DOFUS Retro – Update 1.42

Dear adventurers of the World of Twelve, I'm writing today to tell you about the next update coming soon to Retro: 1.42.
This technical update, as you know as well as we do, is crucial for the project to be sustainable, and with this devblog I'll try to answer your questions about the merger. First I'll tackle the specifics of the merger, then move on to the three systems that had to be modified to make it possible.
Sit down, grab a rather large cup of tea or coffee, adjust your glasses, and let's get started!

 

Status of the Merger

Announced in KrosmoNote 2022 and slated for the end of this year, we've been working on a new merger method since Temporis Retro 2, so this project has been a long time coming. You might know that with current mergers, we're forced to disable the purchase of properties (paddocks and houses) because we can't redistribute these once they're acquired. As a result, we've also been unable to complete a second merger on a server. This aspect is especially inconvenient for our oldest servers, Eratz and Henual, since this purchase restriction hadn't been activated yet, making them incompatible despite their population. Now that everyone's synced up, let's discuss what matters to you: the futuuuuure!

The first step was to come up with a name for the merger. The name is important because it represents an entire community with a single emblem – and believe me, the team got creative with it. For a while the two new servers were named Henuatz and Crailgarion. Well, obviously, that wasn't an option. Nor could we choose a server name that already existed, because of the logs associated with them. Two names emerged in our search; the relationship between these two characters seems very appropriate for the link between the Legacy and Retro servers:

• Fallanster will be the new server created by merging Eratz and Henual. Brother of King Allister and founder of the Feca guild in Astrub, Fallanster represents courage and justice. His age and kinship make him the most important character in the city.
• Allisteria will be the new server created by merging Crail and Galgarion. Allisteria is the daughter of Fallanster and shepherdess of the family herd of Gobballs, as well as an amazing cook. Her heritage destined her for an important future, and she was trained by her father from a young age.

So, Fallanster and Allisteria are the two new servers! They will open their doors on 17/01/2024 following a beta that will start very soon – more on that shortly. We'd also like to remove the term "Legacy" from the server list, because, although it came from a good place, this label made it seem cast aside, which was not the intent. We of course welcome your thoughts on whether or not to remove this term when 1.42 is rolled out.

Naturally, a new merger means a set of new rules for properties. We've looked at different options to determine what was feasible, as well as what would be most beneficial to you and the server's lifecycle. There's considerable historical baggage to consider, and we're aware this decision shouldn't be taken lightly. Even though this is a first merger, who's to say that more servers won't be created in a few months or years? A developed solution will eventually make it possible to merge new servers into Fallanster or Allisteria if need be.

Early iterations were meant to preserve the unique aspect of properties – a single owner per property – which is how the game was designed. But clearly it wasn't conceivable to put players' acquisitions back up for sale with every potential merger. With that in mind, it became clear that the instance system was the best solution. Though similar to the existing one in Dofus 2, it has its share of unique qualities, which I'll describe for each mechanic.

We'd also like to consult with you afterwards to improve the rollover of properties (as well as streamline the relisting of properties). But this is no small thing, so we want to discuss it more later on!

Before going into detail on how instances work, a reminder that characters will have a tag with their original server placed after their nickname, so as not to have any conflicting nicknames on merged servers. That goes for guilds as well.

 

Houses

Let's cut to the chase: Owners will not lose their properties when the merger happens. With the elephant in the room addressed, let's get into the nitty-gritty. When a merger is done and two people have the same house, an instance will now be created. Clicking on the front door brings up the names of both owners so you can choose which house to enter. This instance works exactly the same as a normal house – it can be sold, locked, shared with your guild, and so on.

There's just one important rule to keep in mind: When a house's instance is relisted due to inactivity, it cannot be purchased and will be automatically deleted. This restriction is in place because we want to maintain the scarcity of properties and not create X instances of each house in the long run. In practical terms, when a house becomes abandoned and other instances of it remain, it isn't relisted – it disappears forever. If only one remains, it is relisted during the first maintenance cycle of the month, as usual. That said, we may improve this system down the line so that houses will be automatically relisted.

While we're on the subject of listing, the items in chests will now be transferred to the bank of the previous owner when the transaction is completed.

Usability changes were needed to accommodate these instances:

• The tooltip will always appear when you hover over a door, even if it isn't a shared guild house.
• The house's name is now shown in the header.
• The owner's name, guild's name, and (a new feature) a house's sale price – are now shown on the same line.
• When a house has more than one instance, a list of owners is shown in the tooltip, along with, if necessary, the guild emblem at the end of the line.
• House-related bug fixes can be expected in the changelog.

 

Paddocks

Our thinking for houses is also applicable to paddocks: Paddock owners won't lose their properties when the merger occurs. The system will be the same as for houses. When a merger is done and two people have the same paddock, an instance will now be created.

So an instance is created but what paddock and what mounts will be shown on the map?
We've used a pretty simple system:

• If the player is in a guild with a paddock instance on the map, the player will see the owned paddock; they'll see the breeding items and mounts stored in this paddock.
• If the player is in a guild that doesn't have a paddock instance, or if the player isn't in a guild, the paddock shown will be selected at random each time the player loads the map.
• Paddock instances work the same as a normal paddock.

As with houses, when a paddock instance is freed up (if a guild is deleted, for example), the instance will be automatically deleted. We want paddocks, like houses, to remain a scarce property.
If only one paddock instance remains on the map, it will work as normal again and systematically appear to players.


 

Marketplaces

This aspect of the game was supposed to be updated with two major changes: the merger of marketplaces between servers, of course, but also the pooling of all in-game marketplaces (Bonta, Brakmar, and Astrub), which I'll start with.

First of all, I need to mention that pooling the marketplaces required a change to how offers are formatted, which made it impossible to keep the old offers. Practically, that means all items for sale will be transferred to the owners' banks, on all servers, when the update rolls out. This isn't exactly good news, but it was a necessary evil, and at best it will clear things up a bit for a fresh start!

So, what's actually new?

Already, the marketplaces in Bonta, Brakmar, and Astrub are now sharing the same offers. That means you can buy the same items from any of them. We hope this change will sufficiently change patterns to repopulate Astrub as well as Brakmar, so that players are better distributed.

Marketplaces in big cities used to have different slots and taxes depending on the minority of the alignment. Astrub also had its share of non-subscriber area restrictions that made it unappealing after the server's beginnings. We've smoothed out these values so that all marketplaces now work the same way:

• The sale fee is a flat 2%.
• Items remain for sale for 2 weeks before going back into the bank. The number of sale slots scale with your highest-level character (min: 10 slots, max: 50):
  • you start out with 10 slots;
  • get +1 slot every 10 levels, up to level 100;
  • then +1 slot every 5 levels;
  • finally, +10 slots at level 200.

Offers listed are now the same for the Butcher/Hunter and Fishmonger/Fisherman marketplaces in Astrub, among others.
That's it for new features. Now let's get into the inter-server marketplace merger; the technical work is done and we're ready to deploy it.

If you've been paying attention, there won't be an issue this time because offers will be removed – however, we're not convinced that it's appropriate to merge the offers between servers afterward. Why? The economy of one server may be so different from another that a player could end up selling an item for a paltry amount on the new server right after a merger. Therefore, the offers from a server merged into Fallanster or Allisteria might be removed to prevent any issues.
 

Feel free to share your opinions on this topic in the comments section of this devblog.

We're also using this revamp to make the buy/sell interface in marketplaces more user-friendly, in various ways:

• Selling mode now shows the prices being charged in the marketplace so it's easier to offer items at the right price.
• An icon showing whether you own the item for sale will now appear next to the price.
• The option "Filter for this marketplace" also removes account-linked items.
• Items available in the marketplace are now sorted by level, then alphabetically.
• Lots of other improvements