We’ve been working on changes to the perceptor system this week and have almost finished. Some settings still have to be adjusted and tests must be run, but all going well the changes will come on line sometime next week.

This element of the game has been a source of many woes for a long time and we felt that it was finally time for an overhaul. We wanted to make perceptors more fun and more agreeable and took the following as our main aims:

- Perceptors must not disturb players

Perceptors must not be attacked because they take from players, but because of the resources that can potentially be gained from them

Victories against perceptors must bring drops that merit the risk

Guilds should not be able to have perceptors with fully developed characteristics (a choice to be made, then!)

Guilds should be able to personalise their perceptors according to their style of play and their community.

Perceptors will no longer steal the players’ loot. They’ll come in as an additional player who is last to draw (no matter its prospection) when the loot is handed out (they won’t come in the actual fight). Their prospection will not be added to the group’s total prospection. The preceptor’s prospection will only help him with his own probability to gain an item.

Perceptors will no longer steal other players’ experience. They will win experience at the end of a fight just like any other player (the XP will be calculated according to the group’s level.) The experience gained by the perceptor won’t affect the one gained by other players. They will be able to increase their perceptors’ wisdom so as to increase the level of XP they gain in combat.

The theft of Kamas during fights and their sale as well as the theft of resources collected will be cancelled definitively.

Players will have an additional incentive to attack perceptors because the XP perceptors gain will be stocked on them. The owners of the perceptor will have to come and ‘harvest’ XP so as to distribute it within their guild. In this way, a guild that attacks a perceptor and wins will have XP to distribute among them also.

On top of this, and to increase the likelihood that perceptors possess a good number of items, we have decided that once players have removed either items or XP, the perceptor will be automatically removed from the map. It will therefore be disadvantageous for guilds to come and collect from their perceptors too regularly, which will add further to the potential gains in attacking perceptors.

The time constraints on the placement of perceptors and the maximum number that may be placed per zone will be retained.

Players can now increase the following stats by spending the points their guild gains when it climbs in level:

The maximum number of perceptors per guild - there will be one available at the outset but now guilds will have to spend points to increase this limit, it will not happen automatically when its level increases.
Prospecting of perceptors (to help it bring in more items)

Wisdom of the perceptor (so that it wins more XP in combat)

Number of pods in the perceptor’s inventory - their inventory will be limited to 1,000 by default. Players can invest points to increase this limit.

Perceptor spells (all levels of all spells will require no more than 5 points)

With this new system, guilds with lower populations which have difficulty protecting their perceptors will now be able to increase the number of pods their perceptors have as well as their prospecting or their wisdom to the detriment of the number of perceptors they can place.

All points won by a guild will be entirely redistributed when these changes come into effect on the game servers.

We’ve decided to create some new living items, some more of those famous Livitinems, especially for the release of DOFUS version 1.21. We wanted to reinvigorate the gifts players will get when they subscribe, but we also wanted to increase the range of items in the game and to bring more personality to them…

Livitinems (and you’ll have to make an effort here, their name isn’t the easiest to pronounce) are living items who parasite other items. They graft themselves onto capes, hats, amulets and rings.
Once they’ve found their parasitic way onto these inanimate items, they’ll change their appearance. So the Livitinems allow you to change the appearance of your items.
That’s not all! These Livitinems have the ability to change their own appearance little by little as they digest whatever item it is that they’re feeding on… so your Livitinems can decide on the metamorphosis, and therefore the appearance, that suits them best.
This feature allows players to regularly change their characters’ appearance without having to seek out new items, or to hide the items they have from other players, something which will no doubt prove very useful in combat.

But these Livitinems wouldn’t really be living if they didn’t speak, now would they? Fortunately, they do… sometimes a little too much to be honest!
The Livitinems won’t hesitate to pass remarks on what they see around them and to express their views on whatever might happen to your character. So even if you’re the kind of warrior who likes to get up before the rest and set off alone, you wont’ be short of a bit of company on those lonely adventures…

In introducing this concept, we wished to play with new levels of interaction between items in the game. If the concept proves successful, we will do our best to improve it and to add new features as we see necessary. Whatever happens, we’ll keep you informed here on the devblog.

There has been a considerable backlash from the DOFUS community in regards to the attention put on Wakfu. Many players have expressed their fears that DOFUS would be put on the side to leave way. That’s just about as far from the truth as one could get! DOFUS is in its golden age, and we aren’t leaving the ship.

There have never been so many players on DOFUS as there are now and server populations are constantly on the rise, as is the number of subscriptions which has in fact never stopped increasing since the game’s launch. We are continuing to develop the game, to enrich it and to improve it. We will continue to do so when Wakfu comes on stream.

Two distinct teams work on DOFUS and Wakfu, and the two projects evolve in parallel and separately. The two teams work together, sharing ideas, concepts and technology in order that each advance on a given project might benefit Ankama’s other activities.

It is not our aim to entice all players from DOFUS to Wakfu; we don’t want to ‘sacrifice’ one project for another. We want to push DOFUS and Wakfu forward in parallel. They are two different games and they have two distinct communities.

It is not in our interest to have players abandon DOFUS in favour of Wakfu. We want all players to have the opportunity to play whichever game they like for as long as they like.
In any case, we don’t intent to ‘force’ players to change from one game to the other.

We still have so many plans for DOFUS and we haven’t the least intention of letting it fall by the wayside.

DOFUS will continue to grow, as will the services that accompany the game. Our Support team continues to grow, we are continuing to develop new tools to facilitate our assistance of the players, moderation of the game and the game’s performance.

On top of all this, we’re preparing to bring the game’s entire physical architecture up to date by migrating to new servers, renewing our hardware and software etc.

All these improvements will be carried out over several months since we wish to be able to welcome new players on board while continuing with our efforts to advance the gaming conditions and your gaming experience.

We will use this devblog in future to leave you in no doubt that the Golden age of DOFUS is far from at a close.

After numerous modifications to the DOFUS PvP system, we still have not arrived at a system which perfectly responds to all of our expectations.
The new PvP system (with the addition of territorial prisms) has allowed us to correct numerous flaws in the previous PvP system, but is still a long way from pleasing everyone.

Here are the main objectives which we hope to realize in the coming additions to the current system:

• Encouraging combat in teams, of which the size and composition must be varied:

In order to encourage players to fight in teams, we are increasing honor points to players who play… well, in teams.

Specifically, combat which involves small numbers of players will bring meager honor points as compared to team combat.

The diversity of classes within PvP fights can only be ensured through efforts on our part to reinforce the weakest classes in PvP and make them more useful in that aspect.
We also intend to bring to the fore the diversity of character classes within the same combat, awarding higher honor point gains and lower losses for teams whose composition is varied.

• Allowing players to use a maximum of game space for PvP battles:

We want PvP combat to be as diversified and immersive as possible and the majority of zones in the game to be conquerable.

At the same time, we hope to improve the way in which current zones are divided, in order to make things clearer and so that the management of neighboring zones will be more logical and intuitive.

• Allowing players to take part in PvP alone, quickly and without the need to create a team:

We intend to reintroduce honor point gains for ‘classic’ aggressions.
These will be subject to far lower honor point gains than the defense or attack of prisms, but will allow skilled players to carry out spontaneous aggressions and to revisit what they enjoyed in the previous system, as well injecting a pervasive danger throughout the game in all zones where aggression is possible.

• Bringing team PvP activity to the fore:

Honor point gains will simply be proportionate to the number of characters taking part in fights, in order to bring team combat to the fore.
We are also considering several modifications to some conquest villages which will require a high level of cohesion and organization from players, whatever their levels may be, in order to be conquered.

• Rewarding PvP players who work hard for their alignments:

Honor point gains will be greater during the attack or defense of conquest villages and prisms.

• Opening PvP up to players of all levels:

Correcting this is by far our main priority in the DOFUS PvP system.
We do not want to entirely segment PvP combats by level; we want to allow players of different levels to compete together. We are looking into ways to encourage players of different levels to form teams so that each player can assume a role in PvP confrontations.

• Bringing an epic dimension to PvP confrontations:

For a long time now, we have dreamt of real wars and raids between the rival cities of Bonta and Brakmar.
Although we aren’t considering introducing this element into the game in the medium- or long- term, we are always imagining the possibility of having players attack enemy cities, of giving them objectives to attack each others’ cities

• Emphasizing cohesion, tactics and strategy during territorial conquests:

We want to retain the principal of numeric superiority between alignments when prisms are being attacked or placed. In this way, all players, whatever their level, can play a role in territorial conquests.

• No longer encouraging attempts at participation, but giving all players the opportunity to take part:

We are removing the passive honor points feature (won without participation in prism combat), but restoring honor point gains in balanced aggression, and we are attempting to make more zones open to being conquered, therefore increasing the number of prisms to be defended or attacked.
In our search for ways to encourage the formation of groups according to levels, we plan to considerably diminish the number of players excluded from prism combat due to their low level.

• Limiting unbalanced attacks:

We plan to take the level of players into account when determining honor point gains during PvP combat.
We want to avoid the possibility that characters gain honor points by attacking much weaker players than themselves, even if the possibility of attacking players of any level remains.

• Offering an intuitive and easily-accessed system:

The territorial conquest interface will be more intuitive.
The territorial conquest messages will be more clear and readable.
We will aid players in getting to the zones which must be attacked or defended more quickly.

• Rendering honor point losses more coherent:

At present, players lose honor points when they lose territory, even if they ‘cannot’ help to defend it.
We intend to modify this system so that honor point losses will occur only in confrontations between players.


Take note, however… all these thoughts and targets are still little more than concepts, we cannot guarantee that all these changes will be implemented in the game.

And now, some answers to a few of the frequently asked questions on the coming developments in the PvP system:

- Why aren’t there PvP arenas in DOFUS? Are you planning to add some?

For the moment, we aren’t considering adding PvP arenas to the game. This idea might be viable, but it doesn’t really correspond to our vision of PvP and territorial conquest game play.

Arenas allow players of similar power and experience to meet one another but they have little or no impact on the game universe.

We do not wish to dissociate the PvP system from the rest of the game, we believe it is interesting and conducive to game play to allow players to control certain zones in the game and to participate in an immersive PvP experience which is integral to the heart of the game.

We have not completely rejected the idea of PvP arenas in DOFUS, but this is not a priority at present.

- Why does PvP have an influence over PvM (Player versus Monster)?

We do not want to dissociate the PvP system from the rest of the game (and on this point I insist, it is very important.) The PvM system can lead to increases in experience which affect PvP, so we felt it was necessary to conserve the interaction between the two systems.

For a universe to remain immersive, it must remain coherent. If we dissociated the PvP system from the rest of the game (by instancing it entirely and negating the impact it can have on the rest of the game), we would be removing one of the foundation stones of the DOFUS universe.

This does not, however, mean that a PvP system which is isolated from other game functions is a bad idea, it’s just that we have chosen the system that best suits the game as it is right now.

- Will PvP grades be based on a character’s power?

This is not what we were hoping to offer as a game system. PvP grades in the current and in future systems provide for the compensation of players who sacrifice themselves in PvP battles.

We want players of moderate power (low level players, for example) to be able to reach high PvP levels.

If a player’s level represents their power, their PvP grade should be used to represent something else.

In addition, we like the idea of offering features in the game which are not directly linked to the power of characters.

- What are you planning to do to counter repeat-aggressions by the same player if gaining honor points from aggression is going to be reintroduced?

When the PvP system allowed honor points to be gained from aggression, a system was already in place to reduce the number of honor points won from the same target within an interval of several hours.

We are modifying this system to make it even more difficult to gain honor points from repeat attacks on the same character.

- What steps will you take to counter the use of several accounts in PvP?

We are considering several solutions which we have already began experimenting with in the prism system.

The use of several accounts on opposite sides of the same combat has already been forbidden.

We are investigating the possibility of a total interdiction of using several accounts within the same PvP combat, but for the moment, nothing is fixed.

- How are you going to resolve the problems of balance between alignments?

We are considering several solutions to permit a better balance of players between the games two alignments, although without seeking to establish a perfect balance.

Chaos and unbalance can give rise to many interesting situations for players.

This issue will certainly form part of a future article in this devblog.

- That’s all very well, but when will it happen?

We have no date to announce as of yet, as all these modifications will not be tested, validated and brought on line at the same time.

Some minor modifications may be available in the coming months, but no major modifications are planned before the first few quarter of 2008.