Official Deca Statement regarding Unity and the fame reset

Mynamerr · 2019-01-18 12:57:52 UTC

X-post from r/rotmg: https://www.reddit.com/r/RotMG/comments/ah9wey/picking_some_things_up/

R4ndomSXD:

Hi all,

This post is not going to follow the normal structured routine of a producer’s letter, where we give a wider overview and update. I just wanted to pick up up on some things that you were discussing in the subreddit in reaction to some of the high level feature ideas from our last communication that you can find here .

Some team members helped me collect and group the major topics of discussion. Rather than just saying thank you for any positive notes, I decided to tackle the critical ones instead I hope we can keep up the dialogue from here on out.

1) Fame Reset

When the Producer’s Letter went out, I was absolutely sure that there was going to be a lot of talk about this one. I am glad that there is even, although I am sorry that some of you got needlessly scared.

From my point of view, there are three aspects to this:

Live Fame (characters): I can tell you with certainty that the plan did not include resetting live fame of existing characters. What could change is the way you gain fame going forward including the bonuses and how it relates to Leaderboards (see below).

Account Fame (currency): Fame as a currency and the way it was built into the game never got properly balanced and was heavily abused at times on top of that. Thus, you could never really purchase anything of true meaning with it… except for ammies, pet related features and seasonal/event fame boxes. If something cool is supposed to be available for fame, there needs to be a good way to balance it before and a reset could possibly happen while we adjust or change the currency system. Again, we are talking here about the fame as a currency aka account fame.

Leaderboards (ranking): Here is where I see a lot of potential for change without too much disruption. It would mostly be about adding new leaderboards, defining the way they get scored differently and shake things up. Current leaderboards can always stay as legacy rankings but we want the scoring to be more meaningful to our active user base. In case I am missing something obvious on the Legends/Leaderboard topic, I am interested to hear about it.

The more I think about it, the more I come to the same conclusions… The game needs and deserves a well balanced scoring system and a currency that are tied to how good you are at staying alive and overcoming challenges.

The system should also give you the option to buy cool things without voluntarily sacrificing your character or characters first. Unfortunately, writing the sentence is a lot easier than coming up with a new system like that and integrating it to a game that has been running on the same recipe for years. Based on the feedback, it would seem though that thinking in this new direction and leaving the legacy fame system alone with a few small tweaks is the best option.

2) Game’s UI after Unity Port

The Community, here on Reddit, was a bit split in opinion on the UI look and feel as well as the changes the team are testing out. I totally get that. Note that whatever is in there now is not final and that the team definitely took your feedback to make an extra effort to at least give the option of a classic UI as far as possible. Let me reiterate: our top priority with the port is to keep the experience as close as possible to the current game but the team is also exploring new opportunities, which are made possible by Unity.

We are also considering adding additional resources to the team to support a UI rework, specifically to make sure that we do the legacy UI justice when implementing a new one. Alas, I guess there is no guarantee that everybody will like it. But between trying hard and having the option to switch between UIs, I hope we can make it work and deliver better UX.

3) FPS in Unity

Some of you were asking about the frame rate in the latest video and I believe pointed out that it hit 40fps in some places. That is definitely not the performance the team is aiming for and was admittedly a bit confusing. The main reasons for any reduced frame rates right now are:

Recording inside the Unity development tool directly instead of in a built client

Having all debug options enabled and running in parallel

Not having gone through any client optimization phase yet → first we have to build most features into the client

Anything I missed for the time being? If so, leave a comment and I will get back to you the next time around. Thanks for being constructive and helping shape the game, we’re excited and hope you are too.

Cheers

-R4

AnakinSolo · 2019-01-18 13:56:30 UTC

I wasn’t worried.

Yin · 2019-01-18 14:00:17 UTC

I’m so glad to hear that my base fame won’t be getting reset, I’ve worked hard to get my fame where it is without training haha.

BBruno · 2019-01-18 14:01:57 UTC

Thanks for the explanation, Deca!
Thanks You

Survivor · 2019-01-18 15:24:21 UTC

Aw, I wasn’t following the discussion very closely but I was hoping it would be a full reset all across the board, only preserving names, no pets, slots etc to remove influences from hacking/RWT and reset the economy.

Oh well, I guess I get to keep my stuff then, that’s fine too.

MetaphorMe · 2019-01-18 16:48:52 UTC

Feed your pets while you can boys and girls.

BBruno · 2019-01-18 16:50:14 UTC

Indeed

ThatsMyJam · 2019-01-18 18:44:20 UTC

yeah, no. People (including me) have spent way too much money and time on pets to have them reset.

Visconti · 2019-01-18 19:04:06 UTC

Maybe a customizable UI…? Like, different colour background, custom map colours for players, guiildmates, and events?

Survivor · 2019-01-18 19:11:40 UTC

I was slightly worried too, since I do have a 90/88 pet I didn’t spend a dime on.

Yin · 2019-01-20 02:20:58 UTC

Honestly, if they got rid of pets but gave back some kind of compensation depending on your pets I honestly wouldn’t mind.

Chalked · 2019-01-20 02:53:57 UTC

Does anyone know when exactly will the fame restart be happening? I want to spend all of my fame the day before

Barnette · 2019-01-20 03:47:22 UTC

It will be a while yet. It will not happen anytime in the next few weeks or months.
No official date has been set so you have plenty of time.

Autumn · 2019-01-22 08:04:39 UTC

What’s going to happen to Kongregate players? Kongregate is a flash games site, not Unity. Will we still be able to play on the site, or will we still at least be able to safely transfer our accounts? I would hate to lose over 7 years of progress…

Mynamerr · 2019-01-22 08:36:58 UTC

Kong already has unity games.

Autumn · 2019-01-22 17:43:49 UTC

alright then

Heteraabd · 2019-01-23 13:57:51 UTC

REEEEEEEEEEEEE i have like 1100 fame and im saving up for legendary pet yard PLS DECA DONT MAKE ME RESTART MY GRIND AND MAKE ME GRIND FOR ANOTHER MONTH

Happybig · 2019-01-24 09:22:15 UTC

I play this Perfect game in Kongregate.
But now i`m curriouse about the New UI…
If we play the ROTMG in New UI
Can i play with my kongregate Caricter? or You guys move my account to deca? or i have to make new Account?

That is big thing to me…
plz reply to that

Heteraabd · 2019-01-24 13:46:31 UTC

first of all the kongregate is simply a client. Since kongregate knows your password, I assume that when rotmg would switch to unity kongregate would change to unity and will still remember your password so you should be fine.

Survivor · 2019-01-24 23:50:07 UTC

Yes.

Your account will stay, I think you won’t need to do anything for that. Maybe you’ll need to log in and press a button and wait a few minutes, but you won’t need to send an email to Deca or anything like that.