Hello everyone and welcome to the cold season that heralds the inevitable end of 2024 and lets us gently glide (slither?) into the new year 2025 (the year of the snake!).
It’s been a while since I last shared my thoughts about the future, but that doesn’t mean that nothing has happened in the meantime. I’m still around and I’d like to give you some background on past changes and some insights into the next steps.
One last preliminary remark: I am writing this message before a long trip abroad and after learning about the results of several elections at home and around the world. So don’t be surprised if my wording is a little weirder than usual … my brain is already half in vacation mode! 😊
What has happened since February?
Okay, I’ll be brief, too many months have passed!
Timeless instance II
Our goal was a release for the 15th anniversary of RoM. Reworking instances is harder than it seems, and balancing, functionality and so on are important to get it reasonably “right”.
It took a little longer, but the planned changes were successfully implemented (summit level requirements), including the updated summit level EXP thresholds.
Overall, we are pleased with the result and hope that you have enjoyed it since its release!
(No longer) Public world bosses
This issue was unfortunately much more complex than expected, and we went through too many iterations, both internally in design (to explore our technical capabilities) and on the live servers, where we had to adjust the balancing and reward structure.
The current state should be stable, and even if it’s not the solution we originally wanted, it should at least help with the previous major issues with client crashes caused by too many people being in the same channel.
Many improvements in the background
In addition to the two points mentioned above, which have demanded a lot of work and time from us, we have also worked on many other improvements that are currently in the “finalization phase”. Here is an update!
Will 2024 have more in store?
The following features are planned for release at the Snowflake Festival in early December.
New players
When I took charge of RoM in 2022, one of my very first tasks was to level up a new character from scratch … and I can tell you that I don’t have as much time as I did in my Chapter II days. ☹
The gaming and MMO industry has changed quite a bit since I started RoM in 2012, and we want to improve the first steps for existing, returning and new Runes of Magic players – so we’ve thoroughly overhauled leveling from level 1 to 50+.
But don’t worry, fans of the original game won’t lose any areas or quests they’ve come to love. Instead, we’ve decided to allow each new character to choose directly between “existing experience” and “3rd class experience”.
This means that a brand new character can level up at top speed, with some upgraded items to help them along the way.
3 new mirror worlds
Just a quick note: We know some Cenedrils are missing, and while this isn’t new “high level content” for existing players, we want to close the gap and/or complete the Holy Trinity Twelve (I warned you I was a bit off track at the moment).
So a heads up on this and maybe let us know if you’d be interested in having “endgame level” mirror worlds and matching Cenedrils. It’s an idea we have for future content, and now’s your chance to tell us what you think!
Balancing the classes
As promised last time, we have reconsidered our stance and options on class balancing and will be making a number of changes. I stand by my stance that this is a tricky one for us and we don’t want to interfere too often or too much with your usual play styles. So don’t expect this to happen often.
But let us know what you think once they’re out. Did we hit the nail on the head? Or have we caused more headaches? Small corrections (or undoing something here and there) are of course not out of the question.
And in 2025?
I’m sure you wish I’d be more specific at this point, but I’ve learned my lesson in this regard. It’s like a curse – as soon as you give a date or a time frame, you can be sure you won’t meet it! That’s why I’d rather give you an overview of the topics that are currently on our minds:
- Timeless instance III: Shrine of Pasper
- Possibly: Mirror worlds for higher levels
- Possibly: a new “non-public” world boss
- Additional optimizations for leveling (low or peak, tbd)
- Further updates to the currency store
- Ideas for other playable content
It won’t get boring with us any time soon, and we hope you’re looking forward to the rest of our plans for 2024 – as well as the outlook for 2025!
I’m already taking this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2025. I doubt that we will find enough news in the next few weeks to justify another post before the new year.
Patrick (on vacation)
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