Just sending this out, so that everyone is up to date on the latest news from Jasson!
Hello! I am here again for another status update and some juicy info about the next version update. We're still a few weeks away from release but it will definitely be worth the wait. I'm also sure some of you are wondering why it is taking so long so...
Why is it taking so long?
In short, Kelley and I (Jasson) started traveling and working. There was some overhead to starting this but the biggest factor has been me transitioning from a solid obsessive work schedule to a more flexible one. Aaron and Bryant have been working on Crea fulltime but even they have moved during this update's development and were also affected by the holidays. Originally we planned a nice chunk of content to release but, as mentioned in the last status update, we decided to grow it some to give players something new to give feedback on.
Ok, what does this update have then?
There are so many new changes going into this update. Nearly two updates rolled into one! Here's a quick look into what's going into it and I'll go in-depth a little bit in each one of these as we approach the release.
Complete rebalance
New boss
New ore and equipment tier (50 new weapons and armor)
Full controller support
Revamped Arms skills
Recipe sets
Purifier to ward off monsters
Elemental Weapons
What is this complete rebalance?
In the last major update we completely changed how monsters level up; from automatic to level ranges based on location. This directly affected the pace of the game but we did not have time to address that. Because of this and also player feedback we're making many changes to nearly everything combat stat related.
The character level is being increased to 50! (not talents) This change includes a wave of related changes such as characters will now level up faster.
Stats are also receiving a major change. We've heard many players bring up how the incremental changes to stats via equipment upgrades and level ups did not feel very substantial. This was mainly caused by stats starting at 100 and increasing by 2 or 3 at a time. Now stats start much much lower, right now most stats start at 5. We're also looking at introducing stat customization earlier on.
Along with these changes we've made equipment have a much more important role. Getting to the next equipment tier will be cause for celebration. Even if you don't join, your stats will be having a party.
These are quite substantial updates and will likely require much micro-balancing after we've released this update. We will be looking for your feedback!
Wrapping things up
I just wanted to say thank you for everyone's patience on this update. I'll be replaying to this post with more details on the remaining major changes for this update. They'll be spread out a bit to start and increase with frequency closer to release. Thanks everyone!