So, we are nearing the end of 2013 so why not make a thread about my thoughts about this year? Of course, we still have Winter Festival to hope about, but here I will talk about the updates of 2013. Without further ado, let's get on with it.
First off, when comparing with other years, this year got the least amount of updates, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. This year we got 43 updates (which is soon to change because of Winter Festival coming up soon), compared to 75 updates in 2012, 96 updates in 2011, and 48 updates in 2010 (April 2010 onward). 2011 was when the most updates happened, because that was the year when PL was getting popular and they put their main focus in PL. SL did not come until late August, which gave Spacetime a lot of time to improve their first game before having to switch their focus onto their second game, SL. 2012 got less updates than 2011. By the end of 2012, they had 4 MMOs to improve, leading to the downfall of PL. 2013 had far less updates than 2011 and 2012. 2013 was about on a par with 2010, but keep in mind that PL released in April. Although 2013 had the lower number of updates, the quantity of updates do not matter: it is the quality that matters. This statement is not to contradict this section of the thread, because the number of updates this year is very important to the development of PL.
Now let's get on with the major updates of PL in 2013 (that were crucial to the development of PL):
9/6/13:
Forgotten items and halloween items are nerfed
This update pretty much changed low level PvP. There was one problem though: they nerfed it at a time in which most of the 'veteran' low level PvPers had left. They left solely because of the forgotten bows. The forgotten bows, released in August of 2012, basically wrecked low level PvP. The low level bird community was growing larger and larger, because of how overpowered they were. The diversity of gear decreased, as every class at low level used a forgotten bow, or at least carried one in case. Forgotten bows being nerfed was, in my opinion, the biggest update this year. The low level population takes up a big chunk of the whole community, and the overpowered-ness of the bows gave many low levels huge egos, cocky attitudes etc. etc. and they would not have that if it were not for the forgotten bow. This does not apply with all forgotten items. The staff and the sword were not nearly as overpowered as the bow. People who did not like using a forgotten bow, and/or wanted to use an alternative that could 'counter' the forgotten bow used the 2012 halloween items. Toy man wands got outclassed by monkey paws; crossbows got outclassed by pumpkin chunkers; close range weapons got outclassed by reaper scythes; and the shields outclassed the best shields at that level. Nerfing these items made a very, very large impact in the low level community as I have stated many times already, as well as toning down many egos. This update should have come sooner, as there have been countless threads about these items, countless threads comparing the items as to the 'regular' best level items, and countless petitions (against forum rules) about nerfing these items in between the year in which the forgotten campaign was released and the halloween 2012 items dropped until the time they nerfed the items. That's right: a year difference. The only reason I could think off the top of my head as to why this nerf was released so late was because they were busy with the 5 other games.
9/12/13
Invulnerability orbs are now here
10% drop in damage for all classes
Now for the higher level PvP community: I present to you the invulnerability orbs, the retro gear, and the 10% decreased damage (which also ruined low level again). The invulnerability orbs was an attempt to counter many spawners, but it failed. All it did was delay the time between you are standing up and alive until you die by 3 seconds, and during that time you are not allowed to use any skills whatsoever (except for the 1 skill that you have to tap exceptionally fast in order for it to kick in and have effect before your orb surrounds you). At first, you could be able to fire any skills you wanted while your orb was up, making you invincible and able to kill anything without even being scratched. This arose to many pally teams in endgame, purposely dying in order to be invincible for 3 seconds. Then, they nerfed it so that you may not use ANY skills when you get revived/you spawn in your spawn room. If a spawner went into your spawn room, the only help the orb would do is delay your death by 3 seconds, not helping you at all whatsoever. Later on, Spacetime nerfed the whole entire idea, which was the best choice they had. The 10% drop in damage was also an attempt to re-balance endgame, but did they not only not balance endgame, they also destroyed low level PvP, and made mages in higher level PvP a little more powerful in higher level PvP due to the retaining amount of health that heal gives. This struck low level as well: classes that had heal were practically unstoppable. Nuke builds were no longer viable with 10% damage decreased, as tank builds just soak it up. I applaud Spacetime for their effort, but PvP as of right now, isn't the same as it used to be.
I think these are the two major updates of 2013, and hopefully 2014 will be another great year like 2013. We can only hope that 2014 is as good a year as 2013. I do recommend Spacetime to tweak some stuff like the second section of my most important updates section. This will be the end of the thread, so I guess this year was a great year.
