EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

November 15, 2018

A familiar chill fills the air as an eagerly anticipated event approaches Delta V once again. For veteran players, it's a familiar tradition marked by excitement, boundless generosity, and intense competition. That's right, Gifting 2018 is nearly here! This year, gifting will officially go online Friday November 30 and last until January 4, 2019, but this year we're bringing a few new twists in addition to those already mentioned like cheaper gifting cost, bigger room capacity (with a few larger gifting rooms!), and higher gifter achievement tiers.

Unfortunately, there will be no release this Friday as Titan and I work to restore gifting and complete the new features coming very soon!

Varium Mega-Pack

Many of you have requested it so Wednesday November 21, we're delivering a massive mega-pack of 35,000 Varium for 20,000 Artix Points. Those who purchase this pack will also be awarded a one-time Legendary Epic Supporter 2018 achievement! This is an incredible value, but it will only be around for a limited time: the promotion will officially end when gifting beings on November 30!

Epic Supporter 2018

Once the mega-pack promotion ends, it will be replaced by not one, but two new promotional packages! The first is the holiday 15,000 Varium package, which is still a good value. Since we've found that players who choose this package, tend to purchase it multiple times throughout the gifting event, this year the Epic Supporter 2018 achievement that is automatically awarded will be an evolving achievement!

Omega Overkill Package

It wouldn't be a true holiday event without new gear! The Omega Overkill package which is still in progress will also be offered alongside the 15,000 Varium package. Those who purchase this package will also receive the Epic Supporter 2018 achievement. More details on the cores/gear types will be available as gifting approaches. This promo pack with include 10,000 Varium.

The Prize

But what is it all for? Generosity? Love for fellow players? Fame? Those are all great, but that prize! This year, the top 10 finishers will each receive one Epic Wish. What's that? Some examples of possible wishes to spur your imagination are: 

• Nearly any item in the game from any phase of development (tagged as "Wish")
• Immortal status on a screen as a statue or graffiti
• Alteration of an existing item (take a core from one item and put on another)

Those are just some examples of possible wishes the winners can pick from. The winners won't receive ALL of these wishes but must each pick one, so ponder them carefully! Restrictions do apply. You can't wish for more wishes or wish for more Varium or credits. You also can't wish for a 1-shot kill core or something that would break the balance of the game. We'll work with the winners to determine the viability of all the rewards.

The grand prize winner will receive the mightiest gift of all: a custom item. This can be any type of item currently available in game (sword, bike, armor, etc...), created from scratch with the winner's guidance and approval. The winner will also receive 20 codes to give out replicas for that item to their friends if they wish. Again, restrictions apply. The prize can't be something that is inappropriate or violates copyright law, as much as some may want a keyblade in-game.

MOAR!

Gifting is close, but there're still a few more features we can squeeze in. We'll keep you updated as development continues.

Treasure Hunters

Wednesday November 21 we're making a major change to the way the appraisal leaderboards work. For those who don't know, you can visit certain NPCs like Charfade to appraise your gear for it's rarity. Your inventory is assessed and assigned a score based on the rarity type and investment through upgrades. Currently, it's possible to stockpile massive amounts of seasonal rares to achieve extremely high scores, especially through gifting when motivated players can receive hundreds of free items.

When the change goes live, we will no longer count duplicate items towards the rarity score -- only rarity type and upgrade amount will be factored in the score once per item. To give players a chance to assess their rarity score minus duplicates, we will also clear the current rarity leaderboard. However, those epic collectors will not be forgotten, as they will all receive new Treasure Hunter achievements based on their rarity scores. Going forward, players who receive new appraisals will be eligible to earn a new evolving Archivist achievement! The key to dominating the new leaderboard will be building a collection of many different items rather than dozens of the same item.

Nightwraith Annihilators

Congratulations to all of you who thoroughly demolished Nightwraith in all his various forms to claim Nightwraith's armor. You're part of a very exclusive list! If you haven't been able to defeat him, take heart -- you have until the start of gifting on November 30th to claim the armor before it disappears for another year. It's still tagged as normal rare rather than seasonal because, although the opportunity to claim it will return, very few players are able to earn it. Legendary and Nightmare Nightwraith will remain in game for you to hone your skills against them when the armor is available again!

Also Leaving

These last few days before gifting will also be your last chance to get the Ghoulish Gear for the season! The Ghoul Cannon 2018 and Spectral Blaster 2018 will go permanently rare, but the sidearms and bots will return. The 2018 versions of Omega Gear will remain until the end of gifting on January 4, 2019.

Tags: Titan