Greetings, adventurers of the World of Twelve! As with our post on the idols and alliances overhaul, this devblog post aims to share our initial thoughts on other major upcoming changes as early in the process as possible. Our goal here is to get your opinions and feedback on these topics.
For the end-of-year Kolossium update, we shared the first version of our changes with you in a devblog post in late August. That devblog also included a three-question survey about other possible changes we were looking at.
Thanks once again for your feedback, comments and responses to the survey. With your help, we were able to identify some changes that needed to be made to the first version we proposed. So we thought it was important to come back to you once again to present the next iteration of our plans!
The Kolossium isn't the only thing that's changing in update 2.70. Alongside lots of improvements appearing in the game, we've also moved forward on some other eagerly awaited changes:
- Harmonization of set bonuses for sets in the 151 to 200 level range, as well as various improvements to sensitive resources or recipes to improve your in-game experience.
- Next, we've (finally) added the conclusion to the Treechnid Forest quest arc, with a bonus quest after reunifying the Dofus.
- We've also taken the opportunity to make a certain number of long-awaited changes that we know you'll be happy to see.
- On a somewhat less friendly note, a new bot detection tool will be making its debut.
So without further ado, let's get started!
Feedback and Reflections on the Previous Devblog
Overall, your feedback confirmed our sense that our earlier proposal was on the right track, but incomplete. The problem was that the missing pieces were seen as so critical that it was hard for you to properly enjoy the new iteration of the Kolossium. So let's get right into the discussion and talk frankly and directly about your feedback.
First of all, let's talk about the survey included with the devblog, which contained 3 questions. Here are the results from your responses:
"We're considering the possibility of adding season objectives/stages to the Kolossium. If we decided to go this route, what type of rewards would you prefer to receive?"
"What game modes would you like to have available in the Kolossium?"
"Do you think it would be a good idea to reset the leagues more frequently?"
We also analyzed your comments to try and get a better understanding of your biggest frustrations with the first version we proposed. Here are the points we noted as being mentioned most frequently (in order):
- Frustration with the matchmaking system and its rules.
This was THE most frequently mentioned issue: There was a lot of disappointment about the possibility that matchmaking might not see any changes by the end of this year. As we said in the first devblog, we're well aware of the system's many limitations/defects, especially after reading your many forum posts on the subject. Rest assured that the matchmaking system will indeed be getting its changes in this update, as we'll be discussing in detail below. - Adding more rewards.
Lots of players want additional rewards from the Kolossium. Your desire for new rewards relates both to diligent players (not necessarily the ones at the top of the rankings) and the most experienced players (especially at the end of the season). - Separate level 200 players from the rest.
Behaviors, play styles, equipment, and other factors are very different between these two categories of players, leading to frustration when a level 199 player faces off against a level 200 player. - Flexible sign-ups (1, 2 or 3 players).
This was one of the topics we've wanted to look at with you, including through the survey. It turns out that there are some strong expectations here. The current queues are rigid and unable to adjust to players' needs, which may prevent you from playing with your friends.
in this update
Once again, we want to thank you for your extensive feedback. You convinced us that the Kolossium revamp simply wouldn't be complete without some attention to these issues. As a result, we focused our changes on that feedback, and are now ready to propose a second version of the Kolossium. Read on to learn what's new!
Changes to the Kolossium
Let's start with the news that will make the most people happy: our technical work on the matchmaking system was successfully completed in time for us to use it starting in this update. To be completely transparent, we should mention that this major technical update may see a few hiccups as we deploy it for beta testing, but we'll be looking very closely at your feedback on the subject, especially in the first few days, to correct any problems as quickly as possible.
With this shiny new system, five very eagerly awaited changes will be making their appearance in this update.
Changes to Matchmaking Rules
As mentioned earlier, there's been a lot of frustration with the current rules. They have now been completely redesigned to provide you with higher-quality fights. In particular, there will now be a narrower range of difference in players' ratings and no differential matchmaking (i.e. matchmaking that takes different classes' victory percentages into account).
Separating Level-200 Players
Our thinking with the old system was that, even if players' levels were different, the fact that their ratings were similar would be enough to ensure high-quality fights. Clearly, however, players don't like how this approach has worked out. It has therefore been changed.
It will now be impossible to get matched up against (or with) characters who are not in your same level bracket: level-200 players on the one hand, and those at levels 20 to 199 on the other. Likewise, to form a Kolossium group, it will be mandatory to have all members in the same level bracket.
Changes to the 3v3 Game Mode
Following up on your survey responses, the 3v3 solo and team modes have been merged.
New 2v2 Game Mode
With this update, the Kolossium will be welcoming a change that players have been awaiting for years: a brand new 2v2 queue!
More flexibility in joining the different queues
As requested by 65% of survey respondents, signups for matchmaking queues will now be more flexible. You will now be able to join the 3v3 queue with 1, 2 or 3 players (and with 1 or 2 players in the 2v2 queue). However, new matchmaking rules will be added to ensure that groups with different compositions will only get matched up if the wait time is particularly long.
An Avalanche of New Changes in the Kolossium
As for rewards, your feedback and survey responses clearly showed how important they are for you. A number of brand-new features are therefore appearing in this update to highlight your commitment to the various leagues!
Season Achievements
While many different aspects of the game offer achievements, we don't want players to feel obligated to play PvP. We felt that introducing temporary achievements – or season achievements, to be precise – was a good compromise.
Season achievements have therefore been added in this update. As many of you have experienced in the Expeditions event or on the Temporis servers, these achievements are completely decoupled from traditional achievements (they don't give you achievement points), and will be reset at the end of each season. There will be two types of season achievements:
- Achievements for Kolossium participation
- For each victory, players will earn Ovatokens (the new Kolossium currency) as follows:
- 1 Ovatoken in 1v1
- 2 Ovatokens in the new 2v2 game mode
- 3 Ovatokens in 3v3
With these Ovatokens, the player will progress along a dedicated progression timeline for the current Kolossium season and unlock increasing levels of rewards along the way. If you've played in a recent edition of Temporis, the interface below will definitely look familiar!
For the first test season coming up, you'll need 300 Ovatokens to unlock all the levels.
As your reward, we'll be offering brand-new ceremonial sets, linked to the account and specially created for the boldest Kolossium fighters! New sets will be rewarded for each new Kolossium season. These sets can be obtained in chameleon and non-chameleon versions.
For players who don't manage to unlock all the components of a set during the season, they'll be able to buy the missing elements with Kolossokens a few months later from the NPC Glad Yator.
League Achievements
When a player moves up to a league, they will unlock the corresponding season achievement. They will receive not only the ornament for that league (unlocked only for the current season), but also a permanent title, and so on for each new season going forward. The player will keep this title for life, in honor of the top league they were able to reach in that season. We also see this as an opportunity to bring back the value of the Legend rank for our Kolossium fighters!
Eternal Glory
The most glorious among you will have a chance to see your character (appearance, name and server) standing proudly on one of three new podiums that will be added in the Kolossium Hall. Each queue will have its own podium. But to earn your spot, you'll have to be one of the top 3 at the end of a season (for example, the winners from season 21 will be on the podium during season 22).
Radiant Pebble
On to our last new addition! To take some of the pressure off of Sparkling Pebbles, which are used in a huge number of equipment recipes, a new pebble has been created: the Radiant Pebble. It will be level 150, and will be used as an ingredient in level 150-194 recipes. The Sparkling Pebble, meanwhile, is now level 195 and will be used in level 195-200 recipes.
We hope that these new changes for future Kolossium seasons will motivate both veterans and newcomers alike to head down to the arena!
Who's Out to Get Silvosse?
You may remember that a few years back, you witnessed all sorts of conflict and misfortune in the dark forest of Amakna. You then discovered that there was a plot against Silvosse aimed at turning the whole forest and the Soft Oak against him. At the end of the quest "The Woods Have Ears", Silvosse told you he'd be in touch if he learned anything more about the threat. The investigation made some progress later on, but stopped in Plantala… But now, all will finally be revealed!
Note that only those adventurers who have braved the Storm and faced the most terrifying Nightmares will be able to help the Protector of Flovor in these three new quests designed for players at level 200.
And that's not all! Silvosse will also be involved in another, much larger quest. Those valiant adventurers who have managed to get their hands on all 6 Primordial Dofus and discover all the secrets of Valonia will now have a chance to learn more about the mysterious Pine Done…
Balancing Equipment and Resources
In update 2.63 back in March 2022, we did a big balancing pass on set bonuses for the 100-150 level bracket. This change did the game a lot of good and was well received by players.
Many of you then asked for similar changes on level 150-200 sets. It took us a while, but it's now time for these sets to have their bonuses updated too.
But why the set bonuses and not the equipment? This is mainly due to a technical limitation. We cannot modify an item's statistics retroactively while preserving its level of quality (smithmagic) – at least, not yet ;) So the set bonuses give us a way to boost the value of less commonly-used items, or to rebalance items that are too powerful.
The list of affected sets will be provided in the changelog, and you can check out the changes for yourself in the beta. The goal is for all equipment and sets to be interesting to play with in at least one type of situation. While you're waiting for the changelog, here are two examples of the kinds of changes you can expect:
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In parallel with the set bonuses, we've also harmonized the pebble, alloy and substrate requirements for all equipment recipes. Previously, there were lots of imbalances between the various recipes.
This review of harvestable resources' availability drew our attention to certain resources that were not plentiful enough in-game in comparison to their level, so we have corrected that issue as well (Elm, Hemp and Cobalt). In short, we hope that this Russian doll of related modifications will give you a better in-game experience and reduce the big price differences between different resources from the same profession.
New Anti-Bot Tool: Epic Easy Anti-Cheat
We generally don't talk explicitly about the technical solutions we use to combat cheating, although each and every update adds new anti-cheat measures in a way that's invisible to players. This update will be an exception to the rule, with a new feature that will be visible as soon as you launch the game, so we'll tell you a bit about it in this post.
For update 2.70, a new step in our fight against bots this year will be integrated into the game: Epic Easy Anti Cheat.
Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) is a tool developed by Epic Games, and is used in a number of different video games (including Apex and Fortnite, to name just two). The system is based on installing a software tool at the same time as the game to detect cheating behaviors. If you're interested, more information is available on the official EAC website: https://www.easy.ac/en-us/.
Starting with this update, a window for this tool will pop up when the game client launches.
Other Improvements and Additions
Pets and Petsmounts
Rest assured that we haven't forgotten about the pets and petsmounts who accompany you on your adventures. With regard to their progression, we're reducing the total amount of experience needed to get them to level 100. In addition, the resources that you feed them will also give them more experience.
And since there aren't really all that many of them in the game, we're also adding 7 new petsmounts with stats to the game. Two of them can be purchased with nuggets, four with kolossokens, and one will be available as a reward on Kwismas Island. Here again, the details of the new petsmounts will be shared in the changelog for this update.
NPCs and Quest Battles
As you may recall, we made a first wave of changes in the March 2023 update to allow sidekicks in certain fights that you had flagged as being too difficult.
With this update, we're also adding a feature to let you control a quest NPC in combat. It turns out that part of what was making certain quest battles too hard was that the AI for the NPC (who must not be allowed to die) was doing everything in its power to die (random example: Pandora). About 30 quest NPCs in total will now be controllable in combat.
Nerf-o-roshi
We know that the Founoroshi dungeon is often criticized for being too difficult. Therefore, the boss will be rebalanced to make it easier to fight. From now on, the boss will no longer kill players on turn 1 if no flames are extinguished. The flames will now stay extinguished 2 turns longer (6 to 8 turns), and can be extinguished by sidekicks and non-static summons. Finally, the monster family has been made less powerful, especially the Gingerocket.
New Equipment Slot
As we told you at the launch of Osatopia 2, the new equipment slot created for Temporis, allowing you to add a consumable without having to remove your weapon, will be appearing on the classic servers. You will now be able to equip soul stones and capturing nets in this new slot.
Conclusion
Our objective with this update was to improve your in-game experience.
Obviously, our main focus was on the Kolossium, for which we'd already announced an overhaul, and we integrated as much of your feedback as we could. The other changes, while perhaps somewhat secondary, are also part of our commitment to improving things that need improving. Needless to say, there's still lots of work to be done to get to a perfect result (if that's even possible?!), but please know that we're working every day to make the game even better and more fun for you to play.
We hope you'll be happy with these changes! Thanks once again for your feedback, and remember: whether it's positive or critical, we take it all equally seriously.
If you've still got questions after reading this devblog, please feel free to ask, and we'll address them in the Ankama Live coming up at 3 p.m. (CET) on Monday, November 6!