Game news/Plan to merge the combat professions

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Plan to merge the combat professions

Background

We are planning on making some changes to how combat progression works in Brighter Shores.

We know that changing a core system can be controversial, but having per episode combat professions is putting off new players.

It has been very challenging to design a new system which allows for a single combat profession, but still allows us to release the game in an episodic form which doesn't result in out-of-reach content, or dead content.

After spending many days considering a huge number of different ideas, we have decided on a small number of changes to combat progression.

This isn't set in stone, as it may change if we find problems whilst implementing it, but this is the plan currently:

1) There will be single combat profession shared across all episodes

The monsters in the early episodes will be low level, and as you progress through the episodes the level of the monsters will slowly increase.

We clearly can't make the monster levels increase by 500 each episode, that would make the game way too difficult! The base monsters in episode 1 will be level 0-30 The base monsters in episode 2 will be level 30-60 The base monsters in episode 3 will be level 60-100 The base monsters in episode 4 will be level 100-140 Each episode beyond 4 will add another 40 levels of combat.

Don't worry if your total combat level is already greater than 140, we aren't going to wipe out or devalue your hard work. Read this entire document before panicing :P

An advantage of making the combat run sequentially across the episodes as described above, is that it means if you progress without using the 'end game' mechanic (described below), you will only fight the first skin of each monster.

To ensure that players who play a lot aren't massively overpowered by the time they reach a later episode, your maximum combat level will be capped at the top level of the latest episode you have discovered. This way when we launch episode 5 a reasonable number of people will have reached the level 140 maximum that episode 5 will be designed to start at, and there also won't be loads of overpowered players.

Each time we release a new episode the maximum combat level will increase by another 40, so eventually the combat level cap will be very high.

'End game' mechanic

However in the meantime we don't want players to 'run out' of combat, so once you have reached the combat level cap of the current episode, we will have an 'end game' mechanic, where excess combat levels will instead be used to increase the level of that episode's obelisk.

Levelling up an obelisk causes the obelisk to further boost your combat whilst you are in the same episode as the obelisk.

Furthermore, as you level up the obelisk, a small number of the available upgrades will still apply whilst you are in the NEXT episode. This allows you to do some preparation for the next episode ahead of time.

The episode 1 obelisk will be able to gain up to 470 levels, the episode 2 obelisk can also gain 470 levels, and each subsequent obelisk can gain up to 460 levels. This way the total levels per episode remains the same.

Levelling up the obelisk will also allow you to optionally advance the monsters in the matching episode to their next (higher level) skin. i.e you will be able to advance the monsters in episode 1 to be higher than their base 0-30 level to unlock higher XP rates.

Weapons and armor

Weapons and armor will work in a similar way. Each weapon/armor will have a base level. Your player's combat level must be at least as high as the weapon's level to wield it. The monsters in episode 1 will drop level 0-30 weapons, the monsters in episode 2 will drop level 30-60 weapons, etc...

Furthermore if you have advanced the monsters to a higher level skin, using the 'end game' mechanic, those monsters will start dropping weapons with an additional 'tuning' level. Weapons with a tuning level are boosted by the obelisk they are tuned to. If a weapon has a tuning level then you will ALSO need to have upgraded the 'weapon/armor proficiency' (see 'upgrade tree' section below) of the applicable obelisk to wield it.

Weapon crafting

When crafting weapons in the Mine of Mantuban. The maximum level of weapon you can craft = crafting level + 60. So to craft a level 100 Cryoknight weapon suitable for use in Crenopolis you will need to be a level 40 blacksmith. If you level up your crafting profession further, then you will be able to craft weapons which ALSO have a higher 'tuning level' (see description above).

Note: compared to currently:

  • It will be easier to craft weapons which are relevant for episode 1 & 2 (because you can craft level 60 weapons straight away).
  • It will be about the same to craft weapons which are relevant for episode 3 (the weapons you initially craft, are just good enough for use in the mine).
  • It will be harder to craft weapons which are relevant for episode 4 & 5 (to craft weapons good enough for use in these episodes you will need to level up your crafting a bit first).

Crafted weapons are always untuned initially (even if they have a tuning level) and so can still be tuned to an obelisk of your choice, and can still be infused to make epics.

You WILL be able to wield untuned weapons, they just won't gain a boost from any obelisk until tuned.

Because this will allow you to craft weapons with a higher level than your crafting level, the price of crafted weapons will need to be balanced accordingly, so the wealth gain at each level of crafting remains the same as currently. However we also want the wealth gain from killing monsters at each combat level to remain the same! To fix this, untuned weapons (i.e which you craft) will have a lower cash value than tuned weapons (i.e which monsters drop), and you will have to pay the cash difference to tune them.

Level scaling

As we launch later episodes, with their higher level caps and higher level weapons, players will be able to bring those higher levels and weapons back to the earlier episodes. If we aren't careful they will be able to complete the end game content and side quests of those earlier episodes far too easily, which would result in 'dead' content and dilutes the achievements of players who did it the hard way. (before the later episode was launched).

To stop this from happening, we plan to add some limited monster level scaling. If you are more than 10 levels stronger than a monster, the monster will increase its level (without changing its skin), so it is never less than 10 levels below you. It will still be an easy kill, but won't be so fast as to unbalance the game.

For quest boss monsters we will cap them to never be weaker than you. This way they always represent something of a challenge, even if you come back and do the side quests after doing lots of later episodes.

This also means we will no longer need the 'easy combat' penalty when fighting low level monsters.

2) We are going to introduce combat 'upgrade trees'

Unlike every other profession in the game, leveling up combat already does more than just unlock new activities, it actually gives many different upgrades:

  • It increases the level of weapon you can wield (weapon proficiency).
  • It increases the level of armor you can wield (armor proficiency).
  • It increases your base maxhit (in all 6 colors).
  • It increases your base damage deflection (in all 6 colors).
  • It increases your maximum hitpoints.
  • It unlocks higher level monster skins (new activities).

Rather than giving you a little bit of each upgrade when you level up, we are going to introduce 'upgrade trees' which allows you to CHOOSE which upgrade you want each time you level up. So if you want to focus on a particular color of damage, or on building a tank or a glass cannon you can. Because each upgrade will only upgrade a single stat, the upgrade will be able to grant a much greater increase in that single stat, so will make more of a noticeable difference.

There will be a 'character' upgrade tree, which unlocks upgrades as you increase your combat level.

In addition each obelisk will also have an upgrade tree, which unlocks as you level up that obelisk.

This is just a mockup with randomly placed upgrades. The arrangement of the upgrades will differ in the final version.

In addition to the existing upgrades listed above, there are all sorts of other upgrades we can put on the upgrade trees to make them more interesting, ideas we are considering include:

  • Increasing your hitpoint regeneration speed.
  • Increasing your off-faction weapon/armor proficiency (at a lower rate) so you can wield off-faction items.
  • Increasing how fast you can move during combat.
  • Increasing maximum ammo.
  • Increasing immunity cast speed.
  • Unlocking/improving special attacks.

etc...

There will also be a few 'bonus' upgrades in the upgrade tree which are better, and so you are incentivized to build a path towards, including:

  • Upgrades which gives double the boost in the relevant stat.
  • Obelisk upgrades which boost the stat in both the obelisk episode, AND the next episode.

You will be able to 'respec' your character upgrade tree and obelisk upgrade trees at any time (for some silver coins), but you will not be able to transfer levels between upgrade trees.

3) Existing save games conversion

When updating existing save games made prior to this update:

For each 'per episode' combat level you have: Levels up to the level cap for that episode will be assigned to your combat level, and any excess levels will automatically be assigned to the corresponding obelisk level.

Existing weapons will be converted in a similar way. Each weapon will be given a level + tuning level which together sum to the same level that the weapon had prior to the update. Levels up to the level cap for the weapon's episode will go into the weapon level, and the remaining levels will go into the tuning level.

The combat capes will be replaced with 'obelisk' capes. The total level requirement will be equivalent to before. For example: The first episode 1 obelisk cape will unlock when the episode 1 obelisk reaches level 20 (because 30 combat levels + 20 obelisk levels is equivalent to it's current level 50 requirement).

So you don't have to choose a huge number of upgrades at once when you first login after the update, we will automatically choose upgrades which upgrade your stats as evenly as possible, such that your overall power remains the same as before the update. However we will allow free respecs for the first few weeks, so you can experiment with different builds.

The existing 'per episode' combat level leaderboards will be replaced with per obelisk level leaderboards. This means that players at the top of those leaderboards will retain their top ranking.

We will introduce a new 'combat level' leaderboard which is ranked based on the new combined combat level.

Obelisk levels WILL count towards your total level, so your total level, and your position on the total level leaderboard, will not change.

4) The future

Beyond this first batch of improvements, we also want to make lots of other improvements to combat to make it more varied and interesting.

Including special attacks, more varied opponents, group combat, raids, etc...

But we want to tackle the 'multiple combat professions' complaint first.

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