Greetings Gambit Players

Hey everyone,

welcome to the second installment of Balancing Background Stories! We will start with some catching up on FAQs we answered since the last post. Followed by some new insights in the ongoing Balancing.

New FAQs

• Why do you not change to a 64-Bit Version?
  • There are no files available of this Rappelz Version yet. And changing it ourself is not possible due to it being Sourcecode stuff thats hardcoded.
     
• What do you mean with "hardcoded" and "Sourcecode only"? Why does this limit changes?
  • Rappelz runs on a Sourcecode like all other Games too. This code is the basis/structure where all calculations and the fundamental concepts of Rappelz are established. That includes stuff like Skills, Stats, Itemslots, Buffs, Displays etc. This Sourcecode is something we can work with but not change! This is due to the fact that its only available as a "ready to use" compiled version for newer epics. We can see what it does, we can work with it, but we can not decompile it to regain the orignal project with human readable code.
     
• But there are other Servers out there that changed the sourcecode, why dont you do the same?
  • There are people who did the insane amount of work of upgrading and editing the sourcecode of some epics. Sadly, this is only available for older Epics up to 9.1. If we would switch to this Epic as a basis (instead of our current 9.5.2) we would need to redo all the content that came afterwards. The base Game features added since and also all of Gambits own custom content. Which is just not a feasable amount of work. Working with sourcecode also doesnt mean adding a few lines of code and its done. Besides editing the core functionality it includes extending the database, adding new functions to access these newly added columns and much much more. This is due to the "problem" that rappelz doesnt run on any standard engine but uses as 100% custom written engine. That means every single small addition to the core code has a huge additional workload coming with it. (Fun Fact: Thats the reason for sudden issues occuring on the offical servers)
     
• Why dont you just give Mobs more buffs to make them harder?
  • We already do this. You can even see some of this on Sky Mobs and above. This sadly comes with certain drawbacks once again. We also cant add more Buffs. We are at the 99.99% maximum possible currently on the Server already. There are simply not enough ways to reduce damage in the game and we cant add more due to the Sourecode limits mentioned above.
     

Lets talk about "Broken" and "OP" classes

Many rumors are already making the rounds about what will happen to certain classes and combinations. So lets talk about it!

Of course we are aware how certain classes perform and also what makes them so good in the current meta. The Ethereal Pixie on the Master Breeder with a Templar Combo are one such extreme case. Void Mage is another case in dungeons like Sorrows. Those interactions will get adressed in the balancing patch. We made several tests on all classes and checked their own potential in dungeons like Sky and timed those performances. We also took a look at skills directly to see why they deal such massive damage. And we also took a look at the circumstances that are needed to reach such performances. To stay with the Ethereal Pixie example: Ethereal Pixies are able to deal massive AoE Damage due to the Master Breeders passives but also due to a hidden split mechanic. This mechanic determines how much damage a skill deals when more than one Monster is hit. Many skills lose damage once 4 or more monsters are hit. While many Ethereal Pixie skill do not lose any damage what so ever! This results in the powerful skills of them paired with an immortal tank in combo to be able to destroy whole sky rooms in one skill cast. Classes like the Void Mage have several such skills as well. Paired with his 100% pierce even with full Sorrows Debuff makes the class OP for farming there.
  So, what will happen?
  We plan several changes to adress all of this. For starters we work to change how all AoE skills work (not just the Ethereal Pixie ones). Going forward all skills will deal less damage the more monsters are hit. This reduces the extreme cases but also buffs many others by a massive amount! For example, the Berserker Skills allmost all lose damage with the 4th monster hit right now. He will benefit greatly from this change as will many other classes.
  We also looked at the Templar and what makes him so immortal. Perfect Block is a stat that we will adressed in potentially numerous ways. Being able to reach 100% perfect block chance makes tanking a joke of a task. So much so that people can just use a twink char for this. The whole extend of this will be shared with the Balancing Patch itself. A really nice side effect of this is the potential influence on PvP content! While we dont focus our attention on it directly, we do keep an eye on changes and how they affect PvP in general. A more direct PvP focused aspect is the Void Made changes we are planning. Having Crowd Control Skills on a perma Cooldown creates problems and disables all competition in a fight.

Some coming Dungeon changes

The current state of Endgame Dungeons will be adressed as well. The Sky Fortress is planned to receive some mayor rework. This change should lead to more engaging gameplay as well as new challenges for experienced players. One major change for the Sorrows dungeon will be the removale of the Pierce Debuff. The original idea of this Debuff was to achive tankier monsters by reducing players power. An unwanted sideeffect is that it hits classes differently hard. While a Void Mage or War Kahuna are barely affected, a Beast Master or Berserker are hard countered. On top of this we want to introduce more rewards for completing the whole Dungeon and killing Bosses. We also take a look at the overall time a full clear will take in the future.

Some more exciting News at the end

We had several discussions about the release shedule of the balancing patch, with the Community and intern. And while we still plan to release the mayoritiy of it in one big patch, we decieded to start rolling out smaller changes starting soon! Most wont be actual balancing changes on classes itself but on the playable content.

One of this changes will effect the Sorrows Dungeon. Another thing will contain completely new features not yet available on Gambit! We will share more details about all this very soon. So stay tuned!

Thank you all for your continued support of Gambit!