Developer Discussions

CABAL Game Developer Notes - Balance I

 * The content of this interview and information disclosed by the Game Developer is subject to change.

'Interview with CABAL Game Developer – Balance' Date: July-04-2012 CABAL GM: About 4 weeks ago, we shared some ideas on “Future CABAL contents.” It has been a month now and CABAL Game Developer called upon me again! I hope this time I could quench the thirst for answers for our CABAL fans.

CABAL Game Developer: Yes. It’s been a month since we disclosed some of the outlines on the future CABAL contents. As I mentioned previously, I can tell you that the renewals on skills will be the biggest of all time. And because of it, we are planning, editing, and disposing ideas over and over again. We feel sorry for the developers but most of all we apologize to our CABAL fans who are waiting for the update. We are going to let you know the current progress hoping to resolve your curiosity. There are some aspects that could mislead our fans due to its sensitivity. I want to stress that any part of this discussion today could be edited or deleted at any point as the project progresses.

CABAL GM: So it is important to remember that the contents that we are disclosing today may be edited or deleted as it processes. Don’t be complaining why it changed in the future! We will appreciate your feedback after today’s disclosure of the contents. Then, CABAL Game Developer will refer to your feedback. Of course, we need to make sure everything goes in line with one another. Now, let’s have a look what will change.

[Balance]
CABAL Game Developer: First of all, all weapons and armors will be redesigned with range of minimum and maximum ATTACK and DEFENSE values.

CABAL GM: Hmm, it may sound difficult. In plain words, minimum and maximum ATTACK and DEFENSE values are determined for each class of weapons and armors. For example, Titanium Great Sword will have50~150 ATTACK, right?

CABAL Game Developer: Yes, correct. Evasion rate is calculated as %. For example, it is 35% when the Evasion is 350 and it is 45% when the Evasion is 500. Since the hit/miss judgment is decided by the Evasion rate of the defender, if the evasion rate is 35% then the attacker has65%chance of attacking successfully. Intuition skill and Evasion Potion will be redesigned followed by the changes in Evasion. DEFENSE does not reduce damage by its value but by %, just like Evasion. (ex. If DEFENSE is 1000, 35% of the damage is reduced).

Attack Rate and Defense Rate affect the ATTACK. If the Attack Rate is high and maximum Defense Rate is high, minimum ATTACK is applied. If certain level of defender’s Defense Rate is higher than the Attack Rate of attacker, then something called “BLOCK” is applied apart from “MISS” and damage becomes 0. When aforementioned content is updated, will Wizard block all attacks from Force Shielder’s if Wizard’s defense rate is higher than Force Shielder’s attack rate in this screenshot? There will be two new options added: Bulls-eye and pierce.•Bulls-eye reduces the opponent’s evasion rate to increase chance of successful attack. •Pierce reduces the opponent’s defense for more damage. These options are only available through items or skills momentarily. There are many options already in development or in consideration other than those two and there will be changes to item options upgrading system accordingly.

The effectiveness of critical attack will be affected by this update so we are considering additional features to be added to critical rate. (ex. When a character strikes critical attack, cool-down time of relevant skill to reset)

Intuition will be redesigned as a complete evasion skill, meaning the character will be invincible ignoring knock-back, stun, down and even damage, with less cool-down time and buff skill time. It may consume SP or other resources.

CABAL GM: New concepts of defense are on their way! It might sound confusing but I’m excited to see the new birth of defense in attack based CABAL. What about “Battle Stance” we talked about before?

[Battle Stance]
CABAL Game Developer: “Battle Stance” will be implemented a little differently by battle style.

For instance, Lightening Blade, Ice Blade and Fire Blade will not stack on one another any longer for Force Bladers. We are considering each skill to have different buff/de-buff features with similar overall effectiveness. Also, fundamentals such as formulas for damage and attack hit or miss will be redesigned and therefore, dungeons and field monsters rebalancing will take place accordingly. Basic concepts of STR, DEX and INT will be modified and trashing minimum STAT requirement for items and Battle Style Level up is also being considered. (Putting all ability points into one section means lacking in rests, therefore, users will need to invest thoughtfully.)

In addition, but not yet confirmed, we are currently in discussion on making new animations for some skills that take long time casting to give it a speedy. Aggro-logic will be newly changed. Force Shielders will be more specialized in shielding, bringing a fresh taste in Party plays with new Aggro-logic. As balancing work between characters wraps up, each Mission Dungeons will have different difficulty levels followed with different rewards, depending on which level and the number of party members.

CABAL GM: Ok. It seems like lots of changes are in progress. Of course, as I mentioned earlier, things are adjustable, so it would be appreciated and easy for fans as well, if fans could just get the basic idea of what is going on. CABAL Online has more adult fans, and one of the reasons is that CABAL Online is simple and easy to play comparing to others.However, the risk side is that ‘easy’ could mean ‘boring.’ It seems like not only attacks but also on defense are balancing out as well. It excites me just thinking about it. You will get back to GM when you guys set the final direction, right? ^^

CABAL Game Developer: More than what we listed above is in renewal. We will do our best to bring out the best outcome in the shortest time so all fans can experience and hit us back with feedbacks.

CABAL GM: Ok, thank you! We hope CABAL fans got some answers for their questions. Rather than details, I believe we showed the big outline of where we are heading.

Interview with CABAL Game Developer – Balance II
We have lots of things to cover today. To make our lives easier I have made Content list and you can just simply find (Ctrl + F) the title of each section and it shall be there for you. This time it covers the whole update in overall so it wouldn’t be bad to go over the entire article. Designers Note 'Balance II', Here it goes now.
 * The content of this interview and information disclosed by the Game Developer is subject to change.
 * The content of this thread is a direct copy and paste.

CONTENT

[General] 1. DEF got worse? 2. Difficulties on low-level fields 3. Concepts on SP cost on skills 4. Short Cool Time and Duration 5. Immediate activating skills 6. Dungeon clear time increased? 7. Balance between Sword classes and Magic classes on PvP

[Warrior]

1. DPS on BattleMode3 2. Duration of Bear’s Vitality and Cat’s Recovery 3. Defense penalties on Bloody Spirit 4. Critical DMG Resistance option removal on Panic Cry 5. Balance concept of Warrior

[Blader]

1. Low Accuracy of Crushing Blow 2. PvP Damage of BattleMode2 3. Synergy effects of BattleMode3 4. Balance concept of Blader

[Wizard]

1. Increase in Damage 2. PvP Damage of BattleMode2 3. Synergy effects of BattleMode3 4. Balance concept of Wizard

[Force Archer] 1. Damage reduce of BattleMode3 2. Art of Sniping 3. Increased Damage on single target 4. BattleMode2 5. Balance concept of Force Archer

[Force Shielder]

1. Attack stat 2. Low Attack Success Rate 3. Agro 4. Balance concept of Force Shielder

[Force Blader] 1. Attack stat 2. Cool Time when Execration skill failed 3. Immediate Activation of De-buff skills 4. Balance concept of Force Blader

[General]
1. DEF got worse? ▶ Damage equation has been modified for the Winter Update, and players might feel as if the overall Defense has gotten lowered. It would be easier to understand that the whole concept of Defense has been changed. Effectiveness of Defense is designed to be stronger if the enemy is stronger. Therefore, as contents of higher difficulties get updated, players will be able to experience the more effective Defense status. Specially, Armor classes will have their own roles on party raids. Yet, we will make sure they will only be on new contents so that single-play users can stay on their tracks without any interference.

2. Difficulties on low-level fields ▶ Increasing difficulty levels of low-level fields through the Winter Update had been planned for some time. Back then, difficulty level gap increased largely on levels around 100, and unprepared players had hard time adapting to higher grounds. To narrow down the gap, the level difficulties for below-100-level fields have been changed. Balancing is still under modification and it shall be more pleasant. These changes will hopefully be utilized as a tool to make the game play more tense and interesting.

3. Concepts on SP cost on skills ▶ Some of skills will require SP consumption for skill usage. It might surprising because SP wasn’t a factor that had anything to do with skill use. All that is used for skill use in CABAL Online are SP and MP, and we decided to make every factor more meaningful and useful. Plus, MP is pretty much an unlimited resource compared to SP. (Beside some special cases like Mana Freeze) For that reason, SP will be of more use, and hopefully players can be more strategic playing CABAL Online.

4. Short Cool Time and Duration ▶ Duration and Cool Time for many skills have been modified in the Winter Update. These changes are for the dynamic gameplays. Of course on the other hand, it could be burdensome to control all these skills. Yet these changes will create more variables to for PvPs and mob hunting, eventually making the play more interesting. 5. Immediately activating skills ▶ Immediate skill activation is still under development, and it will be changed so that skills can be activated while moving around. In addition, knocked-down players will stay knocked-down even if the Instant Immunity is activated while knocked down. Please take a note that if the opponent’s skill has been activated forehand, even the immediately activating skills won’t be in effect.

6. Dungeon clear time increased? ▶ Game system will be modified in overall with the Winter Update. The goal is ‘to make it more interesting, and to set the frame for future upcoming contents’. To do so, we had to modify equations like I have mentioned earlier. We tried not to make too much difference so that players wouldn’t have to go through whole turmoil. Defense will be applied differently according to opponent’s levels so that players might feel weaker against low level monsters, yet, against stronger monsters players will be able to experience the stabilized stat with upcoming upper level contents.

7. Balance between Sword classes and Magic classes on PvP ▶ We are well aware that long-range/swift characters have more advantage on 1 on 1 but lowering down the values will destroy the balance. We are rather trying to improve moving skills for Short-range characters. Not just changing the value, but giving the characteristics and useful features to battle fields. Sword based characters definitely have their own roles in upcoming small-group PvP, and even on 1 vs. 1, we will add various battle fields to specialize every Battle Styles in use.

[Warrior]
1. DPS on BattleMode3 ▶ There were many complains on DPS of BattleMode3 for Warrior, so that we have made changes to it. *[Changes in BattleMode3 of Warrior / Force Archer] Even after the changes above, we still get the opinions that the BattleMode 3 is yet not balanced well. We have gone through lots of simulation tests. Result showed that it doesn’t give critical disadvantage any more. If the changes are to be made just based on comparison with other Battle Styles, same problem would occur to other Battle Styles as well and it will be in forever loop.

2. Duration of Bear’s Vitality and Cat’s Recovery ▶ There are also many opinions on Bloody Spirit skill that they don’t have different Duration with other related skills. Therefore, it has been changed for Bear’s Vitality and Cat’s Recovery to have longer cool time with shorter duration compared to Bloody Spirit.

3. Defense penalties on Bloody Spirit ▶ Due to the defense penalties of Bloody Spirit, many users have complained that it’s hard to use Bloody Spirit skill in upper level dungeon. We have taken some account in this matter, and it has been modified so that the taken damage of Warrior and Wizard don’t differ much (in same armor level) after the update. Additionally, not only the Critical DMG Up has been added but also Piercing option has been added as well.

4. Critical DMG Resistance option removal on Panic Cry ▶ Concept of Panic Cry skill has been changed in whole. To prevent over-balancing, Critical DMG Resistance option has been removed, and instead, the option is moved to Bloody Spirit so that each skill will be more specialized in its use. Please understand that adding any more status abnormality options to Panic Cry skill would destroy the balance.

5. Balance concept of Warrior ▶ All MMORPG never misses out Warrior class. In most of cases, Warrior classes have strong short-range attacks, high-mid defense, and high HP points. Most times control difficulties of Warrior classes are not high, either. That was how it was for CABAL Online as well. For that, we gave slow attack speed for a penalty and we are well aware that this factor could be critical sometimes. Warrior has the widest range attacks among short-range Battle Styles. This works as an advantage in Mission War but as a disadvantage in Missions Battle (1 vs. 1). These gaps are to be narrowed down with skill renewals. Slow attacks would definitely give Warriors disadvantage on 1 vs. 1, but this is only the beginning of Mission Battle System yet. Soon there will be new maps that will equal out these characteristics of all Battle Styles. (Specially, in Team Battles, Warriors will have its own role to play. Of course other Battle Styles will have their own roles to play.) We will go over the charging skills to improve abilities getting into the attack range. (We are trying not to change any cool time for skills because Warriors already have disadvantages of slow attack speed.)

[Blader]
1. Low Accuracy of Crushing Blow ▶ Crushing Blow was designed to have high Critical DMG with low success rate. Having high success rate would not be fair for other Battle Styles, or lowering Critical DMG to give higher success rate would be out of its concept. As it could give opponent a serious damage, it is hard to remove Accuracy penalty.

2. PvP Damage of BattleMode2 ▶ Due to the concept of BattleMode2 weapon, it is hard to give range availability to Blader. Changes in range would cause more problems, and I believe lowering down DMG for wider range is not the answer players are seeking.

3. Synergy effects of BattleMode3 ▶ Critical Rate Up option will be removed from Blader skills in the Winter Update, instead, Critical DMG Up options will have larger value. The change was taken place because Battle Mode does not support Critical Rate Up option, and for the difficulties from setting the equipment due to the different Critical Rate option for every skills. 4. Balance concept of Blader ▶ Current status of Blader sure does not go with the concept, ‘The most damage dealt on 1 vs. 1!’ It shows different results in tests in dungeons but the gap is even bigger in Mission Battles. Changes were done in consideration of data of ladder Battles.

[Wizard]
1. Increase in Splash Damage ▶ Splash damage of Wizard will be increased. This change is to specialize its Battle Style. Players can fill up the down side with stat points and upgrade skills. With new upcoming contents, Wizard should be able to balance out its abilities.

2. Synergy effects of BattleMode3 ▶ Sword based Battle Styles are designed to have higher Attack compared to Force based Battle Styles, on the other hand, Force based Battle Styles have lower Attack but have higher Critical DMG/Rate. Therefore, modification on Critical Rate on Sword based Battle Styles is a very delicate subject to handle.

3. Balance concept of Wizard ▶ Wizard is being modified centered on high Magic Attack with wide range for a basic concept. Wizard might show low damage done on 1 vs. 1 time to time, but the most damage will be dealt against multiple enemies due to the splash damages. To balance out, penalties can be done to DEF and requires good controls of players.

[Force Archer]
1. Damage reduce of BattleMode3 ▶ Players might think that the damages done by Force Archer have been reduced. However, as stated above, it was only because DEF of monsters got relatively stronger with the new equation. 2. Art of Sniping ▶ Art of Sniping definitely needed to be modified because of its over-balancing options but instead of just lowering down the options, we decided to add different options to give it a new concept. In the process, even though we mentioned of removing Immobile option, we figured out that it cannot be changed for any other options. Therefore, we have decided not to remove Immobile.

3. Increased Damage on single target ▶ To pay off the reduced damage of BattleMode3, we have increased Attack against single targeted enemies. It will be increased about 150%. However, this increase will not be applied on PvP.

4. BattleMode2 ▶ As many players mentioned of lack of usefulness of Force Archer’s BattleMode2, we have improved BattleMode 2 for Force Archer. Values of Skill Amplification, Additional Attack, Piercing, and Accuracy have gotten bigger. It would be about 152% more damages. Force Archer BattleMode2 has short animations on skill moves so that there are limits to giving large values.

5. Balance concept of Force Archer ▶ Putting BattleMode3 aside, Force Archer was more like a supportive class. (That is why Forcer Archer has healing skills and many other buff skills. That was a part of reason we designed Force Archer BattleMode3 to be powerful. We will try to keep the concept of strong supportive class as much as we can.

[Force Shielder]
1. Attack stat ▶ As stated above, Force based Battle Styles have comparatively low Attack and we are going through tests to balance them out. Due to the concepts and balance, immediate change on Force based Battle Styles will cause severe unbalance between Battle Styles. Even though modification wasn’t performed on this coming update, that doesn’t mean it will never change. We will be able to get back to you with better results sometime soon. 2. Low Attack Success Rate ▶ Force Shielder is defense-specialized Battle Style, and this characteristic will be strengthened in future updates. Simple numbers won’t be able to explain all, but starting with upcoming ‘Tower of the Undead B3F’, players will be able to feel the difference. Because of the high defense ability, we had to give it a little penalty of low attack success rate to even out. However, new skills that can cover the downside like Guard Break is planned to be added in future updates.

3. Agro ▶ Role of Party play is very small in CABAL Online, therefore, Agro doesn’t take big parts in game play. There weren’t many occasions where Force Shielder served a role as a tanker. This will be changed. Agro concept is being developed with new system, and Force Shielders will have their days to serve as tankers, taking strong parts in party plays.

4. Balance concept of Force Shielder ▶ Many players are asking for more power to Force Shielders. Force Shielders were designed to have high defense with low offense but big damages with critical attacks. Sword skills of Completer and Transcender ranks are good examples of them. Yet, downsizing Critical Rate Resistance that was done for all Battle Styles may have made Force Shielders look weaker. For this, we have added Critical DMG Up option has been added to Crushing Blade and Critical Rate Up option to Shield Charge. Enjoying both single-play and party-play is the ultimate goal we are trying to reach. I promise that players will be able to enjoy the fun playing Force Shielders in any plays.

[Force Blader]
1. Attack stat ▶ We have gathered many opinions that Force using Battle Styles have low basic Attack points. If the modification is made only to Force using Battle Styles, it could take down the balance so that we are having simulations on modifying the ability values for all Battle Styles. In Force Blader’s case, Force Bladers are not made to be all-time tough guy but more of making opportunities with all the buffs and de-buff skills.

2. Cool Time when Execration skill failed ▶ As the cool time for Execration when failed initializes, being able to apply Immobile to opponents destroyed the balance. It has been changed to fix the problem above.

3. Immediate Activation of De-buff skills ▶ If De-buff skills change to Immediate Activation, not only by the balance, but it will have problems on delivering Player status info. We are in development to increase the duration of De-buff skills so that deal loss can be minimized.

4. Balance concept of Force Blader ▶ Unlike other Battle Styles, Force Blader are very likely to be play PvP in extreme strategy. We all can see that just by looking at all the de-buff skills. As the 1:1 Mission Battle Ladder system is added, this concept will be able to give Force Blader some advantages. Force Blader would stay as one of the most difficult Battle Style to control, yet this concept could make the Force Blader too hard to control, so we are working on finding the perfect balance line for Force Blader.

[OUTRO] Thank you for reading this long article to the end! Take care and Thank you ^^

Interview with CABAL Game Developer Notes - Skill Renewal
Date: September – 26 - 2012 CABAL GM: Hello, Mr. H. You look so serious today.
 * The content of this interview and information disclosed by the Game Developer is subject to change. **

CABAL Game Developer: Yes. Hi. It’s my first interview and I’m getting so nervous.

CABAL GM: Don’t worry. It’s not like we are going to beat you or anything like that. So what brought you all the way here?

CABAL Game Developer: Lots of people are wondering about Skill Renewal and its after-effects and here I am with some answers for all you. I will give you details on Buff Skills, Upgrade Skills, and by Battle Styles.

CABAL GM:  It sounds exciting. How are the skills going to be renewed for each Battle Styles?

CABAL Game Developer: Well, this is how Skill Renewal will be changed for each Battle Style. (there are more but we picked out the big ones to share.)

[Skill Renewal]
•New Weapon called ‘Astral Enchant’ will be added to Astral Weapon Slot [-]Astral Enchant has Critical Rate UP/ Critical DMG UP/ Attack UP options. (Similar with the original Blade skill options) [-]Astral Enchant options, Critical DMG and Attack UP options increase according to the level of Weapons. (Critical Rate Up is held for 35%) •The three enchant skill; Ice, Fire, Lightning will turn out to be buff skill with no time limitation.

[-]All three skills cannot be applied at the same time; instead, each skill would have its own optional effect to it. [-]Depending on which skill is applied, attack skills and de-buff skills will have different options.

•Art of Curse skill is to be added. Art of Curse is a de-buff skill that reduces enemy’s resistance, and depending on which skill is applied, it will have different additional options.

•Crushing Blade skill will be changed to Passive skill. (No need to activate the skill) •Reflect Shield (TBC) skill will be added. The concept of this skill is to return the received damage to enemies.

•Art of Healing skill will be changed to Passive skill. •Art of Sniping will have its critical rate fixed, and is in discussion of removing its Immobility effect. •Quick Move (TBC) skill will be added, which will increase its viability temporarily. •Battle Mode 1, Multi Shooter, is in development to a new mode with a new concept.

•A new passive skill that increases Magic Attack will be added. •Spirit Shield (TBC) skill will be added, which will increase its viability temporarily.

•When Intuition skill is activated, it will null out all damages (except the HP reducing debuffs) temporarily. This skill will be an immediately-applying skill that it won’t need any animation on activation. •Many buff skills will be changed to Passive skills. •Blade Force/Blade Aura/Soul Blade will be removed and Attack up option will be added as a Passive skill.

•Panic Cry skill will now affect in range-base. •Blade Force/Blade Aura/Soul Blade will be removed and Attack up option will be added as a Passive skill.

CABAL GM:  Most of Buff Skills became Passive skills… that’s so convenient.

Then what about Buff skills and Upgrade skills?

CABAL Game Developer: Yeah, not only changes on Buff skills and Upgrade skills but a so-called ‘Immediately-Applying Skills’ will be added with abnormality options.

Abnormal Status •Domination / Provoke / Immobility / Silence status are to be developed. •Above abnormalities won’t have any resistance value like Stun/Knockback/Down, and they will be added according to Battle Styles.

Immediately-Applying Skills •Every Battle Style will have its own Immediately-applying skills that won’t require any animation on activation. •These skills can be applied without breaking Combos.

Apparently, the skills can be applied immediately even during the attacks with no animation on activation.

[Buff Skills]•All buff skills of strengthening physical, mental, weapons and armors will be removed. Therefore, there will be no Buff skill limitation. Yet, to keep the balance, some skills will have reasonable cool-time. •Buff activation animation will be shortened to within a second. •Planning to fix how buffs couldn’t be applied after changing weapons.

Upgrade Skills•Upgrade skills were to buy corresponding skills books, but it is to be changed. •Users can learn next level skill just by simply clicking ‘+’ on Skill window. Price stays the same. •Upgrade Skill books are not to be dropped or sold anymore, but remaining skill books are usable as well.

[Skill Slot] •Instead of Sword / Magic skills, it will be changed to Attack / Support. As for the Transcender Rank, 27 Attack skill slots / 20 Support skill slots can be retained. (Can be changed)

CABAL GM: Hmm, it sure is changing. Even better!

How soon are we going to be able to see these changes?

CABAL Game Developer: Date has not been set yet. As I have mentioned earlier, all these details are either in development or in testing. We will try to get it done as soon as possible so stay in close.

CABAL GM: Awesome! Do you have anything else to add?

CABAL Game Developer: Well, we have this one thing, hmm…

CABAL GM:  What is it? Say it out.

CABAL Game Developer: We named it ‘Stack Effect’. It’s a new concept for skill system.

CABAL GM:  ‘Stack Effect’?

[Stack Effect]
CABAL Game Developer: Yes. Battle Styles would have its own gauge or points to stack up from the battle, and then, players can have additional effects consuming those stacked points.

Every Battle Style would have different effects such as Attack UP, Skill Amplification, or even damaging more HP by the stacked points.

We are still in discussion on how we shall combine this new concept with new/renewed skills.

CABAL GM:  So it’s just conceptual model yet, then?

CABAL Game Developer: Well, it is. This topic has been around for a while so I guess it’s OK to reveal it in public BUT as I said, it still needs to be reviewed, discussed, and tested.

CABAL GM:  OK! Do you have anything more to add?

[Mission Battle]
CABAL Game Developer: Yes, we are working on this new ‘Mission Battle System’ and it is to be tested sometime soon internally. You can keep your hopes up for this one.

CABAL GM: Mission Battle System… It sure would sound terrific for PvP lovers. ^^ Thank you for sharing with us.

CABAL Game Developer: You are more than welcome!


 * Stay alert for the future updates and hope to see you guys soon again.

'''Thank you. '''