Letter to the Community - October 2013
2013-10-21 14:00 - [Azael]
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Hello everyone! Here is the second Letter to the Community, which will now be a regular announcement that will come soon after a game update.
The last update had for priority to reduce the number of bugs by focusing primarily on the class bugs.
We were able to correct a large majority of the bugs that you have reported, but as you have seen our goal has not been achieved due to the large number of bugs that appeared after the last game update.
Despite our different maintenances/hotfixes to quickly correct as many issues as possible, we unfortunately have failed our mission which we admit and are fully aware of.
Therefore measures in terms of organization of our game production have been taken to improve this point but I will go into detail a little later.
Going back to bugs , we will remain focused on these three objectives:
- Continue to fix current present bugs in the game
- Stay vigilant to avoid the emergence of new bugs
- Stay reactive for the issues that may appear after a game update
We have also encountered a lot of issues with the transition to Java 6 which we were forced to do technically. Unfortunately these issues were not detected in our internal versions, therefore we weren't able to detect them ahead of time. In this regard we have tried to be as present as possible by offering alternatives and solutions. Our developers are also still working on these issues.
First I wanted to thank all of you for the amount of feedback that you have shared with us regarding our revamp of Incarnam and Astrub.
We listened to your feedback and we hope to improve certain points with the next game update.
We are looking into adding the ability to return to Incarnam while enhancing the gameplay of the area among other changes.
For Astrub we will improve the main quest allowing you to get to level 15 by finishing it completely (including stage 1 of Mount Zinit) and adding a little more of RP areas.
You will get to discover these changes shortly.
These are the two topics that come up more often and we have planned improvements. First regarding the experience curve with the December Update, we plan to accelerate the beginning of the game to make it more pleasant and smooth out the XP increase for the highest levels (for example: level 110).
As long as the XP curve is not revamped, we will not unlock new caps of levels.
Now regarding drops: we heard your concerns and decided to improve the gaming experience in this regard. I cannot give you more details for now because it's a complex subject and we are still thinking about it. I'd rather wait until we have more concrete elements to give.
In any way, we will get back to you with more details on these two elements with new Devblogs.
Very soon, we would like to open the Beta server to all our subscribers players.
I do not have precise information regarding the exact date, but I can already tell you that the goal of such server will be to test content revamps such as the "Wild Estate".
Currently we do not have the technical ability to import characters from all servers to the Beta one. As we can only import one of them, we have chosen to import a copy of the characters of the most populated server: Aerafal.
However, anyone subscribed, regardless of community, will be able to connect and create a new character.
This server will allows us to greatly improve the overall quality of WAKFU.
Importing characters from all servers is not so simple to do technically and we will keep you informed of any developments in this regard, which allows me to transition to the following subject ...
Starting today you will be able to discover the changelog of the next game update, something that usually does not happen until a few days before a game update.
We have changed the way we work in this regard so that you can have as much information as soon as possible, allowing you to react quicker, therefore giving us maximum response time to possibly adapt the changelog depending on your feedback.
From now you will be able to discover the changelog of the next game update about 3 weeks before its release and see it evolve regularly.
This means that the changelog will evolve a lot in the future with addition of information, modifications, but also sometimes these may be pushed to a later date or simply modified but we will share with you the reason why.
Our goal is to be as transparent as possible and as early as possible. I hope that this new way of operating will create a more concrete link between the team of developers and players via our Community Managers.
Firstly I would like to announce that my position within the team has changed, I will be now taking the direction of the project.
I have started to work with my colleagues to change some of our production methods.
The internal "build" of the changelog is part of the projects we have started with the production team and the CMs. I hope that it will pay off quickly.
The production line has also been modified starting with the Wild Estate, with the goal of giving more freedom, autonomy and cohesion while providing the necessary means for the delivery of rich and better content.
We have also taken steps to limit the number of bugs in the release of a new game update by opening the Beta server for example, starting the internal testing much earlier, and also freeze content addition much earlier than before.
The whole "internal revamp" represents a significant change in our production and also changes in our work habits, while also providing benchmarks for the whole team.
The initial internal results are extremely encouraging, everyone is working really hard to make things better.
This internal evolution/revamp should be felt in the coming weeks, although all will not change overnight.
Each new game update should be greatly improved in quality.
No new class revamp will be done with the next game update. We modified the order in which classes will be revamped, and the next one will be the Feca, in December. We will give you a final planning for all the other class revamps with the roadmap of 2014. We will make sure to implement the last revamps as soon as possible.
This decision allows us to have a little more time on the revamp of the Smithmagic, which is scheduled for December, and therefore we wanted to start to talk to you about it early as we had already talked about a few months ago.
The main content of the November game update will be the Wild Estate, Incarnam - Astrub improvement, as well as the arrival of the nations outposts.
Be sure to follow and stay updated on the new game update changelog to see additions and changes that will be made as it evolves.
I wanted to end this community letter by saying goodbye to a person that I had the chance to know since my arrival on WAKFU, who is Alex (you may know him by the nickname of [Moustache]).
This is one of the oldest WAKFU Game Designer and we are sad to see him go to new adventures today. For those who do not know, it is thanks to him that we have the mini-games Pacman and Plants versus Jellies, the Incarnam and Astrub revamp, Mount Zinit or the unarmed combat style ( a little less known...).
Good luck in your new adventures Alex, we will miss you, and see you soon!