In the realm of gaming, the lexicon is always being added to as studios and developers find more ways to freshen up mechanics, and for gacha and live service titles, the term power creep is a familiar one. It is used to define a condition where new content introduced by developers makes characters from previous patches no longer relevant. And for Honkai: Star Rail, it is becoming a real problem.
While the community is always going to be vocal about its protestations, it is not often that studios would acknowledge and attempt to address the elephant in the room. However, miHoYo and HoYoVerse are doing just that, with a post on the official blog.
Responding to the feedback they received regarding patch 3.0 for Honkai: Star Rail, which introduces the new region Amphoreus, HoYoVerse acknowledged the power creep problem that players have been complaining about.
“Amphoreus is a year-long journey, and these story and puzzle-solving optimizations are just the beginning—the Express Crew will continue to optimize content,” the team explained. “In addition, issues close to Trailblazers’ hearts, including difficulty, deploying older characters on the battlefield and the strengthening of these older characters, are already on the schedule.”
While they did not provide a specific patch window, there is a commitment to ensuring that players will see these changes come to life. The goal is to make these characters more viable and functional in team compositions for battles in the latest patch, and possibly beyond.
HoYoVerse also pledged to continue listening to player feedback and to create a smoother and more enjoyable gaming experience for fans, especially with the extensive content planned for the world of Amphoreus and Honkai: Star Rail.
It is definitely heartening to see that player concerns are being heard, and that the developers are wiling to make changes in order to alleviate the problems. For live service games, there is always the need to refresh content, but if it can be done in a way that does not alienate those that are not keeping up, all the better.
