[Spoilers] Further Tome Changes, Reconstruction/MotMG/Early Game Rework and more

[Tele]

I just don’t think there’s anything inherently engaging about realm once you’ve reached a certain level of ‘richness’ - i.e. acquired lost halls whites, 8/8 all chars. This is where I’m at, and is why I’ve quit for now. There’s no long term goal, and although O3 extends this a bit, new content isn’t really the way games are meant to extend long-term engagement - they’re more like medium term. Events are super short term, and more of a band-aid fix, but there’s nothing wrong with them from time to time, Deca just overdid it a bit, and rifts are kind of like just longer events.

Now that I think about it, a lot of additions by Deca have been geared towards creating long-term engagement. That’s why I think exaltations are so exciting, because they really accomplish this goal (if done right).

I actually think a really good case study for this game is Planetside 2 (another niche mmo shooter), I could actually make a whole post on comparisons in game development between the two, but the short version is they both have very similar playerbases number’s wise, similar long-term development history (8-ish years), and are both struggling to keep players engaged in the long-term due to most of their vets having accomplished all the pre-existing short-term goals (get 8/8s, buy weapons, etc.).

What’s really interesting to me about PS2 is that they are also pushing a major game update (The Shattered Warpgate) in which the primary focus is the addition of missions in the form of daily quests and a long-term campaign. PS2 never has had missions before, it’s a bit of a sandbox, and so they struggle with player retention. Surprise surprise, you give player’s long-term goals - they stay long.

I think exaltation can only be a good sign of Deca’s efforts to keep players engaged for longer, and is probably a common occurrence in games -especially mmo’s- that last this long. So although there may be a few gripes here and there about exaltation numbers, I think it’s ultimately really good for the game.

(on a side note, longer quests, like month-long, would be really sick if done well for rotmg)

[XBookwyrmX]

(if done right).

Pretty much. Not against the idea, just don’t like the current one. I know for a fact DECA or aware of this… I wonder if/how they will change it now? There was another couple of really old ideas I liked better than (or that worked in conjunction with) this exaltation system, but we’ll see.

[PRCSakura]

Deca isn’t going to alter their entire system…

To answer all the questions asked about why it must be 8/8, I have 2 answers

A. Exaltation is meant to be beyond 8/8, so why should you be able to start going beyond 8/8 at anything less?

B. It passively makes pub endgame more viable as people who are way below 8/8 and would do nothing more than bump up the hp scaling are less likely to join if they don’t go up in exaltation levels because they aren’t 8/8

Fine, they won’t alter it just because my distaste on appearence you are right about that.

And even if I choose to max my characters to 8/8, it is still very unlikely for me to Exalt because they requires Discord to have successful raids.

[Nameness]

The entire point of this update is to make it not require discords
pubs are definitely gonna be a lot more viable after this

[DeeBomb]

I think that you should be able to exalt a stat once you max it and not have to wait until all other stats are maxed. Say I max dex, and do a couple nests, that should count toward exaltation. You shouldn’t have to max life before you can exalt dex. This is all just IMHO

[WaterPower]

The following contains emotion-packed comments mixed with slow-paced parts and replies to other forumers. This might throw some readers off, so go check the tl:dr if that is your case or pick and read parts apart from each other. ­­­­­ This message was brought to you by the left side of my brain.

You have been warned

Stheno is fine though

Yes!

stheno […] look sick (their new re-sprites)

YESSSSSSS!

Everything concerning the Snake pit’s changes are INSANE! Stheno looks so majestic, her pose is way more threatening, her movements look 100 times more smoother and natural, her daggers dont look like silver sparring sticks anymore.

All snakes reskins are softer on the eye (which btw fits exalt more than flash, on flash sharp textures looked fine or even good but not on exalt), but I do have to agree with @Filde here: the strange thing about snakes reskins is the holy bird (yes this one)
…looking like a beat-up not-so-strong thug, while the current one does convey a ready-for-action attitude better. Really liking the snake that has its tongue sticking out like a dog (now give me this pet skin right now and put it in canine ), or the one that lays on its head, with the rest of his body. Hoping the latter’s attack animation will be a literal slap.

The Wand of the Bulwark has more emphasis put on the crystal, why yes timmy I can call it a crystal because it has a slight difference between that and the rod, so never interrupt me again or I’ll SLIT YOUR THROAT, DO YOU UNDERSTAND TIMMY? THIS IS A GREAT DAY TONIGHT, SO STOP RUINING THE MOMENT!

and dont even get me started on THE NEW SNAKE EYE RING AAAAAARRRHHH THIS SHIT IS SO GOOD but yeah the first thing that came to my mind was ‘‘You know, they removed speedy from tomes, but we got a speedy ring, so…’’ but then after that its like ‘‘BULWARK-SNAKE EYE RING SORCERER, BABY!’’

I think the active community would be surprised at how many people just quit the game and are waiting for a good time to come back (me included).

Well as soon as this update hits prod, I’ll be there to see it myself. You’ll find me in snake pits even more oftenly than I was, when I was still playing

Deca isn’t going to alter their entire system because you don’t like how an 8/8 grave looks

@PRCSakura ? I do believe there is a big style difference between the 2 gravestones (7/8 and 8/8), but I always thought it was because of the stat you were not maxing. So is this true?

tl:dr : im an early-game player that was not interested in high-end dungeon runs, despite having all the means to, so all these updates for early-game dungeons are really refreshing. overall good news on what might come next

[anon68684505]

@Toastrz

Alright, this one frame did make me smile a lot actually.

[Filde]

Knowing that 2nd boss of mad lab might finally get reworked brings me great joy

[Urgle]

They reshaded feral

…no !

[PRCSakura]

@PRCSakura I do believe there is a big style difference between the 2 gravestones (7/8 and 8/8), but I always thought it was because of the stat you were not maxing. So is this true?

Yes you are correct.

[WaterPower]

You think they would take away a boss, of which an ST set is based on?
please explain your train of thought

[NyanGamer]

Developing a RotMG Sprite Design Guide

What the game needs to ask itself at this point is what it wants to stick with. The problem is that either choice will stick out from the other style. Default class skins already look strange when going through a Lair of Draconis with beautiful and heavily shaded sprites. But then again, the simplicity of the core sprites may be the for the best so the player can keep track of players.

Just found this, and although I approve of most of these sprite changes in the rework(besides Stheno, I just don’t like it, idk), I think it very much applies here.

All the overshaded and heavily hue-shifted sprites presented here would clash with the style of enemies in realm that drop these early-game dungeons. For abyss/UDL, these would differ too much from other godlands level dungeons that are not a part of this rework but use the same simple style (sewers, theatre, manor, mad lab).

I very much agree with Lovens’s assessment of the new sprites. There’s nothing wrong with them, but they just clash with other sprites. For instance, just take a look at Medusa and the new Stheno next to each other. They’re entirely different. Sure I agree that a lot of things needed resprites (especially Arachna lol), but we should still ensure the art style doesn’t clash TOO much with older content, as it does now.

[Niegil]

For instance, just take a look at Medusa and the new Stheno next to each other.

that’s why medusa’s changing too!!! find out next leak

[Nameness]

that’s why medusa’s changing too!!! find out next leak

I had assumed so, seemed strange to leave so much of the early game out

[Triiple]

I just had this thought. Why are they not doing anything to the puppet masters theatre? Because the sprite work seems to be in the same vein as udl and snake.

Also is the mad lab getting a rework?

[Dragon]

Puppet Theatre is an interesting case because its tileset relies almost exclusively on reused assets from other dungeons (the boss room curtains being the exception), which was typical of most late Kabam era dungeons being artistically bankrupt.

[Triiple]

Huh, interesting

[system]

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