Hello there,

This update brings major changes to control power abuse and unbound PvP. Yes, PvP should be a nice plus in the game, but a player must be able to excuse themselves from PvP if they choose to. Currently, players don't have that option. Our inbox is bombarded with cases of players that can't engage in PvE anymore because other players won't let them. Moreover, there were numerous cases where high level players would kill lower level players just because they can. With all this being said, it is our position that although PvP is fun, PvE is more important for the long term success of the game, and we will prioritize people that want that experience with the game. We have no plans to remove clans and we will not add guilds to the game for the time being.

With that out of the way, the changes we will be making in this update are to put checks and balances so things stop getting out of control, and also some other changes:

- PvP maps will have a minimum level for death penalty, and we call it the "optional PvP level". This means that if you are lower than that level you will not lose any experience if dying by another player, unless you have one of the "skulls"
    - Players under this protection will have a special status, so you will be able to tell
    - Bugria will have 2 servers (instead of one), and will become a PvP map! The optional PvP will be set initially at level 80
    - Castlewania will have its optional PvP set to level 100
    - Norde will have its optional PvP going up to level 120
    - You can still attack players from the other clans, it just means that if they die they will not lose anything (again, unless they have a skull! Read below)

- The skull system has changed. If you kill one player without a skull, then you will get a "white skull" for a whole day. If you kill another player without a skull, then you will get a "yellow skull" for another day. If you kill another one without a skull, then you will get the "red skull" and finally the "black skull".
    - Each day, the skull will decay to the previous color, until all skulls are removed, unless you keep killing players without a skull
    - Killing other players with skulls won't get you a skull or "graduate" yours to the next one. In other words, players with skull are basically opting in to PvP with other players, and they can always opt out by not killing players that are skull-free for the necessary number of days
    - Dying by PvP without a skull will have the regular 0-0.5% experience death penalty (depending on the level difference between you and the killers), unless you are under the maximum optional PvP level, in which case you will lose nothing (0%)
    - Dying by any means with a "white skull", will make you lose 1% of your experience. Your skull will remain until a day elapses no matter how many times you die
    - Dying by any means with a "yellow skull", will make you lose 2% of your experience
    - Dying by any means with a "red skull", will make you lose 3% of your experience, 1% of your gold and your whole backpack
    - Dying by any means with a "black skull", will make you lose 4% of your experience, 2% of your gold, your whole backpack and one of your equipments
    - The gold, backpack and equipment lost are destroyed, no one gets to keep it
    - If all this is too complex, here is a simplification: if you kill someone without a skull you will get a skull; dying with a skull is bad; killing other players with a skull is OK and doesn't get you in trouble; if you kill too many innocent players you may pay the price later

- We are introducing the 'peaceful mode'. When set (default), you will never inflict damage or other negative status during PvP on other players that don't have a skull, even if you cast a spell or attack them (the damage will always be blocked). This means that you won't get skulls, unless you turn this off. This feature should solve the miss clicks and people getting skulls by casting spells on the stairs

- Attacking someone without a skull and with 'peaceful mode' off, will get you the 'bloody knife' for 60 seconds. The 60 seconds are refreshed if you keep attacking

- The bloody knife acts like a temporary skull, meaning that you can kill someone with that status even on peaceful mode, and you don't get a skull or anything. You won't even get a bloody knife by attacking someone with it. Remember to turn on the peaceful mode, otherwise after 60 seconds you may get one! During the last 10 seconds of the bloody knife, you won't inflict damage to that player if you have peace mode on, to make sure you will not get a skull if they die!

- New monsters are being added along with new items: the skeletons and one special mob! We won't spoil the surprise, but we can share that it is insanely strong ;) It looks like a boss, but it is just a very strong monster

- The Mage and Alchemist vocations will have a new 'attack' spell at level 110

- Protection zones will be added where the players are born, so that there are no traps possible in the "temple" areas (we may even expand that to cities if necessary)

- You can now swap and jump players from other clans, but only when you have targeted them passively (one click is passive, on the second click you will attack them). This is to give a fighting chance for players that go up and down stairs and fall into the traps

- Going up and down stairs (and teleports) will now stack! Stacking seems simple, but we were avoiding it if we could because it may require extra processing from the server, but we unfortunately had no choice as it seemed the most reasonable solution (also suggested by many of you already!)

- New level 100+ potions and some new foods were added, with a new food NPC in Castlewania (where could it be?!?). The mana potions had their price reduced slightly

- New haste spell for Berserkers that is as fast as the Big Haste for Mages and Alchemists

- Some new client animations, such as the level up, blocked, quest and death events (let us know what you think!)

- Auto follow and auto walk were added to the game app (very requested feature specially on mobile!)

- We tried to simplify the trade flow, removing some unused dialogs and making the buttons simpler to use, let us know what do you think

- Some improvements were made on the login dialogs and account creation that makes it harder for people to input their email or password incorrectly

- On level up, your health and mana are replenished fully

- Talking to NPCs is allowed at 2 square distances now

- Sharing experience will work if mobs die up to 2x the screen size

- Some other reported client bugs were fixed (such as the outfit window not being saved correctly) and some error messages were clarified

Starting from now, we will start banning players that use multiple clients, as that is against the game rules that you have agreed when signing up for an account.

We hope this brings a bit of peace to the Kakele realm, as it has been a very conturbated month so far, with many players bickering with each other. We are not here to ruin your fun, we want to make sure the maximum number of people can enjoy the game, and not a select few. Also bear in mind that you should always be expecting changes to the game, we are always striving to fixing things that are broken, including the gameplay, but changes don't happen overnight. It takes time and a lot of effort to carefully think through and make changes to the game, and your patience is appreciated.

And finally, here is a video of the players killing one of the strongest bosses in the game so far! Enjoy:

Have fun,
Bruno, Lucas & the ViVa team