FUTURE OF RAGNAROK...

Hey Guys... Just want to inform You that Ragnarok will undergo changes when the latest 3rd Jobs will be added to the game we all loved... here it is..
Translation of an article from Game Watch Japan, published on June 6th 2009 by DongSoo "Luie" Han)

(Note: This article is for a Japanese news site. As such, several questions and information are pertaining to the Japanese version of RO)

Gravity Launches "Renewal", large scale restructuring of "Ragnarok Online"

3rd Jobs! Level Cap 150! Battle Rebalancing!
We hear the goals from 'RO' Project Director Yang Hungtaek.

On June 17th, 'Ragnarok Online' received the 'Renewal' update.

The Renewal update includes 3-1 jobs (the first half of the 3rd jobs), an increase in the level cap from 99 to 150, the status point cap boosted from 99 to 120, allowing for further character development. Additionally, the experience table has been adjusted, with the base experience table reduced to 1/20th, job level experience table reduced to 1/15th, and monster experience reduced about to 1/5th. In other words, leveling speed is increased 3~4 times.

Battle mechanics are completely different, with attack power, defense, and attack speed being changed, affecting the entire performance of your character. Fundamental theories of the past such as "High STR or DEX with a high slot count weapon is strong" are overturned. Even though the attack speed limit has increased from 190 to 193, a character of the same stats will attack slower after the update, causing many dissatisfied Korean players to form the opinion that their characters have become weaker.

We spoke to Gravity's [RO1] Studio project director Yang Hungtaek about the renewal update. We've spoken to Mr. Yang before and he's always maintained from the beginning, says that Renewal was a necessity for being able to further improve the game, which includes changes in monster status and player attack speed. To hold his ground against the backlash from Korean players is rather impressive.

If you read on, you'll be able to read our play report of Renewal, and an interview with Mr Yang. While the renewal update is implemented now on Korean's RO servers, there is no information yet from Gung Ho (the company that operates Ragnarok in Japan) about any announcement or dates for its implementation on Japanese RO.

What is Renewal? About the latest 3-1 jobs.

Currently implemented 3rd job character classes.

Before we start, lets go over a brief summary of what the Renewal update is.

• Addition of 3-1 Jobs.

• Increase in level cap from 99 to 150.

• Max Status points increased from 99 to 120.

• Max attack speed increased from 190 to 193.

• Attack, Defense, and Attack speed formula's changed

• Item defense values changed.

• Experience Table reduction.

• Over upgrading from +11 to +20 possible.

• First and second job skills improved.

• Map monster information, new shortcut keys, improved UI.

Presently 3rd jobs are split into two groups, the 3-1 jobs which change from the original 2-1 jobs such as Assassin or Knight, and 3-2 which change from the 2-2 jobs such as Crusader or Rogue. Gravity plans on releasing the 3-2 jobs later in 2009. The already implimented jobs are as follows.

• [Knight], [Lord Knight] -> [Rune Knight]

• [Assassin], [Assassin Cross] -> [Guillotine Cross]
  

• [Priest], [High Priest] -> [Arch Bishop]
  

• [Wizard], [High Wizard] -> [Warlock]
  

• [Blacksmith], [Mastersmith] -> [Mechanic]
  

• [Hunter], [Sniper] -> [Ranger]
  

The requirements to change to 3rd job is being Base Level 99 and Job level 50, it doesn't matter if you're not transcend. However once you change, you lose the ability to transcend. Characters that did transcend keep their bonus 100 status points, increased HP & SP, and their trans 2nd job skills. Once you change to 3rd job, you can level to the new level cap of 150, and increase you status points up to 120. Job level for 3rd jobs remains at a max of job level 50.

With the level cap increase to 150, the experience required has decreased. In order to get to level 99, the base experience required is down to 1/20, job exp is down to 1/15, and monster experience is down ot 1/5. The easiest way to look at it is base experience is 4 times faster, and job experience is 3 times. While also mentioned in the interview, it's not justa flat decrease in required experience, but the exp curve is made more linear.


3rd Job Illustrations. Rune Knight (Top Left), Guillotine Cross (Top Center), Arch Bishop (Top Right), Warlock (Bottom Left), Mechanic (Bottom Center), Ranger (Bottom Right)

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Interview with Gravity's [RO1] Studio Project Team Leader 'Yang Hungtaek'.

RO's attack, defense, attack speed, the whole battle system has changed! What's the reasoning?

-- First off, can you tell us the intent of the 'Renewal Update?

Yang Huntaek: First, it was to get past the current limitations of RO. Without those limitations, we can create new kinds of content. The ability to add new content was the primary goal. Our first intent for new content is the addition of 3rd jobs. Secondly, the UI is fairly outdated, so we wanted to improve the game interface.

-- Can you clarify what you mean about RO's limitations?

Mr. Yang: There are many numerical limitations in RO. Level and status points were capped at 99, defense at 100, even attack speed at 190. We've upped the level cap to 150, status points to 120, and attack speed to 193. Defense formula is changed so we can now have defense above 100.

As well, in old RO card weighting was very high. For example with weapons, weapons were chosen for the number of cards slots rather than their basic stats. In such a system, high slot low level weapons were considered the best. Because of this we had problems adding gears that would be desirable for users on their own merits. The changes we made were necessary to continue adding new weapons and armors. The changes we made to critical damage also reflect this.

-- Tell us a bit more about attack power.

Mr. Yang: In original RO, for attack power, each modifier on the character's weapon would directly increase the weighting of the character's STR. The result was that high slot low level weapons became the most useful. To solve this, the value of the card's modifier and your character's STR are affected by the attack power of the weapon you're using. As a result there's a greater emphasis on a weapon's attack. While we can't release the actual formula used, its now worthwhile to chose weapons with higher attack. This will be seen more as we add new items in the future.

-- How did you change the critical system?

Mr. Yang: Before critical attacks simply ignored a target's defense, but now criticals are influenced by defense but deal 1.4 times damage.

Because criticals bypassed defense, your attack damage wouldn't vary, so you'd only really be effective in places with high defense low HP enemies. On a target that had relatively low defense, the damage would compare quite poorly to a character with higher attack power. After the update critical damage should do more against targets with lower defense, and should increase the availability of hunting grounds for those characters.

-- After the update, attack speed feels slower.

Mr. Yang: While the max attack speed has increased to 193, equipping a shield now influences attack speed. Having a shield on will cause you to attack slower. Additionally, many monsters were changed and relocated. Overall we think that you'll have the same hunting efficiency after the update even with the slightly lower attack speed. Monster experience and stats are adjusted accordingly so we think that it should still feel balanced.

-- If attack speed is lower, how can you obtain the maximum 193 attack speed?

Mr. Yang: With very high AGI and DEX, special equipment, cooking, potions, and supportive abilities it's obtainable. While it may be possible for some character classes to reach that level on their own, the intent is that it requires support and coordination from other classes.

-- What about the monster rearrangement?

Mr. Yang: Monster level, stats, experience, and locations have all changed. Through the map UI, we've added functionality that lets you easily find suitable level location to hunt.

-- For defense, if you can now go above 100, wouldn't it have to be less useful?

Mr. Yang: While numerically its increased I don't think its any less useful. Before the limit was 100, but there was no way to reach that limit, so with this update it allows us to create more diverse equipment.

It also gives us the ability to create more combinations of equipment. Before the update gears were generally restricted to be either physical defense or magical defense items, but now we've got more freedom to create items for both.

Compatibility between the 3rd jobs, and the new experience table.

-- Can you explain the concept for the 3rd jobs?

Mr. Yang: We didn't have a specific concept that encompases all of the 3rd jobs, instead we had specific design objectives for each job.

First, for the 3rd job of Knight and Lord Knight, the Rune Knight, we wanted a character more specialized in offense. They can utilize special items called 'Runes' to activate special abilities. For Arch Bishop, the 3rd job of Priest/High Priest, in addition to improved support abilities, we also wanted to give them magic different from that of a wizard, such as that which is automatically activated as you attack, and improved holy attacks. For the 3rd job of Wizard/High Wizard 'Warlock', not only did we want improved targeted magic, we wanted magic that also caused status ailments.

Currently on Sakray R (Test) Server, we're testing the 3rd job of Rogue/Chaser, the Shadow Chaser. While Rogue and Chaser were a solo play specialized class, Shadow Chaser has special abilities that help in party play and improved abilities which up to now were rather weak.

-- What is the difference between changing to 3rd job as a transcend or non transcend character?

Mr. Yang: Non trans will lose out on the bonus 100 status points, additional HP & SP, and the transcend 2nd job skills. Once they change to 3rd job, they will also be unable to transcend. So there is a benefit to transcending. While if you skip transcend you might be a bit weaker of a character, for light users it allows a way for them to achieve 3rd jobs. Once you change to 3rd job however, both transcendent and non transcend characters have the same required experience to level up.

-- When are 3-2 classes planned for?

Mr. Yang: We're planning on later in 2009. We are already testing some 3-2 jobs on Sakray R. The Rogue/Chaser 3rd job [Shadow Chaser], and Bard/Dancer and Clown/Gypsy 3rd job [Minstrel] and [Wanderer] are in testing.

-- In addition to 3rd jobs and the change of the level cap, leveling up has been made easier by lowering the required experience. What's the reasoning for this?

Mr. Yang: Before, the number one most challenging thing for players was going from 96 to 99. The required experience increases abnormally, which creates a huge gap with the previous levels. If we kept the same curve as from level 96 to 99, characters above level 100 wouldn't be that common. So what we did is we reduced the base experience to 1/20th, job exp to 1/15th of the experience required to reach level 99, and assigned the experience more evenly, resulting in a more linear curve. There no longer is a point where the required experience increases sharply.

We were worried that there would be a divide between players who are already 99 and players who have yet to reach 99 when we implemented 3rd jobs. For that reason, we wanted to make it easier to reach level 99 so players could become 3rd job.

-- Whats the reason for job levels being harder to get than base?

Mr. Yang: Up to now, when you'd change to second job and your job level is reset to 1, you'd level at an amazing speed. It would be really fast up to job level 20, and then for the second half you would base up faster than job level, and even lose the drive to unlock new skills. Also, because of the speed in getting job levels early on, it seemed especially harsh to around level 80-85. Now base level and job level go at about the same speed for your level.

-- How long will it take to reach level 150?

Mr. Yang: Well it depends a lot on the user's play time, but I'd expect hardcore users to be able to do it in one to one and a half months. A more casual user might take around 3 months. Although users seem to exceed our expectations a lot! (laughs) After the update, I think that it would be safe to say it would take about as long to get from 1-150 as it would to get from 1-99 before.

The hunter/Sniper's 3rd job 'Ranger' gets a wolf companion called a Warg, which not only can be used for skills, can also be ridden like a mount. While you can't attack while mounted, you move as fast as a Knight mounted on a Peco Peco.

The author starting a new character. Only several monsters were needed to be killed to get to reach first job. It took about 10 minutes. Compared to before the update, it seems quite fast. After 1 hour of play, he reached base level 15. Once you reach level 11 you can go to the Paradise Group for quests that help level and provide supplies.

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Connected users double! When will it reach jRO?

-- I saw the new quests [Paradise Group Quests] were added.

Mr. Yang: Thats right, from level 11 to level 85 they help direct users to proper hunting areas. While at present the only rewards are experience, we are planning on adding equipment rewards as well.

-- What's changed with PvP?

Mr. Yang: Nothing has changed. Well, for castle siege we modified the Emperium, so battles will last a little longer now.

-- You mentioned the ability to Over Refine items above +10?

Mr. Yang: Upgrades from 1 to 10 are the same as before, but now you can chose to over refine an item from 11 to 20. You increase refine from 10 one by one when succeeding, but if it fails it drops 3 upgrades. The refine probability from 11 is near the success from 9 to 10.

-- How have you improved the UI?

Mr. Yang: RO is an old game, and lots of features that are naturally in newer games are nonexistent. As such we wanted to improve on that. We added tutorial illustrations, shortcut remapping, updated the world map with monster information, and improved storage UI.

-- Are you adding any new items?

Mr. Yang: Currently on main servers we don't have any. On Sakray R server we're testing some. Every week we plan on adding a few new items. Not just for 3rd jobs, we are making new items for all classes as well.

-- At this point, how has the reaction been from the Korean users?

Mr. Yang: Since the patch was added to main servers, the general view is that it was "too soon". About 30% of our surveyed users held that opinion. The update was done though because we couldn't just keep making content for sakray R without a way for it to reach our users. It was a bold move but we decided to push the update. We were really worried but the reaction from users has been good, and the simultaneous connected users doubled. We are sorry about the repeated maintenances during the update.

-- What are your plans for the new world?

Mr. Yang: We are preparing a new episode update. At this time I can't say much about it.

-- When will the Renewal Update come to Japan?

Mr. Yang: That depends a lot on Gungho. Right now we don't have a schedule. While nothing has been decided, we looking at setting up a Sakray R Test Server for Japanese users.

-- What are the plans for level 150 and after?

Mr. Yang: There's plenty of things we're considering. Maybe 4th jobs, or increasing the level cap, but we don't know. Maybe we'll ask the question at our next user gathering (laughs). But most likely, we may increase the level cap later on. Before we do anything like that though I'd like to get some new content out.

-- What do you think users should see with the Renewal update?

Mr. Yang: Well 3rd jobs for sure, but also the combat system, monsters, and basic renewal components. Also to try playing the 3rd jobs. We tried to establish a relationship or compatibility between the 3rd job classes. Truth be told though, at this point it is a little unsatisfactory because 3-2 jobs are still not added.

-- Lastly, any closing words for the Japanese users.

Mr. Yang: Every week we have meetings with Gungho entertainment. Recently, a lot of Japanese users are very anxious over the sudden changes with RO in Korea. For us, RO isn't just Korea and Japan, but it is a global service, and we know we can't reach 100% satisfaction. However, we're trying our hardest not to disappoint you and continue to offer an enjoyable RO.

Both our users and our development team love the game. If it's going in a wrong direction, we want to hear what you have to say. Try to have some faith in us, so we can make a better RO!

-- Thank you.

The Map UI shows monster and level information. The shortcut key configuration screen and improved storage with search feature. The novice grounds with tutorial comic art.

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Hands on with the new battle system! Big changes for equipment combinations.

After the interview I was given a chance to try out the new battle system and the changes it brought.

The character I played was a was a level 130 'Ranger', a 148 dex character. While testing, I had a Composite Bow [4] (29 attack), Gakkung Bow [2] (100 attack), Ballista [1] (145 attack), and an Elven Bow [1] (160 attack, 3rd job only. Using Wind Arrows and Drainlair cards which "increase damage against water monsters by 20%" in each weapon slot, I tested damage against Siroma, a monster in the Ice Dungeon.

• Composite Bow (attack 29): Aprox 420 ~ 440 damage
  
• Gakkung Bow (attack 100): Aprox 630 ~ 680 damage
  
• Balista (attack 145): Aprox 740 ~ 850 damage
  
• Elven Bow (attack 160): Aprox 780 ~ 870 damage
  

For the new formula, while it wasn't formally announced, judging from the experiments the higher attack power weapon is obviously stronger. Before the update the composite bow with 4 cards to increase the damage from dex was the strongest. While I expected around 800 damage, after the update it did half that. After the update, the high attack power Elven Bow is twice as strong.

Defense power has also changed substantially. In the old system, an item with 5 defense cut damage by 5%, and if you could get close to 100 defense from your equipment, you would hardly take damage at all.

The defense system has changed similar to the attack system. The base defense of equipment has increased, but upgrades don't seem to influence as much as they did before. When testing, many monsters still couldn't be tanked with an armor defense of 100.

Statuses have changed too, with your level, VIT, AGI, INT, and DEX stats affecting your physical and magical defense. Level, VIT, and AGI affected physical defense, and Level, INT, and DEX increased magic defense. However like refined gear these stat boosts didn't seem to make that big of a difference.

For attack speed, with 102 AGI and 114 DEX unarmed, before the update you would have 180 attack speed, but after you'd have 171. With a bow equiped, 171 became 168. On a 101 AGI, 50 Dex Knight, with a one hand sword the attack speed was 169, but when equipping a shield the speed drops to 164. While there was no penalty using a shield before, equipping a shield seems to make a big difference now.

I don't think its wrong to say that it was required to change the battle system in order to add new content. Low level weapons being the best choice, and defense limit of 100 did limit the usefulness of new items. We won't know if this is what RO needed to continue however until the future.

Sakray R began testing last July, and testing for the battle system started then. Over the year it was in testing, user reactions were seen and awareness of the changes spread. It will be interesting to see how it is handled and what information comes from Gungho prior to the update.

Composite Bow (Top Left), Gakkung Bow (Top Right), Balista (Bottom Left), Elven Bow (Bottom Right). With such an obvious damage difference, the card market is likely to be affected. The Elven Bow is currently only available on Sakray R.

Before equipping a shield (left), after equipping a shield (right). Equipping a shield now lowers attack speed. Players will have to decide if they want the speed, or defense.


CREDITS:

http://iro.ragnarokonline.com/forum