The first letter from the producer of Throne and Liberty talks about changes to the game's two most problematic mechanics - Project TL.

The official Korean website of the MMORPG Throne and Liberty has published a letter from the game’s producer, Jongok Ahn. This is the first message from the development team since the conclusion of the closed beta test of the Korean version of the game in May 2023. We have prepared a translation of this letter.

In the first letter, I would like to talk about the changes we have made to the game since the release of the beta version and what we were thinking during the implementation of these changes. I hope this will be a long-awaited letter for those of you who have been waiting for news from us.

After completing the beta testing, we had a lot to think about. We were grateful for the feedback, but it was the critical comments that became a real discovery for us. Some of them instilled confidence in us, while others confirmed our concerns. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who shared their feedback with us because it was a great way to give us the “objective view” that we had been missing after so many years of development.

Below, we have outlined the main issues we are currently working on, and although we could simply say that we have made some changes, we believe that my role and responsibility are to share the context and thought process with you so that you can see how your tests are changing Throne and Liberty.

Before we delve into the details of the improvements, we would like to share our vision of the problem. We have identified two issues with the game identified during the beta testing: static combat and dull character progression. Although these keywords may sound like obvious problems, they were backed by a whole range of design concepts that we wanted to implement. In discussing the improvements we are making today, I would like to share with you how our ideas manifested and how we plan to address any deviations from our planned ideas.

Dynamic Combat with Target Selection

There were many reasons why combat felt static, but the main one was the lack of maneuverability.

When envisioning large-scale warfare, player formations were important to us. Therefore, we implemented character collisions and made it so that most attacks cannot be performed simultaneously with movement, but our decisions were made at the expense of movement and maneuverability. The flaws were even more noticeable during battles in peaceful zones, which constitute a large part of the game, rather than in large-scale military situations. To address the situation, we took the following steps:

• Revised the overall combat system to allow attacking while in motion.
• Removed character collisions in all areas except conflict zones.
• Improved responsiveness by minimizing inertia effects when changing movement direction.

Of course, we do not consider these fixes to be the end of work on the combat system. We understand that the first step towards dynamic combat is to allow simultaneous movement and attack. We decided that character collisions needed to be reconsidered without compromising the tactical value of group combat, making them inapplicable in peaceful zones. Inertia effects, which were supposed to add realism when changing movement direction, were also significantly reduced as they intensified the disappointment with movement.

After lifting many of the control restrictions, we focused on skills. The number of available skills was limited, hindering active thinking for players. Therefore, we worked to expand combat capabilities and make it more diverse:

• In addition to target-applicable skills, we added a range of new skill types such as directional and targeting skills that adapt to PC control conditions.
• We increased the number of skills given initially and changed the speed of acquiring new skills.

In the early stages of development, we focused on simplicity: most skills consisted of targeting attacks, area damage around the target, and automatic attacks. This, combined with the slow pace of skill acquisition during development, made it difficult to perceive the diversity of combat. Adding new types of skills allowed us to break this simple rhythm and make strategic skill use possible. We adjusted the setting so that players are given a small number of skills from the start, acquiring them slowly, and giving them more options at the initial stage.

We are also working to make weapon switching smoother. The weapon system, which allows equipping and using two types of weapons, is a crucial feature of combat in Throne and Liberty, but the actual weapon combinations were very limited, and we would like to change this situation. We want players to create different weapon combinations based on their personal preferences and playstyles.

We have completely overhauled the stat system, where specific stats only affect the damage of certain weapons. Now “Strength,” “Dexterity,” “Wisdom,” and “Insight” will affect the damage of all types of weapons, and the effects of secondary skills that do not deal damage have been expanded. We have adjusted passive weapon skills that were effective only when using specific weapons; now they apply uniformly to all weapons. The number of early equipment and upgrade drops has been increased to reduce the burden of carrying multiple equipment items.

Fast and Engaging Character Progression

Talking about progression, it’s fair to start with the history of auto-hunting. The MMORPG genre has inevitably been associated with long grinding sessions. Over the years, we’ve come to see that having an auto-hunting system in MMORPGs is increasingly seen as a given, and we decided to follow suit. However, we might have approached this decision too lightly.

During beta testing, we heard from many users that they were disappointed with auto-hunting. We reminded ourselves that gamers, playing with keyboards, mice, and tablets, expect immersion in a game where they have fine control over the content that warrants manipulation, rather than automated gameplay where characters move on their own.

Auto-hunting and automatic movement have been completely removed.

Alongside auto-hunting, we also removed automatic movement. While we considered keeping it for convenience, it detracted from the value of the experience of traversing the world, meeting people, and exploring new territories.

In removing auto-hunting, the game was meant to become more meaningful, rather than simply repetitive hunting. Not that our game lacked this, but we needed to add new types of content to increase its quantity and improve existing content to enhance its quality.

The significance of hunting in character development zones has been significantly reduced.
The experience rewards in Adventure Codex, World Exploration Codex, and regional events have been significantly increased.
We are adding more peaceful elements to World Exploration and Resistance missions.
We are working on several instance-based dungeons where you will need to battle bosses.

Cooperative play is an incredibly important aspect of MMORPGs. However, guilds can be too large, and opportunities are limited. We are working on creating party-based instance dungeons that allow cooperative play on a smaller scale. We did not showcase this content in the beta version, but you will see it after the game launches.

Unlike the open world, completing party instance dungeons requires a limited number of people, so it is important to understand the dungeon’s peculiarities and respond accordingly, rather than relying solely on numbers. We hope that the new cooperative features will bring more variety to the development process.

It’s not just about adding new content but also about reducing the emphasis on hunting in existing content. During beta testing, we saw that many people are engaged in exploring the world. Finding hidden places makes you think, “I can’t believe I’ll go this far.” And that convinced us that we need to make world exploration and discoveries more engaging.

As the game fills with content, the pace of growth naturally changes. Passive play can no longer demand as much game time as before. We have drastically reduced the time needed to level up, and we had to do the same with equipment and skill progression:

We have dramatically reduced the time required to level up.
We have increased the number of places where you can find materials for crafting and improving character equipment to speed up equipment growth.
Skills are now acquired automatically as you level up, and we have increased the amount of materials needed to upgrade skills to accelerate their improvement.

The leveling time has been adjusted considering manual play up to level 50. The time to reach level 30, as shown in the beta version, has been reduced by a third, and the time to reach level 50, which is the maximum level at launch, has been reduced by one-tenth.

These are just some of the priorities we are currently working on, with many others being worked on simultaneously. Some of these improvements will be tested during the upcoming closed technical testing by Amazon Games. And we promise to continue making changes and refinements until we are ready to share them with you.

I began writing this letter because I wanted to listen to you more than talk to you. We created the “Talks about TL” forum as a place to hear your feedback. Please feel free to leave comments on any topic, including the improvements we discussed today. Your thoughts always serve as a source of inspiration and motivation for us. We also continue to think about how to get more information from you than just through a bulletin board. We will find a way to do it.