say now the majority of those have been fixed, improved and some cases completely overhauled as the game engine has been greatly expanded allowing us to use new features to expand the current quests. These now contain a much greater array of quest possibilities and make them much more robust, stable, and problem free. We have also used these new feature to make some new very complex, challenging, and fun quests.

To improve the playability of quests we introduced an automatic "quest note" system, whose purpose is to give help to players who might be stuck and to allow them to refer it to when they are stuck. We are continuing to improve this system all the time to make the dialogue as helpful as possible, without spoiling the challenge of a quest.

We have also worked very closely with the PlaneShift community to fix every single bug reported to us in every single quest. Due to our desire to make quests as complete as possible, every quest in the game has been gone through at least twice fixing every little mistake no matter how small. This is an on going process but we are getting close to being done.

The settings team is proud to say that the current version of quests have never been this stable, this complete, this complex or this enjoyable and with no currently reported bugs which could cause a player to get stuck in a quest. This will bring to players months of gameplay and fun.

Other updates & enhancements during this period include:

• Quest chains have been reorganized and improved.
• Tutorial quests and billboard in the tutorial area should lead new players to where they need to go to start most quest chains.
• Most skills/jobs (ones where you need a crafting book) have a quest which introduces it. Many of these quests are instructional in nature and help players get started with those skills as well as give info about what they should do as they progress. There are already such quests for skills in crafting weapons, armor, shields, as well as baking & cooking. In the last few years we have added leatherworking, mace making, enchanting armor, herbal, alchemy, and most recently bow making. Next on the horizon is brewing, jewelry making, and enchanting weapons. Kudos to the rules team for developing the crafting and for helping on many of these quests. It has been a collaborative effort.
• Repeatable quests have been and will continue to be developed where NPCs ask you to make items in accordance with your skill level. This can be a great way to practice your crafts without falling into the pattern of making the same things over and over.
  

Hi,
we get this question very often: I cannot login anymore to the game with my very old account, I may have forgotten the password, can I recover it?

First of all in May 2012 we changed the way password are stored in the database, and so you are not able to login even if you recall the password.

To refresh your account, you should first login to my plane here: http://planeshift.teamix.org/myplane/

As soon as you login there, your password is updated with the new system, and so you can login also in game.

In case you still have problems, contact us on IRC (see Chat on main web site).

We have just released a quite large setting update! This update has been a long time in the planning, construction, production and testing. We must thank every Developer, Prospect, Contributor, and Player who helped us put this simply enormous collection of new work together.

Here is a list of all the changes.

Books
There are now 25 new books. This is an increase of over 25% over the previous amount so we now have more than 110. The books cover a range of topics from cultural information like marriages, greetings, and games to topics like Dark Way magic to selections of stories and diaries. These are spread out over the game world so good luck finding them all. We have also reorganised Jayose's library to try and better seperate the book topics, so you might need to spend some time finding where all the books are now.


Quests
We have released 20 new quests, which gives us more than 400 in total. These are some of the most 'advanced' quests so far written. Some are just plain silly, some fun, and some infuriating. These include much more interaction with the world, we will have players acting out breaking into a house through a window, poisoning barrels with glyphs, and cleaning dusty shelves. This is done via finding the right item and right clicking on it, exactly like you do when entering a house via the door. Due to the fact this is the first time we are being this adventurous with quests there will be the odd little bug, please let us know if you find one. The quests which use these have pointers in the quest notes to help you work out what you need to do. We also have a nice selection of quests which allow for gathering new crafting books such as those for mace crafting, heavy armour crafting, and Kran cooking.

We have now completed the quest chain re-work project. Most of the current quests have been fitted where suitable, and as well as we possibly could, into chains. We have also added dialogue to most quests so once one is completed you are pointed onto the next one or at least given hints to others in the chain. This is done by the NPC telling you and/or a comment in the quest notes. Quests in the 'main chain' are always pointed to. But not all individual side quests are. So there will be times when you will still stumble across new quests which you may not have done. We are doing this as there is no need to point to every quest, and if we did it would be like releasing a quest chain map, and we wanted to keep some things a surprise and tougher to find. If you did a quest after auto quest notes were added, the notes will automatically be updated. So if you've already done a quest, you might want to look in the notes to see what new information is stated to lead you to subsequent quests.

A long overdue change is that all glyph rewards have been reorganised such that there is a much greater variation of rewards. We can now tell you that every glyph (55 in total) is now set as a reward in at least two quests, this excludes those you can buy and excludes those in a quest which you can repeat. But be careful with some quests which rewards glyphs, if you don't do what you are asked you will not get the reward, but if you do, rewards for all. This re-organisation will make it MUCH MUCH easier for new and current players to get important spells, and glyphs. For example sleep and water, two important glyphs for early mages, are now obtained much early in their respective chains which in turn will make it easier to be a new mage. Because of these changes many of the quests with new glyph rewards will be 'reset' so that players can do them again. We have made some changes to the rewards to the magic circle quests but we HAVE NOT reset any of these, this is because it can be hard to find items to progress up the chain so did not want to force players to do this again. And as every glyph can be obtained else where no player will miss out on the chance to get every glyph. Oh, and there are 4 new glyphs, each with a spell(s) to get, one of these glyphs no one in game currently has.

Since we released the tutorial we were often asking for feed back and we have made lots of small changes. This includes lots of dialogue fixes and small menu changes, Krans now get Kran food from Abelia due to the skill release, and maps are given before entry into the main game (these are the ones you can buy from Jayose).

Since we now have the ability to give specific quality items as quest rewards, this has now been done in some key areas, especially the replacement of master crafted tools. Quests that reward those tools now give regular tools with higher quality. (Instead of a Master Crafted Rock Pick, you now get a 150 quality Rock Pick.) At some point those who already have Master Crafted tools will have those items automatically replaced. You will not have to do the quest again. This also eliminates having to have multiple entries in crafting books for each type of tool.

As always we have been asking players to report quest bugs to us and we think about 100+ quests have had at least one dialogue fix. It's hard to know exactly how many (BIG thanks to all the players who keep reporting them). If you come across a mistake in any new (more likely) or old quest (less likely) please tell us so we can fix them.

We have also added little things such as an alternate paths in Without a Way so you don't always end up having to listen to Levrus talk for ages, and small changes such as the removal of faction rewards from repeatable quests which is the first step into making the faction system 'functional'.


Other
Players have also been reporting bugs in knowledge areas (KAs) to us so we have numerous fixes to piles of KAs (big thanks again to all players to report typos when talking to an NPC or have suggested new dialogue.) We have also expanded the current KAs, which is a slow but steady project. A number of new "action locations" (ALs) have been added in the world to add function to currently inactive objects like doors, and descriptions to other objects like trees (if you read one new books in particular you will see why). A number of current ones have also been adjusted as were broken. "Action Locations" can be triggered just by right clicking on map elements in game.

Known bugs
To give you a chance to get new glyph rewards in quests you may have already done, several quests have been wiped.  One of them is The Coming Eclipse.  But to complete it you need a letter for Datal.  Since the quest that gives that item is the winch access quest, it's way too troublesome to wipe that one.  So to get the letter, you can ask a GM, or if one is not available, file a petition.  This goes for any quest where you need an item from a quest you've already done.  Please do not abuse this.  GMs will be checking if you have the right prerequisites.


Gameboards
Our efforts on gameboards continues, in particular we added games rules to the "Groffel's Toe" gameboard by Brado's tavern in Ojaveda: enjoy playing this simple draughts-like game with a friend and try to occupy the last two tiles of his/her board.


Fixed Bugs/Added Features

• Bug#3396 Fixed Drinks in the deep incorrect dialogue appearance.
• Bug#3983 We removed the second copy of Communicating with creatures from Jayose's library.
• Bug#4492 Adjusted questions in "Enchanted Balls" quest.
• Bug#5052 Adjusted dialogue in The value of gobble ears.
• Feature#5306 Made quest chaining better.
• Bug#5372 Quest dialogue was added to the Guards chain.
• Bug#5372 Quest dialogue was added to the Science chain.
• Bug#5432 Fixed item description in Crystal Way Glyph Training quest.
• Bug#5434 Rebalanced all glyph rewards
• Bug#5483 Corrected dialogue in Dangerous winds.
• Bug#5575 Adjusted Jardets good bye dialogue to match his religion.
• Bug#5580 Reward adjusted in Malco Broke Hammer
• Bug#5688 Corrected "her father" reference in Gulm Ossoe and the Broken Legs.
• Bug#5934 Item amounts corrected in cooking chain Apprenticeship Approval quest.
• Bug#5988 Fixed earth glyph availability situation.
• Bug#6009 Made changes to mistakes in Tools of the Cooking Trade.
• Bug#6062 Adjusted menu lock logic for potions of the healer.
• Bug#6103 Fixed reported tutorial errors.
• Bug#6146 Added experience to Polyuntri Needs a Key.
• Bug#6147 Made Tilavi is in Trouble text consistent with reward.
• Bug#6155 Fixed bug with Making Magical Potions - Crystal way
• Bug#6158 Corrected Harnquist is Hungry quest typo   
• Bug#6159 Corrected Harnquist Weapon Commission quest typos   
• Bug#6166 Corrected Typo at end of Aleena Teaches Herbalism   
• Bug#6168 Corrected Harnquist is Hungry Quest Description error
• Bug#6185 Corrected "Telzanna's acting", wrong quest log descriptions.
• Bug#6203 Corrected Grok's Delivery for Durok inconsistency
• Bug#6213 Adjusted a number of KAs to correct mistakes.
• Bug#6231 Corrected Dialogue Error: Without A Way; Levrus Dahrenn
• Bug#6257 Adjusted Gulm Ossoe needs Gems dialogue inconsistent with reward
• Bug#6265 Corrected Badly phrased NPC response in A Wife's Dilemma
• Bug#6308 Corrected Inconsistencies in automatic quest notes
• Bug#6310 Adjusted Typos: Joining the Guards
• Bug#6311 Fixed all Without a Way: Grammar problem
• Bug#6324 Fixed Grammar error in Liera's Cure
• Bug#6327 Fixed bugs with Chrosor Soran Has Difficulties Training
• Bug#6329 Fixed Misc Quest Dialogue typos
• Bug#6385 Fixed Typo in "Merrinez's Bad Mood"
• Bug#6398 Fixed Typos in description of Kolaim's Blush Bottle
• Bug#6412 Fixed Typo in Becoming a Red Way Adept
• Bug#6413 Fixed Introduction to The Food Association quest notes
• Bug#6420 Fixed Red Way Master Training Typos

Hi,
with 0.6.1 we introduced a new progression system for skills and we want to get your feedback on it. Training a skill now only happens through practice and there is no more the need for you to learn the theory from trainers. This means you'll are no longer required to go back and forth to the trainer to advance and you won't be required to spend Progression Points and money on it. Please note this is valid for Skills only (Blacksmithing, Sword, ...), but Stats (Agility, Intelligence, ...) continue to work as previously.

Merry Xiosiamas PlaneShifters and Happy New Year! We wish you a merry Christmas and we bring you some good news! We've just delivered a small rules update. The update includes Crafting, Engine and Spells! The changes are all server side and will not require a client update!

Crafting:

• Many bugs with Platinum Steel Swords have been fixed
• Helm enchanting: helm enchanting in now available for crafters, if you already possess the crafting book to enchant armors you will notice the instructions for helm enchanting have been added to your book. You will also notice recipes for enchanting the Plate Mail armor: plate mail armor quest has not been released yet so you cannot craft Heavy Armor until the quest will be available, but as soon as it is you'll be able to enchant your plate mail armor too.
• Chain Mail crafting: we slightly changed the chain mail crafting data, the procedure is unchanged but with the fixes we made it will be easier and it will take a lot less time to craft a chain mail armor, we also rebalanced the armor pieces prices to make it more economically rewarding for crafters.

Spells

• Due to mirroring problem the spells released in the 0.6 update were not available to research, we fixed it and those are now available. In the meanwhile we have also improved some of the scripts. As reminder new spells include: spells able to morph the spellcaster, new low level direct damage spells for azure and brown way spells. A new spell able to "charm" weak monsters, this is experimental and will be the first of a new series of spells.

Engine

• More magical items properties are displayed in the description windows! Now for all the items already identified also display the Stats and Skills bonuses, Mana/HP bonuses and the Attack and Defence modifiers. Items already identified will not need to be identified again to display the new properties.

Please read this topic here.

This week we released a great number of improvements for PlaneShift. All changes were server side, so you do not need a new client.

Tutorial

• All quests have been rewritten to include more information about the setting, and make the area In Character.
• The tutorial area has been updated including new items to improve the area for a nicer setting.
• "Information" sections at the end of dialog to explain OOC things.
• "A Letter of a Friend" has been redone and is now called "Welcome Letter". It has been altered to better represent the current in game skills and to better point you to key association members and their chain starting quests, especially the "intro" quests.
• There is now a billboard near Xenak with various books explaining important settings.
• You can enter or re-enter the tutorial area at any time - the location is the doors by the windowless tower next to the north gate. You have to complete one of the two quests with xenak which will unlock the tutorial doors so you can use them to leave the tutorial the next time you enter. Though not recommended for new players, you can do Xenak's Quick Exit quest then later come back to do the other quests anyway.

Quest chains

• "Introduction" quests redone to have a better transition from the tutorial to quest chains. In particular, Harnquist now has an extensive Q&A section to answer many questions about crafting.
• Quest chains already reorganised: crafting, science, and artists. The order of the quests has been reorganized and dialogs added to provide direction to the next quest in the chain.

Other settings updates

• Two player planned and written books which were submitted have now been released. Hopefully this might prompt many more players to make similar books.
• More NPC Knowledge Areas (KAs) added. In particular, all trainers now know what they train and will tell you who the previous and next trainer is (mostly, some will not for IC reasons).
• Many fixes to quests from bug reports and from player reports.

Credits to Venalan and Taya for their hard work with the tutorial project.

NPCs

• New behaviour for Rogues: beware the Rogues when you travel by the Ojaveda's streets, unless you are one of them.
• New behaviour for Arangmas: some of them will be aggressive during daylight hours, some during the night.
• New behaviour for Onyx Daggers, Dark Rogues and Undead (Grendols and Flayed Velnishy)
• Arena gladiators: the arena gladiators will avoid chasing you outside their arena pits and will only challenge you inside them (unless you make them really crazy ).
• 3 new mages NPCs (Guile, Serana and Relliom), will you be able to fight them off?

Character creation and advancement

• the character's creation quick path options have been improved: now choosing one of them you will be able to enjoy a character ready to start a career in the chosen path.
• all practice points rules and experience rules have been revised and many updated: as of now almost all skill in game will be trainable at about the same speed. Also crafting and repair skills will now be assigned enough experience point to raise a level trough practice. Choose to be a crafter, a miner, an hunter, fighter or a mage: either way you'll be able to make a living and gain enough experience to make a living in your chosen profession.

Combat

• the stamina drain in combat have been revised, many factors have been considered: the weapon weight, the combat stance and the armor type your character wears. A suggestion: if you run out of stamina while fighting try to switch to a more defensive stance for sometime to regain some stamina.
• Training Dummies: for all of you that don't like killing while training you will now find three training dummies in one of the Arena pit.

Crafting

• The Fair winner's recipe has been added to the meet and Stew recipe book: enjoy the new Baked Kikiri with Gravy dish made by a player.
• all herbal transformations time have been raised, this will make it easier to train herbal skill as more practice will be assigned for each tea you will craft.

Potions

• healing and mana potions' effects have been revised and a delay time between healing potions consume has been added (see bug PS#2389);
• disease and antidote potions now add some disease or poison resistance for certain amount of time;