By many players’ accounts – including our own – the MMORPG Chrono Odyssey has got a lot of work to do before it’s in a satisfying launch state. Kakao’s Chrono Studio doesn’t appear to be slinking away from this fact, and has put out the first of two dev blogs that outline what’s being done to address combat and performance issues.

Mechanically speaking, a “matrix” system is being introduced that will give each class’ three different weapons four different progression paths apiece. These paths promise to introduce more diversity among weapons and broader playstyle choices, whether it’s a focus on chaining skills, weapon swapping, or “other tactical options.” This will also hold hands with new animations to make character choices more distinct.

As for combat responsiveness, the devs are working on addressing packet desyncs that led to sluggish fights, as well as better camera views when characters are pinned against a wall, better lock-on views, and increased hit reactions.

Performance matters were a larger part of this dev blog, with Chrono Studio confirming work on restructuring GPU and memory load, more efficient development processes to both speed up production and maximize performance, and a host of graphics rendering updates, all with an aim at providing smoother visuals and letting a broader variety of PCs run the MMO.

If all of this sounds good on paper, then we’re sad to inform fans that it may be some time before we get to see this all play out in practice: Chrono CEO Bong-gun Bae noted on Twitter that the second closed beta test might not be available this year. “As for CBT2, we currently don’t have a confirmed date, and we can’t guarantee whether it will happen within this year. The schedule depends on development progress, and we want to make sure the next build meets our quality standards,” he writes.

Just two months ago, Kakao told investors that the game would arrive to the global audience in Q4 of this year, so this is quite a delay if so.

For the time being, this first dev blog from the devs might grant a bit of encouraging news, while the second dev blog is promising details on combat balance, UI matters, progression, and replayability, among other topics.