Now that the latest major update has been launched, we wanted to come back and share some information with you about certain issues related to it. Let's go!
Lots of you have reacted to the Four Aces update and tried it out in-game, despite a few hiccups! We want to thank you once again for your feedback, and for your overall commitment to the game.
Here's a "brief" report on this update!
Statistics
A few figures to summarize the Four Aces update so far:
- Over 500 tickets processed by the production team
- About 11,000 total words in all changelogs combined
- An increase of over 15% in the number of players
- Nearly 5,000 unique visitors for the Twitch livestream introducing the beta (it's great to be back!)
As you can see, we're working hard to share these numbers with you!
In the history of DOFUS Touch, this update is definitely the biggest one we've ever launched at the start of the year. And we're not about to stop now – so stay tuned for what's next!
Feedback on the beta
"The biggest start-of-year update ever, but with the shortest beta period ever?!"
Fair point! There were a number of reasons for this:
- Despite a substantial number of tickets, progress on the tests looked promising several days before the beta.
- We had certain time constraints we needed to comply with, including getting started on the next update.
- We always want more when it comes to this game, so sometimes we throw in lots of other random good stuff during an update…
So that was our thought process at the time! But looking forward, we'll do our best to avoid repeating this situation so that we have more time to work with you on testing and adjusting our major updates in the future.
Perceptor defense
Starting with the Four Aces update, only one member of an alliance can join in defending a perceptor (at least, once we fixed a few related bugs that cropped up… oops). This was one of the most hotly debated topics in this update! So obviously we knew we'd be talking about it in this article.
Our goal with this change was simple enough on paper: to avoid having perceptors that were far too well-protected by large alliances, even in cases where certain guilds in those alliances aren't particularly active or properly armed. We want to do a bit more to remind guilds of their responsibilities and rekindle direct competition between guilds… while also bearing in mind that we're not really satisfied with the Alliances vs. Alliances system in its current form.
This change isn't necessarily set in stone, and we'll continue to pay close attention to your feedback (with supporting arguments, of course!) and to how in-game strategies and behaviors are changing as a result.
Chat and keyboard display
Another hot topic! With this update, the game display was shifted on screen when opening the keyboard, and the screen could be scrolled.
We made this change to prevent the chat window from appearing behind the keyboard and blocking certain players from being able to read what they were typing. But the change then caused other problems depending on the device, resolution, etc.
Some initial adjustments were made in the last round of maintenance, but we're continuing to brainstorm on better solutions. We've got a few ideas in mind!
Elite Bonus Pack
After the update, players encountered certain difficulties with Marketplace purchases. This issue was related to the upcoming addition of the Elite Bonus Pack! We apologize again for the inconvenience.
And speaking of the new Bonus Pack… We decided to postpone its release for two reasons:
- To add a new feature to it: allowing players to fight the 15 temple dopples directly from the Premium house
- To take more time to test it thoroughly
- …while also giving ourselves more time to fix various issues with the update.
Now let's talk about the purpose and the format of this Bonus Pack. We wanted to find a nice middle ground to prevent it from being perceived as having too much of a "pay-to-win" aspect. For example, this is why the reset of characteristic and spell points will be blocked in the fight preparation phase. The Elite Bonus Pack will not be required to enjoy the huge amount of content in DOFUS Touch – and remember, classic Bonus Packs will still be available for purchase in kamas!
For a game to survive over time and keep making money, it's important to renew certain monetization mechanics and to keep innovating.
Shariva's Golden Ticket
In this update, we made the following change to how the Golden Ticket works (available from the Shariva Merchant at [5,3]): "You can no longer use the ticket an unlimited number of times, and the cost to buy it from the Shariva Merchant has been updated."
Players who had bought the ticket before the update were legitimately upset about this, so we've decided to reimburse them for the price of the ticket. They'll receive the equivalent in Sharivakens in an upcoming round of maintenance, before the end of the month.
Lair of the Giant Kralove
A problem with the Giant Kralove prevented you from fighting it after the update. Unfortunately, the fix for this will take a bit longer than expected, so there's no point in reopening the dungeon as things currently stand.
In any case, we will be doing something about this as soon as possible, ideally before the dungeon is reopened in the near future. Our community managers will keep you informed as soon as we know more!
Post-update survey
Some of you may have already noticed that we're now trying to conduct surveys after every major update. Four Aces will be no exception, and we're counting on you to share your feedback when the time comes!
These surveys are important for collecting your thoughts and guiding us in our development of later updates. It takes a lot of time to write and translate these surveys and to study all the responses, so rest assured that your feedback will be taken very seriously!
Thanks in advance to everyone who takes part in the survey.
Gifts!
To conclude this debriefing, and to celebrate this update one last time, you can pick up the following gifts in the in-game shop, once per account, from now through Monday, April 18 at 10:00 AM (Paris time):
- A makeover pack containing a color change potion and a face change potion
- A pack of 5 Shigekax
- 10 Starry Fairyworks
Thanks again to all of you for your part in making DOFUS Touch so much fun to play, and we'll be in touch again soon with the latest developments!