State of the Game - 12/2019

[dayrinni]

Hello!

Here is the end of year State of the Game for 2019.

Overall, the game has been going great! We have attracted many new players, done RP, and started to build our community. This is only the starting point for our adventures in ATS – we have so many fun activities and events planned in the future – into 2020!

Personally, the past 4 months have been difficult due to my RL situation. I want to thank you all for your support and it is very much appreciated! Thank you! My situation is slowly getting better and I'm hoping in a week or two, things will return to normal!

A shoutout to the RP Helpers who have stepped up and really kept things active while Actinate and I have been busy. Thank you for the, well, help!

Having said all that, let's talk about what's coming up on the future:
1. Ethari Elves: they are making good progress. Unfortunately, given my RL situation, they have taken approximately three times as long. Right now, I'm going to say their release to the public will be sometime in January. Early Access folks will be able to roll them up sooner, in December, for testing purposes.
2. Gear Evo: This was slated to come out in December but with the delays, it will come out in 2020 sometime. Right now, I am projecting a release date of June 1st.
3. This is related to item 2: along with the Gear Evo system, a rebalancing of Group Monsters and stuns was to be done. However, given the delays with everything, I still want to include these changes in December:
....1. All group monsters will have approximately 100% hit rates on players, have more HP, deal more damage, etc. Your defense will be converted to some other mechanism so it is worth while (but capped to a certain degree).
........1. The purpose of this change is to make it an absolute requirement for them to require a tank, healer, CC, and 3 DPS. As such, they need to essentially hit everyone with 100% hit rates and also deal a lot of damage such that the Tank's mitigation matters and also requires heals.
............1. This will be an on-going balancing act so expect to see adjustments. And if you can kill group monsters without the above core make up (ie: no healer or tank) let me know know ASAP. I'll even give you a reward!
............2. Quad and below shall remain as is today – where defense can avoid all normal hits.
................1. It is our intention to make it so small groups can always have fun and a place to hunt. This is where Quad comes into play.
2. Stuns(Not mesmerizes): There has been a large uptick with stuns in the game in the past year (ie: Ice Mages get a lot of stuns), and moreso with the Ethari coming. As such, a new stun resistance/immunity system will be going in this week. As with everything, we can adjust things, and this is the initial design:
....1. The first stun will be at 100% effectiveness. They gain a resistance a 50% resistance for 30 seconds.
....2. The second stun will be be at 50% if during the 30 second period.
....3. If a second stun lands during this 30 second period, the target will become immune for 30 seconds.
....4. If a stun is a lower duration (say 1-2 seconds, maybe 3 seconds), it will not trigger this system.
4. Lunar Sages(Moon Magic/Healer hybrid): They're still in the plan and will come out after the Gear Evo system. So right now, their projected release date is November 1st 2020.
5. RP! Actinate and myself have several Main Story Line Quests planned that will really drive the world forward to new players! We're going to start this in December!
6. New City! Actinate is still working on the new city. It is taking a long time because his baby simply doesn't sleep. I've seen it with my own eyes folks.
7. Blood Shaman Newbie Area! It's almost done! Actinate said there are only 3 days of work left! But, his baby doesn't sleep and everyone's sick! Projected Release Date is now January 1st (baby has to sleep sometime during this right?)
8. And with everything, we'll continually add small features and make adjustments as time goes on, and the above plan isn't written in stone – things will change.


Again, thanks a lot for your time and for being apart of our community! It is an honor to have you all here!

Thanks,
Day, and Act