EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

May 17, 2013

NEW CHANGES/FEATURES:

New Weapons

• Botanical Nightmare Physical Mutating Weapon
• Dark Botanical Nightmare Energy Mutating Weapon
• Botanical Broadsword
• Dark Botanical Broadsword

Arborgeddon

• NPCs reverted to pre-Arborgeddon state
• Missions will remain to allow last-minute turn ins
• Shops will receive a final restock

Player Mail 2.0

• Player-to-player mail (Friends and faction members only)
• Autocomplete recipients based on your current Buddy List and Faction
• Mods can send mail to anyone (Muting/warning a player automatically sends them a mail)
• Mail search
• Ability to report mail

New 12,000 Varium package

• Will always stay
• Does not include items

Tags: RabbleFroth Arborgeddon Patch Notes

May 16, 2013

The air in the Biological Preserver has been purified by the combined efforts of 1000s of player and Davarril, the rogue Archivist, has been defeated. This Friday, the final spoils of war will be revealed as four new terrifying weapons:

• Botanical Broadsword
• Dark Botanical Broadsword
• Botanical Nightmare
• Dark Botanical Nightmare

Available in Lime Green...

And Nightmare Berry Flavors

These items will be available in limited quantities on Davarril. We will also be issuing a final restock on the other LQS items in the war shops.  

You've Got Mail 2: Mail Harder

We've made a second pass on the mail system that was introduced last week. This week you will be able to send messages to your friends and fellow Faction members! Don't worry about spam -- the list is restricted to only those on your buddy list and Faction list. You can send a single message to up to 20 recipients!

Planning in-game meetings has never been easier!

A New War Brews

Part of this week has been devoted to preparation of the next grand event. The Legion and Exile forces have been engaged in a stalemate since last summer, when The Lawman and his fellow Exiles stormed the Delta Vault and seized a secret army of hibernating androids, taking the Legion administrator Silas captive in the process.

Now, with Davarril subdued and no external threats to postpone further conflicts, the drums of war are once again echoing across Delta V. Legion and Exile forces are rallying around a new battlefield to determine the fate of the planet.

Legion and Exile smiths are working double-time for the war effort.

Not the best neighborhood.

Which side will you choose? Will you fight for freedom with the Exiles or fight for order with the Legion? The time to choose is quickly approaching.

Tags: Nightwraith

May 10, 2013

NEW CHANGES/FEATURES:

• New player mail system
  • Contains news, staff messages, and other system announcements
  • Player-to-player mail and other improvements planned
• Dage the Evil has crafted a limited number of new Auxiliaries
  • Dage's Doom Cannon - Physical
  • Dage's Spirit Cannon - Energy
• New Botanical Borg and Dark Botanical Borg robots
  • Attack - Mutate into the Botanical Borg and shoot your enemy
  • Special - Fire a barrage of explosive spores, damaging all enemies
• Purified Spores are no longer appearing as the atmosphere has returned to normal

BALANCE CHANGES:

• Generator Core
  • Removed warmup

BUGS FIXED:

• Botanical Bike purchase now restricted to one per character

Tags: RabbleFroth Patch Notes

May 09, 2013

Get Your Game Face On!

This is it! The final round! The atmosphere has been purified and Davarril is a sitting duck...er plant...robot...thingie. The point is, you can attack him directly without worrying about being infected by his spores -- involuntarily at least. 

Davarril is carrying a huge and terrifying experiment, the Botanical Borg. The unique twist with this beastly bot is you don't just summon it, you become it! Unleash a devastating Spore Blast or the new multi-target Spore Bombardment attack! I'm not sure why Davarril is selling this monstrous creation. Maybe it's a sneaky, last ditch attempt to lure you over to the dark side? 

Trizzzy has done it again!

Dage the Evil

That's right! Dage the Evil has returned to Delta V! Well, I guess he never left, but he's bringing two amazing new items crafted in the nightmarish forges of his Undead Legion domain. Remember, we are not responsible for any corruption of your soul that may result from using these bazookas.

Dage Weapons don't have safety switches.

Like all of Dage's other items, these will be Limited Quantity, so be sure to dash to Dage's location in the Minetower as soon as we go live with the new release to secure your 'zooka!

You've Got Mail!

While you've been occupied cracking botanical skulls (figuratively, of course), we've been building a new in-game mail system. In this iteration, you will be able to receive important system messages and account updates. 

This feature has a number of benefits:

• Guide new players through game features as they level up.
• Receive a notice about receiving in-game prizes and achievements, especially those that do not have a prize screen.
• Notify players about exciting game news.
• Provide details when a disciplinary action has been taken.
• Eventually allow player-to-player communication. This will be limited to friends only.

No spam allowed!

Again, when this features first goes live, you will only be able to receive messages. We intend to include the ability to send mail from player-to-player as soon as next week. This is the first iteration of the EpicDuel mail system, so be sure to let us know what features you would like to see (or not see) in future updates!

Changing of the Guard

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate one of our Mods on a very special promotion. Our veteran Mod, Alley Cat, will be ascending to the role of Head Moderator while Cinderella focuses on writing and pursuing her PhD (congratulations!). It's a big responsibility leading a large team of veteran and new Moderators, but we're confident Alley Cat is up to the challenge! 

Future

These next few weeks leading into summer we will be focusing on developing and implementing major features to improve the quality and longevity of EpicDuel. None of these will be as ground-shattering or time consuming as Omega, but they will be oft requested features such as an improved mission interface, a core shop, and improved Faction Wars. This summer should be very exciting as these key features are implemented over the Omega framework to create a dynamic, action-packed game experience!

Tags: Nightwraith

May 03, 2013

NEW FEATURES / CHANGES

• Davarril Boss Battle will enable once the air purification War Bar reaches 100%.
• Arbor Annihilator achievement for defeating Davarril.
• 3 new "Infested" armors.
• New Botanical Bike.
• Tiered Spore Hunter achievements for collecting and releasing Purified Spores.
  • These will be awarded automatically as soon as Arborgeddon concludes.
• Ability to purchase Botanical Key outright from Davarril for quicker access to War Shop.
• Added a new passiveLink field to allow action icons and action buff graphics to be differentiated.
• Split the ItemBox data response into 4 separate responses to minimize login timeouts.
• Dramatically reduced the size of the mission data table that downloads when logging in (~80% reduction).
• NPC credit rewards now limited to 100 wins per day.
• Fighting lower level NPCs decreases credit rewards by 3 per level instead of 4 per level. In other words, you now get 17-32 Credits based on level, up from 12-32. Fighting NPCs more than 5 levels lower still awards no Credits.
• Drop rate on Purified Spores increased to 15%.

BALANCE

• Robots
  • Base damage on all Robots has been increased by 3.
  • Damage per Focus has been reduced from 6 to 4.
• Frosbite core
  • Warmup has been removed.

Tags: RabbleFroth

May 02, 2013

Davarril thought taking over Delta V would be a walk in the park, but the diligent duelists have kept his infestation confined. Players are working day and night collecting purified spores to heal the Biological Preserve and take the fight to Davarril himself. Once the War Bar reaches 100%, there will be nothing stopping you from delivering justice to the rogue Archivist. 

You'll have to tackle this challenge alone, but if you succeed you will be rewarded with a Arbor Annihilator achievement! Beware, Davarril has many tricks up his moldy, metallic sleaves so this fight will not be easy!

War Shop

Meanwhile, Cinderella's war shop will be supplied with a shipment of new "Infested" armors and an awesome Botanical Bike, designed by Trizzzy!

Also, rumor has it that Davarril is tempting players over to the dark side by offering a Botanical Key for sale. This will allow you to access the war shop without collecting the required spores and completing the required mission. 

Spore Hunters

Collecting spores is a dangerous job, but somebody has to do it. It makes sense that those who are especially adept at collection should receive a reward for their efforts.

These tiered achievements will be awarded for in 10, 30, and 100 Purified Spores. Do you have what it takes to become a Superior Spore Hunter?

Tags: Nightwraith

April 29, 2013

BUGS FIXED:

• Botanical Buster E was incorrectly doing Physical damage
• Botanical Reaper was missing location and rarity information
• Botanical Battlesuit price was incorrectly shown in Item Finder
• Arborgeddon event bar was rounding up instead of down

Tags: RabbleFroth Patch Notes Hotfix

April 26, 2013

NEW CHANGES/FEATURES:

• The Arborgeddon Event has begun! Collect spores by winning PvP battles to cure infected citizens of Delta V, and help purify the air to combat Davaril's corrupted spores!
• Cinderella in the Biodome has a limited number of Botanical shotguns with Spreadfire on them, but you'll have to give her the spores she needs first!
• 6 new cores are available:
  • Frost Shards (Primary active) - Fires a barrage of icicles, dealing energy damage and draining your enemy's energy for several turns.
  • Aim Assist (Gun/Aux passive) - Reduces the chance for your weapon's attack to be deflected
  • Laser Sights (Gun/Aux passive) - Increases damage when your weapon's attack is deflected
  • Overshield (Armor passive) - Further reduces damage when you deflect an attack
• 6 new botanical-themed hairstyles
• 9 new botanical home items

BALANCE CHANGES:

Assimilation
Since Assimilation's effect is now unblockable, we took a little of the base power off of the skill.

• Lowered base energy steal to 3-13 from 3-15

BUGS FIXED:

• Fixed an issue with Last Active Date in the Faction manager
• Azrael promo weapons now sellable
• Botanical Battle Suit now marked as a Promo in the Item Finder
• Marauder's "Chomp" mission was missing the description
• Low level players could encounter a client hang when re-opening the What's New page

Tags: RabbleFroth Patch Notes

April 25, 2013

Hey there, EpicDuelists! It's your friendly neighborhood Cinderella here with a heaping helping of design notes! You may have noticed my conspicuous absence as of late (or not) -- and no, I'm not dead or fired. I'm winding down on my Master's degree (should be graduating at the end of the summer semester) and this has been the first time this semester I've been ahead enough on my thesis work, schoolwork, and teaching responsibilities to get a Design Notes post ready. So let's get right to it, shall we?

Arborgeddon Is Upon Us!

Longtime players will remember that Xraal's species was obliterated when they and the Bio Hazards were forced to cohabitate in the Biodome. The only ones lucky enough to survive were siblings and members of an intellectual/religious order -- the Archivists Xraal, Tamarill, Navarro, and Sekk. But there are rumors of another individual surviving -- the botany-obsessed Davarril.

Surviving in the deepest underbrush of the Biological Preserve, Davarril has been able to harness plants' rudimentary nervous systems (no, seriously -- you can take electrophysiological readings from plants) to his benefit. Using a mind-control parasite (no, seriously, there are mind-control fungi), Davarril has brought into being abominable lichens (a mutualistic relationship between a plant and a fungus) ready to wreak beautiful destruction on the human world (ok, this part we made up).

(parentheses)

But Davarril is not fighting unopposed. Xraal and I need your help in sequencing genomes, building a proteome, and doing a little R&D on a possible weapon against these disgraces of phytology... on second thought, there's a lot of sensitive equipment. Better just collect samples.

By battling other players, players can collect various spore samples which can be turned in to various Bio Dome NPCs for special prizes. The most prized spore is the Purified Spore. Xraal any I have been released an experimental antidote into the air filtration system of the Bio Dome. Some have decided to attach themselves to player weapons and armor. Collect as many as you can and release them to combat the vile spores released by Davarril and his minions.

In addition to special War Prizes and more War Missions, players will be able to choose from a variety of plant-themed hairstyles to commemorate the occasion. More intense than a rose in your hair, that's for sure!

Feed me, Seymour!

Also, we have a bountiful harvest of weapons from up and coming artist TrizZzCENTRINO for your sample collecting pleasure! Also, Charfade has been hard at work creating an alien jungle worth of botanical furniture for use in your homes!

Social Media

If you follow us on the Official EpicDuel Facebook page, you may have noticed that the option to send a message has been discontinued. Part of this has to do with the fact that it was taking an inordinate amount of my time (I am the Facebook page administrator, and the one who responds as “EpicDuel”) responding to individual messages. There was a huge issue with players coming to me to try and get around help team decisions. While I am more than happy to walk players through what they need to provide the Help Team, I am not authorized to override Help Team decisions, return “hacked” or scammed items/Varium, or change your username, password, or email address, or many other account issues. While you should never EVER give away your account username and password, sometimes we're not always vigilant about safety and fall victim to scammers. If that happens, you need to use the Account Recovery Page at portal.battleon.com.

Another issue was players begging for items, pre-leveled accounts, hacks, Varium, and prize codes. Prize codes are released at staff discretion, announced publicly, and are first-come/first-served with a finite number of times they can be redeemed. I cannot give individuals prize codes and they are not an entitlement for every player who “likes” a page or follows us on Twitter. I do realize that many players who ask me for things figure that the worst I can say is no, but when hundreds of players ask me the same question constantly, it becomes a drain emotionally and a drain on my time, especially when fans threaten to sue me, hurt me, or even kill me for not fulfilling their request. Ultimately, I'm moving away from the constant social media interaction to focus more on the creative side of EpicDuel Development.

Again if you have any account issues, the proper contact is the  Account Recovery Page at portal.battleon.com.  And no, they won't give you a prize code either.

Insect facts!

I bet you've missed these! Recently, my mom (who is a teacher) found a caterpillar in her classroom, which her students insisted on keeping as a class pet. She brought it back to me for identification, and I've managed to identify it down to family. Members of the family Noctuidae are called owlet moths   due to the eyespots on the wings of the adults of many species. The family is cosmopolitan, with species present worldwide. Noctuid caterpillars are important crop pests, including the cotton bollworm and corn armyworm are important crop pests in North America. With the increased reliance on transgenic crops, adaptation of these insects to the transgenic corn or cotton presents an issue for managers, but several management strategies are used to prevent resistance from developing to Bt corn or Bt cotton, which express toxic genes from the bacterium Bacillus thurigensis. These include crop rotation, use of multiple strains of Bt transgenic organisms, and the establishment of Bt free havens, to encourage the proliferation of non-resistant individuals.

Tags: Cinderella

April 19, 2013

NEW CHANGES/FEATURES:

• New Arborgeddon promo package available! Package includes:
  • Botanical Battle Suit: Classless armor with new Armored Roots core. This core is cast on yourself and will root you to the ground, boosting your defenses and preventing you from doing melee attacks.
  • Botanical Hazard and Dark Botanical Hazard: Physical and Energy robot with Poison Spores ability. Poison Spores deals 60% of your Robot damage as poison over 4 turns.
• The Epic Egg Hunt has ended! If you have leftover eggs, you can drop them off at any merchant.

BALANCE CHANGES:

Blocks
This change is meant to make blocks less frustrating and devastating when they occur.

• Blocks now prevent 85% of damage instead of 100%
• Blocked attacks still cannot stun or crit

Poison Effects
This change is meant to make poisons more interesting by allowing the poisoned player to cleanse the effect, and make applying the poison more tactical by applying it during Field Medic’s cooldown, or try to bait out an early heal from a player.

• Poison effects can now be removed with Field Medic

Toxic Grenade
This change brings Toxic Grenade's damage closer to that of Venom Strike, and helps compensate for the fact that poisons can now be cleansed.

• Poison damage increased to 4-13 damage per turn, from 3-12 damage per turn
• Now strikes for 70% primary weapon damage, up from a flat 5 damage.

Venom Strike
This change helps compensate for the fact that poisons can now be cleansed.

• Poison damage increased to 3-12 damage per turn, from 2-11 damage per turn
• Still strikes for 85% primary weapon damage

BUGS FIXED:

• Fixed an issue where Recruit button could show the incorrect faction name
• Curse Aura incorrectly showed "Level 1" while active in the stats page
• Fixed a bug where Plasma Cannon's crit chance was being calculated incorrectly
• World number not updating properly when switching in certain rooms
• Removed dev-related error message that could fire after battle

Tags: RabbleFroth Patch Notes