Hello. This is DEV Allanon.
I'd first like to express my sincere gratitude to everyone, for your deep affection for Vindictus over the years.
Today, I'd like to explain into depth of our future plans on the 'Stat' system—an issue that many of you have been waiting for a change, and one that we, too, have considered one of our biggest challenges.
We believe that many of you would likely have experienced moments where, despite investing immense cost and effort into your character's stats, you see minimal, or in some cases, no increase in damage in actual battle.
This kind of situation where you can't see any difference in power, the feeling that your efforts are not being rewarded—we believe this is one of the critical barriers that prevent the enjoyment of growth.
Following up on the stat system overhaul mentioned in our August Dev Talk, I'd like to provide a more detailed explanation of how we intend to fundamentally improve the system to ensure your efforts are well recognized for their full value.
The core of the problem—where you could not feel actual growth was in the old, flawed structure of our stat system, mainly intertwined with three key stats: ATT, ATT Surplus, and Counterforce.
Each battle has its own 'Maximum Attack Cap' that cannot be surpassed. Any ATT stat that exceeds this, even by a single point, was simply discarded.
On the contrary, ATT Surplus was only meaningful when your ATT Stat exceeded this 'Attack Cap.' It was a conditional stat with no benefits regardless of its amount unless your ATT stat had reached its maximum for that battle.
Furthermore, Counterforce was designed so that it would be required to deal 100% of your damage—As long as it met the requirements for each battle, any more of it would not grant any additional benefit either.
As these three stats merged into our Battle system, a stagnation point appeared where your investments in stats did not transition to a tangible sense of growth: Which is why we have decided that it is time we conduct a complete overhaul of this structure.
Before we started the overhaul, we made sure to keep these three guiding principles in the redesign process, based on our respect to your gameplay and asset value.
Your Characters will not get any weaker than they are now.
There will no longer be any wasted stats.
Flexibility in stat growth decisions will be expanded.
We are well aware that a fundamental change to the damage formula in a Live-Service game may cause anxiety. However, the reason we decided to do so is by no means to weaken characters or make growth more difficult.
On the contrary, it is to fully preserve the value of your gameplay you have built up so far and to ensure that your future efforts return to a more respectful outcome. All changes have been carefully designed so that your expected damage will be higher than, or at least equal to, what it was before.
The biggest change is the removal of the 'Attack Cap.'
The Blue line in the graph above represents the previous ATT stat formula in 'Royal Castle Topaz Hall.'
As you can see, the moment your ATT stat reaches 59,800, the applied ATT did not apply any more than it. This made your investments beyond this point meaningless.
We have decided to remove this limitation. The Green line in the graph represents the new ATT stat formula—A formula that supports constant growth. Its efficiency will simply become more gradual after a certain point.
We understand that the graph above may seem like the revised version is under the former one, decreasing the damage compared to the current one. But there is more to this, which I will elaborate below.
We came to the conclusion that if we were to simply remove the ATT cap and apply the current growth formula, the value of 'ATT' stat will skyrocket after a certain period of growth: Leading to extreme power inflation.
In the long run, we believe this would potentially harm the game's overall balance and shorten the lifespan of the fun in gaming.
The gradient efficiency slope we have applied is a choice to protect two values at once: the tangible feeling of growth and the stability of the game itself. As you can see from the Green line above, the damage will not only be 'Higher' than the current system, but will also have a consistent increasing slope.
This ensures that your effort for growth will always result in a meaningful outcome, while protecting the long-term enjoyment of playing.
We are also changing the role of 'ATT Surplus.'
The current ATT Surplus is a conditional stat only active when your ATT stat surpasses the ATT Cap for each battle. This also means that regardless of the amount of investment you put into growth, the stat will not take power in certain conditions.
We aim to fix this unreasonable aspect and ensure that your efforts are always reflected in actual combat.
Going forward, ATT Surplus will act as the most powerful and reliable stat that affects the character's 'Final Damage' by a percentage.
Regardless of your ATT Stat, you will be able to see an increase in damage directly in proportion to how much you invest in your ATT Surplus.
Accordingly, we plan to change the name to more clearly define the new role of ATT Surplus. We will introduce the details and the new localized name when implementation is ready.
'Counterforce' will also be redefined.
Previously, Counterforce was more of a 'Forced Requirement' than a 'Benefit.' It was a stat that was required to deal 100% of your damage.
At the same time, it did not grant any additional benefit when it was invested beyond the minimum requirement either.
We are redefining Counterforce to a 'Defense Reduction Stat' that directly penetrates enemy's defense. Each point of Counterforce will now ignore 5.0 of the enemy's total defense, acting as a new pillar of offense.
The more you invest in the redefined Counterforce, the weaker the enemy will become: making each and every attack you make hit harder.
With the change of role, all enemy's 'Counterforce Resistance Stat' will be removed accordingly. Also, Counterforce will be renamed as well to fit its new role.
To address these changes in more detail, I've attached some 3D graphs that visualize how the new formula affects your gameplay outcomes.
The graph below represents the expected change in damage based on your ATT and ATT Surplus values, in the Romel Battle: The Green surface is the results of the old formula, and the Purple surface is the expected results from the revised formula.
The height of each surface is the expected damage, and as you can see, the new formula's expected damage surface is always, and overwhelmingly surpassing that of the old formula.
(The graph assumes that other stats—Balance, Critical, and Counterforce, are maxed out.)
The Blue and Red dots on the graph are virtual player data, that represents players that can enter Quick Battle, and players with maximum available stats.
As seen in the graph, the revised formula results in a minimum of 21% to maximum of 99% increase in damage compared to the current system.
This increase is especially significant for those whose growth had stagnated under the current formula, and even players with maximum stats can still expect approximately 26% increase in damage despite their current powerful state—Granting even greater value for your investment.
These changes are not limited just to the Romel battle: As seen in the expected changes for other raids below, these positive change appears consistently across all major battles.
The visual graphs and data might seem complex. To summarize, the new formula will affect your gameplay in two ways:
1. Intuitive Stat growth will be available, as all growth will now be reflected in your final damage.
Every change, from a small change in accessory or applying a slightly higher enchantment, will now clearly transition into increase in damage.
You will now be able to feel the joy of growth across all periods of gameplay, with your efforts directly reflected in your combat results.
2. Expanded flexibility in growth.
The current system requires you to build your stats in a seemingly fixed order. But now with the revised system, you can now choose your growth path more freely, as all stats will increase your play results.
While you currently must stick to a set path in gearing due to stat cap limitations, the new formula will allow you to grow more efficiently using the materials you have, or those with the most stable marketplace prices.
The process of deciding your growth path will shift from a forced choice to avoid limitations, to a more enjoyable, strategic decision on how to get stronger more efficiently.
As a result, we believe everyone will be able to experience a more pleasent and logical growth process with progressions flows without blockages.
We do not plan to complete such a critical and massive change into the game based solely on our development team's judgements.
To create the best possible outcome, we would like to work on it with you and listen to your feedback and opinions on this change. We will be conducting a test server in early September, and we will introduce this new formula there for the first time.
The purpose of the next Test Server goes beyond just finding unspotted bugs: We earnestly hope that you experience this new system firsthand and give us your honest feedback on how it feels.
During this period, we will be monitoring suggestions and opinions from various communities across regions more closely than ever, while also analyzing quantitative data like combat metrics and results to review the impact of this change.
Despite our efforts to explain our plans in detail, we believe that many of you will still have questions. We've attached a short Q&A below to help address them:
Q. Will my character get stronger than they are now?
A. Yes. The guiding principle of this overhaul is respect for player value. For all players who can enter a given battle, the new system is designed so that your expected damage is higher than, or at least equal to, the previous formula.
We will make sure that there will be no cases where you become weaker.
Q. In the first graph, the applied ATT after the change is lower than before in certain sections. Will this not make my character weaker?
A. It is true that in certain sections of the graph, the applied Attack value itself—which is an intermediate step in the damage calculation—is lower than before. However, the combat damage calculation formula itself has been newly designed to address this.
Previously, the applied ATT stat determined most of the damage. Now, after calculating the base damage from applied Attack, Counterforce weakens the monster's defense, and ATT Surplus is added as a powerful final damage increase by percentage.
Therefore, the final damage output, despite the ATT graph below the current version, will be higher after the changes.
Q. Previously, ATT Surplus was not mandatory other than Space-Time Distortion Battles. This change seems it would make it relevant for all battles.
A. Yes, it is true that in our past Dev Talk, I have mentioned that ATT Surplus will not be required outside Space-Time Distortions.
To be honest, the previous direction was set due to the unreasonable nature of the old ATT Surplus—Which only worked under specific conditions. We did not want to force players to invest in a poorly performing stat, concerned it would only create more stress. At the time, we judged that leaving a flawed stat in the realm of choice was the best way to lessen your burden.
However, we concluded that leaving a flawed stat, even as an option, was not a fundamental solution. The existence of a stat that players avoid was a challenge for our team to solve. The true solution was to make ATT Surplus itself attractive and valuable to everyone. With this overhaul, we expect ATT Surplus will no longer be an unreasonable stat. It is reborn as a core stat that guarantees the most certain sense of growth by directly increasing final damage.
To answer your question, it will still not be included in the 'mandatory entry requirements' for content other than Space-Time Distortion, as is the case now.
However, it is true that it has become a core stat that provides the most definitive reward for getting stronger. Our goal is to make you want to invest in it because of its clear appeal, not because of a requirement. We sincerely apologize for the confusion caused by the difference between our past statements and our current direction. We ask for your generous understanding that this was a decision to move toward a better direction where all growth is enjoyable by solving a fundamental problem, rather than maintaining a flawed system.
Q. Will Mysterious/Abyssal Crystals still be required to raise ATT Surplus?
A. Yes, the use of Mysterious/Abyssal Crystals will be maintained after the update. We have determined that the current value of Mysterious/Abyssal Crystals is sufficiently appropriate for the new standing of this powerful stat.
Furthermore, Mysterious/Abyssal Shards have long been a crucial pillar of the in-game economy. Drastically changing the sources or uses of this material could undermine the value of the efforts of those who have already collected many of them, so we are approaching this very cautiously.
We will continuously monitor whether the sources of key materials are overly concentrated in specific content after this update, and whether there are excessive changes in the overall supply balance and market prices.
Q. If everyone gets stronger, won't battles become less fun?
A. We are taking into account that battle times will be shortened by a massive amount immediately after the update to respect your player value. We will do our best to avoid updates that diminish the growth experience by artificially raising the defense or health of existing monsters.
Of course, new raid battles to be introduced in the future will be designed with difficulties based on the post-overhaul stats to maintain the enjoyment of the challenge. But we promise to adjust this gradually so that it does not feel like a sudden hurdle.
Q. Are there any places where this new formula will not apply?
A. Yes, in certain contents where character stats are fixed (Ein Lacher, Guild Dungeon, Friendship Missions, etc.), the existing formula will be maintained to avoid any confusion in your gameplay experience.
Q. With the stat formula changing, will there be an impact on Ranking Points?
A. If your character's stats do not change, your Ranking Points will remain the same before and after the revision.
Q. If I send feedback about the changes, will it really be reflected?
A. Yes. This test period is the most crucial process for us to hear your voices before finalizing the numbers.
If we determine there is a balance issue based on data and feedback, or if better improvement suggestions are presented, we will boldly make revisions before the official server update and communicate with you again. We look forward to your active participation.
What we shared today is about more than just a numerical adjustment; it is our commitment to improving issues that has held Vindictus back for a long time and to restoring the fundamental value of the game: the joy of growth.
After a valuable feedback process in early September, we will present a new era of growth to all players through the official server update in October.
We once again express our deepest gratitude to all of you who are always with Vindictus.
Thank you.