Early access patch notes: "Before the Storm" (9.29.2024)

[Varuun Karuk]

everyone Please be aware that server maintenance is scheduled from 9:00 am UTC until 11:40AM UTC Ongoing matches will not be affected.

In Pre-Season, we're excited to introduce many of the changes planned for Season 1 ahead of time. This allows us to validate the gameplay before the official season launch. We invite all players still braving the dungeons to participate in this experience and share your valuable feedback as we polish the game together in Early Access. We sincerely appreciate your patience and support throughout this process.

__If you haven't already. Please read the previous highlight announcements for a detailed breakdown of the Pre-Season changes.

Difficulty and Matchmaking Adjustments

• 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!
  • PLEASE NOTE: In the previous announcement, we mentioned that Classic Sinner's End would not allow equipment above Exceptional quality to be brought in. Over the past couple of days, we have received a lot of feedback from players. Due to the fact that Hard difficulty does not allow pure solo queues, the original design would prevent players who still want to experience pure solo play from using Legendary quality and above equipment. At the moment, we are indeed unable to guarantee the experience for solo players when queuing in Hard difficulty dungeons, facing duo and trio teams.
    
  • __Therefore, we have temporarily modified the rules to allow Legendary quality and above equipment to be brought into Classic Sinner's End. At the same time, we strongly encourage more high-end solo players to participate in the mixed queues for Hard difficulty and provide us with valuable feedback. For more information about our thoughts and vision on mixed queues, please refer to [Part 6] in the design philosophy announcement:__
• Clouseau Castle
  • Casual: Low-quality, Common
    
  • Classic: Uncommon, Magic
    
  • Hard: Epic, Exceptional, Legendary, Unique (new difficulty)
• Sinner's End
  • Casual: Low-quality, Common, Uncommon
    
  • Classic: Magic, Epic, Exceptional, Legendary, Unique (adjusted based on community feedback)
    
  • Hard: Epic, Exceptional, Legendary, Unique (new difficulty)
• The "Hard" modes for both Clouseau Castle and Sinner's End will alternate daily, and there will be no solo queue for Hard difficulty. Assemble your team and compete for the most valuable treasures!
  
• Classic difficulty will be permanently available for both maps without any rotation

Risk vs Rewards Adjustments

• Introduced a collection of treasure items (valuable crafts) that have a higher chance of appearing in more challenging dungeons
  
• Slightly increased the power of regular monsters in Classic difficulty and above. Adjusted the distribution of monsters, elites, and bosses across all difficulties
  
• Decreased the loot from regular monsters while significantly increasing the loot from elite monsters
  
• Added "Leyline Altars" that appear randomly in certain difficulty maps. Collect "Leyline Seals" scattered throughout the map and pray at the altar to obtain random high-value rewards
  
• Introduced "Cursed Chests" in specific difficulty maps that require clearing nearby monsters to open
  
• Maps now feature "Core Areas" that are resource-rich, which are highlighted on the minimap
  
• Adjusted the distribution of player spawn points on all maps
  
• The poison circle has been removed from the Sinner's End Casual mode
  
• In Classic and Hard difficulties, early portals have been replaced with "Broken Portals." To activate these portals, players must carry a "Portal Resonance Stone." Triple Broken Portals requires the one-time consumption of 3 Portal Resonance Stones at once. Be aware that their energy state is unstable, and they will be destroyed by the poison circle
  
• Fixed escape doors are no longer available in Classic and Hard difficulties
  
• The Mithril Dice system has been revamped into an "Equipment Insurance" system. If an insured player is killed, the killer can loot their insurance cost
  
• Red portals have been temporarily disabled in all modes as they undergo optimization for Season 1

Others

• The Divine Sword, Divine Crown, and Moon Pendant are now classified as Epic quality items, with their values remaining unchanged
  
• The affix value for Critical Strike Chance on Full Life has been increased by approximately 39%
  
• Merchants will no longer offer Mithril Dice for sale
  
• Trap damage has been adjusted to 20% of a player's maximum health, and traps will no longer damage monsters
  
• Merchants will begin selling elixirs and Portal Resonance Stones
  
• The character interface will now display the total value of items in the player's inventory
  
• Added limited-time events for Pre-season: Before the Storm
  
• Added an in-game inventory item crafting feature, allowing players to create items using Fragments
  
• Optimized various skill effects

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the health of Treants summoned by Druids was abnormal in some cases
  
• Fixed an issue that caused monsters to spawn at player spawn points in some cases
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the screen to shake when using Dual Daggers to lunge in some cases
  
• Fixed an issue where the trajectories of Fireballs from Pyromancers and Frost Arrows from Cryomancers were not visible at long distances
  
• Fixed an issue that caused Cryomancers would obscure projectiles when casting skills
  
• Fixed an issue where Pyromancers could jump out of the map in certain map locations
  
• Corrected the inaccurate description of the Demon Hunter tier in the tier descriptions

[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 :)