Dev Blog (7/21/14)

http://combatarms.nexon.net/home/newsdetail/?contentNo=00Hv3

DEV BLOG: JULY COMBAT ARMS REBOOT CHANGES1909JUL 21 2014 1. PRICE REBALANCE

Hello! I am Karl, and I’ll be going over the price rebalance.

The Price Rebalance refers to how new item prices will be adjusted based on their rarity. High rarity items will be priced higher than low rarity items. Simple, right? Since item rarity is based on stats, it made sense that their prices should reflect their rarity.

But don't worry! Just because an item’s rarity is high, that doesn’t mean that their prices will be unrestrained! The current NX prices are about the highest prices you'll ever see. In other words, we won’t make items any more expensive, but there will be many items that will be cheaper. Also, did you know that you'll be able to rent all weapons with GP? For more info, take a look at the post from Blossom from the dev team!

We adhered to two principles when we came up with our price rebalance.

First, anyone should have easy access to items appropriate for their rank.

In other words, anyone who who wants a day filled with excitement should be able to buy the items to make it happen.

Second, the difference in prices between item grades shouldn't exceed 2x. Items with Higher rarity have better specs, so pricing should reflect that. To make sure that the pricing made sense, we looked at everyone's GP acquisition at different ranks before setting our price rebalance.

To summarize:

1. All the items used to be priced identically, but going forward the item prices should reflect their rarity, making them more affordable. 2. Price won't necessarily increase at the same rate of the specs or rarity. The price increase slows as the item grade increases. 3. Price difference between item rarity should stay between 15% - 50%. We hope that with these changes, CA fans will be able to enjoy the game even more. We wanted the prices to reflect the item stat differences so that items for your rank would be even more accessible. We really hope that this aim is reflected in the new pricing.

We weren't just concentrating on price grading, either. Some of our other new features include the Flexible Acquisition System, Free Rotation System and progression revamp, all intended to help you out in your battles.

We hope that you continue enjoying Combat Arms. Thank you for reading.

2. FLEXIBLE ACQUISITION

Hello! I am Blossom and I will be covering the Flexible Acquisition System.

First, I'm SO happy to be able to share details on Flexible Acquisition with you all today!

I firmly believe that you all will enjoy the Flexible Acquisition System.

You've all been to countless battlefields and faced many foes. As you feel the bullets whiz by you, what can you see? Your enemy's gear! I’m sure you notice when they have better weapons than you! I know that feeling of despair, feeling under geared.

I know it feels terrible when your rank's high but your gear doesn't reflect that. That's why we created what's called Flexible Acquisition. Let me go over the details of Flexible Acquisition. It's simply a system where you can purchase items for either NX OR GP! Amazing, right?

You won't have to feel inadequate against your enemies now. I'm not saying that you'll have access to EVERYTHING, unfortunately. Bubba Ares was feeling generous, but not THAT generous. What a cheapskate!

This is what he had to say: "You can use GP for one day rentals, but don't you dare touch my special collection. I mean, you don’t need to borrow something you already have, right?" That's right, you can use your GP to rent items for 24 hours. Since you're renting equipment, you have to return the goods as-is. That means you can't break or modify the gear!

But this should just be a minor thing for you guys. Bubba did want you guys to know that the fancy cosmetic items, various supply crates, or the unique functional items can't be rented. He’s gotta make a living somehow!

Oh and one more thing, you can now purchase permanent version of all the weapons that were sold for GP. Aren't you PUMPED? "Does that mean that I can't use these weapons for GP?" NO! You can still opt to rent these excellent weapons for GP if you don't want to spend your NX!

One last thing!

We're also going to introduce new Ghost Hisec Cases and Ghost Hisec Keys! Spooky, no? That means you will no longer have access to the Gray & Black HiSec Cases & Key since they're getting replaced. Don't worry though, you'll have access to cool new items through the new Ghost HiSec Case. Keep your eyes peeled for these cases on the battlefield!

Some of these changes may seem scary, but they should ultimately assist you in your battles. I'm ALWAYS on your side!

...As long as I don't run into you guys in a fight, heh. I might be the one shooting at you, but until then, stay safe and fight on!

3. ITEM GRADE & STAT DISPLAY

Hello, I am Desperado, one of the game designers. I wanted to talk about the new item grade display and weapon detail changes.

There are a lot of guns in Combat Arms compared to other FPS games. There are actually a few hundred guns in the game now. I know it can be quite daunting trying to pick the right gun from such large selection, so we're adding a new weapon grade display to make the process a bit easier.

So, what is item grade? Think of it as a form of item assessment. It may not show you EVERYTHING you want to see in an item, but the grade should make it easier for you to see the pros and cons of your guns. It should be a lot easier to compare guns by checking out their new weapon grades.

With that change we'll also be changing some weapon details. At the moment, damage, fire rate, recoil, accuracy, and portability should be shown in increments of 100. Max ammo and modifications should also be shown in the details. Now the values you see won't be the modified values, but actual base stat values. You'll also see the gun's effective range. (The 5 stats you see above may actually be renamed to something more befitting)

I do want to emphasize that the gun's actual specs won't be changing! With the update, you'll actually now get to see more accurate gun specs. These values also won't reflect ALL of the gun's specs (for example, we have to adjust at least 100 values for each gun) but we did our best so that you guys can see more accurate details.

In addition, the new Equipment Evaluation System will enable you to compare guns more easily. The gun grade may not show every single one of the gun's stats, but it should be a good overall representation. In the end though, it's your skill that will truly make these guns shine. And that part’s all up to you!

There are other upcoming changes that others mentioned already. I truly hope that you guys will enjoy Combat Arms more with these upcoming changes. Thank you for reading.

4. EQUIPMENT EVALUATION SYSTEM

"Which weapon does more damage, the M416 CQB or the ParaFAL?"

Hello. It has been a while. I am MiniBeast.

Do any of you know which weapon does more damage between the M416 CQB and the ParaFAL? My coworker next to me asked me this simple question and I couldn't answer right away. And this was when I was in the middle of playing Combat Arms!

Weapon performance is displayed in gauges in the Combat Arms UI. The performance of the weapon is better when the bars on the gauge are longer. The good part of this UI is that it is simple, but it’s really no help when comparing two weapons.

“How about taking screen shots to compare the weapon?

"Plastic rulers can be placed on the screen to take measurements.”

Those of you with a really sharp eye or those of you with really good memory probably think the current ‘Gauge Format UI’ is quite enough. And I am sure there was someone out there that had the clever idea to take screenshots to compare the performance of the weapons. But we wanted to think of a way to make improvements to help those users who felt that the UI was inconvenient.

The first part of the improvement is on the gauge format itself. We have decided to be more direct by using numbers to represent performance. And we have added a comparison function to more easily compare the performance of two weapons, which was what we set out to do from the start.

You will have to remember one thing to use the added comparison functions. You must select the item (Benchmark Item) that you want to compare before you start the comparisons. Right-click in the item list in your inventory or shop and select Compare Item. That’s it. From that point on the comparisons will show up on the screen every time another weapon is selected. It's really simple, right?

From now on, you will have many more opportunities to use all kinds of weapons in Combat Arms. You’ll even have the chance to try out weapons that were too expensive to try out before! I am hoping that my Comparison System will offer you some help in finding that perfect weapon to fit your play style. Thank you.

5. FREE ROTATION SYSTEM

Hi! I'm Jane West, one of the game planners. I hope you are all doing well! The CA dev team has been busy this year with all kinds of new projects. We've been making a bunch of new guns, maps, and systems, testing all of them, and also trying to tackle lag and hacking problems. And I know that not all of you guys may be content...

But one of our main goals with the game has been to make Combat Arms more "Free to Play." I've been very busy trying to make this game definitely more "free to play" with our new content!

One new piece of content coming up is called theFree Rotation System. We'll be filling up your inventory with free guns during each rotation.

We really hope that you guys will continue fighting and becoming experts with various guns (for reals!). We really hope that you guys can check out countless guns in Combat Arms through the Free Rotation system. Check out the unique feel, motion, and sound of all the guns! Of course, there are guns more suited for beginners and guns tailored for experts, but

we want you guys to check out as many as you can. After all, Combat Arms is just BRIMMING with guns!

What do you have to do to enjoy free guns? Take a look at the menu after logging in.

If you look at the menu... Hey, is that an exclamation mark?

Do you see the mark that reads FREE? That's right, the free guns will be automatically placed in your inventory. More free guns means more excitement!

There's even a new inventory category.

When you get new free guns, the old free guns will disappear. That's why you won't be able to forge, customize, or modify free guns. Though the free guns are destined to eventually disappear, you'll continuously get new free guns to replace them. You should DEFINITELY be excited.

P.S. Just cuz they're free they won't be any different!

Have fun with the new guns. Jay out!

6. PROGRESSION REVAMP UPDATE

Hello. This is Karl. I will guide you through the Progression Revamp Update this time.

Getting promoted is such a great joy. It is worthwhile to get to use new guns and items through promotion. Also, you must have pride in yourself, as your rank reflects your skill.

However, I've always thought the rewards for promotion should be better. There are so many things required for a mercenary life, and many players have difficult times living as mercenaries with the rewards that we have right now. (I can't say that this is from my personal experience of getting defeated all the time regardless of how many times I got promoted...)

Therefore, I wanted to give you all better rewards so you can have more pride in your accomplishments. (I am so happy that I can get stronger as well!)

First, we decided to increase the Promotion GP of lower rankings so new items are more easily accessible. That's because it was becoming clear that trying to earn GP at lower levels was taking too long. We think that improving the reward GP from promotions should make promotions more exciting (and maybe I will no longer lose all the time).

Second, you'll now get more items every time you're promoted. Before, only basic weapons were upgraded, but now you can experience a wider variety of the items in the game. You’ll be able to modify and customize a variety of functional items through promotions!

Third, there will be rewards for all promotions. Previously, you only got rewards when your promotional badge was updated, but going forward you'll be rewarded for all promotions whether your badge is updated or not. Now you'll actually feel rewarded for getting promoted every time. At higher promotional ranks you'll be rewarded with rare guns not sold at shops, so you'll be able to enjoy the game even more!

< Newly added MYST-Rank Up (Flag Grade) >

< Other New MYST-Rank Ups>

This will bring you greater joy in getting promoted and help you find yourself stronger as you receive more promotion rewards. This will be great motivation, since anyone can get steadily stronger now. I will continue to work harder to make sure all of you can have a great mercenary experience. (And I hope I don't lose in the game...)

Now that I am done explaining this change, I want to go get EXP. I am going to get promoted now. Hope to see you on the battleground! Thank you.