Jun 20, 2021 04:00 (UTC)
Final Improvements: Combat, Content, UI/UX Convenience
Greetings, Adventurers!
First of all, we would like to express our thanks to everyone for your continued support of Bless Unleashed PC.
From the first CBTs until the most recent Final Test, players from all over the world have joined us in testing the game, providing us opportunities to thoroughly prepare for launch. As mentioned in our “Letter From Bless Unleashed PC Head of Development”, we have since closely reviewed all player feedback from the Final Test to help us better prepare the game.
Today, we will be sharing current developments in even greater detail than mentioned in the previous “Letter From Bless Unleashed PC Head of Development”. We hope this will give everyone more to look forward to at the official launch!
“Improvements on Combat Progression, Action, and Fatigue”
Bless Unleashed PC is enhancing an action mechanism by the class-unique combos and skills as well as the combination of Blessings. Some parts were already available during the Final Test for players to experience, but the following have never been revealed before.
Blessing and Skill Effect Improvements (Key Point)
Each Blessing will have their own specialized skills and control mechanism to provide players a variety of combat experiences without the need to switch characters.
[Priest: Blessing Skill Preview]
[Crusader: Blessing Skill Preview]
Combat Information Improvements
Blessings - Information on the Blessing’s method of acquisition, next level progression values, and tips and information on usage will be added.
Skills - Players will now be able to see the next level progression values.
Based on feedback from the Final Test, we are currently working on adjusting the balance, difficulty, fluidity and delay of controls to lessen overall combat fatigue. We are aware that combat fatigue must be reduced for an even better gaming experience, and that balance must be improved to make the game more enjoyable.
Instead of drastically reducing the difficulty level to resolve the issue, we are fine-tuning to prevent affecting the overall tension of the game. Early parts of the game, which are considered areas where players are still learning, will see their difficulty level reduced. For example, drop rates for better items will be higher, and combat areas for group hunting may be expanded to make it easier to defeat field bosses.
[Berserker: Blessing Skill Preview]
We are also finishing up on the combat mechanisms of certain classes, and are considering various methods to help players easily and quickly learn, understand, and familiarize themselves with the unique Bless Unleashed PC combat system that utilizes combos, skills and evading.
[Priest: New Combo Preview]
Aside from the above, there are many more specific improvements being made to evading, skill connection and combo delay to reduce combat fatigue.
“Overall Improvements in Content Polishing and Experience”
One of the main points of feedback we received about the Final Test was that both dungeon and field monsters were overpowered, causing players to experience high combat fatigue. We are aware of this, and it was not what we originally intended. As a result, changes will be made so that players who are ready for dungeons will be able to succeed in their challenge much easier than before.
1) First, a different combat experience will be given for each dungeon type.
Improvements will be made so that Arenas will provide a casual combat experience, Lairs and Dungeons will involve an adequate amount of urgency, and Abyssal Dungeons will be an opportunity for experienced players to test their strategies and combat ability.
The difficulty level of low-level dungeons have also been reduced. However this is more than simply reducing the attack power or defense of field and dungeon monsters. Detailed balance adjustments will also be made to provide an entertaining experience without making it too easy.
2) Improvements are also being made to the combat experience of unique field bosses.
We will be removing the berserk effect of unique bosses to allow players with various skills and items to fight a common-enemy together. The negative combat experience of dealing only minimal damage while at the risk of dying from only one hit from the berserk boss will be eliminated for a more dynamic combat experience.
That being said, mutated Twisted type unique bosses such as the Twisted Harpy Queen that appear periodically will continue to remain as powerful monsters. Their difficulty level will be slightly reduced from what players experienced during the Final Test, but it will continue to be a challenge for well-prepared players. The Twisted bosses will still go berserk, but the effect’s impact and speed will be reduced.
[Twisted Field Bosses]
3) The early parts of the game are rather boring compared to the quests, dungeons, and field content from later on in the game.
A variety of changes are being implemented to improve the engagement of the early parts of the game. Changes are made with two major points in mind.
#1 - Improve the quest flow of the early parts of the game
We are working to create links between incidents that occur in the world of Bless Unleashed PC to form a strong storyline that will motivate players to continue playing the game. A variety of factors are also being utilized to create motivation for players to regularly continue their adventure in Bless Unleashed PC.
For example, parts that are unnecessary for the storyline or which were found to be boring for gameplay will be removed or adjusted to increase interest during the early and middle stages. How the storyline of Bless Unleashed PC is being conveyed to our players, and other small inconveniences are also being closely reviewed and changed.
[Gathering Event]
#2 - General changes to dungeon entry levels
The amount of dungeons that are available at a lower level will be increased, and the entry period for some dungeons will also be changed to allow players the option to take on difficult dungeons regularly and gradually. Efforts are also underway to appropriately balance the difficulty level and provide suitable rewards as part of a satisfying dungeon experience.
“Continuous Improvement of UI/UX and Convenience”
Although we have been working on improving the UI/UX, we realized that some parts are still falling short.
Therefore we are continuing towards the goal of optimizing it for PC while keeping things convenient for our users.
A detailed discussion on changing the UI completely like many have mentioned was also held internally. However, as you all know, modifying the entire layout is a huge task that requires a lot of time and effort, meaning that although we are trying our best, we ask for your understanding as the results may not be enough to satisfy our users 100%.
Currently, priority is placed on improving parts that are helpful to our players, and removing aspects that interrupted gameplay. An assortment of improvements are also ongoing with the goal of making Bless Unleashed PC a game that can be played comfortably on the PC platform.
The most obvious changes will be the menu and screen composition.
Many players mentioned that it was difficult to navigate the menus, so we are improving menu accessibility along with making screen composition much easier to use than before.
[Proposed Menu Design]
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The biggest inconvenience players mentioned was the small number of quests that could be displayed. As a response we will be increasing the amount of quests that can be shown. Improvements are also being made to keyboard and mouse control to increase consistency and convenience. In addition, players will now be able to interact with NPCs while riding a mount, and the delivery of in-game information such as the skill cooldown time and mount button location will also see improvements.
“Other Important Improvements”
Aside from the major key improvements mentioned above, many other issues raised from player feedback are also being addressed.
1) Improvements will be made to the high temperature and increased usage of graphic cards.
This was brought up by many players. Although settings ideal for the PC environment were available during the Final Test, we were unable to accommodate all the different player environments. We also noticed that GPU usage was higher than required due to the unfixed frame rate.
To resolve this issue, we will add an option for a fixed frame rate, provide users a default setting suitable for their PC environment by tuning performance detection, and make it possible for players to change custom settings early on. We expect these changes to prevent the issue from recurring.
2) Efforts are underway to improve the three-dimensional effect of shadows according to the time of day.
Day and night exists in Bless Unleashed PC, and one of our goals is to showcase the diverse beauty and charms of all areas.
There are lights that turn on only at night, and we worked to portray each dungeon in their unique style. Nonetheless, there are still parts for improvement as mentioned by our players.
An overall review of art quality and optimization is being performed, and changes are also made to portray the NPCs in further detail. Rather than working on one specific part, we are aiming to better the game overall. We predict that many of the points mentioned by our players will be greatly improved.
[Time of Day and Lighting Improvements]
3) Changes will be made to integrated matchmaking in the global environment where communication was difficult.
The original intention during the Final Test was to increase matchmaking speed by integrating matchmaking systems between multiple regions. However due to the amount of languages involved, there were communication difficulties between players. We attempted to resolve this issue as much as possible by implementing an emoticon system, but the communication issues ended up taking away the fun of playing as a group, and made the dungeons even harder to complete.
As a result we will be applying changes so that matchmaking is only available within the same server in the same region. We hope that this will prevent players from experiencing difficulty in gameplay due to language barriers like we saw in the Final Test.
Through the multiple CBTs and tests over the past few months, we have been working to slowly but surely improve the PC optimization and game of Bless Unleashed PC while communicating with our players. Once again, thank you for staying with us.
This will not be the last time improvements are made to Bless Unleashed PC. Will continue to communicate with our players and prepare the game to the best of our ability for the official launch.
Please continue to provide us with your feedback and support so that we can continue to make Bless Unleashed PC a great game together.
Thank you.
[Official Channels]
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