86 replies to this topic

[Leonis]

So, I had intended to post this earlier in the month, but things got busy and I was sidetracked.

December / January were busy times for us as we were battling the issues of server stability, which turned in to the discovery of an exploit. Once we bottled that one up, so far, so good. We've been able to return our attention to the projects we had on hand.

Now I'm allowed to do a Developer's Q&A or Dev Blog, regarding what we've been doing, but with some limitations. Marketing will always want to hold certain bits of information for them, so I'm giving as much information as I can up front. Feel free to ask questions, but not all answers will be available until after either the marketing takes place or the update is released.

A couple of the major things we have in the current development pipelines, are a new Game Arena game/map and the Class & Skill updates that some may remember on Pegasus.


Draconis Peaks
A new Game Arena mode which has been in the works, tentatively referred to as Draconis Peaks. Here's a brief description of the new map and some additional notes on what to expect from game play:

Spoiler

Zone Description
Draconis Peaks is a dragon training ground, located deep within the heart of the Lunar mountains where only the fearless dare to refine their skills as legendary warriors.

The area is inhabited by powerful dragons who relentlessly attempt to claim dominion over the territory through the expansion of their brood. To aid in this expansion, teams of brave Visitors assist the dragons in stealing eggs from other broods.

Game Information
Category: PvP
Teams: 10 v 10 (7 Minimum)

Level Brackets:

• 100 - 140
• 141 - 180
• 181 - 200
• 201 - 220
• 221 - 230

Rules & Objective(s)

• Capture the opposing team's Dragon Eggs and slay their dragon to earn points.
• Capture all of the Dragon Eggs to win the game, regardless of time remaining.
• After 30 minutes, the team with the most points earned (from eggs captures and dragons slain) will be declared the winner.

Rewards
Honor/Points are awarded for:

• Damage Inflicted
• Healing Inflicted
• Player Kills
• Dragon Egg Captures (Awarded To Player)
• Dragon Egg Returns (Awarded To Player)
• Slaying Dragons (Awarded To Group)

There are also optional daily quests which award additional Honor for completing them.


Game Mechanics
Draconis Peaks introduces a mixture of 'Capture The Flag' and 'Attack & Defend' style mechanics, which we hope will bring a fresh game experience that caters to PvP and PvM fans alike.

Some mechanics of interest include:

Dragon Eggs

• Characters will "pick up" an Dragon Egg when interacted with, and display a visual indicator above the character's head to show that they are carrying the Dragon Egg.
• Killing a player will cause the Dragon Egg to drop on the ground.
• Dragon Eggs dropped by the opposing team can be interacted with to return them to your base.
• While carrying a Dragon Egg, a character's movement speed is significantly reduced, and invisibility effects cannot be cast.
• "Lost Dragon Eggs" spawn randomly around the map can be picked up and captured by either team.

Dragons

• Interacting with your team's dragon while carrying a Dragon Egg will capture the egg and place it in your team's brood nest.
• Killing the opposing team's dragon will prevent them from capturing eggs for a short period, until a new dragon returns to defend their brood.

Draconic Runes

• Draconic Runes grant temporary buffs to movement speed (and stack with existing buffs) when interacted with, and are placed strategically around the area.
• Interacting with a Draconic Rune while carrying a Dragon Egg will significantly increase the movement speed buff granted.

Premium Account
Now, this folds in to one of the other avenues of development we've been working on, which is the enhancement of our Premium Account service. The desire to make it more enticing and desired is one of our development challenges to work on. Instead of trying to constantly promote items that may begin feeling saturated, some more focus has been placed on giving the Premium Account status a better bargain.

So, with that in mind, something new is going to be tried with the Draconis Peaks content. Our Premium Account users will be granted early access to this and future new content once it is implemented. It is possible that even some content will remain Premium Access only, but no decisions have been made on this yet. These are just ideas being mulled over.

I welcome feedback regarding the idea of giving more enhancements to our Premium Account Service to see what you, the community, would like to see become part of the Premium Account status.


Skill & Class Balancing
Next on the immediate list of development projects, Pegasus and the Skill & Class balances. If any of you were part of the testing phases that were done last year, you know that there were some extensive additions and mechanic alterations done. A lot of your feedback has greatly shaped the outcome of what was being worked on and more still is being done since.

We have reached a point where the Skill & Class balancing is now a more dominant focus of development, having seen the feedback from testing. There will be more test stages performed between now and our current goal of launching just before summer hits. This is a tentative schedule, because we want to make sure we have something that's as solid, balanced and enjoyable as possible.


System Expansion & Bug Fixes
Beyond that, we have some tough decisions to make during the course of the year because we are facing something we have been trying to put off for quite a while. Our database structure is archaic to say the least, as it was made many years ago under a different idea for what ROSE would eventually become. I'm happy to say that ROSE has become more than what we saw as an original vision and thus, it has expanded in ways unforeseen. Unfortunately, because of this, there are several supporting mechanics and back end structures we need to revise and in order to do this, it is going to take away a large portion of our development power to do properly. I'm hoping by the time this particular project begins, we will be able to have the means to support the creation of other aspects of content that will not impede on the work needed for the database.

One of the hard decisions we have is what to do with the party system. It has been operating under a bug for a long time and because of how long it has been part of game play. The bug is a simple math mistake, where the experience that is given from a monster dying, is intended to be slightly increased by a multiplier based on the number of players in your party and then again by the party level. Then that total, is supposed to be divided amongst the players in the party. The over all experience that is created would be more than if you were soloing the monster, however once divided it would be less than a solo attempt. The difference is, you have multiple members fighting the monster, making it easier by potentially an exponential rate. The bug is, that experience that is being divided to your party members, is being multiplied again, effectively making it only provide straight bonuses to experience based on being in a party. This is a huge error on our part and one of the largest contributing factors to why leveling in a party is exceedingly better than soloing, flat. But because this has been part of game play for so long, we've feared the backlash from the community regarding the feeling of it being a "nerf" after so long, even if it is a bug fix. But it is a serious issue we feel we need to address and soon. I'm hoping for some understanding from the community regarding such a bug fix to a feature that has been this way for so long, if not some ideas on how we might be able to help soften the blow. One idea is to increase the experience bonus provided from each party level to help offset the immediate loss.

Now, to bring the topic back to the issue of the database, once the restructure is completed, we will be able to have a much more flexible structure for us to be able to create new and dynamic content that will be enjoyed for years yet to come!

Spoiler

Ideas like:

• Separating glow color from intensity, so that you can decide the color of glowing of refined equipment!
• Adding more flexible combinations of bonus stats.
• Adding more diverse and different types of gems.
• Adding an additional enhancement system, where once you obtain a bonus stats on a piece of equipment, you can strengthen it to make the values stronger!
• And more!

The need for the database change isn't going to happen late in the year, but it is still slated to happen so we can expand our tool capabilities to match our imaginations. Things like, escort quests, a control interface for summons, profession crafting, buff auras, clan skills, environment hazards, and again more.

So there you have it, a brief peek and view of some of the things we have planned for 2013. I know this will spark a lot of questions, but please try to keep in mind a lot of this is still just creative thinking and nothing is for certain.

Dates and schedules for everything I've just talked about are tentative.
The Draconis Peaks' content, Skill & Class balances, which are already in development and the database restructuring, will be announced officially through our website once they are going to be implemented.

Updated 02/15/2013: Added notes on team size and point rewards for Draconis Peaks.

Edited by Genesis, 21 March 2013 - 01:05 PM.

[Gojio]

A couple things:

1) I am absolutely againts content that is Premium only, for the simple reason that this game would no longer be a F2P game. Instead, start thinking of ways to sink some money out of the game. And then add a way to slightly alleviate the ingame zulie costs through the Premium Status, among other things (you could make a thread and have players suggest what they would like to obtain with the Premium Status, and then decide by yourself).

2) You should not care about the effect the "party experience bug fix" would cause, because experience would still be high and people just have to adapt to the new rates.

3) For the Draconis Peaks game, try to make a system that creates balanced, equal numbered teams and try to distribute each class per team with a 1:1 ratio.

4) For the love of God, please increase self buffs' duration to 20 minutes. The whole PvP side of the game would become way more enjoyable.

5) How many of these things will actually make it in 2013 ?

[Genesis]

3) For the Draconis Peaks game, try to make a system that creates balanced, equal numbered teams and try to distribute each class per team with a 1:1 ratio.

At this point, the problem is not so much team composition as it is class balance. Class balance is currently the only factor that has not been addressed since our announcement a couple of years ago to improve on the balancing issues that plagued Union War (which has improved since Game Arena replaced the old system).

There are also other factors to consider when making changes to the matchmaking system, including the fact that groups that sign up cannot be split between teams, and the number of players that generally sign up for a game not being enough to warrant placing heavy restrictions on team composition.

[Gojio]

Then do not allow groups in DP, have a solo queue that makes it easier for teams to be balanced.

And i know today's problems are due to a couple classes being more "trendy" than others, but even after the balance there will always be classes that are played more than others.

[Niluje]

Calling the new GA mode "Draconis Peaks" is a bad idea because it will inevitably cause confusion and the question "Is Draconis Peaks only on Draconis or can I join it too on Leonis?" is going to be asked all the time
Rename Draconis Peaks or rename the Draconis server

[Gojio]

Good point...maybe just Dragon's Peaks...since thats what the word "Draconis" (which is a Latin genitive and means "of the dragon") is referring to.

[Rooster]

Is there going to be a reward offered for the winning team of Draconis Peaks? A lot of info there and even after reading it twice the only thing I see is Draconic Runes which increase movement speed. Is that only while in DP or are these going to be usable in other facets of the game?

[NamirBarades]

At this point, the problem is not so much team composition as it is class balance. Class balance is currently the only factor that has not been addressed since our announcement a couple of years ago to improve on the balancing issues that plagued Union War (which has improved since Game Arena replaced the old system).

There are also other factors to consider when making changes to the matchmaking system, including the fact that groups that sign up cannot be split between teams, and the number of players that generally sign up for a game not being enough to warrant placing heavy restrictions on team composition.

I'm pretty sure that team composition plays a large factor as well. Even if you balance classes(provided you do it correctly), if you have one class versus the class they are essentially 'weaker' against.. They are not going to fair well. But to assume that its just the class balancing(which, in all honesty isn't *that* far off right now..But you'd rather redo the whole system then just continue to tweak what we have)...ZzzzZzz

And, honestly, because you forced players to subject to only being able to use self and cleric buffs...The balancing isn't much better in Crystal defenders as it was in union war. The occurrence of a 'good' match is no different then it was for union war. The only thing that has improved is the "number" of people. But that 'number' doesn't matter if you lose your cleric and are up against fully buffed fighters. Loss of a cleric = loss and a whole lot of frustrated players. If only there was a craftable alternative, even if not as strong.. oh wait.

[Leonis]

A couple things:

1) I am absolutely againts content that is Premium only, for the simple reason that this game would no longer be a F2P game. Instead, start thinking of ways to sink some money out of the game. And then add a way to slightly alleviate the ingame zulie costs through the Premium Status, among other things (you could make a thread and have players suggest what they would like to obtain with the Premium Status, and then decide by yourself).

I appreciate your opinion, but just because one update or some aspects of the game may go premium access only, doesn't all of a sudden make the game not free to play (F2P). As for the other suggestions, those are other topics to address for sure. There are ideas on how to apply a zulie sink, as well as alleviate it through premium status that were not listed, because I wanted to keep focus of the coming content.

2) You should not care about the effect the "party experience bug fix" would cause, because experience would still be high and people just have to adapt to the new rates.

I appreciate hearing this, it helps make the decision easier to see whether or not the community would be able to accept and understand the issue being addressed.

3) For the Draconis Peaks game, try to make a system that creates balanced, equal numbered teams and try to distribute each class per team with a 1:1 ratio.

I think Genesis provided a good response to this.

4) For the love of God, please increase self buffs' duration to 20 minutes. The whole PvP side of the game would become way more enjoyable.

Certainly is something to consider with the coming class and skill balancing. And I will certainly keep it in mind.

5) How many of these things will actually make it in 2013 ?

That is a good question, unfortunately there's no way to give a definitive answer. These are tentative plans for this year under the expectation that "nothing goes wrong" or "nothing interrupts us." Basically, under ideal circumstances throughout the year, these are what we have planned in our development pipeline.

Calling the new GA mode "Draconis Peaks" is a bad idea because it will inevitably cause confusion and the question "Is Draconis Peaks only on Draconis or can I join it too on Leonis?" is going to be asked all the time
Rename Draconis Peaks or rename the Draconis server

I understand where you may feel this could be a confusion, but I don't think because of the shared use of the word of a server's name it would create an amount of confusion that wouldn't be quickly put to rest when you open the Game Arena listings and see it available. The use of the word "Draconis" as explained, is a version of Dragon. I feel the shared name helps give closeness to the lore and use of the word Draconis.

[Gojio]

Leo I know it doesn't completely turn the game into a P2P game...but the idea of having to pay real money just to play that game arena...I don't like it.

[NamirBarades]

actually, plenty of games have it so... premium accounts get you unlimited access to an instance--its really not that strange for them to do Albe <.< It works for the dungeon.. I wouldn't advise ever doing it for the pvp, because there is too small a player base.

[Gojio]

Ya but I can at least do Dungeons once per day...it's not much but it's something...and like you implied it's a PvM thing...a PvP instance Premium Only...meh...I wouldn't buy Premium for it, that's what I mean.

[Leonis]

Leo I know it doesn't completely turn the game into a P2P game...but the idea of having to pay real money just to play that game arena...I don't like it.

I understand. But there is a lot of content that we've released already which is freely able to play and participate in.

Now, as I said though, we are releasing this as an early access to our Premium Account players (perhaps I should not have said "exclusive", I only meant that during early access, only Premium Users will have access to it). Perhaps I worded it poorly, because what I meant by this is that as a Premium Account user, you will be able to access this content with other Premium Account players first. Draconis Peaks, being a PvP designed game mode, relies on having players, so it will eventually be made public. But the early access gives Premium Account players the advantages of learning the land, getting used to the mechanics and gaining the rewards before anyone else.

It is an introduction to the idea that Premium Status has some additional value to it, along with the idea that some content may be only accessible as a Premium Account User.

[Gojio]

Oh if you only mean it gives early access then it's okay ;o

[Feuer]

Leonis, I would like to establish a more solid communication between us on these developements, so I can assist my 'talents' to the cause.

I see a lot of promise and I only have a few things to give feedback on initially.

1: To cushion the blow the the PT exp, try doing a reversal bell curve effect. Initially, joining a party will yield higher exp rates / level [exp 3% at lvl 1, 6% lvl 2, 8% lvl 3, 10% lvl 4, etc] So as the pt levels goes up, each "tier" effect is lesser then the one before, but still compounds onto the bonus. This will give an immediate bang for your buck effect, then smooth out into the more standard once the group has reached a higher PT level.
- 1:b. You might want to revise the PT level total, and perhaps add some effects into it. Currently, leveling a pt only provides immediate restoration of HP and MP upon reaching a new level, and an increase in exp yields. Perhaps making a PT level maximum of 15, and each level after PT level 11 opens up a new slot for another member. So at PT level 15, your PT is capable of 10 members, instead of 6. Obviously the PT exp leveling system would need some minor tweaking to level 14-15 would be the equivalent of the current lvl 42-50 PT.

The other thing I think is that if it is an absolute goal to improve the Premium Service, Early access has my approval. But Premium Restricted access seems like a no-no. Not because of the way I feel, I would do it if I was in your spot, however the community undoubtedly will throw a massive tantrum and spam "I Rage Quit" over and over until you change it anyway. I would recommend early access + unlimited access like it currently is with GA Dungeons. Maybe increased rewards [physical like EQ boxes or w.e] as well as currency. [Valor / Honor points].



Aside from that, I'm glad you're going to be doing a physical system update, it gives promise to new features [like professions AH MAH GAWD YUSS] and the like.

PM me, I will absolutely contribute materials where I can. Looking forward to the next maint as well. Cheerio

Edited by Feuer, 14 February 2013 - 03:35 PM.

[DestinyDeoxys]

Now, this folds in to one of the other avenues of development we've been working on, which is the enhancement of our Premium Account service. The desire to make it more enticing and desired is one of our development challenges to work on. Instead of trying to constantly promote items that may begin feeling saturated, some more focus has been placed on giving the Premium Account status a better bargain.

So, with that in mind, something new is going to be tried with the Draconis Peaks content. Our Premium Account users will be granted early and exclusive access to this and future new content once it is implemented. It is possible that even some content will remain Premium Access only, but no decisions have been made on this yet. These are just ideas being mulled over.

The current Crystal Defender is only barely enough to make the game starts, if you make the Draconis Peaks premium access only, I guarantee you, it will not start, the will be forgotten and wasted. (Don't forget what happen to the Arua vs Hebarn PvP map in Oblivion Temple, it requires ruven token to access, and I bet 95% of the ROSE community don't even know what this is)

Next on the immediate list of development projects, Pegasus and the Skill & Class balances. If any of you were part of the testing phases that were done last year, you know that there were some extensive additions and mechanic alterations done. A lot of your feedback has greatly shaped the outcome of what was being worked on and more still is being done since.

We have reached a point where the Skill & Class balancing is now a more dominant focus of development, having seen the feedback from testing. There will be more test stages performed between now and our current goal of launching just before summer hits. This is a tentative schedule, because we want to make sure we have something that's as solid, balanced and enjoyable as possible.

Can you elaborate more on what your project is at? Are we going to have Pegasus up again? Many of us didn't like the fact that many passive skills depend on one single base stat (STR,CON,DEX,INT,CHA,SEN), because that limits the stat build variety, and any words about the INT <=> CHA switch role issue?

Beyond that, we have some tough decisions to make during the course of the year because we are facing something we have been trying to put off for quite a while. Our database structure is archaic to say the least, as it was made many years ago under a different idea for what ROSE would eventually become. I'm happy to say that ROSE has become more than what we saw as an original vision and thus, it has expanded in ways unforeseen. Unfortunately, because of this, there are several supporting mechanics and back end structures we need to revise and in order to do this, it is going to take away a large portion of our development power to do properly. I'm hoping by the time this particular project begins, we will be able to have the means to support the creation of other aspects of content that will not impede on the work needed for the database.

This sounds like a tough project, if this is going to take more than 1 year and will leave the game completely out of content update, then it will make the community shrink even further. I don't know what exactly do you mean by restructuring the database, but if the current database limit the game development, then go ahead.

One of the hard decisions we have is what to do with the party system. It has been operating under a bug for a long time and because of how long it has been part of game play. The bug is a simple math mistake, where the experience that is given from a monster dying, is intended to be slightly increased by a multiplier based on the number of players in your party and then again by the party level. Then that total, is supposed to be divided amongst the players in the party. The over all experience that is created would be more than if you were soloing the monster, however once divided it would be less than a solo attempt. The difference is, you have multiple members fighting the monster, making it easier by potentially an exponential rate. The bug is, that experience that is being divided to your party members, is being multiplied again, effectively making it only provide straight bonuses to experience based on being in a party. This is a huge error on our part and one of the largest contributing factors to why leveling in a party is exceedingly better than soloing, flat. But because this has been part of game play for so long, we've feared the backlash from the community regarding the feeling of it being a "nerf" after so long, even if it is a bug fix. But it is a serious issue we feel we need to address and soon. I'm hoping for some understanding from the community regarding such a bug fix to a feature that has been this way for so long, if not some ideas on how we might be able to help soften the blow. One idea is to increase the experience bonus provided from each party level to help offset the immediate loss.

I don't see any problem when you gain more exp than soloing, isn't that what an "MMORPG" all about? Play and party together right? If people want to solo, they could play an offline game or have fun with questing. We used to have a party system that gives exp shares among players, the more leecher, the worst the exp is. I know how corrupted the leveling scene currently is, where a bot squad composed of (Champion/Mage, Knight scacrifice, Cleric healer, Leechers) But if you bring back the old exp party system, people are going to ignore the weaklings (artisan, raider, scout) and refuse to party them.
What the real problem of the current leveling system is, leveling at 200 onwards is extremely slow, the reason is there is no mobs at that level that allows you to make a high level party. We always say bot is illegal by Terms of Service, but who doesn't bot and level nowadays? Don't blame the players, because leveling is indeed very boring and straight forward.

[Feuer]

@Destiny

Erh, Botting no matter what the excuse should not be allowed. There's very good reasons for it. Like you said,
"I don't see any problem when you gain more exp than soloing, isn't that what an "MMORPG" all about? Play and party together right? If people want to solo, they could play an offline game or have fun with questing."
So by your rational, those botters [who are frequently only botting their own chars] Should play an offline game or have fun questing. One tiny issue is that ROSE completely lacks all quest content past Xita. So from 150+ well... your SOL on leveling via a quest chain.

Also, would you like to PM me about the new passives system? I'm just curious why you think it makes the build opportunities more limited.

Edited by Feuer, 14 February 2013 - 04:02 PM.

[DestinyDeoxys]

Also, would you like to PM me about the new passives system? I'm just curious why you think it makes the build opportunities more limited.

Well like I said, the way they distribute the passive skill depends on very few stat, for example for scouts, it is basically a DEX maximizing skill build will yield the best result.

[VolunteerMod03]

I liked the idea of not being able to group up for the Draconis Peaks. Random teams would give the player the objective of having to work with what you get.

[calder12]

The changes sound good. I want to chime in an opinion on a few.

1. Party experience. Just do it, the game is already incredibly easy to level even solo. The community has gotten into this race to the end mindset and I've made my opinion on that rather well known. It's ruining the game, it puts more pressure on the developers to constantly add content because people are "bored". Fix the bug and deal with the whining, it won't last.

2.I'd personally like to see some single player content added. I know I'm not alone in this either, I am not a loner or a recluse but sometimes I just want to solo, I am not a big PvP player and honestly other than the old union wars I don't bother with it a lot and never have. I do however complete all the quests I can. I'd really love to see the episode quest continued in Eldeon before yet another PvP centric update. You have to remember not everyone plays for PvP (this relates to answer 1 as well), in fact I've seen a few players recently stating they stopped or have seriously limited their playing time because there is no actual single player game play being developed.

3. I am fully in agreement with Gojio on the paid content. Yes this is a business, yes it has to turn a profit. However I am a firm believer that the paid players rely on the free players to make the game fun. There is a reason P2P failed (and I stated this way back in the beginning in a very long post on why the P2P was a bad business model). You constantly hear people pining for the iRose days and the reason is almost always the same. The game was packed, there were people everywhere and all the maps were full. Now of course those were the days when iRose was the only option, but still there are other reasons. The money will come faster with less paid content. Sounds counter intuitive but it's true. Give the free players a reason to want to be here and you get two birds with one stone. Some of those free players will eventually spend and the spenders will tend to spend more and play more because there are more people in the maps. Loyalty to buyers is a good thing, focusing the vast majority of new releases on buyers is bad business. I mean cmon one cart choice for zuly... one? And keep in mind when I have time to play I am a spender and normally a premium player. I don't spend tons but I don't mind spending, thing is I would spend more if there were more people around the game, more going on and more available that didn't cost me real money all the time. That I absolutely promise you.

4. Class balancing. Honestly makes me nervous, I'm glad you're taking your time and getting player feedback but it still worries me. Players have spent hundreds, even thousands of dollars playing this game, building and kitting out characters. Changing how those characters act and their abilities mid stream is far more dangerous than fixing the party bug. I have no experience with Pegasus and I haven't really seen anything about how you're going to go about this, but that being said I still say proceed with caution on this one if rage quitting worries you.

5. The database changes and addition of other gems/abilities to improve variation all sound like great changes! Keep up the good work guys.

[ibyang]

Class balance is more important... thats the major problem in game arena..im hoping to fix it ^^

[irlalalo]

I welcome feedback regarding the idea of giving more enhancements to our Premium Account Service to see what you, the community, would like to see become part of the Premium Account status.

Give premium accounts ability to offline vending and offline leveling.

[Naughty]

Thanks for the information. Appreciate you taking the time, to let us know, some of whats happening.

My thoughts/dreams, on what i would like to see become part of the Premium Account status.

Ip restrictions lifted, for same household players.
The ability to save one's shop.
Longer lasting buffs.
A special ability buff.
Some special craftable items for Artisans. Like erm, an Auras Robe.
Ability to server to server trade (zulies only)

Zulie sink idea's...

Get rid of once a day, Dungeon restriction = Instead, do a zulie cost for each dungeon visit, for non premium players.

A travelling NPC, who sells random stuff, from his travels, like rocks, snowballs, the soccer spin scrolls (not sure what they were called. The one's were you flipped onto your head and spinned) Those cannon penguins, err thats all for now, bit brain dead tonight. Im sure you get the idea.

A special area, designated for Mega Mayhem Boss spawns. Where not just the boss spawns, but hundreds of his rampaging minions. QQing everywhere, RoOaR.

p.s I still live in hope of Lybis's Hook Doll and kilts being implemented =) FreeeeeeeeeDom

[Bendersmom]

Making certain things or events or new content available for Premium users only is not that bad in my opinion. As long as they are for fun or "extra" things then that is how the world is. As long as players won't be stronger than non premium players with the best gears and weapons available to both, then that is ok. You will get a ton of "that's not fair", but that is the way of the world. Those that can afford better things are able to get them. I just don't think it should make people a lot stronger, richer maybe but not stronger. That way non premium can still be competative and game play is not altered, but it will encourage those that can get premium to get it.

When you are working on the balancing please look at summons in the PVP Game maps. Right now the summons really hurt in CD and there are so many out and about that it is hard to click on the players. I would suggest summons being not allowed in PVP Gaming maps.

Having a solo queue for Draconis Peaks sounds ok, but a lot of people really do enjoy playing with their friends and not fighting against them or killing them. I guess I can see both sides of this one. I would prefer groups again, and for this new map have more players needed to start it maybe. it seems like you will need more players.

Can you maybe make it so that when a cleric leaves Game Arenas (Dungeons and CD), DC or just leaves, that another can be added to take their place? Even if you are farther into the dungeon or CD? Too many times in Dungeons or CD the cleric DCs but u are too far along to allow another player to enter the map. The team without a cleric then is at a huge disadvantage. And it happens more than you think.

For the party exp - will you stil make it so that it is an advantage to party? And the more people in a party the more exp? Or will fixing the bug change that? I don't think it needs to be huge exp boost but it has really helped get people to party all classes since it is a benefit to have more in party atm.

[claw68]

I just hope that at least there will be a small, little, tiny temporary improvement for dual raiders. -.- while the overall class balancing is not ready yet.

1 problem which makes the class not really preferable vs katar is the buff that separates a dual raider from a katar raider - Evasive Guard (the cloak version of dual raiders)

Yes, it gives awesome def and dogde buffs but that's the problem.

After the duration, you will completely lose the def buff (you can use mirror phantasm to gain your dodge buff back).

Def buff is important esp. in CD.

Proposed Solutions:
1. Put a defense buff on mirror phantasm (but i'm afraid that this will be abused by katar raiders instead)
2. Instead of Evasive guard's plain def and dodge buff, make it so that it will act like an "additional buff" that after the duration ends, only the additional buffs will go away and not the base buffs.