Have you heard of Lichen, lead game designer of DOFUS and international man of mystery? Maybe you've thought of a question for him as you've roamed through the lands of DOFUS. Why don't Tofus migrate south for the winter? Can the developers design a rock so big they can't code it? Why are you named after the symbiotic partnership of a fungus with a photosynthetic bioform??

Recently, our crack special ops team was able to transmit a series of questions from the International community players to the secret headquarters of this ellusive developer far below Ankama HQ where he works day and night, elegantly sculpting the World of Twelve. The esoteric coded responses we received were so incredible, it almost blew our faces off! After spending many sleepless weeks decyphering these messages behind special face-protecting shields, it's time to reveal our findings to the world.

So here they are, lichen's answers to your questions. Get ready to peek into the brain that runs our virtual world...

Inside the Game

Why are most non-strength based classes required to mage weapons, rather than just having weapons with elemental damage in the first place?

Strength classes are supposed to be favoured for close-combat weapons use.  We haven't ruled out the possibility of making the element-change stage of forgemaging easier and cheaper.

There are many complaints about inequalities in the distribution of characteristics on the equipment sets, do you plan to add high-level sets with Agi bonuses? 

We plan to add high-level sets that fill in the most important gaps.

Are there going to be more spells developed (i.e. Leek Pie, Moon Hammer, Release, Summons, Arachnee) to balance variety? (We have 2 fire, 1 air, 0 earth, 0 water, 1 general, 2 summon).

Additional spells could be a very interesting way of diversifying gameplay, but they could also be the source of significant imbalances between certain classes. So we’re trying to be very cautious for now. We had significant problems balancing spells such as Perfidious Boomerang, Moon Hammer or Release, as these spells were effective against the weaknesses of some classes (each class must have its strengths and weaknesses). Our challenge is to create spells that are interesting and useful, but do not significantly offset the weaknesses of a class. The boundary between a useless spell and a spell that’s too powerful is sometimes rather thin. We also have to be careful as within DOFUS’ game system, the use of an additional spell is usually without a downside, and constitutes an almost systematic increase in power for characters.

Are the Class Spell Fairyworks (like the ones Kaoly handed out on Solar) craftable, but a hidden recipe? If not, are you planning to add them?

Players can’t access Class Spell Fairyworks. Their recipes aren’t hidden, either. They can currently only be created by Game Masters.

We’re not planning to add new Fairyworks for the time being. More than a year ago we’d planned to introduce a new profession – Pyrotechnist - and create new Fairywork recipes, but we weren’t able to due to time constraints. We’d rather focus on the professions that need revising (fisherman, hunter, fishmonger and butcher, for example).

 What are your plans to buff the Osamodas?

We believe that the Osamodas class is generally too powerful below level 100. This is a class that at low levels can rely almost exclusively on its summons which too often requires an investment in equipment that is too weak to be effective.

The class is still not readily accepted in dungeon-running teams because of how slow summons are and also line of sight issues generated by summons. We increased the speed of summons in DOFUS 2.0, but this is not enough, we need to find other solutions. We would like to strictly limit the maximum number of summons available for each character, we’d prefer Osamodas concentrate on a maximum of 3 summons that are adequate and effective rather than having to rely on an army of summons that slow the fight down, that do not offer anything tactically and significantly disrupt the gaming experience of allies.

We want to offer Osamodas a viable gaming experience consistent with team play. This can only be done by reducing and limiting the maximum number of summons involved, and by upgrading existing summons (if we reduce the number of summons involved, we should make them more effective).

Another problem with the Osamodas class is that it does not have enough control over summons. Osamodas have to rely too much on the behaviour of the AI. We do not intend to allow players to have direct control of their summons, but we would allow them greater control over what they will do. As such, we could, for example give a each summon in the game a specific capacity (such as unbewitching, AP reduction or pushback effects), and that only a new Osamodas spell could trigger the special ability for a turn for a single summon only.

As such, a spell could, for example, allow a Boar’s pushback effect, or to enable the Wyrmling’s unbewitching ability to be activated on demand, for a turn, by casting the spell on the respective summon. Each turn, the Osamodas would have to choose which special ability they want to activate on its creatures. Other class summons would also have special abilities but only the new Osamodas spell would activate them.

By making summons less intrusive, faster, and giving the Osamodas class the ability to unlock the special abilities of the summons of other classes, we believe we make this class more interesting to play as part of a group.

For the moment these are just ideas we’re thinking about, we haven’t yet begun to work on them specifically.

Are there items that can be crafted, but have not yet been discovered by the players?

Not to my knowledge, we didn't add recipes that are “hidden” for an eternity.

Is the Trool Fair ever going to be improved? Like more features or games, or perhaps the prizes and food you buy there can have some sort of use?

We decided to disable some of the games in the Trool Fair in DOFUS 2.0, as they posed technical problems. Eventually we’d like to offer a different kind of gaming experience in the Trool Fair, maybe a dungeon that works differently to others, with random creatures. At the moment, we’ve only got ideas, nothing concrete. We’d also like the Trool Fair to only be open occasionally, say one weekend a month or on holidays, to transform access to this area into a real event for players who could meet up together there at the same time, just like when we opened this area for the first time.

Are any more creative pets going to be released? E.g. a class set/spell altering pet that allows you to train it to take on up to 2 of the class set item properties?

We don't foresee adding pets that modify the characteristics of certain spells.  We also don't currently intend to create pets with new characteristics. However, we would like to improve the way pets work and increase their interest and their uniqueness.

If Eniripsas have +heal pets, why I can’t have +trap pets?

Because only Srams use traps, but heals can be used by other classes.  And also because I don't want Fecas to ask me for a glyph bonus pet or Osas for a pet that gives bonuses to their summons ;)

A lot of resources are used in only a handful of crafts, some only one. Are there any plans to introduce recipes that make use of these resources?

We use statistical tools that tell us how much of each resource is used in game, as well as its average price. This information will allow us to better identify which resources need adjusting by being incorporated in new recipes.

Could you tell us about the mystery of the Oni-protected Malicious Chest? What’s its story? Does it hide anything incredible?

A mystery must remain... mysterious!  Seriously though, that chest doesn't hide anything special at the moment.  Maybe one day...

Future Content

Do you intend to add another playable class to Dofus anytime soon?

We don't want to add a new character class any time soon, we would prefer to spend time finishing the class special spells and improving the spells which aren't used much or aren't balanced.

Any chance of there ever being a Prespic/forest themed dungeon?

It isn’t planned, no. It would require us to first create new monsters in the Prespic family.  We’d rather concentrate on high-level dungeons for now.

How about a new Chafer dungeon, one which is more challenging and interesting than the current one.

We're thinking about it, we’d like to revise several dungeons, to give them more interesting rewards and gameplay experiences.

We’d like each dungeon in the game to have a specific boss as well as unique resources needed to craft independent objects or sets. We’re also planning to revise the XP gained from certain dungeons in order to make them more enticing.

Are you gonna make new houses and paddocks? 

We will add some houses and paddocks when we add new areas to the game.

Are there plans to expand the content for higher levelled players past Otomai’s Island? Are there any ideas in the pipe line to make the game more interesting for level 200 players? And to expand the content past Otomai’s Island?

We intend that the Island of Frigost will have content geared towards levels 100 to 200.  The content on the island will be higher-levelled than that on Otomai Island and will bring real challenges for very high-levelled characters as well as rewards designed for characters level 100 to 200.

I would like to know the ETA (estimated time of arrival) on the ice continent update.

We are currently in pre-production on Frigost, we’re doing literature searches, and graphic research. It's a long process during which we have to describe everything that the extension contains and the way the new content will work. We are also beginning to plan the production of this extension and make the first attempts at prototyping. I cannot give you a release date yet.

Outside the Game

Are there any plans to make use of the vast number of people who would volunteer to evidence / log / ban Kama sellers in an express/speedy ban system?

We have been working for several months already to put in place a system that will allow players to report, directly in game, inappropriate behaviour (insults, bots, etc...)  However, we have to keep working on utilities and processes that allow us to respond to all these reports. We’d like to make this tool available to players at some point during 2010.

What measures are you implementing to prevent bots?

I can't give you too many details, as that might help botters develop new defences that we can't counter.  In practical terms, our game servers prevent certain types of actions and check that the responses sent by the Dofus client make sense.

We are also working on changes to the gameplay that could reduce the effectiveness of bots. For example, we’re working on the generation and destruction of Kamas, or resources collected and sold by bots. But we must be careful that our changes don’t impact the playing experience too negatively.

In parallel, the Ogrine system will reduce transactions between players and Kama farmers, as it will establish a genuine, official and secure exchange platform between players.

Are there plans to add more music, and more importantly, more sound effects?

Our favourite musician is working on new music that will be integrated into Dofus 2.0.  We also hope to improve the background sound and sound effects for the game, but these improvements will arrive progressively with future updates.

Are there any plans to make certain elements of the game more interactive in 2.0, like players being able to furnish their home, change wallpaper, equipment for mounts (could just be superficial) and maybe creating a furniture profession?

It’s not planned for Dofus 2.0.  We’ve started thinking about a house-furnishing system, but we feel we have other game functions that should be given priority, so we’ve put that system on the back burner for the time being.

I'm curious if Dofus is going to evolve in a similar direction, (as Wakfu) with players given more power to control the game, pass and enforce laws, etc. Lots of players get frustrated with the general lack of community spirit and organization that seems to dominate. If guilds or players could get "skills based on their social role," that would help a lot.

Dofus won't evolve in the same direction as Wakfu.  We want Dofus to be distinct from Wakfu by having a more stable and guaranteed game experience, a world in which the players can interact without affecting the gameplay of he other players too much.  However, we would like in the long term to enrich the interactions between the guilds, alignments, and improve the aspects of the game economy that are controlled by players.

Is there anything about Dofus that you are unhappy about that can't be changed?

There are many things we would like to reconsider or improve in Dofus, the PvP system, forgemaging, the balance between the alignments, the interest and the place of each profession in the game, etc.  But all of that can change.  It's all a question of time and priority.  Personally, I would have liked the progression of the characters to be faster, that multiclienting would be forbidden and impossible, that the geography of the Dofus world that we’d envisaged at the beginning was compatible with alignment wars, or that the interactions between the guilds could be sufficiently developed so the gameplay could be freed from the alignment system.  But one can't change all the rules of the game.

Lichen Himself

How often do you actually play your own game?

I play with a very erratic frequency.  It used to be that I would play 10 hours a week on average.  Now, I play much less, because of lack of time.

Lichen, how do you keep your sanity while dealing with the hordes of whining and complaining players?

I keep in mind that players who complain are simply coming to express their frustration and their desire to improve the game.  That's not necessarily a negative thing, we have many passionate players and we need to continue to be attentive to their requests for improving the game.

Do you remember a moment in the creation of Dofus that left you awestruck? "Like, holy cow I can't believe we did this..."

I don't recall having moments like that.  We see the game evolving bit by bit, and we have a good view of the work of each person, and that limits the surprises, good or bad.

What question have you always dreamed someone would ask you?

When I want to talk about a particular subject, I do it directly on the forums, on the devblog, on my personal blog or elsewhere, I really don't wait until someone asks to express myself.  So I don't really wait for players to ask particular questions.  However, reading the players' questions is always very interesting, they show all the interest that the players have in the game, but also serve to highlight things that they don't understand and thus by extension what we haven't explained well or made clear.  When a player asks me why we changed the function of some bit of game mechanics, it's generally because we didn't explain well enough why this mechanism was modified.

Why are you named after the symbiotic partnership of a fungus with a photosynthetic bioform? (I jest, of course.)

When I was but a wee lad, I often strolled in the forest with my mother (who is a specialist in lichens!) to study certain lichen species.  So there you go...

 

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That’s all for now, did you learn something interesting? If you have other questions for lichen post them in the comments! We'll try to do another transmission when the planets have properly aligned once again.

Introduction

With less than two weeks left before the release of DOFUS 2.0, we’re taking a little time to explain to you how we plan to change the DOFUS 2.0 client, not only until December 2^nd, but also afterwards. There’s not enough time left before the launch to make major changes, but we are completely devoted to continuing the development and improvement of the DOFUS 2.0 client to satisfy the needs of the community after its release. DOFUS has made great strides since its first release over five years ago and we don’t look at the release date of December 2^nd as the last improvement or adaptation of the game. DOFUS is going to continue growing and improving thanks to updates and expansions which we intend to keep releasing. For this article, we want to address the most interesting or worrying issues under discussion by the community on the forums and in game.

Paddocks and Houses

Players who had paddocks or houses in DOFUS 1.29 will find their belongings safe and sound in DOFUS 2.0. The size of the paddocks or number of chests in the houses will not be reduced. Players will find their animal husbandry and storage capacities in pristine condition on December 2^nd. Some paddocks and houses needed to be moved because of the new layout for maps and cities. The owners of these displaced houses and paddocks will be informed of their new location when launching the new client. We have not - for lack of space - created new paddocks in DOFUS 2.0, but we added new houses by turning all the houses previously used as decor (especially in Bonta and Brakmar) into purchasable homes. From now on, we’d like to avoid making too many zones devoted to breeding and training mounts, as they are relatively poor use of graphic space (the problem of repetition in areas where paddocks are on the majority of maps makes it difficult to liven up these zones) and can only be used by a small minority of players. We will add new enclosures in the future, but we will also try to include paddocks in houses (in the cellars, for example).

Sets and visible items

Some equipment is still ill-fitting on the characters, has the wrong size or simply doesn’t look good to the players. We’ve tried to completely revise the appearance of some items and after the release of DOFUS 2.0, we will review them again to see what else needs to be changed. For example, we’ve already planned to revise the Mopy King Sovereign Hood, Ancestral Treechelmet, class sets, Inky Cape, Chee Cape etc.

Character appearance

We will continue to improve the appearance of the different classes both before and after the release of DOFUS 2.0. However, we are not planning to completely overhaul their appearance. The illustrations are final and define the overall appearance that the classes must have in-game. However, there is room for interpretation between the reference designs and the appearance of the characters in-game so we might sometimes make some minor changes which nonetheless have a large impact on players (like bandages on the arms of Pandawas, or a character’s expression, for example).

Character animations

We will continue to improve the animation and movement of spells before and after December 2. We will try to diversify the character animations in battle little by little (many class spells currently use the same common animation at the moment), making them more consistent with the spell used and shortening their duration. Animations of running characters will also be improved slightly, but they are almost definitive as they are.

Spell effect appearances

We will continue to review the effects of spells after the release of DOFUS 2.0. Some spell effects are not adapted to the associated spell, are too long, or cause performance problems.

General client performance

We recently fixed the main memory leak which was negatively affecting the performance of the DOFUS 2.0 client. After December 2 we will continue to try to limit the client’s memory use and we will correct the few minor memory leaks that remain. We will continue to work on optimising the display of tooltips, on the speed at which interfaces are displayed and on the game engine overall. Our goal is to keep a level of performance that is, at the very least, equivalent to that of DOFUS 1.29. So far we have worked on the optimisations that are most accessible and quick to implement. After the release of DOFUS 2.0, we will need to work on more complex optimisations that will take longer to develop. Improved client performance will remain a very important priority for the client development team, even after the game is released.

Speed and “feel” of fights

We’ve worked hard on this aspect of the game in version 2.0, limiting as much as possible the number of spells that locked-up the client, and reducing the delay between each action to have responsive and fast fights. However, several related issues sometimes make fights too slow: the sometimes inadequate performance of the client, spell effects that are too complex and too many animations. We plan to rework those aspects of the game after December 2 to make fighting better and faster.

Chat interface

The chat interface currently allows a display virtually identical to that used in DOFUS 1.29 to be maintained (all channels can be grouped in one tab). This can be done by setting the option from the chat interface option menu. At the current time, we do not intend to review the way this interface works. We have recently added keyboard shortcuts in order to very quickly enable or disable channels in a tab. Even if it is a bit confusing at first for existing players, we believe that this new system of tabs is more effective for chatting and especially customising the chat interface. The interface is also much more scalable than the previous one. We will, if necessary, add more chat channels, without being constrained by the limited amount of space allocated in DOFUS 1.29 to the buttons used for selecting and deselecting channels.

Global readability of interfaces

According to the statistics we have collected from the game, most players play DOFUS full-screen with a native resolution adapted to that used by DOFUS 2.0. However, the majority of texts present in the DOFUS 2.0 interfaces are too difficult to read on small screens or when using windowed mode. We started working on several improvements to the readability of fonts (by changing some of the colours used), which will be added after the release of the game but we are aware that this is not enough. We will rework the majority of interfaces that currently present problems, increasing the font size. As these changes involve a lengthy process to change the arrangement of information (the text takes up more space - so we need larger interfaces with more tabs, for example), it will be several months before they will be integrated into the game.

Fight against bots

As a priority we are focusing our development resources on the optimisation and stability of the DOFUS 2.0 client, but we have developed the DOFUS 2.0 client and the new client/server communication protocol to be more effective against bots. We have developed a database of tools and features that, once complete, should allow us to more significantly reduce the nuisance caused by the presence of bots in-game.

Performance and availability of the login server

Improvements have recently been made (since the maintenance on 17/11/09) to DOFUS 1.29’s connection server (both hardware and software changes). These changes will also benefit from the new architecture of the connection server used in DOFUS 2.0. The software part of the DOFUS 2.0 connection server is designed to potentially manage multiple connection servers in parallel, in order to reduce downtime problems and connection queues. The management of multiple connection servers will not available at the release of version 2.0, but it should be in the coming months.

Module system availability

The client’s module system will not be available for the release of version 2.0. We have decided to focus primarily on the performance and stability of the client before making the module system available.

MAC and Linux compatibility

We have fallen behind in developing Mac and Linux versions of the DOFUS 2.0 client and their "updaters" (the program that updates the game). However, compatibility with these operating systems will be operational when the game is released.

The next expansions

Once DOFUS 2.0 is released, our development team will focus for several months on the performance and stability of the game. Part of the design team will continue to work on whatever graphics we feel are not yet up to scratch. Another part of the design team, as well as the level and game designers, will soon begin to prepare for the game’s upcoming expansion, when you will discover the continent of Frigost. This expansion will primarily involve new content (quests, zones, monsters, objects etc...). At present we do not intend to develop new features for this expansion as we want to focus our development resources on optimising the game.

Conclusion

We have less than two weeks before the release of DOFUS 2.0. All of the DOFUS team is working tirelessly to improve the game. We all realize that this is only one step in the development of the game and that we must remain very attentive, available and responsive after its release. Due to time constraints, we could not incorporate all of the new features or improvements that we wanted to develop for December 2 but we will do our best to integrate them into the game gradually. Many team members are DOFUS gamers, and as players we want to see a more beautiful and more enjoyable game. We know that the game will continue to improve over time.

We're happy to bring you three more classes, re-introduced in DOFUS 2.0 style!

Have a look at the new Sadida, Ecaflip and Pandawa! Don't forget to let us know what you think on the forums!

Sadida :

Pandawa :

Ecaflip :

It won't be long until our next session of Operation GateCrashers and the release of DOFUS 2.0 on December 2nd. We'll see you then!

In DOFUS 1, the cells at the start of combat were placed by the Level Designers. 16 cells were placed on each map: 8 per team.

To make combat more "exciting" and organic, we’ve made cell placement in DOFUS 2.0 completely random. At the beginning of each battle, an algorithm draws 24 cells at random - 12 for each team –given that a maximum of 8 characters can take part in each team. This allows for a lot more freedom of movement. This algorithm does not operate in dungeons because these spaces are too complex.

The system is quite simple, and occurs in 2 stages:
1) When a server is launched, the possible and fixed/possible and random/impossible cell placements are established
2) At the beginning of each battle, you pick among the possible positions. If the choice involves a random cell, the cell placement is revised.

There are 20 possibilities at present, 11 of which are random and 9 fixed. For fixed arrays, predefined shapes are placed on the map on “high scoring” cells. For random, we choose 24 cells among the best "rated" according to various divisions of the screen (top/bottom/left/right...) or you can also try placing the same form several times as in the "squares of 4" below.

As for the shape of the cells - anything goes - space invaders, pong (2 games that we love here) or simpler forms – arrows and pyramids, for example.

Because I am a super nice Dev, I’m giving you the chance to get your design in game! We need shapes made up of 24 cells with or without the placement of different teams. You can send your design to us in two ways:
- A drawing in MS paint with 12 red and 12 blue squares;
- An ascii art drawing with 1 for the first team of 12, 2 for the second team of 12 and zeros to make up a rectangular shape .

We’ve even created a thread for you to show your designs off to the whole community. The closing date is 20^th of November…
We’ll have a look at all the designs and tell you before December 2nd.

After Sram, Xelor, Enutrof and Cra, here's the next part of our presentation of the new character class appearences in DOFUS 2.0!

Yesterday, many of you were able to discover DOFUS 2 for yourselves thanks to Project «GateCrashers» on the test server. Don't hesistate to come give us your imnpressions - no matter what they are - on the forum!

Meanwhile, meet Enripsa, Iop, and Sacrier 2.0!

Eniripsa :

Iop :

Sacrier :

Come back next week for even more 2.0 classes!

Last week, we introduced the new Srams to you players who haven't had a chance to try out the beta test of DOFUS 2.0!

Today, it's time to discover (or rediscover) the new look of Enutrofs, Xelors, and Cras!

To learn even more about DOFUS 2.0, don't forget to check out the forum devoted to the 2.0 beta test!

And now... On with the show!

 

Come back next week for even more 2.0 classes!

Along with the constant improvements to the game’s content, the Support service and our communication policy, the DOFUS team has always taken the more ‘behind-the-scenes’ issue of bots and Kama farmers very seriously. We have been receiving more and more questions on the subject from players, though, so I’m going to talk a little about the current status of this ongoing effort. Several years ago we began taking various measures in order to reduce the number of Kama farmers in game, or at least to make their lives more difficult. While some of these measures were announced and have been visible (e.g. progressively lower drop rates when players fight in the same location with several accounts; limitations in access to banks; random inversion of cells at the beginning of combat…), others are not so visible and are in fact confidential. The latter forms of measures allow us to identify bots more easily and to ban them from the game. On top of all these measures, let’s not forget all the hours of hard work put in by volunteer moderators whose ranks have grown immensely these last few months and show no signs of slowing down. These volunteers spend most of their time finding and banning bots and farmers and the number of scammers banned daily can be anything from several thousand to several tens of thousand. What’s more, we recently created a brand new position here at Ankama. Please welcome Tyg to the CCM team. He’s in charge of supervising the hunt for bots in game and along with Bill, the server Dev and Ludo, the Web Dev, he studies the behaviour of bots, bans any ones he sees and makes sure all our tools are running as they should. So as you can see, we’re not resting on our laurels and our tools are getting better every day. Bots and farmers are a real hindrance to the MMO industry - few games are free of them – so much so that some players seem to think that, because they see bots so often, this means we aren’t doing anything about the problem. For every bot that is banned from the game, another arrives behind it. One sure sign of our success is the increase in the price of Kamas on subscriber only servers by 30%, although the increase on other servers has been less noticeable. This is a job that is never finished, there are always numerous bots in game, but please don’t conclude from this that all our efforts are in vain. We are also developing new long-term projects every day, many of which will arrive along with DOFUS 2.0 and which will give us a boost when it comes to our battle against the bots. A few figures to finish (the numbers relate the total to present): 215,000 Kama farmer accounts banned in June 2008 320,000 Kama farmer accounts banned in July 2008 450,000 Kama farmer accounts banned in August 2008 900,000 Kama farmer accounts banned in September 2008 1,850,000 Kama farmer accounts banned in October 2008

For some time now we've been working on a new formula for the dodging and removal of AP/MP. Here are the main principles we'd like to respect with our new formula: - With equal wisdom, the probability of dodging a loss of AP/MP should be 1/2. - During a PvP fight, a character with equal wisdom to his adversary should not be able to take more than 50% of their AP. - The game's larger monsters (Bosses, mainly) shouldn't be able to have more than 50% of their AP removed (when faced with an adversary suited to the bosses level) without a specific tactic being used, based on a reduction in their dodging rate which happens over a number of turns. - Spells which reduce a small amount of AP/MP should still be effective. - Classes which have a limited capacity for AP/MP reduction shouldn't be penalized by a formula that's too restrictive. - Builds based completely on AP/MP reduction should still be effective in PvM and PvP. - investing in wisdom should remain profitable and attractive for both reduction and dodging [of AP/MP] - the formula should remain relatively simple to calculate in your head so that the viability of a loss of AP/MP can be quickly estimated without the need to spend 3 years studying for a degree in mathematics. In most cases, we feel that removing all of the AP/MP or even more than 75% of the AP/MP of an adversary isn't normal. Removing just one AP/MP from an adversary is sufficient to completely destabilize a tactic. The massive reduction of MP seems problematic to us, some classes can move using AP and all classes can attempt some defensive/offensive actions even when they're unable to move. However, a massive reduction of AP/MP remains a tactic that we feel brings diversity to the game. We don't want to make this tactic less effective, but we feel at the moment it's too easy to remove large amounts of AP/MP without constraint. After our preliminary tests, the following formula appears to meet our needs: Probability to make someone loose a AP/MP = Da / Dt * Pr / 2 With: * Da: dodge of the attacker * Dt: dodge of the target * Pr: percentage of AP/MP that the target still has The resulting probability is limited to a 10% minimum and a 90% maximum. %resistance to a loss of AP/MP is handled like bonuses from wisdom (a decrease of 50% corresponds to having 200 wisdom less) Each attempt at dodging a loss is calculated separately, if a spell causes 3 AP to be removed, three dodging attempts will be calculated. This formula means that each consecutive attempt to remove AP/MP from a target will be more difficult. It also gives characters that aren't able to dodge AP/MP loss a progressively better chance of doing so. It also means wisdom is still important in dodging. This progressively better chance of dodging AP/MP loss allows us to keep a formula that's very effective for the removal of a moderate amount of AP/MP but forces those players who wish to base their entire game on AP/MP loss to have a large amount of wisdom and to weaken as much as possible the base probability of their adversary dodging AP/MP loss. We're conscious of the fact that tactics based on removing AP are only effective on some monsters when a large amount of AP is removed. An important factor is that monsters don't have a large enough variety of spells (compared to players) for us to be able to change their behavior when faced with a moderate loss of AP/MP. Technical constraints relating to AI stop us from developing monsters with more than 4 spells (we make exceptions for certain larger monsters). We don't want to expand the range of spells of each monster. However, we will try to take into consideration this tactic as early as possible in the conception of future monsters, to allow us to provide you with challenges where AP reduction is less effective. Balancing of Xelor Spells Xelors are the most effective class at removing AP and we want to change this aspect of the game. We appreciate the diversity of specific builds (notably those builds exclusively designed for removing AP). We feel that at the present time, Xelors are far too effective at removing AP - equally well in PvM as they are in PvP The majority of classes have almost no viable alternative when faced with the massive AP loss caused by a Xelor in PvP. With the new formula that we're currently testing, this problem isn't entirely settled, since the formula remains very permissive, and places a large importance on the wisdom of the attacker and the target. We'd like Xelors to keep the possibility, in certain conditions, of taking a large amount of AP from their adversaries. We've decided to tackle this problem by offering an alternative to the other classes to allow them to protect themselves to a certain extent from the massive loss of AP caused by a Xelor. We plan to impose a minimum range of 3 squares on the majority of the AP reducing spells of Xelors (Time Theft, Slow Down, Hourglass and Frostbite) It is amongst other things this minimum range that will offer the Xelor's adversaries the opportunity of dodging some of the loss of AP. In concrete terms, at long range (more than 10), a Xelor will not be able to effectively use all of his AP reducing spells, which means the massive loss of AP from distance will be limited. At short range, the Xelor will be incapable of using the majority of its AP reducing spells without being forced to distance itself at least 3 squares from its adversary. At mid-range (3-8 squares) the Xelor will be able to use all of his AP reducing spells. For the time being we've chosen this approach because the Xelor has two teleportation spells, one of which (Flight) has a very small AP cost, which will allow the Xelor to get away from a target that's too close without too much difficulty, before being able to more easily reduce the AP of its target. By doing this, we're giving the other classes a chance to learn how to adapt to the range and positioning of a Xelor to give them an alternative tactic in PvP. Here are the changes we plan to test shortly: - Slow Down - minimum range of 3 squares - Frostbite - minimum range of 3 squares, maximum range of 6 squares -Time Theft - minimum range of 3 squares, range non-modifiable, maximum range of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 squares depending on the level of the spell -Hourglass - minimum range of 3 squares, usage limited to once per target per turn (no longer once per turn, so it can now be used on multiple targets in the same turn) -Xelor's Dial: maximum range of the summon modifiable to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 squares according to the level of the spell. The dial's spell goes from 4 to 6 range. (Spell points will be given back.) After our internal testing, these changes are, for the moment, conclusive. Xelors can, with difficulty, remove large amounts of AP/MP over the first few turns, but can still remove massive amounts of AP thanks to their spells that remove resistance to AP loss, if they employ (over an average of 4 turns) a tactic based on removing the AP and resistance to loss of AP of their target. We know that these tests aren't enough to determine if these changes are correctly balanced and viable for the other classes. These changes will be available on the test server in the weeks to come. We will closely follow your thoughts before refining these changes.

Thanks to Jiri for the translation

For the release for the 1.25.0 version, we intend to introduce numerous modifications to the Osamodas class. We don't intend to make Osas much better at PVP in "one on one" mode. Summons will be less obsolete at higher levels, but above all it's an Osa's usefulness in groups that we want to improve. Making Osamodas more Versatile: We're well aware of the problems faced by Osas who wish to have a useful role at the heart of a team. As a result, we've decided to improve the support capabilities of this class by allowing Osas to cast their support spells on their allies as well as their summons. In concrete terms, each support spell (Animal Healing, Bear's Cry, Toad etc.) will be able to be used however you want, on a summon, or an ally. It goes without saying that the effects on allies will be less powerful than on summons. We want for Osas to be able to continue to use their summons in a group, which is why we're looking for a good balance between the benefits brought by using the support spells on summons or on allies. In addition, for a long time, a secondary healing class has been missing from Dofus. With the exception of enirpsas, none of the other classes are effective at healing their allies (apart from those classes who sacrifice close combat by using healing weapons) With this change, Osas will be able to effectively play the role of secondary healer, while keeping a great versatility. Osas' support spells will be less effective on their allies than the support spells of other classes. However, Osas will be the only class to have such a varied range of support spells at their disposal. Characteristics of Summons: We also wanted to review the role of each summon so that they all keep their interest over the course of an Osa's evolution. As a result, each summon will have a major elemental resistance and weakness. We are changing the Bwork Mage so that it is no longer in conflict with the Boar summon. The Bwork Mage will only push its enemies one square but will now also reduce the MP of its target by 1. The Tofu is generally considered a "temporary" creature that can only survive for a couple of turns at best. We want to encourage players to protect this fragile creature. The Tofu will therefore have the possibility of stealing a few points of agility from its adversary with each attack. The longer it stays in play, the better its damage will be over the next turns and the more agility it will take from its enemies. At a high level, the Gobball quickly becomes obsolete, and the role of tank or locker is given to the Crackler. We want for these two summons to complement each other. The Crackler will keep its AP reducing capabilities, its large vitality and its resistances, but it will lose some of its locking ability. The Gobball will be able to play the role of “locker" thanks to a considerably increased agility. Level 6 Summons: All the classes will have at their disposal level 6 summons. The level 6 summons will have more vitality, better resistance and cause better damage. These level 6 summons will counter the obsolete nature of some summons at high levels. Modifications to the Evolutions of Summons: Currently, each summon gains 1% damage and additional heals for each level of the caster. We're changing this so that summons gain 1% of their base stats for each level of the caster. In concrete terms, the evolution of the damage of each summon will stay the same, but the increase in their base characteristics will allow them to better lock their adversaries, to better avoid AP/MP loss and to better reduce the AP/MP of their enemies. This change to the evolution of summons will also render higher-levelled summons less obsolete. We've chosen a linear evolution as the appearance of level 6 summons will compensate for the non-linear evolution of the power of higher-levelled adversaries. We've also decided to review the distribution of the base stats of summons to ensure a better coherence with the change to the evolution of summons. As a result, the Intelligence of Osa's summons has been standardised, and the Toad spell changed so that each summon can benefit from the same level of protection when the spell is used. Changes to Osamodas spells: Some of the Osamodas' support spells will be reviewed, giving a better bonus to vitality, or giving greater damage. The standardisation of the majority of the base stats of summons will allow us to have damage bonuses that have the same effect whatever the targeted Osa's summon. Osamodas Special Class Spell: The Osa special class spell will be called "Spiritual Leash". It's a resurrection spell which only works on allies (and not on summons). For a significant AP cost, it will allow the Osa to resurrect a dead ally. This spell is only usable once per battle. The revived character will come back to life with a very small percentage of its HP, which makes it particularly vulnerable. As well, if the Osa dies, the revived character dies as well (as happens currently with summons. It's a very powerful spell that gives the Osa class a unique talent. In the future, it could be that certain monsters will be able to take advantage of this new talent as well. The AI of Creatures: With these changes, we're not planning to review the Artificial Intelligence (AI) of summons and other creatures in the game in general. The changes to AI and its improvements are more complex technically, and we prefer to keep them separate from the changes to the game's design and balancing. For AI, we eventually plan to separate the behaviour of monsters and the behaviour of summons. We hope to put in place simpler, more predictable behaviours for summons. For example, we'd like a summon that doesn't have a "fearful" nature to consistently attempt to attack its adversary without attempting to dodge it. This more simple behaviour will better allow the summoner to control which targets his summons attack. A person specialising in AI is joining our development team in a few days, the game design team will work with them to work out which are the generic behaviours that we need to review, and what bugs there are with the current AI that need fixing. We'll correct certain malfunctions with the existing AI over the months to come, but no major overhaul is expected until the start of 2009. The changes to Osas will be tested on test servers in the weeks to come. We'll keep you informed when the test server will be available.

Hello everybody! Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Tyn (some of you know me by the name of Nimaoh), and I am the DOFUS client development manager here at Ankama. I said I’d cook up this l entry to go through some important aspects of DOFUS 2.0, whose release was announced last Friday. First of all, I’ve noticed while reading your reactions that most of you were worried about performance. Will DOFUS still run on my current PC? Will I have to side-step Zaap maps for fear of my processor melting down? From the beginning, our intentions on this point have been clear: DOFUS 2.0 is designed with the same minimum system requirements as its younger brother in mind. We think we’ll be able to achieve this objective by entirely rewriting the game client and optimising client/server communication. Let me explain: while the DOFUS you now know is a patchwork of 23 versions (already!), each of which adds its web of features, corrections, and problems, DOFUS 2.0 will be rewritten from zero. This will give us an opportunity to reassess and optimise any issues concerning the functioning of the program with the benefit of what we now know about how it’s used. Other relics whose usefulness has long gone out of date will be given a full burial with all the usual honors etc… We’re also taking this chance to put many more options for improving performance in place – now you’ll be able to toggle the decorative effects in order to gain a few FPS (Frames Per Second, ie images per second), to reduce the resolution a little or to reduce the size of some caches to reduce memory consumption. A good number of other optimisations will become possible with the rewrite. Staying with the technical side of things, another question I saw repeated a few times was – is DOFUS 2.0 in Flash? Well the answer is yes. Flash technology has always been one of Ankama’s strong points With DOFUS we pushed this technology further than we could have imagined up to then. With DOFUS 2.0, the leap forward will be almost as considerable. The years of experience garnered by our team (who’ve been excellent) have given us an impressive prowess in Flash. By the way, if you’re a Flash/Actionscript 3 coder yourself, we are always looking for people with a high level of expertise in this area who are prepared to join us in overcoming the daily challenges we face in our work (abrakedabra!) Now let’s talk about the graphical side of things. We’ll we’ve been through them with a fine toothed comb and couldn’t help notice that not everyone was quite happy with the DOFUS 2.0 screenshots that were sent out last Friday, particularly with the character design. You must understand that these characters were taken from Dofus Arena and are not necessarily the same as the characters in DOFUS 2.0. In fact designing avatars is a high priority in DOFUS 2.0. We don’t want to change their appearance completely, but we’d like to spruce them up a bit all the same. Although characters in DOFUS 2.0 will be based on a universal ‘skeleton’ in order to facilitate their integration into the game and the placing of various equipment on them, this generic form will be ‘personalised’ according to class. So a Xelor will always be a little smaller than a Iop but bigger than an Eni… We’re really doing our best to make this skeleton as discreet as possible in game. Above all, we’re trying to retain that particular DOFUS spirit even if this might entail a little change in approach. This tendency towards the use of generic skeletons will also serve to unify character design in Dofus Arena, Wakfu and DOFUS 2.0. There are various changes being made in order to knit these games closer together, while ensuring that they all keep their respective styles. Our focus on cross-game content is increasing as we try to unite all three communities across particular bridges between them. We want players to mingle regardless of which game they play and the possibilities that this sort of super-community suggest mean that we’ll certainly be paying more and more attention to this in future. Another reaction we noticed on the forums was to the resemblance between Wakfu and Dofus Arena. I repeat that although there are many aspects of the design of all games that are drifting together, DOFUS 2.0 will remain DOFUS - we have no intention of changing that. The approach to the two games is different. Shadows in DOFUS 2.0 are created using rounded patches while in Wakfu they are done on a cell-by-cell basis. The transition between textures is softer in DOFUS, and more pronounced in Wakfu. Relief is approached in different ways in each game. Most importantly, I want to tell you that your remarks have not fallen on deaf ears. We have a precise vision of where we want DOFUS to go, but since many aspects of the project remain ‘works-in-progress’, your opinion is always welcome. After all, we’re doing all this for you! This post is by TYN