EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

January 24, 2014

As you may have noticed, this week's release is a wee bit behind. We've been working all this week and most of the week prior to develop a new tutorial to welcome new players to the worlds of Delta V in style! This requires a lot of custom programming and loads of new artwork to make the experience streamlined and exciting. When finished, it will be leagues ahead of what we have now: randomly placing a new character in the midst of Central Station without the foggiest clue of what to do!

Since the success of this new feature is so crucial to maintaining new players, we're devoting the weekend to refining this feature to release early next week. We don't want to risk releasing the tutorial Friday evening, only to find that new players coming in over the weekend are getting stuck, frustrated, and logging out forever!

In the meantime, check out this brief rundown of what we have so far. It may not be thrilling for you veteran players, but it is interesting to think about from a game design standpoint: how to introduce EpicDuel to a new player without overwhelming them with options! 

Soft Landing

Welcome to the Feldspar Flats! This region near Central Station was mark for heavy construction before the war against Baelius. Now, it's littered with the ruins of abandoned scaffolding and rogue construction robots. Miraculously, life still flourishes in this region, as the volcanic soil is quite nourishing for plant life.

Your first task will be to move around the screen. This may seem overly-simplistic for veterans, but you might be surprised by how many players first attempt to use the keyboard for movement!

Ok, you've overcome that challenge. Feeling good! Ready for a mission?

AI Trainers (relatives of the M4tr1x AI) will offer simple missions, introducing players to missions as an important means for collecting credits, experience, and items. They will also serve as an introduction to some quick battles against Renegade Junkers. Apparently, years of neglect and dust storms have corrupted their programming and made them openly hostile to new arrivals.

Collect Robot Parts to help the AI Trainers reset their programming!

Be sure to disarm them! You'll need all the help you can get to face the enemies ahead!

After completing this mission chain, new players should have a weapon for each slot (primary, sidearm, auxiliary). This will guarantee that new players emerge from the tutorial more battle-ready than before.

Whoa! This fellah means business!

Learn about Physical/Energy Damage and Defense/Resistance by defeating a series of Boss Junkers.

These Junkers are bosses in name only. They can be handled easily with the right equipment.

That doesn't mean they're harmless, though.

Gather their Corrupted Chips and return them to your trainer for your reward!

I think I see the problem: It was set to MURDER!

Your journey isn't over yet! We've moved the alignment selection from the character creation process to the tutorial. Representative NPCs will plead their case and request your pledge of support. If you accept, you will be offered a new mission to complete an automatch battle.  

After you complete the battle (win or lose, all you need to do is complete the battle), turn in the mission, and the gate to Central Station will rise, allowing you to join the rest of the experience EpicDuel community!

Don't forget your "One Small Step" achievement! 

Legro Inmortuorum Poster

And now a word from HeroMart!

HeroMart is proud to offer an Art Nouveau (French for New Art) inspired poster of Dage and his undead legion! This new 24” x 36” high quality poster by Diozz featuring Dage and his undead army will be a great way to make your room feel more alive! Or rather undead.

Order the poster soon, because I don't think anything this awesome is going to stay on HeroMart's shelves for long! Did I mention it also includes a mysterious new blade, Dage's Desolation, in EpicDuel? 

Tags: Nightwraith Tutorial HeroMart Dage Diozz

November 03, 2011

Hi there EpicDuelists, I am super-excited about all of the awesome things coming your way in the week(s) ahead! I don’t even have a witty intro paragraph- let’s dive right in!

Low-Level Love

As awesome and dedicated as our players at or near the level cap are, the vast majority of our players are in the lower levels, so to give new players a more dynamic EpicDuel experience, Charfade’s made a whole arsenal of low-level bazookas for your dueling pleasure! And I’ve written a bunch of new quests- available from Exile Soldier, Habuki, Steve 2.0, Junker 2.0, and ConductorBot- that should help lower-level players get their duel on! If you’re inexperienced, you cannot pass up these sweet rewards!

High-level? We’ll have some nice stuff for you too, especially with our next minievent. Although I suppose you could do these missions as well, there’s certainly nobody stopping you. And if there was, it would be the level 3 guards.

Remember, Remember...

Bonus! Celebrate Guy Fawkes Day a day early with these festive, but sinister masks!  "Remember, remember, the fifth of November, Gunpowder Treason and Plot"

Harvest Wrap-Up

Harvest Wrap-Up, Harvest Wrap-Up! Let’s finish our Autumn cheer, ‘cause soon Winter will be here!

Harvest gear, quests, etc. will be available until 11/11/11- what’s so important about that day, you ask? Besides the fact that it’s made entirely of elevens,

I’m not sure what makes your face implode, but that’s how this is gonna work.

We’ll be working on a new, experimental feature coming soon to EpicDuel in the coming weeks. I’ll be working very closely with Nythera for this, and I’m actually not too sure how it’ll work yet, so watch this space as we hammer out the kinks!

Winter Preview

As we’re leaving the Harvest behind, we’re all ecstatic to get started working on the next big holiday.  Even in the Dead of Winter, Citizens of Delta V are still able to find reasons to celebrate, and Players will have much to celebrate, since we’ll be able to have full quest chains for this event!

We’ll also be introducing players to new people and a new (to the Players) world. During this event, you’ll be introduced to new allies (and new enemies!) and have a chance to permanently affect the planet’s balance by your actions!

If you follow Nightwraith on Twitter, you’ve been seeing some of his concepts for the new enemies you’ll be facing- the SnowHazards and Frostbiters. The SnowHazards are large and keep warm underneath their thick layers of soft, thick fur, while the Frostbiters are slender and well adapted to navigating the bitter cold ice floes. Both of these creatures were created much like the Hazards- wild creatures were corrupted by Legion scientists, and overtook the wild populations within a few generations. You’ll be called upon to challenge these horrifying Beasts soon enough.

It’s truly incredible to be making something that inspires so much creativity, and seeing the characters you imagined come to life. Nightwraith just showed me his sketches for some of the characters I’d created, and it’s a truly unbelievable and unique experience to see how he’s interpreted my words and brought them to life.

We’ve also been working on a special gift for the players for this release, but this is one we’ll keep tight under wraps!

Mod Packs and Artix Logo t-shirts available at HeroMart

Is your torso suffering from perpetual lack of coverage? Do you need a t-shirt? Maybe one that has a dragon logo on it? If so, then- by golly- you’re in luck! Artix Entertainment Logo t-shirts are now available at HeroMart. For $19.99 plus shipping, you too can look as cool as Dage the Evil!

In addition, the Artix Entertainment Trading Card Game Chaos Mod Pack and DoomWood Mod Pack are now available at both Toys-R-Us and HeroMart. When both packs are purchased, players earn the powerful Paladin Slayer class in Adventure Quest Worlds!

Child’s Play 2011

Tis the season for generosity, and yesterday marked the official launch of Child’s Play Charity’s Holiday Season. Founded by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade fame in 2003, the charity has sent close to nine million dollars in toys, games, and books to children’s hospitals worldwide. The Charity works in two ways: donors can view a hospital’s wish list on Amazon and purchase a gift for the hospital directly, or they can donate directly to the charity via PayPal. When gamers unite, they can make a huge difference, and we hope that some of our players with room in their hearts can spare a thought for a sick child. 

Baby, It’s Cold Outside

Insects have limited ability to regulate their internal temperature, and have several mechanisms for surviving in low temperatures. One such mechanism utilized by insects and other arthropods is diapause- a state of dormancy characterized by the seizure of certain metabolic processes and lack of responsiveness to external stimuli. During the induction phase which occurs at a genetically predetermined stage of life, the insect is particularly sensitive to external stimuli in the form of light, temperature, or food chemicals. The Preparation phase follows the induction phase and is characterized by storage of food molecules within the insect’s body to prepare for Initiation of diapause. This is when morphological development ceases, and other physilogical changes take place to prepare the insect’s body for freezing cold. This may be accompanied by behavioral changes, such as the aggregating behavior of Monarch butterflies, who cluster together for warmth following a mass migration. The period of diapause is called the Maintenance phase, and when environmental conditions are once again favorable for growth and development.

Tags: Cinderella Child's Play Charity low level Missions Dage HeroMart merchandise bazookas