Season Server Extension & Upcoming Changes

Hello everyone, as per the results of our official Discord poll, we have decided to extend the duration of Season 1 by 30 days. Season 1 will now end on April 18, 2024.

 

In addition to this, we've been working hard to go through everyone's feedback regarding instances and various other systems to provide everyone with a more rewarding and user-friendly way to play together. We planned to release these changes sometime this week, but unfortunately, these changes are still not complete. They should be finished and ready for release on March 19th (at the latest), but we wanted to let everyone know what kind of changes to expect in the meantime. Players are free to provide feedback on these changes if they would like, and that may affect what is released (so long as it doesn't affect the release date).

 

Upcoming Instance Changes

  • We have changed how the difficulty of instance monsters is controlled so that we have full control over the offensive/defensive capabilities of instance monsters. Previously, we simply increased the offensive/defensive values of all instance monsters by a percentage based on the instance difficulty, but now we can assign exact values to different monsters and different difficulties.
  • We have removed the drop rate buff that instance monsters receive when picking a higher instance difficulty. This buff was preventing us from adequately assigning drop rates. For example, previously, a level 10 instance offered players a 500% drop rate buff. This seemed like a lot, but because this buff was for all drops, it meant that we had to keep drop rates low. This was because 500% for an item with a 0.5% drop rate resulted in a 2.5% drop rate, but an item with a 10% drop rate resulted in a 50% drop rate. So some items would quickly become far too common with high/decent rates, while others remained still very rare.
  • Instead of the drop rate buff, instance monsters now have their own unique drops based on both the player's level and the instance difficulty (previously, it was only based on the player's level, and the instance difficulty just provided a drop rate buff). This allows us to more fairly control the drop rates of specific items based on the difficulty of the instance, allows for certain items to only drop starting at certain difficulties, and allows us to offer weaker/stronger items at certain difficulties (such as with lower/higher stats).
  • We have added an Instance Meeting Stone to the start of every instance; it can be used to teleport out of an instance at will.
  • Instance members are now notified if an instance boss drops items or not, and if they do, it tells the party who received the drops.
  • Players now receive different amounts of instance coins based on the instance difficulty:
    • Difficulty 1-5: 1 Instance Coin (2 if subbed)
    • Difficulty 6-9: 2 Instance Coins (4 if subbed)
    • Difficulty 10: 3 Instance Coins (6 if subbed)
  • The Instance Interface, Tormac, Help Interface, and Website Guide have been adjusted to provide more information about the above changes.

 

Upcoming Party Changes

  • The Party Interface no longer moves your character while you drag it around.
  • Party leaders may no longer kick party members.
  • Instead, all party members now have the ability to trigger a Vote to Kick option.
    • Once a user triggers a Vote to Kick, the party (except the person being voted against) will be notified of who started the Vote Kick and who the vote is for.
    • All members will have 60 seconds to vote if they want the player kicked or not.
    • When all members have voted or when the 60 seconds have expired, the option with the most votes will happen. In the case of a tie, it will be treated as a failed kick.
  • Party leaders can now pick a party drop setting in the party interface.
    • Last Hit: The person who hits the monster last gets the drops. This is how the drop system previously worked.
    • Random: A random in-view party member gets the drops. This is now the default selection. Island Monsters ignore this rule and always use the Last Hit rule.