Development Diary #11

Development Diary

Hello everyone, this specific development diary shows off the following features:

• Upgrading System
• Party System
• Frozenland Map Changes
• Proposed Mage Changes

We hope everyone enjoys the video and we are looking forward to everyone's feedback.

Proposed Mage Changes

For sometime now, we have been receiving large volumes of feedback and concerns from players regarding mages and a variety of issues that currently plague the game due to them. We plan to tackle these issues, and hopefully bring a more well-balanced outcome to both Red Mages & Blue Mages.

We would appreciate it if players read this proposal and provide feedback (via Support Tickets, Discord, and/or the Forums). We essentially want to hear if you like the proposed changes, if you have a better idea, etc. The forum article can be found here (http://www.eonicgames.com/forum/index.php?/topic/831-proposed-mage-changes/).

We’ve organized the feedback we’ve received into 3 main causes for concerns:

1. Black Touch
   • The Problem
     • Black Touch plays a very important role to both Blue Mages and Red Mages, it’s practically essential for PvP. When it comes to Blue Mages, they are meant to have lower AP in comparison to Red Mages and require that additional magic reduction to be a viable class for PvP. Unfortunately, Red Mages also benefit from the effects of Black Touch and for that reason we’ve been unable to effectively tweak/buff Red Mages in past balance patches. This is because minor changes in their AP can produce large amounts of damage changes while Black Touch is active.
   • The Solution
     • Our current plan is to make Black Touch non-effective for Red Mages. We’ve partially done this in a past update, but the remaining effects from Black Touch (and the other listed issues) still make it difficult to properly balance the Red Mages.
     • Essentially when this change is made, Black Touch will ONLY reduce your Blue Magic Defense so that only Blue Magic spells deal an increased amount of damage.
     • In doing this, we will then freely be able to provide red mages with a much-needed AP boost. At the same time, we will need to take a look at the current red mage variations of Black Touch (such as Red Touch) and ensure that their durations and boosts scale appropriately with their new AP.

2. White Mages
   • The Problem
     • The issue surrounding white mages is probably the most complained about piece of feedback we have received regarding mages. In general, White Mages provide too much of an advantage in PvP. At higher levels, this problem becomes even more troublesome as they are then able to equip high level equipment in addition to being able to use highly effective buffs for themselves and their party.
     • Once they reach max level, they are able to use all the white mage buffs, a level 13 set, and their choice of a weapon (typically the Antick Slender Stick, for the stun effect on Blue Mages). When all this is combined you are dealing with a mage that increases their teams defense and magic defense by 1-4 stat levels (depending on what stats you are comparing) PER equipped item, is able to stun very quickly, and has the same defense as other white or red mages that didn’t go white. In addition, they may even choose to stat their pet into HP (resulting in a very high HP pool).
   • The Solution
     • A large part of the feedback we have been receiving is to remove white mages in general, we have been trying to avoid doing this as they are a component of Turf Battles that has always been around (although it has also always been a balancing act with them throughout all the versions). Instead, we would like to do the following (this might change due to feedback):
       • Remove all of the White Mage Defense Buffs
       • Remove all of the White Mage Magic Defense Buffs
       • Remove all of the White Mage Move Speed Buffs
       • Remove all of the White Mage Attack Speed Buffs
       • Change the effect of the Antick Slender Stick
       • Change the stat requirement for Blue/Red mage equipment to require Blue/Red magic instead of just any Magic Attribute. This would essentially force White Mages to have to use equipment that is 1-2 levels under their opponent’s equipment level.

3. Magic Defense
   • The Problem
     • Players are easily able to reach very high levels of magic defense with little to no effort. We often see players simply choose not to upgrade the magic defense on most of their equipment beyond the safe stat because they receive enough from other sources (self-casting buffs, alternative items, etc.). This problem is worse on the Triumphus server due to the TC buffs.
     • Players receive double the amount of magic defense per jewelry upgrade in comparison to the defense stat. For every defense level on your jewelry, you gain 3 per stat. However, for magic defense you gain 6 per stat!
     • In part, the need for this high of Magic Defense was to help when you are fighting a Red Mage who has access to Black Touch.
     • The current values of Magic Defense require that mages have their AP increased by very large amounts to deal decent damage against someone with 850-900 magic defense, but in doing so it makes everyone else get 1 hit.
   • The Solution
     • The Magic Defense on jewelry should be brought down to match defense (3 per level).
     • The Magic defense rewards from other sources (such as alternative equipment) needs to be looked at once all the above changes have been made.
     • Once the other changes are made, we can make this change and it will most likely require further tweaking to both Red Mage/Blue Mage damage, as well as reducing of monster magic damage.