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DEVELOPER'S BLOG
Now In Development: Skill Balance, Summon AI, Armor, PvP, Boss Cards!
Greetings, Saviors! Today, we at the dev team are presenting a few of the plans we have for combat rebalancing after the last big combat system changes. The features we’ll talk about here are still in development, so keep in mind that they could look a little different when they make it into the actual game. That said, let’s get on with the plans. There are five main aspects we want to focus on for the next combat rebalancing changes: 1) Improving the usability and balance of skills 2) Improving summon AI 3) Increasing armor stats and readjusting PvP calculations 4) Introducing two-handed blunt weapons 5) Reviewing the boss card system Improving the usability and balance of skills When it comes to improving the usability of skills and the PvP environment, we want to start by increasing the scope of close-range attack skills. We’re widening a total of 37 skills, increasing their lateral range by 10% to 20% in some cases, and as much as 50% to 70% in others. Buff skills are also getting rebalanced. First, for buffs that can be maintained with no interruption, we’ve decided to change their duration to 300 seconds (5 minutes), to eliminate the need to refresh them every other 40 seconds or 1 minute. The cooldown time and SP consumption of these skills will remain the same; this change simply provides a way to use them more conveniently. We’re also increasing by around 2 times the range of buff skills that were too narrow to comfortably apply in party situations. Next, we’re preparing to readjust the performance of individual classes. Now, there are a lot of classes and skills involved in this, and most of what we have planned is still being tested, so please understand that it is impossible for us to reveal every single change at this point. What follows are just a few balance modifications we have prepared. Using the Cataphract’s Rush in combination with the Lancer’s Initiate buff will increase damage. Achieving a well-aimed shot with the Dragoon’s attribute-enhanced Serpentine will increase the Hoplite’s Pierce damage, and using a spear over long distances will no longer require you to retrieve it in order to throw it again. Schwarzer Reiters are getting a damage factor increase on the skills Retreat Shot and Wild Shot, with the latter also seeing a reduction in charging time. Meanwhile, the movement speed penalty of Evasive Action will no longer apply. To Hackapells, who despite being in the Archer tree are better suited for close-range combat, we’re adding a Cavalry Charge attribute that significantly increases defense when attacking the enemy. We also allowing the Rogue’s Lachrymator, Feint and Vendetta skills to be used while mounted on a Companion, so your character can go back to using close-range Hackapell skills in no time. Musketeers, who are required to use a new sub-weapon as they reach the higher Rank, will be able to use the Archer’s Oblique Shot. Improving summon AI Our main goal here is to make “lazy” summons more active and precise. After boosting up summon attack values and movement speed, we want to make them target enemies more accurately and immediately, while avoiding things like Tree Root Crystals or Dirty Poles. We have a long way to go when it comes to improving summon AI, so we’re starting with the most basic and urgent aspects of it. The attack and movement speed changes we prepared for summon AI are going to have a big impact on summon performance; anyone familiar with summons will feel the difference immediately once the patch is applied. Because of this – and in consideration of PvP balance – we decided to cut down 20% to 70% of summon HP and give them a different duration (life span). Necromancers in particular are getting an improved Gather Corpse method and an easier way to summon their skeletons. Zombies, which aren’t as easy to come by for Bokors, get a little more HP, while Shoggoths and other Summoning skill bosses (which can be summoned less frequently) will go through only a slight HP reduction. Increasing armor stats and readjusting PvP calculations We expect the next balance changes to affect PvP more visibly than PvE. Sadly, the current PvP environment in Tree of Savior allows for some very “meta” builds capable of finishing an opponent in only a couple of hits. One of the reasons for this is that, given the little payoff you get from investing in your armor, most players choose to invest in their weapons instead, where you get a more significant increase in attack or damage from the amount of currency spent. With its attack stats (critical), leather sets already seem to enjoy a pretty good degree of performance which makes them popular among players. The same can’t be said about the damage-reducing abilities of plate (physical) and cloth (magic), so our plan is to visibly increase the physical/magic defense stats on these types of armor. Along with the higher defense, plate and cloth are also getting a bigger stat increase out of transcendence and anvil enhancement, which will increase both physical and magic defense. You will still need to invest plenty of your time and currency on collecting, enhancing and transcending rare armor sets, but what you do spend will become a lot more worthwhile. Another thing we’re doing is testing a factor that applies 20-30% of damage in PvP which, if successful, will make it even harder for players to defeat an opponent in only a couple of hits (given that they invested in armor). Before (Defense 2000) After (Defense 3500) Attack 5000 PvP factor not applied PvP (factor 50%) PvP factor not applied PvP (factor 50%) 100% factor 2,579 1,290 1,881 470 800% factor 20,635 10,318 15,050 3,762 2500% factor 64,486 32,243 47,030 11,758 (This PvP damage factor may be changed even after this patch is applied.) If we consider that the HP of a character in level 330 can be anywhere from around 20,000 to 80,000 (Swordsman, high STR), with basic defense and a PvP factor of 50%, any common skill with an 800% attack factor can deal over 10,000 of damage in a single hit, enough to wipe half the HP of a Wizard or Archer character with no STR investment. After the defense and PvP factor patches are applied, finishing an opponent in one blow becomes less feasible even with a strong 2500% attack factor (that is, as long as the opponent has invested at least a little in defense). A Swordsman character with generous upgrades to all their armor pieces and high STR, on the other hand, can boast impressive levels of resilience not only in 3:3 TBL matches (an update talked about in a previous post) but also against multiple enemies in GvG. Still on the subject of TBL and PvP-specific factors, we’re preparing to introduce a special type of costume for the top-ranked Team Battle League winners of each season that will reduce their amount of damage received in PvP by a small percentage. We expect to release these costumes along with the renewed TBL point shop we talked about in our latest interview post. Finally, in this defense patch we want to include an Earth Tower armor exchange system that will allow you to trade your Earth Tower gear for another type of armor while maintaining all of the original’s enhancement, transcendence, potential, gems, awakening and socket setup. There will be no limits to the number of exchanges you can make. This process will require a few Earth Tower items to complete, but after this update is brought to the game we’re planning to open an event period where players are exempt from the item fee, so you can easily get your Legend equipment in the type of armor that best suits your character. Introducing two-handed blunt weapons We’re developing new two-handed blunt weapons for physical attack Clerics. These weapons will look similar to existing one-handed blunt weapons, only larger and with different colors. In the beginning, we want to make them equippable by Paladins and Monks, both classes requiring a Circle 3 attribute for it. Two-handed blunt weapons have stronger attack stats than their one-handed counterparts and require at least level 120 to equip. Our plan is to add a total of 11 of these weapons: from the Hunting Grounds unidentified series, Lolopanther and Solmiki series, and level 315 Rare and Unique sets. In the future, as two-handed blunt weapons become their own type of weapon in the game, we expect to broaden the spectrum of classes allowed to use them. Reviewing the boss card system From the current boss card system, in which you can equip a maximum of 8 cards (at Rank 8), we want to change to one where players can equip as much as 12 cards distributed over 4 types (3 cards for each type), regardless of Rank. In the current system, if you have one or two cards with significantly high performance, those cards end up being the only ones equipped while the rest becomes simple fodder for EXP. With the new system, you can choose to equip different cards of all types according to the characteristics of your character. We still don’t have an official name for each type of card, but they consist of 4 groups distinguished by the color of their slot border. The golden locked slot in the middle is for a fifth type of card we plan to introduce in a future update. Along with the revamped card equip system, we want to add 5 new boss cards to match the updated game contents and readjust the effects of some cards that currently perform lower on the scale. When we do apply the boss card patch, all cards will be automatically unequipped with no level (★) penalty, but we’ll talk more about this before it’s applied to the game. As mentioned in the beginning of this post, all of the contents discussed here are still in development and we don’t expect them to be introduced right away, as they’ll first need to go through additional testing in our test server before being applied to kTOS. We’ll work hard to bring you other updates previously talked about here at the dev blog meanwhile. Also, in our next post we’re going to discuss the changes currently being developed for Pardoner shops and the guild system, so stay tuned!
Encyclopedia of Masters Chapter. 2
The Encyclopedia part two also provides the info about Fencer, Necromnacer, Druid, and Sapper Master
Encyclopedia of Masters Chapter.1
Time to meet the Class Masters! Who are they? Well here, we will give you a little info about them!
Hayraven’s Unofficial Chronicles Part 2
Warm sunlight was shining through the window of the captain’s cabin. Hayraven, opening his eyes, awoke from his shallow sleep. He had dreamt another of his many recurring dreams. At times finding himself on a small boat, facing an unfamiliar foe, or at others recalling events from his past. He would dream of endless rope ladders and ghost ships. Visions of his crew and Vladislovas’ subordinates populated his subconscious; dreams that shifted but remained unchanged as well. He put on his clothes and stepped out onto the deck, where he was greeted by his crew. Hayraven raised his hand in response as he walked, but was halted by the sight of Seadog approaching. The latter looked up at the watchman stationed atop of the mast. Before Seadog could speak, the watchman cried out, “Mast sighted starboard!” Unaware of the fact that he would have been punished had his warning arrived only a second later, the watchman continued to shout. “Merchant vessel! Flag unidentified!” He soon followed with more information. “Flag confirmed! It’s a Kedoran Alliance vessel!” Hayraven nodded at Seadog, who understood his orders. The captain, having spotted the approaching vessel long before the watchman, sat down on a deckchair and quietly observed his crew prepare for battle under Seadog’s command. The merchant ship was now close enough for all the men on board to see. Seadog, who was standing next to the captain, muttered in surprise, “Huh. Who do we have here?” Hayraven’s eyes were also set on the group of heavily armed men on deck of the neighboring vessel. “Looks like Guerra’s Pledge of the Blade mercenaries are on board,” he said. Seadog spoke carefully. “They don’t seem to be shipping any cargo. If all they have are the mercenaries, their ship will be light and fast. Seems to me like they should be counting on that to retreat as fast as they can now… Unlike the Golden Note mercenaries, they don’t look like they travel with enough combat supplies, either.” “Running away would taint their reputation; that can’t be good for business. No, they’re looking for a fight here. Let’s grant them their wish”, Hayraven concluded. “Do you reckon Guerra’s involved?” “It doesn’t look like he is, Captain.” Seadog shot another glance at the watchman, confirming the absence of any new reports. Hayraven spoke again. “Look at the way they’re lined up. They’re expecting hand-to-hand. They think I’m going to fight them their way, do they?” “The Pledge of the Blade is known for the knives, but they should know their arrows, too.” Hayraven took Seadog’s words lightly. “We’re pirates; we start our fights from the ship, and if we can, we end them from the ship. Why let it escalate? It’s not like we’re fighting the Great Pirate Vladislovas now, is it?” Seadog acquiesced and began calling out the captain’s orders to the crew in a sonorous voice. Hayraven returned to his deckchair. The early stages of the battle were easy for Hayraven’s side. The wind blew in the direction of the enemy, protecting his ship from the merchant vessel’s arrows and allowing his crew to decimate a large part of the mercenary forces. Yet, no strangers to projectile attacks themselves, the Pledge of the Blade used wide shields to defend their crew. However, they were at sea, and if anyone had the knowledge to make the most of the factors at play, it was Hayraven. By controlling the movement of his own ship from its fortunate position, he made use of the wind and currents to tilt the enemy vessel to a nearly 45 degree angle. Not only were they now standing on a slope, the mercenaries had to maintain their balance over the continuous rocking of the waves, which to less seasoned sailors was no easy task. Once the Pledge’s numbers were sufficiently reduced, hand-on-hand combat began. Seadog coarsely shouted the order at the pirates. “Hook them! Hook the ship!” Hayraven’s subordinates hurried to swing their hooks into the enemy vessel. The mercenaries, in turn, bustled to and fro, cutting off the ropes attached to the pirates’ metal hooks using large two-handed swords. Observing the mercenaries’ fast response to his attack, Hayraven stood up from the deckchair. “They aren’t playing, are they?” He ran to the edge of the ship and swung his own iron hook at the merchant vessel, striking an unknown mercenary across the chest. The hook went on to bury itself deep within the ship. Another member of the Pledge ran towards Hayraven’s hook brandishing his bayonet. Seeing him, the captain withdrew his pistol and aimed. One shot was all it took to blast away the mercenary. Yet already another one was attempting to reach the hook. This time, the mercenary avoided the pistol shot, causing Hayraven to react with a smile of amusement. “Alright, this one knows what he’s doing. Let’s see you cut this, then!” As he spoke, Hayraven swung another hook at the enemy ship, one which the agile mercenary was unable to avoid. Struggling to free himself from the hook, the man bore deep injuries as Hayraven pulled him through the waters between the two vessels. The keel hauling eventually took his life before the captain could pull him up onto the pirate ship. The two crafts drew closer and closer, and Hayraven eagerly reached for the Jolly Roger. “Did Vladislovas ever hit a ship with the Jolly Roger from this far?” he asked, grinning blithely. Seadog, who had been standing by the captain awaiting new orders, shook his head. “At this distance? Impossible.” Hayraven replied. “That’s right. For anyone else it is.” With this, he launched the pirate flag across the waters. Seeing the Jolly Roger lodge itself in the merchant ship, Hayraven called out to his crew. “Go! Let them fear my flag! I’m giving twice the loot to the first pirate to slaughter a mercenary by the Jolly Roger!” Seadog followed with his own commands. “You heard the captain. The last man to get on that ship is riding the keel.” The pirates dutifully complied, echoing each other’s battle cries as they crossed over onto the merchant ship. The Pledge of the Blade were already behind their opponents in both number and morale, and having Hayraven himself join the combat only asserted their inevitable defeat. The Pirate Captain’s dust devil quickly spread terror among the last surviving members of the mercenary group, who promptly abandoned their weapons and surrendered. It wasn’t long before Hayraven’s subordinates executed the few who had dared to resist them. Finally, the captain and crew of the merchant ship, who had been hiding in a corner of the vessel as the battle was held, were dragged out onto the deck. These sailors had been spared by the mere efficacy of Hayraven’s powerful attacks. Had the conflict spread out across the entire ship, they were unlikely to have survived. The pirate looked down at the captured crew before addressing them. “Are these all the men you have? I didn’t think there’d be so few of you.” Their captain replied. “It is as Guerra requested, yes. The Alliance crew was reduced and the work was assigned to his mercenaries to decrease costs. Not only was the ship mostly occupied by these mercenaries, we are also carrying a considerable amount of our own cargo. It was very difficult for us to sail in these conditions, you see. Guerra’s men aren’t familiar with the sea; I suppose that ultimately led to their defeat today.” “According to your logs, the goods you’re shipping are heavy but they aren’t worth much. And you say you cut the freight charges, too. It sure doesn’t sound like a good deal for the Alliance.” “Before our encounter, Captain, the mercenaries were paying their passage as stipulated in the contract, tending to the weapons and cleaning the deck. As for the goods, they may not be worth much now, but surely you’re aware of how we do business at the Kedoran Merchant Alliance. The original value of those goods will pose no problem. That is why…” The captain of the merchant vessel stood up to adopt a bolder stance. “Should you release this ship, the crew and all of our merchandise in safety, I propose to write you a certificate. A document that guarantees you a generous fee from any branch of the Kedoran Alliance. Our goods won’t yield much profit to an untrained merchant. And as you can see, our current personnel are far too scarce to be of any help to you. Our only condition is that this ship arrives safely at its destination. Once that is confirmed, you’re welcome to claim your reward.” “So you’re offering me a paper that’s worth more than this ship, the cargo and a few crewmen. Is that right? And all I have to do is wait for you to dock and tell the Alliance to get my money?” “That is correct. I should say, our communications network is rather advanced; it won’t take long for the information to reach all our branches.” Hayraven pondered for a moment. “Alright. The Alliance always finds a way to avoid a loss, don’t they? Dirtier than pirates, you are. Then, the rest of the filthy mercenaries will stay with us, yes? Everything they had on them, too.” The captain of the Kedoran Alliance knew Hayraven was not asking for consent, and so he nodded in agreement. The surviving mercenaries and their belongings were moved to the pirate ship. Oceanid approached Hayraven and asked, “Should we get the plank ready?” It was the custom in pirate ships to force captured enemies onto a plank laid on the side of the vessel and demand that they choose between joining the crew and drowning at sea. Hayraven, however, shook his head. “Leave them be. I have a deal with Olfas Grimm. We’ll gather a few more prisoners and sell them off to the Monk Master. Let them starve until they’re weak enough, but not so much that they’ll mutiny.” The captain’s orders were confusing, but Oceanid acceded and returned to the crew. Hayraven was left to mutter to himself. “Guerra, you filthy rat. I hope you find me after this; maybe then I’ll finally get myself a worthy fight. This time we’ll use our knives. Hmm. Come to think of it, they do say Creak is a match for Guerra. Who knows, it could be fun to fight Creak, too. Bore a bullet hole in his skull like I did to Vladislovas. He’s not bad with his gun either, or so they say.” At the end of his train of thought, Hayraven became silent. He raised his eyes to the silhouette of the merchant ship slowly disappearing in the horizon before turning back to the captain’s cabin.
Dev Interview: Fishing, TBL, DPK and Balance
Greetings, Saviors! This week, we had a talk with our Head of Development (HOD) to find out more about a couple of updates that are coming to Tree of Savior in future patches, including PvP improvements, drop rate system changes and balance tweaks. Please note that the updates mentioned here are still being tested and can differ from the actual content that is applied in iTOS. The dev team is, however, working to bring these updates into the game within one or two months, as soon as testing is complete. Any changes will be announced in advance through the patch notes. That said, go ahead and read the full interview below! Staff: How are you, Mr. Head of Development? In our previous interview about renovating the city of Klaipeda, you and Maggi briefly talked about introducing fishing spots in-game, which is now becoming TOS’ first real “life” content. May I ask why you decided to go with fishing over other activities? HOD: I’m a little hesitant to call it Tree of Savior’s first real “life” content, considering how simple the fishing function is. Our goal is to introduce a sort of relaxing farming activity to contrast with more intense types of gameplay that require higher degrees of concentration. We figured fishing was the right answer to that. We also considered mining, but we didn’t want to risk abusing anyone’s graphic cards, so we crossed that out for now. Staff: Another question; you already made clear that you’re going to introduce a fishing function in the city of Klaipeda, but will there be fishing spots in other maps as well? HOD: Adding a fishing spot to Klaipeda was our original plan, following the renovation of the city. Besides that, some players may be surprised to hear that we’re also adding one to Cobalt Forest, and in the future we have plans to continue introducing fishing spots in other maps with streams or lakes. We expect the items from each spot to be different from the ones you can fish in the city of Klaipeda. Also, right now fishing is completely automatic, but we’re considering the addition of a couple of simple manual controls. We don’t think it’ll be anything too complex, just simple actions that can give the player an advantage. Staff: If you have plans to expand the fishing function, do you also want to develop other life contents for Tree of Savior? I would love to see a fishing spot in Goddess' Ancient Garden, by the way! HOD: That’s what we’re hoping to do, yes. We believe a good game should be able to offer the player the chance to live out their dreams, so we want to delve into that idea for our next projects. We’ve considered things like sailing a yacht, car racing, exploring deserts, jungles, oceans; any challenge or adventure that’s hard to come by in the real world. We’ve also thought about letting the players do fun things like car tuning, farm tuning, island tuning (we’re just really into tuning)… Or, if you want to enter more into the realm of fantasy, open a fancy bar and invite celebrities to exclusive parties, collect designer clothing or watches, sports cars… Basically, we want this kind of experiences that aren’t always feasible in your everyday life to be more readily available in Tree of Savior. Staff: In a way, the game is already letting us do that, I think. We get to become a Savior of a fallen kingdom and communicate with goddesses. That’s certainly an experience. I can’t wait to see what other dreams we’ll be able to live out in-game. Now, moving on to a different subject, after the big combat changes last May, the dev team announced the following: For our PvP sports content, the Team Battle League, we’re focusing on improving synchronization issues between server/client and location, as well as server speed. First, we want to change Team Battle League matches from the current 2:2 and 5:5 formats to a single 3:3 setup. We also intend to balance out a few skills and systems that hinder the concept of TBL as sports content. Some of the aspects we’re thinking of including in this rebalance are the immunity to multiple target devices (knockdown, stun, freeze and other ailments that cause the inability to control your own character), the duration and effect of long buffs/debuffs, and the stat gaps between different items. Any changes we make related to these, however, will only apply to TBL or other battle-type contents played in similar instanced zones. Finally, regarding TBL, we also feel inclined to add some improvements to the current point and ranking rewards. I heard you’re doing some real progress on these updates, and I’m sure players are looking forward to seeing them applied. I’m excited about them too, I think I’ll finally bring out my mighty musket! Hahah. From what I saw, however, there was no news on the synchronization issues or the point and ranking rewards. Can you let us in on how that’s progressing? HOD: For the location sync issues, we increased the processing speed of PvP-specific server machines, which slightly minimized the location differences that happen between client and server with high movement speeds. For one, we fixed the error that made characters appear in a different position after being knocked down or becoming incapable of combat. Our next goal is to monitor PvP controls in Team Battle League to create a better environment for GvG battles, which we also want to update. We aren’t done with Team Battle League improvements, though. We also have a patch ready with new point and ranking rewards, and we plan to introduce new timed costumes for top-rank players of the season. Finally, we created new PvP rules regarding stacked mass control instruments, movement speeds and debuffs. These rules are going to be applied to characters equally in all enclosed combat areas like TBL and, of course, we’ll keep tweaking them as required by the circumstances. Staff: Enclosed combat areas “like” TBL, you say…? Could that be a hint? In any case, there’s another subject I would like to discuss today. In kTOS, you recently announced that you're going to change the current DPK item drop rate system to a probability-based one. If I remember correctly, the DPK system was put in place to guarantee that an item gets dropped after a certain threshold is reached, whereas a probability-based system means that there’s a chance you won’t get the item even after farming for an entire day. I’m curious about the reason why you decided to remove DPK and go for this probability-based item drop system instead. Also, I would like to ask if a “personal” DPK was never an option you considered as a viable drop system. HOD: Ultimately, for a system like non-personal DPK to thrive you need an environment in which you have several players farming at the same time. If only one or two players are hunting in the same zone, the advantages of DPK (regular and consistent supply of items in the server) are lost, and it inevitably creates tension and rivalry between the players. Because of this, we can see why so many of our players spoke out in favor of a “personal” DPK counting system. The problem is that Tree of Savior is serviced all over the world on Steam, kTOS and other local servers, and in each of those the farming environment is different. Changing to a personal DPK system wouldn’t solve the fundamental issues of DPK itself, and besides, your personal kill count rewards already come from the Adventure Journal. So all in all, we felt that a probability-based item drop system was more appropriate for the game. Now, after moving from a fixed count DPK system to a top-down one, and now to a probability-based system, I’m sure the players will be wondering, “So what’s the new drop rate?” It’s not our policy to reveal the exact drop rates of each item, but we ran thorough simulations to ensure that the items weren’t dropping less than before, and then we set the drop rate a little higher than that. One thing we did was double the supply of Monster Gems, which under the DPK system was rather low. For Hunting Grounds cubes, we added ⅛ pieces of those cubes to the Grounds so that players can get items from them more frequently. Another thing I would like to mention is that, as pointed out by many of our players before, a lot of the fields in Tree of Savior often get ignored after the quests are complete or they’re “skipped” altogether. We’re only trading DPK for a probability-based system now, but we have other things in mind to improve the fun aspect of farming in fields, which we hope will help bring more life into those forgotten maps. Staff: It’s certainly sad to see so many of those beautiful maps go unnoticed; good to hear that you’re working to change that. Now, another subject that’s always been much discussed is balance. According to your latest kTOS test server balance patch, any additional SPR a Pardoner gets from stat-enhancing buffs is going to be excluded from the total SPR counted when opening a shop. Would you like to explain the reasoning behind this decision? HOD: There was some lack of foresight from our dev team when creating the big combat changes earlier this year, in that we didn’t consider all the possible ways in which Pardoner buffs could be affected. This led to certain shop buffs becoming powerful enough to visibly affect the game. Overall, we wanted to adjust the balance of Pardoner shop buffs in a way that doesn’t make them vastly superior to Priest buffs, but without taking too much from the convenience or performance of general Pardoner buffs. We’re still considering other changes to Pardoner shop buffs, but we’ll announce more details after we have something more concrete. Staff: I see what you’re saying. Hopefully everyone playing a Pardoner will understand, too. If possible, I also want to ask about the other contents of your latest balance patch, which sounded very interesting. From what I saw, it was divided into 3 categories: 1) increased overheat, 2) stacking skills and 3) other changes. Let’s start with overheat, then. I’m sure an increase in overheat is good news to anyone using those types of skills, but I have a question. Consider a skill that can be used in 3 times and has 15 seconds of cooldown time. Using the skill only one time will still require 15 seconds for it to be restored back to the full 3 hits. If each hit is worth 5 seconds of cooldown (considering the total is 15 seconds), why doesn’t the skill restore 1 hit every 5 seconds? HOD: We at the dev team can see how having to wait for a period of time that’s the same as the entire cooldown of a skill to restore a single hit is not the most reasonable option. We’ve been meaning to tackle this inconvenience for a long time now, but I guess it was always pushed back by bigger, more urgent issues. We aren’t ready to apply the “3 hits / 15 secs = 1 hit / 5 secs” rule you suggested just yet, but we are considering restoring the hit count after the skill’s total cooldown time has passed when one or more hits have been used. Staff: So you don’t know when that’s going to change yet, then? Well, I hope you have a chance to work on it soon. Would you like to comment on 2) now? Your notes state that you’re going to allow players to stack certain skills with the same skills of other players. You know, every time there’s another Plague Doctor in my party I always feel like they’re “stealing my spot”, so I’m glad that’s going to change. You’re not allowing all debuffs to stack, however. Both the Fletcher’s Broadhead and the Highlander’s Crosscut can inflict Bleeding, but I didn’t see any mentions to Crosscut in your plans. Is that intended? HOD: Those plans concern only skills where DOT (damage over time) applies, so shared debuffs are not included. Black Death Steam, for example, is an attack that only Plague Doctors have, and its DOT merely borrows from the common debuff structure; in reality, it deals damage equivalent to other attack skills. The Highlander’s Crosscut, on the other hand, is simply a skill with an added Bleeding debuff, the same way some skills can have Stun, for example. The Fletcher’s Broadhead is a skill where the DOT comes in the shape of the Bleeding debuff, making it similar to Black Death Steam or the Wugushi’s Needle Blow. Staff: So the difference is that those skills are damage-dealing skills, but they happen to be structured like a debuff. I see. I won’t bother you much longer, but I have one final set of questions about your balancing plans. First, what do you intend to achieve with your next balance patch? In other words, what direction can we expect TOS balance patches to take in the future? How far along do you think you are regarding your ultimate balance goals? Finally, how much more do you want to change with future patches? HOD: After the big combat changes, PvE difficulty was reduced by a lot. It’s hard to tell where the next patches will take this aspect of the game, since our goal is to follow whatever needs are felt at the moment, whether that implies a more difficult or an easier gameplay. What I can tell you is that we did consider the connection to future new regions and contents when applying the big changes, so we don’t predict anything too drastic. We haven’t reached all our balancing goals yet, of course, even considering the next couple of updates we have in store. We have a summon behavior improvement patch that’s already been developed and is now awaiting review. We are also working on a series of other aspects of the game, including more class-specific issues. One thing I want to say is that we hope players don’t think we’re done with a class after it’s been patched one or two times. We’re always looking to improve class balance. And lastly, I can’t tell exactly how many balance patches will make it into the game in the near future, but our plan is to keep working on them until new classes arrive. Staff: Ooh, new classes *_* I would love to hear more about them, but I can tell you’re busy so I won’t take any more of your time. Thank you so much for this interview. HOD: No problem. Thank you to our players for reading!
Hayraven’s Unofficial Chronicles Part 1
The Great Pirate Vladislovas. With every step, in the shadow of his footsteps, remained the blood of his defeated enemies. Demons bowed their heads and drew away in his presence. No being was more vicious or brutal than the Great Pirate. In front of the ruthless Vladislovas stood a much younger Hayraven. From the splashing waves to the rocking boats, all became silent. Even the seagulls soaring up high had quieted down to watch them. There was no prize for the winner of this battle; the fight was for the title of Great Pirate. Hayraven drew his cutlass first and began by attacking Vladislovas in swift steps, aiming once for his chest, twice for each side of his torso. But his attacks were too obvious for Vladislovas. Grabbing ahold of Hayraven’s cutlass, he kicked him in the pit of his stomach, knocking him over. Then, as if to teach the younger pirate a lesson, he hit Hayraven with the hilt of his sword again and again. Hayraven barely escaped the cruel pirate’s attack to regain his footing. He was already injured, and Vladislovas looked set for victory. Hayraven swallowed once. If he were to surrender, the brutal but skillful Vladislovas may take him as his subordinate. This likely had crossed Vladislovas’ mind, seeing how he had chosen to spare Hayraven’s life until then. But Hayraven shook away the thought. He began to collect himself as he shot his opponent a hidden smirk. Again, he charged unto Vladislovas, stubbornly delivering the same attacks he knew were in vain. Vladislovas grew bored of toying with the young Hayraven. It would be the sharpened blade instead of the hilt striking at his throat next. Then, Hayraven suddenly turned, drew a pistol out from its holster and pulled the trigger. The bullet lodged itself precisely in the middle of Vladislovas' forehead and his large body slowly collapsed towards Hayraven. Thud! The small boat, no longer able to withstand the weight of both Vladislovas and Hayraven, tilted over. Waves splashed against the hull, and the cries of seagulls began to fill the air again. Nobody came to the surface. And the waves swept away the name of the Great Pirate. Far away from where the sea swallowed the small boat and the two pirates was a large ship. In it, two groups of men had divided themselves between bow and stern; each busy setting up camp on their end of the ship. The men avoided looking directly at the opposite side as they worked. Their eyes were locked in another direction: the direction in which the captain of each group had departed on a small boat long before. The ship where they stood was the last one remaining of a battle that went on for two entire days. Now, the men had been forced into a silent confrontation. One side owned the ship; the other lost theirs, and had come aboard to continue the battle hand-to-hand. If their pact was to be honored, both sides would soon become the crew of that very ship, regardless of who had first served in it. All had agreed that he who survived and returned to the ship would be made captain, be it Vladislovas or Hayraven. No pirate dared to defy Vladislovas, but if the young Hayraven was to kill him, the same would be true for him. Bored of the stagnant tension, one man from Vladislovas’ crew that occupied the stern of the ship decided to break the silence. It was Seadog, a pirate with a large dog tattoo drawn across his broad chest. “If no one returns before sunset, I say we heave up anchor and leave.” The oldest member of Hayraven’s remaining crew stood up from the ship’s bow. His arms were as thick as logs and enveloped by two wreathing sea snake tattoos. The oddly-named Oceanid replied to Seadog’s proposal. “If you swear not to attack us until we reach Vernike Island.” Seadog did not hesitate. “I swear on the name of Jurate, that whoever attacks the other side before we arrive in Vernike Island will forever turn into ballast for the Kivotos.” Oceanid repeated Seadog’s oath, followed by the men on either side of the ship. Seadog took a glance at the sky and spoke again. “We’d better pray for a storm in the meantime. Though, with this weather…” Oceanid, a veteran of the sea himself, agreed with Seadog, though he too thought a storm to be unlikely. “With the men we have, I don’t think we can work this ship under a storm anyway. We’ll barely make it to Vernike with all the crew and any good weather Jurate can bless us with. We couldn’t fight even if we wanted to.” So it was. The battle of the last two days had been violent and intense. They no longer wished to fight over whom to name their captain. If they did, they certainly knew that nothing was to be gained from that. He who returned to the ship would be made captain, be it Vladislovas or Hayraven. If neither did, the crew would leave the waters, and a new struggle for power would surely ensue. After the ship reached Vernike or another suitable port, that is. They would first ensure that the ship could sail with half of the remaining crew, or perhaps even half of that. With as few men as that would entail, reclaiming the authority of any of the former captains would be close to impossible, and they would likely be exterminated or taken under a new pirate crew. To both ends of that leaderless ship, there was nothing to do then but wait for one of the great pirates to emerge victorious. Seadog and Oceanid had fallen silent. They stared into the horizon, avoiding each other’s unpleasant gaze. That both men were wise enough not to start another conflict was a fortunate thing. It was in that moment that they heard the sound of someone climbing up the rope ladder that hung from the side of the ship. The sparse crew meant that no one had been assigned to the lookout atop of the mast. The only way to look was to lean down from the edge of the ship, an act too risky for any of the men on board to pursue. They had not heard the small boat approach the ship, so whoever it was who was climbing that rope ladder, he would have had to swim his way back. The small boat was far too distant for that to seem plausible, but it was even less likely that someone else had happened to approach the ship in those waters. The men on deck focused on the sounds of the climbing stranger, until a hand emerged and gripped the edge of the gunwale. The hand was not familiar to them, perhaps from all the blood, sun and sea that had washed over it on the long way to the ship. No one offered to help. If, by any chance, that hand belonged to the rival captain, they did not want his crew to misunderstand it as an attempted attack. Seadog and Oceanid remained silent, focusing their attention on the edge of the ship while signaling their crews to stay still. The hand gripping the gunwale trembled as it pulled up the heavy body of the stranger, revealing his face. Nearly unrecognizable by his subordinates were Hayraven’s features, mangled by multiple wounds and sheer exhaustion. Every pirate on the ship thanked Jurate for giving them the victor they so eagerly awaited. Hayraven climbed over the gunwale and stood on the deck, looking at the men on each side of the ship before addressing them. “I grant you all permission to board my ship.” He spoke as if he had been alone on the ship waiting for the others to board. That may have not been the case, but to sailors of all kinds, boarding permission was an important convention. It was also a sign that all of the crews’ problems had been solved, as no man had any intentions to defy his authority. Knowing this, Hayraven spoke again. “The captain’s cabin…” Hayraven collapsed onto the deck before he could finish his sentence, and the pirates around him hurried to help. Old and new members of his crew laid the unconscious Hayraven down in the captain’s cabin. <To be continued>
Dev Interview: Klaipeda’s New Face
Greetings, Saviors! Now that Klaipeda has become the starting city for all characters and home of the popular Mercenary Post, many have come to settle in the new bustling hub. Klaipeda’s evolution is far from over, however. The devs are planning a large-scale renovation of the city that promises to turn the old town into a wider, more welcoming home for all adventurers. We sat down with Tree of Savior’s head of development (HOD), who’s in charge of planning the renovation, and our art director Maggi, responsible for designing the city's revamped façade, to find out more about Klaipeda’s new face. Staff: It’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person. I’m sure our players are looking forward to hearing from you, too. HOD: The pleasure is all ours. Staff: So, let’s talk about Klaipeda (the in-game city). With more people coming into the city, it is starting to look a lot more crowded than before. In some channels you almost feel like you’re going to bump into someone when you’re walking around! How did you decide to expand and renovate Klaipeda? HOD: As most players will know, the previous main city was Fedimian, which is up north in the level 100 region. We are very fond of Fedimian and its cozy, rustic feel, but considering that a large part of all characters are high level, the fact that Fedimian is located out of the reach of lower-level characters meant that it was often difficult for new players to feel like they’re in a populated MMORPG. If someone comes into TOS for the first time and their starting city has only a few active characters, they’re going to think, “Should I be playing this game?” To address that issue, along with the recently-updated combat system and the new/returning player events bringing in more start-level characters, we thought it was time to expand Klaipeda and turn it into a more active and friendly central city. Staff: That sounds like a great welcome for new players, and I’m sure a lot of existing players will appreciate it, too. But I can imagine everyone’s already wondering what the new Klaipeda will look like, so I hope Maggi can let us in on that. But first, would you sign my TOS goddess poster? I’m a huge fan :’) Maggi: (signing the poster) Hahah, of course. Staff: Alright, onto the actual question, which is: what is your vision for the new face of Klaipeda? Maggi: Klaipeda is a city that’s very dear to me. Tree of Savior was the first time I got to work on background art; before that, I had only designed characters. And it all started with Klaipeda. We planned alternative names for the city and I submitted a series of different concepts for how it was to look like before we decided on the final image. Klaipeda was the first city players got to see in Tree of Savior, so it needed to convey our game’s characteristic cute but classic style as accurately as possible. To this day, I still think Klaipeda is the city that best manages to do that out of all the others. Staff: For this project, you’re in charge of directing the aesthetic and practical design of the new “constructions” in Klaipeda. When you heard that the city was being expanded, what was the first thing that came to mind? Maggi: The first thing that was mentioned in the initial meeting was that players needed a wide area, like a big plaza, where they could meet and hang out in the city. I started thinking about how I could make that happen, and I figured I could expand Klaipeda’s “third floor” area, which is mostly empty, relocate some NPCs and create a nice, spacious area there. And since we’re going to change the structure of the city, I thought it would be fun to go all out and add a water course to the upper section and a water wheel to give it a livelier feel. Staff: Is there any part of the renovations that you absolutely insisted on keeping? Maggi: I wanted to make sure that we could integrate little elements that would naturally draw players to the plaza. I thought that simply having a wide space available in the city wouldn’t make it much of a proper hangout place, so I designed it in a way that, with the Mercenary Post NPCs relocated, we can also use the space to add things like hair salons in the surrounding buildings or fishing spots in the water courses. The main purpose is to turn Klaipeda into a living, breathing city. Staff: Speaking of a living, breathing city, Mr. Head of Development, do you remember this lady? < Inesa Hamondale, Lord of Orsha > HOD: … Staff: She would very much like to know why Orsha is no longer a starting city for newly-created characters. HOD: It’s true; this is a point in our development history that is most unfortunate. We felt that, from the perspective of a new player coming into TOS and creating their character, starting in Orsha was unnecessarily confusing, as it made it difficult for the player to know what scenarios to expect and how to carry on playing the game. Klaipeda and Orsha aren’t in different realms, nor do their contents oppose in any way, so we concluded that it didn’t make much sense to have both options available. In terms of actual gameplay, technically you could start on one route and move back and forth between both quest paths, but what we found was that this commonly confused players instead of increasing the sense of freedom of exploration. Also, this division only happened in the lower Rank areas until level 100, which in terms of development resource allocation and scenario satisfaction wasn’t always the most effective setup. These reasons, along with our plans for Klaipeda’s renovations, are what led us to ultimately remove Orsha from the starting city options. Staff: So… what’s going to happen to Orsha now? HOD: For now we’re going to leave Orsha as it is, but in the future we want to make use of the city to provide players with more meaningful and interesting contents. Staff: I see. I think we, as inhabitants of the Kingdom, can understand that. Now, Maggi, I had a look at the new concept images for Klaipeda, and in one of them you have this beautiful drawing across the pavement. It’s a very fresh and unique touch to an RPG. Would you care to talk about that? < Concept image of Klaipeda seen from above > Maggi: The idea actually came from our concept designer. In quarter-view games, the floor is very important, and this time we wanted to add something to celebrate Goddess Jurate, so we thought of a drawing spread across the pavement. Our designer immediately pulled together a quick sketch and – what do you know – it looked amazing. I have a feeling this won’t be the last pavement drawing we’ll be seeing from her, so keep an eye out for more. Staff: People often associate the visual world of Tree of Savior with your own creations, but it’s nice to see how much of it comes from the joint efforts of your team. Now I must ask; what main changes can we expect to see in Klaipeda? HOD: The Mercenary Post is going to a wider area at the top of the map, with a path leading up to it. In this area we’ll also be adding a few contents in the buildings and structures of the city that players can interact with. All in all, we expect Klaipeda to become Tree of Savior’s main destination for city contents that all kinds of players can enjoy. Staff: I’m seriously considering moving to Klaipeda after hearing that. Just out of curiosity, could you share a bit of the process of the city’s reconstruction? Maggi: I can show you a rough sketch I did with the help of the background modeling team of how we first envisioned the new structure of the city. I then consulted with background designers to draw out a few sample buildings and facilities. < Sample images for Klaipeda’s expansion project > We also created a few props for a Jurate Festival to celebrate Klaipeda’s renewal. < Banners for the Jurate Festival celebrating Klaipeda’s renewal > Once that was done, the background modeling team took over to create the new structures and put everything into place. We worked very hard to portray the right feel in the city, especially with the opening festival, so we hope that comes across to the players. Staff: May the goddesses bless the renewed city of Klaipeda, and thank you very much for the interview. HOD/Maggi: It’s been a pleasure. Thank you all for your support.
GM Meetup QnA Summary - May 16-17, 2017
Greetings, Saviors! As you may know, our GMs headed out to the servers on May 17-19, 2017, to meet players, answer questions and generally have fun with everyone. We’re immensely grateful to all the players who took the time to participate. Today, we are rounding up some of the questions players asked during this GM meetup to summarize a few of the topics discussed and provide some additional clarification on them. Here we go. Combat System Changes Q. The last content update you did was considerably fast and had almost no differences from kTOS. Can we expect future content updates to happen at that pace now? A. The pace at which content is updated to iTOS will always differ according to the situation, but in cases such as big system reworks and the like, our goal is to bring them over to iTOS as fast as possible, like we did with the recent patch. Q. Saalus Convent missions feel harder than they were before the big changes. It’s only the bosses there that seem harder though; was this intentional? A. If you feel that Saalus Convent bosses became harder than before, you may want to check your defense and penetration numbers. A lot of combat-related values and calculations changed, so dealing with certain monsters is going to feel a little different. Q. How do you feel about the spike in players you saw after the combat changes, events and advertisement? A. We feel very grateful to the players who returned to TOS, those who just started playing, and of course all the others who continued to play, for the interest they have shown in our game. We certainly hope to continue providing more exciting events and working towards a fun TOS for everyone. Future Plans Q. Will you keep rebalancing other classes after the big changes? A. After the big combat changes and the character reset event, our goal is to keep improving on the specific problems of multiple classes. We briefly talked about this in our last Dossier post, so feel free to go over there to read about some of our plans for the future. Q. What plans do you have regarding GvG? When are the Regional Guild Battles coming back? If you’re thinking guild wars, we also mention a few changes we want to bring to guild contents in that last Dossier post we made, so you should definitely give it a read. As for Regional Guild Battles, they’ve been on standby for a while now, but our hope is to rearrange the format so we can bring them back for good. Please wait while the specifics are being sorted; we will announce more about the new format when it is ready. Q. What about Team Battle League? What can we expect for the future of TBL? A. It’s hard to be specific as of now, but we did discuss a few changes we’re thinking of implementing, again, in the fifth Dossier post. Please read that post for the full explanation, but in a nutshell, we want to revise both the format and the balance of Team Battle League matches. Q. When can we see Rank 9 and the new classes? A. Our goal is to release Rank 9 within this year; that’s what we’re working towards to at least. We can’t disclose any information about new classes yet, but we’ll make sure to lay out more details once we have something concrete. Q. Will the Adventure Journal be removed? A. The Adventure Journal will not be gone from the game; instead, we will be making some significant changes to how it works. We made an initial announcement about this some time ago in our official website, and we’ll continue to inform you via future announcements once more details about the Adventure Journal changes are out. Feedback Q. Do you see the feedback we leave on the forums about the latest issues? A. We always monitor the official forums and take note of the players’ feedback. We’re glad to see players discussing the issues there, and we hope you’ll continue to share with us your opinions and thoughts on the game. Q. I like Hunting Grounds, but the cube drop rates are too low. A. Item drop rates in Hunting Grounds are based on the same principles as those of other fields, so we haven’t felt like it was particularly difficult to obtain specific items in them. That said, we realize that the appeal of Hunting Grounds is largely due to unidentified items, so we won’t shy away from continuing to improve on them whenever we deem it necessary. Q. Clerics are too strong in this game, it seems like there’s nothing they can’t do. Is there a reason why only Cleric classes are like this? A. We understand why some players would feel this way, and considering that one of our goals for now is revising the balance of specific classes, the players’ feedback about them is definitely something we should keep in mind. We can’t say any changes will happen overnight, since these things take time, but do keep discussing the ways in which you would like to see each class improved. Q. Would you consider reducing the price for changing your team name? A. We may consider temporarily applying a discount for team name changes in the future during an event. However, we don’t currently have plans to permanently reduce the price. Q. We would like the option to change the name of a companion / not see the names of other players’ companions. A. We can see how those options would reduce two very real companion name-related frustrations. We do intend to improve some aspects of the game’s UI so we will take note of those ideas for the future. Bugs and Issues Q. After more people started playing in [SA] Silute, the lag became really bad, but it seems to have gotten better after the temporary maintenances. What changes did you make? A. We did notice quite an increase in the population of [SA] Silute after the big update, which caused a series of lag issues in the server. As explained in our announcement after the temporary maintenances of May 16 and 17, we added more machines to the server to expand its capacity and allow for a larger number of concurrent players. We’re continuing to monitor the situation in [SA] Silute both by checking the server ourselves and via player feedback. Q. If you write to a certain extent in the chat input window, the letters will become “hidden” in the UI and you can’t see what you’ve written. When is this bug being fixed? A. This is a bug we’re well aware of and working to fix. We don’t think it will take that much longer, and we’ll make sure to apply it to the game as soon as we have a solution. Cosmetic Q. The fashion sense of TOS costumes seems very Korean. A. As a game of Korean origin made by a Korean team, we believe it’s only natural that our costumes would be influenced by that, although we do tend to try on different concepts every time we release a new set of costumes. Feel free to leave your suggestions for new costumes in our official channels, too. It wouldn’t be the first time player feedback has inspired a new TOS outfit ;) Q. Would you consider introducing costume dyes? A. We like the idea of a costume dye that would allow you to change the color of your costume in the same way you do with hair dyes. Unfortunately this is an idea which has been postponed, as we found some unexpected obstacles inherent to how our system works when trying to develop a similar item. Q. How do you feel about a frying pan shield / candy cane rod? What about a bandana / leaf / giant bow hair accessory? [There were many more good suggestions; these are just a few examples.] A. The frying pan could very well work as a weapon, too, we think. A candy cane rod would look lovely paired with a Christmas costume or a candy hair accessory. We’re always surprised by the ideas players come up with for new items and we wish we could make them all a reality… We’ll make sure to continue creating more fun and quirky cosmetic items in the future.
Dev Interview: DPK
<Item developers P&Y> As soon as I entered their office, the sounds of voices in heated discussion mixed with the keyboard clicks of overzealous typers filled my ears. A lively workspace with numbers and formulas flashing from screen to screen and empty energy drinks littered from desk to desk. Amongst this chaos, I could find today’s interviewees, P & Y, aka. the Doppel Glasses. Recent developments -- including the Combat System Changes -- seem to have put an extra toil (and an extra spotlight) on them. Despite all this, after offering me a seat, I had their undivided attention and my interview began. Yuri: Item Farming. The core of RPGs. It’s quite addictive, don't you think? Sometimes item farming, itself, becomes my own personal short-term goal outside of the normal activities in the game. But how this work exactly? To answer these questions I go to you, our item developers P and Y. P&Y: Hey, how’s it going. :) Yuri: Good, good! So farming for items, making my character stronger, defeating bosses are all experiences we have while playing RPGs. But today, I brought some questions about DPK. Our Saviors are looking forward to your answers. Y: Sure, ask away. Yuri: So let's start with the first one: what exactly is DPK? And why do we have it? Y: Top-down would be a more precise term than drop-per-kill for our game. The reason why we chose this system, rather than DPK, is because if we simply did DPK the worst case scenario would be players hunting for a single item for as long as one or even two months. That’s the downside. To prevent this from happening, with our new system we can at least guarantee that the item will drop. Yuri: So, this means people don't need to pray to the great RNGesus? As a gamer, I think this is a thoughtful concept, but my questions don’t end here. Our Saviors are also interested in the recent adjustments. We’ve received a lot, and I mean A LOT, of feedback that the drop rate is worse than before. Care to comment? P: Yes, there have been some adjustments to item values. We manage the item rate by considering both the players' feedback and the real numbers in the game. In other words, we take into consideration comments from the community and compare them with the in-game logs. If item drop rates need to be changed, then we change them. And, yes, it is true that the drop number has become higher but, when looking at the data, the actual drop rate has increased about 50%. For example, in the previous formula... let's say DPK is 500. This means you must kill 500 monsters to get an item. But with the new formula, each time you kill a monster starting from 1/500, the drop chances increase. Also, the previous system was a little unfair, no? If Player A is trying to get an item from a monster with a 500 DPK rate and they get to 499 kills, but Player B comes along and kills the last one… Well, Player B gets the item and all of Player A's hard work is put to waste. We want to avoid this problem with the new system. Yuri: That’s great to hear. So, what can we expect about the future of this top-down formula? Is it set in stone or will there be a few more changes? Y: Oh, the general structure is going to stay, but we are also going to grant players new ways to acquire items. These items will become available through new content rather than just by killing monsters. This will give players easy and convenient access to certain items. Yuri: I see. I see. Then can you tell me – when does this top-down system reset? P: Haha! When the item drops, of course! :D Yuri: Ah-ha! I almost forgot that this top-down system is all about counting. Well then, is it bound user-wise? Or map-wise? Y: It’s a secret but… it's bound map-wise. For example, if there is a monster with 500 DPK on Map Z and User A kills 100 monsters on channel 1 while User B kills 100 monsters on channel 2, both players have a 1/300 chance of an item drop. Yuri: So this would be the last thing to ask about, plans! What can you tell us about that? P: One of the things we can tell you about is the new material shop system we're considering. You'll probably see them in future events. In this type of shop, you can purchase materials that you need for your recipe. Yuri: So there will be a special kind of shop to do this. P: Right; the list of items sold will be random and it will periodically resupply the products, too. But this will be bound to your account, not a character. Yuri: And the list of items is different for each player? P: I'm afraid not. All players will have the same list, of course. Also, the shop will not sell core items like Practonium but something like all the xxx~niums, shells which require a certain amount of farming but gives user low motivation. and that kind of stuff to cut down the effort of farming for an item. Yuri: Since this is a shop, I think asking for the price is also important. P: Items in these shops will be available for silver. Since this shop is for events, the price is not going to be that expensive. Also, we will coordinate our efforts with iToS staffs to decide when the shops should be reset and how much the items should cost. Yuri: I see. When can we expect to see this in the game? P: We're still ironing out the details. We cannot tell you the exact date at this moment, but we will see this gets updated as soon as possible. Yuri: I understand. Can you tell us what the main reasoning is behind these improvements, so users can have an idea of the direction you're aiming for? P: Our main goal is to relieve the stress of obtaining drop items and also improve convenience for the players. Yuri: Alright, well I think those are all of my questions. Thank you for today's interview. Short, sweet, and to the point. I think it will give our Saviors a general ideal of our new item formula. P&Y: We are looking forward to show off more interesting items to the players. We would be love to talk about that in the future.