EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

May 31, 2013

NEW CHANGES/FEATURES:

• A list of all status effects on each player is now shown in battle
• The current player's turn is now highlighted instead of being announced in battle
• You now get a confirmation when deleting mail
• Can now choose whether to search mail by Subject, Sender, and/or Message
• Seasonal Celtic, April Fools, and Bunny rares removed

BUGS FIXED:

• Spores no longer drop
• Static Smash description was too long
• Muted players are no longer able to send mail
• Fixed an issue where Brachylagus, Mr. Cottontail, and Capensis could be selected but not bring up dialogue
• The client now alerts a player during retrains if they do not have the proper skill prerequisite instead of kicking them

Tags: RabbleFroth Patch Notes

May 30, 2013

Hey there, EpicDuelists! It's time once again for some delicious design notes from your friendly neighborhood Cinderella.

The Dread War itself is still in development, and will likely remain so for a bit more time.  Our planned rollout for the War is in mid-June, but expect rapid-fire updates as development is underway. However, I can confirm that the War will coincide with improvements to the Faction system, and will involve territorial control on a much greater scale than the current flag system. This conflict is fairly large -- the biggest players have ever faced -- and could expand beyond the Dread Plains to consume all of Delta V!

MAIL TIME!

The new mail system is getting some nice improvements. You'll be able to manually choose search criteria (eg. Subject, Sender, Message) instead of searching through all three simultaneously. In addition, you'll now get a confirmation message when deleting mail, so it's at least less likely that you'll delete something important...like a message from a Delta III prince who needs your bank account information.

Balancing Act

The conversion of passive skills to active skills is still underway. Since this is a massive change and we want to cover all the classes in one release, we are allowing as much time for testing as possible. This means that the changes will probably go live next week, thoroughly tested. It's very important that class balance is in a good place for the War so we are taking these upcoming changes very seriously.

The Long Arm of the Law

A special message from the Lawman:

Howdy y'all, 

As some of you may already know, I have been around to help here for a long while now, but now it's time for me to part ways and concentrate on leading the Exile forces! 
From now on, please do not try to contact me via the forums as I will likely not be able to deal with your issues. However there are a team of awesome Moderators who will now be dealing with all issues in-game. Within the last two month major changes were made to the in-game system which means that your reports will now be directed directly to Moderators who will deal with each manually. This means that you no longer need to take any screenshots and take the hassle of PM'ing in here on the forums! 

So please do make use of this new system, as I will now be retiring from this line of work to allow for more time in my main line of work! 

With the new and improved reporting system, there is no reason to take screenshots and send them to the AEF Lawman account. Do not send messages to the Lawman -- he's not going to answer them. Having said that, we would like to thank all those who took the time to compose reports to the Lawman under the old system. However, that system required a great deal of time investment, both from the Moderator staff and the players making the reports, and it have been made almost entirely obsolete by the new system. If you need to report a player, please use the in-game report system!

Celtic and April Fools Weapons Leaving

The April Fools and Celtic weapons have hung on long enough, being as it's nearly June. If you still need a giant spoon, now's your last chance!  Also, the Bunny Weapons from last year are leaving as well.  However, the 2013 Bunny weapons will stick around for another week because of a bug with Brachylagus' shop that has been fixed for the new release.

Calissa and Oz

Many of you were curious about Calissa, and her relationship with Oz and the Exiles. I've actually read the story suggestions. Here's my own take on their story.

 

            Oz couldn't move. Couldn't protest. He thought he should scream, but that couldn't save her. Helplessly he watched as his bride -- the only woman he loved, fell backwards lifelessly. He dropped to his knees, seemingly freed from the spell, and tried to reach out for her.

            “My name's Calissa.” Sixteen-year old cadet Lorenzo Ozimus ignored the voice in front of him, keeping his head down in the Shadow Guard manual.

            “Hellooooooo!” The little girl grabbed his head and forced him to look up. “I SAID my name is Calissa.” Lorenzo looked up at the eleven year old girl in front of him- her dark hair was done up in braids, and her white skin was tinged with blue; silver under the skin. Lorenzo noticed her ears were pointed.

            “Hi,” he grunted and looked down.

            “My daddy's your commander.” That got Lorenzo's attention. “You're in Wright Jarek's unit.”

            “Yeah.” Jarek was born on Delta VI. That explained the little bit of silver under her skin.

            “What's your name?”

            “Ozimus. Lorenzo Ozimus. Mostly they call me Oz.”

            “Ozimus...” she stared at him with large emerald-green eyes. “I'm a little bit psychic, I don't know if you know that. But I know you're destined for great things.” She stared at him a bit more with those green eyes before running off.

            It was those eyes that the adult Lorenzo stared into now. Those eyes that were once full of life now stared at him unblinking, unseeing. She'd died before she hit the ground, and her lips stained red as her head lolled to the side.

            Lorenzo and Calissa's lips parted. The War was over, and life goes on. Eleven years had passed since their first meeting, and the minute he saw her again, Oz was taken by Calissa's beauty. Their courtship had been brief, and they married that summer. But their bliss was short-lived, as already there were stirrings of rebellion against Baelius's regime. Calissa was in training to become a master Mage under one of her father's friends, a powerful man named Caden.

            “Is your Master sympathetic to our cause?”

            Calissa nodded. “There is no love for Baelius in Caden's heart.” She paused. “You should lead this, Lorenzo. I do not dare bringing up a request like this to my Master.” Oz agreed.

            Caden.

            It had been Caden's idea to bring the Uprising straight to Baelius's gates. It was Caden who had organized the charge.

            It was Caden who stood over Calissa's body, removing the sharpened end of his stave from her neck. Caden tracked the blood across the floor of the throne room -- the apex of Oz's failed assault. Caden smirked, lifted his foot, and all Oz saw was blackness.

            Oz stared in the mirror. He splashed cool water on his scarred face, and raked his fingers through his rapidly-graying hair. A new battle faced him- one that would force him to return from obscurity and take his place at the front of the Uprising. He looked at his communicator, and noticed the date. He smiled bitterly. The first charge was scheduled for his eleventh wedding anniversary. He held her ring, “This is for you, Calissa.”

Tags: Cinderella Dread War Factions Legion exile Rares Reports Lawman Oz Caden

May 24, 2013

NEW CHANGES/FEATURES:

• New Exile / Legion packages added to the store
• Added a mail search field (searches the sender, subject, and message)
• Character stats page now shows Faction alignment
• Faction Founders now have access to a "Send all" mail button for their faction.

BALANCE CHANGES:

• Mercenary
• This change is a first step in providing Mercenaries with more of the tools they need.
  
  • Atom Smasher replaced with Static Smash
  • Static Smash - Absorbs energy from the enemy as a percentage of damage done. Costs 0 Energy.
    
    
• Static Charge
• As an Energy-generation tool, Static Charge has fallen behind other similar skills.
  
  • Increased energy gain by 7% at all levels
    
    
• Plasma Bolt
• Both the stat scaling and the early-level damage on Plasma Bolt were a bit too high, this should bring it more in line with other tier 1 spells.
  
  • Base damage decreased by 1 at all levels
  • Stat scaling decreased from 3 to 3.5
    
    
• Critical Strikes
• This change is intended to further mitigate the impact that critical strikes can have in certain situations.
  
  • Minimum damage increase changed from 4-9 to 3-6 (depending on level)
    
    
• Blood Mage
• This change is simply to put the Blood Mage multi-target skill in the same place as the other classes.
  
  • Position of Overload and Plasma Rain swapped in skill tree

BUGS FIXED:

• Fixed an issue preventing Davarril from being challenged.
• Fixed missing formatting in Varium shop descriptions
• Error messages added when clicking "Send Mail" with no buddy selected
• Failed mail recipients are now automatically removed from the send list

Tags: RabbleFroth Patch Notes

May 23, 2013

Hey there, EpicDuelists! Ready for your heaping helping of Design Notes, served just the way mama likes 'em? Whose mama I'm not really sure. It's not my mama. But apparently she likes the way I write Design Notes. So, let's get started, shall we?

New Package

To commemorate the upcoming war, we'll be offering special packages with Legion and Exile goodies for your dueling pleasure. Each pack comes with a Physical Mutating weapon and an Energy Mutating Weapon, which come equipped with the Exile Strike Core (for Exiles), or the Legion Strike Core (for Legionnaires) that call in reinforcements against the opposing alignment. 

Balance Changes

To make battles a bit more engaging, passive skills are being converted into active skills. With so many points to distribute at the level cap, very little is sacrificed by investing in passives, to the point that they become requirements for most viable builds. Although not all passives will be converted to active skills this release, eventually we would like them all to become active.

Another long-overlooked area has been energy regain for mercenaries, so that class will now be given an energy regain skill. Since many of the changes are still in the testing phase, look for more specific balance changes in tomorrow's patch notes!

The Dread Plains

East of the Barrens lays the plains of Kiirdosh. At least, that's what they were called long ago. After the Kiirdosh Mountains were leveled for Varium mining, the plains were not suitable for human life, and the mountain lizard-goats and dire wolves took over the abandoned mining outposts. However, below the rich volcanic soil and pure groundwater are lodes and lodes of precious gems, and fuel sources, so Legion and Exile forces alike venture into the Dread Plains for the economic resources it contains.

The Plains are currently held by the Legion and overseen by the terrifying Administrator 10. There is a name he uses for official records, but like many coming from the Syndicate, it is not the name he was given at birth.  During the Uprising, many of Delta V's criminal element aligned themselves with Oz and the Exiles, and seeing his opportunity to forge a new life for himself, he traded his criminal allies for a cushy spot in the Administration. However, excepting all of her bad qualities Alydriah values loyalty and trustworthiness. This dishonorable man could not be trusted with the health and welfare of Delta V's populace, so although he is technically the administrator of Fortune City's 10^th District, his talent for underhanded tactics is much better suited for a post far, far away from the seat of the Administration. But his hold on the area is tenuous, and after feeling the sting of defeat at the hands of John St. Alban last year, Administrator Descarl isn't taking any chances and is personally supporting the Administrator in this endeavor.

            The miner grasped onto her holdfast and watched the pebbles crumble beneath her foot. The foothold was apparently not as sturdy as she'd hoped. Moreso than falling, she feared awakening the dire wolves who might attack the rest of the expedition. Finally, she got to the pit, attached her holdfast and lowered herself down into the infinite blackness.

 

            “Oi! Neris!” a male voice echoed up the shaft. “What took you so long?”

            “Your fat feet crushed up all the good footholds, ain't my fault.” She unhooked herself, landed, and turned on her helmet light to illuminate her partner's face. “Why's your helmet off?”

            The man's skin was blue from the silver deposited just below the surface, as is traditional for those from Delta VI, and his weathered face scrunched up. “You kiddin'? This feels just like home.” The surface of Delta VI is uninhabitable, so the people live in subterranean cities, illuminated by the bioluminescent fungi. Neris nodded, this was exactly like Taryn's homeworld.

            “Come on, we've got glass to harvest. The first sunrise is in 6 hours, so we ain't got long.” They ventured further, chiseling out a path along the way. After about an hour, she spotted a sparkle in the rocks. Varium. She waved Taryn over.

            “Man, this is better than glass.” Taryn shone his spectrophotometer on the crystal. “150 units for this rock. Ain't much, but there might be more.” Neris prepared the extractor, and cracked open the vein, revealing the beautiful gleaming varium.

            “A whole lot more than 150, Taryn. This is gonna change our lives” Overjoyed at their fortune, they gathered the precious crystal, losing track of time. Before they knew it, the time limit had passed. Panic fell over the two of them as light streamed through an opening in the wall. When they heard the growls, they knew the worst had happened. The wolves had awakened, and they were hungry.

            Taryn pointed toward the shaft. “We can take our chances with the mountain. Come on.” The two ran back through the cavern, the growls of the dire wolves echoing throughout. They reached the shaft, seeing two of their colleagues. Neris shouted for them to send down a cable, and began to scramble up. Neris reached the top first, while Taryn lagged. Neris pointed a gun straight down.

            “What are you doing?”

            “Don't move.”

            “What?”

            “You don't think I'm going to let you take this with you. I have better uses for this varium.”

            “Neris, what do you mean?”

            “I know you've been turning in Exile sympathizers. It took far too long to get close enough to do this.”

            “You're one of THEM?”

            “Don't act so innocent. I know you'd do the same. No, worse. I'll only kill you. You'd have handed me over to Baelius's goons. See you on the other side.” She shot- it went cleanly through his forehead and the body fell into the pit. One of Neris's companions shot a flare, causing the shaft to fall in on itself. The second sun rose, and the three Exiles traveled back to camp, the only witnesses to the murder a pack of wolves.

            Neris removed her helmet, revealing long black hair. Her companion who was not driving removed her helmet as well, displaying the pointed ears and delicate features of a Tech Mage.

            “My husband will give you a new name, and a new occupation as thanks for this.”

            Neris shrugged. “Anything for the cause, Calissa.” She took a knife out of her boot and started sawing at her hair. “Who am I now?”

            “Your name,” Calissa said “is Anya.”

Tags: Legion exile Varium Promotion War balance Cores balance Cinderella

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