Greetings Guardians!

 

There was a community survey run just before in KR servers where user Q&A was held.
Many of the questions asked could be questions that could answer some of the questions we have in our serviced regions as well, so we have decided to release this Q&A on our channels as well!

Please note that the contents and discussion points below may be rescheduled or updated with future announcements and that the point-in-time mentioned referring to the KR servers.

 

Q1. What are the next story update plans?

ㄴ As we mentioned in our 2022 roadmap for the second half of the year, we are planning on introducing the main story World 15 update some time between August and September.

 

Q2. What are your plans about introducing mode for different difficulty levels for stories, and plans about removing revival limitations?

ㄴ We have nothing planned for these changes at the moment.

We imagine that this question came up due to the difficulty levels beyond World 10.

We lowered the difficulty levels for these regions for the July 14th update (July 26th for global), and believe that the update resolved a lot of the difficulty level issues.

Introducing a difficulty level mode will introduce many complications.

Your adventure in Guardian Tales does not just end once you clear the stories. Instead, there are many other contents interconnected organically once you clear your adventures.

If we were to add an easy mode, many of these aspects would be ruined. We also think this would cause a problem with the fundamental part of what makes the game fun. 

Moreover, rather than creating a difficulty level mode, we think it's more important to focus on developing new content.

The revival limitations were introduced for certain stages before Season 2 as a device to encourage growth. Rather than forcing you to clear stages through unlimited revivals, we wanted to recommend character growth. Therefore we currently do not have plans to remove this system. However, we'd like to add that we do not have enough post-v2.47 data collected yet. Once we can take a look into some solid data, we can look into removing the system if we determine that it's necessary.

 

Q3. Do you have plans to provide a small amount of rewards for playing completed stories again?

ㄴ The story replay feature was created for those who either did not remember the story they cleared before or wanted to revisit the fun stories again. If we were to add even a small amount of rewards for this system, it would potentially force players to play the stories again, and this would go against our original intentions of the system. Therefore we currently do not have plans to add rewards for replaying completed stories.

 

Q4. Do you have plans to develop an on/off feature for automatically skipping dialogues during stories?

ㄴ Most of the dialogues in the stories are closely connected and timed with what plays on the screen.

If certain dialogues were to be timed differently, it wouldn't match what's happening on the screen, therefore we do not have plans for implementing an automatic dialogue skip on/off feature.
 

Q5. Do you have plans to change the playable character being only fixed as the Knight class?

ㄴ We fixed the story character to the "Knight" as we decided that it was the optimal character to immerse into the game in regards to minimizing balance differences between the players.

We'll continue to look closely at the feedback you provide as you progress through the stories, so that we can improve the game to provide an even better gameplay experience.
 

Q6. Do you have plans to allow heroes other than the main hero to be visible at the Farm?

ㄴ As we mentioned in the R&D section of our 2022 roadmap for the second half of the year, we are looking into adding NPCs in the Farm. Since this is not completely developed yet, please understand that we cannot provide a clear answer for the details on how we will add them.
 

Q7. What are your plans for adding a feature that allows players to visit other Farms?

ㄴ As we mentioned in the R&D section of our 2022 roadmap for the second half of the year, we are looking into how to develop a feature which would allow players to visit each other's farms. 

 

Q8. What are your plans for adding additional Farm decoration items?

ㄴ Many asked us about our plans on adding more Farm decoration items. As mentioned in the R&D section of our 2022 roadmap for the second half of the year, we are preparing to add various objects for the Farm. 

 

Q9. What are your plans for improving Farm seed supplies?

ㄴ We believe that the amount of Ancient Seed being supplied into the game is in line with what we originally intended. We're planning to add other crops to the shop as well. On the update on July 28th (August 9th for global), we'll be introducing various new resources such as coffee. 

 

Q10. What are your plans for improving the Farm's harvesting system?

ㄴ We are aware that it is inconvenient to need to harvest whenever your crops are full and ready for harvesting due to the Expedition and Farm system being connected to each other. We're planning on expanding the Farm's House's maximum level and increasing the number of gardens to 36 on the update on July 28t h(August 9th for global). We're expecting this update to let you relax a bit and let your crops grow without having to visit your Farm as frequently as before.

 

Q11. What are your plans to ease the conditions for accessing the Expedition and Farm content?

ㄴ The Farm content will be updated on July 28th with new crops which can be purchased with SP or Gems. Along with the update, we are planning on lowering the condition to access the Farm to require you to clear up to World 7.

However, the Expedition content was set up to be available for those who have cleared World 13's "The Chosen One" quest, meaning that it was created as an end-game content that's designed to be a very difficult PvE content. 

We do not think that making more content available to players at an earlier point in the game makes the game more fun. We think that lowering the threshold for accessing Expedition would be a stressful experience for players who try it out for the first time early on, rather than an enjoyable experience. 

We believe that players must reach at least a certain level of growth before entering the Expedition. World 13's "The Chosen One" quest served as the minimum threshold of growth required to access the Expedition content. We actually think this is still too early to open up access to the content, and furthermore think that it's not ideal to go against the original purpose or intention of design for the sake of making the content accessible earlier in the game. Therefore we currently do not have plans to change the conditions.
 

Q12. Do you have plans to show the top ranked players for the Expedition content?

ㄴWe're aware that many are curious about what kind of decks the top players used to reach their records displayed in the stage ranks for Trial Arena and Hidden Wonders in Expedition.

We also feel that the records of the top ranked players could serve as a good target for other players to aim for, so we will work on introducing this feature some time this year.

 

Q13. Do you have plans to change the criteria for clearing the Expedition?

ㄴ It's currently based on the top record for the day, and we have no plans on changing it to being based on the top stage records.

The development team wants to continuously bring changes to the game. If Sweep becomes available after the top record clearing, this would mean players would simply choose to Sweep even when new content is added. We believe this should be avoided.

However, we're aware that it's confusing to know whether or not the stats for increased Relic Obtain chances are applied when forming a party for the Expedition. 

We're planning on making more information to be displayed to show your party's additional chances of obtaining Relics through the July 28th update (August 9th for global).

 

Q14. Beyond the Expedition content, what are your plans for new content?

ㄴ Please check out our roadmap announcement we shared with you on July 14th for the details of our future plans.

 

Q15. Are the probabilities for obtaining each type of Relic the same?

ㄴ We're aware that many of your are interested in the probabilities for each type of Relic. The probabilities for each type of Relic are the same. 

Also, the probability of the 6 types of basic stats like Atk and HP Recovery, and the 7 types of secondary stats such as additional damage dealt to bosses are all the same. The probabilities of both high and low stats are the same.

 

Q16. What are your plans for improving the Equipment and Relic windows?

ㄴ We're monitoring your feedback about the improvements you want for the Equipment and Relic windows. 

First, we added filters to the Relic window so that you could easily view each Relic by certain categories (rarity, type, stats). 

However, we believe that a filter for the inventory may make the inventory more inconvenient for many players, therefore we do not have plans to change it. We'll continue to make improvements that could make the game more convenient for everyone.
 

Q17. Do you have plans to make the equipment window and Blacksmith show which heroes have Relics equipped?

ㄴ The equipment window currently shows which hero has a Relic equipped, but the Blacksmith is only partially showing which heroes have a Relic equipped. 

After the July 28th update (August 9th for global), you'll be able to see which heroes have Relics equipped from the Blacksmith. 

 

Q18. What are your plans for the feature for clearing Kama-ZONE?

ㄴ We currently do not have plans to add this feature.

In order to reduce the fatigue from the content, we have brought additional revisions such as increasing the chance to land at an event floor, expanding the period of Rounds from 3 to 7 days. 

We are planning ways to make the Kama-ZONE content itself more fun in the future.
 

Q19. What are your plans for updating the Guild Arcade and adding an overall ranking system?

ㄴ We plan to continuously add new games to the Guild Arcade. 

In regards to the overall ranking system, we'd like to explain that the Guild Arcade was added to let players play without feeling any pressure.

Some players are reaching records that are way out of reach compared to the average player.

Introducing these records through an overall ranking system may cause many to give up.

However, we are thinking about adding events related to overall rankings. We'll share more details about this through an announcement when we're ready. 

 

Q20. What are your plans for further developing the Team Combination Skill and allowing it to be used for Co-op modes?

ㄴ We are continuously thinking about ways to resolve the problems where the Team Combination Skill could be problematic for co-op team play in an action game. However, we couldn't think of a clear solution yet, ever since the press conference. We believe that making it available in more modes without a clear direction could cause a bigger problem in the future.

Making it available in a multiplayer setting would be especially problematic, as it would be forcing certain combinations to be used, or it could potentially be forcefully used unintentionally in certain situations. Due to these potential problems which would provide a negative gaming experience, we have decided not to move forward.

However, the Team Combination Skill is something we really had higher hopes about, and would like to revisit it in the future if we come up with the right direction.

 

Q21. Do you have plans to add higher Co-op mode tiers (difficulty adjustment)?

ㄴ We received feedback about adding the Co-op mode tiers of higher difficulty level.

The difficulty level of the Co-op mode is constantly adjusted upon verifying our internal data whenever we are preparing a new season.

Our expectation is that, increasing its difficulty level even slightly would increase your fatigue

if you play with your 2nd or 3rd best character.

Actual data analysis showed us that when the difficulty of the map increases, the players' participation rate between Wednesday and Sunday drops significantly.

Therefore, we have decided to maintain the Co-op mode's current difficulty structure as is so that many players can participate and enjoy the Co-op mode.

However, we are now aware of the players' need for highly difficult multiplayer content and will take this into account for any future content planning.

 

Q22. Do you have plans to add a feature that displays exclusive weapons for Co-op matchmaking?

ㄴ We assume this question is referring to the possible confusion that might arise from adding a second exclusive weapon.

We will make sure exclusive weapons are displayed in the Co-op mode's matchmaking screen by September.

 

Q23. Do you have plans to add emoji voices for the Co-op mode?

ㄴ We are planning to add a feature that plays a voice suitable for certain emojis. We will post an announcement when this addition is applied in the future. 
 

Q24. Do you have plans to expand the Arena & Co-op mode schedules?

ㄴ The Arena requires a player pool big enough to prevent issues such as repeated matchmakings and to generate smooth matchmakings between players with similar points. Consequently, any possibility of expanding the existing Arena schedule will be considered as carefully as possible.

The Co-op mode schedule is fairly long as it has less side effects compared to Arena, but we are still making restrictions to allow smooth matchmaking.

 

Q25. Do you have plans to add new guild raid bosses?

ㄴ We are planning to add boss monsters that haven't been used in the guild raid on a regular basis.

Not only bosses from side stories or main story will be modified to be added as raid bosses, but also completely new guild raid bosses will be coming soon. We will post a guild raid announcement when this addition is applied in the future (included in the build notes for global).
 

Q26. Do you have plans to make the guild raid daily retry count unlimited?

ㄴ We think making the daily retry count unlimited will rather generate more stress to the players.

There are many variables that allow a player to earn points in a guild raid. For instance, even if you played the raid successfully, the best score could change depending on whether someone's normal attack dealt one more critical hit damage or not.

If the retry count became unlimited, high ranking guilds would force players to attempt this over and over again, generating extreme fatigue on the players. 

Players' fatigue is not the only issue, as the guild raid itself would become less exciting if the element of 'practice' is omitted with too many chances provided. Therefore, we have no plans of making the daily retry count unlimited.
 

Q27. Do you have plans to add any guild raid convenience features?

ㄴ The guild raid ranking and raid record features will be improved with the July 28th update (August 9th for global). These new features will allow you to see your ranking per guild raid boss. 

You will also be able to see your character deck info and daily participation records. 

The party rolled over to the next round will be improved so that it can be used afterwards. This would make a guild raid smoother than before.

 

Q28. Do you have plans to restore the 120 frame rate restriction (the issue of difference in damage dealt depending on the frame rate used)?

ㄴ We have no plans to restore the 120 frame rate restriction.

Depending on the frame rate used, the hero's AI processing speed changes, leading to a difference in the damage dealt. Hence we have applied a restriction to the game's system to make it work with the 60 frame rate. We have had continuous internal discussions about the possible ways to solve this problem, but unfortunately, we came to the conclusion that the fundamental issue is unsolvable. Difference in results due to different mobile performances should be prevented for competitive content, and the 120 frame rate restriction will remain unchanged.
 

Q29. Do you have plans to improve the usage of tankers and healers in the guild raid?

ㄴ We have no plans to improve the usage of tanker and healers in the guild raid.

The Miss Chrom Battle, one of the main Guild Conquest War bosses, was designed to encourage the use of tankers such as Oghma.

However, we received negative feedback regarding such an encouragement as tankers were never required in the guild raid before. Of course, we don't think this feedback represents the opinion of all our players.

The basic goal of a guild raid or Guild Conquest War is to deal "the highest damage."

A player would obviously like to avoid using heroes who can't deal high damage, just like a tanker or a healer, and forcing the player to do so wouldn't be much different from forcing them to throw away the chance to deal high damage.

We are therefore revising the ways in which we could increase other content where players could use their tankers and/or healers, rather than increasing their usage in the guild raid. We are particularly looking forward to their contribution in the Team Death Match Beta and will continue investigating how to make full use of these heroes.

 

Q30. Do you have plans to make additional Guild Conquest War improvements?

ㄴ We are planning to show you more interesting stages (normal) with our future updates. 

We are also planning to add a new Guild Conquest War theme as mentioned in our 2022 roadmap for the second half of the year, so please look forward to it.

 

Q31. Do you have plans to add a merchandise material exchange system?

ㄴ The stages from which you can acquire your desired merchandise crafting materials and Blueprints are fixed and you can use this to farm materials at your will. You can also collect Princess Edicts to use them all at once on a specific day, when your desired stage is open.Different from Awakening Stone materials, merchandise materials can be selectively farmed, so we don't have any plans of adding an exchange system for them.

 

Q32. Do you have plans to increase the number of material slots for equipment enhancement?

ㄴ We are aiming to have this update applied by September so that you can use a greater number of materials at once when enhancing your equipment. 
 

Q33. Do you have plans to increase the Awakening Stone exchange count?

ㄴ The intention of the Awakening Stone Exchange system is to allow you use the leftover Awakening Stones from awakening a hero. 

Analyzing the data on players' owned Awakening Stones, we verified that the imbalance between the demands of different Awakening Stone types has been substantially solved.

We received feedback that we should make the Awakening Stone exchange count unlimited.

However, there were several reasons why we limited the number of this exchange count: "the possibility that lower grade Awakening Stones might become scarce when players exchange too many Awakening Stones by mistake," "obtaining Legendary Awakening Stones from Awakening Dungeons will get less exciting than before," "having different Awakening Stone types will become irrelevant if unlimited lossless dismantling and combining are allowed," among others.

Our conclusion was that ignoring these problems and making the exchange count unlimited would make the game less interesting. Hence we have no plans of modifying the Awakening Stone exchange count.
 

Q34. Do you have plans to add hero/equipment favorite & filter features?

ㄴ We think that the hero/equipment favorite feature overlaps with the current party preset feature. 

We will continue making improvements on the party preset feature that allows you to freely save your registered heroes and equipment settings in a more convenient way. 

With the July 28th update (August 9th for global), you will be able to easily understand the increased Relic Obtain chances of your deck formed in the Expedition party preset. 

 

Q35. Do you have plans to expand the Rift boosts?

ㄴ We are planning to make changes through the July 28th update (August 9th for global) so that the boosts that could only be used in the Evolution Stone Dungeon can also be used in the Resource Dungeon. 
 

Q36. Do you have plans to expand the Guardian Base Camp levels?

ㄴ Several improvements were applied for our new players, including: improved features based on Guardian Base Camp levels, increased number of the Guardian Tickets provided through the beginner missions, provision of unique heroes (Future Princess), etc. 

However, it looks like our new players are still experiencing a lot of difficulties regarding the Guardian Base Camp growth. 

We also think that any growth beyond level 300 should be accomplished by the players directly through their actions, rather than through a long play time, in order to increase the excitement of the game. Due to this, we have currently no plans to expand the Guardian Base Camp levels.

 

Q37. What are your plans for the release for the Training Room's third slot?

ㄴ Many have asked about the third Training Room slot.

The game has changed quite a bit compared to back when we first planned for the Training Room, and there were also a lot of changes in terms of the environment for how characters grow.

Of course, that means that the state of the game is quite different from when we first planned the content, meaning that the third slot will need new plans.

To answer as many questions as possible through the Q&A, we had a lot of discussions about this topic internally.

However, the Expedition content was introduced fairly recently, and we don't have enough data.

We find that providing an answer just for the sake of it would not be right, especially if it's something uncertain and something we cannot guarantee. This would only interfere with creating a better game.

So, we hope you understand that we cannot provide an answer at this moment.

 

Q38. What are your plans for improving Stamina supply and expanding its maximum amount?

ㄴ The coffee tree, from which you can get Stamina at the Farm, will be added on the update on July 28th (August 9th for global).

The current amount of max Stamina was implemented in hopes for you to log in at least twice a day to play Guardian Tales. 

Though you may find it inconvenient, we hope you continue to log in to play the game.

 

Q39. Improvements to growth-related currency acquisition

ㄴ We're planning to expand upon general acquisition locations of growth related currencies. More will be added with content expansions, starting with the July 28 update (August 9th for global) where you can obtain coffee from the farm and more.
 

Q40. Main focus of balancing heroes and exclusive weapons

ㄴ We first make a basic sketch on which content the hero or weapon in question will mainly be used and then begin balancing. 

We mainly try to not give any specific element or class to have superiority over others and consider many variables to develop the character to fit the intended content or characteristic. 

We're also careful not to give too much impact on the meta for the sake of the new character to be more favorable, especially to not create an OP character to counter a character that is overperforming than intended.
 

Q41. Balance plans for less used heroes

ㄴ We believe hero balancing is an endless task and we seek to continuously work on them.

The July 28 update (August 9th for global) also includes hero balancing.

However, hero balancing is processed after thorough internal testing.

When many heroes are changed at once, we have less data to work with, which in turn makes it difficult to make the appropriate decisions. We ask for your understanding as to why we are taking steps to make these balance changes.
 

Q42. More use cases for rare heroes

ㄴ As mentioned in the 2022 second half roadmap, we plan to implement rare hero upgrade so that they can be used in various contents.

 

Q43. A way to close the gap between new and existing players

ㄴ Along with the addition and tweaks of beginner missions mentioned in the 1Q Q&A session (unpublished for global), the July 14 update Jul 26th for global) added world difficulty improvements and the world clear pass. We're also planning additional support in the future.

We're monitoring content progress of new players and plan to add more ways to support them based on the data we receive.
 

Q44. Tutorials for new contents

ㄴ  So far, we've added minimum level of tutorials to not hinder gameplay.

However, with the recent addition of Expedition, many players gave feedback that it was difficult to understand. After that, if more complex content is added, it was determined that the tutorial needs to be supplemented. Including content that has already been released, we will study long-term how it can be supplemented.

 

Q45. Addition of male heroes

ㄴ We don't decide on the gender of heroes before development.

If a male hero appears in the story, it will be added naturally.

 

Q46. Plans to change hero gender and characteristics

ㄴWe are aware of functions many players wish to have in the game.

Fei and Mei, for instance, were designed to be unchangeable to emphasize the importance of choice.

That said, we do not know where the story could go upon deciding this, so we agree that the choice made could be a little frustrating.

We are positively looking into adding this function and discussing the best methodology to implement it. However, there are many things we've already promised to do, so this could take some time.

 

Q47. Loading screen comic additions

ㄴ Depending on the environment or the device used, loading time is too short to properly read the comics, so we've been uploading the 4-panel comics to the official Daum cafe (various SNS channels for global). 

In addition to this, we're planning ways to improve in-game guides and tutorials, and looking in to see if educational comics for new players could be added as well. We'll let you know via update notification when we implement this. 

 

Q48. Friend system plans

ㄴ As mentioned in the 2022 second half roadmap, the friend system will be added in December. 

You'll be able to create a session and invite friends to Co-op and friendly mode, and be able to check their profiles, online status, and last login time. 

We're also researching other functions that could also be added to this system. 

 

Q49. Expand Hero Summon Pickup Event number

ㄴ Number of heroes available for the Pickup Hero Summon event has been expanded gradually, and the large number of Pickup Hero Summon events happening support this as well. If the number of pickup events increase in the future, we also plan on making adjustments to the availability of heroes from the total pool accordingly so that you don't have to wait too long for hero rotations.

 

Q50. Additional development for the Face Break system

ㄴ We currently do not have any plans to expand upon the system. We have many opinions internally, but we do not have anything to share at this moment.
 

Q51. User-generated content development plans

ㄴ We're always discussing the best ways to introduce a full UGC (User Generated Content) system, but we don't have anything to share right now.

We believe it is very difficult to implement such a system unless the game was developed from the beginning to have it. 

That said, although not a full UGC system, we're planning to expand upon contents that could be customized by the players, such as the farm system.
 

Q52. Costumes of Yuze, Sohee, and Loraine to be available for other rare heroes

ㄴ Allowing their costumes to be used on other heroes would make it difficult to differentiate them.

This would be problematic especially in multiplayer modes such as the Arena and Co-op, so we are not considering this.
 

Q53. Has the director's opinion on GvG changed?

ㄴ Not really. We do not have plans to add GvG, since we want guilds to be a place of comfort.

 

Q54. Improvements on Arena server issues

ㄴ We are continuously working on improving Arena connection issues and hero location sync.

We made improvements to the sync issue with the July 14 update (July 26th for global) .

We are, however, aware that more work needs to be done. We will continue to look into this to reduce inconveniences during multiplayer contents.
 

Q55. What actions are being taken after penalizing Arena abusers to prevent it in the future?

ㄴ Every Monday and Thursday we check to see if there are any abusers.

Some aspects are checked automatically, while others are manually looked into.

We also look more closely into the logs of accounts that have been flagged.

Please keep in mind that we cannot share the details of our monitoring procedure lest someone abuse the system.
 

Q56. Dev opinion on Arena usage rate and improvement plans

ㄴ As with the newly added team deathmatch beta, we're planning and developing various PvP contents to make it more interesting. We're researching PvP modes other than this to make it less of a burden to participate and to give you an exciting experience. We will be adding more lighthearted PvP contents and hope to lower the entry barrier for the Arena in the process.

 

Q57. Online shop addition plans

ㄴ Many players are sending us feedback on various products. 

We plan to add new products based on received feedback. (Online shop currently unavailable for global).

 

Q58. Google Play Games release plans

ㄴ We've received a lot of feedback that players want to play the game via PC emulators. 

We've already had internal discussions about which emulators Guardian Tales can officially support, and that's an ongoing process. However, we ask for your understanding that we cannot answer the exact schedule in this questionnaire. But we will notify you once we have some details set in stone. 
 

Q59. Boost event or packs for new players

ㄴ We currently have 2 boost packs for new players. 

They're available for 7 days for new accounts and depending on the package, you can choose a unique hero or exclusive weapon.

We also have attendance for new players. 

We are continuously adding and supplementing the Beginner Mission, and the new world clear pass will be of great help for new players.  

 

Q60. Plans for addition of lower-priced packages

ㄴ We've added relatively cheaper packs, such as the Expedition package, 2nd anniversary package, and the limited Stamina Package. 

We plan to add more affordable packages in the future based on product related data and user feedback. 

 

Q61. Future collaboration plans

ㄴ After the Slayers NEXT collaboration, many players gave suggestions on other IPs we could do a collaborative work with. 

We are carefully considering other IPs (intellectual Properties) that could fit well with our game. We will inform you of a new collaboration at least one month prior to its start.
 

Q62. Do you have plans to share various content resources, such as character cut-scenes and package background images?

ㄴ We've uploaded character illustrations and SD (Super Deformed) character resources to the official Daum cafe. Other resources, such as the ones mentioned in the question, are tailored specifically to be used in-game, so we do not feel they are appropriate to share.

For global servers, Fan Kit is also available via the official website.
 

We hope you enjoyed the Q&A session!

We will return with more information with future announcements so stay tuned.

 

Thank you Guardians!