Darkside 2024

Greetings to the Darkside!

As 2023 comes to a close, what's in store for 2024 is hot on everyone's list. We've got items currently on our workbench and lots heading that way. Let's take a look ahead at what we have planned so far.

• Consumable Potions

Imagine a world where, on any day, at any time, you can pop over to the Council and grab any of myriad potions that — for a limited amount of time — act like more powerful version of relics. Now imagine that they also will enhance a relic by stacking on its properties. Yes, we're absolutely talking about FoC, AoD, and Locks compatible potion items with their own boosted stat properties.

Sound interesting? Well what if there was an Anti-Blood Poison potion? Or a Daywalker potion that opened up a new mission which offered huge XP and chances at obtaining a power that's upgradable to a pretty awesome stat? Or what about even an 3XP potion that just did as the title suggests?

This what we've been working on. They have already been built and added to Vampires Dark Rising (mobile) as Beta additions, and they're turning out to be a smash hit! We want to bring this to the Darkside and let you, too, revel in the glory of their spicy convenience. If you're feeling extra hyped, you could pop over to Vampires Dark Rising on mobile right now and get an advanced look at them!

We currently don't have a launch date for you here at VDS, but they are absolutely coming soon. As they're in VDR Beta, we're monitoring their usage; we want more data before we bring them to you. When that decision is made we'll also have some tweaks to do so that they'll be a better fit for VDS. Keep your eyes peeled, because it's next on our list.

• Events In 2024

Future Changes to Events

As you read, we're steadily working on a new way to handle events in 2024. Our plan is to orient Live Events to contribution-based model, where no longer will someone be able to just log in and decide not to play... and still reap all the rewards. *sad trumpet sound*

Rather, we would love it if any of you popped in to your favorite event and got everything you deserved for all of your hard work! *victorious trumpet sound* 

We're not quite ready to share the details yet — but the minute we are you'll be the first to know!

Portal Events

The order of 2023's Event Portal calendar will be retained for 2024. However, please do note that this calendar order could change when our new Event system is ready to launch. We will of course make announcements visible if this is necessary.

In the meantime and by popular demand, we'll be bringing back Anarchy and killing off Hangman Crown. Anarchy will be exactly as it was in when you last played, with personal benchmarks as they were. We're not adjusting a single mechanic.

Award Changes

As this is the year we intend to bring contribution-based events to you, we're going to get into the spirit of this immediately by adjusting available awards for team-based events.

1. As of January, normal team-based events will no longer offer any roll-out award powers for 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place awards. You'll continue to be awarded whichever collectables were already given to that event. Collectables roll-out awards will still include A/D modifiers and runes respectively. Slaughter Games will be the only exception, and will be entirely unchanged from last year.

(Yes, this means that this year you'll be looking to play your bats off to acquire those live fusions if you want to get a leg up on your personal competitions during off-event times.)

2. Awards which are decided by solo placements will continue to offer their respective powers. As these are essentially contribution-based placements for individuals, we feel that this makes sense. Meanwhile, awards that are fusible items which require team contribution (such as Kranions) will continue to be awarded, as we would like to continue the tradition of encouraging teamwork.

3. A total of (6) new powers will be added to every event type. These powers will be of attack and defense through all disciplines, and the majority are upgraded versions of existing final fusions. While these powers are themed to the events they belong to, they all share the exact same (very healthy) stat of 329. If you're a high-level player you'll no longer have to pick-and choose which event is more valuable. Now they will all be.

Supporting these powers is a slight adjustment to recipes. Generally with stats this healthy you might expect to see a higher collection of collectables required. We have chosen not to do this. Rather you'll continue to require approximately 35 items per power. However we have instead upped the number of Transmutation or Dissolution spells to x2. We know you still have to earn the blood drop types to support these, but regular daily gameplay and BMS offerings should be providing you with plenty.

As well, supplementary leaderboards placement awards Edifice of Mind, Cairn of Eidolon, and Stele of Physicality will now have stronger stat offerings in the form of II's alongside their originals. They will now have entered the 300 range of stat. 

• Power Stat Cap Raises

The new soft-cap limit for power stats in VDS has risen to 350, thanks to improved powers offered in the BMS (see below for more). Along with the BMS offerings, we have also applied this cap to all fusible Legendary powers. For those not in the know, these legendary powers will hit at a static 350, but also have a %chance of ranging up through a [9] point spread on every attack. This spread brings VDS a new hard-cap limit of 369.

As a reminder, the fusible legendary powers are:

Vanquisher's Blades

350 / 30  [P]

9% chance of (1-19 A)

Vanquisher’s Armor

30 / 350  [P]

9% chance of (1-19 D)

Final Curtain

350 / 30  [M]

9% chance of (1-19 A)

Astral Invulnerability

30 / 350  [M]

9% chance of (1-19 D)

Summon Uttu

350 / 30  [S]

9% chance of (1-19 A)

Serpent Wall

30 / 350  [S]

9% chance of (1-19 D)

*Note: Upkeeps have not been adjusted, and will remain at 25,000RB

• BMS & LBMS in 2024

Black Market Offerings 

Starting in late January or early February, the Black Market Special will see some conspicuous modifications this year. First, we've standardized the monthly BMS power offerings. We've devised a [6] item set of attack and defense powers spread through all disciplines, which will be exclusive to the BMS. These powers will come to you in the generous high stat of 350, along with the usual fare of offerings.

All of the BMS and LBMS powers previously sold in 2023 will be shifted to the Imperial reserve, where they will continue to be attainable via Reserve Coins.

We understand that gaining levels in the upper echelons is difficult, thereby making skill points more difficult to attain. As such we have been experimenting with offering Attack and Defense modifiers as convenience offerings over the last two years. 

For 2024, we would like to officially announce that this will be the first year we'll be testing the sale of Skill Points. A [x1] Skill Point item will be available monthly, in each single BMS package purchase. To help control the flow of this SP, we'll be reinstating monthly limits. Currently these are set to [x20] BMS packages per month, with this same limitation also applying to the LBMS. Please note that while this is system currently intended to run through the year, both the skill point offering and limitations are subject to change.

Limited Offerings

Starting in late January or early February, available powers in the Limited BMS have been adjusted to now offer final fusion powers relative to that month's main event. As it is with the BMS, the powers which were available in 2023 will be transferred to the Imperial Reserve and will still be attainable using Reserve Coins. Likewise, the LBMS will be limited to [x20] total packages for the month.

The tradition of bringing an LBMS to you during Killfest will continue, so be sure to keep watch during that first week of every month!

• Going Forward

There's still many plans on the horizon for the Kwaai games catalog! We're working diligently to update VDS and VDR with new feature content and quality of life improvements. On that note, we'd like to thank everyone who's supported us through the years. Your contributions to Kwaai have kept us up and roaring for fourteen years! It's support like yours which continues our long tradition of trying to make our games the ultimate in text-based vampire games.

We'll see you again soon!
- Kwaai Software