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