EpicDuel - Game Design Notes: April 2011

It's time for spring cleaning on Delta V, and that means a major overhaul of a major zone: Central Station. The decor has changed and the ambigious train platforms have been replaced with the more efficient teleporter pads. Expect to see more pads scattered across Delta V for easy travel. Caution: We are not responsible for accidental disintegrations!

A new visitor to Central Station is Naomi page. Like most Delta V civilians, she longs for a day that the conflict on Delta V will end. However, she also realizes that in the planet's current state of affairs, dueling is survival!

For this reason, she's brough some unique, limited-quantity armors for sale: The Bunny Borg!

This fearsome armor is sure to intimidate opponents, while looking pretty snazzy with the other Bunny-esque gear!

We have also expanded on the concept of Encumberance to include armors. What does this mean? It means you will now be able to equip armors with level requirements up to 4 levels greater than your current level. For example, as a level 21, you can equip the level 25 armors. However you will take a penalty of -1 damage per level different (25-21=4). Recogning that some armors give small bonuses, an armor's defense or resistance can never drop below 1!

Got some dusty old bazookas and guns you've been keeping for a special occasion? Want to take the latest and greatest weapons to the next level? Power them up with sidearm and bazooka enhancements! Plus, to be fair to our non-varium players, credit enhancement prices have been slashed 30-40%!

To test NPC drops before we go all out and build missions that hinge on them, we have introduced drops on some popular NPCs. The following NPCs have the chance to drop a free health or energy booster/pack!

The diminishing returns we applied to stats over the last few releases will now be applied to skills. This means that the rate at which skills with improve with a given stat has been reduced, so as more points are point into a stat, the associate skills will improve more slowly.

Got Points?

Do you like movies? Do you like free stuff? Do you live in the US? Then check out this BRAND-NEW offer from Netflix that you can access through this page on our Portal site- if you are over 18 (or your parents are agreeable) and have never signed up for Netflix before, we have an offer available where you can get 4,500 Artix Points FREE!* That's enough to upgrade in any of our games!** However, if you or your parents are like Cysero have already signed up for the service, then be warned- you can't cancel your account and then re-sign up for this one. That's bad ad juju.

* BattlePoints have been permanently renamed to "Artix Points".

** Unfortunately, we do not control which areas/countries receive certain offers from our ad sponsors.

Calling all Epic Artists!

We are offering yet another opporuntity to score some free points with Spring-themed AE art contest! I know there are some talented artists in the EpicDuel community, and now's your chance to really shine through and prove that we have some truly EPIC talent! Click here for more details!

	April 27, 2011 Player Appreciation Week! What is this madness? Hey there, EpicDuelists! You might have noticed that there’s something... different about this week’s DNs. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Cinderella, EpicDuel’s lovely Warrior Princess. I’ve been a part of EpicDuel since December 2008, when Nightwraith asked me to participate in a private Alpha test (as “Belka”, my name on the EpicDuel Forums), and I was one of the first players during the public Alpha. I’ve been a forum moderator (first on the EDF and now on the AEF) since early 2009, and I’ve been an in-game moderator since the merger with ArtixEntertainment. In addition, I am the administrator for the official EpicDuel Facebook page. As the game has grown since launching in 2009, Nightwraith and Titan have become very busy, and the need has been pointed out for additional staff to take care of some of the public relations responsibilities- that’s where I come in! I am the liaison between the Developers and Players. So, you’ll be seeing a lot more of my face in the weeks to come! But that’s far enough about me. This week, it’s all about you, Players! That’s right, an update chock-full of goodies for the people who make it all possible: YOU! Spotlight on Fame First things first. A lot of our players are very excited about the Fame feature- maybe a little TOO excited. Begging for Fame has become a problem not only in-game but in the social media connected to the game. However, this was never our intention in introducing Fame- we’d anticipated that it would bring recognition to some of our best and friendliest players. In light of that, we’d like to turn the spotlight to one such player: Elf Priest Jzaanu, whose YouTube Channel features battle, weapon and armor demos, NPC strategy videos, and general videos that act as Public Service Announcements for the EpicDuel community. Jzaanu has always been friendly and helpful as long as I’ve known her in-game, and is one of our more diligent players. It would be good for some of our players who grief for fame to take a look at how classy our players can be. Mission Drops! With the success of the recent update introducing NPC drops, we’re adding drops to completed missions! Following this update, completion of certain missions will result in a reward for completing said mission! Naomi Page needs rare flowers from Xraal over in the BioDome and Valery needs your help in supplementing her gun stash. We have a LOT more missions in development as well, to give players a more important role in the evolving EpicDuel storyline (we might even release some of these super-secret missions on Friday- time permitting). Missions released this week: Flower Power!: Naomi needs your help in gathering precious Bio Orchids from Xraal in the BioDome. Restock!: Valery’s decided that the bike business just isn’t enough anymore, and is branching out into the weapons business. She needs you to get her some Imperial Blasters for a unique reward. We have a LOT more missions in development as well, to give players a more important role in the evolving EpicDuel storyline. This is truly an exciting time for EpicDuel, as we move forward from being simply a repetitive PvP game to a fully fleshed-out MMORPG. In the coming weeks and months we’ll be fleshing out the storyline more fully- Baby Steps! Founder Appreciation There’s been some concern lately that we’ve been ignoring a small but significant portion of our player base- our Founders. We are eternally grateful for everything the Founders have done for us, without them there would BE no EpicDuel, so we thank you from the bottoms of our hearts. In recognition of the valuable contribution you have made to the community at large, every Founder member (that includes Elites and Founders without the armor) will receive a gift of 1,000 Varium. Which will come in handy since we’re also introducing... Varium Sellback Yes, the long requested feature is finally here! The vendors all around Delta V have upgraded their outdated returns system and have agreed to give all players selling back premium items 15% of the item’s varium price across the board. That means that, if an item originally cost you 1,000 Varium, you will recieve 150 varium back from the sale of that item. For enhanced items, 15% of the Varium enhancement price will be factored into the sellback. For those who enhanced with credits before the update, those purchased slots WILL receive a Varium sellback. However, going forward, credit ehancements will not receive sellback. Graphical Update More convenient travel options have been implemented throughout Delta V! Look for increased Teleportation Pads that will take you to the furthest reaches of the planet! Relay for Life This weekend, Titan and Nightwraith will be participating along with the rest of the AE team in the 2011 Relay for Life! I think Artix's Design Notes post summarized the situation nicely: This weekend, the Artix Entertainment team will be battling one of the most dangerous diseases on Earth by walking around in circle for 18 hours straight. That is right! We will be sponsoring our first American Cancer Society Relay for Life this Friday, April 29^th at 6pm at Sunlake High School in Land O' Lakes, Florida (Mmmmm Butter). The relay will begin at “game release-time” on Friday night, and last 18 hours with at least one member of the AE team walking the track at all times. (Yes, they are allowed to carry their computers…) Faith is setting up a tent on the track with HeroMart merchandise. 100% of the proceeds will go to the American Cancer Society. If you live in the area, you are welcome to come down and hang out and walk with us. There will be a lot of other teams from other local companies participating too... and hopefully selling lots of hot cocoa to keep us awake all night! The AE team has donated $1,000 to the Relay for Life to help in the fight against cancer. If you would like to make a donation on behalf of the AE team, please visit the official Relay for Life Website. Oh, and because you are probably going to ask... no, sadly, that is not a picture of us. They would have taken a picture of us, but they were too scared we would break the camera :-) There’s so much more to come in the weeks ahead! And we can’t do it without you guys- thank you for being awesome. Tags: Cinderella Missions Founders Varium Sellback Players Fame

	April 22, 2011 New Central Station, Bunny Borg Armor, Enhancements, and More! Revamped Central Station! It's time for spring cleaning on Delta V, and that means a major overhaul of a major zone: Central Station. The decor has changed and the ambigious train platforms have been replaced with the more efficient teleporter pads. Expect to see more pads scattered across Delta V for easy travel. Caution: We are not responsible for accidental disintegrations! Meet Naomi! A new visitor to Central Station is Naomi page. Like most Delta V civilians, she longs for a day that the conflict on Delta V will end. However, she also realizes that in the planet's current state of affairs, dueling is survival! For this reason, she's brough some unique, limited-quantity armors for sale: The Bunny Borg! This fearsome armor is sure to intimidate opponents, while looking pretty snazzy with the other Bunny-esque gear! We have also expanded on the concept of Encumberance to include armors. What does this mean? It means you will now be able to equip armors with level requirements up to 4 levels greater than your current level. For example, as a level 21, you can equip the level 25 armors. However you will take a penalty of -1 damage per level different (25-21=4). Recogning that some armors give small bonuses, an armor's defense or resistance can never drop below 1! More Enhancements! More Power! Got some dusty old bazookas and guns you've been keeping for a special occasion? Want to take the latest and greatest weapons to the next level? Power them up with sidearm and bazooka enhancements! Plus, to be fair to our non-varium players, credit enhancement prices have been slashed 30-40%! NPC Item Drops! To test NPC drops before we go all out and build missions that hinge on them, we have introduced drops on some popular NPCs. The following NPCs have the chance to drop a free health or energy booster/pack! Gamma Guard Valery Oz Selina Skill Diminishing Returns The diminishing returns we applied to stats over the last few releases will now be applied to skills. This means that the rate at which skills with improve with a given stat has been reduced, so as more points are point into a stat, the associate skills will improve more slowly. Got Points? Do you like movies? Do you like free stuff? Do you live in the US? Then check out this BRAND-NEW offer from Netflix that you can access through this page on our Portal site- if you are over 18 (or your parents are agreeable) and have never signed up for Netflix before, we have an offer available where you can get 4,500 Artix Points FREE!* That's enough to upgrade in any of our games!** However, if you or your parents are like Cysero have already signed up for the service, then be warned- you can't cancel your account and then re-sign up for this one. That's bad ad juju. * BattlePoints have been permanently renamed to "Artix Points". Unfortunately, we do not control which areas/countries receive certain offers from our ad sponsors. Calling all Epic Artists!** We are offering yet another opporuntity to score some free points with Spring-themed AE art contest! I know there are some talented artists in the EpicDuel community, and now's your chance to really shine through and prove that we have some truly EPIC talent! Click here for more details! Tags: Nightwraith Netflix Offers Enhancements balance Central Station Naomi contest

	April 18, 2011 AQW Battle Card Game Released! AdventureQuest Worlds Card Game! That's right! The AdventureQuest Worlds: The Anything-Goes Battle On Battle Card Game is in stores now and ready for purchase! Specifically, Toys-R-Us store in the US and HeroMart for everyone else! But what else do I get with this amazing battle card game? You know, aside from a box of cards (it's a really nice box, too!). Well, you'll also unlock the exclusive CARD CLASHER CLASS in AQW! Each box includes a code that unlocks a shop full of exclusive, in-game collector’s items inside the hit MMO, AdventureQuest Worlds The code unlocks Card Clasher Class Card Clasher Weapon Card Clasher Cape ... bonus mystery item that we have not created yet but will because we do not have long before the game is in stores!!!! (Draw faster J6!) More to be revealed in the AQW design notes! Do you like dueling? Do you like cards? Do you like free stuff? Well, what are you waiting...oh, it's not out yet. Well, you can still get excited! Who wants to get excited with me? Anyone? Tags: Nightwraith

	April 15, 2011 New Central Station preview, balance changes, inventory overhaul, and more! Hey there, EpicDuelists. We've got a lot of major changes coming to Delta V this week, but most of them are not quite as flashy as last week. When we go crazy with too many content releases in a row, we tend to let the bugs pile up and move forward, so this week was necessary for some much needed cleanup and improvements. Balance Changes Last week saw a MAJOR overhaul to EpicDuel balance, and that was bound to cause some upheaval. After reviewing the heated forum discussions, we've made the following balance modifications. Since defensive skills were not depowered by the last release, Field Medic, Hybrid Armor, Energy Shield, and Defense Matrix received 1 point reductions Agility reduces Defense / Resistance by 1 extra points for extreme Health builds Added diminishing returns to Technology's impact on Robot damage Diminishing returns on Strength, Dexterity, Technology, and Support begins 5 points later (after 55 stat points) Introduced a second tier of diminishing returns on stats (after 85 stat points) Boss NPCs nerfed slightly Epic Power Hour: TAKE TWO! Starting at 10:00PM ET and 10:00AM ET (for real this time!), players will receive DOUBLE XP from all victories for an hour! This also means that players using XP Boost will receive QUADRUPLE XP! This puts level 33 easily within reach. Inventory Backend! Wow! That sound...boring. The best part is, if it worked, you won't even notice it. However, Titan has spend most of this week restructuring the item tables to allow for better long-term performance much greater flexibility for adding things like defense/resistance armors, new bots, items with buffs, and, most importantly, quest items! If all goes according to plan, this feature should pay off immensly in the upcoming releases! Bug Fixes Here is a list of the major bugs fixed for this release: Power Hour bug fixed! George Lowe repowered! Banana Suit load error while enhancing Weapon encumberance display error New Mods We would like to welcome two new members to the EpicDuel in-game moderator team: Dorumon and IcyGlacier. If you see them, be sure to say "hi"...or they'll ban you!* not really* maybe 0_o Preview Train Hub 2.0 *Preview*** In preparation for the new update to EpicDuel's revamped engine, next week we are giving a few old screens a much needed facelift. One of the oldest areas on Delta V is the Central Station (known to our experienced players as Oz World 7). Since this is the first place new players see, we determined it would be beneficial to revamp all 9 screens to reach the standard set by the latest worlds. Also, we will be adding teleporter pads across Delta V to expedite travel, meaning remote regions like the mines below the Minetower and Talia's Science Facility will be a click away! The next few updates should have the biggest and baddest (in a good way) releases EpicDuel has seen yet! Tags: Central Station bug fix power hour Nightwraith

	April 08, 2011 Egg-celent, Egg-ceptional, Egg-puns, etc... Eggzooka Egg-stacy! To celebrate the beginning of the Spring season, we are introducing the Eggzookas. These ferocious, wabbit-face auxiliaries are capable of dealing intense damage and feature amazing stat bonuses. But how will you acquire these beauties? Both the energy and physical Eggzookas will be avaible with purchase of the 10,000 Varium package or in-game from Titan and Nightwraith. Get them before they're gone! Level Up! Again! Numbers will once again go up as we raise the level cap to 33! It may seem far away, but all the level 32 have been clamoring for this for ages. It's not an easy journey, but once you get there, it's totally worth it! To make life easier for those eager to reach the level cap and get the most out of the new Eggzookas, we've introduced a few features to make the leveling process less of a grind. Epic Power Hour! Starting at 10:00PM ET and 10:00AM ET, players will receive DOUBLE XP from all victories for an hour! This also means that players using XP Boost will receive QUADRUPLE XP! This puts level 33 easily within reach. Level Ranges and Encumberance: To keep the latest and greatest weapons from being out of the range of hardworking players, we have introduced a level range requirement to weapons. You will now be able to equip a weapon as early as 4 levels prior to the highest requirement, as long as you meet the stat requirements. However, there is a catch... We have introduced a restriction to this feature called Encumberance. You may equip a weapon before you meet the highest level requirement, BUT you will take one point of damage reduction for each level you are below the highest requirement. Actuall, this block of text explains it better: This new feature applies to Primary, Sidearm, and Auxiliary weapon types. Armor, Robot, Bike, and Booster are unaffected. Focus Change Since raising the level cap makes it easier to pour more and more points into one attribute, throwing off balance, we have removed the Focus damage bonus and rewrote the calculations for increasing stat effectiveness. This means after a certain point, it becomes increasingly difficult to gain more damage and defense. This will prevent one-sided builds that favor loading up on one stat for an almost guranteed victory. This change is largely experimental and it can be adjusted as it's been through some more thorough battle testing. Please note that while the player damage bonus from Focus is removed, Focus will still directly affect Bot damage. Tags: Titan Nightwraith spring bunny egg Easter Bazooka focus balance

	April 01, 2011 Celebrate EpicFool's Day with a Banana and a Giant Spoon. Where's Titan?! There's Titan! Waiting in the newly-opened Bazaar to celebrate April Fool's Day with the return of the April Fool's/Spring rares! He's added a curious new item to his weird, wild inventory, the Banana Suit classless armor. This limited-quantity rare is sure to split your sides, while superbly defending them. Echo! Sure is lonely here. Not for long, I'm sure! Behold! The glory that is NannerWraith! Meanwhile... The Exiles need YOU! That's right, the new Exile Soldier in Central Station needs your help to fight back against Legion aggression. New Missions! We also introduced 4 new missions available in Central Station from the Level 3 City Guard and the Exile Soldier. They're worth a ton of Battle Tokens, so if you're in a Faction, need achievements, want to battle in the Arcade, or just like having a lot of things, you'll definitely want to complete them! Be a Rockstar! We've continued to build on the fame system implemented last week by adding a daily leaderboard, with an achievement, plus 3 more achievements that unlock at different levels! Famous: 100 Fame Celebrity: 1000 Fame Rockstar: 10,000 Fame Starter Kit! You may have also noticed a new payment interface in game. This is to make it easier for players to know what and where they can buy the super-rare and super-powerful items. I see a lot of players who get to level 10 with the default gear! To address this issue, we've taken some popular low-level items and put together a Starter Kit Varium package to help low level players on their climb to the top! At level 1, level 32 may SEEM unattainable, but like all things, with persistence and patience you can achieve anything! AdventureQuest Worlds Card Game! That's right! The AdventureQuest Worlds: The Anything-Goes Battle On Battle Card Game is nearly ready for release in store April 18th. Be sure to check out the site for the latest updates and wacky videos! I've played it already and it's actually really fun, and I don't even like card games. The rules are simple enough that I could pick it up instantly and start winning duels. I can't wait to see it on store shelves! But what else do I get with this amazing battle card game? You know, aside from a box of cards (it's a really nice box, too!). Well, you'll also unlock the exclusive CARD CLASHER CLASS in AQW! Each box includes a code that unlocks a shop full of exclusive, in-game collector’s items inside the hit MMO, AdventureQuest Worlds The code unlocks Card Clasher Class Card Clasher Weapon Card Clasher Cape ... bonus mystery item that we have not created yet but will because we do not have long before the game is in stores!!!! (Draw faster J6!) Do you like dueling? Do you like cards? Do you like free stuff? Well, what are you waiting...oh, it's not out yet. Well, you can still get excited! Who wants to get excited with me? Anyone? Tags: april fool's banana Fame Card Game Missions Titan Achievements

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EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

Player Appreciation Week!

New Central Station, Bunny Borg Armor, Enhancements, and More!

AQW Battle Card Game Released!

New Central Station preview, balance changes, inventory overhaul, and more!

Egg-celent, Egg-ceptional, Egg-puns, etc...

Celebrate EpicFool's Day with a Banana and a Giant Spoon.