Throne & Liberty released a new dev video this afternoon, and in it Amazon Globalization Design Manager Tico wastes little time leaping directly into the big issue for global players right now: the planned server merges. Tico says that Amazon’s goal with the consolidation is to make sure that the competitive landscape remains balanced and functional, as well as to widen the pool of players who can actually play together. Pretty much standard for MMORPGs.
“The approach to server consolidations will be a multi-step process that includes merging auction houses between early access and launch servers, offering a free server period (which includes removing the restriction of transfers between early access and launch servers), and then finally, the consolidation of existing servers,” he says. “I want to emphasize here that any servers impacted will be consolidated into new servers rather than merging one server into another already-existing server.”
Tico also says the team has been working on “fundamental improvements” to the game ahead of the game’s upcoming free expansion, Talandre. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because it was the name of one of the game’s western servers, and it’s also the name of a region added to the Korean servers last summer, so it pretty much sounds as if we’ll finally be getting all that associated content packed into a big free patch/expansion. It’ll also include a major combat pass with line-of-sight and tweaks to targeting, a revamp of open-world PvP to move field bosses to GvG format, and the new weapon mastery system.
Finally, Tico says the team is working on toxicity issues, inventory management, crafting materials, gear progression (no timelines given, however). In the nearer future – in fact, this week, on January 23rd – expect a smol patch with UI tweaks, new castle siege timing, and the initial steps to reducing dailies overload, followed by mouse and keyboard support for console on February 6th.
Amazon is promising a more detailed article on server merges later this week and more info on the combat and GvG systems in February. January 28th will also see the “big reveal” for Talandre – presumably we’ll be getting a launch window too.
