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Walk in the footsteps of your favorite heroes with DOFUS sneakers! Two stylish models, both vegan and made in France from recycled material based on corn oil. An ultra-rare collector's model with sizes for tiny twinkle-toes (from Euro size 36/US men's 4/US women's 5.5) and sasquatch-sized stompers alike (up to Euro 46/US men's 12/US women's 13.5)!

Warning: this is a limited edition! Only 300 pairs of feet will have the privilege of wearing them!
 

It doesn't matter if you mix up your left and your right, as long as you start your adventure off on the right foot!
 

Specially designed for adventurers who don't let anyone step on their toes.

In the first quarter of 2023, during a maintenance session yet to be determined, the ability to enter merchant mode will be completely removed, and items that haven't been withdrawn will be returned to their owner's bank.

It's something we tend to forget, and yet… Crafting professions are highly valuable. Keep that in mind the next time you're spreading redjely on your golden brioche. (Go easy on that stuff! Keep your health in mind as well…) Or when your feet have gone numb from the Javian cold and you slip on those warm furry boots. Think of it too when gifting your sweetheart a gorgeous iridescent orb necklace for Saint Ballotwine. (Yep, it's coming up…!) And that kralove stew you feasted on to celebrate the Clockwork Ball, you think it just magically landed in your dish?

Bakers, shoemakers, jewelers, and fishmongers toil every day to bring you all those things! Now find their sets in the shop:

• Baykurz Set (cloak, shield, and headgear)
• Big Blue Set (cloak, shield, and headgear)
• Tanner Set (cloak, shield, and headgear)
• Carat Set (cloak, shield, and headgear)

* These sets are linked for life. Each one consists of ceremonial items. When you separate a mimisymbiced item from a base item (with stats), you recover the mimisymbic, the ceremonial item, and the base item.

Do you break out in hives whenever you hear Tralalane's treacly ballads? Do romance novels make you sick to your stomach? Are you allergic to heart-shaped chocolates? There's no doubt about it: you've got a severe case of romance rejection syndrome, which generally manifests as a severe aversion to demonstrations of affection in any form.

What if this year, you showed all those perky little lovebirds what for by putting on an outfit that evokes nothing but the vilest depths of hatred and violence?

The Katar Set, inspired by the infamous Sacrier warrior who decimated Goultard's entire family, should probably do the trick… It contains:

• Katar Sail (cape)
• Katar Bandana (headgear)
• Katar Scarf (costume)

You'll find it in the shop through Tuesday, February 28 (11:59 p.m. Paris time)!

They're back…

We also spared a thought last year for all those with a bottomless black pit in the middle of their chests (and souls) by offering the Heartbreaker ceremonial set.* Good news: it's back again this year! This set contains:

• Kworrel Cape
• Heartbreaker Hat
• Love's Woes shoulder pads
• Reluctant Heart Shield

Also in the shop throughout this period: the Unikron ceremonial petsmount and the Ballotwine Haven Bag.

Saint Ballotwine in-game

And don't forget that during this period, you can obtain a variety of different rewards by taking part in the Saint Ballotwine event! To join in the festivities, jump into the game from today through Tuesday, February 21 (after the maintenance) and start hunting those funny pink gobballs!

*This is a ceremonial set. All of these items are linked to the account for 6 months.

Back in November, we posted a devblog entry presenting all of the changes and improvements we had planned for the March 2023 alliances update. Many of you commented on that devblog post, and we're very grateful for your feedback. As Logan mentioned in his New Year's greetings for 2023, we'll be trying to put out blog posts like these as early as possible from now on so that you can share your thoughts and concerns about upcoming changes. In light of the large amount of feedback we received and the changes that have resulted from it, we've decided to write up a new devblog post to introduce those changes to you. This will also be an opportunity to explain why certain points will not be changing. So without further ado… here we go!

A bit of background

Before presenting the changes, I think a little bit of background is in order. There are several things to keep in mind here:

• When we add a new feature or new system to the game, each player adopts it and adjusts to it in their own way. Habits are formed (though not always in the expected ways). Even so, different players' opinions about a system and their ways of using it may be diametrically opposed. When designing such a system, one of the key objectives for our game designers is therefore to try and reconcile everyone's point of view and minimize any dissatisfaction for players. Alliances are no exception.
• Sometimes, rules need to be put in place for the good of the community as a whole. Whether it's to limit abuses, excessive behaviors, or any other problem, the goal with these rules is to protect players and ensure a safe in-game environment.
• And of course, it sometimes happens that certain in-game systems that are accepted by everyone and used on a large scale aren't satisfactory to us in terms of the overall game experience (lookin' at you, idols). As a result, we occasionally need to make decisions that aren't necessarily to everyone's liking.

With that background in place, let's turn to the changes we've made to alliances relative to what we described in the previous devblog.

"PvM" alliances

One point often raised in your comments on the devblog post has to do with so-called "PvM" alliances, or alliances with a large number of exclusively PvM players. Players use these alliances to recruit other players for dungeons, quest fights, or other fights against monsters.

While this use of alliances doesn't have a negative impact on other players' in-game experience, it's a long way from the original intended use of alliances, which is to face off against other alliances for control of territories. The limit on the maximum number of characters per alliance is a rule aimed at keeping certain alliances from getting so big that smaller ones have no chance to compete against them, simply because they have far fewer members.

For players who use alliances in these unintended ways, we understand that a reliable tool is needed to help you connect with each other. In the meantime, you can continue to use alliances, but without adding your whole guild; adding just a few representatives instead (for example) should allow you to partially recreate this group effect. As a complementary tool, the "Recruitment" channel is specifically dedicated to looking for characters. We're aware that this channel is frequently affected by spam, which is why we're making a big effort to clean it up. In addition, as Logan mentioned in his New Year's message for 2023, a new search function for groups and trades is also currently under development, and should be ready to take over for these kinds of needs around the time when DOFUS Unity comes out.

To try and find a compromise, however, we've decided to increase the maximum number of players per alliance from 200 to 250. This new limit will also be applied to guilds, for which the maximum will thus increase from 240 to 250 members.
 

Perceptors

In addition to transferring guild perceptors to alliances, a number of changes were announced for perceptor fights. First of all, as indicated in our first devblog post, the plan is still that the perceptor will be controllable in combat and that its death will not be a factor in how the fight ends. We feel that it's important for defenders to be able to defend themselves properly, and not have to depend on an AI which may not play according to the team's preferred approach. Even so, the death of a perceptor will still have an impact on the fight. We mentioned perceptor equipment in the previous devblog. Among other things, this equipment will allow you to obtain bonuses in combat on all defenders. The effects will disappear when the perceptor dies.
 

Work-in-progress image

With regard to team composition, a large number of you reacted negatively to our proposal of fights which would pit 4 defenders + 1 perceptor against 5 attackers. Our plan was to make the perceptor powerful enough in these fights to compensate for the missing player. However, we've taken your concerns into account. These fights will therefore pit 5 attackers against 5 defenders + 1 perceptor, and the perceptor will be balanced accordingly.

Finally, many of you raised concerns about placement slots, which are known in advance to the attackers, giving them an additional advantage. From now on, when a fight is initiated against a perceptor, the initial placement slot will be independent. The arrangement of placement slots will be selected at random for each fight, so neither the attackers nor the defenders will be able to predict it.

Limiting alliance monopolies

One of the main goals of this overhaul was to limit any one alliance's ability to acquire a monopoly. The only strict rule we've imposed is the one limiting the maximum number of characters in an alliance. However, several more organic limitations have also been developed in support of this goal:
 

Work-in-progress image

• For all of these rules, our vision is as follows: "Control of one or two territories should be accessible for any alliance, but it should be very difficult to keep control of many territories at the same time."

• In line with the previous point, we hope (and also encourage players) to focus more closely on this system. Going forward, triggering an AvA will be easier and much less predictable. But our intention is not to have one alliance keep control of the same territory for months on end. In addition, by better protecting alliances that control only a few territories, we're making it easier for them to organize attacks on tougher alliances. Triggering a KOTH battle is now easier for all alliances! Alliances which are less optimized for combat can choose to reduce the durability of the prisms. Due to the limitation on the number of members, it will be very difficult or even impossible for an alliance to carry on multiple KOTH battles at the same time. The largest alliances will probably have to focus on the territories they consider most essential. All in all, we hope that with the changes we've made to the system, control of any given territory will regularly pass from one alliance to another.
• As mentioned earlier, directly attacking a prism is not the only way to trigger a KOTH. Less optimized alliances can choose to target the durability of the prisms. The new roles and the associated new ways of earning points should also allow these less powerful alliances to hold their own during the KOTH phase.
• And finally, as some of you noted in your comments on the previous devblog post, certain rules can lead to toxic behaviors within an alliance. This is the case for two rules in particular: the limit on the number of perceptors per group of territories, and the right to distribute nuggets. These two rules are probably the most organic of all, since they depend directly on the players with whom you share an alliance. Because recycling is now open to everyone and because monopolies will be harder to maintain, we encourage you to join an alliance that's right for you. If you don't like your alliance's rules for nugget distribution, organization, or agreements on perceptor placement, don't hesitate to create an alliance with rules that work better for you. We hope to create a situation where despotic alliance leaders end up driving their members away.

Crystals and modules on prisms

In response to your feedback, we're making changes to and adjusting the balancing of crystals and modules:

• First of all, a delay has been added between any two modifications to prism modules. This will prevent players from switching too quickly between a teleportation module and a recycling module (or vice versa), which would allow them to teleport at no cost. As a result, this delay will force you to really choose which module is most appropriate for a given prism. This will also prevent an alliance from placing a recycling module just long enough to recycle its resources, then immediately removing it to prevent other players from using it.
• Pacifier crystal:
  • Original proposal: This crystal stops any attack on the prism by another alliance.
  • Change in response to your feedback: This crystal power was a bit too powerful. A tradeoff has been added: the pacifier crystal is now incompatible with the use of a prism module.
• Inhibitor crystal:
  • Original proposal: This crystal prevents recycling on the prism by any player outside of the alliance.
  • Change in response to your feedback: Although this crystal would prevent other players from having an impact on the prism's durability, the alliance that controlled the territory no longer got any benefit from using it. We've therefore made a slight change in how it works. From now on, when this crystal is active on a prism, the impact of recycling on its durability will be reduced by half.

Captured/defended territories

In order to make capturing a territory more rewarding and to limit any harassment or "alliance-crushing" behaviors, but also to give a fair shot to the smallest (or least optimized) alliances, a new rule has been added. After a KOTH, the winning alliance will have a priority period to place a prism on the territory (unchanged). However, after placing it, the alliance will automatically be invulnerable to attacks from other alliances for a certain amount of time (recycling will still be possible). This period of invulnerability will give the alliance a moment to breathe after a victory. How long this period lasts after the prism is placed will depend on how many territories are controlled by the alliance. Specifically, the more territories an alliance controls, the shorter the invulnerability period will be.

King of the Hill and its new roles

Work-in-progress image

Last but not least, let's talk about the King of the Hill phase. For starters, we saw a number of comments that seemed to suggest that we weren't very clear in our first devblog post. So let's take another look at this point: "Because of this, when a fight is started in an AvA area, you will no longer be able to join the fight of a player who is part of another alliance."

Contrary to what some of you seem to have understood, fights in AvA areas will indeed be Alliance vs. Alliance, but will absolutely not be limited to 1v1 fights. What we meant here was that in a fight, team 1 can't be exclusively made up of players from alliance A and team 2 can't be exclusively made up of players from alliance B. So there's nothing stopping you from launching a fight between one player from alliance A and 8 players from alliance B… Just remember that from now on, the outcome of each fight will win or lose points for your alliance! Each of you will therefore have to adopt the strategy that seems best to you.

Besides this point of clarification, a number of changes have been made in response to your feedback:

• First, we've created a system to limit the number of players in specific roles during an AvA fight. For example, there can only be one Champion per alliance. Based on your feedback about the Scout, it seemed to us that limiting roles could help to bring more diversity to the ranks for your alliances. Therefore, every role now has a limit. As a reminder, this limit only applies in an AvA area, so all members of your alliance can have the same role if you like – but you'll have to take turns going into the AvA area. The new limitations are as follows:
  • Champion: 1
  • Seer: 10
  • Scout: 50
  • Healer: 100
  • Sentinel: 150
  • Undertaker: 150
  • Cannon Fodder (default role): 250
• A new rule has been added: only members who have been in an alliance for at least 48 hours can participate in AvA fights. The idea is that we don't want an alliance to exclude members eliminated during KOTH so that they can bring in other players to send into combat instead, thereby getting around the limit on the number of members per alliance. As a result, new alliances will have to wait for 48 hours before they can capture a territory. This constraint may be modified for specific events like the opening of the Temporis servers.

Some players are also concerned that alliances will become elitist groups in which there will be no room for weaker players. We can't deny that the best PvP players will be able to join together in an alliance and control certain key territories. However, as we explained earlier, it will be extremely difficult for them to control all the territories on a server. Therefore, players who aren't as strong at PvP will still be able to get a foothold in certain well-chosen areas, even if it's only for a shorter period of time.

In conclusion

That brings us to the end of this devblog with the list of the changes we've made. As we mentioned at the beginning, our goal is to reconcile our vision and our intentions with all of your opinions and constraints, while also limiting any potential abuses as much as possible ahead of time. We sincerely hope that these changes will be satisfactory for as many of you as possible. For those who are disappointed that their suggestions have not been adopted, we hope you can understand our point of view and why we've made these choices.

The version of alliances presented in this devblog will be testable next month in the beta for the March update. We can't wait to see you try this new system out. As always, we're eager to hear your feedback, especially during the beta period once you've had a chance to test things for yourself. Your comments and suggestions will be essential in helping us to offer the best possible version of alliances when the update is released.

Thank you!

Hello!

This is a very interesting topic and I want to answer to clarify a few points.

The first point deals with this recurrent question: Why not port the game in its current state?

There are several reasons. As mentioned – and I see that some developers have talked about this, so what I'm going to say will speak to them – at a key moment in DOFUS's lifespan, we were forced to fork the game into two versions. That is to say, we artificially created two distinct versions of the game. One is the version called "AS3" (the current Flash version of the game) and the version in the Unity motor.

This fork was needed simply because it was (and is) unthinkable to leave DOFUS without any evolution during the porting period. We therefore had to divide our team accordingly. Currently, we have the equivalent of the game client as it existed when the fork was done. Now, it's time for a long phase of optimizing, debugging and catching up, that is bringing over all the evolutions that were implemented during the original porting phase over to the Unity version.

In simple terms, we had made a copy of a fixed product but that product continued to evolve over time, both for contained features and features you've enjoyed as well as for many elements in the background that you can't see. Today, we're focusing on this phase. That's the first, somewhat "technical" explanation.

Next, there's the question of the product and its lifespan in the market: Why not release the game as-is?
Because we're aiming for much more than the short term. For me, this porting is an opportunity for renewal, and to give our beloved game as much as we can to ensure that it lives as long as possible. While some games adopt the early access model, this happens for products under development, not new versions of existing products that are actively in use for lots of good reasons.

First of all, when the time comes, we will offer a long beta phase before officially starting the transition to this new version. Also, we still talk about "DOFUS Unity" but that won't be its final "name", and we're still thinking about it.
When we've reached our goal, I want you to see and feel a real change in your in-game experience. When you launch the game, the idea is to get that "wow" feeling that comes with a truly new game experience (performance, quality, life, new things to discover, etc.).

Releasing the client without any changes other than significantly improved performance (even though that's huge already) is far from enough. It would be wasting a huge opportunity for the game and its future. In the short term, yes, of course it would be cool in the moment, but you have to remember that this is the largest investment that Ankama has ever made so we have to get it right!

Plus, changing the game engine technology clearly opens new doors for evolution, tools and possibilities that can be a huge leap forward for the game. We've already been able to look at and scratch the surface of the new things coming your way, and it'll be worth the wait – we're doing everything we can to make sure of that.

Our main challenge is relatively simple: keep improving DOFUS with enough attractivity by keeping it dynamic with evolutions throughout the year while simultaneously preparing for what comes next. I won't hide the fact that the challenge and logistics behind this are enormous.

You [the player to whom Logan is replying] mentioned your worries as a player and I share them, but we also intend to pull out all the stops when the time comes to relaunch this new version in the market. Some are resistant to change, and others are more open to it. That's the lot of any online video game that updates its content… but also see that with all this, new players (lots of them, I hope) will also arrive.

I can promise you that the team is as eager as you are to be done with Flash. As soon as possible, yes, but in the best possible conditions. Fewer problems and no longer hobbling along with one hand tied behind our backs, if you'll pardon the metaphor. Who would ever have thought that a small web animation software could have given birth to an 18-year-old MMO? It's been (and still is) quite an adventure.

And don't forget about everything else that's in the works for this year… If you take a look at the updates in past years, we've focused a great deal on improving what exists and overhauling content and systems that were clearly – not obsolete but – outdated. Little by little, the game has already been getting a new lease on life for some time now.

For those of you who have doubts, the game is doing very well. Eight months ago, Osatopia broke records never before seen in DOFUS. The server merger operation was a big success and brought people back, as can be seen in the evenings when we have to manage the influx of players on some of the game servers.

The December update and arrival of the Forgelances did wonderful things for the game population. Many players came back or popped in for the occasion, and the number of subscribers has so far continued to grow slowly since Kwismas.

Thank you very much for your message.

And thank you all for this wonderful adventure!
– Logan

Regarding this, plans to overhaul Amakna, for example, have already been in the works for a long time on our end.
We almost tackled this two years ago, but ultimately opted for a different overhaul. In the meantime, we scratched the surface with the Evil Forest…

Cania is huge and cruelly lacking in content. We have plans for that, but have set this content aside for the moment. Adding an extra dungeon won't solve the problem… We now avoid huge areas and favor higher content density. We'll see what the future holds. 

So, in reply, clearly, yes, I've already mentioned this but there are very few areas that we nickname "World 1" among ourselves in-house. In time, we'll probably finish the overhaul with those. (Personally, I'm really eager for Otomai myself.) But it is clearly not for right now. If it is done, it will be after the release of the Unity version. What I mean to say is that the graphic polish – as I explained above in the work we've already begun – has already been underway for a long time!

But we simply don't have the human resources to do everything simultaneously.

The new line of stuffed toys and pins inspired by your favorite characters is called "Creatures"! Iop, Feca, and Masqueraider – many have fallen for these hardcore in-game warriors without realizing that they hide an unsuspected soft side under their armor…

Monstrously comforting as stuffed toys, incredibly endearing as pins, the Creatures are making their debut in three packs. With more on their way!

Pack No. 1: Creatures Stuffed Toys – Iop, Feca, Masqueraider
 

Pack No. 1: Creatures Pins – Iop, Feca, Masqueraider
 

Forgelance Creatures Pack – Stuffed Toy + Pin

Once upon a time, there was a Sram who felt terribly hollow inside. He was tired of feeling nothing but an icy void in the space between his ribs, and had just one great hope in life: to someday have a heart. Stealing one from a defeated enemy, making one out of modeling clay, even asking a Sadida to plant a seed of love in his chest: he'd tried everything, but none of it had worked. None of his attempts to become someone who could love and be loved had ever paid off…

That is, until the day when he heard that a famous alchemist named Otomai had really bombed his latest experiment. Or should we say, "bonbon-ed" it… While preparing Ballotwine chocolates to encourage gobballs to reproduce, he had accidentally unleashed an epidemic of a sentimentally transmissible disease: chocrosis. Without a moment's hesitation, the Sram set out to catch it himself by attacking a gobball that had been infected with the disease, hoping to find the much-coveted heart within its chest. But then the unthinkable happened: the Sram fell head-over-heelbones in love with the gobbette he'd been about to fight! His heart all aflutter (even though he still didn't actually have one), he realized that in the end, it didn't matter if he was empty inside as long as he was overflowing with love…
 

Lady-killers, man-eaters, and gobball-hunters, take heed: love is knocking at your door again!

From 9 a.m. (Paris time) on Tuesday, February 14 until 9 a.m. on Tuesday, February 21, life in the World of Twelve – and gobballs specifically – will be rosy. Chocrosis, a curse resulting from a failed experiment by the famous alchemist Otomai, has struck our adorable woolly friends once again. If you decide to attack them, just be aware that you too will wind up looking as soft and pink as a roll of extra cottony three-ply toilet paper. But don't panic – so far, no other negative side effects have been reported.

So act fast, before love gets away from you!

Do you know the story of Beefcake and the Bworkette? Once upon a time, there was a Bwork who had been graced by Mother Nature with incredible looks (by his people's standards, of course). An oversized tongue, perfectly irregular pustules, a splendid pair of wildly protruding ears, and of course, bad breath so intense it could knock the horns off a gobball. The only trouble was, the poor guy was barely half the height of any other Bwork… What a drag!

Beefcake had an all-consuming passion for a Bworkette with some pretty impressive assets of her own. But while little Beefcake had a big heart, his beloved Bworkette seemed to have none at all… The warrior woman relentlessly repelled the Bwork's advances, preferring to spend her days stabbing enemies through the heart rather than opening her own to some lowly male.

Just when he thought he'd tried everything, Beefcake had a stroke of genius. Besides her insatiable desire for battle, the Bworkette was also insatiable when it came to the pleasures of food. So our clever little lovebird asked Otomai himself to make him a chocolate axe with a creamy filling made from his most secret ingredients… After just one bite, the effect was immediate: caught by the sudden onset of chocrosis, the Bworkette finally developed a taste for Beefcake… and gobbled him right up!

Lady-killers, man-eaters, and gobball-hunters, take heed: love is knocking at your door again!

From Tuesday, February 14 (after maintenance) until Tuesday, February 21 (after maintenance), life in the World of Twelve – and gobballs specifically – will be rosy. Chocrosis, a curse resulting from a failed experiment by the famous alchemist Otomai, has struck our adorable woolly friends once again. If you decide to attack them, just be aware that you, too, will wind up looking as soft and pink as a roll of extra-cottony three-ply toilet paper. But don't panic – so far, no other negative side effects have been reported.

As in years past, you'll get something as soon as the event starts. That's right: a St. Ballotwine's Day Gift will be yours. Said gift contains a box of Ballotwine Chocolates, a Passion Shigekax, 5 Heart-Shaped Fairyworks, and for single adventurers, a St. Ballotwine's Day Hat that unlocks the title Lonely Heart. To receive it, use the code DOFUS2LOVE2023 here! Who knows, maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones who winds up with a ring on their finger this year!

Usability and improvements:

• The shortcut bar no longer transitions to "spells" mode while entering the preparation phase. This now happens when the fight starts, making its items easier to use/equip during the preparation phase.

Non-combat fixes:

• To reduce the tensions that can arise when houses go up for sale during the first maintenance periods of the month, the "Abandoned house" status is no longer displayed.
• The summary of experience/kamas etc. earned from the last fight in the information chat is no longer displayed at the end of a fight in spectator mode.
• Fixed a bug that could select the wrong item under certain conditions by using right click in the inventory.