Greetings, this is the Shadow Arena Development Team.
It seemed like just yesterday that it was the beginning of a new year, and no sooner, spring has sprung as we approach the last week of March.
We are glad to greet our players with the discussions we had from the last developer notes announced at the beginning of Beta Season 8. In this developer note, we would like to share the issues that we have been facing and possible solutions to these issues with our players.
1. Add Deathmatch as a main mode
> Reduce frustration that arises from dying / Sense of shared achievement on victory with your team
2. Skill Reworks
> Remove Mastery (Combat/Sub) and adjust the total number of available skill slots to 5.
3. Changes to Stamina/Recovery Management
> Changes to playstyle with the introduction of a new style of battle.
1. Add “Deathmatch” as a main mode
Reduce frustration that arises from dying / The sense of shared achievement on victory with your team.
One of the most mentioned feedback we got from players was that the gameplay was difficult for new players to get adjusted to. And for this, we implemented changes such as introducing AI bots, improving tutorials so that players could get a better gist of the feel for combat. And with this, Death Match which was available only on Custom mode will now be set apart as a main mode.
Previously, deathmatch mode was beneficial as players could: try out various Heroes in a short amount of time, engage in teamwork-focused play rather than flying solo in claiming victory, and avoid matches concluding abruptly due to making one wrong move. We have considered ways to maximize the positive aspects but were hesitant due to increasing its access to possible issues such as matching not proceeding smoothly if Deathmatch/Solo/Trio were set apart as separate main modes. Thus, these features were limited to Custom mode.
However, the beneficial elements of death match mode were considered to relieve the frustration on dying and allow beginner players to experience excitement through claiming victory through teamwork, then naturally adjust to the overall gameplay in the end. So going forward, Deathmatch will now be available for access in the main lobby. We hope that players can get a lot of use of this feature to ones liking.
2. Skill Reworks
Remove Mastery (Combat/Sub) and adjust the total number of available skill slots to 5.
This element may be one of the most important changes announced in this developer note.
We will temporarily remove the Combat/Sub Mastery feature in this update.
Many players have mentioned the problematic aspects of the Mastery.
The Mastery was initially designed to maximize the fun in strategical gameplay in battle through the picking and choosing of skills that fit each Hero’s characteristics with various situations in mind. However, although the selection of skills granted flexibility, switching of skills was not available during a match, which lead to players selecting the “most versatile skills.”
So, we decided to temporarily remove the Mastery skills to bring on a smarter solution. This change will add more flexibility to skill usage and relieve the up/down compatibility issue that exists in the current state of the game.
But we understand that the defining feature of Shadow Arena is the action-packed fun and thrill that comes from performing powerful combos.
Although we are removing Mastery skills from the game, we thought of ways to retain elements of Shadow Arena at its unique best. So, we came to the solution of adjusting the number to 5 unique skills for each Hero.
We believe these changes will bring more excitement to psychological battles unique to Shadow Arena, and make performing combos even more exciting.
Lastly, a new skill “Quick Reflexes,” will be introduced as a general skill.
This skill can be used on a similar note to “Dark Shift,” where players can evade and turn around a dangerous situation into an opportunistic chance to overpower the opponent.
3. Changes to Stamina/Recovery Management
Changes to playstyle with the introduction of a new style of battle
Stamina is used for sprinting, jump sprint, sprint jump attack, skills, and various actions performed by heroes in the game. But it was difficult to calculate the exact amount of when and how stamina was used. As a result, the only way to gauge stamina was through gameplay. We realized that it was a source of inconvenience, and decided to take the following steps to improve on this matter.
> All Jump actions will use the same amount of stamina
10 stamina will be consumed when performing all jump actions: jumping on the spot, jumping when moving, and jumping when sprinting. Currently, the amount of stamina consumed within each type of jump was different even though they were all a part of the jump action. And a different set amount of stamina was consumed when stamina was below a certain level. This update aims to eliminate the inconvenient aspects of unnecessary stamina use by unifying the consumption levels.
> Stamina no longer recovers when using skills
Currently, stamina is recovered even when heroes use the same skills (charge, slash, etc.) and some skills do not recover stamina.
This system was originally designed after having considered the unique traits of each hero. However, with the balance patches being performed, we felt that it made things unfair between heroes. So we have come to the solution that heroes will no longer recover stamina when using skills.
> Cover more grounds with less stamina
Players will now only use 1/10 of their stamina when sprinting compared to before, which will allow them to cover more grounds. Also, players will switch to a non-combat sprint (tentatively) when sprinting for a certain amount of time to move faster.
We believe that stamina management will play a big role in battle outcomes when these features get added.
This concludes the concerns and the solutions on these matters.
We decided that these changes needed to be thoroughly evaluated, and the reason why the maintenance was postponed to March 25 (Fri).
We understand that large changes in the middle of the season can be inconvenient. But as announced earlier at the start of the season, our focus is purely on introducing more diversity to the Arena, so we ask for your understanding in this matter.
The Shadow Arena team will continue working towards bringing out the best qualities of our game.
Thank you.