Hello, Admirals.

This is Chul-Woo Park, the Director of Uncharted Waters Origin.

The upcoming major changes in Uncharted Waters Origin made me write to you once again.

We are preparing some changes, including the introduction of the Season system to the investment and rebalancing of the trade system,

to let Admirals enjoy fresh objectives and value of gameplay.

The development team has checked the current situation of the game before preparing these changes, including the investment Season system.

Approximately 40 Admirals have achieved weekly trade profits worth 50 billion Ducats or more, adding up both KR and GL servers.

However, the salary for investment in a single city may far surpass 50 billion Ducats now. Reaching 50 billion Ducats of weekly trade profits requires considerable costs and time, so we removed effects that give additional Investment Points to reduce the margin of increase.

However, as too many scores have been already accumulated, the development team concluded that we should move out of the current investment system where Ducats makes additional Ducats and let Ducats earned via the gameplay be converted to other currencies and items

to enhance the fun of earning Ducats and value of trade.

However, this is not supposed to decrease the value of Admirals who have served as Mayors.

As the Season system is first introduced, all Investment Points of every Admiral will be returned in Ducats of the equivalent value, and we believe retaking the Mayor position will not be so difficult.

However, we are trying to provide proper motivation to challenge to the Mayor position by expiring the Investment Points instead of refunding them at the beginning of the Season 2.

The development of the Investment Season system is in progress, and we are aiming for the launch in the upcoming January. Each Season will be three months long, according to the current plan.

Hence, I would like to give you some details about the changes in the investment system.

* Please note that the details below are based on ongoing development and may differ from the final update.

◆Details of the Upcoming Investment System Renewal

 1. The salary, which has been provided only to the Mayor, will be removed.

 2. Dividends, which have been given to the top 50s of the investment ranking, will be increased in amount due to the changed formula.

This increase will be even more significant for the Mayor, and the Mayor’s Dividend with the Weekly Pay deducted will increase eightfold to twelvefold, depending on the ranking, tax amount, and the sum of the total Investment Points.

 3. As Dividends are calculated based on the taxes paid by other Admirals, the range of Tax, which the Mayor can adjust, will be extended to allow the Mayor to collect more taxes, and the cost and the consecutive terms conditions for the Market Events will be reduced.

- The max range of the Tax adjustment will be increased by 10%.

- The costs of Market Events will be decreased by up to 60%, depending on the type of the event.

- The consecutive terms conditions for the Market Events will be reduced so that all the Market Events become available upon the consecutive terms for 3 weeks.

 4. Weekly Blue Gems Mayors obtain will be increased to 1,000 Blue Gems.

 5. In addition to the current Blue Gem investment reward, investment chests and Seasonal currencies will be distributed according to the ranking.

You will be able to obtain additional Blue Gems and Seasonal Investment Deeds from the investment chests,

and the obtained Seasonal currencies can be used at the Investment Season Shop during each Season.

These changes will turn the investment into content where all Admirals can obtain more Blue Gems compared to the current investment content.

6. You can obtain Seasonal Mates, Appellations, and Parts at the Investment Season shop.

Parts will be in a new form of flags with unique appearances and will have a separate slot.

These flags can be equipped by any ship and basically have the Increase Sailing Speed Max Limit effect.

In addition, they will have different stats, including the Sailing stats such as Seaworthiness, Momentum, and Ice Breaking, Expertise, Sales Surcharge, and Exploration stats, depending on the Season. As these are parts for a new slot, they will become new growth elements through investments.

7. Sources and balancing of the Seasonal Investment Deed will be adjusted every Season,

and Adventure and Combat content will give more Investment Deeds compared to the current system.

8. Seasonal Investment Deeds of a Season cannot be used in another Season.

9. While the current Investment Points are refunded in Ducats worth the equivalent value at the beginning of Season 1, Investment Points will not be refunded since Season 2.

We will keep improving the rewards as Seasons pass so that the Admirals can be returned with values exceeding the invested Ducats.



◆Reward and Immigration Policy for Balancing Between Nations

The following is what we are preparing in regard to the balancing between Nations as the Season system is introduced.

The development team aims to emphasize the influence of leading Admirals of each Nation as well as the importance of the National population when there is a war between Nations.

1. Seasonal Investment Deed will be added to the 1st Place National Rewards for Assault.

2. Seasonal Investment Deed will be added to the Lighthouse of the Ruins rewards after the update of the Season system,

and the quantity significantly increases in the top-level waters.

3. Government Post rewards will be increased.

 - The proportion of weekly pay to the Budget will be increased from 5% to 10%.

 - The personal maximum limit for the weekly pay will be increased from 1 billion Ducats to 50 billion Ducats.

4. Seasonal Investment Deed will be added to the ranking rewards of competitive content scheduled after the update of the Season system.

The introduction of the Season system will make changes in the National Powers, so the Immigration policy will be changed as follows.

1. While the current policy prohibits immigration to a stronger nation as the current conditions for immigration are based on the National Power, the update will reflect the population in the condition so that immigration to a stronger but less populated Nation will become available.

2. When the Mayor immigrates, the Investment Points will be removed, and the refund rate of the Seasonal Investment Deed will be increased.

◆Changes in the Shipbuilding System

As systems related to the investment are changed, Monopolizing Guild’s Perks regarding improved ships and the Shipbuilding system will be improved.

1. The cost of building improved ships for non-Monopolizing Guild will be changed from Blue Gems to Ducats. The changed Ducat cost will be threefold compared to the Monopolizing Guild’s.

2. When the Monopolizing Guild builds an improved ship, the ship build time will be decreased by 30%.

3. When the Monopolizing Guild completes building an improved ship, the ship will always be tradeable.

4. Build LV will no longer work as a condition to build a ship but will become an effect to shorten the ship build time.

5. If the grade of the ship to build is the same as or lower than the Build LV, the ship build time is reduced by 50%.

6. The existing Decrease Ship Build Time effects and the time reduction by Monopolizing Guild’s building of improved ships and Build LV are applied as multiplication elements.

7. This change applies only to the Build LV, and the current Blueprint LV effects will remain.

8. Operation Condition of all ships will become LV 1. Hence, penalties that occurred because of not fulfilling the Operation Condition will be removed.

This improvement of shipbuilding will significantly reduce the conditions to build improved ships.

In particular, despite the high cost, changing the currency non-Monopolizing Guilds have to spend to build improved ships

from Blue Gems to Ducats will allow more Admirals to build improved ships using Ducats, which can be earned constantly via the gameplay.

Also, the Monopolizing Guild can build ships faster and cheaper compared to other Admirals because of the reduced cost and build time.

Hence, the consumption of Accelerations will be reduced, and additional incomes are expected as the built ships will always be tradeable and can be sold at the Auction.

Changes in the Build LV and Operation Condition aim to allow all Admirals to build and use ships more conveniently.

◆Rebalancing of Trade

A large-scale rebalancing of trade is also scheduled in Season 1.

Our prior objective is to redistribute excessively high values of certain cities to other cities in accordance with the rule of trade sales price,

and therefore, we are working on redistributing trade goods that can be purchased in each city and giving them new values.

As the Season system is introduced, we will distribute major balancing patches and new content at the beginning of the Season.

In Investment Season 1, we have worked mainly on balancing elements as a groundwork for the Season system.

To present you with new content at the beginning of Season 2, I will share our development progress with Admirals from time to time via Origin Notes.

We will be looking forward to your support and participation in the new and changed Uncharted Waters Origin.