Hello, Survivors.
Welcome to our August Dev Talk.
We've spent a lot of time discussing what we should reveal this month. The more we share, the more we risk taking away the sense of discovery that awaits players after launch.
That said, the previous Dev Talk only covered a few smaller improvements, so this time we'd like to go a bit further and talk about some of the larger changes currently in development.
Today's update can be divided into two categories:
Features from the Closed Alpha Test (CAT) that are being reworked
New features that are being added after CAT
There are far too many changes to cover in a single post, but I'd like to highlight a few examples that have either been frequently discussed by players or that I personally consider particularly important.
Please note that these are only a small portion of the improvements we've been working on since the CAT.
The Box Disguise skill in the CAT did not perform as we originally intended.
Players could often move around almost freely without being detected, even when infected were standing right next to them. That was never our intention.
By the time we identified the problem during the CAT, we felt it would be better to avoid lengthy server maintenance during such a short test period.
As a result, the skill remained unchanged throughout the test.
Going forward, Box Disguise will require considerably more player skill during its usage.
We want to preserve its scavenging potential while introducing meaningful risk and execution requirements. The goal is to create a noticeable difference between players who master the skill and those who rely on it carelessly.
A simple comparison would be the "Red Light, Green Light" game. If you move carefully when infected aren't watching, you'll still be able to execute stealthy scavenging strategies. If you move recklessly, however, you'll be much easier to detect. We've also increased the risk by adding stamina consumption while moving and slightly reducing movement speed, making mindlessly walking around inside a box far less effective.
At the same time, we're expanding the skill's possibilities through new traits. Some examples include being able to use items while disguised as a box or even checking your tablet without removing the disguise.
Skills such as Rope Dart and Sonar Sense are also going through extensive balancing.
There are generally two approaches to balance adjustments. One is to constantly nerf anything that becomes too powerful. The other is to improve weaker options so that more choices become viable. Personally, I prefer the latter.
I believe games become more enjoyable when players feel excited about choosing between multiple strong options instead of feeling forced into a single correct answer.
Our goal is for every skill to have a unique strength that makes players think: "Maybe I should try that skill next time."
NAKWON's character attributes are highly detailed.
Even something as simple as running is currently divided into numerous individual attributes:
Run Speed
Run Acceleration
Crouch Run Speed
Crouch Run Acceleration
Backward Run Speed
Backward Run Acceleration
Run Noise
Crouch Run Noise
This level of detail was originally intended to create a wide variety of possibilities when designing Gear, equipment options, and character progression.
However, it also created some drawbacks. Because everything was so granular, Gear descriptions often became unnecessarily long and difficult to understand.
In another RPG, an item might simply say: Agility +4. But In NAKWON, achieving a similar effect could require listing multiple individual attributes separately.
To improve readability and accessibility, we've decided to add a traditional RPG-style stat system.
Characters will now have six primary stats:
Strength
Constitution
Agility
Dexterity
Stealth
Endurance
Increasing these stats will automatically improve the related underlying attributes.
At the same time, we're maintaining the flexibility of our existing system. Detailed attributes can still be granted individually through Gear options when necessary, allowing us to create a hybrid system that combines simplicity with depth.
The result is much cleaner item descriptions and significantly improved readability while retaining the customization possibilities we originally envisioned.
There are many more improvements beyond these examples, and we're continuing to refine every aspect of the game.
Following the CAT, one major question stayed with me: "How can we keep the game enjoyable for a much longer period of time?"
Every game eventually faces the same challenge. If players repeat the same activities long enough, they naturally begin to lose interest.
During the CAT, we saw a remarkably high number of players logging in and playing every day. Part of that was certainly because people enjoyed the game. However, I also believe the short four-to-five-day test period played a significant role.
If the exact same version of the game had remained available for one or two weeks after launch, would we have seen the same level of enthusiasm?
Honestly, I don't think so.
That's why it was necessary to add more depth to the game. And I didn't believe that simply adding more content, whether through additional quests, Citizen Status progression, or other systems, would be enough to solve the problem.
One thing I've learned from my years of experience directing MMORPGs is that players will always outperform a developer's expectations. No matter how much content we create, players inevitably consume it faster than we can make it. Because of that, I believe there are clear limits to relying solely on the constant production of new content.
In reality, the CAT build was designed with a relatively limited amount of playable content. Yet many players continued to log in and play for days beyond what that volume of content alone would normally support.
Why was that?
I believe the biggest reason is that NAKWON is a PvPvE game. Every encounter with another player had the potential to create unexpected situations, and those interactions generated experiences that could never be entirely designed or scripted by the developers.
Even so, the CAT version still had its limits. Given enough time, players would eventually begin to encounter the same types of situations repeatedly. I felt that, after about a week, many interactions would start to feel familiar and predictable.
That led me to a simple conclusion: if we could create a world where players approach each encounter with different motivations and circumstances, then every interaction could unfold in a unique way. And if every encounter feels different, the lifespan of that excitement can be extended far beyond what content alone could achieve.
With that goal in mind, we've been developing several new systems since the CAT. I'd like to introduce a few of them today.
During the CAT, players primarily managed two things:
Fullness
Morale
Together, I refer to these as your Survival Condition. Your need to maintain this Survival Condition gives you a clear reason to scavenge, grow stronger, and continue progressing. But eventually, players adapt, and managing Survival Condition becomes routine.
At that point, motivation begins to fade. In real life, once people solve their basic needs, they start searching for purpose and self-fulfillment. I believe NAKWON needs a similar layer.
That is where the new Alignment system comes in. Alignment represents the answer to a simple question: "How do you choose to live?"
I refer to this as your Social Condition, because it reflects both who you are as a person and how you interact with others.
The Alignment system is built around two opposing axes:
Lawful ↔ Chaotic
Good ↔ Evil
Every choice you make in the game influences these values. Whether you kill or save others, complete certain quests, and the daily event you partake. All these actions over time, will shape your Alignment.
This creates four major archetypes:
Lawful Good
Lawful Evil
Chaotic Good
Chaotic Evil
And these alignments are not permanent. In fact, they continuously change based on how you play.
We plan to provide personalized content based on each player's Alignment.
The city contains Faction NPCs that represent each of these four alignments. As your Alignment develops, the corresponding faction will become available and offer advanced quests that reflect your character's values and behavior.
For example, players who lean toward Evil may receive quests such as:
Eliminate X players
Eliminate X players who use Box Disguise
Carry a player's Corpse for over 100 meters
The interesting part is that these quests don't simply create individual objectives. They can also function as a form of faction conflict.
Players may receive quests that encourage cooperation or opposition between different alignments:
(Good Quest) Eliminate X Evil-aligned players
(Evil Quest) Eliminate X Good-aligned players
(Lawful Good Quest) Rescue or revive X players regardless of Alignment
(Chaotic Evil Quest) Attack X players regardless of Alignment (Deal 10,000 cumulative damage)
Players won't automatically know another player's Alignment. Instead, they'll need to judge others based on their behavior, conversations, and actions, or discover it through direct interaction and quest progression.
Our hope is that this system will allow each player's identity and playstyle to become more clearly defined while creating richer social dynamics and more varied player interactions.
During the CAT, most players entered expeditions under fairly similar circumstances. Everyone was working toward similar objectives and carrying roughly the same sense of urgency. As a result, interactions between players tended to occur under similar conditions.
With the new Conditional Quest System, that's no longer the case. Advanced quests can now include various requirements and restrictions that dramatically change the importance of an expedition for different players.
Examples include:
Time-Limited Objectives
Successfully extract from at least three of your next five Expeditions.
Eliminate at least 2 Evil-aligned players within your next 2 Expeditions.
Risk your current Gear and eliminate at least X players during your next Expedition to receive additional Gear of the same tier.
Put up 50% of your assets as collateral. Earn 5,000,000 Credits through scavenging within the next three Expeditions to receive double your collateral as a reward.
Eliminate at least one player and successfully extract during your next Expedition. Failure results in a 1,000,000 Credits penalty.
Earn at least 5,000,000 Credits in a single Expedition. Abandoning the quest after accepting it results in a 500,000 Credit penalty.
These conditions create very different levels of pressure between players. While two players may enter the same Expedition together, one might simply be gathering supplies while another could be risking half of their accumulated wealth.
Combined with the Alignment system, these varying motivations can lead to a much wider range of player-driven stories and conflicts.
We've covered quite a lot today, but what you've seen today is only part of what we're working on.
We're also developing a PvE mode, a Battle Pass system, entirely new Aberrant Infected, and even a fourth map that hasn't been revealed yet. There are also several major systems that we're not ready to talk about publicly.
From my experience as an MMORPG director, I know just how difficult it is to create a game that remains exciting for players over a long period of time. That's why my goal is to make sure that even the most dedicated hardcore players can enjoy the game for at least one month after launch.
And that doesn't mean we'll stop after the first month. When that month is over, we'll continue introducing new systems, new content, and new experiences to keep the game fresh.
The development team is working hard toward that goal every day.
We can't reveal everything ahead of time. Doing so would take away much of the fun of discovering NAKWON for yourself. The features we've discussed today will have a major impact on the future of the game's design, but they are far from the whole picture.
We understand that long periods of waiting naturally lead to concerns and uncertainty.
This Dev Talk is our way of showing that we're listening, that development is progressing, and that we're doing our best to reward your patience.
Thank you, as always, for your continued support. We'll repay that support with a game worth the wait.
See you in the next Dev Talk.