In this update, we introduce various new balancing changes, rule updates, bug fixes and quality-of-life additions.
Upon monitoring the game since its release, it has become increasingly apparent that the alternative character system harbours significant flaws. Currently, players use alternative characters primarily to amass gold, which they then use to buy membership in the market. This practice has led to inflated prices for items and gold, as the supply outstrips demand. These characters contribute to the game's economy by adding resources but don't balance this by removing any, exacerbating the issue.
The root of the problem lies in the limited utility of alternative characters; their sole function is to gather gold for purchasing memberships. When designing this system, our intent was to allow players to remain engaged while their main characters were occupied. However, we overlooked the system's potential impact on the market dynamics.
Additionally, over the past month, we've identified problems with the trading rules among alternative accounts. These rules are ambiguously defined and fail to address numerous edge cases, leading to technically legal but unintended loophole exploitations.
To address these issues, we are introducing the following:
Due to the change of eliminating the trading restrictions between alternative characters, we've had to reassess how items are acquired through skills. We recognise that many players prefer using a single character, and it's crucial to consider their experience. The original game design did not anticipate trading between alternative characters, and skills were balanced for a single character. To address this, we've rebalanced certain skills to suit both single-character players and those using multiple characters. Our goal is to mitigate the impact of the recent changes on item acquisition, ensuring that playing with a single character remains rewarding.
As a result, we've adjusted the time required to obtain items from certain skills. These adjustments vary: some items will see minor increases of a few seconds, while others will have more substantial time increases. Currently, the "alchemy" and "forge" skills will not be altered, but we may consider revising these in the future to maintain game balance.
We've observed a concerning behaviour among certain players who are adjusting their sleep schedules to reach near 24 hours gameplay in a single day - achieved by resetting the skill every two hours. To promote healthier gaming habits and encourage regular breaks, we're implementing an 'exhaustion effect' in the game.
The exhaustion effect will kick in when a character has exceeded 18 hours of gameplay in a single day. The exhaustion effect will apply the following on the character:
We have updated the wiki to explain the exhaustion effect.
Since the game is currently in the early stages of its beta phase, we want to emphasise that various aspects of its balance and structure are likely to evolve. Players should anticipate potential significant changes. Our team is committed to closely monitoring the game's progress and implementing any necessary adjustments to ensure a well-balanced and engaging gaming experience.
During the holiday period, our team has carefully observed the game and identified several areas that require adjustments to achieve better balance. We've pinpointed elements that are currently underpowered and others that are excessively strong.
Please note, this update will be gradually rolled out over the coming hours, meaning you might not observe these changes immediately.
We've implemented significant alterations to the travel system, recognising that the current setup rendered travel largely obsolete. This undermined our intention to introduce adventures, along with extra rewards, during travel. Our goal was for pets' movement speed to enhance, rather than overshadow, a character's journey between locations. Under the old system, for instance, one could traverse from one end of the map to the other in under eight minutes using a pet, which was excessively efficient.
Due to this, we are introducing the following changes:
We've recognised that hunting in our game demands more player interaction than we originally planned. While we aim to keep combat moderately engaging, the current requirement for frequent hunting and battling cycles is more intensive than intended.
To make hunting less repetitive and more rewarding, we're implementing these updates:
Additionally, we've addressed an issue where increasing the hunting mastery level resulted in longer hunting times, causing confusion. The new changes are as follows:
Item stats were fairly ineffective, especially when compared to other ways of obtaining boosts to various attributes (such as pets and increasing your core stat levels).
We wanted to improve the effectiveness of items which is why we are introducing the following:
We've observed that the "Snowrunner" pet, obtainable through the campaign, exceeded our intended power level. Alongside the movement speed reduction, we have further adjusted the pet's overall stats. Although "Snowrunner" will retain its "Legendary" quality, its revised statistics will align more closely with those of a mid-tier epic pet.
In our latest update, we've refined the efficiency formula for better gameplay balance and extended functionality. This update allows efficiency values to be more impactful. With this update, the impact of efficiency at lower levels has been significantly enhanced. For example, an increase of 15% in efficiency now yields a more substantial benefit compared to the same increase before the update.
To ensure a balanced experience, we will be closely monitoring the effects of this change. If necessary, we will adjust certain values to maintain game balance and fairness. Rest assured, any modifications made will be transparently communicated in subsequent patch notes.
If you want to read more information, you can read the “Understanding Efficiency” section in the wiki.