Proposed ANB changes draft #1 [discussion]

[Kirel]

Adrian (Developer) not Directly related to ANB, just a suggestion on buffing back Mage's ELR set. thanks

[Anjaeka]

I’m not suggesting all ANB be paid admission. Perhaps just “gold league”.

[Anjaeka]

One of the points I made when I originally suggested this was to ensure the potential for big rewards. A $5 fee could include a “starter pack” of gems and gold which in itself could be worth the $5. Additionally, the prizes/awards could be unique to that particular event. Let the Devs get creative. IDK, maybe a gold/exp boost enchantment that can be applied to our regular heroes or a unique cape that’s different from IM but a lot better than the Carnival Cape. Add to that the possibility of a CT or CE’s and I would DEFINITELY spend $5 on such an event. I spend $10 for each seasonal event just because of the perks.

[Triggus]

Got to say I like the way it is heading to and Adrian's attitude. Game has a lot of potential just need some tweaks to the mechanics here and there. Lots of worth waiting improvements being considered from what I can see. We need to tackle, this way or another, the time consuming boring activities by making them less boring/time consuming or at least leading to to some results that are not completely random. As I am one of the unlucky guys who spends dozens if not hundred millions with very medicore results I am very interested (tbh every one would like to know more not just unlucky guys like me ) on more details on the bad luck prevention mechanism on current RNG or/and the changes to it that are being considered. The common suspicion was that there is such a mechanism but working until certain stage on newly created characters... so it is quite important to know if this mechanism is account wise or per character ? and if the latter - is it for new characters as thought or any character as in this case people creating new characters to craft were lowering their chances ..at significant cost . Anyway hard work leading to results seems like a good approach whatever the solution will be, so there is no easy peasy end game stuff, but no one will get left empty handed because they were unlucky however effort and time they put in chasing their endgame goals/items.

[Nomatter]

I totally agree Arionthe's suggestion. Provide wide multiple sets/diversity skills, so players can choose their own style. Otherwise, it's a bit boring after one season, everyone use the same set to push. This could also solve the revenue issue without asking for entrance fee of 5$. Without additional reward, the entrance fee simply block majority of players.

I want to see a very wide build diversity such that there are many ways to achieve a roughly equal game efficiency. .

[Jose Sarmento]

Crafting Ephemerality: Indeed that might be an issue. How about being able to make 2 of the ephemeral items permanent, let's say by using the Celestial Transform on them? When the event ends you get the items and the celestial transforms.

Yes, that would work of course.

The gold cost will be greatly reduced, we know it's a problem to farm gold in ANB. We'll probably reduced outside events as well.

I'm all for cost reduction, however I would note it is not (IMHO) *that* much of an issue in ANB since (by slight or intent) you have the Severed Mountain level providing much more gold than it does outside of ANB. Devoting a 30min currency booster, in accrued Extra Gold gear, to rack up 6M-7M for crafts & stuff isn't particularly bothersome for me, and I don't resent it as a strategic requirement.

In fact, this extra gold output from SM serves to keep Bronze leagues interesting even to us who a) don't need 12 hours for T100 and b) don't care about the Bronze medals.

The RNG involved in crafting. That's somewhat under control, we have bad luck protection on the crafting dice. Basically the dice respects the gambler's fallacy. So you should be guaranteed a level 77 item after enough crafts. Still, there remains a luck factor involved: some players will be lucky enough to get a level 77 weapon. We'll think about something to remove this RNG factor as well.

Due to the bad luck protection, I'd think this ceases to be an issue once "everyone" is able to craft 30x-50x pieces with more or less effort/efficiency (from the reduced costs).

EDIT: to be clear, I am still *very much in favor* of DETERMINISTIC crafting, as suggested here.

Jewelcrafting: Yes, that's an issue, bumped up on the priority list. Rewarding multiple ephemeral jewelry is also a very good suggestion.

You could also allow Reforging on the Ephemeral jewelries (usual Reforge stat choices, but stat value fixed). But multiples might just be easiest, indeed, since they don't stack.

Flat entrance fee to participate in the event: I'm not sure this will fare well with most players. I especially like the idea of having a version of this event where you cannot obtain any advantage by spending money. Obviously we need to make money, but from an ethical point of view we think is way better to charge a few bucks from more players rather than a lot of money from few select players. Would you guys pay an entrance fee of $5 let's say for an event where spending is not a factor in competition?

I don't think you can make this work without falling into P2W territory. How else would the event be appealing enough to spend 5$ on, if it didn't provide substantially greater rewards (by quantity or quality) over the "free" ANB counterpart?

All the money I've ever spent on Eternium, I spent *precisely* because I didn't feel I had to. I say keep to that paradigm.

[Adrian (Developer)]

Very good feedback so far. To address a few suggestions, more to come.

Crafting Ephemerality: Indeed that might be an issue. How about being able to make 2 of the ephemeral items permanent, let's say by using the Celestial Transform on them? When the event ends you get the items and the celestial transforms.
The gold cost will be greatly reduced, we know it's a problem to farm gold in ANB. We'll probably reduced outside events as well.
Ephemeral crafting cheap enough + getting to keep 2 ephemeral items, sounds like a clear benefit for players.
The RNG involved in crafting. That's somewhat under control, we have bad luck protection on the crafting dice. Basically the dice respects the gambler's fallacy. So you should be guaranteed a level 77 item after enough crafts. Still, there remains a luck factor involved: some players will be lucky enough to get a level 77 weapon. We'll think about something to remove this RNG factor as well.

Jewelcrafting: Yes, that's an issue, bumped up on the priority list. Rewarding multiple ephemeral jewelry is also a very good suggestion.

Flat entrance fee to participate in the event: I'm not sure this will fare well with most players. I especially like the idea of having a version of this event where you cannot obtain any advantage by spending money. Obviously we need to make money, but from an ethical point of view we think is way better to charge a few bucks from more players rather than a lot of money from few select players. Would you guys pay an entrance fee of $5 let's say for an event where spending is not a factor in competition?

Thanks for the feedback, couldn't address all of it but I'll post more later. Keep it coming.

[Anjaeka]

I can confirm this, Travis is definitely not working for Dream Primer, as he needs to state once every 5 posts.
We are mere game developers. We are also very busy, so Travis, can you create a separate thread in off-topic where politics and intricacies of who's the publisher and who's the developer are discussed? I'd rather focus on game related feedback. Thanks!

[Adrian (Developer)]

Thanks for the sentiment, but I work for Making Fun, not Dream Primer (Adrian). :P

I can confirm this, Travis is definitely not working for Dream Primer, as he needs to state once every 5 posts.
We are mere game developers. We are also very busy, so Travis, can you create a separate thread in off-topic where politics and intricacies of who's the publisher and who's the developer are discussed? I'd rather focus on game related feedback. Thanks!

[ShotDead]

Thanks for the sentiment, but I work for Making Fun, not Dream Primer (Adrian). :P

You should sue DP for mental harassment

[ShotDead]

On Friday I was at TL 90 with two hours left on the clock. After the announcement that we'd get two extra hours I decided to spend a lot of time farming TL 80 for XP, materials and gear. By the time I realized that we wouldn't get those two additional hours after all it was too late. I ended up running out of time at TL 93, although TL 100 and Top 100 should have been doable for me.

I feel that I just wasted a lot of gems for nothing. Adrian (Developer) any plans/ideas for rectifying this situation?

^This^
Ended the fcuking gold at TL85 waiting for 2 hours. Still waiting...

Spent insane amount of gems (by my standards).

If you could make an announcement that 2 hours were being added, you could have made another one that they won't be added.

[NoSuchReality]

Good point Arionthe , ultimately, the Game needs to make money. And while I still think the legacy of game exploits still provide unreasonable advantage to the cheaters. The legacy of gem farming carries far. Game still has so much potential.

At present ANB is Carousel in "Logan's Run". That core problem needs to be addressed.

The prior changes have largely been to address the problem with the cheaters taking the largest share of tournament winnings that then gave them otherwise unobtainable advantages to the core game. The medals also have that effect, partially mitigated by the diminishing returns.

I too would like to see greater diversity in gear. I'd like to see more of the PC/mobile gap closed. And I'd like to see less of a ceiling.

i don't mind people having slight advantage that spend as they support the game. Whether that spend is in the ad views, season passes or event boosters. Even there, the issue isn't as much competing with people that have actually spent as competing with exploited gems or exploited loot drops.

For improving ANB and the game in general, JIMHO, the gear cap should be completely removed. In addition, players should be able to add a level to a piece of gear. Incremental essences, gold, and whatever other inputs were needed. Yes, I'm proposing allowing players to craft that existing level 75 Malice pistol into a level 76 Malice. Then 77, 78, 79, etc.

To limit weapon mongering, gear would need to be modified so that any crafted piece over level 77, gets an equipped nerf if your other gear is more than 3 level below. i.e. if you added a level 78 Malice to your Stalker set load out has a piece or more below 75, then the level 78 piece proportionately nerfed to its equivalent level of lowest+3 (i.e. if wearing level 73 boots, then the level 78 Malice effectively nerfs to level 76 when equipped) Call it magical disequilibrium.

Honestly, if they want, just add a gem cost to the level add craftng too. I'd even say have crafting unlock higher levels just like the rare, epic, legendary, etc. if you've crafted a level 72 thru mastery, you can craft it as you base level from then on, however crafting anything above level 71, requires a gem cost, just like adding a socket.

I would like to see more 'tune up' crafting options to improve the gear you have. The Celestial Orb is out there but it's again so grind expensive and only works on an attribute. I'd also like to see the ability to add a level to an item. It would nice to be able to do an one or so (real time) of gameplay with boosters and gather the resources to needed to get a small tweak to your gear. Nothing earth shattering, but incremental steps to an eventual massive improvement of the gear. Today it's grind grind grind for days on end to roll the random dice at crafting.

Making crafting cheaper in ANB would be good, with the caveat that all crafted ANB gear reverts to it's input essences and gold at the end. Otherwise, it's just another exploit waiting to happen.

JIMHO, the best way to make money is to keep the players playing.

There is an effective ceiling on progression in place. Previously it was level 75 Celestial gear and CL2000ish. Now it's level 77 gear. Maybe it's just me, I don't care who is #1 on the leaderboard, I just look to see where I'm at and do the people around me have higher or lower CLs and higher or lower gear. That tells me how my play stacks up.

[Anjaeka]

I’m also confused about the purpose of having “leagues” if there is no longer a ticket requirement. The awards are exactly the same in all three, just less time to play. What’s the incentive to play “gold”? Right now it’s just shorter and, as such, more expensive to compete.

[Anjaeka]

Good point. Maybe the initial fee for participating could include a set number of gems and open slots. The Devs need to make money, after all. Since they’re getting rid of tickets for the events maybe “gold” could be admission fee only. I’d pay for the opportunity to have an even playing field as long as I didn’t have to make any in game purchases to compete.

[mousse]

Starting with zero gems take all the fun out of ANB since you cannot unlock skill slots, cannot buy companions, cannot unlock inventory space. Limiting the gems you can use during ANB would be a better solution, but then the Dev Team won't make $$$. No $$$ = stagnant game = player loss = less $$$.
IMO, whales are necessary for the health of the game. They provide the incentive for the DP to improve the game.