EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

September 23, 2011

Hi there EpicDuelists! Happy First Day of Fall! The days here are getting colder, and it’s time to knit tiny hamster sweaters for the server hamsters! I hope you all enjoyed the Talk Like a Pirate Day weapons update on Monday.  If you haven't picked up the new items from Big Tuna in the West Naval Yard, you'd better hurry!  There's no telling how much longer they'll be there! Here’s what’s in store for you for the recent update:

Getting to know Hank

Most citizens of Fortune City have come across this jolly fellow. Long before the War, a young Hank Acker had a dream, to become the greatest culinary artist the galaxy had ever known. He attended the most elite culinary schools, became a master patissier, and eventually traveled to Delta V. Never one to back away from a challenge, he designed and built his own kitchen- a custom oven built from an old drill engine, a rotary saw bread slicer, a liquid nitrogen deep freeze for ice cream. He set up the front of a building as a shop, where he could sell freshly-baked bread, ice cream and candies, hot coffee or tea, and of course the most wonderful selection of expertly-crafted pastries... all at a reasonable price! Baking is, of course, not without his dangers. Hank lost his eye when a subterranean mining vehicle caused an earthquake near the shop, causing the melted sugar threads Hank was spinning to decorate a croquembouche to fly into his face. After losing his leg in a horrible baking accident involving a pain au chocolat, Bienenstitch, and a whole lot of marzipan, he hired a local girl- Anya- to take over the front of the house, and occasionally summon medical care.

After the Exile, at Anya’s insistence, Hank found himself trading in his porkpies, fairy cakes, and chocolate babkas for swords, clubs, and guns. But still, he is able to sell cakes to Exiles- which has allowed him to make some renovations to the storefront, and dreams of a day when he can brush the dust off of his whisk and choux bag.

New Ranks!

It seems like only yesterday we were amazed that one of our players had accumulated 5,000 wins. Now we’ve had to add new ranks to recognize the sheer amount of wins some of you guys have! What are they? Well, until you reach it, it’s a mystery!

Fixy Stuff

 We’re rolling out with a few bug fixes. For example- as awesome as it was, supercharge will no longer do the Haduoken gesture, but the fireball will come out of the weapon as intended.  We've also fixed many leaderboard related bugs that were introduced in the last update.

Leaderboards

To clear up some confusion from the last update.  The All-Time leaderboards are now only update once per day.  This was not done to make you mad, but  because the database queries to update the leaderboards were extremely intense and alone responsible for most of the lag.  The Daily Leaderboards update every 3 minutes as per usual.

But wait! There’s more!

 We’re restocking Charfade’s Inventory!  Visit Charfade in Fortune City to grab them while you can.

A Fishy Insect Fact

Have you ever seen the small silvery creatures that sometimes live in your carpet? You probably know them as “Silverfish”- but an entomologist would call them members of the order Thysanura. Silverfish are elongated, flattened insects less than an inch (25 mm) long, with a tapered abdomen that gives them a fish-like appearance. They have three long tails, small compound eyes, and no wings. They typically live for two to eight years, and may go through 17-66 molts in their lifetime. They are very rare in the fact that they continue to molt after mating.

Silverfish live on polysaccharides, which include carpet, clothing, cotton, linen, silk, sugar, paper, books, plaster, photos, rayon fiber, and even leather or synthetic fibers. Because of their appetites, silverfish are considered a household pest. But, they do not spread disease. Common predators are earwigs, house centipedes, and spiders. 

Tags: Cinderella