RoMmunity Letter
11 March 2016
We look back over recent months and take stock of what has happened in RoM since our visit to developers Runewaker.
Almost 7 months ago, we paid a visit to developers Runewaker in Taiwan and talked about the upcoming milestones. Today we'd like to give you a run-down of everything that's happened since then. We'll also clue you in on what our plans are for the future, and where our priorities lie.
Over the last six months, thanks to your support, we've been able to chalk up a number of successes:
- The ‘Veiled Crypt of Kashaylan’ instance was fixed, allowing us to fully activate the Kashaylan zone.
- The ‘Splitwater Coast’ zone was opened, and the attending ‘Bone Peak’ instance is also live.
- The ‘Spirit of Tempest Height’ instance was updated to meet the current level cap.
- We merged some US and EU servers without any hitches. The merged servers are performing better from a technical standpoint, and we've heard a lot of positive responses from the players, which is always very rewarding.
- The way Diamonds work was changed so that they're credited to a player's account, rather than being bound to a single server.
- During the Snowflake Festival you were able to take part in the Great Snowball Fight for the first time, fighting against the Gingerbread Men – or even becoming one yourself.
- The rewards system for the ‘Arcanium Arena’ was reworked to take account of the growing number of AFK players. Now there's far greater incentive to win, rather than stand around passively to pick up the wooden spoon. We're also working on ways to identify AFK players automatically in future.
- The ‘Hall of Chaos’ opened its doors.
As you can see, plenty happened over the last months, but our offices remain hives of activity. We're still hard at work trying to keep all of our promises, in particular your wish to see the future storyline of Runes of Magic only released once the existing content is complete and fully playable.
So what still needs to be done?
- By the end of April we will open the doors to the ‘Moorlands of Farsitan’ zone. At the same time, the level cap will increase from 95 to 97, and you'll have access to not one, but two new instances.
- Around Easter, the ‘Mirrorworld’ will arrive including new mini-dungeons. This feature will be of particular interest to high-level players, and promises loads of great rewards.
- We've put a lot of work in our new shop, which will be launched in the next couple of months. Thanks to a much cleaner interface, it's easier to use, and also comes with overhauled offer periods and a reworked Wheel of Fortune. We look forward to your feedback on the changes!
- It's high time that the siege wars dropped their beta status. The most important thing for us at the moment is to reduce the number of connection drops and the amount of lag as much as possible. Thanks to your help in the most recent tests, we're a good step closer to our goal, a target we would like to meet this spring. Another point on our to-do list, even if it doesn't count towards changing the status, is to work on a sophisticated system for allocating opponents. We've also got plans for a new map and attractive rewards to add to the fun of the siege wars.
Of course, we realise that many of these things were already announced for last year. Unfortunately, however, we had a number of setbacks in the form of staff shortages and unexpected issues. In the case of the siege wars, for example, we had difficulty predicting just how the servers would cope with the greater load, as it was impossible for us to simulate this accurately. Your support was instrumental to us in this event, and as a result we plan for greater involvement for you in the future.
Conclusion: In 2016 we won't only be concentrating on the game, but on you the players. We want to work together with you more closely, communicate more openly, and make our inner workings more transparent.
We've got big plans, and we're ready for a fresh start!
Join us!