Skyforge Addresses Spark Cap Concerns, Emphasizes Orders

Jason Winter
By Jason Winter, News Editor Posted:
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Skyforge orders

The weekly cap on sparks -- which puts a limit on the most obvious form of character development -- in Skyforge is a topic that's gotten plenty of people riled up. Today, the Skyforge devs put out a blog post explaining how characters can continue to progress after the limit has been reached and serving as more in-depth rundown of the benefits of the Order system.

The blog post essentially boils down to this:

"It was clear to us that we were unable to convey how significant this element truly was as it not only allows for continued play, but unlocks a noticeable portion of a player’s potential power as well."

while describing the different ways that the resources you gain after hitting the spark cap can be fed back into your Order and increase your character's strength. I haven't hit the sparks cap yet in my time playing Skyforge, but I can agree with the sentiment that the Order system is a little confusing and difficult to fully grasp. Does it compare to the power increases you'll get from unlocking new nodes in the Ascension Atlas? Probably not, but I suppose it's something.

The Allods Team might be right about how they were "unable to convey" the Order's importance, but I wouldn't lay that entirely at their feet. MMO players have a very narrow perception of how MMOs just are, especially in terms of questing and progression, and if you put one "normal" system in place, they'll gravitate toward that while virtually ignoring any other system. The Ascension Atlas is a little weird, but not too hard to figure out, and it does have similar precedents (Path of Exile, Final Fantasy X), so that's naturally what people are going to think is the "only" -- or at least the quickest -- way to progress.

But how many of us have played MMOs with dynamic events and tended to ignore them because we're rushing to the next objective? That happens a lot in Guild Wars 2 and Rift, in my experience, because we're taught in countless MMOs that the "best" way to progress is to go to that guy with the punctuation mark over his head and do what he wants; other stuff just gets in the way. The same applies to endgame. If raids are an option, that's what most people will do, even if there are other options, because they're used to raids and they know what to expect from them.

To put it simply, if an MMO is going to provide means of advancement or gameplay modes that are different from the usual -- pretty much anything beyond killing monsters as directed by an NPC -- it has to be blindingly obvious that they're worth doing, or most players will ignore them and stick with what they know. I thought the Order system was just a nice little add-on to Skyforge that provided a few bonuses here and there, similar to World of Warcraft's garrison system, so it didn't require a ton of attention. But if it's being pushed as a major tool for advancement, then it probably needs greater emphasis so it can actually be noticed by players.

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In this article: Skyforge, My.com, Allods Team.

About the Author

Jason Winter
Jason Winter, News Editor

Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.

More Stories by Jason Winter

Discussion (32)

Morvidus 8 years ago
Even the Order is capped to tablets, rings, etc.

Skyforgecaps 8 years ago
The caps are brutal and absurdly low. If you're an actual gamer you WILL cap in this game in a day. If you're semi-casual you'll cap in 2-3 days. That still leaves over half the week with you scratching your head for want of something to do. Westerners won't put up with the caps for long, this game will, sadly, peter out and die / snuggle up into its niche sooner rather than later. The caps are a deal breaker for everyone I know. Anyone defending this Communistic approach to gaming will enjoy their 2 hour queues, <5k playerbase (mostly BRs) in a few months. Carry on.

allyouwhiners 8 years ago
For all you whiners out there....are you all forgetting, this game is still in Beta???? yes there are problems, yes there are areas that need addressing....YES there is room for improvement. So join the community forums, and TELL the devs, let them know how you as a player would like to see things develop, I'm sure they would rather have that, then have you trash all their work that is essentially still a work in progress. I for one enjoy this game, I haven't hit my cap yet and despite there needing (in my opinion) a few tweaks here and there, I'm quite content to play through the grit until they improve it with future updates...and no, they cant test this stuff offline, as a live environment and players are always unpredictable.

HahnSolo 8 years ago
The cap adds on every week right? Play another game for a week or two. Take a vacation. Only get on to check your adepts and play something else. Then you come back and the cap will be high. Problem solved. Or you can hit the cap and gain extra stuff every week. Or you can decide not to no life the game.

Gabriel Bartelega 8 years ago
I think the SKYFORGE developers do not have to worry about the criticism , but with the players. I am Brazilian and like others fell in love with the game. It brought me out of several other rand as TERA , FFXV , BD , B & S . WOW .

For me it's the best so far good team and very good developers

ssSSss 8 years ago
i simply dont like this game because im not into clicking my mouse like a madman for 30 mins or so. just the ammount of mouse clicking is f r.

Eh.. 8 years ago
Give them props for trying a different system but shame them for having a pathetic way to control advancement. All skyforge has proven so far was mmo players like to talk out of their ass about diversity but when given the chance to actually do it they fail and complain like weenies.
I myself am turn off by many things they do but still enjoy the game to a certain degree just not in the long run. Besides, there isn't much to do in the game anyways when you really get down to the main points.
1. No exploration because everything is capped and released by your prestige.
2. All 'group' dungeons are tank and spank. Trust me, don't even attempt without tank unless you want to waste time.
3. No trading means no incentive to play after spark cap.
4. It's really still just point and click.

On a side note, Jason is correct here. You must focus on the "Order" part of the game. It's the simplest way to get stronger due to caps on everything. Do the math. And this game isn't dynamic progression it's more of like 3 linear progression instead of one.

Dendar 8 years ago
Lol @ the people saying this game is bad because it character gates you and has caps.

-The caps are easily reachable I reached spark cap in a day and a half it's def possible to reach the cap if you have a "life"

-You cannot buy power in this game, none. It's not pay to win at all, in any aspect. Everything in the "cash shop" can also be obtained without spending a dime.

-The class system is great. All the classes are great. The starter classes are not worse or better than the advanced classes, in fact paladin and lightbringer, 2 of the starting classes are considered better than the Knight and Alchemist, the advanced class equivalents. Everyone has their use, everyone is unique. You can also try any class you want before deciding to work towards it.

-People who complain about character gating are the same people who throw around the word "toxic" because it's trendy. WoW character gates you, every MMO gates your growth somehow, someway. Get over it.

-It is BY FAR the best free to play game on the market right now. Beautiful game, best action combat of any game, period. I've played over 300 MMOs and reviewed most of them. Skyforge is worth the while. It is amazing. Breath of fresh air to the market.

Seanny Chwan 8 years ago
Why do you want to unlock all class within a week ?
The class system here is not really equal level actually..
There actually 3 type of classes
Beginner , Intermediate and Advance class
Those of u who bought founder or CE pack can use some
Advanced Classes such as Gunner , Berserker , Knight and Alch.. which
i think they shouldn't do it .. Because of that now people think
all class are equal .. If they've just let everyone to start from basic 3 class
then they will see the different. Right now the game is good but the way
they manage mess up the system with their aim to make alot of money out of game
faster rather then make the game good for long run. But anyway cap are ok for me and my
friends .. we don't really have a problem since we all got work and didn't play everyday.
I think is pretty fair ( for the cap part ). If they start to focus on making the game better and
more content instead of trying to milk.. it'll be a great mmo. I don't mind sub monthly if they make it worth.

hmm 8 years ago
it does suck there is a limit and it will take awhile to unlock new classes but for people who have to work for a living and take care of there family i have yet to hit any limit if u could unlock and do every thing in one week why would want to play it for more then a week ? would you call a game you can get every thing you want in a week a MMO would you spend a year playing something that takes no effort to get what you want.

Dark 8 years ago
Why would they even think about spark cap? Some people pay for premium but it still not enough, some hardcore player they lv up their main 3 classes first then other classes, i reached my cap on Sat, and dor weekdays only play 2 hours. Each week wr have 7k sparks to spend on. This is not enough, repfer cap limit per day,not week

joao 8 years ago
What they fail to adress is that you get capped for progressing towards the classes you want so if you don't like any of the 3 classes you are stuck with them for atleast 3-4 weeks wich i think it's pretty ridiculous. Plus if you progress too much you can't play with your friends without oneshotting everything and you can't make a second character. If these problems were fixed the game would be much better but it's kinda of a huge turnoff for me at this point

grimsbane 8 years ago
What they fail to tell you is this, in order to unlock greatness nodes you need sparks so lets say you your order is at a well ranked upgraded to the point where you can't upgrade it anymore without greatness but hey you just capped out on your sparks, well now what you cannot progress your Order any further so whats left is Gear grind oh and now your out of credits because those modifiers cost alot to upgrade, what they don't tell you is what everything costs to do and what they don't realize is once you hit all those walls you run out of things to do.

View 1 reply
Merkadis 8 years ago
I don't see what's so confusing about orders, it's simple really. But.. that's just me.
And yeah you're kinda right here, most just rush ahead like rabid animals only able to see the finish line. Their loss.

View 2 replies
zuees101 8 years ago
well put together Jason!

TORK 8 years ago
Mounted


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