Exciting News! Changes Coming to Seasonal Trials!

[Josh (Developer)]

Hello Eternium Community,

I'm thrilled to share an exciting update that will bring more dynamism and competitiveness to our Eternium universe.

What's Changing? Starting with the upcoming season, we're introducing a significant shift in the way Trials work. Currently, Trials don't reset, which has allowed advanced players to climb the seasonal leaderboards quite easily. We understand that this may not have offered the competitive challenge that many of you crave.

Resetting Trials for Advanced Players To ensure a level playing field and promote active engagement, we've made the decision to reset Trials each season for players who have reached Trial level 80 and above. This means that every season, even our most advanced players will have to actively participate to maintain their leaderboard positions.

Why the Change? This change is driven by our commitment to fostering a fair and competitive environment for all Eternium players. We want every season to be a fresh start, where your skills and dedication are the key to success. It's about making the leaderboards truly reflect the most active and skilled players in the game.

What Can You Expect? With Trials resetting for advanced players, you can look forward to:

1. A more competitive leaderboard: Prove your skills each season and aim for the top!
2. Fresh challenges: Every season is an opportunity to conquer new Trials and achieve greatness.
3. Active engagement: Stay on top by actively participating in Trials and showing your mastery.
4. More Meta Shifts: Since Trials reset each season, this gives us the opportunity to introduce seasonal Spiritstones that will shift the meta and maybe even change the way you build your Hero.

We understand that change can sometimes be met with mixed feelings. We believe that this change will elevate the seasonal experience, making it more exciting and engaging for everyone.

We value your input, so please feel free to share your thoughts and questions regarding this change. Your feedback is invaluable as we continue to shape the future of Eternium.

As always, thank you for being a part of our amazing community.

[Tin Man]

Crud! You mean that I will have to run more than one trial level each season! How dare you!

A welcome change.

[Aithlion]

That just gave me the reason to run trials more

[adolf_2003]

This is interesting, but I prefer annual resetting.

[RockDoc]

Long time players have been asking for the leaderboards to be reset since seasons were started.

As Tin Man said, it is a welcome change, and it's about time.

[Swamp Donkey]

To be honest, TL125+ should take many people less than about 10 minutes of play.

[RockDoc]

Swamp Donkey, I've been playing Eternium for almost 4 years and have never been able to get to TL125 in less than a couple of hours! Thanks for putting me in my place and making it obvious that I have no right to be playing this game.

[Swamp Donkey]

RockDoc, I can't fathom how if you have been playing for that long that it could take hours? If we use a Warrior with a full Fury set, and only a few CT'd items, you should jump from TL7 - TL125 in really quick sucession. If we take a reserved TL completion time of 1:30-140, that should skip 10 TL's at a time. So I am calculating 9 /10 minutes to TL100. Then if we say a modest completion of TL100 in 2:15-2:35, that should skip you to TL107. Same again at TL107 to TL115. At this point, I am estimating you are 14-15 min of play time into it. Then let's say you complete TL115 in just over 3 minutes. That will open TL120. So up to about 18 minutes. Even if you then take the full 10 min on each TL to 125, I can only see an estimate of 1hr 18min for completion of TL125.

Now this is by no means me being unrealistic with the timings. I'm not the best player, however my TL100 time will 100% be under 1 minute. So giving twice that for this these timings seems fair.

Could I ask why it takes you hours of play time? Have you started a new account? Or not played for many years? If it is a medical reason or age, then no need to comment here.

[WarriorSeven]

Well-thought out change and explanation!

[UmbraDei]

Glad to hear our suggestions are taken into account!

[Shintara]

This is absolutely great!
I love it ♡

More people will feel they can actually participate and get a fair chance on some top positions and rewards!

And this, combined with the introduction of the Spirit Stones, will really breathe some fresh air into the whole of the community.

Thanks guys ❤️

[AnotherPlayer123]

This is great thank you but I do have a general question about trials in general.

What about the combination of hp, damage, and time limit of the mobs and bosses?

When I first started this game I wanted to be more of a defensive or at most in the middle somewhere. But when I look at this combination I feel the need as many others to lean a lot more toward the offense then I wanted to initially. It appears that trials is designed for pure damagers. It can become frustrating to hit a boss(Garm the keeper in mind) countless times on high TL and then if I slip up or if it moves while preparing a stun attack while I'm trying to get away but can't then I could die with in 4 secs and watch it heal.

Thanks

[Shintara]

Yeah, it's frustrating mate, I agree
I hate Garm with a passion and am not a fan of TBD either! Hahaha
Come join us on Discord for some tips from the veterans of this game!
Maybe some of it can help you get that edge?

https://discord.com/invite/eternium

[Jose Sarmento]

Josh (Developer), just to add my brief 2c here, as a veteran but casual player.

Consider that for some of us, ranking a bit higher on the Leaderboard is a kind of multi-seasonal achievement. We don't always find the time to play. My last highest trials (right now) I've risen inch by inch, in one season +1, in another season another +1, etc.

If you reset the leaderboard each season, I probably won't even have the time to get back to where I was. And let's face it - why would I even be motivated to do that?

Hence, my suggestion. DO reset the Seasonal leaderboards (as you stated), but keep another "all time greats" perpetual leaderboard.

This perpetual LB would not get reset. It would record the highest trial completed by each toon, ever, and the ongoing Season where that highest trial was completed.

When choosing the Trial level to enter, there would now be 3 "states" instead of 2:

Locked, meaning you can't enter it, you never completed the preceding trial
Fully unlocked, meaning you have already reached that high in the ongoing season
Previously unlocked, meaning you *can* play that TL, but if you do, it will *NOT* count for Seasonal ranking - only for the perpetual LB

I realize this is a trickier change to implement, but I do feel it benefits the game in the long run. Hope you consider it.

[Jose Sarmento]

John, thank you for commenting here. On the topic of seasonal rewards, and the appeal of the Season pass, I feel it was more appealing back at the start, when the top row rewarded exclusive (?) cosmetics. That's something that there are few alternatives to get.

Now, sometimes, the cosmetics set would not be appealing, but a top row that had, say, neat exclusive weapon skins (since those are of more general interest) + some cosmetic points (to pick up whatever else), that would be enticing. Do keep the Legendary Crate as well though.

Another thought on monetization, I have long felt it would be interesting to have a "get me through this ANB" store item, for when you don't have play time but are still engaged.... something that would either:
a) reduce your event timer to 0 and get you all the rewards up to T110
b) reduce your timer by 1hr and set your XP to level 70 (maybe +50,000 gold)

[John Welch | CEO]

Interesting... so, a purchasable that sacrifices your chance to be competitive in the ANB leaderboard but gives you the rewards for making substantial progress? We need to think of that in the context of what is coming, which includes more long-term value for having played ANB. Actually, something like this could help with that, as we have been worried about effectively "penalizing" people who don't have time for every ANB. We just need to get it right so people who DO play have a distinct advantage over people who do not, or who play vastly less.

[Jose Sarmento]

"a purchasable that sacrifices your chance to be competitive in the ANB leaderboard but gives you the rewards for making substantial progress?"

Yep, pretty much. I agree there should still be a better reward for actually playing / playing more.
In the same vein of feedback, consider to "flexibilize" the daily quests system. What you are rewarding is that I play the game; if I have to choose between doing an ANB *or* doing the same-old daily quests, the DQs are going to lose. But if playing the ANB - or pushing a Trial - would get me the credit (gems) that the DQs provide, that would be motivating.

E.g. for the same 100gems/day budget we have today:
50 gems for playing 5mins or more each day (actual in-game time in Story or Trials)
+30 gems for playing 15mins or more
+20 gems for playing 30mins or more

You could keep the DQs and have them reward a very minute amount of cosmetic points, kind of like the Arena does. Or Glory, assuming there will be something to actually do with it.

[David Carroll]

I'm less concerned about bragging rights than I am about the fact that many of us will never be able to win certain medals, since there will always be stonger, more advanced players (presumably with deep pockets, no life to speak of, and a high tolerance for boredom) who will quickly fill the top slots required. I have been playing Eternium since pretty much the beginning and have yet to break into the top 1000. So getting to the top 50 looks like a pipe dream. Frankly, the only reason I still play is that I hope to see the game finished, or at least to encounter Ragadam. Which seems only somewhat less unlikely. Should the top 50 be rewarded for their efforts? Certainly. But not with items that only a handful of players will ever be able to obtain. And being older than dirt, I don't have a lot of time left to try, so once the Ragadam issue is settled I will have little reason to persist. At this point I'm not even sure if I will last more than another season because ennui is setting in big time.

[Tin Man]

Hmm, you know how us guys are. We like to fix things.

Share your hero's name, class and currently ranking? Others can take a look and see if there is anything obvious to help you.

[Shintara]

Hey David Carrol,

Did you know there is also a Discord server fot the game? Where we share all kinds of info, builds, news about the game and new developments?

https://discord.com/invite/eternium

Please join us! ♡

[Swamp Donkey]

Playing for years and you can't break the top 1000? This I find hard to belive.

[David Carroll]

Cool. I'm 70 years old though, so don't take too long.

[lmcelhiney]

I’m 77…

[WarriorSeven]

lmcelhiney ... 77? Go man!

You're Legendary!

Probably socketed with many brilliant gemstones, fully CT'd with tranches of Vitality. Likely also Celestial Orbed to the max, as well! Our hero!

[John Welch | CEO]

70 is the new 60!

[lmcelhiney]

I engage with every season and pay the requisite amount for the added resources. I do not know the percentage of players who use only the free resources vs. paid resources, but for me, there is an incredible value. I find that the extra resources gained by the fee actually allows me to store a buffer which would have required a significantly greater amount of screen time. (In addition, while not pay-for-play, I believe it helps both sides.)

[John Welch | CEO]

You have pretty much hit the nail on the head - that's what much of free-to-play design is about: you pay to play less (or to play more fun / efficiently, etc.). This allows us to make a living from people who have more money and less time. Some games really abuse that formula. With Eternium, we have always strived to keep the game very generous.

[Tin Man]

I just realized that something is not specified, and I have been assuming based upon past practice.

Those in Contender will not be reset. Those in Veteran and Master will be reset. Will they be reset back to the trial level that their hero's level unlocks, meaning TL 7 for a level 70 hero? Will they be reset back to TL 80?

What is meant by the reset?

I realized that I was making a big assumption when this statement was made.

[Josh (Developer)]

Players will be reset to Trial 80. If the user has not reached Trial 80, then their progress is NOT reset. For example:

if a user is on Trial 112, they would be sent back to Trial 80 when a new Season starts.

if a user is on Trail 63, they will remain on Trial 63 when a new Season starts.

[Bervin1980]

I like it. As it is now I only do my dailies and I just run one trial to get my medals on my main. Now if we could just spend all that extra left over Glory on something. Medals maybe to get some of the harder to get medals early on. Even at like a ridiculous 1k glory per medal at least I would feel like all that glory stacking up is being put to use.

[netonha]

Xp boost(400%) for 100 glory
Xp boost (800%) for 200 glory
?