Eternal Return News

[h3]Hello Lumia Island survivors![/h3]

Today’s Dev Journal will cover changes to Saved Plans.
Saved Plans are one of Eternal Return’s most complicated systems, but also an integral part of the game that makes it stand apart from others. Many of Eternal Return’s core players find a ton of fun in figuring out the perfect Saved Plan. As we plan to change a lot of elements in the game for official launch, we knew we had to do more research into not only how to change Saved Plans for the better, but also how to make sure our players continued to have fun with the research process.

However, for players brand new to the game, Saved Plans can be an overwhelmingly difficult system to understand. At the end of last year, we conducted a play test with about 50 new players. What we found was that many players were frustrated because as soon as they finished the tutorials, they were thrown straight into their first match. Even before they played a single round, there was too much information was thrown at new players, making them confused.

Searching for the perfect Saved Plan and creating a strategy is one of the most complicated parts of all our menus. From when we first launched with our first Alpha build, we added a ton of functions to the Saved Plans, and last summer, we made large-scale changes and reorganization. That reorganization added late-game items, Remote Drones, Augments, and other necessary features that expanded the scope of Saved Plans to encompass even more. (Before that, Augments weren’t even connected to the Saved Plans, and players had to use external websites to find the perfect Augment for the character they wanted to play.) However, this necessary increase in functions led to significant decrease in intuitive UI. Sure, we added a ton of new functions, but unless you used them repeatedly and became a master, you wouldn’t know which button to press or which function connected to what.

The goal for improving Saved Plans is to make accessibility between game preparations and the strategy menu even better. We want to help brand new players understand how to prepare for the round ahead. Additionally, players who start getting into the game can go into the strategy menu and pre-plan the perfect strategy. The current Saved Plans don’t need new functions—rather, they need to be reorganized and refined so they aren’t as difficult to understand.

First, we’ll be deleting the map from the character selection screen. The screen is divided into three sections: Character selection - Character picture - Minimap. However, this divide makes it tough for new players to learn the menu. We wanted to switch to a two section screen to make things much easier. With the new widened screen, players will be able to see more Test Subjects at one glance.



With this change, the flow of selection will also become more convenient from left to right. Choose a character, choose their weapon, pick a skin, hit the “Character Select” button, then move onto the next page. It’s that easy! Previously, you would have to keep looking all over the page to select what you wanted, but this new selection will be much more streamlined.

After character selection comes Saved Plan selection. Previously, you chose one Saved Plan from a list of available plans made by other players. Because of this, the screen was littered with a ton of icons that were tough to read by the time the game started. Quite a few players also didn’t understand that this was a list they could choose from.



Changing this screen to a two section screen makes it much easier to read while also greatly reducing the amount of information displayed. Masters of the game who are able to process a lot of information in a short time may prefer the old screen, but for beginners, it was too overwhelming. They won’t be able to process everything needed in the less than a minute prep time.

At first, we wanted to make and add another tutorial about game preparation to solve this problem. However, during our beginner’s focus test, we noticed that if there was too much explanation regarding game mechanics and functions, players often just skipped over it.

Overall, UX shouldn’t need an explanation—we believe the best UX should be able to explain itself. The new screen will now clearly show that you need to choose your Saved Plan, tactical skill, and Augment before you can start the game.

Additional information and functions will also be available. For example, if you press the F button, you’ll be able to see the other characters picked for that round. You’ll also be able to change your selected Saved Plans, tactical skills, or Augments by right-clicking.



This will make the connection between each function even better. Now if you change your Saved Plan, it will automatically change your tactical skill and Augment to the recommended ones from the Saved Plan. Before, if you wanted to change your Augment, there were a few steps involved, but now it will be easy to instantly change or modify an Augment based on what the Saved Plan recommends.



Previously, when you selected a Saved Plan from the list on the right, it would change the map next to it on the left. If you ask us, this broke the fundamental laws of universal UI design. Now Saved Plan selection will follow the left to right principle, the menu will drop down below it, and the map will change on the right.

Another enhancement we’re making is the visibility of the chat box. There are plenty of times you need to chat with your team while you’re preparing for team modes like Squad and Cobalt Protocol. However, with the current layout, it’s hard to even tell when someone’s sent a message in the chat box. We’ll be moving the chat box to the bottom-left of the screen both in lobby and in-game so it’s much more visible and easy to use.

Like we mentioned earlier, our goal was to make game preparation much easier for beginning players just trying to understand the game. While the strategy menu isn’t for complete beginners, it does offer an intuitive way for players getting used to or enjoying the game to find Saved Plans, modify them to their preferences, and slowly create something entirely unique to their play style!

This is what the Saved Plans menu looks like at first glance.


The existing screen has so many different functions cluttering the screen that it’s hard to even know where to focus. As you can see in the second screenshot, the Edit button is much more visible, and other actions, such as deleting a Saved Plan or checking IDs, can be found by clicking the three dots. While we kept the same functions as previous game preparation, we moved recommended Augments into Saved Plan editing as they didn’t exactly fit the context previously.

For the Saved Plan edit screen, the existing menu shows everything you might need which could get overwhelming. The new screen will divide each menu and the necessary information into different phases so that there’s not too much information being thrown at you at the same time.



If you’ve become used to the old screen, you can always see the summary on the left side of the screen. However, there was admittedly too much information and it wasn’t organized very well, so players didn’t know what was clickable and what wasn’t. A lot of player feedback mentioned this as being too complicated and hard to understand.

On the new screen, the left side will feature clearly clickable buttons. We’ve also separated the Auto-create Saved Plan feature which was the most complex part of Saved Plans. This means you’ll only be able to use this function when you want to.



You can also see how convuluted the current UI is when you look at the Augment menu. Augments will now be changed so players can quickly and clearly see Primary / Secondary and Core / Sub Augments. The Augments will now appear in a square at the top of the screen and be strung together in a line. This way, you will be able to tell the difference between the Augments as it wasn’t very clear before.



(Note: This image is only a preview and could change before official launch!)

Selecting Augments will now start from the top and go down, giving it a more natural left to right flow that is easy to follow.

First select Primary Augment,


then select Core Augment within those.


Next, choose the Secondary Augment


and select your Sub Augments!


You'll be able to choose them in order, starting from the top.
The newly introduced tactical skills are configured to be even easier. All you have to do is select one to see its text and a video showcasing detailed effects.



We’ve also improved the layout of the Search Saved Plans function. When you click on one of the vertical lists, the area on the right should change as well. However, in the current search UI, the top and right of the lists change at the same time.


We’ve adjusted these elements so that it flows more nicely.



Overall, our goal was to get rid of the awkwardness of the current Saved Plan system UX, adjust the amount of information players see on screen, and make the flow a lot better. With these changes, we can make Saved Plans—one of the most complex systems in all of Eternal Return—much more user-friendly and fun.

We understand that this change in UI flow may be strange for players already used to how Saved Plans work. This is because even a good UI isn't as good as an already familiar UI. But, realistically speaking, the current Saved Plan system is a blockade for new players and something even users who play a lot struggle with. Thus, we decided it was something that needed to be changed.

We will cover more changes to the UI relating to Mastery and Crafting in future updates, so we hope you're looking forward to it!

The next Dev Journal will be our last look into Lumia Island's new map and will cover changes to Pond.

Thank you!

[h3]You can get WP from the Dev Journals on our web event page.[/h3]
[h3]Web Points(WP) are event points that can be obtained and used throughout the Season 9 web events[/h3]

Servers will be temporarily offline for an estimated time of 4 hours on June 7th from 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM (PT) to update Patch 0.86.0.



Check out the details on our Website.

[h3]Hello Lumia Island survivors![/h3]

As mentioned in the last Dev Journal, today’s journal will go over the upcoming changes to accessories. Let’s get started!

Changes to Accessories

We started the change to accessories by simplifying farming and changing Day 1 play to be a little more dynamic. We know that the players' current goals during Day 1 are always to complete their equipment crafting set. Put more simply, the current process comes down to how quickly you can find the 25-30 needed materials to complete your equipment.

The thing that sets Eternal Return apart from other games is our unique materials search and crafting processes. Without the building process, the three-quarter view Battle Royale genre itself may have been difficult to establish. However, if you play games from the Battle Royale genre hundreds or thousands of times, the same, repeated building process becomes stale and boring.

Figuring out the shortest distance to open boxes or the shortest time to make it to different areas is akin to ground work. If someone happens to get there before you, your entire plan could be thrown off. However, if you meet other players in the same area on Day 1, it usually goes like this: you both throw a thumbs up emote at each other, get what you need, and go without fighting.



Therefore, we wanted to reduce box searching in early game and add a few different factors instead. Beginners often don’t know what they need and run into the problem of having a full inventory. Even reducing what you carry by 1 or 2 items can make play much easier. We also thought about adding different but minor play mechanics so that experienced players aren’t “only” searching in boxes over and over.

We will be removing accessories from the current 6 types of equipment (weapons, head, chest, arms, legs, and accessories) and instead introducing new tactical skills. Tactical skills are wide-use skills that aren’t crafted from materials, but can be bought and upgraded with Credits.

By removing accessories, the search for materials will be reduced by about 15%. This also means that the time spent searching through boxes will be reduced as a whole as well. However, you’ll need to hunt Wild Animals to rack up enough Credits to first upgrade your tactical skills. Now that the timing of the first weapon skill will become faster, the Mastery merit of early game PvP battles will also increase. The addition of campfires also will become a factor in utilizing timing!

Even so, the search for boxes on Day 1 will still remain the most important part of game build-up. By the time Day 2 rolls around, you’ll most likely have Epic equipment, tactical skills, weapons skills, and some food with you. However, what you have on Day 1 may change depending on the distinct characteristics of the character you’re playing or enemies you encounter in early game.



Active Skills

When discussing changes to accessories, it’s also important to talk about active skills. There have been several attempts at trying out active skills through features across several seasons, but the results have admittedly not been the best. The introduction of the Mythic accessory system to Lumia Island exposed a handful of problems, and the new active skills we added during Season 9 pre-season weren’t well received, so we ended up moving them to Cobalt Protocol only.

The problems with existing active skills can be broken down into 3 major points:

① The conditions to obtain active skills were too great.
Because you can only get Mythic accessories from the Battle Zone, the players who have an advantage in the Battle Zones would wait for them, and in a sense, “reserve” the equipment for themselves. In cases where special materials are used to upgrade to Legendary equipment, only the characters who are ahead of others in the lobby could access them.



In other games, items with active skills offer players that are behind a chance to take riskier plays that may get them a high return. On the other hand, players that are ahead can take items with passives that are steadier and less risky. In other words, active skills should only be advantageous when used properly. However, in Eternal Return currently, only players that are ahead get to choose items with actives, thus making this structure not work the way it was intended.

② The difference in active skill utilization for each character was too great.
When we experimentally added a few active skills, we found they were really fun and fit well with the right test subject. On the flip side, if they didn’t fit well, there was barely any utilization, even after players worked hard to get the skill or accessory. This is why, for example, the Fantastical Punch active skill was disappointing to some and a staple to others.



③ Memorizing all of the active skills was too difficult.
It is not an easy task to choose the correct Mythic item out of all available items when you win in the Battle Zone. Even the skill explanations can be convuluted which makes it difficult to read them quickly, even if you have the time after winning. Obtaining them is also extremely difficult, so if you didn’t use Practice Mode to learn, there was almost no opportunity to get used to them.



Additionally, there were also technical problems such as not being able to choose a targeted direction and only being able to use the skill in the direction your character was looking. These issues highlighted the shortcomings of active skills.



Despite all these problems, the reason we want to keep active skills is because we believe they have the potential to be really fun.

By adding just one skill, we can increase control factors or add variables to the game. Even when we saw the mounting issues involved with active skills, we received feedback that boiled down to, “the players think they’re fun and like using them.”

Of course, the game becomes too difficult if there are too many keys to control. For this reason, we really considered the appropriate number of skills that would increase control factors but wouldn’t be too hard for players to use. All of Eternal Return’s active skills use the 5 keys QWERD. Although it varies by game, we found most three-quarter view fighting games use approximately 6-8 keys. Game playability and differences in game factors most definitely needed to be considered, but we believed that increasing from 5 to 6 keys for active skills would still keep the these factors in equilibrium.

Additionally, there is a need for wide-use skills to overcome the limitations of each character's skill structures. The unique system of weapons skills, which sets Eternal Return apart from other games, also plays into this to some extent. However, due to the difference in minor attributes for each character, they haven’t become perfect wide-use skills. Bridging this gap was one of the most important goals for active skill changes, but all of our previous attempts have actually become a disadvantage thanks to the large deviations in each character.

In creating tactical skills, we used our previous experiences to really fix the issues for the effects we want.

As mentioned earlier, we have simplified the conditions for obtaining tactical skills. Now anyone can purchase them with Credits. This means we’re also removing the existing condition in which you could only obtain Mythic items by winning in the Battle Zones. These tactical skills can be leveled up in three stages. You can raise the skill to the second stage by using a Remote Drone, but to get to the third stage, you’ll need to use a Transfer Console. Due to this, stage differences may occur depending on the growth pace among players and their play styles. However, the existing problem of “one character has extremely powerful skills while others have none at all” will disappear. Starting from Day 2, everyone should have, at the minimum, a Level 1 tactical skill.



In addition, we are releasing 12 new skills at the same time, so now any test subject will be able to get their hands on a useful tactical skill. Depending on the tactical value of the skill, there will be skills good for initiating or tanks, ones good for melee-based characters, ones good for ranged characters or spellcasters, and ones good for support. The addition of these tactical skills will help reduce the power difference between test subjects.

We're also working to fix the problem of "too much learning". Currently, there are a small number of Mythic accessories you can win from the Battle Zones, but choosing which you want takes too much time because of all the reading and learning you have to do. On the contrary, the new tactical skills will be included in your Saved Plans when you start the game. At first, beginners will only need to read the recommended skill in the Saved Plan from the plan’s creator. Then, as they grow more used to the game and the skills involved, they will be able to use their game preparation time to look into other tactical skills that may work even better!


Examples of Tactical Skills
Out of the 12 tactical skills we’re preparing for official launch, here are a few examples:

Blade of Truth is a skill based on the existing Psyche’s Blade. It deals strong damage to nearby enemies and increases their damage taken. This skill will be good for fighters or assassins who mainly use melee attacks.



Protocol Violation is a skill we reworked based on the existing E.M.O.T.E. When a drone is installed in the vicinity, it explodes after a certain period of time and emits a wave that increases team Max HP and reduces enemy’s defense. This is a great skill to use for support.



Blink is a skill that has improved upon Arc Reactor’s handling. It gives the ability to teleport short distances which can create several variables in play styles. Characters with lacking mobility can compensate with this skill, but the available range of movement is pretty short in early game. You’ll need to upgrade it to increase its utilization.



Electric Shift can also help you teleport short distances. It cannot go over walls, but since its range slightly increases for a short period of time, it can be used by ranged-based characters to regain position.



Quake is a ground pound-type skill that slows nearby enemies for a certain period of time. This skill is good for destroying formations or continuously chasing enemies. It works well with tanks and their tanking abilities.



That was our sneak peek into some new representative skills based on character play styles. Depending on whether you use a tank, fighter, or ranged-based character, you'll have 2 to 3 options to choose from. This way, you can select skills that suit your character’s abilities better.

These tactical skills will bring about a huge change to the game system itself. At the same time, the little details are extremely important, so things may look a lot different once official launch rolls around.

While it may take some time (and, admittedly, a lot of effort!), we'll keep working hard to address problems we’ve noticed with active skills to make them even better. The best part? Tactical skills will take strategic game to the next level and bring thrilling moments of control and fun to Lumia Island!




Tactical Skills Positioning
For current players, tactical skills might feel like an alternative to accessories, but for new players, tactical skills will be bundled together with weapon skills to make a wide-use skill system. Both weapons and tactical skills complement character skills and can be upgraded from Level 0 to Level 3.

The overall equipment and skill system will consist of five equipment slots (weapons, head, chest, arms, legs), five character skills (using the QWERT keys), and two wide-use skills (weapon/tactical skills).



You can level up your weapon skills through Mastery and upgrade your tactical skills with Credits. Both have a different growth approach that sets them apart from the usual box search process. So basically, Mastery, Credits, and material search are the three ways to grow, as you can see the above example of the new pop-up screen. We'll delve into Mastery and Crafting in more detail later.

Changes to accessories are closely linked to other game system changes that you’ll be able to see in future Dev Journals, such as Credit Restructuring, Game Phases, Cameras and Traps, and more!

Our next Dev Journal will cover changes to Saved Plans which will include the tactical skills we’ve introduced here today. See you soon!

*All preview images released in the Dev Journals are subject to change during the development process.


Thank you!

[h3]You can get WP from the Dev Journals on our web event page.[/h3]
[h3]Web Points(WP) are event points that can be obtained and used throughout the Season 9 web events[/h3]

Hello Lumia Island survivors!

Are you ready for another fun event as part of our Season 9 FREE ER PASS?



Nathapon's compass has broken and its up to you to fix it!

Complete the daily missions and help spin Nathapon's broken compass. By doing so, you can get map pieces (but watch out for those Bears—they're sneaky!) Complete the map to receive a variety of rewards that Nathapon has prepared just for you.

Additionally, you can enter to win a raffle for Nathapon's Luggage Tag! Will you be one of the lucky winners?

* Please note that winners of the raffle will have their in-game nicknames displayed on the event webpage.

For more information, check out the link below!

▶▶ Nathapon's Compass [See More]

Hello Lumia Island survivors!
Our newest attendance event, June's Case Log, is here!

June's Case Log will take place from Thurs, June 1st - Fri, June 30th 07:59 AM (PT).
Participate in this event to get a variety of rewards, including the Problem Solver Aiden skin!

For more information, check out the link below.

▶▶ June's Case Log [See More]