Dear Metas,
The unique charm of the RaidZone Scenario lies in the strategic combat interplay between players. To this end, we are rolling out a major experience update exclusively for RaidZone, designed to create a more focused, purer, and more immersive PvP wilderness stage for Metas, one that truly reflects the harsh realities of apocalyptic survival combat.
We’ve observed that the current progression pace in RaidZone is overly rigid, lacking variability and surprise, with insufficient depth in survival mechanics. To address this, we’ve initiated a full-scale progression overhaul, covering technological advancement, wilderness resource acquisition, crafting formulas and production costs, item naming, and Memetic systems. Our goal is to refine the overall pacing of RaidZone, enhance survival-oriented gameplay, improve wilderness PvP and territory battles, and ensure competitive fairness and strategic retrusion, bringing the focus back to the battle of wits between players and their environment in a post-apocalyptic world.
Below are the detailed optimizations：
Ⅰ. Memetic Changes
The current Memetic system suffers from unclear tech paths, ambiguous categorization, and numerous redundant nodes, all of which detract from the experience. This update will significantly optimize RaidZone’s Memetic system, allowing players to better understand what they can craft/build at different tech levels while providing clearer progression visibility.
1. Memetic tabs have been reclassified into three categories: Construction, Combat, and Survival, aligned with RaidZone’s core experience for easier comprehension by Metas.
2. The Memetic screen now displays tier indicators to denote formula levels, showing which items can be crafted at corresponding tier supplies workbenches or gear workbenches, making tech progression more intuitive.
3. The nail gun, bronze pickaxe, steel ingot, tungsten ingot, sulfur crystal, all stone structures, and synthesis benches are now unlocked by default, with their associated Memetics removed. These no longer require data chips to learn and are freely accessible.
4. The ore detector Memetic has been removed.
5. Remove the mining operation platform Memetic and all material-type Memetics. For batch production/construction abilities, players must first collect the corresponding facility or item in the wilderness, then reverse-engineer and learn its formula through the synthesis bench.
6. Memetic pins will now display the icon of the primary formula item within that Memetic node for better clarity. Additionally, the name will be updated to match the unlocked formula item.
II. New Reverse-Engineering Feature
We aim to provide players with richer, more diverse progression paths, avoiding rigid growth solely tied to Memetic unlocks. We also don’t want Memetic learning to be the only way for players to gain survival skills in RaidZones. This update links player ability progression and formula acquisition to random wilderness drops, offering more survival possibilities through randomly generated items.
1. Added a reverse-engineering feature. Most crafting materials, weapons, armor, and building facilities can now be reverse-engineered by consuming one finished product plus RaidZone chips to unlock their crafting ability early.
2. Reverse-engineering requires at least three steps: First, build a synthesis bench facility (unlocked by default; any team member or interactable synthesis bench from a Meta can enable this feature). Second, acquire the finished item or building item whose formula you wish to learn. Finally, gather enough chips to initiate reverse-engineering.
3. Once all materials are ready, deposit the finished or building item into the synthesis bench and consume the required chips. After a set duration, the item’s formula will be learned, allowing batch production or construction.
4. Reverse-engineering consumes the deposited item and chips permanently. These items will not be returned, so perform this operation in a safe environment.
5. Note: Not all items can be reverse-engineered. Attempting to reverse-engineer an already learned formula will not grant the item’s formula again but will instead consume the item and chips to yield a small amount of basic materials.
III. Item and Material Adjustments
We have observed that the current offense-defense dynamics in the RaidZone have room for optimization. To ensure Metas can fully enjoy the entire journey from survival construction to strategic confrontation, we have decided to implement a major balance adjustment to the combat system. Our goal is to provide all players with a more profound and rewarding experience.
In this update, we will redesign and standardize the cost ratio between flammable items and player-built structures, optimizing the expenses for territory construction and flammable production. This ensures more players can level up their walls to resist DMG from explosives. Additionally, through the following adjustments, we aim to preserve the core gameplay experience of "base raiding," allowing both attackers and defenders to engage in more strategic gameplay.
1. Added a new item: Sulfur Crystal, smelted from sulfur. The production of flammable items and bullets will now require sulfur crystal instead of sulfur.
2. Removed copper and copper ingot. Recipes that originally required copper ore or copper ingot will now use iron ore and steel ingot.
3. Reduced the amount of ore required to smelt steel ingot and tungsten ingot. Previously, 5 ores were needed to produce 1 ingot. Now, smelting 1 steel ingot requires 2 iron ore, and smelting 1 tungsten ingot requires 1 tungsten.
4. Tungsten ingot is no longer exclusive to the electric furnace and can now also be smelted in a furnace.
5. Removed the following material items: rubber, scraps, detoxident, and adhesive. Added a new material: Waterproof Plastic (a waterproof material widely used in hydraulic engineering gameplay, consumed in structures like rainwater collection systems and water pumps). Waterproof plastic can only be obtained through exploration in the wilderness.
6. Adjusted the stack size of all materials, reducing the quantity players can carry in their backpacks. This limits the number of items attackers can loot, giving defenders more opportunities to protect their bases and preserve resources.
Ⅳ. Adjustments to Crafting and Construction Formulas
Currently, many crafting recipes in the RaidZone are overly complex and require excessive materials—often five or more—significantly increasing the learning and acquisition costs. To address this, we have comprehensively revised all crafting formulas to make them more concise, intuitive, and user-friendly.
This change aims to embody the core spirit of the RaidZone scenario: in an environment where every bush might hide a threat, survival efficiency is paramount. We have eliminated redundant embellishments, allowing item names and crafting formulas to return to the most direct expressions, thereby establishing a clearer and more intuitive material value system. This ensures that every crafting decision made by Metas is precise and efficient.
1. Revised material names and reworked item synthesis formulas to better align with operational intuition, enhance crafting logic, and better fit the realism of apocalyptic survival. For example, "Crystal" has been renamed to "Worn Blade," optimizing its role as a crafting material for items with distinct blade attributes, such as axe and weapon-type tools, logging chainsaws, and gathering pickaxes. "Advanced Crystal Diamond" has been renamed to "Weapon Spring" and is now primarily used for crafting firearm Weapons.
2. Reduced the crafting costs for most equipment items and balanced the difficulty of directly acquiring equipment in the wilderness, shifting the gameplay experience more toward crafting equipment rather than obtaining them directly in the wild.
3. Rocket Launcher has been downgraded to intermediate tech (previously requiring an advanced gear workbench for crafting; now it can be crafted with an intermediate gear workbench). Rocket Launcher warheads have been upgraded to advanced tech (requiring an advanced supplies workbench for crafting). Molotov Cocktail has been downgraded to intermediate tech (requiring an Intermediate supplies workbench for crafting).
4. Adrenaline Shot has been downgraded to intermediate tech (previously requiring an advanced supplies workbench for crafting; now it can be crafted with an intermediate supplies workbench).
Ⅴ. Optimization of Wilderness Gathering Item Distribution
Currently, the three types of ores in the RaidZone not only increase player comprehension burden but also, in practical experience, the positioning of copper ore is easily overlooked by players. In this update, we will focus more on simplifying player comprehension costs and optimizing resource types. This will allow RaidZone newcomers to quickly adapt to the survival gameplay while enabling veterans to find simpler and more efficient resource acquisition routes to achieve their goals.
1. Removed copper ore from the wilderness. Simultaneously, significantly increased the quantity of stone and iron ore while maintaining distinct mineral characteristics across different regions.
2. Optimized some gathering item names in the RaidZone, such as renaming "Realm Crate" to "Supply Crate."
Ⅵ. Optimization of Deployment and Resource Acquisition Methods
1. To optimize the overall resource accumulation pace of the game and encourage players to explore a more balanced variety of survival methods, we have rebalanced the resource rewards obtained from killing basic monsters. This adjustment better reflects their actual value in the post-apocalyptic world, making other survival approaches like exploration and crafting more significant.
2. Removed explosives mix from weapon crate, basic lv. equip crate, intermediate lv. equip crate, advanced lv. equip crate, and echoite signal flare drops.
3. Optimized the crafting costs for all equipment while balancing the drop rates of equipment and weapons in gathering material crates.
The above covers all the updates in this RaidZone optimization preview.Thank you for your understanding and support.
Once Human Development Team