Eastern Sun Rises Beginnings
About half a year ago I started to share my modifications I made for Eastern Sun. I began with little fixes and the Gold pickup.dll. I continued to fix bugs and balance a few things. I also introduced new items and replaced many item graphics. Not all of these changes were well received by all players. I remember discussions in a length the ES Subforum hasnt seen in a long time. Back then I decided to change the name to Eastern Sun Rises to cut short all those discussions whether it's still an unofficial patch or an independent mod. As a result Eastern Sun Rises yet again, like a phönix out of the ashes.
Around that time we started tou use discord and what can I say, it has been a blast. Since then about every other day new people join us to play some ES again and talk about old times. ESR as it is began to grow, not comparable to mods like Path of Diablo or Resurgence, but for ES itself quite a lot. We continued to add QoL features like Bufficons and the possibility to dye your equipment as you want. You might have noticed that I spoke of us. Back then aught/mak, thaison and sky aka max joined to devteam to help out here and there. Without the help of mnw1995 and dav92 that wouldnt have been possible either. Another shout out to Ogodei and Spike who helped me on many small things that I cant count anymore.
Most of you have noticed for sure, not long ago Perfect Cell came back and approved for me to take over ES. If I look back now, most changes have been quite simply so far, however that will change in the near feature. Maks, Max and me have been working on a new version behind the scenes for some time now, it wont be ready within the next few months, but we getting there. As such I would like to give you a small overview on what is planed for this year.
Eastern Sun Rises Future
Eastern Sun Rises 5.3 Beta
ESR 5.3 will be a balance patch based on the current ES Version. It can be seen as a link between the current ES Version and what to expect in ESR.6.0. As such all skill synergies will be reworked to allow new and more diverse builds, certain skills will be further buffed or nerfed (see Creeping Doom or Shockwave).
Most items will be reworked. Certain items will be removed or will be much harder to obtain. Those super rare items are meant to enable certain builds by having unique itemstats or oskills. Decals and Coupons will be removed, however certain items will prevail. The runestocker will be changed to work in a similar way as the gemstocker (needed to free up space for new itemstats).
Major ES features as dstoning,tinkering and forging will be reworked (details will follow). Along the line a new feature will be introduced. Corrupting an item will give you the chance to add (one time only) a few selected itemstats to your item. Beware though that there is also a high chance for your item to either stay unchanged or be randomly rerolled as a rare. As of now I already started working on this and hope to deliver it in a reasonable timeframe.
Eastern Sun Rises 5.4 Final
ESR 5.4 will focus on bug fixes and small balance issues that were found in 5.3. There is also the chance that a slightly modified version of this will go online. But that's to decide once the time comes.
Eastern Sun Rises 6.0
ESR 6.0 will contain several major changes. First all chars will get a brand new skillset. Old ES skills can still be found as Oskills though. And second the current itemtype system will be completely replaced. The new system will contain less, but more different itemtypes.
Also certain itemtypes will be bound (much more likely to find )to difficulty or certain areas. All itemtypes will come with a variety of 3-6 standard graphics (as rings or amulets).
Another major change will be a complete monster overhaul. Making them more engaging and dangerous than they are now. ESR 6.0 will see a few more features that I talked about elsewhere or that I will reveal later on. So stay tuned folks and see ya around;).
If you are interested to contribute to this project feel free to contact me. Any help will be appreciated. Currently we are looking for someone that could create a new web page and help out with coding a new lootfilter. Further detailed ideas and concepts can be found in the ES Subforum.
Cheers
The ESR Team