Devblog: The Reunification of the Primordial Dofus 2023-09-13 15:30

The Great Reunification

Before we get into the heart of the matter with the graphical changes, let's take a step back and talk about a subject that's eagerly awaited by our community…

In summer 2021, after more than 10 years of waiting, the last two Primordial Dofus were added to the World of Twelve – the Ivory Dofus and the Ebony Dofus – along with the ultimate goal of any self-respecting adventurer: to collect them all! To give a bit of context, this is a subject that's been brewing for some time within our team, and it seemed like an obvious step forward. This quest, which was planned immediately after the two Dofus were added, had to be pushed back several times, because although we had all kinds of ideas – including a wacky one involving being "reborn" as a champion with a passive in exchange for the six Dofus – we weren't convinced it was the right course of action. This wait enabled us to gain more experience among the team and offer a quest that we think lives up to the myth.

So here we are today with a formula we're satisfied with, which will require you to put all your effort into a long-term quest!

An ethereal being claiming to be a wise person by the name of Jack Kitshan has appeared in Fire Pandala. He will introduce you to this quest. What exactly does it involve? It's up to you to find out… but here's a hint: We had to develop a soul-eater system for Dofus slots, as well as an item that manages progression. As you will have gathered, the intention is to offer a background task that will go with you on your travels. This effort will reward you with a prestigious item – a reworked version of the famous Dofusteuse… Make sure you're prepared, because to get it, you'll need the original cape!

New Added Guild Features

The guild interface has been given a makeover both inside and out – if you know it well, you'll love rediscovering it! So, what's new?

First of all, two new fields have been added:

• A note that can be viewed at any time and is automatically sent when a guild member logs in or the message is edited.
• An information box in its own tab, where you can specify the guild rules, upcoming excursions, the collection history… and much more!

Some HTML text tags are allowed in these fields, so you can format your messages for added impact.

And customization doesn't stop there – a visual preview of each member is now visible when you edit rights/experience distribution. This is also where the leader can change ranks' titles to shape the guild's identity.

New rights are being introduced:

• Allow the note or guild information to be edited.
• Manage my own Perceptor's collecting.
• Be the main Perceptor defender.

We've grouped all the useful information for Perceptors' collecting in the "Perceptor" tab, such as the number of Perceptors or the possibility of placing one. The list is now sorted by status (harvesting, in combat, and by membership), represented by a new icon, and by placement date (from the most recent to the oldest). A shortcut has been added for quick access to this tab: Ctrl + G.

Being the main Perceptor defender means you can take the place of a non-owner by clicking them if the defense team is full.

And finally, as you'll see from these screenshots, the general appearance of the guild has been reworked to accommodate these new additions.

Anything Else?

We're glad you asked! Here are a few more new things:

Remote Spectator Mode

You'll be able to join a friend's, other half's, or guild member's fight by clicking the sword next to their name, no matter where you are! Similarly to defending a Perceptor, you'll immediately go to the fight map until it's over or you leave the fight early. We think this addition will enhance the game's social aspect and be useful for events such as tournaments.

Viewing End-of-Fight Histories

Are you tired of inadvertently closing the end-of-fight screen, or can't you remember who really got what loot from your last Perceptor attack? Then this new option is perfect for you! You can now redisplay the results of your last 15 fights by clicking the link that appears next to "Fight Over".

Visual Changes to Tooltips

It's a small tweak with a big impact, because these tooltips are used just about everywhere! To make them easier to read, we've given them a slightly different look by enlarging the background and rounding off the edges, making the text stand out more clearly. At the same time, we've changed some of these tooltips' formatting:

Improvements to the Points System in Fights

The system for displaying points (AP used, HP lost, etc.) above characters has been overhauled. Up to now, the animation was managed by code that was hard to iterate on and harder to execute than necessary. Without getting into the technical jargon, it's simply a case of the code no longer taking care of the visual part and delegating it to clips, in much the same way as when initiating a spell animation.

This overhaul has enabled us to significantly improve performance, fix instances where points no longer appeared, and most of all, add an appearance selector to the in-game options. There are currently two themes available:

• A classic theme that reproduces the pre-1.41 appearance of the Remastered version.
• A modern theme with animations specific to each type of point (damage, healing, etc.), muted colors, and a system that changes the size of points based on the power of the blow.

That isn't the only change affecting points…

Damage Point Aggregation

In Update 1.38, the way damage was displayed in the chat was improved by grouping the damage from an attack on just one line. Update 1.41 continues in this direction, showing the total of all the values of just one spell.

When the spell hits several targets (e.g., Explosive Arrow), an extra line showing the total is added at the end. When the spell has several damage lines (e.g., Bush Fire), the total is shown in purple on the same line, followed by the details in brackets. This same total also appears above the character, instead of damage values one after the other (this can be disabled with an option).

Here are a few examples to illustrate this:

Vitality Displayed as a Health Bar

The final feature covered in this devblog will be a new option that, as the heading suggests, lets you change the way HP display when hovering over a fighter. Similarly to the one you'll find in the combat panel, it lets you see the targeted character's remaining health at a glance. HP gained and lost are also updated without having to move the mouse after casting a spell, further enhancing convenience.

In Closing

As you can see, this update is a big revamp of some of the game's aspects, and we think it will breathe new life into your daily gameplay. That's just a taste of what's coming in Update 1.41, with more to come when it's released! We've given it our all, and we can't wait to share it with you!

The DOFUS Retro Team