Background
We have been working hard on implementing our plan to merge the combat professions, but we couldn't overcome the feeling that it was rather over-complicated compared to the live game.
Other problems with the original plan included:
- Having 2 different levels (combat + obelisk), meant you regularly had to add the two numbers together to work out your strength relative to a particular foe. We tried various solutions to this, but they all resulted in either important information being hidden, or a confusing quantity of numbers being displayed at once.
- Passive combat foes had to be split between foes which were used to level combat, and foes which were used to level each obelisk. This felt very artificial.
- It didn't 100% solve the feeling of having to 'restart' combat when you enter a new episode, as you only got to carry across your combat level, not your obelisk level.
We just weren't happy with it, so we decided to take a fresh look at the problem. We finally came up with the crucial component we were previously missing (personalized striping!). This was the key to unlocking the straightforward single combat profession which lots of players (including us!) wanted all along. But without running into problems when we add new episodes.
We have already made significant progress in implementing this new plan, and we are hoping to launch it very soon.
For further information on the new plan, read on.
1) There will be single combat profession shared across all episodes
There will be a single global combat profession. There will be no episodical combat professions and no obelisk levels.
The combat profession will initially go up to level 2000, reflecting 500 levels for each of the 4 launched episodes.
- Maxing out your combat will require the same amount of effort as before. I.e. reaching the new combat level 2000 takes the same time as reaching episodical combat 500 in all 4 episodes.
- The combat profession level cap will increase by 500 each time we launch a new episode.
The leveling up is 'striped' across all the launched episodes. You will fight all the skin 1 foes in all episodes, then you will go back to episode 1 to fight the skin 2 foes, etc... This means as you level up your combat profession and complete the main story quest, you will fight foes in each episode in turn.
When we launch a new episode, that episode's combat foes will be inserted into the striping. Inserting the foes like this (rather than just adding them all to the end), ensures new players can experience combat in the new episode without having to reach combat level 2000 first.
To help explain this, here is an example of how the striping would work. If only episodes 1 and 2 were launched, the striping would look like this:
If we then launched episode 3, the striping would be updated to look like this. As you can see the episode 3 foes have been inserted into the striping, which will mean the level of all skin 2+ foes in episodes 1 and 2 will increase.
Personalized striping
This insertion of foes when we launch a new episode, would cause two undesired effects:
- There may be some foes in the new episode which you have surpassed in combat level already, meaning you would never get to fight them.
- There may be some foes in existing episodes that you previously surpassed in combat level, that you would now have to fight again (due to their level increasing).
To resolve this, we will personalize the striping based on your combat level at the time the episode is launched, as follows:
- No new foes will be inserted at a level the player has already surpassed. They will instead be inserted such that their combat level is just ahead of the player's combat level.
- No foe you have already surpassed will change in level, so you do not need to fight it again.
This plan ensures that every player, whatever their combat level, gets to experience all the foes in the new episode, and does not have to revisit foes they have previously surpassed.
Using the same scenario as above, where only episodes 1 and 2 are launched, and you have surpassed all the skin 1 and skin 2 foes of episodes 1 and 2 (as indicated by the dashed line). Here is what the striping looks like BEFORE episode 3 is launched:
AFTER episode 3 is launched, the striping would be updated to look like this. As you can see the skin 1 and skin 2 foes (those before the dashed line) remain unchanged. The skin 1 foes from episode 3 have instead been inserted immediately after the dashed line.
Quest boss foes
The level of a boss foe will always be a fixed number of levels above the weakest foe in the same episode. The exact number of levels will depend on the difficulty of the boss. Because the level of the weakest foe in the episode is personalized, this means the boss foe levels are also personalized. This ensures that when a new episode is launched, the level of all new boss foes in that episode will always be an appropriate amount ahead of your level.
Free players
We will also personalize the striping based on if you have an active premium pass or not.
If you do not have a premium pass, the striping will only include episode 1 and 2, meaning it will look exactly like the first example above.
When you first purchase a premium pass, we will insert all the premium pass episodes, using the same mechanism as when we launch new episodes. The same personalized striping will be used to ensure no premium foes are missed and no free foes are revisited.
When your premium pass expires, we revert to the free player stripping described above, but we will also remember your premium pass striping. If you renew your premium pass, we will revert to that stored premium pass striping.
The combat level cap if you do not have an active premium pass will be 1000, as you only have access to 2 episodes. If you are over level 1000 when your premium pass expires, you will be unable to level up combat further until you purchase a new premium pass.
The combat level cap if you have not chosen a faction will remain at 50.
Weapons and armor
Weapons and armor can now be used across all episodes. They no longer need to be tuned to an episode. Rare weapons and armor can still be infused together to create epics.
Foes will drop weapons and armor up to their level (as they do now).
Weapon crafting
When crafting weapons in the Mine of Mantuban, the maximum level of weapon you can craft is 'crafting level x5'. This means the maximum theoretical weapon you can craft is level 2500. You will therefore be able to craft weapons suitable for all of episodes 1 to 5 using the weapon crafting professions in the Mine of Mantuban. We have a plan for how you will craft weapons suitable for episodes 6 and beyond, which will be revealed when we launch episode 6. This plan will NOT devalue your Mine of Mantuban crafting professions.
The price of crafted weapons will need to be rebalanced, so that despite the new x5 multiplier, the wealth gain at each level of crafting remains the same as currently. However, we also need to make sure the wealth gain at each level of combat remains the same as currently. To achieve this, crafted weapons will have a different cash value than combat dropped weapons of the same level. Crafted weapons will be indicated by a new icon so you can distinguish them when trading.
Obelisks
Obelisks will no longer be used for tuning, or for infusing. Instead obelisks will now be used to enchant profession equipment. You may take profession equipment to the obelisk in the matching episode to enchant it. The 'Obelisk' quest will be very slightly modified to introduce enchanting instead of tuning.
The Enchantress will relocate to the Mine of Manutuban and become the Infusionist. The 'Lost and Found' quest will be very slightly modified, so you have to help the Infusionist (instead of Dabble) to unlock infusing.
Crime den raids
The foes in crime den raids can no longer just match the detective level of the crime den itself, as they would be very under-leveled compared to your combat level by the time you reach episode 4.
To solve this: The level of a foe in a crime den will be set to the level of the crime den, plus the level of the weakest foe in episode 4.
Because the level of the weakest foe in episode 4 is personalized, the crime den foes will also be personalized.
Potion reagents
Currently, most foes in the Mine of Mantuban drop potion reagents, with higher level foes dropping higher level reagents. This is the only way of obtaining those reagents (outside of purchasing them). However, with the foes being striped across episodes, the skin 2+ foes become much higher level than currently, and become even higher each time we launch a new episode. This would in turn make it much harder to obtain the higher level reagents than it is currently.
To avoid this we will:
- Make it so all combat dropped potion reagents can be gained from skin 1+ foes. (i.e. none of them are exclusive to skin 2+ foes.)
- This means for some of the reagents, we will need to change which foe drops the reagent. Those reagents will be re-themed to match the new foe which drops them.
Leather offcuts
Some foes in episode 4 drop leather offcuts, which has the same problem as potion reagents.
To solve this, we will:
- Change brown leather offcuts to be dropped by skin 1+ foes (i.e. none of them are exclusive to skin 2+ foes.) This means they will need to be dropped by 4 different foes.
- Change black leather offcuts to be obtained from merchanting, like many of the existing leather offcuts. This will involve some slight adjustments to the level of some of the passive merchanting activities.
Capes
The graphics drawn for the episodical combat capes will be reused for new 'episode capes'. An episode cape can be unlocked by reaching a certain level in EVERY profession in that episode. For example, to obtain the level 50 Hopeport cape you will need to reach level 50 in every profession in Hopeport.
We will create new combat capes. Each combat cape will be unlocked by reaching a certain combat level.
There will initially be combat capes at combat levels: 50, 100, 200, 500, 625, 750, 875, 1000, 1125, 1250, 1375, 1500, 1625, 1750, 1875 and 2000.
2. Save game conversion
Combat level
Your new global combat level will be calculated by taking into account how much time it takes (on average) to reach the level you have achieved in each of the episodical combat professions. We cannot make it just the total of all your episodical combat professions, as that would not be fair to all players, because some levels take longer to get than others.
This means your total level will change when we launch the update, but we think this is fairer than ignoring the difficulty of the levels.
Your combat level will not contribute to any episode level (as it does not belong to any specific episode). Your episode levels will therefore go down accordingly.
Leaderboards
Once combat is combined, there will only be a single combat leaderboard.
We will preserve the existing episodical combat leaderboards as 'legacy leaderboards', which never change going forward. These will become a little bit of Brighter Shores history.
The episode level leaderboards will be updated using your new updated episode levels. Rest assured that if you had previously reached the maximum episode level, you will still be at the new maximum episode level, and you will still retain your top ranking.
Old episodical combat capes
Old episodical combat capes will be refunded at the original purchase price, so you can choose to use the money to either buy an episode cape, or a new combat cape.
Weapons and armor
Existing weapon/armor levels will be scaled up to match the new combat level scale using the following equation: new_weapon_level = old_weapon_level + (new_combined_combat_level - the_highest_of_your_previous_episodical_combat_levels)
This means your 'best' equipment which is at or near your combat level, will remain at or near your new combined combat level.
Weapons and armor which were previously tuned will become 'combat dropped' items. Weapon and armor which were previously untuned will become 'crafted' items.
3. Combat Rework Phase 2 - Upgrade trees
The 'upgrade tree' phase of the combat rework, is largely unchanged from our previous blog post, and is still planned.
We will launch the 1st phase of the combat rework (a single combined combat profession) first, before starting work on the 2nd phase (upgrade trees).
