May 21, 2015

New Combat Test Server is LIVE!

Upgrade to get a preview of combat system changes and help test!

Alongside the weekly release updates and the other backend projects we're working on, Yorumi made a LOT of progress on the server re-write… in fact, we are ready to start getting YOUR help testing the changes!!

Why we need help testing, and what is different

When we set out to rebuild the server, we decided to change the way stats work in order to make the game more fun. But that means the entire balance of combat has changed - which means we have to rebalance EVERY class in the entire game.

It’s a giant task, but one that we can do with your help! (I know a lot of you have wanted classes rebalanced for a long time. That time for that STARTS now, and will need a lot of testing.) We need to make sure each class is working properly, and that the changes to the stat system have not made any single class too over- or under-powered.

Important information 

• This server is still in testing, and not every feature is included in this build. Whatever you see while testing may - and probably will - change in the final version.
• This is a test of the current combat system using the NEW server. The gameplay will be almost entirely the same, functionally.
• Combat, chatting, joining maps, and equipping items work for this first test. The rest will be added later.
• This is primarily a BALANCE test - we want to see if the changes we’ve made to the existing combat system are working on the new server.
• The server does not currently save character data, so if you equip an item and log out (or change to another server), you will need to re-equip your items.
• You MUST use the correct version of the game to help test. If you are not logging on to the right version, you will not be able to log in to the server.

Once this test is over, anyone who has helped test will get a prize as a way of saying thank you!

How to help test

• Upgrade your account. We’re restricting this test to members so we can start testing under load (to make sure the server can handle the strain) but we want to limit just how many players we throw at it to start.
• Log onto the correct server. You can do this here.
• /join testinghub
• On this map you can choose classes to equip, enhancements, and automatically level any class to rank 10. You can even equip legend and AC classes from the list available, so have fun playing some classes you might not currently have. REMEMBER: THESE WILL NOT STAY ON YOUR ACCOUNT.
• Post your comments and bugs in this thread on the forum or on Facebook.

What to do during the test and how

The purpose of the test is to rebalance combat. There is a lot of work to do, and it won’t be over in one week any probably not even one month. Combat on this new server should feel as close as possible to combat on current live servers. Since some things were added like parry and resist it means it's impossible to get things to be exactly the same, but we want to make sure no classes are “broken.”

Warrior Class test example:

1. Equip Warrior Class, with all fighter enhancements at your current level. and
2. Go fight the Red Dragon in Lair on the test server.
3. Record how long the fight takes you, and what damage you are seeing.
4. Log into a regular server in the normal game with all the same equipment.
5. Go fight the Red Dragon in Lair on a normal server.

Let’s say on current servers you can kill him in 1 minute. If you kill him in 30 seconds on the new server, it means the Class is too powerful and will need some sort of nerf. On the other hand, if the Red Dragon kills you on the test server, then it means the Class is too weak and needs a buff.

Another good test is to equip classes, use them on the regular servers to see how much damage you do, mana regen, buff/debuff amounts, and how much damage you take, then compare those numbers to what you get on the test server.

Good bug reports vs Bad Bug reports

The more specific details you can give the better.

Bad report: “Warrior is too weak”  
A report like this gives Yorumi a place to look but does not tell him HOW WEAK it is.

 Good report: “I was using warrior, level 35, all fighter enhancements. I fought monsters in arcangrove. On live servers I was hitting for 100 and taking hits of 80. On the test server I was hitting for 280, and taking 60 damage hits. Monster HP was higher on the test server but they were much easier to defeat.”
Look at all that information! It will help him determine exactly how weak the class is, and how much to change.

Stat changes

• Parry and Resist were added to the game. Both work the same way, but parry is for physical attacks, and resist is for magical attacks. When you parry or resist an attack you reduce the damage done by an amount based on your parry/resist stat.
• Strength increases physical attack power, the amount of damage reduced by a parry, and for melee classes the amount of extra damage you get from a crit.
• Intelligence increases magical attack power, and reduces damage from a resist instead of a parry.
• Endurance still increases HP like before, but also reduces the incoming damage from all attacks. The higher your endurance the less damage you take from attacks.
• Dexterity and Wisdom are largely the same, except Dex works for melees and Wis for mages. These stats increase dodge, hit chance, haste, and crit chance for their respective classes.
• Dexterity increases parry chance, and Wisdom increases resist chance.
• Wisdom has one more effect - increasing all healing output. The goal here is to make Wis a healing stat.
• Luck has been significantly changed. Luck now has a very small effect on hit chance, dodge, and crit chance for most classes.
• Luck has a major effect on Luck-based classes: Cardclasher, Leprechaun, and a few others. (Luck enhancements are designed to work best this those classes. Mages and Fighters will want to use Strength or Int from here on out.)

Final Thoughts: Combat is different, but different can be GOOD

One final thing to keep in mind, as mentioned with the luck stat, sometimes things will just be different. I'm trying to avoid huge changes to the combat system, but there are also times it's better to just try something that's really broken for one reason or another. So again the goal is to get things as close to live as possible while allowing for some differences.

Report bugs and balancing issues to this forum thread or our Facebook post and I'll be reviewing things and making changes as necessary.