Vortex Gaming

Today (June 19th), Nexon and Neople held the third 'D-Talks' for Dungeon&Fighter, where developers candidly listened to and communicated with adventurers. This third D-Talks (hereinafter referred to as D-Talks) was hosted by caster Sung Seung-heon and live director Hong Jin-hyuk, who is also the head of the Arad Community Center. Various news, including the results of a survey conducted on adventurers and future plans, were revealed.

Content Director Kim Yun-hee mentioned the survey results and the first half of the year's survey, and said that they are preparing for a renewal of the Inquisitor within the year. She also mentioned that they will continue to do their best to ensure that many adventurers can satisfactorily develop their characters through patches, and explained that the June character balance will target a total of 9 classes.

The mentioned characters are ▲Agent, ▲Hitman, ▲Troubleshooter, ▲Specialist, ▲Vagabond, ▲Durandal, ▲Dark Lancer, ▲Dark Knight, ▲Creator. In particular, the Agent and Lancer subclasses have slow animations and speeds, which will be improved by increasing attack/movement speed. The Agent class will be primarily supplemented with utility such as survival and defense.

In particular, regarding the Agent's Dark Moon Stealth, it was mentioned that the introduction of the cooldown cap in this season has alleviated the problem of using only one skill like in the past, and skills with short invincibility times, such as invincibility during attacks, will be revamped. In the case of Battle Crusader (Male), which many adventurers have mentioned, the nerf is being carefully and cautiously considered due to its connection with various aspects such as items, dungeons, and monsters.

The contents of the June balance patch will be applied to the First Server in two days for the real server application next week. In addition, a similar scale of balance patch is being prepared for July, and 12 classes are scheduled to be adjusted, including Dimension Walker, Blade, Battle Mage, and Dragon Knight. In addition, the bug related to the Dimension Walker's damage will be updated on the real server this week, separately from the balance patch.

The two recently updated new characters (Muse, Traveler) showed high user satisfaction overall. In the case of Muse, there were some complaints about the inconvenience of playing music, but Director Kim Yun-hee mentioned that she hoped people would see it as an area of character individuality and emotion. Also, Traveler's performance was decent and satisfaction with the style was high, and she expressed gratitude for the opinions of many adventurers after the First Server.

Codename: Gae Bolg (hereinafter Gae Bolg) showed high satisfaction in overall aspects such as BGM and monster design. However, it was analyzed that the tension was greatly reduced due to many planning intentions such as learning steps and accessibility, position changes, and adventurer unit rewards in the dungeon design.

As a result, the more you play, the longer and more tedious it can feel, and the solution to this is to adjust the return rewards for pattern breaking to reduce the feeling of dragging on. Regarding the recent increase in basic attack gimmicks, Director Kim Yun-hee apologized, mentioning that the frequency of use has become too high, and mentioned that they will continue to research ways to reduce the gap between gimmick performance methods and classes in future content and develop content.

In addition, Center Director Hong Jin-hyuk also reflected on the fact that too many planning intentions were put into the growth rewards, resulting in a misaligned and unreasonable reward structure, and conveyed his apologies to the adventurers.

The 60-65 level account-bound random jar mentioned by many adventurers in Bakal Raid Hard Mode will be removed. In fact, it was a meaningless reward for adventurers who entered Bakal Raid Hard Mode. Regarding this, Director Lee Won-man directly mentioned at the end of the event that it would be deleted.

The rewards for the newly added Bakal Raid: Hard Mode (hereinafter Hard Bakal) were applied in a similar form to the Ozma equipment ban system, and the development team is analyzing that it has advantages such as reducing damage deviation and accumulating until you reach the desired option someday.

The development team explained that Hard Bakal is a dungeon that reflects many elements that Dungeon&Fighter has been experimentally preparing. It reflects concerns about learning new patterns, strategic elements, filling the lack of reinforcement, directing, and plausibility, and trying to relieve the regrets of the existing Bakal Raid by adding new gimmicks.

Based on the experience from Hard Bakal and Bakal Raid, the development team mentioned that they learned a lot of elements to consider when preparing raids and dungeons equivalent to raids in the future. In addition, many behind-the-scenes tests were being conducted internally, and some of them were conducted in the form of events for users. The currently ongoing 'Monster Fighters' is in a similar context, and Director Kim Yun-hee mentioned that there are things that are being tried unknowingly with such horizontal content, so she asked for the participation of many adventurers.

The guild system, which caused many mails and inconveniences, will be patched this Thursday to prevent the maximum number of mails from being reached. In addition, some items that can be purchased with guild coins have become compulsory, and content that becomes compulsory will be more carefully considered for rewards, and guild updates will be prepared based on the community.

Next, the number of convenience developers went on stage and mentioned the planned convenience patches. In the future, Dungeon&Fighter will be patched so that the running state is maintained even when passing through rooms, and the Fatigue Recovery Potion can be used in dungeons. In the case of fatigue, it is a matter that takes time to replace due to the structural issues of the game.

In addition, the cutscene time at the beginning of Legion-level dungeons such as Isipin's and Dimensional Corridor will be reduced. In addition, there will be changes related to equipment transfer. In the future, most of the equipment specifications (fusion, amplification, reinforcement, etc.) will be changed together, similar to a lump-sum transfer ticket.

These convenience improvement details will be released in detail in the developer notes today (June 19th) and updated on the First Server on June 21st.

The 'Storm-Called Castle', a resource dungeon for the top 30% of fame adventurers that was recently updated, is reported by the development team to have created meaningful data. In the case of Canyon Hill, there have been many stories about it, but it has been watched because there is no alternative, and this new resource dungeon has made it possible to divide the adventurer group into two. One group earns resources and invests them in growth, and the other group is more like a workplace.

As a result, it has become time to lower the gold in general dungeons, including Canyon Hill, and Canyon Hill will be changed to have about 50% less resources than before. Instead, the growth resources up to item level 60 will be lowered by half, and if it is judged that the load is severe based on level 60 first, further lowering may be done later.

In addition, the creature artifact that appears in Storm-Called Castle was first introduced in a simple structure, and was created with future function additions in mind. Regarding this, developer Shin Dong-ho said that he will continue to worry about not only resource dungeons but also artifacts and continue to update and improve them.

The events that can be mentioned most significantly in the first half of 2023 were the events linked to the 'Arad Community Center' and the 'Black Rabbit Avatar'. First, developer Shin Dong-ho mentioned that the Azusen event was in the wrong order. He reflected that the plan was changed from what was intended because he was planning with broadcasting, Azusen, and lottery in mind, and as a result, he missed the embarrassing parts that adventurers would feel in terms of UX.

The Black Rabbit was a miscalculation. Platinum emblems were items with excessively large price deviations, but this part was not included in the calculation, and the product became an unacceptable price. So, the change was made unprecedentedly.

In addition, he mentioned that he was in a hurry. The resources for the new class Archer were limited due to physical limitations. There was effort from the avatar team, but the avatars could not be released in various ways due to physical limitations, so the event was held with the obsession of adding even the Black Rabbit to respond to the requests of adventurers who wanted to decorate. Developer Shin Dong-ho said that there are still many sets of discontinued avatars that have not been filled, and that the filled sets are being provided as quickly as possible.

The Summer Festival will be held sequentially from the 29th. The amplification event will also be held from the 22nd, and the swimsuit avatar package will start selling from the 29th.

In the meantime, Dungeon&Fighter has increased the number of broadcasts and content such as this event, D-Talks, Arad Community Center broadcasts, DNF Duel, and Jung Jun-do Relay. Center Director Hong Jin-hyuk mentioned that some of the development team are reluctant to come out, and vice versa, there are many people who want to try it, but he believes that making this atmosphere more accessible will help improve the development quality. He also mentioned that he will continue to prepare communication opportunities with that thought, although he may be the only one who can do it.

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Next, General Director Lee Won-man, who appeared, announced that he had agreed to remove the 60-65 level account-bound random jar in Bakal Raid Hard Mode, and delivered that he had prepared a gift at Seria's Special Shop. He said that the reason why he, as the general director, did not participate in D-Talks was because he thought that the developers and users could meet and communicate directly, receive criticism and praise, and review them to create a better DNF.

Seon-gye is currently being developed with the best effort, and will be updated in the near future with DNF Duel. 'DNF Duel', a large-scale event that announces Dungeon&Fighter's future update plans and new content, is scheduled to be held in August and will be held offline.

At the end of the event, General Director Lee Won-man mentioned, "Adventurers, our game is operating normally!! We are preparing with the best effort so that there is no need for such words." He also said, "There was a temptation not to do D-Talks, but we still have to do it. How is it communication if you only do it when it's good?" He also asked the adventurers for a lot of criticism and praise in the future, saying, "We will continue to communicate and fix things even when things are bad, and we will improve and create a better DNF without being complacent even while receiving the praise you give us from time to time."

Center Director Hong Jin-hyuk also mentioned his feelings, saying, "I'm sorry that I couldn't answer all the opinions you gave this time," and said, "I will try to check all the contents and reflect them in the plan as much as possible."

Webzine InvenReporter Yang Young-seok
2023-06-19