I'm going to come back to the year 2021, which has been the year of consolidation if you will.

We have indeed updated quite a few things, on the one hand the servers, the webIG and the client code (with the merging of the code of Ryzom Core 4), but also the compilation process which is now based on Visual C++ 2019 for Windows. In addition a tool, Hunter, has been implemented by Nimetu (RT) to compile the whole more easily.

Beyond the tools, the past year has also seen the developer team update its way of working: we now use gitlab more for bugs, communication and patch management and we are very satisfied with it... Wondering why we didn't do it earlier! There is one last thing to do: joining our server and data client repositories with the ryzom-core repository, so that the development process will be even easier.

We have also worked on enriching our collection of generic or model-based systems.This is the case, for example, of the "shops" which are increasingly (and will be in the future massively) used to make items or services available in game (for example, purchases in Elyps, whether from Nations merchants, grooms or Allegory carvers NPCs). This is also the case for the Lessons, which are the basis of the information transmitted to players in-game, as well as for the Encyclopedia window (ctrl+E), which includes the Daily Missions, the Storyline, the future tutorial and, recently, the titles, all of which are (or will be) based on the same model.

As a result, we have (and will have) fewer systems to maintain, thus fewer bugs, and we will be able to concentrate our efforts on three main tasks. Namely:
• completion of the three refactoring projects (Silan, Bosses, Outposts) ;
• Storyline's ongoing and the addition of content that has yet to be completed (e.g. Supreme Tokens);
• bugs' fixing and improvement of the client (by the way, the year 2022 will start with a patch – currently in test – illustrating this point).

As Ulukyn mentioned, one of our goals for 2022 is to improve the player experience through fixing bugs or bettering the client. The first patch of January will do exactly this.

The first change we made was to the system for trading between player characters. More generally, we've tried to improve the process of item trading, because it's not the best at the moment. In addition to changing and simplifying the layout of the trade window, we added two more slots for items. It was mainly the exchanges of jewel sets that led us to this last change.

Another change we've made to the player trade window is the ability to drag and drop items into the window from all of your inventories. This way, if you want to trade items carried by your Zig, you won't have to transfer them to your bag first, thus interrupting the trade to complete it later. Note: In order not to clutter up the item selection window, this one won't show you items from other inventories and this function will only operate by drag and drop.

The final change to the trade window presented to each player is the addition of item bulk and weight indicators. In fact, a small indicator (similar to the one in the upper right corner of your inventories) will be displayed next to both offers, which will show the weight and bulk of the items given and received. All this in the hope of making the exchanges a little more fluid.

Then, stacking of items. Anyone who has fought in PvP knows what it feels like to have an inventory cluttered with crystallized spells. From now on, crystallized spells of the same stanza (or identical stanza) will automatically stack in the inventory where they are stored. As the same clutter currently occurs in the bag of working crafters, identical items produced will now automatically stack in the inventory.

Any questions so far?

Let's move on to fixes.
I have to say that this patch is quite big, so I'm leaving out some small details. You'll get the surprise when the patchnote will be released!

We have a lot of fixes in this patch, especially concerning the Zigs:
• fix of the bug that gave them the wrong status when they were hosted in bags;
• addition of their inventories as tabs in the commercial windows of merchant NPCs;
• addition of the ability to transfer items directly from their inventory to your apartment's and guild hall's inventory;
• fixed the malfunction of locking/unlocking items in their inventory.

By the way, the lock status of items will now be displayed in your apartment and guild hall inventory.

Any questions?

I redesigned the tutorial after several opinions from the first testers, and it is now more intuitive and interactive. The feedback about the first two lessons is quite positive. So I'm going to continue and I hope it will really help new players to get their bearings.

I take this opportunity to remind you that the test team is recruiting. So, if you want to test either the patch implementing the additions to the client, or the first lessons of the tutorial, you are welcome.

Boss refactoring will soon be applied all over Atys Atys. However, the work is bound to continue, though we haven't yet determined exactly what we'll be working on. But we'd love to make hunting for Bosses a most funny activity on Ryzom.

One of the ideas that has come up among us, so that players can escape routine and their tactical skills can flourish, is the one of providing each of the current Bosses their own defense mechanics. That's the idea which originated this refactoring project… and gave it its first name: "Boss in the Box".

If you have other ideas, please feel free to post them in the forum under the meeting report.

Any questions ?

We have been able to make progress on GvG, but its introduction seems interesting only if accompanied by the planned changes on all Outposts.

That's why we are planning to make several changes at the same time. Namely:
• reducing the duration of battles to one hour (already tested in Nexus);
• rotation of raw materials produced by each outpost every N days (to be determined), via server reboot;
• suppression of the production of Q50 and Q100 materials;
• addition of four outposts in level 50 regions for testing GvG battles.

After that, another patch will implement the last changes, as the project is well advanced thanks to the full-scale tests on the Atys server.

Any questions?