EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

February 08, 2013

Last Tuesday, we finally said a final goodbye to Delta and launched our highly-anticipated Omega phase! Many of you loved the new features and battle dynamics added by cores, while some have voiced concerns about the new balance of power in the game. Those of you who have been with EpicDuel or any other Artix Entertainment game know that these games are constantly evolving. This last release will not be the final release, not by a longshot, and we are already hard at work fixing bugs and making key adjustments to the balance. There is only so much a small team can do, and sometimes it takes 1000s of players to uncover issues.

See? You're helping! Continue to help us with your feedback here!

Omega Gratitude

I would like to extend a nice hearty EpicDuel "Thank You" to all of our moderator and testers (many of whom pulled double duty) who made this release possible. Many of you were plugging away with use, finding critical bugs and making helpful suggestions into the wee hours of the night, going above and beyond the job description. You have done extraordinarily well, and we salute you!

Also worthy of praise is our forum crew, who have helped keep the forums sane leading up to the release and will continue to assist us in gathering feedback and identifying bug reports as we dive headlong into Omega.

I would also like to thank the crew at the EpicDuel Wiki, who work tirelessly and astonishingly fast update all of the new Omega content. We blew up stats and requirements for nearly 1400 of your item entries. Sorry about that!

We can't forget the other teams at Artix Entertainment who have helped us promote Omega and believed in our goals, even through the extended development time. Special thanks go to the Help Team, who help make sure our players' accounts are secure and their owners are happy.

Lastly, but surely not least-ly, I would like to thank our dedicated players. You stuck with us through over 2 months without a release, and I sincerely hope you think Omega was worth the wait. Obviously, it's not perfect, but I can guarantee that it will grow and evolve from here. We're in a better position than ever to deliver exciting new content and change gameplay in ways that were simply impossible before. Thank you for being a part of the best development phase yet!

Yeti Guide

Many of you have been asking how to upgrade your yeti. I will admit that it can be a bit complicated, so I've created a handy guide to help you train your Yeti into a beastly Omega Yeti! Regardless of which Yet you choose, your journey will begin in Frysteland's interior, just beyond the Frysteland sign.

You will take two different paths depending on which Yeti you wish to upgrade. For Baby Yetis, please see Hulnas the Tamer. For Dark Yetis, you'll want to speak with the Arctic Trainer. There is no way to skip ahead to an Omega Yeti. You must train to a Yeti Warrior before you can train into an Omega Yeti. You cannot undo the process and devolve your Yeti back into a Baby or Dark Yeti so consider your actions carefully!

Baby Yeti:

Speak with Hulnas the Tamer. He will offer a series of missions to train your Baby Yeti into a Baby Yeti Warrior! If you do not wish to purchase a Yeti Serum outright, you may choose to start with "Armored to the Teeth" and work your way to "Beast Versus Boss", which will earn you a free Yeti Serum!  You may then complete the final mission to upgrade your Baby Yeti.

If you wish to take the quicker route, you can ignore the first three missions and buy a Yeti Serum from the Tamer and accept and complete the "Juvenalia" mission to morph your Baby Yeti into a Baby Yeti Warrior.

To upgrade your Baby Yeti Warrior into an Omega Baby Yeti, visit Ylwa and start with "Battle Bruised" and work your way to "If It Bacons..." which will reward you with the Omega Serum. You can then complete the process by finishing "Beast's Burden."

As with the upgrade process from Baby to Warrior, you can bypass the first three missions by purchasing an Omega Serum and completing "Beast's Burden. "

Enjoy your Omega Baby Yeti!

Take a look at this handy visual guide form Charfade!

Dark Yeti:

Speak with the Arctic Trainer. He will offer a series of missions to train your Dark Yeti into a Dark Yeti Warrior! If you do not wish to purchase a Yeti Serum outright, you may choose to start with "Warming Up" and work your way to "Is Your Baby Yeti?", which will earn you a free Yeti Serum!  You may then complete the final mission to upgrade your Dark Yeti.

If you wish to take the quicker route, you can ignore the first three missions and buy  a Yeti Serum from the Trainer and accept and complete the "Abominable? Adorable" mission to morph your Dark Yeti into a Dark Yeti Warrior.

To upgrade your Dark Yeti Warrior into a Omega Dark Yeti, visit Captain Murdoc and start with "The Yetikiller" and work your way to "Frying Flesh" which will reward you with the Omega Serum. You can then complete the process by finishing "Ultimate Baby Yeti."

As with the upgrade process from Dark Yeti to Warrior, you can bypass the first three missions by purchasing an Omega Serum and completing "Ultimate Baby Yeti. "

Enjoy your Omega Dark Yeti!

Take a look at this handy visual guide form Charfade!

Beyond Omega

Now that Omega is live, what is left for EpicDuel? Besides bug fixes and balance polish, where can we go from here?  The whole point of Omega was to extent the longevity and excitement of EpicDuel. We felt we were running into a rut by pushing the boundaries of power creep. Anything we released below level 35 was swiftly ignored by hardcore players, and items without "ideal" stat configuration were similarly neglected.

Omega will allow us to increase the depth of the battle engine through interesting choices rather than forcing players to adopt the "right" build with the "right" gear. As we add more cores, it will become increasingly harder for one build to rule them all. By creating ever-evolving battle dynamics, we believe EpicDuel can continue to grow in popularity and quality for years to come!

In the short term, after the dust has settled from the initial launch and balance is in a good place, we will being the Golden Yeti Tournament. We realize the structure is more of competition than a bracketed tournament, but we hope to evolve this concept into a fully-realized tournament feature.

After the Tournament, we will be concluding the Frysteland storyline, with an epic confrontation with Alydriah in her winter palace! Hang onto those Summoning Stones, because it will take a cosmic force of unimaginable power to unseat the tyrant from her icy throne!

Oh yeah, and there's actually a holiday coming up next week -- that means the return of a familiar angel of death! But what new abilities will these creations bring from the great beyond? Stay tuned to find out!

Tags: Nightwraith