This next patch is a big one, and I'm excited to finally announce it. We really appreciate the patience of the community while we work out problems as they arise.We have had lots of incredible feedback and appreciate the dedication of our players. Hopefully this can be one of the first major steps to show real results based on player feedback.
Foreword
Part of this overhaul has required a migration of all writ-quests and their goals. What this means is all quest-items will be removed however any completed quests will still be recorded as completed.
If a player is currently in-progress of a quest they will simply need to pick it up again. Quests will no longer require items to complete them.
It is highly recommended that to test and try out the new system you do so with level 5 characters. The first foundational step in this overhaul has the highest priority of on-boarding new players and easing them into the server.
The initial quests for the Foreign Quarter is for new characters and serves as content meant to be solod. Only when a character finishes these quests will the level 5 and 6 writs become available to them.
As with all content, you are more than welcome to complete them in a group if you want -- quest objectives are updated to everyone in the party. They are simply balanced around solo play.
Adventure Zones
Adventure zones are areas that contain the entrances to dungeons, they are intended to be solo content.
When we launched it was quickly established that the adventure zones failed to meet this expectation.
During this time since launch we've had a huge issue with the only realistically available content being the dungeons themselves and requiring a group.
Because of this most new players were funneled into encounters and areas with creatures that were way above their ability to defeat.
With this update -- we have begun the groundwork for a complete overhaul of the adventure zone and quest system to better meet the goals and needs of the server.
Each adventure zone has had all of its creatures and encounters overhauled to meet the standards of solo content, allowing roaming and solo slaying if one wishes.
This patch today includes the foundation for this overhaul. The encounters in every zone, the new quest system and the complete quest chain for the Foreign Quarter Sewers meant for new characters of level 5.
Over time each of the other adventure zones will additionally have 4 or more solo quests implemented for them.
Experience
It was also quickly established at launch that the experience rates are much quicker than our goals.
Quests, kills and their rewards were originally calculated based on the amount of content available -- with the goal to add more content later.
We have quickly realized this is not ideal, so we're implementing the experience and reward rates as it is meant to be when we finish adding all of the 1-12 quests.
What this means is that for now, leveling is going to be much, much slower. As stated above we have figured out the goal of how many quests we want each zone to have.
Since this patch only includes the new quests for the Foreign Quarter - Sewers, it means that until we finish the quests for the other adventure zones it's going to feel a lot like there's not enough experience to go around.
We feel that the opposite of what happened at launch is probably better for long term server health. Having an interim period where leveling may feel too slow instead of too fast.
As the other quests get added, to meet the new rates the overall leveling speed will better match the intended goals.
Foreword
Part of this overhaul has required a migration of all writ-quests and their goals. What this means is all quest-items will be removed however any completed quests will still be recorded as completed.
If a player is currently in-progress of a quest they will simply need to pick it up again. Quests will no longer require items to complete them.
It is highly recommended that to test and try out the new system you do so with level 5 characters. The first foundational step in this overhaul has the highest priority of on-boarding new players and easing them into the server.
The initial quests for the Foreign Quarter is for new characters and serves as content meant to be solod. Only when a character finishes these quests will the level 5 and 6 writs become available to them.
As with all content, you are more than welcome to complete them in a group if you want -- quest objectives are updated to everyone in the party. They are simply balanced around solo play.
Adventure Zones
Adventure zones are areas that contain the entrances to dungeons, they are intended to be solo content.
When we launched it was quickly established that the adventure zones failed to meet this expectation.
During this time since launch we've had a huge issue with the only realistically available content being the dungeons themselves and requiring a group.
Because of this most new players were funneled into encounters and areas with creatures that were way above their ability to defeat.
With this update -- we have begun the groundwork for a complete overhaul of the adventure zone and quest system to better meet the goals and needs of the server.
Each adventure zone has had all of its creatures and encounters overhauled to meet the standards of solo content, allowing roaming and solo slaying if one wishes.
This patch today includes the foundation for this overhaul. The encounters in every zone, the new quest system and the complete quest chain for the Foreign Quarter Sewers meant for new characters of level 5.
Over time each of the other adventure zones will additionally have 4 or more solo quests implemented for them.
Experience
It was also quickly established at launch that the experience rates are much quicker than our goals.
Quests, kills and their rewards were originally calculated based on the amount of content available -- with the goal to add more content later.
We have quickly realized this is not ideal, so we're implementing the experience and reward rates as it is meant to be when we finish adding all of the 1-12 quests.
What this means is that for now, leveling is going to be much, much slower. As stated above we have figured out the goal of how many quests we want each zone to have.
Since this patch only includes the new quests for the Foreign Quarter - Sewers, it means that until we finish the quests for the other adventure zones it's going to feel a lot like there's not enough experience to go around.
We feel that the opposite of what happened at launch is probably better for long term server health. Having an interim period where leveling may feel too slow instead of too fast.
As the other quests get added, to meet the new rates the overall leveling speed will better match the intended goals.