Search article
DEVELOPER'S BLOG
Thank You For 100k Likes!
Greetings, Saviors. Thanks to your support, our Facebook page now has over 100,000 likes! To show our gratitude, we would like to showcase a special art illustrated by our art director, maggi. Thank you for supporting Tree of Savior! https://www.facebook.com/treeofsavior/likes
About the Bot Report Function
Many of you are showing your concern on bots. Bots are a big problem to the developers as well because they interrupt game play and negatively affect the game's economy. The bot report function we added to the game can effectively ban bots if used properly, but we also have to consider the possibility of its abuse. Throughout time, we've been doing research on how we can minimize this abuse. We're going to explain our report feature in close detail and tell you what to keep in mind when reporting bots. First, not all reports hold the same validity. Each account has a value called "Report Influence Index." This value cannot be seen by players, but it increases whenever said account correctly reports a bot. If a user is reported repeatedly by others, that user is very likely to be a bot. In addition, if the reporter is an influential individual, their report is most likely valid so we can set a priority on which account to ban first. This is where the Report Influence Index (RII) comes in. In terms of numbers, a player with 10 RII has the same impact as 10 different players with 1 RII each when reporting suspicious users. Accounts with high report counts will then move to the next step of verification. Some have suggested using CAPTCHA, but that too, will be breached eventually. It puts needless restrictions on the players, so we are not considering its use. Instead, what we chose to use is a server-side classifier based on Machine Learning (ML) technique. The classifier uses the comprehensive activity log of a reported account to determine if it's a bot in percentages. We will not be revealing the classifier's exact mechanism, as it can be manipulated by violators to bypass the system. We train our classifier by constantly inputting new data. The fact that we can maintain its accuracy is its advantage, because we're going to manually determine which factors should be considered to identify bots. The classifier's accuracy depends on how we determine the behavior criteria, and we examine over 20 basic criteria. The machine showed 99% accuracy on our Korean server when we set the machine to output fewer false positives. If we set strictness value low, the classifier will detect more bot with lower accuracy and vice versa. An account that is deemed to be a bot becomes subject to restriction after a GM's additional confirmation. If that account gets banned, then all the users who reported that account gain one RII point. However, should the reported account be declared clean, the reporter's RII value will be negatively affected. The RII is not a simple difference between the numbers of accurate and inaccurate report counts, and the algorithm we use to determine the final RII value can be changed in the future. Therefore, you should not report bots if you're unsure of their offense. The system can backfire on you if you're not careful. For example, a player going afk while leaving a heavy object on the attack key has to be handled differently from regular bots. The classifier can deem the afk player innocent from looking at the honest play records, so afk players should not be reported using the report function as that will work against your RII. Lastly, if we're not absolutely sure the reported account is a bot, then it will not be banned and the reporter's RII will remain unchanged. We're going to keep examining and upgrading the system and do our best so bots will not ruin your play experience. Thank you for reading and have fun playing Tree of Savior.
On the State of Server's Economy
Hello. Today on the Developer's Blog, we would like to address a few rumors circulating the forum. While we were working on recent issues related to Steam's payment system, we came across a post with a screenshot of a user owning two or three hundred million silver. Some of you commented that it was demotivating. The payment abuse and that screenshot have been reported to a certain Korean website as well and an article came out stating that Steam server has serious problems. Some users even say a server wipe is needed. Is it necessary? You might wonder. A short answer would be ‘no.’ First, the screenshot is simply not true. We can look through our server database and figure out the actual amount of silver the account in question owns, what the user traded, and the movement of silver on each server. We can even identify which top 100 accounts possess the most silver. We can identify daily changes of total amount of silver. It turned out the user in the screenshot only owned less than a hundredth of the alleged amount. Due to the nature of MMORPGs, data in the game client can easily be altered. We believe that screenshot is also a result of such practice, and the change only appears on the user's own screen. This altered data doesn't get transmitted to the server that deals with monetary transaction, meaning the game's economy isn't affected. Contrary to what some users pointed out, the TP obtained through transaction exploit is irrelevant to the silver increase in the game. Even if abusers purchase and sell Tokens using the TP they unfairly gained, it does not generate new silver. The silver simply moved from one account to another during the transaction. During those transactions, actually total amount silver decreases due to 10% market fee. This may have influenced silver's RMT value or Token-to-silver ratio, but we have confirmed that it did not affect the total amount of silver circulating the servers. We take economical stability seriously, and our GMs monitor the statistics every day. Whenever we make systems related to trades, we make sure to check for possibilities of the damage they may do to the server's economy. We plan to explain the bot problem and the report system we made to counter it in our next blog post. Thank you.
Changes regarding trading restrictions, bot policy
Greetings, Saviors! We’ve been listening to your recent feedback regarding trading restrictions and bot presence in Tree of Savior, and would like to announce some changes we’ll be making to improve your in-game experience. 1) Less Trade Restrictions As mentioned in previous announcements, the trade restrictions were implemented to address RMT issues. However, based on your feedback, we have determined that it may feel a bit too high-handed. As such we have decided to implement new measures to reduce the inconvenience of trading restrictions on non-Token users in order to reduce trading restrictions on regular users. We are planning on allowing Non-Token users to partake in 1:1 trading. However, we are not yet certain how we will implement this new system. More details will be released as soon as they have been decided upon. The changes are intended to remove restrictions to players who may not be Token users but wish to help out or give class restricted items to other players. We also hope this will dissuade bots from collecting items through farming. 2) Bot Report Function We wish to continuously strive towards reducing the bot problem and provide better gaming experiences for normal players. As such, we are working on implementing the much requested bot report function. Not only that but we’re also developing and testing a system to detect bots faster. Through the reporting system, you will not only able to select and report suspected bots, but you will also be able to report items in the market suspected of being part of RMT (e.g. low-value items sold at unusually high prices). Through this system, GMs will be able to catch more bots by prioritizing and reviewing cases reported by users. However, we know that this system can be misused or even abused and are in the process of polishing rules to regulate the system. We wish to provide merits to those who accurately report bots, and penalize those who misuse the system to report innocent users. This will most likely be a constantly updated set of rules since there will always be different cases. As always, we thank you for your continued support, understanding, and enthusiasm for Tree of Savior. Sincerely, IMC Staff
Statement on Trade Restrictions
Hello. We are the "Tree of Savior" development team. Many players have voiced negative opinions on the 1:1 trade restriction of our game system. We’d like to announce our stand on this system and explain why we cannot modify it immediately. Economy is an important part of an MMORPG. It’s difficult to maintain one, yet very easy to ruin. The main factor that ruins in-game economy of F2P games is gold (in this case, silver) selling. Unlike the P2P model, F2P games are much more vulnerable to exploit because gold sellers make near to zero investment on accumulating in-game currency. They can make essentially an infinite amount of silver in the game. Therefore, it’s important to know what can control in-game transactions effectively. We can track down and ban the gold sellers individually, but that’s a primitive method of defense and gold sellers are constantly developing newer ways to run their business. Causing players to make minimum investment, which is mediated by Tokens, is only the first step to enforcing the limitation on gold sellers. How are we to regulate and block gold sellers who purchase Tokens? In the end, RMT(Real Money Trading) is the goal of selling in-game currency. The second method we can use, then, is preventing one-way transfer of goods. Gold sellers transfer their goods using the following method: (1) Run multiple bot accounts (to accumulate silver) (2) Transfer the silver to a separate "seller’s account" (3) The silver on said seller's account then goes to the buyer There’s no need to regulate trades where the goods being traded from each side are similar in value. However, an uneven transaction is observed when trades are made between bots and seller’s accounts or between sellers and buyers. Gold sellers transfer silver using the market system. Through the market, transactions are made by listing cheap items at high prices. The sellers would purchase these items to “send over” their silver to the buyers. To stop this, we could put a set silver value on the items. By doing so, we'll be able to quickly notice the discrepancy when an item isn't sold at its rightful price. The problem is, it’s difficult to maintain a set price on every item in the game. To tackle this, we have also implemented mechanisms to limit one-way transactions through the market. With our current market system, once an item is sold enough times through the market, highest and lowest market values are automatically generated. Players cannot list items at prices that exceed this range. On top of it, there’s already a limit on how many items can be listed. In addition, trades are temporarily held for 48 hours upon completion. This gives our staff time to detect and cancel any suspicious transactions before buyers and sellers get their goods. In the future, we hope to reduce this time frame by developing a system that can automatically detect and block such suspicious trades. We are continuously working on this function. We do not believe these restrictions can completely shut out gold sellers. Rather, what we’re trying to do is utilize this system to make gold selling something that isn’t worthwhile to both gold sellers and buyers. Finally, after considering the arguments stating that making team storage a premium feature is irrelevant to preventing gold sellers, we’ve decided to lessen the restrictions on this part. We will be modifying this feature for the upcoming patch. We’re also developing an in-game report function for players to use, and we anticipate other inconveniences to naturally diminish once we successfully administer bots. We hope this defined our reasoning behind the trade restriction we’ve implemented. Thank you for your attention.
What are Guild Battles?
Greetings Saviors! This is the Tree of Savior Dev Team. We are happy to announce that we will be continuing further updates on this blog to keep you in the loop of what is going on behind the scenes. Today, we would like to introduce a new feature we’re currently working on: Guild Battles. First of all, please note that this feature is still a work in progress and the final product may look different from what we’re showing you here. What are Guild Battles? Guild Battles are a type of PVP play that sets guilds of different servers against each other to compete for victory. They will be available twice a day and the overall guild ranking will be determined based on ELO rules. ▲ The name of each guild is displayed along with its corresponding server. The competing guilds must attack each other’s Guild Towers, located in their respective team headquarters, with the first guild to destroy its opponent’s Guild Tower within the time limit being declared the winner. Analyzing the enemy’s strategies and developing defensive strategies for your own guild will be major decisive factors for victory. ▲ The first guild to destroy its opponent’s tower wins. If neither guild manages to destroy the opponent’s tower within the time limit, victory will be awarded to the guild with the highest kill count. In the event of an even number of kills, the title goes to the guild with the most accumulated damage. This means that guilds will need to consider offensive tactics as well as defensive strategies in order to win Guild Battles,. Gathering the guild members to strategize and discuss different control methods before entering the Guild Battles will also be crucial in gaining an advantage. Participating in a Guild Battle via the Auto-Matching System To participate in a Guild Battle, the guild master should go to Battle League > Guild Tower Battle and click the ‘Join’ button to initiate auto-matching. ▲ Determining an opponent via auto-matching The guild masters will be moved to the battle area once an opponent is found, and preparation for the Guild Battle will begin upon entering the battlefield. ▲ Remaining preparation time for the Guild Battle Guild members will be able to enter the battlefield during the preparation period but will not be able to do so once the Guild Battle begins, so please make sure to enter during the preparation period. The Battle Begins Each guild will be assigned a random headquarters out of the 8 available areas. ▲ Guild Battle Battlefield The battle will begin immediately after the preparation period. ▲ Victory Condition Locating the enemy’s tower is an important part of the battle as it is one of the main victory conditions. Use every strategy that your guild has at your disposal to search and destroy the enemy’s tower within the 30 minute time limit. Having your Guild Tower’s location discovered first can lead to an unfavorable battle. Another good tactic is to have fast-attacking classes target the enemy tower while the others focus on preventing the opponent from interfering since Guild Towers in the Guild Battles only receive 1 damage per hit just like regular Guild Towers. ▲ Defensive headquarter entrance The entrance to each guild’s headquarters is rather narrow and can create a bottleneck making it risky if you decide to go for an all-out attack. ▲ Players can spectate while waiting to resurrect. There will be resurrection countdown if your character falls during a Guild Battle. You will be able to spectate other guild members during this time, allowing you to plan ahead and decide where you will be needed the most. ▲ The ‘Results’ window shows the victors as well as individual kills, deaths and score points. You will be able to confirm the victors of the battle through the ‘Results’ window. Make sure to strategize and implement tactics that will give your guild every edge possible since, as mentioned earlier, a guild must destroy its opponent’s tower or have the higher kill count to win. Ranking and Rewards You will be able to check your guild’s ranking across all servers through the ‘Guild Battle Rank’ window which will be reset every Sunday after 11:59:59PM. Guilds will be rewarded in accordance to their rank while the server that is home to the weekly 1st place guild will become the winning server, increasing the bonus TP limit to 8TP for all users on that server. We hope this will encourage guilds of all servers to keep competing for the top spot. [Ranking and reward items] Rank Reward items 1 60x 100TP Chests 2 40x 100TP Chests 3 30x 100TP Chests 4 20x 100TP Chests 5 5x 100TP Chests 6 5x 100TP Chests 7 5x 100TP Chests 8 5x 100TP Chests 9 5x 100TP Chests 10 5x 100TP Chests Reward items won via the Guild Battle ranking can be claimed by clicking the ‘Reward’ button on the ‘Guild Battle Rank’ window. The items will then be transferred to the corresponding guild’s common storage, where the guild master can distribute (transfer) them to other guild members. Those items can be received through the personal message box of individual guild members, which will then be bound to the guild member once obtained. This is as much as we can say about the Guild Battle system for now and we will make future announcements in order to keep you updated on the implementation schedule. Hope to see you soon with more good news. Thank you.
TOS Developers' English Blog is now Open.
Hello. We are "Tree of Savior (TOS)" Development Team. This blog was created to share you more information about the development of TOS before the official homepage is created. For the announcements of the future schedules of TOS, we will announce on our Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/treeofsavior. Thanks. ▲ Goddess of Fire, Gabiya
Inven “Tree of Savior” Development Team Interview
Hello. We are "Tree of Savior" development team. Our interview is on Game Webzine Inven (www.inten.co.kr). Link : http://www.inven.co.kr/webzine/news/?news=109604 There is a saying that trends are keep revolving around and this does not only apply to the world of fashion. Due to improvement in technologies, gamers can see the graphics in real time which were only available in CG videos before. However, there are many people who miss the memories of 2D dot graphics in the past. It may be due to the quality of the games that they had enjoyed in the past or it could be due to the recollections that are still in their minds from the communities in those game. The one thing sure is that they are missing those memories. Back in April 30th, when the information about the newest title from Hak Kyu Kim's imcGAMES was released, lots of people have shown their interest in the game which may be due to the reasons that I stated above. Due to the improvement in the game engines, the games that are being released these days are becoming more and more real, but the decision made by imcGAMES was somewhat different. Back to the past, but not old fashioned, concentrating on the feelings of the classics were the main themes that imcGAMES have emphasized while developing the game. To get the latest information about 'Tree of Savior", which features retro concept, we had an interview with the development team at imcGAMES. Let's listen to what they tell us about the game. 5 months have passed after the first information about the game was released at G-Star, but it seems that the attentions on the game are getting bigger and bigger. A1) We can't deny that we feel pressure on those attentions, but they also give us strength to work on. We are trying our best to release the game as soon as possible. Q2) I know that you had FGT for the first time back in February. What kind of feedback did you receive from the people who had participated FGT? A2) We received lots of feedback and advises on the matters such as balances between the classes, quest flows, difficulty level, controllability of a few classes, interfaces, and etc. Most of them told us that the game is very fun and they enjoyed a lot. They also told us that they will play the game again once the game starts it's service. However, since we had only invited a small number of users to our studio, most of the feedback that we received were concentrated on the first impression of the game and the contents in the game. Therefore, we haven't tested and verified the game's feasibility on the environment where lots of users are connected at the same time. We plan to test this when we launch our CBT which is scheduled within this year's summer. Q3) Are there any changes in the game after FGT? A3) We have identified that the current control system, which may confuse some people who play the game for the first time, may need some adjustments. Also we are adjusting difficulty level of the monsters and modifying some of the items in the game based on the feedback that we had received from FGT. Q4) After seeing the graphics of 'Tree of Savior', lots of gamers are remembering Ragnarok or Arcturus. A4) Our focus was to make the game which can give classical feelings, but not old fashioned, along with expressing the latest trends. As a result, we relied on as many hand drawings as possible instead of using the technology from the graphics engine and we emphasized shapes on designs to have fairy tale impression in the game. We are preparing to explain to all the fans about graphics concept soon at "Tree of Savior" Developers' blog so please wait for our explanation. Ragnarok and Arcturus are not our games. Therefore, those games do not have any relationships with our game. The art director for "Tree of Savior" is Anh Jung Won who has been with us for "Granado Espada" for a long time. [▲Graphics of Tree of Savior] Q5) Did you develop your own engine? A5) We are using the internally developed engine which has been in use and updated since the start of "Granado Espada". This engine was customized to meet the needs to express the impressions of 2D characters, hand drawn art and etc. Except for the graphics side of the engine, we are using the same engine which is being used to develop "Wolfknights", the other game that we are currently developing. Q6) After watching the video which was released at G-Star last year, we thought the sounds in the game are very impressive. We think that the sounds fit the game really well. Who made the sounds for the game? A6) Mr. Dong Il Kwak who was working in SoundTeMP team joined S.F.A team to participate "Granado Espada". And he is now in charge of sound directing for "Tree of Savior". Besides Mr. Kwak, many other artists including SoundTeMP team, Esti, Questrosound, Mr. Joon Sung Kim and the other artists are participating for this game. Among them, there are also some artists from the other countries and the new artists as well. As for "Granado Espada", sound concept was euro-trance genre and classics, and the predecessor's theme was electronic-pop genre. However, this time we are focusing on classical crossover. Please find more about it when we launch the game. Mr. Kwak's interview can be found on the following link. http://www.inven.co.kr/webzine/news/?news=49060 Q7) So you told me that you are planning 1st CBT this summer. How far has the development completed in terms of percentage for CBT version of the game? A7) We think that we are already ready to initiate CBT when we look at the sheer volume of contents inside the game, but we think there needs to be some adjustments on interfaces, game system, skills on each class and some other features in the game. I think we are about 70% complete for CBT. Q8) How diversely can a character move in the game? I know that there will be 8 directions and jump, but is it also possible to dash and run? A8) When we had our prototype version, it was possible to run by pressing the cursor keys fast enough, but after some tests, we had concluded that it's aching to press the cursor keys repeatedly so we changed that the basic movement will be running (instead of walking), but when stamina gets fully depleted, character will start to walk. Dash feature which enables players to avoid attacks instantaneously will be available on certain classes. Q9) I saw a fireplace in a game screenshot. What is it for? A9) We have some features including "Rest Mode" in the game in order to prepare for what players can do while they are not engaged in battles. The details of these features will be updated in the future. Q10) How does character customization work? A10) Since there are some limits on the characters' style, it is hard to freely customize the characters. You can choose class, gender and hair style. We are thinking about changing eye colors of the characters possible. Q11) I saw crafting system in the game from the video. How does crafting work? A11) All classes will be able to craft some items in the game. However, in order to craft an item, you have to first acquire a manual to craft a particular item. A manual will be automatically recorded on Adventure Journal once the manual gets used and after that the item can be crafted any time. Certain manuals can be taught to the others. When you collect all the ingredient items that are specified in a manual, you can craft the item. Crafting is only possible during Rest Mode, and it could take a few seconds, a few minutes, and more than 10 minutes depending on what kind of items you are crafting. Q12) How big is the world in "Tree of Savior"? A12) Our plan is to have more than 200 territories in the game when we launch OBT. It will include 3 major cities. Q13) I know that there are hair/head accessories. How many kinds of accessories do we have in the game? A13) At the moment, we have about 50 costumes that are not relevant to characters' stats. We will have more before we launch the game. [▲Crowns, hair bands, rabbit ears and etc are already present in the game.] Q14) When we look at the classes, there are clear distinctions between tanker, healer and dealer. When players form parties, are these roles clearly specified within each party? Or even if we don't care about the combinations of the classes, is it possible to clear dungeons in the game? A14) We are keep adjusting and modifying in terms of battle system. We will tell you more about it after our CBT. Q15) It was unique to see the texts that are being typed by the spectators during a tournament match are shown on the screen. What was your purpose on showing those texts? A15) Players who are waiting for the next matches, or the players who just want to watch the matches are all gathered around in the spectators' seats. They can watch those matches from the point of view of the players who are actually engaged in the matches. The texts that are being typed by the people who are gathered around will be shown anonymously on the screen and we think it will be more enjoyable to watch those matches when there are diverse comments coming from many people. A few people who are reading this may have already noticed. We got an inspiration from the one of Japan's famous video sites. Q16) When I look at Adventure Journal, there is something called Adventure Achievements. What is the purpose and when we complete high level Achievements, what kind of benefits can we receive? A16) There are some players who are mainly focused on leveling up their characters and complete only those quests that are mandatory and there are other players who want to enjoy all the hidden contents in the game. Adventure Achievements are for the latter players, but the Achievements in the game can not be achieved simply by killing lots of monsters. There are many Achievements such as collecting all the different kinds of items, searching and navigating all the maps, clearing all the quests including the hidden quests and many more. Your Achievements will be compared to the other players' Achievements and we will show which players have achieved higher points by ranking those players. Certain quests and certain upper level classes are only possible to do and aquire when your accumulated Achievement points are higher than certain level. [▲The latest build screenshot which was first revealed from Inven ②] Q17) We think community features and real life features (such as marriage, having a house and etc) would fit the game well. A17) It is hard to predict how the community in the game will turn out in the future. After collecting feedback from the testers from CBT and the tests after that, we will decide which system to add in the game. Q18) You have recently opened Developers' Blog for "Tree of Savior" and shared with us some information. When can we get the new information? A18) We will collect all the questions from the Facebook and the Blog and answer them from time to time. We will also update our development process. However, our updates will be non-periodic for a while. Q19) So finally, CBT which is scheduled within this summer, How much can we expect in the game in terms of the number of contents? A19) The main purpose of CBT is to test the game when a large number of people connect at the same time. Therefore, we will limit the number of contents that will be released at the CBT version of the game. Still, we will have enough contents so that the testers can play the game for full two weeks. We are collecting the questions that you have given us so far via Facebook and Developers' blog and we will soon answer your questions on Questions and Answers about TOS #2. Thanks.
Thank You for Your Participation in ICBT2
Greetings, This is the Tree of Savior Dev Team. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have participated in the tests as well as those who, unfortunately, did not get the chance to be with us yet. We were able to gather valuable feedback and suggestions from all of you and we will make use of these for our future development of TOS. Thank you so much for your participation and support during the second ICBT and we hope to meet all of you again soon. Thank you! I would like to say "Thank you" to all of you who participated for the test and as well as those who, unfortunately, did not get the chance to be with us for the test. We were very pleasant to see you playing the game and we were also able to gather some meaningful data and reports throughout the test. We will meet you again with more improvements in the game next time. From Producer and Director, Seyong Kim From Art Director, Maggi From Art Designer, Mina Kim From Content Designer, Orange Smith From UI Designer, Jooyeon Seo From Effect/SFX Designer, Mayoking From Art Designer, Heajin Sung From Art Designer, Minkyong Kang From UX/UI Manager, Gilyong Lee From Animator, Sookyung Kim From Animator, Minwoo Park From Animator, Seunghyeon Myeong From Character Designer, Dami Kim From Content Designer, Ginyi Lee From Character Designer, Jiae Park From Our Content Designers From Our Background Designers holeheartedly thank you! emphasize while (true). From Senior Programmer, Sanghyup Shin We LOVE this man!