Producer’s Letter

Producer's LetterTags: ,

Realmers,

2021 was a big year for Realm. We released many game-changing features and delivered functionalities that were promised long ago. 

The two biggest new additions to the game were the new, completely reworked Shatters and the Dungeon Modifiers. Yes, both still need some tender love and care, but they are a big step towards our vision for the game. 

We ended the year by releasing our 18th class, the Kensei! Despite the changes that came with it, we still need to iron out some issues. While the situation is not ideal, we expect it to be solved soon. 

2021 was also the year when we planned to release the Enchantments. As the release day was getting close, we started to realize there were some concerning issues with it. We weren’t happy with the existing specifications and we felt that, in the current state of the game, it wouldn’t be the addition we wanted it to be. First, we need to make big changes to the balancing of the game, stats, and progression, and only then can we implement Enchantments. We are still in love with the idea, but for these reasons, it has been postponed for now. 

What’s to come:

Tackling Latency

One of our goals for Easter 2022  this year is to improve the experience for players that are having latency issues. We are developing a system that advises you to play on the best servers

available for you, with one of the main latency issues can be being too far away from the servers. To have shorter Latency times is an important aspect of RotMG. We are continuously working on improving them and with that, the overall game experience. So stay tuned for Easter!

Lair of Draconis and Mountain Temple rework

Lair of Draconis and Mountain Temple will be receiving an overhaul, especially on the design side with some art enhancements. These improvements were also the projects our teammates Kiddforce and Toastrz started working on last year. Although they both aren’t on the team now, we want to thank them for their amazing job and contribute to their efforts by finishing up the work they started for these awesome dungeons.

The scale of this rework will not be “remade from scratch”, but more focused on improving what was already there. Both dungeons are iconic for Realm players, and we think they deserve to be polished and modernized to today’s standards.

Some of the general changes made are geared towards pacing and fairness with respect to both dungeon’s difficulty levels. From a more careful tweak of the different phases and rhythm of the Dragons’ fights in LoD that is more respectful with players’ time to even a complete rework of Daichi the Fallen, the boss of Mountain Temple. 

We hope you like the changes and delve into these reworked dungeons soon!

Item Rebalance

Some time ago, we introduced an item balancing patch. We think it’s time we do this again, and because of that, we have been working on rebalancing gear that needed some attention.

For this project, your feedback has been invaluable. It’s also worthy of comment how great the videos created by our esteemed content creators have been. Their opinions have sparked a very interesting debate around certain items and design topics. Carefully analyzing that feedback has helped us make informed decisions and overall see the global view you players see.

While some of these items just had slight tweaks or adjustments to get back in shape, certain items underwent important changes (you will be able to check the details in the update’s release notes).

With this new batch of rebalanced items, we hope to answer several long-awaited requests and improve Realm’s overall metagame. But our balancing work doesn’t end here…

Bow Rework:

It was time we got to this. You can see we got hands-deep into game balance and, simply put, Bows were not in the spot we wanted them to be. We knew they needed a deep revision, and so we did. Our goals with the bow rework were to normalize the tiered progression of bows and give bows their own unique identity.

The first major change is that all tiered bows are triple shot, whereas it was restricted to bows tier 8 and above previously. Tiered Crossbows and Double bows will disappear (and we have a good reason for this!). UT bow functionalities will mostly be kept as they are (with updates to their damage stats), as they are meant to be out-of-the-norm weapons. 

In synergy with this rework, we are also changing how bows fire. We are redefining the general playstyle of bows: they will be based on a central shot which will deliver about 60% of the bow’s total damage at low-to-mid defense, while the two side shots will pierce armor. We hope you will give the reworked bows a good try and let us know what you think!

Katana rebalance

Another important frontline in regards to item balance was the state of katanas. Katanas have historically been a little on the weak side, currently dealing similar damage to daggers despite having a lower range. In addition, many players often consider Enforcer to be the only useful UT choice as almost all of the other UTs and STs had been balanced closely to the tiered weapons, which were very lacking. 

Due to this, we will be increasing the baseline damage values of the entire weapon class as well as tweaking a few UTs further where we deem it necessary. This will hopefully bring katanas up to a damage value deserving of their range as well as lower the gap between most katanas and Enforcer (especially Valor). 

Easter Event

This Easter we celebrate the Spring Equinox. It’s a festival of renewal and prosperity, where the elements work together to make the earth bloom. To do that, and during the complete season, we will host a special Double Exaltation event where all the dungeons will spawn with a guaranteed Exalted Banner modifier. When the earth is happy, the players get rewarded!

Month of the Mad God 

This will be the biggest MotMG ever. What? You think we’ve said that before? That is very true. We did say that before for other years’ MotMG. Yet, this year is going to be better. 

Seasonality:

Seasons will change the game at its core and will be a big step towards the vision we have for Realm. We will not promise that all these features will be implemented in time for MotMG, but the ones that are not should be released throughout 2022. 

Each season will last roughly 8 weeks. There will always be an open season and you’ll be able to choose to play normally, with the normal characters, or with the seasonal characters. If you choose to play with seasonal characters, you’ll have access to challenge modes and your character may have additional advantages compared to playing normally. Ah, and if your character is alive at the end of the season you get to keep it for the next one.

Seasons will bring an already talked about and important system: the battlepass. The battlepass will always be active during seasons and will replace the current campaigns. It will have a free progression, as well as a paid one.
You will be able to collect a new type of experience points called Battlepass XP (BXP for short). These points are collected by defeating monsters, the same as normal XP. However, bear in mind this resource is unrelated to regular XP/Fame. At the start of the Season, all BXP is reset to 0.

As you progress through the Battlepass acquiring BXP, at certain “milestones” you can claim prizes, which require you to have a minimum amount of BXP to claim. They’ll be sent to your Gift chest if they are inventory items.  

Players will also be able to buy an Exalted Pass, similar to Premium Pass in many other games. This will allow you to claim Premium-only milestones and also “boost” their progress with Gold if so they want (boosting is not allowed without having an Exalted Pass). The Exalted pass rewards will accumulate with the regular pass. If a player with an Exalted Pass completes the whole season, they’ll be gifted an Exalted Pass for the next one.

You can also expect new families of items or their blueprints to be unlockable through this. But not only: we want to introduce different types of accelerators, which will be some kind of “booster” (but account-tied, not character-tied, so you can swap your character and still benefit from it).

We are also reworking the quest system and creating a new Achievements/Missions system, where we’ll offer optional methods of gaining BXP by completing different types of missions.

Sorcerer and Assassin rework

Some of you will probably be excited about this: we finally will deliver the long-awaited Sorcerer and Assassin rework! They had been on our to-do list for a while, and for a good reason: both Sorcerer and Assassin rework needed extra support to implement our ideas. This meant reworking the functionality of their abilities, besides of course the stat balancing – a mere numerical tweak was not going to do the job! 

In regards to Sorcerer, we will be extending his ability to give him more options and roles to play in combat. In this regard, Sorc’s Scepter ability will be revamped so his ability will now make use of enemies to extend his damaging range even further. In this sense we want this to be an “expansive” rework: he’ll be the same, but with more combat options still based on careful positioning and skilled timing, with which we hope Sorcerers will be back on the frontlines very soon! 

Assassin is the other class that will undergo an important ability change. We had announced this in previous communications, and honestly speaking, Assassin’s rework has been on our to-do list for about one entire year without pushing the final specifications for it. The issues with Assassin were blatantly obvious for us after seeing how well received the Polarity Poison was, which highlighted how lacking his options were in the current metagame. We will rework the class with a high focus on increasing assassins’ overall DPS with more incentive to use both your dagger and poison in tandem.

New weapon types

During our talk about balancing issues, you might have noticed how our focus for items now has shifted from “making each item individually powerful” to “making each option a meaningful choice for the situations it’s designed for”. 

With that in mind, we want to expand basic options for all classes at all levels of progression. We are introducing new weapon “types” as a novelty in Realm. So all classes will have new types of weapons available at their disposal, and they will work with the same compatibility as current weapons.

For example, Bow classes will now be able to also use “Crossbows” as a completely new weapon type, which will feature a playstyle based on single, powerful projectiles with contundent damage. So you will be able to find Tiered Crossbows and Crossbow UT’s the same as you do with Bows currently. More options for your characters!

But besides big releases, we are working on plenty of additional things…

We plan to continue to fight against bots and cheaters. When it comes to bots you recently could have tested the first attempt of our captcha implementation. Right now we are making changes based on feedback so that the system is safer and more user-friendly. At the end of the day, our goal is to make as little impact on real players as possible. In terms of cheaters, we made significant progress in identifying them and banning them in 2021. We continue to work on finding new ways of recognizing players using third-party software so that in 2022 we can continue to remove them from the game.

In the first half of 2022, you can also expect a slight rework of the Item Forge system. Item Forge has changed how players acquire items and while we are mostly happy with it, we want to address concerns about top-tier items can be acquired too easily without playing that much the dungeon they were designed for.

While we want to keep flexibility in general, we think it’s important to introduce a change in the system to enforce that players use items from the same dungeon to craft other top-end items. 

So, for example, you will need Shatters’ UT’s to craft other Shatters’ UT’s (again, this is only for top-tier items!). We believe this change will improve the long-term replayability of the dungeons the items were designed for and reward players who become skilled at completing these dungeons.

This isn’t the only change connected to items. For MotMG 2021 items from tiers D/C/B became tradeable. Simultaneously we have released a unique item id system in the background to prevent duping of items. We observed the system and have been fixing bugs since release. At this point, we are confident in the system enough to expand tradeable items also to tier A which we plan to do this year. S-Tier items will keep being soulbound.

Lastly, for 2022 we are also planning to introduce a brand new Exaltation dungeon to Realm. The work on it has already started and we hope to deliver it by the end of 2022. As we have more details, we will try to share them with you.

What about after 2022?


After 2022 we currently have in mind three big changes for which we have already started creating specifications and real work should start already in 2022:

Stats rework and character progression changes – as mentioned at the beginning of the letter these are changes that are needed for the game from the balancing perspective but also to enable designers to create more dungeons and more items for the game. We hope that with these updates we will create a few new ways of developing classes other than DPS builds.

Enchantments – an idea that we are still in love with but for it to make the impact on the game we wish for we want first to concentrate on stats rework. We want enchantments to complement these different styles of gameplay rather than everyone looking for most DPS enchantments in-game.

Realm Rework – something we want to do almost as much as the community. We started internal discussions about how to tackle it and hopefully, soon we will be able to move forward with the idea. As soon as we have more details we will share with you what our plan is and how we want to make Realm great again.

Thank you,

DECA Team

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8 replies on “Producer’s Letter”

  1. Shane Durak (IGN: Sugarbuz)

    This comment shall be referring to the recent blog post about the proposed item forge changes. First off, I’d like to say that the changes seem like a good balance for the forge.
    You shouldn’t be able to forge a white from a dungeon you have only completed a couple of times. However, it seems the idea didn’t quite hit the nail on the head according to the community. I would like to humbly give my ideas as to how to improve the item forge, while keeping this idea intact.

    1. Lowering item cost:
    Instead of strictly making an item need materials from another white in the same dungeon, make it optional with a discount incentive.
    Example:
    to forge a crown with all nest whites, it would take 5 items total. If you forge a crown with at least one shatters white, it would cost 4 total.

    This proposal is very similar to the one in the blog post. I only suggest that the ability to forge an item with any whites should still be an option, at a cost.

    2. Scaled mark requirement:
    Make it so the more marks used in forging an item, the less materials it costs.
    Example:
    to forge a crown with 1 mark, (or however many the base mark cost is. Personally, I think mark costs should be increased across the board) it will cost 4 whites total. If 5 marks are provided, it will cost 3 whites. 13 marks makes the cost drop to 2 and so on. There could also be that if a very large amount of marks are provided, the item will only cost forgefire to craft.

    Even in if implemented in a simplified version than the above proposal, I firmly believe that increasing the mark costs of the forge is a much better way to get player to do a dungeon more before getting to forge its whites than the proposal in the blog post. One notable flaw in my idea is that marks are quite difficult to store in large numbers. A possible remedy for this issue would be to make marks stackable, or perhaps add a mark storage similar to the potion storage feature in the vault.

    3. Quest chest vouchers:
    When completing a mark quest for an exaltation dungeon, gain an item forge voucher in addition to (or instead of) the chest.
    Example:
    To forge a crown, it will cost a total of 5 whites. When a voucher is used (similar to how a blueprint is used) it will cost a total of 4 whites.

    This idea is an alternate take on the scaled marks idea. The concept is still the same of requiring more marks to forge a white at a decent cost but using a different system that is already in the game. I am inclined to believe this idea would encounter the same issues as the ones mentioned in idea #2.

    4. Blueprint material reduction:
    In addition to (or instead of) providing forgefire reduction, using a blueprint of the item you’re trying to craft provides material reduction as well.
    Example:
    To craft a crown, 5 whites total are needed. If a crown blueprint is used in the crafting, it costs 4 items total and less forgefire. If any other blueprint is used it only reduces the forgefire cost.

    This idea aims to provide more use to duplicate blueprints. Blueprints can only be obtained from the dungeon the item is from (for the most part). This means one would still have to do the dungeon quite a bit in order to get the discount. One flaw with this idea is that blueprints can be obtained with schematics. The trade in cost for these blueprints is fairly high, so I don’t see it as an issue. However, a tag could be added to blueprints obtained this way so that they only can unlock the item to forge, or reduce forgefire cost.

    I would like to reiterate that I like the concept of the item forge changes in the blog post, I just don’t think it is the correct way to implement it. It seems the issue of being able to forge the whites in a dungeon you don’t do very often is only relevant to shatters and oryx’s sanctuary as these are both very difficult dungeons with a large amount of good whites. The numbers provided in my proposals are only for example, although I do with they stay within the realm of reason. I hope to see these ideas be implemented, or help start the process of changing the blog proposal to one more accepted by the community.

  2. aTiredPlayer

    as a legit player i shouldn’t have to solve a captcha to play the game, like WTF is wrong with u
    this will make people stop playing the game, imaging u download the new game and it asks u to complete a captcha to play
    i’ll just download another f2p game on steam..
    what problem are u trying to solve?
    SPAMMERS?
    they are a problem since forever, IMPLEMENT A SPAM FILTER LIKE ALL GAMES DO
    because u have bad developers u force captcha on legit players?

    if ( player.is_similar_text(packet.txt) || player.msg_per_second > 4) shadow_mute(player);

    even at my company we have simple spam filter for our mobile game and it works, why can’t u do it?
    u kept targeting legit players over the years, before the game was playable in my browser, i could play during cofee break, NOW I CANT it is a steam game that i have to install, i can’t play at work anymore
    why? just to stop hackers from modding the game? wake up DECA
    focus on your game features and add a spam filter

  3. LolRAGExD

    Dear Producers,

    since i love this game i want to go over this letter and tell you my concernes/opinion on every topic provided.

    “Tackling Latency”:
    Iposiible to adress this because of the “low” playerbase sacattered around the world. With the current Discord-Meta to run exaltation dungeons player will always connect around the globe to run things (e.g. australian and EU players connect to US servers).
    To “fix” this you need to increase the playerbase so every region can make there own groups. For many regions its not rewarding to play localy.

    “Lair of Draconis and Mountain Temple rework”
    Great, if its reward to difficulty ratio is balanced.
    LoD: The current drops are not very atractive to run the dungeon for it taking too long, even tho the difficulty is not very high. If the dungeon gets more difficult or longer it will be even more unatractive and a waste of time with the current drops.
    MT: i liked the current one but can be refreshing.

    “Item Rebalance”
    Very much needed.
    Bow: In my opinion the problem with theese is not the weapon design but more the boss design. A single boss with no minions what are 98% of all bossfight in RotMG is not beneficial for that weapon. It would be better do get more variation in Bossfighdesigns then adjusting the weapons to the current state.
    Katana: Also nice to get them to a better use.

    “Easter Event”
    Sounds nice.

    “Month of the Mad God”
    Seasonality: i think its good (especially to maintain the viability or RotMG itself).
    Sorcerer and Assassin rework: Needed!

    “New weapon types”
    Interesting and gives the game more depth and diverity.

    “But besides big releases, we are working on plenty of additional things…”
    Fight against bots and cheaters: Keep it up!
    Rework of the Item Forge system: I think this is a very bad idea for the current Meta. This would make a large ammount of Whitebags and even hole dungeons worthless. “Cultist Hideout”, “Fungal Cavern”, “Crystal Cavern” and “The Nest” would be never visited after exaltaion completes. The problem here is that only a very, very small amount of dungeons realy give “end-game” items. To bind certain UTs to dungeon related items would also exclude alot of players to high-tierd runs (in the current Discord-Meta). I think this change makes a lot of players dont enjoy the game as much, because you “have to” exalt your characters and you dont benefit from running them when you cant also gain items from them. Summarized: Its a bad Idea^^

    “What about after 2022?”
    Stats rework: DPS will alwas be Meta in a bullet-hell game. Especially in a perma-death one. Beeing “tanky” is not benefical for the group and will never be (exept you can withstand whole boss attacks and decoy the shots away from the group. And this would be even more game-breaking (see “CShielding” and that as permanent)).
    Enchantments: Isn’t this idea around since 2016 or so? Same problem as the “Stats rework”, you can’t get away from the DPS-Meta without shifting towards another extreme.
    Realm Rework: Interesting, never thought about it (and the majority of the community i guess). I mean redesign it will grant more oppertuinity to get away from the Discord-Meta eventually. Problem here is that its the entrance into the highest tiered dungeon (Oryx Sanctuary) in the game.

    Conclusion:
    Alot of planed features are very benefical for the game, but some are unpleasant. In my opinion you should also keep the game enjoyable for players especially if you plan on them spending money consistently on “Exalt-Passes”.
    My advice would be to carefully differentiate what will be a good addition for the gameplay or for the players and choose to keep the game alive.

    Greetings,

    LolRAGExD / Alex

  4. Tarma

    Tomb of Ancients needs a sprite rework and items’ rework too.
    Do not forget this, Deca.

  5. Neolution

    I really do not agree with the proposed change to the item forge. Without a sufficient pity system, this turns it into an unbelievable grind for the specific endgame items we want. As someone who currently cannot complete shatters, this partially invalidates my redemption of schematics to get Warmonger / Arcana blueprints. I did so in order to have a reward for once I have finally completed Shatters and get the mark(s), but with the proposed changes that is no longer possible.
    A few alternative proposals:
    – Add a proper pity system using Nilshards so that we can actually get the items we spend a long time grinding for
    – Keep the forge costs the same, but drastically increase the number of marks required. This rewards players exactly in the way you describe.
    – Greatly increase the drop chance of whites (not a good idea)
    – Lower the number of UTs required to convert between endgame items

  6. Bobby Joe

    You’re welcome,
    Me

  7. Eugene

    Please do NOT force us to use the whites from shatters (or any specific dungeon) to forge shatters whites, we already need to use marks, just increase the marks count if you want them to do the dungeon more. The point of the forge system is to let players get around the annoying realities of drop rates when looking for a specific item. This will make so many dungeons run less, and make the game feel less rewarding to the majority of players.

  8. AidanE

    Wow sounds like a lot of good design changes are coming. Please be sure to do many testing server events to make sure everything works properly first.

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