2015/04/16

First impression of Wartune patch 4.0

When a patch bring a lot of new things, I am always excited and afraid at the same time. Excited since I like to explore, afraid since patch is most of the time more lag, bugs, and lately, massive nerfs. So here is my first impression after 1 day:

Good features
  • Elemental forest mpd. This is a real challenge, with good rewards, I like it. Nirvana was a disappointment when it came out, we beat nm easily on the first day. We beat this as well, but it was hard (Please note that the buff from electro boss CAN be dispelled!)
  • Farm. Farm looks like fun! More things to do, but does not require significantly more time. I only regret that energizing other players tree is more clumbersome.
  • World boss. You can hide other players, a little help with the lag. Another, probably unintended feature... the 2nd WB couldn't kill anyone. Was fun to survive again :) Same with guild boss.
  • Improved login and guild wheel rewards, free mount in arena shop. It's cool :)
  • Reduced tank time. Winner team needs only +5k points, so it ends easier (but it's easier to miss a kill and lose the chest).
  • Item stacking. I have seen mount hoof can be stacked now to 9999, maybe there are other items too. Still don't understand why they couldn't do this to ALL items. An 5th page is also handy, but it gets harder to oversee all my items.
  • Necro and Purgatory maze now free. Great! Just be careful to unclick the crypt key box each time, because otherwise you lose 3 keys. Too bad these are not in the devotion list, that list is a good checklist to see what did I do and what not.
  • Increased gold capacity. Another great change, now I can save up more gold for events like holy forge (if they ever add vulcan's hammer), and can still gain gold via town/gold mines.
  • ToK chests give Eudaemon items as well. Loot upgrade for old events is always good, too bad they didn't do this for other events like sylph arena, gods descent, duel arena etc.


Bad features
  • Dimension nerf. Dimensions now give much less resist bonus. I understand this was necessary so people spend balen on upgrading resist crystals further. Still, after the first nerf the bonus getting nerfed again is a proof of the designer's inability to do his job. I wouldn't be surprised that after people spend a truckload of balens getting lvl 10-12 resist crystals, resist itself will be nerfed. And a set of lvl 12 resist crystals giving the SAME bonus as a set of lvl 7 now.
  • Dimension plunder. Now you can attack and steal other players dimensions. I did not try this feature yet, but it can generate a lot of hatred.
  • Sacrifice. Something went very wrong here. I opened 50 dimension chests I saved up, and I did not get a single offering. I also wandered around in 3 entire dimensions, and did not find a single „Dragon Den” which is supposed to drop these offerings. So these are either super-rare (then why the daily offering limit?) or it's not in the game, and they will sell them for balens later.
  • Sylph arena nerf. Now you get 20-50 points per win, instead of 200-250. But the point limits to reach the next category did not change. So reaching diamond is impossible now. Either points will not reset at the end of the week, or something went very wrong here.
  • God's descent reward nerf. They should have upgraded the reward for God's descent since a long. Instead, they reduce it! What a twisted thinking...
  • Eudaemons. Eudaemons brought even more lag to the game, and this is something we do not desire. A million new way to spend balens, while not making the game more enjoyable or fun, I dislike this addition.
  • Goodies link. While I could enjoy this mini-game, the lack of reward makes it completely worthless. If you pay attention, you don't need the bombs (they just find a pair for you), and you don't really need the shuffle either (the table shuffles automatically if there are no matches left), still, time is a limiting factor. If you want to go anywhere, you have to keep buying stamina for balens. I got the 3rd chest by spending 200 bound balens (the first chest which contain something what looks remotely useful), but it was really just a waste of time, I won't play this minigame again unless I have a lot of free time.
  • Minigames (jewel hunt, fishing, goodies link, underground palace) alternating every week. One of the most fun things I still enjoy in Wartune is jewel hunt. I do not find fishing such a fun, but still, it can provide fashion cores, so I would hate to lose that. I see they are trying to reduce playtime for us, but this wasn't a good idea.
  • Blood Inferno. I heard it became harder, boss stunning people for rounds etc... I couldn't check it, we are not doing BI because the reward sucks. So if it got harder, with the same loot, it's just a reason to continue avoiding it.


Also I am missing some things which I expected from a large patch like this. Namely, a way to finally get vulcan hammers, empire truncheons, advanced mahra and sepulcrum. Also, some way to exchange the useless items for something useful. Looks like we have to wait longer...

All in all, I do not have positive impression about this patch. The good things are shadowed by the nerfs, unnecessary changes, and poorly designed new features. I wish the developers would sometimes communicate with their players via votes and questionnaires. This way they could make a much better game.


12 comments:

  1. In order to get the new things in dimension you have to either just open a new dimension or if you don't have space close them and then open new ones.
    I was mad at the game because I saw people getting rewards and such meanwhile I was stuck with the same things I had previously.
    Did that and in the new dimension opened I had all those things they were talking about :)

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    1. Yeah, realized that too, deleted dimension and found one with more interesting things :)

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  2. You are much more generous towards the new farm layout than I am. Clicking through 16 pages worth of friends' farms was relatively quick if a bit monotonous before, but now? Having to physically go there (with a loading screen, thus subject to occasional lag) and run around just to tend their farm/tree/animals? Bleargh. There's no good reason they couldn't have given us the extra farm plots + pastures with the same interface as before -- think back to how much screen real estate was wasted on scenery -- and put the campfire and mount displays in a new area. I guess I'll get used to it eventually, I just hope others do too, it would suck if most ppl stopped tending farms altogether, since then our trees would never get fully energized, and bye-bye daily kyanite.

    Only way I can understand the latest dimension resist nerf is as a cash grab, to entice the whales to pony up the cash for the next bi/ultra/epic spender that has lvl 10+s as a reward. It's not about balance, because once the big spenders start stacking lvl 10+s their res will be just as ridiculous -- just at the high end. If they really wanted to reign in the silly resists they'd change the formula to give extreme diminishing returns past a certain point, thus encouraging ppl to spread their res out some. But instead, we get higher and higer lvl res crystals, so that you only feel the pinch if you don't pay up. We'll see. Plus the Dimension PVP thing, good god wtf were they thinking. Do they still have the nerve to sell dimensions in the shop? Cuz I'm thinking of the hell that would break loose if someone paid actual money for a dimension (and iirc they weren't cheap!) just for someone to steal it from them.

    I've played a version of that new minigame before, I LIKE the new minigame...but 2 mahra and a crum in the first chest (plus some crap for CQs that no one does anyway)? Yikes. Thats the kind of reward you'd expect to see from an old never-been-updated feature introduced when sylphs were brand new.

    ON THE BRIGHT SIDE (lol), while the lag is monstrous so far, I like the new Eudaemons. Getting the skills is a rather stupid and wasteful crapshoot (just make them cost 2m or so each, instead of making us buy a ton of chests [capped at 50 a day!!!] for a random skill, especially now that our inventories are hurting). Having a little healer/slight DDer in the back is nice for my archer, and I'm sure the extra DD + access to DF from the archer eud is a nice boost to other classes.

    And while nothing can cure bad luck, at least ppl will have the opportunity to try for transposers every day for free, instead of feeling like they either have to piss 225 balens down the drain every day, pray to the Buradoths Grave gods, or have their BRs suffer with inferior gems (and miss out on the excellent gem events to boot). Plus while the loot in Purg maze still hugely disappointing, spending 5-10 minutes blitzing isn't such a waste of time anymore, now that it's not also a waste of money.

    The tanks change I'm ambivalent toward. On the one hand, less time, and easier wins in the rare case of a team dragging things out. On the other, it was already quick anyway (on my server, one team usually gets the jump on the other, we get our 1 kill each, then they leave, 5 minutes tops), and 5k pts is ~6 kills, which means a couple of unlucky shots, or an overzealous teammate that doesn't realize someone still needs a kill in time, and it's over in a blink.

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    1. Yes, I already feel the problem with the new farm energizes, while before I had no prob reaching 30, people are not doing it anymore. I completely agree you about dimensions, making the higher lvl resist crystals giving lesser bonus would have been a more satisfying solution.

      The eudaemons give a cool bonus (mine now shooting incendiary shots), but the whole thing is overcomplicated, takes up too much inventory and creates huge lag... so I'm sure there should have been a simpler solution to add goals for the players :(

      On the tanks - now they gave 6k rune for every coin of ancestry. So if you had a few coins remaining (like my friend with over 30) you never have to do tank again :)

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  3. Well, guys, you are still in luck.
    We play a fork of a wartune, called Demon Slayer. We had our sylph patch in august 2014. Fishing was added in january 2015. Jewel hunt in February 15. But that is not the point. In march 2015 jewel hunt was removed "due to a bug" and become a "monthly event". We have it now 14-16 of April 2015. So it is on for 3 days per month (actually, you can do it 4 times, if you are awake at midnight).
    Second thing, we do not have any kind of free mahra sources. Heaven's horns do not have it among the drops. The give it some times as an online bonus or login gift (like 1 or maybe 2, so 10 per month is a max) So, basically mahra is for cashers only.
    Third thing, we have ridiculous "World Prosperity", as high as 1000% (one thousand) for a 3 weeks now. Characters with 30k BR on 70lvl become pretty common. Our project Top persons have around 300k (80 advanced), moderate and smart players are at 130-150k on 70lvl.

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    1. Ouch, so it can be even worse then :( sorry for that :( lets hpe mahra becomes free there eventually. here, it was cash only too at the beginning.

      The 1000% prosperity we have as well, though.

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    2. Our only hope for free mahra is an upcoming Wilds Shop :) (I assume, it will be implemented in June). But community is skeptical, making jokes like "Wilds Shop will have "THE BUG"". But, I saved a decent amount of 2k stones.

      Funny thing is, we have a huge inflation of game resources now. For example, we have second unlimited gem crafting event this month, a very generous, but very stupid. You can like triple your gems with this event and have tons of SC. Now all active players have 7lvl or even 8lvl gems and tons of SC (like 100k+). SC exchange? Nope. Older players, who already have 8lvl or 9lvl gems are out of this event, b/c it only gives reward for 8lvl.
      Runes, especially ancient ones, were very expensive at the beginning (I spent like $300 to get all 3 (well, I was not reading your blog back then), last Spender Event have Rage rune for like $40).

      We have Auction, but it has ridiculous minimal prices sometimes (and sometimes they change prices to ridiculous). For example, we have sylphs like Hades and Apollo from events for free (they give white Hades seal for having 3 violet sylphs). We were able to sell opened seal to a guildmate or a friend for a minimal price of 10 balens ($0.03). Now minimal price for sylph is 35k balens ($90). Minimal price for seal is 25k ($60). Earlier people sell blue sylphs for 1000-2000 balens ($3-5) So sylph market is literally closed now.

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  4. I was addicted to this game and the patch was more than plenty to make me sick to death and quit it, I and quite happy about it too. good luck guys and thanks for this website, it was very useful.

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  5. I like most of the new features. The good stuff: In addition to what you mentioned, 1 click academy blessing; 9999 stack on shadow crystals, dragon essences; crypt tokens goes to your inventory; camp fire gives ton of exp, better then guild tree; advance mahra and advance sepul from camp fire (rare drop)

    I don't mind so much of the stuff on your dislike list. BI still easy for me; I pass all lvls without any issue. Goodies link rewards sucks, well you can just skip it. They said the mini games goes away, but it hasn't for my server. Dimension resistance is nerfed but gives better reward inside.

    The only thing I really *really* hate is the lag. It brought so much lag to the entire game. I have to refresh after every event. Sometimes in the middle of tok and arena. One of my teammate quit the game because it wasn't playable anymore. This really affect my group runs. They really need to add settings to cope with lag. They have some like hide players, hide clothes, spell effects, ect... But they really need to optimize the game... maybe have a setting for slower connection and simplify graphics. Cant spend $ on the game if noone can play.

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    1. Thanks for the extra info! I didnt know about the 9999 shadow cr and dragon soul! I wish there was something they can do with the lag :(

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  6. the pros:
    - compensation for gold used in sylph enchant gear that now requires NO gold
    - gold limit now raised tremendously
    - farm animal provides a small but dependent source of mahra and mount whips
    - crypt tokens goes into profile; crypt shop now cost less for the jewelry items
    - dimensions now have a more actions (explore, treasure theif, dimension raid, treasure map shard)
    ** the drop on sylph divinity soul chest shard only make players feel pathetic; after all it's how wartune make players
    grind pathetically to continue long enough with wartune
    - necro and purge maze attempt with no crypt keys is definitely a gd change

    the cons:
    - agree on minigame goodies link; rewards a re despicable (in other games that adopt this one, you get the rewards for matching the items)
    - world prosperity 1000% (just terrible, and now making it hard to enjoy my weekly cloud adventures that is a gd source of balens and hammers)
    - new wilds bug "marching..." where hero goes missing in wilds (luckily, the workaround here is to use hero teleport in wilds)
    - sylph arena points nerf is now a hindrance on the sep income to enchant my sylph

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  7. You missed 1 thing. I just became lvl 70. today and i saw that it told me to refine my mount. I had some mounts so i got my Phantom steed to 1 star to test it, as i thougght it was a bug. but i had a quest for it and it worked and i get some stats too. Pls can u check if it is a bug or something acctually that has been changed and if its not a bug is there a way for me to get some mount hoofs?
    thx

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