Context and Purpose of the Changes
The development team of Brighter Shores, a constantly evolving MMORPG, has announced significant changes to its combat progression system. These adjustments aim to make the game more accessible for new players without compromising the progress of veterans.
Currently, the episode-specific combat professions system discourages new players by making the early stages of the journey more challenging than necessary. After extensive discussions and analysis, the team decided to implement a more unified model, where a single combat profession is shared across all episodes.
Although this change is not yet finalized, the developers believe the new approach will provide a more intuitive and accessible combat progression system while maintaining the episodic structure of the game.
The New Combat Professions System
The proposed system introduces a single combat profession shared across all episodes. This means that as players progress through the episodes, monster levels will gradually increase, aligning with the players’ natural growth.
Here’s how monster levels will be distributed across episodes:
- Episode 1: Monsters at levels 0 to 30
- Episode 2: Monsters at levels 30 to 60
- Episode 3: Monsters at levels 60 to 100
- Episode 4: Monsters at levels 100 to 140
- Future Episodes: Each new episode will add 40 additional levels to the cap.
This structure ensures a balanced difficulty curve, allowing both new and experienced players to enjoy the game’s challenges and rewards.
Source: Fen Research.
This progression ensures a balanced difficulty curve, avoiding excessive challenges while preventing “dead content” in early episodes.
What Happens to Current Progress?
Stay calm, as the developers themselves noted: “Read the entire document before panicking! :P”
For players with combat levels already exceeding 140, there’s no need to worry. Your progress and hard work will be preserved without penalties or level reductions.
Advantages of the New Combat Progression System
One major advantage of Brighter Shores’ new combat system is that progressing through episodes without using the endgame mechanic (described below) means you’ll only face the first version of each episode’s monsters. This approach balances the experience for both new and veteran players.
Combat Level Cap Per Episode
To prevent advanced players from becoming excessively overpowered in future episodes, the maximum combat level will be capped to the highest episode you’ve unlocked. For example:
- When Episode 5 is released, the combat cap will be set to 140, ensuring a fair progression curve while maintaining balance.
Each new episode will raise the combat level cap by 40 additional levels, allowing for continuous and sustainable progression.
Endgame Mechanics
Players who reach the combat cap for an episode can continue progressing through the endgame mechanic, which transforms excess levels into meaningful upgrades for that episode.
Obelisks and Combat Boosts
- Excess levels can be used to upgrade the obelisk for the current episode.
- Each obelisk provides combat boosts specific to its episode.
- Some bonuses will carry over to the next episode, allowing for early preparation.
Obelisk Evolution
- The Episode 1 obelisk can be upgraded to 470 levels, as can the Episode 2 obelisk.
- Obelisks in later episodes will have a cap of 460 levels.
This system maintains a consistent level structure across episodes while enabling advanced players to unlock stronger monster versions and higher XP rates.
Weapons and Armor in the New System
Weapons and armor in Brighter Shores will follow the same progression logic as the combat system:
Base Level
- Each weapon or piece of armor will have a base level.
- Your character must meet the corresponding combat level to equip it.
- Example: Monsters from Episode 1 (levels 0-30) will drop weapons of equivalent levels.
Tuning Level
- Advanced monsters, enhanced via the endgame mechanic, can drop weapons with an additional tuning level.
- These weapons will be boosted by the obelisk associated with their episode.
Equipment Proficiency
- To use weapons with tuning, players must upgrade their weapon/armor proficiency via the corresponding obelisk.
This system fosters a balanced cycle of combat, rewards, and progression, encouraging players to explore all customization and upgrade opportunities.
Source: Fen Research.
Crafting and Level Scaling Improvements
Weapon Crafting in Brighter Shores
The weapon crafting system has been revamped to provide more flexibility and align better with episode progression. In the Mantuban Mine, the maximum weapon level you can craft is determined by your blacksmithing level plus 60. For example:
- To craft a level 100 weapon (ideal for Episode 3 in Crenopolis), you need to be a level 40 blacksmith.
As you continue leveling your crafting profession, you’ll unlock the ability to create weapons with higher tuning levels, as previously described.
Comparison to the Current System
- Episodes 1 and 2: Crafting appropriate weapons will be easier, as level 60 weapons can be created immediately.
- Episode 3: Crafting difficulty will remain similar to the current system, as initial weapons are sufficient for the mine.
- Episodes 4 and 5: Higher crafting levels will be required to produce weapons suited for these episodes.
Details About Crafted Weapons
- Crafted weapons are always untuned initially, even if they have tuning levels, allowing players to tune them to any obelisk of their choice.
- Untuned weapons can still be used normally but won’t receive obelisk bonuses until tuned.
- To balance the in-game economy, crafted weapons will have a lower monetary value than monster-dropped, tuned weapons. Players will need to pay a fee to tune crafted weapons.
Level Scaling
With higher level caps in later episodes, there’s a risk that players could return to earlier episodes with disproportionately powerful weapons and levels, making older content trivial. To address this, a limited level scaling system has been implemented:
- If you are more than 10 levels above a monster, the monster’s level will increase to a maximum of 10 levels below yours.
- For quest bosses, their levels will adjust to match yours, ensuring they remain challenging and rewarding to defeat.
This system removes the need for penalties like the previous “easy combat” mechanic when fighting low-level monsters.
Introduction of Combat Upgrade Trees
Combat in Brighter Shores now includes upgrade trees, allowing players to customize their character’s progression.
Previously, leveling up provided small, automatic increases in various areas, such as:
- Weapon and armor proficiency.
- Base damage increase (in all six colors).
- Damage deflection improvement.
- Maximum hitpoint increase.
- Unlocking new monster skins.
With the upgrade trees, players can choose specific bonuses each time they level up, offering greater freedom for specialization and focus.
Types of Upgrade Trees
- Character Tree:
- Focused on general combat upgrades.
- Allows specialization in specific damage types, defensive builds (tank), or high-damage builds (glass cannon).
- Obelisk Trees:
- Each obelisk has its own upgrade tree.
- Unlocks enhancements as the obelisk is leveled up.
This system encourages strategic planning and gives players greater control over their character’s growth and combat effectiveness.
This is only a mockup with updates arranged randomly. The final version will have a different arrangement for the updates.
Source: Fen Research.
Further Improvements to Upgrade Trees
In addition to the upgrades already mentioned, Brighter Shores is planning to introduce a range of new options to its upgrade trees, making the system more dynamic and engaging. Some ideas being considered include:
- Increasing hitpoint regeneration speed.
- Enhancing weapon/armor proficiency for off-faction items (at a slower rate).
- Boosting movement speed during combat.
- Raising the maximum ammunition capacity.
- Accelerating immunity casting speed.
- Unlocking or improving special attacks.
Bonus Upgrades
To make progression even more rewarding, certain bonus upgrades will be included in the trees, incentivizing players to create strategic paths:
- Upgrades that offer double bonuses for relevant stats.
- Obelisk upgrades that enhance stats in both the current and the next episode.
Players will be able to respec their character and obelisk upgrade trees at any time by spending silver coins. However, levels assigned to one tree cannot be transferred to another.
Conversion of Existing Save Games
With the update, save games created prior to the changes will be seamlessly converted to the new system:
Combat Levels by Episode
- Levels up to the cap for each episode will be assigned to your new combat level.
- Excess levels will be transferred to the corresponding obelisk level.
Conversion of Existing Weapons
- Each weapon will be assigned a level and tuning level that together sum to its pre-update total level.
- Levels up to the episode cap will be applied to the weapon level, with the remaining levels going to the tuning level.
Combat Capes
- Combat capes will be replaced with obelisk capes, retaining level requirements equivalent to the current system.
- For example: The Episode 1 obelisk cape will unlock when the obelisk reaches level 20 (30 combat levels + 20 obelisk levels = the current level 50 requirement).
Automatic Upgrade Selection
To ease the transition, the first time players log in after the update, upgrades will be assigned automatically, spreading bonuses evenly to maintain the same overall power level. For a limited time, free respecs will be offered, allowing players to experiment with different builds.
New Leaderboards and Rankings
The current episode-specific combat level leaderboards will be replaced with obelisk level leaderboards, ensuring top-ranking players retain their positions.
A new combined combat level leaderboard will also be introduced, reflecting the new system’s progression.
- Obelisk levels will contribute to the total level, preserving players’ standings on the overall leaderboard.
Source: Fen Research.
The Future of Combat in Brighter Shores
The development team of Brighter Shores is already planning a series of additional improvements to make combat more dynamic and exciting. Some future ideas include:
- Special Attacks: Exclusive abilities that can be unlocked and upgraded.
- More Varied Opponents: Face enemies with unique attack patterns and strategies.
- Group Combat: Team up with other players to tackle more complex challenges.
- Raids: Cooperative and challenging content designed for organized groups.
These additions aim to enhance the overall combat experience. However, the current priority is addressing the multiple combat professions issue, laying a solid foundation before moving forward with these new features.
Conclusion
The MMORPG Brighter Shores is taking a major step towards making combat more accessible, balanced, and engaging for both new players and veterans.
With the introduction of a unified progression system, customizable upgrade trees, endgame mechanics, and adjustments to weapon crafting and level scaling, the game offers a more strategic and rewarding experience.
Players can also look forward to an exciting future filled with additional improvements, such as special attacks, group combat, and epic raids, which promise to elevate the game to new heights of fun and challenge.
Now is the perfect time to dive into the world of Brighter Shores and enjoy the planned changes. Stay tuned for upcoming updates, as they will bring even more innovations and surprises to the community!