State of the Game – [April]

[Eriam]

We’ve not done a state of the game address for a while so we wanted to give our thoughts on some of our upcoming updates as well as what we plan to do to address some of the concerns raised by the council and players (Portuguese translation if you scroll down).

[Concerns Raised]

Recently we’ve had a few concerns raised with us so I thought I’d start with them:

• Powders – drop rate and accessibility
• Rubicine and Pellurite A
• Customisation of appearance
• PvP being stagnant between raiding times
• PvE channel
• PvE content

In the next few sections I’ll talk about some ideas/upcoming content that will hopefully begin to address these issues.

[Powders, Rubicine and Pellurite A as well as PvP]

I’ve grouped these together for a reason, bare with.

We’ve heard voices from all over (council, different regions, cash shoppers, non-cash shoppers) complaining about powders. Particularly in the latest cap but this started brewing since 60 cap as well. Due to changes we made to drop rate and the accessibility of the dungeons the powders drop in powder price has increased. When combined buying a powder and an extract this has led to higher prices than we wanted. We went about changing this to reflect community feel that 50 cap was ‘everyone in +12’.

Rubicine and Pellurite A don’t drop crafted in-game; while this is what some servers have done they did allow the cash shop to sell them. We don’t want to do that. There will always be memes but we want – to the best of our ability – give something for you non-cash shoppers to sell. You can get ores from mimic boxes and buy with gold coin of elixir but there haven’t been enough of them to meet demand and again this has led to higher prices.

Once relics are capped and your main nation time zone is over PvP just ends. On other servers we saw active ganking and we don’t really have this here. This could be due to players feeling it isn’t a valuable use of their time. We’re putting some things into place such as T3 accessories that will hopefully address this. But we’ll do more if it needs it.

We’ve listened to your feedback and we’ve come up with an idea that we’re working on implementing. We think this idea will address these 3 issues in some way. We are still working on them so constructive ideas are welcome but this feature is close.

• Introduce a Regenshein, Verband and Amarkand contested lands (to start with).
• Regenshein will act as a shared town.
• Verband and Amarkand will contain high level mutants and mobs.
• These mutants will drop powders, Rubicine A and Pellurite A.
• Mutants will be removed from the normal Lakia maps.

What is contested lands? These are shared maps for all 3 nations that you can port to via a scroll. Picture Traband but on a larger scale.

Why will this help? Powders will be accessible to everyone who can kill a mutant, which is just about everyone over 50. This will help people starting the game and those who can’t solo run the hardest dungeons to farm something worth some cash. It will encourage players who want to farm to party with others (bit less boring than a PvE grind) to help protect themselves against other nation groups or individuals. Due to this players can also choose to use it as an option for PvP.

Will there be enough mutants for everyone? – we will be adding a lot of mutants to these maps and we chose 2 maps (Verband and Amarkand) to allow space for people who do want to farm to hide/avoid ganking constantly.

How will this promote PvP? – With T3 accessory being released soon and there being a PvP element to it this allows people who can’t raid or defend with their nation to find some PvP. Protect your farmers or your grinders and find the enemies!

What will the drop rate be like? – this isn’t finalised yet but we plan to have the drop rate at a significant amount with the farming being interrupted by the PvP. Obviously on launch if we don’t have it high enough we’ll look to change this.

Won’t I just get spawn camped? – No! There will be a safe zone around each save point (same as using a normal portal scroll). This will protect you from people seeking to take advantage of slow loaders. It will also allow you to avoid groups of other nations by going to a more hidden location.

[Customisation of Appearance]

Hopefully you’ll agree that we’ve begun to address this already. With our 45/55/65 sets and blue BTS, vermerio and swimsuits. We’ve also released the mount change to effect all current mounts and we’ve seen some people take advantage of this already. We plan to continue with this with versions of sets from higher caps and weapon skins at a later date. Any colours you’d like to see, or sets, let me (Eriam) know!

[PvE Channel]

This concern comes mainly from PvP’ers so I’m addressing this straight at the PvE’ers. The PvE channel splits the active population, doesn’t allow whispering or for you to read shout. The benefit to it seems to be ‘safe’ from potential gankers. Do we need a PvE channel?

• We can add safe points around dungeon entry and save points
• Gankers will mostly be in contested lands

This isn’t a planned piece of content. I’m asking the question for feedback from the players.

[PvE Content]

We know there is a large portion of you who love Aika’s PvE content. We want to expand on that. We’ve floated some ideas so far on harder bosses and dungeons as caps increase. What would you like to see?



I hope you can see from this long post that we are listening to your feedback, we have a small team but we are doing some big changes to address the problems. If you would like to give feedback on this post please post on the thread. This will allow us to keep all thoughts in one place. If you think we’ve missed something let us know and as always I’ll read everything that is posted. Please stick to English where possible or speak to a friendly person to help with your translation.

 

[Eriam]

[Estado do jogo - abril]

Não fizemos um discurso sobre o estado do jogo por um tempo, então queríamos refletir sobre algumas de nossas próximas atualizações, bem como o que planejamos fazer para resolver algumas das preocupações levantadas pelo conselho e pelos jogadores.

[Preocupações levantadas]

Recentemente, tivemos algumas preocupações levantadas conosco, então pensei em começar com elas:
• Pós - taxa de drop e acessibilidade
• Kaize e Hira A
• Customização da aparência
• PvP está estagnado entre os tempos de ataques em outras nações.
• Canal PvE
• Conteúdo PvE

Nos próximos tópicos, falarei sobre algumas ideias / conteúdos futuros que, esperamos, começar a abordar esses problemas.

[Pós, Kaize e Hira A, bem como PvP]

Eu os agrupei por um motivo, sem explicação.

Ouvimos vozes de todo o mundo (conselho, diferentes regiões, cash shoppers, não cash shoppers) reclamando dos pós. Particularmente no cap mais recente, mas isso começou a ser produzido desde o cap 60. Devido às mudanças que fizemos para diminuir a taxa de drop e a acessibilidade às dungeons em que os pós são adquiridos,o preço do pó aumentou. Quando combinados comprando um pó e um extrato, isso levou a preços mais altos do que queríamos. Mudamos isso para refletir a opinião da comunidade de que o cap 50 "todos são +12".

Kaize e Hira A não dropam no jogo; embora isso seja o que alguns servidores fizeram, eles permitiram que a loja cash os vendesse. Nós não queremos fazer isso. Sempre haverá memes, mas queremos - da melhor maneira possível - oferecer algo para os jogadores não cash shoppers venderem. Você pode obter Metais das caixas (1º andar da Prisão) e comprar com moedas de ouro de elixir, mas não foram suficientes para atender à demanda e, novamente, isso levou a preços mais altos.

Quando as relíquias são entregues e o fuso horário da sua nação termina, o PvP acaba. Em outros servidores, vimos ganks ativos e realmente não temos isso aqui. Isso pode ser devido ao fato de os jogadores sentirem que não é um uso valioso do tempo. Estamos colocando algumas coisas no lugar, como acessórios T3, que esperamos resolver isso. Mas faremos mais se precisar.

Ouvimos seus comentários e tivemos uma ideia que estamos trabalhando na implementação. Achamos que essa idéia abordará essas três questões de alguma forma. Ainda estamos trabalhando nelas, portanto idéias construtivas são bem-vindas, mas esse aspecto está próximo.

• Introduzir terras contestadas por Regenshein, Verband e Amarkand (para começar).
• Regenshein atuará como uma cidade compartilhada.
• Verband e Amarkand conterão mutantes e mobs de alto nível.
• Esses mutantes droparão Kaize A e Hira A.
• Os mutantes serão removidos dos mapas normais de Lakia.

O que são terras contestadas? Estes são mapas compartilhados para todos as três nações, para os quais você pode telar usando um pergaminho. Imagine Leopold, mas em uma escala maior.

Por que isso vai ajudar? Os pós estarão acessíveis a todos que puderem matar um mutante, ou seja, todos acima do nível 50. Isso ajudará as pessoas a iniciarem o jogo e aqueles que não conseguem solar dungeons mais difíceis para adiquirir algo que valha dinheiro. Isso incentivará os jogadores que desejam farmar a se divertir com outras pessoas (um pouco menos chatos do que uma rotina de PvE) para ajudar a se proteger contra outros grupos ou indivíduos de outra nação. Devido a isso, os jogadores também podem optar por usá-lo como uma opção para PvP.

Haverá mutantes suficientes para todos? - estaremos adicionando muitos mutantes a esses mapas e escolhemos 2 mapas (Verband e Amarkand) para permitir espaço para as pessoas que desejam farmar se esconderem / evitarem ganks constantemente.

Como isso promoverá o PvP? - Com o acessório T3 sendo lançado em breve e com um elemento PvP, isso permite que as pessoas que não podem atacar ou defender com sua nação encontrem algum PvP. Proteja quem está farmando ou upando e encontre os inimigos!


Como será a taxa de drop? - isso ainda não foi finalizado, mas planejamos ter uma taxa de drop significativa com o farm sendo interrompido pelo PvP. Obviamente, no lançamento, se não tivermos o suficiente, procuraremos mudar isso.

Eu não serei spotado? - Não! Haverá uma zona segura em torno de cada save point (o mesmo que usar uma pergaminho do portal). Isso o protegerá de pessoas que procuram tirar vantagem de quem carrega mais lento. Também permitirá que você evite grupos de outras nações indo para um local mais escondido.

[Customização da aparência]

Espero que você concorde que já começamos a resolver isso. Com nossos conjuntos 45/55/65 e colegial azul, vermerio e maiôs. Também lançamos a alteração de montaria para mudar todas as montagens atuais e vimos algumas pessoas já tirarem vantagem disso. Planejamos continuar com versões de conjuntos de armaduras de leveis mais altos e aparência de armas em uma data posterior. Quaisquer cores que você gostaria de ver, ou conjuntos, me fale (Eriam)!

[Canal PvE]

Essa preocupação vem principalmente dos jogadores do PvP, por isso estou abordando isso diretamente aos jogadores do PvE. O canal PvE divide a população ativa, não permite sussurros ou que você leia gritos de outros canais. O benefício parece ser "seguro" de possíveis ganks. Precisamos de um canal PvE?

• Podemos adicionar pontos seguros ao redor da entrada das dungeons e save points
• Gankers estarão principalmente em terras disputadas

Este não é um conteúdo planejado. Estou fazendo a pergunta para obter feedback dos jogadores.

[Conteúdo PvE]

Sabemos que uma grande parte de vocês gosta do conteúdo PvE da Aika. Queremos expandir isso. Até agora, lançamos algumas idéias em bosses mais difícies e dungeons mais difíceis à medida que os caps aumentam. O que você gostaria de ver?

Espero que você possa ver neste post longo que estamos ouvindo seus comentários, temos uma equipe pequena, mas estamos fazendo algumas grandes mudanças para resolver os problemas. Se você gostaria de dar um feedback sobre este post, poste no tópico. Isso nos permitirá manter todos os pensamentos em um só lugar. Se você acha que perdemos alguma coisa, avise-nos e, como sempre, vou ler tudo o que for postado. Por favor, use o inglês sempre que possível ou fale com uma pessoa amigável para ajudar na sua tradução.

 

[alefex]

You are doing more than Official aikas have done in years. Keep doing this great job, and whatever the decision is, I support it.

Great job guys. This idea seems to fit perfectly the aika community playstyle.

 

[OGSupa]

I can only see the contested land being somewhat balanced if there were no relic buffs.. Otherwise the already ahead would get even more ahead due to that and the already high plussed gear.

Everyone was +12 in 50cap because of that "Enr Sale", not because of G1 drop rates. Which in-turn made a huge shift in 60cap projections because of the 55honor.

As far as PVE.. Get rid of silence pred and i'd gladly play/farm in PVP.

That is all.

 

[luna]

Contested land sounds really cool. It would actually help both PVPers and PVErs. You guys are doing a great job, keep it up!

 

[Sweetberry]

Alright, let's open up this can of worms. First off, any attempt for more PVP is better in my opinion. I'm a PVP cleric, I love pvp and will always love PVP. Depending on how contested land is structured, I'm all for it. My biggest concern is not new content or a new way for people to PVP but the ability for people with low gear to PVP. If we can solve that issue, we can fix PVP without or without new contested land.

A couple of issues I see that is +12 is too strong relative to people in lower plusses. This was one of the concerns when the server was first announced and we hear that it allows plussing up to 12. People in lower gear cannot compete no matter how hard they try. Couple that full relics, it's almost impossible to raid/gank if you are a weaker nation or don't have gear only to plus 9. You just get wiped over and over and over. Game is no longer fun so people stop raiding.

The other problem I see is that we over tuned temple hp/defense so its hard to even ninja relics. If we want more raiding and pinging of temples, let's reduce temple hp/defense so it's easier to down temple and pull relics again. Right now, temples are so strong that just one archon or LM can go kill all the gankers so said gankers just return home empty handed and they stop trying.

What about the whole disparity between those who are in +7, 8, 9 gear and those in +12? My solution is not to reduce the effectiveness of +12 gear but to buff the stats in +7, +8, +9, +10 and +11 gear. The higher plus you go, the less return you get. Let's be honest here. Those that play hardcore will always get to +12 and they will always have an edge. However, the edge doesn't need to be so large it can't be overcome and they kill someone in plus 7 gears 10 out of 10 times. Close the gap and people will still go to +12 but those in +7, 8 or 9 will also stand a chance if they outplay or out PVP those in better gear.

Discuss.

 

[Zelline]

I think it's too late to go back on the +12 as so many people have it already how would you just tune it down now? There's alot of talk here about how unfair aika is towards lower geared people but you'd screw over everyone that has +12 already. I understand where you're comming from as musp probably has the highest population of lower geared people but at the same time what's the point in upgrading gear in the first place if you want completly equal pvp experience. People put money and alot of time to get to those high +es and are rewarded for it. Arguably the reward is too high but the price is at the same time not small. I was in musp for a while I've seen people sit in pve prison all day and end up farming less mimic boxes than I did in a few hours. And thats not something gear really contributes much to. I like the idea of equal pvp but I dont think it belongs to contested lands, rather an arena of some sort.

On a note of temple defense. In my opinion I want temples even stronger. Reasno for that is apart from the initial rm nerf that got partially reverted nothing has been done on the topic of 1 rm downing temples for free unless he takes 1+ party to stop him. That is at least imo one of the most annoying things to deal with in game. SS +8 or higher rm can down a stone in amark within 1 pred and finding that is awfuly painful. As it is right now asgard doesnt show face in pvp unless they have way over a raid and musp tends to not really ninja stuff either so when it comes to temple dps its often a raid+ vs only a temple. Also you play with lysandrei and i'm pretty sure he downs 2 stones in duration of 1 blades alone which is pretty fast as well. Anyway I want less PINGINGtemples and more RAIDING temples if that makes sense.

That was mainly a response to sweet's concern thread. When it comes to what Eriam posted I'm really excited and happy they're going to those lenghts to keep the game fun and interesting for playerbase. Keep it up and I hope what you are trying to do works out!

 

[Sweetberry]

I already said to not touch the stats of those in +12 to keep it fair since they already spent their hard earn money on it. I'm just asking GM to consider buffing +7 to +11 gear. Take for example, a plus 7 warrior 65 honor gear chest piece has 1030 pdef, 692 mdef, 3.5% damage reduction and 1099 additional hp/mp. Compare that to a +12 piece which have 2008 pdef, 1197 mdef, 11.20% damage reduction and 5552 additional hp/mp. Even if you give the +7 warrior a 21% increase across the board, the +12 gear will still be lightyears better than the +7 but the disparity won't be as extreme.

Of course, I doubt anybody would care for this. I'm just throwing this out there in case people really want to solve the issue of PVP and not just force people to PVP.

 

[Sweetberry]

Pinging of temples will also lead to more raiding of temple. It's a way to get people out of dungeon and go raiding. There was a lot more pinging and raiding of temple when temple dps wasn't overbuff after this last round of tuning. I feel that we went too far and buffing temple to its current level actually reduced pvp.

 

[OGSupa]

I don't think plusses need to be modified. I think the we need to find a way to help lower plussed people get better gear/plus. I'm not even in the category. I'm in a very decent plus set and I do well in PVP without LMA buff. This ain't about me though.. it's about bringing the game to life again. And as much as "people" want the big PVP players to keep spending/playing the game.. if you get rid of the bottom side of the totem pole, you essentially get rid of the game. By fuckin over the low plussed people tryna get geared up, you fuck the game.

 

[Sweetberry]

Here is a quick summary of a warrior 65 honor chest piece stat from astrobunny. Help lower geared players and encourage them to pvp by giving them a buff and not die to a one hit +12 LM. As you can see, even with a buff of 21%, it's a modest buff for the +7 gear and the +12 gear will still dominate. But the pvp will be closer and more fun. I think it's a win win for everybody. Lower geared players are more encouraged to plus their gear. They will spend more money on extracts and enriched and will go PVP more. Hardcore players keep their +12 dominance and instead of killing +7 geared players in one shot, they might require a few more shot and have better pvp.

 

[semnacaum]

I'm a PVE lover, but ur idea about to unify PVE with PVP and add save zones is realy a great idea. Also, to unify regen as a global city, trades will be more directly efficient, cause all peoples don't will need of 99999 acounts to trade with other nations. Great job, as always.

 

[Zelline]

I understand that but it is essentially the same if you nerf +12 a noch or buf lower +. You are essentially trying to shorten the gap between +12 and the rest. Also you are greatly overestimating how much defense stat actually help. I'm full 12 and I die to 3 skills from dgs.. It's hard to say that gear is what makes pvp bad in this game but yeah I'd like to see a balanced pvp event/server as well.

In that case whats the point of having temples in the first place if they just break open when u look at them. Again temple already breaks sooooo fast imo to all the ss sets there are now. Again fix silent pred and i'm down for weaker temples although they arent really strong in the first place from my perspective

 

[Sweetberry]

I don't understand the resistance against making temples stone weaker. It was weaker before and pvp was better for it. This is the single easiest thing we can do right now to make pvp better. It can get people out of dungeons and to try to pvp without a raid. It's an easy fix and people won't just wait for archons or LM or the two times a day when people are sleeping to raid.

I thought we want to make PVP less stagnant and for it to happen more often. What better way to do it then to make stone weaker which will promote the more exiting part of pvp which is chasing and or tding relics. Yes, temple will break easier and relics will move around more often. Isn't that a good thing?!?

What's wrong with making temple easier to down anyways? You still have to sneak people through choke, you still have to pull, you still have to pvp the defenders and to AG TD the relic through guards. All these things increases PVP. The defending nation still have an edge, they still get to pvp and kill raiders and down carriers.

 

[bash327]

I like the idea of the contested lands, but as Sweet has pointed out those with lower gear will struggle and this will only end up to benefit those with good gear and relics. I suggest that instead of making all three maps (reg/verband/amark) pvp oriented, make only 1 or 2 of them. The drop rates should increase in the map that is left fair game to all nations, but be lower in the ones that are not pvp oriented. For example, Regenshine will only be for same nation, mutants everywhere, but drop rates are not of significance, but still good enough that those with lower gear can benefit. Verband and Amark can be fair game for all three nations with enhanced drop rates so that it still promotes PvP. Yes, this may cause people to not ever go to verband/amark, but it gives people the choice. When proposing something totally new (despite the similarities with traband), it is important to provide choices for people while still promoting aspects brought up by players.

The key to this I think will be the drops/rates. There is also the option of changing the drops per map, making them relevant to the needs of players. Example of that is: Regenshine/Verband have enriching powders G1/G2, and Amark has enriching powder G3 and rub/pell A. This will help players farm and lvl in relevant maps without being ganked. Once they are able to lvl up and use what they had farmed to get better gear, then the PvP will improve in both relic wars and verband/Amark map, considering the before mentioned example.

 

[Zelline]

Only issue I have with temples being weak is preds down that for free already and you cant stop them. Full party vs 1 person on temple shouldnt be in favour of that 1 person. Again I dont mind temples being weaker as long as the silent pred gets fixed. If silent pred doesnt get fixed might as well have temple perma open and not even have stones cuz they already down really really easily

 

[Sweetberry]

I like the idea of the contested lands, but as Sweet has pointed out those with lower gear will struggle and this will only end up to benefit those with good gear and relics.

Any new content is going to be a bonus and more ideas for PVP is always welcome. But let's not kid ourselves, the strong will only get stronger unless we address some of the underlying problems. Geared people will grind mutants faster, defend against gankers better, get more honor, and eventually end up getting more T3 than less geared people. The snowball has already started unless we do something for the rest of the people. Already geared players will those extra T3 from killing weaker players into more enriched and they will be full +12 before you know it. After that, the disparity be even greater and they will essentially win and complain some more about there not being enough PVP.

 

[vronguard]

There's a lot of changes that you could make. You could make everyone who enters contested lands be stuck with a predetermined set. That way no one has an advantage. But then it just comes down to a numbers game.. You could also suggest nation specific LMA buffs, meaning that since musp is the weakest nation, their LMA buffs give 30% hp/mp and 20% nation damage/reduce, and midgard/asgard is still the same (or weaker). And on the note of temples. I think nerfing temples hp/defense to encouraging ninjaing should be done. However, temples should only stay open for 10mins instead of 40mins. The fact that temples are left unpulled does not increase pvp, it just ruins pvping becuase you have to ensure someone stands their and babysits it.

 

[Sweetberry]

And on the note of temples. I think nerfing temples hp/defense to encouraging ninjaing should be done. However, temples should only stay open for 10mins instead of 40mins. The fact that temples are left unpulled does not increase pvp, it just ruins pvping becuase you have to ensure someone stands their and babysits it.

Love this idea.

 

[vronguard]

Suggest it oh great councilor!