Producer's Letter: Part 2

#21

All this looks very good. Gonna comment on a few stuff:

  1. Item forge UT exchange looks interesting. I dont use whites so I cant really comment more on it though.
  2. they might want to make IC a bit more noticable than what they have shown (just a black outline added the the dueling swords might make it more noticable in the sidebar highlight concept), but im excited to see this being released in the near future.
  3. Giving classes stats that transcend death is interesting, especially the progress set back via death. My one concern is that if they tie it to one endgame dungeon per stat, any new dungeons will not be a part if it (it seems). They would have to carefully think this through to ensure it is compatible with future dungeons.
  4. Fame and XP rework is, again, very nice. I definately like removing the restrictive bonuses. I mean, who doesn’t get excited about killing as many cubes as possible? the flat number god kills, as well as introducing more tunnel rat and quest bonuses look good as well.
  5. I’m glad they are doing something about the vault and mule situation. QoL features are always nice.
#22

The only bad thing i have to say is unfortunately a big one: Exaltation is just really uncreative, stale and boring for only increasing stats, might as well just be drinking pots. Why not make it specific bonuses for each class that fits their playstyle? Why not make it more of a skill tree?

#23

Not me… I love Boot on the Ground. ;(

#24

I would hope they do kind of a legacy system so any characters with older fame bonus get to keep those bonus but any new characters would not have them.

#25

they said these reworks are probably going to change(yes i hope so) and i dont think they will add everything on the list.

#26

that would be perfect.

#27

I do agree with this. the system does seem a tad unintuitive but it’s better then nothing still I hope they fine tune it and change it up before adding it to the game.

#28

I really hope they can keep Boot on the Ground. Regardless old or new characters. You have no idea that I have to give up many things for this fame bonus.

#29

Honestly, if exaltation stays just increasing all your stats it will actually make the game worse, because:
1 - Characters are already OP in steamroll groups and will be even moreso;
2 - Will overly benefit melees, who are already too strong;
3 - Will lower room for a more unique and diverse progression system like a skill tree.

#30

I agree with your points except one - it will benefit melees, but how does it overly benefit them relative to other classes?

#31

Exaltation concerns me. Everything else seems great, but I’m not sold on this yet.

If the extent of the challenges are nothing but “do a whole bunch of these dungeons over and over again” then I’d be fairly disappointed. That seems like basically the most boring as possible way to do it.

#32

There’s not really anything Deca can do about that, steamroll is always going to be a thing and a few extra stats won’t somehow make it worse

IC/OoC may very well end the melee meta as actually dodging will become important, so perhaps melees could use the boost

Actually, it doesn’t, at all. What weird trail of thinking did you follow to come to the conclusion that it would in the slightest?

#33

Can we make exaltating basically sub classing instead?

#34

Because if they let you boost all your stats permanently, then adding anything else ontop of that becomes even more OP so they can’t add both exaltation and a skill tree or something like that without breaking the game.

#35

oh yeah that thing

#36

Sigh

Deca doesn’t even acknowledge that there is a problem with the key popping meta, dungeons not being done from the realm and steamrolling

#37

Maybe because…they don’t want to directly address that in a letter about stuff they’ve been working on in general?
Like, just because they don’t say anything about it doesn’t mean they’re unaware of it.
Yes, admittedly, it leaves players in the dark, but have just a little more faith.

#38

News item image for the letter:

image

Well this all takes a bit of a hammer to one of the founding pillars of Rotmg: Simplicity, which I’m pretty sure had “no crafting” listed outright in there! But to be fair that’s been chipped away at for years with Tinkerer hasn’t it, and if we are keeping soulbound loot “something else” is needed though I would just switch us back to unsb.

Biggest worry is that deepening the “worth” of a character with functional improvements such as higher stats based on achievements done, is not at all a good mix with permadeath. There’s nothing that will make players reach for autonexusing tools more, to protect their precious.

And again it’s powercreep so a crew of 8/8 exalted characters will annihilate earlygame content even more, furthering the problems of balance that we already have, although 5 per stat is a small creep admittedly.

So yeah, while I welcome some changes to the fame achieves (have long thought we should have “kill X cubes” to make up for losing Friend, and such), going to 400 fame goals and an exalted character with all that investment (what looks like ballpark of 1200 dungeons), all to be lost to one bad teleport or mistake, seems a fail of joined-up design (unless there is death-prevention method, hello again amulets? where failing sets you back aways, and “dying” could wipe out your exalts but not fully kill you?, or knock 5 off every stat?, so repeated “dying” takes you back to 0/8).

Also on Fame – it would bear thinking about what we are intended to do with this currency before giving us thousands more? Building a pet is the only thing right now; hopefully they don’t get carried away ‘famewalling’ things behind fame cost.

XP/distribution, I don’t understand the prevarication, if a dungeon is felt “too low” in XP just increase it. Today! Not everything needs to be done all at once as part of a grand huge project.

I appreciate the devs clearly wanting to give us “more to do”. I only don’t know if added depth is the right path for Rotmg; when breadth (more classes/dungeons/variety of heroes) would get the job done easier.

#39

According to who, WildShadow? They’re not the owners since 8 years ago, their design philosophy need not apply.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with exalted, however, the fact it displays just stats worries me admittedly, and i hope by saying it’s a WIP and will be specific for each class, they do mean it will be something else in the final product, as for steamrolling content easier the main thing to do is just rebalance damage which is also made more necessary with In-Combat coming.

It’s not just about adding depth, you do realize most of the content and mechanics in this game are fundamentally shitty because the base was rushed out for a GameJam? And then Kabam just didn’t care, for 5 years straight putting in the bare minimum effort required if even that. They have to focus on changing that too. It’s not like they’re neglecting content, and you do realize without expanding mechanics content is more limited too, right?

#40

key popping meta is a bless for deca