Rhialto’s Ramblings [Part 1]

Welcome to a new WyvernSource series, Rhialto’s Ramblings.  News can come from all sorts of venues, official or unofficial, and this series is dedicated to compiling all the scattered ramblings onto one list.  With the announcement of Wyvern returning in 2016, Rhialto has been very active on the Wyvern subreddit answering questions about the changes and additions the game will receive when brought back online.  Here is the list of what we gathered since the announcement:

Platform

1. Apple mobile platform first.
2. PC and Android will eventually happen. Consoles not likely.
3. Keyboard support before launch.
4. Google’s gRPC is the network protocol.

Gameplay

1. Spellcasters re-balanced with mobile in mind.
2. Archers are more powerful.  More arrows of returning, more arrows of different Slaying types, game auto-selects arrow of right Slaying type based on monster, auto-targeting, auto-firing.
3. Items will still be soulbound to your character unless sold.
4. Macro and auto-bag system has not changed.
5. Player housing eventually. Anything put in your home will stay there. Possibility of hard to earn rewards like trophies and statues for your house.
6. Smart heal tab, goes through a bunch of ways to heal you which can be ordered for priority or disabled.
7. Random Dungeons will be enhanced.  First employee hire will work on these.
8. Possibly use swipe gestures for aliases.
9. Endgame will consist of, leveling, dungeons, exploration, socializing, world building, PK arenas for different levels (i.e. “weight classes”). Players can choose to do them all or only a few.
10. On death, can no longer lose more xp than the xp floor for your level (the amount of xp it took to reach your current level).
11. Hurled weapons will be looked at for buffs/fixes.
12. LQs unlikely to happen until 2018.
13. Healing will be looked at. Possible percentage heal, or cooldown after use instead of a delayed cast.

Community

1. Multiple servers, private and public.
2. You can create your own server for just you and your friends.
3. Server pools for different player groups (only players who do not use in game purchases or only players who played the original Wyvern).
4. Private servers don’t “mix” with the production servers. They are a copy and separate.  Progress you make on a private world does not carry over to the main world.
5. Cross-server chat.
6. A way to locate what server your friend and join him is on is in the pipeline.
7. Server choosing mainly automatic based on server load.
8. All old characters will be unbanned.
9. Players can keep their old names and HoF pics.
10. Separate high score lists for players who choose to take part of in-app purchases and players who don’t (hardcore players).
11. Measures will be put in to prevent a “pay-to-win” character to boost a hardcore alt.
12. If you do not have access to your old character’s email anymore, Rhialto will switch it for you if you give him your old password and email.
13. Alpha test -> player reset -> beta test -> player reset -> full launch.

World Building

1. Game will start from a “fresher” state, but not nearly as empty as when the game first launched.
2. Everyone will have access to world building.
3. Community voting aspect to which maps get promoted to the main game.
4. Game client itself will be the mobile map editor. Switch to a mode where you’re live-editing maps.
5. Can only edit maps in your home, so won’t affect the rest of the world.
6. Basic machine-learning code will help track toxic maps that give too much xp or money.

Moderation

1. Facebook/G+/Twitter authentication.
2. No more traditional Wizards. Wizards will just be content creators.
3. Commercial profanity-filter.
4. No “hard” rules. If you can do it in the game, it is most likely not banishable.
5. QI (Quest Information) is legal.

Business Model

1. In-app purchases will be the game’s main revenue.
2. You can buy coins, but not equipment or levels.
3. Rough estimate of $8 as the ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) required.
4. Word-of-mouth advertising strategy.