WoB Roadmap - What's coming soon, not so soon, and eventually
I get a lot of questions on WoB about "When is Vaizard coming? When is MPvP coming? Can you give us a timeframe?" I can't really give a timeframe for things outside of the current update cycle because with each update, the game changes a little (sometimes a lot) and I look at how those changes have affected the game, which affects my priorities for what I do next. For instance, a change in AoE that decreased the amount their resistance drops with range caused an increase in AoE moves and people using them more for battle holding. When that happened one of the core gameplay aspects of WoB became less fun because there was (still is to some extent) a high prevalence of spamming AoE moves and prolonging battles. That changed my priorities a bit: I moved up battle logs in the line, and I also moved up the battle system overhaul because if core combat isn't fun, that's a big problem.
So what can I say about what's coming? Well I'll give you an idea of what I have planned for the immediate future (next update or two), what major systems are coming in the next few major updates (e.g. 2.4.0 / 2.5.0 / 2.6.0), and what systems are planned for the general course of the next few months - year but it's not decided exactly when they'll be coded.
Immediate Future (2.3.1 - 2.4.x)
A major event coming up is the tournament, which I've been aiming to have this summer before people go back to school and aren't available as much. I've been debating whether to have the tournament before or after the battle system design overhaul because it will make combat more fun and more interesting, but due to the level of time it will likely take to refine and polish the system even after it hits live, as well as time required for people to figure out new strategies, I don't think it's possible to get the system into a good place before the end of summer and give people enough time to adapt, so I'm going to make some minor adjustments to the system to cut down on things like AoE spamming, and then wait until after the tournament to do the battle system update, which will be in 2.4.0.
Also I somewhat glossed over what the battle system overhaul will bring: I don't want to talk about too many specifics at the moment before I've gotten it refined because a lot of things that I do with it early on in dev server may seem terrible and may in fact be terrible in practice, so they'll get scrapped or redone, but if I talk about them now, the assumption from many users will be that those things are definitely going to be added, even if I say they might not be. To avoid making anybody overly concerned about things which may never even be an issue, I'm avoiding talking about too many details. But I can tell you my goals for this overhaul:
Some other significant things planned for this timeframe:
Mid-term future (2.5.0 - 2.7.0)
This time range is a bit more vague but after we see how the new battle system plays out, if things go well I will likely start work on MPvP. Assuming no issues, MPvP should make it into this update range. The other big priority for this update range is more squad/fraccion and race organization features for officers to coordinate group PvP/PvE activities. Possibly things like a raid info box on the side with current target location and directives set forth for raid group members to see, as well as a raid chat below that, just a smaller integrated chatbox that will be there even when fighting or traveling, so that you don't have to keep going back and forth from social to travel page or battle page.
Race-wide features like the bosses and Kyoto City bases will also be looked at for any necessary adjustments in this range, like probably the base repair feature where you'll have the option of spending pools and time to repair your base if someone is attacking (similar to a base attack, just it heals your base; This will be balanced with other factors like base health and regen to ensure invasions aren't impossible, just harder when people are actually defending)
Long term future (2.8.0 - 3.0 and beyond)
With MPvP in and race features given more depth, the process of planning how to add Vaizard will kick into active gear. Current plans for Vaizard include having both Shinigami and Hollow become Vaizard(there's canonical explanation for this), an invisible base in Kyoto City, along with Hollow masks that work as a separate release from Zan/Res, working on a number of turns they can stay released in combat (increased by training). So you can be unreleased + mask, shikai/res + mask, bankai/rse + mask, but your mask can only stay out for a certain number of turns. As for how users will become Vaizard, it will start from rank 6, you will get one roll (probably level 75 required) for free, after that you will be able to earn Vaizard roll tokens from various places (KUA perhaps?) as well as buy them with shards.
The 3.0 version of WoB should bring the full plan of Shinigami + Hollow and Vaizard all in the game with MPvP and organized raiding features to provide a real PvP game, not just picking people off when they leave their barracks to train, but joining forces with other players from your race and working together in raid groups to do anything from protecting each other on the KUA or regen square to speed up training, fighting the world boss, invading, defending, etc.
What happens after that? Once those things are in I'll be looking at the rest of my to-do list as well as some more in-depth looks at user suggestions to see what else would be a good idea to add to the game. I also have a loose plan for after this that introduces a 4th area for all three races to fight over territory in, but I haven't solidifed much about that and the game might look so vastly different after everything has been added that it wouldn't work well, we'll have to wait and see.
So, about that timeframe...
I'd like to get update 3.0 out before LoE releases, but I'm not entirely sure it'll happen. However I'm certainly not abandoning WoB. My current goal for user activity on WoB is to have 50-100 users online constantly, meaning 50+ in low hours and 100+ in peak hours like weekends. I'm hopeful that if advertising works well and the new systems are good, things could increase higher than that. When LoE comes out I'm sure some portion of the WoB userbase will move over to LoE at least to try out, but it's going to be a very different game from WoB, more casual and PvE focused, with more traditional MMO aspects like crafting and occupations, not as much hardcore MPvP raiding. It will also have a lot more graphics and be more computer/network intensive. So users that thrive on the PvP environment of WoB or have lower-spec computers/internet will probably go back to WoB after trying LoE and seeing what it's about.
Hopefully this has given you guys a better idea of where my plans for WoB are, I'm working towards giving it its own identity as a race vs race (vs race) PvP game with all the features necessary to do so. This will undoubtedly turn some people off as the constant competition isn't for everyone, but it also will attract those who love that type of environment.
So what can I say about what's coming? Well I'll give you an idea of what I have planned for the immediate future (next update or two), what major systems are coming in the next few major updates (e.g. 2.4.0 / 2.5.0 / 2.6.0), and what systems are planned for the general course of the next few months - year but it's not decided exactly when they'll be coded.
Immediate Future (2.3.1 - 2.4.x)
A major event coming up is the tournament, which I've been aiming to have this summer before people go back to school and aren't available as much. I've been debating whether to have the tournament before or after the battle system design overhaul because it will make combat more fun and more interesting, but due to the level of time it will likely take to refine and polish the system even after it hits live, as well as time required for people to figure out new strategies, I don't think it's possible to get the system into a good place before the end of summer and give people enough time to adapt, so I'm going to make some minor adjustments to the system to cut down on things like AoE spamming, and then wait until after the tournament to do the battle system update, which will be in 2.4.0.
Also I somewhat glossed over what the battle system overhaul will bring: I don't want to talk about too many specifics at the moment before I've gotten it refined because a lot of things that I do with it early on in dev server may seem terrible and may in fact be terrible in practice, so they'll get scrapped or redone, but if I talk about them now, the assumption from many users will be that those things are definitely going to be added, even if I say they might not be. To avoid making anybody overly concerned about things which may never even be an issue, I'm avoiding talking about too many details. But I can tell you my goals for this overhaul:
- Change melee and spirit so they are used differently in combat
- Explore diversity between Shinigami and Hollow moves (this may not work out)
- Change combat to remove any ways that you get an advantage from stalling a battle out excessively(using BH to try and win a fight), and introduce systems to lock down ways to stall out a battle indefinitely (using BH just to extend the time of the fight)
- Add meaningful combat for balanced spec users
- Change the overarching design of combat to be aware of the various strategies and ensure each has its strengths and weaknesses
Some other significant things planned for this timeframe:
- Tweaks to reduce network strain on user connections and attempt to reduce lag outside of the server, as well as some server optimizations to try and attempt any server lag not related to script execution time (even when lagging the script execution time hasn't showed lag)
- AJAX travel page (Travel without having to reload entire page, will make it faster)
- AI / survival battle integration into new engine (Grid AI for normal battles)
- More tutorials: Rank 3 / Kyoto City stuff, Grid battles, Zanpakuto/Resurreccion, etc
Mid-term future (2.5.0 - 2.7.0)
This time range is a bit more vague but after we see how the new battle system plays out, if things go well I will likely start work on MPvP. Assuming no issues, MPvP should make it into this update range. The other big priority for this update range is more squad/fraccion and race organization features for officers to coordinate group PvP/PvE activities. Possibly things like a raid info box on the side with current target location and directives set forth for raid group members to see, as well as a raid chat below that, just a smaller integrated chatbox that will be there even when fighting or traveling, so that you don't have to keep going back and forth from social to travel page or battle page.
Race-wide features like the bosses and Kyoto City bases will also be looked at for any necessary adjustments in this range, like probably the base repair feature where you'll have the option of spending pools and time to repair your base if someone is attacking (similar to a base attack, just it heals your base; This will be balanced with other factors like base health and regen to ensure invasions aren't impossible, just harder when people are actually defending)
Long term future (2.8.0 - 3.0 and beyond)
With MPvP in and race features given more depth, the process of planning how to add Vaizard will kick into active gear. Current plans for Vaizard include having both Shinigami and Hollow become Vaizard(there's canonical explanation for this), an invisible base in Kyoto City, along with Hollow masks that work as a separate release from Zan/Res, working on a number of turns they can stay released in combat (increased by training). So you can be unreleased + mask, shikai/res + mask, bankai/rse + mask, but your mask can only stay out for a certain number of turns. As for how users will become Vaizard, it will start from rank 6, you will get one roll (probably level 75 required) for free, after that you will be able to earn Vaizard roll tokens from various places (KUA perhaps?) as well as buy them with shards.
The 3.0 version of WoB should bring the full plan of Shinigami + Hollow and Vaizard all in the game with MPvP and organized raiding features to provide a real PvP game, not just picking people off when they leave their barracks to train, but joining forces with other players from your race and working together in raid groups to do anything from protecting each other on the KUA or regen square to speed up training, fighting the world boss, invading, defending, etc.
What happens after that? Once those things are in I'll be looking at the rest of my to-do list as well as some more in-depth looks at user suggestions to see what else would be a good idea to add to the game. I also have a loose plan for after this that introduces a 4th area for all three races to fight over territory in, but I haven't solidifed much about that and the game might look so vastly different after everything has been added that it wouldn't work well, we'll have to wait and see.
So, about that timeframe...
I'd like to get update 3.0 out before LoE releases, but I'm not entirely sure it'll happen. However I'm certainly not abandoning WoB. My current goal for user activity on WoB is to have 50-100 users online constantly, meaning 50+ in low hours and 100+ in peak hours like weekends. I'm hopeful that if advertising works well and the new systems are good, things could increase higher than that. When LoE comes out I'm sure some portion of the WoB userbase will move over to LoE at least to try out, but it's going to be a very different game from WoB, more casual and PvE focused, with more traditional MMO aspects like crafting and occupations, not as much hardcore MPvP raiding. It will also have a lot more graphics and be more computer/network intensive. So users that thrive on the PvP environment of WoB or have lower-spec computers/internet will probably go back to WoB after trying LoE and seeing what it's about.
Hopefully this has given you guys a better idea of where my plans for WoB are, I'm working towards giving it its own identity as a race vs race (vs race) PvP game with all the features necessary to do so. This will undoubtedly turn some people off as the constant competition isn't for everyone, but it also will attract those who love that type of environment.
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