Originally Posted by
Carapace
Thanks for the feedback on this, I want to take a moment to explain a bit of the philosophy of this expansion and how it opens up over time.
- The Graveyard is the entry point for endgame content, saving up for a badge to get into the Mausoleum is a milestone in the new content. While it is understandable that everyone wants immediate access, having a sense of progression and accomplishing it are important. This exists agin at floors 3 and 4 as another rank and badge requirement exist.
- Once inside the Mausoleum, the floor depths play a key roll in increasing token payout. Starting with Mausoleum 1 and 2, players will have the chance to run into Minibosses (the bosses from the Graveyard) at random places on the floor. Killing these also grant a token, and the chances and number of minibosses potentially available starts to go higher the deeper you go.
- In addition to weapons and stats, ranking up your character adds a passive buff inside of Somberholt Dungeons that increase raw damage and armor eventually making the once difficult content harder and faster to farm.
- Scaling Difficulty. New this expansion we have removed the idea of "elite" dungeons, and are instead doing level scaling of the mobs. You may have noticed at level 61 that the mobs in the Graveyard have Green dots rather than yellow. Their level is capped at 59, making them easier to dispatch as ranks, gear, and levels push you to more power. A real sense of power progression. On the flip side in the depths of the Mausoleum level 61's will be taking on level 62, 65, and on and on over time providing a different style of challenge to the player.
This expansion content is designed to unroll slowly over time to introduce new bosses, new encounters, new chase items and harder difficulties while keeping the content a little fresher than the past expansions and their fixed maps. Everyone is encouraged to play at their own pace, as over time every stage will all inevitably unlock and its rewards and content will expand as part of the narrative.
This is a new take on an expansion that we hope achieves a couple of things.
1. The one-and-done expansion. Previously the content would release, and be finished within 2 hours. Nothing new to work towards, and an apprehension related to when the new item is coming
2. Provide a clear path of achieveable progress through items and content. As of launch, everyone know there is a Mythic at level 61. They know it can be upgraded, and what will be required to do so. This is unique as previously none of this would be known up front and the expectancy that ones gear may immediately become worthless as soon as a new crate mythic is released was very high and had its own issues. This is an achieveable milestone that becomes available over time.
3. Challenges with increased reward payout. All of the loot in the new expansion is available at this point. By going deeper into the dungeons the chances of getting the good stuff begins to increase substantially as the number of bosses on a floor each give a chance at the loot, and the chance of the loot to drop is higher than the previous floor. New tile types will begin to spawn with additional encouters and rewards as well!
4. Expandable difficulty. We have no doubt that by the time Mausoleum 5 is unlocked end game players will be working hard to best it. One of the great aspects of the randomization dungeon system is we can add additional floors to expand the depth from 5 to 10, to 20, etc. Increased chances of fighting yet more minibosses for more tokens, even better loot chances, and unique encoutners all make for a more rewarding experience
We are attempting to balance the immediate sense of gratification with prolonged goals and individual, as well as server progress.
Keep the feedback rolling in but we do want to express that this expansion is different than what has come before.
-Carapace
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