Dear Robocraft Community,
We have decided to remove Loot Crates/Boxes from ALL forms of Robocraft in response to persistent feedback from the community disliking their RNG nature of progression and P2W feeling.
We are seeking feedback from the Robocraft community on these changes and we’re ready to change the plans if you hate them, so please take some time to leave feedback on them on the forums and various community spaces.
TL:DR
- We’re removing crates 100%
- We’re adding back a Tech Tree and Tech Points
- We’re adding back Tiers, but just 3 of them
- We’re removing Boosts
- We’re rewarding Robits based on performance in battle
- We’re adding Daily Quests in place of Daily Crates
- We’re adding a Cosmetic Credits currency so you can buy cosmetics that you want
- We are removing all ways of buying parts with real money (aside from cosmetics)
- We’re keeping Premium as the only way to speed up progress, but reducing this to +25% (existing Premium users will keep +100%, all other Premium benefits will remain)
- We’re planning to add a Skill Tree for vets
- None of this is set in stone as we want to get community feedback first
- It won’t all be implemented together at once (as it will take a while), we will implement it and release it in steps so you get the changes faster
Robits Rewards
The focus is to give a performance based predictable reward and remove all RNG and Crates from the rewards equation:
- Remove all crates from the game and replace them with Robits and XP rewards based on players performance in battle
- The End of Battle rewards screen will give you XP AND Robits
- Since XP is proportional to ‘score’ in battle (i.e. performance), we will relate Robits rewards to XP (so Robits will be based on performance also)
- You will use Robits earned in battle to Forge whichever parts you want, but you will need to ‘unlock’ them first via the Tech Tree (see below)
- Premium users will get +25% extra Robits and XP (existing Premium and P4L users will retain +100%)
Daily Quests
Rather than logging in each day to open your crate we will reward you for completing daily quests:
- Currently we award a Daily Crate for logging in each day
- We will replace this with a Daily Quests system
- Each day you will receive a new Quest (e.g. get 5 kills with Ion or Tesla) and on completing that quest you will receive a chunk of XP and Robits
- We will aim to add interesting Quests that encourage play in all game modes and utilising different Robot builds, this will reward versatile players and encourage diversity
- You will be able to ‘re-roll’ one quest per day so that if you get a quest you do not like you can to turn it into another one
- Quests will be selected randomly from a pool of quests that we can grow over time. We’d be happy to receive feedback from the community on what you think may be good quests to add once the system is up and running
- Premium users will get +25% Robits and XP rewards from Quests also (existing Premium and P4L users will retain +100%)
Tech Tree
With no crates we’re going to need to an alternative progression system. One that does not involve RNG and provides greater choice and a clear progression path.
- Some of you will remember the old Hex Tree, here’s an old screenshot:
- We will be bringing back the Tech Tree with a new layout that will offer choices as you progress to unlock all the parts, similar to the very early Tech Tree layouts (not the spiral one)
- We will be bringing back Tech Points
- Each time you Level Up you will earn 1 x Tech Point
- Since Premium users get +25% XP they will level up faster (existing Premium and P4L users will get +100%)
- Each part on the Tech Tree will have a Tech Point cost to unlock (normally 1, but might be more for Epics and Legendaries)
- Epic and Legendary parts will be on the outer edges of the Tech Tree so will take longer to acquire
- Cosmetic Skins (like Carbon 6 weapons or Thrusters) will automatically unlock when their ‘parent’ part is unlocked via the Tech Tree, so you will NOT be able to ‘buy’ any form of functional weapon or part until you have earned it in the normal way by playing
- All parts you already own will be unlocked on the Tech Tree already when this feature is released, so you will not need to unlock them all again
- Players will start with lower CPU and unlock extra CPU on the Tech Tree up to max 2,000, existing players will have all CPU already unlocked to prevent locking out any Robots you already have
- Level progression will be flattened, so the rate of getting new levels will be the same regardless of if you are level 20 or level 5000, this is so that new tech points are acquired are at the same rate always (this is important for the Skill Tree see below)
Tiers Coming Back
Then we need to find a way to protect new users from feeling like they are being seal clubbed, particularly by high CPU Robots with Epic and Legendary parts on:
- We want to keep queue times short so we going for 3 x Tiers
- Tier 1 will be <1000 CPU, No Epic and Legendary parts allowed, Skills disabled
- Tier 2 will be <1500 CPU, No Legendary parts allowed, Skills enabled
- Tier 3 will be Max CPU, all parts allowed, skills enabled, League rank and badges apply
BA, Elimination and TDM
We want to keep the variety of games modes we have, whilst having tiers; so here is an idea of how to do this and keep low queue times at the same time:
- All Tiers will feature all 3 modes, BA, Elimination and TDM
- When you join the queue, the Lobby will cycle between BA, Elimination and TDM which will allow all game modes to stay in all tiers and keep queue times low, the lobby will choose the game mode and you’ll see the mode that’s been chosen on the loading screen as the level loads
- Opting in to all three game modes will give you shortest queue times (a bit like in Rocket League) But, if there are game modes you hate playing you will be able to ‘opt out’ via a simple game mode options menu so you only get game modes you like playing, but may see longer queue times when you do this
- Initially In Tier 3, TDM and BA will be ‘Ranked’ and affect MMR/League, whereas Elimination will not affect rank. Later we may make changes to Elimination (such as 3 rounds) so that it can feature as part of the ranked setup
- One thing this system will allow is different game mode setups as well, for example we could have BA with Cap Points sometimes and BA with Crystal Towers on other times. We could have Auto-heal on sometimes and off on others, with the rules displayed on the loading screen each time, so more variety whilst still retaining 3 tiers and short queue times, Pit scoring in TDM, and other random things like it
Removing Boosts
With the re-introduction of Tiers and the Tech Tree we like to simplify things and remove the Boosts. Here’s how it would work, let us know your thoughts:
- We could remove the Damage Boost and Health Boost system
- We could keep the Speed Boost system but reflect this as a simple ‘Top Speed’ stat, rather than a ‘Base Speed’ and ‘Speed Boost’, this is so that ‘more Thrusters = more Speed’ which is what most users expect
- We could remove the extra weapons in each rarity (i.e. Wasp and Hornet are both Uncommon and aren’t that different, so we’d remove one of them, same for Plasma and same for other parts, moving towards 1 per Rarity as in Infinity)
- Weapons could be re-balanced so that lower rarities would tend to be ‘lower energy consumption’ and ‘faster fire-rates’ but ‘lower damage’, so smaller weapons would still be useful in various ways even in Tier 3
- We’d need to do a bunch of other balance changes to make the above work out OK also, but haven’t figured out that detail yet (Health and Light blocks for example)
Remove purchasable Protonium Crates
We obviously need to remove crates you can buy in the store and tweak some other monetisation and reward systems:
- We will remove purchasable Crates from the Store so you will no longer be able to buy crates
- We will keep Premium which will retain extra colors, 3x recycle rates, and custom avatars
- We will reduce the bonus that you get for XP and Robits with Premium to +25%
- Existing Premium users and Premium for Life users will keep the +100% benefits
- We will remove ALL ways of buying cubes directly with money (e.g. currently you can purchase crates and we will not be providing an alternative way) so there will not be a way of Forging non-cosmetic cubes with currency that is purchased (like the old Galaxy Cash allowed). You will need Robits to Forge all functional parts
- We will add a new Cosmetic Credits currency which users will be able to buy in bundles
- All cosmetics will need to be Forged with Cosmetic Credits (focusing more on monetising cosmetics and less on monetising progress)
- Cosmetic skins (like Weapons and Movement parts) will need to be Forged with a combination of Robits and Cosmetic credits - so you will not be able to pay money to get them faster
- We will be changing the Robits costs of parts in the Forge, largely to make grinding for Legendaries more reasonable. Our current thinking is that 10 average battles for a Legendary weapon (5 for Premium) feels fair. Let us know what you think of this.
Skills
Then we need to add something for the vets, who have already unlocked all the parts and have a million of each in their inventory:
- For those users who have already unlocked all of the parts we want to add a Skill Tree
- This is still being designed so could change. We’re just floating an idea out there at this stage
- Essentially Tech Points (TP) will be able to be spent on ‘Skills’
- Current ideas for skills are things that affect you globally, i.e. % reduction in respawn time, or % reduction in auto-heal cooldown, or % improvement in weapon energy and many like it
- These % will be small and incremental, but noticeable for good players, so more of an ‘end game’ progression than a new user thing
- You will not be able to level up all skills and max the tree, there will be a limit to how many TP you can spend on a single tree, so you have to make choices
- You will be able to change your choice by deleting a skill but you will lose that TP and will need to earn it again
- You will be able to create multiple skill trees and name them
- You will be able to assign a skill tree to each Robot in your Garage so can have custom ones per Robot, or groups of Robots that share a tree
Anyway, sorry for the really long blog post with tons of text, but I assumed you’d want as much info as I could provide.
I really want to emphasize this isn’t set in stone; we really want to get your feedback on these ideas and we’re ready to make changes to these plans if you hate them or if there are any major issues with some of them.
We have created a forum post for you to leave your feedback on, and if you want, you can reach out to us directly via our social media channels over on Facebook and Twitter.
Best regards
Mark, CEO, Freejam