Introducing Awards 2.0

Modified on Wed, 13 Nov at 4:59 PM

Salutations, Darksiders!

Your next event, Deadfall, is coming November 22, 2024... and this will be the first day of something entirely new. We’ll be introducing a different way for you to receive event awards. We’re calling it Awards 2.0, and we’ll be using this new system for all main events going forward.

⚡Main Events | About Awards 2.0

Up to now, you’ve been accustomed to discovering a litany of thematic collectibles as you play during an event; any of which you would fuse into new abilities. Then, after the event you’d wait on various other powers and items to flood your inventory depending on your team or personal placement.

You didn’t have a choice in any of it. That’s just the way it worked. But on this next event (and every main event to come), the power of choice will be freely bestowed to you.

Instead of various collectables, you’ll instead discover something new. An Event Sigil.

This single item will replace all other event Fusion collectables. And the more you play, the more you’ll find. You’ll then take the sigils you’ve earned and bring them to the Council, and enter a new place called the ⥃Exchange Shop. This is your personal shop, where you’ll have access to choosing your own event awards by trading in your Sigils.

You’ll be able to decide which discipline you’re interested in, whether you want Attack or Defense abilities, and whether you want them in single or bulk amounts. These choices will be filterable by three tiers of power: Low, Mid, and Top. Each tier defines a stat grade and how much each power costs in Sigils.

You’ll also have this same kind of trade access to Attack mods, Defense Mods, Potions, and event-resource consumables. Your only limit will be any item’s availability. There is a limited stock of any ability or power. If you deplete the available stock on any item, they will be sold out for you until the next event!

You will still receive post-event roll out awards (and yes, it will still take 3 - 5 days)... but these rewards will now consist of small allotments of Sigils, along with team and category winner-trophies to show off in your personal assets.

Meanwhile, the ⥃Exchange Shop will remain open until the next main event. You’ll have that amount of time to spend all of your collected Sigils.

⚡ Main Events | Shop & Sigil Resets

A wise vampire knows when to let go. So it must be with Sigils!

As Sigils represent your contribution to the current event, when the next new event comes any remaining Sigils will reset to zero [0]. You’ll want to be sure you've traded as much as you can before then. At the same time as your Sigils are reset, the ⥃Exchange Shop will magically refresh itself. New abilities may become available for you to peruse, still in tiers and for the same costs and availabilities as the last iteration.

This isn’t the only magic the shop has in store. The ⥃Exchange Shop will tailor itself to the type of event you’re playing. For example team events (such as Ground Wars) will share items on offer — where any solo event (such as Anarchy or Necroreaping) will have their own individual, boutique selections of abilities and items. In short, team event reward powers will no longer be themed to that event, but your solo event award powers will remain as you remember them.

• Read on to learn more detailed information about Awards 2.0!

✦ Details | XP Mini-events & Killfest Finales
It’s important to note that the ⥃Exchange Shop is for Main Events only. In short:
• Increased XP mini-events and Killfests will continue on as normal

• The new awards system will not apply to them

• XP/Killfest events do not reset Sigils

• Any team-based ⥃Exchange Shop previous to an XP/Killfest will remain open through the XP/killfest event, with its contents still available

✦ Details | Main Events + Darkspawn & Fusion
Deprecating all Main Event collectables has required a replacement to Elite Drops. After destroying a Darkspawn boss, you’ll now find a Sigil Shard dropping at an increased rate for 8mn. This shard can be taken to your friendly Necromancer, who will now offer you a recipe to fuse your shards into full Sigils. A nice way to quickly up your trade supply!

✦ Details | Tiered Abilities

Abilities available in the Top, Mid, and Low tiers can be denoted by the symbol which precedes their names. There are times when names and images may be the same between these tiers, and these symbols will be of great use while perusing someone else’s power collections.

⚆ = Low | ⚇ = Mid | ♾ = Top

example.

A Top Tier Bat Storm will have a top-tier symbol, and be viewed as: ♾ Bat Storm, and have the highest stat.

A Mid Tier Bat Storm will have a mid-tier symbol, and be viewed as: ⚇ Bat Storm, and have a medium stat.

A Low Tier Bat Storm will have a low-tier symbol, and be viewed as: ⚆ Bat Storm, and have a lower stat.

As previously mentioned, these tiers also affect their sigil cost. Top-tier powers are more expensive to trade than mid and low-tier powers. This is implemented to keep players with less spendable rage from becoming as powerful as a player with more spendable rage. Or, put more simply, keeps lower level players from becoming too overpowered.

✦ Details | Note On Fusion & Inventory Changes

The Awards 2.0 method has deprecated all existing Main Event collectables, Deadfall 1/1 power collectables, and obsoleted the need for event Fusion recipes. Thus, at launch, fusion recipes having to do with these items will be removed. At launch we’ll be clearing out your inventories of these collectables.

⚠ Now is the time to fuse them if you have leftovers!

Affected collectable items are:

Anarchos	Ex Libris Abominus	Mechanical Materials
Heart of Darkness	Transient Essentia	Residual Quiddity
Dark Embodiment	Singing Bowl	Ichor of Caine
Abeyant Runes	Quiescent Phangdryte	Flawless Nightstone
Aberrant Dark Essence	Battle Ticket	Torn Ticket 1
Torn Ticket 2	Lots of Tape	Unicorn Dribble
Band-Aid	Old Dagger (1/1)	Broken Choker ( 1/1)
Fading Soul (1/1)	Leather Pouch (1/1)	Pike of Curses
Enemy Weaponry	Enemy Essence	Enemy Regalia
Enemy Intelligence

✦ Details | Note On Red Rune

As the Red Rune contains only Main Event collectable items which are being deprecated, the Rune itself is now obsolete. Thus the Red Rune will be officially also be removed from the game at the launch of Events 2.0. Your inventories will also be cleared of all your existing Red Runes.

⚠ Now is the time to transform them and Fuse their contents if you have leftovers!

✦ Details | Abilities, Buffs, & You

In designing Awards 2.0 we have we simply sought to buff stats across the board. After review we realized it was a complex undertaking, and that it would be easiest if previous team-event abilities went away, to be replaced with newer, more powerful options.

However most previous solo-event powers were able to be easily fitted to this system, and will continue to be offered in the ⥃Exchange Shop during their respective event times. In order to make this happen, many of these familiar, "old standby" powers will become Top Tier powers and receive stat increases. Effectively, this means many of you will receive these buffs and see an increase to your overall strength.

✦ Details | Main Events + Category Placement
In bringing an award structure focused more on individual player performance, we also wanted to broaden the scope of event achievements to recognize and include more players. As such, we’ve made some modifications to how category placements work.

• 1st - 5th places will now all receive equal top category placement awards, and will be known as Top 5

• 6th - 50th will receive runners-up placement awards, and will be known as 6 - 50

• The Solo Leaders category has been removed

• The Event Leaders category has been removed

• The Utterly Annihilated category has been modified, and will be known as Unwavering Warriors

This is now Top 50 for all level tiers

This category now offers a Trophy

See your Event Awards pages for more details!

✦ Details | Main Events + Category Trophy Collectables
New Combat Score trophies for event winners are here! Meanwhile, the original Solo Leader trophies will now be shared by all individual scoring categories as “Masters” trophies, each with their own category name in the title. The original Combat Score winner trophy image has been downgraded to fit for Unwavering Warriors, as the “Stalwart” trophy. Those who currently have trophies relative to the image changes will see their old trophies retained, but with the new images replacements. Trophies from previous events outside of this description should remain untouched.

See your Event Awards pages for more details!

• Read on to learn how you helped to create Awards 2.0!

Why Awards 2.0 Is Here

We have been receiving valuable feedback from you, the community, about live events for years. We have collected your concerns, ideas, suggestions, and criticisms and used them as our guide in creating this system. We’d like to take a moment to let you know that we share your point of view, and we’d like you to know specifically what and how this system addresses your event needs vs your feedback.

• Awards vs Participation

☒ Issue:
This is our longest running community concern. Players who don’t, can’t, or won’t participate—but have logged into the event—would still receive the same amount of rewards as those who led the event with their time and effort.

☑ Resolution:

The majority of this system addresses this issue. Now those who play the most get the most. And those who don’t, won’t. Get your rage on and get strong!

• Uneven Event Item Collections

☒ Issue:
Another longest running community concern. It’s upsetting when you’ve worked so hard to play and your collections aren’t even at the end. Even though the drop odds were even for each normal collectable item, it was still a headache. This was directly because there were so many collectibles to find each event. Flip a coin six times for six different objects around you at home, take a count of how many heads and tails you got, and you’ll see exactly what we mean.

☑ Resolution:

Moving down to only one collectable, the Sigil, will drastically improve this. And you’ll now have access to top-up with ingame currency to even your collection out should you be off by any small amount.

• Unusable Powers

☒ Issue:
Said with much disappointment by all, the swath of ability items which were rolled out in past events seemed to never meet the needs of everyone—and too often our high level players ended up with numerous powers which were too low to use.

☑ Resolution:

The Exchange Shop system has been tiered (in part) for this reason, and will have available every power we expect you’ll want and need. As the choice is now yours, “unusable” powers should be a thing of the past.

• Overpowering Newer Players

☒ Issue:

A quieter subject, but one we couldn’t ignore. Since the inception of Live Events, rollout rewards contained powers for all levels... for everyone. And the result is that those lesser aged players who played events had an advantage over those in their range who didn’t, couldn’t, or wouldn’t join an event.

☑ Resolution:
The Exchange Shop system has been tiered (in part) for this reason, to prevent lower level players from being able to afford powers out of their playing league.

Dev Note: We understand there are two sides to this coin. However the game was constructed with levels for a reason, and freely receiving items which sit outside and above that structure is inappropriate. We apologize that we let this go on so long. Over time, a more even playing field will come with this system.

• Award Valuations

☒ Issue:

We’ve heard many times that the awards we would roll-out were “not worth playing for”.

☑ Resolution:
While community valuations of digital goods are subjective, on our side: we are calculating the valuations and their relationship to all other items in the game based on what we understand as your motivation to earn them, based on your stature in the game and the time it takes to acquire them, while gauging them against current pay costs set in the game. So oftentimes we see value where sometimes the community doesn’t.

Still, we hear you and we want to meet your needs.

As such we have:

• Braced the power caps upward in each tier, simultaneously buffing your current personal arsenal where relative

• Made room for you to receive higher amounts of the power items you want than you would have received from previous events

• Given you agency over the decisions of what you should be awarded based on your personal arsenal needs

• Included past important consumable items, and requested new items (such as potions)

Dev Note: The 2.0 system allows us to add, edit, remove, adjust, or otherwise alter any items which exist within the entire breadth of the game. So if for some reason you, the community, still feel there need to be revisions to the Exchange Shop’s offerings... it will be much easier for us to do this. Stay in touch with us and let us know. We’re looking forward to being able to provide you with the excitement and progress you’re looking for.

• Team Sabotage

☒ Issue:
When a player on your team does everything they can to prevent your team from winning, it is a travesty. A lesser issue today than it’s been in the past, but one which is still occasionally present.

☑ Resolution:
This issue is better addressed by the 2.0 structure itself, in that everyone receives less Team-placement rewards than the old system. Ideally this should remove the the saboteur’s glee of preventing your team from being able to earn them. Meanwhile any potential saboteur will now have to choose to forgo their own personal awards to attempt to act maliciously. It’s on them to earn now, and they'll fall swiftly behind you if they don't keep up. More, we’ll be able to see this on our side when you report them, and this extra data will allow disciplinary action to be taken more swiftly.

• Team Motivation & Team Fatigue

☒ Issue:

Much talk has been had on our App page and beyond about how Teams “need to be motivated” to play together (or at all). Meanwhile, there is also the unspoken happening of team-fatigue, where players who dislike one another refuse to work together.

Dev Note: This is a controversial topic, and we are not weighing in with opinion. Rather, we are being proactive with creating a new structure. Community members who don’t see eye-to-eye rarely want to work together for a collective betterment, and typically it is unsuccessful for the entire team when they try. We have witnessed it repeatedly, and the old system only reinforced those failures.

☑ Resolution:

Unifying individuals in a highly competitive PvP environment is challenging, and attempting to motivate with team-awards hasn’t worked for everyone. We’re sure most of you have been there to see that’s true. As such, it makes sense that motivation should instead rely upon the individual, so that while they work for themselves, they are passively also working for their team. Whether or not this was expected, we are confident with time you’ll experience the positive differences.

Dev Note: Regardless of the fact that you’re inherently working to achieve your own personal rewards, there is all the room in the Darkside for you to choose to work collaboratively with your team because you want to. And frankly, regardless of which game or system you’re playing in, your mindset makes all the difference!

• Drop Visibility

☒ Issue:
Another topic we’ve heard much about over the years is how often people miss the graphical notification in their fight dialog when they earn their collectables. Most of this is unfortunately due to being able to fight so fast (something we all love!).

☑ Resolution:
We knew in large part that reducing your collectables to only a Sigil would help. Likewise, making the Sigil a standout shape, with standout colors, should inevitably make seeing it whiz by in a blink so much easier!

• Convenience

☒ Issue:
We have heard how, over time in events, the fusion recipe system has become more of a chore... even if it’s a labor of love (the necromancer is the best!) Because of how past live events worked, the majority of your fusions happened while you wanted to be out there working to succeed, and you’d have to stop and perform numerous additional actions just to get powered up.

☑ Resolution:

It’s all simpler and faster now. Keep the Exchange Shop open, use an easy, streamlined layout, and skip a good portion of the droll... with the benefit of minimized filtering and straightforward amounts-checking to attain your goods.

We hope this makes for a better play experience across the board. We’re looking forward to hearing your feedback as time moves on! Please be sure to be constructive in your comments, even if they’re critical. Pointing out an issue is good, but if you have ideas of actual ways to improve something, that’s even better.

✪ Even More Stuff!

In bringing you Awards 2.0, we’ve taken the time to make some other additions and revisions to make accessing Event information more convenient.

✪ Event Portal Redesigned
The calendar’s useful. But let’s face it, the old one was busy... and a little fussy to navigate. As of this announcement visiting the Event Portal will reveal a new look. The clutter is gone. Welcome to a simplified layout which focuses on more plain-text to deliver event information quickly, with a useful feature that highlights the month you’re looking at when you hover on it.

We’ve taken this visual approach over to your Event Rules & Awards pages, too. You should expect that everything will be simpler to navigate and read. Keep your eyes peeled for the floating portal in the lower right side of the page. It’ll bring you straight back to the event calendar. It’s fun!

✪ Goodbye Hangman’s Crown

We are vaulting the Hangman Crown event indefinitely, as we consider retooling it to operate differently or deprecating it altogether. We’re sad to see it gone, as it was one our personal favorites. However our last trial of it ended in negative feedback, so we’re taking a cue from you. In the meantime please know that we have plans to bring other exciting new event types to you in the future!

✪ Future Features

As an Indy Startup of only a few very creative people, it can take us a little while to fully develop and test new things. That said, we have much more for you in the works. Please be patient with us as we continue to build the Darkside into the vampire playland of your dreams!

We’ll have more for you soon. Thanks for being a part of the Darkside Community!

— VDS Dev Team

Kwaai Software LLC