Hello. This is the director of Elsword, Dong Shin Lee.

I deeply apologize for all the inconveniences and disappointment that our recent content revamp has caused.

I also apologize for not being able to respond to all the concerns and criticism from the Elsword communities in a timely manner. I also apologize for the lack of communication and will hold a developer conference in late May to better listen to our players.

We are trying to hold the conference as soon as possible but please understand that we need more time to prepare due to the corona issue.

Before the conference, however, I will try to address the questions and concerns of the players in this post.

[2021 Update Direction]

The main plan for this year’s update was the overall content revamps. Many issues arose due to our long service time as new content was added to the game. We are trying to resolve these issues this year and one of these issues was the gap between old and new players. We have already implemented some changes and are planning more in the future.

However, because of our long years of service, many contents are intertwined and each revamp might impact existing contents, causing inconveniences or big changes to the current gameplay. Therefore, we found it difficult to implement all the changes that our players requested. However, our method of only communicating patch details that we were certain of happening was interpreted as a lack of communication by our players.

Because of the corona issue, there has been a lack of our periodical update announcement events, developer conferences, and chances at other windows of communication. I understand that this has been very disappointing for our players. To address this problem, this year, we were planning an event to announce our summer update in late June, when the revamps for the first half of the year were completed. I believe not communicating this information early has caused further frustration among the players. To address the requests of the players, we will hold the announcement event in late May instead, and also hold a developer conference at the same time. We will also reveal our summer update plan at the same time. From now on, in the hopes of bettering the quality of our content revamps, we won’t limit ourselves to our old methods and actively look for new windows of communication with our players.

Now, I’ll explain the intention behind the past and future revamps in the first half of this year.

1. The intention behind the Quality of life revamps

In the case of 1st and 2nd, QoL revamps we wanted to address the issues that occur after level 99 and help the players settle in the game after reaching level 99. 

[1st QoL revamp]

1) Free Transcendence Slot skill

We previously changed the Transcendence skill slot so it could be purchased with ED, but considering the problems like approachability for new players, shorter levelling period of new characters, and the collection system, we changed the transcendence slot to be free.

2) Secret Dungeon/Add Dungeon

Secret dungeon and Add dungeon equipment are now a stepping stone for later contents.

Therefore, we made changes so that players can get access to the +9 version of this equipment and quickly guide them into Elrianode.

3) Elrianode Region

After the Rigomor update, Elrianode has also become a stepping stone towards later contents. Therefore, we enhanced the default Elrianode equipment and removed the elite El Tear drops in the hopes of players increasing their Combat Points easier.

4) Henir

Force skill upgrades obtained through Henir have become essential in playing the later dungeons. But Henir content being limited to weekly farming made it difficult for players to enter the later contents. Therefore we made changes to the required materials for the upgrade.

5) Varnimyr Raid

After the Pruinaum update, Varnimyr region also has been a target of revamping to help players farm easier.

We increased the rate that the weapon gauge fills up and added quests to obtain the reset tickets. Decreasing the overall difficulty of obtaining the Varnimyr raid weapon.

[2nd QoL Revamp]

1) Rigomor armour reforge revamp

Rigomor armour is currently the best armour in the game. To ease the stress caused by the reforge process, we first tried adding giant magic crystals and weekly quests to obtain the Spectral Amethyst. However, we confirmed that this wasn’t enough so we decreased the number of materials and increased the rate that the gauge filled.

2) Varnimyr Raid Exchange list changes

Mystic stone is an essential item to enhance various mid-end game weapons but we confirmed that there weren’t enough chances to obtain them. Therefore, we made changes so more Mystic Stones can be obtained through raid material exchanges.

3) Title Switch System

Elsword gameplay mainly happens through the keyboard and having to use a mouse to switch titles caused many inconveniences to players. Therefore, we added a system to change titles easily.

4) Dungeon Scene Skip Changes

Before, dungeon scenes would only skip if all players in the party agreed. This caused inconveniences for larger parties in dungeons with limited-time access. However, out of consideration for players that want to view the scene, we changed the system so the scene will skip if 4 or more players agreed.

5) 3rd job quest conditions fixes

The last Spatio Ripper quest of the 3rd job advancement quest requires players to clear the Elrianode city 20 times or defeat Spatio Rippers summoned by Hennon in El Tower Defense.

However, this caused conflict between players that wanted to clear the El Tower Defense quickly and those that wanted to complete the 3rd job advancement. The quest also took too much time to complete, therefore we changed the quest conditions.

2. Balance adjustment process and patch intentions

First, I’ll explain how characters are selected to be the target of a balance patch.

We collect weekly and monthly play data since the last balance patch.

Play data is collected per character and includes information such as normal dungeon results, raid results, pvp w/l ratio, average rating. Characters that excessively well or underperforms are selected to be targeted for a balance patch. 

Results include playtime, total damage, DPM, skill use count, and MP usage. 

Since we need to verify our data, if we don’t have enough play data, we look at both inside and outside opinions to make our choices.

The recent dungeon balancing has been focused around the current final content, the Pruinaum Raids.

For the dungeon balancing, along with the basic process of selecting a character for the balance patch, we additionally look at the character’s party members and the resulting gameplay record. 

* For example. “All parties with the Character A performs well/underperforms.” or “No matter which party Character B is in, it performs well/underperforms.”

Characters selected based on these data are patched according to our standards such as adjusting skills and passives that are used too much and consulting the player opinions from various Elsword communities.

PvP balancing has been focused on minimizing the impact it has on dungeons. We monitor characters with a high w/l ratio and average rating and carry out the balance patch according to our standards such as how much has certain skill been used or if a certain skill is overpowered and by collecting player opinions from various Elsword communities.

Details from our previous balance patches like adjusting skill’s percent damage, revamping passives, the addition of super armour to Napalm, the addition of defence ignore for some skills, recovery effect for Falls were all attempts to have the affected characters participate in the raids easier.  We also consider character fix suggestions players sent through our customer services for these balance patches.

3. The intention behind the Profession Revamp

Certain professions were being preferred over others and this caused issues with the currency cycle and difficulties in obtaining mithril at certain points.

Our intention with this revamp was to address these issues along with adding methods to enhance without the enhancement event and adding reliable sources for Sage’s Magic stones and Liquid fighting potions.

First, with the Blacksmith enhancement decreasing the cost of fluorites and restoration scrolls for enhancing and with the benefits from the Blacksmith hammer, we tried to reduce the stress of enhancing during the non-enhancement event period. 

The reason for implementing limits on Treasure Hunter and Alchmesit crafting and resources was to minimize the radical changes to markets caused by abusers and bots. We believed that these limits were enough that it won’t affect normal gameplay.

However, the revamp details weren’t enough to satisfy our players.

I’m sorry that the profession revamp didn’t meet the expectations of our players. I promise that there will be additional profession content revamp in a direction that can be enjoyed without burden to the players.

4. Future update plants

So far have been details and intentions behind the past patches. Now, I’ll give details on future revamps planned for this year.

So far, we touched upon the progression from Elrianode to Rigomor, and now, we plan on revamping contents after Rigomor, ED acquisition, Giant Boss dungeons, PvP Gear and El House.

– May:

We will revamp Magic Crystal acquisition, early Resonance Leveling, Difficulties of certain quests, titles and high-end dungeons.

– June ~ July:

We are planning some changes to the PvP gear and Giant Boss dungeons. 

And for this summer update, we are preparing changes in progression for characters before Laby and the overall support for progression.

– Second Half of the Year:

El House revamp is planned for the second half of the year. We will also consider any changes that aren’t certain based on player opinions. 

Also, we will make sure to include detailed explanations and developer intentions in future content revamps and updates.

5. Player feedback before updates

I apologize again for not sharing the update details under the excuse of it being an internal development matter, which led to players feeling their voices weren’t being heard by the developers.

As one of the solutions to improve communication with our players, we will provide a place where players can voice their opinions on upcoming revamps.

As part of the quick implementation, instead of creating a completely new section, we will make use of our existing suggestion board. You can find more details here.

I am aware that many player suggestions in our balance discussion board, 1:1 tickets and official board weren’t implemented and players will be skeptical of these new suggestion board changes.

All the suggestions were looked at internally but the process of implementation was lacklustre and many took too long to implement. We will work towards making the official boards a place of two-way communication between players and developers.

6. Additionally, we will respond to the questions in the testament we received

Explanation regarding why the response to the 2nd Developer Meeting’s data was delayed over 600 days

We tried to apply any changes that could be developed as soon as possible, which led to an inadequate response. It led to a situation where some details couldn’t be implemented and we were only pondering over the changes, not being able to give a response in time. This was entirely my fault.

Because it’s been too long since we received the suggestions, additional response and implementation from that data will be difficult now. I ask for players’ forgiveness regarding this matter.

We will enhance the communication features in our suggestion and balance board so we can listen to our players again and respond properly this time.

We will postpone the new league scheduled from 5/6 to 5/27 and work on receiving player feedback.

Explain the reasoning behind profession update

As I mentioned earlier, the profession update was carried out to ease the various issues players encountered. We will carry out additional patches in May regarding parts that players felt were nerfed

Revamp the enhancement system that is difficult to use without cashing and can only be done during certain events

I also agree with the need of revamping the enhancement system. However, the enhancement system can cause a very large impact on the gameplay and economy. Therefore, we are approaching it carefully. We will look into a method that can minimize the impact on the gameplay.

I apologize for not being able to make any promises regarding the enhancement system right now.

Carry out meaningful balance patches more often. Do not make simple number changes.

After the character reboot updates, we’ve been carrying out balance patches in time with the start of a new league season. Each character in Elsword is unique and a change in one skill is connected to many other factors so we couldn’t make many structural changes each time.

But we will continue to release balance patches in time with new league seasons. For future balance patches, we will also add explanations regarding the balance patch changes to enhance communication with the players.

Release new content more often. Make it easier for new players to settle in

I’m sorry that the Elsword team cannot develop enough contents to satisfy our players.

We will work towards increasing the amount and quality of our development through methods like hiring more personnel.

As I mentioned earlier, we will work towards making it easier for new players to settle during the Summer Update by revamping the early game.

Release update schedule and explain intentions behind patches

We usually did this during official events but because of the corona issue, we changed our methods to announce the changes a week beforehand.

Long-term update schedules are prone to changing so we cannot announce all of them, but we will look for a way to announce them periodically.

And we will announce any revamps that could cause an impact on the gameplay along with the developer intentions behind the revamp.

Punish players that abuse the market prices. Revamp the trading system and make a real-time market price system.

We enhance our response and punishment towards illegal tool use and macros.

As for the game market, we will look towards stabilizing by revamping the ED acquisition. We will also revamp the trading system from considering the player feedback.

Apologize for the overall mismanagement of the game and all the errors. Announce a solution towards this never happening again

I’m always sorry for the disappointment and inconvenience that players feel with our management. We will enhance our QA so we can fix all the errors as soon as possible.

Prepare a window for communication to restore the trust of the players

As I promised earlier, we will use the main website’s boards to manage a place of communication and discussion regarding the main updates. We will also hold a developer conference in late May. More details on the conference will be announced in a separate post later.

This concludes the response to the testament. I apologize again for the long lack of communication causing worry and disappointment to the players. I also apologize for having the players wait a week for this response.

Thank you for sending your heartful criticisms and encouragements all for the sake of a better Elsword.

To not betray the faith of our players, we will respond with updates, not excuses.

I sincerely hope our players continue to create more memories with Elsword together with us.

Elsword Director, Dong Shin Lee