Adventurers,

Dropping by to share some news. Get comfortable as we dive into it!

First off, a sincere thank you for playing Legend of Ares. This has been an incredible journey. From the launch of players battling for the First Time achievements, conquering hordes of monsters, engaging your foes in combat, guilds forged, and new legends made. As with all things though in due time the journey must end. 

But this is not the end of this journey! Through the continued support of the game and the accomplishments achieved - we are excited to share that Reforgix has been awarded a renewal for the Legend of Ares. We are looking forward to what the future years hold in store!

Direction

Long ago there was an announcement on the direction of the game, and this largely remains the focus. To recap some of these categories:

Simplicity: The game should be easy to understand and play. This includes maintaining the battle system for its simplicity in the Point to Click and largely focusing one action at a time. 

PvP-Focused Gameplay: Competition between players 

Progression: Keeping the game engaging regardless of where you are on your journey.

On a smaller scale some changes may have been large to some, but the actual changes were more conservative to fit the above categories. Many ideas were created and tested but not many have made their way into the game. Some core questions have been introduced internally such as:

• How to focus PvP to make it more meaningful?
  
  

• How can we expand on the Guild System without sacrificing activities like boss hunting?
  
  

• How can progression be improved without simply upgrading grades?

We kickstarted the new year discussing these questions and more. Ultimately, we feel that the community should have a voice in these matters to guide into future updates. All ideas from the retired Discord channels and previous ticket system are saved and, in some cases, have been reviewed multiple times. An example would be boss shards which would be a currency drop. These shards could then be traded in for boss items. 

Additionally, we are not satisfied with the release schedule. While the team tackled backend work or changes to our internal ecosystem it was at the cost of not delivering communication or updates to the players. Let's take a moment to look at a few examples. Transparently -there were hurdles to cross with the team being decentralized and limitations we encountered. There are three major developers to the game to cover infrastructure, server, client, and the data. As work progressed some blocks were expected or discovered. When these blocks happen it inevitably would lead to a delay. The rebuild is an obvious example especially as release became closer. Another example is item prefixes and quantities which required a data type change. 

To put this in perspective for delays - this data type limitation was known in 2024, but other priorities were higher and the limit was not expected to be reached until much later on. This caused a block on converting the Ares Adventure Store with Paniga from being text driven to an actual NPC store because the quantity limit was capped to the data type. This is the same issue when adding new prefixes to the game.

Returning to the point, the team has not stopped working. Many missed opportunities for communication went by and we want to return to a state where players are informed while updating the game in a regular manner. 

So how is this going to be addressed?

• Tighter integration within the team and cycles.

• GM’s will largely not be inside Support tickets anymore. Escalations and notifications will happen but over 25% of time logged was spent on Support.

• Support Tickets will not be a place for discussions or arguments. Please use this for actual issues.

• Regular communication with players.
  
  

What are a few things being worked on?

• Nation Warfare: Still being worked on. A reminder that the reason for the removal was to overhaul the system back to its original state. During previous rounds of testing numerous bugs were uncovered - the worst of which was a death bug that would continue to cycle. A recent audit just happened which uncovered opportunities to streamline the code. During this time a poll will be launched on Monday that will influence some of the direction that is related to the content part of Nation Warfare.
  
  

• Map Editor: Is largely finished. During creation of new maps, it uncovered a few collision bugs with certain objects. Most of this is now fixed. Work still needs to be done to add things like water or lava. We also have additional thoughts for certain ground mechanics such as Damage over Time if standing or moving through certain terrains.
  
  

• Item Editor for weapons is in a functioning state. Testing for custom weapons should begin by July.
  
  

• Character and Monster Editors are coming online. When finished it will allow staff to make custom characters and monsters. This also will include new animations. 
  
  

• Item Linking For players you will be able to send your item to be shown in the chat box. Other players can hover over the message and see the item.
  
  

• Instance Expansions to both include group play (Party, Guild, or Nation) and more zones for players to instance.
  
  

• Etana Caverns An introductory instance for new players they may complete once a day. 
  
  

• The Advent: On Gardion an ancient site has been unearthed. Descending into the Advent you will find the spirits of an army, led by Korrin, Syris, Arion, and Mirael that found themselves trapped inside the mountain while they sought refuge during a long-forgotten war. Brace yourself for this trial as the area is protected by magic that prevents special scrolls, guild calls, and mapmakers. If war erupts you must be ready to hold your ground or be punished for being unprepared.
  
  

• “Beta” Testing content inside Phoenix for players. This will allow early views of content without spilling into the main game and feedback before launch.
  
  

• Lastly, a new client for Ares. Logging in and testing is already well underway. Wish more could be said but this is being played close to the chest….