Hello Lumia Island Survivors,
In this Dev Journal, we want to discuss our next area of focus: Weapon Skills. We would also like to gather your thoughts and feedback through a survey.
Why Weapon Skills?
Weapon Skills are part of the oldest foundation in Eternal Return. Most of them were created a very long time ago, and the game has evolved drastically since then. Over time, certain Weapon Skills have fallen out of sync with the current gameplay loop. From a player's perspective, some elements now feel overwhelming, and we completely agree with the community feedback regarding the current balance disparity between different weapon categories.
Our team has been systematically updating content that has been around a long time, including Augments and Tactical Skills. While updating older content helps refresh the meta and creates new playstyles, it is also a vital step in fixing mechanics that never quite fit our post-official launch Squad format.
Now, it is time to address Weapon Skills.
We want to know your feedback regarding what currently feels unfair or where the power gap between skills is simply too wide. Our goal is to tune Weapon Skills so they naturally fit the modern era of Eternal Return.
Our Direction
We want to be clear from the start: these improvements are not intended to completely shift the game. Rather than trying to create a massive sensation, we are focusing on refining each Weapon Skill so that it functions clearly and fairly within the current state of the game. We will not force changes onto skills that are already performing well; instead, we are targeting the ones with clear, defined issues.
That said, for the skills that are problematic, the issue often lies within their core mechanics, which can affect our current balancing or cause inconveniences. Adjusting these skills will naturally change how they feel when used and could alter certain playstyles. We know that this kind of shift is exactly what players worry about most when updates like this are announced.
Adapting to changes in familiar controls always requires an adjustment period. Because of that, we will not change things just for the sake of changing them. We plan to look closely at your survey responses to determine exactly which Weapon Skills need to be addressed. Once those skills are selected, we will outline the how and why behind the changes in detailed patch notes and future Dev Journals before they go live.
We Want Your Feedback
When it comes to which Weapon Skills feel overpowered, annoying, or clunky right now, nobody knows better than you, our players. Before we fully dive into the development phase, we want to hear from you first. Your feedback will help us prioritize which weapon groups to look at first and determine how significant the adjustments need to be.
The survey focuses on the following:
- Which Weapon Skill do you find the most overpowered or annoying to play against? Why?
- Which Weapon Skill do you find the most clunky or lacking when you use it? Why?
- Which Weapon Type do you use the most?
Going forward, our work to bring older features up to the standard of our current game will continue. We will read through your feedback thoroughly and carefully implement it into our design process. We will share our progress in upcoming Lumia Dev Journals and patch notes.
In our next journal, we are preparing a dive into a topic we know has been getting a lot of attention lately: Matchmaking Improvements. Since this season brought major shifts to the matchmaking system, we want to share the mid-season data with you and gather your feedback on our direction for next season.
Thank you for always being part of the journey.
