Talandre Expansion, Server Merges, Combat Changes, And Other Updates All Discussed In New Throne And Liberty Video

A new "Tico Talks" video is up for you Throne and Liberty players out there. The MMORPG's Globalization Design Manager Tico runs through quite a few topics at the forefront of players' concerns as the new year gets underway.

First up, if you've heard rumors about server merges coming to the game, those rumors are true. While we don't have a comprehensive list of servers being impacted, that's coming soon, we do know a bit more about how the mergers will go down. A portion of these merges are actually so the "early access" servers and their economies can be done away with going forward. When completed, merged servers will create a new server, they won't just condense into an existing server. That said, there is a portion of this process that will just be the typical "consolidation" of existing servers. While the video goes through multiple "reasons" for this...come on, there's fewer players. There's your reason.

Moving on, combat, the camera, and movement will be getting some improvements with the launch of the Telandre expansion. Your movement speed will now be the same in and out of combat and line-of-sight requirements are being added, but you won't be forced to face your opponent. The melee range is being expanded, too. On the camera side, movement is being taken away from being camera-based and will shift to character-based. While all of these are good changes, you won't see them until the expansion release, which we should hear more about that release date in a video next week.

Other things that will come with the expansion are T2 gear (yep, need to wait until the expansion, but you'll be able to upgrade that gear all the way until tier 12 from the start), and the weapon mastery system already available in Korea.

A few other tidbits at the end of the video focus on material overload, inventory management improvements, adding gear progression to features other than PvE, and tools being added to reduce toxicity in co-op dungeons. Some of the previously promised new UI elements will arrive on the 23rd, and console players will get mouse and keyboard support on February 6th. Daily quests feeling "overwhelming" is also being addressed starting on January 23rd. On February 13th, you'll be able to open multiple chests in a dungeon.

Most of these changes seem great. However, the shift to an 8 PM Castle Siege start time is probably the one item people will enjoy the most, and the one they'll see the soonest. Stay tuned for more info on the expansion next week.