GM Developer Blog
Afternoon everyone,
This is a special GM Devblog going over the release of War of Emperium: Second Edition, or SE for short.
Contents
What is WoE:SE?
SE is Gravity’s second version of War of Emperium, featuring new systems like Barricades, Guardian Stones, and reworked single map Castles with no warps. It also includes a new Guild Headquarters area, with NPCs that are normally in different locations but now in one easy to access map. Due to the size of the Castles, they also introduced Link Flags, or LFs, to maneuver around the map easily. We have also made the decision to allow Halters in, based on gameplay from Rental War of Emperium.
We plan to update the Guild Headquarters to add more QOL features and the ability to warp to it straight from Warper Boy in the future.
Guardians were also adjusted to be stronger and much more of a threat, encouraging defenders to keep both of their Guardian Stones alive. Attackers should be more cautious about moving around the castle alone now, as Guardians can kill you or Defenders can spawn from a LF and end your misdeeds. We’ve also included a minimap with the LF locations to make it easier for Defenders to know what LF goes where and for Attackers to know which area is more dangerous than others.
Barricade/Guardian Stone Mechanic Change
During Beta, players were able to see our progress at making the construction of Barricades and Guardian Stones easier. We were using a system called “progressbar” to remove the menu-based system entirely and give a visual cue to attackers and defenders when the defenses were being built, as well as making it simpler to do so. Unfortunately, this system is flawed at the core of Hercules and rAthena, and we’re still working to fix it. WoE:SE will launch with the older menu-based system, and we will have the answers to build them in the WoE:SE Wiki page whenever we get around to making it. For now, you can see the Barricade answers in the Rental WoE Barricade section.
We do plan to add the newer progressbar based system in the future once we resolve the core issue.
WoE:SE Chests
We’re adding brand new WoE:SE chests, which will have a chance to obtain the new SE God Item parts to craft our 2 new God Items (Please note that Asprika is customized on heRO and does not reflect official stats. For more information, consult the DB):
For a full list of requirements for the new God Items, click here.
How do the new SE Chests work?
In WoE:FE, we had 40 different Treasure Chests, each with their own unique Mob ID. You can see these still on the DB here.
For WoE:SE, we are changing to a 10 Treasure Chest system, and have simplified how it works. Which chest is chosen at midnight is fully randomized, and the amount is still based on your Eco (Eco/5+4), for a maximum of 24 at 100 Eco. What does each chest have?
The chests have the following 10 possible drops:
- 1 Guaranteed Heroic Gear Chest (100% chance each)
- 4 Chances at an additional Heroic Gear Chest (22.5% chance)
- 1 Chance at an Old Card Album (25% chance)
- 1 Chance at Rough Enriched Elunium (10% chance)
- 1 Chance at Rough Enriched Oridecon (10% chance)
- 1 Chance at an SE God Item Part (1% chance) (One of the items above)
- 1 Chance at an FE God Item Box (1.7% chance; See below)
While the chances are lower than FE chests, please note that EVERY SE chest has an opportunity to get God Item Parts. Not all older FE chests have God Item Parts included, so those chests are basically a "wasted" chest slot and they feel bad to open. Now, you'll always have a chance to progress your FE and SE God Item creation on every chest. The drop rates are specifically adjusted such that the chance to get any of the new God item ingredients for Asprika and Brynhildr are the same as getting any God item ingredients in WoE:FE, adjusted for the change in number of possible chests in WoE:SE.
There are 2 new items in these new SE chests as well. Heroic Gear Boxes are a new box that rewards better gear than original FE chests. We've reworked heroic boxes to have slightly less crap, including having weapons and headgear. Contents of these chests will be viewable on the heRO DB when updated with the WoE:SE launch. We hope this makes it easier for guild leads to potentially share it with your Guild members and hopefully more interesting than fixed gears like before.
Finally, FE God Item Parts no longer explicitly drop by themselves. They are now all located in our brand new FE God Item Box. When you obtain one of these boxes, simply open it, and you will receive a random FE God Item Part (used for Sleipnir, Megingjard, Brisingamen, and Mjolnir). All parts are equally weighted within this box. As this is a new system, the GM team will be closely watching this each week to make sure it aligns with our statistical goals.
As a final note, Rental War of Emperium will continue to use the OLD WoE:FE chest system. They will not reward SE chests.
What happens to the current Castle and Economy?
Seeing as this is an entirely new version of War of Emperium, with new defensive and attacking options, new maps, reworked FE chests, new SE chests, new god items, etc, we’ve made the decision to completely reset the War of Emperium scene. Economy and Defense will start at 0, and Guilds will need to work their way back up via the usual investment opportunities. For players unaware, the number of chests spawned is based off the amount of Economy a Castle has. The more Eco, the more chests. Note that chests are randomly spawned. Defense investment will affect the HP of the Emperium.
The current Castle, Payon 3, will be moved to Rachel 3, which has been the castle used in the recent WoE:SE Beta. The Castle will be temporarily placed under control of the heRO GM Guild. Once WoE:SE starts for the first time, Barricades and Guardian Stones will automatically spawn, and the supervising GM will enable the Guardian Defense. GMs will not do anything else to defend the castle initially beyond what the SE castle does autonomously. Attacking Guilds will fight to be the first to claim the Castle and hold it. Subsequent WoE’s will work just like it does in FE, where the Guild that holds it will have to be online and in position to defend it. The GM Guild will only hold it for the initial launch of SE.
Union of Tribe
Since treasure chests no longer drop Union of Tribe or other "WoE FE Chest Exclusives" (such as Gaia Sword, Jeweled Sword, Hat of the Sun God, etc), these items are located to new home. Union of Tribe is now available in some guild dungeon mobs that lacked its unique drops. Furthermore, Union of Tribe will also show up at relatively high chances in OBB and OPB. The WoE gear exclusives, regardless if they are "useful" or not, will be available in the Heroic Gear Boxes as well. No items are "lost" to the void of time. Everything is accessible in a new manner within this update.
Old Blue Box and Old Purple Box update
Since we were already creating lots of "box" items and updating it for WoE:SE, OBB and OPB will also get an indirect update. These boxes have not been updated for over a decade and most players do not think much of them anymore. Whenever they drop or are given out, both versions are regarded as "trash". These boxes will also be revitalized to drop more relevant items. OBB still has chances at "junk", but at least said junk item will always be a etc item that is used for healer quest, hatter quests, forging, brewing and so on. Both OBB and OPB will reward useful consumables, or even a chance to get one of the Heroic Gear Chests that are the same as in WoE:SE chests, replacing the fixed list of "old" gears available in OBB and OPB. OPB will have a significantly higher chances to land on a Heroic Gear Box than OBB.
Moving Forward
We hope the launch of War of Emperium: Second Edition helps revitalize heRO’s WoE scene, and players enjoy it, and new Guilds arrive to participate as well. We’ve already heard rumblings of older Guilds potentially returning, and we hope this exciting moment proves fruitful. The GM team thanks all players for participating in the Beta event, and extends a huge thank you to our Test and Development team who dealt with our constant fixes, reboots of the test server, constant calls for checks, and smacking their faces on the wall with us when progressbar refused to cooperate. Pandelina has been placed in Prontera with a thank you gift for all players in the server.
The GM team will now continue our work on the next instance. I leave you with this message I found scratched on my desk, next to a weird orcish voucher that everyone else got from Pandelina. Hmm...
The Wit.. D.... bind fallen….riors back into the …. refusing them res…..merging them…. souls linger, stretched thi……..a punishment.
...c Hero should collapse when slai...rises again, even more powe.......the souls inside it pulling the body back together....
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