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Future Plans for Class/Skill Balance
Hello, this is the developer in charge of skill and class balancing over at the TOS team. We have been closely monitoring all the opinions and feedback you guys have been sending in from in-game, the forums and other sources about class balance. There are a good number of possible class trees that have allowed for some creative builds from players of TOS. As developers, we appreciate all the enthusiasm you’ve shown. Unfortunately, we also understand that not all of our players are happy with their class trees and builds. Some classes show their true beauty the way we intended them to and are consequently loved by many, but some classes weren’t as lucky and have often been ignored… We at the dev team feel the need to reduce this ‘class disparity’. We have implemented five class patches so far. These are the goals we have been aiming to achieve with them: 1. Each class should have its own characteristics and roles. 2. Adjustments should be carefully planned to avoid one class dominating its rank or being left out, and to achieve a fairly equal distribution of classes in each rank. 3. Rather than letting one class become too good to the point of self-reliance, we should devise a plan to encourage different types of classes to work together and develop new play strategies. The sixth and seventh balance patches we want to implement will be to renovate the classes that have yet to fully show their true potential. For example, classes such as the Cannonneer will be undergoing changes to their AoE range, damage, play convenience and so on. Some classes have already had similar changes implemented in previous patches. Now, let’s talk about some specifics of the sixth and seventh balance patches we want to implement. 1) Barbarian - Our goal is to make Barbarian skills easier to use with other Swordsman skills. - Upcoming patches will therefore focus on maximizing the potential synergy of Barbarian skills and Swordsman skills. 2) Rune Caster - We plan to continue expanding the list of skills available when in the Rune of Giants state. - After considering which classes are the most often used in a Rune Caster build, we will examine the skills of those classes and see which ones can be used alongside Rune of Giants without any problems. 3) Cannonneer - We find that the Cannonneer is not fully living up to the promise of being the explosive AoE nuker it’s meant to be. - That is why we intend to lengthen the Cannonneer’s range and improve the tactical use of this class. - Also, we are figuring out ways to improve its performance by utilizing skills from other classes in the Archer tree. 4) Monk - The most urgent problem with the Monk class, we find, is that the skills have too many restrictions. - Removing these restrictions could have a huge ripple effect, however, so we’re proceeding with caution. - Generally speaking, though, we want to improve the Monk’s go-to skills by changing certain restrictions and aspects of the skill system. Aside from the alterations mentioned here, we are still working on other changes to come in future patches. Moreover, in 2017 we hope to emphasize PvP balance patches to answer the needs of players from all around the world. We’re attentively examining all issues regarding the Team Battle League, Regional GvG and general PvP. One thing we want to start on is dealing with the skills considered either too OP or make PvP otherwise boring. The balancing process is never complete, as many seasoned gamers will know, and neither is our quest to improve the Tree of Savior that you and we love. We cannot thank you enough for all the love and support we have received. Thank you.
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!
[UPDATE] Out Comes the Full Moon
Greetings, Saviors! The full moon is coming out to spook and amaze the Kingdom’s night dwellers. Get your personal mini-moon and collect Full Moon Fragments for daily rewards and more! Event Period FROM the scheduled maintenance on October 10, 2018 TO the scheduled maintenance on November 13, 2018 Who Can Participate - Characters of level 50 and above How to Participate STEP 1. Visit the Full Moon Kupole in the city of Klaipeda to receive your own Mini Full Moon, a personal satellite that follows you around everywhere you go. STEP 2. After receiving a Mini Full Moon, complete quests or defeat boss monsters (Instanced Dungeons, Field Bosses, Challenge Mode) until you collect Full Moon Fragment x20. Every quest you complete earns you one Fragment, while defeated bosses will give you two each. STEP 3. Return to the Full Moon Kupole and deliver the Full Moon Fragments and Mini Full Moon to receive your daily rewards! You will get all of the following items each time. - Attribute Points: 100 x5 - Blessed Shard x2 - Sweet Dumpling x2 - Challenge Portal Scroll (14 Days) x1 STEP 4. Collect Full Moon Fragments every day and receive even more rewards for your team’s total participation count! Here are the prizes you can win according to the number of times you deliver the 20 Fragments. 5 times = Jumbo Dumpling (14 Days) x5 10 times = Skill Reset Potion (14 Days) x1 15 times = Title: Waiting for a Full Moon x1 20 times = Knapsack x1 (back costume) STEP 5. Even after you receive your daily rewards, you can still have fun with the Mini Full Moon! Simply talk to the Full Moon Kupole again after delivering your 20 Fragments of the day to receive a Mini Full Moon that grows according to the number of Full Moon Fragments you collect! STEP 6. Complete quests and defeat boss monsters to collect Full Moon Fragments with your Mini Full Moon, and watch as it grows from day to day! When you are done growing your Mini Full Moon, you can simply deliver it back to the Kupole along with all the Full Moon Fragments you collected. You can also check with the Kupole to see a list of the players that collected the most Fragments. Important - Participation in this event is counted on a per-team basis. Daily counts reset at 00:00 (server time). - Full Moon Fragments cannot be traded, but they can be transferred via Team Storage. - Full Moon Fragments will not drop from boss monsters with over 30 levels of difference from your character. - Full Moon Fragments will not drop from boss monsters in Remnants of Bernice or quests. - Full Moon Fragments will drop only to the player or party that delivers the last blow to the defeated boss monster. If the last blow is delivered by a player in a party, all participating party members will receive Full Moon Fragments. If the defeated boss monster was summoned by a Card Album, only the individual player who deals the last blow will receive the Fragments. - You cannot grow your Mini Full Moon while you are gathering Fragments for the daily reward. Also, Fragments collected for the daily reward do not count towards your growing moon, and vice-versa. You cannot use Fragments collected with a growing moon for the next day’s daily reward. - The list of players who collected the most Fragments counts the 10 teams in your server who obtained the most Full Moon Fragments with a growing moon throughout the event period. If two players collected the same number of Fragments, the player who delivered them first will be shown higher on the list. - Items with time limits (“14 Days”) cannot be traded or transferred to other characters, so make sure to receive them on your preferred character. - The event NPC, along with any unused Full Moon Fragments and Sweet Dumplings, will be automatically deleted at the end of the event period.
[EDITED] Future Improvements: Auto Match, EXP Tomes and More
Greetings, Saviors! We’re back today to introduce a whole roster of new features and improvements that are making their debut in the kTOS servers on March 30, 2017, and that should be introduced to the Steam version in a couple of months. As always, remember that these contents can look slightly different when they arrive on iTOS. 1. Two to Four Player Party Auto Match Function To reduce queuing times in instanced dungeons with less participation and provide more flexible party options, we developed a new auto match function that allows you to play in an auto matched party of 2 to 4 members. Basic 2-4 Auto Match For this new function, we added a ‘Match 2 to 4 Players’ button to the instanced dungeon UI. While in the queue, players who selected this option will have a check sign over their icons, while those who chose regular auto matching will appear with no check sign. To enter an instanced dungeon in a party of less than 5 members, however, all players currently shown in the queue must have selected the ‘Match 2 to 4 Players’ option. Also, a 2 to 4 member party can only enter an instanced dungeon after 5 minutes in the queue. To cancel the 2 to 4 player party matching option, you will need to cancel the matching process altogether before selecting a new option to enter the instanced dungeon. ▲ A confirmation message appears after you click the ‘Match 2 to 4 Players’ button. Auto Match with Party You can also combine the ‘Match 2 to 4 Players’ option with the ‘Auto Match with Party’ function. After you click ‘Auto Match with Party’, the ‘Match 2 to 4 Players’ button becomes active, allowing you and your current premade party member(s) to enter the instanced dungeon in a party of 2 to 4 players together. This function also requires that 5 minutes pass in the queue before a party of less than 5 members can enter the instanced dungeon. All it takes is one premade party member to select the ‘Match 2 to 4 Players’ option for it to apply to all other premade party members, and the same goes for canceling it (any premade party member can cancel the process). The 5 Minute Rule If the current queue shows 2 to 4 players who have selected the ‘Match 2 to 4 Players’ option, after 5 minutes of queuing, the 2-4 member party will enter the instanced dungeon as such. If at least one person in the current queue hasn’t selected the ‘Match 2 to 4 Players’ option, the waiting continues until the party has all 5 members as usual. ▲ Unless the player in the red square clicks the ‘Match 2 to 4 Players’ button, the waiting continues until there are 5 members. After 5 minutes have passed in a queue with 2 to 4 players who have all selected ‘Match 2 to 4 Players’, the system will assess two conditions to decide whether the party is ready to enter: 1) The time at which the first player entered the queue 2) The time at which a new player entered or abandoned the queue The overall waiting time is counted from the moment the first player enters the queue, so as soon as that player has waited 5 minutes in the queue, the party will be ready to enter as long as there is one other player in the same queue who has also selected ‘Match 2 to 4 Players’, even if it’s only been 1 second since they entered the queue. 2. Crafting With Timed EXP Tomes There have been multiple occasions where we handed out 14-day EXP Tomes as compensation for extended maintenances and other inconveniences, but the problem with these was that players were only able to use them one by one like a regular EXP Tome. Now, we have decided to allow EXP Tomes with time limits (expiration date) to be used for crafting x4 EXP Tomes in the same way regular EXP Tomes are. And of course, x4 EXP Tomes crafted from timed EXP Tomes can be used to craft x8 EXP Tomes as usually. [EDIT] You will not be able to use expired EXP Tomes to craft x4 EXP Tomes. 3. Item Drop System Improvements Until now, materials and other items dropped by monsters in TOS can be obtained based on a system known as “counting drop”, which allows items to drop after a character has defeated a certain number of the same type of monster. The system isn’t perfect yet, but we believe the new formula to be a little more reasonable and appealing to players. Current DPK System In the current system, the DPK value is defined by a random number between a predetermined minimum and maximum values. For example, if a monster’s minimum DPK value is 900 and its maximum DPK value is 1,100, a random number between 900 and 1,100 is generated. When a player defeats that number of monsters, the item drops, and after it’s dropped once, a new random number is generated under the same principle, continuing the cycle. Revised Top-Down DPK System The revised system combines DPK and drop rates in the following formula: 1 / (set DPK value – current no. of monsters defeated) This means that, if a monster’s DPK value is 100, every time you defeat one monster the drop rate will change from 1/100 to 1/99, to 1/98 and so on. In other words, there’s a chance the monster will drop the item even before you defeat 100 of them. Here, too, the DPK value is reset every time the item drops. 4. General UI Improvements 4.1. Market Retrieve Tab In the current Market Retrieve tab, it can be hard to tell which items were sold, which were bought and which were canceled. To improve on this aspect, we added a few bits of information to the Retrieve tab UI that tell you exactly where the items and silver in there came from. 1) On the left side, items are tagged as 3 different states: Sold, Bought and Cancelled. 2) For items you sold, the UI will display information regarding the transaction. 3) The quantity of items sold and bought is displayed separately. 4) You can filter the items in your Retrieve tab by type at the bottom of the window. 4.2. Monster and Exploration Alerts These are new system alerts that tell you when you’re close to completing a monster hunt or map exploration Adventure Journal achievement. The alerts will appear on your screen up to 3 times a day (one for every individual achievement) once you reach 70% of completion on any of those types of achievement. Monster Hunt Achievement – Example Let’s say an Adventure Journal achievement requires you to defeat 100 monsters. Once you defeat 70 monsters, you will see a one-time alarm telling you how close you are to completing the achievement. You will only see this type of alarm up to 3 times a day, so even if you reach 70% on a fourth monster hunt achievement, you won’t receive the corresponding alert. Map Exploration Achievement – Example Whenever you reach at least 70% exploration on the map your character is in, you’ll receive an alert about the EXP Card rewards you can receive by reaching 100% exploration. You will only see this type of alarm up to 3 times a day, so even if you reach 70% exploration on a fourth map, you won’t receive the corresponding alert. 4.3. Party UI Improvements The ‘Nearby Party Info’ list shown on the left side of the screen lets you check for parties formed around your location, but until now it was only an interface displaying party information, without actually allowing for any type of interaction with the parties listed. There was also the problem of private parties being “exposed” in the list. To improve on this, we applied two simple changes to this feature: 1) When you click on any parties listed, the UI will now include a ‘Join’ button that allows you to join the party. 2) Private parties will now be, well, private, and will not appear on the party list. 5. Other Changes We have two other changes prepared for this next kTOS patch: removing black hole gimmicks and increasing the maximum number of members in guilds. 5.1. Black Hole Gimmicks Removed We understood that black hole gimmicks, being virtually inescapable, were becoming a nuisance for innocent players walking by and a stressful interruption to hunting and questing. As such, we decided to remove these gimmick and make their rewards obtainable from other gimmicks in the game. We’ll be removing black hole gimmicks from the following regions: Alemeth Forest, Kalejimas, Elgos Abbey Main Building, Salvia Forest, Maven Abbey, Grand Yard Mesa. The rewards you could only obtain from the Grand Yard Mesa black hole will become available at the “delivery recharge” gimmick in the same region. 5.2. Maximum No. of Guild Members Increased This change will probably be a welcome one to those looking to create bigger guilds, as we’re allowing any guild to have at least twice the number of members they currently have. Here’s how the new ‘maximum no. of guild members’ rule will apply: 1) The maximum number of members allowed when a guild is first created will increase from 25 to 50 players. 2) Each level of the ‘Increased Maximum Members’ attribute will increase the maximum number of members allowed by +3 instead of +1. We hope you're looking forward to seeing these features in iTOS as much as we are. There's no date set as of yet for when these will arrive, but we'll make sure to keep you updated with any new implementation plans.
[EDITED] Update on the Optimization Process
Greetings, Saviors! This is TypeBPenguin, the programmer in charge of optimization for TOS. Firstly, I would like to apologize for not giving you an update on how things have been going in a while, and for the delay in the optimization update. We needed some time to reconsider the optimization process for there were certain stability issues. These issues have been dealt with since then and, with that success, different aspects of the optimization process have improved as a result. In this quest for optimization, we set out one goal: make the game run without a hitch even with 100 players on the screen! Now, as some of you might already know, this is not an easy task. But we set our goal high and we will dedicate our time and effort to realize it. Also, we have set up a specialized test environment. As you can see from the screenshots below, 100 player characters are moving about, casting skills, jumping and doing all kinds of activities. This would be an ideal environment to test the optimization. Optimization Process The first and foremost thing to solve were the client stability issues from the previous optimization process. During the numerous tests, certain side effects from the previous optimization process have been found and, regrettably, for the sake of stability, we had to forgo some improvements. However, through other optimization processes, we were able to obtain both stability and improved performance. 1. Our resource management system has been improved by applying resource background loading and data pull. What we have achieved was a reduction in the time wasted on resource loading. The graph below compares performances before and after the resource management system application. The unit is ms/frame and the red graph indicates the before, while the purple graph indicates the after. The test environment for both is the same as the one shown in the screenshots above. Please look at the number of spikes and duration. Through the application of these measures, we were able to obtain the best of both worlds and have the benefits from the previous process along with the huge reduction from resource loading. 2. We created a separate thread to process articles, models and other ingame factors to reduce processing time. Most of the total processing time is spent on updating models when 100 characters are on one screen. When characters cast skills, naturally a number of particles are created. Consequently, more time is needed to process the particle effects. Here, we thought of a way to process them in different threads. 3. We reduced rendering time and draw call numbers by improving the rendering pipeline. We have improved the Character Depth MRT process and other unnecessary rendering processes that we weren’t able to do last time. The graph above was obtained in a test environment and based on the results from replays where certain features were locked. There might be a margin of discrepancy in the actual gameplay environment. Also, we must be prepared to deal with unexpected side effects like last time. Therefore, we took some time testing and re-testing to find possible issues so that this optimization process will perform without major problems. Likewise, we did have to sacrifice some performance to ensure better stability, but the ultimate goal was to provide our users with a safe and sound gameplay experience. Ingame Test The graph below is based not on replay scenarios but rather the actual ingame environment like the screenshots above. The red graph indicates the before, the blue graph the after. The first graph is recorded when loading 100 characters doing various activities. The second graph is taken after the character loading and doing various activities. We can clearly see certain significant improvements in the overall processing speed and reduction in frame drops. Closing Words Aside from the processes we have mentioned above, we are also working on improving inefficient algorithm structures and other tasks to reduce even 1ms for our users. We will keep on striving to improve the optimization process. As always, thank you for playing and loving our game :D UPDATE: We thought we'd add in a few words on the general timeline for the new optimization measures after seeing your feedback on this post. One part of the processes described here has already been implemented in kTOS and we hope to apply it to iTOS as early as next week (January 3, 2017). Keep an eye on the weekly patch notes for more on that. Other processes still need some fine tuning before we can bring them into the game, so we'll keep working on those and hopefully we can let you in on more updates in a near future.
Goddess' Blessed Cube Item List: Updated January 3rd
Please Note That: All the Goddess' Blessed Cubes follow the updated item list regardless of the date it was purchased. This policy will be standard unless stated otherwise. e.g. Goddess' Blessed Cube A (Purchased on November of '16), B (Purchased on January of '17) and C (Purchased on May of '17) will all follow the item list the most current.
[CLOSED] Ways of the Believers
Greetings, Saviors! Monk Master Olfas Grimm is a man of immovable faith. He believes rigorous physical training is the way to go when it comes to serving the divine, and now he’s giving away a series of gemtastic rewards to anyone willing to follow his footsteps. Period Event FROM the scheduled maintenance on August 22, 2017 TO the scheduled maintenance on September 12, 2017 Who Can Participate - Characters of all levels How to Participate STEP 1. In the city of Klaipeda, talk to the Monk NPC to receive your daily training quest. - You can receive a maximum of 1 quest per day, per team (resets at midnight, server time). STEP 2. To complete your training, you’ll need to obtain 300 points by defeating monsters. The amount of points you get varies depending on the level of the monsters relative to your character’s! - Monsters 51 or more levels below = 0 points - Monsters 11 to 50 levels below = 1 point - Monsters up to 10 levels below or above = 2 points - Monsters 11 or more levels above = 3 points - Training quests and points are shared with all the characters of your team, meaning you can use different characters on the same day to collectively achieve the 300 points. - Use the ‘/believers’ command to check your team’s current point count. STEP 3. Return to the Monk NPC in Klaipeda to receive your reward! Every time you complete a training quest you can receive one random reward from the NPC. On the weekends (Saturdays and Sundays during the event period), the reward is doubled! - Believer’s Potion x2 + 4 Gems [Potion effects: physical and magic attack +100 for 1 hour] - Basic Gem Abrasive (gem EXP +300) - Intermediate Gem Abrasive (gem EXP +1,200) - Advanced Gem Abrasive (gem EXP +3,900) - Superior Gem Abrasive (gem EXP +14,700) - Lv3 Gem Abrasive (gem EXP +31,000) - Lv4 Gem Abrasive (gem EXP +62,000) - Lv5 Gem Abrasive (gem EXP +124,000) - Lv9 Gem Abrasive (gem EXP +230,000) STEP 4. Complete a total of 18 training quests from the Monk NPC to automatically receive the title of ‘True Believer’! - This title is delivered automatically once the quest is completed. It is character-bound and obtainable only once per team, so make sure to receive it with the right character. Important - Believer’s Potions will be automatically deleted on September 19, 2017. - Believer’s Potions and Gem Abrasives obtained as rewards from this event can be moved via Team Storage but not traded with other players.
[UPDATE/COMPLETE] Scheduled Maintenance for November 1st, 2016
Greetings, Saviors!We would like to announce the details of our weekly maintenance for November 1st, 2016. Make sure to check below for the maintenance schedule and patch notes.Please note that other issues and bugs are also being worked on even if they are not mentioned below.
2020 Is Here
Greetings, Saviors! 2020 Is Here! Celebrate the New Year with a BANG! Use the Firecracker items for chance to obtain New Year Coins. Collect the coins for fabulous prizes. EVENT PERIOD FROM the scheduled maintenance on December 31, 2019 UNTIL the scheduled maintenance on January 28, 2020 WHO CAN PARTICIPATE - This event is open to players of level 50 and above HOW TO PARTICIPATE STEP 1. Obtain the [Event] New Year Firecracker and [Event] New Year Together Firecracker items and use them to collect [Event] New Year Coins. STEP 2. Take the collected coins to the the New Year Event Noticeboard in Klaipeda, Orsha and Fedimian to exchange them for fabulous prizes. EVENT ITEMS AND BUFFS Item Effect How to Obtain Tradability Team Storage [Event] New Year Firecracker Applies [Event] New Year 2x buff to the player. Buff lasts 24 hours max. 1) Can be obtained once per day at the event noticeboard. 2) Can be obtained by using [Event] New Year Coins at the New Year Shop. X O [Event] New Year Together Firecracker Applies [Event] New Year 3x buff to the player and other players within 100 range every 10 seconds for a 1-minute duration. [Event] New Year 3x buff lasts 24 hours max. 1) Can be obtained by chance when hunting monsters. X O Buff Effect Duration [Event] New Year 2x Increases the amount of [Event] New Year coins earned by 2x 24 hours [Event] New Year 3x Increases the amount of [Event] New Year coins earned by 3x 24 hours * Buff duration is consumed even when the character is not logged in. ** The above buffs only apply to coins earned when participating in the in-game content. *** Buffs are applied on a Team by Team basis. **** The amount of [Event] New Year Coins obtained is increased by 5x when both buffs are stacked. [EVENT] NEW YEAR COINS - Here are the different ways you can collect [Event] New Year Coins Method Detail Number of Coins Max. Coin per Day Limit per Completing in-game content Issued when completing an in-game content Depends on the completed content (explained in detail below) 5,000 Team Log-in Reward Issued once per day on the player’s first log-in 500 500 Team Connection Reward Issued every hour since logging into the game 50 250 Team Fishing Reward Issued with a successful catch 20 400 Team - The amount of [Event] New Year Coins obtained per day can be checked by typing ‘/newyear’ in the chat. - The connection rewards are reset every day at 06:00 AM EST - The daily limit for [Event] New Year Coins earned will be reset when the player has received the daily log-in reward. - Upgrading the Tackle Box to its maximum capacity will allow the player to earn up to 400 New Year Coins as Fishing Reward per day. * The time connected to the game will not be counted when the player is in the log-in screen, the lodge or in Team Battle League. * [Event] New Year Coins are issued directly into the player’s inventory. Content Amount of Coins Content Amount of Coins Level Dungeon 10 Uphill Defense: Hard, Stage 5 or above 20 Unique Raid 20 Uphill Defense: Very Hard, Stage 5 or above 30 Unique Raid: Casual 20 Challenge Mode Stage 5 or above 20 Legend Raid 50 Monsters / Hunting Grounds 2 Legend Raid: Casual 50 Earth Tower 50 Uphill Defense: Normal, Stage 10 or above 10 - - * Players have the chance to obtain [Event] New Year Coins when defeating monsters in fields, Hunting Grounds and Challenge Modes. ** Only monsters within 30 level range of the player will drop [Event] New Year Coins when defeated. ** Maximum of 5,000 [Event] New Year Coins can be obtained per day by completing in-game content. Item Cost Purchase Limit Team Storage Tradability [Event] Firecracker 100 100 per Team O X [Event] Transcendence Stage 5 Scroll 10,000 2 per Team O X [Event] Transcendence Stage 3 Scroll 5,000 3 per Team O X [Event] Small Elixir of HP Recovery 25 500 per Team O X [Event] Small Elixir of SP Recovery 25 500 per Team O X [Event] Savinose Weapon Selection Box 10,000 1 per Team O X [Event] Savinose Armor Selection Box 3,000 4 per Team O X Challenge Mode One Entry Voucher (14 Days) 250 50 per Team O X [Event] Silver Anvil (14 Days) 150 40 per Team O X [Event] Golden Anvil (14 Days) 250 40 per Team O X Premium Awakening Stone (14 Days) 300 40 per Team O X 7 Star Gem Abrasive (14 Days) 300 40 per Team X X [Event] Mysterious Magnifier (14 Days) 500 80 per Team O X [Event] Artisan Magnifier (14 Days) 1,000 40 per Team O X x8 EXP Tome (14 Days) 300 5 per Team X X Pamoka Solution 250 60 per Team O X Pamoka Solution EXP 2x Voucher 250 20 per Team O X Intense Sparkle 30,000 1 per Team O X * Intense Sparkle item adds special effects when the player character is hit. ** [Event] New Year Coins, [Event] Firecracker and [Event] Together Firecracker items will be removed automatically at the end of the event period. *** [Event] Savinose Legva Shield is available in both the Weapon and Armor Selection Boxes.