[Korea] Interview with Head Director Yoon

• This is a special event livestream on KDnF Twitch channel with their head director Yoon. You can watch the interview in this Youtube video.
• This interview was about 3 hours long, and the author would like to express special thanks to u/halfmango08 for the amazing translation.

Table of Contents

• First Half-Year Feedback
• Growth System
• Transfer/Growth UI
• Neutralization System
• Character Balancing
• Gear Theme
• Level 110 Dungeons
• Second Half-Year Roadmap
• June 30th (Multi-thread client improvement )
• July 7th (Ispins, Stormwrath, Dungeon & Life, Advanced Dungeons Improvement, Training Room Renewal)
• August / September (Character Renewal & Balancing, Bakal Raid)
• October (Advanced Dungeon Expansion, 16:9 widescreen, PVP season 8)
• November (Character Renewal / Balance, Archmage's Dimensional Corridor)
• December (Level 1~100 Scenarios Renewal)
• Other Changes
• Q&A
• References

First Half-Year Feedback

• Growth System:
• The equipment level growth and transfer system itself was the first system introduced in Dungeon & Fighter, so we approached it too carefully. After much thought, the number of growth has increased more than tenfold since the update of the equipment growth system. He expressed his honest opinion, saying what would have happened if these changes had been corrected two to four weeks earlier.
• In addition, as an apology for having to rely on 'transfer growth' for equipment option levels at the beginning of the season, we are preparing a plan to calculate the golden beryl used for the 110 level transfer and refund 50% of the amount. It is at the stage of considering the payment method of beryl and promised to refund on July 17th.
• Transfer/Growth UI:
• Because the UI of the growth and transfer system was not intuitive, there were too many cases where precious enchantments such as reinforcement, amplification, and enchantment disappeared in one day by placing the material equipment and the equipment to be received in reverse.
• He had a policy of recovering as much as possible from such cases, but there were so many cases that the workload was overloaded. Accordingly, along with a major UI reorganization, the system will be improved so that equipment inheritance can be carried out at once.

• Neutralization System:
• We plan to reorganize the "neutralization system" that harms the foundation between characters. He frankly stated that the system that reflects his greed was correct. He said that he wanted to revive the system that was alienated from the boss monster, which was armed with various defense conditions such as immunity to status abnormalities, impossible to hold, and invincibility in order to avoid situations where monsters were unilaterally hit.
• However, it is also true that the meta has changed rapidly after the maximum level expansion, and the actual dealing gap between characters who are well-adapted and those who are not is too large. It is difficult to directly adjust the character's balancing for each dungeon or item change, and it is difficult to directly modify the character's unique characteristics because it has to be respected.
• Therefore, the neutralization system itself is completely modified. It is reorganized so that the neutralization gauge can be cut even with a normal attack, and in the case of neutralization-type abnormalities, the gauge can be attacked regardless of weakness. In addition, he explained that he thinks that the neutralization state can play a similar role to the groggy time in the future, such as a significant decrease in the neutralization gauge when the monster's pattern is broken.
• Character Balancing:
• Skill customizing gear such as talisman and decisive weapons have the merit of being creative and fun, but they also have the problem of characters being skewed when those gears disappear. As weapons would only last a season, they wanted to try something more bold and if necessary move some of its options to the characters via balancing. We realize this hasn’t worked out, and we're sorry.
• In addition, they plan to raise the weapon options for classes with an excessively low use rate for Decisive Weapon, and downgrade the weapon options for some classes with too high use rates. The content will be updated as soon as July 7th.

• The character values ​​themselves are also partially adjusted. Asura, whose own performance is strong, will be slightly downgraded, and character balancing will be carried out for about 7 classes , including Troubleshooter, Male Ranger, and Dark Knight.
• Lower difficulties don’t have enough buffers, higher difficulties don’t have enough DPS. Dungeons cannot be balanced without buffers in account as they give so much dmg (almost 10 times with base buff, 20 times with 1a). 
• This will be drastically reorganized so that you can feel the play experience equivalent to that of a dealer when playing solo. It is scheduled to be renewed in September, and until then, a cool-time reduction buff will be provided to the buffer group to supplement their solo play ability.
• Gear Theme:
• It was also mentioned that only certain item combinations are being used. Reorganized to reduce the firepower gap between items. Representatively, the Golem's Keystone Ring is a powerful piece of equipment that can be mixed with the Akan theme, and the Unknown Golden Stone is reorganized as a cornerstone of the advanced level enhancement theme.
• Some setups (like sleep and petrification) have been designed with future contents such as Ispins and Bakal raid in mind, but obviously they haven’t been able to serve the current meta and have been neglected.
• More gear balance incoming to completely revamp unused gears. Internal testing shows that many weaker setups will be vastly improved to be not far behind MP consume + ailment setup (current meta setup).

• Level 110 Dungeons:
• Nassau forest is run vastly more than any other dungeon as its mobs have less HP than those of the other dungeons. Furthermore, the belt and shoes of the MP consume pieces also drop in Nassau. Dungeons will be nerfed/rebalanced to reduce players’ fatigue and alleviate this problem.
• Advanced dungeons improvement: golden beryls will be usable to buy the tickets to reduce reliance on burning through fp in normal dungeons to get play points. Tradable golden beryls will also drop guaranteed to stabilize the economy. 
• Advanced dungeon expansion: Master difficulty will be updated in the future to improve its playability at the point where it starts lagging behind the legion dungeons. Tickets will have effects imbued that may improve rewards, buff players and enemies. Won’t be a ‘new’ content that must be played. 
• Meister's Lab: Was harder than it should’ve been as they changed its design from a weekly dungeon to an advanced dungeon during development. Will be massively nerfed to better fit the position & let the players have their revenge.

Second Half-Year Roadmap

June 30th

(Multi-thread client improvement )

July 7th

(Ispins, Stormwrath, Dungeon & Life, Advanced Dungeons Improvement, Training Room Renewal)

• Legion Dungeon: Stolen Land, Ispins:
• An adventurer who pursued Sirocco's thoughts meets the cruelest era in the history of the heavens. As the first Legion dungeon, it is a new advanced dungeon classification with strong named and 1:1 battles as the main, and potions and coin restrictions like raids.
• You can select a mission before starting a battle, and depending on this, you can get an advantage for monsters or for allies. You can also select the difficulty level in advance to increase the amount of rewards.

• The core rewards of Ispins Dungeon is the 'fusion system'. We focused on making the character stronger without compromising the existing equipment settings. In addition, in the dungeon reward, fusion equipment does not appear at all, and the "Complete Price System" is introduced, which can only be purchased by collecting materials.

 

• A new fixed option Epic is also added. A powerful item that supports the previously neglected equipment theme is expected to appear. On the other hand, custom epics are not newly added, but instead, existing custom epic equipment appears with a higher probability.

• The entry system uses a system similar to the existing advanced dungeon, which allows you to enter a certain number of times per week rather than an admission ticket. Can enter as party. Solo mode available. Once a week per character.
• The difficulty level (requires 33,043 fames) is not much higher than that of the existing dungeons, but will consist around Meister's Laboratory expert and master level. 
• Stormwrath:
• Instead of a fixed number of entries per week, this dungeon consumes no play points, has good fatigue efficiency, and has a higher level of equipment options than other dungeons in the same class. The existing dungeon resources will be recycled as an 'intermediate dungeon', which means between a normal dungeon and an advanced dungeon.
• It consists of two difficulty levels of 12,000 and 25,000 fames, so it is a great help in advancing to advanced dungeons.
• Dungeon & Life:
• It is a place where you can take a breather from DFO, the traditional battlefield that grows villages by acquiring materials and building buildings through activities such as gathering, fishing, farming, and harvesting through Dungeon & Life. It will be updated on July 7th.
• Among them, you can also create consumables that help in battle. You can also play new content along with new consumables such as potions that restore allies or potions that cause status ailments.
• Advance Dungeon Improvements:
• Advanced dungeon admission tickets are reorganized so that they can be purchased with Golden Beryl. Also, if you clear the advanced dungeon, there is a 100% chance to get a certain amount of Flawless Golden Beryl. An advanced dungeon card book will also be added so that you can continue to obtain financial benefits when playing advanced dungeons.
• Improvement of Training Room:
• Completely revamp the training room, which is one way to measure damage. The type of monster and the battle situation can be created as an actual level 110 dungeon environment.
• The ability to retain the original enchantment, material, and equipment option level even if the equipment is replaced in the training room allows you to experience firsthand how powerful it will be in practice when new equipment is acquired

• Neutralization System renewal, Golden Beryl sale Decisive/Source Weapon adjustment also carried out in this date.
• More improvement carried out on July 21th

August/September

• Character Renewal & Balancing on August 4th. Bakal Raid Part 1 (weekly dungeon) on August 25th. Bakal Raid Part 2 (actual raid) on September 22nd
• Bakal Raid, scheduled to be updated in August, will be added in two installments.
• Normal difficulty, 'Mechanical Revolution: Open War', can be challenged by 1 to 4 players, and is designed to be cleared more easily by adventurers who are difficult to challenge advanced difficulty or have difficulty in raid structure.
• The advanced difficulty, 'Mechanical Revolution: Bakal Raid' is a raid that deals with Bakal in earnest, and 12 people will challenge it together. 
• Main reward: 4 new weapons, 5 types of fusion armor, and 11 types of fixed optional epic equipment (one for each part) will be introduced. Convergence equipment can be acquired regardless of difficulty, so it will faithfully serve as a cornerstone for challenging advanced levels of difficulty.

October

(Advanced Dungeon Expansion, 16:9 widescreen, PVP season 8)

• Advanced Dungeon Expansion:
• It is scheduled to be updated around October, and at that point, the equipment level is already high and the reason to return is lost. If you use an additional Lion Core to the existing Master Difficulty Ticket, it will be changed to an admission ticket with 4 enhancement options.
• Two reward enhancement effects, one character enhancement effect, and one monster enhancement effect are added, and of course, among the reward enhancement effects, there is a function that allows the equipment option level to appear at a higher level.

• 16:9 Widescreen:
• Wide mode is officially supported, providing a wider screen that can be enjoyed in a PC environment. You can see a more detailed and majestic village, and even in the dungeon, colorful patterns and various elements of monsters that were not previously hidden or invisible appear, allowing you to experience a more lively dungeon.
• PVP Season 8:
• Introduces a system that can reverse the battle pattern by applying a powerful buff to the character when it enters below a certain HP. In addition, most of the skills that were not available for existing characters are unlocked, and blades and assaults are added as new characters.

November

Character Renewal / Balance,  Archmage's Dimensional Corridor

• Archmage's Dimensional Corridor:
• It is a content in which a group of adventurers who were traveling through the dimension after the battle with Bakal arrive at a place called the "Library of Memory", peering into their memories and passing through trials. 
• Like Ispins, this is the second Legion dungeon with weekly entry counts. It appears on a lower difficulty level than the raid, and for users who have not yet entered the raid, it is possible to raise the equipment level, and for users who have already entered, it is being conceived as content that will help supply and demand goods.

December

(Level 1~100 Scenarios Renewal)

• Whenever the maximum level is expanded, the story of Dungeon & Fighter is rearranged in such a way that it is added to the existing story. Even after reaching the highest level, the equipment and materials used are reorganized so that they can be obtained from level 1 instead of level 100, and the overall story breathing is also uniformly rearranged.

Other Changes

• Missions and Play Points:
• To reduce fatigue in general dungeons, the efficiency of limited missions will be greatly increased to reduce fatigue. Play points are also earned through missions rather than by consuming fatigue in regular dungeons. It allows you to acquire play points that were previously earned when you exhausted your fatigue in a day just by performing a mission.
• It solves the phenomenon that only specific dungeons run by allowing unique Epics obtained from general dungeons to be randomly dropped in advanced dungeons as well as from specific named/bosses. In the case of Heroes Mode, we plan to reduce the HP increase for each difficulty level so that you can experience the feeling of becoming stronger.

• Meister's Lab:
• Change the position to a dungeon that can be cleared more easily and has a good reward. Overall, the HP was lowered by 10% and the 12 o'clock room where I felt all kinds of negative experiences called 'Pork Cutlet Hammer', 'Identitate' dramatically reduces HP by about 80% so that I can pass easily.
• Character Retouching:
• Seem like they're bringing the Dnf Mobile version to PC?

• Custom Legendaries Improvement:
• Custom Legendaries will get an option reroll system, options can be rerolled a limited number of times. Reroll count will reset upon being resealed

Q&A 

• Should buffers farm multiple sets for buffing & damage after the revamp? 
• No, they’ll make sure the class & gears balancing will prevent this. 
• Will dungeon & life consumables be tradable? 
• Yes they will be tradable. 
• +14 reinforce & +12 amp for clears kek. 
• No, Bakal raid will never be balanced around amps 
• Farming custom epics is too hard. 
• I agree, we’ll eventually add more sources to farm it. If necessary we’ll also consider and add new systems for it. Also they have no plans of adding new custom epics. 
• PVP arena too small. 
• With 16:9 widescreen update they’ll improve PVP visuals as well. 
• Male Slayer / Female Fighter new sprites when (DFO mobile sprites)
• They’re working on it. There are a crapton of sprites so it’s taking some effort, but they are working hard. Very hard. Probably next year. In case anyone asks: no it won’t be some paid thing, it’ll be an actual, free update. 

References

GameChosun

halfmango's Summary