Incoming Update, XP Changes, And More!
Aug 03

Hey again, everypony!
It's been a little while since we've had some big news to share, but we haven't been spending that time idly! We've been super duper busy, working on one of the biggest updates to Legends of Equestria that we've ever made!
The good news is that the update is almost ready to go; within days, version 2018.07.01 (the most likely version number, though as with everything, this is subject to change!) will be released for everypony to enjoy. You might notice that that's quite a few iterations along from our last public build, V2018.03.02; that should give you some idea of how much work we've been doing to get all the new stuff added and functional!
This update is going to add a lot of new stuff for you to enjoy, from the crafting system and new Talents, to new quests and a somewhat-delayed seasonal event, to improved targeting and new animations. There's honestly so much coming in this update that we don't have time to go over all of it just now; you'll have to wait to see the changelog for all the details!
There's a few things, however, that we really feel like we should let you know about in advance, so they don't come as an unpleasant surprise to you when the update is released. First things first: if you haven't finished Ponydale's Winter Warm Up yet, time is running out! Ponydale's always a little late warming up winter, but August might be pushing things a bit. When the update is released, the snow 'phase' of Ponydale will be removed, and you'll no longer have the option to finish the quest "Tomorrow, Spring is Here", meaning you won't earn a team vest!
Now, for the couple of new things that are coming out of this update, that we feel you should know about in advance. The most important one of those is to do with experience.
For a while now, Legends of Equestria's experience system has been pretty far away from what was intended. For context, the areas currently available in the Open Access Release, in their intended final state, is expected to be enough to guide the player through the first 20 or so levels of their character's progression, when compared to the full scope of the game. However, this hasn't been reflected in how experience has been given out, leading to much faster levelling than we anticipated. It's taken us a good bit of investigating to work out why that was the case, but we finally nailed it down to an issue with the XP curve as it was implemented, and this is something addressed by V2018.07.01.
What that means for everypony playing right now is two things. Firstly, levelling will take longer under the system as it was intended; and secondly, the fixes being implemented will not only rebalance how experience is accrued, but also the experience that characters already have earned. This means that players currently at level 50, upon the release of the update, will find their characters to be around level 23. You'll still have the same amount of XP; for example, a character who has earned 50,000 experience and is currently level 13 will still have 50,000 total xp after the update, but might be level 7 instead. Importantly, you'll still have the same abilities that you've purchased using Talent Points (as well as all of those that were awarded through your Talent Mark quest for free), and you won't lose any items. This isn't a reset, but a rebalancing!

We know that this might feel like a 'nerf', or that something is being taken away from your characters, but this is essentially us addressing a flaw that has been present for a long time and that we finally were able to work out a fix for. If you feel like you've already seen everything LoE has to offer and don't want to repeat stuff to get back to level 50, we're working on plenty more content that has all been designed around filling out that intended XP curve, so there's still lots to look forward to!
Another brief change to touch on is to do with the options. Under 'gameplay' in LoE's menu, there are two new checkboxes. One is to do with the changes we've made to the jumping animation; the jump can now be executed either when you press the jump key, or when you release it. The second relates to how loot is picked up; loot is now, by default, automatically added to your inventory when your character runs over it, rather than having to manually click to loot. Both of these can be changed at any time in the options menu, as mentioned earlier.

One more minor thing we want to let you know about is some changes that will be coming to existing armor sets. These changes will effect the armor's requirements, to be more in line with both the new XP curve and with what's coming from the crafting update.
Remember, as always, that LoE is still a game in development, with a lot more work to be done on it before it's ready to be called a finished product. That means changes like this are things that should be expected, and that there may well be more in the future, so we can ensure that the game works as intended and is as enjoyable as possible!
Keep an eye out for more news about the cool new additions coming in this update, as well as the update itself, in the next few days! See you soon!
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