Major Update: Pre-season "Before the Storm" Content Breakdown

[Varuun Karuk]

Hey everyone. Today's post will be a long and juicy one, we're going to break down the main content and changes coming in the Pre-season update on September 29th. But first, let's talk about what the Pre-season is about:

• The Pre-season is all about testing the changes we've got lined up for Season 1, aimed at DB's core players. We're hoping you'll dive in, test things out, and give us your honest feedback. We appreciate your patience, dedication, and support as we continue on this journey
  
• With that goal in mind, the Pre-season update won't involve any wipes, new servers/realms, or progression resets

So, what's new in the Pre-season patch?

Part 1: No More BS Matchmaking!

• Since launch, we've received tons of feedback about matchmaking quality and its issues. After lengthy discussions, we've made a decision: no more "matchmaking"! In the Pre-season update, we want to eliminate the uncertainty caused by the current "matchmaking" system and instead allow players to choose their own identities - whether it's starting with low-tier gear to stealthily loot as a rat, or gearing up to the max to wreak havoc as a chad
  
• All map difficulties will have gear quality restrictions that are clearly visible to all players. You will know exactly what to expect in each mode, and you can make your own decisions!
  
• If we compare extraction games to a casino, we should offer slot machines (low risk, low reward), roulette (medium risk, medium reward), and poker (high risk, high reward) - something for everyone, we hope every type of player can find their own playing field
  
• Furthermore, having clear gear quality brackets will ensure that high-gear-level players will never appear in beginner lobbies, protecting their experience

Part 2: Fortune Favors the Bold

After the update, the differences between each difficulty will be more significant:

• Removed the warding (poison circle) for Casual mode
  
• In Classic and Hard modes, early portals will be replaced by "Broken Portals" (green portals), which require a "Resonance Stone" to activate. Triple Broken Portals require the one-time consumption of 3 Resonance Stones. Moreover, their energy forms are unstable and will be destroyed by the poison circle
  
• Removed the fixed extraction points for Classic and Hard modes
  
• Slightly increased the power of monsters in Classic and Hard modes
  
• Overhauled the placement and distribution of monsters, elites, and bosses for all difficulties

Since there are greater risks, there need to be more dazzling treasures to reward the brave adventurers who venture into Classic and Hard modes! Fortune favors the bold. We want to make sure that the risks you take are properly rewarded.

First, we can now officially inform everyone that __the global drop cooldown for items has been removed__!
Moreover, we are introducing some serious "treasures" into the game!

• You can obtain these treasure items by engaging with the brand new map mechanics (which we'll dive into below)
  
• Simultaneously, we've rebalanced the loot distribution by reducing the overall drop rates from regular monsters and significantly increasing the drop rates from elite monsters. Now, you'll have a better chance of finding those treasures and even legendary equipment when taking down elites! This change ensures that the risks and rewards of PvE are more closely aligned
  
• Tired of the low drop rate of legendary gear and not being able to afford them in auctions? We've heard your feedback, and we believe the above changes will address those issues head-on, making top-tier equipment more accessible to a wider range of players

Part 3: A Richer Adventure Experience

We're introducing a brand new feature: high, medium, and low-resource zones. You can find treasures through the following methods:

• Consume Leyline Seals at the Leyline Altar for random rewards. There's a 25% chance to get a treasure item, but the altar will drop a guaranteed treasure item after being opened four times
  
• Leyline Seals are usually found in high-resource zones, which have tougher monsters and greater risks. You can also find seal fragments everywhere and combine 10 of them into 1 seal
  
• New chest types that can be opened only after you complete specific objectives (such as killing 10 monsters in the current area)
  
• You can also directly find treasure drops from elites, bosses, and other rare chests

__Please make sure check out the graphic on discord__ for more information on dynamic zones, zone levels, portals, and example routes:

• Some of the locations of these zones will be randomized each game, so every run will be different. Based on the value of your gear and your goals (playing it safe or going all-in), you'll need to adapt your strategy and route each time you play
  
• Here's two examples of vastly different strategies and routes in the same Hard mode game, for your reference only:
  
• Strategy 1: The "__Play it safe__" route (50k gear value)
  • Spawn Room > Level 1 Room > Level 2 Room > Level 1 Room > Extract through Green Portal (consumes a Resonance Stone)
    
  • Expected extraction rate: High; Expected extraction profit: Moderate, if extraction fails, lose 5k gear value and a Resonance Stone
• Strategy 2: The "__Go big or go home__" route (150k gear value)
  • Spawn Room> Level 2 Room > Level 3 Room > Level 3 Room > Level 4 Room > Use Leyline Seal to find Treasures >Extract through Blue Portal
    
  • Expected extraction rate: Low, Expected extraction profit: Very High; if extraction fails, lose 150k gear value
• In addition, to prevent unexpected early PvP encounters and spawn rushing, player spawn rooms are no longer right next to each other. Instead, they're spread out around the edge of the map. We hope to regularize the spawn points to a certain extent to help players plan their routes more strategically, whether it's to find treasures or avoid other players

Part 4: Map Structures with Better Replayability

In the Pre-season patch, we've taken a hard look at the map terrain and made some much-needed improvements, fixing some areas that didn't quite make sense.

For instance, we've added another ramp to the Cyclops on Clouseau Castle and created new pathways to provide alternative routes and reduce the frustration of getting stuck at chokepoints. We also completely redesigned some zones to improve their overall flow and functionality. However, we don't want to spoil all the surprises – we'd rather let you discover these changes for yourself when you jump into the game on the 29th.

Part 5: More Rewarding PvP Encounters

• We're saying goodbye to Mithril Dice and hello to insurance. You can insure one gear slot of your choice, but it'll cost you more than Mithril Dice did. If another player takes you out, they can loot your insurance fee, check the graphic below to see how it works
  
• So now, in PvP battles, you can expect to loot: Resonance Stones, valuable gear sets, insurance fees, and even the Treasure items they just got from killing elites!

Part 6: Our Vision

In the new DB, every decision you make should feel like a calculated risk. Sure, getting those high-level rewards will be more challenging, but we want to make sure that the rewards are worth the risk you're taking. The new insurance system will ensure that you get what you've earned after a tough battle. And with new high-resource zones and elite monsters dropping way better loot, the meta will no longer be mindlessly farming monsters and chests as fast as you can.

The Pre-season patch brings several fundamental changes:

• Directly finding legendary and unique gear is no longer the sole endgame goal. With the introduction of treasure items and random high-resource zones, you've got new pathways to find good equipment. Each game will feel more strategic, and the competition with other players will be more intense and thrilling than ever
  
• Overall, you'll be getting more gold (sellables) and fewer equipment drops. This should make each piece of equipment feel more meaningful and exciting to find, and it'll encourage more trading too
  
• We believe these changes are going to take DB's replayability and fun to the next level. You'll be able to actively choose the role you want to play and create completely different flows and experiences for yourself. Once the update is live, we can't wait for you to jump in and let us know what you think. Your feedback will be invaluable as we refine these designs for Season 1

Part 7: Final Thoughts

We believe the Pre-season patch and the changes in the future will put DB back on the right path, it just needs a little time. Many great games go through ups and downs during Early Access, but they come out on top after a few years of polish. Baldur's Gate 3 and Hunt: Showdown are excellent examples - they had their low points during Early Access, but after 1-2 years of continuous development and support from the community, they became the successes they are today. We believe DB is in a similar place right now, and we're grateful for your continued feedback and thoughts. It's helping DB grow into the game we all know it can be.

Throughout the Pre-season, we pledge to be more open and receptive to your opinions. We want to make sure that when Season 1 officially launches, it will be a game that's worth coming back to.

We hope you're as pumped about these changes as we are. There's even more to come that we haven't touched on yet, so keep an eye out for another announcement tomorrow about the content update direction for Season 1. Stay tuned.

[hitem]

MASSIVE, this is the right direction!!!

[St3rbehilf3]

OOOOOOOH AWESOMME DUUUUUUUUUUUUDES THIS IS GREAT

[Сжечка Дырова]

Cant wait to hop on in! When exactly the update will go live?

[雲]

It's already a terrible environment, what are you really doing, it's useless.

[MrGuaZor]

time update ?

[Sythalin]

If we compare extraction games to a casino, we should offer slot machines (low risk, low reward), roulette (medium risk, medium reward), and poker (high risk, high reward) - something for everyone, we hope every type of player can find their own playing field

You have clearly never been to a casino, or understand the basic fundamentals of how their games work. The risk/reward is based primarily on the bet, not the game type or it's odds, since that is the variable in the equation. You could put down a $1 bet (low risk) or $100+ (high risk) and the rewards scale based on that, no matter what the game or payout is.

Why bring this up? Because it helps understand why the class and loot balance of this game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[Almost Epic]

greens and blues should be in a completely different category and making people go full sets instead of a few pieces of a certain color will make gear fear way worse.

[SirleX_TV/Twitch/Socke4Ever/]

To be honest, I'm very disappointed. I would have liked to keep playing now after the update, but unfortunately it's become even less playable. Of course it makes sense to divide the matchmaking by armor and strength. But I just don't understand why it only works with complete green, blue or purple armor. What's the point of that? I'd rather go in with 3 purple items and then try to farm my equipment. They should have designed the system so that there is a maximum strength number and, depending on the dungeon, this cannot be exceeded or undercut. That would make the whole thing much easier. For all players! In addition, this limit on strength only applies to entering a dungeon. In the dungeon itself, this strength can vary and, due to the armor that can be farmed in the dungeon, is not increased disproportionately but limited so that there is a balance between all players, regardless of whether they have farmed better equipment or not.

Another point of criticism is the higher dungeons that you can enter with epic and higher item classes. Why are you thrown into a dungeon with teams as a solo player? I might as well burn my equipment and quit straight away. Have you ever tried to compete against a team of 3 on your own? It's super fun (NOT)! Access to higher dungeons would be better if it were possible to do it alone. An example of this would be with an access key that you can find in the classic dungeon. That allows 3 or more uses or something like that. That would perhaps be an incentive to really farm actively and not constantly rush players. And the key is only farmable in the dungeon, not tradable, and is automatically destroyed when players loot. This at least limits the constant rushing of players. The higher dungeon should then also have a limit on strength or equipment. Please consider whether this might not be a way to make it more playable. The monsters should then of course be stronger in the higher dungeon. Even stronger for teams of 2 and 3 so that the game feels the same for everyone.

Another point of criticism is the buffed monsters. Why were they strengthened? They were strong enough before the patch and were a relatively easy target when you tried to farm things. Strengthening them didn't exactly make it more playable, just more frustrating because the ratio of damage to life of the monsters is no longer proportional. There are also groups of monsters now. If you kill the leader or a higher monster, I actually expect at least better loot, e.g. an equipment piece for my character, otherwise farming these monsters isn't worth it. With the small monsters you can put potions, crafting things and other things, but with the big or stronger monsters you have to put equipment things in or other useful things that you need for the respective character.

These are just 3 of the many points of criticism that I have. And I sincerely hope that the game continues to be revitalized. I really like it and would like to spend more hours in it and also spend money because I really enjoy it. But as it is, with these settings and this specification, it is unfortunately anything but playable for me.

Please dear devs, just change these 3 things at the beginning, that would make a big difference.

To all the people reading this, please rate this comment positively or affirmatively if you like the ideas and please let the devs know. Thank you very much!

PS: If the devs need more ideas to make the game better, feel free to contact me via PM :)