Realmers,
For years many of you have been requesting and anticipating a major reconstruction to the realms and we are glad to officially announce that 2023 is finally the year of the Realm Rework! Today will be the first time we share information about it as well as having our first PT to get some early feedback on some of the new systems that will be involved. Not everything mentioned within this post will be available for the first playtest but we would still like to hear your thoughts as they will be part of future sessions.
Tl;DR:
- New mechanics such as Realm Score, Beacons, Combat Power, and Dungeon difficulties.
- Improved sprite art for older enemies.
- New maps with brand-new biomes, enemies, and rewards.
- Only Realm Score, Beacons, and some of the upgraded enemy sprites will be available to players on this first playtest, the map that exists is just a prototype for this testing session.
- Leave as much feedback as you can! We want to make sure we get this right.
- Things are still very early (especially for this initial PT) so as always, things may still be subject to change.
This rework intends to correct several issues with the current realm:
- The current maps are 90% wasted space to most players.
- The current realm lacks variety within biome thematics
- The current maps cannot be edited and new maps cannot be added to the pool.
- Some of our easiest content is found in the same location as our hardest content both without any way for us or the player to differentiate.
- Low-population realms are a painful experience for traveling around the map.
- Lack of progression past the Godlands
- Outdated and disconnected art style from most of the new aspects of the game.
With these core issues identified, we came up with the following goals for us to achieve so that the realm rework can be the best that it can be.
- Create a more linear gameplay experience.
- Allow space for expansion.
- Create better theming and variety through game balance and biome placement.
- More reasons to play in the realm!
Now with that out of the way, on to the new stuff. As part of the Realm Rework, we will be introducing brand new realm maps for the first time in 13 years. Additionally, we will be introducing new mechanics to streamline the realm experience.
The Realm
Prototype and Map Key of New Realm #1
As you can see in the above example, we have removed the old structure of the map in order to make better use of the 2048x2048 space. Rather than the highest level area (godlands) being centralized on the map, we have created a new map with a more linearized progression scale. The 3 core regions of the new realm are the Rookie, Adept, and Veteran regions. Within each of these regions have their own unique biomes and milestones for the player to reach
Rookie Region: This area is basically what our current realm is condensed to about 1/4th of the size, primary goals for this area are to achieve level 20 and get a small introduction to stat potions
Adept Region: This area can be thought of as a revamped 'godlands', but rather than just have one biome it is made up of multiple with their own unique enemies, rewards, and encounters. Goals here are for maxing 4-6/8 of your stats
Veteran Region: This area is where players will commonly find things of epic dungeon difficulties and above. Additionally in this region is where players will find exaltation encounters and increased power level adept region dungeons. Essentially, this is a high level area meant for farming harder content.
Beacons
As you traverse through the many biomes, players may come across a “biome beacon” . Activating these beacons serves as permanent progression for everyone that joins that Realm and will allow players to freely teleport to different areas of the realm without requiring another player to be in the location.
Equipment Power levels
I'm sure many long time players have seen a newer player finally reaching level 20 just to get an Avatar of the Forgotten king quest and immediately die due to being undergeared. To assist with guiding players towards content that is more appropriate to their level we are introducing a new feature called “Combat Power”. Combat Power is a numerical value derived from both your stats as well as your gear. Based on your combat level you will be assigned quests that are most appropriate to your level, as well as other future use cases that we are not ready to share.
Dungeon Difficulties
Dungeon difficulties are a new feature we will be introducing to stretch the life time of dungeons in a player's journey. For example, you may find the Undead Lair you are used to in the Haunted Hallows biome, but additionally you may find an even higher level Undead Lair in the Sanguine Forest. These increased versions of dungeons can have high damage, defense, xp gain, loot %, as well as new and exclusive loot to dungeons depending on their difficulty levels.
Realm Score
The final major shift from the old realm to the new realm is a change in how players progress and close the realm. For this we are introducing a mechanic known as realm score. Everything you do in the realm will grant Realm Score and contribute to closing the realm. Killing encounters and heroes will still grant the most Realm Score overall but if someone just feels like vibing out in the Shipwreck Cove hunting for a new biome UT, they can do so while still contributing to the overall goals of the realm.
Conclusion
This is all we are able to share at this point, but we hope it starts giving you an idea of what we aim for the Realm Rework to be. This weekend we will be running a PT on just the Realm Score and Beacons (as well as some tests on the backend), and we would appreciate it if you could hop in the realm and try it out! Although only these two parts will be part of the first pt, please make sure to leave feedback on everything you’ve read here as well on the #testing-feedback channel of the Official RotMG discord so we can make sure this Realm Rework is as successful as can be.