Originally posted by JerryPie in #announcements / Heartwood Online Discord:

Wow...It's just over 5 months since launch and Heartwood has grown so much. It's been a blast working with such an awesome and supportive community.

The last 2 updates were holiday events. Although holiday events are fun, they don't offer the same long term benefits as permanent content. (Unless you were lucky enough to snag a Pumpkin Staff 🎃)

Now that the holidays are over we're back on the dev grind and finalizing some lasting features, or in gamer lingo... sweet, juicy, CONTENT. That said, we know you've been eagerly waiting for an update and we're excited to share some info on that today.

🧱 Update 1: QoL (dropped today)

Today's update includes a lot of important core features that will help us develop future content more efficiently like housing, pets, new talents/spells, and much more... Along with these dev team improvements, this update includes a handful of bug fixes and quality of life features such as:

• New Overseer mechanics to prevent boss holding 😉
• Party loot improvement
• Leaderboard fix
• Chat fix
• Many system improvements, see ⁠📄 patch notes (below) for more info.

🐺 ⚔️ Update 2: Shadowfang & PvP (next update)

The one you've all been waiting for...

• Expanded map size for more adventures
• New gathering resources
• New crafting tiers
• New equipment/gear
• New free to earn mounts/cosmetics via quests and drops
• A slew of new enemies & npc's to interact with (like those elusive wolf men)
• PvP arena!
• PvP dueling. 1v1 anywhere in Heartwood
• Improved survivability and ability tweaks to balance classes and make soloing more pleasant.
• Reputation, quests, and new legacy marks!
• And other secrets... 💫

Also, a few fun stats:

• 962,647 accounts
• 5,383 jailed players (Brutus is watching) 🍅
• Total exp for all players: 169,372,719,446

The dev team's malnourishment and sleep depravation have lead to profound hallucinations in the form of new game features. 2024 is going to be a great year for Heartwood.

Originally posted by Davro in #patch-notes / Heartwood Online Discord:

v0.4.5 - Patch Notes

• Added /age command to check character play time
• Added 'last seen' for friends and guild members
• Added a 'Logout' button to character select screen
• Logout option on Dashboard now takes players to Character Select screen
• Hat visibility setting saved on logout
• Mounted status saved on logout
• Fixed a bug that would cause players to be stuck in guilds even after leaving or being kicked
• Fixed misc bugs with Leaderboards
• Fixed a bug that would cause players to get stuck in place when dismounting by casting a spell
• Fixed a bug that would cause the chat text box to lose focus, allowing hotkeys to function while chat was active
• Updated channel names in chat channel select dropdown
• 'Group Loot' used to drop items only for the party member who delivered the killing blow to a monster. Common drops are now cycled through party members in order. Rare and uncommon items are still rolled on
• Updated Overseer to prevent griefing and holding boss
• Updated reconnect method to prevent frequent disconnects when playing with weak connection
• Fixed party loot settings UI
• Added a confirm button for requesting account deletion

Heartwood's servers were reset earlier this evening and after three weeks running, that marked the end of the first Winterforge Event. The cosmetics/mounts earned will remain but the dolls, essences and other event-related items have vanished along with the elves (which were beginning to invade just about every inch of map 🤣).

For now, Heartwood returns to "normal." While players worked to finish the event quests, the developers didn't skip a beat behind the scenes and they continue to work diligently toward the growth of Heartwood. The next update shouldn't be too far out, so stay tuned!

As always, big thanks to the folks helping with data collection for this event so far. If you notice something out of place or missing, feel free to DM me via Discord (Maro) or join us on the Atlas Discord.

Here are all the Winterforge discoveries that have been added to Heartwood Atlas so far:

Event Quests

• Reindeer Headdress
• Winterforge Reindeer
• Blessing Friends / Cursing Enemies
• Weary Plea
• Slothful Request

Event Items

Event Armor

Event Mounts

Event Monsters

Originally posted by JerryPie in #announcements / Heartwood Online Discord:

A deep cold descends over the forests of Heartwood as citizens make last minute preparations for the Winterforge holiday season!

Winterforge is a time to forge friendships new and old! But the festivities are at risk, what could all of the commotion be about?

Originally posted by Davro in #patch-notes / Heartwood Online Discord:

v0.4.4 - Patch Notes

Winterforge has come to Heartwood!

• Added new NPCs for Winterforge holiday event
• Players can now destroy items in their inventory
• Updated stack splitting option to allow numeric entries
• Updated bulk deed creation to allow numeric entries
• Fixed an issue that prevented iOS users from interacting with the Bone Mines crystal
• Fixed an issue that caused all classes in player inspect UI to show as 'Warrior'

Originally posted by Davro in #patch-notes / Heartwood Online Discord:

v0.4.3 - Patch Notes

• New System: Deeds
  Deeds are used to create larger stacks of items that can be traded between players. Deeds are created and redeemed in the bank.
• Players can no longer drop items on the ground. (Don't worry, enemies still drop items)
• New Chat UI Menu
  Clicking a player name in the chat window will now open a UI window with social options. Certain features (trade, party) are limited to server or player range
• Updated Trade UI
  Trade UI now indicates more clearly when items and gold have been removed or updated in the trade window. Additionally, a short countdown has been added before trades can be accepted
• Updated trade request popup to show a timer
• Trade requests will now disappear if either party declines
• Updated Player Inspect UI to show player level and class
• Fixed an issue with muting that allowed players to relog so they could become unmuted
• Added a command in Bank UI to 'Move All'
• Added a new button on the player inspect UI for blocking players
• Added a new login animation to better indicate startup
• Added location to character select screen. Players will now see what region their characters are in from character select
• Several updates to player logging systems
• Several improvements to backend functionality in preparation for new content features and growing playerbase
• Fixed graphical issues with several hats
• Fixed graphical issues with several mounts
• Fixed a graphical issue with hair #10
• Added new Patron rewards for December
• New Trade Requirement
  Due to Heartwood Online being a free to play game, we've had an increased volume of low level accounts who abused game features to scam and conduct other illegal activity. In response, we've set a small level requirement of 15 character level or 15 crafting level to unlock trade. This small time investment should help slow down the use of throw away accounts that were used for exploits or other crimes.

We'd also like to introduce some new discord and game mods to the team! Thanks for all their amazing help so far.

Discord Mods

• CapnYeti
• Koi
• Maro
• Odin

Promotion to In-Game Mods

• Aput
• One

Originally posted by warby in #membership / Heartwood Online Discord:

Oops! We didn't post last months reward in the discord because we got tied up between Bone Mines launch and the Pumpkin Festival event. These 2 things kept us on our toes and we didn't get a chance to make the patron announcement. But as you've all seen, those rewards were added in game.

Moving on... We're excited to announce the 6th month of our patron member rewards! The mythic razorback! Legends depict him as both a symbol of strength and a harbinger of danger. He is the embodiment of untamed wilderness. Remember you still have a few days left to obtain the 5th month Ancestral Vulture cosmetics. Once December hits they will be locked away forever.

Note: The Boar rewards are our 6th reward, not 5th as stated in the image below.

According to an announcement by Davro this afternoon, it looks like we can expect to see another wave of bug fixes along with some quality of life enhancements next week. This includes the introduction of bulk deeds for mass trading, an anticipated solution to help improve the exchange system. Also, within a few weeks there will be a small holiday event rolling out so keep your eyes peeled!

Originally posted by Davro in #announcements / Heartwood Online Discord:

Hey everyone! We have a double dose of updates on the horizon!

📜 Update 1: QoL Enhancements

Next week we'll be dropping a popular requested feature, bulk deeds! You'll now be able to enjoy the convenience of mass trading without worrying about the stack size. Also included in the update is another wave of bug fixes, quality-of-life improvements, and other conveniences. (More information will be posted about these features in the upcoming patch notes)

🎉 Update 2: Snippets of Holiday Fun!

It's the holiday season and we don't want to miss an opportunity to celebrate. So, in a few weeks there will be a small holiday event, sprinkling some festive surprises into your play sessions. It's been a warmer year in Heartwood so you won't see snow this winter. 😉 As always, please remember Heartwood is still very young so this holiday event is going to be small. In future years you can expect more elaborate holiday event quest lines. Right now our main focus is on bug fixes, quality of life improvements, and more permanent content like dungeons, monsters, crafting skills, and gear! So we don't want to get overly sidetracked spending time on an event that only lasts for a couple of weeks.

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We just hit 3 months since launch! So we wanted to share some insane stats with you guys:

• 558,745 accounts
• 3,364 jailed players (Brutus requests you throw tomatoes) 🍅
• Peak online players: 4,293
• 11,482 free cosmetic drops from monsters
• Combined playtime for all players: 417 years

Thanks again for being part of the Heartwood community. Stay tuned for more announcements.

As expected, the Pumpkin Festival wrapped up late last night, spelling the end of Heartwood's first ever official event! In the blink of an eye (and even without a server reset), all the harvest decor that we've grown accustomed to over the last two weeks vanished along with Darian on the banks of the river in Stone Glade. Of course, this means that monsters will no longer drop event prizes, but the limited edition collectibles will remain for players who participated. Their keepsakes will serve as reminders of this exciting Heartwood milestone.

This event was meant to be relatively "tame" and only gave us a small taste of what's to come in the way of events. As the game is still very young, the small team of developers wanted to give us something a little extra, but they also wanted to appropriately balance time spent on this event versus the already ongoing rapid development. And with this one now behind us, that work on the foundation will continue at full steam.

For players, the game returns to "normal" for now, but there's much to be excited for with more improvements and additions on the horizon. On top of that, the holidays are just around the corner!

Next Tuesday, November 7th will be two weeks since the Pumpkin Festival began and the developers have now confirmed that this will mark the planned end of the event. By then, Darian will have made the necessary repairs to his cart and moved along. So be sure to finish the Pumpkin Festival Fiasco Quest and collect any event-related goodies before time runs out!

In other news, as always with the start of a new month comes new Patreon Rewards. Check out the newest exclusive member hat and mount for the month of November (Ancient Vulture).



Shout out and big thanks to Ancient member Scoob for modeling this month's hat and mount!

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up that we're actively working to identify and correct several adjustments that came along with the latest update. This mostly concerns crafting items and recipe requirements. If you have new information you'd like to share with us or want to help, drop by and join us on the Atlas Discord.

Thanks for your patience!

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Update 10/28
I think we're pretty well caught up on crafting changes now. If you happen to catch something odd, please let us know.