Following the July beta, Amazon Games and NCSoft were supposed to launch the free-to-play MMORPG Throne and Liberty on September 17, but they decided on a small delay to October 1 to add more features from the Korean version that’s already live and some fixes decided following the feedback of Western players. This extra time allowed us to set up an email Q&A focused specifically on the global launch of Throne and Liberty and what players can expect next from the Amazon/NCSoft duo.
Below are the answers provided by Daniel Lafuente (Globalization Design Manager at Amazon Games). As a reminder, Throne and Liberty will be available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X; on PC, NVIDIA users can take advantage of DLSS 3 technology to boost the frame rate. Wccftech can also confirm that the game will be available on GeForce NOW, allowing fans to play via the cloud.
What feedback gathered from the Open Beta will be implemented in Throne and Liberty in the future?
We’ve worked closely with NCSoft to incorporate critical player feedback from all of our testing rounds. We have just released a comprehensive article that details the major variations in the Launch version. Some of the changes we’re most excited about are the addition of Skill Specializations and even more improvements to camera and character controls.
Are you planning to publish detailed Patch Notes before the start of the Early Access?
Definitely. We think it’s important for players who have followed the development of Throne and Liberty to learn about what’s different since they last played our test versions.
Will players get a detailed roadmap of when Korean content and balance patches will be introduced to this version of the game?
Yes. It’s our goal to share our roadmap and content plans with our players throughout the life of the game. We’re working on the first installment and will release it during the Early Access period. Consistency is important to us so we’ll make sure to provide updated plans quarterly. We want you to be informed so you can plan accordingly.
How long will it be until the two versions of the game are at near-parity (meaning that there is only a small delay from Korean patches)?
The short answer is it depends on how our players progress. It’s important for us to find the sweet spot between releasing content before people are prepared and releasing it too late. While we have estimates about timing right now, we want to confirm them with actual data. We will consider things like vertical progression, content completion rates, and more. When we have the opportunity to release changes that improve the player experience without jeopardizing the overall player journey, we’ll work to bring that to our version as quickly as possible.
A good example of us moving quickly is with how we pulled Skill Specializations—a feature recently released in Korea–forward into our launch version. We also have a couple of surprises in store for you about unannounced content that you’ll hear about from us first.
Right now, there are only seven weapons. Are you planning to add more classic weapons, such as maces, war hammers, axes and great axes, spears, etc.? If so, when could players expect to see new weapons?
Yes, new weapons will be part of our post-launch roadmap. We can’t talk more about it at the moment, but we can tease that players won’t have to wait too long to see the first new weapon added to the game. We will be sharing more details on future content through our previously mentioned roadmap communications with players.
Will the launch version include the Substance Transformation system (AKA the Gamba System)?
We will share this information in our upcoming blogs and release notes which will describe the key changes between the Open Beta and Launch versions. There are several features that we will discuss in the same context of the Substance Transformation system.
Are you planning to add cross-progression across platforms?
No. We evaluated the benefits of cross-progression across platforms prior to release, and there wasn’t a significant demand. Cross-platform play, however, is very important to us because it empowers guilds and groups of friends to play together regardless of their chosen platform.
Throne and Liberty is free to play, and bots have already troubled the Korean version. What are you doing to minimize the issue for the Western release?
We’re taking the learning experience from our other games to help launch Throne and Liberty in a better state. We’ve made some significant progress against bots overall, and player sentiment regarding bots has increased. Aside from what we’ve learned from other games, we do have other ways we are preparing to handle bots in Throne and Liberty:
We are analyzing and training our bot fighting models with anonymized data from the Korean Live Service. This is helping build the foundation of the model that we can, in turn, use to identify bots within the Amazon Games service. We are also putting several safeguards in place to protect the economy, including protections against fraud and auction house abuse. For players familiar with the Amazon Games trust system, we are working to improve its capabilities significantly and expect to have this ready for Throne and Liberty’s launch. We plan to moderate auction house usage based on trust status.
We will have strict punishment for players caught participating in third-party real-money trading, including suspensions, bans, and applying negative balances when Lucent is reclaimed after RMT is identified. Lastly, we have plans to make RMT more difficult for bad actors, however we cannot disclose those methods at this time.
Will the Milestone System be tweaked to speed up progression?
Yes, the Milestone System will unlock at a faster rate than it did during the original Korean Launch. The details of the unlock speed will be shared in our previously mentioned Patch Notes and Roadmap article.
What’s your outlook for PvP, especially open world PvP? What kind of plans do you have for it?
One of the things we are most proud of for Throne and Liberty is the variety of content across both PvE and PvP. Together with NCSoft, we have plans to continue improving PvP elements and introducing new modes for players. While we can’t go into details today, we can confirm that new modes of PvP are a part of our near-term roadmap.
Your FAQ says that after an Auction House purchase, a temporary trade hold is placed on all Lucent in the player’s account inventory. How long will this hold be?
We are going to update our FAQ as it is misstated. To add clarity: After purchasing Lucent, players are able to immediately use it within the in-game shop. However, Lucent is subject to a temporary waiting period before it can be utilized in the Auction House. In other words, the hold takes place before you spend the Lucent in the Auction House. The amounts and times can vary by many factors which we cannot discuss at this time as it relates to our Fraud Protection mechanisms.
Are there any plans to add support for player-made addons or mods? If not, will you add a combat log and/or damage meter?
We do not have plans to support addons or mods at this time. The question about a damage meter is tricky. At its best, it’s a core tool to help players improve their performance and test new builds that they may want to engage with. At its worst, it can become a tool for toxicity in the community and in the game. While we are continuing to have discussions on this topic internally, our goal is to find an approach that can provide the most benefit to players without introducing systems that lead to toxicity within the community.
In Western countries, PvE is particularly important. Are you planning to add more challenging endgame dungeons and raids on a regular basis?
We agree that PvE is important for a wide range of international players and Throne and Liberty has consistently added more of that type of content. Co-op Dungeons, Challenge Dungeons, Gate of Infinity, Cooking, Fishing, and Amitoi Expeditions are just some of the non-PvP features that have been added recently. We plan to continue adding more PvE and PvP elements to the game.
What is your plan for major additions, e.g., expansions? Would those be premium expansions or free, and what would be the cadence?
Our focus right now is on delivering the best launch experience possible. The Korean live game has recently received a major new content update in the form of an expansive new region called Talandre. It introduces a level cap increase, new world bosses, additional co-op dungeons, PvP territories, and more! We’ll discuss more about when that content will be available for international players of the game but for now we can confirm that it will be free when we release it.
Several users have reported that preorders are unavailable in many European countries on PlayStation 5. Is Amazon looking into the issue?
We are aware of the reports by players that started during the Open Beta about purchasing Early Access Packs. We are working to make sure it is resolved in all countries that will be supported by Amazon Games, but for those countries outside our supported countries we will not allow purchasing of the Early Access Packs.
Thank you for your time.
