Developer K has put up a new post.

As usual, it’s an image, because screw future content translators trying to keep this game alive, right?

It’s been a while! Hello Dragon Nest players~

As you might already know, I participated in a Taiwan player conference last week on June 23rd. As always, I talked about the game’s direction for the second half of this year. I also did a bit of Q&A, but it was a bit difficult because of the need for an interpreter. ᅲᅲ

That happened a while ago, so do you still need me to summarize it in these notes? I’m worried that I won’t have much to say. Regardless, it’s impossible to only share this info with Taiwan and keep it a secret from Korea, right?

Taiwan Conference

Contents

1. Forest Dragon Nest
2. Rank System
3. Ancient Armor
4. Lencea New Class
5. World Revamp

I released a gameplay teaser (PT) about a year ago. Even if I have ten things in store for the second half of the year, I can only disclose three or four of them for each server’s conference, so there are many hidden topics. I hope you understand that this is just what it means to be a global game.

Forest Dragon Nest

• Unique Battles for Team Members: Realtime combat adds additional and different interactions to tanks, healers, and DPSers, creating complex combat experiences.
• Sudden Increases in Difficulty: Create irregular feelings of difficulty by mixing mechanics and forcing new strategies to deal with them, making players feel accomplished when they prevail
• Require Innovation in Strategy: Mechanics mixing requires party composition and changes in strategy (tactics) to avoid creating similar experiences in every battle

This is the main slide that introduced Forest Dragon.

KDN players have not yet been able to provide suitable information on strategy for the fight. I’ll summarize the story behind the Forest Dragon project.

Dragon raids have typically been excellent with regards to length, mechanics, and monster sizes. Black and Red Dragon Nest especially have left a mark on MMO history.

However, I cannot claim that DN’s execution of raid combat is perfect. I’ve had many gameplay issues in the past. For example, with boss mechanics, whenever one occurs, the feeling of stress usually drops, because after experiencing it regularly, it is not sudden or unexpected (T/N which is why DN is more fun with the bugs sometimes, gotta love Tacitus Stomp EXi)

The primary issue was that the boss was usually invincible and your combat becomes restricted by the mechanic, leaving you little to do. We partially solved this with Labyrinth, by removing boss invulnerability, but this does not solve the issue of combat becoming very predictable.

Unlike previous raids, Forest Dragon was designed to require skillful layering of multiple strategies in a masterful way in order to overcome the raid’s mechanics, which must be executed continuously throughout the boss battle.

Therefore, you’ll be able to clear if you can understand the complex interactions and cycles and collaborate with your team perfectly. Even if you’ve cleared the boss before, you can still be stymied if you don’t execute your strategies correctly.

I personally believe that the design of this [Realtime Complex Pattern] will give a completely different sense of excitement from existing Dragon Nest content, and I think it is an opportunity to upgrade the quality of content in the future.

I don’t know if the forums(?) will empathize with this.

I do know we have a few bugs, and I’m really sorry about the one that makes the boss invisible q.q.

Rank System

The following is an introduction to the PVE rank system.

The above image is the UI in development, and you can get a feel for it just from the menu. The Dragon Nest development team wants to cultivate a sense of accomplishment and achievement, but I do not think that we have been able to capture those feelings well.

For example, we are conservative in raising the level cap because reaching the level cap is an achievement in itself. If we stay on the same level cap for three years, everyone can play the game and feel geared for a long time, but this is not good because we want to have a proper amount of challenging content. The game’s direction has emphasized this for a long time, but comparing the cost of the game’s lifespan to a rank competition for challenging content, I think Dragon Nest stands to gain from this.

Despite this news, I hope you do not feel that Dragon Nest is a game that only values challenge and control. While rankings and teamwork are important, I want it to be an immersive game that you will continuously play. I hope that Dragon Nest will be a game that leaves a mark on your lives.

Ancient Armor

Now I’ll explain Ancient Armor.

The above image is only an prototype of the Ancient Armor effects; the final version will be much stronger than this.

Ancient Armor was originally supposed to drop from Forest Dragon Nest, but I decided to change this because it was not fair to only place these essential class armors into the hands of top players.

I want to talk about how the drop system will change in the second half of the year with regards to Ancient Armor, but it is a complicated issue that is difficult to summarize.

The tier system was good in that it required commitment, but it was tedious and boring. In fact, the tier system has caused a decline in game tension. I think you need a sense of reward whenever you play.

I believe that the gearing cycle can be improved, and that a long-term growth plan should be set in place, rather than sporadic updates. My plans for the second half of the year reflect these ideals, and I will share more information as it is finalized.

New Lencea Specialization

New Lencea: Not a Former Goddess, But a Knightess

I will not go into detail about the new Lencea class, since she is going to be released in a few days, anyways. It has been a while since I introduced a completely new class, but isn’t it possible for a former class to be considered new for two months? I toiled for a long time over this, but I decided to go back to the old format. Please understand.

World Revamp

World Revamp and New World

The World Revamp will be a huge update that will remove the Garden of Eternity and utilize the world properly. Basically, I will apply Labyrinth to all stages in Dragon Nest.

All levels will automatically adjust for the player’s level. Even after hitting max level, you can still enjoy the world of Altera, and you can adjust your character or dungeons for a more vibrant experience.

Most of the quests will no longer be level-limited, so you will not have to get stuck doing them while leveling. Quest rewards will be meaningful. Since the main quest can be done even after reaching max level, the quest line will become another important component in the game.

The Adventurer’s Board System will be updated together with [Japan and America; T/N: 일미, 주미], so it will not be a uniform style of play, but rather a fun experience where you can take on commissions that suit your playstyle.

This is a secret from the other servers, but a new city will replace Saint’s Haven. The new metropolis will not become abandoned like Lotus Marsh, and will have enough functions to stand side-by-side with Saint’s Haven.

Lastly, I am preparing a PVP World event, which is also a secret, so please be careful when discussing it.

Afterword

The Taiwan conference went roughly like that, but there was not enough time to explain everything thoroughly. I hope to be able to talk more in detail soon.

Frankly, nowadays there isn’t much of a spark to the game. Even I felt uncertain because I was not as excited as I once was. But if the chief developer of Dragon Nest is facing trouble, who will be responsible for Dragon Nest’s future?

Although I’m feeling a little down, I will say this: Dragon Nest is eight years old, but still better than any other game. It has a sophisticated foundation, tier system, Labyrinth, among other things. While some might say that there still isn’t enough to do, the right attitude is to reflect on these mistakes with the goal of making a more fun game. If I constantly take your feedback into consideration, I believe that we can turn this into a godly game.