Hello Roserians,
I know there's been quite a bit of chatter, discussion and explosive voices lately on many a subject.
I'm going to go over a few things about what we're doing, what we're working on, and help acknowledge a few concerns from the community, so you know we do hear you!
Topic keywords: lag, latency, game arena, game performance
First, let's talk about what we've been focusing on. This does go in part with what the community has been asking for attention on, but we also see that it has reached a point where it is greatly hurting the playing experience for many of you.
Latency, or "lag" as many refer to it, has been experienced throughout game play, as we have been introducing more and more game features and mechanics. We have spent a great amount of attention looking into the reasons why this may be experienced. Some of it is due to the client being inefficient with handling a lot of the new mechanics we've been adding, some of it is older issues that just need updating. Without going into details, some of it is also contributed to the server side as well, same reasons, new mechanics, some old code needing updating.
Nevertheless, know we are looking in to it and will be rolling out with any updates, enhancements, bug fixes, and optimizations we can in the upcoming days.
We originally had planned to be working on expanding game content this month, however we saw that the severity of impact this had to game play would ultimately hurt any additional content we would come out with, so we changed our focus and will pick it back up once we see game play is less frustrating because of performance issues.
I understand that for some of you, this may be cause for an upset, because we changed direction on working towards new content, but as mentioned, we felt it wouldn't have been as enjoyable, if everyone was unhappy with how the game play was performing and your interactions were with it. I'm sure many will think it is all PvP related, but it isn't, many complaints have been also through our dungeon designs as well. So it is a global issue for both PvP and PvM play styles. One we are taking seriously and committed to improving on, so we can focus more on content related issues, then performance issues making game play appear to be poor.
Topic keywords: content, level cap increase, new gear
As mentioned above, we had set up this month to go over a level increase, content additions, which would have included new, higher tier gear and weapons. We had plans to update and expand a bit throughout Orlo, with new maps, monsters and quests, and even help make Orlo easier to navigate, as we have heard many complaints over its confusing nature.
We have had the next tier of armors created. Other items have been put to concept to add to the fun of hunting for rare and powerful items in-game. We've even begun review over the changes that were mentioned long ago regarding general crafting abilities. We've had one of our community members contribute some weapons for us to use as well, we're likely going to be using as some of the rare weapons to obtain.
Unfortunately, because of the bugs and follow-up needs we've had to give attention to, with recent updates, timelines change, and as mentioned above, the focus of concern has also changed as well. And while we still are excited to unveil more about it, we don't want to give too much away about what we have in the works. But it will add more to the dynamics of game play to consider, and add more excitement to considerations of venturing out in to the worlds of ROSE Online.
Topic keywords: Training Grounds (TG), boosters, PvP, competitive game play
We're aware there are many opinions behind this, and what we're going to work towards is this. We will be retrofitting an existing zone, called the Junon Cartel, to behave just like a Game Arena's PvP Zone, where upon entry, you will be cleared of any and all buffs, (you will be warned before entering!) and behave just like any Game Arena PvP Zone. While this may sound simple enough to put in, there is a tiny bit of supporting code that we'll need to do before we can offer this new zone.
Topic keywords: starting players, leveling, needing buffs
While we know leveling can sometimes feel daunting and grindy, we've put in a lot of effort to ensure that starting game play is not that difficult and can ease you in to game play.
However, it has become the opinion of some in the community that you cannot properly level without buffs from a high level Cleric. This is simply not the case. While you may be used to a certain speed or expectation because of your experiences in ROSE, starting players do not need this kind of support. Again, we can appreciate the feeling of being super powered and thrashing monsters with breezing ease. It doesn't mean it is needed. From our investigations into these claims, they tend to come from experienced players, or players who are so new, they only know the feeling of game play while under the support of a Cleric. Obviously if that is your introduction to game play, you are going to feel the withdrawal of power once you no longer have a Cleric with you.
Does this mean we as developers need to supplement this power gap, to make things super easy and simple? No. However, we still hear the cries of those who would prefer this experience, getting in to the game. Originally, these are what the boosters were intended to be, supplements for a lacking support character.
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