English German Italian French Spanish Polish Czech Portuguese Brazilian Portuguese Russian Slovak moonID.net - Please discuss stuff about moonID here → Ideas → Adapt speed of a game = Adapt faster EXP progression = Adapt various builds

It's gonna be long, sorry :)

I am a player who originally played this game back in 2007 and returned a few months ago. I initially started on INT6, which was essentially dead at the time. Fortunately, a friend convinced me to move to INT7 instead. That decision made a huge difference—it genuinely felt like playing with other people again, not like walking through a ghost town.

The early months on INT7 were genuinely great, especially thanks to PierwszyMonter, a Polish streamer who actively tried to bring life back into the game. Polish players gathered around his streams, discussing the game, reading the forum, reviewing player descriptions, and exchanging ideas together. It created a strong sense of community and unity—even though, at the end of the day, we were all still competing with each other. For the Polish community in particular, this period was very engaging and refreshing.

Because of that, I had genuinely high hopes—especially for you, CRATR. It felt like a golden opportunity to introduce meaningful changes and evolve the game alongside this renewed interest. Times are different now. There are thousands of similar games available, especially on mobile platforms. To gain something, you have to give something.

I have to be honest: from a player’s perspective, the level of engagement from the development team feels limited. I wanted to believe that the source code is simply very old and the internal logic convoluted, which would explain why changes and improvements take so long. However, over time, that belief has faded. There have been many discussions about potential changes—some of them very small and reasonable. There were also promises, including a new battle engine (version 3, if I recall correctly), which has now been forgotten by most of the player base.

Unfortunately, after a few months, I have accumulated a growing number of concerns about how the game currently looks and feels.

I am fully aware that the points below may sound like a significant amount of work and, to some extent, like turning the game upside down. However, I genuinely believe these changes are necessary to adapt the game to modern expectations and the current pace of life.

1. Game pacing and progression
The game is generally very slow, and progression scales poorly beyond level 50. I understand that this has always been the case, and that some knights reach extreme milestones (99 battle efficiency, level 500+). However, for today’s players, this pace is simply disengaging. Gaining levels—especially in the reasonable range of 1–300—can take years, often outliving the server itself. By that point, servers are nearly empty, and there is no real “late game,” just an idle clicker experience.
A straightforward improvement would be better EXP scaling from missions to make progression feel rewarding without trivializing it.

2. Level, gold, and progression synergy
Level progression is already tied to gold income from missions and the tavern. Improving this scaling would naturally speed up leveling and allow players to reach meaningful skill progression faster, keeping them invested for longer.

3. Equipment variety and build diversity
Equipment progression is slow, and there is little meaningful choice. For mooncoin users in particular, everyone ends up using the same rings and amulets, simply swapping them when a new version appears. These items are mostly flat “+X to all skills,” which removes decision-making. Introducing multiple mooncoin item options with different stat focuses would encourage real build diversity. At the moment, even gold-based alternatives differ only marginally.

At this point, item skins are already being reused, and I believe most players would not object to reusing them even more—especially for premium amulets and rings—if they offered different skill distributions. Copying existing visuals while introducing alternative stat-focused versions would be a relatively low-cost way to enable real build diversity without requiring new assets.

4. Skills and builds
Skill distribution feels almost meaningless. Most players upgrade skills in the same way, and the main differentiator ends up being RNG—which, as many players have noticed, can feel excessive. While a few players attempt niche builds (tanks, berserkers, etc.), the end result is usually very similar across characters. Skills should matter more and allow for clearer, viable build paths.

5. Alternative approach: speedrun-style or boosted servers
As a more radical alternative, introducing speedrun-style servers could significantly refresh the experience. Similar to fan-made MMO servers with boosted rates (for example, ×5 EXP and gold), this would allow players to actually experience high-level gameplay within a reasonable timeframe. Many players have never seen what it feels like to play at level 100+, use high-end equipment, or deal truly impactful damage. I believe a large majority of the player base has never reached that stage at all.

6. Post-fight statistics and transparency
Combat feedback is currently very limited, which makes it difficult to understand why fights are won or lost. Even a minimal expansion of post-fight statistics would add significant value. At the very least, the combat report should include:

• The number of rounds in which the player attacked.
• How many attacks were parried and how many of those parries were successful.

Providing basic, meaningful combat statistics would help players better understand mechanics, evaluate builds, and make informed decisions, rather than relying purely on guesswork and RNG perception.

Extra observations:

7. Taking Battlegrounds on INT7 as an example, especially during the first few months, I had hoped this was a deliberate design direction. Most players were doing zombies with 2–3 EXP, racing each other, competing, and actually playing together. That sense of shared progression and competition was engaging—but it no longer exists. In my opinion it was good 'idea' to exploit current mechanic and be able for all to progress faster

8. At the moment, the game increasingly feels like a battle with myself rather than something enjoyed with others. Players are leaving, and this is clearly visible. Early on, when everyone was below level 50, engagement was high and interaction constant. Now, it is mostly a small group of long-term players staying out of nostalgia.

9. Unfortunately, it feels similar to replaying a childhood game: you remember it as one of the greatest experiences, but when you return years later, the mechanics feel outdated, RNG feels broken, meaningful decisions are lacking, and differences between characters are minimal. I believe the core of the game is still strong, but it needs adaptation to remain engaging for today’s players. Except the fact, that this game is alive and developers are here.

What worked well years ago does not necessarily work for today’s players.

Cheers,
Jasny

Very well described. The game world of Veligrad is no different from the previous servers. The only difference is that ‘death’ progresses faster there than on the previous servers. The difference in size is significant in Veligrad. There are either a few in the level 50 to 70 range or 20 to 30, which is determined by premium play/non-premium play and the frequency on the BS. Goldies are ‘in short supply’. There are no new changes within the game; everything has remained the same. Decisive changes are needed within the game, as listed by J@sny and others, and not always new servers. It is not worth levelling up an account to high levels if the server will be ‘dead’ again in a year anyway. I already criticised this when Veligrad was launched.

I don't know how many new servers it will take before the operators take this to heart.

@Jasny

There will be no changes – they (the admins) promised all sorts of things, and that's it. The only thing the admins are doing now is "holding an event for 300 MC." They're not even making cosmetic changes or small tweaks on a regular basis, let alone complex systems?

Are players slowly abandoning this new, innovative server? Hulk has already deleted his account, and other top players are slowly getting fed up too.

Enough of the same monotonous clicking. FUCK Get the to work,. I'll blaze a trail and use harsh words (sorry if this offends anyone), because I'm fed up with this inaction, this hopelessness, and this general fabrication of false hopes for better gameplay.

I see that many of the points raised here make sense, but I would really like us to stay focused on the main topic. We all want to make the game better—and sooner rather than later—because otherwise things may slowly fall apart. Apart from us old, nostalgic players, there are not many new ones coming in. If we (both players and CRATR) do nothing, Knight may simply die out.

The criticism about wars in their current state is fair. Most of the time they are just boring, and for a war to be fun, both sides need to put in effort. One-sided wars usually end up being a bad experience for everyone involved. (That's why I love server wars, specially short ones)

What I wrote in the original post was partly driven by boredom and stagnation—no denying that. Internally, we have discussed wars as well and came to very similar conclusions to those shared here. That is why we will try to organize internal wars with Polish players instead of starting empty or unbalanced ones.

Also, I noticed that since I wrote this post, some of the discussion turned into personal and national back-and-forths, especially between Polish and German players. I get it—we have our historical traditions—but let’s try to keep things friendly and focus on what we all have in common. Let’s not put all players into one bucket and instead work together toward the same goal: making the game better.

I have no idea how to apply any pressure and convince the developer to invest time and effort into using it. If the developers have already decided that they will not invest more time or resources into the game, I would honestly prefer them to say so openly. It would be fairer than keeping the community in the dark and holding on to false hopes. Clear communication—even if the message is not a positive one—would be better for everyone.

@J@sny

Regarding your actual post here:

1. Game pacing and progression
   The game is generally very slow, and progression scales poorly beyond level 50. I understand that this has always been the case, and that some knights reach extreme milestones (99 battle efficiency, level 500+). However, for today’s players, this pace is simply disengaging. Gaining levels—especially in the reasonable range of 1–300—can take years, often outliving the server itself. By that point, servers are nearly empty, and there is no real “late game,” just an idle clicker experience.
   A straightforward improvement would be better EXP scaling from missions to make progression feel rewarding without trivializing it.

I have to agree with you there. It really does take a long time. I have a Level 119 1-H Knight from 2017, the others are max Level 50. I don't play any of the accounts with premium, or rarely through lottery wins from BS. I play BS when I have time, which unfortunately isn't very often. That explains my low levels, among other things.

If you see accounts here at level 500, it's because they have been playing here passionately and continuously, some of them since the beginning of Knight Fights. They are the pioneers, so to speak, and there aren't many of them left.

What really needs to be revised:

In missions, you get 2 to 5 XP per mission, regardless of your level, assuming you complete them in 10-minute intervals. This could easily be increased to 10 to 15 experience points per mission, instead of the current maximum of just 5.

For many, this would also be an incentive to potentially play more premium.

It's not worth it above level 300, as there is only partial or no equipment available.

KF urgently needs equipment for higher levels.

At around level 280, there are hardly any weapons left. After that, there is nothing at all. Level 300 or 400 players fight with equipment from lower levels. A friend of mine is level 382 and wears an amulet for level 200 or so. He then gave up the game and deleted his character because it no longer made sense for him to continue playing here.

Once you reach a combat potential of 99, you have reached the end of the game on the BS. On the BS, there is then only 1 battle point left, as there are no higher zombies. This also needs to be revised after all these years.

Once you reach a combat potential of 99, it makes no sense to invest money in such a high level. Actually much earlier.

Therefore, it does not make sense to level up quickly in this game, as you will then reach the end of the game on the BS more quickly.

The art of high-level players is therefore to remain below a combat potential of 95 despite levelling up, so that it continues to be worthwhile on the BS to play.

Pełen podziw i szacunek dla Jasnego, twórcy tego posta któremu chciało się opisać wszystko tak obszernie. Pokazuje to pasje, moc i nostalgie starych i aktualnych graczy, dzięki którym ta gra wciąż jeszcze jakimś cudem żyję.

Pozdrawiam wszystkich graczy.

Just my 2p on having read things - and many of these posts are exctly why I became a "lone wolf" years ago because the guild war mechanic is just plain broken it causes so many more arguments than it actually adds to the gaming experience.

(EG spamming wars with people that don't actually want to take part with a frequency that is "annoying").

But the only way CRATR are going to change is if players act with their feet and stop funding the current business model. Sadly though, that might just kill the game off.
But while people are prepared to dip into their pockets in the way they do, I can't see those snr management changing their actions - regardless of words to the contrary - actions speak louder than words here.

If the battle system update is allowed to be released - and I cannot fathom a single reason why CRATR would delay this - then we'd see a new way of playing with a lot more variation. What it means for our existing char's I've no idea but until it sees the light of day - we're all stuck in the same crap game loop.

The Battleground broke the game - those crazy high level players on the INT worlds max the premium sessions and they've broken the balance - I've done over 200 sessions (almost all free) and am still under lvl200 (knight started in 2007).

What I'm really frustrated about is an "unoffical" comment on discord by a CRATR rep who mentioned that the focus is on MG for this year, and not KF - yet there's been zero info formally communicated to explain CRATR's plans and roadmaps.

Again words said info would be shared, and nothing has occured. I sadly have come to the conclusion that the person that makes these statements is either being disingenuous by choice or disingenuous via incompetence - I've worked in Software for longer than I've played KF; and we can publish a roadmap for each quarter 2 years out (even if anything beyond the next quarter is "Subject to change" on specifics)

@J@sny
Thank you for creating this thread.
We read it every day, even if we don't always write a reply.
Your ideas, criticism and experience, especially as a relatively new player, are important to us and helpful.
And don't worry that the thread is long, we still read and discuss it, of course :)

And I would like to take this opportunity to say that we do not condone provocations of any kind and have thinned things out a bit.
We read all threads and all posts, but posts that are provocative or do not fit the thread are rather counterproductive, as they may cause us to overlook ideas, criticism and experience reports, and we do not want that, and I think hardly any of you do either.
Guild disputes have no place here either.
I will leave the thread open for now and hope for a good exchange based on the thread creator's post, but if, unfortunately, other players start provoking or going off-topic, we will have to close the thread.

Best regards, Patti