- Celebrating Valentines day, a new limited edition bonded creature, Valentine Munkle, is available for a short time!
- A COMPLETE REWORK FOR AFFECTION TYPE CREATURES has been pushed live which changes the use and effects of existing spells, along with adding new ones!
- A visual upgrade for Valentine spells has been implemented for ALL Valentine-type creatures!
- Red Roses are dropping now for a limited time!
Krafties loves you!
Limited Edition Valentine Munkles are available now, just in time for the loveliest day of the year! Imbued with the power of all things sweet, what’s not to love about these adorable companions? ALL Valentine type creatures have received a visual spell overhaul which cleans up and adds some extra razzle dazzle to our arrow loving friends!
Each creature has a +5 for each natural stat, and all are level 1. They have a special Valentine Soul complete with unique spells not found on any other element. The vendor is in front of the main store and will only be available from February 14th through February 21st. They are priced at L$2,000.
Elemental Rework – Affection!
A long-awaited overhaul for Affection elementals is arriving today! This affects ALL affection creatures, both existing and those yet to be bonded. The change released today marks our largest rework of an existing type, and if received well we hope to tackle additional types soon after!
In a nutshell, this change is intended to do two things: encourage group play by embuing Affection types with buffs and abilities which provide immense value both to themselves and others they pair with, along with giving handlers an interesting (and viable) choice to forge ahead alone at times. Our goal is to give all elements a unique identity while maintaining status as viable gameplay companions. Without further ado, the changes are as follows:
Changes To Existing Abilities
Enrapture
- This spell now gives the caster a very small Focus buff every time it is used
Protect
- Ability to cast on self removed
- When cast on another bonded creature or teammate, this spell now gives the caster a Defense buff equivalent to that given to target
- Duration raised to 60 seconds
Stimulate
- Ability to cast on self removed
- When cast on another bonded creature or teammate, this spell now gives the caster an Attack buff equivalent to that given to target
- Duration raised to 60 seconds
Excite
- Ability to cast on self removed
- When cast on another bonded creature or teammate, this spell now gives the caster a Strength buff equivalent to that given to target
- Duration raised to 60 seconds
New Abilities Introduced
Tether
- When cast on a nearby bonded creature, this unique spell allows the caster to receive a percentage of combat experience earned by the target. This ability is being introduced with the percentage of XP earned by the caster set at 20%, but that may change as things are tuned and balanced.
Lovesickness
- This new spell is only able to be cast on self. When cast, Lovesickness completely drains the caster of all Intellect ability (in effect, neutralizing an Affection type’s ability to buff others). In return, this spell gives a large buff to the Attack, Strength, and Defense of the caster. This spell is being introduced with a cooldown time and effect duration of 5 minutes, but that (among other things) may be tuned and balanced.
Other Notable Events
Some old favorites are returning this year!
Roses: Roses are dropping for a short time. These items exhibit special properties when placed on alchemy tablets.
Have fun!
A Note From The Developer
Howdy everyone! I’m super excited for today’s release, as buffing Affections is something I’ve wanted to do for years now. The problem was that I couldn’t quite picture exactly how to go about it. I finally sat down and forced myself to focus on the problem, and needless to say, I’m pretty happy with the results. I hope you guys are as well!
But first, let’s talk Valentines and Limited Editions. As you guys noticed last month I did a run of two sets of LEs using the same element: Firework. I wanted to test how it was received, and thankfully people seemed to really enjoy seeing the element in a new body with some improvements made to the game mechanics associated with Firework types. With that, I solidified how I plan to handle some of our future LE releases.
Krafties has been releasing Limited Edition creatures for almost eight years now. In the world of games that’s a pretty long time! As intended, this has a positive effect on their value on the secondary market (one of the pillars I always keep in mind when making Krafties-related decisions), but an adverse effect on the gameplay experience of newer players. What do I mean by that? Due to the fact that these elements are not only visual additions but also have completely unique abilities/mechanics, players who weren’t around at their initial release find themselves unable to obtain some of these abilities in a fair and reasonable way. This is fine for LEs with less desirable mechanics, but some are just… awesome. This will become even more important as Krafties releases new battle-oriented features. My goal is to be able to make EVERY LE (even the very old ones) awesome, keep the game fair and balanced while doing it, and of course, keep all of this feasible as a business.
As I revisit many of our Limited Edition elements that were made years ago I can’t help but see improvements I’d love to make, if only there were time and resources available to make them. Now, there are! The idea is that funds from Valentine Munkles allow Krafties to improve the Valentine element as a whole. Big picture, this means that I can still support existing LE types as time goes on by providing patches and improvements (as with our “normal” elements) tied to new LE species/design releases.
As I consider all of the different pricing models we’ve used for our LEs I’ve made the intentional decision to keep the pricing model the same as previous sales of these elements. For Valentines, that’s the L$2,000 price tag with limited availability based on the time they are available to purchase. I’ll be keeping an eye on our different chats, along with other feedback channels, to get a sense of how people feel about all of this. Please don’t be shy!
Now for the part I’m most excited about: the Affection Element Rework. Firstly, you might be asking why even do this. Well, a common sentiment that’s been prevalent in Krafties for years is that while Affections might be beautiful, they’re “weak” or even “useless”. I know that one of our players in particular may have been working to single-handedly debunk this theory (I’ve got my eye on you Flora), but the numbers don’t lie. Affections just weren’t seeing the love they deserve!
But… how to even go about this… The reason Affections in particular have been viewed this way, in my mind, is because they’re one of the most unique types that exist in Krafties. The intent behind them has always been about supporting others, but that’s a playstyle that as a whole doesn’t get enough respect in the gaming community. And in retrospect, I can see that communicating this intent behind the design of the element is a personal failure when it comes to how it is reflected during gameplay. SO, I’m hoping to fix that without completely ruining the experience of existing Affection lovers.
There are two major aspects of how I chose to go about this: the new Tether ability, along with the decision to remove the option to cast the original Affection buffs on oneself. Now, before people get upset about LOSING something, I want to point out that not only do Affections now get a mirrored buff when casting their buffs on others, but they also have a new ability that provides an even juicier buff to themselves than they could before this patch (at the cost of becoming unable to buff others for a time). So all in all it’s a massive ability increase! And even without these buffs, I believe that the Tether ability alone, which allows an affection to share in the combat XP earned from a nearby bonded, is enough to put Affections on the map.
In the end, my goal in designing every element is to give it a unique identity. Not only visually, but also in the macro and micro gameplay decisions players have to make when utilizing them. With that in mind, I’m looking toward a bright future for Krafties. One where EVERY element feels distinct and unique while playing. A future that forces our players to think harder than ever how they want to build and manage their friends.
So, I’ll leave you with a question. Which elements do you want to see Krafties tackle next?
<3 Kris
