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View Full Version : Annihilus 7.0, future plans, and what lies ahead



Game
01-13-2018, 12:42 AM
Hello friends! It is a little late, but Happy New Year! It's been a while since my check-in with everyone, and people are wanting some details on what is planned for Annihilus, and what the future looks like. We have just very recently come to a few conclusions, and I figured it is best for everyone to know as soon as possible. I'll get right to it.



The next version of Annihilus, currently titled 7.0, will be a massive overhaul.


This means quite a few things. This will by far be the biggest change / update Annihilus has ever seen, in fact I bet very few servers will have seen an overhaul as large as this, if any at all. Of course any changes we're currently set on are subject to change at anytime, but here is a very small fraction of what we're working on.



• Progression has been redone from the beginning. Monster strength, experience gains, item progression, will all be totally different. Act 5 will no longer be the "end" of the game. It is just the beginning. To give you an idea, monsters in the Throne of Destruction in Hell will be level 70, nowhere near higher level content.





• Monster Resistances are no longer a "thing". All monsters will have 0 resistances to all elements by default, and will only rarely have any sort of resistances. Certain monster types will have minor resistances, an example would be all Demons would have 25% fire resistance. There will also be many more monster types as there are only a few now. Rare / Superunique monster properties such as being "Fire Enchanted" would also cause them to have some fire resistance. We will be removing the resistance UI from below the monster health bar completely as it will not be necessary.





• Relative to the resistance change, "resistance pierce" as a stat will be all but removed. There will be VERY rare instances of it showing up on an item, but it will not be a primary stat, and definitely not something you build around or can stack.





• Player Count will no longer increase the amount of items dropped. There will be a new stat on items that will "increase quantity of items dropped" that will work the same way as the Player Count buff used to. 100% increase quantity will be the cap, giving you the same result as players 8.





• Character and Item power will be much lower than they are now. Numbers are just way too high for everything, so you will see a number crunch. 50,000 damage is a good "average" number we're looking at for endgame damage as of now.





• Tons of endgame content is going to be added. We're talking about more maps, special sidequest events, much more item customization such as "rare crafting". I will be a little more specific of what is currently on the drawing board, again ALL of this is subject change and may not work out:


- Maps will now be able to roll magic, rare, and even unique. Based on what affixes maps roll it can modify what shows up in the map, such as special monsters, things that make the map harder such as modified monster stats or player stats, and many other things. The harder the map, the higher quantity and quality of items! As for unique maps, those will stay a surprise for now :)


- Endless Dungeons. Imagine a 100+ Level dungeon that never ends, only getting harder with each level, while the loot gets better and better. The monsters and level type will be 100% TRULY random. This could very likely replace the Crucible, that is still under talks.


- Side areas such as The Pit, Stony Tomb, Swampy Pit, etc will now have special quests with special challenges that must be done at a certain level and solo. Just as a quick example, lets say you must kill the special Boss spawned in The Pit in under 2 minutes without dying, while level 20 or lower. Completing this will reward a "special" item. The Pit will have a totally different challenge in each difficulty, this was just a quick made up example in my head. You will receive a notification when hitting level 20 about this special quest, so you won't miss any opportunities.


- PvP minigames. This may be a content patch beyond the initial 7.0, but we will be working on minigames such as Capture the Flag.


- Trial Bosses will also be changed, they will no longer be a daily type of things. More information to come later on this.





• Skills are being completely overhauled. There will no longer be "Damage Synergies". There will still be utility synergies for certain skills that are not damage related, such as Telekinesis and Energy shield, but you will almost never increase a skill's damage with a synergy anymore. There may still be some rare cases, we are still in early stage, a good example of this would be Murder of Crows still allowing you more Raven summons. This will encourage hybrid / dual elemental builds, especially with resistances being gone. As for passive / buff skills, they will be redesigned to receive more power with hard points versus "soft points" such as + to all skills.





• Many issues and bugs are being worked on, if all goes well we will have Glide working and all resolution problems resolved.





This is just the beginning, Firehawk and I are going to be working non stop for the next few months to get this where we want it. You may have just noticed I said "few" months, and that is unfortunately correct. While we wanted to have this ready in late March, we do not want to have a repeat of 6.0 where we didn't get to test things nearly enough, and ended up with a lot of crashes and problems.




Our current projection for completion is May.




We very well could finish a little sooner in a perfect world, and we will DEFINITELY be starting thorough beta testing well before then to ensure this is the smoothest launch possible. We will also provide developer updates along the way to keep everyone in the loop and keep hype up. Subscribers will of course see things a little sooner! All Subscribers will receive instant access to the beta test as soon as it goes up. Anyone who has purchased atleast 2000 Gold between the time of this post until the time of launch will also receive access.



There is a reason I want to ensure everyone who supports us financially gets a chance to adjust to the changes a little earlier and gets to help us shape this historical patch into a flawless piece of work. Announcing all of this ahead of time is somewhat of a double edged sword for Annihilus, as MANY players seem to just stop playing as soon as news is announced. This will not be happening until May, so there is PLENTY of time left in the ladder. Please continue to play and support us in the meantime, as our time and server cost are definitely not free. We are also going to look to give some other incentives to still buying Gold between now and then as well.

Many people usually jump to Hardcore and give it a test when it gets around this time in ladder, I suggest you try that if you're getting a little burnt out, some of you are already transitioning and having a blast!



One last piece of information to mention, these changes are so drastic that all existing characters will not be compatible with the changes. We are not going to delete your characters! We will be adding an "Annihilus Legacy" realm that will store all existing characters and forever run 6.1.1, so they will always be there if you want to play them! Anyone on Annihilus Legacy will use the same login as their standard Annihilus account, so you can chat between Annihilus and Annihilus Legacy with whispers just like how Annihilus and D2PK realms can chat.



I just want to truly thank all of you who will still continue to play between now and May, without you all we definitely wouldn't be able to put the time we're currently putting into 7.0. Thank you so much. We look forward to bringing this game changing patch to you, thank you so much for your patience, we hope you are as excited as we are.


- The Annihilus Staff

deeidy
01-13-2018, 12:53 AM
hot damn. so many changes!

forest
01-13-2018, 12:53 AM
very intrigued

proph21
01-13-2018, 06:29 AM
A whole new Diablo adventure with ground breaking content, whilst staying true to the old-school nostalgic values? Challenge accepted ;)

bonnell21
01-13-2018, 06:31 AM
nice alex :{}

Mephisto
01-13-2018, 06:31 AM
Can't wait!

StenchTrench
01-13-2018, 06:54 AM
Loving most of these changes a lot. IMHO character progression is the largest flaw that this server has. It would be wonderful to see players hanging on for more than 2 months after a ladder reset. I am confident that all of the hard work will pay off.

Celebrant
01-13-2018, 09:17 AM
I like the Players8 change a lot. However, are there any plans about addressing stash sizes or including pages of stashes?
The thing that drives me crazy about this mod is that I have to load multiple characters and mule around. I'd like to be able to play a single character and not worry about loading more.

A currency system for the orbs/maps would be a good thing too, so it doesn't impact stash size at all.

Game
01-13-2018, 10:20 AM
I like the Players8 change a lot. However, are there any plans about addressing stash sizes or including pages of stashes?
The thing that drives me crazy about this mod is that I have to load multiple characters and mule around. I'd like to be able to play a single character and not worry about loading more.

A currency system for the orbs/maps would be a good thing too, so it doesn't impact stash size at all.

We have some stuff we're working on around this area, we just weren't too confident in saying we'd absolutely have it ready by then, so I left it out. Stay tuned!

StenchTrench
01-13-2018, 07:19 PM
Player Count will no longer increase the amount of items dropped. There will be a new stat on items that will "increase quantity of items dropped" that will work the same way as the Player Count buff used to. 100% increase quantity will be the cap, giving you the same result as players 8. The way this reads is that in order to have the players 8 drop, you MUST have the 100% drop rate on your gear...and that even if you have 64 players in the game the drop rate will be players 1? This is a TERRIBLE idea IMHO. Why make drop rate a stat on items when other servers simply have it standard?

UiVegito
01-13-2018, 07:22 PM
Cant wait!

Game
01-13-2018, 10:18 PM
Player Count will no longer increase the amount of items dropped. There will be a new stat on items that will "increase quantity of items dropped" that will work the same way as the Player Count buff used to. 100% increase quantity will be the cap, giving you the same result as players 8. The way this reads is that in order to have the players 8 drop, you MUST have the 100% drop rate on your gear...and that even if you have 64 players in the game the drop rate will be players 1? This is a TERRIBLE idea IMHO. Why make drop rate a stat on items when other servers simply have it standard?

It seems I didn't explain well, but then again you cannot look at "drops" the same as you do now. It is totally different in how items will work in general.

StenchTrench
01-14-2018, 05:38 AM
Okay. I trust your judgement. I guess it was just worded wrong.

Lampogriz
01-14-2018, 09:19 AM
• Monster Resistances are no longer a "thing". All monsters will have 0 resistances to all elements by default, and will only rarely have any sort of resistances. Certain monster types will have minor resistances, an example would be all Demons would have 25% fire resistance. There will also be many more monster types as there are only a few now. Rare / Superunique monster properties such as being "Fire Enchanted" would also cause them to have some fire resistance. We will be removing the resistance UI from below the monster health bar completely as it will not be necessary.


Does it mean there will be no more immune or high res monsters, including bosses?


• Relative to the resistance change, "resistance pierce" as a stat will be all but removed. There will be VERY rare instances of it showing up on an item, but it will not be a primary stat, and definitely not something you build around or can stack.


- What will happen with conviction aura, lower res, decrep and amp curse skills?
- Would you also remove pierce from facets, cain jools and some vanilla rws like phoenix, doom, hoj, crecent, etc ?

Game
01-14-2018, 02:19 PM
Does it mean there will be no more immune or high res monsters, including bosses?



- What will happen with conviction aura, lower res, decrep and amp curse skills?
- Would you also remove pierce from facets, cain jools and some vanilla rws like phoenix, doom, hoj, crecent, etc ?

There will be no more immune monsters except for EXTREMELY rare cases. Bosses will be using high life / all damage reduced for their tankiness now. It feels bad to be crippled just because of your element you're playing. Conviction / similar auras / curses will still lower resistances, but will cap at -25%. It will be removed from all items, including the ones you mentioned, and replaced with something else. It may still show up on an item in again, EXTREMELY rare cases, but don't expect to see it much.

StenchTrench
01-15-2018, 07:25 AM
Would kill to see a serious buff added to frost nova....

Fitsu
01-15-2018, 07:49 AM
Will player count still effect XP gains? As I assume the point of making it so that player count doesn't effect drops was to reduce the amount of loaders feel required to use. Yet I imagine people will still feel required to use loaders if it increases XP gains.

saesa
01-15-2018, 07:57 AM
Will player count still effect XP gains? As I assume the point of making it so that player count doesn't effect drops was to reduce the amount of loaders feel required to use. Yet I imagine people will still feel required to use loaders if it increases XP gains.

Stat such as incresed player count also increases experience gain would fix this :D Nothing impossible for those guys!

nedamettin
01-22-2018, 11:30 AM
god this pierce/skill dmg meta is awful anyway. i'm glad to see it'll be changed. and i agree on gothix about progression. as everyone knows im one of the people who plays at most a month at start of the ladder then cry about some huge rng-based progression or the lack of progression and quit until next ladder (like now). i think everything should be harder and having 2 maxed out characters should be maximum for most dedicated players, progress-wise. and i'd also love to see the gap between end game and mid game close a bit. right now, one item may change your whole gameplay or you may be doomed by rng and never have that timing you are looking for because of that one item not dropping.

i'd suggest something like this: cube 3 trial items to get a token of dedication. which can be turned in for a random rolled trial item of your choice. price may differ depending on which item you buy since band or el'druin has a lower chance compared to um.. crown of poopy heavens?

Game
01-22-2018, 11:55 AM
god this pierce/skill dmg meta is awful anyway. i'm glad to see it'll be changed. and i agree on gothix about progression. as everyone knows im one of the people who plays at most a month at start of the ladder then cry about some huge rng-based progression or the lack of progression and quit until next ladder (like now). i think everything should be harder and having 2 maxed out characters should be maximum for most dedicated players, progress-wise. and i'd also love to see the gap between end game and mid game close a bit. right now, one item may change your whole gameplay or you may be doomed by rng and never have that timing you are looking for because of that one item not dropping.

i'd suggest something like this: cube 3 trial items to get a token of dedication. which can be turned in for a random rolled trial item of your choice. price may differ depending on which item you buy since band or el'druin has a lower chance compared to um.. crown of poopy heavens?

That crown is pretty sought after... did you play this ladder? :D Anyways as mentioned in the announcement, progression is completely changed, there will not be huge gaps anymore. Also there are no more trials.

nedamettin
01-24-2018, 07:59 AM
trust me one of the most exciting items in my opinion was crown of high heavens but specially in early-mid game server had a huge rng on crown drops and turns out u cant spare helm slot without pierce. most people went for 40 pierce / hp blue helm focus because of pierce + better aura. crown needs a different aura, maybe a whole different aura which makes you deal a percentage of your total damage as a pure damage? or a missile hasten aura? that'd be so cool.

Nalfgar
02-03-2018, 08:41 AM
Stat such as incresed player count also increases experience gain would fix this :D Nothing impossible for those guys!

The stat ''Player Count +1'' would also prevent you mix up the ''Player Count XP'' Stat with ''% Increased Expirience gain'' and also could combine ''Player Count XP'' and ''Player Dropcount'' in one stat.

Nalfgar
02-04-2018, 11:38 AM
Btw i just noticed that could be forgotten:
If you manage tankyness of monsters by lifepoints corpse explosion could be very strong cause the damage is based to corpse hitpoints!!

sleezy2
02-12-2018, 08:49 PM
There will be no more immune monsters except for EXTREMELY rare cases. Bosses will be using high life / all damage reduced for their tankiness now. It feels bad to be crippled just because of your element you're playing. Conviction / similar auras / curses will still lower resistances, but will cap at -25%. It will be removed from all items, including the ones you mentioned, and replaced with something else. It may still show up on an item in again, EXTREMELY rare cases, but don't expect to see it much.

Sounds cool. Having pierce on extremely rare cases dosnt leave much for build diversification. Would be nice to have multiple options for item slots. Pierce is just so over powered especially if its hard to obtain. Is pierce capped at 25 per hero or per spell? Would be cool to have a player cap. So we still don't have to prioritize pierce and forced to use limited items.

Good luck with everything. Looking forward to beta

Game
02-12-2018, 08:51 PM
Sounds cool. Having pierce on extremely rare cases dosnt leave much for build diversification. Would be nice to have multiple options for item slots. Pierce is just so over powered especially if its hard to obtain. Is pierce capped at 25 per hero or per spell? Would be cool to have a player cap. So we still don't have to prioritize pierce and forced to use limited items.

Good luck with everything. Looking forward to beta

It won't be nearly as high as 20 or so on items, in fact it likely won't be much of a stat period. If we use it it will be in very, very rare cases and it will not make the item a must have. No worries there. That would completely ruin the whole point of getting rid of the stat off of most things :)

aPlax
02-19-2018, 08:13 PM
- Endless Dungeons. Imagine a 100+ Level dungeon that never ends, only getting harder with each level, while the loot gets better and better. The monsters and level type will be 100% TRULY random. This could very likely replace the Crucible, that is still under talks.


This part looks interesting and may bring a diverse character party in order to progress further and further, Might even require such chars as pure tank + mitigation classes (aka defensive pally buff class) and very high class cannon dps.. i look forward to this challenge

Terpik
03-19-2018, 01:13 PM
wow I can't wait for this big update! :D
BTW: how to join beta tests? I want to play it now!

Game
03-20-2018, 10:19 PM
wow I can't wait for this big update! :D
BTW: how to join beta tests? I want to play it now!

As of now subscribers will get a notification when the beta goes up, im not sure if we'll do a full open beta yet!

soo61
03-26-2018, 06:04 AM
어서빨리 시작되길 기다립니다~!

SSYolo
03-29-2018, 09:00 PM
adding rune words to Rune Master Ettin Axe would be cool?!

Laucha1994
04-10-2018, 03:53 PM
Sounds great!! let's hope it is a difficult ladder.
I think many buff items should be balanced, reducing their stats, so it would be possible to have better duels and more entertaining gameplay, and that would not only depend on finding a specific item.

iosu
05-02-2018, 04:11 AM
What is the release date for the new patch?

JordanGotHoess
05-11-2018, 12:26 PM
i need help downloading it please anyone for real!!