EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

July 31, 2013

We've recently received reports from players failing to load the game client, and we fear that many players have found it difficult to log into the game now that the file size is over 3 megabytes. All the shiny new graphics we've added since Omega have come at the price of quick data transfer. We've externalized many embedded assets to reduce the initial load and make it easier for players to login.

As I write this, I'm seeing reports from players who are not having any problems logging in anymore. There is a chance this issue was also due to ISP caching (something we have no control over) or some other unrelated issue. The point still stands that EpicDuel's game client needs to drop a few KBs. While the reduction may be unnoticed to players with speedy connections, those with unreliable or slow connections should see a major improvement.

Legion vs. Exile Matching

We hoped to have this ready last week, but unfortunately it couldn't go live due to a lack of testing. This week we hope to finally implement alignment matching that is quick, fair, and accurate. The system is designed to impose strict matching rules that losen the longer the match queue remains active. This is to prevent extended wait times to find a viable match. With a lot of hard work, rigoruous testing, and a bit of luck, you'll be nearly guaranteed to match against your opposing alignment this Friday.

Legion and Exile Styles

Are you a soldier for the Legion or Exile forces? Now you can look the part with these new styles. Don the helms of Legion and Exile footsoldiers or cloak your loyalty in a mysterious hood! Oooooo! 

All of these styles will be available Friday from the Style Change interface. Remember -- these are linked styles so if you unlock the Legion helmet for your Mercenary, that style will carry over even if you change class.

Independence Day Rares

Wow! When did August get here? The Indepence Day rares currently equipped to Naomi in Central Station will be leaving along with the Indepence Day Achievement that can be found on all VendBots. Better hurry if you want these seasonal rares before they go back into storage for another year!

Tags: Nightwraith Cores Revamp Independence Day

July 26, 2013

NEW CHANGES/FEATURES:

• Switching alignments now sends a welcome mail from an alignment leader
• Juggernaut button added to main interface
• Juggernauts can now earn Influence and participate fully in the War
• New Objective Capture achievement: Tracks the number of times you were involved with the capture of any Objective. This has been tracked since War Objectives were implemented, so all of your captures so far will have counted
• New influence tracker accessible from the World Map. Track your influence in all 8 contested regions of Delta V
• Dynamic war screens change to show dominating alignment. 60+ screens updated
• All battle backgrounds should show a Faction flag

BUGS FIXED:

• Some mission drops like “Robot Parts” were sellable for credits but would allow the player to continue to receive the drop for as long as he or she was on the mission and did not have the item currently in inventory. Because this can potentially be exploited for unlimited credits, many mission drops are now either unsellable or sellable for 0 credits
• Fixed a few missions where the rewards were not greater than the cost to complete them
• Valentine’s rares no longer show as available from Alydroid
• Tuna cannon is marked as a “Ultra-Rare Promotion” as per other Promo code items

Tags: RabbleFroth

July 25, 2013

Sorry for the wait, but starting tomorrow, Juggernauts will be able to participate in Dread War and earn influence. This is not because we hate Juggernauts -- if anything, they represent the hardest of the hardcore EpicDuelists, able to take down two foes singlehandedly! No, this was because of a boring technical reason. Since Juggernauts could only start battle from the Slayer and Influence is only earned by fighting on a War Objective screen, Juggernauts were locked by location on a non-Objective screen. We plan to remedy this by adding a Juggernaut button to the main interface, right next to 1v1 and 2v2. This should also give the feature some much-needed exposure. I'm sure many new duelists don't even know it exists!

Starting tomorrow, instead of battling from Slayer, Juggernauts (anyone owning Slayer's Silver or Gold Skull Cards) will be able to engage a Juggernaut battle from any screen! Sound good to you? I thought so!

Are you ready for Juggernauts?

Alignment matching

Rabblefroth is hard at work refining the Legion vs. Exile matchmaking system to heavily prioritize alignment when choosing opponents and allies for Duels. We understand that many are concerned that this change could make matches painfully slow to find and we are aware of this. Hopefully, with enough variables at our disposal we can easily fine-tune the system if matches are too slow or imbalanced.

As I'm writing this, Rabblefroth is still building and testing this feature. It is of the utmost importance that it be tested thoroughly so I'm not sure yet if it will go live tomorrow. Be sure to follow our Twitter feeds for the latest updates!

More Dynamic Objective Screens

To make the war feel more tactile, we've updated over 60 screens (including battle backgrounds) to show Legion or Exile content depending on the alignment controlling the War Objective. This gives us a tremendous amount of control for each screen -- we can even change the active content such as NPCs!

Administrator 11 just got busted!

Influence Tracking

I've seen a lot of questions on Twitter and in the forums about the specific numbers for each achievement level for the regional war achievements. Your questions can now be answered in our handy new influence tracker, accessible from the Delta V world map.

Just click this button!

From this new interface you will be able to see your current level of regional achievement as well as how many more points you need to achieve the next level!

I've got a long way to go!

We like this new system so much, that we are making it the start of a long-awaited revamp to the Achievement system.

Capture the Spirit!

In addition to the regional war achievements, we are introducing another evolving achievement: the War Objective Capture achievement! This achievement is awarded to players who participate in the capture of a War Objective up to an hour before the Objective is officially captured. Do you have enough conquering spirit to reach the highest level?

Claim the world!

Meet the AE Team this weekend

Direct from Artix's Design Note post!

Want to meet the team and talk about video games? The Metrocon Convention in taking place this weekend at the convention center in Tampa, FL. The Artix Entertainment team & I will be running a panel on Saturday. They gave us a 2-hour time slot. Hahaha, boy are they going to be sorry. Maybe we can have the staff fight to the death for your amusement. Or maybe we will make a game. Or maybe we can... hmmm, we will think of something. We hope you will come join us!

Artix Entertainment Panel at Metrocon this weekend

• This Saturday, July 27th @ 11am
• Panel Room 22-23
• Official Metrocon Website

I hope to see you there!

Tags: Nightwraith War Factions Alignments Matchmaking Juggernaut Influence Achievements

July 19, 2013

NEW CHANGES/FEATURES:

• New Dread Domination promo package: Includes Physical and Energy versions of the Dread Desolator Auxiliary and Dread Disruptor Sidearm. The Auxiliary also includes a brand new core that deals extra damage based on your enemy’s maximum Health!
• Alignment switching is now available! Visit any prominent member of the faction you wish to join to find the option. Keep in mind you may only switch alignments once every 30 days.
• All-time character Influence leaderboards added to each War Objective.

BUGS FIXED:

• When clicking "view War Map" from the What's New, you're taken back to the mailbox
• Numbers could overlap each other in the Influential Factions page
• Fixed inconsistent naming of many War Objectives
• Certain parts of color customized armors were not showing their correct colors in the Character Pages
• Several issues involving regional influence and their respective achievements were resolved
• Juggernaut faction wins were not being recorded properly
• Fixed an admin kick that could happen when opening War Objectives

Tags: RabbleFroth

July 17, 2013

Prepare for Dread Domination!

Are you ready?

After weeks of fighting in the Dread Plains, plans for a powerful new weapon have been captured by both sides of the War.  Now, Legion and Exile forces are prepared to unleash their power upon Delta V in the form of the Dread Domination Varium Package!

This package includes 4 unique weapons and is not available in game!

• 2 Auxiliaries
  • o Dread Desolator P
  • o Dread Desolator E
• 2 Sidearms
  • o Dread Disruptor P
  • o Dread Disruptor E

We've equipped the Dread Desolators (auxiliaries) with technology of unknown origin in the form of the Improbability Gate Core. This exclusive core uses technology derived from an undisclosed research facility in the Dread Plains to open holes in the fabric of the universe. These tears in reality have been weaponized to allow players to summon creatures and objects from other worlds to come to their aid and help vanquish their foes! Be warned, however, this technology is quite unstable: you never know what will come through!

War Objective Leaderboards

Can you rule them all?

New leaderboards on each War Objective will display the top Influence contributors in addition to showing your own contribution. With 34 War Objectives to dominate, you have 34 chances to get your name and face out there, showing Legion and Exile forces that you’re a force to be reckoned with and that either alignment should feel honored to hold your favor. Can you dominate them all? We think it’s impossible, but we also know never to underestimate a dedicated EpicDuel player with unlimited access to energy drinks!

Alignment Switching

Where do your loyalties really lie?

This week we are introducing the heavily requested feature of alignment switching. Our primary concern with this change is that it could irrevocably tip the balance of the alignments, as players with weak loyalties rush to whichever alignment has the upper hand. 

Delicate negotiations.

To ensure that alignment switching is treated with the gravity it deserves, we are limiting the feature to Varium only. Players will only be able to switch alignments once per month. Players currently in a Faction will need to first leave the Faction in order to switch. There is still no way for Factions to switch alignments with disbanding and recreating themselves.

Bug Squashin’

Inevitably, when new features are released, new bugs will pop up, sometimes in old features. We try to make each release as bug free and polished as possible within a week of development time, but often bugs slip by. This update will fix several issues that have arisen since the last update (for specifics check out Rabble’s patch notes leading up to the release). To track down and fix bugs as quickly as possible, we need your help. Posting bugs on Twitter, while appreciated, isn’t always helpful since reports quickly get lost in our feeds. The best way to help us fight bugs is to post them to the official EpicDuel Bugs Forum. 

Please be as descriptive as possible when reporting bugs, explaining exactly what you were doing when the bug occurred. Giving us those details helps us to reproduce bugs more easily. A reproducible bug is usually an easily fixable bug. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Tags: Nightwraith Factions Dread War Alignment Legion Exiles Weapons Varium Leaderboards Bugs Reports Cores Forums

July 12, 2013

NEW CHANGES/FEATURES:

• World Map improvements:
  • "Hot" objective indicators to show which objectives are close to being taken
  • Relative activity of each objective is now shown for each alignment
  • Control Bars are now shown at the map level when you mouseover an objective
• 10 ranks of achievements have been added for gaining influence in each world region.
• Certain map backgrounds now dynamically switch based on the controlling alignment (example: Fortune City Battle Arena)
• The lead Faction's flag now appears in battle
• The remaining regional weapons have been added to the following Objectives. Good news for those trying to collect them all!
  • Dread Plains Control Array
  • Fortune City Battle Arena
  • Biological Preserve's Archive AI
• War Chests removed from promo packages

BUGS FIXED:

• Missions that used to award Battle Tokens were not updated to say they now award Credits (this was only a visual issue)

Tags: RabbleFroth Patch Notes

July 11, 2013

Another week has passed in the Dread War as both alignments continually clash across Delta V. Every day, War Objectives change hands and entire regions fall as the war rages on. This week, we are expanding upon the existing War features while introducing some new ones.

Collect them all!

New Regional Weapons

This week, we will be introducing 6 new regional weapons. You can find them at the Dread Plains Control Array, Fortune City Battle Arena, and the Archive AI in the Biodome.

Dread Destroyers - Control Array

Fortune City Slayers - Battle Arena

Bio Busters - Archives AI

Some may be confused about how to acquire these devastating new weapons. Allow me to clarify: in order to unlock these regional weapons, your alignment must control a key War Objective in a region. For example, to unlock the Barrens Busters, your alignment must control the Bazaar in the Barrens Outpost region. This unlocks a supply of 5 of each weapon, BUT they will restock periodically. Holding the key War Objectives longer allows as many of your fellow soldiers to have a chance at the weapons as possible.

Barrens Busters - Bazaar Command Hub

Trainyard Terrors - Train Command Hub

Overlord Overkills - Overlord AI

Wasteland Wardens - Minetower Suite Door

Nautical Nightmares - Naval Yard Shack

Core Confusion

Last week we introduced limited-time influence buffs. By equipping these cores onto a weapon, the owner would be granted an influence buff for a certain number of victories. Currently, if a limited-charge core is exchanged/removed, it is destroyed, even if it has a remaining balance of charges left. In the future, we would like Cores to behave more like regular items that can be equipped and unequipped to items. However, this requires a greater discussion of intense interface and programming changes so it will need to wait for a later update.

War Chests

Last week, we finally "opened" the War Chests to all those who already owned them to reveal 8 regional influence buffs. Unfortunately, those who purchased War Chests after the release found their locks still intact. This week we will be fixing that by unlocking all the remaining War Chests. However, the War Chests will no longer be available with the Legion or Exile promotional packages once we go live. All of the marketing materials will be updated to reflect this change.

Last Chance for War Chests!

Achieve Greater

Have you collected all the regional War achievements yet? Really? Impressive. Now, can you level each achievement all the way to the max? It won't be easy, but each level earned represents a new tier of mastery and truly epic bragging rights. 

New Achievements!

Since we're adding so many new achievements, we thought it would be helpful to give you a way to easily track your progress through the war. Through the map screen, you will be able to easily see your battle contributions for each region and how close you are to reaching the next tier! (Sorry, but we had to cut this feature due to time. It will be coming next week though!)

Additionally, you can now determine at a glance which War Objectives are on the verge of switching alignments and need your immediate attention for defense or offense. Also, each War Objective will now show your personal Influence contribution! Can you dominate them all? 

Claim the Battlefield

With the update on Friday, the controlling alignment will be able to alter the appearance of many of the War Objective screens. Drape war banners over the Battle Arena, flood the Minetower with Legion guards, or move your troops to secure the Control Array. Now, when you capture a region, everyone will know it!

Under new Management.

These changes will persist in the battle backgrounds, allowing you to duel while your Faction's banner flies high in the background!

Wow! That's quite a few additions for a regularly scheduled release. Stay tuned for more updates!

Tags: Nightwraith exile Legion Weapons Alignments Achievements Control Objectives War

July 05, 2013

NEW CHANGES/FEATURES:

• Consumable items have been replaced with new core functionality
  • All players with 10 or more consumable items received sellback value on their remaining consumables (the 10+ limit was done to prevent the refund script from taking far too long to run)
• Several new Objectives added across the map
• Shops added to Major Objectives (those worth 5 points) in each region. These shops have a new type of limited-quantity, regionally-themed weapons. There can only be up to 5 stocked at any time, and when they run out, 5 more will be added on the hour. You must control the Objective in order to shop there, so team up and hold it for the restock!
  • Note: Fortune City, the Bio Preserve, and the Dread Plains do not yet have these weapons, they'll be released in a future update.
• These shops also have a new type of limited-use cores that will give you bonus Influence in an adjacent region. If you're having trouble taking one region, try taking over the one next to it and using these cores to your advantage!
• The Independence Day achievement is available in achievement shops
• Naomi has 2 new limited quantity bikes: the Liberty Eagle and Imperial Skull

BUGS FIXED:

• The Fortune City Battle Arena was incorrectly worth 2 War Points instead of 5.

Tags: RabbleFroth Patch Notes

July 03, 2013

War Hiccup

Those of you who played over the weekend may have noticed some wonkiness on the Control bars for each War Objective. This bug tipped the balance overwhelmingly in favor of the Legion. Obviously, this was not intentional and Titan spent all day Sunday repairing this bug. Unfortunately, since the scores for irreparably skewed, they all had to be reset. We apologize for any inconvenience this caused.

Independence Day Rares Return

This Friday, you can celebrate freedom with the returning Independence Day rares. You can find them equipped to Naomi in Central Station. Also, the Independence Day achievement will also be available at all the VendBot Achievement shops throughout Delta V.

Thanks to some help from Trizzzcentrino, we've managed 2 new seasonal rare bikes (to be found on Naomi)! Flavoured in Legion or Exile designs, you can show alignment pride while tearing up the battlefield. These are also the first bikes to attempt a new chrome color that's not color custom (the shiny, silvery bits on the bikes). I think it creates a neat effect that's lost on most color custom parts, but we'll see how you like it. 

New War Objectives

To flesh out some of the less populous regions of Delta V, we have added 7 new War Objectives! You can find the in the West Naval Yard, the Barrens Outpost, and Central Station. Can you help capture them all and dominate Delta V?

Regional War Shops

By controlling key points in each region (i.e. the Battle Arena in Fortune City, the Overlord AI in the Overlord Facility, etc...), Alignments can unlock War Shops.  Since supplies are scarce during wartime, these shops only supply limited quantities of items. To allow as many players to collect these items as possible, alignments are encouraged to hold regions for as long as possible since the War Shops will restock automatically over time. These War Shops will offer distinct advantages to those who control them in the form of War Cores. These Cores come either attached to a weapon or separately.

New Cores

With this release, we will be introducing new core technology: consumable cores! By equipping them to a primary weapon, these cores will confer a regional Influence bonus that will last a certain amount of battles. After the core expires, a new one will need to be purchased. We have coded them to only count victories as a “use”. 

War Chests Revealed

Now it can be revealed! Each Legion and Exile War chest contains regional War Cores!  That means eight free cores (one for each active region)! Players with War Chests will start out with an automatic advantage in the War with the flexibility to gain a bonus in whichever region they choose. Since this bonus is alignment neutral, players who purchased the Legion pack, but decided to fight for the Exiles (and vice versa) will not be penalized.

Consumables Gone

For those who have been following EpicDuel since before Omega, you are probably aware that Consumables like Health Packs and Boosters no longer serve a purpose in battle. Rather than try to wedge consumables back into the game, we have decided to move toward consumable cores and, as of this release, we will be removing all consumables from the game. All players with consumables in their inventories will receive the appropriate amount of resale currency for the items removed.

Going forward, it will be possible for us to recreate Boosters, Grenades and Bombs as cores, which ultimately has more flexibility and does require the database to store excessive items entries for each player. Initially, we thought we could simply recode all the consumables back into the game, but the game has changed dramatically both code-wise and balance-wise since Omega launched so we determined that this would be the best decision for the overall health of the game.

Tags: Titan War Factions Dread War Weapons Consumables Cores Legion Exiles

July 02, 2013

Contest now live at Artix.com!

It's that time again -- time to sharpen your pencils and test your creative mettle against the best the AE community has to offer. Since Beleen already nailed the contest details in her post over at Artix.com and AQ.com, I'll repost it here for your enjoyement rather than force you to slog through my mangled prose.

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It’s a good day for bad monsters! Instead of using weapons and magic, pit your creative talent and artistic skills against all the existing monsters and villains from your favorite Artix Entertainment games. And have a chance at winning awesome loot in the Bad Guys & Good Battles Contest!

Your Quest

Help Loremaster Maya! Create artwork or write histories for Artix Entertainment’s monsters and villains! Winning entries will help us build the AE Encyclopedia Lorepedia (currently on AQ.com, but probably not there forever)!

How to Start Your Adventure

Take a look at one of Loremaster Maya’s first Bestiary pages, then get out and hunt up a monster or villain of your own to observe! http://www.aq.com/lore/monsters/Frogdrake

Ideas for artwork submissions include:

• Draw
• Paint
• Illustrate
• Photoshop
• Sculpt
• Craft
• Bake
• Sew and Stitch
• Carve
• Balloon Animals!

Ideas for writing submissions include:

• Details about where the monster/villain lives
• Any unique behavior or identifying appearance details
• What they’re good for after defeat
• Any lore we already know about them (like the Bloodtusk Troll/Horc cultures)
• Anything we DON’T know about them that doesn’t contradict what is already in-game

So long as your submission is a monster and/or a villain from your favorite Artix Entertainment game, then you’re one step closer to winning the contest! Make sure you post your submission in the contest thread at Artix.com!

Quest Requirements

1. Read ALL THESE rules before submitting!
2. This is not a suggestion contest, all of the entries must be based on monsters/villains that already exist in our games.
3. All artwork must be original—absolutely NO tracing and NO stealing someone else’s artwork.
4. Pictures must be at least 500px wide and in either .jpg or .png format.
5. All writing must be original. If you use any existing in-game lore in an entry, you must add original ideas onto it.
6. Written entries must be no longer than 500 words long.
7. Entry must be inspired by a monster and/or a villain from an Artix Entertainment Game (AdventureQuest, MechQuest, DragonFable, AQW, EpicDuel, HeroSmash, OverSoul).
8. You may use any form of media for your design (Pencil, Flash, MS Word, Notepad, cake mix, etc).
9. You can include other Artix Entertainment characters alongside your monster, be it your player or a popular NPC like Warlic or Cysero.
10. Post a valid link to your picture in the Comments section below in the Image URL field.
11. Include the text of your writing entry in the Comments section text field.
12. Only ONE Bad Guys & Good Battles contest submission will be judged per game account (although you CAN post more entries under each AE game account you own, so you can post one entry for your AQW hero, then another for your EpicDuel account, another picture for your DragonFable player, etc).
13. You can enter artwork, OR writing, OR both. But only one entry total per game account.
14. Your entry MUST include your Character Name AND which game your character belongs to. How else are we gonna award you if you win?
15. Your entry MUST include the name of the monster/villain you created.
16. Please please PLEASE only post once—it will take some time to approve your submission, so please don’t spam the Submit button!
17. You will be automatically disqualified if you do not follow all the rules.
18. We have the right to remove any entry that is unacceptable or inappropriate—so keep your entry safe for everyone to enjoy!
19. And, most importantly, have FUN!

Quest Rewards

Here’s your chance at wining awesome stuff in your favorite online game! The Bad Guys & Good Battles Contest prizes will be broken down by game, but since the Lorepedia encompasses ALL our games, we will award prizes in Artix Points!

Additional prizes may be awarded to those who go above and beyond!

Quest Turn-In

In the Comments field below, please include:           

• Your Character Name
• What game your Character is in
• What monster(s) and/or villain(s) you’re basing the entry on
• A short biography and/or picture of the monster or villain
• A valid URL link in the Image URL field or the text of your biography

Please make sure your URL link works online! Use a free online photo uploader like Tinypic, Photobucket, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Quest Time Frame

The Bad Guys & Good Battles Contest begins today, July 2, 2013. Submissions will be accepted until July 10, 2013, at 11:59pm EST. Judging will ensue the following week, and prizes will be announced and delivered around that time too! 

Good luck everyone, and may the best Bad Guy & Good Battles entry win!

--Beleen

Tags: Nightwraith Artix contest Design Monsters AE Beleen Lore LorePedia Good Evil Art