I have promised to do this for quite some time already and now is an ideal moment to do this: a list of upcoming stuff for the future and where we plan to take the game.

(Though, this should be said here, some stuff among this are completely my ideas/imaginations ONLY, meaning it could either not get implemented or with restrictions in case K-Zodron comes up with something else for various reasons - do not build up any hope that might be disappointed)

Also, note that most of this stuff is planned for the far future, because as you all know, I sadly don't live in a modern country and am still forced to work for a starvation salary, making it impossible for me to work any efficient until the end of March, thanks to my country for that once again, but that's a different story. The first big change that happened was that my GM character is no longer level 3, but 14. Congratulations to myself for this - ok, enough fun, let's get real, where to start. Of course, covering literally everything in one post is impossible, so I'll pick out the aspects people are worried most about. I'd say we begin with general features regarding items;

Our item system is good, but can offer a lot more. With that, the first thing I want to mention are the item modifying possibilities that will come with smithing, alchemy and herbalism - these are the 3 skills we should have regarding item modification. While herbalism/alchemy focus on picking up herbs and creating various potions/elixirs from them, smithing focuses directly on equipment only. I am not sure yet whether the herbalism skill will exist on its own or be combined with a skinning or overall nature skill, since a single skill for picking up herbs only would be useless as alchemy covers the brewing of potions already. Now must of you will wonder what this will actually be good for. Potions are obvious I guess, but of course, these do not only include the current ones ingame (HP/MP) but also various other possible effects such as temporarily max HP/MP increases, skill increases, magic level increases, speed increases,... possibilities are great here.

Elixirs however are not ingame yet. These will be brewed just like potions but have different effects and will most likely only occur in one size. The effects of these are to cause various changes to the target equipment piece. These changes can, again, be very versatile, the most basic ones to mention are of course the attack and defence value, but can go as far as to offer permanent max HP/MP increase, additional physical/magical damage reduction, spellcost reduction,... again, possibilities almost infinite - of course, weapon-type specific advantages/disadvantages are possible such as less mana cost for a wand for instance. Of course, there will be limits so you cannot turn a ridiculous dagger into a powerful 28.5/28.5 weapon, depending on the base of the item, there'll be limits. And yes, you read right before - there'll also be also disadvantages. As we know, not everybody begins as a grandmaster alchemist and if a beginner messes around and is unlucky, his item might possibly improve in one aspect, but can also go down in another or even more, depending on how bad he does. Consulting an experienced alchemist might be the better option when modifying valuable items, experience is beyond price, correct? ;)


Now when I have talked a bit about herbalism and alchemy, I'll also lose a few words about smithing, even though it's quite obvious. By crafting (though here it might again be an overall nature skill unless we want to end up with 200 rp skills), you can mine yourself some nice raw metals and by combining correct ones and collecting enough of the required pieces, you can literally create a weapon or basically any equipment piece out of nothing! Here again, we shall use a dynamic item value system. A greenhorn smith features high possibility to mess up more than he will do good, meaning the odds are in favour of the item being worse than the average stats it usually has. Of course, a true grandmaster has a very high chance to end up with a stronger base, and the base is what everything else deals with, meaning a higher base, a higher maximum stat possibility.

By that - but take this is a very vague statement - as we reset now, it might be an ideal possibility to stretch the current base values of items, giving us more possibilities and a wider range of items, which would also allow us more items in general. In other words, the highest weapon will have higher stats but you will, depending on if and how we modify the damages, not necessarily hit too much more. Also, sooner or later, since no weapon is 100% like another, there could also be a variation among weapons of same kind, meaning that if you loot something, it could be a bit stronger or a bit weaker than the average item of its kind. Furthermore, another vague statement, could be legendary drops, not items, but drops, one could call them "divine providences", which occur REALLY rare, at any possible item, and increase the base a lot, perhaps they even bring a nice animation on them, maybe there can even be different kinds of divine prodivences with different effects... but I'm going too far now, you get what I mean.


With that being said, let's head to another topic, probably the most important one for many players, PVP and combat in general. Our combat system - sadly - is, compared to other MMORPGs, maximum average, nothing fancy. I don't like admitting that but claiming anything else would make me seem like either a liar or an escapist wannabe - neither one is needed and since I'm also making that post to point at problems we do, I guess there's nothing wrong with saying so. However, bad things can - no - must be improved. Unfortunatelly, in this case, this is complicated. Very. The main question here is actually: what do we want? For me, I want a fair, balanced (vocation-wise, but I guess nobody wants imbalanced vocations anyway ;p) combat system with many different aspects that allow a skilled player to easily frag a non-skilled player despite having a character that is weaker if the difference of them is not insanely great. Currently, we do have nice spells and the combos are a good feature (sadly, abused my macroers, but that will finally end), but it's very fast paced, probably too much, and is more of a "who clicks first wins" rather than a stragetic combat.

Anyway, there are various "solutions", but our main goal should be to give more tactical options and a longer combat duration. One way would be to make the PvP damage lower than PvE generally, (like 75% or something, needs to be tested carefully of course) which is going to be considered. What would definitely enhance the tactical possibilities however are buffs, debuffs, co-op/party spells/buffs/debuffs as well as the possibility to have environmental influence on your opponent, such as a shaman for example being able to trap the player with a quick natural disaster and so on. Also, magical barriers and other aspects of temporarily environmental changes are going to be considered, but of course, this also requires time - do not expect it too soon. Also, we will of course try to improve the balance of the current subclasses by the feedback we got, making "useless" spells useful and every vocation be worth playing.

The next thing that has to be talked about is PvM combat. That's what has been bothering me a lot since if we're being honest, it has never been good, never ever. The current problem (and that's only one of the major aspects favouring a reset) is that there are 2 ways we can go: Reduce exp of monsters or reduce the monster count to make people hunt slower, because quite obviously, and everybody knows that, during the past (and even now), most people were levelling at insane speed. However, with this, hunting gets really boring. Few monsters, few loot, few to do - boring. But now, we can take 1 major measurement, which is modifying the experience formula. This has never been possible before because we'd simply have to adjust all characters which would result in a mess and wouldn't solve the problem of characters that are already high. Now, when we, >for example<, let it take twice as many experience points to level up, we can put twice as many monsters in every hunting ground, meaning you will hunt at same speed but can slay a lot more monsters and will therefore also get more loot because the loot rate remains - a win/win situation as you have more fun with more monsters (a huge complaint point ever since!), same as with more loot.

Also belonging to this topic are the skills. This however is probably the most vague statement I'll do here because K-Zodron doesn't know anything about this yet and will probably not be too happy to modify too much stuff at once, even with testing. Our training system is OK but still has a few flaws. One is that old players will always be hugely advantaged, the other one is that you're relying to a time-based training hall - be in holiday 14 days and you either have to share or get a problem. Many of you will call us Tibia copiers now but their system is simple and efficient, you can train with either monsters or players, both should work, however, if we keep this with the current skill formula, we'd end up with people having the same skills as now rather quick. Therefore, we'd have to adjust this. Luckily, this can be done rather easy because you can calculate how far a player will get, so it might actually be possible, not up to me though, just my and a few other GMs personal opinion. Of course, we'd also have to let players lose skills and magic levels when dying, that also makes sure that level 5 people don't run around still making troubles with their 40 distance skill just killing innocents. Besides, this is also a good chance to give more importance to premium cards, because these could lower the loss a bit. The death loss is also an aspect that I currently don't really like, as it makes it impossible to win a war by frags only simply because the experience loss for the killed guy is too low unless he is a murderer. I can't give you any detailed solutions there, but I just want to let you know that I'm aware of it and as soon as a proper solution is in sight, we'll improve this.


Alright, now when we have been talking about items and fighting, I'll go further to more general stuff, themes. Our next theme will be, that's very sure, an ice theme. But as usual, do not expect it soon, because it won't come. Generally, taking a look into the far future of Zezenia, I can imagine all kinds of themes, be it climate based only like a plain one like our main continent Nyrathia or Sakanrel, a dry desert like Ben Qarassih (though that naturally already includes culture too, not only climate). For me, it will be really interesting to draw that kind of stuff. Drawing architecture has always been my strength and I'll look forward to drawing Chinese, Mayan, Viking or any other culture related buildings, that won't be a problem, even when it gets complicated. I guess everybody of you has enough imagination to think of different area themes anyway, but for the sake of making you interested, I'll name a few more;
swamp-based, volcano-based, djungle-based, egyptian-based, siberia-based (though this is actually colliding with the Northern/viking theme in some way), native/tribe-based, venice-based, castle-based, underground-based, mountain-based, ruin-based and so on. Also, they can, as said, not only depend on climate, but also on the culture, just as the game features more cultures. So in a hundred months, we might have them all (This is not a promise!!) ;)


Next aspect is the story aspect, which sadly also is very poor, although the potential here is big, sadly, currently, the biggest opponent is not difficulty, creativity or lack of passion, but once again, time, thanks to.. you know it. Anyway, as I just talked about town and area themes, these shall also have the possibility of having a, how to call it, "stipulation" in the town. Right now we got general towns, no real "stipulation" in there. A town for example could be in war with another, that would be a stipulation between the 2 of them. A stipulation inside of a town would for instance be if there's an evil king holding slaves who're unsatisfied and require help, or if the peasants outside of a town revolt because of the prices being too low, or if nearby monsters are stressing the town's inhabitants, or if there is a criminal band causing troubles in town and the people are worried, or or or or, possibilities infinite. These stipulations would of course massively influence the way people behave, what they have to say or what tasks they want to be done - leading to quests. Not much to say about them actually, except that we need a lot of them, some easy, some hard, some require a lot of fight, some require a lot of thinking. With thinkin I don't mean trying a combination of 10 possible levers but for example decrypting a cryptic message, combining facts to solve a puzzle to get entrance to a secret passage in a cave, questioning people to gather information in order to know how to remove the magic barrier protecting the dungeon holding the treasure, and so on. As usual, the possibilites are also really great here, be it single player quests, co-op quests, team quests or whatever.

The only limitation in here, and I remember having said that already, is the "paradoxing". Sadly, in a MMORPG, the quests just cannot be as environmentinfluencing as they are in a singleplayer RP. For example, what if your quest is to help the orcs open a castle gate of a castle where their opponents are hiding so they can complete the seize and capture the castle? Sure, you can start the quest, you can sneak into the castle, you can win the people's trust in there, you can make a choice now whether to help the people in the castle or follow the orc's plans, but then? If you help the people in the castle, you'll most likely lure the orcs into a trap - ok. If you help the orcs, you get the keys and pull the lever to open the door - ok - but then, what? In a single player RPG, the orcs could capture the castle now, easily, and then remain in it, or the other option, the humans succeed with their trap and beat the orcs, they'd be gone. But in a MMORPG? If we make that possible, then exactly 1 player can do it, then the orcs are either in the castle or dead, and all other players have no influence on the quest. The only possibility in making quests that touch the environment a little (more sadly isn't possible due to what I just explained) is going paradox, solution: The daughter of a rich merchant has been abducted. You invade the orknie camp and rescue her, you go back, tell that you rescued her, the merchant agrees (incase and is you were really there and did it) and is very thankful. Yet, the daughter will stay there - other players want to solve it too.


Next topic, the graphics. Sadly, the donations we've been receiving have gone fewer, meaning I'm relying on myself there, especially when doing something big. Yet, this is not going to stop us from updating the graphics over and over to make them better and also improve this aspect of the game. Not much to say about the graphics actually, the only thing mentionable is that I'd love to have way more beards and hair styles, but then again, time is short and there are more important things that come first :(


Next aspect to talk about is the map. As you might have been noticing, the quality of our map has increased. Also, we're mapping things way better/more precise now making it easier to create stories for areas and towns, speeding up the progress. Earlier (and again, a strong reason in favour of resetting), things were just mapped randomly so people had something to discover & hunt, back then, there wasn't even any storywriting planned, and now, we still have to cope with Culthan not having any background at all, even entire Nyrathia (and the best proof that we got too few stories and too few storybased relations to the game/map/areas/books is that most of you will probably not even know that our continent is called like that) has still only very few stories, books, area backgrounds/histories and other stuff that lets a roleplayer's heart beat higher. As usual, I can only make promises here that when the time is right and possibility given, I'll also cover this aspect, as I'm (hopefully) an awesome! writer.


The last thing I'd like to mention (though, potential stealers have already seen enough here, so I'll keep at least most of these secret) are mini-games ingame. The simplest probably being automated soccer or, as our current arena, automated battle. Here, a lot is possible, but I'll keep that secret since I haven't thought too much about this yet and I really want to keep the genius ideas for myself here to make sure - whenever it gets in, if it gets in - it'll be a huge surprise. Talking about surprises, there is 1 thing that I did not mention here that however will be done after the update/reset. You'll notice it. Guaranteed.


I hope I didn't forget anything, if you have any questions that you want to have answered or even noticed that I missed an important point, feel free to post that here and I'll answer if possible, but for the sake of this post being extremely huge and also of great importance, I'll take the freedom of removing anything that goes offtopic or threatens the well-being of this thread in any way. One thing is for sure though; if we want to have an incredibly awesome game that other people and games look up to, a game worth playing over long periods, a game that in the end pays our living, then we have to take a look at every single of these points and solve them the best possible way - and I hope more people can understand now why a release is simply necessary - yet, sorry for all of our supporters who have been with us for so long, it was no easy decision and I hope that most of you will keep accompanying us on this long, hard, but in the end hopefully successful journey - thank you.


Yours,
a tired Hyuga

wow! that bible, I begin to read
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"Next aspect to talk about is the map. As you might have been noticing, the quality of our map has increased. Also, we're mapping things way better/more precise now making it easier to create stories for areas and towns, speeding up the progress. Earlier (and again, a strong reason in favour of resetting), things were just mapped randomly so people had something to discover & hunt, back then, there wasn't even any storywriting planned, and now, we still have to cope with Culthan not having any background at all, even entire Nyrathia (and the best proof that we got too few stories and too few storybased relations to the game/map/areas/books is that most of you will probably not even know that our continent is called like that) has still only very few stories, books, area backgrounds/histories and other stuff that lets a roleplayer's heart beat higher. As usual, I can only make promises here that when the time is right and possibility given, I'll also cover this aspect, as I'm (hopefully) an awesome! writer." Hyuga.

I'm willing to reach out to talk a little about it and mention some ideas.

__

It would be nice too, the player to order their equipment and the blacksmith tells him to bring the materials needed to build it!

Wow! Good news! And good to see Zezenia growing with some diferet ideas..
I just got disapointed about the reset; but there's nothing that we can do.;/

I dont think it's a good idea losing skills/magic levels when dying.. ll ruin the pvp IMO
And I dont like the smithing idea too, It doesnt seem to work fine in this particular game

Sure, as i said before, it's just my opinion

@Gohhan: I read it all, belive me, it's worth doing it.

@Nyntrex Oz: Lets just wait and see how it goes, I bet they can make it work, and well if it doesn't work they will come up with something different, and anyways, as Hyuga said, everytihing in there is just ideas that he has tought about and would like to add.

I personaly think that instead of ruining PVP, losing skills would make PVP even more intresting, what's the point of killing someone if he doesn't get angry about it? Right now you die and you just go and try to kill your murderer, and over and over again... you lose nearly nothing, you must feel pain when you die, you must lose something when dying.

@Hyuga: Really nice, hope you boys really work on it and get everything (or atleast most of it) done, I would love to play "that Zezenia".

Hope you can really manage to get it done, starting with the most important measures, which in my eyes would be vocation balancing, pvp balancing and skilling; Also what you said about the level formula sounds really cool, that would make our hunts more fun, more profitable (?) and in the end... it would take the same (or almost the same) time to get levels (atleast I think).

About everything else, well they are most likely features to make the game even more fun, so well they are more than welcome and I would also be really happy to see them, still, I consider the first things that must be done are the ones I mentioned above.

Hope this time you keep going higher and higher and we can all live this "Zezenia Dream", I also hope this time everyone has, as you said, the same chances... so people that start playing during the next months have the same chances of getting to be "someone".

I'll be playing after reset hoping for the best.
Keep up the good work.

Hyuga please give us a hint of how much time aprox we'll wait 'til the full reset. Days? A week? more?
ty

Hyuga, thankyou for so many answers and ideas. The biggest question we have is when will this reset happen, how much of this work do you need to finish before the reset comes around?

Not to rush you, just so we have a piece of mind on timing. Waiting is an evil everybody knows!

Thanks,
Sense.

I do not know what to say...
we must w8...
a lot of thoughts, no words.

It's an good idea!
But about pvp system and skills, the good of zezenia is one single treiner mode of treiner and u no lost skills, about war/frags, one solution is one player killed for outher player lost 15% of exp +/-, and killed for monster lost +/- 5% and red name lost 20%.

zezenia used to be a good game and used to attract people for what it was. I doubt the new style of the zezenia will succssed as much ...