Greetings delvers!

It seems we have a new face on the forums today – the lead developer for Delve content, Ryota Iwagami. From what I hear, he will be showing his face every now and again and he has made a couple of lengthy comments about this new content, so please take a moment and check it out!

Since they are rather long, instead of posting both at the same time I am going to put this post up first, so you all can start reading.

Quote Originally Posted by Ryota_Iwagami View Post
Delve lead Ryota Iwagami here.

Thanks so much for playing the Delve content. By letting us know your thoughts on the good (and bad) aspects, and the points that we were almost able to nail, it will go a long way for future adjustments and content, so please keep the comments coming.

We would like to make adjustments to the Delve monsters that are spawned in the field areas, specifically in regards to long holding time, but we would like to hear everyone's thoughts on this first. At the current point in time I'd personally like to make adjustments if possible, but that is not to say that we will definitely force this through. It would really help out if you could let us know your opinions along with your feelings on the matter.

Now then, onto the matter at hand.

The proposed adjustment we would like to perform is to set the maximum battle time for fighting Delve NMs in the field to 45 minutes.

The premise of fighting these Delve monsters is that you have prepared your equipment sufficiently, and as such, they have been made so you can defeat them in 15 minutes. With that said, if you are unable to defeat the monster in 15 minutes that means that either you might not have been properly prepared or that your strategy might be a bit off, so the monster powers up as a means to counter congestion (Rage or hyper-mode, as they say.). If you are feeling a spike in the monster's evasion and attack power, more than likely this is the reason. I'd like to apologize for there being no way to determine if the higher evasion and defense is part of the monster's normal behavior or not due to the fact that there is no log message when the monsters rages. As for the enhancements related to their normal behavior, by employing the proper strategy you can mitigate this, lowering their evasion or lowering their defense, so if you feel they've become stronger before time runs out, please try out various strategies and I think you'll notice some changes.

Currently, we are aware that even after these monsters have become enraged, they are being defeated by battling with them for very long periods of time. This means that the feature for countering congestion is not working properly, and as such we would like to make adjustments to this aspect. I understand that players who were unable to defeat these monsters within the set time but were able to defeat them over the course of a long period of time will no longer be able to do this. Due to the fact that this adjustment could make conditions poor for players who challenge this content later, I would like to hear everyone's opinion and base the decision off of that.

Please let me know which of the following options you prefer:
  1. There may be congestion, but keep it as it is now
    It'll be hard to tell how long it will take until it's your turn to fight, but you'll be able to defeat the monster most likely even if it takes time.
  2. Set a time limit to counter congestion
    It'll be easier to know when it's your turn to fight, but you'll no longer be able to defeat the monster spending the amount of time that players are currently.
  3. Set the time limit to 20 minutes and make it so the monsters do not go hyper
    It will be extremely easy to know when it's your turn to fight, but the time limit is stricter than option 2. However, the monster's behavior will be easy to understand.
I would really like to hear the opinions from players who have yet to take on this content and from those who have tried it out but were unsuccessful. Once you start to understand the monster's special traits and have supplemental strategy information I believe the story will change; however, during battles that take a long time it's difficult to confirm strategic elements due to the fact that the monster’s basic parameters increase so much. With that said I would really appreciate it if you would allow us to put a time limit on these battles.

If we decide to make these adjustments, we are planning to perform them around 5/10, so while it's only a short amount of time for feedback we'd appreciate it if you could post your comments by 5/7. Whether we decide to make this adjustment or not, I will be sure to post our conclusion.

Thank you very much.