EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

December 31, 2014

Where did the time go? It seems like 2014 just started but now be must bid adieu to another passing year. We don't want the celebration and fanfare of Frozen Fury to end just yet so we are celebrating 2015 by starting with a 4-day Power Weekend (starts midnight EST). Get Double XP and Credits from Thursday to Sunday night.

Ring in the New Year with some epic duels in EpicDuel...as long as you're not too sore from unwrapping all those gifts sitting in your mailbox!

Your gifts won't get better if you wait to open them. In fact, they'll expire 60 days after you receive them. There's not reason to hoard them so why wait? There's not even any gift wrapping to dispose or impossible-to-open plastic cases to rip through!

27 Day of Gifting Ends

All good things must end. The 27 Days of Giving is reaching it's frenzied conclusion as I type this. You have been more generous than we ever expected. The excitement around this feature was so great that we established a trending topic on Twitter! One midnight strikes and the event ends, the grandest prizes will finally unwrap.

*Leaderboard standings as of 1:10PM EST

The top 10 gifters will receive the Gold Polar Bear mutation. The top gifter will receive Titan's Ultra Rare Alpha Gear. We are not re-releasing Alpha or creating a new version of it. Titan is literally removing the items from himself to bestow on the most generous player in EpicDuel as only a bacon-craving demigod can.

Note to winners: All the awards will be given manually so it may take some time to get everything sorted. Please allow us some time add the awards to your character! 

We are sad to see the gifting end, and the popularity of this feature is not lost on us. We hope to find a way to introduce a permanent, streamlined version of this feature in 2015. 

New Year's Loot

On Friday, we will be introducing new weapons, armors, styles, and home items to ring in the New Year! How does a mutating, color custom version of The Endless Armor sound? Sound tasty? You bet!

Thank you for letting us create this game for you for another year. This game would not be possible without our dedicated support team, including guest artists, writers, moderators, testers, and AKs. EpicDuel would absolutely not exist without our players, dueling tirelessly and exceeding our expectations. Thank you all! We hope this upcoming year is even more epic than the last!

Here's to a bold new year of EpicDuel! Duel On to 2015!

Tags: Nightwraith

December 18, 2014

The greatest event to ever grace this humble PvP MMO is about to reach its thrilling climax in the 3rd and grandest part of this epic saga. Challenge the Endless to unlock the secrets of the Void and battle for the hearts and minds of Frysteland's citizens. Also, visit Torgan in Frysteland to learn the true meaning of the season (as it is on Delta V) and the story of Titanfraggr!

This event was crafted with love and care by Cinderella, Trans, and One Winged Angel (OWA). We hope you are pleased with the outcome as a fitting resolution to this war-ravaged region.

As a reward for completing this saga, you will receive 2 new achievements as memories of your service in bringing some semblance balance to the region.

You can gain these cores by collecting Void Shards through gift giving. Every gift given is a chance for a shard. Remember, if you are lucky enough to give the shard as a gift, everyone is the room, including yourself, receive the shard. These shards can be purchased at Aldahagrimm for credits.

The other component required to assemble The Endless' Armor is the Endless Spirit, which must be either won in the Frozen Fury Arcade or purchased from Aldahagrimm.

Endless Achievements

Cryo Craft

Ever wanted to hover over the masses of Delta V and rain down fire from above? Now you can! Stop by Torgan to purchase two new Cryo Crafts (crafted with care by the crafty craftsman Vorzathiel). These vehicles are unique in that they have a /fire command that allow owners to lauch lasers and bombs upon those down below!

Play our New Mobile Game, AQ: DRAGONS!

How do you train your dragon? Raise 12 dragons in our new free game. AQ: DRAGONS is available on Google Play and iOS; coming soon to web! GET IT HERE, DRAGON MASTER!

AdventureQuest dragons is climbing the list fast! Thanks so much for helping to make our latest game a success! With your help, we can get this game up to #1!

Tags: Nightwraith

December 18, 2014

NEW CHANGES/FEATURES:

• Frozen Fury Part 3 missions
• Juloffenblotten Spirit missions
• Added 3 new tiers to the gifter achievements!
  • Unlock Ultra Gifter at 2500 gifts
  • Unlock Epic Gifter at 5000 gifts
  • Unlock Legendary Gifter at 10000 gifts
• Added 44 new items to the Gift Prize pools
  • 14 Staffs
  • 14 Blades
  • 14 Clubs
  • Void Shard
• The Endless shop is now locked
  • Complete a mission offered by The Endless to unlock the shop and obtain his armor equipped with the Endless Protection core.
  • The shop still offers Endless swords available in limited quantities
  • The shop will offer 2 exclusive passive cores
  • Endless Enhance - Grants +2 to Strength, Dexterity, Technology and Support during battle
  • Endless Protection - Grants +15 to Defense and Resistance during battle
• New Frozen Fury Arcade Machine
• New Styles from Vorz
  • 72 new hairstyles across all classes/genders
• 2 Cryo Craft bikes available for sale on Torgan
• Several new interactive home items now available
  • Captain Murdoc bobblehead
  • Krampus Trader bobblehead
  • Varium Rune Shard
• New upgradeable Sushi achievement
  
  

BUGS FIXED:

• Gift mails will be automatically removed after 60 days instead of 30, as intended.
• Ice Shield now grants 100% block/deflect even with Ninja Reflexes or Deflection Shield

Tags: RabbleFroth Patch Notes

December 13, 2014

Unleash a fury which has never been seen in a browser MMO with 2 NEW Varium Megapacks! Get fully-equipped with Frozen Fury-themed scythes, armors, bots, mutating weapons, sidearms, and auxiliary weapons. This awesome gear comes loaded with SIX new cores! This gear will allow you to dominate your foes in EPIC PvP battles.

Take a break from the conflict between Edgar Boothe and Alydriah to explore the Frysteland wilderness and investigate the mass disappearance of yetis and blood hawks. Torgan will guide you through this quest to unravel the mystery of Frysteland's delicate ecosystem while also offering new, exciting season rares!

Frozen Fury Gear

Unleash a barrage of icy wrath with an EPIC assortment of new Frozen Fury Gear created by Guest Artist SarpDV! Each Megapack has so much content, it'll be easier just to list them out.

• Frozen Fury Varium Megapack 1
  • 10,000 Varium
  • Frozen Fury Destroyer P (Mutating primary)
  • Frozen Fury Destroyer E (Mutating primary)
  • Frozen Fury Scythe P (Sword)
  • Frozen Fury Scythe E (Sword)
  • Blood Hawk Armor
• Frozen Fury Varium Megapack 2
  • 10,000 Varium
  • Cyber Yeti P (Bot)
  • Cyber Yeti E (Bot)
  • Frozen Fury Blaster P (Gun)
  • Frozen Fury Blaster E (Gun)
  • Frozen Fury Annihilator P (Aux)
  • Frozen Fury Annihilator E (Aux)

These Frozen Fury weapons come equipped with amazing new cores! Check them out:

Primary Cores

• Yeti Fury (Equipped to Frozen Fury Destroyer and Scythe)
  • Mutate into a Yeti Hulk to deal 115% damage with 40% lifesteal. Usable below 25% health.

Bot Cores

• Ice Shield (Cyber Yeti)
  • Grants 100% Block and Deflect chance for 2 turns

Auxiliar Cores

• Hair Trigger (Equipped to Frozen Fury Annihilator)
  • Do a mini-Rage equal to the percent of Rage you currently have available.

Sidearm Core

• Icy Overkill (Equipped to Frozen Fury Blaster)
  • Overload your gun, ignoring 35% of target’s defenses. This renders your gun unusable for the remainder of battle.

Armor Cores

• Absorption (Equipped to Blood Hawk Armor)
  • When attacked by a bot, increase your Energy by 50% of the damage taken.

• Spirit Thorns (Equipped to Blood Hawk Armor)
  • Lower attacker’s energy by 50% of damage dealt to you. Lasts 3 turns.

Miscellaneous Cores (not included in Megapacks)

• Whiteout (Available for sale on Vendbots and Torgan in Frysteland)
  • Summon a blizzard to disorient your enemies, covering their skills in ice and snow. Deals 110% damage

All promotional item are also available on Torgan in Frysteland for Varium. Power up with these Megapacks and unlease the fury of Winter upon your foes! 

Celebrate Giving!

This update, we introduced more prizes to the gift pool so you'll have a more impressive variety of cool prizes. Remember to login every day to claim your free daily prizes! This feature has been extremely well-received and we're simply floored by the generosity of our players! We"ve also been impressed by the use of social media to distribute and schedule gifting times. Again, this feature would have fallen flat without the inspiring enthusiasm, dedication, and generosity of our players. Keep being awesome!

For those just learning about this feature, Beleen of AQW fame just posted a video tutorial demonstrating our EPIC new gift feature! Check it out if you're new to EpicDuel or just heard of this feature.

Now, in addition to giving pain to your fellow Duelers, you can give gifts of holiday cheer (and load and LOADS of credits!) to friend and foe alike!

Thanks again, Beleen, for this epic video! Duel On!

Feed the Hunger

...for rating points! This burger bad increases in awesomeness and caloric value as you deposit Credits into it. It also increases your rating points! We're going to need new stars. Or skulls? Something cool. We're also boosting many Legacy achievements' rating point values as a small token of gratitude for those who've supported us for years. We never could have build EpicDuel into what it is today without you! 

Beary Cool Mutations

That was the best bear pun I could come up with. There's nothing really funny about an apex predator clad in futuristic battle armor. Terrorize Frysteland with this new Revontheus-crafted Polar Bear mutation available at Torgan in Frysteland. He's also packing all the latest and greatest seasonal loot so be sure to pay him a visit if you're around. He get's pretty lonely talking to his pet Blood Hawk all day. Maybe bring him a cup of hot cocoa. Make that 2. His bird gets thirsty, too.

Balance Changes

Rabble and the balance team have introduced some new changes to EpicDuel's balance. Check out a full list of changes in Rabble's extensive patch notes.

Frozen Fury Part 3

That's right! Part 3 is still on the way and it's already packed with enough content to rival this epic release! Stay tuned for more updates as Frozen Fury reaches its thrilling climax!

AdventureQuest DRAGONS Is Now LIVE!

Cookie Clicker & AQWorlds Team up!

We teamed up with the creators of Cookie Clicker to createADVENTUREQUEST DRAGONS! Dragons is an idle game where you raise beautifully painted, fully animated dragons from egg to baby to full adult form. Feature fan favorite dragons like Fluffy the Dracolich and Akriloth, each of the 12 Dragons has a unique story.

Available NOW on Android! (Apple coming next)

We just went live on Android! Get Dragons on the Google Play App Store! The apple version will be released the moment it is approved by Apple. (Should be very soon) Please rate us 5 stars and share to help spread word of the game!

AQWorlds players get a special perk for becoming a FOUNDER

Get the founder package in Dragons and unlock the Flame Dragon Warrior class, armor, sword, spear, dragon help, epic cape, wings and a special character page badge in AdventureQuest Worlds. 

Tags: Titan

December 12, 2014

NEW CHANGES/FEATURES:

• Frozen Fury Varium Megapack 1
  • 10,000 Varium
  • Frozen Fury Destroyer P (Mutating primary)
  • Frozen Fury Destroyer E (Mutating primary)
  • Frozen Fury Scythe P (Sword)
  • Frozen Fury Scythe E (Sword)
  • Blood Hawk Armor
• Frozen Fury Varium Megapack 2
  • 10,000 Varium
  • Cyber Yeti P (Bot)
  • Cyber Yeti E (Bot)
  • Frozen Fury Blaster P (Gun)
  • Frozen Fury Blaster E (Gun)
  • Frozen Fury Annihilator P (Aux)
  • Frozen Fury Annihilator E (Aux)
• All package items are also available for sale on Torgan in Frysteland
• New ability cores
  • Yeti Fury (Equipped to Frozen Fury Destroyer and Scythe)
    • Mutate into a Yeti Hulk to deal 115% damage with 40% lifesteal. Usable below 25% health.
  • Spirit Thorns (Equipped to Blood Hawk Armor)
    • Lower attacker’s energy by 50% of damage dealt to you. Lasts 3 turns.
  • Absorption (Equipped to Blood Hawk Armor)
    • When attacked by a bot, increase your Energy by 50% of the damage taken.
  • Icy Overkill (Equipped to Frozen Fury Blaster)
    • Overload your gun, ignoring 35% of target’s defenses. This renders your gun unusable for the remainder of battle.
  • Hair Trigger (Equipped to Frozen Fury Annihilator)
    • Do a mini-Rage equal to the percent of Rage you currently have available.
  • Ice Shield (Cyber Yeti)
    • Grants 100% Block and Deflect chance for 2 turns
  • Whiteout (Available for sale on Vendbots and Torgan in Frysteland)
    • Summon a blizzard to disorient your enemies, covering their skills in ice and snow. Deals 110% damage
• New “Interactive” home items are now available. Activate these items by clicking them
  • Alydriah Bobblehead
  • Edgar Boothe Bobblehead
  • Fireworks Stash
  • Fireworks Crate
  • Chrono Clock
• New winter bikes available for sale on Torgan in Frysteland
  • Polar Bear mutation with idle animation
  • Harnessed Yeti
• New Torgan-themed hairstyle available in the Style Editor
• 9 new missions in Part 2 of the Frozen Fury saga
• Alpha, Beta, Elite, Founder achievement Rating Points have been increased by 1000 points apiece.
  • Elite now worth 6500
  • Founder now worth 6500
  • Alpha now worth 6000
  • Beta now worth 4500
• New “Mute Public Chat” option in settings panel
• You can now click the gift opening animation in your mailbox to speed up the unwrapping process
• New upgradable badge available for purchase in Achievements, starting with the Dumpster Burger. Get a bigger and better burger worth many more Rating Points, but at a higher cost!
• A number of new items can now drop from Room Gifting
• You can now Shift+click to add/subtract 5 stat points at a time when purchasing or upgrading gear
  
  

BALANCE CHANGES:

• Raised the ‘Critical Health’ threshold from 20% to 25%
  
  • The character will now visually display critical condition (take a knee) at 25% of max health instead of at a flat 200 health.
  • Affected skills:
    • Hawk Guardian
    • Critical Heal
    • Yeti Fury
      
      

BUGS FIXED:

• "Hide Other Characters" performance setting now also hides character shadows
• Fixed issue where scroll buttons would not appear when viewing mission list
• Fixed problem where Buy options would appear in the achievements module when viewing another player’s achievement list with the Small icon view selected
• Fixed problem where you cannot purchase Seasonal achievements when in Small icon view
• The Infernal Mines Cadet achievement was not being properly counted in the achievement count

Tags: RabbleFroth Patch Notes

December 09, 2014

NEW CHANGES/FEATURES:

• New performance option is now available in the settings panel: Hide other characters. This will disable visibility on all other characters in a room, vastly improving performance in crowded rooms. This option will never turn on automatically, unlike a few other changes we’ve implemented.
• Automated performance settings: Entering rooms with 20+ players will automatically set Flash quality to Low, stop NPC animations, and prevent “warp in/out” animations from playing. When a room has 30+ players, the game will stop showing the walk animation when a player moves, simply “snapping” them to their final location. It will also prevent you from doing slash emotes (such as /dance).

BUGS FIXED:

• Error when healing with Hatchling Rush active
• Removed Hank’s Harvest and Frozen Harvest from mission list (They were meant to be removed December 1st).

New option location:

Tags: Patch Notes Hotfix RabbleFroth

December 05, 2014

NEW CHANGES/FEATURES:

• 27 Days of Presents!
  • From December 5th - 31st you can log in and claim a free prize. The more days you log in during this time, the better the prizes become!
  • Claiming prizes will also reward you with an achievement. Make sure to claim at least 20 prizes for the most Rating Points!
• Room Gifting
  • Share the holiday spirit by granting a gift to yourself and everyone else in your current room! This option will be available until December 31st. The top gifters will be rewarded for their generosity shortly after the event ends.
  • Gifts will be awarded through the mail system, so make sure to claim them!
• 24 new Home Items now available
• The first part of the Frozen Fury storyline is available: 10 separate missions for Legion and Exiles
• Added Rage percentage to Rage Bar in battle
• Stocked War Commander Cores on all War Depots
• Removed alignment restrictions from matchmaking to improve wait times
• Edgar Boothe is no longer a 2v1 boss (Now a normal 1v1)
• Mission groups removed for the year:
  • Hallowarriors
  • Gourd Grinding
  • OneX6 Retrieval
  • Party Business

BALANCE CHANGES:

• General
  • Deflection now blocks 65% of damage, up from 50%
  • Defense ignore from Rage attacks now decreases by 1% every 2 levels, and increases by 1% every 3 Support. Defense ignore is capped to 55%.
• Atom Smasher
  • Energy drain increased by 3% at all levels
• Backup Battery
  • Cooldown reduced to 4, down from 5
  • Energy gain reduced by 25 at all levels
• Frenzy
  • Cooldown increased to 4, up from 3
  • Now grants Energy at a rate of 2x the Health gained
  • Now costs 0 Energy
  • Health gain lowered to 13-22%, down from 30-57%
• EMP Grenade
  • Stat scaling slowed to 4.5, up from 4
• Static Grenade
  • Energy gain increased to 55%, up from 50%
• Shadow Arts
  • Duration increased to 4 turns, up from 3
• Cores
  • Reduced numerous active skill core energy costs. Specific changes listed below.
  • Armored Roots: 100 to 85
  • Azrael’s Torment: 140 to 125
  • Azrael’s Will: 175 to 160
  • Bacon Breath: 100 to 90
  • Bacon Rain: 100 to 90
  • Chairman’s Fury: 120 to 110
  • Concussive Shot: 120 to 110
  • Curse: 130 to 115
  • Deep Plague: 100 to 90
  • Energy Shot: 70 to 60
  • Energy Storm: 90/120 to 80/110
  • Exile Strike: 80 to 70
  • FrostBite: 70 to 60
  • Frost Shards: 90 to 80
  • Growth Serum: 130 to 115
  • Hatchling Rush: 140 to 130
  • Hawk Guardian: 100 to 90
  • Improbability Gate: 100 to 90
  • Jack-O-Fire: 100 to 90
  • Legion Strike: 80 to 70
  • Meteor Shower: 100 to 90
  • Omega Override: 120 to 110
  • Plasma Meteor: 100 to 90
  • Thorn Assault: 100 to 90
• Titan Chomp: 100 to 90

BUGS FIXED:

• Bloodhawk Battlegear, Bloodhawk Slayer, and Bloodhawk Bots now available on Edgar Boothe for Credits
• Achievement details were given more room to breathe
• Fixed an issue where tooltips would appear under the currency bar
• Several region war swords showed the incorrect location in the item finder
• Regional war leaderboards no longer show leaders from the last region you viewed
• Static Charge description updated to reflect previous changes to the skill

Tags: Patch Notes RabbleFroth

December 04, 2014

It Begins

It’s time to return to Frysteland once again to settle the longstanding feud between the Alydriah and the Krampus. After exiling Alydriah last year, Edgar Booth had administered the region, but now she has returned to exact vengeance upon the frigid land.

Ally with Alydriah or Edgar Boothe through separate mission chains to attempt to gain control over the mysterious entity known as The Endless and either destroy or secure Frysteland for all time.

This is only part 1 of an epic 3 part saga crafted by Cinderella, Trans, and OWA -- the best is yet to come!

27 Days of Presents!

Starting tomorrow, December 5th after we release to update, login every day to claim a new holiday prize! Claiming prizes will also earn you an evolving achievement! All you have to do is click the gift bar at the top of the screen, then click the Claim Prize button! It couldn’t be simpler!

Better to Give Than Receive!

For the first time ever, you can now buy gifts for everyone around you! Here are 3 great reasons to give this season:

Unlock New Achievements

Instantly unlock the Great Gifter Achievement when you purchase gifts for those around you! This 3-tier Ultra-Rare achievement permanently tracks the number of gifts you've given and its Rating Point value increases with each tier you unlock!

Rank Up

Rank in the top 10 most generous players of the season and be displayed on the Leaderboard for all to see! When the event concludes on January 1, 2015 the top 10 leaders will receive of only 10 exclusive Gold Polar Bears as a reward for their holiday spirit and generosity!

Win Titan's Ultra-Rare ALPHA Gear

Rank first on the leaderboard as the MOST generous player of the season and you will receive the most exclusive gift ever awarded in EpicDuel's history: Titan's own Ultra-Rare Alpha Gear set! Titan will be directly transferring his Alpha gear to the lucky player. This does not mean Alpha gear will be for sale again or anything like that.  All awarded gifts will be unlocked to the first ranked player’s level.

Winter Rares Return

Visit Edgar Boothe in Frysteland to browse a robust selection of returning seasonal rares!

These items will only be around for a limited time, so get them while you can! The Blood Hawk seasonal rares will also be available for credits!

Seasonal Decor

In addition to all the seasonal goodness and holiday cheer already in game, we're adding a boatload of new holiday house items courtesy of Guest Artist Bidoof!

Frozen Fury Promo

The Frozen Fury promotional gear, along with the new cores, will be available next week. It's worth noting that when the Frozen Fury gear goes live, the Waves of Wrath gear will vanish from the Varium shop.

Tags: Titan