A few weeks ago in the Spring/Summer Newsletter, we announced plans to make some changes to the game based on our research, as well as feedback from you via our new in-game survey. It’s been two weeks since then, and that means we owe you an update!
Below you’ll find a list of our planned changes with some more detail about how we plan to roll these out. We’ve also included some notes on why we think this is a good solution, ways we’ve tried to address your feedback, and most importantly, when we expect to release them. These aren’t all set in stone by any means, so please let rip if you have questions or suggestions!
Making it hurt less to be Hitlisted - estimated release date: August 2017
We’ve heard of lot of concerns about griefing lately, and because hitlisting is the most powerful way for players of very different levels to interact, much of that feedback centers around the list. People don’t like being listed over and over to the point where they can’t do anything but heal and die repeatedly, and according to reports, many decide to stop playing and simply stay dead.
We spent some time looking into whether we should set a lower limit before hitlisting triggers Protection, or increase hitlist price faster the more times you list the same person. However, accounts often have enough income that we would have to make a huge increase to hitlist cost to make a difference. It’s also hard to tell “how much is too much”, because we usually can’t tell if a player stopped playing specifically because of being listed or not.
Since announcing this idea, we also had a number of players write in to tell us that hitlisting is one of their favourite parts of the game, and if we limited it further that’d ruin some of their fun. This is a core concern for us too; we want to see MORE hitlisting in the game, not less. Our theory is if we can make it less painful to be listed, we’ll see people heal and keep playing instead of just staying dead, meaning more targets and more people playing all around.
Our plan is to prevent someone from being listed for a brief period after the last time they were put on the list. This should give them enough time to do some jobs, collect GP or fight bosses without being killed again, so you can get positive XP even while you’re on the list. This limits the ability to chain the same person back to back, but many players have a whole list of potential victims; once you finish listing them, your original target should be ready again.
Unless we hear other suggestions, we’ll start with 60 seconds. It will be adjustable so we can shorten it if it takes too long to get back to the same target, or make it longer if too many people stay dead. Plus, we can always revert this change if we see less targets and less activity overall.
Making Ambushes stronger - estimated release date: Late July / Early August 2017
We’ve heard of lot of concerns about griefing lately, and because the hitlist is the most powerful way for players of very different levels to interact, much of that feedback centers around the list. People don’t like being listed over and over to the point where they can’t do anything but heal and die repeatedly, and according to reports, many decide to stop playing and simply stay dead.
Since announcing this idea, we had a number of players write in to tell us that hitlisting is one of their favourite parts of the game, and if we limited it further that’d ruin some of their fun. This is a core concern for us too; we want to see MORE hitlisting in the game, not less. If we can make it less painful to be listed, we should see more people heal and keep playing instead of just staying dead, meaning more targets and more people playing all around.
Our plan is to prevent someone from being listed for a brief period after the last time they were put on the list. This should give them enough time to do some jobs, collect GP or fight bosses without being killed again, so you can get positive XP even while you’re on the list. This limits the ability to chain the same person back to back, but many players have a whole list of potential victims; once you finish listing them, your original target should be ready again.
More Promotions and Sales for More Players - estimated release date: Already out!
You may have noticed a new countdown timer for FP sales recently. We heard from a lot of players that they wanted more opportunities to get cheap FP, so everyone now has the chance to get some for 50% off every two to four weeks.
We have some plans for different sale packages we want to offer down the road, but our main focus is on game balance and player concerns right now.
Giving higher levels more to do - estimated release date: see below
There’s quite a few things we’re considering to help with this issue. For one thing, we’re happy to report that the recent new Raid Boss drove increased play at higher levels. It’s all very theoretical at this point, but we’re planning to double down on that by changing the format of future raid events to create more fun and flavour; imagine an extra tough boss with improved drops, or weaker bosses that offer more drop chances.
These changes should be easier to implement, but we’ll need to take some time to balance the rewards and ensure they’re fun to play. The new PvP event we mentioned is a pretty big and exciting feature, so we don’t expect that to come out until sometime this Fall. We’ll share details on both of these as soon as we know more about what they might look like.
New achievements on the other hand are a go for sure, and something we’ve heard from a lot of players about. The tough part with these is always determining how to set the difficulty curve, but we know some players have gone a ways ahead of where the next “step” would be if the curve stayed the same. Our first goal is fill in these gaps, which we expect to be done in August. After that, we’ll move on to setting some exciting high-level achievements with special rewards that you can expect to see sometime in September.
Syndicate War Rewards by Division - estimated release date: September 2017
We are super excited about this change, because it has the potential to make Syndicate Wars much more competitive and exciting across all level ranges. Our plan right now is to replace one of the Syndicate War events in September with a new Tiered Reward event, in which the top 20% or so of Syndicates in each Division get a prize instead of just the top 20% overall. Spreading out the winners should allow us to offer better prizes, so if you fight hard and climb up the leaderboard, there’ll be a reward that makes your FP spent on refills worth it.
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Thank you to everyone who sent in their suggestions about these changes! It’s always a pleasure to hear from people who want to help make the game more fun, and we’re glad to be able to share our plans with you.
Keep your eyes peeled for more updates over next few months, and as always you can reach us Monday to Friday at
http://support.kanoapps.com/.
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