In a new letter, MMORPG Throne and Liberty producer Jongok Ahn (안종옥, Jongok Ahn) spoke about planned changes to PvE content. The changes turned out to be more serious than they might seem at first glance. We have prepared a translation of this letter for our readers.
The authors received a lot of negative feedback about the work of the Resistance Event and, first of all, wanted to express a sincere apology for not being able to meet the expectations of the players.
The development team has taken the issues raised during this event very seriously and is already working on a number of fixes and improvements. The focus is on events that force users to participate in certain content, and improving the balance of PvE content, including open world events that create more competitive pressure. It is these changes that I would like to talk about and get feedback from players.
Temporary suspension and reworking of the “Resistance Event”
In its current form, the Resistance Event was a great way to gain new character skills. Due to the nature of Throne and Liberty, where skill is highly valued, this event has become mandatory and forced content for many players. We recognized this and tried to reduce the burden on players by lowering the minimum number of points required to obtain character skills. But we admit that this did not have a significant impact due to the conditions of the event.
This was clearly not our plan, and we decided to pause the Resistance Event until we could find a way to improve it. To compensate, all level 50 players can automatically receive all new skills available as part of this event. Those who have already learned new skills will receive compensation. Users who have not yet learned new skills and are storing the necessary items will also receive compensation. The resumption of the Resistance Event will be announced separately, but will most likely become available in the February 7th update.
We understand that such a decision may negate the value of our efforts, but we are committed to addressing the underlying issues. We will continue to consider our actions, explore all options and ensure that no one is left unhappy.
In the future, we plan to pay more attention to players and provide rewards that are not related to character development (limited skins, cosmetic coins, titles, etc.). New character skills will continue to be acquired automatically based on level, rather than being given out during events. Bonuses that contribute to character development will be given out during seasonal events in which all players participate. For example, in the “Christmas Event”, as well as as part of in-game content that will be added in the future.
Reduced competition at PvE events
We have long believed that excessive competitive stress is one of the biggest areas that needs improvement not only in the Resistance Event but in the game as a whole. We know that Throne and Liberty has a large number of PvE-oriented players who are focused on their own goals and their own development. Therefore, the first step we take in response to this challenge is to remove the competitive element from local events.
Currently, the peaceful mode of regional events does not involve PvP between users, but rather is a competition for supremacy in the number of items delivered. Rewards are distributed based on ranking, which can result in disproportionate items being received and create a feeling of relative unfairness for lower ranked players. These competitive elements create stress similar to PvP and cause open world events to take a backseat.
Going forward, we plan to refine our open world PvE events to live up to our “peaceful” motto, forcing all players in the region to work towards a common goal. It’s about cooperation and overcoming difficulties, not about fighting for spoils. Therefore, we plan to create more advanced content than what we have now. Rewards will no longer be based on rank, but rather on level of goal achievement, with rewards increasing for all participants.
We are still in the process of thinking through our plans, and it will be some time before we can share them with you. In the meantime, we would like to redistribute the rewards that can be obtained from PvE events into other content to reduce the stress of this content a little. Instead of reducing the rewards from regional events, we will be adjusting the availability of materials (including Marinids) for character development in party dungeons. We will make sure that players who are not participating in open world events will not have to worry about developing their character.
Improvement and improvement of PvE content
We’ve already talked about how we’re making improvements for PvE-focused players in open world events, but we’d also like to share some improvements to PvE content that we’ve been working on for some time. We can’t give specific dates for some of them yet, but after the Resistance Event we received a lot of questions about the direction of the game. So we thought it would be a good idea to share them with you while they are still in the planning stages.
End-game PvE content will revolve around co-op dungeons. Guilds are a strength of our game, but they are also a system that requires a strong sense of belonging. We fear that guilds will become too much of a commitment for some gamers. Therefore, we decided that the endgame for PvE-oriented players is cooperative dungeons that can develop outside the guild community in a format of six or more people.
We’ll be adding five co-op dungeons in March. Three of them are hardmodes of existing dungeons, and two are completely new ones in development. This may be a bit of a disappointment for those who were hoping for more new dungeons, but we want to be realistic about what we can do to expand endgame content as quickly as possible. We’re working on models and improvements so that it’s not just boss fights of different colors.
New dungeons will appear weekly. And we want to make sure you have a reason and a purpose to go into them, no matter what weapon you’re holding.
In addition, we are rapidly working on a system for seamless party selection for dungeons. The current state, when there is a set of parties in the world chat, does not please us as developers, and many of you spoke about this as a big problem. Since dungeons and boss raids are the main focus of PvE, we will continue to work on improving these elements.
We will also improve world bosses. They may not have had that much of an impact on competition, but they did take away from the core fun of PvE—defeating bosses. The open world means that the boss has too many players, making it difficult to participate in killing the boss, and the rewards are distributed too unevenly. To improve this situation, we will be making changes to all PvE bosses, including Archbosses, so that they spawn in isolated instances. Players who previously fought the same PvE boss together will be spread across multiple instances, and since the number of players involved in the fight will be reduced accordingly, the chance of receiving an individual reward will increase, making the boss fight more rewarding than before. As the amount of gear dropped from world bosses increases, we expect players to naturally upgrade their boss gear. These improvements will appear in the game in February.
PvE improvements and enhancements like these are a top priority for Throne and Liberty at the moment. The goal is to move away from guild-centric, and thus somewhat inaccessible, content to more open and free PvE for solo players and small groups of players. We’ll rework the content so you can focus on your own development and no longer feel pressured by unwanted competition.
