Mobile Legends community responds to Project NEXT update cancellation
It's been a week since Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) announced that it was cancelling September updates for Project NEXT, an initiative by developer MOONTON Games to improve the appearance and gameplay of old heroes that are frequently overlooked in the current metagame.
MOONTON made the official announcement on MLBB's official social media channels, saying cancelling September's Project NEXT update was “a tough decision to make".
Updates from September include the Talent System, which should have been the most significant update of the year. The Talent System was supposed to take over the current Emblem System.
“As the battlefield evolved, more and more players demanded higher freedom in terms of attribute customization and skill composition,” said Skyhook, MLBB’s chief designer.
“Logically, the emblem system became the major of this year’s Project NEXT update.”
'Too complicated'
It seems like the MLBB player community favoured this decision, with many believing that the Talent System was too complicated to understand.
Facebook user Din Din said that they “tried the new talent system in the advance server” and disliked it.
“The old talent server is much simpler, many do not know the new mechanics. Switching to [a] new one is horrible.”
Another player, Jon Fabian, also mentioned that it’s “too complicated for a simple player.”
Some comments on Facebook, however, mentioned that the Talent System is very similar to the system in another popular MOBA, League of Legends. MOONTON has already been sued by Riot Games and Tencent over alleged copying of LoL’s champions and game features.
Facebook user Tan Wei Hao pointed this out. “HUH? Not because most of the stuff you're gonna do is actually copied from the other game meh?”
FB user Aung Thet Pai even jested, “Copy [League of Legends: Wild Rift] runes system. It[‘s] easier than PC.”
What was the talent system supposed to do?
The talent system attempted to provide additional adaptability to players even before a match began. It also allowed players to personalize their loadout in the pick and ban phase and copy pro builds.
On top of this, MOONTON planned to get rid of magic dust and emblem fragments to be replaced with a new resource called talent essence.
The Talent system was made available for closed beta testing for a selected few.
“Unfortunately, the feedback on the change appears to be overall negative,” Skyhook said.
“The talent system is not easy to start with due to the complex design and overly abundant talent choices. The team made multiple attempts to further optimize the system but was not able to solve the issues perfectly.”'
Meanwhile, many players flooded the FB post’s comments section to complain about MLBB’s Matchmaking System.
Many like Yoshiko Thunder, Kelvin Chow, and Tan Yong Zhao all think that the Talent System update was unnecessary anyway and that MOONTON should “fix the matchmaking system.”'
Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.
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