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Updates Post #3: Roadmap Updates
We've been cooking since the last update post and we definitely had what to think about. Legacy changes involve entrenched mechanics and often cannot be resolved with bandaids. Not that bandaids help solve or even alleviate many issues anyway, but neither do entire overhauls that drag on for years. We need to strike a balance between these two options to deliver you consistent, exciting, and timely updates so the two main issues on our plate have been daily credits and aethergoop retirement.
Firstly, the daily credits system. Ours was developed back when the whole system was introduced IRE-wide and almost nothing has been done with it since. Meanwhile, the other games have developed theirs into much more advanced systems. That is not the main reason we see it as a priority to expand though. It's not the general lack of updates but that it has become an obstacle rather than an enrichment of the player experience. Players often do not engage with others, with roleplay or events, and even don't pursue various avenues of progress and discovery because their time is spent on grinding daily credits. There are many reasons for this - some players are just used to doing it or feel like they are missing out (that infamous FOMO) if they do not get what they could of the game's currency for the day, while newer players feel like they have to in order to have any hope of catching up. The bottom line is that between FOMO and the solitary nature of doing one's dailies, players often spend their time on things that don't make them happy rather than what does.
So we got to work, identifying problems, studying what others have done, and figuring out the general shape of what we want in light of legacy mode. Ais then wrote up a 15-page draft that you might see if she finds the time to make it presentable because we'd like to show you how something of this size gets made. We then put it up for admin comments, made some tweaks and decisions that needed to happen, and it's now back on Ais' desk.
There are some key elements of the new system that we'd like to let you know about already. Most importantly, the system will have a buffer which will build passively, allowing players to take days off or participate in events outside of daily activities without worrying about missing out. In addition, there will be a rollover mechanic specific to a few daily credit sources - for example the recognize command. Between the buffer and the rollover, we hope to alleviate the biggest problems with the current system. Next, it will introduce weekly and monthly objectives, the completion of which will be a source of limited resources tied to old promotions, like Iron Coins, Vault Keys, etc. That handles the other big objective of this system. Further, the cap will be increased from the current 20/40 to 50 credits to round it out.
We will also be able to integrate certain events, seasonal activities, roleplay, and other systems into this once it is out but want to be clear that these entirely new ways will come as an update to this system rather than along with it. This change will be massive enough because in addition to coding all of it from scratch, we also need to migrate everything that currently gives daily credits as nothing about the old system will be compatible. But we are very excited about the variety of options this will give us, like being able to reward guild rituals, organisational leadership, group activities, and more.
Now onto the second major plan: aethergoop retirement. As touched on before, having an additional currency beyond credits was part of monetization and having whole systems focused on it was creating games within games that have been out of control for a while. Frankly, as it turns out they have been out of control even beyond our worst projections. Nobody exactly looks at how old things work once they are rolled out because they work, nobody's complaining, and there's too much else to get done as is. But we had to look at things like curio genies, among other things, to see the whole picture clearly.
Before we elaborate on our decisions, I wish to focus on genies specifically so you can see the scope of the problem. Genies come in 3 types - the blue, red, and yellow collection. There are 4 bottles per collection so 12 bottles would make the whole set. You can activate each collection for a blessing - health, mana, ego - as you might expect. You can also rub each bottle individually (so 12 bottles) every real day to receive something extra - there is a 95% chance that the extra will be 3-5 goop or a 5% chance that it will be between 1-10 aethergoop craftables (which can be broken down into 1/4th goop cost needed to make them). There is no cap on how many bottles you can have/use and some players have hundreds even though genie sales were rare intentionally. Unlike sets like macaron curios though, you could reroll regular curio pieces into genie pieces and build an army of genies. We'll spare you the exact math but to generalise someone with 200 genies could generate the equivalent of 100 credits a day for years just by rubbing all of them. The example is in credits as goop amounts can get a bit abstract otherwise. And there are players with much more than 200 genies.
This is absolutely and utterly broken and there is no salvaging this system or how much goop it has generated. We're using genies as the main example but this covers pretty much everything to do with goop and its associated systems. We cannot just adjust one thing, all of it needs to go. All of that said, we must emphasise that there is nothing wrong with having used the systems as designed. The numbers are staggering but there is no player fault in how things turned out, the fault lies in the original design and the constraints that prevented us from revising the system once it was put in place (monetization, time, coding resources).
So all that said, here is where we are with aethergoop. Aethergoop as a currency will be retired and any aethergoop in player possession will be converted to credits at a 20:1 ratio, our standard, up to a maximum of 200,000 aethergoop (10k credits). We did our best to find a fair middle ground for the cap, and as it stands it will affect 6 active players and 2 inactive players (those players have more than 200k aethergoop). The ability to purchase from the artifact shop with aethergoop will be removed, and skins/transformations will be done with credits instead. Further, aethertrading and refining will be removed, and all aethergoop crafts will be changed to use commodities gained from aetherspace mechanics instead. This latter point, how aethergoop crafts will be made, is something we are still working on and will not be rolled out immediately. Instead, a shop will be made available to sell them for gold and credits. It will stay open until a new way to craft these items is made available. Additionally, as aethertraders will be retired, so will the ability to purchase anomalies from them. We will not be providing a replacement for these but will be monitoring the situation and will do so if necessary. For the time being there are over 11.5k anomalies out there. And finally, genies, poteens, treasure maps, wondercornucopia's gift power, merry stocking, and any other external sources of aethergoop will be individually adjusted to do something different. Some of them will retain or gain the power to generate athergoop craftables as well. In some cases, a cap will be put on the number of owned/usable items and in those cases, refunds will be made available.
All of the aethergoop changes outlined above will not go live until January 15, 2025. If you have any additional comments, this post will be available on the forums for your feedback. Thank you also for all the thoughts you have provided in Report 572, which also highlights that removal of aethergoop makes the newbie experience more difficult in terms of progress. We are keeping that in mind while working on legacy changes and assure you there are many ways to help those newer to the game compete without the need for an additional currency to pursue.
Speaking of, Report 573 focuses on artifact adjustments. While both players and admin definitely see a handful of artifacts that will require adjustments, we will be moving that project to our general Roadmap rather than the immediate Legacy Roadmap. Instead, we will now focus on addressing the value and availability of artifacts for an improved experience for both new and old characters. We will also audit and consider retiring certain artifacts and reinstituting their effects as widely available skills.
The final item for this update are Envoy Reports. While we have a Roadmap item to address deficiencies in the report cycle, we do not feel it is fruitful to hold up other changes while we work out the new system. A cycle will open December 27 and we aim to finalise the few leftover decisions and investigations that have been pending from the previous cycle before then. This cycle will follow the same format as the last cycle - anonymous and visible comments, combat and QoL welcome. Conflict reports will also be welcome in this cycle but please focus them on specific requests that improve the experience, rather than asking for a redo of an entire system. As an example, adjusting a domoth stage to require different conditions is a suitable report, asking to redo entire stages, triggers, and rewards is beyond the scope of reports. Lastly, we have started a Special Report for Serenwilde as their skills have been waiting for a revamp for a while now and are the most lacking in terms of synergy and kill paths in a few instances. While exploring their problems, we will determine if the problem is limited to Seren-specific skills or if shared across the archetypes as well.
Those are our immediate plans but there is more on the Roadmap in general: the newbie experience (intro, access to skills and artifacts, PvE), conflict experience (alliances, conflict events, envoy system), and the aetherspace. While this post focuses on our development plans, another one, closer to or after the holidays, will focus on our story, roleplay, organisational, and general admin plans and work.
Thank you for taking the time to read this update,
The Lusternia Team
Firstly, the daily credits system. Ours was developed back when the whole system was introduced IRE-wide and almost nothing has been done with it since. Meanwhile, the other games have developed theirs into much more advanced systems. That is not the main reason we see it as a priority to expand though. It's not the general lack of updates but that it has become an obstacle rather than an enrichment of the player experience. Players often do not engage with others, with roleplay or events, and even don't pursue various avenues of progress and discovery because their time is spent on grinding daily credits. There are many reasons for this - some players are just used to doing it or feel like they are missing out (that infamous FOMO) if they do not get what they could of the game's currency for the day, while newer players feel like they have to in order to have any hope of catching up. The bottom line is that between FOMO and the solitary nature of doing one's dailies, players often spend their time on things that don't make them happy rather than what does.
So we got to work, identifying problems, studying what others have done, and figuring out the general shape of what we want in light of legacy mode. Ais then wrote up a 15-page draft that you might see if she finds the time to make it presentable because we'd like to show you how something of this size gets made. We then put it up for admin comments, made some tweaks and decisions that needed to happen, and it's now back on Ais' desk.
There are some key elements of the new system that we'd like to let you know about already. Most importantly, the system will have a buffer which will build passively, allowing players to take days off or participate in events outside of daily activities without worrying about missing out. In addition, there will be a rollover mechanic specific to a few daily credit sources - for example the recognize command. Between the buffer and the rollover, we hope to alleviate the biggest problems with the current system. Next, it will introduce weekly and monthly objectives, the completion of which will be a source of limited resources tied to old promotions, like Iron Coins, Vault Keys, etc. That handles the other big objective of this system. Further, the cap will be increased from the current 20/40 to 50 credits to round it out.
We will also be able to integrate certain events, seasonal activities, roleplay, and other systems into this once it is out but want to be clear that these entirely new ways will come as an update to this system rather than along with it. This change will be massive enough because in addition to coding all of it from scratch, we also need to migrate everything that currently gives daily credits as nothing about the old system will be compatible. But we are very excited about the variety of options this will give us, like being able to reward guild rituals, organisational leadership, group activities, and more.
Now onto the second major plan: aethergoop retirement. As touched on before, having an additional currency beyond credits was part of monetization and having whole systems focused on it was creating games within games that have been out of control for a while. Frankly, as it turns out they have been out of control even beyond our worst projections. Nobody exactly looks at how old things work once they are rolled out because they work, nobody's complaining, and there's too much else to get done as is. But we had to look at things like curio genies, among other things, to see the whole picture clearly.
Before we elaborate on our decisions, I wish to focus on genies specifically so you can see the scope of the problem. Genies come in 3 types - the blue, red, and yellow collection. There are 4 bottles per collection so 12 bottles would make the whole set. You can activate each collection for a blessing - health, mana, ego - as you might expect. You can also rub each bottle individually (so 12 bottles) every real day to receive something extra - there is a 95% chance that the extra will be 3-5 goop or a 5% chance that it will be between 1-10 aethergoop craftables (which can be broken down into 1/4th goop cost needed to make them). There is no cap on how many bottles you can have/use and some players have hundreds even though genie sales were rare intentionally. Unlike sets like macaron curios though, you could reroll regular curio pieces into genie pieces and build an army of genies. We'll spare you the exact math but to generalise someone with 200 genies could generate the equivalent of 100 credits a day for years just by rubbing all of them. The example is in credits as goop amounts can get a bit abstract otherwise. And there are players with much more than 200 genies.
This is absolutely and utterly broken and there is no salvaging this system or how much goop it has generated. We're using genies as the main example but this covers pretty much everything to do with goop and its associated systems. We cannot just adjust one thing, all of it needs to go. All of that said, we must emphasise that there is nothing wrong with having used the systems as designed. The numbers are staggering but there is no player fault in how things turned out, the fault lies in the original design and the constraints that prevented us from revising the system once it was put in place (monetization, time, coding resources).
So all that said, here is where we are with aethergoop. Aethergoop as a currency will be retired and any aethergoop in player possession will be converted to credits at a 20:1 ratio, our standard, up to a maximum of 200,000 aethergoop (10k credits). We did our best to find a fair middle ground for the cap, and as it stands it will affect 6 active players and 2 inactive players (those players have more than 200k aethergoop). The ability to purchase from the artifact shop with aethergoop will be removed, and skins/transformations will be done with credits instead. Further, aethertrading and refining will be removed, and all aethergoop crafts will be changed to use commodities gained from aetherspace mechanics instead. This latter point, how aethergoop crafts will be made, is something we are still working on and will not be rolled out immediately. Instead, a shop will be made available to sell them for gold and credits. It will stay open until a new way to craft these items is made available. Additionally, as aethertraders will be retired, so will the ability to purchase anomalies from them. We will not be providing a replacement for these but will be monitoring the situation and will do so if necessary. For the time being there are over 11.5k anomalies out there. And finally, genies, poteens, treasure maps, wondercornucopia's gift power, merry stocking, and any other external sources of aethergoop will be individually adjusted to do something different. Some of them will retain or gain the power to generate athergoop craftables as well. In some cases, a cap will be put on the number of owned/usable items and in those cases, refunds will be made available.
All of the aethergoop changes outlined above will not go live until January 15, 2025. If you have any additional comments, this post will be available on the forums for your feedback. Thank you also for all the thoughts you have provided in Report 572, which also highlights that removal of aethergoop makes the newbie experience more difficult in terms of progress. We are keeping that in mind while working on legacy changes and assure you there are many ways to help those newer to the game compete without the need for an additional currency to pursue.
Speaking of, Report 573 focuses on artifact adjustments. While both players and admin definitely see a handful of artifacts that will require adjustments, we will be moving that project to our general Roadmap rather than the immediate Legacy Roadmap. Instead, we will now focus on addressing the value and availability of artifacts for an improved experience for both new and old characters. We will also audit and consider retiring certain artifacts and reinstituting their effects as widely available skills.
The final item for this update are Envoy Reports. While we have a Roadmap item to address deficiencies in the report cycle, we do not feel it is fruitful to hold up other changes while we work out the new system. A cycle will open December 27 and we aim to finalise the few leftover decisions and investigations that have been pending from the previous cycle before then. This cycle will follow the same format as the last cycle - anonymous and visible comments, combat and QoL welcome. Conflict reports will also be welcome in this cycle but please focus them on specific requests that improve the experience, rather than asking for a redo of an entire system. As an example, adjusting a domoth stage to require different conditions is a suitable report, asking to redo entire stages, triggers, and rewards is beyond the scope of reports. Lastly, we have started a Special Report for Serenwilde as their skills have been waiting for a revamp for a while now and are the most lacking in terms of synergy and kill paths in a few instances. While exploring their problems, we will determine if the problem is limited to Seren-specific skills or if shared across the archetypes as well.
Those are our immediate plans but there is more on the Roadmap in general: the newbie experience (intro, access to skills and artifacts, PvE), conflict experience (alliances, conflict events, envoy system), and the aetherspace. While this post focuses on our development plans, another one, closer to or after the holidays, will focus on our story, roleplay, organisational, and general admin plans and work.
Thank you for taking the time to read this update,
The Lusternia Team
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