My Dear Wizards,
If you’re a Pyromancer – the weather outside is truly frightful, but as the song goes, the fire inside is so delightful, and of course, holidays in the Spiral keep things warm and bright for all the schools of magic. So far, this season has been no exception, and we hope you’re enjoying it as much as we are.
If you’re in the spirit to “Let it Snow”, then you most definitely should be heading out to the far edges of the Spiral to experience Polaris. We’ve been working on Polaris for about 8 months (since we were just thawing out from the last wintry season!), and we’re extremely happy to give everyone the chance to make their own tracks in the new fallen Polarian snow.
As the first world in our third story arc, we looked at Polaris as an opportunity to make some changes to the way we do things.
First of all, we wanted to minimize defeat-and-collect type quests. These are what I lovingly refer to as “go get the ingredients to make me a sandwich” quests (remember that one?). We certainly don’t want the baddies to be walking around in circles with nothing to do, but we want to make sure it’s for a good reason. We think Polaris felt amazing because of it. On my first playthrough, I spent the whole time laughing. Or saying “ooooh, look at that cool thing!” Or telling the artists, writers, and designers “great job” because of the amazing moments I experienced. The shift in quest design means it doesn’t take quite as much “grinding” to get through Polaris as it might have in other worlds, and I hope you guys enjoyed that as much as I did.
Second, we wanted to focus on a more cinematic experience. If you’ll notice, Polaris has a lot more camera angles, cut scenes, and dramatic moments than any of the worlds we’ve visited before. The team worked really hard to make those moments as perfect as possible: the celebrations in Walruskburg when… well, I won’t give it away, the beautiful (and beautifully… modern…) dancing, that great moment when you look up from the depths of the Iceblock back to the boat, and of course, the final fight. There were some challenges to tackle in order to get the cinematics to play nicely with multiplayer, but we’re proud of how it all turned out, and we hope at this point you’ll find adventuring through Polaris to be as smooth as skating in the Polarian Shipwreck house.
Third – Morganthe’s story got a little dark and stormy at times. That was understandable considering all that transpired, but we were missing the whimsy from the beginning of the game, and we tried to bring it back in Polaris. We hope it’s a chilly breath of fresh air, and we can’t wait for the rest of the third arc to unfold. Would you believe it if I told you we’re already working on the next world? It’s true, and we look forward to sharing more about it as the new year progresses!
Finally, we introduced a new round of shadow-enhanced spells. We want to keep combat fun, fast-paced, and exciting, and the new spells were conceived with that in mind--super fun and epic, but a little less lengthy than some of the spells we’ve released previously. We received some great feedback on the test server, and we made a few changes. We’re pleased with how the spells turned out and we hope you feel the same. Best news on this front, however, is that we’ve already begun working on yet another batch of magical mayhem. We think you’ll really like what we’re cooking up.
Of course, I’d be remiss not to point out that this release was a big milestone for all Wizards, crossing the 100th level to 101 and beyond (Excelsior!), and that means we had to consider the game balance and character progression for the next, oh, say… 100 or so levels. There were a few game dynamics that were working great 40-50 levels ago, but as the game has progressed, they’ve proven to be unsustainable for the long term.
Our Critical and Block system was one of those dynamics, and so we revamped them… and then we revamped them again… and then we made a couple more tweaks. Updating the Crit & Block system lets us do two things: First, it allows us to better balance the game. Second, it's a crucial step toward ensuring that combat doesn’t become a yawn-fest.
Previously, the system combined the attacker’s Critical rating and the defender’s Block rating and factored them in together for a single roll to determine whether or not a target receives a Critical hit. The system now takes the two factors into account separately. First, the attacker rolls to determine whether they score a Critical Hit. Then, if the attack is a Critical hit, the defender rolls to determine whether they successfully Block the Critical hit. Making this change was absolutely necessary, but it required that we re-balance the numbers.
This means that your Critical and Block percentages may show up a bit lower than they did before–but your effectiveness overall should remain unchanged. If you’ve been working hard to improve your Critical, and had one of the best Crit stats in the Spiral–rest assured, you still have one of the best Crit stats in the Spiral. If you maxxed out your Block before–your Block is still at the maximum it can be. The good news from here is that you’ll continue to get new gear that increases your Critical and Block percentages and we can actually sustain these improvements long-term.
With better game balance, we can also continue making content that is both challenging and rewarding for everyone. The divergence in players’ stats was approaching a point where that would have been undoable, not to mention, a lot less fun to play... Crit! Crit blocked! Crit! Crit Blocked! How fun is that? Not very, we think. How much time does that take up in combat, especially at high levels? A lot. That we know.
As some of you may have noticed, there were some mid-level bosses that weren’t playing nice with the new system (especially in Azteca and Khrysalis), and if you were having trouble in second arc content, you should find things to be rebalanced now and back to the way they should be. There was also what we affectionately called a “dead zone” – if you had decent, but not great Crit or Block above level 100, you were actually being punished for it. That problem has been addressed with this change as well.
Now, with all that said, let’s not forget all the other new features added this fall!
- New shadow enhanced spells for each school
- A new skeleton key gauntlet that one of our most dedicated Wizards helped us create
- Pets (and mounts) on parade in your house with the Bread Crumb system
- Catch of the day and Weekly Fishing Tournaments
- Spells granted from equipment can now be activated or deactivated for use in battle
- Remove all spells is now an option for each deck (if you’re over level 20)
- Awesome new additions to the Harrowing Nightmare CCG Pack
- Super cool mummy and vampire costumes
- The Commemorative Poppy Case for Veteran’s Day
- The amazing Jewel Crafter’s Bundle and Polarian Explorer’s Bundle
- Tons of other smaller improvements
And now, we’re wrapping up the 12 days of the Spiral, where we also had some more surprises up our (long, fuzzy, warm) sleeves, like the Polaris Express train, updates to the Winterland Pack, and even some fun Holiday decorations for your Castle! As we wind down the year, and head off for a ski holiday in Polaris, here at KingsIsle, we're already looking forward to bringing the Spiral a sleigh-full of amazing content in 2016. The other Professors and I can’t wait to join you for another year’s worth of journeys!
Stay fiery,
Leah "Professor Falmea" Ruben
Senior Producer
