Stress Test Play Guide

The Stress Test will start tonight at 7 PM US Central Time and last for around 2 hours.

If you haven't downloaded the stress test client yet, you can get the link on the forums. There are also instructions in that post on how to extract the client, log in, and launch the game.

Welcome to OrbusVR

As we approach this test, we just want to say on behalf of our development team (i.e. myself and my brother), welcome! We started the journey of building this game a few months ago, and since then we've spent hundreds of hours getting it ready to finally begin having people run around and break it. We're very excited you're here!

We're still a long, long way from an Alpha let alone a final game, so please keep that in mind. But what there is to test thus far, we're happy to share with you!

Feedback During the Test

We have a forum post here where you can chat with us during the test itself:

https://community.orbusvr.com/t/stress-test-during-the-test-thread/108

We'll try to monitor that thread during the test so if you run into a major bug or something, we'll do our best to help. However, keep in mind this is a basically a prototype so it may break and we may not be able to fix it in 2 hours. If there's anything crazy going on, like we need to restart the server or end the test early for some reason, we'll post in there. It's probably worth keeping that thread open in a browser window while you're playing so you know what's going on.

Playing the Game

Every time you log in currently, you will log in as the Ranger class and start in the Village. This is just a precautionary measure in case you get stuck -- just close the client and log back in and you'll be unstuck since you'll be at the beginning.

Switching Classes

To switch classes, use the class stones in the Village marketplace (head back toward the village houses and the giant dead tree from where you start.) Just walk up to a stone and you'll change to that class after about 2 seconds.

Getting Around

Currently we have teleport locomotion. For the Ranger, you use the arrow controller to teleport. Just press down on the Trackpad to bring up a green line, then let go to teleport. The green bar on your HUD (which is on the bow for the Ranger) shows how long until you can teleport again. You can teleport very quickly when out of combat, and more slowly when in combat.

Note that the controller you use for teleporting varies by class currently. For the Barbarian, Runemage, and Orbhealer it's the left, for the Ranger it's the right.

Leveling Up

You will start at level one. You gain XP for each monster you kill. You can advance to level 4 in the current prototype. If you look up you can see a green XP bar to show your progress. We forgot to add a place for you to see your own level...and it's too late to add it now. Whoops. :-) Just try and keep track of how many times you ding.

Note that the level of the monsters in the game is displayed next to their names, so don't fight things that are way higher level than you. No monsters in the game currently aggro on you unless you attack them first.

Dying

If you die, you just go back to the starting Village. No other penalty right now.

How do I talk to the other players?

Currently, you can't. There's no voice or text chat. We're deciding what if anything we want to add in that regard to the game, but right now you'll have to bring your own voice chat (via Discord, Curse, etc.) if you want to talk to people while playing.

You can however wave your arms and dance so feel free to do that instead.

What about looting, quests, crafting, fishing...?!

This is just a test of the networking of the game. At this point we are still a long ways from having all that stuff in. But hey at least you get to fight stuff right? :-)

Can I record video or stream the game?

Absolutely! It would be nice if you would note that this is only a prototype when you inevitably broadcast a game breaking bug to all your viewers, but we're flattered you'd like to show off the game to others! Thanks!

The Classes

Here's a quick guide to each class and how to play it.

The Ranger

The Ranger is pretty straightforward to play. It's a bow and arrow archetype, which lots of VR games have already done. Put the bow controller in your off hand and the arrow controller in your dominant hand. Then just put the arrow near the bow string, pull the trigger on the arrow hand, and pull back and release to fire. Note that if you don't pull the string back far enough the arrow won't fire. To aim, just aim the bow itself where you want to shoot.

In addition to the basic arrows, the Ranger has 4 abilities to choose from. To use an ability, just press the corresponding portion of the trackpad on the bow hand. So for example to use your Aimed Shot, which is the top-left ability on the bow, you would press the top-left part of the trackpad on your bow hand.

Aimed Shot -- Causes your next arrow to do increased damage.
Rain of Fire -- Causes your next arrow to spawn an area of effect attack at the location. Note that currently you have to actually hit an enemy, you can't shoot it at the ground.
Poison Shot -- Puts a poison on the enemy that does damage over time.
Concentration -- A self-buff that increases your damage output by 25% for a short time.

Note that if you imbue an arrow with an ability and then miss your shot, you just wasted the ability!

Finally, the Ranger also has a trap on their left hip. Just look down, and use your arrow hand to move near the trap, then hold down the Trigger button to grab the trap, and then throw it and release the Trigger. The trap will be placed on the ground and the next enemy that walks over it will take damage.

The Runemage

The Runemage is one of the most interesting classes we've been designing thus far. Rather than having a set of ability buttons to choose from, the player must memorize rune patterns that they then draw with their wand. Drawing the correct rune will cast the spell.

To draw a rune, just hold your Wand controller in front of you, and press down on the Trigger button. Currently the runes all require two strokes to draw. So you would draw one stroke, then release, then hold again to draw another stroke.

Once you've drawn the rune, press the Trackpad button on your Wand controller to "submit" the cast. If you were successful, you will see the spell appear on your Wand tip. Press the Trackpad button again to cast the spell. If you were not successful, no spell will appear, and you can try drawing again. If you mess up while drawing, just press the Trackpad button to clear the rune and start over.

After you cast the spell, you must guide it. While the spell is flying through the air, it will move in whatever direction your wand is pointing. The spell will collide with the first thing it hits, be it friend or foe (although currently there is no friendly fire). Also note that the spell will only go so far before fizzling out.

Here are the diagrams of the runes currently available:

Fireball -- casts a classic fireball spell that deals damage to the target.

Frostbolt -- casts a frost bolt at the target that slows its movement speed

Arcane Ray -- casts a ray that shoots out from the wand's tip that deals damage to all targets caught in its line.

Shield -- casts a protective barrier on the first friendly target it hits, decreasing damage taken

It may take some practice to draw all the runes correctly. Good luck!

The Orbhealer

This class has two crossbows, one in each hand. To fire the crossbow, just pull the Trigger on either remote.

The left crossbow does damage to the target it hits. It will deal a moderate amount of damage and also put a Poison on the target. If you attack another target then the Poison will be transferred to the next target. You can repeatedly fire the crossbow at the same target to deal the most damage.

The right crossbow has 3 buffs for friendly targets. You can only have one buff on one target active at a time -- so if you fire a different buff the previous one will be canceled. The buffs are:

Renew -- Heals a moderate amount of damage every second.
Concentration -- Increases the damage that the target deals to enemies
Shield -- Reduces the amount of damage that the target takes

Note that the buffs all have a very long duration. The idea is that you always want to have one buff up on a target at all times, and then you move your buff around to different targets as needed.

Like the Ranger, to select the buff just use the trackpad on the right controller -- each quadrant of the controller trackpad matches an ability to select.

The Barbarian

This is the only melee class currently in the game. The combat works on a beat-based system. Whenever you attack a target, you will start to see little circles appear on the left and right side of the enemy. You should hit the enemy with your axes to correspond with the "beats" displayed. So if you see a circle on the right side, hit it with your right axe. If you see a circle on both sides, hit it with both axes.

You want to strike the target when the beat is about 75% of the way up. You'll know you were successful if the target takes damage and you see a blue "hit" effect display on the target. If you're hitting the target but not seeing the blue hit effect, try hitting it sooner or later. This varies a lot based on your latency to the server currently (which is something that we need to fix but haven't figured out a good solution for just yet).

In addition to hitting the target, you'll see that the Barbarian has a few abilities that they can use to self-buff.

Reinforce -- Decreases the damage you take by 50% for 6 seconds. Really useful for boss fights.
Fortitude -- All damage you deal will heal you by 25% of the damage dealt for a short time.
Taunt -- Shout loudly, causing all enemies in a short radius around the Barbarian to focus on attacking it instead of whatever they were attacking.

Note that this is probably the least polished class, I would start with one of the other ones and play this one if you want to see what it's like, but we're still not happy with the gameplay yet.

If you have any questions that this guide didn't answer or need clarification on something before the test begins, please feel free to discuss this post here on our forums:

See you tonight!