As we prepared the 6th Job Advancement update, our goal was to provide motivations to our players for character growth and enhancement, as well as provide content that players would be able to use actively and flexibly, without being limited to only mobbing. We wanted to consider the appropriate daily material acquisition rate and method, taking into consideration our existing players’ behavior, while also taking into account the difficulty level where newer players wouldn’t feel like it would be too much of a hurdle. We wanted to mitigate the negative aspects to the gameplay experience such as illegal tool usage or paying for services for other players to farm that occurs as a result of having an acquisition method that was mainly focused on mobbing.
With these goals in mind, we wished to lower the burden that our players might feel regarding play time and increase the accessibility for casual players by distributing the Sol Erda Energy and the Sol Erda Fragments through the Daily Quest. Additionally, we added the daily cap because we wished to narrow the gap that depended on playtime between the hardcore players and those who could not dedicate as much time to the game. We were planning to monitor the actual acquisition time of our players, the play time, and adjust the cap as needed.
Based on the memo regarding the Sol Erda Cap, there seems to be a desire to equalize progression, or creating a smaller gap based on playtime. I believe these ideas are not necessarily wrong, but the implementation was. There are 3 types of players here: 1 type that wants to grind hard and be rewarded for it, 1 type that doesn't want to grind hard, but not have to feel like they can't progress, and the last type in the middle of those. The implementation we saw with a 400 cap penalized the Grind Hard and the Middle types, and specifically penalizing them with full halting of progression rather than a slowdown of sorts.
From here on is the suggestions.
First: Implement a form of "resting" that can apply to daily progression systems.
Currently, the most punishing aspects of progression is not playing a day. Arcane Symbol Dailies, Sacred Symbol Dailies, Monster Park Normal/Extreme entries, etc. When players miss a day, it's a punishment, as you are essentially unable to catch up. If I was set to max my Cernium Symbol on Dec 15, and I stop playing for a week, it's now set to max on Dec 22. What happens if I miss more days? Extended even longer. What if it wasn't max symbol, but just level 7, just enough to put my Sacred Force high enough to start adequately doing Seren? I have to wait another week to do Seren now? If I miss more days, it's even further? I can't make up for it at all? Sure, but grinding for 10-20 hours to make up for 1 missed daily is not fun. Dailies and Grinding live side by side, with Dailies being the most efficient method of progression, but being limited on how much it can be done. So grinding comes after dailies. Hardcore players will always do dailies and grind hard. Middle players will almost always do dailies and grind a bit. More casual players will sometimes do dailies and not grind much. If we want to limit the widening gap of player progression, we can try doing so from something hardcore players dont do: missing dailies.
We have Resting EXP vouchers to entice more EXP grind, but what use is EXP if I'm 275 with not enough SAC to progress to higher zones?
I suggest that dailies have a form of Resting that allow a catch-up on missed dailies. This could be in the form of a new "Catch-Up" quest that triggers after being gone for a day, and it gives 20% of the rewards. And this "Catch-Up" quest could stack more and more rewards as the missed days go. Missed 10 days, least you can do this quest to get back 2 days worth. This can be applied to Sol Erda dailies as well. Miss a couple days? That's fine, you can get 20% of the rewards you missed if you just do this quest. What this does is help slow down the gap widening between players who miss dailies and those who do them every single day. I can come back from a break, and feel "Wow, I missed alot of dailies, but at least I get to make up some of it really easily" instead of what I get today which is: "Wow, I missed alot of dailies, **** me I guess"
Second: Lowering the Standard Deviation of Sol Erda Progression
I am of the controversial opinion that if the daily gave us absolute huge amounts of rewards, nobody would care about the cap. If I could max my skills in 3months using just the daily, I wouldn't give a flying **** about 400 erda cap. But since dailies+400cap takes 2 years, and that's ONLY for current 6th job skills and not new ones, I hate it. You are signing me up for probably a 8 year investment to max my 6th job? Not happening. And I bet Nexon doesn't want us to complete the skills in 4months. It would have a potentially negative effect on player retention. (This last point is kinda up for debate, it's just an assumption I think Nexon is making)
So there we must strike a balance.
First, we want to wait a couple months and gather data on the rates players are earning erda and fragments. We want data regarding the players who complete the daily. Then, using that information, gather the data which we can separate into those 3 groups: Grind Hard, Grind Middle, Grind Low. These groups would indicate how much they managed to obtain outside of the daily. Next, find out the middle grind numbers specifically.
From here, My suggestion is to take the daily, and increase the rewards from the daily, and lower the drop rates from the grinding. Don't introduce grind caps if possible. Let people grind if they want to grind. The goal is to make it so that the middle grind numbers, inclusive of the daily amount, is equal or exceeded. This way, all players who Grind Middle or Grind Low and do the daily will receive a larger amount of rewards; HOWEVER, This will in turn harm the Grind Hard.
I haven't been able to come up with an idea that equalizes progression without harming the Grind Hard group or speeding up progression too much on a newly introduced system.
Comments
You are not being punished for missing a day, you are being rewarded for showing up to progress your character everyday.
Punishment is Craftsman/Meister decay from the occupation system, that system punishes you for missing a day and not preventing decay.
This on the other hand, you do not lose progress for missing a day because you remain where you were at, if you show up and put in the work then you are reward with progression.
It is also a terrible mindset of trying to look to achieve an end rather than enjoy the journey.
It is a better mindset to see yourself progressing over time and have the ability to progress than try to get to the end.
At this time, Nexon does not want you to reach an end for 6th job, this will come many years later before it is realistically possible to max out your 6th job skills.