Goddess' Blessed Cube: January 28, 2020

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.  

[UPDATE] Scheduled Maintenance for December 15, 2020

Greetings, Saviors!We would like to announce the details of our weekly maintenance for (December 15, 2020). 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.

Scheduled Maintenance for May 15, 2018

Greetings, Saviors!We would like to announce the details of our weekly maintenance for (May 15, 2018). 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.

Upcoming New Class: Keraunos

  New Class: Keraunos   Keraunos, a Lightning Type Magic class of Wizard class will be added on the next big update.   “Keraunos are those who have learned how to use the power of lightning in a different way through endless research.” “They send the current down themselves and quickly pour out powerful attacks for a while.”      Keraunos uses Lightning and controls the Cooldown of attack skills to maximize the firepower. [Spark] effect can be received by using the normal attack and can control the Cooldown of Keraunos attack skill. Because the ability to control the attack skill’s Cooldown is related to an increase in Keraunos’ firepower, the judgment of how to use the attack skill is crucial.   ※ Details of Enhance and Enhanced upgrade will be posted later when applying to the live server, and may change.   Icon Details Electric Current   - Basic attack is changed to a ranged attack and the attack speed increases. - You receive 1 [Spark] effect by chance when you attack with basic attack. - Up to 5 [Current] debuff stacks when you attack with normal attack. The fewer enemies around you, the more stacks of [Current] debuff you get. - [Spark] effect is consumed when you use Keraunos skill. Cooldown won’t be applied to the skill. - When you receive [Spark] effect, 1 random skill among Keraunos attack skill will be activated if all learned Keraunos attack skill is under Cooldown. Electric Shock   - Staggers the enemy under [Current] debuff periodically. - Cycle shortens per stack of [Current]. Overload   - Attacks the enemy under [Current] debuff.  - Number of hits increases proportionally to the number of [Current] stacks applied to the enemy. - [Current] debuff is removed when the enemy receives damage. Electric Orb   - Ball of Electricity slowly moves forward, and damages nearby enemy. - Ball of Electricity disappears when it touches the obstacle. - The number of strikes increases proportionally to the number of [Current] stacks applied to the enemy. - Attacked enemy's [Current] stack decreases periodically. Electric Orb: Magnetism   - Ball of Electricity follows the nearby enemy. Lightning Spear   - Throw an explosive Lightning Spear in front. - The number of strikes increases proportionally to the number of [Current] stacks applied to the enemy. - [Current] debuff is removed when the enemy receives damage. Electrode   - When the target and the nearby enemy is under [Current] debuff, damages the target as the number of [Current] debuff stacks. - [Current] debuff applied to the damaged enemy and nearby enemies is removed.     Static Field   - Apply [Current: Activate] that remains for a certain period of time to the target. - Periodically damages the target under [Current: Activate] and nearby targets. - The number of strikes increases proportionally to the number of [Current] stacks applied to the enemy. - Decreases the [Current] stack of damaged enemy periodically. Electric Drive   - Stacks [Spark] effect periodically upon use. - Once the [Spark] effect received by [Electric Drive] end, the cooldown is applied to [Electric Drive] equal to the reset value of the cooldown during [Spark] effect. - Decrease in Cooldown and pass effect is not applied. Electric Drive: AoE   - [Spark] effect cannot be received, but the number of Keraunos skills besides [Electric Drive] increases by the number of stacks. Vaivora Vision - Electric Flow   Lv1 - Keraunos Skill level +1 - Deletes the effect that removes Lightning Spear’s [Current] debuff. - Fires additional Lightning Spear to 5 targets based on the target. - (Additional Lightning Spear only attacks one target)   Lv4 - [Static Field] Final Damage increases by 100%            Wizard Class Update   With the Keraunos update, some of the Wizard classes will be adjusted as well.   ※ The details may change when applying to the live server. Details about the change in skill factor will be announced via patch note before applying to the live server.   Featherfoot Featherfoot class will be adjusted as a class that changes the combat ability according to the SP rate. When you activate the Curse of Blood, the basic buff, SP recovery becomes unavailable and as the SP rate decreases, the power of the skill increases and consumes more SP. Also,  it can recover SP by consuming HP with a certain skill.   ※ Attributes related to the Blood Sucking, Bone Pointing, Kurdaitcha, Levitation, Blood Curse will be deleted and new Attribute will be added. Skill Details Curse of Blood - Apply [Blood Curse] to yourself. - Unable to recover SP but immune to Knockback and Knockdown when you're under [Blood Curse]. - Final Damage of Featherfoot skill increases according to the remaining SP. - Featherfoot skill SP consumption increases up to 5 times as your SP rate is lower. Blood Transfusion - Consume your maximum HP and recover SP as the rate of consumed HP. - Does not activate when the HP is under 10%. Kundela - Drop a powerful curse of Kundela in front to attack.   [Arts] Kundela: Decay - Doubles Cooldown and the number of strikes Ngadhundi - Attack the enemy in front to apply [Ngadhundi: Bleeding] debuff. - Enemy under [Ngadhundi: Bleeding] receives continuous damage for a certain time. [Arts] Ngadhundi: Infection - When the target under [Ngadhundi: Bleeding] becomes incapable of combat, the duration renews and transfers to 1 nearby enemy. Blood Explosion - Apply [Blood Explosion] debuff to the target. - Damages the enemy 2 seconds later. Blood Pool - Create a Blood Puddle in a designated area. - Damages the enemy on the puddle.  - After the duration, the puddle explodes and applies more damage to the enemy.   Enervation - Apply [Enervation] to the enemy in front. - Enemy under [Enervation] receives additional damage when receiving the damage from the caster. Plague - Apply [Plague] debuff to the enemy in front. - When the caster attacks the enemy under [Plague] with Featherfoot skill, the damage stacks. - When the [Plague] debuff is over, damages additionally by a certain rate of stacked damage. - Every damage is stacked in PVP, and Heal of the target under [Plague] decreases by a certain rate. Vaivora Vision - Blood Butterfly   Lv1 - Create a [Blood Butterfly's Territory] around yourself during [Curse of Blood] buff while having [Ngadhundi]. -  Enemy within the [Blood Butterfly's Territory] receives damage equal to the skill factor of Ngadhundi every 2 seconds. - Cooldown of Featherfoot skill decreases by 1 second when the enemy within [Blood Butterfly's Territory] is defeated by your attack   Lv4 - Aditional increase in Plague Additional Damage Rate by 10%    ※ Item stat will be announced via patch note when applying to the liver server.       Cryomancer PvP and PvE can be clearly divided by [Arts] Cryomancer: Thin Ice and the skill factor will be adjusted. Existing Vaivora Vision - Eternal Frozen Land will be changed to a new item that can be used more easily.   Skill Details [Arts] Cryomancer: Thin Ice - Final Damage increase rate is changed from 20% to 100%. - Cryomancer’s factor will be adjusted.  If you turn on Thin Ice to exclude the freezing effect, you can apply enough damage like other classes, and if you activate the freezing effect (Arts Off), the power of the skill is reduced by half. Ice Bolt - Cooldown is changed from 5 seconds to 20 seconds. - AoE Attack Ratio is changed to the number of targets. Ice Pike - The number of targets is changed from 10 to 7. Frost Pillar - The number of targets is changed from 20 to 10. Vaivora Vision - Icy Snow Bubble   Lv1 - Frost Pillar skill level +1 - Creates Icy Snow Bubble that damages every 0.5 seconds when you install the Frost Pillar - Damage of Icy Snow Bubble is equal to the Frost Pillar - Icy Snow Bubble does not apply Freezing and [Chill].   Lv4 - Ice Bolt number of hits x2       Taoist Vaivora Vision will be added and the skill factor will be adjusted.   Vaivora Vision - Vigilant Charm   Lv1 - Apply Awakening effect to Taoist 1 rank skill - Flame Radiation Charm: Doubles the number of hits  - Creeping Death Charm: The range of Creeping Death Charm gets wider and the number of hits doubles - Divine Punishment: Broad Strike constantly active, apply as 2 consecutive hits, apply the damage as maximum proportionally to the casting even when you cancel casting - The Awakening effect of the skill remains for the Cooldown of the activated skill. - Other skills’ Awakening effect does not activate during the corresponding skill’s Awakening effect.   Lv4 Following effects will be applied during the skill’s awakening effect. - Flame Radiation Charm: Increases Fire Charm Final Damage by 100% - Creeping Death Charm: Increases Snow Tempest Charm Final Damage by 100% - Divine Punishment: Increases Eradication Final Damage by 100%   Flame Radiation Charm   Creeping Death Charm   Divine Punishment       Changes for Goddess Raid Saint's Sacellum and Delmore Battle field will be changed as follows.   Party (Normal) ● The way you acquire the number of entries is changed from consuming entry voucher to entry given once a week per character by default. (Entry left won’t be passed to the next week.)   ● The silver chest will be excluded from the reward when the level gap between the maximum pc level (lv.470) and the entry-level of dungeon is 11 or above. It means that the silver chest can be received only in the recent raid in the same category. The silver chest won’t be given, but the chance to get the main reward such as Vasilisa Scale and Revived Soul Fragment increases by 100%.  Recent Raid ● Main Reward (ingredients for enhancement) 100% ● Silver Chest Previous Raid ● Main Reward (ingredients for enhancement) 200% ● No Silver Chest   ● Gear Score limit of Saint's Sacellum is changed from 6800 to 7200. Auto Match(Normal) ● Party (Normal) Entry Voucher is removed from the clear reward. ● Chance to receive ingredients for enhancement (Vasilisa Scale, Revived Soul Fragment) increases by 20%. Following items will be added to the Mercenary Badge Shop. ● Recipe - Saint's Sacellum: Goddess One Entry Voucher (Untradable) 75,000 badges / 2 per week ● Recipe - Delmore Battlefield: Goddess One Entry Voucher (Untradable) 75,000 badges  / 2 per week   You won’t need to receive party raid recipes via Auto Match. Thus, if you need enhancement ingredients, you can freely play solo content whenever you want.   Also, the drop rate for the recipe is now 20%, the expected recipe was 2 based on 3 characters playing 10 times (2 times x3 players + additional 4 times by purchase). However, when the change is applied, one character can enter 3 times (1 time + additional 2 times by purchase). Other characters can also enter 1 more time each by setting the gear score and party which will lead to more playing in party raid than before.   Entry Vouchers provided by items will still be valid (including the entry voucher crafted by the recipe). The number of entries will be changed from ‘1 time available’ to ‘(0/1)’.       New Boss in Weekly Boss Raid     Succubus will be added to the Weekly Boss Raid! Summons of Succubus appearing in combat will constantly disturb saviors. Title and doll will be given as a reward to the Succubus rankers.         Pilgrim System   Pilgrim system, which consists of a maximum of 5 members is a fixed party system. You can play a certain difficulty of content by creating a Pilgrim group.     The first contents of Pilgrim are Delmore Battle Field and Goddess Message: Memory of Flame. This can be played only in Extreme mode.     In Extreme difficulty, you can create a Pilgrim group that the season (week) requests, and will compete by groups with a clear record.   The group can also set Trial (difficulty) in Extreme difficulty. The higher Trial grade and the faster clear time, the higher rank is set. We are planning to count the rank every week and provide Speech Bubble with no time limit or so.         Contents Point Improvement and Additional Item for Achievement Item Exchange   To make saviors get various benefits by playing content continuously, we are planning to improve the Contents Point system.   Weekly acquisition limit of Contents Point will be changed from 5,000 to 50,000. Also, we are planning to add [Acquisition +200%] for Weekend Burning event.     Also, items that can be purchased at all times will be added to the Contents Point Shop, and exchangeable items will be renewed.     Not only the Contents Point, but also items that can be purchased with various coins will be added to the Achievement Shop.  Item list is as follows and we are planning to add items continuously.   ● [Event] Delmore Battlefield: Goddess One Entry Voucher (7 Days) ● [Event] Saint's Sacellum: Goddess One Entry Voucher (7 Days) ● Purified Breath of Power ● Refined Condensed Vaivora Transmutor ● Refined Blessed Transmutor           This concludes the posting.  This New Class - Class Adjustment will no longer be periodic but will be updated occasionally from now on in order to make more completion on development. We are sending you a sincere apology that we couldn’t keep our promise about various updates, but we will focus on making content and balance with better quality.      Thank you.     ※ Contents may change when applying to the live server.  

Weekly Question and Answer – October 21st, 2016

Q1. It is very difficult to tell elite monsters from regular monsters. Do you have any plans to distinguish them with a certain clear indicative effect? We are currently in the process of making a method to highlight elite monsters. We understand that, at the moment, players may have trouble instantly recognizing elite monsters which might hinder intuitive gameplay. This may also reduce the fun factor of finding and defeating these relatively rarer monsters. What we are planning to do is indicate them visually on screen and also their names will reflect their elite status to add a sense of drama as well. Such features are on their way. Q2. The monsters run away so fast that it somewhat hinder the gameplay. Is the current speed of monster retreat intentional? Additionally, would there be other gameplay elements regarding the monster fleeing AI such as a monster running away to call for a backup? We also see that the monster fleeing AI can be improved in a variety of ways to improve gameplay. We have come up with some ideas and are now in the final testing and execution stage. Certain changes will be implemented to make the monster behave more organically, less intrusively and allow players to experience the thrill of the hunt. Q3. There is no clear indication of critical evasion and other chances through the character statistics. Are there any plans to make them more intuitive? The chance calculation of critical evasion and alike is based on not just the character’s statistics but also that of the target. Therefore, it is very difficult to have a fixed number representing such chances. However, that is not to say the status quo will remain completely the same. We are internally discussing and experimenting with some ideas to make the gameplay more informative such as displaying target monster’s critical evasion chances on the monster info UI.

Weekly Question and Answer – November 11th, 2016

Q1. The statement on trade restriction that we can retrieve our silver in 48 hours from the market. Will you consider making more comfortable for us? In-game market is inevitably tied to malicious criminal acts such as RMT because it is the main distribution channels in the in-game items and currencies. We are continuously monitoring the transactions of major RMT-items on the market and requires a period of delay to detect illicit activities and prevent such actions from significantly affecting iTOS. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced with the 48 hours restriction. It is difficult to remove 48 hours restriction, We are examining all the options for reducing the current waiting time more in the future patch.   Q2. There is no function and system to change our companion even we typed wrongly. Is there any plan to allow us to change companion's name? We've usually received suggestion about changing companion's name. So we did make a plan to allow our players to change your precious companions. We firmly promise that it will be applied in a future patch.    Q3. When can we meet any of new Gestures and Emoticons to express our characters as eating popcorn and etc ?  We are planning to develop new Gestures and Emoticons for our players as possible as we can. However, we firmly focus on fixing bugs as the top priority.  

Scheduled Maintenance on June 4, 2019

Greetings, Saviors!We would like to announce the details of our weekly maintenance for (June 4, 2019). 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.

Scheduled Maintenance for February 19, 2019

Greetings, Saviors!We would like to announce the details of our weekly maintenance for (February 19, 2019). 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.