Hotfix #45

Hi, Adventurers.

We would like to thank everyone who helped us with our multiclass experiment. We learned a ton from this system and from your feedback. Here are our thoughts we’d like to share.

Why did we do the multiclass experiment in this manner?

We had limited development resources to work on large systems this season since we were already falling behind schedule on content delivery. We saw good engagement with grind-based systems like the Adventure Leaderboard and Quest system in the previous season. We thought that having to do that grind again, even with changes would not be engaging enough so we wanted to try and give another long-term goal players could work towards that could be implemented with less investment from the design team who were focused on content for the next major push. We knew that character building is a core motivation for many users, and we thought that the multiclass system would be a powerful incentive for these players to flex their creative muscles.

The other motivation for testing this multiclass system was our desire to finally start designing the class progression system since it had been shown in the “coming soon” status for far too long. We had wanted to incorporate a “multiclass” concept into the class progression system early on. As we quickly added lots of perks and skills to the game, things got a bit unwieldy under the hood, making it more daunting for us to start the design work. The multiclass system was a way for us to leverage the creativity and curiosity of the fanbase, fusing crazy combinations to uncover the less-than-ideal bits of code and help us tidy up our implementation. In this aspect the experiment was a success as the underlying execution of the perks and skills have been greatly improved.

What did we learn?

We see the multiclass system as a success when it comes to helping us improve the technical state of the game and reigning in unintended interactions. This will help us greatly when we start to build the next class progression system for a future season.

However, when it comes to improving the overall game experience, we fell short. We learned a lot from this test due to the wide diversity of builds built by players, but also learned about going too far in diluting class identity. In the future we’ll do better by maintaining class identity while still enabling options to explore less traditional character builds. 

We also learned that too much RNG for a core component such as class progression, especially gated behind a long grind, is a recipe for disaster. The reward for long-term investments should be more deterministic to allow for strategic planning. If there is high volatility in a core reward that locks players into a limited playstyle, then the opportunity to earn it should not be limited by excessive time commitments.

What will we do?

Since we feel that the current implementation is counter to our vision going forward, we plan to remove multiclassing. However, for one week, as a final farewell to this system we will remove the timer restrictions on mindwipes so players can create their wildest creations for a limited time.

After the week, we will completely remove the multiclass system and return to our original class system. We are working on ideas for a newer class progression system and will announce details once we have something more concrete to share. At least for now, we’ll have the traditional class system until the next season. Thank you.

Updates on the Map Selection System

We’d also like to share our thoughts on the current matchmaking and map system. Although we had originally promised the return of map selection for the solo queue, we are sorry to announce that we will not be able to fulfill that promise at this time. The original intention behind giving players the choice to select their map was to improve gameplay variety, which is still part of our goal.

Unfortunately, based on our current matchmaking data we realized that splitting the player pools for the solo matchmaking would be unsustainable due to player flow at off-peak times, even in high population regions. Our goal is to get players into good quality matches in a quick manner while offering map variety, and this has led us to consider a complete overhaul of the matchmaking system which we will share with you soon.

This was also the reason why we implemented several “rat-play” mechanics to test the viability of solo players in party lobbies in consideration for combining player pools. Although the tests are ongoing, based on current feedback, we believe that improving support of multiple queue types rather than combining pools is the more realistic option, even though this presents a difficult design challenge for us.

While we work on renewing the matchmaking to better support multiple queues, we still want to offer players more map diversity in the interim. Although we are aware of issues with the previous map rotation system, we believe this system is the best available solution to offer map variety within the limitations of the current population and matchmaking system. To ease issues of non-agency we will implement map rotations with an extremely short rotation timer to make it easier to wait it out if a map you dislike is active. We are aware of the side effects of the short timers but believe the pros outweigh the cons until the fully renewed matchmaking system is launched. Thank you.

IRONMACE

Changes:

• Fixed an issue where players could not loot after defeating the Ghost King.
• Fixed an issue where the High Roller Warlord’s rewards were not appropriate.
• Warlock's Dark Reflection attribute bonus ratio changed from 100% → 50%
• Warlock's Blow of Corruption attribute bonus ratio changed from 100% → 50%
• Explosive Bottle damage changed from 3 to 1 and no longer scales.
• The area accessible by double jumping in the Ice Cavern has been limited.
• The High Roller name tag appears again.
• Map rotation is back for all party types.
• Mindwipe now has no time limits.