Thoughts for STS on next level cap
Recently it was announced that the next level cap is expected to be released in the near future. I want to talk about some things STS should think about in how this next cap is handled.
First let me say something about the overall timing of cap updates. We've had some wide variation in time between caps over the last year. Nuri's came out in early Sept, Fang in mid-Nov, and Humania in mid-June. This means there was less than three months from Nuri to Fang and seven months from Fang to Humania. Now another cap is coming, which will be approximately three months from Humania (if the predicted release timing is correct).
Personally, I think three months is a little fast for level cap updates. Ovbiously the gap from Fang to Humania was too long, but I think about four months between cap changes (i.e. three per year) is about the right pace. Especially with other events/content like elite dungeon, Forgotten Treasure event, etc. I believe the community will stay engaged while still allowing enough time for those who want to make the effort to cap even if you stretch it out to four months.
Second, I want to urge STS to take the time to do this next cap raise right. I realize your development team was busy for a long time getting DL off the ground and as a result you rushed out Humania before it was really ready. Here's a brief list (by no means exhaustive) of things that were broken when it first came out.
- App didn't remember login name/password between sessions
- Screen for joining of games couldn't scroll
- Auto attack kept turning off in mid-battle
- Selected item in inventory list kept de-selecting every few seconds
- Notification about "friend coming online" spammed continuously
- Skill list "close" button was easy to hit by mistake
- Skill buttons were too small to hit reliably
- Lots of problems seeing typing in chat window
- Camera zoom level changing to be too close every zone join
- Player's own name not shown on screen
- Some skill keyboard shortcuts were broken on Chrome
On top of all this (and many, many more bugs), there was no crafting for a while (that took another few weeks to come out) and the pink drop rate was incredibly low and ultimately had to be increased in the following weeks. In other words, Humanina was very broken for a long time after it was "done".
Why am I bringing up all these bad memories? It's because I want to urge STS to SLOW DOWN and get things right for this next cap update. Ok, so you were rushing last time to make sure the player base knew you hadn't forgotten them after a long time away. I get it. But you're not in that boat this time. You've done a bunch of events, you've been responsive to fixing things like adding crafting quests, tinkering with elite weapons, etc. We know you're back and engaged with PL. So please, take your time and release the next update in playable condition. That list of bugs above is inexcusable to release as an update. Don't do that again. Work on the next update until you think you're done. Then run down this checklist before releasing:
- Can you take a team through a run cleanly? I.e. all skills work, you can move around, the difficulty level with the new items is good, etc.
- Do new items look right on all character classes? Do vanity shields properly not show up for two-handed weapons? Do the smoke/sparkle/etc effects show up and look right?
- Are the attributes of new items reasonable? I.e. Do 1-handed sets provide decent enough defense to be worth the damage trade-off? Do 2-handed sets provide decent enough offense to be worth the armor trade-off? Are pure and dual spec builds both accounted for? Did you give the players what they need to play effectively, i.e. not get one-shot to death all the time?
- Are the drop rates reasonable? (We have yet to have a release that didn't need significant adjustment in the week right after it came out.)
- Do all the quests work? I.e. you can get all of them, they can be completed, players can unlock each stage and get to next one, etc.
I'd love to see how solid a PL update can be right out of the gate. You guys have been responsive to fixing bugs, but you should really be commiting to doing enough checkout BEFORE the release that you don't have to have heroic bug fixing just to get the basics working. It's clear from the initial Humania bug list that you didn't do any checkout at all before putting the content out. This time around you're not in such a hurry, so commit to doing it right. You and the PL community will both be much happier in the end.
