Developer Team Notes #12

Hey there, Smashers!
This is Hongyoung Joo, Executive Producer of SMASH LEGENDS.

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to everyone who continues to love and support SMASH LEGENDS.
With this update, there is so much I want to share with you that I decided to reach out through the Developer Team Notes.

Today, I would like to share news about the upcoming release of the new Legend,
the improvements we have made based on your valuable feedback,
and the future direction of our service.

With this update, we are excited to finally introduce the new Legend, “Sol.”
The three “SMASH LEGENDS X GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE-” collaboration skins released in the last update received an incredible amount of attention and love, which gave our team a great boost.
As a token of our appreciation, we have prepared an additional event to celebrate the release of the new Legend “Sol,” where players can obtain “[GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE-] Fashion Tickets.” We hope this will make your gaming experience even more enjoyable.

That said, we sincerely apologize to everyone who patiently waited, as we were unable to release “Sol” when the collaboration began.

During the collaboration process, some parts took longer than the team originally anticipated, and we needed to take extra care to ensure that the final preparations were fully completed. We kindly ask for your understanding that this was a decision made to deliver a more polished final product.

We also understand that some of you were disappointed that the three collaboration skins released in the last update were offered as “Super Rare.”
To provide a bit more context, these skins were initially planned for and set as “Super Rare” during the early stages of production, based on the original schedule.
However, due to schedule changes, a gap occurred between the original planning and the actual release. As a result, it may have come off as though there was enough time for us to adjust their grade, and we regret any confusion this may have caused.
If we had been able to foresee the schedule changes sooner, we might have considered setting a higher grade or offering a broader range of content. Still, development proceeded based on the original plan and schedule, and we would be grateful for your understanding on this matter.

We deeply value your feedback and expectations, and we will continue striving to meet them with even greater care and dedication.

Not long ago, one of our players kindly sent us a survey by email.
The survey included the valuable opinions of about 50 players, and we read through each and every comment carefully.

However, we ask for your understanding that it is difficult for us to respond individually to each suggestion, as we must ensure fairness across all communication channels. That said, we would like to assure you that we deeply appreciate every voice you shared, and serious discussions are already underway within the team.

Additionally, when we looked at the suggestions gathered through various channels:

• Barriers for new and returning players
• Character balancing
• Matching system
• Server issues

These were the most frequently mentioned topics.

While we cannot promise that these issues will be resolved perfectly in the short term, we can confidently assure you that we are fully committed to improving them over time.

Right now, every single member of our team is doing their utmost to deliver the best possible results.
While the pace of progress may seem slow from your perspective,
we humbly ask for your understanding that this is the best pace our team can sustain at the moment.
We will continue making steady, step-by-step improvements moving forward.

In this update, we have also made the following changes in response to some of your suggestions:

1. Regarding Clan Creation and Expansion, Gem Requirements, and Nickname Change Costs

 We have received consistent feedback that the Gem costs for creating and expanding clans were excessively high, and after internal discussions, we have agreed and decided to lower the prices. Specifically, the Gem cost for creating a clan has been reduced from 3,000 to 1,000 Gems, and the cost for expanding a clan has been reduced from 3,000 to 300.

However, regarding nickname changes, we plan to maintain the current price for now. We are concerned that setting a lower price could lead to an increase in misuse, such as players frequently changing their names to cause discomfort to others. We ask for your understanding on this matter.

2. Increase in “Legend Coin” Rewards for Duplicate Legends

We have also received a lot of feedback that the amount of Legend Coins given when obtaining duplicate Legends was excessively low.
Our team fully agrees with this feedback, and we have decided to increase the Legend Coin rewards in this update. The adjusted Legend Coin rewards have been increased by up to 10 times compared to the previous amount. For detailed information, please refer to the update note.

3. Expansion of Spectator Slots in Custom Matches

Many players shared that there were not enough spectator slots in Custom Matches when playing with friends, which caused inconvenience.
In response to their requests for a way to enjoy matches with more players together, we have expanded the number of spectator slots in this update. This change reflects your valuable feedback, and we hope you will experience even more freedom and fun in the expanded space.

Until now, SMASH LEGENDS has been preparing balance patches alongside every update, which occurred once every two weeks.

We have made every effort to quickly reflect your valuable feedback in the fast-changing game environment, but realistically, it has not always been easy to immediately address every suggestion or deliver a perfect solution each time.

Even so, we have cherished our long-term commitment to our players and have continued to make balance adjustments with a strong sense of responsibility, even if the process was sometimes inefficient.

After long and careful consideration, we have decided to change the balance patch cycle from every “two weeks” to every “one month.”

The reasons behind this decision are as follows.

Under the two-week cycle, we often had to prepare the next patch before we could fully observe and analyze the effects of the previous one.

As a result, there were structural limitations where balance changes were made repeatedly without enough time to properly assess their impact.

By moving to a monthly patch cycle, we expect to spend about two weeks after each patch carefully monitoring in-game changes and collecting sufficient data, followed by more deliberate and accurate balance adjustments based on the results.

Of course, this change does not mean that “nothing will happen between patches.”

If a critical bug occurs or an issue emerges that clearly requires immediate action, we will respond swiftly regardless of the cycle.

This decision was made carefully by the development team in order to deliver a more stable and higher-quality gameplay experience.

We sincerely ask for your understanding as we work toward making the game even better through these changes.

Through the last update, we introduced the new mode, “Head-to-Head Combat.”
Since its release, we have steadily received feedback, with many players specifically pointing out issues related to balance.

In truth, “Head-to-Head Combat” was not designed as a perfectly competitive mode from the start. Our primary goal was to offer a new gameplay experience, and even if the mode was somewhat incomplete, we decided to release it to quickly deliver more diverse forms of fun to our players.

Of course, we do not take any discomfort or frustration that this may have caused lightly.

In response, we have been preparing urgent improvements, focusing on adjusting the mode’s gameplay rules, and we plan to implement these changes as quickly as possible to provide a better experience.

That said, we humbly ask for your understanding.

If a culture takes root where every piece of content must be perfect from the start, it becomes increasingly difficult to attempt new ideas or introduce different types of experiences.

While steadily improving quality remains important, the flexibility to try out a variety of enjoyable experiences, even if they’re not always perfect, is also crucial. If you continue to support us with that spirit in mind, we believe we can create even more new and exciting experiences together.

We sincerely value your feedback and will continue to reflect on it carefully as we move forward, striving to improve with every step we take.

In this Developer Team Notes, we have listened closely to your voices
and shared the direction we are considering, as well as the changes we are working on.

There is still a long way to go, and there are many areas where we fall short,
but thanks to the love and support you continue to show for SMASH LEGENDS,
we are able to keep moving forward, one step at a time.

Even at this very moment, every member of our team is doing their utmost to push ahead.
Our current pace may not fully meet your expectations,
but we promise to continue moving forward steadily, little by little, in the right direction.

We also hope to communicate with you more often
and work together to build an even greater stage for SMASH LEGENDS.

Once again, we sincerely thank everyone who loves and supports SMASH LEGENDS, and we look forward to bringing you even better news in the next Developer Team Notes.

Thank you.

SMASH LEGENDS Executive Producer
– Hongyoung Joo