Tarisland, a new upcoming cross platform fantasy game, recently concluded its second closed beta test on November 30. The development team expressed gratitude towards the players in a thread on their official Discord for their enthusiastic participation and valuable feedback, despite the blowback the team received after their game advertised as “No Pay to Win” was decidedly Pay to Win by testers. This feedback is now shaping the game's future, as the team delves into making substantial adjustments and improvements.
One of the most significant changes announced is the removal of gender lock for all classes. This decision, driven by player feedback from the playtest, aims to foster a more inclusive and diverse gaming experience. The developers acknowledge the complexity and time required for this change, especially to maintain the “high-quality animations” and art style of characters. They’ve requested patience from the players, but at least one of the most disliked features of character creators, the dreaded gender-lock, will be gone once they are through.
Another notable change concerns the armor set drops. In future versions, class armor sets will be exclusively available through raids, not crafting. This move is intended to enhance the value and uniqueness of raid drops, though it also pushed players to raid for gear specifically. It’s too early to tell whether this will go over very well with the broader community, as it also diminishes what crafters are capable of.
The Inscribed Stone system, introduced in the latest playtest to allow strategic customization of character attributes, is also undergoing revisions. The developers plan to remove the trading of Inscribed Stone Energy, making it obtainable only through daily activities. This change aims to ensure a level playing field for all players as the ability to trade the stones “undermined the gaming experience”.
Additionally, the game is addressing the difficulty players faced in obtaining gold coins. The developers are exploring the idea of granting gold coins through in-game systems daily, making the game more enjoyable and less strenuous. The team didn’t specifically mention how the team may change the ability to buy gold through their in-game shop, and only resolved that “adjustments to commercialized content” was still in consideration. The ability to buy gold was one of the major factors that contributed to the game being Pay to Win.
These updates are also part of a broader set of improvements being worked on, which includes tweaks in the PvE content difficulty, dungeon challenges, raid schedules, social and grouping systems, class build optimization, profession adjustments, and the introduction of new PvP features. Basically they are looking into every facet of the game as they continue to push through to a multi-platform release, shooting for 2024.
