I want SHL4 to take what SHL2 accomplished accidentally, and accomplish it better than ever before. To this day, most of the audience of SHL2 plays for roleplay reasons, and most youtube coverage of the game is in the form of character design tutorials or machinima. On top of that, by making the customization free (unlike in SHL1 and SH元) people could make their dream character immediately -thus removing another major barrier for the RPers. This made it a haven for RPers, providing more freedom than most competitors. This accidentally turned the game from a place where you can make superheroes, to a place where you can make almost any character.
The first major help was the suit glitch - something which allowed even more customization than I was allowing at the time. This was almost accidental considering how little my design contributed. What I failed to see was the fostering of the RP community. I just viewed it as "a better game", rather than reflecting on if the design changes contributed to the growth in audience. I attributed too much of this success to the improvement in the visuals and aesthetics of the game.
These changes however, were what caused the game to outperform SHL1 by a longshot. The changes, while minor, were improvements from a gameplay perspective (not monetization though). Obviously the quality of the game increased, but the high level design of it remained the same. It was just SHL1 again, with the biggest design change being separating RP and PVP players into two different servers, as well as a more flexible character editor with reduced monetization. I learned nothing from SHL2 from a high level of design. This was an experience of "you don't know what you've got until it's gone", and because of that SHL4 will be made with a full appreciation of all that was lacking in 3 that players miss. It cut back on areas perceived unimportant, when in reality they were the heart of what people loved in SHL2. Looking back, it doesn't appear to be so much what SH元 did poorly in implementation, it's a much more polished game than any other entry. But it is impossible to receive so much criticism without wondering if you could have accomplished the goals of a successful profitable SHL game a bit better. It is part of the reason I can be a developer full time. What I didn't expect was the harsh rebuttal by the community. To an extent maybe I should have created a new brand for SH元 - but that IP was so valuable it would have been foolish to pass up. Even if you are fully transparent (the game's development was literally streamed) about your design intentions to make the sequel try new things, the fans of the previous games already have their expectations built in. They expected it to be an HD remake of SHL2, and when it wasn't they were disappointed - so is the risk when trying to build "hype" for a sequel. From my interactions with fans it appears many want an apology for SH元.
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