Ladies and Gentlemen of Sarnaut,
Since the launch of Volume 1: The Revelations of Gipat, we have been listening to the concerns raised by part of the community about some of the changes brought to you with the latest update of Allods Online.
We have been diligently collecting your feedback on Volume 1: Revelations of Gipat and shared the feelings of the European community with the developers of the game.
We have gathered below some of the major concerns, though there are of course other topics of discussion and debate, and you will find the developer’s responses to those specific topics below. Meanwhile we are working very closely with Astrum Nival in order to see if we can better adjust the game to the Western market.
Leveling
Community Feedback: The damage of classes was nerfed to such a degree that it is impossible to play without the use of incense after level 25 for most archetypes. European players are concerned because there are no ways for low/mid level players to purchase incense at the auction house. High prices in the Boutique lead to high prices in gold, hence providing as the only solutions either players quitting the game or buying from the Boutique. The only alternative way to gain incense in game for free comes from a beginner’s quest.
Also, there is no alternative way to gain death insurance (Phylactery of Passage) or Parchments of Purification for free in game.
Astrum Nival Response: The in-game economy on the European servers is not forming and progressing as quickly as it should, but it is definitely on the right track despite appearances. A lot of new monetization and game mechanic changes came along with this new update, which took the economy to an unstable phase, which could remain till we have balanced supply and demand, and normalized currency exchange (gold to gPotato).
We believe that this matter is the most important issue for the game. Though players might find a lot of other important aspects that we are definitely taking into account, we believe that this aspect is the most important and we are working hard to stabilise the in-game economy. Our activities aim to make Boutique items available for every player, including those who have no possibility of acquiring them in the Boutique.
According to our extensive experience publishing v1.1.0 and future Allods Online versions (we are at v1.1.2 in Russia) we understand the needs for players at every level, so we are researching a way to provide low-level players with some facilities to get the free patronage along with some actions performed. We have to research it with a 3D view, as we take into account the opinion of the players worldwide. It is our work to find a balance here, and we will design something interesting to suit the Western players, and we will inform gPotato.eu as soon as we find the right path to take.
We are going to change the no-trade status for some backpacks and deposit boxes which will make these items available for a wider range of players. We also would be happy to provide players with more comfortable, larger bags, and the work on this has already started.
Note from gPotato.eu: the cost of some of the key items, including incense, has been lowered in the Allods Boutique, you can see the full list of cost changes at the end of this message. Moreover, we are working on events that could have incense as rewards.
Community Feedback: The experience requirements seem to have no relation to the available quests after level 20-25. This also includes the new Gipat zone to level from 40 to 42. Grinding becomes more necessary to progress in the end game.
Astrum Nival Response: We have designed these changes of experience growth per level because we wanted to extend the playtime on the threshold of Gipat zone. We do believe that we have found the right balance between grinding, questing and the instances.
We are still gathering more information on this subject and the effect it has for Western players so that we can better understand the situation and address it efficiently.
Community Feedback: Reputation quests cannot be completed in groups anymore.
Astrum Nival Respnse: Players in previous versions found a way of unbalancing the way reputation was supposed to be obtained and accompany the player in his progression. That way, players were also gaining too much gold which unbalanced the game economy. We had to take actions on this.
Community Feedback: The archetypes seem unbalanced.
Astrum Nival Response: Fine tuning class balance and archetype balance is an on-going work that is polished in each version in order to reach the best balance possible. There will be more fine tuning in the upcoming version of the game for a better balancing of the classes. It is a natural evolution in any MMORPG.
Equipment
Community Feedback: Players in Europe are pointing out that equipment attributes have been drastically lowered on many items?
Astrum Nival Response: In Volume 1: Revelations of Gipat, crafted items have been fine tuned. Statistics were unbalanced in version 6 and, as a result, some classes were receiving more useful items than others. We did not lower the stats, we normalised them, it is part of the fine tuning and balancing of the game.
Some players have noticed that some of their items became less effective but some others gained the ability to craft useful items for theirs class. This serious unbalance from version 6 is addressed in Volume 1.
Community Feedback: European players are pointing out that daily chests containing a blue (or better item) seems to always contain cursed items.
Astrum Nival Response: In version 6, the quantity of chests available was limited, too limited.
The mechanic in Volume 1 has changed, players now have access to a lot more chests and more items, and cursed items were also added in those. So we do believe that the situation on this matter is way better in general.
We want to confirm you that locked chests which can only be opened with the lock pick keys, acquired at the Allods Boutique will never contain any cursed item.
Astral
Community Feedback: Astral monsters in the first sectors deal damage through shields and may destroy beginner-ships in 4-5 hits, is this normal?
Astrum Nival Response: Such angry demons can appear in the first sectors of the Astral only if it is in the sector right between the League and the Empire. It was designed and changed that way in Volume 1 to make PvP on these areas more difficult to access.
We need to avoid having players traveling directly from the League home sector to the Empire home sector right after leaving their hangar. In further versions of the game, we have developed more PvP oriented mechanics without such limitation. But the other first sectors of the Astral should be absolutely normal for traveling.
On the other hand, we have made some changes for the astral mobs, thus in this version they can seriously damage Astral ships. That causes a negative reaction from those who have already become accustomed to smooth attacks in version 6. We have made these changes to limit the astral loot and make the astral journey more dangerous and fun.
In the next versions we have tuned this again to normalize the balance in the Astral. We think that it’s a good idea to smooth the Astral mobs for the European players to make the existed changes painless and we are working on it.
Community Feedback: Some Astral island mechanics have been tweaked in a way where it is impossible to kill boss monsters on most islands for high end raid guilds at level 40.
Astrum Nival Response: The Astral island mechanics were designed in a way that players now have to find the unique abilities of the boss mobs.
Each boss now has its special abilities and with it, he could defeat a whole group in 1 to 3 hits. Moreover, those Astral bosses on allods were designed for advanced and skilled groups of high level players. We recommend players to have a level 4 patronage to go on allods.
Community Feedback: There are apparently fewer allods than before and many more astral monsters. What is going on?
Astrum Nival Response: In Volume 1: Revelations of Gipat, we have changed the aggro algorithm for monsters that were appearing next to Astral objects, thus increasing the chances of them attacking players right after departing from the isle. This also increased the risks of having those mobs attacking players right after entering the sector. We have not decreased the quantity of allods nor increased the quantity of mobs. This feeling can partly be explained with this new algorithm.
The quantity of allods depends on each ship traveling in astral (this is true in Volume 1).
But in the following version of the game, the game mechanics of allods appearance within a sector is modified with a unique set of isles generated for specific ship, regardless of other players in the sector. In this upcoming version, we made channels for Astral journeys. There you can only see the isles in your channel. It is also impossible to land on isles situated in the other channels.
We find these changes sensible and wise according to our general conception. We also find it possible to make some modifications here to get more islands in general. We believe players would love the increased number of islands, so we are working on it now.
Boutique
Community Feedback: All Boutique items were removed from the game loot table, how come?
Astrum Nival Response: It is true. As a counterpart, a lot of the loot is more easily convertible into gold.
It was designed this way to better suit the in-game economy. Let us expand on this topic a bit more:
Players used to spend a lot of time on looting a Boutique item. We had a really pure supply of them in the auction house, which had a negative influence on the in-game economy, it deeply affected the “exchange rates” of gold to gPotato, and we had to solve this problem. We decided to make players farm other loot, which would be easily convertible into gold, which is easily convertible to Boutique items at the auction house or via direct trade deals with other players.
Community Feedback: The expiry timer on Boutique items that have it is way too low. How come?
Astrum Nival Response: In the versions we have been publishing in Russia these changes are already done, and some of the items have 30 days duration. We are working on the same solution for European version and we will inform gPotato.eu as we will be ready for those changes to go live.
~~~~~
As we already mentioned earlier in the week, Volume 1 is one brick of many, it is a step that is required for the further evolution of the game, and the core mechanism of the game will not change in the near future. However, Astrum Nival will be working on some additional changes and updates for the European version. As you may have read above this include, amongst others, Astral layout evolutions, the friend list bugs and many others.
Moreover, Astrum Nival and Gala Networks Europe Ltd. are working closely in order to see if we can better adjust the game to the Western market.
On a separate note, we are aware that at high level and especially in the Astral, the game is not as enjoyable as you are used to experiencing it. As Astrum Nival mentions, they are working on some additional changes which could better suit European players to be implemented into our Volume 1, so that we do not have to wait for further versions to be implemented in Europe.
Meanwhile, we are also doing our best to launch the upcoming versions of Allods Online in the coming months. We will provide you with more information and details over the coming weeks. And especially the upcoming release notes so that you can have a clear overview of what to expect, or at least relevant extracts of those.
I will be going to Moscow in early August, this trip was planned and is not linked to the situation, but I do know that we will talk about Volume 1. I will be gathering information on the further evolution of the game on a longer scale. This will enable us to have a broader vision and to be able to address up front anything related to Allods Online and to communicate more efficiently with you.
I would like to take this opportunity to inform you that we are permanently reducing the value of some items in the Boutique on the following items:
The 24 hours incense is reduced from 30 gP to 20 gP
The 21 day incense is reduced from 350 gP to 260 gP
The dragon hide backpack is reduced from 850 gP to 500 gP
The rough dragon hide backpack is reduced from 250 gP to 150 gP
The small deposit box is reduced from 750 gP to 150 gP
The kit of Alchemical Absorbents is reduced from 100 gP to 50 gP
The kit of Disassembling Instructions is reduced from 100 gP to 50 gP
The kit of Equipment Refiners is reduced from 100 gP to 50 gP
The kit of Flora Distorters is reduced from 100 gP to 50 gP
The kit of Mysterious Metal Shards is reduced from 100 gP to 50 gP
We hope that you will continue to enjoy playing Allods Online with its new mechanics. Much more balancing, fine tuning, and polishing will be implemented shortly for all of our enjoyment.
Your Allods Online Producer,
Vince
If it's really like EU says that everything is nerfed by 250% then, BB Allods, hello InfiniteAION until FW comes out.
there was another ad like that but it said "Come play with me" with those 2 half nude elves, like those Evony commercials.
