New year, new Missive! It's time to look back at the year that's just come to an end, and start thinking about our plans for the year to come. We've got a lot to say, so let's get right to it!
2021: building stronger foundations
First and foremost, we're very pleased to note that the promises we announced in Missive #14 have all been kept (except for the trophies, that is, but we still intend to get those done too!).
The first major project, relating to the overhaul of our technical infrastructure, finished up in excellent shape with the end-of-year update. We'll continue working along these lines in 2022 to improve our development conditions and ensure the project's long-term continuity.
As far as bugs, iOS 14 is now ancient history (and about time, too!) But we didn't restrict ourselves to that alone, as you may have noticed in our past changelogs… and especially in our major updates. Plus, other fixes are already well underway for the first part of this year!
With regard to new content, we're very satisfied with the results of our class balancing and revamp efforts, not to mention the release of Plantala! We were thrilled to see that you liked this region of Pandala too.
And to wrap up this first part, let's turn to the most important topic of all… bots! These pests were a top focus in both our meetings and our day-to-day work for several months, together with other departments at Ankama, and we're pleased to see that all our hard work is paying off.
While you may still run into certain bots at times, it's safe to say that there are now far fewer of them than before, and the situation has only continued to improve since the late summer of 2021. We all remember the problems encountered in recent months, with full servers and extreme lag. Since then, the number of accounts connected to the servers simultaneously has been reduced by over 50%, "just" by getting rid of the bots.
This project involves efforts on multiple fronts, and we can't say too much about it here. But broadly speaking, our detection and banning methods have been significantly improved. Certain game design decisions have also helped to reduce the incentives for using bots; it's a race against the clock. And let's not forget all the hard work that our moderators have been doing down in the trenches every day!
So does that mean this struggle is finally over? Far from it – on the contrary, we'll need to persevere and stay one step ahead, because those pesky bots will never give up. We're more committed to this fight than ever.
Project status
So, having said all that, how are things going with DOFUS Touch these days?!
The numbers (minus the bots) are stable. This is good news after the problems we've faced in the past, so now we can only look forward with hope! Finding ourselves at this level after more than 5 years is really fantastic.
We'd like to take this opportunity to thank all the players who continue to play the game every day! But also everyone who's helping to move it in the right direction, like the moderators, game masters, community helpers, and contributors to fan sites like Papycha, DOFUSBook, Skiny and many more. We'll be paying tribute to them in the game later this year, but that's all we can say for now...
We're all passionate about this universe – the World of Twelve, the Krosmoz, the magnificent bamboo king NPC located on the hidden map at [23,-34]… and it's truly amazing to share all that with you!
It's a real source of daily motivation for our team. Sure, sometimes we get raked over the coals a bit in the forum... :') But for the vast majority of you, what you're really expressing is still your passion for the game, and you stick with us to help it develop in a positive direction.
So once again: thank you!
And on that tender note, we've reached the end of this latest missive! We'll soon be back… What? No?
You want some spoilers?
OK, OK, fine.
What's new in 2022?
As explained above, this year we'll continue to work on fixes to various problems, bot issues, and our infrastructure in order to keep this momentum going. But that's not all… far from it!
Legendary Weapons
Introduced in this workshop just over 4 years ago and announced in last December's KrosmoNote, legendary weapons will be arriving this year in DOFUS Touch!
Here's a quick review of the basic concept for those who missed the KrosmoNote in question:
And here are a few additional points to sink your teeth into:
- Prospecting will not affect collection of these weapons.
- You will have to meet certain conditions to be able to collect them.
- They will be linked to the account.
- The collected weapon's element can be selected and modified.
- Since the weapon is a ceremonial item, you must comply with its category. For example, a legendary bow can only be associated with a bow.
- The mechanic for these weapons will not be linked to professions.
- As planned, ethereal weapons will be removed from the game upon the arrival of legendary weapons. But we'll be starting this process well in advance in order to lay the groundwork and give you time to prepare – for example, by blocking repairs to these weapons as a first step. Fear not, all will be explained in due course! Note that ethereal weapons will indeed be completely removed from the game, so there's no point in collecting them!
We'll be posting a devblog when the time comes, to spell out all the details and give you all the information you need!
Please note that some of the above points may change in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, here are some spoilers for you – one of the new maps that will be available to go along with this new feature, and a few sketches of the weapons.
Class Balancing
We had also announced that we hope to do class balancing on a somewhat more regular basis. And we intend to continue with that plan in 2022!
However, it's still too early to confirm whether any class revamps are also on the way. If they do come, though, we'll most likely be looking at the Xelor and Ecaflip classes first. These classes have been in the pipeline for quite a while now, and we know that many players are looking forward to seeing them revamped. These two classes deserve more modern and better-balanced mechanics.
PvP considerations
We share the belief mentioned by some players that PvP in DOFUS Touch isn't as great as it could be. To be honest, we will probably have to wipe out certain existing content completely so that we can start over from scratch, based on more appropriate design concepts. As you can imagine, this will involve a huge effort that we haven't had much time for in recent years.
In 2022, we'll be allocating some time to start investigating various technical aspects of these issues. We've got to start somewhere, and this necessary step may end up consuming a lot of our time. That's why we wanted to bring it up now, even if no changes are forthcoming in the immediate future. But rest assured, we're working on it!
More mobile than ever!
We'll continue to emphasize the mobile aspects of DOFUS Touch by working on different projects to adapt even better to this format and to the community's profile. For example, this might include certain parts of the game UI which are sorely in need of a fresh coat of polish! Or we might get rid of the aggressive monsters mechanic when you move from place to place on a map! After careful consideration, and with your feedback, we've decided that this mechanic seems obsolete, frustrating and a poor fit for the mobile format.
These are just a few examples, and other improvements and surprises will be coming to make your day-to-day adventuring in the World of Twelve that much more enjoyable!
We'll be publishing an initial devblog on some of these topics in the first half of the year.
A tougher approach to cheating
As you saw in late 2021, we're continuing to make serious progress against cheating in the game, and we will continue to develop new tools in our fight against it.
We've also made certain sanctions even tougher, like the ones relating to buying and selling kamas, with permanent bans for the first offense in some cases. And we're not about to stop while we've got such good momentum, since these people are unfortunately the reason why bots continue to exist, forcing us to waste precious time that we can't spend on other parts of the game (like PvP, for example!)
New ways of communicating
The heroes of our last KrosmoNote were clearly [Wyze] and [Yawn]! So you'll be pleased to learn that you'll likely be seeing their faces and hearing the dulcet tones of their voices at various times throughout the coming year.
Our team wants to reconnect with audiovisual formats and offer you some new ones – on Twitch in particular.
A reorganization of our official Discord server is also in the works for the first part of 2022, including a few surprises.
All of this will make it easier for you to connect fully with your favorite community managers (be nice to them, they love you!) and with the latest news about the game!
So there's your overview of what lies ahead in 2022! Needless to say, we've also got plenty of other surprises up our sleeve, all of which will be revealed in good time.
We're looking forward to another awesome year with you! Goodbye for now, and see you soon in the World of Twelve.
Oh, and one last thing… Here's a code you can use, if you're interested: DT2022