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EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

Behind the scenes information about EpicDuel's development and releases, a real-time PVP MMO that you can play online in your web browser.

	December 12, 2016 Patch Notes - 1.6.68 Features/Changes NEW Limited Time Holiday Varium Package 12,000 Varium + 3,000 Bonus Varium “Epic Supporter” Achievement Note: All players that have purchased $50 promo packages since Cyber Monday will automatically receive a bonus 3000 Varium per package they’ve purchased. Thanks for your support! New Evolving Achievement: Candy Canes! NPC Fill System In order to ensure that players can always find matches, especially while leveling to 40, NPCs will now be automatically added to battles at intervals if a player cannot be found. The system will pick a level-appropriate NPC to add to the match if a player was not found in a certain amount of time. In the case of 2v2 and Juggernaut, 1 NPC will be added at a time until the match is full. NPCs level 37+ will not be added to battles, so players near/at max level should see less NPCs than lower level players NPC AI has been improved to make better strategic decisions than before. Notably they can now heal allies and will generally try to attack the more appropriate target in 2v2s. A number of NPCs had their level updated to make sure enough NPCs exist at every level. Limited Rare automatic shipments Non-Seasonal Limited Rares will now automatically be restocked every few weeks if depleted. Check NPCs with limited quantity items such as Charfade or Dage to see when the next restock will happen. Minor Item Changes Cryo Crafts renamed to Blue and Red Cryocrafts for clarity in the item finder Dragon Buster Armor now defined as “Rare Promo” Hiding many staff/unavailable items from item finderItems only attainable through missions hidden from item finderAdding “Battle Drop” categorization to items that were not displaying correctly in item finder Balance Juggernaut Dev Note: We undershot Juggernaut matching, especially since Underdog is now a thing. We want to keep Underdog to balance out getting, say, two level 32s in one match and two level 27s in the next. This way we can keep the difficulty of each match relatively equal while keeping the level ranges large enough to try and get matches in a reasonable time. This gives us a lot more balancing levers to get Juggernaut battles in a good spot. Level range lowered from 5-10 lower than Juggernaut to 7-13 levels lower (A level 40 Juggernaut will now match with level 27-32 opponents) Underdog now starts 10 effective levels lower than the Juggernaut, previously 5 Legendary Ranks Dev Note: We were hearing a lot of feedback on the Legendary Rank system, namely that it provides too much power, and that 10 Ranks were generally worth more than 1 regular level. With these changes we intend to bring down the overall power given by Ranks, which should also even out the 10 ranks to 1 level ratio. Primary Damage: 3 → 1 per point Sidearm Damage: 4 → 2 per point Auxiliary Damage: 4 → 2 per point Defense: 3 → 1 per point Resistance: 3 → 1 per point Robot Damage: 4 → 2 per point Medical Mastery: 2 → 1 per point Energy Efficiency: 1 per point (unchanged) NPC Crusher: 2 → 1 per point NPC Armor: 2 → 1 per point Price to unlock slots: 15k → 10k Credits, 250 → 175 Varium First Strike Lower level players are now more likely than before to go first, compensating for Underdog Support buffs. Smoke Screen Dexterity debuff: -2 at all levels Static Grenade Energy drain increased by 1 every 1.5 Support, previously 0.5. Fireball Debuff duration: 1 → 2 turns Bug Fixes Massive Strike core could not be equipped to primary weapons Several NPCs were missing correct color values or armor or hairstyles Tags: Titan

	December 09, 2016 Gifting 2016 Continues Howdy EpicDuelists! We hope you're enjoying the new gifting season! Some of you have been very enthusiastic about gifting so starting Monday (as soon as the next release is live), we'll be offering a 15,000 Varium package. This will replace the 12,000 Varium package for a limited time. Everyone who acquires this package will receive, as a bonus, an Epic Supporter achievement worth 2500 Rating Points! "BUT NIGHTWRAITH!" you exclaim. "I've already purchased a $50 package!" I have good news for you -- we'll be awarding 3000 Varium to to all who've purchased the 12k Varium or BioBeasts packages at least since gifting began. This new package, along with the BioBeasts package, will be available until shortly after the gifting event ends. Enter the Maze Our areas of focus on EpicDuel for the last few months have been primarily to improve the sustainability and longevity of the game as well and increased the enjoyment of players at all level ranges. Player counts tend to peak around December, but at certain times of day it can still be challenging to find a good match! Since acquiring new players becomes more challenging each year, we've developed a solution to this ongoing problem: AI. In order to ensure that players can always find matches, especially while leveling to 40, NPCs will be automatically added to battles at intervals while waiting if a player cannot be found. The system will pick a level-appropriate NPC to add to the match if a player was not found in a certain amount of time. In the case of 2v2 and Juggernaut, 1 NPC will be added at a time until the match is full. To make NPCs more competant allies, we've improved their AI so they will attempt to heal a partner in critical condition. They're not perfect, but neither are human allies. We've also worked to minimize the instances of only one player in a 2v2 having an AI partner. While you may be apprehensive about this change, it actually enables some fresh and interesting scenarios. NPCs level 37+ will not be added to battles, so players near/at max level should see less NPCs than lower level players. If you're a level 40, you will probably rarely encounter an NPC. This change is primarily intended to bolster the matching at low-to-mid level ranges so players will be more likely to stick with the game and eventually reach the cap! Restock! Tired of bugging the devs on Twitter to restock your favorite item? Angry that your favorite items are always restocked when you're asleep or in school/at work? We finally have a solution for you! Non-Seasonal Limited Rares will now automatically be restocked every few weeks if depleted. Check NPCs with limited quantity items such as Charfade to see when the next restock will happen. Legendary Balance This is probably the hottest balance topic right now and we're addressing it with this release. We were hearing a lot of feedback on the Legendary Rank system, namely that it provides too much power, and that 10 ranks were generally worth more than 1 regular level. With this we want to bring down the overall power given by Ranks, which should also even out the 10 ranks to 1 level ratio. We are also reducing the credit and Varium prices to make the ranks more affordable. Juggernaut Balance We undershot a bit with the Juggernaut matching, especially since Underdog is now a thing. We want to keep Underdog buffs in Juggernaut to balance out the difference between getting, say, two level 32s vs two level 27s. This way we can keep the difficulty of each match relatively equal while keeping the level ranges large enough to try and get matches in a reasonable time. This gives us a lot more balancing levers to pull to get Juggernaut battles in a better spot Look for all these features and more when our next release goes live Monday (probably sometime in the mid-afternoon). Why Monday? So we have as much time as possible to test and get last-minute feedback for this major update! Tags: Titan

	December 01, 2016 Patch Notes - 1.6.67 Features/Changes Players will now level to 40 around 3 times faster. Current player’s experience will be lowered to match the new curve, but your current level or legendary ranks will not change. Experience per Legendary rank is unchanged as we don’t want to increase the speed that Legendary points are gained. Dev note: We hope this will get new and existing players to the end-game faster, improving the matching experience for everyone, and making the leveling process a bit smoother. Please Note: You may be required to retrain and see that you have fewer stat points. This is normal and part of the new leveling curve change. War cooldown lowered from 14 to 7 days This will minimize the duration between wars when players and factions cannot earn Influence. Faction Founder Stepdown Faction Founders can now promote an Officer upward to replace themselves as Founder. WARNING: Performing this action cannot be reversed and will result in the current Founder being demoted to Officer. Added Basic Energy Blaster and Basic Bazooka to VendBots as free items New Player Rating leaderboard Omega Egg drop rate increases on Titan Nightmare Egg drop rate increases on Caden Added Cores to various merchants as seasonal/limited rares for Varium. Some area not currently in season and thus not available. Edgar Boothe Icy Chill FrostBite Frost Aura Edgar Boothe Hair Trigger Spirit Thorns Icy Overkill Absorption Hawk Guardian P Hawk Guardian E Monkakazi Pacify Phase Shift Tranquility Salvage Administrator 10 Legion Strike Improbability Gate Exile Leader Exile Strike Naomi Lucky Strike Immanence Lionhart’s Shield Thalyssa Deep Plague Black Abyss Cache Hatchling Rush Xraal Growth Serum Rooted Thorn Assault SolarWorld Factory Chairman’s Fury Caden Dark Omen Snork Jack-O-Fire Jack-O-Fire x25 Armors Clawsuit Armor CC Clawsuit Armor Bots Infernal Android separated into Infernal Android P/E All players who own the Android will receive both Swords Chrono Blade 2017 (Heromart item only) Festive Broadsword P/E Regal Festive Broadsword P/E Cookie Saber P/E Cookie Buster P/E Blades Festive Blades P/E Clubs Festive Mace P/E Staffs Festive Staff P/E Sidearms Cookie Blaster P/E Auxiliaries Cookie Launcher P/E Home Items Titan Claus Claus Staff Right Claus Staff Left Frost Goblin Left Frost Goblin Right EDES Console Balance Dev note: A lot, but not all, of these individual changes are targeted at a few main goals - 1) Buff Mercenary, 2) Nerf current Bounty Hunter while giving them other build options, 3) Lower the effect of energy gain skills, 4) address level disparity issues in 2v2 and Juggernaut. We’ll be listening to your feedback and plan to do a followup patch in a few weeks if necessary. Underdog Now applies to 2v2 matches. Underdogs receive a buff that increases in power for each level they are below the average of the other team. Note that each 10 Legendary levels count as a normal level for Underdog calculations, just as they do in 1v1 matches. Players on both teams may receive an Underdog buff depending on matchups. Also used in Juggernaut matches. Underdogs receive a buff that tries to get them to 5 levels under the Juggernaut’s level. We’ll keep an eye on this and do adjustments in December if necessary. Juggernaut Juggernauts now receive a passive buff granting them a 20% buff to their base Strength, Dexterity, Technology, and Support. Energy All classes now gain 1.5 Energy per level, down from 2 Static Smash Energy gain increased from 75% to 100% of energy drained. Blood Commander Lifesteal increased from 60% to 75% of Strength gained Bunker Buster Damage increased by 10 Mark of Blood Lifesteal lowered by 3% Static Grenade Energy gain lowered from 65% to 60% Massacre Energy required lowered by 20 Shadow Arts Energy required lowered by 10 Energy Parasite Support requirement lowered by 1 per level Energy gain lowered from 150% to 140% of energy drained Plasma Cannon Resistance ignore increased from 10% to 15% Fireball Defense/Resist debuff increased from 5% to 10% Plasma Bolt Scaling increased from +1 damage per 0.4 Tech to 0.35 (More damage per Technology) Battery Backup Energy gain lowered by 10 Multishot, Plasma Rain, Artillery Strike Cooldown increased from 2 to 3 turns Bug Fixes Fixed problem where switching faction alignment could charge incorrect Varium amount Tags: RabbleFroth

EpicDuel Game Design Notes Archive