"Well, thank you, everyone, for joining us. I'm not sure what time is it for some of you guys out there, but I appreciate you guys all popping in. So, it's been, I think, 5 to 6 months since we last spoke. So, um, yeah, super excited to share with you guys some highlights from the previous few months, as well as answer some of the burning questions you guys have been, uh, posting on Discord."
"Um, so we'll begin with a quick note on our active users. So, I think the previous time we spoke, we were sitting at around 9k MAU, and I'm super glad to share that we've been able to bring our install base up to 20k monthly active users. That's more than a 2x growth since April. And our DAU is actually on track to hit a healthy rate of >10k if we continue with this trajectory. One of our biggest wins in the past few months was that we launched the game in Japan, uh, which is turning out to be a huge market for us with a very, very promising install base as well as engagement, um, metrics."
"So, what you see in the top right there is some of the ads that we've actually been launching across many different channels. Um, some of our most popular ones, they obviously feature your favorite guardians, a lot of frosty Frost Maia moments, a lot of epic win-lose battle stories that's inspired by real play. Um, we've launched about 100 new creatives now, uh, featuring all of these different characters, and our most popular ads are those that are UGC-based that showcase fast combat, RPG action, uh, elements, right? So, we're really, uh, adding really, really good quality and finish, uh, in order to attract, uh, RPG enthusiasts who, uh, are not just into, you know, come and extract, you know, come in and actually play the game for the long term."
"All right. Uh, so just a quick reminder that, you know, there are multiple ways to bring your friends along in the journey and get rewarded. We've obviously got our RAF program, and if you bring up to five friends, there's so many rewards that you can actually get to redeem. We've also got redeem codes. And in the future, we actually plan to launch a content creator program where you can submit epic combat clips, creative guides, meme moments, even boss takedown, um, all of which, uh, can be featured in our ads or or our trailers. And, uh, at the same time, you guys get rewarded based on the attribution that it's getting as well. So, stay tuned for that."
"Uh, a quick update on our engagement metrics. So, we've seen our retention numbers increase to actually an all-time high. Um, we've hit a D1 of about 40 to 52%. That's about 5 to 10 percentage points higher than the last three months, so you can see that upscale trajectory both on Android as well as on iOS. Our D14 stands at about 15 to 20%, and that brings our D30 to about 7 to 10%, which is the highest that we've seen the game at. So, it's a four percentage point uplift, uh, at certain points in the last few weeks on competitive event weeks. We've seen our D30 peak to about 16% on, uh, specifically on Android."
"So, I think this is, this is, this is due to a couple of things that we've added in-game. Um, we reached an all-time high with our retention numbers once we added battle modifiers, uh, of course, the new cosmetic and Guardian events, uh, gauntlet mode, especially, hit double session times, and, uh, we have more players hitting milestone logins and joining events together."
"Um, but we obviously have a lot more to do, and we want to be able to further increase our first 14-day experience. And at the same time, deliver more engaging content and variety for our advanced players in the next few months, right? So, what you guys can expect to see in the next few months is, number one, even more live events, uh, and battle modifiers. So, you can expect, like, a steady stream of new event types, personalized challenges, rotating battle modifiers, narrative-driven challenges, um, that's, you know, all drafted to, uh, keep you guys discovering and returning. And at the same time, we'll also, uh, be going to tailor more progression and onboarding to make it easier for our newcomers to hit milestones and for returning players to jump straight, uh, into the fun. Uh, look out for, you know, smart guides, better rewards, um, surprise events, right?"
"And at the same time, like I mentioned earlier, we want to expand content for our advanced players. So, that means, um, we are actually working on a new challenging mode right now, a meta game, uh, for all of our advanced players, and some new progression tiers and Guardian progression levers, right? Um, so we are listening, uh, we look at Discord every day, we look at, um, all of the event feedback, we look at suggestions that is being sent by you guys, community submissions, and, um, that really shapes, um, our cycle every 3 to 4 months."
"I wanted to do a quick recap, uh, of the past few months since our last town hall and, um, share with you guys, um, a recap of what we've done so far and our progress over the last quarter and also set expectations for what's around the corner."
"So, number one, um, shaking up the meta and Guardian utility has been a central win for us. We introduced battle modifiers across core and event content. Um, and these weren't just difficulty tweaks. Since late April, we have run over about 11 different gameplay modifiers in our game modes, and the intention was to make underutilized guardians meta and turn every moment into, like, a fresh tactical challenge. We are already seeing players branch out from just using the top five, experimenting, reinvesting in their old favorites. And we started that journey with that intent to discover and test meta-evolving gameplay mechanics, uh, and we've had several successes on that front, right? From the push or pull modifiers that make battlefield positioning critical to success to rewarding founders, um, holders for not only their old but their investment into progression as well. We've learned quite a few things. Um, moving forward, you can expect to see us bring back your favorites and evolve upon them further as we aim to push the boundaries of what can truly redefine combat with GOG."
"The next big thing that we worked on on systems and progression, um, we worked on a full economy rebalance. Um, we are sort of like 30 or 40% there into the the the full delivery of it. The goal here is to have a smoother resource flow and fairer progression, especially for our new and mid-game players. So, this is paired with ongoing work on a new progression layer that we are actually working on called Class Guilds, which we'll be sharing in detail later on, um, in the town hall. And this will let you specialize and differentiate your guardians even further."
"On content, uh, you see pets v2 up there. Um, the design is more or less locked, and we are just ironing out the final details before we actually move into execution at some point in this cycle. Uh, it is definitely high up there in our priority list. Um, I think what you guys can expect is deeper pet combat, more progression hooks, um, strategic synergy with your teams as well."
"Guild asset rentals, that's another big engagement lever, and we have version one of this coming very soon in the next few weeks. So, this will allow all players to share guardians across the ecosystem, um, fostering more collaboration and helping newer or returning players access powerful teams."
"Um, as you guys can see, there are some features up here that are still in early exploration phase. For example, the new game mode is still under design review. Um, our install growth is trending up, but before we allocate on something so core, we are taking extra time to make sure that it fits with our current audience and our future vision. The the same careful process is also being applied to our new player guided path. Uh, that's a feature that's aimed at helping newcomers achieve the 7 and D14 milestones with confidence and clarity. Uh, and so we we want to do that with a couple of growth events specifically catered for them."
"And if we look at the onboarding and QOL, uh, track, we've delivered new tool tips, we've delivered improvements to the adventure path, its difficulty, and its pacing. The early game feels more intuitive now, while the advanced content, uh, is getting more challenging with some progression tweaks. As always, we are monitoring for pain points to to to smooth out the entire experience."
"So, the features that we have shipping soon are designed to make progression a lot more rewarding, foster more collection and diversity, strengthen guild and community bonds. Uh, your feedback on these features, especially the the battle modifiers, pets v2, all that will help steer what's being prioritized next. We can't wait to see the new strategies and teams that you come up with in the months ahead. Uh, I do want to thank you all for being a part of the journey so far and sharing all of your thoughts so verbosely, um, in our Discord channels. Um, and, you know, with that, we aim to make each month better than the last. With that, I'll pass on to Josiah and actually the rest of the team who will share a lot more about what you can expect to see in the game over the next few months."
"Let's do it."
"All right. So, funny, looking ahead, but then we'll also immediately look back at unfinished business. Uh, so there's a couple of things that are still in progress and things that are always going to be in progress. So, uh, I wanted to call out a couple of these things here, and uh, Priya already touched on the pets in combat thing. But, uh, pets on combat continues to be a very high priority. We're also continuing to look forward, forward on how we rebalance the guild economics, guild progression, uh, making sure that, uh, perhaps we go back and add some new levels to guild progression as well and figuring out what the perks of that might be, uh, along the same way. Uh, we're also looking at new Adventure World content. Uh, that's actually further along, uh, than I think you would expect it to be, uh, which is really good. So, we might be seeing some really quick action on that front. And then we're also looking back at, uh, because you guys have been mentioning for a very, very long time, like, 'Hey, when are you going to take a look at, uh, the shop offerings and all the content that's in the shops, like game shops and stuff like that?' And we're also going back and taking a look at that stuff as well. Uh, so those are kind of like our unfinished business top tier segments that I wanted to call out."
"And then looking ahead, some of our big things coming down the pipeline here, we're focusing on the following. So, class skills, up at the top there. So, I'll talk about this more in detail in some of our later slides. But, uh, I want to, we are looking at adding a class progression mechanic and adding new passive skills that are based on specific classes. Uh, you've heard me perhaps mention this in some of our arena feedback channels as well, but we're also looking into GVG. And right now, the current, uh, design that is specked out but not finally approved is, uh, like up to four guilds are battling over territory to control. So, we're looking at that right now. Uh, we have 15 versus 15 tournaments. You're seeing the example of, uh, our first test of that this week. Uh, we're gathering all the feedback that you guys give, what you like, what you don't like about it. But we're looking to turn this into something that is essentially is, uh, the competitive events for this mode will eventually become player run rather than us saying, like, 'It's 15 versus 15 this week,' and then you just play it. Uh, so we're, we're digging into that as well. Uh, the short-term events, um, uh, we mentioned it earlier, but we're looking to, like, add more events and content and goals and rewards and stuff to scatter around through our season. As we move into this seasonal structure for live ops, and you you will have seen our first, uh, iteration of that with Vargus, where it was like 2 weeks long, followed by this one right now with, like, Valor Season 1, which is also going to be a month long. We're moving into this, like, four-week cadence with a break week in between, uh, where all of our events will be structured around, like, these, these month-long cycles essentially. And, uh, you can expect all of our brand new content and all our holiday events and all of our new guardians and content and big drops to be, to be built around this cadence that we've put together. So, uh, continue to give us our feedback. There's channels, I believe, down here in the feedback section where you can give us feedback on events and holidays and pretty much anything, uh, for seasons essentially. Just let us know your thoughts on the seasonal structure, whether or not you like the way that things are structured within there, cadence-wise, and what we might be able to do to improve that. And, uh, if we have time, then we'll find time to go back and make iterations if you guys believe something could be improved. All right. Uh, arena emotes, another thing that, uh, you guys have been asking for for a while. You know, everybody wants to see, or you, you want to make sure that when somebody's fighting your defensive team, you know, and you, you, you whoop them that you make sure you give them the laugh emoji and you spam it as many times as possible. So, we're looking into that as well. Uh, Guardian rarity upgrading, a huge topic that we've been talking about for a very, very long time. Uh, we know that, you know, we'll talk about more, this more in detail later as well. But we know that, you know, certain rarities of guardians, they lose their playability or base utility, uh, the further you progress in the game. And that sucks because some of those guardians are really cool. And, uh, we're looking at possibly letting those guardians increase their rarity over time. Uh, and there's a couple of other games that you can check out that do this in some ways as inspiration. So, uh, yeah, share your thoughts if you have ideas on what you would like, what you would not like to see on that front as we move forward on this cycle. And then finally, uh, the energy booster evolutions, we're going to be looking into how those can be diversified essentially, uh, and turn them into something that has more utility and has more diverse utility depending on where you are in your progression cycle perhaps. So, keep an eye on that, keep an eye out on that as well."
"All right. Wen T8? Everybody asks. I hear about it every day. So, I've posted some of this stuff already in our combat stat rebalance feedback channel, but if you haven't seen it, this is kind of like a summary plus a tiny bit more new information, I believe. Uh, so, general changes-wise, meaning these will affect more than just T8 gear. We're looking at changing how stats are visualized on gear. I believe right now, uh, there's like a bunch of percentage-based numbers. And working with our, uh, partner in China, Mineloader, we're looking at changing the way, like standardizing how all these stats are displayed against all different stat types so it's always the same type of number, uh, and looking at changing that into like a flat value, I believe. But, uh, yeah, you'll, you'll know more, uh, as we, as we flush that out. And then also diminishing returns. I've talked about this as well in detail in the feedback channel, but there, there have been and there continues to be a couple of stats, stat types in the game that are just straight up broken, like you can spec your guardians in specific ways that they're either invincible or they one-shot, or like, they just break a lot of the mechanics. And while that's cool to have that level of customization, uh, like we, we think that it just makes our jobs a whole lot harder to create balanced content for you guys. So, we'll be looking at a couple of like how to maintain that level of customization and creativity through your gear customization and strategic depth as well, but also making it so that, uh, you're not also upset that, you know, everything is super easy and nothing is challenging. So, we're looking, uh, digging deeper into that as well. T8, uh, legendary and mythic, mythic is a new rarity tier. Uh, there's some examples here of like what the difference is going to be. Uh, but you have to craft mythic with a new web3 resource that we will be talking about later. It's a new rarity tier, and the new mythic rarity tier has new stat types that can only be found on the T8 gear. And then kind of like the last big change here is that all the gear, uh, well for T8 first, anyway, there's no longer going to be int, agility, strength. We're going to move towards class-specific gear. So, when you craft your, uh, T8 gear, you will choose which class you would like that gear to be, you know, associated with. And you can change that later if you wish. But, uh, that's to help clear up kind of like a lot of the legacy issues that we have where, like, Morax, for example, uses intelligence gear, but he's a tank, like fixes things like that, but it will also give you more control over like how you build your gear for like very specific scenarios as well. So, trying to expand that customization and strategic depth as well. Uh, yeah, August 13th is when we're thinking about doing this. Uh, the least impactful week when we look at our calendar and are looking at competitive events that are coming up and content drops, but, uh, it's all dependent on how testing goes."
"All right, I'll take it back."
"All right. So, uh, asset rentals. Um, I have briefly touched on this here and there and I've mentioned to, uh, folks in passing as well that we're working on this. It's very, very close at this point. Uh, looking at a release in less than 2 weeks. Um, naturally with this sort of thing, once it's live, we'll be taking into account you guys's feedback and how things work and what does work and what doesn't about it. So, um, you know, just because it's released in a certain way, don't feel like you're stuck having to use it in the way it is. Give us feedback, and if there's things that just end up not making sense and work differently than we envisioned, um, always happy to make adjustments. So, just to do a quick run-through, there's some screenshots. The UI, the UI has since been updated, but, um, this still gives you a really good idea of kind of what it looks and feels like. Um, what sort of stuff you'll be able to do. It's pretty standard as far as, um, capabilities. You can put guardians up for rent, players can rent stuff from you. Um, you can do that with either rubies or ascension seals. Uh, there's going to be a popularity, uh, list so that you understand what guardians are popular and what week and, um, share that, uh, or share those or set those guardians for rent accordingly. Um, afterwards, um, you can also specify just for, um, you know, whether you want these guardians to be able to be available publicly or if you just want to more easily facilitate sharing guardians with, uh, within your guild. So, that's kind of the gist of it. Um, like I mentioned, we're, we're very close, so you guys will get to get your, uh, hands on this pretty soon, and, um, we can kind of go from there."
"All right."
"All right. So, this is what I mentioned earlier. Uh, class skills. Um, so we knew, or hearing is probably a better way to say that, that, uh, there's like certain classes in the game that just don't behave how you would expect them to. Like, tanks sometimes don't draw the attention of the enemies. They die almost immediately. Or assassins can barely kill a single person before they just get wiped off the face of the earth. Like, it's just, it, it's scattered. Uh, and we really want to fix that. So, rather than spending a lot of time and going back and, like, swapping out entire skills on individual guardians, uh, we thought it would be easier and more interesting to create a class progression system. So, kind of like right now, we're looking at is a progression system where, like, you level up your class, and the more, the higher level that class is, the more passive skills it unlocks. And these passive skills are being specifically tailored to address some of the core problems that we have with classes. So, a good example here might be that, like, this is all subject to testing with our, with our partners and internally to see if these actually are broken or not. But like, a good example might be that if you level up your tank class to level one, the very first upgrade for all tanks that you choose to put into this system is that they automatically taunt all combatants for X seconds on the field, and they maintain that taunt for Y seconds, like, just straight up fixing things like that. Uh, so that's where we're looking at. pretty locked in design-wise."
"All right. So for Guardian rarity, uh, this is something that folks have been discussing for quite a while, and we definitely agree with you guys. It's not necessarily the most fun thing to be working on building rares and epics when you first start out and then realizing as you progress that they're simply outclassed by legendary guardians, um, especially since, you know, you might get attached to some of those guardians or just like the designs or how they work but realize that they're just completely unviable. Um, so we'd really like to fix that. Um, there's going to be a variety of ways that we try and address this. Obviously, stat growth rates and stat caps, enlightenment levels, all that fun stuff, um, is one of the core, uh, parts of it. The amount of, uh, changes required to address the skill disparity, uh, obviously is very high. Uh, so at least the first version won't really touch on those. Um, but basically just allowing for a path to keep those, uh, different rarity guardians relevant, I think, is, is important, and, uh, we'll be taking a, a pretty good look at that, and you guys should, should see some results, uh, you know, in the, in the pretty near future on this one."
"All right."
"All right. So, looking at some new content depth and variety examples. So, new enemies and bosses have already started to hit this cycle. So, we've already done some of the new creative work for a couple of new bosses that have been released within the last month. I think within the last month, actually. Um, I know that all the new boss encounters, so like new versions of boss rush, uh, new bosses within boss rush, new bosses within guild boss, and new elite enemy encounters, perhaps. Uh, so we're just expanding that domain as well. I've talked about the 15v15 tournaments already. Uh, new achievements, uh, I'll talk more about that in the Q&A section as well, but you can expect that, uh, whenever new features come down the line or we see that you guys have like finished an achievement path, then it's fairly insignificant on our end to just add more tiers to it. So, pretty easy to do. So you can expect to see those kind of creep in every now and then. Uh, I talked about the new Adventure World. Uh, and finally, we have kind of like a new game mode that we are experimenting with, that's in development, uh, that's basically, like, time trial mode. Uh, and we're in the process of testing it now, it'll probably undergo some more major iterations. So, I don't want to speak too much about it, but, uh, yeah, time trial is something that we're looking at to address, you know, the, the endgame content disparity."
"All right. Uh, so, guild features. Um, as Josiah mentioned earlier, uh, GvG is still something that we're working on, uh, and while it is near the end of the design phase, we're still not quite locked in. So, there's still some variation. So, I'm going to share a little bit more details, but, uh, it'll still be fairly high level just on some things that we're sure that, um, will be present in the, the final version. Um, naturally, it's going to be a great mode for you guys to be working with your guildmates by design as opposed to, uh, not by design, like what's happening in arena currently. Um, so there's going to be a good amount of strategy both in the combat level and on the like map mode level, uh, that will require coordination, uh, well, that will benefit from coordination, right? Because not all guilds are going to be able to execute at that level, and we still want them to have a chance. But, um, obviously coordination is going to be a very important component, and, uh, should be something that guilds strive to achieve, um, through gameplay. So, there is going to be an aspect, um, around that. Uh, various interesting things like what sections or what, what portions of the map you control will have different effects that either affect, uh, that either, uh, contribute to, um, how combat goes for your team, uh, benefits, downsides, that sort of thing. Um, and then of course, as we continue to expand the game, um, allowing for players to benefit from having more than five guardians that, uh, they've worked to build up is important. And so, um, we'll have, you know, more than five guardians that, uh, that matter. Moving a little bit forward, guild progression as well. Um, as Josiah has mentioned that, guild progression and guild economic rebalance a little bit. So, a little bit more detail on that, uh, in the form of what the problem that the team perceives there to be. Basically, larger guilds, um, basically have capped out on what they can do. Like you guys have kind of completed everything that there is to do. Um, so, obviously, we'd like to give you a little bit more there, uh, to work towards, which is always fun. Uh, and then smaller guilds, at least, uh, new and, and medium-sized or smaller guilds are, are struggling to keep up. Obviously, the player count disparity is very large, and while large guilds should absolutely retain some advantage, um, there's probably a happy compromise there that, uh, can ensure that small guilds are able to compete to a better degree so that it's a more, um, it's a healthier competitive environment, right? Like, stomping folks is fun, uh, to a certain degree, but if there's not even a challenge, then that gets boring quick, and it also gets old for for everybody below you. So, trying to, to close the gap there a little bit, I think, is, is the goal here. Uh, there's a variety of ways, uh, that we can do that that I think will still feel like, um, it's beneficial to be a large guild owner, um, but it's a lot more, uh, more equal feeling as opposed to just being flat out identical, which, as we all know, uh, doesn't necessarily mean equal. So, um, that's the gist of it."
"All right. Uh, new player improvements. So, uh, kind of building off the back of what we were saying earlier with, you know, there being, like, a 200% increase in MAU over the last couple of months. Now that we do, we've been getting a lot of feedback from these new players about what they like, what they don't like about the new player experience. So, we've identified quite a few areas where we can improve. And so we have like our list of tutorial improvements, some tutorial improvements and tutorial improvements to close as many of these gaps as possible. Uh, we really want to get these people from being new players into, like, solid, like veteran players as smoothly as possible. And we think one of the best ways that we can probably achieve that is with a better version of kind of like the, uh, day 7, day 14 journey. Like we see these in other games as well where it's like day one, you've got 10 things to do, day two, you've got 10 things to do. Like, this has been a proven system that we see other games using. We don't really have it in our game, so we really like to, uh, add that as well because we think it could be great for these new players, uh, especially to teach them how to use and get familiar with all the, you know, kind of more advanced progression mechanics that we have in our game. Uh, so, and then the final point here is that all the starter passes that we added in the game, especially the free versions, have performed extremely well. Uh, we were looking at the data for that earlier today, and just players are eating them up. Uh, so this has been really good for making sure that the new players have exactly what they need to overcome some of those early game boundaries, uh, and to help them get faster into a more competitive state so that we have more gameplay variety, especially in the competitive scene."
"Uh, I can take a shot. So, yeah, and progression and economy, I kind of mentioned this, uh, a little bit at the top. Um, yeah, there's been a lot of work on the team's end working on balancing all the numbers and investigating all our loops and flows and where is X resource coming from and where is it going. Uh, figuring out where all the pain points are during player progression cycles, like, 'Hey, I'm commander level 30, but I can only afford to get my residence level 20.' Like, where are these gaps coming from? How can we make up for these gaps? And you can see, like, one of the first big examples we think of like trying to address, like, long-standing feedback from you guys as well is changing the way that our log-in rewards work where, uh, now log-in rewards are dependent on where you are in your progression path. So the further you are in the game, the more rewards you get, and the different types of rewards you get, I believe as well. So, uh, we think this has been great. Uh, we've heard positive feedback on it so far, and you can expect more in this, uh, kind of vein as we move further, uh, into the cycle."
"Next slide, please. And we are also looking to, uh, create a new campaign to get our old players back. So, this will be for all players who have been determined to have lapsed from the game for a certain period of time, and we will be trying to incentivize them to return through, uh, quests and rewards and events just for them, and have kind of like the catch-up mechanics you hear and see in these examples of like sign-in rewards or comeback missions or comeback passes or specific comeback shops. But it's all built around the idea of getting these people caught up to, uh, the rest of their friends that are still playing as much as possible, as fast as possible. Um, so if you have friends that have lapsed and you would like to bring them back in, then we will have a new campaign ready for them real soon."
"And, uh, kindly, kind of, uh, final point here, uh, I, I believe I brought this up maybe like a couple weeks ago in Slack, so, or in Discord, so many of you have probably missed it. But we are moving into a seasonal structure for live ops. And you will have seen our first iteration of that with Vargus where it was like 2 weeks long, followed by this one right now with Valor Season 1, which is also going to be a month long. We're moving into this like four-week cadence with a break week in between where all of our events will be structured around like these month-long cycles essentially. And you can expect all of our brand new contents and our holiday events and all of our new guardians and content and big drops to be, to be built around this cadence that we've put together. So, continue to give us our feedback. There's channels, I believe, down here in the feedback section where you can give us feedback on events and holidays and pretty much everything for seasons essentially. Just let us know your thoughts on the seasonal structure, whether or not you like the way that things are structured in there, cadence-wise, and what we might be able to do to improve that. And if we have time, then we'll find time to go back and make iterations if you guys believe something could be improved."
"Okay, I can take this one. So, first one first. Uh, official global leaderboards available outside the game? So, I've kind of answered this question a few times. This is something that is still very slowly progressing, uh, on my personal time. Uh, but unfortunately, we have a lot of things to handle, so it's kind of, uh, fallen down on the list of things that, that need to be done. There's a couple of things that we can do here, and I'm sure we'll have a, a little bit of a longer discussion because I know this is something that, uh, folks feel pretty strongly about. Um, but, uh, you know, that's kind of where things are at as a, a community shout-out. Uh, absurd has actually created a, uh, a website that he's more than welcome to, uh, share a link to here, um, but you guys should check it out. He's got, uh, some leaderboard, uh, results, uh, that he that he collates, uh, every week, and he's also building out a wiki, um, that has some pretty neat stuff on it. So, um, check that out. Uh, show your him, uh, some love and support, and, uh, in the meantime, we'll, uh, we'll see what we can do on our end. Uh, all right. Next one. Uh, Ancient Artifacts. Um, basically large guilds have more or less capped out guild artifacts and need more things to do with materials and guild boss. Um, so, I don't know, Josiah, you might be better suited to answer this one."
"Yep. So, there are two possibilities here. Uh, one is ancient artifacts will probably get renamed because ancient artifact was just totally honest, was a placeholder title back when we first created the guild crafting like menus in game, uh, with the intention of it being kind of like something that we would flush out deeper when guild crafting got, you know, further iterated upon. Uh, so there's two possibilities here. The first possibility is that, uh, we take that menu and it gets turned into something with our plans for guild crafting, kind of like v2, v1, whatever we want to call it. Uh, there is a design for it, it is just not in development. So, it's kind of like on the low priority side of things. That's the first option. The second option is we just remove the menu out of the, out of the screen so that people don't try to click on ancient artifacts all the time, uh, which we might do anyways because it kind of sucks to have a button in game that doesn't lead to anywhere. Uh, so, yeah, it's still there. The design is still there. People were working on it as recently as, like, a couple weeks ago. And, yeah, there's quite a few ideas floating around for it, but we probably won't be returning to that in the next month or two, I would say. But you'll hear more about that actually at the end of this when we talk about roadmaps."
"All right. I feel like, uh, pets v2 and Gen 2 also falls into that."
"Yeah, pretty much the same thing of like, uh, when we, I'll talk more about the roadmaps, uh, at the end, and, uh, yeah, they're all kind of in the same vein of like, they needed more work and we needed to focus on other things to get them out first."
"Makes sense. All right. So, jumping ahead to the next one. Uh, minting Chroma vouchers. So, this is something that I have also shared that we'd like to do, and, uh, as far as I'm aware, actually, it should be, uh, ready to go. So, it's just a question of, um, checking in with our partner, Mineloader, uh, and validating that it is good to go, um, getting a quick test in and, uh, launching it. So, it's, it's very close. Um, mostly just one of those things that, uh, got lost in the shuffle as we're figuring other things out. Um, but, uh, it should be very, very close."
"Uh, but continue balancing other guardians. Um, naturally, this is something that, uh, I think all of us at some point have said that we want to do, and I feel like we've shown that we do, uh, with the various guardian balance patches that we've dropped. Um, usually at least a couple of updates, um, a month, I think usually even more frequently than that. Um, but it's absolutely something that we're, we're actively monitoring, um, and we would like to, uh, at the very least maintain if not increase the, the rate at which we make balance changes. Uh, do want to highlight though, you know, as we balance things, that doesn't necessarily just mean buffs. Obviously, we'd like to focus on buffs because those are much more fun. Um, but, uh, you know, do keep in mind that, uh, that doesn't necessarily mean that's all that will happen."
"Yeah, and I do want to say, when it comes to balance, like, we, we specifically work with a contracting studio that has people on their team that have level 100 accounts in their real accounts, not just their test accounts, and these people write reports for us every week about what guardians need to go up and what guardians need to go down. And we have like a bucket list of like over like 100, I think we're sitting at right now, we have like maybe a dozen, maybe two dozen guardians just like with this should be changed about them. And it's just a matter of like taking that feedback and actioning on it and then testing on it. But because testing balance is like a time-intensive process on our side, it happens slowly. So, we, we have kind of like a goal internally on our side, design-wise, to like, try as hard as possible to get two guardian updates out every release. Uh, and we've been hit or miss on that. Sometimes we get two, sometimes we get more than two, sometimes we get zero. Uh, but that is essentially our goal, and that goal isn't going to change."
"Perfect."
"All right. Next one. Uh, awareness and concern about guild boss competitive balance between large and small guilds. Yes, this is something that we've talked about internally quite a bit, um, both from the aspect of making sure that small guilds, and this is something that I've touched on, um, when talking about guild progression and guild economic rebalance previously. Um, obviously, the closer things are and the more of a competition it is, the more fun it is. Um, it's part of the whole point of competition. So, we're definitely looking at it, um, trying to, to walk that line of, um, not completely, uh, devaluing the large guilds, but making sure small guilds are viable. So, it's something that we're, we're looking at. Um, there's a variety of ways that we've talked about addressing this. Um, not anything specific planned, but, but you know, we are, we are aware, and, um, it is something that we would like to address, uh, in the, in the future."
"Uh, let's see. Next one is going to be improvements to boss rush, uh, the removal of dread powers simplified things quite a bit. Yep, that's valid. Um, there are some updates that have been discussed and maybe partially designed, um, for, for boss rush. I'm not sure where those are scheduled. Um, but I think, uh, some of the things that Josiah will be showing you later in the slide show will kind of help, uh, ground that. So, I'll just, um, leave it, uh, vague and like that. Um, and then as far as gold for, uh, Valor or season zero, um, I don't know, Josiah, that's going to be one for you, maybe, or should I take a swing?"
"Uh, why did you choose to use gold for Valor zero? So, the whole, so when, when we started the design process for the, the Valor system, uh, back then, which would have been like, I think, 2 months ago at this point, looking at the data, it was just all upward, upward trends for like, if you were commander level 99 to 100, like, the chart was just you, like, bottom left to top right, going up and astronomically, it's just increasing over and over and over and over again. And, uh, and, um, so like the goal with Valor was just to create a system that gives these players something to spend the stuff on that they're earning, and that they'll get something valuable out of it, like combat capable stats and some kind of some rewards and stuff like that. Uh, so, obviously, we showed gold there as a placeholder, and that sucks. I don't want to spend my gold on that either. So, what did I do? I took it from 50 million to 5 million this week. And if you tell me 5 million still sucks this season, then I will probably change it to something else next season. So, just let me know."
"Awesome."
"All right. So, I kind of feel like I need to talk to the team today actually. Uh, I think we can test this in 15 versus 15, possibly as early as next week, but we could add like a refresh button on the matchmaking screen. So, when you get three people that you need to fight, you have to fight those three people for three new people to pop up on the screen. And I think that could just be a really quick, easy test to see how that works. And we can get feedback on it and see what you guys think about that. Uh, I don't think it's in the near-term future as a possibility because it would require a lot of dev effort, I think. But I do really like that idea, and I am not against the idea of maybe, like, I wonder if we can get a 6v6 in there or something like that. I don't know. We'll experiment. Yeah."
"Sounds good."
"Uh, achievements and achievement chests, point caps? Uh, I believe currently folks are hitting and surpassing the, uh, cap for achievements at, um, 1,500, I believe. Uh, so we are aware of the cap. Um, and I don't want to put, uh, words in anybody's mouth, but I believe we, you know, we'll end up extending that in the future. Um, not sure quite where or when. Um, but we're definitely, uh, keeping an eye on it."
"We've had a pretty good discussion, uh, on this, actually, uh, in the last couple of weeks. Uh, so, I, uh, I don't know, Josiah, do you want to share any more, uh, details about that one on what's coming up?"
"Yeah, that also kind of falls in the same vein for me as like the achievements aspect of like, is there going to be more, you know, completionist content related to these modes? And the answer is maybe. It's pretty easy to do. It's just a matter of like, am I going to dedicate time to do this over creating something else? Uh, so like it's on the list, it's just, yeah, it'll come down to whether or not we have time to do it."
"Team's plan to address the fact that guilds are working together to dominate solo leaderboards? So, I kind of feel like, I need to talk to the team today, actually. Uh, I think we can test this in 15 versus 15, possibly as early as next week. But we could add like a refresh button on the matchmaking screen. So, when you get three people that you need to fight, you have to fight those three people for three new people to pop up on the screen. And I think that could just be a really quick, easy test to see how that works. And we can get feedback on it and see what you guys think about that. Uh, I don't think it's in the near-term future as a possibility because it would require a lot of dev effort, I think. But I do really like that idea, and I am not against the idea of maybe, like, I wonder if we can get a 6v6 in there or something like that. I don't know. We'll experiment. Yeah, I mean, you guys mentioned that it would be cool if it was like more than 5v5 in a battle. It was like 10v10 or 15v15 in a single battle. That's pretty cool. Uh, I'm sure if we asked Mineloader to prototype that, it would probably be something that ran at like 5 FPS. So, I, I don't think it's, I mean, GvG is probably as close to that as we're going to get for a while. And I would like there to be at least one place where they can do it before we remove the ability for them to, like, collaborately compete, like, all together by taking out, for example, the arena. So, I would like there to be at least one place where they can do it."
"So, uh, we're going to, we can probably drop the link probably here in chat, but also we'll share the slides, I think, after this in some form as well. But here is a link to a public Trello board where you can follow along with what the team is working on. You can see our backlog of tasks, you can see what we are working on for live ops, you can see what we have approved to work on but haven't started yet. You can see what is in development, you can see what has been released, and you can see what is, like, a forever task, something that will never stop, that we're always be working on in the background. So, I created this because you guys are always asking, 'Like, what are you doing? Are you working on this? Have you thought about this?' Like, here's your Trello board. I'm going to update this once a week, um, so that you guys can see, like, what's in progress, what's not in progress, and know what you think. Uh, yeah, just wanted to share that with you all, and you can see exactly what our, quote-unquote, road map is going to look like from a task-by-task perspective. So, let me know what you think."
"All right. I think we're at time. Um, I'm not sure. I know that, uh, I think pretty much all of us have, uh, a couple, or meetings after this. Um, so if there's anybody else that, uh, has any closing thoughts, um, now is the time. And I'm going to run through my community questions list real quick to see if there's anything else that I can fire off, um, before we call it. Okay, going to take, uh, take that as a no. So, I'll share the, um, the Trello board link in general, uh, and maybe pin it, uh, somewhere, actually. Um, with you guys. And, um, we are at time. Um, so, really appreciate everybody, uh, joining us, sticking around. Um, and, uh, looking forward to hearing everybody's thoughts. Um, we'll try to get the recording posted, uh, as soon as possible. Um, but, uh, look for that in the next couple of days, uh, for those of you that missed it. And, yeah, thanks, guys. We'll catch you next time."