In this article we are going to give you insights into our update 11, the great content update. Every second Thursday we will add a new subsection in which we will announce and introduce parts of the content. So come back regularly.

We have decided that we will split the content described into 2 content updates. You won’t really notice that we will deliver the content in 2 parts, for the following reasons. The first part will contain the full gameplay experience and the second part will just enlarge it. In addition, we will publish the second part only about 1 month after the first part. Our plan is to release Update 11 in June 2021.

New rare resources

Regarding resources we had identified a major problem. Both, Elemental Stones and Shards went through a high level of deflation. For that reason we have come up with a solution that renews rarity and scarcity on the resource market. At the same time it will solve another core problem. The inventories of our die-hard fans spill over from the sheer mass of equipment because dismantling them is not cost efficient. They have simply got more efficient ways to get Elemental Stones.

The update will turn “trash” into gold. We will introduce a new resource type which you will need to level up equipment items. You can obtain this resource type by dismantling equipment items or as a reward for completing certain quests.

We haven’t decided yet whether there is just one new resource type used to upgrade equipment or whether each Tier will have a subtype. One way or the other, you will need this resource to level up.

How to get the new resources

We will remove the Base Elemental Stone reward output for dismantling items and replace it with the new resource or resources used to level up equipment. In case each Tier comes with a different ressource, you will be able to obtain resources on the epic level.

How much you receive for dismantling a specific asset depends on its tier and is therefore different for every tier. When dismantling you will still receive a certain percentage of the resources used for leveling up and evolving.

The number of resources that you need to level up certain equipment depends on the current item level and the number of evolves. The steps per level have a fix base value which is modified by the amount of evolves.

Weekly epic quests

The already existing weekly quests for epic equipment items will also be adjusted. The Sky Shard reward will be removed and replaced with the new rare resources of the corresponding tiers of the quest. Consequently, it is assured that you will get one piece of these new rare resources every round, either by simply receiving one or by dismantling the dropped epic item.

Daily Quests

Daily quests can be absolved once per day with a character. To prevent countless new characters for absolving these quests multiple times, they require a certain level of progress of the characters. Characters will be rewarded with metal of different tiers with low chance for higher and rare versions.

Content extension

We will extend the core content with 2 new tiers, each of them divided into 8 bosses. To further reduce the amount of “trash” equipment, the new bosses will not drop equipment but new resources. Each tier has its own resource type which you can use for the new trader quests in order to buy equipment items of the player’s choice.

Like the amount of equipment that is dropped, the amount of resources increases over time until it reaches a specific limit. The moment you reach this limit the number of resources you receive will stay at that same level. Epic equipment items will not drop on these new quests. Instead, you can buy them for a greater amount of the dropped resources when doing the trader quest. Also note, there will be no weekly quest for the epic equipment of these tiers. You can buy normal pieces for these tiers through the trader quest.

The new bosses will be on a new island/continent due to a lack of space on the map.

One-time event quests

One-time events are quests which will appear and stay open for only short period. After that time they will disappear forever (or at least for a very long period of time). These quests will reward the players with a unique trading resource which can be exchanged at a corresponding trader quest for new epic equipment items. This means that these items are only obtainable within a certain period of time.

These rewards were introduced so that both low and high level players can benefit from them. The amount of resources which can be obtained from such a timed quest will only be enough for levelling up a very small amount of items. This will make sure that these items really do stay rare.

Legendary questline

With update 10 we did a little rebranding and the legendary equipment is now called epic equipment. This was for a simple reason: We already had plans for a legendary questline and corresponding ultra rare assets.

Players will be able to complete a legendary questline, consisting of several missions and quests, in order to obtain very rare and hard-to-get legendary items (higher than epic items).

This quest is for endgame characters with highly evolved equipment. A character can start the quest by obtaining several very rare resources – some of them will only be available during special events – which you can exchange through a corresponding trader for a special epic equipment item. This item grants the character access to certain special quests, besides of course having achieved a certain level in your character‘s progress. In such special quests, the character can obtain unique resources which will help to even further enhance the epic item.

A special trader will consume the special item alongside the resources and rewards and will equip the character with a new and better version of the item. It is possible to visit the trader several times to enhance the item to different stages until the special item reaches its final legendary stage, which is very powerful.

Also, note that you can upgrade to the single stages with resources of the corresponding tier.

Leaderboard service

We recognized that some of you struggled using the leaderboard so much, that asking someone else on Discord to check the highscores was a valid option. Unfortunately processing the leaderboard is quite resource consuming and could only be enhanced to a certain degree. For that reason we have decided to give you another option which completely surpasses the processing step. The leaderboard service.

It computes the leaderboard on every new block so you can be absolutely sure, that the displayed data is correct and up to date. If you don’t want it to update while you are browsing the leaderboard, you can simply deactivate the updating at every block. In this instance you can make it process the high score by clicking the ‘refresh’ button.
Of course, there is still the option of processing everything by yourself and not use any services at all.

Parallelization of game operation

A major part of Update 11 was the reworking of the computing process of game operations. While enhancing the performance through parallelization is a more or less doable task, we had to overcome several aspects which are not an issue for conventional games, but were critical for us.

For instance, the correct rowing of game operations is important whenever multiple gamers try to buy the same market offer. In this scenario, the buyer whose transaction is listed first should be successful and not a randomly picked buyer.

After a significant amount of working hours, we are now able to deliver a new level of performance when it comes to the synchronization process.

Database optimization

While the parallelization optimizes a single aspect, the database optimization is something you will recognize in different areas throughout the client. For instance, we now store additional redundant information, which drastically reduces database lookup time, most noticeable when listing your own trades.

Unfortunately, we can’t tell you the exact level of impact this change will have. Its degree of impact is heavily influenced by the structure of the live system, which we can’t recreate entirely in a testing scenario.

In addition, we have made several changes as to how and which data is processed for specific tasks. While the client used to check all the transactions done by all gamers to compute the selling offers correctly, after Update 11 the client will only need to check the transactions done by yourself.

What else is to say about the update

Some time ago, we collected and answered the TOP 10 of the most popular questions on Discord. You can read them and our answers here.