Exclusive Allods Online IRC Q&A: Darren Allarde and Shelby Goad take on your questions pt. 2
Larry: Bartillo asks, "With the DPS nerf and required grouping do we expect to see an XP increase?"
Darren: There's no XP increase, though there is a increase of XP required to level especially when scaled between levels 40 to 41 to 42. Also, I cannot confirm that their is a DPS nerf.
Larry: As a follow up to Bartillo's question: Why do you believe that players perceive that it is now harder to kill mobs?
Darren: They're harder to kill, for sure. That was in the patch notes - Mobs deal more damage and have more HP. I believe it's level 23 and up.
Bree: Jackstone, Cyer, Skatzroo, vash_, and basedeath are all wondering about the expense of cash shop items and Allods' "penalty-driven cash-shop model." Will we ever see alternate ways of getting CS items, incense, and runes? Will prices on these ever be lowered? What about the player perception that mobs are unkillable without incense (and real money)?
Darren: This is such a tough question to answer over text. Wish I was on Skype for this. Let's go with the first question, alternative ways to obtain CS items.
Beyond the Auction House and Items, the GM's run events everyday and give out a number of these items, generously. I was in an event with PioPico and Garou and we must have given away 30 charms each to over 100 people. Internally, we're also working on some very creative ways to reward players for time spent playing -- these are real ideas that we're pushing forward but they're definitely in the works right now.
One thing I'd like to mention is that we're having a huge event called Quests for Chests. We reward players with keys that open chests on our prize microsite. For every hour you play you get a key to open a chest -- we've made it very easy to win.
To expand on the "penalty-driven cash-shop model" comment. We completely understand that their are items which are necessary, primarily Incense and Holy Charms. So we attempt to price fairly per the data that we see. We don't want these types of items to a barrier to entry to play Allods.
Question regarding if prices will be lowered -- Sure. In fact we're dramatically lowering Holy Charm prices now per the feedback we've read from players. Let me elaborate on that a bit.
We've made some miscalculations earlier and didn't realize it until today. Based on this miscalculations we've decided to change our prices today (they'll be up after the Massively interview). If we had known this miscalculation earlier, the prices that went live on July 7th wouldn't have gone live. We appreciate player feedback but the driving force between the pricing change was a desire to fix a genuine miscalculation we had made.
That's the answer specific to the Holy Charms. Though, in general, the item shop has sales on items on a weekly basis. And we often times do full price readjustments on a number of our items just like any other retail store does.
And now the third question in the comments above... Referencing a previous answer I said earlier. We can definitely confirm that the mobs have gotten harder.
Seraphina: Many users seem to be having trouble with the patch, or trouble with installing the game recently. What is the team doing to fix these errors, and what can players do to fix these errors if they have them?
Darren: Argh. Really have to apologize for inconvenience regarding the patch process. My best recommendation is to uninstall the current client and reinstall with our most updated installer from the website. There are errors and they've been communicated back to AN. If you have troubles beyond that send us an e-mail to allods_support@gala-net.com.
Seraphina: Well there you go, the many of you who have been having trouble.
Larry: Cypha asks, "Do you think the undergarment change for kanian females was an improvement? Many players have seen this as somewhat a downgrade with exception to the color (lavender is pretty hot)."
Seraphina: You just had to ask that one, didn't you, Larry?
Larry: It made me giggle.
Bree: Larry is partial to lavender.
Darren: Major downgrade, I'll be sure to prioritize that to the top of my on ongoing issues that I need to resolve.
Shelby: Hahaha. Personally, I saw it as a bit of a downgrade, but we've been told that sometimes less is not more.
Rubi: Qazaam asks: When will their be a fix for the friends list bug that won't let a player remove a deleted player? This is a very frustrating bug because it won't allow us to add to our ignore list (gold spammers, etc.)
Darren: I'm on the same boat! I have to apologize for telling everyone who's been asking me about it that the player list was fixed in Patch 1.1. I'm not entirely sure what the status is on this, but I'll be sure to update everyone once I figure it out. This is actually a "real" priority for me (as opposed to the undergarments).
Seraphina: As a follow-up, addictedvideo would like to ask, "What are you guys doing to combat gold farmers?"
Darren: The infinite battle against gold spammers. We have a few ideas queued up that's being talked about with AN [Editor's Note: Astrum Nival, the developer] as more permanent solutions for gold spammers. As a temporary fix, the team bans gold spammers on a day to day basis.
Bree: lanblue and Sadavian both want to know about the nerf to wardens and the Renew spell. What kind of feedback is the team getting? Are there plans to change anything?
Shelby: All day, every day. :) The first thing that I do when I get in the office is run the "Spam Gauntlet" and ban all those jerks.
Darren: I have no update on Renew. But my general comments about class changes are: classes get buffed, classes get nerfed. They change according to the road map and product direction. A common cycle shared in many MMOs. Nerfs just get looked at more since they're negatively impacting.
Rubi: Baast wants to know: Is the current incarnation of the party system bugged, in that players aren't rewarded with quest kills as a group. If it is not bugged, are any changes planned to allow grouping to benefit all members of the group as it did pre-patch?
Darren: This is something I'll need to get clarification on. We definitely know for a fact that some of the quests have been changed so that they cannot be completed in a group. I cannot confirm how many or which ones. This was also mentioned in the patch notes.
Larry: Zai_ asks, "Who has the final say regarding what contant is placed in the cash shop and how much items cost: gPotato or Astrum Nival?"
Darren: In regards to pricing, it's a collective process we have between several regions. We have the greater influence on how pricing is done for our region.
Seraphina: And now, the final question. Mouse asks: "What do you think are the most sensible player suggestions youv'e seen on the boards so far? Which ones might you implement?"
Darren: Oh man, I have some good examples on my desktop PC. I'm on my laptop at the moment. 8:29 PM Off the top of my head... Player suggestions where people provide recommendations as opposed to a pure complaint. That helps out a lot. It really allows to go beyond and better understand player frustrations.
Feedback that is also very specific, "Astral needs improvement XYZ because at the moment and through multiple test it's really hard to accomplish ABC." One of our players, Rook, sent me some really good feedback over e-mail that was Psi specific. Feedback that's well thought out and where the player provides a recommendation -- that's the type of material that helps us out a lot.
Not really sure how to answer that question. Player feedback that has been provided with missing features, improvements to existing ones, etc. they've been implemented. There's other improvements and new features being added in future patches that are also a direct result from player feedback.
Well great! And, unfortunately, that's it! Darren "CHOMP" Allarde and Shelby "Miss_Sadie" Goad, thank you so much for joining us this evening and taking on the hard questions!
