Dear Ninja,
Maybe this is going to be a tradition, maybe not.. but since I did one for 2017.
Let's keep it going!
Our second year of service has gone by! It wasn't the smoothest year.. with unending crashes beginning in the middle of the year all the way to November. It feels sad knowing so much time was spent trying to fix it, and so many potential players turned off by the interrupted services. During the time, we continued working on content, at a slower pace, while spending a lot of time looking into fixing bugs. We learned a lot from this, and we're sure this won't happen again. If anything, it was a costly lesson, and I'm still very sorry for all the inconveniences caused.
You can read about that dilemma here,
Despite all this, and despite still being behind in the specific goals for 2018. We managed to achieve a lot in development during 2018. Unfortunately, sometimes we have to shift focus to more pressing matters and jump around to work on things that aren't what we initially planned for. But all I can say is that, what was planned to be released in 2018 is well under way.
We started off the year by attempting (and deciding to keep) hiding player names by default, and only showing them when hovered on. We had a discussion with the community in late 2017 and most players were receptive of the idea as it promoted stealth, focus on player's avatars and recognizing people by their appearance instead of just a name. This was a great change and I love how much more immersive the game is from a simple tweak.
We added Toad Mountain into the world and shortly after released the level 30 quest line for Toad village! We added Rogue Ninja titles, Glasses Shops, Utility Shop for Sand, Jutsu Limits by Level, we rebalanced Jutsu to use stat requirements, we added Slows, Snares and Silences and rebalanced the game around them, and made Youthful Spring Technique actually make you move faster and added sensory technique. We introduced Bounty Missions where you finish by claiming bounty rewards! Added Monks in both villages sell Blessings for ryo. We introduced messenger missions. We rebalanced stat scalings in June. We rebalanced chakra charging and then did the biggest rebalancing of jutsu and masteries since Open Beta launched in 2017.
Besides expanding the world with Toad village, we also expanded it with Tanzaku Quarters, and all the maps leading up to it, like the Valley of the End map! We improved exploration by making sure all doors you see that are open, are enter-able. We improved the design of the Sand village by revamping a large number of buildings with unique exteriors so they stood out from others. Introduced the Event Prize Room. We added Kumoroi's Lair and the Level 20-30 Boss Fight. We expanded your character's depth by introducing the Fortune Teller. To make it easier to navigate the larger world, we added World Maps and village Maps to help people get a better sense of directions! We also filled villages with trash - literally.
We expanded RP by added the special Military Police Forces, which added a new village dynamic by giving a group of players power to detain other ninja. We also introduced all the Sand village Chunin Exam facilities. We added sitting animations so players could sit on chairs and RP scenes like being in a meeting.
We added features like 0.5s, 0.1s stuns instead of the minimum stuns being 1s in the past. Battle injuries became visible graphically for everyone, with scars appearing on your body. Additive/Subtractive graphics allowed for us to make day look more vibrant and fogs look more evil. We added global variables to our server, which then allowed us to create cool features like Village Scores, Boss Dungeons and in-game election polls. We added larger than 1 tile hitboxes for enemies so we could give bosses large bodies. We added the feature to allow us to play different music for different times of day, which made our villages feel more alive in the day and peaceful at night. We added NPC vs NPC combat which allowed us to create Summons and Summoning jutsu!
We normalized audios for the game to give the game a more consistent audio level and made all maps 1080p ready! We added Zoom functionality for better compatibility with large monitor resolutions.
Misc. features like Twinking, Inventory Slots Expansions, Eye Changers, Walking Sounds, Hotkey Bar going grey when you're unable to cast, Taijutsu Weapons, Slowed Run Casts, Shared Cooldowns for similar Jutsu, Barrier Tags.
We fixed Rubberbanding!
Made the client work with DirectX9!
We fixed the worst server crash that was plaguing Nin Online ever.
and finally, we ended off the year with a one time Christmas X Halloween mash up event!
In total we added 100+ new items including cosmetics, 30+ Maps , 50+ NPCs.
This is only a brief overview of some of the more interesting things introduced in 2018. We have hundreds of other bug fixes, changes and additions you can read about in our Patch Notes starting on page 12! I also excluded content that is unavailable to players as of today, even though they are added.
To end this all, I just want to thank everyone for sticking with us through 2018, and for joining us in 2018. Welcome to Nin Online!
Regards,
Ueda