Albion Online Dev Talk - Lancelot Midseason Patch

The Lancelot Midseason Patch launched today, bringing several new features and improvements to the game. In today's Dev Talk, Game Director Robin Henkys talks about these changes in detail. If you'd prefer a short-and-sweet rundown of the changes coming with this patch, click here - otherwise, read on!

If you don't have time to listen to the whole talk, here's a written summary of his points:

Key Components

• Re-Spec Feature
• Rebalancing of Siphoned Energy and Battle Mounts
• Removal of the GvG bonus from Siphoning Mages
• Reduction of the Learning Point spending threshold to 20%
• Introduction of a GvG Training system
• Gear soft caps and other changes to Hellgates
• Various gear and balance tweaks

Re-Spec

This feature, the most prominent of the Midseason Patch, lets players switch to a different set of gear - either based on meta changes to the game, or simply because they want to try something new.

How it works:

• Players can drain progress from any combat node and convert it into Fame Credits
• Includes a Silver cost based on the type of node and Fame drained
• Fame Credits can then be invested into any other combat node to push its progress
• 80% of the Fame is retained during this process
• Different slots give and require different amounts of Fame Credits - so, for example, you can’t drain your progress in helmets and expect to get the equivalent level in a weapon
• This feature gives players who really want to switch a chance to do so without starting from zero, but the costs involved (both in Silver and Fame) should ensure players don’t constantly change gear on a whim

Rebalancing of Siphoned Energy and Battle Mounts

We took a look at what energy was being used for in-game, and found that the cost of using energy for buying Relics was out of sync with the market price for energy. This meant that people were only using siphoned energy to buy T4 Relics, and trading the rest of their energy for Silver.

• Siphoned energy was intended as a source for higher-end Relic items, so we decided to dramatically reduce the cost of buying Relics for energy in order to increase its importance and to make mage raiding more valuable
• Also, we observed that battle mounts were not being used during the massive ZvZ fights on reset days (which is what they were intended for) - we decided to boost their usability with slight speed increases, as well as lower their cost to make them more attractive to actually deploy
• There’s an opportunity to trade in your old, much more expensive battle mounts to recover the energy spent on them
• Both these changes should both ensure that siphoned energy remains in high demand, so that raiding mages is a worthwhile activity

Removal of GvG Bonus from Mages

With Lancelot, we introduced a feature which gave a small GvG battle bonus to the guild which controlled the Siphoning mages in a territory before a GvG fight. This feature was intended to give more players the opportunity to influence the outcome of GvG fights, thus connecting them to their guild’s goals. 

We still believe in finding exciting ways for all players to contribute to the success of their guild, but many of you felt this feature was forcing you into an undesirable or chore-like activity, and as such we have decided to remove the feature based on your feedback. We’ll keep looking for other ways to get all guild members involved in guild warfare.

Reduction of the Learning Point Spending Threshold

We’re lowering the threshold for spending LP from 30% to 20% on all Destiny Board nodes.

• The LP cost remains the same at 30%, while at 20% it is higher
• This allows returning players or players with high amounts of LP stocked up to more quickly progress and spend their LP
• In order for this feature to not have an impact on the starting experience, we’re increasing the starting LP by 100
• This amount of LP will also be granted to all existing players who received starting LP

GvG Training Feature

One of the key concerns of the player base is the skill gap between old and new GvG players. To make it easier to close that skill gap, we’re introducing the GvG Training Mode.

• In its initial version, this system uses a console command - we hope it will later be accessible from the Arena Masters UI as well
• It allows you to invite two teams of players to a friendly GvG match on various GvG maps
• Right now this is just a very basic feature, but in the long run we want to extend it to allow you to set up a number of custom settings or organize your own player-run tournaments

Hellgate Changes

Also in this patch are a number of changes to Hellgates:

• Firstly, we’re introducing a soft gear cap to all Hellgates found in black and red zones
• All item power above a threshold of 1000 will be scaled down by 50% in these Hellgates
• This should make it easier to compete with high-geared Hellgate groups and should also ensure it is easier to be profitable when playing these Hellgates

In addition, we’ve decided to make the 5v5 Hellgates found in yellow zones full-loot. They will retain their relatively hard gear cap of 800 IP with a scaling down of 80% of all Item Power beyond 800 - the same setting as is used in the Arena. This should make full-loot Hellgate PvP accessible to more players, including those with lower-end gear.

Buffing Underused Items

Finally, this patch also contains a number of balance changes to equipment. These are primarily aimed at strengthening items that are underpowered in their current setup. For full details, please see the Midseason Patch Notes.

That's all for now - stay tuned for more news on our next major content update!