Any ETA on the combat update?

[Barracuda]

I been hoping for some change before i dip my toes into a good stint of leveling again.

[Greb]

Hopefully not for a squillion billion years (long enough for me to get 500 Stonemason and Blacksmith) so I can actually make some money from the skills instead of having that wrecked by the very gods meddling and cut down to size thanks to this combat overhaul doing weird things with combat levels and obelisks damn monkey paw, curse you!

[Omega Haxors]

It won't be for another 2 months at minimum.

[Tower Dove]

I don't think you should prevent yourself from doing combat. The profession squish and monolith stuffs have no gameplay incidence, it even make things more tedious because it adds a fake semblance of agency on a system based on random numbers, I don't want agency over that personally.

We are more likely to have gameplay elements hopefully before: updates to combat gameplay flow and balance, special attacks, combat movement and so on so forth are way more meaningfull atm.

[Himitsu]

Are they combining our current (different) combat levels into 1?

[Pyro3000]

Originally posted by Himitsu:

Are they combining our current (different) combat levels into 1?

Yes, sort of.

If you want to be Combat level 140, the current cap. You need to be 30 in Episode 1 and 2, and 40 in both episode 3 and 4. The way it works is that every level you earned under the episode level cap will total up, and every level you earn beyond the level cap will become an obelisk level for that region.

So, people that wanted their Guard level to be available in every episode are about to be in for a big surprise when they log in as a level 30 character with 470 obelisk levels.

[Greb]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but obelisk levels only let you rank up enemies in the current Episode the obelisk is in, right? For the purpose of unlocking higher tiers of enemy groups, for higher grades of XP and loot. And unlock further bonuses for you to activate from a big list via a skill tree system of some kind.

Also they provide bonus skill tree levels which apply directly into the next Episode, but not the one behind it or any beyond that, right?

So a 500 Guard will be able to use Level 30 Combat + 470 Tuned gear in Hopeport, and also when they're in Hopeforest they'll have a partial amount of their 470 Hopeport skill tree available to buff them, even at 0 Scout? But if they then moved on to Mantuban Mines at 60 Combat (from Guard + Scout combined?) but with only 30 Scout and no bonus Hopeforest Obelisk levels, they'd get absolutely no skilltree buffs in Mantuban Mines, despite having 500 Guard?

Is that how it works?

[Fogmoz]

Originally posted by Greb:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but obelisk levels only let you rank up enemies in the current Episode the obelisk is in, right? For the purpose of unlocking higher tiers of enemy groups, for higher grades of XP and loot. And unlock further bonuses for you to activate from a big list via a skill tree system of some kind.

Also they provide bonus skill tree levels which apply directly into the next Episode, but not the one behind it or any beyond that, right?

So a 500 Guard will be able to use Level 30 Combat + 470 Tuned gear in Hopeport, and also when they're in Hopeforest they'll have a partial amount of their 470 Hopeport skill tree available to buff them, even at 0 Scout? But if they then moved on to Mantuban Mines at 60 Combat (from Guard + Scout combined?) but with only 30 Scout and no bonus Hopeforest Obelisk levels, they'd get absolutely no skilltree buffs in Mantuban Mines, despite having 500 Guard?

Is that how it works?

For the most part, yeah. A 500 guard will be Combat level 30 and have a maxed-out Guard Obelisk at 470. Obelisk skill trees have ‘bonus’ upgrades that, when selected, improve a stat for both the current and next episode.

When going to Forest they will still be 30, and - if I understand correctly - will be able to use their equipment. It just won’t have all the additional Port-tuned levels. The equipment will act as though it were only level 30.

At Combat level 60 they will be able to move to the Mines using whatever gear they picked up in Forest (or maybe even the Port gear still, if it was really good - or your Forest luck was really bad ). Like you say, however, currently the ‘bonus’ Obelisk effects only apply to the next episode, so the Port effects will not be active beyond the Forest.

I do want to add that there will also be a Character upgrade tree that improves with each basic Combat level, which is different from the Obelisk trees. Your Character tree choices will carry on throughout every episode, limited only by the level cap of your highest (furthest?) unlocked episode.

[Greb]

That Obelisk system sounds a bit restrictive. I guess it's to do with proximity to the obelisk in the previous episode, you're too far away to receive the full effects when adjacent, and too far away to even feel it at all if you're over an episode away. I hope this means it will work backwards as well as forwards though.

I.E Hopeforest obelisk should be able to empowered Hopeport and Mines of Mantuban, based on its proximity. Hopeport ideally would empower Hopeforest and Stonemaw. Etc? If only a slight bonus, that makes getting 500 Guard / Scout / Obelisk1 / Obelisk2 etc a bit more worthwhile.

At the moment it doesn't sound like they're really changing the problem people had, which was levelling up every identical combat skill multiple times, they've just made it so doing so makes things slightly easier in the next episode. While eventually making it so you'll apparently need all of them + future skills high so you can engage in Episode 15+ content? I think?

There will probably be more reasons to max out a combat skill, for access to bosses, unlocking skill tree stuff, maybe even unlocking special attacks, but again, doing the same skill over and over was the biggest problem here, and I'm not seeing how they've changed that.

I'm still confused about how the game susses out your actual combat level. Is it just an average of all of your combat skills, or just additive? Or, it only takes into consideration the maximum allowed combat skill of an episode, which is 30, 30, 40, 40, I think? Is it additive in this case, or averaged?

No benefit from being 30 + 470 in Hopeport (at least for combat level calculation) because it only counts that first 30 levels towards your overall combat level?

But if it's additive does that mean you only need to get 40 in every episode to keep your combat level topped off? Surely not? Wandering in to Episode 10 where you'd be what, combat level 340 out of a new max of 380? How's that going to work with an initial obelisk level of 0 not empowering monsters in the zone?

Bleh. I keep asking people about this because I'd rather hear from a human being instead of from their dev post about it (no offence devs, you're human too, I know, but you know what I mean!) and because I'll struggle to imagine how this will work until I've tried it for myself lol.

[Fogmoz]

I agree Obelisks do seem a bit restrictive. Also, if they all do basically the same thing, then the issue of combat skills being repetitive isn’t solved at all, lol...

I hope they do something where, the stronger the obelisk is, the farther its effects can be felt. Like maybe at max it unlocks a very small game-wide bonus - nothing so special you would feel like you needed it, but strong enough to make it feel worthwhile. At the very least, I agree the bonus effects should work like you say and benefit all geographically adjacent episodes.

For the merge, the game will determine your overall Combat skill based off how high your 4 skills are currently, taking up to 30 from Port & Forest each, and up to 40 from Mines & Cren each, for a possible max of 140.

As far as leveling after the merge? I have no idea. I know the level ranges of the mobs in each episode, and I know level scaling will exist so we don’t have to worry about xp penalties, but I’m not entirely sure how combat xp will be awarded.

I.e. if someone was 15 Guard and 60 Scout, they will be Combat level 45 after the merge, and their Hopeforest Obelisk will be at level 30. That I know for sure. I know enemies in Hopeport will be level 35 because of scaling, and I know enemies in Hopeforest will range from 35 to 60. I know that their overall Combat level cap will be 60 until they unlock the Mines, and I know the enemies in the mines will start at level 60.

I do not know how they will get xp. I know they could get from 45 to 60 in Hopeforest, I know they could try to get xp in the mines if/when they can defeat level 60 enemies. They should be able to get xp from enemies in Hopeport too… but technically they will be above the level cap for Hopeport so they might be getting Hopeport Obelisk xp instead? Or maybe xp for both Combat level AND Hopeport Obelisk? There’s also the question of progressing Scout at 60 before the merge, to being 45 and locked out of Hopeforest Obelisk progression until they reach 60? Idk.

There’s just no way to know yet based off the info here on Steam. On Discord or Reddit they’ve probably explained their plans a bit more, but I’ve not ventured to those places yet.

[Greb]

Guess we'll find out when the update releases, yeah. Maybe then the fog will lift in my brain and I'll be able to understand it better

Originally posted by Fogmoz:

I agree Obelisks do seem a bit restrictive. Also, if they all do basically the same thing, then the issue of combat skills being repetitive isn’t solved at all, lol...

Yeah lol. You'll still have to train the same skill again from scratch each episode, and I don't think a different skill tree with each episode will change that much.

At the very least I don't think we'll be needing multiple sets of gear anymore, so that's something. I think anyway.

I wish they just made each combat skill a unique fighting style with pros and cons that we could use everywhere but had to first learn about by meeting each "main quest ensemble of tough dudes" in each episode we wouldn't even need a combat skill for every episode then, and when they teased a new combat skill coming everyone would be excited for it instead of like "Oh it's Guard 7.0 only this time it can regenerate more health than ever before!" or whatever.

Though without knowing how it's truly going to work and feel I guess I can't really say anything for certain.

[Nemesis Primez]

still waiting for magic release